Copasetic Flow

 The gang, 9 y.o. Daize, 8 y.o. Towser, and 5 y.o. Tawnse all poured back into the house dancing and smiling, squeaking and pouncing on one another. They'd been out for twenty minutes running around a new outdoor location with their dog.  We've been locked down fairly hard the last few weeks as the count of Covid cases has risen in our little town. When we have ventured out and about, it's been to the same places over and over again. The places were fun. The kids invented games that went along with the space... running in and out of shallow test mines, six feet deep with gently sloping entrances.  Those were different sorts of experiences though. The gang were inventing new 'routines', (their word not mine; maybe they picked up the phrasing from their buddies in organized, performative sports?). They were shooting to make their routines snazzy—they’d finish up by hopping, in sequence, onto one of the land bridges between the test mines, the two larger kids framing t...

So, guys, I'm seeing in the media that we're not doing enough. I'm seeing that childcare is (statistically speaking) falling back on women in disproportionate amounts. I've read the studies. They seem legit. Women are actually winding up unemployed because of all this. We're just not doing enough, enough of the time.   And so, you know, since we did sire those kids after all, it seems like we should try to do better.   I don't have a clue what your circumstances are, only you know that, but let me share mine with you. Maybe they'll be similar.   I'm lucky. I get to work remote. Consequently I'm around the house a lot what with the pandemic and all that. I do a lot with the kids. But lately, I've found myself doing this thing. I've found myself reflecting on how important my job is. And you know, it is, up to a point. Food's nice. Sleeping indoors, also pretty damned spiffy. And yet... I've been finding myself focusing on doing more an...

The 9, 7, and 5 year-old gang and I are going to build RockMite radios as one of our stuck in the house pandemic things. One of the hitches though is that RockMites only transmit and receive on the Morse code portions of the ham radio bands.  We found a nice set of Morse code sounds on the ARRL page , but clicking each letter opens an mp3 player. It's not exactly as easy to use as we'd hoped. A little html later though, we've made own practice page that anyone can use.  Each letter, number, and symbol is displayed in a table. Click on the one you're interested in to hear the sound for that character, number or symbol.  Any suggestions for what we should try next? I'm thinking something using the code practice sessions the ARRL has linked on the same site. What do you think? Scroll down for the practice table. Have fun! Also, if you'd like to contribute, here's our work on github . A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T ...

Let me preface this by saying I’m in no way an expert on anything medical.  So, if you came here for anything actually related to the virus, now would be the time to move on. Instead, I’ll be talking about talking to kids.  I’m not a trained expert there either, but—as a dad—I do it a lot with the 9, 7, and 5 year-old kids here: Daize, Towser, and Tawnse respectively, (all aliases). Why do I bring the virus up at all?  Shit happens.  We went to an author’s talk a few days ago where the first question an audience member brought up was the virus.  Yesterday, Daize and I walked into one grocery store in the midst of a run and rode by another grocery with cars lined up down the block waiting in line to park.  (Thank you so much SFMTA driver who opened your doors and let us hop back out of that area!  Public transit rocks!)  The gang and I talk about things as they come up, so guess what?  With all the local happenings we’ve talked about C...

9 y.o. Daize and I stumbled onto another math thing (I mentioned it briefly a few days back), and I’ve been aching to write about it so here goes. Daize and I started talking about binary numbers years ago.  At the time Daize wanted to build her own phone, so we talked about how computers work—in binary.  From there, things just kind of kept rolling becasue everything is easier in binary for us.  When you want to talk about addition, of multi-digit numbers for example, and how to carry and all that good stuff, it’s simple to talk about binary where there are only two numbers you need to know: zero and one.  With memorization out of the way, Daize and I could talk about carrying and adding to our hearts’ delight.  Same deal for multiplication which then led us to raising numbers to powers, and here we are! Raising numbers to powers—-for those who don’t mess with this stuff every day—iis usually illustrated by multiplying numbers by themselves.  So, 2...

I did a new parenting “thing” this week, and it worked, and I’m so excited I’ve got to write something about it, and so here goes.  When I thought one of the kids—specifically 7 y.o. Towser—might have done something he shouldn’t have, I sat down on the ground before I talked to him.  I mean all the way down on the ground: my butt down, leaning back on my elbows, looking at the kid from below his line of site even when he sat down. And then, we talked.  We actually talked.  To each other.  He was upset about the thing that had happened before, the thing that had caught my attention, but even relative to that he looked down at me, opened up about what was going on, and we talked calmly. The calmness was the of the best aspects of the whole experience.  Towser and I talking didn’t add to the stress the kid was already holding inside. Instead of trying to figure out what he should say, or what would keep him out of trouble, the kid spoke about his fee...

Playground day was huge yesterday!  The nearby homeschooling chess club was cancelled, and so everyone turned up at the playground!  There were all ages of kids from two to ten to mid-teens, and of course 9 y.o. Daize, 7 y.o. Towser, and 5 y.o. Tawnse, (aliases all).  And before anyone asks, "Playground day ?"  Allow me to jump out ahead.  Yup, we have one playground day a week, and it was yesterday.  But, it’s a bit of a misnomer.  Playgrounds are more of a daily thing.  This morning?  The kids were at a different playground where the youngest of the group is taking a cooking class through Parks & Rec.  Buddies who live near that playground often turn up to play some more.  This afternoon, another set of buddies will turn up at math group at a nearby public library.  And so it goes throughout the week.  There’s one day a week we call playground day because it’s set aside for kids and parents to meet at a differe...