Unschool Days

It's Alive!

2012-01-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

We had a great start to the new science session this week!

Everyone showed their picture of a living thing and tried to answer the question: How do you know it's a living thing??

The most popular answers were that it moves and eats.

This really got us thinking... Do all living things move? Can we think of things that move that are not living things? Is one clue enough to determine if something is a living thing or not? Or do we need to look for more evidence?

Do all living things eat? Maybe not with a mouth and teeth like many animals have... but do they take in nutrients and use energy? Do any non-living things use energy?

Other ideas the kids had: it can grow, it can have babies, it has cells, it breathes (or takes in gases somehow).

Nearly everyone brought in a picture of an animal. This gave us something to talk about. When we think of living things, we tend to think of things that are similar to ourselves. But life is incredibly diverse. We might even find it hard to recognize that some living things are alive at all. So it helps to have some clues to look for.

This was a week of questions. I wanted to give the kids the chance to develop their own definition of an organism. They worked in groups to try to sort a set of samples into three boxes marked living, non-living, or not sure. They used stereomicroscopes to get a closer look at some of the samples, they discussed with their group whether or not the samples did any of the things we'd talked about - growth, movement, using energy, etc. Some of the samples were tricky... are seeds alive? They can grow, but they're not growing right now. Are they dead? What about soil? It's made of some things that used to be alive... What about minerals? They grow, don't they? (Think of stalactites... But is that the same kind of growth that living things do?) And what was that slimy, bluish-green stuff?

Don't worry if your child tells you this week that he or she put the beans in the non-living box. That's ok! I want the kids to have the chance to work like real scientists and just as scientists do, they will be able to change their minds and revise their classifications as we gather more information throughout the session.

Challenge class:

This session is all about understanding how life is defined in biology. What clues do we look for to determine if something is a living thing, an organism?

We generated a list of characteristics of living things by playing Pass the Present. Each time a layer of paper was removed from the present, the kids discovered a new clue that somehow represented a characteristic of living things. It was up to them to figure out which. For example, a matryoshka doll represented reproduction, a battery represented metabolism.

After discussing the characteristics of living things, each group was given a sample of a living or non-living thing. Using the microscopes, chemical indicators, and other resources, each group is now in charge of gathering evidence to help determine whether or not the sample is in fact a living thing. The groups asked questions: Does it do metabolism? Does it have cells? Does it grow?, etc. They made observations and developed their own controlled experimental procedures for testing these questions.

For example, one group is testing yeast. In response to the question: Does it carry out metabolism? they set up an experiment to test for the production of carbon dioxide using the chemical indicator BTB which turns yellow in the presence of carbon dioxide. They prepared one jar with a mixture of yeast and sugar water to which they added the BTB indicator. They also have a control jar with sugar water and BTB, but no yeast. This will allow them to determine if any potential color change is in fact caused by metabolic activity of the yeast. To determine if the yeast has cells, they will examine the cells under the microscope next week. Does it grow? may be answered by observing any change in appearance of the yeast that has been left in the sugar water all week.

This will be an ongoing experiment, and the groups will be collecting and analyzing data over the next couple of weeks. When they've gathered several pieces of evidence they will conclude their experiment and present their findings to the class.

My Egalitarian Kum-Bay-Yah Philosophy

2012-01-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

I love to get challenging comments that make me think andinspire me to write! Here’s a response to a comment on my post “EliminateGifted Segregation?” You can view the original comment, by anonymous, there.

Thanks for your comment, anonymous.

I would never suggest that the kids you consider"gifted" are no different from other kids. Of course they are. Allkids are different from one another. That's exactly my point. All kids areindividuals, and their individuality, their individual strengths and gifts,should be honored and respected by a system of education that challenges andnurtures every one of them.

That cannot be accomplished by a system in which giftednessis so narrowly defined. There are as many ways of being gifted as there areindividuals in the world. Nor can thatbe accomplished by a system in which some gifts are valued over others. How canone person be considered more valuable than another, more worthy of special resources?And, perhaps more importantly, who is given the power to make that distinction,to allot those resources?

Do you think a physicist is more valuable than a dancer? Idon’t. But I would love to see the result of their collaboration – a danceperformance interpreting quantum mechanics? A scientific paper applying physicsto dance?

Diversity is the key to innovation. When we segregatestudents based on a narrow and arbitrary definition of giftedness, we depriveall students of the opportunity to experience strength in diversity, to benefitfrom what each individual has to offer. We teach them instead to resent oneanother’s differences. We teach them to alienate and ostracize. We limit theirexperience of the world, both socially and intellectually.

You refer to some students as “average” or “below average.”What are you basing that on? Test scores? IQ scores? Are you really willing toreduce individual children, whole complex people with feelings and opinions andpassions and ideas, to nothing more than a test score? I find that so sad.

Or maybe you think that people who don’t score well on testssimply don’t have feelings and opinions and passions and ideas? Would you bewilling to walk up to the mother of one of these “average” children and say,“Your child is average. Your child is not gifted”? I’m sure she’d be verywilling to tell you about the many ways in which her child is gifted. They maynot fit in with your narrowly defined notion of giftedness. They may havenothing to do with IQ or standardized test scores. They may have more to dowith aesthetic appreciation, empathy, physical coordination, spatial reasoning,skill with animals or an ability to interact with the elderly. How can wepresume to judge the giftedness of someone else’s child? How can we say that oneability is more important to society than another?

But apart from the question of how giftedness is defined,just the idea that some students are entitled to special treatment due to someinherent superiority seems to me a slippery slope and one that begs close examinationfrom an ethical standpoint.

Yes, gifted people benefit from being challenged - everyonebenefits from being challenged. But Ibelieve that it is possible to challenge students in a setting that alsocelebrates and values diversity. In fact, the more I think about this the moreridiculous it seems that we still define giftedness based solely on thisarchaic notion that academic performance is the sole indicator of potentialsuccess. As we move into a future fraught with environmental, political, andsocial challenges we need more than ever to value and encourage diversity inthought, creativity in problem solving, the ability to work together with allkinds of people, the ability to recognize one another’s strengths and encourageand appreciate individual contributions to solving the problems we face. Ourvery survival as a species hinges on our diversity – both biological andintellectual.

In my science enrichment classes I strive to create achallenging, rigorous and *inclusive* program for everyone. I use fluid,mixed-age, complementary groupings in which different skills and abilities areembraced and utilized rather than ranked, judged, and segregated. Because Iteach homeschoolers, many of whom are allowed to develop their skills at theirown pace, I have a wide range of skills and abilities in the classroom. And itworks great. My kids are constantly developing their many forms of"giftedness." Everyone is allowed to take away from the cooperativeexperience whatever it is that they're ready to take from it.

And yes, I have non-readers, developing readers and veryskilled readers in my classes. And no, if you came to see my class in action,you WOULD NOT be able to tell me who is who. You would see a group of kidsworking cooperatively, contributing equally, sharing ideas, learning from oneanother, and making discoveries.

Finally, I’m not sure why people so often feel the need toresort to name-calling and condescension in order to get their point across. My"egalitarian kum-bay-ah philosophy?" That seems a dismissive and insulting way tosum up a philosophy of life and learning that I have evolved over years ofcareful thought, research, experience, and volumes of reflective writing anddiscussion. I can usually find a more respectful and diplomatic way ofexpressing my opinion. But then, maybe I'm just a more gifted writer than you.

Too Much Pressure!

2012-01-12T06:35:00.000-08:00

A video from my last class session all about air and air pressure...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXDgW57rUuY&feature=youtu.be

Project-based learning and diversity in action

2011-12-13T16:27:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this video promo for High Tech High today, a charter school in San Diego, and it was so relevant to the gifted ed. discussion, I had to link to it here.

Especially poignant is the following statement by Rob Riordan, the president of their graduate school of education.

"There are three axioms of public education in this country, particularly in high schools, and they are that you separate students from each other based on their perceived academic ability, you separate hands from minds, and you separate school from the world beyond. We try to integrate those three things. We integrate students, we integrate the subjects, particularly technical and academic pursuits, and we try to integrate with the world beyond school as well."

This is what education should look like!

Eliminate gifted segregation?

2011-12-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

A commenter posed the following question on my post, Gifted:

Of course all education should be highly quality!! -which,yes, would resemble a gifted classroom. However, are you really advocating getting rid of separate gifted education all together? How does that work when you are 5 and know how to read chapter books, and your classmates are learning their letters? Or you are 6 and can multiply/divide/do fractions/understand negatives and your classmates are learning to count to 100?

I started writing a response, and it turned into its own post. So here it is:

I'm saying that the more we provide all children with the type of progressive education offered to gifted kids (cooperative, constructivist, project-based, whole-child-focused, etc.) the less need we'll have to label and segregate in schools. Eventually, yes, I’d like to see the elimination of “gifted” segregation – when school culture and structure has progressed enough that all children are recognized as gifted.

The current system all too often sets kids up for failure by forcing them to learn according to one set of standards, one model, one philosophy (mainly what Paolo Freire called the banking model of education). It doesn't even attempt to accomodate the vast range of learning styles and personalities present in every classroom or to honor the personal experience of each individual student.

Testing, scoring, grading, and ranking become the focus, and we have the emergence of a culture of competition rather than a community of learners. In such an environment the teachers, the parents - even the students themselves - are conditioned to value and recognize only a very narrow range of abilities and "achievements" – those that are most easily tested and most easily quantifiable.

Your own example - knowing how to read at age 5 - is a good one. Why do we value early reading? Or believe that early reading is any indication of future success? In my experience the age at which a child learns to read has absolutely no bearing on his or her creativity, appreciation for literature, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, ability to reason and solve problems… anything. Some kids learn to read earlier than others. And that’s fine. It’s due to many factors – both environmental and innate. But it’s certainly no reason to label one child as “gifted” and another as not. Eventually they’ll all learn to read, and when they’re 15 years old, I challenge you to tell me which child learned at 5 and which child learned at 9. It simply won’t matter.

I like Malcolm Gladwell’s view on early reading as an indication of giftedness, which I’ve transcribed below from his conversation with Robert Krulwich on RadioLab.

Gladwell: It’s ridiculous. Why do you decide… So, a gifted program says that we identify a child and call that child gifted because of their performance at the age of whatever - 9 or 10 or 11 years old. Why do we care particularly how well a child performs at 9 or 10 or 11 years old? They’re 9 or 10 or 11! They’re a good 25 years from making any kind of substantial contribution to the world. Why don’t we wait? What’s the hurry? And also how do you know? So one child learns to read at 4. One child learns to read at 2 and a half. Right? So what? Why does it matter? Are the things that are being read between 2 and a half and 4 of such incalculable…

Krulwich: No, no, no. It’s the normal parents’ response to –Oh, if he’s reading at 2 and a half, think of the things he’ll do… And it’s just an extrapolation.

Gladwell: But reading is reading! Once you can read… we’re done. I mean it’s not like there’s an infinite scale, and so-and-so reads better and better and better and we can say today of Gladwell that he reads so much better than Krulwich. And that this is what separates the two of us. It’s reading!

Same thing with your math example. Yes, as long as education is just about learning facts and figures, then having different skills than your peers is a problem. Because then you’re confined to a system where everyone is expected to learn the same things at the same time, and it’s a big inconvenience for the teacher if one child is “ahead” in the rigid, prescribed curriculum. This was a huge problem for me when I was in school. The teachers just didn’t know what to do with me. I created a lot more work for them. I had to have separate spelling and vocabulary tests, go to a different room for math, bring books from home because I’d read everything in the library. It’s a problem for the child too because in the traditional banking model of education the child is passive and has no responsibility for creating his or her own learning opportunities. If the teacher is busy with the rest of the class, the child becomes bored. So we point to this particular child, and we say he’s not challenged. He needs something different, something better.

But the truth is that none of the children are being challenged in that environment. They’re all jumping through the same hoops. Some jump through faster than others. That’s no surprise. But they all need something different, something better.

When we realize that education is about the development of children as whole human beings, then we really don’t have a problem any more. Gifted education for every child would mean learning could be both cooperative and highly individualized. Children could be working in small groups on projects they’d chosen themselves. They could be guided by their passions and interests and acquire knowledge and understanding in an organic, contextual way. They could learn to work together with all kinds of different people. They could teach each other, learn from each other. Each child could have the opportunity to contribute his or her personal strengths and skills. Each child could have the experience of being valued and appreciated for who he is. After all, cooperative learning thrives on diversity and the ability to see a problem in many different ways. It would be a lot more like real life – or at least like the real life we’d all like for our children.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-12-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

I realized I forgot to list this under "Social Studies" on my quarterly report!

Back in October Lucia was getting more and more interested in the Occupy Wall Street movement. We'd been following the movement via youtube videos and news reports, but we both decided we'd like to check it out for ourselves. So we went down to Zuccotti Park to have a look. The first thing that struck us as we emerged from the subway at Wall St. was that, had we not been looking for the protesters, we wouldn't have known they were there. On that day they were confined solely to the park, and on Wall St. it seemed to be business as usual.

It was a rainy day, so things at the park were relatively quiet. There was a band playing on the Church Street side and a small group of protesters holding signs along the Broadway and Liberty Street sides. No sooner did we enter the park than we were offered camping equipment and food. We walked around and chatted with a few people. Everyone we spoke to seemed particularly happy to discuss issues and ideas with a young person like Lucia.

We did see people there of all generations, though most were the expected college-age people. There were posters, signs, and tables set up all around the park. We saw sentiments expressed that spanned the political spectrum and covered a vast array of perspectives: pro-government, anti-government and everything in between. There was protest within the protest:

But whatever the message, it was exciting to see Americans actively participating in democracy! It can be frustrating to try to teach a child about democracy in a country where only about half the population even bothers to vote. It was actually easier when we lived in France where the people are so much more vigilant about their rights and so much more willing to go out and make their voices heard. In the seven months we spent in Paris we encountered several demonstrations, and while the regular strikes by the public transit workers can be frustrating and disruptive, it was also reassuring to see that kind of empowerment of the people. Because Americans are notoriously apathetic about their government, it was great for Lucia to see people taking an interest in a positive way.

Since we were downtown, when we got tired of occupying Wall Street, we went over to the Museum of the American Indian and checked out their exhibit called Infinity of Nations. It's a fantastic exhibit of American Indian art and artifacts interpreted by descendants of the artists and artisans who created them.

Then, at Lucia's request, we went for bubble tea!

Then we stopped at the Japanese market and stocked up on mochi. All in all, a good city day.

"Quarterly Report"

2011-11-20T05:40:00.000-08:00

In order to remain "in compliance" with homeschooling regulations in New York State we're required to jump through a series of hoops called 'quarterly reports.' Many parents complain about this mindless, menial labor to produce a document that, I'm convinced, is no sooner filed away than forgotten, never to be read by human eyes, destined for eventual relegation to some school basement broom closet haunted by the souls of homeschoolers past.

But I have mixed feelings about the ritual. Because I'm a born chronicler, let's face it, I'd be writing this kind of thing anyway. I mean, case in point, you're reading my blog. So I actually appreciate the opportunity to reflect on the last two and a half months, to gather all the threads, shreds, and swaths of learning we've experienced and piece them together in some kind of coherent narrative. The problem with that, of course, is that unlike most schoolteachers, I don't presume to know all the learning that has taken place over the past ten weeks, and my coherent narrative is only one version of an incredibly complex story taking place within and around the mind of my child, much of which hasn't even been written yet. I mean, the mere idea that I could ever presume to report on what my child is learning is in complete violation of our core beliefs about education. But, try explaining that to the superintendent...

The opinion of other homeschoolers in my area tends to be that any paperwork submitted to the school district should be as vague and non-incriminating as possible. I've written about this before in a post called Bad Press which explains why I feel it is important to do exactly the opposite.

Anyway, the first quarterly report of the year is due tomorrow, and I just found myself writing this under the 'social studies' section, and I was suddenly struck by an image of the look it might invoke on an administrator's face if anyone actually did bother to read it:

"Lucia has been reading the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. We also watched the film of the same title which tells the story of the years of warfare waged by the American government against the Native Americans, the displacement of the Sioux through forced relocation, and the brutal and systematic efforts of the government to destroy their religion, culture, language, identity, and way of life. "

What? That's not part of the New York State curriculum??

Chemystery!

2011-11-16T06:35:00.000-08:00

I've allowed an entire 6-week class session to go by without posting about it! Here's to catching up...

First of all, a video.

And some news: I've created a separate class for the "big kids" who are ready for a different kind of science challenge. These 9-to-12-year-olds, who all happen to be girls, are working within the same thematic units as the younger kids, but they're ready to take on more responsibility for planning their own experimental procedures and to incorporate more formal math concepts.

For me, the most exciting part of this class is listening in on their discussions about experimental design. As a group they generate a lot of different ideas, and then together they think each one through in order to decide on the best course of action. There are so many decisions to be made. What kind of data do we need to collect? What's the best sample size? How many trials should we do? Which variables need to be controlled for? Designing an experiment provides so many more opportunities for critical thought and contextual learning than simply following a prescribed lab procedure.

Here they are figuring out the percent composition of water in dry popcorn kernels:

And here they are identifying unknown compounds by qualitative analysis:The younger kids are also doing their share of inquiry investigation. Here's one example from this past session.

This week in science we solved the mystery of the stolen cake using chemistry! When the kids arrived they found a crime scene in the kitchen. A cake had been stolen and all that remained were some crumbs and a mysterious white powder. Our very observant science detectives began immediately making suggestions as to the possible identity of the mystery powder: flour? sugar? baking soda? baking powder? When they were told that four suspects had already been apprehended, each with a different white powder on his hands, paws, or snout, they started to narrow down the possibilities. The kids collected some of the mystery powder as evidence from the crime scene to be analyzed in the lab.

First we analyzed some of the physical and chemical properties of the compounds found on each of the suspects. We examined them under the microscope, noting the presence or absence of crystals as well as the shape and appearance of any crystals found. We tested for solubility (which was a new vocabulary word for some of us). We performed an acid test and looked for a chemical reaction. And finally, we tested the compounds with cabbage juice to see if there was any color change.

We discussed that these last two tests dealt with chemical properties - the potential for chemical reaction and change. Then we performed the same set of tests on our mystery powder and compared the results to the compounds found on the suspects and in so doing, we identified the culprit: Chef Rat-a-tat!

Another example:

Our mystery this week was The Enigmatic Egg. The kids were presented with two eggs - one that was sitting at the bottom of a beaker of water and one that was hovering, seemingly suspended in the middle of another beaker of water. Why would one egg float while another sank? The kids had plenty of ideas. Were the eggs somehow different? Was one boiled and the other raw? Was one rotten? To find out we switched the eggs around and found that the one that had been floating was now sitting at the bottom of the beaker. The one that had been sitting at the bottom was now floating. Hmm... So it couldn't have anything to do with the eggs... Must be the water!!

How could we change the water to make the egg float? After some brainstorming, they cracked it! Make the water more dense! By dissolving salt in the water we fill up some of the space with additional particles. This means the water becomes more dense than the egg, and the egg can float! The added challenge was to pour some fresh water on top so it would look like the egg was hovering in the center of the water.

The Role of the Unteacher

2011-10-28T06:04:00.000-07:00

I just had this question from a reader:

I have a question for you regarding an aspect of your unschooling. From what I can tell on your blog, you teach your daughter and other unschool kids a math and science class. How formal is this class? Do all the children have to participate, even if they aren't interested? How do you 'teach' the class, or is it more about devising and letting the children play science/math games while encouraging them to experiment and research for themselves?

And here's my response:

Very good question - I'm always trying to balance my unschooling philosophy with my role as 'teacher'. My daughter chooses to participate in the classes I teach, but most of my students are not actually unschoolers. We know very few people who strongly identify as unschoolers in the area where we live now. So, because the parents may have a different educational philosophy than mine I try to make it clear that my classes are for kids who want to be there. If I have any indication that a child is not really interested in the class, or that the child is being pressured by a parent, then I will discuss it with the parent and let them know that my classes are probably not the best fit for their child at that time. Of course they're free to try it again if the child expresses interest in the future. This has only happened three times so far in two years of teaching over thirty students. There have also been a few students who've decided for themselves to leave the classes as their interests took them elsewhere and then returned later. Because I teach in 6-week thematic blocks it's fairly easy to jump in and out. (Though this is becoming more and more difficult as the classes become more popular.)

The science classes are my way of earning money to help support our unschooling lifestyle. So my goal is to run a sound business and offer something that the community will perceive as valuable. I do sometimes feel pressured to "prove" to the parents that the kids are learning because I want them to maintain confidence in my offerings. Honestly, this pressure never comes from the parents - I think it's mostly self-inflicted and must stem from the echo of my own early understanding of the "teacher" as the person responsible for dictating the learning. Of course I strive to be a different kind of teacher, one who provides opportunities for students to create their own learning.

And ultimately, just as I trust the kids to learn, I have to trust that the parents will see the value in what we're doing in class. And they do - I don't know if you've seen this post, 'How do you know they're learning?'

It contains testimonials from parents on exactly this subject.

So, the classes are set up in a way that allows for the most inquiry-rich, constructivist approach possible. The groups are limited to 8 children, and we meet each time for an hour and a half. This allows plenty of time and space for group discussion, for every child's voice to be heard. It also means I'm not under time pressure to "cover" the concepts I'm planning to introduce - there is room to meander as the conversation or the kids' questions or interests carry us in different directions. But I also emphasize to the kids that working in a group is different than working individually, that when a group of people works together towards a common goal, they can accomplish quite a lot and learn from one another. It's an opportunity. So we always start off classes with a warm-up or focusing activity that allows the kids to transition into the group setting and get ready to work together. Most of these come from books of cooperative games and activities, and I'm always looking for new ones. This is one of the ways in which I'd say my classroom really differs from a traditional classroom. Yes, we're there to learn about a particular subject, but the content really takes a back seat to the group dynamic. In a traditional classroom interpersonal relationships are often sacrificed in favor of a competitive learning environment and "covering" the curriculum. By contrast, in my classroom I always find that learning is enhanced with group harmony.

I do plan each class session around a general topic - the cell, electricity and magnetism, chemistry, etc. (With the exception of last year's Science Fair session during which the kids all chose their own projects and worked on them throughout the session.) And I plan experiments, activities, and games that I hope will illustrate particular concepts. We usually have an informal discussion about the topic. This mostly means I ask questions and allow the kids an opportunity to share what they already know and contribute to the understanding of the group as a whole. Then I set them up with the materials and instructions they need to carry out an activity. For the younger kids, this is the most difficult part because its at this time that I have information that simply needs to be conveyed in order for them to take advantage of the opportunity, and they simply need to listen if they're to know how to safely handle a piece of glassware, how to attach a wire to a battery, how to make a wet mount slide, etc. So I try to set up open-ended questions and activities rather than recipes for the kids to follow - the fewer "steps" the better. Give them the equipment, show them how to use it, let them make discoveries or solve a problem. This allows for more independence, more personal responsibility, and more interesting observations and further questions.

As they're doing this, with a partner or on their own, I move around the room addressing questions, helping manipulate materials, making my own observations, encouraging the kids to make observations of their own. This is my favorite time in class, and in my opinion, the more time we spend on this part, the more successful I have been at planning the "lesson." Then, when everyone has completed the activity, we talk about it. What did you notice? Why do you think that happened? Etc.

We also play a lot of games outdoors that I design to illustrate and reinforce science concepts.

Everyone always loves the games. We do have the occasional bump and bruise, and if a child is not feeling like participating in a running game we can usually either find a special role for that child, or else he or she sits it out.

My Birthday Song!

2011-08-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

Double Puck!

2011-08-07T05:47:00.001-07:00

This summer's Shakespeare intensive was A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play which Lucia knows well after doing much fairy-ing in my production last year. As usual she said she'd be happy with any role, but she'd really rather not play one of the lovers (she'd had enough of love as Miranda in The Tempest last summer), and she'd really like to play Puck! Well, you can imagine her excitement when she found out that not only would she be playing Puck, she'd be playing one half of a doubly devilish, doubly mischievous Double Puck pair with her good friend Athena! With the help of their director Lesley and teen friend and mentor Lachlan, these girls worked out all kinds of great physical humor together and created a great character.

Nick designed the set, and I helped in its execution. All of the actors were marvelous, as usual! It is such a pleasure to watch this wonderful, talented group of young people develop as actors and come together to create a truly entertaining and fully realized show.

Gifted

2011-07-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Last summer I heard Brian Lehrer interview Justin Hudson, a recent Hunter College High School graduate. Hudson's commencement speech had caused a stir by calling attention to the underrepresentation of black and Latino students in gifted schools. Hunter is one of the highly competitive gifted schools in NYC, and its admissions process revolves around one notoriously difficult test. The show segment focused mainly on whether or not the admissions process should be changed to be made more inclusive of gifted minority students and how that change might be achieved. There was discussion of cultural bias in the testing process, the feasibility of considering the whole child rather than just the test score, and the need for more slots at gifted schools to accommodate the ever-growing number of qualifying students.

In other words, most of the discussion was about building a better sieve to more efficiently segregate the "gifted" kids and funnel them into gifted education programs. As usual I'd like to turn this whole discussion on its head. What if we forget about the sieve and find a way to bring gifted education to all kids? Put simply, what if all education could be gifted education?

Having gone through school as an accelerated "gifted" kid I can attest to the value of gifted education. In fact I honestly don't think I would have survived my public school experience without the resources and mentorship available to me through gifted. In my public schools gifted was run as a pull-out program, and I always looked forward to my time there because it meant a break from the monotony of the regular classroom where "working ahead" was often discouraged and I was subjected to innumerable repetitive drill-like exercises on concepts I'd mastered long ago. Gifted was the only place in school where I ever experienced a feeling of autonomy as a student, the freedom to develop my interests, and the academic camaraderie and support of my peers.

Paradoxically, gifted was also the only place where I could feel safe from the verbal and physical abuse of kids who resented my "gifted" label.

At a recent library book sale I happened upon a little paperback called The Gifted Kids' Survival Guide, and for reasons of nostalgia I shelled out the 25 cents and took it home. I found myself wishing I'd had a book like that when I was a kid. There's a section called When You Can't Take the Teasing, and it starts off like this, "According to GTs, one of the worst things about being gifted is the teasing that comes with the label. And there are no two ways about it: When you're GT, you will be teased." I guess that's one way of dealing with the issue - dispel any illusions right off the bat and then provide a list of ineffective coping mechanisms (ignore it, take a deep breath, laugh along, stand straight and tall, etc.).

Or, we could take a closer look at why this teasing (which in my experience ranged from name-calling to outright physical violence) happens in the first place. In regular classrooms the practice of confining children to same-age groupings, stripping them of any sense of personal autonomy, forcing them to do boring, menial tasks all day and then testing, grading, and ranking them according to their performance on those boring, menial tasks somehow never succeeds in fostering a sense of community or mutual respect. Instead it seems to produce an awful lot of young people who are alienated, full of self-doubt, anger, and resentment. And often it's the gifted kids who are the targets of all that anger and resentment. I'm the first to admit that I was grateful for the opportunity to escape the dysfunction of the regular classroom. But maybe there's another solution. Instead of pulling the gifted kids out, why not push gifted education in?

Gifted education takes different forms depending on the specific program, but in general children in gifted programs are given greater choice, responsibility, and autonomy in their education. They are allowed to learn and progress at their own pace. They are encouraged to pursue their talents and passions. They often work cooperatively in groups to solve challenging, real-world problems. They are free to think in creative and unusual ways. They are mentored by supportive and engaging adults who take them seriously. It's a lot like unschooling.

What child would not benefit from that kind of education?

Why should a particular IQ score be prerequisite to being treated as a worthy individual?

Why should we waste time debating the best way to determine which children are deserving of better resources and better treatment in school? If there's a better educational situation available, then all children should have access to it. Reserving the "gifted" label for a select group of students only perpetuates the severe social problems inherent in the current system. Positive learning communities cannot develop until the giftedness of every student is acknowledged and appreciated.

How do you know they're learning?

2011-07-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

While writing my previous post about trust I thought this was a question that should be addressed in more detail, but I didn't want to meander too much. So I'm addressing it here as an addendum to that post. I'd love to hear from more homeschooling/unschooling parents on this. How do you know your child(ren) are learning? Please comment with your thoughts and ideas!

People wonder how we can trust that our children are learning without testing and quantifying. In my experience real learning is neither testable nor quantifiable. Real learning belongs to the learner. It is intertwined with his or her experience in a highly personal and individual way. It may germinate invisibly like a seed beneath the earth preparing for some future emergence. Or it may burst forth in a revelatory rush as the keystone of some grand idea. It is pure arrogance to think that we can judge the quality or quantity of another’s learning.

I trust that my child is learning mostly because she’s a human being, so what on earth else would she be doing? But if that’s not enough reassurance, there are of course other alternatives to testing and grading. Conversation is a great one. Observation is another. A lot can be learned from paying attention to a child’s interests and watching where they lead. I asked some of my students’ parents how they know their children are learning, and here’s what they said:

Usually I do not know if my son is learning anything at the actual time of the "lesson". It is usually several days, weeks, or even months later, when I over hear him talking with someone else (another adult or child), that I will hear him paraphrase so beautifully the information he'd absorbed. At that moment, that, "Wow!" moment, I know he really learned it! And he took that information, processed it throughout his own being, and really made it his own. Homeschooling learning is not on a timetable or carefully laid out schedule- it seems to be as fluid and ever changing as Life itself- as varied and as deep and specific to every human learner as is our soul.

-Rev. Ursula Carrie

mother, homeschooler

I was trying to think of one, specific story that I could share. But Zoe's revelations tend to come throughout the ongoing conversation of our days. When I ask her after class what she's learned, she mostly talks about the activities that you guys did, and I'm not always sure until those later revelations if she's understood the underlying concept that was being explored. There was one time, though, that I remember feeling like your class and mentoring brought about a very specific train of thought in her. I'm not sure how appropriate it is for your post as it took place at the zen monastery's children's program that we attend. They were discussing the various realms of being that zen Buddhists believe in. And at one point, Zoe said that it sounded a lot like a cell! She went on to describe how the different realms could be seen as metaphors for the various parts of a cell, fully illustrating to me that she completely understood and memorized the parts and function of a cell. So there are lots of moments like that on a drive or at the dinner table. So much so, in fact, that I rarely ask her anymore what she did that day in class. I know that she will have gotten something out of the experience and it will reveal itself at some point soon.

-Hillary

I know my son is learning in Holly's classroom because his interest in science isn't idle, it's alive and spills over into his everyday life, from casually bringing up mitochondria as a topic of conversation with a friend to observing a cluster of flies on our patio and developing theories about their bizarre behavior. Curiosity is natural. Educators have the power to develop that curiosity or kill it. When my nine year-old declares that he wants to be either a cellular biologist or work for NASA, I don't need a test score to tell me Holly's classroom is effective!

-Monique

My son Zephyr, who just turned nine, has spent the last year taking science classes, and being tutored, along with Holly's daughter Lucia, in Math. The scope of the subjects covered in science were impressive, but what made it really work, was Holly's wonderful ability of introducing games to demonstrate laws of physics, chemistry and biology. Zephyr's ability to collaborate on experiments with other children, and learn from each other's success and failures, made the process of learning very dynamic. Whilst ingesting a lot of material, Zephyr always seemed to be having fun. The year culminated in a very exciting science fair, where one could see the enthusiasm and excitement her students demonstrated towards their project. Mostly, they showed a deep understanding of their subject, thanks to their individual research and Holly's guidance. At their age, exposure to the various facets of science, in a deep, yet playful way, allows our children to embrace subjects, which can sometimes seem daunting in a regular school curriculum. I believe that this is the way we can hope to generate future scientists.

As for Zephyr's math lessons, in a matter of a months, Holly introduced advanced concepts, by intertwining multiplication, addition, subtraction, geometry, fractions, etc.., and applied real life examples and problems, to illustrate the prevalence of math in our daily life. I was very excited by the progress and the scope of concepts Zephyr was exposed to.

In short, Holly's mastery and love of her subjects, laced with a fun outlook in life, is how she is able to make science and math, so effortlessly accessible to our children.

Karine Hrechdakian

Woodstock, NY

The All-You-Can-Learn Buffet or How learning is a lot like eating your vegetables.

2011-07-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the Virtual Conference on Core Values in response to the question: What is at the center of your classroom? What ultimate goal or question motivates your work in education?

My daughter Lucia was a picky eater. For years her diet consisted mostly of bread, plain pasta, and cheerios. We called it her beige period. During this time she seemed perfectly healthy. Her growth and development were all well within normal range, and she was a happy, curious, intelligent child. There was really no reason to worry. But, as a conscientious parent, I couldn’t help myself. I wanted her to eat her fruits and vegetables. I believed I knew what was best for her, and I believed it was my responsibility to expand her limited diet to conform to USDA guidelines. So I consulted parenting books and websites and read all the advice on getting your child to eat. But these seemed always to revolve around bribery and manipulation. Spoons shaped like airplanes, cutesy snacks served in ice-cube trays, and carrots carved into elaborate animal shapes all seemed perverse ways of both undermining my child’s autonomy and degrading my own integrity. Broccoli florets are not “miniature trees.” Broccoli is broccoli and is inherently valuable as such. I didn’t want to trick my child into eating. I wanted her to choose to eat.

It was during this time that my good friend, who also happens to be a psychologist, gave me the best piece of parenting advice I’ve ever heard, two sentences that changed my life. She said, “It’s your job to put healthy food in front of her. It’s her job to eat it.”

In other words, trust your child.

The picky toddler tricks presented in the parenting magazines might have appealed to me if my intention was simply to get the food into the child. But my intention was greater than that. It was for my child to develop a healthy sense of her own body, of her own nutritional needs, of her own appetite and tastes. Forcing food into a child might insure access to nutrients, but what is sacrificed in the process? I realized that there was only one way I’d ever want to see my daughter eating a varied, healthy diet, and that was if she decided to do so herself. I could provide the food, I could model the behavior, I could support her choices and help create the most conducive environment. But the most important thing I could ever offer her was my trust.

So that’s what I did. It wasn’t always easy, but I trusted my child to make the best nutritional choices for herself. I bore the raised eyebrows when we ordered the dish of plain pasta at the restaurant - Plain? No sauce? No butter? Maybe just a little olive oil? - and then the second round of raised eyebrows when we sent the pasta back after it invariably arrived all speckled green with a garnish of chopped parsley. Yes, plain. Really. No garnish at all, thanks.

For seven years I trusted my daughter, and then, long after I’d accepted that apparently man could in fact live on bread alone, one day just three months short of her eighth birthday, Lucia decided to taste a snow pea. And she liked it. Her beige period was over. She added more and more vegetables and fruits to her list of favorite foods, and she ate them all with gusto – sometimes even with sauce.

So what has this got to do with core values in education? Absolutely everything.

If our goal in education is to shovel a pile of course content into a kid, then the picky toddler tricks might seem appealing. From stickers and prizes to grades and report cards, with the right incentives you can get a child to do the required reading (or at least to hide the peas in her napkin and pretend she did), but you will never nurture a love of reading. Forcing a child to do 20 minutes of reading before bed is no different than forcing her to eat five bites of her sandwich before play time.

But if our goal in education is to allow young people to develop their innate love of learning, then trust is what’s in order. If we wish them to become autonomous, responsible individuals capable of making their own decisions, then we must trust them with autonomy and responsibility. We must let them decide and trust in their decisions.

So that’s what’s at the center of my classroom: trust. I don’t presume to know what’s best for my students. They’re individuals, diverse in every way. I can provide an enriched, engaging, supportive environment. But that environment would be meaningless if I didn’t trust each student to take from it exactly what is appropriate for him or her at any given moment in time. I don’t expect that learning to be identical for all of my students because my students are not identical. And that’s as it should be!

A trust-centered classroom is focused on learning, not on achievement in the traditional school sense. In other words, learning is seen as inherently valuable rather than as a means to an end such as a grade, rank, prize, or promotion. Competition, therefore, has no place in a trust-centered, learning-focused environment. To be “first” in class means someone else must be “last”, and that is utter nonsense. In a trust-centered classroom, there’s enough learning to go around, and all of it is valuable. So there’s no testing, no grading, no ranking. I would no more subject my students to weekly quizzes to insure they’d digested course content than I would subject my daughter to weekly weigh-ins to insure she’d digested her food. Of course each child experiences a sense of achievement at various times in class, but this is recognized on a personal, individual level within the context of her own learning path and is never at the expense of her friends and peers.

For those who are new to me and my blog, some explanation may be overdue here. I am an unschooling parent and a former public high school teacher who currently teaches science classes for our homeschooling community. So I guess you could say I have a unique perspective. It may even seem I lead a double life. But it’s not really as noir as all that. While some might imagine the unschooling philosophy (which grants children autonomy in their own learning) to be incompatible with the requirements of the more structured classroom setting, I’ve found that a constructive dialogue can exist between these two seemingly disparate educational situations. One informs the other, and the synthesis results in the unique learning environment I strive to create with my students, an environment based on trust.

People who are new to the unschooling philosophy often wonder how we can trust our children to make sound choices in structuring their time and learning. I’ve often heard statements such as, “My child would just watch TV all day!” It’s no surprise that statements like this always come from the parents of schooled children. And I have to wonder, if that’s what school is teaching your child, then what have you got to lose? Yes, a child who has never been given the opportunity to take responsibility for her own learning will probably have some difficulty with it at first. But as an unschooling parent and a teacher, let me reassure you. Even the pickiest of toddlers will nourish her own body when trusted to do so. And every child, given the chance, will nourish her own mind. I could regale you with tales of all the wonderful, inspiring ways my unschooled daughter chooses to use her time, but you know what? You’ll just have to trust me… or look through my blog.

Science Fair!

2011-06-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be fun to end the 'homeschool year' with a science fair. So, for my last session of science classes I asked my students each to choose their own project. There were just a couple of guidelines. The students were allowed to work individually or with no more than one partner. And because I really wanted to focus this session on the scientific method I asked that the projects be limited to investigations (rather than models, inventions, or research projects). This would insure that the kids had the opportunity to immerse themselves step by step in science as a process. (Read more about the session here.)With the help of the parents we were able to find the perfect space for our science fair at one of the local libraries. Word got around among the kids, and even before the session started they were swapping ideas and telling me about all their fantastic plans for the science fair. And this enthusiasm endured throughout the session! It culminated in a wonderfully successful fair with twenty-one creative and exciting projects. It was wonderful to see the kids so enthused about their work and thrilled to have the chance to present their projects, to answer questions, and to be the experts.Here is just a sampling of the projects:Savanna built her own barometer and investigated the ways in which air pressure and weather are related.Jayla tested the affects of different liquids on plants.Sophie investigated the eye and vision. Her question concerned stereo vision and how it affects depth perception.
Melody and Melody (no relation) were interested in insects metamorphosis and used mealworm pupae kept at different temperatures to explore the effect of temperature on the rate of metamorphosis. Here they are with their mealworm friends:and, on closer examination,a mealworm pupa (looking like something from the movie Alien):Jake was interested in DNA, specifically in what it looks like. So we did some DNA extractions and investigated the amount of DNA yielded by different kinds of fruits. Strawberries were the most productive, and we found out that most strawberries are octoploid - they have 8 copies of their chromosomes. Maybe that has something to do with it... The white, stringy stuff here is the strawberry DNA:Lucia wanted to see how smart he rats are. She built a maze for them in order to see if they could learn and remember the route. She ran Mallymkun through the maze every morning for eight days, and after the second day we did see a drastic reduction in her time. She went from about 4 minutes to 26 seconds! (Iracabeth, in an even more profound demonstration of intellect, refused to have anything to do with this nonsense and simply climbed out of the maze over the wall every time.)

Declan wanted to build a tornado! When in doubt, google it, and you'll find not one, but many sets of instructions for building various types of tornado models. This was an especially fun project to watch, and Declan devised an investigation having to do with lateral wind and tornado intensity.Falcon and Lion were into building machines. They spent the session constructing a winch with the help of Falcon's dad and devised an experiment testing the force required to lift a load as the radius of the wheel was changed. Lion's mom also helped out in building a lego trebuchet, and Lion investigated how the distance of a thrown object changed when the fulcrum on the trebuchet was moved.Myrna conducted an ant taste test! As you can see in the photo, she's got different food samples arranged in an equidistant semicircle from the opening to a big ant nest in my garden. (They liked the honey the best.)Zephyr conducted (tee hee) a test of electrical conductivity of various materials.And here Sage and Lucia are counting fruit flies for their genetics project: How is the white-eyed mutation inherited in fruit flies?The next one was especially fun because it was edible! Hannah and Irena did an investigation they called 'Crazy Cupcakes'. The question was: What will happen to a cupcake if we leave out the baking powder? the oil? the eggs? Here are the ingredients for each group of cupcakes, all lined up:As you can see, the group all the way to the left is the control group. It gets all the ingredients. One ingredient is missing in each of the next three groups. Here they are mixing up the batters:putting it all in the oven:the finished products, each group looking quite different from the others:and the taste-testers!And of course no science fair would be complete without a volcanic eruption or two! Rodman built two kinds of volcanoes and investigated the relationship between the different types of volcanoes and their different types of eruptions.

Radish Seeds, Gravity, and the Nature of Science

2011-06-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

This session was about the nature of science: what science is and what it is not. Above all I want my students to understand that science is definitely not a collection of fixed facts to be memorized. It is unfortunate that it is so often presented this way in schools. Science is not about fact or proof - those notions are far too static for science. On the contrary, science is active. It is dynamic. A scientist must always be open to new information, to the idea that our understanding of the universe is constantly evolving. Put simply, nothing is sacred in science. And that’s not an easy concept to grasp because it goes a little against human nature.

Science is not biased. But humans are. We have values and opinions and prejudices. We get emotionally attached to certain ideas. We like to hold things sacred and turn a blind eye to evidence that would discount our beliefs. So to effectively do science is to put aside our prejudices and preconceptions and be open to accepting that what we thought we knew might not actually be the case. This is not easy. This takes practice.

Here's an example. During the first two weeks of the session I wanted the kids to have a chance to employ the scientific method in a simple controlled experiment. So I asked them to set up a group of experiments using radish seeds that would examine the requirements for seed germination. One of the questions being asked was, "Does a seed need light to germinate?" I asked the kids to think on everything they knew about seeds, to brainstorm and discuss, and to develop a hypothesis based on their previous knowledge. They all agreed on the same hypothesis: "If a seed does not have light, it will not germinate."

This was rather interesting because of course we're always planting seeds under the ground, away from light, in full anticipation of their germination. But I also knew where the kids were coming from. Seeds are associated with plants and everyone knows that plants need light. So the kids made their hypothesis based on this association rather than on what they actually knew about seeds. I didn't point it out to them at that time because I wanted them to discover it on their own.
The experiment was set up with one group of seeds in the light and one in the dark, and the kids checked their results the following week. Of course they found that both groups of seeds had germinated, and I asked them, "Was your hypothesis supported?"
They said, "Yes!"
I said, "But your hypothesis was that the seeds in the dark would not germinate."
They said, "Yes, that's true."
I said, "But the seeds in the dark did germinate."
They said, "Yes."
I said, "So, was your hypothesis supported?"
They said, "Yes, because the seedlings in the dark have yellow leaves, while the seedlings in the light have green leaves."
So there were a couple of things going on here.
One was that we, as humans, have a strong desire to be 'right'. It is very difficult to accept evidence that does not support our picture of the universe, even when the evidence is right there under our noses in the form of a group of unmistakably sprouted radish seeds. That is a skill, and it needs to be developed just like any other skill.

The other thing going on was the imposition of human cultural values upon the natural world. People like green leaves. So the green-leaved seedlings must somehow be “better” than the others, and this must somehow lend some credence to our hypothesis that the seedlings in the dark would not germinate. But personal preference plays no role in science, and it takes exposure and practice with critical thinking to understand that. This was a good learning experience for everyone.

My biggest challenge this session was convincing the kids that it’s ok if their hypothesis is not supported, that in science it is exciting when we find a discrepancy. It’s exciting to find something unexpected and weird! Science is not about being right or wrong. I said before that nothing is sacred in science. “Well,” you might ask, “what about Einstein? He was a genius, wasn’t he? So everything he did must be considered sacred in science.”

But guess what? NASA is spending billions of dollars to try to prove him wrong. Why? Because any discrepancy would mean there’s new physics out there waiting to be discovered, and it might lead us further towards that holy grail of the unifying theory of everything that would unite relativity and quantum mechanics. In science we like it when stuff doesn’t work because then we get to ask WHY it doesn’t work.

Early in the session one of my students called up and left a message on my voicemail. She said, “Holly, I’ve decided what to do for my science project. I’m going to drop things. It’s kind of a test of gravity.” As you can imagine I just had to save this message, and yes, it’s still on my voicemail. I loved this idea because gravity is considered by most of us to be pretty much an open and shut case. Things fall. What more is there to know? (The truth is there’s just about everything yet to be known about gravity, and NASA is spending billions of dollars on that one too.)

In this case, Zoe had been learning about Galileo and his legendary propensity to drop heavy objects off towers. In her research she’d learned that “all objects fall at the same rate, regardless of mass,” and this was the hypothesis she wished to test. She climbed up to the treehouse and started tossing pairs of objects over the side. Stuffed animals, rocks, acorns, weights… Things did seem to fall at the same rate. Then I handed her a weight and a sheet of paper. The weight fell straight down… kerplunk! …and hit the ground long before the floating sheet of paper lighted lazily beside it.

Zoe looked disappointed. I handed her back the sheet of paper and told her crumple it up into a ball and try the experiment again. This time the two objects hit the ground at the same time. Zoe’s face lit up in an expression of “a-ha!”

“What was different that time?” I asked.

“The shape!” she said.

And in this way we discovered that things do indeed fall at the same rate – until something interferes with their fall, in this case air resistance.

It was a simple and elegant experiment made all the more profound precisely because the hypothesis was not supported.

It reminds me of Uranus. Uranus is another example of things not working out the way they were supposed to and instead leading to an amazing discovery.

According to Newton’s law of gravity and taking into account all the known forces in the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn behaved just as they were expected to. But not Uranus. Uranus seemed to be a nonconformist and exhibited an orbit that deviated from the mathematical predictions. This could mean one of two things. Either Newton was wrong or there was something else pulling on Uranus. Using mathematics, Urbain Le Verrier was able to make sense of the irregularities. After failing to pique the interest of the French Academie des Sciences, he told the Berlin Observatory to point their telescopes at a particular spot in the sky, and Voila! There was Neptune.

More Human Body Class

2011-04-05T16:11:00.001-07:00

week 5
Thanks to nicer weather this week we were able to play our circulatory system relay race/obstacle course game outside! Everyone had fun transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the lungs, jumping from one chamber of the heart to another, walking the balance beams (blood vessels), and knocking blood cells single file through capillaries (croquet balls through wickets). This week we also started talking about the nervous system. We learned about the brain, spinal cord, and nerve cells. Specifically, we talked about the three main parts of the brain and what they're responsible for: the cerebrum - thinking, reasoning, memory, language, and voluntary muscle movement, the cerebellum - balance and coordination, and the brain stem (including the medulla oblongata) - involuntary muscles and basic life functions.
We learned how nerve cells transmit signals to one another to send messages from our environment to our brain and then to carry out the response dictated by the brain.

We played a second game outside to try it out for ourselves. In this game the kids took on the various roles of nerve cells, the brain, the stimulus, and the response. The nerve cells had to pick up the stimulus with their dendrites and then send the stimulus (danger, pain, hot, cold, etc.) along their axon to the next nerve cell and eventually to the brain. The brain had to decide on an appropriate response (run, cry, shiver, etc.) and then communicate that to the muscles.

week 6
We had a nice ending to our Human Body session this week. We continued to learn about the brain and how it collects information from our environment. We learned about the parts of our ears and looked inside each other's ears with an otoscope to location our eardrums.
We also learned about the parts of the eye and how the eye functions.
We dissected a cow eye and identified its sclera, cornea, iris, lens, retina, and the optic nerve. Some of the kids were surprised (and a little grossed out) to find the eye was filled with a vitreous jelly, but they were also awed by the beauty of the choroid coat, an iridescent blue-green layer at the back of the cow's eye that allows the animal to see in dim light. It's the same structure that causes a cat's eyes to glow at night. But it comes at a cost. Cats and cows have more distorted vision than humans. So, while the eye is a complex and fascinating structure, it is far from perfect!

My Human Body class

2011-03-25T10:06:00.000-07:00

We're on week 5 of our human body class, so I'm posting my class summary emails here and pictures for the first four weeks. And here's a video from last week's class about the circulatory system which includes our sheep heart dissection:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE69Ch0sybA

Week 1
We had a nice start to our human body session this week.
We talked about how our bodies are a system made up of a collection of other systems. We discussed examples of systems with which we're familiar (solar system, postal system, systems in machines, etc.), and we defined a system as something made up of parts that work together or influence each other in some way.
Each week we'll be focusing on a different system in our body.
This week we looked at our musculoskeletal system. We played a game in which we learned some of the names of our 206 bones and tried to see how many we could remember. See if your child can locate the patella, femur, humerus, mandible, cranium, ulna, and vertebrae, for examples.
We also talked about muscles and how they work in teams. We took turns at being muscle teams by working with a partner to try to raise a big exercise ball off the floor without using our hands. This required some coordination with our partner and mimicked the way that muscle teams must be coordinated in the body.Finally, we built a model to show the relationships among all the parts of the musculoskeletal system in our arm. The three bones are the humerus, radius, and ulna. They are connected with a type of joint called a hinge joint. The balloons represent the biceps/triceps muscle team that is responsible for one type of arm movement. When the biceps contracts, the arm bends. When the triceps contracts, the arm extends.
Week 2
This week we studied the digestive system!

We identified the parts of the digestive system and found their approximate locations on our own bodies. We discussed the muscle movement that keeps food moving the right way through our digestive system: peristalsis, and we played a game in which two teams raced to be the first to send a bowl full of food (plastic eggs) through the digestive tract (pantyhose) by squeezing the eggs through - mimicking the action of peristalsis.We learned that there are two parts to digestion - mechanical and chemical, and we talked about where and how each of these happens. Our teeth are the first site of mechanical digestion, and the job they do is very important. So we also each bit into a piece of clay to create a mold for a plaster casting of our teeth. These will be coming home next week...

Finally, we made our own stethoscopes in order to listen in on all the noises of our very active and healthy digestive systems. The stethoscopes work very well as long as the room is quiet, and they're also great for listening to the heart.

Week 3
We started class off this week by reviewing the parts and function of the digestive system. One student's family gave us the organs from some of the meat rabbits they've raised. So we were able to identify and examine these in the best way possible, by looking at the real thing. We learned about some of the differences and similarities between the rabbit's digestive system and ours. (Thank you Randi!)We also talked in general about the use of animal organs in class. I explained to the students that we'll also be dissecting a sheep heart and a cow eye in the weeks to come and that we must always approach the use of animal organs in class with a sense of respect and gratitude for the life of the animal and for the learning experience they've provided us. The children were all very respectful, attentive, and gentle when examining the rabbit organs, and they asked some great questions and were able to identify all of the parts of the digestive system that we learned about last week. We were also able to see the trachea, heart, and lungs of the rabbit which led nicely into this week's and next week's topics: the respiratory and circulatory systems.

We then learned the names of some of the parts of the respiratory system while coloring in a diagram in our booklets. Ask your child to locate their trachea, larynx, bronchial tubes, lungs, and diaphragm.

We also made a model lung. I'm sure you've all been shown how it works, but the balloon stretched over the mouth of the jar represents the diaphragm. Push in on it, and air is expelled from the lung. Release it, and air enters the lung - just like in our own bodies.Finally, we spent some time with the stethoscopes and listened to each others' lungs.Week 4:
In science class this week we learned about the circulatory system. We talked about the parts of the system: the heart, blood vessels, and blood. We also learned about the different components of the blood and, with some help from They Might Be Giants and their song: The Bloodmobile, we learned about all the things carried around the body by the blood: oxygen, waste, hormonal messages, nutrients, and cells of the immune system.
I'd wanted to set up an obstacle course/relay race outdoors to help the kids learn all about the route that the blood takes through the body, but the weather did not cooperate. So I set up a much scaled-down version inside. It was sort of like a giant floor map of the circulatory system, and the kids had fun walking through it in the role of blood cells, gathering oxygen at the lungs, getting pumped through the chambers of the heart to all the cells of the body, and so on.We also did our sheep heart dissection. This went very well. Everyone was able to identify and examine all of the major structures of the heart: the aorta, the pulmonary artery, the auricles, the left and right atria, and the left and right ventricles. We also located and examined the valves of the heart that keep blood flowing in the right direction.

Learning Through Games

2011-01-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

The research on multiple intelligences is fascinating, and it sometimes becomes clear when working with a child that he or she does favor one learning modality over another. But I think the biggest lesson to be learned when considering multiple intelligences is simply that there are many different paths to learning for each of us. We all possess multiple intelligences, and therefore it's important to provide a holistic menu of experiences and activities and to present information in many different ways. Our awareness tends to focus most on visual and auditory information, but really we're constantly taking in information with our whole bodies. It's surprising to me that the kinesthetic, whole body experience is so often overlooked in education.

I like to design moving-around-games to illustrate concepts I'm teaching in my science classes. The kids love the chance to run around and have fun while reinforcing vocabulary and ideas. Here are a few of the games I've designed - with photos and/or video when available.

The Rain Game (or the water cycle game)
These photos are from 1998! They were taken when I was working as an Americorps volunteer in the Adirondack mountains of northern NY. As part of my service I organized an after-school nature club. On one rainy day I developed this game with the kids in the gym. The idea is to illustrate the water cycle. One student (or more depending on the size of the group) plays the part of the sun. Two or more students (again depending on the size of the group) hold hands in a circle at one part of the playing field. They represent a cloud. The rest of the students are water droplets or water molecules - depending on the vocabulary you want to use. You can make placards for the students to wear to show who they are, or you can use different colored bandanas, etc. The game is played like a version of tag. The sun runs around and tries to tag the water droplets. When a water droplet is tagged it "evaporates" and runs to the cloud. Once there it "condenses" by entering the circle formed by the cloud kids. When enough kids have condensed into the cloud, the cloud becomes too heavy and full of kids. The cloud kids can no longer hold them in, and the cloud bursts - precipitation! There is no winner or loser in this game - it's just really fun to get squished together in the cloud and see how many kids the sun can tag before precipitation happens.

Density Column Game
This is a really versatile game. It can be used to reinforce anything that goes in a specific order - the order of the planets from the sun, musical notes on a scale, etc. I used it recently to reinforce the idea of density. We'd made density columns in class by layering liquids of different densities in glass jars. Then we played this game to review the order in which the liquids arranged themselves by density. Each student got a placard to wear around his or her neck with one of the liquids taped to it - not sure if you can see in the video, but I actually taped a small vial filled with each liquid onto the placard as well as writing its name so that this game can be played both by readers and not-yet-readers. The kids wore the placards backwards - hanging down on their backs - so they did not know which liquid they had. Then, without speaking or making any sounds, they had to organize themselves in the correct order, from most dense to least dense. This game is fun because it really requires everyone to work together and help each other out. Since the kids can't tell for themselves where they should be, they need to rely on their friends to get them to the right spot, and they need to do the same for the others. I also used this game when studying chemical reactions - some of the kids had the reactants, and some had the products, and they had to organize themselves with reactants on one side and products on the other.
Watch the game in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZTTvsBRdQw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Subatomic particles game
In this game the field is divided in half using a rope or other marker on the ground. Each half represents an atom. In each atom, two students represent the nucleus of the atom, one represents the protons and one represents the neutrons. These two have one leg tied together so they are fairly immobilized and have to move as a unit. The rest of the students are electrons. Because electrons are fast and mobile, they can run around as much as they want within their own side of the field, orbiting their atomic nucleus. Meanwhile the kids in each nucleus have a set of small bean bags and try to 'steal' electrons from the other atom by throwing the bean bags and tagging the running electrons. If an electron gets hit with a bean bag, he or she must move to the other atom. The game is timed, and at the end of the allotted time, the atom with the most electrons is victorious. Because the nuclei eventually use up all their bean bags by throwing them at the other atom, the electrons also have the responsibility of gathering up the bean bags on their side and keeping their own nucleus supplied with bean bags.
Watch the game in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZtQMdCib94

Photosynthesis Relay Race
Unfortunately I have no photos or video of this game in action, but I'll try to describe it in detail. There are four large bowls spaced out around the field. One bowl contains water molecules, one bowl contains carbon dioxide molecules, and one bowl contains photons. These are represented by models made from legos, pixel blocks, or some other kind of interlocking building blocks that come in different colors. It's important that each atom in each molecule is represented by a separate block, and it's important to color code them. For example, I used pixel blocks, and I used blue to represent hydrogen, white for oxygen, and red for carbon. The pixel block molecules can be pulled apart and separated into their constituent atoms. Here is a picture of three carbon dioxide molecules and three water molecules.Photons are represented by single yellow blocks:
The fourth bowl is empty at the beginning of the game and represents a chloroplast. The students are divided among the bowls so that there is one kid per bowl. Or, if you have at least eight kids and want to make it a race you can form two teams and two sets of bowls. The student at the chloroplast bowl is stationary. It's her job to convert the carbon dioxide and water she'll be receiving into glucose. The student at the water bowl represents the roots and stem of the plant or the xylem vessels, depending on how technical you want to get. It's his job to carry water molecules to the chloroplast. The student at the carbon dioxide bowl will provide the chloroplast with carbon dioxide - you could call that student the guard cells of the leaf or simply the air moving into the leaf. The student at the photon bowl represents the rays of the sun or the light energy moving into the leaf. This student will carry photons of light to the leaf.
When the game begins, the water, carbon dioxide, and photon students must begin to run back and forth carrying their molecules or photons to the chloroplast. They may only carry one at a time. The chloroplast student must begin to disassemble the molecules and reassemble them to create a molecule of glucose. The glucose molecule must consist of 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms, and 6 oxygen atoms like so:
The shape of the structure is not what's important in this game, merely the proportion of each element present in the glucose. The chloroplast cannot begin this process without some light energy, so you can decide ahead of time how many photons must be collected along with the necessary number of carbon dioxide and water molecules. When the student has completed a glucose molecule and has collected the agreed upon number of photons, the game ends. If you're playing with two teams, the first team to build a glucose wins. If playing with one team, you can time each round, and the students can shift roles and try to beat their own time.

The nice thing about this game is that when the student has finished building a glucose molecule he or she should notice that there's a lot of oxygen left over. This oxygen comes from the splitting of water, just like in real photosynthesis.
Another nice feature is that depending on the number of kids playing you may be able to model limiting factors or limiting resources. For example, if you have five kids, you might have two of them working as guard cells allowing carbon dioxide to pass into the leaf. But if there's only one student delivering water, you may find that photosynthesis cannot proceed any faster than if there was only one student carrying carbon dioxide. This is because the water is a limiting factor in that situation. The excess of carbon dioxide doesn't help if it's not balanced by the necessary water molecules.

Gauss rifle
There's a lot of play that can happen with physics. For this past winter session it was not feasible for us to play running games outdoors each week. But I still brought plenty of kinesthetic, whole body play into the classroom to illustrate concepts in electricity and magnetism. These are photos of our Gauss rifle, a magnetic linear accelerator that the kids used in setting up their own shooting gallery. They took turns taking aim and knocking down various toys while learning about potential and kinetic energy, magnetic force, transfer of energy, and acceleration.

RATS!

2011-01-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of pictures of our new babies. The platinum agouti girl (aka the white one) is Mallyumkun, and the rose grey badger girl (with the nose stripe) is Iracabeth - both named for characters in the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. They are very sweet and friendly, and Luna is in love.

For those who've heard the Radio Lab episode Laughter, I can confirm - they do in fact giggle when their bellies are tickled.

Remembering my grandma

2011-01-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

My Grandma Stella died last week. She was 95 years old. This is the eulogy I wrote for her.

I’m a terrible bowler. Some things are just not genetic. But some of my earliest memories were forged in bowling alleys – the hollow impact of ball and pins, the smell of shoes and floor polish, the marbled surfaces of the bowling balls all in rows, and the satisfying clack of ball against ball when you rolled them gently on their rack. I spent a lot of time in bowling alleys as a child – because I spent a lot of time with my grandma. For me, the great echoing cavern of the bowling alley was like a second womb, and to this day I’m surprised by the comfort I find in those same sights, sounds, and smells. They are memories of my grandma.

Grandma was a fantastic bowler. She was skilled, confident, and determined. But it wasn’t really so much about the bowling. She loved what she did because she loved the people with whom and for whom she did it. By the time I came along she had a room full of bowling trophies, and I used to enjoy examining the gold-painted plastic figures atop the tallest ones – neat little ladies in short skirts forever hurling their miniature bowling balls into thin air. But each little plastic lady could just as easily have been sculpted into any number of other poses – preparing a meal for her family, comforting a grandchild, caring for her ailing husband, helping her siblings with one thing or another, laughing with her friends – because everything my grandma did she did with the same skill, confidence, determination, and love that I saw at the bowling alley. And she deserved a room full of trophies for all of it.

Throughout my life my grandma taught me many things. As a child she taught me that a home could be safe and stable, a refuge, a place where I always knew what to expect – calm, gentle words, kind, patient hands, fresh strawberries and cream, heated games of Rack-O, Norwegian expletives, plenty of kitsch, and plenty of love.

She taught me about devotion. I watched her care for papa over the years as he became increasingly debilitated. I don’t remember her ever complaining. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she had. It was a lot of hard work and responsibility. But she took it in stride, never questioning her role, and always took pride in making sure he was comfortable and had everything he needed.

She taught me what it meant to love unconditionally. She held me close and precious, not because of anything I gave her or anything she expected in return, but because of who I was just then, just now, because I was always perfect at every moment in her eyes. Everyone should be so lucky as to feel that kind of love.

Because later she lived so far away, my grandma and I talked on the phone a lot. There were a number of times when I’d pick up the phone, dial her number, and get a busy signal on the line. A few minutes later the phone would ring. “I just tried calling you,” she’d say, “and it was busy.”

“That’s because I was calling you!” I’d say. And we’d laugh.

Some people might take that as evidence of some kind of psychic link between me and my grandma. But I believe the real explanation is much more mundane – and much more beautiful: We were thinking about each other. We did that a lot. And even though she was so far away, she was still so present in my life. The eleven hundred miles between us was eleven hundred miles of love, and we traversed it often in one way or another. She taught me that distance was no match for us.

I was away in France with Nick and Lucia when grandma moved into the nursing home. I’d been told that she no longer recognized most people and that I should be prepared for that when I saw her again. But to be honest, I didn’t really believe it. A reality did not exist for me in which my grandma didn’t know me and wasn’t thinking of me and remembering all the things we’d shared. As soon as we returned from France we went to visit her, and as we walked into her room she looked at us, her granddaughter, her great-granddaughter, those she’d loved so strongly for so long, those to whom she’d given so much, and she said, “Hello. Who are you people?”

For me, that was the first time she died. I was devastated. But then, slowly, she began to resurrect herself. It was true, she couldn’t name us, couldn’t use words to say who we were or how we were related. But her eyes and her smile told a different story. She wanted us close. She wanted my hand. She stroked my arm the way she always had before. She was playful with Lucia and listened to her sing and marveled at how smart and talented her great-granddaughter was. She called her a ‘smart cookie’ just like she always had. In so many ways it was like nothing had changed. I learned something that day. I learned that relationships exist on many levels and in many places inside of us. Even then, she was still teaching me things.

I don’t believe in an afterlife in any traditional religious sense. I believe that each of us as individuals bears the responsibility of making some meaning of the time we have on this earth. My grandma did that through nurturing relationships, through caring for family, through her expressions of unconditional love. I believe that my grandma lives on in the lessons I’ve learned from her, the lessons we’ve all learned from her. I believe that her spirit is present in the actions we take, simple actions that are informed by those lessons every day – acts of love and devotion. And as long as we pass on these same lessons to our children and grandchildren, then grandma will always be with us.

Happy Pup Club Spreads the Cheer

2010-12-11T06:28:00.000-08:00

The Happy Pup Club was invited to a local nursing home the other night to assist with a dog agility and therapy dog presentation. They helped by petting, holding, herding, and otherwise loving the dogs and by acting as human agility equipment! They even chased one naughty pup down the hall and quietly retrieved her from the room of a sleeping resident.The girls were also given some time to do "anything they wanted" for the residents. So they choreographed a little song and dance routine to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The residents really enjoyed having them, and the dog group has asked them to come back every month and help out some more.

To Send or not to Send -or- No, no, no. Science is NOT a Religion!

2010-11-26T14:28:00.000-08:00

The Woodstock, NY area where we live boasts a great variety of spiritual resources. We're within a ten minute drive of not one but two Buddhist Monasteries (one Zen, one Tibetan). We've got a Sufi center, a wise woman center, all manner of shamanism, channeling, herbalism and spiritual healing classes, groups, and practitioners. We've got Wicca, yoga, reiki, tai chi, qigong, transcendental meditation, and more homeopathy than you can shake a stick at (if that's your idea of a good time). In short, it's a new-age paradise.

Far be it for me to judge another's spiritual pursuits. If it makes you happy and it doesn't hurt anyone else, have at it. I'm of the opinion that many of these traditions do have something of value to offer the critical thinker. After all, they've each emerged through an evolutionary process of human thought and creativity, and hey, humans are some of my favorite people. No one can dispute that Christianity, for example, has caused a hell of a lot of violence, injustice, agony, and death. It's also inspired some of the most impressive architecture, artwork, and music in existence. It would be foolish to dismiss any tradition in its entirety. But it would also go against my natural inclination toward rationality and individuality to subscribe wholeheartedly to a set of values or rules created by others. Still, I love learning about others' belief systems. I love discussing them. I find the variety of human musings on the universe beautiful and fascinating. We're a fantastic species.

But, as a scientifically minded person it can be difficult to live in a place where science is so often overlooked in favor of faith. I am definitely in the minority here. So I often find myself biting my tongue or else employing every ounce of diplomacy while asserting my own viewpoint. People tend not to like it when you question their perceptions of the universe. But then, that's what science is all about, isn't it?

Nevertheless, I was recently at a party with some wonderful people and engaged in a great conversation. It was one of those discussions that really rekindles your faith in humanity. Everyone was contributing in a thoughtful, respectful way, and we'd spanned the topics of racism, patriarchy, gendercide, environmental awareness, and personal responsibility for the common good. We were pretty damn near solving the world's problems and ushering in a new golden age of peace and harmony when someone in the group made the following statement: Science is just another religion.

If for some reason you were searching for a single statement that would simultaneously attack every one of my core values and challenge the very essence of my identity, well, you really couldn't get any better than that. The thing is, I knew at the time that this person was ignorant of the far-reaching implications of her statement. So I tried to explain to her why it wasn't true. She became incensed, her husband joined in, and it became both impossible to express my views and obvious that they weren't listening anyway. Because I didn't have the opportunity to explain my perspective, the conversation kept knocking around in my head for a couple of days afterward, and because I'm a total nerd, I sat down and wrote a statement on the subject. I wrote it in the form of a letter to the couple, but after writing it I decided not to send it because I have it on good authority that most people don't bother to sit down and write a four-page letter explaining the difference between science and religion, and they'd probably think I was nuts. But that's what blogs are for! So, here it is - my manifesto on why science is NOT just another religion.

First of all, it’s my interpretation that your position is rooted in a healthy distrust of “the establishment.” I’m with you that far. It is certainly important to think critically about anything that we are taught in school. But the fact that science is taught in school does not necessarily define it as part of the establishment, and I do not consider it to be so. The freedom to think scientifically, to approach the world in a non-religious way, is a relatively recent and hard-won freedom and one that must be defended. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. There are religiously motivated groups in the United States and around the world that would like to strip us of one of the main rights upon which our nation was founded, namely freedom from religion. This is especially crucial for women who throughout history have been overwhelmingly victimized and oppressed by social structures that favored religious dogma over reason. On the night of our discussion, we’d just been talking about the witch trials that claimed the lives of nearly a hundred thousand women over the course of four centuries, continuing well into the 18^th century when they were finally ended (at least in Western society) by collision with the Age of Enlightenment and the emergence of scientific thought. So while it may seem to some that science is the accepted standard of the day, the reality is that science as a socially accepted framework for describing the universe has only existed for about a hundred years, and that social acceptance, especially in the United States, is quite precarious. For fear of backlash from the religious community, Charles Darwin sat on his theory of natural selection for thirty years before publishing it. That was in 1859, and even today only 35% of Americans accept the idea of human evolution. It is the religious establishment that controls the hearts and minds of the majority of the population. So no, I would not equate science with “the establishment.”

Nor would I equate all kinds of religion with the religious institutions that would threaten personal liberties. I understand those distinctions. But even so, it is important to uphold and protect science as an external, independent framework outside the realm of religion, a neutral and rational standard against which to measure our actions as a society. I would not board an airplane that’s flown on faith, I would not submit to the authority of religious law, and I would not trust the treatment of type I diabetes to a faith healer.

Next, I think part of your argument for science being a religion was the idea that in order to employ a scientific framework in understanding nature, one must accept certain premises upon which the framework is built. This is true. But this is true for every human conceptual framework. Law, language, mathematics, science, music, art, and religion are all built upon premises. Our legal system relies upon the precept that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. This precept, like many others is arbitrary and culturally derived and must be agreed upon and accepted by those practicing law, but it does not rely on faith, and I don’t think you’d classify law as a religion. Nor do I think you’d classify language as a religion. Yet it too relies upon the acceptance of the idea that an abstract symbol printed on a page can represent a sound created by the human body. Would you classify music as a religion? All systems of music rely on the premise that sound waves traveling at particular frequencies produce particular notes.

So all conceptual frameworks require a starting point, but having this in common does not define them as religions. The definition of religion goes beyond accepting premises. In religion these premises must be of a supernatural variety. Religion requires belief in the supernatural. Law, language, mathematics, science, music, and art do not.

Science depends on the acceptance of certain definitions developed by the scientific community. However, these definitions differ from religious doctrine in that they are acknowledged to be arbitrary human distinctions imposed upon nature for the purpose of convenience and ease of communication while engaging in its study. The example that you brought up is that a cell is defined as the smallest unit of life. You may say that I am taking this on faith, but my understanding of a cell does not rely on anything supernatural. A cell is the smallest unit that carries out all of the functions which we as a community have agreed are the criteria for classification as a living thing: growth, reproduction, processing of energy, etc. Some people believe that rocks and water and crystals are alive. But this idea does not conform to what the scientific community has defined as a living thing and is therefore invalid within the scientific framework. I suppose we could shift our definition of a living thing to include … anything, but what purpose would that serve in understanding the universe? What then would distinguish a living thing from a nonliving thing?

You may reply that it must then be the definition of a living thing that is being taken on faith. But it’s not. In making definitions we’re imposing categories on nature for our own convenience, but these categories are based on what’s there already. We’re inventing the categories as a way to communicate about the stuff, but we’re not inventing the stuff itself. There’s a fundamental difference between saying, “OK, let’s say that the living things are the things that we’ve seen growing, reproducing, processing energy, etc.,” and saying, “OK, let’s say the living things are the ones that have been created by god.”

Upon reading a scientific statement I may not always be in a position to assess, at an immediate and personal level, the validity of that statement. But there is an important distinction to be made here between a scientific statement and a religious one. The scientific statement could be objectively assessed if I were in possession of the appropriate knowledge and resources. If I wanted to assess the validity of the evidence in support of Big Bang theory, another of your examples, I could go to an observatory to look at the red shift of galaxies receding from ours at a velocity directly proportional to their distance, evidence of an expanding universe. I could go to NASA and check out the four years of data currently being analyzed from COBE, the cosmic background explorer satellite that collects observations of cosmic microwave background radiation, predicted in 1948 as evidence of the evolution of the early universe and discovered by radioastronomers in 1964. Using spectroscopic techniques I could conduct my own assay of the relative abundance of hydrogen and helium in the observable universe. These are all objective processes available to anyone.

Assessment of a religious statement, on the other hand, can only happen through such subjective processes as intuition, emotional experience, gut reaction. I’m not saying this to devalue religion (though I may devalue religion in some other regards). Most truly religious people take pride in this intangible quality of religion and value their faith above all else, for central to the concept of faith is that it must be felt on an intuitive level and cannot be assessed by reason. If it could, then it would be immediately ejected from the realm of faith and land squarely within the realm of science. I guess part of my confusion about your position of equating science with religion is that faith is the cornerstone of all religion. The ability to believe in something without scientific evidence (or even in the face of evidence to the contrary) is the true test of one’s religious convictions. Why would anyone who values faith want to include science under the umbrella of religion? Doesn’t it undermine the whole essence of faith to suggest that it be subjected to scientific inquiry?

On the very subject of faith, or “belief” I think another of our problems lies in differences in our respective use of language and the implications of certain words within each of our rather different cultural and intellectual contexts. For example, it seems to me that we have differing views on the use of the word “believe”. Of course I’m not referring to the use of the word colloquially but rather as it is used in the contexts of science and religion. In my experience, “belief” implies an acceptance of something supernatural, that is, something that lacks the ability to be disproven by scientific inquiry. Belief, in other words, has to do with faith. I would never say, “I believe in plate tectonics,” or “I believe in natural selection.” It wouldn’t be appropriate. I don’t need to “believe” in these things because they don’t occupy a supernatural realm, but are firmly planted within the realm of nature. I can examine the physical and experimental evidence for natural selection, the enormous body of detailed, replicable data supporting it as the mechanism for evolution (such as the fossil record, physical homologies among species, adaptive radiation, viral mutation, etc., etc.), and based on this I can conclude that natural selection is the simplest, most elegant, and most likely mechanism for evolution. To me, that’s very different than “believing” in it.

One of the reasons I make that distinction is that I didn’t have to take anything on faith in order to come to that conclusion. Another reason is that in science, one must always remain open to the incorporation of new information which may require a shift or a whole reconstruction of our framework of understanding. A good example is human evolution. We’re constantly finding new fossils of previously unknown ancient hominids. And every time it happens we have to adjust our family tree. No one in science has ever said, “This is it. We’ve got the family tree, and we’re not going to change it again, I don’t care what new skull we dig up tomorrow.” No. That is entirely contrary to the spirit of science. (And I’m using “spirit” here to refer to intellectual vitality and enthusiasm, not to disembodied entities). On the contrary, it is entirely antithetical to the spirit of religion to allow one’s faith to waver in the face of intellectual challenge. While faith can be shaken, by definition true faith will not yield to new information. Thousands of religious martyrs have died in all sorts of gruesome ways to uphold that basic tenet of religion.

One of the most controversial topics in physics today is string “theory,” and I put the “theory” in quotation marks because, while mathematics has yielded compelling evidence for its validity, it is currently neither predictive nor testable and therefore does not meet the criteria for theory status among the scientific community. Instead, it must be viewed as a mathematical framework rather than a physical theory. (And contrary to your assertion of the unity of science and mathematics, these are not considered to be the same thing, though they have a close relationship.) And here again, the most defining difference between science and religion: Science does not require anything to be taken on faith. We don’t say we “believe” in string theory. It’s simply not appropriate vocabulary to use in a scientific context. We say it’s a fascinating and compelling set of ideas, and until we can actually test it we’ll keep working on it and exchanging information about it and see what else it yields.

Lastly, I’d like to address an implied and offensive suggestion that so often underlies these conversations about science and religion, which is that a person who approaches the world from a scientific perspective must be spiritually or otherwise limited. True, I do limit my conception of reality… to reality (i.e. nature). But what self-proclaimed spiritual people often neglect to see is that nature holds within its bounds more source for fascination, inspiration, and wonder than even the most intricate and complex religious doctrine could ever hope to hold. This is because nature as a whole is bigger than us and older than us. It exists regardless and in spite of us. We are its children. Religion, on the other hand, is smaller than us. It is our child, evidenced in its inherent anthropocentrism alone.

I am an atheist, and I take great spiritual comfort in nature and the knowledge that I am linked to every living thing on earth through the legacy of millions of years of evolution and that all the atoms in my body have traveled throughout the universe to converge by random chance at this very moment within me. I love that on a molecular level I am being constantly reinvented. I see religion as a cultural expression of our early observations and questionings of nature, and I really don’t mind it when people use religion as a means of creative expression or to enhance their experience of the world. What I do mind is seeing religion being used as a way to escape the world, as a crutch, or as an excuse for abusing or repressing others. Unfortunately I see this a lot.

If spirituality means belief in human-centered supernatural things, then I neither need nor want any part of it. However, I have a broader, more open-minded definition of spirituality. To me, spirituality means creativity, intellectual passion, and engagement with the world. I think it may be possible to achieve a spiritual nature through the practice of religion. I know it is possible to achieve a spiritual nature through the practice of science. This is perhaps the only common ground between the two.

In sum:

Science is an intellectual framework for learning about nature. It requires observation, objectivity, skepticism, experimentation, the ability to replicate results, and the ability to adjust conceptual frameworks to incorporate new information. Science does not deal in faith.

Any religious framework requires belief in the supernatural, whether it be god(s), spirits, mysterious immeasurable energies, psychic abilities, or anything else falling outside the realm of predictability or testability. Religion is by nature subjective for it does not require replicability. It denounces skepticism, encourages the acceptance of ideas that cannot be tested, and it overwhelmingly ignores new information that would challenge its system of belief. Religion is all about faith.

History Club

2010-11-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

We recently started a history club with some homeschool friends. Our intention was to create an immersive experience through improvisational role playing. After some discussion, the kids chose the underground railroad as the topic they wished to explore. Each then did some research and took on a character. These were a combination of actual historical figures and fictional characters based on information gleaned in research. Through pretend play, improv, and brainstorming the kids were able to develop these characters, create relationships, and finally write a short play. They decided to perform the play for their families at a potluck party.

Caroline, a station master helps two escaped slaves

The story was about two people who escaped from slavery with the help of Harriet Tubman. They were brought to the home of a woman named Caroline who operated an underground railroad station in her home. Caroline was the daughter of a slave holder who had witnessed the horrors of slavery first hand and had vowed to fight against it as an adult.

introducing the cast (from left: Caroline, a station master, two escaped slaves,
and Harriet Tubman)

The two slaves are seen successfully to Canada, and Henry Box Brown also makes an appearance in the play.

Henry Box Brown

We also learned more about our topic through some other activities. We learned related songs such as Wade in the Water and Follow the Drinking Gourd, which are both believed to have contained coded messages of help and encouragement for escaping slaves. The kids also made their own quilt blocks based on designs passed down through generations and claimed to be part of a secret quilt code for communicating along the underground railroad. The kids also had the opportunity to lead a story hour at our local library. They chose picture books related to the underground railroad and prepared a paper "quilt block" craft activity. Unfortunately only one child showed up for story hour, but she enjoyed the stories and got lots of attention!

Chemistry Classes!

2010-11-17T19:14:00.000-08:00

What? Don't think this looks like chemistry? Read on.

Now that my latest session of science classes is over I have some time to catch up and post about it. This session was all about chemistry! Following is a week by week break down of the six-week session, and you can also check out the video here.
week 1
We learned that everything around us is made from some combination of the basic building blocks we call elements, that the smallest piece of an element is an atom, and that atoms bond together to form molecules, the basic units of a compound.

bonding together to form a giant molecule

We looked at the periodic table and identified some of the elements we already knew about: gold, calcium, oxygen, mercury. We pretended to be atoms and joined together to form some molecules. Sometimes we could bond to two other atoms by using just our hands. Sometimes we could also use our feet and connect with even more atoms. With our bodies, we made molecules of different shapes and sizes.

slime!

One of the molecular shapes we made was a long chain of atoms called a polymer. This is the kind of molecule found in plastics and in glue. We explored how, even when linked into a long chain, we could move freely around the yard. Glue can also move freely - it can spill and drip and flow. However, if two polymer chains become linked, it becomes more difficult for them to move freely. I demonstrated this by holding onto each of the human chains and restricting their movement. When the polymer chains in glue become cross linked, they act like the slime we made. After modeling the idea of the slime polymer we went into the lab and made our own slime using glue and borax:
Mix 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup glue - add coloring if you'd like.
Mix 1/2 cup water and 1 tablespoon borax.
Add the borax solution to the glue solution.
Mix and squish.

week 2
What is a chemical reaction? We developed a definition of a chemical reaction based on our observations in the lab.

I asked the kids to build a structure out of legos. As expected, every structure was unique. We then took apart some of the pieces and rearranged them to make something new. We generated a variety of interesting structures. This is kind of like what happens in a chemical reaction. Molecular bonds are broken, and the atoms rearrange to make something new.

With this idea in mind we made our first chemical reaction. We mixed calcium chloride (a de-icer and dehumidifier) with baking soda in a ziploc bag. We then added a solution of phenol red (a pH indicator). We made observations about our reactants before mixing them together, and we generated lots of great descriptive words - did you know that baking soda is white, solid, powdery, smooth, soft, compactible, and like snow?
When we mixed these reactants in our sealed bags we found that the resulting solution heated up, bubbled and fizzed, changed color, and that the bag quickly inflated with a gas. The products of this reaction were salt, water, chalk, and carbon dioxide.

New ideas for this week: reactants, products, evidence of chemical reaction (precipitate, temperature change, color change, formation of a gas).

experimenting with unknown substances

week 3

Our topic this week was acids and bases. The first thing we did was to use our powers of inquiry to explore three unknown liquids, one blue and two colorless. The kids were encouraged to experiment with different combination of the liquids and make observations in order to learn something about them. There was a lot of excitement when we found that certain combinations produced different color changes: purple, bright pink, blue, and greenish blue. There was even more excitement over the fizzy gas bubbles produced when two of the liquids were mixed together.

testing for pH

The kids were asked to look for patterns, and they eventually surmised that solution 1 turned the blue liquid pink, while solution 2 turned the blue liquid greenish blue. Solutions 1 and 2 mixed together created the bubbles. Some of the kids had already figured out that solution 1 was vinegar (an acid) and solution 2 was a baking soda solution (a base). The blue liquid was purple cabbage juice, the pigment molecules in which act as an acid-base indicator. We discussed that acids and bases are chemical "opposites" and that they can neutralize each other when mixed together.

making stuff bubble and fizz

Using the information we gleaned from the first activity, we then tested 8 different substances to find out whether they were acids or bases by mixing them with the purple cabbage indicator and observing the color change. We found that water does not produce a color change in the cabbage indicator because water is neither an acid or a base - it is neutral.

week 4
We devised our own experiments to determine the relative densities of three liquids, and then we used our new understanding to build density columns in jars.

diagram of a density column

The layers in the jars were, from top to bottom: alcohol, oil, water, soap, and corn syrup.

determining relative densities

We then made and played with oobleck! Oobleck is a colloid so it behaves both as a solid and as a liquid. Oobleck is simply corn starch mixed with water (in a 2:1 ratio in case you're in need of more oobleck). The corn starch is made up of long chain molecules called polymers (like the polymers in the slime we made the first week). When you apply pressure to the oobleck, the polymers get tangled up, and the oobleck can't flow - it acts like a solid. We can roll it around between our hands and form a ball. But as soon as you release the pressure, the polymer chains can loosen up and flow past one another - it seems to turn instantly into a liquid again.

oobleck!

week 5
Organic chemistry is carbon-based chemistry. What's so great about carbon? The carbon atom can make 4, count 'em, 4 bonds! That means it is very versatile and can form many interesting, unique structures. This is especially important in our bodies where proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and DNA need to have very specific shapes in order to do their jobs in our cells.

modeling carbon compounds

We found out how versatile carbon is when we made our own salt dough and used it to model our own imaginary, unique carbon-based structures. (Those little balls are the carbon atoms and the toothpicks represent the bonds between atoms.)

3D molecular models

Where do we get our organic, carbon-based nutrients? From our food! We used chemical indicators to test different food samples for the presence of nutrients such as starch, sugar, protein, and fat. We found that egg white contained protein, potatoes contain starch, apple juice contains sugar, and vegetable oil contains fat.

week 6
What is even smaller than an atom?!
We'd already learned, way back in week 1, that an atom is the smallest piece of an element. If we get any smaller, we no longer have that element.
But we can get smaller, and smaller we got!

subatomic particle tag

We played a game in which each of us represented a subatomic particle. In the classes with enough kids, we had a proton and neutron representing the nucleus, and they were tied together at the leg (three-legged race style). In smaller classes we had one student representing the nucleus of each atom. The remaining students were the electrons, and since electrons are small and fast, they could run around as much as they wanted in their playing field. The object of the game was for each atom to steal as many electrons from the other atom as possible. So the nuclei were equipped with bean bags with which they tried to tag the electrons. If an electron was tagged, he or she had to cross over to the other atom. At the end of the game, the atom with the most electrons was the winner.

static electricity experiments

For Halloween week, we also did some spooky experiments with static electricity - a way of actually playing with subatomic particles.

haunting the lab

We found that we could move electrons from one place to another and use them to do some fun tricks - we made paper ghosts float across the table, we played with "possessed" parsley, and while playing with haunted, jumping cereal we learned about the tragic fate met by Snap, Crackle, and Pop in the haunted Rice Krispies factory.*next session's topic: electricity and magnetism!

Road Trip Time Machine, part 2

2010-11-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

(continued from Road Trip Time Machine, part 1)
Our time travels also brought us to Gettysburg, PA. Here we explored the town and toured the Civil War battlefield and museum.Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War with 51,000 casualties. It is also considered the turning point of the war.The following photos were taken at Devil's Den, a natural labyrinthine formation of huge granite boulders and cliffs. Taken by the Confederates, it served as cover for sharpshooters who took aim at Union soldiers on nearby Little Round Top during the battle.Little Round Top was kept from falling into Confederate hands largely by the swift action of General Warren. Seen here with binoculars at the lookout point from which he spotted Confederate forces at the edge of the woods, he recognized the desperate situation at the hill and sent for reinforcements to defend this key position of the Union Army.This was also the site of one of the most desperate and dramatic skirmishes at Gettysburg. The 20th Maine Infantry positioned at the southern slope of Little Round Top had held their position against the 15th Alabama, but had finally run out of ammunition. Colonel Chamberlain ordered a bayonet charge: "At that crisis I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough. It ran like fire along the line, from man to man and rose to a shout, with which they sprang forward upon the enemy, now not 30 yards away." The 20th Maine rushed and scattered the Alabamians, ending their advance. The ground was covered with dead soldiers, and the blood reportedly stood in puddles on the rocks.We ate dinner in the oldest house in Gettysburg, the Dobbin House built in 1776. It is now a tavern and restaurant, but it once served as a station on the underground railroad. You can still see the panel of false shelves behind which runaway slaves were hidden.
Gettysburg is of course a touristy town, and there are plenty of ghost tours, souvenir shops, and the like. Luna saw a "Victorian Photography Studio" and wanted to check it out. I'm not one to refuse anything having to do with either dress up or photography, so I said sure! We had no idea what we were in for. This turned out to be a highlight of our trip! The husband and wife team at this studio are dedicated to authenticity and do actual wet plate collodion process photos. They spent so much time with us. We were there for over an hour being carefully dressed in authentic garb, having our hair properly coiffed, selecting an appropriate pose from books of historic photographs, and learning all about the collodion process. It was truly an educational experience. Our portrait was shot with a 16 second exposure, and we remained still for the duration with the aid of Victorian era vice-grip-like supports for our heads. We love the finished product because it looks so genuine, and the tones are so beautiful! We also visited the David Wills house, the home where Abraham Lincoln stayed when he came to deliver the Gettysburg address. This is the bed in which he slept:And of course, there's always time for mini golf and letterboxing on the road...

Ten Years of Cake

2010-10-22T07:48:00.001-07:00

Luna had her first double-digit birthday in September! So, in honor of her first decade, a birthday review, cake by cake... reflecting her evolving interests (and "obsessions").
Year 1, Ladybug:
Year 2, Blue's Clues Handy Dandy Notebook:
Year 3, Dinosaur:
Year 4, Castle:
Year 5, Paint Palette:
Year 6, A Series of Unfortunate Events - the VFD 'eye' symbol:
Year 7, the French Flag:
Year 8, Chocolate layer cake. What, that's not enough for you?
Year 9, Pupcakes:
Year 10, Miyazaki (Totoro):
And a decade of birthday portraits to go with it:

Road Trip Time Machine part 1

2010-10-15T12:25:00.001-07:00

Luna and I did some time traveling last month. We started in Gettysburg, PA 1863 and worked our way steadily back through time to Jamestown, VA 1607. You can watch a short video from our trip here. Our trip was inspired by some of the reading we'd been doing about slavery in America and the underground railroad. We'd set out to plan a trip focusing on sites associated specifically with the underground railroad, but when we began our research we found that many of the sites are now private homes and not open to the public. It didn't seem practical to drive several hours just to read some plaques and look at some edifices, so we decided to expand our scope and include some other interesting sites along the way. And every place we went we were able to find resources to help us connect with the African American experience in early America.

Luna was particularly impressed by the museum at Jamestown and rated it among her top museum experiences. "And you know," says Luna, "I've got a really good eye for museums." And well she should. She's the museum-goingest girl I know.The permanent exhibit is highly interactive and immersive and emphasizes the convergnce at Jamestown of three different cultures - the English settlers, the native Powhatan, and the 20 or so Africans who arrived in 1619 to be the first Africans brought to an English colony in the New World. They'd been stolen from a Spanish slave ship intercepted by the Dutch, and there seems to be some debate as to their status upon arriving in Jamestown and being traded for food. They were either considered slaves or indentured servants. In either case it is clear that these men and women contributed significantly to the development of the colony.At Jamestown we learned about the many hardships facing the earliest settlers, about the way of life of the Powhatan, and about the roots of the complicated relationships that would develop between the colonists and the native Americans.In Williamsburg we took a walking tour called "Freedom Denied" which focused on slavery in colonial times. Our guide emphasized the dynamic and evolving nature of slavery in the colonies, the constant resistance that took many forms on the part of slaves and free blacks and the increasingly stringent legislation passed in desperate response whenever it was feared that the oppressed were gaining a foothold. Among the most shocking to me were that it was actually made illegal for a master to free his own slaves. This presumably came about in response to a growing trend to do just that. Another was that if a white woman had a child with a black man - free or slave - their baby was taken away and bound in servitude to the church for 31 years. The mother was issued a prohibitively hefty fine, and if she could not pay she was herself bound to the church for a period of several years.We visited Shirley Plantation, Virginia's first plantation just outside of Richmond. Here we hoped to get a glimpse of plantation life and to see the mid-nineteenth century slave house reportedly still standing on the property. However, there was very little information available here about the slaves who worked the plantation and who, for centuries, maintained its viability. The guided tour focused entirely on the family who have owned the plantation for eleven generations and still live there today. After the tour I asked the guide about the slave house, and she gave me driving directions. The house is located on the road outside of the plantation entrance and is no longer owned by the Shirley Plantation Foundation. We found the house, but it was on private land, was entirely overgrown by weeds, and didn't look particularly stable or safe, but we managed to get close enough to take a quick look, but there was no information available about the building itself.
In Richmond we visited the Museum of the Confederacy to which Luna gave relatively low marks for museum curation. It was an old-school, traditional artifacts-in-vitrines exhibit, but it was worth if for the intersting experience of seeing the Civil War through the eyes of the confederate soldiers.
Harpers Ferry is a wonderful place to visit for its natural beauty as well as its significance in industry, transportation, the Civil War, and our main point of interest, John Brown's raid. There's a good museum here devoted to Brown, his life, death, and martyrdom and its significance in the abolition movement. Still standing and on view is the fire engine house of the Hapers Ferry Armory where Brown was finally captured by federal troops. And we couldn't resist the cheesy John Brown Wax Museum. I'm a sucker for wax museums. Something I hadn't realized before is that The Battle Hymn of the Republic was taken from a song about John Brown. The original lyrics are "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave... His soul goes marching on."And here's a bizarre coincidence for you. On our way out of Harpers Ferry and the John Brown museum, I turned on the Classic Radio station on our Sirius satellite radio. They were playing an episode from the '50's sci-fi show X Minus One. The episode, Martian Death March, takes place in a futuristic 1997 on Mars where the human colonists have forcibly removed the native Martian highlanders from their mountain homes and confined them to 'reservations' in the desert where they suffer and die from poor living conditions and human-borne diseases. A human called "crazy John" with "wild hair and beard" helps the martians escape from imprisonment and attempts to lead them to freedom stating the following,
"When our brothers are caged, they seek freedom... All living creatures are our brothers on Mars as on earth."
"No man has the right to imprison the innocent. They that are enslaved will be freed. They that are in sickness and misery will be comforted. They that are exiled in a strange place shall be restored."
"I heard a voice that cried out to me in the desert, "Go to your brothers!"
You can listen to the whole episode here.

Summer Funshops

2010-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

This summer I taught a series of four math funshops. The idea was to play with math concepts within the fun and creative context of art and/or science, i.e. to teach math the way it should be taught.

Roller coaster physics was popular. In this session the kids designed and built their own marble run using flexible foam pipe insulation for track. They were encouraged to experiment with bends, turns, tunnels, and loops. In so doing they learned about potential and kinetic energy and the law of conservation of energy.

Using measuring tape and stop watches they calculated the average speed of the marbles and compared the results from each track.

Many questions emerged during this activity. Here are just a few: How many loops can a marble complete in one run? Does a marble move faster on a bigger loop or on a tighter one? How steep does the initial drop need to be? What forces slow down the marble?

In Rocket Math we re-used plastic soda bottles, pvc pipe, and plastic tubing to build an air pressure-powered launcher to launch our own paper rockets. After playing around with them for a while we built a home-made hypsometer and used some easy geometry to measure the height of each launch. This was a practical introduction to triangulation and the concept of similar triangles. The winning rockets went about five meters high. We lost only one of them to the trees.

The funshops, like all my classes, were mixed-age groupings. The participants ranged in age from seven to sixteen. There’s a lot of fretting, especially in schools and certainly where math and science are concerned, over the idea of age-appropriateness. My philosophy is that hands-on, raw experience is never wasted on anyone. In an open, inquiry-based activity, kids are free to take away whatever is meaningful to them and leave the rest. And I don’t actually believe that ‘the rest’ is ever left for good. It’s more likely to become part of a rich experiential lexicon that may later help to form important connections in the understanding of abstract math and science concepts.

So, a seven-year-old might enjoy jumping on the plastic bottle and watching the rocket fly into the air, but she may not fully comprehend the method by which the eleven-year-old measures the height of the launch. That’s ok. She’s gaining hands-on experience with air pressure, acceleration, gravity, and building a home-made toy. She’s also learning that there’s a way to use math to figure out how high the rocket went and that it has something to do with comparing angles and triangles. Most importantly, she’s learning that math is useful, interesting, and fun.

One of the funshops focused on sona, or sand drawings of the Chokwe people of Angola. Their art is used in storytelling as the storyteller draws patterns in the sand to illustrate the tale. Because the sand drawings follow regular rules, they can provide visual representations of algorithmic outcomes and model certain laws of physics. The sona we used each began with an array of dots, a certain number high and a certain number wide. The artist then encircles the dots, according to a set of rules, with a series of lines. The number of lines needed to complete the drawing can be predicted based on the height and width of the beginning array. The funshop was intended to get the kids thinking about some of the patterns they might see in the drawings and to try and find the rule for determining the number of lines needed in each drawing. However, the group of boys I was working with found the challenge to lie in simply creating the drawings themselves. They became intent on learning how to complete each grid. So I let the kids guide the session, and they spent most of their time in quiet, meditative engagement with the drawings. The mathematics in this case became mostly implicit in the activity of drawing rather than explicitly discussed. This was a good example of the need to be flexible with a lesson plan and honor the interests of the students. (I don't have any photos from this funshop because I was so busy helping the kids with their drawings.)

The last funshop was about symmetry. We found examples of different types of symmetry in everyday objects. We also looked at examples in weaving and printing. We then applied our understanding of symmetry to create our own patterns inspired by Adinkra cloth, a traditional cloth created by the Ashanti people of Ghana. The Ashanti use traditional symbols in repeating patterns to convey different ideas and messages. The kids had the chance to carve some of these symbols into potato halves to make their own stamps and also to design and create their own symbols. They came up with some wonderful original designs.Using their potato stamps dipped in paint, they printed on cloth and identified the various types of symmetry inherent in the symbols.

the garden 2010

2010-08-05T08:43:00.001-07:00

Summer of Shakespeare

2010-08-03T06:57:00.001-07:00

There's been plenty of Shakespeare to go around this summer. Luna participated once again in the Summer Shakespeare Intensive, a one-week intensive program that culminated in a full-scale production of The Tempest, abridged this year for a younger group of actors ages 8 - 12 or so. Actually, the whole family participated this time around. I designed and made the costumes with help from a few other wonderful mamas, and Nick helped design and build the sets.Luna was very excited to be cast as Miranda, her most demanding role yet. Luna's never been a very showy kid. She'll often ham it up at home, but in a bigger group she tends to be the quiet observer, at least initially. So Luna and I worked together on using her voice, projecting, expressing emotion, being in her body, moving beyond shyness and uncertainty. We had a lot of fun, and Luna played a marvelous Miranda! Theatre is a wonderful opportunity for anyone at any age, but especially for adolescent girls, to experiment with pushing the limits of self-consciousness. In theatre we're allowed to be wild and free and emotional and passionate, even at those times when we feel society, our peers, our bodies demanding of us the opposite. It's important for kids to have chances to open up wide.I'm enjoying such an opportunity myself in playing Titania and Hippolyta in the Woodstock Shakespeare Festival production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's a fun production with a wonderful cast, and it runs through Labor Day. So if you're in the Woodstock area come check us out. Luna is making an occasional appearance as a fairy, and this past weekend she stood in as Cobweb for one of the actors who was ill.

Ecology at the Pond

2010-06-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

For class this week I took the kids to a beautiful pond just five minutes from our house. Here we applied all the ideas we've been discussing throughout our ecology session to develop an understanding of how the many parts of this ecosystem function together as a whole. We spent some time on our own observing the pond and then came together as a group to share what we'd noticed. The kids were quickly able to find both the beaver dam and lodge and recognize that this was an "artificial" pond formed by the action of animals. What a great example of the interaction between biotic and abiotic components of the system.The kids noticed the extensive plant life present at the pond. The surface of the water is nearly covered by water lilies, and we observed the red-winged black birds alighting on the lily pads. I asked if the children could tell the difference between a pond and a lake, and they were able to discern that a pond is able to support plant life over its entire area because it is shallow enough for light to penetrate the water whereas a lake also has an aphotic zone where light cannot penetrate deeply enough to support plant life growing under the water.
We then spent some time dip-netting and borrowing specimens to examine and identify using our identification keys. We collected tadpoles in all stages of development as well as an adult frog, snails, insect larvae and nymphs, and other macroinvertebrates such as waterbugs and amphipods. One of the classes also observed a snake. We discussed the pond's web of life and tried to determine the role of each species in the food chain.Finally we spent some time sketching and painting some of the specimens we'd found, and some students drew or painted the pond landscape. One of the local libraries has been reaching out to homeschoolers and has asked us to make a window display, so some of these drawings and paintings will be part of our homeschool science display.

More Ecology

2010-05-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

Our third week of ecology class focused on the food chain. I usually begin class with a short discussion of the concepts we'll be exploring that day, and I really leave it up to the kids themselves to generate them. My role is mostly to help organize the information they've already acquired and facilitate the formation of new connections between different areas of experience and knowledge. Our food chain discussion, for example, started out by building upon the activities from the previous week's class as well as from prior knowledge: How do plants get food? Where does the energy come from? How do animals get food? Where does that energy come from? By arranging our thoughts in an organized way, we were able to generate a food chain in which we observed that the sun is the ultimate source of all the energy exchanged on earth and that organisms are removed by degrees from that source of the energy upon which they depend. Once these concepts are established and understood, we find it useful to have vocabulary by which to refer to them. I introduced the terms producer, primary consumer (herbivore), and secondary consumer (carnivore). We also discussed the case of omnivores which can occupy more than one level on the food chain.We discussed an example of a relationship between a primary and secondary consumer (a predator-prey relationship): owls and their small animal prey, and we dissected owl pellets. Owls swallow their prey whole, and the soft parts are digested in the gizzard. However, the owl cannot digest the hard parts such as fur, bone, feathers, claws, or exoskeletons, so these are regurgitated in the form of an owl pellet.Owl pellet dissection is a great activity for learning about feeding relationships, animal behavior, and animal anatomy. The children become meditatively absorbed in the fine motor motion of carefully picking apart the pellet and delicately removing the bones, cleaning off the fur, and sorting their finds. The bones of the small rodents and birds are found largely intact and can sometimes be reassembled into complete skeletons. We used a bone sorting chart to identify the different bones and also to make educated guesses about the identity of the animal consumed.The next week we constructed yet another soda bottle column, this one to serve as a model of the water cycle. At the bottom of the column is a chamber to hold water representing ground water. The middle section contains soil in which radish seeds are planted (radishes sprout quickly and so are a good choice for this activity). There is a cotton wick running between the bottom water reservoir and the soil, and the column is capped to create a closed system. When placed in a sunny windowsill we soon begin to see the dynamic movement of water through the cycle. Heat energy from the sun causes evaporation from the surface of the soil or, when plants have begun to grow, transpiration from leaves. The water vapor rises and then forms condensation on the sides of the column, eventually precipitating back down into the soil where it collects and then percolates and returns to the ground water. The loss of water from the soil to both evaporation and root action causes more ground water to travel up the wick by capillary action to replenish the soil. The column never needs to be watered because, as in nature, the water is recycled.

Ecology Class

2010-05-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

We just completed our fifth week of ecology class, and I've obviously failed to meet my goal of posting about what we're doing each week. However, here is a little synopsis of our first two weeks of class, and I hope to add more soon.We're focusing this session on the concept of cycles, the many ways in which nature recycles her resources. On the first day we headed into the woods where we found a log that was almost entirely decomposed. I asked the kids to dissect it, carefully lifting away layers of the wood and to make some observations about what they found there. They found that the wood was moist, spongy, and run through with extensive networks of white and orange fungus. They found insect larvae, beetles, millipedes, pillbugs, and centipedes. The biggest hit were the salamanders. Back in the lab we examined the organisms under the dissecting microscope. Through observation and discussion we explored the process of decomposition and learned about the nutrient cycle. The nutrients stored in the tissues of living things are not lost when the organism dies but are broken down by decomposers such as bacteria and fungi and by detritivores such as earthworms, millipedes, and fungi. In this way the nutrients are cycled back through the system and returned to the soil where they may be taken up by new plant life.In order to observe this process close up we constructed worm columns using soda bottles. Each column holds a chamber for worm bedding (straw and shredded newspaper),15 - 20 red worms, and a fresh feeding of fruit and vegetable scraps every few days. Each week the kids check on their worm columns and make observations. They've seen that the previous week's compost is greatly compacted each week, that there is an accumulation of black worm castings in the column, that there have been a succession of other residents moving in: fungus, white mites, fungus gnats, and black soldier fly larvae. All are beneficial to the decomposition process and some are engaged in mutualistic relationships with one another. The fungus gnats, for example, maintain floral diversity by introducing new strains of bacteria into the column. The black soldier fly larvae feed on the fresh organic matter and process it to a state that is more palatable to the worms which then further stabilize it. Together they have begun to form a community, and over the next few weeks we will watch as the populations fluctuate.The next week we discussed another of nature's recycling systems, the carbon cycle. We started off by learning about the process of photosynthesis by which plants make their own food using light energy from the sun. The students who were in my class last session had already had the chance to study plant cells under the microscope and had observed the green chloroplasts streaming around within an elodea leaf cell. We played a game of my own invention in which one student played the part of the chloroplast while other students transported molecules of water and carbon dioxide and photons of light. The molecules were constructed of color-coded pixel blocks and could be disassembled into their constituent atoms. The job of the chloroplast, once enough light energy had been absorbed, was to disassemble the carbon dioxide and water molecules and reform them into molecules of glucose. In order to do this she had to collect enough of these molecules in the proper ratio. The students observed that many of the oxygen atoms were left over from this process, illustrating why oxygen is a by-product of photosynthesis. This visual, tactile, and kinesthetic experience helped the students build an understanding of the process of photosynthesis, it's reactants and products.We then set up an experiment in order to explore the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration. We used a chemical indicator called bromothymol blue. This blue indicator turns green and then yellow in the presence of carbon dioxide. (It is actually an acid indicator that responds to the formation of carbonic acid when carbon dioxide is introduced into solution.) We set up four jars containing equal volumes of water plus indicator. We introduced enough carbon dioxide to the solution to bring it to a green color. The experimental setup was as follows:
Jar A - snail only, Jar B - water plant only, Jar C - snail and water plant, Jar D - control (nothing added). All four jars were placed together on a sunny window sill.
The students made predictions about any color change they expected to see over the course of the experiment. As most students had predicted, they found no change in Jar D, the control jar. They found that the solution in Jar A turned yellow due to carbon dioxide entering the solution as a by-product of snail respiration. Jar B turned blue as the photosynthetic plant absorbed carbon dioxide from the solution. Jar C showed no color change because the presence of both the snail and the plant created a complete circuit through which the carbon dioxide could cycle without any net gain or loss of carbon dioxide to the solution. The snail gave off CO2, and the plant took it up. In turn, the plant gave off oxygen which was taken up by the snail.

Frigg Hatches

2010-05-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

Luna wanted to try incubating eggs, so we bought a little incubator and started with four bobwhite quail eggs. We've learned that being a quail mom is not easy! The eggs need to be turned several times a day to keep the yolk from sticking and to exercise the embryo. Temperature and humidity need to by maintained at optimal levels, no easy task with the swings we've been having in the weather up here! We candled the eggs and were pretty sure that one of them had developed well and was still alive and kicking (metaphorically speaking).

Bobwhite quail take 23 days to hatch. On Monday morning, day 23, we observed a tiny crack in the egg, a first pip. Then... nothing! We waited and watched, and by Monday night I was convinced that something had gone wrong and the poor thing hadn't made it. Then, on Tuesday at 12:20, just as my students were arriving for science class, Luna noticed more cracking and movement from the egg. The whole class got to observe the entire process as Frigg the quail (so named by Luna for the Norse goddess) completed a neat circle of pips all around the large end of the egg, then pushed and pushed against it. Suddenly, with surprising force, she sprang from the egg like a jack-in-the-box. Our quail hatching instruction manual indicated that Frigg would be exhausted after this process and would need to rest for about eight hours and that she should only be moved to her brooder when she showed signs of trying to walk. Frigg, however, emerged from her egg walking, jumping and singing and hasn't slowed down since. She's a plucky little thing who reminds me an awful lot of another little bird I know... my daughter!

It may sound strange, but this birth reminded me a lot of Luna's birth! She also started out slow and kept us waiting for about a day, then burst suddenly onto the scene with a chutzpah that we soon came to recognize as a defining characteristic of our child!

Well, we couldn't have ordered up better timing. It was wonderful to share the excitement of Frigg's hatching with all the kids and their parents. Check it out on the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeGjuF9lHFM

To Oz and Back Again

2010-05-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some video highlights of The Wizard of Oz that I directed in March for the Readers' Theatre at the library. I had so much fun with this wonderful group of creative and enthusiastic kids. Because I'm a lifelong Oz fanatic I may have gone a bit overboard with sets, costumes, shadow puppetry, etc... But I had plenty of help! Oz fever took over the house, and I got the whole family involved. Jadae was my lights and sound person, and Nick helped with building structures for the sets. We sewed. We painted. We made 42 pairs of green paper spectacles for the audience to wear during the scenes in the Emerald City. We had the whole cast over for a poppy-making party and folded enough paper poppies to cover the stage during the poppy field scene. Jadae baked cupcakes for the after-show reception and decorated some with yellow sugar for the yellow brick road, others with red paper poppies. So sweet!
In the first video, Luna is the middle tree with the short blonde hair, and in the second she is Jellia Jamb (dressed all in green with a polka dot skirt). Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QXavhC_INo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhRqEZbc7f4

Bad Press

2010-04-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

A few years ago a friend introduced us to a young woman who was working on a documentary film about unschooling. Sarah had no children of her own yet, but she’d worked in the public school system and had seen enough to know that when she did, they would not be attending school. She was a strong supporter of unschooling and felt that more people should know about it. She was looking for families to interview, so we invited her over, and she spent a couple of days with us filming and talking and getting to know us. We all really enjoyed Sarah and hoped she would eventually finish her film. When we went to live Paris we invited her to come and stay with us. She was hoping to do so, but she was short on funds and never made it. We haven’t heard from her since. I hope that she’s just keeping the project on a back burner and hasn’t abandoned it all together.

Sarah’s film led to some interesting conversations with fellow unschoolers. Some thought the project was a great idea. Like us they’d experienced such positive changes in their lives due to unschooling that they wanted to share it with others. We hoped that more people would choose to unschool if only they were exposed to the idea in a thoughtful, positive way. But others felt that unschoolers should stay in the closet and keep quiet. They were concerned that attention, even positive attention, might lead to negative backlash and legislation that would limit or destroy our right to unschool. This sentiment came as a surprise to me. It was always my experience that progressive movements gain a foothold in the mainstream through increased awareness and education. Backlash can certainly be expected, but this is all part of the process. Did the civil rights movement cease in the face of negative backlash? The gay rights movement? Aren’t our children’s educational rights important enough to fight for in the same tradition?

Many unschoolers fly below the radar. Many don’t report at all. Many report themselves as homeschoolers in states where unschooling is not really allowed. We’re in this situation now ourselves. It is not explicitly stated that unschooling is illegal in New York State, but we are required to submit a home instruction plan at the beginning of the school year, and this is definitely not in keeping with our educational philosophy. I do report to the state, and I do call it an IHIP, but really it is a list of ideas generated by me and Luna together of things we may or may not be interested in doing over the course of the school year. I keep the language vague and open: “may include but is not limited to” is a popular phrase. And so far I’ve had no problems. But I’d much rather have the right to submit a letter stating, “We are unschoolers. This year, as every year, we intend to follow our passions. Our world is our classroom, and our education is all around us. We are explorers in the vast wilderness of raw experience.” Maybe some day.

However, considering the highly biased and ignorant approach of the media in reporting on unschooling, I don’t think it will be any day soon. Every news segment, newspaper article, talk show interview, and “Wife Swap” episode I’ve seen focusing on unschooling has depicted us as nutty at best, neglectful at worst. The mainstream media’s only interest in presenting unschooling to the pubic is to generate negative controversy. Reports are invariably prefaced by the “unbiased” reporter making some idiotic statement like, “Now, personally, I think this is crazy, but…” The media shows unschoolers eating donuts for breakfast, watching TV, playing video games, and picking their noses, but it never includes any of their impressive educational accomplishments. Unschoolers are not shown composing and performing their own pieces for the piano, cooking dinner for the whole family, writing poems, learning to swim, or baking home-made dog biscuits to sell and raise money to sponsor a high-needs shelter dog. Educational “experts” who have no real understanding of unschooling and probably have never even met an unschooled child are called upon to bash the philosophy, but its advocates are never heard from.

Like it or not, unschoolers will have to come out of the closet. Unschooling is getting press – bad press. It’s up to us to present the true face of unschooling. This doesn’t have to happen in a documentary film. It can happen in our own neighborhoods. The best way to break down prejudices and stereotypes is through direct personal interaction. Talk to people about unschooling. I have a bumper sticker on my car that says, “Ask me about unschooling.” And you know what? People do. Most recently I had a really nice discussion with a state trooper who pulled me over because one of my taillights was out. Contrary to what the media would have us believe, the majority of the people I meet are receptive to unschooling and want to know more.

Here’s the most recent example of “fair and unbiased” reporting posted to my FB page by a friend. The whole thing is ridiculous, but my favorite part is when the interviewer challenges the unschooling parents by stating that her own kids, given the choice, would watch TV rather than read. Wait a minute… don’t her kids go to school where they’re taught an appreciation for literature??
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/unschooling-homeschooling-book-tests-classes/story?id=10410867&page=1

Unteaching

2010-04-21T05:55:00.001-07:00

Three years away from the classroom has been sufficient time to recover from the exasperation and outrage I experienced both as a public school teacher and as the parent of a public school student. Our lives are now so far removed from the reach of the school system that if we didn’t occasionally get stuck in a slow crawl behind the school bus we might forget its existence entirely. Of course I do have to submit our quarterly reports to the district, but I see this as an enjoyable opportunity to reflect on the many gifts of unschooling. I am still concerned with issues in education, and I still listen with a sympathetic ear to parents’ anecdotes of school dysfunction, but I do so from a vantage point far above the public school fray where it is clear to see that there are many, many different ways of living and learning. And so it is with a new sense of freedom and autonomy that I have begun teaching again, offering my own science classes for homeschool students in my home.

I’ve written before about my ambivalence about work and income and my disillusionment about our society’s failure to value pretty much everything I deem important in life: thoughtful living, genuine learning, the nurturing of children, and the freedom to fulfill our potential and become whole human beings. Even so, teaching is fun! And while I love working with Luna one-on-one, I also missed working with larger groups of young people. I toyed with the idea of seeking part-time employment at one of the local private schools. But ultimately the idea of working at a school – the bureaucracy, the politics, the curricular limitations, the time away from Luna – all these stopped me cold.

Meanwhile, friends were suggesting that I start my own classes. They were sure that there would be plenty of interest and that my skills and approach would be valued in our community. I hoped they were right, but I had my doubts. Thirteen years of public school had convinced me that striking out on my own in a professional context was presumptuous and bound for failure. School was intended to train me for employment, but not for self-employment. I was to arrive on time, follow directions, compete for external rewards, and conform to the herd, not unlike a turn-of-the-last-century factory worker. Attributes that could be successfully applied to entrepreneurship (personal responsibility, internal motivation, creativity, self-confidence) were discouraged rather than rewarded.

While life experience had allowed me to develop some of these on my own, it turned out I still had some deschooling to do myself. I realized that some of the characteristics I’m working to nurture in my daughter – a self-motivated, enterprising attitude, for example – had never been nurtured in me. I’d always been highly successful in school, but school success and professional success are two very different things, and nothing in my education had prepared me to start my own business. I had no idea how to sell myself, nor did I have any desire to do so. As a teacher I’d enjoyed the independence of managing my own classroom, but I was still working within the context of the greater school environment.

So the idea that I could just offer my own classes and that people would be willing to surrender their kids to some home-schooling SAHM… it all seemed a bit far-fetched. I thought I might get a couple of kids, but I didn’t expect enough of a response to make it worth my while financially. Still, even if I didn’t make any money I thought it would be a good experience for everyone involved, so I went ahead and posted an ad on the local home-schooling e-lists for a class in cell biology, and by 8:00 the next morning I had ten kids signed up! All together I ended up with fifteen in the session and had to divide the group into three separate classes.

Some of the parents had heard about me by word of mouth, some of them I’d never met before, and some were friends of ours. For some reason I hadn’t even considered that last possibility. I’d assumed I was advertising to all those abstract, unknown homeschoolers out there… I didn’t expect to have my friends signing up, and it felt awkward to take their money. I even suggested to two of my friends that we consider it a barter for things they offered the community that I appreciated. But they insisted on paying the full amount and told me how much they value science education and how much they value what I have to offer. I was really surprised and honored and struck again by what a unique and wonderful group are the people who make up our homeschool community. These are people who recognize that each of us has come to homeschooling from a rich and unique background and that we have much to offer. They value their children’s education above all else and are resourceful and brave enough to seek out genuine learning opportunities and to support those who provide them.

I just finished my first six-week session called The Living Cell. In this class we learned how to use the compound light microscope, we made our own slides and learned how to stain them. We used the microscope to examine representative cells from each kingdom of the five kingdoms system of classification of living things:
• Animal: our own cheek cells
• Plant: elodea leaf
• Fungi: bread mold
• Protist: paramecium, euglena, amoeba
• Monera: bacteria from cultures we grew ourselves
We learned about cell evolution from prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells. We observed and identified various structures of the cell such as the cell membrane, cell wall, nucleus, chloroplasts, and vacuoles. We learned about the functions of these structures through experiments involving osmosis and plasmolysis and activities such as extracting DNA from split peas. We also used games and models to further understand cell structure and function.

The class was very successful, I had lots of positive feedback from parents and kids, and all of my students save one (for whom the drive proved to be too long) will be returning next week along with one new student when we start our next session, Ecology. Next week we will start off by examining rotting things in the woods, hunting for detritivores and saprophages, collecting specimens to examine under the light and dissecting microscopes, and making a decomposition column in which to observe the process over the next eight weeks. Now that I’m used to the new schedule, my intention is to keep posting about what we do in class each week… let’s see if I can manage it!

All This From a Fruitabu

2010-04-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

While having trouble opening her Fruitabu fruit roll packet this morning, Luna noticed that the trusty "tear here" portion was missing its little head start indentation that ordinarily helps get the fruit roll rolling. "How do they make each package exactly the same?" was the question that followed.

"With mechanization," I replied. "These are made in a factory, and they use machines to process and package them." Naturally, this led us to Youtube where we typed "factory automation" into the search box and soon found ourselves hypnotically glued to a video montage depicting life in a mattress factory (complete with soporific elevator soundtrack). Luna was hoping to find a video of the actual Fruitabu factory itself, but such a search yielded no results. So we settled for an equally engaging video of the bubble gum - making process.

These videos led to a discussion of mass production, fossil fuels and the industrial revolution, urban migration and unionization. Oh, and in our search for candy factory videos I inadvertently introduced Luna to "I Love Lucy" via the classic scene in the chocolate factory, easily among the top ten funniest pieces of television ever created. And to think, all this from a Fruitabu.

Moonrise

2010-04-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

Our life is like a sine wave, the peaks of which represent the times when all our projects and commitments converge on a week or so of insane activity. This has been that week.

Actually, this has been that month... But one of the great payoffs of all that intense focus and hard work was Luna’s first piano recital. Luna has been taking piano lessons since October. After she sped through most of a 'teach-yourself piano' book it was obvious that this was more than just a passing interest. She has fallen in love with the piano, and we were lucky enough to find her a wonderful and passionate teacher. I especially like that Lisa allows her to set her own pace and gives her plenty of choice.

Luna practices daily with no prompting. (Reading is the only other activity that falls into this category.) Her practice sessions are often just five to ten minutes long, but she plays through all of the exercises and pieces she’s currently working on at least once, and this feels sufficient to her. She is very happy with her progress and enjoying making music.

She played four pieces at the recital – here are links to two of them on our Youtube page. The second is an original piece she composed herself called 'Moonrise':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p367obEB8aI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaInLv8TTU4

As you can see, Luna was confident and composed all throughout the performance. With all the theatre work she's been doing over the past couple of years she's really developing an impressive stage presence. However, once the applause was over and we were back at home, Luna broke down and started crying. A performance is a lot of pressure, even if we approach it in a casual way. And this recital came in the midst of a lot of other activity. We were also preparing for the performance of The Wizard of Oz that I directed for the Readers' Theatre at the Woodstock Library. In fact Luna had raced over to the recital directly from rehearsal, her dad picking her up early from one library to transport her to another. I stayed and finished rehearsal with the other kids and then did my own mad dash to arrive on time for her performance. So the circumstances were not ideal - everything always seems to happen at once. I'm also stage-managing a production of Godspell at our community theatre which has me out of the house three nights a week. Add to this that I've started teaching homeschool science classes two days a week at our house, and you can see that there have been a lot of adjustments lately and reconfiguring of our time.

Luna cried for a while, and I held her, understanding very well how it feels to be overwhelmed and spent after a performance. She'd been using a lot of energy to hold herself together, and now that the recital was over, she was taking the opportunity to let it all go. "There's too much happening," she said. "It's too much pressure." My daughter is a lot like me. She loves to be active and involved and do lots of creative things, but she's not so adept at dividing her energy, preferring instead to focus intensely on one thing at a time. So when there's a lot going on, she tends to lose perspective. She starts thinking of everything all at once, and it becomes paralyzing.

I'm always grateful that Luna is able to express her feelings so effectively. It means I get to help her navigate them. I reminded her that we don't have to do everything all at once. If there's too much going on, we can eliminate some things and shape our time in a way that works. We make our own rules. So, we sat together in the comfy chair and teased apart our week. We decided to cancel everything in the days ahead and simply make way for Oz. Luna felt a lot better. Piano lesson was canceled. We skipped chorus. Everyone understood, the world kept turning, and we were able to immerse ourselves in Oz and produce a wonderful show... more on that later!

Tulum, Mexico

2010-03-08T15:30:00.001-08:00

We made our first trip to Tulum five years ago and fell in love with this beautiful, relaxed little corner of the Yucatan. It is far enough away from the major tourist centers but convenient enough to the Cancun airport (1.5 hours by car) to be easily accessible. We knew then that development in the region was inevitable, and we weren't sure what to expect this time. While there's land for sale all over the place and a new, closer airport planned, little had changed since our last visit. The strip of little eco-hotels along the coast where we stayed was much the same. But while five years ago we brushed our teeth by candlelight, they had since installed wind turbines to provide electricity for some portion of the day.Part of what makes this place so magical is its proximity to several sites of Mayan ruins, the most picturesque of which is Tulum, situated right on the sea. This was an important port along the extensive network of maritime trade routes followed by the ancient Maya. The ruins are well preserved, and in a very few places one can even see the original pigments used to paint the stucco walls covering these limestone structures. It is amazing to imagine what these palaces and temples might have looked like in full color painted with blues, yellows, and reds. We also visited the sites of Muyil and Coba where there's a well-preserved ball court.Xcaret is sort of like a Mayan Disneyland. It's a place where you can snuba, snorkel, and swim with dolphins, all within the confines of a protected and well-groomed inlet. So, it's kinda natural, kinda not, and like Disneyland I've got mixed feelings about the whole thing. But, it's also the home of the Mexico Espectacular! which, in our opinion, managed to justify the exorbitant entrance fee. Having no idea what to expect, we followed the crowd through the reconstructed pre-Hispanic plaza where all manner of priest, warrior, and god incarnate stood ready to strike a pose. We were then ushered into an enormous stadium where we watched a very acrobatic but loosely interpreted reenactment of an ancient Mayan ballgame. We then witnessed the first contact between the Spanish and the Mayans, an encounter that involved much more pirouetting than I would have imagined. The portrayal of the Spanish conquest emphasized the complexity of Mexican heritage in that both the natives and the Spaniards were presented in a sympathetic light. The message seemed to be that genocide is an unfortunate side-effect of the noble pursuit of converting heathens to Christianity resulting in... MARIACHI!
The Mexican identity was celebrated with fervor in a gala survey of all its regional music and dance. And when I say all... From the website: "You will be overwhelmed by the richness and variety of the regional dances of Mexico." And so we were... for over two hours! It was quite an experience... and a lot of fun!We also did our fair share of hanging out on the beach, though the weather was unusually cool for the time of year. We couldn't complain though. While we were away our house was buried in four feet of snow, and friends and neighbors were without power for days. We managed to miss the blizzard and return home to a plowed driveway, a shoveled walk (thanks Nate!), a well-cared-for dog, and a house unscathed. The perfect vacation.

Quantum Physics for Kids

2010-02-02T04:39:00.000-08:00

Quick. What's your favorite subatomic particle? This has been Luna's question lately to many of her adult friends. Don't think about it, just go with your gut.
I bet you said electron. Most people do. In science, people seem to prefer the relatively small things that move erratically. (Hence the outpouring of support for Pluto.) Do we somehow identify with these characteristics? As humans do we see ourselves as small and erratic?
But the other day, when the question was posed to my dad he said something like, a quark. Luna said, "No, you have to choose from electron, proton, or neutron," and then proceeded to articulate the characteristics of each.
Well, we explained, that's not the whole story. There are particles even smaller and stranger than those.
A few days later we found ourselves greatly disappointed when Dr. Art completely dropped the ball on quantum mechanics. Here's how he deals with the subject in Dr. Art's Guide to Science, a book which we've so far found to be an entertaining and accessible general science overview:

"It turns out that the space inside the atom is a very weird space. In fact, the atom is so weird that scientists in the early 1900s had to invent a whole new field of science, called quantum mechanics, to figure it out. I will not even try to explain quantum mechanics in this book. I once embarrassed myself even more than usual by trying to play the advanced levels of a computer game even though I barely knew how to move on the screen or select any options. In this book, we are learning the basics of the science game. Quantum mechanics is for very advanced players."

Really, Sussman? You wont even try??
It sometimes leads me down some pretty windy paths, but I do honestly believe that anyone is capable of understanding anything if two conditions are met. One is that the learner needs to really want to understand and be willing to stretch her brain to accommodate the new ideas. The second is that the guide must be willing to present the new concepts in a digestible form. Sometimes this means breaking them down in a creative way or finding a suitable context in which to present new ideas within the framework of previously acquired knowledge. Certainly it takes talent and effort on both the part of the learner and the guide, but it is not something to back away from for risk of embarrassment.

Yesterday Luna told me, "I really want to learn about the other particles, the even smaller ones that Grandpa David was talking about."

So last night I found myself typing the following into the library search engine: quantum physics for kids. When it returned zero results I thought for a moment that here was a good opportunity to fill an empty niche and write my own. I mean, we can't be the only ones..? But then I turned to amazon.com and found not one, but two books on quantum physics specifically for kids:
This Strange Quantum World and You
Quantum Fun: Book 1 - Einstein's Mind - Quantum Physics for Kids
The "book 1" in that title would suggest that there is at least a book two, but I found no such thing... maybe the best we can do is to describe its position as a probability distribution. That must be trying on the packing and shipping people.
If anyone knows of any other kid-friendly quantum physics resources, let me know!

The Happy Pup Club

2010-01-29T21:33:00.000-08:00

As young, concerned, determined girls are wont to do, Luna and her good friend came up with a plan to make the world a better place. They presented it to us moms in an articulate, well thought-out way. The plan was simply this. The girls would open a dog shelter on her friend's land. After all, we were told, there's plenty of room in the lower field. There they would care for homeless dogs and provide services such as dog grooming, boarding, and training.

It was, of course, a wonderful idea, and it took us a little while to convince the girls that this might not be the most practical endeavor for them at this time. Instead, we suggested, perhaps they could find a way to help homeless dogs that are already being cared for in shelters. The girls hit the internet where they found the sponsorship program at the North Shore Animal League. They reviewed the profiles of dogs in need of sponsorship and soon fell madly in love with Toby:Toby is a chihuahua mix who suffers from a digestive problem called megaesophagus. He must remain vertical after eating or else he may die. The NSAL provides the care that Toby needs in order to live a happy, healthy life. But of course this requires adequate funds. The girls decided to help raise money for Toby, and so the Happy Pup Club was born. Luna and three friends composed a letter to the NSAL expressing their desire to help Toby and pledging to raise $10 a month to be used towards his care. Their plan was met with supportive enthusiasm on the part of the NSAL, and their fundraising efforts began. For their first project, the girls baked their own home-made dog biscuits and sold them at our local library and at the bank. They composed an informational sign to be displayed with the biscuits introducing the Happy Pup Club and Toby and explaining Toby's condition and why he needs their help. Our community of dog lovers was eager to support their efforts, and the girls raised over $40!

And here's a picture of our own happy pup, just for good measure...

Songs of Peace, Freedom, and Praise

2010-01-29T21:05:00.000-08:00

Our wonderful and very talented friend Lori has been leading us in song for the past year and a half in our 'Songs of Peace, Freedom, and Praise Chorus.' This is an all-ages grouping of homeschooling moms and kids who meet once a week to sing together in an open, informal atmosphere of fun and joy. We play with harmony and singing in rounds. We have sung songs in Latin, Hebrew, Zulu, and Ladino. We've sung folk tunes, spirituals, madrigals, and classical.
We recently had the chance to record some songs in a really chilly recording studio (you'll notice in the pictures that we're all bundled up), and here are some of the results.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/Come With Me
Freedom is Coming, a South African song
Si Nje Nje, a South African song in Zulu

Bubble Geometry

2010-01-29T05:29:00.000-08:00

As a kid I loved watching old sci-fi movies that featured giant insects or arachnids taking over the world (think Them! and Tarantula!). It was with a mixture of relief and disappointment that I learned why this could never actually happen. As an object increases in size while maintaining its shape, it is unable to maintain the same surface area to volume ratio. The volume increases at a proportionally greater rate than surface area. So, apart from having to navigate the Los Angeles sewer system with James Whitmore in hot pursuit, a giant ant would encounter several more immediate problems, one being the crushing weight of all that extra volume in relation to the surface area available to support it. Another would be an inability to take in enough oxygen through the limited surface area to supply all its internal volume. Here's a good article that offers a more detailed explanation of the square-cube law.

The square-cube law is one of the central concepts in biology because it dictates the relationship between form and function. It's why we stuff 22 feet of small intestine into our bodies and why we need 300 to 500 million alveoli in our lungs to provide 70 square meters of surface area across which to transport oxygen. It's why each of our 100 trillion cells contains an extensive network of invaginated membrane. In fact, it's why we have 100 trillion cells in our bodies to begin with. It's why our DNA is arranged in the intricately looped and coiled and folded structures we call chromosomes. It's why fish have gills and why deciduous leaves are flat. It's why we cut up our food into smaller pieces when we want it to cool off faster. It's why it's more environmentally friendly to buy juice in a bulk container rather than in juice boxes.

And it's why bubbles are round.

The sphere is the geometric shape that has the least surface area for its volume. The surface tension of the bubble's skin of soap and water will naturally cause the bubble to take the form with the least surface area that can contain the gas inside.
But when we create a mess of bubbles all touching up against one another as Luna* did by shaking up some water in the liquid laundry container seen in the photos, we see that bubbles can in fact take on other shapes. When many bubbles are packed together they tend to share walls at 120 degrees to each other (as seen above) forming shapes similar to those of the cells in a honeycomb. Both are examples of minimal surface structures. The soapy skin of the bubble takes on the shape with least surface area that can still contain the gas inside. In the beehive, cells are constructed to hold the greatest amount of honey while using the smallest amount of wax.*Lucia has decided to go by her middle name.

The Snow Queen

2010-01-12T14:35:00.001-08:00

Lucia's latest Readers' Theatre production was an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. Lucia played Gerda, a role that offered the exciting opportunity to be frozen in ice in the enchanted palace of the Snow Queen. Because the actors in the Readers' Theatre program have the option of reading their lines rather than having to memorize them, it is always a low-stress atmosphere. The kids get to focus their energy on meaning and movement and, of course, having lots of fun. This little troupe has been steadily improving and honing their craft over the past year, and every production brings something new and exciting in sets, costumes, and staging. This was one of the first shows to make use of lights and lighting cues!

I've been invited to direct a Readers' Theatre production in March. I'm thinking about The Wizard of Oz or maybe one of the lesser-known Oz stories... So stayed tuned for more theatre adventures.

Handmade Holidays

2010-01-05T06:16:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all!
As usual, our Hanukkah/Solstice/Yule season included plenty of opportunities for creativity. This is the time, after all, for hunkering down and nurturing ideas, hatching plans, and focusing on quiet projects.
Nick made us a new menorah. Lucia received a tabletop loom for solstice. If you're in the market for a loom, I can recommend it highly. It's called Easy Weaver and is available here. Lucia created some lovely home-sewn gifts for the holidays. And these blustery, cold days have rekindled her passion for knitting. My creative contributions have mostly been edible:But I also made a little video of our holiday brunch with the grandparents, siblings, and cousins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mI1Nhx-h1g
*Lest we offend anyone, I feel I should explain that the 'stupid redneck' comment in the video is not being used in earnest, but was actually making fun of some horrible guy my friend Amy saw on the show Wife Swap who was using that term to mock others and thereby proving himself a complete ass. It had been a big topic of conversation during Amy's visit. Another big topic of conversation was that New Yorkers use a lot of sarcasm, and this sometimes gets us into trouble. (Amy is currently living in Seattle and developing a reputation as a sarcastic east coaster.) And if that doesn't get you to watch the video, I don't know what will!

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-24T22:28:00.000-08:00

Frozen lake, sunny day, hockey sticks and lovely friends.
I felt like I'd died and gone to the Catskills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm0QMCxClsg
(in which Lucia and I do our very best figure skater impersonations...)

Introducing The Everything Podcast!

2009-11-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

After years of being subjected to Radio Lab Lucia decided it would be fun to create a podcast of her own. So here it is, episode 1 of the 'Everything' podcast by Lucia. In this episode our host goes behind the scenes of the Shandaken Theatrical Society's production of Moliere's 'The Miser'. Lucia had a special interest in this particular production because... her mama was in it!
Here's a short scene on YouTube between me as Elise and Joe Bongiorno as Cleante.

http://ia341333.us.archive.org/0/items/TheMiserPodcast/miser.m4a
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z50HauOT6IE

Piano: A Conversation with Lucia

2009-11-17T07:18:00.001-08:00

After some months of teaching herself with the aid of a book and her mom (who does not play piano but can read music), Lucia decided it was time for formal piano lessons. Here's an interview with her about the piano and a couple of videos of the songs she's now practicing. Enjoy!

m: What do you like best about playing piano?
L: Really I don't have any specific thing I like best about piano. I just sort of like playing it, making music, and having fun with it.

m:What's your piano teacher like?
L:My piano teacher is very very nice, and I really like her. She lets me decide about a lot of the things I want to do, the music I want to play and stuff.

m:Is piano a challenging instrument?
L:I think it can be challenging, but I had been playing it by myself for a while and just sort of fooling around with it, and that sort of made me get the feel of it.

m: You played recorder last year in the orchestra. Is piano very different from recorder?
Very different. It's a lot more complicated, and you have to concentrate a lot more. You use both of your hands like you do in recorder, but in piano you have to concentrate separately on each hand because they're each doing a different thing.

m:Do you enjoy practicing? How often do you practice?
L:Yes, I do. I very much enjoy practicing. I like to just go to the piano and start playing. I practice once a day, sometimes twice a day. I go through all my songs, and my teacher gave me an exercise book where I do some exercises with my hands.

m:What is your favorite song to play on the piano?
L:I don't have a favorite song. I like a lot of songs that I play.

Off With Their Heads!

2009-10-31T18:58:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Fingerpainting

2009-10-28T06:18:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon this video of Lucia at about age 2, and I thought it was a good illustration of her early unschooling tendencies. In the video she's fingerpainting, but I use that term loosely as she quickly abandons the limitations of using only her fingers and her canvas steadily expands beyond the boundaries of the paper until her body becomes an extension of her artwork. This is a video about pure process. It shows the intensity and the wonder of a young child's exploration of color, texture, movement, mixing and layering when given the time and freedom to play with paint.
The original video was about 20 minutes long, but I've reluctantly edited it to under 10 for posting on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlownXbTPK0

Prologue

2009-10-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

Lucia started writing a new story recently. She sat with her notebook and pen, looking like a writer, gazing out the window for a while and then scribbling furiously. After she'd filled one page she stopped and asked, "What's a prologue?"

I said, "A prologue is a kind of introduction. It tells you something about the story you're going to read."

"That's what I thought," she said. "How do you spell prologue?"

Overlook Mountain Letterbox

2009-10-12T05:20:00.000-07:00

Our latest letterboxing adventure took place on Overlook Mountain in Woodstock. This is the site of the ruined Overlook Mountain House, the original incarnation of which was destroyed by fire in 1875. So, they built a second one, and that sank into the swamp... uh... burned down in 1923. The final incarnation of the hotel, seen here, was abandoned in the financial climate of the 1930's and eventually suffered the same fate as its predecessors, succumbing to fire in the 1960's. There are signs posted all around the ruins warning us of the risk of trespassing in the dangerous structure, but far be it from us to let personal safety stand in the way of finding a letterbox. The box was hidden in the main fireplace of the hotel. The fun part was having to look up inside the chimney to find the well-hidden box. Stamps from prior seekers...Lucia leaves her mark... 'pony girl.'Overlook Hotel stamp.The view from the top of Overlook Mountain. That's the Hudson River you see in the distance.Jadae didn't want to get too close to the edge...From the top of the fire tower (one of the 5 remaining historic Catskills fire towers).
You can see Mount Tremper in the photo below. It's the wide mountain in the middle of the frame with the signal tower bisecting the right side of it. That's where we live - at the base of that mountain.

Lucia is 9

2009-10-09T22:24:00.001-07:00

The guest list for Lucia's 9th birthday party seemed to grow and multiply exponentially like a bacterial culture. Before I knew it there were 18 children expected, but for various reasons not excluding one emergency room visit (everyone's fine now), they came in waves. And that was just as well considering the rainy weather that forced us all indoors for most of the day. The night before the party, as I waded knee-deep in cupcake batter, Lucia said, "Next year I think I'll have a small birthday party - just a few of my very closest friends." You couldn't have decided that two weeks ago? I thought. But honestly, the planning and execution of elaborate themed birthday parties is one of my great pleasures in life. So I was a bit disappointed when Lucia declared that this year there would be no theme. "It will just be like a big playdate," she'd said. And if the kids could have been outside running around in the woods and jumping on the trampoline, that would have been fine. But as the day approached and the weather refused to cooperate, the thought of eighteen kids on a big playdate inside the house became increasingly distressing. Then at the last minute Lucia decided she did indeed want some organized games, a treasure hunt, a pinata... a theme! Dogs! So, we made some pupcakes:We made a pinata shaped like our dog, Gatsby. I have very few hangups really, and most of them have to do with things like "misused" quotation marks and mispronunciation of words like 'noo-kyoo-ler'. But Nick enjoys teasing me because I find the whole pinata thing really disturbing. I mean who wants to watch their child destroy something violently with a stick and then scrounge on the ground for candy as a reward? But I could hardly resist the challenge of creating a Gatsby pinata, and Lucia agreed to fill the pinata with some of her extensive collection of party favors in addition to the candy.
The scrounging was fairly genteel.
Everything went smoothly. A good time was had by all. And my daughter is nine years old!

The Penguin Story

2009-09-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Lucia's got a new story up at her story blog. It's one that she wrote and illustrated bit by bit over the course of the last (school)year. Since then she's been waiting patiently for me to get around to scanning the artwork and publishing the post. Please take a look and let her know what you think!

Old Sturbridge Village Homeschool Day - OR - How I Lost My Walmart Virginity

2009-09-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

It takes about two hours and forty minutes to get to Old Sturbridge Village from our house. Otherwise we'd probably be there once a week. It's a beautiful place, and they offer all sorts of great hands-on programs. And to my delight Lucia is proving to be just as much of a 'living history' fan as I. Often when she's upset or not feeling well, and I ask, "Is there something I can do to help you feel better?" she replies, "Take me to Old Sturbridge Village."

So, you can imagine the excitement surrounding the approach of the first OSV Homeschool Day this year. And you can imagine how Lucia stayed up pretty late the night before in anticipation of the event and how I had to put her slumbering, pajama-clad body into the car at 7am in order to insure that we'd arrive in plenty of time for her first workshop at 10:30. You can picture the neat little bundle of her clothes sitting on the back seat beside her, the toothbrush, toothpaste, and hair comb, all ready to use at a rest stop somewhere on the Mass Pike. And, because I had things so well planned and prepared, you can imagine my shock and dismay when, just as I approached the Massachusetts border, I was struck by the terrible realization that I'd forgotten her shoes.

The thing is, this isn't the first time this has happened. The first time was in Ireland, and you can read about it here.

Luckily I had Nick's cell phone with me, and he was able to google me over to a Payless Shoe Store in Springfield, Massachusetts. I hate shopping at this kind of store. I believe in spending more money for higher quality goods that will last longer rather than spending less for shoddy junk that's going to end up in a landfill in no time and was probably produced by children in Sri Lanka making 23 cents an hour. But I also recognize that people are not perfect. Sometimes you forget to bring your kid's shoes on a long, early morning car ride. (Again.) And sometimes you have to swallow your ideals and walk up to the door of the Payless only to find that it doesn't open for another half an hour, but there's a great big enormous Walmart right next door. And you realize that this is it. You're about to make your first-ever purchase at a Walmart.
And then, just like that, you're walking away with a $10 pair of size 3 Faded Glory's.

Lucia declared the shoes ugly but serviceable. They got her through the day, and I know she'll never choose to wear them again. But I'm thinking I'll keep them in the trunk of the car... just in case.

lesson in the school house'making her manners'playground gamesoutside the stagecoachinside the stagecoach'Textiles' workshop launching a hot air balloon

Electrolysis of Water

2009-09-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Lucia has decided that she wants to explore chemistry in more depth this year. She's always enjoyed conducting chemistry experiments - measuring and mixing and observing bubbles and color changes. It's all very exciting. And at this stage she really gets the gist of what's happening in a chemical reaction - the making and breaking of chemical bonds, the shuffling around of atoms to create different kinds of molecules. Here is an image from an activity we did the other day, the electrolysis of water. I'll let Lucia explain it in her own words (in the second image).Is it just me, or does that journal entry have something of a mad scientist feel to it? The first sentence should read "I broke the bonds inside water molecules... MWA HA HA HA HA !" Next month perhaps I'll post an entry in which she's written, "Today I discovered the secret of reanimation!" Look out!

As a science teacher I know how important it is to understand chemistry not just as a separate, decontextualized branch of science, but as an integrated part of our whole understanding of the world. Lucia's been reading Chemistry Level I in the Real Science-4-Kids series which is basically a Chem 101 textbook written for 9 year olds. But she's also been encountering chemistry in other contexts. In The Way We Work, a book all about the human body, Lucia had read no more than a few pages before David Macaulay launched into a detailed description of atomic structure and the chemical bonding process. "But this isn't about the body," said Lucia, "This is chemistry!"
"The body is chemistry," I told her. When I was teaching high school biology I remember having a conversation with another science teacher who insisted that biology was the least interesting of the sciences to learn because it was all just rote memorization whereas chemistry and physics involved mathematics and problem solving. I tried to explain to him that biology had been my favorite science to learn because in fact it embodies all other branches of science. I told him that without an understanding of chemistry, physics, and mathematics you can't really understand anything in biology, from the goings-on within a cell to the population dynamics within an ecosystem. He looked at me like I was either crazy or stupid, and I suspected from then on that he wasn't a very good science teacher!

Lucky for us, unschooling means having the freedom to abandon all the arbitrary subject divisions with which we're confronted in school, the divisions that keep us from making the kind of cross-curricular connections that result in an elevated understanding of the world, the divisions that produce science teachers who view the entire pursuit of biology as a bunch of boring memorization! (The kind of connections that keep us from discovering the secret of reanimation... MWA HA HA HA HA!)

Yo Ho Ho

2009-09-20T17:20:00.001-07:00

'Twas pirate weekend at the NY Renaissance Faire last week. So Lucia's very talented Aunty Kim designed some costumes for us. We shivered our timbers, and Lucia even won 4th place in the costume contest! I felt only moderately guilty that we'd had a professional on our crew. After all, we're pirates! We make our own rules. my pirate lad and me
their most sinister sneerspillaging some fuel

My Most Challenging Parenting Moment

2009-09-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we were faced with the toughest parenting challenge we'd ever encountered. How do you tell a kid that she has to give up her dog? I'm talking about our second dog, Daisy, whom we'd had for four months and to whom we'd all become quite attached. It's taken me some time to write about this because it was such a difficult little chapter in our lives, and my hope was move on as quickly as possible. I wasn't planning to write about it on my blog. But then a couple of days ago Lucia showed me this post on her own blog. And I was forced to acknowledge that, like all painful situations in life, this was a learning experience and one that deserves to be honored as such.

Here is the letter I sent, at Lucia's request, to family and friends explaining what was happening. (If you are among the friends and family who actually received this letter, then skip ahead...)

Dear friends, As some of you know we've been having a problem with our dog Daisy. About 5 or 6 weeks ago she began showing some agression toward other dogs. It began with a couple of unclear incidents in which we assumed it was the other dog who had initiated the aggression. It was the most logical assumption because, as you know, Daisy had always been very submissive and played well with the other dogs. But since then Daisy has attacked Gatsby twice. The incidents were very sporadic, and while we were concerned we thought there must be some explanation for the behavior. However, within the past couple of weeks the incidents have become more regular and frequent. We had friends visiting with their dogs two weekends in a row, and on both occasions she attacked the other dog in our home. The only consistency seemed to be that the attacks were happening in our home, so we thought it was a territorial issue. We certainly didn't expect that it would happen outside of our home. But then a couple of days later she attacked Mica at the dog park. After this we were really mystified and very concerned because there seemed to be no discernible trigger. It's happened with female dogs, male dogs, familiar dogs as well as strangers, at home and away, and with any combination of her family members with her at the time. I brought Daisy to the park last week and kept her on the leash, but when two dogs came to greet her she began growling and lunging at them. We brought Daisy to the vet, and they didn't find anything physically wrong with her. We consulted a trainer and behaviorist as well as Allie, the woman who runs the rescue network from which we got both Gatsby and Daisy. We've heard a whole array of suggested explanations - from neurological problems and hormonal imbalance to simply growing into a dominant female who may not tolerate other dogs - especially other females. We've been told that the problem could be helped with training, but that it would be a lot of work and wouldn't necessarily produce the results we need. Our lifestyle is such that we often have friends visiting with other dogs, and we often have small children in the house. Because Daisy's behavior has become so unpredictable we feel that the situation is unsafe. She has always been wonderful with people, including children, but it could be very dangerous if someone were accidentally caught in the crossfire. We feel very strongly that we cannot keep a dog who has problems with aggression. With very heavy hearts we've had to recognize that the problem is too big for us at this time. Fortunately we have a very good option available to us - Allie from the rescue network will take Daisy back and find her a more appropriate home - one in which she can be the only dog. For the past four months we've loved her, cared for her, trained her, and helped her grow into a healthy, beautiful dog who loves and trusts people. So we hope that we've done her a good service and given her a good foundation for a successful future home. Lucia is obviously very upset, as are we all. But she understands why we can't keep Daisy. She's been present for some of the attacks and has seen how scary and unpredictable they are. When I told her how sorry I was that I couldn't fix the problem she said, "Mama, you can't fix everything!" She also asked when we could get another dog (which is the furthest thing from my mind right now - but it was good to hear that she is already trying to move on in some way.) We have had such success with Gatsby, and for a while things seemed to be so perfect with Daisy that this has all come as a great shock. We will all miss her very much. Thanks for your concern and understanding.

When Nick and I realized that we wouldn't be able to keep Daisy, I panicked. Far worse than having to give up a beloved pet was having to explain it to Lucia. I was afraid she'd hate me for it. I mean, seriously, give a child a dog and then take it away? What kind of person does that? I never had a dog as a child, but I remember how badly I'd wanted one, and I knew that Lucia wanted Daisy every bit as much as that. Without a lot of reassurance from Nick and other friends, I might have dragged this on and on and put us all through a lot of hell entirely for fear of hurting my daughter.

Well, we did go ahead and have that talk with Lucia. And it was hard. But it was also one of those rare opportunities to observe the blossoming of the deeply trusting relationships we've sown in our family, all that hard work and emotional investment we refer to as attachment parenting. Lucia took it for granted that we had done everything in our power to correct the situation, that this decision had been reached in the most thoughtful, careful way, that her feelings had been among our top priorities, and that, painful as it was, this would ultimately be the best thing for us all. I was once again impressed by Lucia's maturity, her wisdom and resilience. She really understood why we couldn't keep Daisy, and she was able to consider things objectively, even when gripped by powerful emotions. And maybe part of it is that she just happens to be a really wonderful kid. But I also like to think that her graceful response came in part from knowing that her parents don't make arbitrary, insensitive, or authoritative choices. It was a sad moment but also a proud one.

Lucia would like to try again with a second second dog and has been researching small dog breeds. I suggested that we try fostering a small dog in the spring and see how that goes. In the meanwhile we've been adjusting to life without Daisy and spending lots of time loving, enjoying and appreciating our wonderful Gatsby.

Power to the People

2009-08-30T09:42:00.001-07:00

Lucia (while eating her own home-made banana bread):
"Mama, if I ever open up a bakery I'm going to hang up a big sign inside that tells all the ingredients that are in each thing so people with allergies can tell if they're allergic to the thing they want. And then they'd also know how to make it at home. A lot of people wouldn't do that because they want the people to buy everything and not make it at home. But I don't care. If people like to make stuff themselves they should be able to."

Raising a child is a political act.

From Blossom to Awesome

2009-08-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Remember that TV show Blossom? I was never a fan, but Mayim Bialik was definitely on my pop culture radar - maybe because I have a close friend named Blossom, and upon introducing herself she always got a lot of,"Oh, like the TV show?" Well, I just found out that this icon of the early 90's is one of those crazy attachment parenting homeschoolers! Here's an interview on yahoo.

Notes From the Garden

2009-08-10T17:58:00.001-07:00

In spite of the slug boom, the relentless rain, and the unseasonably cold weather, we've had some success in the garden. Above you see Lucia with her incredibly edibly pole beans. Here is our first surviving zucchini - the earlier ones all rotted on the vine while still only two or three inches long. Strawberry babies that I've been catching in pots and will transplant to their very own bed just as soon as I have time to clear one. Nick's pond has become habitat for a frog family. This is, I believe, the papa. And the rest is self explanatory.

Much Ado About Nothing

2009-08-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I noticed an inconspicuous little sign at the end of a long driveway on a back country road near our new home. It said, "Little Globe Theatre." I was intrigued but was unable to find out anything more about it. Then a few weeks later while driving around one evening we saw a sandwich board propped up at an intersection. It read "Shakespeare tonight!" And that night we were treated to an incredible performance of As You Like It acted entirely by children between the ages of 8 and 13. The acting, the sets, the costumes, the direction, and the music were all quite impressive and proved even more so when we found out that the entire play had been produced in only two weeks' time! It was the culmination of a two-week Shakespeare Intensive offered every summer by a performing arts company run by a local couple and staged at their magical home in the woods.Of course Lucia's immediate reaction was, "I want to do this!" And finally, after a year of heavy anticipation, Lucia's dream came true. She acted in her first Shakespeare play! And to make the experience all the more exciting, it happened to be her very favorite Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing (Lucia's been watching the Kenneth Branagh film repeatedly since about age 5!). Lucia played a servant, a mourner, a player for an added 'play within the play', and a sexton.Lucia could not wait to get to rehearsals, which lasted for five hours each day. As I got to play my flute in the orchestra I was privileged to observe a lot of the work that went into this production. These children are just amazing and put their hearts into every bit of it. And it was lovely to see the rapport that developed between the cast members. The multi-age interaction was especially nice. Many of the kids involved happen to be homeschoolers, and it was a very warm and friendly group. Lucia can't wait to participate again next year!

Cast Party!