By Cheryl Bac
E-mail Cheryl Bac
About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons incl...
(More)About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons including Chicago and Boston. Exercise is an integral part of my life. I hope to one day go back to long distance running and tackle the New York City Marathon. Right now I run after my one year old son. Although I am a stay-at-home mom, we are rarely "at home." My mom also stayed at home with my brother and me. She warned me that, although rewarding, it can be isolating. So, with her help, I learned the importance of getting out into the community and meeting other mothers. On the rare occasion when I am at home and have a hand or two free, I squeeze in time to scrapbook. As a new mom, many challenges are thrown my way. I hope my opinions, triumphs, and struggles help experienced parents reminisce, new parents cope, and parents-to-be get an honest glimpse of what the first years of motherhood can entail.
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A few weeks ago I showed our kids
Takaharu Tezuka’s TED talk about a unique kindergarten he designed in 2007. The school provides students a lot of freedom to climb and run around. I enjoyed this talk years ago, but this was the first time I watched it with our kids. And even though the school was built more than a decade ago, our kids were still amazed by how the students spent their school day. After watching this talk we couldn’t help but start brainstorming how we would design a school ourselves.
It was wonderful to finally be talking with our kids about changing school in positive ways. To see them taking parts of the school experience that they liked pre-pandemic, mixing it with experiences they are enjoying now, and also including elements that they’ve only dreamt about.
Not surprisingly this school year has had its ups and downs. Our kids’ schools have changed so dramatically over the past year and many of the changes sound negative. Virtual learning, socially distancing from friends, wearing masks and spending extra time washing hands.
Listening to this TED talk was exactly what we needed to stay positive. It helped us remember that there are many innovative and creative people designing new tools for kids to learn both in person and
virtually. And while many of the changes we hear about right now sound negative and challenging, maybe, if we keep our eyes open, we’ll be able to discover some positive ones too.
