The Dream is Always the Same

I have this recurring dream. I've been having it since my late teens or early twenties. I don't have it often, maybe once a year or every other year. And it isn't like what I normally think of as a recurring dream. That is, it isn't the same every time. Instead, it is progressive. I'll explain.

When I first had the dream, maybe 20 years ago, it went like this: I was on the top of a tall building, very high up, and I was standing on the edge holding 2 clip boards. It was scary. It was maybe 15 or 20 stories tall in the downtown area of a city I didn't recognize. I could see people and cars far below. Then a violent gust of wind came up and knocked me off the edge and I plummeted towards the grown below. I could feel that queasy falling feeling in the pit of my stomach as the ground rushed up to meet me.

Then, and I can't explain why I did this, I put a clip board in each hand and held them parallel to the ground in a desperate attempt to slow my fall. And it worked. I could feel the pressure of the air against the clip boards as they pushed my arms up. The more I pushed down against the air, the slower I fell until I crashed landed on the ground below me. I had slowed down enough to land safely, if not still violently. Then I woke up. It was a very vivid dream and I could remember every detail and every physical sensation of falling and landing. It stayed with me all day.

A year or so later I had the same dream. Same rooftop, same vividly experienced height. Same clip boards. But this time I remembered my previous dream and instead of waiting for the gust of wind to blow me off the edge, I grasped the clipboards firmly in each hand and jumped. This time I glided in a gentle spiral down to the ground and landed much more gently than the last time. Then I woke up with the same vivid memory of each visual and physical detail that stayed with me all day.

After that I kept having the dream every year or two. Every time it was a lucid dream, meaning I knew I was dreaming and could consciously act within the dream. The specifics would change, though. Instead of spiraling down to the ground I learned to control my glide so that I could travel a distance. After 8 or 10 years of this I finally learned that I didn't need the clipboards any more. I could support myself in the air merely by spreading my hands out and using them to grab the air currents. Every time I had the dream I got better and better at it. I learned to soar and it was exhilarating. I would find myself in the dream and look for a big building I could leap off of and take an elevator to the top. Then I'd spend the dream catching the updrafts and swerving in and out of buildings until I glided to the ground.

Two nights ago I had the dream again. It has been a number of years since the last one. Like usual, I greeted it like an old friend. I was standing on the top of a big parking structure in a remote area. As soon as I realized it was the dream I sprinted towards the edge of the roof and, without looking beforehand or caring what was below me I launched myself into the air and glided around until I hit the ground running. Then I sprinted back to the parking structure, up the stairs and did it all over again. I must have done that a dozen times before I finally woke up.

I don't know what there is about my psyche that prompts these dreams, but I love them. I love that each one is different and that I get better and better at flying each time. I love that I feel like I can look forward to them year after year. If not like clockwork then at least in a predictable sequence. I'm looking forward to the time in the dream when I can fly up from the ground instead of just gliding down from high up.

I figure if I have around 40 more years to live, that should be around 20-25 more dreams, if they keep happening. Maybe by the end I can achieve orbit.

Homeschool Article

Here's an article about how homeschooling is becoming more mainstream.

Feeling Thankful

Happy Holidays everyone! Just a quick note to say I am thankful for this year. I know it isn't quite over yet, but it has been a good year for our family, and we are all pretty darn happy.

Hawksbill graduated from U of M with his MSW, I found a new half-time job that is turning out to be pretty fun, and Hawksbill will be starting another part-time job on Monday through one of his other part-time jobs. So between the two of us, we technically have 5 part-time jobs, but you gotta do what you gotta do in these times. It is nice to know between the two of us, we have enough skills to take on a variety of jobs, and we know if we have to, we will do anything to take care of our family.

We are thankful for our friends, old and new, and hope the season is treating them well. I had a wonderful birthday last week, and happy to report I will be a perfect square for this whole next year. Simon and Gwen are "growing like weeds" and have been having fun in our little homeschool.

If anyone is keeping track (and thanks for all of my grown-up friends last night for listening to my potty training woes) but for the record, Gwen is no closer to being potty trained than the day she was born. Yes, I know she will be 4 years old next month, but she promised when she turned 4, she will start going on the potty. I have to say, if this is my biggest worry or complaint in my life, then life is pretty good.

My family is healthy, we have a wedding to look forward to next year, we are plugging along and enjoying our lives. I just wanted to say thank you to all of our friends, and we are looking forward to seeing more of you over the holidays, and wish you all the very best!!

I also wanted to say Happy Holidays to the entire city of Detroit--it has been a crazy year, but I hope the new year will bring new prosperity to the city. I love Detroit and have worked there for more than 10 years now, and hope that others would come and visit the downtown and new center areas and see what the city has to offer.

Happy Holidays and Keep WARM!!!!

Happy 50th Anniversary

Thursday, November 27, 2008 was my parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. In true Catholic fashion, they had 8 children. In fact, we like to say, "Our parents are so Catholic, their names are 'Mary and Joseph'". Um....Actually, that isn't a joke...those are their real names.....all of us kiddos are named after saints, of course.

Some fun facts on my family (since I like numbers)....since my mom had 8 children, that means she was pregnant for 72 months, or 6 years of her life. There are 5 boys and 3 girls in my family --all 5 boys came first, followed by the 3 girls (I was the 7th child born). My oldest sister turned 40, 2 days before my parents' anniversary which means they had 6 of their 8 children before their 10th anniversary. In fact, my mom had 5 boys before she was 30. I have a new appreciation for her having so many kids after watching 5 children last weekend as a present for my sister's birthday. {{Shudder}}

My 3rd brother was born in a hospital which is now a jail (so he likes to say he was born in jail). My older sister was an "accidental" home birth (and the only home birth). It just happened that way. My mom was also pretty shocked to have a girl...she figured after 5 boys that was all she was having....

My dad was born in '36 and turned 72 this year. I was born in '72, so I will be turning 36 before the end of the month. Also, my dad and I were both born the year of the Rat. I am sure plenty will say that is appropriate for both of us....My mom was born on the exact date that Amelia Earhart went missing. I'll make you look that date up. :)

My parents were actually married on Thanksgiving Day in 1958, and their 50th anniversary was also Thanksgiving Day, 2008. (Yes, they served turkey at their wedding--we had our party this year on Saturday so we opted to not have turkey that day).

At my parents' 25th wedding anniversary, my oldest sibling, J, announced his engagement to T and they will be celebrating their 25th anniversary next September. At my parents' 50th anniversary last week, my youngest sibling, K, announced her engagement to M. They will be married next September (actual date pending--but should be close to exactly 25 years after my oldest sibling was married).

All of my siblings still live in the metro Detroit area, which is a pretty amazing feat considering the economy around here. 4 of my brothers work for the auto industry (one for Ford, one for GM, one for Chrysler and one for Delphi). Keep your fingers crossed for all of them (and the rest of us working in this area!!!) My dad worked for Ford Tractor for his entire career before taking early retirement in 1987.

I am sure I could come up with a lot more, but I don't know who (besides me) would be interested...so Happy Golden Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!!

You know you eat too often at the drive-thru...

...when the cashier asks you to tell your husband that they changed their sizes on curly fries, so he should order the child's size now instead of small the next time he brings the kids through.

Queen of the Jungle

I finally finished the Jungle Queen mini I've been working on all summer. Here's the final result:


I decided to keep the base minimalistic and not decorate with fake earth or shrubbery. I like the simplistic feel of it. I also experimented with a new way to hold the mini down on the wood. I used a combination of putty and rubber cement.

If anyone's interested in more details of the painting process I kept track of it over on my painting blog over here.

Hawksbill's Art Projects

Here's the latest on my art projects. The final versions of my dice towers, based on my own design using PowerPoint:
If anyone would like to make their own towers using my design, just let me know and I'll send you the PowerPoint file.

And the final version of my latest mini, the Queen of the Jungle:

This figure also came with a leopard that I have to paint, but it is still sitting on my shelf.

Halloween cop-out and other ramblings

OK--so we had great plans to make the Saturn costume with Simon, but high levels of exhaustion from trying to find a darn balloon or ball large enough, to the fact that Halloween is FRIDAY led us to talk Simon into just being a power ranger (especially since he already bought the costume a month ago). This reminds me of last year when all 4 of us were going to be Star Wars characters, but lack of funding resulted in only Simon and Gwen having costumes...ah, someday I will buy a sewing machine and start making things--one of these days.

I wish I could get a good routine or rhythm going this semester. I feel like I am trying too hard to do too much all the time, hence, I completely crash on Sundays...to the point where I am so exhausted I feel like I have the flu and could sleep 24 hours straight until work starts again on Monday.

Hawksbill's and my schedule doesn't help. I work from about 7:30 am - 3:30 pm, come home and he walks out the door to return anywhere from 8-10:30 pm. Somewhere in there one or both of us works with Simon with his studies (well, mostly we just tell him he has to do one of his lessons and he does it himself and shows us when he is finished) but still...or I feel obligated to take the kids somewhere to make sure we are getting out of the house before the snow comes. We might just drive to the mall, drive around to look at the leaves, or all the way up to my parents' house, but just SOMETHING so we are not watching tv while I am half-passed out from exhaustion on the couch.

Take tonight...I really wanted to go out to buy things for our Halloween potluck at work tomorrow, but instead I am sitting here typing a blog entry trying to think of the least expensive place I can pick up something pre-made so I don't have to think about it anymore. So much for cooking from scratch!!! Ha!

My found money project seems to taken a huge backseat lately....I am hardly trying to find money...I think I still pick up a penny or two a day, but my penny walks are over since I can't find a way to leave my office to take a break for 15 minutes.

We have been having fun collecting free things, lately. I would not normally call myself a packrat, but I can't seem to turn down free stuff lately, no matter how weird or useless if might seem. I am not too proud to drive through the neighborhood on garbage day (hey-admit it, you have seen good *trash* and picked it up, too) like when someone throws out a perfectly good Step-2 slide or toy that just needs a good washing rather than paying $50 at the store for it--it also helps that my neighbors seem to have good trash :) I have been rummaging through my dad's garage, too, taking whatever we can just because...my dad said a few more trips to his house we'll have cleaned him out. But he is the ultimate Sears shopper--always buying everything off the clearance racks or shelves, so I found a battery powered radio, camping stove with propane canisters, decent pencil sharpener, used binders, and the list goes on and on. He also has this weird habit of buying lots of toothpaste he will never use "because it only cost a penny after all the coupons" so I don't think I have actually purchased a tube of toothpaste in over a year now. Why not? It never hurts to have extra things on hand for an emergency and if it is free--even better :)

This weekend I babysat my sister's three children along with Simon and Gwen at her house overnight. The funny part of the night was when her next door neighbor was looking at my minivan asking if it had a DVD system. I told him we didn't have one, and our CD player broke over a year ago when Gwen stuck a dime in it. Well, wouldn't you know, my sister's neighbor is an electrical engineer who installs DVD and radio systems for my make of car, and he just happens to have a replacement radio in his garage that he swapped out for my broken player for free--how nice is that?

I don't really know what the point of this blog entry is right now except to say, as exhausted as we all are right now, I am happy to report we are happy and getting by each day. I love my family and I am thankful for my husband, children, friends, family and everything. I feel very fortunate that we are all healthy, are still working, and are meeting new and interesting people every day. I am happy about the choices we have made, and am looking forward to the years to come, even if things are still tight, might get tighter, might be different, but I am, indeed, very happy right now. :)

49 + Butterflies = I Love You

The above is the equation Gwen came up with the other night while Simon and I were working on his math. I am not sure that it is mathematically correct anywhere except Gwen-dimensional space, however, Hawksbill thought it would make a good blog entry title.

I haven't felt much like blogging lately. I am completely shocked that it is the middle of October already. Again, I am still stuck in August waiting for school to start for Hawksbill. This whole lack of going to college for one of us is very strange and confusing to me. Sure, I am at the university all the time, but not taking or teaching any classes. It feels like something is missing. However, right now I wouldn't be caught dead taking a class for a grade. No thanks.

I am afraid Hawksbill and I seem to see each other even less now that he is finished with his schooling. Now I work days and he works late afternoons/early evenings and some Saturdays...so we usually see each other on Sunday at least. Plus trying to coordinate working with Simon and Gwen with their studies or what not, not to mention seeing family or friends. I have been trying to drive up to my parents' house about once a week while we prepare for their 50th anniversary this year.

Simon is still plugging away with his math homework. He really likes multiplication. He wasn't so thrilled with subtracting two 3-digit numbers where you had to borrow something in order to do the problem. He seems to understand it except he gets very frustrated subtracting when the top numbers had zeros in them. All in good time.

Simon also decided on his own he wanted to learn cursive. We had no plans to even bring this up except Simon loves to string his letters together so we told him there was a special way of writing where you automatically connect the letters and he was hooked. Of course, I couldn't remember how to write all the capital cursive letters (seriously-I have always hated that capital Q that looks like a weird 2) so we found the letters online and he has been teaching himself how to write this way.

Today was arts and crafts day when I got home. I thought it would be fun to decorate the front window for Halloween so we drew and cut out pumpkins, bats, ghosts, witches, spiders and one black cat. The window is pretty well covered now and the kids had fun.

Two weeks until Halloween, my favorite holiday!! Hopefully this weekend we can start putting together the Saturn Costume for Simon. My artist sister gave me some ideas for putting one together, so if our large balloon with paper mache doesn't work, we'll give some other ideas a try.

Until next time....

Thank You Note

This weekend Barb and I are cleaning out the basement for the first time in years. It was a complete and total Hellhole down there and we've set aside a TON of trash to go out on garbage day. But, we've also found all the old mementos we'd thought we'd lost or had forgotten about long ago. Take, for example, this thank you note we designed ourselves and sent out to folks after our wedding back in 1995. It was easy to fill out and took almost no time at all. As easy as 1,2,3 and all our post-wedding social obligations were fulfilled!

Dear _______________________

Barb and I would like to thank you for:
___ Your generous gift of ______________________.
___ The very beautiful ________________________.
___ The unique and useful ______________________.
___ Making the beautiful / delicious _______________.
___ Paying for the wedding.

We hope to:
___ Purchase the rest of our china with it.
___ Display it proudly:
........___ in our living room. It matches the decor perfectly.
........___ on our bedroom wall. It matches the decor perfectly.
........___ on our bed. It matches the decor perfectly.
........___ in our kitchen. It matches the decor perfectly.
___ Cook many fine meals with it.
___ Read it before next summer.
___ Play with it on road trips.
___ Use it often.

___ We are very happy you made it to the wedding.
___ We are disappointed you were unable to attend.

___ We really appreciate you standing up in the wedding. It meant a lot to us.
___ We really appreciate you reading the:
.....___ First reading. You did a wonderful job.
.....___ Second reading. You did a wonderful job.
.....___ Prayers of the faithful. You did a wonderful job.

___ We hope you had a nice time. It was great to see you again.
___ We missed you and hope to see you soon.

___ We should get together sometime and have lunch.
___ We hope to be able to visit you soon in ___________________.
___ If you ever come to Detroit, we would love it if you would stay with us.
___ We are praying for your quick parole.

___ Love and affection,
___ With deep gratitude,
___ Sincerely,

-Barbnocity and Hawksbill

Costumes and Legos

We've been having fun with costumes lately. First, Simon and Gwen saved up their allowance to buy themselves some Power Rangers costumes. Not for Halloween though... just to have. They still want to be planets for Halloween. Still figuring out how that's going to work. Here they are:


Then, Grandma Karen sent them some impromptu gifts. Gwen got a new Fairy costume which suits her perfectly.



And Simon got a new Lego set from their Mission to Mars series. Here are the kids together with their new toys:



I had to leave for work right away after they opened their gifts, so I wasn't able to help Simon with the Legos. When I got home last night, though, it turned out that he didn't need any help at all. It took him a couple of hours, but he did the whole thing all by himself. First he sorted all the pieces into piles by color, then he followed the instructions step by step. Well done, young sir!

Thank you, Grandma Karen! The kids love their presents!!! :)

1st Grade!

Woo Hoo! Simon started first grade this week! Yesterday we all got up right at 7am, brushed our teeth, ate a quick breakfast and rushed out the door to get everyone where they had to go.

Well... not really. Instead, here's how our morning went on the first day of school yesterday:

Barb got up at 6am and left for work at 7am. Simon and Gwen got up around 8am and turned on the TV. I got up around 9am and got them some food. Around 9:30 Simon did one of his math lessons. At 10am we left to go to a park where we meet a bunch of homeschooling friends when the weather is nice. At 3pm we got home and Simon did a half of another math lesson. At 4:30pm Barb got home and I went off to my evening job. At 8pm I got home (earlier than usual) and found Simon working on a writing/drawing lesson with Barb. He had finished the other half of his math lesson, completed one more and then did the drawing lesson. Then we all hung out and got ready for the kids to go to bed. In other words, our first day of school was very relaxed. That's how we're planning them all to be.

Here's how Barb and I decided to organize 1st grade. First we selected a bunch of curriculum materials based on Rebecca Rupp's excellent book Home Learning Year by Year. This is a great book. It is organized by grade levels and for each grade it recommends a set of educational topics and resources for each topic.

Here's what we selected for Simon's 1st grade while trying to maintain our balancing act between structured schooling and unschooling:

Reading:
For this topic we've decided to stop actively or formally trying to teach him. The boy is reading just fine and doesn't really need our help. I read to him every night (the Narnia books, currently) and he reads his own books without our involvement. Other than reading to him, we figure he doesn't need our help with this one.

Writing and Drawing:
We combined these lessons into one topic because we found this great series of books called Draw. Write. Now. There are 8 books in the series and each one is broken up into lessons. Each lesson provides step by step instructions in how to draw a picture (animal, tree, barn, etc.) and also some accompanying text to copy down. We only bought the first book and now have to go back and get the rest of the series.

English:
This is a broad category including grammar, listening skills, narrative interpretation and recitation. For this topic we selected Jesse Wise's First Language Lessons. It is a two year program in one book intended for 1st and 2nd grade. If it goes well we'll pick up the next books in the series which go up to 4th grade currently.

Spelling:
On a whim, and based on a number of good reviews we bought Spelling Workout Level A. We haven't used it much yet so I don't know if we'll be happy with it or now. I did notice that this book starts very easy with the phonic sounds of each letter. A bit too basic for Simon. We may have to start the book in chapter 5 or something.

Math:
Singapore Math level 2. We did level 1 last year and Simon loved it. Now he's in 1st grade doing 2nd grade math and cruising right through it. This is only day two of 1st grade and he's already finished more than a week of math lessons. He finds it very intuitive. He doesn't get that from me. We tried Saxon math last year, but it was much more expensive and we all hated it.

History:
Susan Bauer's Story of the World series, part two: the medieval world. Last year we used the first volume on ancient times. To tell the truth, I like these more than Simon does. See below for how we're incorporating this into our daily lessons in a way that makes us both happy.

Science:
For science we mostly just let Simon's interests in astronomy and chemistry drive what we do, but we did pick up two books to help us. Sandbox Scientist and Backyard Scientist both offer a number of experiments to do around the house using household items.

Art:
For art, apart from the drawing lessons mentioned above, we bought a book called How to Teach Art to Children, which discusses color theory and making your own color wheel and things like that. Haven't used it yet, but it looks good so far.

Music:
We haven't selected anything yet for this topic, and I'm not sure yet how, if at all, we'll cover it. I did bring up two guitars and a full size keyboard up from the basement. Also, the kids really love the Disney TV show called Little Einsteins. Each episode discuses a famous work of art and a famous piece of classical music. They walk around some days humming tidbits from Schubert or Pacabel. I really want to find a book/CD about classical composers that gives a kid's history of them along with samples of their music. I haven't found anything I like yet though.

When we first put this list together it occurred to me that we were never, never going to cover every topic every day. We would hate it and the kids would hate it. It would by necessity become much more structured than we wanted to be with our homeschool.

So, we thought for a couple of days and came up with this solution. We discussed it with Simon and he agreed.

It goes like this: Every day we agree to do 3 lessons, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. At each of these times Simon gets to pick the topic we study from the above list. If he wants to spend a week doing nothing but math, that's ok. If he spends another week bouncing from topic to topic, that's ok too. It's up to him. If we feel like some topics are being left behind we try to push them to the forefront without mandating it.

The only exception to this plan is history. Last year we bought the main book, student exercise worksheets and the audio CD for Bauer's Story of the World: Ancient Times volume and all he wanted to do was listen to the CD. It came on 7 discs. Almost every night for the past year Simon has listed to one of the seven discs of the ancient history volume. Over all he probably listened to the whole book more than 40 times. This year we asked him if we should buy the audio discs for the next book in the series or if we should get the actual book for me to read to him. He picked the CD's.

I'm a bit disappointed by this because I wanted to be involved in the history lessons (my favorite topic right now), but we agreed to let him handle this how he likes. So, we got the new discs in last week and he's already started listening to them every night before he falls asleep. He calls them his "stories" as if he watches General Hospital every day. He doesn't usually talk to us about his "stories" so I'm not sure how much he's absorbing. However, the other night I noticed that, while listening to one disc he hit the pause button, ran off to the bathroom and ran back to bed to hit the play button again. Apparently he didn't want to miss anything. That's good enough for me. :)

So, that's our plan for 1st grade. We didn't want so much structure that we were just recreating school at home, but we also don't want to go all the way to unschooling. Also, I want to keep the "classical" theme alive with history and grammar lessons. In a year or two we'll add Latin, but it is too early for that yet. All in all there are a set of subjects we want to make sure our kids are learning, but we want to organize it in a very relaxed and fluid manner so that "school" becomes an integrated part of our daily rhythm. Also, because Barb's working days and I'm working evenings, this allows us both to be involved in our "lessons". So far so good.

To wrap this up, here's a picture of Simon with his first drawing from the Draw. Write. Now. book. He was so excited that he learned to draw a chicken that he spent two days doing little else. A damn fine chicken, too, if you ask me. :)

End of Summer?

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I have been waiting for Hawksbill to post his "Foot Foot Retreat '08" post, but since it hasn't happened yet, I will jump in here with an update on stuff.

Simon lost his first tooth--I cannot even begin to tell you how glad I was it came out on its own. My family has a history of baby teeth that will not budge (I still have one baby tooth molar, my mom has 2 and I know at least one brother has 1 baby tooth left!) My adult teeth pretty much all came in BEFORE the baby teeth fell out, so when Simon's bottom tooth seemed loose, I was so so glad it happened all by itself...(mostly because the boy has no tolerance for pain, and the thought of taking him to the dentist to pull it...well, we just won't go there.)

We went on a vacation with Hawksbill and the Foot Foot retreat--I won't spoil it for Hawksbill, but I am sure his version of the trip will be quite different from mine ;) That's ok, though, because he made up for it by taking us to Lakeport for the weekend a week later. It was nice out (I am loving this crazy cool August weather--who would have thought I'd be wearing a freaking jacket to work in August) and the water was nice...a bit rocky, but the fact that so many Petoskey stones were there for the picking, well..I was in rock heaven. Call me a geek, but I do love my Petoskey stones. We had found about 7-8 the week before at Foot Foot, but I am sure I brought home at least 30 from Lakeport.

And while we were at Lakeport, playing on their little playground, Hawksbill was pointing out a different style tent to me, when he said, "Hey, doesn't that look just like your brother, J?" Yes, J and his wife and kids were spending the weekend at the same campground. J called my sister, A, and her kids who came up later and we all hung out at the beach and toasted marshmallows, etc...fun for me--maybe not what Hawksbill wanted--running into my family on a trip, but it was a good weekend (IMO).

My other, sister, K, went to Chicago the same weekend and bought a doll for Gwen. I am only bringing this up because Gwen is still not potty trained. In fact, I think it is never going to happen now. Ever. The point of the doll was a gift if Gwen would just sit and pee on the potty ONCE!!! She won't go near the bathroom if you mention potty training, so I am trying my hardest to just not bring it up anymore. Gwen says she is going to do it when she is 4, and I think Hawksbill and I have come to the conclusion that using the potty has to be her idea now. The girl has an IRON WILL and even the mere mention of using the toilet sends her shrieking...so, the doll sits on a shelf and Gwen says she doesn't care. I am really really tired of changing diapers...especially on a kid who says, "I'm getting too big for this," every freaking time we change her diaper. She has won...I give up...maybe she'll just tell me she needs to go one day and it will happen, or maybe we'll all be in therapy when she is 12 and wearing Depends.

This is the last week before "school starts". Since I still work at a university, I still think about school starting...it still makes me nervous, yet, I have nothing to worry about here. Hawksbill is done with classes, there is no way in HELL I am taking any classes again, and Simon and Gwen will be doing school at home this fall. So, why the usual pre-fall anxiety has hit me again is beyond me...or maybe I am just crazy :) Or maybe it is the thought of trying to get into the freaking parking structure the first 2 weeks at the same time as 35,000 other people...

Hawksbill ordered Simon's school stuff for the fall, so we are waiting for it to arrive...we have things we'd like to do, but we'll wing it, too. Simon seems to be pretty good at letting us know what he likes to study, and what he doesn't so hopefully this will go well. I think last year and this summer did go well and am looking forward to what we will learn this year.

Until next time....

Dice Towers

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been working on a little craft project to make myself a set of dice towers. If you know me at all you know that I play a lot of board games with my friends. Many of these games involve rollings lots of dice that often fall off the table, especially if the players are tipsy. The main point of a dice tower is to randomize the dice and yet still have them contained in a confined space for ease of use.

So, for the past month or two I'd been looking around online for a dice tower to buy. It turns out that the nice wooden ones cost anywhere from $40.00 to $100.00 and it occurred to me that it is silly to buy something that you can make for yourself. Also, I really wanted two towers because it is annoying to have to pass the tower across the table as turn order passes. This way players on each side of the table can share one. So, I searched around and found this set of plans for how to make your own dice tower out of foam board.

Then, I made myself a set. They look like this:
They are very simple. They way they work is that you drop the dice in the top, where they then clatter around on three separate, slanted steps on the way down, then they come out into the attached receptacle. Many dice towers have a separate tower and base so that each one is a two piece unit. I liked these because each one is a single piece. That way, if you do pass one across the table you only have to grasp it gently by the top to pick it up.

Basically, all they are is foam board held together with Elmer's glue and toothpicks and then painted with a textured spray paint, with red felt in the base receptacle. They are surprisingly sturdy.

Next up I plan to make my own pattern for a slightly larger set of towers with more steps on the inside and with windows in the sides and crenelations along the top to make it look more like an actual tower. Once that is done I plan to make a prototype out of foam board and a final set out of wood.

It's Elemental, My Dear Alchemist!

What does this picture look like to you? It may appear at first glance to merely be some little colored circles, but it turns out that they are instead the building blocks of nature!

Simon has lately transferred his interest in the planets to an interest in the chemical elements. We've been learning what different things are made of and put up a poster of the periodic table for him.

The other day we were at a craft store to buy some materials for me to make some dice towers (another story) and we found some Shrinky Dink paper. It was a set of blank sheets that you could color anything you want on. I described for him what you could do with Shrinky Dinks and told him he could make whatever he wanted. So, he decided to make a set of atoms.

The blue circles in the picture are Hydrogen atoms, the red circles are oxygen atoms and the large gray circles are iron atoms. He looked up their relative sizes on the periodic table so that they would be roughly correct in proportion to one another. Then he spent all afternoon playing with them in different combinations. He put one oxygen and two hydrogens together to make water. Then he'd put the oxygen together with the iron to make rust (iron oxide). Then he put them all together and said: "Daddy, guess what this makes!" When I said "I don't know" he told me. It turns out that when you combine iron, hydrogen and oxygen you get "wet rust".

The funny thing is, none of this was our idea. It's not like we woke up one day and said: "Let's teach the boy chemistry." He decided to do this all on his own. All I did was color in the iron atoms and bake the Shrinky Dinks. I guess we need more Shrinky Dink material so he can make carbon and gold. I don't know why he wants to make gold, but I have no desire to squash his interest in alchemy. Maybe we'll buy him a bunch of real lead to experiment with and see what he can do. This little fellow's going to be a gold mine!

There's a definite trend with way Simon gets interested in and immerses himself in a given subject. Whether its stars or planets or cartoon characters or now the elements, he always does the same things. He draws pictures of them over and over again, which I cut out. Then he carries them around with us wherever we go and they become his imaginary friends. He personifies them, talks to them and has them talk to each other. He has this really cool combination of scientific curiosity combined with a deep emotional attachment. The other day he said: "Daddy, I wish the planets could really talk to me. Where can we go to talk to the planets?" When I told him that planets couldn't really talk to us he actually cried a bit and I had to console him. I think he decided to forget that conversation, though. Within a day he was right back playing with and talking to stars, planets, care bears and now the elements.

Next I want to order us a copy of the card game Elementeo. It's a two player game designed and marketed by a high school student. In it you have cards representing different elements and you combine them together to blow up your opponent. Very cool!

Finally, here's a picture of Simon relaxing with his favorite Curious George PS2 game with Gwen advising him on how to get through the tricky bits. It's good to relax with a good game after an afternoon of building wet rust.

Film Homeschool

Here's an article I just found on CNN. It's about a son who hated (and was failing) school and a dad who pulled him out and then immersed him for 3 years in a subject they both loved. Super cool!

Foot Foot '08: 9 Geeks, 9 Days, 68 Games!

Where we live in Michigan real men (non gaming geeks) are awarded a certain birthright: hunting. That is to say, real men are not only allowed to spend a week in the woods away from their spouses and children where they drink beer and shoot guns with their friends, but they are expected to do so. It's what they do and God help you if you stand between them and their hunting trips.

As you may have guessed, I am not a real man. I'm a gaming geek. So are my friends. We may drink beer, but we don't hunt. Instead, we play games. Lots and lots of games. The sad part of this is that we were somehow left out of the part where we get to leave home with our friends for days at a time to pursue our hobby without distraction from spouses, children or jobs.

A few years ago our group got together and decided that the madness must end! So, we designed the Foot Foot Gamers Annual Retreat (named, of course, after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). The first year we had the retreat was 2006. That year we rented a cottage on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and gamed from early one Friday morning until about 2pm the next Sunday. Last year we took things a bit further. We arrived at the same cottage on a Wednesday night after work and played through Sunday. (You can read about those retreats here and here.)

For our retreats we designed a scoring system, logged all of our games and awarded a grand prize to the "Best Overall Gamer". The prize is a plaque with 12 blank name plates on it. If you win the plaque you get to have your name engraved on it and you get to keep it for a year. Jake won our inaugural event in '06 and Paul won it last year in '07. There are enough name plates on the plaque to keep us doing this until 2017! After that, we buy a new plaque.

My lovely bride with the coveted prize.

Anyway, this year we decided to take things a bit further. This year we rented a different cottage for 9 days from 4pm on Saturday, August 2nd until noon on Sunday, August 10th. Not everyone could show up at the same time, though, so we broke the week up into segments. From Saturday to Wednesday morning would be a free for all in which any of us could use the cottage and invite our spouses and children. Sunday, specifically, would be "family fun day". Then, from 12pm on Wednesday until 12pm on Sunday would be gamers only time. The entire week would feature a lot of gaming, but the official scoring wouldn't begin until Thursday morning at 6am and would last until we left on Sunday.

The following is a narrative of how the week went, what games we played and the other fun things that happened.

Saturday, August 2nd
Barb and I, along with Simon and Gwen (who are 6 and 3 years old), arrived at the cottage at about 4:30pm on Saturday. We were the first ones there and Paul was the only other Foot Foot member we expected on that day. While we waited for him we took some pictures of the cottage, which was much nicer than the place we rented the previous two years. Here are some of our pictures:

Here is the front/side of the cottage we rented.

Here is the back yard as seen from the patio door. Because there would be so many guys in the house for the week I opted to bring our tent along. That's chateau Hawksbill there on the left. This picture must have been taken later because Lake Huron isn't visible in the background. Must have been a bit foggy at the time.

This is the view from the edge of the bluff overlooking the lake. We spent a lot of time between games standing out there looking at the water and telling gaming war stories.

At 5pm, before Paul arrived we decided to take the kids down to the water to check out our beach access. I don't have pictures of it, but our path down to the water was by way of a very long staircase. About half way down we reached the first landing and I noticed a few bees flying nearby. I foolishly said "stand still kids... don't scare the bees." That's when the 2 or 3 bees disappeared under the stairway and came back moments later with 15-20 bees. Then they attacked! Seriously! The swarmed all over us and we all ran back up the stairs yelling. Simon and I both got stung three times. Gwen got stung twice. Barb escaped being stung at all. Nature sucks!

A little while later, at 6pm, Paul showed up and we helped him unpack. Then he and I went out and bought 2 big cans of some bee-killing chemical that sprayed 2o feet away. We went back down the stairs to investigate. We found that we could get fairly close to the bees without causing them to swarm and that we could figure out where the hive was based on their activity. It turns out it was right under the staircase. So, we planned to crawl under the staircase with the cans of Raid and hose them down from about 8 feet way. That's when we noticed something else. The entire hillside was covered (completely!) with poison ivy. Ugh!

So, our plan was this: To return to the cottage and cover ourselves completely in clothing from head to toe and then to return to the staircase where one or both of us would crawl through the poison ivy, under the staircase and kill the bees, all the while hoping that the bees didn't launch a full on counter attack.

At 9pm this is what we did. I put on long pants, tucked my pant legs into my socks, put on a hooded sweatshirt which I pulled over my face trekked back to the staircase, ready for battle. Then we decided who would crawl through the poison ivy to kill the bees. For some reason I volunteered. I don't know why I did this. I knew I was very allergic to poison ivy (A few years ago I got a horrible rash after chasing a black bear into the woods, but that's another story). Anyway, I hopped over the railing, crawled through the poison ivy on my knees and elbows and finally located the hive. Then I emptied two large cans of Raid on it. The bees didn't know what hit them. They not only didn't counter attack, they merely fell and died instantly. It turns out that, although bees may have a huge dodge bonus to melee weapons, they have a profound weakness to chemical attacks. Score one for the good guys.

After this Paul and I want back inside where I stripped off my presumably diseased clothing and took a very hot shower. Then we all took a walk down to water with the kids. I was very interested in seeing the beach because our gaming retreats are often filled with drunken midnight swimming. Here are some pictures.

Gwen and Simon on the beach.

Gwen, me and Simon admiring the big rocks.

After this it was time to prepare for the arrival of more gamers the next day. We went back up to the cottage and organized our games.

My stack of games. (Note the kids games up front... ready for family game day!)

Paul's stack of games. Lots of good stuff!

In addition to games, Paul took steps to make sure that nobody would be thirsty this week.

At 10pm Paul and I sat down to our first game of the week: Saint Petersburg. He and I had been playing this one fairly often on Yucata.

It was nice to play it again in person. It was my turn to win this time. After this we all turned in for the night.

Sunday, August 3rd:
For most of this day Paul and I were the only gamers on site. After a nice breakfast of egg sandwiches and bacon we settled down for a 2 player game of Aton before heading out to explore the beach some more. After that Simon, Paul and I chilled out to a game of Blokus, which is one of Simon's favorites. Then Paul and I played some Babel and 3 games of Blue Moon. I won Aton, Blokus and Babel, Paul won 2 out of the 3 games of Blue Moon.

Around 3pm that afternoon our pal Mark and his family arrived and after getting them all settled we all went back down to the beach for some swimming. At about 6pm Mark made us all some burgers. Then around 6:30pm Mark, Paul and I settled down for a game of Nefertiti, which I totally didn't grok. Mark took 1st, Paul 2nd and I came in last. Then, to wrap up this first day, Paul, Mark, Angela (Mark's wife) and I played a game of Settlers at around 9pm which Paul won.

Monday, August 4th:
This was a very rainy day and we were stuck inside most of the time. This morning Larry arrived and we opened up the gaming day with round of Gulo Gulo. Playing were me, Paul, Larry, Mark, my son Simon and Mark's kids Kip and Athea. Simon beat us all. He's pretty good at the Gulo Gulo! Then me, Simon, Athea and Mark&Kip (teaming up) played some Blokus and the Mark&Kip team cleaned all our clocks. Around 11am Paul and Larry played We the People (Paul won) while Mark and I played some Babel (I won). At 2pm Larry, Mark, Paul and I played some Saga, which Larry won.

At 3pm I showed Angela how to play Castle Keep in case she and Mark wanted to pick up a copy for their kids and at 3:30 me and Mark conducted a teaching session of Chateau Roquefort with Athea, Kip, Simon and Gwen.

At about 4:30 that afternoon Mark's family left and me, Mark, Paul and Larry played a game of California. I came in 1st. I'm glad to get some milage out of some of those Tanga deals!

At 6:30 Paul made us a great dinner of short ribs. Here's a shot of Paul, Larry and Mark around the grill.

At about 8:30 Paul, Mark, Larry and I sat down for our first heavy game of the week: Wealth of Nations. This is probably one of my favorite new games of the year. It is still on my wishlist. I really do need to get myself a copy.

Wealth of Nations (that's me in the middle, flanked by my minions Gwen and Simon)

About midway through the game, around midnight sometime, Paul and I did some late night swimming in Lake Huron. Midnight swimming is one of my favorite parts of the retreat. We halted the game for the night, to be complted the next day.

Tuesday, August 5th:
This morning Barb, Simon, Gwen and I went out for breakfast while Paul, Larry and Mark played some St. Petersburg. (Paul one).

After that we finished up Wealth of Nations. Mark kicked arse with a total of 103 points. I was close behind at 102. Around 1:30 that afternoon we played some Tichu, which is one of my all time favorite games. Mark and Paul beat Larry and I handily. Later we played some Magic: The Gathering (sealed deck). My notes don't say who won, but I know I choked badly. I think Paul won, if memory serves, but I could be wrong.

Later that evening, around 8:30 I played some O Zoo Le Mio with Barb, Larry and Simon. As usual, Simon won. As with Gulo Gulo, he's pretty good at this one. After that Paul, Larry, Simon and I played a round of Hare and Tortoise, which Paul won. (Hm... this is not the best picture of Gwen, I think. :)


Late this night, around 11:30 we played another of my favorite new games of the year: Primordial Soup. Larry, Mark and I played with Larry coming in 1st. Good stuff. Who doesn't love a game about poop?

Wednesday, August 6th:
The next morning Paul introduced me to the game Tamsk, which I'd never heard of before. I managed to win dispite that, though. Then I went off to breakfast with my family again while Larry, Paul and Mark played some Aquaretto with Larry taking first place. I like Zooloretto, but I still haven't played this spin off.

Then from 1pm to 5pm we played another heavy. Paul brought out Perikles which he and I and Mark and Larry played. I don't think any of us had played Perikles before and I don't think any of us liked it very much. Someone quite accurately described the game as being very much like spending several hours doing someone's taxes. Not very interesting. I won anyway, but it would have been a more satisfying win if I'd actually enjoyed the game more.

A little before 7pm that evening our buddy Steve arrived and we all sat down to a game of Glory to Rome. Mark took 1st with me coming in a fairly distand 2nd.

Then, around 9pm Eric showed up and we jumped into a 5 player game of Relationship Tightrope (with me, Steve, Eric, Paul and Larry... Mark didn't join us for some reason.) I really like this game. It has quite a silly theme, but it is fast, entertaining and pretty challenging. Larry took 1st place with only 10 points! Go Larry!

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a 6 player game of Hoity Toity, another one of my favoirites. I really like the simultaneous reveal mechanic. Somewhere in the middle of the game Eric spilled his glass of Red Bull and coconut rum all over the table, which made quite a mess, but the rest of the game smelled quite nice. In the end Mark won and Steve came in 2nd.

Thursday, August 7th:
This morning marks the beginning of our official scoring to win the fancy plaque! From here until noon on Sunday all the games count for the big prize!

We started off splitting into two groups. Paul and Steve played some We the People (Paul won by killing Washington). Me, Mark and Larry got started with a game of Amazonas. Mark won this one. Amazonas is a fairly nice little game, but the tie breaking mechanism is terribly flawed. If I ever play again I'll push for a tie breaking system similary to O Zoo Le Mio.

Eric spent the morning sleeping it off.

Since Paul and Steve were still paying We the People, Larry, Mark and I played a game of Stone Age, which I won.

Steve and Paul playing We the People.

Mark and Larry prepping our game of Stone Age.

At 11:30am we all gathered together again for a game of Tribune. Well, all of us except Eric who was still asleep. Larry won very handily with a strategy of acquiring laurels, favors of the gods and cold hard cash. At 2:30 we split into two groups again. Steve, Larry and Mark played Antike (Mark won) while Paul, Eric and I played some Caylus (I won). After that, around 5:30pm or so Steve made us all dinner by serving up his amazing pulled pork sandwiches. Good stuff!

Then, at 6:30 Paul, Larry and I played Hollywood Blockbuster (Larry won) and Erik, Mark and Steve played Metropolis (Mark won).At 8pm Jake and Ben arrived, bringing our total now up to 8 players. We split into two 4's with Ben, Eric, Paul and Mark playing Notre Dame (Paul won) while Steve, Jake, Larry and I played some more Primordial Soup (I won). What can I say? I just can't get enough poop related gaming!


At 11pm everyone but George jumped into a game of Pow Wow, which was madcap and crazy. I took 1st while Paul came in 2nd. Then we split into 2 groups again and Larry, Eric, Steve and Jake played Situation 4 (Eric and Jake won) while Paul and I teamed up against Mark and Ben in another game of Tichu (Paul and I won). After Situation 4, Eric, Jake, Larry and Steve played their own game of Tichu with Larry and Jake winning.

That brought us all to about 3:00am in the morning and we all passed out exhausted from a fantastic day of gaming.

Friday, August 8th:
Early this morning at around 3:30am our friend George finally arrived from New York and our group hit its peak of 9 gamers. When we woke up Mark made us a fine breakfast and Paul served us up some delicious mimosa.

At around 7:30am Jake, Paul, Steve and Ben played a game of Nefertiti. Later, at 9:30am Larry, Paul, Ben and Steve played a game of Friedrich which Ben took 1st in as France. At the same time I sat down to another game of Wealth of Nations with George, mark and Jake. Mark cleaned up with 80 points and I took 2nd with 71. Mark played brilliantly. He managed to get an operational bank on turn 3 and spent the game totally focusing on money. Good stuff!

Mark and Jake planning their Wealth of Nations conquests.

At around 1:30 on Friday Larry, Eric, Steve, Ben and Paul sat down to some Puerto Rico, which Steve won and Paul came in 2nd. At 3pm, Me, George, Mark and Jake finished Wealth of Nations and tried out Caribbean, which I totally sucked at and George dominated.

Later at a bit after 4pm two new games started. Paul, Steve, George, Jake and Larry played El Grande which Paul won and Jake came in 2nd. Also, Mark, Ben, Eric and I started up a game of Stone Age. Mark took 1st while I came in 2nd.

A beautiful sunset overlooking Lake Huron on Friday night with my own personal barracks in the foreground.

At 8pm Steve, Paul, Jake, George and Eric played a game of Quo Vadis?. Steve won this one and George took 2nd place. At the same time, Ben, Mark and I played Midgard. Once again Mark took 1st place and I came in 2nd. By this time I was getting crazy tired after being up so late the night before. My ability to think coherently was seriously diminished and I went off to bed at 11:30.

After I went to bed Larry, Jake, Paul and Steve played some more Relationships Tightrope. Larry and Jake took 1st and 2nd respectively.

Then around 10:30pm a big game of Antike formed with Eric, Steve, George, Jake, Ben and Paul. Sometime around 12:30 I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I came back inside to watch the action unfold. Finally, around 1am Steve completed his Antike domination and Paul followed him with 2nd place.

Around 2am we all packed it in and went to bed.

Saturday, August 9th:
Wow, our last full day of gaming before returning to the real world.

This got off to a bit of a slow start this morning. The gaming didn't really begin until 10:30. George, Paul, Larry, Steve and Eric played a game of In the Year of the Dragon, which Paul and George took 1st and 2nd in. At that point I hadn't played this game yet, but in the last year I've had the chance to play it many times and have even picked up my own copy. I like it quite a bit.

At the same time Jake, Ben, Mark and I played a game of Vikings. Once again Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd. Vikings isn't the best game in the world, but I find it very pleasant. I like the way it mixes a number of familiar game mechanics in a pretty interesting way.

Later on, George and Paul took 1st and 2nd in a game of Modern Art. Good auction fun.

At 1:30 on Saturday another game of Settlers broke out between Jake, Ben Mark and myself. I took 1st and Jake came in 2nd.

Then, at 3:30pm we played yet another game of Primordial Soup. I just couldn't get enough of that poop eatin' fun! Since the retreat I've purchased my own copy of this game along with the 5-6 player expansion set. I really like it quite a bit. I took 1st place while Ben came in 2nd.

While we were playing Primordial Soup, George, Paul, Steve, Jake and Larry played a game of Wallenstein. I was glad to miss this one. I never really liked Wallenstein. There are some heavy games my head flows naturally into. Wallenstein isn't one of them. It just makes my skull hurt. Ugh!

Primordial Soup and Wallenstein both took quite a long time to play. The next set of games didn't start until 8:30 Saturday evening. Eric, mark, Jake and Paul sat down for a match of Age of Steam while George, Ben, Larry and I played a nice game of Ra. Paul and Mark took 1st and 2nd in Age of Steam while George and Larry tied for 1st place in Ra.

Age of Steam took a lot longer to play than Ra, so while those guys were still playing that one George, ben, Larry and I played a quick round of For Sale (I won) and then another game of Pizarro & Co. (George and Ben came in 1st and 2nd). I have to say, Pizarro & Co. is one of my favorite auction games. I'm always happy when this one hits the table.

Then, around 1:30 in the morning Mark and I teamed up against Jake and Ben in a game of Tichu. Mark and I got our hats handed to us. It's tough sitting down against Jake in a game of Tichu. He's just plain good at it.

After that, it was once again time for bed.

Sunday, August 10th:
Ah... our last day. We all got up around 7:30am and started cleaning up. For some reason I stopped taking notes at this point so I'm not exactly sure what happened this day. I was getting a ride home from Jake and he had to leave a bit early, so I don't think I got in any gaming on this day.

I'm pretty sure that several of the guys stayed until noon and played the customary final game of Ticket to Ride, but I don't know who won or anything.

What I do remember is that on the ride home my neck started itching like crazy. By the time I got home I had a crazy, itchy, scratcy rash on my hands, neck and cheeks. It turns out that I had contracted poison ivy the Sunday before when I'd crawled around in the underbrush to kill the bee hive. I didn't know it had such a long incubation period, but it waited to hit me until the ride home a full week later. I spent the next 3 days trying not to scratch my skin off and taking lots of Benadryl. Ugh!

The next day Paul tallied the final game results and it turns out that he took the overall grand prize for the 2nd year in a row. I came in 2nd place while Mark took 3rd.

Well done Paul! Next time we will crush you!!! :)

My thanks to the whole group for all the fun and good times. I hope we can keep this up for many years to come!

What it takes to teach

Lately I've been reading John Holt's book Teach Your Own. So far I would set it, along with Gatto's Dumbing us Down aside as the two seminal books critical of public education. It it also about unschooling, which we are only partially implementing here at home, but it is a very enlightening read. I especially enjoyed an early section called "common objections to homeschooling" which you can find reprinted here.

One thing that also captured my attention the other day was Holt's description of what is required in order to teach something to anyone. One of the realizations we've come to over the past few years is that teaching is not nearly as difficult as we have been led to believe. In America, if you want to teach children in a school you are required to spend several years in a special school just learning "how" to teach. This strikes me as being very silly. From what I've learned through my own research and through talking with people who've gone through this specialized education (like my wife), it appears that teacher's schools teach primarily 3 things:

1. A lot of overly complicated theories of very simple ideas
2. How to manage large groups of children and keep them under control
3. How to negotiate the huge amount of administrative red tape required of teachers in a public school

In Holt's Teach Your Own he describes 7 principles of teaching that definitely ring true for me. These are (from page 41):

1. To help people learn something you must first understand what they already know;
2. Showing people how to do something is better than telling them, and letting them do it themselves is best of all;
3. You mustn't tell or show too much at once, since people digest new ideas slowly and must feel secure with new skills or knowledge before they are ready for more;
4. You must give people as much time as they want and need to absorb what you have shown or told them;
5. Instead of testing their understanding with questions you must let them show you how much or little they understand by the questions they ask you;
6. You must not get impatient or angry when people don't understand;
7. Scaring people only blocks learning

And, as Holt puts it, "These are clearly not things that one has to spend three years talking about"

It strikes me that the career of "teacher" has been built into a kind of priesthood where only the specially trained can hope to accomplish anything and everyone else should fear to tread there. In my opinion teachers learn how to be teachers through the experience of teaching and not by sitting in a classroom learning pedagogical theories.

If I were hiring teachers for a private school I would require that applicants impress me with a sufficient knowledge of the subject matter they have specialized in as well as an understanding of principles similar to those 7 mentioned above. I would be less impressed by people who described spending years how to teach, but who hadn't spent the same or more time mastering the subject they wanted to teach.

I don't at all mean this as a dig against teachers. But, I don't see that a special study of education in and of itself is especially necessary to do their job. Instead I'd rather see professional requirements be limited to a proven understanding of the topic to be taught (math, chemistry, etc.) through an undergraduate degree (if not actual work experience) and an apprenticeship program. Maybe a class or two in "teaching theory", but surely not a multi-year program learning only how to teach something to other people.

To be fair, I consider the same to be true of my own profession of Social Work. Especially the great majority of work that I did during my last internship at the hospital. I can't see how that work would really require a 2 year advanced degree.