Movies, Music & More

SECONDS COUNT: If CJ had his way, his dad would never go to work. He'd just be here, 24/7, available to play Shredder v. Splinter and such. This morning CJ awoke to find Christian gone after a very nice long 6 day stretch of him being off work, and CJ wasn't pleased. He repeatedly asked me, "How long until Daddy is home?" At 8 o'clock he asked for about the fifth time this morning. I told him (again) that his dad would be home at 5 - in about nine hours. But CJ wanted to know how many seconds that was. I figure it's because he can more easily quantify/understand the duration of a second. It's the blink of an eye or the clap of a hand long. So I reminded him there are 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour, so every hour has 3600 seconds. Then, we counted that there would be nine hours until 5 p.m., which meant that his dad would be home in 32,400 seconds. When he heard that big number he was none too happy. Throughout the day he kept asking and asking, "How long 'til Daddy's home?"

NIFTY FIFTY: Since we still had the puzzle of the United States on the table, I thought it would be a good time to read a library book. I pulled out and propped up "Trains of States" and we three took a tour of the United States. Each state had its own page featuring its state flower and tree, capitol, and several claims to fame (people, natural resources and inventions). I had the kids take turns finding each state on the map.The tidbits of information I found most interesting were the origins of each state's name. As one might expect, several were from American Indian words or of English origin (often in homage to royalty). The biggest surprises were Oregon (the book says no one knows the state name's origin) and California (named for an island paradise in a popular Spanish novel from 1510-ish).

With so many states and factoids, It took us well over an hour to make our way through the book.

ZANE-Y MUSIC: Our musical entertainment today was the fantastic Dan Zanes and Friends. We love his multi-cultural music that is definitely not for-kiddies only. (His Grammy winning "Catch that Train" has been in heavy rotation in our car for a couple of years). So, while the kids had a mid morning snack, I popped "All Around the Kitchen" in the DVD player. It's a combination of music videos and concert footage. My favorite part was the title track, which has the refrain "All around the kitchen, cockadoodle doodle do!" at which Annabelle danced around the kitchen like a chicken. "Dancing in my pajamas!" she exclaimed with glee, not missing a beat.

DEM BONES: Last night in a quick trip to the library, I picked up a "Dinosaur Bones" DVD. It's an animated/narrated version of a book of the same title. When I opened the DVD case this a.m., I was happy to see a mini lesson plan to go along with the video. It listed objectives, suggested activities before viewing, vocabulary to review, and guiding questions (like "What do dinosaurs need to survive?" and "What do you think the Earth looked like when dinosaurs were alive?").

After watching it, CJ said , "I want to be a paleontologist." I also found a fun Dinosaur Bones activity online where the kids took turns building dinosaur skeletons from piles of bones.

MOVIE NIGHT: Last night we had our first MPA Family Movie Night. This is something I've been wanting to do for awhile. There are so many great/classic movies (everything from The Sound of Music to Star Wars) that are part of the fabric of our culture that the kids have not seen from start to finish. And I don't just want to rent them DVD after DVD and shut them into their bedroom to watch it - I really want to view them together, so we can talk about everything from character development to cinematography to slapstick comedy.

Last night's feature definitely fit into the latter category. Yesterday when I told the kid we had to run an errand Annabelle asked why they couldn't just stay home alone. Well, after watching "Home Alone" they have a much better idea!

As we anticipated, they both loved the movie. We talked about how resourceful Kevin was while taking care of himself, and the things he did well and the things he did not-so-well and the pros and cons of being home alone.

SCHOOL SUBJECTS: This week on our visits to the park, we've been encountering neighborhood children who are off on their winter breaks. Today we met some friendly children who told me they attend (the private) Spruce Street School, which reads like a cool place based on its Web site. Yesterday we met a family of children who live in our 'hood but attend St. Alphonsus (parochial) school in Ballard. Maybe, just maybe, we'll meet a neighbor whose children actually go to the neighborhood schools. ...

Yesterday it was funny, the very chatty caretaker/babysitter of the kids we met yesterday asked us where our kids go to school. Without hesitation Christian replied, "Magnolia Preparatory Academy." She asked, "Oh? Where's that?" To which I replied, "Our house."

"Oh, so you homeschool!" she said with enthusiasm. That info apparently gave her the green flag to start gushing about Michael Medved (who, in 2007, penned a column discounting/defending the history of slavery in the US), Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. It's interesting how someone who homeschools is instantly assumed to be a very conservative and/or religious person.

It's also interesting how often I've made that same assumption in the past. Guess I'm being served up a big steaming pile of karma on that one! : \