Hmm, I suppose I'm on a public service rampage... I wanted to remind everyone to please wear helmets when riding bicycles or motorcycles and the like. My dearly cherished, kindhearted Uncle Felton has just had an awful accident while riding his motorcycle without a helmet. He has significant head trauma. I don't know what his prognosis is at this point.
According to Michael, my uncle and father were discussing the ridiculousness of laws requiring people to wear helmets and seatbelts and such at the last family reunion--just a month ago.
I always tell my children about the time that I flew off my bicycle and cracked my helmet open--without getting hurt at all, beyond a few bodily scratches. My head was fine, though obviously it would have been cracked open if I hadn't been wearing the helmet, which took that impact for me. It was the cheapest, most ill-fitting helmet available, too, but it did the job. I emphasize to them that they might not exist if I hadn't worn that helmet! Needless to say, they're fairly good about remembering their headgear!
So, again, please wear helmets and encourage, force, beguile your children, family members, and friends to do likewise.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Plastic Bag Awareness
I just received a wonderful slide show that I wanted to share with you, but I can't figure out how to load it here. I've sent it to many of you. Just let me know if you'd like me to e-mail it to you, okay?
The slide show is about the environmental damage done by plastic bags. Even for those of us who are aware of this issue, the slide show is educational. Other large countries, such as China, Bangladesh, and Rwanda, have completely banned plastic bags, and Ireland taxes them--which has reduced plastic bag use by 90%. There's a lot to know about the damage that the bags cause, but a couple of interesting points in the slide show were that 10% of the debris washed up on the U.S. coastline consists of plastic bags and the amount of petrochemicals used to make just a few bags could fuel a car for a mile--so we can reduce our foreign oil dependency by using fewer bags. Imagine if the whole nation went to cloth bags?
It inspired me to remember those cloth bags as I'm headed in the store. Personally, I love to use the cloth bags, as you can fill them to the brim and it makes far fewer trips, less hassle, and less waste to deal with afterwards--it's just the process of remembering to return them to the car and to carry them in the store with me, but I'm always so glad I did when I walk out with my 3 cloth bags to carry instead of 13 plastic ones to deal with! Oh, and baggers are becoming much more comfortable and familiar with these cloth bags, so it's a much more pleasant experience to use cloth bags than it used to be! Just FYI, if you don't have bags or forget, many shops are offering very inexpensive cloth bags near the front of the stores--we've been picking up Food Lion cloth totes for 89 cents apiece! So it's totally manageable...
Like everyone, I oscillate on remembering this sort of thing. Habit helps, though. My kids, especially Alex, get very enthusiastic about using the cloth bags, though they don't tend to remember them from the car. Alex always wants me to buy one, though! I generally do, too, as the price is so reasonable and I know we can always put them to use later.
Funny, but Alex asked me tentatively this morning, as we were going into Kroger, "Do you think it's rude for us to carry a Food Lion bag into Kroger?" I laughed, as I hadn't even considered it, and said, "you may have a point there!" Anyway, no one seemed to react...:)
A couple of other tips on reducing plastic bag use include not bagging items which are particularly large or have handles--like bags of onions or potatoes or oranges, bleach, laundry detergent, toilet paper packages, twin soymilk packs, gallons of milk, etc. That often cuts down significantly on plastic bag waste. I manage this by quickly setting these things back in the buggy as I help with bagging, and I often throw extra items in the plastic bags that have already been 'filled' by the baggers. I'm fairly convinced that I manage to cut down on the plastic bags by at least half on these visits where I forget the cloth bags--and when I include just one new cloth bag along with these techniques on a large grocery purchase, I leave with amazingly few plastic bags, generally.
I had one friend who, when she was single, would reuse all of her grocery bags in a small trash can for all her waste. While I thought that might not be very practical for a big family, I suppose it could work if daily trash duty were given to the kids (beware Alex!). Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys actually do to cut down on your environmental impact, so that I know what's actually easy to do and what the fringe benefits are!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Friends moving away
Our Indian friends are moving away to Missouri this week. It was a spur of the moment decision, based on a job offer to Suneeta's husband. Anjali is in the top picture with Fiona, Suneeta and I are in the middle picture, and Sanjana is with Alex in the bottom picture. All six of us take taekwondo together, the kids are all in gifted, and we're all vegetarian! The kids get along remarkably well, and Alex even likes Sanjana quite a lot, despite the fact that she's a girl and won a math duel with him! (He's in the midst of that 'yucky girl' stage.) Anyway, we always looked forward to seeing them in class, and the kids were always happy to play together during the adult class. Suneeta and I even left class once during the kids' class to play tennis! Suneeta has been in the United States most of the past 10 years, so the girls have grown up here. Sanjana will be sorely missed on the demo team in taekwondo, as she is absolutely fantastic. It's too bad that she's just a few months from getting her black belt. She's really earned it!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Question of Vanity
Surrounding the Lasik procedure, several people have implied that vanity may have been a prime motivator for having the procedure done. I initially denied this, asserting, sincerely, that vanity is one of the reasons I did not want to have the procedure done, since I was not at all looking forward to noticing every flaw and blemish in the mirror. In fact, beyond that whole vanity issue, I was afraid of noticing flaws everywhere. I didn’t want to see stains on the walls and specks on the carpets and how badly my car needs washing! I live in my own little bubble, which has just grown immensely! And, truly, it was quite difficult to see myself in the mirror for a day or so, but I think I’m quickly adjusting.
That said, after hearing that vanity assumption one too many times, I erupted into a discussion with Michael about it. What I realized, though, is that vanity does play a role, but more in the sense that I want to be perfect. Superheroes don’t wear glasses (note Clark Kent just wears them to hide the fact that he’s a superhero). So perhaps it does. And maybe there’s a bit of that baseline vanity that everyone refers to, though it wasn’t the primary motivator.
Anyway, it’s interesting to ponder our motives for what we do. And perhaps we don’t admit to ourselves the superficiality of our motives much of the time. And maybe, just maybe, it’s okay to be a little superficial sometimes:).
A final note—as I sat down at the computer tonight, I started glancing around for my glasses, out of habit, before I realized that I no longer need them. Yay!
That said, after hearing that vanity assumption one too many times, I erupted into a discussion with Michael about it. What I realized, though, is that vanity does play a role, but more in the sense that I want to be perfect. Superheroes don’t wear glasses (note Clark Kent just wears them to hide the fact that he’s a superhero). So perhaps it does. And maybe there’s a bit of that baseline vanity that everyone refers to, though it wasn’t the primary motivator.
Anyway, it’s interesting to ponder our motives for what we do. And perhaps we don’t admit to ourselves the superficiality of our motives much of the time. And maybe, just maybe, it’s okay to be a little superficial sometimes:).
A final note—as I sat down at the computer tonight, I started glancing around for my glasses, out of habit, before I realized that I no longer need them. Yay!
Martian Child
We watched Martian Child last night with Michael’s family. It was a wonderful, touching movie, and John and Joan Cusack made a fantastic brother-sister pair on screen. I think it conveyed some important tips about parenting, and it also promoted adoption of school-age children, who are often not as likely to be adopted. Anyway, I highly recommend the movie. My kids liked it as well, so it makes a good family movie. I kind of wonder about them observing children with a lot of emotional and behavioral problems, but I suppose they’ll be exposed to all that in a less positive setting, where those traits may be presented as desirable, eventually! So perhaps it’s good to give them a more mature perspective on those problems.
Lasik
This is Day #2 following Lasik. What an experience. I’m definitely not used to it yet. The current experience is something like wearing a good pair of glasses, but having a bit of a fog or haze to look through. Initially, I would get crystalline images with a kaleidoscope effect. It’s actually more like wearing my glasses than I would have suspected, since close vision is now harder for me. I always took off my glasses for reading up close, and it’s a bit more of a strain to look at a book than into the distance—an experience I’ve only had with my glasses. I’m told this is not the final product, though. It may take 3-6 months to achieve optimal vision after Lasik.
I did have the unique experience of having the corneal flaps created in two different ways. They highly recommended the Intralase procedure, which cost $300 more per eye. This is the use of a laser to open the corneal flap instead of the surgeon-guided microkeratome (a cutting instrument). Well, to my mind, the laser sounded preferable, as they told me it had a lower rate of complications than the microkeratome, though both had a great track record. The laser had greater precision, though. More precision, fewer complications…easy choice in something as precious as your eye, eh? I had a vision of the microkeratome being something like a scalpel, with the surgeon crudely hacking away at my eye…
Turns out that my right eye didn’t qualify for Intralase, as the eye had a corneal scar. I’m guessing that scar came from when Katie, at taekwondo, poked me in the eye with the bong-mong-ee (a soft bat) during class. That eye had a red ring around the iris for a few days! Therefore, I had one eye done with Intralase and the other with the microkeratome. Interestingly enough, I vastly preferred the microkeratome.
Intralase: required 2 stations during surgery (which means the apparatus holding the eye open had to be inserted twice instead of once)—the first station involving eye suction (awful sensation!) to pull the eye up for the laser application; requires hourly drops of prednisone for a couple of days vs only 4x/d in the other eye; required an awful contact (I hate contacts) to be worn for 24 hours; resulted in a hazy eye with a lot of blurring—and my left eye was always my good eye! Oh, and it feels like something is in my eye—grit, an eyelash, or something.
Microkeratome: quicker procedure at one station; no contact; fewer prednisone drops; the eye feel great and has clear vision (20/20 24 hr post-surgically)! Also, I’ve got $300 more than I would have if Katie hadn’t fortuitously poked me in the eye last year!
They say the blurring is quite normal, and I apparently had close to 20/20 with my left eye at the 24 hour mark, but it’s so hazy…
Anyway, I’m sure it will all turn out great, and my preference is based only on one experience. Perhaps it’s true that there are fewer complications with the Intralase, but that’s difficult for me to believe, given all the extra measures that they take with the Intralase procedure, you know?
My current concern was pointed out to me last night—what I believed to be saline drops are actually propylene glycol—as pointed out to me by Michael, who says that is antifreeze! I get an awful taste from them, and they are recommended for months… Anyway, that can’t be good for me, and the absorption rate of the eye is quite high. Just don’t want to be applying something that is not so good for me continuously… I need to look up the toxicity info on that!
Okay, so it was a memorable event, that procedure. I think I’d had the idea that they just normalize your eye shape a bit with the Lasik, but now I get the sense that they were applying a prescription to my eyeball—which kind of makes me nervous, since my prescription strength doesn’t tend to stay constant. But I really don’t know…
Oh, one last bit on my Lasik experience. I was given a choice of having regular Lasik or customized Lasik—which reduces glare, improves night vision, and, in short, gives you super-deluxe bionic eyes with X-ray vision :). Anyhow, I did get the customized (for $300 per eye extra), of course, but I’m still trying to figure out how to turn on the eye lasers… Luckily, I was able to get both eyes customized, so I won’t be able to report on whether I can really sense a difference between having customized and not having it.
I did have the unique experience of having the corneal flaps created in two different ways. They highly recommended the Intralase procedure, which cost $300 more per eye. This is the use of a laser to open the corneal flap instead of the surgeon-guided microkeratome (a cutting instrument). Well, to my mind, the laser sounded preferable, as they told me it had a lower rate of complications than the microkeratome, though both had a great track record. The laser had greater precision, though. More precision, fewer complications…easy choice in something as precious as your eye, eh? I had a vision of the microkeratome being something like a scalpel, with the surgeon crudely hacking away at my eye…
Turns out that my right eye didn’t qualify for Intralase, as the eye had a corneal scar. I’m guessing that scar came from when Katie, at taekwondo, poked me in the eye with the bong-mong-ee (a soft bat) during class. That eye had a red ring around the iris for a few days! Therefore, I had one eye done with Intralase and the other with the microkeratome. Interestingly enough, I vastly preferred the microkeratome.
Intralase: required 2 stations during surgery (which means the apparatus holding the eye open had to be inserted twice instead of once)—the first station involving eye suction (awful sensation!) to pull the eye up for the laser application; requires hourly drops of prednisone for a couple of days vs only 4x/d in the other eye; required an awful contact (I hate contacts) to be worn for 24 hours; resulted in a hazy eye with a lot of blurring—and my left eye was always my good eye! Oh, and it feels like something is in my eye—grit, an eyelash, or something.
Microkeratome: quicker procedure at one station; no contact; fewer prednisone drops; the eye feel great and has clear vision (20/20 24 hr post-surgically)! Also, I’ve got $300 more than I would have if Katie hadn’t fortuitously poked me in the eye last year!
They say the blurring is quite normal, and I apparently had close to 20/20 with my left eye at the 24 hour mark, but it’s so hazy…
Anyway, I’m sure it will all turn out great, and my preference is based only on one experience. Perhaps it’s true that there are fewer complications with the Intralase, but that’s difficult for me to believe, given all the extra measures that they take with the Intralase procedure, you know?
My current concern was pointed out to me last night—what I believed to be saline drops are actually propylene glycol—as pointed out to me by Michael, who says that is antifreeze! I get an awful taste from them, and they are recommended for months… Anyway, that can’t be good for me, and the absorption rate of the eye is quite high. Just don’t want to be applying something that is not so good for me continuously… I need to look up the toxicity info on that!
Okay, so it was a memorable event, that procedure. I think I’d had the idea that they just normalize your eye shape a bit with the Lasik, but now I get the sense that they were applying a prescription to my eyeball—which kind of makes me nervous, since my prescription strength doesn’t tend to stay constant. But I really don’t know…
Oh, one last bit on my Lasik experience. I was given a choice of having regular Lasik or customized Lasik—which reduces glare, improves night vision, and, in short, gives you super-deluxe bionic eyes with X-ray vision :). Anyhow, I did get the customized (for $300 per eye extra), of course, but I’m still trying to figure out how to turn on the eye lasers… Luckily, I was able to get both eyes customized, so I won’t be able to report on whether I can really sense a difference between having customized and not having it.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Pool
Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids. We've been to the pool 4 times in the past week, and I think we're about to head over there in a minute here... I have Lasik tomorrow (yikes!), so I'll have to take a pool break for a couple of weeks. It's amazing how much the kids have improved their swimming in just the past week.
Hmm...good feedback...Fiona just shouted 'Isn't mommy the best mommy ever?' and Alex started up a 'Mommy Rocks!' song:). They're learning! It's my reward for taking them to the pool. And a good one!
Hmm...good feedback...Fiona just shouted 'Isn't mommy the best mommy ever?' and Alex started up a 'Mommy Rocks!' song:). They're learning! It's my reward for taking them to the pool. And a good one!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Montessori Centennial Celebration!
Today, Charles Ellis Montessori Academy celebrated 100 years of Montessori education and 20 years of Montessori at Ellis. 2008 marks the Centennial Anniversary of the opening of Maria Montessori's Children's House (in 1908, of course).
Maria Montessori was actually the first Italian female physician--so we can deduce that she was strong-willed and incredibly smart! Her first assignment was an unsavory position working with mentally handicapped children in a hospital ward. Maria achieved remarkable success with those children using practical, hands-on learning tools (now known as Montessori Materials). She later took these materials and implemented them with normal, poor Italian children when she created her Children's House. Needless to say, her system and theories of education have taken off.
I feel for poor Maria, though, who did not actually raise her own son, Mario. She must have channelled her maternal energy into all of the other children in her world! When I feel inadequate for not creating a new system of education or not running a huge practice, I just remember the fact that I get to spend time with my lovely children. Who knows...other such things may come later, when they're grown. We've got long, long lives ahead of us! Anyhow, I'm grateful for Maria Montessori's wisdom and efforts and love the fact that my children are being raised with a Montessori education.
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Maria Montessori was actually the first Italian female physician--so we can deduce that she was strong-willed and incredibly smart! Her first assignment was an unsavory position working with mentally handicapped children in a hospital ward. Maria achieved remarkable success with those children using practical, hands-on learning tools (now known as Montessori Materials). She later took these materials and implemented them with normal, poor Italian children when she created her Children's House. Needless to say, her system and theories of education have taken off.
I feel for poor Maria, though, who did not actually raise her own son, Mario. She must have channelled her maternal energy into all of the other children in her world! When I feel inadequate for not creating a new system of education or not running a huge practice, I just remember the fact that I get to spend time with my lovely children. Who knows...other such things may come later, when they're grown. We've got long, long lives ahead of us! Anyhow, I'm grateful for Maria Montessori's wisdom and efforts and love the fact that my children are being raised with a Montessori education.
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Monday, June 9, 2008
books continued...
Tonight we started reading the Hawking book. The kids and I love it, and the irony continues, as George's parents are vegetarian environmentalists who wash clothes by hand and use candles for light... How funny that would come up tonight, as I'm not sure I have any kids' novels with vegetarian parents! Anyway, it was humorous and comforting (after last night)! No big universal astrophysical insights yet, though!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
That Wholesome Story Irony
I wanted to follow up on that last entry tonight. I just finished reading the kids the first chapter of that wholesome Little House in the Big Woods story--initially feeling all warm and fuzzy and virtuous.
I was horrified! It turns out that the first chapter of this pious book is all about hunting, butchering, and preparing meat! We read about preparation of hickory-smoked ham, bear meat, venison, pig-tail-on-a-stick, sausage, headcheese (yum!), and bladder balloons. That poor squealing hog...the huge teeth on the bear trap...those deer hanging from the oak trees (a lovely view Laura gets one morning when she wakes up)!
While it was perhaps an educational experience, the irony was immense! Here I was worried about exposing them to complicated theological thought--feeling guilty about it--and so I remedy that by giving my vegetarian children graphic animal death scenes instead! I imagine that this is perhaps a wee bit more likely to give them bad dreams at night, don't ya think?
Hmm..I'm weighing what I should do here... I think it might have been the universe laughing at my attempt at piety. I did glance ahead to different sections, and they did all look nice and wholesome, but that was just too perfect of an answer to my fine intentions tonight. I am sort of considering returning the books, but maybe I'll keep trying for a couple more nights. I'm not the terribly overly-protective sort with the kids, but part of me is thinking it might be more decent to get the next Dark Reflections book instead!
An interesting related note is that I had a dream this afternoon that I was eating a stew that I believed to be vegetarian, but, after I was mostly done with it, I realized that it had all sorts of different meat in it--chicken, pork, etc. I felt a bit nauseated, of course, after nearly 20 years of being vegetarian. Anyhow, that dream was just after we'd bought the books. I'm wondering if my subconscious remembered that meat-laden aspect of the books, since I did read them when I was a girl but don't consciously recall very much from them.
I was horrified! It turns out that the first chapter of this pious book is all about hunting, butchering, and preparing meat! We read about preparation of hickory-smoked ham, bear meat, venison, pig-tail-on-a-stick, sausage, headcheese (yum!), and bladder balloons. That poor squealing hog...the huge teeth on the bear trap...those deer hanging from the oak trees (a lovely view Laura gets one morning when she wakes up)!
While it was perhaps an educational experience, the irony was immense! Here I was worried about exposing them to complicated theological thought--feeling guilty about it--and so I remedy that by giving my vegetarian children graphic animal death scenes instead! I imagine that this is perhaps a wee bit more likely to give them bad dreams at night, don't ya think?
Hmm..I'm weighing what I should do here... I think it might have been the universe laughing at my attempt at piety. I did glance ahead to different sections, and they did all look nice and wholesome, but that was just too perfect of an answer to my fine intentions tonight. I am sort of considering returning the books, but maybe I'll keep trying for a couple more nights. I'm not the terribly overly-protective sort with the kids, but part of me is thinking it might be more decent to get the next Dark Reflections book instead!
An interesting related note is that I had a dream this afternoon that I was eating a stew that I believed to be vegetarian, but, after I was mostly done with it, I realized that it had all sorts of different meat in it--chicken, pork, etc. I felt a bit nauseated, of course, after nearly 20 years of being vegetarian. Anyhow, that dream was just after we'd bought the books. I'm wondering if my subconscious remembered that meat-laden aspect of the books, since I did read them when I was a girl but don't consciously recall very much from them.
Children's Books
I was inspired today to go to Barnes & Noble to buy the Little House on the Prairie Series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I had been thinking about getting them, and I chatted today about them with Amy Thomas, our Religious Education (RE) director and sweet mother to three lovely girls--Zoe, Bronwen, and Gemma. I adore the wholesome, intelligent, and innocent quality that her girls seem to have, and I feel sometimes that Fiona, in her impressionable 6 year old state, is negatively influenced by more superficial media.
I loved Wilder's books as a girl, Amy says that her girls love them, and I think that Fiona's old enough now to really enjoy and appreciate them fully.
Therefore, while Fiona played at Lillian's house today, Michael, Alex & I went to Barnes & Noble to look for the collection. I was entertaining doubts, however, thinking about how it was going to add up to a good bit and that I might be able to order them online at a discount. When we went in to the children's section, though, the Little House books were actually on display at a Buy 2 get 1 free deal! In my superstitious way, I took it as a sign that I should get them now and bought all 9 books! I'm a little daunted by the sheer volume of the collection--but excited, too. We have some quality bedtime stories to last us quite a while. I'm a little worried about Alex's reaction to these, though, since I read them bedtime stories together... Luckily, the second book is entitled Farmer Boy, so hopefully he'll believe it's not entirely for girls.
Actually, Alex has lately been reading on his own while I read to Fiona, as he impatiently snuck our current bedtime book and finished it on his own right after we started it! We're reading The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man by Lloyd Alexander, which has a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor (as well as quite a bit of the slapstick variety).
I hope that the kids enjoy Wilder's books. I'm a little concerned that I may have developed a taste in them for more sophisticated writing with some of the profound, philosophical novels that I've exposed them to--such as Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass) trilogy and The Water Mirror (of the Dark Reflections Trilogy) by Kai Meyer. I love those books, but I'd like to offer the kids some simpler, wholesome books to foster positivity and family values. Wilder's books are the epitome of that!
Also, while we were at B&N, Michael spotted a children's novel by Stephen and Lucy Hawking. Stephen Hawking has written some of the best theoretical physics books for the layperson and is renowned as a great genius--very inspiring, especially as he is also paraplegic. Anyhow, despite my heartfelt wish to read his wonderful books, I haven't brought myself to read such dense, scientific writing for quite some time. Of course I snatched up that novel by the Hawkings, and I expect to expose myself and the kids to some amazing new insights to the universe in a light-hearted fashion. I'll report on those revelations as we go!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Kung Fu Panda and my old body
Alex, Fiona, and I went to see Kung Fu Panda today with many folks from the taekwondo school. Ironically, Michael missed the movie so that he could attend taekwondo class! The movie was fun, but I have to say that I sometimes feel a bit like the Panda when I'm in class--watching those advanced students and teachers with their fancy 360 degree kicks and all! I've been hobbling around on a sore knee since my black belt testing, so I haven't attended a single class for the past couple of weeks--and I swear that it already feels like months have gone by.
I have a current client who has injured herself with her intensive yoga practice, and we were discussing that perhaps we're doing more than our bodies are meant to do! We're both so achievement-oriented that we keep pushing it until our bodies practically hobble us to settle us down! But we love what we do... It's so hard to find the perfect balance. Oh well, I suppose these injuries are the fallout from exercise. Michael hurt his shoulder in class today, too...
The kids seem more resilient than us. I don't think they have the flexibility issues. Maybe we're just getting old!
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I have a current client who has injured herself with her intensive yoga practice, and we were discussing that perhaps we're doing more than our bodies are meant to do! We're both so achievement-oriented that we keep pushing it until our bodies practically hobble us to settle us down! But we love what we do... It's so hard to find the perfect balance. Oh well, I suppose these injuries are the fallout from exercise. Michael hurt his shoulder in class today, too...
The kids seem more resilient than us. I don't think they have the flexibility issues. Maybe we're just getting old!
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Alex the Artist
On Thursday, I picked up the kids from school after volunteering for Teacher Appreciation Day. I had been so preoccupied with that that I had completely spaced on the 2nd/3rd grade art show that evening. Fortunately, and atypically, Alex reminded me. As we arrived, however, Alex commented, "I wish I had some other clothes. We were supposed to dress up!" I was wearing scrubs and the kids were still in their school uniforms. However, as the event was only 2 hours and we were already late, I had to let that go!
It was a lovely big event. Many were there in fine dresses, they served punch and cookies, and a classical pianist played. Next to the piano was a large piece of art--a feature piece, some sort of purple flower with a green background. I was quite impressed with it and Alex said, "I helped paint that". His name was listed along with three other students, omitting the essential teacher's name. He also had a painting there that he'd done on his own entitled Water Gun Wars. It was a wonderful event, and I was impressed at the artistic techniques that Ms. Tiia, the art teacher and last year's Teacher of the Year at Ellis, has managed to teach such young children. I had spoken with her about volunteering in her art room earlier in the year, as I think I'd learn a lot from her in these elementary school art classes, but I never made the time for it. She has many parent volunteers, though...perhaps some of them have the same idea as me!
Oh, btw, Fiona has decided that she wants to be a full-time artist when she grows up and had brought home a painting (a study in colors) that she had done that day in Ms. Sharon's class.
It was a lovely big event. Many were there in fine dresses, they served punch and cookies, and a classical pianist played. Next to the piano was a large piece of art--a feature piece, some sort of purple flower with a green background. I was quite impressed with it and Alex said, "I helped paint that". His name was listed along with three other students, omitting the essential teacher's name. He also had a painting there that he'd done on his own entitled Water Gun Wars. It was a wonderful event, and I was impressed at the artistic techniques that Ms. Tiia, the art teacher and last year's Teacher of the Year at Ellis, has managed to teach such young children. I had spoken with her about volunteering in her art room earlier in the year, as I think I'd learn a lot from her in these elementary school art classes, but I never made the time for it. She has many parent volunteers, though...perhaps some of them have the same idea as me!
Oh, btw, Fiona has decided that she wants to be a full-time artist when she grows up and had brought home a painting (a study in colors) that she had done that day in Ms. Sharon's class.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Gifted Girl!
We received official results today from Fiona's multiple days of testing this past month--Fiona was accepted into the Gifted Program at Ellis! Yay!!!!
The children in the gifted program receive extra resources and opportunities beyond their own classrooms. They have special field trips and explore diverse topics that aren't typically covered in an elementary school setting. For example, Alex had an architecture class through much of the past year. He also created a and performed a skit with his Odyssey team. Last year, they spent a day at the Children's Theatre, where they finished by putting on a mini-production. They work quite a bit on computers, and they were introduced to algebra recently. Anyway, I'm very excited by her acceptance--obviously!!!
I sometimes feel a bit concerned at the fact that my children receive these extra resources, but I've also read that gifted children receive much less in the way of teacher instructional time and remedial instruction. They typically require less teacher attention for behavior problems and are actually utilized by the teachers to help the other children (which is true for both Alex and Fiona). So, even with the extra funds for the Gifted Program, the gifted children by and large are not receiving more than their fair share. Soothes my conscience to believe this, anyhow!
Fiona and Alex will both be attending GEP (Gifted Enrichment Program) in the fall, which is typically several hours per week. Fiona has been receiving 'Enrichment' classes throughout the past year for perhaps an hour each week--being groomed for the Gifted exam, from some of what I've gathered from her reports of their activities. Hey, I'm not complaining!
The children in the gifted program receive extra resources and opportunities beyond their own classrooms. They have special field trips and explore diverse topics that aren't typically covered in an elementary school setting. For example, Alex had an architecture class through much of the past year. He also created a and performed a skit with his Odyssey team. Last year, they spent a day at the Children's Theatre, where they finished by putting on a mini-production. They work quite a bit on computers, and they were introduced to algebra recently. Anyway, I'm very excited by her acceptance--obviously!!!
I sometimes feel a bit concerned at the fact that my children receive these extra resources, but I've also read that gifted children receive much less in the way of teacher instructional time and remedial instruction. They typically require less teacher attention for behavior problems and are actually utilized by the teachers to help the other children (which is true for both Alex and Fiona). So, even with the extra funds for the Gifted Program, the gifted children by and large are not receiving more than their fair share. Soothes my conscience to believe this, anyhow!
Fiona and Alex will both be attending GEP (Gifted Enrichment Program) in the fall, which is typically several hours per week. Fiona has been receiving 'Enrichment' classes throughout the past year for perhaps an hour each week--being groomed for the Gifted exam, from some of what I've gathered from her reports of their activities. Hey, I'm not complaining!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Fiona’s Magical Month of May
May was such a busy month! Two events that I didn’t really talk about were Fiona’s birthday party and her dance recital.
Fiona turned six years old on May 18th. We celebrated in quite a big fashion this year! The weekend before her birthday was our Universal Studios trip in Orlando, the Friday before her birthday was horseback riding (which she’d been asking for like mad) with Alex and her best friend Lillian, and her fabulous birthday party was at Master Richard’s ATA Black Belt Academy—complete with a yummy cake from Rum Runner’s Bakery. Fiona received the most thoughtful presents from everyone, and she had the nicest group of people there. Even her cousins, Nicholas and Elizabeth, came down from South Carolina to join the festivities. Her big tangible present from us was a lovely new bicycle—pink, with a basket—from Bicycle Link in Savannah.
Anyhow, it was a huge birthday, which I know that she enjoyed. She actually held it together really well, as it was almost too much for a young child to handle, I believe! I don’t expect to celebrate quite that much again until she turns 16!
The day before her birthday was also a big day. She had her annual dance recital at the Civic Center, a five hour event (yes, that’s 5 hrs!) in which she had one song as a hula girl and another as Little Orphan Annie (identical to the rest of her dance troupe). She was absolutely gorgeous with curly hair, sparkly costumes, and lots of make-up! She was so cute and it was more fun to watch this year, as the girls are developing a little more skill and coordination.
Believe it or not, Michael and I actually watched her 1st dance, and then we left to attend a wedding of our taekwondo instructors (we couldn’t miss that!). We then dashed back in the nick of time to see her 2nd dance, and then hurried back to the reception! To top it all off, the heel broke off of my shoe as we arrived back at the reception, which was a fancy-shmancy gathering at the Jepson Center for the Arts—to which I wore flip-flops!
We were lucky to have Grammy and Gramps there to watch the kids for us. In fact, the kids spent the night with them so that we could attend the wedding and get ready for Fiona’s Sunday birthday party.
Anyway, we made it through all of that, plus my black belt testing, a family reunion in SC, and the herbal conference—all in the merry, mad month of May!
Holly's family pics /// Our neighbor Jay is home!
I just wanted to follow up on a couple of the previous postings. The American flag is not generally in our yard, but Michael put it out in honor of Jay (our neighbor) returning from over a year in Iraq. It's such a relief for my neighbor Angela and her girls to finally have him home.
Coincidentally, while we were in Asheville, Holly's husband River returned from nearly a month abroad while touring Spain with his band. He's a percussionist, and, though we haven't heard him with his band, it's quite obvious that it's a good fit for him from the way he taps on any hard surface around him! You can hear samples of his work at http://www.guerguerian.com/trance.html .
So, within a couple of days, I've gotten to see two excited bands of females-only greeting their returning men! (I was at Angela's house when she left and returned, as I was babysitting little Savannah for her.) I'm so glad that Michael isn't touring for the military or a band! The pictures above are of River, Eloise (1), Amba (11), and Cece (9).
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Mayan Coincidence
I just wanted to mention that Alex brought home a book that his teacher gave him at school today. The book was entitled something like The Mayan Mystery. How often do Mayans come up in your daily world, hmm? I love that sort of coincidence.
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Herbal Conference /// Lovely Yard Work
Well, we've just gotten back home from our trip and the kids should be home in a few minutes. My mom and dad came down to spend the weekend with the kids, but we never actually saw them in person, since they came and left while the kids were in school--as did we! Mom and Dad scored huge bonus points with us, as we came back to find the flower bed weeded, the grass cut, the lawn edged, and a new weedeater in the shed! Yay! Mom was so sweet, especially when she apologized for not doing more in the back yard and not cleaning my messy house for me!
Anyhow, we enjoyed the herbal conference. It served to generally get us motivated to incorporate more herbs into our daily life. Two topics have my enthusiasm, in particular.
Gaia Herbs is a company right there in Brevard, NC. We toured the facility and the organic herb farm. They are deeply committed to creating high-quality products while preserving the environment, and we got to see first-hand how they combine modern, state-of-the-art technologies with sound ecological practices on a massive scale.
Rosita Arvigo, DN, was the keynote speaker. She single-handedly preserved a massive amount of valuable herbal knowledge from being lost. After doggedly pestering an ancient Mayan shaman for over a year to teach her his art, he finally gave in. He was past 90 years of age and had no apprentice. He trained her for 12 years, and she's catalogued the medicinal uses of over 500 rain forest plants in Belize. He could neither read nor write, and he seemed to be the last of his kind. They were both featured in an inspiring documentary, Satsun, that won many prestigious awards and, I believe, was nominated for 2002's best documentary Academy Award. Michael and I attended a couple of her seminars, and I'm looking forward to reading her book.
Anyhow, we enjoyed the herbal conference. It served to generally get us motivated to incorporate more herbs into our daily life. Two topics have my enthusiasm, in particular.
Gaia Herbs is a company right there in Brevard, NC. We toured the facility and the organic herb farm. They are deeply committed to creating high-quality products while preserving the environment, and we got to see first-hand how they combine modern, state-of-the-art technologies with sound ecological practices on a massive scale.
Rosita Arvigo, DN, was the keynote speaker. She single-handedly preserved a massive amount of valuable herbal knowledge from being lost. After doggedly pestering an ancient Mayan shaman for over a year to teach her his art, he finally gave in. He was past 90 years of age and had no apprentice. He trained her for 12 years, and she's catalogued the medicinal uses of over 500 rain forest plants in Belize. He could neither read nor write, and he seemed to be the last of his kind. They were both featured in an inspiring documentary, Satsun, that won many prestigious awards and, I believe, was nominated for 2002's best documentary Academy Award. Michael and I attended a couple of her seminars, and I'm looking forward to reading her book.
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