She grew up loving animals. She trained guinea pigs to jump over DVD boxes set up steeple-chase style. She was central to the training of our two poodles. Now she is an office manager training people. Her biggest challenge to date: Trying to train her boyfriend to eat healthfully. Will she succeed?
Preschool Halloween parade. Parents rush in right before with siblings in tow. Undressing and dressing commence. Little ones cry or stomp, refuse to wear some part of their costume. Parents coax, cajole, praise. Everyone is taking pictures, even we teachers. How many pictures do I have of four year olds in Halloween costumes from twenty years of teaching? We walk in a line down to the school office for our first "treat", an apple, then on to the church office for our second treat, a pencil. Then down to the Social Hall for a few more, only one of which is actual candy. We dance one teacher's favorite, The Chicken Dance. Next we dance to mine, Ghostbusters. I secretly think my choice is much more fun. The children seem to agree. The princesses (they are all princesses this year) grab each others' hands and circle, giggling. The boys bob up and down, not too sure Batman or Spiderman would be caught doing something so undignified. Not everyone dances. Some are already c...
This is a former student (she's going into first grade, now). When I teach courses on young children and the arts, this picture resonates for me. A child who has the opportunity to listen to music, feel it, and respond to it is finding her creative center. In schools, today, children need to learn through all their senses, through their bodies, as well as their minds and imaginations. I teach my college students that American children are several years "developmentally delayed", musically. As a nation we are more music consumers, than music makers. I show them videos of children in other cultures making sophisticated rhythm and music when they are only four and five years old--mostly unheard of here. I emphasize the connection between musical and language development, and how those areas of the brain are close together. We discuss ways to infuse music and movement into every aspect of the curriculum. Before the state cut out the Community College class on Music & Mo...
She was right between my two daughters. A year and a half older than one and a year and a half younger than the other. We lived in a townhouse courtyard, one of many in a development originally built for the workers coming to DC for the war effort. The "units" had been redone in the '70's and we were living there shortly after. Her house was in the back of the courtyard, a parking lot in the center. She lived with her Mother, Grandparents, and Uncle. We lived with ourselves. She never wanted to come to our house because I supervised them too much. She liked it better when she could have my daughters over where they could all get into mischief, until her Grandma, my friend, would call and ask for help. There she'd be, jumping on the bed, laughing, because she knew she didn't have to clean up a mess they'd made because her Grandmother couldn't "make" her. I was supposed to help, but all I could do was take my children home. She would be out of ...
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