American Literature, Procrastination, and Two Sweet Boys

After nine years of full time stay at home motherhood, I'm headed back to work in September. I'll be teaching high school English. Ever since I began sending out my resume last spring, I've been plagued by guilt and fear. I'm working through the guilt as I also felt guilt about not bringing home some bacon or providing my children with a working mother role model. Darned if you do darned if you don't. The fear, actually more of a bad case of nerves, is still affecting me. So many people have told me that the teaching profession is sooo different now and, worse, that teenagers are sooo different. Can they really be so changed in a decade and what is the cause? Texting? Harry Potter? Twilight? Ipods? So I've been trying to prepare myself. I've been all over educational websites and blogs. I've picked up the textbooks I'll be using. I should be reading this

and this,

but at the end of very long summer days of making pancake breakfasts (that's preemptive guilt trying to make up for the PopTart breakfasts headed our way), packing picnic lunches, driving the kids to the lake for swim practice, swim meets, and general fun in the sun, applying and reapplying sunscreen, washing the swimsuits, towels, and cooler, making dinner, taking walks and/or evening bike rides, squeezing in some doctor visits or library trips here and there, and scrubbing the bathtub of all the sand that falls off my kids' bodies (seriously, you could build a castle in it most summer nights), when I finally fall into the bed with a book, I fall asleep on top of it. That is getting me worried. I must reacquaint myself with Hester Prynne and Captain Ahab.

This evening as soon as I sat down with the books and hi lighter pens, my sons asked me to take them for a bike ride. Apparently it wasn't fair that their sister had a sleepover to attend and they didn't. I loaded the minivan with their bikes and drove to a local park. I don't think I was overly cheerful about it and as I watched them bike around the park, I berated myself for being snippy with them and then berated myself for not being firmer and just reading those books, when my six year old biked over to me with a Bic pen he found in the parking lot "to use when you do your schoolwork" followed by my ten year old clutching a fistful of daisies for me. Is it odd that I cried? Or that I'm a little choked up typing this hours later? I'm thinking we're in for a bumpy ride come September.

Foodie Friday: Tamales

I have not yet read this book; I just want to because

a) How cute is that bespectacled tamale?
b) I love the idea of anthropomorphized tamales!
c) It's a retelling of a fun classic, The Three Little Pigs.
d) It's fun to say "hot tamales."

The Artistic Spirit Is Willing But The Flesh Is Another Story

I had the best of intentions at the outset of summer vacation. The kids and I were going to get ourselves some culture. We were going to drink in art museums and classical music, maybe even some historical sights. Well, we have gone swimming frequently and eaten a lot of ice cream. Does that count as culture? Luckily, I found two great books at our library that don't quite serve as a substitute for a trip to an art museum but have engaged all three of my kids. Katy Friedland and Marla K. Shoemaker's A is for Art Museum is terrific. It is, as the title suggests, an alphabet book, and it presents dozens of pieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A question is posed of each piece as well, helping readers/viewers/art appreciators think about the art. For example Modigliani's Portrait of a Polish Woman faces a page that reads, "N is for neck. Here is a lady with a very long neck. Can you stretch your neck like this?" Van Gogh's Sunflowers is used for the letter S. "S is for sunflowers. Vincent van Gogh loved to paint sunflowers. Can you see where he signed his name?" In addition to the question given for each piece in the book, the authors give suggestions to enhance the readers' next museum visit. If we can organize ourselves to go this summer, I've got some great ideas to try with the kids.

My other fun art book discovery is the Touch the Art series of board books featuring famous works of art. We especially loved Pop Warhol's Top. My six year old son Ethan learned about Keith Haring in art class during the school year and made an exuberant picture inspired by his work so it is not surprising that he enjoyed the Keith Haring pages in this book. It makes 20th century art approachable with fuzzy pages and pop up book type action as well as a bit of background information on each piece. Other titles in the Touch the Art series are Brush Mona Lisa's Hair and Make Van Gogh's Bed.

My Son's Current Summertime Obsession

This is the source of the giggling I hear coming from my ten year old son's bedroom way after lights out each night. I'm so happy for him!

Fireworks, Fiction, and Family on the Fourth

We had a fabulous weekend over here at the house of The Book Bench. Great lots of food and fireworks were enjoyed. We commenced reading Harriet the Spy together. My husband finished building new bookshelves for my daughter's room. I've happily been following the conversation begun by Nicholas Kristof's NYTimes OpEd piece on "The Best Kids' Books Ever." (Check it out or add a suggestion at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05kristof.html?em.) The best thing about our weekend was visiting the beautiful, sweet, healthy delightful baby boy just born unto my brother and sister-in-law. You should see this kid! He is perfection all bundled up in a little blanket.

I am taking the long weekend off from blogging to enjoy some family, food, and fireworks. Have a Happy Fourth of July!

Ironic?

Is it odd that a child who spent her own money to purchase I Can Haz Cheeseburger?, a collection of pictures of adorable kittens with precious made up quotes in broken kitten English felt her intelligence was insulted yesterday when I bought the Junior Classics for Young Readers abridged versions of Black Beautyand Little Women? She can giggle for days about a kitty "wuvving" a new best friend but needs the entire original text from Louisa May Alcott?