back to school...

We are just back from a much needed summer vacation, and yes, already, back to school we are.  I officially started yesterday back at work, M started school this morning, and X well, as you all know, is not starting officially.  I am pretty much ready to start with him at the exception of a few little details.

We had a great vacation time, we camped both in tent setting and cabin setting in remote areas, which was much needed for a soul cleasing.  This time away from everything gave me the strength I needed to come back to all of this.  The kids loved every minute of it.  They took it all in, the sounds, the nature, the time to rest, the perfect opportunity to enjoy the surrounding and play play play.  I have always tried to support the importance of imagination and open ended natural material for play, and I have to admit that they amazed me in what they came up with, with the little they had around them.  I feel like all this had work , of being mindful and selective of their toys, of the choices we made paied off for them.  I don't remeber seeing X as relaxed and calm as he was on that trip.

I have to admit though that I am a bit (lot) anxious to start, a bit (lot) nervous to put both feet in officially, and yet hopeful that everything will eventually turn beautifully.  I'm sure I'll laugh at this once I am grounded in my homeschooling life.

So stay tuned for this new chapter!  should be exciting (at least for me...).

Nature buddy

Classes are finally over, I have only 2 exams to correct, and then, this school year will come to en end!  I am SO glad, and most of all so relieved!  It has been a very busy and dare I say exasperating year, and the mere thought of it being almost done makes me giggle like a little child.

Not having to drive to work yesterday, I was able to enjoy the "almost-raining-but-not" day we had.  The wind was coming from the south, making the day rather comfortable.

Not having had much time to really spend time with E, I took advantage of this time we had together to do something he really loves: Nature walk.
E could be outside all day long.  Whether it rains, it snows, no matter the temperature, the first things he asks for is "dehors" (outside in french).  He can say this word 50 times a day.  And truthfully, every time I hear this, it makes my heart sing.

walking head up...

Nature has always been a integral part of my life.  As a child, I could spend hours outside, exploring, walking, and playing in the forest or on vacant lot.  Being an adolescent, I was part of so many activities that were taking place in nature, survival techniques, camping, canoeing, name it...  When I got to university, my personal time was rather restricted, and I had to cut in the amount of time I spend outside.  Looking back now, I see how this was not the best choice.  (live and learn).  Got my diploma, started to work, had a family...I'm sure you have a faint idea of what I am talking about.

...and head down

I have had a year that was punctuated with loads of life altering situations.  Many of which have deeply changed my vision of things.  During that year, I also got a copy of Richard Louv's Last child in the woods. Needless to say that I tremendously enjoyed this book as it was touching a fiber that is deep inside me.  I didn't take much work to have me convinced of the importance of the child in nature, I guess I had just forgotten over time.  I made it a point, then, to include nature in an other level in our lives ASAP.  (along with many other changes that I'll talk to you about soon)

But I know that putting these plans in action are not always easy, but seeing E's interest for wilderness definitely makes it easier.  I SO want to protect this love of the outdoor, of nature, that it comes naturally to be outside more then I could plan for the day.  Plus, what is best then to have a buddy to go outside?

I love seeing him walk, hand in pocket, protecting his new found treasure.

He turns every rock he finds to see what is hiding beneath.  I love looking at him explore with fascination every square inch of earth he is walking on, and experiment new paths to walk on. I have seen E be concentrated, I most of the time see him be happy, but in no other setting do I see this awe in him. Nature really is his favourite place.

I all have special connections with me children.  With X, it is his love of sport, of reading, and of music.  With M, it is the handiwork.  She has a patience for this type of work that goes beyond what I could think possible.   But I have to admit that I am particularly happy to have found this true love of nature in E.  I really feel this is a part of me that has been passed on, one that I cherish.  I can see hours of fun in the nearby patched of woods, and fun trips to other settings.  And the best part, it that this love we both have for the outdoors seems to be spreading to the rest of the bunch.

So to celebrate this first day off, we went to the forest nearby, and E did he does best

My best tips to enjoy nature with a toddler:

• Do start with shorter rides, and progressively do longer ones, to let the child get accustomed to walking long periods of time
• Have the child wear clothes and shoes that are comfortable and that will not restrict his movement (and clothes that you don't mind being dirty...they will be!)
• Make sure that the child has either pockets of a small bag to collect treasures, and once back home, treat them as such.  Putting them on display in the child room is a fantastic way to create a continuity in this experience.
• Talk to the child during the walk, pointing at things, but also let the sounds of nature enter freely the ears of your child.  Show her how to listen to bird sounds or other nature sounds by showing them how you are attentive to these sounds yourself, they pick up more on what we do then what we say...
• Enjoy yourself.  They are picking that up too.

Wishing that spring was more "settled"

He has been going outside before the others ever since last week.
And I couldn't figure out why.  Being busy with the 2 youngest in the house, I didn't really had the time to go at the window to see what was luring him out everyday.  I could see carrying an egg box outside, but he was not ready to tell me what is was for.

But today, I had to go into his room and the box was there: he had let it opened on his table.  Obviously, he felt ready to share what has been keeping him busy lately.

I was surprised and yet so happy to see him finally be able to use the cards I made him for Christmas.  He has been asking for a long time now when it will be time for him to use them.  And I kept telling him to wait a little longer, as soon as spring would show up, it would be time.

Well, he sure didn't loose much time.  And it sure makes me fuzzy inside to see that this present is something he likes and enjoy.  Makes all those hours I spend on it completely worthwhile.


I talked to him about it at dinner time.  He told me that he was hoping to be able to find everything I had put on the cards, but he wasn't able to, probably because it was a little too soon still, and that spring was not completely settled yet.  But he couldn't help it to try.

sigh... my boy is growing


Ça faisait plusieurs matins qu'il partait avant les autres dehors.  Je n'avais pas vraiment la chance d'aller voir par la fenêtre ce qui l'occupait tant dehors depuis tant de jours.  Je le voyais partir avec son carton d'oeuf sous le bras, et revenir quelques instant avant que ce soit le temps de partir.
Il ne semblait pas être prêt à me raconté, alors j'ai attendu.


Ce matin, lorsque je suis passée dans sa chambre, j'ai vu la boite d'oeuf, ouverte sur sa table.  Clairement, il était prêt à partager avec moi son secret.


Il avait enfin trouver l'occasion d'utiliser les carte de chasse au trésor que je lui avait fabriquée pour Noël.  Ça fait un bail déjà qu'il me demande quand il pourra enfin les utilisées.  Et ma réponse restait toujours la même: lorsque le printemps se pointera le bout du nez.  Et bien, il n'a pas perdu de temps!  


Ça me fait un petit velour en dedans de voir à quel point il a aimé ce cadeau. Ça rend toutes les heures que j'ai mis à le faire complètement rentable.


Je lui ai parlé de son butin au souper.  Il m'a dit qu'il avait initialement espéré être en mesure de tout trouvé ce qu'il y avait sur les cartes.  Mais il a fini par comprendre que le Printemps n'était peut-être pas encore assez arrivé.


Il grandit mon petit homme...

Christmas handmade for the budding naturalist

Christmas traditions have changed a lot since we have been blessed with our children.  At first, it was to accommodate our new additions, but throughout the years, these changes have been dictated by our new intake on life, and the willingness to make things different for our children.

One of the first thing that was thrown out the door, was the materialism that comes with Christmas.  We rather make this time of year of time of celebration and family time, rather then a shopping spree. We are truly happy with this turnaround.

But gift giving still happens, on a much lower scale.  One reason is that we try as much as possible to give handmade gifts.  We feel that it teaches the children the value of handwork, to value the things they receive, and it limits the quantity of things they are given. (yes, trust me it does!! In a time when toys were all handmade, kids didn't have as much toys as they do now, because the parents didn't have the TIME to make more!!  I have been repeating this to myself a lot of time while working on E's gift...)

The first present I worked on was for X.  It is something I have been wanting to do for a while, but was waiting for the perfect moment to do it.  I'm glad I waited, timing is indeed just perfect.
He has started to show a marked interest for anything nature.  Anything science as a matter of fact.  And I felt a nature discovery bag was the perfect tool to sustain and nurture this interest.

it does look a bit wrinkled, It was just unpacked after coming back fro Christmas celebrations. ;)

So I made a messenger bag.  Manly enough for a little boy, with pockets of course, but cute enough for my little man.

I used heavy twill in a khaki color, and Heather Ross tadpole pattern.

I didn't follow a specific pattern.  I pretty much eyeballed with an made a mix of many patterns I have used through out the years.  I did follow to the T Meg's naturalist bag pattern for the strap.  I'm  glad I did, it turned out amazing.

The inspiration for this bag came from scavenger hunt cards that I saw a while ago, on the very good blog Saltwater kids.  I used the directions she gave on her blog, and voila.  I love them so so much!

I used royalty free images found on the net, and some of my own as well.  There are 20 cards total.  The set can be used through out the year, as there are seasonal items for each season.

I added a tiny container to the set of cards to put tiny treasure.  This was a hit!

I added to the bag a set of identification cards, a notebook, pencil.  I have yet to find a good magnifying glass and a bug jar, but that will come in due time.

And of course, he couldn't resist to add a few things (ssss) on that eyelet...cleaver idea Meg!

I'm happy with the bag, but I'm happier that my boy loves it!

Exchanging handmade present is a totally other experience then store bought stuff.  I had to laugh when I saw Kylie's post about her blocks.  I was right into gift making at that point, and I remember having the same feeling of inadequacy at first, and thinking that store bought items were way better then what I would do.  Turnaround 180 degrees I guess.  The bag is surely not perfect either, but I have come to think that those imperfections are what makes it unique and priceless (for them and for us)

What did you give your children at Christmas this year?

Educating the senses

I have been rather busy lately as this week was off for my kiddos. And since Dh was not able to take the week off at the same time they did, I spend the whole week with all 3 of them. It was exciting, busy, fun and yet tiring.

I had planned a week full of things to do. Since they are used to do loads of work at their Montessori school during the week, I knew that a whole week of just playing around would eventually get old. And it did. After a whole weekend of relaxing and playing to their heart's content, they were starting to show signs of being ready to DO stuff on tuesday morning. And I was ready for them :)

We started our week with a visit to a butterfly exposition.

The butterflies are free to fly around, and so it becomes really fun to be able to track them, search for them, and observe them from sometimes really up close.

We saw many types of butterflies from the beautiful blue morpho from the southern hemisphere to the really (impressively) big night butterflies :

These are newly hatched butterflies. They were hagning on the thread until their wings were dry and thus ready to fly. On the thread, you see other coccons

that are not hatched yet.

These butterflies were hard to track as they really melted with the plants and scenery. We even played the game "who will be able to find the most monster butterflies"

THis visit was great, because, well, it is awesome to walk amongst so many free butterflies, but also because we learned a lot about our kids.

Even though Dh and I are the type of person who enjoy handling any living creatures, however, our kids does not... We cannot wait for summer again to go camping with them, but I can see this being a problem after seeing Peanut not wanting to even be touched by the butteflies (eventhough she thought they were beautiful)

And so it became quite clear that our goal for the next few months is to get them to the nearest pond, and help them learn to enjoy nature further, i.e. be able to handle the slimiest thing in there. ;)

But the pond being unusable for the next few months as it is still uncovered with snow, I looked at my list of activity, and organized the ones that I saw as being useful in reaching our goal. Anything sensory was done!

To start off, something for the sense of vision:

So we started off with the baking soda volcano experience. I had done that when i was young, and reading The artful parent, reminded me of it.

We used plasticine, which is harder to work with then regular or homemade playdough. I felt it was a good exercice for those littles fingers that are about to start write. (there is a good explaination of that in the very good book the write start)

So we used a Mason jar, and green and brown plasticine. And much to the delight of my kids, the volcano really did erupt!

and thank god, I didn't use food coloring!

Then the sense of taste.

I organized a taste test. They loved it.

They were blindfolded, and were testing the same thing at the same time. They had a minute to think about it, and then they had to say out loud what they thought it was. They were GOOD!

I used: Honey, chamomille tea, ketchup, mustard, mayo, yogurt, oil, juice and tamari sauce.

The sense of hearing:

We did some sound quiz. It is something they are used to since they have sound boxes in school, but this time, I used a recording of nature sound. There was:

bird songs,

rain,

tunderstorm,

waves,

cricket, and

bee flying.

Yes, that was an easy activity, but they really enjoyed it, and it was so relaxing to hear all of these nature sound, and be concentrated on it. I really have to do this again with them some time.

Then we got the the sense of touch

swe started out with a sensory tub. I have started to see those everywhere in blogland, and knew they would love it. I was searching for a theme for it, and came out with the perfect one: The sugar shack! Being from the land of Maple syrup, this is something we celebrate (and enjoy) each year (and it is about to start YIPEE!)

Here is the tub with white sand (snow), amber plastic pellets that reminds me of taffy, wooden stick to eat the taffy off the snow, a metal tub (used to collect maple water) and a wooden spatula to work the maple water into syrup. I also used snowflakes confettis.

They LOVEd it. They just couldn't stop playing in it. So now it resides in our atelier, and will stay there for the entire month (and yes, will be changed for next month to their request)

We also tried the Water and cornstarch experience. Sorry no pics, it was impossible to control everything during that time LOL. The slimy texture got plasted all oveer our walls, but it was interesting nontheless...

And for the grand finaly, we did a Jell-0 excavation activity:

I prepared it the night before, and let it set in the fridge. I forgot to thaw it before they played, and so it was really cold. I was sure this was going to throw off the entire thing, but no, they loed playing with the "cold slimy thing"

even my 7 months old joined the fun!

let's not talk about the mess afterwards shall we?

So over all, plenty of fun, and a good need for cleaning the house this weekend...

But we could not finish the week without some fort building skills being practiced: (how useful are these for camping!!!)

and some improptu pretend play

brought to you in part by: my old Pay Day game (thanks Parker brother for fake money!)

Have a good weekend everyone!

animal tracking

A couple of days ago, I got out with the kid, fighting a very cold day. The kids were not that motivated to get out, and quite franckly, neither was I. BUT this new years's resolution being " we will get out every day eventhough it is super duper cold, we did get out, and braved the weather.

I decided that it might be fun to follow tracks in our backyard. There are many cats around, and I thought that would be a fun introduction to animal tracking. But surprise! aside from finding a couple of cat track, we also found a deer track, right in the middle of our backyard! So this little adventure of initiation to animal tracks, quickly turned into this really amazing and exciting observation day. (we even forgot about the cold weather!) We followed the tracks all around the backyard, trying to figure from where he came from , and where he was going. We had so much fun! But then, the following day, it snowed, and the tracks got covered.

This morning, when I work up, I looked out and knew another visitor had come during the night. There were fresh tracks again, right in the middle of our backyard. The kids were so anxious to go out and observe the tracks once more.

We followed the tracks, and looked again were they were coming from and where they were heading.

We walked alongside of trail, and figures it got in from one side , and got out after walking a whole circle in our backyard.

We stayed out looking at the tracks, and analysing the anatomy of the hoof for a while.

After we got in, we studied the anatomy of the hoof, and looked at pictures of tracks to make sure that again these were indeed deer tracks. We got a couple of good picture that allowed us to compare the print we saw to deer prints in image.

We looked up if deers are herbivores or carnivores, (since this is a concept that we have already talked about) and also tried to find out what we could use to attrack it here and get a chance to see it. Apples is the "bait" choosen for now.

I also got out the 3 parts card found at Montessori for everyone, and that gave us the chance to looks at other types of tracks that we might be able to see around here.

I am thinking about setting up a deer watching station near the back door, with a chair, and some books about it while the interest is high

So we'll set up an apple corner somewhere in the backyard this weekend to see if Mr Deer will be tempted again to come and visit us soon...

The colors of dawn

this morning, as I was about to have a fit with DD's shade that didn't want to pull up properly, I saw this (after receiving the said shade on the head because it fell on me...) through the window. I took the kids out for a minute and we just looked at the pink violet sky that lay over us.

I got a quick and powerful reminder that happiness really is in the littlest things, things that goes unnoticed if we don't take the time to stop (or to be stopped by a falling shade...)



have a great day!

The beauty of nature

We have been some feeling of autumn recently around here. A light chill in the air, a shorter day with the arrival of mister night earlier then a few weeks ago, havest time slowly starting at the farms, and the swimming pool that is getting cooler (not to say colder...).

But before we let go of summer, we wanted to enjoy it a little more, and see it's splendor.



We went to a favorite spot of ours, a field of lavander that is not so far aways from our home.

It is always a pleasure to go and picnic over there amongst the bumblebees



and the delicate smell of lavander.

It was Pumpkin's first outing, and although we usually try to push this as far as possible not to carry him around while he is still tiny, this place is such a haven and a delight for the eyes, the nose and the soul that he actually seemed to enjoy it as much as the rest of us.













I can see myself years from now (when I have a lot more sleep into me...) just lounging into a place like that and just look enjoy the view.



in the meantime...I shall keep myself busy with my 3 loves.

Celebrations

We have been in a celebrating mode since the weekend. First, my nephew's christening, and today was DD's bday :)

It was a beautiful day full of activities and new and old traditions.

The new ones



Her crown that I managed to finish last night while listening to a Waldorf expo workshop!



She loved the crown, and waking up to this table. I loved how it unfolded the day, and for sure this will be carried on to the following years!

The old traditions...family times



She wanted to go pick strawberries!









And then some quiet snuggle time



And a time to remember that she is still so little



But yet growing up...



And what better way to celebrate then with chocolate cake...and freshly picked strawberries :)



as well as new slippers



We ended up the day with the story of the Princess and the pea. She was so tired that she almost fell asleep while I was reading.

I love how this day was a celebration, and yet at the same time a family time, and a peaceful time. I felt like this day was breathing in and out, following a pattern...moving, and slowing down. Nothing like the big birthday parties with favors and gift giving and overwhelming activities...and you know, I didn't miss it a second. And frankly, I don't think DD missed it either ;)