Craft Stick Catapult

Michael's eyes light up every time I pull out the tally sticks (craft sticks) as part of our math program. He'll play with them for 15 minutes after the end of a lesson and wanted to use them for art projects.

So when I saw a box of 1000 at the store I got it so I wouldn't need to ration the craft sticks any more.

As the amazingly creative person that I am, all I could think of to make with the craft sticks was this:

Let's just say the children were underwhelmed and leave it at that.

So I went searching the internet for something to wow the children with and I found directions for building a catapult out of craft sticks. Perfect! We spent a very happy two hours building and playing with the catapult. Since then, Michael has slept with it - twice.

After the initial fascination wears thin I think we'll do a few experiments with it. I'll gather a variety of items and we'll guess which will fly the farthest. We'll change out the rubber band for longer and shorter versions and see how that changes the performance of the catapult. We'll take measurements of our farthest shots. So many learning possibilities.

Networking on the behalf of preschoolers

Our neighborhood is full of boys. Without thinking too hard, I can think of 6 boys besides Michael between the ages of four and six. At least three of them will enter kindergarten with him. Well, if I decide to send him to kindergarten they'll go off together.

For a complete contrast, there are no other little girls in the neighborhood. On the occasions when Ava finds a great playmate at the park or in a playplace, I so enjoy watching her bond with other little girls. I really do need to find a regular playmate for her. Completely by coincidence, we ran into a preschool classmate of hers at McDonalds a couple of weeks ago. The girls played together beautifully and we lingered well longer than usual to let her play. I made a point of introducing myself to her parents and exchanged email addresses with her mother. We met once more a couple of weeks later, but I haven't heard from them since.

Yesterday we ran into twins (boy/girl) from Ava's preschool class at the park. Again, I made a point to introduce myself to their mother and exchange email addresses. I dutifully sent an email expressing our openness to setting up a playdate.

To be honest, the entire process feels a little artificial and awkward, but I do it anyway. I want Ava to have the opportunity to develop friendships and this feels like a first step. If I decide to homeschool, I'll need to reach out to a new community of people and try to provide opportunities for my children to interact with other children in settings other a traditional school. I suppose this is good practice. I just wish it felt a little more natural though. A bit of ongoing success would be nice too.

Project Round-Up

Without further ado, here are several random projects from this week.

Project 1 - Word Wheel

I was getting ready for a reading lesson (the one homeschooling curriculum I have not reviewed yet, but intend to get to soon) and was inspired to make a word wheel. Our lesson called for reviewing 12 different word endings and I didn't want to make 12 different spinners, so I modified her design a little and came up with this. Six additional word endings are hidden under the smaller paper plate, but are revealed as you spin. You can practice by matching each of the 12 word endings with a single initial consonant or by sliding all 6 initial consonants by the same word ending.

Project 2 - Glass Gem Suncatchers

The children wanted to "do art" with some decorative glass gems I had around for playing on the light boxes. I remembered a project I saw at Play At Home Mom. I set the kids up with inexpensive frames on their light boxes. I slapped Mod Podge all over the outer surface of the glass and let the children stick glass gems to it. After they were dry we hung them in the windows. They are quite pretty.

Project 3 - Pattern Strips

The RightStart Math kit came with some great colored square tiles. The kids were having a blast playing with them. We used them as pattern blocks to make houses and other designs. We made patterns. We built towers. We made paths for squinkies to walk on. The kids were having so much fun playing with them I decided to make some pattern strips to add to the mix.

I spent about 90 minutes during nap one day making pattern strips. I couldn't wait to show the kids. They played with the strips for about 90 seconds before deciding they were quite boring. Guess every project can't be a win. :-)

Website Recommendation: daddyread.com

If you're looking for an annotated list of recommended books to read to your children DaddyRead is a great place to find it. The website has informational articles on how to read to your kids, but the heart of the site is annotated lists of books to read aloud to children separated by recommended ages. There are lists of picture books for infants through second grade. There are lists of recommended read-aloud chapter books for preschool through third grade and up. There's even a list of recommended chapter books for reluctant readers.

I started with the list of read-aloud chapter books for preschoolers and reserved five of the recommended books from our local library. We started Moongobble: Dragon of Doom today. Michael is loving it. It makes Ava a bit wiggly, but as long as she's allowed to wander the room a bit she follows along too. The chapters are short and have a couple of black and white illustrations per chapter. We've finished 5 of 13 chapters. The book is the first in a series so we'll know where to go next if the children enjoy this first one all the way through.

Throwing all caution to the winds...

I finally decided to give Michael free access to a wide variety of art materials. Scissors, tape dispenser, glue, paper, a wide variety of collage materials, and permission to raid the recycling bin at will. He'll also request random items at the grocery store for art projects. Most recently, he needed to choose a very specific box of pasta that has featured prominently in several recent projects.

The results have been prolific and remarkable. And, for once, that is not code for disastrous. He has been having a blast. So far, I have not discovered puddles of glue on the floor, scraps of items that shouldn't be cut, or piles of collage materials and raw pasta strewn about. Instead, I keep discovering random projects laying about or proudly taped on the walls.

This graces my front door:

I found these on his art desk: (his ability to create 3D objects with paper/cardboard and tape is impressive)

Exploration of the human figure:

I'm told this is the sun coming out after a tornado.

After incorrectly guessing train, fire truck, and spaceship I was informed that this was a car.

I watched Michael cut a piece of white cardstock into approximately 50 tiny pieces and then painstakingly tape them back together into this:

It wasn't until he taped it to his chin and called it a mustache that I realized he was going for a beard.

The boy is happily doing self-directed art projects from the moment he wakes up until he falls back asleep at night. Why didn't I give him all the materials months ago?

DIY Day: Homemade Bath Paints and Cardstock Mini-Shelf

Yesterday was a day of spontaneous do-it-yourself projects around here. As an afternoon project we tried making a cardstock mini-shelf per the tutorial on the Family Fun website.

Ava chose the pieces of cardstock she wanted to use and the configuration (a flower). I did all the cutting and gluing. She helped me tape the tubes together. She seemed delighted at the finished product and loved putting it up in her room.


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I also made some homemade bath paints using small squeeze bottles I keep around for various projects (colored glue, colored water on the light box, colored vinegar on the light box). I filled each bottle about 2/3 with liquid hand soap and added food coloring. Then I tossed in a tsp. or so of cornstarch and mixed it all up. Voila! Bath paints. The kids had so much fun with them.

Seven Favorite Read-Alouds

Here are seven of our favorite read-aloud bedtime (and naptime) stories in this house. These are all books we own and have read and enjoyed many, many times.

These are listed in no particular order of preference. They are all wonderful.

1. Barn Dance! by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom fame. I love this story. The rhythm of the verse is infectious, the illustrations are beautiful, and the story speaks to curiosity and adventure. Anyone with a bit of bluegrass or country in their background will particularly enjoy the animal square dance at the heart of the story.

2. The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst. I love reading this as a sequel to The Gingerbread Man (Read the Gingerbread Man first!). This story picks up some time after the poor end of the Gingerbread Man with the old couple's second attempt at making a gingerbread cookie. This time things turn out differently. The story is such fun to read. My children are delighted every time I pull it out. One small warning - it has an unfortunate use of words ("dumb", "airhead") when the fox first meets the gingerbread girl and I choose to switch those words for "silly" when I read it to my children. I would definitely NOT let that stop you from picking up this book.

3. The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock. This, by far, is my favorite telling of the gingerbread man tale. The rhythm and rhyme are perfectly written so that this is incredibly fun to read and to listen to. The verse repeats many times during the telling of the story and my children love to chime in and tell the story along with me.

4. The Clock Struck One: A Time-Telling Tale by Trudy Harris. This is a creative extension of the nursery rhyme/song Hickory Dickory Dock. The book is fun to read (sing) and enjoyed by both parent and child. As a bonus, if you take only a few seconds to show the kids, they will learn how to tell time to the hour.

5. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. This book is a tale of a clever mouse taking a walk through the woods avoiding predators using his wits and telling a tall tale about an imaginary creature called a gruffalo. Imagine his surprise when he runs into the gruffalo and needs to quickly use his wits again to avoid becoming the gruffalo's meal. The rhythm and rhyme make this book fun to read and the story is interesting enough to hold up to repeated readings. There is just enough scary to make the children enjoy pretending to be afraid without actually scaring them. I also enjoy watching the children come to understand just why the mouse's tricks worked.

6. Stuck in the Mud by Jane Clarke. This book tells, in rhyme, the story of a mother hen trying to get her chick out of the mud. She becomes stuck and then her would be rescuer becomes stuck. And then the next and the next until the entire barnyard is stuck in the mud. The book is fun to read and the twist at the end always gets a giggle. It also happens to be a great book for working on final consonant deletion.

7. Egg-napped! by Marisa Montes. This is a tale of what happens when Gabbler the goose and his wife find their beloved egg missing and all the forest animals try to help them get it back. Again, it is the rhyme that makes this book so much fun to read. The story is full of fun, adventure, a bit of suspense and danger, and a satisfying ending.


Does anyone have some favorites of their own to share? I'm always looking for great new books to read with the kids.

What have we learned exactly?

Michael has chronic nasal congestion. To be honest, we didn't prioritize it until recently. At first he had just started preschool and seemed to be sick all the time. Then it was winter and he still seemed to be sick all the time. However, this spring, we simply had to acknowledge something more was going on.

We took him to the pediatrician (paying our co-pay) and she referred us to an allergist and to an ENT. We went to the allergist (paying another, more expensive co-pay) who did skin testing. Many things showed up positive on that skin test but somehow I was still left with no clear answers. Then we went to the pediatric ENT (paying a third co-pay) who said that everything looked fairly normal. Come back in 3 months if pursuing the allergy hypothesis doesn't clear things up and he'll scope him to get a good look at his adenoids at that time.

So, following three different doctor visits, one allergy skin test, and two new medications we're left with some improvement in the nasal congestion and no concrete answers. I hate ambiguity.


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A year ago I did a post on therapy techniques for helping children move from one-word to two-word utterances.

It started so well...

I was solo parenting the other night and decided that a super long bath would be a great way to finish off the evening. I set the kids up in the tub with some bath paints (mix shaving cream with liquid tempera paints). They were excited. The paints looked great. I left the room and sat in the armchair in Michael's room eavesdropping while simultaneously relaxing.

Over the next 50 minutes I listened to them happily playing together. I heard them decide to paint families (the discussion about how big a mama should be was particularly funny). They shared paint with each other. They erased and started over. Conversation never ceased. It was lovely. I could hear them showing off their art to each other.

Then Ava called, "Mama, mama! Come see what we did." I knew I had been lucky to get 50 minutes and it was time to put them to bed anyway, so I headed to the bathroom expecting to see two adorable pictures of families on the tub walls. After all, that was what they had been discussing the entire time.

I was a bit surprised to find this:

They were terribly proud of it though. And it gave us the opportunity to review that when all colors are mixed they make brown. It really only took a couple of minutes with a shower to clean everyone up and move on with the night. It certainly wasn't two adorable family self-portraits though.

Homemade Doctor Kit Accessories - Play Prescription Pad and Broken Bone X-Rays

Michael and Ava had their annual pediatrician checkups recently and subsequently started playing doctor. Michael was making bandages out of tape and paper, which was adorable, but I did decide to buy the doctor's kit I found at Walmart to give them some props to add more dimension to their play. Then I had some ideas for some things I could make at home to add to their kit: a play prescription pad and some pretend broken bone x-rays.

Making a Play Doctor Prescription Pad

Michael likes to pretend to write prescriptions. On a whim I decided to try to make a prescription pad. I made a template and printed 20 copies (I printed mine in b/w because I've run out of color ink.). Save to your computer by clicking to open the full size image then right clicking and choosing "save as". Print and then trim off the footer and cut the pages in half.

Grab some glue (I used Mod Podge - I can't guarantee something else will work), a paintbrush and some binder clips. Cut a piece of thin cardboard (like from a cereal box) to the same size as your stack of play prescription paper to use as the back of the pad. Use the binder clips to hold the top together tightly. I only had five binder clips, but if you have more, use as many as possible so you can hold the pages together tightly along the entire top. Remove one clip at a time, painting the edges of the paper together with the glue then replace the clip to hold them as they dry. Do this to the paper under each binder clip until the entire edge is coated. Let dry for 15 minutes and then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Once you have a fairly thick coating that is thoroughly dry you're done. Show your kids how to use their new prescription pad and toss it in their doctor bag along with a pencil/marker/crayon.

Making Play Broken Bone X-Rays

I did a google image search for broken bone x-rays and chose ones with really obvious breaks in four different bones (collarbone, leg, arm, finger). I printed them on a single piece of paper. I wanted our x-rays to be fairly small so they would store inside their play doctor's bag. I printed them and then traced along the outline of the main bone and edges of the break with a pencil to be sure they would show up. I cut out each x-ray and cut a second piece of paper to place on top. In this way, I made it so that the x-ray would need to be held up to a light to be examined. Then I made a frame from black construction paper and a little label for each x-ray. I took the final product and covered it in contact paper for durability. They can examine the x-rays by holding them up against a bright window or by placing them on one of our homemade light boxes.

Clear as Mud (Trip to the Allergist)

Yesterday afternoon was Michael's allergist appointment. We were there to discover if allergies are playing a part in his nasal congestion and habitual mouth breathing. When we made our appointment we were told to make sure he wasn't on any antihistamines for 5 days prior to the appointment so that skin testing would be valid if the doctor decided to test.

Monday night, and again the morning of the appointment I told Michael that we were going to a special doctor to help figure out why he has trouble breathing through his nose. I told him the doctor might decide to do a special detective test to figure out if his body is allergic to certain things. I explained that some people have bodies that get confused and think regular things like tree pollen and cat or dog hair are germs. Then those people might get stuffy noses when they are around those things.

I told him that the nurse would write on his back and use a special device to poke his back several times. I showed him some of the less scary google image search results of pictures of skin testing on children's backs. I think I struck a good balance, because he was intrigued at the idea of the "detective test", but not scared.

After collecting a little bit of family medical history and listening to my concerns, the doctor decided to do a skin test. I held a shirtless Michael in my lap with his chest to my chest. His arms were around my neck. The nurse drew some lines and numbers on his back first and then cleaned his back with alcohol soaked cotton. This made him giggle. She had all seven pricking devices ready to go. She was two down before he realized that he didn't much like what was going on. She got two more done before he managed to voice his first complaint. She was done by the time I finished telling Michael he could choose a small bag of candy when we were done.

When he realized she was finished he decided it wasn't worth getting upset and asked for his candy instead. After that he hopped back up on the exam table and watched Wall-E on the iPad for the 15-20 minutes it takes to complete the test. I only had to remind him he couldn't touch his back once or twice. The kid loves Wall-E.

The doctor came back in to read the test results. As far as I could tell that was based upon the size of the wheal (mosquito bite like bump) in each spot. Her rating could be from 0 (no reaction) to 4++ (large reaction). They tested 54 things. Michael had no reaction to 32 of those. He had a 1+ reaction to 13 substances. He had a 2+ reaction to 2 more. He had a 3+ reaction to horse, cat hair, pigweed, and kochia. He had a 4+ reaction to dog. He had a 4++ reaction to oak. Well, that seemed like a lot of reactions to me.

Then she explained that the magnitude of the reaction does not correlate to the magnitude of actual allergy symptoms experienced by the patient. ?!?! So, some people might have a huge allergic reaction to something their allergy skin test showed as 1+ and no reaction at all to something their skin test showed as 4+. The only thing she could say for sure was that the substances he didn't react to at all would be unlikely to cause allergy symptoms. So, of the things he does react to (21 things!) any of them could be causing the most trouble? Or all of them? Or none of them? Well, how on earth is that useful at all?

I left with the instructions to continue Flonase at night and try switching from Claritin (which didn't seem to help) to Zyrtec in the morning. Call her in 8 weeks if that doesn't seem to be helping. In addition to the medical treatment we should try to reduce allergens in our home starting with keeping the cats out of his bedroom and washing all his bedding in hot water once a week.

Somehow I expected more. I thought we would get a definitive answer about whether or not allergies are contributing to the mouth breathing problem. I thought that if allergies are a contributing factor we'd know which ones, specifically, are the problem and could react accordingly. Instead, she isn't actually convinced allergies are the issue. Any allergic symptoms could be caused by one of 21 things. And taking medicine and cleaning the house may or may not help.

Great. Clear as mud.

I'm hoping the ENT visit on Friday will be much more helpful. Aren't I the optimist?


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One year ago I wrote a post on how to use gestural prompts during therapy with children with apraxia (or any other severe speech delay). One year later we still use gestural prompts in every single therapy session. They are a powerful therapy tool. The video I linked to in that post is very helpful if you've never actually seen someone using gestural prompts before.

Dysfunctional Stages of Adaptation (me)

Stimulus: Learn new information to integrate. (Current example: Michael has a mild tongue-tie.)

Response sequence:

• Panic, panic, panic! (Tongue-tie! Oh no, how terrible! It will ruin his life!)
• Self-recrimination. (How could I have possibly missed it, I'm an SLP? I'm the worst SLP ever. I'm the worst mama ever.)
• Online research. (ASHA: Tongue-tie is no big deal. Other sites: Tongue-tie is a big deal.)
• Additional panic. (It might be a huge deal. How will I ever decide? This is a huge decision...)
• Blog about it. Blog about it some more.
• Consult everyone who will listen for opinions (pediatrician, therapist A, therapist B, random family members, random casual acquaintances). Be swayed by the opinion of whoever is speaking at the moment.
• Begin to assimilate new information.
• Begin to calm the heck down.
• Gain some perspective.
• Realize that the initial sequence of reactions was, yet again, perhaps a bit over-the-top.
• Decide that the problem is probably not a problem.

The end.


Hmm...perhaps there is a better way?

Usborne Very First Reading Boxed Set of Early Readers: A Review

I absolutely love this early reader set published by Usborne. I am in no way affiliated with Usborne, I just got the set for Michael and like it so much I wanted to share it with you.

This is a boxed set of early readers. There are 15 hardback books and one paperbook parent manual. The books are designed to be read (multiple times per book) in sequence and gradually increase in difficulty. The topics are appealing to young children and the illustrations are engaging. The first seven books are set up so that the parent reads the left hand page of each two-page spread and the child reads the right hand page.

Each book begins with simple instructions for the parent followed by the story. After the story there are three reading exercises. There is also a website that has a free downloadable activity for each book in the set.

So far we've done the first three books in the set with Michael. I enjoy it and he enjoys it. He even loves doing the "puzzles" at the end of each book. We read one book each night at bedtime. I have two out at a time and let him choose which one he wants to read. After he's read the book 4-5 times and it is easy, I return the book to the box and get out the next one in the series.

Here are some sample pages from a couple of the books. Pirate Pat is the first book in the series and uses the parent/child format. Moon Zoom is the eighth book in the series and is an example of what the books look like once they are supposed to be read entirely by the child. I've also included some sample pages from the parent manual.

The Secret Playroom

We have a wooden playset/swingset in our backyard. We got it from Sams a couple of years ago and assembled the thing ourselves. It's pretty nice and the children are growing into it. I try to change it a little each year to freshen up interest in it.

The first year we didn't install the rock climbing wall because the children were just too little. Michael was only two and Ava had just turned one. That was the year they could climb up the ladders, but not back down and were also too afraid to slide down the slide. So they would climb all the way up to the third level and then start screaming for help. That was tons of fun.

The second year we installed the rock climbing wall and switched one of the infant swings to a "big boy" swing. They love the rock climbing wall. They still pretty much ignore the "big kid" swing. Well, Ava will tummy swing on it but that's about it.

The lowest level of the playset has a steering wheel and needs to be passed through to get to the second level which features the slide. The third level was rarely used, because nothing was up there. I decided to try to turn it into some kind of secret hideout this year by covering the sides with canvas.

We bought a $10 canvas dropcloth from a home improvement store. We cut panels just a little larger than each side of the playset and stapled it in place. The project didn't take more than 90 minutes or so. Then I used sharpies to decorate it. The children decided to call it "The Secret Playroom". Suddenly the top floor of the playset is a pretty cool place to be.

I also thought it was pretty funny when Ava liberated the telescope to play pirate in the yard. And isn't she just an example of high fashion?

Welcome to April everyone.

Reading Eggs - An Online Reading Program

I am trying a free trial of Reading Eggs which is an online reading program. You can sign up for a free two week trial. After you sign up, you can add multiple children to the account. Then you can enter the code ABC1034 to extend the free trial by an additional 4 weeks (you can enter the same code for each child extending the program trial for multiple children). You have the option to have your child start at the beginning with letter recognition, or have them take a test to determine an appropriate starting level. Michael got 19 of 40 questions right and the program started him at the Level 4 Map.

Each map has about 10 lessons. Each lesson takes about 15 minutes to complete and has a variety of activities. The first lesson Michael completed was about the letter G and the second was about the letter L. He practiced letter recognition in isolation and in words. He practiced phonics with three letter words that included the featured letter in initial or final position. He practiced sight words featuring the letter. They even include an exercise that uses a connect the dots format to teach how to write the lower case letter. You can download a printable sheet of exercises for each lesson. He enjoyed the "game" and we've barely scratched the surface.

I haven't tried it yet with Ava, but given that the program starts with letter recognition, I may have her try it too beginning with the first lesson. She doesn't recognize all of her letters yet, so it might be really nice for her. She did enjoy watch Michael play through his lessons, so she might be interested in doing her own lessons.

If the children continue to enjoy playing with the program, I'll consider subscribing when our free trial is up. Has anyone else seen or used this program? Does anyone have recommendations of other online reading programs we should check out (particularly if they have free trials)?

Wading and Water Play

Last week the weather around here was gorgeous. Temperatures were in the high 70s and it was sunny. We have a park about a three minute drive from our house that has a creek running through it and I decided this year was the right year to scramble down the hill and let the children play in the creek.

We went to the store and bought a wide variety of inexpensive toys that would make for fun play in a creek. Off the top of my head that meant buckets, watering cans, small shovels and rakes, colanders, turkey basters, big kitchen stirring spoons, a small plastic dump truck, etc. I also picked up a small laundry basket to dump all the wet toys into at the end of play to stick in the back of the minivan. And of course, there was the first pair of rain boots/wading boots my children have owned. Boy were they excited about the boots.

Ava was tentative. After briefly testing the water at a depth of about one inch she decided to stick to the shore. Before letting Michael go, I explained that he should only go in until the water reached to about two inches below the top of his boots. I got his attention. I looked him in the eye. I pointed to the two inch from the top spot on his boots. Then I set him free. He loved it. He went further and further in. I just let him. When he had reached the point at which I could see the water pouring into the tops of his boots I inquired, from my sunny spot on the bank of the creek, "Sweetheart, do you notice anything about your boots?" He looked towards me is puzzlement and replied, "Huh?" So I told him, "Nevermind," and just let him go.

I always seem to learn the hard way...

Lesson Learned the Hard Way: Number One

So, recently my husband and I bought our first ever high end vacuum cleaner. We'd been making do on the $40 sale upright I'd gotten in college. I don't even like cleaning, but I was excited. We did our first room and loved watching the bin fill up an embarrassing number of times in just that first room.

The next morning the children went to preschool and I was still excited enough about the new vacuum cleaner to decide that spending some of my precious "me" time vacuuming was recreational in nature and I moved on to the berber carpet in the living room. I was humming along happily vacuuming when I met my first snag. Someone really should have warned me about what would happen when high-end vacuum cleaner meets an exposed loop in a berber carpet. A fraction of a second was all it took and I ended up with this:

At first I simply stared at the torn carpet and tried to process exactly what had happened. Then I tipped back the vacuum cleaner and stared in amazement at the long piece of carpet wound around the beater bar. Then I texted my husband because I couldn't stand being amazed all by myself. Finally I removed the pulled up carpet from the beater bar saving it so that my husband could appreciate it too when he came home and resumed vacuuming.

Because I want you all to think that I have a super fast learning curve I won't mention that after cleaning up all the mess from the first snag I promptly went over a second loop in the carpet and repeated the entire mistake causing an additional strip of torn carpeting. At that point, I did take a pair of scissors and go over the carpet on my hands and knees to trim any remaining snags before finishing vacuuming.

I suppose I could be upset about it, but in the big scheme of things, there are so many "better" things to spend that mental energy on that I'd just rather see the humor in the situation. I didn't like that carpet much anyway. And the two new rips will match the ketchup stain from the day I let the children eat in front of the tv nicely.

Lesson Learned the Hard Way: Number Two

So, cloud dough is amazing stuff. It is inexpensive, easy to make from two ingredients you have around the house, smells nice, and is fun to play with.

Do not, under any circumstances, put it in an outdoor sensory table.

Oh, sure, it all looks beautiful and pristine in the picture. And yes, the children did play in it happily for over an hour. But then I forgot it in the rush to make lunch and get the children down for nap. To make things worse, I hadn't even put the top on the sand table. And then it rained. Flour, oil, and now water were in the sand table.

I might have rescued the situation had I noticed and dealt with it at that point, but we had several busy days. So it sat there in the hot sun for another couple of days and then got some more rain. Then I went out on the deck yesterday and it was the smell that hit me first. It's really difficult to describe. Fermenting maybe? And so not in a good way. And it was a paste that was just stuck to the many surfaces of the sand table. It took at least a couple of hours of work to clean that mess up. And we had to toss all the sand on the other side because the children, blissfully unaware of how nasty it was, managed to mix a bunch of the fermented cloud dough in with the sand.

I think I can still smell that stuff on my hands. From now on, the cloud dough is exclusively an indoor activity.

Lessons learned. My personal theme of the week.

Inspiration

My children inspire me. I don't mean that in a generic "I'm a better person." way. They inspire me to stretch a little and step outside of my comfort zone. Arts and crafts is a great example. Historically, I considered myself to be a decidedly non-artistic person. It doesn't come to me naturally. I don't have a good eye for color, design, or form. The only kinds of coloring I enjoyed as a child were color-by-number. As for crafts, I liked cross-titch. There was a pattern and I all I had to do was follow the pattern on a cloth grid.

Then I found myself staying at home with two young children. Partly from a desire to expand their horizons, and partly from pure self-defense (we all needed something to do) I began to do some simple arts and crafts with them. After coloring with crayons and cutting snowflakes with scissors I ran out of ideas. Through the brilliance and generosity of some talented bloggers (That Artist Woman and Art Projects for Kids for example) I have been inspired to do a wide variety of beautiful crafts with the children. I have learned a lot myself along the way and we all have fun together.

Again, historically, I am not great at keeping plants alive. I pretty much accidentally kill any houseplant that isn't a cactus or succulent in short order. The few plants I do manage to keep alive I tend to tire of caring for and give away. As for gardening, I'm not really outdoorsy. I also don't much like getting dirty. So, I have very little gardening experience.

However, I think I'd like to try some simple gardening with the children. I think they'd enjoy growing some vegetables and perhaps the experience would encourage them to consume a few. I have fond memories of eating cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots from my dad's garden when I was little. The children would have the opportunity to participate in a long term project with delayed gratification. It would force us all to get outside regularly. I am interested in perhaps trying cucumbers, carrots, and bell peppers with the children. Preferably in pots. Can you grow vegetables in pots? Specifically, can you grow those vegetables in pots?

That's the problem. I'm an starting with zero experience and knowledge. Online research should get me started, but there's a long stretch from reading an article on the internet to eating home-grown vegetables. It's kind of fun to take a leap and try something new though. And the project will be a learning experience for all of us no matter how it turns out. Online research here I come.

Can anyone recommend a good phonics primer - for me?

I don't remember learning how to read. I just do it. I always did. I don't remember being taught. I certainly don't remember how I was taught. If I had to guess, I'd say it was via the sight word method, because phonics rules are definitely not my strong point.

So, yesterday Michael was playing with a Melissa and Doug toy I had gotten ages ago when he was first showing interest in both puzzles and letters. At the time he wasn't impressed, but when he rediscovered it yesterday he loved it and spent a good half hour working away mostly independently. He was frustrated because the "p" wouldn't fit into pig. That let to a discussion of how a lower case "b" is actually an upside-down, flipped over "p". We found two examples and demonstrated and he went happily on his way. Aside from one other brief interruption, which I will describe momentarily, he worked completely on his own until he proudly presented me with his final product.

Now, while Michael was working on the puzzles I was...hmm...I don't remember. I was doing some mystery task in the kitchen. I guarantee it wasn't cleaning though. Whatever I was doing, I was giving Michael about 3% of my attention when he wandered in to announce that "boat" and "cat" rhymed. I remember being slightly annoyed, in fact, because I knew that he knew those two words didn't rhyme. Then I looked down at the visual aid he had helpfully brought in and set up to show me.

Once he had my full attention, he stated in the tone of a question, "Cat and boat rhyme because they both end in -at." Well, then I was in trouble and regretting my lack of phonics theory knowledge. I did the best I could. I explained that while there was only one vowel in cat, there were two vowels using teamwork in boat. The "oa" combination sounds like "oh" while if "o" had been all on its own it would have sounded like "ah" making the word "bot". It ended up being a long, wordy, inelegant explanation. And, to be honest, I'm not even sure my explanation was correct. Even if it was lucky, and I happened to be correct this time, I'm not sure that phonics "rule" applies in every situation where "oa" appear together.

Why on earth does English spelling have to be so complicated? I think I'll just teach them phonetic transcription. Hmm... and then transcribe all their children's books into IPA... and their future schoolbooks... Ok, fine. That's no solution either. I guess I'll just have to teach myself phonics so that I can explain it to my four year old son. Can anyone recommend a good primer?

Two decades behind the curve...

I have recently discovered the joy and usefulness of warm liquid caffeine. Now most people discover coffee when? High school or college perhaps? Well, I never liked straight coffee and therefore made it through high school, college, graduate school, and the early years of mothering without relying on caffeine at all.

My recent purchase of an automatic tea maker led me to try a wide variety of teas over the past couple of months. One of those teas (well, tea-alternative technically) is JavaVana by Teavana which, ironically enough, is coffee and chocolate flavored. I drink it because it is amazingly good. When prepared to my liking (one-two extra scoops of tea, 205 degrees, a little milk, 7 minutes!) it is a calorie free alternative to a mocha hot chocolate that is better than hot chocolate. I kid you not. This stuff is amazing.

A cup also happens to have the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee. Well I had no idea of the effect of a cup of coffee's caffeine. I am completely truthful when I say it makes me a better mother. Even when fighting a cold. I'm perky, patient, energetic, and cheerful. All that and so yummy. I did discover that drinking it through the afternoon and evening is a VERY BAD IDEA. Hmm. No sleep that night. If I just switch to some other pot of tea after around 3pm, all is good though. Lovely, lovely chocolate, coffee flavor, and caffeine.