Waldorf Inspired Co-op Week 1

Friday was the first week of the Waldorf Inspired co-op I talked briefly about before. So far it is just my friend, her daughter, the girls and I. There are a couple of others interested in joining us, but my friend will be on vacation for a month with extended family and so we won't be starting up again til mid-October. Still, it was nice to try it out and the girls had so much fun.

We began with the girls meeting our sheep, feeding them a snack and then we all sat down to read 'Pele's New Suit'. After the story I brought out some of the fleece I sheared a couple of months ago. We all passed it around and squished it, so, so soft.

Then we got down to cleaning a bit of it.

We let it soak in the hot, soapy water while we head outside to gather some things for dyeing.

The girls picked yellow and purple flowers and some grass.

We let it simmer for some time.... but then when we went to drain it, all the color drained out, too, but a bit of the yellow. This was my first attempt at plant dyeing so I'm not entirely sure where we went wrong. Perhaps I didn't add enough vinegar....

But, never fear! You didn't think I don't have plenty of pre-dyed wool in my stash, did you? Of course I do. So we pulled that out and began making wool beads.



A very soapy and wet mess but we all enjoyed this part the most.


After we were finished we strung them on silk ribbons for the girls. They finished out our time together playing while we mamas talked a bit.

I have many ideas for when we start up again. I really can't wait to delve into it and get these others families involved. Do you do something like this? I would love to hear about your co-op.