Category: All posts

Yoga for Kids: Gettin’ Buggy With It

By Mariah Bruehl, 21st April 2014

Monique of Green Acorns is with us today with to share some inspiring spring yoga poses for the little yogis on our lives…

Nature is a source of wonder for our children and Yoga provides an engaging and fun means of expression and further exploration of that nature. Children can imagine taking on the qualities of the natural elements that exists around them and, in doing so, deepen their connection.

This month, taking inspiration from my children’s interest in the reawakening of life after a long winter, we will explore some of the smaller creatures found in our yards: insects! In this yoga sequence, we’ll be gettin’ buggy with it. If the weather permits, spend some time outside observing the insects you see. How do they move? Are they fast or slow? Do they make a sound? How do they position their bodies at rest? What are they busy doing? You and your child may also like to look at the beautiful book Step Gently Out by Helen Frost before you begin for further inspiration.

I hope you and your child enjoy and that it inspires a curiosity and appreciation for all life, big and small!

Audio Books for Kids

By Mariah Bruehl, 7th April 2014

We adore audio books and have gathered a rather large collection over the last few years. Listening to audio books is a great way for young children to internalize the fluency and expression that comes from reading longer chapter books. It is helpful to have them follow along with a hard copy of the book, running their finger across the text as they listen.

Today I wish to share with you a collection of audio books that we have enjoyed as a family. We often listen to them at bedtime.

Wildwood | Carson Ellis and Colin Melloy Performed by Amanda Plummer
Under Wildwood | Carson Ellis and Colin Melloy: We are yet to listen to their book as we are still reading Wildwood. This series is aimed at a more mature reading age group, 8 plus. Little R has enjoyed Wildwood. We are taking it slowly and spending a lot of time immersing ourselves in the beautiful rich vocabulary.
The BFG | Roald Dahl Perfromed by Geoffery Palmer: There is an entire series of Roald Dahl books as audio, which our six year old adores: Fantastic Mr Fox, Danny the Champion of the World (this is our favorite), The Magic Finger, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Enormous Crocodile
The Magic Faraway Tree | Enid Blyton Performed by Kate Winslet: Kate Winslet does the most beautiful characterizations in this audio story. I could listen to her voice day in and day out, and her intonation is perfect.
Lost and Found | Oliver Jeffers
The Heart and the Bottle | Oliver Jeffers read by Helena Bonham Carter
The Incredible Book Eating Boy | Oliver Jeffers
The Gruffalo | Julia Donaldson
The Gruffalo’s Child | Julia Donaldson
Harry Potter | JK Rowling
Brown Bear and Friends | Bill Martin, Eric Carle Performed by Gwenyth Paltrow
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt | Michael Rosen

We hope you enjoy them as much as we have…

Crafts For Kids: DIY Springtime Masks

By Mariah Bruehl, 1st April 2014

Randi from Swoon is with us today to share some easy and fun springtime masks for the little bunnies in our lives.

The transition from winter to spring is a gorgeous one. The world around us is filled with beauty and the promise of new life. My children have been dying to spot a mama duck with a nice family of chicks in tow (no luck yet), and we’ve been finding all sorts of excuses to pick the freshly grown flowers from the yard and bring them inside. The signs of spring also tend to show up in our crafts.

Last year we came up with these paper bunny masks and they were a hit! We decided to make them again this year, but thought we should add a baby chick friend into the mix too. These masks are simple to make, fun to decorate, and even more fun to play with!

Materials needed:

–bunny mask template, baby chick template

-scissors

-hole punch

-markers, paint, stickers, sequins (anything you can dream of to decorate your mask!)

-ribbon or twine

1. Print mask templates and fold in half.

2. Cut along the dotted lines. Small children will need help cutting out the eyes.

3. Unfold mask and lay flat. Gently fold the nose of the mask over so it lays over the front of the mask.

4. Decorate! We traced the template on to watercolor paper and painted them with watercolors this time, but the possibilities are endless.

5. Punch a hole on each side and tie a short piece of twine to each side. Tie around child’s head and have fun!

How to Raise Inquisitive Children

By Mariah Bruehl, 27th March 2014

Nuria from the The Adventures Archive is here today to share useful tips for raising inquisitive children…

Children are natural born explorers. As babies they mainly use their hands to make sense of the world around them. But as soon as they start talking, asking questions is their way of fueling their never ending curiosity.

Your child may use questions to get your attention. He may want to establish contact with the adult world or he may be seeking clues to build his own opinion on things. Whatever the reason, encouraging him to ask freely about anything and everything will boost his confidence and promote his curiosity.

When the physicist Isidor Rabi accepted his Nobel Prize in 1944 he dedicated it to his mother: “Every other mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: So? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. ‘Izzy,’ she would say, ‘Did you ask a good question today?’ That difference — asking good questions — made me become a scientist.”

There are many ways to stimulate your kid’s inquisitiveness and help him to be even more perceptive. Here are a few ideas:

Ask questions: if you ask him often about things he will learn to ask too.

Talk to him about arguments that will make him think. Start conversations about love, values, the world… You will activate his capacity to build his own opinions and you will learn what sort of things interest him.

Establish an open atmosphere at home: create an environment where your child feels free to express himself. If you talk openly about everything your kid will soon learn that no question is uncomfortable and that any argument is valid to start a conversation.

When reading a story or watching a movie stop before the ending and ask him “How do you think this is going to end?”

Ask “Why do you think this is?” You will develop his critical thinking and motivate him to find answers by himself hence promoting his independence.

Don’t make up the answers by yourself: when talking about delicate matters it’s better to be honest than to invent improbable answers that would only confuse him more. Be brief, no need for long explanations, a concise straight answer will probably satisfy him. If your kid senses that you are making up your answers he will lose trust in you as a confidante.

If you don’t know the answer just say so. Tell him “Let’s find out!” and find time to search for the answer with him. That way your child will learn that it is okay not to know things and will be less embarrassed to ask next time.

Have a special place at home for the “Question of the Week.”

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Meaningful Literacy: Vegetable Stones for the Kitchen Garden

By Mariah Bruehl, 25th March 2014

I think the dream to carve out a little spot in our yards to grow our own produce is a common one. Growing and nurturing something with our own hands has given our little family such a deep sense of joy and connectedness; to each other, to our food and to this space in our yard.

We started creating our first kitchen garden about three months ago. We still have a lot to learn about soil preparation, crop rotation and natural pest control but this space has provided such wonderful opportunities for learning for our children; we planted the seeds together, watched as they grew from seedlings into plants and eventually produced delicious vegetables…which almost always get picked by tiny helping hands and straight into little bellies. However my children are learning more than how to raise and nurture seeds, this kitchen garden is also providing opportunities for meaningful literacy.

These little vegetable stones were an opportunity for my son Jack (5yrs) to write in a purposeful and meaningful way. These vegetable stones were for our garden; their garden.

I collected small clippings from different plants for my son to identify and match to the word card which I had written in both lower-case and capital letters. He then used these word cards to create his vegetable markers using some beautifully smooth beach stones and a permanent marker.

My children really enjoyed creating these stones for their vegetable garden. Over the next few days they added more stones under more plants.

I think it is so important for children to have opportunities to read and write in meaningful ways; writing for a reason, reading to discover something, in this way we can help to nurture and preserve that innate drive to learn and help to keep learning connected to real life. Whether it’s by helping to write shopping lists, reading steps in a recipe, or creating vegetable markers from stones, we can gently encourage literacy by engaging our children in meaningful tasks which are relevant to our children’s lives.

More about our kitchen garden here, and our homeschool routine as well.

Traveling with the Kids: 4 Tips for Better Packing

By Mariah Bruehl, 20th March 2014

Adrienn is with us today with some great tips for packing and traveling with kids.

With spring break around the corner reevaluating our packing habits can be a rewarding process.

I love to travel and I especially adore staying in cozy hotels. To make myself at home I had this ritual of unpacking my suitcase and putting everything away in the available closets as soon as possible. Often ten minutes after I got my keys everything was neatly folded and out of sight.

So it took me by surprise that on our latest trip three days had passed and I still dressed the kids out of their big shared travel bag.

It really annoyed me that it took up loads of room, causing me to bump into it every night. Not to speak of the frustrating moments until I found the garments I was looking for. But I avoided the task. Persistently.

It got me thinking. Did I become lazy? Why did I procrastinate such an easy task that I loved doing before?

Here is what I came up with:

Systems or routines that worked before can become outdated, especially with toddlers in tow. When you realize that you avoid doing something, don’t blame yourself.

Take a step back and analyze the deeper reasons behind your lack of action.

1. Do the math: Block out enough time in advance so you don’t become discouraged.When I traveled on my own I had to unpack only my stuff. Now I need to unpack mine plus the bag of my kids as well. No wonder it takes triple the time. Seems obvious but my sweet ritual became a bigger deal, causing me to procrastinate it forever.

2. Divide and conquer: Store their belongings separate for easy access and quicker unpacking. One big bag for my two kids creates just chaos and doesn’t work anymore. Clothes get mixed up immediately making me resist to put them away. My munchkins will get a personalized travel bag to make things easier.

3. It’s not your fault: You are not lazy and you procrastinate for a reason. There are things you can’t change like available closet space in hotel rooms or guest bedrooms. On our recent trip we had one big closet but a lack of shelves made it nearly impossible to store our stuff let alone the various children clothes. Count on it and be prepared. If your kids have to live out of their bags make the best out of it. Try to put the outfits for each day in labeled zip lock bags. Same goes for pajamas. This works particularly well when they stay at Grandparents. Your Mum or Mother in law will be grateful!

4. Change your rituals: Find out the reason you liked them in the first place and come up with something that still works for you. I had to let go of my desire to unpack immediately as a way to make myself at home. Next time I will try to achieve this goal by giving me one more day and maybe even enlist the help of my little ones…

Now tell me, do you have a special way of packing for trips and is it still working?

Helpful Links:

Designing Spaces for Children: Transparency

By Mariah Bruehl, 18th March 2014

The word transparency holds multiple meanings. It refers to the transmission of light through an object, such as a window or piece of fabric, and can also serve as a metaphor for visibility – making visible what is valued, what has happened, and what is underway.

So, how might you consider transparency when designing spaces for children?

One way to begin is looking at the environment from the perspective of a child. What happens when you position yourself at the eye-level of a child? What do you see? Is the furniture setup to encourage exploration in an open and inviting way? Are materials easily accessible and organized in a way that makes sense? “Seeing” supports autonomy and independent thinking, as children learn how to access the materials needed to support and extend their learning.

Glass jars have a way of making small objects look like precious things, just waiting to be discovered. Using transparent containers to hold objects highlights their attributes and can reveal rich details that may otherwise go unnoticed. Additionally, including light tables, mirrors, and other objects that catch and reflect light can invoke a sense of wonder and inspire new ways of thinking.

Transparency connects you to the outside world. Do you have windows in your space? How might they be used to invite further exploration? In this photo, a plant clipping is placed in a glass jar and set on the windowsill where children can observe the regrowth of its roots.

The spaces we create for children ultimately communicate our values. When we display children’s artwork along with photographs and other forms of documentation, we give visibility to their unique process of learning.

Where does transparency exist in your spaces for children? How do you make your values visible?

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For more inspiration on creating spaces for children, check out our Playful Learning Spaces Workshop.

Start: November 4, 2014

End: November 21, 2014

To register, click here.

Studying Phenology with Time-Lapse

By Mariah Bruehl, 13th March 2014

Last spring I wrote about introducing phenology to children and how to incorporate it into their nature journaling practice. It is such an effective way to for anyone to connect with and deepen understanding of the activities and cycles of nature. It engages children’s curiosity and promotes skills of observation and inquiry. Children are, in essence, conducting their own research: they study changes and consistencies over time, make predictions based on their collected observations, and communicate them in their journals.

A great way to make it a family activity is to become citizen scientists together. Here are some sites to explore:

Nature’s Notebook
Project BudBurst
Project FeederWatch
Find more citizen science projects listed here and here

Another fun way to incorporate phenology into nature study and journaling is to create a time-lapse project. It has certainly peaked my children’s interests and is adding an extra element of fun and anticipation to their nature study. These two short videos are quite inspiring:

Monarch butterfly emerging

Dandelion flower

To get started, decide as a family on a project that will take place over a relatively short time period such as capturing a seedling growing or a flower blooming. Take at least one photo per day as soon as there is a hint of plant growth or a flower bud. You may even want to take two per day as changes can happen quickly. You could also choose to do a long-term project such as capturing the changes of a particular tree throughout the seasons. For a project like this I would suggest taking one photo per week, at about the same time of day if possible, throughout the year. Mark your calendar with a note or camera symbol to help you remember. Enable your child to do the photographing. Don’t worry about things being perfect. It is more important that your child is engaged and feels a sense of ownership. If you must do the photographing just be sure that your child is with you. Look closely together and discuss your observations.

No matter how long of a project you and your child embark on there are some basic requirements:

Mark your subject with a ribbon or other removable marker if it is not easily locatable. You want to be sure to photograph the exact same plant, flower, branch, etc.
Use a tripod.
Frame up the photo as consistently as possible.
Edit your photos for even more consistency.

Now, you could stop here. Print out the photos, paste in sequence into a nature journal, and label each with the date and observations. It would be a meaningful addition to any nature study. You could also use the photos to create your own video. You will need an application like iMovie, QuickTime Pro, or PhotoLapse. There are also apps for your smartphone. Just remember that the video examples above are done by an expert in a controlled studio environment. The video you and your child create will probably have a choppy effect and a bit of a flicker due to lighting differences. That’s okay. Remember that the point of the project is to capture the changes of your subject over time and create a visual to accompany your child’s phenology study.

Nature in Your Craft Box

By Mariah Bruehl, 10th March 2014

Joey from Made by Joey is with us today to share some ideas and inspiration for encouraging the little makers in our lives.

Including natural objects in your craft box not only expands the creative experience but opens up so many learning opportunities with your little ones.

Humans have been creating and learning with natural objects for 1000’s of years. The planet is abundant with natural supplies – some commonly found throughout the world, others unique to one specific area.

When out collecting natural materials from your area, always remind your child how delicate the earth’s ecosystem is, and that you will only be collecting a limited amount, so that other creatures also have what they need.

What kind of supplies should you collect?

Here are a few suggestions:

different colors and shapes of leaves * pine cones * acorns * empty nut shells * fallen bark * moss * rose hips * skeleton leaves * seed heads * different types of rocks * abandoned shells * driftwood * nut shells * flowers for pressing * abandoned egg shells * feathers

Continue to explore nature throughout the seasons to observe the changes that have occurred and to discover new supplies that are found only during specific seasons. Collecting fallen acorn caps and ‘conkers‘ (horse chestnuts) is something that our family looks forward to every Autumn!

While out searching for your new supplies, ask your child simple questions to start a conversation. As you pick up each leaf, seedpod or shell remark on what the piece reminds you of. For example a piece of driftwood may resemble the body of a duck, or a pine cone the chubby body of a gnome. This invokes the creative mind to see objects beyond simply what they are.

Or you may comment on how a certain shell reminds you of a storybook that you have read with your child or an interesting fact that you learned on a field trip together. Having the child recall the information about the book or experience stimulates the analytical mind and sparks curiosity.

Now what to do with your new found treasures?

To stimulate the artistic mind, I have found the following craft books to be filled with great ideas, techniques and inspiration:

Seashell sorting using a Playful Learning

Mathematicians at Work #14 Printable!

To stimulate the analytical mind use the collected materials as learning aids:

pebbles or shells for counters in Math
create your own Nature Museum
test magnetic principles, buoyancy (does is sink or float?), or electricity (does it conduct electricity?)
botany (species of trees and plants)
life cycles (plant the seedpod to see what grows!)
early man (how they created tools from stones and branches or used berry juice and bark for writing)
birds (empty egg shells, bones, feathers)
paint letters or words on small stones for spelling and sentence structure
look at the items under a microscope

Continue to think about using natural supplies when shopping for additional supplies such as:

natural beeswax instead of paraffin wax
wool felt instead of synthetic fibers
cotton fabrics instead of polyester or rayon
wool or cotton yarn instead of acrylic blends
wool roving instead of polyester stuffing
natural watercolor paints instead of oil-based paints
glass or metal containers instead of plastic options

Dinosaur Books and Apps for Little Ones

By Mariah Bruehl, 5th March 2014

Rebecca from Thirteen Red Shoes is with us today to share some great app and book recommendations for the little dinosaur lovers in our lives…

Little ones usually go through phases of being mesmerized by a specific genre. In our household dinosaurs have come and gone numerous times. Over the last couple of years we have developed a lovely little dinosaur library, as well as a few dinosaur themed iPad apps.

Books:

1. How to be a Dinosaur | Lonely Planet This is filled with information worthy of an encyclopaedia. Lonely Plant do these books so very well. The comic book style illustrations are perfection.

2. Dinosaur A – Z | Sam Mugford This books is a all time favorite. Each page represents a different dinosaur and the pictures are bold and contain details, such as size comparisons to a human adult, as well as how to pronounce the tricky names! Once when we went on an extended holiday I photographed every page so we could still flick through the book on my phone. The Smart Kids books are all brilliant, as is the entire dinosaur range by Priddy Books

3. Yikes, Stinkysaurus! | Pamela Butchart and Sam Lloyd This is perfect for those littles that enjoy a little but of humor of the bathroom variety.

4. There’s a Dinosaur in my Bathtub | Catalina Echeverri A large dinosaur called Pierre found in your bathtub is ever so delightful, especially if he comes from France to visit for the summer.

5. Dinosaur Farm | Fran Preston Gannon Fran Preston Gannon is the recipient of the Sendak Fellowship and has created a delightful tale of being a very special kind of farmer.

6. Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs | Mo Willems I have a soft spot for Mo Willems in our house as my boys adore his quirky style. This books is a take on the traditional Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Educational iPad applications also worth having a little look at if you have children who enjoy this format:

Ansel and Clair Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic

Britannica Kids Dinosaurs (These are three individual apps based on different dinosaur periods)

Enjoy!