On Tuesday in class I asked my students whether someone would volunteer to read the poem we were working on, Jamaica Kincaid's Girl (if you haven't read this poem, follow to link and read it--it's worth it!).

I usually never have trouble finding volunteers. There are always a few students who want to read, and many students who don't. But this time no hands shot up.

"Come on!" I encouraged them. "Someone must want to read this!"

"Can we popcorn read?" a student asked. [more]

Several months ago, when T. was already laying down plans for her sixth birthday party, she announced that she wanted the theme to be "snow animals". I didn't put much stock into that at the time because surely, I thought, she would change her mind between then and January. After all, last year she flip-flopped between fairies and mermaids for several months before settling on a dragon/princess theme. [more]

T. is a girl who loves her bedtime. She's never been a night owl (unless you count those dreadful colic days, or the months post-op when she decided it was neat to be awake from 3-6 a.m.). Even if she has the chance to stay up to do something fun, she starts to wilt after 7:30 and asks for bed, and jammies, and sleep. As a result, she's had little interest in the world at night. I'm not sure she's ever really seen a starry night sky--at least not to gaze at in wide-eyed wonder. [more]

Making something they can play with is good but when the process includes patterning and a fine motor skills workout , it's fantastic!

1. Gather your materials. You will need some buttons of various colors, a pipe cleaner and that's it. If you want to put eyes on you need 2 small buttons as well. [more]

When L. was two we signed him up for a parent/child art class at the local community center. It was on Wednesday mornings and Scott usually took him. It was the one type of class that L. actually participated in. We'd taken him to parent/child music classes before and he would squirm his body away from the circle of kids and stretch out in the corner somewhere; or he'd wander off and examine the furniture. But he loved the art class. Because he could focus on something tactile he could block out the extra "noise"--the bodies, the sounds, the chaos of the other kids. [more]