I have been hard at work this week on creating the new and improved site for Bella Luna Toys. Unfortunately, it’s left me with little time for writing. So while I plug away at the new site (and, oh, I can’t wait for you to see it!) here are a few links to posts from the blogosphere this week that I found of interest, and hope you will, too!
Toddler Storytelling from Code Name: Mama
The Other Toy Story from BeliefNet.com
TV on SCHOOL BUSES? Why Not Just Set Up A Deep-Fryer & Throw Kids’ Brains In? from Free-Range Kids
Let Your Kids Get Dirty from SimpleMom.net
Have a great weekend!
xox
Sarah
3 Comments
thanks for all of the informative links. i especially liked the get dirty link.
I was fortunate to grow up in a household filled with parents, grandparents, college girls earning room and board and a neighborhood of people of all ages and religions and ethnic backgrounds and being totally unaware of these facts. We were an extended family before our time. My Mother offered us free time for play, a schedule for organized thinking, chores to learn self discipline, quiet time each afternoon in the living room with drapes drawn and time to nap, rest and/or think. Books, crayons, paper, clay, pipe cleaners were part of our everyday life, not to mention Dad’s model building. Our lives were open to attempts at anything we wanted to try with assistance available when needed. We were prepared for “failure” early as it was not failure but an idea that neded more work or other thinking and resources. And boy did we get DIRTY. Inside and out, we played in the sand, dirt, played fireman with real hoses and dolls in the roots of trees dugout for homes. Best of all we got dirty cooking. Eggs broken spilling over the edge of the table, flour on our faces and wiped on our pants, mixmaster beaters pulled up out of the bowl before it was turned off splattering cookie dough up onto the walls and cupboards. After I married and had children, the same activities were renewed in our home. We added the neighborhood kids whose parents inquired about the cooking messes. Was it OK? What better way to learn, grow, and taste the fruits of their labors (or cookies). I find it unfortunate that organizations and toys and therapists need address these concepts that were so ordinary in my foundation and my children and now my grandchildren who come to cook with Nonna.
Silks and simplicity, love and attention, private time and quiet time. A private space and a “messy” space. All parts of Zero To Three nurturing and parenting. Call this by any name it is Family and parenting. The Most Precious Moments.
Pin my tail and call me a donkey, that rellay helped.