3 Ring Binder

Like most parents, the good ones anyway, I take pride in my children’s burgeoning physical independence. First steps, last diaper, beginning of school, end of having to wipe them after they use the toilet (which—if no one has told you yet, let me—comes surprisingly much, much later than the last diaper), are all part of the independence process.   Then one day you realize that not only do you not have to make sure they bathe themselves correctly, that frankly, they just want you out of the whole personal hygiene arena.   Instead of bittersweet, I found this realization liberating! But let’s face it, no matter how much I want to do my I’m free! I’m free! mommy-dance, the reality of water, soap, hard surfaces, sharp corners, and small electronic appliances all mingling in perilously close proximity to one another makes using the bathroom facilities fraught with hidden dangers to the developing child.   So I still listen. I listen for the uninterrupted sound that water should make whe

In which A.A. Milne has nothing on me. (Unless you count that whole Winnie the Pooh thing.) Now We Are Six When I was One, I had just begun. When I was Two, I was nearly new. When I was Three I was hardly me. When I was Four, I was not much more. When I was Five, I was just alive. But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever, So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever. A. A. Milne (1927) Now We Are Six (and Forty) When I was Ten, I felt grown up then. When I was Twenty, I had verve a-plenty. When I was Thirty, I looked mighty purty. When I was Forty, I got a bit sporty. When I was Forty-Five I really came alive. But now I am Forty-Six, And it doesn’t sound nifty, I have only four years to be Spectacular by Fifty. Lynne (2010) I could have just said “Happy Birthday to me,” but that’s so un-poetic.

Lisa VanDamme  discusses a motivational technique used in the classroom and at home.  I can say without reservation that my children love when I tell stories about things I've done or thought when I was younger, and I agree that they learn much better from these stories than from lectures. Sadly, I sometimes feel like I'm running out of stories, but never lectures. Enjoy. If the formatting is off, you can watch the video here .

In honor of Leibniz’ first use of the big “S” in integral calculus (as seen above and reported in the Jewish World Review to have occurred on this date 335 years ago), I’d like to settle this controversy once and for all. Which of these statements is correct?     I can’t go to prom, I have the calculus homework. I can’t go to the prom, I have calculus homework. Never mind that your high school dances were decades ago and your use of higher math completely forgotten, or even that both statements scream that you’re a serious geek  and a very bad planner if math homework prevents you from attending the big night. It’s simply a matter of correct usage at this point, and has always bothered me. While prom is short for the noun, promenade , meaning a ball or dance, it seems to be used in the first sentence as an infinitive form of the verb.   If it were the object of the preposition, it would require the definite article the before prom . Wouldn’t it? And how about that calculus?

Welcome the 172 nd edition of the Objectivist Round Up, a  blog carnival  of posts written by individuals who are advocates of Objectivism : the philosophy developed and defined by Ayn Rand . If you are new to Objectivism and would like to discover more about Ayn Rand’s "philosophy for living on earth," I recommend you read her two great novels, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead . If you enjoy her novels, I recommend her essays Man’s Rights , and The Nature of Government . The Ayn Rand Institute and the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights provide relevant information and commentary. As we head to the polls on Tuesday, I thought this reminder appropriate to include: The fundamental difference between private action and governmental action—a difference thoroughly ignored and evaded today—lies in the fact that a government holds a monopoly on the legal use of physical force. It has to hold such a monopoly, since it is the agent of restraining and combating the use

While I am delighted to conjure images of Madeline Kahn’s escort selection process in Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1 , I am referring to my take on the referendum questions on Tuesday’s Massachusetts ballot. Just for fun, I’ve linked to the state published arguments on both sides, and then added my own summaries of those arguments.   As provided by law, the 150-word arguments are written by proponents and opponents of each question, and reflect their opinions. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts does not endorse these arguments, and does not certify the truth or accuracy of any statement made in these arguments. The names of the individuals and organizations who wrote each argument, and any written comments by others about each argument, are on file in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Secretary of State Galvin wants you to know this just in case you read these arguments and think that a distinguished member of our state bureaucracy may have written them whi

Last week my favorite student at our homeschool was assigned to write a brief poem combining alliteration, end rhyme, internal rhyme, and near rhyme.  The first two are favorites around here, but the third can be tricky, and the fourth almost always escapes me. The subject was of her own choosing and clearly reflects our book of the month . I was quite impressed by her efforts. Fire by Vabulous Me The fire will flicker in a jolly way, Glowing, not knowing where to stay. T’will light up every house on every street, Living and giving the warmth that we need. And, oh! It’s so dangerous when out of control, It’ll cackle and crackle and burn till it’s cold. Humans, all different, have one common rift, Hating or 'preciating Prometheus’s Gift.

My friend Fiddler at Rockhound Place tagged me to answer five questions in a blog post and then to rope in another set of bloggers with my own questions that I’ve been burning to ask them. Okay, those aren’t the exact words, but close enough. First, the questions from Fiddler and my answers: 1.    What book from your childhood do you remember the most, and why? I distinctly remember curling up on my bed one summer morning and reading The Hundred and One Dalmatians , by Dodie Smith.   I was completely enthralled and impressed that there was a book to go with the movie, and that the book was so much better than the movie !   I think I was ten. Sadly, Colin Firth was neither in the movie, nor, to my knowledge, does he own a Dalmatian. 2.    What type of music do you enjoy the most?  Please include examples! That’s tough because my answer changes with my mood. Some baroque, classical, or operatic pieces can bring alternating tears of joy and sadness to my eyes, (Bach’s Cello Suite

For two days, I have not been able to get this song out of my head, and I don't know why. Today, it has been replaced by this one, and I do know why. In both cases, I've enjoyed singing the songs in my head or out loud - and oddly, dancing mostly in my head which I didn't even know I could do - and therefore I fear that the scariest thing about having these songs occupy primo space in my mind is that it means I'm wicked old.

Recently, I came across this fascinating Magritte-esque image in my book, The Dog: 5000 Years of the Dog in Art . It’s a little play on the French words for au petit chien (to the little dog)= opticien.   Get it?   Okay, it’s not so punny, but it was rather the artist that impressed me:  Jean-Leon Gerome! Gerome, whose major works can be found here , was a great painter in the Academic style and known for his historic and Orientalist works.   I knew him as the painter of images like these:    Pygmalion and Galatea Snake Charmer Pollice Verso So, does the first image, basically an advertisement, well outside of what I know to be his artistry, and reportedly admired by a young Dali, detract from his achievement? And what about Jane Austen ? In today’s Guardian , Jane was outed as having been a veritable libertine with dashes!   Does this tarnish her literary genius? In both cases, I’m going to have to say,  nah . The incredible value of their respective bodies of work remain to s

by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963) from his 1915 North of Boston collection T HE MOUNTAIN held the town as in a shadow I saw so much before I slept there once: I noticed that I missed stars in the west, Where its black body cut into the sky. Near me it seemed: I felt it like a wall         5 Behind which I was sheltered from a wind. And yet between the town and it I found, When I walked forth at dawn to see new things, Were fields, a river, and beyond, more fields. The river at the time was fallen away,         10 And made a widespread brawl on cobble-stones; But the signs showed what it had done in spring; Good grass-land gullied out, and in the grass Ridges of sand, and driftwood stripped of bark. I crossed the river and swung round the mountain.         15 And there I met a man who moved so slow With white-faced oxen in a heavy cart, It seemed no hand to stop him altogether. “What town is this?” I asked. “This? Lunenburg.”         20 Then I was wrong: the