Seedy Strategic Planning

Maureen asked if I'm a target setter. Bradley thinks I must be.

But... I called myself a dandelion seed. I am SO sorry, Craver. ;-)


Dandelion photo, stolen from Craver. (sorry again :)

One Small Match

You can find me today at...




Red Berries on the Thorns photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Conversations on Creativity

How do you promote creativity in children? That's one question Christy Tennant asked me in her IAM Conversations podcast.

I tried to answer her question.

What I didn't get 'round to saying is that I believe children need authentic opportunities to share their work. This blog is one place I provide that for my children; they truly love hearing your feedback about their art and writing.

Also, to my great pleasure, when International Arts Movement discussed doing InsideOut: poems with me, they requested that I include a poem from each of my girls, and maybe some of Sara's art (in all, she ended up providing four illustrations).

And so it is. The children's creativity has been nurtured just a little bit more by providing opportunity. They've collaborated on a project that's open for the world to see.


Sisters in Conversation pen and ink, by Sara. Used with permission.

$10 Challenge: Will They Eat the Bunnies?

A FREE cup of coffee for $20? How could I resist? Maybe if I took the $10 challenge, I'd get lucky too...

Okay, so I've been looking for opportunities to bless somebody with just $10 this Christmas season. Nothing really moved me.

Then I got the World Vision Gift catalog in the mail. And I knew. I'd give my two girls each $10 to spend. Or they could combine their efforts with a $20 gift. We would decline the in-honor-of-gift-cards from World Vision and just do it to do it.

It soon became apparent that inflation has hit the do-good gift world. Most items in the catalog were at least $20; it didn't seem fair to make the girls choose one gift together after promising the possibility of each choosing her own.

No worries, maybe I could get an even bigger cup of coffee for FREE if I spent more. $20 per girl. That should do it.

We talked bunnies (oh wait, Sonia worried, they might get eaten!). We talked chickens; chickens are good. Eggs and all. They might not reproduce though, which would limit the reach of the gift (okay, without a rooster the chances are pretty slim on the we'll-make-more issue).

Sara finally decided she wanted to give art and music supplies, in line with her love for these things. But Sonia was still undecided. Bunnies facing extinction? Seeds that might be genetically modified? (Yeah, even the underaged of the household here think on these things.) Or... what about... fruit trees?

Mangoes. Oranges. Shade. Seedlings to make more fruit trees for more families. All from 5 fruit trees for... $30 (now I had to pretend that I had allotted myself $10 too and that I'd pool mine with Sonia's $20).

Only I could do math like this. Art and music and fruit, for a $10 challenge, for a grand total of $50. All things considered it seems like a bargain. And besides, I'm going to get that free cup of coffee. Now all I have to do is fly to Texas for it.


World Vision Catalog photo, by L.L. Barkat.

12 Day Celebration: Social Media Guys

Watching social media trends is part of my job at HighCallingBlogs. I love that.

But social media is one fast horse to keep up with. This is why I appreciate having cool friends I can rely on to point me to great ideas, articles, books. Without even knowing it, they act as sifters and sorters (hey guys, did you know that?).

And as a plus, I get to enjoy their poetry. And their love of good art in its many forms.

Who'm I talking about?

Glynn Young and Marcus Goodyear. They're both passionate about what they do and write. They're smart thinkers in business and social media.

Merry Christmas, guys! Thanks for making my job easier. And a whole lot funner and poetic than it'd be without you.

___

Who do you appreciate in the blogosphere, and why? Celebrate them with us...




Watching the Water photo, by L.L. Barkat.

THE 12 DAYS:
1. Mary's Advent
2. Laura in the Moss
3. Social Media Guys (this post)
4. Snow-White Butterfly Tree
5. Butterflies and Parties
6. Let Me Not Forget
7. Hey, Have I Met You?

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them, ruthlessly.

We should treat creativity with the same status as we do literacy.

If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. By organizing education so the worse thing is to be wrong, we are educating people out of their creative capacities.

The arts are at the bottom of the academic value system.

Our task is to educate a child's whole being.

These are some of the claims Ken Robinson makes in this TED talk. I tend to agree with him. But you probably guessed that a long time ago.