Laughing & learning through teachable moments
As any proud cheeseball, I live for love. While we cherish guiding our children to learn about everything from volcanoes to poetry, nothing is more important to us than teaching our children how to love others. Unconditionally. Without boundaries or rules or prejudices. Whole-hearted. Love. John and I are often talk about how to teach [...]
This August through October has been one big blur to me of going back to work, trying to find a new balance in my life. My son’s 6th birthday fell smack in the middle of all of that. Now, thankfully, our family birthday philosophy fell beautifully into that, but the little detail of the cake, [...]
My 3 kids (8, 6, 5) had so much fun planning a birthday party for our beloved puppy. It had all the elements of a perfect birthday party. An invitation, sent to a couple of Risby’s closest pals. A special treat for the birthday boy, thanks to a local dog bakery. I wonder what he [...]
First, I should mention my daughter’s name is Maya;) Second, I should mention No Habla Espanol, but it’s on my To Do List to which I have made little progress since 9th grade. I could order our bus tickets in Spain, but then have no idea what the ticket man was saying back to me. [...]
The middle, dig in the dirt, June baby, loves butterflies so it came to no shock that she picked this for her 6th birthday theme. Insert Butterfly Craze at our house for a few months before her birthday and really, the rest of the summer. Themes around here almost always starts with a trip to [...]
I had been dying to work in my 8th grade “Welcome to the Jungle” theme back in my life for years. By the time my middle daughter starting walking, then climbing on everything during every waking minute , I knew I found my Guns and Roses kid. I printed this monkey picture (a prior Halloween [...]
This has been my favorite birthday celebration to date, and I think it would make a perfect summer vacation theme. My son’s state obsession started at age 4 with the book “Scrambled States of America” which I’ve read a gazillion times. Then enter an iPad App called “Stack the States”. I thought it looked fun [...]
Independence. I asked my children to collectively finally master the ability to cut their own food. My 7 year old was good to go. My 6 year old’s ability to cut depended completely on her mood. My 5 year old was on the verge of cutting victory, he just needed motivation. So, that’s what I [...]
When I asked my 3 year old daughter about a month before her birthday how she wanted to celebrate, she didn’t hesitate, “A Guitar Party!” I love kids’ brains. This one was easy. We guitarred out for a few weeks in our playroom putting all toy guitars into focus. Too bad we weren’t ready for [...]
Maya chose a Music Theme for her 6th birthday! I wish I could say I was musical. I am not. Unless you count singing loudly and out of tune in the car or shower, if so, I’m a rock star. We amped up studying music for about 3 weeks by listening to different types of [...]
<div align="center"><a href="http://thinkmagnetkids.com/" title="Think Magnet"><img src="http://thinkmagnetkids.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/thinkmagbutton2-copy.jpg" alt="Think Magnet" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
