January 5th, 2012 31 days to a more Playful Tot {Day Five} Less is more Posted by Melitsa in 31 days, Education, play activities

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s really easy to get caught up in what THEY are doing….and feel you’ve fallen short.
It’s easy to see that your child isn’t the same as THEM…. and believe if you just do/ have this then everything will be better.

What’s harder is finding a path that suits YOUR child and a FIT for your family.

It’ll mean experimenting, discovering, rejecting, reading, laughing, crying. Your ideas will shift. You’ll be tempted, worn down and persuaded.

One thing for sure: Less is worth so much more when they are young.

Less toys :: Less academics :: Less screentime :: Less tightly structured days :: Less media ::

When you have less of these things…..there’s more time for other things….

What are you planning for your family this year so that you feel the value of how less is more?

Click here to read the rest of the posts in the series, 31 Days to a more Playful Tot.

January 4th, 2012 31 days to a more Playful Tot {Day Four} Exploring the world Posted by Melitsa in 31 days, Education, play activities

Children are naturally self centered.  December is traditionally a time when we try to encourage service projects with our children. It’s a time for them to think of others.

• Things like cleaning out their toys
• Donating to a shelter
• Choosing a family from the Angel Tree.
• Operation Christmas child.

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It’s also one of the busist times of the year. So with all good intentions we don’t always get to do these things. Me too. This year we didn’t get to participate in the Operation Christmas Child or deliver our Christmas cookies to our neighbours. Somethings just had to give. However the concept of doing things for other people shouldn’t be just for December. If we forgot, didn’t have a chance etc neither should we let the guilt haunt us. Just find another avenue that’ll work for you and your family.

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Children need to know that the world doesn’t revolve around them.

Expanding their horizons and letting them experiences different things outside their ( and often our) comfort zones gets the conversation flowing and the mind changing.

Young children need it.

6 Ways to Explore the World with your Children

Investigate cultures and festivals where you live?

Three of our favourite festivals in Italy were the mushroom, cheese and basket festival. They were three different festivals. Who knew there were so many different type of each though? If it wasn’t for the 100s of people walking past our house perhaps we wouldn’t have gone. I mean- a mushroom festival? Really? Living in Italy we embraced weekend festivals. You learnt so much. It was fun.

Country fairs :: local museums :: Visit the tourist office online or in person and find the kid friendly places to visit::  visit a farm:: learn some history- why is your town on the map- who were the pioneers and where did they live? When is the  popular festival in your area?

Expand your friendship groups to include diversity

We get comfortable really quickly in our friendship groups. Having moved around a fair bit, I have been on the outside a lot looking in on groups. We choose and become friends because we have a situation, feelings, beliefs in common. How diverse are your children’s friends?  Say let’s ask a tricky question- how diverse is your group of friends?

• New friends ( ‘known’ for less than a year)
• Friends
• Old friends ( ‘known for more than 5 years)

Explore new locations through picture books, topics and blogs

http://www.thelittletravelers.typepad.com/  I loved their series 52 meals from 52 countries

There are many families travelling with young children around the world.

Join a postcard exchange, cultural exchange, linky that celebrates something

International postcard swap  ::Random postcard ::Postcard exchange :: cultural exchange

Learn about a new area through dressing up, food and activities

3 ways to bring diversity into your child’s play | Play-Activities.com

Linking play activities with food | Play-Activities.com

Cultural diversity in the home

Learning about our world | Play-Activities.com

9 must haves for your dressing up box | Play-Activities.com

66. Celebrating other cultures | Raising Playful Tots

How do you expand and explore the world?

 

Click here to read the rest of the posts in the series, 31 Days to a more Playful Tot.

November 2nd, 2011 Cultural Exchange Posted by Melitsa in Education, Homemade, Memes, Podcast, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

Melissa over at Chasing Cheerios mentioned a Cultural Exchange  just before the Summer. It sounded a great idea.

The idea was to send a packgae out that represented your country to a group of people. Melissa coordinated the whole thing. We were in a group of 6 people. 6 packages- how difficult would that be?

Naturally life gets busy during the summer. My husband was back after a year deployment so life was hectic. The kids also spent a large portion with Grandparents. I didn’t want to send activities for them to do. Hanging out with the Grandparents was all that was required.

So September rolls around and back to school. Again super busy. The boys and I worked really  hard on finding UK things and what they wanted.

This is what we selected for our package. Each one was a little different.

• ELC money in Euros and Sterling
• Twining fruit Tea. (We’re big fruit tea drinkers but we were thinking of the kids- no caffeine!)
• Mini chocolate digestives ( I had to buy a second packet the first packets got…er..um eaten)
• Love hearts and traditional sweets
• keyring with a tourist attraction from the UK/London. Here we have the traditional phone box. Not many of these around.
• Make a flag activity
• Information pack about the K including recipes
• Drawn picture of a Beefeater costume.

Imagine that duplicated 6 times. It was an interesting time at the post office sending these off.

Next the wait…….

So far we’ve received one from Arizonia and one from Japan.

The boys are beyond excited to open them up. We unpacked them at Dinnertime.

If you get the chance to participate in an exchange….do!

There are lots of physical swaps online. I spoke about the International Postcard Swap  on the podcast recently.

Have you participated in any swaps? Share the links below

 

September 29th, 2011 Back to school shopping list Posted by Melitsa in Education, play activities, Thought of the week

Each year school districts up and down the land produce a large long list of items for children to bring to school.

It was stuff of legend to me. I’d heard about long prescriptive lists and not finding the exact thing and knew. I just knew they had to be exaggerations. urban myths gone too far.

So I was a little knocked off my feet to receive my first list a few years ago.

I wasn’t prepared or well informed so I was late to the shops and found the cupboards bare. I tramped to many a shop along with the  ‘furrowed brow posse’ of equally worried mums some of us with kids and others who knew better.

Who knew elation could be so great to hear the assistant say there was a box of crayola colourfast X YZ in the back. Three families sigh and check it off the list.

Who knew I would spend over $130 that day getting everything. And no there’s wasn’t a line in the budget for that. Yes we did eat differently that week.

Older and wiser the following year things were a lot better. Line in the budget, got to the right shops, made it to a few sales….most importantly watched what was going on with the savvy mums. Made all the difference.

Image credit: Dnorbot

The kids are all sorted with the things. It’s all in school. But what about us. What do we need to remember to do during the back to school time?

We want to be just as organized in our lives, home and work.

Here are a few reminders of things that should be on my back to school list

1. Don’t sign up for everything.
2. Schedule downtime and connection time with each child- Everyday.
3. Make playing outdoors a habit- forget seasons predict and adapt.
4. Not everyone is doing it. It might look like it but they aren’t. It’s Okay to be different!
5. Playdates and dinners with mates.
6. Learn new skills, go out, let the kids see you differently.
7. Take it easy on yourself. When systems, routines and ideas fail. Pick yourself up and try again. Chocolate is not the answer. ( That last bit was for me!) Manic Mommies is always good.

It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon and do a lot or volunteer for things.  While the kids are in daycare, preschool or school what back to school supplies do you look out for, for yourself?

 

August 8th, 2011 Finding LEGO Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, play activities, Sites to visit, Thought of the week

It’s probably something that most of us can relate to in the popular book, Too Many Toys by David Shannon, of the poor dad stepping on LEGO pieces.

LEGO this summer has come into its own with all the boys. With our age span from 3 to 8 now we have many different types.

 

On a recent visit to Jen of Muminthemadhouse the LO played with her boy’s LEGO Space set. It was a rare and not forgotten treat.

All the way home he talked about the “Plane” meaning shuttle. Other peoples LEGO is so exciting and it makes you think and create in different ways.

We’ve been happy to find huge tubs of it a car book sales lately. While I’m happy for the boys my heart aches for hoovering around that stuff. So far the grand finds have been at their Grandparents’ house so they are getting the pleasure of LEGO. I know in a few weeks though that all most of  that LEGO will be making it’s way back here.

What keeps me sane with LEGO?

Letting go!

I know that LEGO will be around the house. It’s really not the biggest deal. We live in our home and always have. I expect to see that kids live in a home and one of their things is that they drift and leave stuff. I love that active play in them to do this.

Listening

Have you listened to your kids, when they don’t know you’re there, playing with LEGO? It’s a joy! They so totally get into it and absorbed. The situations and scenarios they play out are long and complex. Yes some of them are based upon familiar characters but I’ve seen a lot of crossover from books, real life and just imagination.

Time

LEGO has been a huge hit this summer and 3 little boys have sat, squirmed and rushed around for huge swathes of time inside and out setting their own play. They’ve completely got lost in the play and can’t believe it’s meal time or anything else. That’s a great thing! It’s how I remember summer being.

Light flash!

Today I hit upon and idea that just works well for me. Hoovering is hard.I don’t want to suck up those little extra pieces but it happens, at times. So I found a box and as I was tidying the room for hoovering I dropped the pieces in there. I did this for two rooms. Look at the booty I found!

I think the boys will love me! More Lego is like ice cream- you just can’t have enough!

It’s a simple tip that perhaps you already did but it’s saved my sanity. I don’t feel so annoyed and frustrated at all these little pieces.

Sometimes WE choose the toys that suit US as parents for ease of use, lack of pieces, quick, expensive, electronic, no mess because it’s EASIER for us. It’s not that we do all the opposites of those listed we have our days too when we need to do differently.

 

What I’m trying to do though is find a way for the boys to participate in unstructured and the messy and make it work in our home. Intentionally finding a way to make play opportunities work that are ideal and welcomed because they allow the kids to shine and play in ways that will surprise.

This box…. sets me on the road.

Photo credit: justmalia

Do you have any LEGO storage tips for me?

P.S I would love to do this for the boys room. What a creative way to store LEGO!