The moon is one of nature's most beautiful and accessible cycles to follow and observe with children. You can dive to great depths on the topic, but an easy place to start is with a moon phase wheel where children can see the moon moving through its cycle with each illustrated phase.
We were inspired to construct our own moon phase wheel by the lovely Abbey at Wild Wattle Folk, she has a Moon Phase Tracker tutorial on her blog if you wish to make your own from scratch. Otherwise, I have a printable version of the galaxy wheel below that is available for instant download. We love to include the moon phase wheel in our moon lessons and discussions. The children love that it's a hands-on tool. We often take it on our evening walks, especially on a bright full moon walk, and they reference the real moon in the sky with the moon on the wheel with the greatest sense of wonder! "Each night the moon kisses secretly the lover who counts the stars." - Rumi.
In particular, we honour the new moon and full moon phases as they are potent moments for setting intentions and releasing what no longer serves us. (I can go quite deep into this but that's for another time!)
There's also the gardening aspect to the moon (and the sun), where through observing each phase we can be in sync with optimal plant growth and garden management. A wonderful website to learn more about this is Gardening by the Moon. It tells us that on the new moon, the lunar gravity pulls water up and causes seeds to swell and burst. This factor, coupled with the increasing moonlight creates balanced root and leaf growth. The first quarter is the best time for planting above ground bearing annual crops that produce their seeds outside the fruit, such as lettuce, spinach, celery, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower. and grain crops. On the full moon, the gravitational pull is even higher, creating more moisture in the soil, but the moonlight is decreasing, putting energy into the roots, so the full moon is a favourable time for planting root crops such as beetroot and carrots. It is also good for perennials, bulbs and transplanting because of the active root growth. There is so much to learn and discover about moon.
Do you like to follow the moon too?
My Moon Phase Wheel is available as a printable with full assembly instructions, making it simple for you to get started.
Happy moon gazing!
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Our precious bees need a safe place to drink and collect water without drowning. Did you know? bees collect water to keep their hive cool? They "air condition" their hive by fanning the space with their wings! So clever. A bee bath is a really simple and fun activity for kids. While you're making it, you could talk about the importance of bees for pollination and how they can easily drown in large bodies of water, such as pools and ponds. It's the peak of summer here in Australia, so our bee baths have been well used by both honeybees and native bees. It's a wonderful thing to sit and watch them in moments of relaxation. Making your bee bathYou will need:
Make sure you top it up when it is getting low. It's a good idea to place the bath near a sprinkler or along the watering route so that it's watered regularly. I'd love to see your bee baths if you are Instagram! Tag me @runwildheart. I find working with clay to be so relaxing. Everything around me seems to melt away while I'm in the zone, squishing and rolling, moulding and building. There's something so satisfying about making something with your hands, and this activity is especially great for little hands. Working with clay helps to strengthen the muscles in little hands and fingers, and develops fine motor skills and creativity. Plus the sensation of clay just feels so good! Today, we made patterned circles, a vase and a pinch pot using air-dry clay and pieces from nature. We found our clay at Officeworks, but you can also buy it from Bunnings. For your nature pieces, you could go out on a special nature walk to collect them, or select some from your existing collection like we did. We picked things that we felt would create an interesting pattern in the clay - pine cones, seed pods, gum nuts, shells, fern leaves and a rose geranium leaf. Have some fun in finding and selecting your pieces and discussing what they are with your child. Circles and patternsTo make the circles, my son rolled out some clay and then cut out circles using a cookie cutter. He then proceeded to totally amaze himself with the different patterns he could make in the clay. It was truly beautiful to watch his face light up with wonder. Make a simple vase using the coil techniqueMy son asked if he could make a vase to hold some of his nature finds, such as feathers or leaves. For this, we used the coil technique which goes as follows:
Pinch potI made a simple pinch pot using the following steps:
What are your favourite things to make with clay?
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AuthorI am a free-spirited homeschooling mama who finds great inspiration, beauty and meaning in nature. Archives
March 2019
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