{"id":2255,"date":"2013-10-07T16:53:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T16:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.wordpress.com\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2013-10-07T16:53:55","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T16:53:55","slug":"10-ways-to-make-today-magical-128","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/magicalchildhood.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/07\/10-ways-to-make-today-magical-128\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ways to Make Today Magical"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Monday!<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I keep meaning to get back to posting daily or near-daily, but life is still so busy\u00a0 here.\u00a0 We are finishing up the season of “putting things up” — making applesauce and apple cider from extra apples on friends’ trees, grape jelly from Grandma’s backyard grapevines, salsa from flats of tomatoes from the farm family down the highway, and so on.\u00a0 I love this season and I love that Daryl and I have taught ourselves these old fashioned skills and are teaching them to our kids, but it is a lot of work and I will also love the slower pace of winter once the apples, zucchinis, tomatoes, pumpkins and other goodies have all been dealt with.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We’ve also been busy with making the most of fall — lots of hiking and outings, nature studies and so on.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Magical Childhood is always busy this time of year, when What Should a Four Year-Old Know?<\/span><\/a> gets shared again and brings a new flurry of visitors.\u00a0 Many of you know it was also shared in Huffington Post last month, and it was translated into another handful of languages.\u00a0 Another neat thing is that a community magazine in North Dakota asked to reprint my article 10 Things to Do Instead of Yelling<\/span><\/a>, which is one of my favorite articles from my parenting columns at examiner.com.\u00a0 I’m trying to finish up the Magical Childhood book at last, too, but to be honest I am more than a little flaky about finishing it and I tend to go off and play when I should be working.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Perhaps saying it here will help motivate me to get back to work!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And that’s enough yapping out of me.\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s a few ways to make some memories with your kiddos this week…..<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Make some leaf art, like Color Me Katie<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong> She punched out little hearts from dead leaves and then created whimsical vines and such around her neighborhood with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2.\u00a0 Wear fancy clothes all day, just because.<\/strong>\u00a0 We’ve had a whole stash of thrift store costumes, capes and prom dresses for years to make an ordinary Monday seem more special.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

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3.\u00a0 Take your child out for coffee or dessert.\u00a0<\/strong> Head out someplace, just the two of you, to enjoy some lazy conversation over something tasty.\u00a0 Take the time to really talk (and listen!).<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Bring the kiddie pool inside and fill it with fun nature items like dried leaves and seed pods.\u00a0<\/strong> Spread a sheet out underneath it to help with cleanup.\u00a0 To make it even more fun, give your little one some markers to decorate the leaves and items.\u00a0 Be sure to involve the kids in the clean up!<\/span><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Make pumpkin pie playdough.\u00a0<\/strong> We made this every fall for years and I need to make it up again soon (I’m going to try swapping corn flour for the flour for my gluten free little guy this time).\u00a0 It smells heavenly and is so much fun to play with!\u00a0 Note that this makes a lot (we have a lot of kids!), so feel free to use some math with the kids and make smaller batches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pumpkin Pie Playdough Recipe<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n