St. Patrick's Day and Easter in the Dell

We are decorating our Dell "nooks" to celebrate the upcoming holidays of St. Patrick's Day and Easter.  Fun!

Wilson found some beautiful Emerald stones at a new age store this week. They are at the feet of St. Patrick!  He was felted by Jen DiMonte and is available for purchase in her new Etsy shop: www.ancienthearth.etsy.com.

Lucy Leprechaun is happy to join St. Patrick when she has a chance.

Our Candlemas pictures are down, so we watercolored greens and yellows as backgrounds for our oil pastels of St. Patrick's symbols: clovers, rainbows and a pot o'gold!

The wood basket was a nifty-thrifty find at a Goodwill store.  We filled it with one of our naturally dyed velour fabric pieces, a crocheted nest that Joey made, and a felted bird from Mama Rose Wickler. The fairy flower garland on top is from last year's fairy swap with the Bits of Goodness yahoogroup.

Ricky's bowl that he made in ceramics class this month is the perfect color to hold a  baby chick in a basket, also felted by Jen D.

The kids' latest watercolor paintings serve as backgrounds in the nooks.  The three kids are taking Waldorf-inspired watercoloring, Eurythmy and handwork classes for homeschoolers: www.wholisticlearningresources.net.

Our winter nook is slowly changing from Winter to Spring....

Joey spun up some pink yarn for Valentine's Day.  Ricky crocheted it into a nice hanger for our Syrendell Academy sign.  Wilson learned how to crochet flowers this week out of his handspun yarn, so we added them to the sign.

Our Etsy shop is full of yarns, streamer sticks and sprites, perfect for the upcoming holidays.

Looking forward to reading stories, creating puppet shows and felting eggs! We can't wait to try the Ukrainian egg dyeing kit from Steiner College bookstore. A friend of ours is going to show us the technique next weekend.

The Dell - Where We Learn

Our homelearning space is known as the "Dell", short for Syrendell. In our new home, the Dell is located in our dining room. We utilize a bookcase and a table that Daddy made. The dining room opens up with two French doors to a large deck, so when the weather is great, the Dell includes the outdoor space.

We have an easel from Grandma and Grandpa that we cleaned up and refurbished with some new chalkboard paint. This is located on the deck where we often do our form drawing, letter and number formations. We also love doing yoga and circle time on the deck, so we recently added a rug and meditation pillow. Comfy!

The book case has nine "nooks" which rotate. One nook features a nature table.

The other nooks feature math, language arts, fiber arts, science, music and more. The lowest nooks contain blocks, bean bags and other items that are within easy reach for Wilson. Each nook has one of our naturally dyed silks, or one of our woven or crocheted runners. It's nice to feature items that the kids helped make!

A bunch of our naturally dyed silks in different shapes are rolled up in one of our handwoven baskets on the floor. The kids' artwork is displayed in branch picture frames, or on the windows of the doors, or as backgrounds in the nooks.

The kids work and Main Lesson Books are located in our file cabinet within easy reach, and the cabinet features a project that we doing on top (right now there is a bird's nest that we found this summer in a wood bowl). The bookcase also has three cabinets where we keep art supplies, science equipment, reference books, paper. Storage is important!

In one corner, we have a naturally dyed piece of velvet covering some of our supplies (looks like a table!). On top are the library and other books that relate to our social studies for the week, as well as some foreign language books. Sometimes there is a manipulative, such as the Tubespace polydedra that you see in this picture. Also in this corner is a wood container for the recent artwork, kite paper for making window stars, and watercolor paper. Underneath is a sheepskin, making it a nice place to read or play.

Other items, like spinning wheels, small chalkboards, math gnomes, molding beeswax, wood dishes with acorns in them, planters growing herbs, or hands-on projects might be found here and there both inside and out on the deck...it's always a challenge to keep it neat, creative, and usable! Our goal is to make the Dell a space that the kids can use, and easily reach everything that they need. We will redecorate and clean the nooks in about a week when we celebrate the coming of Autumn...

Our New Home - Syrendell

Syrendell has moved....just across town (still in Fair Oaks), to a fairy cottage by a creek. We are surrounded by grandiose trees, a bio-dynamic garden, wild berries and spiraling vines. Our magical home is in the midst of natural beauty...so much to inspire us as we learn, create and grow together a family this year.


We are still close to relatives, the kids' activities, and conveniences. The best of both worlds! Our neighbors are kind people who all have an affiliation with anthroposophy and/or Waldorf education. Sacramento Waldorf School, a park and bike path are around the corner. Steiner College is two blocks away. The American River is a few streets away. Time to start biking and rafting!

Our home is smaller than our past houses, and yet it feels just right. Funny how we think that as the family grows, we need more space! Well, we've had a large new home with a pool and big yard in the past and we loved it, but...this place is different. We are enjoying the closeness of each other, the simplicity of having fewer square feet to clean, and time to focus on homelearning, gardening and art.

Spiral Path in the Front Yard

Already, we are playing our instruments more, singing, and crafting! Good energy abounds.

Syrendell Sprites Crafted in our New Home

Our home has a large deck in the front and back which extends our living and learning areas. We've transformed the bookcase and dining room table Daddy made into a homelearning center, aka, the "Dell". Our new Dell has doors that lead out to the back porch, reminding us of the importance of spending time out of doors each day.

So....we haven't been blog posting or commenting as often this past week because of the move. Our Etsy orders have been a bit delayed. We should be back up to speed, soon. Although, it is awfully tempting to just sit on the deck and breathe in the jasmine...take a nap...dream....

The Dell

dell: n. A small secluded wooded valley. A vale.

Our homelearning space is known to us as the "dell". Because we call ourselves "Syrendell", dell is a nickname of sorts. The word "dell" brings up images of a beautiful, magical, wooded vale, full of fairies, sprites and gnomes!

We love our homelearning space...small, secluded and at times, full of wood! The changing seasons are honored by hanging colorful mobiles, and attaching window stars, mosaics or snowflakes to the glass. When the weather is warm, we open the sliding glass door and paint on the deck, extending the dell into the natural world.

We create a wreath for each season. The circle is woven out of wire by Ricky. All three children decide which type of leaf or other bits of nature to include in the wreath. We gather real leaves and make patterns to use later when we cut with felt. In the winter, holly berries are needlefelting. Spring is coming soon, and we will be needlefelting tiny eggs, birds and nests starting this week.

Our "Seasonal Spot" (aka, nature table) is a shelter built by Daddy with twigs from our backyard and reclaimed wood. A wooden tree puzzle shows us the season by the color of leaves (or lack of color). Our friend Gnomy likes to hang out in the Seasonal Spot. Seasonal fairies, finger puppet children, Syrendell Sprites, acorn families or other creatures often visit. Special stones, geodes, acorns, pine cones also can be found in the Seasonal Spot.

The dell features small chalkboards, a space for featuring books and projects that relate to the stories, holidays, S.S. block or science explorations of the week. Daddy's wood puzzles, wood stove, and tree blocks are found under a table, easy to reach for everyone! Our naturally-dyed silks, handmade crowns, play cloths and wooden clothespins are available whenever the mood strikes us. A large basket, full of percussion instruments sits near the foot of the dell, by the piano, as a nice transition space to wear we have our circle time.

Each person in the family has a frame on the wall made from twigs, featuring a watercolor, drawing, or crayon exploration. Baskets of crayons, finger puppets, geometric shapes and wool fibers with a drum carder, hand carders and needlefelters can be found throughout the dell.

We love the dell and try to tidy up when we can! It's our special place to learn, love and grow....