Recess Research

We got back from our indoor park day today to find a link to this article about experts agreeing that recess improves children's behavior and academic performance. Which left me scratching my head thinking, well, duh!

I felt like calling up the experts and saying really loudly, 'how would you like it if you were allowed no time to stretch your legs or breathe the free air all day?' I mean, is this a surprise to anyone, that kids need recess to be at their best?

While I had those experts on the horn, I'd also mention my concern that they seem to think that kids ONLY need recess to behave better, perform well academically, or "resolve conflicts" on the playground, as one expert helpfully points out in the article. What's the matter with kids having recess because it's FUN and they are KIDS?

That may be my biggest beef with public education today: nobody's allowed to do anything just for the fun of it. Everything must have some higher purpose, some lesson learned, some Important Point. Do the experts not realize that kids at their creative, curious, problem-solving best got that way by either daydreaming or enjoying something so much that they just had to know more about it?

As you may have noticed, this is a topic that I feel passionate about; kids are KIDS, not robots that can be programmed to behave or perform.

From The Stone Age Techie

Sledding

One of the best parts of homeschooling is that it gives us time to do what we want, when we want - so yesterday, we took advantage of the excellent, 40 degree weather to get outside!

Here are some pictures from yesterday of our park day group, out in the sunshine:

From winter 08 09

Although we brought five sleds, it's way more fun to try out others'; Luke loved this inflatable tube brought by a friend.

From winter 08 09

Our sled hill happens to be part of a playground/skateboard park/ball field, giving kids lots more to do than just sled. It makes me smile, though, to see them choose rocks, trees, and the big hill over fancy equipment. Kind of like toddlers playing with the box more than the present that came in it!

From winter 08 09

Food always tastes better outside.

From winter 08 09

So does double-strength Hoth Chocolate, a little concoction from The Star Wars Cookbook.

From winter 08 09

One of the kids in our group brought a friend - made out of special cards, and soooo cool.

Back in November, with temperatures still in the 40s and 50s, we parents kind of groaned at the thought of getting together in wintry weather. Yesterday, though, with temps back up to 40-ish from the teens and single digits, the air was full of celebration. It was good fun to get outside, and it's a safe bet that everyone slept well last night.

Inauguration Music

Like many Americans, we here at The Stone Age Techie felt that yesterday was a really, really great day. Relatives sent e-cards expressing sentiments such as "Today, I feel like I'm finally dating a great guy after dating one for 8 years who took all my money," and "Now we can stop pretending we're Canadian!" On Facebook, status updates read "So it is 'nuclear' then?" and "Aimee is eating her first apple of the new administration."

In our house, we sat enthralled through the oath, the speech, the benediction - "when tanks are pounded into tractors!" - and all the wonderful music, by Yitzak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma, and the military orchestra, and all the bands and troupes performing for their new President.

All the excitement made us want to dance, too, so we put together an Inauguration Mix; very eclectic but fun nonetheless. It's got Jim Croce's "You Don't Mess Around With Jim," "Superman" by REM, Fatboy Slim's "Praise You," Me Phi Me's "Revival" - but the song on it that, to me, has come to symbolize these last 8 years and this transition of power is an Irish one, "Red-Haired Mary."

This song is about two Irish traveling people - tinkers - heading to a fair. Tinker #1, whom we'll call Barry, offers to carry a lovely lady tinker, Mary, on his donkey to the fair. When they get there, who should step in and claim Mary as his own but Tinker #2; he needs a name too, so let's think of him as George.

George and Barry have an epic battle for Mary, in which they lose teeth, get shoved through doors, and brawl through many verses. Finally, Mary steps in and chooses her man - and it's Barry that she chooses (how could the song end any other way?)

The last verse is the best: "Now through the fair we rode together/ my black eye and her red hair/ Smiling gaily at the tinkers/ And by God we were a handsome pair!"

Such a good metaphor for what our country's been through, and where we are now - banged up, maybe, but full of hope and happiness.

Ban on Resale Children's Products Update

Anyone who read this post two weeks or so ago will know the panic I felt about how the ban on lead in children's products - a good thing in and of itself - was translated into secondhand, resale, and thrift stores being obliged to toss anything that might contain lead and be for children under 13 or risk prosecution... under the new law for the ban on lead in children's products.

Well, it doesn't look as bad as it did at first; here is information specifically about how this law will treat resale and thrift stores.

The clarification states: "The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold." So far, so good, right?

But then: "However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties."

I guess this will stop most of the clothing intended for children from hitting the nearest landfill. But what is 'likely to have lead content'? Books or toys that talk or play music? Video consoles or handheld games? CDs, DVDs, vidoetapes?

And, if I'm a resale or thrift store owner who could face the 'civil and/or criminal penalties' if something I'm selling turns out to have lead in it, how likely am I - really - to put it on the shelf?

I wouldn't take the chance, if it was my butt on the line - I'd put anything suspicious in the trash.

I wonder how many actual thrift-store owners will?

Homeschooling By the Fire

It is 12 degrees outside, and both my darlings are sick. I mean, stomach bug and fever kind of sick. We have not left the house in six days.

This isn't exactly a recipe for happy children and great home learning, but somehow they have managed both - at least, when they are not running to the bathroom or swooning at 103 degrees.

Here is how we have been getting along:

From winter 08 09

First, behind that lovely plastic supergate is our woodstove. Today, we gave up on the couches as too far away from the stove's warmth, and took our amusements to the floor - much, much cozier.

Second, we are loving The Star Wars Cookbook: Wookie Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes; you can see it there on the left. If you want to make some tasty eats with a Star Wars theme - our favorite so far is the Princess Leia Danish Buns - then here is your book. Plus, you can warm the place up a bit by using the oven!

Third, and certainly most important to Luke, is the card game that finally, finally came in the mail - Mythmatical Battles. If you don't know about these cards yet, and you have a child obsessed with Greek (or Celtic, Norse, or Egyptian) mythology, you need to find out about them. You play a game with them that's a lot like the Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh card games, but with an added challenge: you must solve multiplication equations to know how many defense or attack points you have. It's really fun, even for adults like me who have not loved the magic-card-game craze.

From winter 08 09

You're seeing a special happening up there in that picture: Owen is writing his very first letters. Ever! He's been taken with the T, X, and V lately, and will turn nearly any straight thing he comes upon - race track, pencils, whatever - into these letters. But today was the first time he placed chalk to chalkboard and actually wrote.

Kind of cool, to be there for somebody's first-ever effort at written communication.

Really cool, actually.

Carnival of Homeschooling

Once again, The Stone Age Techie has a post in this week's Carnival of Homeschooling. If you're not familiar with the Carnival, it takes place at a blog (that changes each week, just like a real-world carnival moves from town to town), and homeschooling bloggers contribute posts, often about homeschooling but also about other concerns or joys.

My post is about this freaky lead-resale-consumer-protection-act thing, but most of the posts are more closely related to homeschooling...

Next time I submit a post, it will be about homeschooling - promise!

Indoor Recess...

From winter 08 09

From winter 08 09

Thank goodness for it!

We Must Do Something

According to The Columbus Dispatch, starting on Feb. 10, 2009, when the new law banning lead paint in children's toys will take effect, there will also be a ban on resale of any children's toys! (Go to the article link here.)That means, no thrift shop, resale store, or garage sale will be able to sell pre-owned toys, and may also be taken to mean resale clothes and books, anything that may contain lead and end up worn or used by children.

If true - and I can't find any evidence to the contrary - this will have profound implications, not just for the families who depend on 2ndhand goods, not just for the stores that carry said goods, but for the earth, too. Can you imagine the amount of excess in landfills when these toys, clothes, books, etc. become junk, by order of the US Government? It boggles the mind.

From winter 08 09

Originally, this post was reserved for connections between literature and imagination - Owen is posing as The Headless Horseman up in that picture, and spends most of his spare time "reading" our library's graphic-novel copy of Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow - but for now, I want you to take a good look at Owen's horse.

Purchased last week, from a fantastic thrift shop nearby, for 50 cents! A month from now, unless something changes in the law, that horse would be bound for the junkyard.

Or, put another way, unless you and I do something. Right now.

But what? This link will take you to a place where you can send an email to your congresspeople, and if that's your choice then it is a good choice. I'm going to find out who my rep in the US Congress is, today, and call him or her (and yes, I know how inexcusable it is not to know that already... mea culpa!) and ask that something be done.

Because, if not me, then who?

Please, please help.

Update: Here is a Los Angeles Times article about the problem.

Update #2: I now know who my Congressperson is: Richard Neal, of Massachusetts' 2nd District. The woman I spoke with in his office here in MA was wonderful, and while I called with trepidation - it's nerve-wracking to call a public official, at least, that's how I felt - my concerns were heard and responded to with warmth and respect. Maybe next time, I won't be so nervous! Anyway, according to his office here in MA, Congressman Neal is aware of the implications in this law for the resale of children's toys, clothes, and books, which is a good start. Where this will go from here depends on you:

Please find out who your Congressperson is, and either pick up the phone or follow the link above to send him or her a letter about this issue. And thanks!

Play Dough

Are you feeling the need for something new and different to do with your kids?

Check out my Food and Family column for a few good play dough recipes, and reasons to play with it -

as if you needed any others besides, "Amuse the kids. Now!"

When All is Right With the World

A handful of times in my life, this feeling has come over me that I describe as the feeling that all is right with the world.

It's deja-vu-ish, and has come on in settings as diverse as in a bar in Colorado listening to Jim Saelstrom, to waiting at a stoplight in our town. But the location doesn't seem to matter quite so much as the people I'm with: in the bar, it was with my husband, brothers, sis-in-law, and parents. At the light, it was with Ben and Luke, when Luke was tiny. It happens when a seemingly ordinary moment becomes filled with light and joy, and I can feel my heart soaring. Suddenly, I love the ones I'm with so much - and I'm so, so thankful to have them in my life.

It's been a while since I've had one of these moments, and I'm not sure why. I'm as happy as I've ever been, homeschooling, writing, blogging, living... but last night, I had one.

I was putting food away, surveying the wreckage that was our kitchen, and then I walked out into the living room to Hurricane LukeandOwen, and instead of flipping out about the mess, I... got this feeling of rightness. Ben was surfing the net, one kid was buried in books on a couch and the other was 'being' Santa, delivering toys to us from a sack and ho-ho-ing around.

It just felt so perfect - all was right with the world.

I don't know why I get these, or if anyone else does, but they are so cool! The 5 or 6 I have had over the course of my 37 years have caused me to remember some fairly mundane moments as what they really are: snapshots of ordinary, wonderful life.

They are a reminder to me of what's really important, and I am grateful for that.

Holiday Gifts IV

Here's to a peaceful, happy, productive and FUN 2009.

Holiday Gifts, Take 3

Here is our favorite interpretation of Pachelbel's Canon:

Christmas Wedding

This Saturday, a friend of 27 years - since 7th grade, we've been buddies! - tied the knot. It was a great wedding, both because we LOVE the bride and groom, and because so many of us have been friends for so many years. Here are some photos -

From winter 08 09

The Bride. A week or so before the wedding, I had a dream about her, looking just like a princess at her wedding; and so she did!

From winter 08 09

The Groom. Did I mention how much we who have known Debbie for so many years LOVE him? He is awesome.

From winter 08 09

Their first dance.

From winter 08 09

And here we all are! This picture is mostly Clockers - our high school mascot was, oddly enough, a clock - and a few spouses.

From winter 08 09

This Clocker was such a good sport - he got stuck being the sailor for "YMCA" and he totally rose to the occasion.

Here are some photos of wedding-goers:

From winter 08 09

From winter 08 09

From winter 08 09

From winter 08 09

From winter 08 09

From winter 08 09

That last one is Ben and I, after a few drinky-poohs...

I think we all realize how incredibly rare it is to have so many lifelong friends. That rarity makes these friendships all the sweeter; it was wonderful to be all together and celebrate the marriage of a Ya-Ya sister.

Holiday Gifts, Part Deux

I know that you, like me, wait every year for this one:

Carnival of Homeschooling

The Stone Age Techie is in this week's Carnival of Homeschooling!

I chose the post Hidden Depths to submit, not in small part because I love looking at those pictures of 7 year-old Luke summiting the climbing wall...

And because it's good to be reminded of all the amazing things my boy(s) can do.

Holiday Gifts, Take 1

Happy solstice from the Stone Age Techie!

What we're doing here over the next couple of weeks is, we're posting stuff that we like. Here's the first installment:

Enjoy!

On Writing

Back before we started this whole homeschooling thing, Luke's anxiety about school was largely due to the copious amounts of writing required of him in Kindergarten, First, and Second grade. We would get notes home about how he was unable to work independently, more likely to be staring off into space than getting his jobs done, unable to get to the "fun" stuff because he couldn't concentrate. For us at home, who could not tear Luke away from projects and books he was really interested in even to come and eat dinner, this was mind-boggling; how could he possibly be unable to focus?

The answer, it turned out, was two-fold. First, he concentrates wonderfully, on stuff he's interested in. Two, he is emphatically not interested in writing.

Our first months of homeschooling passed, with parents making no demands upon his time, and Luke reading anything he could get his hands on, asking questions, exploring, playing, conversing. So long as he didn't have to write, he was happy - but I worried, especially on those rare occasions when Luke would write something and find he'd forgotten how to make, for example, a three. I kept my concerns to myself and gave Luke as much time as needed, mainly because my gut told me to. But sometimes it was hard.

Then, a funny thing happened: he began to write spontaneously. Lists, letters to his favorite Harry Potter characters, an accounting of his allowance money and how it gets spent are all part of Luke's repertoire. Not coincidentally, these are all topics of great interest to him.

Last Friday, I read this great post about teaching writing at my blogosphere-friend Jena's page, Yarns of the Heart. Jena is more towards the graduation end of homeschooling, with one in college and two younger teens, so reading about how she handled 'school' when they were small has been wonderful, and very reassuring.

Jena writes, "Here are some specifics for today's student:

1. Let them read.

2. Let them think and express opinions about what they read.

3. Respect their opinions and insights so they will feel the freedom to talk honestly with you.

4. Share your own insights and wonder at a writer's ability to communicate.

5. Don't kill the fun of writing by pointing out spelling or grammar mistakes all the time."

Since reading this post, I have stopped worrying; this list is, quite literally, how Luke spends his days.

Already, he's a capable, intelligent boy. Our hope is that he will grow up to use writing as a communication tool, a written extension of his voice.

Personally, I don't think he will be able to help it; communication, just like Harry Potter or his allowance, is of great interest to him.

Laryngitis

Here are a few fun things to do with homeschoolers when you're sick -

Watch The Princess Bride, possibly the best movie ever made.

Send your 8 year-old to CoolMath.com (and then after you kick him off the computer, get hooked on it yourself).

Put the 4 year-old in front of Sesame Street, then pull out all his knight stuff and let him roar his way around the house. Think to yourself, "at least it's happy noise..."

Pull out the play dough. Because you can't talk, which if you are like me creates an intense no-speech vacuum, marvel at the interesting, funny, intelligent things your children say.

Realize how glad you are that you have these little beings to keep you company.

Rehearsal

You may have heard that we're in a recession?

I have been reminded many times over these panicky recent months of a book passage I heard read out over the summer, about a young university professor who cannot make ends meet on her crummy adjunct salary. She'd repeat to herself again and again, as she ate her one solid meal a day or walked miles because she was unable to afford a car or subway fare:

"This is not the face of poverty. I am not the face of poverty."

As the economy has fallen further and further into the tank, and friends and family have barely avoided the pink slip - or not - I think it's safe to say that we are worrying more and more about what the new year will bring.

Which reminds of a book that I enjoyed years ago, Sammy's Hill, by Kristin Gore, about a Capitol Hill staffer. My favorite thing about Samantha, the heroine, had very little to do with the flow of the story, but made her very real to me - it was what Samantha did when she was worried about something.

If she woke up one morning worrying about what it might be like to have an arm amputated, or to be struck blind, she didn't let it bother her. Instead, she tried to find out what it might be like to live like that, if the worst happened. She bound her arm, or covered her eyes and, once she'd determined that she could get by just fine, she didn't have to worry anymore.

As a person who has, shall we say, a slight penchant for worrying, I love that this character embraces her fears, freely admits to them - and then figures out what she can do about them.

Now that fretting about the economy has become a national pastime, I've decided to name my fear and, in the Samantha spirit, see what I can do about it. So, here goes:

I'm worried that we may find ourselves in a big ol' depression.

What I'm going to do about it is, rehearse - practice using limited funds for food, clothing, and shelter. Probably, this will mean more bean suppers, less cash laid down for frivolous stuff, thinking hard about whether or not we really need that new... whatever.

I have a good feeling about this, oddly enough. The upcoming holidays will be no less bright - just more homemade. We put up so much this fall that food in the short term (next several months) is all set; in my new rehearsal mindset, what we have will simply have to do. The CSA is paid for, so we'll have veggies this summer; Ben and I are hellbent on expanding our own edible garden and getting a few hens this spring.

I hope that we will find that practicing being cash-poor will result in enriching us further, that we can be just as happy or perhaps even happier than we are now.

I hope that we will discover that yes, we have the will and the way to get by on less.

I hope that we'll truly be able to say, "This is not the face of poverty. We are not the face of poverty."

Weekend Pursuits

I patched pants:

From winter 08 09

Luke set the dinosaurs up all over the living room:

From winter 08 09

And Owen did really cool things with play dough:

From winter 08 09

I still haven't figured out how exactly he did that with the play dough.

But I know this: it is fun to have kids who can figure out how to play with limited adult intervention and no, or at least few, injuries to people. Or furniture.