Simple toys from sheep's wool

Of course it all starts with the sheep! Thanks to our friends the Shafers at Three Creeks Farm in Charlotte, Tennessee, we have a nice big sack of raw wool in cream and brown from their beautiful Shetlands and Icelandics. After a little washing and picking out the sticks and leaves, it fluffs up into a warm, wooly cloud that can be poked and picked into a simple animal shape, using the barbed felting needle. My little guy who just turned four and loves to battle with the twin bears. I am deliberately keeping these really simple and soft, to allow his feeling and imagination free play.

Oil and chalk painting

This is a triple fun art activity that I learned about from my yahoo group Waldorf Home Educators. I call it triple fun because first your child gets to create a dry chalk drawing. Then they get to rub oil all over it. Finally they get to hang it in a window like the wax paper stars we put up at the new year. I offered the primaries but my three year old decided to work with only one color at a time.





Dry chalk painting...then rubbed with oil.