Christmas Eve

We didn't feel like doing anything today. So I made sloppy joes for lunch, Brian took a nap, and Zorah and I watched Princes et Princesses, another Michel Ocelot film. For dinner, we went to Mimmo Ferraro's, a good but pricey Italian restaurant here in Vegas.

After Brian and Zorah fell asleep, I came out here and opened all the mailers that had come in the past week (that I hadn't already opened thinking they were that book I ordered) and wrapped all the presents. I had been half-joking with Zorah that Santa and I had a deal; when she fell asleep on Christmas Eve, he would knock on our trailer door and hand me the stuff. After all, the closest thing we have to a chimney is the fan in the bathroom.

Maybe I'm a bit of a freak this way, but seeing a present in its gift-wrapped perfection gives it an unparalleled aura of mystery, cheer, dare I say magic? Anything could be inside until you open it. Someone thought about you, what amuses you, what makes you happy, and tried to encapsulate that in the tiny, pretty package before you. I love the suspense. If I have gift-wrapped presents I sometimes refrain from opening more than one a day, and then somewhere by myself so I don't drive everyone crazy with my method of unwrapping it as slowly as possible, meticulously picking at and peeling away every single shred of tape before unfolding the paper.

Since I have extra paper, I am wrapping all my unread books. I actually got a nice roll on clearance for nineteen cents. I will be forced to read or dispose of whichever book I open, all in a year-round festive atmosphere. How can you beat that?

And next year, I think I will reenlist the middle man (me), shop early, and wrap presents before sending them out. After all, everyone can use a little extra magic, can't they?

Merry Christmas!

Mount Charleston

Today we decided to drive up to Mount Charleston. About 45 minutes northeast of Las Vegas, it's actually a ski area in the wintertime. Anyway, after going the wrong way and getting stuck behind two snowplows going about 20 miles per hour, we drove by quite a few people who just drive up there to go sledding. And an hour and a half after leaving home, we were there.

For me, ski lodges and mountains in and of themselves don't really bring back happy memories. When our family went skiing during winter breaks, my favorite part was going back to our lodgings after a half day comprised of struggling to ski rather than tumble down the slopes in subzero conditions. We would have hot chocolate, maybe grilled cheese and tomato soup, and bask in blissful warmth. Once everyone had returned from their day of fun, we would have dinner and play games together. So everything was wonderful about the skiing vacations but the skiing itself. But I digress.

We arrived too late to actually do anything but have a picnic in their lodge. It was cold enough outside to give Zorah a headache just walking from the parking lot to the lodge, so we pretty much ate, used the facilities, and turned back around and headed home. The experience was not so great for little Z. She was especially unimpressed by the bathroom, whose floor was coated with the ubiquitous ski sludge. For those of you who have never been to a ski area, this is a clotted brown slush on the floor of ski lodge bathrooms consisting of sand, melted snow, half-dissolved toilet paper, and other waste products churned throughout the day by ski and snowboard boot traffic. Since we were there at closing time, she got to see it in full splendor.

The point of this description is that I am now faced with a dilemma, which is that Zorah, who was so excited to try skiing, is now rather averse to the idea. On the one hand, Brian and I want her to at least try it. On the other hand, I hate skiing. I figure she will probably want to try it one of these years, and maybe even like it, if we don't force her to go now.

During the long car ride there and back, Zorah read The BFG by Roald Dahl.

Movies by Michel Ocelot

This past week Zorah and I have watched three animated French films by Michel Ocelot. I haven't been as impressed by any movie in a long time.

The first two, Kirikou et la Sorciere (Kirikou and the Witch) and Kirikou et les Betes Sauvages (Kirikou and the Wild Beasts) are based on folktales from Africa. Princes et Princesses is a collection of stories done in silhouettes. Here's the link to the trailer for that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-tWKLABb5I

And one for the second Kirikou:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PErexTCSEno

All three are original, clever, and definitely worth seeing for anyone, not just kids. French students could watch the Kirikou films without subtitles and easily understand the dialogue as the voice actors speak slowly and clearly. The same is true for the majority of the third as well.

Find them and watch them!!!

A Christmas Tree and an Angel

Today we went and bought a Christmas tree on which to hang our salt dough ornaments. Since we have limited space, and only about 6 ornaments, we got rather a modest tree. It is supposed to be fiber optic, but there is something wrong with the circuitry within the tree, and the replacement bulb I bought burnt out within an hour. Merry Christmas.

Anyway, as we were deciding between the two selections they had at Walgreens, Zorah found an angel which she wanted to put on top of our tree. She bought it with her own money, and decorated it as soon as we got home. This consisted of cutting off its halo, drawing a face with marker, glueing embroidery thread on its head for hair, then giving it a haircut. Behold the finished product!

Princess

Here is a photo of Princess Zorah from yesterday.

Lied Discovery Childrens Museum

We often make vague promises about taking Zorah to Lied Discovery Childrens Museum here in Vegas. We have a membership, so it wouldn't cost us anything to go, but we somehow never get around to it. It's attached to the library so we could return her books there and borrow new ones. Still mysteriously inconvenient to visit the museum.

Anyway, for the past two days we have been telling her we'll take her tomorrow. One day we had errands, and yesterday was the first heavy snowfall in Vegas in ten years. Exceptions must be made. Today we couldn't put it off any longer, and Zorah and I went.

Don't think that it's tedious being at the Childrens Museum. My favorite thing, and Zorah's second favorite, is the turntable, shown below. Shamefully I admit I cannot explain the science behind it off hand, but we can play with it for a long time. I don't think it's really necessary to know the science behind the things you enjoy. If you know it, great. If you don't, you can find out. If you're not interested, why spoil it with a lecture about the science?

As I was saying, this is Zorah's second favorite exhibit. If you know her, you can guess that it is their Performing Arts Center. This consists of a little stage with a curtain you can open and close, a sort of dance floor directly in front of the stage, and (you guessed it) costumes. This year there must have been a lot of princesses during donators' Halloweens, because the costume rack had at least seven frilly numbers. There were also dinosaurs, bees, superheroes, etc, but you know that these are not in Zorah's visible costume spectrum. Her eyes are incapable of processing those items. The result? An adorable princess doing graceful twirls.

After we were done in the museum (when it closed), we went into the library which shares the same building and borrowed a few books. Zorah read the following that day when we got home.

The Adventures of Hamtaro: A Home for Hamtaro & Other Stories and The Adventures of Hamtaro: Hamtaro Gets Lost & Other Stories by Ritsuko Kawai

Mom: Do you have anything to say about Hamtaro?
Z: No. Except he's very cute.
Mom: What makes you think he's cute?
Z: I just like him. He's a hamster.

Long-Long's New Year by Catherine Gower & He Zhihong
I wanted to experience China [after reading the book]. It was lovely. It was his gramfather [sic]. Say it like that. They will think I'm a baby. I don't care. He sold cabbages, but nothing. But nothing. But nothing!

Lady Lollipop by Dick King-Smith
A little princess and a pig. Lady Lollipop is the pig.

Get Well, Pikachu! and Pikachu in Love adapted by Tracey West

A Package for Miss Marshwater by Elfie Donnelly
This one was Zorah's favorite book, I think. She was actually laughing and giggling as she read it. One part that struck her as particularly funny was when Miss Marshwater, who receives two talking platypi says "Merciful God in heaven."

The Secret of the Painted House by Marion Dane Bauer
This one made Zorah sad because a girl in the story, Pin, was mean. She wouldn't read it again.

I have decided to stop listing all the books Zorah has read. It's too much work.

Snowfall in Vegas

We decided to settle for a while here in Vegas because we thought the winters would be milder. It hasn't really been too bad at all, but this morning it was a little chilly when I went out to get propane. As I was loading the tank back into its place in the trailer, I saw a few little dots of white drifting to the ground. Snow! I went into the trailer and told Brian and Zorah it was snowing. "Just flurries, though," I said.

Anyway, we ended up going out for lunch in one of the many places here that doesn't have any windows. When we went back outside, it wasn't flurries anymore. There was accumulation, and the snow was coming down fast and hard. It looked kind of like a snowstorm, but this was Vegas! So today, Zorah played in the snow. Someone said he didn't remember this happening in the 18 years he lived in Vegas. Someone else said 30 years ago. So I am sort of glad we were here for it. Got a neat picture too.

A Rare Occurrence

Tonight after dinner, Zorah volunteered to help wash the dishes. She does this every now and then, more then than now. I had to take a picture of her in the gloves.

She only did one or two items before she got tired of it. I think that's because I kept giving her advice on how to wash them. Oops. I wouldn't want someone micromanaging me, after all. I think the best way to learn is to figure things out yourself, asking for help if you need it. I guess one of the hardest things about teaching someone is sitting back and giving someone the opportunity to learn.

Can the same be said for parenting in general? Is the best course is to sit back and give your children the opportunity to discover who they are?

Salt Dough Ornaments

For the past two years we haven't really gotten much into the Christmas spirit. No tree, no stockings, etc. Maybe because of the play, The Family Clause, we were inspired to actually try something festive this holiday season. For whatever reason, we made salt dough ornaments.

Salt dough is pretty cool. It's cheap and easy to make. Easy to clean up too. You mix flour, salt, oil, and water together and there you have it. I heard that if you add cream of tartar and food coloring you get playdoh. Nice.

Anyway, Zorah mixed the dough with her bare hands, which she thought was fun for a little while. When it got too sticky, she wasn't too sure about it. As you keep kneading the dough it dries out a bit and becomes more manageable.

Next, we floured the rolling pin and rolled the dough flat. It was a little tricky because if she pressed the pin down too hard, the dough would stick to the pin.

Then Zorah started cutting out ornaments. She started out doing one shape in the middle, but by the end was starting at the side of the rolled-out dough to fit as many shapes as possible.

After drying the ornaments out in the oven on low heat, she painted them, glued hair on the fairies, and we were done.

Barbie? Are You Serious?!

When the play was still in rehearsal, the directors came up with the idea of a Secret Santa for the kids. Everyone would bring a gift bag with items costing no more than $7 for their Secret Santa. These would be hung on the front of the apron of the stage. After the final performance there would be a cast party, and the presents would be handed out then. Zorah got a Barbie.

Ugh. I didn't know how to react! I've been wondering whether we should have been keeping them away from her all these years since that has given them an unparalleled mystique, but here she was before us without any decision having been made. Zorah had already received a three-inch Shanghai Barbie from a girl at rehearsals about a month ago when they were Happy Meal toys.

Long story short we let her keep it. And I have been relieved to see that she has not treated it as if it were some lost relic from the Ark of the Covenant as I thought she might. That very night she combed and cut Falada(the doll formerly known as Barbie)'s hair and resewn her sleeves since she didn't like the slit style Falada came with.

Since then Z has cut Falada's sleeves to a more suitable length. The extra material was made into a cape/scarf.

The Family Clause

Another event that through our schedule was Zorah's performance in The Family Clause. Almost every Friday for the past 12 weeks, Z has spent four hours at the Winchester Cultural Center here in Vegas rehearsing for this musical. During this last week leading up to the two performances, there have been rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals.

Anyway, Wednesday was the dress rehearsal. I brought our old video camera because I wasn't sure how much room there would be on my regular digital camera. I taped then because I knew that on Thursday's performance night I probably wouldn't be able to get really good shots of Zorah's scenes. Thursday night I brought the camera again, thinking that you can't have too many tries at it. Plus, I could edit all the footage to take whatever came out best. As a backup, I also used my digital camera. Good thing. Saturday when I went to download the footage from the video camera, all I got was blue screen for the whole time. The camera was broken. What do you expect with a 10 year old video camera, I suppose. I felt rather stupid for not testing it before taping. So of course I threw it out immediately in a fit of pique.

The actual performance went well, but Zorah was really stressed out after the first performance. Apparently she had slipped backstage and was convinced that the other kids were laughing at her. She was so upset she wasn't sure she wanted to be in the performance the next night. I wasn't sure what to tell her. I didn't want to make her do it, but I also didn't want her to give up on it because of one mistake. Brian drove, she sat on my lap, and I just held her. I told her to wait until tomorrow to decide.

For the second performance we decided on having me stay backstage in the dressing room so that if she needed me I would be there. Things went pretty smoothly until the end of the play when Zorah missed her bow. One of the directors of the play had Zorah bow with her, which Z said made her feel special. She was embarrassed, though, and wondered if people knew she had made a mistake. I told her that most people in the audience would have been too busy focusing on their child to notice, but that those who did would undoubtedly be more concerned with how cute she was than if she had been meant to bow with Miss Susan.

Where do we get the idea that mistakes are bad? When and how do we learn that being wrong is bad? Why do we think that we have to be right all the time? How can we unlearn these things? Maybe if I could allow myself to say that I'm wrong (regardless of whether I really believe that I am), it would show Zorah that it's okay not to be perfect. It can't be very convincing when I say it's okay to make a mistake and then make excuses when I fudge something, etc.

Antiques

As we were coming home yesterday from Zorah's performance, we passed the Bonanza. When I told Zorah it had probably been there since before I was born, she said: "Wow! I bet we could find some great antiques there if they've been open for that long!"

Nice.

A Family Visit

When family comes to visit, your whole schedule is thrown out of wack. Even if, like us, you don't really have a schedule. Of course, this is but a small price to pay for the pleasure of being surrounded by people who would be required to love you even if you were the type who hates children and small animals. But I digress.

This weekend, half of the Salke half of the family visited. Since we hadn't seen any of them in a long time (two months or so), it was really great. I'm not sure how elated they would be to be mentioned in great detail on the web, even if there is hardly anyone reading my blog, so I won't say too much about it (If a tree falls in solitude does anyone hear? If a picture is posted on a site no one visits, is that a violation of privace?). But since then, my blogging has gone to hell.

Anyway, I can mention Zorah stuff since I have decided that she is internet ready. I think one of her favorite times was Saturday afternoon. Everyone was a little tired, so we had some wind-down time at the Bellagio pool. I was hoping that Z would take a nap because we were seeing KA that night. Of course, she didn't sleep. She said she was too hungry, so we walked to the pool bar where we got her a sandwich. As we were eating it by the pool, grandparents lounging and perhaps dozing nearby, Zorah noticed all these fat little sparrows hopping around.

Of course she wanted to feed them. Soon, she had them eating out of her hand. Literally. They wouldn't hop onto your hand, but they would peck at it. What fun! She had pigeons eating out of her hand at our RV park last April until Security told us to stop feeding them. Why? Poop control.

As with most family gatherings, we ate a lot, caught up a lot, and ate a lot. Unfortunately, everyone was here for only three days. Over before it had even begun. In a few weeks, half of the Veloso half of the family is coming to visit. I'll probably be just as vague about that.

Three Books

Josephine Wants To Dance by Jackie French

She wants to dance. She is a kangaroo. She just went to a ballet. She played a part because two of the real ones had had some things that hurt them. Small injuries. She did well. At the end a woman gives Josephine roses.

Cinderhazel: The Cinderella of Halloween by Deborah Nourse Lattimore

There was a witch who married a prince who was a filthy witch prince. His name was Filthy, actually. Well, I don't really know how to exlpain it except it was the opposite of clean, the opposite of real Cinderella. Her stepsisters were witches, and so was she. I liked it very much.

Princess Grace by Mary Hoffman

She isn't really a princess, but she was in a princess parade, and she wanted to be a pretty pink princess but she changed it to a West African Kente princess. Because of books, magazines, and her teacher. She liked it better. I would have had Grace stay pink. Why? I don't know how to describe that one. One reason is the crown is not that pretty and the other is that she doesn't have a full sleeve.

The Spiderwick Chronicles Book 4: Lucinda's Secret

Zorah didn't want to talk about the book and insisted immediately after reading it that she forgot what it was about. So I asked her to name her favorite part. She said "the middle". I asked her to be more specific, maybe to say what part she thought was the most exciting. Then I asked her if there was anything she didn't like. Here are the results of my interrogation:

I think the most exciting thing in the book is when Jared tricked the elves into thinking he was Simon. He did it so that he could get away from them. He showed them the initials on his backpack.

The worst thing was that little scoundrel Thimbletack! He's tricking them now because they won't throw away the Guide. He doesn't exactly trick them, he just does little pranks. He scatters balls and silver jacks that he used to love all over the floor. When they came home they saw it and slipped on them and fell on top of each other.

A Surprising Development

Maybe it was because of all the Cinderella stories she has read; maybe because I get irritated when asked to clean; maybe because she just doesn't like cleaning, she would get really upset about having to tidy. And she would cry while she was doing it. She felt like it was a punishment!

After reading a book called The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School by Valerie Fitzenreiter about three weeks ago or so, I decided to stop making Zorah clean her room. I told her that if her room being messy didn't bother her, then she could keep it that way because it was her room. I added that she would still have to clean up any of her stuff in the kitchen (our one public area).

A few times I asked her if the mess was bothering her. It hasn't been, but it was bothering me, so I asked her if it were okay for me to clean her room. She didn't mind, so I cleaned and swept in there once. A few times I have suggested to her that she clear off her bed a few minutes before bedtime so she has a place to lie down. That is met without complaint.

Today, though, she just decided to clean her room. She threw out garbage, put a bag of almonds which had been in there for a week in the kitchen cabinet, and generally tidied. Once I noticed what she was doing, I quietly asked Brian if he had asked her to clean her room. He hadn't. She just wanted to do it. Family is coming tomorrow, so she just thought it was the right thing to do all on her own. I'm so proud I could cry.

The Case of The Sleeping Dog

Zorah read Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Sleeping Dog and Encylopedia Brown and the Case of the Jumping Frogs by Donald J. Sobol today. She was willing to talk a little about the former.

"I liked it. I like his mysteries. Frank was actually lying about the fast-acting knockout powder. Frank used it so he could knock out Elmo because he wanted his dog to win the food tasting contest. He was lying about coming there later so he couldn't do it.

"Those gas pains won't stop the dog but since Frank knew that a dog had been hurt he thought she meant real pains and he suggested Dog Doc, so that's how Encylopedia Brown figured it out."

Eyezmaze Galves Game

This morning I busied myself cleaning the trailer and reorganizing it. For some reason that is always a good thing to do after a trip. I did laundry, dishes, went through our takeout tupperware collection, and swept. After that, I rummaged through some storage space to find ant poison. Apparently, when the weather changes, the ants emerge from their colonies and scout the RV park for food.

What was Zorah doing for all this time? She was playing a game on eyezmaze.com, a site my brother Mike recommended a while back. It's a great site with puzzle games. I guess they are trial and error, at least when I do them. Possibly some people use logic. In any case, they take patience, observation, and memory among other things. One game in particular, Galves, takes many steps to solve, and all in a particular order. Zorah was trying to do it for about a half hour when she asked for my help. I found the walkthrough instructions and put them in Notepad for her. I think there are about 30 steps to solving the puzzle, some of them involving timing as well. For another hour or so, she tried to get it right. She would get frustrated almost to the point of tears then she would sort of brush it off and try again.

At one point, I tried to help her and it took me three or four tries to simply go step by step to figure out what was going wrong. We figured it out after another long while, and she finally was able to go through the whole thing by herself. You should try it. Go to http://www.kotarogame.com/archives/53702998.html and play it. If you scroll down enough, you can find the walkthrough to the game. I think it's amazing that Zorah had the persistence and determination to see the thing through. It really is frustrating to miss one step because you are trying to rush to the part where you messed up and then have to start all over again...again.

The Snow Queen

Today we went to the library after running a few errands. The last book we picked off the shelf was Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen: A Christmas Pageant, adapted by Richard Kennedy. Zorah has read many versions of this story, but this one was in play format, which I thought would be a nice change from traditional stories. Plus, there is always the option of acting the play out with all her dolls and toys.

The book is 85 pages. I guess it took her about two hours to read at most. Here are her thoughts. I tried to ask some questions to get more information from her, but she'd had about enough summarizing already.

"The imps and the angels battled at the end. The angels were on Gerda and the reindeer's side. I liked it better than the other ones because it had much more story in it. But also because the imps battling the angels was in it. Kai is the same. Kai and Gerda act the way they do in all the other Snow Queen stories."

The Unschooling Schedule

Besides the benefits to a child's self-esteem, confidence, mental processes, parental relationships, and love of learning, etc., unschooling is great for unexpected schedule changes.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we decided to go to Los Angeles for a Warrior foosball tournament. It was only a 4 to 5 hour drive, and Zorah would be able to reunite however briefly with the kids she met at LA Foosclub when we lived in Burbank. So that morning we booked our room, packed up, and headed out.

Zorah has been on a pretty relaxed schedule for a while now. She usually wakes up anywhere between 8 and 9:30 am and is ready for sleep by 10:30 pm at the latest. A foosball tournament schedule is a little different though.

Long story short, she was up until 1am on Sunday and 2 or 3 am Monday. She stayed up playing with the other kids whose parents were also still in events. When they left she amused herself reading a book of fairy tales from around the world.

It's Wednesday now, and her schedule is still a little off, but does it matter? No. I think we'll be back at 10:30 bedtime tonight, but we had all of Monday, Tuesday, and today to adjust back to normal and catch up on sleep. I don't know how the kids who are in school manage it.

So what benefit did she get from going to a foosball tournament? Well, she got to play with old friends, make new ones, and see Los Angeles again. And she loves hotels. We didn't stay in the hotel the whole time. Saturday afternoon we had a nice brunch in Marina del Rey at a new restaurant called The Organic Panificio. As you may guess, it tries to serve food with as many organic ingredients as possible. It tasted good. Here is Zorah enjoying her pancakes, which she decorated with fresh organic strawberries.


Zorah says: "I liked my trip to LA because I liked the fruity face I made. I read a book. I played tag with my friends. That's all I want to say."

I keep hoping that the more I do this, the more she'll want to say, but I doubt it. LOL.