books and Consumer Crap

Not sending my kids to school means that they are not exposed to so much crap that is out there. OK OK not totally - I am guilty of allowing them to watch Treehouse.....so they see Dora, Diego and etc....and we head to CBC and watch Magic School Bus EVERY DAY without fail.....ok there are failures. But they are getting bored of it, and said so. I told them to play instead of they were bored and then later in the day when something new and different (word world, superwhy) was on we could turn the tv back on. This went over well. Then add Scholastic Book Clubs into the mix from schools. Have you looked at the crap in them. And the good stuff? For example: I ordered the Sarah Plain and Tall series, all 4 for $11.99, and Socks by Beverly Cleary is $1.99, but the rest of the books are recipe written and boring to read.....cheap yes, get kids reading yes, and then the rest of the consumer stuff.....ack, I guess this position is becoming known... THIS ARTICLE describes it and this website is how to make a difference!. I've also linked to posts about this in the past. I'm so glad I don't have girls. My boys just want to push dirt.....but that's a whole 'nother post

Teacher's Pro D Day

I recently attended a teacher's pro d day to display my books (usborne) and wow I got some interesting comments from a lot of different people. I spoke with teachers, teachers who are parents and other distributers. From the french teacher who told me that we don't have it right and they just 'forget it all anyways' to the curriculum distributers who told me they wished they'd homeschooled or sent their kids to a Waldorf school, to the teacher's store owner who told me her son was being labelled ADD and she didn't know what to do...... I heard it all. Teacher horror stories, teacher nice stories.....very very interesting. It's amazing how many people say, "If I could do it again I would homeschool." And from a teacher, "If it isn't working for my child, I'll pull her" The system is broken folks, but how to fix it? Someone said to me today that the schools teach mediocracy. Another told me it wasn't until her daughter was in grade 3 that she got a report card from a teacher who really *knew* her daughter and appreciated her strengths.....and it brought her to tears. Yet we all (we being a broad term) have kids and send them off to Kindergarten because that's what we're supposed to do - and it looks like we're headed for full day kindergarten too (in BC). And many parents are happy about this. There was a letter in the paper today from a man who thinks the FSAs are a good thing and what are the teacher's afraid of (don't even get me started on skills testings, just visit www.alfiekohn.org) . People just have no idea. Speaking of FSAs - the district I'm registered with and receive funding fromm tells us we must have our kids do the FSAs in grade 4 and 7. HA HAHAHAHAHAHHAHhahahahahah I've already registered my objections and I'm still 2 years away. It won't happen. And then there's my friend down the road. Our kids were in K together. She took her grade 4 son to after school learning centres 3 days a week. WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY. Everyone's brain develops at a different rate, something education system teaching to the masses seems to forget. And guess what he's doing fine now, probably would have even without the learning centre. Ok, blabbed on enough here. Check out this video - everyone should HAVE to watch it.....
http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/animal-school-movie/

If they don't work ....

If discipline tools don't work in a "functioning" (I'm labelling myself that...HA!) family how in the heck are they supposed to work in a dysfunctional family? I mean really time outs, consequences, punishment....I really believe in teaching my kids how to relate with each other. I get angry, I yell, occasionally, I help them fix it, most of the time. I calm myself down internally and re-react if I've used a script from my childhood.... They sometimes, if I'm upset, usually because they've hurt each other, go to their room for like 10 seconds, mostly so I can calm down.....but really we don't "discipline" in the traditional manner. Much to my mother's dispair.....("That child needs a good whack on his bottom!") So my sister-in-law is now telling me how she helps her clients to discipline their kids, how she helps them at home...I mean she is a child and family services worker who helps people get their kids back, or keep them if it looks like the kids are going to be taken...Usually there is some sort of abuse (drugs, alcohol, neglect) in the household involved and single parent households are common. So these crack smoking idiots (seriously) are being taught, by my sil, how to handle their kids. Sounds like a recipe for disaster and a waste of taxpayers dollars eh? Don't even get me started on how she raised her kids....Mental note to self "Don't judge anyone until you've walked a mile in their shoes....repeat often" She started telling us how to handle Holdy this weekend during her visit because "I'm a counsellor, I can't help it....." Don't get me started.

Total Ruined.....

At the dollar store today there were some neat stickers to do with the body and weather and etc....where you stuck the stickers on pictures instead of writing the answer....I thought they were cool and offered them to August who seems to have a magic antenna that picks up anything that might be to do with 'learning' anything mom thinks is cool. I actually put them back and hope that he processes this to mean his wishes count....Of course some children's literature is so OBVIOUSLY teaching that it's not that fun to read (Their fav MSB Chapter Books for one) but they still love them....and this week we read Sonlight's recommended "Greg's Microscope" - It's not SUBTLE at all, choppily written and so darn obvious what the point of the story was (get the kids to use a microscope - John Holt would HATE this book - like kids need spurring on to look thru a microscope), .....but they fell for it....and out came the salt and sugar and slides and microscope and water and WOW LOOK DADDY!!!
He put together a super cool very complicated bulldozer lego kit yesterday, I mean complicated multiple instructions.....and coming home from the library I heard from the back seat "Mom what does W A R M spell", "oh, ok" a couple of minutes later "Mom what does t o w e l spell" and so it went......He was reading back there.....
Sawyer on the other hand is happy to jump into Math-u-see books and "play" with numbers......I know what not to do with that one.....I've learned from my mistakes with August....
Apparently my mom had company with a grade 2 aged daughter and she raved to a friend of mine about how much more "mature" and etc she was than August......My friend had to point out that a lot of it was a big "hannah montanna" act and not the 'real' child......I am so glad my kids aren't exposed to all that sexualized, commercialzed cr @p - Grade 2 and having posters up idolizing that.....MENSH!!!

Neat Day

What a perfect day.....The boys LOVE Magic School Bus (they watch it and rewatch episodes each morning without fail), so I order the Chapter books thru Scholastic (and for the most part I hate Scholastic.......the rampant commericalism....I could go on for hours) and even though they are so OBVIOUSLY (to me) teaching, but the kids love the adventures, and they do pick up on the info imparted by the nutty Friz. So we read MSB "The giant germ" then look at Usborne's "the complete book of the microscope" full of awesome pics of germs and microbes and hair in knots and so on....and then tried to find our sea monkeys to grow (where the HECK did we put that kit???) Instead found a wooden map of the world with little flags to place in holes beside the right country that the kids have never seen - A attacked it with vigour....using another one of my books with country names and flags - so he had to find the country in the book, alphabetically, look what the flag looked like, then find it's flag out of the pile and put it in the right spot.....all from my kid who can't read.....let alone figure out "alphabetical order" Then we read more about Spiders - H loves them - Did you know there is a spider that lives underwater??? It makes a web, puts air bubbles in it and then uses that space to eat it's prey....All this was interspersed with Lionel Trains, walks outside with Daddy, piano practice, webkinz, treadmill running and various other random activities.....a perfect day, I wish each one could be like this......
Ok it wasn't totally perfect, H had a bad night and was INCREDIBLY screamy/weepy/waily all day....so hard to deal with and nothing that can be done.......

naomi aldort

I just read this in her newsletter:
A mother asked me, "how do I know that its all right for my baby to breastfeed and fall asleep on the breast?" Looking for evidence, she missed the proof. Thinking that the baby doesn't know took this mother away from the loudest truth: reality. The baby is nursing and falling asleep. That's how I know that this is what the baby should do. He does it.
I just love this. With my first, August, I listened to mainstream others, at first, even though we had Sears' The baby book. He lost weight, significantly (like a LOT more than the usual.....), the first week. I reread sections of our only baby book and went on a "breastfeeding holiday" I nursed until the cows came home....and in one week he gained all that and more......I was so dang proud. My first pangs of attachment parenting had hit (not including not letting him out of my sight at the hospital.....) Thank god they did.
So how does this apply to learning and education. Mainstream people agree kids must go to school and the proof is that kids who go to school learn (?). But so do those who stay at home. So where is the proof otherwise. Why are they so AGAINST homelearners/lifelearners? Because they don't want to keep their kids at home? Because they WANT their kids at school so they can have some 'freedom'? Even my supersweet neighbor, with a SUPER kid, said to me "Aren't you worried about social interactions?? Aren't you worried about him missing something?" My son has started labeling maps that he draws. For example: an "E" for elephant. Now if I listened to my Lucy Calkins writing in elementary set (neat books by the way...but not for my kids), he should have been able to do this in K, I tried hard to get him to do it in grade 1, and have perhaps made him fight wanting to write now because of my efforts....Now he's doing it without my help, and I forsee a natural progression....if I can TRUST that he will do it on his own. I fight my own internal battles constantly with mainstreem educators and parents and pressure from others and what I want for my kids.....add to this the fact that my early memories are female, and I LOVED making perfect letters. Do kids learn despite going to school? One of my friends, a trained teacher, spoke of imitating at home what she did at school and making her girls and herself MISERABLE. After 3 weeks she gave up, she dropped it. So what does this say about what is inflicted upon kids at school by the most wellmeaning people. I remember August saying "Mummy, it's so looooooooong" Having said all that, maybe for some kids, school is a haven.....a whole 'nother subject.....

Parenting and Dentistry

Sidebar: Mummy!! Did you know that you can put the treadmill on a mountain????? It's sooooooo cool, we can run uphill.
2 days later: Mummy! I can run 2 kmh backwards!!!!!!!
Mummy: Geez, I don't know if you can go on the treadmill again. Hmmm Well I guesssss so.....
H had a bazillion cavities filled on Friday under anaesthetic at the hospital. I managed to insult the recovery nurse, cause the dentist to lose face and well, you know, piss everyone off. Man. No, seriously, they call for me that he's awake and calling for me so up I go at a run...and meet the dentist on the way, who says "Yes, it went well we did all 8 fillings" I look confused, "You mean 9" Now the dentist looks confused. "You know, his last front upper tooth with the black blotch on the back......." (He had the other three pulled after they absessed after breaking them all in a fall......) So I get in with him (and get told not to nurse him argh which I ignored) and his first words to me were "Mummy, I'm hot" so I strip him off, the poor kid is COOKING, like sweat dripping off his head and wet sweaty hair. I guess the recovery nurse was worried he was cold. They let me take him back to the peds unit to watch tv, and wait for him to pee....where the other waiting parent tells me "wow did he ever call for you for a long time, at least 15 minutes" (She was waiting next door to the recovery room with her son to go in) I was HORRIFIED. He was being COOKED for 15 minutes, no wonder he was stressed and upset. (I heard the nurses talking under their breath about his bp spiking.....) I thought they called me as he was coming out. So when the recovery nurse comes in to check his stats I ask her why he called for me for so long. She gave the other lady a nasty look and said something about being busy (1 other person in recovery chatting to his nurse, whatever) .....Ok so I pissed her off, maybe she'll get the next mom sooner......(I told H I would be there when he woke up :( Then when we were finally allowed to leave I saw the dentist again in the hallway. After small talk, and being told to make a follow up appointment, I ask about the missed tooth and I get told "Oh, I decided not to do that one and let it run it's course" HUH??!!! What about the quote for 9 fillings? What about the form I signed that said the procedure had been discussed with me???? What about the other ABSESSES we had to deal with??? We are so pissed. Mistakes can be made, fillings forgotten, but LYING??????
Then we go to Micky Ds for lunch and I see a NEW baby strapped in her carseat with a bottle propped in her mouth. I just felt so sad.