tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1023407795574369452024-03-12T18:30:56.676-07:00A Walking MamaHeatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-35526112818140813702018-01-31T13:33:00.004-08:002018-01-31T13:40:27.003-08:0020 Children's Books Featuring Walkable Neighborhoods and Car-Free TransportationTrue confession: I LOVE book lists. Love. I know I'm not the only mom of young kids to spend hours with multiple windows open on the computer, searching back and forth from book list blogs to the library, reserving as I go. One child suddenly loves princesses? There's a list for that. STEM books? Definitely lots for those! Math picture books? Don't mind if I do! Chapter books for kids who love Magic Tree House but whose parents can't read aloud another one? Oh yes.<br />
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I have my favorite sources for book lists, including the <a href="https://readaloudrevival.com/booklist-2/" target="_blank">Read-Aloud Revival</a> and <a href="https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/books/" target="_blank">What Do We Do All Day</a>, but I have yet to find a list of children's books specifically featuring walkable neighborhoods and kids getting around by walking, biking, and using transit. Besides the fact that walkable neighborhoods are just lovely to look at, I imagine that kids feel empowered by seeing characters getting around independently, without having to depend on an adult to drive them around.<br />
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So here is my first attempt at compiling some great children's books that feature walkable neighborhoods and car-free transportation. Most of these are picture books, which reflects my own children's young ages, but I have a few chapter books at the end. Please share your favorites in the comments, as I hope to make this a series!<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61XISWtd00L._SX493_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="198" /><br />
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1. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/When-We-Walking-Cari-Best/dp/1477816488/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464755237&sr=8-1&keywords=when+we+go+walking" target="_blank">When We Go Walking</a> by Cari Best. A girl and her family walk in all four seasons while she collects things along the way.<br />
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<img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QKfIgMfkL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" /><br />
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2. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Our-House-Hyewon-Yum/dp/0374374872/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1464755309&sr=8-3&keywords=this+is+our+house" target="_blank">This is Our House</a> by Hyewon Yum. A girl tells the story of generations of her family living in the same house.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61OIwc9mu0L._SX456_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="183" /><br />
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3. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Own-Dog-David-Ezra-Stein/dp/0763661392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464755431&sr=8-1&keywords=im+my+own+dog" target="_blank">I'm My Own Dog</a> by David Ezra Stein. A dog walks himself and throws his own stick, and he soon finds a pet of his own.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zjMbwZN-L._SX433_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="174" /><br />
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4. <a href="http://lola%20at%20the%20library/" target="_blank">Lola at the Library</a> by Anna McQuinn. A girl walks with her mother to the library every week. Bonus points for highlighting <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-beauty-of-libraries.html" target="_blank">libraries</a>!<br />
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<img height="151" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511BIqGP4aL._SY376_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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5. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wait-Antoinette-Portis/dp/1596439211/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464755763&sr=1-2&keywords=wait" target="_blank">Wait</a> by Antoinette Portis. A small boy walking with his mother finds many reasons to slow down.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Uw%2BnqX0qL._SY498_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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6. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Most-Magnificent-Thing-Ashley-Spires/dp/1554537045/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464755876&sr=1-1&keywords=the+most+magnificent+thing" target="_blank">The Most Magnificent Thing</a> by Ashley Spires. A girl works on making The Most Magnificent Thing on the sidewalk in front of her house.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/515fIAhWqRL._SX405_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="162" /><br />
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7. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Stop-Market-Street-Matt/dp/0399257748/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464755984&sr=1-1&keywords=last+stop+on+market+street" target="_blank">Last Stop on Market Street </a>by Matt de la <span style="font-family: inherit;">Peña. A boy and his grandmother ride the bus across town, while she points out the everyday beauty that is often overlooked. You have to love a no-nonsense Nana who says, "Boy, what do we need a car for?"</span><br />
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<img height="186" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51W35DnXK2L._SY465_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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8. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Metropolitan-Cow-Tim-Egan-ebook/dp/B003V4B4K2?ie=UTF8&keywords=metropolitan%20cow&qid=1464756537&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Metropolitan Cow</a> by Tim Egan. A calf befriends a young pig who lives next door, and the two friends explore their walkable neighborhood together.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516QQCsNR4L._SX387_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="155" /><br />
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9. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pink-Refrigerator-Tim-Egan-ebook/dp/B003ZYETOQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464756806&sr=1-1&keywords=pink+refrigerator" target="_blank">The Pink Refrigerator</a> by Tim Egan. Dodsworth discovers a mysterious pink refrigerator, runs a charming secondhand shop, and rides a cargo tricycle.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61U0%2BFpVW9L._SX438_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="176" /><br />
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10. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bear-Bike-Barefoot-Board-Book/dp/1841483753?ie=UTF8&keywords=bear%20on%20a%20bike&qid=1464756941&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Bear on a Bike</a> by Stella Blackstone. This is a fun transportation book for toddlers and young kids.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gUZKSQW7L._SX495_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="198" /><br />
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11. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/About-Barefoot-Board-Stella-Blackstone/dp/1841483737/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0Q2QRMKRAYC1C0CH95M6" target="_blank">Bear about Town</a> by Stella Blackstone. The same bear walks around his town, one errand for each day of the week.<br />
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<img height="187" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UfVM1l0qL._SY467_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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12. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Playground-Day-Jennifer-Merz-ebook/dp/B003X09XZC?ie=UTF8&keywords=playground%20day&qid=1464757145&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Playground Day!</a> by Jennifer Merz. A girl walks to the playground with her wagon full of stuffed animals.<br />
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<img src="data:image/webp;base64,UklGRpITAABXRUJQVlA4IIYTAABwZgCdASrcAN8APw1qqUepJSOW+taglBDE9hOACozlX/L9Y3JfkD9T/hPSL4/61Pa32f1wf4PYb2L5fPtH8J5zP8Z+1Huw/UPsF+Ot6t/Mp/Uf9t+4vvGek3/BeoB/Y+ps9Efy8vaH/vn/WwqHtY8abCG2t/geE8xWG4ys1uk8V4faiQb8lWelqX9EXu8brDrpU3dBsaJTCex3xfzJ6Ud+CIikiTTGGTgs1O462s0zAhixkCo3ffvKNLytmXAw5tmy1sxXUYtXcijj+6xeXwIYglBiHixCKJa25vxkRiqA9OKdfZcBqd0SvmL8Zz4B+CEhgrJkGILHvl66aEZlGEdC1EWJ7bLSjd429dfz4jAZ0MfzSUFj0Vsn1VbjVlUKqb/z7A2kktEwnv7t5hfqNDDNoZ6Y+EN6N4J3ywVVoyOWGc0SrXSMejmzJymeO2wqfW7cIuMc/vJU6lqLjAKaBhFbBa2cslW1Q9LTOrvm8HIKIGM1l9Ofz3LsRxr8KXxMn0XSmtRuSWyRB52PUokGcX15XP/sJonQVWbav3QnU5TNG/Qji+2QgnvOVGaPNFa55Wkg3xWc7Ht84Bm4MBGDIiI5EB0wph0HX/ODJ3C21pRNZrRfOEZ1JMm3AVjRyuxVRbmxxahiUt0CAMVa8HLhhPWm1SNh2Z178HBb/lVMDM471N/Q3BIsHULWst773RCiv8DtSL2oRSt+bCUUs0FlsVF3reYaN7s+EZE+44FXKU+0Dtt3+KvDTA0JsD6C/gAe+gripQtQAkb6MBm9zc7kWxrI/bi1OyCL3L3jcnNYLdZxXO6Cx2csmesm5OxvFwuoQR/uKAvZdMn2cGEby74nDXK04UUJvfav+WNQPpKG6FokK5RxlWi/lqyY9UWZO919w/X7NXaEahNNioEBRX3kjxBhWwbC+h+1rAzpFS4dn33ex9lFIWNWly65asn1OqHRKPTKkF39+5Y/FcCVUQ/d/l4/Dxrva8XVryGWJHFuvYx8LEAfEfhjj7MhF/UqsAmLjmiq2lRhPfZed2HksXadQX1TOlmbgLV9/JN11h14OACHFxGYsxSna6+WGDm8Ua29VHCQNR9n8Sct4DloBgAA/iRvyZChu0uu6ecSHOAVM/of8Zii67QN/iNP/Js1qY+u4L+EGy6UACf3OFJw6BdzvdrPR8ANwyJx4Gg7oLeGqjXUiQuvbG61/FrmnvTbMzdsXPss+e21yWW7D6C+zRKNv+lK37eWEAZ39bmHVIxhLmsQcITZwCehFkurX9sMiWCDz/Mw6nWYog06BgHfx5dtpWCSGlu0YmTuXuPb2rPfth7ku/1yRE6YLeBPuxJJz04fbFxHIWJu+6TbsvFd/eOuCiejJ7m7cpo7GyIyR0GLr3dRsKQ0u8vaz1gz5CaxgA/nyNu+7BFqUxUwXOetif/Em66U8V6dZEoxec7X1dX8LgJLN7Q1vJs5vo8F6BgSOJzu7LUuspc2tFViBZrvSezH1GNb8lbu0VP3XvRsQGrmAs9132dKK/py+aYO2/y0pm/r00Npvw4dzD8QwGyVftSpQO2xEZW5zoureCUE8v7ixJinfUpP/lt84E4TpbZrXBGJyE8E+1IcWdr39IxdCLJD7VswNztdolTbAQXbVxKa2HKpu+eFDYJTPcYZMNkfnb+jKsTfifuEqtQVdyo9w/oPxQX22Fy9GQf+vr88en/LijJmcky020aUhUtVW2AwoKjmomOArGvnaEil4rexJltbOPTlvC7poUX8ixCnkb98ltICMBafj/D3zcmCZ7cFE1uWFOIpXWlPf2hZFwZv4H6OrMaEh2yEXunaMP3oKK0cOXSReLCiF+v2Snxd9fqsdaRjSHo6Skf9aPWncaeA4xBOHQJ1ieSUeUcLLNjaTPsYOEO/+Ji3WvCodXOma3qrHc0r5rGOvBaOeUkuS+jPSs9qG14P4jMnWG/qQ2xBPP+EIUnGjftTCPElNf78aylmmLNtdyy9bNlUOfEs1k1PPYiF/ddHb3QEaNW6k4SEUi2PulqCJbgNd5S86k9ClSWPz8NkheOZkqMutVaJogwwr9ylqPQHhIwdrWdl7MpxOtOLEH1mM5TZUlEKqFwGgy9nllpFCt5NwFe40WvFjLto67xJvmFO+o8T37XANkRvwXIKEvbq9RQR/xz59QPpmju770iBXMTuIEdVoKT0isNYLcBLHl4oJeSHtx5XCiMHcX+qQakGDBDXgtwev4dEQ2FL7Ty7wpteO4YuDrZKF53kabu2a3+RZBXYQcyPMrHIv3PYICh0sZMo0NgW4bmUny+CT24oFtb7zYBtBoCgQ1kUoc19qt3jl4z7SeoKye5qexha3bxTLSfWAKEg8ohe/bC/jkMo50h3S8prmdearHK2RsakVzTMUzLS+8LGDw+QvtNu4/roRYuiGpXJakTM6LU2Tc5EtIN3Eh7GRYqtdibYtsjcxOliQsYfGo+6jbZ6VBTk4PzaOAkcSqy0oSxwQO/fuIKXXHlxzGTkBo4rKAx1PVHQ64YK9U3ZKxzyFvL6TuPVysHfFbNG9FkO458AHMSWfxGjNBFbY8TwVNQFy2XWTkLXIojB7EJhK6pIlSlLMg7lG0urQWurX/fLOum5c3PniluVxoJLX7JkUObKFeQALRGm0YE9KgirAVDW4+SEJH9FFjY6ZC7gR6stq8c36LuQEgW5UtZytdzKLRb5W8+a9WqAOb9bSNM8s8WYUv5toUaxXT3+BQvkeZmgzBDlyNpPRH09QFHSx4afbbcEFHj3eL29cXxMyRXwSovRoAG79yaBCD8UWpD1sKMN5DDGhlmevIcRfnGRZ9nRnWNZ6mpNQw9H9zdasp7R12XBDFyJJ09sYZ+kB7lgTCdINVnzgASoRPjy5WSdRLt77M0WYdfrOKpQamDGLEIVE+Ch0soghZehcVwd6RljLk3NbR5HWW/Qbc+4npgCdAgm94K3SZyvvRWsgYeaTNDzx4FAoHRAmk8ArwdiXzEEkb9U81ATfYOR+Dj4frL0WG8fcRiaVdC0f7owydpyhGfvBt2QIf8tootqWz7urfCZuYOrAtYapY/PCHr6FOzhEO3PouKpY93XG07shS7nrIJeIgBl4DbgAAcpsPb019j/XytGkQAzJjaBDU6fyQDIz6NJmulsXMXhlPv5yASg3iZtW6fzkEMIZ98fEz4FK4myKlr8G3s1MSlVV5yCKqTbaqKmVUzwh/1kVdRkhCx6qOMNfrLZ3VDOwX94ARwApFh00hJgNSDRlVDJ9s7U9C6dxU8tVAn/eOAMdvM1fpbUCjwHhT3ar9IQfYboAsdJOXO8y1MagFW2GQVycvEChie6/EoqX+/OE1DBUWCVi9cuAySLhHhYKELuW8/3s2nMbto9AAC+tRGbLLzxrkg/qh6WLeWh0X1dY7WVtHgA0oBqr/DCJ7vBTms2iTxXw1BpeGo3m8/pOlJooLZ8X4qvklPN1ajvZW7XPAlA7k3JWBHBh9iEmqzOFW/z0pmbZqILB7lQwFFeuvoumh1MlDlok3yIhQJoq6daFnxpOsxhl8aPk5VydEgyErvp1umT9/H6CLyfMLAIeov5A77RL03jByPdosf46KxvLPMyV5n06/XD05+f0Rz/pucoifNN38ly9AQ6fxK21vecntiTfYXiLbOb2mtYHvaJaAQsirLb5oZB+sCTPvUw7nlTJN6IPsqk0kcpFxLWOpamn+FD2TumglJRFeyGL2drsZ3IUDDo7WPfuWPq29ZEc5eX/fiJfeiySJExQUZnYAf7/Np55IgnCZJw/gMYJEVPPrEiR4KCP1f4f5XO1hO5U78N8vYLlIuQV+6jIlqo5XyycOE9bqAkaD9JbXEymIkGAzABdUNGceVicWtGEhgYHbC5vixTcLcUXh00ARxlQ1sJsmvJN8K2hKjwaSdhP5og25fbzrTg2/JvnAfI7Yom2mPapKIJwv7ESgxHfv7OWa/nzl82eO4OsLYI92HH8P6I6+Ko3ZzBiu9/Ek9DMyb5xv8L151RtchrylqOU8A+ukLoI4oe0mNSmp8HpgBPZjDkvifURJuEfKErecsoSMagkUOkTkPiKuNgU0LekDdsVun3xKpCaiTPcHlbsPd6EfzsyBhdudLmI/eSR5V+nN8Gpe8b+cDASV58RTQC+dImhM4/ZBWKQsMjfM9Z/039POQmDixMlLX2AUlkUSRiwy+38AXkS7aMSJ1M1ssJ7/rB2lDIQiF9srUZYF3OI7oOExnv0eHC9maDl5tOVsFahWZPV7UD/u0H4xVy7GB4q3gv29vvh8C0fZD1E0ljcb2rf1hCRGKXiI59feDxMQ5uQMuUVhC3TDjGcZhxYYovgR+8Y0V5wtTe+ZisNLmLCqYiWdamCuIjrkv/cey5ZN4PrQ/5h9kUa5YpzbnH2iyrHHbpAtTtWFm6AXCcEIy1V9rfuMQCOiTzr7KtI+utKEkPzqHZJQU5bolxMSNffSFQFls0q8g5sfy53HYajiIKNW4j3QAQodOL75Y1Z9JBLGDg44n88EWJM+SBXNiBSLjc+sUSIXxIaw7/7rfieFI//gPeFzPCwXfr1JyGmqRznX8QGeeiw1cMivgTFPg2r6ip9hMRsysqcMxP6zGpTFZymzsSq6YZtsZF+kbkvwQqmoucWBPB7s3yDBaudx2G52UzodaSCOKE2ZBNhzQWUeBsSdGq7eUzrZgogpjm1DwNiDSakXofePHEv+MYCzG1b2eonO5jL0/YjzidoejRDey59KvQFiZLyR2uACX8mpng7TUBgq2vjDmWK/33ZAh8U9Ms8XiB3u0FuZk1LHxxWEaB9sIE+6bvJpqaVCD5aCTxCroKoqh78+bZsvcQRzXSE4ZANlYr5tiLJLqlKC7FSDrrrji6RHSouk6HiQXtbwSPOPXgh72iqpJI8Dus3OJh1g6IOeqytvVRIqNDmpfLj/Mwkl/2dsNLYqIbPeynh7z5XJqkyh2sm6QoyebEPc94v7GhVjQ0FGfAKhhaFuGItWsMrCWTHBuqbZZ7L2Wb+LLacNXchWlSB/9xKxZWidn9vl7E228PgdToTL1efYS9zNzEw22HwW+RkC18MxuRtu7GHwZ8nsnX/dBZE+h0jlMMLgNtpjUILseVt9lor08GBrrwT701jR3YNexf4wSt3tlYjoFus6s4RmrT3cc+AWaHERVBcvaxa9zl/gHnV1bt66X5AvrCy7tZ8e8VIveg2KgGsqW6/sbHzeIrEyQKB9wj548jWJe2ueEkuNhbVp9k/dAU9HxFmBMOQTr9Qqz1g/lf/blPcrAf8+egpMabm4Tw2cAyy56E78s4wgD45oleoCmtFP27vPv7SyNYgXGOLNULxVta1YvKS3z/LvvNOqEURpRU+Wc4c4akdXRaQQvhCpAtWPNlVBvoiHUT54jeHnVkiQSW3Q9P12A1TnQv6Prg1ax/XL/dchuDJmGLgjL2OQnT1Sz0ou0oC8FOUkZBCy99CMtc1TqmPSDcZzgHoaoNMSeVEb5rhfKG44G2CQSWIhrSUfYptVrv9EUGnA8ncapT6gKlc2e7H9NL2yZ2ot7o1pt1czauRQT7odBeDybWritgolPdI/2DnwmQvDgStbNYEcrB0BFNhshoJQpQBpm2Z79hWl2LHnV2vEcY6r+ACsEZyq/WBUaHJX+/bSNchhSD/yYQkIN5AssZMuhBnCvDDWmg5eB/5106sMGgx3hQv/+qLXLZFYezZvjfLmegMkQqUGxm2sLAYNLpefDhqBaoZ5WUZZ9hbakdkyHQm9OYBquFdqzN9Lt7bGsWi9aaGHDY1oCpaIUWeJLgBx9FPbMT0vaaAQ0p5leQ9e7a8oy8aRVOFPP80a9mhLPDP53tmt+9EoW/73LfpU+w+Vs5/y2bUxFI5wQgcVYzMfn7yi+kQbV9hx7G7i7VAptGNTrFQsVu5fd2eJ5GIslWK4AxnBcm9tWKZkrqgiDdVT6m/BSlZ5QEe0XYyCFcCpvJ4MXvb6VAr7G5dDHamor43FGjSwoLxs0QVldp7nCLsdU4UO/SHCy4cMPw8hUWI0S6MyKJBroXgwz06iuSVzF67E1DdlxytdjqlODy8U8gW8+m1BbqfAHyUOaRWPzbtYVzCe6JS7VwTAK9pYIgsIPSZ2ZqTFf0w4ARxL6FsT93NEdV23Z8H6uLXaFo8SpmVI96b2+nARbHPDjZQDKIG2CNrTsAtW7C8h1gsaLnFC/amF8HAolMZMxFjEogolchr8Zu9pmHFUhfxySMnXO8IdiaV6SONtrspQfn5clJ//AtMqblklXJcw2LXz2o+mydGPqnbG97nWLGFzwd8Zc3d1qa6a4MAHWeVMWRrsADcR4UucwR5PMHaIVCiSPCDggEWFw4CIsbLDUHKFJLWus43oc/Y/Pwx2ksNNN3b+KhUGJwFCy0z30U1ThFnkPGMpspptS1iY3UYXyWfk992ht9dI/5NOUkhDFDQkAgBEIO/jzbp/TJRbTumWUCefX+4YdBL59l8TA0WXV/SjhrZ+ZX55Ht1laxhsnk/qP8OItPv1NzRJDSKsaBsLl9CfyDNG3ZLJIlA7CaBhxLg0vO3Pv5jsEbAa+bRgHAqRk8FBbO/BDxeu5GchYNpnNVhJpaKUbG8HCYhtH96uM4CqXtbA4PNhYHEAZj/tKUUBbiFq6xz9rqYupCKKQ7cevqG3EAAAA=" 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13. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bike-Board-Book-Byron-Barton/dp/0062337017?ie=UTF8&keywords=my%20bike&qid=1464757576&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">My Bike</a> by Byron Barton. A man bikes to work at a surprising place. Like all Byron Barton, this is a fun, simple read for toddlers.<br />
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<img height="154" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61LafKUxH5L.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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14. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Water-Park-Book-About-Times/dp/0375870024/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466574621&sr=1-1&keywords=water+in+the+park" target="_blank">Water in the Park</a> by Emily Jenkins. A beautiful day in the life of a city park.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HwAYQ0yFL.jpg" width="150" /><br />
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15. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ad%C3%A8le-Simon-Adele-Barbara-McClintock/dp/0374380449/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467435944&sr=1-1&keywords=adele+and+simon" target="_blank">Adèle & Simon</a> by Barbara McClintock. Adèle picks up her little brother, Simon, at school, and they enjoy the attractions of Parisian streets while Simon proceeds to lose all of his things. A reminder of how vibrant and appealing city streets can be, and a fun search-and-find for kids so inclined.<br />
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<img height="182" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61PC%2BLCoeFL.jpg" width="200" /><br />
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16. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Spot-Cat-Henry-Cole/dp/1481442252/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467436146&sr=1-1&keywords=spot+the+cat" target="_blank">Spot, the Cat</a> by Henry Cole. A wordless book that follows a cat through his day in a city.<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/6119KhNidtL.jpg" width="177" /><br />
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17. <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Honeybee-Man-Lela-Nargi/dp/0375849807/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467436266&sr=1-1&keywords=the+honeybee+man" target="_blank">The Honeybee Man</a> </i>by Lela Nargi. A man in Brooklyn raises bees on his rooftop. This is a lovely peek into both neighborhood life and urban homesteading.<br />
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18. The <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poppleton-Cynthia-Rylant/dp/059084783X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">Poppleton</a> </i>series by Cynthia Rylant. I want to live in Poppleton's charming small town! This is a beginning reader book that is mercifully fun to read aloud (not all beginning books are).<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Hh7gbjpML._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="133" /><br />
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19. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Edward-Bodecker-Illustrator-1999-03-31-Paperback/dp/B012YX7FTE/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517433479&sr=1-6&keywords=half+magic" target="_blank">Half Magic</a> is a classic fantasy novel that features a whole family of children getting around on their adventures by walking and using transit (not surprising, given the time period).<br />
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<img height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kr8Pn0hdL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="133" /><br />
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20. This is the first in the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Betsy-Tacy-Maud-Hart-Lovelace/dp/0064400964/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517433660&sr=1-2&keywords=betsy+tacy" target="_blank">Betsy-Tacy</a> series, another older classic. Betsy and Tacy enjoy simple, realistic adventures while exploring their small town.<br />
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<i>What are your favorite children's books that feature kids walking, biking, using transit, or just living in beautiful, walkable communities? </i><br />
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-42348162593124969072017-07-18T17:49:00.000-07:002017-07-18T17:53:39.392-07:005 Tips for Car-Free Shopping (from a Mama of 4)After "What do you do in the winter?" the very next question I usually get asked about our car-free lifestyle is "How do you get groceries?"<br />
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Of course, anyone who has lived or is living in a well-designed large city, small town, or neighborhood knows that getting daily necessities is not difficult when everything you need is just a 5- or 10-minute walk away. Especially for singles and couples, a weekly grocery trip using an IKEA bag or granny cart will usually suffice. ZipCar or a good set of pannier bags for your bike might be enough for bigger trips further afield.</div>
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But shopping for groceries, household items, and clothing does get more complicated as a family grows, especially when you're not living in an ideal walkable neighborhood (this is true whether you own a car or not, of course). Here are some of the hacks I've been using to make car-free shopping manageable and enjoyable for our family of 6 (oh my).<br />
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1) Don't take everyone to the store.</h3>
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As I've mentioned in a <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2015/06/walking-with-three.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>, many families with more than one child begin to divide up errands so that no one parent has to go to the grocery store with all the kids, for example. Going by yourself or with just one child will probably take considerably less time than taking everyone, so it's possible to squeeze in a large grocery run on the weekend or after work. If shopping outside of working hours won't work, consider swapping childcare with a trusted friend so each of you gets some time to do errands alone.</div>
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Since our third child was born (and now with four kids under 7), I no longer take all the kids with me to the store at once. I will usually take one, maybe two, during a time when my husband can watch the others. This makes it possible for me to fill our double stroller to the brim with groceries with an older child (age 4 or 6) who can walk the 15 minutes from the store.<br />
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2) Share a warehouse store membership with a friend or family member.</h3>
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Remember how you and your college roommates shared a Costco membership and took one car every other weekend? You can still do that as a grown-up! You not only save money by splitting a membership, you can also get some friend time to chat. </div>
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Just make sure to ask for a subtotal between your two orders at the checkout so you can split the total. And if your friend has to go out of her way to pick you up, consider buying her a coffee or hot dog once in a while so things feel even.<br />
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3) Take advantage of online shopping memberships and subscriptions.</h3>
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Obviously, shopping online is the way to go for dry goods, clothes, shoes, or really just about anything you might need that can wait a couple days for shipping. I much prefer buying things online to shopping in any big box store. </div>
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Amazon Prime memberships and the Target REDcard are both boons for car-free families. Both offer free shipping and subscriptions on household items you might run out of often. These are especially good if you don't have a warehouse store in your area or can't or don't want to go that route. <br />
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4) For children's clothes and shoes, just keep buying the same things in the next size up.</h3>
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For a while with just one child, I would take the bus to a local mall for my toddler to try on shoes when he needed them. Yikes! Talk about a waste of a perfectly good Saturday. He was bored, I was frantic to find what we needed TODAY, and I knew I probably wasn't even getting the best deals on good-quality shoes (a necessity for a walking family!). </div>
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A kid or two later, I had a breakthrough: once I found a style of shoe that was well-made and comfortable for a certain child, I could just buy the exact same style online in the next size up once the child outgrew them. I can keep an eye out for deals on these styles throughout the year, and even buy two pairs at once (one in the current size, one in the next size) if it's a BOGO deal. </div>
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Buying children's clothing and shoes online also helps to keep their wardrobes simple. Each child has one or two pairs of shoes per season that match everything in their closets. For clothes, we get a lot of hand-me-downs from friends and relatives, but I know where to get basics in some neutral colors that match everything (obviously taking the child's opinion and style into account).</div>
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Even parents with cars could probably benefit from the reduced stress of doing children's shopping online. Some of my favorite brands for kids' shoes and clothes are Crocs, StrideRite, Pediped, and <a href="http://primary.com/">Primary.com</a> (a new love). <br />
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5) Embrace less.</h3>
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As <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2015/09/are-we-minimalists-our-quest-for-just.html" target="_blank">almost-sorta-kinda-minimalists</a>, we don't want to fill our home with stuff we don't need that clutters our living space and requires time to maintain and clean. </div>
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Living without owning a car means that in most cases, if we buy it, we have to schlep it. If I find an impulse item at a garage sale, hardware store, or on Craiglist and I can't get it home in the double stroller or bus, then I just don't buy it. This is a beautiful, wonderful thing. </div>
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How often have many of us bought something we thought we needed, then gotten it home and realized it's not going to change our lives in the way that we thought? Or how often have we gone into the mall or a Target (ahem) for one thing and ended up with a dozen new things to live in our homes?</div>
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The supposed convenience of owning a car can (though not for all families or individuals, of course) lead to a lack of intentionality when it comes to shopping. If you're considering living car-free or reducing your dependence on cars, you can look forward to many benefits, just one of which is the motivation to say "no" to the excess stuff that can make its way into your home.</div>
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<i>What are your favorite car-free shopping hacks?</i></h3>
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-64388449376367615892016-11-01T21:48:00.000-07:002016-11-01T21:48:00.167-07:00How to Simplify for Stress-Free Holidays<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a common assumption that although the holidays are
joyful, they are also, by nature, stressful. The holiday season conjures up
images of parents going store to store, buying extravagant gifts to create the
perfect Christmas for their kids. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The supposed perfect holiday includes ideal and plentiful gifts
for everyone, lavish meals, and envy-inducing decorations, and advertisers try
their hardest to sell us each of these ideas. I cringe at toy catalogs arriving
in October, encouraging kids to “find” their Christmas wishes, and
after-Thanksgiving sales starting ever earlier, promising amazing deals on
things people didn’t even know they wanted and probably don’t need. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It doesn’t have to be this way! Ever since we got married,
my husband and I have tried to keep the holidays simple in our home, and we
have redoubled our commitment since we had kids. We want to create family
traditions that bring us together and create memories of people, experiences,
and faith, not just piles of gifts or Martha Stewart-approved decorations and
parties. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We want something different for our family, something truly
meaningful. Here are some of our strategies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Dream of what you
want the holidays to be<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A simple holiday will not look the same in every family.
Simplifying just means cutting out the unnecessary to make room for more of
what you love.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You know that you don’t want stress and materialism to rule
your holidays, but what <i>do </i>you want
instead? Do you want to have a fun time as a family, playing games or music,
watching holiday movies, baking cookies, spending time in nature? Do you want
to explore your faith, share holiday stories with your kids, or volunteer in
your community? Do you want to spend less time shopping so you can host a
holiday party for your friends this year?<o:p></o:p></div>
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When your kids are grown and starting their own families,
what memories of the holidays do you most want them to cherish? Keep that image
in your head as you decide where you want to simplify or what you want to add
to your celebrations. The chances are good that what you are imagining does not
cost much money or center around extravagant gifts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Examine your motives<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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If the idea of a simpler holiday makes you nervous, it is
likely that you are subconsciously trying to impress someone – your relatives,
friends, parents, or neighbors. Do you worry that your sister-in-law will ask
your kids, “What did you get for Christmas?” and your kids won’t have
impressive responses? Do you go all-out, National Lampoon-style, on lighting
displays to impress your neighbors? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Or perhaps you worry that a simpler holiday will mean
letting your kids down. I find it very sad that the expression “she wants to
give her kids a good Christmas” means “she wants to give her kids a big pile of
presents under the tree.” Most of us will readily admit that money cannot buy
happiness, and yet we seem to forget this around the holidays. More presents
will not make your kids happier; in fact, it could have the opposite effect. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Set limits on gifts<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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We all enjoy giving good gifts to our children, myself
included. I love surprising my kids and seeing their reactions, and hey, it’s
been a long time since we all got to play with toys ourselves. While some
families choose to simplify by cutting out gifts entirely, I would guess that
most of us like the gift-giving aspect of the holidays. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The problem with gift-giving is when it all becomes too
much, when it overwhelms both the giver and the recipient. Parents pore over
catalogs to make gift lists (or have their kids do so) and spend time wandering
malls or circling parking lots. Kids become so starry-eyed and overwhelmed by a
pile of gifts that they rip each present open, glance at its contents, and move
on to the next, truly enjoying none of them! And in the flurry of activity
around gifts, we forget the real meaning of the holiday and the vision we have
for our family.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Limits can help by reducing the stress on both the giver and
recipient. The giver can enjoy getting just a few well-chosen gifts and
stopping when enough is enough. Buying fewer gifts means that each gift can be
of high quality and well thought-out. The recipient can better value each gift
because it does not get lost in a pile. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Setting limits will look different depending on your
specific goals, but decide on a guideline and stick to it. This could be a
number of gifts or a budget, or even a theme. Some families choose to do three
gifts for each child: one toy, one book, and one new article of clothing. Other
families dispense with store-bought gifts and limit the gift exchange to
homemade gifts. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We usually aim for three gifts for each child and one or two
for each adult. Sometimes we even do joint gifts. For example, when my oldest
was about to turn three and could play more board games, we had a Christmas
when we stocked up on board games, both kid games and family games. Although we
labeled the gifts for specific people to open them, we knew that the games were
meant for all of us to enjoy. Last year, we got some musical instruments
for us to learn as a family, some percussion for the little ones and a
guitar for the adults.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In all of this, the goal is to use gifts to express our love
and build memories together, not to make them the focus of the season. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Manage expectations<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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If your kids are old enough to have memories or expectations
of what the holidays should mean, you’ll need to explain that things might be
different this year. Market the new-and-improved simplified holiday by telling
them about your dreams and vision. For example, they may get fewer gifts, but
they will get more time with you doing fun things. If you have specific plans
to attend holiday events or do activities together instead of spending time
shopping, tell them about those. Most kids will prefer the idea of more fun
time with Mom and Dad to a pile of anonymous gifts.</div>
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Rather than piling up gifts under the tree over the course
of December, we put a pile of (unwrapped) holiday-themed picture books under
the tree to be pulled out and read together. This way, kids aren’t constantly
fixated on the pile of wrapped gifts, wondering what they could be. (This strategy also prevents babies from eating too much wrapping paper!) We put all
the wrapped gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Last year, when I was reading the Christmas chapter of <i>Little House in the Big Woods</i> with my
son, we came to the part where the children opened their stockings on
Christmas morning. Each child received a peppermint stick and a pair of red
mittens, except for Laura, who received a doll. The author says that all the
children “were all so happy they could hardly speak at first.” Can you imagine
your children getting so excited over something so simple? Children are not
naturally greedy, and no one wants their kids to fret constantly over the toys
they didn’t get. This leads to entitlement and subsequent unhappiness. With
simplified expectations comes increased gratitude in your children.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Make your vision
clear to extended family<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Grandparents and aunts and uncles often love to give holiday
gifts to children, which can be a challenge if you are trying to take the focus
off of gifts this season. As early as you can, try to explain your vision to
your extended family, just as you explained it to your children. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Relatives may be on board, may even be excited about your
simplified holiday, or they may not. Grandparents who are tired of the rush to
buy gifts for multiple grandchildren may welcome the chance to relax. On the
other hand, grandparents who are completely sold on the marketed version of the
holidays may not understand. They might even be hostile toward your ideas,
especially if you are trying to do something different from the way you were
raised. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Try to be charitable and calm, and remember that one of your
motivations for simplifying the holidays is to build better family
relationships. If your relatives start throwing around the G-word, remind them
that even the Grinch himself discovered that “Christmas doesn’t come from a store.”
If necessary, it’s fine to set limits on the gifts your relatives give your
children, as long as you do it with a spirit of gratitude. You wouldn’t want
your children to learn bitterness from your exercise in making the holidays
more meaningful! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Rest, and breathe<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Finally, when it’s Christmas Eve and the stockings are hung
(or not) and you didn’t do everything you wanted to do this season, or you did
too much, cut yourself some slack. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Take time to breathe, relax, and love your partner and kids.
Remember that the holidays are meant to be a time of rest and love. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The details are just details, and the holidays come around
every year. If something worked well this year and you found yourselves
building some wonderful family memories, then do it again next year. If
something didn’t work, try it differently next year. But be sure to take a
moment by the fire with some hot chocolate just to enjoy the season.<o:p></o:p></div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-14937201609310112502016-06-01T22:29:00.001-07:002016-06-01T22:29:51.836-07:00The #1 Way to Keep Children from Running into the StreetThere seems to be an epidemic of children running into the street. I'm not basing this off of any statistics, but judging from many "discipline" discussions around the Internet and in parenting books and magazines, young children, poorly disciplined, want nothing more than to run into the street.<br />
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Anytime a parent disagrees with another parent's discipline methods, or feels those methods are too "soft," the immediate question posed is almost always, "But, how will you teach your children not to run into the street???" Personally, I happen to agree with Sara over at <a href="http://happinessishereblog.com/2015/09/myth-unpunished-kids-will-run-on-the-road/" target="_blank">Happiness is Here</a> that children too young to understand that streets can be dangerous should not be playing near automobile-containing streets without supervision in the first place.<br />
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But as this seems to be such a pressing problem in America today, I thought I should throw my two cents in as well. So here goes... the number 1, almost-fail-proof method for preventing children from running into the street is...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Walk with your children. Walk with them a lot.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
Walk with them when they're babies, in carriers or wraps and then strollers. Walk with them when they're starting to toddle by themselves. Walk with them when they're walking confidently, and then riding their bikes.<br />
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Walk to the park. Walk to the store. Walk to the library. Walk anywhere you possibly can do so safely, with your children. Make sure to include a variety of types of streets and intersections. Make it a part of your daily life, if possible.<br />
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If you walk with your children often, as a way of life, they will learn very early and very quickly what roads are about. They will see cars, driving fast (it is very difficult to gauge just how fast cars are going if you only ever see them from another car). They will see you, walking on the sidewalk, and looking both ways before crossing the street, and waiting at stop lights. They will begin to understand what you are doing, and why, and they will do so too with very little explanation on your part.<br />
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And you know what? Children who understand the street because they walk there, a lot, will understand why their grown-ups don't want them running into the street. They will understand on a visceral, intuitive level that they need to be careful.<br />
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By the time my son was a young toddler, maybe 15 months old, he seemed to understand about traffic lights and walk signals. He had almost never seen them from a car because we lived in an extremely walkable neighborhood, but he stopped with us at the corner and waited for the light, without being told. From the time he learned to walk, he had been walking with us, not just fake walks to the end of the block, but real walks to get somewhere. When he wasn't walking on his own down the sidewalk, he was in a stroller going somewhere, on a daily basis. It was never necessary to say to him, "Don't step onto the black," or other seemingly-arbitrary explanations I hear adults giving to toddlers to try to keep them out of the street.<br />
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My youngest is now 16 months old, and she occasionally slips out the door and down the driveway, with one of us trailing close behind to scoop her up. But I have noticed that she never aims straight for the street. She gets to the bottom of the driveway and then veers either left or right, onto the sidewalk, because she knows that we never walk right out into the street. Children who walk a lot (or are walked a lot) will imitate the behavior of the adults who walk with them.<br />
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I am of course not suggesting that you release your toddlers to play by the street unsupervised, but it is comforting to know that children value their own safety almost as much as we do. They will avoid danger once they truly understand that something is dangerous.<br />
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<i>Should </i>it be the case that streets in neighborhoods containing humans are dangerous to those humans? No, of course not, and there was a time when children played in the street without care or worry. It was once considered the business of the drivers, horseback riders, motorists, and bicyclists to avoid the children, not the other way around. But until that is the case again, let's stop worrying about how to <i>teach</i> our children to stay out of the street, and show them.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-8142661580524163412016-05-13T11:28:00.000-07:002016-05-13T20:08:23.626-07:00Our Homeschool Day in the life with a 5-, 3-, and 1-year-oldI haven't written much about our <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2014/03/our-home-preschool.html" target="_blank">home preschool</a> approach recently, but I'm linking up (a little late!) with the <a href="http://simplehomeschool.net/your-homeschool-day-2016/" target="_blank">Simple Homeschool day in the life</a> post. As everyone says, there is really no "typical" day in our lives, but this one was fairly representative (at least of what I hope our days can be like :-)). We are pretty unschooly in our approach with these little ones, so you won't find any set curriculum or required schoolwork here, mostly just lots of play and reading. <br />
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This day was actually a Sunday, but we don't discriminate between days for the most part.<br />
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6:00 AM</div>
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The baby wakes up. She sleeps in our room, so she usually just plays on the floor for a while until I get up (which is decidedly <i>not</i> at 6 AM). Although I have ambitions of waking up before my kids, the baby still doesn't sleep through the night at 14 months, so early mornings just aren't happening this season.</div>
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8:00 AM</div>
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The older two kids wake up and start wandering in to our room. I help get everyone dressed and downstairs.</div>
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9:00 AM</div>
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We have breakfast outside on this beautiful spring morning. I make two dozen muffins that only last us through the afternoon! The kids do some impromptu crafts with construction paper and scissors and then play in the digging/mud area in the backyard.<br />
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10:00 AM<br />
The 14-month-old goes down for her nap. She is at an in-between stage when she sometimes takes two naps and sometimes just one. When she takes two naps, like she does today, she and my 3-year-old do tag-team naps and I never have more than one kid asleep at one time.<br />
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11:00 AM<br />
I have been reading and loving <a href="http://www.playingwithmath.org/" target="_blank">Playing with Math</a>, published by the Natural Math folks, so I am very motivated to let the kids "play math" as much as possible. I get out our <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Cuisenaire-Small-Group/dp/B000F8R5N2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1462988828&sr=8-4&keywords=cuisenaire+rods" target="_blank">Cuisenaire Rods </a>and we play with them for a while, building pyramids this way and that and making designs and "trains."<br />
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12:00 PM<br />
We spread out the picnic blanket in the backyard and read picture books in the sunshine.<br />
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12:40 PM<br />
The baby wakes up and we have lunch. While the kids are eating, I read some poetry from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Random-House-Book-Poetry-Children/dp/0394850106" target="_blank">The Random House Book of Poetry for Children</a>. I have a list of about eight poems or so that I would like the kids to memorize (just to have in their repertoire, not to recite or anything), so I usually read a few of those every day, mixed in with some new ones.<br />
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1:10 PM<br />
My 5-year-old is looking at a dinosaur book and discovers that it has games at the back, so we get out game pieces and a die and play it together (with "help" from the baby).<br />
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2:00 PM<br />
The 3-year-old goes down for a nap, and I ride my bike to Trader Joe's (this is the only thing that probably wouldn't happen on a weekday). While I'm gone, the baby takes a second nap, and the 5-year-old plays a computer game with Daddy for a bit.<br />
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3:30 PM<br />
Mr. 5 loves workbooks of various kinds, so he does some math games in one of his workbooks. My mother-in-law was the first to buy him a workbook when he was about 3 1/2, and I was none too pleased. I was afraid his creativity would suffer and that he would either become a slave to the directions or shy away from any writing or math as a result. As it happened, I left the workbook around for a while and never insisted he do it; he started picking it up from time to time on his own and doing some of the activities. He will occasionally ask us to read the instructions or help with an activity. We don't correct or grade them; I see them as just a supplement to what he learns through play. The grandmothers add workbooks to his collection, and he does them when the mood strikes.<br />
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5:00 PM<br />
Miss 3 is up from her nap, and she and I make the blackberry fool from the lovely picture book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Dessert-Centuries-Families-Delicious/dp/0375868321" target="_blank">A Fine Dessert</a> with occasional help from Mr. 5.<br />
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6:30 PM<br />
Daddy takes Miss 3 for a ride on his bike while I make dinner. We eat and then enjoy the blackberry fool.<br />
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8:00 PM<br />
I put the baby down to bed while the two older kids get ready for bed. I read them a chapter from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ramona-Brave-Beverly-Cleary/dp/0380709597/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462990556&sr=1-1&keywords=ramona+the+brave" target="_blank">Ramona the Brave</a> and lie down next to Miss 3 while she falls asleep. Mr. 5 stays up a bit longer reading and drawing in bed.<br />
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It is past 9:30 by the time all the kids are asleep. I do some laundry, and Daddy and I watch a DVD and read some before heading off to bed ourselves.<br />
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Thanks for joining us on our home preschool day!<br />
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-49654668873163588062016-05-10T22:15:00.002-07:002016-05-10T22:30:13.463-07:00Liebster Award - Thanks!<div style="text-align: center;">
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Thanks so much to my friend Shannon over at <a href="https://welleatyouupweloveyouso.com/2016/04/30/sharing-the-blogging-love/">We'll Eat You Up, We Love You So </a> for nominating me for a Liebster Award! The award is given by smaller bloggers to new or other small bloggers to promote each other's blogs and spread the love. I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy to have my writing recognized by Shannon, who has great things to say about parenting and outdoor living. <br />
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Here are the rules for the Liebster Award:<br />
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<li>Thank the blog that nominated you in a post on your blog.</li>
<li>Answer the questions asked by the blog that nominated you.</li>
<li>Nominate 5-11 other new bloggers.</li>
<li>Create 11 new questions for the nominees to answer.</li>
<li>Notify all nominees via social media.</li>
</ul>
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I confess that I don't think I follow 5 new or small-scale bloggers, so I'm opting out of the chain, but I will share some of my favorites at the bottom of this post for you to check out if you're interested. <br />
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Meanwhile, here are my answers to Shannon's questions:<br />
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1. What is your favorite topic to write about? (This may or may not be what you write about most often.)<br />
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Not surprisingly, my favorite topic to write about is the car-free life and everything related to it, especially how we experience the world around us when we travel sans cars. My motivation is never to make anyone feel guilty for owning or using a car, but to inspire people to find ways to incorporate Slow transportation or transit into their lives and feel the benefits. <br />
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More recently, I am also excited to write more about alternative education and our leanings toward homeschooling, but I haven't gotten the chance (or gumption) to write much about it on my blog yet. Stay tuned.<br />
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2. What are your highest goals and aspirations as a writer?<br />
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I would love to expand my writing to include more creative non-fiction and even, eventually, some fiction. I read non-fiction 80% of the time, so that is what I tend to write, but I aspire to get my creative juices flowing. I also dream of combining some of the advice on my blog with some new content to write a book about car-free living for families with kids, similar to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Well-Without-Owning/dp/1580087574">How to Live Well Without Owning a Car</a>, which is aimed at single or coupled folks, but with more advice for parents.<br />
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3. Do your family members read your writing? If so, what do they think of it?<br />
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My mother-in-law is the one who initially encouraged me to start a blog because she was impressed (horrified?) by some of our parenting approaches and values. She and I haven't always seen exactly eye to eye on such topics, so she told me I could write and use her as the contrast to our parenting philosophy! While I have not taken her up on it, that was a very generous offer and I appreciated her encouragement. I believe she still reads the blog sometimes. My husband also occasionally reads my writing and is supremely supportive. We share pretty much all of the values you'll see expressed here, and he claims that I express them much more eloquently than he could, for which I am grateful. <br />
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I haven't told anyone on my side of the family about my blog or other writing. I know writing is about being vulnerable, but what can I say? I wanted at least the first few years of my blog to be a safe place to explore my values and practice my writing voice, and it felt safer not to share it with everyone. <br />
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4. What is your best travel story?<br />
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I don't know if it's my best, but this story reminds me of the sweet innocence of life before smartphones. When I was living in France during my junior year of college, I was supposed to meet some friends in London for the weekend, but I was traveling to the city by myself through the Chunnel and I hadn't made arrangements to meet my friends at the train station. All I knew was the first word in the name of the hotel where we were going to stay and that it was "near Hyde Park." No telephone number. None of the friends I was meeting had cell phones with them. I was too penniless at the time to afford a taxi or even the Tube, so I knew I had to walk, but I had never been to London and didn't have a map either. I walked out of Waterloo Station, turned in the direction that felt like there was water, crossed the Thames, passed Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, and reached Hyde Park, which is not a tiny place. I asked a sweet old lady for directions (none too helpful) and eventually asked in at another hotel along the northern edge of the park if they had heard of the place I was heading. They vaguely recognized the name and directed me a few blocks over, where I found my hotel and my friends. <br />
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I don't know what surprises me the most as I remember this: that I was so ill-prepared to be in an unfamiliar place, that I was so confident that I just started walking without a clue as to where I was supposed to go, or that it all turned out okay in the end!<br />
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5. What is your favorite piece of writing OR what piece was the hardest to write?<br />
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One blog post I keep returning to (and directing others to) is one I wrote about <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2014/02/of-skywalks-and-self-denial.html">skywalks</a> in February 2014. Most people don't get what the big deal is about skywalks, even those who are generally in favor of complete streets and walkable neighborhoods, so I was happy to shed some light on the issue. It was also a difficult one to write for the same reason: it's difficult to explain what is wrong with skywalks in a way that is clear and non-judgmental. <br />
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6. What is your favorite movie and do you believe it’s the best movie you’ve ever seen? (It may not be!)<br />
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This was a tough one! I have a number of favorites, and we check out new movies from the <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-beauty-of-libraries.html">library</a> at least twice a week. But in the end, I have to go with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/">Stranger Than Fiction</a>. It's unusual, it doesn't fit into categories very well, it has some great funny lines that we are constantly quoting around our house ("Don't vorry, it's Vednesday."), and it has some amazing actors in it. It's a little bit meta, but not so much that it twists your brain around too much. It's just a good time! For the record, some of my runners-up were <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398830/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Cape of Good Hope</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310281/?ref_=nv_sr_1">A Mighty Wind</a>.<br />
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7. What is the scariest thing you’ve ever voluntarily done?<br />
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Um, I took a ride from a strange (as in unknown) man when I lived in France. It was raining, I was sick, and I was walking to church when I prayed that someone from church would pass by to pick me up. Instead of someone I knew, a stranger stopped to ask for directions and then offered me a ride. I figured that if I was going to engage in Divine Hitchhiking, I had better have a little faith that I wasn't going to be murdered, so I got in. He delivered me to the church door unmurdered. Don't tell my mom. Or my kids.<br />
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8. Who is the biggest celebrity you have ever met?<br />
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"Met" is a bit of a stretch, but we bumped into Jane Lynch outside this famous tiny crab house in Bethesda, Maryland. She was exclaiming how good the restaurant smelled, which was odd because there were big dumpsters in front that always smelled about how you would expect dumpsters in front of a crab house to smell. We could never figure that out.<br />
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9. What is your favorite children’s book?<br />
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Just one? No way! I'm going to write whatever comes to mind first because otherwise I will be here all day. I'll try to narrow it to a few picture books and one chapter book I've been reading recently. My favorite picture book from childhood is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sneetches-Other-Stories-Dr-Seuss/dp/0394800893/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462942921&sr=1-1&keywords=the+sneetches">The Sneetches</a> by Dr. Seuss, my favorite recently-discovered picture book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Place-Snow-Rebecca-Bond/dp/0525473084">This Place in the Snow</a> (seasonally inappropriate, I apologize), and how can I not throw in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Little-Engine-That-Could-Oversize/dp/0399247106/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462943026&sr=1-2&keywords=the+little+engine+that+could+loren+long">The Little Engine That Could</a> with luscious illustrations by Loren Long? A chapter book I didn't read as a child but recently discovered alongside my 5-year-old is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Half-Magic-Edward-Eager/dp/0152020683/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=510omMaxmoL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL320_SR212%2C320_&refRID=1QB3P6VQ07Z3RSQ70T0H">Half Magic</a> by Edward Eager.<br />
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10. Where is your favorite place to have lived?<br />
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We loved our time in the DC area, but I'm going to have to go with Aix en Provence, France for this one.<br />
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11. What was the best part of your day yesterday?<br />
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The best part of almost any day is the time I spend reading to my kids, and yesterday was no exception. Extensive reading aloud doesn't always happen on our busiest days, but yesterday, I was able to fit in a chapter from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ramona-Her-Mother-Beverly-Cleary/dp/038070952X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462943363&sr=1-1&keywords=ramona+and+her+mother">Ramona and Her Mother </a>with my 3- and 5-year-olds. I have to say that the other best part of my day is usually the time after my kids' bedtime, and yesterday was no exception :-) I believe I spent some of that time reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ida-Plans-Maximize-Disaster-Possibly/dp/0060730269/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462943440&sr=1-1&keywords=ida+b">Ida B</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Simpsons-Their-Mathematical-Secrets/dp/1620402785/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462943471&sr=1-1&keywords=the+simpsons+and+their+mathematical+secrets">The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets</a>. <br />
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And my recommended blogs are:<br />
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<a href="http://happinessishereblog.com/">Happiness is Here</a> by Sara<br />
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<a href="http://thefinestmuffins.blogspot.com/">The Finest Muffins and Bagels in All the Land</a> by Elizabeth<br />
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<a href="http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/">Teacher Tom's Blog</a> by Tom<br />
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Thanks again to Shannon!<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-39069915390195170272016-03-01T16:58:00.000-08:002016-03-01T16:58:06.270-08:00How We Keep Toys Manageable (Part 2)<a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2016/02/how-we-keep-toys-manageable-part-1.html" target="_blank">Last week</a>, I wrote about how we keep toy clutter to a minimum in our home by remembering that kids don't <i>need</i> toys from a store and keeping toys simple and beautiful. <br />
<h3>
Manage expectations</h3>
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It's obviously okay to say "no" to a toy your kids want if it is not something you want to buy or have in your house for whatever reason. But how do we keep from running the gauntlet whenever we're in a store? How do we help our kids to be satisfied with what they have, not just to avoid clutter but as a good general life attitude? </div>
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First, we stick to commercial-free TV or mute the commercials, especially around the holidays. Kids can't want something if they don't know it exists (and aren't bombarded with dishonest and manipulative advertising that they might not be able to understand yet). We love to tell a story from when my son was about 2 1/2. He had a new baby sister and so had been (ahem) watching a bit more TV than usual, to give Mama a bit of sanity. My own sister came to visit and was cleaning up a mess made by one of the kids when my dear boy recommended, "You should use Oxi-Clean. It gets out tough stains." Kids absorb advertising messages, whether or not they even understand what they're talking about!</div>
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When we go to a store that has toys, we try to explain ahead of time whether this will be a trip to get something for the child, to get something for someone else, or just to look (these trips are rare). I like to have some stores where I never buy toys, like the supermarket, Target, and Ross. We might look, we might get crayons or other art supplies, but not toys. Now they rarely ask for toys in those stores.</div>
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Finally, we find that having fewer toys, mixing things up by rotating toys (more on that next), playing outside, and playing <i>with </i>our kids can help them appreciate and enjoy what they already have. </div>
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Purge and rotate</h3>
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Whenever I am starting to feel overwhelmed by the volume or quality of toys in my home, I purge! Get rid of (or fix) those broken toys that are hanging around, and donate or sell ones your kids have outgrown or that don't promote the kind of play you want in your home (or if you just hate them, that's okay too).<br />
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If you still have more toys out in the living area or your kids' rooms than you want, start a toy rotation: box up some of the toys for storage, especially if you have several different versions of a similar kind of toy, such as puzzles or play sets. Rotate toys out and back on a biweekly or monthly basis so toys will stay fresh and new in your kids' minds. Kids will also be able to play better with more space and fewer choices.</div>
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Keep grandparents in the loop</h3>
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I don't know about your parents, but ours LOVE to buy toys for our kids. Love it. It can get a little crazy around Christmas and the birthdays, which in our case is one month-long celebration. While we are grateful for their generosity, we have found that we need to help them to channel their enthusiasm in directions that serve our vision and values for our family. </div>
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Of course, if relatives give our children toys we don't want or have room for, we can always give them away, but I would rather they spend their gift money on things we can get behind. Websites like the <a href="http://www.sokindregistry.org/" target="_blank">SoKind Gift Registry</a> sponsored by Center for a New American Dream can include secondhand items, experiences, donations to charity, and other alternative gifts. I recommend starting a registry well before the holidays or birthdays so givers have time to order things if necessary. </div>
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Other alternatives to toys could include magazine subscriptions, museum or gift memberships, gift certificates for other family activities, experiences with the grandparents (get Grandma to take the kids to a jumpy castle place for a couple of hours - a gift for you too!), art supplies, or books (we rarely buy new picture books for the kids, but grandparents are happy to do so). </div>
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If you need to, you can set a gift limit for birthdays and holidays (say, three gifts including one toy only). Try to explain your vision for your home, either in terms of avoiding clutter or encouraging imagination in your kids. I know from experience that limits without an accompanying explanation can lead to confusion, especially when you are choosing to do things differently than your own parents did.</div>
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Play!</h3>
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This is probably the hardest suggestion for me to follow, considering all of the other things I need or want to do when we're at home. Without exception, getting involved and playing <i>with</i> my kids is the number-one way to keep toy clutter at bay. I am their favorite toy! When I play with my kids, either by building something with them out of K'NEX, doing a science experiment or craft, reading aloud, going outside with them, or making a block tower, a number of magical things happen. </div>
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My kids are less likely to ask to watch TV or get new toys because they aren't "bored." I gain more of a sense of what they like to do and can suggest other activities when they tire of one game or another. They get the sense that their toys are interesting because Mama finds them interesting. They get new ideas for how to use the toys they have. As any parent knows, yelling "Go play with your toys!" while we are doing something of our own and ignoring the kid never works, no matter how many toys she has.</div>
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<i>How do you avoid toy clutter in your home?</i> </div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-89175501558789132002016-02-23T17:01:00.002-08:002016-03-11T17:04:55.713-08:00How We Keep Toys Manageable (Part 1)<i>This is part of a <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2015/09/are-we-minimalists-our-quest-for-just.html" target="_blank">series</a> on my home decluttering efforts.</i><br />
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Most Americans assume that you cannot have a simple, clutter-free home with kids, and toys are a major reason for this assumption. Toys are seemingly pervasive where children are concerned: there are Christmas and birthday presents, gifts from visiting relatives, gifts from in-town relatives, souvenirs from vacations, and of course, toys from visits to the dentist, doctor, supermarket, and post office. We obviously don't <i>have</i> to get toys from every (or any!) one of these sources, but they are there, and it can be easy to give in a little too much and end up with toy clutter. I find that too many toys quickly make a house feel cluttered, which frustrates parents and frazzles kids.<br />
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Kids can become overwhelmed by too many toys and react in whatever way their craziness happens to tend (because we all have that crazy just waiting to come out). In one of my all-time favorite parenting books, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345507983/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=42221349050&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13541704734963694482&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_1yh6b5w1zv_b" target="_blank">Simplicity Parenting</a>, Kim John Payne describes noticing that an overwhelming environment, including too many toys, clothes, and even books, caused undue stress in children, prompting them to display behaviors we associate with anxiety, OCD, and ADHD.<br />
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So... with all this temptation to keep getting fun, cute, and "educational" toys, what is a simplicity-minded parent to do?<br />
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<b>Remember that kids don't <i>need</i> toys from a store</b></h3>
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True confession: I really love buying toys for my kids. Not all toys; some I find unbelievably obnoxious, but when I feel like a particular toy will make a particular child happy, or contribute to an interest, or lead to some new ways of playing, I can be a woman possessed. I sometimes even feel annoyed at having to give away some of "my" toy ideas for my kids so relatives can buy them Christmas and birthday gifts. It's silly, but there it is.<br />
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That being said, my reasonable side tells me that in reality, <i>kids don't need toys at all! </i>Anyone who has observed children deep in play can attest to this. For about 20 minutes now, my kids have been digging in the dirt in our front yard. I believe they are pirates digging for buried treasure, and their tools consist of one adult trowel and one kid-sized sandbox shovel. The real toys are the rocks and the dirt, and these are free and plentiful.<br />
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A German kindergarten recently drew international media coverage for agreeing to participate in a research study to remove all the toys from the classroom for three months. At the end of the three months, there was less fighting and more imaginative play among the children than before the experiment. <b>Instead of toys, we try to give our kids good outdoor space (including local parks and natural areas!), access to grown-up activities like cooking and cleaning, and lots of art supplies and library books.</b><br />
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<b>Keep toys simple</b></h3>
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The simpler a toy is, the more kids can do with it in imaginary play. A super turbo character superhero spacecraft with sound and light buttons does pretty much one thing, and the kids do pretty much one thing - push buttons. With these toys, kids aren't the creators of stories; they become toy operators. The toy is so complex and self-contained that it doesn't require any imagination. </div>
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Simple toys like blocks and building toys, sticks, fabric for dress-up, pillows, ropes, and simple dolls and animals, can be used a million different ways, so kids don't need as many toys. They also evolve as the child grows. We have a set of wooden blocks that we got when my eldest was one year old, and four years later, our kids play with them almost every day, making complex structures or pretending they are treasures of one sort or another.</div>
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Let toys be beautiful</h3>
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This may seem silly. What does it matter if toys are beautiful, and do kids really care? First of all (and this was our primary motivation when we started getting beautiful toys for our kids), handcrafted toys made of natural materials like wood and fabric look nicer in the adult areas of your home, which makes it look less cluttered (even when it is). I like to use natural woven baskets for toy storage, and canvas bags like <a href="http://www.swoopbags.com/" target="_blank">these</a> for plastic pieces, to make our home look more uniform and make cleanup easier. Bright plastic toys and storage bins stand out more against a background of adult decor.<br />
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As to whether kids enjoy beautiful toys more, a quote widely attributed to Plato has it that the most effective education for a child is to play amongst lovely things. With beautiful, natural toys, young children are exposed to a variety of textures and weights. They learn aesthetic principles by handling handcrafted items, and they can learn to imagine how their toys were made (and subsequently learn to make their own). </div>
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To me, beauty is a good in and of itself, so filling our kids' lives with more beauty surely can't hurt. Finally, as an added bonus, beautiful toys cost more, so you (and the grandparents) will likely buy fewer of them!<br />
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<i>Check in next week for <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-we-keep-toys-manageable-part-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a> of how we manage toy clutter.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-39063393925349739802016-01-07T21:37:00.000-08:002016-01-07T21:37:18.024-08:00Car-Free in the Winter: The ReckoningEveryone always asks how we do the car-free life in the wintertime, and I wrote <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/10/car-free-in-winter.html" target="_blank">my response</a> to that question a couple of years ago. I'm not saying that I'm changing my story now, but it turns out that we were blessed with very mild winters our first two years in the area. This winter is turning out to be more typical, and oh boy.<br />
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It's been snowing almost every day since Thanksgiving, up to about two feet. We've also had below-freezing temperatures down into the single digits. It hasn't snowed for a week or so at this point, but it's been cold enough for the old snow to stick, freezing and melting on the sidewalks and roads.<br />
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The great thing about not having a car is that we still have to <i>get out there. </i>The worst thing about winter is the feeling of being trapped inside all the time, lacking air and exercise. When you have to get groceries and <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-beauty-of-libraries.html" target="_blank">library</a> books (yes, those two things are roughly equivalent in importance), your only choice is just to bundle up and get outside. We often have kindhearted people offer us rides when the weather is inclement, whether raining or snowing, and I like to reply, "We purposely don't own a car <i>so that</i> we will have to walk in all weathers."<br />
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That said, getting around in winter isn't always easy, especially with young kids (I'm sure that comes as a shocker). Here are some of the tricks and strategies I've refined so far this winter:<br />
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<b>Clothes, clothes, clothes. </b>The great secret to getting out in the cold is, you guessed it, clothes. Wool underlayers are a must; <a href="http://www.littlespruceorganics.com/engel-organic-merino-wool-long-sleeved-bodysuit/" target="_blank">these</a> are my favorites for babies and kids because they aren't itchy at all. Adults can wear less expensive wool and polyester base layers intended for skiing and sports.<br />
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Our kids need the full gamut of coats, mittens, hats (or balaclavas), and cowls when they're riding in the double stroller, and the baby gets the warmest treatment in a full snowsuit, as I usually carry her on my front or back. The adults only need about two layers plus a jacket (usually not a thick overcoat) because we keep warm while walking. <br />
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<b>Gear for the weather. </b>Our Burley trailer/stroller has big wheels that will push through a few inches of snow easily enough, but it gets caught up in more than that. It has a full cover that keeps kids warm even in cold temperatures.<br />
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We have actually been enjoying using a <b>sled</b> to get groceries or pull the kids when the snow is too deep. We could get snow tires for our bikes, but we haven't found it necessary so far; we usually bike when it's cold and dry and use other modes of transportation when it's snowy or icy. If we were very committed, Burley offers a <a href="https://burley.com/product/ski-kit/" target="_blank">cross-country skiing conversion kit</a> for our trailer.<br />
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<b>Take the bus. </b>I have been very thankful that we chose a <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/07/moving-to-be-car-free-again.html" target="_blank">location</a> close to a bus line. In usual circumstances, we prefer to walk or bike, but in this weather, I have no complaints about a bus system that can get us where we're going relatively efficiently, with no need to drive or park in the snow.<br />
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<b>Plan in advance. </b>This is an obvious one for all parents of young kids, but I find that if we need to get out of the house in the morning, it is now imperative that I prepare everything the night before, right down to the wool long johns and mittens. There is nothing more frustrating than running out the door to catch a bus and realizing that one toddler snow boot is missing.<br />
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<b>Enjoy it. </b>This applies whether you have a car or not. The best antidote to the winter blues is just to get out in it to walk, run, or sled!<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-47868897889493745402015-10-05T23:07:00.000-07:002015-10-07T15:52:52.586-07:00Our Favorite Children's Books (Ages 4-8)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>(If you're looking for books for younger kids, check out my <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/12/our-favorite-childrens-books-ages-birth.html" target="_blank">favorite books from birth to 3</a>.)</i><br />
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Reading beautiful children's books aloud is one of my favorite perks of being a mom. No matter how our day goes, as long as we manage to fit in some good read-aloud time, I feel that my time has been well spent. Our time spent in books is fun, it's sweet, it's the cornerstone of <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2014/03/our-home-preschool.html" target="_blank">our home preschool</a>, and it sparks some of our best conversations.<br />
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I have found reading aloud to be more and more fun as our eldest can understand and pay attention to longer and more complex books. He still loves flap books and simple rhymes (which is lucky for our 2-year-old), but he can sit still for longer picture books and even some short chapter books.<br />
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When I say "sit still," of course, it is a relative term. He is still a 4.5-year-old boy. He might be in one of our laps, or he might be playing with clay (I save the real grown-up clay for when I'm reading a chapter book aloud), drawing, playing in the dirt, or whatever he can do and still listen.<br />
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My age range of 4 to 8 is just an estimate as I don't really know whether my 4-year-old will still enjoy these as an 8-year-old, but I can't see why not! We adults genuinely enjoy all of these, too.<br />
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This list is by no means even close to exhaustive. These are just a few of the many, many lovely books for kids of this age.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Pink-Refrigerator-Tim-Egan/dp/0618631542" target="_blank"><i>The Pink Refrigerator</i> </a> by Tim Egan<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Metropolitan-Cow-Tim-Egan/dp/0395960592/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank"><i>Metropolitan Cow</i></a> and others by Tim Egan. In addition to unusual stories with moral lessons that don't punch you in the face, Egan's books also feature beautiful, walkable neighborhoods.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Such-Things-Bill-Peet/dp/0395395941" target="_blank"><i>No Such Things</i></a> by Bill Peet<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cyrus-Unsinkable-Serpent-Bill-Peet/dp/0395313899/ref=la_B001H6TVC4_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444017820&sr=1-3" target="_blank"><i>Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent</i></a> by Bill Peet<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Encore-Eleanor-Bill-Peet/dp/0395298601/ref=pd_sim_14_27?ie=UTF8&refRID=077SMBQR3SA79RDWJYE9" target="_blank"><i>Encore for Eleanor</i></a> by Bill Peet, and anything else by Bill Peet.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sneetches-Other-Stories-Dr-Seuss/dp/0394800893/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444018149&sr=1-1&keywords=sneetches" target="_blank"><i>The Sneetches</i></a> by Dr. Seuss. I cannot say that I enjoy reading much Dr. Seuss aloud, but this is one I can read over and over again.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jumanji-30th-Anniversary-Chris-Allsburg/dp/0547608381" target="_blank"><i>Jumanji</i> </a>and others by Chris Van Allsburg<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lillys-Big-Day-Kevin-Henkes/dp/0062313584" target="_blank"><i>Lilly's Big Day</i></a> by Kevin Henkes. If you're looking for an irrepressible and delightful heroine, Lilly is your mouse.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sheila-Rae-Brave-Kevin-Henkes/dp/0688147380/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444019038&sr=1-8&keywords=henkes%2C+kevin" target="_blank"><i>Sheila Rae, the Brave</i></a> and others by Kevin Henkes<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sylvester-Magic-Pebble-William-Steig/dp/1442435607" target="_blank"><i>Sylvester and the Magic Pebble</i></a> and others by William Steig<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Im-Frog-Elephant-Piggie-Book/dp/1423183053" target="_blank"><i>I'm a Frog!</i></a> and other Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems. The Pigeon books are wonderful too, but Elephant and Piggie start treading into the beginning reader category without being mind-numbing to read aloud.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Frog-Toad-Friends-Arnold-Lobel/dp/0064440206" target="_blank"><i>Frog and Toad are Friends</i></a> and others by Arnold Lobel. These are another series of beginning reader books that are pleasant to read aloud.<br />
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<b>Chapter books</b><br />
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Starting chapter books with a preschooler can feel both daunting and exciting. It is rewarding to <i>finally</i> get to some of the chapter book classics we remember, and yet we are still dealing with discriminating attention spans and wiggly bodies. I would recommend these as good first chapter books to read aloud.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Two-Times-Fun-Beverly-Cleary/dp/0060579218" target="_blank"><i>Two Times the Fun</i></a> by Beverly Cleary. This was one of the first chapter books we read with my son, and he loved it.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bear-Called-Paddington-Michael-Bond/dp/0062312189" target="_blank"><i>A Bear Called Paddington</i></a> by Michael Bond<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Dragon-Ruth-Stiles-Gannett/dp/1494915049" target="_blank"><i>My Father's Dragon</i></a> and sequels by Ruth Stiles Gannett<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/James-Giant-Peach-Roald-Dahl/dp/0142410365" target="_blank"><i>James and the Giant Peach</i></a> by Roald Dahl. I loved Roald Dahl as a kid, but as a parent, I have found some of his novels to be darker than I remember. This one is a good bet for younger ones.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Poppers-Penguins-Richard-Atwater/dp/0316058432" target="_blank"><i>Mr. Popper's Penguins</i></a> by Richard Atwater<br />
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<b>Poetry</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Scranimals-Jack-Prelutsky/dp/0060753684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444018753&sr=1-1&keywords=scranimals" target="_blank"><i>Scranimals</i></a> by Jack Prelutsky. If you like Shel Silverstein, you will love Jack Prelutsky.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Behold-Bold-Umbrellaphant-Other-Poems/dp/0060543175/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=149FFHM10F8Q3N2GK69C&dpID=614dNgg%2B6hL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_" target="_blank"><i>Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant</i></a> by Jack Prelutsky<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ive-Lost-Hippopotamus-Jack-Prelutsky/dp/0062014579/ref=pd_sim_14_11?ie=UTF8&refRID=1JPA63N9VZKFT555RV0C" target="_blank"><i>I've Lost My Hippopotamus</i></a> by Jack Prelutsky<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Family-Poems-Favorite-Poetry-Children/dp/0786851112/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444018877&sr=1-1&keywords=family+of+poems" target="_blank"><i>A Family of Poems</i></a> edited by Caroline Kennedy<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Seasons-Miriam-Weiner/dp/1935703579/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444018933&sr=1-1&keywords=shakespeare%27s+seasons" target="_blank"><i>Shakespeare's Seasons</i></a> by Miriam Weiner and Shannon Whitt. This is a gentle introduction to Shakespeare as short quotations from the Bard are paired with charming illustrations.<br />
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<b>Nonfiction</b><br />
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I have been astounded by the variety and quality of children's nonfiction books. I am convinced that even for adults, there is a kids' nonfiction book to serve as the foundation for any area of interest. Now whenever I am looking to get a good overview of something, whether it's Shakespeare or Darwin, learning how to draw or how to play the guitar, I start in the kids' section.<br />
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Here are a smattering of books we have enjoyed so far.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Magic-School-Bus-Inside-Earth/dp/0590407600" target="_blank"><i>The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth</i></a> and others by Joanna Cole. Magic School Bus books are a bit tricky to read aloud because of all the different images and insets, but my son loves them and follows many of the scientific concepts. If the format becomes too cumbersome, I skip the sidebars and just read the story.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Sibert-Informational-Honor-Awards/dp/0688178405" target="_blank"><i>I Face the Wind</i> </a>and others by Vicki Cobb. These introduce basic concepts to the youngest scientists.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Motion-Magnets-More-Adrienne-Mason/dp/155453707X" target="_blank"><i>Motion, Magnets and More</i></a> by Adrienne Mason. This is slightly more advanced than the Vicki Cobb books and introduces a variety of physical science concepts using simple experiments.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sunshine-Seasons-Lets-Read---Find-Out-Science/dp/0060592052" target="_blank"><i>Sunshine Makes the Seasons</i></a> by Franklyn M. Branley and other Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science books. Despite the cumbersome name, this series has something about pretty much any science question my son has thrown at me.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/People-Learned-Lets-Read---Find-Out-Science/dp/0064452212" target="_blank"><i>How People Learned to Fly</i></a> by Fran Hodgkins<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pitter-Patter-Martha-Sullivan/dp/1584695080" target="_blank"><i>Pitter and Patter</i></a> by Martha Sullivan. This playful book follows two drops of rain as they move through the water cycle.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beam-Light-Story-Albert-Einstein/dp/0811872351" target="_blank"><i>On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein</i></a> by Jennifer Berne<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Henris-Scissors-Jeanette-Winter/dp/1442464844" target="_blank"><i>Henri's Scissors</i></a>, a picture book biography of Henri Matisse by Jeanette Winter<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Iridescence-Birds-About-Henri-Matisse/dp/1596439483" target="_blank"><i>The Iridescence of Birds: A Book about Henri Matisse</i></a> by Patricia MacLachlan<br />
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<b>What have I missed? What are your favorite children's books for this age group?</b><br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-56342796508360578762015-09-18T18:09:00.002-07:002015-09-18T18:10:17.597-07:00Are We Minimalists? Our Quest for Just EnoughOur relatives would most definitely describe our family as "minimalists." When we got married and moved from Seattle to DC eight years ago, we each had two suitcases to our name. There may have been the odd box of old yearbooks and clothes stashed at our parents' houses, but two suitcases were all we felt we needed to start our new life together in a new city.<br />
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It is astonishing to think just how much more <i>stuff </i>we have accumulated since then. I personally love the feeling of being unencumbered, like after you check your bags at the airport and you suddenly feel lighter, like you really could take flight (this is before kids, of course).<br />
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Having too much stuff robs me of time spent organizing and sorting. It takes up space and makes my house look cluttered and frantic. It uses up money that we could be spending on other things, like experiences, travel, and early retirement. <br />
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The excess stuff, unworn clothes in my closet, the residue of clothes in my drawers (or my kids' drawers) that remains untouched week after week, season after season, child after child, weighs on my psyche. The boxes in my closet that are still unpacked after two years in this "new" house. The file folders stuffed with privacy practices from insurance policies long since cancelled. This is all clutter, unnecessary, superfluous, and I think we can all admit that clutter has effects on our lives far beyond the inability to present a clean house when company comes.<br />
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That said, I always hesitate to use the word "minimalist," because the "minimum" is so subjective. Our family probably has less stuff than the average American family of similar income. Even so, we have more, much more, laughably more, ridiculously more, lavishly more, embarrassingly more than the "minimum" possessions required for survival or even comfort. This is why I laugh when people label us as "minimalists;" what looks like minimalism to a middle-class American would be the height of luxury to most people in the world.<br />
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I've been thinking about our philosophy of stuff a lot recently, after reading the book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Clutterfree-Kids-thinking-Discover-habits-ebook/dp/B00HYNJKCU" target="_blank">Clutterfree with Kids</a></i> by Joshua Becker. Although I've read some great books on simplifying, including <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Less-Limiting-Essential/dp/1401309704" target="_blank">The Power of Less</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Buy-Happiness-Cheap/dp/1608680835" target="_blank">You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap)</a></i>, it had been a couple of years, and I was surprised at how far I have gotten from my "simplicity" ideals.<br />
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It hasn't helped that we have moved into a larger space than we've ever had, and added two kids to our family, but I hesitate to use kids as an excuse. Kids need much, much less stuff than we believe. Inspired by <i>Clutterfree</i>, I've been trying to jump back into re-decluttering our home. I'll share some of my experiences about that here, including:<br />
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<li>How we keep kids' clothes organized</li>
<li>How we keep toys manageable</li>
<li>Our standards for what should go and what can stay</li>
<li>How we simplify instead of organize</li>
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The task is a bit overwhelming, but I am looking forward to getting my home to match my values again!</div>
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-46661107716609655542015-06-02T16:25:00.000-07:002015-06-02T16:27:52.908-07:00Walking with ThreeOur little baby is now four months old, and I have recently (and repeatedly) had the realization that when I am out "by myself" during the week, I am actually four people. Four! I used to be just one. I have to confess that for the first time ever, while expecting this baby, I had flashes of worry about not owning a car. I mean, three kids! Our car culture tells us that even a couple of adults require a car to get around on a daily basis. So three kids sounded pretty intimidating, even to me.<br />
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But then I remembered that babies come in very small sizes. Not only that, but kids who are small now continue getting bigger and better able to participate in transporting themselves. With that realization, I calmed down a bit. Here are some of the strategies we're employing to get around with our pile of urchins.<br />
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<b>A variety of configurations</b><br />
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I've written before about the configurations we use when we go out, configurations that depend on who is traveling, where, and for what purpose. This is a level of planning not usually required for car travel, as the answer is always the same. Are we going to the store? One car, three kids, three car seats. To the library? One car, three kids, three car seats. To the park? One car, three kids, three car seats. Without a car, there are more options, but also more decisions to make. Here are some of our new configurations since adding the new baby. You'll note that most of these are the same as our old ones, just with the baby in a wrap or carrier.<br />
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<li>Double stroller with baby in wrap - This is best for longer-distance walks, over 1.5 miles or so, especially if I need to carry cargo (groceries, library books, etc.).</li>
<li>Kid on bike, single stroller, baby in wrap - Our 4-year-old recently transitioned from a Strider bike to a big-kid bike. If we are going about one mile with little cargo, he rides his bike, and the 2-year-old rides in the single stroller.</li>
<li>Kid on bike, toddler on Strider, baby in stroller or wrap - This is just a <i>terrible </i>idea. I have done this for some shorter walks to the playground, less than half a mile, but it is quite inefficient. The 4-year-old is so fast on his bike and the 2-year-old so slow on the Strider that they end up being blocks apart sometimes, with me in the middle trying to keep my eyes on both of them. Bad idea.</li>
<li>Kid on foot, toddler on Strider, baby in stroller or wrap - This one works for shorter distances much better because a 4-year-old on foot is about as fast as a toddler on a Strider. </li>
<li>Bus with baby in wrap (with or without a stroller) - By far my least favorite configuration, but I will take the bus to get downtown or occasionally to the library if I am feeling stupid. I bring the stroller to keep the 2-year-old contained, not because she can't walk the distance to the bus stop and back. Riding the bus only becomes really unwieldy if I have quite a bit of cargo (i.e. library books, hence why I should never attempt taking the bus to the library, even when it is raining. Walking is always better). </li>
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I have also had to take the kids by car with visiting relatives in the past few months. I prefer any of the above methods to unloading three kids from car seats and getting them safely across busy parking lots. Yeesh.</div>
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<b>Divide and conquer</b></div>
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After two or three kids, I think many parents begin to divide the kids up for errands, so no one parent has to have all the kids in a business establishment unless absolutely necessary. As an example, I never take all the kids to the grocery store unless it is to pick up one emergency item on the way home from someplace else. Weekly grocery trips are done on the weekends with only one or two kids. In fact, I'm not sure why I ever did big grocery trips on weekdays by myself! Live and learn. </div>
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We still go as a family to playgrounds, parks, the library, the children's museum, and other places we can enjoy together.</div>
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<b>Look to the future</b></div>
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The great thing about car-free transportation is that you can add on as you go depending on your needs, with relatively little expense. You'll notice that I didn't mention traveling with adult bikes at all. With the littlest one so little, we won't be taking her on our bikes for a while. We occasionally take one or two kids with us on an adult bike, either in the Burley trailer or the iBert seat. I am immensely tempted by cargo bikes, which have the capacity for many children and many groceries and library books, but it doesn't make sense for our situation right now. We live on a very tall hill, in a city with few bike lanes and no protected bikes lanes, so I wouldn't feel comfortable carrying kids to most of our destinations by bike. If we relocate to a more family-friendly biking city, you can bet that I will be test-riding some yummy cargo bikes.</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-36579006981292155122015-05-15T21:57:00.000-07:002015-05-15T21:57:00.499-07:00Car-Free in the SummerAs I addressed in a <a href="http://www.awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/10/car-free-in-winter.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>, being car-free in the winter in a cold climate raises the most questions from well-meaning acquaintances, but if anything, being car-free in the summer in a car-centric region poses at least equal challenges. In the winter, many activities come to a standstill, and people generally stick closer to home anyway (except for the skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing set).<br />
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But during the summer months, there are festivals and concerts and picnics to attend, vacations to take, and friends visiting, not to mention camping, hiking, and swimming to be had in the wild. As you can imagine, as people who've chosen to live a good portion of our lives outdoors when many spend it in cars, we love the outdoors and get good doses of it on a daily basis. What we don't get as much of is wilderness. In fact, the main reason we would consider car ownership as a distant future possibility would be the convenience of getting to camping and hiking destinations.<br />
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For this summer, our kids are young enough that we probably wouldn't be doing a lot of camping anyway, to be honest, so I have been on the lookout for other potential strategies for accessing summer fun without owning a car.<br />
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<b>Surveying the very local possibilities</b><br />
As usual, we start out by looking in our own neighborhood. We have two local parks with duck ponds and walking paths through what feels like wilderness, not to mention beautiful botanical gardens. We have also been taking advantage of the local public pool, which is very large and about 1.5 miles away. The evening walks to and from the pool in the cool of the day have been lovely.<br />
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Depending on if you live close enough to accessible campsites, bike camping is also a realistic (and double-the-fun) possibility.<br />
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<b>Investigating bus routes</b><br />
Surprisingly, I've found a bus route that will get us to a lake waterfront quite conveniently. I've also investigated other possibilities, such as the arboretum, but that is unfortunately a "take your life in your hands" kind of affair. Still, it is worth checking into wild places that are close enough to be accessible by city bus (or tourist buses, if your city has such things).<br />
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<b>Renting a car</b><br />
I know it might be cheating, but for our out-of-town trips, we will be renting a car. We have looked into trains, but they come through our town at about 3 in the morning only, take hours longer getting anywhere, and only get us to where we're going. Once we arrive at our destination, we would need to rent a car anyway. The good news is, renting a car can be fairly inexpensive if you plan it right, and in any case, it's still cheaper than owning.<br />
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<b>Combining transportation methods</b><br />
Finally, we might need to combine various ways to get where we want to go. We might take our bikes on the bus to get to trails to get to a good swimming spot. This would be tricky with a bike trailer, but it could work. For out-of-town trips, of course flying and renting a car onsite would save the trouble of driving long hours with kids (by far our least favorite part of car travel). Depending on the public transportation or bike rental/bikeshare options at the destination city, it might not even be necessary to rent a car.<br />
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-74877771982985126882015-03-24T16:12:00.000-07:002015-03-24T16:14:04.077-07:00Kids and LibrariesI love taking my kids to the library.<br />
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Let me rephrase that. I love the fact that my kids get to go to the library. Taking them there myself just happens to be the only way to get them there.<br />
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As someone who only recently discovered <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-beauty-of-libraries.html" target="_blank">my love of libraries</a>, I enjoy giving my kids an early introduction. I want them to grow up feeling comfortable in libraries and confident finding books, doing research, and asking the librarians questions. We attend a weekly story time for preschoolers, and it's a good chance for my kids to play with other kids and hear books read by someone besides us (and for me to talk to fellow adults, huzzah). As the kids get older, I'm excited for them to get their own library cards and be immersed in a world of literacy and literature. And let's face it, children's picture books are expensive, and the library allows us access to many more books than we would want to buy or keep in our house. I have nothing but love for libraries. Love. Love. Love.</div>
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But. BUT... Taking young children, especially a small herd of young children, to the library is not always a fun experience. It's a lot like taking young children to a church service. I know we're allowed to be here, but... do they actually expect my children to be quiet? How can I let my kids explore without destroying anything or disturbing anyone? Why oh why do they have to put computers with colorful keyboards in the kids' section (I take my kids to the library in part to keep them <i>away </i>from screens!)? How exactly am I supposed to nurse a baby while I have two older kids to manage? And seriously, when is my 2-year-old going to outgrow pulling books off of the shelves, pushing books through the shelves to the other side, and <i>lying down on the shelves </i>(this is a new one)?!</div>
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I also just have to admit that taking kids into the library bathroom is the least favorite part of my week. Changing at least one diaper while trying to keep at least one other kid from getting soaking wet or, God forbid, <i>touching</i> anything, is not my idea of a good time, especially when other women, who could be either doting or judgmental depending on the day, are sharing the space. </div>
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And yet, I do look forward to library day every week. It would be easy enough to go to the library by myself to pick up kids' books on the weekend while my husband watches some kiddos, but it hasn't come to that. Deep down, I really do want them to come with me and to enjoy spending time in the library. Here are some ways we make it work.<br />
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1. Go during story time</h4>
Not only is story time fun for the kids (and for me); going to the library on story time day guarantees that there will be a flock of other children in the library at the same time. If I'm lucky, some of them may even be worse-behaved than my own children so I'm not embarrassed.<br />
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And as another mom pointed out to me once, anyone who uses the library to get research or work done is probably smart enough to avoid the library on Tuesday or Thursday mornings during story time.<br />
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2. Reserve books beforehand</h4>
We use our library's reserve system liberally. Rather than trying to wrangle kids and find books at the same time, I can do my research and request books online a few days before story time day. Given that I like to get at least ten and often more books per week, this saves a lot of time and stress. I'm also able to put more thought into the books I get, rather than simply grabbing whatever books happen to be on top of the shelves.<br />
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3. Find diversions and events for kids</h4>
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Our library has some toys in the kids' section, as well as preschool-level puzzles and board games that my kids can do with some help. Once I have a kid set up with a puzzle, I can often duck over to the adult section for a minute or two to (gasp) look for a book for <i>myself</i>. Oh frabjous day.</div>
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Depending on the season, our library offers special kid-friendly events like holiday tea parties, themed story parties (Pete the Cat was a recent one), and family movie screenings, and on a regular basis, they set out building block sets and craft supplies for kids to explore. </div>
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And yes, I have to confess that I finally gave in and let my 4-year-old play games on the library computers. Those keyboards are just so darned colorful, aren't they? We don't have kids' computer or tablet games at home, and it keeps the oldest occupied while I manage the higher-maintenance under-3 crew, so I figured, why fight it?<br />
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4. Let kids pick books and DVDs</h4>
This seems obvious, but I only recently started encouraging my kids to pick some of their own books and DVDs. I don't have them choose all of the books we'll get because that would be insane at this age, but they usually each pick one or two. I've found that even the 2-year-old is more manageable when I direct her to the board book section and read her choice aloud before we go. I usually also take advantage of this time to nurse the baby, as there is a couch right next to the board books. I often end up reading several selections before we're done.<br />
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5. Snacks!</h4>
This should be on the list of how to do <i>anything </i>with kids, shouldn't it? Because our library trip usually cuts into lunchtime and we have a 45-minute walk home afterward, I must bring snacks for the kids. In addition to keeping our blood sugar in the normal range, snacks are also a handy bribe to get them out the door and back into the stroller.<br />
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6. Make a day of it</h4>
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As I mentioned, our library is about a 45-minute walk, and conveniently, there are a number of businesses and a beautiful park between here and there. I will often (but not always) stop on the way home for an item or two at the grocery store or pharmacy, or at the playground if the weather is nice. We might have lunch at a cafe, or (more often than not) at least grab a chai tea for myself for the walk home. Because taking kids to the library is stressful. I figure I've earned it. </div>
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-56975511131981750222015-03-05T21:53:00.001-08:002015-03-05T21:53:56.244-08:00Coming BackIt has been a while since I've written here, and I'd like to say it's because I've been so busy on other projects. That is partly true: I took on the rather consuming project of growing and birthing the third child in our young family, a project that has involved much thinking and planning about what our car-free lifestyle will look like with three kids (more thoughts to come on that subject).<br />
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Since late summer last year, we have also been traveling off and on, travels that have reinforced our notions about what we value in a city. On top of this, there has been a seemingly endless parade of local walkability and transit issues taking up my head space and mental (and sometimes physical) energy. Some have turned out well, some have been annoyingly contentious in this sometimes backward community, and some are still in process and make me want to plug my ears and sing "la la la la la." </div>
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It can be frustrating to live in a place with beautiful natural surroundings, wonderful potential, and a committed cohort of involved citizens striving to develop that potential, and yet to see change happening <i>so</i> slowly. When it comes to walking, biking, and transit development, nothing here can be taken for granted as it might in a more progressive city. Every project or levy to improve transportation choices has to be explained, debated, and justified in painfully simplistic terms. The community at large, as well as a few very powerful business interests, often don't understand (or refuse to concede) that walkability, bikeability, and centralized, reliable transit are good for business, public safety, and the community. </div>
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Car is king here. All too frequently, the attitude one hears is, "We don't have congestion here, and everyone is happy driving cars. Why would we possibly need new transit/sidewalks/bike infrastructure?" Here, transit is for poor people, sidewalks are for the downtown business core only (and should be obstructed as little as possible by actual people), and bicycles are for trail riding only (after you drive your bike to said trail, obviously). </div>
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This is by no means an unusual state of affairs for a mid-sized American city, and Spokane is certainly not the worst. It passed complete streets legislation in 2012, and many encouraging projects to make the city more human-friendly have been completed in recent years. The city is undoubtedly improving as a place to get around without a private vehicle. But for a family with young kids deciding where to settle down for the long term, I have to admit that the overall culture is discouraging. </div>
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I am the first to say that one shouldn't complain about something one is unwilling to work to change. Especially where walkability is concerned, I believe in making the most of your situation, even when <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2014/07/when-your-walking-situation-isnt-ideal.html" target="_blank">it is not ideal</a>, and advocating to improve it. But if I may be honest, I would prefer not to spend these years of my life - while my children are young and require so much of my energy already - in a place where living out our values has been made so very difficult, when we know that there are other places further along the development path. Until my children are old enough to walk and bike the required distances on their own, it would be great to live someplace where those distances are shorter and safer. And I definitely don't want to succumb to a culture where strapping children into car seats is considered the normal way to get them from place to place on a daily basis. To me, a place where children cannot walk and bike safely everywhere they need to go is <i>not</i> a "great place to raise a family," a claim one often hears about Spokane.</div>
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Whew. But. Enough venting. In the meantime, here we are. We are fortunate to be able to live in one of the most walkable neighborhoods in town, and we are enjoying ourselves as spring is in the air. I want to continue documenting our adventures with our now three small children, as well as some new thoughts I've had on education, creative expression, and simple life at home with kids. </div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-17191307235381883482014-07-09T22:10:00.003-07:002014-07-09T22:10:59.790-07:00When Your Walking Situation Isn't IdealThe car-free life is wonderful and liberating in many ways, and if I could, I would give the gift of a walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented neighborhood to every single person. We'd keep all our cars on the outskirts and use them only for camping, intercity travel, and occasional trips to Ikea and Costco. But in reality, that is not the country we live in, and many of us don't have the luxury of living without a car, at least not right now.<br />
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Maybe you live in a car-centric city and you can't move right now. Maybe you're moving and looking for a walkable neighborhood, but there aren't many options and they're either cost-prohibitive or don't have the type of housing you need. Or maybe you're in a temporary situation, between jobs, staying with friends or family, and your fate isn't your own right now.<br />
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Have no fear: in any of these cases, you can make the best of a less-than-ideal situation and find ways to walk or bike when you can. Or you can choose a new location that, though not perfect, will at least allow you to leave the car at home for many trips.<br />
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<b>Know Thyself</b><br />
Know yourself and what you realistically will and won't do at this point in time. For example, if you have a large family, buy groceries in bulk, have one specific store or market you always shop at, or have few grocery store options in walkable areas in your town, you might never actually get groceries without a car. If this is the case, you don't need to make it a priority to be very close to a grocery store. Especially in towns where supermarkets are only located on wide, ugly, busy "arterial" streets, being near one may actually make your overall situation less walkable.<br />
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<b>Pick your battles</b><br />
In the same vein, choose one or two important places that you know you would love to walk or bike to regularly, and place yourself near those. Is there a farmers' market, park, library, church, or friend's house you visit on a weekly basis or more? Try to be within a reasonable walk or bike ride of as many of them as possible.<br />
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<b>Prioritize being close to work</b><br />
If at all possible, make your workplace one of your priorities. Include all options - walking, biking, or public transit. You might not want to live right near your work if work is in a suburban business park, but can you place yourself near a bus line or bike trail that will take you there easily? Work is the one place you have to get to every day, so eliminating those car trips will make the biggest impact on your life.<br />
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<b>Travel sans enfants</b><br />
When you can, walk or bike to places without your kids, especially for errands like the grocery or hardware store. Without kids, it's possible to cover longer distances and load more cargo, making a car unnecessary. For example, <a href="http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/20/mmm-challenge-try-getting-your-groceries-with-a-bike-trailer/" target="_blank">try getting groceries with your bike trailer.</a><br />
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<b>Check transit possibilities</b><br />
Consider transit possibilities that will take you to some of the places you need to go, and consider if you could bike to a transit stop and ride a bus the rest of the way. If you're moving, look for housing on a bus line. In many mid-sized cities, being close to a bus line will not cost you the premium it will in larger, more transit-oriented cities, so take advantage of that fact.<br />
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<b>Reconsider bicycling</b><br />
Riding a bicycle can open up many doors because it is much faster than walking and does not usually require a sidewalk. When we lived in Suburbia for a time last year, our closest grocery store was a mere 0.5 miles away, but it was a terrifying walk due to missing sidewalks and crosswalks. Our solution was to bike to it. A 1-mile bike ride might just seem silly, but it was fun and refreshing, it felt much safer than walking, and it is <i>much less </i>ridiculous than a 1-mile car ride.<br />
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Remember that distance on a bike doesn't matter as much as topography and road choice, so a flat, 5-mile ride along quiet, residential streets is in all ways preferable to a 3-mile ride up a hill on busy streets. Look for trails, shortcuts, and check <a href="http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/" target="_blank">gmaps pedometer</a> to find a new route to some of your favorite spots.<br />
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<b>Keep an eye on new walkable developments</b><br />
If you plan to move sometime in the future, keep an eye on new developments in up-and-coming neighborhoods. Many of our cities are experiencing urban infill and renewal as a result of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Great-Inversion-Future-American-Vintage/dp/0307474372#" target="_blank">great inversion</a>, which may mean more possibilities open up to you. If you can get in on the ground floor (metaphorically speaking) in an underrated new walkable area, you may be able to get a great deal on a great new lifestyle for yourself.<br />
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<b>Consolidate your life</b><br />
Is it possible to change some of your habits to place more of your needs within walking distance of each other? Try a new grocery store, make some new friends, check into a daycare that's closer to work or let your older kids walk to school so you don't have to make a separate trip to drop them off. Part of the essence of the car-free lifestyle is creating your life as an interconnected geographic fabric, not chopped up into pieces by car trips. See how you can change a few habits and give yourself the gift of that simplicity.<br />
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<b>Consider a new city </b><br />
The active transportation lifestyle is about more than just getting rid of your car. It is no exaggeration to say that such a lifestyle can have an effect on your health, social life, financial independence, emotional and spiritual life, and the lives and education of your kids. Given this fact, it is not at all unreasonable to consider moving to a new city to achieve your goal of a car-free or car-light lifestyle. Do your research, interview your friends in different cities, and be bold: it will be worth it.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-32166361371955284932014-07-01T23:26:00.003-07:002014-07-14T21:23:21.571-07:00Why Buses Aren't BestLike most mid-sized American cities, Spokane once had a lovely streetcar system. The city's small blocks and some remaining tracks are a testament to how Spokanites once got around, from "streetcar suburbs" to downtown for work and play. And like most American streetcar systems, Spokane's was converted to motorized buses with a little help from National City Lines (a front for General Motors, Standard Oil, and Firestone Tire).<br />
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Now, again like many American cities, Spokane's only public transit consists of buses, which is not a terrible thing, after all. Buses may get a bad rap, but they are less expensive than building rail options, and they do the job. A city building up a transit system may have an easier time affording buses, and buses are flexible - routes can be opened and closed very quickly.<br />
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But as you may have guessed, buses aren't my favorite, especially when I'm traveling with kids. Even when buses manage to be clean, convenient, and safe, like the bus routes in our neighborhood, they miss the mark on many features that can make public transit attractive and efficient. And as I'll mention again and again, public transit that is unattractive and inefficient will fall into a cycle of serving only people who have no other choice but to ride the bus, and bus service will suffer from lack of demand (and most likely a seedy reputation).<br />
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<b>Buses get caught in traffic, just like cars</b><br />
Streetcars, trolleys, light rail, subways, and some electric buses and rapid transit buses have the benefit of a dedicated lane or rail, so they are not competing with cars for road space. Commuters in their cars may see a trolley in the next lane zipping by during morning rush hour and think, "Hmm, that looks nice." The result is efficient transit <i>and</i> a built-in motivator for people to give it a try. However, most city buses share lanes with cars and so get stuck in the same traffic jams, leading to unreliable service.<br />
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This can especially cause problems during large events, when buses get caught in lines of cars and fall behind. The people smart enough to avoid traffic and parking during events may be punished by arriving late, or, in even sadder cases, being rerouted. My family had the most ridiculous experience last year of taking the bus to the county fair, only to find when we reached our "destination" that the bus had been rerouted <i>around</i> the fairgrounds, <i>specifically because the fair was in session.</i> With our two kids, we had to cross a 4-lane road, a railroad track, and the gargantuan parking lot set aside for all those cars.<br />
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<b>Buses feel impermanent</b><br />
You just never know with a bus. Schedules change, routes change, today there might be a detour because of construction, tomorrow a cancellation because of weather, special events... you just never know. Of course, it's easier than ever with smartphones to keep up on what the bus service is doing, but that's unlikely to attract new bus riders. And there is the always-scary experience of riding a new route for the first time and not knowing where to get off the bus. Do I pull the cord early and risk walking a mile that way, or do I pull it late and risk walking a mile this way? So many choices.<br />
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With rail, if you see a rail, chances are very good that a train will come by eventually. If your destination is near one of the train stops, chances are very good that the train will stop there for you, whether or not you pull a cord. That permanence is very reassuring to new transit users and is more likely to attract the diversity and number of riders you need to keep a quality system up and running (and improving).<br />
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<b>Buses are above ground level, making strollers, carts, and wheelchairs difficult</b><br />
When I took the Metro in DC, traveling with a child in a stroller was no big deal: I took the elevator down or up to the platform, rolled my stroller onto the train, and sat comfortably in a seat with my stroller in front of me. If I had bags or purchases in the stroller, they stayed put for the whole ride, making for seamless transitions.<br />
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In contrast, on buses in all the cities I've lived in, there has been a policy that strollers must be folded up, their passengers and contents removed and carried by hand, no matter how empty the bus is. I cannot even begin to describe how inconvenient this is, particularly for parents or caregivers traveling with more than one child. I start out well enough from my home: preschooler on foot, baby in stroller, diaper bag, purse, or whatever tucked in the stroller's storage compartment. By the time I get on the bus, I look like a bag lady: bags on one or both shoulders, baby in arms or in a carrier (which helps a wee bit but not much), stroller in the "free" hand, all while trying to corral a 3-year-old with the mere sound of my voice. I often get the comment, "You have your hands full!" which is figuratively true in so many senses, but need not be literally true.<br />
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Unfortunately, the stroller problem is compounded in a city that already has limited transit coverage. If I can't get all the way to my destination and have to walk, say, a mile or more at the end of my transit ride, it's even more important that I have a stroller with me to carry a tired kid the rest of the way. What this means for the city as a whole is that parents with young kids will simply not ride transit, unless they have no other choice. The SUV culture prevails.<br />
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<b>Buses are rarely sexy</b><br />
In <i><a href="http://www.awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2014/03/book-review-happy-city-by-charles.html" target="_blank">Happy City</a>, </i>Charles Montgomery talks about Bogotá Mayor Peñalosa's strategies for making public transit sexy: rapid transit with dedicated lanes and new, clean stations, and shiny, lipstick-red buses. People who had to ride the buses felt better about it, and the new buses attracted new riders. It's such a silly thing, but aesthetics do matter to people. A bus that looks a few decades behind in design is unlikely to attract the ridership of a sleek, modern fleet, whether rapid transit bus or rail.<br />
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<b>Good cities need good transit</b><br />
I am all about walkability, but a key part of living a walking/biking lifestyle is being able to get to those out-of-the-way places when you need to, without owning a car just for rare cases. I <i>prefer</i> walking, but I believe in transit.<br />
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There is nothing more convenient than being able to hop on transit, travel to the zoo or museum or concert or wherever, and hop off, not worrying about traffic or finding and paying for parking. What could be better than going out for the night with friends and not having to have a designated driver? Families riding transit with kids don't have to worry about car seats, and they can sit next to their kids and have real conversations, rather than having to concentrate on driving.<br />
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Public transit can make or break the image of a city, whether for residents, tourists, or potential residents and visitors hoping to open businesses. The best transit can make a city feel connected, safe, and forward-thinking. And modern transit options, especially non-bus modes like trolley and light rail, are the most likely to attract a wide range of people to the city and the transit system.<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-79544226468928353602014-05-28T21:12:00.002-07:002015-10-07T16:42:38.932-07:00Why We Are Car-FreeWhenever I tell someone we don't own a car (which I avoid sharing in this town, depending on the perceived open-mindedness of the person in question), the questions I get in response are almost always along these lines:<br />
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"How do you get groceries?"<br />
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"What do you do in the winter?"<br />
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"What if there is an emergency and you have to get one of your kids to the pediatrician?"<br />
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These are all valid questions, I suppose, in a city built primarily around automobiles, where everyone (including people who really shouldn't) owns at least one car.<br />
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But honestly, to me, I am disappointed that people are so focused on the "how" of car-free living that they forget, or don't care about, the "why." I find the why so much more interesting, and it is different from what many people assume. Often it seems that people are happy to place us in the ecologically-minded hippie liberal camp, and they leave it at that. But for the record, here are the major reasons we do not own a car.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">We never bought a car.</span></h3>
This sounds like a tautological response, but this is an important distinction. I believe it would have been much harder for us to choose a car-free life if we had had to consciously change from a life of car ownership. Selling a car and moving to a more walkable area is much more difficult than never buying a car, much as quitting smoking is much harder than just never starting. <br />
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When we married, neither of us had ever owned a car or had access to a car for our exclusive use in adulthood. We were moving to DC shortly after the wedding, so we didn't buy a car then, either. Over the years, we built our lives and various moves around the ability to get around without a car. We grew into car-free adults, rather than having to take the seemingly drastic step of getting rid of a car or two.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">
We enjoy active transportation.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Walking has been the mainstay of our transportation, exercise, and relational lives for a long time. Having never owned cars, we have both done a lot of walking in the various cities where we've lived. We love to walk together and talk. We love getting to see the world around us as we're traveling, to notice the little details and be able to stop and look. We honestly like the feeling that we've worked hard to get somewhere. We like experiencing the entire fabric of the space between here and there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Bicycles only entered the picture about a year ago, but we have enjoyed the different experience of cycling. It is fun and surprisingly fast when one is used to walking. Our 3-year-old son is happy to ride his bike at any time, to almost anywhere, making transitions that much easier. We can cover more ground on bikes, while still getting exercise and having the joy of self-propulsion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">When we do use a car now, we feel odd - stifled, restrained, tired, and cut off from the outside world. Cars have their place in our lives, but for the vast majority of trips, we enjoy being in the fresh air. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We save thousands of dollars.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">Having transportation expenses close to zero, we are able to save a large percentage of our income. When a car is seen as a necessity, like food or housing, it is easy to overlook the fact that cars cost lots and lots of money, every year, and every time you drive. The average American spends over $9000 per year on car expenses. Whether or not we can "afford" this extra expense, we don't like spending money unnecessarily, and we prefer to put it toward more valuable activities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">There are many ways to make car ownership less costly, such as buying a used car with cash and driving as little as possible. We know that even if we do buy a car one day, we will have developed the habit of getting around in other ways, so we will be able to own just one car and use it for the times when it really is a logical choice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We're contributing to our community.</span></h3>
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Finally (and you'll notice that the altruism shows up in last place), we feel that by not owning a car, we are contributing to our community and world. I'm sorry to say that we are by no means the kind of people who would make such a major life choice based primarily on concern for the environment or the community, but it does figure in to our decision-making somewhat.</div>
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First of all, we're doing a little bit of our part to be less wasteful, to limit our carbon footprint, and to take up less space. This is not to say that our food and material goods don't travel on trucks and planes from far away, of course, but we can at least say that we don't use automobiles just to get our little selves around. We have a strong aversion to waste, and using 25 times more energy than necessary to accomplish a task just doesn't suit our style.</div>
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Second, by walking and biking, and even riding the bus, we are out on the street, in the community, seeing and being seen by our neighbors. Having people out on the sidewalks and on bikes does so much to promote a feeling of community and safety. It makes us happier, and it makes our neighbors happier. And, as a bonus, we are out seeing what needs to be fixed in the community - crosswalks, sidewalks, bike lanes, bus routes, empty lots - and we are not shy about sharing these issues with our local representatives. If we were always or even usually in a car, we wouldn't notice these problems and likely wouldn't care.</div>
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In reality, we are not deciding <i>against </i>owning a car. We do not see this as an absence or a lack, or that we're choosing to abstain from something. We are making a decision <i>for </i>the many wonderful experiences and opportunities that present themselves because of our active lifestyle.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></h3>
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-49107660479456221272014-03-23T20:27:00.000-07:002014-03-23T20:27:07.167-07:00One Year of A Walking MamaOne year ago this month, I started this blog as a way to work through my thoughts and ideas about designing cities for people, not cars. Okay, let's be honest - I started writing to vent my frustration about living in exurban exile. Much has changed for the better over this year, and I'm glad to still be writing, occasionally about smart growth and occasionally about simple, slow parenting.<br />
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I am very thankful to be living in a walkable, livable neighborhood yet again, and I am thankful for any and all of you who have stuck with me this year (or joined us recently).<br />
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Things are still changing as my youngest is now old enough for the bike trailer, my eldest is outgrowing the iBert seat, and we're moving into our first summer in our new neighborhood. I'm looking forward to sharing all the car-free fun we'll be having around here in the coming months.<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-25611416785410477402014-03-13T20:52:00.003-07:002014-03-23T20:28:14.175-07:00Our (Home) PreschoolMy eldest recently celebrated his third birthday, and for about six months or so, people have been asking us about preschool. "Is he going to preschool?" "Where is he going to preschool?" "I know of a great Waldorf-Montessori Spanish immersion classical school that I hear is good..." Apparently, in the quarter-century or so since I was a preschooler, preschool has become a "thing," especially among educated, middle-class parents. I didn't attend preschool as a child, and I get the feeling that preschool then was a different beast altogether.<br />
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For one thing, kindergarten seems to be getting more competitive. My sister recently told me that where she lives (a very wealthy, educated, high-tech region), kids are basically expected to come to kindergarten already knowing how to read. And there was the recent outpouring of concern on one side and rage on the other about the <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2014/02/too_many_oregon_students_unrea.html" target="_blank">state of Oregon</a> testing incoming kindergartners and finding them wanting. I find the trend of demanding more from young kids to be very sad, when it already feels that kids don't have enough time to be kids anymore. And as someone who loves and values reading, I find it troubling when I read <a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/school-starting-age-the-evidence" target="_blank">research</a> that kids who start formal literacy training at age 4 or 5 have the same reading outcomes but don't enjoy reading as much as those who start at 6 or 7.<br />
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Just a few days ago in the supermarket, a woman in her sixties or so asked me if my son, who was perusing the kids' birthday card display, was reading yet.<br />
"No, he's only 3," I clarified, as he is tall for his age and often gets mistaken for a 4-year-old.<br />
"Oh, well, you can still teach him at that age! I'm an old schoolteacher," she replied.<br />
I really couldn't do anything but give her a strained smile in return. To what end and purpose should I try to make my 3-year-old learn to read? How exactly would his 3-year-old's life be improved by knowing how to read right now?<br />
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In defense of preschool, I know there are some wonderful preschools that let kids be kids and learn the way kids learn - through play, and lots of it. And if I didn't work from home and I had to deal with childcare anyway, I'm sure I would find a good play-based preschool. But for a number of reasons, we are doing preschool at home with my son. We didn't realize this was such a "thing," either. Sometimes people assume we plan to homeschool, which we don't, but for our situation, home preschool was a no-brainer.<br />
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And of course, even for the home preschool set, there are workbooks and videos and curricula galore. We have one such workbook that was given to us by a well-meaning relative, and though my son begs me to read the instructions and pretends to do the work, honestly, I feel like he will have to spend enough of his life filling in bubbles, if schooling continues on its current trajectory.<br />
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So then, what <i>are</i> we doing? Lately, I've been envisioning an unschooling / Waldorf approach, with good doses of:<br />
<ul>
<li>Outdoor free play time, every day if weather permits. This will be in our backyard, which has a variety of plants, a soon-to-be vegetable garden (I hope), a sandbox, lots of cozy hiding spots, and plenty of critters, or at any of our local playgrounds.</li>
<li>Indoor free play, using open-ended toys made of (mostly) natural materials for optimum sensory experience and lots of imagination.</li>
<li>Art, art, art: painting, drawing,collage, dough and eventually clay, nature and seasonal crafts, and crayoning (This is a fancy Waldorf way of saying "drawing with crayons." I feel fancy just saying it).</li>
<li>Stories, both library books and stories we make up. </li>
<li>Nursery rhymes and songs with hand motions.</li>
<li>Helping around the house. He helps in the kitchen, so he is learning hands-on about measuring, cutting and peeling vegetables, following a recipe, and all of the various chemical and physical processes that go into making bread rise or water boil, not to mention all the math involved in cooking. He has a child-size broom and dustpan, and there are child-accessible rags for cleaning up after spills.</li>
<li>Child-directed learning. I don't know what this will look like just yet, but I love the <i>idea</i> of unschooling, and this is basically what this is - looking for learning opportunities everywhere, following the child's leading. When my son shows a new interest in something, I try to follow his lead by finding library books on the subject, telling stories about it, or finding other ways to explore it. Lately, he has been interested in bugs, especially spiders. We've read spider books (there are a lot!), looked for spiders around the house (there are a lot!), drawn webs together, and made a "web" out of rope.</li>
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You'll notice that this looks a lot like everyday life with little kids, and it absolutely is. We're combining these experiences with a bit of more structured time out of the house around other kids, such as library story time and the local children's museum. I don't know yet exactly what these years will look like, but I am feeling so blessed and excited to have this special time of learning with him.</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-69021117102925468122014-03-11T21:22:00.001-07:002014-03-11T21:28:27.413-07:00Book Review: Happy City by Charles MontgomeryI was lucky enough to bump into this delightful read in the new non-fiction section of the library. Although I've read more than my fair share of smart growth books, it has been a while, so I thought I would give <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Happy-City-Transforming-Through-Design/dp/0374168237" target="_blank">Happy City</a> a chance. And I was so glad I did - I feel very warmly about this inspiring and, well, happy book. It is not overly sentimental or unduly optimistic, but it gives some entertaining and solid evidence for how good design can make us happier, and it has plenty of anecdotal evidence that people can change enough to make his recommendations work. It was also just a lot of good fun (for example, did you know that you are more likely to give to charity when getting off an ascending escalator rather than a descending one?).<br />
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I am the first to say that if you care about <i>anything - </i>health, economics, social justice, beauty, family, the environment - you should care about smart growth, and Charles Montgomery really brings every one of these issues to bear on good urban design. Here are a few themes that really struck me as fresh ideas.<br />
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Freedom</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"...we all live in systems that shape our travel behavior. And most of us live in systems that give us almost no choice in how to live or get around. Americans have it worst. Even though a majority of Americans now tell pollsters that they would like to live in walkable communities...these places are in massive undersupply." (p. 194)</blockquote>
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Trying to convince people that cutting car dependency gives them more freedom is a bizarrely tough sell, considering that "dependency" is right there in the name. But Montgomery explains it very plainly. When cities are built around cars (as in the urban sprawl that has been the major design strategy for the past fifty years or so), well, you pretty much have one option if you want to go somewhere or do anything: get in your car. Whether you are someone who likes to drive or hates to drive, you still have one option: get in your car. Maybe you could walk to that gas station that is a mile or two away, but you can be sure that the walk will be long, ugly, unpleasant, and likely unsafe.</div>
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On the other hand, when cities are built around a variety of modes of travel - walking, biking, private cars, public transit - everyone has more choices. If you like to drive, you can still drive. But if you don't, you have the <i>freedom</i> to travel in a different way. And this freedom is much more fulfilling than the "freedom" cars offer of being able to go wherever you want, whenever you want. That <i>how</i> we get places has a big effect on our happiness.<br />
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Also related to freedom, Montgomery devotes a chapter to zoning codes. Zzzzzzzzzz... I can hear you thinking. But zoning codes that mandate sprawl (for example, by requiring new businesses to provide a ridiculously large number of parking spaces, or requiring streets to be a certain minimum width) are behind most of the dispersal that makes cities unwalkable, ugly, and unsafe. In other words, sprawl did not happen as a result of free agents making free choices in a free market. In many cases, zoning codes limited (and still limit!) our urban design choices. </div>
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<h3>
Equality </h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"By any objective assessment, the happy mayor's efforts to make the poor feel more equal actually made them more equal." (p. 238)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Most of the noise, air pollution, danger, and perceived crowding in modern cities occurs because we have configured urban spaces to facilitate high-speed travel in private automobiles. We have traded conviviality for the convenience of those who wish to experience streets as briefly as possible." (p. 170) </blockquote>
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The example of<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Bogotá, </span>Colombia, keeps coming up in <i>Happy City</i>, and it is a good lesson about what designing urban spaces for equality can look like and accomplish. Mayor <span style="font-family: inherit;">Pe<span style="font-size: 11pt;">ñ</span></span>alosa's initiatives included investing heavily in "sexy" rapid public transportation, so that those who had to use buses felt better about it and got where they were going faster, and so that those who might not otherwise use public transit started doing so. He also created streets that reversed the typical layout of poor streets in developing countries: rather than paving the street to make drivers' (and thus a wealthy minority's) lives easier, he paved the middle of the street for the exclusive use of pedestrians and bicycles, leaving cars to drive on the unpaved sides of the road.<br />
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The issue of equality often comes up in urban development discussions: where should limited tax and development dollars be focused? Is it more important for sidewalks and bus routes to be developed in poor neighborhoods because "they are the ones who use them" (an actual argument I've heard advanced in my town)? What of gentrification? Good for poor neighborhoods, bad, indifferent? <br />
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While Montgomery admits that social policy is outside the scope of his book, he does devote a chapter to asking "Who are our cities for?" Even if you don't really care about your neighbor, Montgomery argues that societies that feel more equal are better for everyone, rich and poor alike. It turns out that people don't like feeling that they have less worth than other people, and in countries with high income disparity (like our own), this very feeling of inequality leads to all kinds of social ills.<br />
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<h3>
Relationships</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Cities that care about livability have got to start paying attention to the psychological effect that traffic has on the experience of public space." (p. 167)</blockquote>
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All the happiness research I have read comes down to pretty much one thing: relationships. Once you are satisfactorily fed, clothed, and sheltered, the quality of your relationships will make or break your happiness. Fair enough. But how can smart urban design improve our relationships?</div>
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First of all, Montgomery addresses the "super commute" and all the other effects of urban sprawl that have us spending hours per week in our cars (often alone). Car commuting, especially over long distances, can not only keep us away from our families before and after work; it creates stress that makes us less likely to enjoy that time with our family when we get it.</div>
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Second, our most important relationships with family and close friends are not the only ones that contribute to our happiness. Montgomery cites research that the minor relationships in our lives - with our neighbors, the mailman, that guy who works in his garden on the next block - affect our happiness almost as much. The reason for this is that they are human connections without some of the stress of our closest relationships, and they create a tapestry of humanity around us. Not surprisingly, this makes us happier. Urban design that puts us into contact with our neighbors regularly can build up this important resource.</div>
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Finally, as noted in the quote above, the noise, danger, and just ugliness created by fast cars and car-centric development hurt conviviality. Montgomery cites very telling research about how traffic and noise affect the way we interact and treat one another. In one example, residents on a low-traffic street in San Francisco reported having many more connections with their neighbors than a high-traffic street, even though the streets were the same in every other regard. In my own city, I thought of the examples of one-way streets and the freeway cutting through the heart of downtown: the noise of fast cars just keeps people away (or in their own cars).<br />
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The great thing about <i>Happy City</i> is that, despite laying out all the obstacles to the happy, green, flourishing, ideal city, Montgomery concludes with optimism. He shares stories of people changing their lives for the better at the individual level, the neighborhood level, and the city level, proving that in spite of unfriendly zoning, decades of dispersal, and some naysayers who deny that sprawl makes our lives worse, there is something each of us can do. </div>
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-20100597909664097612014-02-06T21:56:00.000-08:002014-02-06T21:56:42.987-08:00Of Skywalks and Self-DenialAh, skywalks. The classic example of reasonable, seemingly logical urban development thinking with ugly unforeseen consequences. Spokane, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Minneapolis all fell prey to the skywalk craze of the 1960s and 1970s, and Spokane's is the second largest skywalk network in the country.<br />
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The idea behind skywalks was not without merit: "Hey, our city has cold winters. It also has businesses that want to attract customers, customers who could just as easily drive to a climate-controlled suburban mall instead. Humans don't like to be cold. Therefore, they will be more likely to shop in our city center if they don't have to walk outside. As a plus, skywalks look spacey and futuristic."<br />
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Unfortunately, all this weather-protected walking and shopping took people off the sidewalks, lured customers away from street-level businesses, and left cities looking lifeless and, well, kind of '70s.<br />
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Last week, I was downtown around lunchtime with my kids, on a cold but dry, not unpleasant January day. We were in the downtown core, where there are many office buildings and restaurants, and presumably many able-bodied office workers who enjoy eating food at midday. I was therefore shocked by the number of business people or other professionals I saw on the sidewalk - that is to say, not a soul. We were practically alone. The few people out could, I suppose, be called "loiterers," for lack of a more precise classification: people who are absolutely deserving of respect, dignity, and support, but whose presence you don't want exclusively characterizing your streetscape, if your goal is to attract tourists, shoppers, workers, and businesses.<br />
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We continued with our errands, and as we were preparing to leave the library to catch the bus home, I realized that though separated by several blocks, the library and the bus plaza are completely connected by skywalk. I usually avoid skywalks as a rule, but in my defense, it was cold, I hadn't really packed my full arsenal of warm layers as we were mostly traveling via bus, and besides, my 3-year-old pointed to the skywalk and said, "Let's go that way," so away we went.<br />
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Yes, unsurprisingly, it was warm. And yes, we did pass some indoor shops we wouldn't have otherwise seen. But I was surprised to find there <i>all</i> of the professionals missing from the sidewalks. And not just professionals, but other parents with kids, shoppers, possibly tourists - in short, everyone who was so conspicuously absent from the streetscape below.<br />
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Cities need a healthy mix of people on the sidewalks. People doing nothing more extravagant than walking and looking around promote a feeling of safety (and actual safety), a sense of community and interest, and boost the city's image. With a majority of people hidden upstairs in climate-controlled tubes, the city feels the way I found it: cold, dead, creepy, desolate. On the other hand, even in the coldest winters, people bundled up and hurrying from shop to shop or from work to restaurant on the sidewalks can make the same city feel inviting, vibrant, active, and safe.<br />
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Because most people are not willingly going to avoid the skywalks simply to do their part for the good of the city, the best thing to be done is to tear the suckers down. Cities like Cincinnati and Baltimore are doing precisely that. While I don't expect Spokane to do anything so bold anytime soon, my own skywalk days are over. As much as I hate cold (and I do, particularly in February), I plan to deal with the cold and do my part, outside, where I belong. The streetscape needs us.<br />
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-28964063348724693672013-12-17T12:38:00.004-08:002015-10-09T11:03:08.533-07:00Our Favorite Children's Books (Ages Birth to Three)<i>(For books for older kids, check out my <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2015/10/our-favorite-childrens-books-ages-4-8.html" target="_blank">favorite children's books for ages 4-8</a>.)</i><br />
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As I already have my <a href="http://awalkingmama.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-list.html" target="_blank">book list </a> for grown-ups, I wanted to start a list of our favorite children's books (so far). Kids grow through book stages so quickly that it's hard to even remember what they like at different ages if we don't keep track. The age listed is the youngest age at which my kids have liked these books. Of course, they continue to enjoy many of them well past these suggested ages.<br />
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I will continue adding books as I remember them, or as readers suggest them in the comments, so please let us know what your favorites are!<br />
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For babies (birth to 12 months):</h3>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Peek-A-Who-Nina-Laden/dp/0811826023/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387310730" target="_blank"><i>Peek-a-Who?</i></a> by Nina Laden. We have already gone through two copies of this and need a new one. Even the youngest babies love it, and my almost-3-year-old loves to "read" it to his baby sister.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Who-Loves-Baby-Nina-Laden/dp/0811857247/ref=la_B001JSBYNY_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387310821&sr=1-7" target="_blank"><i>Who Loves You, Baby?</i></a> by Nina Laden<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Set-Go-Nina-Laden-ebook/dp/B00B9O79GO/ref=la_B001JSBYNY_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387310847&sr=1-8" target="_blank"><i>Ready, Set, Go!</i></a> by Nina Laden<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Bunny-Touch-Feel-Book/dp/0307120007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387310902" target="_blank"><i>Pat the Bunny</i></a> by Dorothy Kunhardt<br />
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All the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Indestructibles-Jungle-Rumble-Kaaren-Pixton/dp/0761158588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387310970" target="_blank">Indestructible</a> books are wonderful for babies who still just want to crinkle and chew. I disagreed with the decision to portray broccoli as "yucky" in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Indestructibles-Baby-Faces-Amy-Pixton/dp/0761168818/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311077" target="_blank"><i>Baby Faces</i></a>, but otherwise, they are great.<br />
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For 1- to 2-Year-Olds:</h3>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tip-Dig-Emma-Garcia/dp/1906250820/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311211" target="_blank"><i>Tip Tip Dig Dig</i></a> by Emma Garcia</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tap-Bang-Emma-Garcia/dp/1907967672/ref=la_B0086GTA7O_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311246&sr=1-3" target="_blank"><i>Tap Tap Bang Bang</i> </a> by Emma Garcia</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Trucks-Board-Book-Byron-Barton/dp/0694011649/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311355" target="_blank"><i>Trucks</i></a> by Byron Barton</div>
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Really, anything by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Byron-Barton/e/B004N6DAXQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" target="_blank">Byron Barton</a>. I confess that his writing style (simple, direct sentences) annoyed me a bit at first, but toddlers love it, and it has grown on me.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Goodnight-Moon-Margaret-Wise-Brown/dp/0694003611/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311392" target="_blank"><i>Goodnight Moon</i></a> by Margaret Wise Brown</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnyard-Banter-Board-Denise-Fleming/dp/0805065946/ref=la_B001HCX9PS_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311465&sr=1-7" target="_blank"><i>Barnyard Banter</i></a> by Denise Fleming (the link is to the board book, but we've found the full-size picture book at our local library)<br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Read-Aloud-Rhymes-Very-Young-Prelutsky/dp/0394872185" target="_blank">Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young</a> </i>edited by Jack Prelutsky</div>
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Word books from DK Publishing like <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tabbed-Board-Books-First-Talking/dp/0756634318/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311529" target="_blank">My First Words</a>.</i></div>
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For 2- to 3-Year-Olds:</h3>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Freight-Train-Board-Caldecott-Collection/dp/0688149006/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311776&sr=1-1&keywords=freight+train" target="_blank"><i>Freight Train</i></a> by Donald Crews (again, the link is to the board book, but we have read the picture book).</div>
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Other books by Donald Crews, such as <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/School-Board-Book-Donald-Crews/dp/069401690X/ref=pd_sim_b_7" target="_blank">School Bus</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Carousel-Donald-Crews/dp/0688009093/ref=la_B001H6U0EW_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311936&sr=1-16" target="_blank">Carousel</a></i>, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Race-Donald-Crews/dp/0688051715/ref=la_B001H6U0EW_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387311910&sr=1-14" target="_blank"><i>Bicycle Race</i></a>, were favorites with the child but not always with the adults who have to read them repeatedly.</div>
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All the Mouse's First and Little Quack books by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lauren-Thompson/e/B001H6PKME/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" target="_blank">Lauren Thompson</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pete-Cat-Love-White-Shoes/dp/0061906220/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387312050" target="_blank"><i>Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes</i></a> by James Dean. The other Pete the Cat books are wonderful too, but this remains the favorite.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Whose-Mouse-Are-Aladdin-Books/dp/0689711425/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387312131" target="_blank"><i>Whose Mouse are You?</i> </a> by Robert Kraus</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bear-Bike-Stella-Blackstone/dp/1905236980/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387312196" target="_blank"><i>Bear on a Bike</i></a> and the other Bear books by Stella Blackstone. </div>
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<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wheels-Bus-Raffi-Songs-Read/dp/0517709988/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387312371" target="_blank">Wheels on the Bus </a></i>(Raffi Songs to Read). There are obviously other versions of "Wheels on the Bus" to read and sing, but I love the French town portrayed in this book.</div>
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<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Extra-Yarn-Mac-Barnett/dp/0061953385/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387312450" target="_blank">Extra Yarn </a> </i>by Mac Barnett. Yes, the knitting is nice, but the story is warm, lovely, and intriguing to both kids and adults, and the illustrations by Jon Klassen are rich and beautiful.</div>
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<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Place-Snow-Rebecca-Bond/dp/0525473084/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387312611" target="_blank">This Place in the Snow</a> </i>by Rebecca Bond. Poetic without the silly rhyming typical of children's books, this book captures the enchantment and majesty of winter.<br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Quick-as-Cricket-Audrey-Wood/dp/0859531511/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">Quick as a Cricket</a> </i>by Audrey Wood<br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Little-Engine-That-Could-Oversize/dp/0399247106" target="_blank">The Little Engine that Could</a> </i>by Watty Piper. We love this edition with luscious illustrations by Loren Long.<br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Peach-board-Viking-Kestrel-Picture/dp/067088278X" target="_blank">Each Peach Pear Plum</a> </i>by Janet and Allan Ahlberg<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-90051685577648722412013-12-05T17:06:00.002-08:002013-12-05T17:09:57.732-08:00A Walk for All WeathersThis month has thrown every kind of weather at us, from snow to driving rain, from some beautiful sunshine and temperatures in the high 40s and 50s (downright balmy for Spokane in November and December) to beautiful sunshine and temperatures in the teens. And we have been walking, and biking, and playing through all of it. As much as possible, I have been trying to spend time outside, at least a little bit, every day, and to maintain our previously scheduled activities no matter the weather. By doing this, I'm hoping to acclimate us gradually to the winter weather, and, I think more importantly, to toughen myself <i>mentally</i> for the winter weather.<br />
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Because really, the hardest part of living without a car in the winter is the inertia that sets in and stops us from walking out the door. We look; we think, "Ugh, it's cold/raining/snowing/windy," and we prefer the idea of staying warm and dry inside rather than bundling up our kids and ourselves for the outdoors. But getting ready really is the hardest part. Once everyone is bundled and we get outside, it is almost inevitably warmer and drier than I had anticipated. What's more, the outdoors and the exercise is almost invariably uplifting and soul-warming. By spending time outside, we end up fearing the winter less, and enjoying it more, than we see our neighbors with cars doing.<br />
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On the morning of our first real snow a few weeks ago, we had a monthly moms' group to attend about 1.5 miles away. We easily could have skipped it: it's not a necessity, and many of the other moms opted to stay home rather than brave the roads. But honestly, I thought, "If I start skipping things in November, what am I going to do in December? January? February? Will I be housebound for four months, just because of the weather?" And so I braved it, and I was so glad I did! It was a truly beautiful morning, with a gently falling snow, just perfect, and the exercise gave me such a boost that I felt amazing by the time I got there - energized and giddy. I realized I need some better snow boots, but other than that, I was warm and dry, and the kids were snug in their Burley. I felt somewhat guilty bragging to anyone who would listen about the beautiful walk, particularly when many had horror stories about their drives.<br />
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We've walked to library story time (our Thursday institution) in driving rain one week and below-freezing temperatures the next. It was only in the mid-30s when I rode my bike to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey last week, and another customer commented, "Ooh, it's cold to be on a bike!" Warm as I was from my ride, I was baffled. It might have been cold for a bike ride had I insisted on wearing a bikini and not actually pedaling the bike, but properly dressed (including a balaclava, my new favorite cold weather accessory) and exerting myself, I was beyond comfortable.<br />
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The battle with winter weather is largely mental. I confess that it is still a challenge for me to get out the door some days. I envy the ducks in our local park, who seem completely unfazed by the fact that their pond has almost completely frozen over. They have down and oils to keep them warm and dry... but I remind myself that we have large brains to help us figure out what clothes to wear to keep ourselves warm (often the same down and wool that animals have!). We should get out there and have fun - it's so liberating not to be controlled by the weather.<br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102340779557436945.post-12760781917143007562013-10-30T08:00:00.000-07:002013-10-30T08:00:00.608-07:00Car-Free in the WinterIt is <i>not </i>winter yet. Oh, no, no, no. Not yet. But I've had a couple of questions lately from friends and relatives about our transportation plans for the inevitable cold months ahead (which can be long and snowy here in the Inland Northwest).<br />
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First of all, we have done five years' worth of car-free winters in DC, and winter is usually no picnic there, either. On the other hand, the walkability and dependable public transit options in the DC area do make for a different situation. We also spent three of our DC winters without kids, and the remaining two winters with only one kid, so we are indeed dealing with a different matter this time around.<br />
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Based on our experience now and doing this lifestyle with kids, I'm fairly convinced that any healthy person without children can live well without owning a car almost anywhere. Active transportation like walking and biking warms you up, so staying warm is genuinely not a problem if you dress appropriately. And snow can be stared down quite effectively with a good pair of boots (or a not-great pair of sneakers, which is what I've been using up until now). Having kids does complicate the winter issue insofar as young kids can't walk or bike as far as adults (or not at all, in the case of our 9-month-old), so they can't warm themselves up.<br />
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That being said, we will likely continue doing what we're doing now, just with more layers! I especially love wool and silk under- and over-layers, whether knitted by Mama or purchased from any number of accommodating retailers. Although wool under-layers can be expensive, they don't need to be washed often, so I can get away with just buying one of a particular item of clothing and airing it out to fresh between wearings. And, really, I could outfit my kids from head to toe in organic wool and silk and still come out ahead compared to owning a car!<br />
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I would love to <a href="http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/11/03/how-to-ride-your-bike-all-winter-and-love-it/" target="_blank">ride my bike all winter</a>, and I am going to try to do this as much as possible, especially on kid-free trips. I don't know how my tires will do on snow and ice, and I probably wouldn't want to ride next to cars in icy or dark conditions with kids. Cars around here will not be looking out for bikes past October. In the daytime, though, if it's just cold, our bike trailer is fully enclosed and blocks the wind, so it is surprisingly warm inside.<br />
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The same bike trailer turns into our double stroller, so again, if we adults can walk somewhere, the kids should be cozy inside with coats and a blanket. Thick snow might be a problem for this stroller, but a light snowfall won't deter the 20" inflatable wheels on this baby. Sidewalks around here tend to get shoveled pretty well (as opposed to the streets), so I'm really not worried about even deeper snows. And, really, who would drive a car in over two or three feet of snow, anyway? On truly terrible winter days, we will do what all of us should be doing: taking a snow day and sticking close to home while making do with what we have, or sending one of us stouthearted adults to the store alone if necessary.<br />
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As final options, there is almost always the bus for longer trips, or getting a ride from a neighbor in dire circumstances. I don't like doing this much, but neighbors should be neighborly, and I wouldn't deny someone the joy of being neighborly if we truly needed something and couldn't get to it.<br />
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Finally, there are two things I like to keep in mind about winter carlessness: first, walkability is much more about proximity of amenities and quality of infrastructure than it is about climate (look at Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, and even parts of Canada). By no means am I comparing Spokane to Finland, but it helps to remember that many other humans live in equally bad or worse winter conditions without cars, and they do just fine.<br />
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And second, driving a car in the winter brings its own discomforts, inconveniences (I recall one particularly irksome episode, waiting in line at Costco for snow tires as a favor to a relative after the first snowfall last year), and probably more dangers. Winter just has a way of toughening us all up. <br />
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044283392453431768noreply@blogger.com0