I never would have thought that one of my kids would have asked me that. All my kids really seemed to love school up until this year. My youngest is in 3rd grade this year and is, well, smart. She tests above the 99th percentile for Math & Reading on the tests they gave her at the beginning of the year. A couple of weeks into school she looked at me and said "Mama, I'm so bored at school." I looked at her and said "Why honey?" and she said "because I know all this stuff already and I'm tired of them talking about the same stuff over and over again."
Wow. This kid is my Mom. My Mom is extremely intelligent. I always felt dumb growing up because I never understood what my parents were talking about. Turns out I'm not dumb (thankfully) but my parents were just wicked smart. They taught Physics & Economics at the college level so it's really not a surprise that I was totally clueless at the dinner table. Thank heavens for spaghetti and the china cabinet. Anyway, my youngest is just gifted. She taught herself to read at 3 and not by memorizing words. She was reading wonderful, beautiful, generous and mischievous at 3. It was like a light bulb turned on in her head and she never looked back.
The first 3 years of school she always said she knew the material but it was okay because it was still fun. Apparently the fun factor has dried up. She's tired of knowing everything. I asked her yesterday how many times she has to read something to remember it and she said "usually once, at most twice." I asked her if she understood that this was not how most people learn and she said "yeah, but is it a bad thing that I learn that way?" OMG, parent failure. "No sweetie, you're just special is all." That's when she looked at me and said "Mommy, will you homeschool me? I want to learn at a faster pace than what my teachers can do."
OK, well, I work full time and so does my husband so homeschooling is a challenge. I'm trying to get her to explore virtual public school or possibly skipping a grade. Homeschooling is a BIG task. I would have to start cutting back on my responsibilities in other areas of my life for certain. I don't know if I'm up to the task and I honestly have no idea where to start.
This kid blows me away.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Sammi-isms
Sammi is my youngest child and she's a pretty smart kid. Smarter than me, I think. She tests through the roof on every standardized test she takes. She drives her sisters crazy with her knowledge. She loves non-fiction books and I have to bribe her to get her to read fiction.
Anyway, once in awhile she'll ask me bizarre questions (who's kidding, it happens EVERYDAY). So maybe I'll start blogging about them because I usually don't know the answer and she usually does so I learn stuff.
Sammi-ism #1
"Mom, did you know that the Yukon River is much smaller than it used to be?"
Um, no. How exactly would I know this? I never studied ALASKAN history. I studied South Carolina history. We spent half the year talking about the Civil War & Reconstruction in 8th grade. (No joke). "No, honey, I didn't know that. Why is that?"
Sammi: "Well, when the land bridge was still between Siberia and Alaska, the river was a lot longer than it is now. But it's still one of the longest rivers in North America. And now it empties into the ocean instead of the sea that used to be north of the Beringia"
Me: "Beringia? What's that?"
Sammi: "The land bridge. That's what it's called."
Me: "Oh, cool." (This is how many of our conversations end)
Did I mention that this kid is in 3rd grade? Good grief.
Anyway, once in awhile she'll ask me bizarre questions (who's kidding, it happens EVERYDAY). So maybe I'll start blogging about them because I usually don't know the answer and she usually does so I learn stuff.
Sammi-ism #1
"Mom, did you know that the Yukon River is much smaller than it used to be?"
Um, no. How exactly would I know this? I never studied ALASKAN history. I studied South Carolina history. We spent half the year talking about the Civil War & Reconstruction in 8th grade. (No joke). "No, honey, I didn't know that. Why is that?"
Sammi: "Well, when the land bridge was still between Siberia and Alaska, the river was a lot longer than it is now. But it's still one of the longest rivers in North America. And now it empties into the ocean instead of the sea that used to be north of the Beringia"
Me: "Beringia? What's that?"
Sammi: "The land bridge. That's what it's called."
Me: "Oh, cool." (This is how many of our conversations end)
Did I mention that this kid is in 3rd grade? Good grief.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Chicago experiences (Non-ALA related)
A whirlwind weekend in Chicago. Each day my mind was spinning from all the new information that had been crammed into it from session after session. I'm still trying to process it all. For now, here's what I learned about Chicago the city. I'll write about ALA later:
- Blackhawks fans are nuts. I've never attended a championship parade before because I've always lived in places too small for a pro team. It was an interesting experience and I really enjoyed it but I'm not eager to repeat it. It was hard to move around and it was damn near impossible to cross the street. We had to walk through 4 blocks of crammed sidewalks to cross and we felt like we were swimming upstream. It was completely ridiculous.
- The Book of Mormon is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. I haven't laughed that hard or that much in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute and hope to see it again when it's on tour. Yes, it's so good I would see it again.
- The Field Museum is HUGE. Jeez! I only got through 4 exhibits and would get about halfway through each and my brain would just shut down. Too much information, too much to process. I couldn't possibly take it all in, even when I was fascinated by the topic. I love Ancient American culture - Mississippian, Maya, Wari, Aztec, Inca...it's all totally fascinating. I studied these cultures while doing my undergrad in Anthropology and couldn't get enough. Turns out, I still can't. But I got to the pottery room and my mind just shut down. Too. Much. Pottery. The building itself fascinated me because it's the only building left from the World's Fair and it's so ornate and just beautifully done. And apparently there are 7 floors under ground FULL OF STUFF that they don't have room for in the exhibits. HOLY MOLY! Anyway, it's a very cool museum and I wish I had more time to spend wandering around but I was trying to cram in museum visits at the end of each day.
- The Shedd Aquarium. OK, I am a member of the Georgia Aquarium because I have a kid who is obsessed with beluga whales & sea turtles & basically all animals. So I'm spoiled because the Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world. Shedd isn't even in the top 10. It's a nice aquarium but it's no Georgia Aquarium. I usually hate comparing things because I try to enjoy things for what they are but dang it, I couldn't help it. And my kid was MAD that I went to an aquarium without her. Haha.
- Adler Planetarium is so cool! I really enjoyed this place. I spent twice as much time in the planetarium as the aquarium, that's how cool it was. I'm married to an astronomy guy but have never been big on it myself so for it to capture my interest as much as it did, means it a very cool place. Very much worth the visit. Lots of interesting exhibits and the Atwood Planetarium is interesting. I would totally go there again if given the opportunity.
- Segways are way harder than they look. We did a nighttime Segway tour and it was great fun and I enjoyed seeing the skyline at night but my feet hurt really bad by the time we were done. I was really surprised by how much they cramped up. Who knew?
- Chicago style pizza is my new favorite food. Too bad I can't get it in the south. Not real Chicago style anyway. I could have eaten it everyday while I was there. Really. Ask Vivian (my travel buddy).
Friday, June 14, 2013
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
This book was not at all what I expected. I had a vague idea of what it would be about. I knew it was about someone with a split personality - one good and one evil. I admit that I didn't even know that Dr. Jekyll was the good side of the Jekyll/Hyde split. (Yeah I know, sad.) But I did not expect the whole story to be told from the point of view of Dr. Jekyll's lawyer. I thought it would be a more direct storytelling, not a third person story trying to figure out what was happening. I also expected the book to be longer than 92 pages.
This is part of why I'm doing this project. To get to the origins of the stories I think I know and this is a perfect example of other tellings of the story messing up the image of what I think a story is about.
It's quite an interesting story! Katie's rating: 4.5 stars!
3.
Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
38.
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
50.
Little Women Louisa
M Alcott
64.
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
72.
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
80.
Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
87.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
97.
Winnie the Pooh A.A.
Milne
101. Of Mice and Men
102. The Time Machine H.G. Wells
Things I read before this list that were on the original list plus 4 that I know I can't tackle:
22. In Search of Lost Time
This is part of why I'm doing this project. To get to the origins of the stories I think I know and this is a perfect example of other tellings of the story messing up the image of what I think a story is about.
It's quite an interesting story! Katie's rating: 4.5 stars!
1.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2.
The Alchemist Paulo
Coelho
4.
All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren
5.
All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
6.
The Ambassadors Henry
James
7.
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
8.
Around the World in 80 Days Jules Verne
9.
Atlas Shrugged Ayn
Rand
10.
Beloved Toni
Morrison
11.
Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
12.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
13.
Bridget Jones’s Diary Helen Fielding
14.
The Call of the Wild Jack London
15.
Cannery Row John
Steinbeck
16.
Catch-22 Joseph
Heller
17.
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
18.
Cloud Atlas David
Mitchel
19. A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
20.
Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
21.
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
22.
Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
23. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
24.
Dracula Bram
Stoker
25.
Dune Frank
Herbert
26.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe
27.
Emma Jane
Austen
28.
A Fine Balance Rohinton
Mistry
29.
Frankenstein Mary
Shelley
30.
Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin
31.
The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing
32.
The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford
33.
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
34.
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
35.
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
36.
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
37.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
39.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
40.
Howard's End E.M.
Forster
41.
The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy
42.
Invisible Man Ralph
Ellison
43. Jane Eyre Charlotte
Brontë
44. King Leopold's Ghost
45.
The Kite Runner Khaled
Hosseini
46.
Les Miserables Victor
Hugo
47.
Life of Pi Yann
Martel
48.
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis
49.
The Little Prince Antoine De Saint-Exupery
51.
Lolita Vladimir
Nabokov
52. War of the Worlds H.G. Wells
53.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring J.R.R. Tolkien
54.
Madame Bovary Gustave
Flaubert
55.
Main Street Sinclair
Lewis
56.
The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
57.
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
58.
Middlemarch George
Eliot
59.
Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
60.
Moby Dick Herman
Melville
61.
Naked Lunch William
S. Burroughs
62.
Native Son Richard
Wright
63.
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) Philip Pullman
65.
On The Road Jack
Kerouac
66.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey
67.
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
68.
A Passage to India E.M. Forster
69.
The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster
70.
Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren
71.
A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving
73.
The Prince Niccolò
Machiavelli
74.
The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
75.
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
76.
The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
77.
The Secret History Donna Tartt
78.
The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
79.
Sister Carrie Theodore
Dreiser
81.
Sons and Lovers D.H.
Lawrence
82.
The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
83.
Stranger in a Strange Land Robert Heinlein
84.
Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransom
85.
Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss
86.
A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
88.
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
89.
To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
90.
A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute
91.
Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
92.
Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
93.
Watership Down Richard
Adams
94.
The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
95.
The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
96.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel Haruki Murakami
98.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum
99.
The World According to Garp John Irving
100.
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte Things I read before this list that were on the original list plus 4 that I know I can't tackle:
1. 1984
George Orwell
2. Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
3. Anne
of Green Gables L.M.
Montgomery
4. Brave
New World Aldous Huxley
5. The
Canterbury Tales Geoffrey
Chaucer
6. The
Catcher in the Rye J.D.
Salinger
7. Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
8. Charlotte’s
Web E.B. White
9. The
Color Purple Alice Walker
10. Don
Quixote Miguel De Cervantes
11. Fahrenheit
451 Ray Bradbury
12. Gone
With The Wind Margaret
Mitchell
13. Great
Expectations Charles Dickens
14. The
Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. Hamlet
William Shakespeare
16. Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K.
Rowling
17. Lord of the Flies William Golding
17. Lord of the Flies William Golding
18. A
Separate Peace John Knowles
19. The
Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey
Niffenegger
20. To
Kill a Mockingbird Harper
Lee
21. War
and Peace Leo Tolstoy 22. In Search of Lost Time
More books
This was from last summer! Never hit publish...
102. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I did this one as an audiobook on my way home from the beach. Didn't really care for it. I'm not a big science fiction fan anyway. It was short at least. Katie's rating: 2.5 stars.
80. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I only got about 75 pages into this one. I just didn't get it and was having to force myself to read it. Finding myself picking up anything else to read but this. Which means I'm never going to finish it. Oh well, at least I tried. Katie's rating: 1 star.
3.
Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
38.
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
50.
Little Women Louisa
M Alcott
64.
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
72.
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
80.
Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
87.
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
97.
Winnie the Pooh A.A.
Milne
101. Of Mice and Men
102. The Time Machine H.G. Wells
Things I read before this list that were on the original list plus 4 that I know I can't tackle:
22. In Search of Lost Time
102. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I did this one as an audiobook on my way home from the beach. Didn't really care for it. I'm not a big science fiction fan anyway. It was short at least. Katie's rating: 2.5 stars.
80. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I only got about 75 pages into this one. I just didn't get it and was having to force myself to read it. Finding myself picking up anything else to read but this. Which means I'm never going to finish it. Oh well, at least I tried. Katie's rating: 1 star.
1.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2.
The Alchemist Paulo
Coelho
4.
All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren
5.
All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
6.
The Ambassadors Henry
James
7.
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie
8.
Around the World in 80 Days Jules Verne
9.
Atlas Shrugged Ayn
Rand
10.
Beloved Toni
Morrison
11.
Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
12.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
13.
Bridget Jones’s Diary Helen Fielding
14.
The Call of the Wild Jack London
15.
Cannery Row John
Steinbeck
16.
Catch-22 Joseph
Heller
17.
A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
18.
Cloud Atlas David
Mitchel
19. A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
20.
Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
21.
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
22.
Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
23. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
23. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
24.
Dracula Bram
Stoker
25.
Dune Frank
Herbert
26.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe
27.
Emma Jane
Austen
28.
A Fine Balance Rohinton
Mistry
29.
Frankenstein Mary
Shelley
30.
Go Tell It on the Mountain James Baldwin
31.
The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing
32.
The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford
33.
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
34.
Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
35.
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
36.
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
37.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
39.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
40.
Howard's End E.M.
Forster
41.
The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy
42.
Invisible Man Ralph
Ellison
43. Jane Eyre Charlotte
Brontë
44. King Leopold's Ghost
45.
The Kite Runner Khaled
Hosseini
46.
Les Miserables Victor
Hugo
47.
Life of Pi Yann
Martel
48.
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis
49.
The Little Prince Antoine De Saint-Exupery
51.
Lolita Vladimir
Nabokov
52. War of the Worlds H.G. Wells
53.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring J.R.R. Tolkien
54.
Madame Bovary Gustave
Flaubert
55.
Main Street Sinclair
Lewis
56.
The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
57.
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
58.
Middlemarch George
Eliot
59.
Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
60.
Moby Dick Herman
Melville
61.
Naked Lunch William
S. Burroughs
62.
Native Son Richard
Wright
63.
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) Philip Pullman
65.
On The Road Jack
Kerouac
66.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey
67.
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
68.
A Passage to India E.M. Forster
69.
The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster
70.
Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren
71.
A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving
73.
The Prince Niccolò
Machiavelli
74.
The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
75.
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
76.
The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
77.
The Secret History Donna Tartt
78.
The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
79.
Sister Carrie Theodore
Dreiser
81.
Sons and Lovers D.H.
Lawrence
82.
The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
83.
Stranger in a Strange Land Robert Heinlein
84.
Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransom
85.
Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss
86.
A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
88.
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
89.
To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
90.
A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute
91.
Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
92.
Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
93.
Watership Down Richard
Adams
94.
The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
95.
The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
96.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel Haruki Murakami
98.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum
99.
The World According to Garp John Irving
100.
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte Things I read before this list that were on the original list plus 4 that I know I can't tackle:
1. 1984
George Orwell
2. Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
3. Anne
of Green Gables L.M.
Montgomery
4. Brave
New World Aldous Huxley
5. The
Canterbury Tales Geoffrey
Chaucer
6. The
Catcher in the Rye J.D.
Salinger
7. Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
8. Charlotte’s
Web E.B. White
9. The
Color Purple Alice Walker
10. Don
Quixote Miguel De Cervantes
11. Fahrenheit
451 Ray Bradbury
12. Gone
With The Wind Margaret
Mitchell
13. Great
Expectations Charles Dickens
14. The
Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. Hamlet
William Shakespeare
16. Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K.
Rowling
17. Lord of the Flies William Golding
17. Lord of the Flies William Golding
18. A
Separate Peace John Knowles
19. The
Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey
Niffenegger
20. To
Kill a Mockingbird Harper
Lee
21. War
and Peace Leo Tolstoy 22. In Search of Lost Time
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