LFLF Editor's Blog

Decency in the Media

Today, Kenzie and I were watching an old movie in which several scenes took place on the Senate floor.  Kenzie asked what the Senate was, so we decided to switch to C-Span to watch what was going on in the Senate.  Instead of live coverage, they were showing a rerun of yesterday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on "Decency in the Media." 

Kenzie was interested almost immediately because the first person we saw speak was the CEO of Echostar, owners of Dish Network, our satellite provider.  He addressed the reason customers aren't able to order channels separately, or a la carte.  The giant corporations that own the channels offer them only in bundles - take one, take them all.  We talked about this for a while - why the corporations do this, whether it's fair to consumers, whether the corporations ought to have this right, etc.  We also discussed monopolies (which was ironic, considering Senator Rockefeller was part of this hearing).

This all led to discussions of censorship (especially censorship aimed at protecting children), the fairness or unfairness of companies advertising products to children during kids' television shows, the "grooming" of children as future customers (i.e., McDonald's),  the negative effects of too much television, and the differences between children's programming now and twenty-five years ago.  We counted the number of kids shows that were currently on (14) and talked about whether it was better for kids to have a greater or lesser number of TV choices. 

Then, Kenzie noticed the D's and R's in front of the committee members' names, so we talked about the general differences between Democrats and Republicans, ending with a discussion of the death penalty.  An interesting afternoon. 

Now, he's out riding his bicycle with a neighborhood friend.  He crashed a few minutes ago, but a couple of bandaids did the trick.  They're back to tooling around the sidewalks screaming and laughing. 

Homeschooling Blog Carnivals

Henry Cate asked me to mention that his blog Why Homeschool is in the third week of its Carnival of Homeschooling.  There have been several blog carnivals about homeschooling, recently.  What's a blog carnival, you ask?  Well, imagine links to all sorts of themed blog entries gathered in one place.  Add a bit of whimsy, and you've got yourself a blog carnival! 

Looking for more?  Brew some tea and sit down with Spunky's Online Homeschool Convention and Atypical Homeschool's Carnival of Unschooling #1 and #2. 

Zenith

A few days ago, we found yet another lost dog.  Must be animal magnetism. 

This dog showed up on our porch in the afternoon having eaten all of Orange Cat's cat food.  It seemed she was patiently waiting for me to put out some more.  She was a beautiful catahoula leopard - gray and black with these amazing "cracked glass" eyes.  She wore a collar but had no tags.  She understood a few basic commands and was clean and well fed, so we knew someone was probably missing her.  We were right. 

After posting ads on Craigslist and placing a classified in the newspaper, we started putting up FOUND flyers throughout the neighborhood.  At the same time, a woman was frantically taping up flyers about her son's lost dog.  Perfect timing.  We learned that the dog's name is Zenith and that she's something of an escape artist.  Good thing we kept her inside most of the time! 

Turns out Zenith belongs to a wonderful six-year-old boy who lives a few streets over.  We spent quite a long time at their house visiting and learning about Zenith (and the family's three-year-old iguana!).  Kenzie had a blast playing with the boy, and I quite enjoyed talking to his mother.  Looks like we've made new friends.

Learning Lincoln

Kenzie and I just finished watching a new show about Lincoln on The History Channel.  The program focused on his mental and emotional states throughout his life and tied them into his words and actions.  It was an intriguing three hours, and Kenzie and I watched with rapt attention.  Kenzie has seen  old movies about Lincoln before, but had never watched a documentary, so this was a new experience for him.  He was introduced to a different person than the movies portrayed.  Instead of the heroic country boy, he learned about a deeply troubled man plagued with guilt.  We talked about Lincoln's decisions and what we might have done in his place.  We talked about his kindnesses.  We talked about slavery throughout history (he's most familiar with slavery in Ancient Greece and Rome).  And, we talked about how the Civil War compares to the current war in Iraq.  All this snuggled up together in the big, comfy chair.

Lincoln's final portrait - April 10, 1865

Pyramid Builders

The other day, Kenzie and I decided to play around with a new set of double-twelve dominoes his great-grandmother had given him for Christmas.  At first, we actually played dominoes.  Then, we set up domino runs and knocked over long, curving lines of them.  That led to building little houses with them, and finally making pyramids.  The 91 dominoes made a perfect Aztec-type pyramid, which we decided to look up in a few of our books on pyramids and Aztecs.  That led to a long talk about different pyramid types.  We also talked about the pattern used to make the pyramids - how they got smaller as they grew taller, and the math behind this.  We finally cleaned the dominoes off the table before dinner and put away all the books we'd been flipping through.

Team Challenges

Kris Bordessa, who wrote a humorous article for our November/December issue, has a new book out called Team Challenges: 170+ Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication, and Creativity.  Initially, I thought it would be of little use to home/unschoolers, but she sent me a copy several weeks ago and definitely changed my mind.  Originally intended for those who work with groups of children, the activities are great for homeschooling co-ops, support groups and park days, but most can also easily be adapted to much smaller groups - like families and gatherings of friends. 

There are listing activities ("Name things that spin," "Name things that are bright"), connection games ("Make a connection between a tree and electricity"), and question and answer games ("The answer is a honeycomb.  What is the question?").  There are building challenges (invent an aircraft using only 1 sheet of paper, 1 toothpick, 5 straws, 5 mailing labels, 1 envelope, and 3 pipe cleaners or create a vehicle using only 4 paper cups, 6 drinking straws, 1 square of cardboard, 1 clothespin, 5 mailing labels, 10 rubber bands, 8 sheets of newspaper, 6 toothpicks, and 3 cardboard tubes).  There are physical challenges, improvisational activities (such as story starters, skits, etc.), and much more. 

The book's 270 pages are filled with creative, enjoyable activities great for any rainy (or sunny) day.  I've seen lots of activity books for kids, but few are so all-encompassing.  Kenzie and I have been going through it with gusto.  You can see more about the book at Kris's blog, or on Amazon.

Way to go, Kris!

Odds and Ends

Well, Issue 9 is about to go to the printers, and I feel like an enormous weight has been lifted.  With the holidays and the flu (followed by various infections), this has been, perhaps, the most difficult month I've had in years.  But, I'm quite happy with the way the issue has turned out, so I'm not really complaining. 

A few days ago, I brought home most of what I've had in storage for the past ten years.  Since then, I've spent quite a lot of time purging the junk, washing dolls and doll clothes, going through old poems, and generally reminiscing about a life that seems so far removed from the one I live now that I hardly recognize it.  Kenzie was happy to find himself suddenly in possession of a large number of Cabbage Patch (and other) dolls, as well as old books and small toys I hadn't seen in years.

For Christmas, Kenzie received a box of note cards adorned with ancient Egyptian artwork.  He's been writing to friends and family, and there was no need, this year, to remind him to send out thank-you cards.  He's also spent a lot of time reading his new books, riding his new, red bicycle and playing with his new treasure chest (an old jewelry box shaped like a pirate's treasure trunk).

I've started taking walks at night with one of the dogs, making huge loops around the neighborhood.  It clears my mind, being alone (save for the Oscar or Alaska) and walking with no real destination....  I've always loved nighttime walks, but have felt uneasy about walking alone at night.  It never occurred to me to bring a dog along, since I don't think of our dogs as vicious in any way.  They're happy and sweet, and would most likely lick and jump on a "bad guy" - not snarl at him or bite him.  But, the "bad guys" don't need to know that.

Kenzie's in the kitchen mixing up "potions."  These usually include a bit of soy sauce, some milk, sugar, and whatever else he can find in the cupboards.  They're magical, of course, and usually look pretty cool, with the denser liquids on the bottom.  He stores them in the refrigerator for a day or two, then pours them out and starts mixing anew.

It's popcorn time, so I'll warm up the popper and get out the seasoning salts.  Kenzie's decided popcorn is the perfect snack, so we've been having quite a bit of it recently.  Yum!