PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
June 30, 2009
Patriotic Play-Dough
June 29, 2009
Microcosm
Even though social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are often criticized, I'm a fan of them. I know that they can't come close to one-on-one face time; to a long conversation over coffee, or a walk in the park, or a thoughtful letter sent the old-fashioned way. And my friend's visit this past weekend was a testimony both to the importance of face time, but also to the value of technology in keeping connections alive and possible. I thought a lot this weekend about other old friends--and about how amazing it has been to reconnect with many of them over Facebook. [more]
June 25, 2009
Grow crystals, grow!
For Christmas this past year, my sister gave L. this really nice crystal growing kit which, alas, we haven't tried yet. It's not that he's uninterested in crystal growing, but growing crystals takes time, and patience, and the ability (and desire) to follow some rather lengthy sets of directions in order to achieve the desired results. And while L. [more]
June 16, 2009
Priceless
Monday was declared Mama's Day Off (Summer Session II teaching begins tomorrow) and Scott and I decided the night before that we'd let the kids pick: Mudcats baseball game, or a day at our favorite science museum. We half expected both of them to pick the museum, and were thrown when T. picked the museum and L. picked the baseball game. We then did what all good parents must do when faced with such a choice--we flipped a coin. [more]
June 12, 2009
86 days and counting
I enjoy going to our neighborhood pool--I truly love it. And I definitely enjoy packing a post-swim team practice poolside dinner for us all (well, minus L. who refuses to eat food at the pool). But it's hard work to get it all together some nights--really hard work--made even more difficult when your kids are, after a full two and a half weeks of summer vacation together, starting to get on each other's nerves and you're not only cooking dinner ahead of time, but also playing referee, diplomatic mediator, judge and jury, and sometimes fed-up dictator. [more]
June 10, 2009
Little big engineers
In the never-ending quest to scour the internet and libraries for all science crafts and activities related to L.'s interests I found a great one last week. L. loves to build and design structures, and he has an uncanny ability to render his visions into small, almost-microscopic, blueprint-like form on paper. When he's inspired, he'll sit in his bed with his plastic protractors and compasses and his pencils and painstakingly draw his designs. T. doesn't quite possess this type of focus or interest, but she does love to work with her hands and manipulate objects.
June 8, 2009
Just because
We did something sneaky and wonderful and utterly spontaneous on Friday, because sometimes we're like that. Weeks ago, when Scott and I were sitting side-by-side on the couch making up our course syllabi for the first summer session he told me he was building in an afternoon off--just because, and that I should too. I looked at my syllabus. Maybe I should build in the same day off? Family time ideas began to percolate--a trip to our favorite museum, or better yet, a beach day. One glorious beach day to sit by the ocean, watch L. in his element run and dash into the waves, T. [more]
May 29, 2009
All wrapped up
This has been one long week--so long that by Wednesday I was convinced it really should have been Friday already. Throw in end-of-school year activities and the accompanying stress, preparation for end-of-year IEP meeting, sleep deprivation, the start of swim team practice for T., and the adjustment to a new schedule, and you have a very draining mix to cope with. [more]
- Tags: Summer, Recipes, Food for Thought, Family Activities, Cooking, Children
May 28, 2009
The memory makers
This is what you feed your kids for dinner when they had scones and cream and jam at a tea house at four o'clock, washed down with tea and enough sugar cubes to make you pucker, and then you had the bright idea to take them into an old-fashioned general store--the kind with big glass jars filled with candy--and then you had another brilliant idea and give them 25 cents a piece to pick out candy, which they ate before you even make it to the highway:
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May 18, 2009
You are what you (don't) eat **
On Saturday I did some cleaning in our crawl space, mainly to find a stuffed pumpkin T. decided she absolutely, positively must have at that very moment (we didn't find it, but found lots else). I was going to write today about relics--the things we drag along with us through the years. But then we left on Saturday to go to this, and spent a good couple hours touring chicken coops in the downtown area. I love, love, love the idea of a chicken coop tour. [more]
