school and creativity

Here's an interesting watch (for those interested):

(or, if you'd rather read/print it out here)

"Kids are not frightened of being wrong and what we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong.
We are now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.
We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it or rather that we get educated out of it.

Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. It doesn’t matter where you go. At the top are Mathematics and Languages, then the Humanities, and at the bottom are the Arts. Everywhere on earth. And in pretty much every system too.
There’s a hierarchy within the Arts; Art and Music are normally given a higher status in schools than Drama and Dance. There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches Dance everyday to children the way we teach them Mathematics. Why? Why not? Maths is very important, but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they are allowed to, will do.
Truthfully what happens is as children grow up we start to educate them progressively from the waist up and then we focus on their heads and slightly to one side.

If you were to visit education as an alien and say, ‘what is it for? Public education‘….Who really succeeds? Who does everything they should? Who gets all the Brownie points? Who are the winners? I think you’d have to conclude the whole purpose of public education, throughout the world, is to produce university professors, isn’t it?

There’s something curious about professors in my experience, not all of them, but typically they live in their heads. They live up there and slightly to one side. They’re disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads...it’s a way of getting their heads to meetings."

fascinating!

wardrobe wednesday

nothing too fancy this week - just a small head-nod to the white blossoms in the orchard (can't wait to eat your fruit whatever you are!)

vintage cardi:: thrifted at Waihi Beach sallies (see you again in a couple of weeks!!)

top:: Max @ Dressmart

brooch:: frangipani

necklace:: lisa leonard

see what everyone else is wearing over at Clare's

(and there is a challenge next week - no denim and no black! yeah!)

*exhale*

i feel like i've been holding my breath for the longest time with all this rain.

and today, at looonnnng last, some sun!!!

*exhale*

chillin in his dad's old swing

(can you spot what has made him so excited?? :) )

naked toes! oh my.

and naked legs! (who knew they were so chubby??)

wasn't it wonderful?

xo

challenge accepted!

oh, you want to give me a used supermarket bag and challenge me to fill it for $5?

challenge accepted:

(at last! gorgeous woollens for a winter cape for Jada!)

(SO pretty! immaculate condition and stunning embroidery)

(size 6. perfect!)

(a handmade vintage day-gown. lovely fabric)

(i LOVE this dress. fits perfect but will lift the hem a few inches I think)

SO thrilled.

(and daylight savings has begun, and it's school holidays! yah)

Make my Week #38 - Faux Flax

every kiwi child must-have:

a flax headband

but who said it can only be made out of flax?

and can't be made as a headband?

for a little girl?

who, today, is pretending to be Mary Ingalls?

happy weekend everyone xo

first (signed) word

Danny's first word: "chook-chook" (chicken)

watch him "say" it here:

we have done baby sign with all of our kids and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
it saves on so much frustration (which often leads to tantrums!) and gets them in a great habit of using their manners :)

our top signs have been:

please

thank you

more

all done

all gone

hot

bath

car

home

plane

chicken

cat

help

sorry

fish

Wardrobe Wednesday

i'm not ashamed to say it...my new fave place is the Glassons sale section.

This is what I wore to church on Sunday (but I have worn it dressed down with jeans also)

((($15 baby!)))

...feelin ohso romantic and feminine (well, I would if I didn't have to throw on my Skellerup gumboots just to step outside the door. Can this rain just stop now? Please?)

This WW has been really good for me. I dress up almost every day now and I've finally settled on a style I really love. I have resolved not to buy anything that is too far outside of this style just because it is a) cheap, b) a label on sale, c) cute, but not my size. I've done this way too many times in the past and have finally decided it's not gonna happen any more.

I have also resolved to chuck everything out of my wardrobe that falls into either the following categories, a)LOVE the pattern/texture/fabric/label/style but looks awful on me, or b)LOVE the pattern/texture/fabric/label/style but it's the wrong size.

I'm starting fresh! ....with a little kick-start courtesy of the Glassons sale section.

(check out what the other mamas are wearing here)

Fringe Benefits

it seems that having a fringe is similar to having a newborn.

it takes a good 6 weeks to settle in and get used to each other.

it's taken awhile but i am loving having a fringe (bangs).

my fave part of it all is the many secrets my fringe is hiding...

Fringe Benefit #1:
my original reason for wanting a fringe was to hide my increasingly disturbing wrinkles on my forehead:

which it does (very effectively!)

BUT!
i didn't count on it also hiding this:

Fringe Benefit #2

c'mon mamas, raise your hands up and hollah, you know what this regrowth is all about!!

(ewww, it's like a fringe within a fringe!! gross)

*

*

but the most exciting, and unexpected, Fringe Benefit is finally being able to hide (sort of) these:

Fringe Benefit #3

my "Donkey Ears"*.

and i'm more than happy to take 'sort-of' hidden.

(unless you're sitting behind me in church and then my game's totally up.../sigh)

.........

* while in Korea i half-heartedly dabbled with the idea of having my ears "pinned". The Korean surgeon I met with told me (quote): You have what we call "DONKEY EARS" (end quote). i kid you not. exact words. Maybe empathy tact something was lost in translation, I dunno, but he pointed out I don't have the little crease that folds ears back into their usual subtle position. so there you have it - my ears have a real condition (and I prefer to keep it hidden)

Thank you Fringe...i heart you xo

Rain Survival Plan

::paint your own iced wine biscuits::

::dump the donated bag of fabric on the floor and play "Find That Colour!"::

::make homemade burgers::

::make the boys new pants (because they have no clean/dry ones left)::

::bake lots n lots of bikkies::

(the whole rain thing is getting a bit old now though....come on summer!)

Make my Week #37

(i think they are huddling together against this awful stormy weather that's roaring outside at the moment. )

don't tell my kids, but i'm a total scaredy cat in stormy weather (i hate it!) so i'm in denial at the moment, la-la-la-la-i-can't-hear-you-'Storm-the-Size-of-Australia'-la-la-la~
...i'm going to do some painting at my dining table (if the power stays on!) and stare cheerfully at these:

clivia :: own

daffodils :: own

tulips :: JR! (aww)

well, hello there~

she was casually sitting by the till in a small Te Awamutu op shop.

i spied the hand-written $8 price tag and half-jokingly commented,

it's not crown lynn, is it?

the owner replied that is was. it has a number on the bottom. and, it was her mother-in-law's and "she never bought junk".

outwardly I was like:

huh.

and appearing unimpressed (by the number and her MIL equally), i cooly slide THE $8 CROWN LYNN SWAN it over beside my other purchases.

...

inwardly i was like:

eeeEEEEeeeeeeyyyaaaayyyayayayayayay.

yanno.

isn't she so pretty?

JR did ask, "but what do you want it for?" (must everything be "for" something?) and then, after i told him about the usual asking price, "you should sell it".

haha. he's terrified he's suddenly married to his nana!!

ballet, baby!

every fortnight Jada attends classes at our local homeschool group. one of her elective classes has been beginner ballet. so today the boys and I went along to have a look.

(yes, she is wearing jeans. ../parenting fail!)

*

now, in case you're thinking the position pictured above looks dead easy...you just go ahead and try it. use the illustrated steps below if you need help:

see? not as easy as it looks huh ;)

that's ok, those knees can take awhile to figure out

the instructor is all kinds of lovely and has the patience of a saint.

i'm pleased we visited.

(and you know, all I could think about while doing this post was how far it is from Kelle Hampton's daughter's ballet lessons!! haha)