My nine-year-old came home with a project from his gifted services teacher last month linked to Art History Month. He was asked to select an artist, musician or playwright whose work has stood the test of time and determine which of the Habits of Mind this person demonstrated.

My son selected Vincent Van Gogh, probably because the art teacher at my son’s school had delivered a great lesson on Van Gogh recently. We got books from the library, found websites, and my son started taking notes in Inspiration.

After a while, he thought that one of the habits of mind that Van Gogh demonstrated was “Listening with Empathy and Understanding,” because of his compassion for the poor. He consulted with his art teacher, who suggested that “Determination” would be another hallmark of this artist. Another online connection through a professional learning network (an art teacher who is a friend’s mother) suggested that Van Gogh’s experimentation with color might demonstrate “Creating, Imagining, and Innovating.”

My son browsed online galleries, collected the paintings that he thought best represented each of these Habits of Mind, and began assembling his tri-fold board. I think he did a nice job on it.

Somewhere in the process, he asked me if we could do something using some of the technology that I use every day with students in the district where I teach. I wasn’t sure what that would look like, but he collected the paintings in a folder on our computer, and started keying in some notes about what he wanted to say about each one. He really liked the idea of using the green screen effect and the Alpha Tool in Keynote, so we assembled the project there.

I was really proud of him for learning so quickly how to import, crop and edit photos in iPhoto, export them to Keynote, layer the photos after removing the green, and then resize himself appropriately for the paintings. It reminds me a bit of the book Katie’s Picture Show.

He then set to work writing his own scripts for each slide. He rehearsed them and recorded them (patiently, as I had not done that before, and we kept making mistakes.) Then he happily ran off to play while I worked on exporting the Keynote to a QuickTime movie so that his school could show it.

But then disaster struck. The exported version made all the timings go wrong. So we re-recorded the audio and re-exported it. It was even worse than the first one. Suggestions from my online PLN came in, and we opted to try to reconstruct the whole thing using Audacity, GarageBand and iMovie. So that meant having to re-record the audio AGAIN.

He got most of it done Sunday night, but was just too tired. So get this — he got up at 5:45am on Monday morning to record the last four audio clips before I went to work. THAT’S dedication.

Anyway, it took a little tweaking and editing, but he completed it. He added some cool transitions. (Gotta love iMovie for those!) And he selected the parts of Don McClean’s song that he wanted. I’m proud of him for wanting to do something different, something 21st century and beyond the trifold board. I’m proud of him for recording all of the narrations three times. And I’m really proud of him for all of the tech learning he’s done in the last week.

So proudly, proudly, I share with you…his presentation.

Please leave your comments for him here or on the fliggo site.

(Cross-posted at Onionskin)

I’ll spare you the excuses about why I haven’t posted in months. (Gulp.) There are plenty of you out there who work full time and parent full time, too — and still manage to commit regular blocks of time to blogging. I admire you, and I wish I had your dedication. Somehow, my dedication gets spread around too thinly to other things. Ah well.

For the past several months, I’ve been working on a project with my 15 year old son, Alex, who is a gifted pianist.

His newest CD, Christmas Keyz, is now available for purchase on Amazon.

As you can imagine, there is much to tell about this. I tend to get wrapped up in the details of how long he’s been playing (11 years), the contests he’s entered and won (another post someday), and the remarkable paths he has ventured down that have each contributed to his musicianship, performance abilities, and altruistic maturity.

But what really matters is that he’s accomplished something unique, something beautiful, and something that brings joy to other people.  He stands a little taller these days, and that’s a sight that makes any mother’s heart nearly brim over.

This holiday season, Alex will take his music to a number of community events, including the local library’s “Visit with Santa” and a local elementary school’s “Santa Shop.” But his favorite audiences are the ones he’s been playing for since last June — the residents of a few retirement centers. He most enjoys playing for “the regulars” who gather to hear him play, who grasp his hands and look him deep in the eye as they thank him for bringing his music again, who cajole and tease him and press candies into his palm with a sidelong glance at mom.

You can check out clips of his music on his website at The Music is Key. (His site, BTW, was designed by fellow TMG Blogger, Rachael Cahours Acklin. LOVE her work.) You can watch him play his original arrangement, “Noel the First” from that site or on YouTube and Facebook. His MySpace page has a complete MP3 file of another of his original arrangements, “Away in a Manger”.

Alex is currently in discussions with a number of charities. We hope to have a special promotion sealed in the first week of December. For now, he’s watching sales closely, hoping that they edge up to the point where he can recover production costs on the CDs, website design, and marketing. He hopes to make enough to be able to fund his next two projects, a CD of his original compositions and a CD of his favorite anime themes (hauntingly beautiful works from various scenes in lesser-known video games).

I couldn’t be more proud of him. I hope you’ll stop by his website and read a little more about him. I hope you’ll consider purchasing a CD or two — as a proponent of the arts, as a supporter of young enterpreneurship, and/or as a voice of approval to a teenage volunteer musician giving back to the greater community. Thanks — and Merry Christmas.

After my first official day of work at my new job, I picked up my 8 year old from his first day of school. He attends an after school childcare program on site, and there were new forms and procedures to go over, so it wasn’t exactly the “Hallmark moment” that it should have been. (I did make a mental note to thank my husband for following through on the agreed-upon attire, as I glanced at his favorite new shirt and shorts,  white socks and and gleaming white tennis shoes.)

I gave him a quick squeeze and we headed out the door. As we crossed the parking lot to the van, I said, “So? Tell me all about it! How was your first day, buddy?”

“It was the worst day of my life. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Well. There’s a reply that you just don’t want to hear on the first day of school. Now, granted, my son DOES take a while to “warm up” to new teachers. Every year, from kindergarten through first and second grades, he has NOT liked his teacher until some time after the second or third week. I guess he just takes a while to figure them out, but it’s smooth sailing after that. So, as we separated to get into our respective sides of our minivan, I took a deep breath and braced myself for the disappointment.

“What happened?” (I’d forgotten how hard it is to hug your child across the van console, Rather unsatisfying.)

“Well, first of all, [the after school program that's just been taken over by our park district] is really dumb and boring. There’s nothing to do! And no one would play with me. Jeffrey and Sebastian just wanted to play with the LEGOs the whole time, and we didn’t even get to go outside to the playground!”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry. That’s tough ~ when your friends want to do something that you don’t want to do. What did you do in your classroom today?”

“Mostly just practiced taking out and putting away our new supplies. I don’t understand why we had to do that, since we took all of our supplies up to school and put them all away the other night!” (Well, frankly, neither do I… and that DOES sound rather boring.)

“Did your teacher read you a story today?” (No.)

“Did you go to music class? I think the schedule said you have music on Thursdays.” (Really stretching to find something positive now…)

“Yes, but we didn’t do any music today. They just talked about rules.” (Wow. In music class? How many rules can there be? Surely not 40 minutes worth!)

“Hm. I’m sorry, honey. I hoped you’d had a great day. I thought about you all day.”

“Yeah. It was awful. And even at lunch recess, not one would play with me. I was playing with William and Angel, but then they decided to go play with Nathan. Yuck! So I was bored, even then.”

“Well, why don’t you grab a snack and go pet Cooper for a little while. Maybe you’ll feel better in a little bit. I think Alex might be up for playing some computer games with you before dinner. OK?”

I was having a hard time figuring out how to deal with this, honestly. As a teacher, I work really hard to make each child know that I’m glad they are in my class, that I care about them, and that we’re going to have a lot of fun learning together. And while I recognize the need for some structure and high expectations, I don’t waste time on the first day going over these things. I model the behaviors as they come up throughout the year. I’d much rather spend the first day getting to know my students and letting them get a glimpse of who I am. Still, we are all different. Every teacher approaches these things differently. And, wearing the two hats of parent and teacher means that you consider carefully - much more carefully - whether each problem is worthy of contacting the teacher. It is SO easy to take the wrong path and become over-involved in your child’s school experience too early, putting a perfectly good teacher on the defense and ruining the potential for a perfectly good relationship for the rest of the year.

But… “the worst day of my life”? On the first day of school? I wanted to cry.

Later, as the boys settled into a brotherly bonding over a good game of “Age of Mythology,” I gave my oldest an appreciative shoulder-pat. He returned a knowing smile. I gave my youngest a quick shoulder-squeeze and as my cheek brushed his, the heat was alarming.

I put my hand on his forehead and said, “Honey, you’re burning up!” He turned toward me, and I caught the tell-tale flush and slightly duller eyes. I took out the ear thermometer. Seconds later, the numbers told the story ~ 101.6° F.

So, on my second day of my new job, I took a sick day. (Wow, way to start the year off with first impressions!)

Yet, I hope that the sacrifice of an extra day at home makes him less susceptible to the viruses next week. More importantly, I hope that the fact that he was feeling poorly had a distinct effect on his ability to assess the worthiness of his first day. But mostly, I hope that when he returns to school, he’ll have a warm and caring welcome back, and that his next days in third grade will not be quite so horrendous in his mind.

I’m so torn over this. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Image: http://wordle.net/

Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – now as an “Engaged Learning Speciliast,” and previously as a Technology Coordinator for a special education co-op, as a learning facilitator in a large district that implemented a one-to-one laptop initiative for all students in grades 3-6, as a consultant and presenter, and most recently as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

There is something intrinsically rewarding about letting your child “loose” in a well-constructed children’s museum. By “well-constructed” I mean thoughtfully designed, well-maintained and frequently updated.

If you’re lucky, you have a community nearby that considers a “children’s museum” to be a worthwhile and rewarding interest to support. We have a half dozen of these places within an hour’s drive ~ yet only two of them fit all of those three criteria I mention above, and so we don’t go to the other three any longer.

Nearly all of them were well-designed. On conception, the displays were bright, interactive, childproof and interest-friendly to all ages. Bright primary colors, tot-level tables of plastics and light displays and magnets and craft materials abounded. Huge interactive displays were everywhere - the walls of “pins” where you can make your handprint, bubbles that encompass a child’s body, fantastic water tables with PVC pipes for kids to make fountains and sail small watercraft.

Some of them were well-maintained. The one in my hometown, which I desperately wanted to become my kids’ favorite, fell short because interactive displays didn’t work — month after month, visit after visit. How much teaching/learning or FUN takes place at an electromagnetic display that is “dead” ~ all the time?

One or two were not only carefully designed and well cared for, but also frequently updated. Season after season, half (or more) of the displays were renewed in topic or materials, so every venture there has been a new experience. (As a teacher, I understand the value of repetition, as well as the value of some die-hard basics, like the wind tunnel or water table. However, if all of the displays are the same, you have ~ as a parent ~ maybe 3.5 years of visits there before your kids begin to wonder if there isn’t something more to life.)

This morning, we were pleasantly surprised to find that all three elements were in place at DuPage Children’s Museum. When we arrived about 30 minutes after they opened, the place was busy but not unbearable. Two of us (moms) watched four kids aged 4-8 play in a really large area that had tons of stations or displays, but we rarely had to take more than one or two steps to see the wandering fourth child. Great visibility is a key in places like this, if you really want to encourage kids to “explore” within a (somewhat) enclosed area.

As the day progressed, we were challenged by more and more school field trip and park district camps arriving en masse. It became much harder for our kids to “get a turn” at popular displays. Yet, none of them complained ~ they just moved on to another area, because there was so much to explore!

As we neared the noon hour, the place was literally wall-to-wall with kids and caregivers. It was suffocating, and very little interaction was possible with the displays; each child spent more time navigating the social maze required to get to the displays.

Kudos to those who make decisions and make change happen for Dupage Children’s Museum. Kudos to the employees there, all friendly and approachable and helpful.

If you have such a wonderful children’s museum in your area, please leave a comment about it here. If not, perhaps you’ll consider a daytrip or overnighter to a location near you!

Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – as a district administrator, a learning facilitator, a consultant, and as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

I spent the day yesterday with my youngest son and his new buddy.

Actually, my son has been friends with him for a while, but I’d not yet met this particular little guy until a few weeks ago. The summer has provided a nice opportunity for us to invite classmates over and get to know them better before third grade next fall.

After the obligatory hour on the computers, and after a little backyard play, they were ready for something different. We headed to a favorite local spot in town, where I hoped the boys would get “pulled in” to ordinary boy activities - and I packed my book (Brain Rules).

First stop was the creek. The boys ate lunch on the bank and were not even finished eating before the lure of nature called them to do what boys do - wade and try to catch the streamlife beneath the surface.

Eventually, they decided that they’d throw a few poles in the water, and my guy caught his first fish. (Really his second, but the first was at a trout farm, so I’m not counting that one…) Bait of choice? A small pinch of leftover bean burrito. Snapped the photo and threw that tiny little guy back in the pond.

The boys returned to exploring the stream, and I went back to reading Medina. Somewhere in the middle of the chapter on Attention, they decided that feeding the ducks and swans across the pond would be more fun. We packed up everything and trotted to the other side of the pond to feed the waterfowl some wonderful stale white bread.

The boys climbed on our favorite landscape art, and then moved on to walking along the “logs” which are really trees that just grow horizontal trunks. Always good for great photo opps.

I guess I was happiest at the end of the day that this was a somewhat “wholesome” and “boyish” day for these two kids. They did the things I think that boys are supposed to do during the summer. And best of all, no one said - ever, not even once - that they were bored.

I’d call that a great summer day.

Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – as a district administrator, a learning facilitator, a consultant, and as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

Want to do something really cool with your kids tonight, something totally unforgettable — for free?!?

Head out to your favorite spot where you can see the WHOLE sky, and watch the sunset and tonight’s incredible moonrise at the same time. It’s a solstice moon — for the next three days — which means it’s going to look REALLY big!

Here’s the scientific explanation from NASA, in case you have inquisitive minds old enough to understand it.

Oh, doesn’t it remind you of that scene in Moonstruck? You know, the scene with the old couple in the bedroom? He says,

“I never told you this cause it’s not really a story. But one time I woke up in the middle of the night cause this bright light was in my face. Like a flashlight. I couldn’t think of what it was. I looked out the window, and it was the moon! Big as a house! I’ve never seen the moon so big before or since. I was almost scared, like it was gonna crush the house.”

OK, I’m grabbing my Moonpies and a Blue Moon for the event — and my MP3 player with Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore”!

Photo credit: CMG Measure It

Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – as a district administrator, a learning facilitator, a consultant, and as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

OK, I’ll keep this short. (Really, I’ll try.)

I just got an e-mail that made me shout out loud, “YESSSS!”

Greetings!

Many of you have heard the terrible news about Lake Delton…

Baker’s Sunset Bay did NOT incur any damage. We are open for business! Our pools are all open, the bonfire is going each evening and our beach is HUGE! The view is really not that bad. It’s very different but not terrible. We encourage you to keep your reservations. If you keep your room reservations, we can offer you a 15% discount for this summer.

In addition this discount, many of our area attractions are offering a 50% discount to visitors that support the lake resorts and hotels. We are so grateful to these wonderful attractions that are offering this savings to our guests…

We have heard many stories about when they will be able to fix the lake and it seems like they are hoping to have the breach fixed and water back in the lake by September.

We wish we had better news for you.

If you do need to cancel, we will understand, but there are so many things to do here at Sunset Bay. The lake is just one of our many amenities.

If you read this previous post by me, you know how much this means to me. I’m so excited!

Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – as a district administrator, a learning facilitator, a consultant, and as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

Today’s post has me a bit melancholy, in a bittersweet achy sort of way. This photo is one of my favorites of my boys. It represents the random and few times we have called everything to a screeching halt in our family of two parents working three full-time jobs and managing two boys’ school and extracurricular lives. It represents our time to disconnect from the crazy life we call normal, pack up the van, drive north away from the suburbs, and land at our favorite place to reconnect to each other.

The lake behind the boys is Lake Delton, and the beach they are combing is part of the property of Baker’s Sunset Bay Resort in the Wisconsin Dells.

I’ve been watching the news on this since Kate sent out a Twitter alert about it yesterday. I’ve studied the maps and discussed the situation with other Wisconsin vacationers we know. And it is… Just. Surreal.

It reminds me vaguely of the story of the Johnstown PA flood, one of the first books I ever read aloud with one of my very first classes twenty-odd years ago. I know that the causes were different, but the images of the flood are burned in my mind, the rushing water, the flotsam of every imaginable type. And the suddenness of it overwhelms me — some reports are that the entire lake drained in 45 minutes.

In my dismay over the past 24 hours, I admit that I have tried to call Sunset Bay, and the call doesn’t ever go through. Some of the news reports say that phone and electricity is being restored slowly in some areas. I’ve heard radio interviews of other resort owners up there, and they say they didn’t have flood insurance and were actually discouraged from getting it. They’ve lost everything, and reservations are being canceled every time they answer their phone.

I guess the reason that this feels personal is the fact that we are REALLY treated like family when we visit. We ask for and get the lakefront first-floor rooms we love. (We love being able to open the door and let the kids just go. No stairs to deal with, no lugging things back and forth. You’re already there.) This is a family business, passed down from the previous generation, and the daughters have worked hard to keep the place up and make important improvements. Sunset Bay is located “on the quiet side” of the lake, as far from the “strip” — so you can avoid the commercial world when you want, but it’s still within reason to head over there for a favorite place or two.

But my favorite thing about Sunset Bay is one tiny detail that makes all the difference in the world to me. Every morning, at the earliest light, you can look out onto the beach and see a few small figures and a few tall ones. The little ones squat down and reach into the sand and then jump up and shriek with glee, running over to share something with a bleary-eyed parent holding a styrofoam cup of coffee. Because every night, one of the employees heads out into the darkness along the water’s edge, and scatters thousands of shells for tots to find the next day. These are sand dollars and conch and starfish sort of shells. Those don’t come out of that lake. Surely Sunset Bay must have one very sweet wholesale connection with some shell company in Florida. A strange practice, but one to which they are committed; we’ve been staying there for five years, both peak and off-season, and they’ve never missed once.

I can’t begin to tell you what an impression that made on me. I don’t know how long ago this precious idea crossed the mind of one of the owners. But I do know that his daughters continue it today, and religiously. That gives me goosebumps.

It’s not advertised, it’s not something that even every visitor to Sunset Bay knows. It’s sort of an underground thing. Returning guests tell the new families, and it just sort of perpetuates.

I guess that, I hope is the theme this summer. The community will work to pull itself up by its bootstraps. Maybe some of the big-name resorts will chip in financially. We hadn’t made our reservations for the season yet — sort of waiting on my job situation — but we planned a long weekend at some point. I hope we can still do that. I hope Sunset Bay pulls through. I hope the regular visitors “tough it out” with the owners for this season. I hope that the little things — like being quietly reliable, both as a resort owner and as a guest — can perpetuate. Sort of like the silent delivery of the seashells in the night.