Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Happy Holidays!  
Love is higher than opinion.  If people love one another the most varied opinions can be reconciled-thus one of the most important tasks for humankind today and in the future is that we should learn to live together and understand one another.  If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of development is empty.  -Rudolf Steiner

In lieu of Holiday cards this year, I am sending out this blog post.  I hope it finds you and your family well.
Wishing you all a most wonderful Holiday Season.
Love the Jackson Clan

Jeff is teaching 3 classes per week at the University of Hawaii on Maui.  He has 2 English classes and a creative writing class.  He is a favorite teacher among the students and word is out to sign up for his classes.  He is freelancing for Rock and Ice and At Large Magazines and working on his second Hollywood screenplay.  Fingers crossed that this one gets produced.  Jeff continues to find a lot of climbing on Maui and is making quite the climbing destination here.  So, if you like surfing and climbing, add Maui to your list of vacation destinations.
Hannah - I was cut to 3/4 time at the Haleakala Waldorf School for this year due to financial cuts.  Although it came as a bummer at first, I have made good use of my extra time.  I have been consulting with other Waldorf Schools in Hawaii and on the Mainland.  This year has brought me to:  Malamalama Waldorf School on the Big Island, Ms. Kether's Waldorf Inspired Home School on Maui, Emerson Waldorf School in Chapel Hill, NC, Kimberton Waldorf School in PA, Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork in CO,  and the Honolulu Waldorf School on the island of Oahu.  I thoroughly enjoy the new challenges this work offers and the opportunity to form relationships with the wider Waldorf community.
I continue to enjoy dancing hula and paddling every weekend with the Hawaiian Canoe Club.  I am happy to say that Kai now joins me and it is fun to see him become part of the paddling Ohana (family).  They absolutely LOVE him.
Kai is now in 4th grade and loving every minute of it.  He enjoys learning about the local Hawaiian history and the Norse Myths.  He started playing the violin this year with the rest of his class and has an amazing, natural talent for it.  One of his favorite things to do when practicing the violin, is to ask us to give him a song to try and play.  It is pretty amazing at how well he does figuring the songs out.  He was invited to play in a violin concert this year, which was mostly filled with children that have private Suzuki lessons and 2nd year students at the school.  Kai felt very proud to have been invited to play.
Kai has a very curious mind and is constantly taking things apart and creating new inventions with them.  He has quite the collection of small, medium and large, electric pieces.  Kai is also becoming a very skilled artist.  He enjoys sketching out his inventions or creating little comic like pictures.  As mentioned above, he has taken on Hawaiian Canoe Paddling and loves it. 
Isaac is now what he calls a "Grader."  He started 1st grade in the fall and loves it.  He has found a new love in soccer and kick ball and is constantly kicking a ball around the house wherever he goes.  He has always been someone who knows exactly what he wants and most usually is pretty strong about sticking to whatever that is.  At the moment, it is wearing "fast" sport shirts and shorts and his favorite shoes.  Unfortunately he recently grew out of his Nike Tennis shoes and had to put a pair of sneaker like Keens on.  Not his favorite.  He showed me a pair of his friend's shoes this week, pointing to the toe and telling me how they were the best shoes for kicking and how he would like a pair like them (They were a pair of hiking boots!)  Recently Isaac has become very interested in chess and wants to play every spare minute that he is not kicking a ball around.  Isaac continues to LOVE legos.
Unchi (my mom) moved in with us in August and is now working at a lifesharing community with people with disabilities.  She is enjoys life on Maui and spending time with her grandsons.  She quickly developed a community of friends and tends to keep herself very busy.
Badger is 11 1/2 years old and still gets called a puppy by those who first meet him.  He is a delight and loves rock climbing, swimming in the ocean and digging for small pieces of coral in the sand. 

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