(home)school in the news

Around here we typically only discuss the pro-homeschooling arguments, like this recent Washington Post article. Well, this week on the Diane Rehm show there was a pretty balanced discussion between pro-homeschooling reps from the HSLDA and some Stanford professor arguing for greater oversight of homeschoolers. Both sides raise some good ideas and it's a pretty good all around discussion. (Thanks to my attorney for sending the link.)

And, then, for another side of the story altogether, here's a link to a video highlighting some really interesting educational advances the Tampa, Florida school district is experimenting with. If this had been going on when I was in high school, I would have ran away from home just to go to school in Tampa! The video tries to explain the situation like it's controversial or something, but, they're just putting a negative spin on it.

Ok, yes I'm being completely sarcastic there. That link is to a news video describing three separate arrests in two weeks in Tampa of women teachers who were having sex with their 14-15 year old male students. That's THREE completely separate incidents in two weeks in one city. It apparently brings the total in Tampa up to 10 since 1995. I'm sure this is nothing new. It's very likely that women teachers have been seducing students since the 1870's and we're just now starting to pay attention to it. Just as male teachers have been doing the same thing (but in much higher numbers that hardly ever get media attention).

Other than the prevalence rate the only real difference seems to be that men get sent to prison and women get probation and told not to do it again. But, it makes sense. Judges don't like sending pretty women to jail. There are good reasons for this. I guarantee that if you're a judge and you send a pretty woman off to jail... she definitely won't sleep with you. Nothing turns a women off like incarceration! Probation on the other hand... totally different story.

And, finally (and more seriously), here's an article from an Arizona paper about some parents of autistic kids who are having quite a bit of difficulty with their local school district. The parents have organized and are trying to collectively encourage the school district to treat their special-needs children humanely and to, you know, educate them. Here's a good paragraph from the article:

District officials argue that the complaint process in some cases didn't end the way that parents would like, dismissing concerns about specific administrators who in one case denied a mother's request that staff members stop using physical force on her 5-year-old son.

The comments in the article are pretty interesting as well. Lots of fed up and frustrated parents and a few pro-establishment folks who feel that parents who complain too much when school staff use "physical force" on their autistic 5 year old kids are just a bunch of "whiners." It's like: Dude... you're kid's autistic. What'd you expect?

Well, that last bit was supposed to be more sarcasm, but there may be a point there. If you have a child with special learning needs and you send them to an average American public school... what do you expect? If you aren't rich enough to move to an affluent neighborhood or to put them in a private school you're just kind of screwed. Or, to be more precise, the students are screwed and the parents just have to put up with it.

So, I guess the overarching lesson is this: If your child is attending public school but is autistic or has other special needs... or if they go to school in Tampa... they're screwed.

Is it spring yet?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????



Sniff

Two posts in one day

You can tell I am home sick :)

I forgot I wanted to post about this, but it is mostly so a year from now I can re-read THIS post and say, "Oh, what was I so worried about!" Yes, Gwen is now 3 years and almost 2 months old and no closer to potty trained than the day she was born. I am getting grief over this because, "She is a girl and they always train so easily!! She'll be out of diapers before her 3rd birthday!" Yes, well, that didn't happen.

I know Simon was almost 4 (yes, 4) before he was potty trained...and I know I am not the only mother on the planet with a 3-year old daughter who isn't potty trained, but I just dread doing this whole thing again. We went out and bought "big girl underwear" and a new potty seat a few weeks ago, which resulted in Gwen announcing she was a big girl and didn't wear diapers anymore. That lasted about 3 hours--the amount of time she held it before she peed her pants, freaked out and said she wanted a diaper again.

She will sit on the toilet about once a week now and do nothing. She can hold it ALL NIGHT long and sometimes even an additional 2-3 hours after she wakes up. She tells me when she needs a new diaper, and you always know when she has to do #2 because she hides somewhere and shouts, "Don't look at me!"

So, why is she not potty trained? Is it because I am too tired and lazy? Probably. I am too tired right now, that is for sure. I was hoping she'd be trained by this summer so we could go camping without having to drag 500 diapers with us, but I doubt we'll be so lucky.

So, the point of this post is just to vent about the lack of potty training that is going on here...the fact that diapers went up about $5 a box and she has to wear a size 6 diaper...which means you get about 12 in a box for $40 now...we even bought the cheapo brand this time which reminded me why we stopped buying the no-name brand--they leak like crazy and do not come in a size 6.

Anyway...my hope is that 1 year from now, I will read this, and will not have a single diaper in my house. The diaper genie and changing table will be things of the past, and I will never have to change another diaper again.

Wednesday, March something or other

I am home sick today. Well, I work from home Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but I have some horrible throat/nose/cold/ache thing going on...it was bad enough yesterday for me to go into the doctor, only to be told that I didn't look that bad and take over the counter stuff. Does it make anyone else mad when you wake up in so much pain you cannot even talk, your abs and back hurt from coughing so much, and the dr says, "Oh, you look fine." Thanks...this is why I almost never go to the dr anymore...unless I am in extreme pain (like yesterday). Lot of good that did...I thought for sure I had strep throat, but I won't know that until tomorrow. Probably not--probably just a cold...from hell.

Simon is forcing me to watch every episode of Star Wars...yesterday we watched Episodes I, III, and V, (the odds) and so far today we have watched Episode II. I imagine we'll watch the IV and VI when we finish this one....I like the original movies from the 70's but do I even have to comment on the new movies?

Simon is plugging away with his schooling. I had to explain away homeschooling to the new dr and the rest of the office staff yesterday which I wasn't in the mood for. The question I have been getting a lot lately, and yesterday was no exception, was what "state standards and tests" did I have to put my kids through in order to homeschool. As usual, I got the usual looks of horror when I said I didn't have to do anything in the State of Michigan while homeschooling... I just had this debate with some coworkers last week who don't even KNOW that I am homeschooling and was surprised by the ones who said, "Why should the state decide what your kids need to know." More importantly, why should your kids have to study and memorize a bunch of stuff they are going to forget the minute after they take a test because it is boring and they aren't interested in it.

The conversation on homeschooling continued yesterday when a physician's assistant asked Simon, "Don't you want to go to school so you can have lots of friends?" Yes, I thought. I had SO many friends in school. Note sarcasm here. Not that I would expect my kids to be social outcasts like I was, but it tends to run in my family. I was then asked if I was doing the homeschooling (as opposed to Hawksbill) as it seems like that is what people think--it is the mom's responsibility or something...but no, I said we were both teaching him. I don't know why this question bugs me so much. As if only one person should be doing this, the mom only, the certified teacher only, I don't know...it just kind of irks me. I should have been more polite or more excited while describing homeschooling, but I was tired, sick and feeling a bit defensive yesterday and wasn't in the mood for the list of usual homeschooling questions so I made some excuse about not feeling well (ha!) and left.

Simon has been learning a lot of Spanish words lately. He was mad that the Spanish word for "no," is "no," because it isn't different. We were reading some book the other day and I said to Simon, "I wonder what the Spanish word for 'snake' is?" and he replied, "Uh, mommy...it's 'culebra'." I had to look it up because I didn't believe him and he was right!! I had 2 years of high school Spanish, and three semesters of college Spanish and I might remember how to count to five yet my kids know more Spanish than I do after watching Dora or reading books they find laying around.

Hawksbill is at school today. His afternoon class was canceled, but he is staying later to do homework. I have a lot of work I should be doing, but I officially called in sick again this morning. I am so tired I can't think straight, but hopefully this will pass by tomorrow.

This weekend is Easter, but Hawksbill will most likely go to Ann Arbor to study so I imagine I will take the kids to my parents' house on Sunday. I used to love Easter, but I am really not in the mood for it this year. Maybe because it is so early--March 23rd?? It just doesn't feel like a Spring holiday should be taking place so early in March. The Easter bunny still comes to our house, but I don't know if he wants to hide eggs this year...ah, we'll see. Maybe I am just grumpy since I am sick.

My found money project is going well this year. I know I started the project later last year, but I have already found more money than all of last year in these past 3 months. I have even had to pass up some potential found money...I am hit or miss and the drive through...I saw about 5 pennies on the ground yesterday, but decided to pass since I was sick and there were about 5 cars behind me in line...but if there had been some silver coins, I would have gone for it :) Yes, I admit, I will open my door at the drive through and pick up coins under the drive through window. I never would have done something like that before, but I found almost $2.00 this year in one stop by a fast food restaurant. Yes, I am a nerd or geek or freak, but hey, if you don't want your quarters, I will gladly take them.

Skittles?

Here is a CNN report about an 8th grader in Connecticut who was caught with "Skittles" in school. That's the candy. It's not a euphamism for Oxycontin or heroin. Candy.

Michael Sheridan, an eighth-grade honors student who was suspended for a day, barred from attending an honors dinner and stripped of his title as class vice president after he was caught with a bag of Skittles candy in school ...

After getting bad publicity the school apparently decided to take things down a notch and they reinstated the boy to his position on student council.

Sigh... next thing you know schools will be calling the police and arresting 6 year olds for throwing temper tantrums. Oh, wait... they already do that.

If children would just learn to act like mature adults we wouldn't have these problems!

Snow Day!

Today, I experienced something that is rare for my work--A SNOW DAY SNOW DAY SNOW DAY!! Woo hoo!! Ok, so we did get about 8-10 inches of snow last night, but my work almost never closes. It would have been a more pleasant surprise had today been a day I work at work rather than work from home (and it would have been the ultimate of nice surprises if people from work weren't emailing me with stuff to do anyway) but at least I don't feel as guilty about putting off work until evening when I know no one is in the office.


I have to say, the above two photos of the trees and the snowman are actually from last week when we had a really good snowstorm of packing snow...last night's storm is summed up in the photo below--this was the lowest point on our driveway after Hawksbill took the snowblower to it this morning.


And, I am sure Hawksbill would agree, it would have been the best day ever if HIS school would have closed for today, but god forbid someone paying their tuition miss a single day of class -- no, we don't want to worry about public safety, the nasty drive and roads, but gosh darn it, if I am paying tuition, I better get every last dollar out of my professors even if it means car accidents and slipping and falling all over campus!

Although the snow is pretty, I can say I am officially OVER winter. We have had snow pretty much every week, seems like every other day, not to mention today is MARCH 5th!! And I am looking forward to spring. I heard that we are supposed to get a couple more inches of snow tonight, and more this weekend. I have to send out a big thank you to my sister who gave us her practically brand new snow blower since she has a snow service now. I didn't think we'd even use it this winter, but Hawksbill has put it to good use twice already.

And for my parents who spent 3 hours waiting on the runway in a plane waiting to fly to Florida last night, well, at least they are in Florida for a week instead of here with piles of wet, melting snow all over the place. I hope Spring gets here soon. I'd like to see some tulips, thanks!

Gaming Day

This past Saturday was a big all day board gaming day at our house that lasted from before noon until almost 2am. We had a great turnout and almost all of Team Foot Foot showed up. In all there were 8 of us, although not everyone could stay for the whole time. It's hard to get 10 guys with family's & jobs together on a regular basis, especially when some of them live in Grand Rapids, Washington D.C. or even New York. I hate waiting until the August retreat to see everyone though, so I've been trying to schedule these all day sessions every other month or so. I've been doing very little gaming with the guys while I've been in school anyway. I've been missing it.

My attorney showed up around 10am from D.C. and we played a 2-player game of Aquadukt, which I recently ordered off Tanga for about $8.00. Simon and I had played this one the day before and although it isn't a bad game, I'm glad I didn't pay more for it. After that my attorney and Simon and I played a 3-player game of Gulo Gulo. Simon is always glad to play one of "his" games with "the guys".

By that time it was noon and Paul, Steve and Larry showed up so we played a 5-player game of Fearsome Floors, which I'd never heard of before, although it was designed by the same guy who created Power Grid, which is one of my favorites. Fearsome Floors is a game that takes place on a large off-sized grid with a monster who makes predictable yet somewhat complicated moves. The players each control three characters who are trying to make it from one end of the map to the other without being nabbed by the monster. It's quite a fun game and I'm thinking of picking up a copy for myself because I think the kids would like it some day.

After this we were waiting for Jake and Mark to arrive so the 5 of us played a filler game of For Sale, which is one of the best 10-minute fillers around. The others still hadn't shown up by the end of that one so the 5 of us moved on to a fairly short game of Citadels before they got there. By the end of that time I think both Jake and Mark had arrived, which meant we now had 7 and had to split into two groups. Me, my attorney and Mark played Colosseum, while Steve, Paul, Jake and Larry played Cuba (I think. I've never played Cuba myself although the others did rave about it.) I do like Colosseum, but it doesn't work well as a 3-player game. It really needs at least 4 so that there's enough competition over resources. But, it is a fun game nonetheless.

After that my attorney, Mark, Larry and I played a 4 player game of Thebes, which is fun but suffers from too much randomness. After that I sat down with Mark, Steve and Eric to play a 4 player game of Power Grid with the new power plant expansion set. Initially I liked the new power plant expansions, but I'm not so sure now. They seem much more powerful than the original set. At the end of the game all four of us were powering 16-19 cities, which would have been unheard of in the original set. The original set is much tighter. Maybe I'll have to try it again though.

Finally, as we usually do lately, we finished the evening with a game of Zopp. There were 6 of us left shortly after midnight so we divided into two teams of 3 and battled it out. When I say "battle" what I really mean is that we occasionally shot the puck around the board, but mostly we discussed strategy and argued about how much of the puck was over the foul line. I was just glad that I scored a goal (maybe two, I don't recall). It is a much harder game than it looks and I should really practice more. Our team (me, Paul, Eric) finally won against Mark, Steve and my attorney when Paul made a stunning (and accidental) goal from one end of the board to the other. (At least it looked accidental to me... Paul may claim he did it on purpose.) Good times... good times...

All in all it was a great gaming day. I think I won a few games like Aquadukt, For Sale, Zopp, but Aquadukt was only a 2 player before the group arrived and Zopp was a team effort. That leaves me with For Sale as my only source of pride for the day... the 10 minute game.

Special congratulations to Mark, though! He was truly on fire. I think he won almost every game he touched. I seriously hope he gets that out of his system before the retreat in August! And, my thanks to everyone for coming over and having fun. I don't get to do this often enough with my current school schedule.

Next up, we're discussing a full day in May to play a single game of Advanced Civilization. Civ is one of my favorites, but it is an endurance game and can take over 9 hours to play. It was a brilliant game back in the early 90's, but it suffers now just because better (and shorter) games have been produced in the last 15 years. Still, I like to try to play it every few years. Back before we had kids Barb joined me for several consecutive years traveling down to the Origins game convention to play Civ with me and a bunch of strangers. It has been about 3 or 4 years since we've played it though, and I'm itching to try it again.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

It is Thursday, the 28th, (almost the 29th) and my vacation is almost over. Hawksbill has Spring Break this week, so I decided I should use some of my vacation time and take the week off with him. We have and had no plans this week. Just to not work, not think, be couch potatoes, that was it. My kind of vacation :)

I have to put in a little note for my Aunt Mary. She is having a rough week again. Last Saturday, my Aunt Lottie (her sister) was laid to rest. After she came home from the funeral, she received a call--her sister-in-law, (who was her late husband's (Uncle Mike's) twin sister) died on Saturday. Although I did not know this woman, I did go to her viewing Tuesday night. My poor Aunt Mary--in only 4 months, she has lost her husband, her sister and her sister-in-law. So, here is wishing my Aunt Mary some good luck for this year. She could use it.

An interesting fact (to me) about my Uncle Mike and his twin sister--apparently they were born on different days--he was born just before midnight on October 23rd, and she was born just after midnight on the 24th. I wonder how often twins are born on different days (or better yet, different years straddling December 31st and January 1st?)

Gwen is getting over the flu--or at least a really bad cold. She has been extremely needy, clingy, whiny, shrieky all week long. I can't move without carrying her like a baby with me. I feel like I should just get a sling or a backpack and keep her attached to me since I do not seem to have much choice this week. Do they make slings for 36-lb 3 year olds? Heh...

Speaking of weight, Simon has been watching his weight on the scale lately and I didn't know why until he ran to us all excited this week that he now weighs 40 lbs! ha ha...my 6 year old is JUST NOW hitting the 40 lb mark. He is excited because we told him he had to be 4 years, 40 inches tall, and 40 lbs before we would let him move to a booster instead of his car seat...he hit the other two goals two years ago, but my skinny, picky eater, he now just weighs in at 40 lbs (um, fully clothed that is)...which brings me to another topic...

Well child visits: Ok--is it just me, or are well child visits just a way for doctors to make you paranoid about your healthy kid? First off, in the last couple of years, I have started waiting until late March, early April to drag my kids in for this type of visit. Reason? January and February babies = flu season at the doctor's office. So, why would I want to drag my healthy kid into the doctor's office where everyone is hacking and coughing up the flu, to tell me Simon is small, and Gwen is big, so maybe we should stress us out about why Simon is so small (but perfectly healthy) and then let them catch the flu from all the sick people? I don't understand it. So, I am waiting. I guess I could have brought Gwen in for her cold/flu, but years ago I gave up going to the doctor when I had a cold/flu (unless it lasted longer than a full week) because it really grated on me that I would be home taking Tylenol and Robitussin (sp?) and go in to the doctor to be told to take Tylenol and Robitussin and that will be a $30 copay. So, sorry...Doctors I respect you, but I don't want to bring my kids in during flu season for the well child visit so don't yell at me for being 2-3 months late with it, and yes I know Simon is skinny! :)

Simon has found a new addiction this week: Scooby Doo. Ah, good old Scooby--it has been years since I watched that show, and Hawksbill decided split the cost with Simon and buy the first 25 episodes of the original show. I would enjoy it more, if it wasn't for those meddling kids! Just kidding-- please...I love Scooby Doo, too, and am glad they bought some of the original episodes instead of that late 70's early 80's crap with Scrappy Doo...not into that.

Even though it is Spring Break, Hawksbill will still go to his internship tomorrow so I will find something to do all day with the kiddos...if Gwen was 100% better and it was a little warmer, I would actually like to go to the zoo. I have always wanted to go to the zoo in the winter...I don't know why...I guess I thought it might be fun. We still have a lot of snow on the ground from Tuesday--I think I mentioned before it snows every freaking Tuesday--we finally got some packing snow and made a snowman.

Note: Might be considered a movie spoiler, so do not read if you want to see the BEST PICTURE winner and haven't already seen it: Hawksbill and I got to go out on a date tonight!! Woo hoo!! I think the last time we got to go out, just the two of us, was sometime last summer? It has been a while. We went out for Korean food and decided that we "couldn't lose" by going to see the Oscar Winning Best Picture: No Country for Old Men, by the Coen Brothers. How could we lose, right? We LOVE the Coen brothers...but, um, well...this movie sucked. OK--wait, let me give it some credit--the first 1 hour and 40 minutes were pretty darn good--I was pretty darn happy, and then something changed that. And if you saw the movie and loved it--good for you, because I still think it sucked and should never have won an Oscar for Best Picture. No way. Oh, and don't even go there with some deep meaning intellectual "REAL LIFE" bullsh*t. It sucked. They ruined it. It could have rocked and it didn't. This movie had amazing potential and they f*cked it up. So, screw you, Coen brothers!! I want my money back--and you should have to give back your Oscar because you didn't deserve it for this one!!! Losers!! I am going to go watch Raisin Arizona, Fargo, Blood Simple and Millers Crossing now and just weep for you. I might even watch The Big Lebowski!!! But you guys owe me something better than what you gave me tonight. I mean, seriously...I get to go out on a date with Hawksbill MAYBE 2-3 times per YEAR (if I am lucky) and I wanted a good movie, and you spoiled it for me. The least you could do is send me some ice cream. B*st*rds!! Or better yet--you need to COME OVER to MY HOUSE and babysit for me so we can go and see Juno. So, someone PLEASE pass the word on to the Coen brothers--they owe me a night of babysitting so I can see a GOOD MOVIE!

Well, it is February 29th and I should log off now. Thank you for letting me get that out of my system. I'll be seeing ya!

Oh my God! They're Turkeys!

Last night we were watching the first season of E.R. off Netflix and they had a Thanksgiving episode. For some reason, totally out of the blue I remembered the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, which I haven't seen or thought about for over 25 years.

In it the radio station hosts a promotion at an outdoor mall where they plan to drop turkeys from a helicopter on to the waiting crowd. Les Nessman is on site to describe the events to listeners, but Mr. Carlson made two mistakes in planning the promotion: a) he didn't tell Les what was going to happen and b) he forgot that turkeys can't fly.

After describing it to Barb and Simon (cracking them up) I thought I'd see if it was on Youtube. Sure enough... here it is... and it is as funny as I remember it.



I have two favorite memories of WKRP: this one and the one where Bailey Quarters is being wooed by a Russian diplomat who tries to seduce her with an Elton John song. Near the end of the episode he pulls her close and says: "Hold me closer tiny dancer." To this day I can't hear that song without thinking of Bailey who, for a few years in the late 1970's, embodied the perfect woman to the pre-pubescent Hawksbill.

It turns out that I'm not the only one. I stumbled across this fansite from a guy about my age who felt the same way about Jan Smithers. And he had the same memories about that Elton John song. Go figure.

Anyway, Simon loved the Youtube video above and I can keep cracking him up today by exclaiming:

Oh My God! They're Turkeys!!!

Goodbye, Aunt Lottie

My Aunt Lottie, my father's sister, passed away yesterday. I don't know how old she was because she shared a birthday with my youngest brother, Joe, so whenever they had a birthday, she just assumed his age until he turned 29. For the rest of her life if you asked her age, she answered, "29," because that was her way.

Aunt Lottie was the youngest of my father's 4 siblings. She had been in a terrible car accident in the late 1960's and was in a wheelchair, and then wore a brace on her leg for the rest of her life. She never married and had no children because she said all of us were plenty enough for her. Every birthday up until about sixth grade, she made professional bakery quality cakes for us, and she even made our wedding cake.

Aunt Lottie worked in a social services office most of her life and took care of my grandma, my Babcia, until Babcia needed more help than Aunt Lottie could provide. I never learned to speak Polish, but I remember my aunt always calling Babcia something like, "Studda Bubba" which (although I can't find it in any dictionary) meant "Old woman" or "old coot"--it very well might have meant something worse or maybe I am remembering it completely wrong, because none of the individual words translate into what I remember...but I remember hearing that, and "spanka your dupa" a lot when growing up :) I'll have to ask cousin Marie on Saturday...

It wasn't completely unexpected when my father called yesterday with the news, as Aunt Lottie has not been well for a long time, but sad to lose another relative from "The farm" after losing Uncle Mike, her brother-in-law, this fall.

Goodbye, Aunt Lottie...you will be missed....

Mama! Mia! Oh! My!

I cannot even BEGIN to say how much fun I had last night. A friend of mine from high school is starring in the touring Mama! Mia! show and a bunch of old high school buddies and I got together to see the show last night. Oh, it was so much fun!

First we met at my friend, R's, house to go to dinner. About half of us met for dinner before the show and went to Bastone's in Royal Oak which I have never heard of before, nor had I ever even noticed even though it is right on Main Street. The food was amazing...I think R described it best as a full menu of "comfort food".

Before the show we met our friend, S, in the lobby of the Fisher Theater. He is the man with glasses in the back row of this photo--S is playing the role of Sam Carmicheal, who is the "main" potential father in the show. If you don't know the story line of Mama! Mia!, basically, Sophia is a 20-year old woman about to get married on a Greek island. She was raised by a single mother never knowing who her father was. Before the show begins, Sophia finds her mother's diary from the late 1970's, and comes to the conclusion that her father must be one of 3 men, so she invites all of them to her upcoming wedding. Hilarity results as the 3 men discover why they have been invited to the wedding. And, oh yeah...there is a lot of ABBA music.



S invited us on stage after the show to see what goes on backstage and for some photo ops in the Mama! Mia! scenery. No, this isn't the cast--this is everyone who came to see S. S is front and center in the dark and light gray sweater...that's me in the lavender sweater in front on the right.


Oh, it was like a Marching Band Reunion 19 years later...that reminds me of the time, when we were at band camp!!!

Um, er...actually it DOES remind me of the time...we were at band camp...um...yeah...I was in band.

All and all, a wonderful night. :)

Happy 6th Birthday, Simon Pepper!!!

Today is your birthday, my sweet little guy! I can't believe you are six years old!!! Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday you were running around in puppy camouflage pajamas.


Simon woke up so excited today and keeps saying, "Today is the best day ever!" but I think every day with Simon is the "best day ever!" :)

This morning you opened your presents from us and from Grandma K, and received phone calls from Aunt A, cousin S, and Grandma M. You received some care bears, a jacket, some PS2 games, and finally the Star Wars: The Complete Saga that you have wanted for so long. Today we made a blue (well, more like teal) cake with green and purple frosting decorated with Backyardigans toys (of course I do not have the amazing cake decorating gene that my aunts and cousins have so it is pretty lopsided and messy). Later, we went to Target so you and Gwen could spend some of your birthday money on some legos and then we played at the mall and play. Tonight we will wait for Hawksbill to come home so we can sing to you again and eat your lovely cake.

You crack me up the way you spin around and dance and jump all day! I am looking forward to watching you grow yet another year. I am so happy to be your mom and I love you!!

Happy Birthday, Simon Pepper...I am glad you are here to show us where the pepper is!! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Baby!

I can't tell you how happy I am that you're in my life. You're the best wife a guy could ask for and the best mom I can imagine for our kids and I love it that we have a common vision for what we want our family to be. You rock my world!

And, as always... I love you more than bugs!

Less is more

The other day my lovely bride sent me this link to a BBC article discussing the optimal age children should start school. Apparently children in Britain start school at 5 years of age whereas children in other European countries often start at about 7. In the US children start first grade at 6 years old, but are almost always in Kindergarten at 5 years and many children are in "pre-school" even earlier than that.

The main point of the article is to question this practice of early enrollment because, as the article quotes from a Cambridge report on education: "The assumption that an early starting age is beneficial for children's later attainment is not well supported in the research and therefore remains open to question."

The cited report suggests that the origins of early enrollment had little to do with education at all. In fact... "Entering full-time education at such a tender age meant reducing the malign influence of Victorian feckless parents - it was about child protection and social conditioning rather than learning." In other words, the British government didn't trust parents to raise their own children and used the education system as a surrogate family where children would be raised in an acceptable manner.

I also like this paragraph from the article:

Last year's teachers' conferences heard concerns that children were spending so little time with their own families that they were showing signs of aggression and de-socialisation, taking their behaviour from their peer group rather than absent adult role models.

One of the pro-public education arguments I usually hear is about how school helps children learn social skills that they wouldn't otherwise learn. This has seemed silly to me for some years now as we've been organizing our homeschool for exactly the reason discussed in the above paragraph. I love it when our kids have the chance to play with friends, family and peers, but if time with their peer group so dominates their social experience that it began to exclude time with us, then I would be very concerned.

I think this happens a lot in public schools. Kids spend most of their day in classes, they often have several after school activities and then they have homework to complete before the next day. The result often means surprisingly little time spent with family, which can result in estrangement from parents and an over reliance on the peer group as a source of social identity.

Basically, I think friends are great and necessary, but I think family is the best source of social identity. And, I think that building that social identity in the best and most positive way requires lots and lots of time with family. I'm not much of a believer in "quality time". I'm all about quantity.

Overall it's an interesting article. I also enjoyed the many comments from readers sharing their thoughts on the subject.

Ch ch ch changes....

We had a small change in Hawksbill's school schedule so he can see more clients, so we added Friday evening to days we don't see each other. However, he is home in the morning now, so it is nice to see him for a while instead of him taking off at 6:45 am when I am most certainly NOT awake and neither are the kids.

We are making some other small changes around here now that Gwen has moved into a big girl bed and out of the crib. She has been asking for big cups so we finally packed away all of the baby bottles and moved her to sippy cups and regular cups. She's been able to drink out of a regular cup since she was about 18 months, but preferred her milk in a bottle still, and I really didn't see any reason to take it away until this weekend when she kept demanding Dora the Explorer sippy cups--fine--you can have new sippy cups, but I need to dump this mountain of plastic in my cupboard so the bottles are packed up to give away or save.

I remember when Simon was a baby I was *so concerned* that he stop using a bottle at 18 months and I took them all away at 18 months as that was some stupid number I am sure I read in a baby book or maybe a comment at the doctor's office...now I really don't care. Ah, freedom from the experts and advisers!! Now I can do what I think is best--imagine that!

I think, sadly, we are starting to give up on "quiet time," aka, Gwen's nap. The last few weeks we are lucky if she sleeps once a week, and usually she just sits in her room and screams for us to come and get her. So, I think the afternoon nap is over. I can't complain, though, as Simon gave his up at 18 months (maybe because I took away his bottles?) but she made it almost 3 years with her daily nap...ah, well...she is three.

On the homeschool front we are still plugging along with math, art and now Simon is really into Greek Mythology--I think that is mostly because Hawksbill explained which planets are named after which Greek gods. Of course, now I am just WAITING for the day my mom asks Simon about god and he responds, "Silly Grandma, there are many gods, not just one! You know, Zeus, Apollo, Hades, Aphrodite, etc..." and of course then he'll point out the boy gods vs. the girl gods which we call goddesses. I can already see a candle lit for me at church. Probably a worrisome call from Father Frank, too! Sigh....

Simon seems to like his new math books still and we seem to do 1-2 lessons when we feel like it. We might skip a day or two, but then he will do 2 lessons but they are short and he likes them...of course he has to get creative with his answer and write them squiggly or backwards or REALLY BIG or really tiny or something else which is his way.

Simon has also decided he really wants to learn sign language and although I keep saying I am going to do this, I still need to google some kind of sign language program for him. A coworker said his daughters learned sign language in Montessori so that gives me a lead I have just been so busy with work and everything that I haven't gotten myself in gear to find what would work for him and download it or see if we can afford to order something.

Changing the subject here, today is the first day of Lent, and not that I would normally follow this Catholic event, but an internet friend from Texas (who happens to NOT be Catholic, either) and I have taken it upon ourselves to see if we can give something up for Lent. For me, it will be chocolate (except for Simon's bday in case he has chocolate cake) and for her it will be second helpings at dinner. It is only until Easter, right? I can make it without chocolate, right? I think....maybe it will help me lose those last 5 lbs that will not go away.

Changing the subject yet AGAIN, I am laughing at some silly things my kids (mostly Simon) have said this week and am just posting them so I can remember them. Maybe they aren't really funny, but they were funny to me :)

After Gwen sang some of her nighttime songs (Yesterday, Sunshine, Hush Little Baby, Santa Claus is Coming to Town) Simon commented, "Wow! I didn't know she knew all the words to that song! She could be in an opera!!"

After Simon was looking at some items in a Lego catalog, "Mommy and Daddy, I really want an R2 D2 Lego watch, but I can't get it until after my birthday because it says you have to be age 6 to buy one."

Shoot...I know there was something else...darn it, I can't remember...

Oh, well...I'll post it when I remember or if Hawksbill remembers...but, back to my countdown...10 more weeks!! Only 9 if you don't count spring break which I took off so Hawksbill and I can hang out and be lazy for another full week. 10 more weeks!! I can't believe this is really happening!! So happy about this school thing ending soon!!

Until next time....

Happy Birthday, Gwen E. Bear

Happy Birthday, Gwen!! Today you are three and I cannot believe it! Where did this year go?

This week has been kind of a birthday week for Gwen. Last Friday she had her first haircut ever--she doesn't have a lot of hair, but it has finally reached the point where the knots where too much so she had a couple of inches cut off the bottom.

On Sunday, we took apart the crib (for the first time in 6 years--sniff sniff!!!) and put it in the basement and moved Gwen into a big girl bed. More specifically, MY old big girl bed. My dad bought this bed when I was 5 years old...I still remember coming home from kindergarten and seeing it and a new pink comforter in my room. Gwen's big girl bed, however, is covered in Hello Kitty.

This morning, Gwen woke up and we opened her presents before Hawksbill had to go to his internship. She is now the proud owner of an airplane, a green care bear, Max and Ruby beanie babies, and more clothes and toy jewelry.

We are making a green cake which will be frosted pink when it cools and then a Dora the Explorer cake topper if I can figure out how to put the thing together.

Happy 3rd birthday, little girl!! I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Tuesday....aaaafternoonnn....

Just a quick update about nothing. This weekend we decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to balmy Toledo for a hotel with a pool that Simon has begging us to go to. Unfortunately, COSI in Toledo is closed due to lack of money (or so I heard) so the trip was a swimming trip only. It was fun, though--we swam for about 4 hours (not in a row) and had a good time. Why Toledo? Well, we stayed at this hotel almost 2 years ago and had a blast--there are two pools--a family pool and an adults only pool. Both pools are indoor/outdoor pools, and due to this fact, are kept VERY warm. The restaurant at this particular hotel is pretty good, too--it wasn't as amazing as we remembered it being 2 years ago...but good enough :)

Today is Tuesday and based on this morning and the previous two Tuesday mornings, we have determined that it will snow every Tuesday which makes for a long morning commute for Hawksbill. There isn't much snow on the ground, but enough to make those lovely Detroit freeways a mess and add another 30-45 minutes to his already long commute.

I made the mistake of shoveling our driveway and our neighbor's driveway before 1 pm, as we had another blast of wind that swept away all my hard work. Maybe I will redo my shoveling again, but not until after 5 pm when working hours are technically over.

Let's see...it is just before 4 pm so I expect to see Hawksbill again in about 4-5 hours. Only 12 more weeks of this schedule. At least Tuesday is his only late night...it makes quite a difference being able to see him almost every night rather than only on the weekend evenings!!

On a different note, a friend of mine from high school will be starring in the upcoming production on Mama! Mia! that is coming to Detroit in February. I have already seen Mama! Mia!, however, am hoping to gather up some high school friends to go and see him in the play. I haven't spoken to this particular friend since my undergraduate years, but it is cool to see a friend from high school doing what they really wanted to do when they graduated--this friend always wanted to be an actor, and that is what he is. Super cool!

Back in the Swing of Things

Winter semester '08 is upon us, and so is another semester of homeschooling. Simon really seems to like the new math books we bought him, and I have to admit I like them a lot better, too. It seems like they have a better variety of problems, plus more colorful diagrams, and it seems a lot less repetitive. Don't get me wrong, I do believe in practice, but sometimes you need a freaking break. How many times days can you spend adding up the same two single digit numbers before you say, "Enough!"

Hawksbill and I (mostly Hawksbill) have been reading a lot of "Once upon a time" tales and now some Greek mythology stories to Simon at night, which he really seems to like. Gwen still likes reading a billion board books at night followed by singing her 5-6 songs.

Hawksbill is now into his second full week of this semester, too, and can I tell you how happy I am that we do not have to drag the kids around on a baby/car swap this semester? I don't know why it always takes 45 minutes to get them ready and into the car, but we don't have to do that due to one less class for Hawksbill, and our schedule allowing us to avoid that dreaded swap. I mentioned this to a relative (who knows we are homeschooling) who said to me, "Oh, just wait until next fall when you have to do this every day when they are in school!" I didn't say anything because I didn't want to get into a big family discussion about homeschooling that day. However, when this same, well-meaning, relative called me this morning to let me know, "I needed to register Simon NOW for school in the fall because if I don't, the state won't even know he exists and he can't go to school!!!" I reminded her that we were homeschooling in the fall, to which they added, "Well, in case you change your mind, you really should register Simon now."

This was followed by another light-hearted, "I don't know how you could stand homeschooling--I could never do it--I can't wait to send MY kids to school and get them out of my hair!" I responded, "That's too bad--I want to spend every possible precious moment with my kids, and I just wish I had even more time with them." Perhaps that wasn't very nice of me, but it is true, and sometimes I just blurt out what I am really thinking rather than bite my tongue every single time someone says something to me about not wanting to spend time with their kids. Oh, please--don't get me wrong--everyone's kids drive them batty once in a while--everyone needs a break--but I still want to be with mine more time than I am not.

It is like a very nice post on my friend Housefairy's blog recently about trusting yourself and doing what is right for YOUR OWN family. You know, I really don't care how other people are raising their kids or living their lives, but I do care about my family. You take the advice and ideas you like and use them, and you ignore the advice and junk you don't need.

My "found money" project has gotten off to an ok start this year. I think I have 44 cents now. I am trying to get Simon and Gwen into this, too, but so far they don't care (except when it comes to the time to spend the found money-ha!)

Happy New Year, everyone, and I hope the new year is treating you all just fine!

Ico & Shadow

One last note on video games before I return to real life on Tuesday.

I finished Ico late last night. It is a short game and took me only about 10 hours to complete. However, it lived up to its promise and I found it as moving and introspective as its prequel, Shadow of the Collosus.

In short it is the story of a young boy who is believed to be "cursed" by his community and is imprisoned in a gigantic fortress at the games beginning. In fact he is the latest in a long line of "cursed" boys who have been so imprisoned. The game begins with his entombment and proceeds with his attempt to escape. Along the way he find a mysterious girl in a cage who he sets free and they set off together to find their way out. Or, at least, the boy is looking for a way out. The girl is easily distracted by the clouds and small animals. She seems confused and unearthly.

Basically, your role as player is to solve puzzles which create pathways that allow Ico (the boy) and Zorda (the girl) to leave. On that level it is very Tomb Raider like and isn't all that impressive.

It is on the narrative level that Ico (and SotC) really impress me. But, it is difficult to describe the beauty of the narrative in words because the story telling technique used is so minimal. In fact, the story seems beautiful not because of what is told in the story, but because of what isn't told. It is kind of like a sculpture where everything non essential is chipped away and only the absolute barest details are left behind. And even they are subject to great interpretation.

I was just reading this narrative analysis of Ico and the author there said it best. He said that the story in Ico "insists on holding silence on its own narrative." I love this kind of story telling . If done well the audience is left stunned by witnessing something beautiful but they are also unable to describe that beauty without imbuing the story with their own interpretation.

As such, whoever is describing the story is not describing just the story. Instead they are describing the story in a way that is intertwined with their own perspective on life or beauty or whatever. Everyone brings something of themselves to the interpretation, which is required because the story is so minimal that it requires interpretation to be described.

I won't bore anyone with my own interpretations. That would be out of place here when all I really wanted to do was describe the sense of wonder I'm left with after playing these two really great games.

Some Ico and Shadow of the Colossus links:
Here are a number of nice high rez screen shots of Ico if anyone is interested.
Here is a set of fan created art which is pretty impressive.
Also, here is a blog dedicated to both games.

Hawksbill's post o' holiday gaming

Last semester was so grueling and stressful that I didn't sleep a full night from September through the middle of December. Just about every night I awoke between 3am and 4am worried about something or other, ranging from long papers I had due to getting a job after graduation. Thus, when the holidays hit and I had over two weeks off I was determined to be lazy, to have fun and not to worry about a damn thing. And, other than spending a ton of time together as a family, I was determined to feed that monkey on my back... the gaming monkey.

The guys came over last Saturday and we played board games from noon until after midnight. I got to play Goa, Power Grid (using the Italy map) and Caylus, which are three of my favorites. There were 7 of us, which meant we had to split into two groups so Paul, Jake, Steve and George played some Age of Empires III, which none of us had played before and I got to play a game of Basari with Larry and Ben, which I had not played before also. The highlight of the day, though, was when we ended by playing a huge 6 player game of Zopp, which has been sitting around in our gaming room, waiting to be played for several weeks. Zopp is probably the most expensive game I own, and I was pleased to see that it was a big hit. It's always nice to end a gaming day with a crazy dex game.

Along with board games, I was determined to feed my video game habit this holiday. I came very close to going out and indulging in a new Playstation 3, but instead I went through my library of PS2 stuff and hit a vein of great games I hadn't played before. This convinced me that I hadn't yet exhausted the PS2's potential and I made a list of highly regarded games to play before I move to the PS3.

I started off with God of War which I played through from start to finish in about 3 days a week and a half ago. This is a fine game with a pretty good story, in which you play a Greek hero seeking vengeance against the god Ares. It has great controls, fantastic graphics and a delightful amount of brutal violence.

I've owned this one for a bout a year, and played it a bit, but it never really grabbed me until a couple of weeks ago. There were a couple of really frustrating moments trying to escape from the underworld, but I guess escaping from the underworld should probably be very difficult. All in all, though, a great gaming experience.

Another game I've owned for over a year but never played is Shadow of the Colossus. In SotC you play a young lad who brings his trusty horse, a stolen magic sword and a dead girl to a mysterious temple in a lonely unpopulated land and prays for her resurrection. His prayers are answered by a booming voice that instructs him to take his magic sword and slay 16 different colossi and then the girl will be brought back to life.

Basically, it is a 3rd person action-adventure combat and puzzle solving game in which you must kill only boss-monsters. You have a horse, a bow and a sword and the monsters are sometimes hundreds of feet tall. The puzzles in the game are all about how to locate the colossi and then how to find their individual weaknesses which you exploit to kill them.

I finished Shadow of the Colossus in about 5 days and after watching the closing animation sequence I had to admit this this was likely one of the best games I've ever played. In fact, Simon had been sitting on my lap watching me play for almost all of that time and at the end of the game he actually cried a little in sympathy for the characters. The story was so sad and moving that I felt like I'd just finished a classic piece of literature. Even now, several days later I can't get it out of my head. It still haunts me.

In fact, many players have found SotC to be haunting and worthy of considerable thematic speculation. I found this plot/theory analysis over at gamefaqs.com which tries to put all the pieces together. One of the great things about this game is that the characters only speak an unintelligible Japanese/Latin combination. This means that the back story is never fully explained which allows for a lot of internal speculation while you're playing.

SotC was written by a game designer named Fumito Ueda who intended it to be a prequel to a previous PS2 game called Ico, which I had heard of before but hadn't payed much attention to. Wander, in SotC is supposed to be the ancestor of the main character of Ico, and is the first of a long line of cursed boys born each generation because of the horrors Wander committed in SotC. It turns out that Ico was something of a cult hit and new copies of it are selling for $80+, but I just ordered a used copy for a reasonable price and can't wait to play it.

For me, playing Shadow of the Colossus is the video game equivalent to reading Alan Moore's comic The Swamp Thing for the first time. You are engaging in medium you think you understand and can't really be surprised about, but the story stretches that medium in simple, poetic and unexpected directions that are simultaneously beautiful and sorrowful. It really reminds you that games can be works of art, although they seldom are. Damn, I can't wait to play Ico!

For anyone interested, I found several interviews with Fumito Ueda regarding his games. One is with the Guardian another is with CVG and a third is with Wired.

After playing God of War and Shadow of the Colossus from start to finish I was determined to finish one more game before I go back to school next Tuesday. In my research I stumbled across the Prince of Persia series which, like Ico, I'd seen before but never paid a lot of attention to. I'm currently about a third of the way through the first in the PS2 trilogy called The Sands of Time.

The graphics in The Sands of Time are a bit dated, as it came out back in 2003, but are still fairly pleasant. Like the others it is a 3rd person action-adventure game, but this one has more emphasis on puzzle solving than on combat, unlike God of War which is a bit more weighted towards ripping the heads off Gorgons. Actually, I picked up this game because I read a review of Ico in which they were compared as having similar game play styles. It is a good one, but not as moving as SotC so far.

I'm very pleased, though. Most games are marginal at best and the really good ones are few and far between. I feel like I've hit a gold mine of quality gaming fun to maximize my holiday goofing off.

Once school starts up again I won't be able to be this epically lazy. But, I've put together a list of other games I plan to play on the PS2 over the next several months before switching to the PS3.

These are: Ico, God of War II, and parts II and III of the Prince of Persia series (The Warrior Within and The Two Thrones). I'm also a bit tempted by The Devil May Cry trilogy, which I have part 1 of but haven't played yet and by Psychonaughts, which I started last year and played for a couple of hours but never finished. Also I want to finish Dark Cloud II, which Simon and I started a few weeks ago and Star Ocean, which are both rpg's that look well worth playing.

I was toying with going with the xbox 360 instead of the PS3, but I've pretty much decided now to stay with Sony's console. After all, God of War is exclusive to the Playstation line. Also, and probably more importantly though, Fumito Ueda who designed Shadow of the Colossus and Ico is currently working for Sony on a 3rd game. This next one is all hush hush right now, but I'm hoping it will be set in the same universe as the others and will be as haunting as SotC.

What a great holiday this has been. I can't express what a relief it is to spend all this time with Barb and the kids and playing games instead of worrying about papers, exams, internship stuff, my upcoming graduation and getting a job.

I'll get back to that stuff next Tuesday. Until then I have misshapen Arabian sand demons to slay!