We all have the "I remember where I was" story from 13 years ago today on that fateful and terrifying Tuesday. I well up with tears a lot off an on throughout today. It's completely unintentional and it's something I can't really help. The enormity of what happened and how it forever changed our confidence and our sense of security has never left me. Do I think about it on a day to day basis, absolutely not. But today, once a year, it is present. I think about how lucky we all are to live in this country. How lucky we are to be able to raise our children how we want to...to have the freedoms and privileges that others do not. Phew...Ok I could go on and on but moving forward!
Today I am taking a break from most of our regularly scheduled programming and am focusing with the children on what today is, what it means, what happened and what came of it. We've looked at images from 9/11. I saved a copy of The Boston Globe, The Herald and The New York Times everyday for a week after 9/11, 21 newspapers in all. We've pulled those out and looked at them. We read a book called
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. It's a beautifully illustrated book about Philippe Petit's walk between the twin towers in 1974.
We did our calendar review, spelling review and art journaling. I asked the children to illustrate and write about what a hero is. Their responses were very cute and surprisingly they both had dogs incorporated into their pages!
I had an early morning appointment so my groove was thrown off slightly but we moved forward and the children were excited as their homeschool yoga class started today at a studio near us. It was a 11 and I was sadly forced to wake the baby at 10:30 am so that we could get there on time. I dropped the kids at yoga and headed to one of our local libraries to return books then off to Whole Foods for a few quick things and then back to get the kids! They were SO "zenned" out and relaxed. It was lovely to see.
We went from there to a local park with a homeschool friend and her Mom for some running around time and a picnic. The kids had a GREAT time.
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| A sweet fairy house! |
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| sharing their new found yoga skills! (love!) |
Upon returning home, we washed up and settled back into the classroom. We finished our discussion about Philippe Petit and then I showed the children the newspapers from each day after 9/11/2001. We talked about what freedom means and about how we are never to forget what happened that day. We talked about not being afraid, about being proud to be an American and to being grateful for all that we have.
After this the kids had 20 minutes of "free" computer/iPad time, which they haven't had in a LONG time.
While they did that, I prepared for an easy and fun art project that pulled us back into our scaly and slimy theme. We completely shifted gears and made Mixed Up Chameleon paper plate spinners. They had a nice, relaxing time painting. It was sweet to watch them just get "into" their creations.
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| his |
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| hers |
Yes, it was a basic project but they giggled every time they spun the plate around to reveal new colors for the chameleon! I love that they are still so easily entertained =) It makes me happy that they are still satisfied with the "little things" in life....and to us...that's what it's all about.
Until tomorrow my friends!
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