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How to Really Love a Child, by Sark

My oldest daughter recently found my old Sark books buried in the basement. I forgot how much I loved Sark many years ago. Her books embrace a simple and creative life, in clever and colorful ways. Now my seven-year old is reading Inspiration Sandwich, or at least enjoying it’s playfulness in words.

When a friend of mine posted this photo with phrases titled How To Really Love a Child, by Sark, I had to do more than share it on Facebook. I want to remember this one. So I’m posting it here. I hope you enjoy it as well.

 

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Renovations countdown and our basement hideout

For months I have known it was coming. When I’d have to move all the stuff I’ve been storing upstairs in our mostly unused two bedrooms and three closets, to the basement while the upstairs gets completely gutted down to the studs. If you are new to this space, here’s the backstory regarding our renovations and us living in a 90-year-old historic house.

I’m really excited. Really really excited. But getting ready for it has been A LOT of work!

The girls are thrilled to be getting new bedrooms upstairs. With updated features like central heat and air, insulation, new lighting, and a bathroom they can both fit into at the same time – which will entail popping the roof and adding a new dormer to the house!

So we’ve been running our tails off, up and down two flights of stairs, moving furniture after bedtime in the dark, and finding new homes for all the things I save. Some stuff has been purged. But I have to say, I like being the mom who has all sorts of who knows what to pull out when someone wants to create an Enchanted Fairyland. You just never know when those old fabrics from that estate sale down the street will come in handy. And soon enough, they usually all do in some fashion.

Since fall, the girls used the hall closet upstairs as a play fort space with their dolls. And all that had to be relocated, as well as my sewing room, a guest room and a closet full of clothes that I have not worn (and was ironically locked shut) since before I started birthing babies. Seeing it contained my wedding dress, prom dresses, and outdated fun little dresses that will soon make fabulous dress up outfits and Halloween costumes for the girls – I just CAN’T get rid of them now.

This spring, I started this Basement clean out project, but never got to finish it all. The ping pong table where years of children’s art work and baby announcements lived, finally got cleaned off and stowed away.

After we scrubbed the old basement brick walls, I took old curtains and fabrics to make a doll area for the big girls (SEE sometimes it pays to be a save things).

Below is the final outcome. After they spent two full afternoons running all the stuff downstairs and organizing it, starting from a heap of mess on the floor, ALL BY THEMSELVES. I continue to be shocked that every time they play down there, they completely clean it all back up again – setting it back up the way they see as organized. I am happy to stay out of this and thrilled that I am not the person picking up teeny tiny birthday candles that belong to a doll named Molly. Having a friend over that loves “to organize” helped set the motivational mood for creating this space.

We’ll be hiding out here this summer, and in the backyard, as the dust takes over upstairs. The real challenge will come mid July, when our kitchen gets demoed too – YIKES. It almost feels like we are moving out of our house, and into our basement where we’ll be doing lots of arts and crafts in this space. And sewing. Hopefully lots of sewing…in this this space. 

Late Monday night I finished setting up my new sewing space, and I think we are almost ready. Demo day is June 18 for the upstairs! Six days to go!

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Montessori lessons at home :: part one

This summer we will be spending a lot of time at home together. My girls are not signed up for any camps and jokingly refer to this a Camp Mama, as we embark on a classic camp free summer with no TV.

I’m all for my children experiencing some good old classic summer boredom – the kind that makes them beg to go back to school. However, a few weeks back it became clear that I was going to have to step it up this summer to keep my stubbornly independent two-year-old engaged, and prevent toddler behavior that results from boredom and frustration.

In preparation for this summer, I cleaned out the play kitchen that lives in our dining room and I am setting up shelves of Montessori lessons.

Throughout the summer I’ll be posting about the Montessori lessons we’ll be doing at home, that are being added to our shelves each week. We will be filling the shelves and rotating out the lessons as we go along, when we need a new activity, and when the girls seem responsive to being introduced a new lesson.

Through the years I have gone back and forth on where I stand about setting up Montessori lessons at home. My older girls have attended Montessori school five days a week since they were two. During the school year I feel like school is enough. So I set up our home to reflect basic Montessori principals that help us flow through our day smoothly, not focusing on a educational outcome.

However my youngest daughter is two-and-a-half now, and the work of doing lessons truly is a lot of fun for her. Having things set up for her to go about her day independently, with a strong sense order, helps keep her a happy and peaceful two-year-old.

I have learned a lot about Montessori education by experiencing it as a parent the last five years. I am still inspired by every conversation I have with my daughters’ teachers. And I feel fortunate I can rely on them to do the serious teaching, like reading and math. While I focus on the fun things at home.

In doing this approach of having Montessori lessons on our shelves at home, it helps immensely that all my girls attend Montessori school. My toddler did so for the last year, since before she was two. Therefore even she understands the culture of finding a lesson on a shelf, understanding the right way to choose it, handle it, and return it to the shelf when she is finished. She doesn’t always do so perfectly, but she understands the process. And her sisters are quick to reinforce it!

Naturally, they all transfer the familiarity of the process when presented it at home.

Some of the lessons on our summer shelves will be created with my older girls in mind as well, in some respect or another, from “showing” my toddler the lessons to helping her “restore” the lessons.

Below are the lessons I put on the shelves last week. Most of them are easy to assemble. They fall in the realm of practice life, art and sensorial.

Bead stringing: My toddler’s teacher tipped me off that my daughter loves bead stringing. And, she suggested I put the beads in something that was challenging to open. So that is exactly what I did. To create the lesson I used wooden beads leftover from necklace kits given to my older girls. My toddler prefers bead string with pipe cleaners. But I included some regular necklace string in the chest as well, incase my older girls wanted to join her – which they have done. When my toddler finished her beadwork I was pleased to see she returned the chest to our lesson shelves without being asked or reminded to do so.

Paper cutting: This cutting lesson is created by drawing lines on strips of paper, for cutting. There are also small envelopes, which I cut and taped together, for my two-year-old to put her finished bits of paper inside. She LOVES this. On the last day of school her teacher handed me about 20 envelopes full of bits of paper from the last two months of school. For the primary 3-6 age group, the lines get more intricate. And yes, I leave the  scissors out all the time, available for cutting. So far in our five years of leaving scissors out for children to use when they choose, we have never had an incident of improper use – such as hair cutting. Thankfully. 

Mushroom misting: I saw this Back to the Roots Mushroom kit at our local Three River’s Market food co-op. And then when I saw the concept being shared with children at How We Montessori, I added it to our summer shelves. Inside the box was an online coupon code – GiftofGrowing20 – that will get you 20 percent off and free shipping if you order here. Plus, post a picture on their Facebook site of your growing mushrooms and they will send a free kit to your school. All my girls have loved misting, and watching these mushrooms grow!

Cotton ball sorting of different sizes: This lessons uses three different sizes of glass bowls and a set of tongs ordered from Montessori Services, and one bag of different sized pom-poms from the dollar isle at Target. She puts the smallest balls in the small bowl, the medium sized balls in medium bowl and the large balls in the large bowl. It teaches size differentiation and fine motor skills by using the tongs. This was challenging work for her. She enjoyed it and has chosen it often since it was shown to her.

Spooning beans: Spooning and scooping is always a favorite for pre-school age children. This is just one way to offer it, using dried garbanzo beans.

Water pouring and serving: Here, the glass bottle is filled with water and the expresso cups are available for pouring and serving water. 

Vegetable washing: Children love to be useful. So I am putting them to work washing vegetables! Sunday at lunch we had fried potatoes, all washed by the girls. When I told them that, I think they liked them even better.

Feather dusting: With our upcoming renovations where I expect dust to be everywhere, I’m providing the option to dust at a moment’s notice. It’s already a favorite by all the girls! 

Plant watering: My oldest daughter was the first to spot this lesson, then water the plant with the provided water. She even took it a step farther and created her own sign that said, “I don’t need water.” And returned it to the plant. Now they check this all the time! And we need houseplants that drink more water.

To stay informed and read about what we are adding to our lesson shelves each week, be sure to subscribe to Simply Natural Mom – by Facebook, Twitter, email or RSS feed. Also check out my Montessori Pinterest board.

 

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A Simple Moment

A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.

If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read. 

A wonderful evening at dusk, taken from the top off my neighbor’s porch while my children ran through the yard catching lighting bugs.

A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.

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Summer music practice plan, with the goal of 50 times

After I wrote the post Lessons from a first time music mom, I received some wonderful advice and wisdom posted in the comment section. It was from the principal violinist of the Knoxville Symphony, who is also a mom and a Suzuki violin teacher.

She made me realize we must create a regular practice schedule in our house, for our daughters playing the violin and the piano.

I am not good at scheduling during the summer (or ever really). I just don’t doing like it. Summers are for freedom and running barefoot in the grass. So whatever our solution was going to be, it had to work for all of us.

Katy, the commenter, set the goal for her daughter to practice piano everyday for 100 days. Her reward was a visit to the American Girl store.

That got me thinking. While I’m not one for rewards, and I would prefer their practice be inspired by their own desire to get better. That is not entirely realistic.  They are playing an instrument as much for themselves as they are for us, their parents. Because it’s important to us that they learn an instrument. So we are stepping in with some incentives.

I’m focused on summertime right now. And because we will be traveling some, and have a few busy weekends planned, practicing consecutively everyday is not doable for us. (Although my daughter did say she wished we had a traveling keyboard for her.)

Our goal for the girls is to practice 50 times this summer, out of the 72 days of their Summer Break. After 50 times we’ll take them somewhere fun, that is out of the ordinary. So far talks have included the American Girl store in Atlanta (which is 20 minutes from my parent’s house), the Build A Bear store, or Dollywood. We have all summer to figure that out, or 48 practice sessions.

As soon as 50 times is up. We’ll start it again. And if they choose to practice more than once a day, that counts towards the 50 times – as long as they are good solid practice sessions.

To count the 50 practice times we created a system for each girl.

My middle girl, who is 5 and plays the violin, made a strand of 50 beads and will take off a bead everyday she practices. When the beads are gone. We go for a special outing of her choice.

My oldest girl, who is 7 and plays the piano, made a number wreath from scrapbooking paper. After every practice sesssion she’ll take off one of the decorative numbered circles. Same goes for her – when all 50 are gone she gets to pick a special place to visit.

Today was the first day we tried it and I think we will see good results. Something important for my middle girl was storing her violin down low, on the ground near her strand of beads.

When she removes the beads she is putting them in the bin with her violin. My daughter has a basket on the piano for her decorative numbered circles when they get removed. This way they visually see their practice times adding up, as well as being counted down.

Either way, nothing is better than the pride my middle girl had at her violin recycle this spring, after working so hard  the last eight months to learn the same few cord variations.

However on a summer day when everyone is flying by the seat of their pants, I think a little incentive to stop and practice is worth the reward. We’ll see if I’m right.

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Ideas for avoiding plastic cups, from babies to adults

Long before I became a mom I had an episode with a large ovarian cyst that had to be surgically removed. It was in 2002. I had already been married three years (I was 23 when I said “I do”). And around then, I started thinking about wanting to have a baby – some day.

Infertility treatments were in the news a lot then, grabbing my attention. I was already a vegetarian because I didn’t trust what farmers were feeding the animals. Next I started questioning what kinds of mystery chemicals were going into our bodies without us knowing it, thus causing these strange things to happen in our bodies that were designed to make babies and naturally populate the world.

That was when I started learning about estrogen disrupters and the dangers of BPA. I stopped putting plastics in the microwave and started avoiding them all together. Around 2009 medical studies started being released on the dangers of BPA, taking the news mainstream. The sassy side of me was thinking, “I told you so.”

And now, studies are saying BPA free is not safe either.

In 2004 my first child was born. We bought a few plastic baby bottles because that was what you did then. Seeing that’s what lined the isles at Babies ‘R Us – where every pregnant woman goes to gawk over all the hundreds of silly things you think you need when having a baby until you find out they are mostly all useless items. Right?

We never used those bottles. Because she refused with all her might to take a bottle, and never did. I even tried some silly thing that was silicon and shaped like a breast! Seven-and-a-half-years later, none of my babies have ever drank from a bottle. They went straight from nursing to drinking water from a sippy cup, a straw or eventually by my second child – a shot glass.

Now there are so many great options out there for avoiding plastic cups with children, from buying glass bottles (which are now available at Babies’R Us) to stainless steel options you can find in camping supply stores. It’s pretty simple to pass up those cute Dora cups these days.

Now I’m going to give you a little run down of what we have used and liked through the years, to the coolest glass cups I recently bought online researching for this post.

Klean Kateen’s are prettying much a given now, and a trusted brand we have used and owned for five years. Recently I added the Steel Pints to our collection. They are great for picnics, grabbing for the car on the way out the door, and on our porch or backyard where there are concrete surfaces and I worry about glass breaking around bare little toes. They are too big for my toddler, but work great for the rest of us.

Also in this realm are Sigg cups. About three years ago they came out saying the interior lining of the cups contained BPA. They had a voluntary recall and replaced old Sigg cups for free through a mail-in system, which was very nice of them to do. We had all ours replaced then. But the interior lining is now pealing away from the cups at the top. So if you are investing in a stainless steel cup I’d skip the cute designs and buy a Klean Kateen. They even have baby bottles now. Replacement lids are versatile and easy to order. My newly ordered BPA free tops still fit my five-year-old Klean Kateen’s.

Small juice glasses work great for little hands and can be found in all types of discount home stores and kitchen places when you look for them. Plain shot glasses are a perfect size for six month old hands sitting at the dinner table for the first time. Granted, you have to watch closely and teach that throwing them is not appropriate. Thankfully we have all wooden floors in our house and have broken very few glasses though the years. Usually they just bounce when dropped!

This set of 3.25 oz Duralex Picardie Clear Tumblers (also available at William-Sonoma)  is what we used for our third baby and I LOVED them. They fit perfectly in her little hands. She still uses them today for things like small amounts of orange juice.

Recently I wanted to seek out something bigger for her, with a top. After finding the Cuppow that turns a wide-mouth mason jar into a travel mug for adults, I wanted something similar for children.

Browsing on Abe’s Market one night I couldn’t believe it when I found one! It’s called EIO Kids Cup and it’s covered in a silicone sleeve to prevent breakage. It uses an 8 oz. mason jar and you can buy them with the jars, sleeves and tops. Or individually as sleeves and tops.  After a little trial by error for my toddler to learn to line up the hole on the top with her lips, she loves this cup! She requests it every time she gets a drink. Hands down it’s my new favorite thing. And when my other two girls saw it, they asked for one too! I had never seen this cup before and wondered why someone hadn’t invented one. Then, I literally stumbled upon it.

After that unique find I went fishing for more, and found the Be Kind Sillsipper Picardie Glass at The Glass Baby Bottle. The glasses are 7.4 oz and too wide for my toddler to get her hands around. But my older two girls enjoy them a lot. They use the lids at bedtime and place the cups by their beds. It’s a neat concept. But for toddlers, the top also comes off easily. So unless they really want the top on, the top would become useless. The Glass Baby Bottle has interesting options for stainless steel baby bottles by OrganicKidz and Pura. The colorful stainless steel 10 oz. cups by Ecococoon look like great fun too.

For on the go, my favorite glass bottle for both me and the girls are by Lifefactory, which we bought locally at Earthfare. The 9 oz size holds too much for my toddler so I bought her a 4 oz baby bottle size instead. Online you can get sippy lids, which just saves me from having to open the top for her. And makes it more usable in the car. We took out the rubber piece inside the sippy lid, that makes it spill proof and hard to suck out of. It works great for my two-and-a-half-year-old.

I got sucked into the beauty and sleekness of the BKR glass bottles for myself. It’s okay. I like the color and the top is the same size as a regular plastic water bottle which is nice. But moisture gets trapped between the silicon sleeve and the glass bottle when I put it in the dishwasher. So it’s not my favorite – a little too high maintenance for me.

As much as I’ve tried, I don’t like drinking out of stainless steel. It changes the taste for me and feels too much like camping. Most often on the way out the door I grab a regular glass from my cabinet, that I know fits in my car cup holder, and simply leave home with it filled with fresh water.

Other things I thought of as I was grabbing glasses out of our cabinets to take the photo up top, was to just be mindful of what is around you. My girls love the sake set that we found at a yard sale to pour and serve each other tiny amounts of water. And if you are going to buy your child a tea set, buy them something like this one, that they can actually use. Don’t be afraid to give your child something breakable. Things break! Give them the tools to help clean up the mess and let it go.

Life is too short to worry about a little spilled milk. And life is too short to drink out plastic cups with leaching chemicals.

Cheers!

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Summer Break is here! We are finding our groove.

Sorry for my absence here yesterday. We were still celebrating school letting out, since Friday! We rang in summer break with a bang. Having non-stop mega play dates, attending a late-night minor league baseball game with fireworks, pool outings with friends, and walks to the park.

It all started Friday – and ended Monday afternoon, after hosting a sleepover with two adorably polite 6-year-old identical twin girls. It was their first time away from home, EVER. They did great. And it was so fun that I’m ready for twins!

This week is going to be a busy one as we finish moving everything from the upstairs of our house into the basement, and strategically make room for things before our renovations start on June 18. We’ll be spending a lot of time down there this summer, hiding from the noise and dust. Therefore I’m trying to make it all work perfectly.

In addition to that, we have music lessons and swim lessons planned. And on Thursday we’ll have friends over to help us create an “Enchanted Fairyland” in our backyard. Friday there is another pool visit with friends. So far there is no boredom. And last night, I squeezed in a much needed girls night with the moms from my neighborhood.

So please bear with me as we get into our summer groove. I have lots of fun things in the works to share with you. But it looks like postings this summer will mostly happen in the evening, as I spend my days playing with my children and keeping up with the fun they are having.

We’ll be doing our second TV Free Summer this year. In return, my girls ask that I keep my computer turned off as well. Plus every time I sit in my desk chair my toddler asks to nurse, and I am trying to avoid her constant requests for that. In addition, when I stop being busy around the house, it seems my children stop being busy too. And then the ruckus begins!

To give you a peak into what I’ve got coming up for you – there are Montessori summer shelves with lessons for 2-6  year-olds, pictures of our new basement spaces for the girls, the results of our “Enchanted Fairyland,” adventures in making our own laundry detergent plus more ideas from Pinterest on homemade cleaning supplies, and the glass containers we are loving while we avoid plastic cups this summer.

So stay tuned, as we find our Summer groove and I make time to document it here – for you.

 

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A Simple Moment

A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.

If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read. 

This is a quick shot I snapped using my iPhone in our poorly lit basement, of my toddler painting with the end of a Napa Cabbage  (if you try this, let it dry out for about two days first).  I was working on tidying up around her – hence the mess blurred out in the photo.

A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.


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Frugal teacher gifts that really ARE from kids

In the final hour, I’m happy to say teacher gifts are done and waiting by the door for tomorrow – which is the last day of school for us.

My children very much want a role in choosing the gifts they give their teachers. They have their teachers for three years, so they really mean a great deal to them. Honestly, it would be awkward if I just bought something at the store for them to give. We have done gift cards before. Gift cards are always good! Kids like gift cards. And they like to give the same kinds of gifts they like to receive.

Tomorrow my oldest daughter will be taking flowers in brightly colored pots with a rainbow theme. The pots were less then $4 a piece and I bought a large flat of 22 flowers from Home Depot to use for all the girls’ teachers. Writing the notes to go along with the flowers was all the girls’ doing. The notes were hot glued to wooden plant markers and stuck in the potting soil.

My oldest daughter has five teachers, and one is a male teacher. She didn’t want to give him flowers so he is getting a jar of pears canned from our backyard pear trees, decorated with a picture of  macaroni and cheese because that’s what he eats for lunch while sitting with the students.

My middle daughter chose to use my idea of painting old cans (that on found on Pinterest), because she wanted a handle on her gifts so she should easily carry them. So I made that happen by putting two holes in the upcycled cans and using jute twine for a handle, which is displayed in the last photo. 

For the note in my toddler’s upcycled cans, she painted a picture by stamping the end of a Napa Cabbage into paint, and onto the paper. This was great fun! Then I cut up the painting and used it to write the note on for the flowers. 

Here’s a few photos of the process of creating the upcycled can arrangements, with my toddler helping. Don’t forget to put a hole in the bottom of the can for the water to drain. We put two holes on the sides too, to make a handle with jute twine. The last photo shows how that worked out for my toddler, carrying the flowers to her teacher at the end of the year picnic Thursday night. It was an extra step, but I really recommend it. Plus the bow on the front is cute too.

The names of my children have been blurred out on their cards for privacy. I know it’s one tiny thing compared to all I share here. But if feels like the right thing to do, withholding there names from the internet world. So that’s what I do. 

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Homemade carnival games and kid-made party ideas

Last weekend we went to a birthday party for an eight-year-old who wanted a fairy party, in a park, with carnival games and volleyball playing. Lucky for her, we have a park that fit the bill. And she has a mom who embraces these ideas, helping her make them happen.

I thought some of the ideas were so great I wanted to share them with you.

I’ll start with the carnival games, made and designed by the eight-year-old herself. With a prize area that included the children making their own goodie bags with stickers, erasers, hair clips and candy.

Other activities included decorating a beach ball and making a fairy wand, kid-ideas inspired by supplies from the dollar store.

The mom and daughter made the homemade cookie cake together, using special chocolate produced in a facility with no nuts since her little sister has a nut allergy. The birthday girl requested a bake potato bar for the main entree at the party, with hot potatoes and all the fixings laid out from home. There was also butterfly shaped sandwiches with decorative flowers, which was what my daughter chose.

It was a fun time for all ages.

With lots of fun for the birthday girl. She is a special friend of ours, that we have known since these two girls where babies. They were part of our very first play dates we had when we moved to Knoxville in 2005. And the moment I saw their matching stroller in the driveway, I knew us mamas would be good friends. They are neighbors of ours. And they give us one more reason to renovate our house instead of moving. Happy birthday girl. Here’s to the next eight years!

 

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