Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm looking forward to the long weekend!

Thursday I'll be doing my annual Run to Feed the Hungry with my friend. This will be our 4th year, I think. We always do the 5k untimed walk, but it is still fun. It's crazy to see 30,000 people all crammed into a small space at the start of the race. Apparently this year they've made some changes and staggered the start time. Hopefully that will make the crush at the beginning a little easier.

It takes us about an hour to walk the 5k in the morning. This year I won't have to hurry back to make sure everything gets in the oven as we are having our Thanksgiving family meal on Friday! I thought it would be easier on the "other half" of everyone's family to have it on a separate day than to have everyone rushing from one place to another to fit in time with both families. It seems to have been a good idea, because now we'll have a bigger crowd! I'm looking forward to a more relaxed time together.

After all of that, I get a massage. Woohoo! The day after the walk, I'll probably need it. I trade massage for after-school care, and it's well worth the trade! I love trading services!

Saturday we have tickets to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra again. This is another annual tradition. It will be our sixth time, I think. We've gone every year they have come to our town to see them perform. If you're not familiar with TSO, they give an incredible Christmas concert every year. It's a Christmas story told through narration and music, the same every year, but it never gets old. They are really a talented group, and I love the story format. They make truly beautiful music. My son really loves the music. This will be his third time seeing them.

Sometime in there I'd also like to get the stripping done on the kid's playroom floor. I ripped out the carpet and am planning on leaving the concrete bare. That requires stripping off all of the glue from the carpet pad, cleaning the mess left by the builders, patching the cracks in the concrete, then sealing the whole floor. Hopefully, I'll be left with a clean and shiny concrete floor that is easy to clean and fairly mess proof.

I'm hoping this will provide a play surface that will open more possibilities for messy play without having to worry about the damage to the floors. Once the daycare is out of my home, I can always cover the concrete again with the bamboo flooring I've been eyeing!

So, that's my long weekend. What are you doing?

Death

My ex's mother died today, and I feel.... nothing.

How is it that I've turned into this emotional zombie? She was very important to me. I spent every evening and weekend sitting by her bed for FIVE MONTHS, when she fell ill a few years ago.

Once she got out of the hospital and went home, though, I distanced myself some. Well, a lot. I'd still visit her, and call her, but not often.

But then, I've kind of distanced myself from everything.

Why do I not feel something? Anything? A radio host I listen to said that if you suppress one emotion you suppress them all. That they all come from the same place in your brain, and there's no way to selectively choose which emotions to suppress.

I know this isn't making sense. I'm rambling. I don't know what's WRONG with me. How in the world does one live like this?

Where The Wild Things Are...

Disclaimer: This may spoil the movie for someone who hasn't seen it and still wants to. Proceed at your own risk!

I took my son to see this movie when it first came out a month ago. I really liked the movie, but couldn't really say why. I couldn't put my finger on what made the movie special.

There were no spectacular plot points to examine, no dramatic action scenes, no happily ever after. It was just a good movie.

And then it hit me. This morning....in the shower...a month after I'd seen the movie, I realized what made it special.

It was real. The story is about a boy, maybe 8 or 9 years old, who deals with the confusion and anger of real life by escaping to a fantasy world of his own making. Then, after spending some period of time there, he realizes that he can't stay there forever, and he goes home. The end.

There was no summation of major breakthroughs, no telling the audience what they had seen, and then how they should feel about it. Just real life. Take from it what you need to, or want to, or can relate to. That's it.

How novel. And refreshing.

Joy

I watched an Oprah today. I don't watch often, but I do record her shows just in case she has someone interesting on.

Apparently she recently had Ellen on her show. I have been a fan of Ellen's for a long time. She's funny. And she says what she thinks, which is refreshing. I'm sure she has more restraint than I do, and even when she does say what she's thinking she manages to make it funny, so she probably doesn't offend nearly as many people as I do. That's admirable too.

And she's not afraid to be who she is.

But I realized something else while watching her with Oprah. Ellen is joyful. You can see it in her face when she speaks, when she laughs, when she smiles. She loves life. Her joy radiates out from her every time she speaks. That joy translates into an optimism that is enviable.

Joy is such an elusive and rare gift. One can be happy, and still not have joy.

And joy is attractive. You can't help but be drawn to true joy.

Optimism is a byproduct of joy. How can you not expect the best out of life when you have the level of contentment and happiness that would be required to be truly joyful? It's a self-perpetuating cycle. Optimism is key to achieving your goals and being content with where you are while you're getting there, therefore contributing to a state of happiness.

Is this the law of attraction? If so, how does one practice joy before actually achieving it?

Children's Conversation

I love listening to the discourse of 2 and 3 year olds! They have such an exuberance about every conversation.

I have one little boy, I'll call him J, who is definitely more comfortable in the company of adults. He is very verbal with adults, freely talking about everything he did yesterday, the toys he has at home, what he's going to do later, etc, etc. However, he almost never converses with the other boys his age. Instead choosing to ask me what they are saying, or tell me what they said.

This morning, he came to ask me what M was talking about. I hadn't heard the conversation, so I called the M over to explain what he had said. Apparently he had been talking to his best friend about doing somersaults. I asked the J if he could do somersaults, and he said no. I asked him if he wanted to learn, and to have the other boys show him, which they were only too happy to do.

Then they all did somersaults for a while, with J running along behind copying what the older boys were doing.

But the funniest part of the whole thing was listening to their conversation.

M: "R! Did you see that?

R: "Yeah."

M, in a high-pitched voice: "Did you see that?"

R: "Look what I can do, M!"

There was much more interesting discourse that has since slipped my mind. It got even more interesting when the 3 year old girl jumped into the conversation. It's fun to hear the serious conversation of a 3 year old!

Thesis Writing

I'm on the verge of having the words to write the last part of the research section of my thesis. It should have been done by last Monday, but I didn't have the words then. I think I might now.

I'm not sure why this part has been so much more difficult for me. The first part was really general, a commentary of why art is beneficial to children in the classroom, and in what way art broadens the mind and teaches something the three "R's" cannot.

The second part was targeting a younger age group (like my group) and more specifically about play. A little more specific topic than "art", but still a general argument for play, referencing studies that have been done throughout the last century on the benefit of play.

My intention for the third, and last, section that I'm writing now is more specific, to give detail on WHY play is beneficial, what the children learn through play, and why it is a valid preschool curriculum. I am arguing that play, given the right materials and environment, can be MORE educational than teaching the alphabet and numbers to a three-year-old, without actually denouncing academic programs.

I don't want to start an argument with the rather large segment of the population that believes that if children learn their alphabet at three, they can learn to read at four, and be reading at a fifth grade level by six. Every child is different, and I'm sure there are some that flourish in this environment. I am trying to present an alternative to rushing children into something they may not be ready for, and explain why it is just as good, if not better, for the child to wait. And play.

This information is something I've searched for (although not ferociously), for the last three years or so. I've learned a lot about developmentally appropriate methods of teaching young children in the various child development classes I've taken since getting into this field. More compellingly, I've heard many experts with incredible credentials talk about the brain development in young children, and how they need certain experiences in order to develop the the ABILITY to read and write.

With all the time I've spent learning something that isn't readily available to the average parent, I'd like to write something FOR parents that easily and convincingly explains what I've learned, backed by "experts" that will hopefully balance out the peer pressure that parents get to have the best, smartest, most talented, exceptional student.

However, because I have specific goals in mind for this section, it seems more difficult to achieve just the right materials. I've been fishing around for a while at trying to explain the collection of evidence I've heard from many different sources without really being able to succinctly compile a compelling argument. It sounds so logical and clear when I hear it, but it somehow gets jumbled and incoherent when I try to pass it on.

I think that's why I've been having such a difficult time writing this section. I want it to be JUST SO, and am scared I won't be able to get across what I want to. Anyway, I'll never know until I try so I guess I should stop writing here, and beginning writing there!

Waldorf Education

I have to say, again, how much I appreciate Waldorf education.

This year my son got his first "grades" teacher. In Waldorf training, kindergarten teachers go through a completely different specialization process than grades teachers, and the Waldorf method treats these ages very differently. Going into the "grades" is a big deal. Ideally, his first grade teacher will be his teacher through 8th grade.

Last year my son's teachers made his second year of kindergarten amazing. If you read my previous Waldorf posts, you know how much I loved his teachers last year.

This year... not so much. Since this school is a public charter, their first priority when hiring a new teacher is a California credential, then any Waldorf training as a bonus. If the teacher does not have both (which is likely), the school contributes to the cost of sending the teacher to Waldorf teacher training. Most of the credentialed teachers at this school are still going through some phase of their Waldorf training.

The teacher that had been originally hired to fill this spot came from another Waldorf charter school in the bay area, had both her state credential and had completed her Waldorf training. She had been a teacher at that school for several years, and was well qualified. However, she changed her mind about leaving her old school about a month before school started, and the school was left scrambling (I believe) to find another teacher.

Anyway I hope that was why they chose this teacher. She has no Waldorf experience besides the two weeks of training they could squeeze in before school started, and has no classroom experience either! She was a substitute teacher in the public schools before landing this job.

From what I can see, she loves her job. I can't imagine a more fun environment to teach, but perhaps I'm biased.

However, I've had several negative experiences with her already. I don't know if it is merely because she's new to teaching and isn't yet comfortable with dealing with parents, but so far her "method" is to ignore me and hope I go away, from what I can tell.

Frankly, I'm just about there. My son can be difficult to deal with. He's active, smart, and confident (a lethal combination), which means he's paying attention when you think he's not, bored and distracting anyone around him when he's not engaged, and answering all the questions whether you want him to or not. Basically a lot of work. Knowing this, I've tried to be as involved as possible in order to make her job as easy as possible.

However, if she's not interested, I'm sure I can find other things to do. I'm just concerned that her methods, if not what he needs, could alienate him from the learning process I've tried so hard to teach him to enjoy.

All that said, whatever he thinks of her (and I don't really know) is not affecting his learning. He loves his school, and LOVES main lesson. This is where they get the bulk of their academic training. This large chunk of the morning is when they cover math, science, writing, learning the alphabet, and whatever else they are supposed to learn in first grade. However, they learn all this through storytelling and drawing, and so every lesson is weaved into a tale that the kids then illustrate and copy into their lesson books, which are the Waldorf equivalent of textbooks all through the grades.

Last year, I would ask him at the dinner table to tell me the story he'd heard that day. In kindergarten, the teachers tell the same story every day for two weeks. By the third telling he was so bored with it, I couldn't get him to even tell me what the story was called. I stopped trying to get him to tell me the story once I saw how much it bothered him.

This year the story is shorter, and a new one is told each day. I've gotten out of the habit of asking him at the dinner table, but last night he volunteered the information. He told us he's learning 12 stories about 12 knights that are on a quest to find the perfect number, and that although he didn't have time to tell me ALL the stories, he'd be happy to tell me two per night until I'd heard all twelve. I have to say, that makes me super happy!