Ice Skating

The move from Florida to Ohio when I was nine brought a lot of changes. New school, new house, new friends and certainly new weather. I had rarely seen snow and never been on a frozen lake. That first winter, the pond down the street from our house froze and the whole family got ice skates. We learned the basics on that pond but also went to some of the hiking trails we walked the previous summer. The lakes near them were frozen as well and we would do similar loop trails on the ice. It was a very fun experience, but I rarely think back to it these days. It came up today as I walked into a co-workers office and noticed people in the distance gliding around. It’s been below freezing in Boise for a few weeks now and although the ponds don’t look it, some have frozen enough to skate on. There were two guys with skates and hockey stick slapping a puck around just outside my office window. It looked like fun. This weekend I might just have to look for a new pair of skates.

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Power of Play


I heard that the Idaho History Museum had an exhibition all about toys from around the world and decided to check it out this First Thursday. They had several interesting examples of toys and a few that you could play with. I was pleased to see that interactive element in the exhibition, but there seemed to be more text panels talking about the toys than actual toys on display.

The one display case that stood out to me was the case with cars. These cars had been built out of whatever material was around at the time. The one in the middle of the picture had an old shoe as a chassis. These cars reminded me of many of the inventions kids came up with while I was running Kids Invent. They were built with the creative problem solving and innovation we are desperate for students these days to learn, but this sort of activity rarely happens in classrooms.

I enjoyed the toys that were on display at IHM and was very pleased to see that they weren’t all in glass cases. I hope that the students who visit this exhibition are inspired to go home, pull out random “junk” and see what kinds of toys they can create.

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