Cut one long side from an empty cardboard box. Decorate the box, inside and out, with pictures of vegetables and fruits. Make a table and chairs from twigs and blocks or use furniture from your doll house. Spread twigs and leaves on top of the box to form a roof. Then hang small bunches of fruits (such as grapes of currants) from the ceiling.

Source: Natural Childhood

There are many Thanksgiving celebrations and festivals celebrated all over the world. Most have their roots in the ancient festivals of light. Use this time to celebrate with your children and families and to learn about the festivals and cultural celebrations of your people, your roots.

• Autumn Verses, click here
• Halloween Story for Painting, click here
• Halloween Story: The Little Hobgoblin, click here
• The Hungry Dragon: Story & Recipe for Michaelmas, click here
• The Story of Martin and the Poor Man, click here
• The Lantern, click here
• An Autumn Play, click here
• The Kite Flying Festival, click here

Halloween Costume Suggestions:

Some ideas for non violet, non-Disney and non-TV costumes include: pumpkin, sun, elf, moon, prince/ss, knight, wizard, maiden, fairy, flower, gnome, butter- fly, forest child, honey bee, animals, storybook characters (Nils, Robin Hood, Rapunzel, etc.) or workers (mail delivery, fire fighter, construction, etc) and traditional dress from other countries also make lovely costumes. Of course, there is also my personal favorite:

“My name is Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim’s Daughter Longstocking formerly the Terror of the Seas Now a Cannibal King!!!” Yes, My son was Pippi Longstocking one year. Some people questioned a boy being a girl, to which he also very knowledgably replied…. “This is Halloween and you can be whom or whatever you wish – and I am being Pippi because she is a wonderful character!”

“I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of colored paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience.” - Anne Sullivan

The Nature Corner: Celebrating the Years Cycle with a Seasonal Table
This book is excellent for the parent or teacher looking for a way to use simple materials and objects found in nature to create little scenes celebrating the seasonal changes and holidays. Beautifully illustrated with very clear instructions and complete patterns, this book encourages a return to genuine imaginative creativity and an awareness of natural beauty.

Festivals, Family and Food
A great resource book, it is organized by Seasons as well as Holidays, with songs, stories, crafts and recipes that relate to the season or holiday. It is very easy to come up with nice additions to your family celebrations with this book.

Mabon: Celebrating the Autumn Equinox
It’s the season of changing colors; crisp air filled with the scent of wood smoke; and festivals offering wine, hot cider, and apple pie. At this time of equal day and night, we give thanks for the harvest that will sustain us through the dark winter months. This book explores the history, legends, and traditions of the season that is honored from the Far East to the Celtic Lands, and from Scandinavia to South America. Create your own Mabon tradition with the help of the book’s many recipes, magical workings, equinox rituals, and crafts for all ages.

I am looking for quality toys at low prices. Any ideas?

Okay, I am going out on a limb here BUT, you asked…

I looked at the links for the toy sites you sent and I saw the “bargain prices” you referred to. Here is a quote from one of their items: “Outfit your dollhouse from top to bottom with this play-packed set. Includes 40 pieces, from beds to barbecue to benches. Sized just right for the Carry Cottage. Ages 3+. #701130 Carry Cottage Furniture $14.00″

I have this food for thought to offer…

Who on earth can manufacture and afford to sell FORTY pieces of furniture for fourteen dollars? — passing along my opinion and/or judgment without knowing the facts — but it seems that this stuff has to be either manufactured in some “slave labor” country or is really just junk…

I don’t know, perhaps I am reacting too strongly but are we not involved with the “Waldorf” way for wanting playthings and materials which speak to the gentle soul of our child? Natural, gentle, simple playthings?

It’s difficult to go on about commercialization, materialism, consumerism here, in this medium of cyberspace… but IMHO, the BEST idea is that less is more and the furniture which parents create for their children out of scrapped branches are probably best… a close second would be a creation from a local artisan, a grandparent or neighbor and/or finally, a cottage industry business where you can actually phone up and speak to the real person who created your child’s toy… all the while supporting a (most likely) stay at home family, struggling to make ends meet… living the simple life.

Okay, I am showing my personal and previous “catalog owner” roots, but this isn’t about “me”… it is about what our children are playing with…and what we are teaching them by the choices we make each and every time we make a purchase and bring something new home… We have a responsibility as parents to introduce them to a better way than the way we we have been programmed to “shop & buy!”

A Parent Shares:

The question isn’t usually what toys to acquire, but what toys to get rid of. Most mainstream programs for children have way too many toys. Besides being messy and disorganized, it sets the kids up for a life-time of materialism. I’d get rid of anything sharp, broken, or ugly. I’d also get rid of things that don’t foster creative play.

Books: I wouldn’t accumulate a lot of books for this age group (toddlers, right?) because their eyes aren’t mature enough to scan them. If you love books, you could have a few of your more beautiful ones around for them to look at the pictures, or maybe a few board books, but toddlers don’t take good care of books, so I’d get rid of them in general, or put them away until later.

Plastics and other synthetics: These don’t promote the healthiest development in children. It’s hard, but purge the plastics. (There are, of course, exceptions – for instance I like plastic slides (outdoors) better than metal ones for safety reasons. I also prefer plastic shovels for outside because they are durable.)

Take your clues from the places where children thrive.

The Beach: Children don’t need toys at the beach. Just water, sand and maybe a shovel and pail – maybe a ball as well. To bring these elements to children, be sure your space has access to water (a large bowl or tub full of water outside is fun) and earth (a sand box or better yet, a hill of sand – or just the dirt in the yard). Water and dirt are difficult in pre-school/day care settings because usually there are too few adults to help clean-up and change clothes, but in parent/child classes you can get away with it. Sand is nice because it’s relatively clean. Have plenty of shovels and pails and stainless steel bowls and such to play with in the water and sand. Kids this age can’t be asked to share constantly, so have lots of the same thing. (Lots of the same shovel, for instance.) Access to the outdoors and this sort of play are essential. Even in cold weather, large amounts of time can be spent outside if the children are dressed well. Yes, and I’d get some balls.

The Woods: No toys needed here either. Kids love to build forts and play imaginative scenarios in the woods. To bring these elements to the children, I like to see programs with all sorts of odd pieces of wood outside. Maybe some logs or stumps. Maybe some planks (well sanded ones are best). Maybe some tree limbs. Things you can help them move around to create castles, or barns, or houses or stores or an endless amount of things.

The Home: Just regular things around the house are used by children for play. Do you remember making huts out of all the couch cushions as a child? Or draping sheets over the table to make a house? To bring these elements to children, I love to see furniture in programs that can be used by the children when they play. Chairs turned on their sides. Tables that aren’t too heavy to move around. Large silk and cotton cloths have endless uses for creative indoor play.

Round it out with items from nature, such as pine cones, stones, feathers, seed pods. Children find endless ways to play with these.

Think Tools rather than Toys: Some of my favorite “tools” for children are: child sized mops (the kids love these – I like the ones with wooden handles and cotton yarns – one source is A Child’s World – it’s a Montessori catalog), rolling pins (lots of the same one so children aren’t asked to wait or share), child-sized baking dishes (real ones) such as pie tins, bread pans, little whisks (I happen to like these, but they aren’t necessary), a washing board.

Just Toys: I happen to like well-made, wooden dump trucks (but I don’t let them go outside). Also things you’ve made, or someone else had made for the children – dolls, doll clothes, ropes (from finger knitting), knitted animals, felt balls, etc.

Suggested Reading:

• Work and Play in Early Childhood
• The Genius of Play: Celebrating the Spirit of Childhood
• Children at Play: Using Waldorf Principles to Foster Childhood Development
• Toymaking with Children (Freya Jaffke).
• Feltcraft: Making Dolls, Gifts and Toys

* Special Thanks to Kim for sharing her views & suggestions.