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.

Antique Bowls and Baby Birds

There is an antique store near our home. It is a junky looking place surrounded by a fence and situated on the corner of a busy intersection. We pass it almost daily. There is a large fountain out by the road that sports a classical statue of a scantily clad Roman girl. My children think it is quite funny. There is an assortment of old bathtubs, yard gnomes playing cards, rusty chairs, and many more eccentricities. We generally have to sit at the light for a few minutes and the view is really better than an "I Spy" book.

The other day a new addition had arrived... and by new, I mean, well, quite old....

An antique carriage was sitting there, just inside the gate. Exclamations of approval and fascination came from the back seat. My son, with his little face pressed against the glass begged, "Can we go?"

The antique store had really just been part of the scenery - something to ponder while sitting in traffic, but now, with this question, it had the potential to be a destination. Since we were on the way somewhere and pushed for time, a visit wasn't possible, but... the idea had taken hold.

The next few days were marked by the persistence of my son and his drive to see the carriage first hand. He was also intrigued by the two large brick buildings on site. If the outside held such wonders, what would the inside hold?

We finally made a family trip to the antique store. The children both enjoyed the array of oddities in the yard. A closer inspection than the car had afforded yielded a vast wonderland of strange and wonderful objects. It was a living history lesson. The buildings were full of treasures from yesteryear, a typewriter that fascinated my daughter, a statue of a stag, very old toys like the circus train from the early 1900's, (we had seen one very similar at a toy exhibit at a museum in Virginia), and much, much more. As we picked our way through the precariously piled history, we reached the back of the warehouse.

A strange sound met our ears, and for a moment, I feared we were about to meet a creature of the rodent variety, but upon venturing forth, we discovered the most cunning little family of baby birds. They were so tiny, perfect, and adorable - really, really adorable. They were hopping about and practicing flying. They couldn't get off the ground much, but were using the antique china serving bowls as little jumping off points. They would jump and flutter their wings out and come to rest nearby, only to try and hop back up for another go. The children, and I must say, my husband and myself, were enchanted.

They were so close to us, we could have touched them, though we refrained (barely!). And then, to up the cute factor even more, the Mother arrived in the window high up on the back wall. She was carrying a little wormy thing in her mouth. She made a big show of flapping about and scolding, so we backed off around the corner of an old hutch and she approached one of her offspring that was perched on an antique fire fighter's helmet. The little bird took the worm from her in a lightning fast bite and then she was off again.

Here we were enjoying a nature and history adventure... all because we kept our eyes open to the world around us... or at least my children did. I probably would have just kept driving by that place... forever.