Spinning

Photo by Joe Stockton

TASTES LIKE CHICKEN: We started our day with a delightful book called "Love and Roast Chicken - A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains."

I plucked it off the library shelves because I knew the kids had recently heard trickster raven tales during their Native American unit at Musikgarten. I thought it would be nice to augment that with a trickster tale from another culture.

The fantastically told and wonderfully illustrated story was about Cuy, a guinea pig, who kept getting the best of a fox. Near the end of the tale, a local farmer is angry with Cuy for tricking him, too, and threatens to feed him to his daughter.

The kids recoiled at the thought of eating guinea pig, but as the author explained, it's not uncommon in some places in South America. I was very happy to have a more personal example to use with the kids, telling them about our family friend Joe who just got back from the Andes. I was able to show them Joe's 100+ photos of the trip on Facebook. There are lots of stunning shots of the Andes, but there were several photos of one of the unique meals he had while there. Photos by Joe Stockton
It was really great to be able to tie "Love and Roast Chicken" to their music lessons and into a geography/social studies lesson. I also found a great teacher's guide online for the book (PDF here) and used some ideas from it.

The kids each took and aced Accelerated Reader tests on the book. They're piling up the points and have visions of prizes in their heads.

CHARTS: We had science homework to do before class this afternoon. The kids were a bit surprised when it ended up being very math homework like. ;)

Last week in class they made mobiles. The homework was a worksheet with a picture of a couple of mobiles and questions about how many pieces of each component (paperclips, rubber bands, straws, cards) a class would need to make the mobiles.

I told them that the best way to tackle the problem was probably by being organized. So, we created charts and plugged our data in and then the calculations were pretty straightforward.And in case you're wondering, that's chocolate frosting on Bee's cheek. (Scientists and mathematicians have to eat, ya know!)

TOPSY TURVY: After noon we were off to Shoreline for science. It's always fun wondering what we'll be doing in class. Today, it was all about tops.

Initially, the kids were given thin straws, some wheel shaped weights and told to make some tops, and that's just what they did.

CJ LOVED this activity. He was inventing all sorts of games (battle tops, obstacles courses) with the tops. Good times!

After class, we headed to the cafe area for some popcorn. The was plenty of popcorn but no bags to put it in. So, we borrowed some plastic cups from the cupboard and the kids sat and ate their popcorn while watching "Bob the Builder" with some classmates. That was nice.

ANCIENT CHINESE SECRET?: There's a story taking the Internet by storm right now. It popped up on three different educational lists I subscribe to, and one friend emailed it to me. It's an opinion piece by Amy Chua, a Yale law school professor, extolling the virtues of "Chinese" mothers. It starts with her list of things her daughters have never been allowed to do: "attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, complain about not being in a school play, watch TV or play computer games, choose their own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama, play any instrument other than the piano or violin, not play the piano or violin."

And she's just getting started.

It's a looong, inflammatory (IMHO) article that outlines the writer's opinion that Western parents breed and a traditional Chinese mother's approach is better.

My overriding thought when reading it is, "Wow. I'd hate to be one of her kids!" My second thought is that she is hoping to sell a boatload of her new book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by being controversial.

I'll admit, there were a couple of minor things she said that I agree with - things like I don't think all the kids on the last place team should get trophies just because, and I do think the parents need to act like parents and make decisions for their kids, BUT for the most part I thought her approach to parenting sounded downright abusive!

One of her claims: "What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you're good at it," hence her young children being forced to practice violin or piano for three hours a day (even depriving them of food or bathroom breaks if they can't PERFECT a piece). She claims, "To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences."

I just don't agree with the second half of that. Yes, you have to work at things to be good at them, but I don't think kids on their own "never want to work." I've seen kids work extremely hard on things especially when it's something they have a passion and affinity for.

Another ridiculous claim: "If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion." First of all, yes, of course it could happen and second, whose hair is being torn by whom?

And lastly, she derides activities like sports and drama and claims "no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, 'I got a part in the school play! I'm Villager Number Six. I'll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I'll also need a ride on weekends.' God help any Chinese kid who tried that one." How funny that she has no clue that Villager Number Six would be the lead role. ;) What an idiot.

Call me crazy, but "joy" and "fun" are purposely built into our schedule here at MPA. I suppose that means CJ and Annabelle are destined to be horrible failures by "Tiger Mother's" measure. ...