well rounded kids

There are so many things you can do to raise well rounded kids. These are three things I do with mine.

Creativity

Creating as a family is something I try to do every day and for us lots of the time it comes out in cooking. The sense of pride and accomplishment they have when they create something from a few ingredients is priceless. Our favorite cookbook is The River Cottage Family Cookbook. The book itself is a piece of art with all of the beautiful photography it contains. The author takes time to explain why you do things a certain way while cooking and the recipes inside are excellent.

We also have a silly tradition of getting all dolled up before cooking, we put on our lip gloss and put on our prettiest aprons. Cottage Road Designs has the most beautiful aprons, we feel like princesses while we cook.

Nature
Every day no matter what the weather is we have a rule to spend time in nature. A quick walk to a hike to running up and down the street in the rain. We have been prepping our backyard for our fairy garden. We planted about 200 bulbs, bought a humming bird feeder and after the holidays we are going to start working on our fairy houses. Recycled Milk Glass Hummingbird Feeder at Uncommon Goods

I think it is really important for each child to have their special spot in nature and go there often. If you live in Utah I put together monthly nature days, be sure to contact me if you are interested in coming along with us!

Appreciating The Arts
Every week we take time to appreciate the arts in all of it's forms. My daughters and I host a monthly art group with eight of their friends which ends up being a fun time for them to pass along everything they have learned. We only hold them outside because I am not THAT brave to have eight kids creating art IN the house:) We have all the kids wear these cute art smocks from Jessica Leman’s Esty Shop.