Geek Parenting

Tonight on the car ride home:
Coryn: Mom, are mermaids real?
Me: I don't know. I've never seen one and I don't know of anyone else who has but I like to think that the sea is so big there could be things in it that no one has seen. Maybe even mermaids.
Coryn: I think they are real. I can't get them out of my mind.
Me: It's okay to imagine that things are real even if you can't see them. That's called wonder. It's what keeps people exploring.
Coryn: There are people who explore the deep. They are deep sea divers!
Me: Yes, that's why the Doctor loves humans, because they are always exploring and are very curious. It's a good thing to be curious. It keeps us learning about our world.
Coryn: We always explore. We never give up. We always win!
Me: Yes, those are very good things.

Being a Geek

Today I was expounding on various theories involving the ever tricky plot lines and twists of Doctor Who and after writing what amounted to an essay on various theories about the "Impossible Girl" I took a step back and realized that what makes me a Geek isn't my taste in literature and entertainment so much as my ability to obsess about them.

The problem with Geek fascinations is that they allow you to write papers worth of speculation if you actually take the time to try and puzzle them out. Everything Geek is bigger on the inside.

I prefer the term Geek to Nerd not because I find Nerd to be derogatory but because I don't consider myself "smart" enough to be a Nerd. To me a Nerd needs to be able to fix computers or chart star systems or replicate DNA or something like that. A geek just needs to be fascinated by something, to be excited by something, to enjoy forms of entertainment that provide both escape and an opportunity to think creatively.

Math and sciences were never my subjects. I preferred history and literature.  I still do. I consider myself above average at puzzle solving and I almost always know who the bad guy is in a television show, not because of evidence but, like one of my fictional heroes Castle, because I understand stories. I suppose I could be a word nerd, but I'm a little too scatter brained to really embrace the title. 

 I've always been Geeky about my fascinations by the definitions provided above: the ability to be unashamedly obsessed with something and demonstrative about it . . . and to over analyze it. It started out with cats, in all honesty. I have always had an unhealthy fascination with felines. Later it was the Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew, not geeky but long enough series that I could devour one after another after another . . . Then I found Narnia but it didn't really take off until I got into Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.  . . and the Geekiness started to pile up. I liked large universes. I liked to be able to think about my fiction. I liked to be able to write fan fiction . . .I'm not into every single Geek show/book/etc but I have a basic knowledge of most of them. I am a little into gaming, but I'm not exactly 1337, if you know what I mean.

Geek is now becoming a bit more mainstream (I think partially because a lot of particularly handsome men are involved in Geeky activities). There are also a lot more Geeky options. It isn't just Star Trek/Star Wars any more. It isn't just Scifi and Fantasy, though most still fall into one or the other of these categories. There is more demand which is breeding better series with more money behind them.

So I may change obsessions every few years. I am not as into Star Wars as I once was (thanks a lot, prequels, gag) and a lot more into Doctor Who than Star Trek at the moment, but the underlying condition of Geekdom means that whatever I am into I am going to be all in! Fully devoted and running one hundred different theories about plot lines and background stories at any given minute. That is the joy of Geek!

AFK BRB

We will be going back to Oregon to visit family over the next couple of weeks, so there will not be a lot of activity on this blog or my other projects.

Caen says, "Bye-Bye!"

Wordless Wednesday: Oh No! Baby Rash!

Spotted baby!

Not Quite Over Pluto Yet

http://www.snorgtees.com/it-s-okay-pluto

I'm not the only one who has a feeling of loss about the whole Pluto thing. I mean, nine is my lucky number, so nine planets seemed perfect. Also, I would've much rather added on (I get that Eris is larger than Pluto and if we count Pluto we really have to consider Eris a planet as well, but I was okay with that) than taken away, so when they were listing all the "dwarf planets" that could be considered if we were truly to keep Pluto as a planet, I was all but putting up "Welcome to the Solar System Club" banners in anticipation of all these cool new planets to name and love.

What I really dislike about it is that it forces upgrades on "educational material" that was always sufficient before like the Blue's Clues Planet song

and of course Interplanet Janet!

Some good things about it:

It shows human scientists are not infallible. They can be wrong. Things we "know" can change. That's just something kids need to be ready to accept. Adults can be wrong, even highly credited adults. There is nothing wrong with questioning long standing ideas. It keeps science from becoming dogma.

It allows for some discussion, helps kids become aware of other planetary bodies because we can't erase Pluto from the dictionary, not without throwing out a lot of good old books and educational entertainment. Now we don't just get to memorize the planets. We have to actually think about what a planet is and we get to learn about Dwarf Planets, the Kuiper Belt, maybe even the Oort Cloud. After all, what truly makes space exciting, what makes it the Final Frontier, if you will (Ocean floor still gives it a run for its money on that, in my opinion, but I digress), is the aspect of the unknown, that anything could be out there. If you want a planet completely devoted to sentient cats, you can have it.

In a universe of infinite unknowns anything, however improbable, is possible.

So I may  be having  a hard time bringing myself to create a foam sphere model of the solar system because I'd have to leave out little Pluto or include God knows how many extra asteroids, but the opportunities for learning are only expanding. 

Reaching for the Stars: Preschool Science

Stars, by Coryn

My daughter has an interest in space. Almost all her artwork is "space" themed, be it stars or aliens or planets. From a very young age she could recognize space ships (on my Voyager dvds for instance) and as I have mentioned before, she loves to watch Doctor Who with me. I recently had an epiphany that this is my chance to make science fun and cool for her, so I googled the best preschool and kindergarten books to teach kids about space and started looking them up to see if they were locally available at my library. Disappointingly, only two or three of them were, but Coryn was still excited when I told her we were going to the library to pick up books about space!

One highly recommended book which was available was Moonshot. This is the lyrical but factual tale of the Apollo 11 missions. It is beautifully illustrated and while informative, still reads like a story.





We also got a selection of "pure fiction" books on the subject. Her favorite is Mooncake, about a bear who wants to taste the moon,



though Zathura was also a big hit. I didn't prefer Zathura. The illustrations are good, but the writing and story aren't what I consider great.  She keeps asking to hear it, though.



I preferred Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me,  but Coryn has not asked to re-read it, so apparently it isn't a favorite.










One book that she surprised me by asking to hear more than once was Stars.


This National Geographic book was not on recommended lists, but they only had two or three of the recommended ones available, so I had to improvise (the rest I just found by searching the library data base for anything space related).  I was concerned it was too informational for Coryn, but apparently it is right at the level it needs to be for her to absorb information and she really likes to look at the pictures.




Dwarf Planets, however, erred on being a little too factual and not enough fun. She listened to it once, but no read again requests were forthcoming.


And while I really like Look at the Moon, which is a long poem about the moon, not scientific at all, Coryn keeps telling me she doesn't want to read it.

So that was my quickly put together "unit study" on Space. I am hoping it spurs an interest in science that will match her thirst for science fiction. She has already mentioned being an astronaut at least once this week, so we will see.
 

Slowly but surely, Choosing My Own Adventure

I started my Choose Your Own Adventure blog a bit ago but was distracted by a sudden urge to clean up my existing novels for possible publication, a wave of inspiration at how to end the novel I am writing (almost done!), and the first special order from my Critters for Coryn Etsy account in FOREVER! When it rains it pours!  Tonight I managed a few more entries,  and as much work as I still need to do on this, I am incredibly proud of this. Someday I'd like to include pictures and maybe even audio or video clips to make it multi-media. Check it out if you have a few minutes. It's kind of fun!


Choose Your Own Adventure: Part One: A Restful Beginning: As a preface: I'm writing this a little at a time just off the top of my head. I have no great plan, and I'm sorry that I am postin...