I'm Home!

As you probably know, I've been working in Calif for over a year, flying home to Oregon on the weekends. That job expired Friday (with the company, sadly for my friends who really were hoping for some stability there).

Today for the first time I got to walk the kids to school! Everything went well and they were happy to head off to their classes. There's a great energy at the school in the morning, everyone bustling around and greetings and so on.

conversation via book

I've posted quite a few of my letters home, but I always admired the example of Hugh Lofting whose letters to his children from the war formed the beginning of his Dr. Dolittle books. So recently, after a couple false starts I sent home the story of Jack Crow and his friend Sara, hand-written, folded and stapled to form a small book. At the end I wrote that if it was liked, I would continue the story.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, both kids presented me with books of their own making! Here are scans of the covers, Daughter's:



and Son's:



At the end of hers, Daughter wrote "continued if you like it"!, so I'm very encouraged. This week I wrote the second Jack Crow adventure, adding illustrations this time because Daughter's effort convinced me of their importance, and you can read the whole thing (pdf):



Of course I wouldn't put myself in the same league with the great children's authors but maybe in some small way I've contributed to the storytelling tradition ....

some more "letters home"

Here's one from a few months back, when we were to meet on the weekend in Canyonville in southern Oregon. Simple mirror writing, and I don't think they even needed a mirror to read it ...



A word-find --- these seem to be the most popular:



This one took a bit longer. Those are thin strips of green paper, woven into a larger sheet of yellow with slits cut into it. I've lined up the first three numbers of my phone so you can see that the letter starts with "DEAR S". The recipient would have to know my cell phone number to read the letter!

Disneyland II

Yes, we had so much fun last time that we wanted to hit it again before losing our Silver Pass discount. We spent Thursday and Friday at Disneyland and Saturday at Build-a-Bear, Ridemakerz, and California Adventures. This trip was not as smooth and pleasant as the previous, but we did all survive and we have some good memories to reinforce as we let the less-good memories fade from mind. Just the one pic here, for the rest go here!

all about math

So - yesterday evening at bath time (after I gave Son a haircut) Daughter said - "Mom, what's 5x2"?

Son lifted his head and proudly said "10"!

Hi 5s all around.

He then tried to tell her that 1x1 is 2. Oh well.........

Dinosaurs!

The Portland Zoo has an (extra cost!) walk-through exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs. We tried it last summer and the kids got scared and we had to bail out early (no refunds, sorry!). This year they had a lot of fun, especially with the ones that "spit" (water, I'm assuming).

(catchup) Wildlife Safari

We went to the Wildlife Safari in Wilsonville, Ore. I was expecting something pretty cheesy, but it was actually very fun and interesting and the kids loved it. There's nothing but a car door between Daughter and this giraffe. Second picture: they were not nearly this charming throughout the day but I couldn't resist this image. Third: we were pretty confidant that Daughter wouldn't have anything to do with the camels, but Son enthousiatically called our bluff ... and once he was going to go, Daughter had to also! They had fun. Fourth: not much else to do in the area, but there were a couple nice parks in Canyonville. Son pretends to be asleep. There is a great burger place, though.

(catchup) Backsplash for the Kitchen (100th Post!)

This goes back a few weeks, into the depths of my Google-imposed exile from blogging. After much painful consideration of thousands of different tile patterns (okay, I exaggerate) we finally settled on this nice number from Lowe's. We did it ourselves over a couple weekends, and Daughter even got into it for a while. She fit under the counters nicely.

As for the "100th Post!" bit, I think this is actually the 101st, but I had been looking forward to marking this milestone so here goes: we made it to 100 posts! I've really enjoyed doing this, sharing these pictures and this tiny small part of what it means to raise these two wonderful, annoying kids.

Dance! And back on the air.

Daughter and Son at their recent Dance Recital. Daughter is farthest left in the front row, son is in the orange shirt, toward the right. They both had a great time and did very well.

Sorry it's been so long since the last post: I was knocked "off the air" by a still-unresolved bug between (Google's) Picasa and (also Google's --- something wrong here!) blogger.com. I finally got fed up and banged together some scripts on my own to get back on the air.

Reviews: The Trolls; and An Occasional Cow

Two books today, both by Polly Horvath.

First up, the one I read second: An Occasional Cow. This was a delightful and quick read, about the young New Yorker Imogene who goes to spend a summer with her relatives on a farm in Iowa. Here is Josephine, describing Iowa to Imogene over the phone: "Well, out of this living-room window I see the Taj Mahal, but out of my bedroom window there's nothing to be seen for miles around but fields of corn and an occasional cow." This will illustrates the fun tone of the dialog and the imagination of the characters. Nothing magical happens, or even implausible, yet several of the main characters come across as incurable romantics. Imogene, regarding her send-off breakfast of pancakes, thinks of a prisoner's last meal; later, she introduces herself as "the president of a large corporation left ot me by my great-grandfather twice removed." This is imagination and in-story storytelling in spades! The narrator gets into the act from time to time: speaking of a frolick in the local lake, she says only "all was whales and dolphins for a time." Dialog is crisp and funny; characters and situations are fun and believable. All in all an excellent book. I will point out one instance of the word "crap" which stands out as the only profanity, the more odd because the dialog in genernal employs very few exclamations at all.

Let us now turn to The Trolls, which I read before Cow. Herein, Aunt Sally comes to stay with three syblings while their parents are on vacation (I don't believe there is any connection with the characters in the earlier book); she exhibits interesting parenting techniques; and tells amazing tales of her family life in Canada. The drama in the story is the slow revealing of what Aunt Sally's life and family are like --- the proximate children enter into things hardly at all. I enjoyed the parenting bits, such as encouraging the children to eat their green beans by, well, playing with her food; and a bit where she uses the boy's given name, Frank, in defiance of the sisters' pet name Pee Wee (oddly, this dynamic is abandoned after a few chapters).

Much of the same tone as Cow infuses the first part of the book, which is a good thing --- a nice, irreverent, playful approach to life and relationships. The latter half of the book, however, treads into some heavier subjects, delving into the relationship between Aunt Sally and her brother. I think this may be interesting on its own but is not what I'm looking for in a children's book. There is also a recurring theme of death, both in apocryphal (and frankly folkloric) stories by Sally; and in the strictly personal stories she tells. I found it a bit of a downer, if all too realistic.

letter home "catch up"

I've fallen behind on posting letters to the kids at home, so here's a catch-up:

6yo Boy Birthday

Later that same day was Son's 6th birthday, this time at the local pizza-and-play place. He had a great time being the center of attention! And it's great giving him presents, look how appreciative he can be. After all the excitement and cake, the evening was a challenge, but everyone survived.


   

Bowling

This was a birthday party for one of Daughter's friends. It was a madhouse, and so we were a little dismayed when Daughter later said "I want my next birthday party there!" but fortunately it's a long time from now and maybe something else will come up. Both kids had a good time.


  

Hide-n-Seek

This is what hide-and-seek looks like when you're walking down the street and there's not a lot of cover. Of course, one of our home variations of hide-and-seek is Sneaky Hide-and-Seek where the person finding will intentionally overlook the person hiding, allowing Hider to sneak to a new hiding location a few times. I like to think that these less literal interpretations of the game suggest that Imagination is alive and well in both kids.

   

Storyteller (a review)

Storyteller by Edward Myers tells the tale of Jack the Storyteller as he grows up, finds his calling and leaves home to pursue his dream. Adventure ensues. The setting is a fictional small kingdom in the feudal European style --- there are elements of fantasy, such as talking birds and fish, but they are secondary to the ... er ... story. Which is a fairly nice one, all about the power of storytelling and staying true to your beliefs. There's a secondary theme about how a bad king can spoil a kingdom, but since we've more-or-less given up on the whole monarchy thing, this is not especially illuminating to today's youths. Speaking of which, audience-wise, I'm not much of a judge but I'm going to say tweens?

Servicable but not soaring language (though there are some nice bits of song and poetry) and more-or-less believable characters (though some of the situations are a bit of a stretch) mostly serve to support the author's interest in showing off an array of interesting story-telling in different contexts. And we should indulge him in this, since he does a quite enjoyable job of it. As I've mentioned, I'm also intruiged by the idea of storytelling-within-story, though I prefer to see the characters acting out the stories they make up, as in Swallows and Amazons, rather than simply relating the story.

All in all, a book and author I'll keep on my list, though not perhaps in the first circle.

letter home

There's a product called Big Top Cupcake which is a silicon mold for making party-sized "cupcakes" with filling in the center. Daughter asked for and got this for her birthday, and last week she and Son tried it out for the first time. On Friday she told me on the phone, "There's a surprise waiting for you!"

When I'm on the road (so to speak) I like to write a letter home to the kids, trying to be somewhat topical to their lives. I also try to give them a little something to figure out, as in this week's example:

The Year of the Dog (a review)

The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin, is a slim book with an attractive red cover. It is told in first person, past tense. Pacy, aka Grace, is a Chinese-American going to school, dealing with science fairs and book projects and halloween as well as Chinese meals and festivals. It tells many interesting back-stories through the use of narratives told by family members. It deals with some of the confusions that come of growing up with multiple cultures, trying to fit in where you can, though in a relatively safe, low-key way. It does not particularly fit into my favorite category of story-within-the-story but it's a nice book with likeable characters.

yet another birthday

They come fast and furious. This one for one of Daughter's friends, at
Out of This World, a kid play place nearby. Son loves these scooters
(and I snuck a ride when it was quieter, they're fun!). Also some
blossoms, 'cause who doesn't like trees in bloom?

Magic or Not? by Edgar Eager (review)

This will serve as the first post in what I hope will be a regular series of brief "book reviews" in my efforts to uncover the best in children's books. First up: Magic or Not? by Edgar Eager, first published in 1959.

The book is a fairly quick read, at 197 somewhat large print pages in this 1979 Odyssey Classic edition. An afternoon or two will suffice for an adult reader. The are eventful pages, however, and will fly by. Pacing is excellent, with the story building to a satisfying and reasonable conclusion.

The setting is of course a simpler time, when parents could send children off to play by themselves through long summer days, ranging all over the (small) town and surrounding countryside. This should be instructive for today's youth in their more circumscribed lifestyles.

The title poses a central question, whether or not magic is real. This is developed seomwhat along the lines of a traditional mystery novel, which adds a nice element to the others in the novel. Adult readers may feel that this is resolved to their satisfaction by the end, but children, with their more forgiving and fluid attitude towards evidence and reality, may be able to retain some level of ambiguity which I think will reward them. Furthermore, in my post introducing these reviews, I discussed how I was focusing on realistic tales, so I find this ambiguity quite a refreshing change from Eager's other works in which the existance of magic is never in question. This alone makes this my favorite Eager book so far: as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm currently a bit "cool" on stories with fantasy elements in them.

Eager's characters are fairly simple but believable, with fairly realistic sybling relationships. Their imaginations are on full display, checking off one of my personal boxes. As in his other works, Eager sprinkles references to other interesting children's literature such as the works of E. Nesbit, hopeful that these will lead the reader to other finds. He does this in his own voice, which is present but not overdone, and in the childrens' voices also. Vocabulary is a bit of a stretch for the probably reader, as well as for believable characters, but it's a healthy stretch and not a strain.

Altogether, a delightful work.

Intoducing: Book Reviews!

I've decided to add a new feature to this blog: book reviews! I've been reading a lot of "children's" books, with two goals: first, in support of my (future, hopeful) efforts at writing in the same genre; and second, to be able to guide Son and Daughter's reading (which, given their approach to our advice, might be classified as wishful thinking). I thought it would be helpful to save my notes on these books here --- helpful to me to have a bit more discipline about it, and possibly helpful to you, who might be interesting in the same literature. If you're not interested, I've also started to use tags on my posts, so you could change your subscription to follow only the "family" tags ....

While I've read and enjoyed my share of fantastical stories for children, my current favored area is in more realistic settings. In addition, my favorite stories also contain an element of storytelling. I feel this acts in some small way as a counterweight to the all-to-common attitude of today that story is something that someone else does that one passively consumes. In the broader sense, I feel this is connected in some way to the "maker" movement, which celebrates what you can make as an individual (or small group) rather than relying on the people with the design teams and the factories to make things for you.

The archetype of what I'm driving at is the novel Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. This book follows the summer adventures of two groups of syblings (four in one, two in the other) who during an eventful summer vacation meet, wage war, declare peace, and engage in voyages of exploration (the fact that these are acomplished by sailing is, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, icing on the cake and not the main course). The characters are believable (more or less --- having lived with children for almost 6 years now, I am forced to admit that there's a large element of fantasy about the children in this book!), the situations are in keeping with the period (contemporary to the writing), and the attitudes of the children are just what I'm looking for: everything they encounter is an opportunity to engage in creative storytelling, the children themselves playing the leading roles.

In a future post, perhaps I'll revisit the Swallows and Amazons (until then, read it --- you won't be disappointed). For now, I'll stop here, and continue in the next post with a review of Magic or Not? by Edgar Eager.

Two Seven-Year-Olds' Birthdays

Daughter chose a pool party for her birthday this year, which we supported whole-heartedly, given the other options she'd talked about. A good time was had by all, as they say.

That's the first and last pictures --- the two in the middle were from a birthday party for a friend (they're only a couple days apart). (Don't ask why they're intermingled like this)

The Newest White House Resident

Oh! In addition to Christmas, and moving in a snowstorm, over Winter Holiday we also aquired Mystic, a young (apx 6 mo) cat. She's really quite a nice cat, other than a habit of waking us up too early on weekends. Daughter was insistant that she wanted a cat but was very nervous around the cat when we met her at the animal shelter. We insisted that she be able to actually hold the cat on her lap before we agreed to adopt it. It was remarkable watching her screw up her courage and finally take her onto her lap (for a few seconds --- enough, anyway!). Since Mystic has been home with us, Daughter has become much more comfortable with the cat, so thus far I think it's been a good thing.

Hair Ice

With apologies to all those who come here looking for kid pics, I'm posting this image for my own enjoyment. I observed this strange ice formation a few days after Christmas, and took this very mediocre snapshot of it. I saw this in several areas near the house and along the road, in areas of chipped wood groundcover over mud. It looks like a thicket of ice tendrils growing upwards from the chips. Each tendril is perhaps 1/16" wide and up to three inches long. I assumed it was coming somehow from liquid water in the mud being forces upward through pores and freezing on hitting the cold air, but in one of the plate of shrimp moments, this article swam into my ken. I now think that I was seeing "hair ice".

More Holiday Fun

So what else did we do over the Winter Holidays? Oh, nothing much ... unless you count buying a house. packing everything* into trailers and moving! We've decamped from Elk Mountain (debate continues about what to do about the name of this blog), moving a few miles away to a nearby town. We felt we were driving down there pretty much every day, so it made sense to move there. So far, so good --- the kids seem to be enjoying it a lot, and we've been able to get out and walk to places as we'd never been able to while living in the country.

So, for pictures: the last family meal in Elk Mountain; a pretty sunrise through the door; crossing the threshold as a family; and the first family meal in the new place --- which we're calling The White House, by the way.


       

* "everything" isn't accurate --- we moved most of the furniture while we had helpers, and some of the boxable stuff, but a lot remains to be moved.

More Christmas

A few more pics of family and friends at Christmas