The Thinking Mother: Thoughts about Parenting Kids in Times of Terrorism

The Thinking Mother: Thoughts about Parenting Kids in Times of Terrorism

I agree with you as well. On 9/11 we were living in Hamden and my then 4 year-old daughter was in a daycare in Branford. They let these very young kids watch the news broadcasts for a couple of hours before someone finally got some sense and had the kids go out and play. Most of the kids were picked up early that day; by the time I got there at 4:30, there was only one other child besides mine there. Fortunately, I don't think that she suffered any ill effects, but we certainly would have preferred that she not be exposed to those images at that time. I guess that many people that day were so shocked that they weren't thinking straight.

Vacation Wrap-Up

As usual, my plans for the vacation were overly ambitious and I didn't accomplish half of what I wanted to.  However, on the eve of returning to school and work, I'm going to remind myself of what I did get done and be glad of it!

1.  Got to the doctor for my annual physical and assorted tests.  Most came back just fine, although I do need to work on the cholesterol.

2.  Dealt with Mt. Washmore!  Not only is all of the laundry caught up, folded and put away, I even got to some of the hand washables!  Not only that, but I even ironed all of the DH's shirts, his pants, my pants for tomorrow and several of my shirts.  Wow!  (I'd been ironing one shirt each morning.  Not good.)

3.  Did some deep cleaning in the kitchen and the back room.  While the kitchen can still use some work, I spent a day moving most of the furniture in the back room in order to vacuum and wash underneath it.  Even did the laundry area!  (Parts of which hadn't been done in literally YEARS!)

4.  Took the girls to the park twice, played Monopoly twice (although the second time was a disaster -- maybe I'll blog about that later), had one sleepover here and the other child had a sleepover at a friend's.)

What I didn't get done:

1.  Not too much planning for school.  Oh, I did come up with an idea for my kinders which I bounced off of the team (on Facebook -- how do you like that?  Lesson planning on Facebook!)  And I did a little work this afternoon while the girls were at the park.

2.  Didn't get out to the back yard to do any work. 

3.  Didn't get to Sabino Canyon.

I'm not going to fret over #1 & 2 overly much -- I'm ready enough for tomorrow and the back yard isn't going anywhere.  The inside of the house is much more functional right now and that should end up creating time down the road to get out there.  However, I do wish that we had gotten to the canyon.  It's beautiful there this time of year.  Well, we've got MLK day coming up in a couple of weeks -- perhaps then!

Books Around the States

And finally, a challege to read books with settings in the different states.  I'm going to start with states that I have lived in and perhaps move out from there.

AZ

1.  Hillerman mysteries (also doubles for NM)

CT

1.

NM

1.  Death Comes for the Archbishop --Willa Cather

2.  Hillerman mysteries (also doubles for AZ)

Medieval Challenge

That last post got a little long, so here's a separate one for the medieval challenge (Lord level??)

I.  History

1.  The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History: 1300-1850 -- Brian Fagen
2.  The First Crusade  -- Thomas Asbridge
3.  Eleanor of Aquitaine -- Allsion Weir
4.  Queen Isabella -- Allison Weir

II. Historical Fiction

1.  The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz --  Michelle Cameron
2.  Rashi's Daughters I: Joheved -- Maggie Anton
3.  Rashi's Daughters II: Miriam -- Maggie Anton
4.  Rashi's Daughters III: Rachel -- Maggie Anton

III.  Medieval Literature

1.  Canterbury Tales -- Chaucer

10-10-(10?) Challenge

After reading several blogs, I've decided to jump on the reading challenge bandwagon.  Originally, I was planning on doing 10 books in each category (with some overlap), but after reading some other bloggers, I'll settle for the 10 categories and leave it open how many I read in each category.  Perhaps a minimum of three per category - I'll be pretty busy in my life for the next 8 months with work, a Bat Mitzvah and returning home for my 30th high school reunion. 

I also found a medieval challenge yesterday which can easily overlap the 1010 challenge.  I've thoroughly enjoyed reading Maggie Anton's Rashi's Daughter's series, and want to reread that this year.  I've also found two other books about medieval Jewish women: Dona Gracia Nasi, and Shira of Ashkenaz that I want to read, so after I read some history of the period, I'll go back and reread.

So, here are my 10 categories and a partial list of planned reading.



I.  Biography

1.  Abigail Adams by Woody Holton.  (I've always admired Abigail Adams since performing in the orchestra for the musical 1776.  Even named my first cat after her)
2.  Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
3.  Eleanor of Aquitaine by Allison Weir (Part of the medieval challenge)
4.  The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi by Andrree Aelion Brooks (Also part of the medieval challenge)
5.  Queen Isabella by Allison Weir (medieval challenge)

II Books that Rachel reads for school (Rachel is reading through a nice survey of Western literature in her seventh grade class.  Although she is reading "age-appropriate" versions of some of these tales, I thought that it would be fun to read the originals.)

1. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
4. The Golem
5. Animal Farm by George Orwell (When she reads this one, we're also going to ask her to read Anthem by Ayn Rand.  She already enjoys the dystopian genre, and Rand's book should make a nice companion to Orwell's)
6.  Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (medieval challenge)


III. Children's/Young Adult Literature (These may turn into nighttime read-alouds for Rebecca.  Although she is perfectly capable of reading these on her own - she's been reading Harry Potter 7! - she still likes the cozy aspect of being read to.  And so does Rachel!)

1.  Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
2. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

IV Classics (of the more adult variety, as opposed to category III)

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

V.  Education/Homeschooling (I've been reading some homeschooling blogs recently and find that their reasons for homeschooling are similar to the reasons that my girls go to school where they do.  I've also been interested to discover what happened in the two decades that elapsed between when I graduated high school and then returned to the public schools as a teacher.  Many things had changed.)

1.  Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
2. Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom by Victor Davis Hason and & John Heath
3.  Left Back - A Century of Failed School Reforms by Diane Ravitch
4.  Democracy in Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
5.  Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
6.  Forgotten Heros of American Education by Diane Ravitch

VI. Historical Fiction

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
2. The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz by Michelle Cameron (medieval challenge)
3. Rashi's Daughters I: Joheved by Maggie Anton (medieval challenge)

4. Rashi's Daughters II: Miriam by Maggie Anton (medieval challenge)

5. Rashi's Daughters III: Rachel by Maggie Anton (medieval challenge)
6. Red Tent by Anita Diamant
7. The Ghost of Hannah Mendes Naomi Ragen (medieval challenge)

VII.  History

1.  1776 by David McCullough
2.  The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History: 1300-1850 by Brian Fagen (medieval challenge?)
3.  A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 by Edward J. Larson
4.  A Study of History by Arnold Toynbee (this may be a little ambitious!)
5.  The First Crusade by Thomas Asbridge


VIII.  Misc. Fiction

1.  1984 by George Orwell
2.  Animal Farm by George Orwell
3.  Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
4.  Beauty by Shari Tepper
5.  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood


IX Non Fiction (general)

1.  The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
2.  The Search for Longitude by Dava Sobel
3.  A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways into Judaism by Rabbi Mike Comins
4.  5000 Year Leap: The Miracle That Changed the World by Cleon Skousen
5.  How To Run a Traditional Jewish Household by Blu Greenberg
6.  Writings (don't have an exact title yet) by Thomas Jefferson
7.  America Alone by Mark Steyn
8.  Radicals for Capitalism by Brian Doherty
9.  Eats Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation  by Lynne Truss


X.   Poetry (nothing in this category yet --- I may change the category)

Should be a fun reading year!

Crisis Cleaning, Day 1

Well, after a semester of work and school, the house is indeed showing the effects. Yesterday I did 2+ rounds of "Crisis Cleaning". Succeeded in getting the bathroom back to a "Swish and Swipe" state and keeping the kitchen under control in spite of home cooking all meals there. We also took time out to go visit DH's parents up the hill and after dinner, I took the girls to the local used book store and got several books off my reading list. Not too bad for the second day of Winter Break.

We also finally lit all of the hanukiyot for the last day of Hanukkah. Yeah, we were a couple of days late, but on the official last day, DH had an evening appointment, and then on Saturday evening, I was strangely exhausted and crashed at 4:30. So, tonight we had the mass lighting. Nine hanukiyot arranged around the table - very beautiful.

Immigration and other thoughts

Ok, today in professional development we learned that one of our students who has been with us for 6 years has cancer. This is complicated by the fact that he is not a citizen and does not have citizenship. His mother is in the process of getting her citizenship and is not allowed to go visit son who is now in Mexico receiving treatment. No dad in the picture evidentally, and there are several kids, besides the one who is ill. I've got lots of disparate thoughts about this: why bring your kids to a foreign country? where is dad? (can't people stop getting pregnant if the dad isn't going to be around?), why is INS being such sticklers when the kid is obviously very sick? (mom was denied permission to go to Mexico to visit son). It's a mess. I'm sorry for this family -- it really stinks that their son has cancer. But why put your kids in such a situation? Why have so many kids? Why bring kids illegally to another country? If I brought my kids to Mexico, what hoops would I have to jump through to get them in to school? Yet in the USA, thanks to Plyler, any kid who resides in a school district, legally or not, gets to go to school. m.Go figure.