The Story Garden with Mrs. Sandoz

Tonight during dinner try playing a game I invented called Not a Box.   (We do games during dinner because if we don’t somehow things go wrong and poop is always the topic of conversation. Blah!) To Play: For demonstration purposes an adult starts by picking a simple object like a box, stick, blanket, bowl, toilet paper, (Maybe not that.  I see poop in the future.) or a pillow.   Then go around the table and have everyone tell what they could imagine the object being and what they would do with it.   When everyone has gone the youngest playing family member picks an object and play continues till all have had a turn picking the object. I love this game because even the youngest players have great ideas.  In fact sometimes they are the best players! Enjoy! Kristen

It always amazes me how my boys can turn anything into a gun from a stick to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For the first 6 years of Thing One’s life we didn’t even have guns around the house.   I don’t even know when he first saw a gun but it apparently left an impression because one day guns entered his world of imagination.   This past Sunday we had a nice change up though.   The boys turned their marshmallow shooters into musical instruments during church.   I was so stoked!  (What were they doing with marshmallow shooters during church? Please don’t expect me to answer that.   When you have three Things to deal with sometimes you find yourself saying yes to some crazy stuff.) My point in all of this is that a child’s imagination is very impressive.   Some how we loose all of that power as adults.  Thankfully having kids brings it back just a bit.     The book Not A Box by Antoinette Portis is ...

Okay all you storytellers grab your iPod, iPad, smart phone, or whatever you use to read your blogs and head to the toilet.  Why the toilet? Because for me that is the only place I can find two minutes of peace and quiet, and sometimes not even then.  During that couple of minutes of peace I have found the perfect blog to fill my time.  I thought I'd pass it on to you just in case you need a little toilet time reading. It's called The Daily Grammar Blog .  It's a blog that posts a short grammar lesson a day, 365 days a year, minus Sundays.  I love a blog the respects the Sabbath.  The lessons are perfect for a two minute job and are easy to follow.  I've been eating them up.  I like them so much I often sneak in a whole weeks worth of archived lessons.  Just this week I learned about superlatives and let me tell you it is the best lesson I've ever had on that form of adjectives.  Possibly the only lesson. If you're looking to im...