Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Breathing Room

 What do sharp new pencils, pigs, and a gym ball have in common?
Call it a surprise twist in the plot, 
a hopeful story arc...
 
One that involves less free time while we learn the ropes
but hopefully more flexibility in the long run. 
Pip and Winnie are trying a new school setup: 
a public school / home school mix. 
 
Today was our first day.

It felt like the first day of a tricky job. 
Do you know that feeling? 
The feeling that you might possibly be drowning after only minutes into it?

Or like finding the opening lines to your novel of novels, the jaw-dropping first page...
Every word has to be wonderful.
 
That was me today.
It should have been great. 
We're home all the time!
But somehow, I crammed all my expectations 
into one small day's window. 
I even had a list written up on the wall - our day's assignments. 

The first fifteen minutes were bliss. 
And then it all began to unravel:
Pip asking over and over when we could go to the library, 
Winnie crying about the math game where you throw the little pigs and count them,
Sugar Snack bouncing the gym ball at everyone, 
sneaking off with the camera, 
and me wondering who was going to make me some coffee 
if I was down here doing MATH! Quelle horreur!
"Gym Ball" - by Sugar Snack
I love perspective.
The day is now folded away.
The moon is up, warm and embracing.

And I'm here, peeling off my layers.
Thinking about how sometimes I take a great wad of expectations that would probably fill a year or a lifetime and I stuff it into a summer, a holiday,
or one small first day
when really,
all that's needed is joy for the moment,
patience,
and a lot of love.

Tomorrow, we'll try it home style.
We'll aim to get some learning done,
but this time we'll add a generous dose of
breathing room.

 "Uniforms"

A sweet book about breathing room:

Little Bird, by Germano Zullo, illustrated by Albertine



Friday, August 31, 2012

The Cake Ordeal, or Trial By Frosting

Birthdays for one small Two
and two big Sevens
all in one whippy whirlwind of a week. 
Whew! 
With such a mouthful of birthdays,
we partied nice and mellow...
except for... the big girl cakes...
 
Uh.
A few words to the wise: 
Betty Crocker
invented cake mix for a reason.
The reason?
She had twins plus two toddlers
and could not juggle kids and kitchen.
My attempt turned out two overly dense 
six-layer rainbow pink berry chocolate cakes
with floppy, sloppy frosting... 
sound yummy?
hmmmm.
I have learned from my mistakes. 
From now on, I will stick to wordy, artsy things
and leave baking to the Big Whisks 
and their foodie blogs.
Goodbye, high rise glorious 
skittle skat roarious.

It's cupcakes from now on.


Five days later, Birdy's birthday began
with a houseful of pink balloons.
Heaven!  
 
What else does a newly two need?
 

A frilly dress-up,
a home-sewn crown
fuzzy old chenille in a soft new quilt,
giggles
and some really easy cupcakes from a stress-free mama
and a
"blow-the-candles-out!"

Yummy Cake Books:

Product Details
The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious
High Pie Angel Food Cake - Nancy Willard, Richard Jesse Watson
The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies - Heather Forest, Susan Gaber
Round is a Mooncake - Roseanne Thong, Grace Lin 
Clever Jack Takes the Cake - Candace Fleming, G. Brian Karas
Mud is Cake - Pam Munoz Ryan
Thunder Cake - Patricia Polacco
Moon Cake - Frank Asch
Babycakes - Karma Wilson, Sam Williams
The Fairy Tale Cake - Mark Sperring, Jonathan Langley

What are your favorite yummy books?

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

How Does Your Garden.... Grow?


“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to
remain an artist once we grow up.”
- Picasso

Every kid can climb to the clouds, fly with fish, 
rule the world and tame dragons.
So when does that invincibility cape wear off? 
 
I think it turns tail somewhere between 
"pay the bills"and "eat your dinner," 
"thinner thighs" and that persistent inner critic that yelps 
to rise above the roost. 

 How can we return to that brave, boundless sky of imagination? 

It helps to give reality a shush 
from time to time, 
and let the muse sing. 



How do you dream when life is crowded with reality?
Over here, we play.

Not much weeding in our summer "garden." 
Just some good old crayon dirt.
Grass paint.

Water.

Sky. 

A big black thing.

Sugar Snack had so much fun he painted holes through his paper.

We talked about painting what we see with our eyes  -
shapes, colors, lines -
and then painting what we feel...
  
"Boingy"

"Happy"

 "Flying"


To draw you must close your eyes and sing 
- Pablo Picasso 
 
Our "garden" is inspired by this clever find:

The Imaginary Garden by Andrew Larson,
illustrated by Irene Luxbacher.



More Expressive Picture Books We Love:

Happy - Mies Van Hoot
Picasso and the Girl With a Ponytail - Laurence Anholt
My Many Colored Days - Dr. Seuss, ill. by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
Paris in the Spring with Picasso - Joan Yolleck, ill. by Marjorie Priceman
 


And now here is my secret, a very simple secret;
it is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
what is essential is invisible to the eye. 
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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