Hello!
Lately I've been fascinated with children and their never-ending inventiveness with creating their own toys. Plumbing hoses, crown molding, gutter screens, postage tubes, envelopes, buckets, pots and pans, and of course the time-honored materials of sticks, leaves, rocks and boxes are spectacular "un-toys."
Un-toys allow for pure originality.There is no one limited way to play. There is no right or wrong way to play. There is no pink or blue segregation. There are no batteries to wear out. There are no blinking lights and letter-naming drills. (Enough already!) There is no toggle switch to change from English to Spanish and vice versa. There is no movie to promote. There is no licensed character per se. There are no commercials convincing children that they have to "collect them all." They are a marketer's worst nightmare, and every child's preferred toy when given the opportunity.
Mattel and whoever is responsible for V-Tech crap don't want parents and teachers to know that un-toys foster the most creative, divergent thinking. If you are not familiar with the book Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and the sequel Not a Stick, tab off of my blog, get on Amazon and purchase the two together this very moment! They are that good! These books demonstrate that adults who have forgotten how to play see a box or a stick. A child, however sees a pirate ship, a cave, a bow and arrow, a sword, and any other number of needed materials for play that the un-toys can become.
My 5 year old son took a cell phone charger and a piece of flexible plumbing tube and made his own bow and arrow. Of course it didn't shoot anything, but he loved it none the less and played with it for days. Then he would take it apart and tie up his lizards with the cord from the charger and the tube became an instrument to projectile shoot pompoms out! Nothing dangerous, but he was amazed at how his breath could create such force.
Recently my household has been purging our unneeded and unwanted material goods. Freeing ourselves from our stuff always feels great, doesn't it, or so I thought. I tried to thin down my children's toys, and gathered a few of the junky parts and pieces that clutter the toy box and litter my living room floor most of the time. I opted to keep the toys that were in one piece and looked like they were in good condition. When my kids saw the content of the box however, they did not share my enthusiasm of freedom from stuff. They immediately started to defend the discard box contents with sentences starting with, "But Mommy I use this for..." or "That's my favorite piece when I play..." When they started to see my defenses crumbling, they played to my hippie soul with, "How could you get rid of our favorite toys?" What a mean mother my poor children have to endure...
My moment of clarity - the children didn't see these odd pieces as un-toys. To them, they were TOYS! I clearly needed to change my purging-criteria and include the children in the decisions! So we rescued the cords, the heavy-duty rubber bands, the plastic tongs, the pvc t-tubes and the shoe box lids from an uncertain fate, and replaced them with a few old cars that were "too baby-ish," and some dolls that look addicted to heroin. The children have spoken!
Wouldn't it be great if all the hippie teachers created our own, cool rating scale? We could call it the HTERS! (Hippie Teachers Environmental Rating Scale) Of course, the criteria for quality would include the use of un-toys. The excellent category would reflect that children are encouraged to define materials in their own ways to fulfill their play needs. We would also consider it excellent practice to allow, even encourage, materials to cross interest areas as the children so need them to. And what about those V-Tech toys? Their only accepted use would be as doorstops and/or other divergent uses that can be identified for a big heavy piece of plastic. At least they would serve one useful purpose.
Love and peace,
~Miss Jane
Friday, April 22, 2011
Friday, September 10, 2010
Nature Preschool: Mother Nature's Children
"Find me in a field of grass. Mother Nature's Son. Swaying daisies, sing a lazy song beneath the sun." ~The Beatles
If you want to really find something great on the internet, google search nature preschool. These are programs that are truly innovative and cutting edge, although the experiences that they provide children are ancient. I want in on this right away!
The basic concept is that the children get extended amounts of time in natural settings, free to roam and explore while interacting with nature - real nature. Streams, prairie grasses, downed logs, trees, mud, insects, birds, wildlife, scat, and native species plants. You know, the kinds of things that we spent our entire childhoods doing!
So far from what I can find, nature preschools are almost always associated with nature centers, and kudos to these organizations for embracing the early childhood cause. A few others I have found are linked to lab schools. What an opportunity for hippie teachers!
Here's the idea: what if the disenchanted hippie teachers decided to start their own nature preschools? I keep imagining a house with a few acres around it. The experiences that the children and teachers could have outside are invaluable for children to learn conservation, interconnectedness, culture, their native eco-system, confidence, courage, and of course cooperation. Growing and playing together in the fresh outdoors, in the ways that children have developed since the advent of children, except this time with hippie flair!
Here are a few crucial websites that I offer with love:
http://www.greenheartsinc.org/ Run by a guy named Ken Finch, who is awesome, there are fabulous tips and strategies to reconnect children with nature. Ken's a hippie hero for sure!
http://www.nwf.org/
http://www.childrenandnaturenetwork.org/ Inspired by the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Believe me, more posts are coming about this powerful and hippie-hearted book.
Put the internet to good use. It's such an amazing tool. Let's use it for social inspiration and change!
Go Explore Outside!
~Miss Jane
If you want to really find something great on the internet, google search nature preschool. These are programs that are truly innovative and cutting edge, although the experiences that they provide children are ancient. I want in on this right away!
The basic concept is that the children get extended amounts of time in natural settings, free to roam and explore while interacting with nature - real nature. Streams, prairie grasses, downed logs, trees, mud, insects, birds, wildlife, scat, and native species plants. You know, the kinds of things that we spent our entire childhoods doing!
So far from what I can find, nature preschools are almost always associated with nature centers, and kudos to these organizations for embracing the early childhood cause. A few others I have found are linked to lab schools. What an opportunity for hippie teachers!
Here's the idea: what if the disenchanted hippie teachers decided to start their own nature preschools? I keep imagining a house with a few acres around it. The experiences that the children and teachers could have outside are invaluable for children to learn conservation, interconnectedness, culture, their native eco-system, confidence, courage, and of course cooperation. Growing and playing together in the fresh outdoors, in the ways that children have developed since the advent of children, except this time with hippie flair!
Here are a few crucial websites that I offer with love:
http://www.greenheartsinc.org/ Run by a guy named Ken Finch, who is awesome, there are fabulous tips and strategies to reconnect children with nature. Ken's a hippie hero for sure!
http://www.nwf.org/
http://www.childrenandnaturenetwork.org/ Inspired by the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Believe me, more posts are coming about this powerful and hippie-hearted book.
Put the internet to good use. It's such an amazing tool. Let's use it for social inspiration and change!
Go Explore Outside!
~Miss Jane
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Radical Survivalists - Hippies in Disguise!
I've been reading some interesting stuff lately. One book by the lovely Marianne Williamson, another by a survivalist by the name of Rawles who wrote a fascinating book about how to prepare for the end of the world as we know it. Now Marianne, I know is a hippie at heart. She preaches peace, tolerance, spirituality and justice as frequently and as easily as she breathes. I love her books as I always learn how to approach the world with more genuine compassion after each visit to any of her titles. I'd highly recommend her. Who knows - she may have Hippie Hero status pending...
Now this Rawles fellow-now he's hardcore. He really believes that the caca is going to hit the fan, not maybe, but really and sometime soon. He pleads an interesting case from easily plausible, like some weirdo viral pandemic, to the outlandish but frightening plausible like a nuclear electromangetic pulse. Gratefully I am married to a man who could explain this to me. The science behind it is offensive to my hippie heart, and I won't speak of this atrocity again. Anyhoo, on to friendlier terms...
Mr. Rawles explains how any ordinary family should prepare to care for oneself and one's loved ones in the event that our comfy, netbook-y, AC'd lives were suddenly turned upside down. At the core of this book are themes of self-suffiency, charity, and a return to living off the land. How hippie is THAT??? I have to say I'm fascinated with this book, not because I think armegeddon looms on the horizon, but as a manual for how people can free their inner hippies and align their lifestyles with one that moves fluidly with nature.
Despite my fascination with the book, it is not without hippie controversy. I cannot say I think the basics ever include bullets, and Mr. Rawles feels that bullets are up their with bandaids and some other B word that escapes me right now, mostly because I couldn't get past the bullet thing. If it were not for the chapter on weaponry, I would have honestly considered Mr. Rawles a closeted hippie.
On to my epiphany. There is a faction of the population that I unfairly stereotyped, and Mr. Rawles' book has helped me to see the error of my ways. It's never cool to judge or stereotype. I am encouraged that I can find common ground with the most radical of the population. We both believe passionately about freedom, self-sufficiency, the beauty in simple function and process, and that you have to count on yourself and good people because "the man" really can't be counted on for much at all. I am even more encouraged by the idea that if I can find commonalities with people who seem so diametrically opposed to my hippie living, then it shouldn't be hard at all to find common ground, and therefore compassion, with just about anyone I come in contact with. Thank you Mister Rawles - I found a dharmic lesson in your survivalist book! Namaste! Oh, and would you be willing to share some of those farm fresh eggs with me when that nasty virus comes around? I do make a mean egg-whites western omelette!
With kindess,
~Miss Jane
Now this Rawles fellow-now he's hardcore. He really believes that the caca is going to hit the fan, not maybe, but really and sometime soon. He pleads an interesting case from easily plausible, like some weirdo viral pandemic, to the outlandish but frightening plausible like a nuclear electromangetic pulse. Gratefully I am married to a man who could explain this to me. The science behind it is offensive to my hippie heart, and I won't speak of this atrocity again. Anyhoo, on to friendlier terms...
Mr. Rawles explains how any ordinary family should prepare to care for oneself and one's loved ones in the event that our comfy, netbook-y, AC'd lives were suddenly turned upside down. At the core of this book are themes of self-suffiency, charity, and a return to living off the land. How hippie is THAT??? I have to say I'm fascinated with this book, not because I think armegeddon looms on the horizon, but as a manual for how people can free their inner hippies and align their lifestyles with one that moves fluidly with nature.
Despite my fascination with the book, it is not without hippie controversy. I cannot say I think the basics ever include bullets, and Mr. Rawles feels that bullets are up their with bandaids and some other B word that escapes me right now, mostly because I couldn't get past the bullet thing. If it were not for the chapter on weaponry, I would have honestly considered Mr. Rawles a closeted hippie.
On to my epiphany. There is a faction of the population that I unfairly stereotyped, and Mr. Rawles' book has helped me to see the error of my ways. It's never cool to judge or stereotype. I am encouraged that I can find common ground with the most radical of the population. We both believe passionately about freedom, self-sufficiency, the beauty in simple function and process, and that you have to count on yourself and good people because "the man" really can't be counted on for much at all. I am even more encouraged by the idea that if I can find commonalities with people who seem so diametrically opposed to my hippie living, then it shouldn't be hard at all to find common ground, and therefore compassion, with just about anyone I come in contact with. Thank you Mister Rawles - I found a dharmic lesson in your survivalist book! Namaste! Oh, and would you be willing to share some of those farm fresh eggs with me when that nasty virus comes around? I do make a mean egg-whites western omelette!
With kindess,
~Miss Jane
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Coronation of the Queen
I just saw the best picture I have ever seen of my old pal, Becky Trela. There was Becky, a young bride in the 70's with her white dress hiked up, vamping it up to show off her garter belt. What a cheeky smile. What a free spirit. What a fun teacher.
Becky died of an aggressive cancer this Wednesday, May 5. She was the real deal. She was a Hippie Teacher to the core. Everything about Becky screamed freedom. Everything about Becky exuded peace and kindness. Everything about Becky was cool.
There is so much more to say about this unimaginably brilliant soul. However, I feel like I have nothing more that I would like to share about our friendship, other than Here's to Becky Trela! May she reign forever as the Ultimate Hippie Hero!
Love always,
~Miss Jane
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Ode to Dashikis
Hues so bright
Patterns so enticing
Dashiki - we love thee
So fresh and vitalizing
When I was directing, my governing board asked that I revise the dress code policy for the teaching staff. I had to agree it was needed. The young little college co-eds were so energetic and playful with the kids, but as soon as they bent over to tie a shoe - HELLO! No one needs to see what Mother Nature gave you - no matter how darling you may be in the 19-22 age range. On a positive, we sure had a lot of Dads at pick up time! Yowzer!
Anyways, I was really torn about the whole idea of "dress code." It seemed so - institutional. It hurt my hippie heart. We did figure out a way to word the "code" so that teachers could still express their personal taste and style while dressed to care for children. So it all ended up copacetic.
But it leaves me to wander into my alternate universe. (Which I do frequently I might add. I love it there.) My dream land of FLHT, which of course is the Free Land of Hippie Teachers, dashikis would be the best choice for early childhood environments. Think about it, they are roomy and allow for teachers to have full body movements. They are tasteful but a little sexy - not too showy in the boobs, but rather feminine. They are usually brightly colored so stains from the easel hide easily. And did I mention they are just fun and make me feel free?
There would be no dress code in FLHT, nor judgement based on looks or beliefs. Our only code would be to be yourself. And for pete's sake - remember what you look like when bending down to tie shoes!
With much love,
~Miss Jane
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Trusting Children; Trusting Ourselves
Today I had the opportunity to take my son to the local children's museum. In his usual reserved way, he approached each exhibit with caution, being careful to watch for some time before inching over slowly. Never letting go of my hand, he would work up the courage to join in the fun - but on his own terms as always. While others are laughing and playing with abandon, my son likes to watch for quite awhile, sit and smile for even longer, then bravely let go of my hand when he is confident that he understands the situation. He's been like this since he was a very small baby - a quintessential "slow to warm" temperament.
I don't care for the term "fearful," which I think is the new term used when discussing temperaments. "Slow to warm" seems more accurate. It isn't fear that prohibits my son from joining in right away. It seems to be more of a mix of insecurity in the social setting coupled with his keen observation and heightened senses. He's a kid that likes to know first before he jumps in the deep end with both feet. As his mother, it is important for me to trust his ability to discern for himself the situations that make him feel safe, and ones that make him feel hesitant.
I'll freely admit that I am tempted to coax, push, and put him in situations that he is uncomfortable, because after all, the other mommies are watching me and my non-participating son. But who would that benefit? Me and my parenting insecurities, that's who. As the late George Harrison, (rest peacefully, George) would say, it's I Me Mine! I doubt that Anthony would learn anything except that his mommy cares more about other's opinions of her as a mother, than of his feelings. The hippie in me knows that others' opinions of my parenting is not my priority.
When I am tempted to say, "Oh come on, it'll be fun, just go play with the other kids," I have to stop, take a cleansing breath and trust in my child. I recognize that when I allow my child to decide and lead, I have to trust that I have educated him in ways that are beneficial to him.
It is easy to doubt myself, my abilities, and parenting philosophy. The messages surround me everyday: Your child needs to be ready! More! More! More! Earlier! Earlier! Earlier!
Ready for what? When is it enough? What's the rush? When I trust myself, then I can see when to give support and encouragement for my son to face his challenges today, rather than constantly preparing for the albatros of kindergarten. Readiness therefore, is the cumulative result of many wonderful "todays." Understanding this, suddenly it becomes clear how much is enough, and the pace in which it needs to be attempted.
So there we stood at each exhibit, watching and waiting until Anthony was prepared to participate. When we got home, he eagerly shared every detail of the museum with his daddy. Every detail. With his precise recall I could see that he fully benefitted from what the exhibits had to offer. He just needed me to trust that he would participate when he was ready, and that he can learn much just by observing. Who knows what other learning took place for Anthony today - I trust those lessons were exactly what Anthony needed.
With care,
~Miss Jane
I don't care for the term "fearful," which I think is the new term used when discussing temperaments. "Slow to warm" seems more accurate. It isn't fear that prohibits my son from joining in right away. It seems to be more of a mix of insecurity in the social setting coupled with his keen observation and heightened senses. He's a kid that likes to know first before he jumps in the deep end with both feet. As his mother, it is important for me to trust his ability to discern for himself the situations that make him feel safe, and ones that make him feel hesitant.
I'll freely admit that I am tempted to coax, push, and put him in situations that he is uncomfortable, because after all, the other mommies are watching me and my non-participating son. But who would that benefit? Me and my parenting insecurities, that's who. As the late George Harrison, (rest peacefully, George) would say, it's I Me Mine! I doubt that Anthony would learn anything except that his mommy cares more about other's opinions of her as a mother, than of his feelings. The hippie in me knows that others' opinions of my parenting is not my priority.
When I am tempted to say, "Oh come on, it'll be fun, just go play with the other kids," I have to stop, take a cleansing breath and trust in my child. I recognize that when I allow my child to decide and lead, I have to trust that I have educated him in ways that are beneficial to him.
It is easy to doubt myself, my abilities, and parenting philosophy. The messages surround me everyday: Your child needs to be ready! More! More! More! Earlier! Earlier! Earlier!
Ready for what? When is it enough? What's the rush? When I trust myself, then I can see when to give support and encouragement for my son to face his challenges today, rather than constantly preparing for the albatros of kindergarten. Readiness therefore, is the cumulative result of many wonderful "todays." Understanding this, suddenly it becomes clear how much is enough, and the pace in which it needs to be attempted.
So there we stood at each exhibit, watching and waiting until Anthony was prepared to participate. When we got home, he eagerly shared every detail of the museum with his daddy. Every detail. With his precise recall I could see that he fully benefitted from what the exhibits had to offer. He just needed me to trust that he would participate when he was ready, and that he can learn much just by observing. Who knows what other learning took place for Anthony today - I trust those lessons were exactly what Anthony needed.
With care,
~Miss Jane
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Ben Franklin - Our First Hippie Hero!
"What you would seem to be, be really." ~Ben Franklin
I adore this quote. It has been my guiding mantra for much of my life, and reminds me to stay true to what I have learned, and what my experiences have taught me. You know, I think Ben Franklin may have been a hippie. He was free-thinking, politically savvy, a person of principles, creative, independent and he wore his hair in long flowing locks. Hmmm, a founding hippie father. I like it!
Today I launch Hippie Teachers with many other great friends of mine who share a passion for teaching, in a way that is true to their nature and experience. We believe above all in cherishing children for exactly who they are - creative, imaginative, funny, capable, emotional, energetic, vulnerable, and free-spirited. We believe in treating children and their families with the utmost respect as fellow divine creatures on this planet. We believe education should be dynamic, fluid, unique, enthusiastic, inspirational, and compassionate. We believe in teachers - real teachers who play, sing, dance, make mistakes, apologize for mistakes, and who honor each child as an individual.
Our blog will offer all kinds of messages about the lessons we have learned, cool thoughts or ideas that we've seen or have imagined, stories about "fighting the man," and other information that is free for all. If you believe as we do, come and join us as a Hippie Teacher!
Have a peaceful day,
~Miss Jane
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