Reels & Shorts
Enjoy a glimpse into our Waldorf-inspired homeschool kindergarten days through these short and sweet videos. In just a couple of minutes, you can experience the beauty of our daily rhythm, the joy of hands-on learning, and the wonder of childhood.
Reels & Shorts
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Kindergarten Day 1
Day 1 of homeschooling my triplet nephews for Kindergarten. My sister-in-law is the best! She’s on board with all the plans, even when I over plan we don’t get to everything. She’s perfectly supportive and honors my enthusiasm beautifully! Even when I make mistakes, she’s relaxed about the outcome which is such a relief as I navigate these truly fun years all over again. I have to say I’m equally excited about my 11-year-old nephew joining as well. Some of the most engaging projects are with him. I just don’t know how to split my time because we keep running out of time!
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Setting up our lesson for kindergarten today!
Welcome to our Thursday, August 27, 2026 Homeschool day! Today I am are working with my four year-old triplet nephews for our TK/kindergarten experience. We still have a lot of preparation to do like building our bookcase which I’m doing with my 10 year-old nephew and organizing and decorating our school space. Today we have a lot of “wet” activities and painting activities planned. We’re doing wet on a wet water coloring, a pumpkin. There’s a tutorial on my YouTube channel from years ago.
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What Waldorf KG Looks Like at Home | Day 3
Welcome to our Tuesday, September 1, 2026 Homeschool day! Today is a kindergarten day! I am homeschooling my triplet nephews who are four years old twice a week for two hours a day and I have to tell you it is not enough time! They are truly amazing students as they follow directions well, wait patiently for their return or tools and are fully engaged in our projects.
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Story Time | Day 3
This is the reality of my homeschool: I'm prepared in some ways and not prepared in other ways. How would I have been prepared for this story time? I would have memorized the story, practiced it ahead of time and had all the props ready. The reality? I didn't even open the book before reading it to the children for the first time; thankfully it turned out to be the perfect seasonal book for the fall.
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Waldorf Kindergarten Lesson Plan | Day 4
One of the things I love most about Waldorf kindergarten is that it simply reflects real life. There is no better place to experience that than in the home, surrounded by multiple generations working together. My four-year-old triplet nephews join me a few days each week for our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten, along with their 11-year-old brother. This week my mother is visiting, so she was able to join us as well.
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Waldorf Kindergarten | Wool Carding Day 5
Today we continued a project we started last week when the children cleaned and carded raw wool. We're using that wool to make wet felted balls. I prepared the cores ahead of time using leftover pieces of felt and yarn, and then the children wrapped their carded wool around them.
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Wet Felted Wool Balls | Day 6
Welcome to Day 6, September 9, 2026, of homeschooling my triplet nephews, who are four years old, using a Waldorf inspired kindergarten approach! We meet twice a week for two hours, and today we are working with wool to make wet felted balls.
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Watercoloring with Just Yellow | Day 7
Welcome to Day 7, September 10, 2026 of homeschooling my triplet nephews, who are four years old, using a Waldorf inspired kindergarten approach! Our little kindergarten space is coming together so beautifully. I have transformed our unused dining room into a cozy space where the children can play, explore, and participate in our daily activities.
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Preparing for Gardening | Day 8
Today we’re continuing some of the work we’ve started over the last few weeks. We saved seeds from our butternut and acorn squash, and I printed out drawings of the different vegetables for the children to watercolor. We’re also collecting more cherry tomato seeds and transplanting the seedlings they planted a few weeks ago, which have been growing so well. Since our front and backyard are being landscaped right now, we’re moving them into larger pots until we can eventually get them outside.
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No Academics Kindergarten | Day 8
We are continuing with our gardening projects, even though our backyard is currently being landscaped and we do not have an outdoor space available for planting. Instead, we are bringing our gardening activities indoors and working together at the kitchen table. I love that these experiences remind us that you do not need a backyard or a large garden to introduce young children to gardening.
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Fall Baking, Watercoloring & Gardening | Day 9
Our kitchen activity today was making a delicious apple crumble! My 15-year-old daughter led the children through this fall baking project, giving each child an opportunity to add ingredients, stir, and participate in preparing our snack. I love incorporating seasonal recipes into our homeschool days, especially the beautiful aromas of apples and warm spices that fill our kitchen during the fall.
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Developmentally Challenging Lessons | Day 10
The weaving was simply too advanced for the younger children at this scale. They were very intent on doing it correctly, and whenever they noticed a mistake, they became frustrated. The interesting thing is that the mistakes really would not have mattered. Their bags still could have turned out beautifully. But at four years old, following the over-under pattern on such a small loom required quite a bit of visual tracking, coordination, and concentration.
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Autumn Morning Basket
Our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten is beginning to feel so beautifully seasonal. I’m homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews, and one of the things I have been enjoying most is bringing out materials and projects that I haven’t used in so many years.
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The Fall Projects They Couldn’t Stop Talking About | Day 11
Fall is in full swing in our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten, and I am having so much fun bringing out seasonal projects and materials that I haven’t used since my own children were little. Today on Day 11, Thursday, September 24, 2026, the children become delightfully inspired by our Fall Basket.
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Peg Dolls, Pizza & Walnut Sailboats | Day 12
Day 12, Tuesday, September 29, 2026 of homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews for our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten was filled with simple seasonal projects, kitchen work, imaginative play, and a few unexpected activities that grew naturally out of what the children were interested in.
Waldorf Kindergarten | Day 1
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 | Day 1
Welcome to our first day of homeschooling kindergarten! I am homeschooling my triplet nephews, who are four years old, using a Waldorf inspired kindergarten approach. We have so many wonderful projects planned for this season, and I am excited to share our days together as we begin this new homeschool experience.
Our seasonal story is The Hedgehog Leaves Home, a beautiful book that will provide inspiration for many of our activities throughout the fall. I have also gathered some handmade puppets that I made previously, and they coordinate beautifully with the characters in the story. We will be using these little props as we bring the story to life throughout the season.
We began our day in the kitchen, preparing a simple snack of egg burritos. The children helped crack the eggs before we cooked them together. These everyday activities are such an important part of our kindergarten experience. Rather than creating activities specifically for young children, I want them to participate in the meaningful work that is already part of our daily lives.
After our snack, we headed into the garage to trim some rosemary that we will be using for natural plant dyeing later in the season. My 11-year-old nephew also joined us today, and together we prepared some cold brewed coffee that we will enjoy the next time we meet.
Meanwhile, the triplets spent some time exploring our kindergarten room, which is still very much a work in progress! I have been gathering some beautiful toys and materials, including a few wonderful Facebook Marketplace finds, and the children were excited to begin playing with them. Setting up our kindergarten space will be part of our work together this season, and I love that the children are already enjoying the little space we are creating for them.
Next, we headed back into the kitchen to make an apple pie! The children began by washing the apples before carefully cutting them into slices using real knives with supervision. We saved the apple seeds for another project that we have planned, allowing this simple food preparation activity to become part of our future gardening experiences.
The children squeezed fresh lemon juice into the bowl and explored the beautiful aromas of vanilla and cinnamon. Each child waited patiently for their turn to add the ingredients, and together we prepared our apple pie filling. We used a store-bought pie crust, but all of the filling was made together.
We did not get to enjoy our apple pie that day, but before our next kindergarten session, I prepared another pie using maple crystals instead of sugar, and the children really enjoyed it!
We also collected some tomato seeds that we will be planting during our next homeschool day. I love how these simple projects connect naturally with one another. The seeds we collect while preparing food become part of our gardening projects, and the plants we grow can eventually provide more opportunities for observation, food preparation, and meaningful work.
As our day began to wind down, we gathered together for our first storytelling experience with The Hedgehog Leaves Home. We only read a few pages, but the children were already so engaged with the story, especially the little handmade puppets that accompanied it.
For now, I am reading directly from the book so that we can enjoy the beautiful illustrations together. As we continue telling the same story throughout the season, I will eventually put the book aside and bring the story to the children orally. Repetition is such a beautiful part of the Waldorf kindergarten experience, allowing the children to become familiar with the characters, language, and rhythm of the story.
We ended our day with some free play before tidying up our space and getting ready to say goodbye.
Our first kindergarten day was filled with food preparation, gardening, imaginative play, storytelling, and meaningful work. I am looking forward to continuing these experiences with my nephews as we establish our rhythm and create a beautiful Waldorf inspired kindergarten experience together!
Setting up our lesson for kindergarten today!
Thursday, August 27, 2026 | Day 2
Today I’m setting up for another Waldorf-inspired kindergarten day with my four-year-old triplet nephews and their 10-year-old brother! We have so many wonderful activities planned, and I’m excited to share how I prepare our homeschool space before the children arrive.
The boys chose some plastic toys to play with during our last session, so I’ve set those up alongside our beautiful play silks and cotton fabrics. Yes, we’re still Waldorf-inspired, but we make amendments here and there to suit our family and the children’s interests. They also loved working with the workbench, so I’ve brought out all the tools for them to enjoy again.
In the kitchen, we have quite a few projects planned! My 10-year-old nephew will be helping me prepare our kitchen supplies, and our organic decaf cold brew coffee should be ready for us to enjoy. We made apple pie during our last session, but it had to go into the oven after the children left, so I’m baking another one for them to enjoy during snack time.
We’re also continuing to build and design our little bookcase, and I’ve been preparing some handmade props to accompany the story we started reading together. I already have a tiny ladybug, a mushroom, and a knitted hedgehog, but I still need to knit a little frog!
For our artistic activities, I’ve prepared a wet-on-wet watercolor painting of a pumpkin using just three colors. We’ll also be doing some wet felting and wool carding. I’ve made several cores for our felted wool balls using scraps of wool, felt, and yarn that I’ve been collecting over the years. It’s a wonderful way to put all those leftover materials to good use.
There are a few more painting projects I’d love to do, but I’ve clearly planned far too much for our two hours together! There is always so much I want to share with the children, and I’m looking forward to another beautiful day of imaginative play, practical work, and artistic activities in our homeschool.
From Garden to Guacamole
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 | Day 3
Welcome to our Tuesday, September 1, 2026 Homeschool day! Today is a kindergarten day! I am homeschooling my triplet nephews who are four years old twice a week for two hours a day and I have to tell you it is not enough time! They are truly amazing students as they follow directions well, wait patiently for their return or tools and are fully engaged in our projects. They love the project so much they don’t even come to play! I did set up a kindergarten space in our unused dining room and spent a portion of the summer collecting toys from Facebook marketplace. Occasionally, they enjoy playing with the toys, but as soon as they come into my home, they’re eager to start a project. This week my mother is staying with me and she brought seeds which inspired our gardening project for today. Gardening is a big theme in Waldorf kindergarten and while we don’t have our outdoor space yet as it’s been renovated, as soon as we do, we will be spending time outside in the garden. And that’s what that extra noise was in the background at this video, we were having some windows replaced and some construction in the backyard.
In addition to our project, we always try to include some kind of food preparation or snack as part of our lesson. Today we make guacamole and tortilla chips. Safety is always a concern when working with young children, and so no one was allowed near the stove while I was frying up tortilla chips, and as we have one adult per child, there are plenty of adults to supervise the children. I specifically wanted us to make a guacamole, not just as a snack but specifically because I wanted to keep the avocado pits and skins for a plant dye project. I have planned later on in the season.
Once the children were done with their project and their snack, they participated in the cleanup which included sweeping, sort of mopping, and wiping down the counters. We concluded our day with reading a couple more pages in the book “the hedgehog leaves home“. I have a number of props that I happen to already have that coordinate perfectly with a story and a few more that I need to make.
Two things I’ve learned about myself in this process is that I have terrible time management skills and I don’t say no to my nephews! My sister-in-law reminds me that I can’t say no to them as I am there aunt as well and they are so sweet and cute if they ask to take things home, I usually say yes! But this has provide some insight for me. Since they do enjoy taking something home after every class, I’m trying to incorporate that into our lesson. Even if my sister-in-law brings it back in the next class because they’ve already forgotten about it at least they have something that they can take home every time and that seems to mean a lot to them.
Circle Time
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 | Day 3
This is the reality of my homeschool: I'm prepared in some ways and not prepared in other ways. How would I have been prepared for this story time? I would have memorized the story, practiced it ahead of time and had all the props ready.
The reality? I didn't even open the book before reading it to the children for the first time; thankfully it turned out to be the perfect seasonal book for the fall. I didn't have any props ready except what I saw on the front cover: A hedgehog and a fly agaric mushroom, both I had made months or years prior; thankfully, I had many of the props in my homeschool room that naturally went with the story. I would have planned our time better, as we are consistently running out of time, the reality is I'm adjusting by just reading a couple pages each time we meet. Longterm, I'll memorize the story and retell portions with the props at ever close of our class until December (or sooner), when I switch the story. I liked this book so much, I bought the rest in the series for us to use throughout the year.
Waldorf Kindergarten Lesson Plan
Thursday, September 3, 2026 | Day 4
One of the things I love most about Waldorf kindergarten is that it simply reflects real life. There is no better place to experience that than in the home, surrounded by multiple generations working together. My four-year-old triplet nephews join me a few days each week for our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten, along with their 11-year-old brother. This week my mother is visiting, so she was able to join us as well. My sister-in-law and my 15-year-old daughter are always part of our day, and because we're learning at home, other family members naturally stop in to visit and see what we're working on. It creates the kind of warm, family-centered environment that feels so natural for young children.
Our kindergarten is filled with the kinds of activities that make up everyday life. We cook, bake, clean, tell stories, and work together, giving the children meaningful ways to participate in the life of the home. Today we made cinnamon bread, and I try to include something in the kitchen whenever possible. Cooking has always been an important part of our family culture, and I love giving children memories that include the comforting sights, sounds, and smells of homemade food. Those experiences become part of childhood in such a beautiful way.
Since I had already prepared the dough for the cinnamon bread, the children mixed a fresh batch themselves so they could experience the entire process. We'll use that dough during our next lesson to make pizza, allowing them to see how their work today becomes part of tomorrow's activity.
The lesson plans I'm using this year are my own, though I'll certainly be drawing inspiration from wonderful resources like Live Education and Rooted Childhood as the year progresses. Every week brings new ideas and opportunities to create meaningful experiences for these early years.
After our time in the kitchen, we cleaned together. The boys eagerly swept, mopped, and wiped everything down, taking real ownership of caring for our space. When the cinnamon bread came out of the oven, each child enjoyed the one they had made and happily shared it with the rest of the family.
We always end our day with our story, The Hedgehog Leaves Home. Each week we add more handmade props to bring the story to life, and the children absolutely love seeing them come together. Once we've finished the book, I'll begin telling the story from memory throughout the rest of the fall, allowing it to become part of the rhythm of our kindergarten days.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten and the simple, meaningful rhythms that make these early childhood years so special.
Kindergarten Homeschool | Wool Carding
Friday, September 4, 2026 | Day 5
Our fifth day, Friday, September 4, 2026, of homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews began with a little free play. We don't typically start our days this way because the children are usually so excited to dive right into whatever projects we have planned, but today our rhythm was a little different.
Our first project was preparing raw wool for wet felting. Before we can actually felt with it, we need to clean all of the little bits of debris and treasures out of the wool and then card it. The children did such a wonderful job carefully cleaning and carding the wool. We only completed this first part of the process today, and we'll save the prepared wool for our wet-felting project next week.
Once the wool was prepared, it was time to clean everything up and move into the kitchen for our cooking project. We try to include something in the kitchen with every lesson, and today we were making pizza using the dough the children had prepared during our previous lesson.
Each child received a piece of parchment paper, a little flour, and a portion of dough to work with. The dough was quite sticky, so they needed to incorporate some of the flour before they could shape it. It eventually became a little tougher than I would have liked, but they were still able to flatten it out and make their own individual pizzas.
We kept the toppings very simple with pizza sauce and mozzarella, but I love seeing how differently each child approaches even a simple activity like this. One child is very generous with his toppings while another prefers much less. We made sure to keep track of each pizza so that when they came out of the oven, every child could eat the one they had prepared themselves.
And then it was time to clean up. The children are getting so good at participating in this part of our day. They sweep, mop, wipe down the counters, and help restore the kitchen after all of our work. I love that cleaning isn't something separate from the activity. It's simply part of the entire process.
While the pizzas were baking and cooling, the children enjoyed some decaf cold brew that I had made earlier in the week with their 11-year-old brother. Then we cut up the pizzas and sat down together to enjoy what they had made.
This day was a little different from our usual kindergarten days. We had fewer projects and quite a bit more time for free play, but we still made sure to spend some time in the kitchen and prepare something together. I really love having food be part of our lessons, whether we're cooking, baking, preparing a snack, or simply sitting down together to enjoy what we've made.
Instead of ending our day with our usual story, we allowed the children to have a little more free play. And for once, we actually finished on time!
I've scheduled our kindergarten for two hours, but we generally go over and sometimes our days stretch closer to three hours or even longer. Today, however, the simpler rhythm worked beautifully. We prepared our wool, made pizza, cleaned together, ate together, and still had plenty of time for play before the children put on their socks and headed home.
It was a simple day, but these are often the kinds of days that feel most like what kindergarten at home can be: meaningful work, good food, natural materials, plenty of play, and children participating in the everyday rhythm of home life.
Wet Felted Wool Balls
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 | Day 6
Welcome to Day 6, September 9, 2026, of homeschooling my triplet nephews, who are four years old, using a Waldorf inspired kindergarten approach! We meet twice a week for two hours, and today we are working with wool to make wet felted balls.
The children began by carding their wool, which I then wrapped around a core that I had previously prepared. We used warm, soapy water to help the wool fibers felt together, and I had each child test the temperature of the water before beginning. They dipped their wool into the warm water and worked it with their hands until it began to form a ball. Once they had a nice shape, they dipped their wool balls into ice water.
Wet felting takes a little time, and you can certainly use a washing machine and dryer if you want a faster approach, but I think there is something so wonderful about allowing the children to experience the entire process with their hands. They love getting their hands wet, working with the soap, and feeling the wool gradually transform into a beautiful felted ball. These simple handwork projects provide such meaningful opportunities for developing fine motor skills while allowing the children to experience the natural qualities of the materials they are working with.
After our wool project, it was time to prepare a little snack. Today we made chia seed pudding with coconut milk, fresh bananas, and coconut flakes. Each child sliced half a banana using a serrated knife with supervision and then arranged the banana slices and coconut flakes on top of their pudding.
Learning to use real tools safely and confidently is such an important part of our kindergarten experience. These everyday activities give the children opportunities to develop their coordination, independence, and practical skills while participating in the meaningful work of preparing their own food.
After enjoying their snack, the children headed into the playroom for some free play. They also helped tidy up our space because cleaning, sweeping, and mopping are just as much a part of our kindergarten experience as our handwork and art projects. Kindergarten is life, and these simple household tasks provide wonderful opportunities for children to participate in the daily rhythm of the home.
We also checked on the seeds we planted last week, and they have already begun to sprout! The children were so excited to see their little plants growing, and they spent some time observing and counting the new seedlings.
We ended our day with our story, The Hedgehog Leaves Home, a lovely, lighthearted book that is perfect for the fall season. I have been gathering little animal props to accompany the story, and each time we meet, I seem to run upstairs to find another animal that belongs in the story! Luckily, I already have quite a few of them in our homeschool room, although there are still a couple that I need to make.
The children remember which animals are missing and continue asking about them, which I love because it shows just how engaged they are with the story. For now, I am reading the book while using our little props, but eventually I will have the story memorized so that I can tell it orally throughout the season.
Today, the children were especially interested in a little bird with two eggs that were just about to hatch. These simple storytelling experiences, with familiar characters and beautiful little props, are such a lovely way to bring our kindergarten day to a close.
Another wonderful day of working with our hands, preparing food, caring for our space, observing nature, and enjoying a beautiful story together!
Watercoloring with Yellow
Thursday, September 10, 2026 | Day 7
Welcome to Day 7, September 10, 2026 of homeschooling my triplet nephews, who are four years old, using a Waldorf inspired kindergarten approach! Our little kindergarten space is coming together so beautifully. I have transformed our unused dining room into a cozy space where the children can play, explore, and participate in our daily activities.
Even though it is still 80 degrees outside here in Southern California, we are bringing a little bit of autumn into our homeschool with a fall meal. Today, we prepared acorn squash, butternut squash, carrots, kale chips, and chicken. The children helped remove the seeds from the squash while my 15-year-old daughter guided them through peeling and cutting the carrots. We also made some delicious kale chips with olive oil and salt for a little snack while we continued preparing our meal. We saved half of our squash to make soup later in the week, extending this experience into another day of meaningful work.
While I finished preparing our meal, something wonderful happened. The children became completely immersed in imaginative play! My daughter brought out some of the old dress-up clothes that my own children used to play with, and we even set up our teepee, which had not been used in so many years. My daughter and my 11-year-old nephew kept the triplets engaged in imaginative play for a good 45 minutes.
My sister-in-law and I had already prepared all of our materials for wet-on-wet watercolor painting, but there was no reason to interrupt such beautiful, engaged play. This is one of the things I appreciate so much about the Waldorf kindergarten approach. We can prepare meaningful activities for the children, but we also need to recognize the importance of allowing imaginative play to unfold naturally without constantly directing or interrupting it.
Eventually, when their play came to a natural end and our meal was ready, we gathered together to eat. The food had been sitting a little longer than I intended, so it was a bit drier than I would have liked, but the children enjoyed it nonetheless!
Since the children were still interested in painting, we decided to continue with our first wet-on-wet watercolor experience, even though we had already gone well beyond our usual two-hour homeschool session. Today ended up being over three hours, and the children did beautifully!
For our first watercolor lesson, we worked exclusively with the color yellow. My sister had reminded me of this Waldorf principle of introducing the colors individually, allowing the children to experience each color before bringing in additional colors. Of course, the triplets were curious about why their older brother was able to use all three primary colors while they only had yellow! My 11-year-old nephew was able to work with greater complexity, while the younger children enjoyed exploring the beautiful qualities of yellow.
I love that we can bring these different ages together while allowing each child to participate according to their own abilities and developmental needs. Whether we are preparing food, painting, or engaging in imaginative play, everyone has a meaningful place in our homeschool day.
We left our beautiful watercolor paintings to dry, finished our time together, and said goodbye until our next kindergarten day!
Preparing for Gardening
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 | Day 8
My triplet nephews are four years old, and I have the pleasure of homeschooling them two days a week for our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten. Two hours never feels like enough time!
Today we’re continuing some of the work we’ve started over the last few weeks. We saved seeds from our butternut and acorn squash, and I printed out drawings of the different vegetables for the children to watercolor. We’re also collecting more cherry tomato seeds and transplanting the seedlings they planted a few weeks ago, which have been growing so well. Since our front and backyard are being landscaped right now, we’re moving them into larger pots until we can eventually get them outside.
We’re also learning from our mistakes! Some of the squash seeds we saved molded because we didn’t wash and separate them well enough before drying them. We’ll discard those and save the rest to plant in late spring or early summer so, Insha’Allah, we can grow some of our own squash next fall.
And, of course, there’s food. We still have squash left from our last lesson, so we’ll bake some for a snack and make butternut and acorn squash soup. If we have time, we’ll finish with watercolor painting, maybe yellow again, or perhaps we’ll move on to red.
Gardening, cooking, painting, practical work, and even making mistakes along the way. There is always more I want to fit into our little two-hour mornings together.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 | Day 8
No Academics Kindergarten
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 | Day 8
Welcome to Day 8, September 15, 2026, of homeschooling my triplet nephews, who are four years old, using a Waldorf inspired kindergarten approach! Our little seedlings that we planted last week are growing beautifully, and today it is time to begin transplanting them into larger pots.
We are continuing with our gardening projects, even though our backyard is currently being landscaped and we do not have an outdoor space available for planting. Instead, we are bringing our gardening activities indoors and working together at the kitchen table. I love that these experiences remind us that you do not need a backyard or a large garden to introduce young children to gardening. There is so much that can be done indoors, from planting seeds and observing their growth to transplanting seedlings and caring for little plants.
Our seedlings are growing so well that we now have more than we can comfortably keep in our kitchen! Some of them are still quite fragile, so we are carefully transplanting them into larger pots. Many of the plants will be going home with my sister-in-law so that the children can continue caring for them and eventually transplant them into her backyard. The tomato plants that she took home a couple of weeks ago are already doing beautifully on her kitchen windowsill and will need to be transplanted very soon.
I am keeping a few seedlings here so that we can continue observing their growth during our homeschool days. I love that these projects can continue beyond the time we spend together. The children can care for their plants at home, observe the changes throughout the week, and then return to our little kindergarten space to continue the experience together.
We also spent some time looking at the beautiful colors I have been creating through natural plant dyeing. I shared some of my silk and wool samples with my 11-year-old nephew and the triplets, showing them the colors we achieved using red onion skins and shallots. I asked the children which colors they liked because I would love to begin dyeing some yarn for our future handwork projects.
We will not be introducing yarn work to the triplets just yet, but my 11-year-old nephew will be working on a weaving project. As we continue through the coming months and into next year, I hope to bring more natural dyeing and handwork into our homeschool experience. I love the idea of the children eventually using materials that we have prepared and dyed ourselves.
Of course, our day also included some wonderful food preparation! The children seasoned our butternut squash and acorn squash with salt and pepper before we roasted them in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour. Once the squash was soft, we removed the flesh and blended it in the NutriBullet with some coconut milk.
The result was the most beautiful, creamy, delicious soup that almost tasted like dessert! We served it at room temperature with a little milk for a nutritious midday snack before the children headed back into the playroom.
They were especially engaged in imaginative play today, with their 11-year-old brother and my 15-year-old daughter helping to lead their games. I really appreciate having these different ages together because the older children can help introduce ideas for pretend play while also providing gentle guidance when little disagreements arise.
The triplets created their own games and enjoyed playing together until it was time to put on their shoes, gather their things, and say goodbye for the day.
Another beautiful kindergarten day filled with gardening, natural materials, meaningful food preparation, and imaginative play!
Fall Baking, Watercoloring & Gardening
Thursday, September 17, 2026 | Day 9
Welcome to Day 9 of our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten! Today, my four-year-old triplet nephews enjoyed a beautiful day filled with gardening, fall baking, weaving, wet-on-wet watercoloring, and imaginative play.
We began our day by observing the growth of our seedlings and watering our plants. Since our backyard is still under construction, the children will be taking their plants home to continue caring for them and eventually transplant them into their own backyard. My 11-year-old nephew also helped collect and organize some of our dried seeds into little envelopes for future gardening projects.
Our kitchen activity today was making a delicious apple crumble! My 15-year-old daughter led the children through this fall baking project, giving each child an opportunity to add ingredients, stir, and participate in preparing our snack. I love incorporating seasonal recipes into our homeschool days, especially the beautiful aromas of apples and warm spices that fill our kitchen during the fall.
While the children enjoyed some free play, I helped my 11-year-old nephew prepare his cardboard loom for a weaving project. He measured and cut his loom, and I showed him how to wrap and secure the warp threads in preparation for weaving.
We also continued our wet-on-wet watercoloring experience, this time working exclusively with red. The triplets previously explored yellow, and today they had the opportunity to experience the beautiful qualities of red while practicing how to hold and use their paintbrushes correctly. My older nephew worked on a slightly different watercoloring project appropriate for his age.
I am so impressed with how well the children are remembering instructions and developing their skills through these simple artistic experiences!
After enjoying our freshly baked apple crumble and some more imaginative play, we had a very exciting package to open from Head, Hands, and Heart Boutique in Canada. Our beautiful new Waldorf play structure has finally arrived! I have wanted one of these for so many years, and I am so excited to assemble it over the weekend and surprise the children with it during our next kindergarten day.
I love how our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten brings together meaningful work, artistic experiences, food preparation, gardening, and imaginative play, all within the natural rhythm of our homeschool days.
Developmentally Challenging Lessons
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 | Day 10
Ten days in, and I think I want to be a kindergarten teacher forever. I have been having so much fun homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews for our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten.
I recently picked up some beautiful wool felted leaves to decorate our new wooden play structure from Head, Hands, and Heart Boutique in Canada. It has become such a lovely addition to the kindergarten room, and the children have already found so many different ways to use it in their play.
Once we completed our opening activities, we headed into the kitchen to check on our plants. Gardening has been part of our kindergarten from the very beginning. We collected tomato seeds, made our own newspaper seedling pots, planted beans and squash, and have already transplanted some of our seedlings once.
Now they are ready to move outdoors.
The children identified their own plants, gave them some water, and prepared to take them home so they could transplant them into their backyard. We still have landscaping happening in both our front and backyard, so I am not quite ready to plant them here. Sending the seedlings home with the children allows them to continue caring for the plants and observing their growth over time.
Our main handwork project for the day was weaving. I showed my 11-year-old nephew some of the materials we could use for his project, including wool yarn that we had plant dyed with red onion skins and a mordant. It produced such a beautiful olive color. I also happened to have some vintage green velvet that I thought would make a beautiful lining for his finished bag.
The plan was to weave both the front and back of a small bag using the little looms we had made. My 11-year-old nephew was able to make his own loom after I showed him how, and I had prepared smaller looms for the four-year-olds as well.
This ended up being one of those projects that taught me just as much as it taught the children.
The weaving was simply too advanced for the younger children at this scale. They were very intent on doing it correctly, and whenever they noticed a mistake, they became frustrated. The interesting thing is that the mistakes really would not have mattered. Their bags still could have turned out beautifully. But at four years old, following the over-under pattern on such a small loom required quite a bit of visual tracking, coordination, and concentration.
If I were to introduce this project to them again, I would absolutely make it larger. A bigger loom with wider spaces would make the movement much easier to see and much more manageable for little hands. Sometimes the project itself is perfectly appropriate, but the scale needs to change to meet the child developmentally.
We also had our kitchen work for the day. The children helped cut zucchini using serrated knives. I first sliced each zucchini in half lengthwise so they had a flat, stable surface to work with.
Zucchini turned out to be such a good food for practicing cutting skills. It is softer than an apple but firmer than a banana, so it gives the children a little resistance without being too difficult to cut. They did really well with it, although I also realized that I need a few more cutting boards because some of them were working on very tiny ones.
While the zucchini was cooking, the children had plenty of time to enjoy our new play structure. This continues to be one of their favorite parts of our kindergarten day. They create their own little spaces, move things around, and completely transform the structure through imaginative play.
We ended our day with our story, The Hedgehog Leaves Home. The children wore their little mushroom hats while we read, which was completely adorable. My mom gifted them the mushroom hats along with some aprons, and they absolutely love having little things that belong to them and that they can take home at the end of the day.
Ten days into this kindergarten experience, I am learning so much alongside them. Some projects work beautifully, some need to be adapted, and sometimes the most important thing I can do is simply observe what the children are showing me and adjust accordingly.
Fall Activities for Kindergarten
Thursday, September 24, 2026 | Day 11
Our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten is beginning to feel so beautifully seasonal. I’m homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews, and one of the things I have been enjoying most is bringing out materials and projects that I haven’t used in so many years.
I pulled out a little wet-felted pumpkin that we made with my own children many years ago. Inside are a few walnuts, along with a wooden nutcracker that the children can use. I also brought out some fall peg dolls, a little spider, and a few other seasonal materials that immediately made the space feel like autumn.
We recently started a weaving project, but I realized that the version I brought to the four-year-olds was a little too advanced for them. So this time I wanted to introduce something simpler. We’re going to try a very basic embroidery stitch using felted leaves. The examples I have are more detailed, but for the children I want to keep the work very simple so they can enjoy the process without becoming overwhelmed.
Our kitchen work for the day is all about fall foods. I have a spaghetti squash, a honeynut squash, which is one of my favorites, and a red kuri squash that is still fairly new to me. We’re going to cut them open, explore the different seeds and textures, and do a little squash tasting together.
We’re also making chicken and opening a pomegranate, which gives us another opportunity to work with seasonal foods and materials. I love how these simple kitchen tasks become such meaningful kindergarten experiences. The children are using their hands, observing, tasting, comparing, helping with real work, and participating in the rhythm of the home.
And, of course, we are making plenty of room for free play and our story time as well.
I’m finding that fall gives us so many natural opportunities for handwork, cooking, storytelling, and seasonal projects. It is especially meaningful to bring back activities that I once did with my own children and now get to experience again with my nephews.
The Fall Projects They Couldn’t Stop Talking About
Thursday, September 24, 2026 | Day 11
Fall is in full swing in our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten, and I am having so much fun bringing out seasonal projects and materials that I haven’t used since my own children were little. Today on Day 11, Thursday, September 24, 2026, the children become delightfully inspired by our Fall Basket.
I’m homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews, and one of the things I love most is seeing what captures their interest. I recently plant dyed some wet-felted wool balls with madder root, which created this beautiful soft orange color that is perfect for fall. The children were immediately inspired by them and, of course, wanted to make their own. So that has now become one of our upcoming projects.
Our opening activities took a little longer than usual because I pulled out all of our seasonal peg dolls, weather peg dolls, and calendar peg dolls. The children had such a fun time listening to the little stories behind each one as we searched for the pieces we needed to mark the weather, the day, and the season.
I also showed them our fall peg dolls, which they absolutely loved. Unfortunately, I only had two, and with triplets, two is definitely not enough. Rather than deciding who gets one, we are going to make our own together in an upcoming class.
Then they discovered the little wet-felted pumpkin in our fall basket.
This is another project that I made with my own children many years ago, and I haven’t brought it out in more than 10 years. Inside the pumpkin were walnuts, and as soon as the children saw it, they wanted to make one of those too. I am completely delighted that these simple handmade projects are inspiring them so much.
We used a wooden walnut cracker, and I demonstrated how to use it before each child took a turn cracking a walnut. These walnuts were quite old and had gone a little rancid, so we really couldn’t enjoy eating them, but the experience of opening a walnut still made the activity worthwhile.
We also saved the shells. In a later class, we turned them into tiny walnut-shell sailboats that actually float.
One thing I am quickly learning is that the children have excellent memories. I get excited about projects and tell them all of the things we could make, and then they remember every single one. They definitely hold me to my promises. Thankfully, I have collected so many of these materials over the years that even when I forget, we usually have what we need to come back to the project later.
Our kitchen work continued with more fall foods. I had a red kuri squash and a honeynut squash for the children to explore. They scooped out all of the seeds while we prepared the squash to bake with chicken for our fall meal.
My older nephew also removed all of the seeds from a pomegranate. We saved the pomegranate skins because I want to experiment with them in another plant dye project later in the season. I love how so many of our activities connect with one another. The food we prepare becomes our meal, the seeds can be saved for planting, and even the skins can become materials for dyeing.
While the chicken and squash were baking, the children had time for free play in the kindergarten room. After our meal, they went right back to playing on our beautiful wooden play structure from Head, Hands and Heart Boutique. I’ll include more information about it in the description box below.
These fall kindergarten days are becoming filled with so many simple experiences: seasonal foods, handwork, natural materials, imaginative play, and projects that seem to lead naturally into the next one.
And perhaps my favorite part is getting to bring out things that were once part of my own children’s childhood and watch a new generation become just as excited about them.
Peg Dolls, Pizza & Walnut Sailboats
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 | Day 12
Day 12 of homeschooling my four-year-old triplet nephews for our Waldorf-inspired kindergarten was filled with simple seasonal projects, kitchen work, imaginative play, and a few unexpected activities that grew naturally out of what the children were interested in.
We began by painting peg dolls. This was not something I had originally planned for the day, but the children had noticed the beautiful fall peg dolls in our seasonal basket and wanted peg dolls of their own. Sometimes those little moments of interest become the activity, and this was one of those days.
Once we finished painting, we moved into the kitchen to make homemade pizza. I love including food preparation as part of our kindergarten rhythm because it gives the children meaningful work while also connecting them to the everyday life of the home. Homemade pizza dough is very easy to make, and the full recipe is included below.
While the pizza was baking and cooling, the children had time to play in their wooden play structure from Head, Hands, and Heart Boutique. I have draped it with different fabrics, and it has quickly become one of their favorite places for imaginative play.
At the same time, my 11-year-old nephew worked independently on blueberry muffins. Rather than making every kitchen activity a group project, I wanted to give him something a little more appropriate for his age. He read the recipe, figured out the steps, and made the muffins mostly on his own. They turned out delicious.
We also began another seasonal project using walnuts. I boiled the walnuts so we could remove the inside and save the shells for little sailboats. The children chose pieces of wool felt for the sails, and I assembled each boat using a small stick, glue, and the walnut shell.
These tiny boats are very simple to make, but they completely delighted the children because they actually float.
Once everyone had a sailboat, we filled a bowl with water and tested them out. We quickly discovered that they have to be placed gently on the water. If they are dropped in, the shells fill with water and sink. Once they became wet, we set them aside to dry completely before trying them again.
The walnut shells will be used for more projects throughout the season, and the children also enjoyed the simple work of cracking them open.
Afterward, we enjoyed the blueberry muffins while they were still slightly warm with a cold cup of milk.
We ended our kindergarten day with our usual closing activities and continued reading The Hedgehog Leaves Home. A bird was mentioned in the story, so I brought out one of our little birds that has been sitting on her eggs for years. The children checked to see whether the eggs had finally hatched. They had not, but the shells are beginning to crack.
Then it was time to gather shoes and socks, say goodbye, and end another full kindergarten day.
What I continue to appreciate most about these days is how naturally meaningful work, imaginative play, handwork, cooking, and storytelling can all fit together without needing to separate everything into lessons.