Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving we had a quiet supper at home, and then visited friends, who also don't have family in the area, for dessert. There are a few pictures of me, thanks to Wander's camera.


The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to the Renaissance Festival. That's a whole different post with lots of pictures.



Then on Sunday my brother, the girls, and I went to see "The Nutcracker" as performed by the girl's studio.


Every day for a week, Glitter kept asking if were "the day" to see "The Nutcracker" on "a real stage." I told Glitter that her dance teacher would play the role of Clara's mother, and Glitter was full of questions about her teacher. Would she wear a bun? Would she have tights? Would she have a poofy skirt? Would she talk? Would she dance? Would she have make-up? Finally all Glitter's questions were answered when her teacher entered the stage and Glitter bounced up and down on her seat waving enthusiastically at her teacher.


Next year Sparkle will be old enough to be on the stage instead of in the audience.

new playmate

My brother is visiting us for Thanksgiving. Sparkle and Glitter have decided that his main purpose is to play with them. Glitter dragged him out to the arbor. They both wanted to swing with him at the park. Sparkle talked him into letting her type on his computer.

Glitter writes

Glitter wrote this message for me on her whiteboard.
It was so sweet, I had to take a picture. I'm going to have to teach this kid how to spell soon.



Original spelling: i luv yoo momoe
Translation: I love you mommy.

Backlog of Homeschool Group Pix

Digging for plastic dinosaurs and petrified wood at the Gem and Mineral Show. You get to keep whatever you find. The volunteers don't want to haul all that broken concrete away after the show.



Girl's Club making quill pens. Glitter isn't an official member, but she is very quiet while I help out so she gets to hang out with the big girls.



Thanksgiving Feast. The kids recited poems, did skits, and showed off presentations relating to Thanksgiving. The kids bobbed for apples, made yarn dolls, and played in the park.

Hunger Games Trilogy *Major Spoilers*

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Major Spoilers
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This is a long boring post.
There is no reason to waste your time reading it.
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I recently finished reading "Mockingjay," the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It has been a while since I've read the first two books, since I've been getting them from the library. Here are some random thoughts.

Why does Katniss shoot Coin?
Katniss has one arrow; the ability to kill one person. She realize that Coin is as bad, if not worse than Snow. Coin has plotted to have Peeta kill her, and to have Prim killed. Coin sees her as a threat now that the rebellion has won. Snow is a good as dead, but how to stop Coin's rise to power?

Why does Gale leave Katniss?
In book 3, Gale sees how much Katniss is ambivalent about himself. The few times Katniss kisses Gale, it is because he is in pain (after the whipping, and when remembering it) or she is confused (when he meets her in district 2). When neither of them are in need, she is only friendly. While Gale would run off with just Katniss (beginning of book 1, middle of book 2), Katniss would never run off with just him.

Meanwhile, Gale has watched Katniss fall in love with Peeta over the course of all three books. In the first and second books, he can pretend that everything between Peeta and Katniss is all an act, but he isn't sure. From the 75th games onward, he can no longer pretend. It's more than all that kissing. Gale also sees how hurt Katniss is each time she looses Peeta--in the 75th games before Finnick revives him, when the capitol kidnaps him and tortures him, when the rescued Peeta turns on her, when Peeta wants to be abandoned in the tunnels.

The final clincher is Prim's death. Gale knows that the main thing going for him all along is his ability to protect the people Katniss loves. (That's why Gale goes to rescue Peeta.) Not only does Gale fail to protect Prim; his bombing plans are tied up with how she died. Gale leaves Katniss because he ultimately failed her.

Why does Gale end up in District 2?
Gale has already given up on Katniss. He does the generous thing and steps out of her life by going elsewhere. He has already been developing a life apart from Katniss by working with Beetee and the other brains behind the rebellion. District 2, home of most of the peacekeepers, is a natural fit for Gale's fierce personality. Plus, helping out District 2 is an apology for coming up with the death trap strategy that killed so many of them.

Why does Katniss's mother end up in District 4?
It is too painful for her to return to District 12. District 12 is full of memories of everyone she has lost. Plus, there is no-one for her to return to. Katniss hasn't relied on her mother since her father's death. Katniss is the one who takes care of her mother; they can't reverse roles so quickly.

Why does Prim end up in the Capitol?
Coin sent Prim to the capitol. That's the only way a child would be sent to the front lines. Coin sent Prim to the capitol and framed the capitol for the bombing that killed Prim. Coin hoped that the bombing and Prim's death would either put Katniss on Coin's side or unhinge Katniss enough to incapacitate her. Only, the whole thing backfired on Coin.

How do Finnick and Annie's lives parallel Katniss and Peeta's?
Snow forced Finnick to have a parade of lovers that he really cared nothing for. Snow forced Katniss to keep up her act of being in love with Peeta. Finnick fell in love with Annie gradually, as Katniss slowly falls in love with Peeta. Snow uses Annie to manipulate Finnick. Snow uses Peeta to manipulate Katniss. Annie clings to reality by asking Finnick what is real. Peeta learns to do the same.

In the 75th games, Katniss and Peeta pretend they are married and expecting a child, and Peeta plans on dying in the games for her. Finnick actually marries Annie and she becomes pregnant, then he dies in the final assault on the capital, which mimics a 76th games.

Why does Katniss agree to the final Hunger Games?
Coin wants a final hunger game to solidify her rise to power. However, Coin doesn't want the blood of a final hunger game on her hands; she wants it on the victors'. Coin is also testing who is on her side. Katniss agrees to Coin's proposal so that Coin will trust her.

Why don't we see how Peeta is rescued?
The story is written from Katniss's point of view, so we can't see the rescue because Peeta wasn't there. Katniss is an emotional mess and wouldn't have been able to perform well on the mission anyway. Katniss also isn't on the mission because she isn't a team player, and the mission was highly choreographed.

If Katniss had been on the rescue mission, Peeta would have seen her and tried to kill her earlier, when there weren't a bunch of friendly soldiers and medics to separate them and treat them.

Why doesn't Katniss become a leader?
Katniss never wanted to become a leader. She wants a quiet life without being manipulated by anyone. She had a quiet life before the beginning of the book, and she was satisfied with it. Throughout all three books, Katniss is constantly manipulated by Haymich, Snow, and Coin. She is thrown into the limelight because they put her there. Although her actions have far reaching consequences (berries, destroying the force field, killing Coin) they were all choices made in the heat of the moment, and not the result of careful planning that a true leader needs. Katniss gives Haymich, Snow, and Coin more than they bargained for. In the end, the world is at peace and no-one needs to use Katniss anymore, so no-one does. Indeed, anyone who would consider using Katniss is probably afraid to, given her history of complicating matters. In the end, Katniss is free to reclaim a quiet life in obscurity.

Why was Peeta hijacked?
Peeta was hijacked by the capitol to turn him into a weapon against Katniss. Boggs admits that rescuing Peeta was too easy, and Peeta would have probably been delivered to Katniss to kill her if he hadn't been rescued. Peeta was also hijacked to help make him a better propaganda weapon so that he would focus on a "stop the war message" instead of a "Katniss is innocent" message.

Being hijacked also helped Peeta sort through his feelings for Katniss objectively. He was no longer looking at Katniss through rose colored glasses. He was finally able to see Katniss with all her faults and understand why she hadn't really been toying with him. If he hadn't been able to recognize all the faults in her, she wouldn't have been able to live up to his expectations of her in the end. Having Peeta hijacked also helps Katniss realize how much she cared for the real Peeta in comparison.

When did Peeta fall in love with Katniss?
In the first book Peeta claimed he fell in with Katniss in Kindergarten. He cites a memory of his father pointing her out and her singing on the first day of school. Supporting this is his memory of watching Katniss's father sing the Hanging Tree song when he was six or seven and the birds stopping to listen. However, I think that at that point, Peeta just found Katniss interesting because she could also sing. He wasn't in love with her then. If he were really in love with her as a young child, how come she has no memories of him before the bread? He didn't tease her, hang out around her, or otherwise make any impression until the bread.

I think that Peeta really fell in love with her after the bread. He was such a nice guy he suffered a beating to give her the bread simply out of sympathy for her plight. Giving her the bread made him more interested in her welfare and he started watching her and asked his own father about her. I think that's when Peeta learned about the history between his own father, Katniss's mother, and Katniss's dad. (A father wouldn't tell his kindergarten son that he wanted to marry someone else, but he might tell his teenage son who was just beaten by his current wife.)

I think Peeta chose to backdate when he fell in love with Katniss on Haymich's advice. When Katniss gets that impossibly high score, Peeta realizes that Katniss could win the games and decides to do all he can to help her. So, Peeta asks Haymich to be coached privately to work on this new strategy. Peeta and Haymich figure out that Peeta being in love with Katniss his whole life will gain a lot of sympathy with the audience, so they backdate his falling in love to his earliest memory of her, which is the song on the first day of school.

When are the games over for Katniss?
At first Katniss thinks that her life is over when she volunteers for Prim, because she will die in the arena, but then she learns she is a real contender.
Then Katniss thinks that the games will end when she and Peeta survive the arena, but Haymich warns her otherwise.
Then Katniss thinks that the games will end when she is out of the spotlight and back home, but Snow's visit and the victory tour remind her that she isn't.
Then Katniss goes back into the area, thinking it's all over because she plans on dying to save Peeta, but then they are rescued.
Then Katniss thinks it will be over when the rebellion wins and Snow dies, but then she finds out that Coin will simply replace Snow.
It isn't over until the epilogue when Katniss agrees to have children and believes that they too will survive.

Who decided that the tributes of the 75th games would be reaped from the victors?
It could have been decided years ago when the hunger games were first set up. That is unlikely, because how could they have known that there would be enough living victors from each district after 75 years?

It could have been Snow, because he wanted Katniss back in the arena to kill her. Sending the victors to the arena also sends the message that even the strongest from the districts are still under the power of the capitol.

It could have been Plutarch, as a part of the rebellion plan. He wanted to take down the hunger games in a spectacular way and having tributes that would co-operate with him was essential to that plan. The existing victors would hate the capitol enough to co-operate, smart enough to be effective, know each other well enough to trust each other.

Why does Snow want Katniss to convince him that she loves Peeta?
Although Katniss's actions might have been the spark that lit the rebellion, she was only a catalyst. The underpinnings of the rebellion were going on without her. Proving that she acted out of crazy love instead of an act of rebellion might slow down the rebellion, but it could not stop it. So, what other reason could Snow have? Snow is uncertain whether she loves Peeta or not. If she does love Peeta, Snow knows how to use that information against her. So, he tells Katniss to convince him (Snow) and uses the rebellion as an excuse.

Why does Katniss have kids in the epilogue?
She ends up having kids at the end because the whole story is about finding ways for life to go on despite all the horrible things that happen. From the moment that Peeta gives her the bread, Peeta helps her clinging to life no matter what horrible things happen. Having children is the ultimate acceptance of the continuation of life. Having the mass grave grow back into a meadow where children play, while a bit morbid, is also a commentary about the continuation of life.

If Katniss had ended up with Gale, I bet that she would never have had children.

How old are Katniss's children in the epilogue?
Katniss says that it too "five, ten, fifteen years" for her to agree to have kids. I take that to mean that it took five years for Peeta to convince her to try to have kids. Then five years later (10 years since the end of the war) she gives birth to her daugher. Then five years after that (15 years since the end of the war), she gives birth to her son. That makes her daughter 10 years old and her son 5 years old in the epilogue. Those ages are consistant with her daughter already knowing about the games and her son being told in a few years.

My unanswered questions
Was Madge and her family in on the rebellion at the beginning? Was the mockingjay a symbol of the rebellion even before the reaping? The escapees tell Katniss about the mockingjay in the videos of district 13, and that video has been playing for years before the books start. Is that why Madge gives Katniss the mockingjay pin after she is reaped?

Why does Katniss lead her crew deeper into the capitol after Boggs dies? Does she really think she can find and kill Snow in the confusion of the battle? Why pull everyone after her?

How does Haymich feel about Katniss and Peeta? Does he learn to care for them? Do they become his family? Do the games ever end for Haymich?

Why does Effie survive?

Why are there pod traps in the capitol?

How long was Cinna part of the rebellion?

How and why did the cat survive?

What is the significance of the Hanging Tree song?

If Peeta, the pacifist, had been rescued instead of Katniss, the manipulated, as Coin wanted, how would that have changed Coin's war effort?

Why is Delly so nice? Is she just a plot device?

Why do the people of the capitol party and splurge and hord at the same time?

How does District 13 manage to be so organized? How does it absorb all those refugees and feed and house them so easily? How does it reassign housing so quickly and with such lack of confusion right after the bombing?

What was Gale really trying to say to Katniss when he was taken by the peacekeepers?

How did Finnick and Haymitch become friends?

books

For most of my life I've enjoyed the same type of books that I read in 6th grade: girly books and bold adventures. Although high school and college made me read many other books, the books I went back to over and over again always had the same themes and heroes.

Recently, I think my taste in books has finally grown up a little. Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games trilogy has caught my attention. These are not books that my 6th grade self would have enjoyed or appreciated. These books help me understand the difference between a protagonist who is a hero and one who isn't. My 6th grade self wanted heroes. My current self likes more ambiguity. Maybe that is why I find saint stories unfulfilling.

I guess I've graduated from the juvenile fiction stacks to the young adult stacks.

English lesson - vocabulary and poetry

Sparkle has moved on the vocabulary book for English.
The assignments in this book are to make a poem and a simile.
These writing assignments won't make much sense unless you've seen the textbook, but I'm posting them anyway.

A RE poem:
"I'll remind you if you don't remember
That today is the 16th of November."
"You don't have to remind me. I remember.
That today's the 16th of November!"

A RE simile:

Rebuilding is like bringing back the ancient times.

PS: Sparkle typed the poem herself.

guess what else Glitter talked me into

I said she could get it if she could write her name (first and last) legibly on the application.

2 o'clock

"Mama, it's 2 o'clock!"

kids

Sparkle got in trouble for writing on the furniture with a dry erase marker and then claiming it was an "accident". I managed to clean it off, but I was pretty angry at her for a while, because she *knows* better than that.

Glitter saw how angry I was, so she came up to me and gave me a *big* hug.

I set a new personal record today. I got to visit a 5 hour old baby. That's the youngest baby I've ever encountered. Thus far, the youngest baby I've ever *held* is 3 months old. I expect that will change soon.




We have resumed weekly teatimes.
I picked up some new teapots and more fake flowers. The girls decorated and set the table completely by themselves.

Sparkle likes poetry

Here is Sparkle reciting two little poems she made up.

Sparkle came up with this poem after being annoyed that the piano (electronic keyboard) was unplugged so that she couldn't play.

Transcription:
Who unplugged the piano?
It's something I'd never do.
Who unplugged the piano?
Why, could it be you?

Sparkle came up with this poem after Glitter had a monster breakfast of 3 pancakes, a handful of grapes, two servings of spaghetti, and still wanted more.


Transcription:
My sister's really hungry.
She simply won't stop!
She's eaten everything,
Even Mom and Pop!



Here is Sparkle reading her poem for memory work at our morning meeting. I love her expressions and hand motions.

Glitter likes math

My main reason for homeschooling Glitter this year was to avoid taking her to and picking her up from preschool. Since she was home and expected to do school like her sister, I decided to start reading lessons with her. Then she started trying to form letters, and I felt compelled to teach her the proper way to form letters. Finally, last night, as the four of us were having supper, Glitter and I got into an argument about her about doing math. The end result? She badgered me into giving her a math lesson today.



I have an array of choices for math for Glitter: RightStart A, Miquon, or Math Mammoth. If I were doing math with Glitter, I wanted something laid out for me, as I didn't want to put any effort into coming up with something myself. I like RightStart A, and planned on using it for Kindergarten, but it is too teacher intensive and the script drives me nuts, so I shelved it. I considered Miquon, but Sparkle is doing Miquon and I'm afraid that Glitter might catch up to her too quickly.

So that left me with Math Mammoth. I picked up the complete elementary program on a great discount earlier this year, thinking to use it with Sparkle later. I read on a recent forum that Math Mammoth is a poor choice for a 4 year old, especially since the pages are packed, it isn't cute, and there is lots of writing. However, all things considered (a) I don't want to do math with her anyway, (b) I like "do-the-next-page" programs, (c) she technically meets all the requirements for starting level 1, and (d) her handwriting is pretty good for her age, I decided to go with it.

I ended up having Glitter do a page of Math Mammoth today. She *loved* it. She drew all the circles herself. She wrote all the answers that were "1" and attempted the other numbers. I scribed for her when she was finally ready to give up writing them herself. At the end of the page, she looked around for more, and when I refused to give her another page, she extracted a promise that we do math again tomorrow.

RenFest School Days Photos

Here's some photos from the Renaissance Festival School Days.

The Renaissance Festival is a wondrous place to wander about and encounter both the historical and the fanciful. Both girls wore newly sewn princess dresses.


Our day started with an encounter with the Queen of France. When the girls admired her dress, she explained how purple dye was hard to come by and thus reserved for the royalty. Then the Queen of France invited us to join a dance. First the cast members performed a dance, and then we got to join in. Queen Anne Boleyn joined Sparkle, Glitter, and I for a set. The queen gave the girls a mini-history lesson about herself, her husband, and her famous daughter.



We met several good friends and homeschoolers there.


Here a Barbarian made the children swear to behave while at the faire.


Gotta have that turkey leg! One leg is enough to feed three people, or one vulture, as we got to see in the Birds of Prey show.


In addition to the regular shows, there are also performances by school groups. When the rest of our group ran ahead, Glitter and I stopped to listen to some singing by a local high school's choir. One of these kids is our neighbor's student!


To stave off the raging "gimmies" we gave each girl a budget. They bought pink fans, and other assorted treats. When they asked for more later, we pointed out that they had already spent their money. Blissful silence ensued.


Sparkle did manage to get in a few rides. This ride put her in debt, which she had to work off later in the week.


The demonstrations during school days are wonderful. On school days they focus on teaching rather than selling (although there is a good bit of that as well). Here a blacksmith plies his trade. I have no idea what Sparkle is doing in the background.


My favorite demonstration is the Gutenberg Press. We got to watch molten metal turned into moveable type, and then Sparkle got to be the "puller" operating the press.


It was a full day.