A journey of Re-creation By Renaissance Heart

A Journey of Re-creation

By Renaissance Heart

from a post menopausal woman who

always lives a little off center

This is a journey of re-creation and discovery. I've been thinking I need to broaden my scope. How should I do that? I thought I should set down some ideas that are the foundation about who I am. 

      These things I know about me.

• I like old discarded objects or supplies.  I want to give them new life or a chance for usefulness. Nothing earth shattering of course, but maybe just to bring a smile to someone's day.
• I do things a little outside the norm.
• I use multiple mediums to integrate things and show how they can work together.
• I want to unify old and new.

I learn best by skipping around a lot, so hang on to your seat and enjoy the ride with me. Hopefully you and I can find some sort of continuity to it all.

I don't like being in the spotlight, but I do have something to say. I dislike being told I cannot do things this way or that. I have found I have an adult side of me that tries to get in the way and take away the joy and fun of youth. I am trying to recapture a time when I was more carefree and didn't mind if what I did made sense or not. So I am busy exploring and learning new skills. 
My sister Dawn likes to work with old objects like I do, she rescues plants and animals.

 

 

Here are some of the orchids she has brought home and they reward her well.

I'm drawn to more inanimate things.

I went on vacation last summer and found a piece of my childhood while visiting my sister in Washington. I found an Old box of clay poker chips from about the 1920's in a small junk shop that was going out of business.

How does this apply to my childhood? When visiting my Grandparents, I spent many happy hours putting in and taking the chips out of the round carousel, like the one shown .

Dawn & Rene' at Grandma's Easter

So I felt I should take those old chips home. I thought I should do something creative with them.

       Since I wrote last, I have taken an interesting journey. I found a second batch of old chips on Ebay and bought them. They look as if they have been through a fire. I don't think they are made of the same stuff as the others. Some are warped and have burnt spots as if someone had set a cigarette on them. I might start working with these chips to see what I can do.

I took one of the misshaped ones that looked a bit like a smile. I made what I think will become the little mascot of my chips.

My sister asked me to write down the process of how I do research in Family History. I haven't done that yet. But this is a close second, so here goes .

         As I went on a Google Search, looking for examples of pierced paper patterns, I came upon a Froebel book . I wondered, what is a Froebel Book? I Googled that, and learned something. I  found a hero of sorts. A Froebel book is named after a man Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel born 21 of April 1782. 

“Be it yours to give men bread; mine, to give them themselves.”

It turns out that he was the father of our kindergarten. He had a method of teaching Young children. I looked up a book written about his teaching methods. Some of the things he taught made me want to cheer. He believed that each of us are divine and need to learn in our own way to bring out the best in us. I wish I had been in his school. He did not believe in “cookie cutter” education but tried to tailor teaching and learning to each individual Child. It was a wonderful side shoot of my search. It  was fitting that I would find this in the beginning of my journey because I am indeed a beginner in this endeavor. As I read more of the book about Froebel's teaching methods, I realized that his beliefs about respecting children and trying to find the best in each one had parallels to how my father thought.

My Dad Jacob Pfund 1898-1980

I felt a desire to know how my grandfather was taught . Was he exposed to these same beliefs? Is that how my father came to believe that way?

Johann Kaspar Pestalozzi said “Never , if you can help it , deprive the child of it's sacred right of discovery.”(Teacher of Friedrich Froebel)Both of them were Swiss born, as was my grandfather. 

Johannes Pfund

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/friedrich-wilhelm-august-fr-bel#ixzz1A5PSjcco

"In 1849,after spending approximately 5 years touring Germany and spreading the idea of the kindergarten, Froebel settled in Liebenstein. He spent the remainder of his life combating conservative forces critical of his educational theories. These forces managed in 1851 to get the Prussian government to ban the kindergarten on the grounds that it was an atheistic and socialistic threat the the state.  This action was based not so much on what Froebel had done but rather on his followers' misrepresentation of his educational ideas. He did what he could to restore confidence in his kindergarten but died on June 21, 1852, some 8 years before the ban was lifted by the Prussian  government." 

My husband and I live in an old grade school that was made into apartments for people 55 years of age and older. Built in 1898, the same year of my Father's birth. We have been told our apartment was the  fifth grade classroom. On my fifth grade report card the teacher said, "All she does is draw horses." What a great place for rediscovery and leaning.  
    
Go Check this out.                                                                                                                              

http://www.scribd.com/doc/37122482/093-The-Student-s-Froebel

          When I read The Student's Froebel by William H. Herford, I feel as if I have found a hidden treasure. It is filled with truth. I love how truth outlasts time and space. It truly is eternal. This man had a lot of light. Why is it that it sets on a shelf and gathers dust? Sometimes it seems like the world is asleep. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book. 

I will share some of that with the results I have achieved so far next time.