painted rocks

painted rocks

An Opportunity to Help

Please check up what my eldest son is about these days. Thanks!

www.secondlifecycles.com

We Love Charlie

Pomplamoose and Ben Folds

Scott

I love this video.

Playing Six Degrees of Separation makes me close to these guys now, thanks to my Scott, shown above, and his friends, which are these guys, and their appearance on this show with the amazing Ben Folds. We're feeling all kinds of awesomeness around here these days!

Supernova by Kompan

I played on one of these today and it is wayyyyy fun! I want!

More Blocks

These are the smaller blocks our delightful guests played with the other day. Most of them are still available on clearance at KangarooBoo.com. They are a great way to learn math concepts while having lots of fun.

Block Play

Here's what the play is today. The big set of blocks I got here, but can also be purchased here. The book--which is very, very good--is here.

I have wanted a set of maple unit blocks since studying Early Child Education my first year in college, when the head of the department said, "If you have a budget which allows for only one thing, make sure that it is unit blocks." They are expensive, but the play value is endless. I'm so thankful that I could finally have them in my life.

Numbered Rocks

 

A new homemade toy for our number-loving boy.

Rube Goldberg (from Japan)

I am soooo crazy about these things! I just laugh and laugh when I watch them. How about you?

May Day!

When I was a little girl, my sister and I would rush home from school on May 1 each year to make paper cones for flower vases.  We grabbed handfuls of lilacs and dandelions and filled the cones, then ran through the neighborhood placing the bouquets on each doorstep, knocking on the door and running away to hide.

It was great fun, but I for one always wished that our celebrations included a Maypole dance, like the magical one pictured here.  All those colors being woven together!  That seemed like heaven.

A thank you to Pete Ashton for the maypole photograph, to van swearingen for the lilacs and Bob Aubuchon for the dandelions, all shared in Creative Commons on flickr.

Oh, Come On

That Mother Nature. What a kidder. Snow on April First.

Ha. Ha. Good one.

(Not so much, really.)

A thank you to Photonburst for sharing this picture on flickr.

Repost: From My First Blog, November 18, 2007

FarmBoy and I chatted a bit yesterday about memories of the best play times we had as children. The discussion was initiated by his witnessing my tossing away of three empty (plastic) thread spools. He related that some of his best memories of childhood play were of the imaginative sessions he and his playmates had with leftover wooden thread spools.

Today I saw Soulemama's post about similar play, and I was delighted. Her musings so reflect my own feelings about toys. See her blog here.

(By the way, my own favorite play memory is of a time my cousin Randy and I filled empty soda- pop cans with sand and raced them down makeshift tracks we created ourselves in the dunes along the coastline of Washington state. [Pop cans are not as nice as wood, aesthetically speaking, but we were deserving of points for recycling.] Nothing from my childhood kindles lovely memories like those of a day spent in soft gray sand with the ocean's rhythmic roar in the background.)

A thank you to coccinelle67 for sharing the above photograph on flickr.

Emily Allan Wood said...

I also think my fondest memories with toys are the toys that come from nature or from creative ideas like your pop cans on the beach. One of my best memories is jumping as high as I could off the sand dunes and flying several feet before landing. I am glad you guys took us to the beach when we were younger. Its a wonderful place.

November 18, 2007 4:45 PM

CouponAlbum said...

Interesting post!! Now a day, many amazing and wonderful toys are available in market for kids...

March 26, 2009 12:51 AM

A Girl Called Dallan said...

I agree about the availability of many wonderful toys for purchase these days. (It was not always so.) I like to invest in quality toys that can be passed down for generations. Inasmuch as manufactured toys encourage imaginative play, they are great supplements to the toys which children create for themselves.

Thanks for the comments.

A Good, Good Lesson

This little video starts off slowly, but hang in there. You will be glad you did.

A thank you to Jess Gonacha for sharing this today on her blog, Treasuring.

Spectrum

spektrum, originally uploaded by to01.

A thank you to to01 for sharing this picture on flickr.

To see more simple, beautiful toys, visit oompa.com. We are big believers in investing in a few quality toys, rather that spending the same amount of money on more common playthings with less aesthetic value.

Water, Colors

WATER COLORS from Scott Gold on Vimeo.

Make a Pocket Calendar

Making CheapsterPDA
Originally uploaded by pigpogm

I finally got around to obtaining a pocket calendar for 2009 by making one myself. You can make one, too. Go here for a free printout and clear instructions, which are a bit different than the diagram seen here, but the same general idea.

I love how people share nifty things online for free.

A thanks to pigpogm for sharing this diagram on flickr.

More Pictures of the Colorful Playroom.

Oooooh. Our cups runneth over. There are more pictures of the gorgeous play room we linked to yesterday. They are at the Kennedy and Friends blog. Wonderful!

"Colorful Playroom"

I am head over heels for this "colorful playroom" at Cookie Magazine today. See what you think.

New Year, New (Small) Kitchen

One of my favorite holiday treats was taking a car load of stuff to Deseret Industries on Boxing Day, as is my usual pattern. (I love passing on some of my excess on the day after Christmas!) The delivery was followed by an hour spent in the store buying small-scale kitchen ware for a newly-set-up play kitchen we have put together upstairs in our home. I scored big time for little cash, and I spent the next few days making felt toys to round things out. It was great fun.

Tenzin's Toy

Tenzin's Toy
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo

Isn't this lovely?

A thank you to Shawn Econo for sharing this photo on flickr.