Astronaut Don Thomas giving a keynote address.
Can you guess what land feature this is? It’s a photo taken from the Space Shuttle. (my photo of a slide presentation)
And, my favorite, the bathroom in the Space Shuttle (my photo of a slide presentation).
Does nobody have a favorite charity that would benefit from some excellent picture books? I’m giving five away - that’s free! - to a charity.
What is up with the library thing book widget thingy? Mine keep disappearing.
Starting today, I’m guiding an ocean literacy class for 3-6th graders at a new co-op. Free curriculum online via Dolphin Quest.
The Newberry award winners have been announced.
Hubby is back from Oregon - being a single parent, for any length of time, is really not fun.
B. came home last night from the library with the third and final book in T.A. Barron’s Great Tree of Avalon series, The Eternal Flame. It is sitting quietly by his bed, and he is not here. I have nothing on my calendar today. I may just have to sneak the book onto my reading stack!
And, while jetting around the web to get a link to Barron’s site, I ran across the news that The Lost Years of Merlin is on it’s way to becoming a film! It’s been some time since I’ve read this book, or the others in the series, but it is phenomenal. My kids love series’ like this, to have the understanding that the end of a book doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the story - until the last one, anyhow. The series focuses on Merlin’s life as a boy, and how he came to be the magician, and would be suitable for kids 8+. In a way, it reminds me of Lloyd Alexander’s excellent Prydain Chronicles.
I wanted to share another little tidbit that I gleaned from the Linda Kane tapes I mentioned last week. She talked about kids with ADHD and how they have trouble focusing. She says that these kids often have a weakness in their macular eyesight ( I hope I’m getting that right – the tapes have gone back to their owner). In other words, their focus straight ahead of them is weaker than their peripheral focus. So, these kids have a tendency to be very easily distracted by any little movement that appears in their peripheral vision.These are the kids who have a hard time looking you in the eye and seem to be ignoring you when you are talking.
Here’s how she suggest to strengthen the macular vision:
Tape a penny to the surface of a large (C or D battery) flashlight, so that it covers the bulb. Holding the flashlight in front of your child’s eyes, turn the light on for three seconds, and then off for ten seconds. Repeat this process for about two minutes. The penny prevents the kids from getting a direct blast of light, but the light itself causes the eyes to exercise as they compensate for the changing light. She suggests doing this twice a day for mild cases, but severe cases can do this as many as 8-10 times per day. She says it may take a month or two to see the focus pull in, but has seen good results.
I ran across this and thought it was fun!
You Know You’re From Hawaii When… |
You can understand and speak PIDGIN english.You go to dinner and “make one plate” with all the extra food leftover. You automatically take off your shoes in people’s homes. You wear rubber slippers to the beach. You eat rice every single day. It’s “shave ice” not”snow cones”. When you know NEVER to turn your back facing the ocean. You know what ukus are and have had them at least once before when you was one little keiki. You’ve been to almost all of the other islands. You get impatient with all of those bikers on the road that came from Haleakala. When someone says to “dress up” it means one nice aloha shirt and jeans. You eat coconuts straight from the shell - and drink the juice. You went to the War Memorial Stadium parking lot to learn how to drive. You’ve worked in the pineapple fields. You know where all the creepy places (like burial sites) are in the island You know you aren’t supposed to whistle at night time, cross your chopsticks, or stick your fork straight out of your rice. You have highlighted hair. You eat Arare. You know what “tutu” means. You learned to play the ukulele in elementary school. It’s SHOYU, not soy sauce. To you, sushi means sushi, not RAW FISH! You eat malasadas You have a billion pairs of slippers in front your door when your family gets together Your house has residue from the salty ocean air. You eat portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice for breakfast. You buy large quantities of toilet paper in case there’s a longshoreman strike. You don’t understand why anyone would buy less than a 20 lb bag of rice… You would serve spam as a meat for dinner… You can taste the difference between teriyaki and kal-bi You know why there are alphabets on trees on graduation day You know what lei day is. You know what the “stink eye” is; and how to give it. You can correctly pronouce kalanianaole, kalakaua and aiea You know what a “Huli Huli Chicken” is. You can name 3 varieties of mangos. You know the difference between being hapa and being hapai You give directions using mauka and makai. You know what it takes to get into kamehameha school. You say, “Nori” not seaweed paper. You say “Brah” not “Bro”. You know why Sharks Cove is called Sharks Cove. Your jokes are about Portugese not Polish. You know what “Morgan’s Corner ” is … (And it still scares you!) You think 70 degrees is freezing cold You call it “saimin” not “Top Ramen” The surf report is on your speed dial… Rainbow Drive-Inn is a special date. You know pineapples don’t grow in trees. When you hear the words “fund raiser”, you know it means Zippy’s Chili You have said “wat, owe you money?”, “karang your alas”, or “dakine” You call public transportation “da BUS” You go to Neiman Marcus “jus fo look” The mainland people no can understand your language. You eat mango with shoyu, vinegar, and pepper You like ume, daikon, and kim chee better than pickles. You never understood why adding pineapple and ham to a pizza made it Hawaiian to the rest of the world You have a separate circuit breaker for your rice cooker You measure the water for the rice by the knuckle of your index finger The condiments at the dinner table are shoyu, ketchup, chili peppah watah, kimchee, takuwan, Hawaiian salt and pickled onion You go to Maui and your luggage home includes potato chips, manju, cream puffs, guri-guri and fresh saimin from Sam Sato’s A balanced meal has three starches: rice, macaroni and bread You call everyone older than you “Aunty” or “Uncle” even though they aren’t related to you Your philosophy is “Bumbai” You are barefoot in most of you elementary school pictures. Your only suit is a bathing suit. You drive barefoot. You feel guilt leaving a get-together without helping clean up. The idea of taking something from a heiau is unthinkable. You’d rather drag out the compressor and fill that leaking tire every single morning than have it fixed. The only time you honk your horn is once a year during the safety check. You can live and let live with a smile in your heart. Nobody is sure exactly where “north” is. Your cousin is Japanese-Chinese-French-Filipino-Korean-Scottish-Portuguese-Hawaiian, plus some stuff too manini to mention You watch your favorite shows “on top the TV” The best cooks all use lots of mayonnaise An approaching hurricane means only one thing - surf’s up, brah! “You like beef” has nothing to do with what’s for dinner Beans are the perfect condiment for ice cream You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Hawaii. |
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For me, reading is the one crucial element of education. If a child knows how to read, he has the ability to learn about anything. Anything! Reading Jen Robinson’s recent post about Jim Trelease cemented that belief, but it also reminded me that there are many kids out there who don’t have access to books, or to adults who will read to them.
It occurred to me last night that I can help in at least a small way. As a participant in the CYBILS, I received review copies of the five finalist books in the non-fiction picture book category. These are brand new books, considered some of the best of 2006 (one is even an award winner, but my lips are sealed until the official announcement is made!).
I’d like to give these books to a charity that reaches underprivileged kids, so I’m holding a contest. Tell me where I can send these books to young children in need. Is it your local women’s shelter? A homeless shelter? A foster care facility? You choose.
Simply leave the charity of your choice in the comments for this post. On February 14th (the day the CYBILS winners are announced) I’ll choose one charity from the suggestions and mail the books to them (U.S. only, please). As an incentive, I’ll also send one of my books (your choice) to the person who nominates the winning charity.
Jen Robinson recently had the opportunity to listen to Jim Trelease, the author of The Read-Aloud Handbook, speak on the importance of reading for children. She has kindly shared her notes from the evening for those of us not in attendance. I’ll include a couple of the highlights (for me) here, but it’s worth a click over to Jen’s site to read the entire post.
“Jim expressed his opinion that it’s a much bigger problem than the school systems can or should have to handle, especially given the size of the deficit in words once the kids start school. He also discussed globalization, and the fact that American kids are going to have to compete not just with other American kids but with kids from all over the world.”
“In reading aloud to six and seven year olds, he cautioned parents not to insult their children by reading aloud from simple picture books that the kids could read themselves.”
“He advocated getting kids the three B’s: books, book baskets, and a bed lamp.”
So, since we’re talking about read alouds, what’s your family’s favorite all time read-aloud (can you pick just one?).
Sprittibee is featuring an excellent piece on her blog that started as a comment resulting from the Dr. Phil homeschooling show.
E: If I can find an electrical outlet, can I use the vacuum to suck up leaves?
Me: Um, no.
