Author: Maida (Page 4 of 40)

Dashiell, being a 2nd grader, is now “the oldest grade” in the main building at school, and he’s been trying to be a good role model for the “littles.” This 2nd year in Loowit is all about fostering independence and leadership.  I have seen this in action: after our new natural gas line got put in the street, the utility crew came back a few days later to smooth out the hole they’re made in the main road. Dashiell was home and we saw them arrive from my office window. We were curious about why the crew was back, so Dashiell went and found out–all on his own. He put on his shoes, coat, etc. From my office, I watched him navigate the street and walk carefully down the edge of the street (there is no sidewalk) to the intersection and take a look. To my delight, I saw him have a short conversation with the worker man. 

Here is a dispatch from Jackie. Reading this may help you understand why I have no time to blog these days…so much going on between school, work and the remodel…Also, did I mention this is school auction season, and so I will begin helping out in the art room again this year?

Dear Families,

 

It is hard to believe that we are nearly done with our first month of 2018!  The kiddos have been busily working on their studies, including all of their People of Cascadia journals. It is exciting to see the children dive into another culture and time period outside of what they are accustomed to. The children have been enjoying their classmate’s family culture sharings as well. 

 

Secret Valentines:

Valentine‘s Day is just around the corner and the Loowits will be celebrating with a homework project called Secret Valentines. The students will be drawing names to determine one classmate as their ‘secret valentine‘. For the four school nights leading up to the 14th, (beginning Thur. Feb. 8) each child will write one note per night to their secret valentine (we will send home paper for the daily valentines). The goal is to write one sentence that gives a hint about who the author is, but doesn’t give it away, and another sentence that includes a compliment for the recipient. Please make sure your child does not sign their valentine, but writes their name on the back instead. I will collect the letters each morning and they will be displayed on heart figures that the children make ahead of time. Each day after recess the kids will get to read their new valentine and try to figure out who is writing to them. On Wednesday, the 14th, we will have a Valentine‘s Day Party where we reveal our Secret Valentines. We will have popcorn to snack on, but if anyone would like to send in other treats (fruits and veggies), please feel free. Often children like to make valentines for their classmates (homemade ones are welcomed!) If your child chooses to bring valentines, please make sure he/she brings one for each student in their homeroom class. We will send home an email next week with explicit Secret Valentine instructions and a key so you know which classmate your child is writing to.

 

Upcoming Field Trips and In-Class Experiences

 

We have many wonderful experiential learning activities planned for the Loowits in the upcoming months. While we may add another trip or two during the spring thematic study, we wanted to update you on what is on the calendar at this time. 

 

• Native American Plant Uses – during most of February, the Loowits will have a kit on loan from the Lower Columbia Estuary Project that allows us to explore native plants and how they have been used in this area for thousands of years.
• Portland Art Museum & OR Historical Society field trips – Tuesday, February 20th. We are still waiting confirmation on these two trips, but we plant to spend the morning at the Historical Society, have a picnic lunch, and then explore the Native American art collection at PAM starting at noon. We will need drivers for this trip. Please sign up on the Loowit Field Trip Drivers spreadsheet if you are available for this trip. This trip will last most of the day.
• Salmon Cycle and Natural Dyes Workshop – On Thursday, February 22nd a representative form the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge will be teaching the children about the importance of salmon to the People of Cascadia as well as the salmon life cycle. The workshop concludes with an art project which involve using natural dyes as pigments. 

• Basket Weaving Class – 7th Generation basket weaver, Stepanie Craig will be spending the day with us on Monday, February, 26th. Stephanie will be bringing artifacts, traditional foods, medicines and other plants to display, as well as teaching the students how to make their own tule ducks. Thank you to Christina and Andrew Wheeler for making this wonderful experience possible!

• At the end of February, a trunk from the Cathlapotle plankhouse at the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge will be coming to the classroom. The trunk contains replica artifacts that were recreated from an archeological dig at the refuge. We will try to visit the plankhouse when they begin accepting field trip requests for May, but unfortunately, it is closed through April.

• On April 27th we will be traveling to the Lelooska Cultural Center in Ariel, WA for an authentic Native American storytelling presentation. Following the presenation, we will tour the museum on site, then head to a nearby park for lunch. We will need drivers for this trip. Please sign up on the Loowit Field Trip Drivers spreadsheet if you are available for this trip.

 

Another wonderful thematic experience is happening at Heritage High School on Saturday, March 3rd. The Native American Parent Association is holding their annual Pow Wow. This would be a wonderful way for your family to experience our thematic study! For more details, visit this page.

 

We have loved our wonderful new birthday tradition in Loowit! The students are amazed at the beautiful candle art that you have created for them and the appreciation circle has been heart-felt to hear. Many children are choosing to celebrate their special day with both Loowit classes, which is so fun! It does, however, mean many birthday treats to share. With that in mind, it is helpful when we have treats that they are more on the heathy side.

 

We hope you have a terrific week!

 

Warmly,

 

Jackie, Missy and Michelle

Dashiell is getting a new retainer for his teeth this week! Pictures to be added soon. He had a choice of colors: naturally, he picked cherry red (red is currently his favorite color, but it’s in a tight race with red+white+blue).  

Fortunately, the orthodontist didn’t need to make an impression to fabricate the retainer; instead, they used a new mouth camera that took something like 780 tiny pictures and then assembled a 3-D rendering of his teeth and upper palette. Whew! This prevented the much agonized-over process of a traditional impression, which had him gagging and tearful on the last go-around for the palette expander. 

Retainer #2: writing a giant check to the general contractor. We are told our project will break ground next week (Tuesday! Unless Tuesday means Wednesday…or, Thursday which it might).

We have made several last-minute changes to the drawings–all for the better. The range is now on the island, which will be better for me, as I can cook and face the room, instead of having my back turned.  We’ve added a prep sink in the island (aka Dashiell’s work sink) and a sink in the mudroom (aka Dashiell’s muddy hands sink). We’ve also added a wall microwave/speed oven/convection oven that will be at adult-height (see “speed oven” on drawings.

Since I last posted about the project, we also added the outdoor wooden trellis/arbor, which will have a transparent plastic covering on top, so we can be outside all year (and we plan to grow something like grapes to crawl nicely up and over this structure).

While it was scary to write that 20% retainer check, we are also getting very excited.  Up until yesterday, the architect was still asking if we were going to live in the house during the work. Ha! No, we’ll move into our other house across town (?!). Actually, the contractor says he plans to lay the foundation first, then build all the new walls, and join everything up last, so he predicts we’ll only be really roughing it for 6 weeks. Kitchen basement, here we come.  

Dashiell as David Johnston in the Reader’s Theater

For the Fall term, the whole of the school studied the earth sciences, with each classroom taking a specific section of study. D’s Loowit classroom (1st and 2nd graders) studied volcanos in a deep way, visiting Mt. Saint Helens twice, and studying all the mind-bending minutiae you can imagine about when and how volcanos erupt.

The goal of the Culminating Event is to present a term’s worth of knowledge to the student’s friends and family, though “beautiful work”–and how truly beautiful it was.

The program began with a “Reader’s Theater” where all the kiddos had a part to read. Dashiell had a starring role of David Johnston, the vulcanologist who lost his life warning Vancouver of the coming eruption, and the man for whom the Observatory is named. Pretty cool role, huh? He didn’t have many lines though (ha! Funnily enough, in last year’s Reader’s Theater, he played Amos Short, who also died…seeing a theme here). This is a somewhat long but very interesting piece that includes how the eruption changed the environment, affecting the animals and the soil, laying the foundation for a thriving crop of lupine.

Here is the Reader’s Theater:

Next up came a performance of the song “Rumble,” a hilarious and catchy diddy about the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens.

Then the real show began: reviewing work in the classroom. Where to start? First, the extended Loowit class (40 kids) reproduced the Cascade Range, in clay, to scale: each mountain! D worked on Mt. Jefferson. It was incredible to look through both ‘east’ and ‘west’ Loowit classrooms and the whole range in perspective (I don’t have a clear shot of the whole range in the slideshow below but hope you get the idea).  Then, in art class, each child made a ceramic volcano (D named his Mt. Kablewy). There was also a 2d rendering of the Cascade Range, and other related work. Enjoy this slideshow of all the “beautiful work.” 

This year’s music night theme was about the importance of character; this year we have had a few opportunities at school and at home to hone our extra-personal skills, work on appropriate words and, at times, discuss what we all could have done or handled better, in hindsight. 

Andy Fields, our interim head of school and longtime Gardner parent, put it beautifully when he introduced the evening. Here is a link to the full performance.

And here is an excerpt from the last ensemble piece (It Starts with Me) that I shot on my own camera, for a closer view.

When we were planning our big trip with Grandma Beverly and cousin Eva and Murphy to Walt Disney World (and Universal Studios, Orlando), I wasn’t sure how “magical” the Magic Kingdom would be for D. He’d never been a big Disney kid, and wasn’t even familiar with many of the classic characters. He’d seen Mickey Mouse Clubhouse a few times,  but it’d been awhile. Donald Duck? Who was he, again?

And how would it be for me, and Jeff? Would we relive the experience of our childhood visits, or would it all just seem gimmicky and expensive? For Jeff the WDW memories are directly tied to his traumatic experience with the neighbor’s dog at age 5 (he was wearing his WDW shirt, its bloodied image forever linked to the dog attack).

But still, we had Peter Pan to look forward to–and D knew the story of the boy from Neverland well, having been a cloud in last year’s school production of the play Peter and Wendy. 

Well it turns out I had it all wrong, and I learned this one Day 1, at Universal, when, after a tough morning of Harry Potter lines (and somewhat too scary attractions for D), we sought refuge in the “kiddie” area of Islands of Adventure, where D road the merry-go-round (twice!) with glee. Life slowed down and I remembered that although he is 7, he’s…well, 7. He doesn’t need a lot of sophisticated entertainment. We rode the gentle Dr. Seuess train/kiddie coaster, with its pastel colors and soothing voice-over, marveling at how we rode the tracks through a building.  And after that, D exclaimed, “Look! It’s Thing 1 and Thing 2” and was immediately star-struck.

Look at that smile! What a thrill to meet *the real* Cat in the Hat and his sidekicks.  Now, we were in the swing of things, and I was very relieved that I’d booked a character lunch later in the trip. Although I knew D knew there were humans under those costumes, somehow, in the heat of the day and after all that effort, it’s a relief to simply believe.

On our first day at the Magic Kingdom, we had a FastPass for an attraction that had to close during our reserved time. In return, we were granted 3 wishes. No, scratch that, that’s incorrect. See there I go slipping into life in FantasyLand. We were instead actually granted a visit with Mickey! 

Now as you know dear readers I did copious research for this trip, thanks to the colossally sized book Grandma Beverly sent. This book saved our bacon in several respects, but it also impressed upon me how utterly late in the game we were undertaking this epic journey. As it turns out those in the know book at least 6 months in advance, so that they may book the hotel and dining venues of their choice. This includes visits with characters, which are among the first things to be snatched up at exactly 12:00:01 am on the 180th day before you set your slippered foot in the Kingdom.

So it was indeed a great honor and a nice bit of luck that landed us in Mickey’s magic dressing room, for a 10-minute audience with the Mouse himself.

The next day, thanks to a helpful cast member (as all WDW employees are called), we secured a primo spot for the Magic Kindom parade (surprisingly good!).  More luck led me to be rolling at just the right time to capture what I think was me for a major highlight of the trip.

The leaves are beginning to fall from the trees; we’ve had our first work day on campus at school, and soups are starting to appear on the menu. Noses are starting to run, and sunsets are sneaking up sooner…and the deep work of rolling up our sleeves and making this addition happen has begun.

This is the first draft of Michael’s master plan for our kitchen/living room addition and “artist’s studio” over the garage. 

Some explanations!

To orient you: the driveway is on the bottom (south) of this drawing (we hope to pour come concrete here and/or add pavers). The scale of this drawing is 3/16″ = 1′ 0″. So for the math challenged among us (ahem, me), that means…uh, what it means is you need a special ruler to understand the scale. For reference note that the back wall of the new mudroom is 13′ wide. 

Yes! A mudroom! A desperately needed space that will fit 3 adults, with a place to sit down and remove wet and muddy gear. And a place to hang it up! We are toying with squeezing a washer and dryer here also. The door we have today will get moved, so you’ll no longer enter and nearly fall down the stairs. 

We’ll enter the house via the mudroom or from the new breezeway that will connect the garage and the house. This breezeway will be an arbor (with plexi above so you stay dry) that will eventually be covered in grape vines or other trellised plants. You can just make out that the path will be sloped downwards toward the west; our architect Michael surprised us with a footbridge that will give you access to the fence gate and the tower (!) that will take you up to the artist’s studio above the garage. The tower will be an enclosed spiral staircase, to take up as little room as possible, but also add character. I would have never thought of this myself and I think it is a really cool idea (not cool for moving furniture in, which will need to be done via a hoist system, Euro style).  

Anyway I’m getting ahead of myself, since we’ll most likely just be roughing in the artist’s studio in the short term (we’re calling it an artist’s studio to avoid permitting difficulties, but we’re planning this space being outfitted with a kitchenette and full bath). 

The kitchen! Bigger, with room for a full-size fridge! But also it will be anchored by a wall of windows and sliding glass doors that will bring in light all year round, and let us enjoy the yard (which is going to be re-landscaped to add drama and year-round foliage).  The new kitchen will lead into a new dining area, which will be more multi-purpose than just dining. This room will have a large table, facilitating our every-day activities. We plan on doing most of our living here: playing board games, rolling our dough for our baking challenges, spreading out books or fabric, doing homework and crafts…

It is admittedly ambitious, and most likely we’ll need to do the work in phases. We’ll be without a kitchen for 2 -3 months (I’m planning on making our basement the new kitchen), and it may be challenging to do the work in the winter. When our construction person heard me talking about using the basement as the kitchen,  she said, “Oh, so you plan on living in the house during the work.” Uh, yea. 

Here’s to channeling patience…

When I was young I spent many hours pouring over my parent’s vinyl collection, playing the records over and over, and reading all the liner notes.  I particularly remember Sgt Pepper, since the cover was so bright and interactive. I knew all the words to all the songs, and that was the beginning of my life-long love for music. I can’t imagine a better foundation than The Beatles; the Carpenters were also there, along with Randy Newman, and Elton John and Crosby Stills, Nash and Young (which I heard during long evenings spent at “the farm”–a family friends’ house), and no doubt other less luminary but nonetheless entertaining acts.

The record player at our house has finally been promoted from the basement to the living room, and so vinyl is spinning on a more regular basis at our house. I came upon a treasure trove of records recently at an antique shop, so I bought D his very own copies of Rubber Soul and Abbey Road.  I’ve taught him to put the needle on the record, and how to care for the records; how to hold them and put them back in their sleeves. He’s not very into it (yet?!), maybe because he expects music to come out of smart phones, not bookcase speakers. 

Me and Rubber Soul

For important releases that I know I will treasure for years to come, I buy vinyl (or put them on my amazon wishlist!). Even though my turntable is ancient and on the low end of the quality spectrum, and our speakers aren’t much better, I still love the sound.  My colleague and friend Adam has one of those high-end tube setups with fancy speakers and a special pickup–somehow I can’t see finding the extra cash for that…

Still, some records might be worth it, like the newest addition to the vinyl family, The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. This is a stunning remaster of some music that had previously only been available on cassette, and even then the cassettes were rare.  The music was recorded at the ashram in Los Angeles she founded, in the 1980s, and to me, it is stirring and wonderful. I remember when I first heard some of Alice Coltrane’s spiritual music, in the 1990s when I was living in LA, and it stopped me in my tracks (a huge thank you Tom Schnabel and KCRW).  It was my introduction to the world of spiritual jazz, and as I reflect on it now, I see it was my entry into the world of jazz, period. Before then I liked Bossanova (thanks to Grandma Edwards’ records, which I still play!), but I hadn’t really understood or cared for American jazz–I thought it was all Glenn Miller bebop and Louis Armstrong big band. Which was ok, but it didn’t really hook me.  This music did, and I then started to understand there was a whole movement–a whole genre: John Coltrane was the beginning. Then I learned about Pharoah Sanders, and I was a convert. 

When I was pregnant with Dashiell we went to see Pharoah Sanders perform in Portland, and I remember thinking: great, he can “get” this music from the beginning of his life. He won’t have to wait! But it turns out there was an even better way to hook him: Kamasi Washington, who is a John Coltrane for today–maybe even better; he gets people dancing–at jazz concerts! It just shows there are no boundaries for good music. As Louis Armstrong famously said:

There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind … the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it’s successful; if it doesn’t it has failed.

Dashiell started drum lessons with Jason this week. I think this is the perfect instrument for his wiggly body and kinesthetic learning style.  If you can feel the beat and keep the beat, that’s the foundation of everything. 

Today, he is exhausted from his first full week of school AND Julie’s birthday sleepover last night, which was owl themed. The owls did crafts like painting a ceramic owl, and made eye masks, which proved to be very useful today. On his 6-ish hours of sleep, D didn’t even make it until lunchtime. I put on the Alice Coltrane song I knew had made him sleepy once in the past, installed him on the couch, put the eye mask on, and crossed my fingers. It worked! He was out. 

You know how rare this is! We have Alice to thank for getting him to do some deep breathing, letting his little body drift off to sleep, his legs jerking around from overtiredness.  Here is the song, titled Keshava Murahara (“Victory to Lord Keshava”). 

Although Alice is known for her harp playing, which is astounding, this song features the Oberheim synthesizer, an instrument she was experimenting with at the time.  If you need to focus your mind, get relaxed, or just take a break from the world, give it a listen. I hope to make you a convert, too (meet me at the ashram for a long weekend of yoga and chanting, anyone? I could do with a spa break!)

For me, these “eastern” or “mystical” sounds never went out of style, but I’ll admit you have to be in the mood for them. I’m not the only fan still looking for solace in this music:  George Harrison’s sitar is going up for auction this weekend–the bidding starts at $50,000. 

As roughly told to D on the night of August 4, 2017

And look, there he goes!

Red, swirling, a cloud of glowing dust behind him. Glowing, sparkly dust. He’s out of the window now, weaving through the branches of the magnoila tree, and up, up, up he goes, into the cool night. He’s stretching out his long arms and getting more lift; the evening breeze is lifting him far and away from us, out of our grasp…

“Goodbye, 6! And hang on!” I call out the window, but he just laughs. He’s turning cartwheels, jumping, skipping and surfing now, the inivisble hands of the sky holding him aloft. Swoosh, he flies just above the ancient Douglas Fir treetops that line the riverbed. He passes by an eagle, who is settling into his top branch nest, tucking his wings in and pulling his head away from the crimson energy ball. 

Now his rocket booster pack kicks into full gear, and he looks like a shooting star, streaking away. First Camas, then Vancouver, then Portland appear in his rear-view mirror. Up and over farm lands, look at the tiny tractors below! Might there be a boy down there to play ball with, or race cars? No time to find out, because he’s got to report to HQ, and now he can smell the sea…

So, he turns to the west, pulled by the stars, and the tides, and the dolphins, chasing the tail of the last rays of this particular, perfect day. He is going back to where he first started. Remember? For he is salt and calcium, magnesium and potassium; he is electrons, photons and fission. He is part sun, part star; snowflake and raindrop; cummulus and lightening. He is the distilled essence of age 6.

See him now, flying lower and lower, skimming across the giant waves of the sea, like a gull looking for dinner? A humpback whale gives him a welcome with his massive tail fin. Splash! He keeps going though, deeper into the horizon. He reaches out for the very end of the sea, getting smaller and smaller. Then, the wide arms of his mother–the pale late sun–wrap around him, his fiery red glow mixing with blue of the sea, painting the sky in luminous violet and bright fuchsia.

And then he is gone. 

Look who’s 7 now!

To celebrate we partied at the North Clackamas Aquatic Park, enjoying their wave pool and water slides (although sadly some friends were not tall enough for the slides and that was a big bummer!) Still we enjoyed the day with our special friends and family. We were extra lucky since G’ma Beverly was with us!

More on this topic soon, once D is back in camp and my car is out of the shop and and and…