Lil' Letter Caper

 

I strongly believe play is the most important learning a three year old can be doing. That said, I have a kid who is endlessly curious about letters and writing (and books obviously). Claire quickly learned all the sounds in our alphabet over the summer (short sounds for the vowels) and now I’ve introduced the letter names. I didn't follow any formal program -- I just wrote a few letters on the board before breakfast and pointed to them while speaking their sounds. That's it! Our phonics approach seems to be working because we were goofing around with some stick-on letters and I found this:

Westward Ho!!!

>>> Regina has cholera. Would you like to push on or rest for three days?

If you're a child of the 80's, I'm sure this game has a place in your heart. I remember vying for computer time amongst my fellow classmates intent on guiding my wagon full of family west to the promised land. I was so excited to purchase the newer version complete with primary source material scanned in for my students back in 2004. The graphics had improved immensely, although I admit the original had a charm all its own.

Here's a great read about the unlikely start and success of this educational software, and the efforts of its creators to make it historically accurate: THE OREGON TRAIL: HOW 3 MINNESOTANS FORGED ITS PATH

Do you remember this game? What was your chosen field - farmer, banker, carpenter? Did you join a wagon train or rough it alone? And most importantly -- would you push on or let me rest as I suffer from cholera?!

Ornithology 101

What do you get when you combine a snowy morning, tons of sunflower seeds and our very first non-fiction book checked out from the kiddie section at the library?

A very happy Claire who spent the morning counting birds at our feeder and marveling that her feathered friends had their very own book! Is she too young to begin studying for an ornithology degree? The book we checked out was "The Pebble First Guide to Songbirds" and it contained nearly all the birds in our area with little factoids about each species. There were a few of our frequent visitors missing -- Junco, Tufted Titmouse, Red-Breasted Woodpecker -- so I might have to improvise a guidebook of my own one of these days.

Oh, that's for the birds!

I have to admit to housing all sorts of experiments in my fridge (both intentional and unintentional, green shrimp, anyone?) but this hodgepodge of lard, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, cheese and bird seed was a success, albeit a messy one. If birds could talk I'm sure they would be raving about this recipe. Yet another thing to add to our many bird feeding stations!There seem to be lots of tutorials for similar bird suet on the web but I liked this one for two reasons, I had the stuff on hand and the recipe came from reputed wildlife organization so I figured we wouldn't poison our feather friends. I was inspired by the recipe here and saw the cute mold idea here.

The cast of characters, do NOT melt the lard. 

Our Nature Table

Children are natural collectors, and I'm guilty of the same thing myself, often arriving home with just as much "treasure" in my pockets as my daughter. Rather than discourage our little naturalist-in-training, I carved out some space on an end table to display whatever bounty Claire snags on our nature walks.

Autumn Splendor (Part Deux)

I know, two foliage posts in a row. I just can't help it though, haven't the leaves been beautiful this year? Walking with Claire in the yard always turns up a few gorgeous specimens to work with. I picked up a few $0.99 frames while at Ikea recently. I thought I would put some letters in them or label things on our nature table (more to come on that another day) but Claire thought a small maple leaf might look nice in there too. I love that we can see both sides of the leaf.

What do you think?

Spider Hand Prints for Halloween

Halloween Greetings to all! We created some spooky artwork last week gearing up to celebrate Halloween. This was definitely an art project that focused on the art process - it took three days, but was well worth the wait. Any project that helps a three year old work on patience gets a thumbs up in my book.

Day 1 - Claire drew a web in white crayon. The idea was to get some lines on the page, this is Claire's work so I wasn't preoccupied with the perfect web shape. Claire filled the entire page with purple liquid watercolors and any puddling was quickly absorbed by the paper and wound up looking mottled - very cool indeed. We kept a wet rag handy to catch any spills, these paints are sure potent!

On day two we moved onto the spider hand prints. I painted Claire's fingers and most of her palm (her giggles were hilarious) and helped her press each hand onto the web we painted the day before.

I suppose at this point you could have glued the googley eyes on while the paint was still wet, but I wanted to stretch this out as long as possible. We hung the eyeless critters up to dry and called it quits.

On day three we talked a lot about spiders and their eight legs (and eyes!). I poured some glue into a spoon for her to use and gave her a paint brush to apply it. This seems to be one of the neatest ways for Claire to use glue. We put eight eyes on one of the spiders but it just didn't look right. Maybe if we had a few different sizes we would have been more successful. We stuck with the cartoony spider version and just used two. Of course I forgot to snap photos of the eyes actually glued on...but there are a few photos in the slideshow of our glue-spoon contraption. Have a spooky-fun Halloween!



For those Mac folks without the capability of playing flash - here's the link to the album: Spider Hand Prints there are a few more of cutie-pie Claire and her artwork there.

Future Foodie?

Meet Claire, the tomato loving toddler! I grew more then a dozen tomato plants this year in a variety of hues. Some I nurtured from seeds and others I grabbed on markdown from a local farmer. All thrived. The tomatoes survived drought, neglect and most importantly - deer.

We had a real hodgepodge out there, but it allowed us to sample a lot of different flavors. Please note that none of the cherry tomatoes actually made it into the house because Claire snagged them off the vine as soon as they ripened. You have to watch this kid closely, she stalks those plants for any hint of red!

The season is winding down and I decided to slice up some different tomatoes for Claire to taste side by side. We tried the yellow "Sungolds:, the green "Mr. Stripey", and a cherry tomato whose name escapes me. I tried using words like "tangy" and "sweet" but Claire simply replied they were "yummy" or "squishy." We're working on it...

The one that earned Claire's thumbs up approval was the green Mr. Stripey. It seems to have been everyone's favorite this year. Sweet and tangy at the same time and a very nice texture.

Reading...or listening as it may be!

Claire is devouring books lately, and while I adore reading to her I was happily surprised by the selection of audio books for the young child at our local library.

We've been listening to a fantastic recording of Winnie the Pooh narrated by Judi Dench featuring Stephen Fry as Pooh. There are a bunch of other well known British actors involved in the reading and it is so well put together, the actor reading for Christopher Robin has the sweetest voice and Eeyore, and his eternal misery is captured perfectly.

Since I've only seen the cartoon version of this tale myself (Disney?) I've been cracking up at the witty language...why was this all taken out?! We've been having great car rides listening along to the adventures of Christopher Robin and his "Edward Bear." I can't wait to see what else we dig up in the the coming weeks.

I've also been checking out read-a-long stories. I set Claire up at the kitchen table in the evenings and she is happily occupied for half and hour "reading" along with the narrator of various stories. Clifford is a big hit...it's short and sweet and Claire knows just where the repeat button is. Would you like me to recite "Clifford Takes a Trip?" Heehee! I remember cramming into the library audio booth at Elmont's public library on hot summer days sharing a headset with Michael Ponticello and listening to a bunch of stories. What fun!

I just wish some of the publishers would re-record many of the classics onto CD...the old magnetic tapes are worn out and there's nothing to replace them. The children's librarian shares the same sentiment...we might have to start a campaign! Move aside LeapFrog! We want our stories read by humans - not machines!

Because I've been told I'm not allowed to write posts without photos of Claire - here's a picture of her in our own hundred acre wood.

Autumn Artwork

The air is crisp and colorful leaves are dotting the trees – it appears autumn has arrived! Last week Claire and I grabbed some crayons in fall hues, gathered a few leaves from the front yard and sat down to make some rubbings. As I expected, Claire found this project magical! The veins and edges appearing as she rubbed different colors thrilled her and the end result was really beautiful.

We had quite a few species on hand to try out in our front yard – rhododendron, maple, hosta and the teeny-tiny leaves of the impatiens in the planter. We tried some coleus leaves but they were too “juicy” and Claire’s enthusiastic rubbing turned them to mush before they left much of an impression on the paper.

I found using crayons (unwrapped of course) split in half were easiest for Claire to handle. It took a while for her to get the hang of holding the crayon horizontally and pushing it to get a rubbing. The result was a frustrated soon-to-be three year old who was bummed out about less then perfect attempt. I love her pouty face, but I’m glad it turned into a smile when she finally figured things out!

We worked with regular computer paper, but I hope to try again soon with the rhododendron leaves on watercolor paper. With the sturdy veins and stiff leaves, hopefully they’d show right through and allow us to create some watercolor resist artwork.

Our final product? Hanging proudly on the fridge (and displayed here) until I can frame it. Enjoy!

Strawberry Jam

Earlier in the summer we made 3 separate trips to our local strawberry farm. The weather was so pleasant and a few mornings spent picking yielded some stellar berries and homemade jam.

Claire carried her own basket and was a great picker! She refused to eat any insisting they were all for her basket, what a change from last year!

We wound up with enough jam to pass along some to our neighbors and friends and I thought it would be nice for Claire to help with the labels. We used Pomona’s Universal Pectin which allowed us to make a low sugar version of freezer jam. It requires one extra step (making calcium water) but I think the results are far better then the super-sweet versions with pectin that require sugar to jell them.

Next year I’m going to get more adventurous and try some savory jellies and maybe even some real canning so we don’t lose valuable freezer space to these jars.

The freezer jam keeps in the freezer for one year and the fridge for 2 weeks.I wonder if it will all last that long, we’ve been enjoying ours on bread and scooped into some yogurt and cottage cheese. Yum!

Wordless Storybooks

Because I love a good story and one told strictly though pictures intrigues me, this is what we're checking out from the library tomorrow:
There are quite a few other wordless picture books out there (Goodnight Gorilla is a Claire favorite) but this article on ohdeedoh had a number of titles new to me. I'll post Claire's version of the events in the book, I can't wait to listen to her tell the story.

Have I mentioned how great the online reservation system is at our local library? It's my personal netflix for books, I LOVE it!

Potato Hunt

Success! An early morning dig to find a few spuds worthy of roasting yields an entire colander full of gorgeous little potatoes and one excited little girl.

We’ve had great luck with our raised bed gardening at home this year. Aside from losing all our radishes and a few beets to ravenous pill bugs everything else has earned its keep. Well, everything EXCEPT the sexually frustrated zucchini plant who only produces flowers. Two years in a row, now what am I doing wrong?!

The potatoes were surprisingly productive for such a confined place and we’re happily watching two watermelons grow inch by inch outside.

Unfortunately with all the travel in the past few months I didn’t get much into the ground at the CSG, we’ll have to try again next year.

What a fantastic garden assistant Claire has turned into! She’s no longer snatching fruit off the vine and with her newfound love of scissors I’ve relegated all the swiss chard snipping to her.   Never was there a kid more happy to eat her homegrown goodies!

I wish the photo below was a little clearer  (Dan snapped it with his blackberry) but check out our carrots and beets! See the carrots? The carrots are a cultivar called “thumblelina” and are happy growing in shallow or rocky soil (yep, that’s us!).

The root vegetables have really been a delight to grow. Claire is always shocked at what we pull out and to be honest, so am I…how tiny those carrot seeds were, and now look what we’ve got!

On Life and Death

Claire meets her great-grandparents for the first time (more here)

I wrote the post below when we found out Claire’s great-grandfather had few days left in life. I was torn about taking her to the wake, and eventually decided with my husband to take her. What a great decision! The deacon who spoke to us in the evening said he loved to see children at wakes because they are a symbol of life, love and family. I wish I had a tape recorder for his talk, he did a beautiful job turning a few of my handwritten notes into a well spoken eulogy.

Dan and I took Claire up to the casket after explaining that Pop had died and is no longer breathing or laughing. We told her that part of him now lived in God’s house. I avoided the whole “oh, he’s just sleeping” thing because I think that explanation can be terrifying for children. Who wants to go to “sleep” at night after seeing a loved one looking strangely still in a casket? So we opted for the truthful route gently explaining that all things live and then die.

Claire took a look into Pop’s casket said goodbye to Pop then promptly asked for her puzzles and toys and ran around the room with her cousin having a grand time. Kids are great, aren’t they? So accepting and resilient. We’ll miss Pop but I’m so happy that Claire really got to know him and will keep him alive in her memories. Not every kid gets to meet their great-grandparents, let alone spend nearly 3 happy years with one of them. I’m grateful for that indeed!

father’s day 2008, all the guys in Claire’s life

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written 12.July.2010

As Claire gets older I find myself thinking more and more about choices we make as parents. Not questioning our choices per se, but realizing the magnitude of our parenting decisions and their implications for our precocious little toddler.

Case in point, death and dying. Treated as a natural part of the life cycle, I don’t think it is a scary thing for a child to witness, especially a gradual decline in the elderly.

Claire’s great-grandfather has been in failing health for the past month or two. She visits with him and has not turned off or spooked by the bi-pap machine that helped him to breathe last month. She was a little apprehensive about the “elephant mask” as we called it, but quickly warmed up to her great-grandfather, albeit a slighter and sleepier version then she remembered. We’ve brought drawings for Pop to enjoy and explained about Pop’s “boo-boo” in his lungs which makes it harder to for him to breathe. Claire’s been talking about Pop not feeling “berry good” and is obviously thinking about him throughout the day but doesn’t seem saddened or threatened by the change.

Now that he is weaned off the bi-pap machine and in the hospital being made comfortable in his last days I continue to take Claire to see him. I’m sure she can’t help but notice he’s skinnier and less and less alert but she clings to his hand and smiles at him and Pop seems to really enjoy the time with her.

There seems to be such a disconnect with death in today’s industrialized world. The animals we eat in the grocery store are shrink wrapped and unidentifiable so Claire’s only experience with death is batteries that run out of juice and the occasional mouse that Ray gets.

Of course I’m torn about the whole wake thing. Of course it provides closure but for someone so young would she understand? Should her last memories of her great-grandfather be of him alive and risk having her think dying just means “disappearing?” Or should we allow a goodbye and a viewing of his body explaining the whole spirit/body thing?

Any thoughts or advice?

E-I-E-I-O

Our family is participating in a great community supported garden program up at Sunset View Farms in Lafayette. My focus is on the 20x30 plot we’re tending, while Claire is enjoying her time chasing around the chicken and sneaking worms into her pockets. Here’s the cast of characters so far:

The goat. Claire’s favorite mammal on the farm and her curiosity (and love of grass and clover) gives us lots of face time with this critter.

The hen. I’ll have to snap another photo of her as this chick spends little time in her enclosure. I have never met a more patient bird, of course Claire is collecting all kinds of bugs for her so that’s probably why she tolerates Claire’s “love.”

The sheep. Shy and skittish they don’t much care for Claire yet. We’re working on bribing them. Baaaaaa!

This is a teaching farm and there is a fantastic nature playground where Claire explored her balancing skills and did lots of jumping.

The chicks. Our source of eggs this summer. They make the cutest cheeping noise and are so soft! I can’t wait to see the blue eggs from one of the breeds in there. Look at that little one jumping in the right corner!

“I want that one, Mommy!”

And lastly, some shots of the play area -