Candyland Lessons

In September of 1997, when I was 23 years old (woah...), I started my first Child Life Internship on the Neuroscience Unit at Boston Children's Hospital.  To begin, my job was to simply see what it was like to be a child in the hospital.  Meet the kids, play with them, get a feel for their experience...

I remember spending a morning with one child playing Candyland.  Opening the box.  Setting up the game.  "What are these picture cards?"  "This game has changed since I was a kid..."  "No", their mother told me.  "They have always been part of the game..."  Hmmm.

I went home that night and called my mom.  "When I was little and we played Candyland," - for I do remember playing Candyland. a lot. - "were there picture cards that jumped you forward and backward on the board?"

My mom was quiet for a moment.  And then laughed.  Yes, there were evidently picture card even way back in the seventies.  My mother took them out of our game and hid them.  They made the game last way too long, she told me.  As an early twenty-something, I was a little appalled. 

Fast forward fifteen years or so.  Ollie has finally discovered (and loves) Candyland.  It is out on our living room floor more often than not.  And those picture cards drive me nuts.  You see, my almost six year old is not a gracious loser.  And those picture cards?  They incite crying, whining, and board clearing swipes.  We don't even make it to the end to see who wins.  Just the anticipation of losing brings on the tears.  Oh dear, I drew Princess Frostina again.  I'm sorry!

So, I have recently thought about taking the picture cards out of our deck.  Ollie has even asked me to do so - at least he is self-aware, right?  But we keep them in.  Because there are lessons being learned here, right?  Instead, we talk about being a gracious loser.  And how Candyland is a game of chance.  And how you really don't know who is going to win until the very end.  And we take deep breaths.  And draw another card.  And hope that really that game of chance won't let me win for a third time in a row...

A Peek into E's Room

 I know I've said before that I would show some pictures of E's room.  I've shown you O's, but E's never seems to be clean enough to take pictures of!  We did some major purging in there this weekend.  She was all for it.  It just seemed that it was impossible to get it clean and organized because there was just. too. much. stuff.  Way too much dress up, too many dolls, stuff just ended up all over the floor and the room wasn't very often inviting for play.

Sunday, she filled three laundry baskets of debris to be stored away upstairs for awhile (and hopefully some soon after to be passed on or discarded).  What a difference it has made!  She played in there almost all day today.  And it was so easy to clean up tonight before bed.

Her room is definitely still a work in progress - and is definitely in need of a fresh coat of paint (minus the orange!) this spring.  We're getting there, though.  Slowly but surely.

It's A Crafty Advent - Day 1

 We hung our Advent Garlands last week and filled them last night.  My mom made these for the kids last year and I love them.  Last year they were filled with trinkets and a little candy.  While I loved a lot of the little things, some were really just filler - little pieces of plastic that ended up floating around our house until they made their way into the trash.  And really?  Who wants to feed their child a hershey kiss before they've had breakfast?

This year I wanted to do things a little differently.  I was inspired by Mary Beth over here last year and decided that we would follow suit and do some kind of "Christmas Village" with a mix of things that are new and things that we already had.

I actually bought a Playmobil advent calendar last summer and have had it stashed away to make up the bulk of the pockets.  Mixed in are some new play silks, a new ornament for each kid, a little necklace kit for each, and the pieces of a great hand carved nativity set that my parents bought for me in Holland(?) way back before I had kids.  I'm really excited to see what the kids think.

 

 Today, in their first pockets, they each received a new ornament.  I especially love the one for O - a great wool felted snowman I bought from Melissa Frueh (of Sqrl & Bee) at the local Waldorf School Holiday Fair before Thanksgiving.  I've known of her for a while and was super excited to be able to see her things in person.  Check out her husband's cool video Wellington Dreams - an amazingly creative couple!

 

So, I'm excited to watch the little Christmas Village unfold over the next 23 days.  We'll see what the kids decide to do with it all.  I have a feeling it is going to end up looking nothing like I imagine...

The Backyard: A Work in Progress

The night after The Dad and I moved into our new house, we stood out in the backyard, scanning and imagining. We had a great amount of space for an urban lot, secluded by hedges and feeling very residential in the middle of a city neighborhood. It was overgrown and unkempt and we knew we had our work cut out for us.

Fortunately, we had similar visions. A variety of 'elements' the kids could play on. Ones that blended into the landscape. That would grow with them and could be used for open-ended play. Things that would challenge them, but keep them safe... We have slowly but surely been building this little 'adventure playground'.

The newest addition is 'The Fort'. This is Phase I, the first level. Soon to be added is a slide, followed by a second level, and eventually some type of catwalk from there over to a yet-to-be built treehouse.
We also added a giant old shell that made it's way here from Martha's Vineyard (via a storage locker in Portsmouth, NH) filled with pea gravel as another little sensory spot. O has enjoyed transplanting the gravel into little piles all over the yard...
The wigwam has gone through various repairs and reconstructions but remains intact on the corner of our lot. Still with our old Christmas tree branches making it's roof.

We've also still got the double swing. We have begun pondering what will take it's place when the kids outgrow it, and I'm leaning towards this, but I think we still have another year of what reminds me of the Pirate Ship ride you see at amusement parks.

The zip line also went up this weekend, just in time for us to host the end-of-camp potluck in the yard last night. Over 50 people, half of them kids, spent a good couple hours out there without it feeling overcrowded and with no signs of boredom. We consider that a success!

Outside Art Idea

E's pre-school added a new art element to the grounds last weekend. They took a large piece of plexiglass (actually salvaged from The Dad's old office when they changed locations) and bolted it to the fence to create a backdrop for painting.

The clothespins can hang paper over top, but I think kids could just as easily paint right onto the plexiglass. I'm trying to figure out how we can add something like this to our own yard instead of dragging the easel in and out on nice days...

The Start of a Nature Table

It's been gray here. And rainy. With some spurts of sun. We've turned the heat off. And on again. And off again. And on again...

We've had O's real birthday (he thinks he turned 3 at his birthday party the week before) and Easter. We've had family visiting. I've been sewing. And the house is a mess.


When my parents were here, they brought the kids some really beautiful small glass eggs. I also found some great wooden Haba eggs at a local toy store. Total impulse buy at the counter. The eggs have reinvigorated my latent desire for some sort of nature table in our house.


My kids are always bringing (or trying to bring) thing from outside in. Sticks, stones, flowers, weeds... And I would love to have a designated spot for them, to mix these outside things with seasonal tidbits from inside.


With O still in the stage where nothing stays set up for long, I think it will take some time to figure it out, but I also constantly underestimate my children.


So, yesterday I went to the toy store and purchased some clay (Crayola Model Magic) to try to do this activity with the kids. They had a blast finding sticks and then gathering grass (very strong smelling onion grass, I might add) and mixing them with the clay. So we have some nests for the nature table. With eggs and grass. Now I just need to figure out where the table will be...

A Day at the (Snow) Beach

With a gorgeously sunny day yesterday and still 6" of snow on the ground, I unleashed my children out into the yard. O came running back to me - "Can you open the sandbox?"


Who needs a sandbox when you've got a yard full of snow? The kids pulled out their sand toys - buckets, shovels of all sizes, and a wheelbarrow and played in the snow for an hour and a half. Filling, dumping, piling, transporting.

And to think some people might call me lazy for never putting away the summer toys when the seasons changed...

A Snowy Morning

Another snow day when I was really watching for Spring. I just couldn't bring myself to take the kids outside until after lunch. So, instead:

A favorite book of The Dad's from his childhood that I finally scored on eBay.

Yummy oatmeal cranberry scones - made yummier when I accidently jumped ahead reading the directions and added 1 1/4 cups of dried cranberries instead of 1/2 cup (it called for 1 1/4 cups of oats).

My first attempt at goat cheese popovers. These will definitely be made again!

And a floor full of vintage Fisher Price Little People playsets waiting to be sold.

All before 11 AM.

A Little Shelf of Friends

Our whole house is really still a work in progress. We've lived here for 15 months now and are finally adding the decorative touches we've been missing. We're really anxious for spring so we can throw open the windows and get some fresh paint on the walls.


The kids' room is a fun, eclectic mix full of color. Including the orange wall. We recently (in my attempt to do something every day to make the house look a little nicer) added this little shelf of wooden push button toys above the arch. I love the touch of whimsy. And so easy using a pre-made photo ledge.

As we get more and more done, I will post more photos of our interior. I hope to have a studio tour for you after the weekend and the climbing wall debut by Valentine's Day!