The Playful Spirit

Ice Mess

2012-01-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's been almost 5 days without internet and half of my neighborhood is still without power! In the eight years we've lived in the Pacific Northwest, I've never seen such outages! But... internet is back and I love technology :) So, here's the latest cute antics and I'll get caught up!

Cute antics:

• "I knew that pacifically that basketball he liked." (That would be "especially". He was telling me how he traded a ball on the recess playground because he knew which one was another kid's favorite.)

• singing "Oh my god, I'm the best kid around in the universe!" (He's been playing with semicolons and actually used one correctly. When I told him how long it took me to understand semicolons, this was his response.)

• responding to my statement that "I've got to figure out what's going on with this body of mine."[headaches] with, "Oh, it's being hazardous to your health."

• requesting, "Would you gore me with a fang or a sword or a scimitar or a knife?" (?!?!?!)

• during one of his rare bored comments, I suggested the Persians against the Greeks with legos and then I wondered if he had Greeks yet and he said, "Nope, I'm still at the Mycaneans."

• trying to close the hot dog package with tape

Decked out in three shirts, three pants, and three pairs of socks so he could independently explore the beginning snows of the blizzard

Trustee from the Toolroom Review

2012-01-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

When I was doing a brief scan of Facebook, I saw this note from Yaron Brook:

I almost never recommend books on this page. I am not a literary expert and don't like making recommendations about things I am not expert in. However, I just finished a book that is so anti-modern, that is - it is so benevolent, pro-mind, pro-business, pro-life, with not a hint of cynicism -- that I have to recommend it to you. If you want to experience the world as it should be (and to some extent once was) then read this novel:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WUYPYW/ref=docs-os-doi_0

I was intrigued and reserved the audio version from the library. After finishing, I recommended it to my dad (an avid reader) and an engineering friend and then... I just kept thinking about all the endearing aspects of this novel and all the different ways it enchanted me.

I love the way the main character treats children with respect and kindness. He is so tentative and yet he approaches his niece with the honesty, warmth, and a genuine view of her as worthy of being engaged rationally. There's a moment early on when he shares some frightening news in what I find an absolutely perfect parenting moment. I was all grins and just so impressed with finding this moment in literature.

I love that the main character is an independent thinker without coming across as a conspicuous hero. He evaluates his brother's actions for himself and decides what he thinks. He acknowledges feelings like fear and thinks for himself about what his next best action should be. He shows attention to detail, doing things right, because he has evaluated the results of both choices. Finally, he chooses his career in a manner that disregards consideration of norms- he focuses on what will make him most happy and achieves that feat.

I love that this book shows a man doing something totally out of his norm, but totally consistent with his character, and... succeeding. The main character is not the only one that does this; the simple captain also achieves this kind of success. Dr. Brook is correct that this book presents a gloriously benevolent story. I think the lesson is there for everyone that such successes are possible to virtuous people pursuing rational values. Again, this book does not present virtuous people as super heroes, but regular people thinking independently and making their own choices.

So, I recommend this book to everyone. I'd never heard of the author (Nevil Shute) before, but I just finished listened to another one of his novels (A Town Like Alice) which was also delightful (but not as much so as Trustee from the Toolroom). Here's to literature that nurtures us to introspect, learn, and grow.

Let it snow!

2012-01-16T15:04:00.000-08:00

It's so pretty outside with snow borders on everything, but not much depth. For the last two days, we've had these brief blizzards where we get an inch and then it melts and then six hours later the same thing happens. It's perfect weather for snuggling at home, but it's not that cold if you need to go out :)

Other things to share:

This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Cute antics:

• after another homework session where he was cranky and showing poor effort, I commented "It seems like you're saying to yourself. 'I hate this. I want it to be over.' and then you take it out on me and neither of us are happy about that." I suggested he say to himself, "I'm going to do this once and I'm going to do it well." He paused, looked thoughtful, and then drawled, "Ya… I think that you have a point there."

• requesting, "Would you let me squirm!"

• when poked in the stomach for being obnoxious, he giggled "I like that insult!"

• reading about farrows in a tree while reading the Greek myths, Cameron interrupted and said, "Farrows! We're not anywhere near Egypt!"

• rough housing so his shirt got pulled up, he declared "You are really making me very exposed."

• laughing exuberantly when I pointed out Orpheus and Cerberus are like fluffy and the trio in Harry Potter (He thought Rowling had made it up completely and felt like he was now in on the secret.)

• bargaining with himself, "Three pieces of cheese and a touch of rosemary for M&Ms."

[Mom watching has he has a teaspoon of some spice and downs it. Tosses the spoon in the sink and bolts to gulp a cup of water.]

"It scalded my throat."

[I showed him rosemary is greenish, but he insisted it was red… like on eggs. Andrew used to put paprika on eggs. I showed him the paprika and then identified his "rosemary" as… cayenne pepper.]

• sending a thank you note for lego figurines he wrote, "The lego people got turned into the persian Empire. Except one who was turned into the best French lieutenant."

• placing his fingers like on the home row and tapping his ribs, "I'm typing on them."

Enjoying a gluten-free chocolate volcano cake… he had me cut it into quarters and heat each piece so he could relish it in sections.

Greek Myths

2012-01-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

As we've finally reached Athens in our ancient history class, I've begun reading the Greek Myths to my kiddo again. He wasn't ready before, but he certainly is now and we're making it a nightly snuggle time :)

Other things to share:
• This week's Objectivist Round Up

• my friend Jason has put together a cool website connecting those people who want to read Ayn Rand books but can't afford it with those willing to donate: http://freeobjectivistbooks.org/

• delightful readings of these two paintings:

http://www.luctravers.com/1/post/2011/01/creating-a-memory.html

http://www.luctravers.com/1/archives/07-2011/1.html

This week's Cute antics:

• commenting when I didn't get the dice roll I wanted, "Your wish has been ignored."

• sticking the thermometer in his belly button and saying, "My tummy is 97.6."

• asking, "Did the Jews invent scissors?" (I'm not sure where that came from. We were opening a box. He added, "Maybe they could use scimitars." We clearly missed some connection there.)

• after hearing that Jews were in every country he said, "Oh, Jews are conquering everybody." (Um, we had a little history review about Jewish history not involving much conquering.)

• proposing that we go to visit my parents and spend the night in the Ritz. [I grabbed the iPhone to let him consider the use of his funds and found the Ritz in San Francisco cost 400-700 dollars per night.] We had fun imagining and Cameron finally concluded, "We're not going to the Ritz."

• contemplating the Middle East situation he got this exasperated voice and declared, "Alright, let's take the founding fathers and substitute them for these presidents Teddy and Truman and Wilson and.. " (He went on and was quite clear that the founding fathers needed to live at least a thousand years so he'd be happier with history.)

• finishing shuffling the cards and calling me from the kitchen, "Parcheesi has descended from interest. 'Hit the Deck' has ascended to interest. Will your excellency come over please?"

Before Parcheesi "descended from interest"

Arriving to listen to Greek myths wearing a pajama top on his top and a different pajama top on his bottom… I'm used to the backwards and inside out clothing, but this was different.

Sick Kiddo

2011-12-31T22:15:00.000-08:00

Fever, chills, nausea, aches and pains... poor kid! He's spent hours listening to me read and watching Daddy play Zelda.

He had me smiling when he said he wanted a time changer so he could go forwards from being sick to when he's healed. Then he pondered and figured that he would be sick some time in the future and he'd be closer to that. I love this kid's jiffy thinking :)
Other cute antics:

• his parents' dinner prep conversation amused him… Andrew was preparing the turkey when some pieces escaped and he laughed,
"Run away organs!"
Then this giant bag of bay leaves got away from me and I laughed, "Cowabunga bay leaves!"
• getting "so excited I went in the wrong door" when he was looking for the bathroom before opening presents Christmas morning

• responding to his father's purchase of an $80 glorified box with, "Dad, you're…." (The tone of voice clearly said "crazy" and Andrew and I were laughing so hard we cried. Apparently, Andrew was testing the TapBuy product and didn't get around to canceling the order in time.)

... and here's the usual link to this week's Objectivist Round Up.

Holiday Letter 2011

2011-12-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest cute antics, fun links, and I'll append the holiday letter which got out late via regular mail (so will make for some slightly belated holiday cheer)! Here's to a glorious holiday season :)

Cute antics:

• pulling off his socks at his athlete mentor's house and starting a conversation about socks, "I don't like socks. Socks are obnoxious. [pause for thought] They are criminals." (Well, he's his father's son! Socks almost never last more than a few minutes after either of them get home.)

• an old picture of him playing naked in the back yard came up on my screen saver and he commented, "I'm naked? I'm not always naked."

• responding to the interaction of Andrew teasing me and me saying Hey! with a mumbled, "Improper!" (After laughing because we thought he was referring to the teasing, we laughed again when we found out he was referring to me saying "Hey". Whenever a person says, "Hey", Flat Stanley's mom always says, "Hay is for horses.")

• coining a new term for small, "minisceropic". (It's a combination of minuscule and microscopic.)

• trying to wheedle my phone out of my hands by saying, "Could I help you play some toy bot [one of his favorite iPhone games]. I could advise you. You wouldn't be completely helpless." (Subtle, so subtle!)

• spraying air freshener on his chest so he smelled like a citrus grove

• listening to me read these directions:

"How are these words alike? Add more.
hand, hands, foot, feet…"

and continuing, "cardiovascular system, cardiovascular systems!"

(This kid is just too darn delightful :) )

• getting a little confused about a particular term… he came back from playing with his athlete mentor and told me he'd seen a "silent duck" (That would be slam dunk.)

• telling me he turned a tree stump into lemonade. (It took me a minute, but they had turned this stump into a balance beam and he saw this as like when Junie B. Jones turns lemons into lemonade i.e. making something pleasant from something not.)

• bringing home a diagram about different holidays with this written under Los Pasosts "baby Gzos" and this written under Hanukah "no babes".

• "It's about time you be cautious!" (Talking to good guy on the screen who was in danger in a Hitchcock film.)

• "Mt Rushmore is not supposed to be a jungle gym!" (Commenting on the movie North by Northwest)

Three delightful videos to share:
• A draw yourself stickman that becomes animated- http://www.drawastickman.com/
• A clip of a porcupine that is too darn cute… I had no idea they could make such sounds- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGz8jcbJjRw&sns=em
• A comedy routine of Three Little Pigs turned into a Shakespearean tale-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxoUUbMii7Q&feature=share

This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Holiday Letter (click on image to view each page):

Nurturing Self At This Time of Year

2011-12-20T17:09:00.000-08:00

As I was doing my monthly review of my Getting Things Done System, I came across my roll of "nurturing-self". This is what I have written:

Purpose: I want to enjoy the happiness of living my life. I will nuture myself when challenges and stresses make that more difficult.

Vision: I will always have that reserve of inner strength that comes from self esteem and self valuing. I will care and nuture my self as one of my primary responsibilties as a human being. I will enjoy gathering together ideas for ways to achieve this goal and anticipating the pleasures to come. I will take time to pay attention to my emotions. I will address any feelings of stress, anger, guilt, or sadness promptly so they have no time to grow into big problems. I will focus my attention on cherishing the joys of living.

This is the time of year when keeping everything organized is especially helpful to me. I love that I'm always clear that I'm using my limited time as a match for what I think is most important, which really helps me be able to deal well with what I can't get done too.

Underneath my "vision", I have goals (1-2 year, 3-5 year, lifetime) and underneath those I have actions that help me make the goals come to pass which help me reach my vision. I also have the "someday maybe" section where I keep track of ideas that I don't want to do yet, but may help me fulfill this vision in the future. So, for example, under this vision:

1-2 Year Goals contains "Invest in monthly massage"

3-5 Year Goals contains "Go to OCON again"

Lifetime Goals contains "Return to New Zealand, include the south island"

Someday Maybe Contains "Try out playing a trumpet or other horn"

When I go through these organized lists, I reconnect with my rolls, goals, visions, and the ways I am going to live an efficacious life. I have parenting, spouse, owner, and teacher rolls among others which each have this rich process there for me use as a tool. And, as a pre-requisite to doing any of the others well, nurturing myself, being my own best friend, is at the top of that list. I'd love to hear what others do to nurture themselves during the holidays. Here's to a delightful season with many joyful moments.

Objectivist Round Up

2011-12-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the December 8, 2011 edition of objectivist round up. As a good December quote, I thought I'd share this entry from the Ayn Rand Lexicon:

[In answer to the question of whether it is appropriate for an atheist to celebrate Christmas:]

Yes, of course. A national holiday, in this country, cannot have an exclusively religious meaning. The secular meaning of the Christmas holiday is wider than the tenets of any particular religion: it is good will toward men—a frame of mind which is not the exclusive property (though it is supposed to be part, but is a largely unobserved part) of the Christian religion.

The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthlyform—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .

The best aspect of Christmas is the aspect usually decried by the mystics: the fact that Christmas has been commercialized. The gift-buying . . . stimulates an enormous outpouring of ingenuity in the creation of products devoted to a single purpose: to give men pleasure. And the street decorations put up by department stores and other institutions—the Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors—provide the city with a spectacular display, which only “commercial greed” could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle.

Here's to a delightful holiday season and, now, on with the round up:

C.W. presents Current Decline in the Availability of Pharmaceuticals posted at Krazy Economy, saying, "We can see the impact of government controlled medicine today in the European problems in paying for drugs. It is a big deal in several countries and is getting worse. There are some similar problems in the U.S. It could spread."

Joseph Kellard presents Newspaper Story Reunites POWs posted at The American Individualist, saying, "A story I wrote in 2003 about two World War II POWs that reunited after one veteran read a story about a fellow vet and recalled meeting him in a German prison camp 58 years earlier."

Ross England presents I Won!/Read Atlas Shrugged! posted at Think Twice, saying, "I post a link to my winning entry in ARI's Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest, and I encourage my readers to read Atlas Shrugged."

Diana Hsieh presents Winter Dogs Will Wrestle posted at NoodleFood, saying, "Our crazy dogs wrestle and play in the snow! It happens many times each day, but I can't help but smile whenever I see it."

Edward Cline presents Portrait of a Police State posted at The Rule of Reason, saying, "The chief thrust of this article is that none of this would occur, or even be thought "necessary," if we had eliminated states that sponsor terrorism after 9/11. But when one reads the text of Senate Bill 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), one gets the impression that many in positions of power and influence, particularly Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, have a vested interest in sustaining an indefinite "war" against terrorism."

Ari Armstrong presents My Year In Review posted at Free Colorado, saying, "Reviews my year's work writing articles, posting videos, and more."

Gene Palmisano presents Misnomer of the Day « The Metaphysical Lunch posted at The Metaphysical Lunch, saying, "Defending freedom one blog at a time."

Blazing Truth presents Financing of Public Goods in a Free Market Society posted at Blazing Truth, saying, "Who says Public Goods can't be financed without taxes? Here's 15 ways to fund roads and healthcare without forced coercion from the State. Let's be more imaginative."

Santiago and Kelly Valenzuela presents New Startup Hopes to House Immigrants in International Waters posted at Mother of Exiles, saying, "A new startup company plans to house immigrant labor just offshore in international waters. It's a wonderful idea, but a sad necessity."

Rachel Miner presents Naked's Not News:Take Two posted at The Playful Spirit, saying, "This is an update on how being naked around my kiddo is changing as he grows."

Atul Kapur presents The Certainty in Quantum Physics posted at Wit Lab, saying, "In layman terms, I explain why rather than being a refutation of factual knowledge, quantum physics is a testament to the fact that knowledge is possible, and can be obtained with certainty."

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Naked's Not News: Take Two

2011-12-07T21:21:00.000-08:00

Things have started to change and I'm enjoying observing the process of my son finding privacy desirable. This is what I wrote about a year and a half ago:

"This is more of a musing post because I'm not sure where our parenting practices will end up. So, as a new parent, it's no big deal for my infant to see me naked. Changing a dirty shirt, getting into pajamas, I didn't hide from his baby gaze. Fast forward to toddlerhood and it was helpful for him to see us using the bathroom as part of toilet training. Again, no big deal for us to help him change dirty clothing or to change our own. Now, I have a six year old and I would have thought that, by now, nudity would be different. To my surprise, it's still the same. Literally, naked's not news. He can dress and bathe himself, but if we're both ready to rinse off hot tub chemicals at the same time, we'll get into my shower together for two minutes (it's the only one with a hand-held sprayer). If I'm changing into pajamas and he comes in with a question, I don't duck behind a door or sternly invoke the privacy card. Basically, he has complete comfort with the body as something not to be hidden and as something normal. These interactions have remained consistently positive.

Now, I'm curious when this is going to change? I can imagine it will get to a point where our current openness is no longer appropriate i.e. a teenager might have a confusing response..."

So, now I have an eight year old and things are changing. Now, if he changes he'll streak! He'll run naked between bathroom and bedroom instead of the non-issue stroll. He always closes bathroom doors and he doesn't want to change into a bathing suit in front of me. The interesting thing is that it's all on his side. I mean, he doesn't care if I'm changing and being naked is still "not news" to him regarding me, but he finds privacy more important for him. He still has no shame in his body, it's just that the privacy issue has become more important to him. It's really curious how one sided this is and I've asked him if it bothers him when he finds me changing. He says it doesn't, but I did ask him to let me know if at some point it does. I'm sure our privacy norms will adjust at some point.

As I wrote last time, "Clearly, there is a connection between nudity and sexuality at some point. I don't want him to be confused when he starts making that connection. For now, I'll observe and enjoy how purely joyous he feels within his own body." I'm thinking that I'll keep the same approach that has been working. This is a really an intriguing process to watch him developing new understanding of what is private and what he doesn't want to share. I love that this is happening without him feeling embarrassed or ashamed of his body.

He'll get over peek a boo some day :)

Smiles

2011-12-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

Aside from this week's Objectivist Round Up, I have lots of cute antics to share from my kiddo who lays on the smiles:

• "Barbarian is my best curse word."

• responding to our statement that he was a little guy and one glass of wine was enough with a muttered, "Little guy. Harumph!"

• when I was talking about the next adventure story I was going to read him I said it was creepy and he said, "Creeeeeeepy? I love creepy!"

• "I hate eating on the job, but I have to keep up my strength while I'm looking." (He was searching for clues like Nate the Great when he decided he needed a snack.)

• making a sour face with a full pucker when taking a sip of whiskey and saying, "Ohhhh, so good!" (For some reason, he really wanted to like it, but all the body language didn't match the words!)

• telling me, "I conjecture that I'll breathe tomorrow." (Clearly enjoying our Sherlock Holmes reading!)

• trying to catch me at hangman with the word "punctual"

• getting a full crowd laugh when he joined us at a debate. He knows so much about history, so we thought we'd give it a try. We only told him our job in the debate was to listen to the "verbal battle" and see what we each thought made sense. When the debater speaking for individual rights (Brook) was responding to the big government debater, Brook said that it was true that the system today was wanted by most Americans and nobody agreed with him to which my kiddo piped up shrilly, "I DO!" (That's my confident, independent thinker.)

Soaring

2011-11-27T19:48:00.000-08:00

At some point in my life I wanted the experience of swimming with a dolphin. I did that about ten years ago and relished every moment. The other experience in this category of sometime-in-my-life-one-time-sparkles was flying in a hot air balloon and... I did it last week. It was so delightful to see the sun rise and the glory of the fall colors over Napa Valley. I also loved the feel the perfect silence whenever the burner was off. There are plenty of other experiences on my list of life pursuits, but these two were unique in their nature and the adventure being solidly in the once-is-enough category. It was very cool to check this off and know the memories will be mine forever.

History Play

2011-11-16T21:26:00.000-08:00

I am an avid fan of Scott Powell's History at Our House program. He makes history so interesting and vibrant and real and approachable for students! I love all the examples that history has for teaching about choices and how much I can use those examples in our daily conversations. Just yesterday, when I was talking about my best friend, my son asked me why were friends and I started my answer by bringing up a lesson from history that Mr. Powell teaches. Friends share values, not disvalues. "The enemy of my enemy is my temporary ally." Considering that my best friend and I have nurtured a friendship over last 15 years, there's nothing temporary about it; it is based on shared values. Anyway, my point in this post is to share two games that I've been using to keep this awesome historical knowledge fresh for my son: History Go Fish and History Taboo.

History Go Fish is pretty self explanatory to set up. I go online and find pictures of the historical figures that have been covered in class. I paste two copies into a document that I label with the figure's name and print on photo paper. Voila! Go Fish cards with historical figures. That is just the start though! After he gets the matches down, we don't use the name anymore! For example, "Do you have Mr. Peace-Without-Victory?" "Would you happen to have the man who surrendered at Appomatox courthouse?" "Do you have the unifier of upper and lower Egypt?" By the time we play the game a couple times, he's had a full review of American history and everything he's learned so far of ancient history and… he loves it. He loves putting on that sickly sweet voice when he picks a card that I've already asked about and it's so funny to hear him asking in his darling tones, "Oh dear sweet mother, do you have Mr. International Police Power Teddy?" I can even use it to add information that he hasn't learned yet so the game gets more and more fun. So, that's game number one, but I have another one too :)

Page one of many before I've cut it up into cards

I fell in love with Taboo at a friend's house and thought this could be another great tool for cementing historical knowledge and having fun. The idea of the game is that you have a word which you're trying to get the other person to guess, but you can't use four other listed words which are taboo. The game is played with four people and timers and is much more competitive, but I just used the idea to put together a list and start playing with my son. I was the one trying to get him to guess and boy did I get to do an extensive review as I tried to get him to say the historical term without using the forbidden, taboo words! He absolutely loved the challenge and was again getting a really rich review of the material.

For example, if I had this card:

William the Conquerer

Norman

Duke

King

England

I could talk all about vassals and vikings and France and the country across the channel. But, I couldn't say the name and I couldn't use the words Norman, duke, or England. One of the great things to do after he guesses is to share the words that I couldn't say, because that adds to cementing the knowledge too. For example,

Louisiana Purchase

Napoleon

Thomas Jefferson

1803

money

After, I've worked my way around talking about a leader of France who traded land for something that goes in a bank with the third president of the United States. I eventually get a guess and lots of kid giggles and he gets a solid review of this historical event.

I've put together pages of these in columns (which I'm glad to share, just send me an email or leave a note) and I pull them out every couple months for a rousing game. I have to add the new material when he's sleeping though, because he's so eager he keeps trying to sneak up and see the Taboo clues while I'm writing them!

One page of many that provides lots of historical play (click image for more clarity)

So, I'm thoroughly enjoying how my son is able to learn from the events of the past and to use them in making his own choices. If you have found other ways of making learning into games, I'd love to hear about them. This has been such a delightful way to continue enjoying history for me and my kiddo.

My child the budding chef

2011-11-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

Cute antics

• declaring before sitting down to eat, "I need a tooth pick for luck."

• Dousing his yogurt in paprika

• continuing his new chef phase with this:

All I did was go out to pick up the mail from the mailbox! When I came back, the rest of my goat cheese brie birthday present was on a plate, doused with maple syrup. He then proceeded to add mango salsa and chocolate chips. I especially love that he set himself up with a placemat and all the silverware… he considered himself chef, waiter, and client all in one :)

Objectivist Round Up

2011-11-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the November 10, 2011 edition of objectivist round up. I tried to find a good quote about patience since working with Blog Carnival has been a challenge this time. However, this is the quote that captured me to start off today's edition of the Objectivist Round Up.

Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.
Ayn Rand 1946 ~Personal notes on The Strike [later Atlas Shrugged]

Rachel Miner presents Review of "Playful Parenting" posted at The Playful Spirit, saying, "I share some parenting gems that I picked out of the book "Playful Parenting" by Lawerence Cohen."

Benjamin Skipper presents Godiva's 85% Santo Domingo posted at Capital Bean, saying, "Ayn Rand liked Godiva chocolates. Let's try one!"

Darius Cooper presents Uncle Tom's Cabin posted at Practice Good Theory, saying, "Well-written Christian Romanticism, in a book that influenced history"

Alexander Marriott presents The Curse of the Internet: Fake Historical Quotes posted at Alexander Marriott's Wit and Wisdom, saying, "Tired of random and suspicious quotes from Thomas Jefferson and others being used to prove every possible position? Me too. Here I expose some common bogus quotes and offer some tips on the use of historical quotes and how to spot fakes."

Edward Cline presents Firebombing Freedom of Speech posted at The Rule of Reason, saying, "There have been numerous fine articles condemning the November 2nd firebombing of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper in Paris that dared mock Islam and front-paged a cartoon of Mohammad with the balloon caption, “One hundred lashes if you don’t die laughing.” Needless to say, this act of terrorism is just another instance of censorship by force."

Joshua Gregg presents Liberty and the OWS Movement posted at Persona Non Grata, saying, "Until the OWS movement sheds its collectivism, their message will always be hard to swallow by those who value liberty."

Rational Jenn presents Watching the Wheels posted at Rational Jenn, saying, "Hearing a song on the radio got me reflecting on my decision to leave my former career to raise and educate my children at home."

Santiago and Kelly Valenzuela presents Decreasing Immigration is Bad for America posted at Mother of Exiles, saying, "Latino immigration to America has slowed to a trickle since 2008, but is this as good for America as conservatives would have you believe?"

Paul Hsieh presents In Praise of Capitalist Inequality posted at We Stand FIRM, saying, "My latest OpEd for PJMedia discusses why economic inequality in a capitalist system is something good, not something to be condemned."

Atul Kapur presents Watt and Edison Contra Determinism posted at Wit Lab, saying, "Determinism is the doctrine behind the criticism commonly levied against innovators that "if not him, somebody else would have done it". How did Thomas Edison and James Watt respond to their critics?"

Paul Hsieh presents Hip Fracture Update: 10 Weeks posted at NoodleFood, saying, "Why I'm "screwed" -- but in a good way!"

Diana Hsieh presents NoodleCast #104: Live Philosophy in Action Webcast posted at NoodleFood, saying, "The Rationally Selfish Webcast becomes the Philosophy in Action Webcast! Here's the first episode!"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
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Review of "Playful Parenting"

2011-11-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen for my book club and wanted to document some thoughts. I took a long time to read this book and I think a big part of that was that the author seems to repeat himself so much. There are some gems though that can be sifted out of the many examples and repetitive directions.

The first thing I found while reading was that I had this overwhelming desire to go play with my kid. The way Cohen presents play as so healing and nurturing and connection building, he makes it seem like some decadent chocolate treat that you just have to go enjoy right now! Early on in the reading, I put the book down and crawled on my hands and knees into our library where my son was reading. I nuzzled his elbow and gave a little kiss. Silence. I nuzzled the hip and gave another kiss. Little giggle. By the end, my husband wanted to know what was going on because we were laughing so hard and just enjoying ourselves so thoroughly. One of Cohen's rules is "Follow the giggles" and I was certainly enjoying it in this context :) So, the first gem was just looking at play again as a way to connect (reminds me of one of my favorite posts here about humor.

Second, I was a little dubious of his suggestion that older kids would find it funny if parents pretended goofy things. l was dealing with a common situation in my home, my kiddo was being too rough again and again and I was getting hurt and angry. I said, "Let's pretend you're my little boy and I'm your exasperated mommy and if you touch me one more time I'M GOING TO…" He giggled. Then he touched me so gently with one finger tip. I play shrieked with agony and fury. He giggled and finger tip touched me again and so the circle went with solid fun and no more hurts. I'm intrigued. I've been amazed by his glee at this kind of pretend and how giggly he gets if I pretend along with him.

The third idea that I found worth noting was that it may be worth joining in a child's pretend play, even if you find it deadly dull, as a way to help them feel heard and learn to think about other options. The example Cohen gave was of his daughter playing with barbies in a way that the woman was always powerless and needed to be saved by a prince. It drove him batty and he hated it, but if he tried to play and alter the script, she would get furious that he was playing "wrong" and adhere to the melodrama even more tightly. He found that if he played it her way and made her feel secure in exploring that idea, she was willing to consider other ways dear Barbie could act. The idea of joining in an older child's game that I find boring seemed like a negative choice, a sacrifice that would promote feelings of irritation. However, I remember how much I did this when my son was younger and how clearly I understood that I needed to respect his context of delight at peek a boo or a shape sorting game. I wonder if I joined in his video game of exploding worms or his legos that do some fantastical things again and again and again… I wonder what would happen if I did more than listen supportively and got down on the floor with him in this situations that don't captivate me. Cohen acknowledges that playing with kids this way, on their terms, is exhausting and he recommends setting aside a delineated amount of time so you don't wear yourself out. His experience in play therapy is that it helps children connect and feel safe and heard and valued.

I have some more thinking to do about next actions, but I'm glad I read the book. If anyone else read the book, I'm curious "What do you think?"

Another vote for...

2011-11-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

... History at Our House! My kiddo decided to dress up as a "historical newspaper". I took some interesting dictation to make this costume :)

Those are pictures of the founding fathers and Lee/Grant and Napoleon and Wilson and Ferdinand and Isabella and Columbus and Da Gama... clearly this daily news didn't happen on the same day, but he had such a grand time showing off his knowledge :)

Sweet Spontaneous Moment

2011-10-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

I was just typing up something that I didn't want my kiddo to see and when he came over and I covered his eyes, he asked me to write "I love you" in the color salmon (the crayon color palate was on the desktop). After that, he wanted it in different colors. I humored him and printed it out for him. Then, he wanted more detail. His writing goal this semester is to add more detail to his writing, so he wrote "why" next to all the "I love you" notes. He went off to do something else and I answered his questions. When I presented him with this, he took it smiling and read the whole thing. Then he grabbed a pencil, turning his back to me secretively. When he turned back, he proudly presented a smily face at the bottom and gave me a hug.

I love Cameron because he is so enthusiastic.

I love Cameron because he loves sharing reading with me.

I love Cameron because he says things that make me smile.

I love Cameron because he happily learns new things.

I love Cameron because he likes pancakes too.

I love Cameron because he plays games with me.

I love Cameron because he lets me tickle him and joke around.

I love Cameron because helping him become independent gives me great joy.

Glorious Evening

2011-10-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

I just spent four hours reading, playing games, sipping cocoa, eating pancakes, and thoroughly enjoying an afternoon / evening in front of the fire with my kiddo! Just one of those days really worth remembering :)

Other good things:

This Week's Objectivist Round Up

Cute Antics:

• when frustrated with another kid at the party, he scooped up some corn chips and said he was bringing, "Chips for peace."

• when plans changed for the play activity, he stated "I changed her mind." (I wouldn't count on that lasting! :) )

• we were pretending that Dad was the president and Cameron and I were congress as far as decision making went for something silly, Cameron said, "Congress is getting annoyed!"

• developing a new take on the expression "heaven knows", I asked him a question and he answered with one of those twinkly eyed looks, "Don't ask me, ask heaven."

• trying to finish my yawn for me so I didn't have to.

• after I suggested he go upstairs, he declared "Your ticklment will not prevail!"

• informing me that I could "be the audience" for his "fantastic moves"

• "Why are you thinking I'm a hilarious boy. I am not. I am a serious boy."

• almost wiping his bacon grease hands on his pants yet again, he looked at us and said "Oh fiddlesticks, it's an old habit!"

• when play biting in rough housing, he knows no teeth are allowed... after an accidental touch he asserted, "It doesn't count if its one tooth!"

• trying to put on no socks and then grabbing some of mine for ice skating, I mentioned the likely discomfort and he declared, "I'll suffer." (Where does he get this stuff?!?!)

• reading my latest entry into the weekly idiom dictionary (running out of steam) and declaring, "I'm full of steam!"

Floppy sword against ruler… naturally such battles require the perfect hat and I love the perfect goofy look too.

Just lots of cute...

2011-10-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

I've been in pamper-the-birthday-boy mode, so I'm going to make this quick post all about the cute antics of my now eight year old!

Cute antics:

• tossing a foot ball too high for his mentor, he listened to me comment that his friend wasn't that tall. Then he tossed it at his friend's knees and remarked, "Not that short either."

• play attacking with a war cry of, "Goblin oatmeal death to human forces." (Um, nope, no clue how that combination made sense.)

• flopping on the ground with, "Wait a minute! Am I dead?"

• instead of following through on the deal to read me either "The Trumpet of the Swan" or "Old Yeller", he picked "Anthem". (I'm humoring him and putting some time into playing one of his favorite video games in exchange for him reading a chapter book to me that I've already read to him. I'm surprised he picked "Anthem" though. Originally, I was curious if he could imagine a pretend world that wasn't like "The Hobbit" or "Harry Potter"… yep!)

• intentionally goofing up the numbers in the names of the "Anthem" characters so that they were in the millions

• placing the tiny plastic ball cap (had been an ice cream bowl) on his head and then repeatedly tipping it in a how-do-you-do kind of way

• asking out of the blue, "Is it raining in scotland?" (?!?!)

• refusing to name a favorite flavor of Propel and instead saying, "The best kind of Propel is when there's a friend to play a game with you!" (In one of our favorite books, a bear goes through all the seasons as his favorite and then he says what is most important is the company of a good friend, no matter what the season. I did one of those glow-inside-smiles when he said this.)

• casually mentioning that "Barbarians aren't good." (I think that comes from the latest historical video game.)

• "Uh, oh! That food used my shirt and pants as a slide!" (He dropped it from the fork into his lap.)

• after watching "Rio Bravo", he jumped around gleefully yelling, "I would love to be Stumpy!" (He thought throwing dynamite was very cool.) • noticing that there was no one around because we were early for our family sail, he gave his dramatic conclusion "The ship is currently uninhabited!"

Yay for family fun on this huge sail boat!

• watching a movie, when it was clear the man was going to follow the heroine upon first meeting her, I asked "What do you think he's going to do?" Cameron answered, "Go kiss her." (Hmmm, I wouldn't recommend that as a usual first greeting!)

• continuing that movie, when the two were looking at each other while holding cigarets he said, "They're cigaretting." (A new verb, but it's quite descriptive! :)

• amused at my exasperation at having forgotten what I was about to write myself as a reminder, he commented "I've felt the same way you have when I thought 'What lego was I looking for?"

• responding to a happy birthday wish with, "Happy birthday to you too, when it comes along."

• putting a pumpkin sticker on his shirt and declaring, "It's a badge for liberty and justice for Halloween!"

• responding to query on what he'd like to do next with, "I don't know what to do. I'm befuddled by that excellent breakfast."

Spelling Fun

2011-09-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

My kiddo has started bringing home spelling lists that are hard for him (starting off with 4/16 correct). He practices through the week and the test in on Friday. I never thought we could have such fun with spelling as I make up the goofiest, whimsical sentences to illustrate each word!

Other things to share:

This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Cute antics:

• talking about what anger feels like, "I feel as if I was Godzilla and could kill anybody." (He's never seen the creature, just had this idea that it was something big and powerful.)

• when Andrew gets his prowly walk, "Dad! Don't be like a walking death machine!"

• asking about the history teacher, "Was Mr. Powell alive when Thomas Jefferson was elected?"
• spontaneously asking, "Care to dance?" (He was given his first dance lesson by his dad and found the demonstrations of what would happen if you used the wrong feet highly comical.)

• asking about my mom's efforts to bring banned books into the USSR decades ago, "She brought Irish books into Russia?" (Um, no… that would be "Jewish".)

• telling a family friend, "I'm smarter than Einstein." (We've had several instances this week of him going from tears to mastery rapidly. Big surprise, he likes the mastery and not the tears.)

• "You did a cute croak!" (He liked the way our friend laughed.)

• pronouncing "enraged" with an "i" and a strong emphasis on the first syllable, IN-raged (It sounds so funny, like he's trying to make the word extra powerful.)

The first dance lesson!

Cider Pressing

2011-09-23T09:25:00.000-07:00

Our dwarf apple trees are giving up tons of fruit, so we had our first apple pressing of the season!

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Cute antics:

• saying out of the blue, "What should I do? Walk over to Pearl Harbor and sail a ship to Japan and bomb it?" (We had a chat about people who are no longer our enemies!)

• putting the hose sprayer nozzle in his mouth and… well, you can imagine.

• dancing with his teacher (He really loves her!)

• mentioning as he got into the shower, "Wow, this is as hot as a planetarium."

• saying when upset, "I'm trying not to whine, but it's very difficult, so please don't be frustrated."

• deciding he'd probably need to be a soldier to protect our country (We talked about evaluating that choice based on his thoughts when he's a wee bit older. The conversation actually went on for a while as we discussed what kind of country he'd want to protect and what that choice would require and it concluded with the thought that he'd evaluate the leaders / principles of America when he was older. Ya, we talked about insubordination and court marshals too… maybe I should just find a nice beach with a big umbrella?)

• conversation:

Mom: I'm hot.

Cameron: Why? Because you were burnt May 81st?

Off we go!

2011-09-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here's to completing my first week as an online science teacher! We had a bumpy start with technology, but we ironed out the biggest issues and are set to delve into learning the wonders of the human body... fun!

Other good things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.

P.S. Cute antics:

- writing in his daily journal, "There was a plethora of writing!" (Why did he choose that word? Because it was easier than writing "too much".)

- laughing hysterically at a Victor Borge video while missing most of the jokes.

- getting so into our new book that he's interrupting me to predict dastardly demises of the fierce bears (It's a fun book set in Indiana in the 1820's. So far, the hero has adopted a pair of bear cubs, saved a friend from both a bear and kidnapping, and hunted a vast array of game.)

- laughing hysterically for at least twenty minutes and then bringing me down the giant Clavin and Hobbes comic book so I could share in the joke. (If he ever duplicates the "joke" and tackles his babysitter dressed as a super hero whose job it is to defeat babysitters and screech in their ears… I would not be surprised. He definitely has a seven year old's sense of humor!)

Andrew teaching our dance instructor about fencing... we're still having a glorious time dancing!

Pause for Poetry

2011-09-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

Feeling a wee bit nervous, but ready to be brave... it's not like I haven't done a ton of patient teaching as a nurse! I did a little poetry search and found this poem perfectly fit my readiness to delve into online teaching. Here's to a soaring new adventure!

Take a Chance and Fly
by A.P. Hancock

Let's dare ourselves to take a chance, and ride the big balloon
I know you're scared to dance that dance, but winter's coming soon

I hear that when you start to rise, your heart sinks deep and low
I hear that some will close their eyes, and never see the show

But you and I will hold on tight, and see what we can see
We'll brave the death defying heights, and walk above the trees

We'll catch a glimpse of mountain tops, and float amid the clouds
And when that big boy dips and drops, we'll shout and scream real loud

But we will look and be amazed, at all we never saw
Because our view was never raised, that we might be in awe

And we will not forget those scenes, until the day we die
We'll both be glad we left routine, to take a chance and fly

Yesterday's family exploration of Mt. Rainier's alpine meadows... more new trails to discover.

A New Adventure!

2011-09-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

I start teaching life science this coming week! This will definitely be a new adventure with all the delights and challenges that adventures involve :)

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antic: informing me when he hugged me from behind and my husband was hugging me regularly, "You are surrounded by man forces!"

Glorious day for a family sale http://www.soundexp.org

Viennese Waltz

2011-09-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yay! In dancing lessons, we're having such fun with the waltz that we're starting on the Viennese waltz... spunky!

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antics:

• continuing his solid introvert leaning, "I know you're not a hermit... BUT I AM!"

• after washing his face, declaring, "I'm as clean as a gold fish."

• after constructing some lego structures, he yelled down to me, "Will you come be awestruck?!?"

• changing upstairs, he finished up with calling out, "I'm wearing despicable pajamas now."

• going out to ice cream, "The minute I get my pants on I'll be ready to roll." (So often, I don't want to know why changing was necessary.)

• responding to my offer to read to him a bit more as a thank you for a favor with, "That will be proof that you're a good enough parent." (Where does he come up with this?!?!)

Mommy School 2011- Evaluation

2011-08-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

As tomorrow is the last day of summer vacation, I wanted to sit down and evaluate how this summer of Mommy School has gone.

Math: I've been floored! I wanted to make sure we got the multiplication table down... he can multiply into the septillions. He learned long division. He is converting fractions to decimals to percentages. He's delving into pre-algebra too. While I had glorious moments like this. I also had plenty of upset moments as he demanded an incorrect answer was right or whined about learning efforts. I don't know how much of this is to be expected as the trials of learning something new, but I think I have plenty to learn about keeping the process positive. Those rough days make me not want the job of academic teacher because I enjoy our positive times so much. He challenges the school teachers much less, but he learns so much less there and he's so bored. Keeping things challenging and interesting while maintaining a positive attitude in a student that is easily discouraged... WORK!

History: I've been double floored! My kiddo had the occasional whine, but mostly just lapped up the full American History course with HistoryAtOurHouse. I developed a game of Taboo with the historical figures from the course and he aced it gleefully. I made a history Go Fish game this weekend and we're already moving on to not using the historical figure's names, but describing them instead "Mr. Peace-Without-Victory, Mr. 95 Theses.". I am just amazed by how much he has made these historical figures a part of his life. He has learned from them and keeps them close as he does his favorite literary figures. Last week, I thought we were going to have a normal trip to the egg farm, but it turned into a detailed discussion on what makes a good president. He stated an opinion on a particular president and I just kept asking questions. He drew on his knowledge of the founders and came up with quite the list of what is required for a good president... not the usual chat with a seven year old! EXCITING!

Writing: This remains a non-favorite, but he has made progress and I've really worked to keep it fun. Lately, we've been focusing more on organizing writing instead of handwriting. I'm content with how this worked, but I was often faced with him trying to bargain for smaller amounts of writing. I didn't like being the external motivator and it made me feel uncomfortable. I'd love to find a way to keep this more positive, like it started... he did love writing the clues for hide and seek :)

Music: This was the dud. It started off with eager interest in piano playing. He did not want to keep at it at all when he found both rhythm and coordination difficult. (He still loves to improvise.) We tried the MusicAtOurHouse course and he balked at listening too. I really want music to stay a solid positive for him and that's not what I'm seeing unless he is completely in play mode. He doesn't want to put in any effort to learn more. He did complete the full Kindermusik curriculum and he has some video games regarding notes. I haven't found that thing yet to make this optional value higher on his list.

Overall, I'm ecstatic with the progress made this summer, but I think I have some key work to do in keeping the tone more consistently in this zone. Depending on when we move, I'll likely take over finishing this school year myself and the more prepared I can be for the adventure, the better.

http://www.sciencewithme.com/how-to-peel-a-raw-egg-2/
Definitely having fun!

Weekly Updates

2011-08-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

I've sent weekly updates for about fifteen years that have been so powerful in keeping valued family and friends close to our lives. When I have a busy week where I can't put them into paragraph form, I use bullet points from the "3 Good Things" emails that I share daily with my best friend. Since this has been a most unusual break due to vacation, I'm going to share yesterday's giant update. This format makes it so easy to keep a record of memories.

First, here is the "3 Good Things" idea which I learned from Jean Moroney:
TIP: 3 GOOD THINGS

Here's a daily practice I learned from Martin Seligman, author of
*Learned Optimism* and *Authentic Happiness*.

Once each day, write down three good things that happened in the
last 24 hours. You can write them before going to bed or first thing
in the morning. You can write them in a journal or in a calendar or
on a Post-it. You can include important achievements such as
winning a contract or simple pleasures such as eating a good meal.
All that matters is that you write down three such items, every day.

As you can guess, the purpose of this practice is to reinforce a
positive outlook and avoid feeling overwhelmed by negativity. Even
on the worst of days there are a few bright spots, and bringing them
to mind helps you maintain perspective.

Dr. Seligman ran controlled experiments to test the technique. Not
only did his subjects report being happier and more optimistic
during the studies, but they liked participating so much that they
continued writing down three good things each day after the
experiment was over.

This little bit of thinking each day has large emotional rewards.
Why? Because it strengthens two kinds of value judgments:

1) What you hold as good: Every time you decide consciously that
something is good, you reinforce, clarify, and concretize what
"good" means.

2) What you hold as important: Important means "entitled to
attention or consideration." When you spend a little time focusing
on the good in your life, you are implicitly asserting that the good
is what's important.

Not bad for three minutes of thinking each day.
===============================

You may forward part or all of this newsletter, if you include
this copyright & contact notice in its entirety:

"Copyright Thinking Directions. All Rights Reserved.
To subscribe to the Thinking Directions Occasional Update,
email: subscribe@thinkingdirections.com Or visit
http://www.thinkingdirections.com"

===============================
Jean Moroney
Thinking Directions
jm@thinkingdirections.com
http://www.thinkingdirections.com

Thinking Directions, 527 Third Avenue, #223, New York, NY
10016, USA
===============================

And now, my latest update:

8/26/11

Hello everyone,

This is the mondo-mega update that covers three weeks of vacation! I'm just going to describe brief sections and then bullet point the other good things.

Driving to California (two days)

We took a more leisurely route along the coast which was so pretty!

• (just before we left) I played with Cameron like the floor was lava... this kid loves to rough house :)

• We left WA only an hour late

• We didn't forget anything important that I couldn't fix with a call!

• Really pleasant lunch with friends in Vancouver, WA on the way south

• Gorgeous Oregon coastal views felt wonderful

• Saw the sand dunes park

• Listening to Music Class, History class, musicals, and Call it Courage... lots of time

While Andrew went on to San Francisco (via dropping my statue off in Napa), Cameron and I spent a week in Sacramento with my parents. He was as homebody centered as ever, not wanting to budge from the house even to go for ice cream or to the lego store! We had fun pulling out the board games and sharing quality time.

• Sleeping well with decreased melatonin and a cherry powder my parents use

• Seeing E. Taylors Taming of the Shrew

• Decadent mani/pedicures with mom (I love this tradition whenever we get together!)

• Dealt well with multiple melt downs. Kiddo is out of his routine and sticking to his homebody response too.

• Fascinating lecture on giftedness and autism and sharing this video with my parents that nails why Cameron is a kid with a dual diagnosis! (Especially minutes 30-40: http://videos.med.wisc.edu/videos/32540)

• Playing HP clue and electronic Monopoly

• Watching Cameron gleefully ride the scooter with my dad

• Catching up with my science TA who is going to be Peter (the guy who visited from Germany).

• Starting my first homemade bacon, much cheaper and hopefully tasty... I'll know in a week.

• Catching up with my best bud over several days of phone calls :)

• Walking in my parents' neighborhood which is so lovely and near and nature preserve... I had a morning of birds: jays, hummingbirds, and wild peacocks!

• making my first promotional clip for Science at Our House: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omshjuyeS9U

• Now I've got syllabi posted: http://scienceatourhouse.com/

• Teaching my mom about bubble buts (a game my sister and I used to play where, using the jets, you get a bet a big bubble of air in the but of your bathing suit and go floating around the hot tub... very fun!)

• being treated to seeing Camelot in the theatre (stage in the round) with Cameron and my dad

• visiting a decadent Sacramento chocolate shop

• Finishing the last American history class of new material... Cameron is a whiz!

• Another video... the producer wants a series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5TOfE_-Fwk

The second week of vacation was spent in Sea Ranch, my favorite spot along the California coast. Andrew joined us there for a week where my parents and my family had a glorious time together.

• Gorgeous drive with excellent companionship

• Delectable French onion soup and prime rib lunch

• THE OCEAN

• catching up with Andrew and waltzing around the rental home together

• Steak and eggs breakfast for my fam :)

• Cameron was friendly with the neighbor who came over to check out his balsa wood biplane

• My misplanning that led me on a 5.5 hr hike didn't cause me more damage than massive foot soreness and a mild burn. Gorgeous scenery, but I should have brought both a hat AND the phone number of our rental! I know better, Ooops.

• Watching the sun set into the clouds, no ocean sunsets yet but gorgeous colors

• Star gazing and watching the moon reflect on the ocean... I just love this place

• Andrew reading a 1941 etiquette book that was on the shelf "The girl who is not a success at her first ball should carefully analyze herself as soon as the tears have dried from her eyes. If she is not absolutely homely, the fault probably rests on her own shoulder."

• Sand sculpture of toy bot (one of Cameron's cartoons) made with my mom

• Nice saunter with my dad... that was the ideal pace for me and my sore body

• Cameron loved the frogs next to the hot tub, he spent much time delighting in playing with them

• Tasty salmon sharing with my mom

• Third clip promoting the science curriculum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nMaSejKVck

• Andrew and Cam delighted in playing video games all day (Civilization is the favorite.)

• Fun games, relaxing, knitting by the ocean and general mellow visiting

• Homemade bacon was a success

• my present of a kite was loved by husband and son

• more pleasant strolls

• Giant flock of pelicans... breathtaking

• Finding sea urchin shells at the tide pools

• Kindle reading while snuggled in the window seat

• Leaning about local geology that explains our foggy mornings and sparkly afternoons

• discovering and naming Tide Bobber Beach with his dad, my little explorer :)

• My mom didn't kill herself when plunging from the rock into the ocean (we were close to the water and it was only two feet deep, but it still looked freaky!)

• Fun teasing Cam about being a werecat (he spent a good hour trying to prove he was a boy.)

• Glorious drowsing on the window seat while the crisp ocean breezes played with my hair and my body was cozy under a comforter warmed by the sun

• Last moment watching the ocean with Andrew, we saw seals playing

Next, while Cameron went back to Sacramento with my parents, Andrew and I drove to Napa to visit with the Cordairs and to see if the wax problem with my statue was able to be fixed (the answer is "yes", but it took more time than she had so it's still at the gallery).

• Survived the roller coaster ride away from the coast in the MINI... screeching tires, windy road, steep drops, gleeful husband

• Multiple trips through the Cordair gallery and falling re-in-love with a painting... we'll look at finances

• Decadent dinner at a Himalayan restaurant. One of the best curries in my life.

• Chatting late and sleeping late at the home of our friends who own the gallery

• Yet another decadence in Yountville... We both raved over a polentta with a veal balsamic reduction and Andrew thought his tortelini was among the best things he's ever tasted

• Took my first Imitrex ever to see if I could stop a bout of the ickies and it worked!

• I got this report from my mom on how things were going in Sacramento: Cameron has had a good day. We have played a lot of chess, checkers and crazy 8's. He watched Pinocchio for his TV watching and of course had his iPad time. He has a timer and has been very good about the rules. Dad let him drive the scooter by himself on the driveway after taking him up to the bluffs and back. He will thrilled. I did Costco shopping and got you some more salmon. I made Cameron a meatza for dinner tonight which he loved.

After about 24 hours in Napa, we headed over to Oakland where Andrew stays with his CEO and his wife while working in SF. I only joined them for less than 24 hours before heading back to Sacramento, but it was busy!

• Glorious eve sailing, best conditions which only happen 3x each year. So fun!

• Redwoods walk and lunch with Wendy and my Mom

Then my mom, who had driven up to share a hike and lunch, drove us both back to Sacramento for the final week of vacation while Andrew stayed to work in SF.

• Fun hello hugs from my kiddo and sharing chocolates from Napa/Oakland!

• Watching a spectacular production of Annie Get Your Gun with my dad (one of the best live productions I've ever seen)

• Intense hot tub time, such powerful jets in my parents' spa

• UNO is Cameron's new passion (I figured he'd like it after he enjoyed Crazy Eights so much!)

• Jane Eyre BBC production beautifully made

• pampering my dad and Andrew with homemade salt sticks

• Seeing the Harry Potter movie a second time, with my mom

• Playing UNO attack (the machine "draws" for you by shooting out cards!)

Andrew came back to Sacramento Friday afternoon, we shared a chatty evening with my parents and then we hit the road for our homeward journey the next morning (one full day in the car, home after midnight).

• Belting out musicals tunes in the car with my dear husband while the kiddo reads in the back seat... hour 1 of 15 or so.

• Glorious day to go for a drive :)

And... a full week of catch up that is just finishing up. I folded the last load of laundry last night!

• so nice to be home

• fascinating watching the 1950s version of the Browning Version. POWERFUL!

• lots of processing and much more to do, but productive day working through the hundreds of emails and piles of mail from three weeks

• success with the crock pot to keep us fed while busily catching up: started a lunch curry after breakfast and dinner ribs after lunch (must get out to restock the fridge)

• final clip for the science curriculum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ixYOIkBmCM

• super duper errands with Cameron before the rain started

• getting to the egg farm early enough to swipe their full stock of five dozen eggs that were still warm from being collected that morning (tasty scrambled eggs for lunch)

• more reading of Eragon, I keep getting myself hoarse, but Cameron loves it (we're now on the third book)

• positive meeting with the autism doc

• Lunch with Ms. B... so fun catching up and munching Thai food together

• Typed up Cameron's first "essay". We've been working on organizing thoughts when writing and this is what he dictated to me with help from our brainstorming diagrams.

The vacation that lasted three weeks was fun. I went to Sacramento and Sea Ranch.

My favorite things in Sea Ranch were: riding my grandpa's scooter, discovering Tide Bobber Beach, getting in the hot tub, and playing games with Daddy. When I got in the hot tub with Grammy, I found tree frogs. They were fun to play with, but one got so sick that he couldn't flip over and we put him on the ground where he slowly crawled away (he couldn't even jump or do a short hop). I think the frogs liked the hot tub's warmth. My grandpa's scooter was really fun, especially on the hills. Wee! It has batteries in it and you can control its speed and, if you put it on its fastest speed, boy you are going fast! Tide Bobber Beach is a place where there is so much rock climbing to do. You can't get there unless you rock climb down. I had so much fun finding it with my dad and naming it. By the way, there are caves to explore and in the first one that I explored there was a white bobber. That is part of the way the beach got its name. The last fun thing at Sea Ranch before we talk about Sacramento is playing games with Daddy. I liked the video game Civilization and flying our kite.

The fun things in Sacramento were: Clue, UNO, chess, piano, and movies to watch. Clue is a game where there's a mystery. You're trying to figure out who did a murder. UNO is a card game a lot like Crazy 8s except there are double decks and punishment cards. By the way, the cards don't look the same. Chess was fun, we even have a Greek, war-like chess set with swords. I like playing with the chess set and pretending the kings can battle each other with staffs. The piano is fun. I like making noisy, frantic music and I like pressing the loud button with the notes that are low, but not really low. I also like putting the chess pieces on the piano. Finally, the last thing to talk about until we're done with this writing piece is the movies to watch. My favorite is The Mouse Detective although I'm wearing down on it. I like the song they sing at the end and I like seeing the videos in the background.

In conclusion, I had a fun vacation in Sacramento and Sea Ranch. Bye.

• special dinner date with a friend who needed a supportive ear

• awesome home schooling day with Cameron learning about writing organization of paragraphs and an art painting of Queen Elizabeth

• arrival of my gourmet ice creams (special treat I ordered for the family)... fun!

• playing with all that left over dry ice (frothy potions and eery mists) ... fun, fun!

• surprise family dinner... fun, fun, fun!

Here's to fun, fun, fun!

Rachel

P.S. Cute antics:

• Mom: When you read you begin with...

Cameron: OCD

(Um, not quite!)

• shrieking as we were going between buses, "OK then! We're cornered! Surrender!"

• after a fast stop, "Ow! My shoulder aches and my nose crackles."

• trying to convince me to skip math by using his history words, "We'll nullify math whatsoever."

• freaking out his grandmother by waking her at 6:30AM with a jubilant good morning... his nose two inches from hers.

• testing the taste of a ketchup blob and announcing, "I experimented it."

• Mom: Why should you get allowance on vacation?

Cameron: Because it's the rules, lady.

(Ya, that spurred quite a conversation!)

• suggesting for the video game, "How about a cannon on a war elephant's back?"

• getting confused about dates, he declared, "BC=AC." When Daddy said it meant alternating current, he wasn't believed.

• "It's very fun to laugh heartily in crazy 8s."

• referring to losing at UNO, "You didn't skewer me in the ribs this time!"

P.P.S. Update photos:

These are from my camera. I'll supplement with ones from my mom's camera next week... those haven't made it to my computer yet :)

So, that's probably the largest update ever, but you get the idea of how easy it can be to just capture the highlights so that they can be retained and revisited. I gather the cute antics throughout the week by sending myself quick emails or voicemail or writing on scraps that get into my inbox. I keep the "3 Good Things" emails that I send to my best friend and they compile to form the basis of the updates, but they can also be the whole update if I don't have time to do more. It's just been such a positive way to keep our family memories from fading. I'm all for scrap booking and memory boxes and other methods too, I've just found this to be a glorious way to keep more... it's hilarious to go back to the updates I wrote when we were brand new parents!

Summer, home-schooling successes!

2011-07-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

We've been making massive progress in the homeschooling. Cameron has done his first multiplication word problems without batting an eye and delved into both single and double digit long division. His writing is really improving as we practice with hide and seek clues or treasure hunts. Finally, we're two thirds of the way through American History and he's finally getting into it... still won't admit he's having fun, but he loved showing off for his athlete mentor :) We had such a special moment the other night after finishing reading Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. The drama was still tingling in the air and we'd talked about the choices being made. We snuggled and I sang:

My country tis of thee
sweet land of liberty
of thee I sing
land where my father's died
land of the Pilgrims' pride
from every mountainside
let freedom ring.

Seriously precious times. Due to balking, we paused on music practice and are going to listen to a music appreciation class on our road trip. Yay for my seven year old wonder :)

Other things to share:

This week's Objectivist Round Up

Cute antics:

• searching out "Anthem" from the books by the chair (we read it several weeks ago) and bringing it up stairs gleefully saying, "I. I. I. I." (In the book, the world has lost that word.)

• after getting pinned during some play, "Don't use your talons!" (Goodness, my nails aren't that long, but we have been reading about dragons a lot lately.)

•Just after reading the beginning and end of The Declaration of Independence, I got this response to some tickling:

"If I'm American and you're American, GIVE ME MY RIGHTS!"

He did request rough housing, but I believe he was interested in reasserting his right to liberty :)

• it's not my kiddo's, but I can so see him doing this when old and crotchety :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1416262/Court-refuses-trial-by-combat.html

The natural results if you tell the child you don't want ink on the furniture or clothing, but his body belongs to him.

(If I thought this was done in preschool, I was wrong. This kid just marches to the beat of a different drummer.)

Tug of War Fun

2011-07-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

This has been a week of summer, homeschool fun! Not only did we have this spectacular multiplication experience, we also dealt with an anti-writing day by writing out treasure hunt clues, and we've gotten to the American Revolution in history class too (exciting times)! He has particularly enjoyed when his Dad and I play tug of war with his body to finish off school. He'll now jump up and ask that we each take one side of him and start yanking :)

This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Cute antics:

• making me worry about his sanity when he stated, "Men should clobber women every day except tomorrow. [pause for a moment] I don't think so really." (Nice to get the finish, but we talked about topics that we don't joke about!)

• faint praise for a joke, "I barely didn't laugh at that one."

• yelling from the top of the stairs, "NOW I'M COVERED WITH SOAP, MOM!" (Note, usually that's when you would hope the child stays in the bath tub, but he apparently wanted more bubble soap.)

For the love of learning

2011-07-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

So darn delightful! Yay for the joy of learning :) This is after lots of work on the multiplication table over the last few weeks... still cementing that knowledge through application.

I don't think it's possible to watch this without feeling the infectious enthusiasm of a kid relishing their accomplishments. Here's to the joy of learning!

Thyroid? Migraine?

2011-07-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

[For those interested in the health mystery saga...]

So, here was my status five months ago and I'm just going to focus on what has changed. By April, I had suffered through an unexplained weigh gain of 15lbs which sent me to the doc who again came up with no explanations. That left me a total of 60lbs overweight, getting ill at least once a week, and wondering what to try next. I decided to focus on minimizing any remaining stressors (like the sprinting) and keep up the quality foods, while giving the Naltrexone more time (since before this episode it seemed to be helping).

For two months, things went well and then I had three terrible weeks where I got ill 6/10 days. I decided to turn back to conventional medicine and delve into more diagnostics while at the same time increasing my melatonin for better sleep and removing any source of caffeine (I was drinking very weak, second-steeped decaffeinated coffee). I made an appointment with a neurologist who specializes in headaches. Now that I've ruled out thyroid as a primary cause (and my symptoms do match the criteria for migraine without aura), I figure a neurologist might help me find other causative potentials (I'm not particularly interested in patches for the symptoms i.e. migraine medications). I also have an appointment for a sleep study to see if my brain wave patterns can give any nice clues as to the cause of the insomnia. Finally, I have a hearing appointment to check if an autoimmune inner ear issue might be at fault since my husband keeps saying I don't hear as well as he does and my dad found some interesting information on these under-diagnosed pathologies.

I've only been ill once in the last three weeks (clearly there was more caffeine in that weak coffee than I'd thought and I've always been a hyper-responder to caffeine). Combining this month with the two before that relapse, I've lost 15lbs and am thrilled to be moving in a positive direction again. I am using the weekly weight training for exercise along with family hikes and play, but no itense cardio. I am keeping all those scheduled doctor appointments which will occur over the next two weeks. I am also trying to decrease the Low Dose Naltrexone because insomnia can be a potential side effect. However, I still want to take it because in the nine months that I've been taking it, more and more studies have come out supporting the original pilot studies' promissing effects of this treatment in both autoimmune diseases and cancer.

So, the saga continues! Here's to finding my health again.

Goofn' around with my goofy kiddo... still having such a grand time living :)

Foxtrot

2011-07-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

Who knew getting whipped around in a foxtrot could be so much fun! That was our whole dance lesson this week!

Other things to share:

This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Cute antics:

• delighting in putting raspberries on each finger and eating them (after sufficient wiggling, of course)! (My sister used to do this with olives and it's awfully cute.)

• ogling the belly dancer at the restaurant (very big kid-eyes)

• on a hot day, demanding, "Put on the cold conditioning!"

• instead of saying thanks a million, he said thanks 9642

• commenting in the middle of the afternoon, without any lead up, "I really like raw salt." (Nope, I have no idea what he's talking about.)

• labeling the smily posters of models as we walked by the make up section of Target, "Ug, I don't like gush girls!"

• after we were talking about the Reformation and I just asked who the puritans liked, I got the gleeful answer... "Convicts!"

(Um, Calvanists didn't quite stick :) I'm thrilled with how much has though!)

• taking off into the 2.5 mile tunnel hike without us! (Speck of light on left is the bicycle coming, just to the right is my independent kiddo.)

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/iron-horse-tunnel

Mommy School 2011

2011-07-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

This year's Mommy School is off to such an awesome start! We had a vacation right after school got out, so we started at the beginning of this month.

This year, I decided to focus on four things.
Math- I wanted him to finish memorizing the multiplication table. Since he'll be skipping second grade, I think having that solid will help him be able to handle the start of school challenges by being ahead in academics again. That is particularly useful for him in the first month when his social challenges make learning new things so difficult.

Writing- This is the one area that he's not already way above grade level, so I wanted to do all I could to help these skills develop in a positive environment. It's a fine motor issue along with a profound lack of interest in making his letters look better than barely recognizable. (He doesn't have the fine motor skill to do typing yet and balks at that just as much as using a pencil, but we're hoping that will change because he's practicing moving one finger at a time while we practice...)

Music- My husband bought a beginning piano book and is teaching my kiddo and I at the same time. I have a thrilled child watching to catch my mistakes and he's very interested in improvising :)

History- We're giving the History at Our House another try and he's loving it! Of course, he balked when it came to writing for a test, but we made it count for writing practice and he really remembered more than I'd expected. He bounces all over the den while listening, but he's clearly absorbing something. He keeps asking for extra history classes throughout the day!

Here is the schedule that we use and cross off as we go (he picks one from each category):

Mommy School

WRITING

Cameron Binder-

practice like third grade choices:

Five sentences about something interesting, like Worms!

Mommy worksheet

Five clues for hide and seek, written in full sentences.

HISTORY

One class

MATH

You Pick:

multiplication race

multiplication table

multiplication kahn academy

MUSIC

One lesson

One Day of Life Errands

____________________________________________________________

BODY MOVING?

Play land, gym, park, bike trail, obstacle course, jiu jitsu, back yard, bubbles, chalk drawings, other ideas?

The favorite writing so far has been the hide and seek clues. We each write five and then take turns hiding. The key here is writing as well as he can with properly formed letters, spacing, and punctuation. He's never picked journaling (Worms is a favorite video game). Here is a sample of the worksheets I make:

Writing Work Sheet

Hobbit 1

Answer the questions with these words:

three eat moon

yes arguing swords

hole no

captured stone

sun adventure

wizard rested

Gandalf is a who visits Bilbo's hobbit to invite him on an . Bilbo first says and then he says .
The first fright they had was meeting trolls who ________ them and then wanted to _________ them.
Gandalf tricked them into until the came up and turned them into .
In Rivendell they and found that the map had letters and they found out the name of their new _________.

Write complete sentence answers:

What would you do if Gandalf showed up on your doorstep? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How would you get away from trolls? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What would be your favorite thing to do if you visited elves? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For math, he first loved watching the Kahn academy videos on multiplication and now we've been working on filling out the table as quickly as possible. He's getting good!

The life errands idea is to take a break on Wednesdays and do errands where I make him as independent as possible i.e. no hanging out in the car while Mom returns the book or pumps gas. It's been a full success so far!

He moves his body so much throughout the day, that we've never had a specific body moving exercise yet. I offer, but the homebody in him usually wins out.

So... we've been having a delightful time continuing learning each morning for about two hours and engaging the rest of the day with various values. I do lots of reading out loud and I'm hoping to get him into the Eragon series next after we finishing reading The Hobbit for the third or fourth time :)

My monkey on the monkey statue at the zoo :)

San Francisco Vacation

2011-07-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Lots of fun and my kiddo dubbed it the week of ice cream and vehicles because we relished so much of each!

Going across the bridge was gorgeous too though!

Other things to share:

This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Cute antics:

• going with me to the dermatologist to watch as they took out a few stitches on my shoulder. He was "helping" me find the office. He looked down this plaque and found the doctor's name.

I asked him, "So, what office do we go to?"
He answered, "M.D."

• Interrupting the answer to his question multiple times with fantastical methods of jet propulsion before listening to Daddy explain (via iPad diagrams, so cool)

• wanting his ears to pop and knowing that I couldn't do it for him, so he directed me to use my "magical powers". (I think he likes that particular parenting technique of granting a wish in fantasy! I obligingly abracadabra-ed... and offered some more practical suggestions in case that didn't work.)

• developing a new unit of measurement for planes, "one mass-jolt per second".

• showing a bit of a need for more geography learning as he cracked up all the grown ups (add lots of laughter after each answer):

Me (looking at the Oakland Bay Bridge): Do you know what bridge that is?

Kiddo: London bridge

Me: Well, what city to you think London Bridge is in?
Kiddo: Europe

• after I explained that the curb cut outs were for people in wheelchairs and the raised dots were added to help blind people, he came to the next corner and exclaimed, "Braille dots!"

• delighting in the fourth sweet he gleefully declared, "My name is sugar industries!"

• in classic grumble mode declaring that the choices of outings were "go or don't go" and then, when presented with the conviction that the drive into the city needed to include something besides eating, he added, " We already did something besides eating. We drank." (He did enjoy the planetarium in his own grumbly way.)

• when I was trying to get him to say the word "attitude" for our Taboo game, I said "Junie B.'s teacher often tells her to 'Change your blank, young lady!" and Cameron responded "ALTITUDE"!

When I say I have a high energy kiddo...

2011-06-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

... I'm not kidding.

This was getting ready for bed. After it finished there was a half hour of slower play and then reading to himself and then out like a light. It really does take two hours to "wind down".

Waltz and Tango

2011-06-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

We're loving our latest date-mornings! Learning these ballroom dances with really great teachers and private lessons is so much fun! We finished our evening with an after-dinner waltz yesterday and is was so calm and elegant and happy :)

Other good things to share:
Fun new novel "North and South" has a definite Austen feel
Finished the Narnia series as my kiddo bounded around the den yelling what he thought would happen next
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antics:
• responding to the finish of the first the first act of Hamlet with roll-on-the-floor, wild goofiness. Perhaps trying to convince us that he was mad too?
• referring to himself as a "burp-ee-ologist" after another intentional burping run
• picking up his latest anatomy lesson quite well. Now, I'm not allowed to tickle his ulna, radius, ischium, femur or carpals and he's still most persistent about not letting me have his kidneys :)

Video Games

2011-06-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Video games have been on my mind this week. The counselor was very persuasive in sharing her observations that kids on the autism spectrum who play lots of video games wind up getting more and more frustrated with social interactions because they find that rapid, immediate response of the games so much more positive and they want that kind of interaction. Over the last few days, the video game thing seems to have really changed. Instead of something that my kiddo would play and take breaks and enjoy as one of many activities, he's been obsessed with this game. One night, my husband found him sneaking down stairs twice around midnight and my kiddo said the game was making his eyes hurt but it was so fun he wanted to keep playing. We've had lots of discussions all together and just as parents too. I'm teetering on resetting a limit and concerned... we'll see.

Other things to share:

This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Watching White Christmas for the first time was a truly delightful experience. If you've missed it, Netflix or buy or rent... soon!

Cute antics:

• picking up a timer when he wanted me to be done chatting and setting it with the statement, "You have three minutes! [Dubious look from me.] Indeed so!"

• commenting on his game in a gleeful tone, "I've never had such a good time with bazookas."

• informing me after gulping, burping for twenty minutes intentionally, "I think I have a burping problem. I think it's the guacamole dinner I had with Chris [over a week ago]. I didn't mean to start this symphony, so remember that when burping symphonies start. I can't help it. Maybe it's allergies." (Boys? Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I can't recall such activities among sisters.)

• requesting his chewable multivitamin with, "Even though you are not my servant, I really want my vitamins!"

Messy and Fun

2011-06-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

This week's date was a trip to the pottery studio to learn how to throw pots on a wheel. Fun!

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
These pics of San Francisco from a blimp... GORGEOUS!
Cute antics:

• sounding like a teenager but with a goofy kid giggle when he drawled "Satisfied?" and explained that he would stop eating all the chocolate and cranberries out of the trail mix by alternating with nuts.

• trying to avoid hiking by stating, "I'm not smug and strong you know."

• sharing his opinion with me on a particular aid, "That girl is boring as a possum... and possums are very boring."

• responding to our usual breakfast question of "What are you looking forward to today?" with "Eating a muskrat." (No. I do not know where he comes up with these things and we do not serve muskrat here... at least, not for lunch or dinner.)

On the Horizon: Developmental Remediation Center Newsletter

2011-06-08T11:39:00.001-07:00

This free, Autism newsletter often prompts me to think about parenting techniques and, as I've noted before (book 3), I frequently find their suggestions are highly applicable to neuro-typical kids too. So, I wanted to share three links to issues of their newsletter articles that I enjoyed.

One Step Back Three Steps Forward: Dysregulation and Development
Especially for those with younger kids, remembering that, when they're tackling a new developmental mile stone, they may briefly seem to be regressing, can be hugely helpful! I remember how frustrating this was for me in the moment and I think this perspective would have helped.

To Control or Not Control
This is just a brief one, but it's a good reminder about avoiding unnecessary power struggles.

Finding Peace
This one is a beautiful reminder about ways to enjoy the process of parenting. I'm usually quite mellow in my parenting, so I found myself nodding a lot as I read. My challenge would probably be #3:
Stop and take a deep breath
Sometimes when we are facing challenges with our kids, the best thing to do in the troublesome moment is nothing at all. Many parents think that they are supposed to jump up and “do something” when problems arise with their children. Obviously this is the case if a child is going to do something to harm himself or others. However, a lot of the time the problems are not life-or-death, but we act as if they are. Taking a moment to just stop, breath, and think before you rush off to do something allows a sense of peace to prevail in otherwise un-peaceful moments.
I have a particularly hard time not trying to fix any significant situation. Tantrums never got under my skin, but, when he's feeling hurt by others, my mommy fix-it-lady roars to action and it's time to have a full discussion about all the options and choices and potential results. While he responds beautifully to that, I need to remember that my kiddo isn't as socially naive as he used to be. He can tackle these challenges without me (and will need to to become independent). I've been working very hard recently to give an encouraging "hmmm" or "oh?" when presented with a situation and to let him take the lead. It's a classic tool from the How to Talk book too and, again, I've never found a better resource than that book for parenting techniques, skills, and tools that keep me improving. Here's to skilled parenting :)

Our peaceful, family hike at Mt. Rainier a few days ago... although he got our hearts going when he stepped through those bridge railings for a better look! (There a pounding waterfall 100 ft away and a rushing, glacial river just bellow us.)

Some poems...

2011-06-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

... I've been saving. These were all discovered on posts from my friend Elizabeth Michiels on her Facebook page! I was scanning through potential posts and I kept coming across these inspirational poems. So, here's a dose of poetry delight thanks to a dear online friend :) I really must get out to Texas to visit her in person!

The Man in the Glass
by Dale Wimbrow

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

The Reading Mother by Strickland Gillilan

I had a mother who read to me
...Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
"Blackbirds" stowed in the hold beneath

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings-
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be-
I had a Mother who read to me.

All To Myself

by Wilbur Dick Nesbit

ALL TO MYSELF, I find the way
Back to each golden yesterday,
Faring in fancy until I standClasping your ready, friendly hand;
The picture seems half true, half dream,
And I keep its color and its gleam
All to myself.

All to myself I hum again
Fragments of some old-time refrain,
Something that comes at fancy's choice,
And I hear the cadence of your voice:
Sometimes 'tis dim, something 'tis clear,
But I keep the music I hear
All to myself.

All to myself I hold and know
All of the days of long ago-
Wonderfull days when you and I
Owned all the sunshine in the sky:
The days come back as the old days will,
And I keep their tingle and their thrill
All to myself.

All to myself! My friend, do you
Count all the memories softly, too?
Summer and Autumn, Winter, Spring,
The hopes we cherish, and everthing?
They course my veins as a draft divine,
And I keep them wholly, solely mine-
All to myself.

All to myself I think of you,
Think of the things we used to do,
Think of the things we used to say,
Think of each happy, bygone day;
Sometimes I sigh and sometimes I smile,
But I keep each olden, golden while
All to myself.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

2011-06-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

Not only did we finish the last Harry Potter book, we also delved into the Narnia series this week. We even read the first book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, all in one day! You should see the acrobatics this kid does while I'm reading! He leaps from couch to table to couch and climbs across the couch backs and balances on the arms and bounces back and forth across the cushions. This doesn't stop the whole time I'm reading and he usually goes at least 30 minutes if not a full hour before taking a break for something else. We are not buying new furniture until his listening is less active! (Ha, that reminded me this is not the usual meaning of "active listening"!) I have already sewn pieces of both couches back together.

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antics:

Asking for whiskey at the restaurant and laughing. He hates the stuff and is developing quite the odd since of humor.

Complaining about bitter berries, "Too many blueberries are grimace-berries."

Declaring, "I'm a songaramus." (Someone who can guess what musical / movie songs come from.)

Informing me when he came to difficult spot in his homework, "It's time for helping sister."

Taking a gasping breath while playing computer games and letting out a long, groaning, "I.... aaaaammmmmmmm.... a goooooood.... boyyyyy!" (Yes, he's an odd duck, but I did mention that I agree.)

Well prepared for the theatre when I came down in the morning... we did convince him to turn the shirt around before going to see "Guys and Dolls".

Evolutionary Parenting

2011-05-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

I've been impressed with how respectful Connie Allen is of the child as a developing individual. So, I followed the link from this post and watched the 50 minute video of Jean Liedloff. While I found the first 20 minutes or so mildly interesting (I've seen too many contented crib sleepers), I became more fascinated during the second half of the interview. There are many parallels between both Positive Discipline and Cognitive Therapy that this lady identified through her observations of jungle children.

Some of my notes:
- Her term of "information" parenting seems closely linked to being objective and focusing on natural consequences.
- Her view of human nature as effective and her multiple examples of how certain parenting techniques undermine this nature thus leading children to mistrust their competence is intriguing.
-Her focus on a parents' low expectations of human nature as spuring parenting behaviors that set up conflict with children is also intriguing.
- She agrees with the Montessori focus on kids' exploring as their form of learning and initiative which is natural to them while absorbing classroom teaching is not.
- Her statements that children's efforts at being social lead them to blame themselves when there is a disconnect also made sense to me.
- Finally, she discusses core beliefs and finding the thoughts behind our actions and views.

It's quite the 50 minutes and I'd be interested in any comments / thoughts from readers of this blog. I actually watched this video about two weeks ago and I've found myself thinking frequently about the comments and potential implications.

One instance of her parenting advice was particularly tickling my interest last night as I tried to fall asleep. As I've said, she emphasizes how the jungle children were not expected to misbehave, that it was the norm for parents to expect a positive interaction and the kids expected that of themselves as well. But then, she gave an example from a modern house hold. She said that one could imagine a toddler playing underfoot with a cup. Her advice was to address the child with a completely calm voice telling them to take the toy to the other room. (I don't remember her saying if a reason should be included.) Then, she advised the parent to continue what they were doing with the clear expectation that the action would be taken. If, after a given time, the child did not bring the toy to the other room, she advised the parent to bring it there silently (without any other words gentle / angry or any other non-verbal indications of upset). The key was that the child has missed out on the social interaction and that she had seen this kind of technique work wonders for kids in the jungle. Her point was that the kids never saw themselves as naughty because they were again and again expected to behave well together and they did so "naturally".

She gives many more examples which intrigue me, but focusing on this one, I wonder if it would really work here. I wonder:
• Does the expectation of socially adept behavior accelerate or change how a child learns these skills?
• Would a child really learn better with these actions where there is no interaction based on consequence emotion? I don't try to hide from my kiddo that I'm annoyed if step on a lego that hurts my foot. It is part of the consequence of his action. It would make most sense to me to say something like this to the toddler before moving the cup, "It's not safe under Mommy's feet." If I was dealing with an older kid, I would think is appropriate to have some annoyance in my tone.
• Doesn't this miss all the grandeur of other parenting skills like helping them solve a problem, discussing potential solutions, using humor with a huge fake slip and giggle and gently bonking them on the head with the cup?
• The more I think about this, while the techniques may lead a kid to have a positive image of themselves as "naturally" good, they also send a powerful message about being social as key to their success. That's something that's a whole lot more important in a jungle than a city. I like the idea of somehow communicating positive expectations though and she is persuasive with her multiple examples that parents frequently communicate the opposite unintentionally.

So, my take away, for now, is that I'm going to try and find ways to communicate positive expectations, but I'm not going to use her technique because I don't think it would be applicable in the context of an older child. My kiddo is supposed to bring down any wet bedding in the morning and put it in the clothes washer. He's requested a reminder sign and I can handle that along with a positive word that communicates those positive expectations. I have no intention though of just taking care of wet blankets if he forgets! Her technique might bother a toddler, but it would simply enable a 7 y.o. to happily enjoy a mommy maid. I'll keep thinking on this though and again, I'd be really interested in any thoughts readers have about this video.

Glass Blowing

2011-05-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Glass blowing turned out to be quite the fun outing! Since we're not taking singing lessons anymore and we don't want to start anything else longterm before we move, I'm focusing on single experiences for dates.

Next up will be a pottery date where we get to make our own pots using a wheel! Fun :)

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antics:
• pronouncing strategic as stra-ta-geh-tic
• watching his game and commenting mildly, "That earthquake was extensive."

End of 5 Star Challenge

2011-05-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

Lets finish up this 5 Star Challenge!

Five things that make you happy you're alive:
Objectivism - That Ayn Rand lived and shared so much guidance on how to live joyfully.
Technology- Everything that has made life so much more efficient and pleasant... my two current favorites are my car and my iPhone.
Nature- I'm currently relishing the vibrant rhododendrons outside my window as they proclaim springtime with their intense color. There are so many glorious experiences in nature that make me happy I'm alive, from dazzling sunsets to the shimmering green of the Northwest Rain Forests.
Chocolate- I love connoisseur chocolates and all the teasing nuances of flavor that I can discover with leisurely sampling.
Atlas Shrugged- As a different entity from the philosophy of Objectivism, the joy I experience in this particular work of art is fuel for a positive life.

Five people (or pets) you love:
I did this in the "grateful for" post- husband, son, awesome friends, cool parents. For pets, I'll say all the wonderful canines I loved from Guide Dogs for the Blind. My adoring goofy Golden, Treat. My powerfully inteligent German Shepherd that had almost magically golden eyes, Gimbal. All the Labradors that flopped down for belly rubs and snuggles, Chaplin, Auburn, Aidan, and Elissa.

Like all puppies, guide dogs start tiny and...

grow! These guys can graduate with a job though that's pretty awesome.

Norman Rockwell

2011-05-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

When I entered the traveling exhibit of Norman Rockwell's art to explore these paintings, I left myself open to explore. I wanted to give each painting a chance to capture me and then to move on if it failed. There were three paintings that I came back to and treasured. Those three will stay with me and be part of me. Those three I will continue to reference and use as fuel.

The first one, touched me by showing a profound moment. A little boy and his grandfather stand together looking out at the sea. They are both wearing sailor suits. The sea is sparkling and a white ship is shining in the sun in front of them. They are clearly looking at the father / son departing on great adventures. I see the life of a pursuit of values and the profound moment of contemplation of those observing this action. It is called, The Stay at Homes. Here is one link to this painting. (None of the links I found did justice to the colors or details of the paintings I saw.)

The second painting, touched me by making me laugh out load with mirth. There are jokes on so many levels as a student bends close with his magnifying glass to study the pendant on a portrait lady's breast. Her coquettish expression compared with the one in his art appreciation book and the looks from the men in the accompanying portrait combine with his clear lack of appreciation of the full, um, picture make me smile. It's a purely playful moment and my playful spirit loved it. It's called The Art Critic.

Finally, the third painting touched me by showing an inspirational moment of human achievement. Abraham Lincoln stands as a young lawyer, before he becomes president, before he grows a beard, before he is a profound, historical figure. He stands, all in white, and behind him we can see a shadowed man in shackles. We look up at Lincoln who is almost glowing in white, but he is an approachable figure that is not pristine or intimidating. One hand is formed into a powerful fist, pressing down with emphasis while the other holds an almanac. This is a moment when a man whose case was thought to be hopeless because witnesses had testified to seeing him commit the crime on a brightly lit night, is saved by Lincoln noting that, on the night in question, the moon had mostly waned and thus the man could not have been clearly seen. It is called Lincoln for the Defense.

I also enjoyed looking at each of the magazine covers Norman Rockwell painted and the paintings: The Problem We Live With, The Law Student, Artist Facing Blank Canvas, and Marry Christmas (such jolly, twinkly eyes). But, the top three are the ones that will stay with me and which I'm especially grateful to have experienced.

"Since a rational man’s ambition is unlimited, since his pursuit and achievement of values is a lifelong process—and the higher the values, the harder the struggle—he needs a moment, an hour or some period of time in which he can experience the sense of his completed task, the sense of living in a universe where his values have been successfully achieved. It is like a moment of rest, a moment to gain fuel to move farther. Art gives him that fuel; the pleasure of contemplating the objectified reality of one’s own sense of life is the pleasure of feeling what it would be like to live in one’s ideal world." - Ayn Rand

Economics in One Lesson

2011-05-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

I had a great time listening to Economics in One Lesson this week and getting a really concise and clear view of economics issues without lots of complicated jargon!

Other things to share:
This Norman Rockwell exhibit is amazing and will be the basis for my next post! I took away experiences with three pieces of art that will stay with me.
Cute antics:
• telling me a church is "a big place where we vote about laws". Hmmm, something tells me that wouldn't go over well!
• doing something goofy and then requesting, "Roll your eyes please, Mom."

Objectivist Round Up

2011-05-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the May 19, 2011 edition of the Objectivist Round Up. To start us off, here is a quote on living that is beautifully encompassing:

To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life: Reason—Purpose—Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge—Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve—Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living.

-Galt's Speech, For the New Intellectual

Burgess Laughlin presents What is profane culture? posted at Making Progress, saying, "This is the last in a series of three posts sketching my preliminary understanding of democratic, sacred, and profane culture. What is the nature of each? What is their relationship? In particular, in this last post, in what ways does profane culture appear unwanted in the daily lives of even those rare individuals who have a sense of the sacred?"

Roberto Sarrionandia presents The Right to Quarantine posted at Roberto Sarrionandia, saying, "Is it right for the state to quarantine infectious individuals or control their immigration status? I argue, yes."

Andy Clarkson presents "Patterns" posted at The Charlotte Capitalist, saying, "Fifteen to twenty years ago, I caught the last five minutes of a movie on tv. It was filled with ideas, conflict, and passion -- it seemed like something from an Ayn Rand novel. For years I could not find the movie on tv or DVD.
That changed this morning -- I found Rod Serling's "Patterns". Here is my review."

Noah Stahl presents Atlas Shrugged: More than Meets the Eye posted at The Undercurrent Blog, saying, "Why should you read Atlas Shrugged? Because it could change your life."

Joshua Gregg presents Obama?s Energy Solution: More Government posted at Persona Non Grata, saying, "Dictating prices didn’t work for Stalin, Lenin, or Brezhnev; it wont work for Obama."

Hanah presents Caps for Sale posted at Charlie's Bookshelf, saying, "This is one of my all-time favorite children's books, and it has great lessons about work, tantrums, and emotional control."

Kelly Elmore presents Sex at ATLOSCon posted at Reepicheep's Coracle, saying, "This post is about the course "Sexual Ethics and Objectivism" that Jason Stotts will be giving at ATLOSCon. It includes comments from fans of his blog, my opinions about prudes (which I know you have been dying to hear), Jason's comments about why he chose to focus his writing and research on sex, and a slightly racy pun. Join us for ATLOSCon to hear his talk and to debate the ideas afterwards!"

Benjamin Skipper presents Heart Attack Grill posted at Musing Aloud, saying, "A restaurant emphasizing conventionally unhealthy foods is opening in Dallas, and yet despite its nature as a voluntary institution people are planning on protesting it. Why can't some people just tend to their own lives?"

C.W. presents The Downturn in Commodity Prices posted at Krazy Economy, saying, "What does the recent downturn of commodity prices mean. Here is a change to learn about economics."

Jonathan Akin presents Campus Media Response: Why it’s Wrong to Make the Net “Neutral” posted at The Undercurrent Blog, saying, "What does the essential nature of the internet mean for a consumer "right" to web access?"

Julia Campbell presents wilted spinach salad with tuna and bacon posted at the crankin' kitchen!, saying, "Warm bacon dressing tops a spinach and tuna salad."

Benjamin Skipper presents Feeling is Believing posted at Musing Aloud, saying, "I recently had a major realization about the nature of beliefs that will change how I view my self-improvement ventures, namely that there's two different types of beliefs. There's the belief you intellectually hold in your mind, and then there's the belief you hold subconsciously (emotionally). If both of these types don't line up, then difficulties in changing one's self will result."

Santiago and Kelly Valenzuela present Republicans - Not Serious About Immigration Reform, Not Serious About Free Markets posted at Mother of Exiles, saying, "Santiago writes up a great blog post about Republicans and immigration."

Diana Hsieh presents Christianity: Obey and Suffer... and Shut Your Mouth! posted at NoodleFood, saying, "Does Christianity offer help and solace to people suffering unjustly at the hands of others? Based on scripture, the answer is "no.""

Amy Mossoff presents Teaching Children Lessons posted at The Little Things, saying, "What does it mean to be a selfish parent? How are my interests aligned with my child's? And what does it mean to say that "having children makes us better people?" And how did I get to these questions just from watching TV commercials?"

Scott Connery presents World To End This Saturday! The Bible Guarantees it! posted at Rational Public Radio, saying, "Doomsday prophets are nothing new. Someone is always predicting that the end times are at hand. What is it about faith that makes religious people so gullible?"

Ari Armstrong presents Making the First Amendment Part of the Conversation posted at Free Colorado, saying, "In this TV segment I argue that campaign laws chill free speech. Also linked are several other videos and articles on the subject."

Jared Rhoads presents Reference Materials posted at The Lucidicus Project, saying, "We have added a new permanent fixture to the Lucidicus.org website: a collection of the key legal documents dealing with the various constitutional challenges to the health reform law. This page is relatively detailed but not exhaustive or overwhelming, and should be helpful to the average non-lawyer who is interested in following the progress of these cases."

Rational Jenn presents OGrownups Monthly Summary posted at Rational Jenn, saying, "Are you a parent, educator, loving aunt or uncle? Interested in talking to other Objectivists about the joys and struggles of raising children? Here's a look at the things we discussed in April on the OGrownups list. If the topics look interesting to you, I hope you'll join us."

Joshua Gregg presents The Morality of the Obama Doctrine posted at Persona Non Grata, saying, "President Obama on Thursday will elaborate his foreign policy philosophy only to expose his counter-productive altruistic morality that lies beneath."

Paul Hsieh presents WaiverMania posted at We Stand FIRM, saying, "The "politics of pull" are in full swing with the latest round of waivers granted from ObamaCare."

Paul Hsieh presents Massachusetts: The Canary in the Coal Mine for ObamaCare posted at NoodleFood, saying, "My latest OpEd at PajamasMedia was on the failed Massachusetts health care plan, published to coincide with Mitt Romney's health care speech last week defending his plan."

Gene Palmisano presents Misnomer of the Day posted at The Metaphysical Lunch, saying, "Be sure to visit the Anecdotal Objectivist at the bottom of the blog. I'm getting a handle on this podcast and content will come streaming. Thanks."

David C Lewis, RFA presents The Problem With Accumulation Theory | Twin Tier Financial posted at A Revolution In Financial Planning, saying, "I discuss the problems with the accumulation approach to financial planning--a problem which plagues most people, including those in the financial planning industry and makes long-term financial success impossible. I discuss the unspoken premise of this theory and its implications."

Edward Cline presents Geert Wilders Speaks Without Fear in Tennessee posted at The Rule of Reason, saying, "Instead of a comment on Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician being tried in The Netherlands for the “crime” of “hate speech,” it would be appropriate for him to speak for himself – in Tennessee. His references to the peril in which Christians have been placed by multiculturalism and political correctness apply equally to all non-Muslims, including Objectivists and atheists. His assertion that “our values” are based on the “Judeo-Christian heritage,” of course, we can disagree with. But in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Pakistan, such a statement would be a literal death sentence, carried out by the regime or by the mob, without the pretense of a trial."

Jason Stotts presents Are Your Genitals Normal? posted at Erosophia, saying, "Are your genitals normal?" [This post focuses on a brief, educational video with the theme of differences being normal.]

Beth Haynes presents Amicus Brief filed to FL v HHS posted at Black Ribbon Project, saying, "In my new role as Senior Health Policy Analyst for Docs 4 Patient Care, I was able to contribute behind the scenes in shaping an amicus brief to the FL v HHS court case against the constitutionality of the individual mandate. The point we argue is a small one, but should increase the Justices' comfort with ruling against the mandate,and even against the whole law."

Earl Parson presents ATLOSCON Architecture Talk posted at Creatures of Prometheus, saying, "I'll be presenting a talk on architecture at ATLOSCON - here's a brief description of what it's all about. Come join us for what's sure to be a great weekend!"

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of objectivist round up
using our carnival submission form.
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5 Star Challenge: Part III

2011-05-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

More of the challenge, the question for this one is 5 things I'm grateful for. (I'm taking this as "grateful" in the sense of "happy that I have". As I searched through for pics, I thought of many more, but I said I was keeping this casual, so here goes.)

My family. They're an everyday reminder of my top values and I love both my husband and son with such overwhelming joy.

Have I mentioned my love of snuggling?

Friends. My best bud far away and all my mom, Objectivist blogger friends(J K L A B K H Y) and all my NWO friends and my neighborhood friends too. I'm not a big socializer, but I do gain such pleasure from sharing with and learning from this nurturing group.

Cruising Alaska with a best-bud is highly recommended!

Horses. Even though my husband is now allergic so we're no longer riding across New Zealand (nor at home), I love that these creatures exist and that they're so beautiful and so elegant to watch (that is when they're not being goofy and flipping out over a scary gum wrapper on the ground). I still find watching them move so beautifully to be deeply soothing.

Morgans are not the best dressage horses, but we had fun.

Sea Ranch. More generally, I love the ocean and I find it nourishes my sense of peace and happiness to relish the full sensory experience of visiting the coast. This spot in particular is my favorite. If I visit a coastal spot that lacks the cliffs or the cedars or the tide pools or the grandeur, I miss it.

My parents. Yes, there are things we disagree about, but they have always loved me and nurtured me and clearly done the best that they possible could. They have been honest and supportive and trusting and they fundamentally helped establish my sense of the world as a safe place with good people. I certainly didn't do anything to achieve such parents, but I am happy to have them and sincerely appreciate their goodness.

My marvelous mom when I surprised her for Mother's Day (and when she knew the next Mother's Day I'd be a mom too. (There's something special about that first Mother's Day when you're pregnant and anticipating... it was extra special to share it with my mom who had no clue that I would be snuggling with her and not calling from 800 miles away.)

My dear dad who has loved me whole heartedly since the 70s!

Here's to cherishing that which we're grateful for.

5 Star Challenge: Part II

2011-05-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

Okee dokee, the 5 Star Challenge continued with "five things my body can do".

Sing. I know I mentioned that last time, but it's true and fun and so cheery.

Bake. While I do vastly less now that I've learned so much about gluten and discovered my allergy, I love the smell and the sensuous nature of making a decadent treat. Rolling up the special rugalach dough into pastry or pressing crumbs into a springform pan or carefully snuggling in cinnamon rolls to bake into gooey delights. If people are uninterested in removing gluten from their diet, I have a glorious time in making it the tastiest treat possible.

Walk. I just love going for a solitary stroll. Yes, I often sing. But, not always. I get the most joy out of feeling the sun warm me or the sunset enchant me or the fall colors pique some contemplation.

Read. That I can travel to so many places in fiction and share so many warm moments via letters and delight my child by reading out loud is a wonderful thing.

Snuggle. I think one of the worst things about lacking movement for me would be the inability to go hug and nuzzle and tickle and cozy up to those I love.

Scrub A Dub Dub

2011-05-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

This was dishes round one of... many. It's a good thing I like bubble soap or this week of no dishwasher would have been much less bearable! Apparently, it's an electrical problem which we're hoping will get solved with a handyman visit tomorrow. Here's to technology and all the time it saves us!

Other things to share:
Watch the second video for a beautiful moment of art appreciation.

This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antics:

• nuzzling up to me and drawling "sweetie pie" while batting his eye lashes (His way to "be nice" and to bribe me to read more Harry Potter.)

• informing me he was "acting as my husband"! That certainly raised my eyebrows and I asked for more information. He said he was "calling me sweetie pie and stuff". (No, I do not quite know what "and stuff" was supposed to mean. I dropped the subject.)

• giggling wildly, "No, no, no! Don't eat my carpals!" (Yep, he does love learning anatomy.)

5 Star Challenge

2011-05-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

I'm joining several of my Mom-Objectivist-Blogger friends (Jenn, Kelly) in the 5 Star Challenge because that sounds like just the right amount of mellow fun and not too much effort. I'm deep into working on an online science curriculum that is happily taking up most of my brain power.

My understanding is that this is supposed to be done over five days with a post each day in this order:
Five things you love about yourself.
Five things your body can do.
Five things you’re grateful for.
Five things that make you happy you’re alive.
Five people (or pets) who you love.

I'm thinking I'm more likely to wind up with 5 weeks, but this certainly fits in the non-urgent category of fun and I'm taking it in the first-thing-that-comes-to-mind manner :)

So... five things I love about myself:

1. I roll with the punches. It's hard to get under my skin and get me riled. This is a very good thing with an intense kiddo who can melt into a puddle of scalding fury over a stuck zipper.

2. I sing. Well, I sing happy songs. I love that I sing happy songs. I love that I can sing for more than ten hours straight (and have done so) covering everything from old musicals to Disney and Latin to Hebrew. I get cheered to the bone when I have hours to walk, fold laundry, or drive and sing the whole time.

3. Surprises. I love giving and receiving surprises. It was clearly one of the highlights of my grandma's life when I flew to Vermont (with my son) and surprised her with a visit from her first great grand child on Grandparents Day! My dear husband thinks I'm absolutely batty for requesting hints and riddles before surprises so that I can anticipate and guess what goodie might be coming my way. I love both my joy in giving and receiving surprises... anticipation is grand!

4. I'm honest with myself. I love that I will not lie or pretend something untrue to myself. When I'm tackling a problem, I have a solid base of trust.

5. Snuggles. I love that I'm so touchy, feely, snuggly with close friends and family. I purr when my husband lets me rub my cheeks on his hands. I play hour long games with my kiddo where we go through every part of his body that I'm not allowed to squeeze, hug, squash, twist, rub, wiggle.... lots of giggles. I gain so much joy from positive touch and it's a really wonderful thing that my kiddo is a sensory seeker (not a sensory avoider).

And... when I'm caught unawares, bowled over, sometimes literally knocked flat in the sand... I try to laugh and to remember how joyous it is to have a child that loves me so much, that he wants to fire every neuron in his brain with the feeling of being close to mommy. (From my "Manners for Sensory Seekers" post)"

I know I just included this picture again, but I do so love it and it fits!

Mother's Day Poem

2011-05-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

I ran across this poem this morning and it hit a bit of the melancholy spot.

Love Poem

by Jennie Linthorst

I want to write a love poem

for the mother I am today...

There are certainly times when I have those moments of profound sadness at the steeper slope my kiddo faces... how I wish I could make it smoother for him.

I am reminded what I can do though and how many skills I've learned and how much delight I've found in parenting. The sad moments do not take over unless I let them, as I wrote in my post on Jonah Days!

"I remember days where a flu had me so low that it took me a half hour to move from the couch to the kitchen and I had a toddler who was learning lots about patience and what being sick looks like! I remember days where I made so many mistakes that I thought just one more note of a whiny voice would make me lava lady with my home reduced to ashes. But, I've never been in a place where a Jonah Day touched my sense of life. A Jonah Day does not have the power to change the nature of my joy in living. It doesn't even have the power to dampen my spirits unless I let it and being a mom has given me plenty of practice at keeping that grin :)

Here's to a joyous Mother's Day :) For those embracing that roll, here's to relishing those powerful moments of parenting success!

Feeling a bit sad

2011-05-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

I found out last night that a distant friend died from cancer. I didn't even know she was sick. I keep thinking about her delightful twin girls. I can only imagine the heart ache of her husband with such a tragic loss and now the roll of a single parent. It took me a long time to get to sleep last night. Here's to cherishing our loved ones.

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antics:
• admonishing his playful daddy with giggles, "Stop doing push ups on me!"
• going off to bed with, "OK, I'm plowing." (No clue.)
• reciting the multiplication table he added this as a drawling pause for time (i.e. he hadn't memorized it yet) after the question 4x4, "Ah... yes... well... it's obvious that it's..."
• amusing imposed helpless moment when I declined preparing his snack:
He was shrieking hysterically and pouring tears with only pauses to demand, "How am I supposed to get the cheese out of the bag."
It's hard not to laugh at a seven year old who claims opening a zip lock is beyond him! I'll admit the twitching corners of the mouth, but I empathized with his frustration at my refusal to be his evening chef. Clearly, I'm a horrid mom.

Observing

2011-05-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

I'm gaining more and more respect for how much of an art observing children is! I was recently listening to a lecture course by Ray Girn that pointed out how detailed the observations of a teacher need to be to properly understand a student and then, I came across this post by a parenting educator whom I particularly admire, Connie Allen.

I am contemplating her third suggestion in this post:

"Set aside time every day to observe, to stand back and see what you can see with the intention to discover something new...By making neutral observation a daily priority, you’ll be thrilled with what you discover about yourself and the children in your life."

Would this be a good idea? I have so often found stepping back and observing has given me profound insight into my kiddo when I'm having a challenge. I thought about this for twenty minutes though and couldn't figure out a good time to give it a trial. Our breakfasts are our family meal where we share good things from the day before and what we're looking forward to in the upcoming day. In the afternoons, most often, my kiddo is either playing by himself or I'm reading to him (neither good times for a studious observation). I don't think I have a daily time when I can observe from a distance, but I think I'll be able to slide in a few times during the week and I'll check back with results :)

If anyone else gives this a trial, I'd be curious if you find it helpful! Is regular observing outside of interaction times and outside of school / challenge evaluation a useful endeavor?

Hearts of Palm

2011-04-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Hooray for Costco carrying one of my favorite, unusual veggies again! I was so delighted, I bought eight packages... that's sixteen bottles :)

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.

Cute antics:

• mentioning that these technological bad guys in the video game were "nasty, old brutes".

• after explaining how sad it would be if the bad guys died he informed me, "That's a sarcastic voice you know."

• and giving me the material to post this Facebook status:
I'm all giggles. I was pretending to select one of my son's ribs to either tickle or eat and he said, "No. I don't want a sister." Hmmm, so does that make me God? We're not getting into how he became Adam!

We had a nice family hike this week too!

Reposting: The Idiom Dictionary

2011-04-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

It's been over a year and I figured I could go for a recycled post this week! I am glad to report that my son's Idiom Dictionary is now well over one hundred pages long and growing and creating delight every week :) So... here's what I wrote originally and I'll post some of the newer pages at the end!

http://www.idiomsite.com/

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/

It doesn't take much scanning to get a feel for how many idioms we use. So, it's quite understandable that children, who are learning the regular meanings for words, get confused when we throw in idiomatic expressions. Often without realizing that we're saying something quite complicated, we'll pepper the conversation with mystery. While idioms are particularly challenging for autistic kids due to their varying adherence to concrete thinking, learning idioms is a challenge for every kid and... a fun parenting opportunity too :)

Enter the idiom dictionary!

First:

Every week, I scan one of the sites and pick an idiom that refers to a concept within my son's conceptual grasp. For example, I'll pick something like "back to square one" and skip things like "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".

Second:

I write it at the top of the page and write a description along with an example at the bottom of the page.

Third:

I search google images for something that can illustrate the idiom and make the idea stick in my son's head.

That's it. It takes all of ten minutes to do a page and you gradually have a richer and richer dictionary. (I'm up to something like 50 pages.) I tend to leave a print out of the newest page at his place at the table or somewhere else he'll run across it and I love to hear the glee with which he reads them. He seems to think people must be kidding if they're saying such silly things, but he's learning! I occasionally print out the whole thing to share and it's less than two dollars to get a quick binding at an office store.

So, a few examples:

It's easy to see how much fun these can be and how easy it is to personalize them! Cameron found the elephant ears quite amusing along with seeing pets he knew coming coming out of the sky :) I've been quite impressed with the usefulness of the tool too. Frequently, the lessons or component parts of idioms can be used as reference tools for a variety of otherwise unrelated explanations.

Here's to more fun parenting... and hoping I don't feel the need to put my real kiddo in the dog house too often :)

Family Fun Center

2011-04-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

I must say a day of family play including miniature golf, bumper boats, and go karts was... fun, but wearying!

Hiding out in the miniature golf buildings to block the ball

Reveling in driving his own bumper boat

Other things to share:

This week's Objectivist Round Up

Cute antics:

• contemplating all the delightful things he'd do if he could buy jail in Monopoly

• after convincing Andrew to play a game, he commented "Seems like we need an iPad". (The observant boy went to get it himself.)

• proposing in a bargaining voice that he'd make his lunches, but only if I read to him. (Um, that's his responsibility. Was that supposed to persuade me? He tried again with something closer to a polite request when I didn't respond to the "threat".)

• and a sweet moment regarding his athlete mentor...

I was just talking about play dates that he has with kids his age and he interrupted and started talking about his athlete mentor (Jordan).

I said, "Jordan's different, Jordan's..."

Cameron filled in "a cool kid!"

(There you go, 16 year olds that are willing to give roller coaster rides are more cool than any peer!)

Harry Potter Love

2011-04-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a review copy of the expanded edition of Values of Harry Potter (which was sent to me by the author for free) and, at the same time, I've been reading the fifth book with my son (for the second time). So, that makes it at least four solo reads of the full, seven-book series and almost two full reads with my son and, after all that reading, I'm inspired to just make some comments about why I love this series so much.

I connect with this series on a basic sense of life level. This is a story where the heros are passionate about their values. From smaller values like sports and pets to major ones like life and loved ones, the story is clear that values are worth fighting for. There is no doubt that the characters are making very real choices and living the results. This is the kind of universe that I most enjoy in fiction and can easily relate to my life.

Humor. One of the great joys of this series is how beautifully the characters are crafted and that allows the reader to interact with them on a powerfully emotional level. So, when I mention humor, we're not talking about superficial gags; the humor in this series is delightful and powerful too. For example, I hated Professor Umbridge with every ounce of my being and couldn't have been more gleeful when she had to deal with the catastrophic results of the prankster twins decision that her latest power grab deserved "a bit of mayhem" in response.
"The upshot of it all was that Professor Umbridge spent her first afternoon as headmistress running all over the school answering the summonses of the other teachers, none of whom seemed able to rid their rooms of the fireworks without her. When the final bell rang and the students were heading back to Gryffindor Tower with their bags, Harry saw, with immense satisfaction, a disheveled and soot-blackened Umbridge tottering sweaty-faced from Professor Flitwick's classroom. 'Thank you so much, Professor!" said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. 'I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether I had the authority...' Beaming, he closed his classroom door in her snarling face." -Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
This scene is so powerful because readers know deeply how vindictive Professor Umbridge has been through multiple uses of her administrative power as well as how consistently gentle and agreeable Professor Flitwick has been as a teacher / peer.

Finally, I love the stories. They are so inventive and beautifully woven together. The good is really good and the bad is really bad. It's not that there aren't characters that are mixed, but the choices that each character makes are highlighted throughout the story and the good guys win.

I have read several supplemental analyses of the Harry Potter series and I would most recommend Values of Harry Potter (Amazon Option) for gaining more from the books. The essays each address a different aspect and are easily scanned for your area of interest. In this newly expanded edition, I especially liked how Mr. Armstrong noted the two marks that Harry started life with, his scar and his mark from his mother's love. Armstrong noted that we, as readers, could watch Harry struggle with the choices between these two marks as he grew i.e. between evil impulses from his connection with Voldemort and pursuing positive values like love. Especially in book 5, when Harry is most strongly tempted to allow anger and frustration to rule him, he chooses a different path. It was pleasant to delve deeper in the psychological aspects of these novels while enjoying reading that remains easily accessible. As one of my other favorite fictional characters would say (Anne of Green Gables), this book offers a fun analysis without any "high falutin mumbo jumbo".

So, here's to a series where there's so much joy that it overwhelms the sorrow, where the laughs are strong, and where chocolate warms the soul. This is definitely a series that bears re-reading and offers powerful lessons each time.

I love when he reads over my shoulder to make sure I'm getting it right. He knows these stories well!

Watching Superman for the first time!

2011-04-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, talk about some gaping plot holes, but it was solid fun for snuggling anyway :)

Other things to share:
This week's Objectivist Round Up.
Cute antics:
• doing a "Make em Laugh" dance at his athlete mentor's house (Inspired by Singing in the Rain.)
• commenting on the competitors in his video game, "They always want me to perish."

• after another goofy action, informing me, "I was just trying to be hilarious."

• commenting, "These are soldier worms and I love dropping concrete donkeys on them." (I thought there was some serious imagination wackiness going on, but they're apparently "real" characters in one of Andrew's iPad games.)

• giggling to himself and telling me he was playing the "laugh out loud game".

• listening to me propose a whole scheme for packing him off to the zoo before responding with a smug, "I will not participate."

• insisting on wearing his winter coat to breakfast everyday (This is a pet peeve for Andrew who finds the daily drip / wipe of the puffy coat aggravating. I have washing the thing on my list today!)

• greeting his playdate buddy with shrieks, circles running, and bizarre bits of sentences. The buddy did the same thing, so they must be making sense to each other at least.

• playing Monopoly against himself... somehow one player always winds up with 90% of the property and money :)

Objectivist Round Up

2011-04-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the April 7, 2011 edition of the Objectivist Round Up. After having enjoyed a delightful week of friendship and celebratory times, I thought this quote on Thanksgiving just hit the spot. There is so much joy in sharing and appreciating accomplishments.

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers’ holiday. The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. Abundance is (or was and ought to be) America’s pride—just as it is the pride of American parents that their children need never know starvation.

“Cashing in on Hunger,” The Ayn Rand Letter, II

Victoria Genther presents We're Now Taking Orders for the April 2011 Edition! posted at The Undercurrent Blog, saying, "Order the April 2011 Edition of The Undercurrent! Last day to order is April 11th, so get your copies today."

Becky Rhoads presents Twead #10: The Truth About Obamacare posted at The Lucidicus Project, saying, "Our 10th Twead is on Sally Pipes's book, The Truth About Obamacare. Check it out!"

Shrikant Rangnekar presents Atlas Shrugged Movie: Ten Million Dollar Questions posted at Shrikant Rangnekar, saying, "This post includes a review of the movie, a comparison of the three Ayn Rand Movies and ideas for selling the novel to Atlas movie fans."

Joseph Kellard presents Bridge Renaming Ceremony Attracts Hundreds - Long Beach, NY Patch posted at Long Beach Patch: Latest Articles, saying, "My article on a bridge renaming ceremony in honor of a hero: A World War I recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor."

Joshua Gregg presents A Separation of Economy & State posted at Persona Non Grata, saying, "I am new to Objectivist Round Up and am excited to submit my first article blog. Enjoy."

Miranda Barzey presents 101 Reasons to Go to ATLOSCon posted at Building Atlantis, saying, "You have no excuse not to go."

Ron Pisaturo presents Exposition vs. Drama posted at Ron Pisaturo's Blog, saying, "This essay compares one scene, viewable on the Internet, of the movie Atlas Shrugged Part 1 (The Strike Productions 2011) to the corresponding scene in the source novel Atlas
Shrugged by Ayn Rand."

Rational Jenn presents Tattling and the Virtues posted at Rational Jenn, saying, "I realized that sometimes I use tattling incidents as a way to help my kids redirect their attention from what others are or aren't doing and back toward what they are (or should be) doing. It's an opportunity to help them know to do what they know is right even if others aren't."

Edward Cline presents Ashes for Allah: New Calls for Censorship posted at The Rule of Reason, saying, "Politicians, generals and pundits do not become overwrought about the burning of bibles, Torahs, or other religious documents. Only about Korans. This is because Islam is always in the news, in some form or another, and that is because Muslims are always being “provoked” by the least criticism of them and their creed to throw bloody tantrums. Islam is another “culture,” another religion, another “way of life,” and by the criteria of political correctness and an affinity for dhimmitude, it must be protected from all forms of offense."

Ari Armstrong presents Fast, Cheap, Healthy Eating posted at Free Colorado, saying, "This longer post discusses how to buy good food economically."

Paul Hsieh presents Hype Vs. Reality posted at We Stand FIRM, saying, "The gulf between ObamaCare hype and reality is growing even wider, as these recent news stories illustrate."

Julia Campbell presents salmon with creamy roasted poblano sauce posted at the crankin' kitchen!, saying, "A wonderful creamy sauce of roasted poblano peppers on top of baked side of salmon and summer squashes!"

Diana Hsieh presents Update to Explore Atlas Shrugged posted at NoodleFood, saying, "I'm updating my "Explore Atlas Shrugged" website for the release of the movie this month -- and you can help make that happen!"

John McVey presents OTI post #4 - The Law of Identity posted at John J McVey.

Benjamin Skipper presents Why I Love to Cook posted at Musing Aloud, saying, "I thought my central purpose in life was already pretty clear to begin with, but further thinking has directed my intents more narrowly. The methods noted in this post, such as examining one's daydreams and childhood, might help others clarify their own purpose in life."

Scott Connery presents Tea Party Leader Calls for Compromise?!? posted at Rational Public Radio, saying, "If the Tea Party is going to be of any value, they have to stick to the principle of small government. If Amy Kremer gets her way, the Tea Party will become just a marketing campaign run by the Republican Party."

David C Lewis, RFA presents Renting Vs. Owning: A Twist | Twin Tier Financial posted at A Revolution In Financial Planning, saying, "Which makes more sense: buying a home or renting an apartment? I discuss the implications of both and why buying isn't always the best choice."

Kate Yoak presents Why do we blog? posted at Parenting is..., saying, "There are as many good reasons to blog as there are good bloggers. Mine is to pull out of the moment, detach from the doing and remind myself of the principles that are important."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of objectivist round up
using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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