Everyday creative living in Paris

We've been enjoying seeing the Paris sights, but at 8 1/2 months pregnant I'm having to pace myself, which means while some mornings Jonah and I are out on a big adventure in the morning, we are also at home half the time.  So here is a glimpse into our home mornings.

Jonah woke up a few nights ago crying for his toys.  We brought three small drawstring pouches with us - one with godly play figures, one with a few animals and one with some cars - and his tool set.  Finn and Knuffle Bunny came along as well, but overall the toys are pretty sparse so we've been forced to be creative.  I began a bowl of slips with activities on them (i.e. count to 25, play a montessori ABC game, say "Five little monkeys", look through the Atlas, sing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and toes", play follow the leader, do a work book page, watch a video of Jackson Pollock painting... you get the picture)  This has been hours of fun and a great way to introduce some new concepts to Jonah.  

The best new activity has been treasure hunts.  Jim remembered that we did this with the three year old we babysat in Vancouver.  So, we drew pictures of different things around the house and then hid them and Jonah goes clue to clue by looking at the pictures.  He uses his godly play bag as his treasure - rather appropriate!

And even when we aren't out on an adventure we tend to get to a park nearby for at least part of the morning.  Jonah loves to play in the sand and I love the chance it gives me to knit.  I am missing our yard and the freedom it gives Jonah to be outside as much as he wants.  We've made sure to have some unstructured play in a park most every day.  I've just been reading some Charlott Mason educational theory and it claims that a child under 12 should be outside at least 5 hours a day.  I agree that being outside as much as possible is great, but I'm not sure how five hours are possible for city kids or kids who live in Scotland with only four hours of daylight in the winter (which happen to be the same time most tots nap).  

Jonah's watercolors in Scotland are falling apart, so we went up the street one day and found some new ones and some watercolor paper.  He has spent lots of time painting.  The picture above is 'An Imaginary City' by Jonah and Daddy.

I brought my embroidery, but didn't bring Jonah's.  He was rather distraught when he realized this, but we quickly found that by using the new hole punch we bought daddy to organize his french notes we could sew around Jonah's paintings.  Jonah loves punching the holes and gave a couple of these little masterpieces away as cards.

And that inspired me to help him make some lacing cards.  We used a cereal box, his crayons, some yarn and a bit of tape to make a couple cards and he is very proud of them.

So overall we are living much as we do at home - trying to create something most days and learn something new together.  Jonah is thriving, though he still misses home - as we all do.  We have one more week to go in Paris and while we aren't wishing it away, we will all be glad to be home next weekend to settle in for a Scottish fall and welcome little brother.