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January 31, 2006
Why was "Firefly" really cancelled?
Hank Parnell nicely sums up the reasons "Firefly" was so good ... and why it had to be cancelled.
Maybe he's paranoid. On the other hand, I can buy his argument that "Firefly" had to die because it was too focused on personal responsibility and justice, too insistent that government was the bad guy, and, ultimately, too Southern.
We've been borrowing our copy. I think I'll go shopping and give Joss Whedon the money he deserves.
Hat tip to Chris
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My baby ... my baby is 10 years old today.
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January 29, 2006
Classical ... yeah ...
The Crib Chick has been writing about "Classical Education by Way of Cartoons."
Yep, here's a mom after my own heart ... or at least one who has peeked into our living room. (Though in our case, our affinity is for Jimmy Neutron, and we can be convinced to watch The Fairly OddParents.)
As the boys get older we're moving more into our "Classical Education by Way of Science Fiction" curriculum: Babylon 5, classic Trek, comparisons between classic Trek and Next Gen,, and nearly constant analysis of why episodes IV-VI are good, while episodes I-III bite.
As a matter of fact, this past week we did a Classical Writing assignment based on "A Laconic Answer." They immediately recognized the natural kinship between an answer from a Lacon and an answer from, say, Kosh. This week's assignment will be to rewrite the tale with a message to the Vorlons.
Anything to get them to enjoy writing something. Anything.
Maybe next week we can toss some Bionicles into the Roman republic, eh?
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January 28, 2006
In Memoriam
This will always be NASA's darkest week, with the anniversaries of the Apollo 1 fire, and the loss of both Challenger and Columbia.
The guys who post at Caerdroia have said it all for me, and what they don't Bill Whittle does. Go, read, and give thanks to the people who have the courage.
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January 23, 2006
Gaul is for the Birds
Aidan had to translate a sentence in Latin today. The sentence was this:
Galli navigant.
He melted down into a little puddle of frustration because, he insisted, it made no sense!
I calmed him down, and asked him to tell me why it made no sense. He finally managed to explain that it made no sense to say that birds sail. You know, galli, gulls?
"Galli navigant" means "the Gauls sail."
I'm afraid that all this time he's been thinking that Caesar conquered a bunch of seagulls.
Poor kid. Just wait until we get to the Angles.
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Essentials
Over at The Denim Jumper, Poppins asked us to imagine that we were going on a journey into outer space. We will be gone for the next 10-13 years. We can bring with us five books and three programs: What do you choose?
Off the top of my head, here were my choices:
Lord of the Rings
A good dictionary
The complete works of Shakespeare
Encyclopedia of word history - probably Kingfisher
And then I'm torn between the Norton Anthology of World Literature or a good science encyclopedia, which might be more useful in space.
Programs:
Singapore Math (Only because it covers more years than Right Start.)
Henle Latin (The kids would hate it, but if I can only pick one, this is it.)
Classical Writing
But boy, would I be hoping that someone else brought along a really good music collection.
What do you think? Jeff?
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January 21, 2006
What is that strange sound?
It sounds like a cat tapping at the door, but the cats are inside. It sounds like a large bug fluttering into the walls. No ... wait! It's this odd, watery stuff dropping from the sky!
Maybe this will end the practical lessons we've been having on how dustbowls form. Unfortunately, our lawn has been the perfect laboratory.
Well, we're having a terrible time. The two little kids are down with stomach viruses, and the signs say that the other two are not far behind. This is a nasty one. It struck without warning, as mop-wielding workers in both Target and Michaels can attest. (I feel for them, but I'm more thankful that we weren't in my car.)
It's gonna be one of those weeks where we toss out "read, think, learn" in favor of "survive, and try not to puke on the couch."
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January 19, 2006
Imagine, if you will ...
It's 2 a.m. You are yanked out of a deep sleep by the sudden blaring of your television at top volume. You race into the living room to kill your children, but the living room is empty.
You turn the TV down. The TV turns itself back up.
You turn it down again. It turns itself back up again.
You turn it off. It turns back on.
You turn it off again. It turns on again.
You unplug the damn thing and spend the next hour working down the adrenaline rush.
What goes through your mind when something like that happens in the middle of the night? If you wake me from a sound sleep, all rationality is gone. I am Freaked. Out. My electronics are operating of their own free will, and I am pretty darned discombobulated.
Jeff tried to calm me down by pointing out that no one would break into our house to turn up the TV. Well, of course not. That's just dumb. At 2 a.m., I know that no one is breaking into our house simply to mess with the TV. It's far more likely to be a poltergeist with evil intent. Or aliens are playing with our electronics before they kidnap and probe us. Or, maybe someone we know just died, and their spirit is trying to signal us - better check to see if the kids are still breathing.
Really. I told him to check on the kids. He came back and told me they were sleeping soundly. I was confused and indignant for a moment when I realized he did not understand that he was supposed to check to see if they were breathing. Didn't he get it?
But a person, breaking into our house to turn on the TV? As if.
The television is behaving normally this morning. I think it's just biding its time. Maybe we'd better get a new one, just to be safe.
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Sunday at Our House
Child: Oh, it's Martin Luther King's birthday.
Me: That's right. Do you know who that is?
Child: Yes.
Me: Who was he?
Child: He's the guy who started Protestantism.
(Did I mention that I prefer teaching ancient and medieval history to modern?)
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January 17, 2006
School
For a homeschooling journal, this hasn't been much of a homeschooling journal.
We're on our second week back after the holidays. Everyone is sick. Predict no end in sight.
School is getting harder. Connor is about to turn 10, and I am coming to the point where I can't coast on that "Oh, the goal of grammar stage education is exposure ..." bit any more. Nope. He needs more challenging work, which means I have to make my own mental jump.
Luckily I'm slowly, slowly learning how to be organized at this school thing. Over break I printed out all the organizational-type forms I might need, along with weeks' and weeks' worth of corebook-style planning/recording pages of my own design (more recording than planning). I had them coil-bound at Staples. Somehow having it bound makes a difference. Do you know what I mean?
I've also made a template for copywork, so that I can plug in and print out weeks' worth of copywork at a shot. We never did copywork because I never had anything prepared. No more! Now we actually do copywork. How about that?
We experimented with Saxon Math for Connor. I liked it more than I thought I would, but he was quickly bored with the format. So back to Singapore Math we went. Connor's in 4A now, and doing well. Aidan is working through Singapore 2B, as well as Right Start Level C.
Connor is three lessons away from being finished with Latin for Children Primer A. Aidan is on lesson 15 in Latina Christiana I. He's doing well but we have to move very slowly; for a second-grader, though, that's fine. I think now that I should have waited another year to start him on Latin. He's going to be outpaced by the grammar. We may just stick to Minimus for awhile until his brain catches up.
Connor is working through Junior Analytic Grammar to solidify grammar concepts. It's a simple, straightforward, no-frills program.
Both boys are reading the Chronicles of Narnia, and Connor is reading through the Tom Swift novels. Both are ploughing through anything Bionicle-related.
Copywork, handwriting ... we are still working through Classical Writing, but slowly. The boys are taking a weekly astronomy class and piano lessons. They also have a weekly PE class. Connor and I take a weekly Spanish conversation class.
What a dry-sounding list that is.
We're not doing any formal history right now. I'm not enthused by modern history, and didn't really want to read the modern history text to Aidan. I'm just throwing history books at Connor until he will be happy with us heading back into ancient history. He can read all about the world wars. This Mommy is much more excited about making pyramids and chicken mummies and chain mail.
On most mornings the kids start school around 9 am. They do math, Latin, grammar, copywork or any writing we plan for the day. Then they read. They're often finished by lunchtime (except for reading).
It's not bad. We have plenty of time with this routine. It's a good routine. It's kind of odd to have a good routine. It sort of snuck up on me. I wasn't paying attention because we're still not where I'd like us to be ... but suddenly where we are is not bad at all.
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January 15, 2006
Bionicle Monopoly Instructions
Here is the original post on the Well-Trained Mind board.
We worked out a system of property improvements. We have little plastic discs in four colors, red, green, blue and yellow. Once you own a monopoly, you can start buying "elements" in a set order (earth, air, fire, water, each one corresponding to a different colored chip). Rents are higher based on which element is on the monopoly.
Enjoy!
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It's All in the Details
These dang newspaper jobs are such a pain. They expect you to actually read the stories before you go to press.
Either that, or Judge Alito has some 'splainin to do.
Actually, this is from a student newspaper, so I have some sympathy for them. You've got to learn somewhere. And I was on the staff of my college paper when, during the first Gulf War, we ran the headline "Ground War Engaged."
Yeah, what we meant was ...
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January 14, 2006
Frantic Field Trips
Tiger Cubs are supposed to go on five den field trips to earn their Tiger badge. The Blue and Gold banquet is in one month, and we've gone to ... well, no field trips.
So, in the next month, we get to fit in all the trips. You know, in between the Pinewood Derby, the birthday party, and everything else.
Today we went to the Log Cabin Village in Ft. Worth. Apparently all the reenactors and cool exhibits are only there on weekdays, so today we got to see ... log cabins. It was still a fun and interesting trip. I liked the schoolhouse best:
This little village is full of mostly original buildings, though with modern maintenance; for instance, where mud would have been slathered between the chinks, the restorers used cement.
It always gives one a nice bit of perspective to see these one-room houses where people raised nine kids, doesn't it?
Then we went to the Ft. Worth Arboretum, where the kids could swing from trees. 'Cause after a little culture and perspective, you just have to swing on trees.
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The Birthday Present
There's a mom who goes by Peek-A-Boo on the various homeschooling boards, and she's a genius. All I had to do was to copy her work and creativity, and voila! My kid got a very cool birthday present.
I give you ... are you ready for the coolness? ... the homemade Bionicle Monopoly game:
And the very happy birthday boy:
See how cool this is? See? See? Peek gave me her original idea, plus her layout of the squares and properties. Jeff designed a template for the properties and cards, which we'd gladly share if anyone wants them. We used a Create Your Own Game kit; you could just as easily use a create-your-own Monopoly kit, or draw a board from scratch onto posterboard.
There were some awkward moments, as we're not very Bionicle-literate. I wanted to draw a "Kohlii staff" on the square marked "Kohlii Arena." So ... er ... yeah. A Kohlii staff. I flipped through the guidebook and picked a likely staff-like picture, rendered it in black Sharpie and prayed. But the next morning they spied the square and cried "Cool Kohlii staff, mom!"
Whew.
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January 11, 2006
It Was a Good Day
Today I:
Took a Spanish class with my 9 year old.
Sat outside in the 70-degree sunny Texas winter.
Observed my two older children in their first class that is structured like a traditional class, with hand-raising, homework, grades and the like. (Astronomy)
Took a mile-long walk with my two younger children, at their request. "Look, Mom, there's a conifer tree!" (This moment brought to you by They Might Be Giants.)
Played at the park with my two younger children in the beautiful Texas winter.
Worked out at an actual gym.
Ate good take-out and watched "Lost" and some B5 with my husband.
Watched/helped my children play with Snap Circuits (Best. Toy. Ever.). Watched my new 8 year old design his own circuits, and figure out for himself why his failures failed.
We squeezed in school, too, apart from the classes: Math, Latin and letter writing in the afternoon. Reading in the car. Poetry in the car. Snap Circuits after TV.
And now I am exhausted, and am going to sleep.
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I'm So Glad for our Senators
Jeff has always told me that politics was a fun spectator sport. I always thought he was just a geek. Actually, I always thought that politics was mostly over my head and beyond me. I'm so glad to find that it's not.
I've been in the car a great deal over the past few days. At some point during each car trip I find my hand straying over to the NPR button. Yes, I've been listening to the Alito hearings. And I am amazed. I am amazed that anything ever gets done in this country.
Yesterday I heard a great deal about the college experiences of one senator's children. I'm glad to see that the Senators have such a lively interest in each other's family lives. I'm also glad to know that politics breeds such laid-back folks that they have the time to listen to such heartwarming stories all day long.
Later that day I heard Judge Alito grilled over whether he is too likely to rule in favor of the executive branch of the government. The senator made it clear that it is of extreme importance for Alito to be his own man, should he sit on the Supreme Court. The same senator then explained that it is of extreme importance that Judge Alito vote in every way just like Justice O'Connor, so as not to upset the balance of the Court. I'm glad to see that logic is still alive and well in the Senate.
Then I heard an amazing series of convoluted questions, all beginning with praise for Judge Alito and ending with one teensy little point intended to be a quiet but all-out attack on the judge's character. I'm glad to know that our Senators have a fine command of the passive-aggressive approach. Better to obscure your main point and come at the target backhanded, I always say: this is especially true when the issue is of the utmost importance to the nation. Clarity and honesty might just muck up things a bit much, might bring a decision before all the emotional talking points have been hit. That would never do.
I've heard 20 minutes of discussion about whether it is a serious character flaw to change one's mind about a position one held 20 years ago. I'm glad to know our Senators hold so steadfastly to their principles across the years.
Today I heard a fascinating amount of information about the undesirable side effects of abortion, including studies cited. I was also treated to an explanation of the Senator's views on abortion, which was fairly lengthy when you consider that this is not a hearing about abortion. I'm glad to see that our Senators stay focused and on topic.
No wonder these things take days. Upon consideration, maybe I'm sorry I understand as much as I do. It is kind of fascinating in a train-wreck sort of way, though.
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January 9, 2006
Eight Years Ago
Eight years ago I was not yet having any contractions nor any other sign of labor, in spite of the fact that my baby would be born in five hours.
Aidan's birth story is the fun one. It has everything: The calm midwife assuring everyone it would be hours, and telling me to take a bath to relax. The warm bath speeding labor along. The frantic call back to the midwife informing her that no matter how calm she was, we were on our way. The breakneck drive down the Dallas North Tollway and through downtown Dallas at 4 am. He was born ten minutes after we pulled up to the door of the birth center, just before the sun rose on his Daddy's 29th birthday.
And now he's eight.
(Pause to contemplate the marvel of how quickly the time goes.)
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January 8, 2006
Woo-hoo!!
I am thrilled, pleased, proud to announce that tonight my 5 year old marched up to the whiteboard and wrote CAT.
Yes, on purpose.
I love it when that happens.
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January 5, 2006
Field Trip
In all the time that we've visited Arkansas, we've never actually explored any of Arkansas. So during our Christmas trip this year, I finally grabbed a map to find out what interesting things we might be near.
We took a day trip to go hunting for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park. This is a fun little spot at what used to be the crater of a volcano. It's now 37 acres of diamond-bearing soil, and you get to keep what you find. For the adults and older children, it's a geological adventure. And for the little ones, it's a whole day of digging in the dirt. What's not to like?
We didn't find any diamonds (though someone else did, while we were there!). Staffers are knowledgeable about geology and are on-hand to identify your finds. We gathered mostly jasper, agate, and various volcanic material. Aidan found some lamproite, which is apparently the material in which one finds diamonds. Close! He, at least, was smart enough to pick up the stuff and search in that area - I was chucking it over my shoulder as "not diamond" and moving on.
It's educational, it's fun, the people are friendly and it's not terribly expensive. I'd love to go again.
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Clarifying the Brain-Wrapping
Thanks, all of you who commented. I want to clarify my angst, though. As most of you know, I have no problem with just getting up and going. If we were going to traipse of to Detroit for six months, or even a year, I could be ready in two weeks.
It's the selling of the house that is throwing me. And it's the packing of the entire house and readying it to sell. It's the letting go, permanently, forever, of the one place I've lived the longest in my entire life, and the one place I've ever owned.
This is also the first time my kids have ever been this deeply involved in activities. They have playdates with kids who are not the kids of Mommy's friends. We have *community.* This has never really happened before, either.
These are the things that make the whole situation bizarre. I've never had these things. And I was fine, never having these things. But now that I've got them, they're tough to give up.
And there's one more component to my brain-resistance: Things feel right, or they don't. I know that if my husband comes home and says "I've got a job offer in X," I'll have a feeling about it. If I don't feel that we're going, we won't. That feeling has been fairly reliable. (Remember when we were going to move to Virginia? I was even packing, although the feeling wasn't there and I didn't believe it. And we didn't go.) Well, I don't feel that we're moving now. But Jeff is looking for a house up there, and is setting plans in motion. I can't make plans, because I'm not taking any of it seriously. I've got to find a way to convince myself to believe that it really is happening, or I'm going to end up with movers at my door one morning while I'm still trying to teach school and get everyone to Scouts on time.
It is, financially speaking, the best thing to do.
Talk me into it.
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January 4, 2006
Help me wrap my brain around this ...
Do you see how late it is?
I can't sleep.
So, Jeff's current job is actually located in the Detroit area. They let him work from home most of the time, but require him to fly to Detroit a couple of times a month.
Because of the nature of this contract, we foot the bill for this travel: airfare, hotel, everything. No reimbursement.
His boss would prefer him to actually be physically at the job full-time, instead of telecommuting.
The contract looks to be long-term and stable (though, as we all know ... who knows?).
Our house is in a great location, but it's cramped. We love it, but we dream of something larger. With a bigger yard - say five acres or so.
It all adds up to this: If we sold this house and moved to a rental in Detroit, we could sock away the equity and look for land. We could save the twice-monthy airfare and hotel costs. He could work a little overtime. We could have an extra $2000 a month in our pockets. We could do fun things like: save for a bigger house with land, actually finish paying off our current debt, AND have the money to actually pay for medical and dental care. All at the same time! Wheee!
It's a no-brainer, right? Isn't it?
I can't wrap my brain around it. I can't believe we're going to pack up and sell the house. It's not real. Going to Michigan - that's fine. But selling the house?!
This is the only house I've ever owned. I've never lived anywhere as long as I've lived here.
I've never sold a house before.
My schedule is packed. We've got a constant stream of Cub Scout activities in the next couple of months, plus three more birthdays to fit in. And, of course, PE, music lessons, astronomy class, and ... school.
Er ... when do I pack? When do I do the repairs necessary to sell the house? You're joking.
I don't feel like any of it is really happening, so I can't get motivated to make plans. When you look at all those facts above, though, it doesn't make any sense to not go.
How do I wrap my brain around this?
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January 3, 2006
The first day of the rest of my life ...
Thanks for the good wishes. And my, what perceptive men comment on my blog!
We went out for dinner. Just for the record, I did not die. I'm beginning to think that maybe my allergist was a tad overdramatic.
Jeff's birthday is next week, so we got each other new speakers for the house. Our right speaker has been dead for some time. However, our right car speaker is out as well, so music is beginning to sound normal that way. Until, of course, we play something older that uses the left and right channels separately. Fun. (Hey, kids, like this Beatles track? You should hear it with vocals!)
Christmas and birthdays have resulted in an audio-visual glut. I've got ... five? Six? Music DVDs, plus "Serenity," season 1 of "Babylon 5," and the entire series of "Space: Above and Beyond." Sci-fi heaven.
You know you're watching too much science fiction when you dream new "Firefly" episodes. (Not that Malcolm Reynolds is not welcome to show up in my dreams any time, but it wasn't even that kind of a dream.)
For Christmas I got Jeff an XM radio subscription and tuner. Oh my, is that nice. Live INXS. Acoustic Yes. Spock's Beard. I listen mostly to "Fred," the "Classic Alternative" station; and "Music Lab," the prog rock station. The kids like to stick to "Cinemagic," which is all movie soundtracks all the time.
So if our eyes are glazed over for the next few months, you know why. Music. Sci-fi. Music. Sci-fi. Dude.
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January 2, 2006
Happy Birthday
To ME!!
:D
How old do you think I am?
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January 1, 2006
A Couple of Solstice Pictures
Lachlan
All the boys ... and geese
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