The Value Books

One of my favorite childhood memories is reading with Gama.  She did the reading, of course.  I looked at the pictures.  In thinking about it now - which I often do - I realize that I learned much more than simply how to read.

Fingerprints of a younger B.  Stickers on (and ripped off) the book.

Mostly, Gama read me these "Value" books, and I highly recommend them for younger kids (K-4).  The pictures are interesting, and the stories are about historical figures who have overcome some sort of obstacle in order to be "successful."  Success is anything from believing in yourself and developing a cure for rabies (Louis Pasteur) to being determined and learning how to "see" and "hear" and "speak" by alternate means (Helen Keller).

These books always begin with the historical figure's childhood, which makes it fun and easy to relate to as a kid, and they end with a printed biography of the person's life, which could be used if the kiddo is writing a paper for school, etc.

I use these books with a couple of kiddos that I'm tutoring, because the stories are simple and engaging enough to get their attention, and make them want to know what will happen next, but the words and concepts are complex enough to make them really work on decoding, predicting, and inferring meaning.  Also, the books don't sugarcoat bad things.  They include details about abuse to slaves, and people stealing and saying cruel things to each other.  They do this in a cartoon-y way, to soften the blow for a young audience, but they include enough content to allow for conversations about why that is wrong and how much it would hurt to go through something like that, etc.

Plus, they're just fun!  Kids can't believe they're actually about real people who did these real things.

When Gama read these books to me, I learned that obstacles are a part of each person's life.  Though they are difficult, they can be overcome.  I learned what is involved in being a good person - kindness, compassion, intelligence, adventure, determination, courage.  I learned how to read a book - that we can sit down and read half of it, then get up to put the clothes into the dryer, run a couple of errands, and come home to finish the rest of it.  I learned that a book can be picked up and put down and picked up again later.  I learned that books are fun, and some books have boring parts (and that's ok!), and we can read books for entertainment, and for learning, and for company.  These lessons are so ingrained in my literacy that I never even think about them and actually had to pick them apart for this post.

I don't know if these books are available anymore?  All I know is that I treasure mine!

Other recommendations for kids' books?

On Working With Kids (Of All Ages)

Remember last semester when I came to this grand revelation that I actually - gasp - like working with kids?  Well, it turns out that kids ages 5-19 are pretty much the same.  Yeah, there are some differences here and there when it comes to hormones and attitudes, but when it comes to most things?  On a grand scale?  Not as many differences as you might think.

Here are a few of the notable ones I have discovered lately:

Young Kids:
*  What is it with girls and Frozen?  Like moths to a flame, I tell you.  I've never even seen the movie and I know almost all the words to "Let It Go."

*  The Countdown works as a disciplinary measure.  Although I'm not sure how I feel about it as a parenting technique, or even as a classroom technique, when I'm in dire straits I use it and it works.  There is some sort of behavioral magic that happens when I say 5...4...3...

*  It's a really big deal if the food on your tray touches the other food and it's not supposed to.  Like, a really big deal.

*  The other day I was on recess duty and two of the girls I work with ran up to me, panting, and handed me some sweaty, half dead dandelions they picked for me as a gift.  They turned to another tutor and gave her a discarded, dirty water bottle.  So, you know, it's not all bad.

*  When doing a class activity/game as a lesson, everyone plays along!  No matter what!

Quit asking stupid questions

Older Kids:

*  First of all, it's a sad state of affairs that I'm old enough to consider 18-year olds "kids," but alas.

*  When doing a class activity/game as a lesson, no one plays along!  No matter what!

*  May they each have to teach students at some point.  In purgatory or something.  That's all I'm sayin.

*  There is most definitely such a thing as a stupid question.

*  Today I overheard the following conversation - and I'm so not making this up - before class started:

"I hear that Matt and Kim are Facebook official.  Like, she's gonna go visit him at college and everything."

"Yeah?  I dunno.  I tweeted Jim and he tweeted me back.  And I'm like, it's my birthday.  And he's like, I dunno, a lot has changed?  But then everything's the same?  So, you know."

"Yeah.  I know."

*  There is no way to adequately clarify a paper assignment.  No matter what, students will perceive it as one of the world's unsolvable mysteries and will ask at least 580 questions - a good 578 of which are actually specified on their assignment sheet, which, if you just stumbled into my classroom and overheard the questions, you would think was written in Swahili.

*  I get called "Miss."  Just..."Miss."  Their voices fade away like they don't know what to say next.  As if my entire name is Miss...short for Missy or Melissa.  My name is a far cry from that, so I have absolutely no idea what's going on.

In other news, I can breathe and my throat is slowly (think snail doing government work), ever so slowly mending.  So, there's that.

Don't Poke the Dragon

Last night I devised a game plan to help me sleep, for the first time in DAYZ.  It will heretofore be known as "Don't Poke the Dragon."

I took the hottest shower known to man, cranked up the heating pad under the covers on the couch (where I have spent the last few nights so G could sleep.  I don't care about keeping Lucy awake.), propped myself up on 17 pillows (drainage issues), double fisted the cough drops, got into just the right position, and then refused to move.  I made myself breathe as regularly as possible so I wouldn't trigger a cough, and I just stayed there.  Staring at the ceiling.  In the dark.  Listening to Lucy fram around in her cage.

And the next thing I knew, it was NINE THIRTY THIS MORNING.  Miracle of miracles!

I woke up in the exact same position!

I slept with the quilt over my face so it would keep the air warm.  I was doing everything I could to keep from irritating my throat or coughing.  I'm sure I was half drugged by inhaling my own CO2 but whatever!  It worked!

This is what I call Rabbit Solidarity.  She lays around in support of me.  That's what I tell myself.

The only thing that sounds good is soup from Panera.  So I've been eating it (along with the equivalent of 5 loaves of bread) for every meal.  No, I didn't really eat all this bread.  Just most of it.  :)

I managed to actually prepare for my classes and do my homework and get back to tutoring today!  I ended up cancelling all my tutoring sessions last week because they fell on the same night and I couldn't even talk.  I even made a grocery run, a rabbit supply run, and a research topic recon run (long story) tonight!  It feels so good to move around and to b-r-e-a-t-h-e.

As BFJ says, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything.  Amen to that.

I'm in my pj's, leaning on the heating pad and eyeing our next Lit Society Book.  I'll pay you $1,000 if you'll write my theory paper for me so that I can relax.  Just come on over, the door's open.

(Way) Under the Weather and a Race for Uganda (via Columbine)

To say that I'm sick would be an understatement.  Starting very early Wednesday, I somehow came down with the mother of all sinus infections.  I can't hear anything because my ears are all stopped up.  I am practically married to Sudafed because it's the only thing that keeps my cheekbones from waging war on my teeth.  My throat feels like it is stuffed with barbed wire, and I haven't slept in about 80 years.  Because I can't breathe.  Because I'm all stuffed up.

I do not feel like doing homework.  Or preparing for classes.  This is quite unfortunate.

I'm starting to feel the teensiest bit better today and decided to go ahead and walk a 5K that M-Dawg and I had signed up for a couple of weeks ago.  It's to benefit missions work in Uganda and I couldn't pass up an opportunity that involves Africa.  I realize that Uganda is way different than most (not all) the places we visited, but I would so drop everything and go if given the chance.

I had to cancel plans with peeps last night and the only thing that kept me from it tonight is that I feel just as crappy sitting around the house and ignoring my homework as I would schlepping around a park, so I might as well get outside.

On the verge of death.  But dying outside is preferable to dying inside, so...

The event was in a park next to Columbine High School - as in the shooting in 1999.  Part of our route went past the memorial, so we took a detour and looked around.  Considering the horror of that event in this quiet Colorado town, the memorial was beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing.

The design fit in so well with the CO landscape and community.

I'll just skip over the severity of that event.

This "race" was supposed to be part of my training for that &(#$%* half marathon in October.  Dang it if I haven't exercised in about a week because I've been finalizing my will and making sure nothing goes to Lucy.  The thought of running makes me want to give up the ghost.

Here's hoping all three introverts get some sleep tonight.

About Those Goals

Can you believe we're in the last quarter of 2014?  Although the next few months are my favorite season(s), they signal the twilight of yet another year.  The older I get, the faster this train moves, I tell you.  And yet I still have freak out dreams about failing band in high school, which I attribute to my current grad school stresses.  **sigh**

So, where are you on goal accomplishment for the year?  I have to say, it's been a big one for some of my peeps (new babies, new houses, big moves).  I'm proud to say that even though my overarching goal for 2014 was simply to survive, I have managed to stretch myself in the process.  When life gets stressful - and, let's face it, that's like 99.9% of the time - I can get tunnel vision and focus solely on the work that needs to be done instead of the life that needs to be lived.  Considering how crazy this year has been for me, these are some examples of seeing beyond the tunnel!

A few goals under my belt this year:

Girlz Weekend Part 1

Supper Club

Literary Society

Home Improvement - baby steps are still steps!

Vacation

Being active and enjoying where we live

Education-related jobs!  Success!

Hanging with friends!

K-8 friends

Unexpected good times with far-away friends

Regular alcohol good times with close by friends

Girlz Weekend Part Deux

Although there is much room for progress (!) I am happy that I have been able to work toward managing our finances, our home improvement, my diet and exercise, and generally keeping my head on straight and remembering who I am and what I like when life gets blurry around the edges.

The remaining months of the year are full of goals as well, so in many ways the best is yet to come!

How are you doing with goals?

Me Before You

Last month was fiction for the ol' Lit Society and we chose Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Full disclosure: This is a romance novel, which is usually not my cup of tea, but I had heard so many good things about it that we thought it was worth a try.  And it was!  It's not overly mushy (i.e. "creamy breast novel" that you find in the grocery store) but it certainly revolves solely around a romantic relationship formed out of rather extreme circumstances.

Will Trainer is a successful businessman slash world traveler slash adventurer slash playboy who has it all.  One morning as he walks to work, he is hit by a motorcycle and becomes paralyzed from the chest down.  Our story begins two years later when he is living in a country estate with his parents, and they decide to hire a local 20-something girl, Lou, to be his caretaker. 

A girl who has no worldly experience or exposure to speak of suddenly finds herself looking for ways to motivate someone who has seen and done it all.  Will she succeed?  Will a relationship that never would have happened apart from tragedy be strong enough to last?

Read it to find out! 

Dinosaurs

I don't know about you, but when I think of celebrating Labor Day, fossils and dinosaur tracks immediately come to mind.  No?  That's just me?

A few miles down the road from Red Rocks is an area called Dinosaur Ridge.  According to all the scientists everywhere, Colorado and much of the Mid-West used to be under an ocean for like ever, which created nice squishy ground for dinosaur tracks and fossils to get stuck in.  That's the extent of my knowledge.

There is a trail that winds through the tracks for about a mile or so (it's free!).  It is really incredible!  I've never seen anything like this up close (except for museums) and now I'm motivated to see other dinosaur stuff around CO.  Road trip, anyone?

NBD.  Just a selfie with DINO TRACKS in the background.

Classic Colorado

Red Rocks Theater, from a distance.

No outing would be complete without a trip to Sonic, obvs.

Ok, time to bake pumpkin bread and do homework.  In that order.

Happy Labor Day, peeps!