Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Easy Peasy Active Indoor No Prep Toddler Animal Match Activity

This is one idea to keep in the back of your mind for later and can be done with almost anything you have on hand. 

As we were reading the book Why Do Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears? By 

My little one was more intrigued by the artwork than the text and had some questions about some of the animals. 

"That is?" 

"Well, it's a cheetah, but stylized. Can you go find your 'little cheetah' and bird?"

While he ran off downstairs I pulled out some animal flash cards. We went through the book and matched the animals.

This or a similar activity is something that can be done with almost any book. You could match animals, shapes, colors almost anything you can find. 

We have matched balls or Legos to colors in books many times. Also, having him run to go get _____ something is a great way to get moving too. Baby Boy Follum is quite active and any movement I can add in will help him learn and play with one activity longer 

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Easy Out Of The House Free Animal Field Trip

One of our 2 year old's favorite free activities is going to a pet store. There are a couple strip malls with them. When we run errands we will often go before or after and look at the animals 

It's such a great way to practice language, colors, and animal names. 

What's an easy activity that you and your littles love? 

Thursday, September 5, 2024

DIY FREE Charolette Mason Inspired Shelving

What's the secret supply!? And how can you make one yourself? 



Cardboard! Lots and lots of it! And about a bottle of white glue.

I cut and glued some cardboard boxes together along with old mat board. 


The little one an I collaged some old books onto the outside. 


My toddler insisted that we needed a shelf for his puzzles so I found a couple short boxes and added those to the base....
...and then I was up all night creating a pull our parking garage shelf for his toy cars....which led to an entire series of mix and match roads... 


The next morning he walked into his classroom for "school" and was in awe and started playin with the cars. 

I got a little carried away with personalizing it, so there's a place for his cup, some flash cards, his number Legos, some magnets, and some tactile shapes cut from an old yoga mat

He is not the most gentle without prompting (neither am I) so I quickly discovered that I nee to reinforce a couple of the front facing shelves but that will come with time. For now I stuck a couple pieces of cardboard in to hold them. I will also need to create somewhere to store the extra road pieces. 


There are a plethora of videos on YouTube with ideas for creating some pretty awesome furniture using cardboard and pool noodles. 

Please let us know if you give it a try! 

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Homeschool Items From Dollar Tree

Some of the best DIY items for beautiful Montessori inspired projects can be found at the least suspected place, the Dollar Tree. 

I've found some of these same items, partially used and being resold at thrift shops for double the price. 


Here are some favorites - I do try to find reused and ethically made items and completely recognize much on this list was likely ethically made. Sadly, I can't justify purchasing these items ethically made, if I can find them. If you know a reasonably priced source for children's crafts please let me know 

What I Love!! 

Wood Blocks 
Popsicle Sticks 
Alphabet Stickers 
Smithsonian Kids Books
Globe 


If you see the following, snag them NOW

Paper scrap packs - if you see beautiful assorted paper 
Modge Podge - not unique but 

If you see the following thrifting may be a good option 

Yarn or string 
Paints - or buy new. Often they are sold in bulk elsewhere so you will get a better deal 
Water toys
Bug kits


Video Review Here

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

No Prep Pre-Reading Active Toddler Activity


This activity has been a favorite and is little to no prep. It can be done with whatever you have around the house 

The Usborne book series "That's not my..." Is perfect for this activity but any book with repetition will work well 

For this book series I took note cards and sticky notes to create a flash card that could have matched letters stuck to it

That's it!


To make it active for my wild one I hid #BabyBoyFollum run to the kitchen while I hid the three letters around the room. 

He then had the option of sticking the sounds to the note card himself, pointing to the spot it should go, or tracing the letters himself.

We did this for the repeating words 
"not" and "too." So he can 'read' the pages to me. This works because the pages are very repetitive and based on the same pattern. 

We have done similar with a Pete the Cat book Twinkle Twinkle Little Star where he points out the word 'twinkle' by seeing that it's the same letters. I'm that book we emphasize and find both the 't' sounds and the 'le' sound as they repeat often.

What sounds do you have in you books 
Other books this could work for (I will try to get back to add book details)

Baby Beluga 

Books with songs 
Roll over 
Monkeys on the bed 

What Really Inspired The 2024 Olympics?

I'm just going to say it... 

This is why we need art in schools!

Europeans obviously have a MUCH better art history education than Americans.

Before seeing the Last Supper Comparisons with the 2024 Opening Ceremony for the Olympics, I initially thought the blue guy may be representing Kali or Shiva... 

Definitely a bit of a stretch conceptually. And really I think it's about as likely as the Last Supper Comparisons.


The Last Supper by Leonard DiVinci seemed convincing as a possible inspiration at first

But like responding to Hindu art, the Christian reference is conceptually a huge reach. 

Neither really have anything to do with the Olympic games. 

The Olympics as inspiration?

Could it be?

Yes, I think so. 

It's much more likely that the scene was responding to imagery and the art history of Mt. Olympus, the original Olympic games, and the Dinner/feast of the God's scenes common in art history painted by Belinni, Titian, and others.

The nudity in the Olympic art makes sense and tbh the trans drag thing kinda does too - but that's a bit of a tangent and maybe a stretch. 

Dionysus, the God of wine, pleasure, and fertility makes sense with the plater imagery especially if he were at a dinner of the God on Mt. Olympus celebrating Life and pleasure.


The somewhat awkward poses are very reminiscent of art history too. Go ahead and laugh...


The child being in the line up is congruent with Greek god imagery but unfortunately also amps up the inappropriateness of the performance.

Greeks, Romans, and Christians

It's important to remember that many of the cultural representations would have been similar among these three cultures. The art was painted around the Renaissance period (1400-1500, I believe) and using similar materials. 

The table imagery makes so much sense and I think a good example of why so many people have been confused about what artwork was being referenced. 

The table imagery, does make it easy to visually go to the Last Supper. But also, many of the images we are seeing have cut off several of the people in the scene. There are at least 16 partiers rather than 12 disciples. 

Rather than being deceptive, people maybe were looking for evil and more things to dislike. 

Short Rant

**Gasp** Is the Olympics ceremony  becoming like the Superbowl Halftime show? Something soo easy to dislike from our couch while simultaneously being completely clueless about what's actually being represented, the symbolism, the actual roots in history, art, and culture... 

But I digress-ed...

So anyways, though the similarities are there with the Last Supper, the imagery is almost certainly responding to the actual history of artwork painted that relates to the first few hundred Olympic games.


There are similarities I'm not quite sure how to articulate. I could be mistaken (I'll and  try to come back and edit) but the irony of us as Christians crying "persecution" is in stark contrast to what Christians in the time of the original Olympic games were dealing with. 

Were Christians not martyred in the same arena? How many times was Paul Best preaching to the Greeks?

Mocking Jesus is not ok and we do need to be prepared to be hated and to be offended without sinning in our anger

Last Thoughts

The cultures of the Greeks and Romans were very antithetical to Jesus 2000 years ago and Biblacal values today. It's so interesting that we are seeing similar behaviors and a cultural progression so parallel to the books of Acts and Romans in the Bible (even Judges, but that's less related to this post)

Though I did not watch the performance and don't plan to, I also don't plan to boycott the Olympics 

It's been such a joy to watch bits with the little one and look up the counties in an atlas, and learn facts about them, and pray for the people together as we talk about gifts, skills, and the beauty of the image bearers, both male and female that God has created us to be.

** I should clarify I was upset at first but really the more I thought about it the more I doubted that the point was to mock and entire people group **

As Christians, we ought to fight for the truth

Please share this, find other better written posts, photos, research, or speak up when people are spreading misinformation across the interwebs! 

In Other News
More Offensive Greek Inspired Art

For anyone curious, here's an offensive sculpture created by one of my ancestors! 

It was commissioned for the rotunda of the White House and currently is in the Smithsonian, Culture Museum in DC 🤷🏽‍♀️ he may have made people mad but he was one of the first Internally knows sculptors from the US and it paid for 4 years of life.

The head/bust mockup is in the Met in New York, we were walking around and and my husband found it...