Ideas and Inspirations for a Magical Advent, Week 3

“The third light of Advent is the light of beasts, the light of hope, that we see in greatest and in least“-Rudolph Steiner

There is so much to look forward to this week! We’ll be celebrating the animal kingdom, weaving into our days special care of the animals on the farm. We’ll install the new birdfeeder, built by my partner and kids, and extend that focus on our animal friends with sweet animal stories and crafts.

Building on last week, the Advent garden is now home to crystals, plants and animals. The children have been enjoying playing house with the Advent garden and it has taken on a life of its own through their imaginations .

Here is my plan for Week 3-Animals

Each day includes a daily advent gift. On homeschool days the gift ties in with a craft along with a story. Each week in our homeschooling rhythm I perform the story 3 times with felted puppets, on the last day I invite Phoenix to be the puppeteer and he loves telling the story, often with new insights and plot twists.  

Sunday-

Advent gift- Small wooden animals inside a walnut shell nest. Inspired by this page from “A Time To Keep”, By Tasha Tudor 😍

Activity-Go for a family walk and show special care to the farm animals. We are usually in charge of the chicken’s care, but this week we’ll be bringing treats to all the animals that live on the farm. We’ll fill the chicken house with extra hay, bring the cows some treats (they like singing too and 😁) and hang our new bird feeder for the local birds.

Monday-Homeschool

Advent gift- Wool mittens

Story- The Mitten, By Jan Brett (See below) I’ll be telling this story using felted animals and an old mitten. I found this picture on Pintrest that inspired me to tell this story, but instead of creating all the animals from scratch, in my telling, I’ll include the felted animals that I have on hand.

Craft- Finger knitting with thick wool yarn. Finger knitting is a great fine motor skill practice for kids 5 and up.

Learn how to teach finger knitting here from a very inspiring earlychildhood educator at Sacred Place Homeschool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uRYfGb6f24&t=21s

Story: The Mitten, by Jan Brett (as adapted by Lavender Blue Homeschool)

Once upon a time there was a boy named Nikki who lived with his grandmother. On cold winter days they would sit by the fire and warm their hands just so.  Outside the world was covered with snow, beautiful glittering snow all around on the ground, in the trees, and on the rooftops.  The whole world was white with snow.  And Nikki told his grandmother, “I would like some mittens as white as the snow.”  His grandmother laughed and told him that he was sure to lose a mitten if it were the same color as the snow!  But Nikki said “Please, Grandmother, please make me mittens as white as the shimmering snow!”

So his grandmother agreed, and she gathered her balls of white yarn and her needles and soon she had made him the mittens.  He whooped with joy when they were finished and he quickly dressed in his coat and hat, his warm boots and his soft and beautiful new white mittens and he ran outside to play.  It was a crisp clear day and the sun sparkled on the snow and Nikki ran and jumped and made snowballs to throw against the trees.  He walked along the top of the stone walls and jumped into the soft snow and then he ran up hills and rolled back down.  He started to climb a tree but it was too difficult with his mittens on so he tucked them into a pocket.  And what do you suppose?  One of those mittens fell down into the snow!  Nikki didn’t notice and he went right on running and playing and shouting all the wonderful afternoon.

Pretty soon a little mole came tunneling up through the ground near the mitten.  She was curious so she burrowed inside the mitten and found it to be cozy and warm.  Then a squirrel scampered by and thought that the mitten looked like a nice place to nest so he cozied inside as well.  Next a badger trundled along and decided that she could use a rest in that warm mitten.  A fox trotted up to the mitten and sniffed it.  He decided it must be warm inside so he stuffed himself in, and by now the mitten was becoming quite stretched out!  Now a bear lumbered by and though she was big and the mitten was crowded, she did not want to be the only one left out in the cold.  So she turned her tail and scootched herself into that mitten!  A mouse scurried by and squeaked in surprise to see a white mitten all stretched out with a mole, a squirrel, a badger, a fox and a bear all snuggled together inside!  She wanted to try it too so she jumped up on the bear’s nose.  Those little mouse paws made the bear  Ahh….Ahhhh…AAACCHHHooooo!!!!  The bear sneezed!  And all the animals went tumbling out into the soft snow, and the mitten went flying up into the air!

Nikki had finished playing and was looking everywhere for his mitten when much to his surprise he saw it flying through the air!  Nikki caught his mitten with a “Whoop!” and ran back inside to warm up by the fire.  He showed his mittens to his grandmother.  “See, Grandma, I have both my mittens!”  And grandmother laughed and laughed, for one mitten was the size of Nikki’s hand, but the other mitten was the size of Nikki!

Tuesday-Homeschool

Advent gift-Mini felted bee in a walnut shell

Story-The Mitten, by Jan Brett

Craft- Make floating beeswax candles inside walnut shells

Learn how to make this craft here: https://woodlarkblog.com/diy-floating-walnut-candles/

Wednesday-Homeschool

Advent gift- Small jars of honey and a wooden honey spoon

Story-The Mitten, by Jan Brett

Craft-Make milk and honey soap

Here is an easy soap recipe that doesnt use lye: https://www.happinessishomemade.net/10-minute-diy-milk-honey-soap/ If you’re feeling more adventurous check out this recipe here: https://practicalselfreliance.com/goats-milk-honey-soap-recipe-beginners/

Thursday-

Advent gift-Book-Emily and Daisy-Elsa Beskow

Friday-

Advent gift-Animal stickers and little animal shaped notebook.

Saturday-

Advent gift-Book-A Snowy Nap, By Jan Brett

Activity-Today I’ll be gathering boughs and preparing a spiral in a sheltered outdoor spot, in preparation for tomorrows Solstice Spiral. This is a lovely way to deepen the experience of bringing light to the darkness with friends and family. This also works in a Southern Hemisphere setting for the Summer Solstice as a way to celebrate the gifts of the summer on a long balmy evening. See my 8 Wurundjeri Seasons blog post for details of Summer Solstice Spiral.

Method:

–  Create a spiral with a path large enough to walk through, using evergreen branches.

-A large candle in a jar is placed in the centre of the spiral. Each spiral participant is given a candle secured in a red apple as the candle holder.

– Create a circle of friends and family around the outside of the spiral. While the group is singing carols, each person is invited to enter the spiral with their candle. They walk to the center of the spiral to light their candle and say a wish or prayer to themselves or aloud if they feel comfortable. Then they walk out finding a place for their candle to stay along the way.

Thanks for reading lovelies! I’ll be sharing photos of our Solstice Spiral in next week’s post  ❤

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