I got a note today from an old high school classmate who suddenly remembered my married name and Googled me and found my address. Seems that I'm on the "missing" list for my high school graduating class, which she saw in the invitation to our 20th high school reunion that she received a few weeks ago. Said reunion, she said, takes place the Friday after Thanksgiving. Can I go?
Wild horses couldn't drag me to this reunion, even if Madison weren't performing in the Nutcracker, even if Los Americanos weren't coming up from Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving.
I wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall, though. That would be interesting. I'd hope all the mean people look old.
But I didn't tell Carey any of that. I did tell her to have a great time, and to email me afterward to tell me about it.
--------------------------
(I'm up at midnight, and alternately working on a report for a California client, and blogging. Can you tell I've had too many Reeses Peanut Butter Cups? Yay Halloween.)
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
90 degrees in a new direction for Ella
In other words, Ella has turned the corner on reading.
I haven't said it before, but I'm saying it now. Yep. It was yesterday, October 30, 2007. She's reading. She has been able to read in some form for almost 2 years, but yesterday it seemed to click for her. She was six-and-a-half on Monday. The magic moment I've been doubting would come, as progress has been steadily incremental, oh, at 5 degrees or so.
Ella's potty-training progress when she was a toddler was quite similar to her reading, minus the 2-year effort. She had no real impetus to potty-train when she was two -- she cheerfully figured why bother, she was happy, she had it easy, it was nicer for someone else to worry about the diaper than to make the effort herself. It wasn't so much a matter of laziness as a comfort in the status quo. And then, 4 days after she turned 3, she suddenly decided that it was time, and that was it. No real effort involved, she just did it. And that seemed to be the case with reading, as well. She worked at it because I made her, for school, but she was just as happy to have someone read to her when it was an effort. And suddenly, it's no longer such an effort, so she's proud and happy to do it.
Madison was totally different. Her philosophy about reading was very like her own potty-training, too. She was not quite 2 1/2, and she wanted to do it all by herself, damn it, because the potty was there to be conquered. The same thing with reading...she was almost 6, and I'd already read the first 19 Boxcar Children books to her, and I'd told her that we weren't getting started on the next 90 books, she'd have to read them herself. And by god, she was going to do just that. And so she did...she sat down in August 2005 and just started reading, skipping any words she didn't know.
But back to Ella. She insists on reading me a whole Dr. Seuss-ish book in the morning before getting out of bed, and another before going to sleep. Yesterday it was Go, Dog. Go! and Marvin K Mooney, Will You Please Go Now? and today it was The Best Nest and Hop On Pop.
I attribute the suddenly steep slope to two things: To the Writing Road To Reading cards and method Laura introduced me to a few weeks ago, and to the fact that Ella has been singing and playing the piano so much, reading the words -- words that are conveniently broken up into syllables -- along with the music.
Or, heck, maybe it was just Her Time and it would have happened without all the work. No real way to tell. At least she has the sense that hard work pays off, which is almost as valuable as her newly-acquired skill.
I haven't said it before, but I'm saying it now. Yep. It was yesterday, October 30, 2007. She's reading. She has been able to read in some form for almost 2 years, but yesterday it seemed to click for her. She was six-and-a-half on Monday. The magic moment I've been doubting would come, as progress has been steadily incremental, oh, at 5 degrees or so.
Ella's potty-training progress when she was a toddler was quite similar to her reading, minus the 2-year effort. She had no real impetus to potty-train when she was two -- she cheerfully figured why bother, she was happy, she had it easy, it was nicer for someone else to worry about the diaper than to make the effort herself. It wasn't so much a matter of laziness as a comfort in the status quo. And then, 4 days after she turned 3, she suddenly decided that it was time, and that was it. No real effort involved, she just did it. And that seemed to be the case with reading, as well. She worked at it because I made her, for school, but she was just as happy to have someone read to her when it was an effort. And suddenly, it's no longer such an effort, so she's proud and happy to do it.
Madison was totally different. Her philosophy about reading was very like her own potty-training, too. She was not quite 2 1/2, and she wanted to do it all by herself, damn it, because the potty was there to be conquered. The same thing with reading...she was almost 6, and I'd already read the first 19 Boxcar Children books to her, and I'd told her that we weren't getting started on the next 90 books, she'd have to read them herself. And by god, she was going to do just that. And so she did...she sat down in August 2005 and just started reading, skipping any words she didn't know.
But back to Ella. She insists on reading me a whole Dr. Seuss-ish book in the morning before getting out of bed, and another before going to sleep. Yesterday it was Go, Dog. Go! and Marvin K Mooney, Will You Please Go Now? and today it was The Best Nest and Hop On Pop.
I attribute the suddenly steep slope to two things: To the Writing Road To Reading cards and method Laura introduced me to a few weeks ago, and to the fact that Ella has been singing and playing the piano so much, reading the words -- words that are conveniently broken up into syllables -- along with the music.
Or, heck, maybe it was just Her Time and it would have happened without all the work. No real way to tell. At least she has the sense that hard work pays off, which is almost as valuable as her newly-acquired skill.
Quotation marks blog
I usually try not to steal other's blog entries, but I must here. HT Rational Jenn for a link to this blog:
http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/
The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
misinterpreting bad punctuation since 2005
I love this.
http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/
The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
misinterpreting bad punctuation since 2005
I love this.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
The Golden Compass
I see some religious homeschoolers are really getting their panties in a bunch about The Golden Compass.
http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
http://homeschoolbuzz.com/reviews.html?content=The-Golden-Compass--His-Dark-Materials-book-1-
It is said that Philip Pullman regards his books as the antidote to the religious messages of the Narnia series. We found the Narnia series fascinating, because the girls treated it as a fantasy series like any other; the religious parallels and messages passed them right by--they saw what happened in Narnia, and treated it as relevant only to the context of the Narnian world, not as relevant in our world.
Has anyone (from the group of the five or so of you who read this) read The Golden Compass or heard anything about it? If so, can you can give me the scoop? Adrienne? You must have an opinion. Some libraries seem to put it in Young Adult, some in the Children's section. I'm wondering if I should read it to see if it's appropriate for Madison.
http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
http://homeschoolbuzz.com/reviews.html?content=The-Golden-Compass--His-Dark-Materials-book-1-
It is said that Philip Pullman regards his books as the antidote to the religious messages of the Narnia series. We found the Narnia series fascinating, because the girls treated it as a fantasy series like any other; the religious parallels and messages passed them right by--they saw what happened in Narnia, and treated it as relevant only to the context of the Narnian world, not as relevant in our world.
Has anyone (from the group of the five or so of you who read this) read The Golden Compass or heard anything about it? If so, can you can give me the scoop? Adrienne? You must have an opinion. Some libraries seem to put it in Young Adult, some in the Children's section. I'm wondering if I should read it to see if it's appropriate for Madison.
One thing leads to another
After almost two weeks of letting history fall by the wayside, we were just starting some more work on ancient Sumer this morning. Because David and I have been helping the girls brush up their geography skills lately, I thought I'd point out the map yet again in the book. Then I got out our Big Big World book, and also the globe, and had them find Sumer in both. It was actually kind of tricky, for them to transfer their understanding of a simple small line sketch of the Tigris/Euphrates Rivers and the Persian Gulf and the Arabian peninsula to find where those areas were on the more complex maps. It took a little while; I was interested to see that they were not very good at it.
But then that got us started on the "seas" of that part of the world, the Mediterranean and the Black and the Caspian and the Arabian, and that led to a discussion of Italy, and then we started talking about where all of the various ancestors came from, Scotland and Italy and Poland and the Ukraine, and then looked to find all of the routes they might have taken to get to the U.S. And THEN, providentially, the mom of one of Lara's friends showed up to borrow my camera, and as it happens her parents had run from the Nazis in Austria and ended up in Argentina where Monica was brought up, so she traced that route for us, too.
Sumer? Another day.
Oh, and I must report that Ella zipped through Go, Dog. Go! this morning. She's doing much better. It makes me wish that I'd been videotaping her reading right from the start. It feels too late to start now.
But then that got us started on the "seas" of that part of the world, the Mediterranean and the Black and the Caspian and the Arabian, and that led to a discussion of Italy, and then we started talking about where all of the various ancestors came from, Scotland and Italy and Poland and the Ukraine, and then looked to find all of the routes they might have taken to get to the U.S. And THEN, providentially, the mom of one of Lara's friends showed up to borrow my camera, and as it happens her parents had run from the Nazis in Austria and ended up in Argentina where Monica was brought up, so she traced that route for us, too.
Sumer? Another day.
Oh, and I must report that Ella zipped through Go, Dog. Go! this morning. She's doing much better. It makes me wish that I'd been videotaping her reading right from the start. It feels too late to start now.
Baseball
Rational Jenn wrote about sports yesterday, which prompted me to put down what I haven't had the time, what with all the Halloween and rehearsal/concert madness going on.
Although I don't follow major-league baseball religiously during the regular season, we always watch the postseason on TV in October, especially if the Red Sox are playing. I love baseball. There were only a few girls playing Little League in the 5th and 6th grades, and one of them was me. (The other was my dear, dear friend Anne, who was known as "that red-headed girl pitching for the Lions.") I was on the Panthers. I was no good for almost all of the two years I played, although in my very last at-bat in the 6th grade I hit a triple, and that was the official moment when it "clicked," and although I never played on an official team again, I was always pretty decent at pick-up games. I remember having someone pinch-run for me at my first IOS seminar in 1993 when I was in a leg brace due to the skiing accident.
Anyway, in 1991 I became a Red Sox fan when Patrick and I lived in Boston for the summer when he was reporting for the Globe. I loved, and still love, Fenway Park. 1991 was the beginning of the era of Mo Vaughn, and the beginning of my rooting for the Sox. The day after I found out I was pregnant with Ella in 2000, I had to go to Boston on business and was able to get a ticket. I sat in right field, and I bought The Baby a Red Sox T-shirt that I'll give to Ella when she's a teenager. Madison is going to Boston with the Bach Children's Chorus April 17-19, and if the Sox are playing at home I'm going to do my best get us tickets, even if we have to go out early or stay late.
Fortunately, we have the Rochester Red Wings here, the Triple-A team for the Minnesota Twins. So we go often during the summer (only $6/ticket) and always sit over third base. We don't really follow the individual players so much, because the better ones are always getting called up. But going to a game here in Rochester is so much fun. It's such a genial way to spend 3 or 4 relaxed hours on a summer afternoon with kids. The girls really got into the game this year, and positively enjoy discussing the rules and strategy. If you go on a Sunday afternoon, after the game, the kids get to go down on the field and "run the bases with Spikes," the Red Wings' mascot (I think he's an eagle). On Mother's Day and Father's Day, you go down on the outfield after the game and play catch with the free baseballs they give you.
The interesting thing is that baseball on TV has really seized Ella's attention this postseason, much more so than for Madison. She roots for the Red Sox because we do; she got to know the players, the lineups, she discussed how grumpy the Cleveland Indians' manager always looked and how much Terry Francona spit, she loves Big Papi and Manny Ramirez. While Madison would often read a book while we were all watching the game, Ella was always paying attention. A couple of nights during the ALCS and the Series, she finished dinner early and asked to go and watch the pregame show all on her own, while we were finishing up. ("Hey, Mom, Dad, come quick, James Taylor is singing the National Anthem!") The first thing she'd ask us in the morning was who won. Yesterday morning, upon finding out that the Sox had won Game 4, she said, "Well, I'm happy, but I actually wish the Rockies won last night. Because now there's no more baseball until spring.")
Although I don't follow major-league baseball religiously during the regular season, we always watch the postseason on TV in October, especially if the Red Sox are playing. I love baseball. There were only a few girls playing Little League in the 5th and 6th grades, and one of them was me. (The other was my dear, dear friend Anne, who was known as "that red-headed girl pitching for the Lions.") I was on the Panthers. I was no good for almost all of the two years I played, although in my very last at-bat in the 6th grade I hit a triple, and that was the official moment when it "clicked," and although I never played on an official team again, I was always pretty decent at pick-up games. I remember having someone pinch-run for me at my first IOS seminar in 1993 when I was in a leg brace due to the skiing accident.
Anyway, in 1991 I became a Red Sox fan when Patrick and I lived in Boston for the summer when he was reporting for the Globe. I loved, and still love, Fenway Park. 1991 was the beginning of the era of Mo Vaughn, and the beginning of my rooting for the Sox. The day after I found out I was pregnant with Ella in 2000, I had to go to Boston on business and was able to get a ticket. I sat in right field, and I bought The Baby a Red Sox T-shirt that I'll give to Ella when she's a teenager. Madison is going to Boston with the Bach Children's Chorus April 17-19, and if the Sox are playing at home I'm going to do my best get us tickets, even if we have to go out early or stay late.
Fortunately, we have the Rochester Red Wings here, the Triple-A team for the Minnesota Twins. So we go often during the summer (only $6/ticket) and always sit over third base. We don't really follow the individual players so much, because the better ones are always getting called up. But going to a game here in Rochester is so much fun. It's such a genial way to spend 3 or 4 relaxed hours on a summer afternoon with kids. The girls really got into the game this year, and positively enjoy discussing the rules and strategy. If you go on a Sunday afternoon, after the game, the kids get to go down on the field and "run the bases with Spikes," the Red Wings' mascot (I think he's an eagle). On Mother's Day and Father's Day, you go down on the outfield after the game and play catch with the free baseballs they give you.
The interesting thing is that baseball on TV has really seized Ella's attention this postseason, much more so than for Madison. She roots for the Red Sox because we do; she got to know the players, the lineups, she discussed how grumpy the Cleveland Indians' manager always looked and how much Terry Francona spit, she loves Big Papi and Manny Ramirez. While Madison would often read a book while we were all watching the game, Ella was always paying attention. A couple of nights during the ALCS and the Series, she finished dinner early and asked to go and watch the pregame show all on her own, while we were finishing up. ("Hey, Mom, Dad, come quick, James Taylor is singing the National Anthem!") The first thing she'd ask us in the morning was who won. Yesterday morning, upon finding out that the Sox had won Game 4, she said, "Well, I'm happy, but I actually wish the Rockies won last night. Because now there's no more baseball until spring.")
Monday, October 29, 2007
When Geeks Home School Their Kids
Here, Madison and Ella spontaneously decided to re-enact Raphael's "School of Athens" painting, by the shore of Skaneateles Lake.
Madison wanted to be Aristotle, and Ella didn't mind being Plato.
This was a photo from last week, but I was reminded to post it today by a conversation Madison and I had in the car on the way to their homeschool Gym and Swim class at the Y. We were listening to some kids music about math, and one of the song's lyrics posed the question, "Where would we be without math, what would the world be like?"
Madison wanted to talk about this. She proposed that math WAS EQUIVALENT TO motion, and that without motion, she couldn't exist, nor could the earth...and although she was uncertain about how it would affect the universe's existence, she knew that it would be very different than it is.
I was intrigued that she had chosen "motion" as her synonym for math. Is it that she hears David and me talking about calculus so much? Or that the math David works on and describes to her is measuring motion of various kinds? Hard to know. Fascinating. Anyway, I than proposed that perhaps math wasn't just a different word for motion, but that it is human beings' ability to quantify, and therefore is dependent on human consciousness for its existence. She liked this. She hadn't considered it before, I don't think, how math must be linked to human beings rather than being independent. And so she started to talk about what "existence" means, and how it's related to "consciousness." But then we pulled up to the Y. Sigh.
Conversations like this sometimes make me want to shout, "Look out, World! She's coming! She's only 8, but she's going to take you by storm in the not-too-distant future! And you're not ready!"
Now if I could just teach her to spell.
Madison wanted to be Aristotle, and Ella didn't mind being Plato.
This was a photo from last week, but I was reminded to post it today by a conversation Madison and I had in the car on the way to their homeschool Gym and Swim class at the Y. We were listening to some kids music about math, and one of the song's lyrics posed the question, "Where would we be without math, what would the world be like?"
Madison wanted to talk about this. She proposed that math WAS EQUIVALENT TO motion, and that without motion, she couldn't exist, nor could the earth...and although she was uncertain about how it would affect the universe's existence, she knew that it would be very different than it is.
I was intrigued that she had chosen "motion" as her synonym for math. Is it that she hears David and me talking about calculus so much? Or that the math David works on and describes to her is measuring motion of various kinds? Hard to know. Fascinating. Anyway, I than proposed that perhaps math wasn't just a different word for motion, but that it is human beings' ability to quantify, and therefore is dependent on human consciousness for its existence. She liked this. She hadn't considered it before, I don't think, how math must be linked to human beings rather than being independent. And so she started to talk about what "existence" means, and how it's related to "consciousness." But then we pulled up to the Y. Sigh.
Conversations like this sometimes make me want to shout, "Look out, World! She's coming! She's only 8, but she's going to take you by storm in the not-too-distant future! And you're not ready!"
Now if I could just teach her to spell.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Party a success
We're all tired. The four of us are spaced out in front of the World Series now.
Hints on the purple ice hands:
1) Don't let the fingers freeze close together. They'll amputate much less easily on the way out of the glove.
2) The purple will stain your own hands. Wear extra gloves. I didn't. Too late by the time I realized.
I loved our ghosts so much I wished we'd made more. The backyard looked really neat.
Madison's fortune-telling went over great. I made up about 40 fortunes and they were a big hit. The parents liked them too. Here are some:
One of your parents will accuse you of something you didn’t do, and you’ll set him or her straight very politely.
You will find yourself wanting to wear something purple.
You will find yourself humming a certain song that will be difficult to get out of your head, and you may drive the rest of your family crazy as a result.
A new spirit of generosity will overwhelm you, and your parents will be surprised.
You will be overcome with the desire to help wash the dishes.
You will soon start to see patterns in numbers on digital clocks or other electronic devices.
Here is Madison in her gypsy teepee:
Hints on the purple ice hands:
1) Don't let the fingers freeze close together. They'll amputate much less easily on the way out of the glove.
2) The purple will stain your own hands. Wear extra gloves. I didn't. Too late by the time I realized.
I loved our ghosts so much I wished we'd made more. The backyard looked really neat.
Madison's fortune-telling went over great. I made up about 40 fortunes and they were a big hit. The parents liked them too. Here are some:
One of your parents will accuse you of something you didn’t do, and you’ll set him or her straight very politely.
You will find yourself wanting to wear something purple.
You will find yourself humming a certain song that will be difficult to get out of your head, and you may drive the rest of your family crazy as a result.
A new spirit of generosity will overwhelm you, and your parents will be surprised.
You will be overcome with the desire to help wash the dishes.
You will soon start to see patterns in numbers on digital clocks or other electronic devices.
Here is Madison in her gypsy teepee:
Friday, October 26, 2007
Halloween preparations
In this spirit of Trying to Be All My Parents Were Not, I'm helping the girls (ok, they're helping me, when the spirit moves them) prepare for the big Halloween party on Sunday. It's grown to about 25 kids.
I try to be cool. And what isn't cool, freezing cool even, about purple ice hands:
Just take nonpowdered gloves, color water purple with red and blue food coloring, fill up gloves, tie off, and pop in the freezer. When they're frozen, peel off the gloves, take your new creepy purple hands, and pop them into the orange punch. BWAAAH HA HA HA HA!!!!
That's educational, right?
Thanks, Food Network.
I try to be cool. And what isn't cool, freezing cool even, about purple ice hands:
Just take nonpowdered gloves, color water purple with red and blue food coloring, fill up gloves, tie off, and pop in the freezer. When they're frozen, peel off the gloves, take your new creepy purple hands, and pop them into the orange punch. BWAAAH HA HA HA HA!!!!
That's educational, right?
Thanks, Food Network.
The Squeaky Wheel on Grease
More Grease fun! In this post I talked about my mistake in bringing the girls to Grease last month. Well, another local theater group (we have many here in Rochester, most of which have the word "theatre" in their name) has done a family-friendly version of Grease.
I brought the girls yesterday. (I know it's totally declasse but I love to get these free tickets.)
Did the group (TYKEs -- Theatre Young Kids Enjoy) pull it off? Read my review and see, if you're inclined. And tell me if you agree with my main quibble about Grease, family-friendly or not.
I brought the girls yesterday. (I know it's totally declasse but I love to get these free tickets.)
Did the group (TYKEs -- Theatre Young Kids Enjoy) pull it off? Read my review and see, if you're inclined. And tell me if you agree with my main quibble about Grease, family-friendly or not.
Squirrelly October
Turns out the squirrels that have made a nest between our second and third floors are FLYING squirrels. We cornered one in the house on Wednesday. It was adorable, and almost tame, not afraid of us at all, with the biggest eyes. It could fit in your hand. I didn't let the girls pick it up, although Greg the Squirrel Guy who came over later told us that they actually make good pets. We chased it outside, where it wandered around confusedly, blinking in the light (they're nocturnal). No wonder we've been hearing the activity at dusk. Poor thing.
So tell me he isn't the cutest:
It's almost a shame that we're trying to make him and his family homeless, although at this point I fail to see how that's going to be done effectively, in this old stone house with all kinds of crevices.
And then yesterday, when Ella and I were out in the woods part of the backyard banging nails into foamboard yellow eyes that we'd made as decorations for the Halloween party on Sunday, we came upon a dead squirrel. Actually, I started hammering into a tree at the edge of the meadow, and then she suddenly screamed incoherently and started running away. Now, Ella doesn't just scream randomly, so I ran toward her and scooped her up to find out what was wronog; it actually took her a second to point, with a trembling lip, and say, "There's...it's...there's... a dead squirrel there." And she burst into tears.
It turned out I'd almost been stepping on it. Ick.
As David pointed out later (I know, it's a little shameful of me, but I'm happy to assign The Husbandly Head the job of disposing of dead animals in the yard), the squirrel looked as though it had gone up to the Great Squirrels Nest In the Sky by having been dropped from a great height. A little flat, you know. I'm thinking the big, beautiful red-tailed hawk that Ella and I saw in one of the big pine trees in the backyard had a little accident with its breakfast; the thing hadn't been there the day before.
Must...get...back...to...Halloween...preparations...
So tell me he isn't the cutest:
It's almost a shame that we're trying to make him and his family homeless, although at this point I fail to see how that's going to be done effectively, in this old stone house with all kinds of crevices.
And then yesterday, when Ella and I were out in the woods part of the backyard banging nails into foamboard yellow eyes that we'd made as decorations for the Halloween party on Sunday, we came upon a dead squirrel. Actually, I started hammering into a tree at the edge of the meadow, and then she suddenly screamed incoherently and started running away. Now, Ella doesn't just scream randomly, so I ran toward her and scooped her up to find out what was wronog; it actually took her a second to point, with a trembling lip, and say, "There's...it's...there's... a dead squirrel there." And she burst into tears.
It turned out I'd almost been stepping on it. Ick.
As David pointed out later (I know, it's a little shameful of me, but I'm happy to assign The Husbandly Head the job of disposing of dead animals in the yard), the squirrel looked as though it had gone up to the Great Squirrels Nest In the Sky by having been dropped from a great height. A little flat, you know. I'm thinking the big, beautiful red-tailed hawk that Ella and I saw in one of the big pine trees in the backyard had a little accident with its breakfast; the thing hadn't been there the day before.
Must...get...back...to...Halloween...preparations...
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Old photo makes us "big bucks"
Can you believe that a company in Norway wants to use this old photo of Madison in an internal training document flyer?
They found it where I'd used it as the graphics for an article about how to get kids to practice, which their old piano teacher wrote for KidsOutAndAbout.com in early 2005.
And they'll PAY us $300. Imagine.
Update: The guy just emailed me the page in the training document as it is laid out. Make sure to click on the photo below; it will take you to a large version that is worth seeing!
The graphic designer who contacted me, Tommy Knøsmoen, said to "tell Madison that there will be people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Polen, Czech Republic, Austria, and probably a few more countries that will see her when educating in negotiation."
They found it where I'd used it as the graphics for an article about how to get kids to practice, which their old piano teacher wrote for KidsOutAndAbout.com in early 2005.
And they'll PAY us $300. Imagine.
Update: The guy just emailed me the page in the training document as it is laid out. Make sure to click on the photo below; it will take you to a large version that is worth seeing!
The graphic designer who contacted me, Tommy Knøsmoen, said to "tell Madison that there will be people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Polen, Czech Republic, Austria, and probably a few more countries that will see her when educating in negotiation."
Friday, October 19, 2007
Try THIS in elementary school and see how far you get
Madison was teaching Ella her spelling this morning and I came upon them working, in THIS position:
It seemed to work. Go figure.
It seemed to work. Go figure.
Really cool field trip yesterday
The Red Jacket cider folks mentioned below offered to give us a little private tour of their processing plant, and we went to Geneva, NY yesterday. They plied us with information, food, and delicious drinks -- my idea of a perfect field trip.
I wrote it up for KidsOutAndAbout.com.
So go see the photos go here:
http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/city-articles/RedJacket.html
I wrote it up for KidsOutAndAbout.com.
So go see the photos go here:
http://rochester.kidsoutandabout.com/city-articles/RedJacket.html
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Annika is Seven
Annika is seven, and she is happy.
http://thewaitandwonder.clubmom.com/thewaitandwonder/2007/10/annika-is-seven.html
And I am so lucky, lucky, LUCKY that my girls are healthy.
I almost wish there was someone to thank for this, my heart is so full of gratitude sometimes.
On the flip side, though, I am glad that there is no cruel being who whimsically zapped a sweet little blonde girl in Normal, Illinois with liver disease and a cleft palate and clubbed fingers. No one to blame, no one to fill the mind with hatred.
It's better that way.
http://thewaitandwonder.clubmom.com/thewaitandwonder/2007/10/annika-is-seven.html
And I am so lucky, lucky, LUCKY that my girls are healthy.
I almost wish there was someone to thank for this, my heart is so full of gratitude sometimes.
On the flip side, though, I am glad that there is no cruel being who whimsically zapped a sweet little blonde girl in Normal, Illinois with liver disease and a cleft palate and clubbed fingers. No one to blame, no one to fill the mind with hatred.
It's better that way.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Spontaneous Science
I got on the phone, I thought briefly, with a mom whose husband is going to do a free homeschool science class for 8-11-year-olds, only a mile down the street. I had seen the post about it, emailed Jeff to see if it was religious-based science, and he emailed me back asking me to call. It's not religious-based (they're Jews, it turns out, not fundies), and that's all I really needed to know, but his wife Leslie talked and talked and TALKED. In between various subjects, she turned me on to science experiments from Steve Spangler:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/
She said that they had recently done the Ivory soap experiment, so while she was talking at me about something, I brought up that experiment on the computer (yes, I know, Bad Deb), and saw that all it involved was a bar of Ivory soap and a microwave. The girls kept looking at me with those when-are-you-going-to-get-off-the-phone-we're-tired-of-being-patient eyes, and so I went upstairs and got a bar of Ivory soap, summoned the girls, and (with a few "ohs" and "rights" to Leslie, still chattering away) put it in the microwave on High for 2 minutes. Wow, it was really cool.
Here is the experiment: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000053
If you do it, make sure you watch the whole process, don't leave. We had to turn it off with 30 seconds to go, because I think our microwave is extra-powerful.
When I got off the phone we were able to discuss the history of Ivory soap and how it came to float, then talked about floating in general, then about melting and boiling points, and then it turned into a states of matter discussion.
So, for kicks, we took an ice cube and put it in a cold pot on the stove and watched it melt on high power. We timed how long it took to melt (1:28), and then to boil away completely (2:22). We then tried it again with an ice cube in an already hot pot, and found it melted and vaporized much more quickly. We talked about heat transfer, and why it melts much more quickly in a pot that is already hot. Then I had Ella hold an ice cube in her hand and time how long it took to melt (7:10).
When I asked the girls how long it would take before it boiled in Ella's hand, Madison didn't really think it through and blurted out "About an hour!" but Ella took a few moments more and said "Never. My hand isn't hot enough to make it boil." And then Madison protested that water does evaporate, and we talked about the difference between the process of evaporation and boiling.
"Why must the water cycle be driven by evaporation, and not by boiling?" I asked. For the same reason that Ella's hand could never make it boil -- if it was hot enough on earth to boil water, the earth would be a very different place.
Of course, the child who loves arguments driven by nitpicking objected. "What about in the center of the earth? It's hot enough to boil water in there." We looked up the temperature in the inner core (7000 degrees C) and the temperature in the mantle (879 degrees C). Water would boil in there, yep. "Well how FAST would an ice cube vaporize in the mantle?" A fraction of a second. "It would be even faster in the core, right?" Yes. "How much faster?" I couldn't do any better than a fraction of a fraction of a second, which is of course unsatisfying.
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/
She said that they had recently done the Ivory soap experiment, so while she was talking at me about something, I brought up that experiment on the computer (yes, I know, Bad Deb), and saw that all it involved was a bar of Ivory soap and a microwave. The girls kept looking at me with those when-are-you-going-to-get-off-the-phone-we're-tired-of-being-patient eyes, and so I went upstairs and got a bar of Ivory soap, summoned the girls, and (with a few "ohs" and "rights" to Leslie, still chattering away) put it in the microwave on High for 2 minutes. Wow, it was really cool.
Here is the experiment: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000053
If you do it, make sure you watch the whole process, don't leave. We had to turn it off with 30 seconds to go, because I think our microwave is extra-powerful.
When I got off the phone we were able to discuss the history of Ivory soap and how it came to float, then talked about floating in general, then about melting and boiling points, and then it turned into a states of matter discussion.
So, for kicks, we took an ice cube and put it in a cold pot on the stove and watched it melt on high power. We timed how long it took to melt (1:28), and then to boil away completely (2:22). We then tried it again with an ice cube in an already hot pot, and found it melted and vaporized much more quickly. We talked about heat transfer, and why it melts much more quickly in a pot that is already hot. Then I had Ella hold an ice cube in her hand and time how long it took to melt (7:10).
When I asked the girls how long it would take before it boiled in Ella's hand, Madison didn't really think it through and blurted out "About an hour!" but Ella took a few moments more and said "Never. My hand isn't hot enough to make it boil." And then Madison protested that water does evaporate, and we talked about the difference between the process of evaporation and boiling.
"Why must the water cycle be driven by evaporation, and not by boiling?" I asked. For the same reason that Ella's hand could never make it boil -- if it was hot enough on earth to boil water, the earth would be a very different place.
Of course, the child who loves arguments driven by nitpicking objected. "What about in the center of the earth? It's hot enough to boil water in there." We looked up the temperature in the inner core (7000 degrees C) and the temperature in the mantle (879 degrees C). Water would boil in there, yep. "Well how FAST would an ice cube vaporize in the mantle?" A fraction of a second. "It would be even faster in the core, right?" Yes. "How much faster?" I couldn't do any better than a fraction of a fraction of a second, which is of course unsatisfying.
Monday, October 15, 2007
10-minute homeschool
I had an idea I thought I'd try for kicks today, and it turned out to be brilliant.
I devised 10-minute homeschool. Ten minutes per subject, that is. I set the alarm at the beginning of each session, and then they were fascinated to see how much they could get done in 10 minutes. If they were in the middle of something when the beeper went off, it got put away until tomorrow (or, I would have let them pick back up whatever they wanted to at the end of school, but today is a crammed gym-and-swim-then-cooking-then-horseback-riding afternoon and evening). We went from 9:45 to 12:15.
The girls loved it. Loved it, loved it. And they got a lot done, with a lot of cliffhangers that they now want to get done tomorrow. (We're in the middle of the history of ancient Sumer, and I stopped in the middle of a sentence. Whetting the appetite for more tomorrow!) Ella read her book in time to have some time left over at the end of the session. It really focused her -- other days it could take her 15 minutes what it took 8 minutes to do today. And her math, she finished that early, too, and it was PERFECT.
Madison wants to do 15-minute school tomorrow and see how different of an experience that is. Who am I to argue.
I devised 10-minute homeschool. Ten minutes per subject, that is. I set the alarm at the beginning of each session, and then they were fascinated to see how much they could get done in 10 minutes. If they were in the middle of something when the beeper went off, it got put away until tomorrow (or, I would have let them pick back up whatever they wanted to at the end of school, but today is a crammed gym-and-swim-then-cooking-then-horseback-riding afternoon and evening). We went from 9:45 to 12:15.
The girls loved it. Loved it, loved it. And they got a lot done, with a lot of cliffhangers that they now want to get done tomorrow. (We're in the middle of the history of ancient Sumer, and I stopped in the middle of a sentence. Whetting the appetite for more tomorrow!) Ella read her book in time to have some time left over at the end of the session. It really focused her -- other days it could take her 15 minutes what it took 8 minutes to do today. And her math, she finished that early, too, and it was PERFECT.
Madison wants to do 15-minute school tomorrow and see how different of an experience that is. Who am I to argue.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
First fire
It's suddenly October. I mean actual October, not the funny 80-degree October we've been having. It's sort of rainy and 45 degrees, with that crispness in the air we so associate with autumn in Rochester. So last night we had the first fire with what we could scrounge from our backyard:
And what would the first fire be without a nice glass of Glenlivet?
Then we sent the kids to bed and fell asleep during the 11-inning Red Sox game. Good thing we didn't last until the Indians scored 7 extra runs in the top of the 11th.
So the ALCS is 1-1. Go Sox!
And what would the first fire be without a nice glass of Glenlivet?
Then we sent the kids to bed and fell asleep during the 11-inning Red Sox game. Good thing we didn't last until the Indians scored 7 extra runs in the top of the 11th.
So the ALCS is 1-1. Go Sox!
pi-RIT sale
We did the RIT Math Club fundraising sale on Friday. The name of the math club is "Pi-RIT" so the girls dressed up as pirates.
We got cider from Wegmans, made a great chocolate chip cookie recipe from Cooks Illustrated, and some great pumpkin bread that I've made since forever (and which is a terrific way to get both pumpkin and stone ground whole wheat flour into the kids).
I thought it would be neat to get some funky cellophane paper, a ribbon, and some cheap silk flowers that were three-to-a-bunch for 50 cents from Michael's. So for about an extra 35-40 cents, we were able to price the breads at $5 instead of $3.50. Yay, capitalism.
Here they are selling.
Unfortunately, the nice RIT kids, being, well, kids, didn't think about whether we'd have actual traffic, so the receipts didn't quite cover costs. Ah well, that just meant that they didn't have to give any to the math club, and I let them split what they made after giving me back some of the cost.
They also did a cider taste test, which was a big hit. We got cider from three different farm markets around, and had people choose which one they liked best:
They like each other. Really. Despite snarking at each other sometimes.
We got cider from Wegmans, made a great chocolate chip cookie recipe from Cooks Illustrated, and some great pumpkin bread that I've made since forever (and which is a terrific way to get both pumpkin and stone ground whole wheat flour into the kids).
I thought it would be neat to get some funky cellophane paper, a ribbon, and some cheap silk flowers that were three-to-a-bunch for 50 cents from Michael's. So for about an extra 35-40 cents, we were able to price the breads at $5 instead of $3.50. Yay, capitalism.
Here they are selling.
Unfortunately, the nice RIT kids, being, well, kids, didn't think about whether we'd have actual traffic, so the receipts didn't quite cover costs. Ah well, that just meant that they didn't have to give any to the math club, and I let them split what they made after giving me back some of the cost.
They also did a cider taste test, which was a big hit. We got cider from three different farm markets around, and had people choose which one they liked best:
They like each other. Really. Despite snarking at each other sometimes.
Clarence Thomas
Yesterday, David gave me the gift of a luxury almost unimaginable these days -- a few hours by myself to read Clarence Thomas's new book, My Grandfather's Son. Actually, he gave me the weekend so that I could catch up on some work that desperately needs catching up on, but I was at the top of the list for this book at the Penfield library and so I took some time for myself and read. (Can't think when I've done that recently, other than in snatches here and there of David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing, through which I am slowly making my way in between all of the important stuff in life.)
I was disappointed with the book.
I thought perhaps Thomas was going to give us some insight into his intellectual journey from early-70s-angry-young-socialism to originalist jurisprudence. Nope. It was a personal journey from birth to Anita Hill, which some people might find inspiring in the sense that it does a pretty good job at laying out how badly white liberal guilt has served blacks, and how noninterference by government is far better than interference. Other than that, it was pretty much strict-upbringing-by-grandfather-blah-blah-blah-Anita-Hill-blah-blah-blah-God.
The book wasn't badly written, but it was not in the least interestingly written. I had hoped that Thomas's laying out of his life story might be wrapped up in penetrating commentary and perspective from his current position in life. Nope. Just pretty much a bare-bones laying out of the facts. And lots of God's will thrown in for kicks.
Ho-hum.
I was disappointed with the book.
I thought perhaps Thomas was going to give us some insight into his intellectual journey from early-70s-angry-young-socialism to originalist jurisprudence. Nope. It was a personal journey from birth to Anita Hill, which some people might find inspiring in the sense that it does a pretty good job at laying out how badly white liberal guilt has served blacks, and how noninterference by government is far better than interference. Other than that, it was pretty much strict-upbringing-by-grandfather-blah-blah-blah-Anita-Hill-blah-blah-blah-God.
The book wasn't badly written, but it was not in the least interestingly written. I had hoped that Thomas's laying out of his life story might be wrapped up in penetrating commentary and perspective from his current position in life. Nope. Just pretty much a bare-bones laying out of the facts. And lots of God's will thrown in for kicks.
Ho-hum.
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