Muth’s Zen Shorts is one of our favorite picture books. His accessible retelling of famous Zen stories packaged in a visually delightful format make this book a great way to encourage mindfulness in children and adults.
My boys were initially drawn in by the gorgeous illustrations. Muth’s beautifully rendered watercolors are full of color and light, and wonderfully express the humor and serenity of the points he’s trying to convey.… Continue reading
The other day, my 6-year-old stumbled upon an origami book on our bookshelf. As he looked through it, the paper balloons intrigued him. He immediately set to work on trying to fold his own. And after a few tries and some help from me in interpreting some of the more complicated portions of the instructions, he was able to fold a paper balloon on his own.… Continue reading
It’s probably the math fan in me, but as soon as I saw romanesco available at our local market, I had to buy it and try it. Yes, it’s a cruciferous vegetable. Yes, I’m sure it’s very healthy (lots of vitamins C and K, carotenoids, and, of course, fiber). But my decision to purchase was mostly from an aesthetic perspective.
Spirals occur in many places in nature: snail shells, some flowers, pinecones, DNA, pineapples, and even our galaxy.… Continue reading
Today it is cold and very, very snowy. In spite of the lovely weather we had last week, spring feels a long time off.
This made today a great day to examine flower petals, with our hands, our minds, and our imaginations.
We engaged all of our senses as we looked at the various petals. We looked at them first with our naked eyes, and then with a magnifying glass.… Continue reading
Making Valentines is a great way to learn about symmetry.
The simplest type of symmetry is reflection symmetry. In this type of symmetry, one side of an object reflects the other side. This is the type of symmetry we see if we place a mirror in the middle of something, so we see the one half reflected to make a whole.… Continue reading
My 6-year-old decided that he wanted to paint a life-size picture of himself. He also wanted to paint a life-size picture of his brother.
To help him to accomplish this, we took two large pieces of paper from our paper roll, one sized for him and one sized for his brother. I then had him lay down and I traced all around his body, starting with his head and working my way down to his feet.… Continue reading
My boys and I love silly rhymes, so I was excited when I stumbled upon this wonderful book of whimsical poems and illustrations. Florian filled Omnibeasts full of delightful short poems that seamlessly combine fun, wit, and fact.
In one of our favorites, Florian writes [in successively smaller font], “The itty-bitty, pretty tetra / Is small, minute, petite, et cetra.” In another, he describes the praying mantis: “Upon a twig / I sit and pray / For something big / To wend my way; / A caterpillar, / Moth, / Or bee — / I swallow them / Religiously.”… Continue reading
Yesterday it snowed all day, and we ended up with almost a foot of snow. Today it’s in the mid-50s, and the snow in our yard is rapidly melting. The bright sun shining makes today a perfect day for painting snow mandalas.
To make snow paint, I simply mixed food coloring with water, and then sent my boys outside with containers of paints and paint brushes.… Continue reading
Little Libraries are a fun and easy way to foster and build community. Well, it’s relatively simple once your community has a Little Library in place.
If your community doesn’t have one, you may be wondering what constitutes a Little Library. A Little Library is a place where community members can exchange books for free. It’s generally a cabinet of some kind that is set up outside, often in a park, on a street corner, in a parking lot, or even in someone’s front yard.… Continue reading
Once a month, our local Natural History Museum puts on a Family Day. Each family day consists of several hands-on experiments, activities, and art projects that all center on the day’s particular focus. Today’s focus was Dogs.
Today my boys watched a demonstration of dog agility put on by the local Humane Society. They learned about how dogs use body language to communicate, and made their own dog ears and tail so that they too could communicate like a dog.… Continue reading