The Children's Year: Seasonal Crafts and Clothes

by Christine Fynes-Clinton, Stephanie Cooper, Marije Rowling

First published more than twenty years ago, The Children's Year has helped generations of families rediscover the pleasures of creating rather than merely consuming. Children get enormous satisfaction from playing with something they have made, but many parents lack creative self-confidence. This book has everything you need to get started, with more than a hundred projects for parents and children to enjoy making together. Simple, well-illustrated...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1903458595
• ISBN13: 9781903458594
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Hawthorn Press
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.9" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

a keeper

I'm so glad I finally purchased this book. I've been borrowing it from our school library for years. This is a must for any parent of especially younger children who wants to know how to make simple beautiful items for their child. There are loads of ideas and items for each season all made from natural materials requiring not much else other than the desire to create!

The Children's Year: Crafts & Clothes for Children

I love this book!!!!! I have made many of the crafts in this book and have loved everyone. The instructions are really good but they leave some room for thought of your own(the Wadorf way). This book will really make you think about what it is your children are playing with. After handcrafting a doll or a climbing gnome you will see the reaction from your children or others. Eyes bright and full of curiousity will inspire you to make more and more of your own toys rather than store bought imitations.

From the back cover:

Creative handbook may give joy and satisfaction to adults and children alike. Here is a book relating the making-of-things to the seasons; taking the reader through Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter with appropriate toys and gifts to create, with full, clear instructions and illustrations. Designs and patterns for children's clothing are included, particularly meant to be made of natural fabrics to let the child's body breathe while growing. There are soft itens for play and beauty, and there are firm wooden ones; moving toys such as balancing birds or climbing gnomes; horses which move when you add children to them! From wooly hats to play houses, mobiles or dolls, here are over 100 potential treasures to make in seasonal groupings.You needn't be an experienced craftsperson to create something lovely, and the illustrations make it a joy to page through while choosing what to make first. "The Children's Year" offers handwork for all ages and individualities; it reminds us of the process of creating as opposed to merely consuming, and all this in the contect of nature's rhythm through the year.

A treasure trove of ideas and inspiration

I first borrowed this book from the library and then after reading it, making notes and re-reading it, decided I just had to own it. It is a wonderful resource for parents who enjoy making toys and crafts either with, or for their children, out of Nature's bounty, using natural materials such as wool felt, roving, paper, shells, yarn and silk. In addition, it has knitting and crochet instructions for farm animals, easy-to-follow doll patterns, sewing and knitting instructions for clothes for small children and inspirational ideas for Advent and Christmas crafts. A book that you'll turn to again and again for many years.