K: who was the first person?
K: how do you make screws?
K: are the police shooting the protestors?
R: how do hearing aids work?
R: how do glasses work?
R: can germs go through things?
busy minds
Monday, January 31, 2011
RATM, Audioslave, and Tom Morello
OK, so this is not as poignant as the previous post, but i thought it might be fun to share, anyway.
every once in a while, dad gets tired of listening to kid music in the car and decides to play some other stuff. this past friday r and i were running errands and i chose to play some audioslave (their first, eponymous album). r immediately perked up:
r: what's that sound?
d: (looking around to see what he's talking about) what sound?
r: that sound in the music.
d: oh, that's the guitar.
pause while listening....
r: that's the guitar?
d: yes, the guitarist is making those sounds with his guitar.
r: really?
d: yep.
r: how does he do it?
d: (laughing) i'll have to show you- it's hard to explain.
r: i like this music. do you like this music?
d: yes.
r: do you have more of it?
d: yes. do you want to hear more?
r: (dancing in the back seat of the car) yeah!
next song....
r: is that the guitar again?
d: yep.
r: how does he do that?
d: we'll have to look it up online. the guitarist's name is tom morello.
the ensuing discussion covered mr. morello's playing style, the bands he has been in, the nature of the lyrics in the songs, and so on. r was very insistent that we find a video showing how he plays, so we found a three part demonstration by morello that was recorded for guitarworld. r loved it! now that we have discussed the idea of feedback, we'll have to play with it....
in the demo morello plays riffs and chord progressions from a number of RATM and Audioslave songs, including Sleep Now in the Fire. r now wants to listen to Sleep Now in the Fire and has asked repeatedly for his old man to play it for him. other events, like, you know, sleep have repeatedly subverted that request over the past few days, and i was chastised by both r and k (who also now wants to hear it) in the car this morning for not fulfilling my promise. guess i'll have to get on it.
for those not familiar:
audioslave's gasoline
ratm's sleep now in the fire (now all i have to do is explain zach de la rocha's lyrics....)
every once in a while, dad gets tired of listening to kid music in the car and decides to play some other stuff. this past friday r and i were running errands and i chose to play some audioslave (their first, eponymous album). r immediately perked up:
r: what's that sound?
d: (looking around to see what he's talking about) what sound?
r: that sound in the music.
d: oh, that's the guitar.
pause while listening....
r: that's the guitar?
d: yes, the guitarist is making those sounds with his guitar.
r: really?
d: yep.
r: how does he do it?
d: (laughing) i'll have to show you- it's hard to explain.
r: i like this music. do you like this music?
d: yes.
r: do you have more of it?
d: yes. do you want to hear more?
r: (dancing in the back seat of the car) yeah!
next song....
r: is that the guitar again?
d: yep.
r: how does he do that?
d: we'll have to look it up online. the guitarist's name is tom morello.
the ensuing discussion covered mr. morello's playing style, the bands he has been in, the nature of the lyrics in the songs, and so on. r was very insistent that we find a video showing how he plays, so we found a three part demonstration by morello that was recorded for guitarworld. r loved it! now that we have discussed the idea of feedback, we'll have to play with it....
in the demo morello plays riffs and chord progressions from a number of RATM and Audioslave songs, including Sleep Now in the Fire. r now wants to listen to Sleep Now in the Fire and has asked repeatedly for his old man to play it for him. other events, like, you know, sleep have repeatedly subverted that request over the past few days, and i was chastised by both r and k (who also now wants to hear it) in the car this morning for not fulfilling my promise. guess i'll have to get on it.
for those not familiar:
audioslave's gasoline
ratm's sleep now in the fire (now all i have to do is explain zach de la rocha's lyrics....)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
egypt -- power to the people
the protestors in tunisia, egypt, and yemen are incredibly brave. we have talked here about why people try to change their governments and why they protest. there have not been many images of the women participating in these protests. but here is a photo one that i encountered that says a lot about the power of non-violent protest, the presence of people from all ages and walks of life, and gendered resistance.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
bath time conversation
excerpts
K: hi nice to meet you. i am k.
R: nice to meet you. i am r.
K: let's shake hands and pretend that we are not brother and sister and do not know each other.
R: I am an inventor.
K: me too.
R: i have a private lab.
K: let's pretend that you just got your private lab with your new job.
R: ok.
K: let's have lunch.
R: ok.
K: I have invented many inventions. things to protect animals
R: i invented a flying house. it has (this and that).
K: i have seen that house.
K: let's pretend that you have a bomb shooting to your penis.
R: yeah! and let's pretend that there is a bomb coming out of my penis that knocks that bomb away
K: yes let's pretend one that you have in in your butt? bm?
K: ok let's see each other in 30 days
R: how about 100?
K ok -- i have to go work on my secret.
can you babysit my little sister. she is cranky.
R: yes she is crabby. she is a little sister.
i will keep her in the cradle in the side of my room where it is warm.
K: i am as tall as this building.
R: me too. we are giants.
K: bye. see you soon.
R: hi. i have been working on my secret invention that makes everything bigger. it uses atomic power
R: hey dad, what surrounds the universe? (disbelief about the answer nothing has been a topic of conversation for a few days)
K: what have you been doing (pretending to talk on the phone)
R: i like to move it, move it. i like to move it, move it.
K: let's pretend my name is G-hook.
R: ok d-hook
K: no, g-hook!
utter nonsense involving king julien (from the movie madagascar), the moon, and missiles followed
K: hi nice to meet you. i am k.
R: nice to meet you. i am r.
K: let's shake hands and pretend that we are not brother and sister and do not know each other.
R: I am an inventor.
K: me too.
R: i have a private lab.
K: let's pretend that you just got your private lab with your new job.
R: ok.
K: let's have lunch.
R: ok.
K: I have invented many inventions. things to protect animals
R: i invented a flying house. it has (this and that).
K: i have seen that house.
K: let's pretend that you have a bomb shooting to your penis.
R: yeah! and let's pretend that there is a bomb coming out of my penis that knocks that bomb away
K: yes let's pretend one that you have in in your butt? bm?
K: ok let's see each other in 30 days
R: how about 100?
K ok -- i have to go work on my secret.
can you babysit my little sister. she is cranky.
R: yes she is crabby. she is a little sister.
i will keep her in the cradle in the side of my room where it is warm.
K: i am as tall as this building.
R: me too. we are giants.
K: bye. see you soon.
R: hi. i have been working on my secret invention that makes everything bigger. it uses atomic power
R: hey dad, what surrounds the universe? (disbelief about the answer nothing has been a topic of conversation for a few days)
K: what have you been doing (pretending to talk on the phone)
R: i like to move it, move it. i like to move it, move it.
K: let's pretend my name is G-hook.
R: ok d-hook
K: no, g-hook!
utter nonsense involving king julien (from the movie madagascar), the moon, and missiles followed
Sunday, January 23, 2011
another weekend of infinity below temperatures
we have been dropping off around the same time as another family at both schools (their son is in KG and their daughter in preschool). k said the other day: i am M's brother, E is my brother, and R is E's brother.
as i asked her to explain why, she said because i am older than M and so on...
not only has she included this wonderful family as part of our family, but she has generalized the relationship of brother to be about age rather than gender. interesting
k and r played superhero for a long time with the booty that auntie hot hot brought over. they bought on the masks and ran around rescuing animals. k also spent a good amount of time showing us somersaults and how fast she can run -- 200 miles per hour. r played games and enjoyed setting up fair games. k and i played a ball toss with soup containers and a hackysack ball.
our favorite present was a book about all of the places laura ingalls wilder has lived. we are on our fifth book and the kids love them. to show them the real places is very exciting. thank you aunty hot hot.
we also had our standard weekend activities: wii and pizza (friday), obstacle races at the tennis bubble (saturday), and swimming and library (sunday). we are a regular people. k also enjoyed making chocolate cookies with her papa. and r was able to dismantle mom's broken laptop.
parents folded lots of laundry, ate some dosa, finished off leftovers and mostly enjoyed each others company. oh dad and mom also had a meeting to discuss the proper location and quantity of dish towels for the dining room drawer.
and now it is almost monday. but we hope to be above zero this week.
K's assessment of the weather on friday: today it is minus infinity degrees. tomorrow it will be minus google degrees. and the next day it will be zero. once we teach her about absolute zero, she will be all set
k also wanted to know why we should not lie. and then she added her example. "mom an example is when i tell you that i wash my hands with soap but i dont." so i had a conversation about trust and family. she did not seem to think that those consequences were worth much. pretty funny.
we were listening to wait wait, don't tell me on mpr today. and r blurted out hu jintao before the question was over. i asked him how he knew that and he said that he had been listening to the news. i guess the grasshopper has.
how can this be the same child who refuses to change his clothes without help and can't get the spoon to this mouth without spilling half the rice on the table because he does not know where his spoon is in relationship to his mouth?
as i asked her to explain why, she said because i am older than M and so on...
not only has she included this wonderful family as part of our family, but she has generalized the relationship of brother to be about age rather than gender. interesting
k and r played superhero for a long time with the booty that auntie hot hot brought over. they bought on the masks and ran around rescuing animals. k also spent a good amount of time showing us somersaults and how fast she can run -- 200 miles per hour. r played games and enjoyed setting up fair games. k and i played a ball toss with soup containers and a hackysack ball.
our favorite present was a book about all of the places laura ingalls wilder has lived. we are on our fifth book and the kids love them. to show them the real places is very exciting. thank you aunty hot hot.
we also had our standard weekend activities: wii and pizza (friday), obstacle races at the tennis bubble (saturday), and swimming and library (sunday). we are a regular people. k also enjoyed making chocolate cookies with her papa. and r was able to dismantle mom's broken laptop.
parents folded lots of laundry, ate some dosa, finished off leftovers and mostly enjoyed each others company. oh dad and mom also had a meeting to discuss the proper location and quantity of dish towels for the dining room drawer.
and now it is almost monday. but we hope to be above zero this week.
K's assessment of the weather on friday: today it is minus infinity degrees. tomorrow it will be minus google degrees. and the next day it will be zero. once we teach her about absolute zero, she will be all set
k also wanted to know why we should not lie. and then she added her example. "mom an example is when i tell you that i wash my hands with soap but i dont." so i had a conversation about trust and family. she did not seem to think that those consequences were worth much. pretty funny.
we were listening to wait wait, don't tell me on mpr today. and r blurted out hu jintao before the question was over. i asked him how he knew that and he said that he had been listening to the news. i guess the grasshopper has.
how can this be the same child who refuses to change his clothes without help and can't get the spoon to this mouth without spilling half the rice on the table because he does not know where his spoon is in relationship to his mouth?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
parental coping strategy #467
when your child has nightmares at 3:30 am about zombies (even though he has never seen a zombie) because he has been designing video games about zombies neverthless, tell him to wake up and redirect the zombies to go shopping at the mall because zombies are all about capitalism. success rate? we shall see...
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
C-A-T -- we know how to motivate our children
k has been increasingly interested in literacy. we have encouraged her to begin by trying to recognize not only the upper case letters but also lower case letters. our last meeting with her preschool teacher indicated that they were all working on this and that she was entering a phase of wanting to write her name, her friends' names, and various words.
we have not pressed her to read recently as she gets angry when she does not know how to do things. so she has to be approached gently and usually encouraged when she is initiating a new stage. we have built on her interest in names and that she can sight read various names. we also know that she has memorized a few spellings: N-O, G-O, and C-A-T are ones that she can recognize easily. when i introduced some BOB books to her a few weeks ago, she was frustrated and angry that it was hard to read them, so i put them aside for a few days. instead we have been searching for these familiar words in stories that we read every night.
tonight while r was doing his weekly sight words on index cards, i thought she might enjoy her own reading words. i first just spelled C-A-T. and she immediately knew that was cat. then i asked her what M-A-T spelled. and she carefully sounded out each letter and said with joy , "mat. it spells mat!" i continued with S-A-T, B-A-T, R-A-T, F-A-T, and A-T. she got them all right. i then put them on index cards and showed them to her. she sat there and with some help sounded them out and read the words. she was so excited. we then expanded the set and i switched to am and Sam. this immediately frustrated her. So we went back to sounding things out and she accepted the prompting. We then added the A-D family; for some reason these were easy for her. For the next 15 minutes we worked on various short a words that she was able to sound out, more or less, by herself. i wrote them out on index cards and she went through them one by one. She read over 2 dozen words tonight. While she still easily gets angry if she makes a mistake, her desire to read the words was stronger and she did not give up.
I threw in a few tricky ones. I showed her M-E and then gave her H-E without assistance. and she figured it out. She also was very animated when she go to M-E again. She stood up and said "Me. I can be Barack Obama." Well who knew that the kiddo wanted to be president? But, yes. Literacy is a path to citizenship (as African American narratives attest).
It was an exciting evening.
we have not pressed her to read recently as she gets angry when she does not know how to do things. so she has to be approached gently and usually encouraged when she is initiating a new stage. we have built on her interest in names and that she can sight read various names. we also know that she has memorized a few spellings: N-O, G-O, and C-A-T are ones that she can recognize easily. when i introduced some BOB books to her a few weeks ago, she was frustrated and angry that it was hard to read them, so i put them aside for a few days. instead we have been searching for these familiar words in stories that we read every night.
tonight while r was doing his weekly sight words on index cards, i thought she might enjoy her own reading words. i first just spelled C-A-T. and she immediately knew that was cat. then i asked her what M-A-T spelled. and she carefully sounded out each letter and said with joy , "mat. it spells mat!" i continued with S-A-T, B-A-T, R-A-T, F-A-T, and A-T. she got them all right. i then put them on index cards and showed them to her. she sat there and with some help sounded them out and read the words. she was so excited. we then expanded the set and i switched to am and Sam. this immediately frustrated her. So we went back to sounding things out and she accepted the prompting. We then added the A-D family; for some reason these were easy for her. For the next 15 minutes we worked on various short a words that she was able to sound out, more or less, by herself. i wrote them out on index cards and she went through them one by one. She read over 2 dozen words tonight. While she still easily gets angry if she makes a mistake, her desire to read the words was stronger and she did not give up.
I threw in a few tricky ones. I showed her M-E and then gave her H-E without assistance. and she figured it out. She also was very animated when she go to M-E again. She stood up and said "Me. I can be Barack Obama." Well who knew that the kiddo wanted to be president? But, yes. Literacy is a path to citizenship (as African American narratives attest).
It was an exciting evening.
Friday, January 14, 2011
20 questions
stumped by the R on Sunday neither parent guessed solar wind.
a few of his answers were a little tricky to decipher, but nonetheless we did not get it.
a few of his answers were a little tricky to decipher, but nonetheless we did not get it.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
star wars algebra
we are back to school here after an eventful vacation with wonderful family and friends visiting. i am picking up the r twice a week. and dad is doing once a week. tuesday was the first back after several weeks and some developmental growth has clearly occurred.
r and i were both excited to get in the car on the way home and talk. our conversations always meander and cover many topics. tuesday was no exception; we talked about what is a citizen, life expectancy, the myth of santa claus, friendship, and gender. my favorite part of the conversation was when we were discussing life expectancy. he brought up the fact that we had seen a cross-section of a tree that indicated that the tree was over 500 years old. we talked about human life expectancy. i told him what the average life expectancy is for humans and that women generally live longer. his immediate response was that he wanted to be a woman. i have been teaching the kids that people can choose their gender, that we assign gender in society based on genitals but gender does not have to be determined by these things. his understanding is that there are conventions but ultimately it is his choice. he was quite incensed that we chose for him to be a boy when girls live longer and wondered why anyone would choose to be a man. i continued and explained the difference between gender and sex and how life expectancy was tied to gender, more than sex. we also talked about genital reassignment surgery (as well as other forms of plastic surgery) and why people might manipulate their bodies. it was quite a conversation.
we also discussed the myth of santa claus. that's right. he has informed us that there is no santa claus (based on his observations about the size of the world, number of houses, and possible rate of toy delivery), but that parents play santa claus. he wanted to know why parents did it and we discussed the pleasure of giving. he made a distinction then between santa claus as a person and the spirit of santa claus. he understood that the santa claus is a fictional figure, but decided that the kindness and generosity that are embodied by santa claus are real. not bad for a six year old.
on wednesday, r and i invented a new form of math -- star wars algebra. since i can't always tell what happens in math or school more generally, i like to play math games with the kids and figure out fun ways to play, hence star wars algebra.
it goes something like this:
JEDI + JEDI +3 =13. JEDI = 5.
2x DARTH VADER = 18. DARTH VADER = 9.
LUKE x LUKE = 25. LUKE =5.
We did equations like this for about 30 minutes as we drove home from school. it was delightful. of course, i ended up with questions like DEATH STAR x DEATH STAR = 1 billion. not an easy square root to do you in your head.
so there are good days.
on thursday and friday, k was home. she requested lots of science time. so thursday morning, we played some games and then worked on floating, weights, and density. density and floating are really tough concepts. heavy things sink, right? no not necessarily. huge boats float all the time. it is about density (and surface space). so we tried to think about it. we mixed oil and water. floated various objects. she made good observations, but density is definitely a tough concept for a 4 year old. we also did some connect the dots and reading. she and i had an excellent day interacting. kelly came over to do an obstacle course with her while i had a phone appt and ran an errand. k and i ran to the market and played with a buddy at the indoor playground. we brought home falafel and made dinner. everything went well and by the end of the day when the boys came home, we were all snug and tired. dad and i went to a talk at r's school. it was quite disappointing. while i appreciate the ideas presented, it was just not helpful. i think we are not like the other parents and it surprises me. i don't think of as exceptional but it seemed that everybody else found the talk illuminating, brilliant, and helpful. neither of us found new insight in the talk. and found it sometimes rather difficult to take. perhaps i will return to this again another day.
on friday dad and k did science -- more floating, while i did drop off and attended a meeting. then it was my time with k who had a playdate. she was quite cranky and not so friendly with the other child. it was disappointing that she could not be more generous. our friend was quite gracious, and we all did generally have fun while the kids played with the science color kit, did more obstacle courses, and ate lunch. afterwards, k visited her masee and made cookies while i worked out for the second time in a week! k had a good time making chocolate cookies, playing with the cat, reading books, and visiting the "lipstick" (elliptical machine) in the basement. let me tell you that the word elliptical is far more common than the word lipstick in this house. funny that she could not say elliptical.
a quiet evening at home meant an early bed time for k and some wii for r. hopefully the weekend will bring rest, play, and some house cleaning.
r and i were both excited to get in the car on the way home and talk. our conversations always meander and cover many topics. tuesday was no exception; we talked about what is a citizen, life expectancy, the myth of santa claus, friendship, and gender. my favorite part of the conversation was when we were discussing life expectancy. he brought up the fact that we had seen a cross-section of a tree that indicated that the tree was over 500 years old. we talked about human life expectancy. i told him what the average life expectancy is for humans and that women generally live longer. his immediate response was that he wanted to be a woman. i have been teaching the kids that people can choose their gender, that we assign gender in society based on genitals but gender does not have to be determined by these things. his understanding is that there are conventions but ultimately it is his choice. he was quite incensed that we chose for him to be a boy when girls live longer and wondered why anyone would choose to be a man. i continued and explained the difference between gender and sex and how life expectancy was tied to gender, more than sex. we also talked about genital reassignment surgery (as well as other forms of plastic surgery) and why people might manipulate their bodies. it was quite a conversation.
we also discussed the myth of santa claus. that's right. he has informed us that there is no santa claus (based on his observations about the size of the world, number of houses, and possible rate of toy delivery), but that parents play santa claus. he wanted to know why parents did it and we discussed the pleasure of giving. he made a distinction then between santa claus as a person and the spirit of santa claus. he understood that the santa claus is a fictional figure, but decided that the kindness and generosity that are embodied by santa claus are real. not bad for a six year old.
on wednesday, r and i invented a new form of math -- star wars algebra. since i can't always tell what happens in math or school more generally, i like to play math games with the kids and figure out fun ways to play, hence star wars algebra.
it goes something like this:
JEDI + JEDI +3 =13. JEDI = 5.
2x DARTH VADER = 18. DARTH VADER = 9.
LUKE x LUKE = 25. LUKE =5.
We did equations like this for about 30 minutes as we drove home from school. it was delightful. of course, i ended up with questions like DEATH STAR x DEATH STAR = 1 billion. not an easy square root to do you in your head.
so there are good days.
on thursday and friday, k was home. she requested lots of science time. so thursday morning, we played some games and then worked on floating, weights, and density. density and floating are really tough concepts. heavy things sink, right? no not necessarily. huge boats float all the time. it is about density (and surface space). so we tried to think about it. we mixed oil and water. floated various objects. she made good observations, but density is definitely a tough concept for a 4 year old. we also did some connect the dots and reading. she and i had an excellent day interacting. kelly came over to do an obstacle course with her while i had a phone appt and ran an errand. k and i ran to the market and played with a buddy at the indoor playground. we brought home falafel and made dinner. everything went well and by the end of the day when the boys came home, we were all snug and tired. dad and i went to a talk at r's school. it was quite disappointing. while i appreciate the ideas presented, it was just not helpful. i think we are not like the other parents and it surprises me. i don't think of as exceptional but it seemed that everybody else found the talk illuminating, brilliant, and helpful. neither of us found new insight in the talk. and found it sometimes rather difficult to take. perhaps i will return to this again another day.
on friday dad and k did science -- more floating, while i did drop off and attended a meeting. then it was my time with k who had a playdate. she was quite cranky and not so friendly with the other child. it was disappointing that she could not be more generous. our friend was quite gracious, and we all did generally have fun while the kids played with the science color kit, did more obstacle courses, and ate lunch. afterwards, k visited her masee and made cookies while i worked out for the second time in a week! k had a good time making chocolate cookies, playing with the cat, reading books, and visiting the "lipstick" (elliptical machine) in the basement. let me tell you that the word elliptical is far more common than the word lipstick in this house. funny that she could not say elliptical.
a quiet evening at home meant an early bed time for k and some wii for r. hopefully the weekend will bring rest, play, and some house cleaning.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
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