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Post 328: Yellow Submarine

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Hard to downplay the incredible journey of the Yellow Submarine. It held complete fascination for me as a child, so much so that I made one of cast silver when I was about ten. Not really sure how that came about. I remember carving the “negative” out of plaster and then rounding up all the “silver” I was allowed to have, but really a bit hard to remember who smelted it how did it get poured it?? Anyway, I still have the results.

The Beatles never tried to make a “kids” album, they just made great music and some of it is very accessible to children, like the voyage of the Yellow Submarine in particular. We started singing it in the car recently so, it seemed only fitting to get Luke the Lego version (what I would have dont for THAT as a child!) for his 7th Birthday.

Its hard for me not to hold off on the movie version, because it is a marvelous, not violent, beautiful film with a smashing good soundtrack. But, all in good time, all in good time.

Because we really do do live in a yellow submarine!

Post 318: Private Communications

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Last summer we cleaned out my mom’s house and in the process the kids started playing quite a bit with her cordless telephone. We realized we were just going to give them away, so instead we shipped them home for Luke and Lil’s use.

They use them sporadically and always somehow get them to connect to each other. We no longer have a land line in our house, so there is no dial tone, but the kids found a way to talk to each other.

I never really paid it much notice until the other day when Lily asked me to call Luke on the phone. She handed it to me and I started trying to find an intercom button or something that I thought would connect me to the other phone.

I asked Lily how to do it and she said:

“Oh, just dial your number”

“?”

“Just dial your number Daddy, 310.948.XXXX”

I did and was immediately connected to Luke. Now I honestly don’t understand how that worked, and was immediately flabbergasted to their ingenuity.

Post 288: Waldorf

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I was invited into Luke’s class today to help the kids with blowing eggs for easter. A few things emerged.

  1. The fact that they blow eggs at all is remarkable.
  2. The teacher calmly reminded me that it is OK if the kids struggle a bit to finish blowing there egg. Some kids were done in a minute and some in twenty minutes, no judgement, no difference, just support and calm encouragement.

I don’t know a lot about Waldorf Education, but the more I learn the more I appreciate it. It fits well with our past play friendly, confidence developing classes and books that speak to us.

Like many alternative: schooling techniques it is met with a certain amount of head scratching, the comment that sticks out in my head is “Oh, there is no structure in those types of schooling”

Perhaps nothing could be further from the truth.

In Luke’s Kindergarten class it is quiet and calm all day long . Twenty seven 5-7 year olds and they play focused and are at ease. The teacher is not commanding any of this, it just seems to be a natural by product of the Waldorf belief system.

I so enjoyed this quote from Rudolf Steiner, (an Austrian philosopher, author, social reformer, architect and esotericist) and man responsible for Waldorf schooling, I put a copy on our refrigerator.

May there reign here spirit-strength in love;
May there work here spirit-light in goodness;
Born from certainty of heart,
And from steadfastness of soul,
So that we may bring to young human beings
Bodily strength for work, inwardness of soul, and clarity of spirit.

Post 282: Parenting Salon

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I was asked to be a part of parenting salon. I have never been a part of any salon, so I was thrilled at the opportunity.

We had our first get together the other night. It is being hosted by one of the greatest teachers I have had in my life as a parent.

I talked a little bit about Luke’s internal, fiery, ongoing, mostly internal instructions and Lily’s more cursory, ambling, discovery process.

For Luke what I see is this fixed, focused dialog ongoing, he riffs on everything from what little I hear, songs, books, legos, conversations all intertwined into a magic world that exists only in his head.

For Lily it is more of a search and discovery world. She loves to hide and find, she loves to carry things around and she loves to nurture her “guys“.

One of the salon attendees mentioned a seminar that they had been to discovering the basic cave man instincts of men and woman. The “hunter” male is driven be specific, fixated, focused. The gathering nurturing woman being more accommodating and playful.

It made me think it is time to re-read one of my favorite books as a young student of life, Carl Sagan’s Dragons of Eden. Sagan’s book stays with me to this day as he talks about the reptilian underside of our brain, the “limbic system” being all about instinct, fight or flight and the outer areas being the higher, developed mind where we “think” about stuff. Its a great, simple read and short too!

If we ever are capable to actually tap into the human brain (and I am not saying it is a good thing, but I think it is inevitable) I would be most interested in what it is like to be in a child mind. Oh give me that peace and love and discovery and I will be a happy man forever.

Post 281: Why=because?

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Today Lily was asking me Why?, why? why? over and over and started to get upset. I somehow realized that I was not saying a sentence that started with “Because” and when I did, she immediately calmed down.

When she asks “Why?”, she expects an answer that starts with “because”

What does it mean, nothing other than it is the littlest things that can make a huge difference to a child.

Consistency is paramount