Today's Daily Double

"Gotta share.....gotta share!"*

I read an interesting article on a parent's search for a kindergarten that did not assign homework and let kindergarteners play (because that is their work - thank you, Montessori.)

This was my favorite paragraph:

"I came late to motherhood, so I had plenty of time to ponder friends’ mania for souped-up childhood learning. How was it that the same couples who piously proclaimed that 3½-year-old Junior was not “developmentally ready” to use the potty were drilling him on flashcards? What was the rush? Did that better prepare kids to learn? How did 5 become the new 7, anyway?"

Now that we're in the thick of the ridiculousness that is "my kid is taking more high school AP courses than your kid," it seems that Grade 9 is the new Grade 11 with lots of $80 a pop AP testing going on to discern what's in a 14.5 year old's mind that might qualify as college credit.

So we've gone from Doogie Howser's to faux-college-credit earners?

After watching friends and family take 4.5 - 5 years to complete their state university educations, because classes were so full that they had to go in the summer or an extra semester here and there, I've decided that it's all a bit of a sham and that AP credits are only useful when you are going to a state university and the credit gets you out of a basic requirement class that is always full when you try to get into it.

The Boy, who did not test into freshman AP courses, but aced the regular curriculum this year so he's going the AP route next year, is starting to feel a bit of sting from his friends that are off taking the $80 tests this spring. I witnessed a joking, but slightly stinging exchange between him and a friend in the 'high' math class. After the friend was out of the car, The Boy vented a bit about it and his vent contained the phrase "I engage in higher-level thinking" and he went on to share how well he did on an impromptu in-class essay assignment earlier in the week.

I was smug mama the rest of the ride home - he gets it and he's going to be just fine.

In the same article (here's the double) I clicked on the photo credit and discovered the photography of Julie Blackmon and I love it! I hope you'll enjoy it too.

*Singin' In The Rain is in my head

Toto, We Are In The White House

One of the blogs that I read regularly is say la vee and she highlighted the official White House Flickr photostream in one of her recent posts and as I scrolled through the images I felt like I was living a mini history lesson right there.

Yes, the pics are all part of the 'we the people - you the people - this house is our house - this house is your house' message that the Obama administration is pushing out. Oh, and the message? It matches the campaign rhetoric - they are pulling the curtain back and we do see the Wizard and Wizardress in there.

But we also get to see much more.

Crowded meeting rooms full of important people - and not always the image of that meeting that you'll see in Time magazine.

The art that he has chosen to hang in his office.

The comments that accompany the pictures, written by 'we the people.' Some are insightful, some are juvenile. Commenters begin to then comment on each other's comments and so goes the viralness of the web.

The White House PR and Tech plans mesh at this point. It's another chapter in the Axelrod/Obama guide to the Internet and the common web-connected (wo)man.

I'm going to (try) add it to my list of sites that I drop into.

It's my homework.

Who's Afraid of the Muffin Man?

I knew that this post would come. The ubiquitous body issue post. However, this one involves physics.

Let me digress a bit.

I have a cookbook called "Off The Beaten Path" by Bob Blumer, aka (his nomenclature) the surreal gourmet. I bought it after having some delicious grilled asparagus that he prepared in his Airstream kitchen which was situated in the Whole Foods parking lot as part of a series of appearances in the area to promote said book.

There is a chapter in the book called Extreme Cuisine and Bob says: "My dinner guests tend to arrive with impossibly high expectations. Instead of trying to compete with their fantasies, I counter with culinary theatrics from my Surreal bag of tricks. The ruse started at a dinner in Vienna where I poached salmon fillets in a dishwasher."

You get the picture.
Lemongrass Shrimp 'grilled' on a car engine after the car had been driven for 20 miles. Foods prepared with your iron.

And this brings me back to physics and the muffin (top).

As I've been doing a lot of driving lately, I'm acutely aware of how much force my stomach exerts on the seatbelt. After the initial disgust about how I need to lose a few pounds ebbs away, I then start to think more about the force (help me, Luke) and how I can harness it and get something positive accomplished with it.

That reminded me of Bob and his salmon in the dishwasher and the shrimp on the car engine.

Maybe a grilled cheese when it's hot enough outside?

Goat cheese pressed panini?

Pull over and sell them roadside and make a little gas money?

I am afraid of the muffin man and what he does to my head.