High summer in Wisconsin, and the weather is perfect for being outdoors: sunny, not too hot, mild breezes. I was dying to pick up and find some woods to hike through.

Donald, meantime, wanted nothing other than to relax alone with his final volume of the Harry Potter series, which had arrived in its special muggle-proof cardboard box from Amazon.com in yesterday's mail. The publishing event of the decade, at least.

So Ulysses and I ...   more »

Rhythm and Booms -- the Midwest's largest fireworks display -- takes place about a mile from our home each year. People come from all over, of course, and fill nearby Warner Park with campers and picnic blankets. People who live in the neighborhood are likely to invite folks over for cookouts, meantime.

Ulysses and I walked up to the playground on the grassy hill on the property of the mobile home park. We danced in ...   more »

New word last night.

Our living room couch is a convertible futon sofa. It folds flat into a futon bed. Last year, U developed the dangerous habit of climbing up to the top of the couch to sit and hang out. We couldn't get him to stop. So we folded the couch flat, into its bed shape, and decided that would be the configuration until he was mature enough to be safer.

On Monday, earlier ...   more »

New words since February. There are more. I'll add as I think of 'em.

hug
wolf
ay-soh        dinosaur
cheshire      treasure
egg
jaja          Serbian for egg
tea
chai          Serbian for tea
game
cheech        grape
yes 
shee-shee     TV
ball
chip-chop, chip-chop    What you say when you stomp in a puddle


   more »

A new word for Ulysses this past weekend was toast -- or, as he pronounces it, "toatch." He puts a hard "tch" on the end of lots of his words: "boatch" for boat, "mootch" for move, and so on. Lot of other words, he puts a "k" or "g" at the front end: "guck" for truck, "guck" for duck, "guck" for stuck, "gock" for sock, "cock" for clock. All these words sound almost alike to ...   more »

Ulysses drew this picture on his magnetic doodle pad, then took it to show Donald, saying, "Fish!" So Donald snapped a photo, and sent me Internet chat at work to tell me about it. I was so excited, I told everyone in the room, and I couldn't wait to get home and see my little boy's first picture!
   more »

What does Ulysses say? Here's a glossary, in approximate reverse order of development. That is, the higher up on a list the word appears, the more recently it's appeared.
   more »

About two weeks ago, Ulysses used the word "boo-boo" for the first time. I've never used it, myself -- Don says he's said it. And it's used in a couple of often-seen TV episodes I can think of (Spongebob Squarepants: No Weenies Allowed; Go, Diego, Go: A Boo-Boo on the Pygmy Marmoset) Ulysses didn't just say it; he used it.

We were sitting together at the dining table. I was reading the Web on my ...   more »

When I came home from work today, Donald was excited. "He said lots of words all day long!" he said. "I asked him if he wanted a banana, and he looked at them and said, 'Banana!' Then I offered him some cheese, and he said, 'Cheese!'"

He also insisted on using the cheese slicer, apparently. It's the type that's officially called a "cheese plane" -- pull backward against the cheese and a sliver comes up ...   more »

This summer, we had an intense, painful heat wave. But now it's September, and the highs are often in the 60s.

Donald told me he took the double fan out of the bedroom window today, while I was at work. But it made Ulysses upset. "So, you put it back in?" I asked.

"I had to," he replied. "And then I had to plug it in."

"He wanted it plugged in?"

"He insisted on it! ...   more »

Oh, how I wished I had a camera!

U and I went down to the 8th annual Food for Thought Festival of sustainable agriculture by the Capitol Square. I hadn't planned on going, but attending the reception at L'Etoile yesterday after work got me wanting to go. I was among those invited for working on or helping to publicize the event. It was my third invite -- I had an article about the fest in ...   more »

Saturday. We needed lots of groceries. After a leisurely breakfast, and with U in a good mood, we ran some errands together and then headed to Woodman's. U was in a good mood, but evidently it was not a mood for grocery shopping. Don pushed the cart around the produce section while I alternately ran in circles after U or held him while he squirmed to be put down. As we began down the meat ...   more »

Inventing the Child

To use the type of language that quickly becomes familiar to a reader of this book:

The dominant culture reproduces itself by telling itself stories about itself. These stories tell of the rightness of obedience to authority, of the natural order of hierarchy, of power, of the obvious right of the strong to use violence and force to coerce the weak, of the need of the subjugated to be controlled. Children learn these stories, which reinforce the realities that they themselves experience and that they see around them.

By telling these stories about children (or stand-ins for children, as...   more »

Ulysses held up a toy T-Rex -- a dark purple, realistically styled, suede-ish critter about 4" high, once merchandise from my street vendor days in Philly -- and said, all throaty and gutteral,   more »

"We'll have storytelling, then we'll watch a movie, and then we'll do a craft," said the woman who was leading the program. She had short gray hair and wore slacks and a long, lightweight jacket that swung down to mid-thigh. I hoped desperately that she would turn out to be cool.

U and I were at preschool story time at the Lakeview branch of the public library, in our neighborhood. It began at 7 p.m., so I scooped him up when I came home from work, pulled some clothes on him, and we went on our way.

The program was ...   more »

Ulysses and I were hosing off in the showers after our usual Saturday morning swim at the Princeton Club. From 10 a.m. to noon is their so-called "Family Swim," one of two scheduled times in the week when the lap markers are hauled out of the water and parents with kids of all ages can get in and splash around. Unstructured fun and adventure.

In the shower across from us, a mother and daughter were in conflict.

The girl was behind the shower curtain. The mother was outside, still in her swimsuit. She was reaching in and applying shampoo ...   more »

Ulysses and I went to Tenney Park. I had planned to go to Rev. Darryl Richie's installation as settled minister at James Reeb Universalist Unitarian Congregation this afternoon, but Ulysses was having a rough day. It would have been too agonizing for him to sit through the event in the sanctuary, where it was happening, and too pointless for me to sit through it playing with him in the nursery.

U and Don have been sick with colds since last week. Somehow I dodged that bullet. U seemed pretty much recovered from his cold, so I got him up earlier ...   more »

We had had a swell time swimming at the Princeton Club. Ulysses rode on my back as I used a double layer of blue kickboards to take the strain off my neck as I kick-propelled us back and forth through the big pool. In the hot tub, he stood on the tile bench, his chin just above the water, and absolutely unafraid as I disappeared under the surface and came up spouting at him. When it was time to go, he turned and pushed the heavy glass door shut behind him when we left the pool area and headed to ...   more »

Ulysses's first Happy Meal. There's a milestone for ya.

On a day where there were many occasions to take him out of the car and put him back in, he was exceedingly miserable with getting in. We'd drive a little and then have some reason to get out, and then putting him in to get to the next place was a screaming, tortured nightmare. It didn't help that his midday nap had been cut short by a soaking wet diaper and he never managed to drift back into it again.

Finally, errands out of the way  -- and    more »

We went to the Northside Farmer's Market today. We were chatting with a volunteer we know who was staffing the Northside Co-op info table. Conversation turned to Ulysses -- how's he doing, my, how big he's getting, and so forth.

"Is he a good eater?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah!" I answered immediately, nodding.

I was thinking of how much he enjoys eating lemon and lime slices, the toppings and sauce off his pizza before tearing up and hurling away the crust (and after discarding the pepperoni), how much pleasure he gets from munching on green onion stalks, basil sprigs, and ...   more »

More fashion direction: I was wearing a nice skirt and top while we were out, for the first time in maybe a couple of months. But I peeled them off on coming home. I was planning on heating and eating some of that beef and pork biryani I made the other day -- delicious, and loaded with Indian spices of high stain potential. In anticipation of the possibility that U might join me in a bowl of stew -- literally -- I got down to underwear.

Ulysses found the clothes in their pile on the floor and picked them up, ...   more »

Ulysses was pushing his toy shopping cart across the bumpy lawn towards the sidewalk. Not easy. With about a third of the way yet to go, he backed away from the cart. Then he reached up towards me, a cue for my hand. He grasped my wrist and placed my hand, palm down, on the cart handle. He made little high-pitched grunts of dissatisfaction until I was stationed properly behind the cart, both hands gripping the bar.

Then he walked behind me, placed his hands on the backs of my knees, and pushed. Squeals of delight as I began to ...   more »

UnschoolingDiscussion · UnschoolingDiscussion@yahoogroups.com


From: "Vesna" <duonexus@tds.net>
Date: Thu Sep 8, 2005  1:54 pm
Subject: Accusations -- a student's reward for good work [Was: Re: I need some help]
Glena,

I can relate! Similarly, in the seventh grade I was accused of
plagarism because my book report seemed (to her) so good that it had
to have been copied from the dust jacket. The teacher didn't bother to
look at the dust jacket before leveling her charge.

At first, I thought it was a compliment. I was trying to write the way
"real writers" wrote, so being compared to the pros ...   more »

From: "Vesna" <duonexus@tds.net>
Date: Thu Sep 8, 2005  7:18 am
Subject: Re: I need some help.....(sorry it's long)

Sandra,

I totally agree with you. I'm sorry, I didn't explain the point of the
book right. The book "Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling
Ourselves" does not justify pressing lessons on kids. The whole book
is about just the opposite. It shows how disastrous it is to press
lessons on kids.

I agree, and the writer of the book would agree, more than twice IS
just too much. If she could go back in time and take back whatever
efforts ...   more »

UnschoolingDiscussion · UnschoolingDiscussion@yahoogroups.com

From: "Vesna" <duonexus@tds.net>
Date: Wed Sep 7, 2005  11:25 am
Subject: Re: Not First Day of School   

Robyn,

--- In UnschoolingDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, "Robyn Coburn"
<dezigna@c...> wrote:
> Today would have been Jayn's first day in mandatory school (in CA)
if we had
> not been so fortunate as to have been led to Unschooling.


That's great!

My son is not "school age" yet. Yesterday I was visiting a friend
whose son just started kindergarten last week. We walked to the bus
stop together to meet him coming home. She said, by way of calculating
when he would ...   more »

From: "Vesna" <duonexus@tds.net>
Date: Wed Sep 7, 2005  11:10 am
Subject: Re: I need some help.....(sorry it's long)

--- In UnschoolingDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, "Kim J. F…"
<kim@t...> wrote:
> I need some advice on what to do with my kiddos. My kids are 8,7,5
and 8
> months. My concern is really with the older ones. We have been
unschooling
> for a long time. Though periodically we have tried using a
curriculum, but
> always stop after like 2 weeks.
> My problem is that though my 8 year old does seek out some
information, they
> really just play most ...   more »

Today we all went to the Union Cab picnic at Demetral Field. The candidate's forum was at 1 pm. Don is running for the Board, so he was there for that. He made his statement and answered questions with the other seven candidates. That lasted about an hour and a half. For an hour and a half, I chased Ulysses around the Demetral Field picnic shelter and kept him off the hot grills, out of the dog poop, and away from Don's lap.

Every time Don started to talk, U screamed with happiness and ran straight for him. I would ...   more »

I dreamed that Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Starship Enterprise was the size and shape of Ulysses. Some crisis was in progress. I picked up the captain and moved him from one spot to another.

"Come on, Captain!" I urged. "The lives of a thousand crewmembers are depending on you!"

Captain Picard started to wail.

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Lake View Elementary School playground, home of lots of jungle gym slide sets, and the only playground I know of in town that's shaded at midday, thanks to a stand of lovely old oak trees. Far less than a mile from home, it's an easy bike ride.

So quick a bike ride, in fact, that U is usually not ready to get off the bike by the time we arrive. He grabs at his helmet, clutches at his bike seat straps, and otherwise shows that he wants more riding. So around the grassy field we go, threading our way through ...   more »

Ulysses was working at one his favorite tasks, scrubbing the toilet in the front bathroom. I left him happily at it for a minute or two, but when I came back to see how he was doing, he had added a new element.

He looked joyfully up at me as I approached, glad to show me what he'd done: he'd put his life-sized toy biscuit into the water, and it bobbed gaily in the bowl as he plunged the toilet brush up and down. But his pride quickly dissolved into confusion and shock.  Instead of praising his cleverness, I cried ...   more »