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Christmas Family Time: Decorating the Tree

Christmas Family Time - gathering around the tree. What memories will you make this Christmas?

One of my earliest memories is of wrapping my hands around a Christmas tree light and admiring the way the light shone through the cracks between my fingers. Every year when we decorate our Christmas tree, I enjoy watching my kids enjoy this same phenomenon of light captured in their hands.

Christmas is my favorite time of year. It’s a time to slow down and enjoy family during quiet evenings…

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Stay Curious. Keep Learning!

Stay Curious. Keep Learning! $25 course credit to curious.com

I am a huge fan of lifelong learning, and one of the things I love about blogging is that it gives me lots of opportunities to learn new things. Last week I got to go to a blogger event hosted by Sunset Magazine and Curious.com. We toured Sunset’s headquarters – such a cool work environment! I thought the test kitchens were particularly interesting – they are set up to look like home kitchens,…

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Gifts Kids Can Make: Perler Bead Play Sets

Gifts Kids Can Make: Perler Bead Play Sets

We hung our stockings this weekend, and my kids took that as their cute to bring their holiday gift making into overdrive! My siblings and I used to make all sorts of little gifts to put in one anothers’ stockings, and my kids have come up with that same tradition. Lately they are very busy making little Perler bead play sets for one another, mainly featuring tiny people (the multicolored ones…

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Johnny’s Birth Story (Seven Years Later)

Johnny’s Birth Story (Seven Years Later)

Johnny turned seven this week, so I thought I would continue the tradition of sharing (non-graphic) birth stories when my kids turn seven. I keep details in a daily journal I have kept since October of 2003, so I don’t have to worry about forgetting what happened, and seven is a milestone age for me, so a fun time to look back.

Since Emma was born so quickly, I was worried about the 45-minute…

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Travel the World This Holiday Season

Travel the World This Holiday Season

Have you ever looked at how holiday traditions are different around the world? Christmas is a wonderful time to do this, because it is a holiday that is observed in many countries around the globe! Kids learn best when they can make a personal connection to new information, and so having a topic in common like Christmas is a great way to get them interested in a new country and culture.

The Mul…

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This, I Miss

We have lived in California for a little over a year now, and there are a lot of things I love. But, in the fall and winter time, I feel a lot of nostalgia for New England. Leaves change color a little bit in California, but nothing like the flaming reds and oranges of the east coast. And, with Christmas music playing, this is what I really miss.

I’m glad my three oldest kids will have…

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Dairy Free Chocolate Pudding Recipe

Dairy Free Chocolate Pudding Recipe

Chocolate pudding is a delicious treat that I particularly enjoy homemade. I was sent some Silk Cashewmilk to try (as part of this sponsored post), and as soon as I tasted it I knew that the creamy texture would make for a great dairy free homemade chocolate pudding! I have a couple of family pudding recipes that we love, so I adapted the simpler of the two to create a dairy free chocolate…

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3D Paper Christmas Tree Paper Craft Tutorial with Printable

3D Paper Christmas Tree Paper Craft Tutorial with Printable

I learned how to make this neat 3D paper Christmas tree from the mom of a girl in Lily’s kindergarten class. I had never seen anything like it! My friend makes them just by guessing the distances, but I found that hard to do the first few times, at leas, so I deconstructed it into a printable for you to try!

We printed ours on green paper to give it a tree-like appearance. You fold along the…

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Sewing Tutorials For All Ages

Sewing Tutorials For All Ages

Welcome to my Sew Mama Sew visitors! Today is giveaway day, and I am offering this hand-sewn messenger bag to one winner. Because of the size and weight of the item, this giveaway is only open to US readers unless you are someone who reads and comments on this blog regularly, in which case I will happily ship internationally in exchange for the smiles your comments have given me over the years.…

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Turn Holiday Stress into Simple, Meaningful Memories

Turn Holiday Stress into Simple, Meaningful Memories

Last month I was invited to speak to a group of women about my family’s Christmas traditions. Some were quite surprised by our family’s fairly simple gift-giving traditions, and they asked if I planned to continue such minimalist gifting as my kids grow older. My answer? I think we will. I hope we will. Keeping things simple is an easy way to turn holiday stress into simple, meaningful memories.

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A Great Spanish Language Immersion Program for Kids

A Great Spanish Language Immersion Program for Kids

I haven’t written about it much on this blog, but once upon a time I taught high school French and Spanish, and two of my friends from my Masters teacher credentialing program still teach incredible Spanish language classes in Bay Area public high schools. Finding good language learning materials for young kids especially can be a challenge, so I was very happy to receive the Whistlefritz…

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Fancy Curls with the KISS Instawave – Review I grew up in a house without curling irons, hair spray, or makeup – most of the time, and I still keep things very simple.

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Learning History Through Art

Learning History Through Art

Do you know the story of the Burghers of Calais? In 1347, England had placed the French Port of Calais under siege. The siege lasted for over a year, and the residents were starving. King Edward of England offered to spare their lives if six of their leaders would surrender to him. Eustache de Saint Pierre, one of the wealthiest leaders in the town, was the first to surrender, and five other men…

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Setting Goals for a Meaningful Christmas Season

Setting Goals for a Meaningful Christmas Season

December starts tomorrow, and I met my November goal of getting all of my Christmas shopping done by the end of November! Still shopping? Check out my list of recommended gifts that encouraging learning and promote creativity for kids! Having my shopping done gives me a great start on setting goals for a meaningful Christmas season. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with three of my four brothers…

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Fun Homemade Gifts for Moms and Teachers

Fun Homemade Gifts for Moms and Teachers

I love homemade gifts, so I was thrilled to collaborate with Kim of Live Over C’sto create QR code activity books for moms and teachers. Kim collected our ideas and made them into a free printable book that you can download, laminate, and give as a gift. Each activity has an image, a list of materials needed, and a QR code. Scan the QR code with your phone or tablet, and you are taken the the…

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Social and Emotional Intelligence: Teaching Kids Empathy

Social and Emotional Intelligence: Teaching Kids Empathy

I find crafting to be an excellent way to spend time thinking, so I was excited to see Happy Heart Kid’s new crafty kitsthat focus on building social and emotional intelligence. We were sent their empathy kit to review, and my kids really enjoyed the activities that were included! Teaching kids empathy (and other social and emotional skills) can feel more than a little bit overwhelming; this is…

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Jan Brett’s The Three Snow Bears Activity for Kids

Jan Brett’s The Three Snow Bears Activity for Kids

Jan Brett’s The Three Snow Bears is one of the books I wrapped up for our Christmas Book Advent Calendar, so I thought it would be fun to create an activity to go along with it.

This book is special for me, because a lot of the drawings look like photos my grandfather (that’s him in the photo above) took when he worked for Boy Scouts of America in the 1950s. My grandpa was in charge of the…