Early Childhood Article

When I moved to Wellington, one of the early childhood centres I visited was Childspace, which is well known throughout NZ and around the world for its high quality centres and inspiring environments. They also publish The Space magazine, which is distributed all over the world and is a wonderful resource for early childhood educators.

When I visited, I asked about the magazine and how it worked. I have always enjoyed writing, and I thought it could be a great way to get involved in their amazing work, so I asked if they'd be interested in me writing something about attachment. They said yes, and so I did, and now it's been published, which is exciting.

Notice my name on the cover? I was pretty tickled by that, actually.

As some of you will know, I focused on attachment theory, and specifically on Reactive Attachment Disorder during my undergraduate and master's studies. Knowing this, some of my colleagues expressed disappointment that my article didn't go into the inner workings or deeper underpinnings of attachment theory. Please don't expect this - that is not what this particular article is for. It is meant to be a simple but important reminder for early childhood teachers of the basic things that need to be done each day so that we are supporting, rather than undermining, secure attachment. It is all based in what we know from attachment theory, but it is not a theoretical article by any means. 

Sorry the file is so ridiculously huge and doesn't fit into the allocated area. That's the only way I could get it big enough for you to be able to read it.

Colourful Skies and Wonderful Family

If at any point, anyone gets totally sick of seeing sunrise and sunset pictures from our balcony, you will have to tell me. Because I am 100% sure that my enthusiasm will never fade, and so I'll drag all of you along with me until I'm told otherwise.

I think that maybe part of what makes the sky displays so amazing is that we're so close to the harbour and the ocean. If there weren't hills, we'd see it easily. The mist and wind off the water makes very interesting cloud formations, which create such beauty as the sun reflects off of them in unique and spectacular ways.

In other news, I spent the weekend in Whanganui, visiting my friends, which was lovely. I had let it go too long between visits - getting caught up in my life in Wellington is good, but I don't want to neglect my wonderful friends in Whanganui. It feels amazing to go back to what J and I both consider our home town in NZ, and to be greeted so warmly by old friends. And it actually hit me for the first time over the weekend - they are old friends. I have been friends with Kirsten and Jan for over two and a half years, and with Belinda, Paula, and Brian only a bit less than that. No wonder they feel so much like family! And fortunately, they treat me as family as well. I had planned to stay with Kirsten, but at the last minute, due to circumstances completely beyond her control, I couldn't. Already into late afternoon and well into my drive to Whanganui, I found myself calling Belinda and Jan, a homeless supplicant hoping for a bed or a couch for that night. Only family puts up with that kind of surprise imposition, and so we are clearly family, because I spent a cozy night at each of their houses. In fact, I very comfortably think of Jan and Brian's spare room as "my bedroom," now that I think of it. The weekend was fabulous, and I settled in so quickly, naturally, and happily that it felt almost surreal to leave again. Except I was so very excited to see J when I got home, so obviously I'm back where I belong.

Exploring French Plaits

I have been expanding my skills at French Plaits (Braids) over the past few months, and quite enjoying myself in the process. I realize that it's a bit random as far as blog posts go, but I've decided to share some pictures of them. Most of them are in Kirsten's hair, which is completely fantastic for French plaits, because it's got colour variation that shows off the layers of overlapping hair. My hair, on the other hand, being determinedly brown, doesn't display the complexity nearly as well. Oh well.

Central inverted plait with loose waterfalls on the sides.

Triple waterfall with the sides bigger. (You can tell I missed a strand in the middle left, but oh well.)

Triple waterfall with a larger central plait, twisted at the bottom.

Double waterfall wrap-around.

French Twist plait into a bun.

Triple waterfall wrap-around.

I don't know what this is called - I kind of made it up as I went along.

Five strand inverted.

As I said - a bit random. But you can see how much fun I'm having trying out these new things. Plaits are the best thing for my hair here in Wellington, where the wind rips my curly hair into a frenzy of frizz and tangles in even moments outside. 

Yay for Security

As you will remember, I have been teaching in the 3- and 4-year-old room at Victoria University's early learning centre - my room is called Whare Kea, which means Kea House. A kea is a type of New Zealand parrot that is very cheeky. 

More to the point, I was hired on a fixed term contract, and it extended until the end of May. That is not very far away, and so I've been wondering what was going to happen, but I don't have to wait any longer - a permanent position became available, and today I found out that I got it! So all I have to do is sign the contract, and I'll have all the job security I could want! Yay! 

Speaking of work, I have been very focused on it lately - we have parent-teacher conferences next week, so I've been preparing for those, as well as working on a bunch of projects, which are rewarding but overwhelming. This has coincided well with J and I deciding to not to anything too big or expensive on the weekends, because when I can get some time to relax, I'm mostly wanting to curl up with a cup of tea and read. I enjoy the challenges and fascinating topics that my work involves, but it is also good to get my mind into some quality fiction and give my brain a change of pace.

Today's post will be concluded with this awesome picture of a cloud over the valley in Karori. Five or so minutes after I took this picture, I biked through said cloud. It was pretty cool to bike through the mist, knowing what it looked like from up high.

Dinner and a Show

You may recall that J and I exchanged "events" for Christmas gifts this year. He gave me that amazingly beautiful helicopter trip in the Coromandel (for that post, click here). I have just realized that I never posted about my gift to him, possibly because it was notably less impressive than his. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful time, and so it should be shared.

I bought J tickets to see comedian Jimmy Carr, who I had never heard of at the time, but whose performances J has loved for years.

 

These posters were all over the city centre, and J saw one as we were walking and was very excited and announced that he wanted to go. I immediately decided that I would get him tickets for Christmas, but then started worrying that he might be excited enough to buy them himself. As tickets were expensive and non-refundable, I found this thought frustrating as I planned my surprise gift. However, I knew I could count on two things; 1) that J would ask me before spending money on rather expensive tickets, and 2) that J's flighty memory would win out over his enthusiasm, and he would forget entirely about the show. This second one, as I expected, was the winner, as evidenced by his total shock when he unwrapped the tickets.

The next surprise was when J suddenly realized that Jimmy Carr specializes in offensive humour, and I specialize in avoiding the use of vulgarity for entertainment... meaning we may not be a good match. He didn't want to take me to a show that would upset me, so he was concerned. I therefore did some research in the form of watching his stand-up routines online to see how I would cope with some of his harsher jokes. Fortunately for our hopeful date night, I found that Jimmy Carr's wit, comedic timing, and ability to mislead the audience right up until the unexpected and clever punchline more than adequately balanced out his vulgarity. 

We got all dressed up for the occasion - more special for me than for J, as he has to wear fancy clothes to work every day. But he usually changes into gym clothes to work out before coming home, so I rarely see him dressed up for more than a few minutes each day, before we both head to work. 

I, on the other hand, probably have worn fancy clothes about twice in the 2 1/2 years we've lived in NZ, so it was a special occasion for me. I even bought this rather fantastic dress at a second hand store for the occasion, and so I could surprise J with it on the night. 

In looking at these pictures, all the way back in January, I am remembering that J was trialling a goatee at that stage. The jury is still out on facial hair in my opinion, but he still looks handsome.

We went to Nicolini's Italian Restaurant for dinner, downtown on Courtenay Place. It had been enthusiastically recommended to us by a friend of Kirsten's, and we thought the candlelit setting would be nice, and it was. Sorry for the crappy picture - I was trying to snap a quick one, and it does not capture the lovely ambiance at all.

The food lived up to the recommendation we had received - probably the richest, most wonderful pasta I've ever had in my life, actually.
You'll notice that this is an impressively unattractive picture. What you do not realize is that I actually had J take a good four or five pictures, thinking that I'd look at them later and surely one of them would be passable. This believe it or not, is the MOST attractive picture of me that was taken while I enjoyed my pasta. 

When it came to dessert, J could not take his eyes off of his amazing cake for even a moment, although I am appreciative of the herculean effort that it took for him to wait to actually start eating until I had snapped the picture.

After dinner, we went to the show (right across the street at Saint James Theatre), only to find that the enthusiastic Jimmy had gone way over time on his first show of the evening, so ours would be about an hour late in starting. Given that it had been originally scheduled for the unfathomably late hour of 10:00pm, the concept of staying up an additional hour was a bit challenging for J and I, who are usually solidly in bed by 9:30. However, we were having a wonderful time, and endorphins will get you a long way, so we did just find.

We went to The Library, which is a lovely bar that is set up like a library - not so much like one you'd go to to check out books, but like an library or study in an old house. The main part of The Library was quite full, so we ended up in this back room which, while comfortable, seems to have been forgotten when they applied the "library" decor. All the other rooms have books covering most of the walls, but perhaps they ran out? Anyway, it's a great place, where I've often gone for book clubs, and we had a nice time having drinks and chatting while we waited for the show to start.

I took not one single picture of the theatre or anything connected to the show. I'm not sure why this happened, but pictures don't really capture much about a stand-up comedy show, so it's not a big loss. The show was hilarious, and J was absolutely delighted to see a performer he had loved for years perform in person. 

By the time we got home, it was past 1:30am, which is a good 3.5 - 4 hours later than we've stayed up in years, so we just fell into bed and slept for ages. But it was all worth it for the wonderful evening together.