All posts filed under: Children

Honoring the Mother

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The Mother wants to give her child everything. Everything the child asks for, needs or simply would be delighted by. But the child must also be polite. By polite I don’t mean saying the right words, like please and thank you. Deep politeness is a way of being – respectful, humble, grateful – acknowledging that what you receive is so much more than you can ever give back. This attitude, this sharing of love is what makes the work of the mother a joy. We must practice to be polite with our mothers. Our human mothers, our mother earth. We must show our children how to respect us, our wives, our elders, our planet. And how do we do that best? First we do it by honoring ourselves. We honor our bodies by feeding them well, resting, moving. We honor our hearts by loving, playing, saying nice things to and about ourselves. We honor our personal space and time by having and holding clear boundaries. We honor our creativity by giving it room to express …

On the inner plane you can not lie

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When I work with little children I listen to the subtle voices, as much as possible. People communicate, just like plants and animals, silently on the inner plane. It is easiest to hear when we’re not talking, or with little children. Little children don’t know how to lie, they just tell it how they see it. What is inside them comes out. But words are tricky and soon they learn that they can say things that are not “true” and that has all sorts of interesting effects. As adults we swim in lies, so many we hardly know they are there. Beliefs, Illusions, Stories, … call them what you will, the things we tell ourselves and each other that aren’t real and then try hard to live in accordance with. I spend much of my time in meditation trying to sort that out and find my way back to Reality. Plants live there, and little children. On the inner plane you can not lie, only pretend you don’t hear.

Home made finger paint

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I am totally fascinated by this stuff. And fortunately so are my little friends. We keep making new batches of home made finger paint every few weeks. I got this recipe from handsonaswegrow.com Homemade Edible Finger Paint Recipe: 1/2 cup cornstarch 2 3/4 cup cold water Mix together cornstarch and water in a saucepan until there’s no lumps. 1 envelope of unflavored gelatin 1/4 cup cold water Mix together gelatin and water and set aside. Cook cornstarch mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it boils. It’ll become thick as you’re stirring. Remove from heat and stir in the gelatin mixture. Cool and pour into smaller containers. Add food coloring for desired colors. It’s the most amazing, drippy, bright gooey stuff. It drips off the edge of the table and glistens in the sun. Yumm! Fun to rub, scratch, plop, smear all over the page and if need be your belly too. Hop over to flickr for more of our finger paint adventures.

I love kids

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Suddenly it occurs to me what a big role kids play in my life. Sure, I know I work 30+ hours a week with two amazing toddlers, have a 7 year old daughter of my own, started and worked at the Village Free School (a small, democratic school in SE Portland) for 5 years, nannied for 3 years before that and worked at a Montessory preschool in my early twenties. But somehow it never showed up in my mind as one of my hobbies, interests or passions. Really!?! I bet that’s what any of the people who know me must be thinking right now. It’s one of those blind spots right in front of your face. Clearly I love kids. I take more pictures of them than I do of plants, mountains, art, anything really. I’m almost always reading a few parenting books. And people have been paying me and thanking me for over a decade for taking care of, loving, educating, playing with, feeding and nurturing their offspring. But me, I didn’t really notice …