Watch this with the kid

Hooray!  I have finally stumbled across something in the internet that I was compelled to share - just like in the old days of this blog.  Somehow in the last few months I seem to have gotten all confused about why the heck I was doing this blogging thing, and who I should be writing for, and what I should be writing about, and if it should be tied into an imaginary business I have not yet started or even fully narrowed down... and so I just didn't write anything.  That and I have been so, well, not really crazy busy, but just not online.  Some days I don't even open the computer (which is bad cause then I don't look at my email or calendar and that's just not proper adult behaviour).

Anyhoo, here's the thing I loved so much I had to share*: This blog The Kid Should See This.  This blog is an incredibly diverse compilation of cool, inspiring, and educational videos that were not created specifically for kids, but that make for wonderful and imaginative viewing for kids as well as adults.  There is an excellent article on Design for Minikind about how mom Rion started the blog after trying to find an example of jazz scat for her son.  They were both thrilled with the 1969 video she found of Ella Fitzgerald doing it like no one else can (holy MACKINAW she is good - it is super hard!), and when her son spent the rest of the week scatting everywhere he went (such an unfortunate homonym...), she knew she had to share it.

The videos are grouped under Science, Technology, Space, Animals, Food, DIY, Art, Food, Music, and Animation, and forget the boys, I could spend my entire day on here.  The world is just so damn full of cool and interesting people!  If that isn't a great lesson to learn when you're young, I don't know what is.

I especially love the art category, but they are all amazing.  I am including a couple here, and had to post the Oliver Jeffers one because I love his books and he's so dreamy...



And considering the amount of hours Will and I have logged watching films on space and the planets, and my obsession with Chris Hadfield, I thought I would add these as well:



Seen anything cool online lately? ;p

Boy Crafts: Binoculars

I am really enjoying this new practice of being a professional mom during the day and leaving the professional anything-else to the evenings and weekends.  It is certainly not easy to come down after finally getting the boys to bed about 8:30 and crack open the laptop, but separating the two has really lowered my stress levels and upped my happiness levels.  Unfortunately, a looming deadline this week has forced me to do more outside work during the day, and I can feel my blood pressure rising along with the boys' irritation levels. :(

I am loving my mornings with Cam.  This guys is just growing so freakin fast, it is kind of blowing my mind.  He is a real sweetie, with an ace sense of humour, and is a lot of fun when he can relax and not compete for attention (from me and from Will!).

We have all been keeping track of our friend the cardinal - a 'real loud guy', according to Cam.  As the buds are just peeking out on the trees, it is still easy to catch sight of his bright red body sitting up in a tree. Nonetheless, Cam thought we should really get some binoculars to get a better look (not sure where he got this idea from!).

They are pretty self-explanatory and easy to make: all you need are toilet paper rolls, construction paper, glue or tape, markers, and string or ribbon.  Cam wasn't happy with how his drawings were going, so he told me what he wanted and I drew it.  What looks like just a random pattern is actually lightening, wheels, lines on the road, exhaust from a truck (not a cloud), and rain - oh and a car, of course.  They have held up for a few weeks now, and Cam keep telling me that they "REALLY WORK!" and insists on wearing them out for walks.  Of course we had to make a pair for William too, but his kept coming apart and morphed into a telephone instead.  :)

So these were a pretty successful craft, but I have to say, the big winners are the parking garage and the whiteboard table.  They are used every. single. day. Hooray!

Any awesome crafts you have made recently?  Please share in the comments, I am always on the hunt for new ideas! Thanks as always for reading. :)