What makes me smile? Making homemade play dough and admiring my daughter’s very first pigtails. As the mother of a very bald baby, I have been waiting for this day for a long time. =)

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Now that Election day has come and gone and history was made, I found myself wandering through my own sleepy world with a small smile on my face. I feel so pleased with our election’s results, as many of you may well know. I do offer my apologies to readers who enjoy my blog but who may not like to hear my politics. I promise to get back to talking about the small stuff, the green stuff, the homeschooling and parenting stuff that bring many of you over here. So, let’s get to it.

Today, with autumn as our backdrop, our Montessori group planned to head outside to spend a day raking, jumping, and playing in leaves. Not only is raking leaves a practical living skill for our preschoolers to learn, but being outside collecting leaves and playing with them inspires a love and connection with nature that is invaluable.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me share a bit about how our lesson went. The mom/guides enthusiastically guided our children outdoors with rakes in hand. Once outside, our children noticed this or that and the raking of leaves was all but forgotten. Still, we reminded our children that there was fun to be hand and leaves to raked, so we (the moms) began to rake.

Minutes later our little ones noticed that their stomachs were rumbling. It was snack time. Indoors we went. Once inside, the children set the table with place mats, bowls, and plates. We then served them apples and carrots to fuel their energy for another round of raking. Here are pictures of the hungry ones:

Once snack time ended, our children headed back outdoors although this time with a little more gusto for leaf raking. Another mom and I carried our rakes to large leafy patch of the yard and began to rake and rake and rake. Eventually, the older children took notice and wandered over. Then, the younger ones joined us to observe the work that is raking leaves. A 3 year old in our group told me, “This is hard. I don’t think that I like raking leaves.” So the other mother and I reminded him about the best part of raking leaves, “You can jump in them, dear.”

And so we raked some more. Below are a few more pictures from our lovely morning with the leaves:

Annabelle uses her head to rake . Max is amused.

Max shows the younger children how to rake.

Sabrina is enthusiastic, at last, to be among the leaves.

I have to confess that when I was growing up in a leafy, leafy neighborhood in Connecticut, I detested raking leaves. What I remember though are funny and sometimes odd conversations had with my parents, neighbors, and my grandfather. Raking leaves was simply a matter of having patience, hanging in there, and feeling a little bit of relief when the yard was clear. As an adult though, I am learning to like it (although our yard is much, much smaller than when I was a kid) and am hopeful that Annabelle may enjoy it too.

Below I’ve included resources for fun, enthusiastic leaf raking with your children:

Mommy Lounge

Whole Family

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‘Some men kids see pumpkins as they are and ask why, I dream of pumpkins that never were and ask “Why not”?’ ~U.S. President John F. Kennedy dreaming about a 1500 pounder in the oval office one January.

The above quote attributed to the famous J.F.K. is actually one of many pumpkin quotes available over at the Pumpkin Nook, a site that brings us all up to date on the world of pumpkins. While I laughed at many of the Pumpkin Nook’s humorous quotes regarding and including pumpkins (in ways I’d never have imagined), I thought this one from J.F.K. was especially appropriate considering that the children in our Montessori group approached the painting of their pumpkins with the latter question in mind, that being, “Why not?”

Equipped with paint, pumpkins, their hands, their fingers, and a few sturdy paint brushes, our young Picassos (or perhaps, Pollacks) got to know their subjects (and canvases, er, well, they were pumpkins) and created masterpieces that begged the question, “Hey, why not?”

After the serious business of painting was complete, our artists ran, at top speed, over to the swings and slides. Can you think of a better way to spend an afternoon?

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As part of my bloggy Oktoberfest week, I thought I’d share a recipe for yummy sugar cookies (that your little ones may beg to help bake and decorate). Since I was (wrongly) under the impression that one of the kiddos in our homeschool playgroup had a gluten allergy, I followed the following gluten free sugar cookie recipe at celiac.com. As it turned out, he has a dairy, egg, and nut allergy, so his mom decided he would sit this one out (sorry!). Now I’m on the lookout for a baking day that includes all of our kids.

To set up for this fun cookie baking and decorating activity, I actually prepared the dough before everyone arrived so that it could cool for a few minutes. I also covered our kitchen table with easy to wipe table cloths because baking, when done well, gets messy. When everyone arrived and was ready to get baking, I sprinkled a bit of the leftover gluten-free flour in front of each child and myself. Then, I distributed a small dough and either a roller or a Mason can (which makes a fine roller in a pinch) to each child. I showed our children how to spread the flour (describing the sensory aspects of feeling the flour), flatten the dough, and roll the dough with their rollers. The other parents assisted their children and modeled how to use cookie cutters to create shapes and fall themed cookies.

We also whipped up our own frosting using powdered sugar (3 cups), melted gluten free butter (1/4 cup), and lemon juice (3 tbsp.). Some of the kids chose to experiment with food coloring, others chose to eat the frosting straight out of the bowl, and everyone else focused on eating their sugar cookies.

Later that day, I used the leftover dough to bake my own sugar cookies and decorate them (hey, I’m a kid at heart). My cookies are pictured in this post. For more photos from our cookie baking with the kids, go here. Scroll down to the boy with the drum; the cookie baking photos begin there.

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Thrifting is one of my favorite parts about living green; not only is it a terrific way to save money (especially for a single income family like ours) but it’s a great way to keep materials in the cycle of use (and out of landfills).

Last week Annabelle and stopped by one small shop tucked away onto a backroad where I found 2 vintage crafting books (I am especially excited about one entitled Winter Book, with a number of activities and green living ideas for cold weather and time spent indoors with kids), a couple of Melissa and Doug learning activities (great resources for our homeschooling adventures), a cardigan, and checkered curtains for our kitchen (I have been searching thrift shops and the Goodwill for over a year now to find these! If I were a better seamstress, I would have made my own curtains, but sadly, I will have to admire all you fabric goddesses out there who create beautiful items available on Etsy).

So here are my new, well used, curtains! Not only do I love my curtains (they were well worth the wait), but they are hand made too.

What about you? Do you frequent thrift, consignment, and other secondhand stores? What are your favorite finds? Has thrifting helped you cut costs or enhance your creativity? How else does your family help reduce waste? Do share in the comments. Thanks!

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Prompted by the challenge “Create Against the Clock” at Inspire Me Thursday, Annabelle and I spent this past Sunday afternoon playing with tempera paints. Since I’m hoping she’ll learn a bit about color blending and the color wheel in the coming year, I brought home red, blue, yellow, and white and black paints from the craft store so that we may create other color variations.  For paint containers, we used old plastic food containers (like hummus, butter, and yogurt containers), and for tools, I invested in high quality brushes since they’re likely to get a lot of use.

Here’s what we made:

In 10 minutes, Annabelle achieved this brilliant masterpiece. Not too shabby, if I do say so.

In a little under an hour, Annabelle and I applied purple tempera to a dried, unfinished wood paper organizer that I picked up from a freecycler.

And while Annabelle worked on her 2 paintings, I played with her stamps to make the “mystery box” sign for her box by the same name. It is essentially a homemade version of this mystery box, although far less expensive. To make your own mystery box, repurpose a cardboard box (I used the one that my Nikon arrived in), cover with paper, paint, and other decorative materials. Ask your child to help decorate too.

Playing with the mystery box is a way for toddlers and pre-schoolers to focus on their sensory awareness, by “guessing” or identifying objects in the box based on texture, shape, and feel. For now, Annabelle loves putting her stuffed animals inside the box and playing peek-a-boo with them.

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Now that Annabelle knows how to scoop and pour (and I’m learning my way around the kitchen), we’re spending more time together whipping up yummy treats. I follow a K.I.S.S. culinary philosophy (perhaps my greatest fault as an environmentally minded mamma), and tend to be one of those people who follows package recipes, spicing things up a bit with an added ingredient here and there.

Here’s how to whip up your own batch of pink banana nut pancakes–pink because we’re girly girls who wanna have fun.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Arrowhead Mills Organic Buckwheat Pancake/Waffle Mix

2 tbsp. canola oil

1/2 cup organic soy, rice, or whole milk

1 mashed banana

1/4 cup sliced almonds

vanilla

food coloring

Recipe

1. Combine pancake mix, canola oil, vanilla, milk and food coloring in a bowl. Stir until mixture isn’t lumpy.

2. Mash banana in a separate bowl. Stir into mixture.

3. Add almonds. Stir.

4. Fry pancakes (yes, even I know how to do that!). Garnish with almonds.

Serves 2.

Annabelle pours pancake mix into bowl.

She adds milk.

And a few minutes later, we have our girly pink banana nut pancakes. Yummy!

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Annabelle learns to put on her shoes.

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Photo credit: Melody Yazdani Photography

One of my favorite photographers is my friend Melody Yazdani, a professional photographer and full time mamma living here in Northern Virginia. Yesterday, Melody snapped beautiful photos of our Montessori group while we were on a butterfly, insect, and bird expedition at a local garden estate.  So, go on, indulge yourself in some delightful visual beauty. Go on over to Melody’s Xanga site. You’ll thank me for it later.

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Now that the floor in my writing room is open, Annabelle and I are wasting no time making use of good crafting space. A few nights ago while my husband was shooting pool, Annabelle and I started an easy stamping project using foam and rubber stamps, paint brush pens, and finger painting paper.

To get started, I modeled how to stamp. First, I opened a paint brush pen and coated the bottom of one rubber stamp with paint. Then I made a series of stamps across the fingerpaint paper before handing the stamp and pen over to Annabelle for her try.

She caught on pretty quickly and showed an interest in experimenting with different colors and stamps. She also took an interest in using the paint brush pens to color her feet and legs (which was easy to wash away). Here are a few pictures of her working with the stamps and a final snapshot of our projects.

Annabelle paints her feet.

Annabelle uses a paint brush pen to put paint on her stamp.

Our stamping projects displayed on Annabelle’s closet doors.

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