What we've been listening to

Despite losing some conversation time with the kids, I still love what listening to books on CD in the car does for us. They make for nice calm family drives, and it tucks another learning activity into time that was mostly just wasted before.

In the last month we've listened to:

The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, read by Jim Weiss. Short, funny, and full of wonderful language ("he was a man of infinite resource and sagacity"), but the CD only lasted us one day of errands.

Freddie Goes to Florida by Walter R. Brooks, read by Jim McDonough. In this Freddie installment, the animals decide to migrate to Florida for the winter, so it was perfect for the turn to cold weather around here. I like McDonough's reading style, which is not too dramatic or full of silly-voices, and it's a long book so it lasted us for over a week.

The Stones of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston, read by Simon Vance. The Green Knowe series is about a very old house and how the children who have lived there are able to journey through time and have other magical experiences. We've read most of the series out loud in the past, so this installment was nice to find on CD.

Catwings by Ursula LeGuin, was sweet, but very short, so we listened to it all yesterday and today.

Any suggestions? It looks like we will keep on doing this, so we're going to need to find more titles!

Conversations with kids: beliefs

With my kids, the best conversations always happen in the car while we are on our way somewhere. And recently we've been listening to books on CD in the car (which is so lovely, and so restful for mommy while she is driving), which tends to make them not talk (which is lovely when talking = fighting with each other). I had forgotten about the wonderful conversations, however, and it wasn't until today we didn't have a new CD in the car that I remembered what we were missing.

Hypatia was talking about fairies, and I was honestly only listening with maybe 1/4 of my attention. Then Carbon got really mad.

Carbon: "Mom, she keeps telling me about these fairies, BUT FAIRIES DON'T EXIST."

Hypatia: "Yes they do, and if you don't believe in them they'll GET YOU."

A horrible sibling fight was about to ensue. So I intervened with a question:

"Carbon, can you prove that fairies don't exist?" (Empiricists out there, forgive me for asking for proof of something's non existence, which I do realize is incorrect)

He replied that, yes, he could. When challenged as to how he was going to do that, he said he would travel all over the whole world and check everywhere.

Another question for him: "Can you really do that?"

No - no he cannot.

Next I asked Hypatia if she could prove that fairies DO exist. She claimed that she could, on the basis of her being a "fairy expert". So I had to point out that "take my word for it, because I'm an expert" just isn't adequate proof.

So, in fact, no - she cannot.

And that led me to my point, that she could believe what she believes, and he can believe what he believes, and each should respect the other's beliefs while at the same time not feeling compelled to share them.

Perhaps we will need to turn the CD off every now and then, to allow space for these conversations, since captive audiences make for better talks.

Sunday - "active" activities

A member of my congregation recently handed me a 2003 copy of UU World magazine that had an article in it about making Sunday School "boy friendly". The article said that the basic format of most Sunday School lesson plans (read a story, talk about it, do a craft project) was too passive and didn't interest boys as much as girls.

As I was reading this article, I thought about my classes. We have far more boys than girls from the 3rd grade and up, so our classes are very boy-dominated. And yes, we read a story in almost every class. But no, the boys don't seem to mind that. What we do, though, that is good for both boys and girls who are more active or kinesthetic learners, is that we do a lot of games and activities that get the kids up and moving or working with some kind of manipulative (like blocks).

Church and school don't have to be totally passive experiences, and we can learn a lot from active games. There are several good resources out there for classroom games that are actually meant to teach something (like cooperation, listening skills, etc), so we should all be making our classes more active, also-known-as-boy-friendly.

(here is the 1st-3rd grade class making a "web of life" by tossing a ball of yarn to each other)

Won't finish reading - The Great Transformation

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions by Karen Armstrong, is interesting but Huge. I mean, this book is both physically Huge (far too heavy to read in the bathtub or on the treadmill) and spans a Huge topic. The author examines the Axial Age, or the few hundred years that saw the birth of the major religions of today. So it spans the whole world, some very deep religious concepts, and hundreds of years of ancient history.

Since I don't need another book that feels like mind-numbing (although interesting in places) homework, I'm going to send this one back to the library.

A quote from the beginning of the book:

We all look for moments of ecstasy and rapture, when we inhabit our humanity more fully than usual and feel deeply touched within and lifted momentarily beyond ourselves. We are meaning-seeking creatures and, unlike other animals, fall very easily into despair if we cannot find significance and value in our lives.



Other bloggers are saying:

The International Association for Religious Freedom

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Journey Home

Picture Book Post

Lily's Garden by Deborah Kogan Ray follows a girl in Maine through a year of gardening and writing to her grandparents. There is a page for each month, and a little sidebar of facts about different foods or a recipe. It's a wonderful book to start talking about where your food comes from or to inspire some home gardening.


Bird, Butterfly, and Eel by James Prosek, is a lyrical science book about migration and life cycles. A great book for this time of year!


When the Root Children Wake Up by Audrey Wood, is a retelling of the story Sybelle V. Olfers, with new artwork by Ned Bittinger. Although the story would probably fit best in a Spring basket, it portrays the entire cycle of the seasons so it could work at any time. Hypatia is loving books about fairies right now, but she wasn't quite convinced by this one, as she kept asking "are these real fairies?".



Rainy Morning by Daniel Manus Pinkwater, is a totally ridiculous and funny story of an older couple taking in first one animal, then another, then another, then people, on a rainy morning. The book really made the kids laugh.



Clouds by Anne Rockwell, was a selection for our science study about the weather, but it really stood out for quality. I generally like all of Anne Rockwell's books, and this is no exception to that rule. A great explanation of clouds, with great illustrations.

For Veteran's Day

Thank you to all the veterans, and I appreciate and honor that you did your duty. A personal thank you to my husband and my friends who have served in our recent wars in Iraq and Afganistan.

But here is another thought for the day:

Armed for Conflict

When injustice threatened our innocence
we clamped down our breastplate of certainty,
protected hearts aching for justice.

We put on righteousness
as a coat of armor,
sharpened angry words,
thrust spears of judgment.

After the battles we
counted our casualties
mourned our losses,
then cried,
"Peace, peace."

And there was no peace.

-- Stephen Shick in Be the Change

7 Years

9 years ago we met in the National Guard.

7 years ago we were handfasted.

We lost a pregnancy. We bought a house. We had a baby. He was activated and went to Iraq for a year. We had another baby. We dealt with depression, with stress, with lack of money, with long hours at work, with chronic illness.

We comforted each other, we drove each other crazy. We laughed together, we yelled at each other. We had adventures together, and we argued over who should wash the dishes.

A marriage is so many things, and is possibly the most difficult relationship you will ever have. He is the sandpaper of my life, rubbing me into a smoother, wiser, more mature person. And he is the witness who sees the most accurately who I am, as I change over time.

Happy Anniversary, my dear. Here's to many more years of ups and downs and fulfilling our dreams and experiencing the unexpected. Together.