~Developed by a Waldorf-Inspired Childcare Provider and Mother of Four Daughters |
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Featured Sponsor
Hip Mountain Mama offers hip and natural products for babies, kids, and Mamas. Please use the coupon code "acorn" at check out to receive free shipping on any order placed in June.
Hip Mountain Mama is a family business who truly cares about the planet and about raising our children to make conscious decisions. We use wind power, recycled shipping supplies, donate time and money to local environmental programs, and try to educate others through our blog and newsletter.
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Summer Childcare Menu
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Joyful Stars
Handmade natural toys in the Waldorf tradition, knit items, and wool interlock longies and shorties. | |
Little Acorn Learning Sponsors
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Festivals and Holidays This Month
Full Strawberry Moon - June 7th
The Summer Solstice - June 21st
Let It Go Day - June 23rd | |
Firefly Fingerplay One little firefly flashing in the night (hold up one finger) Blink, Blink, Blink (wiggle finger with each 'blink') Such a pretty sight! Two little fireflies flashing in the dark (hold up two fingers) Blink, Blink, Blink (wiggle finger with each 'blink') What a lovely spark! Three little fireflies flashing in the trees (hold up three fingers) Blink, Blink, Blink (wiggle finger with each 'blink') They are such a tease! Four little fireflies flashing in the air (hold up four fingers) Blink, Blink, Blink (wiggle finger with each 'blink') I can't help but stare! Five little fireflies going home to bed (hold up five fingers) Shhhh, Shhhh, Shhhh That's all they said! |
FREE Needle-Felting Tutorial
These little needle-felted dragonflies are so adorable and fitting for a fun summer plaything. Make one for each child in your home or program. Thanks so much to Laurie from Woolpets for working on this special project just for Little Acorn Learning! |
June 2009 Monthly Natural Childcare Guide
Week Week One, June
Summer Roses, Faithfulness
Week Two, June
Fireflies, Optimism Week Three, June
The Sun (Summer Solstice), Letting Go
Week Four, June
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Children's Yoga Time :: Froggy Fun
This sequence is nice to do first thing in the morning, or perhaps after an afternoon rest time. It begins gently and slowly, builds into a more lively and playful activity and then comes back to quiet relaxation. 1. Tadpole Tugs Children begin lying on the belly. Arms alongside the body. Feet together. Head resting on the chin or forehead. Parent/caregiver pulls gently on the ankles to stretch the legs (the tadpole's tail). Try to synchronize your gentle tugging motion to coincide with the child's exhale breath. 2. Swimming Frogs Children remain lying on the belly. Invite them to draw the legs and arms out to the sides with knees and elbows bent. Head can be resting on the chin or forehead or turned to rest on one cheek. Invite children to imagine that they are frogs moving their webbed feet through the clear blue water. Use your webbed feet to pull you through the water. How does it feel to be using your limbs for the first time? 3. Jumping Frogs Invite children to move into a squat and explore the land. Begin with small jumping movements and allow the movements to get larger. Encourage deep bellowing vocalizations as the frogs test out their strong jumping legs. (It may be natural to move into a game of leapfrog here if age-appropriate for your group.) 4. Sunning Frogs Now invite your frogs to hop onto a lily pad for some quiet rest time. Guide them with this visualization (or your own): Feel the warm sun on your body. Feel the soft lily pad beneath you. Hear the birds chirping nearby and gentle lapping sound of the waves on the shore. See your Mama and Papa resting nearby. Snuggle in to your lily pad and allow your body, heart and mind to rest. Rest time will vary depending on the age and the energy level of your group. Anywhere from one minute to several minutes could be appropriate. Guide the children out of the relaxation with these words (or your own): Begin to deepen your breath. Wiggle your toes and your fingers. Open your eyes to see that you are back in your very own body once again. Slowly come up to a seated position. Bring the hands to the heart center. Together let us send out a song of gratitude for frogs and for our beautiful earth home as we sing the sound of OM (or ahhhhh). 5. Optional follow-up activity Invite children to draw/write in a journal or take turns speaking about their experience as a frog.
This children's yoga piece was graciously submitted by Erin Barrette Goodman (www.eringoodman.com/blog). Erin is a writer, yoga teacher and mother of two in Charlestown. |
The Little Acorn by Lucy Wheelock
It was a little acorn that hung on the bough of a tree. It had a tender green cup and a beautifully carved saucer to hold it. The mother oak fed it with sweet sap every day, the birds sang good-night songs above it, and the wind rocked it gently to and fro. The oak leaves made a soft green shade above it, so the sun could not shine too warm on its green cover, and it was as happy as an acorn could be. There were many other acorns on the tree, and I am sure the mother often whispered loving words to all her babies. The summer days were so bright and pleasant that the acorn never thought of anything but sunshine and an occasional shower to wash the dust off the leaves. But you know that summer ends and the autumn days come. The green cup of the acorn turned to a brown cup, and it was well that it grew stiffer and harder, for the cold winds began to blow. The leaves turned from green to golden brown, and some of them were whisked away by the rough wind. The little acorn began to grow uneasy. "Isn't life all summer?" it said. "No," whispered the mother oak, "the cold days come and the leaves must go and the acorns too. I must soon lose my babies." "Oh! I could never leave this kind bough," said the frightened acorn. "I should be lost and forgotten if I were to fall." So it tried to cling all the closer to its bough; but at last it was alone there. The leaves were blown away, and some of them had made a blanket for the brown acorns lying on the ground. One night the tree whispered this message to the lonely acorn: "This tree is only your home for a time. This is not your true life. Your brown shell is only the cover for a living plant, which can never be set free until the hard shell drops away, and that can never happen until you are buried in the ground and wait for the spring to call you into life. So let go, little acorn, and fall to the ground, and some day you will wake to a new and glorious life." The acorn listened and believed, for was not the tree its sheltering mother? So it bade her farewell, and, loosing its hold, dropped to the ground. Then, indeed, it seemed as if the acorn were lost. That night a high wind blew and covered it deep under a heap of oak leaves. The next day a cold rain washed the leaves closer together, and trickling streams from the hillside swept some earth over them. The acorn was buried. "But I shall wake again," it said, and so it fell asleep. It might have been cold; but the frost fairies wove a soft, white snow blanket to cover it, and so it was kept warm. If you had walked through the woods that winter, you would have said the acorn was gone, but then you could not have seen the life slumbering within the brown cover. But spring came and called to all the sleeping things underground to waken and come forth. The acorn heard and tried to move, but the brown shell held it fast. Some raindrops trickled through the ground to moisten the shell, and one day the pushing life within was set free. The brown shell was of no more use and was lost in the ground, but the young plant was to live. It heard voices calling it upward. It must arise. "A new and glorious life," the mother oak had said. "I must arise," the acorn said, and up the living plant came, up to the world of sunshine and beauty. It looked around. There was the same green moss in the woods, the same singing brook. "And I shall live and grow," it said. "Yes," called the mother oak, "you are now an oak tree. This is your real life." And the tiny oak tree was glad and tried to stretch higher towards the sun. | |
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Creating Home for Body, Soul and Spirit
Early Childhood Part-Time Training Seminar Child Care Providers, Nannies, Parent-Child Teachers, Preschool Teachers, Extended-Day Care Providers, Parents and Grandparents Rocky Mountain Region - starting May 2009 in Boulder, CO - Rahima 303-546-0070 Midwest - starting June 2009 in Milwaukee, WI - Cynthia 405-579-0999 Pacific Northwest - starting July 2009 in Seattle, WA - Sound Circle 206-925-9199 West Coast - starting Sept. 2009 at Rudolf Steiner College, Sac, CA - 916-961-8727 Northeast - starting July 2010 in Freeport, Maine - Susan 207-763-4652 Spanish-speaking training in San Francisco - Rosario 415-587-0802 British Columbia - TBA in Vancouver - Margo 604-904-419 |
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