"The revolution, if it is to come . . .

must come from parents." This is a quote from Teacher Tom, an educator at an amazing preschool in Seattle and someone whose blog I absolutely love. He had a clip of this TED talk where Ken Robinson quotes Abraham Lincoln:

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.



Here is some more of what he wrote about reforming our current school system:

"...our current school system is based upon the ideas people had about the future during the Industrial Revolution, when it seemed likely that most people would spend their lives working in factories. They therefore set about creating schools that emphasized conformity, rote learning, following instructions, and long hours of sitting in one place doing the same thing over and over. Things like individuality and creativity would only be burdens in a future that belonged to sufficiently numb minds. This is essentially the same model of schooling we use today, while Newsweek bemoans our "Creativty Crisis" and business executives identify "creativity" as the number one "leadership competency" of the future.


Everyone from teachers, to business leaders, to politicians, to the media agree that we are failing to teach creativity, that creativity is essential, that our very survival is at stake. And yet we're trying to solve it within the context of a factory model of education, one that will ultimately fail no matter how much we "reform" it, especially if that reform is in the direction of yet more more testing, more standardization, more time spent in classrooms listening to lectures. And I will repeat this until I'm blue in the face, those advocating for this kind of "reform" cannot produce a single scrap of data, research or evidence that their ideas will result in more creative citizens. There has never been a study done that proves their assertions. Never. Never. Never. Yet they push forward. I don't know why, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the attitude Roman expressed when he said, "I had to do it, we all had to do it. It was good enough for me, why not for our kids?""


I'm ready to revolt, who's with me?

A few months ago I came across this lolcat poster (a picture of a cat or other animal with funny text written in terrible, babyish spelling and grammar--click the link for more info) on a blog entry with tips on teaching preschoolers about money. 

I showed it to Christian and he loved it so much that he started quoting it all the time. I looked up some others and got even more of a kick out of them than he did! Anyway, I had these saved in a file with my pictures and thought I'd post them for your viewing pleasure before deleting to free up space on my hard drive:

Fifth day of Tony's vacation

Friday was our third and last day with the Connect Pass and we, again, fit in as much as possible. We started the day at This Is the Place Park. We saw some neat Native American dancing, but Buddy was whiny so we moved on to pioneer games.

Next, we attended the "candy cannon" event where actors did a funny little bit and shot salt water taffy out of a cannon. They also threw a bunch in the street so all the kids could get some, but we ended up with at least one of the "shot" pieces that was fairly singed :)

We rode a sight seeing train around the village (way to pay attention, Tony),

then met up with Joy's family for lunch. We got some root beer and cream soda in cute, old fashioned bottles and had some great hamburgers.

The kids loved the pony ride!

We visited the blacksmith shop where a man was making nails the way they did in the eighteen hundreds. I was surprised how interested the kids were, and the adults were enthralled as well. Check out the eagle! That blacksmith was an amazing artist. 

We didn't have enough time to tour many of the houses, but we checked out this cabin and wondered how people lived with so many kids in such little space.

The petting zoo was very popular with the kids, but the adults found it hot and smelly.

Probably Christian's favorite activity--panning for gold.

You then turn in your gold at the bank for a piece of candy.

Somehow the kids talked their dad into buying them expensive, forest animal gummy suckers {{sigh}}.

We spent a few hours at the zoo, but it was insanely hot and the kids had been several times recently.

So we went to dinner at the Lion House Pantry where we each had $10 for dinner from our Connect Passes. Let me tell you, that bought a lot of yummy food! After we stuffed ourselves, we toured the Beehive House. The kids loved seeing all the antiques and we thought it was fun that most of the day was spent learning about pioneers on the day before Pioneer Day.

Faith thought it was crazy that this wedding dress was so small and the shoes were her size!

We had such a fun time doing all the Salt Lake area activities and outings and felt so lucky to be able to do them with Joy, Jordan, Sierra and Lily!

Fourth day of Tony's vacation

Sorry to anyone who reads this blog for current news on my family, I've got tons of catching up to do!

On Thursday, July 22nd, we continued having fun. We hopped on the Frontrunner train and met Joy's family.

We then got to ride Trax to the Gateway where we arrived just before the Clark Planetarium opened.

We had fun with the exhibits . . .

and got to see two movies--an amazing IMAX "Under the Sea 3D" and then "Space Pirates" which was not as entertaining, but was kind of cool to watch in the dome. Luckily Jordan brought lots of treats.

We had a wonderful lunch at Z'Tejas,

and then spent the rest of the afternoon at Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.

Before we left the Gateway, we were sure to play in the fountain

and even get an ice cream cone at Ben & Jerry's because we were still so hot!

Our return train ride (Lily missed it because she was asleep).

 

Our ride ended with a bit of drama. When we came to the Layton stop, a group of teenage boys hopped on and started up the stairs just as Faith and Christian were on their way down. The kids were able to dodge them, but I couldn't get past and we had to yell to the kids not to get off without us. The boys couldn't find a seat where they wanted, so they just stood on the steps, blocking our way. By the time they finally moved, the doors shut and we were on our way to Clearfield! I was steaming mad that they were so discourteous that they would block children from their parents, and also concerned that it would be a LONG walk with tired little kids back to our car if there wasn't a southbound train for awhile. Luckily, the other train was at the stop just as we got off and we were able to zip right back to our stop.

Still a very fun-packed day!

Tony & I teach the "four turning five" primary class now, and I just had to post the song that makes it impossible for me to make it through singing time without bawling:

third day of Tony's vacation

On Wednesday through Friday we continued our "staycation" with the Salt Lake Connect Pass.  We got ours when they had a "three days for the price of two" special going on, so they were $36 for adults and $30 for kids.  It includes a whole bunch of attractions plus $10 toward dinner at the Lion House Pantry.  I told my sister Joy about the deal, and she wanted to do it with her family, too.  It even worked out to visit the attractions together!

Wednesday morning we started out with breakfast at the kids' favorite--Mc Donalds.

Then we drove up the canyon above Sandy to Snowbird ski resort and got to ride the tram up the mountain.

It was even cooler than I thought it would be!  The view from up there is amazing and the kids loved every minute of the ride and exploring at the top.  Joy even fed them peaches and blueberries.

Next, we drove down the canyon and to the Living Planet Aquarium.  Tony had taken the kids two years before when I was at the Shakespearean festival to wean Buddy :'( but I'd never been there before.  It is AWESOME!

One of our favorite things were the jellyfish.  I wish they would have photographed better!

Christian was afraid to pet the stingrays at first, then he couldn't get enough.

I loved all the touchable sea creatures.

While Joy and her family stayed for story time at the aquarium and headed over to the dino museum early, we took an extra trip into Utah county for our favorite Spanish Fork activities.  You know we have to make it there once or twice a year. We ate at Hickory Kist,

and fed the ducks at the industrial park.

After getting those in, we headed back to Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life.  I know the kids and I went not long ago, but they were itching to go back and really wanted to show it to their dad.  The sand and water table was a big hit again.  (I love how Lily is trying to climb into it in this picture.)

Even the big guys had to play!

We loved the exhibits, especially the scary ones:

And played in the sand.

At the end, we got to check out a special science lab that wasn't open last time we visited.  It had a bunch of experiments with light.  We learned so much and had so much fun!  This one had three colors of light, so therefore three colors of shadows.

This was a special wall that you stood against, struck a pose, and turned on the bright lights.  After several seconds, you turned the light off and your shadow was "stuck" to the wall.  Love those crazy poses!

On our way home we had to find a Dollar Tree store in Salt Lake to visit because we promised the kids they could pick two items there.  This was after Christian threw a gigantic fit at the aquarium in the gift shop.  We thought the promise would keep that from reoccurring at the museum, but Buddy was tired and ended up screaming at the door because they had closed.  Guess you can't win them all, but it was an amazing day!