Yom HaShoah

I visited HMS Indefatigable's blog to learn that she had read a name.

snarky, me.

I can't help but laugh when re-reading this entry of mine. I reiterate that not everyone should homeschool their kids!

What did the child learn so well that irked me so much? World War II fighter planes and weaponry!

Harvard Extension School Information Session

I could not attend the Information Session in Cambridge last week (A had Law class), but since I had already given my RSVP, I asked the Harvard Extension School offices to send me a set of the handouts. I received the packet today. In it, I found an article by Ursula Pawlowski featured in the Fall 2005 Alumni Bulletin. In part, it reads:

"Extension School faculty have discovered unique qualities in students who are homeschooled. Dr. Paul Bamberg, who teaches math and physics, was struck by an exceptionally bright student in his advanced geometry course. 'I had a half-dozen Extension School students combined with Harvard undergraduates in my class,' he says. 'The top two students happened to be Extension School students, and the top student was homeschooled.' Of the homeschooled students he has come in contact with, Bamberg says he has found them to be 'more inclined to speak up, more careful with all the detail on their homework.' As for stereotypes, Bamberg says, 'I've heard them - that homeschooled students are antisocial, a liability to high schools. I haven't met any of those types yet.' "

What A is reading for pleasure...

Last week A read this (top); this week it is this (bottom). I know. Brian James is so emo. But isn't that what adolescence is about?

Music to motivate learning

We tend to pipe in music into our lives on a steady basis. To kick-start our learning neurons, we flow between Mozart, Bach, Beatles, and Bluegrass. Lately, there's been a lot of bluegrass. I am curious as to what everyone else listens to. Anything interesting, cool, new, or weird?

Being the change.

A has a Genetics test in Brooklyn this morning. Last night I got barraged with questions about somatic chromosomes and gametes and haplodiploidy in bees and wild brown dominant alleles in drones crossed with F1 progeny of g-d-knows-what combination.

"Mom, I know all the mitotic phases!"
That's great, son!
"Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, and do you know when cytokinesis happens?"
Let me guess.
"Late anaphase or telophase!"

Man, I used to teach that stuff to wide-eyed 18-year-old college freshmen.

Which is funny. The majority of homeschoolers in the co-op here are incredibly studious, nerdy, geeky, or just plain scary. In a good way. A's Law class is comprised of kids who look dead-serious as they walk into class, ready to attack the "issues" of the cases they are given. Big, tall, kids whose 2006 hormones make them taller than the tallest teens I ever encountered, some with buttons on bags and hats and clothing that read things like, "Question Authority" or "Be the Change You Wish to See in the World - Gandhi".

I sometimes wonder if mixing all ages of teens together in one room to study the same class material is a problem for A. So far, he seems to actually like it, and doesn't mind if the older teens are better able to understand the class material than he is. He knows if he doesn't "get" it one day, it will come later. Because I am the secondary teacher, and I can break things down ad nauseum until he does get it. Ah, the beauty of the Classroom of One.

Which brings me to another thing about flexibility in homeschooling. Unfortunately, A was not accepted to the International Center of Photography Teen Workshop for this Spring. Someone at ICP, who I will call "Tim" left a voicemail message on A's cellphone that went like this:

Tim: Hi!! This is Tim at ICP!! And I have news about you and the Teen Workshop! Call me as soon as you get this! I'll be in the office until 7 tonight!!

It was nearly 6 p.m. when A retrieved the message, and we were on the street. In Times Square. A got incredibly excited. "It's ICP! It's ICP! I have to call them NOW. NOW. Before it's too late." He got Tim's voicemail. Tim returned the call to A, after much sweating and adrenaline-rushing, by 6:55 p.m. The conversation went like this:

Tim: Well, you know, this is a very competitive program, and you're very young, I see that you're 13-years-old, and, we're supposed to take high school kids, so we just don't have a place for you. Try applying next year.
A: Okay.

A to me: "Does that mean I wasn't competitive enough?"
Me: Grrrrrr....

My imaginary e-mail to Tim:

Dear Tim:

Hurry up and get rejected? Lotto-Winner syndrome before being tossed? Is this a New York thing? Puhleez, darling. Send an e-mail when rejecting an applicant to your program. And, include the bit about high school enrollment as a requisite, in your literature. You otherwise are just getting their hopes up for nothing. You are evil. Go back to Mordor.

Very truly yours,

La Maitresse

Later, we called up our photographer friend, the one whose images are in numerous coffee-table photo books and on too many t-shirts to mention, and asked if he could teach A how to work in the darkroom in his studio and maybe learn some photography technique. His reply? "Sure. What's your schedule like?"

Score.

Even journalists don't read?

Is it me, or does it seem to anyone else that the reporter who wrote this piece has not actually read Don Quixote? If I were Bono, I'd give the journalist a call.

note: as a native Spanish speaker and reader of Cervantes, I was rather surprised to see Don Quixote and Bono's work for Africa mentioned in the same article. Don Quixote is not known in the literary world as a "knight in shining armor who champions causes," but rather, is as synonymous to "seriously-touched-in-the-head guy in armor" as you can get. Because there are corporations financially backing Bono, it would seem to me that the publication has essentially brought itself into "libel" territory.

from Detroit Free Press, January 27, 2006:

Bono's new cause

U2 front man Bono is proving anew to be the 21st Century's Don Quixote. On Thursday, he unveiled a new push to fight disease in Africa. He announced in Davos, Switzerland, a partnership with several companies to sell products under a brand called Red, with the proceeds going to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"So here we are, fat cats in the snow, and I say that as one," he said to laughs from the ink- and pixel-stained wretches at a media confab. Red includes red-theme products from American Express, Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani.

*****
In that other story that makes LaMai think hard about her own little memoir, the story about a certain writer who got Frey-d on a certain talk show, Gawker takes this spin.

Swarthmore pulls through!!!!

Some more feedback:

Dear Ms. LaMai,

We have tracked down some figures for you. Each year we receive approximately 30-40 homeschooled applicants and they are accepted at the same rate as the rest of our applicant pool, which is 22-23%. If you have any further questions please let us know.

Swarthmore College
Admissions Office

Sunny?

LaMai asks everyone who is not feeling sunny to go visit The Denim Jumper. LaMai says: Try it. You will probably like it.






why is LaMai starting to sound like Manolo?

from Swarthmore College

Sorry we do not have statistics on acceptance rates for homeschooled students.

We are looking for the same sort of activities, grades, etc that we look for in our other students. Swarthmore is looking for the intellectually curious student who is taking the most challenging courses available to them and who is active in no-school [sic], community activities.

Admissions Office
Swarthmore College

Those colleges that do not offer any numbers at all, have left me no choice but to ask the follow-up question: "Do you accept any homeschoolers at all?" I will add that information as I receive it.

Edit: Swarthmore further responds:

Dear Ms. LaMai

I'm not quite sure what you mean my[sic] "any" but if you are referring to whether we allow home schooled students to apply and do we accept any of them, yes we do.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Swarthmore College
Admissions Office

My response to their response:

Without statistics, or an affirmative response as to whether homeschooled students are actually accepted by Swarthmore, it is difficult to gauge if any homeschoolers at all have been accepted by your institution. I therefore felt the need to ask if any number of homeschoolers have actually been accepted by Swarthmore. I thank you for your responses.

LaMai

Swarthmore pulls through!!! Some more feedback:

Dear Ms. LaMai,

We have tracked down some figures for you. Each year we receive approximately 30-40 homeschooled applicants and they are accepted at the same rate as the rest of our applicant pool, which is 22-23%. If you have any further questions please let us know.

Swarthmore College
Admissions Office

from Yale University

Hi LaMai-

The stats for applicants and martics [sic] are not available for me to give out;
however, I can tell you that we have some extremely competitive applicants for admission who have been homeschooled in the past.
Our application process is a wholistic one in that no one thing can
help or harm an applicant's chances of being accepted, and having been homeschooled
certainly should not by itself harm any applicant to the University.

Best

Undergraduate Admissions
Yale University

The Danes win again!

LaMai is trying to get over the fact that there are many, many lurkers who are too shy to say "hi." I do not expect Calletta, L, Liz, Sarah, or the regular bloggy folk to out themselves yet again. It would have been nice to see new names. But no. The Canadians and Australians win again. Maybe that is because Canadians habitually leave their front doors open, and Australians are fearless and use crocodiles to clip their lawns. I suspect the New Yorker who commented, who regularly outs herself, was being polite and tried to show others how safe it really is here on a New York City blog (thank you, nycitymomx3; I owe you lunch at Balthazar's). That is okay. I took a nice long whiff of a lavender martini and ate chocolate. I am over it now.

In other news, last night at my knitting circle, I took the opportunity to unveil my fugly hat. It was supposed to be a nice round simple garter stitch mohair-ish creation. What I actually produced had, well...

A: "Mom, that shape is weird. It looks Scandinavian or something. Like it should be on a troll."
Me: "Don't make fun of my hat!"
A: "Not making fun. I'm just saying...."
Me: "Is it really bad?"
A: "Um, it looks like a [insert prophylactic thing here]."

Goth Girl at Knitting Circle: "Um, is that a, uh, reservoir tip on top of your hat?"
Me: [Sigh] "Yes. I guess. Doesn't it look Seussical?"
GGaKC: "Uh. Yeah. Sure. Seussical."

Knitting Circle Leader Hipster Chick: "Wow. Your hat rocks. It's so funny."
Me: "Thanks."
KCLHC: "No, really. I love it."

Okay. Stop laughing, folks. I found this hat (top-right) online. It all makes sense now. My viking DNA wins again. It is now knitting for me.

Because lurking can be creepy...

De-lurk yourselves. It's de-lurking week. And we're pretty friendly here.

Edit: Oh, wow. I had no idea that Relaxed Homeskool declared de-lurking week about two weeks ago. That's okay, though, because lurking is still creepy. So I declare it de-lurking week on this blog. Thank you kindly, folks.

MWAH HAH HAH!!!!

Napoleon: RAR RAR WOOF. RAR WOOF RAR WOOF BARK BARK WOOF WOOF RAR RARAR WOOF BARK RARARARARWOOFARKARWOOFBARKBARK?
Me: Huh?
Napoleon: Are Americans more fearful of de-lurking than other populations in other cultures?
Me: I have no idea, Nappo. Let's find out.
Napoleon: Woof.
Me: Indeed.

Happiness is....

Knowing your kid is not alone enroute to class on the subway, but is accompanied by another homeschooler.

photo: sionnac on Flickr.

picking up a meme...

This meme from Andrea's site over at Atypical Life. She is tagging anyone!

Four jobs you have had in your life:
Airline reservationist (gag me! but I got to fly for free)
Fish importer for gelatin (the fish came from Lake Victoria when it contained victims of the Hutu/Tutsi conflict in Rwanda)
Americorps reading tutor to inner-city kids (where all the dads were away "at college")
"Celebrity Justice" the t.v. show, content writer

Four movies you could watch over and over:
The Wizard of Oz
Love, Actually
Amelie
Ocean's 11

Four places you have lived:
Los Angeles
Miami
London (Belsize Park)
Paris (18eme arrondissement; the apt. was very small)

Four t.v. shows you love to watch:
Extreme Makeover, Home Edition
Trading Spaces
60 Minutes
Anderson Cooper 360°

Four places you have been on vacation:
Italy
Switzerland
The Middle East
U.S.S.R. in August 1991 (don't ask)

Four websites you visit daily:
Gothamist
CNN.com
NYTimes
Google

Four of your favorite foods:
blue corn quesadillas!!!!!
Aloo Gobi with parathas
All my grandmother's Cuban cooking
feta/shallot quiches that I make at home

Four places you'd rather be right now:
Charlotte's house near Woodstock
Miami
Rajasthan
Magnolia Bakery

I tag anyone, as well!

Concierge Services, where are you?????

Ode on an Itinerary for: Marlette and Guisseppe (super condensed)

Thou still most ravish’d site of bloggyness
Thou foster child of Postings and cool Font,
Mormon mommy-teacher, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than this rant:
What purple-border I last recall about thy template
Of King Tut or mortals, sometimes the Ramones,
In Tempe or the dales of Albuquerque?
What men or gods have seized (you)? Should I phone?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What new curriculum? Gives it you ecstasy?

*you probably know that this lame poem was inspired by this guy's work. And Concierge Services, WHERE ARE YOU?

Lazy Sunday

A is finishing his Rowan Big Wool yarn scarf, and Napoleon is enjoying the fruit of his labor...

Quick food

It's been a long time since I've blogged about food here. Part of a good education is teaching young'uns how to fend for themselves in a kitchen and over a stovetop. A's friends can make pancakes and mousse. Right now I like A to learn simple foods that, as Dolly Parton once said, "Any fool can make," because that is how I got started: making spaghetti. Until I was 19-years-old.

Tonight, I decided to learn more about quesadillas for A to cook. My pre-prep involved calling up my good friend Arturo Vega, the artistic director for the Ramones (Isn't his Ramones logo cool? I bet you own one of his shirts, too). His hospitality often includes quesadilla-making at his loft on Joey Ramone Place.

[Ring, Ring]
Me: Hi. We're making quesadillas.
AV: [laughs, because he knows he's responsible for our obsession] Oh yeah?
Me: Yes. I need your help. What is the most preferred cheese in Mexico used for quesadillas?
AV: You can use anything. I've used parmesan [laughs], Monterey Jack, even gorgonzola.
Me: Uh-huh. But what would you use if you were in Mexico?
AV: You can use anything.
Me: How about a normal Mexican? Shopping in a normal Mexican grocery store? What would he or she look for?
AV: Oh. You should try queso de Oaxaca.

The result -

(Top) The traditional quesadilla: made with blue corn tortilla, filled with queso de hebra de Oaxaca (sounds like Hebrews in Oaxaca, I know) and cilantro, topped with salt and salsa casera.

(Bottom) The New World quesadilla: made with a gorda white corn tortilla, filled with organic sauteed shallots and gorgonzola, topped with salt and apple/corn/chile salsa.





A preferred the traditional quesadilla.

LaMai shares another secret...

Theater-going isn't normally cheap in New York City, but Theater Extras is an organization can help you go to a show every week with very little money. They also support the arts by using a percentage of your membership fee (as low as $99 annually) to support Fiorello LaGuardia High School (the "Fame" school), Broadway Cares, and Equity Fights AIDS. The catch? You will not gain access to their Broadway or Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway shows list until you become a member.

So, take your kids to the theater. Run along now.

Bog Men Had Manicures

This from National Geographic News.

"Oldcroghan man was preserved so perfectly that his discovery sparked a police murder investigation before archaeologists were called in."

*******
Our very own Knit New York is featured in today's CNN Student News. Click on the "Student News" icon to the left in the Watch and Learn section.