One of the things I strive to instill in my children is that learning is a lifelong endeavor. We will always have things to learn (no one knows everything!). In fact, I often remind them, the more we learn, the more we realize we don’t know. Learning not only teaches us, it helps to ask more and better questions.
So many people in our culture see admitting that they don’t know something as a sign of weakness. … Continue reading
Part of helping kids to grow is challenging them to explore and utilize the myriad of intellegences that reside in their bodies. Gross motor skills, emotions, logical reasoning, fine motor skills, empathy, planning, and on and on and on.
I try hard to teach these different things to my children through interactions in our everyday lives. I include them in my own efforts and learning (see HERE). … Continue reading
There are many things I want my children to know before they grow up and leave our house. I want them to learn to sew. They need to learn to clean up after themselves (see HERE), and how to clean a house (see HERE). They need to learn how to manage their finances (see HERE, HERE, and HERE). … Continue reading
I love winter squash. When a friend offered me some mystery squash, I gladly took three. She explained that a large harvest of volunteer squash had come up in her garden. She had no idea what kind of cross-pollinated squash they might be.
While she warned me that what type of flesh lay inside was a mystery, I felt inspired by Ma in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter:
“Hurry and get the work done,” said Ma.… Continue reading
The other day I was baking with my 5-year-old. We were making Grain-Free Bread (recipe HERE). He was helping me scrape down the sides of my stand mixer (I have an old model of THIS) when suddenly the spatula he was holding went right through the beaters. Yikes!
Thankfully he let go of the spatula as soon as he felt something was off. … Continue reading
My 9-year-old loves inventing and building things. Sometimes he sees an idea somewhere and decides to build or make something similar of his own. Sometimes he sees an object, figures out a way to improve upon the design, and sets about creating his own improved version. And, sometimes, he sees a need for something and comes up with a way to meet that need through something he imagines and then makes.… Continue reading
Skip-Bo is a fun card game the whole family can enjoy. The rules are fairly simple, and you can learn them quickly. And it’s an easy enough game that almost anyone who is able to recognize and sequence their numbers can play.
We’ve played with anywhere from 2 to 6 people, and had fun with each different grouping. If you added a second deck of cards, you could easily have more people join in the game.… Continue reading
My boys love books with which they can sing along. Over the years we’ve collected a large number of such books. These are books where someone has taken a song – generally a well-known song, illustrated it, and published it as a book. The result is the fun of singing, all of the words right there on the page (in case you don’t know them all), and beautiful illustrations to go along with them.… Continue reading
Each week we give our boys an allowance. We don’t tie receiving this money to anything in particular. We consider doing chores and helping around the house to simply be part of living within our household; it is not reason for payment. I think it’s important for kids to have their own money to spend, and I think the time to start an allowance is whenever they begin to realize the purpose and power of money.… Continue reading
Last week my 4-year-old decided to build a block tower. He wanted to build a tower that went “way above [his] head.”
First, he asked if I could build the tower with him. However, I was busy cooking. I told my son that he would have to wait until I finished or he could do it on his own.
Then he went to ask his big brother’s assistance. … Continue reading