Ten years ago today, the following pieces of paper blew into the Carroll Gardens neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York following the attacks at The World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. The Exhibit 13 video was created by the Blue Man community in response to those tragic events. We remember.
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Our area of Pennsylvania has been HAMMERED with rain over the last couple of days. There is extensive flooding in parts of our county and in many of our surrounding counties as well. Here in Shippensburg, however, we have been spared from much of the devastation, thankfully. One of my church members reported measuring 11.75 inches of rain in his backyard over this last week!
Last night after dinner we decided to head out and enjoy some of the puddles left behind by yesterday’s rain showers. We had a blast.
Cover up the center of the image and the flying dots appear to speed up.
Cover up the outside edges of the image and they appear to slow down.
Cool, huh?
As soon as I saw this ABC news clip, I knew I had to re-post it!
In Vashon, Washington, teacher, Erin Kenny has a unique view of Kindergarten education. She has developed and launched what she calls a “Forest Kindergarten” – a Kindergarten class that meets outside EVERYDAY no matter the weather.
Intrigued? Watch the video:
From the school’s website:
Friedrich Fröbel, a German educator, opened the world’s first outdoor kindergartens (children’s gardens), more than 150 years ago with the belief that young children should play in nature, away from an emphasis on too many numbers and letters. Today, Germany has several hundred of these Waldkindergärtens, or “forest kindergartens,” in which children spend their entire class time outdoors year-round. Similar schools exist in other European countries, however there are very few of these programs yet in the United States.
I love it when every once in a while a WEIRD idea like this gets some coverage and ruffles the feathers of all of us who are so accustomed to the “normal” way of doing things!
What do you think? Could you send your 5-year-old out into the forest everyday for “Forest Kindergarten”?
Yesterday we visited one of my favorite outdoor stores, Gander Mountain on my day off. Outside they had a “bargain bin” and I picked up a three pack refill of something called, “Knot-A-Bag”. I’d never heard of it before, but it was only $1 and after reading the package I thought I could come up with something that would make this $1 purchase well worth it.
When Ella came home from school and Jess was working on dinner, I grabbed one of the refills and ran outside with both Ella and Ezra to try my hand at creating the biggest balloon any of us had ever seen. I unraveled about half of the refill and tied one end and then Ella helped me fill it by running around with the end open – I filled the rest with a few huffs that got me lightheaded, tied off the other end and voila we had a 15-foot balloon! I did the same with the other half and after Ezra punctured it, was even able to make two smaller ones, ripping out the portion that had holes and re-tying!
Here are some photos of the kids playing with their 33-cent balloons! (we still have TWO refills to this again – and I’m tempted to run back and see if Gander Mountain has any more left in their bargain bin!)
Full photoset of our balloon-flying adventure is here.
Want to try it for yourself? You can pick up a similar-style refill kit on Amazon for just $5.
