Michaelmas in our nursery

 

I can belong now to myself
  And shining spread my inner light
  Into the dark of space and time.
  Toward sleep is urging all creation,
  But inmost soul must stay awake
  And carry wakefully sun's glowing
  Into the winter's icy flowing.

~R. Steiner The Calendar of the Soul

 

In listening to the changing language of the year, we can rediscover our individual nature...

~R. Steiner

Michaelmas takes a quiet seat here in our nursery. I am most definitely feeling the mood of this time of year....and I'm trying to remain brave and steadfast. Sometimes it is not easy.

I'm seeing more and more that people are placed into my life for good reason...to teach me something, to show me another way of looking at a difficult situation. 

There were a few different activities I thought about exploring for a nursery age appropriate Michaelmas celebration, but in the end, I needed to keep it very simple and familiar. Our group of 9 is still in the realm of getting to know each other, the rhythm, the environment, etc. I felt like it was still too soon to do something not true to our day.

Hold on, I'm not a slave to our rhythm...but it really does need to carry us through these next few fragile weeks together. I can see it as I change our usual colored cloth on a sofa and someone notices and becomes upset.....or I substitute our usual handwashing song for a rainy day tune...and I'm met with several protests ("Miss Rebecca, what is that? We don't sing that right now!!")

We wet felted balls for 2 days while down at the park. They became falling stars as we attached ribbons to them.....

 

It was a rainy day as we watched the brown leaves fall to the soggy ground.

 

 

The world around us is changing; even the usual busy bees we watch every day have slowed to nearly a halt.

I told a simple story of St. Michael and the star children...the children truly seemed to love it.

Each child was touched by Michael's shining sword at the conclusion by the words "(child's name) is a kind and good friend".

I'd love to hear how you celebrated this day with young children. It is sometimes a good challenge to bring just enough to them; to not explain, but rather to do and feel.