Monday, January 30, 2006

The Blogging Mystique

Regular readers will note that my posts lately have been mostly about the children and not a lot about me and what's going on in my life. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't what I intend WWYG?! to be about all of the time.

So why have you been served a regular diet of children?

Simply because NOTHING is going on in my life! Work is a shapeless mass of blah every day. When I'm not working, I'm trying to think of what to make for dinner ; in fact, I think I'm channeling Betty Friedan right now.

If I was a better writer and more imaginative, then I could overcome these problems of ordinariness and make each and every post scintillating. For example, see how a much more talented blogger handles something as mundane as clogged plumbing.

Now that's good writing.

Maybe I'll be able to make my own entries more evocative someday. Or maybe I'll resort to taking a hammer to my crappy stove in a desperate attempt to make things exciting. Until then, you get reflections on Sarah's art classes.

Sarah has been to two Young Rembrandts classes so far. The first class was mostly an introduction to the principles of art, which I am sure covered the discussion of the vanishing point, the culturally-specific notion of what constitutes art, the dilemmas of the popular artists in the modern world, and . . . oh yeah . . . a drawing of snowmen.



During the second week Sarah and her classmates designed currency--not, presumably so they can become the first artists to be wealthy (albeit illegal counterfeiters)--but to emphasize planning, the layering of objects, a unity of design and function, whatever. I don't actually know WHAT the purpose of designing currency is, since I'm not in there during classtime. Instead I have spent the first two sessions hanging out in the elementary school library.

The first week I listened to my iPod in the corner behind the stacks (so the kids in there for remedial reading wouldn't be distracted by me). I read a TWoP recap of Battlestar Galactica (which I am going to stop reading since I very much dislike the recapper's writing style). The second week I was trained on how to properly check in and reshelve the library books. I didn't make much of a dent in the books that needed reshelving, but the school's secretary was embarrassingly happy to get any help at all. We'll see how far into it I get this week.

In other news, Sarah's reading is slowly developing. Lynda and I enrolled her in a Hooked on Phonics program that is taught by one of her daycare teachers. She brings home simple books that we read at night and I have also helped her read some pages in some of her other storybooks, which are considerably more challenging. I have observed that she is so focused on the phonics and syllables of each word that I think she has no concept of the message being conveyed by each sentence. I am sure this is entirely natural, but I am slowly trying to get her to realize that if she can eventually maintain an awareness of the sentence as well as the words, her comprehension will improve. (But I don't say it like that and she's not really listening right now anyway.) But, I'm going to keep pointing out the bigger picture so she won't get entirely wrapped up in the small details.

Grace was in a REALLY crappy mood tonight because she didn't take a nap at school today. And believe me, you don't want to get mixed up with her when she's in a bad mood. It won't go well. It doesn't help that she has a cold that has made her uncomfortable for several days in a row now. But, when she's in a good mood, she is great fun and is very joyful.

As I type the Arts & Entertainment network is broadcasting the first movie about the plane crashes of September 11. Apparently this made-for-tv movie, Flight 93, isn't as bad as you probably expect it to be. I don't have any interest in watching it.

I suppose that this is a more appropriate memorial to what happened on that plane. But, I have to admit that as much as I appreciate the artistic effort behind memorials and the architectural ideas behind the construction, I am a bit weirded out by the language on the website. I don't know how I would word it, and I suppose I should be glad that it didn't fall to me to confront it.

Well, on that note, I'll put this post to bed, fold some clothes, or maybe iron some pants.

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