New Pictures...

...up on Flickr.

News:
Calliope has had one accident in the last 3 days. I think the thing that finally pushed us over was that I started giving Clementine M&Ms for using the toilet too. The enthusiasm / sibling rivalry is infectious!

Clementine and Calliope will both be leaving their current schools and headed to DELC. Everyone keeps telling me they "understand" about this decision, which means they disagree with me. It could be a mistake but we're trying to do the best we can, and we know it's a joyous, loving environment.

At home, I'm going to buy or make some Montessori materials for them to use for the next year, since DELC is play-based. (Long story, I could talk your ear off if you're interested.)

We have been working on our will, thanks to Uncle Robbie, and I want to start blogging about some higher-order things about how we're trying to parent. This will be hard, mostly because I'll want it to be better thought-out and organized than what I'll manage, but I'd rather just get it down.

For starters, we're trying to raise children who are:
- inquisitive
- empathetic
- kind
- honest
- loving
- generous
- genuine
- gracious
- courageous
- self-reliant
- confident
- comfortable with themselves
- articulate
- knowledgeable
- happy
- healthy
- respectful of the earth and other people

We actually have thought some about this list and tried to distill things into something more succinct (for example, polite/gracious, or curious/inquisitive). I'm going to try to write more about how we're trying to raise children like this over the next few weeks...

But for now, off to bed!