Dear Tracy,
/I am so blessed by you! These plans are beautiful. I have all the books. You've inspired me, and encouraged me, and made me smile. No small task these days. Thank you so very much.
In His Name: Nurturing Creativity in the Heart of Your Home
/There is a wonderful book now available for pre-ordering. I had the privilege of reading this book in its pre-publication format and then I had the distinct honor of writing the foreword. What this means for you is that I have already written a review of Mary Gildersleeve's new book and I can share the news of its publication with unabashed joy!
The Foreword to In His Name: Nurturing Creativity in the Heart of Your Home
You hold in your hands a delightful treasure. This little tome will inspire you, encourage you, and awaken in you the creator you were created to be. And you, in turn, will bring that same awareness to your children. Together, you will become troubadours of beauty. As you read, you will become aware of God’s boundless beauty and you will be encouraged to bring it to your home and to share it with your children.
Mary Gildersleeve tells us that we have a God-given responsibility to be creative, to create beauty for beauty’s sake, and to live with a sense of purpose. I couldn’t agree more!
God has made each of us to be creative. Do we take the time and make the effort to nurture that creativity within ourselves and our children? Do we make our homes havens for artists and handcrafters? Do we surround ourselves with examples of the good and the lovely? If we don’t do those things as well as we would like, we will after reading this book. In its pages, we will see clearly that we are called to be artisans and that to neglect beauty is to neglect God himself.
As creative homemakers, we gather all our senses to bring beauty to our homes and fill the lives of those we love with warmth and joy. We satisfy the hungry with crusty, homemade bread. We welcome the weary to our homes with pitchers filled with roses clipped from our own gardens and arranged just so on furniture rubbed to a gleaming glow. We comfort the cold with woolen socks and handknit scarves made especially for them. We lighten the load of the troubled and the stressed with the sounds of well-played pianos in our own living rooms. We engage our senses to bring the goodness of beauty to the people we love.
So too, can all our senses bring beauty to the education of our children. Education in the arts is no less important than academic education. Creativity will launch our children beyond the boundaries of their intelligence. A creative child knows how to think outside the box—to seek fresh approaches and novel ways of understanding things. More importantly, a creative child will have a greater, deeper, truer understanding of God. There can be no understanding of philosophy or theology without imagination and creativity.
All children are made in the image of their Creator. All children are creative. And we are called to nurture that creativity in the hearts of homes. The precious souls entrusted to us deserve nothing less than our careful, intentional provision for the development of creativity. This book is a quick read, but don’t read it quickly. Instead, read it in small snippets, taking the time to meditate on the messages here. Call upon the Creator to show you his unique plan for nurturing creativity in your home and ask him for the wisdom to make it so.
God bless you and your efforts to bring grace, and light, and loveliness to your family!
I am going to learn to crochet...
/...even if I only crochet roses, because I think that this is the perfect birthday gift for every baby's first birthday.Or maybe second birthday... And I think no Montessori atrium should be without a basket of them. AND I want to be like Kimberlee when I grow up. Go see!
The Feast of Eric Carle
/At the end of this week of feasting in the middle of Lent, I found myself this morning utterly charmed by the Google logo. At my friend Donna's site, I learned it was a special occasion, the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I did a little mental inventory of craft supplies. I did some googling. Mary Beth did some googling. We had a little conference. And the day began to wiggle along most delightedly. I needed this day. I needed the charm of delight-directed children. I needed the relative ease of pulling off some fun learning. I needed Stephen's bemusement as I frosted a caterpillar cake. "I think," said he, "it must be the Feast of Eric Carle."
Indeed.
Mary Beth took pictures to capture the day, of course. So, she's going to take this post from here.
I took more pictures and I'm going to do this just like the St. Patrick's Day Post. Enjoy!
I printed these out at DLTK, here! Then I made the numbers to correlate to the day--not to the number of items.
Science Today: The life cycle of the butterfly. Nicky and Katie both did this. It was printed out from here and they put them in the right places and then made their own.
Pattern Block Mat Printed out here! Katie, Kari, and Nick all did this one.
Thumbprint Caterpillars! From Ed Emberley's book
Egg Carton Caterpillars after we had omelets for lunch. Even Paddy was inspired to do this one!
Then, from our very old book (which is now out of print) we made our own Eric Carle collages.
I made all of the things that the caterpillar ate.
Mom topped the day off with going to the store and collecting ingredients for this.
Isn't he very cute?!
This was a very fun day, even if we planned as we went.
Next time, we're going to do this project.
St. Patrick's Day
/Guest Post By Mary Beth
I was in charge of St. Patrick's Day today. I printed out a lot of activities from various places for Nick, Katie, and Kari! I hope you enjoy!
Our Bulletin Board! All ready for St. Patrick's Day!
They Had Their Faces Painted and Ready to Go!
Shamrock Stamping With Do-a-Dot!
Irish Flags! Nick, Katie, and Kari all did this with Do-a-Dots!
Connect The Dots! Nick used Stockmar crayons and Katie used Crayola Paint Pens.
Rainbows! Katie and Kari used the gems from gnomes and gnumbers and Nick Do-a-Dotted his and then added Elmers 3D glitter for sparkle!
Kari found this little work on the montessori shelves and since it had all of the colors of the rainbow I told her that she could use it!
Picture Puzzle! Nick did this with black and green Stockmar Beeswax crayons and yellow do-a-dot!
Math Sheet! I printed this out for Katie because she said she didn't have enough!
Map of Ireland! Nick did this with green and orange do-a-dot and spread it with his fingers.
Maze!
Custom made bookmarks (with Katie and Kari) and cards!
Our doorknob hanging leprechauns! Mine is the one pictured though (mine with a little help from Karoline)!
Pipecleaner Rainbow by Karoline! This game was inspired by Montessori Journey. We had stickers and I made my own version!
Most of what we've done in the schoolroom today! Leprechaun Hats!
Moving down to the kitchen we had plenty to do, starting with a craft from Wildflowers and Marbles.
We loved them at Valentine's day and now with Mint Oreos we love 'em even more!
Shamrock Shakes!
All that green!
Teatime!
Our Supplies for the sit-down work:
Gems
