Daddy, Papa and Me

So, after a very fruitful, educational and relaxing trip to Puerto Vallarta, we came home to San Francisco. Sitting in the kitchen were rewards for Emma's Hogwart's summer school activities including a model of a Golden Snitch and some stickers of the different House crests. Emma was pleased.

It wasn't long after this that the third letter arrived. Emma was reluctant to open it. You see, she hadn't yet written down the information about the shells yet because she is reluctant to part with them. She was afraid that this letter might be a Howler. We opened the letter very very slowly (though I did give her a slight fright when I jumped), it was not a howler... phew.

This letter had one lesson with three parts on Muggle Studies.

I do. They are a good people and the state is beautiful and the religion, at its best can be sublime (though at it's worst, it's bad).

Here is an example. This isn't so much an indictment of Utah or Mormons really, more a caution about a majority crushing a minority just by the fact that they are a majority. LIke an elephant, they just roll over and crush the mouse, though in this case I wonder...

On Wednesday Emma had a choice to do her homeshool (story about that later) or finish up her Hogwarts journal. I was sure she'd choose the journal, but no, she said she wanted to do homeschool. I was surprised. When asked why she wanted to, her answer was she was kind of hoping she'd get a "Howler." Now Ron was mortified when he got his, but I guess Emma isn't as easily mortified.

Well, she got her wish. Hogwarts sent her not one, but two, Howlers by muggle email. Well, she got right to her journal and completed it :D.

Emma got here sixth letter from Hogwarts on Friday. Well, she actually didn't get a physical letter.

I haven't written about this up till now because it's taken awhile for us to wrap our heads around, make decisions and well.. we've been busy, but here it is. I'm sure there will be more momentous parenting decisions in our life and there surely has been more momentous parenting decisions in our past (like, becoming parents). This decision is though, momentous.

Let me give you the background information.

I'm not getting one. I really want to, but I'm not. I can't in any way justify it. I love the one I have and it does everything I want to do.

But I did just get something that satiates my geek needs... the Eye-Fi. It's 'just' a little camera memory disk for our little point and shoot camera. But what a nice little memory disk it is. It has this cute little ability to wirelessly send the photos (without any work from me) to both my computer (iPhoto!) AND the internet service like Flikr, SmugMug and many others. Cool.

Now super cool. It also 'geotags' your photos. Through wireless networks it triangulates where it is and then 'tags' the photo with the location. It doesn't work everywhere, covers about 70% of the US and over 50 metropolitan areas in Europe including 70% of Germany, France and the UK. Which, serendipitously, we'll be this summer. Now I won't have to remember which castle or cathedral I took a picture of, the photos will be geotagged :D.

Just posting a reminder of my geekiness.

Part 1 is here. Well, before and after the meeting we've done a lot of thinking and talking.

The school said the decision was 100% ours whether to send Emma forward to first grade or hold her back for another year of kindergarden. So, we've done an enormous amount of thinking, discussing, researching and talking to others. Here are some of the points that have informed our decision.

Just some photos to go along with Emma's third Hogwart's school lessons.

It kind of nicely sums up the state of things.

Or maybe not:

Guy noticed this in an ad in the Salt Lake Tribune last week and cut it out :). I lost it for a while, but found it today. It's not quite as I remembered it, but still... family fun in family-friendly Utah including a parade of 'ladies of the evening' apparently!

oops.

Well, part II is here. I have a feeling there is going to be several more parts, it's been on my mind a lot lately.

So, what are we doing about it?

Of course, earlier we started the Hogwart's Summer School of Witchcraft and Wizardy which Emma and we are having a blast at (next assignment comes up next week), but we realized we needed to do something a bit more.

So, we've instituted "homeschool," it's what we call it. I sit down with Emma every weekday for 20-30 minutes and we learn to read. I've been using Reading Reflex:

We had a nice weekend this weekend, and for prosperity's sake I'm documenting it here (photo is out of the bedroom window where we are staying, Squaw Peak and the Mormon Temple):

Our UTAH weekend:

Saturday morning Emma & I picked Guy up at the airport. He was in SF on tax business :(

We occasionally get a question formatted in such a way, "have you considered how much work it will be to have a child?" "Have you considered the cost?" "Have you considered how difficult it will be?"

More often than not it is well-meaning and from someone we know and we understand that it is coming from honest concern. Sometimes it comes from ignorance and assumptions.

This latest comment I have received on this blog is a perfect example of the latter. This from the comment:

...makes me wonder if you fully thought out the severe emotional distress she will be faced with...

I just read this essay about culture, and I have to say, it is quite thought-provoking whether you come to it as a 'multi-culturalist' or the opposite 'One American culturalist' (both are severely pummeled). An excerpt:

Last week I told you some of the things we are doing to help Emma catch up to her peers and be ready for first grade (after it was suggested to us that we hold Emma back a year).

Thought I'd give a quick update.

We are on the second section of the book we are using: Reading Reflex. I do like it, it make it clear and straightforward to follow. I have my quibbles, but I'll leave that for a review I plan to post on Amazon. The second section is on double consonants such as in words like 'ask, and, elm, end, task, plant etc'. (the first section is on simple sound combos like sat, hat, cat, pig, dig, fig, wig, ben, bet, etc). We are just entering 4 (sometimes 5) letter words with double consonant combinations. She's doing pretty well. There isn't a word she is confronted with at this level that she can't read.

According to WalkScore, San Francisco is the most walkable city in the U.S. Well, I could have told you that :). It's one of the reasons I love the city and our neighborhood, just about anything you could want from gyms to parks to schools to grocery stores is within a quarter mile walk. If you look at the 'walkability' map of San Francisco, you'll notice the places with the least walkability are actually parks for the most part (though there are some neighborhoods that could use a bit more 'walkability'.

Walkability definitely is not the only criteria that would make a city livable, climate (check), mass transit (check), outdoor activities nearby (check), job possibilities (check), beauty (check), great people (check) and a few other criteria would make a city a livable city. Oh, and there is one more, affordability. Oh.. oops, San Francisco is near dead last in that criteria. I guess that is due to all the other criteria. Sigh.

So yesterday I went to a hair stylist in Salt Lake City (a gift from Guy) and she did an entire 'work up'.

Colored my hair (yikes, it's darker now!) to 'minimize the grey', trimmed/shaped my eyebrows, cut my hair. I've never done anything like this (usually just the barber), but it was a treat and an experiment :).

When I got home Emma was NOT happy. She even started to tear up and got very upset and asked what I did and why I did it and cried that "I didn't look like her Papa any more."

Whoa, didn't expect that reaction (though she gave a similar reaction about 3 years ago when I cut my very long hair to very short). Anyway, she did calm down in time and then sat with me later to watch her show.

At a commercial she turned to me and said:

"It's like Shrek"

"What's like Shrek?"

"You changing. Like when Shrek became that man"

"You mean I looked like Shrek and now I look like the man?"

"Yeah, I liked Shrek better"

OUCH. I'm not sure whether to be insulted because she thinks that normally I look like a fat hairy ogre or be flattered that she thinks I've become more like a handsome prince (though she'd rather have Shrek).

Maybe, it's the eyebrows LOL.

Written by her own hand,

Birds, red, fly in the sky
and blue rain falls down
the sun is bright and yellow
the grass is so colorful it shines
the pretty flowers are pink
Nature is just beautiful

He inventive spelling below