Month: June 2009

A shameless brag or a plea for reinforcements?

I’ve taken to calling Lucas “Sir Edmund Hillary” because there is nothing that he won’t try to climb. Why? Because it’s there.

I’ve gotten quite laissez-faire about chasing him off the stairs. I don’t rush to take him off the kitchen table any more. (But I do keep the kitchen chairs stacked on the opposite side of the kitchen from the table to discourage him just a bit.) And I’ve completely given up on trying to dissuade him from his “climb onto the end table, over the arm of the couch, crawl or lurch the length of the couch and then roll off the other arm” loop that he’ll happily run five or six times in succession.

We were at the playground yesterday, and he gave me quite the piece of his mind when I pulled him off the ladder (at a height of about five feet) on the big-kids’ play structure. He’s fearless, and relentless. It’s a terrifying combination in a third child!!

But man is he smart! Of course, I’m completely unbiased, but he seems to understand an uncanny amount of instruction for a 16-month old. He will get his own shoes or diaper if you ask him to, and although he hates to be interrupted from his adventures for a diaper change, he will settle down if I explain to him that it will only take a moment for a diaper change and then he can continue playing.

I don’t remember the other boys being so obsessively persistent. He has actually whacked me with a book as I type fiercely on the computer, trying to get something done, when he has decided it’s time for me to read the Busy Little Spider RIGHT NOW. (He’s also tried to push me away from the sink while I was washing dishes and has reached over to pull the camera away from my face. The boy knows his own mind!

My favourite thing about Lucas right now, though, is how he loves his toys. He will sit and play quite happily with any kind of action figure, but he loves Bob the Builder the best. He’s discovered Simon’s superhero figures, though, and it’s rather adorable to hear him say “Ba-Man” and “Spi-Man”. (He doesn’t, mind you, say Tristan or Simon yet, but he’s got his superheros down cold.

And let me tell you, there’s going to be hell to pay if that child says Wolverine before he says Mommy!

‘sno joke, they’re calling for snow!

Is it me, or have the people down at the weather office taken to drinking in the afternoons? Or maybe in the mornings? I mean, I know weather forecasting is more art than science, and that there’s a reason they deal in probabilities. But seriously? They’ve been wrong more often than they’ve been right in the last month.

This one takes the cake, though. I was checking the forecast for Canada Day and the upcoming week this morning when I saw this:

snow joke!


That’s right, they’re calling for snow. On Canada Day.

I’m going to hope they’re wrong on this one. But maybe I should dig out my red and white scarf just in case?

P.S. Snow aside, isn’t that just about a perfect vacation-week forecast? Sigh. If I had even the least bit of confidence in their prognostication skills, I’d be annoyed.

Project 365: summer beauty

I think I might have taken nearly a thousand pictures this week. There have been days during my 365 project that I didn’t even feel like picking up the camera — this week did not contain any of those days! Everywhere I turned there was beautiful warm light, cute kids and interesting photo opportunities. Every week should be this easy!

For instance, last Friday we had our annual staff picnic, but instead of the traditional picnic we went on a boat cruise on the Ottawa River. I *could* post the pictures I took of my colleagues doing a mid-afternoon conga line (!) but instead, I’ll share this relatively unique perspective of the Chateau Laurier and the Rideau Canal locks (the bit that looks like giant concrete steps) where they dump into the Ottawa River. Doesn’t it look like something out of a fairy tale?

151b:365 Chateau Laurier and locks

The Chateau Laurier pictures was actually my alternate shot of the day. This dock lead down to the Gatineau River, near where the cruise was docked, and I liked the contrasting purple and yellow (complimentary colours really make a photo pop) and the shapes in the shadows.

151:365 Crazy coloured dock

Does anything say summertime better than after-dinner popsicles on the porch swing? (Yep, we collected an extra for this picture. She matches my set nicely, don’t you think? Sadly, her folks won’t let me keep her. I think that if I could guarantee she’d turn out just like this, I could easily convince Beloved to have a fourth child!)

152:365 Summertime on the swing

I spent more than half an hour on Sunday morning, watching the gorgeous warm light bathe Lucas as he played contentedly with these Bob the Builder toys. I took at least 60 shots, trying to capture the quiet peacefulness of the moment, and ended up having a hard time choosing just a couple of favourites.

I liked this one because of the way Lucas’s profile is in shadow but bright yellow Scoop is fully lit, and the way you can see Lucas’s profile so cleanly against the wall behind him.

153c:365 Scoop and Lucas

I liked these two because the little hands could have belonged to any of my three boys. I love to see those chubby fingers at play!

153a:365 Scoop and Bob

In the end, I liked this one the best, I think because you can see the whole of Scoop and because I moved a bit to eliminate the distraction of the door frame that’s in the picture above.

153:365 Scoop and Wendy

For the next image, it’s the story as much as the photo that makes it the picture of the day for me.

It was hot and sunny, just the kind of day I like best, but I was overheated and cranky and really not feeling well as I finished a long 10 or 15 block loop on my lunch hour. I’d snapped a few pictures, but nothing was really capturing my eye and I wasn’t even enjoying the walk much. I went to turn down a street that would lead directly back to my office, one I’d trod a hundred times before, when I realized if I stayed on straight I’d walk down a block I’d never been down before.

Shortcut or new ground? I debated for a minute, thinking it unlikely I’d see anything worth photographing on such an uninteresting stretch, then decided to walk the new stretch anyway.

Half way down, I came across this young lady sitting at a table selling lemonade and busking with her ukulele, raising funds for a trip to Scotland. I was completely and utterly charmed by the combination lemonade stand-ukulele show. The picture is not terrific — the money jar blocks the head of the uke — but I was a little distracted by chatting with her as I composed the shot. She was so sweet and the idea so charming that I couldn’t *not* have this as my picture of the day! (I passed on the lemonade, but I did give her a few bucks toward her trip.) It’s also #3 in my 100strangers.com project.

154:365 Scotland or bust

On Tuesday, I had a lunch date with the inimitable Andrea, and rather than sit on a patio to enjoy the sunshine and a cold beverage, we ate a quick Budawich on a park bench and wandered the Market with our cameras on a little photo safari. It was so nice to have some company on one of my lunch-time wanders! I didn’t get many pictures in, but great conversation with a good friend is a balm for the soul, isn’t it? I did find these fuscia blooms dangling out of a basket to be particularly photographable, though.

155:365 Mystery flower

I’ve learned that flowers are an excellent choice for an easy photo. They stand still, they’re bright and colourful, and I just can’t resist them! I particularly liked these daisies. I have a soft spot for daisies – I wore them in my hair when Beloved and I got married, and they featured predominately in the wildflower bouquet that I carried and the centrepieces on the picnic tables at our reception.

157b:365 Daisies

The problem with never relinquishing the camera is that you end up with photographs of everybody and everything *except* you. When I started my 365 project, one of my self-imposed rules was a self-portrait every month. I don’t think I’ve managed more than a few so far, but yesterday I caught sight of myself in this reflective window in the Market and thought the bright busyness behind me would make a neat selfie.

157:365 Reflective

These are my favourite photos of the week. We had an old fashioned ice cream truck rumbling around the neighbourhood this week, complete with tinkling music and soft-serve ice cream cones. I haven’t seen one of these since I was a kid in the 1970s. (I remember the one that used to come through our neighbourhood would moo like a cow, and our dog would tremble and hide under the furniture every time it went by!)

I love this picture because of Beloved’s smile (and the way that Lucas looks like he’s going to eat the cone in one giant bite!) but I’m not overly fond of the highlights on Lucas’s face. The contrast is too strong, I think.

156b:365 More ice cream

I love this one the best. I coloured it with a light sepia because I think it’s such a classic photo. (My favourite bit is how Lucas is holding onto Beloved’s fingers!)

156:365 Ice cream

I do love them so – and I think this photo captures that. I think of the many ways that Project 365 has inspired me and improved my mad photographic skillz, this is the one I most appreciate: that I can capture not just an image, but the mood or moment in its entirety that caused me to pick up the camera in the first place. Well, at least some of the time!

A happy day for the sandwich generation

You know what? We haven’t had a “yay day” around here in ages. On a sunny blue morning, it seems like a fine day to be grateful out loud.

My biggest “yay” today is for my mom: she retired yesterday. Yay for retirement! Well, she actually retired a while back, but her last day of work was yesterday. I think she’s still dancing with glee today!

Funny aside: Way back when she was in high school in the early 1960s, the nuns tried to refuse my mom entry into the business stream of classes because she was at the time already seeing my dad, and they said the business classes would be wasted on her because she was just going to get married and have a family straight out of high school. My grandfather raised a storm and she was eventually allowed to take the classes. Turns out the nuns were right — she did get married and start a family, and then she only put those secretarial and accounting skills into action for the next 45 years or so. (*insert eyeball roll here*)

You know what’s really weird? On the path I’m currently on, I’ll be eligible for fully-pensioned retirement in just 15 years. (!!) I’ve already got almost 20 years under my belt — that makes me more than half way done my career. Hard to imagine that Lucas won’t even be done high school by the time I’m eligible to retire! Of course, with two in university and one just getting ready for university, I might not be able to afford to retire!

So yay for retirements, current and pending! And more stuff to be grateful for: it’s the last day of school! Yay! I remember last summer I was dreading everyone being home, and then I cried in September when everybody went back to school. So yay for being stuck with your family all summer long! I can hardly wait! (And I’ll try not to be bitter while Beloved AND the boys AND my folks are all off and I’m still trudging to the office. There’s another yay — for 20 years worth of accumulated vacation leave!)

And yay for excellent report cards! Tristan’s lowest mark was in (snicker) gym, where he got a B-, but he got As in both math and reading. Math! My boy!! And he doesn’t get it from his father, either! Since both of his parents need to take off their shoes to count beyond ten, it must be a genetic throw-back. And while they don’t get letter grades in junior kindergarten, Simon is progressing well in all areas but excelling in (snicker) communication. My Simon, who could talk the feathers off a duck. Hmmm, that must be a genetic throw-back, too.

So today is an excellent day for the sandwich generation. I’m proud of my folks, and proud of my boys. The sun is shining, and it’s going to be my favourite kind of summer day.

What’s making the sun shine in your world today?

Thoughts on love lost and found

Once upon a time, I had a crush on an altar boy. I used to go to Saturday evening mass just because he was there, and then we’d head out in a noisy, happy gang to do whatever it is teenagers do on a Saturday night. In fact, he was the boyfriend of a good friend of mine. They were “the” couple in our high school, the inseperable ones, the ones who were together so often that you really started to think of them as a single entity.

I’d known him since grade school, but it wasn’t until half way through high school that our social circles started to intersect regularly. We became friends, and soon the three of us — he, his girlfriend, and I — were spending a lot of time together. One March Break his girlfriend went off to Florida and he and I spent the whole week together, not quite bold enough to do more than hold hands discreetly when we knew no-one was looking, but there was no mistaking the mutual attraction between us. I was 16 and desperate for affection, but not desperate enough to be disloyal to my friend.

She came back from Florida and I’m pretty sure she was oblivious to what had almost happened in her absence. We went back to being the Three Amigos again, but it was never as comfortably fun as it had been in the months before. I didn’t exactly pine for him, nor resent his girlfriend, but felt a kind of melancholy sadness over what I knew would never be.

A few weeks later, I started seeing a boy who lived out of town. I drifted away from my friends, as often happens in high school (and for that matter, even now) when a new boyfriend comes into the picture. Our social circles still intersected, and I saw them occasionally. In fact, it was less awkward being a threesome with an invisible and out-of-town fourth than it had been before. Just a few days after graduation, though, I moved across the province to live with my new boyfriend. In the adventure of new love, I left most of my best friends behind me like discarded possessions.

Through the years, I thought often of my altar boy and regretted losing touch. While I’d managed to keep in touch with the dearest of my high school friends, my altar boy seemed to drop off the map after graduation. I knew he and his girlfriend had broken up, but nobody seemed to know what had become of him. Through the years, I’d idly check online directories and alumni lists, but his name was nowhere to be found. He’d disappeared – but I never stopped wondering about him.

He was, in many ways, the one that got away. I wouldn’t change the path that my life has taken for any sum of money, but he’s the one that I would wonder about, late at night, especially when things were in turmoil. What if? What if? What if I hadn’t had that ridiculously overdeveloped sense of loyalty, that long ago March Break in 1986? What if I hadn’t been so desperate for attention and affection when the new boy swooped into the picture?

The fact that he disappeared so utterly and completely after high school only elevated him to nearly mythic status in my imagination. I imagined him doing some sort of foreign aid work in third-world countries, or planting trees in the Amazon rain forest, or riding his bicycle across the country to raise awareness and funds for some obscure disease. Of all my friends, he seemed the most likely to do something like that.

And then one day, I found him. On Facebook. I was perusing the ‘friends’ list of another friend from the same high school social circle, looking for familiar names. (Do you do this? I scan the list, see names I recognize, and then do nothing about it. Why do I bother if I’m too shy to reach out? Facebook brings out the strangest bits of me.) When I read his name, I’m quite sure my jaw dropped open in surprise. I know for a fact my breath caught in my throat. Could it be the same person? Of course it was, but I had so elevated my altar boy to the stuff of legend that to find him in such a pedestrian place — stumbled on to in a Facebook account of all things — seemed so unlikely that at first I simply stared at his name in wonder.

At first, I was so surprised to find him that I did nothing. I clicked back into Facebook a few times, just looking at his name. His icon was nondescript, a blurry photo that could have been just about anybody or – for that matter – anything. I agonized over how to make contact. Whether to make contact. Countless scenarios spun out in my imagination, not least of which would be him replying to my query saying he didn’t remember me from high school. (After all these years, it’s rather alarming how close to the surface resides that crushingly insecure fourteen-year-old girl I was.)

Finally, I spent an hour crafting a two line message, imbuing it with as much friendly nonchalance as I could muster. I think I hovered with my mouse pointed to the send button for an eternity before releasing 20 years of “what if” with a single click of the mouse.

For a week, nothing happened. Well, lots happened, but nothing that could have possibly met the expectations pent up in my Facebook account. Just when I was beginning to think I’d been mistaken — mortally, painfully mistaken — I got his response.

We exchanged a few messages in that stilted way that comes with intimacy followed by a 20-year gap. I learned that he had a daughter, herself a teenager now, but no wife. He is a salesman, living in a middling-to-large city that I’d visited a few times. I told him that I’d married, and divorced, and remarried, and that I was happy. He never said whether he was happy, too. Our conversation petered out after just a few messages, with neither warmth or regret. It’s been more than a year since we made contact, and each time I see his name in my list of friends, I feel that pang of lost wonder.

His ordinaryness continues to amaze me.

40 until 40

In forty days, I’ll be forty years old. Eep! How did that happen?

You know why I know it’s forty days? Because yeseterday, when Beloved and I went out to buy my combination 40th-birthday / 10th-wedding-anniversary present, I was feeling a little guilty that it was neither our 10th wedding anniversary (July 3) nor my 40th birthday (August 1). But when I realized that it was 40 days until my 40th birthday, I was okay with the synchronicity in that. Twist my rubber arm.

The real reason we bought it yesterday was because it was on sale and I’m just a little bit more cheap thrifty than I am romantic. Ironic, really, because while I desperately wanted it, the last day I’d really need it is on the solstice, the longest, lightest day of the year.

It, if you haven’t figured it out yet, is a fancy-ass flash for my Nikon. Am I spoiled or what? I’ve wanted one in an oblique way for a couple of years, but now that I’m getting more creative and competent in my picture taking, I’ve been thinking for a few months that it would make a really kick-ass 40th birthday present. It’s a bit of an indulgent gift (much as I wish it were otherwise, we’re not $300-birthday-gift kind of people!) but my folks kicked in a bit, and 40th birthdays and 10th wedding anniversaries don’t come around every year, right?

But holy crap, off-camera flashes are a LOT more complicated than they were back in the days I was shooting film on my dad’s old AE1. (Or maybe I was just blissfully oblivious and always had my flash on the wrong setting? Good probability!) It’s much like my dSLR in that you can just pop it on the camera in auto mode and get flashing, but there are degrees of creative control that fill a 100-page manual filled with text that frankly makes my eyes glaze over!

It’s not exactly a featherweight, either. It probably doubles the bulk, if not the actual weight, of the camera. Good for planned semi-studio shots, not so good for toting around with you to the grocery store and the mailbox and all the other odd places to which I bring my camera. Good thing the long, delicious light of summer will be with us for a while!

I’ve become so anti-flash in the last little while that I got curious. When was the last time I used my on-camera flash anyway? Looks like this one, taken March 29, was the most recent one!

69:365 Slinky

And the idea that I’ll be 40 years old in 40 days? Wasn’t bothering me much at all until I kept typing it into this blog post! Why does 40 seem so much older when it’s pixelated in front of my eyes than it does when I try to stretch it out in my brain. How can I be 40 when I’m still 23?

Forty: the decade when she learned to flash. Yep, I think I’m good with that!

Project 365: 150 days down, 215 to go

Holy crap, I’ve been doing this picture-a-day thing every. single. day for 150 days and I haven’t missed one yet. Who’d’ve guessed it?

The nice thing about Project 365 in the summer time is that just about anywhere you point your camera there are lovely colours and light just begging to be photographed. Like these pansies:

148:365 Pansies

Even on a rainy day, peonies are pretty:

150:365 Wet peony

I’m particularly pleased with the peony because it was the big fat raindrops that caught my attention in the first place, but they didn’t come through in the image straight out of the camera. But I’ve learned enough about Photoshop in the past few months to know that if I sharpened the heck out of it, those raindrops would pop out, just like they did to the naked eye.

This is how the next one came to be:

Tristan: "Hey Mom! Wanna see me jump off the top of the monkey bars?"

Me, visions of the waiting room at the children’s hospital in my head: "No!"

Tristan: "Why not?"

Me: "Because it’s dangerous and I don’t want you to hurt yourself."

Tristan: "Awwwwwww!"

Me, remembering that there is a June is for Jumping group on Flickr and that I still don’t have a picture for today, "Actually, you know what? Just let me go get my camera…."

149:365 Jump!

(Speaking of mad photoshopping skillz, I accidentally left the ISO way too high and overexposed the shot, but I loved the expression on Tristan’s face so much that I wanted to find a way to make the image work so I processed the heck out of it. I used one of the Pioneer Woman’s actions – I think it was ‘vintage’ – but it was too harsh, so I dialed the opacity down to 50%, and I really like how it came out.)

And this one? Well, what can I say, I just love those toes!

145:365 Grassy feet

This is from the same afternoon. It’s not an official 365 shot, but it’s a moment worth admiring, no? I love it when I sneak up and find them being adorable.

145c:365 Brothers on the swing

Speaking of adorable… I like this picture for the look of intense concentration on Simon’s face, and because of the story behind what he’s doing. Simon is one of only two boys invited to a Princess party this weekend, and he’s been asked to dress as Prince Charming. (I know. Couldn’t you just die of the sweetness?) The closest we could come was a tiara and a Darth Vader cape (don’t ask me why in a house with three boys we had a tiara) and Beloved put his foot down and said no son of his was going to a party wearing a tiara. (Sheesh!) So yesterday, Beloved came home with a crown-making-kit. Simon enjoyed making his own so much that he decided to make and decorate a crown for the birthday girl as well. So sweet! Five is a lovely age.

150b:365 Prince Simon

Project 365 is about memorializing a year in pictures in addition to improving my photographic eye (and mad photoshopping skillz!) and this picture simply captures the official first day of summer: the first day it was nice enough to swim in our friends’ pool. (Friends with pool = favourite friends!) It’s called Lukey’s Boat!

146:365 Lukey's Boat

Darn, I was doing so well with the segues, but I got nothing for this one. They’ve started this cool new service in Ottawa where you can rent a bike from one of four downtown locations and return your rental to any of the other stations. How awesome is that? I haven’t tried it out yet, simply because it’s either been pouring rain or I’ve forgotten to bring my helmet, but there’s a station right by my office. From a technical perspective, I like this photo because of the repeating pattern, because of the way the top and side borders have almost exactly the same amount of space, because of the way it fills the frame, and because the bit of repeating red really seems to pop against the otherwise neutral colours.

144:365 Bixi bikes

Last but not least, and also without a workable segue, this is my favourite picture of the week. I like the textures, the chipped paint and the worn wood, and how they contrast against the softness of the fingers. I think the strong diagonal lines draw your eyes right through the frame, but the little fingers stop you dead. (Edited to add: oh, and I just realized that this picture made it into Flickr’s fickle “Explore”, too. Yay!)

147:365 Fingers

It’s actually the bar of an emergency exit door in a restaurant, where Lukey was wandering out his twitchies while Beloved and the big boys waited for the bill. Lesson? Always, always have your camera handy!

More thoughts on full-day kindergarten

I thought it was worth a second post (here’s the first) to link to some of the fantastic opinions people have expressed on the subject of full-day kindergarten in Ontario.

In our little corner of the blogosphere Rebecca at a bit of momsense is still on the fence. BeachMama isn’t on the fence at all – she doesn’t suppport the idea.

Randall Denley in today’s Citizen provides a rant contrary opinion from the grumpy old men contingent, and Elizabeth Payne (one of my favourite Citizen columnist) provides a more balanced and thoughtful — not to mention favourable — insight. Best quote to date, IMHO, goes to Elizabeth Payne for this one:

Bail out a badly run and outdated car company and people will shrug their shoulders. Try to build a system in which all children have access to good-quality care, and an equal start in life, and wait for the howls of outrage.

I’ve been loving your comments, here and elsewhere in the blogosphere. And I’ve been prudently ignoring the comment sections on articles about full-day kindergarten in the major media. If I believed the majority of those comments, I’d be thinking I’m a “self-indulgent, latte-toting, lazy mother who had more children than she could afford to raise and is now looking for to the state to raise them for her.” Nice.

Edited to add: hoo-boy, it’s not just the anonymous comentators who are opinionated wing-nuts. Alberta’s Minister of Finance thinks ‘raising children properly’ requires one parent to stay at home. Yikes!

The Family Photographer: Composition 1

I have to laugh when I look at the pictures I used to take when I was younger: as soon as whatever subject I was trying to capture was in the frame – anywhere in the frame! – I’d push the shutter button. Don’t get me wrong, it works — but if you take a few seconds to really think about what you want your final picture to look like, you’ll go from ‘taking’ pictures to ‘making’ pictures.

Each picture needs to have a focal point. The focal point is the subject, the centre of interest. What is your photo trying to say? You might even have a couple of focal points, but you should choose one main one and make sure that nothing else in the frame is more interesting, more noticable or otherwise taking attention away from that one point of focus.

The very hardest thing for me to do — still! — is the most important: slow down and really look at the picture you’re about to take. Kids are squiggley and wildlife doesn’t sit pretty for the camera and even landscapes change with variable lighting and tourists wandering into your frame and whatnot, it’s true, but if you take a few seconds to really look at the picture you’re about to take, I guarantee you’ll take better pictures.

Look into all four corners and along the edges of the frame. Is everybody in the frame who is supposed to be in the frame? Are there any tree branches sticking out of the sides of anybody’s head? If you moved a little bit to the left or the right, would you do a better job of including the Statue of Liberty in the background, or be able to exclude that ugly sign advertising pizza by the slice?

Try to see the whole picture, including the background and foreground. Include only the elements that add to your picture and – perhaps more importantly – do what you can to reduce or eliminate the things that might take attention away from your subject. (Do this by squatting down or moving from one side to another, by zooming in or out, or by getting closer to or further away from your subject. Turn your camera sideways, and see if that’s a better shot. Or, if you have a fancy camera, play with the depth of field to throw the background out of focus.)

DSC_0422
This picture favours neither me nor the elephant, but might have been
a more interesting composition if it showed less sky and the entire elephant.

Now you’ve taken a good look to make sure you’ve got an interesting viewpoint with all the good stuff in your frame and none of the bad stuff, and you’ve got your subject perfectly framed in the centre of your viewfinder. Ready? Don’t press that shutter!

For the most part, you should avoid placing your subject in the dead centre of your photo. I have a hard time with this one myself. There’s an old ‘rule’ called the rule of thirds, which basically says that you should try to place your centre of interest at the 1/3 or 2/3 point of your frame, either horizontally or vertically, to make the image more interesting.

Imagine lines dividing your frame into equal thirds, both horizontally and vertically, like a tic-tac-toe board superimposed on your photo. Putting your subject anywhere on those imaginary lines is good, but even better is the spots where those imaginary lines intersect. They call those four points the sweet spots, and placing your centre of interest over one of the sweet spots gives a picture just a little extra je ne sais quoi.

141b:365 The egg thief
Lucas’s eye is just about where the top and left third lines would intersect.

I’m resisting the urge to throw everything I’ve learned about composition into one post, but it’s difficult to leave so much unsaid! We still need to talk about foregrounds and backgrounds, and using frames, and static versus dynamic, and using lines that you can see instead of imaginary ones… lots of topics to cover in the upcoming weeks, I guess!

All-day kindergarten recommended for Ontario

A couple of weeks back, I started writing a series of posts about the state of early education and child care in Canada. The first post was an introduction and summary of the Canadian Senate’s report called “Early Childhood Education and Care: Next Steps.” I was rather underwhelmed by the Senates main recommendations, which were for more bureaucracy. Before I had a chance to write up my next post on the series, the government of Ontario released a watershed (I hope) report full of jaw-dropping recommendations for early childhood education in Ontario, centred around the recommendation for full-day kindergarten for 4- and 5-year-olds.

Compared to the Senate’s call for more bureaucracy, I was delighted – practically gleeful! — to see the clear plan and call to action laid out in “With Our Best Future in Mind: Implementing Early Learning in Ontario.” The report, commissioned when the McGuinty provincial government was elected in 2007, contains recommendations that are so full of promise and potential that I’m almost afraid to hope they might be implemented.

Here are some of the things the report recommends:

“Every child in Ontario who turns 4 by December 31 would be entitled to attend two years of full-day, school-year Early Learning Program operated by school boards.”

“Parents would have the option of extended programming before and after the traditional school day and year, not as an add-on but as part of the Early Learning Program.” That’s integrated before and after school care!

The report also calls for schools to become “community hubs” offering many of the same services that the current Early Years Centres offer, including parenting support and counseling, pre- and post-natal support and information, early identification of issues and resources, etc. Schools will be open to the community from 7:30 am to 6 pm, 50 weeks of the year. “Crucial to the new vision for Ontario is the transformation of all elementary schools into community schools, open to their neighbourhoods and capable of providing families with opportunities for children’s learning, care, health, culture, arts, and recreation from the prenatal period through to adolescence.”

Imagine that! Schools open to the community! (Is anyone else vaguely disturbed by having to stand outside a fence practically off school property for school pick-ups and drop-offs? I understand the school’s concern for safety, but I do in fact feel vaguely alienated from my kids’ school!)

It also calls for fee-based Extended Day Primary programming – basically, enrichment programs in arts and sports for ages 6 to 8 and 9 to 12.

A final recommendation is the implementation of a 400-day paid leave for parents, including a six-week leave for the exclusive use of fathers and other “non-birthing” parents.

It’s a hugely ambitious plan, aiming for implementation beginning next year in 2010-2011. I can only hope the school boards and teachers’ unions that are currently criticizing the plan have the sense to recognize it as containing the kind of radical shift in philosophy that we will look back on and wonder why we didn’t do it a generation before.

I love the fact that this report gets it right by first suggesting a series of finite, clearly enunciated steps to be implemented more or less immediately, and THEN follows it up with a recommendation for the necessary ministries and legislation to support the revitalized system, instead of the other way around as recommended by the Senate report.

If you haven’t read it between the lines, I’m very excited about this report and just about everything it contains. Once upon a time, when the idea of full-day kindergarten was first floated by the McGuinty government circa 2007, I admit that I saw it mostly as a way to reduce my own out-of-pocket costs on child care. But, after spending a lot of time recently up to my elbows in public reports on child care and early childhood education, I can see that there are huge societal gains to be had in implementing these ideas and the potential for saving a few bucks on daycare is actually among the lesser of the huge benefits to be reaped. I’ll take a look at the research I’ve seen in the next post in what is becoming an increasingly elongated — but suddenly extremely positive — series!