I've spent the past several days sewing--something I'm not particularly adept at. Marj Watkins helped me to create a pattern for the "Coat of many strengths" I'm doing with Mrs. Conklin's third grade class. Scroll down a bit to see what we are doing and get a preview of what the kids came up with for strengths.

We took down the play structure so many children played on when Suzanna's School was open. It's the end of an era. I will not open the preschool/kindergarten here again. The class room is now my studio, and I am painting on silk.

I'm not through teaching, though. I'm not quite sure what may teaching will look like. At present, I'm working occasionally with children in other schools. I would like to teach at art museums, and maybe after school programs at the Y. I want to do artist in residences, and art activities with children that support their learning in academic and social areas.

This week Mrs. Conklin's thrid grade class made patches for a "hundred family coat" to offer at the PTSA auction. A Chinese story tells of Boachu, who went to find the missing sun. The people of one village wanted to help him, but they were very poor. Each person cut off a piece of their clothing and from all these pieces, they made a warm coat for Boachu. The coat kept him warm when the demons tried to freeze him.

We talked about the patches of the coat as symbols of each person's strength. We brainstormed our own strenghts, and each child drew something that symbolized their strength on a piece of silk. My job now is to sew them all together into a "hundred family coat" of our own.

Here is a sample of some of the patches: Rhiannon loves music, Lauren is a writer who looks for "just the right word". Jake loves speed; he is showing flames on his dirt bike. John feels "tough". Talia loves her sister, who loves snakes. Mason is pure energy!

River, age 21 months, loves to draw. Most of River's drawings to date have been lines. She's practicing making a mark on paper, exploring color and just beginning to control the marker or colored pencil. She usually names her drawings "moon", even when all I can see is straight lines. Only in the past few days has she started to make something resembling a circle. When she drew the orange lines ("Flower", bottom left), I told her I thought it looked like a flower, and colored in some of the petals. She then picked up the green marker and added the leaf. I think it's our best collaboration yet.

Last Friday, Marj Watkins and I did an author/illustrator presentation for Family and Book Fair night at our local elementary school. The idea, based on needs expressed by a 5th grade teacher, was to do a mini-class on character development in writing. She suggested we teach children how to "show" a character's traits rather than "telling" about them when we write stories, i.e. " Laura sang as she helped her mother wash the dishes" rather than "Laura always did her chores cheerfully", or "Laura was a good girl. She always helped her mother."

This is by Sarah, age 5. Her sense of design and color, and her use of tinsel is just delightful. Sarah was one of my first students way back when I started Suzanna's School. She would be....15 years old now!

Here is a fun art project I've done with both children and adults. I remember doing it with my mother when I was a child. The result is always beautiful and the process fun and relaxing. It's a wonderful way to get in touch with the joyful compassionate child in all of us. I recently did this with a group of caregivers who work hard and long taking care of elders and of very sick or terminally ill people. It was so gratifying to see careworn faces relax and smile!

I got a kick out of Kolo and Kai at Strwberry festival on Vashon. These two youg men (maybe 6-8 years old) stopped by my booth on Saturday after the parade and wanted to know about the rune necklaces I was displaying. I explained that runes are an ancient form of writing, and eaxh symbol stands for a sound--like in our alphabet--and also has a magical meaning. I showed them Kano, or Kenaz, the letter that would stand for the "k" sound in both their names. Oh, Yes! they each wanted a rune necklace, but --alas--had no money. I put one aside for them "for tomarrow".

This spring I had such fun doing an art project with first and second graders. We created a banner for the Parent Teachers Association Auction, with the title "Our Monster Friends".  To get the children started, I showed them photos of some of the mythical creatures I saw on a recent trip in Thailand, and asked them to consider whether a monster could be friendly (Many of the Thai creatures seemed as though they could be). The kids were particularly interested in the many armed Shiva. We had some wonderful discussions.

Marjorie Watkins and I did our first school visits with her books, Rotaida and the Runestone, and Royal Spy (I illlustrated Royal Spy). That's me on the right saying, "RoTAI DA, RO TAI DA!" We look a little bind because we took our glasses off for the camera. 

River, my 13 month old grand daughter likes books, though she often "reads" them upside down or sideways. Her current favorite--at least at  my house--is Nina Laden's Peek a WHO?It has kept her attention longer than almost anything.

I'm just back from a fantastic trip into Thailand and Laos. As always I had my eyes open for children and for things of interest to children. It seems that children in Laos love dinosaurs too! 

I ran into a parent of two former students of mine at the grocery store yesterday. I asked about the boys, and remarked that they must be getting to the age (at about 6 and 7 years old) where they aren't really sure wether to believe in Santa. She said Santa is real at her house. A friend informed the boys that there is really no such thing as Santa. It's only your parents pretending. Without skipping a beat, the younger answered, "Maybe Santa doesn't come to your house. He doesn't waste his time on people who don't believe in him."

One of the joys of babies and young children is that you get to introduce them to the world, first through your voice and touch, then through giving them safe things to play with and talking with them about the things you see, hear, touch, smell, and taste together. Through play, children develop their minds and bodies and learn skills that will help them be successful their whole lives long. Playing with our children, having fun with our children, makes them smarter! 

Here's Santa in a box again, next version.

Last year when Zander was three, he was Santa. Every day he wore his santa hat and his santa jacket and pants, and his santa boots and belt, and his santa beard. When other children protested, "you aren't REALLY Santa!", Zander insisted, "Yes I AM!" On the playground he would come up to children and ask what they wanted for Christmas. Under the slide was the house, and the ladder to the slide was the chimney. His favorite game was to make a cardboard box into a sleigh, with the biggest teddy bear as a reindeer, harnessed with silky scarves.

Some of my favorite artists are children. This pirate is by a very talented 5 year old, Mead Gill. 

School started last week for all my young friends--but not for me! I'm taking a 

I've been thinking lately of those children who, while brilliant, don't fit well in the current educational system. Many of them are boys, but not all. I'm thinking of boys especially, because this year my class has been all boys, and what has worked well in the past has not worked well this year, although every one of them is truly brilliant. I kid you not. Each has really amazing individual talents, interests, and perception. I feel privileged to have been their teacher, though I haven't always known how to reach them.

One of my five year olds is convinced there is a basilisk in the wall of his house. He can hear it in the morning and at night. His parents never hear it, so he is convinced it only wants to eat HIM. He wants to get rid of it, but how? He knows basilisks are real because of the Harry Potter movie, and thinks this one is snake like--long and thin, so that it can fit in the space between the walls. He thinks it might come out of the pipes in the sink or out of the wall by his bed.

Can we scare it away with light or noise? He tells me if we do that, it might go eat some other little kid. Could the family dog protect him? No, the dog sleeps in his parents' room at night. Besides, it's a small dog and the basilisk might just eat the dog. The dog only bites it's dog food anyway; it would be no help against the basilisk. That's why he wants a bull dog. What about a guardian angel? He's not so sure he believes in guardian angels, in spite of my stories of my experiences with them. Basilisks, yes, because the Harry Potter movie was real.

The only thing he thinks will work is to trap the basilisk, but what to use for bait? We settle on crackers, as that sounds less painful than his first idea of using some of his own skin. I get him some crackers, and he begins making a model of the trap while we discuss what to make it out of. How about a laundrey basket, tied with a rope that goes up to the ceiling then down to his bed? He could untie the rope when he hears the basilisk go after the bait and the basket would fall on it and trap it. He wonders if a laundry basket would be big enough. And what if he is asleep when the basilisk comes? These questions remain unanswered while he makes a trap out of a quart sized yogurt container and string.

What will he do when he catches it? "Take it to some hot lava and throw it in." Nothing else will kill it. This leads to a discussion of where to find some hot lava and how volcanoes erupt. He knows Mt. Rainier was once a live volcano. Could he take the basilisk up to the top and throw it in? After much discussion he decideds that the volcano in Hawaii is the nearest live volcano. We never got around to asking how he would get it there.

At age five, this boy seemed to need to believe the basilisk was real, no matter what evidence surfaced to the contrary. He also needed to defeat it himself: no dog, no parent, no guardian angel. And he needed to defeat it utterly, not just to scare it away. Kindergarten was no help in solviing this most important of problems. None of the Essential Learning Requirements addresses the skills needed here.

this is my first ever attempt at creating a blog. i expect i'll make lots of mistakes and things will look weird for awhile, until i get the hang of it. eventually i hope to post anecdotes from my work with children, insights on human behavior gleaned from observing my students, and images i have created, inspired by their play or that i create for them.

this year i have a class of seven boys, ages 3-5, with one assistant. class is from 9:00 am unti noon, with everyone staying for lunch until 1:00pm this year, and one child who comes at 7:30 for childcare. last year we had up to 8 children in the morning, and the same in the afternoon, but this year enrollment in this age group is down all over the community. we have just started an afternoon drama class on fridays, consulting with the Seattle Children's Theatre where my assistant, Gayle, took a class this summer.

i'm enjoying having all boys. i confess to being a bit nervous at first, but the boys themselves breathed a sigh of relief when they learned there would be no girls in the class. at this age they are very consiously learning to be male, and having a female in the class seems to complicate things. then they have to define themselves as different from the girls, instead of focusing on their own interests, and competition--yes even at age 4 or 5--for the girls attention interferes with their friendships.

Brady and Brandon--i've changed the names to protect the guilty--started the year at loggerheads. by week 4 they had progressed to being best friends--until Sarah, an alumni from last year, joined us for a few days. suddenly Brandon was left out in the cold as sarah monopolized brady's attention. she knew him from last year, and wasn't ready for the work of making friends with a new person. last year, brady and all the other boys followed her around, rescued her when she was the princess captured by the bad guys, and brought her boquets. there were no flowers in the yard in february, so they picked the only thing green, handfuls of sage leaves. sarah announced she would marry one of them on her birthday in june, and by may she had narrowed her choice to two, and finally to one, jordan. jordan was wise about sex. his mother had filled him in on the details of how babies are made. so when sarah announced that she would marry him on his birthday, he said, "good, then we can make a baby"--and he knew just how to do it. some one pointed out to him that babies are alot of work, and you don't have time to play. you have to spend all your time taking care of the baby. hm. jordan backed out of the marriage and decided he would just be a big brother for now.