B's Mojo Hat

It has been years since I have made my husband a hat. Don't ask me why I have waited so long because he is the perfect hat recipient. I mean, he loves, loves, loves the hats that I make for him. He wears them indoors and outdoors, in the morning and at night. He talks about his hand-knitted hats, shows them to people he barely knows and loved ones alike. The only quality of my favorite hat getter that isn't so perfect is that he loses them-he loses all of them. The first one he lost at a truck stop, the second also lost (at a restaurant?). We'll see how long this one makes it.

I made the hat with Kureyon out of this pattern. Instead of casting on 95 stitches, I cast on 85 for the pea-sized head I was knitting it for and finished it in under five days. Very satisfying project. And as I said, it is well loved.

Child Work

Harvey and Norah have recently both taken a leap of independence. Harvey now puts on his own coat ("flip it, Harv!"), Norah has begun cleaning, and both of them have learned to clear the table after dinner (ok, so I bribe them with Halloween candy, but still...). All of this has significantly lightened my load--we get out of the house that much smoother when there is one less jacket to put on and it is amazing how much better I feel when I come downstairs after bedtime to a cleared and cleaned table.

In general, I have been inviting the kids into my daily work more than ever. Instead of trying to find things to entertain them while I am cleaning, I got them a broom. Cleaning up the playroom can be about tidying up their "home." A rearranging of some ideas in my head had to take place, though, for this to happen. When my kids are involved cooking dinner is not about quickly getting it on the table; rather it becomes an activity that we start together an hour or so before we eat.

Some great reading on involving your kids in household tasks::
Heaven on Earth
Work and Play in Early Childhood

Quotable Sunday

Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age / The child is grown, and puts away childish things. / Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies. / Nobody that matters, that is.
Edna St. Vincent Millay

More Good Reading

Every night around 9:30 my husband and I trek upstairs after watching our nightly Netflix documentary (right now we are watching this one) to enjoy a half hours worth of reading time together underneath a cozy down comforter. For over three years I nearly stopped reading. The challenges of mothering just made extinct my formerly voracious appetite for books. Funnily, though my book reading stopped, my book buying did not. Consequently I have an almost full bookshelf of never been read and barely even been touched books just waiting for me. I get so excited when I finish one book and get to go "shopping" on my shelf for another one. Really. I do so little shopping any more that this is sheer joy for me.
My latest "purchase" is David Elkind's Preschoolers At Risk.
. The book is a bit outdated (I believe it was published in the late eighties) but there is still much value in the author's argument. He thinks that in our efforts to create "superkids" (by sending our kids to skill-driven preschool programs, for example) that we are depriving them of their childhood, asking them to be too grown up too fast. Before reading this, I had thought much about how to ensure that my kids get to stay kids--now I am thinking about it even more.

Reorganizing Our Play Space

I have been doing some thinking lately about how to best organize the play area for the kids. We have so many toys that get forgotten--lost at the bottom of a basket or hidden in a corner. Our sunroom which serves as a playroom is a long narrow space where toys seem to spread out uncontrollably. In Sharifa Oppenheimer's book Heaven on Earth, she describes a number of essential elements for indoor play spaces, including having "homes" for all play things--baskets for doll clothes, for example. Children then know where to go when they want to dress their dolls, rather than sifting through an enormous basket filled with miscellaneous junk.
I decided to break up the room by dividing it with our long, low shelf. We now have two play spaces--one focused on "homey" play with a kitchen, table, doll bedroom, potty, etc.. and one focused more on "school" play with our books, games, an easel, a train set and other toys. I was worried that this might be too directive and limiting, but so far we have really enjoyed it. Not only have we seen a renaissance of the train set and the dollhouse, but we also have two "rooms"--one for each child when there is strife. A little more playing and a little less yelling--this makes for one happy mama.

Autumn in the Northeast

Before having children, I did not pay much attention to the seasons. I am sure part of this had something to do with growing up in Texas (where the seasons change less dramatically) and spending a great deal of time in California (where all of the seasons are mild). Pre-kiddos, many of my wakeful hours were spent indoors--in a classroom or an apartment building.

Much of my time is spent outdoors these days and I am quite literally astonished at the beauty of this season. Last weekend must have been peek foliage for Northern New Jersey and what a sight it was to behold. I saw yellows so luminescent that I quite literally felt as though I was closer to Heaven surrounded by their light.

Quotable Sunday

To raise children who, as young adults, can freely create their life as they envision it-- this is our task. We do this by fashioning a space in which, with a delicate balance of guidance and freedom, our children can discover who they really are.

Sharifa Oppenheimer
Heaven on Earth