by Kelly | Dec 2, 2011 | Featured Fridays |
Today’s interview kicks off a series of interviews from homeschooling families with preschool-aged children. Young families who have realized that what they do now is already homeschooling! Member Nicole blogs about her family and their learning journey over at Once a Small Seed. Enjoy her perspective as a trained Early Childhood Educator, turned homeschooling mama.
by Kelly | Nov 30, 2011 | Learning Librarian |
‘Tis the season, and I have been so inspired by everyone’s advent tables, lights and calendars, I’ve decided to post ours here. And, just for fun, maybe you’d like to link up yours? A few years ago, I purchased this lovely Advent calendar from a local scrapbooking store. It was a completely unnecessary purchase, but that little box got in my head and wouldn’t go away. Originally, it was blank, and I covered it with the lovely seasonal paper you see here. And, you know what, I love it! I’m thankful every year that I allowed myself the small indulgence. This year, we decided to do a few different things with it. Last year, it was full of chocolates for Mom and Dad. This year, we scrapped the chocolate, and filled each box with an advent activity (thanks to member, Kristin @ GypsyJunk for the idea). We wrote things like: go skating, take a family walk in the woods, make cookies to share, donate some toys!, and, my personal favourite, Dylan’s own: “Christmas fun!” We’ll see what that looks like… When I placed them in the box, I scrambled them, so we have no idea what is coming each day. I can hardly wait for tomorrow! The other thing we added today is a rock collection. What?! Yep, that’s right. We spent the afternoon picking beautiful river rocks at one of our favourite parks. We’ll be adding one to our Advent display every day of December. A new rock a day! Doesn’t quite beat chocolate, but it does create a meaningful family tradition – which I’m all for As...
by Kelly | Nov 28, 2011 | Inspiration Mondays |
Nature is one of my favourite topics and, enjoying it is one of our favourite activities. I’ve always appreciated the beauty of the natural world, but it wasn’t until I became a mother that I really started to appreciate my role in the natural world. I started realizing how disconnected I had become (had always been?) with the ecosystem, with my role in it, and with the real world, growing all around me. It wasn’t until I read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, that it all started to really hit home. And, as I joke with my husband, I went back to my hippie roots (he claims that I have no hippie roots). From there, it has been one continual journey towards reconnection, appreciation and stewardship. As my family works on reducing our ecological footprint, I am working on increasing nature’s footprint on my children’s hearts. Showing them, and sharing with them, the glory and splendour that is our earth. And the funny thing (or perhaps not so surprising), is that both my children and nature have ended up teaching me so much more than I am teaching them. The more time I spend outdoors, the more I love it, and the more I want to learn about the living world around me. The more I see the world through my children’s eyes, experiencing everything for the first time, the more in awe I am, in turn. There are days, like today, when it all bubbles up, and threatens to spill over. On those days, my greatest hope is that I can live in communion with the...
by Kelly | Nov 25, 2011 | Featured Fridays |
Inspired by amazing people around the world, I have put together my “must-do” list of handmade gift ideas for the kids.
by Kelly | Nov 21, 2011 | Inspiration Mondays |
This week, we’ve been putting together a box of goodies for the nature exchange we signed up for at The Magnifying Glass. We simply submitted our name and address and the lovely folks over at The Magnifying Glass matched us with another family.
