Blueberry Picking and Gift Idea {After School Link Up}

It’s blueberry picking season in our part of the world!  We had so much fun this weekend with friends at a local blueberry patch.  There's is just something magical about going with your family to pick food from the earth together.  From birds, bunnies, butterflies and even baby bird just born we really felt one with nature.  

We even ran into Amanda’s family while we were there.  I can’t believe how our girls had basically grown up picking berries together.  Can you guess how old they are in each picture? 

We picked for a few hours and came home with a treasure full of blueberries.  While we were picking we decided to surprise someone with fresh berries.  We've been working on Acts of Kindness with our family.  So glad we talked about it because when we arrived home we had more than we really needed as a family.  Even after washing and freezing, here are some tips, them for future adventures with eating blueberries. 

My daughter decided that she wanted to bring them to her teachers at school. My husband is going to drop them off at the Hope Lodge on his way to work. A recent facebook fan even suggested giving to your local firefighters.  What a special treat to have handpicked blueberries just for you!  Who would you give yours too? 

We kept it simple and I’m sure you could go all fancy but it was my daughters creation and from the heart which is the best gift of all.  She hand made her cards to each teacher with a message that says “You are BERRY special!” She also drew a picture of her teacher and her on the front.  

 Here's a printable if you are bringing a special Berry Treat to your child's Teacher this berry picking season.  I think the random gifts throughout the school year are a great way to show your appreciation to your child’s teacher with little things.

Are you looking for more ways to use your blueberries?  Check out 30 Ways to Eat Blueberries.  It’s our post from last year that includes recipes, activities, songs, books and how to store all your blueberries.  Plus we have a sewing project to do with Peter in Blueberry Land.  We’re sharing our strawberry ideas this week! Strawberries would make a sweet gift too!   

What have you been up to After School and on the Weekend with your child?  

Here's our MOST Clicked from Last's Week's After School Linky 

The Science of Summer Bucket List  from KC Edventures 

80+ Inexpensive or Free Summer Activities 4 Kids from Crystal and Co. 

After School Link Up is Cohosted by

The Educators' Spin On It

Little Wonders' Days

Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

This Reading Mama

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, homeschool or on the weekend! When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board or Feature on our After School Party next week! Don't forget to follow along and join our After School Enrichment Community.

Link up your After School Activities, Crafts and Adventures! We'd love to see them!

Kids in the Garden

This is a post for all you parents and teachers sitting on the fence about whether or not you should try a garden this year (or make your current one bigger).  It is time that you removed yourself from that very uncomfortable perch on that fence and come down to dig your fingers into the wonderful earth with the best of us crazy gardeners. It is time to plug in to nature and spend time exploring and learning in the natural environmental   If not for our own health and sanity, for our kids.  Our kids NEED us to garden!

Today, I walked my oldest daughter to school and came home to this; gardens full of leaves and blossoms , new fruits and vegetables, dirt piles to dig in, and sunshine warming my shoulders.  My 3 year old sang good morning to the birds and the sun and the bugs and then began to harvest vegetables and dig in the dirt.  Our baby, snuggled in his carrier and helped me to water the plants.  I was filled with such peace, beauty, and love that I wanted to share with you the possibility of a garden.  

We don't have much, but we have enough.

Enough to learn about the cycles of life.

Enough to understand growth and loss.

Enough to harvest a small handful of something every day.

Enough to know that farming takes work.

Enough to teach the value of hard work.

Enough to understand the power of a tiny seed.

Enough to learn that we have lots more to learn.

Enough to grasp the concept of how food grows.

Enough to develop the love for healthy fruits and vegetables.

Enough

I apologize in advance for a picture heavy post.  I just grabbed my basic, point-and-shoot camera and snapped photos along the way. No editing. No cropping. No color enhancing.  Just our garden. Right now, in the raw.

I do hope that it is not just me who looks at these pictures and can feel the awesomeness of garden veggies (I may be biased towards these as they were grown with love, and our mine, kinda like we all think our kids are amazingly cute - well, apply that same concept to gardens!). We started with a small garden several years ago and I recommend that you do too and work your way up to a manageable garden - one that can be easily maintained within your daily life.  Think - simplicity.  It is easy to over plant and get overwhelmed.  Although I would like to grow tomatoes for canning- I am an epic failure when it comes to big tomatoes and so, I just plant cherries and grapes (tomatoes that is).  Then, I go to the local farmers market and buy what I want from someone who is way more successful than I am. 

Are you inspired?  Will you garden this year? What will you plant?

Please feel free to stop by and ask any question you may have about gardening with your kids or even share what has worked for you.   I am an experienced parent and educator, and an O.K. gardener (definitely not a master!)  Like many others, I have learned from asking questions and talking with other like-minded parents and teachers.  

Using Toys to Model Appropriate Behavior with Kids {Virtual Book Club for Kids}

Each Month we spotlight a new author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids.  This month we're featuring books by David Shannon. 

We're sharing tips on how to turn "No David" by David Shannon into "Yes David" with your Child

David Shannon has written several books with a children loved character David.  Perhaps it’s because David was inspired by his own writing as a child children are drawn into the character of David.  I think it’s great to take advantage of this natural interest and focus on social skills with these books. 

We’ve been having a few issues at home with listening and making safe choices at our house with our year old daughter.  You know climbing on chairs, running through the kitchen, hitting her big sister, sitting down to eat at the table for the whole meal… the simply things we all work with our children as they grow and mature on a daily basis.  I decided to try a simple but game with her to see if she could easily identify the desired behaviors. 

We sat down and read the books No, David! and  David Gets in Trouble by David Shannon.  Is this book David does various things around the home that he isn’t supposed to like knocking down furniture, breaking a window, refusing to eat, pulling the cat’s tail and several more.  While we were reading it we discussed how it wasn’t ok to do those things.  Plus it focuses on how David gets in trouble when he does those things and has to apologize for his actions at the end. 

Make your Own Yes Story
Now it was time for our house and those behaviors I was hoping we could address through this story.  Do you have any undesired behaviors at home with your child?  So what we did was come up with our own Story that Includes a No and also a YES! 

Did you know that children have a difficult time processing negative directions?  If you say Stop Running they will tend to hear “Running”.  If you say don’t hit your sister, they hear “hit your sister”.  Over time as they repeatedly hear rules yes they do comprehend what you’re saying but it’s a whole lot easier for them to process a positive statement.  Instead of saying “Stop running” say “Walk” or “Walk Slowly”.  If they are using their hands inappropriately instead of saying no hitting you could say “Use your hands gently” or “Hands off”.  Focusing on giving positive expectations will help your child process what you are expecting of them.

We changed some of those undesired behaviors into the things that my daughter should be doing and shouted YES when she role played them correctly.  She’s two so sharing our expectations again and again is developmentally appropriate and what she needs to lay that solid foundation of understood behaviors.  We even took pictures of her animals doing the right things and printed them out to make our very own YES Book.  You could easily create it with images of your child too.   In our images we addressed bedtime, mealtime, sitting on furniture and caring for toys.  I'm sure there are many other behaviors that we will add to our book.  What will you focus on? 

Expressing Empathy 

The other game was to focus on Empathy and saying I’m sorry.  We practiced role playing with the dolls to demonstrate.  Our Bunny, Doggy and Kitty were up to no good and we role played the things that they should be doing and how to say I’m sorry. 

If you want to use David for this role model activity here's a Printable David Puppet from Kindergarten Kindergarten.  Check out below what some of our Virtual Book Club Hosts have created for you to go along with David Shannon's Books.  Here's a quick video of David Shannon himself!

Meet the Author David Shannon  

 



    

David Themed Books by David Shannon 

Now It's your turn to share with us what you can create! Read an David Shannon Book and be inspired to create your own activities to go with your selected book! Join our Virtual Book Club for Kids. Please add your links to any David Shannon inspired posts to the blog hop linky below.

There are a few rules for this blog hop that we ask you to follow, so make sure to read them.

1. Link up only posts inspired by David Shannon that share children's book inspired crafts, activities, recipes, etc. Any other posts will be deleted.
2. Visit other blog posts on the linky and comment on or share the ones you love!
3. Add our Virtual Book Club button to your post if you'd like.

UPCOMING AUTHORS

May 20- Leo Lionni

June 12 Gail Gibbons

July 15 Jez Alborough

August 19 Donald Crews 

Did you Miss an Author from the Virtual Book Club for Kids? 

Don and Audrey Woods  ~  Mo Willems  ~ Kevin Henkes  ~ Lois Ehlert  ~ Amy Krouse Rosenthal  ~ Tomie dePaola  ~   Jan Brett  ~ David McPhail ~   Dr. Seuss  ~  Julia Donaldson  and More to Come 

Have you joined the Virtual Book Club for Kids Summer Camp?

Sign Up today for 5 Weeks of Book Fun! 

Growing Strawberries - Is it worth it?

So my dear readers, as many of you know, I love to garden with my kids for many, many reasons. We are more than willing to share our successes and failures with others - which means that at many play dates with the kiddos, we end up talking about our gardens.  A friend recently told me how excited she was to start her very first garden and all that was going to be in it was strawberries....  

Is it worth it? 

Maybe it is just me - but strawberries are a pain in the butt and I would NOT recommend only planting them for the backyard gardener.  I fear that you and your kids will be very disappointed and give up gardening altogether. 

First off - the strawberry plants take up a lot of space based on the amount of fruit they produce. You will need a LOT of plants for a small family.  

Then, they do best mulched with straw ($$$) and need frequent watering ($)

Most strawberries also need to be rotated, picking in the second year for the best harvest. 

Last, the slugs and bugs LOVE strawberries. There is a reason they are hard to find organically in the stores.

Which brings us back to the question - is it worth planting strawberries?

In my opinion, besides having said all of the above, YES!  Just don't believe all the flowery garden articles like this one that have you salivating at the thought of harvesting bowls of strawberries every morning for your breakfast with just a minimal amount of work. Growing strawberries takes time and effort and space - like all other plant, but a little bit more.  We go out every morning and remove (and yes kill) slugs as we don't use pesticides (not super fun, but something you must do) and have the plants mulched in straw.... but oh, to let your kids pick strawberries right of the plant and pop them into their mouths = worth the time, worth the money, worth the effort.

Did you know we have a Pinterest Board for you to find Gardening with Kids?  We'd love for you to follow!