Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Waldorf Inspired Co-op Week 1

Friday was the first week of the Waldorf Inspired co-op I talked briefly about before. So far it is just my friend, her daughter, the girls and I. There are a couple of others interested in joining us, but my friend will be on vacation for a month with extended family and so we won't be starting up again til mid-October. Still, it was nice to try it out and the girls had so much fun.
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We began with the girls meeting our sheep, feeding them a snack and then we all sat down to read 'Pele's New Suit'. After the story I brought out some of the fleece I sheared a couple of months ago. We all passed it around and squished it, so, so soft.
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Then we got down to cleaning a bit of it.
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We let it soak in the hot, soapy water while we head outside to gather some things for dyeing.
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The girls picked yellow and purple flowers and some grass.
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We let it simmer for some time.... but then when we went to drain it, all the color drained out, too, but a bit of the yellow. This was my first attempt at plant dyeing so I'm not entirely sure where we went wrong. Perhaps I didn't add enough vinegar....
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But, never fear! You didn't think I don't have plenty of pre-dyed wool in my stash, did you? Of course I do. So we pulled that out and began making wool beads.
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A very soapy and wet mess but we all enjoyed this part the most.<span class=

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After we were finished we strung them on silk ribbons for the girls. They finished out our time together playing while we mamas talked a bit.

I have many ideas for when we start up again. I really can't wait to delve into it and get these others families involved. Do you do something like this? I would love to hear about your co-op.