8 Hours in DC. What I saw - more or less.

Arriving in DC. (11 am)

Metro station at airport (11:05 am)

Metro station at Gallery Place/Chinatown (11:20am),
followed by lunch, and a meeting at the National Park Service's Historic Landmarks
Program (noon - 3 pm)

The White(ish) House. Didn't get shot. (3:30)

The FBI Building. They're celebrating their 100th anniversary. (4 pm)

The Newseum (4:15 - ish)

I.M Pei's addition the the National Gallery (4:25 - ish)

Andy Goldsworthy at the National Gallery

Alexander Calder at the National Gallery

The Capitol Building (4:45 pm or so)

I came all the way to Washington to discover... The Canadian Museum of Civilization! This, actually, is the Museum of the American Indian. (4:50 or so). Here's the CMC in Ottawa/Hull...

Canadian Museum of Civilization. (JPDaigle's Photostream, www.flickr.com)

The Smithsonian Castle (5:00pm)

The Washington Monument. (5:10)

Abe. (5: 25)

Maya Lin's Vietnam War Memorial (5:45), followed by a subway ride from Foggy Bottom(!) station on the George Washington University Campus back to the Airport. Check in at 6:40.

Pre-flight dinner - a slice of Jerry's Cheese Pizza, two Advil and a bottle of water. (7 pm)

Almost forgot, saw this too. Lunchtime with the Decider!


.

The last 5 or 6 months. In no particular order.

The Tiffany Court Garden in Kanata (September 2008)

Eero Saarinen's Kresge Chapel on the MIT Campus (May 2008)

The Basilica Cisterns (Yerebetan Sarayi) in Istanbul (June, 2008)

Authentic Chinese cuisine, near Harvard Square in Boston (May 2008)

Tuomiokirkko, Helsinki (July 2008)

Boonika's Swimming Pool in Kanata (August 2008)

Poutine. Hmmmmmm. Only at Harvey's. Ottawa (August 2008)

The Topkapi Palace, Istanbul (May 2008)

Kickin' it. Rural Style in Ottawa (August, 2008)

July 4th fireworks, St. Louis Park (July 2004)

Boston at night, over the Charles River (May 2008)

Crossing the Bosphorus (An Homage to Ara Guler, May 2008)

Saint Anthony Falls Park (October 2008)

The Lion's favourite hairband (at present) (September 2008)

The Blue Mosque, Hippodrome and Egyptian Obelisk from the Museum of Islamic Arts, Istanbul (April 2008)

There was a deer in the park. To her left (October 2008)

Kiasma - Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (July 2008)

The Lion, My Better Half (MBH), and the Lamb, on the Stone Arch Bridge, Minneapolis (October 2008)

The Great Theatre at Ephesus, Turkey (June 2008)

The Lamb and the Lion at the Minneapolis Zoo, delighted with 'Coconut,' the Australian Cockatoo

The Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (June, 2008)

The Mill District and Ruins (October, 2008)

The Lamb's Office (October 2008)

Helsinki/Helsingfors Railway Station, Helsinki, Finland (July 2008)

The courtyard of the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Cami), Istanbul (May 2008)

Playroom damage - after a dinner with friends (October 2008)

A show I co-curated on Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Minneapolis (October 2008)

Summer on the lawn (September, 2008)

Breakfast conversation snippet last week:

Parents to the Lamb: "Why are you taking off your pajamas?!"

The Lamb: "because it's covered in SNOT!"

(hysterical laughter)

Five now.

This picture makes me cry. I cry now because I know that I will look back at this picture later, and cry then. That this picture to me is her youth, her innocence, her joy. I know there will come a day when she will be so altered from this. That the child will barely be recognizable in the woman that she will become. Looking at this photo I know I will miss this child. So loving. So soft. Living in a world where her mother's love is enough to make her feel special.

I know that I will ache to have her back.

I would keep this 5 year-old forever. I wish I could.

Hello. Twice in 2 days.

It has been a gorgeous day here in Minn. The day started out wet and cold, and the Lion Cub started out with a fever and somewhat cranky attitude... but all things improved over the course of the day, alhamdulillah. This afternoon we found ourselves outside in the front yard, just hanging out in the sun, blowing on dandelions... always a HUGE bonus when you had pretty much expected the day to be painfully long and cabin-feverish.


Not bad for October.

Update and, er, teaching styles?

I got this link from a friend's blog, and I couldn't resist posting it here. Too funny.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/28/obama-supporters-adopting_n_109788.html

I promise a *real* kid-centered blog post soon. With pictures. There has been so much going on with our little family around here since we got back from Ottawa. Ramadan, preschool, Eid, Lamb's birthday...

Taking the kids back and forth to school all week (4 out of 5 weekdays) takes up a lot more time than I had originally thought, but it's worth it. I am still happy with the program they are in, and extremely happy with their teachers. It's great to watch them make new friends and settle into their own relationships, outside of my 'influence'. Watching them take their tiny little steps of 'independence' is so incredibly satisfying for me. Once a week Teacher M sits down and shares with all the parents what their kids were up to at preschool etc. I was surprised to hear the Lamb is taking charge quite a bit , including rallying other kids to do big group projects together in their class time. I feel blessed that she will have had 3 whole years of preschool to gain this confidence with other kids and find her social identity (that sounds so Psychology Major of me, doesn't it? But studies show that it's at 4-6 years old that children develop a sense of who they are as they relate to other people). As for the Lion Cub, I think she was born with a strong social identity. She pretty much prances into the preschool room and searches out her little friends, very happily indeed.

In our last chat with Teacher M, she talked about inquiry-based learning, which is the philosophy she practices in the classroom. Basically it's what it sounds like, learning based on inquiry - that of the student. She follows the interests of the class and tries to supply information/supplement their learning of those particular interests. She also believes that children often already KNOW the answer to a lot the questions they ask us. Or at least they should be encouraged to try to figure out an answer. (critical thinking/problem solving, etc etc etc... This explains to me why she always answers every question with a question, which I've been wondering for the last 2 years, lol.)

So, to give you an example, the children last year had this thing where they played 'airplane' a lot. She went to the library and brought back more books about aircraft and flight to supplement her classroom library. As they got more interested she asked a pilot to come in and talk to the kids and answer questions. Then an aerospace engineer. When the focus switched to construction and buildings the books switched too, and the Professor went in to answer questions (and draw funny things for them on the chalk board, standard practice). And the children really seem to respond well to it. I think it creates a discussion, one in which they are actively involved. They may ask "why?" or "how?" and instead of just providing an answer, she asks first "what do YOU think?" or "how do you think we could find that out?"

Anyway, I thought I'd throw that out there for all you homeschoolers in the fam. I'm curious to know, is this something you practice? I mean, CAN you practice this sort of approach past a preschool level? Wouldn't you run the risk of creating giant gaps in what your children are learning? I mean, what if they are never really "intrigued" by math? I really enjoyed the things she said and the more I thought about it the more it seemed like the very best way to learn. Start with a question. And GO. More questions come. More answers too. Food for thought.

Sweet dreams!