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.
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