Creating a Seasonal Table for Valentine's Day {Or, My Attempts to Grow as a Homemaker}

Photo Credit: libertygrace0

I want to grow in so many ways as a wife, a mom, and a child of God. One area in which I am always in need of "cultivation" is homemaking. It just doesn't come naturally to me. My mom could decorate an entire room in one trip to TJ Maxx and an hour's worth of work, but unfortunately, her decorating knack did not pass down to me.

However, I desperately want my house to be a home where we can grow together as a family, and I want our children to participate in it, too.

That's why this year I am introducing a "seasonal table" to our home.

What is a Seasonal Table?

Source: goldensunfamily.blogspot.com via Keri on Pinterest

For those of you, like me, who are unfamiliar with the seasonal table, it comes from Waldorf education principles, which encourage children to be lifelong learners through exploration and interaction in areas of interest. While I'm not a Waldorf fan for the most part, I do like this concept.

A seasonal table (or nature table) is whatever you want it to be. It can be very simply or elaborately decorated. But the contents of the table usually revolve around a particular season, holiday, time of year, or theme. It may be nature-based or not.

How to Create a Seasonal Table?

Source: seasonsnaturaltoys.blogspot.com via Keri on Pinterest

The first step in creating a seasonal table is finding a table and space accessible to your children. I chose a modest end table on loan from my mom. It's small but at the perfect height for young children. 

I have a small area in our living room that we are using to house our seasonal table. Limited space is no problem.

Then, simply gather materials you already have, find outside, or you buy at the store. How much or how little you spend is entirely up to you! 

How you arrange your seasonal table is also up to you. I have NO decorating skills whatsoever; however, the kids can't tell. They just love to see a space that is open for their little hands to play with and explore.

Take it down and start over again for each new holiday, season, or family event.

Our Valentine's Day Table

 

I have attempted the seasonal table before but never consistently. This year I aim to change that beginning with a table centered around Valentine's Day.

Because of so many illnesses in our family the past two weeks, I have not done the best job at finding as many "child-friendly" items as I'd have liked. However, the children are allowed to touch and play with any of the objects--even the breakable ones; however, they cannot take the items out of the room.

Beside the table is a basket filled with books relevant to the particular season, holiday, or theme. Here are our Valentine's Day books.

  
And on both sides of the table are chairs on which a child can sit and look at one of the books or play with items on the table.

It's all about the children's interaction. This heart-shaped glass bowl ($1 at the Dollar Tree) is filled with heart-shaped stickers. The girls can pick one out any time they do something kind or loving to another. 

 

The other knicknacks on the table afford little hands with opportunities to touch, take apart, explore, create, and imagine. My four-year-old has already asked if we can put a different picture in the Love frame and why the red heart-shaped box is empty. We will be doing something there for sure.

All of the decorations on our seasonal table are inexpensive: I bought the majority at the Dollar Tree and Goodwill, so if something does get broken, it's not a big deal. 

 

I'm not a decorator, nor do I claim to be one. But I am working on becoming a better homemaker because I want to build a home of love. A seasonal table is just one way to do that.

How do you instill the seasons, holidays, or other themes into your home throughout the year? 

Have you ever attempted a seasonal table?
 
I would LOVE to hear your ideas! I may just include them in a future post!

{For more seasonal table ideas, follow me on Pinterest!}


Blessings to you as you grow in God's glory,

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Days 29-30: Finger Painting & a 2nd Scavenger Hunt

We're in the final stretch of "31 Days of Play." Technically, the challenge ends today, July 31st, but we missed a day of "play" on Sunday, so I'm making up for it with one final activity tomorrow, August 1st.

On Monday I made some homemade finger paints using a recipe that I've used before. They are very easy to make, and you probably have all of the ingredients on hand.

Recipe: Homemade Finger Paints

1/2 cup cornstarch

3 T sugar

1/2 t salt

2 cups water

Food coloring

Combine all four ingredients in a small pot. Stir on medium low until mixture warms and thickens. It should be pretty thick. Remove from heat and cool. Pour into containers and mix in food coloring.

I taped down some Kraft paper to our kitchen table, distributed bowls of finger paints, and let the girls dig in and paint. Of course, I painted, too. Actually, I think I enjoyed finger painting more than they did! There's something incredibly relaxing in smearing globular paints with your fingers.

Cora thought the paints were a little too icky for her liking.

Kate painted with them the longest; however, that was only 15 minutes. I think both girls really struggled with what to do with the paints because you can't actually draw anything with them. You more or less spread them around with your fingers and make a big mess, which I thought was totally fun; them, not so much.

All in all, I think finger painting would be a good quiet time activity for my girls because, at 8:00 in the morning, they were both more interested in running around outside than painting. But I will definitely do this art project again.

Today, we had another outdoor scavenger hunt. This time, instead of taking photos of natural objects in our yard for the kids to search for, I made a list of items for them to find.

Scavenger Hunt List

• A yellow leaf
• An ant
• A purple flower
• Something rough
• A stick to use as a magic wand
• A bird
• A dry patch of grass
• Something smooth
• A pine cone
• A really big rock
• Something unique that catches your eye

 One yellow leaf

 A purple flower

 Something rough

A stick to use as a magic wand

 

 Something unique that catches your eye--clumps of mowed grass :)

Blessings to you,
 

Keri

For comments or questions, contact me at: growinginhisglory@gmail.com

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This post may be linked to: The Better Mom Mondays, Monday Mom Musings, Raising Arrows Welcome Home, Teach Me Tuesdays, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time-Warp Wife Titus 2Days, Encourage One Another, Top 10 Tuesdays, Loving Our Children Tuesdays, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, Raising Mighty Arrows Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Beautiful Thursdays, Hearts 4 Home, Faithfully Parenting Fridays

Day 28: Splash Pad Fun!!

We are in our final week of the "31 Days of Play" challenge. If you're looking for some fun ideas to play with your kids, check out what we've been playing.

After naps today we headed up to a local splash pad for some outdoor water fun with the girls. If you've never been to a splash pad, it's basically a concrete area with a variety of features that spray water. There is no standing water, so there is zero risk for drowning. Our girls have not yet had swim lessons, so a splash pad is an ideal place for us to play in the water.

Kate had a blast and didn't want to leave. In fact, she ran through every water feature there!

Surprisingly, the fearless one, Cora, would NOT run through the water. Most of my pictures of her skirting the perimeter of the water features, just barely getting her feet wet. However, after about 30 minutes of watching Big Sister run around having fun, she finally worked up the courage to run through the hoops.

 

I love this picture of the girls holding hands. Kate tried so hard to get Cora to go with her, but poor Cora just didn't like the water shooting in her face.

 

The splash pad was a unique experience and one I know we will try again later when Cora is a little older.


Have you ever been to a splash pad? 
 

Keri

 

For comments or questions, contact me at: growinginhisglory@gmail.com

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This post may be linked to: The Better Mom Mondays, Monday Mom Musings, Raising Arrows Welcome Home, Teach Me Tuesdays, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time-Warp Wife Titus 2Days, Encourage One Another, Top 10 Tuesdays, Loving Our Children Tuesdays, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, Raising Mighty Arrows Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Beautiful Thursdays, Hearts 4 Home, Faithfully Parenting Fridays

Day 27: Party on with the Letter B!

We just finished up our study of the letter B, so since our "A" party was so much fun, I thought we'd have a "B" party.

This week we read books on ballerinas and bread making and butterflies and bears.

 We read the Bible story about the Tower of Babel and listened to Beethoven.
 
We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and discussed the life cycle of the butterfly. Kate even made her own butterfly.

Kate memorized Matthew 5:8

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." 

Cora and I worked on learning the nursery rhyme "Baa Baa Black Sheep."

We blew bubbles and did bubble paints. 

So, to culminate our week of all things B, we had a "B" party!

Kate helped me create a list of foods beginning with B. Here's what we had:

• Bread, Butter, & Blackberry jam
• Bananas with peanut butter
• Blueberries 
• Blackberries
• Blueberry frozen yogurt popsicles

I also made this Butterfly sandwich. The girls thought it was pretty neat.

 

And a "B" party wouldn't be complete without Brownies... 

And a Blue Balloon!

Blessings to you!

 

Keri

For comments or questions, contact me at: growinginhisglory@gmail.com

Find Growing in His Glory on Facebook.

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This post may be linked to: The Better Mom Mondays, Monday Mom Musings, Raising Arrows Welcome Home, Teach Me Tuesdays, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time-Warp Wife Titus 2Days, Encourage One Another, Top 10 Tuesdays, Loving Our Children Tuesdays, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, Raising Mighty Arrows Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Beautiful Thursdays, Hearts 4 Home, Faithfully Parenting Fridays

Day 26: Fizzing Sidewalk Paint

We're in the final stretch of our "31 Days of Play" challenge. To see what we've been doing, go here.

This morning, before the heat was too unbearable, I whipped up, yes, some more paints. We're definitely on a painting kick this week with bubble paints and nature painting, but it's just so fun!  Fizzing Sidewalk Paints are awesome because you not only get to paint, but you also get to make your paintings fizz. It's a science experiment, art, and play all in one!

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 small box baking soda
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• Food coloring
• Warm (almost hot) water
• Squirt bottle filled with vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients first. Then add a few drops of your desired color of food coloring. Add warm water and stir. You want the paint to be thick enough to paint with but not too thick that you can't maneuver a paint brush in it. If you don't use the paint immediately, you will need to stir it up right before you use it.

I divided the baking soda-cornstarch mixture into 4 bowls, so we could make 4 different colors of paints.

Then, we headed outside and painted our hearts out.
 

 But the best part was spraying the paints with vinegar and watching them FIZZ!!!

My little Smurf loved pouring the paints into her pink cup and then back into the paint container. She's just a messy little thing.

Fizzing Sidewalk Paints were so fun! I hope you will try them out and let me know what you think!

Blessings to you!

 

Keri

For comments or questions, contact me at: growinginhisglory@gmail.com

Find Growing in His Glory on Facebook.

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This post may be linked to: The Better Mom Mondays, Monday Mom Musings, Raising Arrows Welcome Home, Teach Me Tuesdays, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time-Warp Wife Titus 2Days, Encourage One Another, Top 10 Tuesdays, Loving Our Children Tuesdays, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, Raising Mighty Arrows Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Beautiful Thursdays, Hearts 4 Home, Faithfully Parenting Fridays

Day 25: Nature Painting

We are on Day 25 of the "31 Days of Play!" Challenge. To find out what we've been doing, click here.

Today I wanted to get out the paints and head outside before the triple digits forced us to stay in. I found this idea for painting cards with dandelions at Simple Kids and thought it looked like something the kids and I could do together. However, instead of searching only for dandelions, we went on a little nature walk in our yard and picked up neat objects that we thought would be fun either to paint on or paint with. 

We collected a variety of rocks, Queen Anne's Lace, ferns, leaves, rosemary, tree bark, and dandelions of course.

 
 I set out different color washable tempera paints for the girls to choose from.

Then, each girl had a piece of watercolor paper that I taped to the tablecloth for them to paint on. Kate chose to paint her rocks instead.

While Cora just threw paint all over her paper.

I tried to show them how to use the nature objects as paintbrushes. Here I used a dandelion head to make rows of different colors.

 But they weren't too interested in that. Kate really just liked painting her rocks.

In any activity we do--whether school-related, arts & crafts, or play--I try to allow the kids freedom of expression and independence. I don't want to constrain them by saying "this is the way to do it" when they are having fun doing it "their way."

My goals for this craft were (1) to spend time together, (2) to explore nature, and (3) to create something with the natural objects we found. I believe we accomplished all three!

Here are our nature paintings:

Pretty cool, huh?

In what ways have you found to incorporate nature into arts & crafts with your kids? 

Keri

 

For comments or questions, contact me at: growinginhisglory@gmail.com

Find Growing in His Glory on Facebook.

I would love to see more of you!  If you are encouraged by what you read here and would like to have posts from Growing in His Glory delivered to your inbox daily, simply click here.  Or you can subscribe in a reader of your choice in the right sidebar.

This post may be linked to: The Better Mom Mondays, Monday Mom Musings, Raising Arrows Welcome Home, Teach Me Tuesdays, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time-Warp Wife Titus 2Days, Encourage One Another, Top 10 Tuesdays, Loving Our Children Tuesdays, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, Raising Mighty Arrows Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Beautiful Thursdays, Hearts 4 Home, Faithfully Parenting Fridays