All right, I am generally a huge Jessa Crispin fan, but how can you NOT GET Jane Austen? I like Bronte and Wharton too (Wharton way more than the Brontes, actually) but really, not to like Austen? She’s crisp and clear and funny and yes, everything ends happily but that’s also social commentary. (Can you tell I took a lit class or two in college? Hmmm.)
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Gina brought James Terry Pratchett’s Where’s My Cow?. It’s pretty funny and I dig the illustrations, particularly those of the “bad guys.” Simon read it through carefully and then said, “Mama? The man in the book reads the book to his son, right? [The main character reads Where’s My Cow? to his son.] So then the guy in THAT book reads it again to his son. And then in THAT book, the guy reads it to HIS son…” Great, the kid is almost five and he’s grasped recursion so much more quickly and clearly than I ever did. Kindergarten cannot come soon enough.
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I borrowed a Thomas video from the library for the boys to watch yesterday, since it was supposed to rain in the afternoon (it didn’t but I promised). We have not seen any of the videos, all our Thomas experience is based on the original Awdry books. The video is cute, it looks like they just set up a scene with the little model trains and shoot a scene, then move to the next scene and shoot that, with voiceovers serving as dialogue. Simple but cute. The boys really enjoyed the video.
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I am reading Sebastian Faulks’ On Green Dolphin Street. It is engaging enough, in that martini-drinking, cigarette-smoking, pillbox-hat-wearing style, sort of like Raymond Chandler, or the literary equivalent of “The Man Who Wasn’t There”.
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My Perfect sister-in-law did something nice for me (actually, incredibly nice, damn her! : )) She sent James a present, and sent *me* a B&N gift card. (If I remember correctly she gave me cozy flannel PJs when Si was born…damn, I hate when people who annoy me are nice to me!). For the past couple times at the bookstore, I have been eyeballing a few Sandra Dallas novels. I read The Persian Pickle Club and enjoyed it because I thought the main character was incredibly sympathetic and the supporting cast was funky but fun. Plus I liked all the quilting details. So I think I will use my gift card to pick up at least The Diary of Mattie Spenser and Alice’s Tulips. They are the kind of comfort reading my brain could use right now. Along with maybe the new Jennifer Chiaverini - who is getting a bit boring but her quilting parts are terrific.
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I also want to read this book about Julia Child and Julie Powell, Julie and Julia : 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. The blog is no longer up, at least not that I could find. Bummer.
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There’s a Jeffrey Eugenides short story in the New Yorker this month. It’s as good as anything else he’s written (and I am not a short story fan…). When is he coming out with a new book? Middlesex came out in paperback in 2003...he's about due.
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Mary Gordon’s Pearl showed up on Bookslut for some reason recently. I want to read it. Also I want to reread Spending as that is one of her books that I remember making an impact on me. I bought it for several people for Christmas the year after I read it.
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Nobody buys into the librarian stereotype anymore, do they? Come on, is this still considered a story? I am sick of reading about it.
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All I can say is, Way to go, and if I should ever rejoin organized religion, I will seriously consider the Episcopalians.
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I *really* need to buy Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust.
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I dig weird sea creatures. I should read The Search for the Giant Squid. I’ll bet I’d find it fascinating. Put it on the list.
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Salon’s recent article on “unschooling” children, a process described thusly: Unschooling is a radical branch of home-schooling where kids control what and when they learn -- free of teachers, schedules and tests. Unschoolers say it's intellectually empowering. Critics call it irresponsible.
How I feel about this approach, expressed much more succinctly than I could, in the article by a homeschooler-mom who is a vocal critic of unschooling:
A child-led approach may develop the child's strengths but does nothing to develop his weaknesses and broaden his horizons.
I just think unschooling is an insane proposition, but what do I know? I am applying to *public school* for God’s sake.
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James sleeps best either in his car seat or wrapped in a blanket in the ancient papasan chair that lives in our library/TV room. Am I terrible for actually letting him sleep in these places - during the day - rather than his crib? I vote no.
9 comments:
I vote no as well. As a baby the girl child would only sleep in her car seat or when she was latched on to me. That was it, no other sleeping took place. I loved that f***ing car seat.
On the unschooling, I think it's something a lot of parents do naturally without realizing it has a name. Your kid likes trains, so you buy him books about trains and rent videos about trains and maybe hit a train museum or two. Your kid likes sharks, so you look up some internet info on sharks and buy some books about sharks and maybe visit an aquarium. The controversy comes in when unschooling is the child's ONLY form of education. That approach is not for me (my kids are in public school, too) but I do like unschooling as a SUPPLEMENT to a more "conventional" education. Like I said, I think it's something we parents tend to just do anyway.
Unschooling is precisely the sort of logical conclusion to the current movement visible in modern society, i.e., unparenting.
For the record, modern and enlightened and progressive parents--among whose number we are absent--would be appalled, stunned, shocked and livid at how little decision making power my kids have.
They also are not only not UNschooled, but they get "moreschooled" after they get home.
Is it REALLY that much of a burden to be up to speed with what your kids do? Are schools (or, now, the kids themselves) supposed to do the parenting, with the actual parents stopping by every once in a while to complain?
-Joke, educational hardass
SJ would only nap in his swing or on my lap. I worried too about him napping in the swing, but it sure was nice to get a break.
BB, thanks as always for posting something literary. I think Jessa hasn't read Persuasion, which I think is Austen at her best. I find P&P silly, but she's Jane Austen--I mean--anyways, Jane lovers unite! And I printed out the short story from the New Yorker to read whilest at the desk tonight. Keep writing--it's good for the endorphins!
Joke, I am so with you.
Of course at this juncture it's the 8pm bedtime, enforced quiet/nap time each afternoon, and the lack of processed sugar in their diets that other parents are appalled by. But I foresee years of being the "strict" parents.
And Badger, you're right of course. In fact Si and I are doing that very thing right now with the volcanoes this week. I got some library books, a volcano video, some volcano coloring pages, a playdoh volcano we plan to erupt this weekend with baking soda and vinegar...but I could not see doing ONLY this as his education. Other than the fact I'd lose my freaking mind within the week, I think it does a disservice to the parts of his brain that need to be developed with a little...um...force? That might need to be nurtured more strongly....like my brain and math...
I heart P&P and Jane Austen in general. She criticizes Elizabeth for being ordinary? I say that's her virtue - the everywoman.
Regarding unschooling - I agree that it should be a supplement - especially as kids get older, to encourage them to go deeper into subjects they're interested in.
-jess
BTW, I am just now reading down through all your posts. (catching up.) I had missed the pic of the baby. He's so sweet! I wish I could smell the top of his little head.
at the moment it smells like sour breast milk....
Izzat good on a baked potato?
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