Simple Cotton Craft and Activity {Shrimp N’ Grits Blog Hop}

crafts, multiculturalism, raising world citizens 3 Responses »

Jun 172013

This post was written as part of the Shrimp N’ Grits Blog Hop. See the end of this post for details!

“Now wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute!“ Anyone else grow up with that expression?

No plant – other than tobacco – is so closely tied to the history of the US South than cotton. For many of us, of course, it conjures up the specter of slavery, since many of those torn from Africa were put to work in the cotton fields of the American South. The cotton industry grew on the strength of their stolen labor, and the desire to protect this system helped fuel the Civil War.

Black cotton farmers in the US, c. 1890s, author unknown, via Wikimedia Commons

In more recent times, cotton continued to be a major export of the region, though not nearly as important as in the past. My grandfather picked cotton as a child, and the Piedmont region of North Carolina where I grew up is dotted with small towns that grew up around the cotton mills.

Sweepers in a cotton mill, North Carolina, 1910s, Lewis Hine, via Wikimedia Commons

So when I was looking for a simple craft to teach Monkey and his friends about where I grew up, I decided to design something centered on this potent symbol of the South. Monkey has a rather short attention span for crafts these days, plus I plan on using it at an upcoming play date in a park, so I wanted to do a fairly simple activity.

First we did some sensory play with cotton, using cotton balls and yarn. (I did this part later with Baby as well). We also talked about how many things we use every day are made from cotton, like towels and sheets. We also checked the tags on our shirts to see if they were made out of cotton. (They were!)

Cotton plant ready to harvest, USDA, via Wikimedia Commons

Next I showed Monkey a photo of a cotton plant, and my mom talked to him about the plant itself, and how hard it is to remove the cotton. Then we started to make our own version. I had pre-cut the stem and branches, which he glued on the paper. The part he had the most fun with was gluing on the cotton balls.

When we do this at the playgroup, I may also have them cut out magazine photos of products made with cotton and glue them on their pages. I think it’s good to get kids thinking about where the items they use every day come from. We tend to do this with foods but less so with other products.

And now on to the blog hop!

Welcome to Shrimp N’ Grits:

A Southern Style Blog Hop!

From June 17 – 30, bloggers are invited to link up their family-friendly posts about life in the South: recipes, crafts, kids’ activities, and more!

We are so excited about this FIRST EVER Southern Style Blog Hop! We are working with some really wonderful, creative bloggers on this and are looking forward to see what everyone has been up to!

All entries will be posted to my new Shrimp N’ Grits: Life in the South Pinterest board.

So grab a big bowl of shrimp n’ grits, a tall glass of iced tea, and sit back on your porch swing, because we are getting ready for some down home fun!

The Shrimp N’ Grits Blog Hop

is brought to you by:

All Done Monkey

Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes

With our wonderful co-hosts:

Play Create Explore

Simple. Home. Blessings.

JDaniel4′s Mom

Caution! Twins at Play!

Creative Cynchronicity

Stuff-n-Such By Lisa

HomeMadeville

The Ridvan Garden: Felt Board

crafts, Ridvan 16 Responses »

Apr 252013

Welcome to the next stop in our series “Walking Through the Garden of Ridván.” So far we have set up a Ridván tent, looked at how families around the world celebrate the holiday, sampled a scrumptious rose water cheesecake, and celebrated with some joyous music. For a list of upcoming posts in this series, visit our main page.

There are very few storybooks about the Ridván Festival, particularly for young children, so I decided to create a felt board to use to tell the story to Monkey. I had a lot of fun making it, and felt boards are such a wonderful way to bring stories to life for little ones.

Monkey’s summary of the story: “One day, Bahá’u'lláh go garden, see friends there. Garden have lots roses.”

I first came across felt boards (often called “flannel boards”) in a busy bag swap with my mom’s group. One of the busy bags we got had a small flannel board and the felt shapes for several simple pictures, such as a snowman. Another contained basic shapes for children to invent their own pictures. Monkey adored making and re-making pictures with his felt shapes, so I thought this would be a great, hands-on way for him to engage with the story.

To make the felt board, I cut out a piece of cardboard from an old diaper box and laid a piece of flannel over one side. (I chose a light blue for the sky). I then folded the edges of the flannel around to the back of the cardboard and glued it on tight using craft glue. It was much simpler than I had expected!

Cutting out all the felt pieces took much longer, but these story boards can be as simple or as complicated as you want. I decided to do four basic scenes, all of which were fairly simple – except for all of those roses! We’ll see how long all those little pieces lasts

Here is our story:

The Crossing

Bahâ’u'llâh and His companions were forced to leave their homes. They had to travel a long, long way to get to their new home. Before they left on their trip, they stopped at a beautiful garden called the Ridvân Garden. To get there, they had to cross a river on a boat. (Okay, okay, I’m pretty sure Bahâ’u'llâh didn’t use a cute little sailboat like this, but there are only so many shapes I can cut out of felt!)

The Garden

When they crossed the river they arrived in a beautiful garden. It was full of roses. Bahâ’u'llâh named the garden “Ridván,” which means “paradise” because it was so beautiful.

Roses in the Tent

Bahâ’u'llâh and His friends put up tents to sleep in. Every morning they would sit on cushions in Bahâ’u'llâh’s tent to drink their tea. The gardeners knew Bahâ’u'llâh loved roses, so they would bring lots of roses to Him. There were so many that when the friends sat down on their cushions, they couldn’t see each other over the pile of roses!

Humanity as a Rose Garden

While He was staying in the garden, Bahâ’u'llâh told His friends something very important. (When I asked Monkey what this message was, he said it was “’bout robots.” Um…close! Okay, not really )

He said that we are all like the roses in the garden and God is like the sun. The sun helps the roses grow, just like God helps our souls to grow and be strong. Bahâ’u'llâh said that everyone – no matter where they were from or how different they looked – was part of the same rose garden and got light from the same sun.

Hope you enjoyed our story! Have you ever used a felt board with your kids?

This post has been shared at A Cat Like Curiosity’s Super Handmade Sunday and Bowdabra’s Craft Showcase.

This post is part of the series Walking Through the Garden of Ridván with Bahá‘í Mom Blogs. For a full list of the posts in this series, visit our main page.

Knitting the Hearts Together: Kids’ Card Exchange (Naw Ruz)

crafts, multiculturalism, Naw Ruz, raising world citizens 6 Responses »

Apr 042013

How do you teach a child to be a world citizen? There is no simple answer, but for me a fundamental element has to be love. Instilling a deep love for others in your child will give context and meaning to the facts and traditions you teach and will become a prime motivator for doing good in the world.

With this in mind, this year I helped a group of mothers coordinated a card exchange on a global scale. I was inspired by a Valentine’s Day card exchange organized by Glittering Muffins. Monkey had so much fun with it, I decided we should do something similar for Bahá’í new year (Naw Rúz). I was hoping that it would be a way to make geography come to life, as we exchanged cards with children from other parts of the world. But on a deeper level it was about helping create bonds with other children. A friend put it best: It was about “knitting the hearts together.”

Organizing the card exchange was a real reminder of how much social media has made it so easy for people to connect worldwide. I put out a call on Facebook for those that wanted to participate, and within days I had a list of 63 children!

I tried to match each child with another of roughly the same age, preferably living in another country. Each child created a card plus a flower of some type. (For example, we made California poppies out of cardstock). The flowers symbolized the coming of spring that Naw Rúz celebrates, plus they illustrated the Bahá’í belief that we are all “flowers of one garden.” In addition, the child could include other items, such as a photo.

I was blown away by the geographic spread of the participants. Here are the countries represented:

USA, Canada, Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Iceland, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, China, Malaysia, Tonga, Australia

The ages of the children ranged from two months (Baby Monkey and a little girl in Delaware) to 14 years.

I really admire the enthusiasm and creativity of the families involved. The Monkeys received lovely cards, one from North Carolina and the one from Ireland. Both included beautiful family photos and notes from the children.

Here are some photos generously shared by other participating families:

From Katherin in Maryland (girls ages 3 and 5): “Here they are with their finished cards. We also added a family picture, some butterfly stickers and for the older girl, Nura added a star bookmark. They were the creators and I just helped along the way. Also, I showed them on google maps where the cards were going–one across the US and the other will go across the Atlantic Ocean to England. They were excited.”

From Erin in Iceland (boys ages 1.5 and 6): “We received our cards and our boys were very happy ”

From Jenny in California (girls ages 4 and 7):

You can also see how kids in Ghana (Gems of Oneness blog) and in China (Little Artists blog) made their cards!

How do you help your child create bonds with other children around the world?

Spring Party and Free Printable (Naw Ruz)

crafts, Naw Ruz 6 Responses »

Mar 282013

When you want to celebrate, it’s such a gift to have good friends to party with. That was how Monkey and I felt when some of our best friends were able to join us for a spring party last week to celebrate the Bahá’í new year (Naw Rúz), which falls on the first day of spring.

We were also lucky enough to have my parents in town during the holiday! Monkey was so excited to have them here, and they were such a big help to me getting everything together for our guests. Baby Monkey got some extra snuggle time with his grandma while I rushed around at the party, and the kids were drawn to my father like a magnet, which tends to happen wherever we go.

I had hoped for some beautiful weather so the kids could play outside, but unfortunately it was so windy we opted to keep them indoors. This meant that at times the noise level got a bit high, but everyone was having so much fun we didn’t mind.

One thing I love about this group of friends is that everyone jumps right in to whatever activity we are doing. We had a craft table in one area, where the kids could do a daffodil craft, and in another area there was a table set up for making fruit pizzas.

Beyond that, there was a lot of time for the kids to play with toys and run around. There were also a few groups that spontaneously decided to read story books together, which is always one of my favorite activities.

I was so proud of Monkey for being such a great host, which to me is an important part of learning to be of service. He shouted “Happy Naw Rúz!” to all of our guests when they arrived, and when they left he helped me hand out the favors: a packet of seeds and a card with a quote. We had to work on not just throwing the seed packets to the kids, but most of them thought this was funny, too, so no harm done

For the cards, on one side I printed “Happy Naw Rúz!” On the other side, I chose a line from one of my favorite children’s prayers:

I am a sapling of the garden of love;

make me into a fruitful tree.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

It is such a beautiful quote and was right in keeping with the “garden” theme of our favors. You download Word document here (makes nine cards): Naw Ruz party cards.

Thanks to our guests for making it such a special day!

How do you celebrate spring?

Daffodil Spring Craft (Naw Ruz): Paper Cup Series on Little Artists

crafts, multiculturalism, Naw Ruz, raising world citizens No Responses »

Mar 262013

I am so happy to be participating in the Paper Cup series on Little Artists! Today we share about the daffodil craft we did for a recent spring party to celebrate the Bahá’í new year (Naw Rúz).

Monkey and I had a great time with our friends, and the kids enjoyed this simple, pretty daffodil craft.

To read more, hop on over to our friend Varya’s place. While you’re there, be sure to check out her wonderfully creative blog!

Daffodil Spring Craft (Naw Rúz): Paper Cup Series on Little Artists

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #1

books, crafts, Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop, education, family, food, multiculturalism, music, recipes, travel 2 Responses »

Mar 102013

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop - Alldonemonkey.com

Hi, and welcome to the first ever Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop!

Don’t you love being in on something new? I love that feeling of getting to participate in something that is just starting, especially when I know it’s going to be great!

That’s how I feel about the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! It’s a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can’t wait to see what you have to share with us this time!

I am fortunate to be hosting this brand new blog hop with two of my favorite blogging buddies, Frances of Discovering the World through My Son’s Eyes and Jody of Mud Hut Mama. We had a lot of fun chatting with each other as we worked out the details. Since we are in three different time zones (West Coast USA, East Coast USA, and Malawi), often I would be just starting breakfast, as Frances was thinking towards lunch, and Jody was preparing dinner!

(A big thank you to Frances, who came up with this idea and put in the bulk of the work to make it happen!)

It’s very easy to participate! Just follow these simple guidelines:

Be a sweetheart, and kindly follow your hostess and co-hostesses:

Frances: Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes
Leanna: All Done Monkey
Jody: Mud Hut Mama

Follow us via email, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook. Please let us know you’re following us, and we will be sure to follow you back.

Link up any creative kids culture posts, on anything from language, culture, books, travel, food, crafts, playdates, activities, heritage, and holidays, etc. Please, link directly to your specific post, and no giveaways, shops, stores, etc. When you link up your blog will also be shared simultaneously on our co-hostesses websites.

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Please grab the button code above and put it on your blog or the post you’re linking up. You can also add a text link back to this hop on your blog post. Note: By sharing your link up on this blog hop you are giving us permission to feature your blog post with pictures, and to pin your link up in our Creative Kids Culture Feature board on Pinterest.

Don’t be a stranger, and share some comment love! Visit the other links, and comment. Everyone loves comments!

The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop will go live on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month and run for a week. The following blog hop we will each feature posts from the previous link up. If you’re featured, don’t forget to grab the button below:

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Since we are just getting started, this week we are featuring a post from each of the hostesses, as a way of introducing ourselves.

If you are just getting to know my blog, a good place to start is my ABC’s of Raising a World Citizen series, since it includes some of my favorite posts and resources from around the web.

Frances and Jody are two of my favorite bloggers (and buddies), so I had a really hard time deciding which of their posts to feature!

For Frances, I chose this post about the Spanish immersion classes her son just began. It has been fascinating to follow Frances’ efforts to raise her son to be bilingual. She has great insights to offer, and I really admire her persistence.

For Jody, I chose this post about greetings among the Kaonde people of Zambia, where she worked in the Peace Corps. One of the things I love about Jody’s blog is her insights about the local culture. This post tells all about the beautiful way the Kaonde welcome people to their village.

Now let’s see what you’ve been up to!

Spring Craft and Blog Hop: California Poppies (Naw Ruz)

Baha'i, crafts, family, multiculturalism, Naw Ruz, spiritual education 12 Responses »

Mar 102013

Spring is approaching, and we are glad to think of something other than cold, rainy days.

On the Bahá’í calendar, the first day of spring (March 21) coincides with our New Year (Naw Rúz), so I decided to do a springtime craft with Monkey to prepare.

This year we are participating in a Naw Rúz card exchange with other children, which I will write more about soon. In addition to cards, the children also create flowers to send to each other. This is partly to celebrate the coming of spring and partly to bring to life the beautiful quotation from the Bahá’u'lláh about unity in diversity: “Ye are all fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch, the flowers of one garden.”

Since we are sending our cards to Ireland and China as well as the US, I thought it would be fun to make our local California poppies for them. They are so beautiful, and I have fond memories of seeing them along the side of the road as my husband and I drove on the scenic Highway 1 on our first anniversary, shortly after moving to California.

Of course, to Monkey they were just a good excuse to get his hands on some glue!

I cut out the flower pieces ahead of time then let Monkey glue them onto the card stock. I chose to make the flowers this way since lately he enjoys this more than coloring or drawing. I think with those he gets frustrated that his hands can’t create what his mind visualizes. With gluing pieces or using stickers, he can construct a picture exactly as he wants.

We both thought they turned out beautifully!

Monkey also decorated “Happy Naw Ruz” cards with – what else? – car and truck stickers.

I included a photo of the Monkeys with each card, and we were ready to head to the post office! Our cards are now making their way across the country and to Europe and Asia!

That evening, when we told my husband about our adventures, tender-hearted Monkey exclaimed that he wanted to make more cards: one for Daddy, one for Mommy, one for Baby, one for Grandpa and MaMa Pat, … Perhaps I am not so tender-hearted, because my first thought was, I have to cut out how many more flower pieces???

How are you celebrating the coming of spring?

This craft is part of the Spring and Easter Blog Hop from Kid Blogger Network.

Click on the link at the bottom of the page to add your post to the collection.

Participating Blogs:

Rainy Day Mum, hands on : as we grow, Putti’s World, Blog Me Mom, Scribble Doodle and Draw, 3 Dinosaurs, Buggy and Buddy, Royal Baloo, Kitchen Counter Chronicle, Nurture Store, The Usual Mayhem, Making Boys Men, Two Daloo, Reading Confetti, Creative Play House, Fantastic Fun and Learning, Here Come the Girls, Blue Bear Wood, Zing Zing Tree, Mummy Mummy Mum, Red Ted Art, Life at the Zoo, My Little 3 and Me, Imprints from Tricia, Smiling Like Sunshine, Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails, Creative Connection for Kids, 52 Brand New, Inspiration Laboratories, Kid World Citizen, JDaniel 4s Mom, Inspired by Familia, Kids Creative Chaos, All Done Monkey, ArtChoo, Something 2 Offer, Child Central Station, KC Edventures, Momma’s Fun World, Sun Hats and Wellie Boots, Discovering the world through my son’s eyes, Little Artists

February Culture Swapper Is Live!

books, crafts, family, food, multiculturalism, recipes, travel, Worldwide Culture Swapper Linkup 10 Responses »

Feb 012013

Welcome to the Culture Swapper of the new year! I am proud to be co-hosting the Worldwide Culture Swappers link up again this month, created and sponsored by Worldwide Culture Swap and co-hosted by myself and Kid World Citizen.

The monthly Worldwide Culture Swapper is a way for bloggers to share blog posts or photos about anything related to culture, geography, language, traditions, customs, etc. So if you are searching for new ideas for teaching your children about the world, this is the place to look!

Each month favorites will be highlighted on our website and Facebook page. In addition, we pin featured entries to our Raising Global Citizens board on Pinterest, so be sure to check it out!

Here are a few of our favorite posts from last month’s Culture Swapper (in addition to the ones featured during the month on our Facebook page).

The Good Long Road taught us about Christmas in Bethlehem.

We sat in on a Three Kings Day playdate with Discovering the World through My Son’s Eyes.

We got some great activities for Chinese New Year from Art and Soul Preschool, including a tutorial for fortune cookies!

Thanks to everyone who shared in January’s Culture Swapper. We can’t wait to see what you’ll share this month!

And now on to this month’s Culture Swappers Link up….

The rules

Link up any family friendly activity, craft, recipe, articles and posts that say a bit about your nationality or one that you are learning about.
You can submit more than one link so come back throughout the month to share your activities.
By linking you are giving us permission to feature your activity on our website and Facebook page.
Please grab a Culture Swapper badge from the sidebar and put it somewhere on your blog (or add a text link to us in your post).
Sorry, no giveaways or shops.

A new Link up will start on the first day of every month.

Let’s see what you’ve been up to!

The First Annual Ayyam-i-Ha Gift Guide

Ayyam-i-Ha, Baha'i, books, crafts, multiculturalism, spiritual education 4 Responses »

Jan 292013

We are so excited to announce the publication of our first annual Ayyám-i-Há Gift Guide!

Whether or not you celebrate Ayyám-i-H á, you can use this guide to find special gifts for your loved ones, including tutorials for making homemade gifts and decorations. And since Ayyám-i-Há is also a time for charity and service to others, you can find ideas for family service projects.

Creating this guide has been a real labor of love for me, so I hope you enjoy!

To browse the gift guide, please visit the Guide’s main page.

If you have a business or blog, submit your information for possible inclusion in this year’s guide.

Celebrating Multiculturalism: Post from Discovering the World through My Son’s Eyes

books, crafts, education, family, multiculturalism, raising world citizens 3 Responses »

Jan 212013

While we are enjoying some extra snuggle time with the Monkeys, we are so pleased to be able to bring you a series of posts from some of our favorite bloggers.

Today’s post comes to you from Frances of Discovering the World through My Son’s Eyes. Frances is the genuine article – sincere, kind, and totally devoted to her child. As a fellow member of the Multicultural Kids Blogs group, she is also someone I know I can always rely on for an encouraging word.

In this post she shares some wonderfully practical ideas for helping our children celebrate their multiculturalism – what a great way to celebrate Martin Luther King Day!

Even though we live in the 21st century, and we have growing numbers of biracial and multicultural families; prejudice and bigotry are still very much present. To counteract all the negativity that we see we must celebrate our multiculturalism by encouraging our children to be themselves and to honor their culture and heritage, and they can do so while respecting cultures that are different from their own.

We can instill in our children a sense of pride by celebrating our multiculturalism through everyday actions such as talking about their culture and exposing them to traditions and foods. Children’s books about multiculturalism are a great resource, too!

Three great books celebrating multiculturalism, and diversity are:

It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

I really like this book, and so does my little one. The colors are bold and bright, and the sentences are short and to the point. Of course, there are no green aliens on earth, but it does deliver a message of acceptance and understanding that it’s okay to be different. This book makes the children aware of differences and creates a sense of celebrating their individuality through acceptance of others.

You Be You by Linda Kranz

This is an adorable picture book about a rock fish named Adri who sets out to swim in the deep ocean only to find so many different fish, some are big, some are small, some colorful, some are grey, some swim alone, and some swim together. Adri is truly amazed about all the differences, and in the end his mother tells him that life is grand journey, and to be himself. This book is a celebration of our differences, and to always be true to yourself.

We All Sing with the Same Voice by J. Philip Miller and Sheppard M. Greene.

This book comes from a classic Sesame Street song about differences by race, nationality, gender, and geography. I’ve included the video below so you can listen to the words of the song, which are exactly the same from the book. The message is that although we are different we are the same.

Little one and I have often read these books together. So one day he had his best friend over, and I read the books to both. Afterwards, they just wanted to hold the books and look at the illustrations. Once they finished, I gave them a bunch of magazines, kiddie scissors, construction paper, and glue so they can make a collage of different people. I asked them to cut out the “people” that they saw in the magazines and to glue them on the construction paper.

Captivated by the illustrations.

The first “people” that my son cut out were a Black man and a woman who looked Latina. I asked who did they look like? He said, “Daddy and Mommy!” My son’s best friend cut out a Black woman, man, and little boy first. When I asked her who do they look like? She said, “My mommy, daddy and my little brother.” (Observation: I’m thinking that the first people they cut out are people who are close to them such as their parents). They cut out other people and races. After they finished, we sat down and discussed the differences they saw. Hair, eyes, skin color, and even facial expressions. I asked them what looked the same on all of them? Of course, they mentioned that everyone had eyes, hair, etc. We talked about the importance of being nice, and being accepting of others that look different. I told them that although different we are all the same!

Multicultural collage that the kids made.

I often tell my child how special he is, and that his Mami and Papi love him dearly. Although he’s 4 yrs. old he’s on his way to learning how to celebrate his own multiculturalism through us (his parents), and he will be very proud of it!

How do you celebrate multiculturalism at home? Would love to know!

Thanks to Frances for this great post! Frances is a part-time blogger, mommy and wife of a beautiful multicultural familia. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a certification in Human Resources. She blogs about discovering the world through her son’s eyes through everyday events, crafts, books, and travel as she teaches her son how culturally diverse our world is.

In addition to her blog, you can also find Frances on Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.

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