How to Make a Lily... with your Hand

Some tissue flowers require A LOT of tissue and time. This one, is quick and adds the element of sentimental value, with very little tissue needed. Or you can use paper.

The petals are simply tissue cut-outs of your handprint. Or, the handprint of those you love.

The stem is simply a wooden BBQ skewer.

They make a great bouquet... OR a great magic wand!

How to Make Banana Soup

Some fresh bananas with local honey... squooshed and smeared to gooey delight, then add:

pure peanut butter with crumbled up lightly salted Quaker rice cakes, and: Presto!

Fresh Banana Soup.

Invented at lunch by Callie consuming Norah's baby food (mashed bananas) instead of feeding her. Lesson learned. ;)
Callie proclaimed: "This is the best stuff on earth!"

So, I brought in the hearty additives that baby can't have.

How to Stop the Fighting...

I recently spoke with a friend of mine who has four kids. She was run down weary from the fighting that has gone on in her house for a prolonged period of time. I felt sorry for her, went home to my kids and realized that I WAS TOO!! It's just been going on for so long that I hadn't realized it.... narrowed it down or whatever!! So, I did what I always should do... and called Emily. What do I do?

Here is her advice:

1. Have a rule... if you fight over it... the toy gets taken away. Period. (and be consistent or it won't work)

*Okay... this has changed my life!!! Not only do they TRY to cooperate... but one or the other is constantly seeking to sacrifice for the greater good. Not to mention the phrase I add, "If things become more important than each other... we don't need it." This helps me and them to realize that if something is making us fight... it's not worth having. SIDENOTE: I used to do this but decided against it because it's usually one person STARTING the fight and the other ends up losing out privileges... BUT THINGS are not that important. People are. And, unless it's blatantly one-sided (and it sometimes is) this trick works great.

2. Create diversions. For small children especially, diversions are a great thing. I have been trying it. My friend Emily's mother had her children wash windows, one on each side... a fun game to get out frustration or just have fun. I tried this to clean up the window markers. It worked great!!! A diversion works like this (screaming... fighting... yelling... crying, mom comes it, "hey girls wanna play a game!" and then leads them to the windows with washclothes. That's it!

Thanks Emily!!!

How to Tell the Time

Now to any adult this seems rediculous. Why would I make a paper clock when their is one already on the wall.... that actually works! Well, Callie made this one... and wrote in the numbers herself for whatever reason... and then taped it to the wall by her room. She updates it whenever she thinks to look at a clock... calls it her clock and enjoys making it "on time". So, MOST of the time, the clock is wrong... but she has a constant hobby of updating it... thus she is always thinking about how it works and how to make it work for her. This would not otherwise happen. She is teaching herself how to tell time... and I am LETTING her. That's pretty easy. All I have to do is let her tape something to the wall.

How to Make a Pretzel

You can follow a recipe... I used the one in the Better Homes and Gardens plaid cookbook. But, I will be honest... I will not be making these again! Not, worth the effort. Way too many steps and dishes dirtied. But, I am glad we did this. It was an awesome lesson on prayer. Did you know that the old saying "tying the knot" to refer to marriage referred to the pretzel knot? It was an old Catholic tradition, typically before easter. Each hole symbolizing the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The knot symbolizes joining and becoming one in marriage. Fun! It also can be used to talk about prayer in that you 1) fold your arms, 2) bow your head... thus forming the pretzel. Wiki says that they may have been given to children for memorizing their prayers back in 610 A.D. There you go!

How to Make a Map

There is a fun, and simplistic game to play with maps that teaches... well, lots of things really. I don't think its intended to get kids started on ratios or anything... but its great for teaching numbers and letters. Parent says: B1, kids says "LAKE!" Or kid says: "Mom go to the forest... and gives the steps. First, B4, then, B3. It's super fun. It led Callie to create her own chart of our house. All of the row A is the upstairs and D is ofcourse downstairs! :) Cute. Its a fun little game. It can be used all day. "Mom, can I go to D4 (outside)" Try it! It's great fun!

How to Color Glass

Crayola makes some awesome window markers... fun anyway. But, beware... they are a beast to clean up. Use a wet rag with soap... dry and THEN windex. If you just use windex it will take forever... and look BAD. Kids love it!

How to Use a Dandelion...

Most people do not know the wealth untold of dandelions. They get a bad rap always referred to as "weed". Did you know they are edible!! They have more vitamins than MOST vegetables. They are also a wonderful antiseptic. So, if you are at the park, your kids scrapes their knee, just rub the dandelion across their cut. (Remember the child's story where the pee goes down your arm... smeeeear) Tis better than neosporin. Don't eat the stem though... it's rather bitter. Dandelions have even more uses than what I mentioned. Look online!! It's amazing.

How to Grow a Strawberry

Well, we did some good ole research for this one to make sure we bought a variety of strawberry plant that was particularly good for our region. This particular variety is Earliglow. We purchased a good group of plants from http://www.gurneys.com/ they arrived in the winter, we planted them and looky here! Strawberries a-growin'!

How to Make Beads of Scrapbooking Paper

Simple really... just cut paper into triangles (not the right triangles, oblique) and roll them up starting at the fat end.
Glue the base, let try and string onto necklaces.

You can make the beads any size or pattern that you have!

Fun and easy... and different.

How to Make Rainbow Bubbles

In Time of Silver Rain
The butterflies lift silken wings
To catch a rainbow cry,
And trees put forth
New leaves to sing
In joy beneath the sky
As down the roadway passing boys
And girls go singing, too,
IN time of silver rain
When spring
And life are new.

-Langston Hughes

Did you know that 'Dr. Suess' writing, The Cat in the Hat was terribly wrong in one sense? Rain does not mean that you are stuck inside all day. Being from Seattle you learn, or should, to love the rain. Many beautiful things can happen in the rain, that cannot otherwise... inside and out.

Today we discovered this simple truth... Rain makes beautiful rainbow bubbles.

Next time you feel cooped up inside your house... think again!!

Some ideas for the rain:

1. Dance in your underwear

2. Jump on the trampoline

3. Have a boat race in a nearby rain gutter

4. Catch raindrops (with buckets or with your tongue)

5. Make a mudbath or paint (My girls love to make paint with the clay soil in our backyard... and it actually makes a great wood stain... just mix dirt/clay with water and paint with dried up clumps of grass)

How to Make a Slushy

My beloved little 'half-pint', as dear to me as Laura Ingalls is to Pa in the Little House series, has saved many a hot spring day from a lack of jubilee. These were some childhood gadgets of mine, handed down by my mother. They are amazing. Just a little ice cream maker. But, we disovered that you can put just about any liquid in there to create a slushy extraordinaire. We've tried soda, orange juice and cream, ice cream ingredients, lemonade... you name it!!! I don't know if they still make these in miniature... but I sure hope they do!! You freeze the inner cylinder, put it in the cup base, throw on the lid and the kids LOVE stirring it and watching it freeze. It's SOOO fun!!

How to Childcraft

A little over a year ago, we (unknowingly) recieved one of the greatest gifts ever from Grandma. It was an old tattered box of 1978-1980 Childcraft books, like you find at the library. I thought, "Well, they will look good on the shelf I guess". Well, I thought again. These have been speechless treasures to our home. They literally are treasure chests of knowledge and joy that there is no replacing for. Every story, poem, ryhme and game within these books is captivation to the little ear. I learn more than a great deal as well. The children cannot put them down. They BEG me to read to them out of these books constantly!! And, my five year old spends 30 minutes each night looking through the pictures and bookmarking what to read the next day.

What a gift!!