Adventures in Jones Beach

                           We love going to the beach after the crowds have died down in the summer. The breeze is cool and the smell of the ocean is everywhere.

Nora and I decided to walk down and test out the waters. The ocean was a bit wild. This picture is of Nora running and creaming as the surf comes in.

Sunset in Jones Beach....the sun goes down behind the Ocean.....amazing colors.

Nora finding 'treasures'

Luke and dad brought their baseball and did some field practice....Luke loves 'diving catches'. 

An empty beach and a beautiful sky.......I brought my book, but typical, got swept up in collecting sea shells and wooden sticks to make a beach sculpture with Nora.

Here is our final piece....we found a cool black silky ribbon which added a nice touch to our otherwise very still sculpture.

Nora dancing around the sculpture.

I love watching her singing and dancing. I aim to be as free and joyous as she is daily.

Getting dark....Dad and Luke still doing baseball drills. This time it's Luke practicing pitching to dad....

A few people remain as the sun goes down....The sky is endless.

The sun has finally gone down.

Our sculpture from above.

Nora's treasure collection fit nicely in her shoes...

She wanted to pose with her findings.

Thanksgiving 2012

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

Pics of my mom's garden in Long Island New York

Sadly enough I did not inherit the 'green thumb' gene. Every plant I have ever owned has died. But I can paint them. A painting of a flower does not need to be watered.

Spider web found in the early morning

Birdhouses everywhere

Love the colors in these...

Nature is so powerful. This is a plant that has wrapped itself around  the arbor. 

The view of my mom's arbor from below. Shade, glorious shade. 

My favorite kind of grapes, concord grapes, almost ready....

Heaven. 

All sorts of inspiration. 

Interesting lines crossing this fence. 

At the CD release party of Marsha Goodman-Wood's Gravity Vacation CD!!! so exciting ....

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Luke and Nora posing for me....finally

I got home from work and my hubby tells me that not only has Nora been in her princess dress all day but that she has both slept in it and has been wearing her patent leather sparkle shoes all day as well. I had to take a picture.

I LOVE this smile.....
now serious.
The hops Luke.....and she is very patient with him.
She's trying to maintain...
Now she's mad.....
keeping those shoulders tight
Now comes the protest.....
She shoots back with "baby"!!
Luke then gets a turn and I had to literally BEG him to not make a face for just a second. So this is the shot.
Nora on the couch....remember, everything has to be perfectly democratic in order to prevent chaos.

Me at 4.....

So this is a picture of me when I was 4. I grew up with this picture around me yet just now I notice that I am wearing a bikini in the tub.....very funny. I also now realize how much I look like Nora....she makes that same smile when she smiles.

New Painting......back to flowers

I posted this new painting in my Etsy Store. I am very excited to be painting again.......I am ready to do more.....I LOVE painting nature.....It's so relaxing and fun.....