Halloween Pumpkins

Our weather has been crazy this year. Hot one day, cold the next, rain, rain, rain. It did a number on our pumpkin carving. Marina's was already getting soft when she carved it, which is unfortunate, because it was beautiful. She stuck with an Edgar Allen Poe theme this year. Alas, the pumpkin didn't make it to Halloween. It's already in the compost pile.



I think maybe I have cats on the brain. I went for a yowling cat. Maybe it was from sleep deprivation. They can't seem to leave the lizard's cage alone at night.



Sierra wanted the biggest pumpkin. This would be fine if she had made a big design, but she only sawed a tiny face into it.



They don't light up as nicely if the light has tiny openings to go through, so I suggested an idea from one of my yoga friends. She cuts shapes into her pumpkins using old cookie cutters and a hammer. I had to scrape the wall inside to make it thinner, but for the most part, I love this idea and will use it again. I have a lot of Halloween cookie cutters, but we never seem to use them because we are so busy this time of year. It's nice to have some use for them.



Chase made a flaming skull. I like how it turned out. It reminds me of the headless horseman's pumpkin from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He took the longest to actually carve his pumpkin. Again, I had to explain that a bigger design would be better on a big pumpkin. I think next year I'll just buy smaller pumpkins.

Home Spun comic strip #411

My children usually go trick-or-treating with homeschooling friends in a different neighborhood. After spending about an hour or so going door to door, they head back to their friends' house where everyone goes through their candy haul. A lot of trading goes on at this time. After a while, everyone throws their unwanted candy into a bowl. Our friends take this unclaimed candy with them to their classes in the city until it's all gone.

A lot of times, Halloween candy becomes building material for gingerbread houses. I usually toss out the remains at Easter time. I figure by then, they had it long enough to eat it if they wanted it.

I really don't remember Halloween candy lasting longer than a day when I was a kid...

I will be taking a comic strip break next week to prepare my quarterly reports. Happy Halloween everyone!

Incredible Journey, Reptilian Style

A couple of weeks ago, we had an interesting incident with Sierra's pet anole lizard, "Lizzy". We had left for a day to attend the baptism of my cousin's baby. When we returned, the anole's tank was on the floor, partly dug out, and no lizard in sight. Sierra was a mess of wails and tears. I was trying to hold it together on the off-chance that the lizard survived. Those of you who read my blog regularly know that we have six cats and at least three of them are excellent mousers.

Anoles are considered America's chameleon. They have the ability to change color and blend with their surroundings. Lizzy's surroundings happened to be a living room full of books, paper, toys, and furniture. The cage was also close by the doors to the furnace room and a coat closet. In other words, if Lizzy was a needle, our house was now the haystack. The house got a very careful cleaning that night as we picked our way through bookshelves, carefully swept under couch, desk, and computer, and crawled around in dark places with a flashlight. I had no idea how long the cage had been tipped, we had been gone for at least five or six hours. Our Miss Lizzy had vanished and our one hope and prayer was that she wasn't hiding in a cat's stomach.

After the fourth day, you start imagining the worst. After a full week, you start deciding whether a hermit crab would be a better pet. At least, Sierra did. I only suggested it as a solution to the cats' habit of knocking down tanks. They also ruined two triops experiments with their pushy behavior. Every day, Sierra would tell me how much she missed Lizzy. I admit, I missed her too. Of the three anoles we've had over the years, she was the most interactive. Her cage is next to my desk, and more than once I would look up from a drawing to find her plastered against the side of the tank, watching me. Sierra often had Lizzy clinging to her neck as she played on the computer. They were as close as a girl and a lizard could be. I told Sierra that she had to think about all of the adventures Lizzy was having. After all, we had never found a trace of her. My theory is that if you don't have a body, you can't prove there has been a death. I know, denial isn't just a river in Egypt. But wait, there's more.

A full week and three days after Lizzy vanished, one of our cats got very vocal. Rosie is not a talker, but she was mewing up a babble on that day. I was at the computer when I turned to look down at her...and saw Lizzy hanging out of either side of her mouth. Yikes!

I followed Rosie into the hallway where she dropped the lizard. Now I feared the worst. But as I reached down to pick up the anole, Lizzy scooted away from me! She's alive!

I carefully scooped her up and gave her to Sierra to warm. We couldn't see any punctures on the tough little creature, but she was severely dehydrated and hungry. As Sierra held her, Lizzy opened her mouth wide. I fed her drops of water from my fingernail each time she did this.

After several days of convalescing and a couple of skin changes, Lizzie is feeling much better. We're doing our best to make the cage more stable. We never did figure out who was responsible for knocking it down.

And there you have another life lesson from watching animals...



With good survival skills, miracles can occur.

Home Spun comic strip #410

Every year I get three pumpkins. Three kids, three pumpkins. No complaints. Well, some complaints. Someone always has the better shaped pumpkin, or the best stem. I would get very excited helping to scoop out pumpkin guts and helping them decide on designs and carve them.

But as they get older, they do a lot of the work themselves. Marina has been carving her own pumpkin for years. This year Sierra did most of her own carving. They all make their own designs. Which leaves me with very little to do other than scooping pumpkin guts. Which isn't exactly fulfilling, creatively. You all know from my cakes and our edible models how much I love playing with food.

This year I bought an extra pumpkin. I had to get Sierra to agree to allow me to carve one (she gave me the littlest) but it was worth it. I didn't realize how much I missed carving pumpkins. It satisfies my inner sculptor.

If you want to satisfy your own inner sculptor, but without the pumpkin guts, this is a cute site for virtual pumpkin carving. Don't tell the kids until you've had some time to play with it.

Carnival of Homeschooling at Consent of the Governed

The latest Carnival of Homeschooling: Party On! 200th edition is now up at Consent of the Governed. Please take a moment to read some of the articles contributed by homeschooling bloggers like you!

Home Spun comic strip #409

Chase has always loved his superheroes, movie and cartoon characters. As I write this, he's playing with Star Wars action figures with Sierra. I like that he is 13 and still enjoys some imaginative play with his little sister. Unfortunately, it's always been hard to find the superhero/character of the moment when he wants a costume for Halloween. They never seem to have his size. The stores always seem to assume that kids will move on to more sophisticated costumes when my son still wanted to dress up as Yu-Gi-Oh. After my last endless search for his favorite character in the right size, I put my foot down. From now on, he has to make his own costume. Last year he was "Death's Door." This year he's going to be Skulduggery Pleasant, the skeleton detective.

I should have put my foot down a long time ago.

Update: I added a link for those of you who wanted to see a picture of Death's Door, as well as other costumes from last Halloween.

Grabbing an Opportunity

When opportunity knocks, you need to answer it. When it knocks a second time, you sometimes have to make a mad dash for the door so that you don't miss it.

Yesterday I had an opportunity to see John Astin read poetry and talk about his life at a fundraiser for the Visible Theater. The tickets were not what I would call cheap. In fact, I asked my husband, "How can I justify spending this much to see John Astin?" I desperately wanted to go and bring Marina with me.

I need to give some background here. Several years ago, John Astin had done a one-man-show at my old college about the life of Edgar Allen Poe. I went to see that show with my mother but I decided against taking Marina, even though she had read a bit of Poe's poetry. She was young (seven or eight?) at the time, and I wasn't sure if a play about a poet could hold her attention. I always considered that a missed opportunity. John Astin WAS Edgar Allen Poe. The play was funny and sad and filled with poetry I knew well but had never heard read as this actor reads it. I waited around after the show to tell him how much I loved it and spent years waiting for the show to come around again so that I could take Marina. In the meantime, I gushed about how wonderful the show was.

We had learned about the mysterious circumstances regarding Poe's death when we visited Poe Cottage back in June. This year was the 160th anniversary of Poe's death and 200th birthday. In honor of that, Baltimore gave Poe a proper funeral. Marina read an article about John Astin reading poems at the event and it mentioned he was going to be in our area, so I jumped online to see if there were still tickets. Normally I would have sighed and dismissed the idea because of the cost, but I really wanted to take Marina to hear Mr. Astin read. My husband suggested it could be an early birthday present for me. Marina suggested she could pay for her own ticket. I ordered the tickets and last night I drove through a downpour with Marina to see the show.

John Astin was wonderful! I think hearing him read The Raven in person fully justifies the price of admission. He read a number of poems and excerpts by various writers and then answered questions from the audience. During this part of the evening we learned some interesting facts about his life. He spoke of how he got his first acting job. Someone had left a copy of the Daily News on a seat in the subway, and a friend of his picked it up and saw an ad for auditions for The Three Penny Opera. His friend called, told him and they went together. Out of all the actors at the audition, he was picked out and the others were sent away. He tells this much better than I do, but long story short, that first role in The Three Penny Opera was the start of his career. He played the role on and off for eight or nine years. He spoke about cause and effect. If that newspaper hadn't been left behind on the train he would never have known about the audition.

Mr. Astin also spoke about his life. His mother encouraged him to read his first book by Poe. She helped him with the hard words in The Purloined Letter when he was six. She sounded like an amazing woman. An avid reader, he could never stump her on the definition for a word. She had enough grounding in Latin and Greek that she could figure out what any word meant. He spoke of his life as a university professor at Johns Hopkins and got into a discussion with one audience member about why kids today aren't as well read. (I had to smirk there. Many of the books he mentioned had already been read by Marina.) I felt like I should have taken notes because he mentioned so many great books and authors that I would love to have my kids read. I hope Marina's memory is better than mine.

I grew up watching the Addams Family and loving the relationships among the quirky family members. I don't think I realized until I was an adult how much the show impacted my life. There is even an episode where you learn that the children aren't going to school because Grandmama teaches them at home. I wonder if watching Gomez Addams reading his monthly yoga magazine while twisted in various poses set me on the path to practicing yoga. I went to see John Astin that first time because I loved him as Gomez and he rekindled my interest in Poe. This time he was very much a professor. And he is always John Astin, a very approachable, passionate person with a joie de vivre. (heh! I spoke French!)

I'm glad I had a second chance to take Marina to see John Astin. I wasn't brave enough to ask questions during a Q&A, but I did pull her up to meet him after the show. He advised her to read Poe out loud. He also signed our programs, which had a picture of him as Gomez. All in all, we had a wonderful night out!

Links:
John Astin reading The Raven-I was happy to find this. I think he recites it even better now, but this is how I remember it from his one-man-show.

The Addams Family Goes to School-The episode I mentioned is on Hulu! I know the Addams Family isn't for everyone, but they had some wonderful lines. Gomez to the assistant principal: "If we wanted them to be happy, we would have let them stay home."

Home Spun comic strip #408

This was one of those weeks where I would have loved to wear pajamas all day. But alas...

Monday found our cupboard bare, library books needed to be returned and Marina had work.

Tuesday was supposed to be my easy day. Just bring Chase to religious ed. in the evening. So of course, I chose that day to take the kids apple picking. Marina also had a meeting at the library about impending cuts to the budget. She's getting quite an education there.

Wednesday was our monthly storytelling group, the Homespun Storytellers, at the smaller library, followed by playground time. Then I had to bring Sierra to tap dance class and get milk. Why are we always out of milk? I need to buy a cow.

Thursday was a homeschooling get-together. "Old timers" and new homeschoolers, as well as some families who are just thinking about homeschooling. I've been to a few of these get-togethers, so you would think I wouldn't end up missing the exit. I guess I was more tired than I thought. Then I needed to stop at the pet store (Sierra's lizard needed crickets) and since the pet shop is so close to the gravitational pull of a bookstore...well, resistance is futile. I was then home long enough to check email and head back out to...anyone? Anyone? That's right! The library! Marina had a teen book group to go to.

Today is Friday. So far, all I have planned is taking Marina to work. We shall see what happens...

Home Spun comic strip #407

This particular situation works both ways. I've been known to yell out spelling words from the bathroom. Don't laugh, it keeps him on task until I get back.

As you can see, my kids get to answer as many questions as I do about homeschooling. The main question my son gets is about what homeschooling is exactly. This is similar to a question Carolyn (Guilt Free Homeschooling) would get:

"HOMEschooling. How does THAT work?" I was asked these exact words quite often. My response: "Quite well, thank you!" Then I continued the conversation to ask which aspects they were curious about and answer those questions. However, my initial response always resulted in a wide array of facial expressions, from amaze to shock to relief to happiness.

Chase usually answers, "I school at home." He isn't really into elaborating. Especially when the same kids ask him the question repeatedly. They can't seem to wrap their minds around it.

Carnival of Homeschooling at No Fighting, No Biting

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling, Maine: The Postcards Don't Lie edition, is happening at No Fighting, No Biting! Please take a some time this week to read some of the latest posts from fellow homeschooling bloggers.

Home Spun comic strip #406

Yes, I have gotten this question once or twice. What about phys. ed.? It isn't my typical FAQ, but I guess it could be a variation on the big S question. No, my kids don't do teams. They could if they want to. They have formed teams in loosely organized games of dodgeball, baseball, and capture-the-flag after some homeschooling events. The kids usually do this on their own and include everyone from the youngest to oldest. No one who wants to play is left out.

For the most part, my children prefer individual athletic pursuits, like tree climbing and capture-the-cat-that-has-just-caught-a-shrew. Cats make wonderful sprinting coaches, in case you were wondering.

Home Spun comic strip #405

This answer courtesy of Comfy Denim. I've used it too! In the supermarket, it's an adventure in real world math, as well as organization skills, planning, etc.

I've been getting answers to the question I posed in Home Spun strip#404. Here are some of your snappy comebacks to the statement: "I could never do that!"

• "Probably not." That should bring about a quick end to the conversation! ;) ~Momma Knows
• I usually just shrug and say "it works for us".. ~Kez
• I'd just return the comment. "I don't know how you do what you do!" ~Anonymous
• My usual answer, "I don't know either. Somehow it works."~Alison

Wonderful responses, everyone! Thanks for your comments!

And Wear Old Clothes

Well, we finally did the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment. It's something I've been wanting them to try for a long time. Maybe I should have waited bit longer. Meh. They had fun.

Some of my notes on this experiment:

-Don't let the youngest child handle pouring in the Mentos, no matter how much she begs. Better yet...
-Invest in the little tube with the pin that you can attach to a long string. That way they can stand further back.
-Seltzer definitely doesn't work. We're not sure why yet. It might be something about the flavoring and sugar in the water making it fizz slower.

So here's the video. Enjoy.

Home Spun comic strip #404

This question/statement, "I don't know how you do it!" comes from The Stone Age Techie. Thanks for the memory jog, Karen! Her answer was great too:

"I don't know how I fought with him for hours each night to finish his (first grade!) homework, or how I hauled him out of bed, shoveled food down his gullet, and got him out the door each day for school... we are all so much happier without that in our lives anymore!"

Since I never experienced the joy of waking up my children before 8:00, I usually give a somewhat simpler response to this question.

The partner statement for "I don't know how you do it!" is usually "I could never do that!" I hear that a lot. I never did figure out a clever response that one. Any takers?

A Mind is not a Cushion

Cushions should be comfortable. Soft, squishy, perhaps with a permanent impression from constant use. You should be able to sink right into its cozy familiarity. That is what comfort is all about.

Too much comfort, however, can come at a price. Sitting in that favorite armchair for long stretches can make your body as soft as that cushion. Not to mention the strain on a back that is in a constant slouch.

Minds are not cushions. As nice as it is to occasionally enjoy the comfort of the familiar, challenge is what keeps a brain strong and active. When my kids were younger, I always had to poke and prod them into more difficult areas. Why learn multiplication when they know how to add? Why read a novel when there are picture books? Time and again I would need to give pep talks to encourage them to move into unfamiliar territory, out of the comfort zone. I would remind them that tasks they found easy were once difficult. The challenge eases with practice, just as those new denim jeans soften with constant wear. Keeping mentally active is as important as keeping physically active. I read this recent study about how important it is, even for adults. Learning and doing new things rewires the brain, creating new pathways to make a more efficient thinking machine.

Comfort has its place. After struggling with a puzzling math challenge or science experiment, it's nice to sink back into familiarity with a simple story or a favorite DVD. The point is to avoid getting too comfortable.

Home Spun comic strip #403

Continuing my series of answers to homeschooling questions, I don't know why this is such an interesting topic. It's like asking a chef what he used in that sauce, even though you may have no clue how to tell saucepan from a stew pot and limit your culinary exploits to memorizing take-out telephone numbers. I also wonder how many people throw around the term curriculum and actually know what it means. Or which meaning they mean. Know what I mean?

For us, I have a list of subjects written in a notebook and we have a library. Actually, two libraries and an extensive collection of books on various topics which may or may not be perused over the course of a year. If I wanted to follow a school's curriculum, I would send them to school. Why reinvent the wheel?

Home Spun comic strip #402

Home Spun comic strip #401

Thanks to those of you who have sent in ideas of answers you've given, and questions you've been asked. Keep them coming! The creative juices are flowing and as soon as I have some time I sit down and sketch, I have some good ideas to work with. Thank you so much. My readers are awesome!

Carnival of Homeschooling at Walking Therein

I don't know where you are, but the weather in NY has started getting cooler. So if you are planning to huddle near your computer for warmth...



...this week's Carnival of Homeschooling is now up at Walking Therein!

Home Spun comic strip #400

Every week I amaze myself by coming up with ideas, but some weekends my brain is a bit overloaded. This week's three strips were an eleventh hour inspiration. This week is already promising to be busy (when is it not?), so I'm asking for a little help. Do you have a favorite answer to a common homeschool question? Tell me! If I use your answer in a strip, I will give you credit and link to your blog!

Home Spun comic strip #399

More than Enough?

When I was a kid, I remember watching an animated short on our local PBS station. Each scene in the short showed a character with something, for example, a little boy with a toy. The characters would shout MORE! and they would get more of whatever it was they desired. In the final scene, you see the Earth and all of its inhabitants yell MORE! again and again until the Earth begins to resemble a crumpled ball. The hand of God reaches down, picks up the lumpy Earth, and tosses it in a wastebasket. This movie had a profound effect on me. I didn't want to help contribute to making this world a pile of trash. I have a family history of hording and a healthy shopping gene, but I do the best I can and try to repurpose, recycle and reuse whenever possible.

This concept of thinking more is better is the philosophy of our culture of consumerism. We're caught between the idea that we must have the latest shiny new thing, but at the same time we don't want to just toss out the old thing, because it is still useful. I should know. I have a DVD/VCR combo that no longer works as a DVD player. Even though we gave in and bought another DVD player, the other unit will stay as long as the VCR works. What happens is that we end up with so much stuff we don't know where to store it all. So what do we do? Apparently a whole storage business has arisen from our need to have more. People rent space to store their stuff. Mistress Stuff has her own place where she can be visited and kept away from our clean lives.

But it doesn't end there. This idea of MORE infiltrates our whole being. We don't just drive somewhere, we have to see if we can get there faster than we did last time. That will give us MORE time to be where we're going. Better yet, we can schedule MORE activities if we just get the timing right. If you stay at work longer, you will make MORE money. Athletes train longer so that they can compete not only for that gold medal, but so they can also make record breaking feats. Winning doesn't seem to be enough anymore. You need to prove you are MORE than simply a great athlete.

Now there are calls to give students MORE time in school. Why? My favorite line from this article: President Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school. We need MORE because THEY have MORE. Seriously? The article itself contradicts this idea. In spite of several countries having longer days, American children spend more instructional hours in school.

This emphasis on more is so detrimental. I can tell you from experience, if my living room is cluttered, I don't even want to be in there. Too much stuff stresses me out. The same goes for a full schedule. If we have too much to do in a day, I stress. The stress physically affects me, so my solution is to pull stuff off the calendar or at least give myself a day without commitments so that I can decompress. How will schoolkids decompress? I doubt teachers will give less homework just because the school day is longer. I doubt over-achieving parents (or overachieving kids) will lighten the weekend activities to compensate. I see a nation of overtired, cranky kids who don't know what to do with themselves when they finally get a break. How sad.

I know I am slightly biased here. My own children are homeschooled, leaning toward unschooling. My recent readings at the Freedom to Learn blog and elsewhere have molded my educational philosophy, along with my observations of my own children. I recognize that they are individuals and they each have their own learning style and interests. I honestly don't know how any teacher with a full classroom of students manages to keep the children engaged for five minutes. I have great respect for them. But I still disagree that MORE time will make these children better students.