So, as can be expected, there is lots of harsh judgement, analysis, opinion (lots and lots of opinion) and a bit of laughter about the photo.  So what’s my take on the hoopla surrounding the photo?

Initially, I felt sorry for the little girl.  She’s three years old and has no way of understanding anything surrounding the situation.  Having two daughters, one on each side of three, I know that these situations are not perceived by them the same way we see them.  There are a lot of questions that will go unanswered surrounding the event.  Is she in the middle of being potty trained?  Was she showering or did she choose the shower over the toilet?  Did she try to hide the poop?  I’ve had both my girls poop in the bath.  It’s followed by a quick exit from the water, some scooping, and a thorough cleaning of tub and toys.  It complicates the evening ritual, but it’s all part of being a parent.

However, as mentioned, I also noticed in the photo she has a big smile.  My guess is that the dad in question didn’t scream at her or hit her for her indiscretion.  She doesn’t have red eyes or tears on her cheeks.  Daddy made a sign and is taking a picture.  It looks like she’s at least having fun.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking the picture and keeping it to laugh over in the future.  What I do think is wrong is sharing the image online.  At that point, it doesn’t become a cute family incident, but an attempt by a father to generate attention for himself.  Also, by putting the image out there without any real context (the Reddit image was titled She’s So Proud of Herself and nothing else) it leaves it wide open for the rest of the world to fill in the blanks, and most aren’t using blanks, they’re using live ammunition.

The primary phrase being used is “shame”.  It’s part of the title for almost every article and it definitely evokes a reaction.  Shaming is strictly a demonstration of power.  It’s intent on the surface is to force change through fear.  However, it also demonstrates a lack of respect, a lack of emotional development on the part of the parent, and it’s punitive instead of restorative.  Shaming singles out the individual whereas discipline singles out the behavior.    It may take longer to elicit a change in the behavior, but it will likely be longer lasting.

As parents, we need to take the steps necessary to create an environment that focuses on creating intrinsic motivation.  This involves modeling the behaviors we would like to see.  Your children will follow your examples if they respect you. To ensure respect, we need to guide them around the incidents and behaviors we don’t like or want by setting emphatic limits.  This means we need to identify the positive traits like curiosity that are part of a negative behavior and set limits on where and when the trait can be used or explored.  This requires that we be present and in the moment which can be difficult when you’re trying to handle multiple offspring and activities simultaneously.  We need to stop and focus our attention on the child and their behavior instead of yelling out directives while passing from one task to the next.

So what’s my final opinion on the Reddit photo?  I think it was meant to be humorous and a riff on the “dog shaming” photos.  I believe his daughter (for now) is fine and her memory of the events will be something like, “remember the time I pooped in the shower and you took my picture”.  There is absolutely no doubt he’ll remember.  However, I also believe posting the image at all was selfish, impulsive, and ultimately wrong.  The photo will be the albatross  around the father’s neck.

Discovery of New Friends

My daughter started kindergarten knowing one other girl from her pre-school class.  From my perspective I didn’t have any concerns about her making new friends, the biggest challenge has been trying to keep up with the friends, their names, and requests to go and play all the while trying to establish some routines that ensure she gets time to recharge.  I think it would be great to get some sort of program with photos and bios of the kids so I can visualize who she’s making and breaking friendships.  By the time a class photo arrives and I can pin her down to get names to faces she’ll have arranged multiple birthday invitation lists.  On top of it, it would make it easier to talk to the other parents who are waiting to wrangle their own offspring home.

Eating Habits

Her eating habits, which were mercurial to begin with, are more difficult to gauge.  We get breakfast into her and then she’s on her own for a snack and lunch.  In the two weeks of full time kindergarten, she almost always brings the solid lunch portion home with her.  Her snack is gone along with anything liquid (juice, apple sauce, yogurt, etc.).  On the walk home we have the same conversation about food.  I ask if she ate her lunch and her response is one of two things.  She didn’t get enough time to eat, or we gave her too much to eat.  My suspicion is there’s too much going on to be bothered to consume food so it’s the stuff that goes down quick.  I have slowly upped the quantity of food we have for snack when we get home to almost rival a full meal.  My two year old also gets in on the additional meal.  In response to the unnamed mid-afternoon meal, dinner gets shifted a little later and is now a bit lighter.  I haven’t explored anything related to our new eating habits to know if it’s better, worse, doesn’t matter, but I suspect the pattern may be a better routine.

Sleeping and Resting

The shift to a six hour “experience” from the two hour and half hour pre-school is noticeable.  In the summer, my eldest had energy to burn and could be raring to go until the sun went down (not a good trait around the summer solstice).  I attributed it to a quiet period we had right after lunch that gave her some time to recharge.  My youngest daughter seems to have a better sense of her physical needs and will express when she is hungry or tired.  She will also simply go and lie down when she wants to recharge.  It appears my four year old’s response to being tired is to find a way to get the adrenaline and endorphin’s pumping.  Instead of slowing down, she gets louder and more active to stave off rest.   School has simultaneously made it better and worse.  Our quiet time after school is challenged by the potential to play with old and new friends.  In addition, our summer weather has been extended and we can see and hear others playing just outside our place.  I think once the typical west coast autumn moisture begins to fall a period of recharging will be more likely.  The better part has been going to sleep at night.  If I can survive the potential theatrics she can be asleep by 7:30 PM and she will get close to her needed 12 hours of developmental sleep.

Sibling Jealousy

This one is slowly coming to light in the past couple of days.  I initially thought about it three weeks ago and then let it drift as we all adjusted into our new routines.  My two year old now spends six hours exclusively with me.  A lot of the time is simply errands and chores, but none of that is imagined by my four year old.  She assumes we’re playing games, doing art, eating candy, and having the greatest time ever, every single day.  The reality is, it’s only every other day.  Adding insult to injury is the fact that there is minimal time for just her and I to spend time together.  We’re trying to make time on the weekends for just the two of us, but this seems to slam into birthday parties and friends.  I knew there would be a time when friends would easily override time with parents, I just didn’t think it would be so soon.

Those are the primary areas that I have definitely noticed being affected by full day kindergarten.  The one thing I’m sure about is all of this will change and will change must faster than I think it will.  What do you remember about the transition to full time school for your kids?  What did you do to make it easier?  What would you do differently?

Buzz Bishop has two sons aged five and two.  I have two daughters aged four (and soon to be five, as I am reminded daily) and two.  Despite the difference in gender of our offspring, I feel I am in an ideal position to provide insight on his comments.  But first, two observations that I believe have increased the intensity of the reaction.  The first is the media loves controversy.  You will never see a blog post, news story, op-ed piece stating how a parent loves their children equally and could never even consider naming a favorite.  It’s the party line for most parents and about as newsworthy as the sun rose this morning.

The second is the realm of parenting blogs and opinions.  There is no perfect way to raise your children.  We all make choices and hopefully these choices are well thought out, however, lots of times parenting is simply flying blind.  These moments are the times we find ourselves exclaiming “Wow, I just sounded like my dad”.  However, saying all of this, parents are quick to respond and judge another’s choices, usually as a defense of their own decisions.  It’s often said you don’t make small talk about politics or religion, parenting is getting close to creating a trinity of topics to avoid.

My initial reaction to Mr. Bishop’s statement of having a clear favorite was “did he really say that”.  After some reading and watching, yes he did.  The next thought for me was “do I have a favorite daughter”.  I can honestly say that I do not have an absolute favorite.  I have situational favorites and those change, amazingly, with the situation.  If I shot a video of my day and then extracted scenes for review, we could all see moments where I favored one daughter over the other.  However, maybe moments before the start of the now edited video, the older / younger daughter beat the younger / older daughter over the head with a Barbie.  We lose the context of the event without all of the information.  I believe this is partially to blame for the reaction to Mr. Bishop’s comments, they’re being taken out of context.

The original blog post was about conceiving his oldest son very early on in his relationship with his wife.  I believe the comment, which seems to come out of left field in the post, is meant to juxtapose a possible concern that his eldest would be less loved because his son’s conception forced him down a specific path with the fact that his eldest is his favorite.  His defense of his comments provides insight into Mr. Bishop’s idea of what it means to be  his favorite.  Unfortunately, it appears his criteria consists of what his son can do for him.  Is he fun to be with?  What can he do with me?  His baseline appears to be himself and not each child’s individual development.  This is probably the primary difference between being a Stay-at-Home Dad and a Working Dad.

I am primary caregiver for my daughters.  I watch both of them developing and know what they were doing last month and what their doing now.  I hear both them singing and can hear words when my youngest one is singing where before there weren’t any and hear my oldest putting rhymes into her songs.  A parent who is not around to recognize the changes may spend their limited time with the child that can do more because it gives them the feeling their are getting more done and are themselves getting a break.  Ultimately, this can lead to the feeling of having a favorite.

So, what’s my response to the maelstrom.  It’s really a “tempest in a teacup” and it’s simply a parent expressing what he believes to be true.  Will it have an impact on his family dynamics, either now or in the future?  Maybe, but it’s not going to affect my family, my parenting, or change what I believe is truly important to me.

She knew nothing about the trip until Saturday morning.  My wife woke her up as I loaded up the car and when she was barely awake, she was told we had a surprise for the weekend.  The first word out of her were “Am I going to see E?” (E is her ten year old cousin that holds the number one spot on the list of people to spend time with).  A million options to guess and she nails it.  This was definitely an omen that things were going to go well for the next couple of days.

The ride to the ferry was full of questions.  Her last visit to Victoria was literally half a lifetime ago.  It was over two years ago and ended with a visit to emergency after she tripped and hit her head squarely on a door jam, splitting open her forehead.  Thankfully, she has no memory of where it all actually happened, so I didn’t have to deal with any Post Traumatic Stress issues as we walked through the door of my sister’s house.  Her questions involved things like where were we going?  How would we get the car over the water?  How would we eat?  Would we have to sleep on the ferry?  All good questions but somehow I think my answers lacked the magical quality a good adventure is supposed to include.  There would be no magical powers or mythical beasts in my answers.  I will have to be ready to incorporate these into the next adventure.

We only had to wait a few minutes in line before the car was loaded into the ferry.  More questions about where we were; where were the windows; where was breakfast.  I started going for the “Let’s go and find out” answer at this point.  There was no need to clutter up the question asking space with actual answers.  Going up the stairs involved comments about too many stairs, too many people, and, in essence, why are some many people making it so difficult for a four year old to just get fed.

Once we were in line to get some food she became distracted by the world outside the ferry.  She leaned into the huge windows and began to notice the seagulls sitting on the pier.  Through some long forgotten form of communication, she began having conversations with the gulls and was not happy when the line moved and she had to leave the conversation.  I still have these one sided conversations in my head, they’ve just evolved into “scenario planning” and “how do I explain this one to…” I much prefer listening to the anthropomorphic seagulls and my daughter.

We finally hit “decision alley” and need to select food and drink.  I think I understand part of the increased costs of the ferries because someone has to pay for the drain on power as a four year old holds open the cooler’s door and meticulously selects her morning beverage.  Of course, this is juxtaposed with her impatience as I get my coffee.  The next cooler door’s hinges also get tested as the right pastry is selected.  Finally, everything is paid for, we get the necessary straw for the juice and we sit… very, very briefly we sit.

“I need to pee.”  I’ll own this one.  After the car ride, a brief wait, and a food line up it makes sense.  We leave everything on the table and head out of the cafeteria to find a bathroom.  ”I want to go to the girls,”  is the request.  ”OK, but Daddy can’t come in with you,” is my reply.  She’s OK with it.  Again, I should have thought about this for a moment, but my coffee’s sitting on a table at the back of the ferry and not helping my brain’s morning fog dissipate.  Two things my daughter gets scared by are automatic toilets and loudly flushing toilets – the ferry toilets are both.  I’m not thinking about the engineering designs of the toilets, I’m thinking about our breakfast and how long the ferry crew will let it sit before clearing it.  ”OK, you can go to the girls, I’ll be just outside the door.”

A couple minutes pass, and then a scream and my daughter’s cries for my help.  Two fears have joined forces and now she can’t get the stall door open either.  She’s trapped, this monster has roared behind her, and my coffee deprived brain is trying to determine the best course of action.  She’s struggling with the door.  I’m asking how she locked it, she says she can’t remember.  ”What does it look like?”  I’m asking.  ”A door” is her reply.  ”Did you turn something or slide something?”  ”No” is all that’s coming back.  Finally, I step inside the “Forbidden City” and push on the stall door, it opens, it wasn’t locked.  In her desperation to get out she was pushing on the door.  Rescue complete and we head back to the cafeteria.

Our food is still there and I’m able to get the much needed caffeine into my system.  The muffin that had been picked is quickly rejected and she’s moved onto my bacon and toast.  We head out onto the outer decks to check out the scenery and to explore the ship.  We come across a naturalist doing a talk on the upper deck.  We stop to listen and my daughter is engaged.  She’s yelling out her answers to the questions.  The four year old ego is such that any question asked is obviously for her and she must respond and share her knowledge.  I was finding out that, when it comes to marine life, she’s absorbed a lot of facts.  After the talk, she wanted to talk to the naturalist, but I think she really wanted to see the stuffed animals and puppets up close.

She shares that she has a stuffed dolphin at home named “Squeaks” that looks just like the stuffed orca.  During the talk, the naturalist spoke about rock fish and that they lived 80 years.  While looking at a hermit crab puppet my four year old asked, “if the rock fish live 80 years, how long does a hermit crab live and does he keep growing the whole time?”  I start checking her ears for a earpiece and a receiver.  The naturalist doesn’t know, but I’m sure she was googling the question between sailings.  Walking away from the talk I tell her those were really good questions and her response was “I just wanted to know.”  I tell her that’s great and to always ask questions, people want to share.

After a little more exploring it’s time to head back down to the car.  Once we’re strapped in, she wants me to drive.  I try and explain we need to wait for the ferry to dock; wait for the vehicles in front of us to move; wait for the crew member to direct us to go; but these answers don’t work for her.  She wants to be on her way to her cousins.  We wait anyway.  Finally, we’re off the boat and driving into Victoria and all is right with the world.

At this point, both my four year old and my two year old have openly expressed the desire to lead, usually by stating “I’m the leader!” and then walking off towards a different part of the house.  The difference is the two year old will occasionally follow, but the four year old will not, unless it’s by accident.  I’ve also witnessed the desire to lead on the playground where the simply stating you are leading apparently is all that is necessary to dictate play.  After years of puzzling over politics, it has taken my eldest and her peers to provide me with the catalyst to understanding the political process.  Lobbying is an inherent trait we all share as evidenced by the “buuut, Daaaaad…” that I hear in response to everything I say.  I could be suggesting a chocolate ice cream sundae covered in marshmallows and chocolate sauce and served by a fairy princess and I would hear opposition to the idea.  ”Buuut, Daaad, I wanted strawberry ice cream….”

What I perceive as a need to lead nobody and to oppose everything is just my eldest’s ego attempting to flex its muscles.  While I see flashes of empathy, her world is still all about her.  The toughest task for me right now is staying the course and repeating ad nauseam, “you need to share with your sister” and  ”No, you can’t (insert inappropriately timed activity request here)”.  Apparently, her sense of empathy will be fully engaged by the age of seven and she’ll then understand why I’m banging my head against the wall.

To complicate the conundrum, my two year old’s own ego is emerging.  Despite my eldest’s Borg-like belief that “Resistance is Futile”, she will defend her territory, toys, and desires.  Not too long ago, my role seemed to be simply to ensure my youngest had the basic human right to exist.  With her ego emerging, I now need to apply the same level of “rules” with her as I do with my four year old.  This is tough because I want each of them to learn there are consequences to their actions and that I will not always be able to, or willing to, intercede on their behalf.  However, I also know at this point, neither of them has the skills to see the cause and effect of their actions.  So I’m left to stop conflict before it naturally resolves itself, which is good because it keeps insurance premiums down.

So what have the past two weeks taught me about my role in my daughters’ development of themselves?

Stay on Point – Even though it appears my repeated messages to “share” and “how do you think your sister feels” are falling on deaf ears and I wonder why I even bother to repeat the messages, they will help shape my daughters’ empathy and social skills.  I have to remember it will take years for the messages to be received and not to get discouraged.

Stay in the Moment – This is their point of view, it needs to be my point of view.  I’m always bringing the annoying past and unknown future into the moment.  My daughters’ perspective is now.  If I’m aware of the now, then it makes responding simpler.  We’re only going to live these moments once and there’s way more good in the experiences than bad.  I still need to deal with the pesky past and future, but I don’t need to involve them in my machinations.

Be Impartial – At any one moment I can play the roles of referee, judge, prosecutor or defender.  There can be moments when I need to more than one, if not all of them simultaneously.  My daughters’ ideas of fairness, conflict resolution, and justice will eventually emerge from how I attempt to resolve things.  They each need to know I will ask both of them what happened and that I will ask for solutions from each of them.  At this point, it’s only my eldest who provides “solutions” whereas the two year old simply states “I want it”.  When I make a decision, I need to be able to explain it in simple terms.  I don’t have to explain it every time, however, if the solution isn’t simple, it probably isn’t the right solution.

I realize the past two weeks are simply the beginning of a very long journey.  I hope at some point in the mid 2030′s my daughters will feel they both won the title of Survivor – Sibling Rivalry.

As in any controversial situation there many sides to the story, and even more opinions.  The primary fact that has driven the story is the Washington State law forbidding sunscreen at school without a prescription.  I did a search of the Tacoma School Board policies and identified Regulation 3416 and 3416R as the probable reasons sunscreen is “forbidden”.

Medications, including over the counter medications “administered by routes other than oral (ointments, drops, nasal inhalers,suppositories or non-emergency injections) may not be administered by school staff other than registered or licensed practical nurses.”  Sunscreens are considered over the counter medication by the Tacoma School Board.

There is a provision in 3416R that provides for self-administering medication – a rather bureaucratic process – but it’s there nonetheless.  The problem with the use of laws and regulations is that they are typically simplified until there is a simple answer that often flies in the face of common sense.  In this case, “no sunscreen” at school.

Of course, most of the stories out there are searching for blame.  We all like it when there’s a reasonable scapegoat to a unfortunate or tragic incident.  It makes us feel better about ourselves, or about the environments we put our children in.  In the more “reasonable” articles, they are attaching fault to everyone so that “King Soloman’s baby” is getting carved up for the blame feast.

I think Jesse Michener identified what the true purpose of all this noise should be – ensuring it doesn’t happen again.  It appears the involved parties (teachers, school board, parents) all understand thing should have gone differently, so put in place the simplest solution for the most people (maybe easier said than done) and this will help empower more people to do the right thing.

The specific lesson for the rest of us is be sun safe with your kids.  The general lesson is to always apply common sense to your situation, no matter what your role.  If you need to break a “regulation” so a kid stays safe, do it.  To quote my dad, “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission”.

So besides investing in earplugs, what am I doing to reduce the skirmishes and lengthen the periods of cooperation?

Staying Involved

I’m trying to be more a part of the play.  This way I can be the one influencing the direction of play in, hopefully, a more subtle manner.  I suggest we take turns in different roles or I say I want to do a different activity.  I also ask each of them what they want to do next.  Most of the time my youngest is eager to do what my oldest wants to do.  However, this way it’s not a “top down decision” but a democratic “vote”.  I’m a sort of “UN Observer” of playtime.

Listen for the Signals

When I’m not directly involved in the play my ears are tuned for the usual signals that things are about to go south.  I’m sure they could be speaking in a foreign language and I would be able to tell from the tone in their voices its time to redirect.  I’ve found the best solution is to change our venue.  If we’re inside, let’s go outside.  If we’re upstairs, let’s go downstairs.  It’s usually enough to reset the dynamics.  Sometimes, it’s just time to eat or to start our night time routines.

Create Separation

This solution doesn’t require separate rooms, just separate mental spaces.  I find simply giving each of us a piece of paper and some crayons creates the necessary state of mind.  They both become involved in their art and forget there’s anyone else around.  There’s always the chance that one particular crayon becomes the season’s “must have” colour, but there’s usually another orange or peach crayon lurking in the tub.  Anything that involves concentrating on their own actions works well.  As with anything, there’s always a time limit, but usually after that they are more than happy enough to interact with each other again.

I believe it’s important for the girls to learn to interact with each other.   At the same time, I believe it’s important for me to be aware of their interactions and the dynamics and to do my best to show them what to do when they hit roadblocks.  No matter how hard I try to create a positive environment, conflict will always arise.  My hope is to also provide them with ideas on what to do in order to keep moving forward.  What do you do when your kids squabble?

With the beginning of summer upon us, we’re all hoping for time outside to play and relax.  Most of us are aware that exposure to the sun will cause damage to our skin and can lead to the possibility of skin cancer.  The culprits are the nasty ultraviolet (UV) rays.  We receive 50% to 80% of our lifetime’s total exposure to the sun before we’re 18 year old.  As parents, and especially dads, we need to pay attention to each time we’re outside with our kids.

Your kids skin is thinner and more vulnerable to the damage that the sun can cause than your own.  Males have thicker skin (despite what some women may think) and therefore an hour in the sun can go completely unnoticed, yet your kids can look like lobsters.  We’re at the time of year that even if we’re outside on a cloudy day, those sneaky UV rays are still smacking into the Earth and our kid’s skin.  We need to get into the following routines:

• Use sunscreen consistently - Your children should always wear sunscreen outside during the summer months, regardless of the weather. Generously apply sunscreen 20 to 30 minutes before children go outside. Reapply sunscreen every two to three hours-more often if water play is involved.
• Avoid the strongest rays of the day - Plan your outdoor times during the morning and late afternoon hours. Avoid times when the sun is most intense-noon to 2 p.m. in most areas.
• Keep outdoor play and family fun to a reasonable length - Limit the length of time your children spend in the sun to help prevent overexposure and sunburns.
• Cover up - Be sure to bring clothing that can cover your kid’s sensitive skin areas. Lightweight long-sleeve shirts and hats with wide brims provide good sun protection.
• Encourage your children to take play breaks in shady areas - Your children can still enjoy outdoor play without spending all of their time in the sunniest areas.
• Offer fluids frequently - To prevent your kids getting dehydrated, offer water or other healthy beverages during their fun in the sun.
• Be a good role model - Your children learn by watching the adults in their lives.  When you model use of sunscreen and other protective measures, your kids are encouraged to follow along.

We have all heard these messages before and we’ll likely hear them a few more times in the coming weeks.  It’s good to remember that  a sunburned child is difficult to manage.  They’re in pain, they want to scratch the burned area which can lead to infections to the newly exposed skin, they can’t go and play in the sun,  and their energy level is unaffected.  Overall, a really bad combination.  On top of all that, a sunburn will force you to alter your plans and a serious sunburn can alter plans for days.

As the old saying goes, an ounce of sunscreen is worth a pound of aloe vera (or something like that).

Tools

In a past artistic endeavour I had picked up a set of leather embossing tools.  They have been sitting amongst my tools for a good couple of decades but I remembered I had them and brought them out to see if they would do the job.  The girls loved using them, but they are definitely not required to make the imprints in the foam.  Anything from a dull pencil to a spoon will do the trick.  In fact, I would suggest it would be fun just to find out what marks different household objects make and what the final prints end up looking like.  (This may just be another art experiment for us).  

So the tools we used were:

• Leather embossing tools
• Foam sheets
• Tube of water soluble block printing ink
• 4″ Brayer
• Foam tray for inking
• Watercolour paper
• Large spoon

Imprinting Foam

The process for creating the impression in the foam is straightforward.  Use the tools you’ve amassed and press into the foam.  One thing to remember is if you’re going to put letters or numbers into the foam, ensure you’re going right to left and the letters are reversed.  Even knowing this, I started one of the girl’s names on the left hand side of the foam.  The girls loved trying the different tools out to see what type of mark they would make.  Once the “block” is ready, it’s time to get the ink out.

Inking

The kit I bought included a foam tray for inking.  It worked fine, but there were depressions in the tray where the ink just sat away from the brayer and eventually was just wasted.  Almost all of the “serious” sites regarding block printing suggest using a sheet of glass.  Next time I’ll either try glass, a glass pie plate, or one of our sheets of plexiglass.  It doesn’t take a lot of ink to get the brayer covered, so for each print I squeezed a toothpaste size drop of ink and rolled the brayer across it.  The described way to know you have enough ink is the brayer sounds like you’re pulling it off of a surface covered in Velcro.  In reality, the girls inked their own foam so their inking went from “barely there” to “we need to buy a new tube of ink”.  

Printing

We used our water colour paper to transfer the print.  We simply put the paper over the foam, took the big spoon and rubbed it evenly (kind of) across the back of the paper and then peeled the foam off of the front and voilà, we had a block print.  The inking / printing process was the highlight, so much so that for one of her sheets my two year old skipped the whole imprinting the foam portion of the art exploration and went right to the inking / printing.  The funniest part was her asking why there wasn’t a picture on the paper when she was done.  We will be selling a limited edition of  ”Cloudy Midnight Sky” on Etsy.  

Summary

The project was a success.  My four year old has already asked to do it again and I will collect some “unique” tools from around the house and outside to see what type of images we can create.  I think we would also experiment with different types of paper to see how the textures affect the final print.   The only thing I would do differently is instead of buying the kit, I would simply buy the brayer and the ink.  This art process will definitely be going into our regular rotation.

Have you ever done any block printing with your kids?  Have you used any unique “blocks” or imprinting tools?

Go Outside and Get Wet

We have a puppy and puppies need to go outside.  There is no litter box in the garage for her so she needs to “do her business” outside.  No matter the weather, we will spend a portion of the day in the elements.  Toss on the rain coats and rain boots, grab a ball, some poop bags, and a few treats (for everyone) and we’re off.  I usually ask our eldest where our walk should take us and she has a few standard destinations and they all serve the purpose of getting the family to burn some energy.  With the right preparation (everyone makes a trip to the bathroom) we’re outside for a couple of hours and when we come home everyone is ready for some food and some quiet time.  Even if you don’t have a four month old puppy to use as an excuse to get outside, do it anyway.  Tell your kids there are fairies or dragons or treasure that you need to find.  They’ll do the rest for you, trust me.  You mention a mythical creature and you’ll be finding evidence of its existence the entire time your outside.  So much so, you’ll start to wonder if maybe there is something else out there.

Build a Blanket Fort

Grab a few sheets from the closet, flip the couch around, pull over some kitchen or dining room chairs and start creating your fortress.  Anchor the sheets with some books because the biggest lament you will hear will be about the roof collapsing.  Your kids will likely take over from there.  They’ll introduce the toys necessary to continue in their fort, hospital, firehall, or house.  There will be new rules because this smaller space is ruled by smaller people.  As long as these new rules don’t involve open flame, sharp objects, or sentences with  language not allowed on the outside of the fort – follow them.  The time will fly and your next difficult task will be explaining how you didn’t get the right building permits and you have to take down the fort before the “building inspector” gets home from work.

Art

We are always doing some type of art related activity.  No matter the weather, there will be a time during the day when the crayon / marker / pencil / “hey this makes a mark on paper so I’m putting it in the  bin” container is out on the table along with a colouring book or paper.  When its raining I try and up the ante on the art time.  I’ll pull out the paints (watercolour or tempura) and brushes and we’ll paint.  Eventually my two year old’s image is a murky brown mass in the centre of the paper and my four year old has moved from brushes to hands to inadvertently using her hair to create a unique brush stroke on the background.  The painting usually stops when someone gets hungry or the brown mass exceeds the surface volume of the paper.  Our artwork gets put aside to dry and await the appropriate exclamations from Mommy when she gets home.

If it’s the 37th day in a row of rain I usually have some fresh art ideas to try (there are only so many brown blobs that will hold your interest).  As we try them out, I’ll share them here.

The limitations of a rainy day are really my limitations.  Kids have no problem getting wet; it’s my problem getting them appropriately covered and then getting them dried and warmed afterwards that puts limitations on it.  The key to weather is to have some sort of plan or contingency (depending on whether you knew it would rain or it surprised you) to roll with it.  If you have the ideas and supplies, it’s just like water off a duck’s back.

Does the weather affect your plans?  What do you do?