I have a dream...that moms & dads know what they know

If I could do anything in the world it would be to encourage parents (mom's especially) to believe in their abilities to teach their children skills that prepare them for success in the world.

I'd want them to know that they don't have to send their child to preschool in order to learn to count or say their ABC's, to learn to share or how to use scissors safely and competently. I know that they are just as able to let their child explore painting with shaving cream, to colour within the lines or treat others nicely as a formally educated stranger. And I would want them to understand that pre-reading & writing skills aren't only learned when there are 14-24 other 3 & 4 year olds in the same room as their child.

Children learn through experience and I would brainstorm with those moms & dads about what activities they are doing with their children and what more they could do that would give their children meaningful experiences.

For my Uncle George I'm cycling 200km

In just over a month I'll be riding my bicycle for over 200km (about 124 miles) in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. I'm thrilled with the chance to do this ride, I've wanted to do this ever since I heard about it a few years ago.

I'm a terrible fundraiser for myself, I can ask for donations for school councils but not for my projects. And this is a project. I have to be fit to endure the length of time I'll be in the saddle,  I have to learn how to ride up hills without wheezing, I had to have my bike professionally fitted (so important to have done and was worth the dollars spent) and collect the clothing and equipment for the actual trip. Those are the easy parts of this project. The hard part is fundraising. I need your help, please donate so that I can do the ride. If I don't raise the $2500.00 minimum I cannot ride. I have raised only $965 and there is about 44 days left! Here is my personal page: www.conquercancer.ca/goto/libbyolson where online donations can be made. You can also see all the people I am riding for.

I'm especially riding for my Uncle George who is fighting cancer right now. Dr. George Beaton spent his career years helping improve life for everyone else nutritionally. He helped develop a relief diet for the United Nations to aid malnourished refugees, researched iron supplementation for infants, children and women of childbearing years, identified the effectiveness of Vitamin A supplement in reducing child morbidity & mortality in developing countries and a couple of years ago was awarded the Order of Canada for his work. I'm going to display his name on my jersey's back. Dr. George Beaton helped the world and now I'm going to help him.

Who would you have me ride for? 

Let me know. And donate for them.

A week ago today my hubby & I returned from the land of warmth to...cold. Interestingly enough, we weren't in Mexico or Hawaii either but in Georgia. It was my first visit there and enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Margaret Mitchell's house

An telegram concerning "Gone With the Wind"

A visit to CNN

Atlanta's main street (it seems it is as it travels just about the whole way north to south)

Martin Luther King's memorial & house

The weather-87F! woot! woot! in MARCH! 

(it was really hard for my camera to focus in the dark & BTW we were on the freeway and being passed by other drivers!)

Savannah-the Historic District-imagine climbing these in a 19th Century dress!

The house from "In the Garden of Good and Evil" movie

My first visit to a Piggly Wiggly-

I now have my own Piggly Wiggly bag to bring to the airport

 (a Jeff Foxworthy reference)

Tybee Island Lighthouse

and the Atlantic Ocean (with me in it)

Village Pizza- a really good pizza in Metter-where "everything is better..."

An evening in the Allman Brother's (Museum) backyard 

listening to good music  (Macon).

Back City Woods playing-that mandolin player sure gets into the music!

Dreaming, Believing, Challenging, Doing

Yesterday evening I attended a Women's night at my church and one of the classes was with a young woman, wife & mother who dared to believe that she could finish an Ironman Triathlon. In short between having her two children she & her husband trained and participated (swim, ride run?) in small triathlons. Then her husband did the St. George Triathlon and she thought she'd like to do an Ironman. So they trained for 6 months and did one in Mexico (it was the only one with  space left). The swim went well, even with the jellyfish stinging, the ride was smooth (no hills) and then the run. It started off ok but soon her body started to rebel. Oh, she started her first lap of the run when her husband was starting his second so they weren't together for the race, each did their own pace. Anyways, at one point she realized she needed more salt pills (I'll spare the intestinal issues she was having except she was very grateful for all the Port-A-Potties lining the route) and stopped at where her parents were cheering her on. Her father went to find some salt pills and while she was lamenting about her poor performance in this leg, her mother reminded her that she had 5 hours to finish (the race was stopped at midnight, no matter where you are, you are pulled) and that she could walk and still finish in time. She had only thought about running (Lesson 6a). She ended up walking the rest of the race. But she finished an Ironman Triathlon (Lesson 8). It was about 3 hours longer than she thought she could do it, but she did finish. In her presentation she listed the lessons she learned and since I'm just starting to train for a 200km bike ride (the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer) in June I've gained inspiration and have created a poster for myself.

That's me as the background...I had just completed half of the longest ride I'd ever done. EVER. We (hubby & I) only did a portion of the Trans-Canada Trail, the Banff Legacy Trail between Banff National Park's East Gate and Valleyview Picnic Area...where this photo was taken (after a rest).  It was about 27km one way, so I rode about 54km in a morning. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there and 1/2hr. to return. Obviously it was downhill on the way back! 

Now that was back in early August and I'd been riding for a couple of months rather regularly, so I decide my first big ride of this upcoming season that a 200km ride is doable! (It is because it is over two days).  Because I have not gotten gung-ho with my training I have found inspiration from Kim and will post this so I can see it. 

She only had 8 lessons-the 6a I added. "Trust the process" is the big one for me. To cross-train and keep remembering that every little bit of movement gets me fitter and increases my endurance. I'm not worried about the sitting (I'm getting a new seat) or the strength (I've always been relatively strong) but the breathing. I've developed a lung issue and need to use an inhaler now. But I believe I can do it so onward and upward with the training!

The really neat thing about the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer is that we get cycling jerseys! Shallow but I do love free (it's not really, I have to raise $2,500 so I can ride) clothing. And a real cycling one...maybe I should add that to the poster "you get a real cycling jersey!" as another incentive!

Let Children Have Some Preschool Fun!

I receive a newsletter from Dan Hodgins via email and this month he was talking about the heart and soul of a preschool. Take a look: (http://dkj.tumblr.com/post/15216896008/hello-friends-with-the-movement-to-increase?ref=nf).

It got me thinking about an incident at a preschool I was at where I was told that it was ok for the children to take things from one 'centre' to another as long as it wasn't being dumped. Well, one day I was letting some boys 'dump' a bunch of toys on the carpet because they were creating a "garbage dump" which evolved into a recycling depot. They had the trucks full of blocks, cars and whatnot and unloaded them beside me. I was enjoying it...they were actively engaged with each other and the work. But then clean-up time came and the teachers were very grumpy about the "mess" they made. I made it a game by having them sort (like at a recycling plant) and store the goods in the appropriate bin (I may've even used "appropriate").

Isn't that sad? I think all 4 of the boys were involved along with a couple of girls who joined in for the sorting. Ok, so maybe 80% of the toys they have were in the pile, but gosh, they were having fun!

I appreciate that it took time to clean it up but considering the all times the kids are just stand around waiting doing nothing....(I'll let you finish that sentence).

He has a list and I'm sure I've only seen "children choosing to play by themselves" without being told/encouraged to include someone else, consistently at the preschools I've been too. I've seen (and heard!) children crying there, but usually it is a meltdown from being told to do something or not to do something.

I don't expect a free-for-all...but more flexibility in letting children be children! It would do many children some good to be expected to think for themselves as I've met too many that are stumped when they're asked to use their imagination.

When Santa (was glued together) & Got Stuck Up the Chimney

When Santa got stuck up the chimney

He began to shout

You girls and boys won't get any toys

If you don't pull me out!

My beard is black

There's soot in my sack

And my nose is tickling too!

When Santa go stuck up the chimney,

Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!

This is one of the Christmas songs that one of my client's preschool is learning. Apparently it is very well known in Britain and not so much over here. I have no idea what tune it is sung to but I found a cute video on YouTube to replay. http://youtu.be/UIY-V2efNW8 To aid my client's learning I downloaded the cute video onto my iPhone for her to have a accurate version to learn from (I tend to change the tune every time I sing it). I also created a Santa, a sack and a chimney. I have a glue gun and I know how to use it! Also my sewing machine. It took about a hour to gather the stuff and build it, so no big time investment needed. Just have to know where your stashes are.

Stuff needed to make a simple Santa (not for heavy use):

Sock in desired skin colour (mine is tan)

White felt-trim

Black felt-boots & belt

Red felt-nose & mouth

Red flannelette (for the suit & hat)

White fake fur trim (beard)

silver paper ribbon for belt buckle (I said it wasn't for heavy use!)

white ribbon

felt pen for eyes

fiber fill or anything light enough to stuff it.

The sack is stuffed with fiber fill and a wad of loosely bunched tissue paper (for noise appeal), glued shut & tied with a narrow white ribbon

sewing material-machine or needle & thread

glue gun

I used a sock that I had used the other one for a doll. Cut it off at the ankle--or it was already cut I can't remember. Stuffed it with fiberfill (had to hunt it down) and sewed the base. I cut out a t-shaped shirt/pants combo & sewed the sides and underarms. Sewed the triangle hat. The pants are just the shirt cut to waist-the sock ends at the waist so I put fiberfill down the legs. The coat is glued shut and the white trim covers the glue mess (though it is visible on his left leg where the glue gun stuck to the fabric). Everything else is glued on. Oh, the eyes are felt pen dots. Real extravagant eh? I freehanded cutting everything. The hat white spot is only that, a spot. The belt, neck and wrist trim wrap completely around him. The neck is sucked in with button thread and held in place with the glued on neck trim.

The chimney is a one litre milk carton cut just short of Santa's height. I covered it with brick printed paper (googled "brick" & scanned through the images until I found a black & white brick pattern) then I cut & pasted to fill the letter size sheet. Printed it off and then placed it on a book with textured cover and did a red crayon rubbing, with some spots heavier than others. Cut & glued it to the milk carton to fit. Viola! A chimney for Santa to get stuck in!

She appeared to enjoy pulling Santa out--she was laughing & smiling over and over again. Today in preschool she participated and looked like she was saying some of the words. (She has a profound speech delay amid small & large motor issues but otherwise is typical).

It was easy to make and is holding up to the handling rather well. I have another client who spotted it in my workstuff bin and played with it. I can't remember any of the songs his class is learning that would relate to Santa so just "ho ho hoed" and prevented him from trying to take the hat and boots off. A success really, visual aids don't have to be expensive or etsy quality, just durable to sustain the play time. I'll be keeping this for next year because it turned out better than I thought it would and I keep things "just in case" (I refuse to call it hoarding).

Christmas is coming!

Last night my dd and I went to our Relief Society Christmas make something evening. We made fabric flower headbands and decoupage J-O-Y wooden blocks. Each woman received a CD of Christmas music. I'm playing it in my car now.

I'm hunting for a Christmas craft that my kiddos could create for their parents. It has to be really simple since their attention span and fine motor skills are weak. Pintrest will be receiving hours of research for this project! I am thinking of making homemade Sculpty/Fimo and making earrings for mom or just an ornament from it (http://thenewnew.blogspot.com/2011/06/homemade-polymer-clay.html).

The skill level of children must be taken into consideration...fine motor abilities and attention span...who wants unfinished projects lying around? Personally, I can create my own pile of unfinished projects. Sweater for my 3 year old who is now 31? Sailor suits for the 3 boys (ages 2, 4 & 6) who are now 31, 29 & 27 (this wasn't my fault I maintain, the pattern didn't fit itself!).

Merry Christmas Crafting!