stories from the time that dogs and cat lived together

my 3 years old was telling me how when she will grow older she will become my age and i will become hers. and she wouldn't have it any other way... so im posting it to not forget this option
its an interesting one i believe. she also said that when she will have children i will be their mother. lots of responsibility. point taken..



we have been to a nice children book fair, discovering memo edition.
so now before bad time we read josef capek
(brother of karel capek from this post..)
we both hardly read french so we get just few of the words and the general sensation of this man`s kindness humor and generosity
i love the drawings and the printing as well

tate robots / Shape Mechanical Stickers

we had so much fun with this London souvenir...

http://www.tate.org.uk

buddhism and motherhood

1.) Let your life be a question.
2.) Move your awareness in, instead of out.
3.) Cultivate gratitude


a nice article about three great zen advices for mothers at:

http://www.sohoparenting.com/blog/2009/06/buddhism-and-motherhood/

Buddhism and Abortion

What About the Baby?

"My understanding is that an individual is a phenomenon of life in the same way a wave is a phenomenon of ocean. When the wave begins, nothing is added to the ocean; when it ends, nothing is taken away.

Robert Aitken Roshi wrote (The Mind of Clover, pp. 21-22),

"Sorrow and suffering form the nature of samsara, the flow of life and death, and the decision to prevent birth is made on balance with other elements of suffering. Once the decision is made, there is no blame, but rather acknowledgment that sadness pervades the whole universe, and this bit of life goes with our deepest love." "

http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/abortion.htm

Richmond Math Salon

Mindful Motherhood: Cassandra Vieten

i think this is great reading material for mothers of all ages

"Mindful awareness recognizes that each experience is temporary, and with practice, you can learn to ride the waves of everyday life, allowing each one to arise, peak, and pass away, as all experiences do. Mindful awareness can help you notice and derive greater enjoyment from the simple, subtle pleasures of life as a mom – the way the light shines on your little one’s fuzzy head, or the grasp of his hand on your finger - no matter what else may be going on."

http://www.mindfulmotherhood.org/about.html

sydney green products

i loved their graphics and their agenda
making cleaning an intelligent experience

http://www.ecostore.co.nz/products/laundry.html

A Little History of the World / E. H. Gombrich

originally published in Vienna in 1936. written for younger audience of all ages, the book includes : Ancient Greece and Egypt, the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Jesus, Mohamed, the Middle Ages, Martin Luther, Napoleon, World War I, War II and hopes for peace.
a fascinating book, that makes many areas of history much clearer + i love the drawings.
i was very exited to watch my 13 years old girl get so involved with the different issues, we even blockbastered Napoleon and Egypt..

http://www.amazon.com/Little-History-World-E-Gombrich/dp/0300108834

The Gardener's Year By Karel Čapek

an inspiring gardening book
great illustrations, clever insights, pure delight..
Written in 1929, by karel capak (who is known for coining the word `robot`) illustrated by his gifted brother Josef_Capek
if you enjoy your garden you will enjoy this book...

here is the full free google books version:
the gardener year

THE GEOMETRY OF PASTA

Pasta is a simple thing but getting it absolutely right depends as much on choosing the best pasta shape for the sauce as on cooking it properly.

Each shape of pasta has a subtly different role to play. An Italian might say that understanding this is an innate skill that is difficult for the non-Italian to acquire. We politely disagree.

Our book, THE GEOMETRY OF PASTA shows you how to develop an instinct for matching pasta and sauce. We explain how to team up pasta with sauce to maximise taste and texture and to turn you from an average into a great pasta cook. This website is a taste of what you will find in the book.

'The Geometry of Pasta is exactly what I would expect it to be: stylish, greed-inducing, knowledgeable and witty; an instant classic.' Nigella Lawson

http://www.geometryofpasta.co.uk/

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering

A software engineer, Gever Tulley is the co-founder of the Tinkering School, a weeklong camp where lucky kids get to play with their very own power tools. He's interested in helping kids learn how to build, solve problems, use new materials and hack old ones for new purposes. He's also a certified paragliding instructor.

the school:
http://www.tinkeringschool.com/blog/

the book:

Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)

mediasnackers and Ken Robinson

Ken Robinson: Okay. Well, I’m Ken Robinson. I’m a writer, a consultant now and a speaker on issues of education and innovation. I work a lot with education organizations. I work with corporate organizations around the world and I work with cultural organizations. And my big interest is in how you cultivate creativity and why you need to do that. I now live in Los Angeles, but work pretty much internationally around Europe, Asia and the States.

DK: Brilliant. Well, welcome, Ken. Thanks for giving up your time to speak to MediaSnackers. I was to ask you straight away a question which you’ve already touched upon about this cultivation of creativity. How can people do this and more importantly, why must they do this now?

Ken Robinson: Well, I think it’s vital that we cultivate creativity for various reasons. The principal one is the world is changing so quickly and so unpredictably, that for all of us were to make any sense of it and to engage in it properly in any way, we have to be firing in all cylinders. You know, we have to not only be open to change, but be willing to respond to it, to contribute to it and to be flexible and adaptable to it.

read more or listen to the podcast at the lovely new site of the media snackers:
http://mediasnackers.com/2007/06/mediasnackers-podcast88/

Prof. Roni Aviram / The Center for Futurism in Education

Prof. Aharon (Roni) Aviram, Chair

Educational futurist and philosopher of education, Roni Aviram's interests focus on the impact of ICT on education and society, and on forging macro and micro levels strategies for the optimization (in light of Humanistic values) of the impact of ICT on education and higher-education. Aviram has written numerous scientific papers and articles published in collective volumes and scientific journals on these subjects, as well as several books on the desired future of education and ICT-based education. He is the chair of the Center for Futurism in Education at Ben-Gurion University, and has led pioneering projects and think-groups - Israeli and European - focused on the "merger" of ICT and education, the radical change of the school and systems of education and higher education, and the formation of virtual lifelong learning environments enhancing human development and flourishing. For Aviram, the best uses of ICT in any educational or lifelong learning framework would be those enhancing personal autonomy and dialogical belonging, the two values he takes as the cornerstones of Humanism and Humanistic education.

CFE - The Center for Futurism in Education

The ever growing availability of information and knowledge, the globalization of society, and at the same time the growing diversity and regionalization of states, the free market economy and ever expending privatization of once-universal or national assets - all these factors and many more call for re-approaching the question of the aims of education.
Any such attempt to address this question must stem from a deep understanding of prevailing practices – and among them, first and foremost that of ICT.
Any such attempt should furthermore be critical in its approach, investigative in spirit, and strategic in scope.
And at last, any such attempt should be guided by a clear conception of individuals' wellbeing and societies prosperity as means for enabling their citizens' wellbeing.

Homeschooling

The Center provides academic support to the legal campaign of homeschoolers in Israel, trying to achieve governmental recognition of their educational practice. This effort joins another process, led by the Center, aiming at increasing awareness in society in general and the research community in particular to the issue of homeschooling.
The Center has organized, together with Mandel Institute for Educational Leadership, the first academic conference dealing with homeschoolers, held in Jerusalem, May 2006.
http://www.bgu.ac.il/futuredu/

LEARNING TO SCREENPRINT

THE UNSCHOOL SUPERSTORE

FOLLOW OUR UNSCHOOLING AND SCREENPRINTING BLOG!

Are you a PEACE LOVING UNSCHOOLER that thinks UNSCHOOLING ROCKS? Are you the AUTODIDACT parent of a FREE RANGE KID or a ROGUE STUDENT? Does your new baby have UNLIMITED POTENTIAL or are they TOO CUTE FOR SCHOOL? We created THE UNSCHOOL SUPERSTORE just for you and your awesome unschooling family!

Sir Ken Robinson, Hammer Lectures

University of the People

University of the People (UoPeople) is the world’s first tuition free online university
dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education.

This tuition free university embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and dropping technology costs to bring tuition free and university-level studies within reach to millions of people across the world.

With the support of respected academics, humanitarians and other visionaries, this student body will benefit from tuition free university and represent a new wave in global education

http://www.uopeople.org/

unschooling retreats

We decided to go to unschooling retreats again,
after many years we kind of stopped
i think it makes a nice vacation for the family
and its a great self confidence booster..
not to mention the fluent calm social environment for the kids
and the community sensation for the moms

anyway,

we visited LEDA up in the mountains [thank you Marianne , Emanuel, Florence and everyone else.. it was beautiful!]

im also looking into this summer retreat in Australia, since we will be there this summer, will see..
http://www.unschoolingretreat.blogspot.com/

Katherine Paterson

a lovely interview with Katherine Paterson made by her son
at O kids reading list
the image is from the film made after her book
Bridge to Terabithia



JP: In a lot of your speeches, you have given Dad a lot of credit for being one of the greatest influences on you as a writer. I mean, I like Dad and everything, but how does that work?

KP: Well, I was growing up in the '50s where proper women stayed home, had children and didn't do anything but take care of the house, the children and be loving wives. Your father, when he asked me to marry him, said, "I know you're a very strong woman with your own gifts, and I am not going to stop you, so I will help you." And he didn't know he was creating a Frankenstein monster, but he's always stood by that and has always helped me. And he's always stood by me and has been my biggest cheerleader.

read more

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!

Room for Children: Stylish Spaces for Sleep and Play

http://remodelista.com/products/room-for-children-stylish-spaces-for-sleep-and-play-hardcover

Norah Jones Sings "Don't Know Why" on Sesame Street

Adventure Playgrounds

Berkeley’s Adventure Playground is one of a handful of playgrounds in the United States based on a concept that grew in popularity after World War II. During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, the landscape architect C. Th. Sørensen created a new playground with whatever junk was available. It turned out, that’s exactly what kids like. “The simplicity of the concept is still startling,” writes Susan Solomon. read more

My name is Dan Meyer and I like to teach.

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/

the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family

Bowen family systems theory is a theory of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit. It is the nature of a family that its members are intensely connected emotionally. Often people feel distant or disconnected from their families, but this is more feeling than fact. Family members so profoundly affect each other's thoughts, feelings, and actions that it often seems as if people are living under the same "emotional skin." People solicit each other's attention, approval, and support and react to each other's needs, expectations, and distress. The connectedness and reactivity make the functioning of family members interdependent. A change in one person's functioning is predictably followed by reciprocal changes in the functioning of others. Families differ somewhat in the degree of interdependence, but it is always present to some degree.

read more

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

paper leaf lamp

this retro book from the 70's inspired
us to decorate our Ikea lamp
it took around 20 min. from the picking the leafs in the garden to taping them inside the lamp - and the kids 'woooooooo' when the light went on...

haleluya! our firsts baby birds[9!!] in the tree

glen!!

the sartorialist

great street fashion blog:



"I thought I could shoot people on the street the way designers looked at people, and get and give inspiration to lots of people in the process. My only strategy when I began The Sartorialist was to try and shoot style in a way that I knew most designers hunted for inspiration. Rarely do they look at the whole outfit as a yes or no but they try and look for the abstract concepts of color, proportion, pattern mixing or mixed genres. I’m always really happy when I meet a designer and hear that they use some of my photos for their inspiration boards. At the same time I’m also really touched when I get emails from everyday people who say they have been inspired to see themselves and others in a new and usually more accepting way."

http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

The King of Masks

The film is about a street performer named Wang who practices the change-mask opera art of bian lian as "The King of Masks".
Seeking to pass his art to a grandson, Wang buys what he believes to be an orphan boy at an illegal child market, but quickly learns his new disciple is in fact a girl.
As tradition dictates that he cannot pass his art onto a girl, he tries to abandon her, but she stubbornly stays with him.
While looking at his masks, she accidentally sets his humble residence on fire. Out of guilt, she runs away.
When Wang is falsely accused of kidnapping a rich family's child, he is thrown in jail. His former disciple goes to one of his friends, a famous performer in the local opera, threatening to kill herself if he or any of his guests, including a local military leader, are unable to help Wang.
The King is eventually freed, and finally agrees to teach her the art of bian lian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Masks

about the director
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Tianming

my five kids [aging 3-13] and me were glued to the screen, this is a beautiful story of the power of a small girl.

wolves

An elder Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life.
He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, and resentment. The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship,, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith."

"The same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too", he added.

The grandchildren thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."

DUMA

http://dumamovie.warnerbros.com/

Queen!!!

so cool!!!

granmothers on the web

i find this site so inspiring! yes i miss my own personal grandmother but i also think its such lovely web - community project
http://www.goldenhook.fr/