What-What?! Week of October 29th

Today is Saffron's birthday!  She turns 10 today; a very exciting milestone.


To celebrate, we hit the movie theater on Thursday to see the new My Little Pony Movie.  Overall, it was a like watching a very long MLP episode.  I appreciate that they kept the original voice cast, though I do object to the new animation style somewhat.  There were points in the story that retread on the same themes and events as the show, which was a bit obnoxious, but I did expect that from the film since they cannot depend on the people watching having the backstory of the world.

The bigger issue to me is the shoe-horning in of a popstar character who was totally unnecessary.  It would've been one thing if they had gotten any of the existing popstars of the MLP world to come in, but the film had this completely unknown character, then made this her out to be a much larger part of the story than she actually was.

Saffron totally loved it, and Corwin as well.  Osric was not very impressed; he gave one thumbs up and one thumbs down.

This next week, we have Halloween to look forward to!  We've already taken the kids to one Halloween party yesterday, and they had a good time playing carnival games and wearing their costumes.

What-What?! Week of January 19th

Something Silly:  My Little Pony Movies on Netflix

Netflix just recently added a bunch of My Little Pony movies from the mid-2000's (scroll down to M).  It's from generation three era, so it's basically all cutesy ponies and little girl stuff.  If you don't have kids, I wouldn't recommend it whatsoever, but my children enjoy the films, especially the song and dance numbers.

As an MLP geek, I did want to point out The Runaway Rainbow, which follows the story of Rarity becoming the princess of Unicornia, is actually pretty accurate prehistory to the current My Little Pony TV series.  If you just pretend that this film is historical, and all the current ponies are named after these historical figures, it makes a lot more sense.

Something Serious: Closing the Word Gap Between Rich and Poor

Recently, NPR ran an article discussing the "word gap" between the rich and poor.  Research estimates that, by the age of three, poor children hear about 30 million fewer words than children from more affluent families.

The article quotes the mayor of Providence, RI, saying that two-thirds of RI kindergartners start out the year below national literacy averages.  However, the article and the mayor make no comments about the income backgrounds of those children.  This begs the question: Are these subpar literacy skills the result of the word gap, or other factors?  Further, if it is connected to the word gap, perhaps not speaking to your children is cultural to the area, not connected to economic background?

What bothers me about this research is that it is largely about the result -- the lack of words spoken to poor children -- as opposed to the reasons why this occurs.  The article posits a few reasons for the gap, but at the same time, these reasons seem to be in the vein that poor people don't know how to parent effectively.  Using this as an excuse to enact universal preschool is especially disgusting; not only would preschool would be a band-aid measure that "fixes" the problem after it's all ready happened, but it also acts on the assumption that 10-20 children in a room with one teacher for a few hours everyday is better than the more individual and substantial interaction from a parent.

Other research has found that low income families are more likely to watch TV and movies with their children, which takes time away from talking, playing, or reading books.  It would follow that this fact is involved with reducing interaction between parents and children, much more than simply "poor parents don't talk enough".  What's interesting, is that studies have shown that less parental life pressures, less parental screen time, and greater social support, are connected to reduced screen time in children.  Those factors are all probably connected:  More social support leads to less stress in life, thus parents are less likely to want to "veg out" in front of the TV after a long day.  If parents aren't watching TV, their children probably aren't, either.

(imgs via Wikipedia, NPR.com)

What-What?! Week of March 17th

This week I’ve survived my husband being out of town, extra classes, turning in a major paper, and my first practice presentation for my capstone class.  But now, it is spring break!  Ooooooh yeah!

News: I’m in the Wall Street Journal! (second letter down)

In my post last week, I discussed an article titled #SequesterThis.  I did some editing and tightened it up, then sent it in as a letter to the editor.  And it was published!  It makes me quite happy.

Homeschooling:  Word Practice Eggs

I got the idea for these from FamilyFun magazine (which I believe is a Disney publication?).  Using plastic Easter eggs, write consonants on one side, and word endings on the other.  On mine, I did “at” words:  On one side it has a c, m, r, and b, and on the other, “at”.  Putting the two sides together makes the words cat, mat, rat and bat.  The example in FamilyFun is good up until you try to figure out additional word endings.  Bring in this website about word families, which has a huge trove of different word possibilities!

The only warning that I have on this project is that, though I used permanent marker, it slowly rubbed off the eggs.  I don’t know what else to use for writing on the eggs, but this was otherwise a huge hit with both my oldest children (ages 5 and 3).

Cooking:  Breakfast Enchiladas via Inspired Taste 

I made these last night, with some changes; I skipped the flour, used milk instead of half-n-half, and added salsa to the eggs as well.  It came out okay.  It wasn’t bad or anything, but it wasn’t very exciting to eat.  I think some sour cream or guacamole on top would have hit the spot.  Or maybe some black beans in the enchiladas?  I’ll have to think about it.

News:  5 Startup Naming Rules via Entreprenuer

 

This is a well-timed article on naming your business.  I particularly think that rule number one is good; you're creating a brand, not naming a business.  If the domain name you want for your business is taken, find a different one with the same name, or choose a different name all together.  Don't wind up adding, deleting or changing letters because of this.  No one will be able to remember it, and your website will just be lost in the vast sea of the interwebz.  I have one example of this that is pretty close to home: The California Farmers' Markets Association has the website cafarmersmkts.com.  I have been to this website numerous times, and still have to Google it every single time, because I just cannot remember it.  Californiafarmersmarkets.com is not taken, and neither is thecfma.com.  I think those would be easier to remember.

Movies:  Wreck-It Ralph Review

Last week, Wreck-It Ralph was released, and being a video game geek, I had to pick it up.  I actually liked this film better than Brave; in Brave, there was all this buildup of characters and story, but then the ending was far from the epic conclusion I was expecting.  Wreck-It Ralph does not have this problem; it remained exciting the entire way through, with subdued humor and a great plot twist.  My only real dig about it is the toilet humor: I know it’s a children’s movie, but really?  Did we have to go there?  The other thing that bothered me was how the villain was dealt with; I’m not sure that my kids really needed to see that.  Of course, after the scene in Tangled, where Mother Gothel turns into dust, I’m getting the idea that Disney isn’t sugarcoating or hiding how villains are killed.  I just remind myself that, in the original Cinderella story, the evil stepmother had red-hot iron shoes put on, dancing to death for Cinderella’s amusement.

Despite these issues, it was redeemed by the nostalgia factor, interesting characters, and creative setting.  Oh, and the music; I thought that the music, especially the theme for the “Sugar Rush” game was brilliant.  It sounds exactly like something you’d hear in an arcade.  I give it 4.5/5 stars.  I expect to watch this film often over the summer.

Wasting Time: More Princess Celestia as the Stig

Yes, more.  See you next week!  :)

(photos via FamilyFun, Inspired Taste, IMDb)