Reading…

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Vitamin N, by Richard Louv

What greater week to introduce Louv’s newest book than screen-free week! I found Louv’s Last Child in the Woods completely life-changing and inspiring as a parent, and was thrilled to find out, when writing this article for the Post, that he had written a book entirely dedicated to ideas, advice, projects, and activities to get kids and families out into nature. Louv was gracious enough to send me Vitamin N, which I devoured quickly and happily (and also found myself quoted in! What a wonderful surprise!). The book is a wealth of knowledge, loaded with websites, resources, and wonderful, creative ideas for how to have fun in nature alone or as a family.

One of the best tips I encountered in the book was the introduction of nature to children from infancy: “Start from day one. Give a baby the gift of nature… When our first son was born, I held him in my arms and walked to the window, and showed him his very first day. If the time and place are right, you can show your child the world in the beginning — the blue sky, gray clouds, the moon, the stars, the frost on the pane, the dawn.” Yes, I thought. Of course! 

And I was suddenly taken back to our earliest days with Milo, who was quite a crier in those early evening (and late evening, and mid-evening, and middle of the night, and early morning…) hours. In desperation, Andrew sometimes used to take Milo outside in the middle of the night in the fresh air, and oftentimes it worked in calming him down and getting him back to sleep.

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One-year-old Milo following Andrew in the grass of the National Mall

But going beyond those desperate nights, we brought him with us out into the world from the very start: walking all over the city parks when he was only a few days old while carrying him in a sling, taking him outside to the park in Baltimore to crawl in the grass, then watching as he toddled around our shady backyard on the edge of Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. He spent hours exploring the small outdoor space amidst the ferns and hosta lilies, touching everything and just being in the thick of it while I gardened alongside him.

If you have the opportunity, take your child outdoors as often as possible when he or she is just a baby. If you do it from the start, it will become part of who they are forever, and it will be a place they can always turn to, and return to.

I highly recommend Vitamin N — it would be the perfect gift for a new parent, or one who needs a little push in the nature direction! Thank you, Mr. Louv, for sharing this awesome book with me — I can already tell it will become one of the most-loved, worn out books I own, right there alongside Last Child in the Woods. 

And while we’re on the nature subject…

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The Book of Frogs: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from Around the World, by Tim Halliday

I picked this book up at our library last week thinking my boys would enjoy looking through it, and boy was I underestimating their fascination with all field guide, nature-related books! This one is quite impressive (and big indeed!); they are building some impressive muscles lugging this to and from the car and breakfast places!

A description of the book online:

The Book of Frogs commemorates the diversity and magnificence of all of these creatures, and many more. Six hundred of nature’s most fascinating frog species are displayed, with each entry including a distribution map, sketches of the frogs, species identification, natural history, and conservation status. Life-size color photos show the frogs at their actual size—including the colossal seven-pound Goliath Frog. Accessibly written by expert Tim Halliday and containing the most up-to-date information, The Book of Frogs will captivate both veteran researchers and amateur herpetologists.

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The boys were quite interested in the South American Rocket Frog (poor critically endangered guy who’s been missing in action since 1991) a good papa who carries his babies on his back.

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Check out this fascinating book from your local library for the amazing photographs alone. It will surely make your children marvel at the vast and astonishing diversity in the world.

Screen-Free Week!

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Holy moly, it’s May!

This week marks Screen-Free Weeka time when communities (and particularly their children) around the world unplug together and reconnect with the world around them. We did this last year and it was a great success. Though, I must admit, not much of a difference from the daily lives for our kids, who spend around two hours a week looking at screens (it helps that this has been part of our lifestyle from the start; we have never owned a television when we’ve had kids and computers are very easy to place out of sight). However, it’s harder for me, as all of my blogging and writing happens on a computer!

I have vowed to spend significantly less time on my own screen this week (I’ll be in the garden!) but I’ve set up plenty of blog posts in advance. The posts I have for this week will primarily be suggestions of fun activities and books that are about connecting back to the world around us. It’s very important and I hope you’ll join us, if not going completely screen-free, then at least cutting back if you can!

P.s. — Tomorrow night is Circus Night at the boys’ school… I think I finally feel ready! It’s going to be awesome!

Music Monday

David Bowie — “Space Oddity”

(Just a side note — Milo and Oliver are singing this in their class for the end of year concert, and yesterday they crowded around the computer singing along, knowing every word, together. Needless to say, it made me cry like a big baby.)

Fleet Foxes — “Montezuma”

Shearwater — “I Was A Cloud”

Spinach Clementine Curry Salad

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We’ve been eating some variation of this salad lately, and I think it’s so delicious, I couldn’t wait to share it with you! We’re growing spinach in our garden again this year, so I think the next month or so (before it gets too hot) we’ll be eating plenty of it. With this salad in particular, there’s a wonderful citrusy brightness that accompanies the curry, the crunch of pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and toasted coconut… it’s so unexpected! And while I used a few already-prepared foods (the salad dressing and the pepitas with coconut), all of the ingredients are very basic and nutritious.

Baby Spinach Salad with Clementines and Curry Dressing

  • About 4 cups baby spinach (or spinach/arugula blend)
  • 2 clementines, peeled, segmented, and segments cut in half
  • 1 sweet potato, cut into small cubes
  • Pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds)
  • Toasted coconut
  • Salad Girl Curry & Fig Salad Dressing* (sold at Whole Foods)

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*If you cannot find this salad dressing, I encourage you to try to create it yourself! I’ve had good luck recreating dressings when I know the ingredients. Heck, yours might turn out even better! The ingredients for the curry & fig dressing: safflower oil, rice vinegar, figs, orange juice, mustard, honey, and spices (I’m guessing if you use curry powder and onion powder, you’ll have it covered!). 

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This is the brand of pepitas & coconut we used. A little bit goes a long way — plus, it’s a wonderful snack on its own!

Preheat oven to 400. Toss sweet potato cubes with 2 Tbsp melted butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar, then roast in an ovenproof pan for 15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft and starting to lightly brown on the outside (stir once halfway through to promote even cooking). Set aside to cool.

Assemble salad: to the spinach leaves, add the mandarin oranges, then the cooled sweet potatoes. Dress with the salad dressing (I only add 2 Tbsp or less for the whole salad, you can always add more, but you can’t take it off if you put too much on!). Top with the crunchy pepitas and coconut, and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Also, we’ve had this salad without the sweet potatoes and with more clementines and it is just as good. Have a wonderful weekend!

Montessori-Inspired

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I borrowed this picture from Emil’s school Facebook page — not sure who took it, but isn’t it beautiful?! While Emil does many other lessons in the classroom (like sandpaper letters, which help him to develop his fine motor skills for writing, and bank game, which gives him number sense, along with the map of North America, the cylinder blocks and constructive triangles), this past school year Emil was most involved in caring for his environment at school. The practical life lessons he seems to enjoy most are dish washing, cloth washing, and plant care. These lessons are integral to a child’s natural development and allows for the integration of their personalities. As his directress writes, “As he becomes one of the older role models of the community, these lessons will become tasks and responsibilities to care for his environment, where he applies his skills to lend a helping hand to others.”

He is, to be frank, often the only one who cleans up after himself at home.

The beauty of this sense of responsibility is not lost on us. We have the unique experience of having two older children who joined Montessori rather late; Milo was 7 and Oliver 5. They missed the earliest lessons, and I’ll be completely honest, it shows. The sense of responsibility for cleaning up one’s environment is solidified with Emil, but something both Milo and Oliver still struggle with. I say this not to put them down in any way (they are fantastic, helpful, and wonderful children!), just to note that there is truly something special that happens when a child is taught this way from the very beginning. If I had it to do over, I would have started all of them in Montessori from the start!