Just found this in my archives from several months ago….
I’ve found myself quite tired recently, and so my old coping patterns come up… like bullying through my day, moving from one task to the next to keep me going. I end up shunting my kids around town, or not really being available to them at home. When things become too much for me, I shut down into my own busy jobs and miss good quality time with my children. Their attention is my number one job, and I know we can’t be on for them every second, but I feel I could do better.
One day my daughter came up to me all excited, asking me to come look at something she spent a lot of time …

I was telling my mom today that we are researching schooling options for our kids. She pointed out a good series of articles she had read in the Toronto Star. Check out the Atkinson Fellowship Series of articles, and watch for the marshmallow test.
We all want smart kids, and these articles discuss how well education systems help to reach this goal. As parents though, self-esteem is of more concern – we feel being smart is a by-product of children feeling secure physically, emotionally and otherwise. We are concerned that the public system is archaic and too stressed for resources to provide teachers with what they need to educate our children well.
Allana Mitchell writes: ”[Teachers] are having a biological influence on children that is in scale akin …

As the director of a preschool and writer for teachers and parents, Bev Bos is seen as a leader in conscious education for children. She was in town for an early childhood conference, and put aside two hours to do a presentation of her principles for growing self-aware and wiser beings. It was a whirlwind of information, games and songs but the essence was: give kids more unstructured play.
But to do so most parents, including myself, have to be willing to let kids get riskier and dirtier. I am reminded that parenting for me is often about letting go, not trying to control a situation more.
Here are Bev’s Conditions for Growing Wise:

Belonging – to family, neighbourhood and the global community.
Risk – Intellectual, emotional, physical, social …

The kids and I spent a wonderful day in the sun at the first annual Kid Walk in Nelson BC. Again, we are so blessed in our little mountain community to have government and nfp organizations willing to support meaningful family programs. Loaded with fun, everyone has been talking about all the new activities the kids were able to experience. And no barrier to entry, everything was free.
Our first stop was a visit inside an ambulance and our 3-year-old daughter learned about 9-1-1. It hadn’t struck me to teach this yet, but she is capable of hitting the right numbers so it can’t hurt to know. The scary siren and flashing lights sent us off to kick soccer balls, with some free lessons thrown in. …

I am so bummed. Not so much that the Liberals are in power again, although that too is a bummer. I’m shocked that people are so entrenched in the way things are, that they can’t see that a single-transferable-vote system would result in more people at the table and help us to work together to  find solutions that work for all of society. It would help us get away from the swinging policies of what here is a two-party government. We spend so much time undoing the work of others because of different ideals and values, rather than coming up with a solution that works for everyone from the get go. It saddens me that ideals of the Green Party such as:

Building a Strong Economy,
Caring …