Story Stones

My children enjoy playing with natural objects, leaves, stones, acorns, etc. By combining their love for nature and an idea I found on Pinterest, I came up with a great DIY gift for my nieces and nephews. I gathered stones (and since we live in the city, I had to cheat a bit and buy a package of river stones at the Dollar Tree). Then I cut out tiny story characters and objects from paper, fabric, etc. and mod podged them onto the stones. My sister's children are mad about Little House in the Big Woods, so I used an old paperback (don't worry, I have another copy of this title!) to cut out Laura, Mary, Ma, Pa, and Baby Carrie along with a bear, dear, etc. for their set of story stones. They turned out charming. I made a set for traditional stories that included a pot, an old man and woman, farm animals, a gingerbread boy, and other items that would make Stone Soup, The Gingerbread Man, The Old Man and the Old Woman, and Clever Beatrice a possibility. I made simple cut outs of a mouse, cheese, and other Mother Goose items for the youngest, and a set of woodland critters for my own son and his critter-loving cousin. I also made a set with a vintage fabric that included rosy faced children and their pet dog. Finally, I sewed drawstring bags in coordinating fabrics and made gift tags with story and game ideas using the stones. The best game idea I had was to pass the bag around the dinner table or the car and for each person to add to a family story that is made up as you go along. When you take an item out of the bag, you must add something to the story that includes the character or item you drew. This is a variation on the game my siblings and I played so often with my Dad as a child. He used to love to start a story and go from person to person adding adventures. I hope the story stones continue this tradition of family story telling! I took a picture of the traditional tales set and the Little House set for here. I hope you like them!

Cupcake Cuties

We made these cuties for Thanksgiving. I found some free cupcake printables online, so making the cupcake sticks was easy. I just printed them on card stock and cut them out with crimped scissors. Then we taped them on to sticks. We made the cake itself from the Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix. I prefer the Namaste mixes, but the Betty Crocker mix is cheaper and kids love it. Betty Crocker also has gluten free icing options, so this makes cupcakes so much easier than back in the day, when I made everything from scratch to meet our allergen free baking needs. I still make most things the old fashioned way, but I am very grateful to Betty for allowing me to push the easy button at times. We used food coloring to make the cream cheese icing orange. The acorns on top were made from turning a Hershey's kiss upside down and using a dab of icing to secure a tiny gluten/nut free sugar cookie on top. Then, just dab a bit of icing on the top of the cookie to make a stem. The sugar cookies were made from a Namaste cookie mix. We just made them very tiny. We made a dozen cupcakes, but we made many more chocolate cookie acorns to have in a bowl to eat. They were a big hit with the cousins at our Thanksgiving gathering - both allergy eaters and non-allergy eaters consumed them with gusto.

Dollhouse Decor

Christmas is here - even in the dollhouse world. Check out the adorable world of my daughter's mouse-sized house and the way she has it all ready for the holidays.

Will Work for Peace

Tis the night before Thanksgiving and I am contemplating the deep thankfulness I feel for my children and the lessons they teach me along the journey together. I thought I would teach them, I didn't realize how much I would be learning FROM them. Peace starts at home. When I began the path to gentle, non-violent parenting, I had no idea how the seed of that ideal would take root and grow in our family. My socially conscience children are always surprising me with the ways they incorporate peace in our daily lives. They struggle with the hard work of it, just like I do, but they bring such an openness to the table. My twelve year old recently was sharing with me how she found it difficult to remember to be peaceful on the playground when her brother was being bullied. Her instinct was telling her to strike out and pay back insult for insult. I appreciate her protective instincts for her brother, but imagine my delight when she told me that she immediately thought of why the aggressor might be acting that way and what was going on with him to cause his behaviour. Over a period of several weeks, both of my children had many conversations about this child both together and with me and my husband. We put a lot of time into talking over scenarios and solutions that could be a win-win for both parties. The verbal bullying continued for a couple of weeks, but after my children went out of their way to make positive remarks, model good communication, and practiced some peace making strategies, things began to improve. Now the child in question is counted a friend. They play together and have a lot of fun. I am not trying to over-simplify the massive bullying problem we have these days, only feeling proud of a small inroad made by my two sweeties. Peace really does begin at home. When we model appropriate responses to injustice and problems in the world, the children will follow. They may even lead the way.

Revolution starts at home...

The Bremen Town Musicians

I was treated to a puppet show this morning. The Bremen Town Musicians was playing at the theatre down the hall. They haven't played with the puppet theatre in ages, so it was fun to see it open once again. As the children get older, I find sitting and watching performances of home theatre, whether it is a live performance of a Twilight Zone episode or an impromptu puppet show, especially endearing. It was an excellent show, I gave it 5 stars. *****

Free Range Children

I was at the zoo the other day with my children. As we headed toward the naked mole rat exhibit (a strange, but interesting site), a group of children passed us with zoo camp shirts on. They were kindergarten age and were with a zoo camp class. The two instructors were keeping up a running dialogue at the children as they walked by holding a rope to keep their place in the line. "Walk a little faster, turn to the front, stop staring and keep walking, no talking here please, do you guys want snack because you won't have time for it if you don't walk faster than this..." on and on it went as the five year old kids walked on by. I was a bit taken aback at the severe tone of these camp leaders. The children were being very quiet and were only naturally distracted by looking at the animals they were passing. I had looked at the camps online and thought they sounded interesting with neat topics and activities listed. They were a bit expensive, so we hadn't signed up. Watching the leaders with this very young group of campers made me glad we didn't.

Why do so many adults feel they must keep up a running commentary at children about their every behaviour? I wonder how we would feel if someone walked along side us everywhere with a constant stream of chastisement? Why not just be pleasant and treat children like real people instead of inmates or second class citizens? I taught kindergarten for five years and worked in a daycare for a great many more before having my own children. I know it is not an easy job. But, is it really that hard to see children as real people?

It is a self-defeating cycle. When we are treated this way as children, it creates a need to lord our own superiority over others. Then, when we become the adults, we feel it is our due to treat children in this belittling way. It saddens me a great deal to see this being repeated over and over in our society. Are we so insecure that the only way to feel important is to become a tyrant and to push our own agenda on the children? Children are not made to be silent for hours at a time, to walk in straight and silent lines, to eat lunch in silence (as is the practice in many of our schools), or to go all day without active play and exploration. Children are citizens of our world and are due our respect as fellow human beings.

I want my children to be "free range" children. I don't want them to have to stifle every impulsive word and walk in straight lines, raise their hands to ask permission to go the bathroom (a basic human function!), or have someone stand over them with a running commentary on what they are doing wrong. I want a free range life for all children. I am not advocating the loss of boundaries or encouraging bad behaviour. I am only asking for a humane approach. Express to the children what your expectations are in simple and polite language, give them room to question you in a respectful way, ask them what could improve the class or camp and really listen. This is not as hard as it sounds. I use these and other strategies in my experiences teaching in a school setting, working with children in a library setting, and parenting my own. They really work. When working with children, it is best for us to follow our own rules, treat them the way you would want to be treated. Don't yell at them if you don't allow them to yell back, etc.

I hope for a better future for children. I hope my continued efforts to parent peacefully leave at least two more peaceful souls on this planet. I hope my continued work with the children of my community will give them the confidence they need to treat others kindly and with compassion and peace. I hope that if you are reading this post, that you will challenge yourself to reflect on the way you interact with the children in your life. Take another step towards peaceful and non-punitive interactions with the little ones in your life. You won't be sorry you did.