In a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Demetrius calls for a sword. His request produces instead a yellow rubber chicken tossed from off stage.
“Shakespeare should be fun,” says Sherry Chastain Schreck, founding director of the “Short Shakespeareans.” Children in the drama troupe are 4 to 15, most of them pre-teenagers. In the 25 years since making their debut, the thespians have become a community treasure in Wenatchee.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a favorite of the Short Shakes. “The children love it. It is easy for young people to follow and understand,” Schreck says.
While the cast of characters has changed over the … » More …
Jordi Kimes had been a teacher before becoming a stay home mom. She dreamed of returning to Washington State University and earning a doctorate in pharmacy. But she didn’t want to put her daughters, ages 7, 3, and 1, in daycare. So she called her parents. Would they be willing to watch the girls while she went to school, and her husband, Ken, worked? Without hesitation, her parents said yes.
“I couldn’t believe it,” the WSU graduate (’94 Pharmacy) said.
In the summer of 2002, she and her family moved from Waterville, Washington, to Pullman, where she had been accepted in the College of Pharmacy. … » More …
Fifth-graders from seven area school districts bustled into the CUB ballroom recently for the third annual Kids Judge! Neuroscience Fair. After the participants met with their brain team-neurons, dendrites, boutons, memory, synapses-they made a visit to the Jell-O brain station where they chose from a variety of anatomically correct flavored gelatin brains.
And then to work. Clipboards in hand, the children evaluated 14 educational models developed by Washington State University NEURO 430 students, faculty, and graduate students.
The projects focused on hands-on activities through which students could learn about the function and physiology of the brain. David M. Rector, assistant professor in the Department of … » More …
Young readers of Unique Monique: Moki Time, by Corinne Tyler Isaak ’92, Karen A. Cooper, and illustrator Don Nutt will scarcely notice that they’re learning to tell time and acquire new words, as they follow five-year-old Monique—or Moki—through her day on the family farm.
From the moment she rises at 7 a.m. until bedtime 12 hours later, Moki revels in the simplest and most immediate of pleasures. A mock talent show. A picnic on the lawn. Flying “Mama’s” kite. Daydreaming in the hayloft. Playing dress-up. The role of imagination is important here—and it’s handled so deftly that adults will scarcely notice how deeply rooted this … » More …
Many of us assume that the absence of adversity in a child’s life predicts success. Hence, we strive to protect children from such experiences. In Children at Promise: 9 Principles to Help Kids Thrive in an At-Risk World, Cheryl Bostrom and Timothy Stuart challenge this assumption with the belief that adversity can become the tool by which children can learn to succeed and prosper.
The authors skillfully apply sound theoretical principles of child development and parent education in a practical and useful format. They embed these principles within a framework of faith-based positive thinking and resiliency, suggesting that all children face adversity throughout their lives. … » More …
Its square format, 8¼-inch page size, and consciously retro design mark The Best Dog in the World: Vintage Portraits of Children and their Dogs by Donna Long ’89 as a gift book—not a weighty tome by any means. Yet, unlike many other books of its kind, there’s enough substance in this little volume to keep readers coming back to it again and again. The book brings together 111 photographs—both formal studio portraits or amateur snapshots—taken from 1875 to 1925. A number of the images were originally printed as photo postcards, and Long takes pains to preserve their identity as such, reproducing the entire image side … » More …