When you live with a budding artist, you live with piles and piles of artwork. And ALL of it is special. And NONE of it can be thrown away. At least, that’s what my 5 year old tells me constantly. And as gung-ho as she is about recycling, I still can’t manage to convince her that we can recycle some of her artwork, too.
So, instead of living with the masses of piles everywhere, I started looking for ideas of what to do with it all to help contain it and keep it from taking over my entire house. I came across several great suggestions like these:
(Many thanks to my friends for the below exchange. This is why we ALL need a support group of other moms to rely on!)
Q: Any tips for handling a 3yo boy who likes to call everybody silly names? (pumpkinhead, pottyhead, poopoohead, boogerhead. I could go on… LOL) We’ve spanked, we’ve done timeouts, we’ve taken away toys, we’ve ignored it, we’ve laughed at it, and we’re all out of ideas. We even resorted to calling him the same name he calls us, (that was short lived as he thought it was the funniest thing he ever heard) and nothing seems to work.
A: We’ve set the rule of no name calling at all, just in case you hurt someone’s feelings when you are just trying to be funny.
AND we’re only allowed to use bathroom words IN the bathroom (which has stopped the embarassingly loud announcements of “I have to poo!” in restaurants, but has also spawned numerous toot and tee tee bathtime songs). To me, this was a safe way for them to get to enjoy those funny things about their bodies which all little ones find so hilarious without shaming our family in public.
But you know, since my girls aren’t allowed to say, “I gotta go poo!” in public any more, we’ve had to come up with acceptable alternatives. Wouldn’t Ethan look so sweet and precious with, “Excuse me, I need to go freshen up.” Priceless.
At one of our last Moms’ Night Out gatherings, we were all discussing babies (duh! We ARE a bunch of moms!) and their cries. Several of us had heard of the ‘baby whisperer’, Priscilla Dunstan, who was on Oprah, but only a couple of us had ever tried it. My sister-in-law has tried it with her baby, Grayson, and is swearing by it! She said she’s been able to figure out his cries pretty easily and is having a much easier time with him than with her other 2 kiddos. Just thought I’d pass it on…
We all know the importance of getting our kids out-of-doors. We’ve heard the studies about childhood obesity and ’screen time’ in front of tvs and computers. Of course, in Houston, it’s harder to get outside when temperatures are in high 90s. But, we try occasionally anyways.
When I started studying Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy a few months ago on my search for a homeschooling model that worked for me, I was surprised at her strong thoughts on nature. She adamantly encourages children under the age of six to have no formal schooling, but to spend as much time as possible every day OUTSIDE. And, as they get older, that portion of their ’schooling’ is still important enough to get its own subject - Nature Study. She promoted Nature Study not only as a way to use up some of that extra energy that all kids seem to have, but also as a way to learn about our world, science, and our creator. And we all know how a walk in the woods or a beautiful garden can help us regain perspective in life and reconnect us to God.
It seems as though current studies have finally confirmed some of what Charlotte has been saying since the 1800s. I was just introduced to this site, Children & Nature Network, and have been thoroughly impressed with the information found there. Check out this video clip from The Today Show about kids and the outdoors. Makes me wanna go on a hike. Anybody want to go with me?
So, how do YOU get your kids out-of-doors for free play on a regular basis? I’m looking for some more creative ideas, especially for our hot, humid city. Share them in the comments section below.
I’ve been following lurking around the RocksInMyDryer blog for a little while now and have been thoroughly enjoying her “Works for Me Wednesday” posts. She usually has it open to everyone to post their own links for whatever topic she’s designated and I wind up spending a few minutes hours following all the links to great posts.
So, this week’s topic was 5-ingredient recipes. My kind of cooking! Needless to say, I’ve spent lots of times perusing everyone’s creative ideas and have bookmarked several to try out.
The first recipe I tried was for Egg & Sausage Muffins at ISpeakBeanish. They turned out great!! I added some cheese (hello - I AM a cheese-aholic!) and then I blended up some fresh yellow squash and zucchini to “hide” inside the egg mixture that you pour over the sausage. You couldn’t even taste the veggies (thank goodness, otherwise my family wouldn’t have eaten them) and the two oldest kiddos LOVED them. We had plenty leftover for breakfast the next day and I’m about to freeze the rest to have on hand for whenever Shawn needs a quick breakfast to go with his morning coffee.
So, slide on over to ISpeakBeanish for her great recipe (she’s a Houston local, y’all!!) or to RocksInMyDryer for more ideas for dinner tonight and enjoy. Oh, and then you have to tell me which one YOU did and how it turned out so I can be sure to add it to my list! :)
The one where you gasp, your heart completely melts, and you’re filled with more joy than you ever thought a human could feel…
The moment when your baby first smiles at you.
Well, apparently, some super-smart people at Baylor College of Medicine decided to find out exactly what that smile does to a mom.
Here’s what they say:
They found that when the mothers saw their own infants’ faces, key areas of the brain associated with reward lit up during the scans.
“These are areas that have been activated in other experiments associated with drug addiction,” said Strathearn. “It may be that seeing your own baby’s smiling face is like a ‘natural high’”.
I just drove through Chick-Fil-A (this is at least a once-a-week occurrence at our house) and in our bag of yummy food there was a cute little coupon. It says, “Dress like me, git free chikin” and there’s a picture of a cow dressed up in a cow costume. (Yes. I said that right.)
Apparently Chic-Fil-A has named July 11th, this year’s “Cow Appreciation Day”. And if you wear a cow costume to their fine restaurant on that day, you’ll get a free meal.
Now, I’m all about bargains and getting things for free and what-not, but I’m not so sure I’m ready to dress up like a cow for it. But, for those of you who would, YOU GO, GIRL (or boy)! :)
I’ll just have to remember to allocate a little extra time to get through the lines on that day since I’m sure they’ll be packed with cows…
What about you? Will you be one of those cool people that dresses up, or a dork like me that doesn’t? :P
When I was skimming through all the indoor Houston activites for kiddos on NinaLoca, I ran across some information that just really excited me. There is a mansion in the River Oaks area that has been donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, complete with all of the artwork and collectibles that the Masterson family had acquired over the years. It houses other collections from time to time and you can regularly tour it. But, during the summer time, they offer Rienzi Storytime Tours, every Wednesday in June and July at 10am, for kids ages 4-8, as well as other family activities.
I emailed a friend of mine and we decided to take our kiddos today to check it out. We loved it! They gave us a tour of some of the larger rooms in the home and would stop in each one and have all the kiddos sit down on the floor. The docent then gave a brief piece of information about the room or something specific in the room and then read a children’s book that somehow fit. In the Dining Room, she read “Bear Wants More” about a bear that wakes up from hibernation and wants to eat more and more. In the Drawing Room, the docent read a book about 3 mice who painted (Get it? We were in the Drawing Room?! hee hee ). In the Ball Room, she pointed out some of the Masterson’s collection of Chinese porcelain from the 1700’s and then read a book called “The Empty Pot” about a little boy who was trying to become the new emporer of China.
They have several different docents that rotate each week, and they each have different books that they like to bring and read to the kids. My 5yo absolutely loved getting to hear stories in such a new and exciting place. My 3yo actually paid attention and enjoyed kicking off his flip flops to listen. While my 21mo didn’t exactly listen to the stories, she absolutely loved pointing at all the paintings and statues throughout the house. Obviously the age range of 4-8 is best suited to the tour, but they don’t limit it to that age group.
After the tour was over and all the kiddos hugged our docent, “Ms. Mary”, we went out into the back yard to see the beautiful pool and grounds. We wound up playing hide-n-seek in the shrubs of the side yard until we were too hot and sticky to stay any longer.
All in all, a wonderful experience, and one that Kate is anxious to repeat!
When you live with a budding artist, you live with piles and piles of artwork. And ALL of it is special. And NONE of it can be thrown away. At least, that’s what my 5 year old tells me constantly. And as gung-ho as she is about recycling, I still can’t manage to convince her that we can recycle some of her artwork, too.
I just drove through 
When I was skimming through all the indoor Houston activites for kiddos on 
By Kay on Fri, Aug 29, 2008
3 Comments