Monday, August 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Rhythm
Who woulda thunk? We "began the school year" so to speak, yesterday morning at 10:30 (we had a rollicking good time with friends in their pool the night before and no one was ready to begin our day early). We commenced with lighting a candle and a sharing of joys and sorrows. To a child, even the ones who had been protesting the "back to school moment" most loudly, they all listed as a JOY, starting up our routine again. Some called it school, some called it circle time, some called it "our usual day" and baby, I think, said something like; "Gaeouze-moufalb," because his mouth was full of apple or blue marker or both, it was hard to tell. They were all happy to have days where they knew what would happen when and to have time together peacefully.
I believe in rhythm, I believe in setting the pace and keeping it a calm one for children. It is reassuring to them and creates harmony and flow in a busy household. I also believe in spontaneity and following through on last-minute ideas. Finding a balance of the two is an ongoing mama samba for me.
Another, less flattering note on rhythm; the baby (two now, and a bit beyond baby, but he's the last) has definite expectations of his own day's proceedings. We came home from a long trip a few weeks ago. It was late at night and we all just fell into bed and sleep. Or we would have, had we remembered his bed time routine. He resisted and resisted sleep. He would drift off and then wake up again, crying and screaming for "la-la" (his potty chair) or "bas" (en bas, downstairs) or "Memo", the unmentionable video he is allowed to watch five minutes of each evening. Only at that point, I had not yet realized that this had become a habit. (I won't qualify that as a routine or ritual, too awful for that.) After removing his diaper and taking him downstairs to "la-la" three times, I came to the realization that, at 12:30 am, he was not going to sleep until we sat with him by the tv for five minutes with Finding Nemo turned on. I grumbled and dragged my fanny out of bed and down the steps, baby in tow, sat on the darn sofa, turned on the aforementioned movie and he was out like a light. How humbling for an almost media-free mother!
I'll have to watch what I encourage as habits; my own as well as theirs.
How do you keep the flow going in your house? What are your scheduling absolute limits? Please share!
I believe in rhythm, I believe in setting the pace and keeping it a calm one for children. It is reassuring to them and creates harmony and flow in a busy household. I also believe in spontaneity and following through on last-minute ideas. Finding a balance of the two is an ongoing mama samba for me.
Another, less flattering note on rhythm; the baby (two now, and a bit beyond baby, but he's the last) has definite expectations of his own day's proceedings. We came home from a long trip a few weeks ago. It was late at night and we all just fell into bed and sleep. Or we would have, had we remembered his bed time routine. He resisted and resisted sleep. He would drift off and then wake up again, crying and screaming for "la-la" (his potty chair) or "bas" (en bas, downstairs) or "Memo", the unmentionable video he is allowed to watch five minutes of each evening. Only at that point, I had not yet realized that this had become a habit. (I won't qualify that as a routine or ritual, too awful for that.) After removing his diaper and taking him downstairs to "la-la" three times, I came to the realization that, at 12:30 am, he was not going to sleep until we sat with him by the tv for five minutes with Finding Nemo turned on. I grumbled and dragged my fanny out of bed and down the steps, baby in tow, sat on the darn sofa, turned on the aforementioned movie and he was out like a light. How humbling for an almost media-free mother!
I'll have to watch what I encourage as habits; my own as well as theirs.
How do you keep the flow going in your house? What are your scheduling absolute limits? Please share!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Summertime
The kids don't know it yet, but I am putting off the beginning of the school year by one more week. It is only July, and the thought of starting at the beginning of August as planned leaves me lukewarm, at best, and feeling like a cruel mother at worst. Not that homeschooling is particularly time-consuming in terms of hours in a day that we are all actually studying, writing and doing math. But it is summer, and it has been a cool one. It has also been a busy one. Almost no time that has felt lazy and unfilled with activity and obligation. We need a good couple of weeks of lazy and relaxation, and hopefully boredom to motivate a desire for more. If the hot days are about to begin, I want to be able to enjoy the beach, the garden, (and hide inside in the air-conditioning when I need to.)
This weekend was perfect; we picked up our eldest, who had spent almost a week with her grandparents in Dubuque. While we were there, Thierry and I made the most of the weekend before our anniversary to leave all of the children with grandma and grandpa and spend a lovely afternoon in Galena. We strolled the streets, window-shopped (with the exception of the yarn shop, which I spent as much time in as I could romantically allow myself. To be fair, it really is a fantastic yarn shop). We had a leisurely lunch, fudge from the candy shop I went nuts in as a kid, and coffee from a newer coffee shop across the way by the railroad station. The weather was perfect, the ambiance relaxed and us-focused. That felt like summer.
Yesterday the children and I took a bike ride at the time I should have been preparing lunch, the worst time of the day for sun exposure, and it was lovely. We accomplished nothing else the whole day except lunch and dinner. That felt like summer too.
I wish you many days of summer-like feeling for the rest of the season. Store up some sunshine before winter arrives. My plan for today; visit my tomato plants, plan our math block in detail, knit a bit (socks), finish up the laundry I began, go to the library, make lunch, take a nap with baby, read a story to the kids (Treasure Island right now), make dinner while they build a snowboard with Daddy, go to bed. Lazy enough for a mother of five!
This weekend was perfect; we picked up our eldest, who had spent almost a week with her grandparents in Dubuque. While we were there, Thierry and I made the most of the weekend before our anniversary to leave all of the children with grandma and grandpa and spend a lovely afternoon in Galena. We strolled the streets, window-shopped (with the exception of the yarn shop, which I spent as much time in as I could romantically allow myself. To be fair, it really is a fantastic yarn shop). We had a leisurely lunch, fudge from the candy shop I went nuts in as a kid, and coffee from a newer coffee shop across the way by the railroad station. The weather was perfect, the ambiance relaxed and us-focused. That felt like summer.
Yesterday the children and I took a bike ride at the time I should have been preparing lunch, the worst time of the day for sun exposure, and it was lovely. We accomplished nothing else the whole day except lunch and dinner. That felt like summer too.
I wish you many days of summer-like feeling for the rest of the season. Store up some sunshine before winter arrives. My plan for today; visit my tomato plants, plan our math block in detail, knit a bit (socks), finish up the laundry I began, go to the library, make lunch, take a nap with baby, read a story to the kids (Treasure Island right now), make dinner while they build a snowboard with Daddy, go to bed. Lazy enough for a mother of five!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Not crafts: Reposted from 2009
I have always been a rotten craft mom. Can't come up with one single idea for popsicle sticks and that fun foam stuff leaves me uninspired, but give me some beautiful colors of embroidery floss or warm,inviting wool to knit, a sewing machine and fabric, and I become a prolifically productive individual. The past two weeks have found us busy making a doll for my little guy's birthday, with my oldest daughter knitting and sewing him a wardrobe. I also spent two days inexpertly making him a pair of overalls out of a friend's old curtains. (I can knit better than I can sew.) He is the sweetest doll, and I think my two-year old could care less. What he is really into is playing shoot-my-big-brother and watch him fall over "dead", or reading a story with mama. He will pick him up once in awhile and call him "baby" but it does not look to be a deep, endearing sort of love, oh well.
My sweet little seven-year-old girl brought me a gift yesterday; a folded-up wad of paper. When I opened it, there was a thick, pink and yellow gunky sort of design. "I made it with glue stick glue and eraser parts." That's my kind of girl. I told her about the hours I spent as a child trying to perfect the art of painting with eraser shavings (they were all pink back then) mixed with glue; tactile art. I try to encourage them in all of their artistic endeavors, though it is sometimes hard to keep breathing normally when "art" equals really big mess. They use things like ink and pen (the pen is not the problematic part of the equation), sealing wax, play dough, beeswax for modeling, colored pencils (ah, colored pencils, such a nice, clean medium!) yarn, wool potholder loops, fishing line (not cool), paint, they love paint, and real clay...I've hidden that one in the cupboard.
I had a long talk (rather a one-sided talk, since I did all of it) with a friend yesterday about Tasha Tudor. When Tasha was asked to contribute to a book on her crafting, she indignantly retorted; "I don't do crafts!" This from a woman who grew her own plants for dying her wool, split her own branches for weaving baskets and wove her own cloth for the 1830's clothes she loved so. No, she didn't "do crafts" but her life was one long creative endeavor.
What I hope to instill in my children is not a series of recipes for learning, making or doing (except perhaps for mathematical formulas and my recipe for chocolate chip scones), but a love for fine materials, for color, for taste and for living in harmony with the world around them.
Yes, in Waldorf education, this translates to teaching by example; seeing me knit, garden, sew and cook, they learn that this is a normal part of life. Painting and drawing are a mix of seeing my drawing and imitating it, painting with colors as we add them together, and free-style scribbling and finger-painting. There is a moment for each during the day. We have some instruction time and a whole lot of free time. This is not limiting as one would think. For a child to produce something of quality, be it art, writing or music, they need to have experienced quality first-hand. This does not, however, translate into coloring books and foam craft kits with pre-cut pieces (though we have been known to buy Klutz kits for things from beading to origami to snap-together animals; a dark environmental shame I will carry to the grave!) I know a few unschooling friends who will have lots to say on this topic...please feel free to leave comments, and have an artful day!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Motherhood and forgiveness
I have come to peace with an idea; sometimes as mothers, we are absolutely busy from morning until night with the business of raising our children, and that is OK. This is the job we signed up for, after all. Like the rest of you, I had absolutely no idea that it could ever be this all-consuming, passionate, exhilarating and heart-wrenching all at the same time. Nor that it could take up every waking (and sleeping) moment of my life at times.
So, join me, if you will, in forgiving yourself for not meeting every opportunity for career development or volunteer work or "me time" with enthusiasm, time and energy. Revel in the short short period of childhood (even if you are the mother of many and it seems that this may last half your life), and "wear proudly the badge of motherhood" as a dear friend and much-respected mother of four grown children encouraged me to do. Enjoy those extra-long nursing sessions, nights camping out, walks, gardening together, reading stories aloud by the hour. We will soon find ourselves alone again, with time aplenty to indulge "real life" as our children move on to live their own busy lives and have their own babies. Sit, breathe and pay attention to now, it won't happen again.
So, join me, if you will, in forgiving yourself for not meeting every opportunity for career development or volunteer work or "me time" with enthusiasm, time and energy. Revel in the short short period of childhood (even if you are the mother of many and it seems that this may last half your life), and "wear proudly the badge of motherhood" as a dear friend and much-respected mother of four grown children encouraged me to do. Enjoy those extra-long nursing sessions, nights camping out, walks, gardening together, reading stories aloud by the hour. We will soon find ourselves alone again, with time aplenty to indulge "real life" as our children move on to live their own busy lives and have their own babies. Sit, breathe and pay attention to now, it won't happen again.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Smelly Post
It was a treat to see that the "this day in history" site featured my favorite perfume the other day; Channel no.5. It looked like a sign...of summer, of time to dream and loll about. So, though life all around me has been chaotic and sometimes sad lately, I will dwell on the fluff today, on the happy stuff, perfume and being French. The fun parts of French are so much fun. They are the ones that lose their impetus for more worthwhile pursuits when one is raising five children in the stoic Midwest, but they are still there, on the periphery, waving to me once in a while.
A year in France as an exchange student was one thing; soaking up life all around me and the many many different ways of doing things. Returning to France to live for real was quite another. Now that I could fully understand the language, I embarked on the study of different ways of seeing and feeling and thinking. The first mystery for me was fashion. Until then, fashion meant what to wear to school or the prom, make-up tips, etc. I was only vaguely aware of designers and neither knew or cared about this world. In France I was confronted with an entire population who knew everything about Dior, Kenzo, Gaultier, etc. The first manifestation of this was a friend who was an extremely serious college student in grad school in poly sci. She also knew exactly which knock-offs to look for in which stores for this year's designer bag, and all about who made the original. Louis who? I would murmur, trying to pretend I was following the conversation. The billboards everywhere included not only teen store icons; Benneton and Kukai, but also the great names of fashion. As the awareness seeped into my subconscious, I began to notice the style of LaCroix compared to Channel, sort of, or their names at least. I couldn't help it, even my techie/surfer husband could discuss fashion! I believe, as I struggle to name even a few names, that it all comes down to livelihood. In France, design and fashion are an industry, and a government-subsidized one as are art and music. Money gives impetus to both the silly and the vital. The upside is that most everyone in France looks presentable at all times and they smell nice. The downside, for an American, is that going out in sweats and sneakers on a down day is just not done. I had to stay home on down days, or get dressed. For me,then, the study of fashion became a study of who these French people were, what made them tick, what image had they chosen to portray to the world. Never did they deliberately give the impression that life was the worst and that they just didn't care enough to get dressed. A first step to integration was to become more French-like in my dress, and since everyone looked so much more elegant than I did, it was an enjoyable goal to work towards.
When I lived in France, fine red and delicate white wine were a fact of life. The farmers' market was our main source of food and it was always within walking distance. We stocked up on beautiful vegetables of every sort (truly works of art in themselves, see picture below), fish fresh from the ocean, oysters born in the local oyster beds and cheese from the creamery; stinky mountain sheep wheels, chevre wrapped in leaves or coated in pepper, Roquefort with veins as green as grass in the creamy white base. We also indulged in little rolls baked around sausage bits or a sort of pepperoni. I would bring home three or four sorts of dried apricots; orange ones, black ones and everything inbetween, tried licorice root and summer-type sausage, butter with sea salt. My favorite stall by far though, was the olive lady. She had all kinds of olives, all kinds. Green fresh ones from the French Mediterranean, oily, fat black ones from Greece, spicy red ones from Morocco in an herb sauce. They were in great big wooden barrels, scooped out with a soup ladel into a plastic bag. You could sample any new (or old) varieties and no amount was too small to sell.
A typical Saturday morning for us, BC (before children), was a stroll to the pool for a few laps, then to the farmers' market, stopping by a cafe on the way home to have a croissant, hot coco and read the paper. Even after having children, we would take turns going to the pool and out for coffee. Friends frequently stopped by for a chat or came for dinner, time seemed more elastic.
Even literature was a bit debauched, Channel takes me back to Colette, author of fantastic literature, all slightly naughty in nature. After the war, she, like Coco Channel, launched her own line of beauty products, believing in helping women be as beautiful as they wished to be, at any age. If not a deeply moral goal, at least a well-intentioned one.
A year in France as an exchange student was one thing; soaking up life all around me and the many many different ways of doing things. Returning to France to live for real was quite another. Now that I could fully understand the language, I embarked on the study of different ways of seeing and feeling and thinking. The first mystery for me was fashion. Until then, fashion meant what to wear to school or the prom, make-up tips, etc. I was only vaguely aware of designers and neither knew or cared about this world. In France I was confronted with an entire population who knew everything about Dior, Kenzo, Gaultier, etc. The first manifestation of this was a friend who was an extremely serious college student in grad school in poly sci. She also knew exactly which knock-offs to look for in which stores for this year's designer bag, and all about who made the original. Louis who? I would murmur, trying to pretend I was following the conversation. The billboards everywhere included not only teen store icons; Benneton and Kukai, but also the great names of fashion. As the awareness seeped into my subconscious, I began to notice the style of LaCroix compared to Channel, sort of, or their names at least. I couldn't help it, even my techie/surfer husband could discuss fashion! I believe, as I struggle to name even a few names, that it all comes down to livelihood. In France, design and fashion are an industry, and a government-subsidized one as are art and music. Money gives impetus to both the silly and the vital. The upside is that most everyone in France looks presentable at all times and they smell nice. The downside, for an American, is that going out in sweats and sneakers on a down day is just not done. I had to stay home on down days, or get dressed. For me,then, the study of fashion became a study of who these French people were, what made them tick, what image had they chosen to portray to the world. Never did they deliberately give the impression that life was the worst and that they just didn't care enough to get dressed. A first step to integration was to become more French-like in my dress, and since everyone looked so much more elegant than I did, it was an enjoyable goal to work towards.
When I lived in France, fine red and delicate white wine were a fact of life. The farmers' market was our main source of food and it was always within walking distance. We stocked up on beautiful vegetables of every sort (truly works of art in themselves, see picture below), fish fresh from the ocean, oysters born in the local oyster beds and cheese from the creamery; stinky mountain sheep wheels, chevre wrapped in leaves or coated in pepper, Roquefort with veins as green as grass in the creamy white base. We also indulged in little rolls baked around sausage bits or a sort of pepperoni. I would bring home three or four sorts of dried apricots; orange ones, black ones and everything inbetween, tried licorice root and summer-type sausage, butter with sea salt. My favorite stall by far though, was the olive lady. She had all kinds of olives, all kinds. Green fresh ones from the French Mediterranean, oily, fat black ones from Greece, spicy red ones from Morocco in an herb sauce. They were in great big wooden barrels, scooped out with a soup ladel into a plastic bag. You could sample any new (or old) varieties and no amount was too small to sell.
A typical Saturday morning for us, BC (before children), was a stroll to the pool for a few laps, then to the farmers' market, stopping by a cafe on the way home to have a croissant, hot coco and read the paper. Even after having children, we would take turns going to the pool and out for coffee. Friends frequently stopped by for a chat or came for dinner, time seemed more elastic.
Even literature was a bit debauched, Channel takes me back to Colette, author of fantastic literature, all slightly naughty in nature. After the war, she, like Coco Channel, launched her own line of beauty products, believing in helping women be as beautiful as they wished to be, at any age. If not a deeply moral goal, at least a well-intentioned one.
Friday, May 15, 2009
work and school
Wow. I feel like I've been run over by a truck. So this is what most women in America deal with in a typical week. Hats off to you, working mothers. I am checking in after a week of work with a deadline. Don't get me wrong, staying home with children, cleaning and caring for a home and husband, is all a whole ton of work. I've been doing it for twelve years now. I have felt exhausted, mentally drained, unappreciated both by the world and by my employers. I have also loved every single minute, no matter how awful, knowing how utterly privileged I was to do the work I had chosen to do, and spend every day with my adored children, even if I was not being paid a dime.
This week found us homeschooling at an intense pace. The children announced their intention of being on summer break by the end of May, I countered with the list of what needs to happen before then, and my date of June 15th. We went back and forth on the topic for a few days; "Our friends are all done before then," "Your friends don't get every Wednesday off or only have class in the morning." We came to the compromise that if they satisfactorily meet my requirements, they can call it a year by May 29th. That means more work for them, and more for me; organize, delegate, correct,redirect.
Of course, as most always happens, this has also been the week of the most concentrated professional effort in the last 12 years. I've usually had some writing going on, a French class or two, or some volunteer project, but my husband and I decided that this was the weekend to launch our first website. This coincides with a homeschool conference at which I am presenting two workshops. It has been exhilarating, having a goal and finding the hours in the day to pursue it. Working at the library or a cafe all by my lonesome for a couple of hours here and there has felt liberating. It has been exciting, the new ideas that have been generated, the spark created between my husband and I as we create together, this time something other than a baby. Evenings together, talking, planning and dreaming have been romantic. And it has been bone-weary, worn-out tiring, though in a good way.
The website? French with Kids, an organic, family-friendly approach to foreign languages that helps a parent tailor a language program for your home environment. It's a very simple idea that I've been wanting to present to families for a long time as an alternative to the text book style of learning. How many times a day do you or your children need to say; "I am American, are you German?" or "the student's desk is in front of the teacher's desk,"? But how many times do we need to say; "Can you play nicely please?" or "Set the table." It is not a method that advocates a passive approach in front of a computer screen or the tv. It is a living, breathing, practice-every-day-together type of learning. Request from parent elicits an action or a response from child. Learn one or so a day and make it part of your life and the language will become a part of you as well. Like Suzuki or Waldorf, less is more, learning an expression well and using it often is prized above large quantities of vocabulary you may not use every day. There are many songs involved as well. I will keep you updated on the opening of the site. Right now I need a nap.
P.S. How fun that today's history quote has to do with Van Gogh, who, though not French, lived the influential years of his artistic life in France, painting in the golden Provincial glow.
This week found us homeschooling at an intense pace. The children announced their intention of being on summer break by the end of May, I countered with the list of what needs to happen before then, and my date of June 15th. We went back and forth on the topic for a few days; "Our friends are all done before then," "Your friends don't get every Wednesday off or only have class in the morning." We came to the compromise that if they satisfactorily meet my requirements, they can call it a year by May 29th. That means more work for them, and more for me; organize, delegate, correct,redirect.
Of course, as most always happens, this has also been the week of the most concentrated professional effort in the last 12 years. I've usually had some writing going on, a French class or two, or some volunteer project, but my husband and I decided that this was the weekend to launch our first website. This coincides with a homeschool conference at which I am presenting two workshops. It has been exhilarating, having a goal and finding the hours in the day to pursue it. Working at the library or a cafe all by my lonesome for a couple of hours here and there has felt liberating. It has been exciting, the new ideas that have been generated, the spark created between my husband and I as we create together, this time something other than a baby. Evenings together, talking, planning and dreaming have been romantic. And it has been bone-weary, worn-out tiring, though in a good way.
The website? French with Kids, an organic, family-friendly approach to foreign languages that helps a parent tailor a language program for your home environment. It's a very simple idea that I've been wanting to present to families for a long time as an alternative to the text book style of learning. How many times a day do you or your children need to say; "I am American, are you German?" or "the student's desk is in front of the teacher's desk,"? But how many times do we need to say; "Can you play nicely please?" or "Set the table." It is not a method that advocates a passive approach in front of a computer screen or the tv. It is a living, breathing, practice-every-day-together type of learning. Request from parent elicits an action or a response from child. Learn one or so a day and make it part of your life and the language will become a part of you as well. Like Suzuki or Waldorf, less is more, learning an expression well and using it often is prized above large quantities of vocabulary you may not use every day. There are many songs involved as well. I will keep you updated on the opening of the site. Right now I need a nap.
P.S. How fun that today's history quote has to do with Van Gogh, who, though not French, lived the influential years of his artistic life in France, painting in the golden Provincial glow.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Duck Creek in Winter
This is right before they fell in the creek, again. Our creek down the street is a source of endless discovery and fun. These are giant sheets of ice that start to form and fall out of the creek; yes, out, during moments of thawing. The kids think they make great slides. I bit all of my nails off watching them!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Gift of Childhood in Today's World
This is the speech I was privileged to hear a few weeks ago. Thank you to Mary O'Connell, who has graciously given her permission to reprint her inspiring words here.
The Gift of Childhood in Today’s World
Prairie Hill Waldorf School Community Education Conference
March 21, 2009
Mary O’Connell, LifeWays
www.lifeways-center.org
I recently had the opportunity to work with a couple hundred early childhood professionals who are employed by nationally accredited, well-respected childcare centers.
I spent the better part of a day with these teachers, who represented classrooms of children from age 6 weeks to 5 years.
As the day went on, and I was able to talk to and work with these teachers, several “pictures” began to emerge of their work with children. These were images of:
institutionalized care
• large group sizes with ever-changing caregivers—in many of their programs, children would change classrooms and teachers up to 9 times before first grade, as they aged. This doesn’t take into account turnover of teachers, which is traditionally quite high in U.S. childcare centers
a hesitancy among many caregivers to develop attachments to the children, because the children were moved around so much, the caregivers were afraid it might actually harm the children to get too close to one adult
an aversion – no, a fear, really – of touching the children due to a risk of parents misunderstanding and resulting lawsuits
one caregiver shared with me that she is afraid the children growing up in U.S. childcare centers are experiencing a childhood that is “sterile” (and I don’t think she was talking about freedom from germs!)
I don’t want to leave you with a negative impression of these 200 teachers. The majority of them were sharp, educated and were passionate about their work.
It’s just that the world they inhabit is so unlike my own world of work with young children at LifeWays. In fact, compared to my own childhood (and, most likely, the childhood of most of you, I would guess) it’s almost unrecognizable.
If I had to use one word to describe the impressions I got that day, it would be Orwellian. Have you read George Orwell’s 1984? For those of you who haven’t, it is a novel written in the 1940’s about what life might be like in the future. It’s a world where people’s thoughts and actions are controlled by Big Brother (the government). One way that Big Brother achieves this mind control is that children are raised away from their families in laboratories, by Big Brother. It’s cold. Sterile. The children are taught --hypnotized --by images on screens and through audio recordings. (Hmmm……sound familiar?)
This picture of “institutionalized childhood” is in direct conflict with the picture that Rudolf Steiner gives us about the needs of the young child, which is an atmosphere of love and warmth. When he visited the classes of the first Waldorf school, he often asked the children, “Do you love your teacher?” I wonder how the children in these modern early childhood programs would answer that question?
I think my recent experience with these childcare providers was just a glimpse…. A microcosm…. of our current culture, a culture that has more drastically re-defined childhood than any other before it.
So what are the ways in which childhood has changed from the time when we were children?
The Ways in which Children Spend Their Time are Changing
Children of all ages are spending far less time in play. You’ve probably heard that already. Many people think, “How can that be? Don’t they play all the time? They play soccer, they play the violin, they play video games…”
How do we define play? Luckily, there has been a lot of research done on play recently. This is often the case when something is becoming extinct. So let’s look at how the experts who study play define it:
it must be repetitive (in studies, if a research subject does something just one time and doesn’t repeat it, it is not considered play)
it must be voluntarily initiated (if an adult told you to do it…it’s not play.)
it has no pre-determined rules
it has no clear goal. (It exists for no purpose other than because it’s fun)
These constructs support what Steiner had to say about play:
What is gained through play, through everything that cannot be determined by fixed rules, stems fundamentally from the self-activity of the child. The real educational value of play lives in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theories, and allow the child free rein.
If you take out all the activities that today’s children do that don’t meet the above criteria, the average child has very little time for imaginative and rambunctious cavorting. They spend much of their time in adult-directed activities, or in front of screens. In fact, the American child consumes the world of video games, Internet, and television for an average of 4-5 hours per day.
So, why should we care? What are the benefits of play?
• There are scores of studies that prove the value of play. I won’t bore you with the details, but to summarize, play:
improves a child’s social skills
strengthens a child’s creativity
improves mental functioning
is a primary predictor of a child’s success in school
Play serves as a training ground for the unexpected. It helps foster flexible thinking, Thinking outside the box, if you will.
People often say, “Why don’t they have computers in Waldorf schools? That’s so important in today’s day and age.” The world in 20 years will be such a different place. Education in today’s technology will be worthless. Adults will need to be flexible thinkers…problem solvers…work well with others. I can’t think of a better training ground for these skills than play.
We know that a child approaches play in an entirely individual way, out of the unique combination of his soul and spirit and his experiences of the world in which he lives. The manner in which a child plays offers us a glimpse of how he’ll take up his destiny as an adult. Waldorf schools and LifeWays centers VALUE play. It’s consciously built into the children’s day, and is not an afterthought.
In what other way has childhood changed from the time when you and I were kids to today?
There have been Changes in the Notion of “Protection” of Children
In many ways, this generation of children is more protected than any other before it.
• We are very focused on protecting our children from strangers
Remember the 4-5 hours/day children watch TV, use the Internet and play video games?
Contrast that with 4-5 minutes/day—the average amount of time American children spend in unstructured play outdoors.
We can say that’s probably the case because adults don’t spend much time outdoors today either; but, you know what? They didn’t when I was a kid. My parents were always quite busy at home and at work. The difference is that our parents sent us outside to play. That’s almost unheard of now, because we feel it isn’t safe out there.
People say, “Oh, it’s such a different world out there.” We feel that there are predators lurking around every corner, ready to abduct our kids. Today’s definition of a “good” parent is one who never lets her children out of her sight (or the sight of another vigilant adult).
But the risk of a child being abducted by a stranger today is one in a million. It’s actually decreased! The media attention surrounding missing children is so intense that it makes us think that the risk is greater than ever before.
This, of course, means that children are spending less time in nature. Ask any adult over 30 about their experiences in nature as a child, and they will be able to share vivid memories. Nature enlivens the senses. If I asked you to recall an experience of nature from your childhood, you can probably remember vividly how it smelled, what it looked like, the sounds you heard. Passionate memories of a childhood spent in nature are nearly universal…except for younger people.
Nature introduces children to small, calculated risks, like jumping across a creek on rocks or climbing trees. This is a very different experience from a playground, which is designed for safety. Nature isn’t engineered with “perfect proportions” and “limited liability” in mind. In nature, children learn how to solve problems, they learn their limitations and their strengths. Without this experience, children are at risk of engaging in unhealthy risk-taking as they get older.
Time spent in nature is especially important for adolescents. It is often the setting which brings out the ability to play again as they did when they were young children.
• We are very good at protecting children from germs
I was at a large discount store recently, and saw some children’s dishes that were actually embedded with antimicrobial agents designed to kill bacteria. Bottles of clear hand sanitizer are everywhere, it’s hard to find soap that isn’t antibacterial, antibiotic use is soaring. We’ve become the most germophobic (my own word) generation of parents yet.
• We have become quite accomplished at protecting our children from struggle
Beginning with the smallest infants, we have all sorts of contraptions to prop them up before they are ready to come into the upright on their own because we don’t like to see them struggle and cry as they learn to roll over, sit up and learn to walk.
We give our children all kinds of things they don’t need because we don’t want them to feel disappointment.
Today’s children are expected to do far less around the house in terms of chores, because we want them to have plenty of time for their enriching activities. We protect our children from boredom. The problem with this is that boredom is what breeds true creativity.
In many ways, this is the most protected, coddled generation of children yet.
But are they really protected? There are some areas in which our children are more vulnerable than ever before.
• Too many children are not protected from the media. This alone is robbing our children of their childhood perhaps more than anything else. Media is so pervasive, we often don’t even realize its hold on all of us. Today’s children are more media literate than we are, especially our older children and teens.
We don’t understand their world of instant messaging, video games and texting. The use of technology has spawned a whole new language we can’t even follow, OMG! IDK and PAW (parents are watching).
Many of our young people can’t imagine their life without their constant technology “fix”. I have the good fortune to be a small group leader for the high school religious education program at my church. We were recently preparing for our freshman retreat, and I was explaining to the kids the rule against electronics on retreat…no I Pods, cell phones, video games, etc. Two girls were devastated that they couldn’t bring their cell phones, because they didn’t think they could live without texting for 24 hours. (They ended up surviving quite well, thank you!)
Besides the fact that this media-gap causes a generation gap with our kids, it’s creating an interpersonal vacuum that is scary. It’s too soon to tell what the lasting effects will be on our children, the first generation to grow up surrounded by this level of technology. But one thing we know for certain right now…it’s dangerous.
A child who is allowed to freely surf the internet has a 1 in 5 chance of coming into contact with a predator. Compare that to the 1 in a million chance of them being abducted while they’re playing outside, and I think you’ll agree we’ve lost some healthy perspective on what’s a safe activity for our kids to be engaged in.
• Childhood itself is not being protected very well in our society. The media certainly contributes to this. The world of adult activities, global crises, distorted body images and sexualized fashions has invaded our children’s world at younger and younger ages.
Adult anxieties and fears have also infected our children. Since 9/11 there has been a generalized fear that has only intensified with the recent economic crisis. Our children feel this. It is estimated that 1 in 5 American children are suffering from anxiety disorders severe enough to warrant medication.
I think this is the case not just because they are picking up on our worries. We don’t really, as a society, strive to keep our children innocent anymore. To protect them from big, scary images or adult concepts. There is a general inclination to push them ahead, get them prepared, as if childhood itself isn’t a valid time unto itself—our society views childhood merely as preparation for adulthood. The sooner they “get the picture” the better.
Steiner spoke of the need to offer protection for the Forces of Childhood. Waldorf education (including LifeWays) offers this protection of a sacred time in life. It’s the only model of education that I know of that does this so well, with such intention. It’s a model that helps our children see the world as a safe and beautiful place to grow up. Who can then engage that world with joy and hope and wonder instead of with fear and cynicism.
“Perceive the Child in Reverence, Educate the Child in Love, Let the Child Go in Freedom”
Letting the child go in freedom…that’s our task, as parents, as teachers, as caregivers.
It’s a huge task.
Looking at all of the forces that have begun to work against childhood, one can begin to see that we, as parents and educators, have to bring a heightened level of consciousness to raising children in today’s world in order to send forth fully free human beings.
Human beings who are free to be in real and meaningful relationships with other human beings.
Human beings who are free to develop their own thoughts and opinions, and translate those thoughts into actions that reflect their values and ideals.
Human beings who can think creatively and engage the world with flexibility.
As children grow into adults, a lack of freedom in thinking allows other people to control their thoughts for them. In today’s world, we don’t need to look very far to find teenagers and adults whose thoughts and actions are controlled by outside forces because they somehow lack the freedom to follow a different path.
It’s enough to make you wonder if Orwell’s futuristic world of mind control is all that far off.
I firmly believe that we are the lucky ones….we’ve discovered the antidote. An education that values the gift of childhood.
The Gift of Childhood in Today’s World
Prairie Hill Waldorf School Community Education Conference
March 21, 2009
Mary O’Connell, LifeWays
www.lifeways-center.org
I recently had the opportunity to work with a couple hundred early childhood professionals who are employed by nationally accredited, well-respected childcare centers.
I spent the better part of a day with these teachers, who represented classrooms of children from age 6 weeks to 5 years.
As the day went on, and I was able to talk to and work with these teachers, several “pictures” began to emerge of their work with children. These were images of:
institutionalized care
• large group sizes with ever-changing caregivers—in many of their programs, children would change classrooms and teachers up to 9 times before first grade, as they aged. This doesn’t take into account turnover of teachers, which is traditionally quite high in U.S. childcare centers
a hesitancy among many caregivers to develop attachments to the children, because the children were moved around so much, the caregivers were afraid it might actually harm the children to get too close to one adult
an aversion – no, a fear, really – of touching the children due to a risk of parents misunderstanding and resulting lawsuits
one caregiver shared with me that she is afraid the children growing up in U.S. childcare centers are experiencing a childhood that is “sterile” (and I don’t think she was talking about freedom from germs!)
I don’t want to leave you with a negative impression of these 200 teachers. The majority of them were sharp, educated and were passionate about their work.
It’s just that the world they inhabit is so unlike my own world of work with young children at LifeWays. In fact, compared to my own childhood (and, most likely, the childhood of most of you, I would guess) it’s almost unrecognizable.
If I had to use one word to describe the impressions I got that day, it would be Orwellian. Have you read George Orwell’s 1984? For those of you who haven’t, it is a novel written in the 1940’s about what life might be like in the future. It’s a world where people’s thoughts and actions are controlled by Big Brother (the government). One way that Big Brother achieves this mind control is that children are raised away from their families in laboratories, by Big Brother. It’s cold. Sterile. The children are taught --hypnotized --by images on screens and through audio recordings. (Hmmm……sound familiar?)
This picture of “institutionalized childhood” is in direct conflict with the picture that Rudolf Steiner gives us about the needs of the young child, which is an atmosphere of love and warmth. When he visited the classes of the first Waldorf school, he often asked the children, “Do you love your teacher?” I wonder how the children in these modern early childhood programs would answer that question?
I think my recent experience with these childcare providers was just a glimpse…. A microcosm…. of our current culture, a culture that has more drastically re-defined childhood than any other before it.
So what are the ways in which childhood has changed from the time when we were children?
The Ways in which Children Spend Their Time are Changing
Children of all ages are spending far less time in play. You’ve probably heard that already. Many people think, “How can that be? Don’t they play all the time? They play soccer, they play the violin, they play video games…”
How do we define play? Luckily, there has been a lot of research done on play recently. This is often the case when something is becoming extinct. So let’s look at how the experts who study play define it:
it must be repetitive (in studies, if a research subject does something just one time and doesn’t repeat it, it is not considered play)
it must be voluntarily initiated (if an adult told you to do it…it’s not play.)
it has no pre-determined rules
it has no clear goal. (It exists for no purpose other than because it’s fun)
These constructs support what Steiner had to say about play:
What is gained through play, through everything that cannot be determined by fixed rules, stems fundamentally from the self-activity of the child. The real educational value of play lives in the fact that we ignore our rules and regulations, our educational theories, and allow the child free rein.
If you take out all the activities that today’s children do that don’t meet the above criteria, the average child has very little time for imaginative and rambunctious cavorting. They spend much of their time in adult-directed activities, or in front of screens. In fact, the American child consumes the world of video games, Internet, and television for an average of 4-5 hours per day.
So, why should we care? What are the benefits of play?
• There are scores of studies that prove the value of play. I won’t bore you with the details, but to summarize, play:
improves a child’s social skills
strengthens a child’s creativity
improves mental functioning
is a primary predictor of a child’s success in school
Play serves as a training ground for the unexpected. It helps foster flexible thinking, Thinking outside the box, if you will.
People often say, “Why don’t they have computers in Waldorf schools? That’s so important in today’s day and age.” The world in 20 years will be such a different place. Education in today’s technology will be worthless. Adults will need to be flexible thinkers…problem solvers…work well with others. I can’t think of a better training ground for these skills than play.
We know that a child approaches play in an entirely individual way, out of the unique combination of his soul and spirit and his experiences of the world in which he lives. The manner in which a child plays offers us a glimpse of how he’ll take up his destiny as an adult. Waldorf schools and LifeWays centers VALUE play. It’s consciously built into the children’s day, and is not an afterthought.
In what other way has childhood changed from the time when you and I were kids to today?
There have been Changes in the Notion of “Protection” of Children
In many ways, this generation of children is more protected than any other before it.
• We are very focused on protecting our children from strangers
Remember the 4-5 hours/day children watch TV, use the Internet and play video games?
Contrast that with 4-5 minutes/day—the average amount of time American children spend in unstructured play outdoors.
We can say that’s probably the case because adults don’t spend much time outdoors today either; but, you know what? They didn’t when I was a kid. My parents were always quite busy at home and at work. The difference is that our parents sent us outside to play. That’s almost unheard of now, because we feel it isn’t safe out there.
People say, “Oh, it’s such a different world out there.” We feel that there are predators lurking around every corner, ready to abduct our kids. Today’s definition of a “good” parent is one who never lets her children out of her sight (or the sight of another vigilant adult).
But the risk of a child being abducted by a stranger today is one in a million. It’s actually decreased! The media attention surrounding missing children is so intense that it makes us think that the risk is greater than ever before.
This, of course, means that children are spending less time in nature. Ask any adult over 30 about their experiences in nature as a child, and they will be able to share vivid memories. Nature enlivens the senses. If I asked you to recall an experience of nature from your childhood, you can probably remember vividly how it smelled, what it looked like, the sounds you heard. Passionate memories of a childhood spent in nature are nearly universal…except for younger people.
Nature introduces children to small, calculated risks, like jumping across a creek on rocks or climbing trees. This is a very different experience from a playground, which is designed for safety. Nature isn’t engineered with “perfect proportions” and “limited liability” in mind. In nature, children learn how to solve problems, they learn their limitations and their strengths. Without this experience, children are at risk of engaging in unhealthy risk-taking as they get older.
Time spent in nature is especially important for adolescents. It is often the setting which brings out the ability to play again as they did when they were young children.
• We are very good at protecting children from germs
I was at a large discount store recently, and saw some children’s dishes that were actually embedded with antimicrobial agents designed to kill bacteria. Bottles of clear hand sanitizer are everywhere, it’s hard to find soap that isn’t antibacterial, antibiotic use is soaring. We’ve become the most germophobic (my own word) generation of parents yet.
• We have become quite accomplished at protecting our children from struggle
Beginning with the smallest infants, we have all sorts of contraptions to prop them up before they are ready to come into the upright on their own because we don’t like to see them struggle and cry as they learn to roll over, sit up and learn to walk.
We give our children all kinds of things they don’t need because we don’t want them to feel disappointment.
Today’s children are expected to do far less around the house in terms of chores, because we want them to have plenty of time for their enriching activities. We protect our children from boredom. The problem with this is that boredom is what breeds true creativity.
In many ways, this is the most protected, coddled generation of children yet.
But are they really protected? There are some areas in which our children are more vulnerable than ever before.
• Too many children are not protected from the media. This alone is robbing our children of their childhood perhaps more than anything else. Media is so pervasive, we often don’t even realize its hold on all of us. Today’s children are more media literate than we are, especially our older children and teens.
We don’t understand their world of instant messaging, video games and texting. The use of technology has spawned a whole new language we can’t even follow, OMG! IDK and PAW (parents are watching).
Many of our young people can’t imagine their life without their constant technology “fix”. I have the good fortune to be a small group leader for the high school religious education program at my church. We were recently preparing for our freshman retreat, and I was explaining to the kids the rule against electronics on retreat…no I Pods, cell phones, video games, etc. Two girls were devastated that they couldn’t bring their cell phones, because they didn’t think they could live without texting for 24 hours. (They ended up surviving quite well, thank you!)
Besides the fact that this media-gap causes a generation gap with our kids, it’s creating an interpersonal vacuum that is scary. It’s too soon to tell what the lasting effects will be on our children, the first generation to grow up surrounded by this level of technology. But one thing we know for certain right now…it’s dangerous.
A child who is allowed to freely surf the internet has a 1 in 5 chance of coming into contact with a predator. Compare that to the 1 in a million chance of them being abducted while they’re playing outside, and I think you’ll agree we’ve lost some healthy perspective on what’s a safe activity for our kids to be engaged in.
• Childhood itself is not being protected very well in our society. The media certainly contributes to this. The world of adult activities, global crises, distorted body images and sexualized fashions has invaded our children’s world at younger and younger ages.
Adult anxieties and fears have also infected our children. Since 9/11 there has been a generalized fear that has only intensified with the recent economic crisis. Our children feel this. It is estimated that 1 in 5 American children are suffering from anxiety disorders severe enough to warrant medication.
I think this is the case not just because they are picking up on our worries. We don’t really, as a society, strive to keep our children innocent anymore. To protect them from big, scary images or adult concepts. There is a general inclination to push them ahead, get them prepared, as if childhood itself isn’t a valid time unto itself—our society views childhood merely as preparation for adulthood. The sooner they “get the picture” the better.
Steiner spoke of the need to offer protection for the Forces of Childhood. Waldorf education (including LifeWays) offers this protection of a sacred time in life. It’s the only model of education that I know of that does this so well, with such intention. It’s a model that helps our children see the world as a safe and beautiful place to grow up. Who can then engage that world with joy and hope and wonder instead of with fear and cynicism.
“Perceive the Child in Reverence, Educate the Child in Love, Let the Child Go in Freedom”
Letting the child go in freedom…that’s our task, as parents, as teachers, as caregivers.
It’s a huge task.
Looking at all of the forces that have begun to work against childhood, one can begin to see that we, as parents and educators, have to bring a heightened level of consciousness to raising children in today’s world in order to send forth fully free human beings.
Human beings who are free to be in real and meaningful relationships with other human beings.
Human beings who are free to develop their own thoughts and opinions, and translate those thoughts into actions that reflect their values and ideals.
Human beings who can think creatively and engage the world with flexibility.
As children grow into adults, a lack of freedom in thinking allows other people to control their thoughts for them. In today’s world, we don’t need to look very far to find teenagers and adults whose thoughts and actions are controlled by outside forces because they somehow lack the freedom to follow a different path.
It’s enough to make you wonder if Orwell’s futuristic world of mind control is all that far off.
I firmly believe that we are the lucky ones….we’ve discovered the antidote. An education that values the gift of childhood.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Adventures Begin
So in the spirit of our new-found freedom, when the boys told me they were going on an adventure around the world and would not be home for weeks, I didn't bat an eye. I asked if they had sufficient provisions. My ten-year-old assured me he had packed enough food for them both, along with maps, weapons and water, and they were off. It was only about 40 degrees, but they didn't come home for an hour, and only then to let me know they were about to cross into China and would be back later.
Years later (another hour) they were home, frozen but happy. They had so many tales of fabulous travels in foreign realms, taking airplanes alone, fighting fierce dragons and being knighted by grateful queens that it took them two days to tell us all about it.
When my daughter took her bike to her babysitting job, I did not hand her the cell-phone and a million recommendations, I just said "see ya' later honey!"
I am definitely learning more than they are.
Years later (another hour) they were home, frozen but happy. They had so many tales of fabulous travels in foreign realms, taking airplanes alone, fighting fierce dragons and being knighted by grateful queens that it took them two days to tell us all about it.
When my daughter took her bike to her babysitting job, I did not hand her the cell-phone and a million recommendations, I just said "see ya' later honey!"
I am definitely learning more than they are.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
FREEDOM; from Mom and Dad?!
Have you ever been swept off your parenting feet onto your "sitting down part" by someone's words in a way that can change your life? This happened to me listening to the keynote address a week or so ago at a Waldorf conference in Milwaukee.
Mary O'Connell was the speaker. She is the director of Lifeways, a childcare center associated with Waldorf. She spoke of the importance of play in a compelling and informative way. The necessity for play both in early childhood and later. The definition of play; free, unstructured time without adult guidance, inventive and repetitive. How to foster it if it has gone by the wayside in your home. That much I got. We are a low-media family and free, imaginative play takes up a good deal of our day every day.
The following information is what made me really stop and think. Outside play. Who plays outside anymore? "Mine do," I am smugly thinking. "We make it a point to go outside every day, always get a walk in, the kids play in the backyard all the time. We spend time together in nature. We are members and true believers of "No Child Left Inside." ...That is not all there is to it, friends. What liberty do they have to go anywhere besides the backyard? What other people do they have contact with when I am not around. NONE, thank you very much, all those potential preyers upon of children out there. The world is a different place than it used to be. Even older generations agree with that, shaking their heads in regret. Yes, we finally gave them permission to bike around the neighborhood last year, at 10 and 11 years old, but I gave them my cell-phone and many instructions, so many they did not repeat the experience often.
Deep down, it has been bothering me for some time. After all, where would our child heroes be without the freedom to get into trouble and find a way out of it without an adult coming to the rescue? Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Alice in Wonderland and...Harry Potter, battling evil itself and coming out on top.
So when I heard words describing the very thoughts and fears with which I have always justified my policy of protection; "We are worried that if we did not do all we could to protect them and something did happen, it would be our fault." I was stunned. Yes! That has always been the fear, but it is the terror of a whole generation. We live in a society so free of "real" problems that; 1) we believe we can and are obliged to control our kids' environment and 2) the media, having no better scary stories to tell, makes sensational each and every instance of a stranger approaching a child on their way home from school. I am the number one apostle of this creed, by the way.
Mary advocated the need to find yourself in a dangerous or at least uncomfortable situation and to find a way out of it. She emphasized the importance of practice with these minor situations as training for larger ones later in life. The statistics she provided were equally astounding: A child has a one in a million chance of being abducted by a stranger. A child has a one in five chance of being victim to a online predator. Would you like to see that in numeric form? 1/1,000,000 vs. 1/5. I have paraphrased her words, but not the numbers and hopefully not her intentions. I hope to have a link to her speech for you later in the week.
So enjoy a cup of tea and some quiet while your kids get in a little trouble today!
Mary O'Connell was the speaker. She is the director of Lifeways, a childcare center associated with Waldorf. She spoke of the importance of play in a compelling and informative way. The necessity for play both in early childhood and later. The definition of play; free, unstructured time without adult guidance, inventive and repetitive. How to foster it if it has gone by the wayside in your home. That much I got. We are a low-media family and free, imaginative play takes up a good deal of our day every day.
The following information is what made me really stop and think. Outside play. Who plays outside anymore? "Mine do," I am smugly thinking. "We make it a point to go outside every day, always get a walk in, the kids play in the backyard all the time. We spend time together in nature. We are members and true believers of "No Child Left Inside." ...That is not all there is to it, friends. What liberty do they have to go anywhere besides the backyard? What other people do they have contact with when I am not around. NONE, thank you very much, all those potential preyers upon of children out there. The world is a different place than it used to be. Even older generations agree with that, shaking their heads in regret. Yes, we finally gave them permission to bike around the neighborhood last year, at 10 and 11 years old, but I gave them my cell-phone and many instructions, so many they did not repeat the experience often.
Deep down, it has been bothering me for some time. After all, where would our child heroes be without the freedom to get into trouble and find a way out of it without an adult coming to the rescue? Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Alice in Wonderland and...Harry Potter, battling evil itself and coming out on top.
So when I heard words describing the very thoughts and fears with which I have always justified my policy of protection; "We are worried that if we did not do all we could to protect them and something did happen, it would be our fault." I was stunned. Yes! That has always been the fear, but it is the terror of a whole generation. We live in a society so free of "real" problems that; 1) we believe we can and are obliged to control our kids' environment and 2) the media, having no better scary stories to tell, makes sensational each and every instance of a stranger approaching a child on their way home from school. I am the number one apostle of this creed, by the way.
Mary advocated the need to find yourself in a dangerous or at least uncomfortable situation and to find a way out of it. She emphasized the importance of practice with these minor situations as training for larger ones later in life. The statistics she provided were equally astounding: A child has a one in a million chance of being abducted by a stranger. A child has a one in five chance of being victim to a online predator. Would you like to see that in numeric form? 1/1,000,000 vs. 1/5. I have paraphrased her words, but not the numbers and hopefully not her intentions. I hope to have a link to her speech for you later in the week.
So enjoy a cup of tea and some quiet while your kids get in a little trouble today!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thinking of You
This morning I feel called to take this blog beyond our immediate world of cozy home and daily concerns, real and valid, but manageable.
A story, one of too many, caught my eye this weekend. A mother of five told by soldiers to flee her home now, as an invading army was advancing to evacuate the area of its citizens. In her panic, she raced through the streets, with her five children, in the wrong direction and more soldiers opened fire at them. She was wounded and her two year old baby daughter killed. A daughter who, as a mother, I could feel, she loved more than life itself. A tiny, sweet little person she bathed and cuddled and giggled with. A little girl she held close when the bombs were echoing at night, reassuring her that no harm would come to her while mama was around to protect her.
It doesn't matter much what country this was in or which side it was that shot at this family. What matters is that it is true and that it is happening every single day all over the world. What matters is that we become aware of the impact of warfare and strive to make the world a more peaceful and loving place. We can come together to help those victims trying to piece their lives back together again.
Peace to you, my sisters far away, my sympathy for your loss and pain. I will do my best today to create peace, beginning with myself, my own home and my own children. I invite my readers to take up the challenge to do the same.
How about a read-along? We will be beginning Greg Mortenson's "Three Cups of Tea" next week. This is the story of how one man dreamed, schemed, saved and worked his tail off to build schools for girls where none existed, deep in the mountains in Pakistan. Join me, if you'd like, in a read-along, with your children or alone. It is a book to open minds to the good one person can do in the world. And I just read that Greg has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace. A fitting example for those wishing to make the world a better place.
P.S. I have just been told that there are two versions of this book; one for the younger crowd, called "Three Cups of Tea, Changing the World One Child at a Time," and the original version. I plan on reading the original version to mine starting a week from today, but if you have primarily young children, or want a shorter read, the other one might be a nice option. Widely available at libraries all over the U.S.
A story, one of too many, caught my eye this weekend. A mother of five told by soldiers to flee her home now, as an invading army was advancing to evacuate the area of its citizens. In her panic, she raced through the streets, with her five children, in the wrong direction and more soldiers opened fire at them. She was wounded and her two year old baby daughter killed. A daughter who, as a mother, I could feel, she loved more than life itself. A tiny, sweet little person she bathed and cuddled and giggled with. A little girl she held close when the bombs were echoing at night, reassuring her that no harm would come to her while mama was around to protect her.
It doesn't matter much what country this was in or which side it was that shot at this family. What matters is that it is true and that it is happening every single day all over the world. What matters is that we become aware of the impact of warfare and strive to make the world a more peaceful and loving place. We can come together to help those victims trying to piece their lives back together again.
Peace to you, my sisters far away, my sympathy for your loss and pain. I will do my best today to create peace, beginning with myself, my own home and my own children. I invite my readers to take up the challenge to do the same.
How about a read-along? We will be beginning Greg Mortenson's "Three Cups of Tea" next week. This is the story of how one man dreamed, schemed, saved and worked his tail off to build schools for girls where none existed, deep in the mountains in Pakistan. Join me, if you'd like, in a read-along, with your children or alone. It is a book to open minds to the good one person can do in the world. And I just read that Greg has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace. A fitting example for those wishing to make the world a better place.
P.S. I have just been told that there are two versions of this book; one for the younger crowd, called "Three Cups of Tea, Changing the World One Child at a Time," and the original version. I plan on reading the original version to mine starting a week from today, but if you have primarily young children, or want a shorter read, the other one might be a nice option. Widely available at libraries all over the U.S.
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