Welcome Spring!

We love Spring! It's so exciting to see the blossoms on our fruit trees, hear the bees buzzing in the macadamia grove and admire the sudden and intense growth in our garden. It feels good to wash our winter blankets and put them away in storage, pack up our coats, scarves and beanies and hunt down our summer dresses, sandals and swimming items... And finally I think I've had my fill of soup, and I'm keen to prepare some warm-weather food!


We have changed our season table - the white and blue tones of winter packed away and out with pink and green, coloured glass, felt eggs, butterflies and flowers...

Our carefully chosen seeds have been planted into the seed-raising boxes, with their little pop stick ID tags in place and every day we check the progress as unfurling leaves emerge - promising a bounty of summer vegetables.

What is your favourite season?


Spring Products

Books:
Snowdrop & Ulba Bulba
Grow It Eat It
Rainbow Magic - Edie the Garden Fairy
In The Garden
The Secret Garden


Other Items:
Spring Doll
Gnomes
Playcloths - silk, cotton, muslin
Crowns
Springtime Felt
Blossom Baby
Blossom Baby Kit
Seeds
Shovels
Pots
Spring Craft Pack
Spring Fleece
Spring Card

Homeschooling Resources

Most of you probably know that our children are educated at home. We have always home educated and have six children aged 7 to almost-17. Over the past months, we have been expanding our range of homeschooling resources. Some of the items we stock include:

Always Learning Books - a selection of booklets and books from an Australian publisher, including diaries for record keeping

Golden Beetle Books - a selection of books on Steiner/Waldorf education

HEA Resource Directory 2011

Otherways - subscriptions to Australia's best printed homeschooling magazine

More books relevant to families like ours...

Blank books - these are a beautiful and brilliant resource

Art supplies - including Stockmar, Lyra etc - especially for toddlers and children

Craft supplies - kits, raw materials, uncommon products - and all natural

Gardening products - because we think every family should grow plants!

Don't forget, if you type the code 'homesschool' into the discount coupon section of Checkout, you will automatically receive 10% off any order over $40.00.

Book of Soups

We just love this insprational cookbook! At first it seems a little plain compared with glossy hardbacked cookbooks, but the quirky illustrations and the variety and quality of recipes has deemed it a treasure in our kitchen.

Soups in the slow cooker, with dumplings, vegan recipes, broths, chilled soups, dessert soups and big soups... I think every kind of soup is covered in these 49 pages!

A favourite one for our children to make themselves...

Vegetable Barley Soup
1-2 T of oil
2-3 sticks celery
1-2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
about 2 quarts water
1 cup barley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1-2 tsp tamari
3-4 potatoes
3-4 carrots (winter squash is good too!)

In a large soup pot, saute onions, celery and garlic in oil. Add water, barley, salt, Italian seasoning, and tamari. Bring to a boil and continue to boil gently for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, peel potatoes and carrots. Add vegetables to soup and continue gentle boil for an hour or until barley is tender. Enjoy!

Serves 8

Early Childhood Department
Cincinnati Waldorf School

There are a few copies of this book left in stock. Grab yours before winter!

The Lorax

$12.00

This book was one of my husband's favourites when he was a child. It has become a favourite of our children in turn. And now I'm happy to be able to offer a Harper Collins paperback version through Spiral Garden.

In this haunting fable about the dangers of destroying our forests and woodlands, the long-suffering Lorax struggles to save all the Truffula Trees from the wicked Once-ler's axe. With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. This title is for older, more fluent readers to enjoy on their own, or as a wonderful read-aloud story for any age.

About the Author

Theodor Seuss Geisel -- better known to millions of his fans as Dr. Seuss -- was born the son of a park superintendent in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1904. After studying at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and later at Oxford University in England, he became a magazine humorist and cartoonist, and an advertising man. He soon turned his many talents to writing children's books.

Dr Seuss

Check these out!

Eco-Clay $30

Eco Clay™ play dough is lovingly hand crafted in Victoria, Australia using only the finest natural ingredients.

The Weather Fairies Collection $22

This hard cover book is from Rainbow Magic's Weather Fairies Collection. It is Volume 1 and includes Books #1-4 by Daisy Meadows.
Crystal the Snow Fairy
Abigail the Breeze Fairy
Pearl the Cloud Fairy
Goldie the Sunshine Fairy



New Products

Clay
Crayons
Necklaces
Books
Felt Items
Craft Kits

... and more coming soon!


Specials

Aprons
Cards
Capes
Books
Crochet Hooks
Felt Items
Games
Dolls
Animals
Bags
Jewellery

... and more - up to half price! Limited Stock.

Seven Times the Sun

"When you honor the ordinary moments of life, you bring balance and joy to your family."

Seven Times the Sun is a 221 page softcover book. It is a unique and wonderfully creative guide to help parents and children turn simple moments into loving, consistent rituals forging a strong family bond.

Simple rituals to bring balance to your child's day
Whimsical verses to add a bit of magic to the ordinary
Easy songs to celebrate daily life
Helpful resource lists of books and music
Inspired parenting tips to help your child feel secure
Contemporary re-tellings of Grimms' tales

"There is a rhythm pumping through every vein of the universe. Call it Divine Spirit, call it God, call it the creative power of nature. The rhythm is taken up by the sun, the grass, the children at play. Eternal heartbeat."

This was the first book of its type to come into our family's home several years ago. I felt so blessed to have a resource for verses, stories, poems, songs and activities to assist with building a sense of rhythm and reason in our children's lives. From our family to yours, this is a highly recommended title.

Steiner Homeschooling

We recommend the quality Australian books from the Golden Beetle Books Spiritual Syllabus series sold through Spiral Garden. To get started there is the comprehensive title A Steiner Homeschool by Alan Whitehead. Alan has decades of experience in Steiner education.


Some more useful contacts for Steiner homeschooling curriculums include:

Oak Meadow

Christopherus Homeschool

For the correspondence course run through Candlenut Steiner School near Cairns in Far North Queensland, email Nila Chambers or email the school.

An Australian email support group for Waldorf (Steiner) homeschoolers can be found here.

Steiner Schools in Australia site - lots of useful contacts and resources.

Waldorf Homeschoolers - information, advice, resources.

Waldorf Without Walls - curriculum, support, advice, resources.

Golden Beetle Books

Thought about buying one of the Golden Beetle Books titles we stock? Choose from 33 Sun Songs, A Steiner Homeschool, Choir of Colours, The Golden Path, A Children's Anthologia, Susan Whitehead's little Seasonal books and more...

Now's the time to grab your copies because in 2010 the RRP has risen, and so our prices will rise to $16 each on February 1st. Last days...

Back to School?

It's almost back to school time for many. Our calico bags are popular as ready-to-decorate library bags. We offer some top quality school supplies in our Create category, at competitive prices. For example:

Lyra Ferby Pencils:
Graphite Pencils only $2.60 each
6 Waldorf Colours $16.00
6 Standard Colours $16.00
12 Standard Colours $32.00

Crayola Trio Sharpener only $7.50
Lyra Erasers $1.20 each
Lyra Sharpeners $3.20 each (suit Ferby pencils)
Large Main Lesson Books for $4.00 each or
Medium Main Lesson Books with onion skin for $3.90 each
Wooden Rulers only $2.00
Stockmar Block and Stick Crayons just $16.00 per tin...

As well as three types of paint, numerous paintbrushes, chalk, modeling materials, aprons, chalk and blackboard erasers, more crayons and pencils, wooden pencil boxes and felt pencil cases and more!

We love to use these quality art supplies that last year after year for our six children. They very rarely need replacing (apart from main lesson books and graphite pencils which are used a lot).

Spiral Garden has a lovely selection of Books, many suitable for Steiner educators and parents, as well as titles specifically for homeschoolers. We recommend: A Steiner Homeschool, Choir of Colours (Art - class 1 to 7) and other Golden Beetle Books. Otherways magazine and the book Life Learning are ideal for inspiration. And of course Seven Times the Sun - for all families, any time.

We always have lots of new products arriving and we look forward to offering you many delights this year, as our Spiral Garden grows.