Let it Snow

Two days of snow!

Yesterday we drove up into the mountains with some friends, and enjoyed a day of sledding on Forest Service Property.

This morning, when we woke up, there was snow on the ground at our house! Enough for some sledding and snowball fights. Bonus!

Daily News!

[Mom note: Sam has been enjoying her new American Girl Doll "Kit". Kit is a budding journalist, so Sam has decided that she is too. This morning we did a lesson about Ben Franklin and talked about his early career as a printer. Dad read out loud to both the kids in bed. During play time, Sam decided to write her own newspaper, on the typewriter. The charm of the typewritten version doesn't translate to the computer, but here it is, un-edited (except the names)]

DAILY NEWS 11/20/07
Sam just got a Kit doll and is making a newspaper. Everybody else has a cold .
The morning walk was canceled because of ra--in. K-- is making chutney,
and sam,s room is off limets for her. C-----,s room is always off limits.
Everybody should start making Christmas lists. If anybody would like news report
ted, please write it down and deliver it to sam,s room, and put it in her mailbox
You should also start making Christmas presents. Hopefully today we will put up
our Christmas teree. When you are walki*Nng- through the house look for free bi
ns because near Christmas people are giving away lots of things.

WEATHER REPORT 11/20/07
Slightly rainy in midday, clou-ds rotate over the sun .
Probably more rain.

Almost 11!

But still my baby!



But still

Kill the Wabbit

We recently had a flurry of activity involving the kids running around the house singing "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, ..." over and over. We don't have cable TV, and we don't watch cartoons much, so, oddly enough, they were singing to the tune of Clementine. Now it is perfectly ok if they have never heard of the Constitution or what it means, but Bugs Bunny is an important part of our cultural heritage. One does not sing Kill the Wabbit to Clementine. I had to act to correct this behavior before it was too late. This inspired an internet trip that made a number of unexpected connections.

We started with a visit to Youtube to view the original copyright infringed version of "What's Opera, Doc?" the source of the Kill the Wabbit song performed to the most famous tune from Wagner's Ring. We then found a site with clips from the opera itself and found and listened to the piece in question, the melody from The Ride of the Valkyries. Having established that some guy named Wagner wrote the music, we tried to find out more about him. That's when we started making connections.

Our next stop was at Wikipedia where we learned about Wagner and his famed opera: up to five hours with no intermission, he invented instruments to expand the orchestra, and his struggles to build an opera house suitable for this work. In reading about the story, we discovered our first connection. We are reading The Lord of the Rings, and we found out that Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is derived from some of the same mythology as The Lord of the Rings and has some similarities to the Tolkien story.

Our next connection came when we read about the music. Wagner relied heavily on the use of leitmotifs to guide the listener through the story. Leitmotifs are musical themes that correspond to themes, events, or characters in the story. Our oh-so-close-to-home examples are the themes used by John Williams in the music to Star Wars. We have the movies and soundtrack, and now Sam is learning the Imperial March (Darth Vader's theme) on the piano. I don't know if she'll be any more proud knowing it's a leitmotif.

Our final connection relates to our study of World War II, antisemitism and Adolf Hitler. It appears the extent of Wagner's antisemitism is debatable, but his writings and music were interpreted as supporting the views of the Nazis and Hitler, and Hitler promoted Wagner's music as supporting the Aryan ideal. Yuck. How about we leave the wabbit be?

I think that these kinds of connections are what make learning stick. We can spend an hour and a half researching on the internet including videos and music and get so much. Sure beats film strips.

More Trip Essay II

On our last essay post C got the heavy essay structure lesson, so this time it's Sam's turn. We went through her essay and thought about what she really talked about and worked on a better topic sentence and introductory paragraph.

DISNEYLAND VS. LEGOLAND

My family and I went on a trip to Southern California. We went to Crestline, the town where my family lived before I was born. We also went to Disneyland and Legoland. Disneyland and Legoland are both theme parks that are fun to visit.

At Disneyland there are some of my favorite rides. The Safari Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, and It’s a Small World are rides that move you through a show. Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, Rocket Ride, Autopia, and the Mad Tea Party are rides that are based on motion. I hated the Indiana Jones ride because it was too swervy, loud, and spooky, so it made me sick.

Legoland was fun too, because we had never been there. My favorite ride was Knight's Tournament. It is an arm that you get harnessed on to and it spins you around and turns you upside down. Some other rides that I liked are Sky Rider, Kidpower Tower, Splash Battle, Skipper School, Pirates Ship, Fire Engine, and the Knights Playground. Volvo Driving School was much better than Autopia because you could go wherever you want. The Technic Coaster was awesome too. If you want to know what it's like, read my brother's essay.

Our trip to Southern California was awesome. We had lots of fun at Disneyland and Legoland, and I want to go there again.


C got a brainstorming assignment for his next essay. This morning we read the part of The Two Towers where Merry and Pippin meet Treebeard the Ent (tree creature). Treebeard explains that, in his language, his name is very long because it is a description of his very long life. We had a discussion about his frame of reference--his lack of mobility and long life--and about whether other cultures might use descriptive names. His assignment is to tell the story (or give the name of) an oak Ent living or growing on our property.

More Trip Essay

By C-Boy We had a very good time in Southern California. In Disneyland we did not have much fun, but the 7 rides called Pirates of the Carribean, Safari Ride, Thunder Mtn. Railroad, Star Tours, Autopia, the Monorail, and the Submarine ride were fun, but these 6 rides called Indiana Jones, Tarzan Treehouse, Rocket Ride, Tea Cups, Alice in Wonderland,and Its a Small World were either boring, hokey, or overexiting. In Legoland I liked all rides except Skyrider, Skipper School, and the Joust. Let me tell you about my experience on the Technic Roller Coaster. First there’s a steep uphill then you switchback and ride a steep downhill and identical uphill then seven switchbacks then a steep downhill and another switchback then another downhill into the station. In southern California we had a lot of fun.

Disneyland vs Legoland

We had lots of fun in Southern California.

We went to Crestline, Disneyland and Legoland. In Disneyland there are some of my favorite rides. They are the Safari Ride, Pirates of the Caribean, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Autopia, Star Tours, Rocket Ride, Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, and Its a Small World. I hated the Indiana Jones ride because I got sick on it. Legoland was fun too, because we had never been there. My favorite ride was Knight's Tournament. It is an arm that you get harnessed on to and it spins you around and turns you upside down. Some other rides that I liked are Skyrider, Kidpower Tower, Splash Battle, Skipper School, Pirates Ship, Fire Engine, and the Knights Playground. Volvo Driving School was much better than Autopia because you could go wherever you want. The Technic Coaster was awesome too. If you want to know what it's like, read my brother's essay. Our trip to Southern California was Awesome.

By "Sam".

Children's Fantasy Trip

"Mom, when are we going to Legoland? You promised we'd go!" Said my son, several months ago. And, he was right. I first promised about two years ago, and then, last February, we were scheduled to go, and plans changed. Since he's going to turn 11 in January, we'd better go soon, I figured. Dad is a good sport, so he's along for the ride, trying very hard not to tally the indulgent spending.

Yesterday we headed south, towards Crestline, where we lived for almost 3 years, a decade ago. The kids have heard a lot about the town, that is where we lived when my son was born, and also where we acquired our two cats. We stayed Monday night with friends who moved there from Santa Cruz one week after we moved back to Santa Cruz. It was nice to reconnect with them and their kids. I'm posting photos here of their lovely dog "Ginny" but forgot to ask if we could post pics of the kids, so we won't.

Then we headed for the American Girl Place in LA. Sam has been obsessing about this visit for the last six months. She has studied every item on their web pages, and sent out her Christmas "Wish list" to anyone she can. Her mother, on the other hand, has been appalled at the strength of the marketing machine. Upon arrival at the mothership, however, I also fell under the spell, and purchased a "Kit" for K (Sammi). I couldn't help it. Her expectations were so low, she was so enamored, and the look of disbelief when I offered to buy it was so overwhelming! "Is this a dream? Or is this really happening?" she said as she clutched her new doll. I was conflicted in being so proud of her sweetness, and ashamed of depriving her by my cheapskatedness.

Then, we headed to Anaheim. We commented on how warped the road. Hmmm. Was it really the road? Turns out, it was the tire, which failed in a bizarre way, causing the unsteady ride. When we landed at the Motel 6, we spent the evening schooling & feeding the kids, purchasing new tires at Costco, shopping at TJoes, getting settled. C has been obsessed with his planned visit to Legoland, and the purchase of Bionicles with the $$ he has saved over the past month (he sold some Star Wars stuff on ebay, washed the dog and saved his allowance). Exhausted as we all were, we had to go to Downtown Disney (at 10PM!) to visit the Lego store. He bought Toa Mahri, all 6 models. I asked the kids, again, if there was anything they'd like to do in Anaheim. K said "we should find a nice park to spend the day in". Sheesh.

Tomorrow we are off to Disneyland. (We finally spilled the beans on the surprise. So many hints, and they didn't figure it out?!) I hope we can tear C away from his Bionicles long enough. He seemed truly conflicted when I asked him if he'd rather stay at the hotel and play with them.

Thursday is Legoland, then we'll head home on Friday.

I'm so proud of both of them, they are so uncorrupted by expectation, and grateful for what they get. Its nice to be able to spoil them.

[the slideshow has photos of our drive south, including the kids with Joshua Tree, and views of the famous Cajon Pass rail route, and Silverwood Lake, then photos of Ginny the Dog at the M's house, photo of our old house in Crestline, views from the top of the rim, looking down on San Bernardino, then photo of the the "A" restaurant, and picture of the kids standing where I first found our deceased cat "whiner" 14 years ago. The rest are self explanatory]