Teaching Girls to Respect Themselves is Not Shaming Them

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 by Amy

The other day I read a blog post that I found interesting and refreshing. It’s called “To the Middle School Girls at the Pool Who Told My son He Was Hot.” (Go on over and read it real quick.)

I saw it as a reasonable commentary on the way that young girls sometimes act inappropriately, and as an appeal to them to stop and/or to their parents to guide them away from this way of acting. The post isn’t hateful, or judge-y, or hurtful.

I didn’t have a super strong reaction to it, and would have just filed it away in my mind as a nice thing I had read and then moved on, except that I saw at the bottom of the post that the author decided to close the comments because some commenters attacked her personally, even going so far as to call her shameful and disgusting. Wait, what?

Naturally, that piqued my curiosity so I scrolled down to see just what had been so “offensive” about the post.

The main problem commenters seemed to have with the post was that they thought that the mom’s words were shaming young girls and contributing to the “rape culture.”

Hmmm. I did not see that coming. The take home message of the post seemed to be this, “I’m trying to teach my son to respect girls/women. And girls, you should also respect yourselves.”

In my opinion, the author was not shaming girls, nor was she contributing to the rape culture at all.

However, the post comments made me think about the concept of “rape culture” in general and how it seems to get thrown around a lot on social media, perhaps without a clear understanding of what it actually is. So, I Googled it. Here’s a definition:

Rape culture is a culture in which dominant cultural ideologies, media images, social practices, and societal institutions support and condone sexual abuse by normalizing, trivializing and eroticizing male violence against women and blaming victims for their own abuse (Huffington Post)

Okay. So:

Rape culture is making jokes about sexual assault.

It is not a mom pleading with young girls to stop throwing themselves at young boys.

Rape culture is blaming a rape victim because of what she was wearing.

It is not telling girls that they should have respect for themselves.

Rape culture is Fifty Shade of Grey, for pete’s sake.

It is not teaching girls that they can and should be responsible for their own behavior and make good choices for themselves.

It seems to me that our society has become so hypersensitive to never, ever offending anyone, that we have made it inappropriate and often offensive to tell people to make good choices and take responsibility for themselves. If we dare to suggest that someone might be doing something that isn’t in her best interest, we can attacked as being judgmental and hateful. Just like the mom in the above-linked post, who simply said in essence, “Come on girls, you’re better than that,” and was then chastised for “blaming the victim” (except that there was no victim).

This doesn’t help anyone, and I find it really disturbing as I think ahead to what I want my own daughters to know as they get older.

As a mom of three girls, I think it does much more harm than good to send the message to girls that they can do whatever they want, wear whatever they want, and say whatever they want, no matter how sexually suggestive it may be, and no one should ever say anything to them about it, because correcting them perpetuates rape culture, or is misogynistic, or sexist, or whatever.

I want to teach my daughters to have respect for themselves and for others in all situations. And that means (when they get older) not posting duck-lipped scantily-clad selfies all over the place, or making suggestive comments to boys, or being sexually aggressive and pushy, and so on. I aim to teach them this stuff not because if they behave this way they’ll be attacked and it will then be their fault. Of course not. But because:

Behaving in a sexually aggressive way could actually put them in a situation where they are at risk for assault, and
Acting in a suggestive way and throwing themselves at boys will make them feel terribly about themselves, and
I want them to know that getting a boy to notice them is not the most important thing and is not what gives them value, and
They need to understand that if a boy does notice them, it should not be because their bodies are barely covered but because of the other many, many wonderful qualities they possess.

I could go on and on with many more reasons, but you get the picture.

Trying to help young girls understand why they should have self respect and stop throwing themselves at boys is not shaming them. It’s empowering them in a real way. Not a fake, “you’re a woman, you can do whatever you want, sleep with whomever you want” sexual-revolution kind of way. That’s not empowerment. That’s crap.

Teaching girls that they shouldn’t always just do whatever the heck they feel like doing and dress in a provocative way and say suggestive things to boys does not contribute to the rape culture. It contributes to their healthy development.

I’m not trying to diminish the reality of rape culture with this post. I despise the attitudes that lead to this type of mindset. However, I think in some ways, as a society, we’re missing the mark in efforts to get rid of the rape culture. We should be crying out against the magazines and ads that portray women falsely and place an overemphasis on their bodies and appearance and sexy poses. We should be voicing opposition when the media publishes stories, like the recent one about the Duggar family, purely for the sake of sensationalizing and getting ratings, without any regard for the poor victims and their privacy. We should be turning away from books and shows and movies that positively portray sexual violence instead of turning them into bestsellers and major hit movies (ahem, Fifty Shades of Grey!!).

I know my daughters will not be this innocent forever. It breaks my heart and scares the daylights out of me to know that they will be exposed more and more to the smut that is the “entertainment” industry in our country as they get older. I can only encourage them to try to seek out things that promote truth and beauty and love, and to always have respect and love for themselves and others. There’s no shame in that.

The world doesn’t need what women have, it needs what women are. – Edith Stein (AKA St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

A Day in the Life – My Monday

Posted on April 15, 2014April 15, 2014 by Amy

Seems like the “Day in the life” posts are all the rage these days. I’ve read lots of them (like Grace’s, Kendra’s, and Blythe’s), and I think they are strangely interesting. I thought there was a link up of “day in the life” posts somewhere that I was going to throw my hat into (does that even make sense?), but now I can’t find it, so whatever. I’m going solo. Here’s my day (Monday):

4:57 am – I hear a door closing. Wake enough to check the video monitor and confirm that all of my children are in their beds. Lass is sitting up playing (hence the door). Congratulate myself for still having a video monitor on my girls (even though two of them are probably too old for it), which allowed me to not get out of bed to investigate door sound.

5:03 am – Curse myself for having video monitors. Lass is playing too loudly for me to go back to sleep. Turn volume down.

5:30 am – My alarm goes off. I say my morning offering and get out of bed.

5:32 am – Come downstairs. Look outside to see a completely flooded front yard. With snow. Water and snow. Consider checking the basement to make sure it’s not wet. Decide I don’t want to know quite yet.

5:33 am – Sit in my comfy chair to say my prayers. I can hear Lass playing the whole time and am hoping she’ll stay in her room for a while.

5:55 am – Make coffee. Experiment with different flashes (pop-up flash, external flash at a few different angles) for this photo. Decide I like the dark, blurry, no flash pic the best. It fits the mood of the moment.

6:05 am – Can’t find my phone. Go up to my bedroom to look for it. Find phone along with my husband, who is awake and reading a book that he cannot seem to put down.

6:06 am – As I’m almost back down the stairs I hear Lass open her bedroom door. I hurry down the last step to get around the corner into the office and not be seen. She goes back in her room.

6:11 am – Start reading Bible (Luke 21) by Kindle-light

6:15 am – Lass comes downstairs and climbs in my lap for snuggles.

6:19 am – Lass goes into playroom and I resume my reading, this time with the regular light on.

6:25 am – Hear Sis wake up. She doesn’t sound unhappy. I keep reading.

6:30 am – My husband comes downstairs and continues reading his addictive book.

^^ Notice the raised eyebrow. He is wondering why I’m taking his picture.

6:34 am – My computer is freezing up. I try to close and reopen my browser. It doesn’t work. I try other stuff.

6:45 am – My computer is still not working right. I’m starting to freak, because my time is running out. I go make another cup of coffee.

6:51 am – Plan to restart computer because nothing else has worked. Then I don’t have to, because it suddenly starts working well again. Yay! Check email and Facebook.

7:00 am – Miss comes downstairs.

She goes straight to looking out the front window at our snowy lake.

7:08 am – I’m trying to read one last thing (Today’s post from Carrots for Michaelmas) before starting into the business of the day. Miss is pouting and complaining because I’ve told her we cannot go outside and play in our “puddle.” (update on Tuesday- I started this post on Monday and am finishing it on Tuesday, so the Carrots post is actually from yesterday)

7:15 am – Miss is still pouting about not being able to go out in the water. She says, “Fine. Then I’m not going to give you any hugs and loves and kisses this morning.” I finish the blog post I was reading (finally) and go upstairs to get Sis (who is still happily hanging out in her crib). She says, “I poop. I pook.” Happily, she had done neither.

7:21 am – Come downstairs with Sis to see that my husband has cut his hair and trimmed his beard. And Miss has stopped pouting.

^^ This time he asks me why I’m taking his picture. I give him a vague non-answer.

7:23 am – My husband leaves for work.

7:28 am – I finally muster the courage to check the basement and find it dry.

7:31 am – I make breakfast. Oatmeal.

7:41 am – I call the girls to wash their hands for breakfast. Lass gets upset. She says, “I am not going to eat breakfast!” I remind her of our rule, which is that she doesn’t have to eat but she has to wash her hands and come to the table. Then she has a fit about washing her hands. I remember that she woke up before 5 am. The other girls start to eat.

7:47 am – Lass finally starts eating. She says, “Mom, I’ll try some before I say ‘yuck.’ Mom, I like this oatmeal.”

7:52 am – The girls are done eating. I realize that I have stepped in oatmeal twice and it’s stuck to my socks.

7:53 am – As I take my socks off and determine that I must find the spot of oatmeal on the floor, Lass comes around the counter with her bowl balancing on her hand trying to bring it to the sink. It crashes to the floor and breaks. She melts down when I ask her to help clean it up. I try to show her how to do it. She says she can’t.

7:59 am – We finally finish cleaning up the oatmeal, though I never do find the spot(s) I stepped in.

8:00 am – The girls are playing and I can hear that Lass is just out of sorts. She’s having a rough morning.

8:01 am – I go and try to give her some snuggles (which is usually just the trick for her). I’m flat out rejected. I get big snuggles from Sis instead.

8:04 am – Go back to kitchen. Sweep up the pieces of the broken bowl.

8:06 am – Clean up kitchen some more. Start to type a text to Super Friend. Get distracted by Miss asking me where the purple “My Little Pony” is. I tell her I don’t know.

8:09 am – Miss is screaming at Sis. I decide to let them work it out. They do.

8:11 am – Sis calls to me, “Mama, I poopy.” I don’t think she actually is (she says this anytime she wets her diaper too), but I decide to go ahead and round everyone up to go upstairs and get dressed. I change Sis and put her clothes on.

8:18 am – Miss is still not dressed. She says, “I am not going to get dressed until you help me find that purple pony!” I remind her how things actually work in our family. She gets dressed.

8:20 am – I unpack the girls’ suitcase from our trip to my parents’ while Miss and Lass make their beds. Miss gets upset when I tell her hers needs a bit more work.

8:34 am – Brush the big girls’ hair. Lass screams bloody murder, as usual.

8:37 am – Make my bed.

8:40 am – Go downstairs. Ask the girls if they want to start school now or in five minutes. They reply, “Six minutes!” They always say that.

8:42 am – Miss is still complaining that she cannot find the purple pony. She asks me to help her. I go into the playroom and point out to her that she has not yet looked in the most obvious place, where the pony would be if it was put away properly. I leave her to look there and go finish cleaning the kitchen. I clean three toilets (we have well water and our toilets get gross when the water sits in them when we’ve been gone for a week).

8:52 am – Announce that six minutes is up (yes, I know that it was actually 12 minutes).

8:54 am – Start circle time in the school room. Pray morning offering. Discuss Palm Sunday a day late. Read some Easter stories. Do calendar activities.

9:15 am – Get big girls set up coloring their Lenten countdown calendars while I go change Sis (who actually is poopy now).

9:20 am – Move on to a palm leaf coloring page. Cut out and staple their Letter Y books from two weeks ago while they color and practice writing.

9:29 am – Finish up school. Miss asks to do more. I love this, but I tell her we can’t today because we have to go to the grocery store and the doctor’s office. As I’m about to have them start getting on their shoes and coats, I realize that I haven’t even brushed my hair, so I run up to get myself ready to go.

9:39 am – Accidentally put blush on my forehead. Feel relief that I don’t wear a bright shade of blush. Wipe it off and cover it up as best I can.

9:45 am – Finish getting myself ready. Grab socks for the girls and myself and hurry downstairs.

9:47 am – Look outside and wonder if I should put snow boots or rain boots on the girls. Decide I don’t care and let them choose. They all choose rain boots.

9:50 am – I tell Lass she is putting her boots on the wrong feet and she spits at me Raspberries, but not funny, playful raspberries. I’m cool with funny playful raspberries. But I don’t do rude raspberries. I lose my temper and snap at her. She has a total meltdown. She wipes a huge dripping snot on her sleeve. I don’t have time to get her a different shirt. She says she isn’t going with us. She unzips her coat and then can’t get it zipped again. I feel like crap. I realize we have two big errands to run before she will get a nap. I take deep breaths. I zip her coat for her.

9:59 am – We are finally in the car and leaving for the grocery store.

10:12 am – I realize I don’t have time to drop the girls off in our grocery store’s childcare area, so they shop with me. They all get into being helpful. Sis develops a love for a can of beans, such that she gets mildly upset, “My beans! My beans!” when we have to put them on the belt to check out.

10:44 am – We are back in the car after the fastest grocery shopping trip ever. I know I forgot most of what I need, but I’ll be back to the store later this week anyway, so I don’t worry about it. We drive less than a block to our doctor’s office. We’re early. The doctor is not.

11:15 am – We get called back to our appointment, which was scheduled at 11. My girls are getting tired and hungry (and so am I), and it seems like our appointment takes forever.

12:00 pm – Miss gets two shots. Sis gets one. Guess who made more of a fuss about it?

12:18 pm – Finally in the car and on the way home.

12:32 pm – Home. I realize that in the craziness of getting melting-down Lass into the car, I left our door open. I say a quick prayer that there were no critters in our garage that have now found a home in our house.

12:45 pm – Put away groceries while the girls eat their lunch of leftover Culver’s and applesauce.

12:58 pm – Spill #2 of the day. Miss cleans it up.

1:06 pm – Lunch is done. Clean up lunch.

1:08 pm – Round up the girls and head upstairs for naps.

1:15 pm – Read nap stories.

1:28 pm – Sis is down for her nap. Start special time with Lass. She chooses to play with our apostle/Jesus/Mary toys.

1:41 pm – Lass is in her room for her nap. Start special time with Miss. She wants me to choose her activity. I suggest she complete the frame she started before we went to my parents’ last week.

1:55 pm – Miss is in her room for her quiet time. I change into clothes for exercising, turn on the heater in our garage, and go through our week of mail while waiting for it to heat up.

2:07 pm – Finally finish sending the text to Super Friend that I started in the morning. Clean up boxes in workout area.

2:10 pm – Go out to exercise. Do a quick warm up and set up for my workout.

Then get started:

33 back squats
15 burpees
33 deadlifts
15 burpees
33 kettlebell swings
15 burpees

Realize when I start back squats that I have way too much weight on the bar to complete 33 of them. Stop after seven to decrease the load. Proceed through the rest of the workout. Think I might die of burpees.

2:39 pm – Done with my workout. It took me almost 15 minutes. Make another coffee.

2:48 pm – Sit down for some computer time. Check email and Facebook. Look for something I need on the Elizabeth Ministry website (Super Friend and I are restarting the chapter at our parish). Don’t find what I need.

3:04 pm – Lass wakes up crying. She comes out of her room calling for me. When I get to the stairs she says her toes hurt. I suspect she slept on her foot funny or something. I kiss her toes and give snuggles. She goes back to bed, which I can’t believe. She never does that. Then I remember, she woke up before five am.

3:23 pm – Finish computer wanderings. Call Elizabeth Ministry but they are closed for the day.

3:27 pm – Pray the rosary.

3:45 pm – Get Miss from her rest time so she can practice piano.

3:58 pm – Finish piano practice with Miss. Get Lass and Sis up from naps. I have to wake both of them. One of them is not ready to get up.

4:09 pm – After lots of trying and failing to get Lass up, I go downstairs with Miss and Sis and get them started with a snack. I go back up to get Lass and try to give her a snack too. She’s not interested.

4:18 pm – My husband is home early! Hooray!!

4:22 pm – Get punched in the face by Sis. Give her a short time out. I suspect she enjoys it, but I do it anyway.

4:26 pm – Get in the shower.

4:52 pm – As I’m blowing my hair dry I realize I need to get going on dinner before I finish getting ready. I go downstairs and start getting stuff together for dinner.

4:58 pm – I laugh to see my husband blowing up Sis’s new birthday Rody with his mouth.

5:17 pm – Dinner is in the oven (roasted broccoli and this chicken recipe) and I’m back upstairs to finish getting ready.

5:34 pm – Downstairs. Dinner is ready. Have big girls set the table and wash hands. Eat dinner.

6:02 pm – Dinner is over. My super hubby starts doing the dishes.

6:05 pm – Say goodbye to the girls and leave for my last RCIA class.

6:25 pm – Get to RCIA. Visit with everyone for a few. Class starts, and we’re just having rehearsal tonight. Go through the whole Easter Vigil Mass. Feel a little bit confident I know what to do when I’m getting baptized, confirmed, and then receiving first communion. Feel relieved we will have another rehearsal on Saturday. I’m nervous and excited and kind of sad because RCIA is over and it has been fun.

7:46 pm – Home from RCIA. My husband has cleaned the kitchen and got the girls to clean up their toys. Sis has already been bathed and put to bed. Miss and Lass are finishing up their baths. I remember that my husband is wonderful.

8:21 pm – Done putting the big girls to bed (brushing teeth, reading stories, saying prayers, singing songs).

8:27 pm – Start uploading and editing the photos for this post.

8:44 pm – Putz around on the internet for a bit, checking email, etc.

9:06 pm – Start writing this post.

9:40 pm – Take a break to talk with my husband for a bit.

10:11 pm – Continue working on this post.

10:47 pm – Realize I am not going to get the post done tonight. Go to bed.

Whew! That was long. I have no idea if it was interesting to read, but it was fun to write.

For Fun (and to save me from having nothing to write about…)

Posted on April 4, 2014April 5, 2014 by Amy

Usually on Fridays I link up with Conversion Diary for 7 Quick Takes Friday. However, I don’t think I have seven things to write about today. In fact, I can barely think of one thing.

So, I was really happy to see a link up from Kendra at Catholic All Year today that I can totally do. Kendra was given a Liebster Award, which means she had to answer some questions and then tag some other bloggers to answer the questions she wanted to ask. I didn’t get tagged by her, but she kindly included an invite for any bloggers to answer and play along. So, I am off the hook for thinking of something to write today. Here goes:

1. Where do you live? And why do you live there?

Wisconsin. Because of my husband’s job. Also because we both love the Midwest.

2. What are you currently watching and/or reading?

I’m between books. I just finished Rome Sweet Home (again) and am unsure what I’m going to pick up next. It will either be

3. What kind of Catholic are you: cradle or convert (or considering)?

Convert. It will be official at the Easter Vigil (my conversion story part 1 and part 2).

4. Can you point to one moment or experience that made you a practicing Catholic (or want to be)?

As I mentioned in my second post about my conversion, there were lots of factors that led me to want to become Catholic, but probably the biggest was the experience or sitting in Mass and feeling a very strong urge to receive communion. That kind of started the whole Catholic ball rolling.

5. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

I have no idea. Too many. I have only a few pairs that I wear regularly now. Lots of my shoes are left over from my days of bar hopping in graduate school and shortly thereafter.

^^ c. 2002 Check the cute shoes ^^

I’m sure I’ll probably never any of those shoes again, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of them for some reason.

6. Are you a good dancer?

No. I was just discussing this with my husband. I used to be a good dancer (back in the aforementioned bar-hopping/pre-children days).

^^ 2008 Check the moves ^^

But somehow, I have totally lost my groove. Now I do the old lady side-step-shuffle-bounce dance.

I don’t know how this happened.

7. Who usually drives, you or your husband?

Always my husband. Except when I’m the pregnant, automatic-nine-month designated driver.

8. What is your favorite holiday and how do you celebrate it?

This is a toughy. I love Christmas. I have always loved Christmas. For tradition and meaning and sentimentality, Christmas is my favorite.

But, for pure fun, by far my favorite is Labor Day. We celebrate it with a huge weekend-long party at my husband’s parents’ farm in Missouri. His whole extended family comes. The weekend culminates with a shrimp boil and then crazy dance party in which everyone dresses in themed costumes and my husband and his brother and cousins and a few others are the band.

^^c. 2005 (?) It was a “Decades” theme. Guess which decade we picked.

I’ve been to a lot of parties in my time. This one consistently blows any other party out of the water. You can read all about it here (I apologize for the lack of photos in that post. When I switched hosting companies not all the photos got transferred. I’m working on it but it’s taking forever, and it’s too late for me to redo all the photos in that post tonight).

9. Which is correct, left or right?

Left. Without a doubt. Left. Husband, take note.

10. Do you have any scars?

A few. Nothing too major. Most notably I have a small scar under my right eye where my brother accidentally hit me with a baseball bat. I think I was four or five. And I have a scar from my c-section when Miss was born.

11. What’s the most famous thing you’ve ever done?

Nothing much. I’d like to say it’s the book I wrote shortly after completing my Ph.D., but since I think only about four people bought it, I’m going to have to say having one of my posts tweeted by Jennifer Fulwiler.

That’s it. If you want to answer these and link up, go HERE. And come back and let me know. Or just answer them in the comments (don’t be scared off by the Catholic questions if you’re not Catholic!). I’d love to read your answers.

7 Posts, 7 Days, Why Not Start It the Same?

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Amy

In July, I participated in a fun challenge/experiment of posting seven posts in seven days along with lots of other bloggers and Jen from Conversion Diary, who started the whole thing. Well, she’s doing it again. And since she first posted about it about a week ago, I’ve been trying to decide if I’m going to do it again too. And I guess the answer is yes! Why not?

The last time I did this, I started the week with a “blog roll” of sorts. Check out that post here for links to lots of other great blogs that I enjoy reading or visiting for resources (mostly for homeschooling). In that post, I mentioned that I have been meaning to put a blog roll in my side bar like I used to have when I used Blogger. I really have been meaning to! I have even tried to do it several times, but I can’t seem to figure out how in WordPress. Someday maybe I’ll figure it out (or some kind soul will just tell me how to do it). In the meantime, I figured it would be fun to kick off this round of 7 in 7 with another blog roll.

When I looked back at the other post, I was a bit surprised to realize that many of the blogs I was reading last summer are no longer as high on my list of must reads as they were then. I still read most of them from time to time, and Conversion Diary and Camp Patton are still on my list of blogs that I read faithfully. But I have found a bunch of new ones that I’m enjoying too. So, in addition to those linked in the old post, here are some more in case you’re looking for some new reading material (in no particular order).

The Rhodes Log – I just love this. It’s written by Kate who has two littles and is Funny with a capital F. Her comments about starting potty training cracked me up. And then there are posts that aren’t so knee-slapping funny, but just make me smile as a fellow mama of little ones, like this one.

Moxie Wife – I just love reading Hallie’s posts. They are insightful and funny. I seem to see/read lots of tear-jerker stuff on her site.

Everything is Yours – Lovely blog with great insights about faith.

Is There a McDonald’s in Heaven? – This is a blog written by Nella, a mom to six kids. She found out she had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma while pregnant with her 6th child. She’s in remission and has a beautiful baby girl and still writing and I just enjoy reading her stuff. It’s inspiring.

Mama Knows, Honeychild – Okay this blog is just hilarious. I can’t really explain it. Heather writes funny stuff and includes funny drawings. Drawings. Yes. You just have to see for yourself. I just read the latest post and I am crying with laughter over it.

Catholic All Year – I just started reading this one regularly and I really like it.

Amongst Lovely Things – This blog is just beautiful. The photos are beautiful. The writing is beautiful. This mom has six children, three of them under two, and yet she still is able to write things like this and this and this. Amazing.

Finally, two sites I’ve added to those I frequent for homeschooling and family resources and ideas:

Catholic Icing and Shower of Roses

So. I just looked over those, and I’m pretty sure every one of them is written by a Catholic woman, almost all of whom are moms. Huh. I guess that reflects where my interest lies right now! I’d love to hear what you’re reading. Or what you’re writing!

7 Posts in 7 Days – Let’s Start With a Blog Roll

Posted on July 22, 2013July 21, 2013 by Amy

Jen at Conversion Diary has issued a challenge to her reader-bloggers to write and post every day this week. I have decided to join her in posting seven posts in seven days.

That might not seem like a big deal to many people. Lots of folks write every day, I suppose. But I don’t know the last time I came even close to posting every single day for a whole week. I know I have been slacking a bit on the blog lately. So. I’m going to post every day this week, and maybe it will jump start my writing and get me into the groove of posting more often again.

To start with, I’d like to share with you some gems I have found, if you happen to be a blog loving person, as I am.

Not too long ago, my husband asked me how I find the blogs that I like to read. I wasn’t quite sure how to even answer that. I usually just stumble upon them fairly randomly.

Maybe someone posts a link to something on Facebook that piques my interest.

Maybe I think a blog’s name looks intriguing when I see it in someone’s blog roll.

Maybe I find something I enjoy when I click on someone’s blog after they leave a comment on mine (I always check out others’ blogs when they comment on mine!).

Maybe a friend tells me I must check out a particular site.

Sometimes I come across the same blog from more than one of the above sources. Those usually end up being my faves.

I have been meaning to add a blogroll to my sidebar. I used to have one when I was on Blogger, and haven’t gotten around to setting it up since I switched to WordPress (ahem, over a year ago). So, while I get working on that, I’ll give you all a list of some of my favorite blogs to read.

First up are the blogs I eagerly await posts from and click through to read pretty much every post I see. I am either subscribed to these blogs so I get an email letting me know when a new post comes up, or I follow on Facebook and see new posts there (FYI, you can follow my blog in either of these ways too, wink, wink. I wouldn’t want you to miss anything, of course):

Conversion Diary – I’ve mentioned this site before. Multiple times. It’s a blog written by a former atheist who converted to Catholicism. I first read one of Jen’s posts that someone linked on Facebook. Then Super Friend mentioned it to me, and I returned to it and got hooked. This woman can write. For real. It’s funny. It’s compelling. It’s informative. What’s not to like?

Teacher Tom – I just love Teacher Tom. He’s a teacher in a cooperative preschool in Seattle. He is just wise about kids and teaching, and I soak up every post.

Camp Patton – This is another blog I learned about from multiple sources. A friend recommended it to me, and then I saw it on the Conversion Diary blogroll. Grace is a mom of three very small children and is hilarious in her writing about (and posting photos of) mothering. Addictive.

Momastery – I first started reading this super popular blog when a friend on Facebook linked to the viral post “Don’t Carpe Diem.” Glennon is funny and inspiring. A wonderful combo.

And here are some other sites I enjoy. I read them often, though I might not catch every post:

They All Call Me Mom – This mom has 10 children ranging in age from 20 (I think? Her oldest is somewhere around there) and newborn! She homeschools at least some of them too. And she’s a lovely person. I sent her a message when I first started thinking about homeschooling, and she responded quickly with some very helpful information.

Foodie in WV – This is a great recipe review blog. She cooks lots of great recipes from other sites (providing links) and offers tips for execution and sometimes substitutions. Several of her recipes are gluten free. Her photos are even delicious.

Enjoying the Small Things – I love this mama’s writing and photos. Both are beautiful, and so is her family. This was the first blog I read regularly.

Sipping Lemonade – Beautifully written. One of my favorites is here and another that I return to often is here. That second is one of my favorite posts ever. Super Friend pointed me to this blog (and those posts).

Hands Free Mama – Inspirational commentary on slowing down and being more present as a parent.

Simple Homeschool – Good articles and info for homeschoolers.

A few blogs that I’ve just discovered but have enjoyed so far:

Minnesota Mom

The Kennedy Adventures

Blue Skies

And some homeschooling blogs that I look to very frequently for tons of free stuff for my homeschool units:

Confessions of a Homeschooler

3 Dinosaurs

2 Teaching Mommies

1+1+1=1

This isn’t the complete list of blogs I sometimes read. And no, I don’t spend tons of time reading them. But I do enjoy these and visit a few others as well.

What are your favorites?

Some Miscellany – 7 Quick Takes Friday

Posted on June 21, 2013June 21, 2013 by Amy

— 1 —

I am kind of obsessed with reading the blog Conversion Diary right now. Is it possible to be “kind of obsessed”? Probably not. I think that’s an oxymoron. Whatev. I’m calling it “kind of obsessed.” It’s a blog about the author’s conversion from Atheist to Catholic, among other things. Love it.

Every Friday the blog’s author Jennifer writes a post called “7 Quick Takes Friday.” Then lots of other people write “7 Quick Takes” posts and link them to her blog. Fun, yes? I enjoy random thoughts on a Friday. So this week, I’m going to throw my hat in the 7 Quick Takes ring and see how it works out.

— 2 —

During the seemingly endless winter that we had here this past year I was desperately wishing summer would come. I was so eager to be able to take my kids outside to play without spending 3 hours getting them stuffed into several layers of clothing, snow pants, boots, coats, etc. And the mittens! Oh geez. I loathe mittens. Can’t anyone make mittens for toddlers/preschoolers that actually go on easily and stay on and keep their hands warm and dry?

Anyway, I don’t love the process of getting three kids under five ready to go out and play in the winter. So I was excited when spring arrived.

Except I had forgotten about sunscreen.

*Insert audible sigh here*

I think it takes at least as long to get sunscreen on them as to put on mittens. But sunscreen is messier. And they squirm and scream more during the process.

— 3 —

We have two butterflies in our little butterfly cage. Of six caterpillars that came in the mail, two of them successfully formed chrysalides and emerged as butterflies. There is one more chrysalis that may still successfully birth a butterfly, but the rest didn’t work out.

The girls are so excited about the two they’ve got. They are sure one is a girl and one is a boy.

I, on the other hand, am worrying because they don’t seem to be eating. I mixed the sugar water as instructed and even put a piece of fresh watermelon in the little butterfly house. I keep looking in there, “Come on little Painted Lady. Unroll that proboscis. Doesn’t that sugar water taste yummy when you step on it?” But I don’t think it’s happening.

In case you’re thinking me cruel, don’t worry. They’ve only been “hatched” for 1-2 days. We’ll be letting them go soon and they can find their own flowers and drink all the nectar they want.

My girls have even been scoping some out for them.

— 4 —

Miss completed Safety City this week. Yesterday I went to watch her graduation and she got to show off some of the stuff she learned. They had a karate instructor to teach the kids about “stranger danger.” He called Miss up to demonstrate what they are supposed to do if a seemingly nice stranger speaks to them, such as a little old lady asking for help finding her dog. Karate Man knelt down, imitated a sweet old lady voice, complete with sad face and “Can you please help my find my little lost dog?” Miss turned and ran and yelled, “NO THANK YOU I’M GOING TO GET MY MOM AND DAD!!!!” I was so proud. I almost started to cry.

— 5 —

In the past few weeks I have read three Awesome-with-a-capital-A books. Two of them were on my Summer Reading List.

“The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom has just gone straight to the top of my list of all-time favorite books.

And “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis has made the favorites list as well.

The third one wasn’t on my summer list but I had to read it anyway. “My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir” is an amazing book (and another favorite now).

From my summer list I’ve also read “On the Beach,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.” All enjoyable reads as well if you’re looking for a good book.

— 6 —

My hubby starts working nights tonight. I don’t love the weeks that he works nights.

I’ve been trying to plan ways for us to be out of the house next week during the day, but Miss has Wee Camp at the YMCA in the mornings, so we can’t take any big day trips to some of the fun places I’m wanting to visit this summer (See our Summer Fun List).

So far I’ve got grocery shopping and two play dates with Super Friend (God bless Super Friend) to help us get through the week. And one day I’m just punting to our babysitter to take Lass and Sis in the basement to play while Daddy sleeps. Throw in Church one day and a possible closing on some property another (I’ll post more about this if it happens, because I don’t want to count my chickens…) and I think we’re pretty well covered.

— 7 —

Speaking of our list of stuff to do this summer, I would like to note that I officially changed the name of it from “Summer Bucket List” to “Summer Fun List.” I did this after reflecting on the origin of the phrase “Bucket List” and realizing that the name came from the movie characters’ lists of things to do before “kicking the bucket.” Seemed a bit extreme for a list of fun things to do with my little girls before summer ends.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Should Preschoolers “Do School?”

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Amy

I went to my first homeschooling convention this past weekend. I learned some good stuff, got lots of cheap used books, and bought a few new manipulatives for our school room.

I had a really good time. Most of the workshops I attended were quite informative.

Surprisingly, the workshop from which I got the least amount of useful and practical information was the one focused on homeschooling 3, 4, and 5 year olds.

Kind of odd, since this is the only age group within which I do homeschool, but whatev.

I think the reason for this is that lots of people hold very strongly to their opinions that preschoolers should not be “schooled” at all. That our society pushes too much formal learning onto kids too early. That preschoolers should do all their learning through play. That kids should not be pressured to learn letters and begin reading before kindergarten, or even later.

The presenter at the conference cited lots of information on the importance of play and quoted one article as saying that the optimal age for children to begin formal education is around age 8 (I think that was the age she said… it was somewhere around there).

So, needless to say, the presenter didn’t have much to say as far as suggestions for fun things to do in homeschool for preschool-aged kids. Mostly she just said “play.”

And that’s cool. I actually agree with her to an extent, though I was really hoping for some fun new ideas (I did get some from a session by a music therapist!).

I know that the most important ways for kids to learn in the preschool years are through play and being read to. I think art and music are also critical. And I do also believe that too much emphasis is being placed nowadays, in many settings, on teaching young children through rote memorization with things like flashcards and worksheets and drilling facts.

BUT, I also think there can be a happy medium. I think it’s okay to teach kids their letters and numbers and colors and shapes when they’re little. I think it’s okay to have a little bit of “school time” when kids do somewhat more formal learning activities, though I wouldn’t necessarily choose for these activities to be flashcards or worksheets most of the time (but occasionally these can be fun too).

I’ve spent the past six months or so trying to figure out how to do homeschool preschool in a way that works best for us. For me. For my kids. For our schedule. I’ve refined my “method” several times during this time. I’m happy with the way we do things now.

So in case you’re wondering, here it is:

I start by picking themes, or units, for our school based on what is going on around us or what my girls are interested in. Then I pick a letter to go with the theme. For example, we’ve done “G is for Groundhog” for Groundhog Day (still one of my favorite weeks), “L is for Leprechaun” for St. Patrick’s Day, and “C is for Clown and Circus” the week before we went to the circus. Recently we did “R is for Rainbow” and now we’re talking about weather and doing “U is for Umbrella.” Next up, by request from my girls, is “I is for Insect” (I would have done B is for Bug, but we already did “B is for Bunny” at Easter).

Our units last as long as I need them to, not just a week. Usually the length of time of a unit is dictated by how many books we have to read and how many days per week we do school. Sometimes external factors come into play too, like when we only had a week after “B is for Bunny” and “E is for Easter” (did two letters for that one, sometimes we get all crazy up in here) and before we went to the circus, so we did our entire circus unit mostly in one week. But I usually try not to rush through a unit.

Once I have a theme in mind, I search for books to go with it and put the books on hold at my library. I get lots of books for each unit!

Then I start combing Pinterest and my favorite homeschooling blogs (like this one and this one) where I get lots of free downloads. I find activities to focus on our letter as well as doing some counting, patterning, sequencing, sorting, etc. I print tons of pages, laminate most of them, and cut them up as needed. I have a slight obsession with my laminator and magnet tape.

I find a few craft activities for each theme and try hard not to over-manage their projects.

We do some experiments if applicable. Today we talked about clouds and the water cycle and experimented with using droppers to drip water onto a cotton ball to see how much water it could hold before beginning to “rain,” for example.

We “do school” several times a week, though not every day, usually in the morning.

We generally spend about an hour on school activities, sometimes a little more if we’re really into an art project or something.

We start our morning with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Then we do circle time, which for us consists of going over our calendar, talking about the weather, doing the nursery rhyme and/or song that goes with our theme, reviewing our letter and its sound, and talking about any other interesting info related to our topic. I have a white board with the letter, rhymes, and other facts written on it.

We read 2-4 books related to our topic each day at the end of circle time (I try to do a mix of fiction and nonfiction) and sometimes do felt or magnet board activities with them. My girls really love these, so we often do them repeatedly throughout the time we are focusing on a certain theme. For example, at St. Patrick’s Day time, we did a magnet board activity almost every day while reading “There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Clover” (and the same thing with “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick” at Easter time). The girls had the Old Lady and each of the things she ate, and they took turns placing her/them on the magnet board as I read the story.

Right now we’re reading Jan Brett’s “The Umbrella” and putting up each of the animals in the story onto the felt board as we read the story. Every. Day. They even play with the animals and the felt board when we aren’t doing school time!

After circle time the girls sit at their table and do various activities. Miss gets really excited about this part. Lass is sometimes less enthusiastic. This is where things get a little tricky for me, because each of the girls always wants to do what the other is doing, but Lass has a hard time with some of the things I have for Miss to do.

So I just try to have a good variety of things, with puzzles, counting, patterning, sequencing, sorting, and some writing practice. I only ask Lass to do the most simple prewriting activities and if she’s not into it, I let it drop. With other writing worksheets she just colors. It usually works out pretty well.

I have learned the beauty of the cookie sheet and magnetic tape or these colorful little round magnets. Magnetic tape holds puzzle pieces in place to keep perfectionistic girls from freaking out when they won’t stay just so. These little round magnets on various printed designs are one of Lass’s favorite activities to do.

The trick is to find activities that challenge them enough that they feel accomplishment, but not so much that they get stressed out and frustrated. That is my goal with all of the “school stuff” I have them do.

Sometimes I find the perfect activities for them (like the magnets for Lass). Sometimes I don’t get it right, like the time I had Miss adding by counting pictures and writing the number of the answer at the end. She had no problem counting and adding to get the right answer, and seemed to enjoy that part. But she wasn’t ready to freehand write the numbers in for the answers (she’s still working on tracing them), and she and I got quite frustrated by that one. For subsequent activities like this I have printed numbers for her to place in the answer space, or let her use numbered blocks, etc.

I try to keep our school time fun and minimize the frustration. If one of them is hating an activity and my coaching them on it isn’t helping, I usually try to set it aside and move on to something else or call it good for the day.

I don’t always get this right. Sometimes I start to think one of them is being lazy and not really trying to do something I know she can do. So then I start pushing her to do it. As you can imagine, this never turns out well. I usually end up mentally slapping myself and regrouping. Often I end up apologizing. I always end up reminding myself to try not to be a jerk.

But my point is, most of our day is spent reading and playing. The girls have tons of time for free play.

But they actually love having “school time” too. Miss asks for it frequently. They seem to enjoy the activities we do, the books we read, the crafts we make. They learn stuff. And so do I.

I like our balance. It works for us.

What are your thoughts on preschool? How do (did/will) you do preschool with your kids?

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Posted on April 24, 2013April 24, 2013 by Amy

We’ve spent the last week or so talking about R is for Rainbows.

I love rainbows. My girls love rainbows. It was a good week.

We painted rainbows.

We sang rainbow songs, and danced to rainbow songs, and did magnet games with pictures from rainbow songs.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow:

We did plenty of other “R” and Rainbow activities:

Punching holes in letter Rs with plastic needles

Some of my favorite resources for FREE preschool homeschool activities had great Rainbow Units.

Like this Rainbow Unit from 1+1+1=1. We used tons of the stuff from this download. The favorite of my girls was the printout of the lyrics to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with the pictures of the various things mentioned during the song (rainbow, star, clouds, chimney, etc.). I put magnet tape on the backs of each of these items and had them take turns putting them up on the dry erase board as we sang the song. They loved it, and we did it as part of circle time every day during this unit!

I also used lots of stuff out of the Letter R for Rainbow unit from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I love her stuff and I use it all the time. I got the “poke page” idea pictured above from her, for example.

Lass loved this magnet rainbow activity (we got this page and some coloring pages here, magnets here):

We got and read tons of rainbow books from the library.

We made rainbows on the walls and furniture and each other using our prism.

The girls really got into talking about Roy G. Biv!

For some more fun rainbow stuff, check out my Pinterest page on the topic (Have I ever mentioned how much I love Pinterest? It’s a homeschooling mom’s best friend). Enjoy!

Snow White Birthday Party on the Cheap

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Amy

You might remember, about a year and a half ago I wrote a post about my “Princess Issue.” I used to have a little bit of an anti-princess attitude. However, I’ve really lightened up on this, and over the past year, the princesses have really been a popular toy/play theme in our house. We even had lunch with the princesses at Disney for Miss’s birthday. My girls love playing with, reading about, and dressing up as all the Disney Princess gals. Snow White is typically the favorite, though recently they’ve really been into Ariel, and Cinderella and Rapunzel are always popular here too.

But I must admit, as much as I’ve lightened up on my anti-princess campaign and have come to enjoy, perhaps even embrace, the princesses these days, I still sometimes tend towards encouraging other toys, games, and books over the princess stuff. I guess I just want to make sure they’re getting variety.

So when it came time to start planning Miss’s birthday party, and I asked her what type of party she would like, I gave some non-princess examples.

Me: “You could have a cowgirl party, or an archery party (sounds odd, but this would be right up her alley, remember this?), or a fairy party…”

Her: “I want a princess party.”

Me: “Okay. Well. Any particular princess or just all the princesses in general?”

Her: “A particular princess.”

Me: “Which one?”

Her: “Snow White.”

Indecision is not a problem with this girl.

From that point, the challenge was on for me to come up with Snow-White-themed birthday decor that wasn’t cheesy, canned, or mass-produced by Disney. I knew I could give her a Snow White party, but I couldn’t make myself go to the princess aisle at the local Party Bomb store and buy up a bunch of their Disney Princess stuff. First of all, it’s ridiculous how much they charge for it. Secondly, they always sell it with several of the princesses together, and often Snow White is not even included. Third, well, I just didn’t want to. So I tried to get creative.

Where did I start? Why, Pinterest of course. From there I had to take the ideas and turn them into something I could do considering our particular situation.

I knew that we would be traveling for Miss’s birthday, and I wouldn’t be able to do a ton because we’d be having the party at my sister-in-law’s house. I wanted to do things that I thought Miss would enjoy that wouldn’t cost a lot of money. Also, I didn’t want to be too over the top with the princess-y stuff because the majority of the kid guests at the party would be Miss’s older and male cousins.

So I decided to go with the blue, yellow, and red color scheme (from her dress) and focus a little bit more on the Evil Queen and the poisoned apples. I really wanted to use some of the ideas from this post like the seven dwarfs ring toss, wishing well, and pass the poisoned apple game, but with the party being squeezed between sessions of the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament, I knew we wouldn’t have time for games. Plus most of the kids coming to the party were a bit old for these anyway. So I kept things more simple.

Anyway, focusing on poisoned apples and magic mirrors and keeping things cheap, I went to the dollar section at Target and the Dollar Tree store to see what I could find.

I found these packs of 10 (5 red and 5 green) apples at Target for $1. I didn’t immediately know what I would do with them, but knew I could use them for something.

I never did come up with anything really clever, but I decided to make a few little signs. I wasn’t going to purchase a special font, so I just used the Blackmoor LET font in Word, on the largest size available, to make them. I thought they looked close enough.

At the Dollar Tree I found this silver-colored platter.

I knew I wanted to make the Evil Queen’s mirror, and though it obviously wasn’t a mirror, it was the right size and shape and it was reflective. And oh yeah, it was $1.

Referring to a picture I found online of the queen’s mirror, I used craft foam to frame it (package of foam crown shapes also from the Dollar Tree, I had to cut one down to size).

I found some gold acrylic paint in my crafting stash in the basement,

some glitter glue, a few big rhinestones (the most expensive part of the whole project because I had to buy a whole big package, but I’m sure they will get used around here), some Elmer’s glue to fasten it to the platter, and voila! A Magic Mirror.

I took a Command Adhesive Strip with me so I could hang it on my sister-in-law’s banister.

Miss and Lass got a kick out of it, and so did some of our littler guests.

* Note – the glue didn’t hold very well after traveling with it. I had to re-glue it and add some tape to get it to stay. It still worked well enough though.

We had poisoned apple cupcakes.

I had seen a small stand-up doll Cinderella cake at our local grocery store bakery (like the kind my aunt used to make for my and my cousins’ birthdays!) and asked them if they could do Snow White. They said yes, so I ordered one. I didn’t want the whole party to seem more about the Evil Queen than Snow White, and I thought Miss would really like the doll cake. Unfortunately they called me three days before the party (one day before we left for Iowa!) and told me that they did not, in fact, have Snow White. After a bit of a scramble to try to find someone in Iowa who could do one at the last minute with no luck, I hurriedly photocopied a couple pictures from the girl’s Snow White book and laminated them to set on the table to add a little bit of actual Snow White to the scene. A little cheesy, but it worked in a pinch and it was free.

I did take one party idea from the blog post mentioned above, and that was to have some little bird whistles available as party favors. The ones used at the party in that post got reviews on Amazon that said they were very hard for kids to blow and actually make them whistle, so I got these instead (bonus: they were cheaper).

They were mostly a hit with the Under-18-Months Crowd.

So there you have it. Some homemade apple signs, laminated copies of book pages, a homemade Magic Mirror from a $1 platter, poisoned apple cupcakes, and some bird whistles. It wasn’t fancy, and not nearly as elaborate as most of the parties I saw in my Pinteresting. But it worked well considering we had to take the party on the road and were hosting it at someone else’s home. And it was CHEAP. All the decor (not counting food, cups, plate, etc.) was under $20.

Most importantly, Miss enjoyed it.

Valentine’s Day Science

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Amy

Pinterest success was mine today.

Last night I pinned a link to this blog post about using Valentine’s Day candy conversation hearts for science experiments. I watched the video in the above link, and then checked out this post and this for more information.

Basically, the post was about using the conversation hearts to experiment with what would happen if putting them into different liquids/solutions.

I knew my girls would love this, even if only to have the opportunity to eat more of the hearts while doing the experiments (we ate some a few days ago when using them for counting, graphing, sorting, and they loved them).

So today, we had science class.

We started with placing the hearts in water of different temperatures. I did this slightly differently than the Mom at Inspiration Laboratory. I didn’t measure the water temperature. I just used cold, warm, and hot tap water. We dropped hearts in, stirred with spoons a bit, and watched to see what would happen. You can see the hot water on the left below. We talked about what “dissolve” means. They made the observation that the hot water was dissolving the heart fastest. They poked at the hearts, lifted them out of the water to see if the writing was still on them, and so forth. I liked using the clear glass containers and putting them against the white wall so the girls could see how the dissolving candy changed the color of the water.

Next we talked about the concept of “chemical reactions” and moved on to putting the heart in a glass of vinegar. They started by smelling the vinegar and exclaiming over its stinkiness. Lass dropped the heart in, and we observed that nothing happened. It dissolved even less than the heart in cold water. During all the time it was in the vinegar (about an hour) it never changed much at all. Bummer.

Then came the more exciting stuff. I brought out the baking soda to see what would happen if we put a heart in water that had baking soda dissolved in it. I didn’t watch the video for this particular experiment on Inspiration Laboratory, so I wasn’t sure what they found. When we put the heart in the baking soda water it almost immediately turned the water from very foggy to clear again. Interesting.

I didn’t know that that wasn’t what was supposed to happen until I was looking at this post about the experiment they did to determine which ingredient in the candy hearts caused the bubbling reaction. Bubbling reaction? Oops. After reading through her post, I quickly realized that the reason our hearts didn’t bubble in the baking soda water is that they don’t have citric acid in them. So, if you do this and you want the bubbling reaction, get hearts with citric acid. Ours are the old school Brach’s Conversation Hearts in “Classic Flavors” (I chose this particular type to match the printouts I had for the math activities mentioned above).

Anyway. All this is building up to the best parts of our experimenting. Of course I mean the combination of baking soda water and vinegar.

I have never done this trick with the girls before, so we started out just combining the two to see the reaction, without adding any hearts.

I really didn’t know just how much it would bubble up. I thought it might go over the edge of the glass a little bit. I was cool with that, since I figured that would be part of the fun. I put down a paper towel folded in half just in case.

The girls thought this was hilarious.

For the next phase of our experimenting, I got a bigger container.

We started out by mixing the baking soda in the water again. One cup of water with half of a Tablespoon of baking soda. Then we added in a couple of hearts.

Then came the vinegar (I used a half cup).

After the initial reaction, the solution continued to fizz, causing the hearts to “dance” all around in the water. They spun, they moved up and down.

It was like magic and the girls just kept watching them move. They added lots more hearts, and they all continued to spin and bob. We talked a little bit about how the bubbles were lifting them up and then popping so the hearts sank back down.

*Note – In the video I watched here of the experiment, the Mom added the vinegar before the candy hearts and hardly anything happened, at least not for a while. In her post about it here where she also has a video, she says to mix the water and baking soda, then add the candy hearts, then the vinegar. So that’s how we did it and it worked perfectly. It seems to work both ways, but I think the effect is more dramatic and interesting to add the hearts before the vinegar.

The hearts danced for quite a while. Long enough for the girls to eventually get tired of watching.

Here’s a look at our finished solutions. Left to right, hot water, warm water, cold water, vinegar, baking soda water, and baking soda/vinegar water. This was a while after the experiments were completed, and the hearts had stopped moving.

I made the mistake of dumping these out once the girls lost interest in them.

Miss was very upset when she realized I had done so.

So we’re going to do it all again tomorrow. She wants to show her Daddy anyway.

There are a few things I’ll do differently:

1. I’ll use hot, room temp, and chilled water for the temperature experiment. I’ll also use the same color heart in each of the glasses and make sure it’s one of the more vibrantly colored hearts, like pink or purple. The yellow didn’t let them see the difference in saturation of the water very well. Maybe we’ll even use a thermometer and timer this time.

2. I noticed that the one white heart we used in the experiments (I think it was in the dancing experiment) had dissolved almost completely, while the others had hardly dissolved at all, so we’ll explore this a bit more to see how the white and colored hearts might react differently.

3. I also noticed, just when posting these photos, that the hearts were all floating at the top of the baking soda/vinegar solution, even after the bubbles had stopped forming, though sitting at the bottom of the other glasses, so we’ll check this out too.

4. I’ll probably find another container so each girl can do her own baking soda/vinegar/dancing heart experiment.

I love Pinterest. And I love my new find for fun activities, Inspiration Laboratory.

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