Monthly Archives: February 2012

The 100 languages of children

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Today I’m sharing a poem I’ve come across recently (Sorry, can’t credit where. I tried looking but can’t find the original post.) and that’s been playing through my mind as we’re currently having issues with preschool. It’s been tough on Sprout, and on us as well. I honestly don’t know what the best course of action for this year is. Pulling him out of school brings along issues of its own, plus we otherwise have a hard time exposing him to French language sufficiently given we’re in a very International, predominantly English speaking milieu. It’s such a pity the schools I absolutely loved (namely Montessori and Roots and Wings) are either obscenely expensive or only English language.

The Hundred Languages of Children

The child is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.

A hundred.

Always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.

The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.

They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

-Loris Malaguzzi
Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach

Related posts:

  1. A new school year
  2. Babel Kid
  3. “Schools” for Sprout – international or not?
  4. A multilingual Sprout

Toddler Backpack: 2 weeks overdue

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This post was written two weeks ago. I was actually finishing it when R got home with the terrible news that my father had passed away, prompting an urgent two week trip to Portugal. I couldn’t bring myself to press publish with all that was going on. We’re back now and life must go on, however hard that may be. I just wanted to say this because I’m not one of those people that can just proceed business as usual when things just don’t feel well, so I felt I needed to share this sadder part too.

I’m a procrastinator. That doesn’t always work out well, and this little backpack is proof of that. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I spend months in advance planning things out, sometimes even organizing materials to get things done. It’s the part where things leave my brain to gain a life of their own which usually gets me. I picked up this lovely Marimekko fabric on our trip to Sweden last June, with the sole purpose of making this backpack for Sprout’s first day of school. I believe I purchased Made by Rae’s Toddler backpack sewing pattern even before that. But you know, I still had soooo much time. So why not just leave it for exactly the week before school starts. You know, with all the other running around to get things. Like a normal, sane person would do. Right?

Oh, I had big plans for this little backpack. I decided I was going to laminate the fabric myself. I bough the vlieseline stuff to do so ages ago. And laminate it I did! What a total disaster!!! I can’t quite say what went wrong. I think I applied it properly. The Marimekko fabric was OK (but not brilliant) but the red fabric (supposedly 100% cotton) puckered a bit. No biggie though, thought I. Until I got to sewing. It was like sewing plastic. Don’t get me wrong, I have sewn oilcloth and laminates before, but this was strange. It felt as though the needle was breaking the laminate. But I persevered, because I’m stubborn  determined like that. Just as I was FINISHING the whole thing, I realized there was no way it would ever hold up. The plastic was tearing in places and it was damn hard to sew the last curvy parts. This was the weekend before school started. So I washed his old backpack and gave up on the idea of having a new one for the first day of school.

It was a very involved process, but I’m really glad I stuck with it. It’s not perfect because the thin cotton fabric stretched a bit when ripping off the laminate

But I didn’t give up on the backpack. Oh, no! And I love this expensive beautiful fabric too much to just cut up a new one. So, I tore it all apart unpicked ALL the piping, unstuck ALL the laminate and started over.

And I’m glad I did. It’s not perfect by any means. The thin cotton fabric stretched out a bit when ripping out the laminate, which threw things off a bit, especially in comparison to the canvas I used as an underlining (the Marimekko was too thin on its own). It’s a bit wonky and still missing the lining, but Sprout wanted to use it asap. Here is the unfinished inside:

I’ll share it again when the lining is finally in. Which, you know, can be next year or something ;)

Related posts:

  1. Sewing for Sprout – boy’s romper
  2. A new school year
  3. kcwc output: 1 pajama
  4. Travelling with a toddler