LaughingCat
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Posts posted by LaughingCat
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Glad you have been enjoying the Rivers of London series. I have good news The Hanging Tree is due for release in early November.
Amazon says not until Jan. and in the UK in Nov. Which lead me to looking at Fishpond.com longingly thinking about ordering from the UK in Nov (I must admit I did that once before -- to get the end of Melina Marchetta's trilogy, which was already out in Australia but had 6 months! to go before the US edition). Thankfully Foxglove Summer did not leave me dying to know what happens next as badly as Broken Homes did, or I would already have ordered it :lol:
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Well, we're reading Ovid right now in history class, so I guess that counts as a banned book. ;)
I'm completely against censorship and I love Banned Books week, I think it's a great reminder of the importance of free speech and the insidious ways it can be challenged. OTOH, I find it interesting that on the ALA website, a frequent reason for books to be challenged - not banned - is "unsuitable for age group" which I think is totally legitimate. I think it's ok for parents, teachers, etc. to judge that a book contains material that a kid isn't ready to process at their age/stage. OTOOH, I listened to an interesting piece yesterday about how most challenged books by parents are those in the 4-6 and 14-17 age groups. The commentator was implying that this is because it's a time when parents are struggling with letting go of control, with big changes in life stage and the child venturing out into the wilder world, and that it's a function of parents' discomfort with that process. I suppose, though, it could be that it is a time when other people start to have more influence on what kids are offered to read - teachers, peers, etc. and so you can't really infer causality from the correlation. Interesting, though. I'm definitely against censorship, but I do pay attention to and sometimes limit what books my kids are exposed to. I'm guessing I'm not the only one.
I also think that "unsuitable for age group" has a lot of dimensions. It may be due to disturbing content in the book, but it may also be due to a lack of maturity in the reader. I know that I found Virginia Woolf unsuitable for my particular age group until I was past 40 - and that says way more about me as a reader than it does about the content of the books. ;)
I was walking out of the library the other day and saw a sign about Banned Books -- it was something about number of books challenged -- and the way it was phrased, instead of it making me reflect on the joys of freedom in reading instead I thought exactly as Chrysalis Academy is saying above... that there was nothing wrong with speaking up to say something if you found a book inappropriate for the age group in the children's or young adults section, and that they shouldn't be censoring people for pointing something like that out. For some reason, it felt like the sign was like dissing anyone who ever challenged as if it were impossible that there could be any good reason to do so. I argued it out with myself all the way home... and then I thought.... I should bring that thought to BaW for discussion. Considering I've barely been even lurking for the last 6 months or so, I guess that just goes to show that I think you all are the best of the best for a good book discussion :hurray: (although I'll also admit I did nothing about it until I happened to see the above comment :D ).
Since I've been remiss in updating -- I'll add that I just finished the last Rivers of London book -- I've really enjoyed this series (which I found from a link on BaW a couple months back).
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DD the older had an underbite -- palate expander and head gear at 7 (a different head gear than I've seen for overbites) and then braces at 11. From my understanding, the main purpose of the palate expander in her case was to give some thing for the head gear to pull against (pulling the upper teeth forward to get in front of the lower teeth). And then the main point of the braces was to bring her upper and lower teeth into correct alignment -- being out of alignment due to the move (not for cosmetic reasons) but that had to wait until all her adult teeth were in.
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Though one thing that I wonder about Dancing Bears, is if its approach can result in speech difficulties?
With its unnatural emphasis on letter sounds?
I'm not sure what the unnatural emphasis in Dancing Bears is? Using the notched card is different from using tiles such as Barton or LIPS do -- but both Barton and LIPS have WAY more emphasis on letter sounds IMO (although I have not looked at Barton past level 2 -- but it would appear the tile work gets more emphasis not less as the program continues).
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So DD2 is an excellent reader, but she won't move out of the 'reader' style books (Little Bear/Frog and Toad style). I know she'll make the move when she's ready (and it'll probably even be soon) but in the meantime I am listening to a lot of not so great prose.... which made me wonder.....
do you all have any favorites at this level of reading? If you could only have 5 or so of these 'reader' books -- what would you pick? (or if you would rather not pick any 'readers' at all -- what would you pick instead?)
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Well by happenchance, I have been reading an Australian author lately even though I hadn't seen the Australian week (finished 2nd book of trilogy yesterday) --- White Tiger and Red Phoenix by Kylie Chan. They do visit Australia in the first book as well even though the setting is Hong Kong. I am reading these mainly because of the idea of the Chinese pantheon instead of the typical western choices appealed to me. They are not that good-- I am not feeling the connection to the main characters and it's a Mary Sue as well. But I made it through 2 books anyway and have put the third on hold at the library -- so I guess that says something.
Also had a inner dialogue about whether books about a pantheon of gods count as fairy tale adaptations for book bingo-- but decided that it would need to actually adapt a mythic story before I could even consider it rather than just having the various gods going about their business.
It also made me think (only a bit and without much depth) about how some books mentioned multiple times on WTM (and in the genre's I like so theoretically pretty good books that i would enjoy), I couldn't make it past the first chapter or two and yet how these books are kind of like eating GF cookies and yet I'm reading them anyway (just like I eat the not really worth it cookies anyway :lol: ).
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In honor of romance week, I can say I read Four Queens -- mostly due to the fact that a romance writer I dearly enjoyed in my college years, Roberta Gellis, wrote a number of romances in that time frame (and also to BaW'ers recommending it of course). Although really I read the first half of it for that reason, the second half was really due to the fact that my older DD, a struggling reader, has latched onto Robin's bingo and we are now having a lovely little reading bingo 'competition' and I could use it for my number in the title square.
DD is reading far more this last month than she has in some time and with no prompting or urging AND has been willing to consider and read titles she would have turned her nose up at otherwise -- so a big thank you to Robin!!
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Another thing some people do, don't be aghast, is they have their kids watch popular television. Someone was just telling me ICarly (I have no clue) can be good for girls. I let my ds watch some tripe on Nickelodeon. It's useful for them to see NT kid banter. Someone had just been mentioning what the best (most disgusting) shows were for this. I think they said Disney channel. Totally not looking forward to that, lol.
Slightly OT, but I banned all Disney tween shows because the parent child banter brought about very annoying changes in actual parent child interactions. ICarly and Jessie were the main two older DD was watching too. I am not a ban-er either -- but the changes were so clear. I could even tell when she had watched the shows over at a friends house.
She has watched other tween shows without that happening -- like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, H2O: Just Add Water, and the new Just Add Magic (i think those last two are just on Amazon maybe?) Note, I am not claiming these are better shows -- just they have not caused the oh so irritating attitude. I haven't watched much of Sabrina or the H20 one -- but the Just Add Magic, the kids seemed more normal and less over the top (Sabrina from what I remember watching it years ago would be more in the over the top camp -- like the very stereotyped mean girls/cheerleaders from an episode I caught a glimpse of recently-- but maybe the child/aunt interactions are just not so full attitude? anyway so far so good with Sabrina)
(ETA -- I mention the over the topness because it seems like that might be what makes shows like that useful for social skills as OhElizabeth suggests?)
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This week:
Being Mortal ..... Thanks a lot BaW'ers. Thanks to you I've gone and read.... my book of the year on the very first week of the year!!
This.book.was.SO.good! I feel like I want to buy copies and hand them out to family and friends -- and I never feel like that.
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The BBC versions are a laugh costuming wise IMO- but both kids enjoyed them anyway and they are truer to the books.
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Older is dyslexic and younger is a natural reader IMO. No way older would ever learn to read by whole language. And yet I can completely see, watching younger, how people came up with the idea of whole language -- but really as the article states younger didn't learn by any whole language 'methods'. She just 'grokked' reading.
BUT to address a main point in the article, older also grew up in the same literate home (lots of books, lots of reading out loud, lots of seeing parents read) -- and she was extremely interested in reading. But it never helped her read. That took a lot of that systematic teaching the author dismisses (which I did not start early because I thought it was just taking a little longer than normal :glare: ).
My personal thought is that 'whole language methods' just mimic what it looks to watch a natural reader instead of actually mimicking what is happening inside their brain that is allowing them to grasp reading. And saying, well, just let them do it when comes naturally as the author says, is making the same mistake.
It's kinda like when a random teacher complemented me on the way I interacted with younger when she was very little -- as if it were me that was saying 'all the right things" when I knew that it was younger that made me sound like a great parent. I knew that because no one would have ever complemented my interactions with older - yet I certainly worked hard to talk a lot to older as 'you're supposed to' -- but that was actually work, it never flowed like it did with younger.
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FWIW, my dyslexic DD really dislikes the immersion reading. She does however like to read along with the audible book with an actual paper book. These books have to be aprox her reading level or slightly above -- it does NOT allow her to read much higher level books (that she could listen to alone). It also has not caused her to start guessing more at all.
Our library has a bunch of 'combined' sets -- book + cd or book +audio player. Or I buy the audible book and have the book already (or get out of library).
As far as which -- I assign reading but I let her choose which method she uses... read book or read book while listening to audible book. Usually she switches to the read+listen option if the book is just a bit too hard for her.
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This week:
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
I really enjoyed this book -- but found myself afterward mulling over how a very few racist throwaways (by which I mean not affecting the plot) dull my enjoyment.
How many books did you read this year and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?
108
Share your top 5 (or more) favorite books.
In order read :
Blackout/All Clear
Ancillary Justice
Uprooted
Goblin EmperorI was planning to read 1 'classic'/month -- but failed that goal. I got to 6 ... but only if I am very, very liberal with my definition of classic
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I see my personal imposter syndrome symptoms as being due to my belief that I did not do a good job -- the actual reason why doesn't matter -- and I've had it happen from when I believe I have no talent (for things that are hard for me), or when I believe I did not put in the effort I should have (for things that come easy), or when I've had high expectations that I did meet. It's all about my inner master criticizer's commentary imo.
Regarding praising for effort -- I saw this recently on the mindset site about the common mistakes people make when praising for effort
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For my dyslexic DD, one of the things that really helped (last year -- early middle school) with writing was doing a paragraph a week -- trying out different methods. Like one week using Dragon, one week dictating to Mom and then editing by self, one week dictating to Ipad and then writing while listening to own dictation. Different weeks were also spent on various writing helps -- such as editing your own work. Little time was spent on spelling or grammer other than as part of editing, I would often read her work back to her and pronounce words as they were written rather than what I knew she meant (I did have several side tracks into spelling or grammar frenzies -- but none of them made any difference that I could tell). None of this wasn't really done purpose (other than me just freaking out about her lack of writing ability) but it really made a huge difference to her -- much of which I attribute to just the weekly practice -- but also some to the different methods giving her options to get her thoughts into words (dictating to Ipad and scribing her own writing was by far the best IMO -- but not her favorite). When we started -- straight into writing was like reading a 2nd graders work. By the end of the school year (on good days) she could go straight into writing her thoughts and have a decent paragraph. Not as good as what she would say -- but decent.
Just writing that makes me think I need to get back to doing that :D
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anki is also nice for pictures - and brings cards back up based on how well you know it (based on your clicking buttons to tell it).
However I would say that actions and feelings (Esprit de Corps) are actually harder to use pictures for than physical things. Especially more complicated actions/feeling such as these ones. If you do decide to use pictures for these more complicated things, my understanding is it's always best to have the person trying to do the remembering involved in picking the picture out.
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Ooohhhh, you'll have to share your recipe for: idnib's "taquitos"!
Can't wait!
(Hey, maybe you could do a Sunday post of books & good Mexican cooking!)
P.S. I have my toast ready to go. So, I'm ready for the recipe whenever you want to post it. :lol:
P.P.S. My cooking skills are so advanced that I don't even have to pull out my Fannie Farmer book to look up how to do toast! Well, unless you want me to add an egg to it. Then I'm gonna need to look it up. :leaving: :lol:
LaughingCat's taquito's.... cut crusts off bread, toast lightly, spread some peanut butter thinly on the bread, starting at one side roll toast so that peanut butter is in the middle, poke a toothpick through the middle to hold it together.... voila! tacquito's. Dip in honey.
Note: didn't read the WW cards...my own creation based off memories of so-called 'ethnic' food eaten at my house when young :rofl: Here's an actual example, scramble some eggs with small amount of very mild jarred salsa (or just tomatoes in a pinch) and voila... Huevos Rancheros.
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My favorite cookbook is one called "How to Cook Without a Book" -- it was paradigm changing for me when I read it years ago. I've weeded down my cookbook collection mightily (because really I'm a recipe reader not a recipe maker) -- but wasn't able to let that one go even though I haven't retried the recipes in years.
And I must admit I like Pioneer Woman's recipes' quite a lot -- at least the few I've made were quick, easy and good as well. But I only google her site looking for something that fits my parameters-- I'm sure her cookbooks would be like most for me -- fun to read but only 1 or 2 recipes at most that I'd actually consider making.
This week for me was 'Nice Dragons Finish Last' (recommended by a BaW'er) and Secrets from the Eating Lab.
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Also sending good wishes to you Heather.
My book this week --- Ancillary Mercy
I had a hard time getting into this book and ended up putting it down for a while --- I only picked it up and finished because the due date was coming up. The middle and end were better but I must admit I consider this one of my recent string of "the first book is the best" series.
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Btw, you do realize the phoneme deletion stuff is something they should have covered in Barton 1? Or is it Barton 2? Sorry, I forget. But I'm just saying, if they had done B1 and B2 *thoroughly* and with enough multi-sensory and to enough mastery (the severe amount it WILL take), he would be getting this.
Just want to say that for my DD, I could easily see her passing 1 & 2 and appearing to mastery (depending on your definition of mastery I suppose -- but passing the test anyway) -- and still not getting it. Like the amount of work we did in LIPS - separating out word after word after word (and I did phoneme substitution/deletion/addition out the wazoo even before that). But looking at her NP report 3 years later -- you'd think she'd never done a minute of it.
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Late again -- but the discussion of racism and group think made me think of a study, in some book who's name I unfortunately do not remember, of an experiment in which the hapless subject was set unknowing amongst a set of actors, who then all proceeded to answer some simple obvious question (such as 22+12) with the same wrong answer -- and as I remember, over 80% of the subject were unable to go against 'the group' and say the correct answer but instead answered wrongly to match the others. The only upside was the % jumped dramatically if even only 1 other person spoke a different answer.
Since I can't remember the non-fiction book's name -- I will offer a fiction book I enjoyed whose story is along similar lines of following the crowd-- Connie Willis' Bellwether.
For this week, I read Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik -- she appears to basing the series on the actual Napoleonic War but set in alternate universe -- I think I would appreciate that part more if I was more of a war aficionado (like if I knew anything more than some minor references from historical romance novels)
and also SWEEP IN PEACE by Ilona Andrews.
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OhE - thanks for replying with specifics on what you've got working with your DS! I hear you on finding a good, accountable OT. We did a round with an OT on our insurance. Not helpful. At all. I called it quits when she was using shame in her repertoire - "you're 7, you should be able to tie your shoes." I don't believe in sugar coating everything...but that set him back on being willing to try by months. :glare:
Ok, this is way OT, but I've gotten 'feedback' several times on my almost 7 yo not being able to tie her own shoes -- and I just think "whaaat?" -- this is so not on my radar for "potential issue" due to her lack of chance to practice but apparently there are a lot of people out there who consider it 'the' way to tell if a kid is having 'problems'.
One person, who gave me quite a hard time about this, said 'How can you stand to tie her shoes all the time?' and I answered 'I can count the number of times I have had to tie her shoes on one hand' (um, velcro? anyone else heard of this newfangled invention?).
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Repost since I missed Robin's link to the new thread:
Butter, on 09 Nov 2015 - 4:07 PM, said:
Today I read The Wave by Todd Strasser. That was quite a disturbing book. It's the fictionalized story of an experiment done in a Palo Alto high school in 1969. When faced with the question of why did people follow the Nazis and why didn't the other Germans stop them, the teacher started an experiment that got out of control. He started a movement he called The Wave complete with a salute and slogans. Within a week the students who were part of The Wave clearly thought of themselves as better than the other students and intimidated the others and refused to allow them to do things with them. The school newspaper dedicated an issue to the negatives about The Wave and Wave members decided the editor of the paper had to be "taken care of." Two students were beaten up. The editor of the paper lost her boyfriend and her best friend because of her refusal to maintain her membership in The Wave. After a week it was clear the experiment needed to be ended immediately, but the teacher really wanted the students to learn from the experience. He called a pep rally just for Wave members where they would see a broadcast from the national leader of The Wave movement. He told them The Wave had been started in high schools across the country and the National Wave Youth Movement was about the start. When it was time to put the image of the leader up, he put up a video of Adolf Hitler. The kids were shocked and dismayed as they learned the truth. No one spoke about what happened for three years. I am sure to this day they all know exactly how Hitler did what he did and why others didn't stop him. Fascinating book, really.
Ok, I'm way late on this -- but this reminds me of Jane Elliot's brown vs. blue eye experiment -- with 3rd graders! Here' s the link to the Frontline program on it. It was gob-smacking when I first watched it.
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Today I read The Wave by Todd Strasser. That was quite a disturbing book. It's the fictionalized story of an experiment done in a Palo Alto high school in 1969. When faced with the question of why did people follow the Nazis and why didn't the other Germans stop them, the teacher started an experiment that got out of control. He started a movement he called The Wave complete with a salute and slogans. Within a week the students who were part of The Wave clearly thought of themselves as better than the other students and intimidated the others and refused to allow them to do things with them. The school newspaper dedicated an issue to the negatives about The Wave and Wave members decided the editor of the paper had to be "taken care of." Two students were beaten up. The editor of the paper lost her boyfriend and her best friend because of her refusal to maintain her membership in The Wave. After a week it was clear the experiment needed to be ended immediately, but the teacher really wanted the students to learn from the experience. He called a pep rally just for Wave members where they would see a broadcast from the national leader of The Wave movement. He told them The Wave had been started in high schools across the country and the National Wave Youth Movement was about the start. When it was time to put the image of the leader up, he put up a video of Adolf Hitler. The kids were shocked and dismayed as they learned the truth. No one spoke about what happened for three years. I am sure to this day they all know exactly how Hitler did what he did and why others didn't stop him. Fascinating book, really.
Ok, I'm way late on this -- but this reminds me of Jane Elliot's brown vs. blue eye experiment -- with 3rd graders! Here' s the link to the Frontline program on it. It was gob-smacking when I first watched it.
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Book a Week 2016 - BW44: November Notions
in The Chat Board
Posted
Read London Falling recently as well after a BaWer recommended it due to Rivers of London. It is a very different style and I struggled getting into it. The beginning was too much of a 'gritty' style I think -- however I did end up enjoying the book. But I did not have the 'how fast can I get the next one!' feeling the Rivers of London series gave me.
Also read Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind. This was just ok IMO. Not sure why but similar to a previous poster - - too many parts just seemed like it wouldn't really happen that way. Not enough to kill the story but enough to make me feel like the author wasn't quite pulling it off.
Although I also read Mercedes Lackey's most recent Valdemar novel -- and that whole book felt like that -- like nothing could go wrong for the protagonists. And the villain reveal at the end was so contrived. I have GOT to stop reading her books or even putting them on hold. It does make an interesting look at how your taste changes though -- I so loved her Sword Sworn and Arrows of the Queen so many years ago when they first came out and now I just feel like 'why do I keep wasting my time on books i don't even like!' (although !shhh! I also felt like that on my last Lord of the Rings reading -- it all just seemed so overly wordy and pompous-- usually I get lost in the story and ignore all that but not the last time :leaving: )