Moon Journal

For the past week and a half Ella and I have been watching the moon to see if it was "growing up or growing down." See previous post. Ella wanted to make a Moon Journal - so we did. She drew pictures of the moon and I wrote down her observations. Here is her moon journal below.


It was really fun to watch her the few days before the moon really was full because every day she would say, "I think it is full tonight." But then the next day, her excitement a little bigger, she would say "It is full Momma!" And then on 1/8 when the moon really was full she said, almost screaming, "It is whole! I thought yesterday it was whole."

I had a lot of fun doing this observation/experiment with Ella. It was totally directed by her and even though it was multiple days of observation, it held her interest and curiosity. I am hoping we can continue so we can see an entire moon cycle.

As I was engaging in this with Ella, I couldn't help but think about the state of science education in our K-12 schools in San Francisco and beyond. How do we change the conversation and practice in science education to be one that explores student curiosity in the world instead of memorization of facts?

Learning about the moon

Two days ago, New Years Day, the moon was out in the afternoon and Ella noticed that it was a half moon. She then asked, "is it growing up or growing down?" As a former science teacher, this just melted my heart. What a fabulous question!!!! These type of questions from kids should be driving our science curriculum!!! After all this went through my head, I calmly said, "I don't know, but we should keep our eye on it and figure it out."

Today I noticed the moon was out when I was picking Ella up from school. I showed it to her and asked if she thought it was "growing up or growing down"? She said, "growing up". Then she suggested we go home and make a list, with pictures and look at the moon every day at the same time.

My dear Watson, I think we have our first science experiment that Ella has designed. To be continued...

Learning in the Library

This afternoon my almost four-year-old daughter, seven-month-old son and I walked down to Glen Park to our local library. Ella, my four-year old, went on her scooter and led the way to the library. We took the elevator upstairs as our library is on the second floor above a local market. When the elevator doors opened she ran into the library returned her two books and then said, "I am going to the kids section." She quickly disappeared and I followed.

Ella quickly found her favorite shelf and began looking for books. She brought one over and asked me to read it. With Milo rolling around on the floor, Ella and I settled into a chair to read. When we were done, Ella perused the stack of books left on the table and found another book she wanted to read and then returned to the shelf to find more books to bring home.

The pure joy of finding books that looked good is priceless to witness. I told Ella that she could pick out five books. She looked at her pile and found three that she liked and then informed me that she needed two more books. She quickly went back to the bookshelf not realizing that she had in fact just subtracted. Wow! Math being one of my first loves, it is magical for me to watch Ella master counting and simple addition and subtraction. After Ella found her five books she asked me for her card and then ran to the check out. Our library has a self check out and has stools next to them so that kids can get up and check out by themselves. Ella is quite a master at it now. She scans her card and her books making sure to wait for the chime that tells her the books was properly checked out.

Our excursion to the library today made me realize that we need to go to the library more often. Not only does it foster the importance of books and reading, but it opens up various other opportunities for learning.

Family Dinner

"The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from mere animal biology to an act of culture."

-Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, p. 192)

Family dinner is very important in our house. It is a time to nourish our bodies and souls. Lately, family dinners have become one of my favorite times of the day as everyone seems to be in such a wonderful mood. At 7 months, Milo is observing all of us eating and slowly getting the hang of putting food into his mouth. He sits across the table from Ella and watches her every move and often ends up with a huge smile or a gigantic laugh. And Ella, at almost 4, loves all the attention that Milo gives to her.

We have found that our daughter actually eats much better and is more inclined to try new foods when she sees us eat them so family dinners encourage her to try new foods. She is in a very picky stage right now but we make sure to place all that is for dinner on serving platters and allow Ella to serve herself. This gives Ella the choice of what to eat and how much to eat. We started to do this after I read Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense by Ellyn Satter. In her book, Satter talks about the importance of giving children opportunities to eat healthy food and allowing them to make the choice of what and how much to eat. This does not mean that you make your children a separate meal just for them, rather you set the food out on the table and allow children the opportunity to serve themselves based on what looks good to them and how hungry they feel. It feels like it is a wonderful way to encourage healthy eating habits. Since we have started doing this, Ella actually tries more foods because she feels like she has control over what she is eating. She doesn't eat everything, but she is getting much better at trying something and then telling us if she likes it or if she does not.

Another wonderful part of family dinners is the conversation. Ella loves to tell stories and we all talk about our days. We have a tradition of doing our "Highs and Lows" at dinner time. Everyone gets to talk about their high point and low point of the day. When we first started this, Ella was about three. She would often say that her high or low was the same as one of ours. But over the past year, she has been able to start articulating her high and low point of the day and and explanation of why. The tradition has been a really great way for to help Ella explore her feelings and learn how to express them in a constructive way. It has been a great way to talk about struggles she has had and explore different paths. "Highs and Lows" started out as a nice way of sharing moments from our day but has turned into a valuable learning experience for all of us.

Family dinner is a really special time in our house right now and I cherish every moment. It is a struggle to get dinner on the table by 5:30 or 6pm and for my husband to get home by then but we make every effort we can to make it happen as we feel it is extremely important. And the smiles and laughter that light up our dinner table fill me with pure joy!

Stick Figures

Watching my three-year-old E develop new skills has been a fascinating journey. A few days after her younger brother M was born she came into our room to show us a drawing of our family. To our amazement, she had drawn representations of people - a circle with two dots for eyes and two long lines coming out the bottom of the circle. Adam and I looked at each other in amazement. How had she learned to draw that? We didn’t teach her. How do kids make these connections without help? It must be hard wired into our brains – the innate ability to learn.

E showing the "stairs" up to the house and two "people"

E has not been “taught” in the traditional sense of the word. She has been given the opportunity to observe, explore and learn from these experiences. She has been given a safe space for these explorations so that she may make “mistakes”. I put mistakes in quotations because the adult world tends to think of them as mistakes. But really, they are not mistakes but rather the journey towards understanding how the world works.

Transformations

I have been thinking for a long time about writing a blog about learning and school experiences but I really didn’t know how to begin. Two thousand and nine brought many experiences in my life that changed me in one way or another. As I think about writing a blog about learning and schools I cannot help but think of how certain moments, experiences, and different people shaped my view of learning both in and out of a formal school setting.

When I think about what a school should be for young people I cannot help but think of my former student Jorge. In many other high schools Jorge would have been ostracized but in the high school where I taught him he was loved and accepted in the community. I remember my first conversation with him on the phone when I called to remind him that we had sophomore retreats in a few days. I had never met him and on the only response I got from him were a few grunts. During the course of that year he would listen and do most of his work but rarely talked. But our small school and advisory program allowed other young people in the school to get to know him through his work and slowly Jorge began to speak more. By his senior year he defended and passed his senior portfolio orally in front of 25 of his peers and teachers. Jorge was the one who is ultimately responsible for his success, but the school and teachers set up the safe space for him to take the risks that come along with learning. Jorge’s success is an example of what our public schools should be doing for our young people. His story should be the rule not the exception.

Jorge graduated almost three years ago and I think about him often. I think about who he was as a student when I met him and how his school experiences in elementary and middle school shaped the learner he was when he entered high school. My world now focuses mostly around preschool age children as I have a preschooler myself. I see how easily she learns from her environment and through play and not formal education. I am left wondering when and how that love and ease of learning changes into something that makes our young people tune out.