Category: children

adventure, child, childhood, children, creativity, discovery, inspiration, travel

Leap: Have a Little Awe

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” ~ Albert Einstein

I spend time with my nieces, Lorelei and Aubree, because I love them. I also spend time with them because I am incredibly selfish. They are a constant reminder to me that life is filled with the exciting, the unexpected, and the unprecedented. There are millions of surprises just waiting for us. The world wants to astound us, to make us wonder and wander. It wants us to be free and open to its magic, to follow its lead into the miraculous and previously unimagined. My nieces remind me of all of that whenever they see something I have seen a million times before and regard it with amazement.

Show up with a full heart, open eyes, and perked up ears. You won’t be disappointed. You’ll be inspired.

books, children, creativity, dreams, encouragement, hope

Beginning: Push Through In Spite of the Chatter

Christa Avampato
Shel Silverstein

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me … Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ~ Shel Silverstein from Where The Sidewalk Ends via Dailygood

My friends Leah and Peter are having their first baby in January. (That lucky little one has two of the most amazing people in the world as parents!) I recently went to their baby shower and instead of a card we were asked to bring books to get their baby’s library started. I went to the bookstore near my office and by the end of it found myself with not a book but a stack of books after a solid hour in the children’s book section. (I finally settled on Goodnight, Moon and several Dr. Seuss books for Leah and Peter.)

I find this genre incredibly inspiring because it reminds me of a time when I fully believed that anything was possible – I could be an astronaut, a paleontologist (which was my childhood occupation of choice), or a brain surgeon. I could travel the world, live on top of a cloud, or discover an underwater civilization. There were no boundaries and books were my way of traveling across the universe. They still are.

Shel Silverstein remains one of my favorites for his optimism and eternal belief that we all have something to give. As we turn the page to 2012 and I turn much more of my attention to the work my life was meant for, his words will be comforting in the low moments and encouraging as I make my way up this “great big hill of hope.” And isn’t that what all our best adventures come down to – pushing on and pushing through despite all the mustnt’s, don’ts, shouldn’ts, impossibles, won’ts, and never haves? We have to continue to have faith in the idea that anything, absolutely anything, can be if it’s what we truly want and what the world truly needs.

Those words – push through, push through – will be ringing in my mind over and over again every step of the way in 2012.

child, childhood, children, clarity, encouragement, failure

Beginning: My 4-Year Old Niece Taught Me That There is Always a Reason to Try

Christa Avampato
Lorelei and I at her Fall Festival. She got her face painted like a butterfly.

I spent the Thanksgiving holidays in Florida, and got a lot of time with my 4-year old niece, Lorelei. She likes to play the game I call “Touch the Ceiling” where she asks me to reach way up on my tip-toes and then jump to see if I can touch the ceiling. I’m 5’2″ and the ceilings in my niece’s house are at least 10 feet if not more. My vertical is decent but it’s not that good.

I laughed the first time she asked me to do that and told her that I couldn’t touch the ceiling because I was too short. “Well, you could always try,” she said to me. This back and forth happened multiple times over the holidays. Lorelei would ask me to do something like figure out how to fly up into the sky, put both feet behind my head, and open up a seemingly un-openable bottle cap. Each time I would say I didn’t think I could do it, and each time she would tell me I could try. And she was right – we have nothing to lose by trying.

After this exchange happened a few times, Lorelei got me thinking about all of the times I say to myself, “Oh, I just don’t think this is going to work.” And then I remember her wise and wonderful counsel – give it a go and maybe I’ll surprise myself. And what’s the worse that will happen? I won’t make it, and that’s okay, too. At least I gave it a shot. Failure isn’t as bad a we make it out to be. 

I have a sneaking suspicion that this advice will serve me well in the new year. I hope it helps you, too.

(Thanks to Yoga Freedom’s prompt yesterday through Reverb11. The question “What lesson or piece of wisdom did you learn from a child this year? Did it surprise you?” inspired this post. And thanks to Jeffrey Davis for suggesting that I participate in Reverb11 through Yoga Freedom. So glad I took that advice!)

children, dreams, imagination

Beginning: My Niece’s Quest to be Mary Poppins

Christa Avampato

Flick user OhWhataChristy
Last week I spent a lot of time with my two nieces, Lorelei and Aubree, who are 3 and 1 respectively. Lorelei has a new-found obsession with the original Mary Poppins movie. She watches it with such intensity, and then sings the songs and mimics all of the movements. Her laser beam focus, which she’s had since she was a baby, is something to behold. I always wonder exactly what she’s thinking as she observes so keenly.

We were out in front of her house last week, drawing chalk pictures on the drive way and playing with her fancy umbrella and tricycle.
She turned to me and said, “Nan (that’s her nickname for me), can you help me get up there?”

“Where, Lorelei?” I asked her

She pointed at the sky. “Up there. Way up there. Like Mary Poppins.”

“Honey, I don’t know how to fly like Mary Poppins.”

“How does she do that? I want to do that. It looks fun.”

“I’m sure it is fun,” I said and I thought about how great that would be to just grab an umbrella and get where I want to go. My commute to work would be so much better.

While we may view that movie as filled with lots of things that can’t happen – floating up to the ceiling by laughing, taking adventures through chalk drawings, and using carousel horses to race – Lorelei doesn’t see any of that as impossible. She’s at the age when she can dream anything into fruition. I hope she never loses that sense of wonder and belief in herself. I do hope she becomes a Mary Poppins in her own right.

It was such an awesome moment with her in front of her house. I’m sure I’ll remember it all my life and recount it to her when she’s older. My guess is that there will always be a part of Lorelei who believes that anything is possible. And she helps me to keep that perspective, too. She reminds me that our imaginations are amazing and magical playgrounds. No wonder it’s my favorite place to go.

“Someday,” Lorelei said, “I’m going to fly like Mary Poppins.” And I’m sure she will.

art, children, creativity, dogs, meditation, yoga

Beginning: 3 Way to Get Fresh Eyes

Christa Avampato

“To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” ~ George Kneller

How many times have you caught yourself saying, aloud or to yourself, “well, that’s just the way it is”? It’s a dangerous phrase, though entirely understandable when we are in the throes of frustration or disappointment. I’ve made a career out of busting up that phrase and trying to help others banish it from their thought patterns. I’m all for getting inside a system and learning its inner workings, but once I learn a system the tinkering begins. I get a kick out of seeing how my re-arranging of the rules, no matter how long-standing those rules are, can improve a system.

If you’ve been in a system for a long-time, whether that system is a job, a relationship, the city where you live, it can be a challenge to find joy, to think creatively about any challenges, to make it feel new again. Here are 3 ways to take George Keller’s advice and freshen up your eyes and mind.

1.) Yoga and meditation. (You knew that was coming, right?) No yoga practice, class, or even posture is ever the same experience twice for teachers or students. There is always nuance. Our bodies are different every day – literally. Our rate of cell turnover is tremendous. Some scientific studies say that every month all of our cells – every single one – is entirely new. That means you’re physically a new person every month. And since a yoga and meditation practice often begins in the body, then those practices must be new every time. Embrace the change from your practice, and you’ll be able to embrace change in other areas of your life. That’s yoga’s whole purpose.

2.) Check out the world with a dog or a child. Their eyes are new every day, and their literal and figurative perspective, is very different from that of adults. They are open to the world in ways that we are entirely closed off. We have a lot to learn from them. My nieces, Lorelei and Aubree, and my dog, Phin, show me new ways of thinking whenever I’m with them.

3.) Take in some art. We’re blessed in New York City is have the most incredible art, music, and performance landscape in the world. There is art in some form for every taste. Artists are constantly reinvesting themselves. Their livelihood depends upon reinvention. Let them inspire you to do some reinvention of your own.

This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.

This blog is also available as a podcast on Cinch and iTunes.

children, education, school

Step 274: Help Donorschoose.org Seal a $1M Deal to Fund Public Education Programs

Christa Avampato

It’s understandable that some people are skeptical about nonprofit organizations. We work hard for our money and when we give it away, where does it go? There are organizations like Charity Navigator that provide objective ratings of nonprofits, though in this economy ratings agencies of all kinds have drawn criticism. I’ve always found that restricted giving, donations that go to a specific nonprofit program designated by the donor, are a good avenue for people who want more control over where their donations go.

Donorschoose.org takes restricted giving to an even more personal level. With their platform, donors select the specific classrooms and classroom projects they want to fund at public schools all over the country. Fine art in New Orleans, Spanish in Chicago, basic kindergarten skills in Topeka, reading in Anaheim. It’s your money; you decide what initiatives to fund at Donorschoose.org.

Now, we have the chance to help public school children across the U.S. to get the programming and materials they need to succeed. And it won’t cost you a dime – only a few seconds of your time and a couple clicks of your computer. American Express will donate $1M to Donorschoose.org if 100,000 people like you and me pledge to help public education in the one of the following ways by the end of the day today, October 1st:

– Donate school supplies to a local school
– Host a foreign exchange student
– Tutor a struggling student
– Volunteer time at a local library (that’s the one I chose!)
– Help a child learn to read

American Express will then email you to let you know about opportunities to fulfill your pledge to volunteer on behalf of public education. Click here, and let’s help Donorschoose.org make a difference in our communities.

children, education, environment, school, science

Step 273: Environment Science Gets Its Due in Maryland Classrooms

Christa Avampato

My friend, Michael, author of Like a Fish In Water, sent me a link about environmental education in the Maryland Public School System. Previously, the system only required a single lesson on environmental education some time between kindergarten and 12th grade. Now, environmental science must be woven into the curriculum, covering specific topics. Originally, the mandate was to establish a separate environmental science as a graduation requirement. That original mandate didn’t pass but getting more environmental science into the curriculum within existing subjects is a start.

It still shocks me that many people don’t see the connection between caring for the environment and public health, that they don’t understand that there is no such thing as an unlimited natural resource. There are limits to the stresses that our environment can withstand, and we are running up against those limits at a frightening pace. Kids have to know how their actions impact the environment, and it’s our responsibility to teach them how to care for our shared world.

Additionally, the environment is a practical, truly tangible platform that can be used to enhance learning opportunities across a variety of subjects, physical and chemical sciences, math, history, and design to name a few. It opens the door to discussing higher education and career planning. It makes the facts we learn in school relevant and applicable in the world that surrounds us.

Nature is an infinite, wise, and patient teacher if only we will sit with her a while to hear what she has to say and see what she has to reveal to us. It’s a living, breathing lab for us to explore and wonder at It’s the closest thing we have on Earth to divinity, and I’m glad Maryland students will finally get the chance to learn more. Hopefully, other states will hop on board, too.

For a link to the full article, click here.

children, education, school

Step 272: Class Size Isn’t the Be All End All of Education

Christa Avampato

An article appeared in the New York Times yesterday showcasing a Massachusetts school that didn’t let large class sizes stop them from improving test scores. By bringing writing and reading assignments into every school subject (gym included!) The school is now outperforming 90% of other schools in Massachusetts. Reading and writing bring to bear creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and enhanced language capabilities. They foster independence, making class size less of a factor in academic success.

The debate about size has raged on in a number of areas: raising kids in the country versus the city, large university lecture halls versus small seminars, big corporations versus family run small businesses. Each has its pros and cons. For the past several years, small classroom size in public schools has been a hot-button issue. The example of the Massachusetts school doesn’t give us a definitive answer one way or the other, and maybe that’s the point. Any circumstances can breed success – it’s the individuals that comprise the group that can truly make the difference.

To read the full article about the school in Massachusetts, click here. What do you think? Is class size as big an issue as we make it out to be?

children, education, family

Step 271: Parents May be the Most Important Piece of the Education Puzzle

Christa Avampato

The airwaves are bustling and bristling this week about education. Our U.S. school system is making front page news like never before. Sadly, sometimes it takes a crisis to raise awareness.

Yesterday, one of my readers of this blog who has decades of experience in education voiced his opinion about one way to repair the system: parents. Get them interested and engaged, and the system has a far greater chance of turning around. Yes, teachers are important, critically important. Though consider how many hours a child spends with a teacher versus a parent. Consider that parents are responsible for a child’s living conditions, what they eat, where they sleep. Parents are largely responsible for their children’s emotional and mental well-being. Combined, all of these “non-education” factors come to bear in a big way in the classroom. If a child is hungry, sick, or lacks confidence, how can they focus on math, science, and reading? Social programs can only do so much.

My reader’s comment about parents being involved in public education made me consider how involved my own mother was in my education. Sometimes, we didn’t have enough to eat. We were part of the free lunch program for as long as I can remember. We almost lost our house a few times. We had trouble paying bills. For a good portion of my childhood, we didn’t have health insurance. Our childhood had a lot of instability and sadness and fear. But the one constant was my mom. She served on the school board. She went to every parent teacher conference, every sports event, every band concert. More than anything she cared about our education. She didn’t have time to help us with our homework – she always worked 2 – 3 jobs so we could get by. I came to value education and where it could take me in large part because my mother valued it. I wanted to make her proud of me, and I knew my high grades made her proud.

I went to Penn because of my mom. She wouldn’t let me lower my standards of the college I could get into. She wouldn’t let me stay home and go to school. She wanted to me to go away to the very best school I could go to. It was hard. I struggled for my first two years at Penn. I had a hard time adjusting to a place that seemed so out of reach to me. Everyone else around me seemed to have means beyond anything I could ever dream of. I worked several jobs and put myself through school with the help of lots of financial aid. I studied all the time just to catch up. Eventually, I found my bearings, largely because I got involved in theatre, but even more importantly because I’m stubborn and proud. I couldn’t give up and go home. I had to keep trying to live a better life. That’s what my mom wanted, and so that’s what I wanted.

I had good teachers, in public school, at Penn, and later at UVA, where I got my MBA. Those teachers inspired me, pushed me, challenged me to be better than I thought I could be. And with just those teachers, I would have built a decent life. But my mom’s involvement and concern for my education helped me strive for more than decent – it keeps me working for something extraordinary. And as I think of it now, my blog reader was absolutely right – parents have the ability to turn around the whole system just by showing their care and concern for what their kids learn. I’m living proof of their power.

children, education

Step 270: Sounding the Alarm on Public Education

Christa Avampato

This week NBC is running a special in-depth look at education in America, Education Nation. It is a loud, profound alarm – our schools are in trouble, and by association our nation is in trouble. Not because of the financial system or the housing crisis or the erratic Dow. Our nation is in trouble because we are failing our children, an entire generation of them, before we’ve even given them a chance to succeed. We are letting them down and counting them out before they even get in the game.

I care deeply about public education. I am a product of it and I’m hoping to turn my career towards it in the not-too-distant future. As a way of shining a spotlight on it and raising some more awareness of the many and varied challenges, I will feature a story every day this week about public education, a reason for hope, a cause in need of support, an inspiring person or organization. I hope this week of stories will inspire you to get involved.

Education doesn’t need some of us, it needs all of us. Without a system that functions effectively and efficiently, nothing else we’re doing matters. And if we can successfully find a way to educate every child this country in a way that helps them grow up to be productive members of society, we have more benefits to reap that we can even imagine. Every social issue – health care, the environment, public safety, foreign affairs, the economy – has a greater chance of success if we can improve our education system. It’s the root challenge, and therefore the root remedy, that heals every one of our other ills.

We are past the point of voluntary involvement. Our children need us. All of us.