Although this year springtime is quite cold here, we had already some sunny days that encouraged us to start a Spring Table. Today, I’m delighted to share it with you. You might have already seen our Autumn Table and the Winter one. This spring, the playroom has changed a bit, as I created an Art Space and a Loose Parts/Building space. There was not much space left, so we had to be creative with a mini-spring table. But if you live in a small flat (like I did in Paris 😉 you might love this idea of the « mini-table ».
We used a tiny table and a blue scarf as the starting point. Then we have selected three books that are displayed on the table, the others are stored underneath:
« Spring » by Gerda Muller- a book with no text and some beautiful vintage drawings that remind me of my own childhood
“Frühlings-Wimmelbuch” (“Le livre du printemps”) by Rotraut Susanne Berner- another book with no text and with plenty of details. We spend many hours looking at it and we always discover something new
« Une année avec les cigognes » by Thomas Müller
I realize that this time we have three German authors on our Nature table, which makes me smile because it looks like, unconsciously, we are influenced by our life in Germany 😉
The top of the nature table is rather Waldorf-inspired, whereas the lower part is Montessori. We have a little Waldorf doll and a sheep. These lovely characters are hand-made and we bought them at a Waldorf-market in a local kindergarden. We added a wooden stork and a wooden hen by Holztiger (also Waldorf-inspired toys) flowers, little rocks and pussy willow buds collected by my daughter.
On the lower part we have a Montessori-inspired Nature Table. With some books about growing a vegetable garden:
« How does my garden grow » (« Comment ça pousse? »/ Was wächst denn da?) by Gerda Muller
“Emi et les tournessol” from the collection “mes petites histoires Montessori” (available only in French)
“Ten seeds” (“Dix petites graines”) by Ruth Brown
These books are realistic and they initiate children to gardening. We also have “The flower” and “The carrot” from the « My first discoveries” collection (“Mes premières découvertes). We added some books about seasons and changes in the nature: “Tap the magic tree”, “Tree” “Bringing the outside in”. I think that they bring a bigger dimension, about spring being a phase in the rhythm of the nature.
Along with these books we have a little basket with treasures from our garden and a magnifying glass for observation.
We love our spring table but we love our garden even more. Full of mystery and new discoveries now that spring is here: snail shells, moss, feathers and little flowers:
Happy Spring everyone!