My kids and hubby are out for the evening, so I decide that I’ll have a nice chicken sandwich, get some good  practice on the Beethoven Concerto I’m performing next month, then relax with a junk food snack while watching Netflix or something.  So, I walked across to the corner store to get a loaf of bread, a bag of chips and a bottle of pop.

Since I’m just walking and it’s so close, I didn’t bother taking my wallet.  I grabbed all the coins that were sitting on the table at the time, mostly toonies, which added up to $8… did some quick mental math (bread: discount outlet, usually $1.20 or so… chips, $3.50, pop, $1.50, even with tax I should be fine) and off I went.

Well, I got up to the till and it came to $8.69!  It turns out this particular bread, this particular day, was $2.20. And I went for the nice Covered Bridge chips (slightly less junky) which were $3.99. Oh well — while slightly disappointing, it’s not REALLY a big deal after all.  So my relaxing evening will be a little different, I’ll just not take the chips.

The lady beside me then says “oh that’s okay, I’ll pay for her chips.”

I’m rather surprised by this — I don’t think I look destitute, and I don’t recognize her as anyone I should know.

I said she didn’t have to do it, but she insisted and practically forced a $5 bill into my hand.

I paid for the chips and pop and bread, and gave her back everything I had left — which was over $4 of course. I thanked her, smiled.  She just said, “oh, you had almost enough.”

And that was that.

Such a little thing, really, but it brightened up my day.  So now… how shall I pay it forward?

Jumping on the chance to practice some addition in a ‘natural’ fashion (since she herself brought it up), I then asked:

“What if you have 3 cookies, and then you eat 2 more?”

“That will make 5!”

“What if you have 5 cookies, and then you eat 4 more?”

“That will make 9!”

“This is a harder one… what if you have 2 cookies, and then you eat 6 more?”

“That will make us sick!”

So much has happened too, so many interesting adventures and changes and cute little moments.  I’ve been tending to post little blurbs on Facebook, or on any of the yahoogroups I’m a part of, rather than properly write things up for the blog.  I should try to remedy that.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Facebook or Yahoogroups… those are more immediate.  This has a more… permanent feeling about it.

All I’m going to mention today is about how Pomme is doing.  I’ve mentioned before about how I learned from my mistakes with Flipper in regards to early academics.  To quote myself:

I am a staunch and vocal advocate of letting preschoolers PLAY to learn, that there is no rush for academics, that forcing early academics on children not yet ready for them causes much more harm than good.

I have approached Pomme’s preschool years with the same amount of pride and certainty of the correctness of my beliefs that I used to have in regards to turning Flipper into ‘My Little Prodigy’.

But the universe just isn’t that simple, is it?  Pomme has turned out to be the complete opposite of her brother, a child who at only 3.5 years old adores and demands worksheets, math lessons, and just more and more academics.

I’ve been greatly informed by Waldorf philosophies this past year, and I know that the ‘pure’ Waldorf approach to a precocious preschooler is still to not provide them with academics.  The belief is that their precociousness is a sign of an unbalance that must be corrected for; that they still need to be in their dream world until age 7 in order to be healthy.

I don’t agree with this 100%.  But I do let it inform my decisions.  We make sure that Pomme still has LOTS of creative play time.  While we are indeed doing “work,” it takes a very small part of her day.  Most of her day is still off in her own fascinating little world.  She even brings her imaginary friends with her to “school,” and helps to teach them what she herself is learning about.  She still spends her time building barnyards out of blocks, turning her playsilks into dresses, running around barefoot in the backyard, digging in the sandbox and making mud pies.

But when I do ask her “would you like to do school now?” her response is almost always a resounding “YES!”  In fact, the other day, we sat down to do what was really the first time I’d ever really pulled up a structured work day for her.  More than just an informal math lesson, more than just a match-the-numbers worksheet or two.  I had a whole program laid out:  Cuisenaire rods work; reading practice; TBB Seasons unit study activities; and a RightStart math lesson.  I was honestly just curious to see what would happen.

What happened:  She did everything, then demanded more.  I had printed out enough of the TBB activities to last most of the week, but by the end of our school time that one day I only had 2 sheets left.  She had traced letters, tallied survey results, made a bar graph, learned about temperature and coloured in thermometers, sorted seasonal activities, learned about what trees need to grow, and completed most of a “colour by shapes” picture.

It was three hours since we had started before she showed signs of slowing down.

And we weren’t finished yet.  When it was bedtime, she saw her unfinished picture and declared she wanted to finish it.  I let her do a few more shapes, but it was soon apparent that she was being so deliberate and careful with it (she’s extremely careful to colour properly, and within the lines), that we’d be up all night if I really let her finish it.  She wasn’t happy, but I told her she could get right back to it the next morning.

That night, she stayed in her room all night (which is about 50/50 these days).  I peeked in on her in the morning just as she was starting to wake up.  A few minutes later, I checked again… and she had set herself up at her little table, and was dutifully colouring her picture.  She didn’t come out until she was finished.

I believe that she has recently passed over another of those little bumps of development, something has “clicked”.  Three weeks ago, she could not independently write most letters, but loved to trace them.  Suddenly, a few days ago, she started writing letters by herself, correctly, that she had never even been shown how to write… had never traced.

Two days ago, we had started a RightStart math lesson but didn’t have time to finish it.  So yesterday, we reviewed the first part of the lesson then did the rest of it.  She wanted more.  We did the entire next lesson.  She wanted more!  We did the first part of the next lesson before she decided it was enough!

Today, we started Meet the Masters, a great art program.  We’re trying the age 5-7 program for her, I think she’ll be able to manage it.  And since Flipper is doing the same program but at the older level, we’ll be able to do the actual projects together — there are modifications for the different age levels but it’s a similar project.

There are three parts to each lesson.  An interactive slide show online with me narrating the script.  Then a ‘worksheet’ to learn about a certain art concept related to the current artist.  Then the project itself.  These can be done all in one day or spread over a few days.  The whole lesson start to finish could be an hour to three hours.

She did all three parts today for the first lesson.  Then she wanted to do the next one right away!  It wasn’t possible, unfortunately, since they were about to head to grandma’s for the afternoon.

I’m just flabbergasted.  And excited.  Could she really be this easy?  But I’m also keeping my feet on the ground, and staying cautious.  I still have to be careful not to overdo it (since I know I have the tendency), and I have to realize that this might be temporary!  She could very likely go through phases where she does not want to “do school” at all, and I need to be prepared to respect that!

In the meantime, though, I’m going to enjoy the ride. 

Saxon Math 5/4, Homeschool Third Edition (2005).  630 pages.  Just the student textbook.  Some exercise numbers are circled in pencil, otherwise no marks.  Very good condition overall, some wear here and there.  $30.

Easy Grammar: Grades 3 and 4, 1996 Teacher’s edition.  480 pages.  A few pencil marks, no writing.  Cover shows wear, first40 or so pages are dog-eared.  Otherwise in good condition.  $15.

Easy Grammar: Grade 4, 2006 Teacher’s edition.  585 pages.  Excellent, like new condition.  $25.

A Reason for Spelling, Level D, Teacher’s edition.  355 pages. Front cover missing, some dog-eared pages, otherwise good condition.  $15

Birthing from Within, England and Horowitz.  Paperback.  Excellent condition.  $10.

Enjoy!

I was very happy to find the Learning Tree website.   Their Canadian brick-and-mortar store is in Burlington, Ontario, and I remember driving past it when we lived in Hamilton.  They ship throughout Canada, had all the items I was looking for, and reasonable shipping prices.  It was perfect!

When I placed the order, I noticed that the checkout page stated “if you have requested delivery outside of the continental US, you will incur additional shipping charges than those that appear here.”  This seemed curious, considering that the shop was supposedly Canadian, and the shipping charges and all other costs were indicated in Canadian dollars.  So I included a note in the comments box with the order inquiring about this.

I received an email reply 3 days later:

This website is made in USA and it is common to most of stores in USA. Our store is located in Canada and all merchandise will be shipped out of this location in Canada. You will be charged in Canadian dollars and shipping will be charged according to the actuals of Canada Post, which we first calculate through the interactive website of Canada Post. I can assure you that the shipping charges of $7.44 is not the exact one, it is just an approximate.

So it’s a remnant of a US-made website.  How hard would it be to mention this somewhere in the ordering process?  Or in their shipping FAQ’s?

And it’s also a somewhat unusual usage of “assure”.  Usually, you “assure” someone of something that they thought might be a negative but will actually be a positive.  In other words, it means “don’t worry.”  In this case, however, they’re “assuring” me that the shipping charges I’ve been quoted are just approximate and might change.    This is a common occurrence with online shops, but it’s an odd turn of phrase.  They might have said “I can assure you that the shipping charges are in Canadian funds and there will be no surcharges for being outside the US”.  Or they might have said “I can inform you that the shipping charges are approximate.”

As it is, I’m hardly assured of anything at all.  Because with that reply, my order was set to “status: pending.”  As the weeks went by, I realized I had not yet received my order.  Checking my account online, I see the same thing… “Order status: Pending.” So I sent them an email reply.

Why is my order still “pending”?  It was placed almost 3 weeks ago.

That was three days ago, and I’ve received no reply.

All web retailers are busy, and mistakes happen.  But this is getting ridiculous.  How hard is it to send a quick reply right away saying “thanks, we’ve received your inquiry, someone will respond soon” ?

If I do not hear back from them soon, I will cancel the order and take the extra shipping charges to order straight from RightStart.  It’s a shame too, because the Geoboard I found through Learning Tree is a nice wooden one, and RightStart only has the plastic ones.

Oh yes, she said.  She was very keen.  Normally 3 years old is kind of early to do this (kind of???) but she is keen and is very advanced with her fine-motor coordination and drawing skills.  For one thing, her pencil grip is “correct”, unlike her older brother’s!

So I printed out the first lesson page from Penny Gardner’s “Italics: Beautiful Handwriting For Children,” which teaches letters i, j, and l.  She already knows ‘i’, the trick here would be doing it with control, starting and stopping on the lines.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure if she would be ready for this, but she wanted to try it.

So I went over the instructions with her… “start at the waist line, go straight down to the base line and stop, then go back up and put the dot.  Always make sure you start at the waist line and go down.”  I demonstrated tracing the models, and then she traced them with my guidance.  Then she had to do some on her own.

The first one was perfect, all by herself!  The next one, she started at the bottom and went up.  Oh, but she noticed right away what she had done!  She smiled and said “Whoops!!!  That one was upside-down!”

Then she did the thing that made it super-cute.  Since she had drawn the line bottom-to-top instead of top-to-bottom, she put the dot below the line instead of above it, making the whole letter upside-down.  Then she laughed uproariously.

Anyway, she then proceeded to fill the whole row with beautiful i’s.  Some went well below the base line, some had slashes instead of dots, but on the whole it was very well done!  They weren’t just random, she was trying to be careful and correct.  Not at all bad for a 3-year-old!

Then she took my credit card, which happened to be on the desk, and proceeded to ‘swipe’ it along the path made by the waist and base lines.  She’s a born little shopper, I think.

Today being not-quite Valentine’s Day, here is a list some of the Greatest Not-Quite-Love Songs… those that just didn’t qualify for tomorrow’s list.

Not that these aren’t great songs.  They are.  In order to make this list, a song has to be both musically powerful and effective, and lyrically evocative and meaningful.  It’s just that these songs aren’t quite about pure, true, romantic love.

Perhaps they are about love lost, or maybe it’s obsessive love.  Whatever their flaws that kept them off tomorrow’s list, I still felt they are amazing songs that deserve recognition.   Don’t see your favourites on here?  Too bad.  These are, unabashedly and proudly, my favourites.   Feel free to post yours in the comments, though.  Click the titles to hear the songs.

One More Try – George Michael

Why the music rocks: Haunting sound, slow and simple, jazzy bass, juicy harmonies at just the right moment, vocals that float over it all yet give the punch when warranted.  An emotionally-charged performance by George Michael at his finest.

Greatest line: And teacher, there are things that I still have to learn, but the one thing I have is my pride.  So I don’t want to hold you, touch you, think that you’re mine, because there ain’t no joy for an uptown boy who just isn’t willing to try…  I’m so cold inside… maybe just one more try…

Why it’s not-quite-love: I’ll admit I almost put this one on tomorrow’s list.  But it’s just not quite “pure”.  The singer has given up on love, doesn’t believe the object of his affections will be true to him, he is dejected and defeated.  Only at the very last moment does the hope and promise of love stir his cold heart back to warmth.  It’s a very unusual turn for a pop song, which are usually consistent in expressing one thought or theme from start to finish.   Yet the darkness and sadness of the song before this moment — glorious as it may be — keeps it off tomorrow’s list.

Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinead O’Connor

Why the music rocks: Haunting sound, slow and simple, jazzy bass, juicy harmonies at just the right moment, vocals that float over it all yet give the punch when warranted.  An emotionally-charged performance by Sinead O’Connor at her finest.  Um, yeah.  Listening to One More Try immediately followed by this one, you really notice the similarities.  From the opening synth chords, to the final line of “but I’m willing to give it another try”…  Maybe that’s why I love them both so much.

Greatest line: All the flowers that you planted, mama, in the back yard, all died when you went away…

Why it’s not-quite-love: This is a song of love lost, of begging for your lover to return.  The heartbreak in this song is so intensely expressed that it’s almost physically palpable.

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel

Why the music rocks: Thick piano chords.  A slow build to a huge climax.  Cannons.  And when Garfunkel turns the melody (and the intensity) up instead of down with the last utterance of the word “bridge,” you know you’ve got a serious torch song here.   And did I mention — cannons?

Greatest line: Sail on Silver Girl, Sail on by.  Your time has come to shine, all your dreams are on their way.  See how they shine.  If you need a friend, I’m sailing right behind.

Why it’s not-quite-love: This song never actually mentions romantic love.  It is devoted friendship, unwavering support, help and comfort in your time of pain, utter devotion.  But it could be a song for a relative, a friend… not necessarily a lover.  It is certainly love, and indeed love in its very purest form… just not necessarily in a Valentine’s Day sense.

Lean on Me – Club Nouveau/Bill Withers

While Bill Withers’ original is certainly the more ‘beautiful’ version, the Club Nouveau cover from the late 80s was my first introduction to this song.  It was “our song” with my first love.  Cheesy?  Maybe.  But it’s still a great song.

Why the music rocks: Four notes going up, four notes going down.  You know the riff.  Full piano chords in the original, awesome.  And the cover version has cool synth interjections, not to mention “we be jammin, mon” and “pump it up, homeboy, just like that.”  Yeah, baby.

Greatest line: Lean on me when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on.

Why it’s not-quite-love: This is another great song that’s about the love of devoted friendship, rather than romance.  You certainly can sing it to your loved one, as my first love and I did, but it is still not, strictly speaking, a “love song.”

The Rose – Bette Midler

Oh, how I rue the day that I would ever put Bette Midler on a “best of” list, but so help me, I love this song.

Why the music rocks: The simple repetitive piano chords opening, with the subtle shifting harmonies.

Greatest line: When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long, and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong, just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows, lies the seed, that with the sun’s love, in the spring, becomes the rose.

Why it’s not-quite-love: This is another beautiful song about love, but it’s not, strictly speaking, a love song.  The context is of one person telling another (or perhaps herself) not to be afraid of loving, and that love is a beautiful thing that can grow despite pain and trouble.  But it’s not an expression of devotion from one lover to another.

A Letter to Elise – The Cure

Of course there has to be something from The Cure on any music list I make.  I waffled between this song, Disintegration, and From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea — all absolutely brilliant songs.  But I think this one fit the bill of not-quite-love song the best.

Why the music rocks: Robert’s voice, so open and honest.  The multi-layered sonic landscape.  The “toy piano” riff.  And that swelling, uprising solo break that bursts into the modulation back into the main theme, carrying you with it, the inevitability of the resolution, oh how glorious…

Greatest line: Oh Elise it doesn’t matter what you do, I know I’ll never really get inside of you, to make your eyes catch fire the way they should, the way the blue could pull me in, if they only would if they only would…  At least I’d lose this sense of sensing something else that hides away from me and you there’re worlds to part with aching looks and breaking hearts, and all the prayers your hands can make, oh I just take as much as you can throw, and then throw it all away…

Why it’s not-quite-love: This one is love that just couldn’t make it.  They keep desperately trying, they keep pretending, but the spark is gone, if it was ever even there.  Heartbreak, helplessness, longing, and regret.

All Apologies – Nirvana

Why the music rocks: A great simple riff over a pedal tone bass line, with acoustic bowed bass adding energy and impetus.  Quiet and sincere, it’s elegant grunge.

Greatest line: What else should I be?  All apologies.

Why it’s not-quite-love: Frankly, I’m not 100% sure what the song is about. Kurt’s lyrics are wonderfully strange.  I mean… aqua seafoam shame?  It’s evocative, but still mysterious.  My interpretation is that it’s a lover who has screwed up, trying to apologize for what he has done.  Maybe the screwup is that he’s not the lover he intended to be, he feels trapped in a marriage and feels shame for not living up to what he promised.  Maybe it’s something else.  Whatever the specifics, though, it’s certainly a song about shame, regret… and not pure romantic love.

You Don’t Love Me Anymore – Weird Al Yankovic

Yeah… after Simon and Garfunkel and The Cure, I’m going to close the list with Weird Al.  I told you, these are my favourites, no apologies.

Why the music rocks: Your classic acoustic folk guitar pop ballad.   It’s really quite beautiful, Al uses his pretty voice for this one.  If you didn’t pay attention to the lyrics, you could be fooled…

Greatest line: I even think it’s kind of cute the way you poison my coffee, just a little each day…

Why it’s not-quite-love: Seriously, you have to ask?  This is a parody of cheesy love/heartbreak songs.  It’s actually somewhat ironic that Al managed to turn this into one of his most beautiful and popular songs.  The juxtaposition of the insanely violent lyrics with the mellow, thoughtful music just adds to the hilarity.

Knitting in the Round Lesson 1:

Knit the outside, not the inside.

Knitting in the Round Lesson 2A:

When picking up your newly free needle, make sure you grab the right one.  From which follows:

Knitting in the Round Lesson 2B:

How to pick up and repair dropped stitches.  (Useful for all knitting as well)

And I listened to it, and I thought, “Hmm, that extra “enrichment” stuff in public schools sounds a lot like our regular day-to-day life as homeschoolers.”