Seasons & Calendar
Seasons & Calendar
For children, a calendar is abstract, but the seasons are experienced. The days of the week are abstract, but colors and grains are relatable. In Waldorf education, in the younger years, colors, grains, and other representations of the calendar or seasons are used to help children find rhythm and routine.
Often, small peg dolls will be used to represent days, seasons, or weather. For example, the children might go outdoors to observe the weather. They may notice it is sunny or rainy or cloudy. They can return indoors and choose the peg doll that coordinates with the weather. And this way, the first abstract to real object is used as a representation of a natural phenomenon.
This practice continues in Waldorf education throughout the grades for different concepts. It’s always rooted in experience and in something the child can sense.
Here you will find a series of post that include videos and photos on different peg dolls we have used to represent the weather, the seasons, or the calendar. While these were enjoyable to make and to use, I honestly don’t think they served an educational purpose. Instead, they were beautiful and interactive, but the jump from abstract to reality was never fully achieved. Using a peg doll to show that it is cloudy outside is a little value if the child is not outside experiencing what cloudy weather is like. And furthermore, if the child has experienced cloudy weather, what need do they have to use a peg doll to represent it once they are indoors.
Despite this realization, if I were to do it all over again, I probably would still have these beautiful tools in our homeschool or classroom, as the aesthetic and the care related to these items serves a greater educational purpose through their example rather than through their necessity.
Calendar & Seasonal
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Seasonal Peg Dolls
These adorable peg dolls represent the seasons. We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one.
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Four Seasons Mini Peg Dolls Tutorial
This is a super cute and fairly easy four seasons mini peg dolls tutorial. We made these super fast and they were easier than the original set of four season peg dolls.
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Days of the Week Peg Dolls
This has to be the cutest way to learn the days of the week. These little peg doll gnomes are easy to make, especially if you don't complicate the process as I did! I'll tell you how I did this project with my daughter, and I'll also tell you some shortcuts you take to make this project faster, but just as cute.
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31 Mini Peg Dolls | How to Make Calendar Peg Dolls
Invasion of the mini gnomes has begun! Brace yourself for this cuteness. These 31 calendar mini peg dolls are for our homeschool calendar. These small peg dolls were easy to transform into gnomes. I painted the peg doll with Lyra watercolors and twisted a triangular shaped piece of wool felt into a gnome hat. I love the colors and they look darling on our homeschool room window sill.
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Months of the Year | Peg Doll Tutorial
These Months of the Year . We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons. Each morning the kids look forward to changing the day. They can also use these with our weather gnomes we made last year.
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Phases of The Moon Peg Doll
These are probably the cutest peg dolls I've ever made! I actually made a complete lunar phase set to last an entire month! Granted it did get a little tedious and some crescents and moons look awfully similar to one another, but we got a complete set! Now we can track the lunar cycle with these adorable moon phase peg dolls.
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Ramadan Calendar Tutorial
Making a Ramadan Calendar for you and your kids is a great way to track this blessed month. There are so many different ways to do it, and this is just one color, crafty method.
How to Make Seasonal Peg Dolls
These adorable peg dolls represent the seasons. We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons. Each morning the kids look forward to changing the day. They can also use these with our weather gnomes we made last year.
All the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.
Four Seasons Mini Peg Dolls Tutorial
This is a super cute and fairly easy four seasons mini peg dolls tutorial. We made these super fast and they were easier than the original set of four season peg dolls which you can see here.
These adorable peg dolls represent the seasons. We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons. Each morning the kids look forward to changing the day. They can also use these with our weather gnomes we made last year.
All the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.
Days of the Week Peg Dolls
This has to be the cutest way to learn the days of the week. These little peg doll gnomes are easy to make, especially if you don't complicate the process as I did! I'll tell you how I did this project with my daughter, and I'll also tell you some shortcuts you take to make this project faster, but just as cute.
I used the Autumn Holland felt pack which I love and will be using in several upcoming projects.
The Lyra watercolor paints and embroidery thread are also from A Child's Dream.
I also used Heidi Swapp Color Shine in peach, red/pink, purple, green, blue and red.
For the extra shimmer, I used Perfect Pearls. You can also use the shimmer powders in Color Lab by Marion Smith
Sadly, this product is no longer available.
The Days of the Week gnomes are displayed on a piece of wood from Tree Blocks or Tree Blocks Math set.
For other tutorials check here.
Nearly all the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.
How to Make Calendar Peg Dolls
Invasion of the mini gnomes has begun! Brace yourself for this cuteness. These 31 calendar mini peg dolls are for our homeschool calendar. These small peg dolls were easy to transform into gnomes. I painted the peg doll with Lyra watercolors and twisted a triangular shaped piece of wool felt into a gnome hat. I love the colors and they look darling on our homeschool room window sill.
You can find the materials I used at A Child's Dream:
Small peg dolls, Holland felt, Lyra watercolors
A Child's Dream no longer carries Lyra.
Once the peg dolls were dry, I added a coat of shimmer using Color Lab shimmer powders.
Sadly, this product is no longer available.
You can also use Perfect Pearls as well. You can mix it with water or mix it into paint.
Check out the other calendar peg doll tutorials.
Months of the Year
These Months of the Year . We use them with our calendar peg dolls. Each day, the kids replace the day of the week and day of the month peg dolls. And each month and each season they replace another one. It's a fun way to keep track of the days, months and seasons. Each morning the kids look forward to changing the day. They can also use these with our weather gnomes we made last year.
Season Peg Dolls, Days of the Week peg dolls.
Nearly all the materials for these peg dolls can be found at A Child’s Dream.
Phases of The Moon Peg Doll
These are probably the cutest peg dolls I’ve ever made! Don’t be deceived by the thumbnail, I actually made a complete lunar phase set to last an entire month! Granted it did get a little tedious and some crescents and moons look awfully similar to one another, but we got a complete set! Now we can track the lunar cycle with these adorable moon phase peg dolls. Of course my 7-year-old will be playing with them, too.
I plan to put each peg doll into our Ramadan calendar for this year and each day we can remove the peg doll and display it on a wooden plaque.
Project details:
Duration: 5+ hours
Level: advanced (young children could do the base color, but details were challenging)
Cost: $20+
Direction: First I painted all the small peg dolls with a coat of blue from our Lyra Watercolor set. Once they were dry, I gave them all a coat of Mr. Huey’s Shine for a bit of shimmer. Before painting the phases of the moon, I polished each one with Beeswax Polish. Finally, I used the white opaque paint that comes with the Lyra watercolors set to paint the phases of the moon. I watered it down until it was smooth and easy to paint and I used a stiff, yet soft bristled pointed brush for best results. While the peg dolls dried, I worked on the wooden plaque. I watercolored it with various shades of blue and white opaque paint. I added Mr. Huey’s shine and let it dry thoroughly before added beeswax polish. Then I painted the faces and hair for each doll varying the hair color, but making all them with sleepy faces. To make the sleepy eyes, just draw two half circles. The circles should be stretched like ovals and should be midway down the face. I used a felt tip marker for most, but you can also use the black paint. For the mouth, I used a magenta colored Sharpie, but red paint for be just fine. I just dotted a little mouth. For the little caps, I cut an elongated semi-circle out of 100% wool felt in various shades of blue. It was a little trial and error till I got the size I wanted with no extra felt hanging over the sides or back. I used hot glue to adhere it to the completely dry peg dolls.
Ramadan Calendar Tutorial
Making a Ramadan Calendar for you and your kids is a great way to track this blessed month. There are so many different ways to do it, and this is just one color, crafty method.
You can find our Ramadan Sahaba inserts here.
Find the Ramadan Inserts and other Ramadan projects here:
In the Shop.
Today's project is a Ramadan Calendar using 100% wool felt from A Child’s Dream.
We used the Holland wool variety pack of 12"X12" squares for the pockets of the calendar cutting them down to 2.75"X2.5"and the Premium all-wool pre-cut 18"X18" squares for the backing of the calendar.
As the video cut out before the project was completed, I don't show how the calendar was hung. I purchased a 1/8" or 1/4" dowel from Michaels and cut it down to about 19 inches. I sewed a casing for it and fitting the dowel through it. I strung twine from the ends of the dowels and hung it on the wall using a Command hook.
I used the Silhouette Cameo program and cutting tool to design inserts for the calendar. For Ramadan 2014 we wrote in Sahaba stories into a fold out card insert with tabs that said "Day 1, Day 2, etc." For Ramadan 2015, we made "Make Dua For" inserts so we could keep track of the duaas we wanted to make during Ramadan.
The circular wood numbers were from Freckled Fawn and the individual numbers were from Craft Cuts.
Other wood veneer used (the stars near the title) was from Studio Calico.
Wood veneer that wasn't used but was shown was from the Recollections brand from Michaels.
Tombow Mono Aqua glue (blue label) was used to adhere the wood numbers to the felt.
Other tools needed for this project:
Sewing machine, pencil, ruler, scissors, straight pins and thread.