Berlin's Whimsy

Homemade Fun Giveaway

It's been a couple years since I dreamed up this list of summer kids' activities. Some of them are still relevant for my own kids, but I'm sure they've outgrown a few.

In the next couple weeks, we'll start dreaming up new summer activities with their more "mature" ages in mind. I know writing will be on the list for my son. And the book, Homemade Fun: 101 Crafts and Activities to Do with Kids arrived at just the right moment for my daughter. She intently perused the pages, choosing activities here and there.

The book is full of all kinds of activities, such as woodworking, jewelry making, papers crafts, and sewing projects. They're the type of children's craft projects I appreciate---- wholesome fun that stirs up curiosity and a sense of accomplishment.

I suspect we'll make the felted Owl Badge Pins, Paper Lanterns, Friendship Books, Placemat Roll-up Pouches, Paper Beads, Button Bracelets, and many of the cooking crafts this summer. In fact, the book will be a life saver for those summer afternoons when kids might be tempted to say those dreaded words: "I'm booooored!!"

This morning, my daughter made the "Busy Morning Biscuits" from the book. They turned out wonderfully! The instructions were easy for my daughter to follow.

We added a dollop of Lingonberries to each biscuit for our own little twist.

You have your own chance to receive this wonderful book full of kids' activities! Just comment on this post by Sunday, June 20th at 5 PM to enter to win your own copy! In your comment, tell me about activities that you have planned this summer, with or without kids!

all in its place

My daughter created this little map. Within, she illustrated a layout of her own personal village where those that are important to her live close-by. She enjoys doing this: creating lists of friends, understanding her heritage, asking about her ancestors. It all needs to be in its place. Perhaps it is a form of security in trying to understand her own little slice of this vast world. I can imagine with all the changes in her life over the last couple years, these little illustrations help to put it in some form of perspective.

Don't we all desire perspective, though? To understand where we've been and where we're going? I know I do. I thought about this and I thought about the way my daughter handled it, drawing her own little map. Perhaps she's onto something----illustrating our own personal dream village. A village encompassing all that you love and that loves you in return. What a wonderful vision!

And sometimes I think our chickens might even need a little of this perspective---- especially when they peer through our windows so longingly, waiting for us to come and tuck them in for another night in their little coop.

Maybe we all need to have a place for everything and everyone. All in its place.

summer lists.

The first day of my children's summer vacation finds us sitting down to write up some summer wishes, dreams, and goals. Things like... What do you want to do this summer? What do you hope to accomplish? In the past, the list included things like 'ride my bike 10 miles in one day,' and 'make dog treats and sell them.'

As my children grow older, their dreams and goals evolve, reflecting their new interests, their emerging maturity, and my own influence, too. Additionally, their answers reflect a growing adolescent sarcasm and I try not to dismiss even those answers, wrapping them up into our projects, as well.

This summer, our list includes weekly spelling practice and a heavy focus on writing and grammar. Both of my children have a strong desire to write and I am more than happy to oblige them in this passion!

Recently, we discovered the magazine, Stone Soup, and my daughter has yet to put it down. It is a magazine for young writers and illustrators----I should have known she would immediately love it! Many libraries carry this wonderful magazine and it's worth checking out.

My daughter recently facilitated a family drawing night that revolved around one of our favorite books, The Little Prince. While she read the book to us, we each illustrated our own planet/astroid (as in the book). It felt very peaceful to listen to my daughter read to us while we all quietly slid our pencils along paper, creating our own worlds. I envision much of our summer revolving around related activities-----afternoons spent using our imaginations and creativity...

Try it!... While reading The Little Prince, ask your children what their own make-believe planet would be like? What would it look like? What would it be like to live alone on a planet? Or with one other person or creature? Who is that creature and what do they look like? For older kids, what was the author trying to convey with each new planet and its inhabitants? Who was your favorite character and why? Can you draw him/her? I'd love for you to share...

More resources...
* A Guide for Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint Exupery.

Cozy Holidays.

We hung our first bit of holiday decorations tonight. My son impressed us all with his intricate snowflake designs----a nod to his excellent origami skills, I suppose. As we sat around our small kitchen table, I thought of all the years I patiently helped them with this tradition... the many times the snowflakes were cut in two; the paper folded the wrong way; even fingers nicked with scissors. Tonight, however, it was my son who showed me new designs and helped his sister when she became confused in folding... Growing up.  

And even as cozy as our little snowflakes look in our front window, our house pales in comparison to the light displays of our neighbors! I'm living in a winter wonderland!

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A few of you asked for the recipe for Monkey Bread. I use a very basic bread recipe that I place in my bread machine. I set my machine for the "dough" cycle and when it is complete, I separate the dough into balls that are the size of ping pong balls. In this previous post, I explained the process of first dipping the dough balls in melted butter and then a mixture of granulated sugar, cinnamon and a hint of cardamom.

Here is the bread dough recipe:

Sweet Milk Bread

• 1 1/2 C. whole milk
• 2 T. unsalted butter, at room temp and cut into pieces
• 4 C. bread flour
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 T. + 1 tsp. vital wheat gluten
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 tsp. SAF instant yeast

Place the ingredients into your bread machine according to your machine's guidelines and set the machine for the "dough" cycle. Alternatively, you can make this bread by hand: place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until it comes together. Check the dough for proper consistency-----it should be a little on the sticky side. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic (when you pull up a piece of the dough, it should stretch readily without tearing).

Once again, this previous post explains the process of making Monkey Bread and if you have any further questions, please email me. Enjoy!

Tadpoles.

I grew up catching tadpoles in nearby ditches and ponds and setting them aside to miraculously transform into frogs.

We would dip our hands in the dirty ditch water and come up with a slimy little tadpole which we plunked into a waiting and clean pickle jar. The murky jar would sit on our counter and life would evolve within its glass walls----for all the world to witness. We were fascinated by them.

And I still am.

My kids have caught tadpoles up in the local high mountain lakes but never "raised" them like I did. They were so surprised to find that just down the driveway they could catch some of these wriggly little creatures for themselves.

Again I marvel at how much I forget from my childhood. I cannot remember what we fed our tadpoles in those big pickle jars. Nowadays we have the internet to answer such queries and found that they love plain old lettuce.

In fact, they munch little holes in the lettuce leaves and we can actually listen to them munching at the top of the water's surface.

They're only just sprouting their tiny legs now.

Ah, thank goodness for kids who let us old, forgetful adults into their worlds to remember bits of our own childhood...

Grind-it-up Mystery Mash

My daughter took to the fields today in search of mystery mash ingredients. With her own little mortar-and-pestle in hand, she plucked flower petals.

The flowers were ground up and mixed with water to create her own purple dye. I was amazed at the iridescence of her dye-----almost like butterfly wings. Is that from the flower petals? 

She used her dye to dye a piece of white linen. It turned out a very subtle shade of lavender. We'll use the cloth later on to make a tiny little fairy dress...

This was one of our kids' activities listed here. We look forward to new combinations of flowers to produce varying colors of dye.

Fun: Battery powered or not.

We celebrated so many birthdays this past week! Including my son's. He turned 12. 

My son loves technology and has far surpassed my ability to read diagrams and build intricate projects (well, except for projects involving yarn, I guess). In fact, he's the one we all turn to when we must switch around our audio-video equipment.

Amongst other gifts, he received a Lego robotics kit. He's been enamored with robots for many years. Last fall, during one of the many festivals here (what's up with that----is there a festival every single weekend where you live?), we visited a high school robotics club booth. I thought my son might faint when the teenager at the booth handed him the remote control to his "bot" to try out.

The downside to my son's new robot building? It requires my laptop...!

But these potato guns are so much fun without all the batteries. I guess potato guns have been around for awhile but they're new to me. Though shooting potato plugs at targets around the yard is plenty of fun, so is feeding chickens at the same time. Our chickens love those plugs and they come running each time they hear the trigger pull. The leftover potato is a little odd looking, however... I'm not sure about the following photo----it isn't very politically correct, even if they are benignly cleaning potatoes out of their guns.

And lastly, I gave my son this game for his birthday: Hyper Dash. I highly recommend it. It's a great game to wear your kids out and get a workout yourself! It has won many parenting awards and I agree with its merits----we love it!

Kids' Activity: For the Birds!

Your suggestions and ideas for kids' activities were so helpful! Thank you!! I've combined the ideas and created a Kids' Activity List. You'll find the link under Resources on the sidebar and it opens a whole new page with all of the activities there. The list will continue to grow as I add more ideas throughout the summer... 

And if you have any additional ideas to share, please leave them in the comments section of the list. Also, I'd love to hear from you if your family tries any of these activities! How did it go?  

 

We're anxious to start trying out our activities! Today, we decided to play like a bird and give nest building a try. We could only use materials that birds would use. For my kids, that meant mud, of course!

After our muddy nest turned out to look more like a mud volcano, we realized how uniquely talented those birds are! (And that there is a reason nests take so long to build)...

We're going to try the activity again but next time we will be more precise and weave the materials together rather than slather them with mud (though the mud part sure was fun)!