Tag: Learning
Celebrate Canada Outdoors | The 2013 Get To Know Contest
Calling all youth 19 and under! Get outdoors and connect with nature! Head to www.gettoknow.ca to submit art, writing, photography, video, or music inspired by your outdoor experiences and you could win some wild prizes! It may only be the beginning of March. But, you can start cracking on your outdoor awesomeness and get it ready to [...]
Got A Picky Eater? A Reluctant Learner? Try The Rainbow Food Tray
Toddler-hood and picky eating are practically inseparable. For many parents, their kid’s lack of interest in just about any food put in front of them ranks right up there in the frustration department with refusing to sleep and melting down unceremoniously and without cause in the middle of the grocery store. Not. Awesome. There’s also [...]
The Lost Art of the Pen Pal
Many of us, when we were little, wrote letters. I know my mother sat me down on a regular basis and watched over my shoulder as I penned thank you notes and sentimental hellos to my grandparents, aunts and cousins. They were gently requested, but pretty much mandatory. Letters were courteous and proper. They meant [...]
Digging In The Dirt: Helping Kids Grow Their Own Garden
“ Might I,” quavered Mary, “might I have a bit of earth? Fans of “The Secret Garden” will recall orphaned Mary Lennox’s timid request of her uncle for space “to plant seeds in – to make things grow” on his huge English estate. What started with an ivy-covered door, revealed by a friendly robin to [...]
Encouraging Toddlers To Get Artistic
When it comes to kids, making art is often left to the school-aged crowd. But, it’s actually toddlers who are masters of visual arts. They love to create and their imaginations are wide open. Give a tiny person a crayon and watch the world blossom. Toddler art definitely has its own unique patina and style. [...]
I-Pad Apps to Get Kids Ready for School
The countdown calendar at our house shows we’ve got about three weeks until the kids are back in school and it’s time to start thinking about plugging their brains back in to learning mode without freaking them out and sending them over the edge. Our IPad has been on sabbatical for most of the summer. [...]
It's Summer, Let's Get Outside, Learn, Garden and Eat with the Kids
Good Morning. As these first days of summer break set in and the kids are looking for something fun to do we have the perfect solution for kiddos of all ages – come out to the Lake Trail Community Garden every Monday in July starting today and hang out with the crew. The Comox Valley [...]
Celebrating the Environmental Stewards of Tomorrow
Editor’s Note: Good Morning. Today, the folks from Comox Valley Land Trust have stopped by to talk about a wonderful program for kids who are the future stewards of the Earth. Check out this unique way of honoring the spirit of children who see the natural world and caring for it as their passion. Have [...]
The God Conversation
It’s a conversation that ranks right up there with how babies are made. Some parents tackle it early, some wait until the conversation is absolutely necessary. No one’s judging who’s right or wrong here because this discussion is about God. People have a lot of perspectives – whether it be practicing a certain religion, being [...]
Kids Books That Teach The Alphabet of the Environment
As we shift gears into learning a bit more about how to live lighter on the Earth this next week, it seems most appropriate to start it all off by offering up fun and engaging tools that help get that whole conversation started with your kids. Since greening our lives is something that has only [...]
When It Comes to School, Let's Create Community
We homeschool. A great friend of mind has her daughter in Montessori. Another is going the Waldorf route and lots of my friends have decided the traditional public school setting is perfect for their families. I think we all are incredibly grateful for the breadth of options we have in the Comox Valley when it [...]
Beautiful Children's Books About Colors & Sound
Finding books for preschoolers on basics like colors and sounds that keep kids connected to nature while still being seriously fun are not exactly easy to come by. I remember a spare few when our oldest was that age and totally fell in love a few weeks ago when she picked two out of the [...]
Out and About – It's Time for the Eagles
As the snow drops and crocus start popping up at the Filberg and we start getting out of the house more again, one creature that we notice seems to always be out with us are the gorgeous Bald Eagles that make their home by the hundreds in the Comox Valley. Throughout the rest of the [...]
Technology Bringing Kids Closer to Classic Art
I have never considered myself to be anything more than a stick person artist. Try as I might throughout the years to draw something remotely ‘good’, my hand could never translate what I saw in my mind on to paper. My renditions of Spiderman or Sgt. Rock looked like baby drawings, even in my teens. [...]
Join The 2011 Great Backyard Bird Count
Take a peek out your back window. This time of year, what you will more than likely spot in the maple trees or the cedar hedge is a fantastic collection of birds from Chickadees to Northern Flicker that spend their winters snacking their way through the Comox Valley. Our mild climate that sees little in [...]
Connecting Kids to The Year of the Rabbit
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Today is the official start of the 15-day 2011 Lunar New Year and, whether your heritage is Asian or not, giving children the chance to experience and understand cultural traditions is one of the most fun things about learning. Even in small communities where they may not be a big parade [...]
Helpful Hints for Art at Home
Editor’s Note: Matisse said Creativity takes courage. He couldn’t have been more dead-on. The ways people get their creative groove on define them in huge ways. They give people courage…a place to let all of their emotions spill out…and a voice to speak out, admire, honour or just simply reveal those things that mean the [...]
Book Review – You Are Your Child's First Teacher
I will be the first person to admit that I do not subscribe to any one style of parenting mostly because I have a deep and enduring aversion to parenting books. It’s not that they aren’t helpful and they surely provide people with important structure during a time when we all are humbled by how [...]
Kid-Led Learning – Can "Normal" Families Homeschool?
When our oldest daughter was born, my mom asked me if I was going to consider homeschooling. I thought she had to be joking because why would we? We have no religious reasons and I am no teacher. Plus, I had heard more than a few stories about homeschoolers being “weird” and anti-social – how [...]
Connecting to Your Kids Through Books
Editor’s Note: Vancouver Island mom Joanne Allair is back today to share with us ways to turn stories into great family conversations and get more out of the reading you do together. I love her book recommendations at the end and reminders of why reading with your kids is so important. Enjoy! There are a [...]
Tara Colborne – One Book Can Change A Teen Forever
It was all Jane`s fault. She made me feel understood. She really got me like no one else seemed to. My family simply could not appreciate why we were so close. But, it was like we shared the same brain. Okay, okay she wasn`t real and she wasn`t my best friend. I`m just talking about [...]
Sunday Morning Walks – Fungus Amongus
Moving into these last couple months of the year can be kind of a drag as the weather turns cold, gray and blustery and we start thinking more about hibernating rather than spending lots of quality time outside. But, it turns out that late Fall and Winter on Vancouver Island are actually the most fantastic [...]
Creative Kids – Learning Through Baking Bread
When I was a kid, spending the day in the kitchen with my mom or grandmother was always a treat. It meant a chance to eat leftover cookie dough, make some of our favorite pastries or just spend some time together without worrying about what the world outside that kitchen was doing. My brother and [...]
Mom's Book Review – The Idle Parent
Editor’s Note: This morning Comox mom Robin Blackburn gives us the low down on one of the hottest parenting books on the market right now – The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson. The book tackles a touchy topic and asks us all to look at why we parent the way we do. Robin breaks it [...]
Nature Crafts – Salmon Migration Mobiles
One of the things that our daughter and I spend every Fall looking forward to are the easygoing days of watching the salmon run in our local streams, heading out to the hatcheries to learn a bit more and – now that we are full-on into science and nature learning with homeschooling – having a [...]
Inspiring Your Teens to Give Back
Before I understood my ABC’s and 123’s, I understood suffering. At the age of four, my mom’s father died on the streets of the small Ontario city I was born to – Thunder Bay. He was a bum, a street-person, a destitute alcoholic. And before I even went to Kindergarten, I saw countless homeless people [...]
Creative Parenting – Fostering Kids Healthy Obsessions
This Summer, I was reading through one of my favorite everyday education websites and came across an article about kids and their obsessions. I’ve always wondered what could possibly be good about letting kids get sucked into the craziness of Webkins, Pokemon, anything at all that sent a kid reeling when they couldn’t have the [...]
Homeschooling – Meet Learning Outcomes without Cracking A Book
We are so very new to homeschooling – sort of. That may not really make sense. But, while we haven’t been doing math problems or practicing our writing for very long, our adventures with our now kindergartener have always been about learning. When we formally decided to become home learners and jump in with the [...]
Learning Crafts – The Nature Alphabet
When it comes to making learning more accessible around the home, there’s nothing that we’ve found more effective than making projects that take basic skills like alphabet and numbers and turning them into creative adventures. We’re homeschooling for kindergarten this year and one of the big things that needed to be in place is an [...]
Back-to-School 2010 – Breakfast, The Most Important Meal
Editor’s Note: As your groggy crew rolls out of bed this morning and gets ready for another day of school, it’s time to consider what we are putting into our systems to fuel up for the busy school year ahead. Dr. Heather Manley – a Canadian naturopath now living in Hawaii – is here this [...]
Kids Crafts – Night Owls
Good Morning. Our daughter, for just about as long as I can recall, has had an owl for a best friend. She and her snow owl stuffy have traversed the wilds of the beach and forest. They’ve gone on great magical world adventures and kept each other company every night. This year, two new owls [...]
Crush of the Month – IPhone Apps for Moms
If there is one organizing, information layer, connective and fun piece of technology in my life that I have come to love, it’s the IPhone. Long-time avoiders of all things cell phone related (we spend enough time in the office, couldn’t bear the thought of having people be able to find us all of the [...]
Road Trip & Beach Days Travel Packs for Kids
For our family, August is all about cramming in all of the camping, beach and road trip moments that got missed the rest of the summer into the 30 or so days before school starts (eeep!) What it also means is that I need to plan ahead for all of the down time attached to [...]
Calvin Sandborn on Becoming The Kind Father
I recently had the chance to catch up with Registered Clinical Counselors Monika Grunberg and Serena Patterson who run Grünberg Patterson Counselling and Psychological Services in Comox as they shared the news about an exciting, inspirational parenting speaker who will be talking about fatherhood tomorrow evening at North Island College. Author, journalist, and environmental lawyer [...]
Coping Skills for When Kids are Mean
Editor’s Note: Happy Thursday. This morning, local mom Marcie Dumais is on site with a look at how we can address unkind behavior amongst children and teach them how to manage themselves socially. Definitely a tricky and awkward situation at times. Here she is: I had no idea the words ‘toe punt’ would trigger such [...]
Travel With Kids Offers So Much Time To Learn
Editor’s Note: Good morning. Heather Beckett is back with more of her family’s year-long experience of living in Australia. Today she focuses on how her family extended their learning beyond the classroom. Makes me want to pack my bags and head out into the world immediately. Here she is: Often when we think of learning we may [...]
Educational Crafts – Sequencing Boards for Kids
Ah, the life of a four-year-old is filled with incredible distractions. While eating dinner, one could be distracted by the texture of a place mat, a fly on the wall or the simple act of blinking. On the way to the bathroom, what could possibly be more sidetracking than a wall or the bumps on [...]
Meet the Creators of The Magic School Bus
Good Afternoon. As Earth Day edges up on us, the talk of thinking more about the Earth, giving some love to Mother Nature and helping our kids plug into the complicated conversations about pollution, global warming and more are definitely on the rise as well. But, kids, hey, they don’t go much for complicated. So, [...]
Advocating for Arts Education
Good Morning. Usually Tuesdays are reserved for all things fun and creative. But, today I thought it may be time to get a bit more serious about arts and crafts. For as long as I can remember – but even more so recently – it seems that the news about public education in B.C. is [...]
Tween Must-Have Sci-Fi and Mystery Reads
Editor’s Note: If you missed Robin’s Spring Break craft roundup this morning, you can catch it HERE. Now, here’s a look at some must have Spring Break reads for those tweens in your life. Here’s the list: Good Afternoon. It may be time for some quiet time around your house, making a trip to the [...]
Nature Journal – It's The Peak Season for Swans
Editor’s Note: Good morning. Naturalist Jocie Ingram is here with some great information on swans. Until now, I had just admired them for their beauty and grace! Here she is: I’ve recently introduced my toddler to the story of the “Ugly Duckling” by Danish poet Hans Christian Anderson. He loves the way the ugly duckling [...]
Homeschooling – A Look At Theme-based Learning
It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a chance to talk about homeschooling here on OBE. For the last year or so, we’ve been mulling around our educational options for the tiny person and it wasn’t until this month, actually, that we solidly moved forward with our plans to home-school. It’s not that I [...]
Mom-P-Inc. – Discovering Community Literacy
When you say the word “literacy” the images of libraries and academia often come to mind. It takes you down a mental path of helping kids learn to read and guiding adults through the challenges of needing to be able to interpret for themselves written words in order to manage the day-to-day tasks. To me, [...]
Year In Review – Favorite Family Nature Locales for 2009
Oh my goodness 2009 has been a fantastic year for weather, exploring and general outdoor adventures. The Comox Valley and Vancouver Island are absolute perfection when it comes to hanging in the outdoors and making family time nature time. We’ve explored a lot of cool places, taken more than 150 kids and their parents on [...]
Independent Education – Beachcombers Community School
We are science geeks in our house. There’s no denying it, we dig bones and organs and bugs. If we had our way, our days would be spent exploring the tide pools any time of year. I’ve long been concerned about what school would be like for the tiny person. We’ve been contemplating homeschooling for [...]
Kids Rock – Music Lessons Are Not for Every Musician
Editor’s Note: Good morning. Bobby Herron is on site today talking shop about why music lessons work for some kids and not for others. Finding creative ways to help your kids learn all kinds of things is a bit of an art in and of itself. One that is different for everyone. Here he is: Music [...]
Montessori in the Comox Valley
Editor’s Note: Today we take a peek inside the world of Montessori education in the Comox Valley with Pauline Rae and learn a bit about why this public-school program is beloved by so many parents, as well as in need of strong community support. Enjoy! During the year before my oldest child started kindergarten, we [...]
Children's Books Full of Not So Scary Monsters & Witches
Some kids love Christmas. Some love Easter. Mine, she L-O-V-E-S Halloween. I love the wawawahhhhhhhh coming from her when describing vampires and ghouls. But, really when you ask the tiny person what kind of stories she wants to read right now, the terms mildly spooky, a little mysterious and a lot funny are on the [...]
What Is Your Personal Parenting Style?
Editor’s Note: Good Morning, today early childhood educator Heather Magdanz is here to talk shop about parenting. She’s got some interesting insight into why we all parent the way we do… food for thought. Here she is: Have you ever considered what kind of parent you are? Come on… who thinks about that really? It [...]
Nature Journal – Leaf Watching 101
Editor’s Note: This morning we have naturalist Jocie Ingram on site, giving us the low-down on identifying leaves. Jocie is new to the OBE team and will be sharing her knowledge with us monthly. Here she is: My toddler son is keen to collect fallen leaves, clutching fistfuls in each hand and sorting them by [...]
Public Ed – The Scoop on Split Classrooms
Editor’s Note: Good afternoon! If you missed our morning post you can find book reviews on salmon learning books HERE. This afternoon we have three experienced teachers Marieke Holtkamp, Michelle Honeysett and Eileen David giving us the scoop on public school multi-grade classrooms. Here they are: At the end of the summer, that buzz of back-to-school jitters becomes more and [...]
Fostering a Musical Environment for Kids
Editor’s note: This morning, we here at OBE are excited to unveil the debut Kids Rock column from Comox Valley musician and music teacher Bobby Herron. He’s the creative genius behind the seriously successful School of Rock program through Courtenay Rec and has been living music just about as long as he’s been alive. He’ll [...]
Traditions for Long-Distance Grandparents
Editor’s Note: Today we have Wendy Johnstone discussing long-distance grandparenting. Here she is: It’s been a flurry of activity and excitement for Carly around our house for the past 3 weeks. (Actually, if any of you know me personally, there’s never a shortage of excitement and flurry in our house). However, the charge in our house [...]
Nature Journal – Captivated by Raptors
Editor’s Note: Good Morning. Today we have a special guest on site helping families learn about some of the coolest birds on the planet – raptors. Joanne Bentley runs Emrys Raptors in the Cowichan Valley, a fantastic spot for the whole family to learn and experience these majestic birds. If you are headed south on [...]
Kid Science – All About Apples
Summer is starting to break a bit (gasp) and sooner rather than later it will be time to break out the turtlenecks and toques. The big sign for me that my favourite time of year is nearly upon us is the arrival of local apples at the market. I am, thankfully, on the early end [...]
Homeschooling – Find the Right Curriculum
Now you’ve pulled your kids from the public schools, for reasons that vary from family to family and it’s time to decide what you are going to do with them at home. Chances are your mother and/or mother-in-law are breathing down your neck about wrecking your kids’ future because they don’t go to school. (Not [...]
Books for Hands-On Nature Learning
Our month-long adventure in local food may have come to an end. But that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped thinking local. On our adventure out to Miracle Beach Nature House the other day, I made a very lengthy pit stop at the Nature House’s book store and picked up two fantastic nature learning books for kids [...]
Food Through the Generations
Editor’s Note: Bite-Sized Specialty Foods is going to be at Brambles from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. There is some serious yumminess going on, so I would head in the direction of downtown Courtenay and check it out. I would also like to encourage you to take some time out at Noon today and [...]
Foodie Crafts – Homemade Stickers
Editor’s Note: Good morning. Today is kind of chill in the Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Food Challenge universe. So, if you are thinking local, make some plans for a leisurely lunch or dinner at Anderton Bistro-Pub, The Great Escape, Bisque (I think we are headed that direction) or Locals. A lovely meal is the [...]
Cookbooks That Teach Traditional Food Preservation
I should have paid even the slightest bit of attention when I was a kid. Seriously, if I’d taken one ounce of interest in all of the canning, sewing and other domesticity that my mom dug, I might not be here today wondering how the heck we are going to stick with our Locavore ways [...]
SPROUTS – Build A Family Greenhouse
Editor’s Note: Good morning. Thinking local food today is all about date night. Get on the horn to grandma or the babysitter and plan for a great evening of local food at Bisque, Anderton Bistro-Pub, The Great Escape (I am so in the mood for Indian food) or Locals-Food From the Heart of the Island [...]
SPROUTS – Get the Low Down on Good Garden Bugs
Editor’s Note: I am loving all of this time in the garden this time of year. My mother-in-law might wonder “What time in the garden is she talking about? I never see her in the backyard.” It’s true. It seems that most of my time is spent out at the Comox Valley Regional District Compost [...]
Retro Saturday – Natural Nature Journals
OK, I concede. I’m EX-HAUSTED. There’s this great delusion in my head that if I just keep going my energy won’t realize that it has been non-existant since July of 2005:) Anyway, I logged 13 hours of sleep last night (about 3 times my normal) and the price was no e-mails answered, no posts written, [...]
What to Do When Kids Cook – Chill Out
At the end of a rather exhausting day, my oldest asked “what’s for dinner?” Feeling a little cheeky I retorted with “I don’t know. What are you making?” It’s a little game my husband and I play when we should cook but want to eat out. K didn’t catch on. An unmistakable glint of excitement [...]
Mom-Rated Family Learning Websites
The kiddo totally decides what is cool in our house. Yeah, I lead her in directions I would like to see her pursue. But, cripes if she thinks my coffee filter butterflies are lame and I am a dork for any number of not-so-veiled attempts and exercising my parental will in the educational universe lately. [...]
SPROUTS – Creating a Kids Garden
Another sunny day. Everyone loves it when warm days blow in. With all this good weather I can finally tackle the weeds that have been meandering in my garden beds and deadhead a few of the plants that escaped me in the Fall. It is so refreshing to be outside for hours these days – [...]
Nature Crafts – Building Bird Nests for Kids
Good Morning. I’m still basking in the glow of festival goodness from the weekend. I feel like the tiny person saw enough and made a few very important discoveries about taking care of the Earth this weekend that got her brain moving even more in conservationist mode. Leave it to a nearly 4-year-old’s bluntly honest [...]
Kids In The Arts – Get Perspective on Competition
I had a conversation a while back with someone who asked why I did not place my students in competition. When I conveyed my mandate of non-competition the reply was, “Oh, you mean just for fun.” This is an interesting perspective because it is not necessarily what I have in mind when I talk about [...]
Earth Day Craft – Recycled Paper Bag Puppets
Editor’s Note: For the next few Tuesdays, we’ll be featuring art projects that you can come out and do with us at Earth Day events that Our Big Earth is taking part in. Today’s project – recycled paper bag puppets – will be one of the fun projects your kids can try out when you [...]
Homeschooling – Choose The Right Books
Editor’s Note: Good Morning. Today, Royston farmer and homeschooling mom Louisa McClellan is here to talk shop on how to find the right books for your kids. Reading is a HUGE part of our lives around here and I, seriously, pound through dozens of books a month searching for the gems out there (long live [...]
Books for Girls Who Love To Play In The Dirt
Good morning. It’s super late for me to be getting going this morning (8 a.m., yikes!). I am totally dragging my butt today in the work universe, mostly because I have plans to ditch the office long enough to spend the ENTIRE DAY outside combing beaches, roaming trails and wrapping it all up with a [...]
SPROUTS – Composting, Family-Style
Editor’s Note: Good Morning. SPROUTS gardening goddess Kendra Quince is here to kick off our Earth Month goodness with a quick lesson in composting. While I’ve got you thinking gardening, this gives me the chance to announce some big news here at Our Big Earth. On Monday morning (April 6), if you wake up bright [...]
Crafty Imagination – Easter Masks
Is anybody else dealing with some seriously crazed kiddos lately? I’m hoping there’s something in the air and our tiny person hasn’t gone completely bonkers because she’s more than a wee bit wound up these days. Normal, relatively quiet crafting that would normally take place around our house is not even an option at the [...]
Growing Children with Song
Editor’s Note: This morning, Comox Valley Children’s Choir Director Carol Anne Parkinson has stopped by to talk about the wonderful ways song can help your children grow strong. Music was a huge part of my childhood. It gave me the space to be that could be found no place else. Enjoy! From my very earliest [...]
Mom-P-Inc. – Boundaries vs. Balance
Editor’s Note: Karen McKinnon is dropping by today to offer up her insight into life as a mom in business for herself. If anyone can lend a hand in working the kinks out, it would be Karen. With her busy house, growing business and warm sensibility, she’s mastering the art of learning how to say [...]
Art Project Books for Kids All About Science and Math
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a kid who wanted to move her life to one centrally scientific and seriously fun location – Science World. Somewhere between the dinosaurs and Lego land, her brain engaged the science universe (or at least the serious fun universe) and now there’s no [...]
Crafts for Boys – Marble Mech
Just call him the gadget man. If there is one thing Ken has always loved, it’s figuring something out. He’s not a guy who gets under the hood of a car or hides out in the garage building things. But, he digs figuring the science of things out – especially when it looks a little [...]
KidSports – Our Hockey Preschooler
How could I forget that day two Octobers ago when Ken and the tiny person hit the ice for the first time. It was love at first sight – for both of them. The trainer skates we’d picked up for our daughter seemed the perfect way to start her off easy. But, she’d have none [...]
Life Cycles for Preschoolers
OK, so there are a couple realities to working on “learning” projects with a preschooler: 1. Attention span that generally amounts to nanoseconds 2. The constant reminder that 37-year-old mom obviously knows far less than 3.5-year-old child 3. Permanent mess syndrome 4. Sitting at the dining room table is the LAST thing on anyone’s mind [...]
Kids In The Arts – Get Them Dancing
Dance in the Comox Valley is absolutely on fire. Given a population of less than 70,000 people, you would assume one or two choices for your tyke would be the maximum a community of this size could sustain. When I was approached to take over leadership of Pantuso Dance I looked at the fact that [...]
Preschool Crafts – Salad Spinner Painting
Editor’s Note: It’s no news flash that we are big fans of art around our house. But, I have to admit that I’ve been finding myself in serious need of inspiration and a little artistic freedom that the dining room table just isn’t currently capable of offering. So, our daughter and I have been hitting [...]
Stories for you Ears with Odds Bodkin
There once was a little, orange record player. You know, the kind that had it’s own case that you could close up, tucking the electric cord inside and would play LPs or 45s if you hadn’t lost the little insert that made the tiny records fit on the turn table. It followed me everywhere – [...]
Family Eats – Getting Your Kids In The Kitchen
Editor’s Note: Good Morning and welcome to our first installment of Family Eats – a journey in getting kids back into the kitchen – with lovely local mama Sarah Stromquist and her family. Sarah lets us peek inside the food-friendly evolution of her family and the family-friendly evolution of her kitchen, offering insight, tips, recipes [...]
Magic Tales of Unicorns, Dwarves & Discovery
Our house seems to draw a huge crowd of the mystical and magical lately. Every since we discovered Forest Fairies with the help of our friend Maureen (of Strong Start fame) and The Last Unicorn showed up in the DVD player, our house transformed into a fairytale land that pretty much skips the prince and [...]
Family Craft – Your Animal Family Genealogy
As my belly gets bigger, there are TONS of questions about how families are made and our ongoing “Family Tree” project expands, I found myself a little stumped recently when working out age-appropriate ways to talk with our 3.5 year old about families and who goes where. Traditional genealogy – packed full of research and [...]
Family Craft – Glitter Mushrooms
We are having more than a wee bit of trouble getting our rears out of bed the last few days, and this morning was no exception as all of us rolled over at about 8 a.m. But, the one thing that seems to get us over the perpetual mist and gray is our “Family Tree” [...]
Wonderful Winter Children's Books by Jan Brett
There are a few truly great children’s book authors – storytellers who can take a piece of imagination and bring it alive with the touch of a pen. They’ve got that magical touch, mesmerizing children (and parents too) for generations. Jan Brett is one of those greats. Maureen over at Brooklyn Elementary Strong Start first [...]
Homeschooling – Car School
Editor’s Note: I am sad to announce that this is Rosina’s last homeschooling column with Our Big Earth. Life is a busy, happy, complete place for her and balance is the key to anything good and true in life. So, she is off to pursue more homeschool, family-focused goodness and we’ll all be looking forward [...]
Guest Craft Tutorial – Stamping 101
Editor’s Note: I am taking a few days off here so we’ve got a couple of guest writers this week including energetic Stampin’ Up demonstrator Susan Spyker who is here today to give us all a lesson in how to fine tune our stamping skills. This tutorial on how to get a perfect stamp every [...]
Nature Journal – Winter Bird Feeding Walks
I saw the light in her face the first time our daughter and a chickadee made eye contact – and it was pure magic. We’d walked the Lazo Marsh loop what seemed like a thousand times before then – through a Summer of sunshine and a mild Fall. But, the birds hadn’t made their debut [...]
Establishing A Homeschool Co-Op
Homeschooling parents are the primary educators of their children and with this comes the responsibility and challenge of making learning fun while covering all academic subjects. It can be overwhelming at times to say the least! That’s where co-ops come in. They are groups of like-minded moms coming together with one common goal of creating [...]
Nature Journal – Trumpeter Swans
When I was a kiddo, nature and I had an odd relationship. Growing up at the base of the mountains, the grandeur of nature’s “big-ness” struck me every time I walked outside. I wanted to explore, just to be left alone to check out the world. On the other end of the deal, a mild [...]
Nature Journal – Mushroom Magic
It’s a story up for hot debate in our house right now, “Do fairies ACTUALLY live under mushrooms in the forest?” Our daughter is adamantly against the whole theory. They may use these cool weather blooms to escape from the rain, stay out of the sun or hide from odd creatures (like humans, according to [...]
Story Boxes for Kid Storytelling
Storytelling is big around our house. The tiny person is totally into making up her own universe filled with adventures, conversations, friends and a bit of drama to keep it interesting. I’ve always been excited about her penchant for telling tales. But, there are definitely times when the stories veer off into the “We’ve obviously [...]
The Home School – Lapbook Learning
Editor’s note: Whether you are a homeschooler or a parent looking for ways to extend your kiddo’s school learning experience, there is nothing like discovering tools that are inventive, easy and great ways to plug kids into their own way of learning. That’s what makes it so fantastic to introduce Rosina Huber. Her enthusiasm for [...]
Salmon Journals
Editor’s note: Most of my memories from childhood – at least the ones that truly stick – live outside. The explorations, the learning, the absolutely amazing discoveries made in the woods or even just the park down the street shaped me, made me want to do one thing – get back outside for more. Giving [...]
Whooooo's There – Paper Owl Door Decor
When I woke up this morning and realized this was the last time I’d ever post on Comox Valley Kids, I had one seriously weepy moment. Tomorrow morning, most if not all of you will be redirected over to Ourbigearth.com and we will launch our new phase as Our Big Earth-Comox Valley. I feel like [...]
Fall Nature Crafts – Wax Paper Pressed Leaves
The other day, I was clicking through blogs, pawing through craft books and staring blankly at a bowl full of Fall leaves we’d collected on a recent Filberg adventure when I thought (uhoh) – wax paper. Who knows what triggered this childhood memory. But, I was trying to figure out a way to press leaves [...]
Beakers KidScience – Alternative Energy
I’m a science geek…and I’m good with that. So, as we wrap up with Jeanne DuPrau’s blog book tour for the fourth Books of Ember Diamond of Darkhold it was pretty much required that I geek out in the kid learning department. I don’t suspect that our 3-year-old is going to be picking up DuPrau’s [...]
Learning Trees With Leaf Hangings
There is a bit of a chill in the air and early last week, as I was packing us into the truck, I spotted red leaves. Then yellow, even a couple of orange beauties stood out against the bluer than blue sky. We’d been talking, the last couple of times out in the woods, about [...]
