The kids need the main computer more and more to do their work.  Patience has her own netbook, but it does not load software.  So all her Spanish work is on the main computer.  Same for Gabriel.  Plus he also does typing and Lego Designer on the main computer. And Patience does all her photo editing on the main computer.  Mashi has a laptop from work.  And where does that leave me?  Without access to a bloody computer, that’s where.  Unless I want to get up at dawn or stay up until midnight.

Every woman needs a laptop of her own.

And so I set out to find one that I could afford.  I called Apple and was lucky enough to be directed to Michael Schieferstein.

Michael spent a big chunk of time asking me about how exactly I use my computer, thereby ensuring that I got one that matched my needs.

Turns out a 13″ standard Macbook suits me fine. Michael directed me to various discounts that can help me, from homeschool discounts to overstocked computers marked “refurbished,” to one year interest free financing.  He was awesome. It is so unusual to find a helpful customer service representative.

I found out that Apple reps are not on commission and their call times are not limited.  So I felt neither rushed nor pressured.  He was absolutely fantastic, helpful, answered all my questions (and I had a lot of them), and didn’t even mind when I put him on hold for five minutes to consult on another line with my husband.

So we found our computer.  Did the financing thing.  And then, sadly, someone else had already bought it!  Bugger!  But no worries, Michael told me, he would be there all day and watching the inventory for when another one came in.  And true to his work, he called me at 9:30 pm with the news: He found me another one.  I bought it on the spot.  What kind of rep gives that kind of service?  Awesome does not even begin to cover it.  Someone ought to give this young man a raise or bonus!

Thank you, Michael, for helping me get a laptop of my own.  And for being one of the few voices on the other end of the phone who are helpful, patient, and kind.

You, too, can get access to the Marvelous Michael:

Michael Schieferstein
Mac Expert
866-254-8313 EXT 46247
schieferstein@apple.com

I found this on Lee’s tumbler, which I can’t find anymore.  Maybe he’ll be good enough to comment and leave his tumbler URL somewhere for me.  What I do have, though, is his twitter home page.  I tracked the image back to Deviant Art artist, Toxic Perspective and wrote to her.  Have not heard back.  Yet.

I love this image.  My daughter inadvertently explained why in a short essay she wrote about teen sexuality. Here is the excerpt that says it all for me.

One of the things I found most interesting is how much the media and outside world controls sex. They (the media and outside world) create the fashions of what is good and bad about your body. Skinny=sexy and buff=hot. That sort of thing. And it scares me to think about all the teens out there doing what the media tells them is right.

Gratitude to Delegate Harvey B. Morgan for introducing HB 1134 Marijuana.  This bill is currently with the House Courts of Justice Criminal Sub-Committee.  This is not the entire bill, but just the bit that made me very excited:

Decriminalizes simple marijuana possession. The bill does not make marijuana possession legal but creates a civil penalty of $500 for simple possession of marijuana, a penalty equal to the current criminal fine for simple marijuana possession. The bill also raises the quantities necessary for punishment of possession with intent to distribute so as not to punish amounts that may be possessed for personal use. The bill creates a rebuttable presumption that a person who grows no more than five marijuana plants grows marijuana for personal use and not for distribution, an offense punishable by the $500 civil penalty.

If you live in VA, and want to raise your voice in support (or dissent) of this Bill, please contact your Virginia State Legislator and Senator and let him/her know how you feel.  Not sure who your representatives are?  Click here, type in your address, and find out.  At the bottom of the information there is a button that says

“Send a message to your Delegate and Senator”
CLICK IT.

Then send them something like this (the more you personalize, the more seriously your contact will be taken):

Dear Legislator _____ and Senator _____,

I am writing to voice my strong support for HB 1134 Marijuana; decriminalizes simple possession thereof, civil penalty. Criminalizing marijuana use has done little to stem its use. There is no credible evidence that marijuana is a “gateway” drug. There has never been, ever, a single reported case of marijuana overdose. It is not physically addictive. There are more deaths and crimes fueled by alcohol than by marijuana, not to mention the grossly disproportionate number of marijuana related arrests for black men. Please carefully consider this Bill and lend your full support to it. There is a huge, closeted community of hemp smokers in your district who will back you at election time based on this issue alone.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jane Doe Voter

And after you do that, email a thank-you note to Delegate Adam P. Ebbin for being an additional supporter for this Bill.

Come people! GET UP, STAND UP.  We pay the salaries of our elected representatives.  We CHOSE them.  They are there to do our bidding, to represent our interests, but if we don’t tell them what we want, how can they effectively represent us?

You can read more about Delegate Morgan and the challenge he faces in getting this Bill taken seriously in this Washington Post Article.

This post is a summary of what I’ve learned while teaching my son to read, which turns out to be stuff I already knew.

My son asked me to teach him to read when he was five.  He is turning 10 this year, and he is now doing what I had set out to teach him those 5 years ago: reading the instructions for his math workbooks on his own.  This was the metric I used to measure all the various things we tried. And we tried a lot of things.  I kept track of our journey as part of a series, “teaching my son to read,” and you can read the first entry in that series in my archives, here.

When my son (or any child) is ready to learn a skill, they learn it, *snap*, just like that.  When they are not ready, a great deal of input is required to teach the skill.   I forgot all about that and focused totally on the fact that he could not read.  Mother Culture got me on this one.  I felt pressured, and passed that pressure right down the line to my then 7-year-old son.  Who cried. A lot. I had to change my approach.  I was not going to press tears out of him over “See Spot run.”

But I could not stop feeling the press inside myself, so no matter how hard I tried to block it from him, he felt it anyway.  That part sucked, because he was feeling like he was disappointing me, and he was right.  The deeper truth, though, was that I was disappointed with myself.  What kind of homeschooling parent cannot teach their child to read?

We used websites, software, basal readers, Dr. Seuss, word wheels, post it notes, finding letters in nature, copy work, and a bunch of other stuff that I can’t really remember except to remember that it did not work.  He could read the text present in one particular tool (the word wheel or the basal reader) but could not transfer that to any other reading situation.

So on February 5, 2009, I gave up.

I decided I could not teach him to read, and began looking for someone else to do it.  I vetted out tutors, all of whom wanted to test him for various things that I knew he did not have, like developmental delays.  I took him to the pediatrician instead because we have a family history of lazy eyes and tracking issues.  She sent him to the eye doctor to make sure he did not have a lazy eye or tracking issues.  I had him assessed for dyslexia, which I have.  The results across the board: “I’m sorry, Mrs. Winterton, but we just don’t know why your son is not reading.  There is no explanation for it.”  Well fuck.  At least I was clueless in good company.

Then my son told me he wanted to learn Spanish.  Spanish.  What about English?  But I was so over it, I just mumbled something, bought him Rosetta Spanish, and let him have at it.  A few weeks into his Rosetta lessons, I watched him read, in Spanish, El gato es blanco.  He read Spanish.  And then, to my surprise (wonder? horror?) he typed in Spanish, too.  It took me all of 57 seconds to order him Rosetta English.

I learned that the way in which English is taught as a second language is very different than they way it is taught to native speakers.  He responded very well to the ESL approach.  I hired a linguistics student, Megan Smith (smith.megan.e@gmail.com) to tutor him, not so much on reading, per se, but rather on understanding the basic structure of English, which was a great mystery to my son’s math brain.  The rules don’t make sense.  The spelling is insane.  Megan was able to explain why.  And Rosetta gave him the chance to practice it.

As an added bonus, there is a speech recognition program within Rosetta, which is helping Gabriel find his “r,” which he lost during the critical period of 1-3 years old when accents are formed.  We were listening to Harry Potter on tape during that time.  People often ask me if he is British.  “Yeah,” I tell them, “I picked him up on London tube.”

Once it became clear to me that the ESL approach is what worked for him, I ask Gabriel about that.

Me: So, If English is your second language, what is your first language?

Gabriel: Math.

Meanwhile, my friends were incredibly sympathetic and supportive.  Norma, founder of RSA and a Waldorf Homeschooler, reminded me (over and over and over and over and over again) that reading is not even started in the Waldorf paradigm until the 10th year, which is backed up by this study for those of you who prefer scientific research, like me.

As of a week ago, Gabriel is reading his own math workbooks instructions, which was the bar I set so many years ago.  He is also reading the speech bubbles in his games, the emails his friends send him, street signs, menus, the works.  He writes his own thank you cards, has a notebook with secrets in it, and writes knock knock jokes on our bathroom note board.  Is he a fluent reader? Not by a long stretch.  But, is he reading?  YES.  And all in his 10th year.  Go figure.

For anyone else out there struggling with a “late” reader:

1. Don’t let Mother Culture pressure you!
2. Get your child assessed by medical professionals to rule out any visual processing issues/learning disabilities, and most importantly to relieve your own anxiety.
3. Try a wide variety of tools until you find the one that works for your kid.
4. Save your freak out for the 10th year.

Gratitude to all my friends who listened to me weep and moan and struggle with this issue for so many years, and who offered suggestions, used books, tissues, and booze as needed.  Gabriel could not have done it without you.  And neither could I.

I liked it so much the first time, I’ve decided to do it again.

NaNoWriMo may be over, but my manuscript is not done yet.  Seizures can be so disruptive!  Trying to stay offline and focus my energy on mothering, healing, and writing.

Much gratitude to all who have been, and continue to be, so incredibly supportive during this time. Thank you for food.  Thank you for rides.  Thank you for overnights.  Thank you for picking up my slack.  Thank you for being such wonderful friends.

Thank you to the following homeschool-friendly businesses for supporting the GUESS Homeschool Science Fair and the young scientists of Hampton Roads!

Green Olive Tree is an internet company based in Portsmouth, Virginia and owned and operated by a homeschooling family. They offer a broad range of internet services, from reliable web hosting to corporate infrastructure solutions and server administration.

SKS Science supplies homeschoolers and other educators with all the science supplies you need to turn your dining room table into a proper laboratory. Browse their site for test tubes, bottles, face masks and other lab supplies and books.

Book Exchange is the largest used bookstore in Eastern Virginia. Unlike most musty and confusing used stores, this one is clean, bright, inviting, and has a huge selection of used homeschool books. There’s always an interesting curriculum find on these shelves!

Folkmanis Puppets makes the most delightful animal puppets available outside Santa’s workshop. Meet their most unusual creations like llamas, Chinese dragons, ostriches, flying squirrels. Unusual materials create realistic textures, and they all move in very realistic ways. Irresistible.

The Happy Scientist, Robert Krampf, hosts an online wonderland for budding scientists. With online science lessons, experiments to try at home, a science photo of the day, and new content added all the time, you’ll love setting your kids loose on this site.

Mad Science is Hampton Roads’ premier provider of science enrichment classes for children. Summer classes include “Crazy Chemistry” and a space camp developed with NASA! New homeschool science classes are being offered in Norfolk and VA Beach, with more planned for fall.

Moore Expressions is a homeschool bookstore in Virginia Beach, VA. They sell used and new homeschooling curriculum, host a support group, and publish a newsletter called the Bayith Educator. They are the premier source for homeschooling books in the Hampton Roads area.

Norfolk Karate Academy offers classes in Tang Soo Do (Korean karate) and Gracie Jiu Jitsu (Brazilian grappling and self-defense). With classes for children, teens, and adults, it’s a great way for anyone to get in shape and kick things in a socially acceptable way!

Brooks Systems offers standalone software and web applications that check legal compliance in all municipalities in all fifty states, and create truth-in-lending documents for residential lenders. Using Brooks for your automated mortgage compliance, you can be sure your loans are safe.

Virginia Air and Space Center was host to the homeschool science fair this year, and delivered awesome science classes for homeschoolers from their education department. The VASC is the educator resource center for the NASA Langley Research Center.

P.S.  Thanks especially to Lydia and Shez for putting this all together!

Checking out until December 1, 2009.

Happy NaNoWriMo!

Lydia and I decided (rather last-minute on my end) to attend the 2009 Hampton Roads NaNoWriMo Kick Off Party together.  After I was already in the car, I found out it was a costume party.  This is one of those times when being a homeschooler comes in super handy.  Our dress up box runneth over and within 3 minutes, Mashi and I were on our way with a grass skirt on me and a lei on him.

We arrived at Kelly’s at did not see anyone in costume.  Not a single person.  Dread began to set it.  But then, Lydia texted me the magic words “I’m here!” and all was well.  We were informed that the NaNo group was upstairs in a private-ish area. As we shuffled up the stairs, I was relieved beyond imagining that others were in costume, including one of the most beautiful corseted gowns I have ever laid eyes on.  I could feel the “fresh meat” sign flashing on my head.

Two vodka tonics later, its was time for all the fresh meat to sing a cover of a typical nursery rhyme, such as Mary Had a Little Lamb or I’m a Little Tea Pot.  The words had been altered to be about writing, but the melodies were supposed to stay the same.  I started sweating so much I asked Lydia if I had pit stains, even though I was wearing black. I was sweating that much.  Because I don’t know any of these rhymes and I was third in line to sing.  Alone.  A cover of London Bridge is Falling Down, which I never learned because I didn’t speak English until I was 8 or so.

I tried to quickly construct a cover of Alla-Li, a Greek nursery rhyme about a songbird who is set free from her cage, but the pressure was too much.  There was nothing I could do.  I had to confess the truth.  “I don’t know this song,” I told the group, “and would greatly appreciate some help.”  And boy did I get it.  Twenty people, give or take, sung me through a cover of a song I didn’t know and it sounded great.   I liked this crowd so much that it was time for another vodka tonic.

I got a plot bunny, got bling for my plot bunny, traded magic tricks, birthing stories, bra malfunction histories, and best of all… played the question game.  If you are not sure what that is, ask Jeremy.  During the question game, I realized that this group was not a group of writers, per se, but a group of very creative souls who also happened to write.  It was like finding the punk/outcast/Geek/drama tribe at High School, except this time we were the cool fabulous ones (in corsets and capes) and everyone else seemed dull and dim-witted in comparison.

The best part of the whole evening is that not a single person ever asked me “So, what do you do?” I got questions like “what do you write about?” or “where do you live?” or “how many children do you have?”  But none of that status identifying “what do you do?” question, which is really a cover for “how much do you make?”  I was in heaven.  Alix shared one decadent drag of her cigarette with me, to top it all off.  It was an amazing evening and you can read more about it Lydia’s Norfolk Books Examiner’s page and see more images at her NaNoWriMo 2009 Flickr set (all these pics are from her set!)

Gratitude to organizers, back-up singers, plot bunny makers, bunny blingers, supreme questioners, marvelous magicians, delicious decolletage, and everyone else who made this the bestest most funnest (and only) hazing I’ve ever participated in.

I called all the Suffolk public vaccination sites.  They are all out of seasonal flu vaccine and no H1N1 anywhere to be found in Suffolk, VA.  They expect it mid-November.  While I was calling the Virginia State Department of Health my husband was speaking to his Virginia Beach living friend, while said friend was actually, at that very moment, getting the H1N1 vaccine at a private VaBeach practice.  The practice in question was giving the vaccine out only to established patients who had been seen in the past 6 months.

Then I called all the public vaccination sites in VaBeach.  They are all out of H1N1.

One pharmacist I spoke with had, herself, injected over 200 people with the seasonal flu vaccine, but could not get her own children vaccinated because when she went to the Health Department (local, VaBeach), they were out of seasonal flu vaccine.  The VaBeach health department is giving H1N1 vaccines to homeschoolers, but you should call first because they may already be out.  And you have to be a resident of VaBeach.

VaBeach had vaccine, (seasonal and H1N1) and ran out.  Suffolk, I don’t think, has ever got any H1N1, but I’m not sure. The best and truest thing I’ve heard all day is that there is “No rhyme or reason to the distribution of the vaccine.”

I think the main issue is that we don’t do this very often.  As a nation, we don’t generally freak out about an illness, rush a vaccine through our system, and expect the entire population to be vaccinated in a brief period of time.  We’re like virgins – stumbling around wondering if the needle made it in or not.

Vaccinate or not?
This question has too many variables to answer globally, and is outside the scope of this post.  Each person, each situation, is very different.  Before reaching a decision about vaccinating or not, please read about herd immunity, and consider that the most dangerous thing we do every day is get into a car.

Am I vaccinating?
Yes, if I don’t get the flu first.  Everyone around me is coming down with it.

————————————————————————

There is no H1N1 vaccination availability in Suffolk, VA as of this date.

Everyone I’ve called (State Health Department, local health department, my doctor, and all the below pharmacies) is out of vaccine.  They’ll get the vaccine when they get the vaccine, supposedly mid-November.  Many private doctor’s offices, especially large ones, will be getting allocations of vaccine.  You can call your doc’s office every few days to see if they’ve gotten it yet.

The Virginia Department of Health lists the following places as designated public H1N1 vaccination sites.  I’ve added information in green to the chart below.

The Western Tidewater Health District will offer the vaccine. They are located at 135 Hall Avenue and you can call them for updates at 757.514.4783.

You have line-priority for the vaccine if you:

• are pregnant
• live with or care for infants under 6 months old (this includes siblings)
• are a health care provider or EMS/EMT personnel
• are 6 months – 24 years old
• have an underlying health condition, especially asthma

Shot or nasal spray?
Nasal spray is approved for people 2-49, who have clear nasal passages, and have no underlying health conditions (like asthma).

Shots are for everyone else.