Tag Archives: families create

Soft Shields

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This post is part of the Families Create: Make and Play Challenge, cohosted by Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children. December’s topic is favorite books.

As fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians
and Heroes of Olympus series, my children love Greek mythology. Outside they have an entire set up sticks from which they have made swords and even some corrugated plastic shields they made at a co-op class a few years ago. However, those items stay outside or in the garage.

We needed something for inside, especially with winter on its way. Foam shields seemed perfect. Made from one inch foam and sturdy corduroy, they have two loops on the back to slide your arm through. My husband has been eyeing these and can’t wait until I give them to the kids for Yule. Apparently foam shields are great for roughhousing.

Families Create! December Call for Submissions

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Please join us for a monthly blog carnival focusing on families and creativity. Families, Create! is a blog carnival with a purpose: we want your family to get creative and have fun! Read below for details on the November carnival, and check out the main carnival page for upcoming themes in 2011. (Check out January, February, March, April, June, July, September, and October if you missed them.) Your co-hosts are Dionna at Code Name: Mama and Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children. Here are the submission details for December 2011:

Photo by Mike DelGaudio

Theme: Favorite Books:

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”  ~Charles W. Eliot

With books, we can travel to far away destinations, become another person, and explore the deepest parts of our imaginations. They are like friends, well worn and well read and are gifts which continue to give.

This month, we want to hear about your favorite books. What are you reading with your children? What books do you read over and over? What books changed your life? So pick up one of your dear books and let it inspire your creativity for this month’s Families Create! Make and Play Challenge!

What will your post consist of? Each month we will have a theme, things like “Heroes and Heroines,” “Fantasy,” and “Weird and Wonderful.” You will craft a post (or 2 or 3) around one of those themes. You are only limited by your imagination! You can create a handmade craft that embodies the qualities of the post (publish pictures and/or a tutorial!). You can write a story using the theme as inspiration. Your family can act out a story (we will have a handy list of on-topic books for you each month that you can use or ignore, as you desire). All we ask is that 1) you and your family create something that goes along with the theme; and 2) you post about it sometime during the month.

Deadline: Saturday, December 31. Your post(s) must be published on or before Saturday, December 31. Fill out the webform (at the link) for each post you publish for inclusion in November’s carnival. (If you publish three different posts for the carnival, you will fill out the webform three different times, each will include different carnival URLs and titles.)

Link-up date: Thursday, January 5. After we have compiled all of your links, we will send you an email with an html blurb to paste into your (previously published) submission(s) that will include all carnival links. Please edit your posts to include the links no later than Thursday, January 5. You’ll get lots of link love for your site and post(s), and you can check out all of the other creative ideas generated by this month’s theme! Please also help us spread the word about the carnival on your Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Please submit your details into our webform: This will help us as we compile the links list. Please enter your information on the form: Families, Create! November’s Make & Play Carnival

Please do: Write well. Write on topic. Write a brand new post for the carnival. Post great pictures and/or video. Please feel free to be creative within the gentle confines of the carnival theme. If your family is feeling so inspired, you could write a poem or children’s story, put on a one act play, craft a photo essay, or create a handmade craft tutorial instead of a regular blog post (though those are welcomed, too!), as long as what you write is respectful of the carnival’s intent. If you want help determining that ahead of time, please talk with us.

Please don’t: Please don’t use profanity of the sort that might be offensive to more sensitive readers or their children. Please don’t submit irrelevant posts or posts that are purely marketing for products you sell.

Editors’ rights: We reserve the right to edit your piece or suggest edits to you. We reserve the right to courteously reject any submissions that are inappropriate for the carnival. Please also note that since there are two co-hosts on different schedules and conferring over email, our personal response to your submission might seem delayed. Don’t be alarmed. We also reserve the right to impose consequences if the responsibilities of the carnival are not fulfilled by the participants.

If you don’t have a blog: Contact us (CodeNameMama {at} gmail.com and LivingPeacefullyWithChildren {at} gmail.com) about potentially finding you a host blog to guest post. Please write your piece well in advance of the deadline in that case, so we can match you up with someone suitable. But if you really have something amazing to write — why not start your own blog? If you want advice, we find Scribbit’s free Blogging in Pink ebook to be a very helpful and down-to-earth guide, for beginners on up. If you have questions: Please leave a comment or contact us: Dionna {at} CodeNameMama {dot} com and LivingPeacefullyWithChildren {at} gmail.com Stay in touch:

Our Family Creates! from Code Name: Mama and Living Naturally With ChildrenShow off: If you are a participant or supporter and want our button to put in your sidebar, grab this code and proclaim to the blogosphere that your family creates! Grab the Code:

<a href=”https://livingpeacefullywithchildren.wordpress.com/families-create/”><img title=”Families Create Button” src=”https://livingpeacefullywithchildren.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/families-create-button.jpg” alt=”” width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

Dragons, Dragons

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Eric Carle's Dragons, Dragons

Eric Carle’s Dragons, Dragons is a wonderful collection of mythical creatures with poems from a myriad of authors, appealing to children (and adults) of all ages. Carle’s signature artwork perfectly compliments the beautiful prose, bringing these imaginative words to life and inspiring creativity in both writing and art.

Since the November theme for Families Create was rhyme and verse, I thought this favorite book was perfect. After reading it with my children, they were all inspired to spend several hours drawing their own dragons and mythical creatures, including the following one:

 

Families Create! October Wrap Up

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Our theme for October’s Families, Create! Make and Play Carnival was phizzwhizzers. Our participants shared with us the odd and out of the ordinary, the dreams we aspire to, and the individuality that makes them unique.

Check out what Families Create! participants created this month:

Brenna at Almost All The Truth creates the dreams of dreamers with her children with a little help from Roald Dahl.

Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children found the perfect fish hatto make for one of her phizzwhizzing children.

It’s Little House on the Prairie complete with modern plumbing, cell phones, and video games. Mary and Laura would surely find Kieran’s imagination to be full of phizzwhizzers! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares how her son (Kieran) combines pioneer play with today’s conveniences.

A new birthday tradition evolved at Living Peacefully with Children when Mandy and her daughter worked on a funky pinkalicious cake.

Please join us for November’s Families Create! Make and Play challenge. This month’s theme is Rhymes and Verse!

Families Create! September Wrap Up

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Photo by Brenna at Almost All the Truth

Our theme for September’s Families, Create! Make and Play Carnival was friends and family. Our participants shared with us different ways in which they honored friends and family with their creativity. Check out what Families Create! participants created this month:

Amy at Anktangle made some new threads for her son Daniel’s little “friend.”

Alicia at I Found My Feet helped her son create his very own scrapbook filled with the people in his life that love him dearly.

Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children honors the memory of a favorite uncle with an ornament for the holidays.

Brenna at Almost All The Truth shares what she learned when she unplugged with her family on a trip to enjoy togetherness and tradition.

Dionna at Code Name: Mama loves to welcome friends and family into her home, and she’s even more excited now that her family has created a new and improved living space – check out one of the many home improvement projects going on at Dionna’s house!

Please join us for October’s Families Create! Make and Play challenge. This month’s theme is Phizzwizzers!

Families Create! October Call for Submissions

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Photo by Emily

Please join us for a monthly blog carnival focusing on families and creativity. Families, Create! is a blog carnival with a purpose: we want your family to get creative and have fun! Read below for details on the October carnival, and check out the main carnival page for upcoming themes in 2011. (Check out January, February, March, April, June and July if you missed them.) Your co-hosts are Dionna at Code Name: Mama and Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children. Here are the submission details for October 2011:

Theme: Phizzwizzers: We all have a little phizzwizard in our lives. It’s the odd and out of the ordinary, the dreams we aspire to, standing up when others don’t, the individuality that makes as unique. Share your uniqueness with us with your phizzwizzing creations!

Looking for some phizwizzing inspiration? Check some of these books out:

If you do use a book for inspiration, please mention it in your post so that we can read it too!

What will your post consist of? Each month we will have a theme, things like “Heroes and Heroines,” “Fantasy,” and “Weird and Wonderful.” You will craft a post (or 2 or 3) around one of those themes. You are only limited by your imagination! You can create a handmade craft that embodies the qualities of the post (publish pictures and/or a tutorial!). You can write a story using the theme as inspiration. Your family can act out a story (we will have a handy list of on-topic books for you each month that you can use or ignore, as you desire). All we ask is that 1) you and your family create something that goes along with the theme; and 2) you post about it sometime during the month.

Deadline: Monday, October 31. Your post(s) must be published on or before Monday, October 31. Fill out the webform (at the link) for each post you publish for inclusion in September’s carnival. (If you publish three different posts for the carnival, you will fill out the webform three different times, each will include different carnival URLs and titles.)

Link-up date: Friday, November 4. After we have compiled all of your links, we will send you an email with an html blurb to paste into your (previously published) submission(s) that will include all carnival links. Please edit your posts to include the links no later than Friday, November 4. You’ll get lots of link love for your site and post(s), and you can check out all of the other creative ideas generated by this month’s theme! Please also help us spread the word about the carnival on your Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Please submit your details into our webform: This will help us as we compile the links list. Please enter your information on the form: Families, Create! October’s Make & Play Carnival

Please do: Write well. Write on topic. Write a brand new post for the carnival. Post great pictures and/or video. Please feel free to be creative within the gentle confines of the carnival theme. If your family is feeling so inspired, you could write a poem or children’s story, put on a one act play, craft a photo essay, or create a handmade craft tutorial instead of a regular blog post (though those are welcomed, too!), as long as what you write is respectful of the carnival’s intent. If you want help determining that ahead of time, please talk with us.

Please don’t: Please don’t use profanity of the sort that might be offensive to more sensitive readers or their children. Please don’t submit irrelevant posts or posts that are purely marketing for products you sell.

Editors’ rights: We reserve the right to edit your piece or suggest edits to you. We reserve the right to courteously reject any submissions that are inappropriate for the carnival. Please also note that since there are two co-hosts on different schedules and conferring over email, our personal response to your submission might seem delayed. Don’t be alarmed. We also reserve the right to impose consequences if the responsibilities of the carnival are not fulfilled by the participants.

If you don’t have a blog: Contact us (CodeNameMama {at} gmail.com and LivingPeacefullyWithChildren {at} gmail.com) about potentially finding you a host blog to guest post. Please write your piece well in advance of the deadline in that case, so we can match you up with someone suitable. But if you really have something amazing to write — why not start your own blog? If you want advice, we find Scribbit’s free Blogging in Pink ebook to be a very helpful and down-to-earth guide, for beginners on up. If you have questions: Please leave a comment or contact us: Dionna {at} CodeNameMama {dot} com and LivingPeacefullyWithChildren {at} gmail.com Stay in touch:

Our Family Creates! from Code Name: Mama and Living Naturally With ChildrenShow off: If you are a participant or supporter and want our button to put in your sidebar, grab this code and proclaim to the blogosphere that your family creates! Grab the Code:

<center><a href=”https://livingpeacefullywithchildren.wordpress.com/families-create/&#8221; _mce_href=”https://livingpeacefullywithchildren.wordpress.com/families-create/”><img title=”Families Create Button” src=”https://livingpeacefullywithchildren.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/families-create-button.jpg&#8221; _mce_src=”https://livingpeacefullywithchildren.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/families-create-button.jpg&#8221; alt=”” width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a></center>

Families Create! September Call for Submissions

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Please join us for a monthly blog carnival focusing on families and creativity. Families, Create! is a blog carnival with a purpose: we want your family to get creative and have fun! Read below for details on the August carnival, and check out the main carnival page for upcoming themes in 2011. (Check out January, February, March, April, June and July if you missed them.) Your co-hosts are Dionna at Code Name: Mama and Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children. Here are the submission details for September 2011:

Theme: Friends and Family: Little is more important than our relationships with friends and family. Get creative this month and celebrate the people in your child’s life by creating something together about friends and family – it can be a collage that you keep, a gift that you give away, a book about the people in your life, whatever you and your child choose!

Looking for some books to share about friends and family? Check some of these out:

If you do use a book for inspiration, please mention it in your post so that we can read it too!

What will your post consist of? Each month we will have a theme, things like “Heroes and Heroines,” “Fantasy,” and “Weird and Wonderful.” You will craft a post (or 2 or 3) around one of those themes. You are only limited by your imagination! You can create a handmade craft that embodies the qualities of the post (publish pictures and/or a tutorial!). You can write a story using the theme as inspiration. Your family can act out a story (we will have a handy list of on-topic books for you each month that you can use or ignore, as you desire). All we ask is that 1) you and your family create something that goes along with the theme; and 2) you post about it sometime during the month.

Deadline: Friday, September 30. Your post(s) must be published on or before Friday, September 30. Fill out the webform (at the link) for each post you publish for inclusion in September’s carnival. (If you publish three different posts for the carnival, you will fill out the webform three different times, each will include different carnival URLs and titles.)

Link-up date: Saturday, October 1. After we have compiled all of your links, we will send you an email with an html blurb to paste into your (previously published) submission(s) that will include all carnival links. Please edit your posts to include the links no later than Saturday, October 1. You’ll get lots of link love for your site and post(s), and you can check out all of the other creative ideas generated by this month’s theme! Please also help us spread the word about the carnival on your Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Please submit your details into our webform: This will help us as we compile the links list. Please enter your information on the form: Families, Create! September’s Make & Play Carnival

Please do: Write well. Write on topic. Write a brand new post for the carnival. Post great pictures and/or video. Please feel free to be creative within the gentle confines of the carnival theme. If your family is feeling so inspired, you could write a poem or children’s story, put on a one act play, craft a photo essay, or create a handmade craft tutorial instead of a regular blog post (though those are welcomed, too!), as long as what you write is respectful of the carnival’s intent. If you want help determining that ahead of time, please talk with us.

Please don’t: Please don’t use profanity of the sort that might be offensive to more sensitive readers or their children. Please don’t submit irrelevant posts or posts that are purely marketing for products you sell.

Editors’ rights: We reserve the right to edit your piece or suggest edits to you. We reserve the right to courteously reject any submissions that are inappropriate for the carnival. Please also note that since there are two co-hosts on different schedules and conferring over email, our personal response to your submission might seem delayed. Don’t be alarmed. We also reserve the right to impose consequences if the responsibilities of the carnival are not fulfilled by the participants.

If you don’t have a blog: Contact us (CodeNameMama {at} gmail.com and LivingPeacefullyWithChildren {at} gmail.com) about potentially finding you a host blog to guest post. Please write your piece well in advance of the deadline in that case, so we can match you up with someone suitable. But if you really have something amazing to write — why not start your own blog? If you want advice, we find Scribbit’s free Blogging in Pink ebook to be a very helpful and down-to-earth guide, for beginners on up. If you have questions: Please leave a comment or contact us: Dionna {at} CodeNameMama {dot} com and LivingPeacefullyWithChildren {at} gmail.com Stay in touch:

Our Family Creates! from Code Name: Mama and Living Naturally With ChildrenShow off: If you are a participant or supporter and want our button to put in your sidebar, grab this code and proclaim to the blogosphere that your family creates! Grab the Code: