March 25, 2009
Christening the Vessel
Launching the good ship – Earth Angels Design School for Kids
With two weeks to go, and despite having made a decision and commitment to move out of my present home which is so perfect in so many ways for the Earth Angels Design School for Kids, we were called to go ahead and initiate the project and receive the blessings that this house and the people and stories that have been through here, have to offer. All of the young ones who were present today and helped Earth Angels land in this way, have contributed to the bounty of joy that has been shared in this home over the years.
Some look rather serious here, but it was really serious fun!
It’s March. The fake summer tease of February has passed and we are now in the often dark and wet unpredictability of Pacific Northwest spring.
The birds are returning, and they’re sure to be hungry.
Our theme is birds. And the desires that emerged from our opening circle ranged from building a tree-house bird observatory to building bird houses and feeders, and making garden stones and peace flags.
We settled in with a story and drawings.
Observe and Interact
We then talked about what we already knew and looked at books on bird lifestyle, birds of our region and habitat design. Some of the kids drew out designs. Then we took a walk: spotting nests, birds in action, birds in repose; gathering items for nests or feeders; climbing a lone digger pine for the prized mammoth cones they produce; coming home to warm up by the fire .
Permaculture Principles
Learning how to Teach
I didn’t get very far with downloading the “official” principles of permaculture onto the kids, as they quickly took control of the topic of principles and had numerous stories about the Principles of their schools. ahem!
That’s okay, I think I slipped a few permie design principles in over the course of the day. The following principle statements that we noticed throughout our day, are a blend of Toby Hemenway & David Holmgren’s work.
Observe – use thoughtful observation rather than thoughtless action. Observe the project, the site, and it’s elements. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Catch and Store energy and materials – Identify, collect and hold the useful flows moving through the site. We used recycled, recyclable and biodegradable resources.
bad photo showing way too much plastic… the materials that went into the bird feeders were: dried sunflower heads we collected in the neighborhood, food from the pantry, some bought bird seed and nuts, some sturdy cotton string, recycled aluminum pie plates.
Connect – Place elements in ways that create useful relationships and time-saving connections. You want a lot of connections, not just a lot of random elements ·even though kids really love “random” at this age.
Use small scale intensive systems – Start at your doorstep with the smallest systems that will do the job and build on your successes with variations
The next day brought new insight; simpler materials; and better design elements
Accelerate Succession – we created a more diverse and mature system for the birds dining resources by making the feeders, which will increase the flow of birds through our yard, quicker!
Turn problems into solutions – turn problems into solutions!
Mistakes are tools for learning – mistakes are tools for learning!
Abundance is unlimited – the designer’s imagination and skill building is part of the abundance of nature
Good bird food is good people food!
Get a Yield – Reports are coming in from the field: birds are visiting the feeders! Other yields: we had fun, we initiated Design School, we expressed ourselves creatively.
We came up with a principle of our own.
EarthAngel design principle #1:
Never try to design on an empty stomach
Closing Circle
What went well?
Kenya – making peanut string, I liked getting poked by the big pines when climbing the tree
Azhray – we resolved a conflict
Jasper – making the bird feeders
Luka – making the peanut strings
Makayla – really enjoyed the walk and Kenya throwing pine cones
What was challenging?
Kenya – hand “cracking the corn” with a hammer
Azhray – getting the bird feeder to be balanced on the strings
Jasper – getting the seed mix to stick
Luka - making it not lopsided
Makayla – not being hyper!
Something I Learned?
Kenya – when there is no tea, there is no tea
Azhray – I have really awesome friends
Jasper – learning to layer the peanut butter and seeds
Luka – how to make really cool bird feeders and measuring string
Makayla – dry noodles with peanut butter tastes all natural!
What did I Un-Learn, or want to Un-Learn?
Kenya – cracking corn on a dirty rock
Azhray – trying to learn to eat less sugar
Jasper – (a big smile and a shrug)
Luka – random string lengths
Makayla – playing the piano too loud and interrupting
Namaste,
Blessings, and more blessings,
ta-ta for now!
