Month: September 2013

Categories
Family

Reading Instructions Good, Comprehending Instructions Better

As expected, the boy came home with homework. As he’s been doing so far this year, he sat down and got started on it right away, working on the math work that is due tomorrow. He has reading and spelling work that is not due until later this week.

I thought of this homework as “Tetris” homework, referring to the arcade game. He was supposed to work with shapes that he could create by arranging 4 squares such that at least 1 full side of a square was touching another full side of another square. Thus, why I thought of the Tetris game- anyone who played that would immediately know there are only 5 shapes that can be arranged: an ‘L’, a short ‘T’, a block, a line and a ‘S’ or ‘Z’ if you squint at it really hard.

The boy, never having played Tetris, didn’t know that so he had to work at it. The instructions told him to cut out 4 squares on the back of the paper so he could play with them and arrange them. They also told him to ignore duplicates that were mirrors or flipped variations of the same shape, like a backwards ‘L’. Finally, he was supposed to draw the shapes on grid on the back of the paper.

The only part he seemed to get was the drawing the shapes on the grid. He wanted to draw the straight line horizontally and vertically. Then he wanted to draw the ‘L’ in it’s various different configurations. He never cut out the squares either. He did manage to finish that work, but not without a lot of erasing and a little prodding from myself about following the directions.

Then came his spelling. He wanted me to give him a spelling quiz. He has 80 something words to work with this week. It sounds impressive until you realize they are variations on one word like “stab, stabbed, stabbing” or “state, stated, stating.” I gave him a quiz, but I just picked a single tense from each group of 3 words, rather than working through all the variations of each word.

He wrote each of these word 3 times, because “that’s what the directions said to do.” Then, he started writing all the other variations 3 times each as well. He had completed about 60 of the words when the Wife happened to look at the directions.

They directions actually were to take the quiz from a parent and then write and misspelled word 3 times. He didn’t misspell any of the words I’d quizzed him on. That means he did a lot of extra spelling. A lot of extra spelling.

He then began what has to be the most dramatic overreaction to anything ever.

First, he threw himself onto the ground and buried his face in his arm. There he laid, quietly. I chuckled, thinking it was just a dramatic one off to realizing he’d done a bunch of unnecessary extra work. Little did I realize that he was actually a tropical depression developing into a category 5 hurricane.

When he got up, he was mad and he was crying. It started as just a whine about how he’d messed up his homework. I was still unawares about what was coming and just ignored him. It was a little ridiculous at that stage, but I simply assumed he’d be over it. At this point, he was just mournfully staring at his paper, caught in that emotion where he thinks he’s done something that can’t be undone.

The whining then began to build. It was developing into that roaring cry, where a kid is screaming at the top of his lungs while he’s crying. His face was starting to turn pink and his gesticulating was getting more spastic- like he’d make up his mind to do something and then change it a half-second later and kept doing it over and over again. I finally realized that things were getting a whee bit out of control and I tried to whisk him away to his martial arts class. I firmly told him “Let’s go” and headed out the door, fully expecting him to be right behind me.

I sat out in the car waiting for him. And waiting for him. And waiting for him. I honked the horn once. Then again. Then a third time. Finally, the door swung open and out marched … the Wife. I turned the car off and immediately realized just how bad things had gotten.

I could hear him, wailing and stomping, from where I was out in the driveway. Great, roaring “AHHHHHHH’s” echoed from within the house. I’m pretty certain it was vibrating with all the stomping he was doing.

Apparently, he was looking for his flip flops and couldn’t find them. He was still upset about his homework. The Wife had come outside because she needed to get away from him for a few moments. I went over to the house and yelled in for him to get moving. As I walked back to the car, where the Wife had gone to in the interim, I laughed. The lass had broken last week over homework. Now, the boy had barely outlasted her by a week, all because he hadn’t comprehended his homework instructions.

When he finally came outside, he was still wailing and his face was red. There were no more tears though. He was just screaming like a mad-child. He had snapped, pure and simple.

I refused to take him anywhere in that state and he finally settled down to a much more respectable sulk. On any other day, sulking over his homework like that wouldn’t have been acceptable. But this wasn’t any other day and I wasn’t going to complain. We headed off to his martial arts class.

Which was turned out to be a timely thing. The theme for the month is self-control.

Categories
Family Football

The Boy Experiences Why We Watch

We had a Kickoff party today for our returning Cub Scouts. Nothing formal, just a simple get together for the kids and the parents. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

The boy started asking about football this morning. He wanted to know if there were any games on today. After confirming there were a “few” games on today, he wanted to know if he’d be able to watch them. That was a little less straight forward. With a bunch of guests coming here today, I told him he’d probably be able to watch at some point, but I wanted him to play outside today.

Things ended up working out well from my perspective as he didn’t end up watching until the end of the Pats game. He and a few of his Scout mates wanted to check out some games. So he did a bit of surfing and found the Pats game. By that point I’d gone back outside to mingle some more.

The boy quickly appeared by my side and he had distressing news “The Patriots are losing 21-20 and there isn’t a lot of time left.” He was giving me a look like “Fix it Dad!” There was clearly some emotional investment in this game, even though he’d only been watching a few moments.

Being a veteran of such situations, I asked him who had the ball. He didn’t know, so he scampered back into the house to find out. I expect by the end of the year, he’ll come out with a complete rundown of the situation: exact time on the clock, possession, down and distance, key injuries, the works. He’ll just need a little coaching in that respect.

The boy didn’t come out and I got distracted talking with some people outside. I then became cognizant of screaming and shouting coming from in the house. Initially, I thought the boys were arguing, then I thought perhaps they’d started some sort of game. Then, they came bursting out of the house screaming “THE PATS WON!”

What followed was a rundown of what happened in about 30 seconds. From the excitement in their voices, one might have thought the Pats had just won the Super Bowl, as opposed to the first game of the season.

Nothing like a last minute come-from-behind win.

Categories
Misc Notweet

Yesterday in History

Some random trivia about September 7th:

  • In 1813, the US Federal government officially accepted the nickname Uncle Sam. It came about because of the US Army, whom started referring to the meat a meat packer supplied them with as “Uncle Sam’s”. A newspaper picked up on it and the rest, as they say, is history.

  • David Packard, who would go on to create Hewlett-Packard, was born in 1912.

  • The Raggedy Ann doll was patented in 1915 by John Gruelle.

  • In 1930, the comic Blondie made it’s first appearance.

  • What would become he Hoover Dam began operation in 1936 as the Boulder Dam.

  • The Bell X-2 sets the manned aircraft altitude record at over 126,000 feet.

  • In 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio was dedicated.

  • Rod Laver completed his 2nd Grand Slam in 1969, winning the US Open.

So there you go. A bunch of random facts about a random day of the year.

Categories
DIY

Garage Door Opener Update

When last we’d spoken of this saga, I had broken the carriage that runs in the track of the new garage door opener. The carriage has an arm that hangs down and is attached to the garage door. Additionally, the carriage catches on a “bullet” (Genie’s term) that’s on the belt. Thus, without the carriage the garage door opener is useless. I’d broken the carriage while trying to get the opener to properly detect an obstruction under the door such that it would stop travelling down and then reverse and go back up.

The replacement arrived from Genie today, free of charge. Many kudos to Genie for that. So I spent about an hour reinstalling the carriage. It’s a time consuming operations because the track has to be disassembled to remove the old one and then reassembled with the new one in place. In order to disassemble the track, it has to be disconnected from the wall and the motor. Oh well.

The good news is the operation is a straight-forward one, regardless of the tedium involved. I had everything back hooked back up in less than 30 minutes. I proceeded through the setup process again, upper and lower limits, and then tested the force-close for the door. I had the same results as last time. Luckily, I didn’t break the carriage this time around.

What I noticed this time around is that the track bowed when under strain. In fact, if probably bowed a good 2 inches or so. Which got me to thinking that the motor probably wasn’t sensing force so much as it was measuring distance. Or, more correctly, the travel distance of the belt. Why else would the setting the lower limit be required prior to testing the “force close”?

Anyway, if it was measuring distance then the flex in the track was probably enough to allow the belt to travel such that the motor CPU simply thought the door was in the full down position. Thus, a simple way to fix the problem was to put a stop above the track to prevent it from flexing. So I cut a 2×4 to length so that it ran from the track, while in it’s normal unstrained position, up to a joist directly above the track. The 2×4 simply blocks the track from flexing upwards like it had been doing, thereby eliminating any false travel i.e., travel that wasn’t due to the door going down.

On the next test, the opener performed as expected. Without the play from the track flexing, the motor stopped and reversed direction with the obstruction under the door preventing it from closing all the way.

With that problem fixed, it was a small matter to complete the setup, including getting the remotes to work with the new opener and the other opener (an older Genie model). I also managed to get our car’s built-in garage door opener to work with the new opener. So we are finally back to square 1 where garage doors are concerned.

Categories
Family

The Last Bagel

The first thing I heard when I came downstairs this morning was “Wait, you’re eating the last bagel?”

I had quite literally just rolled out of bed and stumbled downstairs. I was still feeling foggy and heading for the coffee maker to make myself a fresh cup. Despite my early morning fog condition, the boy’s immediate reaction to the revelation that the last bagel had been claimed by his sister was plain to see.

He slumped forward, his head dipping low, almost touching the counter. There was a pained expression on his face like he had a bad case of gas trapped in his stomach. He stayed like that for several seconds. By that time, I’d made my way to the coffee maker and was preparing my cup. I’d been hoping to at least get a mouthful before things got desperate.

Then, in a teary voice, the boy croaked “I can’t believe you ate the last bagel. I never get the last bagel. Did you ever think that I might want to have it?”

WOW

So much emotion over a bagel. And he “never gets the last bagel”? Who knew he kept track of such a thing? He can’t remember where his karate uniform is, but he can remember that he’s never had a “last bagel.” Then the accusation towards his sister- obviously she owes it to him to check what’s on his menu in the morning. All this emotion brought on by a bagel.

I wish I could say the humor continued from there. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. I can say, though, that I finally did get to enjoy my cup of coffee. I went and sat down on the couch to enjoy it for a few moments and was joined by the boy, whom curled up with a pout on his face. You’d have thought he’d learned that he’d been permanently placed on Santa’s naughty list.

The boy’s attitude didn’t improve until we got into the car for school. Along the way, the Wife and I both admonished him to let it go. Even after he finally did have his bagel-less breakfast, he held the grudge against his sister. For her part, the lass didn’t try to rub it in. All she wanted was to enjoy her bagel. The boy did his best to make her feel guilty about it though.

I wish I could draw a neat and tidy conclusion from this morning’s experience, but the reality is I’ve got nothing. It struck me as absurd when the boy pulled his routine this morning and it strikes me just as absurd now. The bottom line is a parent just never knows when that next crisis is going to hit.

Categories
Family

Just When You Think You’ve Got Things Figured Out

I was sitting there, listening to the lass complain about her “stupid homework” that was “so easy” and I was thinking “I’ve heard this song before…”

The biggest surprise of the, still young, school year is that the lass hates her homework. We’re talking about the girl who, while in kindergarten, would bring home a homework book meant to be done over the course of a week or so and complete it that evening. Last year, she actually wanted homework and complained that she didn’t get enough of it. I documented the boy’s homework struggles last year right here so there’s no need to rehash the details. The main point is, he didn’t like it.

So now, after a few days of homework, the boy has been no trouble and the lass has been a royal pain in the ass. Her attitude has been so poor about it that she’s gotten herself sent to bed early two nights in a row. How bad was it? At one point this morning, while she was arguing with us about her doing her homework, the boy actually warned her to stop before she got herself in trouble. That’s how furiously she was digging the hole for herself.

If there’s one thing parenting has constantly reminded me it’s the capacity for surprise that kids hold. In that sense, I shouldn’t be surprised by this turn of events. But I am. The Wife and I spent most of the summer wondering what how the boy would handle homework this year, especially after last year. We never seriously considered the lass because she’d never given us reason to.

Yet here we are. Luckily, it’s early days. If things can change one way, they can change the other. We’ll just have to exercise a little extra patience.

Categories
Misc

Quick Book Review

One of the tricks my Mom pulled on us was reading books before we read them. In fact, probably any book that we read growing up, she had read as well. There were 2 reasons for this, the first was she wanted to make sure the content wasn’t overly objectionable and the second, and arguably more important, was it gave her something in common with us. It was one more thing we could sit and talk about. Her being a former English teacher just made it easier for us to learn how to read a book.

With that in mind, I decided to read Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief. The boy had started it a few days ago. I started reading it yesterday and finished it today. It is a kids book through and through, leveraging Greek mythology to create an interesting story. The book clocks in at about 350 pages, but we’re not talking about George R.R. Martin levels of detail here. It’s fast paced and the action keeps on going right to the end. In short, it’s a perfect book for a 4th grader.

But if you enjoy Greek mythology, then even an adult could gain some entertainment. There are clever twists on the old Greek myths and the way the author uses them to build his story. In the process, he creates his own modern day Greek hero. It’s definitely worth the few hours it takes to plow through it.

Categories
Family

A Lesson in Cleaning

The Wife is a neat-nick.

I am not.

This is a not unimportant fundamental difference in life philosophy. Her desk is immaculate and a paragon of the old adage “A place for everything and everything in its place.” My desk, typically, has a few square inches of cleared area that moves around the desk with the piles. Kind of like those tiled-number puzzles where the object is to put all the tiles in order and there’s one open space so that all the tiles can be moved around. I defend my piles simply by stating that I remember where everything falls. An disorganized desk is a sign of an organized mind, I say.

Given our disparate views on organization and cleanliness, the Wife tends to be the enforcer where the kid’s rooms are concerned. Well, where the house is concerned really but for now we’ll focus on the kid’s rooms. She wants them picked up and tidy. She has gone to great lengths to provide cubbies for their toys so that the floors in the room can be clear for walking on. It just requires a little maintenance on the kid’s part to make the system work.

Typically, the motivation for that maintenance is provided in the form of nagging.

So today, when the Wife told them to clean their rooms, they had to interrupt their morning cartoons to go do it. SUCH AN INCONVENIENCE! They disappeared for about 5 minutes, then returned. The Wife, in the meantime, was vacuuming the floors because our dogs are blowing their coats. Again.

For whatever reason, perhaps because the quick turnaround time from the being-asked to completing their “cleaning” seemed odd, I ventured up into their rooms to see how they’d done. Just because I don’t practice it, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do it. It also doesn’t mean I don’t know how to recognize a cleaned room. Toys still on the floor, beds unmade, clothes in various piles around the room do not a clean room make.

So I called them up and played the role of supervisor for the next 20 minutes. During this time, my most oft used phrase was “What’s that?” The second most was “Where does it belong?” They claimed they’d made their beds. After pointing out the crumpled blankets, the half-off-the-bed pillows, the mussed sheets and the stuffed animals strew hither and thither, they were chastened enough to actually make their beds. Clothes on the floor were picked up- some went into the laundry, some into drawers. Toys buried under those clothes were also picked up. Pieces of paper were pointed out and thrown out. Shoes were put in closets. Finally, they each vacuumed their rooms. All was done under my close supervision.

When it was finished, I told them both to take a good look at what they’d done. With them having done so, I then explained that was what clean looked like and there should be no confusion in the future about what’s expected of them when told to clean their rooms. They both nodded with understanding then went back downstairs to finish watching their cartoons.

I’ve got a feeling we’ll be doing this again.

Categories
Family

Kids Are Good at the Dodge

The lass keeps a messy room.

Not for lack of attempts from the Wife to correct it either. There’s a constant push-pull battle going on with the Wife trying to get the lass to clean up her room and the lass … not cleaning up her room. I’m sure this isn’t indicative of things to come.

So in today’s installment, the Wife walked into the lass’ room and saw a bunch of clothes on the floor. Exasperated, she asked the lass why they were laying there. The lass was immediately defensive, saying “They were picked up but they fell down.”

And, apparently, that’s where they stayed. It’s just the natural disorder of things, that’s all. The clothes don’t want to be picked up and put away, they want to be laying on the floor, the lass was just acquiescing to their demands.

The Wife was, well, let’s say none to thrilled with that response. I was in another room chuckling.