Proper Tools

Have you ever worked in a kitchen that was outfitted with everything you needed? Or built something in a shop with all of the chisels, saws, sanders, etc. in good working order? Then you know the benefit of having the proper tools at hand. I am very particular about the art supplies and craft items I will carry in the store because I feel very strongly about providing children with the best tools. Especially children. Sometimes we think we can get by with giving our kids mediocre supplies because they are just starting, or wasteful, or whatever, when really at that stage we should be giving them the best tools we can to encourage them, to make it as easy as possible to succeed. In this picture, my children are doing art work on our front porch with chalk pastels. The colors are so vibrant and the pigments so dense that they can draw anything they want in detail. We've done the porch twice now, and then we spray it with a sealant and it stays for a few years. We carry the Faber Castell blue line of art supplies because I like the quality of the supplies. The kids can create real pieces of art without the art supplies getting in the way. Wherever you pick up your art supplies, make sure they are good enough quality to help your children succeed. You wouldn't put your track star in flip flops, don't supply your young artists with Rose Art.

Benefit and Risk Assessment for the Very Young

A very common question asked of me at hopscotch is "Do you think this would be safe for a (baby, 8 year old, 3 year old, whatever)?" To which my very uncommon reply is "Well, I can't tell you if it would be safe for yours, but I probably would have given it to mine. I also have a trampoline in my back yard and my twelve year old has access to most tools in the shop, so my safety standards might not be the same as yours."
We bought our trampoline used out of the thrifties (before Craigs List) when my son Devon was four. He is now 18. Dozens of children have spent countless hours jumping, sleeping, reading, sparring, and giggling on that trampoline. Yes, there have been injuries, stitches, bumps, and near concussions, but the experiences these kids have had outweigh the risks they have undertaken. I meet so many parents these days who are terrified of exposing their children to any risk at all, and I wonder if we are not stunting an entire generation? I allow my children a great deal of freedom to roam the neighborhood, to build things from scrap in the yard, to paint and draw on the walls in their bedrooms, to take risks, ride skateboards, take their bikes off of jumps they built. They walk to the corner store and conduct transactions, they go down town and buy ice cream and visit their favorite shops. This is not because I am negligent, or lazy as I can tell you it takes more effort to talk them through these risks, and to clean up the wounds when things go awry than it does to plop them in front of a nice safe television. River is the name of the boy standing in the top of the arborvitae hedge. He is my nephew. He is standing on a platform that the kids built into the hedge about five years ago without my knowledge. They got the scrap, they got the tools, and they built this perch for spying on the world from the hedge. The list of crazy things they have done without my permission goes on and on. My children take risks every day, and I encourage them to do so. I joke that if they are dumb enough to do XYZ I don't want them in the gene pool anyway, but really I feel that I am giving them important tools for creating a vital active life. Most of us get more fearful with age. Our children need to learn what they can accomplish before the limitations even occur to them.

Every community worth its weight in salt has a home town festival. Here in McMinnville, ours is duhn duhn duhn.... (((((Turkey....Rama))))) That's announcer voice amplification on the sides there. How treats is that? Could it get any better in a bad kind of way? Or worse in a good kind of way? To make a very long story very short, this used to be turkey country, now the only turkeys left are the humans. But, we still have Turkey Rama. We have a biggest Turkey contest, in which I did once compete. I won't tell you what I did for my talent routine because every turkey contest is aired on public access for the whole next year and You Tube is a vicious vicious machine. I did not win the biggest turkey prize, but we raised a ton of money for Hospice. What else do we have? We have a huge turkey barbecue, and of course a street fair with lots and lots of sidewalk sales in which hopscotch does participate. We were on the main drag of the festival until last year when we moved a few blocks away, so this year I had a tent sale in front of the store. Much better. Great way to get rid of stuff I just don't love anymore. We have one more day of that left, and I can't tell you that I'm not looking forward to the weekend being over. It's a lot of work, but it's a great time to see all kinds of people that you only see once or twice a year, hang out on the street and watch the whole community go by, and eat the annual elephant ear from the soroptomists booth. Well, I'm due to volunteer helping kids in and out of the bouncy castle now, so I better get back down there.

Firsts and Lasts.

Adeline is the youngest member of my extended family so she is of course in charge of everything. She has recently learned to walk with the help of her Wheely Bug. Not exactly what it was intended for but she gets such a great deal of pleasure from chasing us around and running it into our ankles that it motivated her to progress. In stark contrast to Adeline's firsts which just keep coming I have also been spending time with a friend of mine who is experiencing some of his lasts. His kidneys have given him trouble, and he's had a couple of falls that have rather hastened the aging process. He used to walk all over town for the joy of it. Now he needs help making it across the room. I visited him the other night and found myself wondering at many things that seem so messed up about this life process. I also found myself appreciating many things about it. What I really got hung up on though was the notion that when he took his last walk around our neighborhood he didn't know that it would be his last. Something he cherished so much, and he did not know to pay attention and take his time and soak it in.
As a mother there are many moments like that. Lasts that we don't know will be the last. The last time that your child looks at you with complete adoration. The last time they let you see them naked. The last time they insist you tuck them in. The last time they crawl into your lap with a book. The last time they throw a tantrum. And though I feel a certain sadness at this fading away of things, I can not imagine the unbearable weight of sorrow that I would have felt in those moments had I known they were the last. There have to be lasts of course just as there will always be firsts. The hardest thing to remember is to soak them all in as if they just might be... To pay attention and be present. To shriek and run from a little ankle biting Wheely Bug and watch those firsts intently because they often leave a last in their wake.

SummertimeFun!

I went camping at the beach with my family over the holiday. The weekend included three of my four siblings, friends, and all of our children, and I have not played so hard in a long time. We flew kites, dug in the sand with shovels and pails, made sand castles, played football, and threw a boomerang around. Every time a new toy came out a new activity ensued. We brought cards and board games to play at night, but by the time the sun went down we were too tired and hung out singing and talking by the camp fire instead. My nephew turned seven so we had his birthday celebration at the beach, and he received his first kite. He was so thrilled and excited to learn to fly it. Of course, the Oregon coast is notoriously good for making a first time success out of any kite flying venture. (Our pink flamingo that flew as well as a penguin being the exception to that rule.) His kite was a basic delta flyer and he got it up really high right away. I guess the thing that struck me as I played with all of these kids and their toys was how rich the toys made the experience. It sounds a little strange coming from a toy store owner, but you kind of forget how important the toys really are once they are in the hands of a child. As you talk to a customer about the virtues of open ended play, you forget the reality of it. This weekend I crawled under a parachute with a bunch of community children at a party, had a water fight, flew balsa wood airplanes, and set off rocket balloons. Then I went to the coast and played with my family. The vitality in these kids as they actively played was so contagious and wonderful. It's a great thing when a child takes you by the hand and shows you that you never outgrow play. It just takes some reminding, flexibility, and a little bit of time.

Functional Flyer!

What do you do with returned merch? Turn it into a piece of functional art of course! This Radio Flyer wagon was one of the first things I sold, and (dubious beginning) it had no guts. Just the wagon pan. I never quite got around to sending it back to the company though, and when hopscotch moved over into a florists shop there were a gazillion sinks. Now, one of them is a Radio Flyer wagon sink. I kept the sink, cut a hole in the wagon bed, bought a pre-fab cabinet, and mounted lawn mower tires for cabinet handles. We use it when we have parties, or just when kids come in all grubby. With the addition of a candy department it's been very nice to have. Yesterday I was able to use it to wash frog rocks!

Frog in a Box at hopscotch!

I know, we aren't a pet store, but all of my toy store friends told me that kids are just crazy for these frogs, and what the kids are crazy for is exactly what I want to have. They are, first of all, complete eco-systems with a layer of "living gravel" on the bottom, a shoot of bamboo, a frog pooh eating snail, and two darling little frogs. We just call them frogs in a box. The frogs are both male so there won't be a bunch of little tadpoles to bring up. There are two frogs in each box because they like company. And they are sooo cute! They are African Dwarf Frogs. They have little black toe nails. They are supposed to live for about five years, and you only have to feed them twice a week, and change their water once every two years. Coming from a house with two rats, two dogs, two cats, and a full on aquarium that needs wayyyy more maintenance than that it seems to me the perfect gift for that child who is not allowed to have pets. They are a lot more personable than Sea Monkeys, the life span is longer, and the maintenance is about the same. I was always so disappointed that the Sea Monkey with the crown and scepter never did appear in my tank. Talk about your false advertising. Sea Monkey Family indeed!