Bikes

It may not sound like a big deal when I say that my two sons went biking over the weekend. But belive me, it is -

This is a first not just for Owen, who's 4, but for 8-year-old Luke as well. He's always been afraid of bikes, probably because the one we got him first was way too big for him, and we made the training wheels wobbly, I guess so that he'd get used to that feeling. How stupid were we?

About 2 weeks ago, Owen got on his first bike and since this exciting event he wants to ride all the time. Owen's success (on a properly sized bike, with non-wobbly training wheels) spurred Luke to try again, once we'd made his bike stable on the training wheels.

It's such a good feeling to see them on bikes! Luke realizes how fast he can get places, and every day needs less and less help starting from a dead stop. He watches how Owen rocks his bike back and forth to get started, and then the two of them are off.

This particular trip had an inauspicious beginning, with some rain just as we arrived at the bike trail; however, we persevered.

I had brought my bike, but I decided once we got there that I'd better not ride it. I'm still needed for pushes and helping pick up fallen children. But not riding gave me the chance to snap a few more pictures:

I'm continually amazed at the quiet, beautiful places hidden away in our corner of the world; now that we're mobile, I hope we'll be able to see more.

Busy Building a Net

I don't know if you've heard of Randy Pausch, the Carnegie-Mellon professor diagnosed with terminal cancer last year; he just recently died of what he called his "engineering problem." I've been struck by many things he's said over the last year, but most profoundly by a statement he made on TV, I think on the Diane Sawyer show (I know it's not verbatim, I'm just going to give you the gist - I do that a lot don't I?...):

This man has 3 very young children, and was faced with the task of helping them and their Mom come to grips with his imminent death. When asked about how he handles this, he said, "I know it's sad that I won't get to be around, but it's really them that I feel for... my whole family is perched at the top of a cliff, and I have 2 choices: I can either cry about it, or I can get busy and build them a net."

I like his way of building the net - spending as much time as possible with his family, doing things together that the children will remember. Also, he wrote a book (with a journalist) about life and fatherhood, and referred to the book as a gift for his children when they're older. Isn't that neat?

It got me thinking about the net I'm building for my boys - not because I have terminal cancer (as far as I know), but because someday I won't be around anymore. Two of the best ways I've found: homeschooling and this blog. It's wonderful to be the one to hear their questions, and help them find answers; it's also wonderful to record it here.

I'm really enjoying Pausch's last lecture at Carnegie-Mellon, which he named "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." It's embedded here, so set aside an hour and 15 minutes to watch it; it is not, as I was expecting, a mushy diatribe on living life to the fullest. Instead it's this vibrant, funny man discussing what he learned in the course of attempting to fulfill his childhood dreams ("Being in zero gravity, Playing for the NFL"). You'll be glad you did - yes, Mom, even you! (My mother has a thing about mushy diatribes on living life to the fullest.)

After listening to a show on NPR about Pausch, I asked Luke what he wants to learn about this year. His list is awesome! Here it is:

Bears

Fish

Engines, especially motorcycle and other gas engines

Electrical circuits

Friction

How to stop global warming

How computers work

I think that'll have us going for the coming homeschool year, don't you?

A New Resource for Parents

My friend and editor, Heather Kempskie, and her twin sister Lisa Hanson have a new book out this week, and I think it's going to be a corker. It's called The Busy Siblings Book, the newest in "The Busy..." series. I don't know if you've read any of these, but we have both The Busy Toddlers Book and The Busy Preschoolers Book; I turn to both again and again for fun, spontaneous ideas with my guys. I have no doubt that, when my copy of The Busy Siblings Book arrives next week, I'll do the same!

I'm going to have the pleasure of interviewing Heather in this space in the next few weeks, but today I wanted to highlight their book blog, which I visited last week and was very impressed with.

One page that caught my interest right away was a link to an article by Thomas Haller and Chick Moorman. Called 10 Ways to Create Sibling Rivalry, the article has had me thinking ever since I read it. My favorite way to create sibling rivalry is "Buy and play many competitive games where there is one winner and many losers."

When Luke was younger, we played lots of those kind of games, reasoning that he needed to learn early that you don't always win. But now I realize that we would have been better off playing games with Luke where we all worked together to achieve a common goal.

I don't really know how it happened, but since Owen has been able to 'play' games, we've cut down on the comptitive ones, opting far more often to read, or build blocks, play with play dough or throw a ball together. The end result is more of an inclination for the boys to work together, in games and life. It's really nice - and nice to have it validated by Haller and Moorman.

A Summer Lull

To put it lightly, I have not been feeling well. Nothing serious, just a summer cold that got out of control, but we are certainly... a bit behind the 8-ball.

Fortunately, the boys have handled it well; it turns out, they are content to watch The Princess Bride every day while I'm sick, too! Here are some other activities that have kept them happy:

Nephews

Gosh, I love 'em.

That's My Motto

When Luke was really into Harry Potter, a favorite book of his was J.K. Rowling's fundraising book, Quidditch Through the Ages. One night, he told me that his favorite quidditch team is the Falmouth Falcons, because their motto is "Let us win, but if we cannot win, let us break a few heads." He mispronounced motto (calling it mow-tow) and as I corrected him, I asked, how did he even knew what a motto was?

His answer, so casually related, still fascinates me: "Oh," Luke said, "from Calvin and Hobbes." He then described a favorite comic strip in which Calvin and Hobbes have a huge fight in Calvin's bed; at the end, Hobbes says to Calvin, "my mow-tow is, Revenge or Death!"

Imagine grasping the concept of a motto before you can even pronounce the word.

Another comic-related story that stopped me in my tracks was more recent. We get this totally awesome left-wing newspaper of comics and articles (Dave Barry, Garrison Keillor) called the Funny Times, and in a recent issue was the following: a one-panel comic of a huge, globe-shaped birdcage and inside it, swinging on the canary swing, sat a little polar bear. Luke didn't get it - until I asked him if he knew what the saying 'canary in a coal mine' meant. Watching the light dawn on your child's face is so cool! - he said, "ohhh yeah, the polar bear is the canary of the world!"

When I think of the knowledge that went in to the light dawning in Luke's mind, I am amazed. He had to know about the polar bear's endangerment, that the cause is global warming (yes, I really, really believe that - and if you don't, you ought to watch the Planet Earth about the Poles), and that people used to use canaries to see if there was breathable air before going underground themselves.

I think Luke's ability to draw from different sources will serve him extremely well as he moves through life. Also, it amazes me that, at age 7, he can mentally fit things together with connections that I may not even see at the ripe old age of 37.

It sure justifies all the time he spends reading the comics!

Swimming

This time last summer, Luke was nearly 7 and deathly afraid of getting his face wet. He had a real phobia about it, which is no surprise considering I had the same phobia until age 9. Knowing that I shared his fear made him more comfortable, but real help came late in the summer, in the form of a pair of goggles.

The goggles actually kicked around all summer; then right around Labor Day Luke plucked up his courage, put them on, went under - and loved it! He was fascinated with how everything looked under the water, and so finally beat back his water-related fears.

Just before we closed our pool last summer, Luke started holding his breath for a bit longer, tentatively swimming and floating. We opened the pool this year in early June; here's a series of pictures I snagged yesterday:

My mind boggles at the difference between Luke last July, and Luke now.

The best thing about his progress (outside of how much fun he's having, and how much safer he is now that he can swim) is that it came about through play.

As an unschooling parent, I spend lots of time finding illustrations of play-as-learning for skeptical parents and friends. Well, there's no better way to show the value of play in learning than swimming, where everything Luke does is a small step in the direction of learning to swim.

But he never set out to 'be a swimmer;' instead, he wanted to see what the diving sharks looked like under water. And then he wanted to grab the diving sharks under water, and then he wanted to use his hands to pull himself along the bottom, and then he wanted to jump in from the stairs, and swim in the deep end...

And suddenly, Luke is a swimmer.

Harvest Season in the Life of an Almost-Locavore

Here's the thing about summer and fall, for a blogger and her family who eat mainly locally: they are really, really busy times of year.

So, when faced with the choice of getting on the computer or canning jam, shredding squash for the freezer, or drying fruit slices at 10PM, I gotta go with the food.

In truth, I love that the year has this rhythm, that, for 3 months of the year, so much takes a backseat to food. I never enjoyed the humid, sticky New England summer as a young person - but as I approach middle age, I find that I do enjoy it. I love the smells, sounds, and sights of summer now, probably because I can appreciate how fleeting they are; as my Dad sometimes says, "Nobody wants to swim in the pool after Labor Day."

Anyway, for the next few months we here at The Stone Age Techie will be making hay while the sun shines, as the saying goes, and spending an insane amount of time in the garden and the kitchen in order to have food for winter, which means I won't be able to post 5 days a week.

At the same time as that's a reason to look forward to October, I know I'll enjoy the fleeting days of summer - and all the harvesting, standing over a boiling canning cauldron, and the delicious results as well.

Fort

The value of a fort of sheets

On a rainy summer day

Is beyond measure.

Favoritism

Both boys have been sick, Owen especially had it really bad, with a 105 degree fever, the hottest we've ever seen in either kid.

But I digress!

For whatever reason, I am the current Parent of Choice, the one the kids want to sit next to at meals, the one they want to play with, read with, become surgically attached at the hip with. Especially Owen, who is in the temper tantrum dimension again, and so the whole neighborhood knows when Daddy commits the mortal sin of sitting next to him at the table.

It must be tough for Ben, as the parent on the outs, but he can console himself with this:

At night, when Owen calls out for water, or has a near-to-barf coughing fit, the person he asks for isn't me.

It's Daddy.

No Place Like Home

I'm obsessed with Charles Darwin.

I love that, as a young man, the guy who would come up with the theory of natural selection was told by his father, "you are the shame of your family, and will never amount to anything." (Or words to that effect, don't quote me!)

And then, off he goes on the 5-year trip around the world in the H.M.S. Beagle, and puzzles over why tortoises on different islands in the same chain, that look otherwise the same, have different shell structures, and why finches on all the islands have so many different behaviors - there's even a "woodpecker" finch!

I love, too, how he sat on his research for twenty years, not wanting to be the man who tells the world, 'well, we thought that we were the be-all and end-all, but it seems that that may not be the case.' He apparently wrote to a colleague, "publishing this theory is akin to publishing a confession of murder." (Again, not sure of exact wording.)

Finally, I love that after his voyage on the Beagle, he hardly left home again, like Dorothy coming back from Oz.

Blueberries, Blueberries, Blueberries!

For blueberries, we go to this amazing, indescribable place not far from home.

They provide ancient-looking coffee cans strung on plastic wire; pricing is simple - 1 full coffee can = 4 pounds = 8 dollars.

It is awesome. Owen acts like the bear from Blueberries for Sal, standing at a bush, munching and gulping. The first time we ever went, I offered to buy an extra pound of berries due to my youngest's nibbling. The farmer's response was to wave my money away, saying "nonsense, everybody eats."

As you stand among the bushes, you don't see anyone else (even the people you're there with - you have to call out every once in awhile to the kids), but here and there you can hear voices of other pickers. I love that, on any given day, you'll hear Polish, Indian, Chinese, Spanish. All kinds of people who really care about good, fresh food come here.

Best of all, you leave with 9 pounds of berries, picked in an hour and a half. And then you get to turn it into pies, and muffins, and pancakes...

And jam.

The Creativity Speaker

Tonight I checked out the Life Without School blog (in my blogroll, right over there -->), and found an article about reading that really resonated. And then I went to the author's blog and found an embedded video of Ken Robinson's TED speech on creativity, which made me so happy!

Months ago, I came across this speech and loved it - and then I lost track of the speaker's name, and the conference at which he spoke, so it was very nice to have it fall into my lap tonight.

If you have 20 minutes or so, this is a very worthwile speech to hear. Also, Ken Robinson is a funny guy! Thanks to Jena of Yarns of the Heart; my first visit to her blog won't be my last.

Coffee Junkie

Two days I've been without coffee, and it's killing me.

I'm a special kind of coffee junkie though, because I have this thing about my coffee being Fair Trade and Organic, which means that I need a fourth job in order to support my habit (my first three jobs, mother/home educator, writer, and fitness instructor, are insufficiently lucrative for this purpose.) And the coffee really must be Fair Trade and Organic, otherwise I feel so darned guilty about drinking it that I can't enjoy it.

This week, as our coffee started getting down toward the bottom of the can, I thought to myself, 'I can give it up - I don't need coffee to get through my day.' And here we are two days later, and I'm online looking for coffee again - I've decided that when we're really, really low-down and destitute, then I'll stop drinking coffee.

Wanna hear the punchline to all this? I can only drink decaf.

Garden

All our hard work in the front yard is really paying off now - here's where I spent an hour this morning, playing with Luke and Owen, reading, watering, and just being:

Aaaaaahhhhh.

Hot Stuff

I know I'm a little weird with this, but I happen to love hot soup in summertime. Not so much the cooking of it, which is just barely tolerable, but the result: a steaming bowl of soup, often containing just-harvested veggies.

My latest article at Parents and Kids Online includes a summer favorite, Corn Chowder, as well as ideas for eating well and local this summer.

Maybe you'll read it and decide to get a little weird with the hot soup in summer too!

Oregon Highlights

One huge temptation when blogging, I've found, is to put in every detail of every event, with many, many pictures. But I do my best to avoid this so I don't come off like a senior citizen with a bumper sticker on her car that says, 'Let Me Tell You about My Grandchildren' - thereby alienating you, poor, dear reader.

But, we had such a good time in Oregon! So of the literally hundreds of pictures we took, I'm going to select a few and post them to convince anyone who hasn't visited to do it. Soon.

From the coast-

Here we all are, in a picture taken by a total cutie Canadian photographer who happened to be visiting Ecola state park too.

My husband's whole family, all together; it was a blast.

Alas, I cannot take credit for that last one, Ben took it. Isn't it incredible?

We went to a place called Shipwreck Beach, so named for obvious reasons:

It was one of the coolest places I've ever seen.

Somebody built this lean-to, and it was the perfect spot for sparking the imagination of two young boys.

We spent time around two rivers, the Willamette and the Columbia:

Here's Maltnomah Falls, in the Columbia River Gorge:

We also took a ride up to Mount Hood, which looks to me like the mountain that Smaug the dragon must have lived in in The Hobbit. We got close to the snowy peak, then went fishing in Trillim Lake. Sooo cool!

Although the lake is called Trillium, and I did snag a few pictures of that lovely flower there, the one that took my breath away was this one, which looks like Indian Paintbrush to me. Isn't it beautiful?

Here were some spots we visited that made the kid everyone go, "wheee!":

This playground is at the Air Museum, although because of a much-needed Mommy break, I didn't see it firsthand.

If you do nothing else in Portland, go to the Turbine Room at the OMSI (science museum). It was awesome!

Here's Luke, bouldering with his Auntie.

Finally, the International Rose Test Gardens, which was mind-blowing:

Thanks to Dan, Melanie, Ralph and Stella for a great trip - we hope to be back there soon!

Panic and Gratitude

Longtime readers may remember that I'm not fond of airplane rides. Each time I get off a plane, I fervently hope that I'll never have to get back on one, so this was a tough year because we planned two plane-based trips within 5 months of one another. Urgh!

We just returned from a trip to Portland, Oregon to visit family and (of course) had a great time - more on that tomorrow. For today's post, I want to describe my airplane-mindset, and see if it makes sense to anyone but me. Here goes:

My mind divides into more or less 3 parts, each competing with the others to come out on top. For the duration of the flights, time in the airport, and even the days leading up to flying, it's like a conversation that constantly takes place in my head.

First, panic. "The wing! It's dipping... towards the ground... is that okay? Should it be doing that? Did the pilot get enough sleep last night, is he or she fresh?... Oh no, turbulence, how can the flight attendants be so calm with all this bumping?..."

Then comes postitive thinking: "hey, relax, take a few deep breaths, you need to direct all your energy into thinking positive... yes, the pilot got enough sleep... that dip was very controlled, the people in the cockpit did that on purpose, because we're facing north and must instead face east... so many millions of people are in the air right now, odds are extremely small that you'd be on the plane which crashes..."

And, finally, gratitude. Usually, this starts weeks before the planned flight, in which I begin to notice every little wonderful thing about everything - my husband and kids, the flowers, the feel of water on my skin, the pleasure I get out of walking, singing, chopping vegetables. The day before the flight(s), when I start to wonder, 'is this my last day on earth?,' gratitude kicks into high gear.

And it sounds like this: "If this is my last day on earth, I want to thank the powers that be for giving me this time, for sharing with me my husband and family, and friends... if this is my last moment on earth, let me think about Owen's beautiful eyelashes, and cute little lisp, and let me thank you (whoever you are) for Luke's giggle and for the fact that he's grown so well and happy this year... and thank you too for Ben, the whole of him... I'm grateful to have had so many wonderful people in my life... thank you for this moment."

I know, it's nuts to have this 3-way mind break when preparing for a ride in a plane. But I kind of like it, especially the gratitude part - it brings me right up to living in the moment. Because, someday really will be my last day on earth. And when that day comes, I know there will be some panic.

But there will also be deep, profound gratitude.

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 12

Today's book is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling. I asolutely LOVED all the HP's, but this one still holds a special place in my heart because of Harry's relationship with his guardian. Reading it with Luke, when he was 6, was especially fun because I got to see the light dawn on his face as he figured out what was happening.

Today's picture:

Doesn't this say everything that needs to be said about summer?

Twelve Days of Summer

Day 11

Today's book is Wizard and Glass, the fourth book in Stephen King's Gunslinger saga. This whole saga is Stephen King unlike any I've ever read, and for me, this book is the pinnacle.

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 10

Today's book is Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson. This book makes several persuasive arguments about how people learn.

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 9

Today's book is The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen. I love reading it to my boys because this guy tries, and tries, and tries again before finally making a plane that will fly. I also love it because when Ben reads it, he massacres the French names and the kids correct him!

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 8

Today's book is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. It was a great read, and food for thought too.

Today's picture:

The boy can swim!

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 7

Today's book is Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. When doctors ask me if I'm on a special diet, I say yes: I don't eat food that's been scienfifically messed with. This book is why.

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 6

Today's book is The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacysyn. I LOVE this book; sometimes, I'll randomly open it and just read - it makes me feel hopeful.

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 5

Today's book is Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery by David H. Albert. It's a book of essays that aptly describe why we homeschoolers do what we do - plus, since it's a grouping of short pieces, you can read about one idea in a sitting and then ponder it until you get a chance to read the next one.

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 4

Today's book is Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This book started us on the path to pastured meat, and Pollan is a great writer.

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 3

Today's book is Kids Have All the Write Stuff by Sharon Edwards and Robert Maloy. Homeschooling or not, this book will help you enjoy writing with your children!

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

Day 2

Today's book is Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Many, many times while reading this book I felt like Kingsolver and her family are living life like we soooo want to live.

Today's picture:

Twelve Days of Summer...

In favorite books and pictures!

Day 1

Today's book is The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. I've read it several times, and return to it whenever I feel hopeless about humanity; it never fails to help me feel better.

Today's picture:

Equilibrium Restored

After several days of feeling off-kilter, giving Official What-Happened statements, having the car appraised to show the (lack of) damage, filing accident reports in quadruplicate, and flinching constantly while driving, I think I'm more or less back-to-normal.

In no small part because of friends, family, and support from this very blog - through writing it, and also knowing that people read it, and comment.

So, thanks - future posts will be sunnier!

Look Both Ways

Dear God. (You know it's bad when an atheist invokes a deity.)

Deep breath -

Today, driving through the town in which I grew up, a boy riding a bike failed to look both ways before riding out into the road. He rode right in front of my car.

He's okay, my fender hit the back end of his back tire, and he was knocked off balance. Rather than being thrown from his bike or something. And there was no oncoming traffic at the moment, so when he landed in the middle of the street, he was in no danger from the other lane.

All the way home, after the police and EMTs assured me that it wasn't my fault, after I saw the boy head home on his own two feet, his Mom riding his bike beside him, I thought about randomness.

What if, for instance, he came out from behind that parked car a split second earlier, giving me less time to react? What if I'd leaned over at just that moment to adjust the radio?

What if I'd taken the most direct route to our destination, and never even turned onto that road (wouldn't that have been nice.)

Dear God.