Another stolen idea

While I very much like Mrs. G's optimistic attitude, I am more taken with the relief offered by Mary's anti-resolution approach.

My Anti-Resolutions for 2008

1. I will not be a perfect wife, mother, daughter, friend, or employee.

2. I will not transform myself into a supermodel (or even a mediocre one).

3. I will not clean my house often enough.

4. I will not have a beautifully landscaped yard, clean gutters, or sparkling windows. (not even for Non-Con North, so brace yourselves)

5. I will not eat any health food unless it's really well disguised.

6. I will not manage my time better nor be any more efficient or energetic than I was in 2007.

7. I will not better my mind (or at least not in ivory-tower-approved ways).

8. I will not jump through other people's hoops.

9. I will not smile when I don't want to.

10. I will not always do the dutiful thing (see 1 through 9 above).

Free association game

You say... and I think...

Memorable :: births
Resolution :: peace
Goal :: resolution
2008 :: busy
Sensational :: diva
Popular demand :: more
Old :: time rock and roll
Music :: matters
Intense :: love
2007 :: done

Inspired (as I so often am) by Zenmomma and reminded by Stephanie

Doings

Well, we've had a little time to settle in and settle down after the Christmas rush and now we're gearing up for the next round of fun. Up first on the agenda is, of course, the Seahawks' final regular season game tomorrow morning. We'll be watching with great interest to see if the running game really is coming alive, just in time for the playoffs. Shaun Alexander must know the entire region is ready to fall in love with him again with very little provocation.

After the game, we do our last bit of making our house moderately presentable before an airport run to pick up the girls' camp friend Harper (17). He's coming up from California to stay for a few days before he works his way back down the I-5 corridor, visiting other campers.

He's arriving just in time for our Crazy Cousins New Year's Eve Bash. MJ did her best to warn him, but can he really know what he's in for? It'll be eight girls and Harper, the poor lad. We'll definitely have to trump up a few sanity errands for him and the older girls, and we might yet get Hunter and Logan over here to balance out the numbers a bit.

After Harper starts south again, we will start getting ready in earnest for Non-Con North, the very informal gathering of unschoolers that we are hosting the first weekend in February. We can't wait! If you're planning to attend, drop me a line!

Made for math

I have news for you: Unschooling works even for math.

Long division
At different times—but at about the same age, interestingly
enough—both girls came to me and asked me to show them how to do long division. So I did. MJ's response was, "That's it?!" Evidently this task gets a lot of unnecessary buildup in our society. :-) (And it is pretty ridiculous when you think about it. I'll bet the vast majority of my readers reach for their calculators any time long division is required.)

Chloe's response was a little different. She watched me doing my thing for a while, said, "Why are you doing it like that?" and proceeded to show me a faster way.

Multiple-digit subtraction
This story took place just a couple of nights ago and is what prompted this post. It all started with Chloe sitting me down to tell me she wants to learn something. "I haven't learned anything for years," she said. Once I quit gasping (doesn't the girl read my blog, for Pete's sake?!), we talked for a while about just some of what she's learned in the last five years*. It turned into a game, with me quizzing her and her happily supplying answers, and it went on for a couple of hours.

Somewhere in there, she started talking about how she uses addition to do subtraction. She grabbed a piece of paper and walked me through a six-digit problem. Here's what she wrote:

234,238
..65,762

The second line is the answer to the question, "What is 300,000 minus 234,238?" I imagine if the bigger number had been more complex, she might have written it down, too, but she didn't bother with it here. (Pop quiz: What's the bigger number in a subtraction problem called? I had to look it up.)

Just for kicks, I showed her how I was taught to do the same problem, with all that borrowing (zeroes are the worst that way). Needless to say, my notation was nowhere near as clean and pretty as hers, and I think she worked the problem faster than I did.

Why this is
So, just how have my kids become so proficient at math computation when they haven't had a math lesson or done a math worksheet or cracked a math book in five years? The short answer is, none of that is necessary for learning computation. The longer answer delves into the way schools have taken math computation out of context—aka, real life—and turned it into an abstract concept that is meaningless and intimidating to many students. For unschoolers, math is simply part of life, and they instinctively move toward the efficient use thereof.

Here are some links for those who want to read more on this subject:
Sandra Dodd's math collection featuring a great article by Linda Wyatt
Senseless School Math (Joyce Fetterol)
Unschooling Math (Joyce)
Joyful Math (Pam Sorooshian's math blog)
Dogs doing calculus
And other animals, too
And Frank has lots to say, in his own inimitable style, on this subject

Finally, here is what I reported about Mary Lewis' "Math Happens" talk at the LIFE is Good conference last April:

[The talk] was given by engineer and math tutor and unschooling mom Mary Lewis, and it served to ease away the last wispy bits of my concern that unschooling math is "iffy." Turns out schooling math is pretty darned "iffy," too. (Did you know that 55% of college freshmen [that is, high school grads who've been accepted into college] are not prepared for college math courses?) She talked about how schooling begins immediately to interfere with the brain's natural ability to do computation by taking math out of the physical too early and moving it into the abstract. Also, that's when we start to tell kids they're "wrong" about math, thereby injecting fear and doubt into something that should be as natural as breathing. She said every one of her students (mostly math-phobic adults returning to school) would have been better off if they hadn't had a single math lesson during their childhoods. And she cemented my understanding of the difference between math computation (can be done on a calculator) and math concepts (must be understood by the brain) and how schooling tends to promote the former to the neglect of the latter.

Oh, and about those math concepts
Are my kids learning math concepts? Judging by the results of their annual standardized tests, they are evidently doing so better than their age-mates. Or maybe they just test better. Who knows?
__________________
* Yes! Five years of unschooling! It's a happy anniversary indeed.

Why...

...does Real Life get in the way of my blogging?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Friday fill-in

Movie quotes edition. I'm not sure what it says about my life that I knew the actual quote, actor, and/or movie for 5 of 6 of these. The exception was the Val Kilmer quote, since my favorite line from that movie is "I'll be your huckleberry."

1. "I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, the incredible pomposity of certain Potions professors." ("bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses" — Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone")

2. "Why is my free time always gone?" ("the rum" — Johnny Depp as Cap'n Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest)

3. "Harold, *everyone* has the right to make an extra-large batch of Fantasy Fudge at Christmas." ("ass out of themselves" — Ruth Gordon as Maude, Harold and Maude)

4. "Nine companions, so be it. You shall be a minor league baseball team." ("the Fellowship of the Ring" — Hugo Weaving as Elrond, LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring)

5. "Nonsense, I have not yet begun to pout." ("defile myself"— Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Tombstone)

6. "Mama says they was magic shoes. They could talk better English than myself." ("take me anywhere" — Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finding something to look forward to, tomorrow my plans include random acts of organization, and Sunday, I want to watch the Seahawks fry the Falcons!

Thursday 13

Thirteen Things You Might Have Seen If You'd Been Here at Christmas 1. Midnight — Cookies and two glasses of milk left for Santa, along with a cheeky note that read, "Jesus Loves You." Not much later, to our wondering eyes did appear, a less than politically correct reply I will not repeat here. 2. 6:30 a.m. — Two excited teenagers yowling out "Silver Bells" at the tops of their lungs, amid much hysterical giggling, in an attempt to torture awaken their sleepy parents. 3. 8:00 a.m. — A wasteland of wrapping paper and cardboard boxes. I suppose there were gifts in there, too, but it was hard to see them. 4. 8:30 a.m. — Frank and Chloe putting together her new desk chair. "Where are the parts?" "What parts?" 5. 9:00 a.m. — Chloe putting together the very nifty drafting-table TV tray Santa found really cheap at RiteAid on 12/23. 6. 9:01 a.m. — MJ asleep on the couch and Frank and Ronnie, back in bed. 7. Noon — Chloe sitting in her new chair at her new table, very happily doing art with some new supplies, evidently having been in that position for quite some time. (She never did nap, preferring to ride the high until well past #13 below.) 8. 12:10 p.m. to eternity — Ronnie talking on the phone. 9. 3:00 p.m. — MJ struggling to decide which of her new irreverent t-shirts to wear. Narrowing her choices down to the red and green ones was easy, but then it got tricky. Her final choice: Emotional Trip. 10. 6:00 p.m. — "Aliens vs. Predator" at the snow-dusted multiplex with Frank and MJ. 11. 7:00 p.m. — Ronnie and Chloe figuring out the round looms left by Mrs. Claus. 12. 10:00 p.m. — "V for Vendetta" on MJ's new DVD. (I'd never seen it before and might have more to say on it later.) This was one of a couple of the movies on her favoritest movies list that we received this year. She also got "Fight Club," and I got "Pride and Prejudice," since it's on my as-yet-unwritten favoritest movies list, too. 13. Midnight — Chloe modeling the new hat she made, not long before the oldest of us called it a (very wonderful) day. Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

From all of us to all of you...

We wish you a happy, peaceful, safe, and fun-filled holiday, and 12 Days like these.

Merry Christmas!

With love from Frank, Ronnie, MJ, and Chloe

Marty's greats

From a little Christmas message in our e-mail this morning, Molly (11 mos.) and Brian (14).

Nummies

Here is one of my favorite holiday recipes. It comes from Nina, who was a good friend to my Grandma Barb (Chloe Barbara's namesake) and later—in one of life's delicious little coincidences—my next door neighbor. Not long after they moved in, Lynn and I knocked on their door for some reason. Nina took one look at us and said, "Who are your parents?"

I've doubled the recipe, because, hey, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing.

Nina's Chess Pie
1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
6 egg yolks
2/3 c. milk
1-1/2 c. chopped pecans or walnuts
2 c. cooked raisins
4 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter with sugar. Add egg yolks, milk, chopped nuts, raisins, and vanilla. Cook in double boiler about 20 minutes until thick(er) and a dark caramel color. Serve in tart shells topped with whipped cream, or (the way we do it around here) as-is by the spoonful.

Guess what!

MJ, Chloe, and I went to downtown Seattle today to soak up the atmosphere. We strolled into Pacific Place, a relatively new upscale shopping complex to go with the other upscale shopping complexes down there, and saw a movie poster for...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

After doing two minutes of research online just now and seeing how long ago Lucasfilm announced this, I realize many of you might already know this, but...

The film is due out May 22!

And...

Karen Allen is in the cast! Marion returns! Yay!

I was worried they would pick Kate Capshaw—she is Spielberg's wife, after all—but maybe they realized that Marion was always our favorite Indy chick.

The release date coincides with the start of LIFE is Good 2008, so I foresee an unschooler invasion of the theater nearest the Vancouver Red Lion. Who's with me?

Friday fill-in

1. Snow once trapped me in downtown Seattle for two days. Seattle has so many hills and its drivers are so underprepared for the white stuff that it takes about 10 minutes of snowfall for most of our major roadways to be blocked by stalled-out, sideways cars. The first night, I slept on the carpet-over-concrete floor at my workplace. Brr! The second night, I got a room at the Westin. And I sure got a lot of Christmas shopping done!

2. I'm looking forward to an entire list of activities, events, and trips. I'm also looking forward to having a new president. But you probably knew that.

3. Unschooling is the best change I instigated in my family ever!

4. One of my favorite old tv shows is — and you probably knew this,
too — Firefly!

5. I'm done with something. I'm sure of it! It's just hard to see it past the crowd of things I'm not done with.

6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is festive decorations all over the place. And rocking my kids' world.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to downtown Seattle (risky, I know) with my girls to enjoy the festive decorations all over the place and the energy of the crowd, tomorrow my plans include a whole lot of wrapping, and Sunday, I want to relax and watch the Seahawks ruffle some Raven feathers while imagining my buddy Lori at the game in the new lime-green scarf I made for her! Go Hawks!!

Back peddling

I was searching for a new quote and came across this entertaining little set:

"I don't want to spend the next two years in Holiday Inns."

"I said I didn't want to spend most of my life in Holidays Inns, but I've checked and they've all been redecorated. They're marvelous places to stay and I've thought it over and that's where I'd like to be."

Both by Walter Mondale

Thursday 13

Thirteen Memories Hanging on Our Christmas Tree 1. Our Dalmatian family. When MJ was born, my friend Stephanie gave us a set of three Dalmatian figurines: Pongo, Perdita, and a puppy. I later augmented that set with an additional puppy to represent Chloe. Fast forward a few years, and Frank's sister Judy sent us a Dalmatian ornament set with Cruella, Pongo, Perdita, and three puppies. We found this third puppy a little alarming and made jokes about a post-vasectomy miracle baby. Instead, by the next Christmas, Chiara had joined our family. 2. My three faeries. These represent Chloe, MJ, and Chiara. 3. As close as Frank and I have ever come to divorce. Let's just say it was a very stressful trip. (This is from '96, not our Wilma evacuation.) 4. A circle of friends. Back in the dim time before I came on the scene, Frank's coworkers at good ol' Book Publishing made him this lovely office-supply ornament. It used to be more elaborate, but the years haven't been kind. 5. The artist formerly known as Marjie. 6. Chloe: Wreathed in smiles (as usual). 7. Aero-commemoration. "The one plane your mom let me have," Frank says, purchased not long after he received his pilot's license. 8. O-stretch. I picked her up a few years ago in lovely downtown Edmonds while Christmas shopping with my best buddy, Steph. Steph moved away to Athens, GA, a couple of years ago, and I haven't been back to Edmonds since. It's just not the same here without you, Steph! 9. Hong Kong filler. I had a lovely, nearly free trip to Hong Kong several years ago with my mom-friend Cherie. In Hong Kong—a truly amazing city—it's all about the shopping, baby! So, we have silk fans, dragons, and little Chinese couples. Our ornament collection has grown so large that nowadays we use these sparingly in the bare spots on the tree. 10. Han Solo should have one of these. This reads, "Millennium 2000." Having aliens arrive to beam us all up is just one of the things that didn't happen at the turn of the millennium. No rapture. No major computer problems. Nothing but a really fun Crazy Cousins party at our house (our usual New Year's Eve thang). 11. Handmade and just a little homely. Crocheted by yours truly when I was in high school, during a little holiday crafting party at my boyfriend's grandparents' house. 12. Posterity. Rosie and Frank made these together. 13. Still searching for the goose. I purchased this (supposedly as a gift for someone else) at the Silver Sands outlet mall in Destin, Florida. At the time, the outlet mall was in the boonies, well away from everything except Sandestin. Nowadays, Destin extends all that way out Highway 98. We *really* should have bought the yellow house we loved there, or at least a condo; we'd have doubled our money. Honorable mentions: Purchased on a little solo visit to buddy Caroline's place in Albuquerque. Purchased during a STUN event in October. Purchased—in what may have been my first mail-order purchase—in the early days of my relationship with Frank. This was the year we were bombing Libya, which I found very frightening. And a memory from Christmas past: our beloved holiday Mezza Luna. Photo credits: All photos by MJ except Mezza and the dragonfly (which I took). Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Counting down to everything

We have so much we're looking forward to!

• Christmas
• Annual Crazy Cousins NYE Bash
• Non-Con North
• Lynn's wedding
• Chloe's 14th birthday
• Alicen's wedding
• Frank's 60th birthday
• LIFE is Good and the "I can't believe how many unschoolers are Geminis" community birthday bash
• My next 100-day break
• Steph's visit
• NBTSC
• Live and Learn
• Visiting Chiara in Italy
• Finally getting to go to Ireland
• MJ's Sweet 16 and driver's license
• Christmas again
  ...

And counting way too high

these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?
— e.e. cummings

http://www.infoshout.com/

Be sure to scroll all the way down that page. They're worth it.

Ho-Ho-Ho Me-Me-Me

Tired of memes yet? No? Good! Here's another! I picked this up from Diana's blog.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Ovaltine!

2. Does Santa wrap the presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped, in special only-for-Santa wrapping paper, left in front of the fireplace.

3. Colored or white lights? Colored, of course!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? It's been known to happen. Mwah!

5. When do you put your decorations up? First week of December usually. This week this year.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Nina's Chess Pie.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Stockings.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I learned what some people consider the truth about Santa at about age 7 from kids at school. I continue to discover my own truths about him to this day.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We have a family gathering Christmas Eve at which I get to open every gift I receive. The quantity varies from year to year.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lights first, then with much oohing and ahhing over the ornaments, then with tired determination to finish (we have a lot of ornaments).

11. Snow: Love it or hate it? Love it unless it lasts more than three days.

12. Can you ice skate? Enough to give you a good laugh.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Ooh, tough one. My diamond earrings. A doll my stepbrother gave me when I was small. A cashmere scarf a few years back from my half-brother. And whatever Santa delivered each year when I was a kid -- the gifts have faded from memory, but not the glee I felt.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Ecstatic children.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? See #6.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Sitting in the dark looking at the tree lights.

17. What is on top of your tree? A lighted angel.

18. Which do you like best, giving or receiving? Giving (and I'm not just saying that).

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? "Christmas Wrappings"

20. Do you like candy canes? In moderation.

21. Favorite Christmas movie? I said "It's a Wonderful Life" before, and I mentioned "The Ref" in another post, so today I'll go with "Love Actually."

12 Days

One of our favorite traditions around here is to do the "12 Days of Christmas." My mom did it for Lynn and me, and now I do it for MJ and Chloe. They love it as much as we did! On each of the twelve days before Christmas, the girls each receive a little gift. The gifts are always inexpensive items, but having that little surprise each morning makes the looooong wait for the big day a little easier to bear. This year so far, the girls have received pretty bookmarks, paperback books to use them in, and, today, Pirates of the Caribbean notebooks to use, perhaps, in creating their own stories.

The picture above is from the finale from a nifty Jacquie Lawson online greeting card that we received from Grandma Cherie and Papa Steve. Since I almost never find time for sending Christmas cards at all, I thought I would share the picture with all of you, along with the same wish they sent to us: the happiest of holiday seasons and a world at peace.

A commute to write home about

Most days, no matter how light the traffic is, I am frustrated by commuting. In fact, it is sometimes more frustrating when the traffic is light, because then the shameful behavior of the left-lane hogs is even more evident.

But this morning's drive was pretty awesome. I think half the world took today off, and the ones who were left actually moved right some of the time. As a result, I had a lot of free air, and I got to really drive all three of the cool curves of my commute: I-5 to I-405 interchange, I-405 to SR520 cloverleaf interchange, and my cloverleaf exit ramp onto 148th north. It was very fun! Normally, I count myself lucky if I get to do just one of those.

Friday fill-in

1. Away in a manger, no room for a bed (resisting—in the spirit of Christmas—all sorts of snarky fill-ins).
2. Dashing through the snow, in a 3.2 liter Ferrari with torsion bar suspension and those ported venturi carburetors.
3. Hark! The herald angels sing (still resisting).
4. It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees (I wouldn't presume to mess with Joni).
5. When I was small I believed in Santa Claus, and I still do.
6. That Christmas magic's brought this tale to a very shiny middle.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to shopping, tomorrow my plans include getting our tree finally after illness delay, and Sunday, I want to continue getting caught up and have a festive STUN movie night!

Our movie theme for Sunday is holiday movies. You know, great films like "Die Hard," "Life of Brian," "Enemy of the State," etc. It'll be really interesting to see what the kids show up with.