All Blog Posts (214)

Ah, the fort. Who doesn’t love a good fort? They are creative, and exclusive, and darn right snuggly at times. So when it is just plain too nasty to go outside, bring a little fort building inside.

Fort building skills use so much more than just the creative side of your brain. There’s a ton of geometry, lots of engineering, a bit of structural learning, and most importantly there is looking at things in a new…

Rachel Carson once wrote about the sense of wonder.  She said, “Parents often have a sense of inadequacy when confronted on the one hand with the eager, sensitive mind of a child and on the other hand with a world of complex physical nature, inhabited by a life so various and unfamiliar that it seems hopeless to reduce it to order and knowledge.  In a mood of self-defeat, they exclaim, “How can I possibly teach my child about nature – why, I don’t even know one bird from…

Being outside with your kids are some of the greatest family moments.  So much can be experienced and seen through the beauties of nature and the exertion of outdoor athletics.  One of largest benefits is the bond a family can make together through shared wonder.  Talking with your kids about such moments can be a bit more difficult.  As children grow, those communications tend to get even more frazzled.  I can remember the awkward attempts my parents had whenever an important conversation…

I wrote an article on my blog that I think many of you can identify with. It discusses some methods that I've used that have worked really well when my kids were on the verge of melting down or too tired to go on during hikes. I think you might find a few new ideas, and would love to have you comment on my blog and share some of your ideas.  Rather than cut and paste the entire article, I'll post the link here:…

Well it's my first blog post so I wanted it to be as useful as possible to the wider community here so I thought I would share my story about my gift buying skills when it comes to buying for my child.

I am notoriously rubbish at getting the right sort of present for anyone, so with the arrival of my son two years ago came a sense of sheer joy, mixed with the nagging worry that I'll end up being the most disappointing Santa since Tim Allen in 'The Santa Clause'.

So for the…

Thanks to all of you who entered our Holiday Photo Contest! Here are our winners:

FIRST PLACE "KAYLA FUR HAT"

Kayla wins $100 gift certificate to…

We have constructed a list of our TOP HOLIDAY PICKS from ....

 

HEAD......



Hats – Handmade Merino Wool…

As a teacher, one of the best experiences I’ve had is to work with some of my former students to publish children’s books that generate revenue to support the empowerment of communities around the world where the stories themselves were written.



Our nonprofit social enterprise is called Dot-to-Dot…

This is one of my favorite mantras from a good friend of mine. And it has saved many a situation that was quickly spiralling out of control.

We knew the first trip skiing for the season was likely to be rough.  Kids that were easily tired, uncertain of their surrounds, etc.  What we didn't expect was the…

What is the SCA?

The Society for Creative Anachronism is an international, non-profit educational organization that studies the Middle Ages through doing. Participants wear clothes from various Medieval cultures, camp in pavilions, and practice various pre-Industrial skills, especially those related to the martial arts. There are 19…

We can all imagine the moment: we are ready to head out the door, the gear is packed but your kid?  He doesn't want to go.  He'd rather stay home.  As the parents, how can we avoid this?

1. Communicate a vision ahead of time.

As the parents, we need to be excited and communicate that…

A cave? A treehouse? A jumbo jet? Now that’s an interesting way to spice up your family holiday. Check out some of these unusual hotels around the world that are still well within budget.  Whether you want to treat your kids to an adventure or let you other half feel like a king/queen for a few days……

This past week has been Take It Outside Week. It is a fact that kids are…

You probably know that Chaco makes river sandles with great certified pedorthist footbeds (Loveseat as they call it) but did you know that they also had a line of closed toed shoes for parents and children?

We had the chance to try a few pairs.  We found them to be extremly well constructed.  The shoes held up well to the elements they were created to play in and they looked great on top of it.  Here is a sneak peak at a few choices you might consider for your next urban…

A few days ago, Andrew and I took Mason rock climbing at our rec center.  He was so crazy excited.  After letting him watch last weeks video, he was totally pumped to get going!  We’ve taken him climbing a few times before, but this was the first time that it really caught on.…

Part 4, and the final part of my series on taking our daughter, Ruby, on her first camping trip at 5 months old.

Feeding: This part I did not think out that well. I took a small food mill we had to mush up food to feed Ruby, but we had only just begun to feed her solids, and were not feeding her much that would travel well for consecutive days in a cooler. We had not fed her anything that I had not made myself at this point, so that further complicated things. So she…

For over a year, my son's mountain bike has been sitting unused in our garage. Brand-new 15 months ago, it screams out at me with a mute, but damning reproach every time I pass by. As the dust settles on the seat, I take it personally. For if nothing else, this static bike is a testimony to parenting failure. Fresh off a family biking weekend in May 2010, my husband and I decided to reward our younger son with a new mountain bike. His old one had small wheels and as we watched him…

I had big plans for camping over the Labor Day weekend. They started with a road trip north to a remote lake. Then we talked about not driving so far and doing a kayak trip to one of our favorite beaches. But half of our group would have had to hike and the tides weren’t going to work out. So then we talked about a 3 night back pack somewhere. Then two nights. Then as the weekend was vanishing before me, I started pulling out gear and told my kids to pack up. We were going to get out, one…

This summer we spent four weeks in Brooklyn.  We were a little bit nervous to be bringing a 1 1/2 year old and a five year old from the mountains in this huge city that requires a lot of walking.  We knew that a double stroller would not negotiate narrow streets, subway stairs and crowds.  Instead we opted to travel with a cheap $10 umbrella stroller and a mini-kick  made by Kickboard USA,

As…