Category Archives: children

do you remember?

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who remembers this?

sitting backwards

making faces

rolling around on turns

cigarette smoke-filled air

fighting over who could sit there

the door that swung open

back window down

best seat ever.

 

“like all great travelers, i have seen more than i remember, and remember more than i have seen.”

-benjamin disraeli

 

 

 

 

 

image credit: doyouremember.com

sudden.

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a quick exit.

why so sudden?

had goldilocks been there and heard the bears coming home?

 

“the first bowl of chocolate pudding was too hot, but goldilocks ate it all anyway because, hey, it’s chocolate pudding, right?”

-Mo Willems (author)

box-sledding.

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what could be better

then box-sledding 

on dirt and dried grass

while dreaming of snow?

 

“my first playpen was a cardboard box.”

-michael lee-chin

atomic.

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what child wouldn’t put this on their holiday wish list?

 

“it is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.”

-isaac newton

 

 

credits: Rogue NASA, Weird History

backwards.

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and why not turn around and create your shaving cream art while backwards? 

all it takes is a fresh idea and a willingness to try a new approach. 

“i think backwards. ‘this was beautiful,’ instead of forward.”

-alice herz-sommer

madelines on my mind.

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shared a kitchen and an online live cooking class

with one of my grandies today

we had

a fast-working sur la table pastry chef

 equipment, ingredients, and time

 we both worked hard for 2 hours

improvised along the way

 scrambled to find things

as the chef added in a few surprises

like making two royal icings

of different consistencies

all while

white chocolate melted

dark chocolate melted

not burning

never mixing

coloring the icings

buttering and chilling the pan

twice

after many, many steps

 we had pretty much trashed the entire kitchen

but in the end

we had created

wonderful french madelines – vanilla bean halloween style

 more tiny cakes than cookies.

“cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. and cooking done with care is an act of love.”

-craig claiborne

 

reaching out.

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one friend shares her flower with another

 

as a teacher of young children

i am always struck

by the natural way

that children connect with each other

reaching out

with genuine kindness and kinship.

 

“anyone who takes time to be kind is beautiful.”

-author unknown

it’s complicated.

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oh, we all have those days

you start out by not having your water bottle

so you get a special halloween cup of water

 it gets tipped over when you are cutting

you go to get a paper towel to dry it up

but you come back with what you can find

toilet paper

 that gets wet and mushy

 the extra part rolls out on the floor

 your coat falls off of the back of your chair

 the paper you were cutting gets soaked and chopped into little pieces

because you are really good at cutting

 you can’t find the cap to your marker

because it rolled off your table

 now it might dry up

all you have left are the dark color crayons

 you don’t get time to finish your cheez-its

because you are trying to clean up

the ones that are left get wet and are mushy

you go out to recess and run and run and go on a pirate adventure

your teachers love you anyway and tell you it happens to them too

and it’s all okay.

“there’s no limit to how complicated things can get,

on account of one thing always leading to another.”

-E. B. White

special delivery.

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a very special delivery

going to a very special place:

the fairy house in our school garden.

 they will be so happy. 

“find happiness by delivering it”

– chris murray

comfort always.

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day two of our return to school

 we all find comfort in our own way

a donkey, a pillow, a bus, a dragon

  each makes all the difference to someone. 

 

“cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.”

-hippocrates