From the category archives:

Sand Box

…and so it begins

August 19, 2009

Image by heraldpost via Flickr

Today was our son’s first organized sports practice. He’s joined a American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) team. It struck me as wonderful progress that a parent pledge was passed out by the coach at the first practice.
While I was signing the form, memories from many years ago of certain [...]

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Urban Play, A Mother and Daughter

July 22, 2009

Mother and Daughter Play REACH from Richard Reeve on Vimeo.
Continuing on the theme of play, I was treated to this wonderful scene in the Harold Square subway station yesterday, where a mother and daughter played the interactive sound installation by Christopher Janney titled REACH : New York.

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…if it looks you in the eye and you look back

July 21, 2009

So my first thought when I looked up from my pitchfork full of hay was, “I asked him to help me a few minutes ago, what is he doing?”  The second thought: “Man, that’s gonna itch.”  Then finally I broke free from the inner critic and saw what was before me with open eyes.
A [...]

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The Force and a New Generation

June 4, 2009

Image by Jisd via Flickr

It’s been an unusual experience to go through the original Star Wars trilogy with my seven year old son.  It turns out that the other boys in his first grade class are also tuned into the family drama of Luke, Lea and Darth. They play games at recess reenacting scenes and [...]

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Are those rules or constraints?

May 9, 2009

“Getting” gravity as a rule in our world is pretty useful for self preservation, especially when hiking near cliffs.  But as a parent, I keep reminding myself not to fall into the “that’s not how it’s done” trap.  A case in point:
Today my son created a three-dimensional sculpture with nothing but white copy paper and [...]

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Refurbishing the Sand Box

April 20, 2009

One of our family values is the Imaginal.  In order to cultivate the imagination in ourselves and in our children, it is crucial to create specific locations where reverie might find free play. There’s the play room, the painting studio, the study…Yesterday was spent refurbishing the sand box out back for our youngest.
It’s amazing how [...]

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Playfulness

April 9, 2009

I went through a decade where I was convinced that fun should be a four letter word.  It’s not that I didn’t want to have fun.  Instead, while I and my peers made having fun a main goal, each group activity was sorely lacking it.
Playfulness is serious business for a boy of seven and a [...]

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Allowing the children to be satellites

March 30, 2009

I had a fascinating conversation with Sid the other day. He was recalling growing up in a well educated Southern family.  As a child he remembered one thing crystal clear: the children where not the center of attention in family life.
Two models for family life: either the children are the center with the parent’s as [...]

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Because you’re only one once…

March 3, 2009

Our daughter turned one year old today, and took to her gift, a wooden rocking horse, as though she’s been riding for decades.

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Lions and Tigers and Bears…

February 21, 2009

Image by Jeff-b-f via Flickr

One clear challenge with parenting is the instinct to protect when exposure to an experience could aid the development process for the child.  Or to protect when it just isn’t needed.  Behind this I sense some level of projected neurosis, but lets remain on the level of how it might play [...]

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