My birthday is Halloween and my gift to all of you is a story and a costume about a spider. There are many tales of Anansi, the Spider, originating from the Ashanti people of Ghana. Anansi is a trickster who is keeper of the stories of their culture. One tale was re-told and illustrated by Gerald McDermott. This time Anansi is a father of six spider sons, all with unique talents. Father Anansi falls into Read More →
For now and the future, children need to know how to explore and use a variety of high tech and high touch materials. Let’s begin with paper and, whenever possible, use recycled paper. What can you do with paper? Well, besides writing, drawing or painting on it, try some of these: CUT or TEAR paper to make animal shapes people shapes letters numbers geometric shapes spirals masks hat brims eyeglasses mustaches beards finger puppets puzzles Read More →
How much time do you or your children spend out of doors? Michael Pollan has written a book, Ecological Literacy: Educating our Children for a Sustainable World, in which he shows that how essential it is for us to remain in contact with nature and to do so freely playing and exploring. When some of us seniors grew up, we played for hours outside daily and only came home when Mom honked the special car Read More →
This game is different from many competitive trivia games because, instead of finding one right answer, you must find as many answers as possible. Thus, this game encourages creative fluency. The game is best played between two groups but two individuals can play it as well. Rules: Take turns choosing a card. On your turn give as many examples as you possibly can. (Try to be specific, for example, say “swan, crow, canary, parrot, etc.” Read More →
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