Lately I’ve had an influx of information on two topics, play and leadership. A curious pair, the two have coalesced at this time of year when I am hyper-aware of the fact that families are deciding if they will be able or want to continue sending their children to the Seed for another year. Especially . . . Read More
Wednesday morning we were graced by our annual visit from Elsie Moore. Elsie was a Seed parent and board member whose three sons are all Seed graduates. We have a long history. She’s come to the Seed every January for nearly thirty years to share her stories of growing up in rural Virginia during the . . . Read More
Purple cauliflower is nothing short of magical. I first discovered it in the San Juan Islands last summer at a farmers market. Since then I’ve cooked it, written about it and am privileged to be watching it grown in our backyard garden AND at the Seed. Purple cauliflower extended my thinking about the ability of . . . Read More
When I taught second grade in the 90s, one of my favorite parts of the curriculum was Friday projects. We worked hard all week on regular second grade content, then Friday afternoons moved us into another dimension. Our classroom had a vast supply of paper towel tubes, toilet paper rolls, masking and clear tape, wood, . . . Read More
On Friday night we will gather to celebrate the winter solstice. It’s the Seed’s way of bringing our diverse array of family traditions together to honor the season. The winter solstice has, for many years, been a sacred time for me personally. It’s the shortest day of the year, the one with the least amount . . . Read More
For the past six months or so, I’ve frequently stumbled upon heart-shaped items in nature. The most recent was a large drop of water on one of my cauliflower plants. I watered the garden to try to keep the soil moist, so the plants would be less susceptible to freezing, and noticed some large drops . . . Read More
It was a perfect amount of wind for our new gratitude flags. On our feast day they first hung on the fence near the playground entrance. Now they fly over Gwen’s Castle. Our feast day was blessed with delicious food, friendly families and wonderful weather. The flags added a colorful touch to an already cheerful . . . Read More
I’m a big fan of gratitude, which is what I usually write about this time of year. On Sunday night as I was cooking the huge pumpkin included with last week’s CSA produce, I decided what I really wanted to write about is interconnection. Somehow it seems to fit in with gratitude. First of all, . . . Read More
On Tuesday morning Danielle and I dropped off the Seed’s 2,361+ items at the Tanner Chapel food pantry in downtown Phoenix. We were greeted by a friendly man who remembered our school from years past and told us it has been a tough year for the pantry. Food supplies have been gravely low this season. . . . Read More
I doubt I’ll ever grow tired of teaching poetry. I’ve mentioned before how much I love working with the 3rd/4th graders each week. It’s the last thread that ties me to my classroom teaching days. It took me years to let go of the idea of being a teacher and each time I am with . . . Read More
Years ago, one of our Seeds who, as it turns out, is the parent of a current student, proposed at an all-school meeting that we start a Seed fishing club. An avid fisherman, he wanted to share his passion with anyone who cared to join in. It’s important to remember that this was also in . . . Read More
A few weeks ago I wrote about the value of play in children’s lives. The blog was focused around an article that indicated the importance of play for helping children gain social skills, develop curiosity and creativity, and practice what it will be like to take on various roles as a grown-up (https://www.awakeningseedschool.org/2013/09/let-the-children-play/). As a . . . Read More
Since early summer, preparations for this week have been underway. Our APA coordinators have been hustling up raffle prizes, printing tickets, ordering food, lining up bounce houses, posting messages on Facebook and asking parents to sign up for committee shifts. Monday afternoon’s activity level in the office confirmed what the calendar indicates, this Friday is . . . Read More
Most parents arriving at school on Wednesday morning were greeted by a group of community activists collecting signatures. The intention of the petition is to stop a huge project in the vicinity of the Seed that will involved heavy truck traffic. The project is right across the street from a school and has the potential . . . Read More
On Sunday a long awaited day arrived, planting day for our fall garden. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been pulling out dead sunflowers, removing persistent weeds and adding nutrients to the soil. I ordered heirloom seeds from a trustworthy company in Chino Valley and even managed to find purple cauliflower heirlooms from a . . . Read More
I happened to notice the latest issue of Time in a teacher’s mailbox this week. The cover photo of several young children in caps and gowns was for the main article on college grads of 2025. The authors focused on the type of education they believed would best prepare future grads for successful lives. There . . . Read More
One benefit of writing a weekly blog is the steady stream of links and articles people send in response to what I’ve written or what we’re doing at the Seed. This week was no exception. I received an article about the trash problem in Sweden; not too much trash, but a lack of sufficient trash . . . Read More
I’m proud of our Seed parents for keeping the trash down. Several days ago we collected the whole school’s lunch trash for the whole week. At the end of each day I went from room to room with a recycled grocery bag, filling it up with the wrappers and containers left over from the children’s . . . Read More
Our recent storms stirred up the skies. They brought much needed rains, playground mud, and a surplus of new weeds to extract from the garden. The storms brought cooler temperatures, extraordinary clouds and a hint that autumn is a possibility. Summer is becoming more of a memory every day. Life has felt stirred up in . . . Read More
As you can imagine, enthusiasm around food is quite high at the Seed this week. On Tuesday many of the classes were using the My Plate (http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids/) to identify different foods and sort them into the following categories: fruits, vegetables, proteins, carbohydrates and dairy. Four-year-olds used divided plates to place real beans, dried pasta, green . . . Read More
There’s a food revolution going on at the Seed and we haven’t even launched our nutrition curriculum. It’s been brewing for awhile and is now gaining momentum. During our prep week we reviewed the seedfood website (http://seedfood.awakeningseedschool.org), had a talk about GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and overnight the quality of staff nutrition improved. All that . . . Read More
In late July, Bill and I escaped the desert heat and spent nine days in the San Juan Islands. The islands are tucked between Victoria Island (Canada) and the northernmost part of the Washington state coast. There are different names for the coastal waterways surrounding the islands, and they are collectively called the Salish Sea. . . . Read More
As many of you will recall, last spring we had to cut down a whole collection of trees. They were mostly shoestring acacias that grew like weeds over the past ten years and became problematic in a variety of ways. The ones on 40th Street were constantly interfering with the electrical lines and SRP ended . . . Read More
On my way home from yoga Monday night I couldn’t help but notice the sky. It made me think how fortunate we are to live in the desert in the July to see sights like this. We go through a lot living here in the summer. There’s the heat, the humidity, the teaser storms that . . . Read More