{"id":1645,"date":"2011-08-23T05:48:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T05:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.wordpress.com\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2011-08-23T05:48:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T05:48:51","slug":"10-ways-to-make-today-magical-102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/23\/10-ways-to-make-today-magical-102\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ways to Make Today Magical"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s still officially summer time and still rerun season, right?<\/strong>\u00a0 In honor of that (and a current state of pregnant sickness and needing to take it easy for a bit), I’m running a rerun of ways to make the day magical.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Some of you may know that I’ve been doing these lists for years now.\u00a0 In the beginning, they were part of Magical Childhood newsletters that I sent out.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So here’s a list I put out when my girls were little and I was pregnant with Jack — in August 9 years ago<\/a>.\u00a0 I suddenly feel so old!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

10 Ways to Make Today Magical……<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Cut old sheets, curtains, skirts or spare material into long strips and pin them onto the kids’ clothing.\u00a0<\/strong> Let the kids run through the yard with their streamers and fasten some to sticks to ribbon dance with.\u00a0 If they’re plain white and you want to add art, use markers to decorate.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Plan a special afternoon with each child and tour a local art museum.\u00a0<\/strong> Take your time and talk about works you each like and why.\u00a0 See if there are some techniques you guys would like to try at\u00a0 home.\u00a0 We went to a great exhibit of an Ethiopian artist at a tiny nearby museum and the kids were delighted to see that some of\u00a0 his paintings were done with materials like yarn and scraps of paper glued on.\u00a0 The quiet atmosphere and slow pace is perfect for conversations.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Start reading a book series together at a special time each day.<\/strong>\u00a0 Ask your librarian for suggestions or check out any of the great book lists online.\u00a0 Victoria and I are up to book #10 in the Magic Treehouse series and she and Annalee now play act the characters.\u00a0 It’s become a special saga for all of us to keep up on.\u00a0 Check out Jim Trelease’s Read Aloud Handbook for suggestions of marvelous books to read aloud for each age.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Invent a secret handshake or special good-bye.\u00a0<\/strong> A darling family on Oprah demonstrated incredibly convoluted “handshakes” that the father shared with each child every morning before school.\u00a0 What a special way to start the day and know you’re loved!<\/span><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Have a No No Day.<\/strong>\u00a0 No “no’s” allowed!\u00a0 For one day, make it off limits for either you or your child to say the word no.\u00a0 Make up funny punishments for slipping up or put fun things in a jar as punishments (some of mom’s: cuddle with me for 10 minutes on the couch, wear that darling outfit that you make faces in… some of the kids’: read us 3 books, play frisbee in the back yard…).\u00a0 Find creative things to say instead of no, like “That sounds like fun but maybe instead of ice cream for supper we could make supper look like ice cream” or “I don’t think we can do that but we could ____ instead” or even (gasp) “yes”!<\/span><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Brainstorm on creative ways to do 10 dreaded cleaning chores.<\/strong>\u00a0 For instance, see if the kids can clean the full length mirror behind their backs, make their beds with their eyes closed, or “sweep” the hallway by repeatedly pressing a big piece of old contact paper on it.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Sit down with the kids and help them write several manufacturers of products they like.<\/strong>\u00a0 Advise the kids to write what they like, what (if anything) they don’t like, and any suggestions they have for improving them.\u00a0 Mail them off and talk to them about how maybe they’ll get a letter back and how their opinion could help change the product.\u00a0 Don’t tell the kids, but be on the lookout for free coupons when they write back!\u00a0 Kids can also do this with stuff they don’t like.\u00a0 Victoria called a cookie mix company last week with my help and said how sad she was that the sprinkles on the cookie picture didn’t come with the mix.\u00a0 It can be empowering for kids to feel like they’re taken seriously as consumers!\u00a0 And free goodies are never a bad thing.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

7. Start making toasts every night at supper.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Mail your child a long letter telling her special memories you have of him and reasons you’re proud of him.\u00a0<\/strong> If you have a teen, start leaving notes for each other to talk.\u00a0 Sometimes older kids have an easier time addressing things through letters.<\/span><\/p>\n

9.\u00a0 Take a field trip to tour a nearby factory.<\/strong>\u00a0 I still remember touring the Paul Mason winery near our house in California when I was little.\u00a0 We got lollipops at the end (wine for grown ups!) and we sat and watched the fountain light up.\u00a0 Even the most mundane factory can seem enormous and fascinating to a child.<\/span><\/p>\n

10.\u00a0 Give your child a flower petal bath.<\/strong>\u00a0 Gather some flower petals from flowers like roses (any will do though!) and scatter them on the bath water.\u00a0 If you like, you can add a couple of drops of some essential oils like lavender.\u00a0 You can make it more elaborate and make it a magic bath– tossing in a handful of epsom salts for strength, a teaspoon of baby oil for luck, and so on.\u00a0 Invite your child to create her own symbolism for what the petals represent.\u00a0 Or they can mean nothing at all.\u00a0 No matter what, it feels luxurious and fun!<\/span><\/p>\n

And with that, my dears, I’m off to see if I can convince someone to give me a foot rub!\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Hug your kiddos, count your blessings and don’t forget to take care of you!<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s still officially summer time and still rerun season, right?\u00a0 In honor of that (and a current state of pregnant sickness and needing to take it easy for a bit), I’m running a rerun of ways to make the day magical.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 Some of you may know that I’ve been doing these lists for years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[253],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}