The Countdown Has Begun!

Thirty days to write a Novel? Impossible, you say?

Hundreds of thousands have participated in National Novel Writing Month (including myself). Thousands have completed the challenge of writing 175 pages of a Novel (more like a Novella) during the month of November. Five pages a day, every day.

Today is the start of National Novel Writing Month. How exciting!

This year, I have way too much on my plate. One of these days. One of these days. As I have mentioned before, successfully completing NaNoWriMo is on my Current Bucket List.

My first attempt was 7 years ago. I think it's wonderful how much NaNoWriMo has grown in the past 7 years. 

Now, they even have a fantastic program called the Young Writers Program. Perfect for a very organized Teacher or Homeschooling Family.

You can find out more about NaNoWriMo right here.

Best of Luck to all those "NaNoWriMo Writers" out there!

Reggio: Mirrors and Glass Stones

 

 

 

I first heard about Reggio Emilia Approach to Education when my Mother was back in school studying to be an Art Teacher, many moons ago. I vaguely remember her telling me about the "100 Languages of Children."

 

I stumbled across an interesting-sounding Reggio Playgroup for children 6 months-30 months that is held at Glen Echo Park. Unfortunately, Nye-Nye is now too old to join.

 

I started doing a little research and quickly discovered Kate's gorgeous and inspiring blog "An Everyday Story." She has a little girl close in age to Nye-Nye, so her blog has given me TONS of ideas of future activities.

 

Here is our first Reggio-inspired Provocation.

 

Mirrors and Glass Stones and Sunlight.

 

I spent $2 each on two bags of Glass Stones and $7 on a Mirror from a local Thrift Store. Hours of fun for $11. Not bad.

 

Nye-Nye is NOT wanting to be photographed these days, so I was only able to snap one photo of her in action when I first introduced the Glass Stones. She also really wanted me to sit next to her and join in all the fun. Making patterns with the Glass Stones turned out to be very meditative. I highly recommend it!

 

An Everyday Story is chocked full of Reggio-inspired activities and has inspired me to start using high-quality Art Supplies with my Toddler. I will be sharing our experiences over the next few weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Baby Birds Left the Nest

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a short month, we had the most amazing live Science Project happening right outside our Living Window. Watching the Mama Robin build her nest, sit on her eggs and take care of her babies after they hatched was completely awe-inspiring. The babies grew up and flew away in less than two weeks. We were so proud.

Talk about a "teachable moment."

Mama Robin wasn't too happy with our interest. But, I appreciate her choosing our ledge to give us a peek into her family's life. We are now studying all about birds, especially robins.

I can't wait to share with you some of the materials we are using and some of our projects.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Port Discovery Play Date Mondays

There are so many amazing places to take children to in the DC/MD/NOVA area. Port Discovery is near the top of my list. It is a truly phenomenal Children's Museum and is well worth the drive to Baltimore, if you live in DC or NOVA.

We have a membership there, so I was thrilled to hear that this Summer during July and August NO CAMP GROUPS are allowed. Perfect.

There is a wonderful area called Tot Trails for babies and toddlers. Its a safe, interesting space to let your little one crawl or run around (plus there is a nifty sandbox...see the photo above).

Wonders of Water includes raincoats and water shoes for your child to borrow. What kid doesn't ADORE water play?

I can't wait to take my girls this Summer.

Go Raid Your Junk Drawer for This Awesome Valentine

Source

I was smitten with this Valentine a few years ago. Design*Sponge has the most amazing Valentines! For our First Valentine's Day together, I started making one for Papa Bear, but ended up giving him something else.

My daughter is too young for this type of project, but I am thinking maybe next year. I think this would be terrific project for a preschooler.

Puzzle pieces would be perfect. A wine cork, an old key, a popsicle stick, a pinecone, an interesting tiny twig. The child could paint all the pieces made out of wood and cardboard. An adult could spray paint anything made out of metal or plastic.

It would be tons of fun to harness all that energy and get your child to clean out their toy-box a bit. Everyone could paint and then the adult could hot glue the found objects down on some foam core. Amazing.

Can you think of any other found objects that could be used?

Mushroom Gardening with Children

Oyster Mushrooms 8 (Photo credit: portmanteaus)

It is always heartening to hear about companies coming up with clever, sustainable ideas. One such company, Back to the Roots, has created an easy mushroom kit that starts fruiting after only 10 days.

In 2009, two recent MBA graduates, Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez, stumbled upon the idea of "growing mushrooms on used coffee grounds". Typically, mushrooms are grown on tree logs, but oyster mushrooms also do well growing growing on a "waste" material that usually ends up in the land-fill.

Arora and Velez knew nothing about mushroom farming, but when they found a free source of coffee grounds, they began experimenting. They started selling their oyster mushrooms to Alice Water's Chez Panisse and Whole Foods. Peet's Coffeehouse ended up paying them to haul away their coffee grounds, which means that Back to the Roots (BTTR) not only got their mushroom substrate for free, they were making a little bit of revenue from the exchange. Last year, BBTR, diverted 3.6 million pounds of waste from the land-fill!

After much tweaking, BBTR, designed a simple Mushroom Garden that only requires you to mist it with water twice a day. You cut open the window, mist using the spray mister included, sit the kit on a window-sill and then harvest your pearl oyster mushrooms! You can grow up to 1 1/2 lbs of mushrooms per box and will get at least 2 crops, maybe more. You can use the mix of left-over mushroom roots and coffee grounds as a soil amendment for any outdoor plants, when you are finished harvesting your crops. Pretty cool, right?

Each kit costs $20 and can be found in many Whole Food, Home Depot, Safeway, Nordstrom, Bed, Bath and Beyond stores. Or you can buy it directly from Back to the Roots. They even have a kit that you can decorate yourself. Talk about a cool hands-on Science Project for children. I can't wait to get ours!

Homemade Bathtime Paint



I haven't been doing many Art Projects with my toddler since making Valentines with her last year. Honestly, she's still has a tendency to put chalk and crayons in her mouth and has turned up her nose at several projects I've introduced, so I haven't been pushing much Art Making.

 

With this recent cold spell, we've been spending our days indoors. I decided to introduce some sensory baths to give her something new to do. I love the idea of letting her get nice and dirty and then being able to immediately wash everything off without having to go anywhere.

 

I squirted some organic baby bubble bath in some clean yogurt cups, mixed in some cornmeal and added a few drops of food coloring. Nothing original, but super easy and quick. I figured most of the paint would not be going in her mouth, so the food dye was okay.

 

I filled an paint palette with the paint and threw in some old brushes and sponges. She sat in the bathtub with no water in it for 45 minutes completely engrossed in painting herself and the tub. Then, I slowly added the water and she stayed for another 45 minutes. Success!!!

 

This is a terrific Middle-of-the-Day-You-are-so-Getting-on-my-Nerves Kind of Day Activity.

 

 

 

My Daughter's First Science Project

My parents gave me a Microgreens Kit for Christmas. I'm attempting to eat 6-8 servings of vegetables and fruit each day and instead of spending loads of money on organic greens in the Winter, I figured it would be more fun and cheaper to grow our own. I thought it would be a cool Science Project. I was right.

Nye-Nye LOVES to use a spray-bottle. For the first 5 days, you need to spray the seeds every 12 hours and keep them covered. My daughter may spray them a little bit more than necessary. But, her enthusiasm hasn't seem to hurt their growth. She gets so excited when we remove the cover to see how much her seeds have grown. It's pretty amazing.

After 5 days of darkness, you then uncover the tray and put it in sunlight for another 5 days. Typically, no more watering is necessary, although it is a good idea to check the growing pad every day just to be on the safe side. We are letting our first crop get a little bit bigger and forgot to water it after day 5. All the plants fell over on their side. They all mostly perked up after we watered the growing pad again.

Due to my child's love of spraying, we plan on starting another crop. We first grew Arugula and a Basic Salad Mix. Next up is a Spicy Salad Mix.

I set up the kit without my child around. She's not quite at the point of being able to help with carefully soaking the growing pads and evenly sprinkling a tablespoon or so of the seeds over the soaked growing pad. One of the most important things you need to do is check the ph level of your water and adjust the water accordingly. Set-up takes about 10 minutes. It takes less than 10 minutes a day to spray them twice. Talk about low maintenance.

It may seem expensive spending up to $20 on a pound of seeds but you are only using a tablespoon of seeds at a time. My kit is from The Sproutpeople and I have been very, very happy with it so far! It's such a cheerful act growing little plants in the Winter!

Putting the Movement Back

MLK Memorial (Photo credit: alvesfamily)

 

Today, is a special day. Not only are we remembering the Courage and Conviction of Martin Luther King, Jr. but our 44th President is being Sworn-in for a second term. In honor of MLK Day occurring on the same day as his Inauguration, President Obama is calling for a National Day of Service.

I'm thinking that something simple we could do would be to go for a walk on one of the trails along the Potomac and pick up trash. It would be fun to see the Capital Building and all the Monuments across the river (and not have to deal with all the traffic and people). The wonderful blog Kidfriendly DC has a list of tons of activities for children in DC celebrating the Inauguration.

One of my favorite things about living in the NOVA/DC area is the bookstore Busboys and Poets.  The bookstore is run by the staff of Teaching for Change, a non-profit devoted to providing "teachers and parents with the tools to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write, and change the world." Pretty exciting stuff.

"Teaching for Change" is a amazing resource whether you are a teacher or a parent unschooling, homeschooling or just encouraging your child to become a life-time learner. In honor of MLK and President Obama's Inauguration, I want to mention the book Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching.

When I was teaching at a Friends School, I discovered this book; it's full of some very brave and sometimes very ordinary people and deserves to be read and used in every classroom. There are tons of primary sources from such activists and writers as Leonard Peltier, Marcus Garvey, Ward Churchhill, Sonia Sanchez and Gwendolyn Brooks. Not only are there lessons on lesser known part of the African-American Civil Rights Movements but the Native American, Latina, Asian-American, Gay Rights and Women's Right Movements are also examined. There are numerous ideas for teaching students from Pre-School until High School.

I can't wait until my daughter is a little older and I can start using this fantastic resource!

A Helpful Video on Making Beeswax Candles

beeswax candles (Photo credit: The Year of Mud)

Hurricane Sandy made me realize that beside a few flashlights, my family doesn't have a lot of lighting sources when the power goes out. I am hoping to remedy this situation, over the next few weeks, by making some "Beeswax Candles."

I am always on the look-out for fun and useful crafts to give as Christmas presents. My Mama already has a candle mold, so all I have to do is buy a few pounds of beeswax from a local bee-keeper and hunt down a good source for wicks.

Obviously, this is not a toddler-friendly craft. But, you can't have everything, right?

The video is kinda long at 13 minutes, but it answered all my questions on how to make beeswax tapers. This would be a terrific craft to do with older Elementary and Middle-school students on a rainy or snowy day. Enjoy!

Keeping Busy Before, During and After Hurricane Sandy

The Day Before Sandy. Bringing in the newspaper during her morning ritual with Papa.

During Sandy. Making noodles for Slippery Chicken Pot-Pie with Ra-Ra and Aunt Mimi.

During Sandy. So much fun rolling out the dough.

During Sandy. Helping Ra-Ra with her Holiday Clove Ball.

After Sandy. Making Elderberry Syrup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Sandy. Driving around the area, assessing the damage. Thankfully, not as much as there could have been if the Hurricane had moved slower through our area.

 

 

 



After Sandy. Getting some much needed fresh air.

 

 

After Sandy. Who can resist a giant pile of sawdust? Not Nye-Nye. She had loads of fun exploring Papa's Cabinet-shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Sandy. Helping Ra-Ra again on this Never-Ending project.

 

 

 

 

After Sandy. Getting a good look at all the fields. Thankfully, Papa got in all the soybeans before Sandy arrived.

 

 

After Sandy. A much deserved nap.

 

 

The Month of Courage: Teaching for Change

Source

One of my favorite things about living in the NOVA/DC area is the bookstore Busboys and Poets.  The bookstore is run by the staff of Teaching for Change, a non-profit devoted to providing "teachers and parents with the tools to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write, and change the world." Pretty exciting stuff.

Teaching for Change is a fanstastic resource whether you are a teacher or a parent unschooling, homeschooling or just encouraging your child to become a life-time learner. In honor of MLK and the fearless work he did, I am sharing the book Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching with you today.

When I was teaching at a Friends school, I discovered this book; it's full of some very brave people and deserves to be read and used in every classroom.