Tuesday, December 23, 2008

December 18th

Things are getting crazy now. The pressure on me to finish shopping and wrapping and getting all the bits of things I need to get before the big day or before the varying deadlines is upon me like something awful and smothering. To combat the pressing frenzy, I tend to languish for hours, doing nothing at all, like the great procrastinator I know myself so well to be. Which is exactly what I did the first few hours I was awake, knowing that there were marshmallows yet to package, things left to knit, a house run amok, laundry to do, errands to run, and the day's activity yet to execute...Another catalog picture - the lovely shots of Waldorfy children playing in the pages of Nova Natural. Such environmentally-friendly, imaginative, open-ended, completely privileged children living out the middle-class fantasy in true BoBo fashion. Naturally, I too aspire to live such a dream...
Which becomes totally clear by the activity for the day...
Having complained that there was no place to put the nature table on a local mama message board as all my surfaces are filled, I was inspired by a friend's suggestion that I clear off a shelf. Well, all my shelves were full too, but I discovered a bit of space in the dining room built-in by removing a piece of junk. The kids dove right into the task. Literally.
We did not venture out for winter nature, but borrowed some pine cones from our nature tray. We used cotton balls and white and blue fabric for the setting. Then we placed our pocket gnomes and farm animals amongst it.
Then the boys played pretend with the animals and gnomes for awhile.
The gnomes were shoved in a bit willy-nilly.
Then everyone fought for awhile, making appropriately Steiner-esque bombing and gunshot sounds before screaming and dying.
Aleks also wore a Darth Vader mask the whole time, which is a bit of a departure from elf hats and playsilk capes, admittedly.

3 comments:

becks said...

oh, good idea of the shelf- we are low on counter/table space as well, I'll have to remember that for holidays. hope you cuties had a great day!

Donna said...

Glad the shelf idea worked! Miranda and Ivy have a rather non-Waldorfian interpretation of what is actually Nature with regards to our table.

Julie said...

this post made me laugh:) Mostly because I can sooo relate. I love the Darth Vader amongst it all! Now that's real. Oh, by the way, our nature table got ransacked by Echo (the big 80 pound puppy), she chewed one of the christmas gnomes legs off, and then bound and determined (because I got it out of her mouth at least 5 times on her way out the door), she shredded our "St. Nicholas" down to nothing more than styrafoam, wire and felt pieces:(