The Stone Age Techie

Unconventional Gingerbread Houses

2011-12-22T16:11:00.004-05:00

I know, a positive post from The Stone Age Techie! One that is not about health problems, or health insurance, or other sucky stuff like that. I feel lots better, largely because I started acupuncture about six weeks ago. (Think it's too expensive? So did I, until I found out about Community Acupuncture.) It is a frickin' miracle, and between that and physical therapy I hope I am on the road to recovery.

I've learned many lessons from these last months of illness; I think the two most important are 1) it's okay to depend on others sometimes and 2) patience really is a virtue. I want to thank everybody who contacted me here, or on Facebook, or via e-mail - your support really got me through this! I'm very lucky in my virtual friends as well as my real-world ones.

My kids have learned many lessons too, and have spent lots of their homeschooling time honing their life skills ( laundry, chicken care, dishes, cooking, etc. ) and their patience. In a way, these months have been extra-special because we've spent more time at home with each other, playing board games and talking about everything under the sun, and just laughing together. I wish I could've blogged about the time that Luke and Owen performed a shadow-puppet show, The Lord of The Rings Part One, with a theater and puppets they'd made from scratch to cheer me up during an especially low point. I could take no pictures, but oh boy, did this work. I'm tearing up thinking about it. It was awesome.

With health improving and Christmas coming, the month of December has been pretty exciting. The boys have been good to each other, have shared their time, energy, and even some of their hard-earned money to help less fortunate families in our area, they've been truly helpful around the house – so this week seemed like a good time to bust into the gingerbread. A few years ago, my dear friend Nicole, whose fantastic blog about unschooling you can check out here, somehow managed to get geometry concepts across while making gingerbread houses in the math class she taught; since then, Luke and Owen look forward to replicating that project every Christmas. Here are this year's results!

Instead of gingerbread, we use graham crackers because they are approximately the same size as index cards. ( And they're already made – gingerbread for houses is one thing I have yet to perfect.) So first, each boy uses index cards and tape to make a model for their gingerbread house. Here is Owen's, next door to his partially completed house:

Barn, actually. He declared his gingerbread house would be "the old barn where Jesus was born." "You mean manger?" I asked, enjoying his substitution for a word he did not know. "Yes!" came the answer.

It was fun to watch him design this. He spent his time painstakingly folding roof pieces and cutting small pieces for the upper walls. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls out index cards just to build with them again sometime.

Luke went sort of in the other direction, making a cute, fairly unconventional house… complete with outhouse in back. Here he is, putting it together:

Their eyes widened so much when I brought out the candy:

It's rare that they see that much candy in one place, never mind in our house.

A happy boy.

Here's Owen putting the finishing touches on his manger:

This one gives you a good view of Luke's house, and outhouse:

He said at one point, "Hey Mom! I just put up a jellybean as an air freshener in the outhouse!" I haven't laughed that hard in weeks.

And here are the finished products:

Owen's manger, complete with candy gardens in front and back – and a stash of candy inside for the residents.

And Luke's, which he designed and built and decorated all on his own. Yes, it's an outhouse, but it's his outhouse, know what I mean?

When Owen developed the idea from the Rollo chimney, Luke soon followed suit. In fact, they traded ideas, as well as candy and extra frosting, very companionably. I kept thinking how great it is that they're such good friends, how even though they fight sometimes they're very quick to make up and care very much about each other.

And, not only can they rely on each other for help and support and fun and silliness, but Ben and I can rely on them for these things too.

It's been just one more positive lesson to come out of the trying year of 2011.

A Letter in The Boston Globe!

2011-11-17T17:52:00.003-05:00

Here it is - my letter to the editor about the effect that health care coverage is having on my family.
I know that this blog is about homeschooling (well, and knitting) but for the last six months our lives have been as much about health, sickness, and insurance as anything else. And this is really a blog about our life, so this is what I'm blogging about.

In case the links stops working after today, here is the text from the letter:

Crying in pain, and in anguish over coverage woes

November 17, 2011

RE “AT best, Mass. health strategy offers halfway house to universal care’’ (Op-ed, Nov. 10): I really identified with Robert Kuttner’s op-ed. From my family’s standpoint, the health care glass sure looks half empty.

This year, I developed two fairly serious health issues, one chronic. In the midst of this crisis, my husband and I learned that our best health care option for next year, involving priced tiers, would make most of the doctors our family relies upon unaffordable for us as of Jan. 1.

Now I cry myself to sleep, not just from the pain of my physical ailments, but from the anguish of leaving the doctors we chose, including our primary care doctors, our sons’ pediatricians, and four excellent specialists. They’re among the best in their fields, and our relationship with some of them goes back more than a decade.

This experience has shaken my faith not just in our government but in our whole society. I wonder whether the soul-crushing mess that is health care in this country can ever be fixed?

Karen Kolp

Bellingham

Irony of the Day

2011-11-08T19:44:00.003-05:00

Our best health care plan option next year is the one that makes six out of the seven doctors we see, including our primary care doctors and some that we've seen for more than a decade, absolutely unaffordable (meaning that we're scrambling for all new doctors).
The name of this plan is the Tufts Your Choice Plan.

Tryin' to get healthy, it continues to be a long road, so I thought it was time to check in for a mini-rant.

I guess what bothers me most about the name of this plan is that it seems intended to make people believe that they're getting more choices, while their choices are simultaneously being limited. Six out of seven doctors, people! It's so patronizing, calling it the Your Choice Plan.

In other news, the boys are good, the weather is lovely - I guess that's owed to us after a gigantic snowfall on the eve of Halloween - and hubby is now making better homemade pizza than I ever did. I continue to feel incredibly lucky, despite some stubborn obstacles to optimum health.

I hope you can say the same, or better!

A Different Kind of Memorial

2011-09-06T20:18:00.012-04:00

So many things in my life are different ten years on.
On September 10, 2001:

I didn't intimately know the geography of Manhattan island, which I learned frantically in the hours of 9/11 because it was where my brother worked at the time.

I trusted air travel. Slightly.

I carried around 45 more pounds than I do now.

I suffered from asthma, frequent migraines, post-partum depression.

I didn't have my beautiful Owen yet. (I did have my beautiful Luke, and even through the post-partum depression, I knew what a treasure he was.)

I was mighty interested in keeping up with the Joneses.

I, along with my family, ate terribly.

Really, changing that last one has led to many of the other changes. The year Owen was born I read The Tightwad Gazette from cover to cover and we joined a CSA, events which precipitated the complete restructuring of our household. I even attribute homeschooling to those events, because although we didn't start that until years later, they are part of the same mindset. For me, at least.

In the intervening decade, I've looked at the clock at exactly 9:11 stupidly often. It still gives me goosebumps, as does thinking about how close my brother came to being a victim that day. He tells of coming through the under-the-towers subway station just after the first plane struck, and getting off to change trains one stop north. While waiting he heard sirens, screams, and a bland message over the intercom about "an incident interrupting train service," and along with everyone else he just waited in that seen-it-all New Yorker way until eventually a train came and he got on. He didn't find out what was happening until he arrived forty-five minutes later at his job in northern Manhattan, all his co-workers gathered around the television weeping.

And now, it is September of 2011. We've been adhering to our new normal as much as possible, given some health problems of mine; the boys hang with the chickens each day and have taken on the largest part of chicken-care, while Ben has had to do far more in the garden than I would like. (Just a little aside, the 2001 me would have laughed really hard at the idea of ever keeping chickens.) I've managed to put up quite a bit of salsa, tomatoes, jams, and have dehydrated several quarts of our favorite fruits.

You may know the golden rule about food preservation: always label and date the food, lest you forget what it is or come across it later and can only wonder if it is safe to eat. Hence, the relish I made in July of last year states "Relish, 7/10." I've labeled stuff that way since 2004, when I started canning, and now that we are in September of 2011 the labels read "9/11." Goosebumps, every time.

I've been giving serious thought to lying, to deliberately labeling everything canned, dried, or frozen during this month with the date 8/11, or 10/11.

But I think I won't. Our country changed that day in ways that are still being realized ten years on. Our laws, politics, world view, the way that we treat neighbors and strangers alike, everything is different because of 9/11. The very fact that we in our home have learned to put by so much of our own food, to be so invested in the local economy, so embedded in our community, began with 9/11. It would feel like a denial of history to lie on those jam jars or pickle jars.

Boy, that last sentence sounds bizarre. How can I possibly link up denial of history to canning jars? And yet it's true. Because every time I label preserved food this month, I'm going to have goosebumps. And then this winter, every time I grab some dehydrated peaches, or apples to make pie, those goosebumps will shiver their way up my spine again.

I'll think about how lucky I am to still have my brother, and I know that in the same moment I'll also be sad for those who did lose loved ones. I'll think about changes, especially of the wrenching negative kind, but I'll also think about the positive ones. I'll think about the kind of hope that causes a family to plant a garden and put up some produce.

It's a tiny way of remembering, a different kind of memorial.

The Newlywed Blanky

2011-07-25T22:50:00.004-04:00

Well, here it is!

They aren't newlyweds anymore, but I still hope that when my baby brother and his excellent wife pull out this blanky and snuggle under it, they will remember it as made for them on the occasion of their marriage. Even though that was almost two years ago.

Here's another picture of the blanky, because I do love pics without flash:

You can see the vertical stripes in it, one of the reasons I chose this pattern.

Anyway, just a quick check-in here at Stone Age Techie, where we are having a summer filled with health problems and have recently adopted the motto, 'if you can't laugh, you'll only cry, so better laugh.'

Yep, it's been that kind of summer.

We have also had some fun, though, and some personal triumphs - the Newlywed Blanky for me, canoeing on the Saco River in Maine, where Luke did nearly all the paddling for he and I (also where the banner pic comes from), and Owen's big thrill: jumping in the shallow end of the pool from the edge (and not from the steps in the water).

Lots of great stuff! Hope your summer is full of reasons to laugh, and none to cry.

Don't Panic!

2011-06-16T22:29:00.003-04:00

Gosh, I didn't realize how long ago May 10 – the date of my last blog post – was.
In my defense, I can only say that it's been a pretty busy few weeks, and culminated in my getting sick, like hospital sick. (Not wisdom teeth sick, though, that's still on the back burner.) For dignity's sake I will not go into what put me in the hospital; when I tell you that it involved more pain than labor and that I will continue to recover for the next probably eight weeks, that should be enough.
In the time leading up to my getting sick, I was making plans to go and be an angel of mercy for my parents while my mom recovered from knee surgery. I was looking forward to the trip, but not the airplane flight – flying is not my favorite mode of transportation. A week or so before I was due to go, Luke and I did a get-ready-for-bed exercise, and ever since then I've been planning to blog about the exercise.
I'd been really worrying about flying. I couldn't sleep for worrying, couldn't keep my mind on a book, didn't enjoy stuff I usually enjoy like playing Legos with the kids or knitting.
And then came the night of this exercise; I was so worried, I wasn't even looking forward to that. Luke chose the Cup Exercise, the one where we design a cup, fill it with our favorite liquid, drink it down, and place the cup in a box of our own design. When we got started, all I could think was that I wanted something comforting, but I couldn't think what.
Then my imagination took over; suddenly the plain drinking glass I started with had turned into one of those thick, white mugs that you get in an old-fashioned diner. And something more: the words 'Don't Panic!'appeared on the mug, along with several suggestions for hitchhiking around the galaxy – things like 'always remember your towel.' When we got to the part where you fill the cup with liquid, mine miraculously filled with a perfect cup of tea, just the right sweetness and just the right amount of milk. Somehow, when on the verge of a big trip, my mind channeled The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as just exactly what I needed; it was so right.
At the time, I thought the only thing I was going to have to worry about was a plane flight. My Don't Panic mug has seen me through a lot more than that, however.
Now, it will have to see us all through this summer; as I recover and get into the swing of summer harvesting and putting up food for the winter, I'm placing The Stone Age Techie on hold. I might be back to check in once or twice, but only plan to get back to regular blogging in September or October, when things settle down around here.
I hope you have a great summer, filled with all the sunshine and joy that your heart could possibly desire. See you in the fall!

Springtime for the Mandalorian Warriors

2011-05-10T10:11:00.002-04:00

I came upon these guys hanging out near our seedlings recently, and was struck by the difference in scale between the powerful, but teeny, warriors, and the giant baby herbs and tomato plants right next door.
It made me think about how big the warriors must seem to Owen, creator of their spaceship. And how just at that moment the baby plants might not have been babies at all, but part of a forest of giants.
Perhaps they are as big as his imagination; perhaps as big as childhood.

We Love Dragons...

2011-05-05T10:04:00.004-04:00

But even more, we love the friends who provided the dragons and their amazing habitat.

A Visit to the Massachusetts Ministry of Magic

2011-04-26T11:26:00.003-04:00

Or, as we like to call it, the State House:

Our state homeschooling organization, Advocates for Home Education in Massachusetts, planned a day for homeschoolers to visit the State House. The visit included a well-set-up scavenger hunt which took us all over the building, a State House tour, and the chance to meet with our State Representative.
Here are some pictures:

Up there, that's the statue of General Hooker. One of the many well-dressed workers at the State House took time out of his busy day to tell us all about Gen. Hooker, a Civil war hero. He also discussed how, in a sculpture of a person on a horse, you can tell if the subject is alive or dead by the number of hooves on the ground or in the air. Gen. Hooker, it turns out,lived through the Civil War; had he died the horse would be rearing with both front legs off the ground.

These next two pictures are of the Great Hall of Flags, which houses each Massachusetts town's official flag.

For much of our visit, the Great Hall of Flags was full of people and TV cameras and officials all gathered to discuss autism. It wasn't the only area of the state house bustling with senators, representatives, aides, journalists, photographers, and visitors. In most hallways and gathering spaces, people were everywhere! Another beautiful gallery, the Hall of Nurses, hosted a meeting the morning we were there attended by police officers from across the state. Just add in the flying paper airplanes that count as interoffice mail in the Ministry of Magic, and we could've been in the wizarding world.

It seemed like everywhere we went, there was somebody to help us. On our scavenger hunt, we needed to get into a large reception hall to find a painting of Horace Mann. A guard informed us that there was a meeting going on, we wouldn't be able to get into the reception room; as he was finishing his sentence, a senator rushed up, overruled the guard, and took us in to the room by a door further down the hallway, telling us many facts about the hall and the building as we went. When he opened the door to show us the picture, we saw officials, journalists, and photographers way over on the other side of reception hall – and the picture we were seeking was just above our heads.

Here is a lovely window that I enjoyed as we walked through the State House.

We were lucky enough to meet with the representative from our area, at a moment when he had the time to give us a tour of the House Debating Chamber. This picture hangs in the chamber:

Also, our representative told us about the Sacred Cod, which you can see in the gallery below. The cod's head points toward the side of the party in power; here in Massachusetts, the cod has pointed toward the Democrat's side since 1948 – a fact which our Republican representative told us with no irony or bitterness whatsoever; I liked him for that. When you are attempting to rear children with respect for their civil government, it's nice to have your elected representatives treat the other side with civility.

And, here is our group posing for a picture with the representative in the debating chamber. We are standing where the Speaker of the House stands; it was quite a feeling!

One of the most memorable parts of the day for me will always be when our representative was showing Luke, Owen, and I some of the quieter chambers off to the side of the big chamber. Luke asked a really interesting question: "Representative, why is everything oval-shaped in here? I mean, the curtains, the tables, the plaster above the lights…"
A conversation ensued about how the architecture in this building reflects the builders' belief in equality for everyone. Our representative told us further that the chairs in the Senate Chamber are carefully set so that everyone's head is at the same height while they debate. He then asked if the boys knew about the legend of King Arthur; when they responded enthusiastically, the three of them shared in a conversation about why the Round Table was round.
And then:
Owen: "Representative, our mom lets us watch clips of a movie about King Arthur on YouTube. Have you ever heard of Monty Python?"
Representative: (smiling)"Yes, I have."
Owen:"Oh, that is one of our favorite movies to watch clips from! Have you ever seen the part with the Killer Rabbit?"
Representative:(smiling even wider)"Sure, I remember him!"
Owen:"Do you remember this part? What's he gonna do, nibble my bum?" Seriously, my six-year-old said that to our State Representative. I was a bit embarrassed, but I have to admit I also thought it was very cute – and, I think the Representative will remember our meeting with fondness. He laughed heartily at Owen's imitation.

As for us, we remember this visit with fondness too. Really, all that were missing were the flying interoffice memos; the State House is quite a magical place.

Spring Spruce-Up

2011-04-19T11:12:00.001-04:00

Nearly two years ago, we blew $200 on This End Up couches from our favorite thrift shop nearby. The cushions were old, and somewhat, shall we say, eye-catching:

But we thought, hey, we'll get covers for them, the sunflowers will be gone in a month, tops.

Fast-forward to two weekends ago, when I happened to look into the Last Chance bin at Ikea - and got $500 worth of couch covers for $30! Sure, they were meant to fit different-sized cushions, but I thought I could make them fit ours. So, one panic attack (at the thought of using scissors on such gorgeous fabric - I made the first cuts while on the phone with my Mom, I'm so glad she was home or I might not have had the guts) and a whole lot of thread later:

Bliss. One tiny corner of our tiny home has been tamed.

Cape Cod, Off-Season

2011-04-14T22:49:00.001-04:00

I got a few days alone with my hubby recently, to celebrate us both turning The Big 4-0. (Isn't that crazy? I hope that the next forty are as great as the last.)
I think I only want to visit Cape Cod in the off-season ever again! No crowds, just friendly year-round residents and blissfully empty open spaces.

This is just a few steps from the inn we stayed at.

Nobksa Light, one of two lighthouses we checked out - I have a thing for lighthouses like Topsy has a thing for waterfalls, so this was my kind of trip.

The view from Nobska Light.

Any thoughts on what this bird might be? He was hunting for lunch in Nauset Marsh.

Here's the second lighthouse, Nauset Light. It overlooks Nauset Beach:

And there's Ben, way up the beach.

Notice that we are in full winter gear! It was beautiful, but very cold and windy.

My Ben, I am so glad that you're the one I get to turn forty with! But, will you still need me when I'm sixty-four?

A Knitted Mug Warmer

2011-04-11T10:56:00.002-04:00

So, acupuncture seems to work with tendinitis, I highly recommend it to all knitters... with my 'new' arms, I made this mug warmer as a thank-you, and I'm thinking about making one for myself too, it's so cozy!

Finger Puppets Rock.

2011-04-06T22:49:00.002-04:00

I made these for a friend with a new baby, who'll need lots of entertainment, and a four-year-old who can provide it. Cute, eh?

A Season in Pictures: The Leadville Mining Hall of Fame

2011-03-29T18:24:00.001-04:00

This is from a huge room of mini-dioramas explaining mining, starting with the Gold Rush; I loved this depiction of sluice-mining.

A canary in a coal mine, just one tiny part of just one of the amazing 'mines' you can walk through here. They really give you an idea of what miners' days were (and are) like!

A huge sculpture of a miner, mining. I also loved the elaborate stained glass windows, depicting everything from jackhammers to those huge dump trucks, one of which you can see behind the sculpture.

The pictures simply do not do this place justice. We walked in thinking, 'okay, we'll spend an hour, how exciting can a museum about mining be?' And left thinking, 'whoa.'

If you're ever in Leadville, Colorado, it is worth a stop!

A Season in Pictures: Wii-Free Swordfighting

2011-03-25T11:17:00.002-04:00

We didn't bring the Wii out to the Rockies on our recent visit to my folks'; instead, we decided to make some swords!

There they are: from left to right, Destroy, Sting, and Anduril, Flame of the West. Owen did the writing, and was very happy with the results:

A Season in Pictures

2011-03-22T22:57:00.005-04:00

Happy spring!

We're home from the Rockies, jet lag is all taken care of and the boys aren't quite as grumpy now, having decided that life goes on even when Grandma isn't around to spray whipped cream straight from the can into their mouths ('because I can DO that as the grandmother!' I hear her shouting happily).

Also, I have finally uploaded many pictures from the trip and the last month or so.

And I thought, since my arms are still healing from the chronic knitting injury I have dealt them, that I would spend at least the early spring, if not the whole thing, blogging more in images than in words.

So, here are a few pics from the recent trip; we were spoiled with more than just whipped cream! We went dog-sledding, as in we got to mush the dogs. Who were awesome, btw. In fact, Luke wants to someday start a company doing dog-sledding here in the east. Here are the boys mushing:

Yes, at ages six and ten they got to drive a team of dogs, kind of a life highlight for them both. And me too, come to think of it.

We are so grateful to Grandma and Grandpa for making the whole trip possible, thanks Mom and Dad!

Perfect Ski Soundtrack

2011-03-04T00:27:00.004-05:00

I bet you have songs that you associate with memories. I sure do, and the one song that has come up frequently while the boys and I visit my folks in the Colorado Rockies is What's Up? by 4 Non Blondes. It's a song that has always brought me back to really good times, and for some reason I associate it especially with skiing.

Growing up, skiing in my family was more than just a pastime - it was an instition. My parents' first date was skiing in rural Quebec, my brothers and I were skiiers before we were five, and we skiied every winter, often getting up before dawn and driving five hours to our favorite ski hills in Vermont and New Hampshire. It was the only thing that I would willingly get up before noon for on a weekend, and a big reason why winter is still my favorite season.

Naturally, when my folks retired from the rat race, they didn't head to Florida; they took a hard right turn, and have spent the last dozen years poo-pooing our Eastern icy skiing conditions and grabbing fresh powder by the fistful out here in the West. It really is a most remarkable place.

So, 4 Non Blondes! Maybe What's Up? gets a lot of play at ski hills, because I already associated it with skiing before yesterday, when I heard it twice, first sitting in a base lodge and feeling absolutely high on the best day of skiing I've had since before Luke and Owen came along. For the first time ever, I got above the timberline without being dragged and/or nervous, and just was loving everything about it: the steeps, the bumps, the view, the sun on my face, the wide-open feeling of being at the top of the world.

I almost got an all is right with the world feeling (want to know what that is? Click here), sitting in the base lodge and thinking back on an incredible day of skiing with my father. Almost, but not quite - that feeling came about half an hour later when, on the three-minute drive back up to my parents' home, What's Up? started in the parking lot and finished in their driveway.

It turns out, that's like my Dad's favorite song! So he cranked up the sound and we had all the windows down, singing our heads off heading up the mountain.

To me, just at that moment, all really was right with the world.

On Vacation!

2011-02-21T22:24:00.003-05:00

So, it's taken me three years, almost to the day, to get on an airplane again. Tomorrow, the boys and I go to visit my folks in the Rocky Mountains, and I'm pretty excited - but, I will be more excited when the whole plane experience is over.

We are such winter people, and so visiting my parents, in the hip resort town they call home, where the snow base is 300-plus inches and all the fun stuff happens outside, is such a treat!

Hubby can't go, because of work, so going out there for sun and fun is always tempered by leaving half of my heart back in New England.

And, that's mostly what I am thinking about right now; I hope to post once or twice while we're out there, but tonight is for Ben, whom I love so much.

We Interrupt This Valentine's Season To Bring You...

2011-02-10T21:04:00.006-05:00

The Lord of The Rings.
While other families talk of love, and chocolate, and exchanging valentines, all our discourse has been about orcs, and hobbits, and Gollum, and who's tougher - Legolas or Gimli?

Activities surrounding LOTR have run the gamut, from endless drawings by 6-year-old Owen of the siege at Helm's Deep, to discussions of how to make a One Ring birthday cake (next summer, not any time soon.) We've even rediscovered this Flight of the Conchords classic:

There are a few swears in the middle, which I talk over when Owen watches; yes, glad you asked - I know where the swears are because I've had this video memorized long before Owen had ever heard of Aragorn, Son of Arathorn.

Because I loved the tale as a child, it's been very moving to see the wonder on Luke and Owen's faces as they enjoy the movies, and the endless family discussions on everything related to the story.

Which I guess brings us back around to Valentine's Day, in a peculiar way; this is a story about love and loyalty, even if there are no candy hearts or chocolates.
I wouldn't have it any other way.

Two Views of the Same Scene

2011-02-02T22:02:00.003-05:00

Our garden, one recent May. Note the fence made of sticks, and the shepherd's crook, lush with gorgeous flowers.

And, today - isn't that insane? No fence at all, you can see just a few feet of the shepherd's crook, and the spiny remains of plant life almost totally buried by snow.

What a winter we're having!

When You Need A Little Pick-Me-Up...

2011-01-27T14:40:00.003-05:00

Chocolate crinkle cookies.

You have not lived until you've tried them.

Technical Difficulties...

2011-01-24T14:14:00.004-05:00

Update 1/25/11: It works! I don't know why, or what happened, but it's just so nice to see our un-blurry girls. Yay!

So, you'll notice that the header is all foggy, and it's even hard to make out the words up there, right?

The weird thing is, when I'm looking at the banner in my photo-editing software, it looks great - it's only when uploaded that you can't recognize any of our darling hens, or read the title of this blog even.

And when I try to upload other, formerly-fine banners, they all look like this. So, I think I'm going to have to leave it for a day or two, and try another fix.

Sorry! The girls really were ready for their close-up, even if the close-up wasn't ready for them...

Strike While The Iron Is Hot

2011-01-19T20:01:00.003-05:00

As I write, Luke is dictating an idea for a game he's had to his Dad. He is so excited, he is pacing and breathless, speaking faster than his dad can write. It's been a long time since I've seen him like this.

Owen is excited too; now, it's his turn to tell Dad all about the dragons that are going to be in his game.

It's really this excitement that I wanted to blog about tonight. We have had kind of a blah day, cooped up in the house with freezing rain and grayness outside, Luke and I both with headaches and all three of us with an unsatisfy-able sweet tooth. It looked like we were going to have an evening with much of the same, and then – a eureka moment!

We got to talking about making our own games, even making a company that would sell our games, and it sparked something new in both children. I mean, they've been excited about things, but this was different. You could see the possibilities dawning on their faces, especially Luke.

At one point he was so emotional he could hardly speak; when he found his voice, he asked, "what if we fail?" I told him that I don't think of it as failing, and instead if we end up not reaching our goal, we would still have learned lots, and that what we learn would take us through future ventures. I told him, I try to think in terms of learning versus succeeding or failing. He had been so upset, I was frankly a little surprised when he perked right up and asked for a notebook, a pencil, and some time on the computer.

Now, he is asking for a different notebook that he can take up to bed with him to write more ideas; Owen just came in to kiss me good night and as he was leaving he asked, "Mom, how do you start a company?"

I told him I was just about to look into it.

Great Weather

2011-01-13T22:34:00.003-05:00

It's no secret, I love snow. The more the better! This storm we just had really made me think of my childhood, and it is so much fun watching the kids play in the snow like I used to.

Here's a photo essay of how we spent today:

For reference, I am standing in our driveway. Owen is parked on top of the bushes. Cool, huh?

Next, out into Dragon Woods. I actually wore snowshoes today, for the first time in several years. It was awesome.

Hope you're enjoying whatever whether you're getting as much as we're enjoying ours!

Competition and Brotherly Love

2011-01-10T22:39:00.004-05:00

Whoa, what a night we had tonight.

Owen had this great idea about racing some plastic dragons around the house; that's how it all started. He had a sign-up sheet, and so we all signed up to race the dragons. It was really cute to see him so excited, and his excitement really was infectious.

All was going well. He won the first two heats, and then we reached the semifinals, which is where Owen's little world fell apart. We've seen it before, when winning is so important to him that he would rather quit, or fall, or even feign injury than lose.

And, pretty much all of those things happened tonight in the semifinal races – finally Ben and I called off the competition. Owen went into the bathroom to get ready for bed (as we directed; he would never have done this on his own), crying of course, and Luke came and sat down on the couch with me. He looked really sad. When I asked what was on his mind, here is what he said:

"Well, a few nights ago Owen told me that he wished I wasn't alive anymore."

This hit me like a bomb. It was totally unexpected; I nearly started crying on the spot. To cover my shock I asked Luke why Owen might've said that? He replied that, though he couldn't remember Owen's exact words, the gist was that Owen felt like he was always in Luke's shadow.

Luke continued, sharing that he tried to influence tonight's dragon races so that Owen felt like he was part of Luke's team, in other words, not in direct competition with Luke.

He said that he did this so that maybe Owen wouldn't feel that way anymore. So that Owen wouldn't wish him dead. I am crying now, as I write this.

Sometimes, I forget how mindful Luke is. I can't imagine him even thinking that he wished someone wasn't alive anymore because he seems inherently to know how horrible, how much of an anathema, the thought is. Maybe that's why it was such a shock to hear this coming from Owen. I just thought they both understood.

Plus, it was such a raw statement: wishing someone was dead.

I tried to reassure Luke by explaining that many people, children and adults alike, say things that they regret when they are angry. I pointed out that Owen's feelings stem more from his belief that he can't keep up with his big brother. I tried to explain that this really had to do with Owen's feelings about himself. I hope it helped.

And then, a conversation with Owen needed to take place. I wanted him to know that it is okay to have feelings like this; I asked him to come talk to me or Daddy if he feels that way again, because I think one of the worst things that might happen is that he feels bad about his own thoughts, like they only make everybody else angry and sad. Better, I think, that he doesn't squash down negative feelings but instead tries to figure out where they come from – I know he'll have to be much older before he can truly do this. But tonight did seem like the place to start.

I went on to try and help him understand about regretting things that you've said, feeling sorry that you've hurt somebody – and I think he truly understood how much he had hurt his brother.

Finally, I wanted to help Owen grasp that his frustration comes of being not as practiced at things as Luke is, for the sole reason that Luke is four years older. I wanted to try and separate the two negative feelings, jealousy and hatred, so that he understands that they are in fact two separate feelings. And, I'm not really sure if that worked; I guess time will tell.

Of course, there were lots and lots of tears as this conversation played itself out tonight. We ended on two good points, though:

1) As a family, we are resolved to play more noncompetitive games.
2) I remembered the picture that Owen drew for Luke just the other night. He made us each a picture, in fact, with characters from The Magic Pickle on one side, and a picture of each of us on the other.

He made us those pictures because he loves us.
And love endures.

A Knitted Hat Pattern, From Me To You

2011-01-04T15:56:00.005-05:00

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I made nine wonderful hats and two excellent golf club head covers (if I do say so myself). Many hats were from a great book called Hip Knit Hats, and I learned some really neat techniques from this book. Here's the hat I made for my sister in law, a felted cloche modeled by Owen:

Noticeably absent, however, was any version of that classic winter cap with earflaps. I decided what the heck, I'll have some fun and make up my own pattern! Of course, I had to make three or four before I figured out how to do it in a size that might fit most humans. Interestingly, Owen adopted the first of these for himself, and even though it's huge on him, it looks very cute. (That's him, wearing the giant red–and–orange cap up in the banner.)

This version is the one I knitted for Firefly Mom, because it looks just like Jayne's hat from this amazing, incredible western-set-in-space, Firefly.

So I decided I would share the pattern here. Naturally, I neglected to get gauge in any one of these hats I did from this pattern; if you know that the person you're knitting for has a small-ish head, you may want to stop increasing at 74 stitches, or even 66. Or, try dropping down a needle size – one thing I learned while knitting all these hats is that eventually, you get a feel for whether it's gonna be too big or too small. I hope that my advice here in this post will help you make a hat that won't be sized for Bigfoot.

Karen's Knitted Winter Cap Pattern
Knitted on size 8 double pointed needles and a size 8 16 inch circular needle; ribbing knitted on a size 7 16 inch circular needle

Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool, worsted weight, one skein each forest green and light gray (This is the pattern for my brother-in-law's Lucky Fishing Hat, knitted just like Owen's but in a different colorway. Here's why it's called a Lucky Fishing Hat:)

Cast on 12 stitches, and divide among three size 8 double pointed needles; join into a round and place marker to show beginning of round on first needle (when you're finished with the hat, make sure to weave the ends in really tightly up here at the top)

Round one: knit one, make one (by knitting into both the back and front of stitch) twice on each needle; six stitches on the needle, 18 total

Round two, and every even-numbered round: knit

Round three: knit two, make one on each of the three needles – eight stitches per needle, 24 total

Round five: knit three, make one on each of the three needles – 10 stitches per needle, 30 total

Round seven: knit four, make one on each of the three needles – 12 stitches per needle, 36 total

Continue increasing on the odd rows, and knitting on the even rows until there are 12 stitches before each make one – 80 stitches total

Somewhere in these increasing/knitting rounds, which took me about 3-1/2 inches from the crown, you may want to change colors. I started with the green, and went to gray about 3 inches in.

Once you are finished with the increasing/knitting rounds, continue to knit in stockinette stitch until you're at about 7 inches from the beginning (the crown). I changed back to green at about 6 inches from the crown.

To start the ribbing: when your hat is about 7 inches from the crown, switch to the size 7 circular 16 inch needle. Knit two rounds, decreasing two stitches in each round for a total of 76 stitches, before switching to knit two, purl two.
Knit two, purl 2 for 3 inches.

Now, we'll set up for the earflaps.
From the marker: bind off 13 stitches, work 18 stitches in pattern in place on a stitch holder (first ear flap), bind off 22 stitches, work 18 stitches in pattern and place on a stitch holder (second ear flap), bind off 13.

Place 18 stitches from one ear flap onto the size 7 circular needle, work back and forth in pattern for 2 inches, finishing with the inside part (wrong side) of the ear flap facing you.

Turn the hat so that the outside (right side) part of the year flap is facing you.
Knit one, knit two together; work in pattern to the last three stitches, slip slip knit, knit one.

Turn the hat so that the inside (wrong side) part of the ear flap is facing you.
Purl 1, purl two together; work in pattern to the last three stitches, slip slip purl, purl 1.

Continue in this fashion, knitting the decreases on the right side and purling the decreases on the wrong side, until there are four stitches left.

At this point you have two choices: knit these four stitches in I--cord for at least 12 inches, or make a braid that's at least 12 inches long by weaving a few more skeins of yarn into those four stitches and making the braid.

Make the other ear flap the same way.

Weave in the ends, make a pom-pom for the top, and you're done!

If you find that the hat is ridiculously big, you can do what I did with the Lucky Fishing Hat: I gathered the top by taking some of the green yarn, turning the hat inside out, and using a darning needle to pick up a stitch every inch or so around from about 2 inches down from the top of the crown. When I got back to where I started, I pulled the yarn kind of tight and tied a knot (all done inside the hat, so it can't be seen from the outside). I also braided three tassels and attached them to the top, which made the whole thing look totally planned and adorable.

If you try this hat, I'd love it if you give me some feedback on it - how many mistakes did I make, was it too big/too small? In fact, anyone who's diligent about gauge, if you make the hat would you let me know the important details about your hat's sizing? Like, what the gauge is, how big the hat is around, how many stitches you ended up with after you finished the increases, what size needles you used... you'll get credit in a future post, complete with a pic of your hat.

Happy knitting!

First: Simplify

2011-01-01T15:25:00.005-05:00

Well, goodbye 2010. In many ways you were a hard year, and I won't be sad to see you go.

When you were toughest, often it had to do with disorganization and clutter, not just with our material possessions but also in our minds. This feeling came on gradually, but by October or November it was getting hard to stay afloat above all the clutter.
I include here Luke's need to grow out of childhood gracefully, and Owen's excitement about transforming his ideas into reality with the use of copious amounts of cardboard, tape, and glue, and my desire to slow things down and enjoy every moment.

I mean to fix this in 2011.

Here is my list of goals for the coming year:

1) Make rather than purchase, when at all possible.

2) Stay organized –
Go through toys, books, clothes.
Give away much, keep what's most important.
Involve the boys in this organizing process.

3) Write –
As I'm happiest when blogging, and as blogging helps me to collect my thoughts, I have a great writing tool right here. I'm gonna use it, even when it's just for a picture or a quick note.

4) Facilitate the boys' projects –
Because rather than continue with Perpetual Saturday Morning, our homeschooling style is changing. As part of Luke's work towards his rite of passage, I've learned that he does better with a project. Having something to get up and do helps him feel accomplished, excited, and engaged.
Owen, too, needs to be involved in something bigger than himself, which is especially fun because he's now writing and drawing like a boy obsessed.
I guess I should include my own projects in here, as well. Funny to think about facilitating your own projects, but knitting, growing food and playing with it in the kitchen, and who knows what else I'll come up with this year – I need some space and time for these as well.

5) Keep in mind that, while the days may be long, the years are short -
I aim to take something positive from every day, even if it is just a fleeting smile or quirky comment from someone I love. Especially Luke and Owen; they're growing so quickly, and soon their childhood will be a memory. Thank you Jena, for helping me remember this!

So, this should make for an interesting year. What about you? Any resolutions, or changes you plan to make in 2011?

A True Confession

2010-12-15T14:27:00.004-05:00

Christmas carols make me cry.

They make me bawl. Especially the old old old ones, the ones that have been sung for generations, like Deck the Halls or God rest ye Merry Gentlemen. (My friend Shannon says, "even the Bare-Naked Ladies version?" Gosh yes, the 'star of wonder' part with Sarah McLachlan gets me every time.)

Recently, I got to go to a Christmas concert with friends. Lifelong friends, the kind of friends who it's okay to cry in front of, who've known you for so long that they totally know you're gonna cry, it's just who you are.

And I hung on, without tears, until the third song in the program – I'll Be Home For Christmas. It was sung in that slow sad way, a lovely duet, and dedicated to the gentleman in this choir who had performed it in years past, but who had passed away this year. He always used to dedicate it to the soldiers fighting in our various wars, which of course made us all think about the soldiers who don't come home from our various wars. It was really sad. Everybody cried at that one.

But they all had put away their handkerchiefs by the time the next song started. I kept mine out; for Jingle Bells, for the Robert Frost poem converted to a song, even for the jolly sing–along in the second set.

Now, I am not religious in any sense. (I am spiritual, just not a member of any organized religion.) But these songs get me all the same, and when I cry they're not tears of sadness. They're tears of joy, having as much to do with the beauty of the voices singing together as with the words themselves.

The final song in the concert was the Alleluiah from Handel's Messiah, and the choir did a lovely, lovely job. An odd song for a non-Christian to cry over, you suggest? Maybe. But cry I did; I was thinking about the passion these singers, other singers, and the composer himself all feel for their subject. It was so moving.

My crying over Christmas carols eternally confuses poor Ben, whose childhood didn't prepare him for December in a non-Jewish household. How can I cry about something that isn't even my religion, he wonders? Yet the tears of joy brought forth by the songs of the season make perfect sense to me, because they have everything to do with family, traditions, and love.

And I am lucky enough to have lots of those three crucial blessings.

My New Favorite Leftover Turkey Recipe

2010-11-28T19:38:00.009-05:00

Remember this scene from A Christmas Story?

My favorite part of the scene actually comes after, where little Ralphie is listing all the turkey dishes that they'd be missing this year: the Turkey Divan, Turkey Curry, the Turkey à la King, Turkey Sandwiches...

Well, when we arrived home literally groaning under all the turkey and fixings my Mom–In–Law sent us home with (thanks Mom!), I knew I was gonna have to put on my thinking cap. And I did! Tonight's dinner was so yummy, and easy, I'm going to share it with you.

Turkey Croquettes - Now, don't panic! Croquette is just a fancy name for Patty.

1 cup leftover turkey, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups leftover stuffing, any large vegetables finely chopped
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs (or more if the mixture is too wet)
3 eggs
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cranberry sauce

1)Combine turkey, stuffing, breadcrumbs, eggs, parsley, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix well, and divide into 8 patties.
2) Heat olive oil in skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium heat. When olive oil is hot, add croquettes and cook for 10 min. per side. If it looks like the patties are getting to ground, turn the heat down a bit.
3) Serve with cranberry sauce; this recipe was for it just then and I but you could double or triple it for however much leftovers you have.
Enjoy!

Knitted Gifts

2010-11-23T15:26:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited, because this holiday season is the first I've ever known how to knit. We always celebrate Hannukah around Thanksgiving because that's when hubby's family gets together. So, while I've been making these babies for the last month, only now can I share them online.

Here's the purse I made for my Mom-in-law:

That bead, used to weigh the flap down and keep the purse closed, is one of those that you feel you can gaze at for hours, like a crystal ball. Soooo pretty....

And, I made felted bowls for my sister-in-law:

Look - they even nest one in the other!

Friends tell me that they'd use these bowls to put pine cones in as a centerpiece, or to put towels and toiletries in at the bathroom sink. For some reason, I can see them on the dining table with a bunch of clementines in them. Which is good because to me, because clementines always smell deliciously of December.

Hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful, just what you feel it should be; I will be found on Turkey Day thanking my lucky stars for this life, and everyone in it.

Staring IntoThe Existential Void

2010-11-17T16:18:00.006-05:00

Oh, boyhood can be rough.

Recently, Luke and I had the following conversation:
"I can tell you're really upset, if you talk to me maybe I can help."
"Mom, you can't help me unless you can create a real Bakugan dimension."

It wasn't only the Bakugan dimension that he worried about; it was the Pikachu that sits on Ash's shoulder, the owls that fly back and forth to Hogwarts, the wardrobe, now solid, that should lead to Narnia. My heart broke for him; Luke cried and cried as he told me of the death of all of his fantasies.

In these last few months, or weeks, Luke has gotten to that point in his development where a chair is always a chair is always a chair - no matter how much he tries, he can't make that chair be anything else. I remember when he used to have a building basement that he would access through his floor. He would go down in the building basement and he would build, in his imagination, friends and monsters and anything you can think of. When he got a little older, Luke had a watch that became a time traveling watch; it would take him back to the time of the dinosaurs, helping him identify new dinosaurs and be a paleontologist.

But the building basement is now closed, the watch is just a watch.

It must be really hard to know that you're the only one in your head when you go to sleep at night. Especially when you used to be able to go to bed with all your favorite friends surrounding you in your mind.

I remember when it happened to me; we used to go camping, and I would sit on the window well adjacent to the backseat, as my dad traveled at 5 miles an hour in the campground. But I wasn't sitting on a window well; I was sitting on Shadowfax the horse. You know the horse from The Lord Of The Rings? Gandalf's horse. Well, Shadowfax was my horse up until I turned about 12, and then suddenly the window well was just a window well.

Ben and I are thinking about the next step for Luke, and concluding that a rite of passage is in order, some sort of quest that will help him enjoy life and be creative, even now that he understands it's just him knocking around on his own up there in his head. And, just as we were having these concerns and wondering what to do about them, a friend loaned me the most incredible book: Raising A Son, by Don Elium and Jeanne Elium. It's a treasure trove of information just exactly when we needed it.

But I'm wondering if you, dear reader, have any advice for us as well. Do you remember staring into the existential void? Do you have loved ones who have recently gone through this? What did you do to get through it, or help your loved ones through it?

I think maybe I never really gave up Shadowfax. He waited in the back of my head until I got old enough to admit that he was still there.

Come to think of it, that was probably just about when I had children - maybe even just when Luke's building basement opened up.

I've Been Nominated...

2010-11-10T20:32:00.007-05:00

...for a Homeschool Blog Award!

I am just a bit excited.
Okay, jumping-up-and-down excited.
Well, dancing-around-the-house excited, if you want the truth.

Here's a link to the voting page; I'm in the Best Variety Blog category. While you're there, voting (for me, right?) in that category, here are some of my other faves:
Funniest Blog: Pack of Hungry Snails
Best Encourager Blog: Yarns of the Heart
Best Mom Blog: Home Spun Juggling
Best Super Homeschooler: In The Kitchen
Best Thrifty Homeschooler: Magic and Mayhem
And, now, I'm off to go kiss a few babies, shake a few hands... well, or see who I'm going to vote for in the rest of the categories.
Happy voting!

The Base-10 System

2010-11-03T22:18:00.004-04:00

You might think he's just a kid, playing with Legos. But you'd be wrong - this activity is helping Owen understand base-10 mathematics, something he wouldn't care to do unless Legos were involved.

So what happened was, our friend Nicole issued a challenge this week connected with our weekly math/science class: to bring something representing the number 100. Of course, Owen's mind went immediately to Legos.

We started by choosing 100 Lego pieces, a harder challenge than it seems. Each time Owen started counting out pieces, he'd lose track somewhere in the early double-digits. I showed him how to keep track, placing the pieces into 10-piece piles:

At which point both kids agreed, that's not a lot of Legos. As Luke pointed out, the minifigs alone are 8 pieces each! Owen wasn't sure we would be able to build the space station he wanted to bring to math this week. Here he is getting started:

And, he used every piece to make a pretty fancy space station.

I loved doing this because of all the math chat we had while working, counting by tens, estimating, seeing the light dawn about how the base-10 system works, and watching Owen realize that each tiny piece counts as 1, however big or small.

Also, once we got going, Owen treated it as a game; how much easier math would be for me, if only I could have treated it as a game.

Walking With Scarecrows

2010-10-26T23:09:00.004-04:00

My Mom-in-law comes up with the coolest activities for us when we go to visit, and this latest weekend had one of the best yet. A town nearby her decided to invite ordinary people and business owners to outdo each other with scarecrows, displayed on the town's main street; we spent a fun afternoon wandering among them. Here are some of our favorites:

The Werewolf of London scarecrow. It took the boys a long time to feel comfortable standing in front of him, he was so realistic! And now, the song is stuck in all of our heads, not a bad thing really.

Luke snuck into his favorite scarecrow set-up:

She has a disco ball above her head, too!

Isn't it amazing how creative people can be? We'll put up our usual scarecrow for Halloween - that is, if any leaves have fallen yet to be the stuffing. And this year, we will do it with a real admiration for what you can do with a scarecrow if you put your mind to it.

Obladi, Oblada...

2010-10-14T19:47:00.004-04:00

Life goes on, rah/
La la, how their life goes on/

Even though it has been a tough few weeks, there has also been much to be thankful for. Here are some pics of our life going on, this lovely, lovely autumn.

Hiking at a place called King Philip Rock (the name, incidentally, has raised some curiosity about who King Philip was, and finding out has been yet another cool part of this fall):

The tree with the reddish leaves is called sarsparilla, and someday I am going to figure out how to make root beer from this tree.

Here's the view from the rock itself. It's so nice to be above the trees in our very tree-ful neck of the woods!

Here's a preying mantis that hung out on our doorstep for a while one afternoon. He was at least five inches long; I love how he's looking at us in this pic that my Dad took.

I made amazing apple jelly with apples from a friend's tree. Isn't it a pretty color?

We visited friends up in Maine, and one highlight of our visit was a ride in their motorboat:

My favorite bird, the loon. I love how they look, how they sound, and where they live... of course, my family thinks it's because I can really relate to a bird with a name like loon! Heh.

What Matters Most

2010-10-07T14:08:00.004-04:00

I have had a health scare these last few weeks. Without going too much into it, somewhere in the next decade I'll need to undergo one - or, possibly, two - life-altering surgeries, and it's taken some time for me to absorb the news.

The problem started as a direct result of me being too chicken to get my wisdom teeth out as a late-adolescent, and I am telling you this so that you can run, not walk, your 17-20-year-old to the nearest oral surgeon and save them lots of bad problems later.

At times like this, it comes in really handy to be a yoga instructor; I have some good weapons in the get-to-sleep-even-when-you-are-freaking-out department. Even better, when ten-year-old Luke has trouble getting to sleep, we have a routine of breathing exercises to get him ready for sleep, and mental exercises to give him good dreams.

I don't know if his trouble sleeping recently is from the distinctly panicked vibe I have been unable to hide, or if it's just pre-adolescent angst, but we've been doing the get-to-sleep exercises frequently of late. And they've been helping me, too!

The good-dreams mental exercise Luke favors is actually designed to promote creativity; you imagine a plain old drinking glass, and then you shape it, change its color, what it's made of, turn it into the perfect cup for your needs right then. Once you get it looking just the way you want it, you then have the option of inscribing words or designs on your cup. Finally, you fill it up with whatever liquid you want - Luke's is usually hot chocolate, mine is tea, sometimes hot and sometimes of the Long Island variety - and drink it down.

I always enjoy this way of helping Luke get to sleep, for the relaxation we both get from it and especially for this unusual way of connecting with my boy. He always asks me what my cup looked like, what was inside, and then tells me sleepily about his own before giving my hand a squeeze and mumbling, 'see you in the morning.' It's a window into a child's mind that I think few parents enjoy.

But a couple of nights ago, I designed a cup that changed my whole outlook on this ticking time bomb in my jaw. I should say, Luke and I have done this exercise dozens of times, plus I teach it in yoga class frequently, and I have never had the same cup twice; my brain keeps coming up with new things, which I just think is so cool.

Anyway, this cup: an Old Sturbridge Village barrel mug, in that lovely red clay, with twiny lines encircling the upper and lower thirds. Usually I don't have writing on these mental cups, but my brain chose a question for the middle of this one - "What matters most?" In tiny letters, over and over again.

What matters most?
What matters most?

It's such a simple-sounding little question, and thank goodness for that - it's helped return some perspective to my thinking. It's helped me to remember to be thankful for all that I have, especially for the wonderful, amazing people in my life. It's helped me to try and be strong for them.
It's helping me remember how lucky I am.

Because I am really incredibly lucky.

The Month That Keeps On Giving

2010-09-20T23:19:00.005-04:00

Since this hasn't been a year in which somebody close to us got married in September, we've had to find other ways to keep busy. And we have! So busy, in fact, that getting time to blog about it all has been hard. Here's a sampling of what us Stone Age Techies have been up to:

We visited Plimoth Plantation, practically all by our onesies because it's too early for field trips yet. And, other than getting attacked by the English Village's chickens as we attempted to eat lunch, we had a great time.

We were all fascinated with canoe-making...

And charcoal-making.

Both boys also loved the Mayflower II, docked in Plymouth Harbor.

They were totally nonplussed by Plymouth Rock, however.

"Mom, it's just... a rock." You can almost hear Luke's silent 'WTF?' ... if he knew what WTF? meant.

And then! Oh, we went on a camping trip to Cape Cod, with friends who know what there is to do on Cape Cod. What a trip!

This, and the following pics, are from Fort Hill on the Cape. The lack of houses and people astounded me, I've always thought of the Cape as a place of ice-cream shacks and little tourist cabins lined up, side by each. But no, there are entire acres pretty well undeveloped:

We were all fascinated with the view, but returned quickly to camera-hamming:

Then we went off to Skaket Beach, timed just right to hit low tide:

Notice that, to take this pic, I am standing way the heck off shore, facing the land. The rock has that orange buoy attached because, at high tide, it's totally submerged. I don't know why I think that is so cool, but I really do think it is.

Then, to top off the weekend, we had Flax Pond at Nickerson State Park all to ourselves! And Luke learned how to kayak:

He was so free out there on the water, wandering any old which way he wanted to.

Thanks, Carrie and family, for a great weekend... when we next come up for air, I will be sure to post some pics about our adventures!

The Intersection of Math and Art

2010-09-13T18:00:00.004-04:00

School, such as it is for us, kind of officially started last week, with an art class at the library and an amazing math/science class offered by a friend.

Historically, my boys have been totally uninterested in art classes, at least those not about making light sabers out of ziti and aluminum foil. But after Luke was on the winning Battle of the Books team and the second place finisher, that same day, in our library's Harry Potter Trivia Tournament last month, he would follow the librarian anywhere, even into art classes.

Last week's was all about lines, and truthfully I did not think either Luke or Owen got much out of it - until math class, in which the kids made geoboards.

I had my doubts about the geoboards, too. Luke was freaked out about hammering, and worked hard to overcome his fear of getting hurt, so I helped him lots more than I would have thought a ten-year-old might need. Owen helped pound about five nails in before running off to play with the other six-year-olds; when we left, with plenty of colorful elastics and two finished geoboards mostly made by yours truly, I concluded that they would not even be looked at before the next math class.

So, imagine my surprise when, before breakfast the next morning, Luke asked, "Hey Mom, what do you think of this:"

I was stunned. When had he made this creation? "Oh, just now." On the other side of the table, Owen was working too:

My awe was complete when the boys started talking about how the lines in their geoboard designs connected with the lines they learned about in art class. They drew comparisons between the two classes that I would never have thought of, just casually, over breakfast.

Reminding me (again) that learning happens when it happens, and even when you think it isn't happening.

Fully Grown

2010-09-08T14:26:00.001-04:00

So, we've gone from this:

to this:

And, it was really, really good.

Positive Press

2010-08-23T22:18:00.004-04:00

Gosh, I've been so busy canning tomatoes and peaches that I've almost forgotten we are homeschoolers! Until, that is, I had this amusing chat with Owen's dental hygienist, who thinks that homeschooling is okay, as long as it is 'school-at-home:'

Hygienist: Well, Owen, when do you start homeschooling? Time to bust out the books soon, right?

Owen (with Mr. Thirsty, the little mouth vac, halfway down his throat): Ungh?

Me: When should we count the beginning of our year, Owen? Maybe, the first museum we visit this September? Our first trip to Old Sturbridge Village? Our camping trip on the Cape next month?

As I tick off some of the fun things we'll be doing soon, the hygienist's jaw drops further and further.

Me again: We like to do more experiential learning while the weather's nice.

Hygienist: Well, I guess you do! Owen, it sounds like you are going to have a fun school year...

Owen (nodding, as Mr. Thirsty jiggles up and down in his mouth): Ungh-huh!

After a few months of nobody asking the boys why they're not in school, I got used to blending in; it was something of a shock to realize that soon we'll be standing out again, two 'big boys' and their mom.

But we won't be standing out quite as much as homeschoolers used to - and we have more and more resources to help us along our homeschooling way. My friend Kerry, author of the fun and funny Topsy-Techie blog until last May, runs one such resource, secularhomeschool.com. Recently, Kerry was interviewed by The Detroit Free Press about just this topic; here is the article, More Resources Help Metro Homeschoolers Go Mainstream.

Kerry talks about "accidental homeschoolers... families who never planned on it until a child's health problem, a poor fit with a teacher or a lack of special learning resources led them to try it." This is exactly why we decided to try homeschooling, as you can read here if you'd like.

When we started, I could never have imagined how wonderful homeschooling would turn out to be. Some of my favorite times have been when it was just my 'big boys' and me; other favorite times have involved the large and wonderful homeschooling community we are blessed to live in. Still other favorite times have been totally online, like Jena's Virtual Field Trip. (Isn't it getting on time for another one, Jena? Nudge, nudge? :-)

I am as secular as it is possible to be, and I wake up every morning thanking Goodness for this life I am living, this accidental, crazy, messy, fun life - and the people who make it that way.

8/24/10 Update - I woke up this morning remembering a few other favorite bloggy moments:
Firefly Mom's hilarious chat about the birds and the bees one night at the dinner table (I can't find it, though I have searched your archives - help me, Firefly Mom. You're my only hope!).
9/13/10 - Firefly Mom came through: here it is!
Susan's amazing Revolutionary Road Trip. Favorite bits include Philly, Old Sturbridge Village, and the rocket launch at the Kennedy Space Center. And the desk, of course!
This last one's new, from the blog of my lifelong buddy Shannon, noiselessly forth. Her photography is breathtaking, and - I can't believe I am sharing this - she posted video footage of a bunch of us singing karaoke at a party a few weeks ago. I'm on the extreme right of the video; we sound terrible, but hoo hoo, it was fun! (I can't get a link directly to the video, which may not be such a loss... if you want to see it though, scroll through Shannon's posts until you get to the video marked 'karaoke fun.' Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Obnoxious Political Snail Mail, Take 2

2010-08-11T08:15:00.002-04:00

Well, didn't this just arrive on the perfect day, with Luke and Owen at Camp Grandma and me with plenty of time on my hands to rant freely...

Some of you may remember, back this winter, I got several pieces of mail from one of our illustrious political parties in which the tone was depressing, oppressing, and threatening all at the same time. It really got me down, enough that I turned to you all for support, and felt much better reading your comments and thoughts on the political climate in this country. At least I am not the only one who thinks that this type of mailing might perhaps be detrimental rather than helpful!

Fast forward to yesterday, when I got a large-ish envelope marked up in red shouting, "SECOND NOTICE --- REGISTERED DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED". My first thought was that I'd done something wrong, forgotten to pay an important bill, but I wised up when I opened the envelope and read the post-it stating impatiently, "we have not received your response to the survey sent to you earlier. Please complete and respond right away." Of course, it was in a font meant to look like somebody had hand-written this little reminder, which just bugs the crap out of me, especially since there was never any first notice.

This irritating mail came from the political party currently in power, and as a result it wasn't quite as foam-at-the-mouth rabid as the snailings I got in the winter. Which was good, I guess. But how many "leaders such as [me]," "especially chosen" to "provide input" - and inject cash - will they really get when they treat us awesome 'leaders' like scofflaws who need second notices marked up in red to get us to contribute?

I am probably just getting old, but this mailings pays me, the recipient, so little respect, and I just find that infuriating. They get you to open the envelope by making you think you've done something wrong, and then they tell you how they need leaders like you? When it turns out that what they need, of course, isn't your leadership or your input. Except for the input from your bank account.

This is no way to run a country, that is for sure. It's so divisive - each party wants you to believe that the other side is not looking out for you, your family, or your best interests. Each party is so invested in knocking the other one down, it is easy to forget that, as President Lincoln said, "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

Humbug! (That's me, feeling old :-)

A Very Harry Summer

2010-08-03T09:37:00.004-04:00

So, we are all obsessed with Harry Potter. Again.

Only, this time Owen is old enough to enjoy, too; it is just so much fun. Here are some pics of our particular brand of Pottermania:

That's the Hogwarts Owen and I made early on in the summer - when we found out that they're re-releasing Harry Potter legos! Notice the Durmstrang ship in the lake? Owen's.

That's Owen as a Death Eater, a costume he made with the help of his Auntie Lena. Check out the eyeliner veins!

Yes, I knitted them owls... they 'arrived' on the mornings of the boys' birthdays with certificates from Eeylops Owl Emporium.

Here's Luke with his new screech owl...

... and Owen with Barney, the barn owl.

Lastly, here are a few Potter-related links -

Owen was super-sick last week, with a high fever, the most lethargic I've ever seen him. Usually when we listen to Harry Potter on CD, Owen is jumping around, or playing with lego, or something; I couldn't stand just watching him lie on the couch, so I thought back to my own childhood. When I was sick, it was all about paper dolls. A quick Google search brought up Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, a virtual universe of paper dolls with clothes and accessories for all four Hogwarts houses! It is awesome, there is simply no other word.

We also used these directions to make our own fantastic Marauder's Map.

And no paper doll collection would be complete without this, the Severus Snape paper doll. I got a total kick out of the gray skivvies (Luke theorized that maybe there's a Permanent Sticking Charm on them, hence the color) and the Hawaiian beachwear. Imagine Snape at the beach!

Once again, J.K. Rowling's amazing universe is making us muggles feel better, even when we are sick.

Our Latest Addition

2010-07-22T23:13:00.003-04:00

Oh, made you look!
No, we haven't taken on any new children, or pets or anything like that... but check out this little beauty:

See that tiny round ball in the middle of all the foliage? That's a watermelon, growing in our front yard.
But it's not just any watermelon; it's a seed from one of the best heirloom-variety watermelons you ever tasted, and I've been saving the seed since 2007, waiting for conditions to be just right. This year, for the first time, we finally had three important things coincide: a table in the sunlight during spring, good, deep soil in the sunniest, best-drained spot in the yard, and the time to attend to both the baby seedling and the growing plant.
Also, thanks to our hot summer so far, it's growing like crazy. I'll keep you posted as to our new arrival's progress, and I hope that you are enjoying the summer too.
(I'm back by the way... probably going to be slow on posting for a while, but back nonetheless. Did you miss me?)

A Wee Bloggy Break

2010-06-02T22:17:00.002-04:00

So, before you ask: yes, everything is okay.

It's just, life can be pretty darn complicated sometimes, y'know?

It won't be a long break, but it will be a break... I'm off to enjoy the sunshine with my guys.

Rube Goldberg, You Rock My World

2010-05-27T17:17:00.003-04:00

I hadn't heard of Rube Goldberg before last week, when the boys started a class at our library called Simple Machines. But evidently, Mr. Goldberg is the guy who first combined pulleys, levers, fulcrums, wheels, ramps and balls into those funny machines that do something - smash an egg, drop ping-pong balls on your head, that kind of thing.

Part of our homework this week was to look up Rube Goldberg machines on YouTube, so I thought I'd share some of our favorites.

Here is one called 'Creme that Egg:'

OK Go's newest, This Too Shall Pass:

This one knocks down a whole bunch of bowling pins, in somebody's workplace:

They are fun, and silly, and require a lot more thought than, well, you might think. When Luke and Owen have made their Rube Goldberg machines, I'll post about them.

The Chicken Whisperers

2010-05-24T08:44:00.002-04:00

It all started about a month ago, when a visiting seven-year-old friend of ours walked around effortlessly picking up chickens without batting an eyelash. It was so cute! He would just walk up to one quietly, lean in, and pick her up, something we'd never thought possible with our skittish lovelies. His Mom whispered reverently as we watched, "we call him the chicken whisperer."

So that, of course, put the bug in Luke and Owen to be able to do the same thing.

I couldn't see it, especially with Owen who can't hardly stand still long enough to pick up a stick, never mind a chicken.

But after a few weeks of hard work, they are both picking up chickens! They do it the same way their friend taught them, and again it is so cute.

I don't have a pic of Owen, but here's one of Luke, with his fave chicken, Saphira:

(Thanks Erica, for this great shot :-)

And now, all is right with the world.

Speaking of Traveling...

2010-05-20T07:54:00.003-04:00

... here is the latest from my parents' global circumnavigation -

They've been in and out of Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and China.

They loved Thailand, although they were unable to do much in or near the capitol because of the protests, which have turned violent of late. So they spent their time in Chiang Mai, which they loved. My Mom writes:

We fell in love with Chiang Mai, Thailand. We were there during the Songkran Festival (Buddhist New Year), also called the Festival of Water. For 3 days people toss water at each other - tourists are not exempt! Entire families line the streets with buckets, hoses, cups, water guns - or kids pile into the back of trucks and drive around with a barrel or two of water, throwing it at everyone within reach - it was a lot of silly fun! We took a Thai cooking class; rode an elephant, an oxcart and a bamboo river raft - oh, and we crammed in a temple or two! Unfortunately, my camera picked that week to stop working, so we have very few photos of this fabulous stop.

Here they are on that elephant:

Because of their camera's untimely death, they've only got a few small pictures from Cambodia, in Angkor Wat, the seat of an ancient empire. These pics give me the shivers, incredible castles with huge trees growing up inside and around them:

My Mom writes here about life in Cambodia, and her words haunt me:

Dear friends, fall on your knees and thank whatever power granted you life in North America. Yes, we have problems, but the bottom of the barrel is Cambodia. Invasions, wars, civil war, Pol Pot, crooked politicians, nationwide lack of education, horrid climate, Cambodia has it all! And yet people are warm, noisy, friendly and quite beautiful.

Sometimes the randomness of life just hits me, and reading something like this makes that almost palpable.

After Cambodia, my parents moved on to China and a river boat cruise up the Yellow River. This is the part of the trip that Owen and I most wanted to become stowaways for, because my parents got to visit the Terra Cotta Soldiers. According to Wikipedia:

The Terracotta Army is a form of funerary art buried with the First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang, "shi huang" means the first emperor) in 210-209 BC. (He declared himself the first emperor of China in 221 B.C.) Their purpose was to help rule another empire with Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife. Consequently, they are also sometimes referred to as "Qin's Armies."

Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.

Here are pics from my parents' visit:

Aren't they lucky?

Dragons, and Knitting, and Gifts from the Sea

2010-05-17T16:27:00.004-04:00

That picture about sums up our recent trip to Myrtle Beach. It was awesome. There's really no other word for it. See how the water is the same color as the clouds? It was like that at twilight each night, it almost looked like the water was invisible except for the seafoam.

We stayed in a campground right on the ocean, took walks nearly every day, and swam. A lot. Also, there was this ever-changing waterway just down the beach, which we enjoyed immensely:

Ben took most of those pics up there. He also took several pictures of these dogs, having a blast in the waves:

Together, we took a sum total of about ten pictures on the whole trip. There was just so much else to do!

I brought all kinds of knitting books, and a couple of projects-in-progress, and got a whole afternoon to myself for yarn shopping. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd spend so much of my vacation thinking about yarn, but it worked somehow. In fact, it worked well.

And, when I wasn't knitting or frolicking by the sea, I was thinking about dragons. We all were, because Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is home to this amazing place called MagiQuest, where you get a wand, and it really works. This was extra-special since it was Owen's first time, and going on quests and adventures with him reminded me how truly magical things can be, even if they originate with an RFID chip.

Purely coincidentally, I brought the four amazing Dragons of Deltora books for Luke; we shared them back and forth over our trip. So, when I wasn't thinking about evil dragons and wizards and the runes of MagiQuest, I was thinking about the good dragons in the mythical land of Deltora.

These were the threads that ran through our vacation by the ocean. They were brought together into a lovely bright cloth by means of a book, written in the 1950's and loaned to me by a friend: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It's about being a wife, mother, and woman in modern America - it could have been written last week, it feels so relevant. Reading it at night, with the surf pounding outside, elevated a merely great visit into an amazing, meaningful holiday.

Scones, The World's Best Baked Good

2010-05-11T21:56:00.004-04:00

We've been eating lots of them lately, because they are yummy and, depending how they're made, good for you too.

If you want to try some scones, may I recommend that you scamper on over to my latest Food and Family column in Parents and Kids?

Let me know if you make some, and how they turned out!

Through Children's Eyes

2010-05-05T11:56:00.002-04:00

I don't know if you've ever read anything by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, but if you haven't you may just want to run out and do so, right now. Or better yet, here's her blog! - it's destined for my ever-lengthening blogroll, as soon as I finish this post.

She writes about knitting, and I came across her book, Knitting Rules! after I'd been obsessed with knitting for a month or so. She made me laugh out loud, and also relax about knitting perfectly. She kind of helped me come up with my own way to practice this craft, with that book.

Recently I picked up her book of essays, Free-Range Knitter, and while I laugh and admire, I'm also finding answers to questions far beyond the realm of knitting.

Here's a quote from an essay about Stephanie's daughter:

Tenacity. Intelligence. Constructive discontent. Persistence. Sensitivity. A fantastic sense of humor. Independence. Mercy. Fearlessness. Kindness. Equity.

Now, these qualities are terrible qualities in a child. North America wants children (especially little girls) to be polite. Polite, obedient, and pliable... Kids who fight back and challenge you, say "no," and think for themselves are hard to raise and not thought well of at all.... I realized you couldn't tell a kid, "Do what I tell you," praise her for obedience, and then turn right around when she becomes a grownup and suddenly say, "Think for yourself" and condemn adults who are still compliant.

These words keep coming back to me. They make me think of a song by the Limeliters, a band my Dad loves from the era of The Kingston Trio and The Clancy Brothers. This particular song, Through Children's Eyes, is about how easy it is as grown-ups to forget that children are learning all the time, and that they do certain things for certain reasons. Here's the chorus:

Hey Jimmy Joe John Jim Jack/
Even little tigers lose their knack/
When somebody twice their size/
Can't see the world through children's eyes

The preceeding verse was about a tiny little tiger whose nursemaid "made him so afraid, he didn't dare make a noise." And guess what happened to him when he grew up?

He's just a mat
Stretched out flat
On somebody's bedroom floor

A harsh verse for a children's song, you think? But that is where the lesson comes in. We are given exactly one childhood each, and what we learn in that childhood must take us through our whole lives. Will we teach our children to question, to say no, to challenge, to show kindness where an adult might not? As frustrating as parenthood can be, my answer to those questions has to be yes.

Because I'm not interested in an obedient, compliant adulthood for my boys, one in which they're the mat on the bedroom floor. I want them to be as tiger-y as their hearts will allow. I know that they'll be tigers interested in justice, tigers on the side of good.

Banner Parade

2010-04-29T09:33:00.002-04:00

I've been looking at past banners, and thought I would share some of my favorites today. They bring back memories of what was going on in our lives at the time, and make a photo diary of what we've been up to for the last two-plus years. I hope you enjoy them!

Owen, at three, admiring some of our morning glories one August.

A butterfly sipping nectar on our very first homeschool field trip, to a nature sanctuary nearby.

Flowers in the amazing rose garden in Portland, Oregon. Gosh, we loved that place!

A snowman the boys built with their Uncle Dave; if memory serves, they named the snowman Jeffrey, for no apparent reason.

Fences at Gettysburg. What an amazing, amazing place.

The light prism at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Autumn leaves, happily glowing to themselves as we walked by letterboxing.

At the ocean last summer.

I was so proud of this bread, basically a giant chocolate croissant. Yummmmm.

These little guys were hanging out with me in the warm autumn sunshine on a bench at Old Sturbridge Village.

And finally, our laundry on the line - a favorite, although I can't tell you why.

Maybe it just represents our crazy, fun, good old life.

The Evolution of Writing

2010-04-26T08:42:00.004-04:00

Owen is writing, and it is soooo cute.

But it's more than just cute. There is also something profound in these first clumsy attempts at written communication. My heart speeds up when I watch him shape letters, I marvel over what he perceives as so important that it must be written down. Here, other than his name, is the first document Owen's ever written himself:

It is about dwarfs, and what they do, and what they require to do what they do. Because someday, when he's old enough, Owen plans to play Dungeons and Dragons as a dwarf, and he's going to need the information on this sheet.
If you study the letters closely, you will see that he traced quite a few of them from dots that I put on the paper. Also, the words, where you can make them out, are spelled correctly; this is because he asked me how to spell the words and I told him.
But check out this next sample, the name of a store he and Luke are starting up for Poke (like Pokemon, pronounce Po-Kay) York:

It's called The Brothers Pom Pom Store, and they're planning on making pom-poms to sell, for Monopoly money, in Poke York for the Pokemon who live there. (Want to see Poke York? Click here.) You'll notice that 'Brothers' is spelled unconventionally, as is 'store.' Also, the letters are totally of his formation, not tracings of my letters.
When Luke saw this sign, I knew that he might question the mistakes. So I asked him to help Owen learn to write in the way that I wished he had learned to write: by trying to figure out which letters make which sounds to him, even if it doesn't make sense to the rest of us. Luke happily agreed, and I think he is enjoying being a teacher, even in a subject he's not all that confident in himself. Or, maybe it's because of his own lack of confidence.

In this latest sample, you can really see the evolution of Owen's writing - from me telling him what and how to write, to him sounding things out and writing them himself:

The drawing is mostly mine, but the letters that spell 'Pikachu' are all Owen's. They are, in order: P, K, E, D, E. And he sounded out the sounds in the word 'Pikachu' to get to those letters. So although it's barely legible, it is the one with the most personal meaning to him.

Being there at the very beginning of real attempts at written communication, especially when you can see how meaningful it is for the new writer, is one of the biggest joys of homeschooling so far. I can't wait to see what he writes next!

A Different Kind of Yoga Class

2010-04-21T19:42:00.006-04:00

Unless you've been hiding in your air-raid shelter, which we homeschoolers are rumored to enjoy as a convenient way to isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity, you have surely heard of the recent, obnoxious Good Morning America segment. The one where a family of unschoolers were portrayed as somehow simultaneously neglecting their teenagers and making them "the center of the universe," which many experts told us in very serious terms would result in the poor teens' inability to "earn a paycheck" or "associate with other adults." I mean, give me a break!

The family in question lives in Massachusetts, as do we, and the whole episode has resulted in lots of playground and Lego club speculation about how the state Department of Education might be planning an investigation of all suspected 'unschoolers' after state officials were caught unawares on national television. They evidently "did not return [ABC's] call" about these questionable educational practices.

It's all caused lots of worry and tension around here, and has me using four-letter words more often than usual. So, when I arrived last night to teach Yoga for Homeschooling Parents class, the hour of sanity that gets me (and the participants) through the week, we were a little more agitated than usual. We just couldn't settle, our minds and hearts were aswirl.

We decided to change the format, just for this one night: we would keep talking while going through the poses. It certainly wasn't as relaxing as yoga usually is, but I think that it worked because we could talk about what was on our minds, and exercise at the same time.

My one hang-up came at a the end of class, a time for silent meditation, breathing, and deep relaxation while lying down. Ordinarily my favorite part, this is when the body rests and the mind's batteries recharge. It is just so cool. But I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get my mind to stop, and if the instructor can't than you can bet the participants won't be able to either... so we did something a little hokey, but for this one time it worked. And it worked well.

We sat together in a circle, closed our eyes for just a minute or two, and chose something positive to share with the others. Doesn't that sound all kinds of cheesy? Oh, my friend, it was so nice.

I shared about a seminar that I got to attend, years ago, on learning through play, and how watching Luke and Owen play gives me great hope for their futures.

One mom, whose son is a type-1 diabetic and consequently needs lots of extra care taken over his food and drink, and about whom she worries lots and lots, told of her boy thanking her for taking such good care of him, such a sweet moment!

Another told of her daughter's experience that day building a shelter out of twigs and sticks, which required the organization of lots of other kids and resulted in an awesome building. It was totally self-directed, unschooling at its best, and the mom was so proud of her daughter for conceptualizing it in the first place - and making it reality, without adult help, in the second.

Another mom's positive thought was about how full of life and wonder her days are; flowers bloom, and her baby chicks are growing, and she's got this fabulous husband and a great family, and all is just right in her world.

I left thinking, it'd take a hell of a lot more than a stupid television show to get in the way of all our positive thoughts.

And I woke up this morning realizing how true that is.

Buzzwords

2010-04-19T20:45:00.004-04:00

I am in love with Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane E. Levin, two education professors who wrote a moving, passionate column arguing against national English and math standards in yesterday's Boston Sunday Globe. These standards are currently all the rage in education, at least up here in Massachusetts.

And that's where the title of this post comes in:
buzzword - n. A word or phrase connected with a specialized field or group that usually sounds important or technical and is used primarily to impress laypersons (from answers.com).

Fans of The Common Core Standards Initiative want parents to support national standards as The Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything. Proponents routinely describe standards, as Dr. David P. Driscoll does in a counterpoint column on the same op-ed page, as "strong," playing "a major role in the academic success of our [Massachusetts] students over the past decade."

Buzzwords like 'strong,' 'academic rigor,' 'challenging,' and 'clear improvement' are meant to persuade laypeople that we must adopt these standards.

Like, yesterday.

But I'm not persuaded.

Dr. Driscoll laments later in his ode to the standard: "We do not hold our kids to high enough standards of conduct [or] work ethic..." On the contrary, I think that too often we impose an adult's standard of conduct and work ethic onto children who are too young to understand why we have these standards.

The other day, when Owen enthusiastically greeted a very obese woman with "wow, you're really fat!" he learned something new: the standard of conduct is we don't speak of these things. Until the statement was out of his mouth, he didn't know there would be anything wrong with expressing it. This was evidenced by his question later: "can I tell really skinny people that they're really skinny?" At five, he just doesn't understand why - but from the reaction of the adults around him, he learned that commenting on somebody's size is not appropriate. Learning is what childhood is all about. (My face is red as I write this. I'm so, so sorry that my son caused such hurt feelings.)

'Work ethic' is another buzzword that really gets my goat. To make young children work at tasks they're not yet ready for seems to be priority number one in modern public schools - and if they express their displeasure, by hitting, or crying, or feeling nauseous and losing sleep, or biting others, they are condemned as having a 'poor work ethic.' (Some may even conclude, at the ripe old age of nine, that they are below average.) I believe that kids who are encouraged to learn on their own timetable end up with a far stronger work ethic than those who are exposed to school standards. The learning that they do is motivated intrinsically, because it's something they really need to know.

Drs. Carlsson-Paige and Levin write that these standards "contradict decades of early education theory and research about how young children learn best."

And they ought to know:
Dr. Carlsson-Paige has written extensively about learning through play, non-violence, and conflict resolution. One year at the Lesley Kindergarten Conference I got to attend her seminar on play and learning (best part: her description of how her two boys played together as youngsters, one creating costumes and sets and the other - Matt Damon - doing the acting). Many of her ideas show up in my parenting/teaching still.
In addition to teaching teachers, Dr. Levin writes about the sexualization of childhood and is a founding member of The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
Both women are on the board of The Alliance for Childhood, a group of prominent educators who, supported by a raft of research, have concluded that childhood in America is endangered... by all the damn standardized tests.

Now, I know what you're thinking: what about those pesky buzzwords that I use in favor of my arguments? What about 'play,' 'non-violence,' 'conflict resolution'? It's true, I do like to use fancy words, but the difference lies herein: the fancy words I use refer to Real Life, while the standards-fans' pertain merely to school.

I use them because I want to encourage people (laypeople, heh) to think about how there is nobody standing by while adults resolve conflicts non-violently, waiting to grade them on how 'strong' their position is. By adulthood we're supposed to have absorbed the standards of conduct. We're supposed to have a great work ethic.

But how will kids know those things, if they don't get the chance to learn them? Drs. Carlsson-Paige and Levin are two of my heroes today, for writing so eloquently about why standards won't help children learn what they'll need to know out in the real world.

It Beats the Alternative

2010-04-16T10:38:00.008-04:00

I'm thirty-nine years old today. Isn't that freaky? It's dangerously close to doddering old age, but I still love my birthday, the only day when I don't feel guilty eating a jar's worth of Nutella.

Here are some favorite pics from my thirty-eighth year, one of the best so far on this merry-go-round:

This was the year that the chickens came on the scene.

Ditto the Chicken Palace.

Last spring we went to Gettysburg, and I got extreme goosebumps watching Luke and Owen play in the woods where Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and his 20th Maine fighters held the Rebels back, determining the course of history.

Old Sturbridge Village, a place where the boys visited for the first time just this past June, has become a constant source of interest and excitement.

My brother's wedding was a highlight, too; here is his bride with all four of her new nephews.

I've looked in on the adventures of my parents:

and learned to knit.

Best of all, I've gotten to enjoy my kids:

And just be in love with, and in awe of, my husband, the sane guy in our crazy madhouse.

Yeah, it's a damn good life.

The Zen of Knitting

2010-04-13T22:33:00.004-04:00

My hands are better! Not 100%, but with the miracle of braces, ice, and ibuprofen (not to mention stretches recommended by some of you - thanks), I am back in the knitting zone.

Here are a few of my recovery projects:

My Mom sent me some of the loveliest wool from New Zealand a few months back, and here's what I have done with it. This is a vest made so that I look well-endowed-yet-svelte while wearing it, instead of like a big balloon with legs as with my previous attempt at vest-making. It's finished now, and my goal is to put up a pic of me in it - but first I need to wear it somewhere, which means going somewhere, so it could be a while.

Then, just as I was finishing up with that project and casting about for another, my brother emailed me a pic of something called a golf club headcover, and asked if I could make one? In time for an upcoming golf vacation that he's taking? Heck yes! I said, and here it is:

These two projects together probably represent twenty or thirty hours of knitting, and to pass the time I've listened to audio books, primarily Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. They're fun, especially the short stories, because they hold Luke and Owen's attention and so make for good listening all around.

Also, while I've been healing my hands, I've been riveted to this amazing book, The Best of Vogue Knitting. It's twenty-five years' worth of articles from the magazine, which range from history and philosophy of knitting (seriously - and sooo cool!), to about fourteen different ways to cast on (my new fave: the cable cast-on), to clever ideas like knitting back backwards, to celebrity knitters and what they're making.

And so now you must picture this: me, in my backyard, hanging out with our hens - and knitting. If anyone had said to me this time last year that either of these two pastimes would be even on my list of fun things to do, I would have laughed at them.

But that was before I got over my fear of chickens - and awoke to the zen of knitting.

Food and Family

2010-04-07T11:44:00.004-04:00

I write a column for Parents and Kids, called Food and Family, and I thought that I'd share a few of the more recent columns with recipes for you to try:

First, one about veggie burgers, which I used to dislike intensely but then came up with a recipe that hubby and I love.

And second, a roast chicken recipe that turns into two other yummy meals using the leftovers.

Hope you enjoy them!

Finding the Beauty - Day 9

2010-04-01T22:58:00.001-04:00

Five-year-old Owen's version of Emperor Palpatine's Chair.

Finding the Beauty - Day 8

2010-03-28T14:29:00.005-04:00

Ahh, Garfield.

I'm reposting an oldie-but-goodie about Garfield and the comics in general over at The Relaxed Learning Cafe. If you want to read about how comics help us learn about life, go check it out!

The Unspoken Issue

2010-03-24T22:27:00.003-04:00

Hello friends! I am still finding the beauty but, as my hands are a bit better, I thought I would blog about an issue close to my heart, instead of ranting at my hubby about it for like the fifteenthth time. More pics to come, and also a post about the zen of knitting, but in the meantime:

Our education system is broken. Newsweek's recent article, Why We Can't Get Rid of Failing Teachers, is the latest indication of just how bad it's gotten.

The article makes a persuasive argument in favor of wresting power from unions and giving it to administrators to fire teachers when the need arises. As a teacher, I feel conflicted about this; teachers get such a bad rap that the idea of firing them at will just appears to load on the disrespect. Need somebody to blame? Here, have a bad teacher!

But what really concerns me about the article are the assumptions that underlie it.

It's a foregone conclusion, for example, that current teaching methods and curriculum are fine. The emphasis on standardized tests as a reliable measure of children's learning, as well as the idea that all kids should learn the same things, at about the same age, are assumed to be okay too. A student's imagination and interest - the theory that a child should have a say in what he or she learns - has been totally sidelined. Are these ideas really so embedded in the national consciousness that they can be dismissed without mention, in an article about how to fix education?

Also, if teachers are failing, how is that measured? There is not a word about how to determine this in the whole article. Who decides that a teacher is failing? Aside from the obvious, like those who sexually assault students, or overtly abuse them, the criterion I've read most about is... the height of students' test scores.

As this system slides down the rabbit-hole, it's taking kids and adults with it. The system nearly took my oldest son, and we only realized how broken public education is after we started homeschooling.

So, bully for us, right? What about the kids who can't homeschool, or can't afford private school? How do we make it right for them?

Finding the Beauty - Day 7

2010-03-22T19:14:00.004-04:00

We're deep into March now, usually the month I have the most trouble with, and I have to say that so far... knock on wood... there has been lots of beauty to find.

Recently, we went on a hike with some friends - that's where today's pics come from:

Thanks, Angela, for that first one!

Why do I love bleak, dry pictures like this? I don't know, I just do.

Here is the view, seen from between two rocks up at the summit. It is an amazing place, and takes my breath away every time I get the chance to climb to it.

I hope you are finding the beauty in March too! If you want to read a bit more about hiking, go to Shannon's post at our new community blog, The Relaxed Cafe.

Finding the Beauty - Day 6

2010-03-17T23:28:00.002-04:00

To serve and protect...

the vernal pool in Dragon Woods.

Finding the Beauty - Day 5

2010-03-15T19:41:00.005-04:00

Today, a field trip in pictures. First, we have The Book Barn. My gosh! What a place:

Next, it was off to an amazing state park in Connecticut:

We topped it all off with ice cream (Thanks Jen:-) Yum!

Finding the Beauty - Day 4

2010-03-11T11:37:00.004-05:00

Sword

fighting

practice.

Finding the Beauty - Day 3

2010-03-07T20:46:00.001-05:00

Lego brachiosaurus.

Finding the Beauty - Day 2

2010-03-04T19:09:00.003-05:00

Beauty is easy to find at Old Sturbridge Village:

Finding the Beauty - Day 1

2010-03-02T09:44:00.007-05:00

Because, what with hands that are sore, and cloudy, drizzly days, and everything else that March brings, searching for a little beauty is necessary.

Thanks very much to Adele, whose personal struggle to find the beauty started along with the New Year, and to Lise over In the Purple House for planting the seed of the idea for this series!

I expect I'll be my usual wordy self in a month or so, but in the meantime I'm going to do a pic a post.

Globetrotting with Grandma and Grandpa

2010-02-25T13:10:00.005-05:00

They are having the time of their lives, my parents.

This first pic is the view from their deck in Paihia, New Zealand. Their trip has confirmed for me that New Zealand is one place I definitely want to go... living there wouldn't be out of the question, even, although I guess I'd better consult the family before making any big decisions. My Mom sent me some of the loveliest yarn I have ever laid my hands on from New Zealand. She reports:

The first thing you notice about New Zealand is how green and uncommercialized it is and after three weeks here that still holds. Plus! we haven't seen a single billboard and we've driven 3000 km, or 1800 miles. We've had perfect weather and I hope it doesn't change too drastically in the next few weeks. We've been told that the South Island is more beautiful than the North, but the rugged coastline and sandy beaches of the Coromandel and the green and gold pastoral, hilly interior will be awfully hard to beat. There are sheep on every hillside, but surprise - but there's a big bovine presence too.

Took the ferry to the South Island and stopped in Marlborough, where most NZ wines are produced. After extensive research, we can personally assure all our wino friends that there is wine in abundance. People here are so friendly - we dropped into a bar the other night and were adopted by half a dozen 20-somethings and had a great time with them for an hour!

Here, though is the piece de resistance: my folks went heli-hiking! Isn't that cool?

Mom writes: Unfortunately, it's a cloudy day so we didn't see the top of Mt. Cook but we were almost at the top of Mt. Tasman. The ice we're standing on is 400 metres deep (about 1200 feet I think!)

And then it was on to lovely Fiji.

Or, maybe not so lovely? My Dad writes: Much of Fiji looks like regular living is very hard. Wages are very low. Hard for me to really like a place when I'm living like a king, while riding on the back of the very low wages paid to the folks that work there. Life looks better than the Philippines and Mexico, but still a very hard life for the average person. Mom told you already about the school we visited. Very humbling experience. You would have loved both the teachers and the 70 students. (Here are some of the students, with my Dad:)

After Fiji, it was on to Australia. Here, my Mom is writing to my boys and their cousins:

We are in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It's hot, hot, hot! About 110 degrees F! There are lots of flies here - so many that we had to wear a net. Don't we look funny!

And, they were all excited when they saw a wallabee:

I didn't know that wallabees looked anything like kangaroos, but evidently, they do. Here's the Wikipedia page about them, in case you'd like to know more.

And so, the great trip continues! I'll do another update soon, on the rest of their Aussie segment and then on into Asia.

Cease and Desist

2010-02-22T17:02:00.003-05:00

So, I have apparently knitted myself into a corner: my hands are killing me. They are numb and painful at the same time, something that came on very suddenly. I blame the socks; last week I started working on a totally cute pair, on size 2 (cold, metal) needles, and now I can't even make a second pot-holder on size 11 (warm, bamboo) needles. And the first one looks so lonely!

Keyboarding is a problem, too, which is why I haven't been my wordy, commenting self on my favorite blogs over the weekend.

I am an addict, denied my two key habits.

I've decided to give myself a few days to let the nerves settle down. Then, once I have some feeling back in my left hand, I will give knitting another try. It goes without saying that, while my blog may be less typing and more photos, I'll keep at it - I would miss my bloggy friends too much to stop!

Here are pics of two projects recently finished:

These slippers are the first project I've done on double-pointed needles. Once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed knitting them very much. The lower pic is them before felting. They looked like cozy slippers for Andre the Giant.

Finally, about a week ago I finished this vest, from 25 Gorgeous Sweaters for the Brand-New Knitter. While some of the projects in the book are dated, I still found a winter's worth of relatively easy things to make. Here's a close-up:

Anybody have advice to fix hands? I'd really appreciate it...

When Life Gives You Apples...

2010-02-18T20:28:00.003-05:00

... make apple cake!

For the past three or four autumns, we've collected at least two, sometimes three bushels of apples to store for winter. Our favorite storage apples include Crispins and Fujis; we love supporting the orchards right around us and enjoying the sweet, crisp deliciousness of these apples until right about now, when we need to return to supermarket fruit because we have eaten the very last one.

But this year has been a different story. We picked our three bushels as usual - and then we got six weeks of unexpected higher-than-normal temperatures, during which the apples wrinkled and softened. We gave up trying to eat them back in December, and since then have made two important discoveries:

1) They are not going bad.

2) They are great in apple cake.

Ever since, this treat has become kind of a staple around here. It is great to have on hand, it freezes well, and it makes a nice treat to bring to a party or to a friend's house, or just have for dessert.

So, here is the recipe in case you want to try it, too.

Fresh Apple Cake

2 cups sugar

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup applesauce

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 cups flour

3 cups diced apples (about 4 whole apples)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

Powdered sugar (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350; grease a bundt or tube pan.

2) Cream sugar, butter, and applesauce in a mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, in order, mixing after each addition. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

3)Bake 60-65 minutes at 350; cake is done when a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Invert onto wire rack and cool completely. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Soooo good!

Pride and Prejudice and Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T12:30:00.003-05:00

I detest Valentine's Day.

It's the sugar-coated sap, you see, and the Hallmark-cheesiness, and the pink hearts. They cause in me a knee-jerk reaction that I cannot help - until this year when, like Eliza Bennett with her Mr. Darcy, I find that my feelings have changed. They are not, as she puts it, 'quite the opposite,' but my heart has softened a bit towards the holiday of love.

And I think that Jane Austen has something to do with it.

This week, I felt surrounded by bad news. We receive mail, from time to time, sent by the political party that is not our own, we got on some list apparently, and reading the latest installment on Wednesday, I felt downright harassed. The language was so violent and aggressive and angry, it was like holding something lit on fire, or a howler from the Harry Potter universe. Seeing my principles turned into vitriol on the page really hurt. Why do political parties feel the need to trash each other so violently?

On that same morning, I read this in the Boston Globe, with the scary title "Home-Schooled in Ominous Isolation" (I know, online it's 'situation' but the paper uses the far scarier 'isolation'). It's about a mother who keeps her teenage daughters stuck at home, giving them no opportunity to be with others. It is not so much about homeschooling, but instead about a woman who abuses her children by separating them from the world. It depressed me because the conclusion that can be drawn - that will be drawn, by anyone outside of the homeschooling community - is that homeschooling equals ominous isolation, and that is simply not the case.

Also, looming in the near future is a doctor's appointment for Luke, a biggie that has to do with his left leg. The leg that's always given him trouble. The one he needed surgery on at age five. The one that keeps him back, despite the stretches and exercises he does every day. The one that causes him pain.

To counter the bad stuff that cannot be filtered out, I am lucky enough to have weapons of the highest quality: a lifelong friend who started a superb photography blog this week, who knows the value of a well-placed giggle, and who owns - and shares! - a copy of the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Here is my favorite, favorite scene in the whole movie (I know, Shan, it's crazy, but this even beats out the lake scene):

I've also borrowed three Jane Austen books (one from another friend, I am so lucky in my friends), and reading her funny and insightful words helps. A lot. I started with Pride and Prejudice, because I just can't get enough of Darcy, I guess!

Also, we attended a Valentine's Day party on Friday that was quite the opposite of ominous isolation: seventy homeschoolers, and bowling, and crafts, and food, and storytelling, even a penny drive for Haiti. It wonderful.

(Thanks to Erica for the two best pics up there :-)

So this year, between Valentine's Day and Pride and Prejudice (and good friends, and good fun!), I am able to counter the forces of evil. I hope your day is a good one, whether you love the holiday of love - or detest it.

Pre-Literacy

2010-02-11T15:47:00.003-05:00

Owen, at five, wants to read so badly. He's fascinated with letters - their formation, which ones make which sounds - but the poor kid can't make sense of them yet, try as he might.

We play rhyming games, read great books (two current favorites: Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies and the equally hilarious Way Out West with a Baby), and play games from another superb book, Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye.

But sometimes, you just want to be entertained while learning to read, and that is when we turn to YouTube. Here are some of Owen's - and Luke's, and my - absolute favorite reading/silly skits, from PBS's Between the Lions; this first one is the best:

By the end of that video, I am wiping tears of laughter off my face. Every time.

Next up, the Monkey Pop-Up Theater:

Now, the Amazing Adventures of Cliff Hanger:

And finally, Gawain's Word:

This skit is based off of Wayne's World, the movie with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, which (due to my overly silly sense of humor) makes it all the more endearing to me. We have even been known to 'do' Gawain's Word in our pool in summer!

So, maybe these skits help Owen take in the principles behind decoding text. I can tell you, watching them with him on my lap at the computer, seeing his expression as each new goofy thing happens on-screen, breathing in his little-boy smell, laughing along with him - that is what I mostly like them for.

The Chicken in Winter

2010-02-08T20:35:00.004-05:00

I know I haven't written about them much recently, but the girls are a very large part of our lives. We've spent hours in the freezing cold hanging out, watching them poke around the semi-snowy yard, and collecting eggs from the nesting box.

They hate snow, so this last five weeks or so without it has been fun for the girls, who scratch around on the frozen grass and scrape into the pine needles behind their coop.

It sounds like their snow-free explorations will come to a halt, for a while at least, because we're expecting six inches or so in a few days. But they've had it good whether they know it or not.

You may remember, if you've been reading since we got them, that the chickens used to scare the bejabbers out of me. They don't anymore; when I am in the yard, lugging wood in for the stove or feeding them (or, more rarely, cleaning out their coop - which is SO not bad, Firefly Mom!), they follow me around and cluck adorably. The chickens just exude serenity, with their soft little voices and gentle mannerisms. We are so glad we added them to our family.

Below Average

2010-02-03T22:11:00.006-05:00

This here post is a ticked-off, public-school-sucks kind of post; I just wanted to get that out of the way at the beginning. It's about a conversation we had tonight, over dinner.

We'd spent the better part of our meal discussing The Black Cauldron, Lloyd Alexander's second book about Prydain, and the funniest Calvin and Hobbes comics, and favorite specific quotes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and how the 'big three' Greek Gods figured out who was going to be in charge of what realm, and... well, the conversation ranged, I guess, to sum up. All four of us took an equal part, and I was thinking how cool it was that the kids engage in conversation like they do, when Ben mentioned something about parents' perceptions that their schooled children who are of average ability get average teachers, and that kids with either learning issues, who are 'below average', or gifted kids, get the better teachers.

Now, this would have been an interesting thread to follow - but Luke heard the words 'below average' and suddenly said, "Yes, I'm below average."

Very matter-of-factly, mind you, no wistfulness or emotion of any kind. He was just stating a fact. My stomach churned, and I could see my worry reflected on Ben's face, too. One of us, or probably both of us, asked Luke: "Why do you say you're below average?"

"Well, that is what [Mrs. First Grade Teacher, who should probably remain anonymous] wrote in my report card - y'know, after I was doing bad when we got home from vacation?"

Luke was remembering his first-grade report card, in which the teacher took special care to mention how much worse his behavior was after we returned from a two-week vacation, that May, to Myrtle Beach. Luke spent those two weeks frolicking in the warm South Carolina ocean, finding clams and brine shrimp with his Dad, wave-surfing with his Grandpa, reading (memorizing, actually) the Magiquest manual, roasting marshmallows with his Grandma. His every moment was spent learning in some way, and so he didn't find the time to complete the sixty pages of worksheets that Mrs. First Grade Teacher had sent along. And, surprise surprise, he was not thrilled at the prospect of getting his nose back to the academic grindstone; agitation at school ensued.

Well, Ben and I hastened to correct Luke in his belief that he is 'below average.' We reminded him that it isn't up to Mrs. First Grade Teacher to make judgments like that, and also we helped him to remember all the things that he does do well. I hope that we convinced him - but I'm not entirely sure we did.

How do you counteract years of negative self-perception like that? Luke referred to himself as 'below average' and 'doing bad;' I fear that no amount of rock climbing, reading, role-playing or unconditional love can counteract something so ingrained.

Effing school! Still capable of hurting, more than two years later. Sigh.

Everything Seems Bigger When You Are A Kid

2010-01-31T22:20:00.005-05:00

As part of our wintertime phys ed regimen, we went swimming today at a nearby pool:

My friend Angela took these pics. Thanks, Angela! They are really cute.

If you look at the top pic closely, you can see all the way to the other end of the pool. It is quite a long way away, perhaps 75 feet or so. But to me it looked small today because the last time I came to this pool, I was about eight and was taking swimming lessons there.

The pool looked really really big back then. So big, in fact, that I never actually got in it during my swimming lessons. I sat on the side; the poor instructor didn't stand a chance of getting me in there. The pool has this really great ledge, about a foot wide and a few inches lower than the edge, and kids and parents alike sit on it to get used to the water. But when I was small, sitting on that ledge was the closest I ever got to swimming.

And, I used to totally lie to my Mom about how great I was, too! There is a diving board at this pool, and I would go home and tell that I was jumping in off the high diving board, when in fact I wouldn't even go near it. Finally, one week my Mom came to observe her swimming prodigy and discovered the truth. She asked after class, 'why did you tell me you were jumping in off the high diving board?' And I told her, 'because I wanted you to think I was doing good at swimming' - without adding, 'so that I could stop this farce of weekly lessons during which I waste my time, and the instructor's, by not even getting wet.'

But I have a great Mom; I didn't have to add that last bit out loud. The weekly agony was stopped, and I learned to swim at my own pace, in peace. Thank you, Mom!

Here's the kicker: today, I knew that the pool would be smaller than I remembered, and I knew that the high diving board would be as well. Still, I thought, even if the diving board isn't exactly Olympic size, it's probably still pretty high, right? Fifteen, twenty feet, at least? Nope - it's four feet out of the water. Four feet.

I wondered how high it looked to Luke and Owen - who didn't jump in off the board, but swam happily over much of the rest of the pool. Luke, along with our buddy from down the street, even cannonballed in.

Right from the spot where, so long ago, I refused to put so much as a toe in the water.

Big Bad Bunny Slippers

2010-01-27T22:22:00.003-05:00

My obsession with knitting, and especially felting, continues. I love how you can take a big, lumpy, odd-looking batch of knitting and turn it into just the loveliest, softest, coziest pair of slippers:

Here is what these looked like before I felted the heck out of them, in a bucket in my bathtub:

They were too big even for me, and they were intended for Luke, whose two favorite colors right now are blue and brown. I was skeptical about them ever felting down enough to fit either of us, but thankfully they did. Here is one next to my foot just to show you:

Now they fit Luke perfectly. And, I have to say it's very gratifying that he keeps them at the bottom of his loft ladder, so he can slip right into them in the mornings!

Owen really, really wanted bunny slippers - but they'd have to be big-boy, kinda tough bunny slippers for a manly five-year-old like him. So we made them in his favorite color, fire-engine red, and I'll give them a brown tail ASAP (probably tomorrow). These are the unfelted slippers:

The pattern (which, along with the pattern for Luke's stripy slippers, came from Knit One, Felt Too, an awesome book for obsessed felters) says to sew on the ears after felting, and so that is what I did - they aren't attached in that pic up there.

And here they are all done:

Aren't they SO freaking cute?

It makes me smile that this boy, who recently has begun to lecture about how the color pink is good for girls, but not boys, and who has attempted to ban music with female vocals on the grounds that he is a boy and boys do NOT listen to music sung by girls, is running around in bunny slippers.

But only very masculine bunny slippers, of course.

All About the Accessories

2010-01-25T14:59:00.005-05:00

We did a really excellent thing on Friday:

Yep, that is Owen, rock climbing! Luke took the picture and, since Owen isn't quite up to competent camera usage, I have no pics of Luke climbing because you can't belay somebody and take pictures at the same time. (The belayer is the person who's holding the rope that prevents disaster.)

After I learned how to belay, a process which took about an hour and consisted of learning to tie the climber into the rope and learning to take up slack, brake (to stop a fall), and feed the rope as the climber 'spidermans' back down, we went up to the beginner section. It was so cool because the more advanced climbs are all 40 ft high, and they built the beginner section to start upstairs so that our 20 ft climb started halfway up the advanced wall, and the boys felt like they were among the experts.

Not that Luke is a beginner anyway; he climbed a wall a few years ago and surprised the heck out of me by getting all the way to the top. But it seems that he had less fear at seven than he does now, at the ripe old age of nine, because once he got on the wall he was downright nervous about both the climbing and the spidermanning.

Actually, I thought at first that climbing was not going to be either kid's favorite thing. They were both nervous about getting too high and didn't trust that the belay would keep them safe. So long about lunch time I thought, well, at least we tried it, and started getting ready to go. That's when the girl running the place gave Luke a bag full of magic dust - chalk, the climber's handy helper. As much as chalk actually does help in climbing, the coolness factor of carrying gear attached to a carabiner, attached to your harness, is what really helped get them over their fears. Kind of like Dumbo with the feather.

So, once chalk was introduced into the equation, they started climbing in earnest.

Also, they loved the specific language used by climbers. Once all the safety checks have been completed, and the climber is tied in, he says, 'on belay?' and the belayer says 'belay on.' Then, the climber states, 'climbing,' and the belayer says, 'climb on.' Each time we switched kids, or switched paths helpfully charted up the 20-foot wall (with cute names like Red Brick Road or Climb Bling), we tied in, checked ropes, and had that little exchange about the belay.

I had to drag them out of there when the threat of rush hour gearing up outside became too much for me, some four hours later. I think they would have been kicking and screaming - except that, by then, they could barely move their arms with all the climbing they'd done. They slept better that night than they have since we closed the swimming pool back in August!

Dragon Woods

2010-01-21T14:37:00.005-05:00

Growing up, I totally took the woods behind my house for granted. I stomped in the stream in any weather, ran there when I was mad or overwhelmed, took my dog running around the boulders and through the oaks and pines. At a guess, I probably spent fifteen to twenty hours a week out in those woods.

It's only in the last year or so that Luke and Owen have been exploring at all behind our house - in fact, it's only today that I begin to know how incredibly, stupidly lucky we are to live with woods at our back.

Here is what Owen's looking at:

It is called Five Dragon Path Tree, on account of there are five huge trees growing together. It is just one of many landmarks the boys have named in the woods behind our house.

We saw wonders large and small today, on my first hike - and the boys' longest so far - into Dragon Woods.

Luke's standing beside Knucker Stream - named after the Knucker Dragon, of course.

The moss growing on the water, in a lovely patch of sunlight in these still woods, fascinated all of us.

It was quiet during the day, but the evidence of night-time mayhem was everywhere:

We're thinking those are some kind of cat, possibly a fisher cat - if anyone knows for sure, or knows of a good field guide to help us identify them, please say so!

Here is what we think that creature pursued:

(The rabbit, not the human.) I felt a bit like Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, searching for clues to the whereabouts of his hobbit friends when he came upon the footprints of a fierce fight, and using the prints to figure out what had happened. Not that I could draw any conclusions, mind, with my extreme tracking inexperience. But a girl can dream, can't she?

We wandered farther into Dragon Woods than ever before; everyone was happy to return to the part of the woods that we know best. It's marked, somewhat incongrously, by Pride Rock:

Pride Rock, named for the seat of lion power in The Lion King, brings you up high enough so that you can survey the whole of Dragon Woods.

I think Luke and Owen really do feel like they rule here, in our lovely little corner.

Just as I once ruled in the woods behind my home.

What is a Real Education?

2010-01-18T14:44:00.007-05:00

Whoa. I've just read an article in The Atlantic Monthly, and let me tell you, it is a doozy. Entitled Cultivating Failure, the article disses California teachers and administrators who espouse gardening in school in addition to readin', ritin', and 'rithmetic.

It's a rant designed, it seems, to bring progressive educators, anyone who disagrees with author Caitlin Flanagan's near-Puritanical viewpoint about the 3 R's and, one imagines, garden-lovers, to spluttering rage. I must say, it worked on me. If you have a few minutes and feel like you haven't done enough spluttering today, go read it - and then come back, and let me know what you have to say. Go on, I'll wait for you.

So, what'd you think? Were you able to get past the deliberately inflammatory language, like the part where the author calls those who eat at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse restaurant "ACORN-loving, public-option-supporting [men] or [women] of the people"? Or, where she compares time spent by children gardening in school to sharecropping in the Jim Crow south?

The reader certainly gets a sense of what Flanagan feels kids should be doing in school instead of gardening: they should spend their entire schooling - 12,960 hours over twelve years of school, by my count - bent over their books, learning math and reading. Anything else, she seems to believe, is positively criminal, judging by her references to 'precious school hours' that should be spent, for example, 'writing paragraphs on The Crucible.'

But here is my question: isn't the kind of school that Flanagan wants a prison in itself? Isn't it a great way to turn children off to the excitement of learning? I think my head might explode if I spent six hours a day in instructional time, and I'm an adult without the energy level of a typical five-year-old! The author is very Professor Umbridge-y in her viewpoint about school, even as she claims to know how to teach children best.

Repeatedly, the value of a good education is reduced in this article to a score on a test. The question 'why learn?' is answered, both overtly and subtly, with 'to get into college' or 'to score well.' There is absolutely no discussion of creativity, curiosity, the thrill of figuring something out.

I think that this is because the gist of the article is that gardening in school is especially bad for - and a tremendous insult to - poor, minority students whose parents or grandparents picked (or even still pick) food in orchards owned by others. And I'm not saying that the situation for poor minority families in California is a good one - but, once they pass the test and get that all-important piece of paper that says they passed the test, what do the sons and daughters do then? Start working at some crummy job, exchanging mindless button-pushing for tomato-picking?

Maybe that is what they do; while I've always been lucky enough to have food on the table, I've worked some crummy jobs in my time. But when I wasn't cleaning toilets or laundering the skivvies of total strangers, I was still using my brain, reading because I wanted to, or playing board games because I couldn't afford a tv, or going for a walk or even... wait for it... gardening.

Because my curiosity and love of learning was NOT squelched by endless drilling in school. I went on field trips, performed science experiments, had the extreme luxury, by today's standards, of two recesses per day until sixth grade and gym twice a week, and spent plenty of time just playing with classmates. I learned that learning is about more than the times tables and how to tell a subject from a predicate.

I kept thinking about The Alliance for Childhood while I read Flanagan's article about how bad gardening is for children, and how offensive we should all find gardening in school especially if our forbears relied on manual labor (as mine did) for a living.

The Alliance for Childhood is a group of educators including some of my heroes in the field, like Dr. David Elkind, child development specialist and author of The Hurried Child and Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, Sue Bredekamp, who co-wrote Developmentally Appropriate Practice, a book I reference even in homeschooling, and Alfie Kohn, who writes so persuasively against standardized testing. Two of them, Joan Almon and Edward Miller, have written a mind-blowing paper,Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School, in which they review several studies about how much time young children spend in teacher-directed activities (like math and reading) versus child-directed ones (like recess and imaginative play). Any guesses about how much time kids spend in each? Here's a hint: mostly teacher-directed and nearly none, or actually none, child-directed.

Miller and Almon also discuss the ramifications, for children and our entire society, of the overwhelmingly teacher-directed world school has become for Kindergarteners, and it's not good:

As one kindergarten teacher put it, “If I give the children time to play, they don’t know what to do. They have no ideas of their own.” This is a tragedy, both for the children themselves and for our nation and world. No human being can achieve his full potential if his creativity is stunted in childhood. And no nation can thrive in the 21st century without a highly creative and innovative workforce. Nor will democracy survive without citizens who can form their own independent thoughts and act on them. (Crisis in the Kindergarten, pg. 8)

But, what is the power of a child's own ideas compared with a great score on a test? I guess that is the real question.

Learning Extensions, Analog and Digital...

2010-01-15T21:30:00.003-05:00

... or a bit of both:

Owen, and Luke for that matter, is fascinated with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and we only added fuel to that fire by giving Ben a LOTR game for Playstation. They spent most of the week after Christmas, and the week after that, watching their Dad battle cave trolls, orcs, and Uruk-Hai (which Owen refuses to believe are orcs, he thinks they are a whole different, super-bad race). So the pic up there is Owen, dressed as Legolas the elf, with straws for arrows and a wonderful polished stick (one of the best, most-used gifts he's ever gotten, incidentally) as his bow.

He loves to dress as a character and act out a part. I always know when he has taken something in, because he'll go around spouting lines perfectly from story, poetry... or video games. If that's not an extension to learning, I don't know what is.

Luke has re-discovered Dance Mat Typing, the funnest way to learn to type that I have ever seen. I'm serious, you have not lived until you've heard the cute moose host in the sunglasses tell you about the 'home row keys.' It's free, and as you go through the program, you get a certificate when you pass each level. Sure beats the grumpy keyboarding teacher that I had in high school!

Although I haven't really talked about it here yet, Luke had a very techie Christmas, finally fulfilling his life's dream when Santa brought him a Nintendo DS. He also got a great game, Brain Age, which turns out to be a learning extension, too. In fact, it is downright educational, and Luke plays it every day to exercise his brain.

Finally, and most analog of all, Lego fever has come to our home. Until this week, Luke directed others as to what to make with Legos for him to play with. He's always functioned around blocks in a purely supervisory capacity - but then, we got invited to join a Lego club and, coincidentally in the same week, he was given a Lego club magazine with directions for how to build underwater creatures. Suddenly, he's building, spending hours creating old-fashioned telephones, dolphins, little space speeders... It's a good thing Owen has loved Lego for a while, because we actually have a fair amount of it around.

And, are they really so analog? There was one last spark to Luke's Lego fire this week: Lego Digital Designer, free, downloadable software for designing your own creations, or checking out others'. And the coolest thing is, you can design something digitally and then buy the Legos to make it in analog!

Block-building could be one of the most intellectually creative activities, I am so glad Luke has finally caught on. Talk about a learning extension!

Where in the World are Grandma and Grandpa?

2010-01-11T23:00:00.004-05:00

In Auckland, New Zealand, as it turns out:

My parents are on the trip of their lives, traveling west around the globe until July (assuming that they have not killed each other by then, of course... heh heh). And the cool thing is, they're reporting in here periodically, so that we can have an awesome virtual field trip! Here's my Mom, writing about New Zealand:

So far the countryside is absolutely fabulous! We drove down the east coast from Whitianga to Turangi this morning - the highways - not the backroads! - through the mountains are like ski runs - I had to make Dad stop twice so I could get my stomach settled. But I'm going to get over it - there's no way I'm not getting around this country! The mountains look like the farm in Babe! Was that filmed in NZ? Sheep and cattle on these steep grassy hills - I was laughing this morning remembering what Dad told you guys when you were little - when we saw cows on the sides of steep hills he told you those cows had shorter legs on one side!! These animals must!

When they left here, from the East coast, a few Sundays ago, we had trouble figuring out what time it would be in New Zealand when they landed - they flew across the international dateline causing us to wonder, if they flew for twenty-some hours, would they land on Monday, or Tuesday their local time? I must be honest, I still haven't figured this out. But Ben came across a great web site, World Time Server.com, so now at least we have a visual - see in the sidebar over there?

My Dad gave me the best time-tip yet: "To change from Eastern Standard Time to New Zealand time, subtract six hours from current East coast time - and then, add 24 hours because it's really tomorrow here." Easy, right?

My folks have seen some amazing sights this week. They attended a Maori meal, in which they became members of The Tribe of All Nations, about 150 visitors to New Zealand who went and met with the Maori Nation for dinner. Here are a few pics of the Maori, sent by my Mom:

She says, "[Here are] two tattooed Maori warriors. Their faces are done with paint these days, but back only 50 years ago these face decorations were carved right into the men's (warriors) skin." This next picture represents fifty-five hours of tattooing:

I can tell you that the 3X4 inch tattoo I have on my lower leg took an excruciating one hour and twenty minutes. But fifty-five hours, my goodness!

In all seriousness, my parents' trip has sparked an interest in learning more about the Maori, a tough, proud people with a rich culture and history. Here is a Wikipedia entry about them, and if anyone knows of any good books for children on Maori culture, or history, or both, please let me know!

Here's a pic of the New Zealand national bird, the Kiwi:

You just can't talk about New Zealand in our house without bringing up Peter Jackson's amazing film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. (No, the boys haven't seen it yet, but they've heard the story - in a long telling that took several days - and played the Trivial Pursuit game, and seen a few choice scenes on YouTube.) If you have not seen the trilogy yet, then go and do so - because this video of Owen battling the Balrog won't make any sense:

And I must leave off on this, a not-entirely-child-friendly merging of two of the best acts ever to come out of New Zealand. Yes, it's Flight of the Conchords' "Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring:"

I am the Queen of Felting

2010-01-07T23:52:00.005-05:00

I love the idea that homeschooling isn't just for the kids, it's for the parents too; while the young ones learn about whatever they want to, so can we. It's in this spirit that I took up knitting over the holidays and, while I have been knitting for only a month or so, I've certainly dived right in.

I finished this sweater last week, and I love it. I called it my experimental sweater, a good name because it doesn't really fit me all that well - it's too long in the arms and too broad in the shoulders, while at the same time it's not quite long enough in the body and so I end up looking like a gorilla wearing a sweater that's too short. It is not pretty, which is too bad, because it is such a lovely sweater.

As I was finishing it up, I realized that this knitting stuff is habit-forming, and that I felt really strange without something somewhere on needles. So I decided to make a felted tote from the best knitting book ever (the one we've taken to calling 'Stitch n' Complain' in our house because the real name contains a swear.) I figure I'll use the tote to keep my knitting in, so that I can take it with me wherever I want, instead of using the far-less-transportable basket that houses current projects now.

But the felting presented a problem: to take wool and turn it to felt requires very hot water and agitation. Most people toss their projects into the washing machine to accomplish the task. But we have a front-loader - great for saving water, and cutting down on drying time and wear on clothes - but sucky for felting because you can't stop the washer to see when it's time to stop felting, and also it hardly agitates at all (hence the less wear on clothes). I would have to find another way.

First I tried boiling the heck out of a gauge swatch, but after ten solid minutes of rapid boiling, all I had was a house that smelled like a herd of sheep lived here. So then I found a blog post on the web in which the blogger stuck her project in a bucket on a towel in her bathtub and used a (clean, new) plunger to agitate in very hot water. I must admit I was skeptical, especially after the boiled-on-the-stove experience, but I tossed the swatch into the bucket along with a bit of dish soap and a pair of Owen's jeans, and in about three minutes, voila! I had felt.

Now, it was time to take my finished bag and try it with that.

There it is. I was afraid to stick it in the bucket, because I worked so hard on it.

And here we are mid-agitation. I am getting scared at this point, after five or so minutes of hard labor, that maybe it won't take.

But after another few minutes, less than five, it worked! It felt all felty. So I rolled it up in a towel to get out some of the moisture, and then laid it flat to dry.

And THAT is why I feel that I can call myself the Queen of Felting. Best of all, I ended up with about two combined skeins of yarn in three different colors, so I can make other stuff to felt! Socks, mittens, perhaps another purse... habit-forming, I'm telling you.

The Acquisition of Proper English

2010-01-05T12:37:00.005-05:00

This morning, while Luke described the trajectory of something he'd been reading about, he pronounced it with the emphasis on the first syllable so that it came out 'TRAjectory' instead of 'traJECtory,' as we would normally say it.

It made me pause and think: he mispronounced the word because he's only ever read it, and never heard it spoken. And I just found that so cool!

He's done this before, with the word 'motto' - I wrote about it here - pronouncing it 'mow-tow' and knowing of this word only from literature. Comics, actually, thus making the case that Calvin and Hobbes is truly high art.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how humans learn language, and the telling (not to mention cute!) mistakes we make along the way. Things like when Owen says "I'm pretty funny, amn't I?" He knows that it's a contraction, like isn't, but somewhere in the hard drive of his mind, he knows that isn't... well, isn't.

And then, there are the unpronounce-ables; when Luke was two or so, he used to call mustard 'shmenky,' because he just couldn't get his mouth around the word mustard. Naturally in our family we now always say 'pass the shmenky please.' He also used to say 'chip-chop cookies' instead of chocolate chip. When I was a girl, one younger brother called me 'Wee-wah' and the other called me 'Nenni' - I guess even 'Karen' can be tough for little ones!

I also love the substitutions, words that get put in place of the actual words; Owen calls Sprite 'Sprout' on the rare occasions he gets to have it. Again when I was a girl, one brother jokingly told my family that he was feeling sick to his stomach; he reported: "I'm nauseating!" We haven't heard a substitution from Luke for quite a while, and then a week or so ago he came out with this one while we were out on a walk, overlooking a fast-running stream: "Hey, look at those jimmies!" Ben and I exchanged glances, trying to figure out what a jimmy might be, and then it clicked - he meant eddies, those little whirlpools that you see in fast-running water.

Another word that he's read, but never heard, and another chance for me think: that is so cool!

Holiday Ramblings

2009-12-30T14:31:00.004-05:00

I know this pic is blurry, but I just love it of the boys together, in their jammies, choosing a Christmas Eve present to open. Also, if you look to the left, you can see our couch; we live in such a tiny house that the tree is in the entry, and the stockings are hung (with care, of course) on the back of that couch:

It's been a great Christmas, with family visiting, and Santa, and all. I love how Owen plays with toys - he took and built a big playset out of all the different gifts he got. Here's the front:

And the back:

Another big hit was yo-yos from Santa. My Dad, as a boy, won prizes for his amazing yo-yo abilities, and so he got to teach his grandchildren a thing or two with the yo-yo (while the rest of us got out of the way!)

Luke, above, walking the dog. And Owen, below, with Ben winding his yo-yo.

It turns out that this was one of Ben's rare moments out of the basement, where he has been feverishly working to drywall as part of the remodel that's going to make our house somewhat less tiny, with my Dad helping out too. Here're a few pics of Owen and Luke, helping Grandpa put in some drywall screws:

We haven't spent as much time with my nephews (and their folks :-( as we would have liked, because they were sick over there, as is my Mom over here. When she started with a cold, she asked for Cece Soup ("As in Cheech and Chong?" asked Luke when he heard about the soup - we've been listening to their extremely funny skit about Santa Claus and His Old Lady, so he recognized the name). If anyone in your house is sick, Cece Soup might be just the ticket to help them get better, so I'm giving you the recipe:

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil with 1Tbsp butter in your soup pot on med-low until the butter melts. Then add one chopped garlic clove and 1/2 tsp crushed rosemary, and heat until the garlic is golden, about 2 minutes.

Add 4 Tbsp of spaghetti sauce, and then simmer on low heat for ten minutes; in my recipe I have written that this is "v. important!" so don't skip it.

Then add 4 cups of rinsed canned chick peas (these are the cece, for any of you non-Italians out there) and 4 cups of chicken stock, and heat until boiling. In a separate pot, cook 1/2 a cup of tiny pasta (we like alpha-bits) for five minutes or so, until they are done; drain them and put them in the soup.

Serve hot, with lots of grated Romano cheese and some pepper on top. It is so good, just the thing for chasing away a cold.

Music has also made this a great Christmas; my newlywed brother and his wife made us a great Christmas mix, which includes some older songs that I haven't heard since I was small, and whole slew of songs that I've never heard but that we are all growing to love. Maybe you've heard the Jack Johnson version of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,' which is so awesome? It's always bugged me that Rudolph is only loved after the other reindeer find that he's useful to them, and Jack Johnson's final verse addresses that:

But Rudolph, he didn't go for that, he said, "I see through your silly game/ How can you look me in the face when only yesterday you called me names?"

All of the other reindeer, man, well they sure did feel ashamed/ "Rudolph you know we're sorry/ We're truly gonna try.... to change"

As always, the holidays are going by way too fast. I hope yours have been wonderful, and that your 2010 is too!

New England at Its Best

2009-12-21T13:10:00.003-05:00

This is what our front yard looks like in July:

And, it's pretty good. But it is also hot, and humid, and for a transplanted Canadian like me (admittedly, I was transplanted a long time ago, but still!), I prefer the front yard when it looks like this:

As is does right now. Here are some more pics of the boys out in the snow:

They are having so much fun, and they don't even know yet about the marshmallows waiting to go into their hot chocolate when they get back inside.

A Simple Twist of Fate

2009-12-18T22:41:00.004-05:00

Well! I have a new obsession, and the funny thing is, I didn't see this one coming at all. It is knitting:

That up there is the first thing I ever knit, a hat for Owen's Teddy. I knitted it last Thursday, two days after a friend said, "You're not a knitter? That's a suprise..." Those innocently uttered sentences were the flint and, when combined with the steel of hubby's question, "what're you going to put on your wish list for Christmas this year?" they sparked the unexpected wild fire that is knitting.

One trip to the library, plus the snagging of a pair of knitting needles later, and I produced this excellent hat over the weekend:

I knitted it from yarn that we had around the house, hence its Free-Bowl-of-Soup-With-That-Hat look. I love it, and find myself wanting to keep the house extra-cold so that I have an excuse to wear it inside.

Finally, on the grounds that if I'm going to put knitting stuff on my wish list, I'd better 'make sure' that I do really want to keep up with it, I went out and purchased wool to make a sweater for myself - gotta be my own guinea pig! And now I am hooked (not just on knitting but evidently on bad puns, as well).

The best book I've found on the subject is one I can't even say the name of around the children, Stitch 'N B**ch: The Knitter's Handbook. It is funny, answers knitting questions in the right order, and has some really cool patterns too. If only I didn't have to hide the cover all the time!

Sayin' It With Photographs

2009-12-14T13:08:00.003-05:00

Cristina over at Home Spun Juggling got me thinking about holiday pictures a few weeks back. So, I decided to post a photo essay of the pics we've sent out every year since Luke was born, back in 2000.

I look at them now and think, 'they were never that small!' But of course they were, making this trip down memory lane even more amazing to me, who was there.

Luke, at about four months.

When he was about 16 months - not walking yet, but he loved to balance on his tootsies!

A friend took this of us in our backyard - Ben and I have changed somewhat since then too!

Luke at three - when he saw this pic a few minutes ago, he got all nostalgic telling Owen about the amazing leaf piles we used to have at our old house. Nostalgic for him, maybe, but not for the grown-ups who had to rake all those oak leaves!

In this one, Luke is four and Owen is about six months old.

Our five- and one-year-olds, on a hike in the New Hampshire mountains.

The Halloween that Luke was six and Owen was two.

The boys with Jeffrey the Snowman in 2007

Luke and Owen last year, at ages eight and four.

And now they are nine and five. Amazing how time flies, isn't it?

In Which I Get Mushy About My Youngest

2009-12-10T22:16:00.004-05:00

Now, I love them both, very much, and just because I am writing tearfully about Owen, that in no way is meant to suggest that Luke isn't every bit as wonderful. It's just that, right now, Owen's really tugging at the heartstrings, know what I mean?

From december 09

For starters, he wants to knit his favorite teddy a scarf.

From december 09

Then, a few weeks ago when the horsey in this pic above required 'surgery,' because Owen had been too rough with him, he was just overcome with regret. He cried and apologized again and again to Horsey, and was consoled only when I started talking in a Texas-type accent, saying "Aww, it's okay there little guy, ah furgive yeh..."

Sometimes he'll just come out of nowhere with these amazing sayings, like when he started to be afraid of the dark and one night, just after we'd given him a flashlight with rechargeable batteries, he tearfully whimpered, "I've always loved the way that bright light shines."

And then the other day, when we were out in the (prepare yourself, Topsy!) snow, he looked up into the sky, then at his newly-shoveled 'Planet Hoth Hide-Out,' and then at me - and said simply, "Mom - snow is joy."

I ask you, isn't that something to mush over, at least every once in a while?

Holiday Prep

2009-12-07T13:57:00.005-05:00

Isn't our door thingy cute? I am proud to say that I made it. The greens come mostly from our Christmas tree, with a few fronds from our yard. The ribbon has been kicking around for years, and three of the four ornaments Owen and I thrifted a week or so ago are wired onto it. Here is a heartbreakingly adorable chat that he and I had as I finished up the door thingy (anybody know what it's actually called?):

Owen: "Hey! This ornament wants to go up on the door with her sisters and brothers!"

Me: "Honey, we do this kind of decoration with three ornaments. That one can go on the tree, and she'll see her sisters and brothers every time the door opens."

Owen (speaking in the ornament's voice): "But I will miss them! I want to be with my family!"

Me (thinking, why didn't I just buy the three? ... oh yeah, because I wanted to keep all four together, like a family. I remember having that thought in the thrift shop.): "Your family are very close by - you'll see them every time the door opens!"

The Ornament: "Oh, you're right! I am glad I will see them."

These little windows into Owen's mind are always so interesting.

Here are some more prep pictures:

When I was a kid, we made an advent calendar out of wrapping paper chain links. And now that I'm the mom, we still do it:

From the kids' perspective:

Here's the Santa and reindeer that my Mom made and then placed on our mantel every year from when I was small:

Last year, my Mom gave it to me, since she and my Dad come here from their Colorado home for the holidays. Every time I look at it I get a little thrill.

Here is the tree - the 'sister' ornament is in the lower middle:

It is sort of skinny, totally asymmetrical, and still too big to fit into our tiny house. And like every year, I just love it.

As we made our preparations, the weather hadn't even dipped below forty degrees in many weeks and it still felt like fall. Then the day we got our tree, we also got our first snowfall!

Now we're ready.

December Carnival of Unschooled Life

2009-12-03T19:37:00.003-05:00

I know December is a busy month, but I hope you take a few minutes to go check out the Carnival of Unschooled Life at Susan's The Expanding Life blog.

I enjoyed all the posts, but I think my favorite this month has to be "You're Not Really an Unschooler Until Somebody Calls The Cops," posted at Roots and Wings. And, I think my favorite part of the post is the way that the cops reacted! It cracked me up.

Did Someone Say Cookies?

2009-11-30T20:13:00.005-05:00

I know, I know... we've barely finished the pumpkin pie, and here I am in the mood for cookies!

I wasn't, until this article that I wrote over at Parents and Kids came out today; as soon as I got to the recipes, my mouth started watering. You can try out my sister-in-law's gingerbread cookies, which are soft and scrumptious, plus you've got your choice of vanilla or chocolate no-chill sugar cookies.

More than anything else, this article has inspired me to start packing up the Halloween decorations - anyone else still have bats hanging from the chandelier? come on, I can't be the only one - and get into the holiday spirit.

Cookies just have a way, don't they?

Part Five: I Am Thankful For:

2009-11-26T08:14:00.001-05:00

Friends and family.

Part Four: I Am Thankful For...

2009-11-25T11:42:00.001-05:00

Owen.

Part Three: I Am Thankful For...

2009-11-24T12:34:00.000-05:00

Luke.

From Philly

Part Two: I Am Thankful For...

2009-11-23T08:22:00.000-05:00

Hubby.

Part One: I Am Thankful For...

2009-11-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

Karate at weddings.

When Trash Becomes Treasure

2009-11-16T16:40:00.003-05:00

We've been to this park quite a few times recently. But this was the first time that the sandbox got much use - because today, the kids had trash (from their lunches) with which to play! Here, some pics and video of what a little well-placed garbage can do to liven up a park day:

It's not that they made anything 'big.' I love these pics because of the children's expressions. They are smiling, thinking, working together, talking together.

Here are some videos, in which Luke and Owen extol the virtues of 'Sand Soda,' the drink which, evidently, makes you disintegrate into sand:

The boys insisted on bringing home their Sand Soda (it's out in the outdoor toy bin, I drew the line at allowing sand in old soda bottles into the house) - which just goes to show you how valuable trash can be. Even when the play is done, when it's okay to throw it away, they won't part with it! They found treasure today, indeed.

PS - Did you read my last post, the one about bullying, and find it somewhat harsh? Not quite what you expect from the otherwise gentle, mild-mannered Karen you have come to know and love? Well, when I re-read it, I thought the same thing - so I added in a sort of mea culpa at the beginning. Here's the post again if you would like another gander.

Freedom and Music

2009-11-12T22:23:00.001-05:00

11/16/09: I've been thinking a lot about this situation since it happened last week, realizing I was overly enthusiastic about the use of sarcasm as a tool for interacting with others. When I wrote the post, I was still steaming about the bullying, and as I've calmed down, I've realized that sarcasm, while it may make me feel better in the short term, is not a strategy for conflict resolution. It is also not what I want to teach my children about how to get along with their neighbors, and friends, and relations - nor is it really in my personality to use it in a fight. (As a friend said today, "I thought to myself when I read your post, 'this is not my gentle Karen!'" So, please take this post with a grain of salt and know that while I may use sarcasm once in a while, and mostly with people who know me well and know that it's in a joking sense, it can hurt - and I am not about hurting.

We play baseball every week on a field nearby - although, now that the weather is turning, we've been meeting for "baseball" which is more of an all-purpose park day, with perhaps a baseball-related game played at some point, by some people.

Even though now it's just "baseball," we've kept it at the same field instead of rotating around, partly out of habit but also because the kids want to check in on their fairy houses, there are open and clean bathrooms (yay!), and it's really just a great park.

Which made this week's experience all the more upsetting.

It is easy to forget, while our kids are out in the world absorbing life firsthand instead of stuck in school, worrying about test scores, tired from being hauled out of bed at ungodly hours, hungry for something better than standard cafeteria fare, and feeling trapped, that our kids are the exception. It is also easy to forget that the frustration of dealing with school pressures day after day produces children who tease, and bully, and do whatever they can to make themselves feel better than somebody.

Earlier this week, worlds collided when schoolchildren, granted early release for a day, came to "our" playground to play too. They came with parents who frowned at us for allowing our kids the freedom to range, and climb trees, and just have less supervision than they think kids should have. But their kids' behavior was really the kicker - lots of "ohhh, you're homeschooled!" and tinkering with the rules of kickball to favor only the schooled kids. Lots of teasing and mean-spiritedness, the kind of behavior that we fortunately don't see very much of, very often.

We lasted an hour or so before calling it quits. The vibe was upsetting, but it wasn't until we were in the car that I heard about the true extent of the teasing, which verged on bullying. And it left me marveling at the anger and vitriol that sits just beneath the surface of seemingly average-looking schoolchildren.

I also marveled at how different Luke is now, from when he was in school (we took him out two years ago, almost to the day). Although upset at how he and his friends were treated, he didn't take it personally as he used to. He spoke almost empirically about what was said and done. He viewed what was happening, even while it was happening, with an eye unclouded by the resentment and anger that he used to feel about being part of that system.

He was only irritated by one thing: that he "wasn't able to get a word in to defend myself!" We talked of how, throughout our lives, we will meet people who try to hurt us to make themselves feel better.

And I shared with Luke my secret weapon: sarcasm.

So help me, I coached him in using sarcasm to fight back when somebody teases him about being a homeschooler. Together we came up with snappy comebacks like "yeah, it is really awful, learning about what you want, when you want." Or, "I just hate still being in bed when your bus goes by." And, "I know you feel sorry for me, freedom stinks."

I don't really use sarcasm very often - out loud, anyway. And I do worry that he'll end up fist-fighting with a bully, or something worse, but I want Luke to be able to defend himself verbally. Owen too, when he is a bit older. Because it is true that in life, we do meet people who try to hurt us. It's good to not take it personally, and it is good to try to understand where that person is coming from, but it is also necessary to protect oneself from a bully.

Later, we comforted ourselves with our newly acquired They Might Be Giants album, Here Comes Science. Susan at In The Kitchen put me on to it, and it came along at just the right time for Luke, Owen, and me. Not only is the album wonderful, classic They Might Be Giants - great music combined with silly rhymes that make you stop and think - the topic of science is of great interest in our house.

And so it was that music about science took us away from feelings of sadness and brought us back into the world of fun -

we made a volcano! We used the easy directions in this great book, Science Wizardry for Kids.

And, since no volcano scene is complete without a comet, Owen provided one:

Here it is erupting:

They made it erupt repeatedly, squealing with joy every time and trying out different combinations of baking soda and vinegar. And, while they worked together, I noticed so much learning and socialization going on that it made me think about the difference between schooled and homeschooled kids once more.

Watching them at work made me so glad that we homeschool.

Recipe for Writing

2009-11-10T10:04:00.002-05:00

I've written before about Luke's reluctance to write. It's much better, I think because when something is important to him, like a wish list or a letter to somebody in the Harry Potter universe, he can put aside all the anxieties that the act of writing brings up. Or, maybe what he's really doing is forgetting about them, because the task at hand doesn't really feel like a 'task.'

That's how it was recently when he got the bright idea of making his Grandma's famous cottage cheese pancakes here at our house; if he wanted them here, he had to copy down the recipe:

I love it when we make these here, partly because they are really, really good. Like, addicting-type good. Also, I love following directions written in Luke's writing. It looks so optimistic and hopeful, I don't know why; maybe because he's overcoming something hard to do, and gets such satisfaction from the delicious result.

Also, these pancakes, which you will notice require an insane amount of eggs, are also special to Luke because the eggs come from our chickens, which he cares for and loves. He worries about them in thunderstorms, it's that kind of love.

Here is the recipe, in case you can't get it from the picture:

1) Combine: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 4 tsp sugar.

2)In a separate bowl, whisk together: 8 eggs, 2 cups cottage cheese (we've used ricotta with good results, but not quite the same), 1 cup milk, 4 Tbsp oil. I know these ingredients seem like they are not in proportion, but it will work. I promise. Plus, think of all the protein you'll be getting!

In Luke's cryptic recipe: "Add 1 to 2 Whisk till blended." Then, cook as you would any pancakes - but I would add, make sure you use a non-stick surface because these stick like crazy! Until we got a non-stick pan a few weeks ago, I was using nearly a whole stick of butter to get these out of the pan reasonably whole. I am glad that we're not doing that anymore.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

'Plowing' Into the Field Trip Wars

2009-11-06T08:17:00.001-05:00

Topsy and Firefly Mom have been dueling over field trips for the last few weeks, and finally I think we here at the Stone Age Techie are able to enter the fray, with our recent visit to Old Sturbridge Village.

We've been there several times, but this was the best visit so far in one way: it was Homeschool Day there, which meant that most of the people, and virtually all the kids, were homeschooled. It was one of the only times where we could be reasonably certain that nobody would ask us why the kids weren't in school, where we fit in, if that makes any sense. It was good fun! Here are some highlights:

First, we took a cider-pressing class with some buddies. This series of pictures shows the kids putting apples into the press, grinding them into mush, and then pressing the mush to extract the juice:

Not shown: us gulping down our cider after all this hard work! I was bummed out only because, while we were able to press this cider, we weren't able to try the cider we pressed; it's not pasteurized. I seem to remember pressing apples into cider as a kid, and miraculously not dying from it, but I guess times have changed and so now, we are one step removed from the bounty on the trees around us. Still, the cider we did taste at the end of the class was pretty good.

We then poked around the village, checked out a shooting match (and saw the coolest thing that I didn't have my camera out for - a smoke ring, let off as one of the guns fired, that floated above the spectators' heads and into the woods. Amazing!), met a baby calf, and Owen got to help with the year-end plowing:

Yes, that is my youngest, plowing for all he is worth behind two huge, very well-behaved oxen! Watching him put his heart and soul into the work, and then running back to me, huge grin plastered on his face, has me thinking that someday he might make a good farmer.

Later, we got to meet the oxen, Lance and Henry, and their driver who patiently answered questions for half an hour before heading off to get their 'dinner':

This was one in a string of amazing visits to Old Sturbridge Village. We count ourselves very lucky to have such a place within driving distance!