Two mammoth reminders from our visit to the mining battery ruins of at Waikino with the kids.
#1 ‘At school I don’t like history and feel like falling asleep’. Our kids really got a kick out of the personalised guided tour by a couple of retired volunteers. They enjoyed seeing and touching and experiencing. The learning that comes from seeing can be immeasurable compared to reading a book or watching a DVD.
#2 100 years ago, at the height of the mining, they were felling 1 hectare of native forest a day all so they could refine more gold. Mankind is destructive and we were and are bad stewards of the world we live in.
[192 | 365 – ‘Waikino Kilns’ – The kids emerge from exploring the Waikino Kilns. Awesome knowledgeable volunteers gave us a great tour of the museum, kilns and tramaway ride.]
Category: Life Lessons (Page 8 of 8)
And Oscar goes to … Jayden!
Chartwell Kindergarten have Oscar. He joined Chartwell in July 2009 and each weekend Oscar gets to go home with an exceptional kid. While Oscar is at home, he gets to go on all kinds of adventures and the families print photos and place them in Oscar’s diary.
Yesterday Oscar got to drive some diggers at the Agoge Digger School at Boys Day Out. (Not the coolest thing he has done. He has been to Brisbane!)
I really like the idea of having an Oscar. I like the way to seems to be given without many rules, the teachers just decide. And not everyone gets a turn with Oscar, there are more kids than weekends. When Oscar does come home, the diary makes it more special and it encourages the family to get involved. This in turn makes the child feel even more special. Their aim is to strengthen the kindergarten and the families. It does that well.
A cool idea!
One that is portable into business and other organisations, although a large cuddly monkey might need some rethinking.
Discovered this week that the Greek word for "I" is "ego" (εγώ).
The english definition of ego is often around a person having egotism, conceit or self-importance. I guess ego is I-ism to the extreme. Beyond self confidence. Much more that good self talk.
So when I next say 'I' in english, I want… I need… I think…, in greek I am saying ego, ego want… ego need… ego think.
Not always a bad thing, but certainly worth thinking about.
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
Sir Edmund Hillary
"This generation will be remembered for three things: the Internet, the war on terror, and how we let an entire continent go up in flames while we stood around with watering cans. Or not."
Bono
"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives."
William Dement – sleep researcher
"I’ve always thought smack in the middle of a contradiction is a great place to be!"
Bono – U2
"Services that are worth getting talked about, get talked about"
Quote from Seth Godin
"Scientists have played with atomic clocks, matched exactly, setting one in a plane to fly around the world, and another motionless, waiting for the return of its partner. When they reunite, the one that traveled rests milliseconds behind the fixed one. The faster you move, physicists have found, the less you experience time."
Quote from "Painted Deserts"