At the earliest stages, strive for nurturing her inherent endearment of
the natural world and provoke with your daughter a deep appreciation for Mother Nature's beautiful work. In this practice we help to keep active the dynamic innate bond with the Goddess.
First Grade
Goodnight Sun, Greetings Moon, Hi tree
Continue this practice, after sometime she will continue it without your
prompting. It will continue to promote awareness of the natural cycles and the nature around her.
Little Navigator
A continuation of the Little Explorer theme, except now you can allow her
to become the captain of your expedition. This is the age where she will
want to develope deeper into various adventures. If you allow her to lead the
way, it becomes a grand expedition.
Exploring as the seasons change brings about all sorts of discoveries. You
will find animal and insect homes, watch them build or depending on the season, finding them abandoned. You can watch the baby animals grow throughout the year
through quiet observation. See how animal coats change texture and color as
season change. You can even illustrate this with your household pets and the
changes they go through season to season. You can also collect leaves all season long.
Green Gardeners
The garden offers a glorious sanctuary of life, it is the Wheel of Life in
action. Gardens are not limited to actual yard space, one can use containers
outdoors or in, create a greenhouse window, indoor forced bulbs, terrariums,
bottle gardens and like. Each offers a hands-on experience with nature and
overstanding of the Wheel of Life. Gardens ease the mind and relax the
Spirit.
If you are not an adept gardener, not to worry, it is a fun experience to
learn along with your daughter. You can enjoy learning along side her in
how the garden works. It is an amazing ecosystem to experience.
Gardening With Children
Young Chief
This is the perfect time to begin baking and cooking with your little ones,
it is a lot of fun and a great gift to give them. As seasons change, so does the availability of different foodstuffs. You can also go
to a local farms and pick your own fruit or vegetable being
harvested during the harvests and then create something fantastic for
dinner or dessert.
Even the youngest little ones can partake in some aspect of the preparation.
Even adding the eggs in the mixing bowl gives a sense of "I did it" when the product is complete.
Cooking is not only an enjoyable way to experience the changing seasonal
cycle, but also gives her a life tool and a creative outlet. She will quickly
learn how to prepare food for herself.
Tiny Astronomers
"Star light, star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may I wish I
might, have the wish I wish tonight"
As simple as that, not only are they scouting the sky at twilight awaiting
the appearance of the first star, they are casting their first spells.
Attention toward the nightly heavens holds a wondrous world to explore.
There is finding the planets, the names of ones are visible. Finding the
stars, the ones that twinkle. Beginning to point out constellations and
telling of the stories the stars hold. For eons the stars told the stories
of peoples worldwide, they hold the lessons, victories and defeats, the
mythology that is the basis of human experience and learning. As seasons
change so does the sky. The winter sky is different than the summer sky. It
is an amazing thing to watch as constellations move and change position.
Arts and Craft
This is a great age to introduce crafts. Allow their creativity to run wild,
creativity is so vital to a Magical life. All types of crafts can be had at
this age. Remember your artisans and what they are capable of and the
attention spans they have. Depending on the project, you may have to lay
most of the foundation and allow them a few small steps to claim the
production as their own.
Use things you gather outdoors: shells, sand (you can dye it), leaves,
flowers, acorns, branches, etc... Create picture frames, grass paintings,
leaf presses, mosaics, and oodles of other things. Craft ideas will vary and
change as the seasons change and your kids' interests are peaked. Keep
activities age appropriate or else you and she will become frustrated!
Emotional Identification
Empathy is an important life skill we can foster in your daughter. We have a
natural affinity to be empathic, however the world is all too eager to stomp
it right out of us, given the chance. Emotional Identification is important
equipment in determining correct action or non-action. It is fundamental in
striving for the balance we need to live life wholly and fully. It does not
mean we are unable to act because we are too wrapped up in other's emotional
viewpoints, but rather we can consciously determine right course of action.
Foster empathy in your daughter, allows her to imagine, to feel what a situation
must feel like to one of the parties if we are not participatory, and one of
the others if we are. Use this to empathize with other children, adults,
animals, plants, and a whole host of things. This widens the factors your gir
will take in account as she determine correct action for herself as she
gets older. This leads to a responsible life (and hopefully less of
those painful lessons).
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