Last night Dan realized that there was going to be a rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center down here at NASA in Cape Canaveral. So, instead of going straight to Orlando, we decided to take a detour. We are total rocket launch dorks. Tonight we are staying in Cocoa Beach, FL and in about an hour we will be on the beach watching the rocket go up! WHOOSH! ROAR! TREMBLE! ETC!

Driving over here on 528 we saw the NASA buses driving people around:

And we saw pretty Florida water:

No rocket yet, but we are going to change that, right now. And tomorrow we're going to the Kennedy Space Center for more nerdy joy.

UPDATE:

We saw it from the beach -- it was fantastic. Here is a terrible video that gives you absolutely no idea how cool it was:

Labels: Delta IV, florida, NASA, rocket launch, travels

Tomorrow we leave for Disney World. We went last year (here's my post about What We Learned at Disney World), and also the year before (here's the October archive from the mobile blog in 2005, scroll down for Disney posts if you desire), but we're going again and we're not feeling apologetic about it. We love Disney World, in all its ridiculous splendor. To say that the children are excited is to say that the ocean is a little damp. Benny has been counting down the days, reading his "research guide" as he calls it (Birnbaum's Walt Disney World for Kids, by Kids), and planning daily itineraries in detail. Sadie is interested in the princess pins, the costumes we're packing, and in riding all the roller coasters she's too tiny to ride. That will be a complicated dance, I realize! Benny is keen on riding every death-defying one, and she would like to be right there with him, all 36 of her inches, barely big enough to ride Goofy's Barnstormer.

So, we are off early tomorrow morning. I will try to post every day still, to keep up with NaBloPoMo, but if you're interested in where we are at any given moment, I invite you to visit the mobile blog.

I leave you with this, our dinner plates for this evening:

Labels: disney world, travels

We had three very Benny moments today.

1. Today at Homeschool Bowling League, which I march myself to by the elbow every week because Benny loves it so much, he bowled a STRIKE. A real strike, straight down the middle of the lane, not using the bumpers to ricochet the ball! It was a glorious moment. He turned around, pumped his fist in the air, and shouted: "GOAL COMPLETED." Not "Yes!" or "Yeah!" or "Strike!" or whatever the other children typically say, but "GOAL COMPLETED." On the way to the van he told me he was going to cross this off his list of goals. The existence of a goal list was news to me, and I asked him what else is on it. The answer: "Bowl a double strike." HAHAHA. Lofty!

2. We were driving through downtown Norfolk and we saw, moored by the Spirit of Norfolk, a really big, cool, tall ship that was clearly from some Scandinavian country, or maybe the Netherlands, or... something? I couldn't remember what the flag was supposed to be from. I asked Benny if he knew, and he thought it might be Norway, but I knew it wasn't Norway. So, anyway, I whipped out the cell phone and tossed it to Benny so we could blog it and then ask Dan. He's pointing the phone out the window, and I'm sitting at a red light saying, "Take the picture! Take the picture!" and he's saying "Where, where?" and pointing the camera all over the place. Now, keep in mind we have just been discussing this flag that we were BOTH looking at and guessing the origin of, and now he can't even find the SHIP to take a picture of it? I said, "Benny, the BIG SHIP that's RIGHT OVER THERE." And he said, "Oh, it was behind that tree." Click. Green light. Move on.

3. Later, it is group violin class. The children are playing a piece (Waltz from Book 2 for those of you Suzukians out there) that requires some swaying and movement -- a piece you're supposed to feel. And Mrs. Stevens said for them to be more "emotional." One of the older girls objected to the use of the word "emotional" because in common usage it is synonymous with crying. So Mrs. Stevens asked them to come up with a better word and then turned to Benny and said, "Benny, do you know another word for emotional?" and Benny said, "What do you mean by emotional?" He delivered the word "emotional" as if it were a word in some strange foreign tongue from a forgotten era. Now, Benny is actually very emotional, and very in touch with his emotions. He sometimes even now recognizes that other people might be having emotions too! But it just seemed like such a hilariously typical hyperlexic response, I had to guffaw. What do you mean by this... emotional? *cackle*

Tomorrow is all about packing for Disney World. Must not forget mouse ears.

Labels: benny, bowling, violin

Handwriting is a stressful subject. Any time there is a "perfect" way to do something, and we are helping our children to try to meet that "perfect" standard, we have to be careful not to set off weird alarms in their heads -- what's wrong with me? Why can't I just do it exactly like the book has it? In math class, we can get the right answer if we figure out the correct number. In science class we can memorize the facts. It's either right or it's wrong, there's no subjectivity in most of elementary school. The truth about handwriting is that it's almost mechanically impossible to duplicate the correct answer. What we're all trying to do is to get close, and in the end most of us abandon that attempt anyway, and either type things or write in all caps (like me) or just embrace the scrawl.

Here are four ideas for helping your child navigate this shark-infested water, especially if you're already having trouble, tears, and terror.

1. It's okay to let the child write using the typewriter or computer. This lets the kid form words, express thoughts, etc. without the pain (psychological or otherwise!) of holding a pencil. Just forming the words and having them look perfect, perfect, perfect can be very satisfying! My son’s favorite computer “game” was wordpad for a long time.

2. Get rid of whatever medium is driving the child and you crazy. If pencil and paper isn’t working, ditch it. For as long as is necessary. Write with your finger in marshmallow fluff, in fingerpaint, in sand, in chalk dust. Write on a white board with scented markers. Write with mommy’s ancient lipstick on the dishwasher. Okay, maybe not that last one. Hehehe. We used a whiteboard for everything and Benny loved it – it’s a lot less frustrating to erase when you can just swipe it off, and you don’t have to scrub at a piece of paper with an eraser. Write on sidewalks, on the side of the house with a water hose, with bubbles in the tub, etc.

3. Confound the idea of “perfection” by asking her to write silly things. Write it all in curly cues. Write it in ocean waves. Write it like a mouse would write it. Write it tiny, write it huge, write it upside down. For a small child who wants to write perfect letters but physically has a hard time doing it, one of those manuscript sheets with three lines, one dotted in the middle, one red on top, can be the height of intimidation, frustration, and potential defeat. How would a mouse write it? How would an elephant write it? You be silly, start laughing, get crazy, then sigh, shake your head and say, "Okay, well, I guess we better write it like humans now..."

4. Everyone's handwriting is different. Let your child know that we all have our own ways of writing, and try looking at different people’s handwriting. Look at all the signers of the constitution. Look for handwriting samples online. Talk about signatures and how everyone's signature is *supposed* to look different and special.

Here's a sample of Benny's writing when he was 3 1/2:

Not exactly regular, uniform, perfect or textbook! While Benny wasn’t worried about perfection, I was, initially. I tried to make him hold the pencil a certain way, stay within this and that line, and think beautiful thoughts. I convinced myself, at last, that it didn’t really matter, as long as he was happily writing letters, and having fun.. If I, a brutal perfectionist, can come to that conclusion, maybe your child can too!

Labels: handwriting, homeschooling, lessons, practice, tips

Benny is participating in the Pizza Hut Book-It program. His goal for October was to read 10 books to himself. This goal was set during the days when he could get through one or two chapters of a storybook per night before flipping open the space books and mooning over pictures of Ion and Europa. In fact, during October he read thirty books: the first one was Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang which we read together, alternating chapters, and the rest being Magic Treehouse books. Today was designated the day of the celebratory pizza party, where Benny could march into Pizza Hut with his little reward coupon and earn himself a little pan pizza while the rest of us leap about in a proud, congratulatory way.

The day began in a grey and rainy way as we set out for the violin school with our arms full of violins and dolls.



Both of the children had GREAT lessons, due to the miraculous concentration and boost in the practicing energy this week. Then it was time to go to Pizza Hut, where we were meeting Dad, Ahno, and Ahno's most recent project, Genesis.

The children were, for a change, very hungry and ready to eat. Our waitress said that she had participated in the Book-It program in its first year, when she was in kindergarten.



Here's Benny savoring the sweet, sweet taste of literature:



After lunch, Benny took his empty plate back up to the counter and thanked the bored, irritated crew in the back for having the Book-It program and giving him a free pizza. He vowed to their unlistening ears that he would "keep reading NONSTOP UNTIL I DIE." We also thanked Ahno for buying the rest of us lunch. And we thanked Mary Pope Osborne once again for giving Benny the will to read.

Labels: pizza hut book-it, reading, rewards

Today, Phi Bensa Zoe Academy's junior class resumed its study of the alphabet via South America, to go along with the Spanish studies they are pursuing with Veronica.

Here are the new pages for the South America workbooks:

Junior:



Senior:



Here's our Kapok tree lesson!

1) We read these two books.



2) We painted Kapok trees with no leaves on it, but lots of animals inhabiting them! I drew the tree outlines with pencil and during the painting we concentrated on doing brush-brush-brush instead of scrubbing the brushes around. Both of them did very well filling in their areas, and we had three different watercolor shades of brown to help them get the feel for shading.



3) Cut out lots and lots of big broad leaves for the animals to hide under. Phillip did GREAT with the scissors. Sadie needs me to be her left hand, turning the paper while she operates the scissors.



4) Tape the leaves onto the trees like little flaps, so that you can lift them up and see the hidden animals inside.

What is WRONG with me that I didn't take pictures of the final products! Imagine the trees above with a whole bunch more leaves stuck all over the place.

We concentrated on learning the names of the animals in the book, and on getting that brush technique down, and on precision cutting. A good day.

Labels: alphabet, lessons, phi bensa zoe, preschool, south america

My children are right now watching "Meet the Robinsons" for the fourth time, and I finally now grasp the plot. What's wrong with this movie? I'm 35 years old and I have a graduate degree in English literature. How anyone under the age of 13 is supposed to follow this movie while sitting in the theater is completely beyond my grasp. I'd summarize the plot for you, but it would take too long, and also I might get it wrong. Let me just say: Time travel. You know? Time travel.

Then there are the many, many, many characters:

Characters in the past, characters in the future, characters in the weird alternate future that has to be rectified... characters on top of characters. I still don't know who that lady with the skyscraper hat is, or the big kid in the chair. But who cares -- it's Disney! They can do anything they want and kids will love it, right?

Actually, RIGHT. Both of my children love it. They had no idea what was going on at first, but they are slowly processing it. Yesterday at the playground they spent a long time playing time travel on one of the climbers, with Benny explaining in depth about how the future and the past are connected, and spinning out various scenarios to illustrate his points, and Sadie nodding sagely and lying down to pretend to travel someplace where everything was pink. They engaged with the movie. They truly, truly liked it. I cannot for the life of me get how this happened, but, it happened.

This is kind of like coming to terms with "Chicken Little," which to me was a frenetic, glaring mess, but to my children was hilarious and engrossing. In fact, that movie and this one have much in common, including the vast array of characters, the laffy-taffy colors, and the kid who wants to succeed in baseball. I guess at times like this I just have to shrug and say, "Whatever" and wait for this infatuation to pass. This is good practice for ten years from now when they're deeply in love with whatever awful (to me) music is popular then. Whatever, dear, whatever. Eat your peas.

Labels: meet the robinsons, movie reviews, movies

I was raised by two school teachers. I grew up in small private schools, enjoyed myself about as much as I expected to, and after a few bumps and lumps in elementary school, I did very well. I have no moral opposition to school. You might even say that I like it, or that I like the idea of it, in its imaginary, perfect form. There's not much cuter than a well-stocked smoothly-functioning Montessori classroom, with all the little trays and doodads around the walls, and little busy children briskly occupying themselves at tiny tables.


I'm not homeschooling because I hate school. I'm homeschooling because I think homeschooling is cool. I'm homeschooling because I think my specific child needs it. I am completely open to the possiblity that he might want to go to school someday, and I will definitely let him try it and see how it goes.


My son is not open to that possibility. He does not like school at all -- not the idea of it, not the reality of it, not the smell, sight, or sound of it. Nothing about it interests him. Why? Where did he get this idea? I have been very, very careful in my characterization of school when we talk about it. I do not say it is a nightmare sweatshop where children go to be chained to desks for hours at a time, pushing heavy pencils across black and white worksheets until their little eyes bleed. Of course, I also do not say it is a happy valley of magic playtime where elves feed you gumdrops as you learn to play checkers better. I try to be realistic. There are good and bad things about school, like there are good and bad things about everything. (Except stale candy corn. There's nothing bad about stale candy corn. But I digress.) Benny's opinion of school is so violently negative -- when we visited Boston and stood on the site of the first public school in the country, he made this face:






Why so glum, chum? What beef could you possibly have with public schools, having attended one approximately zero times in your life? We recently attended a violin workshop at a cute local school, and Benny spent a lot of time making me reassure him that he wasn't going to have to "go to school" -- that our attendance there was only temporary and completely disconnected with enrollment. Sadie liked it. Driving away on the last day, she said she wanted to go back there again. Benny immediately jumped in and said, "No Sadie! You don't want to go to school! Don't listen to her, mother. She just likes the playground. Sadie, you can get a playground anywhere! You don't have to go to school to get a playground!"


Where does this prejudice come from? Is there a back room of my mind, where a "school is bad" filmstrip is playing? Has he been able to perceive this opinion without my intention?


Then I look at the books I have exposed him to, and the shows he has watched on TV. What images of school has he seen, what situations have been dramatized for him? Guess what? More often than not, school is portrayed in books and on TV as a stressful place where bullies torture you, teachers misunderstand you, and lessons confound you. A place where you feel trapped, bored, and rebellious. There's Junie B. Jones, manipulating and suffering her way through first grade, and there are the Captain Underpants boys. Even a pious, innocuous little PBS show like Arthur shows school as a dangerous territory to be navigated with fear and trembling. I suppose the episodes are written in an exaggerated way so that school children can relate to them, and can learn to deal with reality. But how does that classroom look, to a kid who's not in school? Every day there's a new problem. Maybe Benny is getting his impression of school from these books and TV shows. I can see how that might happen.


So is contemporary children's entertainment just a secret propaganda tool for the homeschooling army? Do any of these fictional children enjoy school, do any of them have fun and interesting teachers, good friends, and happy days? There are a few books and shows that do not portray school as a hellscape of oppression and gloom. Dora the Explorer is one, but of course it is, because Dora is an unschooler. (Or possibly just a neglected child whose parents should probably be reported to CPS -- but let's put the best construction on everything and assume they're following her around in a magic helicopter in case the crocodiles don't abre at the right time.) Clifford the Big Red Dog portrays school as a fun place with positive interactions and favorite teachers. Magic Schoolbus has created the ultimate fun science teacher, although the kids still complain and whine in their little dialogue bubbles.



All this is symptomatic of the larger problem that exists in attitudes toward school, not just in my little child, but in the world in general. People seem to cheerfully just assume that kids hate school. That they can't wait for vacation. That they have to be forced to go. It's so much a part of the way we view childhood that we think nothing of basing a whole series of books on how rotten school is and how much kids hate it. Remember, I liked school. I was raised by teachers who made school so fun for their students that their kids didn't want summer vacation to come, they didn't want to stay home sick, they looked forward to the fun and interesting things happening every day at school. So -- is there something missing here? Why can I not understand why we don't expect that sentiment to be the norm, rather than the exception?


Maybe if most kids hate school so much, there's something wrong with the most schools, and not something wrong with most kids.

Labels: education, homeschooling, public school, schools

Labels: books, magic treehouse, reading

And all over the world, little pink princesses are sad. However, bloggers and novelists are happy. Because November is the month in which we all pinky swear to write novels and also blog every day.

You can also wear your princess dress every day in November, can you wear your "Emperor of Evil" costume? No. Poor Benny. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Happy November, Happy Nanowrimo, Happy Nablopomo, Happy Happy Happy.

*wan smile*

Labels: nablopomo, nanowrimo