the sandbox

Yesterday we relocated the sandbox and filled it with fresh sand. It was on my to do list for an embarrassingly long time. I'm so grateful for the strong back of my son who carried and dumped the 50lb. bags. I figured it was now or never, as the baby in the house might not be interested for much longer. I'm so pleased she still loves it! We felt like we were on a tropical island all afternoon. I know those walnut trees look nothing like palm trees, but imagination is a beautiful thing... 

We love sand so much! It creates such a rich learning environment for young children and provides open-ended, unstructured and unlimited possibilities for learning through play. If you have any space at all in your yard, a sandbox is worth making. It takes very little skill to make a very functional one. My husband made this one years ago with 6 untreated 2x8's, a drill and some sandpaper. It's seen a lot of weather and still going strong! The two top pieces add bracing and structure while making a nice spot for grown-up seating or a counter for working.

We've always loved turning clementine crates into little stove tops for sand cakes. Yesterday my daughter flipped over the crate and focused on the little holes at the bottom. She poured,poked and arranged flowers and sticks for an incredibly long time.

Just another reminder of how much satisfaction is found in simplicity.

classics

We've just moved on to marbles...

And blocks and tracks...

Using books for engineering inspiration...

Never underestimate the power of simple and classic toys to capture the imagination of children. They have the ability to bridge age gaps, genders,and play preferences. Something I'm especially grateful for in this moment!  Hickory Cat doesn't seem impressed one bit...

melancholy monday

 Good morning friends!
Hope today finds you dry, safe and well. Although the sun is shining brightly right now, yesterday's storm kept us cozy inside with a pot of soup and a cake in the oven... a definite taste of the cooler months ahead. Summer is coming to a close.We said goodbye to my mother after her long and wonderful stay. Heartbreaking for each of us. And now I get ready to say goodbye to the long leisurely mornings for my children and all of the other dreamy, slow qualities of this season. This is my last full week of having them home with me, and I intend to soak it up.
This weekend I found myself:

staring at their happy bare toes and sun-kissed shoulders

and

inhaling their tousled hair scented with the perfume of days spent outdoors

I'm etching into memory how they look and smell and feel in my arms right this moment, because come October we cover up to keep warm. The next time I'll see my children so wild and free, they will be that much bigger. Oh, the ache that comes from watching a life unfold. A longing to slow it down. Please. This photo captures so much for me that I struggle to find the words... I think it's that feeling we all get when we observe someone we love while they are unaware. The full depth of our love washes over us for a moment like a big sigh.

And this gorgeous bouquet? It's the last one my mother picked at the farm... beautiful just like her. I think I'll head over to the barn and scoop it up for my own kitchen table before the petals droop too much.

Oh, the bittersweetness of a life full of love. I DO feel very blessed even (or maybe especially) in the midst of my melancholy Monday.
Ah, I think I just figured out the title to this morning's post...
xox,
Maya

summer postcards #16

We arrived when the lights were just clicking on.

Such a contrast to our usual days. And nights.

Wouldn't be summer without a trip to the fair!

for the love of jacks

My grandmother was an amazing jacks player. She taught me how to play on the smooth floor of her nursery school one summer and I brought the game back home to my neighborhood. I taught all the girls on my block. That was our year of serious jack tournaments and many long hours scraping our hands on the pavement. Yesterday I introduced jacks to my daughter. It was a little early, but I had a feeling she would love it... and I couldn't wait! We do that with our childhood faves... introduce them at the first sign of possibility... because we're ready. It was windy and cool outside so we sat in the sun at the bottom of the stairs. She took to it right away. It's a challenge for those little hands, but she is so determined. She's made it to "threesies" and will be practicing again today, no doubt.

This is an old fashioned game of skill that certainly shouldn't be forgotten. Did you play as a child? Have you taught your children, yet? I would say 8 or 9 would be an ideal age to start... but my 6 1/2 year old seems to be bitten by the jacks bug, so earlier is possible. Traditional metal jacks are the way to go. We got these at a little store in our village, but amazon seems to have a few sets, just can't vouch for them since I haven't seen them in person.

I know what we'll be doing today!

crate-full

Happy Monday friends! Popping in to show you just why I was so excited about those crates my mother brought back from Madison Bouckville. There are a lot of them, no? I love to stack crates for shelves... these are already built as shelves! They were selling them for so little that she filled the back of her tiny pickup truck. She didn't get much else... this was the gold. We've been cleaning them off and looking for new ways to get organized over at the barn. Who doesn't need more shelves?

The typography is, of course, what I love most. It's clue to the past. The history of these crates is steeped in a local wool slipper business that I found fascinating. You can read about it right here. My mom discovered some old writing in one of them... someone's notes scrawled in pencil. I ran my fingers over the indented lines trying to transport myself back to 1919, if only for a moment. It was the same time of year as right now... wonder if the person who wrote it felt the fall chill in the air like I do today... maybe they did and hoped for more slipper sales!

My mom also picked up a few very old cigar boxes. They're striking aren't they?



And I had had one big wish... a large frying pan for all the cooking this bountiful season inspires. Thanks mom, it's a beauty!

Madison Bouckville

While I was thrifting zippers, my mother was thrifting at Madison Bouckville,  our favorite annual antique extravaganza. I wasn't able to go with her this year, but she called me frequently and sent photos so that I felt semi-transported to those fields of vintage heaven. I had put in two requests: wooden crates and a large cast iron frying pan. At the end of the day, her little pick up truck reminded me of a peddler's wagon pulling up in front of the house... we all went racing out to see what treasures she had hauled.

I'll share more after I take some pics, but here's a peek. The crates... oh, they were even better than any I could have dreamed up!

 I'm sending you all some good *thrifting*rescuing*finding* mojo for the weekend ahead!

pencils and zippers

I know a little girl who is getting excited about fall... she's so READY for pencil sharpening season to arrive. So today we began the process of gently letting summer go... just a tiny bit since I'm not ready! All morning she sharpened. And sharpened. Then she stuffed her old pencil case with fresh and pointy pencils.   I sewed my daughter this case during my recycled zipper pouch craze last spring. Getting it ready for a new school year made me think of pouches again, so we made a trip to Sew Green, our local fabric re-use shop, to check for old zippers.

Score! Would you take a look at what was in one $5 bag? Although I'm quite happy with any used zippers, cotton twill tape with sturdy metal hardware in neutral colors equals perfection in my book! The pink and purple were happily (and quickly) snatched up by my counting assistant.

Total tally: 40 zippers!! One of the zippers was longer than me! Wonder what I'll do with that one? Have you had any good thrifting scores recently?

summer postcards #15 birthday wishes

Today my sister turns one year older...  she's such a wonderful mother, loving woman and as gorgeous inside as out. She is also... STILL... my first baby girl! Happy Birthday!

If you were here, we would greet you with banners and laughter...

bouquets of just picked flowers...

and bowl upon bowl of fresh summer goodness! Missing you so much... especially today! So grateful for this virtual world that can bridge oceans miles instantly!

Geography for Children and a New Map

My mother scored a gorgeous vintage school map of the state of New York. Last week she hung it up in her barn's downstairs bedroom, where my children sleep when they stay over. We were all so excited, and it got me thinking about the role maps have played in my life.


 My sense of the world, and even the United States, was fuzzy until I met my husband, a map aficionado. I had always been a good student, but without the constant visual of maps, my sense of location wasn't my strength. He changed all that when he handed my a Rand McNalley Road Atlas and invited me to be the navigator on what turned out to be many trips across the country... up and down the coasts, and even a wild trek from Montreal to BC. Nothing beats traveling, with map in hand (a GPS is not same!,) to really get a sense of place. I believe the next best thing is to have maps, globes, and atlases handy. Having them accessible is an invitation for exploration.  Children have an innate fascination with maps, globes and other children around the world. Maybe this is why geography is one of the oldest sciences. It asks the most basic question "where am I and what's over there?". This morning I gathered a little list of things we've enjoyed in our home. This is by no means a comprehensive list, just what I put together from doing a quick stroll around the house glancing at walls, checking bookshelves and looking in the game cabinet. We get lots of our resources used, so they may not be perfectly up to date but are accurate and do the trick.

-Peters Projection World MapPeters  - Laminated Ours hangs in our art corner where the children spend tons of time.
"All the countries of the world are represented at true size and true proportion. This is one of the few commercially available maps that is fair to all peoples. Most maps drastically enlarge the size of the Northern hemisphere countries and diminish the size of the Southern hemisphere countries. This traditional bias leads most people to overestimate the importance of the developed nations based on their inflated appearance"
-Melissa & Doug's License Plate Game 2098
-Floor puzzles of the world and our country are always popular... we have several.
-Map placemats- we love educational placemats at snack time.
-GEOGRAPHY: This is a favorite road trip game once a child has a general knowledge of reading and geography. Start with any place in the world-- "Camaroon", for example. The next person has to think of a place that begins with the last letter of "Camaroon," such as "New York." Whoever goes next needs a place that starts with an K. You may not use the same place twice in a game--and it has to be a real place.


A few book suggestions:

• Bread, Bread, Bread any and all of Anne Morris' series Around the World
• Children Just Like Me
• My World- From the Seven Continents to The Seven Seas, From Katmandu to Kalamazoo
• Me on the Map
• Mapping Penny's World
• DK First Atlas
• National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers

I'm sure there are many more favorites out there, so I invite you to share your own! And if you are interested in a vintage school map search ebay or Etsty... they are growing in popularity so the prices seem to be going up, but sometimes a bargain is to be had. Good luck!

back!

I hadn't planned on abandoning my virtual home for most of last week, but suddenly it was just time and I've learned to trust when reserves are low, something must go. I'm so fortunate that my mother took me (and my daughter) under her wing while I replenished myself. Good food and laughter truly work wonders. I've also been fed by lots of mini trips to the lake. Water is my favorite element.  Dropping my son off at sailing camp in the early mornings became a special ritual all week long.

My daughter and I made sure to dip in our toes, collect smooth stones and admire the jewels that the sun created along the lake's surface.

These smooth lake stones are the very ones that my children used for creating pendants... stone jewels at their wilderness camp.

With a primitive handmade tool constructed from barbed wire and a stick, they slowly, patiently rolled that drill between their palms until a hole was born. Love this! I want to make one too. On my quest to find out more about primitive hand tools, I discovered this amazing site which I can't wait to explore more, and I thought you might enjoy too.
Happy Monday! I'm back!
p.s. That top photo is my favorite house on our road.