Cold Again, That '70's Feeling, And A Lesson In Origami.

The cold is back!   With wind.   Lovely.    Thankfully Cheryl only ran 2.5 miles today and spared us the sufferfest of dealing with the cold wind.   I should also note that it snowed slightly and coated the sidewalk with a fine powder in places.  This mixed with frozen patches made running very difficult for her, so she figured 2.5 miles was enough.  Besides, we ran 7 miles yesterday, without a break from the long run... it was about time for a lighter training day. 

Sylvia made Cheryl a Matching 1970's sweater vest out of yarn.  Crocheting has never been a hobby I have wanted to pursue.  However, I still find the end results fascinating and wonderful.   I love Crocheted scarves and hats for the winter. And I have fond memories of my aunt  knitting me  a blue vest that I wore for Sunday's back in the '70's.   Sylvia also crocheted the sweater for Hiro, and Cheryl wanted to pose with him in their matching attire.   

Unfortunately,  Hiro is not Leo.   Meaning:  He looked everywhere BUT the camera.  And he is not as thrilled with his sweater as Cheryl is with hers.    Still, after several locations and hundreds of attempts, We finally got  some decent pics.  Sylvia should be proud. 

The Imagined Ideal

And finally, Yesterday proved to be a fun time in Origami.   On Wednesdays, the grade school kids flood the Rec Center (YMCA, Gym, Community Center...) for an "Activities day."  Last week, many of them bothered me to teach them Origami.   I figured it might be a pleasant distraction, so I brought some paper and a few books to the Rec Center for  some possible Origami time with kids.   It sounded fun!   On paper... ( Pun intended....)

The current Origami Table..

I did not want to overwhelm them with complicated Origami, but I also did not want to bore them with Super Simple stuff either.   I had several designs planned out and had folded a couple of them for visual aids for the kids.    With paper, tools, models and instructions ready I figured I was prepared enough for most scenarios. 

The Reality!

What I did not count on...  were the kids being ...well,  Kids!   The ages ranged from 5 to 11.  And the Five year olds were pretty much brain dead.  Now, I know that the kids of that age are not fully developed mentally,  but I figured most of them could at least fold a piece of paper!  You know... In Half?  Equally?   I was mistaken. 

The only kid who could figure things out was a 10 year old named Henry.   He did not even need my help and had folded several models in the time I tried to teach the Origami Crane.   (None of the cranes turned out, by the way...) I'm still amazed that the kids had trouble simply folding a piece of paper in half!  I realized that I had vastly overestimated their abilities. (Except for Henry.... that kid is going places!)

This "Looks" like fun, right?

So now I'm faced with a crossroads.   Do I try to "dumb down" my lessons and expectations?  Or do I abandon the entire affair altogether?  Given that many of the kids were coming and going and did not stay or attempt to finish anything,  you would think that my absence would not even be noticed next time. But maybe if we started with "Basic" folds and that managed to somehow keep them interested, we could use that as a later building block.   We shall see. 

I'm probably between level 3 and 4.

In the mean time,  the lesson learned was actually one the kids taught me.  "Never underestimate  a person's ability to not understand something."   I have labored under the assumption that: "Anyone can do Origami" with a little bit of patience and practice... anyone can do the things I do.  I now realize I was wrong.

It is an odd feeling discovering that you are able to swim in areas where other people sink... and Many more even drown! Origami, Chalk Drawing, And even Carving are all artistic endeavors I believe anyone can do.  It shocks me that there are people who can't do art.  I'm not even very good at it compared to the "Masters".   But I figured most people have at least a flicker of artistic flare.  

Then again... They are just kids.  They have their entire life to figure out how to see the world. And get better!    I just hope they don't wait until they are stuck in a retirement home  before they  discover it.