children
Children: Our most valuable natural resource.
Resolving to Blend
"Seeking balance - which feels like we're teetering on the edge, straining to ready ourselves - is not the goal. Instead, let's resolve to blend. Writing, family and work aren't isolated elements but moving parts with constant overlap that can inform, support, and even enhance one another." ~Nicole Gulotta, Wild Words
By Gretchen Lindemann5 years ago in Families
How Are New Mums Adapting to the New Normal?
For new parents, lockdown has been a surreal time. On one hand, many parents have been able to work from home or have been furloughed, allowing them more time than ever to focus on their precious new arrival. On the other hand, however, the pandemic has brought with it many uncertainties and unexpected worries for new parents.
By Alicia Walker5 years ago in Families
Creating Magic
When I was little, I would dream of Faeries and worlds where magick was everywhere. Where hag stones were portals to Faerie realms and voices whispered and sang on the wind. There was music playing and hidden pathways, faerie rings and magick potions. I would read The Magic Faraway tree and long for friends like Silky and Moon face. Hours were spent in the long grass, chatting with lady bugs and laying still so the Fae wouldn’t be scared away. At some point in time, we are all told to put childish things away. We are told that faeries and magick aren’t real, and that its time to grow up. Dolls are put away and stories are left on the shelf. The thing is, I never did that. And over the years I’ve created magick in different forms. Painting, drawing, mini fashions for dolls. But none quite gave me the same joy I experienced when I was a little girl.
By Lauren Bluett5 years ago in Families
Gerald III, The Turkey
If you are wondering what Gerald III, the Turkey's story is, please keep reading. I was asked for help by my teenage daughter, as she was working on schoolwork and had some math that she did not understand. However, after more than one attempt to explain it, I gave in to the art that she was so much more interested in at the moment than the concept of FOIL I was trying to teach her. I guess we could say that math lesson was "foiled" in a manner of speaking, but sometimes I guess we need to let their creativity come out and step away from the school "process" a little bit. Learning the "classic" way (I could say loosely, pencil and paper and sitting for prolonged periods) can take a toll. I ended up helping her color her "hand-print turkey" and the idea of posting a story on vocal media came to my mind. It was actually kind of fun to sit and color on a dry erase board. Unplanned, quality time moments like these are something that I am learning to enjoy. I think it could be a lesson for us all to occasionally just let our minds drift away from pressure and schedules and just spontaneously do something and let ourselves wind down. As a college student working towards an education degree, it is a useful lesson to me to learn to let students just take a breather. This was a casual happening, when she was more interested in drawing a hand-print turkey than listening to me explain the math problems that she did not understand, that I wanted to turn into a story. A little free time can be helpful. I know this from experience. If I have been working on my college work for a while, just getting away from it for a bit and moving around or doing something else can help me regain my focus. I know that there are times when we need student focus and I know to a certain extent learning is important, but so are those connector moments that strengthen relationships, after all, what is she more likely to remember, mom stopped a math lesson and colored with me or how to solve (xy-3)(xy+3)? Something for thought...
By Tabitha Ilges5 years ago in Families
Hold Your Breath
Hard Days My first day of kindergarten was hard. I needed my mother, hence the temper tantrum. I thought she had abandoned me in some monstrous brick and mortar building, old, void of love. Yanked by the arm, I was dragged off to an unknown destination for a meet and greet with the PrincipaI, Mr. Brooks. What an intimidating introduction. I, a young black girl, and he, a rotund white haired elderly Caucasian man, with a scowling red face. Me, with my tiny, scrawny body, arms and legs, resisting with tremendous strength though, even with the vise-like grip on my arm. It was a hard day. Five year olds are not supposed to have hard days.
By Cheryl Barnette5 years ago in Families
Balloons
I like to think about them sometimes, the balloons. The only balloon I remember from my childhood was the balloon I got while waiting for my parents to find me when I was lost at the State Fair. I remember getting lost, following someone who looked like my dad but wasn't my dad, and then realizing that fact, and being lost. I don't remember how I was found by the people who gave me the balloon and I actually don't remember my parents coming and getting me from the tent where I was waiting. I do remember, though, that the balloon had been tied around my wrist so that I wouldn't lose it. Only I lost it. It came untied, and as we were walking away from the tent, the balloon slipped off my wrist and floated up into the air, drifting away.
By Briane Pagel5 years ago in Families
