Laura's new column, a review of the game Hisss, is up on the KidsOutAndAbout.com web site.
This whole games review site is so much fun.
I'm going to have to get Carcassonne.
ooooh, that rhymes.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
HISSS
Laura's new column, a review of the game Hisss, is up on the KidsOutAndAbout.com web site.
This whole games review site is so much fun.
I'm going to have to get Carcassonne.
ooooh, that rhymes.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Oh, please, not THAT, Dad!
Ella was pouting one day recently, and during it she wrote the following note that she pointedly gave to David:
Those who know David can certainly determine what a "LacshR" is if you just think for a moment. Those who can't pick apart Ella's phonetic spelling, just ask.
David loved this so much that we now have this note hanging in our kitchen. He never wants to get rid of it.
Sounds kind of Arabic, now that I think of it. Al acshr
Those who know David can certainly determine what a "LacshR" is if you just think for a moment. Those who can't pick apart Ella's phonetic spelling, just ask.
David loved this so much that we now have this note hanging in our kitchen. He never wants to get rid of it.
Sounds kind of Arabic, now that I think of it. Al acshr
10,000 Birds
One of the originators of a great birding site, Mike of 10,000 Birds, is moving from the Bronx to Rochester!
I definitely recommend 10,000 Birds. Heavy on the science, usually very accessible information, beautiful photos, fairly light on the conservation aspects of things. Perfect for adults and kids who are interested in nature.
I'm so excited that Mike is moving up here. I'm sure he'll be able to sharpen our awareness of the local birds. I put a nice comment on his post this morning announcing the move, and offered to make sure his western New York posts get indexed on KidsOutAndAbout.com so that Rochesterians can benefit. He responded that he's already well aware of KidsOutAndAbout.com, that his wife had bookmarked it weeks ago in preparation for the move, and he'll be in touch. Isn't that neat?
I definitely recommend 10,000 Birds. Heavy on the science, usually very accessible information, beautiful photos, fairly light on the conservation aspects of things. Perfect for adults and kids who are interested in nature.
I'm so excited that Mike is moving up here. I'm sure he'll be able to sharpen our awareness of the local birds. I put a nice comment on his post this morning announcing the move, and offered to make sure his western New York posts get indexed on KidsOutAndAbout.com so that Rochesterians can benefit. He responded that he's already well aware of KidsOutAndAbout.com, that his wife had bookmarked it weeks ago in preparation for the move, and he'll be in touch. Isn't that neat?
Monday, June 23, 2008
Science for four hours
Today was the last day of school in our school district, so I took the opportunity to go to the Rochester Museum & Science Center. It was dead quiet. No one goes to the RMSC on the last morning of school, except for home schoolers who want to get some quality time in before summer camps start letting kids run wild in there. So it was perfect for experimenting with their new exhibit without lots of kids jostling each other for a turn.
This new permanent exhibit in their AdventureZone section is called "R Weather" (from R News, Time Warner's Rochester station). Kids can do a weather forecast that is broadcast on the screen, which isn't anything new. But...it is also saved temporarily so that you can replay it. AND, best yet, you can email a copy of the WMV file to your husband or to whomever else is at work while you are at play. And then you can upload it to your blog. Totally cool.
Both girls (with a typical division of labor):
This one is even funnier. Anyone who wonders what kind of a kid Ella is, well, this says it all. Here is Ella's prescription for what one should do in the event of a massive flood:
This new permanent exhibit in their AdventureZone section is called "R Weather" (from R News, Time Warner's Rochester station). Kids can do a weather forecast that is broadcast on the screen, which isn't anything new. But...it is also saved temporarily so that you can replay it. AND, best yet, you can email a copy of the WMV file to your husband or to whomever else is at work while you are at play. And then you can upload it to your blog. Totally cool.
Both girls (with a typical division of labor):
This one is even funnier. Anyone who wonders what kind of a kid Ella is, well, this says it all. Here is Ella's prescription for what one should do in the event of a massive flood:
Ignore these photos
Hi all, sorry to post these photos here but it is the easiest way to show a certain person who is much handier than I what I'm talking about when I say "the slate patio over my garage leaks like heck."
This is our 90-year-old patio. It looks like slate, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure it is. The grout is not in great condition. It does slope away gently to a point behind the table, which is a hole in the slate, which siphons out to a pipe that sticks out to the outside under the patio. That gushes when it rains.
But it also leaks all over the patio, directly down to the basement, especially during winter when the melting is slow enough to seep downward instead of flow over toward the hole in the corner. And here you see the result, in the garage underneath. Those are rusty metal joists. I think they used to be painted institutional green. And, it looks like it is kind of concrete up on the ceiling, but there is a regular pattern that looks like wood but doesn't seem to be. Maybe concrete covering some kind of beam? I haven't had the guts to drill in and see. (We've only owned the house a year and a half.)
You can see the green on the walls, can't you? Mold or moss or what have you. It's damp in there.
The drips down from the ceiling contain something gross: whitish, and really, really difficult to remove from the car when it drips onto it. Looks like bird poop, frankly, though not viscous. If Rochester weren't the snowiest large city in the U.S., we might not use the garage at all.
I would love to be able to seal this or otherwise make it better. So, Handy Person, if you have any ideas for a project whose supplies I can get at the Big Orange Store, I would be grateful. (You can also just email me at ross@axton.com.)
This is our 90-year-old patio. It looks like slate, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure it is. The grout is not in great condition. It does slope away gently to a point behind the table, which is a hole in the slate, which siphons out to a pipe that sticks out to the outside under the patio. That gushes when it rains.
But it also leaks all over the patio, directly down to the basement, especially during winter when the melting is slow enough to seep downward instead of flow over toward the hole in the corner. And here you see the result, in the garage underneath. Those are rusty metal joists. I think they used to be painted institutional green. And, it looks like it is kind of concrete up on the ceiling, but there is a regular pattern that looks like wood but doesn't seem to be. Maybe concrete covering some kind of beam? I haven't had the guts to drill in and see. (We've only owned the house a year and a half.)
You can see the green on the walls, can't you? Mold or moss or what have you. It's damp in there.
The drips down from the ceiling contain something gross: whitish, and really, really difficult to remove from the car when it drips onto it. Looks like bird poop, frankly, though not viscous. If Rochester weren't the snowiest large city in the U.S., we might not use the garage at all.
I would love to be able to seal this or otherwise make it better. So, Handy Person, if you have any ideas for a project whose supplies I can get at the Big Orange Store, I would be grateful. (You can also just email me at ross@axton.com.)
Friday, June 20, 2008
I let her read to herself, right?
Ella has been asking to do her daily reading to herself, rather than out loud to me. They are chapter books (the Rachel-and-Kirsty Rainbow Fairy books which I loathe, but she loves).
She doesn't often ask for help with words, so I know she is skipping some, which I would help her with if she'd read it out loud.
But at the same time, I do know that she's reading, not pretending to read. I can see that.
So...do I make her do any out-loud reading, or just leave her be? I leave her be, right? And forget making her read out loud for now. Right? Anyone have arguments pro or con? My gut says let her just read as she likes for now. But I am open to other reasoning on this.
I would love to get her to where she just picks up a book for pleasure. Madison was way beyond that by this time. (Sorry, can't help comparing.) Anyway, that, more than anything, tells me to let her do it in her own sweet way or I'll crush any emerging love of reading out of her.
She doesn't often ask for help with words, so I know she is skipping some, which I would help her with if she'd read it out loud.
But at the same time, I do know that she's reading, not pretending to read. I can see that.
So...do I make her do any out-loud reading, or just leave her be? I leave her be, right? And forget making her read out loud for now. Right? Anyone have arguments pro or con? My gut says let her just read as she likes for now. But I am open to other reasoning on this.
I would love to get her to where she just picks up a book for pleasure. Madison was way beyond that by this time. (Sorry, can't help comparing.) Anyway, that, more than anything, tells me to let her do it in her own sweet way or I'll crush any emerging love of reading out of her.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
A new game from Laura
Laura has now reviewed Carcassonne.
It's for ages 8 and up. Construct the settlement of Carcassonne, a medieval French city.
I think I won't show this to Madison for a little while. When the girl saw Zooloretto, she really, really wanted it. Badly. I think she'd want this one even more. ("Can we at least go visit them even if we can't buy the game?")
Laura is on fire with reviews. I can't keep up with her. She has submitted two others (Hisss and Ticket to Ride) that I haven't formatted yet.
That'll teach me
I think Ella may be coming out of her six-month clingy phase. But it's slow going. She still gets "scared" to go upstairs or downstairs on her own, often. And she comes into our room in the middle of the night every. single. night. Fortunately, she doesn't wake us up anymore, but just crawls right on in and snuggles. And, she is very snuggly, although occasionally a little kicky. So it doesn't affect us that much. It affects me positively, frankly. I like snuggling.
But I confess to having felt irritated lately about the "scared" bit. It has seemed to me like an excuse. Ella might have been scared after a movie or something, but then, it seemed, she talked herself into just being scared, and scared she has stayed. Not always, just when it's convenient, it seems to me.
Well, the other night I had a nightmare. A terrible nightmare. About GHOSTS, of all things. And I, the 39-year-old avowed rational rejecter of all things supernatural, was terrified to get out of bed for a few minutes. I cowered there under the blankets, and cuddled next to David for a while before I could breathe normally and go back to sleep.
So, okay. If a person like me could get freaked out by her own imagination, by things that don't exist, why not a little 7-year-old. It will just require a little more thought to acknowledge the fact that her fear exists without seeming to validate it--and without quite the tartness that may have characterized my no-nonsense attitude lately.
But I confess to having felt irritated lately about the "scared" bit. It has seemed to me like an excuse. Ella might have been scared after a movie or something, but then, it seemed, she talked herself into just being scared, and scared she has stayed. Not always, just when it's convenient, it seems to me.
Well, the other night I had a nightmare. A terrible nightmare. About GHOSTS, of all things. And I, the 39-year-old avowed rational rejecter of all things supernatural, was terrified to get out of bed for a few minutes. I cowered there under the blankets, and cuddled next to David for a while before I could breathe normally and go back to sleep.
So, okay. If a person like me could get freaked out by her own imagination, by things that don't exist, why not a little 7-year-old. It will just require a little more thought to acknowledge the fact that her fear exists without seeming to validate it--and without quite the tartness that may have characterized my no-nonsense attitude lately.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Difficult for Madison
I decided to institute a rule that when one of the girls has a friend over that is clearly that girls' friend, like L, whom I mentioned in an earlier post, then the other child spends time with me, or working alone, but is not automatically included in the others' play unless specifically invited.
This is proving very hard, for Madison, today. Ella's friend L is over for a play date.
Madison is very social. She also has an extremely forceful personality, and tends to take over, because she's got a million ideas, and can at the drop of a hat organize just about anything you might want to do. One of those leader-types, even in a group with kids slightly older than her. Madison's personality happens to work well with one of her best friends, who happens to be slightly autistic although Madison knows nothing about it...that friend *needs* someone else to provide the structure, to do most of the talking, and Madison naturally fills in the gaps and never wonders why her friend doesn't talk much. But it doesn't always work well, especially when Ella needs not to be overshadowed.
So I've had to talk with Madison a bunch about how, even though it hasn't really happened yet, she will definitely be in the reverse situation many times in the future, when she will want to be alone with some friend. She tried to tell me that this wouldn't happen, that she would always have Ella involved, but she stopped in the middle of that claim. I think she could tell how ridiculous that must have sounded, even to her own ears.
She has required a lot of encouragement, this afternoon. Mostly, I kept her with me, just talking, but then she wanted to play with the others so much that I told her to get involved in building something and the other girls would naturally want to play with *her*, that if she built it they would come. She didn't believe me. It took some convincing, and then leaving her alone to make the decision on her own. I'm glad she tried it out, because she made some cool Lego castles. And she was wrong; the girls came to integrate their play with her building. I won't cast it up to her. But I will probably remind her of it next time.
A tough lesson. But if she learns that it's fine for other kids to want to do things on her own without including her, that's just life, no big deal...and she won't be as hurt when people do it in the future. She can go and do her own thing, in those circumstances. That, really, is what I'm trying to use this to teach her.
This is proving very hard, for Madison, today. Ella's friend L is over for a play date.
Madison is very social. She also has an extremely forceful personality, and tends to take over, because she's got a million ideas, and can at the drop of a hat organize just about anything you might want to do. One of those leader-types, even in a group with kids slightly older than her. Madison's personality happens to work well with one of her best friends, who happens to be slightly autistic although Madison knows nothing about it...that friend *needs* someone else to provide the structure, to do most of the talking, and Madison naturally fills in the gaps and never wonders why her friend doesn't talk much. But it doesn't always work well, especially when Ella needs not to be overshadowed.
So I've had to talk with Madison a bunch about how, even though it hasn't really happened yet, she will definitely be in the reverse situation many times in the future, when she will want to be alone with some friend. She tried to tell me that this wouldn't happen, that she would always have Ella involved, but she stopped in the middle of that claim. I think she could tell how ridiculous that must have sounded, even to her own ears.
She has required a lot of encouragement, this afternoon. Mostly, I kept her with me, just talking, but then she wanted to play with the others so much that I told her to get involved in building something and the other girls would naturally want to play with *her*, that if she built it they would come. She didn't believe me. It took some convincing, and then leaving her alone to make the decision on her own. I'm glad she tried it out, because she made some cool Lego castles. And she was wrong; the girls came to integrate their play with her building. I won't cast it up to her. But I will probably remind her of it next time.
A tough lesson. But if she learns that it's fine for other kids to want to do things on her own without including her, that's just life, no big deal...and she won't be as hurt when people do it in the future. She can go and do her own thing, in those circumstances. That, really, is what I'm trying to use this to teach her.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I don't remember this being true of me
What IS it with girls who feel that they have license to have the screechy-screechies every time I ask them to brush their hair, or approach them with a hairbrush to do it myself?
I must have given them the license somehow, but I can't remember doing it. They've only gotten marginally better about this since they were 4 or so. When they do get the moaning under control, their faces still look as though I was pulling out their fingernails rather than just brushing their hair -- with detangler in it!
It drives me nuts, frankly. If I'm not around and David needs to get them looking like they don't have rats' nests on their heads, he just usually foregoes the brush entirely and gathers their hair into a ponytail.
Sheesh. It makes me want to cut it all off.
But I can't, they're beautiful!
I must have given them the license somehow, but I can't remember doing it. They've only gotten marginally better about this since they were 4 or so. When they do get the moaning under control, their faces still look as though I was pulling out their fingernails rather than just brushing their hair -- with detangler in it!
It drives me nuts, frankly. If I'm not around and David needs to get them looking like they don't have rats' nests on their heads, he just usually foregoes the brush entirely and gathers their hair into a ponytail.
Sheesh. It makes me want to cut it all off.
But I can't, they're beautiful!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Off to the editor
The first three chapters of The Frontier Team and a one-page summary are off to the editor who requested them.
Yes!
Yesterday, David took the girls on a long Father's Day Erie Canal bike ride to give me the afternoon to edit those three chapters and polish the summary. Afterward, Madison, who has had a camping bee in her bonnet for a couple of weeks, set up our new-ish tent with David's help and got all set to camp out overnight. She's a really independent kid. Ella had pretentions of joining her, but then chickened out and went to sleep in my room. Madison read for a few hours in the twilight, but couldn't go to sleep so she came in. Good thing she did, too, because we had a fierce thunder-and-lightning storm about 15 minutes after she came in.
On Saturday evening, the girls went to a Parents' Night Out from 6pm-10pm sponsored by their karate dojo. (David and I saw the new Indiana Jones movie. I had the unusual experience of rating the movie a B, but thoroughly enjoying myself nonetheless.) Ella has been skittish of being left alone at a place ever since she adopted this odd anxiety-clinginess in January, but I think she may be coming out of it. After some hesitation last week, she agreed to go to the Parents' Night Out, looked forward to it eagerly, and had a great time. So, fingers crossed, maybe she's emerging from this uncharacteristically long phase of discomfort with the world.
It is a lovely June morning here in Rochester. I've copied John Enright's latest poem, June Morning, into a special document I created to use for the girls' handwriting practice.
We're definitely in low tide. Madison will read "How to Build a Robot" for school. Ella will read some Nancy Drew Notebooks. We'll participate in this cool contest from the web site 10,000 birds, which starts today and runs for 10 days. And then off to Gym-and-Swim and then, for Ella, dance class.
Yes!
Yesterday, David took the girls on a long Father's Day Erie Canal bike ride to give me the afternoon to edit those three chapters and polish the summary. Afterward, Madison, who has had a camping bee in her bonnet for a couple of weeks, set up our new-ish tent with David's help and got all set to camp out overnight. She's a really independent kid. Ella had pretentions of joining her, but then chickened out and went to sleep in my room. Madison read for a few hours in the twilight, but couldn't go to sleep so she came in. Good thing she did, too, because we had a fierce thunder-and-lightning storm about 15 minutes after she came in.
On Saturday evening, the girls went to a Parents' Night Out from 6pm-10pm sponsored by their karate dojo. (David and I saw the new Indiana Jones movie. I had the unusual experience of rating the movie a B, but thoroughly enjoying myself nonetheless.) Ella has been skittish of being left alone at a place ever since she adopted this odd anxiety-clinginess in January, but I think she may be coming out of it. After some hesitation last week, she agreed to go to the Parents' Night Out, looked forward to it eagerly, and had a great time. So, fingers crossed, maybe she's emerging from this uncharacteristically long phase of discomfort with the world.
It is a lovely June morning here in Rochester. I've copied John Enright's latest poem, June Morning, into a special document I created to use for the girls' handwriting practice.
We're definitely in low tide. Madison will read "How to Build a Robot" for school. Ella will read some Nancy Drew Notebooks. We'll participate in this cool contest from the web site 10,000 birds, which starts today and runs for 10 days. And then off to Gym-and-Swim and then, for Ella, dance class.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Story via David
Yesterday's Birthday of the Day was Thomas Young, the 18th-century scientist and mathematician who invented Young's Modulus, a measure of stiffness/elasticity. (In a family where the dad is an industrial mathematician, one actually hears about Young's Modulus quite often.)
David often does the Birthday of the Day while I am getting ready for the day. This was the case yesterday. I was upstairs.
"Young's family were Quakers," he said. "Do you know someone who went to a university whose mascot is a Quaker?"
I went to the University of Pennsylvania. We always called our football team "The Oxymoronic Fighting Quakers." But I guess the girls didn't know that Penn's mascot is a Quaker. They looked at him blankly.
David gave them a hint: He pointed upward.
Still no response. Then, Ella ventured a guess: "Jesus?"
David often does the Birthday of the Day while I am getting ready for the day. This was the case yesterday. I was upstairs.
"Young's family were Quakers," he said. "Do you know someone who went to a university whose mascot is a Quaker?"
I went to the University of Pennsylvania. We always called our football team "The Oxymoronic Fighting Quakers." But I guess the girls didn't know that Penn's mascot is a Quaker. They looked at him blankly.
David gave them a hint: He pointed upward.
Still no response. Then, Ella ventured a guess: "Jesus?"
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Editor wants to see the book!
Is it bad luck that the first editor to whom one has pitched the book wants to see it? The editor from that Perfect Pitch contest I entered last week wants me to send her a summary page and the first three chapters.
Good thing we objectivist-types don't believe in bad luck.
And it's a good thing it's not the last three chapters she wants to see.
Good thing we objectivist-types don't believe in bad luck.
And it's a good thing it's not the last three chapters she wants to see.
Announcing Family Board Game Reviews by Laura
After about 10 years of racking my brain to find ways that Laura and I could work together, I finally hit upon it last week.
Introducing...
The new Board Games Review section of KidsOutAndAbout.com!
Laura has become quite the board game expert in the last several years due both to her penetrating insight AND her penchant for perusing board game sites late at night while her wallet is burning a hole right through her purse. After months of hearing about the pros and cons of this game and that, and purchasing games like Killer Bunnies on her recommendation, I finally realized: If Laura reviews the games for KidsOutAndAbout.com, it will be a win-win-win-win-win: Parents will get information about products they never heard of, worthy game publishers get additional exposure, I get additional hits to KOA from all over the country, Laura's kids will soon have new games from Laura being plied by game manufacturers with free stuff in their hopes of scoring a review, and Laura gets a way of rationalizing her obsession.
We started off with two reviews: Of Zooloretto (ages 8 and up) and Rat-A-Tat-Cat (ages 6 and up). The reviews are concise, tell you what you need to know, and convey nicely what it is like to play the game. There are also links to where you can purchase each game. I'll post new reviews here as we add them.
Introducing...
The new Board Games Review section of KidsOutAndAbout.com!
Laura has become quite the board game expert in the last several years due both to her penetrating insight AND her penchant for perusing board game sites late at night while her wallet is burning a hole right through her purse. After months of hearing about the pros and cons of this game and that, and purchasing games like Killer Bunnies on her recommendation, I finally realized: If Laura reviews the games for KidsOutAndAbout.com, it will be a win-win-win-win-win: Parents will get information about products they never heard of, worthy game publishers get additional exposure, I get additional hits to KOA from all over the country, Laura's kids will soon have new games from Laura being plied by game manufacturers with free stuff in their hopes of scoring a review, and Laura gets a way of rationalizing her obsession.
We started off with two reviews: Of Zooloretto (ages 8 and up) and Rat-A-Tat-Cat (ages 6 and up). The reviews are concise, tell you what you need to know, and convey nicely what it is like to play the game. There are also links to where you can purchase each game. I'll post new reviews here as we add them.
A new state fact
We've been working on state facts, state capitals, and colonial history.
However, I'm not sure much of it is sticking.
We talked about the founding of the mid-Atlantic states yesterday. I asked them this morning:
"So, who remembers who founded the state of Pennsylvania?"
"Mr. Pencil?" Madison suggested.
However, I'm not sure much of it is sticking.
We talked about the founding of the mid-Atlantic states yesterday. I asked them this morning:
"So, who remembers who founded the state of Pennsylvania?"
"Mr. Pencil?" Madison suggested.
A bit of malaise
Anyone else suffering a bit from not wanting to "do school"?
This week I've chosen an extremely relaxed approach to school rather than our usual semi-vigorous schedule in the mornings. It's been very hot. I've been patting myself on the back for deciding to put in central air last summer, which means we don't have to hide out in the basement, and cooking doesn't mean suffering. We still have the Birthday of the Day every morning (today's birthday: John Roebling) even though I haven't been writing it out in advance. I've been reading history and mythology to them, they've done piano and karate practice as usual, we did Candy Chemistry yesterday with a kit Madison got for her 5th birthday, we went on the Book Hike yesterday, and have been to the library twice. Ella and I have been weeding and watering the garden and observing what is growing and what has not yet sprouted despite our pleas.
(Oh, and last week right out in plain daylight we saw a mother deer right by the garden. I had images of our great garden plans being chomped to bits, and I so wanted to chase her away. But then, from behind the shed stepped a tiny fawn, not more than a month old, all spotted and beautiful and hesitant. It reached under its mother and started to nurse. "You go right ahead and munch on my radishes if you need to," I said to the mother deer, to the girls' vast amusement.)
Madison and I have had a lot of Frontier Team book discussion and editing. But no one has done official math other than some play math at the dinner table, no handwriting, no spelling, no grammar, no (official) logic. They've had karate, dance, and "Gym and Swim" lessons. A lot of things have gotten built while I've been reading to them: there's a whole Brio train setup in my dining room, we had the No Ends building set out for a while, and I think it's time to bring Zome back in for another try. Madison has been tearing through some new library Nancy Drews like a California wildfire. Ella has watched a bit more TV than I'd prefer, but I figure the worst thing an extra episode or two of "What Not To Wear" (her current obsession) will do is make her want to buy some high heels.
It's not the girls' malaise, you know, it's mine. They'd be perfectly happy with the structured learning that typified last week, when I was Super-Homeschooling-Writer-Mom. But I've mostly been working on my own stuff: the book (almost done with chapter 13, about to start the end game), and clients have needed things. Usually I'd be really into Kim's science discussions this week over at Kim's Play Place. I mean, it's really neat stuff! But my attitude, to my own horror, has been, "yeah, yeah, I should remember to read this sometime when I care about it." Yikes. The girls seem to go with the flow either way. But there's no denying the fact that they're not learning nearly as much as they would if they, you know, focused on educating themselves.
It's just so easy to rationalize my lassitude by saying, "They're ahead, they're ahead, don't worry..."
Anyway, we have two more official "weeks" of school, for which I will make a definite effort to be structured again. Then Madison has a week of drama camp and two weeks of engineering camp in quick succession, during which Ella and I will do school in the mornings, just the two of us. A relaxed version, I figure, focusing on getting those multiplication tables into her, and a lot of reading.
This week I've chosen an extremely relaxed approach to school rather than our usual semi-vigorous schedule in the mornings. It's been very hot. I've been patting myself on the back for deciding to put in central air last summer, which means we don't have to hide out in the basement, and cooking doesn't mean suffering. We still have the Birthday of the Day every morning (today's birthday: John Roebling) even though I haven't been writing it out in advance. I've been reading history and mythology to them, they've done piano and karate practice as usual, we did Candy Chemistry yesterday with a kit Madison got for her 5th birthday, we went on the Book Hike yesterday, and have been to the library twice. Ella and I have been weeding and watering the garden and observing what is growing and what has not yet sprouted despite our pleas.
(Oh, and last week right out in plain daylight we saw a mother deer right by the garden. I had images of our great garden plans being chomped to bits, and I so wanted to chase her away. But then, from behind the shed stepped a tiny fawn, not more than a month old, all spotted and beautiful and hesitant. It reached under its mother and started to nurse. "You go right ahead and munch on my radishes if you need to," I said to the mother deer, to the girls' vast amusement.)
Madison and I have had a lot of Frontier Team book discussion and editing. But no one has done official math other than some play math at the dinner table, no handwriting, no spelling, no grammar, no (official) logic. They've had karate, dance, and "Gym and Swim" lessons. A lot of things have gotten built while I've been reading to them: there's a whole Brio train setup in my dining room, we had the No Ends building set out for a while, and I think it's time to bring Zome back in for another try. Madison has been tearing through some new library Nancy Drews like a California wildfire. Ella has watched a bit more TV than I'd prefer, but I figure the worst thing an extra episode or two of "What Not To Wear" (her current obsession) will do is make her want to buy some high heels.
It's not the girls' malaise, you know, it's mine. They'd be perfectly happy with the structured learning that typified last week, when I was Super-Homeschooling-Writer-Mom. But I've mostly been working on my own stuff: the book (almost done with chapter 13, about to start the end game), and clients have needed things. Usually I'd be really into Kim's science discussions this week over at Kim's Play Place. I mean, it's really neat stuff! But my attitude, to my own horror, has been, "yeah, yeah, I should remember to read this sometime when I care about it." Yikes. The girls seem to go with the flow either way. But there's no denying the fact that they're not learning nearly as much as they would if they, you know, focused on educating themselves.
It's just so easy to rationalize my lassitude by saying, "They're ahead, they're ahead, don't worry..."
Anyway, we have two more official "weeks" of school, for which I will make a definite effort to be structured again. Then Madison has a week of drama camp and two weeks of engineering camp in quick succession, during which Ella and I will do school in the mornings, just the two of us. A relaxed version, I figure, focusing on getting those multiplication tables into her, and a lot of reading.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
A little book hike
Today, I took the girls down to Powder Mills Park in Pittsford, to hike along Irondequoit Creek.
In the book that I'm writing with lots of input from Madison, this is where most of the action takes place. We haven't been to that part of the park in a while, certainly not since we started this project. So it was rather exciting for her: She got to settle, in her own mind, just exactly where everything takes place: which beaver dam traps the mysterious treasure chest, which property that borders the park could be the Haworths', etc. The Frontier Team detectives use a satellite map and images of the area to work out some logic about where the treasure chest may have originally been buried. We went through the same process, yesterday, and today we brought the satellite photo printout and referred to it as we were hiking. Ella was very interested in transferring the layout she could see from the ground into an image from the sky.
So now, as we go through endless editing, Madison (and I!) will have some great mental pictures of the actual setting. She was enraptured with the idea that maybe, after the book is published, other kids would walk that trail "just as we are, right now, Mom," to see where it all "happens."
In the book that I'm writing with lots of input from Madison, this is where most of the action takes place. We haven't been to that part of the park in a while, certainly not since we started this project. So it was rather exciting for her: She got to settle, in her own mind, just exactly where everything takes place: which beaver dam traps the mysterious treasure chest, which property that borders the park could be the Haworths', etc. The Frontier Team detectives use a satellite map and images of the area to work out some logic about where the treasure chest may have originally been buried. We went through the same process, yesterday, and today we brought the satellite photo printout and referred to it as we were hiking. Ella was very interested in transferring the layout she could see from the ground into an image from the sky.
So now, as we go through endless editing, Madison (and I!) will have some great mental pictures of the actual setting. She was enraptured with the idea that maybe, after the book is published, other kids would walk that trail "just as we are, right now, Mom," to see where it all "happens."
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Nostril fluttering on demand
Sometimes, when Madison gets upset, she can get herself VERY worked up. She projects the worst thing that something could possibly mean, decides that it DOES mean that, and reacts accordingly. If you the parent decide to fight back with her, it makes it much worse -- it confirms that the issue is indeed worth getting upset about. She gets under David's skin more than she does mine; it's not that she's pushing his buttons on purpose; noticing the effects of her behavior on her parents just isn't even on the radar. Sometimes I laugh at her because I just can't help it, she gets so ridiculous; although it makes her kind of mad when I do it, it's actually better. It tells her that the issue is not worth getting so worked up about.
Last night, when Madison was getting all ready to launch into some hysterical diatribe or other, I noticed something weird. Her NOSTRILS were vibrating. FLUTTERING, actually. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. I couldn't contain myself; I had to hold in my sides. And what was really strange was that she could sort of control it; she could, by focusing, *make it happen* on demand. It has something to do with her chest muscles and neck muscles, she says.
The best part was that it really broke the tension. And she says she intends to keep doing it, that she'll be able to keep herself from getting too upset if she can just make us laugh.
Last night, when Madison was getting all ready to launch into some hysterical diatribe or other, I noticed something weird. Her NOSTRILS were vibrating. FLUTTERING, actually. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. I couldn't contain myself; I had to hold in my sides. And what was really strange was that she could sort of control it; she could, by focusing, *make it happen* on demand. It has something to do with her chest muscles and neck muscles, she says.
The best part was that it really broke the tension. And she says she intends to keep doing it, that she'll be able to keep herself from getting too upset if she can just make us laugh.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Got in my Pitch
I remarked in an earlier post that I was going to submit an entry in a "Perfect Pitch" contest sponsored by an editor who specializes in midgrade fiction. I found out about this last week, and decided to use it as the kick-in-the-posterior incentive I needed to finish the book. Due today was a 500-word-or-less "pitch" to be emailed to the editor. She'll ask for the full manuscript for all of the pitches she likes, and she'll choose the best pitch to analyze on her blog so that the rest of us can do better next time. The catch, if she likes the pitch (ha!), is that the full manuscript will be due by July 1.
I have been incredibly productive this week, and the girls have been productive at school because I've been very organized (usually our relative productivities are inversely related). Not only have I created several report programs for clients in my real job, but did some billing, got the vegetables in the garden, wrote my weekly e-newsletter, formatted several new KOA pages, structured and started working with Laura on a new board games review column for KOA...AND at night I've been writing in the book like mad (almost finished with 12 chapters of about 16 or 17), and produced about five iterations of my Perfect Pitch (taking into account comments/criticisms from a couple of trusted friends...thank you, Trusted Friends). I sent it off to the editor today. On time. Now, to finish the rest of the book in 3 1/2 weeks.
I was always good under pressure from deadlines. Not that I want to live life on Full Speed all the time, but I can deal with it occasionally.
I have been incredibly productive this week, and the girls have been productive at school because I've been very organized (usually our relative productivities are inversely related). Not only have I created several report programs for clients in my real job, but did some billing, got the vegetables in the garden, wrote my weekly e-newsletter, formatted several new KOA pages, structured and started working with Laura on a new board games review column for KOA...AND at night I've been writing in the book like mad (almost finished with 12 chapters of about 16 or 17), and produced about five iterations of my Perfect Pitch (taking into account comments/criticisms from a couple of trusted friends...thank you, Trusted Friends). I sent it off to the editor today. On time. Now, to finish the rest of the book in 3 1/2 weeks.
I was always good under pressure from deadlines. Not that I want to live life on Full Speed all the time, but I can deal with it occasionally.
Madison's glasses
Madison got glasses yesterday. It made a good opening for my KOA e-newsletter today, so I'm going to reproduce that for your reading pleasure below the pictures.
The big news in the Ross house this week is that Madison got glasses. Now, the fact is, many people have real problems, and so when one puts it all in perspective, no one has any business being too upset over the idea of getting glasses. Madison, understandably, was not thrilled with the idea. She didn't get worked up, but she was quite apprehensive about what she would look like, and she also worried that she would lose or damage them.
Confession: Who was the person most distressed by the idea of Madison getting glasses? I was. I'm pretty sure no one could tell from the outside, but I felt a sinking dismay when we got the verdict from the optometrist last month. You see, I was a bit younger than Madison when I got my first pair, and my eyes gradually worsened all the way into adulthood; I'm now essentially nonfunctional without corrective lenses. It's a pain. I had hoped that my kids would inherit my husband's vision genes, because I didn't want them to have to manage worsening eyesight. On the other hand, today's glasses are dramatically more attractive than they were 30 years ago. And I know, yes I KNOW, that thanks to technology, it's not a big deal. And that's the way I acted with Madison: casual. No big deal. But still.
How relieved I was yesterday when the Glasses Goddess at BJ's in Webster made Madison feel like a Fashion Queen as she fitted the glasses into place on her face for the first time. (BJ's has nice prices on glasses, too, by the way, definitely worth checking out.) Madison was amazed when she put them on. "Wow!" she said several times, as we walked through the store (because who can enter BJ's without shopping). She kept taking the glasses on and off, reading the signs hanging from the ceiling that she could now see. "Is this the way everyone sees?" This of course instantly made me stop feeling sad that my kid was going to have to manage imperfect vision... because, hey, now I felt guilty that we had perhaps waited too long to get the glasses. Ah, motherhood.
The big news in the Ross house this week is that Madison got glasses. Now, the fact is, many people have real problems, and so when one puts it all in perspective, no one has any business being too upset over the idea of getting glasses. Madison, understandably, was not thrilled with the idea. She didn't get worked up, but she was quite apprehensive about what she would look like, and she also worried that she would lose or damage them.
Confession: Who was the person most distressed by the idea of Madison getting glasses? I was. I'm pretty sure no one could tell from the outside, but I felt a sinking dismay when we got the verdict from the optometrist last month. You see, I was a bit younger than Madison when I got my first pair, and my eyes gradually worsened all the way into adulthood; I'm now essentially nonfunctional without corrective lenses. It's a pain. I had hoped that my kids would inherit my husband's vision genes, because I didn't want them to have to manage worsening eyesight. On the other hand, today's glasses are dramatically more attractive than they were 30 years ago. And I know, yes I KNOW, that thanks to technology, it's not a big deal. And that's the way I acted with Madison: casual. No big deal. But still.
How relieved I was yesterday when the Glasses Goddess at BJ's in Webster made Madison feel like a Fashion Queen as she fitted the glasses into place on her face for the first time. (BJ's has nice prices on glasses, too, by the way, definitely worth checking out.) Madison was amazed when she put them on. "Wow!" she said several times, as we walked through the store (because who can enter BJ's without shopping). She kept taking the glasses on and off, reading the signs hanging from the ceiling that she could now see. "Is this the way everyone sees?" This of course instantly made me stop feeling sad that my kid was going to have to manage imperfect vision... because, hey, now I felt guilty that we had perhaps waited too long to get the glasses. Ah, motherhood.
I Will Derive -- thanks, Kim!
Kim, at Kim's Play Place, provides an embedded YouTube video today from Kitchen Table Math entitled "I Will Derive."
It's hilarious, especially for us families of mathematicians.
Rather than embed it myself I'm going to send you over to Kim:
http://kimsplayplace.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-will-derive.html
Go to the bathroom first.
It's hilarious, especially for us families of mathematicians.
Rather than embed it myself I'm going to send you over to Kim:
http://kimsplayplace.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-will-derive.html
Go to the bathroom first.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
The first really tricky social situation
Ella's friend L is over for a play date. Her brother, M, is not.
It's a bit tricky of a situation: Up until about 3 weeks ago, we went over to L's house every week so that L's mother, who is from South America, could teach Spanish to her kids (L, age almost-7, and M, age just-8) and mine. Ella had met L in Montessori preschool when she was 3.
In brief, M is an angry, angry little boy with -- I'm sure -- problems that are defined in the DSM-IV. Since we started these little Spanish classes, he would punctuate the lessons, and the kids' play time outside of lessons, with outbursts of hostility and rudeness. The things he does are things which, had one of my girls done it, FIVE SECONDS into the incident, I would have been hastily packing up the troublemaker and her sister and, with red cheeks, apologizing to the family as we left. Because I'll be darned if my kids are going to be hostile or nasty or rude...not that it's ever happened...but I would never subject someone else to it, and let me tell you, my kid sure wouldn't do it a second time.
Although admitting that M has a problem, the mother is completely passive. She's the worst I've ever seen on laying down rules and consequences and sticking to them. And she thinks that despite M's hostility, despite the fact that he often scowls, "Go away, you're stupid" when the kids (especially Madison, who is closer in age to him) want to play, the mother thinks that he has a right to play with the girls, and that excluding him from their play when he's recently been a brat is mean. Let me tell you, if my girls were even HALF as snotty as that kid, I'd be ORDERING the kids not to play with her. (I am admittedly overly sensitive to this...my sister turned into a horribly snotty adult, and I'll be damned if my kids are going to be anything like her.) I have put up with this because Ella loves L, and because of the Spanish.
In any case, about 3-4 weeks ago, M had been particularly hideous during Spanish. And then later, during play time, he was barging in on the room where Ella and L were playing, and in the confusion Ella tripped and knocked him down, falling on top of him. M decided that Ella had hurt him on purpose, drew back his arm, and HIT HER three times, hard and deliberately. I don't think it was hard enough to make Ella cry, though; at least, she wasn't crying when she came downstairs. (Of course, that's not the point.) It was the first time, apparently, that M had hit someone who wasn't his sister.
We were in the process of leaving anyway, and I didn't really get much of the story on the way out the door. But then, I found out the next day that M had decided that the girls owed HIM an apology for excluding him from their play, and that Ella owed him an apology for tripping on him and knocking him down. My girls were stunned, and very, very upset.
I decided to have the mother over while her kids were at school, so that my girls could talk to her without her being distracted by her own kids. I wanted to engineer having HER say to my girls that it was NOT their fault, that they did the right thing, etc. And I also wanted to engineer the conversation so that the mother, not I, would decide that they would have to stop having M in the mix when the kids played, that instead she would send L over here for a while, until we could be sure that M wouldn't be hitting anyone.
The conversation was stressful for me, as it was for the mother, but I'm sure Madison and Ella didn't notice our discomfort; they were upset enough. I was able to say to them, and the mother echoed that I was right, that IT IS NOT THE GIRLS' RESPONSIBILITY to ensure that M did not hit them. They didn't have to do ANYTHING different, treat him in any special way. "And," I emphasized to them, in the mother's presence, "M will NOT hit you again. That is MY job, to ensure that my girls are not in a situation where someone just might hit them."
"Well, as we can't guarantee that," sighed the mother, "we'll just have to have L over here to play for a while, instead of all of you coming over to my house."
So it worked.
There was no talk of my girls apologizing, at all. I would not have stood for that. But I'm pleased that I was able to salvage the situation without hinting to the girls that Ella couldn't be friends with L anymore. That would have been traumatic. But the fact is, the family is enough messed up that I will begin pulling away from them gradually. Because seriously, when you think of the messed-up kids who shoot up their schools, and imagine what they were like when they were 7 or 8, you're imagining M.
During this conversation, I told the girls that if someone ever hits them deliberately, they are morally justified in hitting them back. They were horrified; they didn't think they could ever do it, and I was sure that was true. "It's usually better just to tell a grownup who can prevent this from happening again," I affirmed. "But nevertheless," I insisted, "You have no MORAL problem with me if you hit back someone who attacks you."
The mother was horrified. "Oh no, those aren't my rules at all," she told the girls. "Your mother and I disagree. If someone hits you, you don't hit back, the right thing to do is you always walk or run away."
Of course, HER kid is the one who is hitting people, not mine. And, she is wrong. Bullies only stop when opposed with force, or viable threat of force.
It's been 3 weeks (possibly even 4) since we saw L, and the girls seem to be playing together well upstairs right now. So, I'll be casual about this for the time being.
This was a hard enough situation for me that I couldn't even bring myself to blog about it for all these weeks.
It's a bit tricky of a situation: Up until about 3 weeks ago, we went over to L's house every week so that L's mother, who is from South America, could teach Spanish to her kids (L, age almost-7, and M, age just-8) and mine. Ella had met L in Montessori preschool when she was 3.
In brief, M is an angry, angry little boy with -- I'm sure -- problems that are defined in the DSM-IV. Since we started these little Spanish classes, he would punctuate the lessons, and the kids' play time outside of lessons, with outbursts of hostility and rudeness. The things he does are things which, had one of my girls done it, FIVE SECONDS into the incident, I would have been hastily packing up the troublemaker and her sister and, with red cheeks, apologizing to the family as we left. Because I'll be darned if my kids are going to be hostile or nasty or rude...not that it's ever happened...but I would never subject someone else to it, and let me tell you, my kid sure wouldn't do it a second time.
Although admitting that M has a problem, the mother is completely passive. She's the worst I've ever seen on laying down rules and consequences and sticking to them. And she thinks that despite M's hostility, despite the fact that he often scowls, "Go away, you're stupid" when the kids (especially Madison, who is closer in age to him) want to play, the mother thinks that he has a right to play with the girls, and that excluding him from their play when he's recently been a brat is mean. Let me tell you, if my girls were even HALF as snotty as that kid, I'd be ORDERING the kids not to play with her. (I am admittedly overly sensitive to this...my sister turned into a horribly snotty adult, and I'll be damned if my kids are going to be anything like her.) I have put up with this because Ella loves L, and because of the Spanish.
In any case, about 3-4 weeks ago, M had been particularly hideous during Spanish. And then later, during play time, he was barging in on the room where Ella and L were playing, and in the confusion Ella tripped and knocked him down, falling on top of him. M decided that Ella had hurt him on purpose, drew back his arm, and HIT HER three times, hard and deliberately. I don't think it was hard enough to make Ella cry, though; at least, she wasn't crying when she came downstairs. (Of course, that's not the point.) It was the first time, apparently, that M had hit someone who wasn't his sister.
We were in the process of leaving anyway, and I didn't really get much of the story on the way out the door. But then, I found out the next day that M had decided that the girls owed HIM an apology for excluding him from their play, and that Ella owed him an apology for tripping on him and knocking him down. My girls were stunned, and very, very upset.
I decided to have the mother over while her kids were at school, so that my girls could talk to her without her being distracted by her own kids. I wanted to engineer having HER say to my girls that it was NOT their fault, that they did the right thing, etc. And I also wanted to engineer the conversation so that the mother, not I, would decide that they would have to stop having M in the mix when the kids played, that instead she would send L over here for a while, until we could be sure that M wouldn't be hitting anyone.
The conversation was stressful for me, as it was for the mother, but I'm sure Madison and Ella didn't notice our discomfort; they were upset enough. I was able to say to them, and the mother echoed that I was right, that IT IS NOT THE GIRLS' RESPONSIBILITY to ensure that M did not hit them. They didn't have to do ANYTHING different, treat him in any special way. "And," I emphasized to them, in the mother's presence, "M will NOT hit you again. That is MY job, to ensure that my girls are not in a situation where someone just might hit them."
"Well, as we can't guarantee that," sighed the mother, "we'll just have to have L over here to play for a while, instead of all of you coming over to my house."
So it worked.
There was no talk of my girls apologizing, at all. I would not have stood for that. But I'm pleased that I was able to salvage the situation without hinting to the girls that Ella couldn't be friends with L anymore. That would have been traumatic. But the fact is, the family is enough messed up that I will begin pulling away from them gradually. Because seriously, when you think of the messed-up kids who shoot up their schools, and imagine what they were like when they were 7 or 8, you're imagining M.
During this conversation, I told the girls that if someone ever hits them deliberately, they are morally justified in hitting them back. They were horrified; they didn't think they could ever do it, and I was sure that was true. "It's usually better just to tell a grownup who can prevent this from happening again," I affirmed. "But nevertheless," I insisted, "You have no MORAL problem with me if you hit back someone who attacks you."
The mother was horrified. "Oh no, those aren't my rules at all," she told the girls. "Your mother and I disagree. If someone hits you, you don't hit back, the right thing to do is you always walk or run away."
Of course, HER kid is the one who is hitting people, not mine. And, she is wrong. Bullies only stop when opposed with force, or viable threat of force.
It's been 3 weeks (possibly even 4) since we saw L, and the girls seem to be playing together well upstairs right now. So, I'll be casual about this for the time being.
This was a hard enough situation for me that I couldn't even bring myself to blog about it for all these weeks.
Hey I'm in the newspaper
The business writer from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle quoted me in this morning's edition:
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080604/BUSINESS/806040359
Playland franchise considers Greece, East Rochester
Of course, they didn't print KidsOutAndAbout.com correctly, but I'll take it.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080604/BUSINESS/806040359
Playland franchise considers Greece, East Rochester
A company that has 170 play centers around the country is looking at two locations in the Rochester area for its newest franchise. Pump It Up officials say they have their eyes on East Rochester and Greece for their inflatable-filled playlands.
The two suburbs have the right demographics and logistics for Pump It Up arenas: "a certain level of income, lots of young kids," said Gordon Keil, CEO of Pump It Up. He spoke by phone from company headquarters in the Chicago area.
............
The more the merrier, suggested Debra Ross, operator of the Kids Out and About's Web site, which lists activities for families with children, including indoor arenas and birthday party locations.
"There is no question that here in Rochester, the market is ripe for just these kinds of venues," Ross said. "As wonderful as our children's museums are and as enticing as Chuck E Cheese is for kids, families crave variety. And competition begets innovation, so everyone benefits."
Of course, they didn't print KidsOutAndAbout.com correctly, but I'll take it.
Math worksheet generator
When you make up your own curriculum kind of by the seat of the pants, sometimes you want official worksheets. So you make them up.
The other day, Ella did a review of subtraction with borrowing, and she liked it so much that she wanted some worksheets for them. Normally, I just make them up, but today I'm busy so I did a little research and came up with this nifty free web program for generating custom worksheets for basic operations:
http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/basic-operations-worksheets.php
Works great. Even generates an answer key so that the child can check her own work. Cool!
The other day, Ella did a review of subtraction with borrowing, and she liked it so much that she wanted some worksheets for them. Normally, I just make them up, but today I'm busy so I did a little research and came up with this nifty free web program for generating custom worksheets for basic operations:
http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/basic-operations-worksheets.php
Works great. Even generates an answer key so that the child can check her own work. Cool!
Monday, June 02, 2008
The Aurora County All-Stars
We just got through the audio book of Kate Jackson's reading of Deborah Wiles' book The Aurora County All-Stars, which was published last year.
It was terrific, and Kate Jackson's reading really did it justice. A fabulous local color book (about a town in southern Mississippi) that revolves around baseball. We are a baseball family, so that really worked for us. It's a middle-grade book, most appropriate for about 6th graders, I think. Madison would probably not have read it through on her own, because the beginning is a bit confusing...but the audio was wonderful and both girls (who are 7 and 8) thought it was just great. The characters are just gorgeously unique. It's one of those books that translates upward beautifully, and I was perhaps even more involved in the story than they were. We got lucky, this time...I'd never heard of the book and just grabbed it off the shelf in the Penfield Library because I'd never seen it there before. Yay, Penfield Library.
It's about perseverance, and honor, and the need to integrate new truths into one's existing framework even if they shake things up inside you.
The only bad part of it was that it stopped me dead in my tracks on my own book writing, at least it did last night. I kept thinking to myself that I'd never write as well as that...the language in The Aurora County All-Stars paints gorgeous pictures in my mind while mine...doesn't. That got in the way of putting much on the page last night.
I will try again tonight, though, because there is a contest put out on an editor's blog for the "Perfect Pitch" -- this editor, who specializes in mid-grade mystery fiction, is soliciting a short essays about why she should publish your book. That is due on Friday, and the book MUST be completed by July 7.
I can complete my book by July 7 if I just put my fingers to the keyboard and write the darned thing. The most difficult chapter is behind me, and the rest of it is the playing out of the action. It will probably be the most fun part to write, if I can just.do.it. Goodness knows I've thought it through enough, it's been percolating for months. Sigh.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Ella-Bunny
Ella loves bunnies. I called her my "baby bunny" when she was a baby because she was born near Easter, and even at 7 she still has it as a kind of persona. One of her nicknames is Ella-Bunny.
Our friend Sue, Japanese Literature Professor extraordinaire and accomplished seamstress, took note of this when she and her family were visiting on Monday. When she got home, she boxed up an old costume of her son's and sent it over. Ella is in raptures.
Our friend Sue, Japanese Literature Professor extraordinaire and accomplished seamstress, took note of this when she and her family were visiting on Monday. When she got home, she boxed up an old costume of her son's and sent it over. Ella is in raptures.
Resources for teaching writing
Erika Dreifus, over at her blog The Practicing Writer, has posted a link to some terrific articles about how to teach imaginative writing. Her blog post is at http://practicing-writing.blogspot.com/2008/05/friday-find-teaching-resources-from.html. Definitely worth checking out...the articles gave me some lovely lesson ideas the girls will love.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Lurching through life
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've been very busy with end-of-the-year stuff.
There are a couple of items I've been meaning to post about, challenges (though not severe challenges) with the girls. It's always easier to find the time to post about delightful accomplishments than things that puzzle me.
Madison lurches.
She's always lurched, to some extent. She was never what you'd call graceful; whereas Ella somehow seems to have built-in grace, Madison never has. You could always see the difference when they would make up a dance: Ella was a ballerina, Madison would look like she was stumbling through a demented hokey-pokey no matter what the background music. Madison never lacked for enthusiasm, though, and that's what made it all both better and worse. Better, because she is clearly happy and one doesn't want to stomp on her glee...but worse, because the more enthusiastic she is, the more ungainly she becomes, and the harder it is to watch her, especially in comparison with Ella.
I have always been convinced that Madison is klutzy because she has so much going on upstairs that she is focused inward rather than outward. But lately, as she nears the age of nine and is starting to grow, it's struck David and me that she has to start to get a grip on her body. She's been getting minorly hurt a lot more often, and lurching into other people and tripping them up. She doesn't just get up from the table, she hurls herself up from the table in pursuit of whereever she's going next. It's a standing family joke that the house attacks Madison -- corners, the floor, doors, furniture...she can hurt herself just trying to stand still somewhere. When she holds your hand as you're walking, YOU become her prop, the thing that is holding her upright. Instead of walking down- or upstairs, she winds her body around the banister and kind of slides toward her destination.
So we have lately undertaken to try to make Madison more conscious of her body. It's one thing for a little little kid never to stop talking and never to seem as though she is in control of her body...that can be kind of cute. But it's getting less cute. You'd think a year and a half of karate would have helped. Not much. She's not bad at karate--but that's when she's actually focused on what her body is supposed to be doing, so it works ok. But it's as though she reserves all of her focus for Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and she's free from constraint the rest of the time.
So we've tried to be positive about it. She *never* remembers not to lurch, so we've taken to reminding her at times before she's about to move. She'll be about to get up from the table, and I'll remind her, "Elbows, knees, and spine." "Like a princess, love." "You're going to have to use your own spine to hold yourself up, honey, or you're going to fall."
We have noticed it kind of -- KIND OF -- starting to work, after about two weeks of calling after her ping-ponging little body, "Stop lurching!" I'm not sure, though, what kind of effect we've had, or whether we even ought to do this at all. Maybe we should do it later? Maybe there are more important things we should worry about instead? Maybe we should be using a different approach? Maybe she's just a klutz and we should embrace her for "who she is"? Sigh.
There are a couple of items I've been meaning to post about, challenges (though not severe challenges) with the girls. It's always easier to find the time to post about delightful accomplishments than things that puzzle me.
Madison lurches.
She's always lurched, to some extent. She was never what you'd call graceful; whereas Ella somehow seems to have built-in grace, Madison never has. You could always see the difference when they would make up a dance: Ella was a ballerina, Madison would look like she was stumbling through a demented hokey-pokey no matter what the background music. Madison never lacked for enthusiasm, though, and that's what made it all both better and worse. Better, because she is clearly happy and one doesn't want to stomp on her glee...but worse, because the more enthusiastic she is, the more ungainly she becomes, and the harder it is to watch her, especially in comparison with Ella.
I have always been convinced that Madison is klutzy because she has so much going on upstairs that she is focused inward rather than outward. But lately, as she nears the age of nine and is starting to grow, it's struck David and me that she has to start to get a grip on her body. She's been getting minorly hurt a lot more often, and lurching into other people and tripping them up. She doesn't just get up from the table, she hurls herself up from the table in pursuit of whereever she's going next. It's a standing family joke that the house attacks Madison -- corners, the floor, doors, furniture...she can hurt herself just trying to stand still somewhere. When she holds your hand as you're walking, YOU become her prop, the thing that is holding her upright. Instead of walking down- or upstairs, she winds her body around the banister and kind of slides toward her destination.
So we have lately undertaken to try to make Madison more conscious of her body. It's one thing for a little little kid never to stop talking and never to seem as though she is in control of her body...that can be kind of cute. But it's getting less cute. You'd think a year and a half of karate would have helped. Not much. She's not bad at karate--but that's when she's actually focused on what her body is supposed to be doing, so it works ok. But it's as though she reserves all of her focus for Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and she's free from constraint the rest of the time.
So we've tried to be positive about it. She *never* remembers not to lurch, so we've taken to reminding her at times before she's about to move. She'll be about to get up from the table, and I'll remind her, "Elbows, knees, and spine." "Like a princess, love." "You're going to have to use your own spine to hold yourself up, honey, or you're going to fall."
We have noticed it kind of -- KIND OF -- starting to work, after about two weeks of calling after her ping-ponging little body, "Stop lurching!" I'm not sure, though, what kind of effect we've had, or whether we even ought to do this at all. Maybe we should do it later? Maybe there are more important things we should worry about instead? Maybe we should be using a different approach? Maybe she's just a klutz and we should embrace her for "who she is"? Sigh.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Looking at adults in a new light
I know I haven't been writing much, lately. Sunday was Madison's very last concert of the year, and she had a bunch of rehearsals for it, so it was busy.
We have had an interesting experience with the conductor of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, with whom the Bach Children's Chorus had this last concert, and two others at Christmas. His name is David Fetler and he is a stooped, crabby, grouchy old man whom nobody likes...but he organizes and conducts great concerts. I personally haven't forgiven him since the Christmas concert with the BCC, the RCO, and the Greece Choral Society: In the middle of one piece, he abruptly stopped the piece, turned around, and informed the audience with disdain in his voice that "the soloist didn't turn the page correctly" and then turned around and re-started. That poor young soprano (who looked about college-age) started the piece again. One can only imagine the kind of self-control it took to be able to sing beautifully to a packed crowd under those circumstances, but she managed.
Anyway, Dr. Fetler presents a very interesting case for Madison: An adult, who is very good at what he does, yet is kind of awful as a human. Someone whom everyone quietly dislikes, and *it's not just kids* who dislike him and whom he tries to intimidate, but adults as well (except for Derrick Smith, the bass soloist, who is not only extremely well-known around Rochester on the opera/choral scene and a professor at The Eastman School, but is also a 6-foot-6 heavy black guy...him, Fetler respects).
So Madison is having a unique experience as a kid, one I never had: Her parents are telling her that an adult, who is to be respected (and, heck, obeyed) in one context, is overall really kind of crummy. We indulge Fetler in his idiosyncrasies because he produces something lovely that we want, but at the same time we keep our distance from him personally, because we're better people. Rosses don't behave that way. And Madison will grow up knowing not only that Rosses don't behave like Fetler, but that she shouldn't take it personally if Fetler treats her disrespectfully...that if that happens, it's HIS problem, not hers. It will help her keep her internal cool.
My friend Anne's mom used to say, "Consider the source," when Anne was in junior high school and someone would say something catty or nasty. I was never taught to "consider the source" -- I didn't have the skills to do so. Analyzing other kids or adults and considering whether their competence justified taking them seriously just wasn't part of my framework. I went through a lot of angst as a kid and as a young adult before philosophy and reality straightened my spine, because I didn't understand this at all.
We have had an interesting experience with the conductor of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, with whom the Bach Children's Chorus had this last concert, and two others at Christmas. His name is David Fetler and he is a stooped, crabby, grouchy old man whom nobody likes...but he organizes and conducts great concerts. I personally haven't forgiven him since the Christmas concert with the BCC, the RCO, and the Greece Choral Society: In the middle of one piece, he abruptly stopped the piece, turned around, and informed the audience with disdain in his voice that "the soloist didn't turn the page correctly" and then turned around and re-started. That poor young soprano (who looked about college-age) started the piece again. One can only imagine the kind of self-control it took to be able to sing beautifully to a packed crowd under those circumstances, but she managed.
Anyway, Dr. Fetler presents a very interesting case for Madison: An adult, who is very good at what he does, yet is kind of awful as a human. Someone whom everyone quietly dislikes, and *it's not just kids* who dislike him and whom he tries to intimidate, but adults as well (except for Derrick Smith, the bass soloist, who is not only extremely well-known around Rochester on the opera/choral scene and a professor at The Eastman School, but is also a 6-foot-6 heavy black guy...him, Fetler respects).
So Madison is having a unique experience as a kid, one I never had: Her parents are telling her that an adult, who is to be respected (and, heck, obeyed) in one context, is overall really kind of crummy. We indulge Fetler in his idiosyncrasies because he produces something lovely that we want, but at the same time we keep our distance from him personally, because we're better people. Rosses don't behave that way. And Madison will grow up knowing not only that Rosses don't behave like Fetler, but that she shouldn't take it personally if Fetler treats her disrespectfully...that if that happens, it's HIS problem, not hers. It will help her keep her internal cool.
My friend Anne's mom used to say, "Consider the source," when Anne was in junior high school and someone would say something catty or nasty. I was never taught to "consider the source" -- I didn't have the skills to do so. Analyzing other kids or adults and considering whether their competence justified taking them seriously just wasn't part of my framework. I went through a lot of angst as a kid and as a young adult before philosophy and reality straightened my spine, because I didn't understand this at all.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Free Will vs. Determinism
So, okay, Madison has always been interested in philosophy and religion starting from when she had just turned five. And we have wonderful talks about all kinds of issues...she sometimes tells us to start talking about these issues so she can listen. But we haven't given her any books on it or anything, because, well, we can't find anything that's at her level and interest, and RIGHT. That's okay, she has her fill with the discussions. She has recently decided that she's going to hold out for the logical possibility of there being some kind of supreme being or prime mover, for the simple reason that we can't disprove it. So, fine, she doesn't quite hold with our argument that there is no logical need to prove a negative, that the burden of proof is on the person making the positive argument. I'm fine with that, she's just as happy trying to be an individual at some degree of philosophical opposition with her parents.
But it all still doesn't explain how at age 8 she has--just this weekend--constructed a position of determinism, without ever having heard of it. And, because determinism has given her an "answer" for EVERYTHING, she's delighted, and, gosh darn it, she's *sticking with it* until it fails her. An introspective experience of choices, of free will? No problem, says Madison. It's an illusion. The future is GOING to happen, it IS the future, there is just ONE future, there can't be multiple futures. And, DAD, you do concede that determinism is true BUT FOR THE PRESENCE OF HUMAN BEINGS, right, so it's not so much of a stretch to include human beings in our concept of a predetermined future.
I took the girls to Chili's for lunch after Madison's show for her homeschool musical theater class (I refuse to write "musical theatre") this morning. And we were talking over this issue through much of lunch.
"Anything else I can do for you?" asked the waiter as we were winding up.
"Well, you can weigh in on the free will vs. determinism debate," I replied. I nodded at Madison. "She's holding out for determinism."
Without missing a beat, he replied, "Well, I believe in free will myself," he said. "But you should really read the Sylvia Browne books. She's a great writer, she's really influenced me."
"Oh? I don't know her," I said.
"She's a great psychic," he replied. "She explains it all really well."
The look on Madison's face was priceless.
But it all still doesn't explain how at age 8 she has--just this weekend--constructed a position of determinism, without ever having heard of it. And, because determinism has given her an "answer" for EVERYTHING, she's delighted, and, gosh darn it, she's *sticking with it* until it fails her. An introspective experience of choices, of free will? No problem, says Madison. It's an illusion. The future is GOING to happen, it IS the future, there is just ONE future, there can't be multiple futures. And, DAD, you do concede that determinism is true BUT FOR THE PRESENCE OF HUMAN BEINGS, right, so it's not so much of a stretch to include human beings in our concept of a predetermined future.
I took the girls to Chili's for lunch after Madison's show for her homeschool musical theater class (I refuse to write "musical theatre") this morning. And we were talking over this issue through much of lunch.
"Anything else I can do for you?" asked the waiter as we were winding up.
"Well, you can weigh in on the free will vs. determinism debate," I replied. I nodded at Madison. "She's holding out for determinism."
Without missing a beat, he replied, "Well, I believe in free will myself," he said. "But you should really read the Sylvia Browne books. She's a great writer, she's really influenced me."
"Oh? I don't know her," I said.
"She's a great psychic," he replied. "She explains it all really well."
The look on Madison's face was priceless.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Birthday of the Day: Katharine Hepburn, 1907-2003
Today's Birthday of the Day is Katharine Hepburn, who is always fun to read about. Good person, active mind and tongue, hard-working, principled. Even her scandal, her love affair with Spencer Tracy, is admirable. She was also mostly home-schooled! She'd be 101 today if she hadn't died in 2003. Even so: a long active life mostly to be admired.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Poetry is happening here
From Ella this morning:
Birthdays, birthdays
Birthdays, birthdays are so much fun.
There's fun and laughter for everyone.
It's all John Enright's fault.
Birthdays, birthdays
Birthdays, birthdays are so much fun.
There's fun and laughter for everyone.
It's all John Enright's fault.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Mending drawers and the like
I know this is ridiculous to post, but I had this actual accomplishment today: I mended a kitchen drawer before it really broke. I know what you're thinking. No, this post won't get any more profound than it seems right now. Feel free to go read something worthwhile.
I noticed that part of the front panel of the drawer was starting to pull away from the sides. It would only be a matter of time before it splintered on the right side entirely, which would require actual skill to fix. David and I both have a pathetic history of house mending: We usually wait until something is seriously broken before fixing it, and even then we often think of a way around it. (His sock drawer on the dresser broke before we left Virginia, so we promptly...let it go until it was really unusable, emptied out that drawer, and used the nightstand drawer for socks. And, don't even ask about the bathroom sink. That's fixed now, though, thanks to Steve the plumber.)
Anyway, I said to myself today, thinking of the unmended drawer in Ella's room: "No! Enough! I'm going to FIX it, damn it!" And I left the girls to their own educational devices (they promptly decided to play Killer Bunnies) while I fetched the drill and a long screw, carefully drilled a new hole, and after a moment of power-screwing...voila. A nice, tight drawer that is not going to break any time soon.
I feel powerful. I hear Mission Impossible music playing in the background. I may go stalk Ella's dresser.
I noticed that part of the front panel of the drawer was starting to pull away from the sides. It would only be a matter of time before it splintered on the right side entirely, which would require actual skill to fix. David and I both have a pathetic history of house mending: We usually wait until something is seriously broken before fixing it, and even then we often think of a way around it. (His sock drawer on the dresser broke before we left Virginia, so we promptly...let it go until it was really unusable, emptied out that drawer, and used the nightstand drawer for socks. And, don't even ask about the bathroom sink. That's fixed now, though, thanks to Steve the plumber.)
Anyway, I said to myself today, thinking of the unmended drawer in Ella's room: "No! Enough! I'm going to FIX it, damn it!" And I left the girls to their own educational devices (they promptly decided to play Killer Bunnies) while I fetched the drill and a long screw, carefully drilled a new hole, and after a moment of power-screwing...voila. A nice, tight drawer that is not going to break any time soon.
I feel powerful. I hear Mission Impossible music playing in the background. I may go stalk Ella's dresser.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Ella disenchanted
I never thought I'd have to be concerned about Ella, especially not at this age. It's Madison's passions that lead her down dark paths, not my sunny Ella. But Ella's skittishness has been ramped up even more, and I'm just not sure what to do. Yesterday, she didn't want me to leave her at Gym and Swim at the Y. So I said, OK, I'll sit here until you feel comfortable. That usually works. So there I was, sitting on a log outside the Y on a beautiful warm sunny spring day, watching a bunch of kids practice lacrosse, but wishing I could get on with my five errands that I'd planned for this stretch of time. Ella, though, couldn't hack it, even with me there; about 10 minutes in, she burst into tears, and so I took her out and took her with me.
I think, unfortunately, I was instrumental in causing this yesterday...if I'd just told her no problem, I'm delighted just to watch for the whole 2 hours, then she'd have been fine. But I'd told her that I had errands to run for at least some of that time, so could she please wave at me when it was ok to go? I think that was too much pressure and uncertainty.
And then, she couldn't even go to dance yesterday afternoon, this new dance class that she loves. She and Madison have dance and karate at the same time, about a mile and a half apart. I used to drop Madison, drop Ella, run to the grocery store, pick up Madison, pick up Ella (dance class lasts 15 minutes longer than karate). You know, some "me" time to get something done quickly that takes longer when you're lugging kids. But recently I've had to stay with Ella for most of her class, leave for 10 minutes to pick up Madison, and come back and get Ella.
And then as of a few weeks ago it's gotten worse; Ella has begged me to stay for the whole dance class and not to leave her. Madison doesn't mind reading a book for 20 minutes after karate, waiting for us, but it still takes 20 minutes out of my end-of-the-workday work with clients or my dinner-making time. Then I thought it was getting a little better, and last week I told Ella that I was going to leave a little early to whirl around and pick up Madison before Ella was done. But she ran after me as I left to get Madison, and dragged me back in to class, pleading with me not to go...fortunately we'd planned for this, and Madison had brought her book and was ok with waiting. I'm afraid I came back in with a bit of a frustrated expression. Ella was very embarrassed by her behavior and apologetic all week, which really made me regret my frustration.
But then, yesterday, she didn't want to go to dance AT ALL. Given her behavior earlier in the day at Gym and Swim, I thought I wouldn't push it, but told her she'd have to go to karate instead. That was fine, she said, as I'm usually there and if not I'm just at Wegmans across the street, and Madison was there. After I dropped them at karate I went and made apologies to the dance instructor, as there are only four little girls in the class, and I knew she'd wait for Ella to come to start class, so I didn't want to hold things up. But then I knew Ella would be looking for me to come back to karate, so I went back.
The fact is, I think that my recent analysis of this, that Ella is on what she sees as the precipice of this wide, scary world that she has just realized exists, and she's a bit freaked out and wants security. I think she'll grow out of it with some calm, tender, matter-of-fact parenting. We just have to wait.
In the meantime, the things that are really frustrating me are:
1) While Ella really does try to manage during the class even if she's upset (as she tried for 10 minutes at Gym and Swim yesterday), she doesn't seem in principle to be trying to find the root of this problem, figure out what is wrong, or actively work toward stopping it. I try, believe me I try, to talk with her about it. She just says she doesn't know. And she's not even agreeing that exactly it's something she'll have to work to get over; I get a bit of blankness when we try to talk about it. It's hard not to compare her with Madison, who, if this had happened to her, would be analyzing the heck out of herself, putting forth theories, giving ideas about what can be done about it.
2) I've lost all of the "me time" that I used to count on. I can't just drop Ella at any class anymore and do something that's easier to do without kids, or go home and work. I used to count on long stretches of hours during the summer when I could work in blissful silence while they were at camp. Now, I haven't signed her up for ANY camp this year, she doesn't want to go. David has said that maybe a few stretches of bringing Ella with him to the office this summer to hang around reading while Madison has engineering camp at RIT will help bore her enough that she'd rather go to camp with Madison later in the summer. Maybe that will work. At any rate, it will give me some time alone, even if not without guilt for making him lug Ella with him to a small office.
Well, if anyone has other suggestions, I'm all ears.
I think, unfortunately, I was instrumental in causing this yesterday...if I'd just told her no problem, I'm delighted just to watch for the whole 2 hours, then she'd have been fine. But I'd told her that I had errands to run for at least some of that time, so could she please wave at me when it was ok to go? I think that was too much pressure and uncertainty.
And then, she couldn't even go to dance yesterday afternoon, this new dance class that she loves. She and Madison have dance and karate at the same time, about a mile and a half apart. I used to drop Madison, drop Ella, run to the grocery store, pick up Madison, pick up Ella (dance class lasts 15 minutes longer than karate). You know, some "me" time to get something done quickly that takes longer when you're lugging kids. But recently I've had to stay with Ella for most of her class, leave for 10 minutes to pick up Madison, and come back and get Ella.
And then as of a few weeks ago it's gotten worse; Ella has begged me to stay for the whole dance class and not to leave her. Madison doesn't mind reading a book for 20 minutes after karate, waiting for us, but it still takes 20 minutes out of my end-of-the-workday work with clients or my dinner-making time. Then I thought it was getting a little better, and last week I told Ella that I was going to leave a little early to whirl around and pick up Madison before Ella was done. But she ran after me as I left to get Madison, and dragged me back in to class, pleading with me not to go...fortunately we'd planned for this, and Madison had brought her book and was ok with waiting. I'm afraid I came back in with a bit of a frustrated expression. Ella was very embarrassed by her behavior and apologetic all week, which really made me regret my frustration.
But then, yesterday, she didn't want to go to dance AT ALL. Given her behavior earlier in the day at Gym and Swim, I thought I wouldn't push it, but told her she'd have to go to karate instead. That was fine, she said, as I'm usually there and if not I'm just at Wegmans across the street, and Madison was there. After I dropped them at karate I went and made apologies to the dance instructor, as there are only four little girls in the class, and I knew she'd wait for Ella to come to start class, so I didn't want to hold things up. But then I knew Ella would be looking for me to come back to karate, so I went back.
The fact is, I think that my recent analysis of this, that Ella is on what she sees as the precipice of this wide, scary world that she has just realized exists, and she's a bit freaked out and wants security. I think she'll grow out of it with some calm, tender, matter-of-fact parenting. We just have to wait.
In the meantime, the things that are really frustrating me are:
1) While Ella really does try to manage during the class even if she's upset (as she tried for 10 minutes at Gym and Swim yesterday), she doesn't seem in principle to be trying to find the root of this problem, figure out what is wrong, or actively work toward stopping it. I try, believe me I try, to talk with her about it. She just says she doesn't know. And she's not even agreeing that exactly it's something she'll have to work to get over; I get a bit of blankness when we try to talk about it. It's hard not to compare her with Madison, who, if this had happened to her, would be analyzing the heck out of herself, putting forth theories, giving ideas about what can be done about it.
2) I've lost all of the "me time" that I used to count on. I can't just drop Ella at any class anymore and do something that's easier to do without kids, or go home and work. I used to count on long stretches of hours during the summer when I could work in blissful silence while they were at camp. Now, I haven't signed her up for ANY camp this year, she doesn't want to go. David has said that maybe a few stretches of bringing Ella with him to the office this summer to hang around reading while Madison has engineering camp at RIT will help bore her enough that she'd rather go to camp with Madison later in the summer. Maybe that will work. At any rate, it will give me some time alone, even if not without guilt for making him lug Ella with him to a small office.
Well, if anyone has other suggestions, I'm all ears.
Monday, May 05, 2008
On the other hand, I've already had my babies
"And I'm going to be 40!" Sally sobs.I, on the other hand, will turn 40 in just a matter of days. 365 of them, to be precise. Now, I can't say this very loudly in a house where someone turned 50 a few months ago, so I will whisper it:
"When?" asks Harry.
"Someday..." she gestures vaguely.
"In eight years!"
"But it's there. It's just sitting there like this big dead end."
eeek.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
The Best Within Us Sometimes Comes Out as Kyrie
Today was Madison's most beautiful choral concert of the year so far with the Bach Children's Chorus. I will admit that I cry at all of her concerts. But this one was my favorite of their entire repertoire; they did John Rutter's "Mass of the Children" with an adult choir called the Kunde Chorale. Even in Rochester, a city that has loads of amazing music courtesy of the Eastman School of Music and a generally very music-literate population, this stood out.
Today's concert was not only the Rutter piece; it also was the American premiere of Richard Blackford's "Mirror of Perfection," which is sung in seven "Canticles," mostly in Italian, with "Canticle of the Birds" in French. That was good, but the Rutter Mass was a better piece. They performed these in an old Lutheran church with great acoustics and beautiful stained glass. I'm sure I wasn't the only one crying. Even Ella liked it all and didn't fidget too much.
If you're interested, check out the Rutter piece on iTunes or the like (avoid YouTube, the few performances there aren't very good). It's sung in Latin and English, a contemporary piece that's not icky or clashy, but heart-poundingly beautiful. A lot of hints of Copeland when he's at his most melodic, and a little John Williams-y for the beginning of the Kyrie and through the Gloria. The choirs actually deserved the standing ovation they got. (For some reason, Rochesterians will ovate almost anything and so it diminishes the relative value of the ovation. David and I have been known to sit stubbornly, though truth to tell somewhat awkardly, while everyone around us is standing.) How I wish they'd recorded it.
Even one of the kids' fainting didn't diminish the performance. Fortunately, the BCC was on risers behind the adult choir, and the girl who fainted was standing behind some tall tenors. So they were able to sneak her off without too much fuss. Apparently it happens every year, at times when the choir is in a smallish warm space with the kids standing for a long time and using lots of oxygen. They actually have a little "what to do when you're about to faint" protocol. This incident makes the BCC three for three on fainting for the last three concerts.
So--the point of this post: What does one make of a die-hard atheist who adores this kind of music, who wants to steep her daughters in it, who does her best to publicize concerts that feature it? It seems, even to me, contradictory. But it's fairly simple: Let's face it, music written to glorify God is easily some of the most beautiful art created by Man, and depriving oneself of it would be, well, self-sacrifice. I don't think Rand would disagree, either. I doubt that there was an adult there who didn't send warm thoughts of silent gratitude to the composers and the performers. Our lives were better when we stepped out of the church than when we stepped in.
When I first started home schooling the girls, I worried about whether they'd be able to be part of a performance of this wonderful stuff, because of course we don't go to church. It's one of the reasons why I'm so glad Madison got into the BCC; the director has great judgment of music. And she does a remarkable job with the kids: They're easily the equal of the Cambridge Choir that does the Rutter on the piece iTunes has. Performing this music makes the world a better place, no question. Madison doesn't understand that, yet, of course, but she will, some day. And then she'll probably cry, too, just like me.
Today's concert was not only the Rutter piece; it also was the American premiere of Richard Blackford's "Mirror of Perfection," which is sung in seven "Canticles," mostly in Italian, with "Canticle of the Birds" in French. That was good, but the Rutter Mass was a better piece. They performed these in an old Lutheran church with great acoustics and beautiful stained glass. I'm sure I wasn't the only one crying. Even Ella liked it all and didn't fidget too much.
If you're interested, check out the Rutter piece on iTunes or the like (avoid YouTube, the few performances there aren't very good). It's sung in Latin and English, a contemporary piece that's not icky or clashy, but heart-poundingly beautiful. A lot of hints of Copeland when he's at his most melodic, and a little John Williams-y for the beginning of the Kyrie and through the Gloria. The choirs actually deserved the standing ovation they got. (For some reason, Rochesterians will ovate almost anything and so it diminishes the relative value of the ovation. David and I have been known to sit stubbornly, though truth to tell somewhat awkardly, while everyone around us is standing.) How I wish they'd recorded it.
Even one of the kids' fainting didn't diminish the performance. Fortunately, the BCC was on risers behind the adult choir, and the girl who fainted was standing behind some tall tenors. So they were able to sneak her off without too much fuss. Apparently it happens every year, at times when the choir is in a smallish warm space with the kids standing for a long time and using lots of oxygen. They actually have a little "what to do when you're about to faint" protocol. This incident makes the BCC three for three on fainting for the last three concerts.
So--the point of this post: What does one make of a die-hard atheist who adores this kind of music, who wants to steep her daughters in it, who does her best to publicize concerts that feature it? It seems, even to me, contradictory. But it's fairly simple: Let's face it, music written to glorify God is easily some of the most beautiful art created by Man, and depriving oneself of it would be, well, self-sacrifice. I don't think Rand would disagree, either. I doubt that there was an adult there who didn't send warm thoughts of silent gratitude to the composers and the performers. Our lives were better when we stepped out of the church than when we stepped in.
When I first started home schooling the girls, I worried about whether they'd be able to be part of a performance of this wonderful stuff, because of course we don't go to church. It's one of the reasons why I'm so glad Madison got into the BCC; the director has great judgment of music. And she does a remarkable job with the kids: They're easily the equal of the Cambridge Choir that does the Rutter on the piece iTunes has. Performing this music makes the world a better place, no question. Madison doesn't understand that, yet, of course, but she will, some day. And then she'll probably cry, too, just like me.
Friday, May 02, 2008
First
I am upstairs in bed sick AGAIN. Or STILL. Or something. I remain amazed at the sheer amount of mucus my sinuses have produced today, I almost can't believe I'm eating enough to produce that quantity of gook. I capitulated a half-hour ago and snorfed some Afrin in the hopes of getting some relief.
Anyway, I just heard shouted from the dim recesses of the downstairs:
I don't know what it was about. I don't want to know. That is the first time I've heard this from one of my kidlets, but I'm sure it won't be the last.
Anyway, I just heard shouted from the dim recesses of the downstairs:
Daddy, you just don't GET it!
I don't know what it was about. I don't want to know. That is the first time I've heard this from one of my kidlets, but I'm sure it won't be the last.
More on Ella
This seems to be "Ella week," as is only appropriate.
On her birthday, I took her to Sweet and Sassy, a salon for girls in nearby Pittsford. I reviewed the experience (with photos) here.
Ella is in a big transitional period, I think. She's still overall as happy as a cute little clam, and still ever so snuggly, but new things are churning around beneath the surface. I don't remember Madison being that way as she turned 7, she was in a nice smoothing-out period.
Several months ago, Ella's bad experience in the Pittsford Ballet had turned her overnight, it seemed, from being someone who was happy to be left at various classes into someone who was too anxious to let mom out of her sight. In March, I started her at a new dance school with a darling of a Grandma-like teacher, Elizabeth Clark, and it seemed to work wonders. Now, though, Ella is back in a period of semi-anxiety. She doesn't want me to leave her at any class by herself, and she's still uneasy about being left even if the class she's in is with Madison or is something she's been doing for years, like karate. It's weird.
She doesn't want to go into rooms alone. She keeps telling us she's scared. She's having a hard time sleeping in her own bed, she doesn't want to be in her room alone while going to sleep; although she does do it, we have to leave the light on and let her read herself to sleep. And then she never makes it through the night; sometime in the wee hours she always comes in and snuggles with me.
She's also a bit hair-trigger cranky. She's much quicker to take offense and act outraged when things don't go her way. She's always been one to "try it on" just for fun, to see if mock-outrage is amusing or effective, but lately, it seems, that the trying-it-on blends really quickly into something almost genuine, or perhaps just something that is less in her control.
And then, there's the lying. Well, twice. But Madison assures us that Ella has been in the habit of bending the truth here and there for a month or two.
Now, to her credit, she's a terrible liar, hasn't tried to stick with a story once we questioned it skeptically...so it's not as though she's trying hard to be deceptive. And the lying has been about things that don't really matter. And, once found out, she's totally mortified, so upset at the idea of having lied (and I think that's genuine...she actually doesn't want to be someone who has lied, as opposed to someone who has been discovered to have lied) that it takes her a good deal of sobbing to get a grip and admit it out loud and say she's sorry. We haven't even needed to come down on her hard or anything, or even engage in long, boring lectures about why we don't lie. We've just had to be firmly a bit appalled, and her own psyche takes care of the rest.
I think she'll grow out of this really quickly. But it does mean that we'll be more skeptical of her assertions for a little while.
One thing I know about Madison: She just doesn't lie, period. And the fact that Ella has only done it a little bit, recently, and we've been able to find out and ferret out the truth, means that I'm really pretty lucky, here. And, my kids are in such a position that they don't feel the need to lie about things, which makes me feel good, too.
On her birthday, I took her to Sweet and Sassy, a salon for girls in nearby Pittsford. I reviewed the experience (with photos) here.
Ella is in a big transitional period, I think. She's still overall as happy as a cute little clam, and still ever so snuggly, but new things are churning around beneath the surface. I don't remember Madison being that way as she turned 7, she was in a nice smoothing-out period.
Several months ago, Ella's bad experience in the Pittsford Ballet had turned her overnight, it seemed, from being someone who was happy to be left at various classes into someone who was too anxious to let mom out of her sight. In March, I started her at a new dance school with a darling of a Grandma-like teacher, Elizabeth Clark, and it seemed to work wonders. Now, though, Ella is back in a period of semi-anxiety. She doesn't want me to leave her at any class by herself, and she's still uneasy about being left even if the class she's in is with Madison or is something she's been doing for years, like karate. It's weird.
She doesn't want to go into rooms alone. She keeps telling us she's scared. She's having a hard time sleeping in her own bed, she doesn't want to be in her room alone while going to sleep; although she does do it, we have to leave the light on and let her read herself to sleep. And then she never makes it through the night; sometime in the wee hours she always comes in and snuggles with me.
She's also a bit hair-trigger cranky. She's much quicker to take offense and act outraged when things don't go her way. She's always been one to "try it on" just for fun, to see if mock-outrage is amusing or effective, but lately, it seems, that the trying-it-on blends really quickly into something almost genuine, or perhaps just something that is less in her control.
And then, there's the lying. Well, twice. But Madison assures us that Ella has been in the habit of bending the truth here and there for a month or two.
Now, to her credit, she's a terrible liar, hasn't tried to stick with a story once we questioned it skeptically...so it's not as though she's trying hard to be deceptive. And the lying has been about things that don't really matter. And, once found out, she's totally mortified, so upset at the idea of having lied (and I think that's genuine...she actually doesn't want to be someone who has lied, as opposed to someone who has been discovered to have lied) that it takes her a good deal of sobbing to get a grip and admit it out loud and say she's sorry. We haven't even needed to come down on her hard or anything, or even engage in long, boring lectures about why we don't lie. We've just had to be firmly a bit appalled, and her own psyche takes care of the rest.
I think she'll grow out of this really quickly. But it does mean that we'll be more skeptical of her assertions for a little while.
One thing I know about Madison: She just doesn't lie, period. And the fact that Ella has only done it a little bit, recently, and we've been able to find out and ferret out the truth, means that I'm really pretty lucky, here. And, my kids are in such a position that they don't feel the need to lie about things, which makes me feel good, too.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Mid-week hilarity ensued
My dear friend Donald and his lovely wife Meredith were over for a day and an evening this week.
Somehow, my girls picked this visit to go a little nuts with the singing, dancing, performing, and general clowning around. ("I see they're about as shy as you, Deb," Don said a few minutes after meeting them.) Fortunately, this was ok, as both Don and Meredith are used to being around artsy actor-types (Meredith has been a producer and Don has acted in community theater in L.A. for a number of years). Maybe the girls picked up on the vibe. And, as those who know Don know, he is the fastest punster in the West and also a tease, so he got along great with the girls. Madison said to me afterward, "I see what you mean about Don, Mom. I think I picked up some tips."
So, unless Don and Meredith are superb actors themselves, which of course they may be, I think they actually enjoyed my girls' theatrics. I saw no subtle wincing or teeth-gritting as you so often do with people who enjoy neither kids nor their antics. Neither looked like they wanted to escape. I was grateful. And, of course, my kids were encouraged by the applause and foisted as much entertainment as they could on our poor guests. Madison capped off their visit this morning with a rousing version of Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park."
Update: Don just wrote me and said, "Rarely have I heard trout extolled in song and verse to the accompaniment of improvised ballet." That just about sums it up.
Somehow, my girls picked this visit to go a little nuts with the singing, dancing, performing, and general clowning around. ("I see they're about as shy as you, Deb," Don said a few minutes after meeting them.) Fortunately, this was ok, as both Don and Meredith are used to being around artsy actor-types (Meredith has been a producer and Don has acted in community theater in L.A. for a number of years). Maybe the girls picked up on the vibe. And, as those who know Don know, he is the fastest punster in the West and also a tease, so he got along great with the girls. Madison said to me afterward, "I see what you mean about Don, Mom. I think I picked up some tips."
So, unless Don and Meredith are superb actors themselves, which of course they may be, I think they actually enjoyed my girls' theatrics. I saw no subtle wincing or teeth-gritting as you so often do with people who enjoy neither kids nor their antics. Neither looked like they wanted to escape. I was grateful. And, of course, my kids were encouraged by the applause and foisted as much entertainment as they could on our poor guests. Madison capped off their visit this morning with a rousing version of Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park."
Update: Don just wrote me and said, "Rarely have I heard trout extolled in song and verse to the accompaniment of improvised ballet." That just about sums it up.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
My baby is 7!
Ella Simone Ross
Born: April 29, 2001
Where: Highland Hospital, Rochester, NY
Named after: Ella Fitzgerald, and “Simone” from Kay Nolte Smith’s book A Tale of the Wind
Nicknames: Baby Bunny, Ella Bunny, La
First School: Trinity Montessori
Second School: Pantops Mountain Montessori
Current School: Home school
Favorite color: Pink
Favorite toy: Snuggles, her stuffed bunny
Favorite food: Pizza or Chinese food
Best friend: Dario
Favorite subject: Logic
Second favorite subject: Reading
Favorite books: Fairy chapter book series
Loves: Dancing, singing, karate
Makes up stories when she’s asleep
Makes up songs when she’s awake
Favorite thing to do: Snuggle with her mom, dance
Favorite birthday gift: iPod
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Spring Fever
Spring fever has hit us big-time this week. It's been kind of hard to be immensely productive...the beautiful weather outside keeps beckoning and I keep relenting. I keep telling myself that as long as we're making bits of progress, combined with the fact that we're pretty far ahead, it's ok. I taught Madison absolute value in about five minutes on Tuesday and David has been making progressively harder problems for her to solve and it's gone well. Absolute value is one of those things that is easy to teach initially, but apparently really trips up his college students when they have to actually use it in more complicated situations. Ella and I have been doing general multiplication work for the last month, and we decided that this was the week for her to buckle down and memorize. So she's done the 5's and the 2's this week. A bribe with a dollar for when she's done a set of 10 has totally worked.
We've been reading a nice kids' version of The Odyssey, a set of 10 illustrated books I picked up at the free book giveaway that the Rochester City School District does every year with books they're getting rid of. Madison wrote a report of sorts -- really a photo-essay -- of our trip to Boston. Madison has been working through an "Editor-in-Chief" workbook from Critical Minds and, while she doesn't love it like she loves their logic books, at least she's managing and it's self-teaching her some grammar and punctuation and capitalization. Ella has a nice logic workbook that is just a hair too advanced for her reading level, but she's stumbling through it. And her reading is going great -- what a difference from the beginning of the year! She still doesn't want to read chapter books on her own, really, but last night read about 4 picture books to me in bed.
I need to get another "Handwriting without Tears" set of cursive books, for both of them. We haven't been doing handwriting at all.
We've had Spring Fever in another way, this week, though. Ella started throwing up Monday night and while that ended around 4 on Tuesday morning, she's been mildly under the weather ever since. And last night I starting thinking I might have strep; it was a miserable night and not much better this morning. I'm going to go to the urgent care place later this morning and get a strep test to see if antibiotics should be my friend for the next 10 days. Who needs a Primary Care Physician when the urgent care is right down the street for a lot less waiting? Of course, it was rather nice of Mother Nature to hit us with this after the Boston trip and before Ella's birthday next week.
Next project: Reorganize the school room downstairs so we actually want to, you know, do some schoolwork in it.
We've been reading a nice kids' version of The Odyssey, a set of 10 illustrated books I picked up at the free book giveaway that the Rochester City School District does every year with books they're getting rid of. Madison wrote a report of sorts -- really a photo-essay -- of our trip to Boston. Madison has been working through an "Editor-in-Chief" workbook from Critical Minds and, while she doesn't love it like she loves their logic books, at least she's managing and it's self-teaching her some grammar and punctuation and capitalization. Ella has a nice logic workbook that is just a hair too advanced for her reading level, but she's stumbling through it. And her reading is going great -- what a difference from the beginning of the year! She still doesn't want to read chapter books on her own, really, but last night read about 4 picture books to me in bed.
I need to get another "Handwriting without Tears" set of cursive books, for both of them. We haven't been doing handwriting at all.
We've had Spring Fever in another way, this week, though. Ella started throwing up Monday night and while that ended around 4 on Tuesday morning, she's been mildly under the weather ever since. And last night I starting thinking I might have strep; it was a miserable night and not much better this morning. I'm going to go to the urgent care place later this morning and get a strep test to see if antibiotics should be my friend for the next 10 days. Who needs a Primary Care Physician when the urgent care is right down the street for a lot less waiting? Of course, it was rather nice of Mother Nature to hit us with this after the Boston trip and before Ella's birthday next week.
Next project: Reorganize the school room downstairs so we actually want to, you know, do some schoolwork in it.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Saturday was still in Boston
We had a marvelous Saturday in Boston.
First we went on a Duck Tour all around the city -- and in the Charles River.
Then we went to Lexington & Concord. And that was the BEST. Both girls were old enough to be interested and engaged and not get too tired. Saturday was April 19 and the 233rd anniversary of the big battle. I'd prepared the girls well for it, the ride of Paul Revere and then the battle and the Shot Heard Round the World and all that, so they had some place to put all of the information we got and see the actual places where things happened. We took a long history trolley ride (LibertyRide) through both towns.
This was good because Ella would never have hacked a long hike through Minuteman National Historic Park, she can only go so far and then she's had it...whereas Madison is Hiker Adventure Baby and can go farther than you'd imagine.
Then we saw a battle re-enactment in Lexington, the part of the day at the end where the colonials harassed the Regulars all the way back to Boston.
So, so, so cool. The girls loved the battle. Ella even decided to call David in the middle of it so that he could hear the guns booming in the background.
We wound up the day with dinner at a great inn, a family atmosphere but very nice and very colonial, with really good food: Concord's Colonial Inn.
I love this age. I would go back to Lexington and Concord with my family in...well, in a minute.
Here are some random photos from the trip.
This is the group on the steps next to Faneuil Hall.
Here is the choir singing in the Massachusetts State House.
Here they are in the Old North Church. One really cool thing is that today's "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman" had some of the kids on the Freedom Trail in Boston, including at the Old North Church right where we were. Ella called me in to the TV room, so excited. "They're on the Freedom Trail in Boston!" Don't you love when they make those wonderful connections with things that they've done?
Outside the New England Aquarium. I found the Aquarium not to be that great a deal, considering it's a 2-3-hour tops place.
The Museum of Science was a much better deal. It's an incredible place. We were there for almost 4 hours and only got to about 1/3 of it. And they had a whole room dedicated to math.
The Swan Boats in the Public Garden! Where Louis the Swan led with his trumpet and made $100!
First we went on a Duck Tour all around the city -- and in the Charles River.
Then we went to Lexington & Concord. And that was the BEST. Both girls were old enough to be interested and engaged and not get too tired. Saturday was April 19 and the 233rd anniversary of the big battle. I'd prepared the girls well for it, the ride of Paul Revere and then the battle and the Shot Heard Round the World and all that, so they had some place to put all of the information we got and see the actual places where things happened. We took a long history trolley ride (LibertyRide) through both towns.
This was good because Ella would never have hacked a long hike through Minuteman National Historic Park, she can only go so far and then she's had it...whereas Madison is Hiker Adventure Baby and can go farther than you'd imagine.
Then we saw a battle re-enactment in Lexington, the part of the day at the end where the colonials harassed the Regulars all the way back to Boston.
So, so, so cool. The girls loved the battle. Ella even decided to call David in the middle of it so that he could hear the guns booming in the background.
We wound up the day with dinner at a great inn, a family atmosphere but very nice and very colonial, with really good food: Concord's Colonial Inn.
I love this age. I would go back to Lexington and Concord with my family in...well, in a minute.
Here are some random photos from the trip.
This is the group on the steps next to Faneuil Hall.
Here is the choir singing in the Massachusetts State House.
Here they are in the Old North Church. One really cool thing is that today's "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman" had some of the kids on the Freedom Trail in Boston, including at the Old North Church right where we were. Ella called me in to the TV room, so excited. "They're on the Freedom Trail in Boston!" Don't you love when they make those wonderful connections with things that they've done?
Outside the New England Aquarium. I found the Aquarium not to be that great a deal, considering it's a 2-3-hour tops place.
The Museum of Science was a much better deal. It's an incredible place. We were there for almost 4 hours and only got to about 1/3 of it. And they had a whole room dedicated to math.
The Swan Boats in the Public Garden! Where Louis the Swan led with his trumpet and made $100!
Friday, April 18, 2008
233 years ago RIGHT THIS MINUTE
...Paul Revere was on the other side of the Charles River from me, galloping like heck toward Lexington to warn Hancock and Adams that 700 British Regulars were turning out to, among other things, arrest them.
They got away in a carriage.
And today, my beautiful girl sang an American songs repertoire there at the Old North Church with the rest of the Bach Children's Chorus.
The performance was beautiful, although it followed a miserable little presentation about the church by a college girl who looked as if the group of us was an interruption to the rest of her day, who gave her schpiel with both boredom and resentment in her eyes, and who DIDN'T EVEN MENTION that today was the anniversary of The Day. It was so awful that I'm going to write a letter.
But I digress.
The kids also sang at the Massachusetts State House this morning. That was fantastic, the acoustics were beautiful, and they also gave us a wonderful tour. The kids were in tip-top form today, aside from the fact that at both concerts someone fainted...the first one, at the Massachusetts State House, was a bona fide fainting, the poor girl in the second row toppled right down off the steps in the middle of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
This was fortunate for me only, in that I was sitting in the front, and I SHOULD have remembered to sit in the back because The Battle Hymn of the Republic never fails to set me weeping. This version is worse, in a way, because they separate the boys off to the side, and they sing one verse themselves, "I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps..." I always hear their not-yet-changed voices and think of all of the young men lost to the Civil War before they had a chance to be men, and I lose it. Well, the young lady in question fainted just as the boys had started their verse, and she saved me the embarrassment of weeping right in front of everyone where all the kids could see. After they ascertained that the girl was okay and was being seen to by a doctor, they started the song again and this time I was distracted enough that I didn't start crying.
This started out about Madison and ended up about me. Ah, well.
We went to the Boston Museum of Science for an afternoon of pure fun. The Museum of Science is FANTASTIC, we didn't even get to do half of it in three hours. I would go back in a heartbeat, it beats the pants off the New England Aquarium, which the girls and I did yesterday morning. They have a whole big great room called Mathematica, which is all about you guessed it. Marvelous.
An hour ago, I gave my exhausted kids the option of hearing The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere tonight or going right to sleep. They chose sleep. I chose blog.
Off to a Boston Duck Tour with the rest of the BCC in the morning, and then Minuteman National Historic Park tomorrow, just the three of us, in the afternoon. It's The Big Day, April 19, so there should be a lot of Minutemen running around doing re-enactments. The park stretches between Lexington and Concord.
They got away in a carriage.
And today, my beautiful girl sang an American songs repertoire there at the Old North Church with the rest of the Bach Children's Chorus.
The performance was beautiful, although it followed a miserable little presentation about the church by a college girl who looked as if the group of us was an interruption to the rest of her day, who gave her schpiel with both boredom and resentment in her eyes, and who DIDN'T EVEN MENTION that today was the anniversary of The Day. It was so awful that I'm going to write a letter.
But I digress.
The kids also sang at the Massachusetts State House this morning. That was fantastic, the acoustics were beautiful, and they also gave us a wonderful tour. The kids were in tip-top form today, aside from the fact that at both concerts someone fainted...the first one, at the Massachusetts State House, was a bona fide fainting, the poor girl in the second row toppled right down off the steps in the middle of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
This was fortunate for me only, in that I was sitting in the front, and I SHOULD have remembered to sit in the back because The Battle Hymn of the Republic never fails to set me weeping. This version is worse, in a way, because they separate the boys off to the side, and they sing one verse themselves, "I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps..." I always hear their not-yet-changed voices and think of all of the young men lost to the Civil War before they had a chance to be men, and I lose it. Well, the young lady in question fainted just as the boys had started their verse, and she saved me the embarrassment of weeping right in front of everyone where all the kids could see. After they ascertained that the girl was okay and was being seen to by a doctor, they started the song again and this time I was distracted enough that I didn't start crying.
This started out about Madison and ended up about me. Ah, well.
We went to the Boston Museum of Science for an afternoon of pure fun. The Museum of Science is FANTASTIC, we didn't even get to do half of it in three hours. I would go back in a heartbeat, it beats the pants off the New England Aquarium, which the girls and I did yesterday morning. They have a whole big great room called Mathematica, which is all about you guessed it. Marvelous.
An hour ago, I gave my exhausted kids the option of hearing The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere tonight or going right to sleep. They chose sleep. I chose blog.
Off to a Boston Duck Tour with the rest of the BCC in the morning, and then Minuteman National Historic Park tomorrow, just the three of us, in the afternoon. It's The Big Day, April 19, so there should be a lot of Minutemen running around doing re-enactments. The park stretches between Lexington and Concord.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Note from a college junior
I received a note from a local college junior today. Her writing is bad enough for me to assume that she must be a product of public school. Anyway, she is doing a project for her "Diversity" (ugh) course, which seeks to answer whether home schooled kids have opportunities for interacting with kids from other cultures blah blah blah:
Among other things, I wrote the following to her:
- ...This semester my Diversity course involves my peers and I to create a Diversity Project in which we attack an issue of social justice that is present today.... I was wondering if there was anyone that I could interview on their opinion about home schooling and whether or not home schooling allows children to still gain experience in interacting with other children of different cultures.
Among other things, I wrote the following to her:
- ...I must register a small objection, though, to the way you phrased your question...
It sounds as though you're claiming that sending kids to their neighborhood school or a private school DOES allow children good exposure to kids of other cultures. I don't think it does. I think that in general going to school restricts kids from the proper exposure to kids from other backgrounds. Even in cases where there seems to be a diversity of cultural background in the school, kids often see other kids voluntary segregating themselves on the basis of background -- which gives kids totally the WRONG message about the way the world should be. Home schooled kids tend to interact with others on a more one-to-one basis, driving home Dr. King's message about interaction being about the content of one's character, not about the melanin percentage in one's skin or who one's ancestors were.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Ego bruised but bearing up pretty well
I went to a children's book writer's conference today. Twenty participants ripped the first page of The Frontier Team to shreds. Bruising, but good. I've spent the last hour shaping it up, and I think it's a good deal better for the whole experience.
Funny how hearing the first few paragraphs read out loud is SO different from reading it on the page. I recommend it, partly as an exercise in fortitude, but mostly as a way to find a new angle of objectivity.
So...as little as I enjoy joining groups, I think I'm going to try to join a small children's writer's group that's here in Rochester, which meets frequently so members can read each others' stuff and comment.
Funny how hearing the first few paragraphs read out loud is SO different from reading it on the page. I recommend it, partly as an exercise in fortitude, but mostly as a way to find a new angle of objectivity.
So...as little as I enjoy joining groups, I think I'm going to try to join a small children's writer's group that's here in Rochester, which meets frequently so members can read each others' stuff and comment.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Madison must get glasses
We went to the optometrist yesterday, as the pediatrician's office had recommended it at Madison's evaluation in January.
Boo hiss. She not only has my color eyes, she has my eyes all through. Crap. She needs glasses. She's not too upset, fortunately, although if you ask her she'll put on a little grumping act about it.
I haven't acted at all negative about it with her, of course, but I'm very unhappy about this. I know what it's like to have crummy vision, to have had declining vision through most of my life. My corneas are too thin for lasik surgery, too. I hate waking up in the morning not being able to see. I hate fumbling for my glasses. And I'm sad she'll have to go through it, too.
My beautiful baby's beautiful eyes.
Boo hiss. She not only has my color eyes, she has my eyes all through. Crap. She needs glasses. She's not too upset, fortunately, although if you ask her she'll put on a little grumping act about it.
I haven't acted at all negative about it with her, of course, but I'm very unhappy about this. I know what it's like to have crummy vision, to have had declining vision through most of my life. My corneas are too thin for lasik surgery, too. I hate waking up in the morning not being able to see. I hate fumbling for my glasses. And I'm sad she'll have to go through it, too.
My beautiful baby's beautiful eyes.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Mariposario: School Today
I have written tens of thousands of words about what educating the girls at home means to our family, but I think this photo says it all much better than I could:
Ella is reading her new book, one of "The Littles" books, and Madison is helping her with the big words. Peanut butter crackers, a book, a flat rock, the early spring sun, and a sister. What could be better?
Ella is reading her new book, one of "The Littles" books, and Madison is helping her with the big words. Peanut butter crackers, a book, a flat rock, the early spring sun, and a sister. What could be better?
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The Gala went well
The absolute focus of my life for the last several weeks, the Bach Children's Chorus Fundraising Gala, was last night. It went well, although I have lots of things I would change if I were in charge of the way the Gala is run. I would run it like Donald Heath used to run a seminar, like carefully painting a picture, with hours of careful thought and design for every step. That's ok, though, I don't want to run it or anything. And my contributions really were important.
I would say (and Madison would agree with me) that the kids were a little off their game in the concert. But they also had a terrific 6-man a capella group called The Bow Ties who gave their own performance, and also sang Lida Rose with both the Bach and Mozart Choruses. One of the Bow Ties' songs is still running through my head: "Easter Island Head," which apparently originated with an a capella group called Throat Culture.
Anyway, the Gala is done. And now life A.G. can commence. Gotta finish up my taxes.
I would say (and Madison would agree with me) that the kids were a little off their game in the concert. But they also had a terrific 6-man a capella group called The Bow Ties who gave their own performance, and also sang Lida Rose with both the Bach and Mozart Choruses. One of the Bow Ties' songs is still running through my head: "Easter Island Head," which apparently originated with an a capella group called Throat Culture.
I want a head like the heads you see on Easter Island.I could only find one instance of this song on YouTube, which is of a young men's group at Melbourne High School, where ever that is. It's still funny, but not nearly as funny as the version from the Bow Ties. But still worth seeing.
Anyway, the Gala is done. And now life A.G. can commence. Gotta finish up my taxes.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Chip off the old block...
That's a bad title for a wonderful morning.
I've been quiet recently because I've been VERY busy -- the girls' choir fundraising gala is on Saturday and I feel all my spare time has been going into securing and actually collecting about 60 of the 99 items we ultimately got donated. And taxes. And some clients are really pushing lately. Everything else in life seems to have been pushed to A.G. (After Gala).
Not quite everything. I had a talk to give this morning to a local Mothers of Preschoolers group (MOPS), about 40 moms who meet in a nearby church. The topic we agreed on was Preschoolers Out and About: A Five Senses Tour of Rochester. They asked me to speak back in October. So, of course, I started writing the talk at 3:45pm yesterday during the girls' karate class.
At some point, my confidence in my ability to whip together things like this at the last minute is going to back up on me and I'm going to be in Big Trouble. But not today, fortunatley. The hard part wasn't putting together the ideas, they kind of wrote themselves, all I had to do was introduce the talk with a "Why go out and about?" section (mainly cultural literacy) and "Tips for going out and about with preschoolers" (preparation, food, potty radar, etc.). Then I divided all the great places to go in Rochester into which of the five senses they emphasized. The actual ideas only took me sporadic work until 8pm. But then I realized I needed pictures, photos of the places, which expanded my 10-page Powerpoint into a 35-page Powerpoint. There I was still at 1am this morning searching through old photo files and downloading stuff from the web to insert. But it was a pretty neat thing, and I can turn it into an article too so that's double the bonus.
But I digress. This wasn't supposed to be about me, but about Madison.
The girls came along to the presentation, too, of course, happy to get Yet Another Morning Off of school. Ella helped out in the little kids' room while I gave the 45-minute presentation, but I asked Madison to work the computer, advancing the Powerpoint documents. She was honored.
And she was great!
Because not only did Madison happily sit up there in front of a roomful of women and work the computer, but she slid so naturally into helping me give the talk that I was amazed. At one point fairly early on, I asked her to confirm something I was saying about her experience with a particular place, and she elaborated on it so clearly, so articulately, and so effortlessly...the audience started murmuring with pleasure (of course they would, they're all moms).
And so we developed a kind of rhythm--when it was appropriate, I'd bring her into the presentation, she'd say a sentence or two, and then stop and advance the slide for me. She was happy to do it, and confident, and good. Really GOOD. She talked about how I pined away for Wegmans when we were in Virginia, and got the appropriate laughs from the audience. I think she experienced for the first time the Buzz that comes from an appreciative audience that is riveted by your words. It's addictive. Her participation absolutely made my presentation all the more warmly received by the audience.
When I think about it, it's not particularly shocking, as this child has been talking since she was six months old and has never been shy about it. But boy, were the two of us pleased at how well it went. I'm going to go out of my way to find more experiences where the two of us can do this together. Who knows, if the book takes off...I can see us doing the author presentations together on The Tour. (I know, I know...but one should dream big if one dreams at all, right?)
I took the girls out to lunch at Red Lobster to celebrate. I looked across the table at my beautiful daughter, and thought to myself that someday she'll be able to smile and reminisce, "I started giving talks with my mom when I was just eight years old. It was at a church on Browncroft Boulevard..." I saw in my mind's eye all of the presentations that are in her future, and all of the people who will feel the impact of her mind, and felt awed.
I've been quiet recently because I've been VERY busy -- the girls' choir fundraising gala is on Saturday and I feel all my spare time has been going into securing and actually collecting about 60 of the 99 items we ultimately got donated. And taxes. And some clients are really pushing lately. Everything else in life seems to have been pushed to A.G. (After Gala).
Not quite everything. I had a talk to give this morning to a local Mothers of Preschoolers group (MOPS), about 40 moms who meet in a nearby church. The topic we agreed on was Preschoolers Out and About: A Five Senses Tour of Rochester. They asked me to speak back in October. So, of course, I started writing the talk at 3:45pm yesterday during the girls' karate class.
At some point, my confidence in my ability to whip together things like this at the last minute is going to back up on me and I'm going to be in Big Trouble. But not today, fortunatley. The hard part wasn't putting together the ideas, they kind of wrote themselves, all I had to do was introduce the talk with a "Why go out and about?" section (mainly cultural literacy) and "Tips for going out and about with preschoolers" (preparation, food, potty radar, etc.). Then I divided all the great places to go in Rochester into which of the five senses they emphasized. The actual ideas only took me sporadic work until 8pm. But then I realized I needed pictures, photos of the places, which expanded my 10-page Powerpoint into a 35-page Powerpoint. There I was still at 1am this morning searching through old photo files and downloading stuff from the web to insert. But it was a pretty neat thing, and I can turn it into an article too so that's double the bonus.
But I digress. This wasn't supposed to be about me, but about Madison.
The girls came along to the presentation, too, of course, happy to get Yet Another Morning Off of school. Ella helped out in the little kids' room while I gave the 45-minute presentation, but I asked Madison to work the computer, advancing the Powerpoint documents. She was honored.
And she was great!
Because not only did Madison happily sit up there in front of a roomful of women and work the computer, but she slid so naturally into helping me give the talk that I was amazed. At one point fairly early on, I asked her to confirm something I was saying about her experience with a particular place, and she elaborated on it so clearly, so articulately, and so effortlessly...the audience started murmuring with pleasure (of course they would, they're all moms).
And so we developed a kind of rhythm--when it was appropriate, I'd bring her into the presentation, she'd say a sentence or two, and then stop and advance the slide for me. She was happy to do it, and confident, and good. Really GOOD. She talked about how I pined away for Wegmans when we were in Virginia, and got the appropriate laughs from the audience. I think she experienced for the first time the Buzz that comes from an appreciative audience that is riveted by your words. It's addictive. Her participation absolutely made my presentation all the more warmly received by the audience.
When I think about it, it's not particularly shocking, as this child has been talking since she was six months old and has never been shy about it. But boy, were the two of us pleased at how well it went. I'm going to go out of my way to find more experiences where the two of us can do this together. Who knows, if the book takes off...I can see us doing the author presentations together on The Tour. (I know, I know...but one should dream big if one dreams at all, right?)
I took the girls out to lunch at Red Lobster to celebrate. I looked across the table at my beautiful daughter, and thought to myself that someday she'll be able to smile and reminisce, "I started giving talks with my mom when I was just eight years old. It was at a church on Browncroft Boulevard..." I saw in my mind's eye all of the presentations that are in her future, and all of the people who will feel the impact of her mind, and felt awed.
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