This isn’t an anti-princess rant, honest. Been there, done that, several times.
Today, I heard an interesting perspective from a mother at my daughter’s school. She coordinates a local book drive for the African Library Project. Each year, her girl scouts collect at least 1,000 donated children’s books and raise $500 to ship them. The books eventually find their way to schools in Africa. Titles not appropriate to send remain with local charities.
Most countries in Africa teach English or French, so a language barrier isn’t an issue. Some collected books are weeded out because they are about American holidays. Other books are weeded because they convey things that are completely foreign to them, such as a board book about a fire station. But there are a lot of things the kids do relate to, such as animals, even animals not found in their native countries.
This subject caught my attention because I’m in the process of setting up a children’s used book store (a story for a future date) and routinely weed out books containing merchandised characters and Disney movie books. What Disney movies these days aren’t about girls appreciated for their pretty faces?
The Cinderella story is included in my list of yechhh! books. My family owns the anti-princess books The Paper Bag Princess and Cinder Enda. I’m not a fan of a fairy tale where a woman must be rescued by a man, a man who initially becomes interested in her because of her nice clothes — and likes her at the end of the tale because she’s beautiful.
However, this mom told the story of a girl in Botswana whose favorite book is Cinderella. She could relate to it in a most personal way.
Oh, woe the family who has too many toys. Cry you a river, right?
Well, that’s me. With a 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, we have two completely different class of toys for those maturity levels, plus toys our eldest has outgrown that we keep around assuming the youngest will use them in a few years.
Alas, I’m in downsize mode now, trying to simplify and declutter our home.
Here’s a new take on If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It starts out funny and dips into OMG WTF at the end. You’ve been warned. It’s not for young eyes or ears.
That photo is from a new blog, Like Mom Like Dad, by Ze Frank, which aims to get people to submit photos of themselves recreating photos of their parents.
Last year I reviewed the awesome 1957 memoir of childhood, Where did you go? Out. What did you do? Nothing by Robert Paul Smith.
Smith’s son Dan sent a note alerting us that his dad’s book has just been reprinted in paperback for under $10
Similarly, another of Smith’s books is also back in print, this time hardbound and also under $10: How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself. Now, how could you possibly refuse a title like that?
The second book delves into such pastimes as making a spool tank (wind-up toy), a button buzz-saw, handkerchief parachutes, and squeaking blades of grass. There are also some more interestingly dangerous activities you just can’t get in a store-bought kit, such as instructions for playing Mumblety-Peg with a Boy Scout knife and making a bow and arrow from a broken umbrella.
Incidentally, a perk of having a spouse going back to school is that Amazon.com gives college students free ‘Prime’ accounts (free 2-day shipping, presumably for textbooks, but it’s good on everything). I should have my copies of the books in a few days, should anyone have questions.
This is an audio interview between a seventh grader with Asperger’s Syndrome and his mother. At one point he asks, “Did I turn out to be the son you wanted when I was born?”
At left, the flash card for "neat" under the consonant-vowel-consonant tip-alveolar assimilation section of the Kaufman Speech Praxis Treatment Kit for Children. At right, the Doctor from Doctor Who.
This is an inside joke, but I can’t resist. My 2-year-old son has verbal dyspraxia, a condition impairing his speech. One of the tools we use at home is the Kaufman Speech Praxis Treatment Kit, otherwise known as Kaufman Cards. The front of a card shows a picture. The backside lists several likely pronunciations that your child might utter when you prompt him to say the indicated word. A man wearing a bowtie? He’s “neat” of course.
The epic British family TV show Doctor Who debuted this year with a new writer/producer and new cast, along with new catch phrases for the lead character. The Doctor is sporting a bowtie now. In an almost overcompensating fashion, several times through the season the Doctor has explained his fashion sense by saying, “Bowties are cool.”
So, we can’t help but smile when the bowtie card comes up and our son says “neat.”
Mila’s Daydreams is a blog where baby Mila is photographed in a scene with props — while she is napping. The mom works in advertising, so something makes me suspect this is fodder for a book, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.
Brazilian men swapped at birth — A nice story where two babies were mixed up at the hospital and 25 years later everyone is okay with it. Better than okay, in fact.
Inception baby video mash-up — The soundtrack to the Leonardo DiCaprio movie Inception makes any scene ominous/epic, even family videos. The linked page plays two Youtube videos side-by-side. Be sure to mute the video on the right.
My son crawling in a tunnel between two watermelon bin chambers. A glow-stick is taped above each tunnel entrance.
In this installment we discuss spending 8 to 24 hours converting a room in your home to an awesome cardboard fort. I’ve done it three times, for my daughter’s 3rd, 5th and 6th birthdays.
In Part 2, we’ll discuss a simple, low-key alternative for a year-round fort that will be the best toy your child will ever own.
Thanks BabyZone. Click the “girl names” or “boy names” buttons. For added fun, click “boy or girl names” and make it a gender-guessing game. Click your browser’s reload/refresh button for more.
I have one cardboard room free for pick-up. You will need a truck and some method of securing it to the bed, otherwise it will fly. (I know from prior experience.)
It measures 82 inches long, 36 inches wide and is 36 inches tall. It is technically three cardboard lids secured by Mr. McGroovy’s box rivets. You may want to later secure it with packing or duct tape to make it more secure.
This was part of my child’s cardboard fort party and we are downsizing because we want a portion of our living room back. In your reply, please indicate when you can pick it up. Thanks.
A more detailed blog post is to follow. Unfortunately, the fort was too big to decently photograph.
Update: Thinga-reader Midge, unbeknownst to me a local reader, took the boxes.
The best family-friendly event held this weekend in my community wasn’t found on any event calendar. It was in the news section of the newspapers under such tantalizing headlines as “Live fire training planned.”
Thinga-googler Ed is in a debate with his wife over what to name his unborn child if it comes out sporting a penis. If it has a vagina, it’ll get his mother-in-law’s name. But the penis problem has Ed vexed.
Naturally, Ed turned to me as a sympathetic, empathetic voice in his battle over little Jasper. I mean Rufus. Or maybe Roscoe. Oh, but Ed really likes Grover. And how about the timeless classic Ebenezer? Hannibal? Homer?
So if you’re against abortion, that’s cool. Don’t have one. But when you decide to protest and scare people and make total strangers feel horrible, then you become trash. Human garbage. Excrement. And it’s my sincere hope that more people will stand up to these bullies in a non-violent manner and let them know what they’re doing is not OK.
I have always believed that out of bad comes good. As we were leaving yesterday I looked around and realized all the protesters were gone and a marked cop car was parked in front of the building. As we turned to go home I asked Aaron, “What did you do?” He looks at me and says with a straight face “I didn’t get arrested!”
As we drove home, Aaron told me what had happened and how he went over there and had a talk with them. I was overcome with pride that he was able to single-handedly have the cops called on him by the protesters and that the protesters had to clear out. As I settled in for the hour ride home I finally felt a sense of peace, because we were able to give someone the opportunity to get help, make an informed decision about their body and future without being taunted or bullied by the people who have no idea what was going on!
So we will think of another name if we have a daughter in the future, because we already had a daughter named Alex. And while we never got to meet her, we will love and remember her forever. And hopefully so will some of you.
