Art Moves Redmond

Art Moves

Here in small-town Redmond people are prone to expressing themselves in all sorts of ways.  Most of the adult flag-waving and social media posting creates conflict, while teens feel free to passively flaunt their creativity through clothes and hair. There are plenty of bumper stickers and signs that point the way to political opinion or social change.  It's a confusing time.  The City of Redmond has managed to take on the mammoth challenge of self-expression with an Art Council that actually inspires art.  

The Dry Canyon is a four mile stretch of mixed use areas including ball fields, playgrounds and bike trails.  Where the paved trail runs under Highland Avenue (Highway 126) there is a very special art installation.

Moth and Octopus

This pedestrian tunnel used to boast some of the worst graffiti in town.  After years of beautiful mural paintings being desecrated, then painted over, then tagged again, the Art Council finally decided to let the public have their way with it.  They painted the entire tunnel gray and put this message in a small space near one of the entrances: 

Authorized area for original street art

All are welcome to paint.

Only paint on interior tunnel walls/ceiling.

Please dispose of trash.

No profanity, tags, advertisements or political artwork.

Keep it clean - this area to be enjoyed by all.

Elephant Tusk

At first there was a lot of gang tagging, inappropriate language and sloppy spray painting, but slowly over time the most thoughtful creations are left alone and seem to multiply.  Some are anonymous and some are signed.  Professional artistry mixes with young effort and creative explosion. Of course there is still occasional graffiti or inappropriate art, but anything that goes against the guidelines is quickly covered with gray paint by city employee fairies with paintbrushes who seemingly come in the night and create space for new art in its stead.  We've seen some beautiful work, of which these are only a few.  The beauty of the art installation lies in it's fragility.  You never know day to day what will appear.  Someday, I'm hoping (or planning?) someone will paint the ceiling black and starry or maybe with a Michaelangelo-type mural. Have I painted in the tunnel, you ask?  Have you?  

Raven

News from the Mud Kitchen Cafe

A few years ago I was dying to ditch the old plastic kitchen set that lived in our back yard.  I knew my girls would love a place to cook (we are foodies, after all) so I built them a mud kitchen (thank you, Pinterest).  We used the existing fence to hang a few crates and shelves and put a pallet down for a floor.  From there it has evolved.

Mud Kitchen Cafe- 2015

I am really surprised how long this little place has survived.  The neighbor's tree provides shade and the girls do the rest.  Grace especially gets a lot of joy out of puttering around out here.  I hope someday she lets her sister cook.

Girls sharing their cafe- 2015

Grace is the chef and Rain is her hostess/server/dishwasher.  They share creative influence in the project.  The menu rotates seasonally and current offerings include fresh raspberry leaf tea, chive and rock stew, marinated mushrooms (rocks) and an amazing mud pie.  The girls have learned a lot about collaboration, kitchen management (time and materials, mostly) and customer service.  All while playing outside!

Mud Kitchen Cafe 2017

This is the kitchen, today, heading into its third summer.  Daddy and I like to sit out here in the evenings with the girls sipping on beer and ordering amazing food from their little kitchen.  I wish they made real food- I bet it would be awesome.  Soon they'll start harvesting from the garden and we'll have some edible meals out of this place.

Summer is on it's way- how do your kids get outside and enjoy it?

5 Tips for Getting Kids Outside

It's a hot topic and one I'm passionate about: getting kids outside.  During the school year our kids are highly structured, pressured and scheduled beyond belief (mine, too) and somehow when summer hits they have forgotten how to be...kids.  Here are some tips for getting your kids outside.

1. Space to play. You don't have to have the perfect yard or a swingset or twenty acres of forested rolling hills for your kids to have fun.  But you do need to create spaces to play.  Our backyard has several areas: dirt pile, mud kitchen, patio with small pool, trampoline, shady tree and climbing tree with swing.  Then you have to let them play there.  Don't worry about keeping it perfect- let your kids have fun in their space.  And do let them play with the hose.  Yes, they'll get muddy.

2. Free time. Seems silly to say it, but don't over structure your kids' time.  It's ok to have a few special activities that you do like swimming lessons or a special camp for a week, but more than one or two activities at a time can make kids feel a little stressed, or at least cause them to forget how to have free time and be bored.  The point is to decompress during the summer months.

3. Special outdoor activities.  Unstructured time is very important, but so is a little structured time.  Plan special trips to nearby outdoor spaces like a favorite park, a creek or river, or a hike.  Plan to stay for awhile.  Give your kid a journal or camera to record some of what they find, take your time and have lunch.  Plan some "quiet time" where kids can be alone and reflect on what they observe.  Maybe bring a special book to read together or do some birdwatching.

4. Invite friends.  When kids start to get bored of the usual thing, invite some friends over.  Have your kids help make homemade popsicles for their friends or build a fort in the back yard.  Bringing friends on a hike can help everyone have more fun and forget the work of hiking while increasing the fun.  Give one of your friends a break from their kids or invite them all along.

5. Lead by example.  That's right.  You need to get outside, too.  Work in the yard while your kids are playing or show them how you climb the tree.  Turn off your device (yes, I know this is a blog) and play with your kids. Plan activities that interest you.  If the big park isn't fun for you, plan a hike or a day at the river with your friends.  Your kids will have fun if you are having fun.

 

                                          

A Homeschool Day in the Life...

I've been reading quite a few "Day in the Life" blogs by fellow homeschooling moms (and a few dads).  While I'm tempted to share a "perfect" day in my life as a homeschooling mom, I suddenly realize there is no such thing.  My best intentions are often dashed by the wayside of the freight train called Real Life.  And no two days really look the same.  So here goes- a random day in my homeschool life with two girls, 5 and 18 months, though a fairly typical Thursday.

Thursday-

4:30 am- Baby-Rain wakes up and snuggles up in bed with me and Daddy
5:30 am- Daddy gets up with baby - I roll over with a pillow over my head
6:30 am- I get up so my husband can get ready for work.
7:00 am- Dad leaves for work.  I pour my second cup of coffee.  Read books with baby, try to get caught up on chores.
7:30-8:00 am- Grace-Girl rolls out of bed.  Not literally, as it is a six foot drop to the floor.  Blurry-eyed, wanting to snuggle on the couch.  All.  Day.  Long.
8:15 am- We girls manage to sit down for breakfast.  No one in this family does well without food.
8:30 am- Bible Reading and Calendar- we rotate a few different kids' devotional books.  We also work on our memory verse, which is posted by our calendar, here in the kitchen.  We review the season, month, year, days of the week, day of the month... etc.  Then we talk about our daily schedule.  I do all this while my older daughter eats because she is incredibly SLOW and I get tired of waiting for her to finish.
9:15 am- Chores- This includes getting dressed, tidying up room, brushing hair and teeth, etc.  But we also include things like, "be a cheerful helper."  Many tears are shed at our house over hair brushing.  Note to self: it grows back.  Cut it off.
10:00 am- Toddler Storytime at our local library is the one activity we do that centers around my younger daughter.  As a homeschool family we easily haul 25 books a week from the library (the kids are still pretty young- I'm sure this number will rise). I go online to order most of what I want to bring home, then we pick out a few at the library.
11:00 am- As I'm checking out the pile of books we're hauling home and re-connecting with a friend I haven't seen in awhile, Baby Rain is methodically pulling books off the reserve shelf and removing the name labels from each book.
11:20 am- Thankful for the rice cakes I keep in the van for moments like this 7 minute ride from the library to the house.  It seems more like an hour with all that screeching.
11:45 am- Lunch. Usually left-overs.  Baby fell asleep in the car, so she's down for her nap.
12:10 pm- Read a bunch of new library books with Grace-girl.  This is one of my favorite things about Thursdays!
1:00 pm- Quiet Time.  We monitor TV time carefully at our house (we don't actually have a television, just our computer)- but today Grace-girl gets about an hour of Backyardigans while I catch up on napping and an episode of Downton Abbey on my Kindle Fire.  That's right.  I'm being completely honest, here.
2:00 pm- Impromptu reading lesson with Grace-girl.  Reviewing digraphs and blends (sh, th, ch, wh)
2:15 pm- Baby-rain wakes up- snack-time.
2:30 pm- Piano lesson with me.  Finding middle "c," learning about octaves and playing a tune by ear (Mary Had a Little Lamb).
2:40 pm- music lessons evolve into dancing around the living room with some latin dance cd (thanks, Dora)
3:00 pm- Get Outside.  We pull weeds and jump on the trampoline until daddy gets home, and to heck with the mess in the house.  The girls like to get as dirty as possible, so I let them.
4:30 pm- Daddy gets home- girls head to the bathtub- we all prepare for our evening.
5:30 pm- Dinner
7:00 pm- Baby Rain in bed
8:00 pm- Grace-girl in bed
*whew*  Each day is a little different, but somehow we find a rhythm through it all.  And it's usually not the one I thought it would be when I planned our schedule in August.  Enjoy the things that make your family special!  And guard your quiet time.  :)

Healthy snacks- a hands-on lesson

We recently hosted a little play-date at our house where I was invited to talk to the kids about nutrition and healthy food choices.  We moms take turns each week and some weeks are more structured than others.  This was a structured one.

1. First I read the girls a book about how bread is made and I read them Herb the Vegetarian Dragon (a fave for kids who like to stick up for their healthy choices).  
2. Then we made bread (with quick-rising dough).  While it was rising we talked about the new USDA Food Pyramid and I had them touch items from each category (grains, protein, dairy, fruits and vegetables).  
3. Of course we ate some healthy snacks from all the categories.
4. We got to punch down our bread and talk about what a great anger management tool it is!  
5. The kids each took home a loaf to bake with their initials carved on top (no time to finish it at my house) and they each took home a food pyramid coloring sheet and bookmark (tons of stuff on the USDA website!).

Overall it was a very fun playdate and the kids walked away with some information and fun stuff to take home.  We kept the bread very simple and the girls had time to play in between each of the activities.  Not every play-date goes so smoothly, but things tend to run better when I'm more organized!  What's a favorite activity you like to do at play-dates?  Or do you prefer a free-play time?

Like giving books for birthdays?

Some kids don't get much for their birthday.  That's why I'm excited about what Barefoot Books is doing.  They've launched a new campaign:

• If you buy Bear's Birthday through the month of July, Barefoot Books will donate a book to Birthday Wishes, an organization that gives birthday presents and parties to kids who otherwise wouldn't get any.  Great stuff, right?  This is relevant to me right now as both my kids and my husband will be celebrating their birthdays in the next month.
• You can also send a free birthday e-card to the bear-lover in your life!  Fun!
• Did I mention there's a huge summer sale going on right now, too? (through Aug. 15, 2011) 

Barefoot Books works with Books for Africa, Ecolibris, First Book, and several others.  If you want to be a responsible consumer, think about where you buy.  Supporting companies that make a difference in the world (not because it's good for the bottom line, but because it's good for the planet) makes a lot more sense than just walking into a Walmart and picking up the first thing you see.

If you'd like to make the leap, check out my website or find other gifts that promote community uplift, global awareness and corporate responsibility.

Don't YOU have a dream, Mommy?

   

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

How do you explain the significance of this holiday to a 4 year old?

Maybe you don't need to.

Maybe she just needs to witness her mama sitting in the car in the parking lot at the grocery store, crying her eyes out to the tune of,

I have a dream

that my four little children will one day live in a nation 

where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, 

but by the content of their character.

Maybe it's enough.  Dear God, please let it be enough.  Let this man's life stand as a witness not just to racial prejudice, but also to moral and economic injustice.  Let my kids see the better world they live in, instead of the worse one.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. 

Then I remembered standing in my kitchen, the night Barack Obama was named the next president of the United States and I turned to my husband and said, "this is an amazing moment in history, and here we are standing in the middle of it."

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

I remember a class full of Navajo kids.  We sang Jesus Loves me in Navajo.  I still remember the syllables, carefully burned into my memory.  But mostly I remember wishing that I could live in the dorms like the other kids.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Fast forward to that parking lot, again, today.  I found myself doing the cliche...
"Martin was kind of like Jesus, honey.  He didn't get to come back to life, but his story will never end."

My husband finally turned off the radio and we went in to buy our new running shoes and bananas and whatever other inconsequential stuff was on our list today.
But I hope my girl will remember.  Today is about a dream.  What's your dream?

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

The Halloween Conundrum

I did trick-or-treat once or twice in my childhood, it just wasn't a big deal.  I don't feel like I missed anything.  As an adult I'm turned off by the commercialism, the candy and the greed that permeates this holiday, BUT I can't deny the fact that it is the one holiday that really promotes community.  When else do you get to wander around your neighborhood, knocking on doors, and not one gets slammed in your face?  So... I've been struggling with whether or not to celebrate Halloween in our family for a few years, knowing that we could buy some time while our eldest was so young. My husband has no moral issue with it, leaving the decision up to me.  Yikes.  But this year I've finally reached a decision (I know you are all waiting with bated breath). 

The answer is "yes."

Now for the Why:

1. Halloween builds community.  We live on a corner lot, across from a park, under a streetlight, in a very family-oriented neighborhood.  I knew there would be lots of kids out, tonight.  Every parent who came to the door with their kids now knows we live here.  They saw that we have two girls, our house isn't perfect, and we care.  They are learning to trust us.  If there is one thing that my husband and I feel called to do, it is build community where we live.  Love God, love people.  As a homeschooling family I don't want to be completely isolated (and we definitely are not) from the neighborhood kids and the world around us.
2. My desire not to do Halloween was entirely too wrapped up in worrying what people think of me and confusing myself in the process.  Ok.  Maybe I was passing a little judgment, too, if I'm honest with myself.
3. Jesus loved the un-lovables.  He probably would've hung out with that werewolf kid from down the street, too.  Not that he would have gorged on candy, but I like to think he would at least give something out at his door.
4. We can hold our moral ground as a family and still have fun.  We know where we draw the line for our kids, and that's the only line we need to worry about.  The kids will be exposed to "scary" stuff.  That's life.  And honestly, I don't think Halloween is half as insidious as Christmas.  Don't hate me for saying that, I do LOVE Christmas.

I'm fairly certain we are all familiar with the "why-nots" of Halloween.  I just thought I'd share a little of my process in working through this tough topic.  You know what's best for your own family, right?

We limited our small kids to one community event and handing out candy at our door.  Our focus is definitely on fall and the changing of the seasons, and has always included pumpkins, pumpkin patch trips, leaf jumping and more.  I suppose each year will add more excitement, a line drawn a bit further down the road, and more discussion about the meaning of Halloween.  In the meantime, stay posted for my overly passionate dissertation on Block Parties!  Coming soon- hopefully next summer, straight to you from the lady who over-thinks everything.

Homeschool Activities in Central Oregon

This is a comprehensive list of all the activities available to homeschooling kids in Central Oregon as shared by homeschoolers who live here. I've included links, where available.  Below the list I've also included a wish-list, and a listing of the co-ops and active support groups here in Central Oregon.  This information was gleaned from a survey of nearly 100 families in Central Oregon who currently home educate.  If you see anything I missed, please comment and I'll add it in!  Enjoy!   These are all Local Resources, except one or two that are online only, but important enough to include, here.  I hope you will share this list with others!  Enjoy!

Activities:

• 4-H
• Animal husbandry
• Art Shows
• Art Station
• Audubon Society classes/programs for kids
• Awana
• Bend Science Station
• BLM classes
• Book Club
• Boy Scouts (and Cub Scouts)
• Business Operation (family or personal)
• Campfire USA
• Cascades Mountaineers
• Central Oregon Community College (many homeschoolers attend some college classes in high school)
• Church Activities
• Dance - including ballet, tap, jazz, flamenco, Irish dancing, hula and many more- (there are several studios throughout Central Oregon and a few private classes offered to home schooling families available through the co-ops or the online groups- contact me for more info)
• Equestrian activities (many options here as well including camps)
• Foreign Language study (there are many local group classes available through the online groups or in the co-ops)
• Forest Service classes and opportunities
• Gardening
• Geo-caching
• Girl Scouts
• Gymnastics
• High Desert Museum (volunteer opportunities abound for homeschooled children)
• Homeschool Field Trip Group
• Homeschool National Honor Society
• Homeschool Ski days (group rates)
• Individual sports (mountain biking, trail running, skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, etc.)
• Khan Academy (online only, a great resource for learning math concepts)
• Knitting and sewing groups
• Language Studies
• Lego Robotics
• Library- Deschutes County, Crook County
• Loyal Sports
• Martial Arts
• Marksmanship (rifle, archery, etc.)
• MBSEF (Mount Bachelor Sports Education Foundation)
• Music classes/lessons- various sources are available for all types of instruments including voice (contact me for more info)
• The Nature of Words -literary event
• Observatories (Pine Mountain and Sunriver)
• Online resources (too many to list- whatever you’re looking for it is probably out there- there are forums, discussion groups, blogs, teaching resources, free online curricula, etc.)
• OSU Extension Services
• Parks and Recreation activities (available in various towns and cities throughout Central Oregon)
• REI classes
• Roots and Shoots
• Science Fair
• Speakers for Jesus
• Speech Competition/Judging Competition
• Sunriver Nature Center
• Theater Programs (The Bridge School of the Arts in Redmond is geared towards home educating families but there are also several other community theater and children’s theater groups in Central Oregon)
• Wild Heart Nature School offers outdoor experiences for children, teens, and adults.
• Winter recreation- Mt. Bachelor, Hoodoo, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling...

Wish List (as wished for by my local home educators):

• Gathering space (specifically for homeschool events)
• Homeschool Resource Library
• Homeschool Resource Store
• Math Club (my husband tutors upper-level math and may be interested in getting this started)
• Museums (more and better)
• State funding for the arts
• Support groups for specific styles of teaching (I.e. Charlotte Mason, Waldorf, etc.)
• Symphony Halls (more and better)
• Tutoring Center

Local Coops and Support Groups:

• The Bridge School of the Arts and the Bridge Co-op Classes (Redmond)
• Central Oregon Christian Home Educators (COCHE)
• Central Oregon Homeschoolers of Redmond (COHR)
• Central Oregon Open Learners (COOL)
• Classical Conversations (Redmond and Bend)
• Crook County Home Educators
• LaPine Christian Home Educators
• Friday School Co-op in Bend

Live Local, Love Local!

There was sad news in our town, today. Our local children's museum doesn't have the funding required to continue. This makes me a little angry, people! It's past time for us to band together; we are moms, husbands, sisters, cousins and friends and we are all neighbors. We need to support the institutions and non-profits that matter in our lives! Even the most solid organizations are suffering right now. Who sponsors those free craft days in the park? Who puts children's activities at every family-friendly festival? Find out, and show them some love this week! Free advertising on your blog, an event that highlights or raises money for them, or just a shout-out on Facebook can make a big difference in our small world. Nuts and bolts ideas? Here's one: I'd love to help you organize an online fundraiser using Barefoot Books. I can donate up to 25% of online sales towards the organization of your choice... just contact me and I'll get to work for your community! It's never too late to see how one person can make a difference. Now go, make magic happen!