If I'd Only Known it Was This Easy!

Full title:
Life's Little Secrets and Shortcuts for Dummies - Solve Life's Big Problems In Seconds

One Incredible Dad

That's what Mama Bear said to call this post.

The cake is peanut butter ice cream sandwiches covered in whipped cream and chocolate syrup, and decorated with fondant. Brother Bear came up with the idea, and Mama Bear executed it. No, she is not a professional, but it looks pretty good, wouldn't you say? And she cooked steaks for dinner.

I also got cards from the boys, and a copy of Big Daddy's Tales From the Lighter Side of Raising a Kid With Autism, by one of my favorite bloggers, Big Daddy Autism. He blogs about life with his son, who is about the same age as ours and who, like our son, has autism. I'd say I have one incredible family.

Frrooggyy!!!

GL has been checking out a reasonable number of DVDs on each trip to the library lately. After he selects his DVDs, if he thinks we don't have enough items waiting for us at the checkout, or sometimes even if he thinks we do, he goes back and selects some books. He prefers books that come in a series. He finds a series on the shelf and checks out the whole thing, regardless of how long it would take him to finish each title. One of his favorite series is the Froggy books by Jonathan London. I think this has something to do with the fact that at some point in every story, Froggy forgets his pants, and someone yells, "Frrooggyy!!!"

So for the next week or two, we'll be hearing a lot about missing pants and random shouts of "Frrooggyy!!!" It could be worse. He could be shouting about Farmer's Nipples.

Brother Bear

Brother Bear is not an eager reader. He'll read what I assign him, and he won't complain, but he won't read any more than he has to. Other than occasionally guessing at a word rather than sounding it out, (if it has more than four letters, it must be "too hard" so why try?) he decodes the words competently. Once he started reading silently (his reading is painfully slow to listen to) I would ask him what the day's reading was about when he finished. For short stories, read in a single sitting, he could name the characters and tell me or two things that happened, but couldn't pick out the main points. He seemed completely unable to tell what was important to the story and what wasn't.

When he started chapter books, it got worse. He could read a ten page chapter, and when I asked what happened, he would answer something like, "They had dinner."

"Who had dinner?"
"The people in the book."
"What did they have for dinner?"
"I don't know. It didn't say."
"Did anything else happen in the chapter?"
"No."

I simply could not pull any more detail out of him. But it wasn't his fault. The fact that he read ten pages and absorbed nothing but the information that dinner had been eaten had to be because the book was boring. It couldn't possibly be that he had missed something.

Last week, after he finished a chapter, I asked what had happened. He pulled out one spectacularly dull detail. "Did anything else happen?" I asked.

He wrinkled his face in annoyance. "Yes. This author likes to put in a lot more details."

What I've been Reading

Abbi, over at What Sweeter Music, just finished graduate school and now has more “time to read other things that are not class-related.” She asked for recommendations,  "fiction or non-fiction, Improving and Worthwhile or Just Plain Fun." Of course, I couldn't resist. I could have made a list of The Best Books I've Ever Read, but by time I compiled and edited the list, would she have time to read any of them? So I just posted a list of the best books I've read lately:


Recently read:

Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina
Michael Casey
Not just "you should read your Bible" or even a list of readings, but a primer on what the Church Fathers, saints, monks, and ordinary Christians have learned over the last 2,000 years about how best to read the Bible.

It's a Jungle Out There
Ron Snell
While Snell is narrating his own life, this isn't so much an autobiography as a collection of stories about growing up among  the Machiguengas in the jungles of Peru. Riding down a raging river, through deadly rapids, on a log at age nine. Catching exotic pets. Making dugout canoes. Perching in thorn trees at night to escape a herd of stampeding pigs. A quick, fun read.

Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers
Ralph Moody
This one came highly recommended, but it sat on my shelf for a long time. Another cowboy/pioneer story? I just didn't think I could get into it. Like the Little House books, there is a bit of "this is how we did things back then" but that's only the setting in which young Ralph learns what it means to be a man of character, like his father.

Currently reading:

The Autism Mom's Survival Guide
Susan Senator
I hesitate to recommend a book I haven't finished yet, but so far, it seems to give a pretty accurate picture of what it's like to be the parent of a child with autism. Each chapter is topical, drawing on the stories and experiences of many parents. I can heartily recommend Susan Senator's own story, Making Peace with Autism.

Question of the Week

QOTW: Do you include outdoor time and nature study in your homeschool? If so, how do you incorporate it? How much time do you spend doing this?

We use the outdoors for PE, walking, running and biking around the neighborhood. We also take hikes in a state park five miles from our house. We take note of wildlife when we see it.

When we moved from the city (we put up a bird feeder, and no birds came) to to a small town surrounded by farmland, we wanted to take advantage of the increased opportunities to observe nature. At first, I put out peanuts for the squirrels, but it turned out to be harder to keep them away than to attract them. Rabbits are also frequent visitors. I wish I could keep them away from my garden. We had an unusual visitor last year. I grabbed my camera and managed to snap a photo before it ran away. We decided later that it was probably a badger.

I hung a feeder with a seed blend the bird feeding specialty shop recommended for the birds in our area. Ignore the seed mixes marketed to attract a particular species or mixture of species. With any mix, the birds will pick out their favorite seed and throw everything else on the ground. If you want to offer two or more types of seed, put them in separate feeders. I read up on which foods attract which birds, selected the two that would attract the widest variety, (suet and  black oil sunflower seed) and hung feeders with each. I also read that offering water without food will attract more birds than offering food without water. I decided to offer both. The key is to offer water when it's hard to find. A birdbath heater keeps it from freezing in winter. For the health of the birds, offer clean water. Change the water at least once a week, and scrub the birdbath when it starts growing algae. Bleach works best.

I fed the birds so we could observe and enjoy them, so I hung the feeders under the eaves in front of the picture window in the living room, and cut off the perches on the side away from the window. If the birds want our food, they have to perform. I placed the birdbath so we could see it from the kitchen table. Once the birds started showing up, we bought bird books to identify them. Goldfinches were the first to visit our feeders. When a new variety appears, we grab the books.

We also got Birds of Wisconsin Audio CDs. There is an edition for each state. I sorted the birds by season, and made complilation CDs for winter, spring, summer and fall. I had the boys listen to the appropriate CD for the season during their daily memory work the first year. The second year, we did the same with Reptiles and Amphibians of Wisconsin. Yes, our boys can identify frogs by their calls.

We're no biologists; we have not done any organized or in-depth study of the animals we see. But it's remarkable how much we can pick up just by noticing animals as they appear and keeping a few references handy to answer questions as they come up.

Say What?

GL: Do I have anything in at the library?
BB: I don't know.
GL: Do I have anything in at the library?
BB: I don't know.
GL: Do I have anything in at the library?
BB: I don't know! I'm not a computer! I'm not God!
GL: Bummer!

Froggy

The library had been advertising an event for some time: "Come meet Olivia and Junie B. Jones!" At the circulation desk, one of the librarians asked GL if he was planning to go. He got very excited about it, so I signed him up. We were only vaguely aware of Olivia, but GL loves listening to Junie B. audiobooks. (They aren't quite as good as the Clementine books, but there are a lot more of them. They're beyond his reading level and, while entertaining, aren't quite interesting enough for me to read aloud. )

I wasn't paying much attention, but I somehow got the impression that someone (maybe a talented student from the local high school?) would pretend to be these characters. We got there and found out it was Storytime. GL loves Storytime, but we had stopped taking him because he was above the recommended age, though at the appropriate developmental level. There wasn't a policy, but some librarians seemed to believe there should be an age cutoff. Also, while he loves read-alouds, he makes them a highly interactive experience. In other words, he doesn't listen quietly.

Most of the kids there were preschoolers, (I think the oldest might have been in first grade,) and most of their parents looked like kids to me. When did early twenties get so young? So GL (12), BB (10) and I sat in an out of the way corner. One of the older librarians read several books from the Juv Easy collection, and played a chapter from a Junie B. CD. Each book was part of a series about one central character, with a cast of recurring characters. Just what kids like. When kids (and many adults) read a book they like, the first thing they want to do is read ten more books just like the one they read.

The boys loved it. Some of the kids looked askance at them, especially at GL, but other than answering every question as if it were directed to him and not to the group, he wasn't a distraction. The librarian didn't seem to mind. Most of them are used to us by now, and are starting to realize that we do more to boost circulation (which is how their funding is calculated) than all the other families on our block put together.

At the end of the program, the librarian explained that there were more books from each of these series spread around the reading room, and the kids could check them out. GL immediately got up and tried to collect them all. I insisted that he leave enough for the other kids. He did, but I still think he got more than his fair share. That's nothing new, he always wants to check out more library books.

But the next day, after school, on his own volition, he picked up a Froggy book and began to read. He needed help with some words, but he read the whole thing. Then he read two Olivia books, and a Five Little Monkeys book. He read aloud for enjoyment for nearly two hours! He likes to look at books, but it's usually a struggle to get him to read easier books than these for fifteen minutes in school.

After OT, we stopped at the library, returned the books he had finished, and asked for more in these series. I told the librarian about his suddenly deciding to read these on his own, even though they were difficult for him, and she was enthused, too. We agreed that part of the appeal was that at some point in every book so far, Froggy forgets his pants. When you're twelve, underwear is funny. She helped us find some more, and GL said, "Thank you, Mrs. Librarian!" (That's what he calls all of them.)

Today, he is finished with school, and reading more Froggy. Of course, he kept insisting that 6+1=9 this morning, but for now, we'll take it!

Ralph

The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph, and Ralph S. Mouse are some of my favorite books. They're about a mouse named Ralph going on some pretty wild adventures. Adventures with his motorcycle. And speed and excitement. Any human being who likes speed and motorcycles can understand Ralph talking. People that don't just think they heard a mouse squeak funny. He is a mouse that lives in a run-down hotel called The Mountain View Inn.

In the first book, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Ralph meets a boy named Keith staying at the hotel. He understands Ralph, and he was letting him use his toy motorcycle, but then Ralph lost it. Eventually they find it, and in the end, Ralph gets to keep the motorcycle.

In the second book, Runaway Ralph, Ralph has to use his motorcycle as a kiddie car for his younger brothers and sisters because him mom and uncle made him. So he decided to run away. He ended up at a camp, where first a dog chases him into a gopher hole. Then the gopher kicked him out as soon as the dog left. Then a cat catches him, and a boy named Garth rescues him in a butterfly net. Then he's put in a cage, and the rest of the book is Ralph trying to convince Garth to let him out, so he can find his motorcycle and go back to The Mountain View Inn.

In Ralph S. Mouse, he has a boy named Ryan take him to school so he can rescue his old friend Matt's job. He takes his motorcycle with him. The problem is that Ryan lets him go in school, but won't give him his motorcycle. When Ryan gets into a fight, his motorcycle is broken in two. But in the end, Ralph gets a sports car.

I especially like these books read by William Roberts. Of course, grew up listening to them only read by William Roberts. When I requested these books on CD from the library, two of them came in, and they don't sound quite the same without William Roberts.

Home School Dads

The first week of the flu, I was too sick to do much more than blow my nose. The second week, I was coherent enough to read, but not enough to read anything that required much concentration. Lose 200 Lbs This Weekend: It's Time to Declutter Your Life seemed to fit the bill. The problem was that I would get inspired to clean something, go start working on it, and then have to sit down and rest. When I sat down, I'd pick up the book, and the cycle would repeat. Not usually a bad thing, as I really to have a lot of clutter that needs sorted through, but not quite as restful as I needed.

As usual, I ended up at the computer. After checking my email, the weather forecast, and catching up on my blogs, I still wanted something to read. I decided to search "homeschool dad". Most home school web sites, books, and blogs assume that Mom is doing the teaching. Dad's involvement generally consists of earning enough money so Mom can stay home and teach. A highly involved, dedicated Dad might offer his wife occasional encouragement and lay down the law when the kids get out of line, but that's it. Some Moms say they'd rather Dad left home schooling, and especially curriculum planning, to them. It just hasn't worked out that way for us.

Not that I can't learn from home school Moms, I have, but I wondered what I could learn from more-involved Dads. I found a few online articles, but nothing very helpful. What I did find helpful were a number of blogs by home school Dads. Some were in the traditional supporting role, but the fact that they defined themselves as home school Dads, rather than defining home schooling as their wives' project, made them more interesting. Others took an active role in teaching and curriculum planning, even if Mom did the majority of the teaching and Dad was the wage earner. I even found a few blogs by Dads who were the primary teachers, while their wives were the wage earners. What I found most interesting was how many Dads in each of these situations took an active interest in what and how their children were learning, whether they were the primary teachers or not. That, and the fact that each blog found its own way of making me think.

So I ended up adding even more blogs to Google Reader. Just what I need. I'll probably be quoting from some of them at various times, but so far this one is far and away my favorite. So much so that I stayed up way too late last night reading the archives. So much for reading and resting.

Fall Cleaning continued

For anyone who cares, (and everyone who doesn't) I highly recommend Speed Cleaning: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Get Everything Done in Half the Time or Less
by Jeff Campbell. The most efficient cleaning methods I've ever seen, and the only book about quickly cleaning up that mess you've been dreading written specifically for people who'd much rather be doing anything else.

I have three Fall cleaning projects left: the fridge, the oven, and decluttering the house, a.k.a. dejunking, a.k.a. making the house bigger. Why is it that even though we never have enough money, we always have too much stuff?

What every parent needs

My sister just had a baby Monday. With two boys in the house, I figured she needs Don Aslett's Stainbuster's Bible so I sent her a copy. Ours has paid for itself many times over. She said she wished she'd had it two weeks ago when number one son spilled grape juice on the carpet!

Cake Wrecks: The Book!

I finally got my hot little hands on a copy of Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong and stayed up way too late several nights laughing my head off!

Beowulf is min nama

We've read other adaptations of Beowulf, and the boys, being boys, enjoyed the story. For days afterward, they would wrestle. "I'm Beowulf!" "No! I'm Beowulf, you're Grendel, and I'm going to pull your arm off!" If one of our boys ever shows up missing an arm, you'll know who the real Beowulf is. While the quality of the illustrations varied, the plot never failed to grip young imaginations. But the text epitomized the word prose. How could word choice make such a thrilling story sound so dull and lifeless?

When GL goes to the library, he always brings back an assortment of comics. There's not a comic old, new, funny, witty, political, violent, beautiful, bizarre, realistic, or surrealistic that he doesn't take an interest in. He's always the first to spot a new comic book. So it was no surprise when he brought this home. While bound in hardcover, the pen and ink illustrations, finished in watercolor, have all the expressive action of the best comics and graphic novels. Beowulf and his companions are plain, strong men, but mystery and danger lurk around every sinuous curve and dark corner. The action is underscored by an authentic landscape with details reminiscent of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings sets. (Where do you think Tolkien got his inspiration?)

But my attention was caught when I glanced at the back cover and read:

"Award-winning author and illustrator James Rumford forges his own account of the tale of Beowulf using only Anglo-Saxon words still present in our language. These iron-strong words recall the boldness of the original poem and echo the sounds of the ancient language for today's readers."

I was aware of the power of Anglo-Saxon words. They are our simple, direct, unpretentious words. I call them truck driver words. Not only because many of them have four letters, (yes, many of those words are Anglo-Saxon) but because truck drivers don't have time to hint, nuance, or beat around the bush. They rarely use euphemisms. They say what they mean and get on with the job. Anglo-Saxon was not spoken by people who gave long speeches or sat around gossiping, IMing, texting, or Twittering, but by people who spent a good deal of time out of doors, struggling for survival. A man's word was not only all he had, it was who he was. Every syllable was packed with meaning.

Could those words help fill the gap between an unknown tongue and a dry translation? I quickly read the book. While not verse, (which would have sounded contrived) the prose had a natural, even cadence that seemed innate to the simple, cogent words. Beowulf was meant to be performed; the Anglo-Saxon words beg to be read aloud, and with gusto. I read it again, aloud, to the boys, now whispering, now thundering. It was even better. The boys were enthralled. Another day we read it again, and again they crowded close to see the pictures, eyes shining.

James Rumford is right. The ancient words make the night darker, the shadows deeper, and, perhaps, your heart bolder. Ages: Strong-hearted and up.