June 29th, 2011 Lisa
At the dinner table last night the highlight reported by the kids was the library. “We got to go to the library and we got free legoland tickets!” Okay — so the prize outshines the verbal book report, but I was happy that our excursion to the library was exciting enough in their day to be the first item they talked about. I admit I love these little reading programs - the small amount of Type A in me.
This one is through our local library, Dove Library and books reported were Ella Sets the Stage (Miss S) and Crazy Day with Cobras (Mr. G). This past year Mr. G started reading longer chapter books on his own, and in our family when you become a solo-reader, you get a reading light. I love seeing him curled up on the couch, silently reading or laying in bed at night reading. It’s the one thing I’ll let my kids stay up late for - reading.
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June 20th, 2011 Lisa
Ahh its finally arrived. No need to pack lunches, snacks, arrange carpools, arrive on time…just lazy mornings in our PJs, lots of lounging by the pool or beach and exploring outdoors.
WAIT - that was the “summer vacation” of my childhood, now days there are lunches, snacks and places to arrive on time. Summer Camp! So many options - sports, art, water play, YMCA, local parks & rec, private places. I’ve received several different threads of emails from other parent’s sharing their summer camp plan, all of us trying to coordinate so our kids’ summer vacation is fully scheduled. When did this happen? I suppose its due partly to working parents, needing to keep their kids cared for; and partly to stay at home parents, needing to keep a little sanity in the house; and partly, but probably a small part, due to the child’s interest.
We don’t let our kids sit still any more (myself included). We’ve become a scheduled, orchestrated, keep-them-busy-until-bedtime society. It’s hard to resist the temptation to click “enroll” when all your kids’ friends are signing up. So I’ve tried to strike a balance. We’re doing a few camps, a few trips, and I’ve left lots of unscheduled time on the calendar. My husband and I both use Google calendar and often that is our mode of “communicating” what’s happening to each other (surviving 10+ years of marriage is a topic I’ll save for another post) so sometimes I even schedule “don’t schedule anything” on the calendar. Crazy, huh?
This week my 7 year old is in Art Farm, a local art camp set at a farm. It’s a little hidden gem in our patch of suburbia: take a dirt road across several bridges of a meandering stream, arrive to a clearing nestled below huge, old tress to find llamas, chickens, ponies and art stations setup outside. (When I dropped him off this morning, I confess I wished I was attending). This is our first camp of the summer. I’ll post back to share how it goes.
How do you approach your summer plans?
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September 3rd, 2008 Lisa
This may be cliche, but I feel like a part of my heart has been pulled out and left at kindergarten! It’s the silence, the quietness in my house, the way my two year old daughter’s voice sounds more noticeable. It’s feeling unneeded. It’s that someone else is caring for my little boy, and I am here, waiting for him to return safely to me. I supposed all mothers go through this - different rites of passage where our children slowly spread their wings, each time a little farther. This is my small moment of mourning; where did the past five years go?
Posted in capturing memories | 4 Comments »
August 27th, 2008 Lisa
We spent a week vacationing on Bainbridge Island, in the Puget Sound near Seattle and I have so many wonderful ideas I want to write about - from seeing our old friends and their families eating out of their gardens, kayaking across the sound, exploring a fairy garden (those of you with 5 year old girls should definitely know about this!), sitting around a campfire with the kids roasting marshmallows to make ’smores and enjoying the simple pleasure of throwing rocks in the water for an hour. Or two.
First, though, I must confess what happened this morning, back in my real world where school is almost starting and I’m making decisions about what/where/when in the busyness of our lives: two babysitters showed up at my house, at the same time. Yes, I had booked two wonderful girls to care for my kids without realizing I had booked them. There’s that thing they say about losing brain cells when you have kids — well, I lost a few.
I’m fortunate to have a little time each week to myself, hopefully to nurture myself so that when I am with my kids, I’m more relaxed. Mothering with grace, as they say.
Onto fairies. My girlfriend S. told me her daughter L. started getting into fairies, so she (the girl) wrote a letter to the fairy. The fairy wrote back, this went on for about six weeks with L. writing each day to the fairy - or, actually, fairies — sometimes she wrote ten fairies in one day! She’d ask them questions, asked for a wand, and the fairy/fairies always wrote back. Finally she asked for a fairy house, and the fairy replied that she couldn’t build a house but that perhaps Grandpa could help and presto, there is now a little fairy house nestled in her back yard among the tall trees.
I love this story because first I got to witness my son and L. explore the fairy garden together, and we couldn’t pull them away. I also love it because writing and reading weren’t the primary focus, but obviously in her attempts to communicate with the fairies, L. was working on these skills. Too often when I want to “teach” my kids something, I do it literally, sitting down to practice letters or read sight words, but its so much more fun (for kids AND parents) to teach in disguise - to explore a fairy land or pirate land or outer space and do a little reading, ‘riting & ‘rithmetic along the way. Thanks to S. & L. for sharing their fairies with us.
To end today I want to share this shot of my daughter, listening for the sound of the ocean. . . . it reminds me to just stop, and listen:
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August 27th, 2008 Lisa
If and when you are going to allow your child on the internet, this is my favorite website to start with. There are many great websites - and some not so great ones - but I want to feature StarFall because it has a combination of fun + education in a safe environment. By safe I mean that it’s free of the many commercial icons that underwrite so many sites.
The main activity our family uses is the ABC section - basically it opens up an alphabet and your child can click a letter, go through a serious of phonics & little songs that correspond to the specific letter. The approach to phonics is similar to Leapfrong’s videos & educational activities. (Be sure to have your volume turned on!)
After letters there are different levels of reading, depending on where your child is at, where they can go through a story right on the website and start learning sight words. There’s also a section of holiday activities, always updated for the next batch of holidays (did you know there’s a grandparents day? And that it’s coming up soon?!?) My son loves the holiday section because, like me, he’s a sucker for celebrating the seasons and these activities prompt him to learn about different reasons to celebrate.
All in all, I give StarFall a thumbs up for kids 3-6 (or so). Enjoy!
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