Kid's Art Throw Pillows

So when I am trying to distract myself from my frustration over our house being rebuilt I try to focus on the fun stuff I get to buy with our replacement money from the insurance company. I recently ordered my dream sofa from Room and Board and was searching for the perfect throw pillows to go with it. I was thinking something abstracts, colorful and with a watercolor feel. Then I had the idea to get some of the kid's paintings printed on pillows!

What a great way to incorporate their artwork in to our living space. I photographed the paintings and uploaded them to Shutterfly. then ordered pillows printed with the photographed artwork. It was so easy and they turned out so beautifully! The blue and gold pillow is Clover's painting and the purple and green one is Echo's

I can't wait to see them in place on my beautiful new sofa. It still feels like a long way off before we are back in our house but siding is going up today so that's progress at least!

Water and Ice Play

The Georgia heat this Summer has been pretty intense and to be honest it makes everyone in our family pretty grouchy. By late afternoon the kids are at each others throats and I am snapping at everyone. The heat just wipes us out and keeping our cool (literally and metaphorically) can be pretty difficult.

Basically the only way to survive is to get wet! My parents got Clover a water table as an early Birthday gift and it has been such a life saver! The girls play with it every day and it really seems to sooth frazzled nerves. My other recent discovery is the simplest thing in the world but is definitely a big hit with both girls and is something they can do together without fighting (mostly). Just giving them bowls of cold water with ice cubes has been a revelation! Clover loves to chase the ice around the bowl and eat it and Echo loves scooping and pouring in the ice cold water.

What a great hot weather play idea for those rough afternoons!

An Artistic Saturday Morning

Echo's sunflower

We had a great day yesterday and lots of time for art! After our weekly excursion to the farmer's market we came home and had some creative time as a family (sometimes my life is so delicious, I love our weekends!). We bought Echo a new sketchbook and I got one to match so we did some sketching together. Echo decided to draw a picture of a sunflower Eric had bought for her. It very exciting because this was her first time drawing from observation. She did an amazing job! Her artistic talent is really starting to blossom. 

Echo posing with her flower and her drawing. 

 I also spent some time encouraging Clover to draw with a variety of materials. She ended up producing her very first work on paper! Such a big day for both Echo and Clover artistically! Clover will still start to chew the art supplies eventually but she will draw for a little while first. In any case She is getting a good introduction to using art materials.

Clover's first work on paper.

 Echo and I have also been doing a lot of collaborative work. I often draw a fish and she will draw the background.

It's so exciting to see these girls develop their artistic talents and so much fun for me to get to make art with them!

Kid Updates

I feel like with the coming of the new year the kids have had some kind of transformation. Both of them seem to have had a huge developmental jump just in the last few weeks.  With Clover it has been mostly fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. Just last week she started intentionally grabbing for things and she is getting pretty good at it! She also recently discovered her feet which she finds fascinating. Besides all that she has suddenly become much more aware of her surroundings. She interacts with us more, she plays and giggles with us. It's like some magical switch has been flipped.

Echo has also been maturing greatly over the past few weeks. She is stringing together some pretty complex sentences these days. For example, "I want to take a toy from Baba's house back to my own home" and " I went to Target and got a coke and popcorn, that was fun".

She has also been showing a huge interest in fantasy and imaginative play. She informed Eric and I that she was getting married the other day. We were, needless to say, a little taken aback. We asked her who she was marrying and she said "mommy" so it's all good though :-) Apparently getting married in her mind means putting on a dress and dancing. Unfortunately I think that's all a lot of people care about when they get married but at this age it's pretty darn cute. I've "gotten married with her multiple times a week and I help her make elaborate dresses out of blankets and then we dance around the kitchen, pretty sweet if you ask me :-)

She also spends a lot of time "hiding from giants" which consists of the whole family hiding under a blanket until she tells us the giant is gone. After we poke our heads out she inevitably says "another giant's coming!" and we have to hide a again.  This kind of thing is a bit of a shift from the way she used to play pretend where she would mimic doing real things like cooking and cleaning. She still does these things too but the more fantastical play is fascinating to me, not to mention fun!

I'm also happy to report that after months of Echo showing no interest in doing art with me she has begun to explore different artistic mediums again. She loved painting when she was younger but around the time she turned two her interest waned and she pretty much stopped wanting to do any kind of art at all. To my credit I didn't force the issue even though I had always pictured spending hours upon hours painting and coloring with my daughter. I left the art supplies in an area she could access them but I pretty much stopped suggesting it as an activity since she didn't seem interested.

Just the other day she came to me with watercolors and paint brushes in hand and told me she wanted to paint. She then spent the next hour and a half painting peacefully at her little art table. It was amazing! When she finished that she wanted to use her new rubber stamps that she got for Christmas so she spent a good 45 minutes on that as well. Pretty cool! I don't know if her renewed interest in art will continue but I am happy to see her exploring different things and I am really impressed with her attention span. I've included some pictures of her work below.

 I feel like I am really entering a golden era with the kids. The terrible twos are already starting to ease up a bit with Echo and she is getting to be so much fun to talk to and play with. Clover is reaching an age where she can really interact with us and is coming close to being able to sit up which will make her much more self sufficient. These two girls fill my life with so much love and purpose, I am so lucky to be their mommy.

Hand Made Christmas Decorations

Christmas is my favorite holiday of all time. Hooray! It's almost here! Here is our lovely tree, put up on a table to give us more room for presents underneath ;-)

Celebrating Christmas with Echo this year has been so much fun, she is finally old enough to start to get what it's all about. We have been reading Christmas books for months, been to two tree lightings and yesterday we took her to see live reindeer at the nature center.

One tradition that I wanted to start with her this year was making ornaments for the tree. She still doesn't really have the attention span to stick with it very long but she enjoys the idea of it and I'm hoping that next year she can take a more active role.

We did the traditional popcorn garland of course...

And one that was new for me this year, dried citrus slices. This one is so easy and so pretty, plus it made my house smell great! Cut your citrus thin (we used grapefruit and orange slices) and pat with a towel to remove excess moisture. Bake on your ovens lowest setting for 4 hours or until the citrus is completely dry, not sticky. I poked some holes in them with a bamboo skewer and threaded pretty ribbon through and Echo helped me hang them on the tree.

Last but not least, a pretty paper garland made from my mom's scrap booking paper. Echo had zero interest in this one but maybe next year :-)

What are you doing to decorate for the holidays this year? Any good kid friendly ideas?

Giving Up

The above is a picture of our living room from shortly before we got our Christmas tree this year. Before I had kids I never thought I would have such a mess of toys and brightly colored plastic all over my living room, and even as the kid stuff started to pile up I was able to keep it out of this space (the focal point of our whole house) for a long time. At some point I had to give up on it though and this is the result.

I had different ideas about keeping the toys and art materials in the loft or in Echo's bedroom but it never seemed to work out, we would always end up bringing whatever we were doing to the living room. It hit home to me after reading a book on project based homeschooling (and a conversation with Eric) where they talked about the importance of keeping materials in the heart of your home. If you keep materials put away in a distant room no one will use them and then what is the point of having all these great toys, games, books and art supplies?

So I gave up on having the front room of our house be a showpiece an gave in to having kid stuff strewn everywhere and I'm totally ok with it. For one thing this is their house too, why shouldn't they be allowed to have their things where they want them? Also, when I get down about all our kid clutter I just remember that as a unschooling mom my number one job is the kid's education, having materials easily available and being available myself are the most important important things I can do for them. If these means having a messy living room so be it.

Lastly whenever I find a little scene like the one in this picture:

It makes me so unbelievably happy. Echo explained to me that this was her and her sister sailing in a boat with their animals. Joy doesn't even begin to cover what these kids make me feel :-)

Parenting: Trust, Doubt and Respect.

My amazing girl

As I lay awake last night holding my little girl and listening to the rain I was overwhelmed by my love for her. Even though she had just gotten me up from a deep sleep at 1:30 am (as she does most nights) I took a moment to savor her warm head resting on my shoulder and her small sleepy sounds as I snuggled her back to sleep. This is the good stuff, this is what it's all about.

While I waited for her to drift back off I thought about the kind of parent I want to be and the lifestyle I want my family to have. I had been reading some parenting and unschooling articles earlier that day and and came across this really excellent one from Life Learning Magazine (which is a really amazing resource for anyone interested in unschooling). This article reaffirms so much of what I believe about raising children and education and it made me feel so relieved to hear it from someone else.

I tend to be the kind of person that doesn't have a lot of strong opinions. I try to see both sides of any argument and will always admit that I could easily be in the wrong. However, parenting and education are probably about the only things in life that I have VERY strong opinions about. In spite of the fact that I am convinced that this style of parenting is for us, in spite of the fact that I know unschooling works from personal experience and in spite of the fact that I have faith that if we trust and respect our children they will surpass our wildest expectations for them, I have a hard time not doubting myself every so often.

Why is it so hard for parents to trust themselves and their instincts? Why is it so hard to keep the doubt at bay? For me I think it is that I am so passionate about my children and their education and lifestyle that I think about it constantly. I read tons of parenting and child related articles and I feel like I am usually barraged with information that is totally counter to how I want to raise my kids. I knew going in to this that I would be in the minority but it is still sometimes difficult to stand by what you believe when it feels like everyone else is telling you something different.

It seems to me that the majority of parenting articles I run across are aimed at trying to trick your child in to being a particular way. They tell you how you can "win the bedtime battle", or "make your kid good at science". All too often they pit parents and children against one another and encourage you to manipulate your children. The people who write these articles depict children as wily little devils who are trying to manipulate and outwit their parents while the parents are trying to beat them at their own game. Why do people want to mold their children to be a certain way? Why can't we celebrate who our children are rather than coerce them in to being what we want them to be? Why can't a family all be on one team instead of it being parents against kids?

The core of my parenting philosophy revolves around trust and respect for all family members including ourselves. I believe that children should be given respect equal to any other household member and this means no arbitrary rules, no power struggles and no "because I'm the parent and I said so". My children will be given the freedom to do what they want, when they want. Just as if they were adults in the house they will be allowed to use it's contents as they see fit (provided they are respectful of the communal living spaces and don't damage property). Just as I would never tell my husband that he can't have a snack right now or can't watch any television, I don't want to do these things to my children either. I want to afford them the same freedom that any family member deserves. This is really not easy to do for me even though I raised this way. It's hard to go against the societal norm and let your children have freedom to do what they wish even if it's not something you like. For example it's easy to let your kid paint or read all day but a lot harder to sit by while they play video games for 8 hours straight. The thing is, and I truly believe this, if you leave them alone they won't want to play video games for 8 hours straight. At least not for more than a week or so. Once the novelty wears off they are going to get bored and want to try something else. Kids are naturally bright and inquisitive, if you leave them alone they will want to do interesting and amazing things!

This doesn't mean that my kids will always do things I agree with and it doesn't mean I can't have concerns and talk to my children about them, but basically there should be a good reason behind it if I am going to ask them not to do something. If I feel like the kids are watching too much TV I can talk to them about and explain why I feel that way. Conflicts will be resolved with family meetings rather than top down authority. Since my daughter is still a toddler there are plenty of times I have to tell her no, but I try to think very hard before I tell her she can't do something. Is there really a good reason she can't do it or am I just instinctively saying no because I don't want to deal with it right then? As long as she isn't hurting herself or someone else than I think she should be aloud to do pretty much whatever she wants.

It's really hard to keep all this in mind on  a daily basis and consistently put it in to practice but communicating with others helps me remember to be the kind of parent I want to be. That is why I want to not only continue to read stories from others that have a similar parenting philosophy but to write down in my own words what I believe, to reinforce and remind myself that I can trust my own parenting instincts and I can trust my daughter to be the amazing person she is.

I know that my time and temper will be a little shorter when our next baby arrives so it will be even more important to make the effort to trust and respect Echo at that time. I look at how strong and smart and happy she is now and I want her to stay that way. I want her to know how truly valued and respected and loved she is. I never want her to feel like a second class citizen in her own home, I want her to know that she is a full fledged family member who's opinions and needs are valued.

Echo's New Room

At long last Echo's big girl room is complete! This was one of the major things we had to do to get ready for the new baby and we have been planning and talking about it for so long that we are really excited to finally get it done. We plan to put the new baby in the nursery (Echo's old room) because it is right across the hall from us and has easy night time access for me. Echo has been sleeping really well lately making it less important for her to be right next to us so moving her to the other room just made sense. I didn't want them sharing a room at this point because I'm afraid the baby will wake Echo up and don't want to mess with her sleep.  

Before

The biggest thing we had to do in this room was get rid of the nasty carpet (as seen in the before picture). Eric's parents came down last weekend to help us work on it and they knocked the whole thing out in just two days! The new floor looks amazing, it really makes me want to do the rest of the rooms that haven't been done yet but it is a huge pain so who knows when that will happen.

My contribution to the room was a mural by Echo's floor bed. I originally really wanted to do this room in a nautical theme (mostly because I wanted to paint a nautical mural) but I could see that Echo really didn't care about under sea stuff as much as I do so in the end I tried to make it something she would enjoy more. She loves to help me in the garden and loves animals so I did some sunflowers and a rabbit for her. She is so proud of this mural and loves the rabbit in particular. She often goes up to it and pats it or gives it kisses, so cute!

This room feels so much more open and it has been fun watching her get used to it. She spent her first night in her new room last night and she slept great in spite of my worries about her adjusting to a new space.

I'm so happy to have her moved in because now she will have plenty of time to think of this as her room before the baby comes and takes over her old room! We still have a few of her things to move in and Eric is building some shelves in her closet but other than that the room is done. Yay!

Fun, Free and Easy Things To Do With Your baby

Time was that Echo was totally happy just to chill at home with me while I worked on a sewing project, made bread or did housework. We still have days like this but more and more Echo wants to get out and do stuff!  I've been making a mental list of things Echo enjoys doing out of the house that can be done for cheap or free. Here are some of our favorite activities.

Go to the Pet Store-
On days when we are searching for something to do visiting Petsmart is always a hit. Like most babies, Echo loves animals and enjoys watching the birds, fish and small rodents at the store. It's like going to the zoo for her, only free! It's also a nice inside activity for when it's rainy or super hot or cold.

Library Programs-
I've been taking Echo to the baby story time at the library since she was about 4 months old. She loves it and it gives her a chance to play with other babies. The program itself isn't anything stellar but she still enjoys and it it's fun to do something different. It's nice for parents as well since we all get to chat about our babies.

Play Place at the Mall-
A friend recently told me that our local mall has a soft, indoor playground for little ones. How awesome! We have now been several times and it is the perfect place for Echo to run and play without me having to worry about her getting hurt. Like the library it is also a great place for her to interact with other babies and young children.

Plant an Herb Garden-
This isn't really free but it is cheap and Echo absolutely loves it! She could seriously spend all day out on my back deck picking herbs. They smell nice and she can eat them without me having to worry. This is probably her favorite activity to do at home.

Feeding the Ducks-
We did this for the first time last week. She didn't really get the concept of throwing bread but she loved watching the ducks and chewing on some bread herself. She is fascinated by all kinds of animals and having bread was a good way to get them to come close to us.

Parks-
This one is pretty obvious but it's a classic for a reason. Try exploring some different parks in your area, seek out some that you haven't tried before.

Your own Yard-
If you are stumped for ideas or just don't have the energy to get your baby in a car seat play in your own front or back yard. Being in nature is so important to kids and they love to feel the breeze blow and watch the leaves in the sunlight. Even if your yard is old hat to you it is still exciting for your baby.


If anyone has other great ideas for cheap baby dates I'd love to hear them! How do you keep your baby entertained?

Establishing A Read Aloud Tradition Early

Echo flipping the pages of her current favorite book, 100 First Words. It won't be long before she is reading out load to us!

My memories of my early childhood are almost entirely made up of 3 things. Cooking, doing crafts and being read to. I guess it's no wonder that cooking, art and reading are three of my favorite grown up activities as well. I can recall countless days where my mom spent hours reading out loud to my brother and I. If it was nice out we would read on a blanket under the trees. If it was cold we would read in the living room and I would draw the characters from the story while I listened. We had certain books we would read while my dad was at work and certain books we would read all together when he got home. I remember waiting anxiously for him to arrive so we could find out what happened next in the story.

I always knew that I wanted to give my kids that same special gift of reading together as a family. Eric and I are both big readers but he didn't start reading out loud to me until I was pregnant. I loved listening to him read so much, it took me back to my childhood. After Echo was born he would read to me while I nursed her to keep me entertained. We now continue to read as a family every night. Usually Echo just crawls around and plays while we read and I'm sure she's not really listening (she also tries to steal Eric's glasses, steal the book, or turn the lights out on us) but I like to think it's good for her to be read to in any case. As she gets older we will keep reading to her every night (and day) and while it doesn't matter too much what we read right now we will have to pay more attention to our book selection as she gets old enough to listen. Right now we try to stick to things that are somewhat kid friendly (meaning no foul language mostly) but soon we will need to find things that are engaging to her that we also will enjoy.

Here is a list of suggestions for those of you who are interested in reading as a family. Most of these are better for older kids but they are all great because they appeal to kids and adults at the same time. They are also (mostly) gender neutral and would be great for boys or girls to read. Some are ones that I remember from my childhood and some are new discoveries that I have made in more recent years.

Coraline - Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling 

Odd and the Frost Giants - Neil Gaiman 

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Redwall - Brian Jacques

East - Edith Pattou

The Golden Compass - Phillip Pullman

The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander

Dealing With Dragons - Patricia C. Wrede

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Roald Dahl 

Matilda - Roald Dahl 

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl 

Peter Pan and Wendy - J. M. Barrie

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

The Magical Monarch of Mo - L. Frank Baum

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket and Bret Helquist

I'm sure there are so many more that I am just not remembering but this should get you started. All of theses are fantastic to read aloud and will keep the whole family glued to their seats. If you have any favorite read aloud books I would love to hear about them and file them away for future reference  Please feel free to leave comments with your favorites!

Montessori Style Rooms

I am a big fan of alternative education styles and there are a lot of good things to be said for the Montessori method. We plan to Unschool our children (more on that later) but I think there are a lot of ideas that we can take from other educational philosophies including Montessori. What I love about Montessori is that children are respected, given independence and allowed to use real tools and materials rather than fake, "kid" versions of things. Montessori is also child led, following the individual  child's interests and abilities. In this way it is very similar to Unscholling.  What I don't like about Montessori is that unrealistic imaginary play is discouraged. For example, you can play prentend at being an airplane pilot but not at being a fairy.


Anyway, enough of educational theory for the moment. I have been thinking a lot about how I want Echo's room to take shape when she gets older and we move her out of the nursery and in to her "big girl" room. I'm really interested in the Montessori style or organizing a room. Here are some great examples from my Pinterest board on kids rooms.

 Some of the things to take not of in a Montessori style room are beds directly on the floor, shelves and pictures that are low to the ground, within easy reach and toys organized in to easily accessed containers so that kids will have no trouble getting toys out and putting them away without adult help.

Other Montessori principles include limiting number of toys and choosing simple, quality toys over lots of cheap plastic toys. I love the idea of all this and would like to try it for our kids rooms but I feel like it might be harder in practice than in theory. Also, depending on the number of kids we end up having it could be difficult to have floor beds like I want, we may end up needing bunk beds!

Still I think all of this is is good information to keep in mind as my baby is quickly turning in to a little girl. She will be needing her big girl room before we know it!

Integrating Play Space In The Living Area

Anyone who follows me on Pinterest can see that I've developed a big interest in interior design geared towards children of late. There is something a bit more magical and fun about spaces designed with children in mind. Eric and I can't stop talking and making plans for the tree houses and play areas we want to design for our kids (Echo and her future siblings) and we don't want relegate their play areas to a separate part of the house. We want to the kids to feel that the house is theirs too, the whole house, not just their designated rooms. As full fledged members of the family they should be able to enjoy the living space as much as the adults.

The nice thing about owning your own home (soon to be paid off in full!) is that it gives you a lot of freedom to do whatever you want with the space, we can be as wacky as we want! And since we don't really view our home as an investment but as a place to live and raise our growing family we don't really need to be concerned with resale value when we make plans for building play areas in to our main living space.

I've been able to find some pretty excellent examples of children's play areas on pinterest, here are some of my favorites.

None of these are exactly what we want but we do plan to have some climbing space and a reading nook/hideout. We have some pretty exciting plans for all this but luckily we have some time since Echo won't be climbing for quite a while. Who knows what kind of cool designs we will come up with in the meantime?