How would you like to… visit the Louvre?

Pretend you are going on a trip to Paris, France. What would you do there? What would you see?

Did you know, for instance, that there are few cars there for transportation, compared with the United States? The main modes of transportation in Paris are bicycles and underground trains.

Of course, you would see the Eiffel Tower, a 1,063 ft high iron tower that was built in 1889. It was the tallest building in the world until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. The Tower is currently the tallest structure in France, and there are so things to do inside. It isn’t just a tower, like a cell phone tower! There are restaurants and gift shops, antiques and many different views of the city from the different observation levels.

The river Seine is also an iconic part of Paris that must be seen. So many historical figures have walked along its banks! Napolean, Marie Antoinette, Lafayette, and many more people right from out of your history books actually put their feet down on the ground where you might be sightseeing. There are many museums, eateries, sweets shops and places to enjoy one another’s company along the Seine. A few playgrounds here and there, and the entire family has something to do.

But the most important place of all that any man, woman or child visiting Paris must experience, is the Louvre. The Mona Lisa is there, as well as Napolean’s Coronation. Many of the most famous paintings, sculptures and pieces of art are housed in the Louvre. There are even Egyptian artifacts! Mummies, and heiroglyphics, the kinds of things you’d see in Indiana Jones’ movies.

The entire family can enjoy the Louvre. There are plenty of exhibits for younger children as well as the grown ups, but even the younger children can enjoy the colorful, detailed paintings from hundreds of years ago. From a lady who has been there multiple times with children,

“In 2012, the Louvre replaced its more traditional audio guide system with an interactive tour that operates on a Nintendo DS. We were there shortly after the Nintendo guides were introduced and both of my sons were excited to try it, an auspicious beginning to our day at the museum. We decided to take the highlights tour, which guided us past the palace’s original medieval moat into the rooms containing Greek and Roman antiquities.”

To read the rest of Mara’s article about visiting the Louvre with children, go to this site: http://www.motherofalltrips.com/2013/09/louvre-with-kids.html

Even if you cannot visit the Louvre or Paris in person just yet, it is still fun to imagine and play-plan trips! What would you do on a trip to Paris?

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It’s time for fall sports

It’s time for fall sports

The fall season is time for all of those after school sports to pick back up, providing exercise and sportsmanship for the cold months. What sports are considered fall sports? They do tend to be different depending upon which region you live in, but it’s generally understood that these make up the main sports that are played in the fall: Football, Soccer, Baseball/Softball, Hockey, Golf, Tennis,Volleyball, Soccer, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Fencing, Swimming, Cheerleading and Dance Team.

From tot-soccer teams to high-school and college level sports, players of all ages are gearing up for good clean fun. It is good to be involved with multiple sports, so that there is always something to do and a chance to excel. But it is equally important to keep children from getting burned out, so the mindful guardian would do well to limit the amount of sports their little charge takes under their belt. Schoolwork has to fit in there somehow too, and adequate rest!

Supplemental exercise, stretching, walking and other toning activities should be encouraged as well. These are things the entire family can take part in, and help the whole family become more healthy and active. Then when they are cheering on the sidelines, your little player can feel that the entire family helped him or her grow to be successful. A team family effort! Nothing spurs a child on to do their best more than the love and support of their family.

Eating well as an entire family can only help, not hinder, your growing athlete. Perhaps throwing some family cooking classes or nutrition classes into the mix can help not only keep things interesting, but keep everyone involved in many interests. It’s much more fun to eat healthy when one takes an active part in helping to choose and prepare the healthy food. A class explaining how nutrients work in the hard-playing body can make putting the right “fuel” in much more exciting as well. When a child learns how badly junk food bogs down his internal engine and stunts his playing ability, it’s much easier for the child to make their own healthy decisions. And this is what we ultimately want for our children, right? For them to make their own good decisions, not just blindly follow a list of suggestions.

Keep treatments for minor injuries on hand. There are bound to be some sore muscles, sprained ankles, bumps on the head, and bee stings or bug bites. Ice packs are great to have on hand, as are epsom salts. After a hard day of practice and then perhaps a game, a little body needs magnesium in order to recover. A warm (not hot!) epsom salt bath soak is just the ticket! With one drop of lavender oil added to the water, it becomes a soothing, relaxing end to the day, a prelude to a healing, repairing night’s sleep.

Find ways to reward excellent performance that aren’t junk food related. A trip to the movies, or the zoo, or a local museum is a great way to help motivate and reward a hard working student athlete. Make sure you reward hard work, not just winning. Reward good sportsmanship, kindness, empathy, and dedication. Perhaps your stellar student desires more instruction! Reward them with more.

Have a great fall season of sports. Play hard, sleep well, and thrive. Do your dream.

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Legos are learning tools!

What other toy can you think of that teaches children physics, logic, engineering, problem solving, math, creativity, and a host of other subjects all in one lovely playable box of toys? The Danish creation, Lego. Legos have been around since their invention in the late 1940s by Kirk Christiansen. Since then, they have been sent all over the world, where boys and girls (and men and women!) LOVE to build things with these little brightly colored plastic bricks.

The great thing about Legos, is that they are visual and tactile. In many classrooms throughout the US, schoolchildren are asked to imagine these abstract concepts in math, when math was originally a problem solving solution in a tactile world! Math was for figuring things out when building, or creating musical instruments, organizing elements and shapes. Some children do well with the abstract, but most children have an easier time and faster time grasping new concepts when they can be hands on and actually SEE what the teacher is talking about.

Enter, the Lego. We are going to link to a few sites that have come up with great learning projects you can do with Legos.

“This Lego activity is a great way to introduce the concept of multiplication to 2nd and 3rd graders in a very hands-on way. Math doesn’t feel like work when you’re building with Legos! And the best part of this activity is that you are actually introducing your child to grouping, multiplication, division, and the commutative property all at the same time.” Click here to see the entire page.

Looking for younger aged activities? See the below link.

“It may seem hard for us adults to remember, but number awareness and correspondence is sometimes a hard concept for preschoolers to grasp. They may be able to easily count to ten, but may not quite understand that the number 10 is equal to a pile of 10 Cheerios. [Lego] blocks will help with that matching concept.” Click here to see this project

Legos can be used to teach much more than just math and science. How about creative writing? Here is a link to a free printable that encourages children to quickly build something out of 100 Lego pieces, then write about what they have created. Description, step-by-step, what the creation could be used for, all of these concepts will inspire creative writing in your child. Click here.

Do you have a Lego maniac on your hands? During the summer there are actual Lego building summer camps and classes where kids spend an entire week or weekend building with Legos and sharing with other Lego lovers. Creating a Lego exhibit for the local fair is becoming quite popular as well.

Have you seen the Lego movie? Or visited Legoland in California? So many Lego things to do!

There is even a company called Pleygo that ships you new Lego sets every month for your kids to build. You pack them back in the box and send them back when done, and a new set comes.

What else can you do with Legos? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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Handmade Holidays – Gifts for Teachers

There is a special teacher in your child’s life somewhere, whether it be their music teacher, sports coach, ballet instructor or even speech therapist. These wonderful people give of themselves to help your child grow in so many ways, of course you’d like to give something to them to say thank you!

What could a teacher want that is both appreciated and needed? There are so many cutesy “I love teacher” mugs and note pads, but those are kind of run of the mill. A handmade gift is just the ticket. A teacher’s biggest gift to your child is time, so what better gift than one where time has been invested in crafting it?

For younger students, some colorful yarn, Elmer’s glue and brand new pens can make a lovely present. Get a blue pen, a black pen and a red pen so the teacher has one of each color, and lay out strips of yarn. Pour some Elmer’s glue into a shallow paper plate and dip the yarn in it, thoroughly coating each piece. Run the strip through your fingers to squeeze out the excess, then, starting at the bottom and winding up to the top, start wrapping the pen tightly with the yarn. You may have to hold it in place a little while as it dries. Package your pretty pens in a handmade card, and include a short note from you, the parent, thanking the teacher for all their hard work and dedication throughout the year.

Teachers LOVE to receive gift cards (in small amounts… most schools do not allow their staff to accept expensive gifts). A $5 gift card to a local coffee shop or lunch place would be very appreciated. To make this qualify as a handmade gift, there are a couple of options. One easy option is to help your child cut out two pieces of felt, a little larger than the gift card. Hot glue three sides together, leaving on end open, creating a sleeve for the gift card. Cut out little felt shapes or decorations and glue them on as well. If your child is old enough to sew, thread a large needle with some coordinating yarn, and have the child sew around three of the sides, again, creating a sleeve for a gift card.

A handwritten card or letter to the teacher going over some of the highlights of the school year and expressing gratitude for the many things teacher helped the students with is something that every teacher loves to receive. The student can make beautiful stationery for their letter with a piece of white printer paper, some colorful markers, and their imagination. A lovely border drawn all around the paper will make it special, and then, handwritten words of thanks. Perhaps a picture of the student to help the teacher remember their year with your child could be added as well.

While home-baked goodies are always fun to make, many teachers receive an onslaught of sugary, calorie filled cookies and candies that they admittedly wind up tossing because they are on sugar restricted diets, or they are gluten-free, dairy-free, or have some other kind of allergy. Non-food gifts are going to be the best choice all around, and handmade ornaments, organizers, displays and things like that will be loved by the teacher.

For more ideas on what to make for your #handmadeholiday check out our Pinterest board!


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Handmade Holidays – Pumpkins aren’t just for Halloween!

Pumpkins are not just for making Jack-o-Lanterns! They are a quintessential piece of fall decorating, and for the Thanksgiving table, why not add some colorful pumpkins?

There are many beautiful things you can make out of a pumpkin! A spectacular centerpiece can be made by coring, seeding and painting a pumpkin white. Then, a paper doily is laid over the pumpkin, and, using a small drill bit, holes are drilled into the pumpkin through the holes that are in the paper lace doily. When a lovely lacy pattern appears on the pumpkin, polish it with a little melted candle wax, or even furniture wax, put a votive candle inside, and light it during your dinner. Put the top back on the pumpkin and decorate the top with small pinecones, or acorns, or fall leaves.

Another fun thing to do with kids to your centerpiece pumpkin is to decoupage some beautiful fall leaves onto it. This is done very simply. Core, seed and thoroughly dry your pumpkin. Lay your leaf collection out on the work surface in the order you wish to use them, and, one by one, coat each leaf on both sides with a decoupage product (like ModPodge). Press them onto the pumpkin and hold them in place until they stick there for good. Continue pressing the leaves onto the pumpkin until you are pleased with its appearance, then coat the entire pumpkin, leaves and all, with one or two more coats of decoupage. Let dry, then display.

A quick pumpkin decorating project that is fun for the smaller children, are hand paint pumpkins. Core, seed and dry the pumpkin. Pour some child-safe paint into small paper plates and make sure your child is wearing protective clothing like an old t-shirt or a smock. Help your child place their flat hands into the paint and then stamp their little hand print right onto the pumpkin. Depending on the size of the pumpkin, several colors can be done, and when they are dry, special things can be added like glue and glitter, special stickers, or little drawings made with markers.

Are you having your holiday dinner at someone else’s house? How about a pumpkin hostess gift? Core, seed and dry your pumpkin. Decide whether you want to paint it or decoupage some leaves onto it, or perhaps some other fall related thing. Pictures from magazines of acorns or fallscapes can be decoupaged onto the pumpkin too. Collect some wildcrafting materials such as berry bush branches and leaves, decorative kale leaves, little cabbages, tree branches with red berries on them, beautiful leafy sticks, and fall flowers like mums. Place a florists’ frog (a piece of dense foam that holds flowers in place) into the bottom of the pumpkin, and thoroughly soak (to keep the vegetation fresh). Arrange your wildcrafted materials into a pleasing display, anchoring everything into the foam, and viola!

Strew the table with preserved fall leaves and perhaps some other interesting looking gourds or squash. Ripe apples or crab apples are another way to bring some of the beauties of the outdoors indoors, and these can be randomly placed down the middle of the table too, or used for place names. Intersperse some tea lights, and add some cinnamon sticks that have been dipped in cinnamon or clove bud essential oil, and what a lovely table you will have made, appealing to all the senses.

Remember to check out our Pinterest boards for more inspiration for your #handmadeholiday . Don’t forget to follow us! Do your dream!

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