chez Odile

a free week with the children

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:53:00 +0000

* Museum
* organizing
* internet quests
* reading about ethics
* throwing away old emails
* maths
* crafts

blood is...

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:14:00 +0000

"Blood is red!" said the children in the classroom of my daughter. "when it's inside your body it can be blue." I replied. They weren't going to change their opinion. During the arts lesson, many children tried to convince me. They came up with arguments, red is the colour. You can see it, blue is only the colour of the vein, not of the blood.
I touched the story that before the earth was thought to be flat. One of the children started to defend that point of view. They did think it to be a good idea to check internet or to ask a doctor.

I develop a top-down technique to learn to read

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:10:00 +0000

I've been reading at school often with my five year old, who started reading but seems to have dyslectic traits the same as his brother had: many aspects of reading are fine, but just a specific difficulty is there matching the sound to the image which causes him to slow down. I'm figuring out a way to read together at this moment and it's finally working well. I'm a little bit enthousiastic about it because it's a top-down approach and I might be getting a better result than the classical way. A special way of reading for early detected intelligent dyslectics. I'm thinking to write a longer article about it describing what I do. Maybe it will grow to be a top-down technique for reading. I couldn't find any material on top-down reading techniques, so if anyone has any kind of information please mail me at Odile AT schmiodile POINT NL. Thanks in advance.

accidents happen regardless blame

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:38:00 +0000

My husband wrote a report for a trial in court about safety. He spent all free time this summer and his research hours to write it. I'm not getting into details, because it's not public. But what I can say in general is the point that for safety it's important to move away from the question of guilt and shift attention to mistakes in the process of action. When we want safety, we should focuss less on blame and focuss more on what happens. Look more at decisions that lead to error, factors that lead to error, situations that lead to error.
Unfortunately, when we look for a person to be the reason of an accident, there is a real chance that another accident will happen.

kindness

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:23:00 +0000

I want to write something about kindness, but although I know what kindness is when I am with children, what is it exactly...
It's something I like to search in children when we work at an art project. I like to relate to the children and after a few weeks I like it when a child that was 'difficult' slowly changes to become more attentive, quiet, smiling, concentrated, kind. When we work together at arts this often happens. We talk, ask questions, work together, share ideas, smile.

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:17:00 +0000

no judgment

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:43:00 +0000

Still very busy with ethics and still having fun with it. Am I the only person in the world interested in ethics? Surely not.
contrast:
I saw a documentary this evening about a lawless part of the world and how people try to cope with it. I can't begin to imagine how it must be to survive in such a place - how to be a parent under such circumstances.
How can the interviewer stay calm and keep himself from judgment in this interview.
I humbly have to admit my ethics is no way that hard.

ethics

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:45:00 +0000

I've been away from blogging to spend time on learning ethics through Skype with a friend. This way we work at ourselves. I prepare the class, she comments. It's fun and I can't believe how a 43 year old (me) can have as much fun with... ethics.

worry or worth

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:31:00 +0000

The financial possibility can be looked at through existential eyes, this way of thinking states that what one does influences what other do. One action generates others. One item extra bought by one person, copied by millions might save the economy? A simple gesture can save the world if followed by others? Does it work for confidence?

being responsible

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:04:00 +0000

Who is responsible? I or else? As a child I thought that responsibility and guilt of mistakes was close to each other. Then I thought about the difference between guilt and responsibility. You can be not guilty of circumstances but still responsible for how the circumstances act upon your life, especially when life is a challenge.
Is there a I? Where is the location of the I? Should it be me who is in charge?
As a parent I would be quick to say yes, but it's been fruitful to reask myself how my responsibility looks like and understand my self. Understanding my self is the key to cross the bridge to relate to others.

journal writing

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:23:00 +0000

I've started writing a journal to develop my inner qualities further. With a friend who lives at the other side of the Netherlands we have a skype meeting every week to develop ourselves as a tool to keep our spirits healthy and up. I'm 43 years old, married to a PhD, and still learning.
More on journal writing here.

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:55:00 +0000

scaffold yourself hosted by schmiodile.

Join now

Chat about what's on your mind. More about public chats.

are recipies painkillers

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:04:00 +0000

Today I read that thinking of food is a natural painkiller. I'm sure we'll get books on how to think of food to cure ourselves -thinks my sceptical self-. I probably would enjoy reading such a book, because this kind of book for me naturally works as a relaxating laughter vehicle. Maybe it works with recipies as well? I can picture myself running to the bookshelf next time I have a serious headache and reading recipies.
My son strawls along with a little pain on his arm. I ask him to think of something he likes to eat. It works. Now he will have less pain, but he will gain callories.

animated cartoon yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:58:00 +0000

Want to try making an animated cartoon? First draw one arm, head or leg until you finish the character- then push the animate button. Very easy. My son wrote words instead of drawing limbs, drew only a basketball or vegetables. Fun to do and to enjoy the result. Now where can I get a similar programm that enables to keep the results?

write a movie to learn

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:08:00 +0000

Writing a movie is one of those wishes that I don't think to be able to respond to. A pitty because it might be a fruitful learning experience that involves many skills.

earthy method

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:56:00 +0000

What do excellent students do to communicate with peers from other sciences from the Netherlands? They go on an expedition to Australia together to look at the oldest remains of the Earth. Students from biology, maths, astronomy and geology participate on this expedition that results among other things in the Van Leeuwenhoeklezingen (Van Leeuwenhoek lectures). An earthy method to get novel ideas?
What would the presumably oldest bacteria think of it (provided it was able to)?

from pokemon to biology

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:40:00 +0000

It has puzzled me as a child that most of my classroom friends didn't seem to realize how fortunate we were to have very good teachers sharing some of their knowledge with us. I liked biology and chemistry because the teacher gave interesting lessons. Unfortunately in the last year I was distracted, probably due to hormonal influences. I did use my knowledge when studying. Now it's my turn to raise children and I try to think back how my teachers and parents influenced me to interest me to learn. Today there is biology for children on internet, but there also is a lot of distraction; television all day and computer games. Even books are an escape. I started the day today with a demo English lesson, some neuropsychological fun for kids and Pokemon. I had to use power to stop Pokemon.

geography by letters

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:15:00 +0000

One letter a time to learn places around the world was the idea on education world. This pdf is printable. I'm going to try it with my son who doesn't do well at learning geography the normal way. Maybe the alfabetic approach is better for him, I'm going to try.

brains for kids

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:28:00 +0000

Would like to tell your children about brains? Neuroscience for Kids from Washington would certainly help.

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:28:00 +0000

I'm taking a break from blogging for a month. I'm going to be busy with my household and children.

oddblog

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:41:00 +0000

The earth is one universe with a multitude of colours. Each one of us is odd. We are all odities.

15 secondes chez Odile

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:25:00 +0000

I'm trying out a new concept of blogging, few words, maximum thought on my new French blog; 15 secondes chez Odile.

psychology museum

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:32:00 +0000

Every piece of art is a personal lesson in psychology, a lesson for life, not for a museum.

What piece of art is a lesson for you?

Does art make you feel alive and vibrant?

Art is a projection of words fixed in time.

let's make things beautiful

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:47:00 +0000

learning to relate

noreply@blogger.com (Odile S) — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:11:00 +0000

Why do I need to learn new things? I'm over forty years old and a parent, so why bother? the truth is that the (fresh) experience of making mistakes and feeling insecure is one that makes me a better parent. I don't know everything but I can try. It makes me more human and it's easier to reach out to others in understanding, when it's not only about what I know, but that I relate to feelings. That's why I welcome feeling insecure.

So I'm learning.