If It Wasn't Dark Outside, I'd Go Pick Some Right Now

A little-known and fairly ridiculous fact about me. As much as I adore flowers, and devote myself to growing a yard full of them, I'm very hesitant to cut them and bring them into the house.

Wait. I have some good reasons.

Bouquets are so tricky to get right. You need a carefully balanced combination of flowers, placed in an elegant coordinated vase. And the flowers need to be arranged just so, so that they create a pleasing shape and never droop. 

Also, bouquets require much ongoing care. You must replace aging blooms and clean up all the spent petals that have fallen off.

Wait. I just saw this charming, adorable, perfectly imperfect bouquet of flowers...and all those reasons flew right out the window.

{frolic!}

Tomorrow, my new life as a flower-picker begins. Just you wait and see.

Graduating With Honors

Here's a happy scene. Last weekend, my brother's daughter graduated from college; this photo captures the triumphant graduate with her parents and darling baby brother. Doesn't this shot perfectly capture the pride and relief and giddy happiness of such an important family milestone? 

Photo credit: Emily Weebroo

At the same time, for anyone who knows this family, the sight of these four smiling faces triggers an ache in our hearts. Because we want to see a fifth face in this photo - the face of the firstborn son and big brother. He should be proudly beaming out from the back row of the group, maybe cracking a joke under his breath or poking his sister in the ribs. Undoubtedly, he would be remembering his own college graduation, and reflecting on how much he had grown and changed in the years since then.

But David is gone from us. Five years ago, he died in a freak accident. He was a few months short of his twenty-first birthday.

A photo from when there were five. 

Any young person's death is a tragedy, and it's useless to attempt to compare or measure the sharp point of that grief. But David's passing was as abrupt, violent and mysterious as they come. In their small town, the accident was very public and the whole family faced unwanted attention and painful rumors.

Obviously, his parents have carried an almost unbearable load of grief, confusion and pain, and I respect their struggles. But this is not a story about the parents. This story is about David's brother and sister.

When David died, Emily was sixteen. Like most teenage brothers and sisters, they did their share of bickering and teasing. Like many first- and second-borns, they defined themselves almost in opposition to each other; David was the athletically gifted, all-American jokester. At school, he was a high-profile, "popular" kid known for his good-natured ability to always get a laugh. In contrast, Emily was driven by her passions for music, emotionally intense conversation, and deep bonding time with a few, very close friends. Although Emily and David both shared a keen intellect and academic success, I think that at this season of their lives, they felt more different than similar.

Any of us who have siblings and are older than twenty-five know that this stage is perfectly normal. Teen years are hard on siblings, but once everyone turns the corner into their twenties, things settle down and suddenly it's a lot easier to get along. Had David lived a few more years, I'm sure he and Emily would have moved through the drama and reached that level of sibling ceasefire. But he didn't. And Emily has had to make peace with the fact that their earthly relationship ended at such a difficult phase. That is not an easy thing to accept.

Bonding over Disney sleeping bags, a cozy chair, and from the looks of
Emily's face, some form of chocolate.

Nothing says brother-sister love like some coordinated cross-dressing.

Alex was born six years, almost to the day, after David. It figures that their birthdays are only a few days apart; from the moment he opened his eyes and drew a breath, Alex looked up to David and followed in his footsteps. They both had an obsession for any sport or game involving a ball; even when Alex was not more than a preschooler, he would follow David and the other neighborhood big boys around and attempt to join their basketball and baseball games. I don't know if it says more about David's heart for his little brother or Alex's amazing sporting skills, but more often than not, Alex would be invited to play.

Alex was fourteen when David died. I think he was old enough to see his brother's imperfections but still young enough to adore him anyway. I can't imagine what it feels like to lose your hero. That is not an easy thing to accept.

Alex was a baller from the start, just like his big bro. Also like David, he was a huge fan of
Spartan garb. Some things never change...go check out his shirt in the top photo.

David was a baller from the start too...looks like his dad can't put this
basketball hoop together fast enough for his satisfaction.

Alex scores a new football outfit; David looks on in either awe or envy. Maybe both.

Now let me be clear. I am not telling you these things so you will feel sorry for Emily and Alex. And I certainly don't feel sorry for them, myself. They don't need anyone's pity.

What I feel for my niece and nephew is admiration. In dealing with this unspeakable loss, they have done a most remarkable thing. They have continued to live their lives. Getting up every day, putting on one shoe and then the other, going to school, meeting obligations, having a social life, graduating from college - I acknowledge the enormous effort it must take, some days more than others, to simply keep walking through life.

I can see that they have handled their grief differently. True to form, Emily is a verbal processor who willingly talks through her pain, and offloads emotions into journals as well.  I have a feeling that Alex would much rather smash a tennis ball or slam a golf ball off a tee than bare his soul on this matter, but that's fine too. No matter what their strategy might be, I have great respect for their ability to cope with their loss. I'm sure that David is immensely proud of his brother and sister, and I am, too.

* * * * *

Here's another story about how David's loss has impacted his extended family:

First-Born

You Were Expecting The Mona Lisa?

After a long week of taking care of others and having precious little time for myself, I woke up this morning feeling rested and ready to take on the world. As soon as my feet hit the floor, my brain began to crave artistic expression. I was so in the mood to paint or draw or design something beautiful and I had lots of ideas to choose from.

At no point in this process did I consider devoting my time to cleaning. Farthest thing from my mind.

However, as I wandered in and out of my closet, I did notice the overflowing laundry baskets. Just to take one for the team, I decided to run a load - maybe two at the most - as a minor side activity.

What an innocent and blindingly naive idea.

Here's what actually happened. 

As I started my load of laundry, I realized I was using the last of the current bottle of detergent. Once I threw that big plastic beast in the recycling, my hand automatically grabbed a cleaning cloth and attacked the shelf where the detergent previously stood. Empty shelves are easier to clean than full ones, and I make a habit of doing things the easy way.

Once I wiped that space down, the gleaming white shelf, neat and tidy row of bottles, and lingering fragrance of lemon-scented cleaner intoxicated me. Suddenly, nothing matter more than cleaning and straightening the rest of my laundry room shelves. 

Oh! So immensely satisfying. 

As my attention shifted back to my now-washed load of laundry, I decluttered the top of the washer and dryer in order to make room for folding the load that was still sitting in the dryer. I wonder what it's like to have an empty dryer. Mine is almost always full of dry clothes that no one wants to fold. Ah well, life could be a lot worse than that.

But wait. Wouldn't it be much better to wipe down the tops of the washer and dryer before I put those nice clean clothes down? Of course it would. I'll work extra hard to get the dust that accumulates around the edge of the washer's soap dispenser. And as long as I'm doing the tops, why not the fronts? And if I'm doing the outside, why not the inside of the doors as well? 

Yes. This was the moment I knew that I was in the full grip of a cleaning fever. 

I know I'm an insane cleaning fanatic. But look how clean that little groove is!

There was no stopping me now. I turned my wrath upon the pegs that line the walls of the room. One was in decent shape, but the other - the one I use - was heaped with mountains of my ski gear. Goggles, gloves, hats, jackets, backpacks and all sorts of odds and ends were smothering the pegs and pooling down onto the floor below.

Ski season ended three weeks ago. It was definitely time to pack up the gear till next November.  

But who wants to put away dirty gear? Certainly not me - at least not the me who was at the center of this hurricane of cleanliness. So I washed and wiped to my heart's content.

The 'before' shot of my peg rack is nothing you want to see; the 'after' makes my heart sing. A basket holding my reusable shopping bags, my skiing backpack repacked with summer hiking essentials, my keys and bag. On the floor, my trusty fake Ugg boots. I'm still wearing fleece-lined boots in May?!? Welcome to the Pacific Northwest, people. We're still freezing up here so I am still sliding these bad boys on for quick errands and chauffeuring duties.

At this point, one of my daughters peeped her head into the laundry room to remind me that it was almost time for us to go. WHAT??!!? Are you kidding me? I used up all my precious free time on a totally unplanned and uncontrolled cleaning binge?? 

Yes. It's true. Honestly, I wasn't all that surprised. I have a habit of doing this sort of thing; I clean only when the mood strikes me, and when it strikes me, it strikes hard. And honestly, I enjoy every minute of it. 

But still, I was hoping to spend my time on something a bit more artistic. As much as I love a clean laundry room, I still craved some sort of tangible end product to share and enjoy.

So I grabbed my phone and took these photographs to share with you. They're not exactly artistic masterpieces, but I hope you have enjoyed them!

Maybe I'll get to you tomorrow, girlfriend. {Wikipedia}

* * * * *

I love to clean. And I love to tell stories about cleaning. Wanna read some more?

Gonna Fly Now

Fruits Of The Spirit: Peace

Brown Sugar

Garage-Cleaning Haiku

Workbench Inspiration

A Major Overhaul

A Major Pantry Overhaul

Cleaning Frenzy
Perfectly Imperfect
Priorities

InstaFun

I'm not gonna lie - I had a grinding bore of a day today.

Ever since the accident that wiped out one of our family cars, I have become chauffeur to the stars. Yep, our once-complex matrix of who will be taking which car at which time has been reduced to this: if anyone needs to go somewhere, I drive them.

I'm not going to complain too much about that (wait, I already complained) but some days, it means that I do a lot of driving around.

Today was one of those days. I left the house for my first drive at 6:30 a.m. and got home from my final pick-up at around 10:40 p.m., making four separate trips in between. For most of the day, I was back and forth, in and out, leaving me just enough time to start a project and then get frustrated by having to abandon it within an hour's time to run another errand.

So after staging a brief introductory pity party, I decided to find a way to have fun on the road. Although it was a bleak and rainy grey spring day, I challenged myself to find something - anything!- out there that would make an interesting Instagram. Just for today, I made some special Instagram rules for myself:

No pictures of my lunch.
Or my pets.
Or stuff at home.
Or flowers. I've done them to death lately.

My challenge was specifically to find some interesting sights on the road. And just when I thought I was doomed to a day full of white Camrys and yellow traffic lights, I happened upon these little gems:

Pulled up behind this relic at Stone Way and 50th in Seattle. Grabbed my phone and caught three shots in record time.

Saw this girl crossing the street near Alderwood Mall. Two thoughts immediately hit my brain; "Under my umbrella ella ella eh eh eh" and "TAKE HER PICTURE QUICK." 

Two minutes after sighting the girl with the pink bumbershoot, I was cruising the Target parking lot, looking for a parking spot, when I happened upon this gem. Wow, I'm red hot for the vintage VW today.

Waiting for my youngest to get out of class, I saw a truck full of welding gear parked nearby. Oh yes, I did get out of my car and wander around it, snapping photos from every angle. I'm a fool for inflammable tanks of gas.

Well. What an immensely satisfying day. When I finally got back home, I curled up on the couch and edited and filtered these fun little Instagrams to my heart's content. Glancing down, I discovered that my faithful friend, Ranger, had snuggled up next to me for a lovely nap. Reflexively, I clicked open my camera....but then I remembered my rule. No pet photos today.

But guess what. Some rules are meant to be broken. Hope you had an InstaFun day too!

Flashy Fun

So recently, I was talking about flashcards, and how my friend, Heidi, taught me how to take them from *yawn* to yowzers! Remember? That post is here, if you'd like to refresh your memory.

The recap goes like this: I learned my lesson that flash cards, when used creatively within the context of a well-rounded course of study, can actually be a whole lot of fun. 

I went so far as to say that my students love them.

Alright, I admit it now. "Love" is not a word that any self-respecting teen would apply to a flash card. 

But I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that my daughters have totally bought into this low-tech tool for getting smart. 

They started making their own cards. For classes that I did not teach. At times when I was paying no attention whatsoever to their studies. Whenever they have been faced with the challenge of memorizing a lot of information, they have made flash cards as a tool for learning. Look, I've got proof:

Packets of index cards, neatly organized by chapters in Wheelock's Latin, listing verb endings and declensions and other scary grammatical things that I know nothing about.

Latin vocabulary on bitty little index cards, organized into this bitty little expandable file folder. Little things are always cute, and cute makes everything more fun.

Okay, technically these cards are full of facts from a class Heidi and I taught on U.S. landmarks. But my youngest daughter decided on her own to make these flash cards with state name and shape on one side, and the landmarks we studied from that state on the reverse. I love the colorful pizzazz of her art, and the clicky ring she used to bind them together.

My second-born took a ton of art history courses, which involve memorization galore. Her professors went so far as to create pdf files of  flash cards. By printing off the document, slicing the paper into strips, folding them over and gluing them, my daughter created sets of art history cards with the image on one side, and the important facts on the back. She has stacks and stacks and STACKS of them. Cool.

So when my fourth came to me this week and suggested we make some flash cards for memorizing facts about Europe, I knew that we were both on the same card....I mean page. Here's a little walk-through of how I typically go about the task of designing a set of cards.

Step 1: Gather the information that you want to memorize; organize it in a meaningful fashion.

I had my daughter do this all-important legwork. She Wikipedia-ed her heart out for an hour or so, and came up with this handy-dandy chart:

She arranged the country names, capitals, and flags in neat columns and rows.  Also, because she is very smart, she broke the continent down into five regions: western, northern, central, eastern and southern. There is no magic to those groups, nor is there overwhelming significance to which country ended up in which category. The important thing is that my daughter understood that by dividing the total group of facts into meaningful subgroups, she made her task much more manageable.

Step 2: Chop up some white card stock into useful sized cards and fill 'em up with facts.

As you can see in these photos, we've used a variety of papers and sizes for different sets of cards. To some extent, it's just fun to try new things. But there is a tiny bit of logic to the decision. For example, with these cards, we knew we would be putting just one word, or picture of a flag, on each card. So they need not be huge. I made these by cutting a standard sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch card stock into eight pieces. 

Yes, I own a paper cutter. Yes, I am a little bit of a nerd. 

For the flags, sometimes we have taken the time to draw them by hand; if you look at the flag cards in our Middle East deck in this post, you'll seen handdrawn art.

But I'll be honest. While we were putting these flash cards together, we were totally engrossed in an episode or five of Deadliest Catch. Since it was important that we keep our eyes peeled for rogue crab pots, I decided to take the easy way out by printing the flags and just pasting them onto the cards.

Step 3: Make up some fun games!

For starters, we just took the three fact cards for the western region, scrambled 'em up, and started laying them out in a grid by matching the country name on the left, capital in the middle, flag on the right. As you can see, even with our relatively small cards, this layout takes a lot of space, so I'm glad we went with a small size. 

Other simple options for playing might be to lay out the country cards in a column, and deal out the capital and flag cards to two or more players. Taking turns, each player lays one card down at a time, slowly forming the grid. If one player makes a mistake, the others earn the sheer pleasure of pointing out the error.

Or you might put all the cards in a basket or bowl, and allow the players to take turns at drawing them out one at a time. The player's task is to provide the other two facts for the country identified by the card drawn.

So for example, if I draw the card that says 'Vienna," my job is to remember that Vienna is the capital of Austria, and the Austrian flag is three horizontal stripes, red-white-red. Get it? It's fun!

You can also have timed races where one at a time, the players compete against the clock to lay out the grid; you can hide the cards all over a room to add a hide-and-seek element to the game; you can have a leader flip over one card at a time and the players silently write down the corresponding facts on paper.

Yeah, I know that last option sounds like a test. But just pretend it's a crazy variation on a flash card game, and who knows, your students might just fall for it.

Heidi and I loved coming up with crazy variations on the games. We used items such as buzzers, candy and Nerf guns to up the ante.


The more outrageous, the better - that's our motto.

Also, brains remember fun stuff much better than boring stuff.


And of course, if you're willing to get creative, ANY kind of learning can be fun.


Even flash cards.

Nasir, Asma and a Beautiful Message of Hope

Today, I found a post on my Facebook wall from my friend, Nasir. Along with the link to this video, which is entitled, How Muslims Are Treated In America, he left me a message: "Is This True?" 

Nasir's current profile pic. He's the one in front. Hello, brother!

Nasir is a Malaysian Muslim and a dear friend - he already knows my feelings of acceptance towards Islam in general. But he is also understandably suspicious about American attitudes toward Islam. I wondered what I might find in the video. 

If you don't feel like watching the seven-minute video, I'll give you a quick synopsis.

One of the major American television news companies, ABC News, sent an undercover team to a bakery in an undisclosed American town. 


An actor pretends to be working at the bakery. Another actor pretendsto be a Muslim woman who comes in to the bakery and attempts to buy something. Hidden cameras capture the pretend employee's vicious outburst against her; he insults her clothing, accuses her of being a terrorist, refuses to sell to her, and generally behaves like a hateful fool.


After acting out this horrible scene in front of real customers, the woman actor leaves the store and the man continues to engage with the customers, attempting to provoke a reaction from them. Over the course of a full day, they repeat this scenario again and again, to capture the various reactions of the customers.


The first minutes of the video capture two men, real-life customers, who reveal despicably racist attitudes, remarking that the Muslim woman "wasn't dressed right" and that the actor/employee deserves a thumbs- up for his outrageous attack on her. 

Now let me pause here. I make no excuses for those two men and their disgusting behavior. None. There is no excuse for being hateful, and that's what they were, plain and simple. I'm ashamed to call them my countrymen.


Back to the video. Now we see other customers who speak out against the employee: a number of them leave the bakery without buying anything, in response to his offensive behavior; several stay for prolonged debates with the employee, defending the woman's rights and treating her with utmost respect. An expert in the studio talks about these people's sense of justice and their desire to protect the woman's rights as an integral part of American society.

These Americans make me proud. They remind us that in America, we accept people of all religions, races, colors and countries of origin as equally valid and deserving of respect. In an emotionally charged environment, they step up and speak their minds, defending a stranger just because it is the right thing to do.

Born in the U.S.A. {source}

By the end of the video, I find myself feeling confused and upset. I accept the undeniable truth that some  Americans hold outrageously bigoted attitudes. Some manage to keep their mouths shut but still, there are plenty who make ignorant, hurtful, even deeply discriminating statements every day. If they aren't insulting Muslims, they are going after blacks, Mexicans. women, gays, vegetarians, left-handed tennis players, and anyone else the slightest bit different from them.

Differences don't have to push us apart; they can bring us together in surprising and interesting ways. {source}

Of course, there are haters like this in any country, not just America...but are things really this bad? How much of this video is a blatant effort on the part of ABC News to stir up drama and boost ratings? I don't want to think that Muslims are subjected to this kind of disrespectful treatment on a regular basis, and I don't see evidence of discrimination playing out in my own little corner of the world. But how do I know what it's like to be a Muslim in America?

Oh, the interesting challenges of being a modern Muslim woman. {source}

Obviously, I don't know much. But I know women who are Muslim Americans. Let me tell you about my friend, Asma. Born to a white American family and raised as a Christian, she converted to Islam as a college student and has lived as a faithful Muslima ever since. Now married to a native Indonesian who came to the States for college and decided to stay, she has three children who attend my school. Despite our obvious differences, Asma and I have become trusting friends and often talk with great openness about our faiths.

Asma uses a photo of an orchid as her profile pic. I't's a perfect symbol for her kind and gentle spirit. {source}

When I told her about my friend Nasir sharing this video with me, and asked her to watch it and share her thoughts, she kindly obliged me. I think that her words capture the truth of Islam in America, and she makes me hopeful for the future. Thank you, Nasir, for stirring up this conversation, and thank you, Asma, for your insights and beautiful message of hope.

Found this in my Facebook feed. Source unknown. 

 Hello, Diane.

It's good to hear from you!  I hope all is well with you and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to spend some time with everyone before the year wraps up.  It's getting close, isn't it?

I appreciate you sharing this segment with me.  It's been a long time since I've seen it.  Unfortunately, these things do happen to Muslim women in particular but it is mainly side comments, not a refusal of service.  I experienced a lot of verbal harassment in my early years of being Muslim but our area is so diverse now that I don't hear much anymore.  It did get quite scary right after 9-11 but things have settled down significantly.  A couple of Muslim women in the Seattle community where I lived were attacked at the grocery store.  In two separate incidences their clothing was slashed.  Some men believed to be Muslim were even killed.    My husband was stuck in Indonesia at the time so my children and I went to stay with my mom for a couple of weeks until things cooled off a little.  

People are just afraid after being bombarded with images, the news, and what is becoming of service men and women overseas.  They just don't know what to think anymore.  Some messages going around about Muslims are quite disturbing which heightens this fear and the actions of a few sure don't help matters.  However, I think that more and more people are now able to separate the true essence of Islam from the distorted views of a small minority.

I can't imagine what messages you friend is receiving but things are changing.  It seems that we're collectively coming to a place where we can see things for how they are.  Your friend reaching out to you is the perfect example.  You and I are showing another side of the story; me as I live as a Muslim and you showing the best of us in America.  We are connecting with each other in a way we've never been able to before and, as a result, there are only positive changes ahead.

Look forward to seeing you soon.  :)

Asma ~  

Flash Players

When I first started out as a homeschooling mommy, I had a lot of romantic ideas about what it would be like to teach my own daughters. Some came true, others didn't.

I imagined rainy afternoons of cozy read-aloud sessions. Check.

I hoped for unending trips to explore new beaches and pick ripe berries and wander through the zoo till we no longer needed to look at the map to find our way around. Check, check and check.

I said EXPLORE new beaches. Not EAT them.

I dreamed of cheerful sessions of memorizing math facts by using my old favorites, the flash cards. Screeeeeeeeeeeech. BAM.

{That is the sound of my dream skidding off the road of reality and crashing into a ditch.}

My children did not immediately take to the notion of flash cards. They found them to be dull, repetitive, and uninspiring. 

And when I thought about it, I had to admit that flash cards did not fit with my overall philosophies for education either. I'm all about active, multi-sensory, student-led learning. I wanted my daughters to become creative, critical thinkers who understood big-picture context and saw the forest rather than the trees. 

Flash cards represent the trees. Not the forest.

So I ditched the flash cards and took my kids to the planetarium instead. And we all were happy again.

Fast forward several years, and flash cards entered our lives for round two. This time, my friend and future teaching partner, Heidi, was leading a United States geography class. I loved her vision for learning - she had the kids cooking regional recipes and playing games to reinforce map work and having great conversations about what it would be like to go mining for diamonds in Arkansas, and stuff like that. 

In order to put a bit of structure to those creative explorations, Heidi decided to have the kids memorize the names and capitals of the fifty states. That made perfect sense to me.

As a tool to accomplish that memorization, Heidi brought out a set of flash cards. Whoa. I bit my lip and prepared for a mutiny.

One hundred tiny scraps of cardstock; one for each of the fifty states and their fifty capitals. Many ways to play with them, but our favorite is to simply take turns drawing one at random, and naming its partner - if you draw a state, name its capital city; if you draw the capital, name the corresponding state. 

But guess what. Heidi knew how to make flash cards fun. She used them in different ways - sometimes we played as a group and competed against each other, sometimes the kids worked as partners, sometimes she posed individual challenges. The students were not sitting idly in chairs as she slowly revealed each card to them; they were up and moving and laughing and playing and having fun. Also, Heidi had a special sensitivity for mistakes; she acknowledged mistakes but affirmed the effort. I was impressed.

Heidi knows how to make flash cards fun. She's magical like that.

And guess what else. The students loved those flash cards. And they learned all those states and capitals in record time. 

Now when our students eat a slice of pumpkin cheesecake that they baked from scratch all by themselves, they can also tell you that the state of Delaware has a 'punkin chunkin' contest every fall, where Delawarians compete to hurl orange gourds through the sky. And they can spell 'Delaware' and tell you that its capital is Dover. Not too shabby, right?

Flashcards aren't too shabby either. Heidi and I went on to teach together for many years, and our classes were all designed to include these essential ingredients - freewheeling, hands-on big-picture exploration and a flash card-driven set of memorized facts to provide structure to those experiences

And our students have come to LOVE flashcards. 

Well, they might not want to admit that. Love is a mighty strong word. But I can tell you that's it's true.

Here are some stories that prove it.

For our class on the United States presidents, Heidi found this set of official portraits of each of the 43 presidents to date. When Obama was elected as the 44th, we made a homemade card to include him.

Each time our class met, we would review the presidents learned so far by lining up the cards on the railing of our classroom whiteboard. One at a time, I would turn over each card, and we would tell each other stories about that president and then give him his appropriate place in the row. Each week, we added a new president and by the end of the year, our presidential parade spanned the whole front of the classroom.

So many funny stories and great memories came from these cards. The students had an inside joke about Andrew Jackson's hairline (he's the one in the top right, with the red thingy around his shoulders). Something about how it looked like a dress on top of his head. I still don't understand that one, but no matter. They do.

Also, we found John Adam's nickname of 'Butterball' to be an incredibly apt description of his face (top card in the upper left). During the year, the students kept a funny little sketch of his chubby round noggin on my whiteboard at all times; during a recent visit back to my classroom, one of those students redrew the picture, for old times' sake. John Adam's face is on my board at this moment, even though the class ended years ago. 

Flash cards have a way of sticking with you.

We made a second set of flash cards to memorize the names of the presidents, and to practice putting them in order by name rather than face. Each student made their own set of cards; I wish I could show you all the creativity and original thinking that they put into their work.  This is my set.

I made this set so you can just put the names in order, or you can match them to the numbered cards and build the proper sequence that way. We broke the whole group of presidents down into seven subgroups, and gave each group a color to aid in memorization. Little tricks like that make an overwhelming amount of information more manageable.

The next year, we studied the Middle East. Remembering our good fun with the presidents' faces, we decided to make our own set of flash cards to show the top ten Middle East leaders of all time. Oh my gosh, the great times we had, looking at those colorful men and women, discussing their achievements and personal stories, arranging them this way and that on the white board railing to illustrate different relationships and tensions within the region. 

For the final exam, I held up each card, one at a time, and instructed the students to write anything and everything they had learned about that individual. After five minutes, as I changed to the next face, they all groaned and complained because they still had more that they wanted to write. This is a good problem for a student to have. This is a good problem for a teacher to have. 

{I still have those homemade flash cards in my classroom. I'll take a picture later and post it here. Too good to be left out.}

We also memorized country names, capitals and flags. As usual, our students were mostly busy eating hummus, making models of Libya's Great Manmade River, and adorning each other with henna tattoos. Memorizing these cold, hard facts was not seen as their main task of learning but as an interesting part of the overall project. As it should be.

I color-coded the backs of these cards - red cards are flags, blue are capital cities, yellow cards show the country names. The colors add another dimension for playing with the flashcards in different ways. 

In a surprising twist, I've also found flash cards to be a great tool in art classes. Years ago, one of my families gave me a great set of art flash cards. Of course, marketers know better that to pin the great masterpieces of western art with the label of 'flash cards'. Instead they put this collection in a box with a great graphic design and called it The Art Box. 

Clever. Beautiful. Useful. But let's face it, they are flash cards.

My art students of all ages have had a ton of fun with these. When studying a specific topic, such as color, line or space, we have sorted through the images to find pieces to illustrate each concept. We've arranged the images according to date, to see how art has progressed. In some classes, we have memorized key facts such as title and artist's name; in other classes, we have used them to inspire our own work.

It's one thing for me to sit here and gush about the great fun my students have had with flash cards. But I'll admit that if I had not seen it with my own eyes, I might be a tad skeptical.

Would it help if I told you that my youngest recently suggested that she should probably memorize the names and capitals of Europe...and asked me to help her make a set of flash cards to accomplish that impressive feat?

Yep, it's true. My daughters have become flash players too. Come back tomorrow and I'll show you the proof.