July 4, 2008
June 29, 2008
Sunday Afternoon with Violette & Hubert
From the top:
Edible flowers for picked for dinner (Leo downed a nasturtium in one gulp)
Kenny & Hubert (Sabine’s name of the day) picking lettuce
Violette on the rocking horse
Sophie’s castle cake with Playmobil knights
Edward Gorey would have loved this

Topics covered in “The Book of Accidents, designed for Young Children”, courtesy of the Beinecke Library :
- Playing with Horses
- Playing with Candles
- Scalded at the Table
- Tossed by a Bull
- Riding a Wild Horse
- Playing with Knives
- Playing with Fire-Arms
- Playing with Fire
- Throwing Stones
- Falling out of a Coach
- A Boy Drowning
- Climbing on Chairs
- Boys Fighting
- Falling out of a Window
- Troubling the Cook
- Tumbling Downs Stairs
- Climbing Trees
- Crossing Streets
- Worrying Dogs
June 26, 2008
The Science of Nagging
Just three minutes long — how marketers get your kids to nag you to buy their products.
A related video is below — five minutes long — about how marketing isn’t what it used to be and how it’s creating a generation of super-consumers. Very scary.
June 22, 2008
June 19, 2008
Tinkertoys before breakfast
(I knew that the new Tinkertoys we own couldn’t do what I remembered them doing as a kid, so I found an old set on eBay and of course, Leo picked one of the more complicated designs as a a first project. Very satisfying to see the spindles, paddle wheel, and crankshaft moving!)












