HMJ: Free Curriculum, Bratty Kids, and Brave

What have I been up to? (because I didn't get much blogging done this week, that's for sure!) So here is what's kept me so busy...
Well, my favorite thing this week was… seeing the movie Brave with my daughters.  Did you see this great Brave themed sensory bin project from Counting Coconuts? How super cute is that!? This one looks to contain small pieces so parental caution with the wee ones, but I plan on making this for my 5 year old who is Brave Crazy and in love with her new Merida doll...

                                                   photo credit: Counting Coconuts Blog

In our homeschool this week…we homeschool year round and are in the final stretch of this current homeschool year. Seems every week now finds us wrapping up a book or subject. Now I am getting excited about starting to plan for the new school year. We are using the free curriculum available from Wee Folk Art for my 5 year old daughter this fall. Yep, you read that right...Free. In fact, Wee Folk Arts blog is full of freebies!
What’s working/not working for us…I am still doing the One Good Deed a Day Project. Look for my newest update this week on the blog!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… We are headed to New York in August to see the broadway play Wicked. Pretty excited about that. We are going to stay at the Waldorf -Astoria, where Mr. Darcy's great aunt was married in 1929.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…Don't forget the STEM subjects! Especially if homeschooling girls: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math! If you aren't confident in your own math/science skills then seek out tutors, supplemental help, or even consider regular school for that one subject, but do make sure Math and Science are getting their fair due. I see so many fellow homeschoolers loading up on the literature and history but kids need to experience science: indoors, outdoors and through fun experiments. This is a great book if you need some simple experiments:

 

Things I’m working on…free printables for the blog--which is one reason I was a tad absent this week! And, starting this week, you can expect 4-5 posts a week here at Brighton Park..and just in time...for we will be offering some fabulous giveaways in July!

Questions/thoughts I have…This week I have really been amazed at how rude and misbehaved some children are and all their parents offer are excuses. Let's call this what it is...lazy parenting. What I saw this week out in our community (kids behaving terribly and parents not caring to even notice, let alone intervene or discipline (a word that means "to teach"), was, in my opinion, a sad commentary on American families and society

Well...Brighton Park, was voted in the Circle of Moms top Homeschooling Blogs list! The list is for the top 25 homeschooling blogs as voted on by peers and Brighton park was voted #8 out of over 200 blogs! So exciting and I am so appreciative. I strive to bring good information backed by real credentials, something that I do see so many blogs sorely lack. It's great to be entertaining, but if you are informing, you need experience, education or both in that subject area!


I’m reading… Getting ready to start Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The new musical comes to theatres in December and I thought now would be as good a time to read it as any, as it has been on my "list" for awhile! I hope you all have said no, as I have, to reading the "Fifty shades of Gray" series. Sadly, it has enamoured so many of my married friends, but all it offers is disrespect to your own marriage union. Just say no to this one, my friends. Respect your husband and save your fantasies for him!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…We charted the caboose of the Verde Canyon Railroad last week and I will be sharing that adventure in a blog post soon...In the meantime, here's a sneakpeak:

This post is linked to the Homeschool Mother's Journal, hosted by IhomeschoolNetwork.com. Join me there to post your own journal entry or meet other iencouraging and insightful homeschool families.

Blessings,

Polka Dot Rose and an offer for you!

Last year, my middle daughter Charlotte wanted a Hello Kitty Tea Party Birthday Party for her 5th birthday party. It was a fun party and you can click here if you want to see pictures of all the tea party fun! 

While planning for her 5th birthday soiree, I realized I needed to find tea cups for the girls to drink out of. (What tea party is complete without real teacups? Yeah, I didn't think so either!) And so my search for said tea cups led me to find  Polka Dot Rose Etsy Shop.

Karla of Polka Dot Rose has filled her shop with what can only be described as vintagey-yummy goodness. Tea cups, gloves, antiques, water pitchers, china, silver,vintage sewing notions, purses and more. It actually reminds me of my grandma's attic, but with more pink and less Chinese checkers and genuinely puts me in a good mood every time I decide to peruse her offerings.

Here are my top 5 favorite things in her store right now (in no particular order)...

1.  Vintage pink roses bone china teacup and saucer. I collect tea cups so I am always on the look out for pretty patterns. I should add that for Charlotte's party I found the sweetest set of teacups in Karla's shop, and they came shipped quickly and lovingly packed. They were packaged perfectly for china teacups and all arrived in pristine condition. That is one thing I love about my favorite etsy shops, customer service is standard.

2. Antique wash basin pitcher.  I am such a sucker for these and for their pitcher/bowl counterparts. They look gorgeous filled with flowers and give any room old fashioned charm.

3. Vintage princess-blue petticoat/crinoline. I admit, I have a love of crinolines. Attribute it to my Avril Lavigne fandom days, or my love of 1930s and 40s fashion but our household seems to have more of these than my average neighbor. The girls love them for dress up; I've been known to wear them under a longer Betty Page style dress on a date night. LOVE!

4. Paris apartment styled vintage wood shelf, featuring scrolls and flowers and painted a gorgeous cottage white. Seriously, I could think of half a dozen places in my house this would look amazing. I love how these little touches can really make a room look so lovely and "finished". And if you come to this blog very often, then you know  how easily anything with the words England or Paris in the title gets my attention :-)

5. I love these signed designer costume jewelry clip earrings by bogoff,  from the 1950s or 60s. They are flower shaped and oh so feminine. Karla often carries some seriously gorgeous vintage jewelry in her shop.

Now here's the fun part! This is when I get to share with you Brighton Park friends that if you go to Karla's etsy shop, Polka Dot Rose, and see something you like, all you have to do is put in the code BRIGHTON at check out and you will receive 20% off your total purchase!

And it's not even your birthday (or is it?~~if it is your birthday, then definitely get over there and pick out something nice for yourself!) Not your birthday? Maybe buy yourself something wonderful because it's your 1/2 birthday, or because it's Thursday, really, do you need a reason to not at least go over there and browse the vintagey yummy goodness? :-) This offer for 20% off for Brighton Park readers is good till the end of the month (6/30/2012).

Thank you to Karla at Polka Dot Rose for being such a lovely sponsor to the Brighton Park Blog.

Wishing you a Thursday full of beautiful things...

Shared Girls Bedroom Transformation: Before and After

When we moved into this house, I was ten days away from delivering baby number five, so unpacking boxes was a priority...decorating? not so much.

The girls (who were 3 and 6 when we moved in) were happy with their new shared room. It was much bigger  than their previous one, with vaulted ceilings, large closets and lots of natural light. But it lacked style and it definitely lacked organization.  This spring I took on two "re-decorating" projects in the house..both shared spaces: The girls bedroom (ages 5 and 8) and our twin boys' room (ages 11). Here's how the girl's room transformation turned out.

Oh...please don't forget...I'm a speech language pathologist, NOT a decorator. We do the best we can with the skills we have, right ;-)

BEFORE: (sorry there's only one before pic--I've learned since to take lots more photos...you never know when something will turn into a blog post, right?):

Here were the problems with "before"

1. Paint color made room seem dark
2. No storage space for girls stuff; mainly stuffed animals, books and bags. Items kept ending up in floor. Girls kept sticking all their pics and treasures into the wall with push pins to "decorate'.
3. No cohesive "theme"
4. Lots of quarreling due to one child being very neat and the other, well...not so much.

And, the girls (now ages 8 and 5) had a few "wishes" for the new room:

1. green walls
2. Fairy garden style (they didn't want "Tinkerbell" per say, they wanted it to look like a place that fairies would like to be...English garden-esque
3. A reading nook (very important to my 8 year old)
4. The 5 year old wanted pink in the room; the 8 year old wanted it to look like a big girl room.

And Mr. Darcy and my wish list also included:

1. A theme and color scheme that could make both girls happy AND be timeless
2. Pieces that the girls could not, would not outgrow so that we would get alot of bang for our remodeling buck.
3. Organized
4. Inviting

And are you ready to see the AFTER?

a fairy garden style room for two...with lots of floral touches, built in organizational features, and a reading nook :-)

Organization included a corner cabinet (upcycled, free and repainted white to match), a post rail  hung below the window to hang bags and purses at child-level, a hanging bookcase, pinboards behind the beds (instead of headboards) where the girls could pin their "treasures" and photos to their hearts content WITHOUT putting holes in the walls, and a dry erase calendar above the dresser to help keep them organized.

**For a shared room space is important. Headboards and foot boards take up alot of the floor space. By using wall mounted pinboards instead of headboards, we saved valuable room space, and the room still looks "finished". 

Little touches included a great print I picked up at our local Halmark store, pink curtain, and using the flower wreaths from the last two years of Renaissance faire visits as decoration on the curtain rod. Two wreaths of flowers hang on each side with ribbons trailing down, framing the window in that "English garden" style the girls craved. Floral bedding and a new lamp (complete with shade covered in dried peonies) completes the garden theme.

Another change? removing the two mirrored closet doors and replacing them with soft pink curtains that match the window curtain. The girls love them. They soften the room, make a great space for the girls to "hide" and give Charlotte the "pink" in the room that she craved without making her "not a fan of pink" sister TOO crazy.   

Functionally and financially, the girls new room re-do worked on many levels... 

1. Unlike Disney characters or popular commercial themes, theirs is a theme they will not soon outgrow. The new bedding, purchased via a clearance sale at Pottery Barn Teen, works for a 6 year old or a 16 year old.
2. Each piece refurnished (corner cabinet) or purchased (hanging bookcase, creme colored bean bag) can go into different themes, color schemes, or even be used in different rooms if we so choose, easily,for years to come. 
3. The organization pieces (bookcase, corner shelf cabinet, and pegboard rail) have been worth every penny. The girls and I use to have to pick up their room daily or be buried in clutter, books and stuffed animals. Now picking up is something they can do themselves, once a week, and the room stays looking nice in between.
4. Curtains--5 total-- one for the window and 2 for each closet were purchased at Target.
5. (and this is the most important one) The girls loved it!

I hope you enjoyed seeing how we transformed the girls room this spring. I will share the boys room remodel photos with you soon! Do you have a project at your house you are currently working on? Tell me about it :-)

This post is linked up this week with:

Metamorposis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

No Ordinary Bloghop

Time to Shine Party at A Diamond in the Stuff

Inspire me Monday at Create with Joy

Welcome Home at Raising Arrows

Works for Me Wednesday at We are That Family

Homemaking Link Up Wednesday at Raising Homemakers

Thursday link up at These Peas Tastes Funny

and:

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Waldorf Wednesday: Get Outside plus Free outdoor activity book

The time U.S. children spend outdoors has declined 50% in the past 20 years (source here),  and while I have friends who love to remind me (and my anti TV watching ways) that our generation--including myself-- watched TV and turned out "okay", they are forgetting that our generation did NOT have cell phones, smartphones, laptops, Ipads, Nooks, Kindles, and the like....and we didn't have DirectTV, if we were lucky, we had 4 channels.
Our children are bombarded with screens.
And so are we.
Where have the childhoods gone? Where have all the parents gone, for that matter...everywhere I look, they are behind a cell phone, or laptop, plugged in and missing the childhoods happening right in their own houses. This is a great path to be on if you want to wake up 15 years from now and feel regret because your kids grew up...
and you missed it.
Enter one of the things I love, love, love about a Waldorf-inspired curriculum... it gets my kids outside, (thereby getting me outside)...unplugged...everyday.

Sunny? of course.

Chilly? Throw on a sweater...or a scarf...or both.

Rainy? Doesn't matter.

Mr. Darcy and I live in an area where outdoor activities are plentiful, but I am the first to admit our schedule does not always allow for taking advantage of them. This year, starting with this summer, we are trying to change that by filling the kids summer (and our own) with outdoor day trips and experiences they have not had before. (We have already done a few and look for those in coming Waldorf Wednesdays posts!)
So I was very excited to discover that the United States Forest Service has a new campaign to help our kids Discover the Forest! On the Discover the Forest website, you will find a treasure trove of ideas and activities to help you and your children discover the forests near you and get outside this year, including this great free book, "The Book of Stuff to Do Outside" that you can download today! It is full of fun outdoor activities including  matching animal tracks, how to find direction without a compass, leaf and bark rubbings, nature collages, keeping a nature journal and more!  
So hop over there, check out this great site, print out your free booklet and start planning your own forest adventure this summer. Unplug. I promise you will be glad that you did.
To read more about adapting an unplugged parenting style, check out http://www.handsfreemama.com and join the hands free revolution!  
To read more posts from the Waldorf Wednesday Series, click here.
This post is linked up to:
Friday Nature Table Series at The Magic Onions
Show and Tell bloghop at ABC & 123
Kids Play Thursdays at Messy Preschoolers
Inspire me Mondays at Create with Joy
Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations
Link & Learn at No Time for Flashcards
Weekend Wrap up at Your Thriving Family

Also linking up to:
Big family Friday Link Up at Holy Spirit led homeschooling
Collage Fridays at Homegrown Learners
Favorite Resources Friday at Learning all the Time
FreeBEE friday at Gricefully Homeschooling
Friday Favorite Things at Finding Joy
What are little boys made of at Seven Thirty Three
Women living Well Wednesdays

Ballet Journal Giveaway!

I love etsy, so how thrilled was I when one of my very favorite shops, "Dorothy Jane" wanted to sponsor a giveaway here at Brighton Park! This shop, filled to the brim with handmade fabulousness by Dody, shares my love of all things Jane Austen, Paris, Ballet, Nature and more. It is Paper Perfection and I am so excited to share a few of my favorite things with you and announce our new giveaway!
First, a few of my shop favorites...I love this handmade Jane Austen Journal...how pretty is that? (For you literature lovers, she also has them Jane Eyre themed, Madame Bovary, Shakespeare and others!)

I also love this Bird Nest Journal....so pretty to keep track of garden planting, nature walks or quiet thoughts...

Her shop also includes gift tags, garden tags, Christmas items, notecards, bookmarks and more. I love this set of Parisian themed gift tags! Her price point starts at $4 for her tags and bookmarks...definitely a place to get something for everyone!

Now for the giveaway...
Dody has graciously donated the following journal for an exclusive giveaway here at Brighton Park! This absolutely gorgeous Paris Ballet Journal! (Be still my paris loving/ballet mom heart!)...

It is stunning.

Handmade fabulousness..

To enter, sign into raffecopter and do the entries of your choice! **Leaving a comment on this blog post and telling me your favorite item in the Dorothy Jane Etsy shop is a mandatory entry. If you do not automatically see the rafflecopter box, click on where it says "read more" and it should pull up. Good luck!  (Prize winners must live in the United States and not have won a giveaway here on Brighton park in the past three months This giveaway is not affiliated with facebook or twitter in any way.) This post is also linked up to Hip Homeschool Moms.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Chickens at Giverny

 Most of you know I recently returned from another trip to France. This time, instead of just staying in Paris Proper, I ventures out to Normandy and Giverny. Giverny is famous for being where Impressionist artist Claude Monet made his home from 1883-1926. He is responsible for the gardens there, including its famous water garden.

                       The famous Bridge at Giverny.


My daughter Charlotte and I, thoroughly enjoyed our visit and were excited to see chickens there.

Really pretty chickens...

of all breeds...

with gorgeous plumage...

like this Regal Roo...

Who came to get a closer look at the American taking a closer look at him...

We enjoyed touring the house and gardens and of course, meeting some French chickens, who just happen to live at one of the most famous gardens in the world. Do you look for chickens when you are away from home?

This post is linked up to: Your Thriving Family weekend wrap up and...

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Happy Friday,