I know I haven’t posted in ages. I’ve been dealing with some difficult family stuff. I just thought I’d share this presentation I just watched. I think it’s important to share the message here.
Exploring Self-Regulation, Trauma and Creativity and the importance of teaching the good feeling of control to children.
All the best!
It is my very humble opinion that much of our world’s current malaise is due to what Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, coined as “Nature Deficit Disorder”.
Getting out in nature has always been an experience that I treasured, from the time I was a little girl. I was born in the Midwest, but when I was 7, my mother and step-father moved us to New Mexico. We spent some time up in the Sandia Mountains. Every winter, we’d make the treacherous trek up the mountain to cut down a Christmas tree on a small parcel of land my parents owned. I didn’t get along with my family very much, but I am so glad they took us into the mountains as children.
When we would go visit my biological father in Colorado, he and my stepmother would take us to the local reservoir to muck around in.
When I had difficulties as a sensitive teenager in a home that was filled with lots of fighting between my parents, I’d retreat to my favorite two places. I’d stop off at the library to grab a book, then take it into the forest preserve behind the library to read. It was a wonderful way to soothe myself from the difficulties I went through with my family.
As a mother of three bright daughters I make it a point to take my children out to natural places at least once or twice a month. Sadly, we don’t have anything within walking distance, and I think that is a shame, but I am not going to complain too much. At least we have a few beautiful places within driving distance.
I wanted to share a few photographs of places we love.
This is our local arboretum. We bought a family membership so now we go quite a lot.
This is a state park in Illinois known as Starved Rock. The area has many small canyons and is rich in history too. We took the girls for the first time this year and they loved it.
One of my absolute favorite shots of my middle daughter in the forest at Starved Rock was this one, which I really love.
A few years back, we traveled by train to go visit my dad and we made a stop at the Garden of the Gods to do some hiking with the girls. We all had a lovely time climbing the red sandstone.
The views there were breathtaking.
Last weekend we visited a living historical farm/homestead that had on its large property a farmhouse, a barn, and a one-room school house and every fall they have a harvest festival which we attend. I love going because we get nature AND a history lesson.
It’s so important to me to share these experiences with my daughters. I’m not a total ‘roughing it’ kind of girl, and for now, still feel connected to where I live in the relatively quiet suburban town. But I make it a point to get out to nature as much as we can.
I think it’s really imperative that everyone make time to seek out these natural resources, diminishing though they may be.
Two of my daughters are in the gifted program in school, and the youngest one may well be next year too. But more important to me than stuffing their heads with knowledge, is bringing them to places to learn about our natural world to counter-balance the information they are requited to learn with more hands-on exposure to nature.
So many of their friends are already well-endowed with all types of electronic gadgetry, and I ask them from time to time if they ever get out to any of the places we visit with their families, and they tell me no. Every time I talk to adults with children, I am always encouraging them to take their kids to natural places explore that aren’t so very far away.
I really hope they do. I believe it’s one of the surest ways to offset the stresses and dis-ease of our modern world.
I know it’s been a while, but I thought I’d start blogging here again. My daughters are 10, 8 and 7 now, and while we don’t to preschool or kindergarten things here, we are still always looking for interesting things to do, especially now that softball season is over.
I don’t know what I intend to do with this blog, but we are still a learning family and so I thought I’d share some of the neat little games I find at thrift stores that are educational and fun and give little mini reviews of them.
The first is Ravensburger The Amazing Labryinth.
While the list price is $29.99, I purchased it for $2 at my local thrift store. It was in excellent condition.
The game is listed for ages 8 and up, and sure enough, my 8 and 10 year old liked the concept, but my 7 year old was struggling a bit to understand. My husband and I both found this game to be fun and challenging too. I took over for my 7 year old, and ended up coming from behind, to winning the game.
The board and pieces are high quality – no flimsy work here.
The rules are fairly easy and so is the objective – try to collect your set of treasures that are on the cards you have been dealt with. When you find the game piece, set it aside. Don’t tell other people what your piece is, otherwise they will try to block your way.
What makes it challenging is that the board game constantly changes, due to some of the board pieces being moveable. You take the extra board game piece (a square piece) and push one of the moveable lines of game board squares one unit forward or backward (where ever you see an arrow means that line moves). This will move one board piece off the board to become the new mover for the next player’s turn. Then, before your turn is over, you can move your colored game piece along a straight line as far as you want (either to the item you need to collect, or to the end of the line) or you can opt not to move it along.
What frustrated my 7 year old is that she had trouble determining where to best move the game board so she was in a better position to reach her target. Then when someone came after her, she couldn’t get to her treasures because someone would inevitably block her path.
This was only after one instance of playing, so I imagine if we worked with her, she just might get the hang of it.
To date, 76 Amazon reviews gave this game 5 stars and 14 people gave it 4 stars. I’d have to agree, this was a game worthy of its high ratings.
I’m a big believer in learning from the source. It’s good to learn from books, but much better to learn from experiencing or observing things first-hand. Check out your local area for free to low cost events that might be happening around you. You might be surprised at what you might find.
Yesterday we went to a local county park to learn about tapping trees for maple syrup. It was a free public event and it only cost us the cost of a ride.
We started out the tour learning about how trees are tapped for maple syrup. You can head out over to my other blog, The Exploration Station, to learn more about the process.
We saw some neat buildings too, like the sugar shack, where they cook the maple sap to reduce the water content and make maple syrup.
This building, with the nonfunctional water wheel, which has a grist mill for making cornmeal.
This view will be quite lovely come summer time.
We didn’t actually get to see the mill in use, but we did get to purchase a couple of sacks of corn meal.
We’ll be going back in May to hopefully see them demonstrate the process of making cornmeal.
I just had to share the talents of my sister in law, who scoured the internet for ideas for a fairy birthday tea party.
She made all of the decorations herself, traced and painted the wall mural, made the fairy wings, skirt, headbands, and wands, and used 1400 coffee filters to make the large wall mounted #5.
I wish I had the energy that she did to pull off that kind of party.
She is one mighty energetic and talented mom. I wish I had a mom like her growing up. That would have been so much fun.
Susan Casey is the author of Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors and Women Invent! Two Centuries of Discoveries That Have Shaped Our World. She is also a journalist and her articles and photographs have appeared in Family Circle, Americana, USAir, Women’s Sports, Soap Opera Digest, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Inventors Digest, Electrical Contractor and many other publications. When she was a girl, she loved reading and writing and through the efforts of a teacher, her first magazine article was published when she was in the seventh grade. After graduating with a degree in history from Santa Clara University, she spent a summer doing volunteer work in a small village in rural Mexico. It was a trip to Africa that prompted her writing career.
Today I am interviewing Ms. Casey about her book Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors on my other blog, Raising Smart Girls. Please head on over and take a look. I would like to host a book giveaway on that blog soon, so keep an eye out for updates.
One of the nicest little freebies we attended this weekend was a storytelling/autumn fair for kids. It was a nice event to share the long-standing oral tradition of storytelling. And free is GOOD.
It wasn’t very big, but it had a farmstand and a few arts and crafts vendors. There was an airplane folding competition. Oldest daughter won a trophy for shortest distance. It went out 2 feet forward and three feet back beyond the starting line. 🙂
There was a musical group singing some cute children’s songs.
But the highlight of the day was the ‘professional’ storytellers that came to tell the children stories. Some of the storytellers were so-so, partly because their stories weren’t very appealing to children. But they tried.
But some storytellers were really fun. This one was because she told the story of the Wide Mouth Frog with puppets and she exaggerated her words so much for a silly effect.
This one below was one who told the most stories. She was the best of the storytellers as she really got physically got into her stories. You could tell she really enjoyed using her whole body to convey the dramatic effects. She told stories from around the world like Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock…a tale from West Africa with many different versions, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, a Cuban tale and the Chinese story The Empty Pot.
My favorite was her rendition of Martina The Beautiful Cockroach. Not only was the story cute, but she changed her voice with each character. I can’t find an online version of the story, because I think it’s copyrighted, but a summary is this:
At the ripe old age of 21 days, Martina Josefina Catalina Cucaracha, a beautiful cockroach who lives with her family in a cozy street lamp in Old Havana, is ready to give her leg in marriage. Abuela, her Cuban grandmother, gives her “un consejo increíble, some shocking advice.” She tells Martina to spill coffee on each of her suitor’s shoes to make him angry. Then she will know how he will behave when he loses his temper. Abuela says, “The Coffee Test never fails.”
It was a really nice time. And…it seemed like so much fun the storytellers were having. I found out that if anyone wanted to learn more or join our the storytelling guild, they told us where the storytellers meet once a month which is not too far from where we live. I actually enjoyed it so much, and I enjoy working with kids anyway that I was going to find out more about it.
It’s that season again – time for historical re-enactments. Kicking off this years events was the Civil War Days at a local pioneer settlement.
We first stopped off at a print shop and learned how they made newspapers once upon a time.
And mansion built in the last 1800s. We got to tour the lower level though no pictures were allowed of the interior to preserve the artifacts.
We toured the Confederate camps…
…and the Union Camps too.
Then it was time for the battle.
Youngest daughter and I sat so very close to this cannon (for a while anyway):
We not only heard the boom through our covered ears, we FELT it too as it reverberated through the ground and through our bodies.
After three or four booms, and numerous shots fired from the rifles, youngest daughter had enough. So we left and I went around to the confederate side to take more photos:
Even the re-enactors had to cover their ears when the officers gave the signal to fire the cannons.
Last year the Union boys won the battle. This year it was the confederate soliders that won the field and they overtook the fort.
Not all of the wounded made it though. Yes, indeed, last rites were performed on the dying.
I recommend checking out your local area for historical re-enactments. You can read all about history in books, but it’s an altogether different learning experience to be a part of living history.
Do you have any blog posts to share of your visits to historical re-enactments? If so, leave a link in the comments. We’d love to see them.
My oldest daughter, a third grader and I got the pleasure of attending a Young Authors Conference this past Saturday. Students that participated in the conference met with other students from other participating schools in our region to share their creative writing with each other and meet with the author and illustrator of children’s books.
When it was time to listen to the session where the author of some children’s books was doing her spiel, instead of sitting on the floor with all the other kids in the gym there was a young boy who sat next to me in the back and we talked…about chess club, about science experiments, about magic and Harry Potter and his own story. I talked a little bit about the fact I used to work in the scientific field and his picture of a bookshelf full of potions reminded me of my days in the laboratory.
As the above speaker was talking about her stories, one of her slides had a cow on it and the young boy seemed more interested in telling me how neat it would be to get a cow so his family could have fresh milk, it could eat the grass instead of using a lawn mower, and they could use the manure for fertilizer. Yeah, kids really do have some pretty cool ideas. His mother on the other hand, had to point out there was no way the city would allow a cow in the neighborhood.
My own daughter wrote a story about werewolves coming to attack a group of young campers. I got a chance to type out the story with her while and she was a very good editor of her own work…asking me to delete parts and add new things. It was a pretty great collaboration.
Here is an excerpt:
We walked down to the river, it was about 10:00 p.m when we met face-to-face with 16 werewolves! I wanted scream, but I was too afraid and I whispered, “We should head back to camp to get Jay”.
We heard leaves rustling and a twig snapping on our right. We were afraid until we saw a beam of light and then we saw Jay.
“What’s wrong?” asked Jay.
“See for yourself!” I said, pointing towards the trees where the werewolves were.
“Oh, my gosh,” he said, seeing sixteen pairs of glowing eyes. Suddenly, the werewolves were growling and walking towards us.
“I think they’re hungry,” said Hope and she started crying.
We were soon surrounded. Each one of us was cornered by four werewolves. They bared their sharp teeth, which were huge. I was so afraid and I knew this was the end of us. I screamed.
For a third grader, I think her use of dialogue to move the story along was great. Some of the stories from the fifth graders didn’t employ any use of dialogue.
I volunteered to be a sponsor for a group of 5th graders. When we broke out into the story-reading session, I had 8 students from four different schools share their stories.
I was in my element when in front of the group of kids I had. I enjoyed listening to their imaginations take flight, and I was thrilled to share my love of stories and writing.
All of the kids stories were pretty interesting, but one or two were exceptionally notable. They were all very different…one a first person/diary-style (kind of like a week in the life of or these are a few of my favorite things), one science fiction story about a far away galaxy, one about an illiterate mouse who LOVED books. Her use of details was quite remarkable.
That was an amazing story and I could really see how the young girl really had the makings of a master wordsmith. I had felt bad about stopping her short, but we’d run out of time. One really felt the spirit of that little mouse who loved books even though he could not read and how bound and determined he was to go to the library and to learn how to read. She was a stunning story spinner.
And there was another child who smiled during parts of her story. She just lit up. It was wonderful to see.
I was given a sheet of questions to ask the kids about their books they wrote. At first I read one or two questions from the list, but threw the list out and simply improvised and instead I had a conversation with the kids about what struck me from their writings. It was pretty amazing.
I made individual thoughtful comments about what I know about the process of writing books. I started getting inspired by what they wrote and how some of their writings made me feel. I made connections between their stories and their lives and brought up a point or two from my experience as an amateur writer. I told them a little bit about if they were out in the real world, they might actually collaborate on a story, just like two young co-authors did.
I felt something kindling in me…that maybe I should do something that puts me in a position to keep that spark of imagination in children. To be able to get up in front of young people and inspire them, it’s a really fantastic feeling. I had this experience once before for a forensic DNA lecture I gave to a group of fourth graders.
It occurred to me, how the children’s enthusiasm (and my own) grew in that classroom , because I, an adult who loved books myself and loved writing, and who would like to get published some day, really felt a connection to them and supported their efforts and really enjoyed their expressions.
Which reminds me of something I else I had realized.
The boy who sat next to me listening to the author talk was also in my breakout group. He read his story last, and he stopped in the middle of his story and said “oh, here, I forgot to show you one the pictures when we were sitting in the gym”. And that’s when I realized, in the mind of a child, an adult’s enthusiastic appreciation of their work is of importance. He didn’t care to show his picture to the other children as much as he wanted to show me, because, as an adult who valued what he had to say, my input means something to him. I marveled at this. He didn’t care what my credentials were, that I wasn’t a teacher, or that I was just a stay at home mom at this point in my life, but that I respected and enjoyed his expressions.
That reinforced something I already knew, that adult who values a child’s expression is more valuable to their self-esteem than many adults may realize. Heck, even me, in my awareness and in my own struggles to raise my daughters, I do appreciate the little reminder of that priceless fact. Kids need to feel their expressions have merit.
I didn’t know how my daughter’s experience was going, as she was in a different story reading session that I was, but I hoped it was as inspiring as mine was.
She started off the day rather shy. She didn’t speak much on the bus ride over at 8:30 in the morning and was a little annoyed that I was taking pictures of her, and was really glad I wasn’t in her session. I, on the other hand, was a little sad, but I got over it.
At the end of conference, all the kids on the bus, including my own, came back differently. Each was thoroughly enthusiastic about their stories. They all began to take turns reading their stories to each other and the few adults that were on board. It was a remarkable thing to see.
When we were done, my daughter said to me, “I can’t wait until next year’s conference.”
I went into her bedroom last night to see her working on another story. Before this conference, she rather lost her enthusiasm, as her interests were moving towards a budding interest in softball. I’m glad to see her writing interest take off again.
With three daughters, we’ve been invited to many birthday parties over the past few years and we’ve had a few birthday parties of our own.
I don’t know when or why it became such a big deal to invite the entire class to birthday parties in suburban America, but it’s a fairly common practice around here, even in our modest suburban community. I know parents dish out a lot of money for those “inflatable jumpy house” places and they invite the entire class of 22 kids for their children’s birthday parties. One parent I spoke to recently told me the last time she had a party there, she spent close to $500 when all was said and done. I nearly choked. $500 for a kid’s birthday party? Seriously? To jump on an inflatable for 2.5 hours and eat crappy pizza?
I think we’ve attended about 10 of those sorts of parties over the past 4 years. And besides being expensive, it’s quite uninventive.
Okay there’s those new pottery places…for anywhere from $250 to $350 (not including cupcake costs) each child comes home with a custom piece of painted pottery that has no purpose except to collect dust, unless your child happens to choose a piggy bank which is at least functional. We are now the proud owner of a brown painted plaster dog that doesn’t do anything. At least she chose a fairly standard doggy fur color, not the black and fluorescent yellow that her friend chose.
Other typical (and crazy) birthday party venues we’ve been to are Chuck E. Cheese, mini-golf, and bowling alleys. Ho-hum.
We’ve never had succumbed to the “we have to invite the entire class” mentality…well, until this year and you’ll find out why toward the end of this post. We’ve always allowed the daughters to invite a 3 or 4 friends and have taken them to the bowling alley or two friends the movies. One time we chose a pizza parlor, though if we did that again, we’d choose the pizza parlor with the ginormous organ they play on Friday nights.
I’ve decided to list some of the more unique places for children’s birthday party venues. Maybe you can find similar venues in your area that might host children’s birthday parties. Even if they don’t currently host birthday parties, it might not be a bad idea to inquire at various places in your community. Perhaps to generate more income, they might think about it. Maybe your party might be the first.
My Top 5 Unique Birthday Party Venues
5. Local toy boutique – There used to be a pretty trendy toy boutique by my home. Now, generally speaking, it was too expensive to shop there, but I’d often bring the kids and browse and shop in their clearances bins while the kids played in their little play area which was set up with lots of the latest and cutest toys. Eventually, to increase revenue, they decided to host birthday parties. For $20 a child (which, I agree, is expensive, so we limited it to 3 BFFs and our 3 girls), the children got to pick from one of 10 different craft kits. While a bit on the spendy side, the kids got to choose their craft kit and make it while there and take it home with them. 5 of the girls chose paint your own jewelry kits and my oldest daughter who wasn’t a jewelry wearing type, choose a paint your own racecars kit. And when they were done with the main craft, there were 2 other paper crafts the children could choose from – my daughter chose paper flowers and paper bag puppets for her and her guests.
What I liked about it – it was a quiet, calm intimate gathering, the kids not only got to create something, they got to bring their creations home with them and they were more functional than a plaster dog.
What I didn’t like about it – the price was too high and the location too small for a large party.
4. Dance Studio – Does your child attend dance classes? My oldest was invited to a birthday party at a dance studio and was taught a jazz number – no prior lessons required. She didn’t need special dance shoes. I think they taught the kids in their socks. When all three girls attended ballet, one of the ballet friends had a birthday party at the dance studio and they got a free dance lesson. They brought in pizza and cupcakes.
What I liked about it – free dance lesson for the guests.
What I didn’t like about it – you need to have a friend in dance, it’s not open to the general public, it’s not cheap (I’m not sure how much, but dance lessons in general is not cheap).
3. Community Arts Center – My middle daughter went to a birthday party at the local community arts center and they had a craft, played games and had cupcakes in their children’s art room. No, I have no idea how much this cost, but I can find out.
What I liked about it – the ambience – upstairs was the Performing Arts Center, and the art rooms were near the rooms where the orchestra practiced, and at the time of the party, we saw musicians and heard some of their music as they played.
What I didn’t like about it – for being in an art studio, they didn’t actually give a free art lesson. The kids just did a craft out of foam. The people from the art center helped us by took digital photos and printed them out for the craft, but I would have liked the kids to have a mini art lesson, either a drawing lesson Young Rembrandts-style, or have easels set up for painting with tempera paints. Now THAT would be cool.
2. Local Humane Society – My oldest attended a party at the local chapter of the Humane Society. The cost was $100 and they brought out cats, dogs and bunny rabbits for the kids to pet. They let the kids see the other animals in their cages. The cost of the party goes to support the Humane Society. And no, they did NOT push for adoptions.
What I liked about it – aw…soft fuzzy animals and kids…what’s not to like? The money goes to a good cause.
What I didn’t like about it – Except for hearing about how soft and cuddly the animals were for days afterward…nothing.
And by far, the most impressive, inexpensive, venue is:
1. Community Planetarium: Housed within a middle school, the local planetarium charges $65 to host birthday parties of up to 65 guests. Yes, you heard that right. $65. For that price, you get use of the meeting room which has displays up of planets, interactive computer programs linked to the NASA website and a weather station and an hour-long program in their domed theater. My youngest will be turning 6 next month and since she’s never had a kid birthday party ever, we chose a program for K-2 called Larry the Cat In Space and have invited her entire class. This was one birthday party experience I am really glad to pay for.
What I like about it – For so little money, you get a fantastic educational experience. You can see some of the exhibits and the domed theater in this post on my other blog.
What I don’t like about it – I’m having a hard time finding something not to like. I didn’t even have to put down a deposit, just sign a paper and send it back. They work with a local pizza joint that charges only $5 a pizza if you order 10 or more. I think the only thing that’s going to be a challenge is having to bring the party supplies upstairs and bring the gifts downstairs. But that’s not really a major drawback.
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So, do YOU have any unusual birthday party venues?
The Wonder Years 