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
Seasons are so different in the desert. While gardens in much of the country are thriving with the green moisture of summer, gardening here in July is quite a challenge. Tomato plants in the midwest are hanging heavily on the vines and we hardly have any on the meager vines in our home garden. I . . . Read More
I spent last week in northern Minnesota with my parents and granddaughter Emily. It was a restful week of days on the lake, a basement art studio, and numerous conversations about loons. Even with the concentration of humanity surrounding the lake, wildlife is everywhere. The loon’s nest just offshore from my parents’ cabin, was a . . . Read More
We don’t have any certified Zentangle® instructors at the Seed, although there is plenty of talent and creativity to fill in the gaps. Using available books, YouTube clips and ideas from each other, the staff has come up with several innovative ways to “tangle.” The kindergarteners started with small squares of paper with a line . . . Read More
This week I’ve spent the mornings teaching my annual kids’ yoga summer camp at Desert Song Healing Arts Center. It’s my sixth year of teaching the camp and although it’s a lot to juggle my work at the Seed with five mornings of kids’ yoga, I’ve managed to make it work. I choose to write about . . . Read More
Thirty-six years ago I gave birth to my second daughter, and six months later, a school. Astraea and Awakening Seed have been closely tied ever since. Her first year she spent most of her time swinging and smiling, learning to walk, and holding her own with all of the other much older preschoolers. One of . . . Read More
There are two additional high school graduation announcements on the alumni bulletin board, both sent by Seed classmates of Betty and Sami. Over the long weekend I was roaming around Facebook, checking out our alums as I occasionally do, and ran across a picture of each of them. Their stories called out to me. The . . . Read More
One by one, the elementary classes have dismantled their outdoor areas, stacking up bricks and other materials for summer storage. Most people don’t really understand the history created in these spaces. I was recently asked what function the outdoor classrooms serve, if learning went on or it was just for recess. I can’t remember my . . . Read More
On Mother’s Day weekend I traveled to Nebraska to visit my parents, family, and a few friends who have been long time characters in the story of my life. I spent a day in Lincoln, then ventured down the highway to Hebron, the town of just under 1,600, where I grew up. The trip had . . . Read More
Those who are around me for any amount of time would probably tell you I spend more hours than the average person thinking and talking about food. I’ve taken it on as a personal mission, and don’t plan on letting up any time soon. In the past week food has been in the forefront once . . . Read More
Especially this time of year I have to be mindful of not repeating myself. As the spring season comes into full bloom, it’s hard not to write about the lovely sunflowers, the growing band of hollyhocks, or the doves again building their nest in unusual places, this year on the light fixture by the main . . . Read More
I found another reason to be proud of the Seed this week, we celebrate Earth Day. At a time when the planet needs informed citizens more than ever, I was disheartened to learn during my Tuesday kids’ yoga class that, of my four students, only one had done anything at school to celebrate Earth Day. . . . Read More
Lately I’ve admittedly been obsessed with a collage artist named Donna Downey. She is entertaining, funny and one of the most creative artists I’ve ever experienced. I love her process and the way she uses whatever she has for her weekly Inspiration Wednesday video demonstrations (www.donnadowney.com). I realized this past week how much her process . . . Read More
On Tuesday I finally carved out a day to work away from school to attempt to catch up on the many items I never seem to get to on a given day. I had my list ready, coverage was in place, and I looked forward to an uninterrupted chunk of time. By 9:30 I had . . . Read More
I know I just wrote about compost a few weeks ago, but I can’t help myself. The compost in our back yard has truly taken on a life of its own. The way we handle compost at home is we dig a hole and toss the scraps in. Occasionally we’ll throw some dirt on top . . . Read More