Category Archives: Education

Learn and play at Zenger Farm in Portland

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Here in Portland there are a ton of ways to get kids out and involved in the land around them. Even our Max riding city kids are only a short bike ride away from forests, rivers, and working farms. Zenger Farm is a working urban farm that models, promotes and educates about sustainable food systems, environmental stewardship, community development and access to good food for all. Through out the spring and summer there are Friday work parties where you can get kids into the dirt and learning where their food comes from, how it is produced, and what we can do to help that process. There are other events happening soon that you can check out here, including the opening of their farm stand on June 14th.

The events we are looking forward to are the Summer camps starting June 24th. These week-long themed camps are a great way to get kids some intensive time on the farm having fun while learning. I also think it might be a way for the farm to get some free labor out of the deal but that is all hush-hush.

He writes adventure on his chest

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wild_man_henry

Segundo has a clothes problem at preschool. This manifests itself in a number of ways from getting his regular clothes wet or dirty, to struggling with his pants during emergencies. Lately he has managed to keep most of the clothes on that he shows up to school in. Most but not all. When I show up at 3 to pick him up he is usually missing his shirt and socks. “I get hot daddy, and I need to get some freeze on me!” His teachers have been keeping track of when his shirt comes off and the nicer the day the earlier it happens. Here is one of the many reasons I love Trillium Preschool, their willingness to let Segundo be himself. They make sure he is safe but allow tons of space for him to navigate safety and danger on his own terms.

Yesterday when I rounded the corner into the school grounds I could see in the window of the preschool where the kids were getting one last story before heading home. there was Segundo in his bright yellow pants, no shirt, no socks, and covered in dirt. His pants were rolled up just below his knee and he looked like some hipster hillbilly wild man. A modern-day lord of the flies in skinny jeans. I just smiled as I walked past to pick Primo up first. I knew that this was a great day, that there was a story written in all that dirt on his chest and back. I knew I would get versions from each of the teachers and some impromptu reenactment  from Segundo and his friends. He is the Oscar to Primo’s Felix and I am so thankful that he has the space to himself.

Monitoring the chaos

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The sound is what you notice first, well that and the cold but we’ll come back to the cold. The sound, a cacophony of noise that ebbs and flows to seemingly random rhythm. There is a din of activity and yelling that is punctuated by high pitch screams and almost constant movement. I watched a couple of kindergartener re-enact the entire dance from the Gangnam Style video, and do a pretty great job too. Some of the hip thrusting was troubling but both boys had better dance moves than I ever managed. There was also a group of girls lineup in rows like a choir singing pop songs in harmony. They had printed out lyrics and while I recognized the songs I couldn’t tell if they had changes the words or not. They sounded lovely when I could make out the tune through the screams.

Kids pulsed through the space like one big living organism with comets shooting out of the central mass. I watched, taking my new job as recess monitor very seriously. For the next two weeks I will be on the playground monitoring the situation. Mediating conflict, keeping kids safe, giving the teachers a break. That’s my job, well that and bathroom, drinking fountain and coat monitor. That is actually the job I do, answer requests for one of the those three things on a constant basis. It’s like one of those SAT questions, or the count in the Black jack. I expect the principal to come up to me and ask how many kids are in the school at any given time and I will need to give him the count.

I enjoyed my first day but quickly realized that I need a few more layers of clothes to stand out in the cold. The kids are running around like crazy but I’m manning a specific zone most of the time and the gloves and hoodie were not sufficient to keep the cold at bay. Hours later as I type this my fingers are still cold. I will bundle up and get back out there in the chaos and beauty of grade school recess, but I need to check on that taser I was promised!

The Art of Baking Cookies

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A Post by Beautiful -

Our boys are at an age where they are becoming exponentially more capable. They can make their own toast in the morning and bring a borrowed pan back to the neighbor’s house, they order their dinner at restaurants and can wink and say words like “dehydrated” or “dramatic” or “cattywompas” in a sentence correctly. I mostly feel like they could do anything and that James and I are merely observers to their ever-growing independence, occasionally reaching something out of their range or explaining the way something works, but mostly just supervising.

There are still a few things that my boys cannot do, though. Things that require patience and a certain art that comes from practice. This weekend I called my mom for her sugar cookie recipe and assembled the ingredients with the boys as my assistants. They added teaspoons of baking soda and vanilla and dumped cups full of flour into the bowl with careful precision. But then we rolled the cookies out on the dining room table and the boys pummeled their ball of dough, adding more and more flour until the cookie cutter-ed result on the baking sheet had the consistency of dried paper mache. I tried to guide the use of flour and explain that the cookies tasted better when the dough is soft. This had little effect.

I scooped a large hunk of dough out onto the floured table, rapidly rolled it out into a thick slab and cut cookies from the still soft dough.  I outpaced them with my cookies. As I did this, the memory of my mom doing this exact thing came to me. She would fill two pans with circle-shaped cookies cut with the rim of an inverted juice glass while we labored over a few intricate reindeer and angels. She let us participate and enjoy it while she knocked out the cookies we would eat later. We learned to make better, softer cookies as we grew up. I’m glad there are things that we learn this way. I’m glad everything doesn’t come from information or from ability. Some things come from a family recipe, and a feel for the dough and a mom who shows you the art of it until you know it yourself.

Science and Arts and Crafts oh my!

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The creation of Mt TalaboWe have made the obligatory paper mache volcano as every good first grade family does. This was Mt. St. Talabo, an active Cone Volcano on a small island in the Pacific ocean. That mountain exists only in Primo’s mind and is closely based on Mt. St. Helens, pre-eruption of course. We sat down and sketched out what the volcano looked like and talked about where most volcanos are located. Primo wanted to make a mountain that would actually blow its top but we negotiated him down to baking soda and vinegar with dish soap and red food coloring for effect. It was still an awesome scene and there was much fun and learning for the whole family.

 

Teaching our kids the importance of Volunteering

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Volunteering youngLast Saturday morning Primo and I waded out into the cold rain to do some clean up work in the flag cages at Jeld-Wen field. Volunteering in and around our community is important to me and Beautiful and it is something we want to instill in our kids. While the work is hard, have you tried carrying armloads of gear up and down stadium steps, there is benefit to working at the stadium. We got to walk on the field and see the how much wider the pitch will be for the new season. We went deep into the bowels of the Jelly to track down bins and carts to move some materials to the Fanladen. Plus we got to hang out in the Fanladen and play foosball while waiting for more flags to be delivered.

Primo was a great worker for our three-hour shift and got right in there to help without needing to be told what to do.  Because volunteer hours are tracked in the Timber’s Army he is now in the President’s Volunteer Service Award database. He also has some experience with Friends Of Trees, Village Building Convergence, and AC Portland so he’s getting a good Portland resume. Where do you and your family like to volunteer?

 

Falling in love with the Beautiful Game

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Primo and his Scottish Coach

It has been a busy summer and I have been negligent in documenting the highs and lows and goings on of our family. For the last two weeks the boys have been away with their grandparents, first with my parent at soccer camp and then with Beautiful’s parents in an RV from Seattle to Indiana. We have been kidless in Portland and living it up like we did while dating in Santa Barbara. There are stories to share and thoughts to expound on in good time but first this one:

Primo has become pretty consumed with soccer this summer starting with a day camp at the local community center with friends. He loved the four hours a day learning the game and fair play and after the camp was over he wanted to play soccer all day. A couple of weeks ago he had the chance to attend an intense all week soccer camp in my parents home town. There were coaches from all over the world and kids aged 6 to 16 participating all day for five days. A couple of the coaches were staying with my parents as well so Primo tried to get them to play even after a full day of learning, running, and tackling. Boy did he love tackling. After the first day he was called up for recognition for being one of the campers of the day. The camp was tied into my parents church and he learned his memory verses after a couple of days as well.

On the last day of camp we all got the chance to see him play and since he was heading out on the epic RV trip across half the country the next day all of his grandparents and two cousins were there to cheer him on. First they had skill competitions to see who had the best shot and which kid could get through the obstacles while dribbling the ball. It was during this skill portion where we saw a glimpse into Primo’s development during the week. There was a penalty shoot out to see who the best goal scorer was and some kids volunteered to be goalies. Primo was the third kid to step into the net, each getting five shots before making way for the next keeper. The kids that made their shot went to one side and those that didn’t went to the other as they weeded out the misses one by one. The first two keepers blocked a shot here and there but mostly the kids went through to the made line to continue the competition. Primo stepped into the box and proceeded to block four of five shoots, with one kick save that had the crowd gasping. The next time his turn came up there were only six kids left to shoot and he blocked the shots of the first five before walking to the side to give another kid a chance. After some discussion it was ruled that he had to get back in the box because it wouldn’t be fair for the five kids he stone-walled if the other kid didn’t face him. Oh did I mention Primo was the smallest and youngest kid there? He turned six weeks before this camp and so just made the cut off. The last kid scored and was ruled the winner, and Primo gave him a hug and told him good job.

After the skills portion the teams gathered and they had a mini tournament to crown the best teams in each division. Primo’s division was kids aged 6-9 and they moved around to each position giving the kids a chance to play all over the field. Primo’s team was not very good and they lost all four of their games but damned if they didn’t have fun. Their Scottish coach was hilarious to hear on the sideline imploring some of the kids to stop picking flowers and move to the ball. There were two games where Primo was in the goal and a couple of moments where I could not believe what I was seeing. In one game the other team had a big 9-year-old girl who had grown much bigger than the rest of the kids her age and as she was on a break away towards Primo in the goal she hit the ball a little far ahead of her and he came charging out of the goal to smother the ball just as she was about to shoot. She tripped over him and popped up and tried to kick the ball away. I thought for sure he was going to end up bleeding or at least crying. Another time he took a ball to the face on a powerful shot from a kid that was pretty good. Primo’s head snapped back from the impact and then he looked around for the ball, cleared it away, and then crouched down ready for the next shot. His coach yelled “alright Primo? you’re a legend son!” When he wasn’t in-goal he was tackling the ball away from kids much bigger and more skilled than him. He was called for a foul on one tackle where he slid in and took the ball cleanly sending the other kid flying. In any other game it was a good hard tackle but was understandably a foul at this age group.

All summer he had talked about taking shots and scoring goals but at this camp he had learned defense and had fallen in love with stopping others. He told me his favorite part was tackling blocking and I told him I was proud of him. When the games were over they had lost four and won none but they were happy and proud. They handed out awards for the skills competition and medals for the winning teams. One of the last awards they had was an unannounced award that they had been watching for all week. They had a trophy for the best goal keepers in each division and the first person they called was Primo. Shocked he ran up to the stage and grabbed his trophy as we all cheered like crazy. His smile could be seen from space it was so big.

Primo getting his trophy

Later we talked about the camp and he told me all about his trophy. He said it was because he was the best goalie on his team, and I told him no, it was because he was the best goalie on any of the teams in his division. Of all the kids 6 to 9 he was the best. I was so proud of him, not for winning an award or being the best, I was proud of him for all of the coaches that came up to me that day and told me what a joy it was to have Primo there. He jumped right in on the first day and didn’t come up for air until the end. I was told about how he encouraged other kids and never got frustrated at losing. I was told how volunteered to sit out so others could play in a big game even though his coach would rather have him stay in-goal. I was proud at how hard he worked at every aspect of the camp and seeing his face at the end nearly brought me to tears.