We're up one more good one, folks!

Hey! In an era of political gloom and doom, here is some news that will brighten the day for at least a few of you:

Donald Heath is now a U.S. citizen!

Sorry, Canada. Your loss is our gain.

And sorry, Donald, that I can offer you such a miserable landscape for your first vote. But now that you're officially one of us, I feel a mite bit more hopeful.

Mahna Mahna

Jim Hensen's birthday was the other day, or it would have been if he hadn't died suddenly in 1990. We watched a bunch of Muppets YouTubes, and the girls kind of became obsessed with the Mahna Mahna sketch. They've probably watched it a dozen times since Thursday. I think it's a wonderful celebration of jazz. But I may be the only person who thinks that. See it and judge for yourself:



All of us are finding ourselves bursting out into it at odd moments. It's impossible to hear someone say "mahna mahna" and not promptly respond with "Doo doo, doo doo doo."

Okay, so now that I'm on the Muppets kick I must post our very favorite Muppets sketch: Beaker doing Ode to Joy:



I shall torment you no more tonight.

Our girls' 12th anniversary present to us

David and I were married 12 years ago today. To celebrate, we thought we might go see the Ying Quartet, our favorite local orchestral group (which says a lot, considering how music-oriented Rochester is). The Ying Quartet is a young (late-20s-early-30s) group of three brothers and one sister who are awesome. We couldn't get a babysitter, so we decided to bring along the kids.

This was the girls' first real classical music concert, at least the first one that didn't have one of them performing somewhere in the show. They did very well; I was very proud of them for being so grown up. I sat us in the back row just in case they got squirmy, and I also very quietly whispered things for them to notice about the music and the way it was being played to keep them engaged. Ella was actually more interested than Madison in my suggestions, but that may be just because Madison is more entertained by her own thoughts than Ella.

So this new milestone means we can bring them to events like this that David and I so enjoy, and we can all do it together instead of necessarily getting a babysitter. At least, we'll do it for daytime shows. I don't think they would have stayed awake if it was an 8pm-10pm show. Beethoven is exciting as far as classical music goes, but it's not exactly a thrill a minute. Even David dozed during the second piece.

Typing and spelling

Ella is proving herself to be very good at spelling this semester. I am attributing it partly to my method of using the Writing Road to Reading.

Here's what we do: We go through that day's five words (although I'm upping it to 10, as I'm pretty sure they can manage 10 just fine). They go to their computers and open their Spelling document I've created. In the first part, they type that day's words in lower case. In the second section, they type that day's words in upper case. And then they print out the document and hand write that day's words in the lines that are already on the document.

They have really been remembering the spellings.

But more interesting than that, Ella spontaneously gave us some insight into her method using that spelling document:

First, I look at the end syllable of the word. Say it's "mother." I look through the word, and notice the "h-e-r" part. I put my fingers on the keyboard and see how I would type out the "h-e-r." Then I go back to the beginning of the word, and see the "m-o-t." Then, out loud as I type each letter, I say the letter as I'm typing it: "m-o-t-h-e-r."

Of course, I was even more impressed with the fact that she has identified her mental machinations here than with the fact that she has created this interesting method. But you can see where her method, of going to look at the end of the word first and making a little unit that both mentally represents the sound AND physically represents that in a pattern on the keyboard, can really help her remember the word.

Now, I know that in the case of "mother" (which was her example to us), having "h-e-r" as the end part isn't technically right because the sound of "th" is one sound, the second, voiced, sound that "th" makes, and she breaks apart the t and the h in her method.

But, I don't really care. It's not as though she pronounces the word "mot-her." She is noticing that the "th" makes the one sound, and is making the decision to force them apart for her method. Fine by me.

Talk Like a Pirate Day in Jamaica

What better way to reward a satisfying week of work than with a rousing game of JAMAICA on Talk Like a Pirate Day!



Thanks, Laura, for pointing me in the direction of Jamaica as a gift for Madison's birthday. By the way, ThoughtHammer, where I bought the game, is having a bunch of Talk Like A Pirate Day specials.

By the way, the whole "stickers-on-a-chart" idea that I had at the beginning of this week -- a nickel for each subject tackled with a good attitude -- has worked like a charm. It got off to a little rocky start, but I haven't had any problems in *days* -- and each girl has earned about fifty cents each day.

We're having a game day this afternoon to celebrate. Only an hour left, though, before we must go to karate. I kind of hate to yank them.

Harmony - literally

Today marks the first day that the girls have spontaneously sung in harmony together. It was to "Little Red Caboose" from the "Wee Sing Fun & Folk" album that was going in the car. Ella sang soprano and Madison sang alto. I had them try it a capella, too. It worked pretty well. They were tickled at having done it.

Laura would so not approve

So okay, the attitude at Mariposario has left a little to be desired lately. A lot of whining about getting things done. Stuff that can be done easily with a little focus.

Math is the worst. (Sorry, David.) It's just that we're not doing "fun math" right now, we're in a "make sure you can do the basics" phase. They don't like it. Oh, well.

So as of today their allowance is tied to their attitude. For each subject on each day that they approach with a good attitude, they don't just get a check on their chart, they get a sticker. And then, at the end of the week, we count up the stickers and for each one on the chart they get a nickel.

Because you know, I'm just tired of the attitude.

Today, Ella was delighted by my announcement and promptly earned 45 cents. Madison was less than pleased at the pressure of having to earn her allowance by her attitude, and she allowed herself to get overwrought during mathematics. (Still addition of fractions with larger non-common denominators.) But the other subjects went fine. Piano and choir practice were positively delightful to listen to.

We'll see. For the foreseeable future, the Long Arm of the Ma--and her pocketbook--rules.

I anticipate that Laura will come down on me politely like a lovely southern Ton of Bricks.

George Walsh would love it

Madison has always been interested in religion, and nowadays she's been talking with us a lot about philosophy and history. We've exhausted all the kids books on comparative religion that I've been able to find, so I thought it might be time to pull out George Walsh's book The Role of Religion in History.

I hunted high. I hunted low. But I couldn't find the book. We must have loaned it out sometime in the last five years, I thought. So I found a used copy at a reasonable price on Amazon and ordered it a couple of weeks ago.



It arrived last week, and we started reading it at bedtime. It's slow going, and the introduction, especially, requires pausing frequently for explanation. But Madison is enjoying it, and even Ella has gotten some value out of it, I think. She asks questions, at least.

I woke up yesterday morning and happened to look over at the night table where George's book has been living for the last week, and was astonished. There were two copies. They had multiplied in the night!

George would have loved the joke. He may be gone, but his book carries on his legacy.

9th birthday

"Just rip the darned paper!"

On Wednesday, Madison's 9th birthday, she decided that she wasn't going to open ANY gifts in the morning, despite them being all there and wrapped and tantalizing on the table. She wanted to do it with some ceremony, AFTER dinner. I don't think I could have stood it myself at the age of 9, but it didn't look as though she was having any trouble with self-control. It didn't seem to be a matter of self-control at all, frankly; she was really pleased with being able to direct that action exactly as she wanted it. More to the point, though, I think what really sustained her is that she was driving Ella NUTS with the refusal to open the presents until late. Ella was practically hopping up and down by the time dinner arrived. And Madison really enjoyed that. Sigh.

Here is a 5-second video that says it all.

Last day of being 8

Madison's last day of being 8 was celebrated by a trip to Wegmans.

Why Wegmans? Not just because it is the greatest grocery store in the universe. (I'm pleased to say we can go to Wegmans any old time because as Rochester is the Wegmans Capital of the World, we have seven stores within driving distance. But I digress.)

No, we went for three reasons:

An ice cream birthday cake for tomorrow evening

A box of whatever sugary cereal she likes, a tradition on our kids' and David's birthdays (she chose Yucky Charms...pardon me, Lucky Charms)

The last free cookie ever

Yes, Wegmans has free cookies for kids 8 and under. And so today we celebrated her last day being 8 with the last ever free cookie. She's not a little kid anymore! She bore it well, but as she is a sentimental soul, it twanged her heartstrings, I could tell. Mine, too.

Publisher offends Aborigines by encouraging girls to play didgeridoo

Apparently, the Australian version of the new Daring Book for Girls has advocated that girls learn to play the digeridoo.
Publisher offends Aborigines by encouraging girls to play didgeridoo

Some stupid "tradition"-bound people are offended, and the public taking of offense has worked: HarperCollins has caved, and the next edition of the book will have that chapter removed.

Mark Rose, head of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association, said the publisher made "an extreme faux pas" by including a chapter on how to play the Aboriginal musical instrument in its Australian edition.

...
He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday afternoon that the offensive chapter was equal to "encouraging someone to play with razor blades."

The publisher said Wednesday that the chapter will be removed at the next printing.

"HarperCollins Publishers apologizes unreservedly to any aboriginal Australians who were offended by the inclusion of instructions on how to play the didgeridoo in the forthcoming publication 'The Daring Book For Girls,"' the publisher said in a statement.

Can you imagine? Where are the feminists NOW? Oh, I forgot, the Aborigines are a different color, they're an oppressed minority, so you know where the feminists will be hiding.

Like encouraging someone to play with RAZOR BLADES? Extremely loud snort.

The basics of math

I've discovered that although Madison loves to do complex math (solve for x and y with 2 equations and 2 unknowns, age problems, and the like) and even more complex logic problems, she can only do the complex math when the mechanics are fairly simple -- throw in a couple of two-digit denominators that have to be made common and everything falls to pieces. She can get it conceptually, but the multi-step mechanics are defeating her. So, it's back to the basics for us during school time. This week it's addition and subtraction and reducation of fractions, like 2/3 - 4/19.

David is taking care of the fun math at night.

She's not thrilled, but she's working at it.

Thoughts at the beginning of the school year

I wrote this article last year and darned if I don't feel exactly the same even though I'm a whole year older. Of course, it's not particularly relevant to home schoolers. It's basically advice for parents who send their kids to school, to help them help the child not have school absolutely suck.

I always get somewhat depressed this time of year, on behalf of young people everywhere. Despite it having been 20 years since I finished high school, the weekend before Labor Day always transports me back to that grinding feeling of having to report back to jail after my summer furlough, back to where there was pressure from within and pressure from without and the sinking feeling at the pit of my stomach as deadlines would approach or tests would be administered... where I was stuck yet again with the same small group of kids, day in and day out, from whom I couldn't escape. ....

Swings

I've noticed an interesting shift in Madison's personality as she approaches nine years old. She has always been extremely passionate, especially when her emotions are negative. She's rarely indifferent about anything. Her swings have usually ranged from the wildly negative and hystrionic to the relentless passionate pursuit of some idea or goal. In the last year or so, she's at equilibrium the majority of the time: calm and cheerful and engaged in life.

But lately, although Madison can swing into negativity very easily, she's been swinging just as far in the other direction: Sudden wild and exuberent love. In my direction, often! I can receive a "You ROCK, Mom!" arm-fling around the neck at the smallest thing, often when I show her something new, like something on the computer, that gives her a new power. She has gone into elaborate detail at a couple of recent occasions about HOW and WHY she thinks I'm the greatest.

I know this isn't startling, but it's a new milestone, and I'll take it.

Whiny aliens in my house

Who are these individuals and what have they done with my happy children?

What a day we have had, which was really not helped by a house checkup from the energy guys really freaking early, a dentist appointment, which Madison hates, smack in the middle of the day, and a couple of client calls.

Nothing major happened, aside from the dentist. Just a bunch of whiny fits! No one would do easy spelling or math on their own, and both threw fits about it even when I was on the phone with a client. I had to kick them both upstairs. Then, afterward, the only thing they could do when they whined their non-complaints at me was to laugh.

We got essentially nothing done.

It's not like I can really complain, though, I'm just nit-picking in the metaphorical way, whereas LB is doing it for real. So I count myself lucky.

I'm sure everyone has days like these.

She's losing it

By she, I mean Ella.

And by it, I mean her little British accent.

Not that Ella has ever visited Britain. But she's never said her ending Rs. She's always said them like David Attenborough. (Or like a little kid who can't say her Rs.)

So "birds" was always "behwds" and "warm" was always "wawhm" and "star" was always "stah" and "fork" was always "fawk."

True, it's always meant she sounded less articulate than Madison, but it's always been Oh. So. Cute.

Well, she's starting to say those Rs like an American and it's breaking me up like no other milestone has.

Spanish went great today

After a couple of years of flirting around with Spanish in the form of little "Spanish clubs" and the like, I decided it was time to get more serious about it for both the girls and me. (I can understand baby Spanish, or, at least, the Spanish that is spoken slowly to a hard-of-hearing 8-year-old, but I can't speak it to save my life. French, which I learned in high school, always gets in the way.) So, after weighing my wallet, I decided not to go for Rosetta Stone and instead ordered Visual Link Spanish for about half the price. It's not specifically for kids, but Madison and I had liked the free online lesson.

The bunch of CDs came yesterday. We installed them on my computer this morning.

And, actually, we did that lesson that was online. It's Lesson One.

I have to say, everyone liked it. Everyone paid attention. Everyone repeated after the instructor. Everyone seemed to learn. Everyone is looking forward to Lesson Two.

Everyone can now say, "I need to go to the bathroom."
("Necesito ir al baño.")

So far, a success.

Happy Birthday, Louis Sullivan

Louis Sullivan, the Father of the Modern Skyscraper, was born on Sept 3, 1856 in Massachusetts. We had a wonderful discussion of him at this morning's birthday. It led to all kinds of interesting things: the science of steel and load-bearing walls and the Chicago Fire of 1871, and Form Follows Function. The discussion culminated in the girls (led by Ella) turning over their daily printed schedules and drawing their ideal floor plan for a house, based on the idea of form following function.

This is what home schooling was meant to be.

And, we got in some great snuggles this morning before we started the day.

I live for days like this.

She's running for President of the House

Influenced, no doubt, by talk of the election, Madison has announced that she is running for President of the House. So far, she is delighted to be unopposed. But that hasn't presented her from having her alter-ego, Erstwhile Reporter Virginia Parker, interview Madison as the prospective President. Here is the "newspaper" article she distributed throughout the house this weekend:

Madison May Ross in a Position of Greater Power

Hello. Virginia Parker here, just back from a interview withh 39 year old mother of Madison May Ross. Debra Ross said that she thoght that Madison May Ross should have the position of greater power.
Ella Ross who happened to pass bye agrees.

Madison May Ross atempting a position of Even Greater Power

First day of school

The first day of school worked well. I think everyone had a good time. The girls had some homeschooling girlfriends over in the afternoon; those girls had started today, too. So it was nice to celebrate together. Madison and Ella always like having these girls over. These friends have serious dairy allergies, and Oreos are artificial enough that they contain no dairy. So we always serve Oreos when they come over. This, too, is a big deal.

(The leftovers are not calling me from the downstairs cupboard right now. They are not.)

Today, I realized anew how much more smoothly everything goes if I have the schedule and assignments written out ahead of time, one page per child per day. So I'll try to have that done the night before, each day. I've already printed out tomorrow's work schedule, which includes the things we didn't get to today (which was spelling). (In spelling, by the way, we're doing Writing Road to Reading in the following way: We're taking five words per day on the WRTR list. I'm going over them with the WRTR annotations. And then, the girls take the words to their computers. They open a document I've prepared, type the words five times in lower case, five times in upper case, and then print out the document and handwrite the words on the lines provided on the page.)

Our new Spanish program, Visual Link Spanish, arrived this afternoon. It's cheaper than Rosetta Stone. The girls and I did the free lesson online that week, and Madison liked it enough that I thought we'd give it a whirl. (Ella tuned out. Let's see what happens when it's part of school.)