Neo Leo, Now and Ben

Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci,
Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin
by Gene Barretta

Musician, Writer, Inventor, Statesman, Cartoonist, Postmaster, Philosopher, Diplomat... Dr.Benjamin Franklin wore many hats and wore them well. Now & Ben shows us many of Ben Franklin's creations that are still in use today, more than two centuries later.

With colorful and humorous illustrations, each double page spread shows Now... and Ben... featuring one (or more) of Dr.Franklin's creations. For instance:

Now... bifocals are very common. Bifocals combine two sets of lenses into one pair of glasses. The bottom lens helps see the near, and the top lens helps see far.


Ben...originally designed bifocals for himself after he grew tired of switching between two glasses.

Of course, there is the iconic page mentioning Benjamin Franklin's famous experiment when he attached a metal wire to the top of a kite to gather electricity from storm cloud.

From inventing the grabber for grabbing out-of-reach things and the flippers for swimming; the benefits of citrus diet to prevent scurvy; measuring and charting the Gulf Stream currents; to the glass harmonica and the writing chair, Benjamin Franklin's many creations are very much in use today, although not in its original form.

I learnt a lot from this book, and so did the 7 year old. I did not know that Benjamin Franklin was the first to print a political cartoon in America or that he invented the first odometer when he was Postmaster General.

Along the same vein, Neo Leo introduces us to the amazing Leonardo da Vinci. At once an artist, engineer, mathematician, scientist, and visionary, da Vinci's detailed diagrams and designs paved the way for many of the modern mechanical contraptions we take for granted today.

The illustrations are clever and cheeky, allowing an older reader (viz., me) to hunt and spot as many da Vinci associations as one can find in each page.

Dear Deer, A Book of Homophones was our first encounter with this author which led us to Neo Leo and Now & Ben.

It is not easy to make biographies of great men accessible to kids - either they short-change the greatness or tend to be a tedious read. These two biographies by Barretta, however, certainly made a mark on the 7-year old, inspiring her to reach within herself and find all that she is capable of - at the moment, at least. After reading Now & Ben, it was a pleasure to hear her self-description: Ana, an artist, writer, musician, helper-of-people, joke-teller, and good-helper.

[image source: amazon.com]

Caspar Babypants Sing Along!

Sing Along!
Music Album, audio CD
by Caspar Babypants


Ordinarily, I don't get around to sharing the music that kids are into currently. Sure, a particular song gets played ad nauseum until something else replaces it. C'est la vie.

I may not always see why they like that particular song,  or, at times, I do manage to see why and encourage it, but music is such an integral part of life that I am glad the kids get into it no matter the genre - and that includes the much-maligned 'kids music'.

I grew up with music - classical and wonderfully creative film numbers. I didn't worry about genres and styles - if it made me move, if it stirred my soul, if it made me laugh, if it made me cry, if it made me jump and skip, if it affected me in any way at all, it was good music. It's only when I started paying attention to lyrics when I was older that I started squirming with discomfort at times, but, the tunes are still very precious.

Every once in a while I manage to mention it in passing when something becomes a disturbing (as if there is any other kind) obsession, especially if it is an entire CD album - like , Blue Moo Jukebox Favorites, Burl Ives Favorites for Children and Songs of Wild Birds.

And in that spirit, I could not let this recent enchantment with Caspar Babypants' Sing Along!  album pass by unsung. It has become a phenomenal chart-topper at home over the last couple of weeks that I am not sure what to make of it.

We've listened to Caspar Babypants This Is Fun CD - it had a couple of songs that Oggie liked - viz., All You Pretty Babies, Baby's Getting Up; and Speedy Centipede made an impression when we read Creepy Creatures Centipedes by Valerie Bodden. But nothing nearly as influential and entertaining as the ones in CB's Sing Along! CD.

Oggie claims all 20 songs in the CB Sing Along! CD are his favorites and proceeds to order them from the 'first favorite' to the 'twentieth favorite'. It scares me a bit when he rattles off all the words to all the 20 songs - after all it is called Sing Along! and that is exactly what he does.

Ana is a bit more selective - she is obsessed with Baby Cloud. And then, in that order, I Want To Be A Snowman and My Flea Has Dogs.

If you do get to sample just the audio, you might see why my favorites in this CD are:
I want to be a snowman
Baby Cloud
Bad Blue Jay

The visuals interfere with the processing of just the music, so feel free to look away from the video while sampling the music in the youtube links above.

Some of the traditional tunes have been given a fresh life with creative lyrics and some wonderful musical arrangement. I enjoyed reading about the stories behind each of the songs in this CD. Yay to musicians!

I fell in love with Kate Endle's artwork on the Sing Along! CD album cover, and went on to discover some cute children's books she has created.

[image source: amazon.com]

Falls Creek Falls

"What would you like to do on Mother's Day, Mama?" queried the 7 year old a week before the celebration.

As my mind rattled off the traditional mundane things like, have a nice warm breakfast made for me by someone else, take a long and uninterrupted bath, sip a cup of tea with my current book in hand enjoying the backyard bird songs while sprawled out on the grass... I heard myself say out loud, "A hike would be nice", adding quietly, "to a place we've not been to before, and is not a long drive, and a picnic lunch packed to go, with me taking my time to stop and photograph whatever catches my fancy rather than hiking up and down business-like as if in a hurry..."

Mother's Day mid-morning found us geared-up and heading out to explore Falls Creek Falls, WA. The thundering falls pouring into the pool was quite a sight (and sound).

The trail had quite a bit of elevation, and after the suspension bridge it got quite tricky with tree roots. Ana managed it fine, but Oggie needed a ride on Papa's shoulders for about one-third of the way, on and off, especially where the path got rather narrow and steep.

Along the creekside trail there were paths to get to the flowing water which was still icy cold and stays that way throughout summer.

Thanks to the time difference, I was glad to be able to call my mom the previous night and have a usual chat. It was nice to hear her reassuring words that none of the little minutiae matter in the long run, and that the bonds and affection is all in the mind (and the heart), and as long as the hearts and minds feel together, no physical distance matters.

I hope as she grows older Ana will feel the same connection with me that I feel with my mom - to be able to talk briefly long-distance and hang up the phone knowing how much she is cherished.

Happy Mother's Day 2012

I had no inkling of what it really involved - the non-stop self-improvement that seems to be a natural by-product of motherhood.

Sure, I noticed that my mom cooks, works as a teacher, makes crafts, sews when she is in the right mood, takes us kids to exhibitions and fairs, tells us what to do and what not to do...  in my rather naive mind back then, I thought all those were so easy and so natural that it was nothing special, nothing challenging, nothing to fret about when it was my turn.

And then, Ana came into my life.

When we found out about her, I was naturally focused on her safe arrival in our midst with no thought to what happens once she is here. I focused all my energy on the move - to get the house ready for Ana and us, while pushing aside the thoughts that lurk in the periphery about "future", indulging myself a bit on the naming conundrum.

And even when I rushed to the doctor with a severely wheezing 2 week old Ana, with all sorts of horrible thoughts in my head, it did not occur to me that I was doing what Nature has conditioned mothers to do - what we call instinct sometimes is carefully cultivated set of decisions based on centuries of accumulated knowledge programmed into us for our survival.

Despite all the education, I felt inadequate and incompetent when it came to raising this tiny little thing called Ana.

That's when I started blogging. And I found some wonderful blog friends, first-time mommies like myself, who shared similar thoughts and visited me and left supportive suggestions and observations and virtual hugs, giving me a chance to pop over to their space whenever I needed a different perspective.

Derisive jokes about "Mommy Bloggers" notwithstanding, I kept blogging as a sort of therapeutic release. Not for validation, not for an audience, not for any imagined obligation, not for adulation, but purely for the joy of chronicling and, at times, venting the pent up emotions that tend to sabotage my equanimity; to pause, reflect, and reevaluate on and off, to savor some wonderful childhood memories, as well as to relish those precious moments that might fade away with time...

And so, this Mother's Day, I send out my warmest wishes and gratitude to all the wonderful mommies I met via blogging and are now in my life as amazing resources and gracious friends.

I-Spy Jar

Since their toddlerhood, Ana and Og have inspired me to create casual toys based on their interest at that moment, with things handy at home, nothing fancy.

The one that is etched in my memory is the Fill-and-Spill toy - any container with a lid and a slot on the lid to drop things inside. Oggie was obsessed with that activity when he was about one year old. I could just park him on the floor in my vicinity and go about my business knowing he will be occupied for 20 minutes at least, which is a long time for a one year old to focus on one activity.

I was casually clicking through some of my old posts here - just nostalgia, plus some late-night "alone time" - when I came across this little piece I wrote for Oggie. Ordinarily, I would dismiss it as Post-partum drivel, but, I do remember what prompted me to write it... and it gave me the much-needed perspective as I try to help Oggie through his Wild and Testing-Boundaries and Acting-Out-Impulsively phase that he has been going through lately...

Anyway, back to the I-Spy Jar. Oggie used to have something like this around when he was 2.5 or so but possibly because the size of it was not comfortable for his little fingers then, he didn't play with it much. He loved the I-Spy board books (Jean Marzollo), though.

About a week ago one fine evening he declared, "I want to do a project with you, Mama."

"OK. What project do you want to do? Build a toy/game/model? Create art? Make a book?", I indulged hoping to get to the specifics he had in mind, not realizing that he wanted to do it right then.

"I want to make I-Spy Jar like I saw in Ana's School for my friend now, Mama", he stated with finality.

"That's easy, shouldn't take too long", I caught myself thinking, knowing how some of his 'projects' seem to take shape organically and hence become quite time-consuming.

So, we talked about the materials we'd need:
Empty jar with lid,
Rice to fill the jar with,
a dozen or so little things to put in the jar to spy

I went with an empty plastic jar I had set aside for recycling - didn't want to use my glass canning jars - anything breakable, Oggie is sure to break it and I didn't want to be dealing with broken glass.

Oggie chose to color the rice blue and yellow and green - blue and yellow makes green.

He went about the house finding a few things he wanted to put in the jar:
Pom-poms
small bell
Lego™ man
smiley face button
flower button
large and small Wiggly eyes
Chinese-style beads
shiny glitter shapes - butterflies, swirlies, stars etc
feather
about 15 or 16 small items in all.

We filled the jar, a little at a time. After the first layer of rice, Oggie added a few of the items to hide in the jar. And then another layer of rice and so on until the jar was full.

I quickly tightened the lid and whisked it away to take a picture of the layered colored rice before he shook it all up.

And when I handed it back to him, "Can we go to my friend's house and give it to him now?" caught me by surprise.

And no amount of logical reasoning about the long drive to the next town, uninvited, at dinner time, seemed to satisfy him until I offered that we can take it to school the next day and see if the friend wants to play with it.

That was over a week ago.

And Oggie chose to leave it in school to share with his friends, which made me very happy - just the fact that it is something he made (with my help, of course) and the fact that he wanted to share it with his friends. It showed me that he feels some connection with his friends at school and feels comfortable enough to want them to experience the joy of his creation.

Creepy Creatures Books

Creepy Creatures Crickets
by Valerie Bodden

You are outside on a dark summer night.
You hear strange music that seems to come from the grass.
What could it be?
It is the sound of crickets chirping.


With close-up photographs of crickets and their predators, and direct, short sentences about size and characteristics of these insects, the book immediately appealed to me. Some pages with cut-out pictures on a stark white background served to focus our attention on the details of the creature.

And it looks like it has caught the attention of the resident 4 year old who seems to be interested in the natural world around him these days, choosing to read more non-fiction animal picture books than others.

There are half-a dozen books in this Creepy Creatures series - Centipedes, Scorpions, Mantises, Spiders, Worms that we've learnt about so far.

The last page of each book offers  "Make a..." section showing us to do something simple. Like, Centipedes book has "Make a Centipede" with instructions to make a centipede from Popsicle stick and yarn. The simplicity of it impressed me which inspired us to make one.

Crickets book offers "Make a Cricket's Song" where we are encouraged to rub a comb with a stick to "sing" like a cricket - i.e., make the sound the crickets make by rubbing one wing against the ridge on the other wing. Which Oggie did with unbridled joy.

Glossary and Read More sections along with Websites for listening to the sounds and viewing more pictures online are quite helpful to complete our study.

Spin the World Game

"Mama., I want to make a game for my friend, for his birthday. It has a Spinner that you spin to go around the world, to the planets and outer space. Actually, the Spinner is a rocket ship", came the excited words mostly in one breath one fine weekend morning.

"O...kayyy. What shape should we make the game? Circle? Square?", I casually indulged not knowing the impending...

"It is a triangle game, Mama. And it has 2 sides. One side is night and it is blue. The other side is day and it is yellow. The Day side has animals in it and the Night side has the planets and outer space", was the prompt and confident response.

With still no inkling of what is in store, I automatically quizzed, "Does it have a name?What is this game called?"

"We can call it Spin the World, Mama. Because we spin the rocket ship to go to outer space. Can you help me make it now?" hit me like a ton of bricks. I rocked on my heels while scrambling the eggs for the morning's nourishment.

"Sure. Let's see if we can find all the materials we need", I suggested noncommittally.

Thus started this wild adventure one weekend, directed (and micromanaged) by Og and executed by me, with close supervision (and the inevitable artistic tantrums) from Og, and complete aloofness from Ana.

Materials used:

Blue and yellow Matte card stock paper for the triangular game board and the spinner rocket ship
White card stock paper for the essential "Instructions" to accompany the game
Regular colorful markers, pen, pencil etc.
textured papers for making the 8 planets and the sun
Animal stickers
Plastic washer and paper fastener to make the spinner rocket ship spin
Glue and scissors
Clear contact sheet for laminating the game board

When this original game was built and ready to be tested, all laminated, with the spinner mechanism in place and working gloriously thanks to Papa's handy-ness, Og insisted that it was still incomplete: the instructions! How else will we know how to play this mind-blowing game?!

Writing the instructions was the most fun for me. I tried to make it as bizarre and vague as possible, much like the instructions we've found in some packages that were possibly written/translated by non-native English speakers. Tried is the key.

Also, the much needed picture of the game that does not quite match the actual game was the extra touch. And the arbitrary age range for who can play this game.

And the generic "Manufactured at a local plant"...

Og and I were feeding off of each others' wild energy that day, getting exasperated and excited alternately, but ended up creating something quite satisfying and novel. To us, anyway.

And, we did wrap it up and give it to his friend for his birthday. I hope his parents got a good laugh out of it and the little kiddo was suitably enthusiastic about playing the game. Over and over. Till it falls apart. Which might happen before his interest wanes (if it exists at all), considering the sturdiness of the materials used...