Pottering Around

Toward the end of the school year, the kids get a little restless:  the weather warms, the sunshine beckons, and keeping a classroom full of pre-adolescents engaged can be rough on the best of days.  This year, after so much snow and ice and arctic blasts of deadly frigid air and cabin fever, that is proving to be true already.

They simply want to be outside in the fresh air.

Frankly, I can't blame them, because I feel the same way.  This winter has been brutal, and we are all longing for some flowers and leaves and fun.

So, in anticipation of this summer break antsy pantsy-ness only growing as the calendar moves forward, I am planning a bit of fun for the end of school that will, I hope, keep everyone engaged while we attempt to still learn a little something.  If nothing else, I'll have some fun with it, but I do hope the kids do as well.

We had planned on having a Harry Potter party for The Peanut this year for her 11th birthday.   While we were at Universal on vacation, we picked up some fun items to use for invitations that you can only get in Hogsmeade, and had planned a surprise way to deliver the invitations by "owl post."  (Bless you, people on Pinterest, for your genius ideas!)

Rather than let all my pins and internal planning go to waste, I've decided to use it for the amusement of my class instead.  Will be posting some ideas as I firm them up, but I wanted to throw out to the crowd the fact that I'm looking for some great, educational ways to use the Harry Potter theme in the classroom over a two week stretch.

Figuring the last two weeks of the year will be a lost cause, am trying to come up with a way to make that not be the case.  Perhaps it is naive of me to think this can be accomplished, but you can't blame a girl for trying, can you?

Any thoughts on ways to do actual lesson planning in a Harry Potter context?

Am thinking about setting this up so that they have "wizarding" classes each day instead of our regular ones.  But I haven't quite figured out how to morph our regular classes into the wizarding ones just yet.  Things I have contemplated thus far:

Fighting Off Cabin Fever: Snow Day Ideas

It has warmed up from -9 to -3 here this morning.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

You'll forgive me if I don't start digging out the beach wear just yet.  It is so cold that even the pooch doesn't want to stay out and romp in the snow for long, and that never happens. 

Thought the picture above spoke of sunny days in faraway summers.  Don't know about everyone else, but I could use a warm, balmy breeze.

It is another day off school today, and that dull cabin fever feeling has begun to set in at our house.  It is time to break out the momma ammunition, and I thought others could use some inspiration as well:

-- The "I'm Bored" Jar
-- Craft Closet Basics
-- Strategies For Sick And Rainy Days (also good for snow days!)
-- Snow Day Ideas
-- The Craft Closet Concept

That's just a little to get things started.  At our house today, we are most likely to break out some puzzles, games or Legos, peppered with a little minecraft playing and reading.  Yesterday was filled with a lot of coloring, movies and snow watching, so we'll try to mix it up a bit.

Stay warm, everyone.

(Photo via Renato Targa.  Lovely!)

Planning For The Inevitable Fall

The day is gorgeous here, with the sun shining high in the sky and the temperatures soaring well into the 80s again today.  But the leaves have begun their inevitable fall, crisping slightly at the edges while they turn their glorious shades of flame, before letting go and diving toward the earth just in time for winter's chill.

If you listen carefully, you can hear their loss in the increasing rustle of the leaves, rattling their last songs against the coming howling winds of winter.

Bad weather is coming.  Let the planning begin.

This is the time of year where I begin to take stock of what we have in our craft closet and what I have put away in our "snow day" stash.  This is important stuff, if only to stave off the cries of "I'm booooooored" when the weather gets nasty.

I began our craft closet and bad weather craft and activity stash as an off-shoot of the "rainy day cupboard" that Sarah Ban Breathnach discusses in her Mrs. Sharp's Traditions book.  It is such a fantastic idea, and a lifesaver for momma's everywhere -- especially those with young children who get impatient about being stuck indoors for more than five minutes at a time.  As she says in the book:

...What can be of enormous benefit to both parents and children is a plan to help them realize it is never really the weather that is disagreeable, only our attitudes toward it.  Even the stormiest hours can be made bright if there are special activities that are enjoyed only on rainy days....

This is true not just for rainy days at our house but, especially, snow days that stretch beyond a single day away from school due to inclement conditions.

At our house, the craft closet is always open for perusing and using.  It includes a fairly constant assortment of colored cardstock, glue sticks, construction paper, scissors and other hole-punch goodies, drawing books, drawing paper, colored pencils and crayons and markers of all sorts, and a whole host of other goodies that my wee girlie (and me, too!) love to doodle and color and play with on bad weather days and for school projects alike.

The "Rainy Day Cupboard" portion, though, is kept separate and is only brought out on the worst weather days or when we are in the throes of an extended bout of sickness, when boredom is at its peak and cabin fever has begun to set in with a vengeance.

This I stock with:

-- Special coloring books -- like these from Ruth Heller, who has a wide variety of complex designs for coloring that are wonderfully intricate and absolutely beautiful.

-- DVDs of movies we've never seen before (harder and harder to find, thanks to Netflix, but still something I can occasionally scrounge out of the $5 sale bin -- The Last Starfighter was a big hit this past year).

Rainy Days And Mondays: Craft Closet Basics

Woke up to a dreary outside this morning.  It is the last week of school at our house, with summertime fast approaching and The Peanut is ready and waiting for a nice break in the action.

This morning's rain is a good reminder that I need to reassess the contents of our craft closet and our rainy day cupboard.  Keeping both well stocked with activity starters and crafting basics is a great way for all of us to maintain some level of sanity on the inevitable bad weather days of summer.

Because we didn't have a horrible winter this year, a lot of the project starters that I had gotten for snow day activities never got pulled out, so I have several "things to do" kits and starter bits and pieces already on hand.

But I am always on the lookout for something new to replenish my stash.  Ever since I read about the "rainy day cupboard" in Sarah Ban Breathnach's Mrs. Sharp's Traditions: Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort & Joy, I have tried to keep things on hand to get any crafting day started. Who wants to have to run out in bad weather for glue sticks, right?

Here's what you can do to start your own:

The I'm Bored Jar: Revised

This is a re-post of this, with some updated ideas for the list of things to put in the jar.  The Peanut and I added some new sticks for this summer -- thought folks would like an updated listing for their jars as well.  Enjoy!

As of yesterday, we hit that point in summer break -- one week into it, mind you -- where the cries of "I am sooooooooo Bored!" had already begun.

Yesterday afternoon was a bit rainy and gloomy, making outside play a little dicey which was a big part of the problem.   Perfect for springing my master plan for summer amusement.

Luckily, this year I had a secret weapon:  I found the idea for an "I'm bored" jar on Pinterest -- from the blog Shaydes of Life -- before the end of school.  With a little searching, I found several more iterations of the same theme bouncing around Pinterest, and had pinned several more blog posts and similar ideas for just such a moment.

I had also picked up a couple of packages of jumbo craft sticks -- they come 75 to a pack for less than $3 at most WalMarts and craft stores.  We already had a large jar that was just gathering dust, having been recently emptied of its contents when I cleaned out a cabinet upstairs.  We also had some ultra fine tipped Sharpie markers, and various cardstock paper scraps that could be fashioned into a label.

It really isn't a lot to get this started:

A Summer Filled With Wonder?

As May whizzes by me, heading directly toward June and the end of the school year, I have begun to contemplate what our summer might look like this year.

That's a bit difficult to do, mind you, because I still haven't gotten my test results back from the additional oncotype testing on the tumor that was removed, and thus still have no idea whether I'll be facing chemo or radiation next...makes it incredibly difficult to plan a summer's worth of activities for my 10 year old when I can't even make treatment plans for myself.

But because I am a planner, I'm trying to at least come up with some back-up options nonetheless.  Just in case.  And mostly because I fear we'll be stuck inside a lot due to me being exhausted from whatever treatment is thrown my way, and I want to have some fun things on hand to mitigate the eternal boredom of my wee girlie should the issue arise.

Or, at the very least, figure out some outdoorsy things we can do that won't require an enormous expenditure of energy for me.  Picnics spring to mind or outdoor tea parties or something like that, perhaps.

On my Pinterest page, I've been collecting ideas on my "Fun With My Daughter" board, and also on my "Fun and Crafty" board.  I'll be collecting ideas in earnest this week and hope to have some great possibilities to share with everyone over the weekend.

One thing we will almost certainly do at some point, and something we have done before, is a little Alice in Wonderland themed tea party.  It's our own little "girls night" ritual on evenings when dad is out of town, and The Peanut still loves to just hang out with tea sandwiches and conversation when we get time (free time hasn't been frequent of late, let me tell you, which is a really good reason to try ad make this happen a little more regularly this summer).  Our oldest niece is coming out to stay with us for a few weeks this summer, so perhaps we'll wait until she gets here and have a "tea for three" party instead.

Better Planning For Our Pauses

Fall is my favorite season.  Waking up to crisp mornings that mellow into warmed sunshine afternoons, the golden light that illuminates the world in a sort of hazy glow as it eases toward sunset.

My inclination this time of year is to prepare the house for nesting over the winter.

It is a bit like a squirrel lining its den, I suppose, but I have this urge to straighten and tidy and fortify the pantry with delicious snacking and baking staples in case of a snow day somewhere in the distant future.

Do we have puzzles and games aplenty, all currently stored at the ready?  Including a vast supply of legos just waiting to be built into something awesome?  Check.  And check.

Is there plenty of popcorn and assorted tidbits that The Peanut finds deliciously munchable?  Check.

Can we make some snickerdoodles at the drop of a hat?  Yeppers!

One of the things I do is to make sure I've stashed away some activities -- new coloring books, a craft project or two, something to paint or assemble, a fresh drawing pad, a new-ish movie or two picked up from the $5 or less bin, you name it -- so that when the inevitable snow day strikes, we have a new and exciting something-or-other to do.

I have done this since The Peanut was small.

The Peanut's New Desk Organizer

As I mentioned the other day, The Peanut and I put together a new desk organizer.   We wanted to make sure her desk was clear and able to be used whenever she wanted for craft projects and fun for the rest of the summer.

Plus, I wanted to clear it off and have it ready before school began again -- it is, after all, intended to be her homework space, too.

Frankly, we've let far too much clutter pile up this summer on all of our flat surfaces, and I've kind of hit a wall with clutter this week and gone on a trash bag frenzy ridding us a bit of excess crap and piling things into donate boxes that could be of better use to someone who needs things we aren't, honestly, ever going to really enjoy.  (You know, all those presents that aren't really you and silly impulse purchases you later regret?  I can't be the only one with a house full of this stuff, can I?) 

I got the original idea for this type of organizer from the Create*Teach*Share blog -- still loving it!   We had a lot of fun making an organizer for my school library desk area, and The Peanut has been wanting to make one of her own ever since.

I wanted to share some pictures of how The Peanut's turned out -- it is really colorful and, best of all, incredibly useful with a small footprint on the top of her desk.

Microscope Morning

We spent a big chunk of yesterday cleaning off The Peanut's desk.

It had become piled with a variety of things -- American Girl doll items, detritus from the last school year, random magazines, craft supplies and el cheapo plastic toy bits from who knows where -- and was really unusable as a desk since there was no real space to put anything.

Earlier in the week, we had purchased another plastic organizer with drawers from Lowes.  This one had all large drawers, instead of a mix of small and large like the one I used for my school library organizer.

And it fits perfectly on the back of her desk.

I let her pick out the patterned paper she wanted to use for drawer colors and we put together a desk supplies organizer for her.  Once it was done, we started clearing off her desk and putting away various and sundry bits and pieces into the drawers which we then labeled with the label maker (her new favorite toy).

The "I Am Sooooooo Bored" Jar

UPDATE:  Revised edition is here, with a list of 150 ideas for the jar.  We added a few more for this summer.  Enjoy!

As of yesterday, we hit that point in summer break -- one week into it, mind you -- where the cries of "I am sooooooooo Bored!" had already begun.

Yesterday afternoon was a bit rainy and gloomy, making outside play a little dicey which was a big part of the problem.   Perfect for springing my master plan for summer amusement.

Luckily, this year I had a secret weapon:  I found the idea for an "I'm bored" jar on Pinterest -- from the blog Shaydes of Life -- before the end of school.  With a little searching, I found several more iterations of the same theme bouncing around Pinterest, and had pinned several more blog posts and similar ideas for just such a moment.

I had also picked up a couple of packages of jumbo craft sticks -- they come 75 to a pack for less than $3 at most WalMarts and craft stores.  We already had a large jar that was just gathering dust, having been recently emptied of its contents when I cleaned out a cabinet upstairs.  We also had some ultra fine tipped Sharpie markers, and various cardstock paper scraps that could be fashioned into a label.

It really isn't a lot to get this started:

My Tissue Paper Flower Obsession

I have a confession: I am obsessed with learning how to make a really beautiful tissue paper flower.

Not just an every day, run of the mill, sad little wilty approximation, either. 

A really bountiful, full, beautifully crafted and colorfully awesome one.  The kind that make you gasp when you see them because the colors are so vivid and the tissue paper is so perfectly molded into a flower form.

I woke up this morning thinking about this, after having a dream last night about how to decorate the library is a gorgeously lush Alice in Wonderland theme. 

There is clearly something wrong with me.

Last day of official school for me today.  Perhaps a few days of summer vacation are a really good idea.  What do you think?

Cute School Supplies Desk Organizer Idea!

It is the end of the school year, which means I'm spending a lot of time sifting through the leftover detritus in my room and puzzling over how things could have gotten so messy when they started out so tidy at the start of the year.  Way too much time, actually.

Given that this was my very first year in the classroom, I'm trying to assess what worked well for me and, more importantly, what did not so that it can be tweaked to be better for the next year.  There has to be a better way to do things so that you don't end up with a big pile to dig through at the end of the year, right?  But teaching week in and week out doesn't leave a lot of extra time for cleaning, organizing and thinking, so I'm trying to come up with better systems to deal with things in the day to day.

One of the things that has been incredibly irritating is how difficult it can be to corral basic office supplies so that they are readily available when you need them and not all over the place.

Initially, I tried one of those drawer organizer trays with all the little individual compartments.  The problem is that I don't really have a drawer, I just have cubbies behind my taller reference desk or bookshelves, neither of which work well with what is, essentially, a flatish tray which ends up getting covered in papers and other daily detritus making it impossible to find anything after a few weeks.

So I spent some time over the weekend combing the internet for how others have handled this.  And...voila!

I found this adorable idea for a "teacher's tool box" on the Create *Teach * Share blog, and I just had to make one for myself.  I am hoping that this will solve the problem.

Playing With Color

While The Peanut was home sick last week, I re-discovered something that I absolutely love:  coloring.

It's funny how you can pick something up that you haven't done in years and have so much fun with it, isn't it?  We colored a LOT while watching movies or just listening to music.  She found it a soothing way to keep from scratching her chicken pox, and I found it a nice creative change of pace and a good way to relieve some of my mommy tension while she was so sick.

We both had a blast spending time together, sitting side by side and sharing crayons and colored pencils.  I had forgotten how fun it can be to bring a little black and white picture to life with a little color.

How had I forgotten how fun that is?

Several years ago -- before The Peanut started school, actually -- I had gotten myself an intricate coloring book of springtime designs by Ruth Heller on an Artist's Date when I was trying to kick start my creative juices via Julia Cameron's Artist's Way.

Somehow, though, this coloring book got buried in a drawer (during some whirlwind "company's coming" clean-up spree no doubt)...and only got unearthed again, years later, this past week.  Which I think may be the most symbolic representation of my creative fits and starts and my difficulty with putting my creative needs on the front burner ahead of family and everything else in my life.

It is what it is, right?

But the thing is, once I rediscovered this coloring book?  And then started coloring in it?

I had a BLAST.

Life's A Happy Song? Strategies for Sick and Rainy Days

Just needed a little Muppet pick me up this morning.  From The Muppets.

Woke up to a foggy day outside, and still no let up on the chicken pox for The Peanut.  Our house is a germy pit of despair for a wee girlie who just wants to go back to school. 

So we continue to muddle forward slowly, hoping that they will begin to dry up at some point in the near future. Being a parent with a sick and stir crazy child at home can be tedious and exhausting for everyone, especially mom.  (I am so there this morning, let me tell you.)

I've been sitting here wracking my brain for things to do with the sickly wee one that don't involve a lot of energy expenditure, and here's what I've come up with for us for the next few days:

-- Coloring:  We always have a stash of coloring books, crayons and colored pencils on hand because you never know when a sick day/snow day/torrential rain in the summer day will show up.  Diversionary tactics are my friend.

-- Reading:  The Peanut has already read 4 books in the last 4 days.  Okay, sure...two of them were Goosebumps books, but the other two were the first two books in the Sisters Grimm series which we are both absolutely loving right now.  (Highly recommend the Sisters Grimm for the kids or grandkids in your life!)

Making Easter Bonnets For 18-inch Dolls

Don't know about you, but my morning will be spent with glue gun in hand today.

We're making Easter Bonnets again for today's doll club meeting at The Peanut's school, and momma is woefully behind in getting ribbon glued around the brims of the hats in advance of getting things together for the girls to make their individual hats.

Here are instructions for making them for your own girlie or dollie (as the case may be).  They turn out really adorable, and are relatively inexpensive compared to what you'd pay for a fully made one from the more expensive 18-inch doll lines.

If you'll pardon me, I have about 15 more hats to assemble...

Dolled Up: Some American Girl Ideas

'Tis the season to spend huge amounts of money on American Girl doll accessories and outfits.  Or not, if you are crafty enough to make a few things or smart enough to shop around a little bit.

It can take some work, but you can, indeed, find some doll bargains even this close to Christmas that will wow your wee girlie.

One thing we have learned: the quality of the American Girl doll itself isn't really matched by the poorer quality of any of the knock-off dolls we've played with or seen.  When it comes to the doll itself?  I recommend spending the money on an American Girl doll.

If you aren't wedded to an 18-inch doll, there are some lovely dolls from Hearts 4 Hearts girls that are a lovely quality, too -- but your options for knock-off clothing will be limited because they are a smaller size.  But they are also significantly cheaper, and I wanted to mention them in case someone might be interested in a cheaper starter doll.  The nice thing about these dolls is that part of the purchase price goes to support charitable food and education programs for kids, and there is a booklet with each doll talking about things that can be done in communities around the world to help the less fortunate.

The Peanut has Consuelo from Mexico and loves her -- she really is a beautiful doll -- but none of the clothing we have for her American Girl doll fits, so beware that these are not interchangeable doll sizes.

Reading Is A Wonderland

We've reached the end of September, which has been a pirate theme at the school library -- and quite popular with the younger kids, I have to say.   Especially the stickers and bookmarks with pirate stuff on them that I managed to find -- that has been a big hit!

For October, I thought I'd go with a bit of whimsy.

So "Reading is a Wonderland!" it is.  I'll be going over today to take down the pirate flags and decor and bulletin board excitement, and to put up all sorts of Alice in Wonderland-inspired decor all over the place.  So when the kids come back from their long weekend (they have Monday and Tuesday off next week), they will walk into the library and right into the pages of Alice in Wonderland.

I think that's going to be very fun for everyone.  Including me.

Frankly, anything to get these kids reading and keep them interested in it is a good thing, I say.  And who doesn't love a bit of whimsy in their day?

Luckily I have saved a lot of the decorations that we used for The Peanut's Alice-inspired birthday party a couple of years ago.  I still have the net butterflies and the Mad Hatter hat and a few other assorted goodies, and so those will be brightening the library space by the end of today.

Will try to snap a few pictures for everyone once I'm finished, so you can see how things turned out.

Can You Be Addicted To School Supplies?

It is definitely that time of year.

"Hello, my name is Christy.  And I'm addicted to buying school supplies."

I wish that I were kidding.

School supplies shopping is so fun for me, because I love finding new, awesome pens for writing, and cute little pencil sharpeners to stash away for when they inevitably disappear throughout the school year from my daughter's backpack.  Ditto for crayons, markers and colored pencils...those all seem to just walk away from the desk at regular intervals, don't they?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy my child likes to share with her classmates.  Very happy.  But the thought of scarcity of replacement items in our home appears to be a trigger point for my sanity, as does paying full price later in the school year for items that go on serious sale this time of year.  And so?

We now have a bit of a sale school supplies stockpile. 

And not just for us, but also for my daughter's teacher next year as well.  I like to help stock up the classroom, too, so her teacher doesn't have to do it out of pocket on her own.

Of course, I tend to do this every year, but why?  It is as though the start of the school year every single year turns me into a pencil hoarder.  It's all neatly tucked away in our large green bin, sure, but is this normal?

An Alice In Wonderland Birthday Party Tip

I went to Target this morning to pick something up for my organization-palooza project that I'm doing with The Peanut's craft closet.  (Long story short:  it's become a mess, and I'm going to revamp it and will pop up some pictures for everyone  when we are done.)

Long-time readers will recall that last year, we did a birthday party for The Peanut in an Alice in Wonderland theme that was very popular with her and her 7-year-old pals.

Here's the news from this morning:  if you are similarly planning an Alice in Wonderland party for your child or an upcoming tea party for some afternoon fun, our local Target -- and I'd assume Targets across the US, since they have similar stock in most stores -- had some great Disney Alice in Wonderland coloring books, little journals and other assorted items in the dollar section up front.

I snagged a couple of coloring books for the upcoming Easter basket at our house or maybe for our next rainy afternoon tea party.  (Mom tip:  I tend to stock up on cute coloring books from the dollar bin so we always have them on hand for a bad weather day diversion.)

Thought party planners might get some use out of this tip as well.

Making Hats For Doll Club

I've spent my morning with glue gun in hand, cutting ribbons and gluing like crazy for next week's doll club meeting at The Peanut's school.

Each month we meet, the girls share something about their dolls, and we make a little craft with them and have snacks.  For April, we decided an "Easter Bonnet" would be lovely -- and very fun for the girls to make.

But to get things staged to the point where the girls can take over?  It's taking a bit of work on my end.

I bought some mini-doll straw hats in the 6-inch size at a local craft store.  Found them in the doll aisle -- they were the largest size they had, and the crown just fits on The Peanut's American Girl doll perfectly.