**Sent from Julie (Flood) Marx**
Now that Ana is old enough to express her preferences very clearly I realize what a mistake it was to introduce certain things into her environment and I want to avoid those mistakes with future children. The cultural influences geared toward children seem to appear to the lowest common denominator as far as taste goes (in general) and I found myself falling into every trap. One cartoon won't hurt her became two so I could get more done. Buying Dora themed spaghettios to keep her quiet in the store, etc etc. I know these things aren't a big deal one at a time but it really bothered me that her vernacular now included these things. Clearly what I had intended to be treats or only for special occasions had morphed into her every day life. And the lack of taste isn't only found in children's things.
Ana and I were flipping through magazines recently to cut out pictures for collages when I realized that parenting magazines may have adult articles but their pictures are more appropriate for children's publications. There is nothing beautiful in those magazines. I have never been more grateful for Martha Stewart. Flipping through her magazines also gave me craft ideas for Ana but it included beautiful photographs of flowers, homes, architecture and food. It occurred to me that I need to do more to cultivate Ana's taste. The problem is that this does not come naturally to me at all.
I believe these things need to start in the home but other than playing good music and steering the girls toward books with more beautiful pictures I am at a loss. I think I will take them to the local art museum and see what Ana thinks. Does anyone have any ideas?
I'm not trying to slam all popular culture by any means. I am not a parent who wants to remove my kids from popular culture entirely but I need help counteracting the mostly base art forms they are exposed to. How do I elevate what they see every day? Especially when we are crammed into 485 sq. feet of apartment that may as well be in the USSR in 1980. Please help!
Julie (Flood) Marx
jflood14@yahoo.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Julie! I hope you are staying warm in the bend and I do remember that their radio stations were stuck at a frequency from 1987. Pls tell Tyson we said hello. rattling off ideas-- The city library--which I imagine you've already perused--has a fairly decent and free audio/video rental section on the 2nd fl. I don't know about the children's section but was impressed at the size of the library. You could rent different classical cds from different periods -one at a time- and read her stories about composers of that period (if they have any books or even things online) Or maybe when spring hits you could have Liz G. take you to the farmer's market and Ana can learn about different types of foods,flowers,etc. The kniting store (across from the philadelphia coffee choc/place:) is great and maybe if she's old enough you could take a class with her--the women are so nice there. You are right to shield her from a lot of the commercialism and trash and fill her life education with rich culture. Stealing a line, "If the family is a little Church then the parents are infallable." There are a few historical sites in IN so maybe you could visit those or visit the site of that Sr. from IN who was or will be canonized....random ideas but trying to help. If they don't have one maybe you could ask the library--if you got other moms to participate--to have a reading hour and you pick the books! Classical Homeschooling Mag (maybe they have a reading list if you email?) looks like a good resource though I do not own a subscription or have any of them to send you. Stealing from Cormac Burke as well; in the end, our children are going to mimic what we as parents cling to in our culture. If we freely censor ourselves and fill our time with the rich and pure aspects and art forms of our culture, our children will most likely do the same. Good luck!
that was from Clare Mc in VA!
I don't know what kind of museums you have access to in IN, but both Noah and Ian love going to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Air & Space Museum and the Zoo...not exactly "art forms", but it does expose them to things other than Dora and Diego, which my kids are huge fans of too!
Are there any nature walks? Indoor flower gardens or even nurseries, now with spring you could go and look at all the different flowers and trees that you can get...
I like your line of thinking though, all this exposure to commercial things really affects their attitudes too, which I'm just starting to find.
Post a Comment