When our children were young, we teamed up with a group of parents to form a Waldorf community. We knew we wanted a holistic education for our children and a community for our young family.
One of the many attractions for me in this group, was the integration of the education into our homelife. The first thing I started doing was to create a nature table in our home, bringing the seasons inside. We learned seasonal songs and sang them while we were decorating.
I am not talented in handworks, but I do love decorating my home. In our Waldorf community, I learned how to create beauty in our home with simple activities that we could do with the children, ones that did not demand more skill than I had.
Back then, I thought the activities were for the children, but when they grew up and I continued doing them, I realized I was doing them for me. I could not imagine our home without a seasonal table. When I opened a LifeWays Center, we created seasonal tables in every room.
Now that I am a grandmother, I decorate with the grandchildren, and I know both seasonal nature tables and the grandchildren will always be a part of my life.
If you are interested in learning how I create a simple, beautiful spring table, read on.
My husband and I often walk in a nearby park with our grandchildren. In late winter, we collect branches (forsythia for example) to put in a vase at home. We watch them bloom inside long before they would outside.
I cover a credenza in our dining room with a seasonal cloth, perhaps green or floral for springtime. Then we decorate eggs with the children whose participation is age and skill dependent, but watching is fun, too. For this activity, start with a carton of eggs.
With a large needle, prick a hole in the top and bottom of each one. Then blow the insides out into a bowl. Remember to hold them gently so they do not break. Use the contents of the bowl for cooking later.
After emptying and rinsing the eggs, color them. Traditional egg dye from the supermarket works fine or try making dyes with beets or turmeric.
Let the colored eggs dry in the carton. Then create a loop with thread (embroidery floss works well) and glue a small stick (1/4 inch of a toothpick) to one end of it. Stand the stick straight up to poke inside the hole then move the thread so the stick lies sideways holding the hanger in place.
Hang the colored eggs from the branches on the seasonal table. They can be stored for future use. With the leftover dye, color hard-boiled eggs.
Then plant a small garden. Gather wheat grass seeds and potting soil. Put dirt on a platter or in a low bowl. Sprinkle seeds thickly on top of the dirt. Place the indoor garden in a sunny spot.
With a spray bottle, water it often. Watch the seeds sprout into a thick spray of edible grass that grows several inches tall. You can cut it back and mix the wheat grass into a salad then watch as the grass grows back. It grows so fast that you can almost see it grow.
I like to keep the small garden of wheat grass on the dining table. On the nature table, after the forsythia has bloomed, I like adding pussy willows and tulips to the vase so the expression of spring is bursting with color and beauty, just like the season.
It is these simple seasonal activities that I learned in Steiner-based communities, that bring me such joy year after year.
The wonderful thing about our Waldorf and LifeWays programs, is that learning is not only for the children. I find that the most dynamic communities are ones where everyone is learning across generations!
Young children learn through imitation and when they see adults learning, connecting with nature, creating beauty in their homes, and celebrating the seasons with joy – important lessons in being human are passed along.
In these times, you can see signs of fraying at the edges of the fabric of our society. With simple activities that connect us with nature and each other, we can reweave this fabric. We can remember who we are and tend to what matters – each other, the earth, and our homes.
Imagine the beautiful fabric we can weave together. Let’s get started and watch it grow like a garden in the springtime!
