With the arrival of the Olympics, my boys are in an especially competitive mood, eagerly desiring to showcase their athletic prowess! But the heat this last week has been I.N.T.E.N.S.E! I think I may have chosen one of the hottest days of the year to run errands in the middle of the afternoon. ugh. So in […]
Creative Toys
Handmade Tradition, Passed On
I am slightly obsessed with making handmade gifts. There is something so fun about the creative process and then giving the results of your dreaming, planning and creating to someone… This last Christmas, my boys were excited to join in. My sister had sent me this link since she knew that Keegan had clay to work with. We were […]
From Trash to Treasure
(Xander at 3yo enjoying a homemade shield that he asked us to fashion from an egg carton and his lance from an old packing tube.) As we’ve been talking about, encouraging our kids in open-ended play is a great way for them to learn at their own pace as well as develop important creative and […]
Kitchen Play
Well, as we start to wrap up this little series on open-ended play, I had to include some ways we’ve incorporated everyday things we have around the house into our play and learning. There are so many toys to be found in the kitchen! Outside of the many practical and original uses for items found […]
Knights-in-the-Making
The boys and I just loved our adventure studying the middle ages. (You can read about our previous adventures here, here, here, and here.) But I think one of the highlights was the focus on knights. My boys were inspired. They wanted to dress like them, fight like them, behave like them. Really, they wanted to […]
Portcullis Construction
I have fond memories of studying the middle ages when I was a girl. We visited that era multiple times. Being in a household of all girls, I’m sure you can imagine our rapt attention as we learned about courtly behavior, medieval dress and the day of good ol’ chivalry! It was all quite ‘romantic’ and the brocades […]