Last week, our area experienced high winds resulting in a massive storm surge.
The ocean made its way well onto the shore and brought with it a fair amount of flotsam and jetsam. At the end of our pathway, seaweed and driftwood were tangled together with dead crabs, and plastic bottles. The mangled debris – both natural and manufactured - was enough to prompt a conversation about habitats with my seven-year-old daughter.
Whether you're thinking about starting seeds for an outdoor garden, a mini-garden for your window ledge, or a container garden for your patio, you will need lots (and lots) of pots. And while it's true that you could use containers you pick up - as is - from the garden centre, decorating and personalizing your own vessels can be so much more rewarding. And fun... especially for children.
Do you decorate for Easter? I don’t. Unless foil candy wrappers intermingling with piles of Easter grass scattered effortlessly across the floor can be considered decorating in which case yes, that was my house you saw in that issue of Better Homes and Gardens at the doctor's office.
But this year, I decided to kick my house fluffing up a notch.
If you are a parent, you are probably familiar with one of Albert Einstein’s lesser-known theories: The smaller the kid, the larger the pile of art they will produce.
From early crayon scribbles and reams of sticker-covered computer paper, to colourful splats of paint and remarkably strong renditions of dogs… kids make art. Lots and lots of art.
The question is, what to do with all the creative output?
One answer involves using state-of-the-art technology to archive all the fabulous handiworks your children make at home, at school and at camp.
One of the hardest skills for any person to develop is how to stop an emotional and physical eruption from happening or how to cool ourselves down once it has. We call these explosions “tantrums” in children, but adults have these, too. I call an adult freak-out a bigtrum: big person tantrum.