Go Play in the Mud!

Okay, so we're a little weird around here but it is a happy weird.  Case in point, we just had seven tons of dirt delivered to our backyard.  The clerk at earth works asked us, the delivery guy asked us, our neighbors asked us, my sister asked us, even the kids asked us, "What is all that dirt for?" The answer... to play in. 

When I was a kid, my dad decided he wanted to build a swimming pool.  First step, order a truck full of dirt.  Well dad got the first step taken care of, he just never went beyond that. I'm so grateful he didn't.  We had a very small yard but with that pile of dirt and my sweet mothers blessing, well, let's just say we made excellent use of the vertical space. My sister, brother and I would play for hours.  We built tunnels for hotwheels, acted out epic battles with Gi Joe infantry and Barbie Nurses and baked up a ton and a half of mud pie delicacies.  Literally, best toy ever! 

Now it is time for the next generation to take a turn.  As soon as these kids heard that the dirt was specifically for them, they scaled the mountain. 

They ran for buckets of water, I ran for swim clothes to help contain the mess.  It didn't take long at all for them to figure out how to make a mudslide.  What followed was both absolutely common place and legendary, these kids hit that dirt and didn't let up.  They dug, they hoed, they watered, they slid, they rubbed, they built, they created; in short, they had a fantastic time! 

A quick dance in the sprinkler and a half load of laundry and the mess is gone, til tomorrow.  I'm sure, that there will be times that I get sick of the laundry and the footprints through the house. I'm human. But so are they and I want them to experience it all; so kids, you have my permission to "Go play in the mud!"

Thanks for reading,
LT

Best thing in the truck...

Today, we got a delivery from our local Menards.  It was a nice big truck full of wonderful things for our house.  We got some flooring, some insulation and an energy efficient washer and dryer *Pause for excited squeal: we went from FORTY FIVE gallons of water to FIVE to TWENTY gallons, WOOHOO* Okay, I'm back.  Here's a pic of our truck and one of our great delivery guys...

See good stuff... By the way, the delivery guy was insulted when I told him I was taking a shot of all the swag as a before pic for the blog. He only agreed to let me snap the photo, when I told him I would tell the world he was a great delivery guy. I swear, these attention craving delivery guys. Back to the point, sorry.

With all that cool stuff, the best thing by far was...

That's right! The best thing in the truck was the box that the washer came in. Because that is how we roll here in Casa Tindle. 
We added a little bit of this...

The kids did some of this...

and created the cubby of their dreams.  I hope they are prepared to defend it.

It looks like the Tombots are gearing up for attack! 

** If you are wondering why I took the time to flip through ALL of Picnik's super cool options, it's simple, I am in Hyper-Avoidance Mode.  Avoiding what you say?  Duh. The truck load of DIY home improvement work that is now residing in my garage.  I'm going to dodge that bullet as long as I can... now where is my sewing machine?

Thanks for reading,

LT

Box City

Inspired by Teacher Tom, we decided to build Box city.  We grabbed up all the boxes that we had around the house, pulled out the glue gun and some tape and set to work.   

 They were so excited to get to man the glue gun all by themselves.  Each of them ended up burned but when asked if they wanted to stop building they all emphatically told me no. Each child decided that he or she just needed to be more careful. 

They made sure that the city was aesthetically pleasing as well as structurally sound.  Of course there were plenty of booby traps and snares for any bad guys that might be lurking in the grass.  Two of my favorites were the spider trap (made from an old Parmesan cheese container) and the ball catapult and connecting track.  Sorry, no pics of those.  My camera's battery latch is broken and it is a serious pain to take photos with it. 

Here Carter is attaching his radio tower complete with several satellites and antennae.  Layne is busy fixing up an escalator so that the people can get into the party store. 

The Tindle kids spent about two hours building and fortifying their city.  It was complete with a pool, a satellite, a water tower, city hall, the public library, a science center, several hide outs and tunnels, a bridge, a couple hotels and a party store.  After they were all finished building they grabbed a ton of action figures, some of their great grandpa's old figurines and the kung zhu hamsters and spent another two hours racing the hamsters through the "dark city streets."  Four hours of play and learning for about fifty cents worth of glue sticks and a month's worth of recycling, yeah, I'm good with that investment. 

I think we will have a dynamic little play area, at least as long as the rain holds out.  If I'm brave enough, I might let them paint it Teacher Tom style in the next day or two.  We'll see.

Here is the academic breakdown.  

~ Everybody learned a bit about safe practices when dealing with heat and electricity. This also ended up being a great opportunity to talk about appropriate first aid for burns.  Each of the kids either dealt with their own burn or helped someone else dress theirs, with supervision. 

~They naturally learned a bit about structures and balance.  These "blocks" were very different from their stable wooden set in the house. 

~They added in social studies by discussing the purposes of the various buildings.  When they grabbed their toys and started acting out their stories they began putting a librarian in the library and a scientist in the science center. 

~Creative story telling is only a skip and a jump away from creative writing.  My kids had plenty of stories to tell about the building process, various "construction zones," different enemies and the heroes who would protect the city, etc.  This is an ongoing play mode in our home but what they create verbally while playing usually ends up finding it's way to paper eventually. 

~It was also a great exercise in cooperation and communication.  We had four kids and one glue gun, they had to work together in order to build anything. 

~It is an obvious art link, especially if we decide to finish decorating it. 

~We didn't, but you could incorporate math by counting boxes as they are added, multiplying by fours and sixes (number of sides) and subtracting if something was pulled off the structure.

See, plenty of learning to be had.

Hope you are all having a great week. Thanks for reading!

Leighann

For The Love of Tinkering



Not a third world country just a 100 year old basement

 These kids come from a long line of tinkers.  Their great grandfather enjoyed tinkering with stained glass and terrariums.  Their grandfather enjoys tinkering with wood and electronics.  Their dad enjoys tinkering with paper and pencil. They enjoy tinkering with everything! 

They recently received a huge cache of figurines from their great grandpa's collection. They are thrilled!  They set right to work tinkering up an environment for the little guys. The paper, scissors and tape are flying in the basement.  I love it. I love seeing them engaged. I love watching them move and manipulate the pieces. The ideas are flowing and so is the teamwork.  Have you ever noticed that? If my kids are actually engaged in a project there is so much less fighting.  Don't get me wrong, the Tindle kids argue plenty but when they are really interested in something the squabbles dissipate. I love it! 



Logan floating his homemade canoe
He's pretty excited!



So what is tinkering and who is a tinker?  Well it can really be anything but it generally has to do with making something, especially a surprising something.  It can be big or little, take months or seconds.  Tinkering is what the tinker makes it.  Here are some photos of things we've tinkered in the past year. 

Carter displaying his bat box.
This kid has mad building skills.

They've worked with paper, wood, cloth, yarn, paint, glue, tape, string, branches, water, plastics, bricks, rocks, leaves, acorn caps, lots of recyclables. Most everything we've tinkered has come to us second hand or been purchased for very little money.  Many of these things were just something that the kids thought up and decided to do.  Some were more directed but most were kid led. Really that's the best kind of fun, right? 

Layne with a syrup arch shortly after
 visiting the St Louis Science center.

                                         

 We take as many opportunities as we can find to let them just go for it. There are tinkering spots everywhere.  We love the many child based museums, art and science centers that we have visited and we've had some amazing tinkering experiences there but most of the time we tinker at home or in our community. 

We built this sculpture on the beach
at one of our favorite campsites.

Tinkering is great.  It isn't a craft or a science experiment.  It isn't really art or math. It's definitely not report writing or spelling. Yet, somehow it is all of those things.  My kids would never be able to build a pulley system for their tree house without a little understanding of how simple machines work. When tinkering a recipe, units of measurement become critically important.  They use color, line, contrast, tints and shades to tinker cards for their family and friends.  Every academic discipline can be explored more fully through tinkering.  What a lovely thing.



Everyone tinkering with their new
color wonder cars. 



If you would like more information on tinkering check out this info by Gever Tulley the founder of Tinkering School.  You can also check out the blog Get Your Mess On to meet a mom who has taken the concept of tinkering and run with it.  Take a look at Berkeley's Adventure Playground for the ultimate example of child led tinkering and how far it can really go.  Don't you think every city should have one of these?



Love these Giant Geoboards!

We were inpired by Filth Wizardry to make these geoboards. http://www.filthwizardry.com/2010/01/giant-homemade-geoboard.html. We made them a couple of months ago and then slid them under the couch for storage. There they laid most of the time. We all loved playing with them but out of sight out of mind. Then we pulled them out to display for expo (more on that next post). A couple of minutes and six nails later, we remedied our out of sight out of mind problem. The boys have now been very busy designing for the past hour, with no end in sight. I thought this would be a temporary display but now I'm thinking they may as well stay for awhile. The kids are enjoying their new location so much that I don't want to ruin it for them. Our home is a school anyway right, it may as well look like one. If you want to add a little geoboard action to your play space, head over to filth wizardry and check out her tutorial.  So cheap, so easy, so fun. 

Later
LT