“When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college ‑ that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, ‘You mean they forgot?’” ~ Howard Ikemoto, artist
Whether it’s rusty red, forest green, golden yellow, midnight blue or juicy raisin, there’s something so cozy about the rich jewel tones that cover the landscape on crisp Autumn days.
My kiddo loves the sound of fallen leaves crunching beneath her feet and has long delighted in collecting mountains of twigs and seed pods during our Autumn walks.
I’m a big fan of keeping things simple, which is why I love these two Christmas tree craft ideas.
You need little more than paper, glue and a few glittery bits to pull off something that requires just a few minutes of your time, yet looks like it took hours to plan and create. And only you’ll know the truth because I promise not to tell.
Every December, the walls of our wood paneled family room would become an art gallery of sorts, complete with images of wreaths, snow capped mountains, reindeer, and the baby Jesus. As soon as the snow started to fall, my mom would run lengths of yarn wall-to-wall, and secure it in place with thumb tacks. As the greeting cards arrived in the mailbox, they were opened, read and hung on display, at least until mid-January. I still remember sitting on our corduroy orange sofa, unable to lean my head back because of the multitude of holiday messages hanging behind me.
Do you love decorating eggs at Easter but hate the thought of using chemical-containing dyes?
Maybe you have children who have sensitivities to the dyes found in food colouring and store-bought egg decorating kits, or perhaps you have little ones who are still too young to work with colours that stain little fingers. Maybe you just have a yearning to get back to nature.
Nothing boosts my mood like the scents and shades of fresh cut flowers. Except for chocolate. Or maybe cheese. But this is not a post about chocolate or cheese; this is a post about flowers.
“Mom,” whispered the small voice over the phone, “We have a situation.”
I was out running errands when I found out yet another chickadee had flown into our sliding glass door. This time – as in the past – my husband and daughter carried the small limp patient into the house and began nursing it back to health by placing it in a warm blanket in a lidded box, and uttering plenty of encouraging words.
I start my days filling up on a bowl full of hot steel cut oats, flavoured with a touch of salt and butter. Sometimes I get wild and crazy and throw on a drizzle of honey, a handful of raisins and a few almonds.
My daughter – on the other hand – is not an oatmeal girl. At least, she isn’t one anymore.
Sometimes referred to as cloud dough, this homemade concoction is a hit with kids of all ages… particularly preschoolers.
A little like sand (without the grit) and a bit like snow (without the cold), this delightful dough is super easy to make, fun to work with and easy to clean up.
Everything I know about multiplication, I learned from a man dressed in a kangaroo suit.
Math Patrol was an educational television program which ran on TVOntario in the late 1970s / early 1980s and I loved everything about it. Each episode featured Sydney – an undercover detective in a giant marsupial outfit – solving primary school level math problems and cracking cases assigned to him by his enigmatic boss, Mr. Big.
Hands up if you’ve ever thought about painting a picture, only to talk yourself out of it because, first off, you don’t know how to paint and also, you don’t want to waste precious art supplies because after all, you don’t know how to paint.
My daughter loves exploring the great outdoors. Whether it’s making mud pies, walking through the woods looking for squirrels, or sitting and watching honeybees collect nectar, she has always been right at home with nature. This is why it was no surprise that when it came time for her to choose a Maplelea Girl for herself, she picked Taryn, an environmentalist from Alberta who loves to hike and paint.
More than 60,000 Canadian children are being educated outside public and private school systems. This represents 1 to 2 % of the school-age population and these numbers only include those who are officially registered. Meanwhile, in the US, there are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2.3 million kids (or 3 to 4%) learning outside of traditional classrooms.
I was born with a full head of hair. I’m talking about the kind of tufts that would look right at home in an advertisement for baby hair gel... if babies used hair gel. Looking back, it’s entirely possible my penchant for hair product first began when – as a toddler – I styled my locks with oatmeal.
By the time I could ride a bike, the only way to contain my mop was a tidy, at-home-mullet, courtesy of mom.
A number of years ago, my friend Sharon came up with a clever way to keep her two children occupied. She dyed some rice a variety of different colours, threw it into a storage bin with a bunch of small toys and let the children have at it. It was like a giant game of I Spy that never, ever ended. Of course I had to try it too and when I did, my kiddo dove in with both hands (and feet).
Summertime, and the living is easy. At least, it should be.
But you don’t have to take my word for it because as is customary this time of year, all manner of parents, bloggers, news reporters and child psychologists are chanting the same warm-weather mantra:
Although, things did get iffy when I was 13 and both of them went through a non-stop polyester pants wearing phase.
But I liked them before that. And after… you know, once they embraced denim.
When I was in my early 20s, I declared that even if I weren’t related to my mom and dad, I’d still choose to hang out with them. I didn’t find out until years later that this statement made my father so proud, he shared it with nearly everyone he met.
