ELP Kayak Trip

Today we took a well-deserved break. We celebrated all that we accomplished this week by enjoying a picturesque paddle on the Puget Sound. As requested, we were able to catch a close-up view of a Bald Eagle and heard an interesting Native American story about how the Bald Eagle got its colors (retold by our guide, Andy). Some people reported that this was their first time in a Kayak. If you ask me, everyone looked like pros! The picture to the left is a link to an photo album from today. Enjoy the weekend.

Active listening follow up

Today we worked on 4 components of active listening
1) Look at the person who is talking
2) Concentrate on the topic (think about the things the person is talking about)
3) Answer questions from the speaker
4) Ask question if you are confused or want more information.

Tonight while interacting you may want to take time to notice when you teen completes any one of these dimesions. It may also be fun to work with your teen to see if they can give you feedback about how you complete the 4 components of active listening. What can you improve on? What do you do well?

Have a nice evening!

Day 4-- Active Listening

It was another great day removing morning glory with the Washington Conservation Corps. Working together, we pulled 1,404 invasive weeds in the last half hour before lunch. In total we cleared 16,000 square feet of forest area!!! We also got a chance to hear about how Cooper’s Hawk fledglings are tagged and tracked by a representative from the Audobon Society --and how sparrows and starlings that are used as bait! That is a trap in the picture above.
This afternoon, the group marked the locations of yesterday’s interviews on the map and also started to work on learning about the native plants of Seattle.

Day 3 cont. -- Family follow-up

Family Follow-up: Tonight you may practice having your teen notice different communication styles:
Assertive: I'd really like to go to a movie on Friday.
Aggressive: I am going to a movie on Friday and that's final.
Passive: Maybe, if possible, we could see a movie on Friday, if you want, or not.
During our morning session, each teen will earn a point to contribute to the group goal for reporting what they worked on during their family follow-up.

Day 3-- 3 Communication styles cont. real life examples

Today, for our service learning we worked with a great group from the Cascade Land Conservancy. We helped them with their project of reclaiming a large area of land along the west border of the park that was completely overrun with invasive species. While working some of us got to see fledgling Cooper's Hawks and we learned about several new plant species. On the way back from work we had a chance to interview people at the park to ask them why the come to Magnuson and where they come from, so we could get an idea of the people who use the park and how far they travel to come here.
We continued our work on noticing when ourselves and others use passive, assertive and aggressive statements and made goals around being assertive.

Day 2 -- Communication (Assertive, Aggressive, Passive)

Sunny day at Magnuson and Nate's birthday!! We toured the community P-Patch and tried some of the native berries that are ripe (Oregon grape, thimble berry, guys help me out-- what else?) After sweating it out with the Washington Native Plant Society we hit the beach to enjoy the warm weather and some treats for Nate's B-day. Thanks Nate!

Family Follow-up: Tonight you may practice having your teen notice different communication styles:
Assertive: I'd really like to go to a movie on Friday.
Aggressive: I am going to a movie on Friday and that's final.
Passive: Maybe, if possible, we could see a movie on Friday, if you want, or not.
During our morning session, each teen will earn a point to contribute to the group goal for reporting what they worked on during their family follow-up.

Day 1

Today was a great day 1 thanks to everyone's positive energy! Everyone did great work on their personal goals for the day around getting to know each other and getting to know the park! Here is just one of the many pictures of the work we did today!