On to Ancient India and thoughts on 1st Grade

I'm so excited! In Story of The World, we've left Mesopotamia and have headed off to Ancient India. Cool-o. L and I read about Mohenjo-daro, the abandoned city of the Indus Valley and I found a great BBC site that is perfect for exploring this mystery. L really enjoyed doing that. I also ordered a bunch of story books & fables about ancient India from the New York Public Library system (this is such a great online resource). We've talked about making a cardboard model of Mohenjo-daro, so tomorrow we'll sit down and draw up a list of all the items we'll need to build it, stuff like cardboard, clay, paint, etc.

This new phase of "unstructuring" the learning is really going well. She still does math and phonics and reading every day, as I said last time. But I've stopped obsessively writing down what we're working on (which isn't good, actually, since if we do this next year I'll have to get back into the habit of keeping track as it will actually be officially required, as opposed to this year which doesn't count, as far as the Board of Ed is concerned). I've also started blowing off stuff when we are running too late or are tired or just bored. More isn't necessarily better, I'm learning. No shit, Sherlock, as I would have said in the 6th grade. Hey, it takes me a while, okay?

And First Grade. Yes, the problem of First Grade. I keep going back and forth, send her, don't send her. I recently had this surreal conversation with a parent rep at one of the local progressive schools that I had applied to as a back up for L, just in case we decided to send her back. This lady called me up about 2 months after I had sent in the form indicating my interest in applying to the school. She told me that the new Board of Ed-mandated application process was that, in August, I needed to go to the nearest Jobs Placement office and apply for a placement in a school in District 1. In August. Keep in mind that we're talking about going to school in September. And these are the same people who couldn't get acceptance letters in the mail by April for September placement last year. Forget even trying to figure out what the connection is between the Board of Ed and the Jobs Placement Office. I think this lady must be on crack. This just can't be right. There is no way in hell that could really be the new procedure, can it? Oh, and the kicker was when she told me not to put that school down a our first choice because there wasn't any room in 1st grade anyway.

I heard that b-s and it swung me back to keeping L home for another year. Why on earth would I want to put her into a system that is just so clearly broken? Especially when we're doing so well at home? But then.....but then...... As soon as I decide that, I just go back to thinking that maybe she's missing out on something. Late at night, when I'm obsessing about these things, I think: Surely it can't be good to just skip out on an experience that is so central to the lives of most of her fellow human beings? Would it rob her of some common vernacular that will doom L to forever being on the outside? and other melodramatic crap like that. And then what do I do about T, the little one? Can I handle two? It wouldn't be fair to keep L at home and send T to school. D is all for it. He thinks it's a great idea to keep them home. I wish I was as confident.

Code of The Family

As I was saying before, we've been studying Babylonia and the Sumerians. L found the Code of Hammurabi particularly interesting. So we sat down, and with L dictating & myself as the scribe, we came up with the following Code of The Family, or Life's Rules as L Sees it:

1. No shoes in the house.
2. You always have to try something before saying yuck.
3. If you have a Green Card, it’s means good, if you have a Yellow card it means warning, if you have an Orange Card it means time out, and if you have a Red Card it means no books.
4. No sticking fingers in birdy’s cage
5. Don’t touch computer screens
6. You have to go to bed at 8 o’clock.
7. You can only watch videos once in the morning and once at night.
8. You have to treat T nicely. And T has to treat me nicely.
9. No hitting allowed. If you hit, you get an Orange Card.
10. You have to respect people’s words. If you don’t, you’ll get a Yellow Card.
11. You have to listen to Mommy and Daddy.
12. If you make a big mess in the night, you have to clean it up in the morning or it will get thrown away. So beware.
13. You have to use your fork and spoon and you have to eat most of your food or you won’t get dessert.
14. After dinner you have to clear your place.
15. You always have to say thank you and please.
16. You always have to stay with a grown-up when you go outside.
17. You always have to ask before touching a doggy.
18. You always have to look both ways before crossing a street.
19. You always have to stop at the end of the sidewalk.
20. No drawing on the carpet or furniture.
21. You have to be nice to the webkinz and all of my other dolls.

Car Accident

I hadn't updated the blog in a while because we were busy for a couple of weeks and I kept thinking I'd get to it. But then we got into a terrible car crash last week that really derailed us. Luckily no one was seriously hurt, though our friend's minivan, which D was driving, was totalled and he broke his hand. I was in the front passenger seat and got my ribs badly bruised by the force of my body hitting the seat belt. The kids were scared silly but fine, and another friend who didn't believe in wearing seatbelts in the back seat, went flying but survived by some miracle with just a cut on the nose and some bruises.

The entire right front side of it (where I was sitting) was completely smashed in where we ran into an power line pole.

For the first week, we had daily help from our amazing babysitter. This week, I was on my own as we tried to get back into real life again. So far, every day it seems that another part of my body discovers a new hurt and instead of feeling better, it's just been getting worse. But I've been told that the first week is the worst part and it should start easing off soon. It better, because I'm well on the way to pill-popping junkie land.

Through this, we haven't gotten much work done, obviously. We were going through the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is fabulous. Gory, violent, full of passion. A real page turner.

Hammurabi and the Epic of Gilgamesh

I'm trying to distract L from the Egyptians by moving on to great old Hammurabi and the other Mesopotamians in The Story of The World. Sargon the Great of the Sumerians didn't do it. No shrivelled up dead bodies. The Ancient Jews didn't either. (Though she really loves the Children's Illustrated Jewish Bible -- all mention of smiting and "knowing" removed, which trims it down considerably) Hammurabi's Code, with its talk of cutting off hands and putting to death might just spark her rather gruesomely inclined interest, though.

So in this vein, I've been searching for some material on Babylonia, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. I found an interesting site on creation myths called the Big Myth. It has myths on the beginning of the world from various cultures around the world, narrated with some animation. Them Babylonians were a fierce bunch. They're all about wars and conflict and monsters. The Louvre website also has a pretty amazing display on the Code of Hammurabi.

Have I mentioned how great the New York Public Library system is? The website is incredible: I just requested five books on the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Babylonians. Should be enough blood and gore in that to keep L happy for a couple of weeks.