motor skills

Posted on April 29, 2005 by Katy K.

Why Motor Skills Matter by Tara Losquando-Little
The answer to the question in the title is easy – motor skills matter because later skills depend on the earlier ones having been mastered. Good motor skills can be helpful in supporting a healthy social life, as all of us who were picked last for the ball team can attest. The tricky part is whether or not to recommend this book. On the one hand, it has really valuable information that I haven’t seen other places – what skills develop when, the smaller intermediary steps that are necessary for the bigger things to develop, things that you can do to help or hinder your child’s development. On the other hand, the organization is somewhat confusing and the writing not exactly scintillating. The books covers motor development in children from birth to five years. This is split into three big sections: the first year, 1 to 3 years and 3 to 5 years. So far, so good. But then each section is split into multiple smaller sections, on different topics and then smaller age ranges, so that it gets difficult to figure out exactly what age of child she is referring to, and, even more confusing, if she says “older child”, whether she means older in the same time frame or the next step up. Yikes! Also, she uses a lot of technical language which she defines once and then keeps using, even when ordinary language would work. For instance, why does she insist that crawling be called creeping and creeping be called commando crawling? Another good thing, kind of – she includes lists of recommended toys for different ages, but doesn’t include pictures of them. If you find the topic, see if your library has it before you buy it, and then I’d consider this one a prime candidate for skimming and looking at the boxes, rather than trying to read cover to cover as I did.

For those who don’t have patience even for that, here’s my list of interesting or important ideas from the book:

Things to do:
– Turn your baby over onto the side before picking up – this helps develop stronger head muscles, rather than overextending them backwards.
– Start working with a real cup at six months.
– Do tummy time lots for short periods, rather than one long period.
– Let your baby explore on the floor as much as possible.
– Use bouncy seats for small babies, and swings are also good.
– Go barefoot as much as possible

Things not to do:
– Don’t use, or strictly limit, time in an exersaucer or bouncer – this encourages bad posture, skipping important developmental steps, and stifles curiosity.
– Don’t use only sippy cups – regular cups are better for learning to drink.
– Don’t scrape the contents of the spoon off onto the upper lip – let baby learn to close his or her mouth around the spoon.
– Don’t use shoes with soles that baby can’t bend – proper walking involves bending the feet.

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Classics

Posted on April 19, 2005 by Katy K.

Well, I was supposed to have this talk for the teens on classics and award winners. I didn’t, because I ended up having my appendix out the day before and didn’t feel like toddling in to the library in my hospital gown dragging my IV pole along. But I still have this nice list of a dozen classics-and-award-winners that I think would be interesting to 7th and 8th graders. If you’re interested, I can give you the whole list. But for now, here are the classics that I read just for this assignment.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley I’m not much into horror. OK, really, I’m not into horror at all. But the teens seem to be, so I thought I’d try something to appeal to them. Frankenstein was written in the early 19th century by the wife of the poet Shelley, who was inspired when she eloped with him (leaving his pregnant wife at home) and spent some time with Shelley and Byron reading ghost stories in Switzerland. Fascinating, no? The story, as Naked pointed out, has one of the most complicated narrative structures ever: a captain writing letters to his sister, in which he narrates the story told to him by a man he finds at sea, who at times switches to first-person narration told to him. This is the original horror novel, and the genre has changed quite a bit since then. Rather than reveling in suspense and gore, we are plunged into the depths of despair and urged to feel pity and revulsion for Frankenstein, the creator of the monster he realizes he should never have unleashed upon the world – as well as for the monster, who feels driven to atrocities when he realizes that he is doomed to be despised.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury This one wasn’t on my parent’s science fiction shelf, but after watching Fahrenheit 9/11, I thought it would be interesting to read the original. Yep, you guessed, it’s about censorship. It feels increasingly timely in this climate where Pixie’s library won’t subscribe to databases that reference gay books, and schools here cancelled an author visit from an acclaimed teen author on hearing that her books contained one or two dirty words. The story itself, while clearly a product of the 50s is still riveting. Guy Montag is a fireman whose job is to burn books and the houses that contain them. His wife stays home socializing with her TV family. He thinks life is fine, until he meets a 17-year-old girl so vivid that he realizes how gray his life has been. She tells him that firemen used to put out fires, and that people used to think, before the books were banned. This one encounter sets Guy off on the Path of Doom.

The Children’s Homer translated and adapted by Padraic Colum The Odyssey is the original adventure story, and modern translations can rescue it from the obscurity of language that makes English classics so difficult to read. That was the idea, anyway. This particular translation, recommended by the teen librarian, was written in 1911 or so and uses beautiful poetic language, replete with “thees” and “thous”. The stories are lovely and heroic, and probably more suited for my 7th and 8th graders than the younger children the title would imply, though the title might put them off. My only two quibbles with the translation are as follows: first, it is actually a retelling, not a translation. Maybe someday I’ll get around to reading a direct translation. Secondly, I get the distinct impression that Odysseus is more a salty than a poetical character. Not having read the original, I can’t say what it sounds like, but this beautiful translation seems to pretty up the guy more than he probably deserves. It’s still a rolicking fun read.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Ok, I didn’t actually finish this book. I started it, and got far enough to realize that it was going to be really, really depressing and decided I just didn’t need to deal with that post-surgery. It’s back at the library now.

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One High Fantasy

Posted on March 26, 2005 by Katy K.

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon My good friend first loaned me this trilogy to keep me company while recovering from surgery five years ago. It’s still one of my favorites. It’s really high fantasy, but the reader is drawn gently into both the world and the depth of the plot. In the beginning of the first book, Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, our heroine runs away from home to join a mercenary company with a good reputation. The action is absorbing and feels like a realistic portrayal of life with a mercenary company. It’s only gradually that we find out – with the naïve Paks – that this world has magic, and the standard elves, dwarves and orcs. In the second, and most difficult book, Divided Allegiance Paks leaves the Duke’s company for training with the religious Knights of Gird, a powerful saint, eventually falling afoul of some evil minor gods. In the final volume, Oath of Gold, Paks comes triumphantly into her own as a major force for good both spiritually and politically. OK, I admit that her final political triumph seems a little tacked on, but the threads of her growth are for the most part woven in securely from the very beginning. You can read this either as three separate books or bound together. But, if you like fantasy, this is a fine one. And if you’re willing to make the commitment to the 900 pages, it’s a good place to start with fantasy, with a compelling major character, detailed but not too fussy world, and a more gender-balanced world than Lord of the Rings (though I love that, too.) For me, I wondered how it is that I, a mostly-pacifist mama, can identify so strongly with a single, career soldier like Paksenarrion, as I was absorbed in her story while nursing my baby. Ah, the incongruities of life.

And a question for my readers: I’m going to do another set of booktalks for the teens. This time the topic is Classics and Award Winners, an area in which I’ve read considerably less than fantasy and sci-fi. So, do you have any suggestions of classics not more than about 200 pages in length and interesting to young teens?

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Cloth Diapering Resources

Posted on March 18, 2005 by Katy K.

Cloth diapering resources

I really love cloth diapering. And while I could write pages about why I love it, so many other people have already done so that it would be reinventing the wheel. Here’s my short list:

– I’m convinced it’s more comfortable for baby – would you choose plastic underwear?
– Yes, I am a card-carrying tree-hugger
– I also think it’s healthier
– I’ll take doing laundry over taking out the trash and extra shopping trips any day
– Money saving – at least a little
– Cloth diapers are so darn cute!

Information Articles:
Just about every diaper shop has its own series of articles on why cloth diapering is better. Here are some of my favorites:

The Diaper Shop Q&A Lots of the standards on the health benefits, but also a priceless article on “The Princess Method” of cleaning dirty diapers, and (for those of you worried about stink), an article about the author camping with her baby using cloth next to a baby using disposables.

The Diaper Dollar from PunkinButt – This article nicely breaks down the cost of using cloth diapers including the cost of washing them.

Diaper Cost Comparison from Katie’s Kisses – This article gives you two cost figures for cloth, one using the cheap prefolds, one using premium diapers. ( Most places just give the figure for prefolds.)

I know somewhere, once upon a time, I found a really great article explaining the different kinds of diapers out there, but can I find it now? Of course not!

In the meantime, if you’re wavering between different types of diapers, try reading the reviews on
Diaper Pin If you’re trying to find something to start with, I wouldn’t recommend this – there are just too many options out there, and you’ll get all confused.

If I have time, coming next… more fun places to go for diapers.

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Books I was meaning to read…

Posted on March 18, 2005 by Katy K.

…and finally did. You know, those books you keep hearing about, or reading about, and you say to yourself, “I really ought to read that book.” Here’s two I can now cross off my must-read list.

The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley If you have a baby and are having or want to forestall sleep problems, this is The Book being read in my circles. So, I had to read it to find out what the fuss was all about. The author of the book, a mother of four, was looking for a way to help her wakeful fourth child sleep through the night. She found two answers: either let the child cry until he falls asleep, or live with it. She wrote this book as a third option, a way to help a baby fall and stay asleep without the pain of cry-it-out methods. The book starts with the basics of safety and how sleep works in infants. Then, she starts the program: First, catalogue how your baby sleeps now – for naps and nighttime, where, how long, and how the baby fell asleep. Next, read through her suggestions and formulate a plan that you think will work. Try it for ten days, do the cataloguing thing again, and adjust any elements that you think need changing. She’s big on routines and teaching a child to fall asleep without a nipple in the mouth, and includes advice for crib-sleeping and co-sleeping babies, as well as tips for weaning a baby from co-sleeping to the crib. So, does it work? Well, happily my Mr. FP has never had the sleep problems she describes – waking every hour and not wanting to go back to sleep. On the plus side, she tested her methods with I think 70 or 80 mothers and had about a 95% success rate (I say about as I already returned the book.) She states is that this kind of method will take longer to work than cry-it-out methods, but that the once accomplished, the sleep patterns will be more firmly established than with cry-it-out methods. Using the full method requires a whole lot more record keeping and commitment than I’m willing to put into it at this point, particularly since we’re not having huge problems. This seems to be the case with most of the mothers I’ve talked about it with, as well. If you’re really desperate, they probably will work. If you’re looking for only minor improvements, there’s a smorgasbord of ideas to choose from, as well as suggestions for establishing good sleep habits before problems develop.

Ida B: – and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan This is a beautiful, wonderful book. I left it out where my Mommy could read it while she was watching Mr. Froggy Pants, and she read it in one sitting. (OK, part of that was Mr. Froggy Pants wanting to cuddle with his grandma, but still.) Eleven-year-old Ida B, after a traumatizing experience with public school in kindergarten, has been home-schooled ever since. Life with her parents on the farm, talking with the apple trees, is “just about righter than right.” Then her mother gets sick, and her parents decide that she must go to the public school. Her heart shrivels up into a hard black rock that will hurt anyone that tries to get in. Ida B, even with a shriveled-up heart, is full of life and eloquent, memorable phrases. I say, reluctantly, being aimed at children, this book probably isn’t for everyone. But if you like children’s books at all, or if you have a child in the 8-12 range in your life, do read this book.

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More Fantasy

Posted on March 15, 2005 by Katy K.

What can I say? I like fantasy. Here’s three new books and an old favorite. All but the old favorite are intended for adults, though I think the last one has universal appeal.

The Famous Flower of Serving Men by Deborah Grabien Did I enjoy this book? I stayed up past midnight – with Mr. Froggy Pants asleep on my lap – which is certainly a measure of enjoyment of sorts. The novel is the second of a series which turns traditional English ballads into mysteries/ghost stories. As in, the characters of the original ballad are now uneasy ghosts, and the main characters need to solve the mystery and find out who the people were to lay the ghosts to rest. This one was based on The Famous Flower of Serving Men, a ballad I’ve always enjoyed, where a woman is treated badly, but starts a new, successful life for herself and gets revenge in the end. I must not have been thinking too clearly past that – a scaredy-cat like myself has no business checking out ghost stories. And even less, as a new mother, when the trauma involves a new mother’s husband and baby being murdered in front of her. Also different – if you know the ballad, the source of the haunting is clear from quite early on, so the mystery revolves around how to appease the ghost, not in who or what the ghost is. The resolution of the story was also dissatisfying: after the ghost was established as being horrible and scary, resolving it as basically just a good person who’d gone a little crazy didn’t work for me. She’s supposed to be evil and I’d prefer that she stay that way. In spite of these flaws, the main characters, the director of a small theater troupe and her musician/restoration expert boyfriend, were quite likeable and the story compelling.

The Singer of All Songs by Kate Constable OK, this is another teen fantasy, though I read it before the teen fantasy project at work. Calwyn is a novice in a small matriarchal kingdom ruled by nuns, learning the chantments of ice. One day she finds a fugitive who made it over the wall of ice that protects the nuns, and she joins him in trying to stop the man who would become master of all nine Chantments. It’s the first of a trilogy (I’m not surprised, as fantasy books seem nearly always to come in trilogies.) I liked the world, obviously pagan and easy to slip into, and the sweet teen heroine. If you’re in to this kind of fantasy, you’ll enjoy it; if you’re not, this probably isn’t the book to convert you.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke This book got starred reviews in every journal I read, even for the audio version, though I was not about to attempt to listen to a 900 page book in a three-week loan period. It has a fascinating conceit: it’s Napoleonic England in a world where magic exists – maybe. Most of the people who call themselves magicians are only theoretical magicians, studying the deeds of the great magicians of the past. Only two men claim to be practical magicians, and they aim to restore the reputation of English magic by aiding in the war against Napoleon. The whole book sounds as if it were written by Jane Austen, if Austen had written fantasy. The first hundred pages or so were hard to get through – Mr. Norrell is not a sympathetic character, and Jonathan Strange is not introduced until later in the book. The language, while delightful, makes for slow going – it took me a full three weeks to get through the book, approximately three times as long as usual. But the story is compelling, the concept novel, and the descriptions of the fairy gentleman and his kingdom downright creepy.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, a girl named Sophie lives with her not-so-wicked stepmother and her two younger sisters. She’s resigned herself to a dull existence, because everyone knows that youngest sisters are the ones with the adventures. Then the Wicked Witch of the Waste comes into her hat shop and turns her into an old, old woman. Sophie decides that being nice is for the young, moves into the evil Wizard Howl’s castle and starts terrorizing him. It’s not a new book, but it is terribly funny and well worth reading.

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Protected: Doing better

Posted on March 12, 2005 by Katy K.

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Talking to Teens

Posted on March 9, 2005 by Katy K.

So the teen librarian was supposed to be out, and a seventh/eighth grade class needed someone to talk to them about science fiction and fantasy books. Naturally they asked me to help. Talk about a dozen books, have at least 30 pulled for them to look at and check out, on a day’s notice. This is just the new books I read for the project, not (as you’ll notice) the full dozen.

Sword of the Rightful Kingby Jane Yolen
Arthur has been King of Britain for four years, but not everyone accepts him as their king. His biggest threat to his throne is the North Witch, his half-sister Morgause, who believes that her son was in line to become King of Britain. Arthur’s mage, Merlinnus, devises a way for King Arthur to prove himself the rightful king of England–pulling a sword from a stone but the North Witch is spinning her spells and threatens to get the sword out first. The first couple of chapters with a petulant Gawaine turned me off initially, but it did warm up to true Yolen goodness.

Eager by Helen Fox
EGR3, called Eager, is a prototype robot – designed to learn and feel like a person. But most people – including the family he lives with – don’t think that robots are real people. Soon his quest to find out what it means to be alive has to take second place to finding out what those BOC4 robots are up to. Despite the deep thoughts on the part of the robot, it’s light and sweet.

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Luke is also a third child – but in this future, third children are killed and their parents fined five million dollars. He’s never met anyone outside of his immediate family, and now that a new housing development is going up, he’s not even allowed out of the house. Then one day he sees a face looking out of a house that should be empty – another third child. It’s short and very intense.

Feed by M.T. Anderson I read this one for the teens, and ended up not talking about it – though it’s a great book, the language was just too dirty for innocent little Lutheran seventh-graders. I feel kind of bad about self-censoring, but there it is. I did put it on the cart for them to check out, though. Anyway – it’s a distant future, where everyone, or nearly everyone, has a chip implanted in their heads at birth. This lets them stay connected to the feed at all times – like the Internet, but tuned into your thoughts and desires. Titus is a pretty typical teen, listening to the music the feed plays for him, buying what the feed tells him is hot. Then he meets a girl in trouble and has to think about something serious for the first time in his life. The book is written like a teen email in Titus’s voice, a fluffy covering for the serious material. I guess the ideas aren’t really all that new – we already know of schools that aren’t allowed to sell milk because Coke or Pepsi have exclusive pouring rights – but the story is sticking with me.

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Chicks with Sticks

Posted on February 18, 2005 by Katy K.

This, ladies and gentleman, is the last book I read on leave, plus one I just finished. And knitting! Well, I’ve had at least one handwork project going for as long as I can remember. The most recent new craft was inkle and tablet weaving – hard to find yarn for, and not as portable as knitting. After resisting for several years, I’ve re-embraced knitting. Such fun! Though it may be pure torture to look at books of knitting patterns: when it’s taking me four months to knit a pair of tiny baby mittens, the trendy clothes in these books would probably be passé before I could finish knitting them.

Stitch ‘n Bitch: A Knitter’s Handbook by Debbie Stoller This was the first book to come out – just a year or two ago now. Knitting was already coming back when it was published, but at least for, these books have crystallized the movement. This book starts with an introduction explaining how, as a feminist (Stoller is editor of BUST magazine) the author could enjoy something so un-liberated and grannyish as knitting. How sexist is it to reject all traditional feminine activities just for that reason? Then, a clear, yet funny, explanation of the basics of knitting, complete with a hand model with chipped black nail polish and smiling cartoon knit stitches. The guide even includes a section on fixing mistakes large and small. Next, a guide to finding or starting your own Stitch ‘n Bitch group, where you can meet with other knitters. And finally, a selection of not-to-hard and very cool looking patterns. These include the popular devil and kitty hats sized for adults, the now-famous skully sweater with skulls on both sleeves, and lots more patterns that I’m just itching to try out. Each pattern includes not only a list of materials needed, but a list of skills needed, referenced to the page where it’s taught. I really think I need to look for a copy of this for my very own, as I read the library’s copy.

Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller Just out in 2004, the Stitch ‘n Bitch movement goes on, better than before. So, assuming you started with the first book (which I in fact didn’t), you might now be ready to tackle some more advanced knitting projects. This book starts out with a very nifty section on how to alter a pattern – make it bigger or smaller or tighter or looser or even just use a different yarn, tackled with the same sense of humor as the first book. It has even more really cool patterns, contributed (as before) by Stitch ‘n Bitchers around the country, who share the genesis of the pattern. And scattered throughout are profiles of SnB groups across the country. This one I bought with a lovely birthday gift card and have been enjoying looking at the yummy patterns ever since, even though I have yet to finish the aforementioned baby mittens. It’s good stuff, folks.

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Deep Thoughts

Posted on February 15, 2005 by Katy K.

I read this book for the second time while on leave. I love this book, and it is another older one. When I lived in Germany, it was still pretty new and popular, but I didn’t buy it because I was a little afraid to try to read it in German. Plus, books are much more expensive in Germany. When I was in Up With People, a host mom gave me her copy of it, full of sticky notes and scribbles in the margins. I made the mistake of loaning it to another cast member after I read it, who said she’d return it but never did. Alas! Last summer it was featured in a Borders display and so I bought a replacement copy. And what is this fabulous book, you ask? Read on!

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner The novel stars fifteen-year-old Sophie Amudsen. (This leads to more existensial reflections on my part – I was 15 when the book was published; now I am 30 and Sophie is destined to remain 15 forever.) She’s a pretty ordinary teenager, when mysterious letters and packages begin arriving in her mailbox, some to her, and some to another girl who shares Sophie’s birthday and who ought to live nearby, but who isn’t in the telephone book. The packages to her are lessons in philosophy, and the novel itself is a history of philosophy – the plot mirrors Sophie’s current philosophy lesson, and we get the text of her lesson as well as what she’s doing. This manages to make a potentially dusty subject quite lively, even if it’s a little hard on the characters. By the end of the book, Sophie and her tutor have realized that they are probably only characters in a book, and are trying to find a way to wrest control of their lives from the author.

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