This morning, Faith was writing something and wanted to know how to spell the word "wedding." I have been trying to get into a version of the annoying habit adopted by my elementary school teachers: Instead of just telling us when someone asked how to spell something, they would tell us to go to the dictionary and look it up. (To which the response was: If I knew how to find it in the dictionary, I'd know how to spell it.)
I haven't introduced the dictionary as spelling tool to Faith yet (although I probably should have), but I try, instead of just spelling something for her, to ask her how she thinks it's spelled, which makes her stop and sound it out. Takes longer for me, of course, because then I have to listen to her and tell her wrong or right. (Yeah, definitely should introduce a dictionary.) So I asked her how she thought "wedding" was spelled.
While she was still trying to get past W-E-D-, Eric ran to his room. I didn't pay any attention; I just assumed he was playing or going to get a toy or something. But then, while Faith was still trying to figure out the correct spelling, he came out with A Kiss for Little Bear, opened up to the page where the Skunks get married, and read out, "W-E-D-D-I-N-G."
Honestly, I think I was more impressed that he had remembered reading that word in that particular book and was able to find it so quickly than if he had simply known how to spell the word on his own.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
A busy weekend
We were unusually busy (for us) last weekend. Normally, we go out to lunch on Saturday, go to church on Sunday, and call it a weekend. This past weekend, however, was the opening weekend for "Cars 2," so we had to go see that, considering "Cars" is Eric's favorite movie. The promos suggesting the sequel is still about Lightning McQueen are pretty misleading; he's mainly in the background this time around, which is a little disappointing. Then again, it's preferable to the standard sequel which undoes the satisfying wrap-up given the protagonist in the first movie just so they can make it all about him again. Definitely in the bottom tier of Pixar films, but a low-tier Pixar film is still better than most kids' movies by anyone else. (Seriously -- the trailers we saw for coming attractions before the movie appalled me to think that's what kids are growing up on these days. Then again, I liked "The Fox and the Hound.")
After the second-showing-of-the-day matinee, we went to lunch (back to normal there); then we went over to Tommy's brother's house for his and our niece's birthdays and spent the rest of the evening there. Faith got to swim in their pool, and Eric went in the water for the first time and enjoyed himself but for an unfortunate stepping-off-the-bottom-step incident where he went under and got water up his nose. I wanted him to get comfortable with the thought of being in a pool before signing him up for swim lessons; nothing less fun than paying for a month of lessons in which he spends the whole time just getting up his courage to go in the water. When I start Faith back in swim lessons after the summer, I guess it'll be time to sign him up as a Polliwog.
When we woke up for church the next morning, the house was hot, and although air was blowing through the registers, it was warm air. The air conditioning had broken sometime during the night. The temperature in the house hit 81 before we left for Sunday School. Fortunately, the repair man showed up at about 12:30, shortly after we got home from church, and had the cool air blowing again by 1:30. After that, we went to a late lunch; then Faith was invited to go swimming at a rec center with a lazy river and a water slide with a friend from church.
After the second-showing-of-the-day matinee, we went to lunch (back to normal there); then we went over to Tommy's brother's house for his and our niece's birthdays and spent the rest of the evening there. Faith got to swim in their pool, and Eric went in the water for the first time and enjoyed himself but for an unfortunate stepping-off-the-bottom-step incident where he went under and got water up his nose. I wanted him to get comfortable with the thought of being in a pool before signing him up for swim lessons; nothing less fun than paying for a month of lessons in which he spends the whole time just getting up his courage to go in the water. When I start Faith back in swim lessons after the summer, I guess it'll be time to sign him up as a Polliwog.
When we woke up for church the next morning, the house was hot, and although air was blowing through the registers, it was warm air. The air conditioning had broken sometime during the night. The temperature in the house hit 81 before we left for Sunday School. Fortunately, the repair man showed up at about 12:30, shortly after we got home from church, and had the cool air blowing again by 1:30. After that, we went to a late lunch; then Faith was invited to go swimming at a rec center with a lazy river and a water slide with a friend from church.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Animation in the Eighties
Faith has been studying immigration, so today we watched "An American Tail." I hadn't watched it since its theatrical release, as far as I can remember, and was newly horrified at what passed for an animated feature in 1986. I should have known we weren't in Kansas anymore when they ran all the credits before the movie actually started. (Remember when they did that?)
Eric: Is it over?
Me: No, it's just starting.
Eric: Then why are there words on the screen?
Flat animation, absent characterization (Why is the father mouse the only one who seems to care when Fievel is lost? The mother mouse is oddly unemotional about it.), weird visual tropes (Oh, look, Fievel's sticking his tongue out of one side of his mouth; the movie seems to think that's shorthand for 'Look how adorable our mousey hero is.'), lazy writing (the sudden and instant friendship that is embraced by Fievel and the cat voiced by Dom DeLuise) . And that doesn't even get into the cat who somehow believably disguises himself as a rat. Shouldn't relative size be a problem?
I remember loving "The Fox and the Hound" when I saw it in theaters. When it came out on video in 1994, I bought it, eager to revisit it, and found myself bored out of my mind trying to sit through it. I no longer wonder why I liked it so much as a child, however, if "An American Tail" was symptomatic of its competition.
(On a side note, what the heck do animators have against cats? They're always the bad guys in the talking animal movies, even when they don't bizarrely growl and raven like dogs as they do in "An American Tail.")
Eric: Is it over?
Me: No, it's just starting.
Eric: Then why are there words on the screen?
Flat animation, absent characterization (Why is the father mouse the only one who seems to care when Fievel is lost? The mother mouse is oddly unemotional about it.), weird visual tropes (Oh, look, Fievel's sticking his tongue out of one side of his mouth; the movie seems to think that's shorthand for 'Look how adorable our mousey hero is.'), lazy writing (the sudden and instant friendship that is embraced by Fievel and the cat voiced by Dom DeLuise) . And that doesn't even get into the cat who somehow believably disguises himself as a rat. Shouldn't relative size be a problem?
I remember loving "The Fox and the Hound" when I saw it in theaters. When it came out on video in 1994, I bought it, eager to revisit it, and found myself bored out of my mind trying to sit through it. I no longer wonder why I liked it so much as a child, however, if "An American Tail" was symptomatic of its competition.
(On a side note, what the heck do animators have against cats? They're always the bad guys in the talking animal movies, even when they don't bizarrely growl and raven like dogs as they do in "An American Tail.")
Monday, June 27, 2011
Books and movies
Faith has finished Prince Caspian now and started The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. She had been wanting to see the movie version of Prince Caspian -- we saw it when it first came out on DVD, but she didn't remember it -- but I told her she had to read the book first. Then, when she had finished, I looked in our movie cupboard and discovered we had only Netflixed "Caspian" rather than buying it. We ordered it from Amazon, and it arrived today.
I had been telling her all along that books are always better than movies, but she hadn't believed me. And this morning, when she had read chapter 2 of Dawn Treader and was telling me about it, she told me that Caspian was going on his voyage to find the seven swords, a complete invention of the movie entirely unfounded in the text. So tonight I decided to make my point.
We started the movie, and every time it did something differently from the book, I asked her, "Did Peter fight with other boys in the book?" "Did Susan kill people in the book?" "Wasn't Trumpkin much more pleasant in the book?" "They skipped the whole scene where they followed Aslan, didn't they?" "Did they attack Miraz's castle in the book? They just added this to make Peter look like he's not a good king." It didn't take her long to realize that a lot of the things she'd enjoyed in the book simply weren't there in the movie: "All right, now I believe you: The books are better."
All in all, a lesson worth the $14 we spend on the DVD.
To be fair, "Prince Caspian" was the perfect movie to prove my point with, as they made it much darker and more violent than the book. "Dawn Treader," despite its "seven swords" and tacked-on "be yourself" preachiness, was much more faithful to the text. "Prince Caspian" went out of its way to make likeable characters dour and show the good guys in-fighting and making stupid decisions that get people killed. My favorite part of Prince Caspian is the early chapters with the Pevensies traveling with Trumpkin and how thoroughly pleasant and cheerful and kind they are to each other. Hollywood seems to believe that such characters are "unrealistic" and that audiences would rather see characters sniping at each other. (What was the direction they gave the girl playing Susan in this movie? "Be as snotty and stand-offish and unpleasant as possible at all times?") Why portray goodness and give children a model to emulate when you can instead demonstrate that all supposed heroes have feet of clay?
(I'm a bit bitter. I had such a crush on book-Peter when I was young.)
I had been telling her all along that books are always better than movies, but she hadn't believed me. And this morning, when she had read chapter 2 of Dawn Treader and was telling me about it, she told me that Caspian was going on his voyage to find the seven swords, a complete invention of the movie entirely unfounded in the text. So tonight I decided to make my point.
We started the movie, and every time it did something differently from the book, I asked her, "Did Peter fight with other boys in the book?" "Did Susan kill people in the book?" "Wasn't Trumpkin much more pleasant in the book?" "They skipped the whole scene where they followed Aslan, didn't they?" "Did they attack Miraz's castle in the book? They just added this to make Peter look like he's not a good king." It didn't take her long to realize that a lot of the things she'd enjoyed in the book simply weren't there in the movie: "All right, now I believe you: The books are better."
All in all, a lesson worth the $14 we spend on the DVD.
To be fair, "Prince Caspian" was the perfect movie to prove my point with, as they made it much darker and more violent than the book. "Dawn Treader," despite its "seven swords" and tacked-on "be yourself" preachiness, was much more faithful to the text. "Prince Caspian" went out of its way to make likeable characters dour and show the good guys in-fighting and making stupid decisions that get people killed. My favorite part of Prince Caspian is the early chapters with the Pevensies traveling with Trumpkin and how thoroughly pleasant and cheerful and kind they are to each other. Hollywood seems to believe that such characters are "unrealistic" and that audiences would rather see characters sniping at each other. (What was the direction they gave the girl playing Susan in this movie? "Be as snotty and stand-offish and unpleasant as possible at all times?") Why portray goodness and give children a model to emulate when you can instead demonstrate that all supposed heroes have feet of clay?
(I'm a bit bitter. I had such a crush on book-Peter when I was young.)
Friday, June 24, 2011
Obligatory post
Should have saved some of my photos from Museum School for today. The inspiration well is dry tonight.
Leslie asked a while back about my cousins in Louisiana. I didn't actually hear any news of them until a few weeks ago. The river didn't crest as high as the experts were predicting, and the water was lapping at the top of the levee. While they're not out of the woods yet -- there's still snowpack in the mountains up north to melt that could cause problems if the river doesn't go down in the meantime -- but as of now, their town is still dry and unflooded.
Leslie asked a while back about my cousins in Louisiana. I didn't actually hear any news of them until a few weeks ago. The river didn't crest as high as the experts were predicting, and the water was lapping at the top of the levee. While they're not out of the woods yet -- there's still snowpack in the mountains up north to melt that could cause problems if the river doesn't go down in the meantime -- but as of now, their town is still dry and unflooded.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Summer Museum School
The kids had Museum School this week at the city's science museum. Faith went last year for a class about dinosaurs, but this year, Eric went as well.
Faith's class this year was Science Spectacular. She had a great time. It was a lot of chemistry. They made chalk by pouring a solution through a filter and letting the residue dry, a baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano, and Gloop; they also put Mentos in Diet Coke and blew up balloons and film canisters with dry ice. There were only 7 students in her class, so she got to be very involved and enjoyed talking to her teacher; she hopes to be in a class with him again next summer.
Eric's class was Desert Dwellers. They had a tarantula, a tortoise, a snake, and a rat in their classroom on various days and made hoodoos and cacti out of clay.
Here are some photos of them from the week. The climb-on tortoise sculpture is a particular favorite, obviously. The dinosaur topiary seems to be on the verge of extinction. When they put it in last year, the idea was that it would grow into a big Chia-brachiosaur. Apparently they forgot how hot and dry it stays here all summer.
Faith's class this year was Science Spectacular. She had a great time. It was a lot of chemistry. They made chalk by pouring a solution through a filter and letting the residue dry, a baking-soda-and-vinegar volcano, and Gloop; they also put Mentos in Diet Coke and blew up balloons and film canisters with dry ice. There were only 7 students in her class, so she got to be very involved and enjoyed talking to her teacher; she hopes to be in a class with him again next summer.
Eric's class was Desert Dwellers. They had a tarantula, a tortoise, a snake, and a rat in their classroom on various days and made hoodoos and cacti out of clay.
Here are some photos of them from the week. The climb-on tortoise sculpture is a particular favorite, obviously. The dinosaur topiary seems to be on the verge of extinction. When they put it in last year, the idea was that it would grow into a big Chia-brachiosaur. Apparently they forgot how hot and dry it stays here all summer.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
A discriminating palate
In the car today, the kids were listening to this song and Faith kept going on about how ridiculous it was for someone to sing such a song about a cheeseburger: "It's just a cheeseburger! How can you say you love a cheeseburger?"
"Well," I told her, "you say you love pizza."
Without missing a beat, she insisted, "That's different. Pizza has more feelings."
Monday, June 20, 2011
Unequal playing field
So yesterday was Father's Day, and I can't help but notice a trend at our church -- and probably not just ours. In Father's Day sermons, men are challenged and called out, told they need to step up to the plate and do better, asked to come to the altar and ask God to make them the husbands and fathers He wants them to be.
On Mother's Day ... women are told how important they are and how everyone loves them, and their families are challenged to show more appreciation to their mothers and wives.
How is this fair? Men get challenged; women get coddled. And I'm speaking as a woman and mother: I don't go to church to be comfortable. I'd like to be given a higher standard to aim for instead of hearing a Hallmark card sermon and watching them give flowers to the oldest mother, the mother with the youngest baby, the mother who's traveled farthest to be there, the mother with the most family members at church with her, etc. (Yeah, the men don't get the door prizes, either; not this year, anyway. Tommy actually got a gift for being the father with the youngest baby the year Faith was born.)
There have got to be at least as many mothers who could stand a little calling out in the congregation as men. Come on, preachers; we moms can take it. You don't have to take it easy on us because we're girls.
On Mother's Day ... women are told how important they are and how everyone loves them, and their families are challenged to show more appreciation to their mothers and wives.
How is this fair? Men get challenged; women get coddled. And I'm speaking as a woman and mother: I don't go to church to be comfortable. I'd like to be given a higher standard to aim for instead of hearing a Hallmark card sermon and watching them give flowers to the oldest mother, the mother with the youngest baby, the mother who's traveled farthest to be there, the mother with the most family members at church with her, etc. (Yeah, the men don't get the door prizes, either; not this year, anyway. Tommy actually got a gift for being the father with the youngest baby the year Faith was born.)
There have got to be at least as many mothers who could stand a little calling out in the congregation as men. Come on, preachers; we moms can take it. You don't have to take it easy on us because we're girls.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Too ... many ... open boxes!
In my pantry right now are six different boxes of Poptarts, all open and most with just one or two packets left in them.
I'm seriously considering just dumping them all together and making the kids pick one and take their chances on what variety they get.
I'm seriously considering just dumping them all together and making the kids pick one and take their chances on what variety they get.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Marketing geniuses
So. Rock Band 3.
(Yeah, I know: It came out a long time ago. No one ever accused me of being on the cutting edge.)
We had a great deal of fun with Rock Bands 1 and 2 on our Playstation 2. No, you couldn't customize your avatars and download songs and all like you could on the newer consoles, but you could play the games. Tommy played guitar and drums; I'm notoriously bad at anything involving hand-eye coordination, but through repeated practice managed to master the bass in "Wanted Dead or Alive." And the kids, when they got old enough, both liked playing the drums (whether they were plugged in or not).
So when I heard they were coming out with a Rock Band 3, I was totally on board. Guaranteed sale. Only they didn't release it for the Playstation 2. Well, fair enough; it was a pretty old console by that time. We had a Wii; we'd just buy the Special Edition bundle for that. Only the Special Edition bundle this time around only included the new keyboard controller and the game, instead of all the instruments like it always had before. And you couldn't buy the old instruments anywhere -- well, unless you count on eBay, where people caught on to the fact that they were sitting on a gold mine and started charging more than retail for old, used equipment.
I couldn't believe it. What was this company thinking? "We'll release a game and only sell it to people who bought our last game. Who needs new customers?" Here I was, wanting to give these people money, and instead of taking it, they were making people on eBay rich.
So we've been getting by with just Rock Bands 1 and 2, but last week, the Playstation stopped reading the Rock Band 2 disk. That's the ones the kids liked playing because it has "no-fail" mode where it doesn't matter how many notes they miss, they still get to finish the song. I gave in and ordered a PS3, Rock Bands 1, 2 & 3, the RB3 keyboard peripheral, and Lego Rock Band from Amazon. Sadly, the whole shebang still cost less than our original PS2 when we bought it.
(Yeah, I know: It came out a long time ago. No one ever accused me of being on the cutting edge.)
We had a great deal of fun with Rock Bands 1 and 2 on our Playstation 2. No, you couldn't customize your avatars and download songs and all like you could on the newer consoles, but you could play the games. Tommy played guitar and drums; I'm notoriously bad at anything involving hand-eye coordination, but through repeated practice managed to master the bass in "Wanted Dead or Alive." And the kids, when they got old enough, both liked playing the drums (whether they were plugged in or not).
So when I heard they were coming out with a Rock Band 3, I was totally on board. Guaranteed sale. Only they didn't release it for the Playstation 2. Well, fair enough; it was a pretty old console by that time. We had a Wii; we'd just buy the Special Edition bundle for that. Only the Special Edition bundle this time around only included the new keyboard controller and the game, instead of all the instruments like it always had before. And you couldn't buy the old instruments anywhere -- well, unless you count on eBay, where people caught on to the fact that they were sitting on a gold mine and started charging more than retail for old, used equipment.
I couldn't believe it. What was this company thinking? "We'll release a game and only sell it to people who bought our last game. Who needs new customers?" Here I was, wanting to give these people money, and instead of taking it, they were making people on eBay rich.
So we've been getting by with just Rock Bands 1 and 2, but last week, the Playstation stopped reading the Rock Band 2 disk. That's the ones the kids liked playing because it has "no-fail" mode where it doesn't matter how many notes they miss, they still get to finish the song. I gave in and ordered a PS3, Rock Bands 1, 2 & 3, the RB3 keyboard peripheral, and Lego Rock Band from Amazon. Sadly, the whole shebang still cost less than our original PS2 when we bought it.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Out of the mouths of babes
Bleargh. I'm a day behind again this week, due to a combination of late nights and forgetfulness. Tuesday's post technically went up on Wednesday, so I'll extend my posting day to Saturday again. It's good to have a make-up day.
When Faith was little, the combination of her speech problems and shyness denied us the experience we're now enjoying with Eric: when children speak their mind. Today we dropped by Sonic, and when the carhop came out to deliver our order, Eric rolled down his window and said, "You're short!" ("I know. I'm only 4-foot-eleven," she told him.)
Twice he's complained about the amount of time we've had to wait, once at a busy Sonic ("What took you so long?!") and once waiting for a table at a restaurant. ("We've been waiting for a long, long time," he told the hostess accusingly when they finally found a place for us.) Probably the worst was a few weeks ago at Cici's, when a large-ish man brought our pizza to the table and was greeted with "You have a round face!"
He's getting away with it so far, because he's cute and four, but I certainly hope we can get a mind-to-mouth filter in place before he gets too much older.
When Faith was little, the combination of her speech problems and shyness denied us the experience we're now enjoying with Eric: when children speak their mind. Today we dropped by Sonic, and when the carhop came out to deliver our order, Eric rolled down his window and said, "You're short!" ("I know. I'm only 4-foot-eleven," she told him.)
Twice he's complained about the amount of time we've had to wait, once at a busy Sonic ("What took you so long?!") and once waiting for a table at a restaurant. ("We've been waiting for a long, long time," he told the hostess accusingly when they finally found a place for us.) Probably the worst was a few weeks ago at Cici's, when a large-ish man brought our pizza to the table and was greeted with "You have a round face!"
He's getting away with it so far, because he's cute and four, but I certainly hope we can get a mind-to-mouth filter in place before he gets too much older.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Mavericks shirts for everyone!
(Well, except for me. I'm not much of a Mavs fan, just a LeBron anti-fan. If they had a shirt about beating Miami, I'd buy it.)
Monday, June 13, 2011
The single best headline I've seen on the defeat of the Miami Heat
...and fittingly, it belongs to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Dallas Mavericks Take Their Talents to South Beach
Reading the comments is fun, too. There's no bitterness like sports bitterness.
Dallas Mavericks Take Their Talents to South Beach
Reading the comments is fun, too. There's no bitterness like sports bitterness.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Our long national nightmare is over
...or, you know, something like that.
Up until five or six years ago, Tommy and I were frequent diners at Fuddrucker's. We were there for lunch at least twice a month. Then, they switched from Coca-Cola to Pepsi products. The dream was over. No longer able to have Diet Coke with my hamburger and fries, we stopped going there as frequently and eventually almost entirely. Two or three times a year, maybe, we'd go, and I'd get by mixing Diet Pepsi with orange soda to cover the taste.
Faith likes the hot dogs with cheese fries, though, and Tommy always up for the bacon cheeseburger, so today I grudgingly went with them. And lo, and behold, as we walked up to the register, I glanced across the restaurant to the drink machine, and it had a Coca-Cola logo once more! After all those years, Fuddrucker's came to their senses and went back to Coke products!
Of course, Eric won't eat anything there, as it's not one of the three restaurants he'll deign to eat anything at: McDonald's, Cici's Pizza, and Joe's Pizza & Pasta. But since he's going to refuse to eat anyway, he might as well refuse to eat at Fuddrucker's now that I can get Diet Coke there again.
Up until five or six years ago, Tommy and I were frequent diners at Fuddrucker's. We were there for lunch at least twice a month. Then, they switched from Coca-Cola to Pepsi products. The dream was over. No longer able to have Diet Coke with my hamburger and fries, we stopped going there as frequently and eventually almost entirely. Two or three times a year, maybe, we'd go, and I'd get by mixing Diet Pepsi with orange soda to cover the taste.
Faith likes the hot dogs with cheese fries, though, and Tommy always up for the bacon cheeseburger, so today I grudgingly went with them. And lo, and behold, as we walked up to the register, I glanced across the restaurant to the drink machine, and it had a Coca-Cola logo once more! After all those years, Fuddrucker's came to their senses and went back to Coke products!
Of course, Eric won't eat anything there, as it's not one of the three restaurants he'll deign to eat anything at: McDonald's, Cici's Pizza, and Joe's Pizza & Pasta. But since he's going to refuse to eat anyway, he might as well refuse to eat at Fuddrucker's now that I can get Diet Coke there again.
Friday, June 10, 2011
We don't need no stinking handymen!
Remember this pic? The fence got much worse before it got better, as the crossbars on our neighbor's side rotted away and most of the panel fell, slat by slat, into our yard. But today it did get better, as a subcontractor with our roofing company came out to replace that section. He brought his wife and kids with him, including a five-year-old boy Eric had a good time playing with in the backyard while his dad worked.
I'm afraid I insulted the man when the job was done, though, by asking if he was a general handyman. I had heard the roofing guy talking to him about a drywall job and thought that people who could do just about anything, from fencing to drywall, were known as handymen. The guy who fixed our drywall after plumbers cut holes in our walls a few years ago had "handyman" on his card. But apparently, I was wrong. "No, I'm not a handyman," he replied, taken aback. "I'm a contractor." So never ask anyone if he's a handyman unless he bills himself as that.
I'm afraid I insulted the man when the job was done, though, by asking if he was a general handyman. I had heard the roofing guy talking to him about a drywall job and thought that people who could do just about anything, from fencing to drywall, were known as handymen. The guy who fixed our drywall after plumbers cut holes in our walls a few years ago had "handyman" on his card. But apparently, I was wrong. "No, I'm not a handyman," he replied, taken aback. "I'm a contractor." So never ask anyone if he's a handyman unless he bills himself as that.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
VB-Old-School
No excuse this time; I just completely forgot to make a blog post last night. After dinner, I reminded myself it was something I needed to get around to before bed, but by the time I had done the dishes and put the kids to bed, I never thought about it again until this morning. I'll blog on Saturday to make up for it.
On to my topic du jour. One of the summer staples of my childhood and teenage years was Vacation Bible School: 9 AM start; pledge-allegiances to the US flag, Christian flag, and Bible; stand-up and sit-down chords; Bible stories, music time, and crafts; kickball and duck-duck-goose in the hot gym; a different snack every day -- popcorn, ice cream, cookies -- always served with fruit punch; pick-up at 12 noon and an afternoon free for swimming or whatever else a summer day held. Even after I was out of the target age group, VBS remained a big part of my summer, only now I was a teacher/helper/volunteer. From three or four years of age to twenty, I was involved with VBS. Some summers I even went twice: once at my own church and once again at my Aunt Jimmie's church.
Of course, "old school" VBS didn't last out my involvement with it. By the '90's, there were already too many working moms to keep holding VBS during business hours. It slipped to the already-hectic evenings, and volunteers had to get home from work, eat some kind of quick dinner, and have their classrooms ready to go for a 6 PM start. Instead of being fresh in the morning, the kids were already tired from a long day by the time we started. The first few years, our church tried to keep the three-hour run time, but nine o'clock was just too late for the smaller kids, not to mention for the workers who had to wait for parents to pick up their kids, get their classrooms ready for the next day, and get home and in bed themselves before the alarm went off the next morning. Fifteen hours of VBS was cut to 10, and then to eight as churches decided to turn Friday evening into "Family Night" to get the parents to show up for a hard-sell on the church. The VBS I knew has basically been halved.
Oddly enough, this doesn't actually halve the amount of work involved. It actually increases the stress on the volunteers, as there is more time pressure on them to move the kids in and out of activities on time; there's no leeway to finish up a craft project that runs long or have a question-and-answer session about the Bible story. I'd rather be part of a reasonably laid-back three-hour session than a two-hour one with the clock pressing down on me all night. Faith went to an evening VBS at our church two summers ago and always came home with a half-done craft in a baggie with instructions on how to finish it.
Last year, our church held an all-day day camp instead of VBS. Faith slept hard every night, and we were all exhausted by the end of the week, but she had a blast. This year, though, it's back to two-hour, four-night VBS. The Presbyterian church in our neighborhood is actually holding an old-school, nine-to-noon, five-day VBS ... and of course, it's the same week the kids are already signed up for Museum School. Sigh. I'd totally sign them up.
On to my topic du jour. One of the summer staples of my childhood and teenage years was Vacation Bible School: 9 AM start; pledge-allegiances to the US flag, Christian flag, and Bible; stand-up and sit-down chords; Bible stories, music time, and crafts; kickball and duck-duck-goose in the hot gym; a different snack every day -- popcorn, ice cream, cookies -- always served with fruit punch; pick-up at 12 noon and an afternoon free for swimming or whatever else a summer day held. Even after I was out of the target age group, VBS remained a big part of my summer, only now I was a teacher/helper/volunteer. From three or four years of age to twenty, I was involved with VBS. Some summers I even went twice: once at my own church and once again at my Aunt Jimmie's church.
Of course, "old school" VBS didn't last out my involvement with it. By the '90's, there were already too many working moms to keep holding VBS during business hours. It slipped to the already-hectic evenings, and volunteers had to get home from work, eat some kind of quick dinner, and have their classrooms ready to go for a 6 PM start. Instead of being fresh in the morning, the kids were already tired from a long day by the time we started. The first few years, our church tried to keep the three-hour run time, but nine o'clock was just too late for the smaller kids, not to mention for the workers who had to wait for parents to pick up their kids, get their classrooms ready for the next day, and get home and in bed themselves before the alarm went off the next morning. Fifteen hours of VBS was cut to 10, and then to eight as churches decided to turn Friday evening into "Family Night" to get the parents to show up for a hard-sell on the church. The VBS I knew has basically been halved.
Oddly enough, this doesn't actually halve the amount of work involved. It actually increases the stress on the volunteers, as there is more time pressure on them to move the kids in and out of activities on time; there's no leeway to finish up a craft project that runs long or have a question-and-answer session about the Bible story. I'd rather be part of a reasonably laid-back three-hour session than a two-hour one with the clock pressing down on me all night. Faith went to an evening VBS at our church two summers ago and always came home with a half-done craft in a baggie with instructions on how to finish it.
Last year, our church held an all-day day camp instead of VBS. Faith slept hard every night, and we were all exhausted by the end of the week, but she had a blast. This year, though, it's back to two-hour, four-night VBS. The Presbyterian church in our neighborhood is actually holding an old-school, nine-to-noon, five-day VBS ... and of course, it's the same week the kids are already signed up for Museum School. Sigh. I'd totally sign them up.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
That's a lot of candles
Monday, June 6, 2011
Tech support again
This time it's my laptop that's infected by a Trojan. I'm actually posting from Safe Mode, which is the only way I can access anything, while trying to remove it. Everything is in very LARGE PRINT. :P
Friday, June 3, 2011
What I've done this week.
It's been an exhausting week. You can always tell when I'm tired at the end of the day because I'm more likely to just slap up a photo of the kids and call it a blog post, and oh look! three pictures of the kids this week!
We did yard work on Memorial Day -- and the back yard looks much better now that we've pulled all the weeds out of the flower bed. Tuesday was Faith's last swim lesson of the season. (We skip the summer, when most kids are in swim lessons: too crowded.) I also had to do the grocery shopping that day that I usually do on Mondays, because of the holiday. Then Wednesday was the cleaners' day to come, and Tommy got the day off unexpectedly. Thursday ... I have no excuse for Thursday, except for all the non-routine days ahead of it wearing me down. And then today I finally got the contract signed for putting the new roof on our house, which I thought was going to get done on Tuesday but kept getting put off from day to day ... to day.
Hopefully, I'll get rested up over the weekend and be more interesting next week. (Of course, next week is when the roof is supposed to be replaced....)
We did yard work on Memorial Day -- and the back yard looks much better now that we've pulled all the weeds out of the flower bed. Tuesday was Faith's last swim lesson of the season. (We skip the summer, when most kids are in swim lessons: too crowded.) I also had to do the grocery shopping that day that I usually do on Mondays, because of the holiday. Then Wednesday was the cleaners' day to come, and Tommy got the day off unexpectedly. Thursday ... I have no excuse for Thursday, except for all the non-routine days ahead of it wearing me down. And then today I finally got the contract signed for putting the new roof on our house, which I thought was going to get done on Tuesday but kept getting put off from day to day ... to day.
Hopefully, I'll get rested up over the weekend and be more interesting next week. (Of course, next week is when the roof is supposed to be replaced....)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Gotta catch 'em all!
Tommy let Faith and Eric start switching to the toy-ad cartoons on Saturday mornings rather than the preschool/educational channel I normally let them watch, and they've gotten hooked on "Sonic the Hedgehog." In the interests of finding a different show I can semi-stand and avoid all the ads, I rented the first disk of the first season of "Pokemon." Tommy and I used to watch it back before we had kids when the video and card games were all the rage. We even went to see the first movie because I thought Pikachu was so cute.
It's been a big hit with the kids. It's interesting revisiting it, though. For one, the "collecting" wild Pokemon aspect of it runs counter to everything they're being indoctrinated with in the newest (and therefore their favorite) of the PBS children's programs, "Wild Kratts"; in that show, it's the villains who capture wild animals and the heroes who have to rescue them to "live free and in the wild." For another, it confirms my impression that it was an influence on "Avatar" (the Nickelodeon series, not the James Cameron movie): Ash, Brock and Misty are the original road-tripping heroes, and Jessie and James of Team Rocket definitely have a proto-Azula and Zuko vibe.
What really amazed me to learn, however, is that it's actually still being produced. Every time I see a new video game come out, I'm mildly surprised that they're still making them, but it stuns me that Ash and Pikachu are in fact still trekking along after 14 years on Cartoon Network. I thought it was a fad that had come and gone. Is there anyone still collecting the cards? I remember my nephew having an album full and being very proud of his Charizard.
It's been a big hit with the kids. It's interesting revisiting it, though. For one, the "collecting" wild Pokemon aspect of it runs counter to everything they're being indoctrinated with in the newest (and therefore their favorite) of the PBS children's programs, "Wild Kratts"; in that show, it's the villains who capture wild animals and the heroes who have to rescue them to "live free and in the wild." For another, it confirms my impression that it was an influence on "Avatar" (the Nickelodeon series, not the James Cameron movie): Ash, Brock and Misty are the original road-tripping heroes, and Jessie and James of Team Rocket definitely have a proto-Azula and Zuko vibe.
What really amazed me to learn, however, is that it's actually still being produced. Every time I see a new video game come out, I'm mildly surprised that they're still making them, but it stuns me that Ash and Pikachu are in fact still trekking along after 14 years on Cartoon Network. I thought it was a fad that had come and gone. Is there anyone still collecting the cards? I remember my nephew having an album full and being very proud of his Charizard.
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