Sunday, December 6, 2009

St. Nick/St-Nicolas

Clean shoes waiting for St. Nick (a piece of honey cake, some cheese and milk for St. Nick and a carrot for his donkey).

Des souliers propres qui attentent la visite de St-Nicolas (un morceau de gâteau au miel, du fromage et du lait pour St-Nicolas et une carotte pour son âne).



St. Nick's gifts.

Les cadeaux de St-Nicolas.



Si vous cherchez une belle histoire de St-Nicolas, regardez ce livre.

A usual morning... (me knitting in front of my phototherapy lamp and the girls drawing...).

Un matin comme tous les autres... (moi qui tricote devant ma lampe de luminothérapie et les filles qui dessinent...).



Little girls that are VERY interested in learning to knit...

Des petites filles qui SONT très intéressées à apprendre à tricoter...





A tasty roasted squash, prosciutto, arugula and pecorino salad (recipe by Jamie Oliver).

Une délicieuse salade de courge grillée, prosciutto, roquette et fromage pecorino (recette de Jamie Oliver).




Here's a short excerpt from an article by Marshall Rosenberg (non-violent communication) that I really like:

I’ll be forever grateful to my children for educating me about the limitations of the objective of getting other people to do what you want. They taught me that, first of all, I couldn’t make them do what I want. I couldn’t make them do anything. I couldn’t make them put a toy back in the toy box. I couldn’t make them make their bed. I couldn’t make them eat. Now, that was quite a humbling lesson for me as a parent, to learn about my powerless-ness, because somewhere I had gotten it into my mind that it was the job of a parent to make a child behave. And here were these young children teaching me this humbling lesson, that I couldn’t make them do anything. All I could do is make them wish they had.

Here's another:

Since punishment is so frequently used and justified, parents can only imagine that the opposite of punishment is a kind of permissiveness in which we do nothing when children behave in ways that are not in harmony with our values. So therefore parents can think only, “If I don’t punish, then I give up my own values and just allow the child to do whatever he or she wants.” As I’ll be discussing below, there are other approaches besides permissiveness, that is, just letting people do whatever they want to do, or coercive tactics such as punishment. And while I’m at it, I’d like to suggest that reward is just as coercive as punishment. In both cases we are using power over people, controlling the environment in a way that tries to force people to behave in ways that we like. In that respect reward comes out of the same mode of thinking as punishment.

If you want to read more, go here.

5 comments:

farmama said...

Happy St. Nicholas day to your family! What a sweet image of those little shoes packed with goodies. I also adore the images of your sweet hearts knitting. Your girls are precious Catherine!
I hope you had a lovely weekend,
Sara

June said...

What sweet scenes of festivity and domesticity. Your blog is such a beautiful depiction of your life with your children. I can't wait to read more...(and it really helps me refresh my French).

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

June

heather said...

my husband got us the nonviolent communication on audio, and it is so nice to listen to when we're on a date, hiking. i love his voice, along with his message. i'm assuming he's reading it? and along with that second paragraph, we are really watching our use of the words, 'good job' lately. you know? the whole reward thing, it's as subtle as that. our school just sent us home with an article on 5 reasons not to say good job. here...

http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm

have you seen that?

i love learning this stuff!

also, do your 5 year olds have the hang of knitting now? mine is really interested, but when my mom has shown her how, it seems like she miht not be ready. but she finger knits like crazy, and tower knits.

Catherine said...

I really like Alfie Kohn (thanks for the link! If only I could get my mom to read that and stop congratulating the kids every time they draw a line...). I just can't help it but every time I hear myself (or someone) else say: good job! I think of a puppy in training and feel like I am pulling a treat out of my pocket...

No, my 5 yo do not knit yet, they just started finger knitting and they are not that much into it. I bought some knitting towers for them for x-mas. They really want to knit with the needles because that's what they see us do, but they get quite frustrated... If your daughter is finger knitting and tower knitting, needle knitting is just around the corner! Do you use a verse to teach her to help her remember the steps?

Thank you Sara for your sweet comments on my girls!

And June, I am glad my blog is helping your refresh your French!!

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