Custom Built-In Luxury

I have started to dream of a house where there is tons of storage strategically built in to the house that is perfectly accessible but also HIDES all of our CRAP.  I walk around my house and all I see so much stuff!  I am being reminded that that's not what I really want in my heart of hearts, but I still find homes like this very inspiring.  Magic closets and beds that fold away seem so dreamy at this point in my life! 

Not JUST a girl

If you want to be inspired and filled with determination to do right by the girls in your life, check this out.  I don't deny that I'm slightly anti-princess and I dress my girls in boyish clothing from time to time.  I'm trying desperately to find the balance between embracing femininity and all that it entails, and smashing our cultural idea of femininity to bits so that my daughters can find their own way and be who they really are deep down inside.  I really have no idea what I'm doing, but this type of project is encouraging and makes me feel like I might be on the right track.  Wow.

Curiosity

This is an email my sister forwarded to me and I would really love to keep track of.  A few ideas on how to foster curiosity and endless learning in your kids at home.  This type of teaching is something that comes naturally to some parents, but can always be encouraged and expanded.

“Why, why, why?”: Embracing and encouraging curiosity

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“Why, why, why?”: Embracing and encouraging curiosity

Posted: 23 Jan 2013 02:44 AM PST

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

One of my favorite parts of being a teacher, and that I now love as a parent, is spending time with little ones who approach life with wondering, questioning, and exploring. Curiosity truly is a gift, and kids have it in abundance.
I strive to keep a zest for learning in my own life, and I also want to nourish that love of learning in my girls as they grow. Here are some of the ways we’re keeping the spark of curiosity in our daily life:

1. Slow down.

This one goes first, because I think it’s the most important. Kids need space in their day when there is no plan or structure. They need time to dawdle, daydream, and doodle. They need to follow their own interests and make their own observations. They should be bored sometimes and work their way out of it.
Keeping screen time in check is a good way to protect your child’s unstructured play time.
And, guess what? Grown-ups need all of this, too, which is probably why I only seem to have interesting ideas when I’m showering or trying to fall asleep at night. I’m trying to give myself more of this kind of time during the day – even if it’s just 15 minutes of letting my mind wander.

2. Write down questions and wonderings.

When my girls were toddlers and preschoolers, I used to jot down their funny questions and observations in my journal. When they got a little older, we would make posters or lists together of things we were interested in. We’ve kept a pad of sticky notes by our sliding glass door, and covered the window with our questions about the world.
Kids’ questions can come fast and furious sometimes. Validate their inquisitiveness by writing down their questions. Look together for the answers sometimes. It’s good to keep a list of all the things your family is interested in; you never know what may become a passion later on.
Our current record-keeping for questions is a stack of index cards on a ring. Sometimes, we bring our cards with us to the library and choose a question to research. Every once in a while, a question sparks a deeper interest, and we lug home a big stack of books on the topic for further research. It’s a wonderful chain-reaction of curiosity.

3. Read lots of great books.

After reading The Penderwicks, my girls wanted to learn Latin and become botanists. Frindle inspired their love for the dictionary and creating silly new words. There are so many rich and inviting books to transport you and your kids to different places and times. Reading great books fuels the imagination, builds vocabulary, and sparks interest. Read, read, read!

4. Curate a kid-friendly reference book shelf at home.

My girls love to read the dictionary. And, lately, they have been spinning the globe, landing on a country, and looking it up in the atlas. I recently rounded-up all our kid-friendly reference books from various spots around the house, and now find the girls using them a lot more. Plus, it’s fun to say “Check the reference shelf.” Ha!
Here are some books you might include on your reference shelf:

• Children’s dictionary and thesaurus
• Rhyming dictionary
• World atlas
• Foreign language books
• Field guides for trees, insects, mammals, etc.
• Star chart
• Animal encyclopedia
• How-to books (drawing, writing poetry, cooking, science experiments)

5. Be data-collectors.

There are all kinds of things to observe, count, record, and graph. We’ve made weather charts, tallied the various birds in our backyard, drawn moon phases for a whole month, and surveyed our friends and family about favorite foods and movies. This is meaningful work for kids, not to mention the math and thinking skills they’re building.

6. Provide access to creative materials and real tools (and junk, too).

Kids don’t need a ton of materials to inspire creativity and exploration. In fact, I would argue that less is more. However, it is nice to have some kid-friendly art materials available, a sketch book or journal, and a few real tools to try out. My girls enjoy using magnifying glasses, binoculars, a compass, and a student microscope. (Here’s the microscope we have – it’s affordable and awesome!)
Don’t throw all your egg cartons and cardboard tubes in the recycling. Whether you call it a junk box or an invention kit, kids will have a great time creating all kinds of crazy contraptions. Don’t forget the tape! We go through rolls and rolls of tape

three in one

I must keep track of these inspiring people who manage to find ways to squeeze multiple kids into one bedroom.  This is a great example and this one too..  Being creative (especially with storage) is totally central to making these arrangements possible and I hope I can do that myself when the time comes...Soon!

First Birthday Book

Here we go - SouleMama does it again.  She claims she put this together at the last minute, but really?!  Amazing.  I can totally see how a one-year-old would LOVE this.  And since it's just something small, you could easily put it together using scrap fabrics that you have lying around.  Being the sentimental mush-brain that I am (especially as a pregnant person) I sigh a gigantic sigh when I see this type of thing.  Definitely one to file away for, perhaps, the fifth child...

Four Girls, One Room

Okay folks.  Let's talk about plans.  Plan One: have lots of kids.  Plan Two: live in a small house.  It is probably safe to say that these two plans do not go well together.  I am, however, hopeful that we can accomplish both by having our kids share bedrooms.  While this is not an ideal when it comes to babies, in my mind, it is an ideal when it comes to kids.  As adults, we have chosen to share our house, forcing us to put others before ourselves.  We value this.  So why would I do anything different for my kids?  But the logistics of fitting multiple kids into one (not gigantic) room can be tricky.  This post is an amazing example of making it work in style.  WOW.

Moon Bed

I just LOVE this adorable little baby bed.  Oh to have time and space for such a whimsical luxury!

Dreaming of a Library

As we begin to think thoughts of a new house, now that ours is starting to feel a little tight, I think of SouleMama and dream.  In her huge, old farm house in Maine, she has a library.  As an adorer of books, this is a luxury I'm not sure I'll ever have, but one that I'll always imagine as a possibility for our next house.  Adding to those dreams is this post, where, in his completely different style (which I LOVE), SoulePapa writes about books.  It made me smile.

Morning Meeting

Amanda Soule, of SoulMama was interviewed on Ohdeedoh. Two of my faves in one place!  SouleMama says this, and it's an idea I love, especially when I think about the dynamics of having five kids...

We start most mornings as a family with a casual “meeting” at the breakfast table, where we all share what we’re hoping to do for the day, what we might need help with, etc. It’s become a really great way to ensure that everyone’s work/play/projects be treated with equal importance – from Papa building a woodshed, to Adelaide building a birdhouse. The morning meeting inspires a bit of compromise, and a lot of cooperation in the day that follows. And perhaps most importantly, I think, it helps us ‘set intention’ for the things most important to us, both individually and collectively as a family.

Boys Will Be Boys

I don't have any boys yet, but when I saw this post I sighed a big sigh and thought, I want my boys to be like that.  How fantastic are those first two pictures?  I do consider myself a feminist (although most people misunderstand the word), and I just love the way those boys do not seem to adhere to any of the rules about what boys are supposed to be like.  They are both energetic and artsy.  They care about farming and reading.  Hauling in the firewood, helping dad with the chores, and baking and drawing and writing.  Yes, I've determined all this from a mama's blog.  I'm pretty sure they're not perfect, but they do inspire me to let my boys be boys in whichever way they want.