Archive for January, 2009

Most of the time on this blog, when I write about what my sons are doing, I write about reading. Or exercise. Or cooking. But they also play video games. Their current favorite is World of Warcraft; the title alone made me cringe. Plus, I can sometimes be a ball of anxiety where my sons are concerned and I imagined them falling prey to the worst of what video games can bring: brains and bodies turned to mush. No time for positive activities such as after-school clubs, exercise, and reading.

Happily, I have to report that we are managing to co-exist with this video game. We have to set limits and we have had to pull the privilege for as long as a week at a time to get some messages across. We use the parental controls; I talk to the boys regularly about where they are in the game and what they are doing. I’ve had to learn a whole new language to do this and it didn’t come easily, I tell you. We’ve talked about game etiquette, foul language, responsibilities to siblings and friends who are also playing the game.

I have also noticed that my kids use the game to spur their creativity, prompt them to seek real life social contact with friends, and to read. One aspect of the culture of WOW is that there are tons of books on different aspects of the game. The kids have bought (with allowance money or gift cards) books on the art of WOW, game guides, and books full of statistical tables that explain the intricacies of the game’s relationships. They spend time reading the WOW wiki online. They head outside with homemade swords (Popsicle sticks, aluminum foil, and spray paint) and tell “private stories.” They go off together to reflect on the day’s gaming or to plan a future session.

If we didn’t set limits, I imagine they would choose to play for much longer. Their reading, homework, chores, and social interactions would suffer. But we have decided that video games are part of our culture and we are trying to figure out reasonable ways for our kids to play with them. If you are interested in exploring more information about boys and developing their creative sides, check out these programs from the Wisconsin Public Radio program To The Best of Our Knowledge: Magical Thinking and What Boys Are Made Of.

Science fair projects are due in my sons’ classrooms this week so Richard and I have been overseeing production. This year we wanted to avoid last minute crises so we began this work during the break around Thanksgiving. The two middle schoolers had to write research papers first. They conducted experiments over Christmas break. We documented the process through photographs. Most ambitiously, Richard and Graeme teamed up to set up a timed-release shoot to capture electrolysis. These are bubbles of hydrogen gas forming on a graphite rod in a plain water solution.

Now, here are bubbles of hydrogen gas forming on a graphite rod in a saline solution. What this photograph does not capture is the strong scent of chlorine that permeated the kitchen during the second trial. The timed release photographs were set for one shot per minute for each of 10 minutes. On his science fair presentation board, he included photographs of the beginning and end of each trial.

I thought you might like a look at the set up. Richard used his Nikon D200 with a Tamron 90 mm lens set up on a tripod. Graeme used a clear glass bowl and they took several practice shots in order to make sure the rods would be in the right place. This was a little tricky.

Here are the photos from Nathan’s project. What do you think he was doing?

OK, now for Douglas. Any guesses? We found great help in project selection here.

I asked my mother to send me some photos she took using her new pocket-sized Canon Powershot – Elph Series. She decided that she couldn’t keep lugging her Canon Digital SLR (I think it is a 10D)  with its mega lens everywhere — especially on vacations. She was pretty nervous about getting a new camera — in part because it meant learning a whole new system, but also because she was afraid she’d have to give up a lot in the way of quality. She’s pretty happy with the snapshots she’s been getting. To be fair, she knows her way around a camera so she’ll get better than average shots anyway, but these will give people an idea of the quality they can get with a point-and-shoot that cost less than $150. Notice that the last photograph is in black and white — except for the green bottle. She was able to do this in camera — no photoshop involved. Nice.

Sand dollar.

As reported previously, my boys have been through a recent Homer craze. When my 10-year-old walked into his grandparents house on Christmas Eve, he spotted a fat juicy copy of the The Iliad on the shelves. It was one of his grandfather’s special Folio Society books, in a slipcover and all. He pointed it out and asked to have it read to him. We did. Then, as we were leaving he asked to borrow it. Grandpa Dave took a deep breath and lent it, but made us promise that I would be the one handling it. We’ve been reading it most every night since. (I have to admit to skipping — with Douglas’ permission — chunks of the text that chronicle in excruciating detail every leader and homeland of each army assembled on both sides.) Douglas was very excited to have found the “real” Iliad, i.e. an unabridged version. At my reading of the word “awesome” in the text, however, he started to question its authenticity. “They didn’t use that word then.” Hmmm. Perhaps its time for a discussion of translations.

Meanwhile, back at home, the soon to be 12-year-old turned up reading another of Grandpa Dave’s special books, The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. This one he gave to the boys about three years ago, after starting it for them at his house. We read it aloud then, but this time Nathan read it all to himself. These books are very nice to hold, read, and look at. The way books should be made. I guess you can tell that my sons are interested in battles, heroes, mythology, and adventure.

Richard took this on New Year’s Day as we walked along the street. We were headed to a friend’s yard to jump on the trampoline and swing on the air pogo. (See Lovely Lazy Day.) My mother has taken quite a series of “walking away” photos. One of the more famous ones in the family was taken in 1994 of Richard and me on our graduation day in Oxford, England, walking down Magpie Lane. I’ll try to scare up a copy for scanning — though my scanner is currently on the fritz.

This is the center of a branch from an oak tree in our front yard. It came down during a tornado that roared through in April. Trying counting those rings.

Photo Friday refers to a weekly photography challenge issued on Friday. Learn more here. This week’s topic is disorder. We’ll be posting photos for the challenge periodically. Our author/illustrator friend Elizabeth Dulemba wrote to us and prompted our interest in this challenge after we began posting Photo Tuesday.

We decided to plant a vegetable garden this year. We’ve had great success with a herb garden in self-watering containers in the side yard near the kitchen. I love being able to go out and snip basil, parsley, oregano, sage, and chives. This year we’re planting three raised beds with lots of our favorites: tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, zucchini, beans, carrots… I plan to document the effort on the blog so you’ll get to share in our successes and failures. We’re working from a book we found at my Mom’s over Christmas: Square Foot Gardening. It’s hard to imagine plants growing in this dreary weather, but we tried to situate the beds in a place that will get enough sun. We’ll see.

We’re hoping that doing the garden in beds and in miniature (at least compared to the row gardens we raised when I was a kid) will mean we can maintain it by working a little bit each weekend. In addition to leveling the ground (a little) and building beds and cages, this weekend’s work was making lists and ordering seeds. As soon as they get here, I’ll be starting some seeds (for cool weather plants like lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. My planning centers around the Spring Week when we are likely to be past any frost. I’m using a handy online source with information on average first and last frost dates. Click here to find out when you’ll be frost free.

We slept in. We ate leftovers (tasty ones). We napped after lunch. We took a late afternoon walk and stopped in a neighbor’s yard to play. What a relaxing day! During the family playtime in the yard, I sat on a swing and snapped photographs while Richard pushed the boys on the air pogo and kicked a soccer ball around.

The light was fading and I was getting some movement, but I liked these two anyway. In the second one, especially, the movement gives the photograph an abstract look. Almost as if it were photoshopped. Is that a word?

I also finished a knitting project that caused me a few problems in the making. I will remember this as the hat that taught me ribbing. I naively thought I knew how to knit one, purl one, but clearly I didn’t. All I managed was knots. My friend who knits reminded me that I could find how-to videos on YouTube. I learned that you have to move the working yarn to the front to purl and to the back to knit. Makes a world of difference. On the second try, I started off knitting too loosely and I cast on too many stitches. It looked like I was making a sweater for a small dog. Since it was a gift for my mom, I began to refer to it as the hat only a mother could love.

In the end, however, I think I managed to make a nice hat. I love the yarn my mom picked out and I think the ribbing works — however, I have to admit that it is the reverse of what she asked me to do. On the third try, after about an inch of working in a purl one, knit three pattern, I put the whole thing down. When I picked it back up, I managed to reverse my work somehow. If the hat is flipped inside out, you get the pattern I was going for. Who knew knitting could be such an adventure?

Here’s Douglas, the only one I didn’t get in the yard in mid-play. Richard took this in our driveway before we left. I’m glad we took the time to take these photographs today, the first day of the year. It gives us a good start. We are still in the middle of compiling our annual calendar for 2009. It has been a traditional Christmas gift we’ve given for the last dozen or so years. This year’s is late and we ran into a snag this week as we finally got around to uploading photographs to the online service we’ve used for years. Finally, finally, after trying many different ways to upload and even signing up with a new photograph processing service, Richard figured out the problem. It had to do with settings on our firewall. Though I understand why computer security is necessary, it is often the thing that stops me from doing what I want/need to do.