Earlier this week we bought 10 different sized Styrofoam balls from a craft store which we painted and named after the planets and the sun. Simon's been carrying them around with him wherever we go in last year's plastic Halloween pumpkin. To him the planets have become so familiar that they've long since joined the ranks of his "imaginary friends" (his term, not mine). He plays with them as if they were characters going on adventures with him.
Tonight Simon and I searched YouTube for several hours just watching solar system videos over and over again while Barb read a trashy detective novel. The boy's passion for space seems to know no bounds. This one was our favorite.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
New Games and Toys
Lots of new fun around here lately. Last week, while Barb was away I made the executive decision that we would buy a new board game each month for the kids and us to play together. We've become a bit worn out on Chicken Cha Cha Cha and we needed something fresh.
So, we drove up to the best game store in SE Michigan (RIW Hobbies in Livonia) and bought a copy of Gulo Gulo, which I'd been reading about quite a bit on the geek and was fairly well assured that it would be a hit with Simon.
It is a totally different game from Chicken Cha Cha Cha, but the two have in common the characteristic of being naturally easier for kids than for adults. CCCC did this by being a memory game, Gulo Gulo does this by rewarding you for having very small, nimble fingers.
In Gulo Gulo you are journeying along a swampy path, trying to find a baby Gulo (Gulo=Wolverine) who's been lost. However, along the way you are constantly distracted by a lovely vulture's nest filled with colored eggs about the size of peanut M&M's. The path of octagonal shapes you are traveling on are face down originally, but are one of 4 different colors when they're turned face up. In order to move from one space to the next you have to successfully steal that colored egg from the nest.
What's tricky is that the nest (which is a nice wooden bowl filled with these eggs) has an alarm system. The alarm system is a 5" long thin stick with a weighted knob at the top. The stick is inserted into the nest so that the weight of the eggs keeps it from falling out. But as eggs are removed the stick becomes more precariously balanced. If you remove an egg without having the stick fall out, you get to move forward, otherwise you're stuck where you are.
I've never realized how thick and sausage-like my fingers are. An egg has to be right out on top for me to be able to get it. Simon, however, can jam two fingers into the bowl and, quick as a snake, pull out any damned egg he wants. Very cool fun!
Along with that, my mother, who was visiting last week, bought me two amazing toys for my birthday. They are a radio controlled airplane and also a radio controlled helicopter. We had seen another dad and his two kids playing with a small RC plane at the park one day and it looked like great fun.
Our first two attempts at flying a plane weren't very impressive. Both crashed and broke on their very first flight and we returned them immediately. This was annoying, but it was very instructive in guiding my final purchase. I learned that RC airplanes come made of different types of foam. Some of these foams snap on impact and require replacement, and others types bend considerably without breaking. The location of the propellers is also fairly critical. They need to be set up and back in relation to the nose of the plane so that they never hit and break when the plane crashes (and it will crash).
So, after trying two fairly expensive planes with no success, we found a very small, inexpensive plane at the local mega-toy store. It was on sale for only $12.00, was made of the most durable Styrofoam I'd ever seen, and the propellers were located up and back from the nose. You can see the store's ad for the plane here.
This is one tough little plane. It's so durable and inexpensive that I don't mind at all if Simon flies it, which he does quite successfully. I'm pleased that he can keep it in the air for almost a minute at a time. I was afraid to let him use the more expensive planes, but this one rocks for kids.
(NOTE: In this picture the propeller on the nose of the plane is non functional. The two at the back of the top wing are those that drive the plane.)
It is hard to control, and we haven't been able to keep it aloft for more than a couple of minutes before it crashes, but we're both getting better with practice. At only $12.00 each, I highly recommend it for fun at the park with kids.
My other gift was a small RC helicopter which is meant to be flown indoors. In fact, the slightest breeze will push it into the neighbors yard, so flying it outdoors is not likely to work well at all. But, indoors it flies like a dream (with some practice) and we've been having more fun with it than the airplane. The battery lasts about 20 minutes, and it takes about an hour to recharge, so the fun is periodic, but Simon, Gwen and I are all enjoying this one a lot.
After three days I'm just getting the hang of getting it to hover and slowly circle the room, and also the technique associated with making a nice, gentle landing. And, I have to say this thing is also made very durable. I've been letting Simon fly it and, between the two of us we've crashed it against walls, furniture and have let it drop from about 7 feet without causing any irreparable damage. It comes with 4 extra prop blades, but I haven't had to use them yet. I have had to tape the existing blades back together as we crack or chip them, but happens less often as we get more practice with it.
So, over all we've been having a very fun time this week.
So, we drove up to the best game store in SE Michigan (RIW Hobbies in Livonia) and bought a copy of Gulo Gulo, which I'd been reading about quite a bit on the geek and was fairly well assured that it would be a hit with Simon.It is a totally different game from Chicken Cha Cha Cha, but the two have in common the characteristic of being naturally easier for kids than for adults. CCCC did this by being a memory game, Gulo Gulo does this by rewarding you for having very small, nimble fingers.
In Gulo Gulo you are journeying along a swampy path, trying to find a baby Gulo (Gulo=Wolverine) who's been lost. However, along the way you are constantly distracted by a lovely vulture's nest filled with colored eggs about the size of peanut M&M's. The path of octagonal shapes you are traveling on are face down originally, but are one of 4 different colors when they're turned face up. In order to move from one space to the next you have to successfully steal that colored egg from the nest.
What's tricky is that the nest (which is a nice wooden bowl filled with these eggs) has an alarm system. The alarm system is a 5" long thin stick with a weighted knob at the top. The stick is inserted into the nest so that the weight of the eggs keeps it from falling out. But as eggs are removed the stick becomes more precariously balanced. If you remove an egg without having the stick fall out, you get to move forward, otherwise you're stuck where you are.
I've never realized how thick and sausage-like my fingers are. An egg has to be right out on top for me to be able to get it. Simon, however, can jam two fingers into the bowl and, quick as a snake, pull out any damned egg he wants. Very cool fun!
Along with that, my mother, who was visiting last week, bought me two amazing toys for my birthday. They are a radio controlled airplane and also a radio controlled helicopter. We had seen another dad and his two kids playing with a small RC plane at the park one day and it looked like great fun.
Our first two attempts at flying a plane weren't very impressive. Both crashed and broke on their very first flight and we returned them immediately. This was annoying, but it was very instructive in guiding my final purchase. I learned that RC airplanes come made of different types of foam. Some of these foams snap on impact and require replacement, and others types bend considerably without breaking. The location of the propellers is also fairly critical. They need to be set up and back in relation to the nose of the plane so that they never hit and break when the plane crashes (and it will crash).
So, after trying two fairly expensive planes with no success, we found a very small, inexpensive plane at the local mega-toy store. It was on sale for only $12.00, was made of the most durable Styrofoam I'd ever seen, and the propellers were located up and back from the nose. You can see the store's ad for the plane here.This is one tough little plane. It's so durable and inexpensive that I don't mind at all if Simon flies it, which he does quite successfully. I'm pleased that he can keep it in the air for almost a minute at a time. I was afraid to let him use the more expensive planes, but this one rocks for kids.
(NOTE: In this picture the propeller on the nose of the plane is non functional. The two at the back of the top wing are those that drive the plane.)
It is hard to control, and we haven't been able to keep it aloft for more than a couple of minutes before it crashes, but we're both getting better with practice. At only $12.00 each, I highly recommend it for fun at the park with kids.
My other gift was a small RC helicopter which is meant to be flown indoors. In fact, the slightest breeze will push it into the neighbors yard, so flying it outdoors is not likely to work well at all. But, indoors it flies like a dream (with some practice) and we've been having more fun with it than the airplane. The battery lasts about 20 minutes, and it takes about an hour to recharge, so the fun is periodic, but Simon, Gwen and I are all enjoying this one a lot.After three days I'm just getting the hang of getting it to hover and slowly circle the room, and also the technique associated with making a nice, gentle landing. And, I have to say this thing is also made very durable. I've been letting Simon fly it and, between the two of us we've crashed it against walls, furniture and have let it drop from about 7 feet without causing any irreparable damage. It comes with 4 extra prop blades, but I haven't had to use them yet. I have had to tape the existing blades back together as we crack or chip them, but happens less often as we get more practice with it.
So, over all we've been having a very fun time this week.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Foot Foot Retreat 2007
Here's the deal... In our fair state of Michigan real men hunt. At least once a year they leave their wives and children behind and drive to secluded areas of the north where they carouse and shoot guns. Those of us who aren't real men are left behind to wonder why the evolutionary randomness of machismo abandoned us and failed to provide us with a good excuse to engage in wilderness revelry with our fellows. Simply put, since my friends and I play board games obsessively but we we don't hunt, we were left out and damn it, we wanted in!
So, after months of planning, organizing and counting down the days, this past weekend was the 2nd annual Foot Foot Gamers Retreat (Named after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). I think it is safe to say that this year's event was even bigger and better than last year's, especially since last year's retreat was Friday through Sunday and this year many of us arrived on Wednesday night and left around noon Sunday. By rough count, that's 87 hours of gaming paradise, including the few hours here and there we found time to sleep.
This year we rented the same cottage as last year, but this year there were ten of us instead of a mere seven. The cottage is on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and is relatively secluded by a wooded ravine on one side and a privacy fence on the other. And, as a plus the beach offers fantastic swimming and even about 200 yards out the water is still only 5' deep.
Also this year we planned to use the same scoring system as last year so that we could keep track of game wins and losses. Last year Jake was the "Best Overall Gamer" and was awarded the official plaque upon which he had his name engraved as the "Inaugural Winner". There are 11 more blank nameplates on that plaque so we plan to keep this up for a while.
In our gaming group Steve and FunPaul are the primary game collectors and in the week leading up to the main event they brought me box after box and tub after tub of board games to pack away in my mini van. In the end I had to fold down my third seat and remove one of my middle seats to pack everything in and I barely had enough room for my own lonely box of games, my suitcase, food and cooler. I also brought my inflatable mattress and my tent as I had pre-planned to sleep out in the yard. (The cottage has 2 beds and 2 couches. Ten guys were coming for the weekend. You do the math. To me, sleeping outside was the best option.)
As I write about the weekend, I may not get all the facts straight, but I will do my best. If you were there and you see an error in my description of the events, please forgive me. My only excuse is, well... Hell, I was drinkin' for three straight days! You of all people should know that. I can't be expected to remember everything!
Wednesday:
FunPaul and Steve drove up right after they got off work, but I had to wait a bit later since Barb works later than they do and I had to wait for her to get home. I had also arranged to caravan up there with my attorney. He got to my place about 6:30 and Barb got home not long after that. By 7:15 we were on our way.
My attorney and I got to the cottage a little after 9pm because we got caught up in horrible construction traffic, but to our delight FunPaul had pre-heated his deep fryer and was prepared to serve us fried cheese sticks, butterfly shrimp and jalapeño poppers. We also started a game of Age of Steam, even though we agreed that it wouldn't count towards winning the plaque at the end of the weekend. The "official" event would begin at 8am the next morning.
Mark showed up Somewhere in the middle of Age of Steam and the five of us chatted, ate and drank. I think Steve won this game. I know that I was not in the running. After that it was well after midnight and we all went outside to celebrate the fact that we were facing four days of a complete and absolute lack of responsibility. No wives, no kids, no jobs, no school. Just gaming, eating, drinking and, oh yes, swimming! We remembered that last part at about 3am so we grabbed our towels and headed down to the beach.
That was an amazing swim. The air, even at 3am, was remarkably warm and the water was about the same temperature as the air. To top it all off, the sky was completely cloud free and we could clearly see about 100 times more stars than we were used to seeing in the city. In fact, it was so clear you could see the blurry sweep of the Milky Way as we looked through the galactic plane. Truly a beautiful sight.
After that we were off to bed and asleep by 4am or so. I started off sleeping on my air mattress out under the stars, but I kept waking up, so I eventually wimped out and hauled it into my tent where I slept like a baby until morning.
Thursday:
We slept in a bit this morning, finally getting up around 9am. FunPaul made us a fine breakfast of bacon, eggs and mimosa, which I'd never had before, but was a quick convert. Larry showed up about this time and was able to join us for a game of Power Grid, which would be the first official game of the retreat. Power Grid is one of my favorite games but it doesn't seem to hit the table very often so I'm always glad to play it whenever I get the chance. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.
After that we played two quick games of For Sale, which is a great light game to play after such a heavy. Mark won one of these and FunPaul won the other.
At some point this afternoon many of us went for another swim, this time by day. The air and water were still both incredibly warm. After swimming I decided it was time I started drinking.
I had some pre-retreat debates with myself about drinking over the weekend. Not "should I drink?", but "what should I drink?" I've never been a big fan of beer. In any given gaming evening I'm perfectly happy having a beer, or maybe two, but that's about my limit. I just don't like the taste that much. I used to be a big fan of the Capt'n & Coke, but for some reason I've lost my taste for it over the last couple of years.
So, before the retreat I settled on my new drink of choice. I found the wikipedia entry and a couple of different recipes, finally settling on one that both sounded good and was affordable. So, on this afternoon I busted open the vodka, rum, tequila, triple sec and sour mix that I'd brought along and set about to perfect the alchemy that is the Long Island Ice Tea. It turned out quite well, indeed. The alchemy of this drink is that it contains a shocking amount of alcohol, but tastes unlike anything alcoholic. To me, that's a perfect drink.
Drinkwise, my goal for the weekend was not to get very drunk, but to reach a point of giddy bliss and then to maintain that for as long as I could, without ever having a hangover the next day. This turned out to work out well, except for Saturday night when I couldn't keep my eyes open any more. No hangovers though, which I'm still pleased about.
Over the course of the weekend both Jake and my attorney joined me in my new discovery and Jake and I agreed that this was a drink that could really kick you in the ass if you weren't paying attention. Good stuff! It also has an interesting history, which you can read about by clicking on the wikipedia entry above. Apparently one original recipe involved 4 ounces of pure maple syrup. Crazy.
After this Steve brought out Cash n' Guns, a new action packed light he'd recently ordered. It is a quick game, and it has a unique mechanic involving pointing foam guns at each other. Basically it is a simultaneous reveal / bluffing game. As such, it is best played with alcohol. We played two of these. I won one of them and my attorney won the other. My first win of the weekend. Woot!
Next up my attorney brought out his copy of Ruse & Bruise, which is an entertaining medium card game with a fairly unique play structure. My attorney won this one and I came in second.
Around this Jake arrived so we now had seven, which meant it was time to split up into two groups. Steve Jake Mark and Larry went off to play Thebes while FunPaul, my attorney and I sat down in the garage for a game of Niagara. I won the Niagara game. Jake won at
Thebes. If memory serves we finished Niagara quite a bit before the Thebes game ended so the three of us went swimming yet again while waiting for the others to finish.
I think it was about this time that FunPaul announced that he had made dinner for the group. This was a surprise since I didn't actually see him prepare anything, but, as if by magic there was suddenly a delicious pork loin being dished up in the kitchen. I swear, if your gaming group doesn't have a resident gourmet, you don't know what you're missing. Cheers to FunPaul!
After dinner I got to try out Thebes myself and was very impressed. It is a great medium where you play archaeologists collecting historical knowledge in Europe and going on digs in Egypt and the Middle East. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.
Following this we pulled out Ra, which is one of our old standbys but it doesn't see a lot of play anymore. It is still a fine auction game, though. Before it we used to play Medici, but Ra (which is also written by Reiner Knizia) is so much better we just switched over. For this game I decided to adopt my attorney's traditional strategy of focusing on the Pharaohs rather than my own (usually pointless) strategy of playing chicken at the auctions and going for monuments. And, it turns out, I won. Who'd a thought?
It was pretty late on Thursday night by this time. At some point in the evening George and Eric showed up. Eric went off with the other guys to play a few rounds of Cash n' Guns, while George joined me, my attorney and FunPaul to play Modern Art. One of these days I'll get around to reading strategy essays on the Geek about this game. Steve tells me there are fairly simple yet precise calculations for telling you how to bid in the auctions which aid considerably in determining winners over losers. George won this one... I came in dead last. Damn those Long Islands.... whose idea were they anyway???
That wrapped up my Thursday game-wise. I played in 10 games between 9am until somewhere after midnight. After this many of us ambled / staggered down to the beach for another late night swim which was, again, fantastic with a beautiful clear sky and warm, warm water. There's nothing like a series of board games punctuated by midnight swimming to make a guy feel like he hasn't a care in the world.
Friday:
I woke up Friday morning feeling refreshed. Once again the tent/air mattress combination turned out to be a wise choice. If memory serves, I think several of us went down for a swim straight away at about 8am or so. After that FunPaul served up more bacon & eggs and we got down to gaming.
I, Mark, Larry and my attorney started off the gaming Friday by sitting down to Caylus. Along with Power Grid, Caylus is one of my all time favorites which I'd played many times in regular gaming nights with Steve, FunPaul, Jake and Eric. This gave me an advantage over the guys Friday morning who hadn't played it before, but I did try to explain many of the strategic aspects of the game along with the rules. I ended up winning and my attorney came in 2nd.
Caylus is an economic city building game with multiple paths to victory and a heavy portion of resource management. It is very similar to Power Grid, but without the auction element and also to Puerto Rico and countless others. In all it is my favorite type of game. Usually, but not always I find this type of game to be fairly intuitive, unlike area control games. Area control games make me feel like I'm trying to write a full length novel with my left hand. For some reason my brain just doesn't work that way.
After Caylus the same four of us brought out Puerto Rico because we'd all played it before. Apparently I blew my strategic planning wad on Caylus because I completely failed to make intelligent decisions in Puerto Rico. What can I say? A loser is me!
My attorney, Larry and Mark came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively with me bringing up the rear. It seems that I forgot to choose a strategy in the beginning of the game. I mean, there's shipping, there's building and usually a combination of the two. My attorney took a shipping strategy, with a little building. Larry took a building strategy with a little shipping, Mark combined the two fairly evenly. All of these were smart choices. Me? I managed to play the entire game without committing to anything and constantly trying to shift gears to try something new. Great game though.
Around this time the sun was setting and everyone else was either busy or not interested, so my attorney and I went down to the beach for an evening swim. It was especially nice because it was right around sunset and also because the waves had picked up a bit. It was strikingly pleasant, after a long day of gaming, to stand up to our necks in the warm water, watch the stars just start to peek through the deep blue/black of the sky and let the waves push us around as we bobbed and floated in Lake Huron.
My attorney and I both grew up on the west side of the state and I, for one, have always preferred swimming in Lake Michigan. I still maintain that the beaches of Holland, Muskegon and those of the northwest like around Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Lelanau Peninsula are far nicer than anything Lake Huron has to offer, but this particular beach that our cottage was on does come close. It still seems strange to me that the sun should rise and not set over the water. I spent so many nights watching sunsets over Lake Michigan horizons in my teenage years that it seems almost sac religious that it should be any different. After the sun was fully down and darkness had set in we climbed the stairs back up to the top of the bluff for more gaming.
After this the order of games is a bit muddy, but I believe this is when Larry brought out his copy of Fist of the Dragonst Ones. No one but he had played this one before. It is a simultaneous reveal bluffing / auction game. The big twist of this one, imo, is that you lose your resources even if you do not win the auction. This means you have to be durn sure you're going to win the auction before you even try. I took this to mean that you should wait until others have depleted their resources, and then commit everything you have on the one card you want to win that round. This may well be completely incorrect, though. FunPaul won this game, with Steve coming in 2nd and me, Mark, Larry and my attorney all tying for 3rd.
Dinner this night was on Jake. He threw a huge pan of mostacolli in the oven earlier in the evening and the smells of it baking permeated the cottage. By the time it was ready we were all ravenous and polished it off lickity damn split. You da man, Jake!
After this we were all starting to get a bit tired so we turned to another game of For Sale to get our second wind. Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd, but also playing were Eric, FunPaul and my attorney.
Next up I had the chance to play my favorite game of the weekend that I'd never previously played. Some weeks ago my attorney had picked up a copy of Colosseum based, he claims, purely on the fact that the box looks cool. Colosseum is a set collecting, trading, auction, building game in which each player is putting on a series of shows in ancient rome. Each show requires a specific set of ingredients which you have to either buy at auction or trade for with the other players. It really has all the elements that I love in a good game and is well put together. Earlier in the day George, Mark, Larry and my attorney all had a chance to play it and were raving about it. This time I played it with my attorney, Mark, Ben and Larry. I ended up winning with my attorney and Larry coming in at 2nd and 3rd. Unlike Puerto Rico, it was one of those games where all the many parts just flowed together for me.
The only downside to Colosseum was that we misunderstood an important part of the rules and were playing it in a way that made resources considerably more scarce than the rules intended. We discovered our error about half way through but decided to play it through as is anyway. Other than our own mistake it is a well designed and very entertaining game. It will be nice to try it again sometime and play it properly.
I have to say that one of the funnest aspects of Colosseum is presenting your performance piece to the other players. My attorney mastered this element of the game and each of his shows left everyone else rolling around on the floor in drunken giggles. My favorite was: "Perhaps you remember last year's failed performance of 'Circus Minimus'... well this year we've learned from our mistake..." Ah, a good time was had by all.
After this we played one last round of Cash n' Guns before calling it a night game-wise. Me, Mark, Ben, Larry and my attorney again, since the other guys were busy playing Zooloretto or something.
There was some more talk of another round of late night swimming, but the air seemed to have chilled a bit and it didn't sound quite as pleasant as it had on previous nights. A day well spent by any measure, however.
Saturday:
This day was a bit slower than those previous. I only played in two games and the weather was starting to turn chilly and damp so I didn't swim at all. I think my attorney and FunPaul got in an early morning swim while it was still nice, but I missed out on that one by sleeping in past sunrise.
FunPaul fed us breakfast once again, but I think the champaign was gone by this point so we had to do without the mimosa. Then we lounged around a bit and didn't start gaming until after 10am.
My attorney brought out another new game he'd picked up recently called Emira. In it players take on the role of Sheiks who are vying to make themselves more attractive than the others to seduce beautiful and talented women to join their harems. It is a very amusing game, but suffers from being too long for what it is. We played it from about 10am until after 3pm or so, which made it play like a heavy like Power Grid, when it should only have been a medium like Ra or Thebes. This, combined with the fact that we were all starting to suffer from exhaustion made the game a bit tense and we were all happy to see it end. In the play itself I made a terribly foolish over bid on turn one which left me resource short until the late game so I was never really competing for the win. Jake took an early lead, but in the end Mark over shot him to come out in first place. I see on the Geek that there is an unofficial variant to address the game length issue. If we bring it to the table again perhaps we should check that out.
Emira was so long that we took an extended break until 6pm or so. Then me, Mark, Ben and my attorney settled on playing Industrial Waste, while Steve, Jake, George and FunPaul brought out Settlers of Catan. The others played two games of Settlers while we played one of Industrial Waste, not because our game was a long one, but because we watched the Borat movie in the background while we played. Very fun, as I hadn't seen it before.
I like Industrial Waste, but I think it plays better for two than for four. Not that it is bad, but just that there are almost always better options. But, maybe that's because I came in last to my attorney, Mark and Ben in that order.
By this time it was 8pm or 9pm and I was disappointed to note that I'd only played two games this day. I was also bummed that I'd missed out on playing Settlers. Like many board game fans this was the first real Eurogame I'd ever played, and was the one that hooked me for more. (They don't call it a gateway game for nothin') I was kind of looking forward to giving it another go since its been a few years.
However, I was overjoyed to learn that, while we were playing Industrial Waste FunPaul had been busy in the kitchen making the largest roast sirloin I'd ever seen. It was truly mammoth. So, a bunch of us hauled the picnic table out to the edge of the bluff and prepared it for dinner. Then, when the roast was finished FunPaul brought it out and the 9 of us remaining (Larry had to leave earlier in the day) ate roast sirloin outside well after dark.
George had been smart enough to pillage the nearby ravine for good firewood and had stoked a nice big fire for us ahead of time. Good food, good drink, good company and at this point many good memories of a successful gaming retreat. What could be finer? It was a bit sad that this was our last night, but I for one was starting to really miss Barb and the kids and was feeling ready to get back home.
For the preceding days of the retreat I had managed to drink to the point of a giddy sort of bliss without actually being drunk, but this evening the exhaustion took hold and after dinner I could barely stand. I was so, so tired.
After cleaning up dinner many of the group felt like I did and went off to bed. George, however, stoked the fire back up again and he, Steve, Jake, FunPaul, and I lay down in the grass around the fire pit and talked for an hour or two. At some point I couldn't take it any more and I crawled off to my tent where I fell asleep quickly and deeply, dreaming of getting home to snuggle with my lovely bride.
Some time before dawn it started to rain a bit and I peaked out of my tent to find that the others had slept next to the fire, but were now staggering back towards the house to escape the rain. Then I fell back asleep until sunrise.
Sunday:
This morning was overcast and a light rain settled in not long after waking. My attorney had left for DC before anyone else woke up and Eric and Jake left early as well. There were six of us left and I proposed that we sit down for a game of Ticket to Ride before packing up, hoping that we'd then have time for one or two games of Settlers before calling it quits and driving back home, which everyone agreed to. We actually set up two games side by side. George, Ben and Steve played Ticket to Ride: Europe, while Mark, FunPaul and I played the original.
This is a great semi-light, semi-medium game which we'd played out on the bluff Sunday morning of last year and returning to it this year seemed somehow appropriate. George won the European version while Mark stole the game from FunPaul and me.
Then we cleaned the cottage up from top to bottom, but as we were finishing the landlord / cottage manager arrived and told us that a new tenant was arriving soon and that we'd have to make way for them. Sigh... Settlers will have to wait again. Too bad.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and even more fun than last year, I dare say. In fact, in retrospect the weather really turned in our fortune. It was cloudy and wet the entire week preceding the weekend, and its been cloudy and wet since then. It appears that the gaming gods were smiling on us.
In the end FunPaul took home the grand prize and will get to engrave his name on the plaque and has bragging rights until next year.
Overall an amazing total of 34 games were played, 19 of which I got to play in myself. Hm... I feel like I missed out on half the fun.
Wrap up:
A couple of days after getting home my attorney sent me the pictures he'd taken. Here are the highlights.
Here's the mountian of games in the living room.
And here's me with the mountain of games in the kitchen.
Here's me, Mark and Steve prepping for Cash n' Guns.
Here's my attorney posing after his Cash n' Guns win.
This is Larry and George sitting down to Colosseum.
And here's Mark, me and Ben sitting down to the same game later that night.
This one is FunPaul, me, Mark and Larry indulging in For Sale.
Below is FunPaul, Jake, Eric and George playing Imperial. I didn't have a chance to play that one.
Below is FunPaul slicing up the roast sirloin. Mmm... Steak!
And here are some shots of the lot of us gathered outside at the picnic table to feast.
Here's Eric Relaxing at the end of the weekend. This is how we all felt on Sunday morning. My attorney titled this pic: "Gaming the Eric Way."
Finally, here are a couple of scenic shots from outside the cottage overlooking Lake Huron.
Many thanks to Steve and FunPaul for planning and organizing the weekend, and again to FunPaul for his amazing gourmet talents. Oh, and also to Jake for dinner Friday night and to my attorney for bringing his fancy, new fangled digital camera! Thanks also to everyone for taking time away from real life for a long weekend to pretend that we're back in college and don't have a care in the world.
Only 349 days until Foot Foot 2008!
So, after months of planning, organizing and counting down the days, this past weekend was the 2nd annual Foot Foot Gamers Retreat (Named after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). I think it is safe to say that this year's event was even bigger and better than last year's, especially since last year's retreat was Friday through Sunday and this year many of us arrived on Wednesday night and left around noon Sunday. By rough count, that's 87 hours of gaming paradise, including the few hours here and there we found time to sleep.
This year we rented the same cottage as last year, but this year there were ten of us instead of a mere seven. The cottage is on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and is relatively secluded by a wooded ravine on one side and a privacy fence on the other. And, as a plus the beach offers fantastic swimming and even about 200 yards out the water is still only 5' deep.
Also this year we planned to use the same scoring system as last year so that we could keep track of game wins and losses. Last year Jake was the "Best Overall Gamer" and was awarded the official plaque upon which he had his name engraved as the "Inaugural Winner". There are 11 more blank nameplates on that plaque so we plan to keep this up for a while.
In our gaming group Steve and FunPaul are the primary game collectors and in the week leading up to the main event they brought me box after box and tub after tub of board games to pack away in my mini van. In the end I had to fold down my third seat and remove one of my middle seats to pack everything in and I barely had enough room for my own lonely box of games, my suitcase, food and cooler. I also brought my inflatable mattress and my tent as I had pre-planned to sleep out in the yard. (The cottage has 2 beds and 2 couches. Ten guys were coming for the weekend. You do the math. To me, sleeping outside was the best option.)
As I write about the weekend, I may not get all the facts straight, but I will do my best. If you were there and you see an error in my description of the events, please forgive me. My only excuse is, well... Hell, I was drinkin' for three straight days! You of all people should know that. I can't be expected to remember everything!
Wednesday:
FunPaul and Steve drove up right after they got off work, but I had to wait a bit later since Barb works later than they do and I had to wait for her to get home. I had also arranged to caravan up there with my attorney. He got to my place about 6:30 and Barb got home not long after that. By 7:15 we were on our way.
My attorney and I got to the cottage a little after 9pm because we got caught up in horrible construction traffic, but to our delight FunPaul had pre-heated his deep fryer and was prepared to serve us fried cheese sticks, butterfly shrimp and jalapeño poppers. We also started a game of Age of Steam, even though we agreed that it wouldn't count towards winning the plaque at the end of the weekend. The "official" event would begin at 8am the next morning.Mark showed up Somewhere in the middle of Age of Steam and the five of us chatted, ate and drank. I think Steve won this game. I know that I was not in the running. After that it was well after midnight and we all went outside to celebrate the fact that we were facing four days of a complete and absolute lack of responsibility. No wives, no kids, no jobs, no school. Just gaming, eating, drinking and, oh yes, swimming! We remembered that last part at about 3am so we grabbed our towels and headed down to the beach.
That was an amazing swim. The air, even at 3am, was remarkably warm and the water was about the same temperature as the air. To top it all off, the sky was completely cloud free and we could clearly see about 100 times more stars than we were used to seeing in the city. In fact, it was so clear you could see the blurry sweep of the Milky Way as we looked through the galactic plane. Truly a beautiful sight.
After that we were off to bed and asleep by 4am or so. I started off sleeping on my air mattress out under the stars, but I kept waking up, so I eventually wimped out and hauled it into my tent where I slept like a baby until morning.
Thursday:
We slept in a bit this morning, finally getting up around 9am. FunPaul made us a fine breakfast of bacon, eggs and mimosa, which I'd never had before, but was a quick convert. Larry showed up about this time and was able to join us for a game of Power Grid, which would be the first official game of the retreat. Power Grid is one of my favorite games but it doesn't seem to hit the table very often so I'm always glad to play it whenever I get the chance. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.
After that we played two quick games of For Sale, which is a great light game to play after such a heavy. Mark won one of these and FunPaul won the other.At some point this afternoon many of us went for another swim, this time by day. The air and water were still both incredibly warm. After swimming I decided it was time I started drinking.
I had some pre-retreat debates with myself about drinking over the weekend. Not "should I drink?", but "what should I drink?" I've never been a big fan of beer. In any given gaming evening I'm perfectly happy having a beer, or maybe two, but that's about my limit. I just don't like the taste that much. I used to be a big fan of the Capt'n & Coke, but for some reason I've lost my taste for it over the last couple of years.
So, before the retreat I settled on my new drink of choice. I found the wikipedia entry and a couple of different recipes, finally settling on one that both sounded good and was affordable. So, on this afternoon I busted open the vodka, rum, tequila, triple sec and sour mix that I'd brought along and set about to perfect the alchemy that is the Long Island Ice Tea. It turned out quite well, indeed. The alchemy of this drink is that it contains a shocking amount of alcohol, but tastes unlike anything alcoholic. To me, that's a perfect drink.
Drinkwise, my goal for the weekend was not to get very drunk, but to reach a point of giddy bliss and then to maintain that for as long as I could, without ever having a hangover the next day. This turned out to work out well, except for Saturday night when I couldn't keep my eyes open any more. No hangovers though, which I'm still pleased about.
Over the course of the weekend both Jake and my attorney joined me in my new discovery and Jake and I agreed that this was a drink that could really kick you in the ass if you weren't paying attention. Good stuff! It also has an interesting history, which you can read about by clicking on the wikipedia entry above. Apparently one original recipe involved 4 ounces of pure maple syrup. Crazy.
After this Steve brought out Cash n' Guns, a new action packed light he'd recently ordered. It is a quick game, and it has a unique mechanic involving pointing foam guns at each other. Basically it is a simultaneous reveal / bluffing game. As such, it is best played with alcohol. We played two of these. I won one of them and my attorney won the other. My first win of the weekend. Woot!
Next up my attorney brought out his copy of Ruse & Bruise, which is an entertaining medium card game with a fairly unique play structure. My attorney won this one and I came in second.Around this Jake arrived so we now had seven, which meant it was time to split up into two groups. Steve Jake Mark and Larry went off to play Thebes while FunPaul, my attorney and I sat down in the garage for a game of Niagara. I won the Niagara game. Jake won at
Thebes. If memory serves we finished Niagara quite a bit before the Thebes game ended so the three of us went swimming yet again while waiting for the others to finish.I think it was about this time that FunPaul announced that he had made dinner for the group. This was a surprise since I didn't actually see him prepare anything, but, as if by magic there was suddenly a delicious pork loin being dished up in the kitchen. I swear, if your gaming group doesn't have a resident gourmet, you don't know what you're missing. Cheers to FunPaul!
After dinner I got to try out Thebes myself and was very impressed. It is a great medium where you play archaeologists collecting historical knowledge in Europe and going on digs in Egypt and the Middle East. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.
Following this we pulled out Ra, which is one of our old standbys but it doesn't see a lot of play anymore. It is still a fine auction game, though. Before it we used to play Medici, but Ra (which is also written by Reiner Knizia) is so much better we just switched over. For this game I decided to adopt my attorney's traditional strategy of focusing on the Pharaohs rather than my own (usually pointless) strategy of playing chicken at the auctions and going for monuments. And, it turns out, I won. Who'd a thought?
It was pretty late on Thursday night by this time. At some point in the evening George and Eric showed up. Eric went off with the other guys to play a few rounds of Cash n' Guns, while George joined me, my attorney and FunPaul to play Modern Art. One of these days I'll get around to reading strategy essays on the Geek about this game. Steve tells me there are fairly simple yet precise calculations for telling you how to bid in the auctions which aid considerably in determining winners over losers. George won this one... I came in dead last. Damn those Long Islands.... whose idea were they anyway???That wrapped up my Thursday game-wise. I played in 10 games between 9am until somewhere after midnight. After this many of us ambled / staggered down to the beach for another late night swim which was, again, fantastic with a beautiful clear sky and warm, warm water. There's nothing like a series of board games punctuated by midnight swimming to make a guy feel like he hasn't a care in the world.
Friday:
I woke up Friday morning feeling refreshed. Once again the tent/air mattress combination turned out to be a wise choice. If memory serves, I think several of us went down for a swim straight away at about 8am or so. After that FunPaul served up more bacon & eggs and we got down to gaming.
I, Mark, Larry and my attorney started off the gaming Friday by sitting down to Caylus. Along with Power Grid, Caylus is one of my all time favorites which I'd played many times in regular gaming nights with Steve, FunPaul, Jake and Eric. This gave me an advantage over the guys Friday morning who hadn't played it before, but I did try to explain many of the strategic aspects of the game along with the rules. I ended up winning and my attorney came in 2nd.Caylus is an economic city building game with multiple paths to victory and a heavy portion of resource management. It is very similar to Power Grid, but without the auction element and also to Puerto Rico and countless others. In all it is my favorite type of game. Usually, but not always I find this type of game to be fairly intuitive, unlike area control games. Area control games make me feel like I'm trying to write a full length novel with my left hand. For some reason my brain just doesn't work that way.
After Caylus the same four of us brought out Puerto Rico because we'd all played it before. Apparently I blew my strategic planning wad on Caylus because I completely failed to make intelligent decisions in Puerto Rico. What can I say? A loser is me!My attorney, Larry and Mark came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively with me bringing up the rear. It seems that I forgot to choose a strategy in the beginning of the game. I mean, there's shipping, there's building and usually a combination of the two. My attorney took a shipping strategy, with a little building. Larry took a building strategy with a little shipping, Mark combined the two fairly evenly. All of these were smart choices. Me? I managed to play the entire game without committing to anything and constantly trying to shift gears to try something new. Great game though.
Around this time the sun was setting and everyone else was either busy or not interested, so my attorney and I went down to the beach for an evening swim. It was especially nice because it was right around sunset and also because the waves had picked up a bit. It was strikingly pleasant, after a long day of gaming, to stand up to our necks in the warm water, watch the stars just start to peek through the deep blue/black of the sky and let the waves push us around as we bobbed and floated in Lake Huron.
My attorney and I both grew up on the west side of the state and I, for one, have always preferred swimming in Lake Michigan. I still maintain that the beaches of Holland, Muskegon and those of the northwest like around Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Lelanau Peninsula are far nicer than anything Lake Huron has to offer, but this particular beach that our cottage was on does come close. It still seems strange to me that the sun should rise and not set over the water. I spent so many nights watching sunsets over Lake Michigan horizons in my teenage years that it seems almost sac religious that it should be any different. After the sun was fully down and darkness had set in we climbed the stairs back up to the top of the bluff for more gaming.
After this the order of games is a bit muddy, but I believe this is when Larry brought out his copy of Fist of the Dragonst Ones. No one but he had played this one before. It is a simultaneous reveal bluffing / auction game. The big twist of this one, imo, is that you lose your resources even if you do not win the auction. This means you have to be durn sure you're going to win the auction before you even try. I took this to mean that you should wait until others have depleted their resources, and then commit everything you have on the one card you want to win that round. This may well be completely incorrect, though. FunPaul won this game, with Steve coming in 2nd and me, Mark, Larry and my attorney all tying for 3rd.Dinner this night was on Jake. He threw a huge pan of mostacolli in the oven earlier in the evening and the smells of it baking permeated the cottage. By the time it was ready we were all ravenous and polished it off lickity damn split. You da man, Jake!
After this we were all starting to get a bit tired so we turned to another game of For Sale to get our second wind. Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd, but also playing were Eric, FunPaul and my attorney.
Next up I had the chance to play my favorite game of the weekend that I'd never previously played. Some weeks ago my attorney had picked up a copy of Colosseum based, he claims, purely on the fact that the box looks cool. Colosseum is a set collecting, trading, auction, building game in which each player is putting on a series of shows in ancient rome. Each show requires a specific set of ingredients which you have to either buy at auction or trade for with the other players. It really has all the elements that I love in a good game and is well put together. Earlier in the day George, Mark, Larry and my attorney all had a chance to play it and were raving about it. This time I played it with my attorney, Mark, Ben and Larry. I ended up winning with my attorney and Larry coming in at 2nd and 3rd. Unlike Puerto Rico, it was one of those games where all the many parts just flowed together for me.The only downside to Colosseum was that we misunderstood an important part of the rules and were playing it in a way that made resources considerably more scarce than the rules intended. We discovered our error about half way through but decided to play it through as is anyway. Other than our own mistake it is a well designed and very entertaining game. It will be nice to try it again sometime and play it properly.
I have to say that one of the funnest aspects of Colosseum is presenting your performance piece to the other players. My attorney mastered this element of the game and each of his shows left everyone else rolling around on the floor in drunken giggles. My favorite was: "Perhaps you remember last year's failed performance of 'Circus Minimus'... well this year we've learned from our mistake..." Ah, a good time was had by all.
After this we played one last round of Cash n' Guns before calling it a night game-wise. Me, Mark, Ben, Larry and my attorney again, since the other guys were busy playing Zooloretto or something.
There was some more talk of another round of late night swimming, but the air seemed to have chilled a bit and it didn't sound quite as pleasant as it had on previous nights. A day well spent by any measure, however.
Saturday:
This day was a bit slower than those previous. I only played in two games and the weather was starting to turn chilly and damp so I didn't swim at all. I think my attorney and FunPaul got in an early morning swim while it was still nice, but I missed out on that one by sleeping in past sunrise.
FunPaul fed us breakfast once again, but I think the champaign was gone by this point so we had to do without the mimosa. Then we lounged around a bit and didn't start gaming until after 10am.
My attorney brought out another new game he'd picked up recently called Emira. In it players take on the role of Sheiks who are vying to make themselves more attractive than the others to seduce beautiful and talented women to join their harems. It is a very amusing game, but suffers from being too long for what it is. We played it from about 10am until after 3pm or so, which made it play like a heavy like Power Grid, when it should only have been a medium like Ra or Thebes. This, combined with the fact that we were all starting to suffer from exhaustion made the game a bit tense and we were all happy to see it end. In the play itself I made a terribly foolish over bid on turn one which left me resource short until the late game so I was never really competing for the win. Jake took an early lead, but in the end Mark over shot him to come out in first place. I see on the Geek that there is an unofficial variant to address the game length issue. If we bring it to the table again perhaps we should check that out.
Emira was so long that we took an extended break until 6pm or so. Then me, Mark, Ben and my attorney settled on playing Industrial Waste, while Steve, Jake, George and FunPaul brought out Settlers of Catan. The others played two games of Settlers while we played one of Industrial Waste, not because our game was a long one, but because we watched the Borat movie in the background while we played. Very fun, as I hadn't seen it before.I like Industrial Waste, but I think it plays better for two than for four. Not that it is bad, but just that there are almost always better options. But, maybe that's because I came in last to my attorney, Mark and Ben in that order.
By this time it was 8pm or 9pm and I was disappointed to note that I'd only played two games this day. I was also bummed that I'd missed out on playing Settlers. Like many board game fans this was the first real Eurogame I'd ever played, and was the one that hooked me for more. (They don't call it a gateway game for nothin') I was kind of looking forward to giving it another go since its been a few years.
However, I was overjoyed to learn that, while we were playing Industrial Waste FunPaul had been busy in the kitchen making the largest roast sirloin I'd ever seen. It was truly mammoth. So, a bunch of us hauled the picnic table out to the edge of the bluff and prepared it for dinner. Then, when the roast was finished FunPaul brought it out and the 9 of us remaining (Larry had to leave earlier in the day) ate roast sirloin outside well after dark.
George had been smart enough to pillage the nearby ravine for good firewood and had stoked a nice big fire for us ahead of time. Good food, good drink, good company and at this point many good memories of a successful gaming retreat. What could be finer? It was a bit sad that this was our last night, but I for one was starting to really miss Barb and the kids and was feeling ready to get back home.
For the preceding days of the retreat I had managed to drink to the point of a giddy sort of bliss without actually being drunk, but this evening the exhaustion took hold and after dinner I could barely stand. I was so, so tired.
After cleaning up dinner many of the group felt like I did and went off to bed. George, however, stoked the fire back up again and he, Steve, Jake, FunPaul, and I lay down in the grass around the fire pit and talked for an hour or two. At some point I couldn't take it any more and I crawled off to my tent where I fell asleep quickly and deeply, dreaming of getting home to snuggle with my lovely bride.
Some time before dawn it started to rain a bit and I peaked out of my tent to find that the others had slept next to the fire, but were now staggering back towards the house to escape the rain. Then I fell back asleep until sunrise.
Sunday:
This morning was overcast and a light rain settled in not long after waking. My attorney had left for DC before anyone else woke up and Eric and Jake left early as well. There were six of us left and I proposed that we sit down for a game of Ticket to Ride before packing up, hoping that we'd then have time for one or two games of Settlers before calling it quits and driving back home, which everyone agreed to. We actually set up two games side by side. George, Ben and Steve played Ticket to Ride: Europe, while Mark, FunPaul and I played the original.This is a great semi-light, semi-medium game which we'd played out on the bluff Sunday morning of last year and returning to it this year seemed somehow appropriate. George won the European version while Mark stole the game from FunPaul and me.
Then we cleaned the cottage up from top to bottom, but as we were finishing the landlord / cottage manager arrived and told us that a new tenant was arriving soon and that we'd have to make way for them. Sigh... Settlers will have to wait again. Too bad.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and even more fun than last year, I dare say. In fact, in retrospect the weather really turned in our fortune. It was cloudy and wet the entire week preceding the weekend, and its been cloudy and wet since then. It appears that the gaming gods were smiling on us.
In the end FunPaul took home the grand prize and will get to engrave his name on the plaque and has bragging rights until next year.
Overall an amazing total of 34 games were played, 19 of which I got to play in myself. Hm... I feel like I missed out on half the fun.
Wrap up:
A couple of days after getting home my attorney sent me the pictures he'd taken. Here are the highlights.
Here's the mountian of games in the living room.
And here's me with the mountain of games in the kitchen.
Here's me, Mark and Steve prepping for Cash n' Guns.
Here's my attorney posing after his Cash n' Guns win.
This is Larry and George sitting down to Colosseum.
And here's Mark, me and Ben sitting down to the same game later that night.
This one is FunPaul, me, Mark and Larry indulging in For Sale.
Below is FunPaul, Jake, Eric and George playing Imperial. I didn't have a chance to play that one.
Below is FunPaul slicing up the roast sirloin. Mmm... Steak!
And here are some shots of the lot of us gathered outside at the picnic table to feast.
Here's Eric Relaxing at the end of the weekend. This is how we all felt on Sunday morning. My attorney titled this pic: "Gaming the Eric Way."
Finally, here are a couple of scenic shots from outside the cottage overlooking Lake Huron.
Many thanks to Steve and FunPaul for planning and organizing the weekend, and again to FunPaul for his amazing gourmet talents. Oh, and also to Jake for dinner Friday night and to my attorney for bringing his fancy, new fangled digital camera! Thanks also to everyone for taking time away from real life for a long weekend to pretend that we're back in college and don't have a care in the world.
Only 349 days until Foot Foot 2008!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Homeschooling at last
This week we finally began formal homeschooling for Simon. Informally we've been conducting reading lessons out of Susan Bauer's Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (OPG) and have been playing math games for quite some time now. This week, though, we celebrated Simon turning official "kindergarten" age by setting up an hour or so each morning to add some structure to the mix. To begin this we decided to keep it simple and only focus on math, reading and history. We ordered a copy of the Saxon Math 1 homeschool kit, and dusted off our OPG reading lesson book as well as the set of Story of the World history books and student worksheets we've had for some time now.So, each weekday at 9am we do lessons from each of those three sets for no more than an hour or for as long as Simon maintains interest. If he gets bored with one of them, we move on to another and make sure we stop as soon as it stops being fun for him. Once we get settled in a routine for these three subjects, we may add others to the mix, but we want to keep the formal part of schooling as limited as possible. There's a bunch of things that we trust he will teach himself, or that we can present as just part of having fun together that don't need a formal structure.
For example, yesterday Simon and I spent about a half hour making patterns on the floor with tangram shapes. For some reason we started talking about the relative size of the planets, so he ran to his room to get his model of the solar system and we quizzed each other for another half hour with questions like: "which planet is bigger than Pluto, but smaller than Mars?" This is when we cross the line from "classical education" to "unschooling" and we just have fun together while following his natural interests.
Because Barb and I alternate being home or working/going to school during the week, we're taking turns with the teaching responsibilities. This means a bit more organization and planning on our part to make sure we both know where we are in each of our books and what comes next, but the huge upside is that homeschooling is something that we're all doing together as a family project. We've always had a good relationship as a couple, but I think the last couple of years of planning for homeschooling has solidified how much we have a common vision of the future and has brought us even closer together.
The best part of it, I think, is the mutual sensation that our future together as a family is something we're designing together and not merely a set of default choices we're making because everyone else is doing it. This adds a bit of stress and worry because there will be no one else to blame if things go horribly awry, but those concerns are held in abeyance by a strong sense of satisfaction that we're living deliberately and creating our own solutions to problems rather than relying on the government or paying to have a corporate entity handle things for us.
All in all, life is good.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
A Card for Every Occasion
We were at Target the other day trying to find birthday/thank you/etc. cards and I stumbled on a "So, you are starting preschool!" card. What? Um, why? Are people actually purchasing these, or are parents/grandparents/relatives supposed to stumble across them and say, "Oh, no!" I forgot to buy my 3/4-year old a card and probably everybody else is doing it? Should I get them a giftcard, too?"
Sorry to be so cynical. I like cards. I buy a lot of cards and give a lot of cards (except for the newer made-up *holidays* like "Sweetest Day") but...we're sending you to preschool cards? Yay?
Sorry to be so cynical. I like cards. I buy a lot of cards and give a lot of cards (except for the newer made-up *holidays* like "Sweetest Day") but...we're sending you to preschool cards? Yay?
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
August 2007
I can't believe it is August. All of my summer plans, the big list of things to do...HA! We haven't done anything we really planned to do this summer. I haven't posted anything about the kids in a while, so I thought I would update today. Simon is sorting his cuisenaire rods by color while I type this. I am glad I passed my OCD on to one of my kids :)
A couple of weeks ago, Simon pulled out a tub of K'nex blocks or rods or whatever you want to call those things, pulled out the instructions and built a merry-go-round. I honestly didn't think he could do it at first, but once he got started, the only help he asked for was with connecting a few of the pieces that wouldn't quite snap together, and the two horses. The rest he did all by himself which I thought was pretty darn cool. Here he is pictured with his final product.
Gwen continues her adventures as "super bunny!" which consists of her wearing one of her hooded towels tied around her neck running around shrieking, "I'm SUPER BUNNY!!!" Gwen still likes to hold 4 (yes, it must be 4) hooded towels all day. I don't know why one isn't enough, but it is her way.
Since Simon is 5 and fall is quickly approaching, more and more people are asking about kindergarten. We finally told the Grand Rapids crew that we are homeschooling, and it seemed to go fairly well. The usual list of questions, but no one reacted negatively to our plans (thank goodness).
At work the other day, a coworker mentioned Simon and kindergarten and I told him our plans, and he seemed very interested. He said had he had a chance to do it all over again, he would have liked to homeschool his kids (who are now in their 20's) but they didn't have the chance. This coworker did stress to me the importance of socializing my kids because, "Your son needs to be exposed to other kids being mean to him so he knows how to handle the situation if another kid is mean to him," which sounded kind of counterintuitive to me, so I assured him that we hit Simon all the time which I am happy to report got a big laugh, and not a disturbed stare :) or a call to social services.
Hawksbill ordered a bunch of math stuff online which is hopefully going to arrive in the next week or two. We are still trying to nail down our fall schedule when Hawksbill goes back to school and my work schedule, and then put together some unofficial school schedule for Simon and see how it works out. I don't want to be too structured, but at the same time, we do plan to loosely follow a curriculum at this point. I am feeling less nervous about the idea of winging it--less like I need to set up some set-in-stone daily routine, and more relaxed about taking it one day at a time.
A couple of weeks ago, Simon pulled out a tub of K'nex blocks or rods or whatever you want to call those things, pulled out the instructions and built a merry-go-round. I honestly didn't think he could do it at first, but once he got started, the only help he asked for was with connecting a few of the pieces that wouldn't quite snap together, and the two horses. The rest he did all by himself which I thought was pretty darn cool. Here he is pictured with his final product.
Gwen continues her adventures as "super bunny!" which consists of her wearing one of her hooded towels tied around her neck running around shrieking, "I'm SUPER BUNNY!!!" Gwen still likes to hold 4 (yes, it must be 4) hooded towels all day. I don't know why one isn't enough, but it is her way.
Since Simon is 5 and fall is quickly approaching, more and more people are asking about kindergarten. We finally told the Grand Rapids crew that we are homeschooling, and it seemed to go fairly well. The usual list of questions, but no one reacted negatively to our plans (thank goodness).
At work the other day, a coworker mentioned Simon and kindergarten and I told him our plans, and he seemed very interested. He said had he had a chance to do it all over again, he would have liked to homeschool his kids (who are now in their 20's) but they didn't have the chance. This coworker did stress to me the importance of socializing my kids because, "Your son needs to be exposed to other kids being mean to him so he knows how to handle the situation if another kid is mean to him," which sounded kind of counterintuitive to me, so I assured him that we hit Simon all the time which I am happy to report got a big laugh, and not a disturbed stare :) or a call to social services.
Hawksbill ordered a bunch of math stuff online which is hopefully going to arrive in the next week or two. We are still trying to nail down our fall schedule when Hawksbill goes back to school and my work schedule, and then put together some unofficial school schedule for Simon and see how it works out. I don't want to be too structured, but at the same time, we do plan to loosely follow a curriculum at this point. I am feeling less nervous about the idea of winging it--less like I need to set up some set-in-stone daily routine, and more relaxed about taking it one day at a time.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Free Global Education
Here's a presentation video from last year's TED Talks conference proposing a free, online educational distribution system similar to Wikipedia, only with textbooks. The site where you can see it in action is here. (I've posted a video or two from this series before, which are linked on the right hand sidebar. I like the one called : Do schools kill creativity?)
Another, similar site that has started operation in the last couple of years is called Curriki.
Another, similar site that has started operation in the last couple of years is called Curriki.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Mother - Daughter Relationships
I heard an interesting report on NPR this morning while driving to work. The subject was mother / daughter relationships. The main question of the report was: is it necessary for daughters to become estranged from their mothers during adolescence in order to develop a strong sense of individual self as an adult? The answer was "no" and the report went on to describe ways to build strong relationships with daughters in a way that enhances personal growth while maintaining intimacy.It's a good report and worth reading / listening to, and I agree with pretty much everything in it. I did find it interesting though that there seems to be nothing in it which wouldn't equally apply to fathers and sons (or mothers and sons, or fathers and daughters for that matter). I'm not sure why the report wouldn't just say "parent" and "child" or "teenager" or something. There was nothing in it which suggested gender specificity.
It is also interesting that the report never mentions another parent other than the mother. Moms are only advised to turn to other moms for support in raising daughters. It is as if they assume that dads are absent from child rearing and not even worth mentioning. For all its claims of being progressive it seems like NPR is still living in the 1950's when only maternal relationships are assumed to be of value for children.
I liked it nonetheless, though. I think it is often the case that we assume that such estrangement is inevitable and actually good when it is neither. I went through that when I was a teen. Looking back, I wish I could change it. At the time I was so terribly hungry for a mentor to help me answer some of the frustrating questions I had about life, but I resented my parents like pretty much everyone else I knew. The only people I trusted were people as clueless and inexperienced as myself. Both my parents and I were unable to bridge that gap until I had grown older and especially since I had my own children.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
