I really hate to admit this...

...but I love it when the husbands cry on "Wife Swap".

In fact, it's almost like porn. It's distasteful, you know you shouldn't watch it, and yet...you are compelled, because the high is unrivaled.

Watching a big, burly man weep and choke out the words, "I--just...didn't...ap-p-p-reciate her!" is really too much to turn away from. It's worse than chocolate donuts. It scratches an itch way down deep in my soul, I'm afraid.

It's not me, it's you

So, we got a letter in the mail, from our family doctor, informing us that he is packing up, leaving private practice, punting us to his learned collegue...and he's doing it within two weeks. There was a hurried explanation about his growing family (they just had twins), and...that's it.

Mr. Crib Chick and I stood looking at the letter, a little dumbfounded (can you be a "little" dumbfounded? Or is that something you just are or aren't?). I mean...this is the Dream Doctor; cautious but thorough, supportive of homeschooling and our other weird parenting choices...and now he's leaving.

Or...is he?

Mr. Crib Chick posited the theory that maybe, just maybe, this letter was just an elaborate ruse to get rid of our family, alone. You know, the weirdos with the five kids who try to schedule all their well child visits at once? The family with the mom that makes you wish the layman couldn't Google medical problems?

But I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there are others like us.

Art Imitating Life

"Peep" #2, who is a fourteen-year-old boy, was recently enjoying the vocal stylings of Mariah Carey with me (okay, he was trapped in the car while I had control of the iPod), and offered this opinion on one of my favorites, "Heartbreaker"...

"Wow, that's just like real life."

"Why, what do you mean, son?"

"The guy speaks for like, a fraction of the time the woman does. And all that stuff is true, about what girls do."

He's referring to the rap by Jay-Z, that occurs towards the end of the song. Mariah Carey sings a soulful tune (comprised of many, many words), detailing the challenges of being in love with someone who's just "not that into you", and then the young man steps in, and staccato-style, gives a brief rebuttal that paints her as crazy.

She wanna shop wit Jay, play box wit Jay
She wanna pillowfight in the middle of the night
She wanna drive my Benz with five of her friends
She wanna creep past the block, spyin' again
She wanna roll wit Jay, chase skeeos away
She wanna fight wit lame chicks, blow my day
She wanna respect the rest, kick me to the curb if she find one strand of hair longer than hers
She wanna make love in the Jacuzzi
Rub up in the movies, access to the old crib, keys to da newbie
She wanna answer the phone, tattoo her arm, that's when I got to send her back to her mom
She call me Heartbreaker, when we apart it makes her wanna piece of paper, scribble down
"I hate ya"...but she know she love Jay because she love everything Jay say, Jay does...

Now, if you can get past the eye-rolling that a fourteen-year-old boy perpetrating to know "how it is" can induce, it does answer one of the concerns that many folks have about homeschooling; that boys are overly influenced by their mothers when they're in their company all day, instead of that of men.

Nope. I've still got my work cut out for me.

Hello...? Is this thing (still) on?

Whew...more than a month since I've blogged. Do I have any readers left?

We've been on a summer break of sorts, and for some reason indolence seems to not be very satisfying, either to my children or myself. Yes, we needed a break from the crazy volleyball/tumbling/music lesson whirlwind, but now it seems we need a break from...taking a break.

Lots going on here, but one of the most exciting things to happen lately was "Peep" #5's realization that learning to read means actually Learning to Read. He's been sounding out simple words for a while, but "Peep" #1 sat down with him not too long ago, with our trusty old copy of Reading Reflex, and he sounded out some of the words in their (scintillating) little stories. ("Ben Bun is wet.")

The incredulous look on his face when he realized he was actually reading a story (of sorts) was priceless. And in true "Peep" #5 fashion (meaning excitedly), he exclaimed his wonder.

"I am READING! Can I read all of these (gestures at our living room bookshelves) books?! Can I read MILLIONS of books?!"

You certainly can. In theory.

Seriously, though, this is one of the reasons I love homeschooling; I get to take part in stuff like this. (Or I get to delegate it to older children, and witness it as I'm relaxing.) And even though I'm a little misty about him being the last little "Peep" to learn to read, I know from experience that there are many more "light bulb moments" ahead. (Heck, I still have them from time to time, myself.)

And yes, you can consider this a plug of sorts for Reading Reflex. I also own Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling, and will reluctantly admit to plopping "Peep" #5 in front of the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD several times (it's the way he learned letter sounds), but I keep the good ol' Reading Reflex around not just for sentimental value (I picked it up on a sale table when I first started homeschooling, years and years ago), but because I think it's a great resource. Simple, focused, and effective. (Phonics Pathways is, as well, and is also great for keeping on hand to teach/reinforce spelling, but I like being able to switch back and forth between these two sources during the Learn to Read years.)

Bob Books are a great resource for capturing that "I'm reading REAL BOOKS!" excitement, too, and I also like Nora Gaydos' readers. (Both of these sets are simple, and pretty phonetically controlled, so that beginning readers can experience some success at reading a whole book, without Mom providing every third word.)

And in the Big Kid department, I've been pleased to realize that our Summer Slothfulness has produced a sort of desire for productivity in "Peep" #2. He actually asked when we were going to start school, and instead of drooping his shoulders when I commented that our new logic course (Memoria Press' Traditional Logic 1) would be somewhat harder than the book they're finishing up (A Rulebook for Arguments), he casually mentioned looking forward to a challenge.

Yes, he said the word "challenge".

(I didn't stagger back and clutch my chest, Redd Foxx-style, you'll be glad to know.)

This seems to be a trend of sorts, for him, because he's done some reading this summer, after asking and getting a little input from me. I suggested Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm, and he enjoyed both of them. (Well, I guess "enjoyed" would be an odd word for someone's reaction to Lord of the Flies, but you get what I mean.)

One of the older versions of the delight I described above would have to be discussing a book you really like with one of your children. A fairly deep book, about something pretty meaningful.

I found a great resource, through our library, for sparking discussion; Greenwood Press' Literature in Context Series.

I've never really felt particularly moved to invest in resources for studying literature; I've always just sort of had the kids look at the time period, examine it through a historical perspective, and chatted about it with them. That's it.

And, for the most part, I still feel that that's a great approach. There are so many things available, for analyzing different works of literature, that I almost feel as if one could get bogged down in all the study, and risk losing sight of the forest for the trees, if you know what I mean. (Just to be clear, I'm not talking about teaching concrete aspects of literature, genres, terms, etc., I'm referring to guides for particular works.)

But I decided to check out the copy of Understanding Lord of the Flies that my library had, and...wow.

I suggested that "Peep" #2 read it, and he feels as positively about it as I do. Great resource.

There's literary analysis, and several chapters that explore the historical context, as well as a bit of an interview with the author and an examination of how his involvement in World War II furthered his view of the state of man. It's really a kind of one-stop-shopping, in a sense.

Now, I would heartily recommend that you search your library, first, since these are pricey when new. Amazon has a few volumes used that are quite reasonable, but I really do believe that these are worth the money, if they follow the form of the one I've seen. (I'm awaiting one that I bought, so we'll see if the Lord of the Flies volume was a fluke, or if the series is sound as a whole. I'll report back.)

Country Folks Can Survive

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that there's another reason I haven't been blogging. Something else has kept my attention on those quiet evenings when I could have been tapping out communication for the blogosphere...

Jericho

Yes, my curiosity got the best of me, and so I sat down to watch a few episodes of this post-disaster drama...and was hooked. I've now watched the whole shebang. (For those who don't know, it was cancelled after the first season, and fan outcry brought it back for one last season, to tie up loose ends before ending the series.)

Now, I sort of have an affinity for post-apocalyptic scenarios. I have no idea why. I also live in a small town, and my next door neighbor (a guy whose preparedness is legendary between Mr. Crib Chick and I) bears an eerie resemblance to Skeet Ulrich, who plays the reluctant hero/leader that the townspeople come to depend on.

No, it's not perfect, yes, there are holes*...but, wow. Riveting is not even the word.


*One of my biggest beefs is the fact that despite having zero power, most of the female townspeople on the show still look rather well put together. Listen...I was without air-conditioning for four or so days, this summer, and I looked like fright on a stick and my children looked like they were characters in a Dickens novel. And that was just without air-conditioning in my house. For a few days. I still had water and other electricity, I still had the means to travel, no EMP had taken out civilization...so what gives? The flip side to this is that while his girlfriend has perfectly coiffed hair and non-sweaty makeup, Skeet Ulrich's character looks...well, like someone coming off of a five-day drunk. He doesn't start out that way; in the first season, he's relatively clean cut. But after all the stuff goes down, it's as if he simply gives up showering. If everyone would have looked like him, it would have made sense. As it is, though, you just wince when he comes on screen and think "Jake, man...find a brush! Get ahold of yourself! It's going to be okay!"

I also take issue with how (relatively) civilized everyone remains when there's a food shortage. The men? Yeah, okay, I can see animated discussions and even some protesting. But there was not one scene of a woman screaming at her husband in the throes of hunger, or getting in a fist fight with someone over the last candy bar on the shelf, and I think we all know that the artistically honest thing to do would have been to represent what the truth would be. And we all know what that is, ladies, don't we? (I also kept waiting, while they dialoged about the food shortage, for someone to mention that the town was officially out of feminine articles, and then see the population go to war over THAT.)

Well, anyway...that's what I've been up to.

Smell y'all later.