A Reggio-inspired Afternoon with Glebe House

Happy colors for a happy girl

Your child loves, craves, needs messy, open-ended, sensory play, but you're a working mom with little tolerance for mess and not enough time for the prep work required. If only your child could enjoy the experience without you having to do all the work (which allows you to enjoy playtime more, too!). This was my dilemma, and the reason I'm glad to have discovered Glebe House.

I stumbled upon Glebe House during one of my many late-night, post-Christakis, preschool-searching Googling marathons. Unsatisfied with the options I was finding, I Googled "Reggio preschool Philippines" expecting to be disappointed. I was disappointed, initially; there are currently no true Reggio studios (or ateliers as they are so beautifully called) near where we live. But there was a Reggio-inspired play school whose lovely photos of their sessions piqued my interest. Unfortunately, it is based in Makati, a two-hour drive for us on a regular day. Fortunately, it offers home play groups.

*Happy dance!*

10 Links I Shared with Friends #7

From Daily Motivation by Nido Qubein

This series is exactly what it says it is: links, articles, and encouraging words I've shared with my friends. And now I'm sharing them with you. Hello, friend! Hope you find something that helps you today! 

Parenting

• The secret power of stones and storytelling (desert news)
• Learning with joy is not what you think it looks like. Let's move to Finland already! (the atlantic)
• Invitations to play start with a table. Great tips! (diy corporate mom) 
• What if we took the school out of play school? Would that be so bad? (happiness is here)

Productivity/Creativity

• How to start a reading habit again this year. For real. (chronicle books)
• Go big or go home! Read 50 things this year. Here's why you should. (fast company)
• Start from where you are (jonas ellison via medium)

Miscellany

• Life is short. We know. So here's what we need to do with it (paul graham)
• Adspiring! Love this new Axe ad for magical manhood (axe)
• All the inspiration you need, beautifully brush lettered (random olive)

"If You Can Make a Circle": A Simple Way to Use Art to Teach Shapes

Exploring the beauty of shapes

I've been struggling finding engaging activities for our homeschool preschool, but this morning, as usual, it was she who showed me an activity we could both enjoy and learn from. Letting the child lead is truly the wisest principle for early childhood education in our household. She's a much better teacher and initiator than I am.

I'd tried other activities to help her practice her shapes, but she runs from anything pre-planned and presented to her as a "lesson". Quizzing her with flash cards? Not our thing. She knows her shapes already, and the goal is not memorization of shape names, but training the brain to see how shapes fit into our world and to see that there are shapes all around us. It was about exploring possibilities and using objects creatively. I'd bought her a wonderful Learning Resources wooden pattern blocks set to play with because a lot of moms seemed to have success with those, but she is completely uninterested in them. So it was back to the drawing board.

It just so happened, drawing was actually the answer I was looking for:

The Best Play Dough Recipe (So Far)

Play dough is big in our house. Playing with play dough is an easy keep-busy activity for toddlers that even the helpers and nannies enjoy and actively engage in so that they're not tempted to sneak off to watch TV just to keep the kids entertained. It's also pretty mess-free, unlike most other creative activities at our house. The best part—it's easy and inexpensive to whip up when supply runs out (or dries out), new colors are requested, or a big box of dough toys and tools arrive in the mail. Like today (thanks, Lola!).

We've tried a few different recipes that worked okay. I've experimented with a few mainly because I keep forgetting to save or pin them, but also because each one had its own flaws: too rough, too messy, too hard to knead, etc. Today's batch was the best by far in method and in outcome and, dare I say, I think this one's a keeper.

Ella Makes a Mess Masterpiece

She didn't know the word "messy" until I used it. In that tone that meant it was a bad thing.

I realize this as we sit by the garden, making a mess. This is our second attempt at finger painting and this time I’m not as clumsy. I let her watch—strapped into her high chair a risk-free distance away—while I whisked the flour, salt and water until they reached the consistency of cake icing. I named the colors for her and asked her to point out the other colors she saw around the room, while keeping the vials of food coloring out of reach. I set up a drop cloth and prepared the space before I let her slide open the back door.

This is how I like my chaos. Controlled. Planned out. Within borders. Which is to say, I guess I don’t really like chaos at all.

Get Your Hands Dirty

I feel really bad about her blue hands. As often happens in amateur experiments, first there is delight, then disaster.

You see, today, on this rainy ripe-for-boredom day, I vowed we’d try finger painting. It seemed easy enough—the blogs promised it would be. Ella came in from her outdoor playtime and found me with my hair in a bun, stirring flour, sugar and slowly boiling water in a sauce pot on the stove. “Mommy’s making paint for you,” I say. Of course she wanted to hold the whisk. We got through that part unscathed, unscalded. It was going well, I thought.