That #$%& Co-op!

Halfway into first hour at coop this morning the director knocked on the door. She had St. Nick beside her, and neither of them was happy. He was being kicked out of class for his first time ever. Kicked out! Sent to the office! Sent to sit in the hallway! Whatever that horrible thing was that happened to the bad kids in school, but never to me. How have I managed to raise one of those bad kids? Is St. Nick a bad kid? Am I a bad parent?

For the next two hours I had half the moms in the school giving me advice, asking questions, trying to be helpful. Helpful of my son's "Special Needs." But why is it that the other two hours of class passed without incident? How is it that the second hour teacher has found ways of getting St. Nick out of his funk and into the group, without bringing him down, red faced (both him and herself) to talk to me about how disrespectful and disobedient he's been? And what on earth is so bad about letting him observe rather than participate?

Something to say

That's what I haven't had for a while now. Homeschool coop has been going better. Fish loves it, Pie doesn't know that she has a choice, and St. Nick is under strict orders to put up with it or else. He may well find out what "or else" means before it's said and done, however. I guess I should put some thought into what "or else" means, eh?

So, I'm sitting here at Biggby sipping a Big Chill despite the cold. I love the taste! I can't help it. And I'm thinking about how it didn't feel like I went grocery shopping today. Which is really, truly amazing! Our local grocery just started a program where you fill your cart online and, for a small fee, someone else collects all your items, bags them, rings them up, and all you have to do is park in the designated spot at the designated time and ring them up to say, "I'm here!" and out they come to take your credit card and load the bags into the back of your vehicle. It's awesome!!!! Not only did I save probably $40 (no impulse buys, no "Well, it's on sale so even though I don't *need* six boxes of Cheddar Crisps ..."), I avoided the whole tugging kids through the asiles, forgetting that one thing way in back, the oh crap I need to get shampoo which is all the way on the other side of the store, the Put that back! No, we aren't going to buy that! Put it back, I said! Hey, how did this get in my shopping bag?

I can hardly contain how excited I am by this new program. No more pushing a cart through slush in the winter! No more embarassed forevers in the checkout lane while the kids scream and fight and try to open all the candy bars (nooo, they don't really do that. No, of course not.).

I'm sure next time my computer crashes I'll regret saying this, but isn't technology great? I can sit here at Biggby, jamming to my iPod, typing on my laptop, posting via wireless, and all this after going grocery shopping without even leaving my car. Ahhhhhhh.

Not-so-Captivating Classics: Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil (1952)

Red Sails to Capri was published in '52, won a Newbery Honor, and I guess that's why it ended up in St. Nick's curriculum. Or maybe the sheer drudgery made it adequate school reading?

But I'm being unfair. It's a book for younger readers, so it can't be too breath-holding (or so I've heard, which is totally false), and while I'm none too fond of it as a whole, there are many things to appreciate.

It's the story of Michele Pagano's adventure with three foreign guests at his family's inn. Together they search for the truth about the mysterious cove, an inlet and cave that has terrified the village of Capri for generations. The book is incredibly fun to read aloud. Each character has a unique voice that simply sings with authenticity and life. I got to read adventure-loving Monsieur Jacques with a terrible French accent, and the artist Lord Derby with an even worse English one. I didn't so much as attempt German for philosopher Herre Nordstrom, but read Signor and Signora Pagano's lines with a rolling Italian lilt. Or so I like to tell myself. Probably they all sounded like a Midwesterner faking an undisclosed accent badly. I tried, and I had fun.

And by chapter nine, my son was having fun, too! The cove! What is so mysterious about the cove? Unfortunately, to get to chapter nine, we had to slog through chapters one through eight, and after chapter nine, we had only chapter ten and then the book was finished.

In short, despite lovely writing, fabulous voices, vivid details, on and on, the book had very little plot. Boy has to entertain guests at the inn, guests want adventure, boy knows the cove is scary and adventuresome, but doesn't know why, no one knows why, so off they go to investigate and by golly, the cove is just ... ah, but that would be spoiling it, now wouldn't it? And that could have been accomplished in, oh, two chapters perhaps? Instead of ten? Because, see, nothing else happens. There's no subplot, nothing to drive the story forward beyond, "what's so scary about the cove?" which, honestly, wasn't enough to drive anything, beyond a mother and son slightly bug-eyed with boredom.

A Family Favorite: Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, 1947

Where abstract meets concrete. This is a perfect sleepytime book with a lulling, rocking-chair rhythm as the little bunny says goodnight to all the familiar things in his room. Bold and simple illustrations show bunny getting into bed, getting under the covers, each spread taking him closer to sleep; it confronts nighttime fears with a gradual dimming of the lights and wishing goodnight to “nobody” and “noises everywhere.”


This book has been one of my favorites for going on ten years now. I believe we're on our second or third copy? Since board books are edible. A well-deserved classic.


Worth mentioning: there's now a parody by Alex Rex, Goodnight Goon.