Children in My Home

 

This print by Jesse Wilcox Smith was a rare impulse purchase when I was single in the early 80’s. I bought it at a Pier 1 Imports and it was shrink-wrapped on a piece of cardboard. I carried it around with me, moving or changing apartments every year until Studly Hubby and I settled in Oregon for our honeymoon years.

I don’t know what exactly this picture of a young girl and a baby in a hammock said to me at the time. 

I liked it.

I still do.

On our honeymoon, SH and I selected another print by Jessie Wilcox Smith.  [I canNOT refer to her except by her full name.]

Then, over the first few years of our marriage, we found more of her work, that WE liked, and purchased and framed and surrounded ourselves with in our home.

The style of Jessie Wilcox Smith appeals to me – every one of her pieces.

 

This book was one of my Christmas gifts one year. I am, perhaps, a bit more confident of my instincts for interior décor than I am for by ability to choose clothes. [Read: I am fashion-challenged. So that may not be saying much.]

 

I arrange things I like the way I like.

AND organization is important to me. I’m not a fan of clutter, and when I need something I want to know where it is stored.

I also believe in using my home to promote my children’s development. And to give them a feeling of safety.

So our home is in repeated flux that is either developmentally or organizationally necessary.

And pretty when I can manage it.  I think our many framed prints by Jessie Wilcox Smith make our home pretty.   

I plan to share some of my home-arrangement based-on-developmental needs in an upcoming post. I would like to read your tried and proven ideas for how you have arranged your home to enhance your child’s development, too. 

 

You are officially invited to my second blog carnival!

To participate, write a post that reflects what is written in red above and publish it in the next week. Then leave the url or permalink in comments. I will not publish the comment, but will read and link your post within the carnival post. 

To get an idea of how this works, read the invitation to and the previous carnival.

Timeline: leave a comment with your url/permalink by April 23. The carnival will be posted on April 25.

Please plan to post about the carnival on your blog on or soon after April 25 to encourage your readers to enjoy it also.

Oh, and, I will award a prize to one of the posts.

The decision will be completely subjective.

 

I will choose the prize-winning post just because I like it.

This book is the prize.

I will mail it anywhere.

The story of The Littlest Angel is a classic and was written by Charles Tazewell in 1939 for radio broadcast.

This copy is new [okay, I have read it a couple of times myself – full disclosure.]

The story depicts a young boy who is much attached to items that are precious to only him. We can all become very attached to our things, our homes. Apropos, eh?

Comments

[Zoey's mom]

Love,love,love Jesse Wilcox Smith!As a collector of antiques,courtesy of growing up surrounded by antiques,I am the proud owner of a few different,early prints of hers.All hung an hang in my children's rooms and are theirs to hang on their walls as they slowly are leaving the nest.Besse Pease Gutman is another favorite as well as Frances Brundage.I have some magical old baby books and paper products from all of them.Have always been drawn to them,even before I had my own slew of children.Thank you again for your continued support and prayers for our little love.

[Sandi]

I love Jesse Willcox Smith's art!! You have a nice collection. I have the one of the girl in the pink dress on the beach (my absolute favorite) and the one of the two children looking into the water.

I'm going to give the Blog Carnival a try...sounds like fun :-)

[The Barbara who lives here]

It's funny, Sandi, but I don't consider them a 'collection' any more than my angels are a 'collection'. Still I am happy to read at least two other fans of her work.

I have a couple of Besse Pease Gutman's prints, too, but am not familia with Frances Brudage. True antiques are wonderful to have, Zoey's mom. How much more special they are if they have a family provenance.

[Mrs. Mac]

I'm not sure I've developed my home design/function to any particular developmental ideas ... more so it's designed around comfort, ease of use (i.e. my son's bedroom is directly across the hall from mine to facilitate having to get up with him at night) ... and lots of quite ... out of the way rooms for study & social gathering that might otherwise send our son 'over the top' from too much noise. I suppose this is a sense of safety for him. Having all of the doors and windows wired with chimes is an added bonus for any errant wandering off into the unfenced woods. Safety is my biggest concern. I suppose this is a developmental idea after all ;)

Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting about my garden variety 'moose' :)

[Mother Mayhem]

Absolutely LOVE the pictures! I'd never heard of Jesse Wilcox Smith. Thank you for introducing her. Thinking about the carnival... ;o)

[jeanette]

As you know, Sydney has Down syndrome and is 21 months old. My first reaction to your question was "nothing". I haven't done anything to arrange my home to make things easer for Sydney. I have definetly done things based on having a toddler in the house for safety like permanent baby gates at the top and bottom of the stairs (works as doggy restrainers too), safety latches on the cabinets, plug inserts, a new back door window with the blinds inside the windows to avoid baby destruction, and general keeping things below the waist level safe for Sydney to have a safe environment free from mommy micro-mangement.
After thinking on this further I realized that we have indeed done things to make things easier for Sydney, but I they are still more age related than disability like we installed wood flooring which is MUCH easier on walking/push toys, rollng balls and cars, stacking blocks etc. We have a play center with her toys set up in our living room with a nice big area rug for her to confortably sit and play. I covered an old ottoman which was shorter than our couches so that she had a way to pull up to standing and a soft play area (while standing) that was a comfortable height. I also have my Caboodle (80's flashback. It's a colorful container for holding my nail polishes and stuff) which is the PERFECT height for her to use as a stool. We had an IKEA stool before which she outgrew. When she was much smaller and didn't have strong trunk support, we bought this thing (sorry, I can only describe it) that went in her high chair which was in the shape of a "U" that fit around her sides and back to support her. We also used Bumbo for sitting (way back when).

Basically, we have done some things, but really we just focus on brining in toys that work best for Sydney's developmental needs and challenge her like books with single pictures of items (photos only) and we work on signs and sounds. We get toys where she has to stack, nest, and busy-box like things where she has to figure out how to make it work. She also LOVES music so we find toys/items where she does something to make music come out. I think our lives are really WAY more typical than I originally expected. (and this was probably one big ramble!) thanks for asking the question. I hope you get some gems. I am looking forward to learning something from this carnival.

[Lisa]

Is it ok if a participate in this?
I will post something later this week :)

[Alicia @ Experiencing Each Moment]

I'll be thinking-would love to join in!

[Tammy and Parker]

Hey Wonderful Woman!

We set up a little kitchen space for Parker in the corner of our family room. On one of the walls we hug an oil painting that used to hang in Reed's parents home.....just at eye level of a certain 4 year old.

My dream is to get seasonal pictures sturdy enough to with stand the lovin' they would get from Parker and change them out as the seasons change.