RaisingPeace
Peaceful 'Ohana
Ｗａｌｄｏｒｆ スクール
Mar 31st
日本からハワイに旅行に来ていた知り合い親子からリクエストされて、
Ｗａｌｄｏｒｆスクールを見学に行ってきました。
私は、神秘哲学者であるルドルフ・シュタイナーの教育ということと、かなりユニークな学校だということくらいしか知りませんでした。
私のママ友たちからのウワサでは、かなり良い評判と、または「テストや宿題がないので不安」とか、
「アートに力を入れている学校」とか適当な評判を聞いていました。
オフィスで先生がとても熱心に学校の方針を話してくれました。
まず「アートに力をいれている」というのが、とんだ勘違いだとわかりました。
指先を使うということが脳の発達にとても重要だという根拠から
1年生で編み物を教えるそうで、実際子供が作ったというウサギの形のぬいぐるみを見せてくれました。
粘土には、カラフルな蜜蝋を使うそうです。これも実際見せてくれました。普通のプレイドー（市販の子供用粘土）と違って
固く、手の中でしばらく温めてからでないといろんな形にできません。これも、忍耐力を養う訓練だそうです。
これはただの図画工作の時間ではないのです。手先を使うことによって人間形成をしているのだそうです。
大震災への援助
Mar 30th
昨日Ｒｏｓｓへ買い物に行ったら、店内アナウンスで日本の震災の被害への寄付を募っていました。
キャッシャーでまた「ドネーション（寄付）しますか？」と聞かれました。
先日はラジオであるレストランが今日の売り上げの１００％をＲｅｄ Ｃｒｏｓｓ（赤十字）に寄付するという話がありました。
日本への義捐金を作るためにＴシャツを手作り、販売している人がいます。
私がアロマオイルを買っているヤングリビング社のニュースレターにも、Ｊａｐａｎに寄付という文字が。
電話会社は日本への国際電話を3月末まで無料で提供していました。
いたるところで日本への援助を目にしたり耳にします。
私自身も友人に誘ってもらって、ワイキキで街頭募金をしたり、物資を送る手助けをしたりしました。たくさんの人たちが、日本を助けたいと思ってくれています。
災害はとても悲しい出来事ですが、遠く離れた人たち、また日本人ではない人たちまで、応援しているという暖かい愛に感動しています。
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Help Japan: LivingSocial matches donation to Red Cross
Mar 17th
You’ve seen the images and videos of the devastation in northern Japan. Right now, LivingSocial is matching all donations to the American Red Cross to help those quake and tsunami victims. Donate $5 and $10 will go to Red Cross! It’s a limited time, so, act quickly to your donation dollars go further.
When you sign up for LivingSocial you’ll also have the chance to get local deals, generally 1/2 priced items for places in town that you might not even have heard of, like Groupon.
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Hitting the Sweet Spot with Amazon: Free Shipping to Hawaii
Jun 30th
For those of us living in Hawaii know, when sites say “free shipping” they often don’t consider Hawaii as part of that. And for some reason, many of their shipping methods then change from 2-3 day to only overnight express for $20 or more, making that sweet deal of $5 HMDI cables look pretty crappy.
That’s why so many locals love Amazon. If you spend $25 per order from Amazon (and not on their “other” merchants selling within Amazon), free shipping includes Hawaii!
So, how can you get every order to be $25 or more when you only want a book for $19.99? What about some of the other THOUSANDS of things that Amazon sells- clothes, toys, games, soaps, food, movies, etc. Surely there’s something there you could use to save yourself the $5 shipping charge. Just get to $25 and free shipping.
One of my favorite sites for finding good deals is 
Slickdeals.net”>Slickdeals.net – lively discussions, free alerts for keywords (like “Amazon”, “slack guitar”, or “Wii”), and their sister site SlickFillers.net. With Slickfiller you type in the amount needed to get to $25 ($5.01 in this case), and it will present a list of qualifying items from Amazon you can add to your cart. Slick! So instead of spending that $5 on shipping, you got a “free” children’s coloring book or stickers.
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Celebrating 50 Years of Diversity: East-West Center
Jun 7th
Intercultural weddings bring together a weaving of styles and traditions that may be strange at first to those unfamiliar. Right now, the East-West Center gallery is currently running an exhibition on Wedding Ceremonies around Asia-Pacific. Highlights include weddings from China, India, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. This “Golden Ceremony” exhibit is part of the 50th Anniversary for the Center, created in 1960.
The gallery, located inside Burns Hall on the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus, is open weekdays 8-4:30pm. Paid parking is available through UH. If you can’t make it to the gallery, you can check out some of the images virtually.
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New Baby Expo: This weekend!
May 14th
We’ve been to the New Baby Expo at the Blaisdell Center a couple of times. Lots of interesting exhibitors, stuff for toddlers to do (like visits with TV characters — my son met Curious George!), and even a crawling contest for babies. It’s happening again this weekend, May 15th and 16th. If you sign up for their newsletter you get the chance to win free tickets and learn about the event in advance.
See you there!
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What could be more Hawaiian: Spam-flavored Mac Nuts!
Apr 18th
Imagine the look on your friend’s face when you bring them a bit of Hawaii with these new Spam(R) Macadamia Nuts! (Travels better than Spam Musubi’s!)
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Got kids? Got iPhone? Got apps?
Jan 27th
Count Caddy app by Tickle Tap Apps
Looking to keep your child entertained and even have them learn something while you get a break? Have you considered how handy some of the iTunes apps for iPhone are? Following up on my previous discussion of “Kid-friendly iPhone and iPod Touch” is a review of another dozen apps for toddlers I’ve written on the Hawaii Mac Apple User Society (HMAUS) website: “More Great iPhone Apps for Toddlers“. With most apps under $2, isn’t it worth getting a couple of minutes of “quiet” time?
And related:
Need to unwind yourself? Check out “Zen Apps for iPhone/iPod Touch“
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More Guilt: "Save the Planet: Have Fewer Kids"
Aug 5th
Those who are concerned about their “carbon footprint” have started looking at individual’s decisions, including those about reproduction.
A study by statisticians at Oregon State University concluded that in the United States, the carbon legacy and greenhouse gas impact of an extra child is almost 20 times more important than some of the other environment-friendly practices people might employ during their entire lives — things like driving a high mileage car, recycling, or using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs. [LiveScience.com]
It does make perfect sense. And, yet, we have another child coming soon…
Should there be a limit on how many children a family can have, as they do in China?
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Tour of Kaiser's Moanalua Labor and Delivery Ward
Aug 4th
With Masako approaching her 8th month, we wanted to see the facilities where we plan to deliver our new son. For our first child, Mason, we were with HMSA and delivered at Kapiolani on Punahou. It was a fine delivery, very nice room, great staff, no problems. 
So, after we switched health plans to Kaiser we wanted to see what theirs was like. They recently had renovated the Labor and Delivery Ward, and it shows. It’s really very nice. We joined a tour of the facilities with about six other couples. (Note: if you take the tour, be prepared to stand for a while. You may want to bring some water with you also.)
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