More fun with moving pictures

Spring is definitely here!  We have had full-on sunshine for several days in a row now, and I feel like I'm finally awake after that icy winter.  It hasn't even drizzled this week, which seems like a small miracle to me.  I hope it lasts!

This week has been incredibly busy, but Kitty Bill and I have carved out a bit of time to make several moving pictures together.  We adore making these pictures and telling stories to each other.  Kitty Bill, in particular, is drawn to anything that needs a bit of engineering to pull off, so these pictures are perfect for him.  And he's full of story ideas just bursting to get out.

Here are a few that we made this week. 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

 The Night Gnome and His Cat

The Raindrop Gnome Goes Fishing in the Dead of Night

He's really starting to develop a bit of control with the beeswax block crayons.  It's a good way to get those sharp edges worn down before we start grade one stories this fall.

I don't know what it is about moving pictures that calls to me every spring, but it seems to have become a regular springtime activity around here.  You could almost set your clock to it. ;)

Gearing-up for Easter

Yesterday Kitty Bill and I cooked up a little bit of pre-Easter fun with a magical, moving picture. We had a great time telling stories with it-- about bunnies that run and hide, find eggs hidden in the grass, and meet little gnomes. We even made some songs.



For inspiration, I used the very cute book: Making Picture Books with Moveable Figures by Brunhild Muller. I've been eyeing this one for a long time at the German bookstore, and I was so pleased to discover it in English. The author gives plenty of indications by Rudolf Steiner why this sort of thing is recommended for little children. The smile on my four-year-old's face was indication enough for me.

Kitty Bill was so enamored with our bunny scene he decided to make his own moving picture. It's called, "The Magic Moving Boat" complete with a plane, castle, and motorboat. The captain of the magic boat happens to be smoking a cigarette. Odd? No. That's living in Europe for you, and further proof that these little ones notice positively everything they encounter out in the world, including random smokers on the street.

Luckily he's taking in the positive images, too.



What are you doing to gear-up for Easter?

Growing a knitter

Moonshine, not to be left out, will officially be kindergarten-age this coming Fall. She learned to knit last summer on a circular needle when she was a mere four-years-old. Again, I think it's part of the monkey-see, monkey-do phenomenon around here.

Her first official project was a doll, knit flat in garter stitch, and sewed up the side.

She gave me her vision (color, stripes, and hair) and I helped her pull it off. While she did a lot of the knitting and told me when she was ready to change colors, I helped her make that color change. I helped her knit. I put her dropped stitches back on the needle and untangled the yarns a dozen times. I did the sewing and the embroidering and the hair. She was four. Even Lance Armstrong doesn't ride alone.

She quickly moved on into a dishcloth, her first solo project. And she knits a little every week, or as the mood strikes her. She declares that she's "Going to finish it today," every time she sits down to knit. She usually manages to get through a row, two at the most, in one sitting. She's learning how to not freak out when she drops a stitch, put them back on, or just sit and wait for help. Important lessons.



She's been working on it for almost a year now. "It's a present for you," I'm constantly reminded, "so just pretend you don't know what it is."

In the past week she finally started finger crocheting (crocheted chain made with fingers.) Sunburst has tried to teach her many times, but it didn't take. Last week she finally grasped the concept and worked steadily (and proudly!) for an hour on her super long chain. If she's interested in the next year we may try to teach her finger knitting (not to be confused with finger crocheting) and how to work a Knitting Nancy to make I-cord.

And here's the knitting song I promised last month. Sorry about the blur. It's from an old public school 3rd grade songbook called Singing and Rhyming by Lila Belle Pitts.



The lyrics read:

Learning to knit is so much fun. You put on two, then take off one.
Missing a stitch and back you go. And then you start another row.

Faster and faster on I go. I love to sit and watch it grow.
Only one thing that puzzles me. When I get through, what will it be?