Persuasion

I was just commenting on a post about the recent uproars in townhalls across the country. In general, I cheer on my fellow citizens in going directly to their representatives and asking questions and demanding to be properly represented. However, I am dismayed to see how often it turns into a shouting match. I know people are upset. I know they have a lot to be angry about. But once you give in to those feelings, and you harrangue your debate partner, you have already lost. They will not listen. You are not presenting yourself well.

While it feels good in the short term, and you feel you have won the battle, you may be sacrificing the war for your own momentary personal feelings of glee. Show some self-discipline!

One of the greatest persuaders ever was my buddy, Benjamin Franklin. He studied and practiced long, long hours to hone his skill. He writes about some of it in his Autobiography:

From The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

While I was intent on improving my language I met with an English grammar (I think it was Greenwood's) having at the end of it two little sketches on the arts of rhetoric and logic, the latter finishing with a dispute in the Socratic method; and soon after I procured Xenophon's Memorable Things of Socrates, wherein there are many examples of the same method. I was charmed with it, adopted it, dropped my abrupt contradictions and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer. And being then, from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, made a doubter, as I already was in many points of our religious doctrines, I found this method the safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took delight in it, practiced it continually, and grew very artful and expert in drawing people even of superior knowledge into concessions the consequence of which they did not foresee, entangling them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause always deserved.

I continued this method some few years, but gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence, never using, when I advanced anything that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; It appears to me, or I should not think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or, I imagine it to be so; or, It is so, if I am not mistaken. This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions and persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time engaged in promoting. And as the chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well-meaning and sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive assuming manner that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat most of those purposes for which speech was given to us. In fact, if you wish to instruct others, a positive dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may occasion opposition and prevent a candid attention. If you desire instruction and improvement from others, you should not at the same time express yourself fixed in your present opinions. Modest and sensible men, who do not love disputation, will leave you undisturbed in the possession of your errors. In adopting such a manner, you can seldom expect to please your hearers or obtain the concurrence you desire.

When was the last time you changed your mind because someone shouted a slogan at you? Or kept you from responding? When was the last time you thought to yourself, "Wow! You just humilitaed me and harranged me -- I think you're so right!"

It is very hard to remain jovial, curious and pleasant when you feel your fundamental rights are being trampled on and stimped into the dust. But you must keep your goal in mind and figure out the best way to get there. No one ever said it would be easy.

Climate Change Hysteria

A very eloquent and accessible essay about Resisting Climate Hysteria, by Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Health Care

Yea, I'm against "Universal Health Care".

Why should there be one system? We don't have a system of food-delivery, yet that's arguably far more important than health care. Without food, you'd never live long enough to need a doctor. We have a variety of food stores to cater to what people want. If someone wants to spend a ton of money on caviar and organic whatever, we let them. If someone would rather live on rice and beans and ramen, and save money for something else, we're all too happy to let them have their choice.

Why should it be different for medical care?

One argument is that it will save money, or that we should trust those in Washington (particularly the President) to make a great new system. I don't understand that. Does that mean we should go and see if he likes Coke or Pepsi and then just get rid of the other one? He chose the best soda, why waste resources on the other one? We should find out what cheese he likes, and eliminate all others. If we only have one cola and one cheese, think of all the advertising those companies would save, and the price of cheese and soda would fall! Heck, we should find out his favorite grocery store, and make that the only one.

Well... except there's no competition... And too bad if you have different priorities and tastes than him. It doesn't matter. It's For The Children! (TM)

When does one size fits all ever fit anyone?

Voting By Shopping

Lately, quite a few bloggers have been noting that "Atlas Shrugged" spent a few weeks on Amazon hovering around the #50 spot on the list of most popular books. (Once I saw it in the mid 30s).

I figure I should do my part in promoting some other books I always wanted to read, and maybe vote with my wallet a bit, so I just picked up Milton Friedman's "Freedom to Choose", and Hayek's "Road to Serfdom". I've read other things by both, watched Friedman's TV programs and such, but I feel I should also have them in print and maybe strew them about for the family. ;)

Probably will go on the same shelf as my copy of "Liberal Fascism"...

I've been interested in the home front of WWII ever since I did a report on it in school. I also, oddly, took Japanese, German, and Russian in school, so I studied a lot about it just in those classes. (Though, I have to admit, I stopped taking German after three years due to Nazi burnout. I just couldn't read another horrible story about it.)

The Scientist as Rebel

One of the books I'm reading right now is The Scientist as Rebel by Freeman Dyson. For those of you who have never heard of him, he's a very interesting guy. He's a physicist and a mathmetician, and he talks a lot about political, economic, and social issues. Neat guy!

Anyway, I finally got around to reading it and I was so pleased to see the first two words of the preface: "Benajmin Franklin". Ah! My heart sang! And he really captures why Benjamin Franklin is one of my favorite people.

Anyway, jsut reading the preface lifted me and helped me realize that I need to stop doing things that I don't love. I don't mean I should not change poopy diapers or anything, but I realized I was doing things that I "thought I should do" that we not making my life any better.

One example is just that I have a mailing list I'm on. I originally joined it so that I could have pleasant conversation with people in the same field I'm in. The problem is that in the 8 years since then, a lot of us have changed jobs a bit. And, mostly, the list has just because a giant raging political argument. I admit that I fanned the flames from time to time, so I'm just as guilty. But as I was reading about Franklin, I realized I had diverged from where I wanted to be and who I wanted to be.

I remember reading about Franklin's ideas for discussing thins that people disagreed on. And he always stresses remaining calm, and non offensive, and always phrasing your points in a very soft way. You say "Well, I think, perhaps, that..." and whatever. You dont just come out and say, "You're wrong. I'm right" or anything of hte sort. And I have been doing that.

I know why I have. I have always lived in a little cocoon where I hide away my true self. I apparently have a huge fear of rejection -- not surprising after being ostracized in school. Always on the edge. But when I had my children, I changed. I think a lot of it was the hormones and the crankiness. I just didn't have hte time or patience to pretend I was a happy nice person who had a timid opinion. Partly it was the project I was on, where I had to fight a lot to keep us on task. And partly, it was all part of my journey to find myself again -- which eventually led to my decision to homeschool.

But I think I went too far. I kept swinging that metaphorical pendulum of my personality too far to being outspoken and confrontational. And after thinking about my buddy Ben, and reading about him through Dyson's eyes, I realized I want want to be that confrontational person.

So I dropped off the list. I need to do productive things that make me happy. Not argue with people I wish would be friends or aqiuaintances, just because I think that's what I'm supposed to want.

And now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. And be a rebel.

I Apparently Don't Read My Own Comments

Sorry to everyone who has commented, and had their lovely comments dissappear into the black hole void that my blog became. I'm hoping you'll understand! It's been a heck of a year of adjustment, from quitting my job, to taking my kids out of daycare, trying to figure out homeschooling, then getting another job part-time flex-time job. My husband is on boss number nine in just over two years of working at his company, and each boss is a rather major adjustment.

I guess I'm trying to say, I wish I had had time to answer your memes and comments -- I truely treasure having bloggers I read come to my little site! And now I'm trying to get right back into it. :)

Go Up, Young Man

I was reading Instapundit this morning, and he was discussing bloggers who were thinking of moving if a different guy than they want wins the election. The update used the phrase "Don't go east, go up!". Glenn takes this to mean Canada... but I believe the other blogger meant space. And that's what I thought of too, before I read the linked blog. We need a new frontier to explore.

I'm the kind of people who likes to be on the cutting, but not bleeding, edge. I don't want to be the first one there, but if a very loose organization exists, I'll go charging in and help them out. I used to do it at work all the time -- I wasn't there to found a new team or new thing, usually, but once something promising got a toe hold, I was there in a heartbeat to help it go. It's just a more fun place for me to be. I wanted to move away from the places where people were getting into boring details and setting up permenant camp. And I think the same is true in real life. There are just people who want to settle down and trade in risk for security, and they don't really care how. And that's not really me. I want to live a bit on the edge, and be free.

Maybe we need a new frontier. Mars, for instance. Let the frontiersmen start a colony up there for people like me who don't want 30,000 new laws, but want to live, dare I say it, a bit more like cowboys. Sure, it sounds a little crazy, but I do think there are people who just thrive in a frontier and they don't really have one right now, and they bristle at the incoming shakles of a civilization they don't particularly want thrust on them.

I Ran Three Miles!

Okay, okay, not all at once. And I guess I didn't run it all either. But last week I did manage to get on the treadmill three times, running at or over a mile each time. Well, walking, jogging and running, actually. Anyway, I love how I feel after exercise. The only problem is, when do you find time with kids around?

Luckily, last week my husband was taking an online class for work, and they let him take it from home. So he could keep a little eye on the kids during his lunch hour while I ran. It was nice.

How am I going to continue this though? Does anyone have an idea for how to get exercise in while the kids are around? I'm talking little kids -- 4 and 1. I can't have them near the treadmill without one of them trying to hurt themselves on it, and I can't have a relaxing run while the baby is shrieking in baby jail (her playpen. She hates it).

New Blog for Me

I've decided to start a new blog, while keeping this one around just for my personal stuff. It's called Free Inquiry At Home. Please, feel free to visit!

I'm With Fred

I've been loath to come out and talk about politics. It comes between people. It makes enemies out of friends. People take these things too personally, and get too upset about it, so I've been trying to tiptoe around it. Originally, I made this blog and this pseudonym in order to feel more free to discuss these things, but as I meet people online and this persona takes on a personality of it's own, I now find I don't want to alienate the people who have met me and have been friendly.

But I'm going to endorse a candidate for president. Not that I think anyone will care that much. I really don't think a lot of people read this blog. But if I can change one person's mind, that's wonderful! Or even get someone to take a second look at him.

I no longer can hide. I really should come out and say this under my real name, but I'm so scared of alienating people. But I need to speak my mind. I hate feeling like I'm hiding things, and I know it is my duty to participate in our democracy. It would be different if he were just another candidate. Just another lesser of two evils. But I genuinely like him. He's the candidate I've always wished for:

• He speaks his mind
• He is consistent for decades of speeches, votes and actions
• He's logical
• He understands the real constitution
• The way he talks, he sounds as if he knew the founding fathers personally
• He is a federalist
• He is for small government
• He does not play the media's game

And really that last point is why I really need to speak up. He needs more exposure, and through friendly channels -- not the media.

So go check out his website. He has his positions posted, clear and easy to understand. He isn't making promises he'll break, or trying to buy your votes. He feels he was called to do this, and he's willing to do this if we want him. But he won't pander. And I love that!

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Apparently, I'm guilty of it. I admit it -- the boy sleeps on the floor. Heck, he doesn't even use a mattress. Well, okay, he has a mattress. And even a box springs underneath. It sits, forlornly, in the corner of his room. Every night, he goes to sleep... on the floor. In a little nest of sheets and blankets.

Why do I let him do this? Well, frankly, I have no idea how to make him stop it. I'm just happy he does it in his own room. For months, after the baby was born, he would sneak into our bedroom in the middle of every single night and curl up (blankets or not!) on the floor in various weird places. Sometimes at the foot of the bed or next to my side, which meant I sometimes stepped on him on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Other times he would be curled up in the glider, or between the glider chair and it's little gliding ottoman.

So, I'm just happy he stays in his room all night in this new house, for the first time, ever. Yes, he's 4.5 years old. He's just not a very good sleeper. But in this happy new house, he can see right into our room from his, so I guess he feels safer. Still, if my husband is out of town, he still comes to my room at night. And as weird and paranoid as I get when my husband is gone, I let him. You know, so when the crazy axe murderers I can't help but imagine come bashing through the walls, at least all the kids are already with me. I don't have to round them up before we make our daring escape. (Yes, I'm serious. I'm really good at nightmares.)

Anyway, last night, for the first time ever, he slept in Big Boy Underwear! Until now he's always worn a diaper at night, even though he's trained just fine during the day. But last night, he was a Big Boy! Yay! Go him! I must admit I haven't been suggesting it to him at all. For one, he never listens to suggestions like that. In fact, he generally does his best to do the opposite. And second, since he lives in a nest of 27 blankets and toys and pillows and who knows what on the floor, I'm dreading the cleanup required if (when...) he has an accident.

Maybe I'll be lucky and he'll never have one. HAHAHAHHA... okay, yeah, right.

Under the Weather

Actually, the weather is rather beautiful. But we appear to have come down with your standard October cold/sinus infection sort of thing. Nothing horrible, just unpleasant. Must drink many liquids and sleep and hope the baby sleeps. (Got about 3 hours last night, between the two kids and my own set of symptoms.)

I have no idea how I'm going to sew two costumes by Halloween, at this rate...!

Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever

Is one of my son's favorite books. I must have read it hundreds and hundreds of times. He knows the words by heart -- if I read one wrong accidentally (or even more fun, on purpose!) he can instantly correct me. We've discussed every single bit of every illustration in it (and the other Busy Town books, too!).

There's a Flickr site which shows you how it's been changed since the older versions, complete with humorous notes.

I really hate that. I don't like it when they make books "PC", especially in such ridiculous ways. It's really annoying.

How do you feel about it? Do you know of any other books similarly "cleaned up"?

Why Ambiguous Lectures Hurt Students

Today, D-Ed Reckoning has a very thorough post explaining why many kids are finding themselves behind: The root cause.

Teachers and education schools are spending more and more time encouraging other teachers to get more creative and write their own lesson plans, instead of using pre-made lesson plans and scripted curricula. But the truth is, teaching a group of students is very hard, and it's probably a rare person who can make perfect lessons in a short time or on the fly. It's very easy to see how a student could get confused, even learning very fundamental concepts such as "color" or "red". It's ten times harder to think of teaching something like reading.

Creativity has its place. Everyone wants to love their job and feel like they are doing something special. As a scientist, a technical writer, and a programmer, I've seen people who just go too far in trying to be creative. For example, I know it's a very common thing for technical writers to bristle at templates, style guides and writing rules, because it seems like it's taking away their creativity. They just want to fiddle with the font a few more times, or use a word a slightly different way, or just mix things up so their life is a little less scripted and predictable. But, while this fiddling may make them feel more productive, creative, smart, or useful, frequently it is a detriment to their product. If they change the template too much, it will look different from other writers' books. If they change the common convention, it can make it harder for new users to adapt. Just think about software or web sites you've used -- you can see how people have come up with new paradigms and metaphors for interacting with their design, but quite often users aren't looking for novelty when they are just trying to find what they are looking for or to efficiently complete their task.

Creativity is only good in small doses.

While homeschooling my son it is very easy for me to stop when he is confused and help correct him immediately, so incorrect ideas don't linger in his head for a long time. If he understands well, we can go rushing forward. If it takes him a month to figure something out, we can do that too! I believe in teaching to mastery. If you don't internalize what you are learning, you won't be able to build on it.

Last night we finished lesson two in "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons". Some kids just figure out reading without any special instruction (my sister and I, for example), but I've decided to see if my son gets more confidence with this scripted direct instruction approach. I know that other males in my family have struggled with slow or non-fluid reading skills, despite being quite intelligent, and I wonder if a direct instruction approach like this would have helped. Or not. But if I see it isn't working, it's easy for me to change gears on the fly!

The Dry Socket Diet and Why I Love Clove Oil

I never thought I'd be tired of ice cream. But I am. I had my wisdom teeth out 8 days ago. I actually did the whole thing awake, which was a bit unpleasant, but I didn't want them to put me to sleep, because my daughter still nurses just about every night. Sure, I could have pumped for a day, but I threw away the breast pump when she turned a year old. I had, like most women, a love-hate relationship with that thing.

Anyway, I developed this charming thing called "dry socket" in one of my little tooth holes. Apparently, this happens about 5% of the time (boy am I good at developing those 5% side effects and complications!), and it means your tooth hole probably didn't clot right, and as a result you have an open wound with bit of bone and/or nerve hanging out. It really quite painful. I found myself whining and moaning every night, and actually had trouble sleeping. The pain really wasn't helped by OTC remedies such as Advil or Tylenol at all.

So, because of all this pain, I pretty much wasn't eating much at all. I ate broth and ice cream. Occasionally, I'd try swallowing noodles in soup or bits of mushed up baked potato, but the effort involved was painful and usually ended up getting little bits of food stuck in the poor holes in my mouth. Ice cream is probably the most pleasant thing to eat, since it's cold, but after polishing off two entire containers of ice cream, I'm tired of it! In fact, in the past week, I've lost 4-5 pounds. So, folks, if you want to lose weight, try my dry socket diet! Eat all the ice cream you want and still lose weight!

Thankfully, my husband took pity on me (or he simply got tired of my incessant whining) and he called the dentist two days ago. They said they could see me immidiately, and they packed my poor little socket with a dressing covered in clove oil. Now, this really felt horrible at first. They have to jam that little dressing in there, and it's really quite disgusting and painful (I don't even want to know what the "squishy sounds" I heard were). But within a few minutes it felt a little better, and by evening, I was actually smiling! I slept well that night and even had the patience to stay up with the baby, trying to get her to do anything but nurse, since I've been trying to wean her for three months now. (But when you have painful wisdom teeth, 87 million painful sinus infections, and all sorts of other craziness, it's hard to try really hard to wean anyone.)

Today, after I got my socket re-packed (didn't hurt at all!) I actually enjoyed the clove oil taste. I love cloves! So I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some nice soups that I can blend up with my beloved hand blender (no chunks!) and made sure to steer myself towards the ones that would go well with cloves (mmm... pumpkin bisque...).

Yay clove oil! You saved my mouth!

New Robots for Your Home!

It looks like the folks at iRobot have been busy, and are releasing two new robots: one to clean your gutters and one to give you a virtual presence in your home.

Now, I love my Roomba. It is a quick and easy way to clean 80% of the dirt in on the floor. It doesn't get the corners perfectly, and sometimes it makes me crazy wandering around seemingly randomly. It often vacuums the same area 20 times, while a giant pile of dirt sits somewhere else. I should probably just learn to program it to run while I'm out. Anyway, it's an amazing thing to have when your have an older infant who can crawl and wants to eat any tiny little crumb of who-knows-what that someone left on the floor.

Anyway, the robots that cleans gutters sounds amazing! I want one already. Friends of mine say they love their Scoobas, but I don't have one of those. I'm not sure I really understand the point of the other robot. It sounds rather expensive -- I'd rather just use my cell phone to IM someone who is afar. Heck, we'll sit down and Google Chat, too. Both of those came in handy while my husband was away in Taiwan. But having a little robot following me around the house? It seems a bit much.

Would anyone want that one? What would you use it for? Any other Roomba-lovers out there?

Looking to the Past

It's always fun to look back and see what you were up to in years past. I'm going to try to look back at past Septembers and see what I was up to.

One year ago, I finally came back here after having a baby.

Two years ago, I finally found an RSS reader. I abandoned Bloglines some time ago, and now use Google Reader.

Three years ago, I hadn't quite gotten up the courage to start a blog, despite having read them for years.

What were you doing last year?

Playing With the Template

Expect this is change a bit if I have the time or inclination. I keep meaning to fix it up, and make it look like me. I just upgraded to the new Blogger templates, at the very least, to get the new functionality they've added.

Just don't be shocked if this place looks different a few times while I fiddle around.

Homeschool Park Days

I mentioned in my post a month ago that we tried out a a homeschooling group's park day. It was a complete blast! My son had the best time finding new friends and playing medeival knight. I loved that there was finally a group of people who would understand when I told my son that his sword was at home "in the weapon box". Yes folks, he has a toy box just for weapons. Not something I can admit just about anywhere, since it's just not PC, apparently. But he loves drama, and he loves the struggle between good and evil. He loves to pretend to be a valiant, noble defender, and I think that's fantastic! So he teamed up with the other kids at the park toting swords and wearing tunics. ;)

I really love that the group is so multi-age. It felt like one big family reunion. It really just made me realize how incredibly unnatural it is to have kids segregated by age. Kids need older kids to look up to and help them grow. They need younger kids to make them feel big and to have someone to teach their skills to. It just made my heart sing to see these teenaged kids playing with the little ones, and just having a great time. It felt so much like home.

My littlest tiniest hope is that I will find a parent who is anything like me. Oddly enough, I'm not sure I will. I respect everyone's choices for schools, but the parents I talked with last week were mostly talking about the coop classes they sent their kids to, and one of the moms even made a comment about her son's medeival literature class and she wondered why on earth he liked it. It made me a bit sad. I really want a kindred spirit. Someone else who can't wait to share their love of science and math and history with their kids. Partly, I think most of the parents do work, either part time, full time on nights and weekends, or with their own business. Maybe they don't have time to teach their kids everything. Or they choose not to, I don't know. It's just too expensive out here.

I just want a friend who understands me. (Well, besides my husband. He rocks, and I adore him, but he can't be my only friend -- it's not fair to either of us!)

Delay Before Starting

What a month! It's been pretty crazy here. So I'll try to do a quick update on my life.

The job interview actually went incredibly well. They ended up offering me a job. Luckily, I had plenty of time to think it over, because the recruiter and I kept missing each other and she was on vacation a few days. The offer was very flattering, and I almost accepted. But then I realized I would only be accepting it for selfish reasons. I liked the idea of building what they wanted built. And I liked the idea of the huge promotion and raise it would mean for me. But it would put us back to being a two-income family always stressed out with a messy house and who-knows-what for dinner. And I know I would never, ever, ever be happy that way. So I said no. I think I passed the first big test of my resolve.

We've spent the past month with my husband out of the country for two seperate weeks.

I got a huge sinus infection that left me pretty much useless and miserable. I decided to use the time I have now, finally, to take care of mysels a little bit and get my wisdom teeth pulled -- I suspect they might be partly behind my frequent sinus infections. I mean, they really had to go -- shortly after my 30th birthday, one of them partly erupted, but then got stuck. It was a happy little breeding ground for infection (and when it was removed, yes in fact, there was an infection going on). I was trying to wait until the baby was weaned, but she's proving to be at least as stubborn as my son, and with a sinus infection and no backup from my husband while he was out of the country, I just didn't have the energy to do it. So I had the teeth removed while I was awake (no sedation for me!). Ouch.

I've also developed a charming thing called "dry socket". Apparently the healing of one of the pulled teeth is going a bit wonky, and I have exposed, inflamed bone and nerves. It should delay healing and it hurts incredibly bad.

But! And here's the good news.

We finally informed the daycare we're pulling the kids -- they require 30 days notice, and this way, I'll have the chance to rest and finish healing up. Hopefuly, I can get the house in order, and plan plan plan!

I read "What Your Kindergartener Keeds To Know" -- I think it might be a nice place to start. I'm really interested in a reading-intensive program. My son loves being read to, and will only do workbooks (or even coloring books!) on the occasional once or twice a month that it strikes his fancy.

I've also (in my fun recovery time) read all of The Well Trained Mind. I think I'll be using a lot of their ideas. Once again, it's very reading based, and history based, which excites me. I want my son (and daughter!) to nderstand history, because most peopel today do not. I think it was the weakest part of my own education, and I constantly feel like my parents got a much better education in that sense than I did. They were classically trained, in catholic parochial schools. I'm not sure I'll stick with the schedule that the Wise's recommend though. I don't think I could wait until he's 9 to do physics experiments, and if he's anything like me, he's going to blow through some subjects (like math) much faster.

We already did one lesson from "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". I'm not sure if it will work, but we'll see. I think this will help him simply because he is a perfectionist, and I think he doesn't try reading because he hates to be wrong. We made a sticker/stamp chart to fill in after each assignment. We'll see if this works. I'm hopeful, but honestly I give it maybe a 50% chance. If my son ends up not enjoying it, we'll put it aside for later.

I'm skipping the writing exercises in that book. I have a Kumon workbook for writing if he ever cares to try, but mostly I'm doing stealth teaching of his writing. He play hangman -- he makes up fake words by randomly filling in letters while I guess, then I have to pronounce whatever weird word he makes up. His letters are getting much better, and he's getting really good at drawing stick figures. ;) I have a lot of work that his daycare did to undo. They have them writing, but never taught them the correct way to write the letters, so he's always starting at the bottom and pushing up (for example). I'm hoping the Kumon book will help him learn the right order, when he's ready. Right now, that sort of "help" will just discourage him and make him feel bad, I think. He really does not like to feel wrong, and his daycare set him up to fail by not teaching him to write letters properly. I wish they'd just left it alone!

Other steps I'm taking include:
* Playing classical music from time to time. This house has the most amazing surround sound speakers connected to the sterio/CD player/receiver, placed around a room with a hardwood floor. The sound is just incredible!
* Playing games like Uno and chess. He can't get through a game of Chutes and Ladders, but he loves Uno and chess!
* Reading, reading, reading! He loves the Magic Treehosue books, which is hopefully getting him to begin to get used to different places and peroids of history. Next time I"m at the library, I'm going to look for good kids versions of myths. He loves drama!
* He is hopelessly obsessed with the TV, so I'm trying to record some things that might actually teach him something. I recorded a show called Modern Marvels this week, specifically the episode about knives, swords and axes. I think it was a hit. ;) He's always had a need for massive amounts of input, and what with me being sick, the husband out of town, and an asthmatic baby, well... I can't always provide all the input he needs. I don't think TVs are evil and I do believe in recreation that isn't always about learning.... but I do think he's gone overboard recently. I also put the old shows Voyagers in the Netflix queue. More history! ;)

In other news, I'm trying to find a way to make money. DH doesn't make enough alone to pay all the bills. I'm still on vacation at work until Friday (yes, I really had six weeks of vacation stored up... I wonder how I got so burnt out? ;D) and after that we have money saved up for a rainy day. But that won't last forever, so I'm going to try to make small business web pages and do freelance writing. I have *no* idea where I will find the time or energy for that, though!

It would help if my son was a decent sleeper. Or my daughter was. Or my husband was. Or I was. My daughter has allergies and asthma, and if I or she eat a tiny bit on onion, she has gas pains all night. So lately, we've been up with her. A lot. You wouldn't believe how impossible it is to avoid onions, unless you cook absolutely everything from scratch. Which I did do for a while, but ever since we moved (and I've been miserably in pain) it just hsan't happened. I still haven't even found all the boxes with kitchen pots and pans yet!

Anyway, sorry its been a month, but that's my update! 30 days to clean up, heal up, start a business, and get ready for a whole new life, with my kids by my side.