LAmom

THE UNITED NATIONS IS OFFICIALLY "NOT SMARTER THAN A FIFTH-GRADER"

At least in 1950 they weren't.

For Veterans Day today, my boys and I looked a little information about the Korean War (they were interested in that because some of their great-uncles served in Korea).  We followed the action of the invasion by North Korea, the Allies coming in to help, and their successful recapture of South Korea.  When we reached the point of the US/UN decision to cross the 38th Parallel, JG declared that that was a terrible idea.

Only after countless more lives were lost did President Truman conclude that they never should have crossed the line.  Too bad they hadn't applied some fifth-grader logic before they did it.

TURN THAT THING OFF!

Now that I'm phasing out my extra job, I'm at home more in the evenings.  This means that I can take charge of my house again and that includes enforcement of limits on the amount of TV that the kids watch (it never happens when they're at home with Daddy).

So after I announced that television and computer game time were over for the day, JG and BT were suddenly at a loss for something to do.  After Mommy's suggested activity, some room cleaning, BT promptly fell asleep.

That left JG alone with his own thoughts.  After laying around saying nothing for a while, he asked me, "What's the actual purpose of smoking?".  So I got to explain to him what nicotine is and a bit about the physiology of drug addiction.

Next came a discussion of a TV show that he's seen called Total Drama Island, which apparently is a parody of Survivor.  We talked about the meaning of parody and satire and also about the way people act in real reality shows and how people in real life can be equally cutthroat.

Next question: What is a guru?  This takes us to www.dictionary.com ("Wow!  They have EVERYTHING on the internet!!") and an examination of how JG himself is a guru to BT at times.

I doubt that any of this conversation would have happened tonight if the TV had still been on.

WHY I'M GLAD TO BE BACK HOME: PART IV

Now that we have a backyard again, we've planted a few vegetables.  We tried to pick the shadiest part of the yard to plant peas, but the recent heat wave has left them looking pretty sad.  Similarly, we got no response from the carrots.  But the squash, sunflowers and turnips are looking great!  We went out this morning for our first harvesting.  JG and I got to discuss which parts of the turnip plant we eat and why ladybugs are our friends.  We picked a huge potful of turnips greens which are now in the crockpot cooking with a chicken.  Woohoo!

LEARNING STYLES

BT (age 5), looking at the remaining portion of my half-eaten quesadilla, said "It looks like a state that's bigger than Texas!"  "You mean Alaska?", I queried.  "Yeah!"

He was right.  Viewing it from a certain angle, it did somewhat resemble the shape of Alaska.

BT has been very visually oriented ever since he was a toddler (probably before that as well, but it's hard to know since he couldn't talk then).  He especially seems to show an affinity for geography.  He can identify major countries just by seeing a portion of them, and since the age of four, he has surprised people by seeing a globe or world map and being able to immediately point to Los Angeles and proclaim, "That's where we live!"

JG is just the opposite; he's the classic kinesthetic type, the one who can't sit still, the one who might be labeled with an attention-span problem if he were in school.  Loves working with his hands, makes really creative Lego constructions, but can't find things when they're right in front of him.

Which means that Mommy has to be prepared to work with each kid's individual learning style.  One of things I love about homeschooling is that each one can do things that are designed just for him.  And a lot of their learning progress can be assessed just by observing them instead of giving them tests.  BT definitely passed his geography test today.

SUPER-SANITIZED SHAKESPEARE

Yesterday was my father's birthday.  My mother and I were conferring about what we might give Dad as a gift.  Since he loves classic plays, I got the inspiration to perform some pseudo-Shakespeare with my kids.  JG has a very low tolerance for bloodshed and would have no interest in anything that's about pursuing romance, so I knew I would have to do some rewriting of whatever play I chose.  So here's what we ended up with, a modernized and VERY cleaned-up kids' version of Hamlet -- no death, no bad parents, and nothing spooky:

Prince Hamlet, his mother Gertrude, and his best friend Horatio are in the palace watching TV when a news report comes on saying that the King has died in a car accident.  They are all distraught.  Claudius arrives at the palace and offers his condolences.  He then proposes that Queen Gertrude marry him so that she will have help running the country.  Gertrude tearfully decides that while King Hamlet will always be the love of her life, it might be best for the country if she remarries.  Gertrude tries to comfort Prince Hamlet and suggests that he and Horatio play on his computer for a while to help them forget the sad events of the day.  Gertrude and Claudius then leave to hold a press conference to tell the nation their plans.

Hamlet and Horatio go to Hamlet's computer, where Hamlet discovers that he has a new email.  It is from his father!  The email says that Claudius is evil and has kidnapped the king and told everyone that he was dead.  The email urges Hamlet to help him, to defeat Claudius and force Claudius to set the king free.  Hamlet and Horatio devise a plan to scare Claudius, prove his guilt, and then subdue him.

Hamlet announces that a storytelling contest will be held at the palace for everyone in the land to attend.  Among the attendees are Gertrude and Claudius.  At the storytelling contest, Horatio starts off by telling an innocuous fairy tale.  Hamlet is next and tells a story in which a good king is kidnapped by an evil person, but the king's son finds out about it and feeds the evil person a poisoned cookie.  During the telling of the story, Claudius becomes visibly nervous.  Hamlet and Horatio then pass out cookies for everyone to eat during intermission, themselves included.  Hamlet, Horatio, and Gertrude exit to the kitchen to make tea to go with the cookies.  While they are out, Claudius nervously switches his cookie with Hamlet's.  This is just what Hamlet had expected he would do.  Hamlet had put the sabotaged cookie on his own plate.  It is not actually poisoned, but contains a sleeping potion.

Everyone returns from the kitchen and they all eat cookies and drink tea.  Claudius falls over asleep.  Gertrude is concerned and wonders if he is dead.  Hamlet explains what he had done and shows Gertrude the email from the king.  Gertrude rejoices in knowing that her husband is still alive and expresses disgust at the thought that she almost married the evil Claudius.  Hamlet, Horatio, and Gertrude tie Claudius up while he is sleeping.  When he awakes, he is told that they know the king is alive and they will not untie Claudius until the king is found.  Claudius breaks down and tells them where the king is being held captive.  Hamlet takes the keys from Claudius's pocket and he and Horatio rescue the king.  Claudius is sent to prison for 20 years.  By the time he gets out, the king will have completed his reign and retired, and prince Hamlet will have ascended to the throne.  Hamlet says that when he grows up to be king, he wants Horatio to be his chief assistant.  Horatio agrees.  Hamlet and Horatio are praised by the king and queen for their intelligence and courage.

More squeaky clean than a Disney movie, isn't it?  It was our first time putting on a play.  JG and BT had a ball being the stars of the show, and my dad loved it.  Getting the props together was also fun for them.  Plus, they will have the pleasure, at some point in the future, of realizing what a silly goose their Mommy is when they discover the real Hamlet.

OUR NEWEST COMMITTEE MEMBER

Last Sunday night, our church's Facilities Team was having their meeting.  JG (who just turned seven over the weekend!) suddenly raised his hand.  When the Pastor (my dad) called on him, he said, "You know what we need to do?  Wash the bus."  None of us adults had noticed that the church bus was in need of a washing, so we showed sincere appreciation for his input.  A few minutes later he contributed again.  "And when are we going to change those light bulbs?"  What light bulbs?  "That one there, and that one there, and that one right there."  He was right.  There were three bulbs blown out among the 27 bulbs that populate our ceiling lights.  He also told me later that he had discovered, while crawling around on the church floor, that some small child had scribbled on the underside of one of the pews.

So JG is now an official member of the Facilities Team.  And, of course, Mommy is using this as a homeschooling activity.  Under my tutelage, he sat down in WordPad and typed up the following report.  Today he's going to turn it in to his team leader.

THAT'S LIFE WHEN YOU'RE A MINORITY

. . . an educational minority, that is.  Yet another show that my kids watch (today it's Zoboomafoo!) is running a "School is Cool!" episode.  That's the episode where the main character on the show, be they child, animal, or inanimate object, goes to school for the first time.  Usually, they are anxious at first, but kindly adults or other friends show them how awesomely fun school is.  By the end of the episode, they can't wait to come back.

Of course, the vast majority of children in this country do go to school, so it makes sense that a lot of children's shows will deal with the topic.  But it does feel a bit strange for homeschooled kids to see all these advertisements for the joys of the classroom.  Probably similar to the way it felt for black people back when television used to be almost completely white (that was before my time, so I'm only guessing).

But JG has his own understanding of what school is like because I work at a school.  He visits there plenty and doesn't feel like he's missing anything.

PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?

Wow.  A cute little neighborhood park with no one in it.

Yesterday the little dudes and I had a lunch picnic at Mills Park, which is right by my parents' house in Carson.  Overall, Carson is a very diverse city, but the Del Amo neighborhood is a stronghold of the demographic that some call the Black Bourgeoisie.

The park is right in the middle of a residential tract.  It's pretty and well-kept, and it was completely empty when we arrived.  BT announced, "I can hear my echo!"  He ran up and down the grassy hills, listening to the reverberations of his voice and his clapping hands.  In the lower-income area where we live, we have never been able to hear echoes at our local parks.  Lynwood and South Gate Parks are always filled with the sounds of other people whenever we visit.  Not only was there no one at Mills Park, the surrounding residential streets also seemed desolate.  There wasn't a soul to be seen except for a couple of guys mowing lawns (I doubt that either of them were the actual owners of the lawns they were mowing).

I'm often struck by this irony in affluent neighborhoods.  Picture-perfect houses with no one in them.  In my neighborhood, the houses are older and the lawns get weedy, but they are inhabited.  In Lynwood, it appears that many more homes have mothers who don't work full-time, and/or have extended families living in one house together, so there are people at home while other people are working.  I'm grateful to inhabit one of those "lived-in" (both in appearance and in fact) homes.

Anyway, the picnic was fun.  BT seems to share my love for plants.  He correctly identified clover flowers, after having been told their name only once in the past!  He picked clover, dandelion, and wood sorrel flowers for me, and he and JG played in the sand.  After over an hour, some young adult men came to the park to play basketball.  They appeared to be on their lunch hour from work.  So at least the park wasn't completely uninhabited when we left.

EDUCATIONAL HYPOCRISY

. . . or maybe just failure to follow the Golden Rule.

At the same time that I'm homeschooling my kids, I work part-time at a private school.  Previously, the majority of my work has been administrative and done from home, but now they have me coming in to teach a math class -- Algebra II -- four days a week (now that think about it, maybe that's a part of the reason that I haven't blogged in two weeks!).  JG and BT hang out with my mom while I teach.

Anyway, I was working with this one student, showing him how to factor the sums and differences of cubes.  It's pretty straightforward once you know the formula.  He finally admitted, "I understand how this works, and I'm sure I would be able to do it, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of thinking and I just don't want to do it."

This is the same student who told me that he has very little time for doing homework because he has auto mechanics classes every night.  He said that he knows what he wants to do in life and it doesn't involve knowing how to factor polynomials.

A part of the philosophy of unschooling is that everybody is an individual.  We all have different talents, interests and goals, and we should all seek the education that is meaningful to us.  From Life Learning Magazine:

So life learning is about trusting kids to learn what they need to know and about helping them to learn and grow in their own ways.

We also provide the time for our children to investigate their own ideas. And – perhaps the biggest challenge for many parents – we are flexible and patient observers of a process that is not particularly sequential or organized, in spite of what the curriculum writers would have us believe.

This is the idea that I follow with my own kids.  But at work I'm being paid to keep kids on track.  After you finish Algebra I and Geometry, you're going to take Algebra II and that's that.  What did I tell this young man who is pursuing his own interests and is learning a valuable skill?  I told him to start factoring those polynomials or else.  I told him that just doing it anyway would help him to become a person who doesn't shrink back from unpleasant or difficult tasks.  That is probably true, but is it really the best use of his time to have him doing pages and pages of equations just to build character?  Aren't there more productive ways that he could learn perseverance?

After feeling guilty about this for a while, I reminded myself that the reason he was in school was because his parents had chosen it.  They decided that a sequential, organized curriculum would be the best thing for their son.  I am there to help in that process, not to tell them how to raise their child.  So I guess it's okay.

THINGS MONEY CAN'T BUY

Crab legs:    $9.14
Raw shrimp:    $18.72
Chicken:        $9.15
Sausage:        $8.49
Vegetables:    $3.62
Spices, etc.:    $7.96

Watching DL achieve his goal of learning how to make gumbo:  Absolutely priceless.