Experience Nature: The Community Garden

Flanna's class at the community garden

Flannery's class has gone on a gazillion wonderful field trips this year!  We are so lucky that her school is so close to so many great and interesting places to visit, because due to budget cuts, most of her class field trips have been "walking field trips" to save transportation costs.  

A few weeks ago, I got to go with Flanna's kindergarten class on a little walking field trip to the community garden.  The class was studying the life cycle of chickens, living and nonliving things, soil, compost, etc., so the community garden was a great fit for that!  

The kids got to see compost bins at various stages of decomposition, baby and adult chickens, seedlings, and very active beehives.  And the neatest part was that the kids got to see a hen actually lay an egg!  What good timing we had!

I am so thankful for my wonderful boss who has encouraged me to have a good work-life balance these past few years, so that I can not only be a good employee, but also a good involved mama, too.  Some days I am just overcome with how lucky I am to have this neat life, with such meaningful work and loving family & friends & colleagues and amazing opportunities at every turn.  

lovely chicken!

observing running versus still water

acting out how to layer components of compost

the adult chickens like to steal the little chickens' food, so they are in a protective crate inside the fence.  :)

What field trip do you remember from when you were a kid?  I remember going to the Center for Puppetry Arts quite a bit.  

Soak Up Together Time

We have felt so lucky these past two years to live near so much of our family.  Flanna has gotten to spend so much time with Robi's parents, and it has been such a blessing! Grammie came for a visit a few weeks ago to see Flannery play soccer, and we made a whole day of it, going out for lunch before the game, and for ice cream afterward!  You can see how much Flannery loves her sweet Grammie and how much fun they have together.  

We're going to miss them so much come August.  Because we're moving!  We're moving to the west coast for Robi's job.  We're so excited for our future out there!  But so sad to be heading soooo far from home and family and friends. 

So, for the next few months, we're going to be soaking up the "together time" we have left with our wonderful friends and family here in GA!   

Who do you want to "soak up" time with these days? 

If You Give a Kid a Camera

If you give a kid a camera, she's going to want to take pictures of you.  But you won't have makeup on, and so you will try to hide behind your dad.  But he won't let you.  He will just open his mouth and pose for silly photos.  So you'll just have to grin and bear it.  

ready for my close-up! 

And then you'll look back at the pictures, and decide--who cares if you have on makeup or your hair is frizzy?  This is how your daughter sees you, right now.  And she loves you.  And she'll enjoy looking back at these photos one day and getting to see how you looked.  And she'll enjoy seeing how you looked at her --with such sparkle and fun and love-- when she was so wild and so carefree and so tiny.  

And so not only will you keep those goofy photos--you'll actually post them on your blog.  And those laugh lines and those crinkles around your eyes?  You will love how they look.  Because they were forged in joy and sweet memories.  

my fun mama!

being silly with my parents!

granddad and a helicopter

What picture of your parents or grandparents do you love from when you were a kid?  

My Life in Pictures: Spring Break!

On Flanna's spring break, we went down to my parents' house by the beach.  It was so lovely!  The water was cold, so we didn't actually swim in the ocean, but we built sand-castles and splashed in the waves and took a gazillion long walks down the beach!  It was such a gift to get to spend some extended time together with both my parents!   Since my dad travels for work, those times when everyone is free and available to just "hang out" together are so rare!

What is your favorite spring break memory?

Give Attention and Specific Praise

One of the most powerful things I see in my work coaching teachers of young children, is how when a teacher learns to give specific praise to students, their students feel so noticed.  We all appreciate praise, but when we give specific praise to children, it really does make them feel amazing.  The difficult thing is to make our praise specific.  Saying, "Wow, you were so careful with your paintbrush!  You made a thin blue line here and a green curve here!"makes a child feel very noticed and proud of her work.  But saying, "Great job, you're a wonderful artist!" can make a child think--"Well, I kind of had a messy spot over there, and I'm not always a great artist."

in Flanna's classroom checking out her science journal

sorting living versus nonliving things

I tried to remember that when Robi and I visited Flannery's school early Thursday morning for her "Celebration of Learning" for their kindergarten spring learning expedition "Everything is Connected."  They learned about rocks and soil, plants & life cycles, and living/nonliving things.  The kindergarteners performed several songs related to their expedition, then took us on a hallway tour and showed off their science journals and classroom displays.  They were planning to tour the garden with us, but the rain nixed that.  I tried to give her specific praise, and not just to say, "That's great!" to everything I saw, which was my instinct, because everything really was great!

Anyway, it was a wonderful little program, and the children all seemed to be so proud of their learning!  I think expeditionary learning has been a great fit for Flannery, and I'm glad that learning has been fun for her in her kindergarten class.  I think that one benefit of having little gatherings and assemblies and "learning celebrations" is that it creates time and space for our children to feel noticed and to have attention focused on the work and learning they are doing.  Kudos to Flanna's school for understanding that!

 living versus nonliving things collages 

Flanna's daffodil 

Mealworms -  kindergarten studied compost and worms

Flanna's soil sample from winter break -- Hers was from Orlando

Flanna's rabbit on display on the art bulletin board of "living things"

What were you proud of as a child?

Appreciate the Art Around You

I think this one is my favorite.

At Nana's house for Easter, I was struck by how much art she has created in her life.   She is a great painter.  Here are a few of her paintings.  It brings me such joy to notice the beautiful things around me--both in nature and man-made.  I think Nana notices these things, too, and it's so amazing how she can capture them in her artwork.

What artists do you love?  

Share & Create Family Traditions: Easter 2013

my cute family

We have been so lucky to be able to have a tradition each Easter that includes extended family.  Some years, we are able to see folks on both sides of our family, but this year was so busy that we only got to see Robi's extended family.  We spent time with Robi's mom's side of the family on Saturday, and then with his dad's side of the family Sunday.  I hope Flanna will have lasting memories of Easter egg hunts and playing on the piano at her great grandmother "Nana"'s house each year, and silly playful times with her Mema and cousin Molly!

Grammie and baby Abe

cousins, cousins everywhere

cousins on a fence

playing the piano at Nana's house

cute cousins hanging out together

Aunt Nat Nat reading with Sarah Kate

Sharon with her only grand-daughter (lots of boys around here!)

Andrew, Sharon, & SK

Great-grandmother "Nana" and SK

The Sledges

Abe's first Easter!

Sweet as sweet can be.

getting ready to hunt eggs at Grammie & Poppa's house

showing her first missing tooth - in her Easter dress from my mom

Such a cute Easter outfit!

hunting eggs at Grammie & Poppa's

Cousins!

Flannery loves Abe so much!

Did you grow up with lots of cousins around?   I hope that Flanna will always be close with all of her sweet cousins.