Thanksgiving 2012

Luke practicing with dad at batting cage daily right after school

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My Newest Inspiration for Parenting and Education

              This is my son doing what he loves. When he is playing baseball he could literally do it for hours.  His attention is so focused and time seems to go by so fast. Human beings can only be GREAT at doing the things they love. As a parent it's important we find the 'element' that makes out kids tick and support them in this journey. 

                    My newest inspiration for both my current theories on education and parenting come from Sir Ken Robinson, the author of The Element. It mainly talks about the importance if finding out the huge importance at finding out what each child is great at and focusing on them to help them reach a fulfilling existence. This goes far beyond JUST being academically successful, but it's more about about feeling successful in life and getting there doing something you love. 

                    Below I have included some quotes from Ken Robinson's speeches and books just to give you a taste of what he is all about. I absolutely recommend the books to all parents, hands down. 

Ken Robinson Quotes

“The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”
― Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything 

Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it's the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.”
― Ken Robinson

“Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.”
― Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

“I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our concept of the richness in human capacity.” 

― Ken Robinson

“Human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep. You have to go looking for them, they're not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves.”
― Ken Robinson

“We have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education, and it's impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies.”
― Ken Robinson

“We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it's an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”
― Ken Robinson

“You cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do is like a farmer create the conditions under which it will begin to flourish.” 

― Ken Robinson

“Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent not a singular conception of ability”
― Ken Robinson

“If you're not prepared to be wrong ,you'll never come up with any thing original”
― Ken Robinson

“The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak; when you’re present in the current moment; when you’re resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing; when you are fully alive.”
― Ken Robinson

“If all you had was academic ability, you wouldn't have been able to get out of bed this morning. In fact, there wouldn't have been a bad to get out of. No one could have made one. You could have written about possibility of one, but not have constructed it.”
― Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative

Paper Mache Summer

This summer we have been very busy exploring paper mache. Above Nora hold the dancing angel I made using a soda bottle and newspaper. She of course immediately told me that it would be so nice if I gave her the doll as a gift. 

Nora's current obsession has been PUPPIES.....We live in an apartment and cannot currently have a dog. So making these pink puppies has been somewhat therapeutic for her. They are all pink (of course), they have gem nails, wings and feather fur. She took one of them to the beach with us last week. 

My obsession has been paper mache bowls. Nora of course was inspired to make one for herself. Hers is the one with the heart handle....OF COURSE. These are not yet done. My inspiration came from this artist on Etsy.com that sells paper mache bowls with maps decoupaged on them. Click here to see some  cool paper mache bowls. 

Finally, I thought I'd take a crack at making a mask.....these are not yet done.....but I feel they are off to a good start.

Even my son, whose obsession is baseball, began his own paper mache project. This one is a rocket....of course.

LUKE ...Officially a second grader

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Lego mania

I went onto Etsy.com to see all the creative things artists have been able to do with legos and I was totally blown away. If interested in finding out more about each artist, just click on the image.

Darth Vader Silver Earrings

Lego Head Bracelet

Diamond Lego Gem Block Ring

Attire Pendant Lego

Can I bottle up this moment for all time?

When you plan on having kids there is one thing you don't really think about or plan for, it's how these kids will interact with each other. You might have SOME idea of what this will be like, but since you have no idea the personality of your future children, it's impossible to be sure.

On that note, one of the most amazing 'bonuses' of having 2 kids has been this very fact; the interaction between the two of them. Yes, 90% of the time they spend their together arguing about totally insignificant things and these arguments literally can making my hair turn white. But every once in a while something happens, something that makes all the bickering about he-said/she-said or the never ending it-was-mine arguments absolutely worth it.

Today, before bedtime, Nora expressed wanting to read on her own. Being three, she pretends to read plenty. We think it's cute and just play along, except for Luke. Generally, it bothers him that she gets accolades while all along she is not yet reading. This night though, instead of the usual "That's not what it says Nora!", Luke decides he will take it upon himself to TEACH her a few things, real words. My ears perked up and I had to look up from my blogging on the couch. He goes to get a book and starts teaching Nora how to write the word 'cat'. Once she finished writing a beautifully executed 'CAt, he looks at it and adds in Chris' voice, "Now you need to write the word in lower case Nora, let me show you." I wish I can bottle up this moment for all time and come back to it whenever I wish throughout the rest of my days.....thank goodness for cameras....Thank goodness for for all the past bickering, for it makes this moment all the more special. I feel so blessed.

Above you see Nora's 'CAt' and then she 'practiced' writing lower case 'a' twice. That was Luke's curriculum lesson for the day.

Maze Craze

So Luke is obsessed about mazes lately......I made him a Star Wars Maze book.....

here is Vader maze.
Yoda Maze
R2D2 maze
Nora's version of my Yoda maze.....for a 3 year old I think this looks very cute....
And here is luke, working through another maze book I made him. This was was all about sweets.....candy, lolipops, cookies...etc.

Luke's art.......

Since I cannot possibly do any art lately unless I have both kids set up with their own paints and canvases......I am posting some of the work they are doing alongside me.....these are Luke's (Nora's post will follow)

This is 16x20 and it's much more bumpy and textures than it looks.
side views of the canvas.......to show the "mountains".
Luke loves rocks, pebbles and mountains. He uses the same technique I use to make my trees, except he makes these huge 'rocks' with them instead.
A very structured piece he did in Art Club Fridays.

I think Luke's style is very gaudy....and intense......he always has to go overboard....here he covers the wood with beads.

Perfect picture of my little man

My little man and Thomas, the cat.....yes, and his new haircut. His smile brightens my day!

New Luke Block Creations

We are now building higher....

Wilmington, North Carolina Weekend Adventure

Getting ready to go on an adventure.....

This is the routine when we get to any hotel....Luke tests the beds....

The beach was warm and beautiful......oh, how we hated to go back to coooollllld!
Luke is posing for me!!! Yes!!
Dad and his spanish moss beard.
Spanish moss.....all over the place.
These were humongous.....would not not want to be on the wrong side of this missile.
I don't think very yummy food could come out of these 'pots' ....
Which bed would you sleep in?
Toilets inside the SS North Carolina. Not very private huh?
Typical fence for armed forced location.....bomb fence....at least they get points for creativity.
Being obsessed with trees as much as I was....I was loving all the trees.
There were SO many dogs in Wilmington....everyone had at least one dog...but most had 2.
Nora using her fingers to sculpt her sand castle....love her little fingers in this picture....they are so small, yet still so focused and precise.