Teaching Is The Best Way To Learn!

A few more days, and then this childplay page will automatically redirect to http://www.freeplaylife.com 🙂 And then I’ll have a party and eat lots of ice cream and jump and shout! You all are welcome to join me. It’s bring your own ice cream. And, while you’re at it, bring enough to share with me…

New post about unschooling, learning, and teaching over at freeplaylife!

I also blogged another self portrait shot about being our own superhero. I’m my own mighty mouse…who are you?!

Failure IS An Option.

New post up at freeplaylife! With an action video, ooooh!

Guess Where I Am?

Alright, the countdown to redirecting traffic to the new blog, and making this childplay blog just a figment of your imagination has started! In 5 days I will begin redirecting, but when I do, I’m not sure any new blogs will show up in your feeds or on twitter…so head over to freeplaylife.com and sign up for the new RSS feed/facebook page/twitter account!

Meanwhile, I’ve put up a new blog all about our new home!

and, of course, I’m doing all this while at Starbucks, using their free wi-fi. Mmmmm. I don’t need double peppermint hot chocolate anymore, now in this sunny climate it’s all about the shaken lemonade with passion tea. OMawesome!

Happy 4th, 1880’s style!

Our 4th of July plans, written on the shiny new blog that will replace this one in a week…so head over there and bookmark it/subscribe to the RSS feed so you get all the new updates as I post them! Isn’t moving such a pain! Luckily, all you have to do is click a few buttons instead of pack boxes and physically move to another address!

The Lesson of the Walking Stick.

Blogged over at my new home, freeplaylife.com!

To not miss any updates about walking sticks, mommy/kid dates that end in vomiting, or lots and lots of fun, you can subscribe to the freeplaylife RSS feed and have new posts directed to your feed or your email. Isn’t that the bee’s knees?!

Art as Self::Self as Artist

I have some trickery afoot! In order to read this post, you’ll need to mozy over to my brand spankin’ new upgraded blog with a brand spankin’ new name and look and feel and taste and…and…and…well, I’m just getting over excited here. I can’t think straight. It’s been a labor of love to self host my blog and then design it all so it’s juuuuust right.

It’s still not perfectly just right, but if I waited for that then perfectionism might set in and I’d never think it was good enough. And I just can’t wait! Mostly because I migrated the content over a week or so ago, and don’t know how to migrate individual posts so I was losing all your comments! And we all know that it’s the comments that make this bloggy blog so totally awesome.

I could tell you all the cool new things you’ll see over there, but I think I’ll just let you find out on your own. Some things I haven’t gotten to yet, and other things I have but still don’t like, and other things I haven’t even been to yet…so bear with me while I iron out the bumps. Let me know what you think…but be gentle! I’ve spent lots of late nights learning about SQL databases and code and wordpress.org and I’m prone to tears when I don’t get enough sleep!

So! Go!

Here’s the Art as Self::Self as Artist post!

Here’s the home page where all the magic will happen!

If You Were Ice Cream, What Kind Would You Be?

A reminder that I am still taking applications for the “Kids Are Like A Bowl of Ice Cream” contest! To recap:

“Kids Are Like A Bowl of Ice Cream”
*************
Fight “The Man”
who tells us normal is good
who brings us overstandardization
and scoffs at individuality,
By making your own ice cream sundae
However you want it,
And encouraging your kids to do the same,
Share the recipe here
and maybe win
a gift certificate
for more ice cream!
Yay for summer!

I’ve successfully recreated all the suggestions we’ve gotten so far, and am looking for more. Not because I love to eat ice cream every day (which I do) but just to make sure I give everyone a fair shot at the $25 gift certificate to Coldstone!

So, leave a comment about your and your kids favorite ice cream sundae combinations and I’ll add you to the list of prospective winners!

In addition to eating ice cream, there are lots of opportunities to get out with your kids and let them show you their world. Don’t be afraid to do what they do! Here are a few more ways my kids help me keep my childhood with me always:

*have a water balloon fight
*have a bubble fight (fill the sink with bubbles, then scoop them up to go on the attack! It’s messy, but clean!)
*have a whipped cream fight
*challenge someone to a race (bike, foot, hopping, skipping, etc.)

*jump off the high dive
*jump rope
*hula hoop
*draw a masterpiece outside with chalk
*go to a candy store and get your favorite kind. For me, it’s jawbreakers and rock candy!

No one’s better at making summer magical than kids, so go find one who will be your mentor for the next few months!

Pick Your Poison: passive, assertive, or aggressive?

Due to no Internet reception where I am (again!) (does that make you wonder where in the world we’re at NOW?!) (after all this roaming around, I wish the whole wide world was wired for wi-fi!) (too bad Tesla isn’t around, I think he could have figured it out already…)

Uh, where was I?

Internet. Yes. I have none. So it’s back to iPhone typing, which I’ve established is tedious, especially when I like to blah blah blah all over my blog and say in 46 words what it should only take 5 to say.

So, this will be short. I got a hold of a sheet divided into 3 catergories: passive, assertive, aggresive. It’s what so many of you commented about on my post ‘No more Ms. Nice Gal’. Passive isn’t balanced out with aggression, but rather with assertiveness.

Any doubt that I am as passive as a wet noodle are erased when I tell you that in no instance to I leave the passive column. I must admit, I cried. Hard. It brought home just how much passivity (passiveness?) affects my life and happiness. Oprah would have called it my ‘a ha!!’ moment, but it was more like “WTF!!!”.

I am now more determined to practice doing things that are more in the assertive column. Already I am saying, “that doesn’t work for me” and “but here’s what I need…”. For example, tonight i said, “i need to eat cake for dinner, kids'” and thats what we did at a nice bakery down the street! Small steps!

This picture is taken with my iPhone, I’m not sure about the quality or size, so let me know in the comments if you can read it! If not, I’ll find a link.

I She Shix Fissiesh Shwim By A Shtarfiss.

There’s a particular speech issue Sassy has had since she could talk. It’s an adorable inability to pronounce the “sh” sound. So every word with “sh” in it has a simple “s” sound.

fish becomes fiss
wish becomes wiss
dish becomes diss
sure becomes ssure

Some people advised me to take her to speech therapy to fix it right away.

As an unschooler, that goes against my grain. If something isn’t a problem for her, then I’m not going to take her in to get “fixed” just because it’s a problem for someone else. Especially in the early years, when I want her to be confident and fearless and NOT worrying about saying things the ‘right’ way or the ‘wrong’ way. So, the speech therapy never happened, and for 6 years she went merrily on her way–totally unaware of the role the sound “sh” plays in words. We all cherished (or, cherissed) her word pronounciation, even if sometimes we couldn’t understand what she was saying.

This past week we got out Python Path, Word-Ending Gamewhich we haven’t played in a while.

One of the word endings was -ash. So I helped her sound it out by saying, “See this “S-H”? That makes a “shhhhh” sound. She copied the sound, which was the first time I knew she could. “When you put the ‘a’ in front of it, it says, “ash”. She repeated it. Then I said, if this didn’t have the “h” on the end, it would make the “sssssssss” sound. So when you put the ‘a’ in front of it, it says, “ass”. She repeated it, and then started laughing. “You said ‘ass!'”

Ever since then, she’s put two and two together and is starting to differentiate between the ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sound. It’s a process in flux, however, and now she sometimes assumes that everytime she says ‘s’ should actually be the ‘sh’ sound.

At the aquarium, instead of saying, “I see six fishes swim by a starfish!” she said, “I she shix fissiesh shwim by a shtarfiss!” which I found even more awesome.

Here’s to kids, aquariums, speech impediments, celebrating childhood, and loving the unique quirks of the people around us.

Carry Your Childhood With You.

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” –Tom Stoppard

I read somewhere that one of the best workouts a new mom (to, say, a 7-9 month old) can do is lay on the floor and mimic her baby’s movements. Twisting, lifting, turning, straining, balancing, and generally flailing around is great for core muscles that have been stretched and neglected in the 9 months of pregnancy.

I remember, after I had Naturalist, the first time I realized I had no core muscle strength. I think I was trying to pull myself up from laying down by doing a sit up, and I didn’t sit up. I didn’t even sit. Or go up. I continued to lay there while willing any muscle in my abs to work even a little bit.

My arm strength had improved due to hauling around baby, carrier, diaper bag, and the other 45 pounds of stuff one needs while traveling with a newborn. My leg strength was off the charts due to endless hours walking around trying to calm down the rather restless Naturalist. But my core was sadly neglected.

I don’t think this core workout stops at physical strength, and I think mimicking our kids can give us an even bigger emotional workout.

If our core muscles need exercise to remain strong, our core happiness needs a childlike wonder to keep it going.

My goal is to jump out of bed with all the enthusiasm of my 6 year old. To become involved as deeply in something I’m interested in as my 13 year old. To play as hard and as long at something as my 10 year old does at basketball.

To do this, I have to sit back and make an effort to learn how to do this from them. Mimic their way of being. Not take myself so seriously and just go ahead and take a big flying leap off a high dive, even though it scares the crap out of me. Participate in a footrace, even though I might lose. (and I did.) Focus on the one thing in front of me instead of letting my mind wander to the 3048304598 things I’m worried about. Laugh deeply. Spaz out. Get on a bike and just ride. Eat desert before dinner every once in a while. Get some ice cream from the ice cream man.

Summer brings with it endless opportunities to let our kids share with us how to bring some of that priceless childhood back into our lives.