Is there Room on the Broom…?

“Is there room on the broom for someone like me?” That’s a question that’s been circulating around our house a lot lately.

Room on the broom, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. and now a movie by Magic Light Pictures, helps our third culture kids work through the question of where they fit in.

A few weeks ago, we had a couple of days where the children all caught some serious stomach bugs, and combined with the completely atrocious weather we were having meant that we didn’t have much for weekend adventures, but we did have some quality time on the couch. We’re usually out and about so much that we don’t want tons of TV, but I confess I really do love a beautifully animated film or show. My daughter has her favorites and I have mine, but every once in a while we love something equally together.

Last year, we discovered the animated versions of The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child by Magic Light Pictures, which are done so beautifully both in animation and story and music that it will bring a tear to your eyes. I rarely think a movie adaptation of a book is any good but Magic Light truly went above and beyond. So when I saw that they also did Room on the Broom, which had been an unknown book to me until now, we downloaded it immediately.

The story tells the tale of a witch and her cat, as they slowly grow their band of travelers one by one, always making a little more room on the broom. The cat is grumpy about it, but ultimately sees how different kinds of friends and working together with others pays off in the end. All of the characters that come to the witch all somehow don’t fit in their home environment, yet they find a place for themselves with her.

It’s not a far stretch then to see how the story parallels may the feelings that many children might have about being a little different or about finding just the right place for themselves. Our daughter has already started asking how she will fit in when we arrive in Washington, what it will be like, how she’ll make friends (and also, most pressingly, which letters, specifically, will they learn at school?). The story opened up an opportunity to have some good conversations at an age appropriate level about how our experience has been a little bit different but there is still room for us, and important for us to make room for others, all the same. She’s starting to process the fact that the day will soon be coming when we close up here, with our makeshift life that fits us just so, on to the next adventure with an “and whoosh! they were gone!”.

PS - I just saw that Magic Light released an animated version of the story “Stick Man“, I haven’t seen it yet but if it’s anything like the others, it should be excellent. Putting it on our list of things to do if it doesn’t stop raining and snowing here!

Room on the broom, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. and now a movie by Magic Light Pictures, helps our third culture kids work through the question of where they fit in.

Out + About: Copenhagen’s Best Cherry Blossoms

It’s cherry blossom season again! Always a hit here at our house and feeling a little sentimental about it actually. Roughly about a year ago, I really started to give this blog some time and attention and the cherry blossoms at Bispebjerg were the subject of our very first Out + About post! So we’re back, almost exactly a year later…There’s been something sentimental about this spring in general. Both because of the “a year ago” hat that we can put on, now looking over how much our daughter has grown in the forest school system that we’ve documented here on the blog, but also, because we’re soon coming up on the end of things. At least, the end as it relates to our time here in Copenhagen.The months are flying back, and ironically, as the days are getting longer with more and more sunlight flooding the hours, they are also going by much faster. The month of April nearly flew by in the blink of an eye. So while we’re so happy to that spring is finally here (finally? although who knows, if you look closely at these pics you’ll be able to see it ended up snowing in most of them - how’s that for spring?), it has a slight tinge of bittersweet to it, as we’re starting to see the cycle of things for the last time, the beautiful cherry blossoms being among them.I know that our time in the US will be a whole new adventure for our daughter and she alternates between nerves and excitement for the great unknown. But until that unknown comes, we’ll be enjoying the seasons and rituals and treats that we’ve come to know in this great city!PS - Love cherry blossoms? We’ve become pros at finding them in Copenhagen - see the round-up of 4 great places to spot them in Copenhagen.

PPS - I mentioned in the iPad post that our tot loves the camera on it, but I neglected to mention that she’s learning her way around a real camera too! And yes, that is snow in my hair.

Yes, She Has an iPad…

I felt guilty when I bought the iPad. For about five minutes. The truth is, I had mulled over this decision for so long that I had come to peace with it by the time I arrived at the store. On one hand, I didn’t want the technology that could distract her, suction her into graphics and dings and animations to be hers and hers to own. But on the other, I also felt that I could trust her with it. I wanted to trust - and to test - that two years of spending eight hours plus a day outside would have given my daughter the foundation to know that there is more to life than just what’s on a screen. Plus, selfishly, the truth was that I had a nine-hour transatlantic flight with two children on my own coming up the next week, and three more flights just like it later that month. It was time for the big guns, and I knew I had to have every tool in my arsenal. I’m idealistic enough to believe a screen shouldn’t be a baby-sitter, but also realistic enough to know the limits of my own sanity. My daughter has owned her own iPad for about a year now, and I have to confess, I don’t regret it. I thought I might. I was worried that this was the first step into the technology abyss, and we’d lose her forever. But it’s not turned out to be the case. Her iPad is her pride and joy, a special treat for special occasions, like flights and at the occasional weekend outing. It fills in as a babysitter occasionally, but more often than not, it is actually her camera, her typewriter, and her “telephone”, a direct line to her father in Iraq.

Of course she has apps, and as much as I might have doubted it in the beginning, they do teach her something. Knowing the letters of the alphabet? I’m pretty sure we can thank Originator’s Endless Alphabet for that. Knowing what precipitation is? That would be MarcoPolo’s Weather. Knowing the four chambers of the heart? Cheers to TinyBop’s Human Body for that one. And WildKratt’s Creature Math and Gazilli Math can keep her occupied through nearly an entire flight, when she’s not reading along to Winnie-the-Pooh that is.

That’s just it, there is, in fact, so much it can do - and much of it doesn’t have anything to do with the mindless games I assumed it would be for. If you choose your apps wisely, you can really open up a child’s world to the things that they are already naturally interested in knowing and learning which complements what’s already in their world. But as much as it can be a tool, it can also be a trap.

There are plenty of articles saying that tech leaders don’t give their kids technology (I don’t know if I believe that entirely), or that screen time makes kids moody or cranky (it does, I can see it when we’re over the limits). And there are articles advocating that if children don’t use technology like iPads, they will be left behind. They won’t. I can assure you, after watching first hand, it take a child approximately five minutes to figure out how to use what they need, how they need it on these things. It’s native and intuitive to them in a way that it will never be for me. So while my own child has an iPad, I don’t support schools using them full-time as a teaching device. It’s a complement for learning but not a substitute for one. It works best when it’s one of many avenues for learning, not the main highway.

With the iPad, we’ve certainly had to put rules in place. It doesn’t come out every day - it’s used more for long flights and trips, and the occasional rainy weekend. The iPad lives in my room, never hers. There are time limits, there are consequences for not listening, and all that good stuff we have to do as parents. It doesn’t come on car trips or on day trips, unless she makes the case to use it as her camera. Perhaps that has been the most surprising thing about the iPad is that in the end, while she loves the games and apps, it’s really the camera and the ability to document her memories that seems to really strike her. It’s the opportunity to go to the camera roll and pull up a picture of an outing or time with family and say, “Remember this? I do!”. She loves to hear and tell stories; often a single photo is the prompt she needs to get her going for the next hour or two. This is her scrapbook, her modern “dear diary” of her transient, third culture life, pieced together from all of our adventures as a family, big and small.

As a parent, the most important lesson that I can teach her about technologies like an iPad though is not how to use it. That she can teach me. What she needs from me is to know when to stop using it…when to turn it off…when to put it down…when to pay attention to the life that is before you. That’s not necessarily something you teach just once. That’s something you reinforce time and time again. Just as both I and the forest school reinforce the importance of time outside, of nature, and learning with all your senses…again and again and again, every day. Because the things that we reinforce on a regular basis end up being lifetime skills - not a single lesson learned in passing, but an influence that sets the tone for a life well-lived.

Out + About: Tivoli Playground

We’ve been lucky the past two weekends to have made it Tivoli, hands down one of our favorite places in Copenhagen and we couldn’t be more thrilled it’s open again for the season (despite the fact that Spring seems to be changing it’s mind on whether it’s coming or not). Last year, we discovered the fantastic playground in the back corner of the park which we somehow missed our first year, and it’s always traditionally our “last stop” before heading home.It might seem a little counterintuitive to have a playground in an amusement park but on the contrary, as a parent now I have to say it couldn’t be more perfect. When we arrive we go through the initial excitement of crossing the gates, our daughter makes her way to her favorite rides to make the rounds, and then we might stop for a snack or lunch. Inevitably, I get talked into “candy floss” (cotton candy) or a lollipop or ice cream or whatever treat is of the moment and I always give in. It is an amusement park after all and those special park treats are all part of the deal. So the playground, after the euphoria of the rides and the follow up rush of the sugar treats, is the perfect place to wear the kids out, classic style, before heading home.The playground is based on the Danish cartoon figure of Rasmus Klump and I confess I don’t know much about him other than the fact that he is a large bear that wears very large overall pants, which they actually have “drying” on the clothesline outside of the park. But like most Danish playgrounds, the structure is full of nets and climbing structures and uneven surfaces that are so typical of playgrounds here, all helping for kids to build balance. The photos aren’t crooked - it’s the playground that is! Interestingly, this playground is actually one of the only parks I’ve seen here that has a “soft” flooring structure (most parks here have sand as the base). The playground is also full of surprises, lovely ones. Like the area of musical instruments…or the fountains that turn on and “jump” from tower to tower when you’re walking in… or the various portholes and escape routes from the wooden structures. It’s always nearing evening when we come so the light is no longer great for photos but hopefully these few give you an idea. I promise I’ll head back to try and catch a few more. It’s a great place to take a break from some of the main attractions of the amusement park and the sensory overload that children can get there after a certain point. Sometimes, it’s the most classic and familiar thing, like a playground, that help ensure that children have a wonderful time.

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