My children really wanted to plant something in our large pot and place it on the front porch. When plants began to go on clearance a little into the season, we started keeping an eye on them. When it seemed they had reached a low, I let my children pick out enough plants to properly... Continue Reading →
The food set for the I - Spy bags was one of the most fun to actually make out of clay. My poor husband was having a difficult time wrapping his brain around it, though. The scale, or lack there-of, was really throwing him off. For instance, he kept pointing out that blueberries are not... Continue Reading →
Welcome to the August Carnival of Natural Parenting: Creating With Kids This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how they make messes and masterpieces with children. Please read to the end to find a list... Continue Reading →
Photo by Justin LoweryI've often heard parents rationalizing punishments and rewards by citing the real world. When the kids grow up, they'll be in the real world. In the real world, they'll have to get a job and then, they had better be prepared. Punishments and rewards are everywhere, in the real world. This misses a... Continue Reading →
Georgia Bottoms is your typical Southern Belle - poised and confidant, a regular church goer, and great at organizing. In fact, she has all of her secret lives methodically hidden away from the others. 9/11 changes that and her carefully juggled details begin to collide with one another. Mark Childress has reached a new level with... Continue Reading →
C.D. Shelton attempted to write an inspirational book for children with A Kid's Guide to Being a Winner. I can't help but feel that the author missed the mark with this. Certainly, concepts such as respect, thoughtfulness, gratitude, responsibility, and a positive attitude are beneficial to promoting a peaceful society. However, Shelton has focused on these principles... Continue Reading →
Ingredients: 1 cup brown rice flour 1 cup millet flour 1 cup white sorghum flour 1/2 cup tapioca flour 1 cup potato starch 4 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 cup oil (your choice) 4 eggs (or egg replacer) 3 cups almond milk, other milk, or water Mix all ingredients together. Add a little more flour or water... Continue Reading →
The pirates have invaded! Our theme for July's Families, Create! Make and Play Carnival was "swashbucklers," and almost every participant celebrated their inner adventurer by creating something related to pirates. Check out what Families Create! participants created this month: With cat-like tread, upon their way they steal, Zoie at TouchstoneZ's sons are inspired to perform... Continue Reading →
I've never really enjoyed knitting. As far as knitting goes, I was purely a product knitter. Rather than enjoying the process, I would concentrate on the fact that if I were sewing, I could have drafted a pattern, cut out the fabric, and had the entire project completed, as I sat there, still knitting away.... Continue Reading →
Behavioral training uses punishments and rewards in order to extract desired behaviors from the subject in question. Numerous studies support that the use of punishment in children, regardless of whether or not the punishment is physical in nature, has detrimental effects. Besides dissolving the connection between parent and child, punishments do not help the child to do better... Continue Reading →
living peacefully with children 