Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Road Trip



Back from our road trip north to Quebec, east to Tadoussac, ferry boat across the wide St. Lawrence River, south through New Brunswick & Maine, west across Massachusetts, south through Connecticut, New York, home--quick summary: discovered 3 terrific used book stores; went whale watching & saw porpoises, harbor seals, minke whales and many beluga whales; long walks through beautiful forests (but, oh, so many black flies that inflicted serious damage!!)--the muffins I made (previous post) saved us several times, including the night we ended up eating muffins, a banana, cheese & crackers for dinner.
Returned late last night, up early to begin teaching a nonfiction literature class at Queens College. The pics are the front & back of a beluga whale t-shirt I bought for Sophie at the The Center d'interpretation des manniferes marins (Center for Interpretation of Marine Mammals)in Tadoussac. Quebec, of course, is French speaking so the five behaviors pictured on the back are in French, which Marilou, the super attentive guide translated as: (top to bottom, l to r) porpoising, birthing, tail flapping, eye-spying, nursing, feeding. The artist is Frederick Bach. Check out the center at http://www.gremm.org
Note: the URL will take you to a page where you'll need to click on that URL again.)

Monday, June 22, 2009

Adventures

We're off tomorrow on a road trip to Canada, one stop is Tadoussac, where the beluga whales breed in the summer. I'm psyched! I made banana-oatmeal-honey- pecan muffins to sustain us.
This is Sophie's last week of school; (the following week she leaves with her mother to spend six weeks with her Swiss relatives in Zurich, with side trips to Mallorca, Monstein, & Milan--very cool!) Instead of our usual Thursday, I picked her up today at school.
As we walked out, holding hands, I said, "Hey Sophie, this is the last time I'll pick you up at kindergarten."
"But you'll pick me up at first grade," she said with a slight question mark in her voice.
"Absolutely," I replied.
She wanted to see her garden so we headed to Englewood. After surveying it, she suggested we expand it, i.e. dig up more yard. Since I love to dig, I ordinarily would agree, but the ground is toooooo soggy! So we played inside board games (by the game rules, not Sophie rules). Then we played "ticket," which basically involves Sophie using my stack of post-its etc. to write ticket to admit me to various events.
"Who are you bringing with you?" she asked.
"Three girls and a cat," I replied.
"No cats," she said. "How old are you?" "Do you have a Blackberry?" etc.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

I Wrote A Book Today

"I wrote a book today," Sophie announced from her car seat.
"Tell me about it," I replied.
"The title is My Mommy, she said. "The story is--'I love you, but who is my Mommy? This is my Mommy.'"
"I like that," I said. "Did you draw a picture of your Mommy?"
"No, Grammie," she exclaimed. "It's about a baby tiger!"
Oooops, I thought--of course, Sophie-the-animal-lover! Curious, I asked how she went about writing the story.
"I took a piece of paper and folded it in the middle. The title is on the outside. The story is on the inside. I wrote one long sentence--'I love you, but who is my Mommy?' Then a short sentence--'This is my Mommy.' I made the baby tiger say in a bubble, 'Who is my Mommy?'"
"You mean a speech bubble?" I asked.
"Yes, a speech bubble."

Monday, June 15, 2009

Nonfiction Summer Reading List from P.S. 174

Students in Marie Russell's 6th grade class at P.S. 174 in Queens put together this summer reading list of nonfiction books in response to my post about the absence of nonfiction books on lists (see May 30, 2009).
Marie e-mailed it to me with this message: "As promised, here is a list that my students put together of titles they recommend. We also read as a class the following and even though they weren't that eager to read them, in the end they rated them very highly. Of Beetles and Angels by Mawi Asgedom, Dave Berger, eds. and Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of the Shakleton Expedition by Jennifer Armstrong. All of these books were part of a grant that our school library received and we were the first class to look at the books." Click on the list for a larger image.
Thank you to Marie Russell and her terrific students!

Friday, June 12, 2009

My Great Story! from NDSS



Check out My Great Story, a new public awareness campaign launched by the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS). Fascinating & truly inspiring great stories of the 400,000 Americans living with Down syndrome are showcased in a beautiful online storybook at www.ndss.org/stories. I'm thrilled to share news of this exciting & worthwhile venture on my blog (and not just because my son, Jonathan, is president of NDSS)--these are electrifying stories!

Two great stories will soon appear as national public service announcements (PSAs): Sujeet Desai, The Traveler and Sara Wolff, The Public Speaker (see pics). Anyone who loves stories--and we all do!!--will loved these!! Check them out at www.ndss.org/stories & watch for them in national media outlets.

Also teachers --the My Great Story website is a terrific online resource for teaching community, diversity, character education, writing, social issues, etc. etc. Check it out: www.ndss.org/stories

If you have Down syndrome, NDSS wants to hear your great story; or, if you have a great story about someone you know who has Down syndrome, NDSS wants to hear from you. You can contact them through: www.ndss.org/stories.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Quite the road trip!




One hundred years ago today--June 9, 1909, twenty-two- year- old Alice Ramsey, with her two sisters-in-law and a friend, set off from New York CIty to drive across America in a Maxwell DA. Fifty-nine days later (41 actual driving days), after many hair-raising adventures, they arrived in San Francisco, where cheering crowds welcomed them. Thus, as the only driver, Alice earned the title of the first woman to complete the transcontinental trip. Today Emily Anderson with Christi Catania to help navigate, and a rotating list of two additional passengers set off to re-create Alice's historic trip in a Maxwell DA that Emily and her father have rebuilt from scratch. Linda and I cheered them on from the side of the road in Wappinger Falls, NY, then followed them to Poughkeepsie for a reception at Vassar College, Alice's alma mater. Fabulous experience!! You can learn more and follow their adventure (via map, blog, Twitter) at www.aliceramsey.org. The top picture is Emily holding her four-month old daughter, who along with her grandmother, is on the trip, too. (They ride in a car that follows the Maxwell DA.) The smiling woman at the right is Catharine Bond Hill, the president of Vassar. The bottom picture is me talking with Charlie MacDonald, an antique car buff, who waited for hours to see Emily drive by. We're standing by his 1936 Buick; the antique car community, I discovered, is quite interested in this trip and the Anderson's rebuilt Maxwell DA. The video is of their departure from Vassar.
For more information, to follow their progress, blog, Twitter go to: www.aliceramsey.org

Read Aloud

Linda's 9-month old granddaughter is staying with us for a few days next week while her mother and father tend to work obligations. Since our children's book collection has aged up with Sophie, I just bought Mem Fox's new book, "Hello Baby." In the process, I discovered her web site & highly recommend it, in particular, check out her pages on "How To Read Aloud" and "See and Hear Mem." I'm going to be using both in the two classes that I'm teaching this summer. Here's the link:
www.memfox.net

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Pasta with red sauce

Sophie & her parents moved yesterday; six streets north and about 1/4 mile east to a larger place. She spent the night at our house, which meant getting up very early to get her to school in the city by 8 a.m. She's not a breakfast eater, except when I make her pancakes. But when the radio announcer said that traffic was backing up on the George Washington Bridge due to an accident, I decided there's wasn't time for pancakes; instead I followed her mother's recommendation to take a bag of Cherrios for her to eat in the car.
I handed her the Cherrios, but no luck. In my typical information-conveying style, I started telling her true stories, hoping to motivate her to eat. First, about how when I was on the NJ Commission on Hunger we did research to find out whether or not breakfast was important for school children & discovered that it is!
Sophie was interested but unmoved so I told her two more totally true stories, hoping to what?--I'm not sure. Anyhow, I confessed that a long time ago when I was a kid, I didn't like breakfast until one morning my grandmother offered me a cold hamburger, which I ate with gusto (a fun-to-say-word, Sophie said). Then there was the case of who-is-going-to-eat-the-trout: during my early teenage years, I spent two weeks in the summer with my grandparents, who lived in New Hampshire. Gramp & I we liked to go fly fishing for trout, until Grammie said we couldn't go anymore unless someone starting eating the trout that were piling up in the freezer. (Knowing that Sophie is a passionate animal lover, I interrupted my narrative to tell her that nowadays many fishers catch and release fish.)
Gramp refused; I agreed & ate trout every morning for the two weeks of my stay!
I ended my storytelling with a tidbit about how when Linda's son Jeremy was in kindergarten he said he'd only eat soup for breakfast.
Then I said (naming Sophie's favorite food), "I wonder--would you have eaten pasta with red sauce for breakfast this morning?"
"Yes," she enthusiastically answered.
"Ok, next time," I replied.
"But, I also like pancakes."