School Snippets #6: Halloween

4

October 29, 2010

I’m sheepish to say that I haven’t put much effort into Halloween since I’ve been an adult. Even more shamefully, there have been two years out of the last three where I didn’t even manage to get a real pumpkin for jack-o-lantern purposes (I left it so late that there were none left – seriously!).

But I have to say, I love seeing the kids at school dressed up, and the more incongruous the persona, the better. I love seeing, for example, sweet little brainiac boy in full-on Kiss regalia, punky Harley-Davidson kid in a pinstripe suit and fedora, Miss Chatterbox as a mime (she actually refrained almost entirely from speaking today), and severely quirky ADHD kid as Abe Lincoln.

My favourite costumes seen today:

  • Lego (so simple, yet so great!)
  • A stoplight that actually lights up (he rigged up the lights with his dad – the other year he was a gumball machine and it was equally amazing)
  • A MacBook (sandwich-board-style: desktop on one side, Apple on the other)
  • And… I wish you could have seen this… a Guy in the Wind. He had a blown-inside-out umbrella, and had somehow rigged his hair, his jacket, and his tie to all stick out in the same direction. Sheer brilliance.

I, on the other hand… borrowed some sparkly pumpkin earrings from my co-worker. Bravo, Mme S., bravo. Yeesh.

Maybe these will help atone for my apparent lack of spirit:

funny halloween pictures 5 300x225 School Snippets #6: Halloween

chihuahua in bear costume 236x300 School Snippets #6: Halloween

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Bellydance Bizarre

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October 27, 2010

I thought y’all might enjoy this video of (some of) our dance troupe, Invoketress, dancing our interpretation of the story of Lillith to Apocalyptica’s cover of Metallica’s “One”. We performed last weekend at the Bellydance Bizarre, hosted by DownHips of Cambridge. What a fantastic show: all the dancers bring their most funny/weird/creepy numbers to the Halloween show every year, and it’s GREAT.

It’s a bit rough: the images were inserted to mitigate the annoyance of people’s heads getting in the way of the footage, and also it must be admitted that this choreography was created for the show we’re doing a month from now… so we don’t perform as solidly in this video as we plan to in November. And we’re going to have a real guitarist who will play rather more seriously. But STILL! I hope you enjoy.

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Toddler Tracks IV

3

October 24, 2010
  • E the Toddler has sent his first text messages. He sent Sean “Zkqbb”, “Dearer set” (the iPhone even translates baby typing sometimes), “Mnnnnjjjmm Mmllel”, and “HalzxErZzkqwqatmb”. Then he sent my friend “U W c. Ymmjolllpl”.
  • He is really trying to give kisses to the cats. They don’t want them, but it’s still cute to see him lean toward them, going “Mmmm…” as they cringe away but stand their ground, gradually building up tolerance as he (even more gradually) learns to be gentle.
  • E can recognize a ladybug, but calls it “blog”.
  • He is obsessed with pumpkins, and wants to personally visit every pumpkin on our street.
  • Our babysitter, Marcia, has four pumpkins by her front walkway, which greatly increases her cachet.
  • This is how we figured out he’s learned how to use plurals. I mentioned Marcia one morning while E was on the change table, and he said, “Marcia. Pumpkins,” very clearly. (He also says “horses,” “shoes”, “peas”, and so on.)
  • The other day, he blew kisses to Marcia as he was leaving. It made her day. (She taught him that. It’s pretty charming.)
  • He is getting quite bossy. “Read it”, “Turn it”, “Touch it”, and especially, “Do dis!” when he wants you to do whatever he said. Continued…
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School Snippets #5

5

October 22, 2010

I’ve been helped to understand a significant truth.

I’ve noticed the craze of “silly bands” – as a teacher, I can’t avoid them. For those of you who are not between the ages of six and twelve, they’re stretchy bracelets that form different shapes when relaxed, in all different colours. (Like the 2010 version of jelly bracelets, except boys have them too.) They are collected, traded, played with, confiscated, argued over, and obsessively admired.

silly bands 1 300x199 School Snippets #5

To me, they’re just another craze, to be wrested only from the cold, dead hands of the children… wait, sorry. That’s the wrong image. But you know. It’s just like the furor over the Webkinz…

webkinz example 300x256 School Snippets #5 Continued…

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Eating Well

2

October 20, 2010

Sean and I are giving our digestive systems a break this week.

Sean has been reading the famous book Skinny Bastard, guy version (complete with swearing and other locker-room lingo) of the even-more-famous book Skinny Bitch. It’s all about how you have to shape up and eat right if you want to be fit, so just do it already, ya twerp!

I read a book called The Natural Makeover Diet by Dr. Joey Shulman (a young and hot ex-model who is now a nutritionist/health guru). Dr. Joey ought to fire her editor, but it was an informative read. It’s all about how what you eat affects the way you look, as well as your energy and well-being. (Duh, of course… but then again, how often do we eat crap? A LOT. Apparently I, for one, can never have too many reminders to eat well and consequently be well.)

NaturalMakeoverDiet 200x300 Eating Well

Upon finishing the book, I got all organizationally hyper and made lists and plans and guidelines and a menu. Of Super-Health. It includes my instructions for how to make a Salad of Awesomeness and a Kick-Ass Smoothie of Energy and Regularity. (I came up with those names myself, boo-yah.) We are engaging in self-alkalization. Continued…

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Great Advice

4

October 18, 2010

It was a busy weekend, in which I had considerable reason to think about the way people’s minds work.

I think we all have those times when we are bitter about something, and we’ve all hung on to things longer than we should have. Like, for example, I still get righteously angry when I think about that elderly guy in his yard who yelled at me and my friend N when we were about 14, walking by the pond (he accused us of being young punks who trespass and litter – technically we were trespassing but we used to pick up litter – and we felt he was the trespasser because there never used to be houses there at all! See??).

Anyway, I feel that we would all, every single one of us, benefit from following the advice of K’naan. This is a guy who grew up amid the violence of Mogadishu, Somalia. He moved to Rexdale (Toronto), Ontario, Canada as a young teenager, and I have no idea where he found the personal strength to wrest himself from the brink of gang life and become this wise poet.

K’naan is famous for his song Waving Flag, which was chosen as the FIFA World Cup theme this year, but the first song I ever heard of his was Fatima – a poignant song-story that you don’t forget once you’ve heard it.

For those who know little about K’naan, obviously you can go to Wikipedia, but Jian Ghomeshi (of course) recorded this amazing interview with him on Q (CBC). One cannot fail to be impressed.

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School Snippets #4

1

October 13, 2010

The staff at our school is working on making kids better mathematicians by teaching them to reflect on their processes.

In one Grade 1 class, the teacher gave the children a simple exercise: you have 8 goldfish to distribute into 3 bowls. Draw them in the bowls. The children had to say how they knew they had eight, i.e. how do you know your answer is right? The teacher shared them in the staffroom, because the answers (which she scribed onto their pages) were fascinating.

  • Some children, even being given eight actual goldfish crackers to use, ended up drawing far more than eight fish in their bowls.
  • One child had the right answer, but when asked, “How do you know your answer is right?” wanted to change it to something incorrect. Poor guy.
  • Some said, “Because I counted them.” Good answer.
  • Someone said, “Because I know 3 + 3 + 3 equals 9, so 3 + 3 + 2 must equal 8.” Wow!
  • Another child said, “Because I made a pattern: 3, 2, 3.” Creative.
  • Another child said, “Because I was thinking in the imagination station today that we can’t go up the hill.” (???)
  • Another child said, “Because I looked at Melissa’s and that’s how she did it. I think it’s right.” Ah, honesty.

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Thanks-giving

5

October 12, 2010

Last week I talked with my Grade 2 class about Thanksgiving and the things we’re grateful for. I was rather disappointed. My school is populated mostly with children who are well-fed, well-dressed, and very well looked after. These kids were like, “Um, je dis merci pour mon Nintendo DSI…” So I told them about how there are children in Pakistan right now without houses or clothes or clean water. And in many other countries, for that matter.

Fortunately, my Grade 4/5s were much more forthcoming. When prompted, they found that they were thankful for practically everything.

I know I’m a day or two late, but here goes – the first ten things I’m grateful for that come into my head:

  1. My son (the best one icon smile Thanks giving )
  2. My marriage (to my beloved friend and my son’s loving father)
  3. My family (whom I’m lucky enough to love as friends too)
  4. My friends (many of whom are like family) Continued…
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Toddler Tracks III: Sixteen Months Old

2

October 10, 2010

It was actually Friday that my baby boy turned sixteen months old… and he’s getting less like a baby every day. Sorry for the wait – I know it’s been a long time since the last Toddler Tracks. It’s been a busy weekend, including the lovely wedding of my sister-in-law, coinciding with our first true dose of Indian Summer. But no more excuses! It’s time to blog.

This kid is the source of endless amusement. We love him ridiculously and can hardly imagine him being any more fun.

He’s not perfect, though. In case you’ve been wondering if we ever deal with any tribulations, I assure you, we do. Not serious ones… but he does whine sometimes, he has mini-meltdowns sometimes when he’s sleepy or hungry. Like any child.

He still nurses before bed and first thing in the morning, but sometimes he still wakes up to ask for milk in the middle of the night. We had several rough nights in a row last week, during which I thought, I knew the night weaning was too easy. Once we moved him from our bed to his own bed next to ours, it seemed to work naturally to phase out the night feedings… but of course it couldn’t really be that simple. Continued…

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BANG Book Review: The Year of Living Biblically

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October 6, 2010

This month’s GGG book, chosen by the oft-mentioned Skye ( icon smile BANG Book Review: The Year of Living Biblically ) was The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs.

the year of living biblically aj jacobs cover 199x300 BANG Book Review: The Year of Living Biblically

Skye picked it because she had read The Know-It-All by the same author and loved it. Not all the gals who made it to the meeting had finished the book, but we were all able to say that it was eminently readable, entertaining, and thought-provoking. Those of us who haven’t read The Know-It-All now plan to.

In The Year of Living Biblically, the author takes a year to live following the rules/advice of the Bible as closely as possible - part of the time based on the Old Testament (Talmud) and part on the New Testament. The task is epic: there are hundreds of rules, all open to myriad interpretations.

Hey A.J., if you are still in the habit of Googling yourself and happen to find this blog, we’d like to officially say Bravo! We loved your book, and props to you for taking on such a gargantuan project. We found it hilarious even though you never disrespected the process, and we admired your chutzpah in many an awkward situation. Continued…

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School Snipp…ing #3

3

October 2, 2010

This past Thursday, our school participated in the Terry Fox Run.

These are the times that I love being part of a school community; it was positively heartwarming.

First, it’s great to see the kids push themselves to run. Some of the Grade 6s ran about 20 laps of the park: that’s over twelve kilometres! Crazy. I was never a runner, so I am in awe of this. And I especially appreciate that many of the kids who run like the wind are not academic stars – I love watching them in their athletic element. They run with the knowledge that all those kilometres will be added together with the rest, to honour Terry Fox and others who suffer because of cancer.

And then there’s D, the Grade 4 kid who had his head shaved to donate his hair. He’s been working on this since before I went on maternity leave. I remember seeing him again when I came back to school last spring, and him announcing to me excitedly that he’d been growing his hair, as if it weren’t patently obvious. I’d almost thought it was a wig at first glance, because it was ridiculously thick and lustrous, flowing from underneath his baseball cap well past his shoulders. Continued…

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