Talk about space

written Friday, 29 July 2011

Well it's a beautiful place..." Mother Mother

   Although I did actually have the privilege of seeing Mother Mother play this past weekend at Hillside Festival, this post is not about the pop rockers from BC. It's actually talk about space. 

"But it's so damn cold..." okay, that's enough.

   The last two weeks at little school I decided to base on the kids recent interest in space. They have been talking non-stop about it, so I thought I should put those glow in the dark planets that have been dangling from my ceiling for the past three years to good use. The kids I watch right now are mostly preschool age (hence "little school"), and space is usually something tackled later on in school, but nonetheless, I intend as always to pack as much information in as possible. I made some intense knowledge goals and wanted to see how we did.

   Crazy space goal #1- Recognize each planet, and name it.

   Psychotic space goal #2- Say something special about each planet.

   Totally unattainable space goal #3- Say the planets in order without the pictures (this one I'm sure is just ridiculous to hope of 2, 3, and 4 year olds, but what can I say, I love a challenge).

   This is pretty much a whole new level of developmentally inappropriate. I need to do some major adaptations of this kind of a curriculum for mini kids.

   With the help of National Geographic, Magic School Bus, flash cards, some Kaboose planet colouring sheets I stumbled upon online, and my trusty glow in the dark ceiling decor, we blasted off towards our goals like a space shuttle that jumped the gun on t-minus-one. 

   

   Who would have thought that a two year old could finger-paint the solar system complete with inner and outer planets, sun, asteroid belt, and several space rocks, one of which being the space-rock-formerly-known-as Pluto. We used different sized jars, and bottle lids dipped in paint to form the planets in the proper swirls and colours, and then fingers to add the details, like rings on Saturn, or the big red spot on Jupiter. We also did a colouring scavenger hunt where the kids had to find the planet on the ceiling that matched the one on their page and then colour it the same. They did way better on this one than I expected. We talked about how little room there is on a spaceship, and how things need to be vacuum packed and freeze dried. Since I love being able to work household chores into curriculum, we packed up all of the winter clothes, blankets, and too small baby clothes into vacuum pack storage bags and the kids took turns pressing the button to suck out all the air. Just for fun, I had then turn a huge bin of stuffed animals into a tiny ball. We played "I spy" with all the tiny visible body parts through the bag. "Where is Elmo?" "Who can find Mickey?" "I spy the pink hedgehog!" It didn't take long for my girls to realize that their stuffies were "trapped" and ask (more like beg) to rescue a few favourites.

  

  We played pretend for several hours packed a bunk bed as our space shuttle and then setting off on an eight planet tour, guided by Houston (myself with a funny radio voice). Unfortunately we had a casualty on one of the outer planets. Our class clown astronaut decided to take off his helmet and froze solid (much like Arnold in "The Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space". Arnold however, just gets a cold rather than dieing). Maybe it was a little cruel to put reality on them there, but science is science, right?

   Some of the special facts got a little changed around.

   "Pluto's not a planet anymore, it exploded and now it's just a space rock." I definitely never said that, but I can see how one could draw a line from "not a planet anymore" to "exploded".

   On a side note, I saw a t-shirt recently that said "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet" and the nerd inside me wants one.

   What's the red spot on Jupiter? "A TOMATO!" apparently. Luckily this was just a mispronounce of tornado, because when I asked her to clarify, she said "A storm, like a big big wind!"

   Today we drew out favourite planets and said why we liked them, as well as creating our own planet and naming it. One of the boys drew a brown circle and named it "Planet". Gotta love originality, I still found it adorable. One of the girls drew a purple and blue planet and named it "Miranda" (I happen to be wearing purple pants and blue hair at the moment, don't judge). There actually is a moon named Miranda, it is Uranus' smallest and closest moon and is named after the character from Shakespeare's "The Tempest", along with Uranus' other moons (Oberon, Titania, Ariel, etc.).

   I think they know more about space right now than any other preschoolers, except maybe the children of NASA employees. However, being preschoolers, they will probably forget all of it by the end of the long weekend. Just in time to study something else I guess.

   Forget object permanence, we need to teach knowledge permanence. Audible sigh...

Permachild

written Monday, 25 July 2011

Second star to the right... or an adult's life in a child's world...

My name is Miranda, and I have decided to begin this blog for several reasons. At the risk of boring you immensely, I will detail a few of them.

1. Of all the roles I play in my life, I am a mother first and foremost. I do everything for children, my entire house is designed for children, there are child locks on all doors and cupboards, toys and books in every nook and cranny, several entire closets and storage bins crammed with the most adorable things that they will never get around to wearing, and I cannot imagine a day where I do not step on a cheerio just after I have put away the vacuum. I am not only a mother to my three beautiful girls, but a stand-in-mother to many more over the years being a babysitter, daycare provider, and now a "little school" teacher in my home. Anyone who walks into my house is shocked by the fact that almost all of it is used for my daycare. "Where is your couch?" "Where is your living room?" and "Where do you sleep?" are commonly asked questions ("Sleep? What's Sleep?"). 

This past year I worked in a kindergarten classroom for a practicum for school. From working closely with another adult who works with young children all day, I learned that one needs to have an adult outlet or escape, and a never-ending sense of humour. I am surrounded by children (up to 8 a day), their toys, their books, their clothes, and even their words and ideas almost 24/7, and don't live with any other adults to share my thoughts. 

I LOVE CHILDREN, so it is not at all that I resent this feeling of being surrounded, I more am intrigued by the idea that I could put thoughts down that otherwise would never be shared because they are either inappropriate for children, or children would simply not understand or appreciate them. I have realized that other people may be able to relate to these ideas, benefit from the practical strategies and solutions of a professional (okay, maybe novice) mom, or even find humour in the everyday musings of life in the Moth house.

2. As early as I can remember, I have wanted to write. I was reading anything and everything at the age of three, and began writing short stories in grade one. All through school I was rarely seen without either a book or a notepad and pen. I actually wrote a fantasy novel in grade 7 and 8, with my few friends as all the main characters. When asked what I wanted to be, it was always a writer, until I fell into the all too common practicality trap. "You can't make any money being a writer, you need to get a real job and write on the side." I remember my father suggesting that I study technical writing, or "how to write those instruction books or manuals for things that no one ever reads". In high school it was "We're not going to help you pay for school if it's for the arts, it has to be something that will get you a job." This kind of thinking doesn't motivate people, it puts out their fire. My daydreams changed from going to University, studying literature, and writing novels, to living in a crappy apartment with roommates, being a waitress or working dead end jobs, and writing in my spare time. If people put it in your head that you are going to be poor and destitute if you do something, and you still envision yourself doing it, you know it is something that just has to be done. 

All too often we forget what really makes us happy, things we wanted to do as long as we can remember, in order to make way for the things we feel we need to do. 

Every year since I left school, one of my new year's resolutions has been to write more often, and I have failed every year. I start a new notebook or journal, only to abandon it a few weeks or even days in. A lone parent mother of three who works full time and takes college courses has a million other things to demand her attention than keeping a journal or writing a book (in that million we are not even including all the work in keeping a house cleaned and organized). I'm sure anyone in my situation, or anyone with children for that matter wishes there were more hours in the day. NOW after all that rambling, this point was that I love to write and need more excuses to make the time to do so.

3. I would love to archive some of these daily moments, ideas, and thoughts to enjoy in the future. My memory is a black hole. If any of you have heard of "Mommy Brain" (or whatever it is called where you are from), I think it is multiplied with each additional child., and I'm not entirely convinced that the old brain ever comes back. If you have ever walked all the way up the stairs only to reach the top having forgotten what you were going for, you know what I'm talking about. If I put them down somewhere more permanent than my brain, or a notebook that I am going to misplace, maybe I will actually read them again someday and appreciate that I actually had the time to write them down...

Now I just have to remember the name of the blog... and the password... Okay, I see problems already...