Learning all about birds allows us to connect more deeply to nature and thus is a theme that we love to use here at Austin Children's Garden! In our schoolhouse and backyard, we often hear the loud calls of peacocks, the charming chirps of cardinals, and the sweet tweets of bluejays. While we stayed outdoors this month, the kids loved to fully explore birds through these simple projects. Check them out!

Coloring Birds

Feather Paint Brushes

Hummingbird Puzzle

Or just have fun with it and create what you want ;)

Flying Bird Collages

Invitation to Create Your Own Bird!

We pretended we were birds for this project and the kids had so much fun!

​What materials do birds use to make their nests? How do they assemble things together to create a nest? Where do you see bird nests? What kind of birds do you want to live in your nest?

Summer is almost here, the sunshine is out and about, and we are having so much fun soaking it all up!

See you next time!

Cooking is a great vehicle for communication. Children learn to share, to take turns, and to enjoy eating together. Cooking promotes social knowledge as kids learn rules for hygiene and dining, explore cultural traditions regarding the creation of certain foods, and follow safety precautions during preparation and cooking.

TIP: Have the kids wash and peel produce! Lots of things can be peeled by hand like bananas and onions. If a peeler is needed like for carrots and potatoes, have the child hold the item at the top with the bottom secured on a surface. The child should start peeling at the middle, going down. When the bottom half is done, turn it over and repeat!

Cooking with your kids engages all their senses. It also inspires curiosity, thinking, and problem solving, as well as offers new opportunities to make predictions and observations. While cooking, children learn to read a recipe, organize ingredients, follow a sequence, and carry out multiple directions.

Cooking with kids provides a hands-on, contextual way to introduce mathematical concepts such as those related to measurement, numbers, sequencing, fractions, and time. Additionally, while cooking and mixing ingredients, children observe different colors, textures, patterns, and shapes of the mixture, and can chart their preferences.

TIP: Cutting, chopping, and slicing can turn into an easy fraction lesson. The kids, of course, can do this part too! Just make sure to maintain their safety by using a child safe knife. In addition, measuring using measuring cups or spoons is a great use of children in the kitchen! Teach them to level their measurements off with their hand or a butter knife. 

Cooking integrates three major science concepts: life science, physics, and chemistry. As children cooking with either plant or animal-derived ingredients, they begin to understand the connection between their own lives and plants and animals that make they healthy. Cooking involves simple machines, tools, and human actions that allow children to make a natural connection to physics. Lastly, by experimenting with ingredients of different properties (states of matter, temperature, viscosity, etc.), kids begin to understand basic chemistry concepts.

TIP: All these tools are relatively simple for kids to use! Have them crank the grinder, use the handheld blender (perhaps with a little help steadying the bowl), or spin the salad!

Cooking helps to develop children's sense of pride, confidence, and satisfaction as they work on their cooking skills as well as further develop the various skills mentioned here in this blog. In addition, cooking encourages self-direction and independence for kids. Something we often hear here at ACG is "I made it myself!"

TIP: Have the kids plate and decorate how they want, just to take one more thing off your 'plate' ;)

See you next time :)

We had a wonderful few weeks learning about butterflies, just as our Spring weather was arriving and butterflies were everywhere!

We got to see the entire butterfly life cycle in person!! Check out our Facebook video here to see the release of the butterflies into our wildlife habitat!

Butterfly Math - matching colors and shapes

Butterfly Bingo

​Coloring a monarch butterfly

Hand butterfly wings

More butterfly coloring

Check out Mrs. Morna's full butterfly yoga video on our Facebook page here!

See you next time!

​“In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives.  Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine our success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships.”  — John Gottman

While we regularly focus on social-emotional development, we especially like to highlight our theme of love, kindness, and practicing self regulation in February!

​One of the best ways to introduce different feelings and learn tools to respond to big emotions is through educational children's books - here are some of our favorites:

Singing together is a great way to create group harmony. We sing a lot at ACG! Ask the kids to teach you our "Love Grows" song.

Learning to read other peoples facial expressions is an important step in practicing empathy. The kids loved making different expressions with play dough.

Feelings cards are a great way to open up a conversation about different feelings. Here are some of their honest responses:

"I get really frustrated when I have to get my coat on in the car and the zipper is really hard."

"I feel impatient when my mom says she will play with me but then makes me wait and wait and wait forever!"

"I feel love when my mama hugs me."

"I feel sorry when I take my sister's toys and yell at her."

Self portraits are a creative way for children to develop their observational, expressive, and reflective skills. The kids loved studying their faces in the mirror and trying out different facial expressions.

Painting to music - we painted one half of our pictures to fast fun music and the other half of the picture to slow gentle flowing music to compare how sound can influence our expression!

Conscious Discipline is a wonderful curriculum we use to help with learning about our emotions and healthy ways to respond to them. To see more about how the deep breathing, feeling buddies, and safe place work please see our previous blog for detailed instructions! Practicing the following breaths regularly helps us to be able to use them when a strong feeling gets a hold of us.

Balloon Breath

Drain Breath

Pretzel Breath

Feeling Buddies are such a sweet way to learn how to self regulate. The kids learn what the different expressions are and then comfort their feeling buddy. By learning how to soothe their feeling buddy, they are learning how to self soothe and process their own big feelings.

Sensory activities are another way to de-stress and help process more complex emotions. The kids loved measuring out and mixing together all the ingredients for this spice sensory bin.

Sensory water beads are super fun and very calming too.

Calming Bears - we mixed water beads and water in empty honey bear bottles! Shake them up and down, then take deep breaths while watching the balls settle.

Kindness bracelets - make a bracelet to give to your friend!

Kindness Jar - a fun way to acknowledge and celebrate kindness is to keep a kindness jar. Any time someone notices another person being kind they put a pompom in the jar - when the jar is full we celebrate with a kindness party!

We made special cookies and had a dance party to celebrate!

Valentine's play-dough

Heart rock puzzle - how many rocks do you think will fit in the heart?

Heart valentines

We love our new microscope! We looked at plant cells and earthworms!!

Floating objects

Heavy lifting!

It's broccoli season!!

Double Chocolate Muffins - really moist, nutritious, and sugar free!

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 tablespoon liquid stevia (equals 1 cup sugar)
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder 
• 1/4 cup stevia sweetened chocolate chips
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a mini muffin pan with coconut oil. 
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. One by one, whisk in the butter, stevia, vanilla, and milk.
• Whisk in the coconut flour, then chocolate chips, then the cocoa powder. Finally, whisk in the salt and the baking soda.
• Using 2 spoons, divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin pan.
• Bake until set and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 15 - 18 minutes.
• Cool the muffins 10 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack, then cool directly on the cooling rack until completely cool, about 30 more minutes. The muffins taste much better when they’ve had a chance to cool and set.

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

• Ingredients
  • 1 cup almond butter
  • 1/3 cup raw honey
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp pure baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together the almond butter, honey, egg, coconut oil, and vanilla. Stir in the cocoa powder and baking soda.
2. Pour the batter into a 9-inch baking pan. Bake for 20-23 minutes, until the brownie is done, but still soft in the middle.

See you next time!

Kids LOVE to play house! As we observed the kids' natural play and interests, a hands-on literacy theme emerged through art projects, oral storytelling, block building, dramatic play, classic fairy tales, cultural and global learning, songwriting, yoga storytelling and more! ​

​Hands-on language arts experiences provide a deeper meaning to words and bring a presence of aliveness to literacy. Research shows that when children are engaged in activities that include many senses it activates multiple areas of the brain and they are more likely to integrate and retain information. 

We are very inspired by the work of Howard Gardner and his Multiple Intelligences Theory. These 9 types of intelligences are doorways into learning. Check out Gardner's diagram below and how it reflects in our projects this month, which lay the foundation of higher order thinking and create a living literacy that touches the children holistically - emotionally, cognitively, and kinesthetically.

Can you make a picture of your house?
What does your house look like?
What shapes are in your house?
What colors are your house?
What materials are your house made of?

Learning to write our names is a springboard for literacy learning!

Tape-resist houses

​Geoboard houses

Making cube and pyramid houses with play-dough and popsicle sticks...

... or thinking outside the box and making a new unique design!

Lincoln Log houses

Sand castle houses - sand  is a wonderful sensory medium to build and create with!

Big block houses

Cardboard boxes, blankets, and scarfs make a fun house fort!

We didn't use a book for the classic fairy tale of the Three Little Pigs this time - instead we enjoyed listening to the story with words alone. This engages the imagination and helps to build the auditory processing system.

After hearing the story the kids created the different houses from the story with play dough, rocks, straw, and sticks with pig puppets. 

We made fairy houses and then played "Pass the Story" an interactive group storytelling game in which one person starts a story and then passes the story to the next person in the circle to continue it.

(Check out the young reader in the book nook below!)

Roxaboxen is a classic and true story of some very imaginative children who create whole worlds out of what they find around  them - mostly rocks and boxes.

The ACG kids created their own world too with rocks and boxes! They created toy stores, ice cream shops, a doctor's office, and a neighborhood of homes.

Welcome to Main St in Box Town with chocolate ice cream for sale, a pet store, and grandma's house!

We read some great books about different kinds of houses around the world and then made model houses out of similar materials:

Mud 'adobe' houses in Mexico!

Thatched roofs in Brazil!

Garden houses in Indonesia!

Apartment buildings in Hong Kong!

As the kids created buildings and apartments, then cities followed... we talked about different characters that might live there and made up stories about big city life!

We created our own cardboard city!`The older kids loved using the hot glue gun to create a whole skyline out of painted recycled cardboard shapes.

Our storytelling continued through telling stories about our homes and families with songwriting and a thumb piano. The kids had so much fun with this!

Once upon a time in the jungle - a yoga storytelling adventure - in English and Spanish!

Such a sweet gentle scene of children playing house, preparing tea and food, and serving each other in one of our house play areas:

This month we did lots of experiments, one of our favorites was an actual volcano eruption in the sandbox!

Broccoli is bountiful right now!

Red chard!
​"I like it!"

Lemon balm is a favorite herb with the kids.

It's asparagus season! We had some first time tasters :)

Wet ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2-3 bananas)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or coconut milk)
• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
• ¼ cup creamy natural almond butter (or sub cashew butter or peanut butter)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:

• 1 cup fine blanched almond flour (or hazelnut flour)
• ¼ cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a mini muffin tin with 9 muffin with coconut oil cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together mashed banana, almond milk, flaxseed meal, almond butter, coconut oil and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well combined. Scoop batter evenly into the muffin pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

See you next time!

​     Children are natural scientists and mathematicians, simply learning as they move through and explore their world. In fact, research shows that early introduction of structured math lessons can interfere with proper brain and concept development. Nature and play-based childhood environments are rich with opportunities for developing knowledge of math concepts! These concepts are accumulated and constructed through the child's own experiences and physical understanding of the world. This knowledge develops through the manipulation of tangible materials, including the children's physical bodies, collection of 'data,' and organization of that 'data' in a way that makes sense. 

     Here are some simple ways to help children develop math concepts through natural play! See throughout our blog how we used some of these play-based, open-ended provocations and art activities at our school this month. 

Sorting and classifying - Sorting laundry, buttons, seeds, carrots from potatoes, spoons from forks, or toy cars from trucks. Grouping objects by color, use, or size. Collecting autumn leaves, stones, or seashells.

Comparing - "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" or "The Three Bears". Which item is bigger or taller than...? Smaller or shorter? Is this heavy or light? Finding differences in color, taste, smell, or temperature. Speech variation in storytelling or nursery rhymes. Does an object sink or float? Which is loud and which is quiet? Hard or soft? The contrast of rest and movement can become the foundation for music!

Counting - How many carrots do we need so that each rabbit will get one? How many pretzels are on the plate? Singing songs such as "Five Little Ducks", "This Old Man", or "Baa Baa Black Sheep". Verses such as “1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive”, “I Have Ten Little Fingers”, or “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”.

Parts and Wholes - Slicing a loaf of bread, cutting apples in half, chopping vegetables for meals, cutting pizza into slices. Playing the game "The Farmer In The Dell" in which part of the group goes into the center and part stays in an outside circle. Activities such as peeling potatoes, cookies, grinding wheat, rolling oats, or acting out stories.

Language - Communication during work or play, describing ideas or observations, and naming activities. Using cooperative-play discussions among children. Telling stories, verses, or nursery rhymes.

Ordering, Seriation, and Patterning - Singing daily, weekly, or yearly rhythms. Seasonal festivals. Circle games! Story-telling, poetry, or verses using the rhythm of language. Using rhythmic clapping. During play, lining up cars, blocks, or trains in order of size, color, or weight. Stacking toys. Putting toys away into their places after playtime. Experimenting freely with materials to create a pattern such as tissue-paper 'stained glass' or stringing beads. 

Informal Measurement: Weight, Length, Temperature, Volume, Time, Sequence - Measuring ingredients for cooking and baking. Filling the bird feeder or pouring tea. Making growth charts. Is it hot or cold outside? Digging in sand and filling buckets. Pouring water at a water table or in the bath. Playing on a teeter-totter or using a balance scale. Who or what is heavier? Planting seeds and watching the seedlings grow. Dipping candles or ironing. Sequential stories and nursery rhymes such as “The Gingerbread Boy”, “Hickory Dickory Dock”, “Little Louse and Little Flea”, “Henny Penny”, “Jack and Jill”, “Little Jack Horner”, or “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”.

Graphing - Using a daily chore lists. Creating growth charts. Using a advent or birthday calendar. Making pictorial 'graphs', such as drawing pictures of what came to the bird feeder today.


For older children, consider these:

Number Symbols - Practicing recognizing number symbols. Using numerals to represent the amount of a group of things. "I am 6 years old." or "My phone number is...."

Groups and Symbols - Matching a symbol to a group or a group to a symbol. Playing with fake money or using a group of objects to represent 'money'. Pretend shopping, 'buying' things based on 'price'. In a sandbox, creating a 'birthday cake', putting 6 'candles' on it, or perhaps even writing '6' on it.

Concrete Addition and Subtraction - A child has 2 seashells and finds 2 more - 2 and 2 make 4. Giving away 2 seashells to a friend leaves 2. Using 'bartering' play. Handing out party favors to friends at a party. Collecting and using tokens in a game.

Each day at Austin Children's Garden, the wheel is 're-invented', in multiple ways. All physical laws are worked with unconsciously in play, as children test and discover new ways of working with the physical world around them. It  is an exciting and innovative 'flow'  environment, where every idea is 'possible' and each child is an inventor. The enormous 'research' of early childhood in play and movement forms the essential physical basis for math and science.

For a wealth of scientific research on these concepts check out Developmental Signatures.

How many dots can you fit on your popsicle stick?

How many dots do we count on the dice?

Counting match-up puzzles

Counting with play-do

Bracelet making with color patterns

Design your own pattern!

We can even see patterns in nature!

Who takes more blocks to trace? Who takes less?

Who is taller?

Which is longest?

Matchstick shapes - what shapes can we make with putting straight lines together?

Shape collages

Drawing and painting shapes

Shape puzzles

Rectangles!

Circles!

Triangles!

Squares!

First, we make the shapes using our hand or cookie cutters.

Next, we press the shapes onto the candle.

Finally, we melt the shapes on using warm air.

Ta-da!!

Beeswax candles make beautiful gifts!

First we fold a coffee filter in half....

Next, we cut out geometric shapes and unfold to see what happens.

Finally, we paint our snowflakes!

Ta-da!!

"I made a triangle!"

Sculpture building - inside and out!

Counting with music

Did you know that our body has 13 MILLION cells in it? Here's a great yoga song to sing about our Every Little Cell! Check out the moves on this link to practice at home.

These cookies were a hit at our Winter Potluck! Such a nutritious and fun way to explore measuring, counting, volume...

Mix together:

1 and 1/4 cups almond flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons softened butter
1/3 cup almond butter (no salt)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup raisins

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until edges look golden.

See you next time!

"Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” - ​AA Milne, Winnie the Pooh

There ​are many studies that show the benefits of incorporating a gratitude practice into children's lives (and their caretakers!). Scientific research shows that people who make noticing, feeling, and expressing gratitude a part of their daily routine experience many helpful results: improved emotional intelligence, better sleep, high self esteem, positive mental health, healthier relationships, and a stronger immune system to name a few.

Here are 7 tips to help develop a healthy gratitude practice in your family:

Modeling Gratitude - By noticing, appreciating, and using descriptive language to express what we feel grateful for we are helping to create fertile ground for gratitude to flourish. As teachers we are very aware to model gratitude by noticing and appreciating the little humans around us as well as our environment and the wonders of the natural world. By using vivid descriptive language that emphasizes the positive we are supporting a rich vocabulary and reinforcing that the world is a good place. What you focus on grows.

Gratitude Rituals - At ACG we incorporate daily rituals that focus on gratitude. We sing a gratitude song before we eat together and share what we are grateful for while we are eating. At the end of our day.we share something that we especially liked about our day. We also have a kindness jar that the children or teachers add pom poms to when we notice another child being helpful or kind. At home families can express gratitude at dinner or before bedtime. Writing thank you cards is a wonderful gratitude activity - even younger kids can make a drawing and learn the art of expressing thanks.

Gratitude Games - Make gratitude fun and play games that reinforce an attitude of gratitude - see some of our examples below.

Gratitude Journals - Keeping a gratitude journal is a powerful tool to create more awareness of our blessings and express gratitude - below we have detailed suggestions on ways to keep a gratitude journal with children.

Being Helpful and Making a Contribution - Involving children in the work that goes into daily living helps them to better understand why gratitude is important. At home young children can:

• Set and clear the table.
• Dust the furniture.
• Feed pets.
• Pick up toys.
• Help to cook meals.
• Carry in some groceries.
• Mop areas with help.

At ACG the children help to take care of our garden, tidy up our environment, and prepare healthy food together. We love to see their self esteem blossom as they make a contribution.

Read Books About Gratitude - Kids learn so much from stories and picture books. Selecting books that focus on expressing thanks helps to support a thriving gratitude practice. We love "The Thank You Book" by Mo Willems, "All the World" by Liz Garton Scanlon, and "Bear Says Thanks" by Karma Wilson.

Saying "No" Sometimes - By resisting the urge to give children everything they want all the time or everything we wanted when we were children we avoid creating a sense of entitlement and teach our children to appreciate the times we say "yes".

Here  are some fun ways we practiced gratitude at ACG this month:

A classic dice game with a gratitude twist. When kids actually help to make the game they are even more excited to play it!

​Say What You Love is another fun gratitude game we often play together to inspire  kids  to focus on what they are grateful for - some kids will get really enthusiastic with their heartfelt appreciation: " I love ice cream! I love the moon! I love dragons! I love coloring! I love my toys! I love hugs! I love swimming..." Their joyful expression is contagious!

Older children may enjoy a journal with written prompts. My son and I really enjoy doing this Thankful Unicorn journal before bed. It only takes us 5 minutes and it is such a sweet bonding activity to do it together :)

This soup is perfect for the chilly weather and a great way to consider what goes into the food we eat. So much to be grateful for!

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, chopped 1/2 moons
• 1 delicata squash, de-seeded, chopped small cubes
• 1 sweet potato chopped small triangles
• 1 purple turnip, chopped small cubes
• 2 cups collards, chopped bite size
• 1 cup dinosaur kale, chopped bite size
• 1 cup sorrell, chopped bite size
• 1 handful rosemary, chopped fine
• 1 handful parsley, chopped fine
• 1 handful sage, chopped fine
• 2 TBS coconut oil
• Salt  to taste

Instructions:
Sauté the root veggies and half of the fresh herbs with a pinch of salt until their fragrance is released. Add the greens, another pinch of salt, and add water just to cover the veggies. Bring to a boil, then cook on a  low simmer for about 20 minutes until all the veggies are tender. Add salt to taste and garnish with the other half of the fresh herbs.

When encouraging the kids to eat new vegetables we love to ask them questions to help them feel more friendly with new foods:

• Can you see any of the vegetables we picked from the garden?
• Can you smell any of the herbs from the garden?
• Do you see any shapes in the soup?
• What happened to the color of the purple turnips?
• Taste your soup, would you like to add more salt or fresh herbs?

Before we eat together we love to sing our gratitude song together:

Give thanks to the mother earth
Give thanks to the father sun
Give thanks to the plants in the garden
Give thanks to the plants in the garden
Where the mother and father are one

(A big thanks to the Welch-Curry family for sharing this with us many years ago! With four kids they have been the longest attending family at ACG!)

This sweet poem with simple yoga poses inspires gratitude for our earth and each other.
​
I bow to mother earth
I lift to father sky
I open to the sun and the clouds passing by
I welcome the rain that flows to the sea
I honor the kindness in you and in me

One of the kids favorite parts of yoga class is to do "make up pose". Here the kids are creating a pose to express something in nature they are really grateful for. We had "rainbow", "growing  tree", and "butterfly" to name a few.

​To make our Thankful Pumpkin we took turns writing or drawing what we are thankful for on the pumpkin. It makes a great centerpiece for the dining table!

Pumpkin Hammering and Smashing!! Pumpkins are the perfect consistency to learn hammering skills and SO FUN to smash!

Pumpkin Drumming! Such a great way to learn new rhythms and easy on the ear while still making a satisfying sound :)

A HUGE thank you to all the families who donated pumpkins for us to play with!

Roasted pumpkin seeds

Play-dough bugs

Clay bugs

Drawing bugs

Beeswax bugs

 We have been planting wildflower seeds in our Wildlife Habitat Garden!

We are raising funds to help complete our Wildlife Habitat Community Garden! We would love for the wildlife garden to be a thriving learning center for the families at ACG with hand painted educational signs, insect hotels, a water fountain, more native plants as well as provide a community space for families to enjoy with a picnic table and some benches for enjoying the different areas. We will be installing a grey water irrigation system that will reuse water to help the plants thrive all year in a sustainable way. Please consider making a contribution to make this space a wonderful addition to our program on our GoFundMe page.
​

See you next time!

This Fall our whole community (teachers, kids, parents, and neighbors!) have come together to help create a new learning center for ACG - a Wildlife Habitat Garden!

Here's how we keep our garden ready for wildlife:
​

• ​Provide water year-round - A birdbath is a great start. It can be a simple one, or a decorative one to go with the landscape in your backyard.  Change the water every 2-3 days in the summer and in winter. Place the birdbath about 10 feet from dense shrubs or other cover that predators may use.
• Install native plants - Select a variety of native plants to offer year-round food in the form of seeds, berries, nuts, and nectar. Try to recreate the plant ecosystem native to our area. Evergreen trees and shrubs provide excellent cover through all seasons, if they are part of your local ecosystem. 
• Keep dead trees - Dead trees provide cavity-dwelling places for birds to raise their young and as a source to collect insects for food. Many birds will also seek shelter from bad weather inside these hollowed out trees.
• Put out birdhouses / nesting boxes - Make sure the birdhouses have ventilation holes at the top and drainage holes below. Do not use a box with a perch, as house sparrows are known to sit on a nesting box perch and peck at other birds using the nesting box. Be sure to monitor the boxes for invasive animal species known to harm or out-compete native species.
• Build a brush pile in a corner of your yard - Start with larger logs and top with smaller branches. Some birds will hunt, roost or even nest in brush piles.
• Offer food in feeders - Bird feeders are a great sources of supplemental food during times of food scarcity, and also enhance bird viewing opportunities by bringing them to one spot.

While we waited for the weather to cool off to begin planting we started by focusing on birds and asking the kids a lot of questions:

What kinds of birds live in our area?
What do they need to survive? 
Where do they sleep?
What kind of food do they eat?
What can we do to attract them to our gardens?

They had a lot of thoughts in this and were eager to learn more. Check out a few of our projects:

Pumpkin Birdfeeders

Woodworking Birdfeeders

Collaborative Hummingbird Art

Hummingbird Puzzles

Birdhouses

Nests

In our hummingbird garden we planted Red Yucca, Turks Cap, Flame Acanthus, Columbines, and lots of Salvias.

We did our fun Halloween Yoga Adventure! Check out our previous blog to learn more (scroll to  the end for yoga poses!): The Many Benefits of Nature Based Learning

It's baking season y'all! These blueberry muffins were delish!

Ingredients:

• 2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup coconut yogurt
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons chopped pecans
• 1 TBS coconut sugar
• 1 cup blueberries berries fresh or frozen

Instructions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 and grease a mini muffin pan with coconut oil
• Beat together eggs, honey, coconut oil, vanilla, and lemon zest over medium speed until combined.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
• Slowly add the almond flour mixture into the wet mixture.
• Gently fold in the berries.
• Scoop mixture evenly into muffin pan and top with chopped pecans mixed with coconut sugar.
• Bake for 25 minutes then let cool on cooling rack.

In a heavy bottom pan mix together 4 cups coconut milk, 2 TBS of xylitol sweetener, 1/2 tsp  vanilla, 10 drops vanilla stevia. Heat and stir until warm and throroughly dissolved!

​Magic Wands at the MakerSpace

Halloween Scratchers

Halloween Kids Night

Halloween Potluck

See you next time!

Rudolph Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, believes humans have twelve senses, not just the 5 physical senses we all learned in school. Steiner believed children should be taught in three realms, "heart, hands, and head" and that experiences in school should allow for movement, moral development, and academic altogether. 

His goal is to help children develop four powers in a child, "strong will, rich feeling, creative imagination, and clear thinking" and the  way to do this in early childhood is through PLAY and accessing all 12 senses through rich experiences.

WILL senses (physical body)
Touch, Life, Movement, Balance

At Austin Childrens Garden, children are climbing, pushing, pulling, chasing, hopping in our outdoor play spaces. They're often barefoot, which provides a grounding to the earth or they're feeling the soil, clay, plant-life and natural materials in their hands. Being outdoors connected with nature exposes them to natural elements of climate, seasons, weather, and time (sun/shade).  

FEELING senses (soul senses)
Smell, Taste, Sight, Warmth

Children are naturally drawn to warmth and are more engaged in play when they're warm. This helps them access the deeper part of self in relation to the world around them. In addition, hugging the bunny, a friend, or a cloth doll develops the warmth of connecting to others. We reach the olfactory senses through nature play, essential oils, gardening, and cooking WITH the children. Our garden shades and art used in the program provide exploration of color, which Steiner believed stimulated imagination and lifted the mood. 

COGNITIVE Senses (spiritual/social)
Hearing, Speech, Another's thought, Another's "I"

Ironically, early childhood programs that focus solely on academic development often fail to develop the senses that later benefit a child's success in school. By following the child's lead in learning, encouraging peer relation, empathy, group play, and problem solving, we're developing aspects of self that allow children to take on another's perspective. Being able to think outside the box and outside the self creates thinkers, not just learners. 

A child is a unique being with a physical self, but also a spiritual self and emotional self. Rich sensory experiences and play help develop all parts of self to best prepare child for success and welcome the gifts they have to share with the world. 

Written by Chelsea Vail, ACG parent, Parent Educator and Teacher Trainer

Here are some insights to the rhythm of our days and some of the fun learning we get up to - can you see these 12 senses developing as we learn and play?

We love collaborative art projects!

The kids love the new makerspace to explore and create with!

We had a new teacher show us how to make fortune tellers on Waldorf Wednesday - introducing Mr Liam! 

Check out our previous blog on Emotional Intelligence to learn how we practice these skills for emotional growth and self regulation.

To learn more about the how and the why to the flow of our day visit our blog Learning with Rhythm.

Banana-dogs!

Spread almond butter on half a tortilla. Peel half a banana and roll up the banana in the tortilla. Eat whole or have an adult slice into circles.

See you next time!

We love our cooking classes at ACG! For more tips on how and why to cook with your kids please see our previous blog : The Top 10 Benefits of Cooking with Kids

It has been a long hot spell in Austin this year - here are some of our favorite recipes to help stay cool during the Texas heat!

In a high powered blender mix together until smooth:

4 frozen ripe bananas
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup almond butter
5 drops vanilla stevia

This one was so fresh and colorful. The chia seeds add protein and omega 3's!

In an ice ream maker combine

• 3 cups frozen strawberries
• 2 cans full fat coconut milk 
• 1 TBS chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup or a few drops vanilla stevia (optional)

​Follow instructions on ice cream maker and watch the magic as the mixture turns into a pretty pink sorbet. Garnish with fresh strawberries.

The kids love all the lemon balm growing in the garden! We made these tasty popsicles together - so fun and easy to make.

Step 1:

Pick some fresh lemon balm and release the refreshing and uplifting aroma by rolling the leaves in your plams.

Step 2:

​Squeeze 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice.

Step 3:

Combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 2 cups water, 1 TBS fresh chopped lemon balm, and liquid stevia to taste.

Step 4:

Pour into popsicle mold and freeze until solid.

We love these popsicle molds made by Zoku. Perfect size for littles and pop out easy every time!

The kids loved growing and harvesting the lemon balm so much we sewed our own lemon balm dream pillows.

To practice our sewing skills we love using these simple circles with burlap and yarn.

Once we learned some basic stitches we made these lovely herbal pillows with fresh lemon balm from the garden.

Sweet Friends!

See you next time!