Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Election Day

You may recall my rant a few months ago about the Virginia Republican Primary Oath. Today was election day, I went, requested my Republican ballot and braced myself. .. . . but no oath was presented for me to sign. I thought maybe it died a quiet death, so I googled it when I came home. Nothing says the request was repealed, so now I wonder if my city just refused to administer it. . . or forgot it . . . or something else altogether. I'm curious to know if any other Virginians who voted today had to sign anything. Let me know (if you are willing to share, of course!). Unfortunately, I'm really not enamored with any candidate on either side, which will certainly make for an interesting November.

In school news, my redo of Maine was met with rave reviews. This is good, as I couldn't stomach the thought of doing it again! Whadda ya think? We also got our partners assigned and the fates really are testing me. I got paired with the one person no one in class wanted and I KNOW she will end up needing lots of hand holding, which I am now obliged to give since my grade is intertwined with hers. Technically we are evaluated on our own, but our rooms have to be related and if our partners room/drawing stinks, it will drop my grade down by one letter. UGH! In the grand scheme, I know it's good to work on my patience, but I still don't want to! Also a request for help from anyone out there familiar with Montessori. I got assigned to design a bedroom to be shared by two little girls. The 'client' believes in the Montessori method and so I need to incorporate that into the space. I know very little about it, and I've requested some books from the library, but if anyone has suggestions or info about it, I'd love to hear!

School is really cramping my knitting time. We're nearly half way through February and I'm really not very close to finishing much of anything. At least I haven't started any new projects! Turns out the foot on Jake's sock was sufficiently large, so I'm working through the foot. . . just a couple more inches and then the toe to finish that. I think, to break some of the monotony I'm going to cast on for the 2nd cowboy sock and the 2nd jeezny cricket sock so I can mix it up a bit. My mini-goal for tonight is to sew the lining in to my felted bag to check that off the list!

5 comments:

IrishGirlieKnits said...

All I can offer for Montessori is "exploring"! Kids learn at their own pace and explore the environment (I'm thinking a little art area, then a little play theme area). Fun fun! Hope that helps!! I should have more considering all the preschools I have to see our kids in!

Anonymous said...

For a bedroom shared by two girls in a "Montessori Way" the short answer is "a place for everything so everything can be in its place." It is called the "prepared environment" and provides a "safe" environment for a child where the child can have some control over his/her environment and where the child is also expected to be able to take some responsibility for his or her environment as well. If the children are under 5 years old this is a time in their lives when organization, routine and consistency are extremely important to the child. I would recommend the book "How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way" ISBN 978-0-7566-2505-4 by Tim Seldin. Please feel free to e-mail me at eminarik@sunsethillsmontessori.com
I have been actively involved in Montessori since 1974 as a parent, teacher and now grandparent. Cheers!

km said...

I like your "Maine". Am I right? Is this one more about texture?

I don't know much about the Montessori, but my 2 boys share a room. We bought them this bed http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/pacrim4in1beds.html . We learned about the vapors that the glues in MDF give off and considered this a good choice for our one with asthma. Anyways, 4 & 6 still share a room (and will forever unless we move). 6 gets up at night to go the bathroom, so a bunk wasn't a good option. We use the L configuration and can leave the bed shoved under because 4 is still small enough to sleep on 1/2 the bed. When they're older we can change this...but if we're ever able to afford to move into a bigger house, this separates into 2 twin beds. There's other places where you can find this bed online...this is just where we ended up buying it. We LOVE this bed. We went with the maple Arts & Crafts style.

Krystal said...

I can't help you any with Montessori thing but I can tell you that those are just normal 8 inch dpns... it's k1p1 ribbing, so maybe it was just pulled in a lot. :)

Anonymous said...

the maine redo looks very nice! i saw (and understood) your comment about yarn envy with the "good gravy" post on the swap blog - rest assured i'm still shopping and hope that you will be delighted with your package... ; )