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Hi,Sunday, August 22, 2004
After some time on the waiting list and prayer, Sean has been accepted to The Garden Preschool at Cuyahoga Community College! This is a model classroom using the Reggio Emilia approach to learning. The children are the guide to the curriculum and it is project-based! The philosophy is that children have many languages:
The Hundred Languages Children
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.
Loris Malaguzzi(translated by Lella Gandini)
Sean visited the classroom for a little while today while I dropped off paperwork and was especially interested in the sand table and the airplanes and helicopters! The teachers will make a home visit on Friday....more later!
posted by Gretchen 2:02 PM
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
On Friday, August 20, 2004 we all drove Alison to NKU. She is in a dorm with 3 other girls and will be a lifeguard at the college pool. More updates later.
posted by Gretchen 9:38 PM
It's been winter since I've told you what's been happening to our family. Hmmmm, let's see.
Alison went to her Senior Prom in May! Ask her to show you the pictures! She turned the big 18 on May 26, 2004. Alison went on her first road trip with the 1994 Nissan Sentra with her friend Hailey to Lexington, KY on Memorial Day Weekend. Alison also graduated from Strongsville High School and had her party at the Ledgewood Club House....in attendance were Wout & Riet van Besouw direct from Assen, the Netherlands! She has gone to lots of graduation parties and has been staying out late with all her friends. On August 20, 2004 we will be driving Alison to college at Northern Kentucky University. She will begin with 25 semester credits she earned at Tri-C while a senior in high school....way to go Alison (she got all A & B's while at Tri-C).
She got a lifeguarding job at the college too.
Sean has been a growing boy turning 3 this year. He is big into pretend play and has names for everyone in the family. Dad is Jumbo, Mom is A-320, Alison is the airport, Hunter is the control tower, Ojoe is Tug, and Sean is DC! He's been to both Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island and Kelley's Island on the ferry boat and now he is pretending to be a ferry boat. He also pretends to be a train, an airplane, a sailboat, and various other "things." Sean loves his new Middle Bass Island glow-in-the-dark T-shirt with a sailboat on it. He also loves swimming, going to Kiddie Park, riding in the kid seat on Dad's bike, and getting a kid's cup with sprinkles or eyes at Dairy Queen! Sean was in a family day care for the whole month of July and got peeing potty trained in one day! He also learned some good manners. He's also been going to Dalcroze Eurythmics at Baldwin Wallace College and has Mrs. Hunger as his teacher (she also taught Alison when she was Sean's age). Sean really like playing with Hunter and sometimes bugs Hunter a little too much. Sean loves the Noggin TV channel and likes shows such as Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street, Franklin the Turtle, and Maisy.
Bas has been working away at Hubbell Power Systems and will be there 2 years this October. He designs insulators for electrical power lines and teaches Sean all about them too. We probably don't have to move to Aiken for about 3 years.
Gretchen is still working on her Master's degree in Special Education (Mild/Moderate disabilities) from Cleveland State University. She has been doing very well in school (Cumulative GPA: 3.94)! Gretchen also decided on short hair this summer, first time in about 10 years.
posted by Gretchen 9:17 PM
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