I am not a perfect person. I am not completely innocent. I live with privilege on multiple levels.
I’m really sick of people I respect turning out to be dicks or having been victimized by dicks. Again, this is a privileged take, but I feel like I can’t turn around without finding out a creator I respect is homophobic, thought pedofilia was funny, abused children, is an abusive ass who should’t have any sort of power over women, was transphobic (no link for this one since there are too many to choose), or racist (I don’t have the energy to make a list) and that’s just the publicly known ones. I have personal gripes with several creators over the way they treat people at conventions or just being unprofessional.
That’s a very short and quick list. There are plenty more and it hurts. Not because these things came out, but because they happened. Someone who should know better took a position of hate or abuse and ran with it.
The worst part is that these aren’t extraordinary acts. They aren’t exceptions. They are things we see daily. From the co-worker whose name is said wrong because it isn’t English or French, to the the friend who doesn’t speak in groups, to the person who is attacked in the grocery store, the friend who must look for a new job because pronouns are too hard for the employer.
We see it every day, some live it all the time, and it’s fucking exhausting.
Beyond that, the things that should be remembered are that we need to respect, believe, listen, uplift, and make room. Most important is to leave our egos out of it. If you’ve done something or heard something is wrong, don’t get defensive or aggressive about it.
I am not perfect, but I am trying to be as respectful as possible and I hope that if I step out of line people will tell me and I’ll take it with grace.
Today we’re talking about the 2020 film The Sleepover.
Story
The main plot seemed to be that the kids needed to save their parents… except they didn’t need to nor did they save them.
Someone took a bad “I’m a secret spy” movie and mushed it with a decent Adventures in Babysitting ripoff.
There’s nothing I dislike more than having competent kids end up being useless.
Chekhov would be very disappointed in the laser pen and alarm underwear.
Score: 0
Characters
There were two characters out of 7 that actually got a story arc and growth. The rest were just there to prop up the plot and make jokes. Mim started out as an amazing and fun character but had to be toned down to make the main girl look more awesome. The dad was goofy and fun and then he became a complete idiot.
Score: 0
Dialogue
The dialogue wasn’t bad. A lot of over acting, but that was a bonus in this genre. It wasn’t particularly great but not bad.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
This movie was stylish and had some impressive action scenes. It also had a significant amount of vomit which loses it points in my book.
The music was good and had a small moment of great, but overall was derivative.
Score: 0.5
Fun
There were times I enjoyed the movie, but the complete lack of agency in the kids at the end and the vomit scene really took my enjoyment away.
Score: 0
Overall
This movie wanted real hard to be a spy movie and then forgot to do anything like a spy movie. The excellent actors were underused, characters were changed for plot, and the awkward bodily humour wasn’t much fun.
Something about watching my wife homeschool our passionately headstrong daughter has made me think about education as a whole and what we value.
I think there’s something that we forget about in later grades with kids, and that’s the importance of practice and repetition.
I understand that our entire education system is meant to fill the kid’s head with as much knowledge as possible as quickly as possible in order to send them to the next step. Tests are meant to measure if the kid is doing well enough, and originally if they weren’t, they’d have to do the class again. (I don’t think they do that anymore.)
It’s a system that favours “clever” children. Those that can do something quick and efficiently the first time. Unfortunately, it’s also a system that in the end fails those same kids. Because they didn’t need help, they never learned study skills like time management, note taking, or prioritization.
It could be that I’m slowly turning into the “old artsy hippy”, but I think we need to start prioritizing doing something properly over doing it right. The current education system pushes kids to be smart or first in their class and not to be good or deeply know their subject.
One of my favourite teachers in high school taught me a valuable lesson when I asked her a ridiculous and precocious question in chemistry class. She said something I’d never heard a teacher say before, “I don’t know. I’ll look into it and get back to you.” She did and honestly I can’t remember what it was about, but I remember that statement and it has shaped a lot of my thinking since.
No knowledge I learned in school, no fact I had to memorize, no test I’ve ever taken, has been as important as the ability to research something. Boss wants a special pivot table in Excel, give me some time to look it up. I need to figure something out for a book, look it up.
So many of the abilities I use for my various jobs and projects, I learned from struggling in university or work, not from being clever in high school.
You don’t get better at something by constantly struggling to regurgitate what your teacher says. You get better by practice and repetition.
It’s also important to understand that our system favours a certain demographic of people. Not just post secondary education, but also the lower grades. Minorities and lower income families have a massive disadvantage in the way our education is set up.
I was extremely lucky overall, but there were advantages that I didn’t get because I was from a low income home. I didn’t get to do the more expensive sports or activities, I didn’t have the option of music, I didn’t have the newest tech, I didn’t have access to paid tutors, and I had to work through my university (3-4 jobs 30+ hours a week). I was, however, the only child in the house, I had a large extended family I could to for help, I had an excellent high school, I was clever, and I was a white male.
Basically, I think the push for the best grades leads kids to rely on natural cleverness or memory, and doesn’t lead to people who understand how to manage their lives or how to work to make or learn something with depth.
Repetition, practice, research, time management, and being able to admit when you don’t know something are skills that we need to pass on. Also critical thinking and detecting bullshit.
This one is probably the newest movie in the list – it came out December 25, 2020! In this week, we’re going to be talking a lot about music, especially jazz and blues!
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
In download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
The virtual school had a different format this week, which Dragon did NOT appreciate. She was unfocussed for most of the morning and rude when the teachers spoke to her. She also didn’t even try to speak in French in the morning. It was a struggle just to get her to pay attention.
She did listen attentively to the story, but I’m not sure how much she got out of it.
Math was a bit of a struggle today. They did words regarding location (sous, sur, derriere, etc), and she had fun with those. But then they did a worksheet with dice and a cup, so I got our dice out. She didn’t seem to understand what was going on. (But she wasn’t quite as rude to the teachers when she said so).
But the end was very positive. The teachers had put a link to a coding exercise with a mouse and cheese. Dragon, after initial confusion, got the hang of it and really enjoyed it. Then she showed her teachers the nebula she had made (including calling it nebulose, the French word for it). She made them laugh with her enthusiasm, which was great to see.
We had a lot of fun with the activities for homeschool this week.
Dance
She did ballet 2 times this week, and practiced doing the spilts.
Music
Piano: Clapping and counting went very well again. After the initial first note, which she always seems to have trouble with, she gets all the rest perfectly. A new note (dotted half note) was introduced today. We’ll see whether she remembers it next week. They did lessons 1-3 on the piano again, and then introduced F (right) & G (left). At that point, she lost focus. So they did manage to do the whole lesson, but it was not as smooth as usual.
We have a new French playlist that I can play through the Google, with a variety of artists.
Crochet
She did not do any this week.
Basic Information
We are working on the day before (hier) and the day after (demain) any given day. The months of the year is going well. We’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.
The saisons de l’année are all memorized. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.
When I ask her “combien” for any of the above, she now responds in complete sentences.
Printing words
Printing went very well this week.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She had no problems with the counting worksheet. She also made the numbers out of playdough.
Math: She had no problems with the first worksheet. The second required a little more effort, but she worked really hard and succeeded. We also did a couple coding games, from the website that the teacher suggested. She had a lot of fun with it.
Storytime
We read stories from the teacher’s outline that was sent to us on Monday. She enjoyed that, and we will continue to do it next week.
We watched Vampirina in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!
Activity
Physics experiment – static electricity – She had a lot of fun playing with the balloon and making her hair stand on end. She was fascinated by the way the little papers jumped up to the balloon.
It didn’t pick up any!
Static!
Look at all the bits!
Book Quelle tête by Robert Munsch – She adored this. Thanks for the book rec, Fadhili!
Physics experiment – magnets – rather than do a particular experiment, I decided to just let her make her own hypotheses about what would happen with different materials, and what would allow the two magnets to cling together. Some of it surprised me!
Pulling them apart
Look! They stick together on their sides!
I can’t put them together!
Together again!
Stick through the dress
Magnetic attraction through the plastic gate
Magnetic attraction through my crochet hook case
Magnetic attraction through the wood door of the end table
Magnetic attraction through the book
Magnetic attraction through a wooden puzzle
The scissors are magnetic!
The cups are magnetic?
Nope – but four cups are not too thick for the magnetic attraction
I’m at the beginning of the busy period for work. It should calm down around April. Add to that, I’m writing a novel with my wonderful and very enthusiastic wife. Plus, we have a toddler who can now climb out of the playpen, so we needed to rearrange our main floor to accommodate a free-range tiny tornado.
So I forgot to write a post. Earlier I mean… This is technically a post so I didn’t really forget.
Let’s just say I’m feeling Ducking Sheepish.
Photo of a small rubber duck that is made to look like a sheep, in front of an open laptop computer with a “new post” tab that is blank.
Today we’re talking about the 2015 film Barbie in Princess Power.
Story
They tried really hard to mush together a superhero plot and a fantasy plot. Both are derivative with little of interest beyond a forced moral of cooperation. There were some pretty major plot holes that made the whole movie not make sense.
Score: 0
Character
A princess, her cousin, and her personal inventors? an evil adviser to the king, overbearing parents, and adorable kids. Every character in this movie is a cliché. I’d also say that the Rube-Goldberg physics of the world are practically a character.
Mostly it’s a bunch of really whiny privileged people whining.
Score: 0
Dialogue
The best part of the movie was dialogue borrowed from superhero movies. There were some nice nods to Christopher Reeves and other movies.
Other than that, it was pretty clipped and shallow.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
I’ve watched about six of the Barbie movies at this point and I understand they are supposed to be dolls and that the animation isn’t fantastic. I’m willing to forgive that mostly, but the physics in this are pretty bad, clothing doesn’t move, hair does odd things, and jewellery looks painted on. Worst was their faces, every female character looked like they’re faces were collapsing in on themselves. It was disconcertingly like the late stages of an eating disorder.
The music was a nice surprise; the pop track was catchy and not too bad. I also liked the score, it had a lot of influences from superhero movies and made the scenes significantly better than they should have.
Score: 0.5
Fun
The movie wasn’t a lot of fun. It was frustrating and made me want to scream at the characters.
That being said, the silly physics and pratfalls were entertaining. Especially to my youngest, who just loved Bruce the Frog.
Score: 0.5
Overall
One of the weaker Barbie movies. It tries too hard to be cute and not hard enough to fun. The character development is as hollow and vapid as the characters themselves. The music was good and there were some ridiculous moments that weren’t bad.
Little Dragon is going through a phase of discovering what she likes. It’s quite frustrating since it changes ALL-THE-TIME but I understand it’s because she’s trying to figure out what she likes and who she is.
“I really don’t like spicy,” she’ll say and then turn around and ask for Jalapeno cheese or extra hot sauce on her meal.
It’s as adorable as it’s frustrating. I know it’ll even out, but it’s hard to guess what she’ll eat. Sometimes when I ask her she changes her mind by the time it’s in front of her.
In the same vein, I’ve noticed that my tastes have changed in music at least. The Mystery Book Project is set in 2002 and we made a music playlist appropriate for the time.
There’s a lot of music from the time that I really enjoy and then there’s some others. At the time I enjoyed Eminem and Nine Inch Nails. They spoke to a part of me back then. Now not so much, it’s either a lot of whining and noise that sounds either entitled, pretentious, or both.
It’s interesting how tastes change over time, some over a couple of decades and some over a couple of minutes.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
In download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
