today on the first day
we welcomed our
new multi-age kinders class
(3s, 4s, and early 5s)
each in their own age and stage
to our school
many for the first time.
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“everybody has to learn for the first time.”
-joshua lederberg
(1925 – 2008) american molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the united states space program. 1958 nobel prize winner.
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image credit: rural images
tiny delivery truck found on the side of a park path
driver must have finished a long shift and was on a break
—
“the universe can take quite a while to deliver.”
-desmond tutu
grandies r and v
understand trust
“the best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
-ernest hemingway
A collection of fairy tales written by child refugees in Greece has gone on sale to help those like the book’s authors.
Travelling Tales features a rugby-playing dog, a king who grew to love animals and chickens fighting an alien invasion among its eight stories.
The book is the brainchild of Brazilian journalist Debora de Pina Castiglione and her sister Beatriz. The two combined their love of words and illustrations to create the book but the ideas came directly from the children.
Debora ran workshops with Syrian and Kurdish children aged between four and 14 years old, at three refugee camps close to Thessaloniki in Vasilika, Lagadikia and Oreokastro.
It gave the children something to do without focusing on their own lives.“The idea was not to have the children talk about their journeys or experiences fleeing war, at least not directly,” Debora said. “It was to let them tell the stories they wanted to, in ways they chose themselves.
“I think it’s important for young people to engage with one another. Children all over the world are watching the refugee situation, or hearing it on news programmes their parents watch and listen to, and as well as hoping it would be an interesting project for the children at the camps, I wanted to do something so the children outside of the crisis could see the children caught up in it on their own terms, as children with fun and interesting stories, just like they are.”
And there is something entirely captivating about the stories. In The Travelling Princess, Amira shuns her royal title to live as a poor person who goes around giving away gold she found as she explored the world.
In Aliens vs Chicken, Earth is under attack from extraterrestrials who want to steal all the chicken eggs in the world. While humans are relieved about the aliens’ demands, the chickens are not happy and fight back, reclaiming the eggs.
The story was written by nine-year-old Shahd who lives in the military camp of Lagadikia. Debora describes her stories as “full of adventure. Her creativity reminds us that there are heroes even where we least expect to find them.”
“We spent four months with the children,” Debora added. “In some cases, the children spoke English very well, and had quite clear ideas of their stories. In others, we worked with a translator, and also spent time with them to help them develop their ideas, to make the stories hold together better.
“But the point was that these are the stories of the children, so we didn’t change their words, or add anything they did not include themselves.”
Five professional illustrators helped to bring the stories to life, including Beatriz.
The book was published last month and is available in English as well as Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Dutch. It is for sale via Amazon priced at £10.
Money collected from the sale of the book will be used to help support projects that look for alternative housing solutions to the military camps.
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“hope is a waking dream.”
-aristotle
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credits: the irish news, Debora and Beatriz de Pina Castiglione, child refugees in greece
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#teachers for refugees
dropped off the family entries
to the library’s annual lego building contest
there were so many good ones to see
elaborate, creative, funny, scary, lovely, colorful, detailed
some were quickly assembled
some took many hours and days to create
some made by children, some by adults,
some made by both working together
but it was the one above that really caught my eye
it was beautiful because
it was clearly made by someone
out of pure love
created by ivy, a preschooler
her piece’s title
written by someone
who knew how to write their letters
simply read:
‘this is mama.’
it was magnificent.
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“every block of stone has a statue inside it
and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
-michelangelo
took the boys to
a street hockey camp
sponsored by the detroit red wings
after 1 1/2 hours of drills/training
on a very hot day
they played the game
and they would have played forever
if given the chance.
“every day is a great day for hockey.”
-mario lemieux
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’twas fairy day at the artisan’s market
and soon they came around
lots of them of ev’ry kind
and treasures to be found.
“the fairy poet takes a sheet o f moonbeam, silver white;
his ink is dew from daisies sweet,
his pen a point of light.
~joyce kilmer
happened upon this scene
while out on a walk today
i’m not sure what happened
but it couldn’t have been good.
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“every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.”
-amy winehouse
not one of them is actually sitting on a swing
but it makes a great jungle gym.
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“infinity imagines curiousity from the wild abyss –
only the child makes a swing-set view of the world upside down.
unwatched truth is the enchantment of childhood.
and we never grow out of it…”
-akaine kramarik
first concert – dancing to fitz and the tantrums
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“music is a way to dream together and go to another dimension.”
cecilia bartoli
I didn't have my glasses on.... 