Here are some other classic games that we love that never get old.
1. Heads and Tails. Draw funny pictures. Everyone gets a sheet of paper and pen, don’t look, everyone draw a head with a little neck sticking down, finished? Fold paper on neck lines so all you see is neck and blank paper below. Pass the paper to the person to your left. Now everyone draws a body. Open and enjoy the hilarious results.
2. The paper writing and drawing version of telephone. Write a sentence on a piece of paper, leave plenty-of space, fold your line over pass to the left, read the sentence that was passed to you, now draw a picture of what is written on your paper, fold again so the picture can’t be seen, pass. Look at the picture that was passed to you. Write a sentence based on the latest picture displayed. Fold and pass. Keep going until you’ve got your paper back. Open and enjoy the hilarious progression.
3. Make model houses out of cardboard. Have a glue gun? Great. If not, improvise. Make tiny furniture, people, and decorations. If you have more tools, build a more substantial doll house. If you have lots of cardboard build a fort or rocket ship for your kids. Only have paper? Paper airplanes are great, or even try floating a paper boat.
4. Here’s one that is old. Throw back game of the centuries: In the old days of early America, the pioneers played: Nine Men Morris, and before that the Romans played, 2000 years ago. Its easy to make your own board, you can use colored corn kernels or any other small beads. Check the directions on Wikipedia and enjoy.
Ava made this play board for Nine Men Morris, 2000 year old game of strategy The Romans invented. She made the play pieces out of corn kernels.
5. Computer games of the 80’s: Oregon Trail: find it at www.Classicreload.com. Where in the World, Time, or USA is Carmen Sandiego has been a popular detective, learning game I’ve passed on to my kids. I spent countless hours in computer and library class in middle school, engrossed in these classics!
6. Guess Who is a very popular board game for my kids these days. I enjoy playing too. Rat-a-tat-Cat is a fun card game. And there is this dice game that we recently got turned on to that is awesome: Tenzies. Fun variant on scrabble: Banana Grams: Everyone gets 21 letters, then make your own connected words. Everyone keeps drawing from the collective letter pool: very fun.
7. Chin Peoples: the best laughs you can have with talking chins. Draw eyes and nose on your chin, cover your nose and eyes with a bandanna, lie upside down on the couch. Let the good times roll.
Click on the picture to see more on the Project page.
Lily and I finally built her long anticipated dollhouse. She was so happy to get to do this together. It all started as a cardboard version model Lily had made on her own out of cardboard. She had done such a great job building her own railings, and siding, walls, and windows and decorating the inside as well as the outside; she really inspired us to go to the next level. So we used the time of social distancing to come together in our home to make a better home for the play people (we call them “peoples”) the kids have collected over the years!
Ava, Leo, and Vivi all were happy to observe this goings on and approved heartily.
In a rather sort of mystical twist, Adriana’s childhood dollhouse furniture finally got a home, too! Aunt Sue had gifted them to her after a business trip to Singapore-some 30 -odd years ago. Adriana laughed as she recounted how she had loved the furniture very much, often taking it out to admire it but never had a proper dollhouse to live them in! Fortunately this story has a happy ending. I can’t believe Adriana’s mother saved those little desks and chairs, armoires, and bedroom sets all these years. Kathy (Mema to the kids–yes, stay tuned for the soon to be published article, “My Kids call her Mema”) must have brought them to us one day around the holidays a few years back as she was cleaning out a closet. So finally those dainty little wooden articles now have a home. Thank you Kathy!
Lily is thrilled with the house. We worked together to create the design, but she had it very much figured out how she wanted it. I just followed directions, and helped with practical matters. Lily marked out windows and doors, painted multiple coats of paint, glued on steps, and window boxes, hand selected materials from the scrap pile in my shop: like the porch roof, and posts, etc. At the end she helped me carry it into the house, where we first tested it in the living room next to the old plastic one that Mema brought us from a tag sale way back when Ava was 3 and we still lived in Holyoke. The kids danced around it, Leo shouting “Cool!” and immediately Ava, Lily, Leo, and Viv got to decorating the interior and setting up the peoples. When Vivi saw how nice it was she repeated “Wow!” in that cute, very impressed way she has of communicating her 16 month satisfaction with something so big and important and grand.
Together Lily and I made a wood dollhouse measuring 24″ long by 24″ wide, and just about 24″ tall, with a 6 inch extended wrap-around porch. But in reality we did more than that. We made special memories and bonded together. We built something nice the other kids could enjoy. And the thing even fullfilled the girlhood dollhouse furniture dreams of my wife. Guess it really doesn’t get any better than that. Follow the link for more detailed building discussion and pics.
The Danish Way of Parenting: What the Happiest People in the World Know About Raising Confident, Capable Kids by Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl
The test of time has shown that all human beings are resilient. It is our ability to adapt to change that makes us resilient. Life around us is always changing in one way or another if we like it or not. Resilience is finding the light in the darkness, seeking opportunities in challenging times and being grateful for what is here in the moment.
Right now as we go through some very trying times it is all the more important to remind ourselves of our own resilience. Just getting out of bed, making a meal, taking care of your kids, calling your friend or neighbor, even getting dressed is an example of your own resilience. Resilience is taking a situation that seems out of your control and finding a way to reframe it. To pull out the positive, no matter how small it may be because history has shown that from extraordinary times come extraordinary people!
I have been struggling lately with finding my own resilience. My Aunt in New Jersey recently passed away from complications from COVID-19 and my 89 year old Nonna is in the hospital after suffering from a heart attack. I worry daily for her, for the possibility of contracting the virus while being in the hospital and in dealing with the realization that her health is fragile and the possibility that her health may be failing. To me, she has always been the symbol of resilience. I deeply admire how she has handled challenges in life with a calm, strong nature. She has persevered through so much and although it pains me right now that I can’t be there in the hospital holding her hand or giving her a giant hug and kiss, I have to remind myself that she is resilient and that she has taught me what it means to be resilient.
Resilience doesn’t mean acting like everything is ok when it isn’t or pretending that bad, upsetting things aren’t happening. It doesn’t mean you have to be stoic and not show grief, frustration or disappointment. It is looking at challenging situations that might be completely out of our control, acknowledging the fear, upset, anxiety or frustration and reframing how we may see them in a way that allows us to move forward with grace. It isn’t easy, but it is empowering. It is a beautiful gift we can teach ourselves and our children.
“It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily.
“So it is.”
“And freezing.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” said Eeyore.
“However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”
The Power of Reframing! A.A. Milne, Winnie-The-Pooh
One of my favorite books, The Danish Way of Parenting, speaks in a profound wisdom to the power of resilience, reframing and living in the moment. The Danes have been regarded as the happiest people for the past 70 years and it isn’t because life is easier for them, instead, it’s how they look at life. It is a fantastic read, not just for parents, but any individual who craves some simple, yet powerful advice about how to live in a better more resilient way! It is extremely empowering. The ability to reframe a stressful situation is an invaluable skill that can actually change your well being. The Danes have been doing this for centuries. They see being a master re-framer as a cornerstone of resilience! The Danes don’t go around pretending that negativity or bad things don’t exist, they just point out that another side side also exists focusing on the less negative aspects of situations reducing anxiety and increasing their overall wellbeing. Re-framing is a very powerful tool that can change our experience of the world.
Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the ‘me’ for the ‘we.’
Phil Jackson
At times I feel guilty for enjoying this unbelievable special time together with my husband and children. We are fortunate that we can be home together and that we can afford food and have shelter. I am so grateful for this slower pace and for this invaluable time we are spending together. Funny thing is, it’s something the Dane’s have been practicing for years. They call it hygge (pronounced “hooga” ) and they see it as a way of life. The Danes value time together with family and friends it is part of their cultural foundation. During these times they put their personal stressors aside and act in the moment with the ones they love. The Danes value hygge so highly because being connected to others gives meaning and purpose to our lives. They believe that the family is a team and encourage their children to be a part of the team by showing them how they can help and contribute. Encouraging cooperation and togetherness in our closest relationships makes everyone involved feel more secure and happy and brings an overall wellbeing to the family as a whole.
So, as we continue our time together in quarantine and facing a global pandemic, maybe, just maybe we can also build a community of resilience in our own homes and cultivate some of the happiest people in the world!
In Solidarity,
Adriana
And in case you needed another reminder of human resilience – check out this inspiring article from The New York Times about two extraordinary women who survived the Spanish Flu, The Depression and the Holocaust:
Just ask Eva Kollisch, left, and Naomi Replansky about survival and resilience. Credit…Mary-Elizabeth Gifford
This post is the opening of a series explaining our roots and our connection to parents and grandparents. I will try to describe the great teachers and loved ones that helped us learn, influenced our lives and how we teach and bring up our children as well.
This tale is regarding Mike Barbaro. I will try to show you a taste of his background, the family, his village in Italy, and the experiences that Mike has brought forth.
Adriana’s father, Michele Barbaro, has been a bright light for us.
For Adriana- of course- it is because he is her father, and for me, too- because he is my father-in-law. But he is so much more–his wife Kathy will tell you this (as she accompanies these stories on the same path with him, after-all). But then, Mike B is a bright light for everyone.
Mike’s life starts in a little village in Campagna, Italy: San Mango, and even smaller settlement there-in: Castagnetta. From there Mike and his parents: Nonna and Nonna, his uncles: Bill, Jerry, Frank, Tony and aunts: Rosa, Maria, Ava, Lina, Carmela, his best friend, Uncle Eddie, and so many relations, have unfolded into America, traced their roots, and welcomed us to share in their traditions, love and heritage, even their village home, itself. One year before we had children, Adriana and I visited the village, and slept in the same room Mike did when he was a child. The walls of field stone hugged us close and divided us snugly from the neighbor next door who we ate cheese with the next day in the little piazza.
We returned to the place in NJ where home had now continued to bloom all these years for Mike Barbaro and his family, and this video is a slice of that life -our life. This is the root still alive from a cutting made in the field where the cow used to graze under the fig tree in the little village.
One late Summer day the making of the wine was ceremoniously acted out together in a real sharing of tradition across the generations. The footage shows Fiori Nonno, and his wife Angelina Nonna, doing what they did every year (or at least someone from the family did every year): make wine. Adriana captured the spirit of the vino as Mike Barbaro- son of Fiori the Patriarch- reached out with his beloved parents to do again together what they did since he and Uncle Eddie were small boys in San Mango. And I, Mike from Massachusetts, got to tag along. I was working with Mike B at this time apprentice to building houses, setting tile, and learning carpentry. I also learned the wine.
When the storm clouds cover the sun. Remember: “Life is Good.” And let your light shine.
In the picture above the pineapple symbolizes welcoming. Welcome the breath of life. Take five deep breaths. Hold the good in -the star fish symbolize the life of the oceans, and the vastness of the constellations, count to 10, breath out the pain, the worry, the stress. Breathe in, hold. Picture the healing power of the cosmos flowing in-rainbow and sunrise colors. Breathe out, release the bad, push out all that is not empowering. Breathe in the good. Be one with the healing power of the greatness of life. 5 deep breaths are good. More are better. Breathe.
And remember, if you have fresh bread baked, the breathing experience is even better.
And breathing exercises strengthen your lungs. Lung exercise is good for the body to resist the virus.
Homeschool is never easy but seeing how your children grow and flourish is reward to keep going. During this unique time of dealing with the virus and social distancing, Adriana and I are reminded of how life’s challenges have led to rewards. We try to focus on the promise of experiences that tells us, “hard work will pay off.” I try to remember how perseverance can help us grow. This Virus is not easy, but we are grateful for what we have. This Pandemic has made me think about what matters in life: for me it is Family, the Love we share, and Being There for Others that may need our help.
In my last post I referenced Ghandi’s quote, “ Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
I am finding this translates for me in this time of hardship as “Be the Love you want to see in the world.”
As the mythical Greek bird, The Phoenix, rises from ashes, we can spread our wings and fly – if we have Love.
It’s kind of like all the extra things burn away and what is left behind is the truly important stuff.
It is how we climb the mountain, pull ourselves out of the darkness, overcome the virus in our lives— HOW we enact the change we wish to see in the world. Pain, suffering, hardship can be opportunity to help others, reflect on what’s important,—to love. The moments of great challenge in our lives can be the greatest opportunity to bring about change. We can change our priorities, what we focus our energy doing. Maybe we now see helping others as more pressing, being there for our families, pitching in to protect our neighbors, bring food and toilet paper to those that don’t have enough. Lily and Leo have both told me over the last few days how nice it is to have me around, to have time together. Last night over sugar cookies Ava made, Leo said, “Dad the one good thing about the virus is that you are around more!” and my phone had just beeped with a notification: a recent article in the WallStreet Journal echoing that sentiment:
In the darkness of our common struggle to overcome the virus, love shines a beacon of light for us traveling through this tunnel. Love warms us with the hopeful certainty that we will survive, —like Martin Luther King reminded us of his ancestors overcoming slavery, “We shall overcome”.
Great people like the big names like Ghandi, King, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Moses and the Isrealites, but also the less known like Adriana’s Nonno and Nonna who overcame the Great Depression and WWII, those special everyday people like mothers and teachers, and doctors and nurses and the clerk at the checkout counter at the food store who shows up to ensure we have food, all these people from famous to everyday folk: overcome life challenges to rise up stronger for their struggles to succeed and bring their light to the world. They let their love shine. Like the Bellamy Brothers sing: ”Let your love flow like a mountain stream.. Let your love fly like a bird on a wing and bind you to all living things. Let your love shine and you’ll know what I mean, that’s the reason…” They all let their love be the change they want to see in the world. (Listen to it here: https://youtu.be/J4Bl_VQ2inM)
Successful people both famous and those that don’t necessarily make the history books share a willingness to grow and overcome, willing to adapt and love in the face of challenges.
Life is different now and may never be the same again. The current Pandemic is terrible, but is also opportunity to rise up and overcome. This Covid-19 can for each of us, for all of us, be opportunity to create a positive change you wish to see in the world, in ourself, and in the lives of others.
Change in our lives both big and pandemic, or the more mundane- like a new job or life experience, brings opportunity to rise to the challenge, change and grow.
A few nights ago I had a dream. I was being chased by what I thought was a frightful enemy, a powerfully armed soldier. The warrior was a version of me, when I was a savage racing through the fields of life, selfish and focused on instincts and basic needs. When my dream double scaled the walls of the fort I was defending, my anarchy twin from the past tackled me: I stared up at a twisted reflection of myself.
It turned out he just wanted to compare notes. I diffused the attack by showing him a folder of artwork from our collective childhood. The beauty of crayon drawings and other artwork seemed to relieve the pressure and the folder full of lost school notes saved by a mothers proud love got us reminiscing together poring over these memories of the joys of childhood: simple love, beauty, trust, joy of discovery, shared friendships.
It turned out he didn’t want to kill me, he just wanted to catch up to me, to be me now, the older and wiser version of myself—the one that understands the value of love. I thought this was sort of like my subconscious was wishing I had gotten smarter earlier in life, wishing I had caught on to appreciating beauty and taking more seriously words of the wise, like, “Life is not lived at the top of the mountains. It is how you climb them that determines your being.” My old self wished to have the love I shared with my kids, my wife. He just wanted to be loved, and “to live in love with Love”.
In youth, in the past, I made mistakes, I was blinded by self-interest and burned myself and others in fires I started. However I grew out of the mistakes, I fell down, and learned to get up and keep climbing, if I fell again, I didn’t land so far down, and got back up. People helped me, those loved ones there for me pitched in and lent me a hand up. I have come to realize we are in this together—its about Love. I help someone else and then they from their unique foothold and perspective on the mountain of life can help me again gain some ground: a perpetual motion karma ferris wheel.
Much like when Adriana and I were married-my single life passed on, and a new shared life was created. Adriana and I help each other adapt to challenges—like home school, like surviving kids, like paying the bills. Married life brought challenges we worked to overcome and we grew to be stronger together. When our oldest, Ava was born, life changed, we worked through the challenging birth experience, the sleepless nights, learning to nurture and sustain another little life. Our old life was over and a new more rewarding “Parent” life began. It wasn’t easy but the pain brought out a beautiful life in who we grew to become, and in Ava, herself, in all her unique beauty. Out of the death of our old selves, grew new stronger more beautiful life forces.
So now more than ever, in this time of isolation and pain, suffering and death, challenges and heroic efforts to rise up and overcome, I have paused to consider the pure simple splendor of Life.
The hardship helps me see the simple beauty. What can I do today to unleash goodness? How can I pitch in to add to the river of healing current? What can I share in and boost in power by working with other people facing these challenges? Together Let’s Be the Change we wish to see in the World. Let’s be the Love we want to see. Let’s be the Route together.
As many of you might be doing the same right now, I’m trying to go to the food store as little as possible. When I do have to go, I stock up on as many non perishable goods that will stretch a meal a lot longer. This can be a creative challenge when you have a family of six and if your husband and son are always ravenous! Some things I’ve found very helpful during this time are getting in touch with our community Co-ops and CSAs to see what is available in bulk.
My neighbor recommended a fantastic local co-op where I could get bulk grains, dried beans, coffee, dairy products, nuts and honey for wholesale prices. I put in an order that should be ready this coming week and can’t wait for my 50lb bag of All Purpose Flour! As I posted before, we have become a bit of a bakery around here! Fresh bread is in the oven every other night.
Another idea for those who haven’t checked it out are CSA’s (Community Sustained Agriculture) – local farms in which you can join for a fee and receive weekly shares of fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy products, etc. If you haven’t checked them out, they are a great way to support local farmers in your area, know where your food is coming from, and avoid shopping at the supermarkets. The wait in our area to have a delivery by one of the large box stores is about a month! Since I wanted to get a few other things that weren’t available through the co-op, I contacted our local mom and pop market in town to see if they might deliver and they are doing just that! It wasn’t something I thought about before, but am now able to purchase some staple items, some from local companies and have it delivered to our doorstep with a 5 day wait time and $10 charge for delivery. Not bad. We set up a bin outside our mudroom door with a sign letting the delivery person know to leave all deliveries there for us. This allows us to weed through what can sit out (non perishable) and wash and/or disinfect the other items that need to be refrigerated. Just one more thing to do to help keep our family safe (it might be an extra step not totally necessary), but for me right now, nothing seems like too much to keep our family and community safe.
Here’s a great link to help you find CSA’s and Co-op’s in the United States
If you need a little more inspiration about getting back to basics, check out the YouTube series: Great Depression Cooking with Clara, a 98 year old cook whose grandson Christopher Cannucciari began filming in 2007 preparing her mother’sDepression meals.
It is a lovely reminder of how our families lived during WWI and II and during the great depression. They knew what if meant to be resilient, to go without, to stretch a meal and to live a little simpler during higher times of stress and uncertainty.
Home school: A reflection on freedom and the love of learning.
An opinion piece by Michael Powell
“Learning is optional. Education is natural.” -North Star School.
Truly, In life you’re always learning, but education doesn’t have to be in a classroom.
Most would agree the most natural way of learning is hands-on. Not just trying out skills in the real world, but getting involved with other people seems to be where the most rewarding education happens. The exposure to others and interaction with people becomes the central aspect of education.
We often think of a teacher as just a single individual educator in a classroom setting, but in reality multiple teachers throughout the walks of life guide and help us learn.
Young and old alike, those your age and those older and younger than you, can teach you more then any one teacher in a classroom setting.
Education is constant. Life, itself, is education. When you stop learning you stop living. Studies have shown that those who retire at 65 -for instance, start to find that without something to do such as a daily occupation-without the daily interaction and learning that a job provides, they lose their sharpness, their focus, their drive, and start to disintegrate and fade out mentally.
So working keeps you sharp, and its that work ethic that keeps you going.
Unfortunately the modern-day classroom tends to create such a dependency, a worker who has become attached to a specific career. The student sits in the classroom in order to to get a job and education is forced,not for the sake of learning, but for a reward, a grade, and ultimately a paycheck. And so it seems that all too often when people have worked their way to retirement age, they no longer know how to sustain themselves. They have forgotten how to learn for the sake of self fulfillment. They sit in front of the television. They don’t do anything. They vegetate. They don’t keep their mind active because the natural ability to self educate has been repressed.
This is what makes homeschooling so empowering. We are freeing our students. Homeschool allows a student to nurture and develop natural ability. The freedom to explore, to be hands on and interact with a range of teachers in daily life is the natural path for self fulfilling education for life. When we educate ourselves we find education in our interests. Our interaction with others becomes like a symbiosis of teacher and student. When we homeschool, we give the opportunity to our children to be life long learners, allowing them to fall in love with becoming each day more complete with the opportunity to share in the wonders of the world.
This is Michael Powell. Small business owner. Father of 4. Homeschool dad and husband. Carpenter, creator of useful and interesting things. I fix real world problems, bring about transformative home improvements, and always push forward in the face of adversity.
Reporting to you now in the midst of week x of the virus shut down.
I am currently focusing on Ways to Survive.
Ways to Survive a Virus Pandemic
Humor.
I will be attempting to introduce a certain kind of lost comic strip to my daily living.
Here’s one I came up with yesterday when my daughter Lily (Art Projects Kid) and son Leo (Full-Speed-Ahead Kid) decided to make a nice little kitty nest Lily found in a craft book. This powerful duo cut a entry hole in a cardboard box (diaper delivery box), Lily sewed a little pillow made out of a kitty-cat fabric she got from her Secret Santa, George (my brother Sam’s son), with the Brother sewing machine that sits on Ava’s desk (Ava is Well-Read-One) in the room the two girls share (used to be my office until it was painted a ocean teal color and a dangled crystal chandelier installed). Then they padded the inside bed with a small blanket, rested in the yellow kitty cat print pillow, and wrapped the whole thing into Lily’s pink inside- out hand printed, “I’m a big sister” shirt she made to announce Vivienne’s impending arrival 2 years ago. And then they sprinkled cat-nip in it to entice the feline siblings: Daisy (our female white cat with black spots) and/or Molasses (our tiger grey bushy runt of the litter Lily fell in love with when he was but the size of chipmunk). They were both a bit big for the nest, but eagerly attempted in turn to fit inside. This created an executive decision on the part of the household as we were all engaged in this activity by now to expand the footprint of the kitty nest, bringing in a secondary wing taped to the former allowing a bit more scratching room to shed and nestle.
Epic: Books for Kids
Here’s the funny part:
My son decided to test the digs to make sure it was suitable for cat habitation. They had placed the nest on the coffee table I made for the living room and he proceeded to stick his head inside to determine the merits of the pillow, the softness of the blanket, the subtlety of the natural light filtering in through the pink shade of the cotten-T, and it was good. So good in fact we had to pull him out, kicking and elbowing, refusing to come to the table to eat the wonderful meal Adriana had prepared: sauteed shrimp Nonno had brought last visit, mixed with fettuccine.
Comic strip: Fix it Dad to the rescue
“My house feels so small; I’m getting Claustrophobic. Ahhhh!” Says the Mother
Fix-it Dad. “Here Honey I built you an escape nest, kida like your own room to get away from the kids, like that time in the Cosby Show Cliff made
that room for Claire.”
The Mom puts the nest on her head and heads for the couch.
The house is full of giggles whenever we make egg heads! This is a simple and fun craft for any age.
What you need:
Egg Shells: Try to only break off the top and leave as much egg shell as possible. Clean the egg shell out and put back in the egg carton.
Make some Egg Head Faces using marker and google eyes if you have them
Dirt or cotton ball: dampen a cotton ball and put it in the egg shell or add moistened dirt
Seeds: We used wheat berries and chia seeds, grass seeds work too (they all will continue to grow so if you like, you can give your egg head a haircut)! Sprinkle the seeds on top of the cotton ball or dirt and keep moist, but don’t over water. Place in a sunny spot.
In a couple days your Egg Heads should start to grow some hair!
Be The Route 