Why?

These are some silly-sounding foods I've seen (but not tasted) in recent days...

Organic American Cheese

Non-fat Half-and-half.

I think there were others along these lines too, but I can't remember them now.

And so, my question is...

why???

Open to Correction

Many thanks to Amy Welborn for writing a great blog post about an important topic - defensiveness regarding critique and criticism. This defensiveness she writes about makes it really hard for me as a reviewer because often even the littlest points or even clarifications can be taken for serious criticism or even condemnation - which makes me second guess whether I should mention this little thing, whether it will be taken too seriously, etc. I should mention that it's not just authors who can be sensitive, but readers don't necessarily make a big distinction between, say, some ideas for improving future editions of a particular book and grave reservations regarding the overall point of view of the author.

Ideally, a book review should be open and honest about various sorts of criticism. I know that I very much appreciate positive reviews that aren't afraid to give the potentially negative side of things as well (another fine line here, though - you certainly can get too nit-picky). When I read this sort of review it helps me in a number of ways.

1) The willingness to critique - as long as it's fair and reasonable - often gives the reviewer more credibility in my mind - because the review tends to be (or at least seems to be) more well-thought-out, balanced and objective. Somehow it gives more weight to the positive points made when the reviewer is willing to explore the negatives too - I get a stronger sense that they really mean what they say.

2) I have a better idea of the details of the resource I'm looking into - after all, I could just go to a book catalog to find the general, glowing details.

3) Finally, I think that a reasonable willingness to correct is more charitable to the author and even to the book itself than either ignoring the material or simply giving up on the details and condemning it. If someone is willing to take the time and bother to sort through the ins and outs, recognizing what is good and correcting the errors simply makes more of these books more usable, more worthwhile. And it doesn't tend to hurt the reviewer (sames goes for the reader, later on) to go through the process of making such distinctions.

I suppose the medium of the Internet makes this harder since, without the tone of voice, it's hard to get the sense of "Well, there's just this little thing I think I should mention..."

On the other hand, it takes a certain amount of gumption to stand up to the ideas in a book and not just write catalog overviews when there are other issues to be addressed. I have to admit that I'm not always up to the task myself.

Anyway, here's Amy's blogpost that I was referring to...

One of the most irritating thing about discourse, something that gets exaggerated, it seems, on the Internet (like anything else) is hyper-defensiveness. That is to say that to critique any aspect of any phenomenon amounts to a full-scale attack on that phenomenon.

For some, it seems, it is all or nothing.

Or perhaps there is just a fear that if one aspect of a phenomenon can be critiqued, that means that the whole enterprise is called into question.

Read the rest here

By the way this post isn't meant to be a rant about reviewing books, more a thinking through of some aspects and the challenge of keeping things in balance. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Break the Conventions, Keep the Commandments (Love2learn Moments #39)

I find that in balancing my obligations as a homeschool mother, I need to make distinctions between what I can be flexible and open about and what is non-negotiable.

Not only do such distinctions relieve stress when things don't go as planned (and in a family this is a common occurrence!), but they also free me to give my children the chance to make some choices in their day and in their education - which can be a good thing for both of us!

G. K. Chesterton offers a helpful and humorous perspective:

A man's minor actions and arrangements ought to be free, flexible, creative; the things that should be unchangeable are his principles, his ideals. But with us, the reverse is true; our views change constantly, but our lunch does not change. Now, I should like men to have strong and rooted conceptions, but as for their lunch, let them have it sometimes in the garden, sometimes in bed, sometimes on the roof, sometimes in the top of a tree. Let them argue from the same first principles, but let them do it in a bed, or a boat or a balloon.

Cross-posted from Love2learn Moments

Helping Your Children Love Learning (Love2learn Moments #38)

There's nothing quite like the interest and involvement of parents to help motivate children to WANT to learn. Here are a few ideas to try out with your own families.

Go outside and look at the stars together. Learn the names of a few of the constellations.

Children love "real" things. Let them help you with real jobs and house projects.

Take them to the beach, forest, pond or desert and have everyone draw pictures of what they find.

Spend time with other families who love learning.

Pop a batch of popcorn and sit down to a family read-aloud.

Plan ahead for an art museum trip by introducing each child to a beautiful painting they can search for once you arrive.

Go on an adventure walk in your own neighborhood. Bring water bottles and magnifying glasses!

Choose a country and find recipes native to that place. Invite several friends to do the same, and get together for a day of ethnic cooking.

Most importantly, let your children see that you love learning too.

cross-posted from Love2learn Moments

More Irish Fun

This is the first Irish song I ever learned. Fun to share it with my little ones now (and the animal photos don't hurt).

More Frank

(He's on a roll lately).

Frank has a funny way of getting distracted from bad moods by the strangest and most interesting things. I think this might be what Montessori refers to as "normalizing", but I'm not quite sure as I haven't read a lot about that.

Here are a few examples...

All of my kids are interested in computers and I generally try to restrain them from sapping all their time up with it. One morning when I had to be particularly firm, Frank was having an absolutely fit over it. For some reason, I thought he might like helping me with the dishes (standing on a chair at the sink and really digging in). He was enchanted almost instantly.

A few days ago, Frank got sent to the corner for hurting Kate. He asked for me to set a timer and then asked how long I had set it for. I braced myself for wailing (the general response), but calmly responded "four minutes". He casually remarked, "Oh. That's two and two minutes," and waited quite patiently for the timer to go off. It was as if, now that his mind was occupied with an idea, everything else was okay.

A recent car-ride elicited a similar result, with another one of his favorite things to think about - colors. I can't remember what he was fussing about on the way home, but he was very unhappy and there wasn't anything (reasonable) I could do about it. After about five minutes of this, like a lightswitch, he stopped crying and started talking about color combinations (they don't make any sense to us - but perhaps there is an order in his head). I think the combination went something like this: "Do you know what makes white? No-color and pink." I think he's been watching Ria at her artwork lately. In any case, he was fast asleep in a blissful nap within about two more minutes.

A Little Irish Music

This got the kids moving this morning (I have no idea what Grendel and Grendel's mother are doing in the background).

A Funny Little Kid Lesson

Today Kate and Frank were playing with our "Cascade Tower" purchased from Hearth Song many Christmasses ago.

It's missing the last rung and the cars aren't currently anywhere to be found, but Kate discovered that dice slide their way through the rungs in a very satisfying way. Soon, she and Frank were squabbling over a large pile of dice and who had how many and who took whose dice out of a container. Argh. In a burst of frustration, I had them each pick out one die and promptly confiscated the rest.

For the next five or ten minutes straight, the world was suddenly in the right place - Kate and Frank happily took turns and squealed and giggled with delight through the entire process - without even missing the extra dice at all (and as if they had been happy with each other all along).

Ah, simplicity, a lesson I need to remember more often. ;)

And speaking of Frank, today, Ria posted a funny story about him here and Gus posted a funny story about him here.

Stations of the Cross

Ria was involved with a beautiful Stations of the Cross that a large group of teens from our homeschool group put on on Friday. Here's a photo to give you an idea.

It was very beautifully and powerfully performed with freeze-frame "images" for each station accompanied by music and a little bit of commentary.

Ria painted Veronica's Veil (pictured here).

Got Weather?

The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for today, forecasting freezing rain and sleet this morning with ice accumulation of one-tenth of an inch, along with 2 to 5 inches of snow.

Mitchell International Airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe said ground crews at the airport, like many Wisconsin residents, have grown weary of the constant barrage of severe weather.
"It seems like as soon as it stops it starts right up again," Rowe said. "It's not like we get large quantities of snow all at once and it's over for three weeks. Instead, it just snows and snows and snows."

One-tenth of an inch of ice is enough for pedestrians and motorists to slip and slide on, said weather service meteorologist Bill Borghoff.

"The ground temperatures are well below freezing, and untreated surfaces will especially be prone to ice by Sunday morning," Borghoff said.

By late morning, the freezing rain is expected to turn to rain. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for today that covers Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties.

It's the rain that has me most concerned as all of our gutters are clogged with ice. Sigh. Oh right, and many communities around here have literally run out of road salt. Good thing we went to Mass last night - we're not brave enough to venture out today.