Posts tagged as:

play

Hide and Seek

February 11, 2010

The girls are playing hide-n-seek in my bedroom. They are taking turns beautifully. This is how their game works:
Rio: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25, 26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50, 51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75, 76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89…uh…um…Mama, what comes after 89?
Me: 90.
Rio: Oh! yeah, 90. Well, sometimes I need to think for a long time about what number comes next and then I remember but then I get confused [...]

Tagged as: family, parenting, play, rio, serena

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All Warm and Cozy

January 28, 2010

Today the most beautiful snow in big soft white flakes, just as I was getting ready to take the girls outside and hang the pine cone birdfeeders we’d spent the morning making.
I got to wear my new hat and scarf and gloves for the first time.
We went outside and I began trying to catch snowflakes [...]

Tagged as: play, rio

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Barbies in Refrigerators

January 14, 2010

We’ve had a lot of adventures with princesses in the past few weeks since Santa delivered a passle of princess Barbies to our house. The princesses have stood around looking pretty. They’ve had fistfights. They’ve had naked sex. They’ve basically ripped my feminist mommy aspirations from my heart and pounded them into the floor with [...]

Tagged as: feminism, parenting, play, princesses

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Princess Smackdown

December 18, 2009

We have two guest stars at home today: Rio and another kid who both go to private schools that let out freakishly early for holiday break.
The kids are doing what they do every morning: eating their body weight in Cheerios, playing with the princess dolls in the dollhouse, and reading every book they can lay [...]

Tagged as: play, princesses, rio, serena, wildflowers

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Never After tonight!

September 26, 2009

My good friend Colleen Campbell has written a musical. It’s a lesbian fairy tale with dragons and princesses and stuff, and it’s being performed in concert tonight and tomorrow at the Somerville Theater. I’ll be there for both shows, and I hope all of you local readers will be as well. You can buy tickets [...]

Tagged as: play

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Play-based education in action

September 16, 2009

Serena spent yesterday morning sitting on the floor playing with a baby toy she outgrew about a year ago. It’s a board with little movable colored pegs that you can push around a track. You’ve probably seen them in doctor’s offices.
She played with it for a long time, humming to herself. Then she looked up [...]

Tagged as: education, play, serena

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Rio’s watermelon farm

September 9, 2009

When the peas died in midsummer, I simply tore them up and wondered what to do next with that plot of land. Rio solved the problem for me by moving in and setting up a farm. She (and her sister and her friends) have been “farming” the empty bed for a few weeks now.
“Farming” seems [...]

Tagged as: food, garden, play, rio, serena

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Simple gratitude for play

August 10, 2009

I’m not posting my gratitude here every day; I’m using my Twitter feed for that. But I want to post them occasionally, and here is one.
Today I’m grateful for all the play in my life. I spent the day playing at the edge of a stream with my kids, on a playground with Serena, [...]

Tagged as: gratitude project, play

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In praise of simple toys

July 14, 2009

Dr. Rio is performing surgery. She has a pencil, a rubber band, a kitchen apron and the laser-like focus of a professional deep in her work.
“Hold still, Mama!” she says. “This is very important.”
Of course, her medical career is just one aspect of her life. My young doctor is also an artist, a hairdresser, an [...]

Tagged as: education, parenting, play

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Stilts!

July 12, 2009

I got to practice walking on stilts today for the first time ever! It was fun, , and I have a lot more respect and sympathy for the toddlers I work with now. Learning to walk is hard! I did fine though. I just mimicked Serena, waving my arms around like a monster and taking [...]

Tagged as: body, play

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