a place to meet, play & inspire

In random order, this is an agenda of what we will do today:  read more »

Where to even begin?  Spring!   The children have gone gangbusters with playing outdoors thanks to Tim and the playhouse he purchased for the girls.  He scrimped and saved his money for a while by selling items on Ebay from both his aircraft and monster model collections.  You should have seen their eyes when the realized it was theirs!  Worth every penny.  It was one of  those rare moments I have as a parent when I applaud capitalism and the acquisition of more stuff.  This was hand made by a local craftsman.  Yay, local.  Yay, Am  read more »

This morning I was not at all in the mood for children, but K insisted on walking up the road searching for vernal pools.  Earlier in the month I explained them to the children, pointed some out as we drove by,  and got a poster which depicts a typical Maine vernal pool.  I tried everything to get out of it but in the end we did it.  It is not one of my prettier moments this trying to squash her desire to seek out information.  It turned out to be a wonderful, interesting event!  There is some snow melt that has pooled in several areas near  read more »

An article I read last night in Natural Child Magazine...a good read.

Nurturing the Playful Mind by Peter Emmenegger

http://inquisitivekid.ca/newsletters/Natural%20Child%20May_June%202008.pdf

We were having a snack of cheese and crackers. The boys like to make sandwiches (one cheese between two crackers) with theirs. I asked N how many he wanted...he said, "two sandwiches...that's two cheeses and four crackers, mom." I gave him what he asked for, and then S said, "I want three sandwiches...how many crackers and cheeses is that?" N spoke right up and said, "six crackers, three cheeses." For kids who have never had a math lesson and learned this all on their own, I'm impressed. :)

The girls awakened at 1:41 a.m. to begin their Easter celebration. The moon was so bright, they thought it was dawn. We sent them back to bed but they struggled to return to sleep. Egg hunting had them more excited than Christmas.

Around 6:15 is when they arose. They tore through the house finding strategically hidden eggs. They get the biggest thrill out of finding eggs in places like daddy's shoe, the flour, in the paws of their stuffed dog, and on the leaves of a plant. They were in a fantastic, happy mood all day.  read more »

Great gosh-a-mighty, time sure flies! If you were to ask me what I've been up to for the past almost two weeks, I couldn't tell you.

The girlies have been on a Pocahontas kick ever since seeing the movie two weeks + ago. They built a teepee in our front-room-cum-sewing area-cum-classroom. They have been astoundingly sweet with allowing the baby to accompany them on their adventures.

At some point in the recent past we started seedlings. {{Gardening!}} That led to a mini study of seeds. We tore out a few sprouted seeds and dissected them.  read more »

N had just jumped over the three steps from the kitchen down into the garage, and was trying to convince S to do the same. S said he was scared, and that he might "break his leg." N thought for a minute and said, "Would you do it for a Scooby Snack???"

S jumped.

G (~22 months) was having a snack at the table last week. I was in the kitchen, and he came in, signing and saying "more". I wasn't sure what he wanted more OF, so I said, "more what?" He thought for a second, and said, "more, pwease." I actually was a little surprised at this reaction from him, since I *never* MAKE them say please, thank you, or anything like that.  read more »

We were out at a shopping plaza parking lot this evening. As we're driving past HUGE mountains of snow (we got over a foot of snow last weekend), S says, "boy, someone is a good shoveler!" :)