Less Traditional Learning

I'm not going to weigh my views on the teacher's job action in my parts, it's been done to death by myself and thousands of others. What I do want to do is have a discussion about what you will be doing with your kids on this unexpected day off.

Will you be home with them? Sending them to a babysitter or day camp? Using retired grandparents for child care? Pooling with friends?

After some creative rescheduling of a job interview I had booked, I'll be home with my boys. But it won't be just a day off, watching movies or playing in the snow, we'll be having fun and learning in some less traditional ways:

Julia, aka @AskMamaMOE on Twitter, sent me some books this month after hearing how we lost all of our books after a pipe burst. Tomorrow we'll be working out of this great book to make some singing bottles and experiment with mirror images.

Thank you for the books Julia, we LOVE them!

After a morning of science play, we'll be heading downtown to go to THEMUSEUM. It's pretty much my favourite place in town and we spend a lot of time there. From learning how to control the flow of water to practising our architectural skills with giant blocks, it's always a learning adventure hidden beneath a fun exterior.

And lastly, we'll take ourselves to Kitchener City Hall for a little ice skating because whether it's something they teach in school or not, skating is most definitely something that every Canadian kid needs to learn!

Here's hoping your day is full of learning and as adventure-filled as ours!

Embracing Our Uniqueness

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend time with a new group of friends, a community of faith looking to change themselves and make a positive difference in the world around them. One of the exercises we participated in was an extension of their discussion last week about what makes us unique. So we gathered in a circle with a ball of yarn and took turns sharing things that were unique about ourselves and the unique characteristics of the people around us.

As I watched the ball of yarn travel throughout the group, I searched my brain for a unique fact about myself. I thought I had one that really personifies who I am when I realized that most of the group was aiming for lightheartedness in their facts and mine was way too serious. So I started searching my brain again for something I do, something I have, that makes me unique.

Read 4 hours a day? - too obsessive, not unique
Write a blog? - not unique, practically everyone does it
Nurture a special needs child? - people do it every day
Volunteer? - millions of volunteer hours are logged each year
Runner? - they'd look at me and not believe it
Addicted to Smallville? - kinda sad, not unique
Extra toe on one foot? - sadly, not true

Finally, as the yarn ball flew through the air and towards my face I made my decision.

My name is Melissa and I am unique because I can make a lamp out of old records.

Wow.  That's life-changing stuff right there.

And it made me wonder, why are we so quick to name off great qualities another person possesses, the wonderful things that make them the beautiful people we enjoy spending time with but have a hard time  with just a teeny bit of self-promotion? I saw it all around the group as folks were generous in the praise of their friends but hemmed and hawed when they had to name a unique quality about themselves.

So tell me, what makes you unique? Can you quickly name a special fact about yourself without feeling like a braggart? Do you struggle with self-promotion? Why do you think so may of us have difficulty embracing our uniqueness? 

I cheated my way through high school

I have a confession to make.

I can't type.

Well actually, judging from the amount of tweets I send out into cyberspace I can type but I can't type.

In 9th grade, when I finally got to use computers in school (that's right, I never used a computer until high school), we had typing class teaching us how to touch type. But instead of paying attention and trying to learn, I thought the teacher was silly, that there was no way I'd ever need to know how to type faster than I already did and I slacked. I passed the tests and I finished the class with a B+.

But by most standards, I'm still a slow typist.

So this year, in my ever evolving quest to better myself, I want to become more proficient with computers. I'd like to learn how to do some basic coding. I'd love to learn how to make the most of this fancy macbook that I send all my tweets from. So I'm starting with learning how to type.

In fact, I used touch typing for this entire post. It's been a 30 minute effort. I'm exhausted. My fingers ache. My brain hurts.

Who knew typing was so hard?



Do you make an effort to better yourself on a personal level? Do you enjoy new activities or are you happy with the status quo?