Camp Creek Press

I had a very good e-mail conversation about the art lessons and how focused we grown-ups tend to be on getting to the end and having something good to show.

This parent confessed that they feel filled with nervous energy when they try to sit down with their child to draw ... and also that they feel like jumping up and running on to the next "stage" and getting beyond drawing.

We talked about letting go of the end product — even the skill we're supposed to be acquiring — and just being in the moment while we're drawing with our children. Just mellowing out — breathing. Feeling the sun. Listening to the scratch of pencil on paper.

There is a certain peace that comes with repetition. It's not about charging through the lessons and getting to the end — and graduating, so to speak. It's about finding things to do together that are peaceful, focused, meaningful. Working together side by side. The pleasure of each other's company.

We are finally going to separate the boys and give them their own sleeping areas. (I can't say "bedrooms" - I'm not allowed to say "bedrooms" because, as the boys point out archly, we have no walls.) I'm a little sad about this. (sniff) Already? Already they need their own space?

So, just throwing this out there - anyone have any advice about loft beds? Jack wants a loft bed, so we're on the hunt. I think we're willing to maybe build one, too, if we could find directions online that didn't seem too difficult and that had good reviews.

Breaking up their shared desk is so bittersweet to me. Everything they've had thus far has been shared. Wah!

As soon as Christmas is over, I'm ready for spring.

Since the solstice, just a few days before Christmas, marks the official first day of winter, well, I usually don't get my way.

This week, however, we are having completely unseasonably warm weather. We don't need to put on a coat to go outside and fill the bird feeders. The bottom land has all flooded, leaving us with a lovely, sparkly view of water from every window. And we had a wonderful, long nighttime session of star viewing.

A couple of great star-gazing books are H.A. Rey's The Stars: A New Way to See Them (for older children and adults) and Find the Constellations (for younger children).

H.A. Rey is also, of course, the writer and illustrator (with his wife Margaret) of the Curious George books. I love his illustration style in these books about the stars.

Here's an interesting tidbit from his Wikipedia page:

Whether they are aware of it or not, millions of amateur astronomers see the constellations through Rey's eyes. Before the 1952 publication of Rey's The Stars: A New Way to See Them (ISBN 0-395-24830-2), star charts used a conventional set of diagrams that seemed arbitrary, were hard to remember, and relied on dim stars that, regrettably, are hard to see today in populated areas. Rey invented a new set of constellation diagrams that corresponded to what could be seen from a suburban backyard on an ordinary night. He was successful in finding shapes that could really be seen as cartoonish depictions of the creature or character the constellations was supposed to represent—or, at least, were memorable. His constellation diagrams were widely adopted and now appear in many astronomy guides, such as Menzel's A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets. As of 2003 The Stars: A New Way to See Them, and a simplified presentation for children called Find the Constellations, are still in print.