All my life, I have had a hard time learning flower names. I would look at a flower and try and try, but the name simply wouldn't come. Then one day I took a different approach: I started with a flower's name, and then tried to think of why the name fit the flower. It became a challenge, a little game I would play with myself. I actually became quite good at it.

I had turned a learning situation into a project to fit my individual interests and learning style.

Now I have no trouble with the names of most flowers. I have come to see flowers as a metaphor for the process of learning.

The sunflower is actually not a flower at all, but something botanists call an inflorescence. What looks like a blossom is actually a collection of individual flowers grouped around a common center.

This sunflower grouping matches how the different areas in www.ConnectedFamily.com work: while each has its own capacity to develop and grow, they all come together to form a beautiful whole.

The sunflower also represents all of us as members of the www.ConnectedFamily.com community. when we gather together together and participate, this web site becomes complete.

I look forward to learning with you.