Why Spooky is Good for Kids

Spooky books abound at the library!

As a part-time job, I work in the children’s department at the public library. I’ve been there for six years, and my main job is collection development (buying new stuff, tossing old stuff), and connecting kids to books by creating topical displays. My annual favorite displays are the ones I do in October. I look forward to it all year, and pull out a little bit for everyone: scary ghost stories, monster stories, and funny stories about how a kid accidentally turns into a zombie and now has to face middle school looking, well, like a zombie. I put out books about vampires and werewolves, books about the holiday itself, Halloween cookbooks and costuming books, picture books about witches and black cats, and plenty of picture books about being afraid, with tips for kids about how to deal with their fears.

The reason these displays are my favorite is because I can’t keep them full. The books fly off the shelves practically as fast as I put them up there. The kids’ and adults’ enthusiasm for the dark and creepy fascinates me, and I work hard all month digging deeper and deeper into our collection to find relevant gems for them. It’s really exciting for me as a librarian. But why? Why is Halloween the most popular event of the year for my readers? Even my own kids who, with such active imaginations, have been haunted by nightmares and the fear of unseen creepies since they were less than two, love this month.

It all comes down to power. When you’re a kid and you’re laying in bed at night, mind wandering to all the possible bad things that may happen to you (what’s in the closet? what’s under the bed? what if someone broke in the house and got to me before my parents could help?), you’re a victim. Kids feel small and vulnerable in situations like that, and totally unable to protect themselves. How many of you adult readers had bedtime rituals as children to keep you safe from the boogie man? I never EVER let my hands or feet extend past the edge of the mattress, and husband-Jamie always tucked his sheet totally under all sides of him to keep the creepies away. Sheets and mattresses make a poor defense against the undead, but as kids that’s all we have.

Ahhh. But that’s where the power of the spooky story comes in. When kids choose to engage in the creepy, they take control. They are safely exploring the terrifying “what ifs” they so dread at night, and better yet, they are experiencing these stories through characters who are in the end triumphant. Usually. But even in short urban legend formats where there is no hero, the child still has control. She’s choosing the adventure, and can leave at any time.

As part of her biology study, Eva built a 4-foot cardboard model of a human skeleton.

There are other ways of engaging with the spooky than reading books, of course. Halloween crafting and cooking, decorating, dressing up, acting the part of the monster (giving the scares instead of receiving them)…. After finishing our study of the cell in biology, Eva chose to look at the skeletal system, and then the brain – all in honor of the season. All of these activities hand the power of the frightening to the kids who participate. Ian balked at my post title, saying he hates the spooky. But then he had to admit that the thing he was looking forward to most at Halloween is jumping out at teens and adults as they chaperone their kids in trick-or-treating. Taking the power of the scare.

Now of course there is a balance to be struck between the safely scary and the traumatically terrifying. I wouldn’t plop my kid down in front of a Nightmare on Elm Street movie. And sometimes kids will be exposed to things they’re not yet ready for. It would be awesome if we had 100% control of this and could dole out life experiences only as our children were mature enough for them. But we all know life doesn’t work that way. Our just-beyond-ready experience this month was an open mic scary story event at a local artist co-op. Jamie was the featured reader, and we knew that his story was fine. But a couple of high school kids shared their own tales, and weren’t so cognizant of the younger kids in the audience. After a couple of co-sleeping nights to ease lingering fears, we’re back to normal.

Eva’s going as Buffy the Vampire Slayer this Halloween. She admires Buffy for her strength and general bad-assedness.

The world can be a scary place. There are real-life boogie men, natural disasters, climate change, economic crises, wars, disease, over-population, domestic abuse…. We can’t shield our kids from these things forever, and unfortunately it’s sometimes difficult to add enough sugar to make our real-world creepies palatable. But if we can equip our kids with examples of heroes and heroines overcoming frightening adversity, they’ll have a fighting chance. From Harry Potter to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the world of story is there, waiting to show kids how to kick some serious butt, even when they’re flawed and struggling themselves. You can be scared but brave, damaged but unyielding, small but powerful. That’s why spooky is good for kids. Happy Halloween, ya’ll.

PS: If you want some good scary story book recommendations, let me know and I’ll put some together for you!

Selling Books and Taking Names!

Eva and her Book Booth

I’m here today to report on Eva’s experience at the North Dakota Teachers’ Association conference in Fargo last week. She had a booth in the exhibitors’ hall, squeezed in between McGraw-Hill textbooks and a pseudo-”healthy”-non-caffeinated coffee booth run by a couple of moonlighting teachers. Nice folks all the way around (though I stuck with my Starbucks).

Sadly, though school is not in session during the two days of the event, the teachers’ conference isn’t well attended. Teachers aren’t required nor are they compensated for being there, and with travel time, out of pocket expenses, and the allure of having a couple of days at home with their families, the conference has a difficult time competing. Exhibitors who have been around awhile talk a lot about the good old days not too far back when all this was different – teachers were required and compensated, and the place was packed, abuzz with conversation, networking, and of course, sales.

Eva doing her thing.

Still, even with the sparse attendance, the event was well worth attending. Eva sold ten books, and had conversations with several teachers about the possibility of speaking with their students about writing. It looks like she may well Skype into a classroom about four hours from us, up in the northeast corner of the state. And our friend at McGraw-Hill gave us some good suggestions for other conferences we should attend as exhibitors. So good stuff all around.

Mostly, however, this event was great for pumping Eva full of energy, excitement, and focus. On the long drive home, we talked a lot about all this. She wants to have two distinct focuses in her writing work: the first, which I deeply respect, is the hard work of improving the quality of her writing. The second is her work inspiring other kids through her videos and classroom visits. She enjoys working with kids, but wants to make sure that she is equally respected as a writer and knows this can only happen if she works on her craft. I am impressed by the maturity of that observation, and am determined to find her further opportunities such as writing workshops, mentorships, etc.

In all this, the secret to success is following Eva’s lead. If pushed too fast or in directions she isn’t excited about, she’ll burn out and get stressed out. This is especially true about public speaking. She’s so good at it, and is normally energized by her experiences. Her success often opens up additional opportunities, and this is the part we have to carefully balance.

Last spring, she was invited to apply as a speaker to a TEDx event in Washington state. I’m such a TED geek that I jumped on board immediately. Eva, in her desire to please me, thought she would do it. But it was clear that the idea gave her a lot of anxiety. When I finally wised up and told her that it really would be ok if she never did another talk again, she immediately bowed out, her anxiety lifted, and a dark cloud left her little brow. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I want this to be good for Eva, no matter what it looks like. And when she’s given control, she finds incredible sources of courage and self-confidence. She’s even considering applying for the TEDx event next year. We’ll see. If she changes her mind, that will be ok too.

I’d like to hear from other readers too. How do you handle this with your own children? Do you give them much control over their hobbies, pursuits, and creative endeavors? What kinds of conversations do you have with your kids? How do you walk that careful balance of pushing your children to stretch themselves and try new things and listening to their opinions and wants?

Engaging in Summer Creativity

Eva and her friend Leah selling their creative duct tape art in the front yard, along with lemonade and homemade brownies.

I thought about naming this post “Engaging Kids in Summer Creativity,” since this blog is primarily about raising and educating kids intentionally, but why should they get all the fun? I want in too. Summer is the perfect time for kids and parents alike to flex creative muscles and explore things you may not have time for during the busy school year. And of course there’s all that sage advice about practicing what you preach, etc. If you want kids to make healthy choices, then you have to model that good behavior. But really, I just want in. And you should too.

So that’s Rule Number One in the Ridenhour Creativity Engagement Rule Book. If you want to engage your kids, find room in your own life to engage in some kind of creative endeavor. Do this activity with your child, or alongside, or even separate, but make time for it. You don’t have to be a painter or a musician. Maybe you like gardening. Or scrapbooking. Or cooking. Or maybe you just like to take walks in the neighborhood (and yes, I would argue that being a part of creativity too, depending on how you experience it). Whatever you find fulfilling.

Rule Number Two: Facilitate activity brainstorming without telling your child what to do. If a child is bored, and the parents are quick to give a solution, then the child never learns how to deal with the boredom themselves. Learning how to come up with ideas is an essential part of the creative process. This doesn’t mean you can’t be involved; grab your nearest white board (you have several handy, yes?) and announce a Creative Brainstorming Session. Then both of you can write ideas on the board. This kind of activity trains your child how to address their own boredom. Seeing all those options will help too. Perhaps they’ll even want to keep the list to refer back too. For many years, our family has set out a list of summer goals each May. Popular items on the list include bike rides, picnics, and game playing. Husband-Jamie always has “writing time” (he’s a novelist) on the list. Ian has “play lots of music.” I usually have exercise (I’m terrible at follow-through on that one) and gardening. And Eva often lists sleepovers and lego time. You get the idea. We keep the list visible all summer, referring back, checking things off, and adding new stuff.

Rule Number Three: Provide free time. I’m all for camps – they expose kids to a wide variety of activities, ideas, and other kids, and they are especially helpful for dual-income families. However, if the child is enrolled in camps with no break, she will never have the opportunity to pursue her own ideas and activities. There are countless studies and blogs and opinion columns about the hyper-scheduling of today’s children. I’m not going to go there, but I do think balance is key.

Ian’s band Hex Radio performing at the downtown street fair Urban Harvest.

Rule Number Four: Host your child’s friends. Sometimes it’s just easier and more fun to engage in creative activities if you do it with a buddy. Eva recently attended a duct tape art camp (see? I do like camps!), and was instantly hooked. Her friend Leah attended with her and gave Eva a collection of colorful duct tape for her birthday. Now they make creations together, and Eva teaches her other friends how to make stuff too. Ian has several groups of friends that fulfill different creative needs. There is one group who will play Magic the Gathering and other trading card games with him for hours (and hours). Another plays music with him – actually he’s in two kid bands right now. Over the last week, Ian’s band Hex Radio has practically lived at our house rehearsing, gigging, recording, playing, and shooting their first music video (I’ve included it at the bottom of this post). It’s so fun to see all these conglomerations – to hear the excitement in their voices and experience all the wonderful things they come up with.

Rule Number Five: Procure appropriate supplies. This does two things: 1) it provides the practical tools needed for the creative activity, and 2) it validates your child’s interest. It cracks me up after all these years, but when I took Eva out to buy even more duct tape the other day, she kept squeezing my hand and told me how much she appreciated my buying her more. It was so sweet. Ian’s hobby is more expensive – recording equipment and software, composing software, a computer to run it all, drumsticks, etc. – but they are essential to helping him grow as a musician, so for us anyway, they are necessary expenses. Both kids know we value their ideas, because we invest both time and resources to support them.

Rule Number Six: Validate your child’s idea. This goes beyond just buying supplies. If your child takes on a particular project, then treat the process with respect. Is Eva a prodigy duct tape artist? No. Will she be making this art for more than even a few months? Probably not. Is there anything particularly special about the art she’s making? Honestly, not really. It’s cute, but what I’m interested more in is the excitement she has about it. She’s also willing to experiment with it. She started to make a duct tape dress and realized she didn’t have the skills to complete such an advanced project. She took the big panel of tape she made and decided to turn it into a bike pouch. When the straps didn’t work out so well, she began brainstorming on new latching solutions. She’s having a blast, thinking outside the box, enjoying her friends, and just hosted a duct tape art sale in the front yard. Pretty awesome.

Eva selling her books at the mall.

Rule Number Seven: If you can, keep your eye out for opportunities for your child to take their creative project to a more professional level. This may just be having the duct tape art sale on the front lawn (her idea by the way), but it could also be a community event. For example, earlier this month I stumbled across a flyer inviting kids to have a booth for a day at the local mall, selling their wares. I brought the flier home for Eva, who used the opportunity to promote her books (she sold 8 copies!). The reason this step is important is to back up Rule Number Six. When your kids see you believing in them and in their ideas, it’s magic, pure and simple.

What creative endeavors are you and your kids taking on this summer?

And oh, yeah – as promised, here’s Hex Radio’s new music video, “Common Lies.”

The Creative Education of Writer and Speaker Adora Svitak

Meet Adora and her mom, Joyce

I’m happy today to introduce you to Adora Svitak, though many of you may already know her. I’m going to take the liberty here to share TED’s short bio of her:

A voracious reader from age three, Adora Svitak’s first serious foray into writing — at age five — was limited only by her handwriting and spelling. (Her astonishing verbal abilities already matched that of young adults over twice her age.) As her official bio says, her breakthrough would soon come “in the form of a used Dell laptop her mother bought her.” At age seven, she typed out over 250,000 words — poetry, short stories, observations about the world — in a single year.

Svitak has since fashioned her beyond-her-years wordsmithing into an inspiring campaign for literacy — speaking across the country to both adults and kids. She is author of Flying Fingers, a book on learning.

“A tiny literary giant.” Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America

Like Isabella Taylor, Adora was kind enough to talk with me about her own unique education, and I’m excited to share that conversation here. But first, please enjoy her wonderful TED talk. And don’t forget to check out her webpage!

Adora, you have experienced a wide range of educational models, including a brick and mortar school, online classes, and the school that your mom set up. Can you talk about these experiences? How do you feel about the various modes of learning? What are your favorites, and what hasn’t worked, and why?

The school that my mom set up, Seeds of Learning, took place at my house; some other neighborhood kids joined us for afterschool lessons, and classes were never larger than 10 people. As a result, we all got very personalized learning, and each student could be working on a different project, all in the same room. I loved the fact that we were able to form great relationships with our teachers, who usually taught us for 2 years or more. Definitely I would say the Seeds of Learning experience was ideal—individualized learning, small classes, good teachers, involved parents.

My online classes offer me flexibility and the rigor of a planned curriculum with teacher support, but I don’t feel quite as close to my online high school teachers as I did to teachers at Seeds of Learning (unsurprising, considering that the teachers at my online school have to teach hundreds of students where teachers at Seeds of Learning taught ten). I feel that there are some things that just can’t be replicated easily online—hands-on group work, science labs, et cetera—without losing some of the tremendous value of face-to-face interactions.

Going to a brick-and-mortar school gives me a chance to meet diverse groups of people and better learn how to work together; it also introduces me first-hand to what it’s like sitting inside one of the “typical classrooms” I’ve mentioned often in my speeches. I do definitely see a lot of problems that need to be fixed. I feel that the brick-and-mortar school model needs to shift away from the focus on obedience and order that pervades everything, from how students are seated and told to behave, to the use of passing-hour bells; after all, if you were teaching someone at home, would you get up and ring a bell every hour to indicate that they should get up, leave, go to the bathroom or talk quickly, and then come back for a different subject? It would seem ridiculous. Yet this is what we train students to do at school. I think there has to be a better way to arrange school schedules and teach kids that is a little less military drill-evocative. Overall the biggest problem I see with brick-and-mortar schools is that for the most part it’s still a very 19^th-century model.

How do you have time to pursue all the amazing work you do and keep up with more traditional school subjects like math, history, and science?

Taking mostly online classes lets me bring my studies with me; however, it definitely has been a challenge to balance work and school. I’ve fallen behind a few times and sometimes have to catch up over weekends and breaks. Honestly, often I’ll sit down to write an essay for school and in the back of my head I’ll be thinking, “Remember that you have three speeches to write, two presentations to edit, and a blog post to write”—and whenever I work on one of those, I’ll be thinking about the next thing. I think it all depends on how you manage your time—unfortunately for me, I’m a terrible procrastinator (I’ve stayed up past midnight to write speeches for the next day). I know that I wouldn’t be able to do it all without the help of my amazing mom, who schedules events for me and manages requests for my teaching. In general, managing a busy life needs good time management…in absence of or in addition to that, great parents.

How much in charge do you feel of your own education? Do you help make your own goals? How much control do you have in what you pursue?

Like many other students, I feel a little powerless on the issues that really matter. Even as someone who speaks widely about education and blogs for Edutopia and the Huffington Post on school-related issues, I can’t do anything about an ineffective teacher in my classroom or a course that doesn’t challenge me. The important thing is that my classmates have insights to share that are of equal value, yet there are no good ways for us to submit feedback to our teachers and administrators and see rapid change taking place as a result, a problem I’m working to change.

I definitely do make my own goals, but there are often differences between my career goals and my academic goals, and sometimes I feel that my learning in school doesn’t always further my career goals. For instance, it’s difficult for me to miss more than a week of attendance at my brick-and-mortar school to go and travel, yet in the long run probably that week giving speeches will benefit me more than the hours sitting in the classroom. I would love to have more control in what I pursue—in the ideal world, I’d be able to work closely with teachers to design more independent studies for myself in various courses, calling on teacher support when needed (actually, something I think all students could benefit from). Right now I can choose which courses to take at school, but I don’t have a voice in what is taught or how it’s taught.

What have your parents done for you to help you pursue your creative passions?

My parents have done a great deal to help me pursue my creative passions—by providing the unique educational experience for me so that I would have access to high-quality, challenging learning from a young age (I was lucky to be able to sit in creative writing classes with seven- and eight-year-olds when I was just three years old), and also by taking my dreams seriously. When I declared to my mom, “I want to publish a book!” at six years old, I didn’t realize how rare and precious her support was.

Adora has a studio from which she offers video conferencing classes and lectures to kids all over the nation.

Talk a little about your varied work. You are an author, you teach kids about writing, have coordinated a TEDx conference, and have guested on countless news programs. It’s clear what you’re teaching in all this – you’re giving back to so many people, both kids and adults. But what are you learning from the process? In other words, how are your activities a part of your own education? How are they preparing you for your own future?

This is one of the most unique and intriguing questions I’ve received about my work—thanks for the different perspective!

In my education talks, I always bring up the importance of being a teacher and a learner; a favorite quote of mine is John Cotton Dana’s “Whoever teaches, must never cease to learn.” As a teacher and a student, I understand this very clearly through my own experience. If I had stopped learning about the art of teaching by deciding that I had learned everything there was to learn, when I first began teaching students about writing, I would be a pretty ineffective teacher today. There’s nothing that saddens me more than teachers who have given up on constant self-assessment and improvement of their own teaching practice and do no more than go through the motions year after year. I am incredibly lucky to have my mom around—as an observer, she’s able to give me feedback on my teaching that I can use to improve.

Through my presentations and speeches I’ve learned about many important skills that relate to how I interact with others, whether through a video conference camera or on a stage. I’ve learned how to address different audiences, how to walk the fine line between supporting revolutionary ideas and offending traditional views (particularly difficult when it comes to talking about education or youth voice), even how to deal with people you don’t like.

In the more academic sense, my speaking, teaching, and organizing has greatly improved my writing by keeping me practicing constantly. When I write content for a presentation, I have to balance the amount of material I want to get through with a need for conciseness and clarity. When I write emails to various companies about sponsoring TEDxRedmond, I sharpen my real-world persuasive writing skills and how to get my point across using as few words as possible (considering that my email’s readers are likely busy executives who read email on their phones). The social, writing, and business skills I’ve learned from my career have been tremendously valuable to me throughout my life.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I’ve been really lucky to have many opportunities throughout life because of people’s support—the adults who believed in me, the students who listened to me, the readers who read my writing—but even if you think, “I don’t have any speeches lined up or books written, I can’t really do anything,” remember that your life is what you make of it. You can create your own opportunities. Get informed and decide on issues you care about and then advocate for them tirelessly—on your social network, at school, among friends. You can set up groups of your peers to plan events (that’s what I did to organize the youth conference TEDxRedmond) or watch TED Talks and have discussions about meaningful issues. You can submit writing to magazines or start your own. And the important thing to remember is, whenever you first experience success, make sure to thank those that helped you along the way and give back in whatever way possible. That’s what I try to do through my teaching and advocacy.

The Fullness of Spring

The first blooms of the season.

Lately we’ve moved away from our more traditional school scenario to embrace the busyness of the spring season. We’ve moved upstairs and typically work in the den and dining room, using our patio door as our white board. Stacks of books and piles markers are beginning to clutter up the ends of our couches, piano bench and dining room sideboard. Our class schedule has morphed into a list of daily objectives – more like a to-do list than a course outline.

I’ve had to back off of blogging to keep up with the kids and ensure that the family retains some sense of balance while we’re off to all our separate activities. Such is the way of life – ebb and flow.

Ian’s new band Hex Radio is already taking off – they have a gig next week at the high school, and they’ve been selected to open for Hairball (self-proclaimed “Bombastic Celebration of Arena Rock”) in June at the Civic Center. Not bad for a group that’s only performed together one time. I had to break down and get Ian a texting plan so he could keep up with all the rehearsal scheduling, etc. He’s also begun working with the middle school concert band on his composition “After the Storm.” He’s busy altering scores this morning.

Eva spoke at another Career Day for 6th graders and both kids have been asked to offer 25 minute presentations at Marketplace for Kids (an entrepreneurial fair coming up in May). Though Ian is forever the extrovert and ready to go, Eva has decided she’s had enough for now. She’ll skip on Marketplace and instead focus on her book release; she’s feeling the need for simplicity these days, and I get that. Sometimes you just want to play with your legos and be a kid, you know? Again – it’s all about balance and adjusting and readjusting. And adjusting again.

This week we are excited to host poet Erin Keane, who is in town to share her excellent and eccentric book of circus-based poetry, Death-Defying Acts. My husband Jamie has coordinated the event, which will include a poetry slam and a reading at the local artist co-op; the artists have created and filled their gallery with artwork based on her poems. We will even have circus-themed cupcakes. It should be a wonderful evening.

Though the kids won’t be able to attend the readings themselves this time (due to late nights or their own activity conflicts), we love bringing poets and writers into our home. Jamie, having a job that allows him to coordinate these fantastic events, has brought in many wonderful artists and thinkers over the last several years. We’ve hosted editors, musicians, composers, poets, writers, and (though Jamie didn’t coordinate this one) even a Buddhist monk who was in town to create a sand mandala over the course of several days. Each occasion is an eye opener for the kids. It’s good to be around people with passionate ideas and creative hearts. It’s good to be around people from such different backgrounds and experiences. And it’s good to see first-hand what is possible in the arts and humanities, especially since this is what our kids want to pursue.

While Erin is here, the kids will still be doing their own stuff; Ian has Science Olympiad regionals this Thursday, followed by a Hex Radio rehearsal. The poetry is a little on the mature side for Eva to attend, but we still plan on stopping by the artist co-op reading at the beginning simply to experience the feel of something so wonderful – all that art, and all those beautiful words. All that celebration of the lovely and strange.

And just because our lives weren’t full enough, we’ve decided to attempt to move into town. This has been a goal of ours for awhile; we’d like to be closer to community and better able to take advantage of the wonderful goings-on in Bismarck. Though we’ve enjoyed the grand open space, peace, and wildlife of the country, we’re ready for a change and feel that ultimately this move will both simplify and enrich our lives. Wish us luck.

Eva’s Video-Conference: Now Made Public!

Today, I’m happy to announce that Eva’s video-conference to the third graders at Sweetwater Elementary in Devil’s Lake is available for public viewing! I can’t currently embed it here, but if you’d like to see all the kids in action, click here. Scroll down just below her photo until you see the Quicktime video. It takes a moment for the Quicktime “Q” to turn into the video, so hang out for a moment.

If you watch it and enjoy, please be sure to let Eva know!

 

Update on Eva’s Forthcoming Book

This morning I had the lovely opportunity to catch up with a friend in South Carolina via facebook chat. It had been much too long. As we were catching up on home and kids and work, she asked me what we were going to do in school today. I mentioned several items, including photography, and she wanted to know more about it. After sharing it all with her, I decided, “what a great blog post!” And so here I am.

As you may recall, Eva’s forthcoming book The Kinzy Chronicles is a series of short stories about her beloved and bedraggled stuffed koala Kinzy. For this book, Eva decided to use photos of her stuffed animals as illustrations. She’s been building sets to reflect particular scenes, and we’ve studied lighting, depth of field, shutter speed, and forced perspective. It’s been super fun, and I thought I’d share a few of the photographs as a sneak preview.

Here’s the main character, Kinzy, in his cozy abode.

Kinzy, the Koala

Next up is Kinzy piloting the airplane he built himself. He’s off to Australia.

Without giving too much away, the next photo is Kinzy in Australia at the Koala Needs Store. Here he meets the love of his life, Mary Jane (she’s the fluffier one).

Ah, but the plot thickens. The Christmas Bear has kidnapped poor Mary Jane, and taken her to his secret igloo lair in the North Pole! Luckily, Kinzy is there to save the day. Here he has busted out the window of the igloo and is preparing to rescue his lady love.

In the next shot, Eva experimented with forced perspective. We researched this a bit first, of course. She had a giant stuffed moose that she wanted to be more in scale with Kinzy’s diminutive size. We learned that by placing the moose farther back, the two dimension photo would give Eva the proportion she was looking for. Here is the set from the side.

I’m backing up here to show you where Eva sat with the camera.

And here’s the finished shot.

The book should be out by the end of May. We’ll keep you posted!

We Interrupt this Physics Program for Some Creative Pursuits

While I’ve been blogging about math resources this week, the kids have been studying Newton’s Laws of Motion. I had a full week of it planned, but I had to reconsider my schedule after Ian became inspired to write a new composition, this time for a chamber orchestra with synth and a drum kit. He was so on fire that I had to squash my science lessons to bookend the week, leaving Wednesday and Thursday open for creative pursuits.

While Ian was composing (and he finished his lovely song by the way, in just three days!), Eva struck out into the land of filmmaking, creating a couple of silly episodes of “Kinzy’s Cooking Show.” Kinzy is the main character of the book she’ll be releasing this May, and she wants to build a whole world up around him. We built a set complete with stage lights and backdrop, filmed the clips, and I taught her how to upload them to youtube and from there drop them into her website. She gave her website a new look (and so, you may have noticed, did I), and all in all we had a good time. You can click on the link above to see them all, or just get a flavor right here. This is episode #1.

But back to physics. Our textbook choice this week was the very scientific Zombies and Forces and Motion by Mark Weakland. On the first day, we talked about Newton’s first law: things at rest stay at rest, and things in motion stay in motion. To visually explore this law (besides looking at the hilarious illustrations in our text), we balanced a stuffed animal on a toy car and observed its forward motion when the car smashed into a conspicuous wall – lots of fun there. We flicked index cards out from under balls and watched them fall straight down as the cards went sailing forward. We drug blocks on various surfaces and discussed friction. We played air hockey at the university to observe what happens when you remove this friction.

But the best thing we did was this:

I should add that Eva did this successfully as well. And of course we had some unsuccessful tries too, with mostly full cups of water. That was fun. And wet.

Happy Friday, everyone. See you next week!

Bringing Math to Life With Fun(ky) Books

In my last post, I mentioned how in Ian’s first year of homeschooling we chose not to follow a traditional math curriculum, and instead just noodled around finding fun math stuff to explore. Today I’ll talk about some of the books we discovered; in my next post, I’ll share some media resources.

Ian with Arthur Benjamin in 2009

We started with the Great Mathemagician, Arthur Benjamin, whom we had seen perform the previous summer. A professor at Harvey Mudd College, Benjamin also tours the nation giving delightful performances that showcase his incredible ability in mental math. He starts small, squaring two-digit numbers, and eventually works his way up to squaring a five digit number, all in his head. He also has a mental method of figuring what day of the week any calendar date falls on, whether it’s in the past or future. He has a great time telling folks in the audience what day of the week their birth date was. It’s super fun, and you should check out his show, which I’ve conveniently embedded below.

Ian of course thought this was Epic, so we picked up his book Secrets of Mental Math, and for the first six months of homeschool, slowly worked our way through it. We held math class at the scenic university student lounge, overlooking miles of gentle hills and a spectacular, windy river. He was nine years old then. We read the lessons together, and I gave him problems to solve in his head. He paced all over that lounge, muttering and holding out his fingers. But nobody was there to witness it – at 8 am, most university students were either in bed or in class. Oh, and by the way, I always brought some hot apple cider and some little delectable munchie, and we would take breaks at the lounge ping-pong table. Really, those math classes were such a blast.

Over the months, we worked pretty far into the book. We never could master the biggest problems – even though Benjamin shares his secrets, he’s still quite simply a mathematical genius, and it takes a bit of time and talent to achieve what he has – but Ian picked up some fantastic mental math skills that will help him throughout his life. And it was FUN!

A genre of books I love to dig through is math fiction. There really are more great titles out there than most people realize, and they provide a great way to introduce or reinforce mathematical concepts in a friendly, entertaining format. Ian enjoyed The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger – it’s a nice mix of good story, and colorful, fun illustrations. He also liked the Do the Math Series by Wendy Lichtman.

And then there are the Murderous Maths books, which Ian simply loves. They’re affordable paperbacks produced in the UK, but you can get them from my friend Ray at his website (tell him Gwyn sent you!). The Murderous Maths books explore math concepts with a wonderful British sense of humor; they’re made by the same folks who put out the Horrible History series (another must-have). We picked up the box set a couple of years back, and Ian goes back to them again and again.

I’m terribly excited to order the forthcoming Manga Guide to Linear Algebra, to be released in March of this year. The Manga Guide series is great, and I’m glad they’re releasing new titles. The books are mainly told in the manga style, neatly combining story with educational concepts. There are also sections of non-illustrated text to further explain the more difficult topics.

But perhaps your little math student is, well, a bit more little. No worries! The fun non-boring math genre is dominated by cute picture books geared toward the K-6 crowd. Let’s continue with our Manga theme by checking out Simon Basher’s Math: A Book You Can Count On. It features a simple layout of math concepts that will appeal to fans of trading card games and comic books. And there’s a cool tear-out poster in the back. We own tons of the Basher books, and their included posters are scattered all over the classroom. Chemistry, biology, rocks and minerals, space… they’ve got it covered.

I’m going to be honest here: the best way to find fun math selections (especially for your younger student) is to go to your public library and ask for them. At the branch where I work, we tend to put the math fiction in with the math non-fiction, particularly when the fiction is written specifically to demonstrate a particular concept. Sit. Spread out. Peruse. And don’t forget to do catalog searches. Ask your friendly librarian for help. Personally, I love those kinds of requests and will load an innocent patron down with more books than they can carry. I’ll include a few quick titles and series here, but honestly, there are simply too many to list.

Tang has a fun picture book series that teaches simple concepts. Why Pi? is a fabulous title by DK Publishing. Go Figure: The Book of Numbers by Johnny Ball (also published by DK) is equally fun. Lots of kids (though not necessarily mine) also enjoy the Sir Cumference series by Cindy Neuschwander.

And then there are the picture books about specific awesome mathematicians! Must reads include What’s Your Angle, Pythagorus? by Julie Ellis (she apparently has a follow-up title released in 2010) and Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D’Agnese.

Now for the activity books and kits. Eva and I enjoyed the Hooked on Math kits that covered addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.They’re pretty expensive, so again, ask your library if they carry them, and if they don’t, make a formal request. That’s how we used them.

The cool base-ten blocks I checked out from the school district's media library.

As a general library patron, I have access not only to my local branch, but to materials located in libraries throughout our system, including our local university. And if I can’t what I need there, for a small fee I can request from any library across the nation. As a home educator, I can also check out materials through the public school district’s media library. Using all of these resources, I can get my hands on all sorts of expensive kits and equipment. I like using hands-on materials, but my budget is small. And, who really needs to own a full set of base-10 blocks? I found kits available on almost every math topic. The kids love opening up the treasures and playing the games inside.

I will add two final resources (is your head swimming yet?). The Critical Thinking Company produces lots of great puzzles that challenge kids in reading, math, and logic comprehension. Often we’ll solve these over lunch, on a white board of course. And if you still need more, check out EAI Education. They have catalogs packed with more math toys than you could possibly ever use (and frankly I will say for both of these companies, request a catalog – they’re much easier on the eyes than their websites). Have fun!

New Steps for the Young Author

Over the weekend, I was looking over my last few posts, and had to laugh at how many of them were about being distracted and things not going as planned. Mice, computer crashes, big trips – our lives have certainly not been orderly lately. But today’s post is not about all that. Today I am happy to report on Eva’s increasing success as an author, and how she’s been moving forward despite the various unexpected life events that have made our schedule, well, not normal as of late.

I would also like to take this moment to unsubtly reiterate that this blog is not just about my kids – their accomplishments and successes. It is instead intended to serve as an example of one way we can educate our children. If my kids have success, I hope to use those happy events to show the positive outcomes that are possible with intentional, project-based, out of the box learning. Public education is so stuck in the world of grades; I hope to continue to show the benefits of seeking real-world accolades outside the grade book.

So, with all that said, here are the fabulous things that Eva has been up to in the last couple of weeks.

1. First and foremost, Eva finished her rough draft of her next book, The Kinzy Chronicles, during the month of November for National Novel Writing Month. This was her third year participating, and she’s doubled her word count goal each year. This time she surpassed her goal of 8,000 words.

The Kinzy Chronicles is a series of short stories exploring the life of her stuffed koala by the same name. Over the years, Kinzy has become quite a fixture in our family, with his own interesting and complex personality, and a rather involved back story. Kinzy is a bit egotistical, a bit dull (though he thinks himself very smart), and bit impulsive. He stars in his own cooking show, and recently married another koala named Mary Jane. He’s quite hilarious.

The Beloved Kinzy

Writing The Kinzy Chronicles was a wonderful exercise in character development. Because his character is so established in our family vernacular, Eva had to constantly remind herself that the reader didn’t have the same context that we do. The editing process on this piece will be much more extensive than it has in the past, partly because we expect more from Eva with each book experience, and partly because relating the subtleties of Kinzy’s character is a difficult challenge. We’re taking a break this month, but will jump back into it once January rolls around. We are looking towards May as the release date for the completed book.

2. A couple of weeks ago, Eva received her first official request to give a classroom presentation about being an author. Though we’re still working out the details, we know that she’ll be speaking to three different sixth grade classrooms at our local Dorothy Moses Elementary School. The kids will watch Eva’s lecture videos first, and then be prepared with questions. I know Eva will be nervous when the day comes, but we’re both super excited about the opportunity!

Eva talking with the EduTech folks

3. Speaking of presentations, last week I received an email from Tabitha Lang, who works for EduTech, and whom we met at the the North Dakota Educator’s Association conference last month. EduTech works to promote and support technology in public schools across the state. Tabitha asked if Eva and I could come to their staff retreat and talk about how we’ve used technology in Eva’s authorship project. We of course said yes, and Eva and I met with a dozen delightful educators. We talked about Eva’s writing process and highlighted our use of wordpress, lulu, NaNoWriMo, and basic video editing software.

They were very excited about our work and Eva’s presentation skills; we’re now discussing the possibilities of Eva using Skype to connect with students in classrooms across the state and with teachers in various educator conferences.

4. While we were with the EduTech folks, Tabitha asked if we had ever heard of Skype an Author, which is a national project that connects authors of children’s books with classrooms across the country. Authors skype into K-12 classrooms and provide 15-30 minutes of conversation, Q&A, advice, etc. Skype an Author maintains a database of approved authors that schools can contact. I had never heard of the project, but I looked it up right away when we got home. Impressed by their mission, I sent off a quick email to the director, and by the end of the day, Eva had her own official profile as a Skype an Author author. The project has already featured her on her homepage as their organization’s newest and youngest author.

Eva and Ian research Rube Goldberg machines on her new laptop

5. Another exciting event last week had to do with Eva’s financial profits from book sales. Over the last two years, Eva has made over $300 in sales, and put aside some paid-for stock that she can take with her to shows. For both Eva and Ian, we have always required that all money earned through their passions (writing income for Eva, gig money for Ian, various award money for both), had to be either saved or reinvested into that passion. Ian has purchased recording equipment, cymbals, bells, drums, sticks, and other music-related items with his earned gig money over the years. Until now, Eva hasn’t been the income generator (the slacker that she is ). But that’s all changed with her book sales. Last week, Eva took her book earnings and purchased her very own laptop notebook. It’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. She likes it because it’s so small – sized just for her. Now she’ll be able to write whenever she likes, wherever she likes. She is so insanely proud that she bought this with her own earned money. I’m pretty proud of her too.

Eva interviewing Ali at her apartment

6. And last but not least, Eva is in a current competition to be included in a child-authored version of a book called Beautiful Women of North Dakota. Last spring, children were invited to interview a “beautiful woman” and tell her story in an article. They had to photograph the interviewee as well, and submit their journalistic story to Beautiful Women. Eva interviewed Ali LaRock, a local artist and friend of the family. Ali did the artwork for Ian’s Animal Attack cards, and has collaborated with my dear husband Jamie on two short films (Cornerboys and House of the Yaga) and provided the artwork for his recent novel Barking Mad. The Beautiful Women entries will be judged this week.

Before I close, I would be remiss if I didn’t let you know that though Eva is our official family child-author, Ian has also had some recent publication success. This semester while studying the Canterbury Tales, we had the kids each write a modern tale of their own, in the Canterbury Tales style. Ian’s was so good that we sent it off to Creative Kids Magazine. We just received notice that his story was in fact, accepted to the magazine, and will be published sometime in the next year. I’ll let you know when it comes out.

So it’s all pretty exciting! I can’t wait to see what 2012 will bring for Eva and Ian both. If we go at the pace that 2011 established, I’m gonna need a manager!