Children Create Soul Food

When I say Soul Food, I mean that when children are involved in preparing food (and cleaning up) it nourishes their very being. There are so many ways to allow children of all ages to participate in the kitchen. My 19-month-old can help by giving me needed items, putting cut food into a nearby bowl or pot, loading the dirty silverware in the dishwasher, handing me clean silverware, wiping the floor after I wash it….. My 4-year-old can cut things with a butter knife, pour, mix, crack eggs, whisk, grate, arrange, make a sandwich, decorates baked goods, wash produce, load the dishwasher, wash dishes, unload the silverware, rearrange his kitchen/dining shelf, start the oven with guidance, set the table before meals, wash the table after meals…… And my 10-year-old can do all of that, plus make eggs, make butter, slice and dice with a real cutting knife, peel and core, wash and dry dishes, clean the counter tops, stir food as it is cooking, pull things in and out of the oven, measure, and even look up recipes that he wants to make and enjoy. (Sigh…that was a long sentence). It is more time consuming to involve your children, but well-worth it in the long run. Hey, you never know, you could wake up on Mother’s Day or Father's Day one year and have a gourmet breakfast in bed made by your kids ;) . Either way, if you don’t know how or even why to get started, there are a ton of great resources for you and your children.

Some resources are:

6 Ways to Thrive in The Kitchen With the Kids - http://simplemom.net/6-ways-to-thrive-in-the-kitchen-with-the-kids/
Teaching Your Kids to Cook - http://www.squidoo.com/kids_can_cook
Twelve Reasons to Bake with your Children - http://www.homebaking.org/familyfun/reasons.html
Kids Healthy Recipes Guide - http://kidshealthyrecipesguide.blogspot.com/2009/10/bake-christmas-treats-with-your-kids.html
Tips for Baking with Toddlers - http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/category/baking-with-toddlers

Here are a handful of books:

Baking Bread With Children (Crafts Series) by Warren Lee Cohen
Williams Sonoma Kids Baking by Abigail J. Dodge
Mom and Me Cookbook by Annabel Karmel
You're the Cook! A Guide to Mixing It Up In the Kitchen. For Children 9 and up! (Paperback) by You're the Cook!
Cooking with Children: 15 Lessons for Children, Age 7 and Up, Who Really Want to Learn to Cook by Marion Cunningham
The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children by Keith McGowan
Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up by Mollie Katzen
Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up by Mollie Katzen and Ann L. HendersonCooking Around the Calendar with Kids: Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun

Montessori Home

Okay, I am back....with a slightly different perspective and way of blogging (well, I guess it will unfold as I continue to post new discussions). Currently, I have been trying to make our living space an optimal learning environment for our children. As a family, we have been drifting more and more toward what we have learned from the Montessori method. We are working on creating a space in every room for our children. This includes all rooms: the bedrooms, the kitchen, the dining room, the family/living rooms, any home offices, the bathrooms, the garage, the front entry... We have yet to complete the boys' bedroom and the child workspace in the garage (the kids can participate nearby while Daddy woodworks or works on our car). Even so, things that are "complete" are still just ongoing works in progress, especially when I get new ideas, when toys or materials must be rotated, and when things are outgrown. Here is a brief glimpse at how we have incorporated the children in our fairly small 2 bedroom home.



The living room is one of the most used areas in our home, mainly by the children. A great way to include them in the family living space is to give them some low shelves with some items of choice. Right now, our budget is extremely tight, so we are not able purchase all of the fabulous Montessori supplies, but we are able to improvise using Montessori principles and our own ideas.
I just changed the toys on these shelves. They cater to both Bobcat and Jaguar. Shown is a wooden xylophone and a harmonica, an interchangeable teddy bear and clothing, a basket of building blocks, Autumn trees, nesting cups (Bobcat is really into these right now), a leaf shaped wooden tray holding Autumn produce (apples and pumpkins) in natural fibers, a wooden bowl with wooden eggs, a "tray" of matching animals to that of the wooden puzzle next to it (zebra, elephant, and giraffe), plus an elephant finger puppet, and lastly, a latch board.

This is the cabinet under our TV, which usually is not on. It is next to the low shelf. The top shelf has Caillou alphabet flashcards, a matching numbers game, and homemade color cards in numerous shades (actually, they are Behr paint swatches). This shelf is designated for Jaguar, hence the blue baskets (I decided to coordinate Jaguar's stuff in blue and Lynx's stuff in green). The lower shelf is Bobcat's (and Jaguar's), with a basket of rice and corn bags, and a small collection of wooden cars.

The dining room is one of the other spaces in our home that is most frequently used by us and the children. There is a drawer with a cupboard underneath off on the dining room side of the kitchen counter. The cupboard has become a semi-neat storage space for floor puzzles and board games. The other feature of the dining room is Jaguar's very own "kitchen", which is on the other end of the kitchen table.

This is a fun area for Jaguar because it promotes his independence in serving himself and others in the family. The plant on top is there to add beauty to his space, but it also is there for him to take care of (I have yet to get a small watering can). The bowl of fruit is filled with what will be eaten that day (I got this idea from another lovely home schooling Montessori mom on the internet). On the next shelf, there are a few easily pourable containers with cereal from which to choose and some smaller containers with various snacks. Below that, there are enough plates for us all, bowls, and cups. On the bottom shelf is silverware and a towel for cleaning. I would like to get a cutting board and a small pitcher, as well.

This is a book shelf set up exculsively for Jaguar and Bobcat (Lynx's book shelf is in their bedroom). There is a basket full of board books for Bobcat and on top, there are numerous library books to coincide with whatever theme we are engaged in.

The hallway has a linen closet that has sheets on the top shelves and also houses crafty supplies on the bottom shelves. This is a great tucked away place, but still very close and accessable for the children. The top shelf seen here is lined with my sheets. The second shelf down has receiving blankets (we use them in the bathroom and for other various things) and Lynx's sheets, so they are reachable for him, though he is nearly my height as it is. The storage boxes on the lower shelves are filled with craft supplies: popsicle sticks, cotton balls, beads, paint supplies, foam, puff balls, pipe cleaners, moss, fabric scraps, ribbon, tissue paper and so on. They also have numerous stamps, markers, colored pencils, crayons, paper, and old magazines and wildlife publications for cutting out images. We keep glue out in the dining/entry in a wooden desk.

In the bathroom, there are 2 large caninets that reach to the ceiling. Jaguar would complain about not being able to reach his brush, so I decided to move his and Lynx's stuff to the lower cabinet on the top shelf (the bottom one is where we store toilet paper). I simply utilized a receiving blanket to lay each of their hairbrushes (remember, Jaguar has the blue theme and Lynx, the green), their toothbrushes, toothpaste (it is Tom's of Maine Lemon Lime) and a bowl of flossers.

This is all I have done currently, but in the future I plan on maybe making a cabinet in the kitchen a place for all of their kitchen equipment, completing their room, and eventually setting up something in the garage so they can sort screws or help Daddy woodwork. The key is to make a space just for them rather than setting up your home with things that are forbidden, breakable, or dangerous. They are free little explorers and they should have access to what is in their enriching environment.

Babies Galore: Tadpoles and Shoots!

Today was a nice balance from that of yesterday. Much cooler at home and in the car, much more smooth-flowing, and everyone kept busy and Bobcat was less needy. Ah, sweet relief!


Today was sort of exciting because there were many little baby surprises (no, I am not pregnant). This morning, after taking a trip to the post office, we stopped at the store for spring water (yeah, I know I should have obtained it from upstream, but this was easier), and then headed to Lee's Feed for some tadpoles. We bought 6 cute little critters and brought them home. They are swimming in a large heavy-duty bin of spring water (chlorine is in tap water, which kills tadpoles). We are going to create a pond for them, soon, once we dig it out and prepare it. We will have to wait 5-7 days after filling it with hose water, so the sun can filter out the chlorine. They are so simple to care for. Simply feed them lettuce, ensure 3/4 shade, and keep the water clean. Also, they can't be too close to pines (which we have a lot of) because the pine needles are toxic. Jaguar and Bobcat are both completely intrigued by them, as am I!

Also, we went out to check Jaguar's garden that he planted on Sunday, and many-a-baby have been sprouted! We were both really happy to see such progress. He has at least 4 each of 2 types of tomato, 8 each of 2 different beets, 4 each of 2 lettuces, at least 6 onions, 1 of his 4 bean plants, tons of 2 different corns, and a bunch of his sunflowers are sprouting, as well. Very rewarding! Oh and a little broccoli is peaking through, also. After checking and watering the garden, Jaguar decided to play in the dirt with a watering can to simulate the gardening he had just done.

This morning, he was able to help Mommy clean house, do yoga for about 10 minutes, and play at the park with some other children (like I said before, he is a social little dude when he wants to be). This afternoon, we went to the store to get lettuce for the tadpoles, we read Summer by Gerda Muller, we made homemade Screamers (again, a pb/banana smoothie), we talked, Jaguar built floor puzzles, Bobcat slept a while, Jaguar explored outside... I recieved Soul Mate Dolls by Noreen-Crone Findlay in the mail, which is wonderful because we were already supposed to be working on a doll this week. I think we can fill in some time this weekend for meticulous doll-making (Handwork is important for any child).

This evening, Jaguar took a bath and played on top of his newly-built loft bed with Bobcat, while Daddy finished the bed off with lemon oil. Then Jaguar spent a solid 15 mintues on the back deck singing and playing his drum set that we found at the thrift store a while back. Then he began boasting about his rock and roll song and urging me to dance while he played it again. He went outside a few times to check on his tadpoles, and continued telling Daddy about them. We ate bow tie pasta with garlic marinara, and homemade garlic bread, with steamed asparagus on the side. It was actually a hit with Jaguar and Bobcat. Jaguar is so picky sometimes, but not usually with any kind of greens. And it is still hard feeding Bobcat our food sometimes, too. We had rocky road for dessert. Daddy gave into a movie again with Jaguar this evening. Disney's Robin Hood is on the menu for tv viewing tonight. I guess it's okay...I like the movie and the music, too. This is about it, other than working on my other blogs a bit tonight. Then I will hit the hay - Daddy's already passed out. So is the baby. I am allowing Jaguar to finish his movie - bad Momma...

Trip to the Zoo

Today was very demanding, between the heat, the needy baby, the easily-distracted wandering 4-year-old, the car running out of gas, the heavy load I toted around all day......

I was going to pack a lunch and handle a couple other things this morning before I took the kids to the Sacramento Zoo and Fairy Tale Town, but no. Bobcat was screaming crying, somehow saying, "Drop what your doing and get me, Mom!!!!" I can't handle it, so I decided to get sandwiches, apples, and baby carrots later on from Raley's instead. I got in the car, started driving, and then he was fine. I just wish I could split myself in half and have one of me holding the baby and the other one doing all the other stuff that needs to get done.

When we arrived, we started at the zoo. I am not the biggest fan of zoos...I wish we wouldn't lock up living creatures, and I also wish the effects of humans on earth and it's inhabitants wasn't so major. But, since zoos exist, I might as well take Jaguar (and Lynx when he was younger) to see these animals live and in person, so their reality becomes more concrete. He had a blast seeing all of the beautiful animals and watching their behaviors, although many of them were sleeping (it was hot out). He spent most of dinner telling Daddy all about them. Actually, the original reason we decided to go to the zoo was to support the frog aspect of our summer learning. I wanted him to see a few different species of frogs in person, though we occassionally see frogs in the wild near where we live. Tomorrow we will go to the feed store and buy some tadpoles for raising.

After the zoo, we grabbed our lunch from the car and enjoyed eating inside Fairy Tale Town. Jaguar explored and played a little and then we watched a mini-production done by children, called "The Dragon Princess." Jaguar couldn't wait to find kids to play with, like he always does at the park. It's funny, he acts so incredibly shy in most situations, but when it comes to that, he's pretty out-going and tries to be the leader. In fact, he gets carried away. He got so carried away that I lost sight of him at one point. He had shifted to another area with the little boy he was playing with. I was a little upset, but tried to make it clear that it was important to let me know what he is going to be doing. Other than that, we had a really good day (other than my own irritability with aspects in the opening paragraph).

We made it all the way up the mountain towards home, until I ran out of gas on a hill, just past a blind corner on the freeway. Luckily, the kids were both sleeping at the time. Within 5 minutes, a sheriff came over and stayed with the kids while I ran up around the hill to purchase a gas can and gas. My feet were slipping with sweat in my sandals, so I slipped them off and darted up the hill. I bought the rip-off of a can, went to the first pump, struggling to get it open, then tried pumping. Nothing. Tried again. Nothing. Went to the second pump. Same. I ran inside, payed, and came back out. This time was successful. I ran, barefoot once again, back to the car to make sure the kids weren't freaked out. They were still sleeping. I opened the door to release the gas tank cover, and the car alarm went off, waking both of the kids. Bobcat began getting upset....Long story short - I bought a 1-Gallon can to save money, and I ended up struggling back up the hill twice more on Murphy's Law mode (there were a bunch of in between events that added to the entire "theatrical"), still with no results because the car was on the hill. All the while, the baby was really upset and we were all hot, tired, and thirsty. My husband called, after having recieved my messages, to let us know he was on his way with 5 gallons. In the meantime, we sat in the front seat of the sheriff's car talking about all the different gadgets and their uses. And finally, the end of the madness came when Daddy arrived at the scene. After that, we went and filled up and bought a Screamer (smoothie with PB and banana). Ahhh.

The rest has been a normal evening, just overly-tired....and Daddy gave in to Netflix! I forgot to change the queue in out Netflix, so we got Jaguar's movie still. So, of course upon spotting it, Jaguar conned his Dad into allowing him to watch it. Oh well, we will do better in the future.

I need to hit the sack. I am whooped. Hopefully, tomorrow will be more mellow...

Today, went very smoothly with the kids. I awoke early this morning, actually before the kids this time, and spent a lot of that time cleaning the house. This is becoming more enjoyable because there is less clutter to battle with. Most everything has a "home" and our living area is becoming more spacious and clear.

The boys spent much of the morning free-playing. Jaguar was asking about movies again, but not as persistently today, only a few times. He attempted a 100-pc puzzle from his brother's puzzle stash, but only got a few pieces together. I give him credit for even trying. Daddy and Jaguar built a cool archway that Bobcat kept crawling through, from the scrap wood Jaguar was playing with yesterday. I was going to make cinnamon sugar bread with Jaguar today, but we were out of eggs. I ended up going to the store this evening, much too late to bake it tonight. This reminds, me that I need to get eggs from someone locally until I can get my own chicks. Anyway, Jaguar and I prepared another ice cube tray full of rainbowy color. We will do another art project tomorrow.

After lunch, we went to the park where Jaguar was engaging with a couple boys who were not being so nice to him. So, we ended up leaving. Took a quick sweep through the library and went home.

...It was late last night when I started writing this blog, so I didn't complete this. And right now I am pretty tired from the long hot day. Thus, I am having a hard time remembering what we did the remainder of yesterday. So I am gonna call it quits.

First Day of Home School for my Preschooler

Yesterday, I managed to successfully begin home-schooling my preschooler without even a morsel of the tv! He had a lot of fun, even though he was asking me about movies periodically. I had to keep reminding him about our new rule of no movies during the week. He was pretty accepting of this, though he doesn't really know the concept of no tv for 5 days straight. Eh, he'll get used to it, as long as he is being stimulated properly, actually doing things, rather than passively watching the simulation of others doing things, and then getting up afterwards with all this pent up energy and nothing in his brain other than the crap he just watched. So, today will be our second day of tv detox.

So, anyway, we have decided to do a 6-week unit on weather because it is summer. Yesterday morning, Bobcat and Jaguar and I all took a long walk in the morning and discussed all the things we saw and the traits of the current weather. We then ate some apple slices and drank water (Man, it's hot out, especially carrying a rollie-pollie 25-Lb baby in a sling!). Bobcat is being a little kling-on lately, so it is hard getting anything done without having to hold him. So, when we got home he still wanted me to hold him and threw a huge fit. Then, I struggled to prepare my etsy orders for shipping, and scooped up the boys for trip to the post office and the store for food coloring.

After we returned back home to the more shady tall pines, I put the baby to sleep. Jaguar and I went into the kitchen and filled an ice tray with water and he created mixtures of colors within. We stuck it in the freezer and ta da!, we had colorful ice cubes. Outside, there were some patches of sun that we used to lay down papers and ice cubes on top. We left it for the sun to do it's watercolor magic. The colors traveled and melted and created a beautiful masterpiece. He also spent much of his time drawing pictures of people, animals, rainbows, summer landscapes... He loves drawing.

It was so warm yesterday, we had a light lunch of avacado on toast and fruit. Jaguar played thoughout the day in his transforming bedroom and outside in the dirt and on the swing. He was building roads and buildings with scrap chunks of wood from Daddy's bunk bed-making. He would dance to the lingering music on the radio periodically. He helped sort the dirty clothes and swept the garage of it's saw dust and goodies tracked in from outside. He fed the kitty, watered the garden, took out the compost.... All the while, Bobcat tags along, often wanting me to hold him, and explores the things in his little sensory world. Right now, he is exploring clapping, running, dancing and climbing...

We also started on our felt "paper doll", whereas I drew and cut it out for him after he attempted both, and he drew the eyes, mouth, and nostrils (he had to have a nose on his doll). Then he picked out the colors of embroidery floss and began carefully and meticulously stitching the eyes and nostrils. By that time, he had had enough. So we will continue today.

We made a curry lentil dish for dinner, and then the boys went outside even longer, this time with Daddy because he was home. After my dinner cleanup, I decided to take a bike ride all the way up to the corner store and over to this other house we were going to buy a year ago. It was a major fixer and I wanted to see the progress made by the people who had ended up moving in there. It is like night and day from what it was. But now I had to pump up this huge hill just to get out of there....I made it, without getting off the bike once.

I then gave the boys a bath, read Jaguar "The Earth and I", which we have actually continuously read for about 5 days (he dives in further and further each time) and "Summer" by Gerda Muller. Then he went night night. Bobcat actually had an odd sleep schedule last night, taking a "nap" late and waking at around 10:00 pm...Yeah...(sarcasm). So, he stayed wide awake with us till 12:30.

And we are up again at 7:20 this morning......

Rearranging the Boys' Bedroom

This last weekend, I decided to go through the kids' bedroom once again to do a cleansing. I took out 95% of the of remaining plastic toys, junk, and character stuff from the last toy cleanout. Most of that is in my trunk, ready to be sent off to the local thrift store. Then, I decided to remove all the movies from the living room (too accessable, and yes, we are still watching movies, though we haven't had TV in about 6 years) and into the top shelves of the kids' closet. I want them to still be accessable, but sort of forgotten as they gather dust up there. I can't remove them completely yet, but it is a gradual process. Although, I did implement a new rule upon starting to formally "homeschool" my preschooler yesterday, which was that he can only watch movies on the weekends. This, I am excited about because I have been bad with this since we moved to our new house a few months ago.

My husband is starting a bunk bed business and he just built a short loft bed for my son, which has a spacious space underneath for just about anything in a young child's world. Right now, all we have done is hang a sarong across the front and put some cushions and animals inside. I plan to refine this, like put playsilks across the ceiling of the "castle" or "cave" part of the bed or hang needle felted ornaments from the wooden slats, or something. This inspired me to do a whole bedroom/living room arrangement. My husband is going to build a tall loft bed that creates an even bigger space below to place a desk or whatever. We are getting rid of the previous bunk bed that was separated into 2 beds and the matching colossal dresser/shelves. I am excited because there is all this open space and vacant room...I can think clear-minded, the kids can play clear-minded. Well it will be filled in with more attractive custom made drawers, kitchenette, fridge, and low shelves. This will be a slow process, but hopefully we can get this all implemented within a couple of months. There is still a bit of rearranging to do, but we are headed n that direction.

Books were another category of items we had too much of. So many of these books that I decided to get rid of were based on movie characters, or were just of lower quality. From 2 bookshelves-full, we ended up with one. So, I moved the low bookshelf into the boys' room as a temporary home for all of their kitchen toys. When I was in there, I gazed at our 9-year-old's bookshelf. I ended up eliminating 1/3 of his chapter books, which were mostly GooseBumps. Now he is left with an array of Newberrys, naturesque books, animal stories, fairy tales, and so on...

Furthermore, the only kiddie things we have in the living room anymore are the couple of Waldorf babies in the corner of the sectional couch blanketed by a couple of fairy play silks, and our developing nature table, which, by the way, gets "rearranged" at least 20 times daily by our 16-month-old...we are working on it. See pic for our nature-table-in-progress. This is great because our old house was dominated by little kid junk! I guess I just didn't really know where to start at the time.

There will be more updates in the future on the updates in our home and life!