Gerry Brownlee and the missing engagement ring

Two elections ago, I went to one of Gerry Brownlee's street corner meetings. It was at the local playground. The children played and the adults listened. At one point, I waved enthusiastically at my young ones and watched my engagement ring fly off my finger to disappear into the grass. After a small panic and frantic search, the ring was found (after Gerry's departure).

Fast forward to yesterday morning, and I went to put on my engagement ring and it was...strangely not in its box. And it wasn't in my other ring box. And it wasn't in with the rest of my jewelery either....

Thankfully the small panic was over quickly, as one of the children said that they thought one of the others might have put it in Daddy's ring box. And so it was. The engagement ring was missing no more.

Shortly afterwards Ewan and I flew to Christchurch for my school reunion. And what would you know, Gerry Brownlee (local MP) turned up to give a speech.

What is this strange relationship between the appearance of Gerry Brownlee and my engagement ring's disappearance?

Hi Grandma!

...and thanks for the cardy!

Round! Round! Round!

Two minutes after I had cleared off this table and wiped it down, I discovered this:








Circles and enclosed circles - (and little hands rubbing with glee!)



When Orla was at Playcentre yesterday, she did a painting of blue circle after blue circle after blue circle until the piece of paper was all blue. When I talked to her about it afterwards she nodded enthusiastically, saying "Round! Round! Round!" as she drew with her finger in the air.

Newborns

I keep wanting to write a post about having newborn, but keep being too tired to do it, or I forget. Which is, in its own way, a very accurate statement about having a newborn!

And now, my newborn isn't a newborn any more. He's grown into that next "little baby" stage. How soon the newborn period passes - in retrospect! (Which is another accurate statement about having a newborn).

But for the record -
- I love how they make little fists with their tiny hands as they feed.
- I love the satisfied noises they make as they feed (mmm! mmm!)
- And the look of anticipation in the moment before they latch!
- I love how (in three of my children at least) they have soft fuzzy down on their heads which slowly turns into baby hair.
- It can be long and lonely for the night feeds, but on the other hand it is a quiet moment when it is just you and baby.
- I love how they are so trusting, so small, so sweet!
- I love their cute little voices - those lovely coos and gurgles.
- And that indescribably wonderful feeling as you hold them close to your heart, or press their little cheek gently into yours. The feeling of the little head snuggled under your chin as you hold them upright.



And then you get this:









and this!











and some brotherly love

The English language

Click!

"Orla have you undone your car seat?"
"Yes!"
"So now you're free?"
"No, I'm two."

More schema photos

Some more photos of Aidan and Orla's possible schema interests.





Aidan's leg art - classic enveloping, but.....it is "Two people lassoing two people" (connecting?). And "...and there's heaps of boats sailing. On one of them [the legs] there's only one boat. On one there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 boats". (Trajectories, transporting??).





Orla made this on the kitchen floor, thus demonstrating the difference between enveloping, and







enclosure.






What's enveloped here?







Trains!









And enveloping oneself.

Strike a pose

Ewan in Sarah's vest and booties. (Have you noticed how he always seems to pose with his right arm up and his left stretched out?).

Cross country

Yesterday was Isabelle's cross country run. In her year group, the children had to race around the nearby park four times.

Except for Isabelle, who went around five times.

The problem seemed to be that because they were going round and round the same course, many of the children were lapped, making it very hard to keep track of things. Isabelle completed her fourth lap running about third, but kept on going because the girls around her still had a lap to run.

Here she is in action:



So fast she's just a blur!






Here she is finishing the fifth lap:











And returning to her classroom, hugging her friend (understandably feeling a bit shattered!):





It was quite fun watching the children, most of whom seemed to be enjoying themselves. Hazel and Iris seemed to smile all the way around the course, as did H and K. It was fair to say though that for some, a cross country is a huge struggle. The looks of pain on some of the faces were hard to watch, and a couple of the children broke down completely. Thankfully, support was at hand.


The start of each race was an all-out sprint. Parents, armed with wisdom gained from hard-won experience, hoped the children would pace themselves. They were certainly moving a lot slower on the repeat lap!

We reminisced about our own cross country experiences from the sidelines.

It was fun cheering for the Playcentre alumni as they went past. They would turn in a slightly confused way to see who it was, then I'd get a small smile of recognition before they turned back to the serious matters at hand.

Next year I'll have two to cheer on.

Aidan is already looking forward to it.

Did I mention rotation?

Orla's rotational art.

Screen time

Here are my big three watching a dvd. They always sit in the same positions. First (from the left), my big girl. In the middle, little curly top, wearing as little as possible. And in the right, my big boy in his spiderman outfit.

When they are not watching anything, the piano stool still has three little indentations in it, showing where they sit.

Photos by Aidan

More modeling

Ewan modeling one of Helen's Mum's singlets.

Trying something different...

Can you let me know in the comments section please if you can see this picture? (I'm trying a slightly different upload process).

Here is Ewan in Rose's cardy - 3 months old (6 weeks corrected), 56 cm long and 4.8 kilos.

Schema musings

This post is a bit disconnected for two reasons. First, I wrote it in my head at 3.00 am two days ago. Second, it's a work in progress. I'm primarily jotting down some ideas so I can go back to them later - probably to disagree with myself!


I wrote in a comment on Susan's blog a while back that schemas to me were verbs rather than nouns. That is, they are about a child doing something (such as rotating, or thinking about rotation) rather than a topic area or item of interest.

This is in part why I've always had a small difficulty with "circularity" as a schema. Rotation is fine, but I haven't yet experienced a child who is into circularity for its own sake. I suspect that exploring rotation (creating and exploring circular motion) may well lock in place cognitive structures that allow adults or older people to enjoy circularity in the abstract, whether in art (as in the curve of a sculpture) or just the aesthetically pleasing circle made by a doorknob.

(Can you make a circle without rotating? Yes, if you use a stamp, or if you place two semi-circle blocks together etc). The unknowable question is what is going on in the child's mind as they view the product. Are their eyes following the curve - that is, rotating? And during the process - is it circularity they are exploring, or something else?).

I'm about a third of the way through Nikolien's new schema book. (van Wijk, Nikolien (2008) Getting Started With Schemas: Revealing the wonder-full world of children's play. New Zealand Playcentre Federation). In the list of common schemas, one schema stuck out for me - "spatial relationships". Spatial relationships isn't a verb! Then I thought further that actually it is a verb, it's just called something different for grammatical purposes. I can think of this schema as "relating" in a spatial sense. The relationship may be under, over, through, diagonally, through a city or in different countries.

A key link is that thinking is doing. It's just a bit more complex and slippery! And harder for an observer to interpret.

Which brings me to a part in the book which gave me a rather disconcerting experience. Nikolien reminds us of Piaget's ideas about stages of development (with abstract thinking appearing relatively late in the piece). She then says, however, that there is evidence of abstract thinking in young children. As it was referenced, I wondered who had said that. My eyes drifted down to the footnote. I said that? I flipped to the references proper. Oh yes, so I did. (But in a very simple way through illustration-by-anecdote, rather than in an academic, published sense).

Another thread of thinking. Children - and probably bigger people too in the main - learn best by doing. You will learn more by baking a cake than have someone tell you about baking a cake, or reading about baking cakes, pictorially or with text. This is another reason I suspect that in verbs schemas find strength.

So what of figurative schemas? I would still argue that the action of making the figure is far more important than the end product - the action of dabbing, zigzagging, or creating a curve. Of course, seeing the mark made as a result is an important part of the experience, but it is richest if it is linked to the action of making it. Using the rotation example, other people's circles are indeed very interesting, but making your own circles is what really creates that state of flow, which Susan writes briefly about here. (She writes much more elsewhere in her blog). It is with the action that you get the deep engagement, that perhaps feeds the ability to appreciate in the abstract.

Flicking ahead, I see Nikolien writes about a musical schema. I am intrigued, and will look forward to reading about this, as I think it challenges my schema model.

Anyway, I'm about to hit the "publish post" button on this draft. I hope my later self doesn't find this too incoherent or embarrassing....

Rugby mum

Well so far I am thoroughly enjoying being a rugby mum. The whole family piles into the car earlyish on a Saturday morning, and off we go to the park! Isabelle and Aidan get to tear around while Brendon referees and I walk up and down the sidelines taking photos and consciously suppressing the urge to yell instructions. (Mostly successfully. I allow myself the occasional "Run! Run like the wind!" or "Other way! Run the other way!". And of course cheers and whoops whenever anyone scores). Orla busys herself on the sidelines with her lunch box, and is now and then fetched from the field and placed back in her special chair. Ewan spends the match in his meitai, sleeping, protected from the cold.

Joining a rugby club is interesting. It is joining a community - one that is well-resourced and extensive. We have an enthusiastic, committed and responsive convenor for our grade, which is great. We have a website, some free gear, and sponsored prizes for player of the week.

It is interesting watching the players! There's a lot of variance in skills, confidence and attention spans, but almost all have a good time. The teams have been relatively evenly matched so far, which is good too. In ripper rugby, you don't keep score. I support this. At this age, keeping score is more of interest to the adults rather than the children. The children are interested in scoring tries, but more in their personal tallies rather than the collective effort. And for some, just being on the park and taking part is achievement enough. And do not think that not keeping score diminishes the competitive nature of the game! Things can get quite physical out there, and the ball is eagerly contested.

The parents on the sideline from whatever team are consistently friendly and gracious. All good plays by either team are cheered.

Isabelle and Aidan put in a good show each week. I was bursting with pride on the sideline when Aidan ran two-thirds the length of the field through a heap of defenders to score in the first half today. (I heard some of the opposition parents say "What a run! And he's the smallest on the park!". Small he may be, but he stands up to any challenge!). He's also determined on defence, and always makes a good number of rips. Isabelle scored four tries last week, and is fast. She has a reliable pair of hands and has a good understanding of where she is supposed to be on the field. I get so excited when she scores!

Long may the enthusiasm last - we will need to keep momentum going if we end up with four children all doing Saturday sport (inevitably all at different grounds at the same time...).