Call me a Luddite. 

Then the game changed, I found Instagram. Suddenly I was able to share photos of the girls with their grandparents in different cities, to SEE into the daily lives of online friends, and to capture everyday memories without hassle.

There is no happiness; there are
only moments of happiness.
{Spanish Proverb}

Last week I shot my 1,000th Instagram. Below are 100 of my favorite random moments of happiness.

Are we connected on Instagram? I’d love to see your everyday moments. You can find me here:
instagram.com/letslassothemoon

The post There Are Only Moments of Happiness appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

Mothers. How do you express eternal gratitude to someone on one day of the year? It seems sort of insignificant, doesn’t it?

The older I get, the more I struggle with gift ideas for my mother.  Yet, I know that, for my mother at least, what she really values is the gift of my time.  Fleeting time from her full-time working, part-time blogger, all the time parent, daughter.

Whether you live next door to your mother, or thousands of miles away,
this is a unique gift of time that will last through the entire year.

Gather all of your supplies: stationary, envelopes, pens, and stamps. Set aside a couple of hours.  Then write.  Short notes, long notes.  Share your words of thanks, words of wisdom, words of inspiration.  Whatever suits your own personal relationship with your mother (after all, we are all different, aren’t we?)  I recommend writing twelve notes in total (one for each month of the year), then addressing and stamping all of the envelopes in advance.

This makes things easier, because let’s face it, we all have good intentions, but this is exactly the type of project/commitment that gets dropped after a couple of months if you don’t plan in advance. 

Mail the first envelope for Mother’s Day and include a note explaining your intentions (or let your monthly notes be a surprise).  Set a reminder in your calendar for the first of each month thereafter and pop your notes in the mail accordingly.

Printable Stationary Inspiration (featured above):

Vintage Hanky Notecards | Eat Drink Chic
Have a Happy Day postcards | The Green Gal

Just Because Card | Susan Connor Design
Sweet pink and yellow notecards + envelopes | That’s Happy

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Meet Alison
Alison Butler writes The Petit Cadeau, a weekly blog about thoughtful gifting.
She loves snail mail, handmade gifts, and tea.

Connect with Alison online →
Blog | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

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PS: Want to create custom envelopes? Stop by The Petit Cadeau for a DIY washi tape envelope tutorial.

The post Mother’s Day Gift that Last Throughout the Year appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

They say, “April showers bring May flowers” and our Seattle skies have definitely been rainy this month. But over the last few weeks, those sprinkles have often been mixed with sunshine, making the perfect recipe for rainbows. My boys {3.5 and almost 2} and I get excited every time we discover one.

Since I love creating learning activities based on things my boys love most, it was the perfect time to make a colorful alphabet rainbow that my oldest could use to playfully practice the ABCs.

You can download your own
free copy of the printable here.

How We Played

To start, I asked him one of my favorite questions, “What do you notice?” {I’m always blown away by the things he shares!} He immediately started naming letters he recognized: “Here’s an E!”

After sharing a few observations, I suggested that we point to each letter as we sang the ABC song.

26 letters later, I asked him to point to all of the red letters and then the blue ones.

We continued playfully exploring the letters of the alphabet for a few minutes using the prompts listed at the bottom of the sheet. Then I handed him a second copy of the rainbow that used big, capital letters. The learning continued with new observations and prompts.

The bright rainbow colors and touchable letters entertained my son for nearly 15 minutes. And now we’re anxiously awaiting our next rainbow sighting!!

Are you ready to enjoy your own rainbow hunt with the kids? Click here to download your free copy of the printable.

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Meet Malia
Malia is a former kindergarten teacher turned stay at home mom who shares hands-on reading, writing and math games at Playdough to Plato. Stop by to download a free set of alphabet tracing cards and follow the blog by email. Don’t forget to check out Malia’s last guest post Head, Shoulders, Knees and Post-Its. Huh?!

See all of Malia’s Guest Posts →
Connect with Malia online:  Facebook | Pinterest | Website | Google+ | Free email updates

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Today I am over at Melissa & Doug sharing 3-Steps to Ensure Your Don’t Need a Vacation FROM Vacation.  One way to ensure your trip is stress free is to involve your children in planning the adventure. A family meeting is the perfect opportunity to empower your children by letting them be involved in vacation decision making.

Don’t panic. I am not suggesting you give your child free reign. I recommend following the Love & Logic approach in this scenario; offer your child choices you’ve already approved.

Below are a three tips to ensure your family meeting
about vacation-planning is successful:

• Do your research first — Attend your family meeting prepared to show your children activities, destinations, and choices that you’ve already reviewed. Come to the meeting with circled activities in brochures and websites already loaded on your computer.
• Avoid using the word “no”—  If your child comes up with an alternative activity, try to be positive. Buy yourself time by simply ending your discussion with, “We’ll have to research that option a little more.” If, however, the suggestion clearly isn’t appropriate, let your child know (using as few words as possible) and then ask, “Would you rather do [Option A] or [Option B]?”
• Use yourself as an example — Say things like, “I really was hoping to do [Option X], but it’s a bit too pricey for our budget. So, instead I’m choosing between [Option Y] and [Option Z] for my must-have activity.”

Not sure if these tips will work with your family? Let’s chat. Explain your hesitations below in the comments, and we’ll brainstorm solutions together.

PS: Thank you to Robert S. Donovan for sharing these amazing photos under Creative Commons. Sometimes I am just floored by people who generously share their work with us. Love his work too? Pop on over to his SmugMug page to purchase prints. He has a gorgeous collection.

The post Involve Your Kids in Trip Planning appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

1. “Oh girls, I accidentally forgot to give you one of your presents. I was cleaning and
I found it today.” *Let’s just say a Christmas gift in the middle of April generates a tad bit more excitement.

2. We started the morning off with a date at Starbucks. Mmmm, dual cinnamon rolls.

3. Three hour commute, BroStache never gets old.

4. Enjoyed the sunshine and lunch out on the town.

5. We stormed the state capital before heading to the theater.
*Movie Fanatics: Does this photo remind you of a set of classic hotel twins?

6. First row of the Mezzanine is the place to be when watching a show with children.

Want to know how we prepped for this adventure? Click here for 5 Tips for Fostering a Lifelong Love of Theater.

Question of the Day:

Have you seen any shows or musicals with your children recently?

The post Mary Poppins {in an Instagram} appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

Quinn smiles and waves from Lane One, “We’re doing flip turns!”
I give her a thumbs-up and stick my flipper-clad foot out of the water and say,
“I get to use flippers,” in a subtle ha-ha tone. I’m an insufferable one-upper.
Gotta work on that.

“Fins, Daddy.”
Whatever, know-it-all.
Gotta work on that.

I don’t like swimming. It hurts.
I’m not very good at it.

The choice was to sit and watch my girls for an hour and a half of swim team practice or to join the adult swim group being offered in the adjacent lanes. I managed to not puke after my 400 yard warm-up. I should have shaved my arms, legs, chest, and back to make it all a little easier. I had thoughts of buying a Speedo, but they were undoubtedly fleeting.

After the session, I complain to the girls about sore muscles, but I joined.

I want to learn and get better at things,
to show them how great it is
to learn and get better at things.

They’ve started to complain about sore muscles.
That’s what we swimmers do.

PS: Zina wrote a post sharing 7 Tips for Raising a Little Fish and making swimming lessons fun. Go check it out.

The post In the Next Lane appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

Hosting a weekly family meeting reminds your child they are loved and also an intricate member of something greater than themselves.

This is a tool you can alter and use throughout the years. This post is dedicated to the woman who introduced me to this concept; Patti is my Montessori mentor, a wonderful friend, and this blog’s namesake. Over coffee she recalled memories of the weekly family meetings her father ran throughout her childhood. She in turn ran family meetings with her two boys through their teens. Two generations of success convinced me to attempt this concept with my young daughters.

Below are 10 tips for hosting a successful family meeting:

1. Start now—Right now your children want to interact with you. Take advantage of their eagerness. Make family meetings just something “your family does” each week so when your kids hit their tweens you have an open line of communication.
2. Be consistent—Pick a specific day of the week and stick to it. This will help ensure you continue with this important exercise on a regular basis.
3. Rules of order—Consider using Robert’s Rules of Order. Ok, I admit when Patti mentioned this I thought it was over the top. However, children often respond well to structure. Using this strict set of meeting rules will give your family meeting an official feeling. We use our own unique combination of this collection of guidelines (PDF). It has been an intricate part our experience.
4. Let your child be president—When we hold our meetings we have a president, vice president, treasurer and secretary. The first few meetings my husband and I played the role of the president so the girls could learn how to run the session. After a few weeks, switch things up and let your child be president. You’ll be surprised how quickly children pick up routines. I promise your little one will take the responsibility very seriously.
5. Conch shell—Stop family members from talking over one another by requiring the designated speaker to hold a physical item. Find something you’d like to use each week or get creative. We’ve used simple things like a stuffed animal and a salt shaker in the past. This helps children (and parents) practice waiting their turn to speak.
6. Listen—Robert’s Rules of Order and a conch shell approach will ensure everyone has a voice, but show your child you are listening and hear their concerns when they speak. Give them non-verbal cues like smiles and nods. When they are finished speaking offer comments like, “Interesting idea. What do you think of [additional idea or alternative approach]?”
7. Family Fund—Consider having a family fund. You can populate this with a weekly allowance or through chores. There are 101 different ways to approach it. However, be sure to cover the amount and possible ways to spend the fund as part of your family meeting.
8. Keep it short—Keep your child’s age and attention span in mind. Try to keep your meeting between ten to forty-five minutes tops to ensure good participation and manners.
9. Take it on the road—This approach works great around the family dinner table or out on the town. We’ve held our family meetings at Starbucks, at local restaurants, and out on the patio.
10. End it sweet—Always end the meeting on a positive note. We usually follow our family meeting with a game or two. A jaunt to the ice-cream stand never hurt anyone!

Question of the Day:

This is an ongoing experiment in our house. I’d love to hear how you’ve been approaching family meetings. What other tips, suggestions or ideas would you recommend to people starting out this beneficial practice? Let’s all chat in the comments.

The post 10-Steps to a Successful Family Meeting appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

Have you ever thought about creating a “family book” to celebrate time spent with loved ones? We created a book that included pictures of my son baking with his great-grandmother, leaping into his grandfather’s outstretched arms, and playing catch with his cousin.

The book focuses on the simple moments that form the fabric of our relationships.
These moments may not be the “big” ones: they aren’t the zoo trips or the beach vacations.
But they are the important ones.

Paging through his family book, my son will see a picture of eating an apple with a spoon with his grandmother, and remember the cozy embrace of her arms, her scent, the way she uniquely gets just the right amount of apple onto the spoon.

These are the feelings and moments I wanted to capture for him. We do not live close to many of our family members, but this is one way to make sure we keep in touch.

In addition to photographs, the project requires only paper, ribbon, a hole punch, and anything you want to use to decorate. For a detailed description of how to create the album, pop on over to Peas and Carrots Studio for a full tutorial.

Our book sits on our coffee table, and is something we look through a few times a week. Paging through the book helps keep even far away relatives as a daily presence in our home. As we look through the books, we inevitably share stories, and talk about our family members.

You can easily continue to add to these handmade books. Every month or so consider adding more photos. I’m also betting that the grandparents would love if you made a copy of the book for them too!

Question of the Day:

How do you keep your kids connected with loved ones? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments.

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About Carolyn Elbert
Carolyn can usually be found with a cup of tea or a camera in her hand.
She writes at The Pleasantest Thing. It is a site focused on play, laughter, and learning.

Join in their fun by connecting with Carolyn online:
Blog | Pinterest | Facebook | Google | Twitter

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The post Simple Moments with Faraway Family appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

A book is an opportunity to slow down, to imagine…
to get lost in another world or mystery.

Most parents know the top picture book titles, but finding a strong series of chapter books can be challenging. To be frank, there is a lot of junk out there, my friends. When our girls were ready to transition into chapter books it was a struggle. They seemed to lose their passion for reading.

Until we picked up this classic at a rummage. We’ve got a vintage copy. This series sparked my daughter’s interest. Each day Rose loves reading and solving an Encyclopedia Brown mystery with my husband.

Last week on Facebook I asked:

{Encyclopedia Brown Alternative} Rose is almost finished with the entire series.
Anyone else have mystery/puzzle book recommendations that are not scary?

Below are 7 books recommended for your little gumshoe:

1. Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew by Carolyn Keene and Macky Pamintuan is a new spin-off of the original Nancy Drew Notebooks. The series is aimed at a younger elementary school students around third-grade. The series began publication in 2006. There are currently thirty-six titles in the series. Check out the titles.

2. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg won the Newbery Medal in 1968. This mystery series is geared for children around age eight. I am excited to add this to our library list! This book has over 275 five-star reviews on Amazon. Pop on over to read some of the comments.

3. The Boxcar Children Books by Gertrude Chandler Warner are on our must-read list. The original book was one of the “Top 100 Chapter Books” of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. Learn more about the series and see some of the book titles here.

4. Trixie Belden by Julie Campbell is a series of ‘girl detective’ mysteries written between 1948 and 1986. The first six books were written by Julie Campbell Tatham, then continued by various in-house writers from Western Publishing under the pseudonym Kathryn Kenny [Source Wikipedia]. While Trixie has been compared to Nancy Drew, she is said to be a more realistic character. This series seems to be geared towards tweens and will go on our long-term reading list. Check out some of the series titles.

5. Jigsaw Jones Mystery by James Preller is a set of 32 early-reader chapter books. These mystery books look perfect for an independent child. Check out some of the titles available within this series.

6. A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy and John Steven Guerney is a set of 26 mystery books. These books are consider great “easy readers.” If you pop over and do a page preview in Amazon you can see some of the pages have illustrations. My girls love books like this! Somehow the images within the margins of the book makes it come across as less daunting. We are happy to have found this collection. Check out some of the series titles.

And the one and only…

7. Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol is a set of 29 mystery books. Each books is broken down into short stories that offer the readers clues to a mystery. Of course, the boy detective, named Encyclopedia, solves every puzzle. The fun is in figuring out how he makes his deductions. Readers can flip to the back of the book for an answer section to see his logic. These books come highly recommended! Check out the series here.

Do you have any additional recommendations? Share the title in the comments below or join our conversation on Facebook.

PS: This post is dedicated to my Facebook friends Melissa, Kelly, Dona, Lindsay, and Trina!

The post 7 Books for Your Little Gumshoe appeared first on Lasso the Moon.

Only through freedom and environmental experience is it
practically possible for human development to occur.
{Maria Montessori}

Travel can be a wonderful way to spark curiosity. Any trip can be made educational weeks before you step foot into a train, plane, or automobile.

This summer our family will be trekking out to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Our trip is two months away, but we’ve been studying for weeks already. We’ve been covering a variety of topics including: cave spelunking, the history of Native Americans, the geology of the region, as well as the presidents of Mount Rushmore.

The key is finding a good topic to study.
Don’t limit yourself. Go beyond geography.
Find the story.

South Dakota is also a fossil heavy state so we are also
studying dinosaurs. The girls can’t wait to participate in the Junior Ranger Archeology Program (PDF) and The Mammoth Site Jr. Paleontology Program on our trip.

Come and join our pre-trip studies!
You can easily make any travel adventure
educational AT HOME using the 7 tips below.

1. Reserve 101 books. Start off every travel adventure at your library! Not sure what to check out? We started our adventure by reserving these 20 picture books about dinosaurs. Click here for 35+ dinosaur books for kids.

Parenting Tip: Searching for books with a little one asking , “Can we get this book too, Mama?” can be a challenge. Check to see if your library offers online book reservations. This can be a lifesaver for moms. Reserve your titles and simply pick-up your stack at the checkout desk.

2. Have your child create a report. Make this classic activity as simple or complex as you wish. The report can include detailed facts and information or be all drawings! Ours started with Melissa & Doug Textured Dinosaur Stencils, then it expanded to online research, and finally a c0-published document. In other words, a wonderful collection of drawings, fun facts, and about thirty staples!

3. Utilize the power of the iPad. Search for interactive and educational apps to entertain your child. We always check Common Sense Media before making purchases. Two highly recommended dinosaur apps include: the Ultimate Dinopedia: Complete Dinosaur Reference ($4.99) by National Geographic for older children and Dinosaur Train Eggspress ($1.99) by PBS Kids for younger kids.

4. Turn TV time around. In other words, if your kids are spending time in front of the boob tube, make sure they are watching an educational program. We kicked off with Dinosaurs and other Creature Features by National Geographic. We’ve got a list of 30 dinosaur DVD titles that we intend to reserve from the library.

Parenting Tip: Many educational programs showcase the predatory nature of dinosaurs.
Please use caution when selecting the right show for your child.

5. Themed puzzles can open the door to conversations. Find a puzzle just beyond your child’s skill level and work on it together. This offers you the opportunity to sit and quietly talk about your trip. We are working collaboratively on this 300 piece The End of an Era Cardboard Jigsaw Puzzle. It is the perfect conversation starter. Below are six of my all time favorite Melissa & Doug dinosaur puzzles:

6. Celebrate with crafts and projects. Kids love to grab the scissors, glue, paint, and glitter. Looking for fun crafts? Check out the 20 Must Follow Moms Pinterest board for ideas. We are totally doing this Clothespin Stegosaurus activity.

7. Be a tourist in your own town. While it is always fun to travel to new places, don’t underestimate the value of your local libraries, museums, and galleries. Search for events, readings, or exhibits that revolve around your topic.

Question of the Day

Where are you traveling this summer? If you’re having a hard time finding “the story” to run with, let me know. I am happy to help you brainstorm topics and ideas!

PS: Every Thursday through July, the Melissa & Doug blog — The Playtime Press — will give you the inside scoop from three top-rated blogger moms on their favorite tips & tricks for families on the go. Whether your travel plans include visiting a nearby city or heading clear across the country, your child will savor all the exciting adventures to be had along the way!

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2013 Blog Ambassador Let’s Lasso the Moon is proud to be part of the 2013 Blog Ambassador program. We worked hard alongside Melissa & Doug as an affiliate to explore fun ways to keep children inquisitive and to promote classic creative play. This post does include affiliate links. Click here to read our full sponsorship disclosure.

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Image Credit:  Thank you to Katsuhito Nojiri for sharing her photo under Creative Commons.
See more of her work here at Sydney Treasures Photography.

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