Homework

Posted on 05/24/2014 by chick

Dear Kids,

It all started when Marshall brought home a special homework assignment from preschool. The homework consisted of some pictures and instructions for coloring, circling, etc. There were so many instructions that I knew it would take a while and that he’d need my help for most of it. I also knew that Livia would get jealous. So I decided that we should ALL do the homework.  I made photocopies for me and Livia. Then, armed with our bucket of crayons, we set to it.

And we had a ton of fun! I was amazed not only at Marshall’s ability to handle the different instructions, but also Livia’s. So I decided that we needed to do homework every day. I paged through coloring books to find suitable pictures, added things to the pictures as necessary, wrote instructions, and then photocopied the pages. You were thrilled with our new homework assignments. So I made more, and sometimes even created the images myself.

Here for example, is one of the exercises I made for the letter “a.” You were supposed to trace the “a” in the top right corner, write an “a” in each apple, color the apples, then color by number the inside of the big “a” using the colors of apricots, apes, apples, ashes, etc. And what a great job you did!

When we were working on the letter “S,” I drew snakes to illustrate the shape. You loved the snakes and asked me to draw “the biggest snake in the world.” So I drew a big snake for each of you. You colored your snakes and added barbs (in imitation of some stripes I had drawn on another snake), then you asked me to cut eye holes so you could use them as masks. You chased each other all over the house holding these masks to your faces.

Scary!

Once we’re done coloring, Marshall runs to fetch the tape. Then we tape the pages to the glass doors of the curio shelf in the dining room, where they light up the room with their cheerful colors all day.

We’ve been doing homework nearly every morning for over a month now. I don’t know how much longer it will last. One day you might decide to give it up, and that day could be soon. Marshall complained about the homework this morning, saying that coloring letters was boring, but then he perked up when we started reading the letters (today’s exercise involved the short words WET, HOT, DRY and DOG, CAT, COW). Both of you were excited to be reading words. So maybe you’ll stick with it. I hope so. I enjoy the time we spend together this way.

Love,

Mom

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More Reading in 2014

Posted on 05/19/2014 by chick
  1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, A: The story (in case you haven’t already heard) is about a teenager who must fight for her life in an annual state-run competition called the Hunger Games. The competition is brutal, as there can be only one survivor out of the 24 contenders, and it’s particularly cruel, having been invented as part of a system for repressing the populace. The story is fast-paced, set in a dystopian future, features a strong heroine, and it’s actually readable. Wow. What more could one ask for in YA fiction? I decided to keep this one for my library.
  2. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, A-: Hugo is a 12-year-old orphan who lives in a Paris train station circa 1930. His uncle, who is missing, once took care of the station’s clocks. Hugo now winds and repairs them in his place, with no one the wiser, and he steals food to get by. But when he gets caught stealing some parts to fix a mechanical man, events unfold that threaten his secret existence. This book is sort of a short historical novel, sort of a picture book, and sort of like a silent movie. Whatever it is, I like it. But I have to say, though, that the visual aspect, which I enjoyed so much in Wonderstruck, did not seem quite as critical to the story. So I thought the book was bulkier than was necessary. Still, very good overall and recommended. Favorite quote from the book:

    I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.

  3. Jinx by Sage Blackwood, A: This is the story about a boy named Jinx. After being abandoned in a dangerous, magical forest, he is lucky enough to find a new home with a wizard, but he doesn’t know how much he can trust his new guardian. This book came so close to being great! I wish the author had focused on the relationship between Jinx and the adults in his life, issues of trust, etc. Instead, she added a Ron and Hermione (i.e., a couple of friends) to a story that didn’t need them. IMHO the two extra characters just dragged the story out and forced the need for a sequel. But I still liked the book a lot and might buy a copy someday.
  4. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, A-: A journalist, a big-game hunter, and two scientists set out to find a mysterious South American plateau where dinosaurs still roam. There are no places left on the earth where this kind of exploration could occur, but it’s such an exciting idea that you can forget about the realities of our age for a while. I decided to keep this one for my library.
  5. Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier, B+: In this story, a teenage girl is forced to go live with a grandmother whom she believes to be a dangerous witch. She runs away but soon finds herself in danger form another quarter. Books about magic and teenagers are a dime a dozen these days, but this story introduced some interesting consequences for using magic, as well as reasons why magic users might choose to prey on one another. It also took place partly in Australia, which made it more interesting. I liked it just enough that I might read the sequel.
  6. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, A-: When his grandfather is killed in a strange attack, a teenage boy travels to Wales to find out the truth about his grandfather’s youth and the orphanage where he supposedly lived. This book was really, really good…until it wasn’t. I loved the beginning and the middle, but the end was rushed and the loose ends of the story were not tied up. It went from being (in my estimation) an awesome stand-alone book to a so-so lead-in for a series. It was a huge disappointment. But most of it was good, which is why it still gets an A-.
  7. My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer by Jennifer Gennari, B: This is a well-handled but unremarkable story about a girl whose mother is romantically involved with another woman. It takes place at the time when same-sex marriages had just been made legal in Vermont.
  8. Out of Circulation by Miranda James, B-: When an unpleasant socialite is killed at a library fund-raising event, everyone in attendance is a suspect. I picked this book up because I like to think that I like cozy mysteries. But while the genre is great in theory, the writing is usually NOT great. This book is a typical example. The main character is a librarian who part-times as a sleuth with the help of his Maine coon cat. The librarian is almost never at the library. The cat just eats and makes noises and periodically uses the litter box (why did I need to know about that?). But it’s innocuous and easy to read, and it has a cat in it. Those things counted in its favor and kept its grade above a C.
  9. Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, B: In this story, an astronaut travels to a planet that is dominated by three species of apes: chimpanzees (the scientists), orangutans (the politicians), and the gorillas (the military). I thought it would be fun to read the book that the Planet of the Apes movies were based on. In particular, I was thinking of the original Heston version. But this turns out to be one of the rare cases where the book is actually not as good as the movie. The thing is, the twist at the end of the movie is what makes the whole thing both believable and emotionally compelling. The twist in the book is similar, but it doesn’t make much sense. Also, the way that the ape society (with its three species) functions is interesting but not fully explored. Not recommended.
  10. The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle, B: In this story, Professor Challenger (one of the main characters from The Lost World) realizes that the Earth is orbiting through a “poison belt” of space that will taint the air and kill everyone. The professor comes up with a plan to oxygenate one of his rooms so that he, his wife, and friends can live just a little longer. But Doyle seemingly couldn’t imagine disaster on such a large scale and didn’t know where to take the story. He had not (as I have) seen dozens of disaster films. Too bad for him and for the story. I wouldn’t keep it except that my edition is part of the same physical book as The Lost World.
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After the Rain

Posted on 05/10/2014 by chick
Family

The family that flowers together, showers together.

white

White Wetting

bluets

Beaded Bluets

dandy

Dandelion Drops

inside

Inner Spheres

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SITY: Beautiful Downy Violets

Posted on 05/04/2014 by chick
downies 1

Downy violets looks so pretty against the brown grass and dead leaves that still litter the ground in early spring.

downies 2

They seem to like living around the rocks.

driveway

And in the rock.
(You know your driveway is in sorry shape when a violet can do this!)

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SITY: First of Many

Posted on 04/19/2014 by chick

Behold the first violet of 2014!

first violet 2014

First Violet
April 19, 2014

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SITY: Icy Surprise

Posted on 04/16/2014 by chick

I looked outside this spring morning, and what did I see?

Icy Daffodils

Ice!

IcyD2

Poor, Battered Daffodil

IcyD3

Four Floored

My husband said, “Marshall, did you wish for more snow?”

Marshall replied, “No, I wished for no more snow!”

Wish harder, Marshall, so that the winter weather will finally go away!

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I Did it!

Posted on 04/13/2014 by chick

I did it! I finished Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore in time.

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Reading Report

Posted on 04/12/2014 by chick

I got a little crazy for a while and ordered more books from the library than I could possibly read. I tried hard, but it wasn’t enough. I had to send a few back unread, including The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, because the library wouldn’t let me renew them.

I did well to get some of them done as fast as I did, though. I just finished Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut. It was due on April 10th, so to have finished it on the 11th was pretty good. The 11th was coincidentally the anniversary of his death (and the same day of the month that my 2007 Vonnegut Marathon ended on). I said to my husband, “That’s so cool. What are the odds that I would finish the book on that particular day?” He replied, “One in 365.” Ha-ha. Smart-ass!

He also said, as he always does when I read Vonnegut these days, “But didn’t you already read all the Vonnegut?” No. The Vonnegut Marathon only encompassed Vonnegut’s fourteen novels. It did not include the collections of short pieces, which I’ve been working on since. I read Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons in 2008, Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Fiction in 2010, A Man Without a Country in 2013, and now Welcome to the Monkey House in 2014.

Welcome to the Monkey House is said to be one of his better collections. Vonnegut is often thought of as a sci-fi writer, but this collection provides a wide range of subjects, from a housewife obsessed with interior design, to a self-employed man who scares himself into taking a factory job, to an amateur actor who completely immerses himself in his theater roles. I enjoyed some of the stories quite a bit, and some of them not as much, so I decided to give it an A- grade.

My next big reading hurdle will be Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. The library book club discussion is scheduled for next Monday, so I will have to hurry. My husband doubts I’ll be able to read it in time. Hah! By saying so, he has virtually guaranteed that I will. I like a challenge.

After that, I will have to finish Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (it’s very good so far). Then I’ll be rushing though Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, The Last Dragonslayer and The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde, and Elidor by Alan Garner. Once I’ve completed those, I’ll be done with my stack of library books. That is, unless I’m crazy enough to order more.

Am I?

I’m not sure it matters. I have stacks and stacks of my own books that are still waiting to be read. One way or another, my reading plate is full!

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Birthday Monsters

Posted on 04/10/2014 by chick

Marshall asked me to type up this little story and make it “rainbow colored,” so . . .

Happy Birthday!

A monster ate your present.

A geeger-eeger ate the monster.

The monster tried to get out before being chewed and swallowed.

There’s no such thing as monsters.

But there are invisible monsters.

The End

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You’re Fired!

Posted on 04/09/2014 by chick

Sometimes when Marshall gets mad at us he vents his irritation by saying, “You’re fired!” I have no idea where he got that phrase from, but it’s kind of funny, so I don’t mind. But one day he told me that I was fired, and I couldn’t help but tease him. Here’s how the conversation went.

Marshall: You’re fired!
Mommy: Yay! I’m fired! Do you know what that means, Marshall?
Marshall: No.
Mommy: I won’t have get up with you in the morning, feed you, wash your laundry, or wipe your butt, because it won’t be my job anymore. That’s what it means to be fired.
Marshall: Oh. Then you’re not fired.

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