Photo by Kelly Hale

“After 10 years in the Internet industry, veteran web designer Kelly Hale and developer Mike Schimanowsky (Shim) have sold their worldly belongings, bid farewell to friends and family, packed a laptop and traded in the daily 9-5 for a life of nomadic freelancing and travel.

Our first stop? It was the Philippines, where began our search for the idyllic stretch of sandy beach… complete with WiFi connection. Since then, we’ve been through Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. After a year abroad in Southeast Asia, we returned home to Canada for a brief visit with family and friends. Then continuing the journey, we moved on to Costa Rica to begin the Central American leg of our nomadic travels.

Here we hope to relate our travels and post pictures for friends and family, and to provide some insight into the challenges and rewards of our journey.

Best,
Mike and Kelly”

The folks at imaginechildhood believe that “children should experience the world through their own eyes, ears, fingers, and toes. That direct interaction with nature is the best way to learn about the world, and that open-ended imaginative play is the best way to learn about what it could be.”

“Part community forum, part storefront, imaginechildhood.com is a place where parents and kids can find their own definition of childhood. On our blog and in our store we offer stories, activities, and innovative products that encourage exploration, creativity, and open-ended unstructured play. So take a moment and imagine childhood… what do you see?”

photos by imaginechildhood.com

Playful Learning “is a homegrown website that was created to share useful and interesting information with families regarding the growth and development of their children.”

Number Jars

“Creating number jars is a counting activity I read about in the book, Workjobs written by Mary Baratta-Lorten. I used some bottles I had purchased to use in the kitchen, but never got around to organizing. I started by labeling the bottles with white vinyl numbers. To create a little intrigue and support I rolled number cards up and placed them in jars. I used the same number cards (see below) that I created for the Counting Shells learning experience.”

I simply left the jars and a bag of glass pebbles on the kitchen table and before I knew it, my three year old was there exploring the activity. She diligently opened each jar, took out the number card and then proceeded to place the appropriate number of glass pebbles in each jar. For the higher numbers she relied on the number cards by placing the pebbles on the black dots to make sure she had the correct amount before placing them in the jar.”

Blog Find:

” Rita and Whatsit — Rita is a little girl with a big personality. Whatsit is a dog without a name. Rita enjoys dressing up, running around, and being in charge. Whatsit enjoys chewing on things, sleeping, and cheating at checkers. Together, they are perfect friends.

In this, the first book of a new series, Rita is not pleased with any of her birthday presents…until one of them starts running away.

—– Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod was born in Bordeaux, France. He is a teacher, editor, and the author of many books for children and adults. He lives in the suburbs of Paris.”

Marcus Fischer, a multimedia artist and musician currently living in Portland, Oregon, set a goal to do something creative everyday – today is day 100, way to go!

A few words from Marcus:

“The goal has been to do something creative everyday for a year and document it in a blog. I started it to try and motivate myself to be more productive and for it to act as a creative catalyst to get me started on larger projects. I never expected it to go so well… I also wasn’t even sure that i’d make it this long.

Through this project, not only have I felt the most productive that I have in years (maybe ever) i have also had the opportunity to become acquainted with some really great people that I would never have met otherwise. I would like to say thanks to everyone that has been so kind and supportive… it has really kept me gong on this.”

Inspiring.

photography by Lars Jonsson

Karin Eriksson “is a Swedish based designer/maker of functional ceramics and one off interior pieces.” I had the pleasure of meeting Karin in her studio while visiting Stockholm about two years ago. It was inspiring to be in her creative space and to have the opportunity to watch her work.

GM’s Education “website offers teachers and students resources and activities that highlight energy, environment and sustainability topics.”