Playful Learning: Develop your Child's Sense of Joy and Wonder by Mariah Bruehl

Can I tell you about a book?  (I know you've never had a recommendation of a book from me before.)
Playful Learning:  Develop your Child's Sense of Joy and Wonder by Mariah Bruehl.  I can't get Amazon to let me link it or I would.  I love the cover.  Maybe it's the freshly sharpened colored pencils.  I don't know.  I just love it.  What I love even more is how very much it is helping me make sense of the murky world of helping my children learn.  She provides activities to help support reading, writing, math, science and social skills for children ages 4-8.  She outlines the learning process...the stages they go through as they develop in each area. She speaks to me in a way I can understand.   I feel as though I've been given vocabulary, understanding and processes for implementation that I can use and not just think about.

Recently Mowg came home from school having learned about volcanoes and earthquakes.  He was pretty excited about them.  He showed us how the plates worked by separating some cracked asphalt for us.  As a result of this book I was tuned in a little better to that excitement.   Tiny and I made a volcano with salt dough (not in enough time for it to dry mind you) and when Mowg came home from school we mixed a little red jello with some baking soda and added it to some vinegar.  The eruptions were fun to make and watch.  Once we were done with that we let the kids mix the mess all together to their hearts content.  It was an enjoyable evening and dare I say a bit of a learning one.  We had fun.  We experimented.  We played.  All of us, together.  Mariah Bruehl didn't recommend this activity or provide directions for it.  She simply gave me the tools to be aware and take the opportunities as they were presented.  If you haven't seen this book, please check it out.  It is amazing.  Thank you Mariah Bruehl for writing this book. 

(PS I have no affiliation or connection with this author or the publisher.  I just love the book.  That's all.)

Are you looking for us?

I'm so full of excuses, but this is a good one.  Our computer died.  Complete crash.

I'm still sorting out this new one, but it's coming and it'll read the 8gb camera card! Wow.

That's all I can say.  What's that tiny girl doing?  Is that what you're wondering?  She was fascinated by the junk under the bleachers at a rodeo (our first as a family).  FASCINATED.  That's an understatement.  One day soon I'll get on the ball.  I promise.  I hope.

I know you think that I've forgotten that I have a blog.  I'm struggling with allergies at the moment among other things.  This means I would rather close my eyes than have them open.  It also means that you could tie my hands to iron rings making it impossible for me to scratch at my eyes and I would find a way to bang my head on the wall until I could scratch them.  Actually, some of the time I think I'd like to bang my head on the wall just to do something different.   So it's not a good excuse, but it's an excuse.

I'll leave you for now with my favorite "prayer line" at the moment from my tiny girl:

"Please bless the food tommorrar."

I think it's always good to get a head start when you can, apparently she thinks so too.

On getting ready for Kindergarten

I have a backlog of pictures to upload and lots of fresh stuff that needs to be canned, but guess what else?  Kindergarten starts on Monday.  I don't want to go.  Ok I don't want him to go.  He's excited and nervous that Mowg boy who loves to learn.  Tiny is going to "Mommy School" so she won't be left out.  She's excited to pack up her "packcaqu".  I just want to find superman and have him stop the spin of the world for a month or two.  Don't get me wrong I love to see him grow and learn.  I just will miss seeing so much of it.  I might have an easier time if it was only 1/2 a day, but we are "progressive" here so he'll be gone all day.  What about, what about, and that too.  Sigh.  Thanks for reading.  Now I'm off to tackle a project....I just can't pick which one.

I have to share another give-away at Imagine Childhood (here's the link...click there and it will take you there).  They are giving away a $75 gift certificate to their store for the winner and a friend.  Let me tell you this is a great online store.  If you like high quality toys/activities to do with kids.  Activities that inspire thinking, you'll love it there.    In addition they have a great blog where they share nature walks from around the world.  Ordinary people send in pictures of their walk and Imagine Childhood shares it with all of us.  It's one of my favorite features.  I know I don't have time to share what I've been up to but I can go on and on about this.  What can I say, it's that good.

Just a little heads up that this blog is having a giveaway right now for some great fabric.  Go check them out!

"I'll see you in a couple of whiles." Tiny
Can I say ditto?  Ditto. :)