Friday, January 16, 2009
Oh, the horror ...
The song in this video is one of my daughters' favorites ... and the images are from a videogame fave of the Hubby and son.
Shared because ... well, why should I suffer alone? :)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Only As Old As You Feel
"Listen, Mom!" my 12-year-old daughter, Blossom, said to me the other day. She was working at my old laptop, and as she struck the keys a metallic, mechanical sound issued from the machine. "I made it sound funny!"
"That's a typewriter sound," I told her.
"Listen!" she repeated, hitting (I know) the 'Enter' key, and eliciting that old-school ratchet-and-ding. After a few more feverish taps, she looked up at me. "A typewriter?"
"Yes," I said, suddenly feeling about a million years old. "Remember when we went to the museum last summer, and saw those old machines in the Newspaper display?"
"Ohhh," she said. "You had one in grade school, right?"
"Yes," I said again, finding a chair and easing my ancient bones into it.
"Neat," Blossom opined, typing a few more lines. "That was before CD-ROM, right? You had to use floppy disks."
"No, dear," I answered. "Something even more archaic. It's called paper."
"That's a typewriter sound," I told her.
"Listen!" she repeated, hitting (I know) the 'Enter' key, and eliciting that old-school ratchet-and-ding. After a few more feverish taps, she looked up at me. "A typewriter?"
"Yes," I said, suddenly feeling about a million years old. "Remember when we went to the museum last summer, and saw those old machines in the Newspaper display?"
"Ohhh," she said. "You had one in grade school, right?"
"Yes," I said again, finding a chair and easing my ancient bones into it.
"Neat," Blossom opined, typing a few more lines. "That was before CD-ROM, right? You had to use floppy disks."
"No, dear," I answered. "Something even more archaic. It's called paper."
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Educating the Masses
When my oldest daughter, Rose, started kindergarten, she was excited and I was sad - my baby was growing up! She had taught herself to read before she was out of diapers, and the classwork was so boring for her that she spent more time assisting the teacher than being a student. The next year, she was even more bored: the school asked if she could help with remedial reading for third graders, but even this didn't keep her busy enough to keep from disrupting classes. So before first grade was over, we decided to pull her out of school and teach her at home.
We tried "homeschooling" at first, but before long realized that her learning style was far better suited to "unschooling" - and in the years since, her siblings have also been flourishing in this loose, self-directed learning environment.
Now, my eldest baby is teaching herself Japanese, and has decided she will become a forensic scientist (joining me in yelling at the television when we watch "Forensic Files" and the investigators miss the obvious). Her younger sister, 12, is torn between cinema and diagnostic medicine (she loves "House, MD" and the new-to-her Sherlock Holmes mysteries); and my son, 9, wants to be an engineer (or maybe a pirate, or possibly a astronaut, or an invisible ninja) and has already taken apart and reassembled most of our clocks. And the youngest, well, she's bent on world domination, and heaven help anyone who stands in her way.
It would have been so easy to send them to "real school" - but I shudder with horror at the thought of what would happen to them in the local conformity factories. There is nothing in my world as thrilling as hearing one say "learning is awesome" and another responding "shh - I'm trying to learn this."
A passion for learning is probably the best gift a child can receive - and it's free, infinite, and will last them the rest of their lives.
We tried "homeschooling" at first, but before long realized that her learning style was far better suited to "unschooling" - and in the years since, her siblings have also been flourishing in this loose, self-directed learning environment.
Now, my eldest baby is teaching herself Japanese, and has decided she will become a forensic scientist (joining me in yelling at the television when we watch "Forensic Files" and the investigators miss the obvious). Her younger sister, 12, is torn between cinema and diagnostic medicine (she loves "House, MD" and the new-to-her Sherlock Holmes mysteries); and my son, 9, wants to be an engineer (or maybe a pirate, or possibly a astronaut, or an invisible ninja) and has already taken apart and reassembled most of our clocks. And the youngest, well, she's bent on world domination, and heaven help anyone who stands in her way.
It would have been so easy to send them to "real school" - but I shudder with horror at the thought of what would happen to them in the local conformity factories. There is nothing in my world as thrilling as hearing one say "learning is awesome" and another responding "shh - I'm trying to learn this."
A passion for learning is probably the best gift a child can receive - and it's free, infinite, and will last them the rest of their lives.
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