SP 101

Excellent story about parenting. mrspete: First there was mud....

louie4711 — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 23:37:59 -0400

Excellent story about parenting.

First there was mud. Then there was blood.

Riding along the lakefront path, finding and hitting every puddle with decision, unless there were other riders of course. In the four weeks that my son has been riding a bike, he has learned that you keep your eyes on the road, always.

We have been riding longer, since he was a toddler, in a trailer. When we graduated to the tag along bike a year ago (his own pedals! in traffic!), his face was on fire with happiness. MOM. THIS. IS. SO. FUN.

A month ago my husband and I realized summer was ending and at 6 years, it was past time for him to learn to ride on his own. We both tend to put off teaching him the hard things. Because to be honest, our kid is kind of an asshole when we try to teach him the hard things. He gets mad at us for knowing something he doesn’t, and he thinks the only way he will master things is to teach himself himself.

The thing is, he’s usually right. He was a late but great swimmer, absolutely no thanks to me and my twelve years of swim team. He can climb anything, jump off anything, knows more dinosaurs than I’ve ever heard of, can figure out the square root of 10,000, bakes cookies, reads like crazy. He amazes me every day.

And he scares the shit out of me, every day.

So last week (Week Three of his solo biking career), we rode the Salt Creek Trail. It was raining lightly and the trail was mostly empty, and still my heart stopped a thousand times. He rode all 15 miles, no complaints, and he wanted to keep going.

Today (Week Four) we took our bikes on the El and rode on the Lakefront path. It was a perfect day. Cool, sunny, with big puffy white clouds blowing close overhead. We rode around Buckingham fountain five times then headed south, past the museums, past the bears game, past McCormick place.

A boy on a BMX rode a little ahead of us, did a 360, and kept riding. Franklin couldn’t believe it. Mom! Mom! Did you SEE that? I talked to the boy, who was going to the skate park and said we should come watch him do some tricks. He noticed how fast my son is, and how it was work to keep up with him. We laughed at the huge mud streak up his back.

At the skatepark, I tried to talk Franklin into sitting with me and watching the older boy do tricks. I had a sandwich, and an apple, but he never wants to watch, he wants to do. He was careful, not reckless, and he was doing the easy things— up and down the ramps, taking corners off the small bumps, demonstrating a lot of control, and mastery. The older boy was showing him how to handle his bike, to go slow, to go fast, how to get “out of the bowl”.

I sat there thinking, this is awesome, I am such a great mom, letting him learn to control his bike and master hard things he wouldn’t encounter riding sidewalk circles around our park. I was also thinking, Jim would never let him do this, he’s too cautious, too protective. While my brain was thinking such stupid thoughts, I heard the crash and the screaming. And I ran my ass over to him, I saw the blood, all over his glasses, his face, his shirt, his helmet.

There was so much blood.

The skater boys in the park all came over to check on my little dude, and tell him how brave he was. I called Jim, but he was out and didn’t have his phone. I didn’t think he was seriously hurt but he did need stitches. The chance of us getting a cab on the south side of the lakefront during a bears game was no chance, so I called 911. They took us to Mercy hospital (the closest), where we waited, my son covered in blood and still bleeding, nearly a hour without even seeing a triage nurse. Jim arrived with the car, and we drove to Children’s where he was seen and treated right away. Dermabond glue stitches, some loose baby teeth, no broken bones.

In the car home, he asked when he could get a trick bike, so he could learn to do tricks properly. I told him he can have a BMX when he is 12, as long as he doesn’t ask me again until he is 12. He is very excited about turning 12.

We are going to work on mastering the basics in the meantime, and I am going to keep struggling with wanting to keep him tied up in my arms and safe, and letting him go out and break things, sometimes himself.

An occupational therapist told us our son engages in “sensory seeking behavior” and I agree. That seems to me an overly clinical and problematic description of being a human. To seek behavior that engages our senses, that makes us feel alive, loved, afraid, strong, brave, protected, victorious— why is that wrong?

Most of the music I love, the writing that matters to me, the art that kills me, reflect a world no parent would ever want their kids to experience. Part of me wants to say, yeah, Franklin, go out and fuck things up! but that’s shitty parenting. I’m supposed to protect him, but I know I can’t. I want to help him make good choices, of course, but when he makes bad choices which he will I want him to be strong and resilient and get back up.

People talk about balancing the desire to protect their child with allowing their child independence. For my son, there is no balance. I hold simultaneous fear of death, and a desire for him to live a big real life in every breath.

curiositycounts: A new visual vocabulary that reflects the...

nixbrodeur — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:32:22 -0500

curiositycounts:

A new visual vocabulary that reflects the multi-dimensional role of great teachers from Hyperakt and Studio 360, with plenty of free downloadable posters. Related reading: A New Culture of Learning.

Design Thinking for Educators

nixbrodeur — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:30:37 -0500

Design Thinking for Educators

curiositycounts: Google launches YouTube for Schools, offering...

nixbrodeur — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:41:35 -0500

curiositycounts:

Google launches YouTube for Schools, offering schools access to 400,000 free educational YouTube videos, including content from organizations like Stanford, PBS and TED, while limiting access to other YouTube content. Schools can customize their YouTube for Schools experience, adding videos that are only viewable within their school network. An interesting take on curation in education.

One teachers approach to preventing gender bullying in a classroom

louie4711 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:09:55 -0500

Inspiring article about a teacher learning how to deal with gender stereotyping in her kindergarten classroom:

togetherforjacksoncountykids:

“It’s Okay to be Neither,” By Melissa Bollow Tempel

Alie arrived at our 1st-grade classroom wearing a sweatshirt with a hood. I asked her to take off her hood, and she refused. I thought she was just being difficult and ignored it. After breakfast we got in line for art, and I noticed that she still had not removed her hood. When we arrived at the art room, I said: “Allie, I’m not playing. It’s time for art. The rule is no hoods or hats in school.”

She looked up with tears in her eyes and I realized there was something wrong. Her classmates went into the art room and we moved to the art storage area so her classmates wouldn’t hear our conversation. I softened my tone and asked her if she’d like to tell me what was wrong.

“My ponytail,” she cried.

“Can I see?” I asked.

She nodded and pulled down her hood. Allie’s braids had come undone overnight and there hadn’t been time to redo them in the morning, so they had to be put back in a ponytail. It was high up on the back of her head like those of many girls in our class, but I could see that to Allie it just felt wrong. With Allie’s permission, I took the elastic out and re-braided her hair so it could hang down.

“How’s that?” I asked.

She smiled. “Good,” she said and skipped off to join her friends in art.

‘Why Do You Look Like a Boy?’

Read More

(via Custom Plush Toys by Child’s Own Studio | Apartment...

nixbrodeur — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:55:14 -0500

(via Custom Plush Toys by Child’s Own Studio | Apartment Therapy Re-Nest)

system: how to get more tips in the tip jar

nixbrodeur — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:57:29 -0500

whatsyoursystem:

Who: Birch Coffee (@birchcoffee) in NYC

System: Ask a quirky question and get people to vote on the answer with their dollar. I can tell you those jars are always full. Fun and effective.

Oh yeah, the answer: The onion

curiositycounts: The always-excellent Craig Mod, who is now at...

nixbrodeur — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:54:54 -0500

curiositycounts:

The always-excellent Craig Mod, who is now at Flipboard, on “beautiful books” and the future of storytelling in age of digital books – a must-watch for any storyteller, designer, and media observer.

The 5 Best Toys of All Time

nixbrodeur — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:43:06 -0500

The 5 Best Toys of All Time:

Great article about how kids play

Why young people should be at the heart of your arts organisation | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional

nixbrodeur — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:23:29 -0500

Why young people should be at the heart of your arts organisation | Culture professionals network | Guardian Professional:

James Stanley, communications officer at Contact, explains how his organisation is working with young people and why the arts should work with, not for, them

Julie Conason: Learning Through Relationships

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:33:55 -0500

Julie Conason: Learning Through Relationships

From Chaos Comes Creativity, from Order Comes Profit

nixbrodeur — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:43:58 -0500

From Chaos Comes Creativity, from Order Comes Profit:

“what it takes to build a culture where people innovate routinely”

7 Deadly Sins of Business Storytelling

nixbrodeur — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:32:06 -0500

7 Deadly Sins of Business Storytelling

curiositycounts: “PERSIST on staying true to your vision” –...

nixbrodeur — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:08:58 -0500

curiositycounts:

“PERSIST on staying true to your vision” – lovely hand-written note to aspiring creators by Pixar animator Austin Madison. Pixar animators are generally brilliant.

Permanent Play Project

nixbrodeur — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:08:13 -0500

Permanent Play Project:

“PPP (Permanent Play Project) is the creative project which introduces new ways of “playing” for the next generation. We rearrange longtime beloved toys such as blocks to bring a whole new value to them. PPP is dedicated to create “unchanging ways of playing” and “future ways of playing” through various fields including contents creation, product design, space design and more.”

(via MailChimp’s Style Guide Is Corporate Communication...

nixbrodeur — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:41:00 -0500

(via MailChimp’s Style Guide Is Corporate Communication Done Right | Co. Design)

An awesome read about the importance of internal communication style

"This site doesn’t just present theories and ideas, but rather actionable solutions that can be..."

nixbrodeur — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:19:00 -0500

“This site doesn’t just present theories and ideas, but rather actionable solutions that can be immediately and easily implemented in service of a relevant education for American students who need to gain proficiency if not mastery of core subject areas while at the same time being prepared for the reality of future work. Imagination is a broad topic, encompassing everything the mind can conjure, so the findings in this report are focused on those that overlap with the changing world of work.”

- Intro : Imagination: Creating the Future of Education & Work

An amazing resource for info about the future of education and technology