It feels great to return to Mommy & Daddy School posts after a 2-week hiatus here at Pars Caeli. We've been learning and doing, and I'm excited to share and to announce a fantastic giveaway for you + a wonderful little person in your life.

Leading up to the fourth of July my kiddos were all about maps and travel and puzzles. So, we wrapped all of that curiosity into a fun week of learning about the world and our special place in it.

For those of you just joining us on this adventure, let me just say that my hubby and I are former teachers who love to learn alongside our kiddos, and we take full advantage of this in the summer. However, we also both work full-time and believe in encouraging our children to try new activities in the summer months. The long and short of it–we, like so many other American families–have to find ways to squeeze in, maximize, and set aside intentional time to learn. When trying to juggle professional demands, swim lessons, camps, nap schedules, and the other 12 things that come our way every day, this can be t-ough. And we're not miracle workers...just parents with a lot of high hopes so let me share with you our ways we immerse ourselves in learning. Maybe you can use these, too?!

 

1. Use every tool at your disposal in the library.

Libraries are still the best, beautiful place to find dazzling information. You can read, listen, create, craft, eat, drink, compute, and entertain in ours (it's really not mine, I just visit 3 times a week).
Trying to consider the developmental levels and interests of my three, we headed to the board books, picture books, and chapter books to see what we could discover about the United States. We also explored the non-fiction section, and each child selected a book about their favorite state. Great patriotic reads and simple historic books abound. Over at music we found great CDs of Americana set to tune. Schoolhouse Rock (a little too old for our kids) has some great stuff, and we found other simple movies/shows about the US. We could have explored maps, puzzles, computer games, magazines, audio books, and more, but kids need snacks, too, so we left with our stack of 20 books/CDs.

How great is that United Tweets of America, Twitter friends? It's a charmed book with a page for each state bird.

2. Time learning in the car is not time wasted.

We have a lot of life stuff to meld into our summer learning so, like it or not, we spend time hauling to and fro in the minivan. One of the ways we continue learning during transit is through music. There are so many great CDs with toddler tunes, nursery rhymes, children's stories, pneumonic devices, and, in our case for this week, patriotic songs. So we played these melodies over and over and had some great sing-alongs while sitting at the traffic lights. Hearing my 5-year old sing that Grand Old Flag was a hoot!

3. Technology is your friend in small quantities.

I love technology, but I know that my children need it in small doses for real learning to take place. We encourage digital learning, and we allow our three kiddos time on the computer, Ipad, and Iphones.

Two great apps that we utilized for learning this week: Stack the States (great for adults, too!) and Learn the States (so many great variations).

This is my favorite children's atlas. Lift the flap!

Along with these, we coupled real maps and altases. Breaking out the world map, we pressed sticky dots on the states and countries where are friends and family reside, and we were able to talk about the places that grandmothers and great grandmothers traveled from. Really a lovely exercise in story telling.

4. Make your toys work for you.

Those blocks can make a great compass rose.  Take the Matchbox cars for a pretend drive along Route 66. My Little Ponys can help the settlers pretend to discover the country in your dress-up gear. You get the idea.

When we started this theme, I thought, what can we use around that we already have? Thinking I'd come up empty handed, I went on a hunt and found map puzzles, talking globes, and a whole host of other toys we could adapt for this learning experience. The kiddos, especially the 2-year old, loved playing with old toys in new ways.

5. Parents are the first learners.

Children can read our enthusiasm (or lack thereof), and nothing hits home as well as when they see Mommy & Daddy learning something new themselves. I find interjecting (short) stories of my first learnings or retelling of "when-I-was-5-years-old" is really helpful as it relates to content. Knowing the song Mommy learned to remember all the states is more fun. Learning of how Daddy experienced New Mexico makes the state come alive.

On top of that, we try to investigate questions within our learning that my husband and I also want to learn. What is our state flower? Should we include one in our landscape? How long would it take to do that cross country roadtrip we're dreaming of? Sharing these questions with our kids, and allowing them to follow our thought processes and tools for investigation lets them know we care about learning so much we make time to do it, too!!

And on that happy note, I'm excited and delighted to announce our first big giveaway!! Through the generosity of the lovely Mariah Bruehl of Playful Learning, one lucky winner and their incredible young person will win a spot in the creative Ecademy series, Through the Lens. I've enrolled M, and she'd love to have a great new classmate!

To win, please leave a comment below. If you want a bonus second chance, send out a tweet about @parscaeli and @playfullearning, and we'll give you extra credit! The winner will be announced on Monday because I love happy announcements at the start of my week. Good luck!!

Happy Wednesday!
XOXO,
MJ

Congratulations to Sandra! This giveaway is now closed. Stop back again for more goodness!

Through the Lens: Explorations in Photo Journaling, Wednesday, July 18 - August 8, is an e-course that has been created for children (and their grown-ups) ages six through twelve. Participants will gain new understanding of themselves and the world around them by exploring a variety of photography and writing techniques while creating and adding to their own photo journals. The goal for this e-course is to nurture positive self-expression through photography, writing, and art—to discover and develop a strong sense of voice. It is also a wonderful opportunity for parents and teachers to join in on the process and to connect with their children or students in new and exciting ways.

Hi friends! This is totally what I'm feeling right now (so I had to make a pinnable. That's normal, right?). I have this image of my daughter going over to our outdoor faucet and leaning down to take a drink to discover that the water is bursting out of the pipes full blast as she goes to take a drink.

And it's all good.

I have always loved the feeling of going to bed exhausted (let's pretend this is a feeling in past tense) from a well-lived, emotional, love-ful day. We're having a lot of those, and I feel blessed.

However, the organized list of activities for Mommy & Daddy School is not quite what I had expected. As you remember from last week, we base our summer learning together on what makes our children curious. For blogging purposes, I'd like this all to be content-rich, developmentally-appropriate, superior learning.

But, this is real life, and I'm the momma here, and that title trumps blogger in any old Scrabble match (even if it has fewer letters). So, here's what we've had cooking for Mommy & Daddy school. We'll work in our bonus point fun (more on that later) and responsibility songs (ditto on more later) as the weeks go on, with the hopes that these might be useful to you.

Three themes have emerged thus far from our learning: tie dye is unbelievably amazing, scavenger hunts make any kind of learning more fun, and this country we live in is pretty stupendous. (Can I tell you more about the second two in a bit?).

Okay, so let me lay out these fun times so that you can pin, bookmark, star this and do it with your kiddos (or friends).

Tie dying is easy, messy, and perfection for summer. You need:

White (I recommend) cotton apparel - 60% cotton or more
Dye - we used a packaged kit from Tulip that was great and ready to go with squirt bottles half-filled with dye (retail $15)
Rubber bands and gloves (already in our kit)
Wide open space and a willingness to get dye on any of your clothes

We wanted a spiral design in the middle so I grabbed the center point of the shirt and twisted. As the twist got bigger, I placed the ends of the shirt around in a wrapped fashion, and I rubber-banded the shirt, creating four sections. This made it super easy for each child to know where to put their colors.

Some wanted two colors, some wanted all colors, and sectioning it off like this helped them to understand color blocking and bleeding a bit better. We found that putting on way more dye than you think you need is best. Soak it in color!

Once saturated, I wrapped them in plastic wrap to intensify the color. We kept them out in the sun all for about six hours, and I then washed out the dye in cool water. Check out the rainbow sink!

After the water runs clear, which was about 4 minutes per shirt for us, wring out the water and pop it into your washer, with a high water, hot water setting. I kept reds separate from blues just to be sure there would be no bleeding.

 We let ours drip dry (be careful they do drip color), and I was so happy with the brilliance of color.

The kids from big to small loved this. My favorite part of the adventure: these rainbow, water raisin piggies.

Take some time to tie dye this summer. It's addictive.

Join me back here tomorrow to learn how we're going to L-O-V-E our job thanks to Gretchen Rubin and The Happiness Project in our Summer of Happiness bookclub.

Thanks for hanging out, friend. I can't wait to show you more of what's going on over here. Have you started your own version of Mommy & Daddy school? Tell us all about it!

XOXO, MJ

In my worklife, I have the grand opportunity to attend many lectures and conferences on the latest trends and research in education. As I've mentioned before, my husband and I are both trained educators with fond remembrances of the rich habitat of a classroom, and I enjoy dipping back into these forums whenever I get the chance.

While attending a panel discussion yesterday on the state of science and math education, I was intrigued by new-to-me concepts of making science come alive and relate to children of all levels and backgrounds. And as a brilliant scholar narrowed the conversation to a single thread, I was struck by his question:

Where is the possibility to pursue your curiosity?

He argued (well) that science should be, foremost, a pursuit of our curiosities - a way for each of us to make sense of the physical world around us.

Fast forward ----> This brings me to another new summer feature here on Pars Caeli, Mommy & Daddy School. Because my husband and I are both teachers by formation, it's just in our blood to want to "teach" our children. Of course this happens all the time during the school year. Parents are the first and primary educators of their children. But, in the summertime, we take it to a different level and run our beloved Mommy & Daddy School.

Research has proven that children learn best when the learning is continuous. Don't we all?

I want my children to be lifelong, everyday learners, curious and inquisitive about the world to which they contribute. I also want them to know and feel that knowledge is powerful.

And so as June approaches, furniture and traffic patterns change. Our cozy red, mission-inspired dining room is converted into a space for curiosity. And these multipurpose 9-cubes from Target find their way up from our playroom and are prepped to house projects, books, folders, and anything else that catches our fancy. Note: this is them before. Soon you'll no longer be able to tell they're white because we cover them with labels and "really interesting stuff."

I have three little people with whose amazing minds I get to work - ages 7, 5, and 2, and I want to make sure that each feels honored and encouraged in the space.

And so that means along with these lovely white spaces ready to be filled, we also have lots of these...because little L's loudest wish on the big summer list was to build lots of legos. So you better believe that we have lots of legos and a lego table in here for him (and because he has two older sisters, there's a lot of pink legos, too).

I believe children need open space in which to explore their questions, a structure on which to organize their answers, and a gallery in which to share it with the world. What does this mean practically? A large table, individual storage space, lots of writing and creating materials.

We're just starting up our learning, and I love to begin by asking them what they want to learn this summer because these ideas are our primary curriculum! I'm always surprised by what they offer. Here's where we stand:

M: learn to use a sewing machine
C: learn to go all the way across the monkey bars by myself
L: learn to ride bike without training wheels (this is gonna be a tough one at two, but we'll definitely work towards it)

We also start off by measuring each other and making a great big growth chart on which we also measure other important items (like special blankets and toys) to learn how other objects compare to us in size.

All of these artifacts get posted in the "red room" for us to look at all summer long.

I love being surrounded by my children's accomplishments and dreams. It's a room of such energy.

Follow along every Wednesday as we explore some of the fun activities and projects taking place in Mommy & Daddy school. We'll be reading, crafting, exploring nature, taking on great IPad apps, praying, exercising, experimenting and more! Phew, and taking naps.

How do you nurture your curiosity? Is there a space in your home for you or your children to do so? I'd love to hear!

Thanks so much for popping over! Happy Wednesday.

XOXO,
MJ

PS. Here are some great ideas from education experts on simple ways you can keep learning together this summer.

Have you seen these floating around the interwebs, friends? Great big, beautiful lists of simple, fun, wonderful summer activities that make you wish you were seven again.

Well, maybe this summer we will be. My fam has joined in the fun, too. In the past, we've made our lists over dinner conversations as the school year waned to a close. This year we again had such conversations and now we're writing them down and posting them pretty for all to see.

My job commitments grow more extensive in the summer so I have to be sure to keep these kinds of lists front and center so that I and the rest of the happy inhabitants in our home can have a carefree summer.

So cheers (imagine me and you holding up our virtual Slurpees right now, only I really am holding my medium watermelon kiwi right now) to a great 10 weeks. Here are some easy, breezy summer lists you should check out:

100 Things to Do this Summer and
100 More Things to Do This Summer from Honest to Nod

101 Things to Do this Summer from Toy to the World

10 Things Every Child Should Experience in the Summer from 52 Brand New

40 Free (or nearly free) Things to Do this Summer from The Centsible Life

Let's Play from Lasso the Moon

30 Summer Activities for Kids from Lil' Luna

Join Camp Classic Play over at classic-play.com

441 Things to Do This Summer from We are that Family

(This one keeps growing) The 100 Days of Summer and The 100 Days of Summer ('12) from Mom Advice

And you just have to read this inspired post over at Hands Free Mama.

Here's our list. Please feel welcome to pin or download and make it your own great summer list.

 I have my own summer list that I'll share with you next week as we move into the Summer Edition of Pars Caeli.

Ah, we're summer lovin'.

Have a great weekend, friends. We'll be kicking it at home, knocking off some of these moments like hanging out by the pool and tie dying summer shirts.

See you back here on Monday! Thanks for a great week...it's so lovely to have you over.

XOXO, MJ

PS. If you enjoy a good photo party, follow me and many others by using the hashtag #instacamp (Chookooloonks offers a new prompt each Monday) and #100summerdays (run through MomAdvice.com). It's super fun to see all the great summertimes captured on Instagram and shared through Twitter.

PPS. I made the above image (with the Slurpee) in Phonto. It's a quirky photo app with tons of great fonts that you can add to your images. Check it out.

Okay, I'm done now. :)

Happy Friday! We made it to the holiday weekend. Can you believe it?

We celebrate Memorial Day, and in my faith tradition, we'll be celebrating Pentecost (50 days after Easter), too. It's the birthday of the Church...so we're going to party!

We're making Pentecost Pinwheels. Ever since I was a little girl, shopping with my mother, I have been fascinated with pinwheels. When I used to whine and fuss, she'd treat me to a simple pinwheel and my world would be made.

This is very much a Macgyver craft. All you need is a square piece of paper, scissors, a pin, and a straw (or pencil with eraser top). For our craft we crafted with our unused Chick-Fil-A straws (from dinner last night) and sparkly pipe cleaners, too.

I was inspired when I saw Jennifer's use of the pinwheel to explain the work of the Holy Spirit, and I also wanted to include the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit since both of my little ladies have been learning about them in school lately.

So, to all pinwheel newbies, no worries. Here's what you do:

1. Cut a square of paper. The lighter weight of paper you have, the better to make a functional pinwheel.  For ours I didn't stress over functionality and glued two pieces of construction paper together, on.

2. Cut four diagonal lines, one at each corner, leaving a small circle of uncut paper in the middle.

3. If desired, write the gift of the Holy Spirit on the front and back flaps (awe, reverence, courage, knowledge, good judgement, wisdom, understanding). I added in the word Pentecost and a dove as the eighth flap.

4. Fold down alternating wings of the pinwheel and poke a straight pin through the ends of all four.

5. Poke the remaining pin into a straw. I covered the sharp end of the straight pin by wrapping a pipe cleaner around it.

As we breathe out to move the pinwheel, we remember the presence of the Spirit alive within us and around us. Happy Pentecost!

And happy loooonnng weekend, friends. I hope the holiday of it all seems endless to you! Meetcha back here next week.

XOXO,

MJ

 

"Pentecost commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. After Jesus rose on Easter, he appeared to the apostles over the next 40 days, teaching them the significance of what had happened to Him. They listened, but didn’t really understand, so Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, who would enlighten them and give them everything they would need to carry the Good News to people all over the world."

Helpful information like this found here at OSV.