Last year, I decided on a whim that Carl and I should take our kids camping. I felt desperate to be outside and frustrated that I so often failed to get them outdoors. Camping would make this easy. They would be outside because there wouldn’t be anywhere else to be. I wouldn’t have to juggle naps and pushchairs, and…
Even with an incredible four weeks visiting my home state of Indiana, I still find it tough to see all the people I want to see in that amount of time. Weekends go too quickly and Carl has limited time to take off work. Plus, I’m reluctant to have the boys in the car too often….
[sc name=”Disclosure” ] I don’t know about you, but I have spent a fair amount of time envisioning what my boys will be like when they are older. Who they will look like, how tall they will be, their interests and hobbies, and, in particular, their relationship with one another. They are sixteen months apart…
In the time it took for me to say hi to my friend at the playground, my 2.5 year old scaled a steep hill and was halfway up a ladder to a climbing structure intended for kids three times his age. (The ladder was a bit like this one, but much taller.) By the time…
Fried chicken and hiking Trail Two at Shades State Park. When my mom asked me and my siblings what we wanted to do for Memorial Day, the decision was quick and unanimous. We’ve been going to Shades as long as I can remember, and it is always a feature of any visit we make to…
I’ve mentioned before that I’m not always the best person at getting outside, despite the many reasons to do so. Part of this is because it is simply inconvenient. Our backyard is the size of a postage stamp. We have a patch of grass that is maybe six by six feet, and that’s being generous. We have…
[sc name=”Disclosure”] Before my oldest son was born, I took to the internet to figure out what age I might need to start formally home educating. I assumed it would be around the age of three, for preschool. There were, and still are, lots of home educating bloggers sharing their home preschool curricula and schedules…
[sc name=”Disclosure”] Outdoor Learning in the Early Years by Helen Bilton takes a broad look at outdoor play in early years settings (affiliate link). Bilton’s book starts from the increasingly familiar premise that outdoor play is quite often neglected: Outdoor play spaces are often either small or non-existent, exclusively tarmacked hard surfaces with few natural elements….
The question is not how we can “teach” an infant to move well and correctly, using cleverly thought up, artificially constructed, complicated measures, using exercises and gymnastics. It is simply a matter of offering an infant the opportunity – or, more precisely, not to deprive him of this opportunity – to move according to his inherent ability. Dr Emmi Pikler, The Development…
[sc name=”Disclosure”] Being a mom to two little boys has definitely brought out the worst in me. One moment everything is fine, and the next I am harried, overwhelmed, covered in food and taking my frustration out on my kids. I’m just not being the parent that I want to be: calm, in control of the…