Let's play guess the costume

I'm making Leah's costume today. Can you guess who she wants to be?

National candidates in Dayton, OH

Several weeks ago, my son attended Senator McCain's rally here in Dayton, where he announced Governor Palin as his running mate. My son's very cool teacher, who is teaching about the elections, somehow secured VIP tickets for 23 third graders. It's true: I learned who the GOP running mate was from my eight year old! It's interesting to live in a battleground state in an election year, where your chances of seeing national candidates in person are very good.

Well, on Thursday, Senator Obama also had a rally, and the 3rd grade class couldn't go this time. So I decided Jacob and I would have a little field trip of our own. I took him out of school, and he, my father and I went downtown to the Fifth Third Field and joined the enormous line that snaked around the building. I wasn't sure we'd get in, but we did. Jacob and I cheered, clapped, ate peanuts, waved our American flags, bought campaign buttons from a vendor outside the ball field, and had a great time. I'm so glad we went. We decided he's one of a very few people in Dayton who have been to both campaigns' rallies.

My father was visiting from Washington state, and he decided to come along with us. This added an interesting element to the field trip. as my father is a life-long conservative Republican. Of course he was the good sport and gentleman that he always is. He did have a couple of sarcastic comments just loud enough for me to hear, and he spent a good part of the rally working a crossword puzzle, lest I should think for a moment that he was drinking the Kool-Aid.

The photos are actually on his camera, which I don't yet have. I'll try to post them soon.

It was a good day. And now I have this excellent fashion accessory from now until Nov 4th.

Nurturing Parenting website

Here is the website for the Nurturing Parenting curriculum. I'm just digging into it, learning about its founder Dr. Stephen Bavolek and so forth, but so far it looks good good good. I will be using the coursework for teen parents, naturally.

The latest from the universe

Remember when I was thinking about how to reach underserved, inner-city parents and their babies with Kindermusik? Remember how just as I was thinking of this, I heard the story of Geoffrey Canada and his parenting programs in Harlem? Remember how I decided to try to do something like that in Dayton?

Well.

I had called the Miami Valley Literacy Council, where I was so gratified to learn that they remembered me from volunteer work I did with infant Jacob in my arms, when we lived here years ago. I remember what a great parent you were, said the director. I almost cried to hear that. We all have moments when we don't feel like a marvelous parent, and I feel like I've had a few of those moments lately. And here was someone who actually remembered me for that quality.

Well.

It turns out that on the same day I called MVLC, they received a big grant for a parenting program for teen parents. They needed a qualifed teacher, but part time. I went and met with them today. They hired me.

I'm now going to teach the Nurturing Parenting curriculum three days a week to teen mothers at an alternative high school in downtown Dayton. I'll still be able to drop off my children and pick them up from school every day.

They want me to work with the curriculum however I see fit, working in lots of musical songs and games and literacy building and lots of things that I'm dreaming up right now as I type.

I think I have just found out why I moved to Dayton.

Required Reading

I am reading Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America. Paul Tough, a journalist who specializes in reporting on education, spent 5 years researching and shadowing Canada, who has done simply amazing things for the children of central Harlem. He calls his program The Harlem Children's Zone. It's a new approach to social services, bold and sweeping and...working. Sometimes it's a hard read--there is no sugar coating here--but really, read this one.

Or, if you'd prefer a quick overview, go to This American Life, and click on "Full Episode" under "Going Big." The feature on Canada is the first portion of the program. Better yet, go straight to The Harlem Children's Zone website.

A quick story: I had been thinking about how to bring Kindermusik to the underserved of Dayton, OH. Like most rust belt cities, Dayton has a large inner city population that's living below the poverty line. People who've probably never heard of early childhood music education or its benefits, and even if they had, they couldn't afford it. I was brainstorming possible grant sources while I was doing the dishes on Sunday, envisioning teen parents and their new babies learning songs and rhymes and strategies and TOOLS for their daunting new parenting journey, and the radio show I was half-listening to turned to the story linked above. It was about Geoffrey Canada, who, among other innovations, decided that he had to reach children right at birth or even before, or it was too late. He began Baby College, the foundation of The Harlem Children's Zone, where parents come to...learn songs and rhymes and strategies and TOOLS for their daunting new parenting journey.

Well, I started to weep. Sometimes the universe makes your path really obvious, and this felt like one of those moments. So I've been making phone calls and surfing Dayton social service websites. So far, dead ends. It's discouraging, but stay tuned. I'm not done yet.

Our love affair with Young Child, Semester 3

Leah is three classes into Kindermusik for the Young Child, semester 3. She Loves It So Much. She thinks the dulcimer is vastly superior to the glockenspiel. She comes home from school and plays it a lot, alternating with the piano, on which she makes up tunes. You can tell she's just proud to have a mountain dulcimer, in a way she never did about the glockenspiel. And she (and I) love Miss Kim. It's a bit of a drive over to Centerville for her Monday afternoon class, and worth every mile. I'm SO GLAD she can finish the Kindermusik series, even though we moved. We moved to Alabama just before Jacob's last year of Kindermusik, and he didn't get to finish--I would have had to drive 1 1/2 hours, each way, to Troy University. (Leah could still take her younger class--the Kindermusik program in Montgomery just didn't offer Young Child.) It's a testiment to how much I love Kindermusik that I nearly did that drive. I still kind of wish I did. Kindermusik is worth long drives.

In which this blog gets political

In case it's too small to read, the sign says HOPE.

For context for this photo, please watch this video.

I'm an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama, and I look forward to voting for him in just a few short weeks. I believe he's a principled, brilliant, and capable leader.

This is no small thing for me, to announce my political leanings on this blog. First, I originally viewed this blog and an extension of my marketing for my Kindermusik program in Arlington, VA, and therefore not a place for political comment. Well, now that I'm in Ohio and I'm not yet teaching Kindermusik again, the blog has truly become (let's be honest) just about me me me. Well, it was starting to feel duplicitous to write posts that sounded like I was sharing what was really on my mind, when the truth is I've been thinking a great, great deal about this election and my views on it. So, I decided to declare myself.

Second, I was raised by wonderful, loving parents who also happen to be right-wing republicans. I would even call them Red Dog Republicans, to paraphrase Anne LeMott--meaning they would vote for a mangy old red dog before they would vote for a Democrat. It's been a long journey for me to figure out my personal world view and my political leanings, and while I'm certainly still figuring things out, I have been for a while now clearly and definitely (and now loudly) in the Democratic camp.

This should make things interesting around the Thanksgiving supper table.

Whoever you are and whatever your views, please vote on November 4th!