Winter in Chicago can be harsh. It's long and sometimes colder than Alaska. Particularly, windchill is dreadful. Nothing protects you against it and it drains the energy in you. Snow, however, is on the good side of winter in my book. When it snows the temperatures warm a bit. Everywhere is covered in a peaceful white, at least for a while. Kids … [Read more...]
Archives for December 2013
Winter Learning Challenge by Chicago Public Library
Winter break is here!Winter Learning Challenge is another great program for the kids over the break by Chicago Public Library. Since last summer these programs also involve LEARNing and CREATEing in addition to READing. The theme this winter is "learning more about nature in your neighborhood this winter". We did great winter activities from … [Read more...]
Feeling-o-meter to help children identify and describe their feelings
My son gets frustrated and upset very quickly. He has a short fuse. He always describes his state as he's "MAD". Whatever happens, he's always mad and whenever that word comes out of his mouth, things get escalated pretty quickly.I explained to him that most probably he doesn't get MAD in every situation. He doesn't feel the same level of … [Read more...]
Last 2 weeks for Chicago’s Sustainable Backyards Program Rebates
We've had our compost bin for the last 5 years, but it's been opening at the seams and duct tape isn't holding it together anymore. So I've been eyeing tumbling compost bins for a long time. I purchased this 80-gallon tumbling compost bin from Walmart. It's not as big as the old one. Hopefully, if it holds to its promise, it should compost … [Read more...]
Ballerina themed birthday party
My little sunshine turned 6 a week ago. It's harder to accept that your youngest is growing. (S)he is always the youngest of the house no matter what.My daughter wanted a Ballerina Birthday party this year. We made a big change and threw the party somewhere other than our house. For the last 13 parties, between my son and daughter, we always … [Read more...]
Let’s give these kids a playground on Giving Tuesday
Happy Giving Tuesday. Today is “Giving Tuesday”, a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support non-profit organizations. My children go to a public school in Chicago. It's a magnet school with about 850 students from K to 8. It's a really good school. We're lucky … [Read more...]