Introducing Beeswax Modeling

Here is a story I created for Toucie when we were ready to begin beeswax modeling this spring.

We spread a blanket under the lilacs where the bees were working, had a pretty tray of apple slices and crackers and a tiny bowl of fragrant honey to dip them in, and a brand new package of golden Stockmar beeswax at hand. Toucie began dipping into the honey and apples as I began the story.




Nestled deep in the woods there is a tiny city. The folks that live there love their city very much (after all they built it their very own selves!) and take very good care of each other there. There is always plenty of delicious food, the babies there are always well cared for, and the rooms (each one exactly like the other) are all snug and well crafted. It is a very busy place as each one has special work to do and does it cheerfully and well. Even the Queen, in her royal chambers at the center of the city, stays busy with her special work of tucking new eggs each into their own cozy cradle. 

This tiny city is a beehive and the folk that live and work there are, of course, the bees!

In the Spring and Summer and Autumn, when flowers are blooming, I’m sure that you’ve seen the bee-folk humming merrily as they move all about over the land visiting blossoms. Look, here is one now…watch her as she forages, sipping a little nectar here and a little nectar there. Sometimes as she flies she gathers yellow flower dust into her little leg-baskets as she goes. But today she is gathering nectar. She visits hundreds of flowers! She is collecting nectar to bring home to the hive-city, sometimes sipping a little for herself. Now both her tummy and her nectar bag are quite full of nectar and she is flying home with her heavy load. 

In the city, there are many sisters waiting to help her. She gives them the nectar from her bag and they take it away to make it into golden honey. (This will be the food that all the bee folk will need in the cold months when there are no flowers blooming on the land.) Sometimes our little bee brings her nectar to her sisters and then flies right off again to collect more, but today her tummy is so full that she must rest. She climbs to the ceiling of the hive where some of the other full bee-folk are already gathered. She tucks up her wings and smooths her pretty yellow-and-brown jacket and takes a nice, long nap. 

While she is resting something wonderful happens….for when she wakes up and stretches and straightens her little jacket, she finds that all eight of her jacket pockets are full of wax! She takes it out of her pockets and presses it, and pulls it, and pushes it, and kneads it until it is smooth and soft, fragrant and golden. This beeswax is precious and important…it is what the bee-folk use to build their entire city! Beeswax forms the perfect walls of all the snug little houses, all the little honey pots and their lids, all the little cradles for the growing baby bee-folk…what a wonderful thing our bee has done! She takes her bit of beeswax and puts it together with the wax that her sisters have made, then off into the blue sky she buzzes, in search of more blossoms.

The bee-folk work so very hard that they often make more honey and more beeswax than they need for their city. Sometimes there is a gentle and careful person, a “beekeeper” who cares for and protects bees in their hive-city and is able to share in their honey and beeswax. So, somewhere there is a city of beefolk and a careful beekeeper who together made it so that we could have this treasure.

I split the Stockmar bar in two and gave Toucie her piece of wax during the part of the story where the bee "kneads it until it is smooth and soft, fragrant and golden" and we warmed it in our hands for the rest of the story. 

It was wonderful to watch her as she held the beeswax knowing how much work had gone into making it and what a treasure it was! She worked for a long time to draw a form out of her lump of beeswax...when she was done she showed me- it was a honeybee!

Here is the verse we say when we begin work with beeswax...I borrowed bits and pieces of other rhymes to formulate this one:

From the bees, this gift of gold
Is here for us to warm and hold.
Fragrant beeswax in our hand
Is full of goodness from the land.

Anticipating Imbolc...

This year our celebrations seem to be  much more focused on what is happening on the land around us at this festival time...and less about the feast of Brigid and the tradition of candle dipping. Some years festivals just seem to have a life of their own! I've learned that its best to go with it :)

What we've been experiencing outdoors is a lot of cold, gray, wet, mossy days intermingled with a happy handful of frosty, sugary, snowy, white days all winter long. But lately we've been sensing something different in the air....we can tell that the land is waking...we call it the "stirring of the seeds" (a perfect phrase gleaned years ago from this book). This, to me, is the essence of Imbolc/Candlemas season.

Anxious to see signs of this "stirring" that we knew must be going on under our very feet, we engineered some visible signs of our own:

planting bean, corn & melon seeds in a bag 

taping it to a sunny window

We learned this trick here

starting some seeds for the garden

broccoli seeds...the tiniest seed babies ever!

sweet potato

"Bottle Acorns"- learned from these great chapter books

Now we watch and wait....

Wintry book basket...

Warm, cozy moments curled up with good books seem to be the order of the day around here. Here are some well-loved titles from our kindergarten book basket right now.

Ola, by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'aulaire

This thrift store find is a treasure trove of Norwegian culture. Our copy is from 1934...I beleive the first edition is 1932, so that gives you some idea about the tone of this book; it is not only from another land, but another time. Ola lives on a mountain so far north that "the sun is afraid to show his pale face in the winter". He wakes up to the flair of the Northern Lights and sets out on his skis for an adventure one morning.

The story takes him down the mountain, to a wedding at a farm, to the company of a traveling peddler, to a visit with Lapplanders and their herd of reindeer, to a fishing village where he hears strange tales of the ocean, to an island where eiderducks nest, and on and on! The story ends with Ola heading home laden with riches from his travels. The drawings are amazing.
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Winter Poems , illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Ok...Does it even matter what the text of a book is if the illustrations are by Trina Schart Hyman? I am a huge fan of A Child's Calendar and was so delighted to see the same family of characters appear in Winter Poems . It is explains in the front pages of the book that the illustrations are based on real people, places & things: the mother, father, and children depicted are Trina Schart's daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons! The poems, selected by Barbara Rogasky, are not the usual juvenile fare...these are wonderful, evocative, valid pieces. Toucie loves "The Germ" by Ogden Nash and the conversation between a mistress and her cat in "Cat on a Night of Snow" by Elizabeth Coatsworth. We have used other poems from this book as our inspiration for our winter watercolor paintings.
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Winter , by Gerda Muller

This is a Waldorf staple...most likely you have seen this before, but I can't help singing its praises again and again. This is a board book that is part of a 4-book series - one for each season. The images within are so charming, wholesome, inspiring, and engaging...these books have fascinated Toucie for all her life so far! (I began sharing them with her when she was 9 months old). I have seen a volume that combines all 4 books, titled Circle of Seasons and I do not recommend it...it re-arranges the illustrations and adds text which completely ruins the special nature of these books, in my opinion. Their wordless full-spread pages are precisely what make them so magical. I think every household with children should have these books.
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Winter Days in the Big Woods , adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder

Sweet, old fashioned, and prettily illustrated in the style of Garth Williams. I enjoy sharing these "My First Little House Books" with Toucie as a way to help me be patient until the time is right to launch into the Little House chapter books...I am chomping at the bit to bring to her some of that experience which was so delightful to me as a child.
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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening , Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers

One thing I love about Waldorf education is the presence of recitation in the curriculum. Mado, in 3rd grade, recited the 94 line extract, Hiawatha's Childhood,  from Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha. I suspect that the repeated readings of this winter poem by Frost, with the stunning and supportive illustrations by Jeffers, will soak into Toucie's memory and that one day she will realize she can recite it to herself (that is what happened to me over the course of the years reading it to her!) To have poems that imprint themselves on one's heart is pure joy to me.
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Anna and the Flowers of Winter , by Nettie Lowenstein

A softly illustrated fairy tale...very much along the lines of Mother Holle. A mistreated stepdaughter is sent out in the dead of winter to bring back violets by the order of the haughty stepsister. In despair at the impossibility if the task, she stumbles through the snowy woods and encounters 12 strange figures. These turn out to be the months of the year and they help her with her dilemma. Upon her return home, the stepmother and stepsister become greedy for other things and set out to find the 12 strange figures. Of course they get what is coming to them and the young stepdaughter is rewarded for her goodness.
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Annie and the Wild Animals , by Jan Brett

My copy of this book is autographed by Ms. Brett and was a gift from my mama in 1985 when i was still in high school...its been a long love affair that I've had with this one! I try to reserve it until the very end of winter...it is perfect for Imbolc/Candlemas season as it reflects the thawing of winter and the promise of spring. Annie's cat disappears and, in an effort to attract a new pet, she begins baking corn cakes for the animals in the frozen, snowy forest. She attracts all kinds of hungry creatures, none of which are quite the right fit, and then runs out of corn. Luckily, the seasons begin to turn and nature puts everything right again. Lots and lots to look at in Jan Brett's gorgeous illustrations.

Winter Handwork...working with yarn: dye it, wind it, knit it

Our homeschooling rhythm relaxed over the holiday season...we continued to sing, and craft, and bake, but in a looser fashion than usual. Toucie has been working with some wool in a rather casual, long-term-project sort of way.
It started with a skein of wool that we "ruined" last fall...we tried to dye it in our goldenrod dye bath..after we'd already dyed our shooting stars and our cape of light...there was just enough color left in the dye bath to turn the wool a nasty, dingy color :(   We abandoned the yarn, leaving it hanging outdoors until just recently.

Well, no wool deserves such a fate! After the Yule season passed, my attention turned back to that forlorn skein and I decided to have Toucie help me give it a facelift. With Koolaid.

We didn't use any measurements or follow any instructions...we just winged it. I purchased 3 colors of  Koolaid: purple (Grape), red (Tropical Punch), and blue (Berry Blue). On the first afternoon we prepared a saucepan with about 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup white vinegar plus 2 pouches of Grape Koolaid. We prepared a second sauce pan the same way, using Tropical Punch. We set them to simmering on the stovetop and dangled one half of the yarn in the purple dye and the other half in the red dye. We stirred the dye around until the color started to disappear from the water...it is really magical the way the pigment leaves clear water behind as it latches onto the wool! A quick rinse in cold water and we hung the skein up to dry.

The next day we prepared the blue dye and dangled the portions of yarn that were still undyed into the saucepan. That is what you see Toucie doing above. Another rinse and another day to dry.

Here is what we ended up with...I think it turned out quite beautifully. Toucie says it smells "like artificial candy", so perhaps a more thorough rinsing would have been good...oh well.

The next job was winding the wool into a ball. This took several sittings and a bit of discipline. I've heard Handwork teachers say to children that they are "winding for the world" as a way to create a picture for the child about this important task. One winds the wool for all, not just as if one were going to use it one's self...it is important to wrap the yarn carefully and beautifully. (We unwound some of Toucie's work a time or two so that she could try again to make it just right). One always wraps the wool in a motion directed away from one's self...outward towards the world...winding for the world.

I bet the world would love to have that yarn ball, Toucie!

This winter, Toucie received this knitting tower as a gift. This type of knitting device it known by many other names: knitting nancy, knitting noddy, corker, bizzy lizzy, knitting spool, and probably more! The act of using one of these is called by several names, too: French knitting, corking, spool knitting, (and likely some other terms, too). Once a child has achieved some finger dexterity and control (developmentally speaking), this type of knitting is easy to pick up. Toucie took to it after one demonstration. Her endurance only allows for about 2 or 3 inches of knitting at a sitting, but it has been very pleasant to have this kind of project at hand. It sits in its basket waiting for that 20 minutes of attention that Toucie gives it on cozy, dark, winter evenings.

Now the question is...what do you do with several inches, feet, or yards of corking? We made a spiral dollhouse rug with her first effort, and we have plans to make a headband, but after that....?

Any suggestions?

December Baking....Solstice Bread

This is our long-loved "sun bread" recipe, reserved for the Winter and Summer Solstices, but we often make extra batches to give as gifts around this time of year. It is originally from the wonderful book (pg. 199), Circle Round, which many of you may recognize :)

Ingredients:

1 packet yeast
1/4c warm water
pinch of sugar
1/2c butter - softened
1/2c brown sugar
1 c  milk (room temperature)
3 eggs (room temperature)
1 TBS grated orange zest
pinch of salt
4 1/2 - 5 1/2 c flour

1) Whisk the pinch of sugar and the yeast into the 1/4 cup of warm water and set it aside to "proof" (foam up and prove that it is frisky!)
2) Cream butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with a hand mixer until smooth.
3) Add eggs and mix again. Then add milk, zest, yeast mixture and salt and mix again.
4) Add 3 cups of the flour, one at a time, blending in each one.
5) At this point the dough is probably getting too thick for the mixer, so begin adding the remainder of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon (then mixing with your hands) after each addition.

6) Turn the slightly sticky dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading, adding flour if necessary. Knead until the dough becomes silky, elastic, and smooth under your hands.
5) Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set in a cozy place to rise until doubled.
6) Punch dough down and shape into desired shape (at Solstice we make a large flat disc using all the dough, then use scissors to nip the edges of the disc into sunray shapes...for gift giving, we divide the dough into 3 pieces and make 3 round loaves...sometimes we roll the dough into long ropes and coil them up to make 3 spiral shaped loaves). Lay your loaves on a lightly greased baking sheet and allow to rise again, covered with the damp cloth, for 30 or 45 minutes.

7) In a 350 degree oven (pre-heated, of course!), bake for 30 - 45 minutes, depending on whether you have small loaves or one big one. Allow to cool to room temperature before wrapping for gift-giving. Makes great toast, so make sure to save a loaf for yourself !