Morley University

When I was a kid, my mom used to joke that she had one kid learning to walk and one learning to drive at the same time, now that Charity's an aged 18 months, I'm really starting to see the role that learning plays in our lives all of time time.

I know, this is coming from a teacher, but it's true. I may have always appreciated and even loved to learn, but when I see the amount of words, phrases, and just things in general that Charity learns every day, it makes me realize what natural little learners we are from the start! Now, we've got three learners in our family, and the lessons seem to be endless. Here's a breakdown of what the Morley family is learning right now.

• Anticipating. Today when I walked into Charity's room, she was jumping on her bed. I responded by saying the "10 little monkeys" rhyme. Before I could get to the line about mama calling the doctor, Charity anticipated what was coming by saying "doctor"--she's learning to predict!
• Meditating. Upon realizing that my daughter is pretty much a carbon copy of her mother, I decided this would be a good skill to learn early in life. Now when I say, "breathe deep" she does it! She makes a big show of exhaling as well. I love it!
• Grant Writing. This one is for me. I'm working on a grant for a department on campus--getting paid. And I get to learn the process during a class I'm taking! LOVE THAT! :) 
• Parenting. This is one of those lessons that's not going to end any time soon for Aaron and me. Every day brings new challenges, especially when you have a child who is learning at a rate that far surpasses you. We've realized that we just can't move things to get Charity to stop touching them at this stage. We really have to say NO and just keep saying NO, as frustrating, repetitive, and difficult as that is.
• Association. This one is Charity's again. She's starting to really expand her memory. She remembers when we go to a certain location, and she can associate what we do there. When we go back, she's trying to repeat the same actions. She's also beginning to string words together to communicate an idea. It's exciting and scary at the same time. Seeing her communicate with me is wonderful, but I also realize that I have to start watching what I say. 
• Strength. Let's face it. The world is a pretty rough place toady. Each day, I think we all learn more and more how to cope. We learn that even when we can't be perfect, that doesn't negate the good we've done. And then we learn that there's still hope.

Have a Good Week!

 

My big girl playing with the other kids at a birthday party--another lesson learned. DON'T HOLD BACK WHEN THE PINATA BREAKS!

 

I Ain't Got no Stapler

This morning on the train to Chicago, I was reading my homework for class tonight--Assessing Written Texts. (I realize that I waited until the last minute to do my homework--but the important thing is that I got it done.) The topic was something you can't get away from if you're a writing teacher--the great debate: do we teach mechanics or critical thinking? And if we teach both, how the heck are we supposed to do that in an hour and 20 minutes? I was of the opinion that most people advocate teaching expression through writing and letting the "correctness" come naturally, that the only writing teachers who still give vocabulary and spelling tests and require students to diagram sentences have one leg in a retirement condo.

I guess I was wrong. The reading made it clear that there are still advocates of the perscriptivist way of teaching grammar and the focus on correct usage in the composition classroom. What I found interesting, however, was the fact that these fans now tend to come from other disciplines. Is this because we've been doing something wrong by focusing more on opinions, emotions, and reactions than commas and capitalization? Or is it because mosts biologists still don't seem to understand why expressing one's self would be important?

Regardless, I have to say that my position on the matter is this: content trumps context. But context is of great importance! The student who wrote me the following one-line e-mail certainly showed a lack of understanding of her audience:

"I ain't got no stapler."

In addition, when I don't correct these students' mistakes, I feel like I'm letting them down in some way. They tell me they've come from four years of high school education that amounted to pushing them through for NCLB money. They don't know why their papers are always full of red marks and stamped with a "D." If we took just a few days and focused on just that, it would be boring, but would it help. It's like I tell my husband, "If you put off cleaning for a week, you'll be unhappy for a week. If you clean now, you'll be unhappy for about two hours."

One thing I know for sure is that I don't want to teach Charity a prescriptive grammar, so she's afraid to come up with her own words and constructions that just express what she wants to say more clearly! Sometimes, you just have to tell your friend, "I'm righter than you are." More correct sounds stuffy. And more right is awkward.

But I hope I never get an "I ain't got no stapler" e-mail from her!

Addendum to Charity-icon

Charity can also say the following words:
Banana
Boy
Soup
Please
Good Girl
Wowee!
Ow!

The Charity-icon or the LexiCharity

On May 14, 2009, I updated my Facebook status to:

Miranda Morley just went to pick up Charity, who threw her arms in the air and said, "Mama!"

Since then, Charity's vocabulary has exploded. Exactly a year ago, I took a linguistics class, and I wrote the first post in this blog about how I studied Charity's linguistic development and concluded that Charity was the most advanced six-month-old on the planet. Although I passed that class in April, I'm still acting the part of linguist when I listen to Charity speak. From babbling a year ago, she now has a vocabulary of around 40 words, and she sometimes even strings them together to make little sentences. Although the 40 words is actually a great deal above average, the fact that she's speaking single words and just beginning to form sentences is actually just about what most babies do at her age. Still, too me, its as fascinating as the International Phonetic Alphabet. (No, really, I do find that very interesting! I just wrote an article on it!)

Charity's Lexicon

(Words she says)

 Names

Mommy

Daddy

Ity (Charity)

Jesus

Animals & Sounds:

Ducky

Meow-Meow

Woof-Woof

Bear

Clothes & Body Parts

Shirt

Jacket

Eyes

Nose

Glasses

Butt-Butt

Shoe

Socks

Food and Eating Words

Crackers

Milk

Ice Cream

Cheese
Yucky
Yummy
Bite

Other Words

Bath

Shower

No

Yeah

Uh-Uh

Uh-Huh

Bye-Bye
Hi

Uh-Oh

Amen

Elmo

Pumpkin Pie

Shut

Toy

Play

Nigh-Night

Bot-Bot (Robot)

 

Merry Christmas, for Lack of a Better Title

After we already watched A Christmas Story one and a half times, I told Aaron he could change the cahnnel as long as he left it on something Christmas-y.

Only he would manage to find a Mythbusters episode about Christmas lights. Oh well, it gives me the opportunity to blog.

Our attempt at a non-materialistic Christmas was both a success and a failure. The success is that Charity seems to not be attaching too much excitment to the new topys. Like any other day, she's spending her time taking her old toys apart and banging them against each other in an attempt to make cool noises.

The failure? She got lots of presents. Yesterday I got swept up into the "Christmas Spirit" at dollar tree. Everything's only $1. But when you buy 50 items...

To be fair, about 25 of those items were overstocked Gerber Graduates snacks and juices that WERE NOT Christmas presents, but were simply good deals.

And I bought some frames for Charity's Christmas Portraits.

But the rest of the stuff was stocking stuffers for Aaron and Charity. Oh, well. Nothing was particularly "materialistic." And I didn't shop at Wal-Mart. I've actually managed to avoid Wal-Mart for the most part since I saw Capitalism: A Love Story. I've been doing most of my shopping at Aldi, which isn't much better. But it isn't Wal-Mart.

What's in the stocking?
- Coloring book, entitled Bible Stories
- Book, Thank God for my Friends
- Pack of jumbo crayons
- Two pack of slinkies
- Santa antlers (don't ask)
-  Frosted animal crackers
- Chocolate gold coins
- Jingle bell necklace

What was under the tree?
- Betta fish in a bowl, who Polly named Santa
- A large stuffed puppy with floppy ears who still remains nameless
- A Santa board book
- A Black and Decker Junior tool set, by far her favorite present


Another part of the success is the fact that presents haven't been the center of this Christmas. We read the Christmas story out of Charity's baby Bible while we ate breakfast before we opened preasants. And we've been trying to spend the day relaxing. For example, Charity has managed to pull the door off of her kitchen set and is now sitting comofortably in the refrigerator compartment. She found some sunscreen, which she is taking in and out of the microwave.

And I'm blogging, as Aaron watches ANOTHER holiday Mythbusters--this one about snowmen. (I know he's seen this episode before). The turkey breast is in the oven, and it's smelling good. Unfortunately, I did leave a Diet Pepsi in front of my stove's exhaust, and it exploded. Last time I left potatos there and found them perfectly cooked in time for dinner. Oh, well. You win some you loose some.

Finally, I have not yet worked today. I promised myself I would not work nor really think about work today. Not at least until 7PM or later. I have had so much to do lately between Purdue and freelancing and being sick that I've been stressed! So I am not working today. And then I am making a better plan tomorrow.

As a testamony to the fact that I'm not working is the disorganization of this post. To make that disorganization complete, let me end on this point--Santa brought Hamlet, our Hamster, some chew blocks. I better go give them to him.

Merry Christmas!

Earning a Bachelor of Science

There are some purchases I don't regret.  The year membership to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry is one of them. My 25 ride train pass is another. With both of these items, I can go to Chicago and have fun with about $7 in my pocket--the price of a snack and a Diet Pepsi. (I fool myself into believing that I didn't spend $55 for the museum pass and over $100 for the train ticket.) This weekend, I took my friend Jessica and Charity to see the Christmas around the world display. Did Charity enjoy the decorated trees? Well, she didn't complain too much. What she really enjoyed was the farm exhibit and the water table in the children's Imaginatorium.  I tried her to something sophisticated, intellectual, unique (the life size hamster wheel, LED light accented dress, or slices of the human body); she was fascinated by the two things we Don't have at home in Chesterton--water and cows. Either way--she had fun. That's what it's all about.

Here's a picture of Charity and me in front of the great tree in the middle of the exhibit. OK, Charity wasn't having that much fun in this picture. But it was necessary! She started to have fun when fake snow started falling from the ceiling, however. The pictures of her reaching toward the snow have been stowed alongside the picture of the spectacular usage error I found at Subway near the museum--in the pictures that didn't quite turn out file. But while Charity took her nap, I decided to see what it would be like to join the Navy.  Apparently, it didn't work out so well. INCOMING...

Although the computer simulations in the Navy exhibit were so slow I thought I was back in first grade typing with KiKi the graphically challenged keyboardist, the exhibit made me want to play Battleship really badly. I think I'll dig out my old copy tomorrow--anyone up for a game?

After a semester full of never ending grading, visiting the Museum was the best way to kick off Christmas break. Two more days of freedom, and then grading round two begins. After that, freedom!

Merry Christmas!

Tradeoffs

In the past two days, I have been more productive than I have been in weeks. I finished one web article for Filterless (Read it here: http://www.filterless.net/2009/12/04/the-ever-changing-world-of-genre-in-defense-of-internet-writers/). I'm not a very good contributor, since the last time I contributed to this web site was in July! I also wrote two poems, submitted three poems to Flatmancrooked for their poetry contest, and almost finished a Thanksgiving story for an anthology (http://thanksgivingtales.com/).

However, I have made next to no money. Why must everything be a trade off? I have something close to 200 papers to read this weekend, and one of my own to write. And instead of doing it, I am considering writing something for this magazine: http://conciselymagazine.blogspot.com/.

For now, I plan not to think about it! Tomorrow, we're going to the German Market. Merry Christmas!