Lights dimmed on Broadway
Dec 29, 2004 Read/heard/seen
Yahoo! News - ‘Law & Order’ Star Jerry Orbach Dies
Actor Jerry Orbach, who played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV’s “Law & Order” and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man, has died of prostate cancer at 69, a representative of the show said Wednesday.
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Tags: Broadway
I caught the socket thing…
Dec 29, 2004 Homeschooling
…after I hit publish and didn’t bother to go back. Answers to the anonymous commenter!
So, I’m a little confused. Isn’t this type of classroom behavior what Dawn wishes to avoid, one reason for homeschooling? Is there being “more than robot building getting learned in that class” a good or bad thing? The title of the post is “Noah gets socialized” — does that title come with any implication of benefit or detriment?
Yes, this is one of the things Dawn — I mean, I — think is better in small doses. Learning about bullies in a short-term class is a whole different ball game than getting harassed on a daily basis. Noah needs to learn about bullies — we all do — but I’m glad he doesn’t spend most of his day in a class that’s run like this. And the title is because people always ask that, “How does he get any socialization?” Ignoring the fact that time spent with other people is socialization even if it doesn’t happen in school. Also, I think Noah’s observations were pretty apt so clearly one doesn’t need to go to school to have a clue.
The situation does seem to be a learning experience for Noah, although Dawn has previously said that “character building” (more the case if Noah were the target of the bully’s wrath) is not a reason for such schooling.
Learning experiences can be had in lots of ways and yes, this is one of them. “Character building,” believe it or not, can also happen outside of a classroom. In fact, in can happen any old place. And it doesn’t have to include suffering. Getting callouses is not the same thing as getting character.
Perhaps it is a balance thing? A good experience in the short term, but a waste in school year after school year?
Right.
Oh, incidentally, a socket is a hollow receptacle into which something is fitted, so (pedantry on) socket A probably wouldn’t be going into socket B (pedantry off).
Next time I’ll be sure to carefully go over my blog before hitting publish since I can see that’s important to you. Just kidding. Who has the time?
By the way, one of the main reasons I keep this blog is for my kids. I wrote that story up so that I could remember it for Noah in the future.
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Tags: homeschool, Homeschooling, Noah
Noah gets socialized
Dec 28, 2004 Homeschooling
Noah is taking a robot workshop at our local rec center. It’s not a homeschool thing so most (maybe all) of the other kids are there as a way to fill in some time during their winter break.
The first day was yesterday and Noah came out of the classroom wrung out and grumpy. One of the major things he didn’t like was that at the end of the class, they’re going to have a robot olympics and there will be one gold medal winner.
“I don’t understand why there’s only one winner,” he said. “That isn’t fair to everyone else in the class. If there’s only one person who can win then it just means that most of the people are going to be sad.”
He said that he didn’t care if he won and that he even might lose on purpose. But then today he said, “I don’t care if I win or lose so I guess I’ll just try my best.”
He’s reluctantly competitive. (And may I just add that his feelings about this forced contest are similar to my own about the BOB nominations?)
Today he came out of class with a much perkier mien. He popped into the backseat and started chattering right away.
“I guess the kids were giving the teacher a break because it was the first day yesterday,” he told me. “But now they’re causing some trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” I asked him, wheeling out of the parking lot.
“They’re making noise and jumping around.”
This is Noah’s first time being in a class with a large group of kids. Most of his homeschool activities are smaller and also they operate differently. According to our teacher friend who became disillusioned about the educational system just before he got his masters and now is both a homeschooler and a homeschool teacher, schooled kids tend to follow directions better. However, he adds, “Homeschool kids are usually more enthusiastic about being there.” Maybe this is part of what’s going on in the class because Noah says that there is a lot of disruption.
“And there’s only one teacher,” he explained. “But twenty kids so he’s too busy to get to everyone and that’s when people cause trouble.”
The other thing that’s different about this class is that the teacher lectures while the kids follow his directions. There are a lot of hands-on activities but some of it is straight-forward teaching. Noah is more used to classes where the kids participate in the discussion and help lead the direction of the class. I think it’s good for him to be in a more traditional setting. After all, there are some things you can’t discuss esoterically; you just have to learn that socket A goes in socket B.
When Noah was complaining about the class yesterday after the first session, I explained this to him.
“You’re starting from scratch in robot building,” I told him. “You don’t know anything about it and the teacher needs to give you the basics. Once you have those, you’ll have the tools you need to explore.”
“But I always have to ask for help. I feel shy about that.”
“That’s what the teacher is there for. He expects you not to know anything.”
“Well, I like it better when I know things, too,” Noah grouched. “I read a whole book about robots.”
“Still, you haven’t learned how to build one yet,” I said.
“But now I only know how to build this kind,” he pointed out. “I’m not learning about all robots, just this one.”
The other thing is that his class houses a bully.
“There are kids who tease other kids,” he said on the ride home today. “They say mean things and call people names.”
“Lots of kids?”
“No, just this one boy.”
“Who is he teasing? What does he say?”
“This other boy. I’m uncomfortable talking about this.”
“Does the teacher help?”
“He’s usually on the other side of the room. But there’s a boy who says things to him. He says things like when a teacher puts a kid in time out and talks to him. That’s how this boy talks.”
“What kinds of teasing does this bully do?”
“Well, he knocked my hat off once so I just changed my seat to not sit next to him.”
“That was probably a good idea.”
“Yeah, but this other boy sits next to him and the mean boy kicks him.”
“What does the other boy do?”
“He says, ‘That didn’t hurt.’ I don’t think that’s a very good idea because it does hurt; I can tell. And it just makes the mean boy kick harder. The mean boy, he’s about seven or eight and the boy he’s mean to is about six. I think this is why he only knocked my hat off but he kicks the other boy.”
“Does anyone help the littler boy?”
“Yes, I told you. The other boy, the one who talks like a teacher. He’s about nine. He gets his work done first so he comes and helps other people because the teacher is so busy and there are so many kids. And he talks to the bully and tells him to quit.”
“It sounds like the 9-year old is acting heroically.”
“Yes. Do you think the snow will melt tomorrow?”
There’s more than robot building getting learned in that class.
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Tags: Erica, homeschool, Noah
End of year meme
Dec 28, 2004 The Story of My Life
I got this from Hakinimomma. It’s long so I’m sticking it below. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Brett, Erica, jane siberry, Madison, meme, memes, Music, Noah, Shelter
If I had the money
Dec 27, 2004 Read/heard/seen
I would get me about a dozen more of these: Musini - MagicSensor.
I got two — one for my 4 year old nephew and one to hold onto for Madison’s first birthday. I figured it looked like something that Frankie could play by himself while my sister is busy with the baby. We put the batteries in Frankie’s before wrapping it (present etiquette) and of course we had to try it out first. Noah loved it so much that we ended up giving the one we were holding to Madison on Christmas for her big brother’s sake.
It works like this. You put this contraption on the floor and set the senor. Then you dance. The vibrations of your footwork keep the music going. If you go slow, it slows. If you go fast, it speeds up. You set the tempo by your speed and enthusiasm. You can set the sensor so that it takes a lot to keep it going but I set it pretty high so that Noah has room to move. (He just now leapt from the couch to the doorway with a massive, graceful falling-down sort of cartwheel.)
There are four musical settings and Noah’s favorite is Latin Jazz. Madison just likes to suck on the knob that changes the channels. For each setting you can press one of the big buttons to choose which instrument part will play. (I can’t really figure these out. For the Latin Jazz, it’s not that clear but the Bach is strings, woodwinds, percussion and whole orchestra.)
You can set the volume with a master switch and then the child can turn it up or down within the parameters you’ve chosen. It’s pleasant enough to me that I have it switched on high and then I just have Noah modify it if need be.
He’s dancing to it right now although Madison has lost interest and is now chewing on her board book.
Anyway, if you have someone in your family who needs to shake that groove thang on a regular basis, you can’t beat this price. I figure for the right toddler it could be a total hit and here my kid is nearly eight and I anticipate this being a continuing favorite. (I won’t mention any names but at least one grown-up got up and boogied when it was unwrapped.)
