Jodi the Yogi aims to set children on the path of a positive and healthy lifestyle through yoga. Her programs and videos, made for children 2-6, engage kids through song, dance, and movement with the help of her “bestie,” Downward the Dog. With original songs and age-appropriate interpretations of yoga sequences and postures, Jodi’s videos engages tiny tots while targeting gross motor skills and promoting social/emotional learning using humor, playfulness, and a sense of wonder.
photo, JodiTheYogi.com
Jodi and Downward the Dog are based in New York City, where they visit schools, teach classes, and even book parties and events, but you can get your little ones interested by watching her 8-minute video below. Then stay tuned for more videos on her website.
Some words are so complex and multifaceted that they deserve a day of special notoriety.
I know, I know—you’re already coming up with words like …
Floccinaucinihilipilification.
Silly girl.
While that is the longest non-technical term in the English language, it has only one meaning:
“The act of describing something as having little or no value.”
Hmmm … touché.
Anyway, a profusion of letters really isn’t the point here.
The word I’ve deemed worthy of today’s curtsy is …
(wait for it) …
Mew.
No, dear, I’m not pulling your leg.
What you may not yet know about “mew” (myoo) is that it’s a master of deceptive simplicity. With just one syllable, mew manages to function as both noun and verb, and it has eight—count ’em, EIGHT—definitions.
A master, I tell you.
See for yourself:
Kitten mewing by Ron Whisky via Wikimedia Commons
1. Perhaps the most obvious meaning of mew is the high-pitched vocalization of a kitty cat (which is interchangeable as noun and verb).
Photo by Tatyana via Wikimedia Commons
2. It also denotes the cajoling call of a seagull as well as …
Photo by Tim Rains, Denali National Park and Preserve, via Wikimedia Commons
3. the bird itself (namely, the Mew Gull).
Photo by CheepShot via Wikimedia Commons
4. A “mew” or “mews” is a cage for hawks, commonly used during molting to keep birds relaxed and secure.
Photo by Christine Matthews via Wikimedia Commons
5. It also means to molt.
Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid via Wikimedia Commons
6. In the UK, it’s used in plural form (mews) to refer to stables with living quarters or a row of apartments converted from stables.
Photo by Shravans14 via Wikimedia Commons
7. Similarly, a mew can name a place where one retires or hides.
Photo by Ian Paterson via Wikimedia Commons
8. And finally, behaving strictly as a verb, mew can mean to confine.
There’s a lot about mew that you never knew, true?
Here’s a fun word …
funambulist
Maybe it’s someone who has a great sense of fun?
Maybe it’s someone who makes a study of fun? (Now there’s a great job!)
Or maybe it’s someone who thinks their particular skill or hobby is just plain fun?
Irina Tchachina by Deerstop via Wikimedia Commons
I sure hope so, because a funambulist is …
a tightrope walker!
Circus poster for Sells Floto Circus showing tight-rope walker Mlle. Beeson prancing with a parasol.
Not only do funambulists have a sense of fun, they also have nerves of steel. For example, funambulist Jay Cochrane set a world record in 1998 when he walked a distance of 800 feet between the towers of the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas, 300 feet above the city known for fun, and he did it … blindfolded.
Get ready to be amazed by this very talented funambulist from Ukraine’s Got Talent:
Talking about Emily Dickinson’s love of flower gardens led me down the garden path to remember another story about a famous artist who’s known for his paintings, but not especially for the passion that drove him: his gardens.
I’m talking about Monet.
Claude Monet (1840-1926) is one of the great French Impressionists. In 1883, he moved to a property along the Seine in the French countryside called Giverny. While he was already an established artist, painting both landscapes and portraits …
Le déjeuner sur l’herbe, (right section), with Gustave Courbet, Frédéric Bazille and Camille Doncieux, first wife of the artist
Woman in a Garden, 1867, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
the property at Giverny inspired him to undertake a huge landscaping project, including lily ponds that would become the subjects of his most famous paintings.
“With the help of his family and six gardeners,” reports NPR, “Monet planted, nurtured and composed his garden—a world of flowers made up of yellow, pink and red roses arrayed on the ground and draping over metal arches; patches of bright red geraniums; pale purple lavender; deep purple pansies; irises; impatiens; peonies and more.” He composed his paintings by first planting exactly what he wanted to capture on canvas.
Claude Monet, Irises In Monet’s Garden, 1900
For the next 20 years, Monet painted his gardens. He focused mainly on the water lilies, painting 250 canvases of them, some of which were multiple panels, each as wide as 14 feet.
Claude Monet, Water Lilies, c. 1915
Claude Monet, The Water Lilies – Setting Sun, 1920–1926
Today, Monet’s property at Giverny operates as a living museum, where you can experience the beauty of both Monet’s passions yearly from the end of March until November 1st. Find out more at Giverny-Impression.com.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
