Keris Stainton's Blog, page 31

That moose is mine

After reading the wonderful This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers, we’ve read (or ordered) a few moose books. Like Thidwick, the Big-hearted Moose, Ernest, and If You Give a Moose a Muffin.

All of them make me think of this fantastic photo, taken by my dad in Canada. Isn’t it gorgeous?

What’s wrong with being a Mummy’s Boy?

I’m asking that very question over on Bea today.

I totally meant to mention Mrs Merton & Malcolm as an example of a Mummy’s Boy in popular culture, but I forgot.

(I never actually watched it, but my sister told me that when Malcolm was applying to be on, I think, Masterchef, he planned to make ‘egg mashed up in a cup and a Lemsip’ which makes me laugh every time I think of it.)

Harry Reads to Joe Update: Woo and hoo!

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has sponsored, facebooked, tweeted, sent books, and generally just been completely fabulous and supportive. You’re all ace and we so appreciate it.

Homeschooling Harry: Deschooling

A couple of weeks ago, we were at a soft play place and, after running round madly with Joe for about ten minutes, Harry appeared next to me (I had the iPad and a bacon sarnie) and said, “Homeschool me now.”

“Er… what do you want to do?”

“Just learn!”

“That’s not really how it works,” I started to say, but he interrupted with, “What you know, you tell me!” accompanied by a tap on my head and then a tap on his own.

“Think of this as PE,” I said.

“Okay!” he said and darted off to join Joe on the trampoline.

The above exchange made me laugh because whenever I do try to “homeschool” him, he resists. Strenuously. Plus we’ve discussed how unschooling works and he loves the idea (obviously), but apparently he still, every now and then, thinks he should be doing some formal learning.

And I don’t blame him, I still think that too sometimes. Because unschooling is so different, it’s hard not to try to slip in a bit of formal learning too. I’m trying to do something every day that I can actually make a note of if anyone asks what he’s learning, but everything I’ve read suggests that I really don’t even need to do that. And Harry asks me about something every day, so I could just wait and take his lead, but… I’m just not comfortable with that yet. *twitches*

I’m currently reading How Children Learn at Home and the authors suggest that a child who has been taken out of school should be left alone for a year. (At least, I’m pretty sure they do, I can’t find it now to quote it.) Not literally alone, you understand, but left to learn when and what they want to learn, without being steered or pushed.

There’s a brilliant article about unschooling in the current issue of Green Parent magazine (if anyone’s interested, I have a scan of it and am happy to email it to you) and the author, Chaley-Ann Scott, also claims a period of “deschooling” is essential:

“This is both for the parent and for the child and is basically just like taking a long holiday where your children are free to decompress, and you let go of all your assumptions given to you by school.”

I’ve read somewhere that a good way to think about unschooling is to think of the long summer holiday. Children may not do any formal learning, but they are still learning every day. Because that’s what children do.

That’s what we all do.

[I've added a 'recommended reading' page under 'Unschooling' on the menu, if anyone's interested in the books I've read so far and whatever I'm currently reading on the subject.]

Mind the gap

I just read this article – Feeling bad about your weight is making you fat – on Jezebel and this paragraph leapt out at me:

Almost every woman I know has their moment looking at something in pop culture and thinking “Holy shit! I’m a land whale!” A coworker noted that when she was growing up, beer commercials and sex comedies always featured women wearing high-cut swimsuits that showed off the hips. Another coworker recalls looking at Kate Moss and feeling conflicted over the fact that she thought Moss, in all of her heroin chic glory, looked amazing. When the British press characterized Baby Spice as the “chubby” one. The Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera/Mandy Moore/Jessica Simpson bonerwars of the nineties.

I was thinking about that just the other day. I’m pretty sure it was when I read (in Jackie? I think it must have been) that your legs are only supposed to touch at two points (your knees and calves, I assume), that there should be a gap between your thighs (I’m fairly sure there was also a diagram, just in case you didn’t quite get it). There was no gap between my thighs. That photo of me was taken in 1986. I kept the t-shirt on all holiday, because I thought I was fat. Looking at it now, it makes me sad. And not just because the t-shirt is so hideous.

Do we really all have these moments? What was yours? 

Friday favourites

Happiest thing I’ve seen all week – The man who turned his home into a public library.

I discovered Kate Fridkis because she writes (brilliantly) about unschooling, but when I ran out of unschooling posts to read (sob!) I started reading, you know, everything else she’s ever written. I love this post – 11 Better Beauty Rules – SO MUCH.

You’ve probably already seen this, but it’s just SO GREAT. Go to Google. Type in ‘bacon number’ and then the name of an actor. Any actor. It’s what the internet was invented for, no?

Love this crazy first draft idea from author Emma Darwin.

I’ve had this Luv and Hat post saved for AGES, but I finally read it and it’s hilarious (particularly if you work from home).

This is ace: Birth of a book

What’s been making you happy this week?

Won’t somebody think of the children?!

In the car, just now, on the way back from the supermarket. Joe saw an ice-cream van painted with Winnie the Pooh characters, including Kanga and Roo.

Joe: “She is his mummy.” (We’re still working on pronouns.)

Me: “Yes, Kanga is Roo’s mum.”

Joe: “Where is his daddy?”

Me, spotting a teachable moment: “I don’t know. But not everyone has a daddy. Some children just have a mummy. Some children have two mummies and some have two daddies.”

Joe: “Why?”

Me: “Why what?”

Joe: “Why two daddies or two mummies?”

Me: “Because sometimes a man and lady* fall in love and have babies and sometimes a man falls in love with another man or a lady with another lady.”

Joe: “Why do they do that?”

Me: “They just do. People fall in love with who they fall in love with.”

Joe: “Mama?”

Me: “Yep.”

Joe: “Ducks don’t eat crisps.”

* I don’t know why I went with “lady”.

Yes! Another Harry Reads to Joe update!

£793.00. 79%. Amazing.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored Harry so far. He’s thrilled.

And did you know you can sponsor him via text message? Just text HRTJ50 plus the amount to 70070.

(David asked Joe about this photo. Joe said, “I was jus’ only joking.” Good to know.)

Baking soda and baking powder are not the same thing

Cinnamon buns. Saaaaaad little cinnamon buns.

They were titchy, fell apart when I tried to pick them up, and didn’t even smell good.

I lifted them off the baking tray and put them straight in the bin.

Be a weed

Our front and back gardens are full of weeds or, as I prefer to call them, wildflowers. Last year, the back garden was all dandelions. They were all over the lawn and the path. I pulled them all up from the path, sat down to look over my work and regretted it immediately. With the dandelions, the garden looks sort of magical, without them it was boring.

This year, it’s way beyond dandelions. The back garden is a jungle of knee-high (to me) grass and who-knows-what else. It’s a pain to clamber through to get to the bin (which is why David does that) and the local cats are always nestling in it and pooing everywhere.

The front garden, however, looks rather gorgeous. All the spaces between the “real” plants have been filled with weeds. Some of them are a bit mean-looking – one in particular is covered with blackfly, so I’ve pulled that one out – but most of them have pretty leaves and tiny flowers.

Looking at the front garden, I couldn’t tell you which were “weeds” and which were planted purposely (by my mother-in-law). One day on Twitter, I told someone I don’t believe in weeds, I think it’s plant snobbery. I was sort of joking, but sort of not. Thinking about it afterwards, I realised that weeds are basically plants that you didn’t plant and so don’t want there. I don’t like that either. I think of the weeds as sort of plucky. They turned up and made themselves at home. Good for them, I say.

And then I saw this on Facebook and I think I may have shouted, “YES!”

Via Eve Menezes Cunningham

Exactly.