What happened after the After School Special?

If you are dyslexic, your eyes work fine, your brain works fine, but there is a little short circuit in the wire that goes between the eye and the brain. Reading is not a fluid process. --Bruce Jenner

As you all know, I work at a library.  I'm an avid reader.  I LOVE to read, so this job is a perfect fit for me.  Since I figured out how the reading process worked in 1st grade, I've been reading.  I love to help people find books.  I love turning people on to the joys of reading.  I love my role in turning non-readers into readers.

Dyslexia affects 1 in five people.  That's a lot.  I'm not sure why I haven't heard more about it in recent years.  When I was a kid, there was the after school special featuring the Phoenix brothers where one of them struggled with dyslexia and waited for it's diagnosis.  I knew a few kids with dyslexia.  Of course, it's all pretty vague now; but it seems like they got help in school.

I have a friend whose daughter has been diagnosed with dyslexia in the past year.  Marianne is passionate about education.  With a degree in elementary education and a passion for reading you would think her kids would not face any difficulties in school.  Wrong.  Her daughter had struggled for years with undiagnosed dyslexia.  Finally, in 4th grade her teacher felt that there might be a learning disability-- maybe dyslexia. With a little research, Marianne found that Megan had many of the classic symptoms of dyslexia.  And the road to diagnosis began.


As things are now, there really aren't any resources available in the school for dealing with dyslexia.  We all understand the lack of funding available, and it's become much less expensive to get these children onto ADHD medication than to take an actual look at where their problems with learning may be coming from.  It's a shame; and it needs to be brought back to attention.  We had the After School Special about dyslexia, but how much has it been talked about in the past few years?  We all know about ADD/ADHD, but we seem to have forgotten all about dyslexia.  Where's the mass media attention for that?

Here's what I found on the Minnesota Department of Education website:

The symptoms of dyslexia do not occur either from a lack of intelligence or from lack of desire to learn, but researchers have not yet identified the exact causes. As is the case for most disorders, there is a continuum of the effects of the disorder ranging from mild to severe. In order for a child with a diagnosis of dyslexia to be eligible for special education services, a school evaluation team, including the parents, must make a determination that the disability severely impacts school performance, and the student must meet the eligibility criteria found in MN Rule 3525.1341. A child with a diagnosis of dyslexia may, in this case, be eligible for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Acts (IDEA) 1997 and Minnesota Rule 3525.1341.

and a little further on:

Please note: A diagnosis of "dyslexia" does not automatically mean eligibility for special education.  The determination of eligibility for special education is a team process and includes parents (Please refer to the chart entitled, "Special Education Process and Dyslexia").

Wow, hats off to anyone dealing with a learning disability.  There are a lot of hoops to jump through in order to get help in school.  If your child is dyslexic, they have probably come up with some very creative ways to compensate for it.  Even if your child DOES qualify for special education, the teachers are often not trained in the specific type of instruction that the dyslexic student needs. 

If you're in the Grand Rapids, Minnesota area and would like to learn more about dyslexia, there is a FREE dyslexia presentation with Susan Barton on Sunday, September 25th, from 2:00 to 5:00 at the Sawmill Inn.  Susan Barton is trained in seven different Orton-Gillingham based programs and teaches several graduate-level courses through the University of San Diego.  This program is sponsored by Great Minds Tutoring Service of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.  Click here to sign up.  I hope that anyone and everyone who works with children or has children in their life will find time to attend this seminar.

"My learning disabilities pushed me to discover talents that I wasn't aware of having.  It has also led me to develop products to help others who struggled through school as I did." ~~ Reyn Geyer, (inventor of Nerf balls & Twister, among other things)

TV will destroy your brain

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.
-Ray Bradbury

Uh oh.  SpongeBob rots your brain.  Every news program I've seen in the past 24 hours has to mention the "SpongeBob study" that shows that 9 minutes of fast-paced television for kids under the age of four leads to problems with self-control and learning.  Of course, Spongebob creators say that the big porous dimwit is not meant for children under the age of six.  I suppose that if any of the other fast-paced shows had been singled out, they'd say the same thing.

Most everyone knows that we need to limit the amount of screen time our children get, and particularly those children under the age of four.  Children under the age of two shouldn't even watch TV.  My oldest child was probably around 7 before she became familiar with SpongeBob.  If my eldest was 7, my middle child was 5, and my youngest has never known a world that didn't include SpongeBob.  She's four.  Guess it's too late for that study to help me change my parenting ways; the damage has already been done.

After hearing about this study, did anyone else recall the Max Headroom episode where people were exploding because of watching fast-paced TV?  Granted, that was 1987--and it wasn't a show that EVERYONE watched.  I was only 14, but that episode apparently made a lasting impression on me.  My guess is that one of the authors of this study also saw that episode.   In the episode, fast-paced commercials caused death.  Twenty-four years later, we find out that fast-paced television causes problems in young children.  Granted, it's just one study of just 60 kids who were just four years old.   

 

So, I suppose we should all err on the side of caution and pay attention to what our kids are watching.  Just in case there's more to that Max Headroom "Blipverts" episode than we would have imagined. 

So, how do I undo the damage already done on my child?  No TV for the next year.  Lots of flashcards.  We're going to work on her self control.  Okay, I'm not really going to do any of that.  I'll do my best to prevent her from feasting on a steady diet of SpongeBob.  We'll read books.  We'll talk.  We'll continue to do pretty much all of the stuff we're already doing.  Does she have great self control?  NO.  She's four and she's the baby of the family, used to getting her own way.  Does it have anything to do with the fast-paced shows that are on television when her sisters get home from school?  Maybe.  Probably.  Am I going to becoming a strict TV-patrolling parent?  Sorry, but no.   She's often in the same room as her sisters while they're watching TV, but much of the time she's doing other things.  She can be found coloring, looking at books, or playing with one toy or another while they're watching something she doesn't really care about. 

Unfortunately, SpongeBob is hilarious.  He's fast-paced and funny and she already knows and loves him.   I suppose I should bring a couple of SpongeBob books home from the library.  The same lovable character, but put at a slower pace.  Of course, now that I have two kids who will read to the third, I wouldn't even have to read them to her!  Win, win!  She's not rotting her brain, and the other girls improve their reading skills!

We shall not forget, at least not yet.

People may correctly remember the events of twenty years ago (a remarkable feat), but who remembers his fears, his disgusts, his tone of voice? It is like trying to bring back the weather of that time.
-Martha Gellhorn

It's not a date which will live in infamy; that title belongs to December 7th, 1941 and the attack on Pearl Harbor.  September 11th, 2001 is the current generation's date that will live in infamy.  We Will Not Forget is the motto for the attack.  I remember where I was, the sun pouring through the curtains in my bedroom as I lay next to my sweetly sleeping baby.  I remember the news that shattered my peaceful morning.  I remember the person I talked to, and the shocking disbelief that was on every TV channel.  I was fortunate to have that new-mother-fogginess to dull the panic and fear. 


Prior to 9/11 Americans kind of lived like teenagers who have no sense of their own mortality.  It was a shock to find that we were not invincible.  By 2001, the World Wars were but a memory of some chapters in history class.  We hadn't lived it.  The Korean War was something we had experienced on TV with the show M*A*S*H.  The Vietnam war was bit fresher on our minds, but us gen-Xers were babies and many of us weren't born yet when our fathers were shipped off to the other side of the world.  It had been ten years since the Gulf War.  All of these events took place elsewhere.  We hadn't had that kind of in-your-face destruction on our own turf.  Sure, the World Trade Center had been the victim of a car bomb in 1993, and we had lived through the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.  We should have known we weren't invulnerable.  But, like teenagers who have seen their friends succumb to tragedy, we forgot.  Things like that can't happen to us, they happen to other people, not us. 


So, now we're up to the 10 year anniversary of the "day we will never forget".  What exactly are we supposed to remember?  Our panic?  Our fear?  The way we all went down and donated blood for those hoped-for survivors?  The shock that there weren't any?  The suspicion we suddenly felt for anyone from the Middle East?  The anger that something like this had happened in our country?  The call out for revenge? 


We want to remember the people who died: the people working in the buildings that fell and the emergency personnel who were trying to get everyone to safety.  I didn't know any of those people.  What I remember are the memorials scattered around the site when I went there the following June:  the pictures of missing loved ones and the tokens of support sent from around the country all spread out along the fence at St. Paul's Chapel.

And We Shall Not Forget.  At least those of us who lived through it won't forget it.  Not exactly, anyway.  We'll remember some things about it and as we go on with our lives we'll lose a little of it to make room in our brains for other things.  Another ten years down the road, there will be even more people who don't remember it except as a history lesson.  It will just be another thing that they've heard about. 

So how do we "Not Forget"?  I suppose the same way we haven't forgotten about WWII.  Lots of books and movies about the people who lived through it.  To hear someone else's story is to bring a little bit of it into your own consciousness.  There will be all kinds of 9/11 anniversary shows on television over the next week.  But, my brain absorbs the stuff I read better than the stuff I sit back and watch on a screen.  Should my children ask about what happened that day, I will tell them my memories of the day, but they will be very different than a lot of other people's memories.  I was in the new-parent-fog, remember? 

I don't expect my children to forget, I expect them to not remember.  We've been to the site.  We've seen the new construction and the memorials to that day in 2001.  We've been to Battery Park and seen The Sphere that was originally in the courtyard between the two towers.  It doesn't mean much to them right now, but they're all still pretty young.  In the future, it will be a piece of history for them. 

Much as "That date which will live in infamy" is just a piece of history to me.  

Fighting terrorism is like being a goalkeeper. You can make a hundred brilliant saves but the only shot that people remember is the one that gets past you.
-Paul Wilkinson

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"

"Back to school", those three little words every mother longs to hear in August.

And mothers across the country give a big sigh of relief.  Or maybe that's just me.  I remember those chilly dew laden mornings of September when I had to wait for the bus to come and take me off to the first day of a new school year.  The squeaky clean school suddenly coming back to life after a rejuvenating summer.  New pencils, new crayons, new notebooks, and the fresh smell of minds ready to learn something new. 

Okay, maybe that is just an idyllic version of my childhood.  The reality was a bit more of pressing the snooze button until you barely had time to dress and eat breakfast before running out the door to catch the bus.  The dread of homework.  Beautiful fall days with your body inside the classroom while your mind wandered around outside.  Day after day of peanut butter or pressed meat sandwiches, with a slightly bruised apple for dessert.  Falling asleep on the bus on the way home from school.  Having to go to bed early so that you could get up early again the next morning and start the cycle yet once more. 

I didn't love school, I didn't hate school.  I was good at some things and bad at others. (Can you say physical education?  I can't even say it without spraining something.)  I had friends, and people I didn't particularly care for.  I was always much happier reading something from the library than anything I was supposed to be reading for school.  Hunh, imagine that.  In high school, I could walk the halls from one class to another while reading.  This sometimes included a set of stairs.  Yep, I think I ended up exactly where I should be.

Everyone has their own memories of school starting.  Good or bad, we've all got them.  I'm glad my kids are so excited to start school.  I don't remember having that same excitement after kindergarten when getting to ride the bus was such a huge event.  I wish all kids could be as excited about school as my kids are.  But, I know many of them aren't.  For many, it's more than just missing out on those sunny September days.  You hear more and more about toxic schools, bullying, lack of funding, teaching to the tests, and mounting pressure to excel: it's a wonder kids can think of school as a happy place with all the bad press out there.   Of course, kids feed off of their parents worries and fears.  Maybe that's why my kids are so excited.  I don't have any worries or fears when it comes to sending them off to school.  I don't expect them to have insurmountable problems, and they don't.  Little problems, yes.  Insurmountable, no.  But we've got time yet, I've got kids in school for the next 14 years. 

So; next Tuesday morning, I'll head out to the bus stop for the first and last time of the school year.  Cup of coffee in one hand, camera in the other.  As the bus pulls away I'll skip back to the house with a big smile on my face and a "Hip, Hip, Hooray, School Begins Today!"

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~Lily Tomlin as "Edith Ann"

Bittersweet On A Stick

It's time for the Great Minnesota Get Together.  The Minnesota State Fair.  We go every year, and it's always a nice farewell to summer.  The State Fair means summer is pretty much over, and fall is just around the corner.  Say good-bye to the lazy hot humid days and hello to the crisp early mornings at the bus stop.  But first one last summer-fun event!

 For a couple weeks the kids have been planning the rides they'll ride and the food they'll eat.  Everyone seems to have their favorites.  But the #1 must-have is the ice cream from the Dairy building. Or the stuffed olives on a stick. Or the corn on the cob. Or the bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies, or. . .

cheese curds.  Yep, definitely the cheese curds.  That's the must have.  Although everything else mentioned above is a must have.  So, I guess we've got a few favorites.  We always do a little research before we go to see what is new at the fair, or the stuff we haven't tried yet.  I've heard good things about the bacon on a stick and it's on our list this year.  One new food we'll be trying is the Minneapple Pie--apple pie on a stick.  Since it's by the Dairy Building's must-have ice cream, it's kind of a no-brainer.  That, and I do love pie.  We're going on Monday, so we may hear about things to add to the list. 


It's a lot of walking.  Good thing, with the list of must have foods that are fried.  My mom always wears her pedometer when they go.  I'm thinking I might wear mine this year.  If I can find it.  I probably should have started my training already.  I know we walk miles and miles, but I never feel too sore the next day.  I suppose that's because it isn't marathon walking but leisurely strolling with lots of stops to look at exhibits and pick up your next fried delicacy on a stick.

The more I look at pictures, the more excited I am.  WCCO has a whole hour at the fair at 4:00 pm.  If I weren't here at work at that time, I'd be home watching it. 


There are a few people we know that are going the same day we are.  There are probably a few people we know that we'll run into unexpectedly.  It's always kind of fun to see people you know amidst the thousands of people at the fair.  I come from a very large extended family, and have run into relatives in the past.  One year we ran into the woman who delivers the newspapers in town.  Seems that when we meet other people we know, the conversation is about what we've seen and what we've eaten.  I think I should probably bring along a little notebook to keep track of all the food we digest over the course of the day.  We go every year, so I could use it over and over.  Then maybe we'd have a better idea who got to experience the fried fruit on a stick whatever year that was.


And the rides.  The kids love them.  I like it when I have to ride along with one of them.  Rides are much more fun with a kid who is excited.  Bumper boats, tilt-a-whirl, Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, "that thing that Mom and I went on last year", it'll be interesting to see which rides they pick.  They usually only get two rides each.  It's not like those tickets are free. 


The girls have been discussing all there is to see.  They like walking through the Agriculture-Horticulture building and seeing all the sights in there.  Flower arrangements, seed art, scarecrows, and the bee exhibit.  You can also get a cool, crisp apple, apple juice or apple popsicle.  (Food is a major part of the day, obviously.)  The kids enjoy walking through the barns.  Pet the biggest pig, see them milking the cows, watch them shearing sheep.  A couple years ago our daughter Maeve; then two, had the most fun in the poultry barn.  I love walking through that barn, it reminds me of my chicken loving Great Grandma Mamie.  (The summer before she died, she and I perused a chicken catalog and she would exclaim over the various breeds--how crazy some of them looked.)  I may not want to raise chickens of my own, but they're fun to look at.

The DNR building, and their big pond of native fish is always a hit.  They usually have some sort of litter sculpture that has look and find activity page to go along with it.  We sit down to watch the news live in the evening.  The Creative Activities & Annex is right up there by Machinery Hill.  I don't care much to look at tractors, and my husband doesn't care much to look at what people have knit, sewn, or crafted.  Divide and conquer.  We let the kids go with whoever they want to go with.  I used to get to go by myself, but the kids are older now and much less interested in the farm machinery than they used to be.  We go through the 4-H building and see what some talented kids are showcasing.  I go through the Fine Arts building while the rest of the family sees something on the stage at Baldwin Park, although this year I may have a few kids along with me.  By this time we're getting to the end of the day, and everyone is getting tired.  It's a good time to sit down for awhile. 

On our way out, we swing by Sweet Martha's Cookies and pick up a bucket of cookies, then we head over to all the milk you can drink for $1.00--talk about divine.  Walk back to the car, and these weary travelers head home. 

Summer is about over, but it goes out with one of the highlights of the season.  I couldn't possibly hit all of them with this blog post, there's so much to see (and eat).  We look forward to going, and at the same time regret that those slow sultry days of summer are coming to a close. 

Bittersweet on a stick, indeed.

housework vs. a good book

There's nothing to match curling up with a good book when there's a repair job to be done around the house. ~Joe Ryan

I wish I liked cleaning better than I do.  I hate housework.  I love a clean home, I just don't want to be the one to do it.  Unfortunately, working off of library wages means I can't afford a maid.  I only work a couple days a week anyway, so it's not like I don't have time to clean my house, I'd just rather do other things.  With kids and their accessories (toys, books, crayons, etc.) living in my house, it means mopping the floor is a bit more involved.  Right, right; I've heard it before, eventually the children move away and you miss their junk scattered all over the house.  I look forward to that day.  I may regret saying that in a few years, but for now. . .


I got an Ipod for Christmas.  I haven't used it for much other than Sudoku, to be perfectly honest.  I have some of my CDs (okay, 1/2 of them are kids music) downloaded to it, but I rarely listen to it.  Last week I finally downloaded a book that I really wanted to listen to.  (Okay, it was a book club book that I didn't want to read while trying to finish Pillars of the Earth.)  I finally set myself up to listen to it yesterday.  Oh My Stars, by Lorna Landvik was the book.  I had read it several years ago, but really didn't remember much about it.  Yes, I could have read it a lot faster than it was read to me, but I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much done. 


The master bath is now spic and span, like it hasn't been for months.  I sorted through some bins of clothing, and found some stuff to pass along to other girls in the family.  The basement shows remarkable improvement.  You can actually walk from the bottom of the stairs to the ironing board without traversing an obstacle course.  The kitchen got cleaned.  (And it was well before midnight!!)   I don't think I even thought about how much I hate cleaning while I was doing it.  Hunh.  Who knew I'd be able to get so much done while being entertained.  All right, our library board president has been doing this for years--I don't know why I didn't listen to her words of wisdom sooner.


Listening to a book is a bit different than reading it for yourself.  I didn't have to pause every time I came across the leading man's name to think about how it sounded.  Kjel: pause before you get to it, pronounce it SHELL and move on.  Someone at book club mentioned they had to do that, and I didn't.  Of course, I didn't completely finish listening.  I have now spent some time going back and forth between listening and reading, and have found that I have to do the same thing when I come across that name while reading.   The way people talk isn't left up to your interpretation, but someone else's.  You know that when Berit asks her mother, "Why don't I help you out in here?" it's because she's been lovingly asked to leave the room and she's trying to save face.  Many years ago, I listened to Frank McCourt reading his book Angela's Ashes.  I thought at the time that the book would be awfully depressing, but listening to the author read his own story shed humor on it, where you might not have read it in the printed word.  There's a different feel listening to someone reading a book than reading it yourself.  Not bad, just different.


So, I'm a convert.  I will now regularly download books and clean my house.  Probably.

If the shelves are dusty and the pots don't shine,

it's because I have better things to do with my time.

~Author Unknown

Don't mention the book?

In literature, as in love, we are astonished at the choice made by other people.
-Andre Maurois

If you're a Facebook junkie; like me, you may have seen the postings for National Book Week.  Here are the directions:


It's National Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you. Go to page 56. Copy the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the book. Post these rules as part of your status.

Nuts, you can't mention the book??  What kind of Book Week is that?  How am I supposed to get an idea for what might be a good read?  How does it help me not to know the name of the book you're quoting?  How does it celebrate reading to not give the name of the book you've got closest to you?  Does the author get any credit for the line he/she wrote?  I object. 


No, this book week isn't in any way affiliated with the American Library Association.  It's a Facebook thing.  The ALA has Banned Books Week from September 24th-October 1st this year.  They have Teen Read Week from October 16th-22nd.  National Library Week is April 8th-14th, 2012.  Library Card Sign-Up month is September (next month!!).


I wonder where this Book Week came from.  I can't figure it out.  Who thought of it?  Why?  What was the intent?  Why page 56?  Why the 5th complete sentence?  Why not page 43, and the 8th complete sentence?  Why not just give the title of the book that's closest to you and answer whether you're reading it, or if it's just been hanging around.  How about, pick up the book closest to you and tell us what that book means to you.  (i.e. It's just some fluff to help me forget about life, I'm hoping to learn something from this book, I only have kid's books next to me--Sandra Boynton's board books aren't numbered.)


So, I typed "national book week" into the search area of Facebook.  It found a few different pages.  The only one that had any information beyond the directions pointed me to The Children's Book Council of Australia.  This year's Children's Book Week marks the 66th annual event.  And, it's this year: August 20th-August 26th.  Hmmmm.  The theme is One World, Many Stories.  That sounds a bit familiar.  So, I'm still not sure how Facebook got a National Book Week from Australia, a couple weeks early.  Ahhhh, but people are sheep. 


I guess I'm a bit of a rule breaker.  The last time this thing came around (and I questioned it this time mainly because it felt like it hadn't been that long since I had done it.) I just searched through my profile, and found that I did this on February 24th, 2011.  Then, the directions were:

Game rules: Grab the book closest to you right now. Open to page 56 and choose the 5th sentence. Publish it as your status and write the rules as a comment. Don't choose the book you like the most or think will make you look cool, just the ...closest.

Okay, so in February it was just a game.  Now it's an event.  Same page, same sentence.  I didn't pick the closest then, which was a 1929 copy of The Complete Home Landscape by Arthur Jennings but instead picked the book I was currently reading.  And of course, I let all my friends know the name of the book and the author.  (That wasn't verboten in February.) 


I want everyone to mention the book.  I also want them to mention the author.  I think the author should get some credit.  I think I should be able to read the book you're reading if page 56, sentence 5 appeals to me.  Pick whatever book you want.  Search through all of your close books to find the best fifth sentence on page 56.

Of all the books I have close to me, the best fifth sentence on page 56 comes from the book Cabins of Minnesota by Bill Holm with photographs by Doug Ohman. 


"The north wind howled in through the rattly windows, and honey from the bees trapped in the walls oozed out between loose cracks."


Now there's a sentence that makes you want to read the rest of the book.  Page 56, sentence 5 should make you want to read sentence 6, 7, 8, and beyond. So, go. Go beyond. Break the rules, mention the book.


"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.  ~François Mauriac

That book will build some muscle.

It is necessary to relax your muscles when you can. Relaxing your brain is fatal.
Stirling Moss


I brought three books with me on vacation.  I left the heaviest one for last.  I suppose I was kind of hoping I wouldn't get to it, and could put off reading it for awhile longer.  And by "for awhile longer", I mean until I had worked up some bigger arm muscles.  The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is the heaviest book I've ever read.  Or at least it feels like it is.

So, I thought I'd take a little look back on the heavy tomes I've read in the past.  And here they are starting with the shortest of the long books that I remember:

Children of the Earth Series by Jean Auel: the first five books I read average in at 584 pages.  The Clan of the Cave Bear (#1) was the shortest at 495 pages.  Each continuing book got longer.  I really enjoyed the books.  I haven't read the latest in the series which just came out this summer, but eventually. . .I might.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy had considerably less pages than I remembered.  Only 736, but it felt like it must have been thousands.  I read a complete and unabridged version.  It was brutal.  And, I was reading it for my own pleasure (of which there was very little.)  But, I got through it.  Others may love this book, but I didn't.  Maybe the abridged version is better.  I've got Tolstoy's War and Peace in my "to read" pile, here's hoping that's better.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon averaged 902 pages with the 5 books I read in the series.  Action/adventure/romance/and a smidgy bit of sci-fi with the main character traveling back in time via Stonehenge.  (Or maybe not--but for me, time travel=science fiction.)  For as long as these books are, they didn't take long to read.  Maybe because I didn't get anything else done until I was finished with them.  Lots of reading into the wee hours with them.  If you want an escape book, check them out.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: this book weighs in at over 3lbs.  It's not the longest book I've ever read at 973 pages, just the heaviest.  Pretty much everyone who has ever read it places it in on their favorites list.  I don't know why I was so hesitant to start.  Maybe because it's so darn heavy.  Not exactly light reading.  Literally or figuratively.  I'm all of 144 pages into it, and I can see that tonight is going to be another late night of reading, just like last night, and probably the next few nights. It sucks you right in at the begining, and I'm glad it's going to take awhile to let go.

Maia by Richard Adams was the first over 1000 page book I ever read.  1062 pages that I tore through in less than a week.  I was in my late teens and had finished Watership Down by the same author and moved on to some of his other books.  Maia may not be the book for your average teen reader.  For one thing, it's about a concubine.  Yeah, I didn't know what a concubine was until I got into the book.  If you don't know either, pull up the dictionary.  I read it more than once.  And thinking back on it now, I'd like to read it again.  Maybe once winter starts to set in.

And the longest book I ever read:  drum roll:  Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo gets top honor with 1408 pages.  About the woman who helps Lewis and Clark; and what happens before, during, and after that expedition.  A great read.  If you like historical fiction, this would be the book for you. 


And those are the books that first came to mind.  I suppose it's more of a list of best and worst. (Anna Karenina being the only worst on the list.)  I took a stroll around the library and came up with a few other long books that I've read.  But they were neither super great nor super bad--so I'm not going to change my list. 

Like age, number of pages is just a number.  There may be a lot of them, but that's doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the book, or how much you'll enjoy it.  Only one way to find out.  Jump in and read for awhile.  In this modern era of instant gratification, it's a bit off putting to think about reading a lengthy book.  At least it is for me, but maybe I'm just out of practice.  This book is a nice reminder of how good it is to soak in a storyline for an extended length of time.   Maybe I won't be so hesitant to start the next big book. 

I know there are other long books I haven't read yet and want to read.  The last three Harry Potter books, Lonesome Dove, War and Peace, Gone with the Wind, and of course--World Without End by Ken Follett.  But first I need to finish The Pillars of the Earth.  I think I'll work on that right now!

Want to see slides from our vacation??

Sometimes the best walks are the ones you didn't plan on taking.  

Miner's Falls, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

Learning something on our walk, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

We took a road trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Our first day was a travel day, followed by a day touring from Munising to Grand Marais.  A lot of walks: waterfalls, dunes, painted rocks.  We were tired and hungry for supper when we stopped at Sable Falls (which wasn't on our agenda).  But, the falls were only 500 feet from the parking lot so it didn't seem like more than we could handle.  Some members of our family are more adventurous than others, and we couldn't stop ourselves from continuing down the trail.  The trail ended .6 miles from the parking lot at Lake Superior.  Sand dunes on the left, forested shoreline on the right, and smooth, water-worn rocks on the beach in front of us.  The river that made Sable Falls forms a bit of a pool before emptying into the big lake.  A gorgeous encore for our day of exploring.

Sable Falls, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

Lake Superior, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

The drive from home to Munising is pretty long.  The drive from Munising to Sault Ste. Marie was a shorter trip, but was an all day affair with the stops mentioned above.  We saw the Soo Locks and even got to see a ship travel through them before getting ice cream cones and heading back out on the road.  The drive to Cheboygan ended up being longer than expected with the advent of a flat tire.  Oh well, at least everyone but the driver had something good to read.

Our family takes road trips without a portable DVD player.  We figure they watch enough TV at home and that there's a greater likely-hood of the kids noticing the scenery if their eyes aren't glued to a screen.    Before vacations, I check the "for sale" pile at our local libraries and pick up a few new to us books for the girls to read.  Sure, they're discards; so they might not be what is currently popular (and with our small libraries, currently means in the past 20 years) but that doesn't mean they're bad books.  My seven-year-old never would have met Mrs. Pickerell if it weren't for library discards.

While my husband got new tires, the girls and I walked around downtown Cheboygan.  Lots of cute little shops that we didn't enter.  One little bookstore where we made ourselves at home.  By this time in our travels, our 10-year-old had already finished 4 books and only had one left.  (I knew I should have packed along that really thick one she's been hesitant to start.)  The majority of books for kids her age were series books (i.e. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Lightening Thief, and Hank Zipper)  There weren't a lot of stand alone books.  Of the 15 or so, only one looked good to her.  Should've bought it then and there, but I thought we'd come back and get it instead of lugging it all over town.

And off we went.  Down the street a little further, then across the road to the other side and back.  What's that??  A library sign?  Let's go!!  Ahhh, but the only library we found was the old "Carnagie Free Library".  A beautiful building fallen into disrepair.  Having worked in the Carnagie Library in Coleraine, MN; it was a bit saddening to see the building sitting there empty.  The girls were not eager to walk on in search of a new library, so back to Main Street we went.  My husband picked us up there a few minutes later.

Carnegie Free Library Cheboygan, MI, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

Cheboygan, MI, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

weather vane, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

Dinner at a local restaurant (where I had the best chicken salad sandwich of my life and the girls had the best BLT's of theirs) and onto the ferry to take us to Bois Blanc Island.  Boblo to the locals.  A cabin on the Lake Huron lake shore has been our home now for a couple of days.  The kids love jumping the waves and donning their life jackets to ride the waves back to shore.  Chicken, corn, and sweet potatoes on the grill, with marshmallows roasted over the fire by the lake and made into s'mores for dessert.  The quiet.  Watching the ships pass.  Listening to the waves roll in.  What a great place to relax with a book (or two).

s'mores, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

                                                         reading and relaxing, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

Everyone else went off to pick raspberries this afternoon while I worked on this post: outside, in the shade with a glass of iced tea, with nothing but the sound of waves crashing and the wind in the trees.  A perfect afternoon.  

writing the blog longhand, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

Once everyone returned, we headed down to the only store on the island for some ice cream.  A late supper of hot dogs roasted over the fire followed by some more s'mores for dessert.  Kids bathed and hopped into bed.  We packed our stuff back up and our relaxing family vacation comes to a close.  We'll take the 8:00am ferry in the morning.  (The girls are having raspberries for pre-breakfast.  We plan on stopping for breakfast at the place that gave us some of the best sandwiches of our lives.)

Here's hoping I don't stay up too late reading my book, but I get the feeling that I'll be glad I brought along three books for this trip.  (Yep, the coffee post is set to go in the morning!) 

girls at the shore, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

And just so you know that I know, this quote is for those who didn't care for the slide show.

There is probably no more obnoxious class of citizen, taken end for end, than the returning vacationist. ~Robert Benchley

Real mail, not junk mail

What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp.  ~Author Unknown

One world many stories.  Today we said "auf Wiedersehn".  It was the last day of the summer reading program.  The kids traded their book logs for library dollars and got to buy whatever prizes they wanted.  The summer reading program may be over, but summer reading isn't.  Sure, some people don't have enough time during the summer to read.  What with planting, weeding, harvesting, canning, and playing at the beach; where's the time to crack open a book?  Ha!  Remember those heat advisory days we just had?  Yep; there I was, sitting next to the air conditioner with a book in one hand and a glass of iced tea in the other.  

We've gotten quite a few postcards in the past few weeks.  It's been pretty exciting to get them.  In this electronic age, it's a rare event to get something handwritten in the mail.  It sure is more meaningful.  Those postcards show us that someone took the time to write a line or more, address it, affix a stamp, and mail it to us.  It's really fun to get that kind of mail.  So, if you haven't gotten to it yet; send us a postcard.  If you'd like some postal excitement of your own, include your address and we'll send a postcard back to you.

When I was a kid, there was no email.  I was in second grade before our elementary school got computers.  So, my friends and I wrote letters.  I've got many of them in a box somewhere.  I should dig them out and see what kind of correspondence we had as 10-year-olds.  It was always an extra special day when you got a letter or postcard in the mail.  It still is.  It just doesn't happen as often.  Perhaps we could all try to bring some of that magic back.  Send a letter, card, or postcard to someone.  Draw a picture and send it off.  

Maybe I should add "Mail something to someone" to my summer bucket list.      

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  ~St. Augustine

 

To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.  ~Phyllis Theroux

Life lessons learned in Kindergarten

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not. --Aldous Huxley









What did we learn in kindergarten? We learned to share, cooperate with others, listen, and keep our hands to ourselves. We learned to work together, be kind to one another, and clean up after ourselves. We learned that we have a lot to learn. Or something like that. It's been a long time since I was in kindergarten. It's been a long time since I read Robert Fulghum's Everything I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. But I think I get the gist of the life lessons learned in kindergarten.

At what point do we forget those lessons? Or at what point to we just stoop to the levels of the people who never learned those lessons?

So, it appears the Minnesota government shut-down is almost at an end. Problem solved? Not really, seems like the problem is just put off for another season. I'm fed up with politicians who never learned to listen, play nice, or cooperate. Seems like there's a fight brewing at the national level as well. It appears that there aren't many in D.C. who learned those lessons. Or, maybe we just hear the bad news. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I suppose we wouldn't hear from the people who learned that lesson.

I appreciate that there are differences of opinion on how this country should be run. I just wish the powers that be would work together instead of beating each other into the ground over their differences. One world, many stories. So, let's take a listen and see the story from another vantage point.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. --Thomas Jefferson

Try to be nice to everyone, even the boy who eats paste. --Jane Wiitala

Real Fun vs. Fake Fun

Life ain't easy. Terrible things happen to everyone. You have to keep your sense of humor, give something of yourself to others, make friends who are younger than you, learn new things, and have fun.
-George Vaillant

Fun:

–noun
1. something that provides mirth or amusement: A picnic would be fun.

2. enjoyment or playfulness: She's full of fun.

A&N in the waves, a photo by aawikstrom on Flickr.

So that's what fun is! What's fun for one person may not be fun for another. My dad would often say, "Hey, kids, let's go have some fun!!" which would be met by groans from my siblings and I. My dad's version of fun often involved picking rock, fixing fence, and making wood. That was not fun for us. Now, of course, it is kind of fun for me to haul wood. It's an activity that gets me moving in the crisp autumn air. It's "real" fun. I'm accomplishing something, I'm moving, I'm enjoying the outdoors.

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day as I was playing a game online. It occurred to me that what I was doing was fake fun. I sat like a rock on my chair, playing a game without any physical interaction. Fake fun. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not about to get offline anytime soon. Facebook and I are about as tight as two friends can be. I have just come to the realization that I should spend more time having real fun than fake fun.

So, what is the difference between the two? I'm not really sure. I would think that real fun is something where you are having a good time, with other people or alone, doing something tangible, smiling, laughing, and moving. (Even if it's just moving the coffee cup from the table to your mouth.) Adults have a different idea of what fun is than kids do. I suppose all the various stages of life have their own ideas of what fun is. Candyland is fun when you're 3, but not much fun when you're 38 and playing Candyland for the fourth time in a day. Fun is sitting outside watching the bees buzz around your flower beds when you're 38, but as boring as watching paint dry for a 7 year old.

Reading can be fun. Right now I'm reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and it's FUN! A lot of years ago I read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. That wasn't fun. But I did it anyway. There are books that are fun, books that are a struggle to get through, books that teach you things, and books that spark thought. We've got them all here at the library. I have a tendency to do more fun reading in the summer. There's something about laying in the warm summer sunshine with a good book.

Go outside and have some real fun. Go ahead and leave a comment on your thoughts on real fun vs. fake fun. What is real fun for you? What is fake fun for you? Let us know, it would make for some fun reading for me!

There is something self-defeating in the too-conscious pursuit of pleasure. ~Max Eastman

EVERYONE has a story.

The world does not need tourists who ride by in a bus clucking their tongues. The world as it is needs those who will love it enough to change it, with what they have, where they are.
-Robert Fulghum


One world, many stories. Everyone has one. Some are just more interesting than others. Other people's stories broaden our views. By hearing the tales of how other people live, we expand our way of thinking. The world is more than just you. The world is more than just your community. The world is vast. Everyone is different, and yet we all share some remarkable similarities. I don't think I need to list them. You can probably figure those similarities out for yourself. If you're having trouble figuring the similarities out, stop in at your local library and pick up some books about people living a life different than the one you're living.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't originally very excited about the summer reading theme this year. It seemed a bit too much for me to tackle. I liked the theme, I just didn't know which direction to go in with it. One World, Many Stories. I decided to focus on one country per week over the course of our six week program. I wasn't sure how that would go over with the kids. I was kind of thinking they wouldn't be interested. Ahhh, but I forgot, kids don't have that same kind of self-centeredness that we adults sometimes have. They don't have the same kind of baggage attached to other nations. The people of China cannot be summed up by everything "made in China". The people of Mexico are not all the U.S.'s illegal immigrants. While we may see Africa as a place of starving children, that does not sum up the lives of all of the people living there. Afghanistan is more than the Taliban, Nebraska is more than just cornfields.

The kids have enjoyed learning about other countries. I'm not much of a linguist, and the books I've chosen have had some words in the language of the week. I'm thankful to those people yesterday who helped me out with those Spanish words that I was massacring.

I'm glad that the theme of the year that I thought might be a dud, has been one of the best ones we've had in a few years. The kids have gotten the chance to think about other places in the world besides their own communities. It may sink in a bit more than it does in the school setting, simply because it's done in a different way. It's done through stories.


If you don't know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don't know the stories you may be lost in life. --Anonymous