Copasetic Flow

As No. 1 and I were walking down the sidewalk, I said, "So, if a noun is a thing, and a verb is a word about doing something, then what kind of word is run?" "A verb!" "OK, what kind of a word is boot?" "A noun!  It's a thing." "Cool, so what kind of a word is shoe?" I asked. "A verb!" "Really?" "Yes!" I thought perhaps No. 1 was confusing an action with the thing she did it with, so I asked, "Verbs are actions right, so how do you figure?" To which No 1 responded with a furrowed brow, in all seriousness, "Well, like when you want us to leave a room, you say, "Shoo!" and we leave.  So, shooing is doing something."

The kids' grandparents are visiting from TX.  On our bus ride back from downtown yesterday, No. 1 was excitedly detailing everything she wanted to do for the rest of the day with her grandparents.  As the list grew, her grandma suggested that she write it all down so she wouldn't forget anything.  No. 1, popped out her sketch book, a box of crayons, borrowed my pen, and voila!  My favorite part was all the bacon!

As our 'just under OSHA's safe hearing limits' subway hummed to a stop, I felt a gentle nudge at my left side.  Turning to find a kind but concerned looking fellow passenger, I raised my eyebrows quizzically.  She pointed at the kids.  "Ah," I thought, "she's about to comment on how awesome the kids are!"  It was the obvious answer, but why did she look so concerned? She leaned in conspiratorially. "Their shoes might be on the wrong feet," she whispered. "Hunh, would you look at that?  Cool!  Thanks!"  I replied with a big grin.  Off the train went roaring through the tunnels of San Francisco again. At the next station, the train doors slid open letting the bright platform lights flood in.  I felt another nudge.  This time my fellow passenger leaned back in contemplation, staring at the kids' shoes.  For fun, I leaned back with her.  We studied the footwear in question in some detail.  She nodded her head, then lea...

Blog reviews are one my favorite things to do because I get to talk about other peoples' cool stuff!  Learning to read was a common theme during the month of November.  There were suggestions of how to interest kids in reading without pushing reading; fears that society at large would never quit pushing reading; and 10 reasons why it's best to let kids learn to read at their own pace. Kids learning to read at their own pace factored heavily in RedHeadedMom's post .  She suggests 10 reasons kids should be left alone to learn reading when, and how they'd like.  Many of the reasons focus on not causing undue stress and shame. Unschooling the Kids provided a plethora of fun tips for enabling your kids to read at their own pace .  My favorite ideas were to ask your kid to read your emails to you, and to write things on the fridge that make them laugh.  Other ideas that have worked for us include frequent trips to the library, (our library has toys ...

My mom's cinnamon rolls have been a hit with my family and our friends for decades.  Every semester just before finals, my college dorm-mates and I eagerly awaited the arrival of a Banker's Box full of them.  Now, the kids and I have taken over the roll baking duties.  No. 1: 5 y.o., No. 2: 4 y.o., and No. 3: 1 y.o. all help with different steps of the baking process.  Today's post contains the steps for making the roll dough.  In future posts, I'll include instructions on how to use the dough to make cinnamon rolls and baked Christmas trees! My payoff for writing this post :  As I outlined the baking steps below, I realized that the kids can almost completely take over this job!!! Ingredients 1/2 cup of warm water 1-1/2 cup of room temperature milk 2 (1/4 ounce packet)s of yeast 1/2 cup of shortening cut into 1/4 inch cubes 2 tsp salt 1/2 cup of sugar 2 eggs (the larger the egg, the more moist and sticky the dough) 7 - 7 1/2 cups of flour T...

Then, there was silence except for No. 2's small singing voice pleasantly crooning along... We made cinnamon rolls a few nights ago.  It's a fun time with the kids helping, but there's always a bit of a ruckus over taking turns.  They help roll out dough, or break the eggs, or mix up the cinnamon sugar.  Our youngest no. 3 has just become mobile enough to help.  She's also just reaching the age where it seems like throwing a fit might be the way to get things changed when they don't go her way. No. 2 and 3 had just finished helping put cinnamon rolls in the pan.  No. 3, as I've mentioned before, takes in everything .  While placing rolls in the baking pan, she apparently also noticed that her brother No. 2 was mixing the cinnamon sugar.  I told them all that we were done helping, and it was time to go play again.  No. 3 pointed at the cinnamon sugar mix, and began to scream.  There were a dozen different ways I could have defused the ...

Over the last few weeks I’ve experienced an uptick in the number of “Unschooling?  How does that work?” questions while out and about with the kids .   +Sue Elvis   posted a great example of how unschooling works for her family , and made a very apt rabbit hole analogy.  As a fun  example of exactly how homeschooling works for us, here’s one of our own rabbit holes annotated with the various school subjects that were covered as we pursued it.  You’ll find a topic or two, networking for example, that don’t fit into a traditional school curriculum at all. No. 1 and I have been reading Doom Patrol .  Saturday night, we noticed a reference to Hannah Höch in the comic book.   Topics: Reading, Reading Comprehension, Art Appreciation Turns out, Hannah Höch was a famous Dada artist.  Dada, an art movement founded in 1916, gave birth to the surrealists.  Doom Patrol is very surreal in both its story, and art.  For...