Gwen's Sententia

: Name: Gwen Nicodemus; Location: Broomfield, Colorado, United States

I'm a stay-at-home, homeschooling ex-engineer mother with a bunch of ferrets. My kids and I raise Guide Dog Puppies.

Friday, March 26, 2010

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Monday, December 28, 2009

The Bendaroo Lesson

I have a rule in my house that "if you see it on TV, you can't buy it." I'm strict with this rule. When they were little (pre-allowance), this rule made it quite easy to get them to shut up when asking for stuff in the toy row of stores, which was mostly why I had that rule. It's easier to have a policy than it is to make individual decisions. They start asking for something and my brain automatically says "You can't get that. You saw it on TV." There's no thought involved. It's nice and easy for me.

For the most part, the kids stopped asking for things they saw on TV years ago. Every once in a while they'll go "Mom, see this. Isn't it cool?" I'll say "Yes, it looks cool. Too bad we saw it on TV."

Santa Claus, alas, fails to follow this rule. Anna asked Santa for Bendaroos this year. Santa brought them.

Her cousin saw her open the gift and said, "too bad they don't work."

Anna was still excited, and she played with them.

Tonight at dinner she told me about the Bendaroos. The TV says they will stick to glass. Anna informed me they don't. The TV says they will stick to each other. Anna informed me they don't.

I asked her what she thought about this and she said that not everything on TV is true.

I asked the kids if we could refer to this as the "Bendaroo Lesson" in the future, and both kids looked at me and did not respond.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The third grade report

I wrote my first report in the third grade. My research on honeybees led me to the card catalog at the library, and I read several books on honeybees, encyclopedia entries, and I might have even tracked down a periodical. My paper took up about twenty pages of double-lined, giant kid handwriting. My dad red marked the paper, and I rewrote it. Dad didn't trust me with the electric Smith & Corona in the garage, so I had to write it out by hand. I think I wrote that paper twenty times before it passed dad's inspection.

My daughter is now in the third grade and she's started her first report. She chose to learn about anteaters. I told her about my experience writing my first report in the third grade, and she immediately asked if she could use the computer to write it. "Of course," I told her.

She learned of this report when we were at the library. I told her to find a book on anteaters, and she went to the computer, typed in anteaters, wrote down the Dewey Decimal number, and located the physical book. As a kid, I never did figure out the card catalog, so I had the librarian help me.

She asked the librarian if the library had more information on anteaters since they only had one book. The librarian pulled up online encyclopedias complete with videos. Anna developed a list of questions she couldn't find answers too. So, we went down to the Denver Zoo and talked to the curator of the primate exhibit, which also houses the anteaters. Then she watched anteater videos on Animal Planet.

So far, her report is taking just as long as mine did to create. I suspect she'll have a better end product than I did. She has learned a bunch about these bizarre animals. When at the zoo she told me, "See mommy how they walk on their knuckles? That's to protect their claws so they can tear up termite mounds."

Monday, October 12, 2009

Remembering Valor: How to train humans to let you eat table muffins

Quinn had an appointment with his talking doctor (speech therapist) today. These appointments are in the doc's house, and her two-year-old Golden Retriever, Madison, entertains us while Quinn is with the doc. Madison is a good girl, but the doc is working on some of her behaviors to help her be even better.

While Quinn was with the doctor today, Madison took it upon herself to grab her brother's shoe and chew it. I told her "uh uh," and called her over to me. Madison takes some queues very well. She understands "uh uh." She understands it when I turn my head to "ignore" her. She understands "down," and she gets that she's supposed to calm down with calming strokes. The shoe was saved.

When Quinn and the doc came back, Madison went back to the shoe. "Mom's here, maybe I can chew the shoe now," she seemed to think. The doc took the shoe away. I told the doc about what Madison and I did while she was working with Quinn.

The doc asked a few questions and I told her about some of the stuff the Guide Dog leaders drilled into me when I was raising Guide Dog puppies. I explained the importance of not repeating yourself, reserving "come" for emergencies, how to train "come," and other dog stuff.

Then the doc asked the really tough question. "How do you train the dog to not steal off the counter?" I laughed a little and explained to her that I never successfully taught that skill to Valor. I told her how the Guide Dog people train dogs to not steal off of the counter. Then I told her a Valor story.

Valor was a super smart dog. Valor knew he was not supposed to take food off of the table. But, being a dog, he didn't understand forensic evidence and some basic "who dunnit" logic.

If I left food on the kitchen table and left the house, Valor would eat it. This was a fact with 100% certainty.

Leon and I decided to observe this, so he set up the video recorder and aimed it at the table. He set a fresh, blueberry muffin on the table, and we all got in the car and left.

Leon played the recording back when we came home. This is what was on the recorder:

The sound of the garage door opening.
The sound of the garage door closing.
One minute of nothing.
Valor putting his front paws on the table and grasping the muffin in his jaw.

What a smart dog he was to wait that extra minute to make sure we were really gone.

I gave up on training Valor not to steal food off the table. I decided that since there was a 100% correspondence to food being left out and Valor stealing it that it was my job to not leave muffins out. If I left food out, I blamed myself and not Valor.

Besides being really smart, Valor was an excellent human trainer.

Labels: dog, guide dog, pets, valor

Saturday, September 19, 2009

I bought a new toy

We have ferrets. I love the little weasels and have adapted to their odor. I learned what to clean and how often to clean to minimize the, uh, stench in the house.

All was going well until we took in two foster ferrets who we ended up adopting. Sonya is a blind, geriatric ferret with insuloma and adrenal disease. She screams when other ferrets come near her, and if they express their dominance she looses control of some important body functions.

Old Moe is a sweetheart who reminds us of the wise, good puppets in the Dark Crystal. He goes out of his way to use one of the designated boxes. Alas, poor Moe had a cancer tumor and it had to be removed. Along with his tumor went his penis bone. Poor fellow has poor control over his liquid output, but seems happier overall.

Needless to say, I have to clean the floors a lot.

This is where my new toy comes in.

I got a mop that makes steam. You fill it with water, attach a mop pad, and wait 30 seconds. Then I give it a few pumps and the steam rises. Steam is released as you push the mop back and forth. Since boiling water is involved, you forgo the soap. The mop pads are washable and not disposable (a biggie for me). I'm okay with the electric thing because I have solar panels.

This is a cool toy. There's something pleasurable about seeing steam when you're cleaning. The only way it could be better is if fire were involved.

Fire. Hehe Hehe.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

My kids' languages

My youngest sister is a self-help junkie and reads many books. Fortunately, she's good at filtering the books out and only recommends about one in ten. Because she only recommends relevant books that pass her quality meter, and she has pretty good filters, I generally read what she recommends. Mindless Eating was funny and had some good pointers in it. Most of Love and Logic was good. I didn't agree with the whole book, but there were some funny stories and food for thought. Her latest recommendation was The Five Love Languages of Children.

Chapman, the fellow that wrote The Five Love Languages of Children, wrote several variations of the book. He started with one for couples and then adapted it for different relationships. His basic premise is that people understand love differently, and if you speak to someone in a love language they understand, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck than if you speak in a language they don't understand. The five languages he talks about are physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time, and gifts.

So, if your kid's prime language is physical touch but you don't hug them that often and instead tell them that you love them, the kid will know you love them, but won't feel that you love them as much as if you hugged the kid more.

As I read the book, I naturally put my family members in their categories. Leon, my husband, is totally a words of affirmation guy. A sincere, well-placed compliment goes a long way with him. Anna, my daughter, is a quality-time girl, and my son, Quinn, is a person who thrives on physical touch. Me? Don't bother telling me. It's acts of service that work for me.

I pigeon holed my family members, but what should a person do with this information? Well, I thought it would be a good Sunday afternoon lunch-time talk. So, I made lunch, and we talked.

I told Leon how I read the book and the basic premise. The kids heard and started to ask questions. We had a go-around talking about it. Quinn said "so I can tell Daddy I love him, and then he'll know I love him, but for mommy I should do chores?" I told him, "Yes sweetie. Not exactly chores, but you know how I was in the shower and you walked in and saw that I forgot a towel and you brought me one? That sure told me that you loved me." Anna got in on it too and she hugged her brother and told Daddy that she loved him.

It was a good family discussion, but the best part happened over the rest of the day. The kids seemed to internalize the discussion and you could see them trying to act on it, and the effect lasted for about a week.

Maybe we need a review.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The ebb and flow of competence

Sometimes I feel super competent, like I can do anything I put my mind to. Every time I solve some crazy computer problem that was really hard and wracked my brain for days, I get a surge of competence feelings.

Sometimes I feel completely incompetent. Yesterday, for instance, I went swimming with the kids. I carefully applied sunscreen to the progeny, but haphazardly applied it to myself. Needless to say, I turned lobster red and experienced great sunburn pain.

I need another computer puzzle. I want to be competent.