We're off to see the Wizard

It was definitely organized chaos wrangling hundreds of children into groups of poppies, munchkins, and flying monkeys. The flying monkeys were already zooming around!

Ella is a munchkin, and she is so excited! This picture is stinky, but you can see Ella in the turquoise shirt right in front when they were learning the jitterbug.

She was thrilled to be cast in the Wizard of Oz at the high school, along with some of her friends. Yesterday we went to rehearsal and the director of the show had such a wonderful energy and it was really great. I am so glad that Ella has had so many positive drama mentors.

One more thing on the Golden Compass

Warning, I think as I re-read that this may have turned into a bit of a rant.

I just have to say that Philip Pullman totally rocks. I am a big fan of the radical, whether I agree with that radical notion or not. People must at least try to envision what that outer limit of acceptability is and then decide how close to sit to the edge. I appreciate those visionaries that sit out there so that the rest of us can remain safe, if we choose. That is why, while not a vegan, I appreciate PETA. I say, go on out there and be completely far out. It is awesome.

My blog was recently cited on one of the local home school lists as (maybe? maybe it was confused with Joyce's Joyfully Rejoycing site?) radical. Somehow, even in writing that came across as a slam. Of course, this is the homeschooling list I left because of a forwarded message from HSLDA that endorsed hitting your child with sticks ("the rod"). But, that is okay. I don't mind being radical. There are far too few of us being radical these days. Jesus was a radical, as was Buddha. But I digress.
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Who knows if Philip Pullman set out to be a radical, and I think that the ideas that he allegorically uses in his books are not that far out there (or maybe that is just from where I sit). However, I think that he has exposed the radical other end of the spectrum and its influence. Or, I guess exposed it to anyone who is looking.

He said the following about the current teaching of literature. Hopefully, children can still read his books and access them in libraries. He definitely is clued in to the fact that children are not encouraged to be free thinkers in today's world.

"What concerns me here is the relationship this sets up between child and book, between children and stories. Stories are written to beguile, to entertain, to amuse, to move, to enchant, to horrify, to delight, to anger, to make us wonder. They are not written so that we can make a fifty word summary of the whole plot, or find five synonyms for the descriptive words. That sort of thing would make you hate reading, and turn away from such a futile activity with disgust. In the words of Ruskin, it's "slaves' work, unredeemed.”- Isis Lecture, Tuesday 1 April, 2003

He clearly doesn't mind ruffling a few feathers.

And ruffle them he did with the movie The Golden Compass.

Well, I say that was a good thing. It was so interesting to me that I had to drive to Cambridge (anyone see the connections there?) to *see* the movie, as it FLEW out of theaters. Anyone who thinks that our current economic disparities and recessions is not influencing the ways in which we can express our rights is living in a fantasy world.

In fact the movie was pretty good, too. The special effects were awesome, and it wasn't even as disturbing as the book at the end. It didn't at all make me think that there was no God (even in the movie world). In fact, I saw the dust as an embodiment of the Holy Spirit as I understand it. Also, the discussion of Free Will was an interesting one, and I thought the idea of children expressing pure free will or being altered in such a damaging way that they cannot choose to be one with the Dust (Holy Spirit) was very stimulating.

Do we damage our child out of their ability to make free choices? Do we *really* support our children to be themselves or are we more repressive and comformist than we acknowledge?

Why is discussion of free will being shut down by members of some church groups? It seems so un-American to me. I may see the movie again, just to prove to myself that I still can see free expressions of different visions of the divine. I'll definitely buy the DVD. And maybe join PETA while I still can.

Oh, and by the way, my daemon is a crow named Apolonious according to the movie website. Modest, it says, and flexible, shy, assertive and competitive. Hmmmm...maybe so.

Learning All The Time

"The trouble with talk about 'learning experiences' is that it implies that all experiences can be divided into two kinds, those from which we learn something, and those from which we learn nothing. But there are no experiences from which we learn nothing. We learn from everything we do, and everything that happens to us or is done to us."
John Holt, Instead of Education

Just something I am pondering. And wondering, why if everything is a learning experience, some things have to be learned over and over and over and over and over.......

Spiraling Around Fairies

Spirals are so wonderful and organic and somehow cozy and scary all at once.

I have always loved the educational notion of a spiral of learning as opposed to a linear progression. After all, isn't that how we learn in real life? I love the image of swirling around ideas and falling into them as one falls into a whirlpool, reaching deeper and deeper (maybe even scary) levels of understanding.

One thing that we have revisited over and over is the Spiderwick series of books. They are captivating, and as they captured the imaginations of Ella and then one friend and then another and another, or then she was given a field guide, the interest would be rekindled.

I remember feeling that way about gnomes. I still have the Gnome Gnotebook that Meg's mom gave me when I was about Ella's age.

Now that Spiderwick is going to be a movie, we did the books with our Coastal Free Learners homeschool group. We also found out it is going to be a game and I am so excited! It 's going to be very fun! There is so much information about the books on the internet, along with games and downloads, etc. What is so wonderful about these books is that the kids seem to take them so seriously, and really feel connected to the Grace children and the invisible world all around us.

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We had a blast today making Sprite outfits. It was so fun to hear the children earnestly discussing the merits of leaving milk out for Brownies, and whether or not fairies liked fairy houses or felt that they were some sign from us that we thought them incapable of housing themselves. Ella has researched the authors, their influences and even their pets (pugs, of course!). Even the boys had fun drawing and making the Sprites have warrior helmets on their head..

Library Lovin'

Oh, I love our library. There was an awesome display here about the perils of high fructose corn syrup. After it came down, the Shellvers made an Ode to Jon Scieszka. It was so cute, because all these "cool" middle schoolers and high schoolers were like, "Jon who?!" but then when we started pulling the books off the shelves they got so enthusiastic about the books that they remembered from when they were small (oh so long ago *grin*).

Of course, the rise in enthusiasm may have stemmed from the chocolate and marshmallows and frosting that I was feeding them.

I am not above a little bribery.

MIT revisited

"Oh, I am so happy to be learning something new! I do so love this place. And don't I look cute here?"

Oh how we love this place! It is so fun to go and learn and the coordinator there does an amazing job. This time we were exploring laser pointers and mirrors. The kids had to get the laser through a maze using mirrors to make the light turn the corners. It was so fun to see how Declan really got the idea. He also really loved the laser pointer.

The coordinator there does a lot of programs for kids who go to school in Cambridge. When I taught there, I remember that there were some issues about laser pointers. They had to be "banned", and there were lots of urban legends that the kids knew about laser pointers on the subway, in their neighborhoods, ones that were brought to school, and other things.

When the coordinator asked the homeschool kids from Cape Cod about the laser pointer, they didn't even know what it was. Hee hee. I am living in a whole different world from where I came, baby.

This is the strobe light operating machine for the strobe pictures that they took. Ella got to operate the strobe light and say "Ready Set Go". Too fun.

That Crazy Pink Inflatable Chair

Hmmmm.....what is that? Is it a mess? It is a pile of blankets? Or is it another great use for that crazy pink inflatable chair?
Oh, the pile is moving, the white blanket is off. Everyone loves the crazy pink inflatable chair, so who could it be? The dog? Maybe. The cat? Very much maybe (see previous posts). Oh, the mystery is so very suspenseful.

Oh! It is Declan! Hulking out of the chair! Rocking the hiding place!

This is how we amuse ourselves these long winter days.