project 8 :: gulf coast oil spill

project 8 :: gulf coast oil spill

This looks to be a great project! Eeva & Ian have been talking about the oil spill for weeks now. They are so concerned about the marine animals. Last week during drawing time Eeva created a picture of a Sea Turtle but to my surprise colored the background black. When I asked her if the turtle was in a cave she said "no Mommy, she's stuck in the oil spill". My heart was broken =( Please check out this link & if you can send in as many wash cloths, towels & dawn detergent that you can!

National Wildlife Federation: Great American Backyard Campout - Home

National Wildlife Federation: Great American Backyard Campout - Home

10 Tips for Watching Wildlife at Night - National Wildlife Federation

10 Tips for Watching Wildlife at Night - National Wildlife Federation

(( this moment ))

A Friday ritual. A single photo-no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your moment in the comments for all to find and see.

Blessings on a Beautiful Weekend!

(( this moment ))

(( this moment )) ~ A Friday ritual. A single image - no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your "moment" in the comments for all to find and see.

Blessings on a beautiful weekend!

Bubbles

One rainy day under the cover of the front porch Eeva-Liisa & Austin began a quest to create HUGE bubbles. After many tries and a little frustration & disappointment they both were able to blow big beautiful bubbles! It was wonderful to watch this unfold. You could see how excited and proud they both were each time a bubble broke free from the wand and floated up into the air. Some popped right away, some floated really high. It was a great rainy day activity that kept them engaged for over 45minutes =).

Come with me; forget your troubles.

We'll take some soap and make some bubbles.

~Ericka Northrop

Parents: 10 Reasons Kids Need Fresh Air - National Wildlife Federation

Parents: 10 Reasons Kids Need Fresh Air - National Wildlife Federation

Earth Day 2010

Treat the Earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents.
It was loaned to you by your children.

~ a Kenyan proverb


It was a beautiful day.....the perfect day to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. The sun was bright & warm, the birds were singing, buds & flowers showing off their spring spender and the children were excited for the days activites! We started the morning by baking a freah loaf of homemade banana bread. When it was golden brown we took it out of the oven and enjoyed it warm with butter. Before each meal the children & I recite a verse or blessing, our morning snack verse & blessing was so fitting for Earth Day.

Good Morning Dear Earth
Good Morning Dear Sun
Good Morning Dear Stones
and Flowers everyone
Good Morning Dear Beast
and Birds in the Trees
Good Morning to You
and Good Morning to Me

Now we join our hands & with our hands our hearts.....

Earth who gave to us this food
Sun who made it ripe and good
Dearest Earth
Dearest Sun
We will not forget what you have done

With our hearts & bellies full we headed outdoors. First on the agenda was to do some Earth Day clean-up. Along the edge of our property is a run off from the road and unfortunatly a lot of garbage washes from the road into our little wooded area so the girls with garbage bag in hand helped clean the whole area up. The ferns are starting to emerge and the area looks beautiful thanks to a couple little hands! Harrison watched from his carriage perch and gave us some much needed encouragement & applause. Next we decided to beautify the front steps. The girls & I planted a whole flat of purple,yellow & white pansies. They did a great job of carefully tucking the flowers into their new beds. Again with a little help from some little hands all our visitors are greeted by a beautiful display of cheerful spring blooms. It was a beautiful & productive day and hopefully the children gained a little understanding of what Earth Day is and that even though they are small they can still make a difference. At the end of the day I read one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books.....The Lorax. The ending is great..... Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, It's not.

Monday is Baking Day

Young children are very comforted by rhythmical activites. A day in The Nest has a rhythm all its own, created by myself and the children attending the program. There is a daily, weekly and yearly rhythm. The weekly rythm is formed by having a special activity for each day.....and Monday is Baking Day. Sometimes we make corn or banana bread , sometimes we make sugar cookies! But most of the time we bake bread! This week we made a simple white bread. Bella & Ian take turns measuring & adding the ingredients. Everett watches from the sidelines, soon he will be able to help too:) We set the dough to rise while we take our nature walk and come back inside to form our dinner rolls. Each child works their own piece of dough, adding special hidden treats like raisins & sunflower seeds. Then they make dough snakes and form the letter of their first name to mark which roll is theirs. We let the the rolls rise one more time and then it's time to place them in the oven! I love the smell of bread baking!

Homemade playdough

Every child loves playdough. Here is a simple receipe to make your own: 2 cups All purpose flour, 4 tbl. cream of tartar, 2 tbl. cooking oil, 1 cup of salt, 2 cups boiling water & food coloring.   Eeva-Liisa, Ian & Austin had a great time measuring out all the ingredients & mixing different food coloring to make their own unique playdough color. The dough was warm from the boiling water as we placed it on our floured counter, some stuck to their hands but they didn't seem to mind. Like all really fun projects it was a little messy but it was a wonderful way for the children to keep their hands busy:)Added bonus ....this dough doesn't have that weird playdough smell!

                                   

New Bird

We have a new friend at The Nest! Austin has been joining us after school for a couple weeks and we are so glad to have him here. Austin loves peanut butter crackers and playing in the downstairs playroom. He is a really talented artist who enjoys painting and drawing. There is a photo below of one of his masterpieces;) Sometimes when you ask Austin a question like what did you have for lunch? or who did you sit with today at school? he replies with "I can't tell you, it's a secret". It makes me smile everytime.....I wonder if he needs to feel more comfortable here to tell me these things and I hope to soon be trusted enough to hear the real answers. Eeva & Austin are both in Kindergarten, Eeva is 1/2 day & Austin is Full and during afternoon snack they exchange school day stories.....what they had for special, what books they read, what songs they sang...I usually sit quietly and listen. It's nice to hear what they find important & what they like/dislike most about their time spent at school. They also measure themselves each day to see if one of them has grown taller....so far they are the exact same height. After measuring they take each others hands and dance in a circle chanting " We're the same size!" " We're the same size!"

I enjoy watching the relationships my children are forming with our Nest friends;)

Winter Solstice 12.21.09

This morning the Fall fairy moved out of the fairy house and the Winter fairy arrived and made herself comfortable. Today we celebrate the Winter Solstice! Our artistic activity today was to make a Santa face. I read the children the story "The Night Before Christmas" because there is a great description of Santa in it. "His eyes how they twinkled! His dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow. And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow."  Bella & Ian cut out two triangles, one for Santa's hat and one for his beard then they traced a cup to make the circle for the top of Santa's hat. They used a paper plate for his face and colored what they thought he would look like from the description in the book. We had a great conversation about what twinkling eyes look liked;) The children then glued cotton balls onto the bottom triangle for the beard that was as white as snow. They did a great job and were very proud posing with their Santas. We then moved onto Bread Making! Yule is the celebration of the return of the rising sun so today we baked Sun Bread to celebrate the beautiful light the sun gives us. Both Bella & Ian loved the kneading part of the bread process and both of them commented on the funny smell of the yeast and how the dough stopped sticking to their fingers when we added more flour. The way the dough rose was also a big moment of the day. Ian shouted "it's growing!" Bella wanted to know how big it was going to get. We headed outdoors to go for our nature walk. We did a slow walk through the forest.....little legs & deep snow are a tough combination. Everett dislikes the snow very much, I even tried giving him a sleigh ride but nothing seemed to make him happy:( My guess is he's more of a summer kind of kid (like his mama). A happy closing thought......the daylight stays with us a little longer each day starting today:) Enjoy the light!

Our Yellow Wagon

Harrison arrived today in good spirits. Still had a runny nose but so do all of mine so I'm getting pretty good at the surprise nose wipe. In fact today we used 1/2 a box of tissue at The Nest:) As you can see from the picture we finally put up our Christmas tree! We are trying a new spot in the living room this year, the corner, hoping that the couch will stop it from falling on anyone when Everett inevitably pulls it down. We also decided to not put up the decorations that we normally do, again Everett is the reason for this. He proved today why that decision was the right one..........he pulled off 3 of the 4 cranberry chains that I painstakingly created . Oh and smooshed them as well so he was covered in cranberry juice. I would have taken a picture for you but I was trying to save the couch from an unremovable cranberry stain;) After snack I loaded everyone into our yellow wagon and took them for a wagonride through our neighborhood. Yes, I played the part of the horse. Eeva was a great help and held Harrison for me. Someday(a long long time from now) she will make a wonderful mother, she is so gentle and understanding with Harrison. His little face lights up when he sees her get off the bus. Really special:) I never realized how heavy 4 little kids could be, we only went about a 1/2 mile up and then turned around. On our return trip we ran into some trouble.......we had a roll over! Not really a roll over, more like we tipped on our side. There was a car approaching and it was going a little too fast for my liking and not moving over far enough either so I made a B-line for the side of the road and our little yellow wagon flipped onto it's side. Thank goodness no one was hurt but there was a lot of crying. Again Eeva saved the day and held onto Harrison as tightly as she could. So I dusted them off, gave them each a kiss and we headed home! It will be awhile before this horse takes her wagon out onto the road again.

Baking Bread

This week Bella, Ian & I made Corn Bread together. Last week we made Banana Bread. I love to bake and I want the children to experience baking as well. I hope to graduate to baking bread that needs to rise and be kneaded. I have a wondeful book called Baking Bread with Children by Warren Lee Cohen. I often flip through it and long to create all the wonderful breads. But then reality sets in.....bread making, real bread making is messy and time consuming. In the introduction of the book the author says " Creating something to eat from such basic ingrediants(yeast, flour,water & salt) is real life magic." he also adds " It is an unforgettable experience to bake a beautiful loaf. It touches all our senses as well as feelings of accomplishment, wonder and joy. Baking bread is meaningful work that teaches a diverse set of skills and offers bountiful rewards." All wonderful reasons to roll up our sleeves and get baking bread with our children. I will keep you posted on our bread making adventures.

Our Thankful Tree 2009

During the month of November in the middle of my dining room table stood a branch in a vase. Next to the vase was a small bowl filled with paper leaves. Each morning the children and I would take a leaf and write something we were thankful for. Then we would hang the leaf upon the branch. Day by day our little branch became our "Tree of Thanks". Some leaves were funny, some were very sweet, some were so typical of a 3 year old, some show the maturity of my young children, but all of them were true & from the heart.


I'm thankful for............

"cupcakes"  ~ Matthew
"the sun" ~ Eeva-Liisa
"Ms. Angela" ~ Bella
"when Nanook turns on Noggin for me" ~ Ian
"new friends at school" ~ Eeva-Liisa
"nature" ~ Eeva-Liisa
"the plants that grew in our garden" ~ Ian
"Echo" (our new dog) ~ Eeva-Liisa
"Mommy & Daddy" ~ Ian
"Diapers" ~ Mommy
"diggers" ~ Ian
"nice books" ~ Eeva-Liisa
"the poetry fairy" ~ Ian
" the toys in the playroom" ~ Matthew
"apples" ~ Bella
"that Pepere blew all the leaves into big piles" ~ Ian (mommy agrees)

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

Four Thanksgivings ago our family started a new tradition, after a yummy breakfast prepared by Nanook we head into the forest for a nature walk. During our walk we collect pieces of nature to decorate a grapevine wreath. We then assemble the wreath together as a family &  proudly display it on our front door for the holiday season. Along the way the children knock on trees with openings to see if any fairies are home & they love to cross the small brook (no one got wet this year). It also gives us a chance to chat, identify trees, talk about my own childhood that I spent playing in the very same forest that we are walking in. I so enjoy our gentle walk in the morning because the rest of our day is so busy and I often lose site of what this holiday is suppose to bring. But as I'm locking the front door every morning I glance up at the wreath and remember exactly what I'm thankful for:)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

"is Ms. Amy coming today?" "Ms. Angela is Ms. Amy coming today?" "Ms. Angela is today music" " Mommy is Ms. Amy coming to play today"  Thank goodness that Ms. Amy comes to play at 9:30am because I don't think the kids could have waited another minute (and I just didn't have it in me to answer another Ms. Amy question). Today during music I truly enjoyed myself....all of the children finally felt comfortable enough to join in and it was so special:) Every little voice was heard (even the babbles & coos) and every hand played an instrument. Each child is starting to have a favorite song & everyone loves when the box of instruments is dumped on the floor and they can choose which & how many instruments they will jam with. Music is so powerful and so important for young children. And I know I have said this many times before but it needs repeating....I'm so thankful for Ms. Amy and Music Together. After music we invited Ms. Amy & her son Eli to join us for snack. It was nice to have a full table, Bella & Ian liked showing Eli how they help set the table & do the dishes afterwards. While waiting for the bus to bring us Eeva & Matt we played in the small sandbox on the front porch. Harrison couldn't take the excitement .....he fell fast asleep in the stroller. What do you think of Everett's new hat? He is the sandbox bully! Everett's favorite thing to do is throw sand.....sometimes at friends, sometimes at the ground, sometimes in his own face! I'm just thankful he's passed the stage of eating the sand.....it was a long summer at the beach with him:) Eeva & Matt arrived, I had to wake Harrison to come inside and the older ones headed to their favorite place...the playroom while I made some lunch. Everyone seems to be feeling better & all ate well. I read the children "A house for Hermit Crab" by Eric Carle before napping. Eeva reads along with me from memory...it was a huge favorite this summer. Bella doesn't make it through the whole book before she's fast asleep. I turn on the music (bedtime w/ the Beatles...I believe you are never too young to be a fan of the fab five) & within 5 minutes everyone is fast asleep. Harrison & I read one more book together and then he curls up under my chin and falls alseep. With everyone asleep I begin cleaning up the kitchen & making snack. Harrison is the first to wake and he enjoys some time in the walker. He is in love with this new found freedom that the walker brings him. He plays with the letters on the fridge, trys to pull the ropes off the wooden tree house where the gnomes live & has access to the baby toy bin. An 8mo.old couldn't ask for more:) Once again we head outside to wait for Nick to arrive. Matt & Eeva enjoy riding the cars up & down the sidewalk. Ian & Bella like to rake the leaves and then jump in their very own piles. Harrison watches from his perch (the stroller) and Everett plays with the broom. Nick arrives off the bus full of energy and ready for a snack so we head back in for some plums & yogurt then back outside. I think it's about time the world recognizes getting 7 children dressed in shoes, coats, hats & mittens is an Olympic sport:)

 We end our day outside as the sun sets behind the trees:)