Well done, Iago!

I realize I'm his mom and totally biased, but he was awesome. SO FUNNY. SO SASSY. 

I love Amtrak (which is something I might have mentioned before)

I love riding the train to New York or Vermont or wherever* and making friends with my seatmates and the folks nearby. My most recent two adventures led to long discussions with: a professor of English Literature (the Romantic period) from Scotland; a professional rock-n-roll violinist; and a woman who lives less than a mile from my house.

My conversation with the English Literature professor involved us talking about Noel Streatfeild, Frances Hodgeson Burnett, Jane Austen (of course), Georgette Heyer, Josephine Tey*, The Bronte sisters, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, George Eliot, Reginald Hill, and World War One. She's not on Facebook or Twitter, but she said she'd check out my blog. So here, my dear new friend, is a post for you, with links galore. Thank you for talking with me on the train. I hope you have a terrific time visiting your friend!!!

*More links to related content contained therein

Yesterday was blogging for LGBT families day...and I didn't know it.

But unrelatedly, Muffin Man came home from school with this poem he'd written, that he's going to read in front of the whole middle school later this week.

I'm so proud of him for standing up for his friends and the members of our family who are LGBT. I'm so proud of  him for already being the person I hoped he'd be when I imagined him as a grown-up.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some dust out of my eye. Talk among yourselves. And check out Crunchy Granola's post from yesterday.

Muffin Man is at Middle School Orientation

Just thought you should know.

[Gulp]

Science Fair

Muffin Man's school has a science fair every year, and it's mandatory for 4th and 5th graders to participate.

Last year, his question was "which do gerbils like better, sunflower seeds or corn?" (answer: sunflower seeds).

This year his question was "How fast does ice melt on different surfaces?"

Mr. Spock and he worked together to do the set up, which involved a camera doing time-lapse photography. Here's Muffin Man's description of the materials needed:

8 ice cubes, 1 wooden cutting board, 1 brick/rock, 1 cast iron griddle, 1 glass casserole, 16 pipe cleaneres, 1 tripod, 1 lamp, 1 timer, and two cameras. 

And here's his description of the variables:

The surfaces must be the same temp. so I put all the surfaces in the same place for about 20 hours, the ice must be the same temp. so I did them all at the same time to ensure that the air temp. will always be the same, and the ice cubes must be the same size.

I won't tell you which melted first, but I will tell you that the first ice melted at 18 minutes, 19 seconds. The last ice melted at 3 HOURS, 7 minutes, and 33 seconds.

The time-lapse video is a little over 3 minutes long, and the first 20 seconds are really cool. Muffin Man brought it in as part of his presentation.



We were a little concerned that maybe we'd helped him a bit too much with this one, until we saw the other kids' projects at the fair. It was pretty obvious that we were actually quite hands-off, comparatively.

Random on a rainy Tuesday

(original title, "Random bullets on a rainy Tuesday" and then I read it over, and realized that the phrase "random bullets" has only one meaning now, and it's not "items in an unordered list that have nothing to do with each other.)

• Muffin Man won his classroom spelling bee last week. Which surprised me, not because he's not a good speller (he's a terrific speller), but because he'd told me a few weeks ago that he'd participated in a classroom bee and he'd done terribly. Turn out that other bee was geography. Okay then. His winning word was "necessary".
• This means he's now going to compete in the school spelling bee on the 24th. Not much time to study. I printed out the study guide from Mirriam-Webster, and he's pegging away at it.
• He's super excited, because if he wins the school spelling bee, he'll be joining his friend ReallyTheyCouldBeTwins*  at the county-wide spelling bee, since she won her school's bee a couple of weeks ago. The county-wide bee will include middle-schoolers, too.
• We brought banana cake to services this weekend. This time, I made a banana filling for it. Wow! Delicious.
• Speaking of services, Rev. Anya came over to our house to have a confab and I made latkes using a different recipe. The one I used to use was from Kosher Gourmet, and don't get me wrong, it was good. But the one I used this time was from this past December's Bon Appetit, and it was phenomenal. Oh. My. GOD.
• My left eye is itching. It's been two days now. What is UP with that?
• Everyone in my office is wearing blue today. Including me. So far as I know, there wasn't a memo.
• Even though the weather is gloomy, I'm kind of glad it's raining. It gave me an excuse to wear my silly rain boots and poncho.

*formerly known as "SheIsAlmostAsTallAsMe", which is an out-dated name. She's 5'4". Turning 11 next week

His first assignment

Today was Open House at my son's school for kids to meet their teachers. My son's teacher this year is Mr. TallKindFormerThirdGradeTeacher (not his real name), a gentleman my son knows and likes but didn't have as a teacher himself (he had Ms. Marvelock).

Mr. TallKindFormerThirdGradeTeacher gave the kids an assignment. Below are Mr. Spock's pictures of the intructions

and here's what Muffin Man wrote:

Excuse me, while I go be verklempt on my own for a little while. It looks like I might be raising a mensch.

In case you're wondering...

The real-life name of Posh Place is BeanTree Learning. Muffin Man has gone there for over six years, and will be there again for a few weeks this Summer. I can't say enough good things about their pre-school, pre-K, and Kindergarten programs. And their after-school program is also terrific, with time for homework and reading, as well as playing outside and messing about with Lego.

Six and a half years later, I could have written this post yesterday. They take child care seriously.

If you live in Loudoun or western Fairfax and you're looking for a daycare program for your child, infant through 5th grade, you can not do better than BeanTree Learning. But don't take MY word for it:

Portrait of a happy camper

Muffin Man gives it two BAWKS up.

Persistence

This is a story about a project Muffin Man was assigned for Social Studies.

He had to create a time-line of events leading up to the Revolutionary War that:

1. Must include at least 2 sentences about each event.
2. Must include the date(s) of the event
3. Must be clearly placed in order of events.
4. Must be incorporated in a picture, collage, or diorama using a Revolutionary Theme.
5. Must be neatly done
6. Must show thought (can not look like it was done at the last minute)

Muffin Man had a month in which to do this project. He selected his events and planned what he wanted to incorporate into his illustration before we went to Puerto Rico, and got his teacher to sign off on those things...and then he forgot all about it until the Friday before the Monday that it was due.

When I picked him up from after school that day, he was SOBBING. "I'll never be able to get it done! I'll get an F!!

"No you won't. You have all weekend to work on it. I guarantee that you are not the only kid in your class who forgot about it and left it to the last minute. Daddy and I will help you with it. And if you work hard on it, I know that you won't get an F. You may not get an A, but you are smart, creative, and resourceful. You can do a good job."

His original idea had been to hand-draw a battle scene, with the time-line in clouds of smoke from cannons. I suggested that, instead of hand-drawing, he do a collage. He took that idea, and ran with it. He typed up the events in the time line. Mr. Spock helped find appropriate pictures on the internet. I helped cut out. Muffin Man did the layout (and we took this picture so that we could remember the placement), and we all helped glue. It took most of the weekend, but he got it done.

The Clouds of the Revolutionary War

His teacher gave him a 100.

6 years

Yesterday marked six years to the day that Muffin Man started at Posh Place. He still attends their after-school program, and loves it. DeepVoicedThirdGrader and SheIsNowTallerThanMe, and many of the kids in the picture on this post are still there, too. I recommend them to everybody. I wish every child could have a Posh Place to go to.

Happy Anniversary, Posh Place. You've made a big difference in our family. Thank you so much.

I went to bed last night totally thinking it was Tuesday

Which meant that at 6:00 AM, when my alarm went off, I totally thought it was Wednesday, and so I snoozed until 6:30...when my phone reported that I was going to be late for dropping MM off at ThursdayEarlyMorningExerciseThing at his school. Which we have only missed twice before.

But today still feels like a Wednesday to me.

I'm on a roll!

Sent lunch every day, and brought my own today too!

MM seems to be enjoying it, possibly because I'm using impossibly small containers in bright colors. Also, perhaps because I send fun desserts.

We now have two wide-mouth Thermos-type containers and some wee bitty Rubbermaid containers. As well as the containers from my own Laptop Lunchbox.

I switch up which lunch box I send (which means sometimes he gets mine).

Disclaimer: I am receiving no compensation for posting links to the products I've mentioned. I'm just a satisfied customer.

What we're doing around here

MM is acing tests (spelling, math, geography: all A+) and enjoying school immensely. Once a week, he goes to a Lego builders thing after school, the rest of the week he goes straight to Posh Place.

We're all doing MadLibs (thanks, Cousin LooksLikeAndyMcDowell!), playing Connect4x4 (thanks QuiltsALot and TellsDonaldDuckStories!), and MM is playing Spoor (thanks Aunt and Uncle TandemBicycle and Cousin SameBirthdayAsMe!)

I'm volunteering in MM's class again this year to help with spelling tests on Fridays. I love it.

We spent the weekend with lots of family at Aunt and Uncle TandemBicycle's house, and had a terrific time. They gave me 8 cups worth of fresh basil to take home and now we have an ocean of pesto.

Tomorrow, Mr. Spock and I go to a shindig to celebrate the Republic of China (Taiwan). So, all in all, it's been a pretty darn good week around here.

View from the Waiting Room

Sitting in the waiting room at the car shop, waiting for them to change the oil, rotate the tires, and do all the stuff one likes to get done before traveling in holiday traffic 6 hours each way.

Sitting next to me is Muffin Man. Patiently playing his DS and twisted up like a pretzel.



We're going to the open house at his school today so he can meet his new teacher, Ms. Marvelock (not her real name), which is why I have the day off and why he's not at his daycamp (at Posh Place).

When we get the car back, we're heading back home to get his big bag o' school supplies (including green ballpoints - found at Staples, just like my friend said!)

After the open house, we're heading over to Big Box Book Store to buy presents for sundry relatives of various ages, then we'll do I don't know what, and then I'll drop MM off with his sitter so that I can attend Back-to-School Night at his school (parents only!).

So, in sum, it's a lazy, busy, errand-y, special day. And my son is flexible.

It's all Dagobah all the time right now

Swamped.

Typing this from the LCDC Exec meeting. Thursday is my son's school's open house and back-to-school night. I'm going away for the weekend.

This past weekend, I did phone banking and play dates and so on and so forth.

Updates to come soon.

I hope.

The search for a green ballpoint

If you want to buy a green ballpoint pen at Office Depot, you need to buy a pack with at least 3 other colors, none of which are black, blue, or red.

It was the one thing on the list of school supplies we didn't get.

Last year's pen (bought in a pack with purple, pink, and orange - which we use for Clue), will have to do.

Where my mind is, while my body is at work

Dancing to Ulupalakua.



The embedded video shows a woman dancing the hula to a song called Ulupalakua. The song and dance are about an area of Maui which was/is the home of the Paniolo, Hawaiian cowboys. The original Paniolo were Spanish. Paniolo is how "Espanol" got translated into Hawaiian.

Lyrics and translation can be found here.

Not on the word-study list...

The word "pour".

But we did have "poor". "Poor is?" I asked.
"Not having any money!" they said.
"Okay. It also means 'not doing well.'" I amplified.
"It also means pouring water!" said AnxiousToPlease.
"Oooh! That's a homophone! A word that sounds like this word, but isn't." I said. "Here's 'pour'. P-O-U-R. We're not doing this one this week but I'll show you a trick. See that 'u'? That's a cup. Fill it with water and pour it out. Now look at 'poor'. P-O-O-R. Those two Os are pennies."
Nods all around.

We had a similar discussion over "four" and "for". If you are curious, "four" has four letters.

It's a BUY-cott!

Please ask your school's library to order Love Ya Bunches for their Scholastic Book Sale. And then buy it. Buy two. Buy seven.

Because Scholastic needs to learn that families come in all shapes and sizes: some have a mom and a dad; some have just a mom or a dad; some have no mom or dad, but a grandparent or other guardian; some have two moms or two dads; some, like my family of origin, have two moms AND two dads. They are all still families, and they should be represented in books for sale at the fair. Especially if a book WOULD have been represented if the family had heteronormative parents.

When I was young*, I loved reading Paula Danziger's books, especially The Divorce Express (I still have my autographed copy), because it was such a joy to see MY FAMILY represented in a book (the main character, Phoebe, has parents who share custody - and their starting custody arrangement was the one my family had for my entire childhood)

So join the BUY-cott! Ask for Luv Ya Bunches, and then buy it.



*Who am I kidding? I still read it at least once a year!

Putting People First

With thanks to my many friends who have talked to me about this, both in person and on various blogs - especially Dave from Rolling Around in My Head and laureldhel from Hoyden About Town.

Putting people first means saying "children with autism" instead of "autistic children" and "people with disabilities" instead of "the disabled".

Remember, just because someone has autism or is disabled doesn't mean that that is the be-all end-all of that person's existence. Zie may also be a baseball player, or a brilliant writer, or love music, or be a die-hard Skins fan, or root for anyone who plays against the Yankees, or all of the above. Zie may have problems unrelated to disability or have an otherwise perfect life. But the point is, zie is a person.

I have found, facing my own biases, that this word order matters. The more I use person-first language, the more I am able to recognize that there is more to a person than the thing that makes that person different from me, whether that difference is in gender, or mobility, or sexual orientation, or heritage, or education level.

Everyone has their own "I Am..." list. Putting people first is a good way to acknowledge that.