About Rachael Miller

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The Farmer in the Dell-Farm Play & World Exploration

 

Many children are drawn toward farm play, even when their experience is limited to suburban sidewalks or city parks. They imagine themselves as both the busy farmers and the creatures of the field, sty, yard or barn. (What is that mooing, bleating and clucking I hear from behind a closed bedroom door?!)

Nova Natural Felt FarmyardNova Natural Wooden Farm Family

 

In our family, the children also had favorite bedtime stories about farmers and the farming life for many years, leading to library and bookstore searches to … Read More...

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Working with Wood and Children

 

nova natural 5 piece tool set tools

Woodworking pleases many children. They can clearly see that their activity can lead to a change in their environment whether they are pounding nails, whittling shavings or sanding an edge to a luster. Still, it can be hard as an adult to see exactly how to safely bring this activity to your children, especially if you have limited experience with these skills.

You can actually begin woodworking through very small steps by introducing one skill and one tool at … Read More...

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Knights and the Land of Pretend

 

Nova Natural Multi Use Knight's Helmet

“Facts are fine, fer as they go… but they’re like water bugs skittering atop the water. Legends, now—they go deep down and bring up the heart of a story.”  from Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.

Nova Natural Knight's Helmet

When your child slips a sword into the sheath at their side, dons a cap suited to Sherwood forest or adds another silk to their royal attire, they are exploring the archetypes that help us find our way in our world. These broad … Read More...

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To Every Season a Song

“Those who wish to sing always find a song”  Swedish Proverb

I read this proverb and have to say, I’m not so sure it’s right. I think a lot of us want to sing, but we’re unsure what to sing and are a bit intimidated by the prospect of sharing our imperfect voices.

We resist even though numerous studies have shown the mental and physical health benefits of singing. We understand intellectually that singing creates stronger relationships between groups as … Read More...

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Talk to the Animals

As noted scientist Temple Grandin titled her book of the same name, animals make us human. This can seem a very strong statement until one watches children and notes their affinity for and curiosity about animals. Some kids watch creatures from a safe distance. Others are more forward and grab every cat or dog they can get close enough to to touch. Most children will add the names of animals to their first few words. However they show it, new … Read More...

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Children + Water = Fun

We have a beloved Golden Retriever who can seemingly smell water from hundreds of yards away, making a beeline for anything deeper than dew and, without hesitation, diving in to make it a full-body experience. Like him, our children gravitated to every form of water from still ponds to running streams. From a tub filled with their first bath to their hours of rainy day play, they all loved interacting with any water they could find.

They stood under eaves … Read More...

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Playing House vs Housekeeping

 

Nova Natural Kids Wash Basin

Personally, I was delighted when my toddlers began pushing brooms around. As a trained Montessori teacher, I was always excited to see my own children beginning to engage in “work”, but first as a teacher and then as a parent, I knew that everyone was happier if I distinguished my children’s work from mine. I had learned that it was better to classify this work as very important “play”. Playing house is often one of the first ways adults … Read More...

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What Do You Do With…Three Picture Books for Big Concepts

We want to do so much to help our children, but life teaches us that their greatest gifts may be the intangible tools they carry inside themselves. Watching them, we see that some are born with a fully-stocked “toolchest” that will aid them on any path they choose. Other children seem to need a little more help, whether in recognizing what was there all along or in developing skills unfamiliar to their natures.

Regardless of how competent children are out … Read More...

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Isabel Wyatt as a Voice for these Times

“Great hardships and great dangers are in store for him; but he shall win through them all.”
— From Isabel Wyatt’s The Kingdom of Beautiful Colors

This quote from Isabel Wyatt came to me a few weeks back as young people in Florida were standing up to the powerful, demanding the value of their lives over the profit of an industry. Our battered, mildewed copy of the storybook for middle-grade children, from which the quote comes, carries the older, less … Read More...

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8 Tips to Enjoy Crafting with Children

kids-and-crafting

Is your crafting cupboard or drawer bursting with broken bits of crayons, uncapped, dried out markers, crumpled paper and bits of yarn all randomly stuck together with leaked glue from the left-open bottle? Does the sight of glitter and the memory of trying to clean it up bring tears to your eyes? Are you stifling frustration every time your child asks to paint? How is it that some people seem to be able to make craft time with their children … Read More...

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