And it’s going to be a doozy.

Seems like once a season, Kiki starts to get claustrophobic, and needs to re-arrange the entire house (or, at least, half the house). We don’t live in the lap of luxury, and so with two households worth of stuff — we never got rid of the flotsam when we combined households a couple years ago — it takes the spatial awareness and mathematical skills of Stephen Hawkings with the creative movement and flow of Mikhail Baryshnikov to get everything to fit.

This time, we’re switching the bedroom with the office, the playroom with the nursury, combining both girls sleeping arrangements into Fae’s room, moving the second couch to create a breakfast/nursing nook, and cleaning up the entry-way.

In other words, the entire house — other than the living room. We haven’t decided if we’re flipping that yet, to create space for a dining room.

The moving, disconnecting, reconnecting, stacking, huffing and puffing aren’t the difficult part. What the hell do we do with a five-year-old and a 3-month-old in the middle of all this? The entire house is going to be in flux, and it’s a typical Portland Fall Day (TM) outside.

Laurie Berkner will have to come to the rescue, I fear.

At least we’re not touching the bathroom!

Click below for updates…

2:20 — Planning is finished; including step-by-step list and house diagram. Just waiting for the baby to settle down and Kiki to finish lunch before we get started. With the way Yuki is fussing, it could be a while…

No, really. Like, she guffaws and everything.

That’s the only reason why, that I can think, for her to constantly keep me awake until 2:00am, then get up at 5:00am for another feeding. When the house gets up generally at 6:00am.

At least I haven’t accidentally fed cat litter to Fae yet for breakfast.

Yuki -- Not sleeping.

This attention to reading seems to make the current Language Arts curriculum so painstaking. K12 wants me to read a story to Fae (this week’s is the real version of Red Riding Hood, by the Brothers Grimm) each day over the course of 2-4 days. After each reading, there are some cut-out activities, definitions, and general questions. Ok, fine, I get the need to ensure her grasp of the reading material. But, three days for Red Riding Hood?

And in looking forward, the near future doesn’t look any better, as far as belaboring the story. So, I came up with a new method to combine all the discussion question topics into a single, easy, and fun game.

First, what you’ll need:

1. Get a spinner (like Twister) with different colors or numbers. The one I have is quartered by color.

2. Get enough tokens, coins, markers, whatever so that you have 3 of each section on the spinner. For example, I have 3 blue, 3 red, 3 yellow, and 3 green tokens.

3. Combine all the discussion questions from each of the lessons, then divide them by the different spinner sections. The three lessons covering Red Riding Hood had a total of 12 discussion questions, so I have three questions for each color.

4. Your child.

Reading Spinner Game - Child Not Included.

How to play:

1. Have your child spin the spinner to determine the color question.

2. If she gets the answer correct, she receives a colored token. If she doesn’t get the answer correct, then she receives nothing.

3. Continue until she gets three tokens of the same color. If she’s lucky, it’ll only be three questions from the same color. If she’s not, well, she may have to answer most of the questions on the sheet.

Some variations:

• Take a question from each lesson to make a colored question group. That way, like in Jeopardy, each subsequent question should be more difficult.
• Create 5-6 questions for each color, then require your child to acquire three tokens of each color.
• If your child get a wrong answer, go back to the section of the story/book and re-read it right then. Have her try to answer again. If she gets it right, she gets token.

Why I think this works:

First, it creates a visual game for a subject that’s auditory in the beginning. Sitting through reading a story, then sitting through a question and answer period can be challenging — especially for kinesthetic learners.  Second, it provides some randomness to the assignment. I think this would keep Fae more focused just because of the anticipation of the spinner. Third, and the most important reason for me, I think taking multiple days to cover one short story is gross overkill. Let’s trust that our children will retain what we teach, and not belabor the lesson plan to the point of total boredom and shut-down.

After all, if she doesn’t “win” the game, you can always revisit the story the next day.

At least she’s not the only one sick. The whole fam got hit pretty bad the last few days — me being the last. Damn, I thought taking care of two kids was challenging enough; try throwing in lethargy, sniffling that startles Yuki awake, and being too weak to hold a 14 lb baby for long stretches.

Luckily, it’s been a rather uneventful week so far at the PDX Dad household.

That’s to change rather quickly.

Northern Spotted Owl

October starts the mad, crazy time requiring group calendars and a flurry of e-mails confirming plans made months in advance. Apple tasting, apple cooking, pumpkin patch, birthdays, Halloween (woo!), pre-Thanksgiving get-togethers, Thanksgiving, post-Thanksgiving get-togethers, excursions into the Oregon wild to find that perfect holiday present (I’m thinking a Northern Spotted Owl would be cool), pre-Christmas get-togethers, stocking exchanges, Kiki’s holiday work party, Christmas, post-Christmas loot comparisons for the kids, then New Year’s.

Best part is that the schedule is so full and busy, there’s no time for Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Tomorrow, Friday 9/26, at the Pioneer Courhouse Square, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NHAIHB) will celebrate American Indian Day by holding a powwow. This is from their announcement:

Portland, OR — The Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) and other local area American Indian organizations will be hosting an American Indian Day Celebration at the Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland on Friday, September 26, 2008.  The event will be a celebration of American Indian cultures and is intended to raise the level of awareness concerning the challenges that American Indian people continue to face in this country. The event is free and open to the public. The event will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and will include Northwest Tribal leaders, Indian advocates, drum groups, dancers, and arts and crafts vendors who will share their talents and experiences with the Portland community.

Looks like it should be fun and informational, and there will be booths and a press conference for those of us who are politically active.

With camera in hand, and adventure in our hearts, we took to the streets of Portland. Our mission was to photojournal different things to represent the five senses. I created a scavenger hunt of sorts, a rather simple one. Fae seemed to enjoy herself, and was really into getting down and taking pictures.

All of the picture ideas are hers. Most of the actual holding of the camera was done by me, but the final composition of the pictures was Fae’s. Below the cut is the assignment, and the photos we took.

SIGHT: Find something that is…

• Blue
• Yellow
• Red

HEARING: Find something that makes a sound which is…

• Loud in volume
• Soft in volume
• Low in pitch
• High in pitch

SMELL: Find something that smells…

• Good
• Bad

TASTE: Find something that would taste…

• Good
• Bad
• We originally tried Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter, but found it just a bit difficult without going to restaurants, or hitting the lunch crowd at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

TOUCH: Find something that feels…

• Hard
• Soft
• Rough

One of our biggest worries about Fae in public schools is the safety. We keep hearing about school shootings, first-graders with knives, third-grade gang-bangers, etc. Granted, statistically, there’s a greater change of being hurt within five miles of home in a car accident, but still, the seemingly nightly news reports of our “schools in crisis” cast a pall on the prospect of our little five-year-old being safe.

Kiki and I still greatly worry about Fae being exposed to all kinds of elements at such an early age. However, I’m not too concerned with school shootings.

The U.S. has the rep of the school-shooting capital of the world. We have the most firearms in civilian hands than any other country in the world. Both in real numbers, and in per capita. Do we really have the most dangerous schools in Western society?

BBC has an interesting timeline up on their website on the major school shootings world-wide over the last decade. Out of 10 listings, the United States shows up 4 times. The last two major school shootings happened in Finland. Then there were also major tragedies in Canada, Argentina, and Germany. Of course, this doesn’t take into account the smaller incidences, random shootings, etc.

So how violent are American schools? To be frank, I have no idea. I keep coming across conflicting information.

For example, from Virginia Tech — a school that knows tragedy — comes this research showing that school violence, and student homicides have been steadily going down since 1994. And yet, schools in urban Philadelphia sees a sharp increase in “persistently dangerous” schools (a reporting designation for No Child Left Behind).

Then, of course, there are those critics of the NCLB reports of persistently dangerous schools as arbitrary, lacking definition, and requires schools to self-report.

Pretty much, I’m not too concerned with school shootings. There would be nothing — absolutely nothing — that neither Kiki nor I could prepare for that situation. I think what would be more sane is for us to focus on those things we can influence, or those things that Fae could be influenced by. Sex, drugs, theft, truancy, etc. There are still plenty on the list to be worried about with public schools, to justify keeping Fae homeschooled.

It helps that the temperature is currently 51F, with a high of 61F, mostly cloudy with some raining this morning. Both Kiki and I much prefer fall over the summer. We’re just not warm-weather people, and Fae acts like she’ll melt in the sunshine. It’ll be interesting to see how Yuki handles her first Fall and Winter.

Fae at the pumpkin patch 2007.

Changing weather means changing decor in the house. (Supposedly, anyway. We still have some winter items up from last year.) Leaves, pumpkins, wicker stuff, with the colors pretty much stuck on oranges and reds and blacks and browns. Charlie Brown meets the Cleveland Browns.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I like it when Kiki redoes the decor. It’s just that every once in a while, I get these flashes of what it’ll be like 10-20-30 years down the road, when we own our own home, and the house is brimming with holiday stuff because Ms-Geeks-Out-At-Every-Holiday won’t get rid of “sentimental” decorations from decades past.

Still, it keeps her happy, makes the house look different (and better) when she changes things out, and it forces me to clean out the stairway closet.

Plus — and don’t tell Kiki this — Fall Equinox starts my beard-growing season.

BBC's "The Box"

That’s why I’m totally stoked about this project from the BBC. Quick synopsis:  BBC is running a news series on globalization. They’ve commissioned an export container to be painted red with their logo and website, and to be used in the general container pool. They give updates about where it’s at via GPS on the website, and ask for readers and viewers to take pictures / videos of the container if they see it. An interactive map shows its current location, and its previous path.

So, this is the type of story I would follow just on my own. Because, yeah, I’m a logistics and globalization geek. It’s my hobby. It’s my sickness. I’ll pretty much keep that out of here as much as possible.

Fae’s kindergarten history starts with learning about globes and maps, the seven continents, directions and cardinal points… at least, that’s what we’ve covered so far this year. We’re still a little behind, because of the materials shipment delays. I’m pretty sure globalization isn’t going to be covered in the next couple of units. At least, we didn’t receive a copy of Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat with our copy of Follow the Drinking Gourd.

Still, I think the BBC’s project is good fodder for this stage of Fae’s history classes. We’ll be able to Google Earth the current location, check out its Wikipedia entry, look up some images of the local scenery. If we’re lucky, we can find some local music online or at the library. Maybe she’ll get an appreciation of the size of the Earth. Or of the copious variety of cultures. Or maybe even of languages (she loves to make up her own Spanish).

Right now, we’ll keep it simple by focusing on the country, the previous paths and the directions, and maybe plot a possible path on the map based on its next port of call. Since the project is (hopefully) scheduled to run for a full year, there will be plenty of time for the lessons to grow with Fae.

I’ll probably enjoy following the series, too.

“This is too spicy” for barbeque sauce.

“I don’t like rice” for any kind of rice, although not so much with cheesy rice.

“It’s too brown” when I serve roasted broccoli.

“I’m not eating burnt meat” when she sees the grill marks on chicken.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Almost every night ends up being a battle with Fae to eat a good portion of her dinner. Often she’ll comply, or she’ll talk us into taking 2-3 “no thank you bites.” Sometimes she just flat out refuses. My hope is that Fae will learn to like different foods as she gets older and continues to be “forced” to try new things.

And, we try all types of tricks to get her to eat, most of them to no avail. Kiki and I always eat the same dinner, so it doesn’t seem like we’re singling Fae out. We explain what each thing is so she’s not confused by what she sees on the plate (Grill marks does not mean the chicken is burnt.). We even separate out the parts of a dish if she doesn’t like it combined, like taco salad (making a bean and beef dip, and a separate greens salad). And if there’s no catchup or ranch dressing accompanying the meat, then fugetaboutit!

I normally cook dinners in our house — even before being a stay-at-home-dad. Cooking is one of those zen meditational things for me. Start with a concept, gather the parts, and create something where the sum is greater than the parts. And, I specifically cook what I think the whole family would like… ergo, no stewed tomatoes, no fried okra, no steak tartar, no Gorgonzola cheese. So yeah, it tends to hurt my feelings a bit when I’ve put in a good amount of thought, work, and care into creating a healthy and nutritious dinner; just to have Fae thumb her nose at it. Well, usually it’s crossed arms, big ol’ frown, and a vicious shaking of the head while telling us, “No!” or “Uh unh!”

Kiki will usually tell me to lay off, let her check out the food on her own, kids don’t starve themselves, etc. Ok, fine, I get those arguments. I’ve laid off getting upset at Fae during dinner when she doesn’t want to eat. I’ve learned a little to work around for some of it… No second piece of bread until you eat your salad, for example. I’ve learned to be OK — for the most part — when Fae still refuses.

It’s not about me.

Which, come to think of it, should probably be the mantra of any dad: “It’s not about me.”

Sure, Kiki and I still crave our pad se ew, Cajun-rubbed New York strip steak, pasta tossed with bell peppers, and all the other “grownup” foods. But, we’re not all grownups in the house, and teaching cuisine to the kids is just as much a process as teaching handwriting, or riding a bike. Force the lesson too much and the child will just butt heads with you, making that much more of a negative imprint.

We try pretty hard to be a positive family. To paraphrase Robert Frost:

I shall be telling this with a sigh,

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two palates diverged in the kitchen, and I —

I took the food less eaten,

And that has made all the difference.