That feather is back & I'm reeling! I mean most of this year I've felt like I've been dragging a reluctant horse to water & stressing because it won't drink. Thanks Ditz. How that child can find ALL her work duller than watching ditch water is beyond me.We are sort of, not really, kinda on break...meaning Ditz is doing a little bit of reading & not much else. Dearest is on record as saying we need the break to cope with the end of the year. Ditz has taken that to mean she can plonk herself in front of the t.v set & watch endless movies. Naturally, it being the holidays, the weather turned nasty & I just couldn't think of something else she could do.
Several years ago a dear friend of ours died of cancer. She was only a young woman & her mum was devastated. Each year since mum has held an art exhibition in honour of her daughter. This year she asked if we would contribute. Ditz promptly hoyed out the acrylics & began painting. It's good. I'll post a pic separately.
I fiddled for a bit but the oil caps have all hardened & half of them are now soaking in turps in a last ditch effort at allowing me to unscrew them. I abandoned the effort & went to sulk on the computer...where Ditz joined me using the sort of voice that makes me instantly wary. You know, the voice that begs yes but expects a no.
And what did my darling child want? To do a study on WWII!!! The catch? She wants to do it from movies.
I actually have no problem with this. There are heaps of good movies around from The Sound of Music to Schindler's List to The Great Escape. This I can live with. Ditz informed me I had to watch the movies with her [weep for me!] & stay with her while she wrote her project up BUT she was going to do the writing. No help required...or wanted! When a child so firmly takes control of her own learning I am not about to try & dissuade her. Quite the opposite even if it means abandoning the Greeks & the Peloponnesian War mid stream & plunging forward hundreds of years. Ditz & I are random learners so no problemo.
I have given her The Diary of Anne Frank & The Day Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit for reading because quite frankly I don't give a tinker's dime whether Ditz remembers the dates of the war or which battles were fought. If she grasps how the second war evolved from the injustices [by the allies, what's more] from the first & how good people can choose to do horrible things she will have learnt a far more valuable lesson. For art we might try a propaganda poster. Ditz is into Anime & graffiti at present so that should appeal. Wish us luck.
7 comments:
I googled your troubles with the oil paint caps and I see a fair amount of suggestions to use hot water, and others like what you're doing (the turpentine) ...something that was suggested to prevent it was to put a little vaseline or cooking oil around the tops before capping them again...mind you, I'm no artist - I just read it...may work, may not..
About the whole WW2 thing - is Ditz familiar with the holocaust? Just asking because a while back, Cindy and I got to talking about that (I forget - I might have brought up the Anne Frank book or something...we get bouncing around sometimes LOL) and she asked some questions so I went looking for websites to answer them...well, I guess her questions were bigger than she's ready to know about because she was *shocked* - she sat here with me, looking at some sites with photos from the old concentration camps,reading stuff, asking me questions... and then she basically covered her eyes and said she didn't want to know anymore. I think it was just too much for her to take in...We'll revisit it at some point, when she's a bit more ready....
'course there's a year and a half between the girls - that can also make a big difference...
It's awesome that she's taken the whole idea up on her own though - and heh, we're random learners here a lot too. :-)
lol, Moly, this kid was breast fed to exhumed bodies. Ain't archaeology grand! But, yeah, she knows about the holocaust; seen Schindler's List, Angela's story & a heap of others over time, including live footage stuff. Not sure how she'll be when she realises Anne Frank was one of the victims. I want to try & bring it back to individual stories as I think she's probably got the big picture 'cause, poor kid, she lives in this house & has older siblings. She's heard the pontification of Lenin & Marx each killed more people than Hitler, or ho chi min [not sure about that spelling] is worse again so I'll be looking for details. Did you ever come across a scary little book set in an American High school that went to teach about the holocaust & recreated the mindset? Whoa!!!!
Hey, thanks for the paint lid suggestions. Oil I have; will do.
ahh yes - what was I thinking LOL ;-)
hey guess what? A certain little girl in this house got a letter today and was tickled pink! She's gonna write back - and she says she's gonna look for an "alberta souvenir" on our trip to send down that way :-)
Did you ever come across a scary little book set in an American High school that went to teach about the holocaust & recreated the mindset?
Oh missed this...but no, I haven't...there's a Stephen King story called "Apt Pupil" that came to mind, but that doesn't fit your description... I'm not sure what book that would be...
Oh wow! That took ages. I posted it for Ditz so I remember it was ages ago. It may have taken a while but Ditz was motivated to write miss Cinders all on her very own! :) I know it's hard establishing friendships with a pen pal when you've never met them & don't like to write [lol]so I was really pleased when she made the effort with no prompting. Sorry your girl is part of my guniea pig experimentation. Hope she doesn't mind tooo much.
It's called the Wave. I believe there was a t.v programe done about it & Germany has just made it into a movie. I want to take Ditz to see but I've read the book so am a bit worried about impact.
yeah we seem to have forever mail between us LOL ...those books I found at the flea market thing, I sent those at the very early summer or late spring it was and look how long they took to get there! Next time I send a package, it's going AIR instead of ground LOL ...
Don't mind at all :-) ...oh hey, Cindy is actually gonna start using her blog again, so maybe that'll help LOL
Never heard of this "Wave" ...I wonder if there's some good reviews online that you could read to decide if the movie would be okay for her...
argh - i think my monitor is on its last legs..it's been doing this shrinking thing for a while and now it's starting to be jumpy...
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