My Maplerose Blog

I realize it's become increasingly hard to give myself time. I run this business from our home. I love cooking and baking for our family but it's a part time job. Homemade marshmallows and soup and bagels are sooo good. And I get so much joy from doing it.

I crave more joy in my life.

And then there's the laundry, sweeping, and snack making that seem to work together to fill every other spare moment there is. Oh yeah, and I'm unschooling the hooligans.

Unschooling requires energy and attention and the willingess to go with the flow. And there's a whole lot of mental energy required to deschool myself.

Last year we started doing a new Autumn craft that preserves leaves perfectly and they're a lot easier to keep track of.

It's a quick craft, takes very little prep and smells delightful. And with enough newspapers spread out, it's any easy clean-up, too.

Are you ready to try dipping leaves in beeswax? Oh yes, you are!

Curious kids come to sensory play quite naturally. As a child, I remember loving the feeling of putting my hand in a bag of dried beans or rice. I loved the smell of fresh raspberries as I picked them in the warm sun. I love balancing and hopping over cracks in the sidewalk and I loved homemade playdough.

Not all playdough recipes are created equally but I do believe I found the best one ever. Once sealed in a mason jar this stuff lasts for months or until it is forgotten outside or in the couch or crumbled around the house. You know how it goes :)

The hooligans and I had such fun baking these. We actually do most of our home learning when we bake.They loved making the Tanzhong in the first step and it opened up all kinds of conversations about baking, Asia, language, chemisty, stories from when I was a pastry chef. And we smelled the cinnamon and meausred and mixed and rolled the dough. And while it rested to let the yeast do it's magic we rested too. And talked a little bit about yeast and sourdough and looked for the dental floss.