Throwing Marshmallows

Although it may not seem it with the lack of blogging lately. The funny thing is that I actually have several things that I want to post on, many of which are relative quickies, yet I still can’t seem to find the motivation to post.

Too many things to choose from…the house is a mess (which my blog reading is telling me is very normal!), the boys have been indulging in their new Wii and Nintendo DS games as well as their new Bionicles and Zoob sets. I finally got my Christmas cards out and am still fighting to get the calendars made (the color copies I made at Kinkos turned out terrible, but they said if I could bring in an electronic version they would re-do them for me. So I am working on converting them to pdfs…) I splurged on 3 new digital photography and Photoshop Elements books using a gift certificate from my Dad and his wife. I also spent way more than I should have on the end of the year Barnes and Noble and Audible sales. I have a few VaHomeschoolers projects in the works which are fun, but I just wish that I had more time! And I have been trying to find more time to do my photography…

So basically, too many things and not enough time to do them. And the sad thing is that most of it (except the house cleaning stuff) is fun stuff that I want to do! I just want to be able to do it all at once and not have to choose.

Ah well. Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things soon…keep checking back!

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!

All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

-by Susan Cooper, 1977 written for The Christmas Revels

For a wonderful photographic look at this holiday season, check out the Tis the Season Photoblog. They post a new holiday photo each day, sent in by a variety of people.

Very nicely done and a great way to treat yourself during this busy holiday time.

Enjoy!

I swear that I thought that we had all of next week before Christmas. But we don’t. Christmas eve is on Monday! How did that happen?

Just thought that I would give friends and relatives a heads up…nothing is going to be on time.

• The picture collage to go in the Christmas cards is finished and printed, but I still have to sign the cards and send them out.
• The presents for our aunts and uncles and brothers are bought, but not mailed yet.
• I had already known that one present for the grandparents was going to be late as I just discovered it a few weeks back and it will take some time to pull together, but I promise it will be worth the wait.
• The photo collage pages for the annual Elms Boys Calendar have been done for over a week, but when I went to pull together the calendar part I found that the disk that I usually use has gone missing (yes, this software is so old that it requires the disk to be in the computer). After spending two nights trying to find calendar software (either freeware or pay version) I did find one that seemed to fit the bill, however the free trial only allows you to print the first 3 pages. Unfortunately there was enough that I did not like about the software so I am not sure if I want to pay for it. I have not been able to find any consensus on good calendar software on the web so I am still trying to figure that out. At the last minute of course.
• The boys are almost finished making their presents, but I am still not 100% sure we will be able to assemble them…we found a fun project and Jason wanted to do some things a bit different and I am hoping they will work.
• The tree is up and has lights and garland but no decorations yet.
• The house has no lights.
• The house is half decorated and I still need to find the boys stockings.
• I think that I have all the boys presents, but have not been able to sit down and actually figure out what exactly we have for them (I have been picking up things here and there for months)

I really need that extra week. Really I do. I wish that I knew where it went and what on earth happened this year.  I did try. I swear that I did.

I am feeling a bit decadent right now. It is two weeks before Christmas and I am in Ocean City…by myself. I tend to get very stressed around the holidays, so this year I decided to try to take a bit of a mid-holiday break and get away for a couple of days. We did not have much going on this weekend, so I decided to go for it.

I will say that it is a bit strange, but nice.

So what am I doing? Not much. A little bit of shopping. Catching up on my blogs. Some VaHomeschoolers work. Reading. Watching the rain. Listening to Christmas music. Lots of Christmas music because I really do not like a lot of what is on tv and the DVD player is broken and I refuse to go to Walmart to buy a new one. I will have to remember to pick one up back home.

Basically I’m just trying to get some breathing room. And hopefully it will work. I will say that it just seems as if there is more “space” here at the beach. Things are not so crowded. Things are not so rushed. So we will see.

The danger is that I will set my expectations too high and will try to get too much done while I am down here and then get frustrated at everything that I did not get done. I really am amazed at how easy it is to get caught up in everything and just forget to breathe.

So I am trying to remember to breathe.

Breathing is good. I like to breathe. Especially in the salt air.

I am sure that this weekend won’t get rid of all my stress. But hopefully it will enable me to hold it at bay so that I can enjoy the rest of the holidays. Because I do enjoy the holidays. Really I do.

When I have time to breathe…

And unfortunately it is not good news. Terry Pratchett has early onset Alzheimer’s.

For those who are not familiar with Terry Pratchett, he is the author of The Wee Free Men and tons of other wonderful books for both kids and adults. We discovered him last spring and he quickly became one of the boys and my favorite authors. We have read all the Tiffany Aching books and I have been making my way through the adult Discworld books and thoroughly enjoying them.

While this is indeed sad news, it sounds like he is handling it with characteristic wit and perspective. As he put it:

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as ‘I am not dead’. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it’s too soon to tell. I know it’s a very human thing to say “Is there anything I can do”, but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

Terry Pratchett was one of the main draws for us when we went to the National Book Festival this past fall and he was incredibly entertaining to hear in person. You can see a webcast of his talk which was wonderful.

For more information on his books, you can check out his website.

I have not had a chance to listen to the whole debate, but I will say, the parts of the NPR Presidential Radio debate I did hear sure impressed me a whole lot more than any of the televised debates and made me want to listen to the whole thing.
No tv cameras. No live audience. Moderators who put some thought into questions that might help illuminate the issues rather than boost ratings. More time to delve into the questions rather than just trying to put out sound bites. No time limits on answers. Ability to have a real conversation. Allowing all candidates to talk rather than just the top three (I think that this is the first time that I got to hear Chris Dodd say more than one or two sentances).

I have not had the stomach to watch the TV debates for more than a few minutes because I just can’t stand the “television personalities” that pass for reporters these days. Or the ridiculous, non-important questions that get asked (usually about some “controversy”).

Definitely check it out. NPR has even fact checked the statements made during the debate for you. You can listen on your computer or download the broadcast to your iPod.

This is a debate that has some meat that you can sink your teeth into.

Thank you NPR for restoring back at least a little bit of faith in the process. I was beginning to worry that no one “got it” anymore.

There was a really interesting article in Salon this week called Michelle Obama Gets Real in which children’s books plays a key role.

There’s time for one more story before Obama has to address the adults gathering in an adjacent room, and someone has set aside two books from which Obama can choose. There’s one unfamiliar book called “Skippyjon Jones,” and a hardback edition of “Our National Anthem,” the sort of red, white and blue book Lynne Cheney would write, and that an aspiring first lady would be expected to read. “Not that one,” says Obama, quickly discarding the patriotic volume. She opens “Skippyjon Jones” and begins the story of a Siamese kitten who, for reasons too murky to convey here, soon starts using “his very best Spanish accent,” to say things like, “My ears are too beeg for my head. My head ees too beeg for my body. I am not a Siamese cat … I AM A CHIHUAHUA!”

I have to admit that I as soon as I heard Skippyjon Jones mentioned, I both laughed and cringed. We have this book (I picked it up when we were at the National Book Festival) and as described , it is most definitely a tongue twister (and hilarious). Kyle especially likes it. I could feel Michelle Obama’s pain as the article described her laughing through it all. The cringe came because the book can be seen as controversial and is probably not the most “politically correct” because of the Spanish accent and I was hoping that was not the angle the article was going to focus on.

Luckily, the angle the article took was a bit more sophisticated than that:

But Obama’s particular impulse — to reject meaningless political pablum or helpmate hokum in favor of unexpected candor and a good laugh — has already distinguished her yearlong tenure on the presidential campaign circuit.

“You’ve never seen anyone like us before, and that’s a little freaky, isn’t it?” she asks the crowd of grown-ups who’ve assembled at the Monticello library after the bangito conclusion of “Skippyjon Jones.” “It’s like, ‘They’re real!’ Well, guess what? Real people can be politicians too. We as a country have grown suspicious of real. We take the fake.”

I will admit that I am very partial to the Obamas for precisely this reason…they seem very real and human to me and not as tied to poll results (I am also intrigued by John and Elizabeth Edwards for the same reason as well). And I will also admit that Michelle Obama’s choice of Skippyjon Jones over the National Anthem only serves to reinforce this impression. I love that she went with a book that she thought the children would enjoy over a book that would have “looked good” from a political/adult perspective.

After reading this article I kept looking for the news reports taking her to task for this, just like they took her husband to task for not wearing a flag pin. I guess if they had, all she would have had to do was to point out that Judy Schachner was a featured author at the National Book Festival, hosted by none other than Laura Bush.

I do think that it is sad that I was worried about her having to defend her choice of books. But that seems to be what politics has come to in this country…folks look for any little thing and then pounce, usually blowing it way up and way out of proportion until you have no idea what to believe any more.

It was an interesting article and kinda cool to see children’s books take a central role in a political piece.

Just realized that I have not really talked much about what we have been up to lately. This is mostly for family who might be interested, so feel free to skip if you want!

This Fall wound up being really quite busy and I am almost looking forward to things slowing down a little bit.

Kyle had been asking to take gymnastics for awhile now, so I finally was able to find a class through the county rec center that fit our schedule (on Mondays). Jason decided that it looked like fun, so he has just started this session.

Tuesdays were NoVaUnschoolers park days which were pretty much an all day thing…these were a lot of fun (it has been cold lately, so we have not been for the past couple of weeks). The boys have several friends who come and they have a great time playing tag or wading in the creek (until it dried up due to the drought this fall!) This is also a great time for me as it is as much a play date for me as it is for them. We have well over 20 families that come on a regular basis.

Jason also took a Pottery II class on Tuesday afternoons which he really enjoyed. We had to leave park day at 3:30, but luckily a friend (thanks Dena!) kept Kyle and I picked him up after Jason’s class. Jason learned a few new techniques and continues to enjoy experiment and creating with clay.

Wednesdays were free up until this past month when Kyle started taking swim lessons with his friend Sean. He is loving it and Jason likes the free swim time.

Thursdays have been our field trip/homeschool class day…we have done stream monitoring (will post pictures later), Mt. Vernon, the Luray Caverns trip, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, letter boxing at Burke Lake Park and hiking at Huntley Meadows. The boys are currently taking a nature center class on invertebrates which they are enjoying.

We ended up dropping Taekwondo this year.  They discontinued the homeschool class during the day and we tried to make it to the evening classes, but found that they really did not work in our schedule. Most of the times we were so busy during the day, the last thing the boys wanted to do was to head out to class at 5:00. They may give it another shot at another time if we can find a better way to work it into our schedule.

We are also really lucky in this area to have a wealth of opportunities for quality live theater performances. The Kennedy Center has a great program for schools (and homeschoolers) where tickets are only $5…we have tickets to The Phantom Tollbooth, The National Symphony Orchestra: Connections: More Math and Music, Step Afrika, Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure, and Kite on the Wind: A Tale of Pakistan. George Mason University also offers the Theatreworks series where for $5 we get to see: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, The Mystery of Tut, and Aesop’s Fables. And the Smithsonian Discovery Theater has Nego Gato: Jogo Capoeria! and That’s Not Magic, It’s Science. Don’t worry…these shows are scheduled throughout the rest of the year, not all this month!

When we are home, Jason has been using Hands On Equations, which is a really neat introduction to algebraic thinking for elementary school aged kids. They use a game-type format…using pawns to represent variables along with a laminated scale to help model the equation. I have found that Jason enjoys this type of complex math much more than straight worksheets and the lessons have helped him work out many of the algebra rules (he figured out on his own how you can simplify the equations). I can see the wheels turning when he works on this. And it also gives him a chance to use his math facts which, for him, is a better way for him to learn them. We are also doing a lot of “math through literature”, reading Mathematicians are People Too (which focuses on the lives of mathematicians) as well as lots of great “living math” books. Jason has also been doing Daily Grams to help with grammar, punctuation, and the like. They are just worksheets that can be done in a relatively short amount of time…not the most exciting things, but it gets the job done with little pain.

With the holidays coming up, I have decided that we are going to keep it pretty simple and just do these two things on a regular basis and then supplement with a lot of educational videos. There will just be too much going on for me to really sit down and plan anything out. The great thing is that there are tons of great videos to watch. We watched “Science of the Samurai Sword” (a Nova show) that was fascinating. It used current science to explain why the samurai sword and the ancient methods of making it created such a quality sword. The science was actually very interesting and I always like it when traditional methods are shown to have a reason behind them. And equally fascinating that they were able to figure these things out without the help of modern science!

I am still working with Kyle on his reading. It is coming along, but has not quite “clicked” yet. He knows all his letter sounds and his short vowels and can sound out a lot of words and recognize a few. But he is has not made the jump to recognizing words without sounding them out (pretty interesting that he is the exact opposite of Jason…when Jason started reading he could only see the whole word and had trouble breaking it down…whereas Kyle only seems to see the individual letters and has trouble seeing the whole word. Go figure!) We are using the Bob Book series which Kyle seems to like. We are on Set 2, Book 3. We usually do a lesson in the evening before I read to him. For math we are currently doing a lot of math games…I got the Right Start Math Card Game set which has lots of games that cover a wide range of topics. And as always Kyle loves to play board games and card games.

Kyle cracks me up sometimes…just this morning he came in to tell me that he had figured out what 55+55 was. 110. He was so proud of figuring it out and he told me how he did it step by step (he knew that 50+50 was 100 and so he subtracted 5 from 55 to get 50 and then 5+5=10). I asked him if there was a reason why he needed to know this and he said no, he had just been thinking about it. Sounds good to me!

We also read tons…Kyle and I are almost finished with The Spiderwick Chronicles (the movie is scheduled to come out in February). Jason and I have been reading a really good fantasy book called Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau Wilce. Hard to summarize and a bit different, but really, really good. A publisher on the Child Lit list was giving away copies so I grabbed one and read it this summer to check it out. I was completely drawn in and did not even mind re-reading it with Jason. We’ll have to post a review soon. I can’t wait for the next one (given the ending, I am pretty sure that there will be a next one).

In the car we are listening to The Capture by Kathryn Lasky which looks like it will be our new series (I think there are 3 so far). The boys are really liking it. Before that we listened to The Phantom Tollbooth (in preparation for the Kennedy Center performance that was this week) and The Secret of Castle Cant by K.P. Bath. Hmmm…just noticed that there is a second in the series, so I think we will have to check it out.

Oh and the boys go through quite a few audio books on their own as well, especially Jason. I am very lucky that the Fairfax County Library has such an extensive selection!
Well, that is it for now, I think. I will have to get back to talking more about what we are doing…if I can find the time. Right now I am starting to enter “survive December mode”…between Jason’s birthday (next week!) and the holidays and the fact that there is still a lot of VaHomeschoolers stuff on my plate, I am already feeling behind. And the month has not even started yet…