Friday, June 18, 2010

Our Nature Shelf

Since January we've dedicated a little area in our home where we keep the lovely treasures we find outside and where we celebrate the changing seasons. We call it out nature shelf. Nature spaces like these are commonly found in Montessori and Waldorf classrooms and homes.

Generally, I only allow things found in nature or things handmade with natural materials to be put onto the shelf. Here are some close-ups of the goodies on our shelf.

The wooden mushroom, the frame and card, the silks, and the wooden duck all come from here. I needle felted the "pond" and the flower. That sweet little summer time peg person was handpainted by Beneath the Rowan Tree and purchased through her Etsy store.

We recently participated in an international postcard swap and received this beautiful bit of artwork from a child in Singapore. There's a piece of driftwood James found at the beach and inside the bowl are shells we've found locally, some quartz and amethysts (found at a local shop) and a walnut filled with beeswax, which we made earlier this year. The bowl itself is handmade with recycled paper - I found it at a craft market. That sweet little rainbow kitten was made by Ann of Simply Playing. You can buy one here.

James really enjoys our nature space and I often find him touching the items and rearranging the set up. :) I just love having this area available to him - it's such a rich sensory experience and it opens the door to many happy, curious questions such as, "Why is this rock purple?".

I hope you enjoyed my little tour and I'll do my best to post about our ever-changing nature shelf more often.


The Magic Onions and Natural Suburbia each host a weekly blog party where people can link up to share ideas. Click the buttons to check them out!

11 comments:

Fiona said...

Hi there. I did a psring nature basket but was wondering what do put in it for the summer but your post has given me some great ideas :-)

hands follow heart said...

What a beautiful and delicate nature shelf. It really captures the mood of Spring/Summer. I love it!
Luciana

Leigh said...

I love it!! James is such a good buy to just rearrange things so nicely. Mason would more than likely demolish something like that. he oculd surprise me, though. Kendal would like that too.

Cheryl said...

We have a nature windowsill which follows the same rules, should have been growing at some point or be handmade. I find the children rearranging it and I love seeing the way they set it up. Just as fascinating is watching visiting children. Not all have something similar at home, but they are all drawn to ours.

Eva said...

Aww wow I LOVE it :D.. I've been working on creating a little nature spot for my daughter too but it has been slow.. I love checking out these nature posts and getting inspired :D thanks!

*hugs*
Eva

Jen said...

Ok, I need to set this up in my home. It's beautiful! I can just imagine James being so calm and careful around those things. Thank you for linking back to where you bought things, I'm always wondering where people find things.

Anonymous said...

awww love it! Everything is so beautiful!!

tracey (aka rainbowmummy) said...

beautiful :)

Ariella said...

I love it! So beautiful. We are going to do a new nature table set up on Monday for the solstice--- thanks for the inspiration.

TwigandToadstool said...

What a lovely nature shelf...it's beautiful! My children, and their friends LOVE our nature shelf. It's one of the most popular areas in the house...things get arranged and rearranged hourly! It's magical!
Tomorrow we're going to post some pictures of our summer nature tables...for Solstice on our blog.

:) maureen

Deb Chitwood said...

I love your nature table and nature shelf! I linked to some of your lovely nature table and nature shelf ideas for my activity of the week at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2010/10/25/nature-trays-and-nature-tables/.

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