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Whale of a Sale Children’s Consignment Event

September 15, 2015 by Mama Carmody Leave a Comment

Whale of a Sale Children’s Consignment Event

Do you like a deal? Do you like consignment shopping? Then you are going to LOVE this! It’s a Whale of a Sale….no really, it is! I don’t promote many sales on my blog but when I see something that can help parents out, especially with saving money, I have to share it.

I have been able to attend a couple Whale of a Sale events. I was very impressed with how well organized everything was. The items were clean and in wonderful shape. You will be able to find brand name items at excellent prices.

As well as clothing, you will be able to find toys, puzzles, DVD’s and other items that would make wonderful Christmas gifts.

I have purchased items for my grandson and great-nephew at a Whale of a Sale event. I just found out that I have a granddaughter due in January. I guess it’s back to Whale of a Sale to buy some frilly items.

This year’s event will be taking place at Five Seasons Sports Club:
1300 E 96th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46240

Here are the times Whale of a Sale will be open to the general public:

Friday, September 18th:
9:00 a.m. New/Expecting Parents and Grandparents Pre-Sale – Register Here
10:00 a.m. Facebook Friends Pre-Sale
12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Open to the Public

Saturday, September 19th:
9:00 – 4:00 p.m. Open to the Public

Sunday, September 20th:
Half Price Day
11:00 – 3:00 p.m. Open to the Public – REDUCE on the tag indicates half price deal

*Disclosure: I was in no way compensated or asked by anyone to do this review. All opinions are mine. I have done this to help my readers find great deals.

Shear Fun: Learning Where Fabric Comes From

April 23, 2015 by Mama Carmody 2 Comments

Shear Fun: Learning Where Fabric Comes From

It’s springtime and the weather is getting warmer, so it’s time for some “shear fun”. Have you ever heard of shearing? It’s kind of like an animal haircut. Starting in the fall animals beginning growing extra thick fur to keep them warm through the cold winter. In the springtime, they start to shed (or lose) their heavy fur.

There are many types of animals whose fur can be made into yarn. Then you know what you can do with that yarn? You can make clothes, rugs and other items you need around your house.

Have you ever seen an animal being shorn? I’ve seen it at our State Fair but last year I was able to experience it at Conner Prairie Interactive History Museum.

Shear Fun watching sheep being shorn at Conner Prairie Interactive Museum.

Each spring they have an event called “Shear Fun” where you can watch different animals being shorn. Last year they had sheep and and llamas.

We learned about cleaning and carding the wool. Carding is brushing the lumps out of the wool.

We were able to see people spinning the wool into threads to be used for sewing.

There was even an area where we were able to watch people turning flax (which is a plant) into thread to create clothing and other household items. Did you know you could make clothes out of plants?! That’s kind of neat.

Understand, Conner Prairie, isn’t just a museum full of exhibits and demonstrations. It’s an interactive, hands-on, get-in-there-and-try-it-yourself, kind of museum. There was an area where we could try our hand at some simple weaving projects.

And don’t forget the adorable animals. There are so many animals that you can touch and interact with. We had a lot of fun and we learned quite a bit too.

This year’s event happens this weekend, May 4th, 2019. Don’t miss out on the amount of “Shear Fun” that’s waiting for you.

Shear Fun at Conner Prairie Interactive Museum.

Earth Day: Gardening with Children

April 14, 2015 by Mama Carmody 47 Comments

Earth Day: Gardening with Children

As Earth Day approaches, I want to share, with you, the joys of gardening with children. My love of gardening came from my father. He was raised on a farm in West Virginia, and although he married and became an electrical engineer, his love of the land never faded. As I was growing up, Dad and Mom always planted a garden. Sometimes it was small and other times it was huge. Digging in the dirt, playing with worms and watching the plants, start as small seedlings and grow large enough to produce the food for our table, was a treat. I will admit that the weeding and breaking bushel after bushel of green beans got a bit tedious at times; but the vegetables we grew in our garden were better than anything we bought at the store.

I don’t have the green thumb that my Dad and Mom have but I continue to try. A few years ago, because of several health issues my husband has, we decided to try our hand at organic gardening. We chose the Square Foot Gardening method, as taught by Mel Bartholomew. It can be a little expensive in the beginning but I love it because I don’t need a rototiller to break up the ground. It is always soft, loose and easy to work in. And since it’s so easy to work with, it makes gardening with children a breeze.

One of the areas I fail miserably at is having the time to take care of my garden the way it needs to be. I work full time and I live far enough from my workplace that I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to gardening. It’s mid-April and this is what my garden currently looks like:

Gardening with Children: Garden Needs Work

I know, I was taught better than that. I should all ready have my onions and radishes in the ground. I was hoping to have my little helper (my great-nephew) last weekend but he and his mom were busy. Even though he wasn’t able to help me this past weekend, I can share the fun we had getting the garden ready two years ago.

Jeremiah was 21 months old, so as you can see, you can start gardening with your children when they are quite young. Here is one of the reasons that the Square Foot Gardening method works well when gardening with children; the dirt was so soft and loose that he was easily able to help me pull out weeds and old plants. He also helped me loosen the dirt by digging and raking. At first, he wasn’t too sure about getting dirt on his hands but the longer we worked the more he got into it. And I really mean he got INTO it! LOL!

Gardening with Children: Digging in the Garden

There is so much learning that can happen while gardening. Realizing that vegetables grow on plants before they get to the store can be a lesson in itself. You can discuss how worms and certain bugs help the garden while other bugs hurt it. Learning about weather, and how the garden needs rain and sunshine to grow, are other lessons. You might find that your child is willing to try different vegetables when they have had a hand in growing and caring for them. One unexpected thing you might find growing, while working in the garden with your child, is the bond between the two of you. So put on some old clothes, grab some rakes and shovels and start growing your own memories.

Gardening with Children: Lessons to learn and memories to make.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

March 1, 2015 by Mama Carmody 21 Comments

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Seuss Geisel, lives in the hearts and memories of many. As his birthday approaches, on March 2nd, we reflect back on how he has touched so many lives.

We each have our likes and our dislikes among his books. One of my favorites is “Hop on Pop”. I love it, especially for early readers, because there are so many “word families” for them to recognize.

I have a love/hate relationship with “Green Eggs and Ham”. The story is kind of fun, but when you have a child that likes to be read the same book over and over again, this one gets a bit monotonous. I do enjoy it enough that I would share it with my preschool classes. It illustrates a lesson I taught my own children; you need to taste something before you decide you don’t like it. Every year, I would make green eggs and ham, at school, for the children to try. I’m not talking about cutesy candies that look like green eggs and ham; I mean we actually ate green eggs and ham.

Green Eggs and Ham

Here is how I created our green eggs and ham. First, I purchased a piece of ham. I place the ham in a shallow dish or bowl and cover it with water that I have colored with green liquid food coloring. I let it sit overnight to absorb as much green as possible.

I would have the children help make the green cheesy scrambled eggs. First, they would break the eggs into a bowl and mix them up. I would then ask them what color the eggs were. At this point they look yellow. Next I pulled out the blue food coloring. Yes, blue! I’m throwing in a little color lesson.

I ask them what color they think the eggs will turn when I add the food coloring. Some will guess blue but others will come up with the correct answer. We will have covered mixing colors earlier in the year so I hope several of them will remember. I add a little milk and then I let them tear up some American cheese slices and add it to the mixture. I have an electric pan so I would first fry up the ham and then cook the cheesy scrambled eggs. The majority of the kids LOVE them and would ask for seconds and thirds. I would make sure that everyone at least tasted it because that was the whole point of the story.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs & Ham

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? Do you have a favorite craft or activity you like to do?

Click the picture below for a downloadable recipe for Green Eggs and Ham:

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham recipe card

Let’s Play with Toy Guns

December 20, 2014 by Mama Carmody 5 Comments

Let’s Play with Toy Guns

I believe toy guns are getting a bad rap. I must say I hadn’t given it a lot of thought before but now I have a grandson and a couple of great-nephews, so an interest in guns is something we are going to have to deal with.

I raised two girls so guns were never a big subject around our house. We played with water guns and bubble blowing guns but that was about it. But when I was a little girl, I had a cap gun. I wore it in my holster as I strutted around in my cowgirl boots and hat. I loved playing with my cap gun when I was really young. As I got older, I was allowed to use our BB gun. I have always been fascinated with guns but I am definitely not a violent person. The first time I shot a bird, I cried. (We were trying to keep sparrows out of the purple martins’ birdhouse.) It only stunned him, so he eventually flew away but I didn’t shoot at any more birds.

Let's play with toy guns. — Let’s play with toy guns.

The idea of toy guns around the house hit me the other day because I was adding pieces to our dress-up clothes. I had purchased a soldier outfit and a police officer outfit. I was looking for a badge at the Dollar Tree when I ran across a package with a toy gun, a badge and a pretend walkie talkie. I hesitated because I have heard all the controversy about playing with guns and the possibility of instilling violence in our children, but are we missing a teaching opportunity?

My son-in-law serves in the army. Carrying a gun is part of his job. I have deep respect for all of the individuals serving in our armed forces. They carry guns to protect us and people in other countries. I believe that teaching our children how the military men and women are protecting us is a wonderful lesson. Yes, it is sad that there are wars but it is wonderful that there are people willing to put their lives on the line for others.

Then there are the police officers. They also carry guns as part of their jobs and put their lives on the line for others. Teaching respect for our police officers and learning about how they serve us are just a couple of lessons that can be incorporated into your child’s play with toy guns.

There are people that use guns to hunt for food. Wild game is healthy for you and is fairly cheap, in comparison to store bought meat. Many people around the world depend on hunting for their food. They don’t have or can’t afford to run to the grocery store to pick up something.

Lessons that can be slipped in while the children are playing with their toy guns:

Respect for our military and police.
Serving and protecting others.
Honoring our veterans.
Our Constitution and the 2nd Amendment.
How to properly handle a gun.
Where our food comes from.
The benefits of forgiveness and the consequences of revenge.

If we are worried about how our children will grow up and handle guns, shouldn’t we be talking with them about it, while they are young? Rather than avoiding or not allowing the opportunity for role playing and discussion, we should be giving them the opportunity to play and explore.

As children turn into young teens, many start playing violent video games or start sharing their interest of guns with their peers. Is this who and what you want to influence your child about the use of guns?

Some parents are worried that allowing their children to play with toy guns will create violent adults. According to an article on WebMD, titled Toy Guns: Do They Lead to Real-Life Violence?, “studies show no link between playing with toy weapons in childhood and aggression in adulthood”.

So let the kids play with their toy guns and let’s use the opportunity to instruct and raise more gun responsible teens and adults.