Eclectic Parent

The gangs all here! So when we say family vacation, we mean everyone. Kid are having a blast playing with all their cousins. The days slowly revolve around the pool, the beach and meals. Last night we walked along the beach into town to go to dinner. Over the water, with no light pollution the sky was amazing. The kids looked for constellations they know.

So happy, happy new year to all. We’ll be back in the states in a few more days. See you then!

Haven’t posted in a while. Our domain was set to expire, had to transfer and had trouble getting it released, etc, etc. We’re back in Akumal, Mexico now. Third year in a row. Gorgeous, relaxed, mellow. It’s about 90 minutes south of Cancun. The first year we went to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum; last year we swam with the dolphins. Thi year we’re all haning by the pool and the white sandy beaches. The kids are playing with their cousins - when you have 18 grandkids get together there is alway someone to play with.

This is the first year the hotel has had wi-fi so we’ll be able to post . . . but honesty, every post looks like it’ll say ‘hanging out, watching the clouds roll by’. There are worse ways to spend a week.

Yup, I’m about a week behind posting. But just had to hop on to say that it’s cracking me up that my children have been glued to CNN for about 2 hours. In a yelling, leaping, chanting type way usually reserved for sporting events. Wohoo! Does going to rallies and learning about the electoral college count as social studies? Hell yes. Hey my 4 yo can tell you the names of both candidates, how can adults still not know what’s going on?

I’ve got kids protesting bedtime. Not for any of the usual reasons. But they don’t want to go to bed until they are sure Obama is president

In the evening, grandma and I took D to an Obama rally. Women for Obama sponsored a rally to turn Arizona blue. After some talking at the Arizona State University campus, we walked across the bridge over a major street carrying blue lights. It was an amazing blue river of over a thousand people. D had wanted to go. The speakers weren’t too exciting for him but hearing a fantastic trumpet player from only feet away was very cool. Once we got to turn on our lights and start walking through campus he got into the spirit. How often do kids get told to get loud and have fun. This is the only video I can find, you can imagine how fun it was to cross the bridge.Once we were on the other side there was more speaking but D prefered to stand by the road and chant while waving his light. As we were ready to leave we ran into some friends that were passing out some flyers against Prop 102. D, who’s already made posters against it, helped me at a polling place two years ago and been up on another website, was happy to help pass out flyers. I’m not sure whether people didn’t want to turn down the excited 8 yo or whether this was the right crowd but everyone he approached said they were voting No already.He had a great time and wants to go with me when I do some volunteering. 8and his first big rally, not too bad . . .

Yesterday the house was full of princesses - and a few princes - for B’s 4th birthday party. It was a princess tea party complete with dressing up, changing outfits repeatedly, the princesses once being chased by a dragon and the whole finger sandwiches kind of tea time. She had a fantastic  time dressing up with her friends and doing all little foofy fabulous stuff.  The jewels sparkled and and the gowns flowed.  B’s big brothers weren’t interested in attending a princess tea party until we pointed out that formal events often had servers. They love playing dress up too and thought that would be fun. The boys love to get dressed up in their jackets and ties. They opened the door, passed craft supplies around and helped bring the tea and cake to the princesses and dragon.  They played their parts to help the princesses feel at home.   Her pink bedroom seemed to be the perfect back drop to play in their fanciest dresses and shinny jewels. An exquisite time was had by all.

After the guests left, she broke out several of her gifts. We knit a little on her knitting loom she was given with some luscious pink yard. Then the boys wanted to get out our hat looms to work on knitting too. B had a tea party for her dolls with her new tea set while wearing new jewelry. Claiming honest exhaustion we put off building our own bear and putting her Fancy Nancy puzzle together until tomorrow.

I recently got talked into joining Facebook. I had thought it was the realm of teenagers and drunken college students, but within minutes I had found people I knew, some of whom I hadn’t spoken to in years. FB allows people to not only chat with each other but to see what others say they are doing at the moment, groups they join and links they’ve posted. It only took a few days for me to realize how diverse the group of people I know really is. I know people who believe in not harming any living thing and people who hunt. I know people who are straight, gay, bi and try anything. People who are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Witches (their term of choice), athiest and agnostic; anyone Muslim out there? Just realized I have an important gap. I know people who unschool, homeschool, send their kids to public school, private school and even boarding school. People who listen to rock, county, rap, jazz and classical. Urban dwellers and country folk. People riding subways and bikes, driving SUVs and Priuses. I’ve gone to church camp with some of them to see if God moved me; I’ve gone to documentary screening about gay and lesbian rights with one of them; I’ve worked toward passing breastfeeding legislation with others.

Why does any of this matter? With every divergent viewpoint, my mind opens a little bit further. My understanding of the universe expands, or at least my understanding of other people is enlarged. By exposing ourselves and our children to so many thoughts, opinions, beliefs and ideas, we increase our opportunities to find ideas we like, beliefs we’ll agree with,  or viewpoints and opinions that, through contradiction, help shape our own. I have my own opinions and beliefs but I am willing to listen, to think, to expand, to grow. I can appreciate the variances of the word without being open to all of the possibilities. Do I agree with the wide variety of people I know about everything? Certainly not. My biggest difficulties lie in beliefs people hold that would limit my or others choices and possibilities.

Recently driving home we saw numerous political signs. When we began discussing them and what they meant, the kids were horrified. Specifically on one of the propositions. Almost everyone in our neighborhood has a sign for it in their yard. The boys immediate response was that how could so many of our neighbors be bad.  And I’m OK with that being the response from two young children; but not when it is the response of adults who should be able to see beyond black and white, us and them. So we talked about how they aren’t bad just because they have ideas we don’t agree with. We discussed some of the reasons people have different beliefs, faiths, ideas.

Hopefully all of our children can stick to who they are and still begin to see shades of gray. We hope they will be able to form their own opinions and still be open to new ideas. Now you see why this blog is called eclectic . . .

Kids have been feeling very self directed lately. Yesterday they spent a great deal of time making comic books (which daddy is supposed to photograph).  C’s was about R2D2 while D made up his own superheroes.

Today the kids made political signs for the yard while I ate lunch. They did it all themselves and didn’t come get me until the needed help with spelling. As soon as the batter is charged on the camera, photos will follow.

Very friend filled day. Started the morning with a play date. A couple of hours spent with an entire family of children. Went straight from there to a Halloween party. Who says homeschooled children don’t have enough socializing? Or is that socialization? Oh well, that’s a whole ‘nother idea.

We’ve been very busy reading around here even if I haven’t been posting about it. D is reading Frog and Toad Are Friends  and yesterday started The Adventures of Captain Underpants, which we’d picked up yesterday at a homeschool group’s book yard sale. Together we’ve been reading one or two stories a night from the Barefoot Book of Animal Tales and Bats in the Library. B is sticking to her favorites - Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious and  Goldilocks in Tell Me A Story.

At one of his homeschool programs, C learned the song:

5 little hot dogs sitting in a pan,
the grease got hot,
and one went bam!
4 little . . . .

Tonight at dinner the variations started. It started with the same theme and worked its way to things like

5 little light sabers sitting in a hand,
one got shot and one went bam!

At which point his brother pointed out that that was two light sabers down instead of one. So they started over at 10 and counted down by 2s. Gotta love when they come up with this stuff themselves.

Of course creativity has it’s price. As I’m typing they’ve worked their way to counting down a butt full of farts going ‘thbbwwwwwww’. I’m just enjoying the group giggle.

I haven’t been posting lately. Not on purpose, just not getting to it. I have thought during the day that I could write about but then in the evening just don’t get them typed. I recently discovered neither my thyroid nor my adrenal glands are working well. It’s the difference between tired and bone weary. So hopefully now that I’m working on it, I can get back to writing.

Yesterday on the drive home from the boys homeschool program they asked about the signs. We’re back to ‘yes on 101′, ‘no on 102′, ‘vote for Bob’. Signs line our road ways and are hard to miss. We talked about a few that I could remember but as we headed toward our house we saw more and more of the same sign - Yes on 102. So we talked about this proposition that defines marriage as one man and one woman, even though that’s already Arizona law. We’re back to denying domestic partnerships. Uggh, I worked on this campaign two years ago. It was defeated. So they brought it back. We drove our neighborhood rather than going straight home pointing with the boys pointing out all the signs they saw while we talked about what it meant and why some people would believe either way. The kids seriously took issue with the idea that someone can tell you who you can love or that marriage needs to be defended from other people having rights. They got so fired up they came home and started to make signs. Next we need to get larger paper for them so we can put them in the yard.

Tonight while the kids were watching a bit of the presidential debate - not that they were necessarily following the debate, but they were excited to see Obama - I went to watch the short documentary Freeheld at a community college.  It was fantastic and heartbreaking but points to just the problem I have teaching social studies to young children. So much of it is the whole one nation, equality for all stuff. It’s difficult to discuss the inequality of couples not allowed to marry or why some people won’t vote for Obama because he’s black or wouldn’t support Clinton because she’s a woman.

I guess this is when you turn teaching social studies into social justice. That’s a much happier note.