By the Brook

I'm so inspired by Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods and I'm relieved to be reading it now while Duncan is four. It's never too late to unplug your child (and yourself!) and spend more time in the great outdoors. Having said that, I'm glad the point was made now, and not ten years later after Duncan had turned into some video game zombie.

Louv is a big proponent of unstructured play time in the woods. The great thing about Toronto (and I'm sure many cities) is that you can find parks that haven't been paved to death. Yesterday, I took Duncan via the TTC to Sherwood Park, which is in the Mt. Pleasant/Eglinton area. This was one of the parks of my childhood and I was so happy to see that not much had changed since I was a kid.

A rugged stone wall greets you as you enter the heavily wooded park.
These were the hills where I would go tobogganing as a child. I almost got a bit emotional looking at them again as I thought back on those happy winter memories.
This is a great park to take children of any age. You can chill out on a picnic table with a book, while you let your child climb a hill or go exploring through the trees or brook. No hovering! Just let your child poke around, even if they get muddy or dinged up a little.
Here's the gorgeous Burke Brook that I used to play in as a child. My friends and I would walk from our homes, which were a few blocks away. I'd forgotten that to get from my childhood house to the park, I'd have to cross Mt. Pleasant. Thanks Mom and Dad for trusting Jodi, Tara and I!
We clambered down the muddy embankment and Duncan got busy playing in the brook. I just sat on a rock and destressed in this natural wonderland.

I used to collect tadpoles just to look at. We'd also find little minnows. Duncan didn't find any yesterday, but he still had fun.

They also have a great playground. As you can see, it's surrounded by trees and water. Isn't it great that you don't have to drive out of town to be in the woods?

Above and below: information on the water system Burke Brook is a part of.
Sherwood Park connects to many other parks, including Mount Hope Cemetery. I love taking Duncan to cemeteries to do rubbings and look the the tombstones and trees.

A totally gnarly dead tree watches over the brook.

Kids and Food - Why be Boring?

Even though Duncan is four, I'm still trying to figure out this parenthood thing. You read so much about being correct and doing what every parent has to do to get junior to chow down on healthy foods. Well, I can forget about hiding wholesome food in chicken nuggets. The other day Duncan was eating octopus and it dawned on me that he is not a picky eater in the slightest. The kid eats pretty much anything you put in front of him. He eats every kind of vegetable (except for eggplant) and LOVES broccoli. He eats all types of meat and likes fish. He's also a fan of squid, shrimp, and clams. To top it off, he recently enjoyed caribou and fig paté. On the weekend he ate a kangaroo patty. Crazy or what? We're not pompous foodies - we just like to eat rustic, tasty food. And as long as Duncan is going for it, we'll keep trying him on new things.

Duncan gets Medieval on a chickpea.

Here's a delightful cookbook for kids that I got out from the library the other day. Usborne make beautifully illustrated books for children. I've got several Usborne art books on my bookshelf in my classroom. This is a fun book to get kids cooking real food that everyone will savour.
Here's the couscous salad recipe that we made for dinner. It was served with bassa fish and chickpeas. My husband was working late tonight, so we were sneaky and had a TV dinner. Ironically, we watched Chef at Home on the Food Network. It's ironic because Chef Michael Smith spends most of the show trying to explain how to trick kids into eating good food.

Not exactly nouvelle cuisine, but it hit the spot.

Action shot. Look at the zombie-like expression. No more TV dinners!

P.S. I like Michael Smith, but he sure is spacey. Does he not remind you of Chris from Northern Exposure? You be the judge.

All That Art

Like most kids, Duncan loves to draw, paint, and sculpt. Hardly a day passes when he doesn't bring home art from school or his babysitters'. He's also got a craft table in the basement of our house. Sometimes he just likes to sketch at the kitchen table or on his lap. But what to do with all that art? Last night we strung a piece of garden twine across the wall of Duncan's bedroom and let him choose some pictures we could peg to it.

The picture on the left is a sailboat and the blue, red, and yellow painting is "the world."

A family portrait. I love the huge shoes we're all wearing. We do stomp around in Blundstones.

Hairy tree.

At the top of his bed, some things he loves, including his classroom picture.

For "Hundreds Day," Duncan coloured in 100 boats in a harbour.

Here's a tree we drew together. Duncan put birds and a big butterfly on it.

Duncan wanted his own blog, so he designed one with my help. Maybe I'll ask him if he wants to upload some of these pictures to it and I can type up what he wants to say about them.

F.H. Varley: The Nature of Art/The Art of Nature

Yesterday we spent a magical afternoon surrounded by art and nature. We drove up to Unionville to visit the Frederick Horsman Varley Gallery. Varley is my favourite painter of the Group of Seven. He was born in Sheffield, England in 1881. He immigrated to Canada in 1912. Six years later Canadian War Records commissioned him to illustrate the war in Europe. When he returned to Canada, in 1920, he became a founding member of the Group of Seven. Throughout his life, he painted numerous landscapes and portraits. He spent his last years living with arts patron Kathleen McKay in her house in Unionville (a short drive north of Toronto).

Vera, c. 1930: I love Varley's colour palette of choice, blue and green. Nature informed much of his work.

Lake Garibaldi, B.C., 1928

Top: Bust of Varley in the foyer of the F.H. Varley Gallery. Centre: Self portrait 1919. Bottom, photo of Varley painting at the McKay house in Unionville (late 1960s). Varley died in 1969.

One of Varley's easels. I love the barnacle-like layers of paint.

Outside the gallery, you'll find a winding river which is a stunning natural habitat for many animals. Here we saw our first robin of the season.

Ducks were everywhere.

Looking down from a bridge.

Duncan spotted a Canada goose having a drink. He wanted to have a close look, but the goose wanted nothing to do with him.

Soaking up nature.

This is the view from the parking lot of the Varley Gallery. The nature trail seems to stretch on forever. Our senses were stirred by the budding trees and the muddy smell of late winter/early spring.

Sparse tree black bird.

A tree that seems to call out, "climb me young child."

Balancing on a rail.

Marker outside the McKay house on Main Street in Unionville.

Sunroom and back side/back garden at McKay house. This house now serves as a gallery. The garden will be restored to capture the original vision of Kathleen McKay, who was an avid gardener. I'd love to live in a house like this and just garden all the time.

Front view of McKay house.

The Varley Gallery currently is holding an exhibit of the work of Toronto-based artist Brenda Joy Lem. She grew up in Oshawa and now she creates silkscreened images chronicling her often painful childhood memories. I was so taken by her work that I bought this book that features many of the prints on display.
Lem at work in her studio. This image is in the book Brenda Joy Lem Homage to the Heart. To see a couple of her works reproduced, follow this link to the Varley Gallery http://www.city.markham.on.ca/Markham/Attractions/Gallery/Exhibitions/exhibit_brendajoylem.htm

A Promise to Myself

I've started reading Last Child in the Woods (see last post for more). This is a major book that is really helping me cement my beliefs as a parent and as a teacher. Children need to be set free outdoors and allowed to explore nature. I promise that each weekend Duncan will have the chance to go somewhere outdoorsy so that he can have fun in the natural world. Often my husband works on either or both Saturday and Sunday, so I'm typically left alone with Duncan without the car. There's still so much we can do in the city.

This past Sunday we went to Bluffer's Park in Scarborough. The day had been mild, but when we got there , there was a chill in the air. Still, it felt great being down by the lake and surrounded by trees and birds. These binoculars used to belong to me when I was a child. Miraculously they survived all these years.

Father and son.

I'm learning to let go and allow Duncan to try things I know might not always be a good idea - like dipping his boot into Lake Ontario in February...

And walking along a rocky wall.

Free Range Children

Last week when I was listening to the CBC Radio, parenting expert Karen Horseman was discussing a book called Last Child in the Woods, written by Richard Louv. In the book he posits that parents who hover over their children and do not allow them to explore the natural world, are depriving their children of so many rich, developmental experiences. They talked about "helicopter parents" who hover over their children, shuttling them back and forth from one place to the next and parents who fear the outside world so much that they'd sooner leave their child parked in front of the computer, instead of letting them wander around outside and perhaps get the odd bruise or scrape. Child abductions are the lowest in 30 years and when they do occur, they mostly involve relatives or people who know the child. Abduction by stranger is incredibly rare.

When I was a child, my friends and I would spend the entire day at the neighbourhood park. We had no cellphones. My parents taught us to not talk to strangers and so we didn't. Instead, we swam, biked, climbed trees, collected rocks, and generally had piles of fun, until we realized it was probably getting close to dinner time. We were also lucky enough to have a cottage and I had complete freedom to walk into town, swim by myself, use my father's carpentry tools, etc. Dad let me garden with him and mom let me use the sharp knives in the kitchen. It was all good. I know of a child who is not allowed to go on field trips. I'm only imaging that fear is the motivating factor in depriving a child from getting on a bus and seeing amazing things. Kids in my class just completed eco homes and they were over the moon that I let them use hot glue guns and hammers.

Recently, I read an interview with the actress Rachel Griffiths and she talked about how she considers her kids, "free range children." I like this idea. Although Duncan is only four, my husband and I can see that he yearns to get his hands on everything. He wants to do what we do. He wants to help. We're trying to teach him what to do and then we just let him have a go. He's been using huge kitchen scissors since he was two, and we let him try foods from around the world. I'll be excited to see what he can do on his own with each passing year. This summer, we're buying him a new two-wheeler and I want to see how he gets on without training wheels this time around. I never had training wheels. How did I learn? I just fell off the bike a lot until I got my balance.

Below, find an outline of Last Child in the Woods. I just ordered it from Book City. I'll write more, once I start reading it.

Erin

To read a synopsis of Louv's book, visit his website at http://richardlouv.com/last-child-woods

Parents and educators will find it very interesting.

Point and Shoot

My sister, Lise gave Duncan a camera for Christmas. Yes, it would have been unheard of giving a four-year-old a camera when I was growing up. As soon as we got the batteries into his Kidizoom Sport, he just started snapping away. When he was in the bath tonight, he told Ken and I that he wanted his own blog. I said, alright.

I'll try to post some of his pics here for now, just as soon as I figure out how to get his camera working with iPhoto.

Cheers,

Erin