Freedom on Hold

HELL NO, HE WON'T GO: The big news of the day was definitely the events in Egypt. I don't normally have the TV on between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (or later), but around midday I saw reports online that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was about to give a speech in which he was resigning.

I turned on the TV so we could witness history being made. While the world waited for Mubarak's message, there was live footage from Tahrir "Liberty" Square where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians are staging a peaceful protest against Mubarak's regime. I told the kids that they might be watching the birth of a democracy. ...

We also got out a globe and I had the kids locate Egypt on it.

Eventually, Mubarak appeared. His speech ranged from paternal and patronizing to defiant. He clearly doesn't "get it." He was quick to blame powers outside of Egypt for the country's current woes, which is ridiculous given the clearly home grown, massive demonstrations by Egyptians. Though he's supposedly turning over some powers to his V.P., Mubarak reminded everyone he is a war hero, and made it clear he wasn't going anywhere until elections in September.

I'm no Middle East expert or Egyptologist, but part of me thinks Mubarak is banking on peaceful protesters getting super frustrated and turning violent. Then the army has an excuse to crack down, then Mubarak, as commander in chief, has his shot at saying he has to stay in power for the safety of the people. I surely hope that doesn't happen. The world can only watch and wait.

After Mubarak's speech, the kids and I talked about what a democracy is. They both mentioned being able to vote. I told them that is part of it, but certainly there's more. For instance, I told them, some countries hold elections - but only one choice is on the ballot. Doesn't exactly ring "freedom," does it?

We watched a BrainPop video about democracy. It started with ancient Greece and worked its way to current times. We also talked about the differences between a direct democracy (everyone voting on every little thing) and a representative one (where we vote for people to represent us, and they vote on every little thing), and when those two modes make most sense. (For instance, a direct democracy works best in a small group, like a family or a neighborhood, while a representative one is better for big groups, like a city, state or nation.)

UPDATE: Right after breakfast this (2/11/2011) morning, I flipped from SpongeBob to MSNBC. Good timing - at that very moment, the Egyptian VP came on with a 20 second announcement that Mubarak has left Cairo and has stepped aside. With happy hearts, we watched the people in Egypt celebrate what we can only hope is the beginning of a long, prosperous democracy.

CREATURE FEATURE: My obsession with the Triops continues. It was CJ's turn to feed it today. He waited until the creature was very near the top of the water and then dropped a pellet right by its belly. The thing sucked it up in no time.

WHERE'S THE BEEF? Though it was unplanned, life circumstances resulted in cuts of beef becoming a part of today's curriculum.

I needed some meat to make a bunch of scrumptious Bloody Mary steak bites for a party we're attending this weekend. My goal was to get four decent sized packages of beef. Ideally it would have been flank steak, but apparently that's been outlawed, as I found not a single package at any of the FIVE stores we checked. London Broil was my second choice. I managed to find and buy a couple at one store, but that's it. By then, I was then ready to settle for my third choice, a round roast. Found ONE at store four, and the fifth at store five.

The kids were being very good sports about it all, but I can report that as we walked into the fourth store, Annabelle muttered, "OK, so where's the frickin' meat?" :0

I am mystified at the shortage of beef options. Has this city really gone that hardcore vegan or is there some cow shortage I don't know about?

LISTEN UP: With yesterday's shenanigans on the kids' parts still fresh in my mind, I wanted to follow up today with talking about the characteristics of a good listener. First, I asked the kids to explain to me what makes a good listener. They each offered up a couple of ideas and I tossed a few others in the mix. Then I asked them to write about it.

Annabelle wrote, "If I knew someone was listining to me they would stop what th'ere doing, look at me, and listen to me. But they might pretend to listen so (although you can't quite hear it) snap my fingers."

Interesting.

CJ's take: "If they are looking at and lisining to you then they are not putting they're head on the table. They would stop what their doing."

A good start. And, as you might imagine, we then spent a few minutes talking about the differences between there, their and they're. Oh, English, you silly, silly language.

STORYTELLERS: While searching through dozens of cookie cutters, looking for my heart shaped one, it occurred to me that the cutters might make a great vehicle for some storytelling.

I spread out all of them on the island and asked the kids to select a few to use in their story. I said their story could be about anything, but there were two stipulations: It had to start with "Once upon a time" and it had to end with "And they lived happily ever after."

CJ chose a couple of Day of the Dead skull cookie cutters and a Santa Claus. Paraphrased and condensed, his story was that once upon a time there was a character named Face, and even though he was a he and he didn't have a wife, Face had a baby. He went to the hospital and the doctors helped him give birth safely. Out came the baby, Face Jr. The faces went home and Face Jr. already knew all his ABCs and how to read. And when Christmas time came, Face Jr. wished for a Nintendo Wii. Enter Santa, who brought one to the sleeping Face Jr. and left it in his hands. "That meant Face Jr. was a good boy," CJ explained. "And they lived happily ever after."

Annabelle chose a couple of gingerbread characters (representing humans), two space ships, a planet (inhabited by alien bunnies) and a strawberry. Paraphrasing, once upon a time, alien bunnies came to Earth in a spaceship. There, they discovered strawberries and decided to take them all back to their planet. Naturally, the Earthlings weren't too thrilled about that development, so they got in a rocket and flew to the Bunnies' planet and asked for their strawberries back. In the end, the gingerbread humans and the alien bunnies ended up sharing the strawberries. And they lived happily ever after. :)