Miru

Fragments written for my daughter Miru, born January 2013. Observations about her life, her learning, her loveliness. I share stories about how she grows up as a bilingual child dividing her time between different continents. There are also reflections about parenthood, as well as letters that I write to her.

Miru also has her own website at miru.creativechoice.org

Math
Dear Miru, Your calculating is improving and you actually like it. We play with numbers together. Two times ten is twenty. Six plus five is eleven. Ten minus 2 equals eight. It is all very playful. You learn how to figure out calculations by making drawings of dots, lines, squares on the whiteboard. You don't ...
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Laughs, Miru, The good life
Predictability
Dear Miru, When I walked you home from the kindergarten to your grandparent's house today, you made me very happy. The sky was grey and light rain drizzled on the pavement as I knelt down in front of you. Then you said exactly what I had imagined you would say: "Regent het! Naar binnen!" ("Does ...
Miru, The good life
Fearless
Dear Miru, There lives an intuition in me that wants you to be fearless. I know that fear has a vital function, but it only works when you experience it against the background of fearlessness. When your mind is troubled by unprocessed phobias, the fear that might have saved you will become useless and irrational. ...
Miru, The good life
What is a ball?
Dear Miru, We were playing with a ball today, but you said it wasn't a ball. Or, as you put it, that the ball was "kapot". You meant that the ball lacked significantly in "ballness"; that its "ballness" was broken. I understand your intuition: The ball we were playing with didn't look like any other ...
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Miru, Philosophy
On Education
Dear Miru, Today, I want to tell you about Education. Even if we would want them to, our children don't accept the concept of schooling as the transfer of a canon of established facts. They are so much used to Wikipedia and Google that it would be practically impossible to convince them that carrying knowledge ...
Miru
Alphabet
Our letter 'A' started his career as Aleph, the first letter of the semitic abjads or writing systems, including Aramaic, Syriac, Phoenician, Arabic, Armenian, and Hebrew. The Phoenician letter was derived from an Egyptian glyph depicting the head of an ox. The Greek alfa has its origin in this Phoenician letter, and it's obvious how ...
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Miru
At the Zoo
About a month ago, I took Miru to the Tierpark Berlin. When we entered the large park, she had no expectation and did what she does best: smiling at the guys who checked our tickets and nagging for a candy she sees in the hand of an other child. I, on the other hand, had ...
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Miru
Bird watching with Miru
Miru and I found ourselves on the church square in the village of Vimeiro in the Alentejo region of Portugal. A father and his daughter. In the portico in front of a church, where we sat down because of the shade we looked up and there were swallow nests between the naves of the dome. Miru ...
Miru
Hide and Seek
A game that Miru likes is our own version of hide-and-seek. I carry her on my back and pretend to be looking for her. Calling her softly then louder, bending over and looking around corners, in portico's and behind trees. I continue and wonder what she would think. Does she realize it is a game? ...
Miru