My niece, Sara, made this wonderful video of our family's Christmas break. She is so good at this! So, forgive me for backing up a month to squeeze this gem into the flow of the blog.
1/25/11
1/21/11
Map of the World
G-bear sometimes has a hard time waiting for school to start. She goes to afternoon kindergarten, and in some ways, she really is ready for all day 1st grade. As a mama, one of the phrases I really don't enjoy is, "I'm bored." My knee-jerk reaction is "well, find something to do" like it's their problem. This morning when I heard that phrase from G-bear, I said, "What can I help you get started on?" She decided she wanted to draw a map of the world on the floor. So I set her up, and this is what she drew. It includes our house, Grandma's house, Aunt Wendy's house, Cumberland Island, the sun, moon, stars, and a Michigan flag.
Music Play
I wanted to post this for a couple reasons: 1. To show off the cute banjo that our friend, David, made for Bug (and I painted it) 2. It is a good illustration of where G-bear is right now. She is in an in-between stage, which is not all that easy sometimes. She wants desperately for Moo to play pretend with her, and Moo is increasingly losing interest. Like here, she tries to play with Bug. He loves it, but it takes quite a dose of patience on her part. She's in between these two seemingly polar developmental stages, and sometimes she adapts gracefully, other times. . . well, not so gracefully. I appreciate these moments when she is at least trying.
1/18/11
Peace on the inside
Each year, I am wanting to find new ways to celebrate MLK day. It was a very busy weekend for us, so my celebration came in a way that was personal and internal. It was a time of renewal, and it gave me new energy for peace building in my everyday life. Even though I've always tried to make MLK day into a lesson for the children, or an outward celebration, I believe that this kind of inner peace building is important too, and I believe it's another way to honor Dr. King's hard, important work.
So, the way I found this inner peace? Spending a couple days among good friends, being grateful for community, good food in our bellies, art, friendships, a love for natural beauty. All these things filled me up. Here are some images of what it looked like.
So, the way I found this inner peace? Spending a couple days among good friends, being grateful for community, good food in our bellies, art, friendships, a love for natural beauty. All these things filled me up. Here are some images of what it looked like.
1/12/11
Thrummed Mittens
It's cold out there, and there's lots of snow, and I am absolutely loving it! I am especially loving it now that I have these completed. It's rare, sadly, that I complete a project for myself, but that keeps it especially thrilling, maybe. This was my first go at thrummed mittens. The pattern involves both wool yarn and wool roving (the raw wool before it is spun into yarn). The mittens are knit with the yarn, and periodically, you knit in a little piece of roving, so that on the inside, the tails of the roving makes a very soft, fuzzy warm pouch for your hand. I love putting them on!! I did find it a little difficult to incorporate the roving in a tidy, somewhat systematic way. Oh well, it gives them more of an organic look this way : ) The first picture is of the mitten inside-out, to show what the inside looks like. The second is a picture of the outside.
Chiro in the house!
It's official! Mark is now working as a chiropractor in his own office!! Here he is with his first patient, a long-time friend who he has done many adventure trips with. He and G especially like ice climbing together. When he walked in and Mark said, "Congratulations, G! You're my first patient," G was thrilled and said "I've been waiting for 5 years to be your first patient!!!"
PS - Even if you can't make the Grand Opening this weekend, if you are on facebook, you can "like" Live Well Chiropractic Center for Mark's sake. You never know. . . one of your facebook friends just might be in Ann Arbor someday : )
PS - Even if you can't make the Grand Opening this weekend, if you are on facebook, you can "like" Live Well Chiropractic Center for Mark's sake. You never know. . . one of your facebook friends just might be in Ann Arbor someday : )
1/4/11
Creationism, according to G-bear
From the back seat, I heard a long, dramatic lecture, accompanied by graceful arm motions and many hand gestures. It went something like this.
Ever wonder where the first trees came from? Well, a long, long time ago God made one gigantic seed, about the size of a dining room table. It was planted and from it grew many enormous trees. Each of them made their own seeds and more and more and more and more trees grew. The seeds and the trees became smaller. Back then, the earth was a hot, dry desert. The only way anyone could stay cool was from the shade of these trees. Then God decided to weave a beautiful scarf for his wife, Mother Earth. He wrapped it around her, and that scarf became grass. It brought coolness to the Earth. This all happened before there were even dinosaurs.
Ever wonder where the first trees came from? Well, a long, long time ago God made one gigantic seed, about the size of a dining room table. It was planted and from it grew many enormous trees. Each of them made their own seeds and more and more and more and more trees grew. The seeds and the trees became smaller. Back then, the earth was a hot, dry desert. The only way anyone could stay cool was from the shade of these trees. Then God decided to weave a beautiful scarf for his wife, Mother Earth. He wrapped it around her, and that scarf became grass. It brought coolness to the Earth. This all happened before there were even dinosaurs.
Open Education
We are learning about the Open Education philosophy gradually as our kids attend an open school. It is very child-centered, and I appreciate more and more about it as we progress. Here are a couple of examples of what we've encountered at an open school:
Every quarter, the parents, the teachers, and the students all come up with goals for the next quarter. The kids are empowered to come up with their own goals. For example, Moo said she wanted to be in a play and make 5 new friends.
Every year there is a science fair. All the kids are invited to participate. They can come up with whatever project they want, if they want, and the parents are expected to help them carry out the project. Both our girls said they wanted to participate. I asked them what they would like to learn about. Moo said she wants to know why some plants die in the winter, but come back in the spring. G-bear said she wants to know why wolves howl at the moon. So, in the coming weeks, we will be making those questions into projects.
We're not exactly clear on this one, but according to the girls, each class has someone in student council (even the kindergarten). In the 1-2 class, Moo said everyone filled out a form, and indicated whether they would like to give a speech in front of the whole school. Those who responded that they would, were put on a list, and the class voted for who they thought should be on student council from that list. As you can probably guess, Moo did not choose to be on the list.
We started hearing about the student council process one day when G-bear was telling us about her day, and she said, "Well. . . . I think just about everyone in my class voted for me. . . it was kinda embarrassing." We asked her lots of questions, and according to her, she and one other girl from her class were voted to be on student council. We said, "So does that mean you'll give a speech to the whole school?" and she confidently said, "Yep." A little surprised, we asked her if she had thought about what she would say. She said that they were supposed to say what they thought would make the school a better place. She told us, "I will say that if every class treated every other class as if it was their own class, that would make the school better." Apparently, she had already thought this through and figured it out! We still aren't sure how accurate all this reporting is, because we haven't talked to her teacher yet, but it sure was entertaining anyway.
One popular event at their school is the Multicultural Fair, which happens every December. Each class discusses what country they want to represent, votes on it, and then spends several weeks learning about that country. For the fair, they transform their room into that country, in some way. We were especially excited because Moo's class chose Colombia, and her cousins live there! They put on a play of the story of the Biblioburro. Each kid got to choose who they wanted to be, and come up with a costume. Moo decided to be a Quetzal.
G-Bear's class studied Mexico, so both girls were reciting the little bits of Spanish they were each learning. When their cousins arrived from Colombia, they generously visited both classrooms and spoke a little Spanish in each. G-Bear's class learned about the desert, the Day of the Dead, food, and clothes from Mexico.
The night of the fair was actually very chaotic and crowded, but we were happy to see what the girls' classes had been working on. As you enter the fair, everyone can get a passport. At each room, you can get a stamp to put in your passport. As it turns out, I found the event to also be a way to get a sense for the style of the teacher in each room. Some where much more free form, and some were very tidy with everything in place. Here are a couple pictures from the Multicultural Fair:
Every quarter, the parents, the teachers, and the students all come up with goals for the next quarter. The kids are empowered to come up with their own goals. For example, Moo said she wanted to be in a play and make 5 new friends.
Every year there is a science fair. All the kids are invited to participate. They can come up with whatever project they want, if they want, and the parents are expected to help them carry out the project. Both our girls said they wanted to participate. I asked them what they would like to learn about. Moo said she wants to know why some plants die in the winter, but come back in the spring. G-bear said she wants to know why wolves howl at the moon. So, in the coming weeks, we will be making those questions into projects.
We're not exactly clear on this one, but according to the girls, each class has someone in student council (even the kindergarten). In the 1-2 class, Moo said everyone filled out a form, and indicated whether they would like to give a speech in front of the whole school. Those who responded that they would, were put on a list, and the class voted for who they thought should be on student council from that list. As you can probably guess, Moo did not choose to be on the list.
We started hearing about the student council process one day when G-bear was telling us about her day, and she said, "Well. . . . I think just about everyone in my class voted for me. . . it was kinda embarrassing." We asked her lots of questions, and according to her, she and one other girl from her class were voted to be on student council. We said, "So does that mean you'll give a speech to the whole school?" and she confidently said, "Yep." A little surprised, we asked her if she had thought about what she would say. She said that they were supposed to say what they thought would make the school a better place. She told us, "I will say that if every class treated every other class as if it was their own class, that would make the school better." Apparently, she had already thought this through and figured it out! We still aren't sure how accurate all this reporting is, because we haven't talked to her teacher yet, but it sure was entertaining anyway.
One popular event at their school is the Multicultural Fair, which happens every December. Each class discusses what country they want to represent, votes on it, and then spends several weeks learning about that country. For the fair, they transform their room into that country, in some way. We were especially excited because Moo's class chose Colombia, and her cousins live there! They put on a play of the story of the Biblioburro. Each kid got to choose who they wanted to be, and come up with a costume. Moo decided to be a Quetzal.
G-Bear's class studied Mexico, so both girls were reciting the little bits of Spanish they were each learning. When their cousins arrived from Colombia, they generously visited both classrooms and spoke a little Spanish in each. G-Bear's class learned about the desert, the Day of the Dead, food, and clothes from Mexico.
The night of the fair was actually very chaotic and crowded, but we were happy to see what the girls' classes had been working on. As you enter the fair, everyone can get a passport. At each room, you can get a stamp to put in your passport. As it turns out, I found the event to also be a way to get a sense for the style of the teacher in each room. Some where much more free form, and some were very tidy with everything in place. Here are a couple pictures from the Multicultural Fair:
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