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402 days. 402 (plus or minus… mostly minus) posts.

Tag: kids

Day 118: Kid Things

Here are two kid things I’d like to share today:

1. The kids across the street from me built an igloo on December 9, 2012. I remember, because it was the same day they went around the neighborhood looking for snow spiders (I still don’t know if those actually exist).

By “igloo,” I mean that they somehow managed to make a snow pile the size of a small bedroom and burrow a two-person cave into it. Smart. (In January, I watched them get a pizza delivered in there—extra smart.)

Over the last few months, the igloo has grown and grown, but today, it was finally warm enough for the top of it to cave in (don’t worry; no one was in there). I only know it happened because I heard a cannon of cries of, “Aw MAAAN!” when I got home from work today. Indeed, the entrance is pretty much gone. I know the kids are bummed, but the rest of the neighborhood is rejoicing at this small sign of spring.

2. My youngest sister recently unearthed the journal she kept while she was seven and eight years old. In the midst of medical school, she took the time to transcribe the whole thing (earnestly misspelled words and all) and send it to me. I’m going to post on it more thoroughly over the weekend, but here’s a little sneak peek of what’s to come:

April 14 1996 yesterday was so weird because it snowed, and right now thers not a piece of snow outside.  And we are as close as we can get to Iowa.  My favroit color is moron, I wish you could tell me your favroit color is.  When I was little I wanted to fly, but it’s inposieble to fly.

Is it? Stay tuned. More journal entries to come.

Day 108: Good Names

In honor of all my friends who are welcoming new pets and/or kids into their homes, here is a list of names that work well for both.

I can’t take 100 percent of the credit for this list because my dad came up with some of these. And if it weren’t for my mom, one of my sisters would quite certainly have been named Adobe. For now, it’s still up for grabs. You’re welcome.

Good Names for your pets or kids:

Adobe
Beans
Bird
Blog
Brian Boitano (taken)
Cal (short for Calzone)
Chicago
Chlamydia
Chrysanthemum
Doctor
Duvet
Edamame
Eye
Framboise
Gandalph (yes, with a “ph”)
Instagraham
Lava
Lisa Loeb
Lettuce
Meta
Mom
Nirvana
Noodle
Pikachu
Pirouette
Pog
Quinoa
Reef
Robot
Thing 1
Thing 2
Tiger
Velcro
Viva
Wolverine
Yosemite
Zipper

Day 105: Empowering Kids

After yesterday’s post about education and creativity a la Sir Ken Robinson, my mom clued me into this really cool program that provides free weekly dance classes to kids.

Everybody Dance Now! was founded by by 14-year-old Jackie Rotman in 2005, in an effort to bring dance to kids who couldn’t afford expensive studio classes in Santa Barbara, California.

Seven years later, she has expanded Everybody Dance Now! into eleven cities across the county. In each city, the program is directed by local high school and college students. They mobilize teachers, connect with schools and organizations, and bring empowering and fun dance classes to students who may not otherwise have access to dance instruction.

I love this program. Aside from the incredible educational and brain-health benefits of dance (see Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED Talk), teaching kids to dance helps them develop confidence, self esteem, respect for their bodies, and appreciation for all of the different cultures of people who inhabit this planet.

And the program is run by youth. Amazing.

Chicago Public Media station WBEZ interviewed the young Chicago coordinators yesterday. You can listen to it below (to get straight to the interview, you may want to start about one minute in).