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...

The Timmy Plane

About a month ago, Ollie got it in his head that he wanted to make a plane with The Dad.  A plane, evidently, that was the size of a wagon - in which he could sit and be pulled down the block.  Ummm...  Let's draw up a plan first.

So Ollie did the drawings.  They scaled it down but maintained the necessary detail: a trunk, a crow's nest (doesn't everything have to have a crow's nest?).  The Dad wanted to make it about a foot long.  Ollie wanted his stuffed animals to be able to ride in it.

So the Timmy Plane was born.  The two of them disappeared out into the garage for a couple hours, scavenging scraps of wood and hardware.  Coming out only on a search for wheels - eventually re-purposed from an old garage sale skateboard. When it was all done, Ollie insisted that he needed to paint it.  I love the way it turned out.  And even more that he believes that we can make anything.  Just as comfortable in the garage as he is in my studio, he is a creator through and through.

Camping in the White Mountains

We have camped with our kids since they were babies.  Sometimes easily, sometimes counting the hours until daylight when we can pack the car back up and head home because she just. won't. sleep...

While we did lots of backpacking before we had kids, we had only done car-camping with them until this summer.  We found great State Parks and learned to be particular about sites - the outer ring, along a river always being quietest and best.  And we waited.  Until they were old enough to hike in, carrying their own (light) pack.

We decided they were ready this summer, having just turned 5 and 7 this spring.

When I was in elementary school, living in Minneapolis, my Dad decided that we were ready to learn how to ski.  There were lots of small places for skiing in Minnesota but he believed that for us to really learn how to ski, we had to go to Vermont.  Two parents, a grandmother, and five kids (the youngest still an infant) in a large Dodge van driving half way across the country to learn how to ski.  I've always kind of laughed at that, but now I understand.

For us, to take them backpacking for the first time, we had to take them to the White Mountains.

After much deliberation and research, we decided to spend the first and third of three nights at a campground and the second at an AMC Hut up on the Appalachian Trail.  These pictures are from the campground (where we camped right next to the Pemigewasset River).  It was beautiful.  We could have stayed there for a week and easily filled our days.

The hike up into the mountains and onto the AT was even more amazing.  Next post!

Inside Play

The weather here has been a little cruddy wavering between frozen and slushy.  Given that, on top of school's-out snow days and The Dad and I being felled by the flu, and there's been a lot more inside play here lately.

E has learned French Knitting (or Corking).  So have I.  I like it. And the idea that you can take these tubes and sew them into something.  But for us right now?  We just have tubes and grand visions of what they could become.  Any of suggestions of what we can really do with them?

For O, who it is a little harder to occupy these days, we have rediscovered the games cupboard.  As long as he has your undivided attention, he could sit forever playing games and doing puzzles.  Now just to get him to be a little bit more independent in occupying his time!  I would be a much happier (and productive) Mama.

Some activities take a little more attention.

 

And some are a little messier.  After seeing how the food coloring stained their skin (and my napkins!), I shudder at the thought of what if could do to their insides...

Word on the street is there may be another snow day for him and another 2-hour delay for her tomorrow.  Really?  The director of our nursery school said this morning "You'd think we live in Minnesota!"

Definitely not.  In Minnesota, they wouldn't keep canceling school school.

The Halloween Costumes - The Snow Queen

Growing up, my mom made all our our Halloween costumes.  Every year, I think about what I can make but more often than not have ended up buying.  I think it's always a struggle finding the balance between cost and time...  and cost.

Last year, O wanted to be a puppy dog.  I figured I could easily build a costume off of a hoodie and sweatpants.  That I could find pretty cheap.  So we walked into Old Navy and right into their Halloween display.  Hmmm...  $20 for a super cute (and warm) monkey costume?  Or that much for the sweats plus whatever the rest of the materials would cost plus my time.  Honestly?  I bought the monkey costume but over a year later still kind of wished I had made what he wanted.

This year, E wanted to be a Snow Queen.  Complete with cape.  I told her we could put it together from most of what we had.  Plus some not-too-expensive extras and a handmade cape.  She really got into it.  The Snow Queen had to have long brown hair, though.  And tap shoes.

I was able to talk her out of the tap shoes and we went with standard Target silver glitter flats (like the ruby red slippers).  I also found an 'alluring' long brown wig that once worn looked a little more Lil' Abner than fancy fairy tale character, but...

And I made her a cape.  Which was much more expensive than I had planned but which I loved making and which we will have for a long time.

And while she looked nothing like the original costume she spied in a catalog, she loved it.  And I will always remember this one.

The Fort v.3.0

Our backyard is always changing.  The kids play out there, forget about it, rediscover it, and recreate it constantly.

Introduced way back here, you have also seen bits here and here. This is The Fort.

What began as a small fort with an attached sandbox has grown.  An upper level was added.  Some sides and a door.  A pulley.  A roof.  Some ladders. A trap door.

It has grown with the kids. I love that they have designed and drilled and hammered and helped. I can't imagine what will be added next.

The Crayola Factory, Easton PA

One more little weekday getaway with the kids before school starts.

We've lived in Pennsylvania for almost three years now and had not yet made it up to the Crayola Factory in Easton.

Much more than a 'factory tour' (in fact the actual factory is located 7 miles north of the Discovery Center), this was a creative experience, a cacophony of color, a history lesson, and a playday.  Not to mention the hand-on Canal Museum occupying the top two floors of the building and also included in admission.  And of course, the on-site McDonald's where my kids experienced their first Happy Meal today.  Oh, the look on O's face when he peeked in the box - Look!  I think there's a toy in here!

Really, a good time was had by all.

Kids' Sewing with Liesl's City Weekend

I have to admit that I went to the Vermont Sewing weekend with grand (and knowingly unrealistic) visions of a bit of free fabric involved.  A girl can dream, right?

We did receive, in our little welcome bags, charm pack of Liesl's new fabric line City Weekend.

The kids were fascinated by all these little squares and in a moment of desperation on Monday I sat them down on my studio floor and spread the squares out between them.  Then I let them choose, taking turns, one square at a time until they were all divied up.

O wanted to make a tail.  Attached to a belt that he can wear.  Which he's been fascinated with since seeing If You Give A Mouse a Cookie last Spring.

O lined his up in the order he wanted them and I stitched them together and then stitched them to some webbing for the belt.  One snap later and he was all set.  And beaming.  Oh, if things could always be that easy.

E wanted to make a barbie quilt.  She, who has been asking to sew with my machine for about a year, was determined to piece the squares herself.  After a little guidance in the beginning, she was quick to push my hand away when I tried to help guide the fabric.  "Mom!  I'm six years old.  I know how to do it myself."  And really?  By the end?  She did.

I backed it with some minkee and she was good to go.

Of course, the next time I went to use my machine it was kind of dead...  The result of the 6 year old foot on the pedal?  Or just too long since the last servicing...  Keep your fingers crossed.

Wrapping Sticks

 I don't very often see something on the computer and go rushing to try it, but a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this post at Ohdeedoh, which led me to this original post, which led me to my studio.

I grabbed a bunch of embroidery thread, tempted the kids with "Wanna do a project outside?" and headed out.  They searched for sticks, I tied the knots, and they wrapped away.

E made some of hers into magic wands with tassels on the ends.  O got all into overlapping colors.  And I think I enjoyed wrapping my own as much as they did.

 (Ignore the brown, sun-scorched grass!)

Really, embroidery floss (or yarn), sticks from the yard, some sunshine, and a good hour of summer vacation occupation. Love it. 

On the Farm

This is our first weekend in way too long with nothing really planned.  Life got a little crazy around here for a while.  Now, though, things are slowing down - just in time for summer.

We returned to Maple Acres this morning for some strawberry picking.  While we were really just in the suburbs, the space felt a little more remote once we got past the farmstand and headed toward the barns.

The smell, though, got better as we moved away from the barns and back toward the strawberries.

There's just something about dirt roads and kids in bright colors.  Makes me want to take a trip and spend the summer like this.  If only The Dad got summer vacation, too...

Belated May Day

O's nursery school had it's May Day celebration on Tuesday.

Complete with handmade flower crowns, lots of little kids in white, and a maypole festooned with ribbons.

I realized as the kids were circling that each ribbon had a popsicle stick attached to the end of it.  Brilliant in helping them hold on and keeping the ribbon from slipping out of their hands.  Even cooler, at the end of the celebration, each child was told to 'plant' their ribbon.  They stuck the popsicle sticks into the ground all around the pole, leaving the ribbons splayed out and anchored.

Beautiful.

I Remember Being Forced To Play Outside

Yesterday, with a weather forecast calling for four days of rain, I told my children that they had to play outside.

At 1:00 (it was a half-day at school), I brought them out.  I sat on the front steps, the door to the porch open and the door into the house closed.  And, with visiting playmates and each other, they played outside.  For four hours...

The fort.  The logs.  A sled.  Collecting bark.  A warship.  A rescue helicopter.  A ladder hanging from a tree branch.

Four hours.

And I remembered, as a child in a small town, living down a dirt road in 'the woods', how my aunt would gather my mother and their friends to sit and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes and play scrabble.  They would usher the kids outside and actually lock the front screened door.  We were forced to play outside.

There was the injustice of the one little girl who was allowed in with her mom, there was a bit of whining through the screen, but much more than that, there were hours of creative play among the trees and in the dirt. 

I'm sure we bickered, but the adults rarely interfered intervened.  I remember those hours outside much more than I remember any time playing with toys inside.

I realized yesterday that you don't have to live in a small town, down a dirt road, in the woods for kids to have this experience.  Though I didn't lock them out yesterday, I did challenge them.  And they rose to the occasion.  I look forward to many more days of this as Spring continues to reveal itself.

Ahhh...

Teaching My Children to Sew

I was a little worried about the snow day off from school and how we were all going to occupy ourselves with The Dad away in California (where evidently it is beautiful and sunny and he is driving a convertible) - we three can drive each other a little mad when we sit around only with ourselves.

  

And then our 10am playdate cancelled and I asked the kids where they wanted to go.

"I want to sew!", E declared.  "You've been promising you'd give me a sewing lesson."

The reason I keep putting this "lesson" off is because of O.  And his attention span (or lack there of at times).  And the fear of leaving E to her own devices (with needle and scissors) while tending to him. 

But he wanted to join us, too.  And oh how I was surprised!

I got him started the way I did with E her first time:  A not-to-sharp 'chenille' needle, an embroidery hoop, and embroidery thread.  I had an old tea towel, from an embroidery class I took back in Minneapolis, that was just porous enough for him.  He loved it!  And was oh-so intent, making "a pillow for dad for valentine's day".

E, for the first time, free-cut pieces and sewed them together.  She made me a doll that is not quite finished but that I will try to catch a picture of tomorrow.  She used regular thread for the first time, and little tiny curved scissors that came in a basket of thread and notions from an estate sale.  I offered her sharper, easier scissors, but she preferred 'her own'.  And the thimble.  Because she had to have a thimble - and sometimes more than one at a time.

So this was a first for us, the kids sitting and sewing together.  A successful one.  So fun.

Snow

 

I think we're digging ourselves out from under about 2 feet of snow.

A snow fort has been built.  The sledding has been done.  Hot chocolate has been drunk, as well as peppermint tea.  Popcorn has been consumed multiple times per day.

And a snow day has just been declared for tomorrow.

Hmmm...  I'm seeing more tea (for me).  And more popcorn.  Maybe some baking.  And lots more play outside.

As well as some more reinvention of the basement playspace that's developed.

 

Climbing blocks.  Tunnel.  Recycled crib mattress.  Old school exercise jumper/trampoline.  Step ladder?

That's my boy.

The Need to Be Outside

 Things are finally warming up a bit around here.  It feels like it has been below freezing since we returned on the 4th.  The kids were getting a little stircrazy so we took a quick hour run-around at the local arboretum after school on Wednesday.

I love that even though we live in the city we are surrounded by green space.  We don't have to go very far to walk in the woods, but we've also got a fabulous arboretum close by that is perfect with kids.

When we lived in Minnesota, there was a great one about 45 minutes away.  It was affiliated with the U of M and was also a great combination of trails and free space for kids to explore.  It is so important, I think, for kids to have this opportunity on a regular basis and I was excited to find one nearby when we moved here.  (Probably not) coincidentally, this one is also affiliated with a large university.

While they don't quite know their own way around there yet, E is starting to read the signs and both kids have their favorite spots to visit.  The grounds are not huge, but large enough that the kids still seem to find something new each time we visit.  I look forward to spending more time there as the weather warms up!