Family School

The Freebie Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:41:00 +0000

I ran into my first real problem with Khan Academy the other night.

Both kids struggled a lot with the Rate Problems 2 section in Khan. These are problems that require multiple steps to solve, and a more complicated mental picture than the earlier word.

I really like these problems. They exercise our understanding of the relationships between rates and times and other factors. They compel us to think conceptually about the big picture instead of just crunching the numbers.

The kids might solve this by working out how long it takes 1 person to paint 3 walls, then how long it takes 1 person to paint 1 wall, then how long it takes 6 people to paint 1 wall, and finally how long it takes 6 people to paint 7 walls.

I urge the kids to make a chart, fill in what they know, and then figure out how they can fill in additional boxes on the chart until they have what they need.

Every now and then, however, Khan throws up a variant of the problem like this:

After Jessica carefully worked it out, I showed her how this one was actually easier. If the number of people and walls are the same in both cases, then the answer is also the same. 7 people take as long to paint 1 wall each as 1 person takes to paint 1 wall or as 11 people take to paint 1 wall each.

“It’s like a freebie,” I said. “You don’t even have to do the arithmetic.”

This Jessica remembered. As she continued to struggle through these exercises, every now and then she would proclaim, “A freebie!” and I would immediately hear the happy sound that Khan plays when you get one right. But she was otherwise struggling, and she didn't succeed in getting five in a row before we called it a night.

The next day she took a Mastery challenge. She aced it easily, and when the report came up at the end, it showed she had “Mastered” Rate Problems 2.

But she hadn’t come anywhere close to mastering it. She had just got lucky. The Mastery Challenge had served up a freebie.

Since I was watching, I promptly added more Rate Problems 2 exercises to her list and continued to work through these with her. Actually I first took her all the way back to the earlier Rate Problems topics. And eventually she really could do them all, and she knew it.

How We Started Reviewing with Khan

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:24:00 +0000

So far I’ve had the kids doing Khan in parallel. This is what that looks like.

They sit side-by-side, each at a laptop.

When there’s a video lesson that I think would benefit both, I make them both watch it. I actually launch the video on one computer so they can watch, then simultaneously launch it on the other with the sound off. That way both kids get “credit” for watching the video. I pause the videos occasionally to ask them to predict what’s coming, to reinforce a point, or to ask about a related topic. “Wait a minute,” I’ll say. “How is he doing 12 times 15 in his head?”

They do the exercises on a topic individually but simultaneously—each at a laptop. I monitor both from behind. Since Khan seems to serve exercises randomly, they’re working on similar, but different, problems. We have a strict rule that they can’t advance past a wrong answer ‘til Dad has a chance to ask about where it went wrong. I frequently ask them to narrate through problems even before getting them wrong, just to see their thought processes. I’m pretty adamant about letting them make mistakes, though. If I guide them to the right answer, then the “5 in a row” rule will fail to serve enough exercises.

Since the exercises keep coming until you get 5 consecutive problems right, it’s likely that one of them (generally Jessica) will finish before the other. I tell the one who finished first either to do Mastery Challenge quizzes or to repeat the exercise, getting another 5 in a row, if I think it needs further reinforcing. A couple of times I’ve let her call it a day while I’m still finishing up with Nathaniel.

I generally stop the lesson when I feel like they’ve had enough, after something between 30 and 75 minutes. Khan presents no more than a few Mastery Challenge quizzes, then introduces a 16-hour delay—we have to wait until tomorrow for the next Mastery Challenge. I usually stop when the kids have worked through exercises on one or more topics and no more Mastery Challenges are available to them.

As of August 1 they were both at about the 55% mark for pre-algebra. I hope they make it by Labor Day.

I Like 5 in a Row

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:19:00 +0000

I remember—too clearly!—what it felt like to open my math homework after coming home from school at 3:30. Or possibly from the school paper at 6:00. Or from the grocery store at 8:00. I was tired, math was the most tedious of all subjects, and there were so many exercises.

How many problems? 38? Turn the page. Heave a sigh. Whisper an expletive. 72! Pull the crushed spiral out of my backpack. Maybe we only have to do the odd-numbered ones tonight?... No such luck.

My son is the same way with math exercises. Filling out a worksheet holds no satisfaction for him. When he used to look at a page of math exercises, I saw my own dread in his face.

This is one area where Khan really shines. Last night I had the kids review both the distributive property and finding greatest common factors—areas in which they had missed problems on Khan’s Mastery quizzes. For each topic they watched a five minute video and did some exercises.

But Khan doesn’t make the kids do 38 or 72 exercises. It says Get 5 correct in a row.

That’s it. Just five problems. If you get them all right.

If you get four and flub the fifth, well, now you have to do five more. You could be stuck there all night, but you could be done in five or ten minutes. And that’s a powerful motivator.

Nathaniel, who has never, ever been careful about arithmetic, not since the first time he hastily filled in the space under 2 + 1 on a worksheet, never-once-careful Nathaniel, is being careful. When it comes to the last problem, I can see him sweating, checking his work.

Checking his work.

Checking work reinforces math principles wonderfully. When he’s confirming that solving 9 X (5 + 4) is the same if he works it out as 45 + 36 as if he works it out as 9 X 9, he’s really learning what the distributive property means. I can remember worksheets and tests where my teachers used to write Check your work! optimistically across the top. Khan doesn’t, but doesn’t have to. It’s enough to say Get 5 correct in a row.

Trying to Master Pre-Algebra

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:03:00 +0000

I’m sort of evolving my teaching-with-Khan plans as I go.

My loose goal for the school year is to get both kids through the Algebra and Geometry curricula.

I’m not confident, however, that they’re ready to plunge into whatever topics are categorized under Algebra and Geometry. My aim for the balance of the summer is to get them to achieve “Mastery” in the Pre-Algebra topics.

Khan attempts to describe a student’s knowledge of each topic. A topic can be Mastered, Practiced to 2 or 3 different levels, or Unpracticed.

A quick way to advance through these divisions are Khan’s Mastery Challenges, very short quizzes on a variety of topics. Some tuning algorithm seems to refine the questions included in each Mastery Challenge. So the more Mastery Challenges a student attempts, the more relevant the questions become.

This seems as good a place to start as any, so we loaded up the Pre-Algebra curricula and started going through some Mastery Challenges.

The kids were delighted to ace some easy questions, and surprised at a few hard ones (or easy but utterly unfamiliar ones, like the Stem-and-Leaf Plots). They were maybe a little-disappointed to see that they were earning badges with names like Addition, Third Grade. They understand the direction they're going, though, and they can sense that they'll feel some satisfaction when they earn more advanced badges.

After the first week of doing this, it seems like the kids are each getting through one or two Mastery Challenges per day.

If we can maintain the pace, they should have the Pre-Algebra curriculum complete around Labor Day.

Trying Khan for Math

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 16:07:00 +0000

Nathaniel seems to have a knack for mathematical concepts. He can picture fractional quantities in his head, for example. He is impatient with memorization and drills, however.

He’s fifteen now. He knows math at a sort of B-student-in-pre-algebra-but-occasionally-horrifies-me-by-counting-on-his-fingers-to-add-seven-to-ninety-five level. I think he under-performs on tests, largely because of his impatience with the testing.

Jessica is nearly the opposite. She struggles with any sort of mathematical visualization and dreads story problems but takes real pleasure in knowing and repeating the process of an arithmetical operation. Drills of well-known material make her happy, and timed tests make her happier.

In both cases, I’d like to see the kids advancing faster than they are, and testing better. I suggested as much—and suggesting is always risky for a homeschool parent. So now I get to be teacher.

Really, though, I’m happy to try. I’ve always been a little envious of the teaching.

My first command decision was to re-abandon Saxon, this time for the Khan Academy.

I’m building a list of reasons why. So far it looks like this.

I'm betting that Khan is better at...

...targeting lessons to what a kid needs to learn.
...building test-taking skills (critical to homeschooled kids who want the chance to go to college!)
...providing repeated drills when (and only when) necessary.
...reinforcing concepts already learned.

We’ll see how it goes.

A Week of Poems

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:37:00 +0000

A short list of what emerged while we wrote daily poems with The Poem Farm last week:

Attention to Description
Choosing the best word to capture something, the emotionally charged word, the word with the right sound

Efficiency of Expression
Words like turgid and cogent and concise came out while we talked about how a poem might express in one exact word what we might usually say in ten.

Meter
One of our kids hears meter easily. The other struggles to tell how many syllables are in the world struggle. But both could hear four strong beats in a line, and—at least some of the time—aimed for it.

Rhyme Schemes
The children did some rhyming instinctively. Then we looked at Amy's poems and old favorites from Shel Silverstein, and they experimented with trying to imitate more structured rhyme.

"Couplet"
A new word. And triplet and quatrain.

Voice
What it means to assume the voice of a hermit crab's shell.

Some Scientific Observation
Nathaniel did try to stay awake all night to watch his crabs. (Like me, he's an early-to-bed personality, and I don't think he lasted much past 10:00.)

A Little History
I'm not sure why Jessica is so interested in the first Fourth of July celebrations from Philadelphia in 1777, but we read about them together.

Editing
The satisfaction of seeing your work improve. Jessica was utterly pleased with herself when she sneaked references to red, white, and blue into her Saturday poem. "Isn't that clever?"

Nathaniel, who invariably resists editing, worked hard to hide his pride after he changed "I'm only one out of a lot of shells" to "the sea of my kind blankets the sand."

What a delight this was. And how grateful we all are to Amy at The Poem Farm for sharing her own work and encouraging us.

Our Week with The Poem Farm: Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 02:22:00 +0000

I'm very grateful to Amy at The Poem Farm for sharing her own poems this week and for offering comments so generously to Nathaniel and Jessica on their poems. We've really enjoyed participating in this group effort. I hope we try something like this again.

Sneeze at a Sparkler

by Jessica

On top of the fourth of July
All covered with fireworks
I lost my poor sparkler
When somebody sneezed

It rolled off my hand
And onto the grass
And then my poor sparkler
Exploded with pizazz

And then my poor sparkler
Rolled off of the hill
And there it grew into
A tree that grew sparklers

So here's a little tip:
When you're playing with a sparkler
Don't let anybody sneeze!

Watching My Crabs

by Nathaniel

Falcon-fast when in need of speed
These little critters don't need a lead

Sometimes hungry, sometimes not
Sometimes they leave their food to rot

Their constant love to explore
Is to the watcher sometimes a bore

Their tunnels are usually where they take their tour
If they meet, there might be some gore.

Scurry, scurry, scurry all day
They love to explore their life away.

Shakespeare in Our Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:54:00 +0000

In sixth grade I thought I read Hamlet.

Shakespeare was a famous name to me, nothing more, and I think I saw some personal challenge in reading this most famous of grown-up writers.

When my book report came back, Mrs. Miller explained, very gently, that I hadn't read Hamlet at all.

I had found the wrong library shelf. My book was a historical study of the staging of Shakespeare. Seeing a title like Hamlet: A Performance History, I mistook it for the real thing. And there were bits of the real thing in there, but only bits, out of order, and buried among bits of other plays and lots of commentary.

A whole book about...another book? This was unexpected.

Skip ahead 30 years, and Camille and I have just read Macbeth aloud with our children, neither of them quite as old as I when I had attempted Hamlet.

Our kids are more familiar with how plays work, having seen many live dramas and musicals. (Homeschoolers buy tickets at the heavily discounted school rates.)

Initially wary, Nathaniel warmed enough to create costumes and two prop knives—a clean "before" and a blood-stained "after" version. Jessica embraced the role of Lady Macbeth a little too eagerly. Over the course of several nights we invited friends to read some of the parts, enlisted stuffed animals and dolls to stand in for characters, and compared notes from different editions while stumbling through the language.

We made delicious mistakes:

Banquo's issue, referring to his descendants, was read as Banquo's tissue. Sneezing jokes ensued.

That business in your bosoms became the more intestinal business in your bottoms.

The blessings that hang about the king's throne were, about our kitchen table, no longer sundry but sun-dried.

When I asked for ideas about what a hurley burley might be, Jessica looked offended that I should ask, then hulked her lanky ten-year old body into a bicep-flexing pose and said, "You know, a hurley burley! A big tough guy with muscles."

And we were victorious! I don't pretend that any of us understood every word. But we got through it, followed the basic plot, and even discussed a handful of poetic images and plot parallels. Shakespeare migrated from the mysterious unknown into something recognizable.

In college I was struggling to read Karl Marx when a biographical detail struck me. A fan of Shakespeare, Marx insisted that his children know all the plays.

Recalling my sixth-grade failure, I tried to imagine that. Were the whole family geniuses? Did other kids ridicule the young Marxes?

Above all, what sort of weird parents read Shakespeare with their children?

Now I have kids of my own, and the older they get, the more certain I am that homeschooling, well, weirdens them. I just hope it's in a wonderful way.

Our Week with The Poem Farm: Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 03:16:00 +0000

I've been delighted and surprised to see the different structures and forms our kids have tried during their collaboration with The Poem Farm this week. Most surprising of all, perhaps, was to see Nathaniel take on the voice of a crab's shell or to see Jessica speak to a firework. I admire their imagination.

Philadelphia, July 4, 1777

by Jessica

Thirteen ships a-sailing

Among the waters so blue

Thirteen cannons shot out

As many people who had shed

Red blood for our country

Watched the crew

Thirteen American flags fluttered

On white sails as our nation grew

Hooray! All thirteen states are free!

And so are you and me!

What Would I Do?

by Nathaniel

What would I do if my crabs grew three times their size every day?

What would I do if my crabs started spitting up clay?

What would I do if my crabs killed each other in a duel?

What would I do if my crabs tore up my sheets while I was at school?

What would I do if they fell down the loo?

What would I do? What would I do?

The King of Pop and Taylor Swift

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:33:00 +0000

On the way home from choir practice, the radio news played a report related to the investigation of Michael Jackson's death.

Jessica, still surfing the gregarious wave that an ocean of thirty girls roiling for two hours will kick up, started to prattle.

"Michael Jackson. I don't know much about Michael Jackson. He was a singer and he's dead now and he had five brothers and they were called the Jackson 5 and he had plastic surgery but I don't really know much about that and he looked kind of weird that is all I know I don't know very much about Michael Jackson."

Our kids really don't see much TV or Internet. I'm still amazed at what they absorb.

"And he kissed Mom," I added.

This is a fact. When Camille was a very young girl in an aisle seat, The Jackson 5 ran into the audience, and an almost-as-young Michael kissed her cheek. Camille's siblings validate the account.

"I KNOW! HE KISSED MOM! ISN'T THAT GREAT! He's like a sell-uh, what's that word, a sell-uh-britty or something, IT'S ALMOST LIKE MOM KISSED TAYLOR SWIFT!"

Our Week with The Poem Farm: Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:46:00 +0000

As part of our participation with Amy LV at The Poem Farm, today Jessica pens an acrostic, and Nathaniel opts for a conversational poem.

Is there a word for a conversational poem—one in which two voices just talk back and forth? Some of Robert Frost's poems come to my mind right away, like The Telephone.

Fourth of July
by Jessica

FOREFATHERS
OATH
ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
REVERENCE
THOMAS JEFFERSON
HAIL!

OBJECTION TO THE KING
FAIR

JOHN ADAMS
UNANIMOUS
LOVE OF FREEDOM
YEAR 1776

A Conversation Between My Crabs

by Nathaniel

“I want to.”
“No, I.”

“I want to be held.”
“But so do I.”

“Oh, here he comes!”
“We’d better hide!”

“No, I’d better stand on this rock.
"Then maybe he’ll take me outside.”

“Get off! Get off!
"I want to stand there.”

“But so do I.”

Our Week with The Poem Farm: Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:06:00 +0000

What Do They Do at Night?
by Nathaniel

They make such a racket during the night
Sometimes I wonder what they do at twilight

Do they talk? Do they dig? Do they play hide-and-seek?
Oh how I want to take a peek!

If I Were You
by Jessica

If I were you, I would be able to burst into a million colors

And if you like me, you would throw your colors around me
As if I were dressed in a rainbow

You would lift me up into the deep indigo sky and keep me there,
So I could be a firework too.

In cooperation with The Poem Farm, Jessica has been writing every day this week about the Fourth of July, and Nathaniel about hermit crabs. (Last Independence Day we actually missed the fireworks. I'm starting to wonder if we scarred Jessica.)

Our Week with The Poem Farm: Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 01:25:00 +0000

Sparklers
A Haiku by Jessica

Flying sparks, don’t touch.
Could burn your hand, ouch, don’t touch.
Be careful, don’t touch.

Pick Me
by Nathaniel

I'm shinier than the rest
I'm roomy and colorful

Clean and sturdy
I wait for you

I need you to come to me,
Little crab

The sea of my kind
Blankets the sand

I am only one in this sea of shells
Pick me

Our Week with The Poem Farm: Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Fireworks
by Jessica

Flying in the sky
A mile high

Green, pink, and red
“Holy cow!” I said

God’s men
Doing great works of art

Looking up at colors
You say, “Amen.”

I Am a Hermit Crab

by Nathaniel

I love to dig
Tunnel after tunnel
I love to dig

I love to climb
Everything in sight
I love to climb

I love to explore
Every inch of ground
I love to explore

Our Week with The Poem Farm: Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:44:00 +0000

Our kids are taking on The Poem Farm's challenge to write seven poems in seven days about one topic.

Observing a Hermit Crab

by Nathaniel, 12

Scuttling down the beach

And up a rock

Into the water

And out again

Up and down the beach

Day ‘til night

Up and down the beach

Day ‘til night

The Fourth of July
by Jessica, 10 and a half

Red, white, and blue
Banners passing through

Laughs and fun
Laughs and fun
All my chores are done

Picnics in grass
Tubas made of brass

Lots and lots of fireworks
Dancing in the sky

Moments of Childishness

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 12:01:00 +0000

Jessica emerges from brushing her teeth to the kitchen where I'm wiping down a counter.

"Dad, look at me." She's cheerful and eager and slightly bouncing with excitement. "Is this my tongue or is it a piece of candy between your teeth? I mean my teeth."

She grins proudly. In the middle of the grin she's clenching hard on the tip of her tongue. Bright red from the biting (or is her new fluoride rinse red?) it looks almost like a hard candy stuck onto her front teeth.

I roll my eyes and answer "It's your tongue."

It retracts, and her eyes flicker sincere disappointment before she says in mock anger, "I can't believe you got it!" and stomps off to her bedroom.

Immediately I'm a little sorry I didn't play along.

Because these moments of true childishness—the ones that happen when she invents a funny face instead of brushing her teeth, or when Nathaniel mutters mechanically "God bless me" after sneezing, or when their first instinct as I approach any room is to hide and startle me—these moments are becoming rare.

Poise and self-awareness are still newcomers to our house. I welcome them, but I'm a little sad to see them taking my children away.

My Sippy Cup Habit

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:24:00 +0000

My switch to sippy cups wasn't planned. The kids were still toddlers, and I wanted some orange juice as I headed out early one morning, and the fancy travel mug that always leaks and dribbles onto my tie was dirty, and I was in a hurry.

I’d like to say there was a moment when I recognized the wisdom of the sippy—when I had to to avoid a deer on the snowy road, for instance, and my juice shot harmlessly out of my hand into the windshield as I swerved to safety—but in truth there was no such turning point. I just gradually came to appreciate that the sippy cup made a lot more sense than the stainless travel mug.

It fits in the cup holders. It doesn’t break if you drop it on the pavement as you get out of the car. And no matter how forcefully and awkwardly it falls, it never leaks more than a drop or two. Nothing compares: next time you’re in Starbucks, see how tightly that little white lid clings to your cup when somebody in need of caffeine opens a door into you.

I am a grown-up, and I don’t want to give the wrong impression. I don’t gnaw on the bit that fits into my mouth, so my sippies are free of tooth marks. My cup never has that slimy sheen that reveals its owner as someone who hasn’t yet adopted the fork. Those little vacuum plugs that prevent leakage entirely? Not in my cup—those are for babies.

Occasionally when I’m at a stoplight, head tilted back, cheeks pumping slightly while I suckle an iced coffee, I’ll sense another driver looking at me. At first I suspected mockery, but I finally confronted one of these gapers by peeking sideways around my cup. I took him in: the gleaming chrome chopper, the leather tassels blowing gently, the studded gloves working the throttle, the impossibly small, hemispherical helmet. When our eyes finally met, I saw only deferential respect, and sure enough he flashed the peace sign before roaring away.

Recently I set a sippy on the conference table when I joined a video call with some European colleagues at 4:30 in the morning. It was the green one with the hot pink lid, and I like to think it added some color to an otherwise dry meeting.

Our kids drink their milk out of glasses now, and for years my wife had been threatening to throw away the battered sippies. She finally did on Christmas Eve. A lesser man might have made a scene, but I trusted in my spouse’s love. In my stocking the following morning I found two new Gerbers: the top-of-the-line, 12-ounce models.

Cooperative Board Games for Families

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:32:00 +0000

Learning to lose gracefully is a valuable lesson, but as my kids grow closer to competing with me as equals, losing stings them a little more, too.

I had heard that some cooperative board games lurk in the specialty stores beyond Target and Toys R Us. This Christmas I decided to do some research to locate a new family game for my lovely spouse and me to play with our kids (10 and 12) and any visitors.

Here's how I categorize games in terms of competitiveness and cooperation:

Competitive	The games I grew up with like Monopoly or Sorry. I include games that encourage self-interested alliances, like teaming up on someone in Risk.
Teams	Players on one team cooperate against other teams. A lot of party games like Catch Phrase (one of our favorites) fall into this category.
1 vs. Many	Games in which everyone else cooperates against a single player. Scotland Yard, mentioned below, is an example.
Cooperative	I think of these like group solitaire: all the players compete against the game itself. Either the team wins or the team loses. These are the games I wanted to explore this year.

The lines aren't always clear. Some games start with a common goal, but later compel players to seek their own interests. Many games that purport to be cooperative feature a "traitor mechanic," revealing mid-game that one player is actually working against the others.

A friend curious about non-competitive games asked me to share my notes, so here's my list, with the games I like best for our family near the top.

BoardGameGeek.com and Games Magazine are great resources, as well as many other online reviews and vendors. These personal notes contain mistakes, I'm sure. I'll try to correct any that are reported.

I included links to Amazon for some of my favorites. For the others, try my favorite online source for boardgames: House Full of Games.

Once we've played any of these, I'll post an update.

Space Alert

Players	1—5
Duration	Less than 30 minutes
Approx. cost	$39
Theme	The board is a schematic of a spaceship. Players move around it and respond to various threats, working together to keep the spaceship intact. It comes with a CD that announces alerts and keeps the game on schedule. The CD's a bit gimmicky, but fun, I hope.
I liked	Short play-length. It's hard to find blocks of 90 minutes or more, and it's very hard to invite guests to a long game, because it takes a while to teach it, and generally people can't enjoy a game fully the first time anyway.
I didn't like	I'm concerned it might be a little abstract for my 10-year old, but I think the spaceship-under-threat theme will appeal to her.

Forbidden Island

Players	2—4
Duration	30 minutes
Approx. cost	$14
Theme	Players struggle to capture treasures from a sinking, tropical island and to evacuate everyone to safety. The island is made up of tiles randomly arranged each game. The difficulty is adjustable.
I liked	Apparently Pandemic is hugely popular, so I take it as a good sign that folks refer to this as Pandemic-lite. It's also inexpensive.

Scotland Yard

Players	3—6
Duration	45 minutes
Approx. cost	$27
Theme	One player is a crook. Others are detectives. The board is a map of London, showing subway stops and train stations and the like. The detectives are trying to position themselves at the same place as the crook to catch him, but all they have to go on are clues about what kind of transportation he took.
I liked	I sneaked this game in because I remember it fondly from my own childhood. It's easy to learn, and I like that it supports up to six players.
I didn't like	It's not really a cooperative game; it's a 1 vs. Many kind of game. Is there a risk that one detective will dominate the other players and tell them where to move?

Castle Panic

Players	1—6 (best with 4?)
Duration	60 minutes
Approx. cost	$25
Theme	Players represent archers, knights, and swordsmen defending a cardboard castle as monsters close in. Players position themselves and trade cards that enable them to fight the monsters.
I liked	Very easy to learn. It's possible to play this in a truly cooperative fashion, although the primary game is designed to treat the most successful defender as "the winner."
I didn't like	I'm a little concerned the compressed-cardboard castle pieces won't stand up to wear.

Shadows over Camelot

Players	3—7
Duration	90 minutes
Approx. cost	$40
Theme	Players are knights of the round table. Various threats endanger Camelot and the players go on quests to defeat them. Cards are involved.
I liked	High-quality components. I've played some other games by Days of Wonder, and they generally do a nice job.
I didn't like	A little long for us. The reviews are mixed: people seem to love or hate this game, comparing it favorably or unfavorably to Battlestar Galactica.

Pandemic

Players	2—4
Duration	45—60 minutes
Approx. cost	$25
Theme	Players represent specialized roles in the Centers for Disease Control, trying to contain and cure disease outbreaks around a map of the world. Drawing and trading cards are involved. An optional $25 expansion allows for a 5th player and makes it possible to turn it into a competitive game in which one player betrays the others as a bio-terrorist.
I liked	This game is very popular with a loyal following. It's said to work well with just 2 players. The difficulty is adjustable. I think it might be a little educational too between its world map and epidemiological theme.
I didn't like	Camille wondered if the theme of deadly diseases spreading around the world is unpleasant and scary. After seeing that some players made big-eyed Sculpey figures to use in place of the wooden blocks representing the viruses, I'm not so sure, but I can see that the real-world setting might be scarier than Camelot or a spaceship.

Red November

Players	3—8
Duration	60 minutes
Approx. cost	$19
Theme	Players are on a sinking submarine with an over-heating reactor and a sea-monster outside. They cooperate to defend the vessel. The game board is a schematic of the sub.
I liked	The game seems to have a sense of humor; the art is simple and colorful. The price is attractive, and the components are said to be nice.
I didn't like	If the ship starts to sink, I believe the game becomes every-man-for-himself as players struggle to be first off.

Break the Safe

Players	2—4
Duration	30 minutes
Approx. cost	$100 new or $20 used?
Theme	The gameboard is a building blueprint—it reminds me of Clue—with a big plastic 30-minute timer in the center. Players have to cooperate to defeat booby traps and obtain the four keys that stop the clock.
I liked	Very easy to learn; good for kids. It's by Mattel—I think this one actually was in stores like Toys R Us.
I didn't like	It's out of print—so I'd have to find it used online. Serious game-players say this game wears off quickly because it's so simple.

Lord of the Rings

Players	2—5
Duration	60 minutes
Approx. cost	$35
Theme	The players take on the roles of Hobbits, each with a special skill, and proceed through some of the action from the books, attempting to destroy the evil ring.
I liked	It's very popular. Somehow the gameboard and goals vary from one play to the next—I'm not sure how this works.
I didn't like	As I understand it, if one Hobbit dies, the others continue to play. I'd prefer a game that we all win or lose together. Also I'm concerned the rules might be a bit complicated. Is this game really for Lord of the Rings fans?

My notes on the games below are less thorough because I dismissed these pretty quickly.

Vanished Planet

Players	1—6
Duration	60 minutes (possibly longer?)
Theme	In a science fiction setting, something threatens the players' home planets. They trade cards and manage resources in order to defeat the threat.
I didn't like	It had some great reviews, but the play time seemed long, and the game board, hexes on an outer space background, looked a little too abstract to appeal to our family. A review said the game appeals to "cerebral" players. Would it be too much work to enjoy or share with others?

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective

Players	1—6
Duration	60 minutes
Notes	This old game (1981), looked really interesting: perhaps more like a Choose Your Own Adventure story or a How to Host a Murder mystery than a game. It comes with a detailed map and some books. I'm curious, but wanted a more traditional board game.

Betrayal at House on the Hill

Players	3—6
Duration	60 minutes
Notes	Looks great, but somebody always acts as a traitor, and I didn't want a game that would encourage us to backstab each other, or more specifically to impugn everything our little sister says.

Defenders of the Realm

Players	1—4
Duration	90 minutes
Notes	It's reviewed very favorably, but described as a longer, more complex cousin to Pandemic. I guess if Forbidden Island is called Pandemic-Lite, then maybe this is Pandemic-Heavy? My family aren't serious gamers yet, so I avoided this one.

Minion Hunter

Players	1—6
Duration	60 minutes
Approx. cost
Theme	Players cooperate to stop various supernatural creatures from taking over a map of America. Kind of like Buffy the Vampire-Slayer?
I liked	It looks interesting and has many fans.
I didn't like	A bit pricey and hard-to-find. Too much like Dungeons and Dragons with its tracking of statistics like "empathy" and "stalking" and "combat"? Nightmare-inducing?

Ghost Stories

Players	1—4
Duration	60 minutes
Notes	Popular and favorably reviewed, but said to be very difficult. I also wonder if the theme is a little difficult to share with new players, incorporating concepts like Taoist monks and Chinese myth.

Fury of Dracula

Players	2—5
Duration	2 hours
Notes	A 1 vs. Many game that is likened to Scotland Yard, but very long and possibly nightmare-inducing.

Arkham Horror

Duration	2 hours
Notes	This game gets a lot of attention and seems to be sort of an iconic cooperative game. But the spooky theme and long play time aren't right for us, and the rules are said to be difficult.

Saboteur

Players	3—10
Duration	45 minutes
Approx. cost	$15
Notes	Some players say it needs seven or more people to play well. I couldn't figure out if this game is ever truly cooperative, but at least some of the time, one player betrays the others.

Witch of Salem

I saw it compared unfavorably to Arkham Horror.

Space Hulk: Death Angel

A cooperative card game that seems reminiscent of the old Alien movie. I didn't want a card game.

London's Burning

A solitaire game in which a player controls aircraft attempting to defeat the Luftwaffe in World War II. I understand there is a 2-player option, but we want at least 4 players.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I avoided games like this and Doom because one player serves as a "game master," like in Dungeons and Dragons. I wanted a game that everyone could play without a moderator.

Somewhere in China

The reviews seemed unfavorable.

Maze

Supports two players only?

These games all shared play-times of more than 2 hours. I know some families who dedicate that much time to gaming, but we're not among them. (Secretly I kind of wish we were . . . )

Battlestar Galactica

Middle-Earth Quest

Thrilling Tales of Adventure

Dark, Darker, Darkest

Chill: Black Morn Manor

Magic Realm

These games seemed more suitable for kids younger than our 10 and 12-year olds.
Max

Caves and Claws

These games made my initial list, but a quick check led me to believe they weren't truly cooperative.
A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game

Duels of Ages

Last Night on Earth: Zombie Game (One vs. Many)

Princess Ryan’s Star Marines

Inkognito

Vampire Hunter

Republic of Rome

Doom (One vs. Many)

Shadow Hunters

Svea Rike

Battlestations

Upwards and Upwards

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:21:00 +0000

When the batteries finished charging, Nathaniel came running. "I'm going to fly it now," he said with precisely the sort of confidence that prevents the army from hiring 11-year olds to pilot Apaches.

Outside the tops of the pines swayed, slightly but steadily. "I don't know . . . " I said. "It's pretty breezy. Maybe we should go out early tomorrow, when it will be still."

He sneered at such cowardice. "Dad." He pointed at the box. "It says 'Ages 8 and Up.' It's not going to be hard."

"Did you even read the instructions?" I squinted at the tiny paper and quoted to him: "Persons than fourteen younger should be precluded as piloting aircraft for crashings and dangerous."

Two minutes later I was hauling outside a sheet of plywood to serve as a landing pad. He put the tiny helicopter down and stepped back. His T-shirt billowed and rippled around his belly as he paused dramatically, the remote extended in front of him.

He pushed the throttle to full. The toy shot into the air, corkscrewing wildly. Before I could yell, he had released the control. The chopper hit the earth spinning sideways and fell over.

"Okay," I began to preach. "You have to be gentle with the controls. You should barely be touching them at . . . "

"Did you see that!?" he exploded. "It was FLYING! I told you it wouldn't be hard."

The second attempt went like the first: up eight or ten feet, then back down hard, spinning the whole time.

"Can I try?" I asked. "I want to go slow with it."

He looked at me skeptically, then shrugged and handed me the controller.

Very slowly I spun the rotors. Still on the ground, the body of the helicopter started to pirouette.

"Come on, Dad. Just fly it."

Ignoring him, I adjusted the tail rotor very slightly . . . the pirouetting grew faster . . . ah, the other way . . . yes, at last the spin was slowing down.

I hardly noticed a particularly stiff breeze until the delicate toy slid off the edge of the plywood. Its landing gear caught in the grass and a blade bit hard into the earth.

Sure enough, the plastic landing gear was split in two places. Now the helicopter couldn't even stand.

"I'm really sorry." I had broken his toy without ever leaving the ground.

He grinned. "Let's fix it!" I followed him into the house: super glue, hot glue, no success. Finally I cut a piece of packing foam, unscrewed the broken landing gear and replaced it with foam. It was bulkier than the airy plastic, but still small and lightweight.

Back outside, the breeze was an irregular wind now, erupting from different directions in unpredictable coughs.

He balanced the helicopter on our plywood. Before he even stepped away, the wind knocked it onto its side again.

I waved him away and righted it. I started to get up. "Okay, now this time try to—"

But Nathaniel wasn't going to miss his launch window. The helicopter sprang up inches past my face, corkscrewing slowly as it rose, the air batting it like a ping pong ball in a lottery machine.

At last I stopped talking. It was all up to him now.

Higher and higher. A gust sent it toward the house, but it cleared the eaves and the wind carried it over the roof.

"He'll bring it down to the driveway on the other side," I thought. "At least I won't have to get the ladder."

But he pushed on, spiraling upwards and upwards in a dizzying, wild, uncertain ascent—like the way Jules Verne imagined travel to the moon, or like how it feels to learn something new, or like the way a boy grows—over the house, past the driveway, accelerating away to the edge of the pine woods, a horizon of treetops dancing 50 feet off the ground.

We heard a crack of breaking plastic. I could just make out a splash of red swaying atop the green sea. Someday it might shake loose, but it was gone.

I turned to Nathaniel, warning myself not to lecture him but to sympathize with the loss of his new toy.

"That was great!" he beamed. "How are you going to get it down?"

Children and Chessboards

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Last night we watched Searching for Bobby Fischer, the old, based-on-a-true-story movie about a chess prodigy whose parents struggle to support his genius while cultivating his humanity. I recommend it.

Our kids also liked it. I suppose any movie that portrays a child sympathetically and shows a father embarrassing himself time and again has an undeniable appeal, but I didn't expect Jessica to spring out of bed at 6:00 this morning and challenge me to a game of chess. The movie inspired an appetite for the game. All those close-ups of queens and knights slamming around to kettle-drum sound effects must have given chess a new allure.

Our kids are true beginners, only just knowing the rules. Last summer we befriended a serious chess player who taught them the basics. With infinite patience he kept maneuvering his pieces into peril. Nine out of ten times my kids would overlook their opportunities, but when they saw a chance, they beamed with triumph at having put one past him. As they captured, he would quietly shake his head in mock self-disgust.

He made an observation that stuck with me: "I like chess because I can't remember so well anymore. Playing cards you have to remember what's been played or what's bid or which card is wild this hand. But with chess, everything is right in front of you."

It wasn't so long ago that our children lived only in the present. And the immediacy of their lives still surprises me. How lightly they move past an argument! They can trade hateful words with each other, forgive and forget, and start playing anew--all while my pulse is still racing.

But gradually they're developing a more adult sense of time. They draw on a history of memories and make plans. After my son and I finished a Starcraft battle last weekend, he recalled in eager detail how his forces waxed and waned as our various stratagems played out.

I wonder if the immediacy of a game like chess holds a special appeal for the little child still in them. So much of childhood is waking up a new person each day, able at last to reach the counter-top or read the grandfather clock or recognize your name written out. Each morning you're effectively someone else.

My daughter has to live in the present. Her mind grows so fast that its memories belong to a person who no longer is.

For me it's the past that is inescapable. I'm confident I can speak in public because I've done so before, but afraid to leave my job because I remember too clearly my angst at being without a paycheck.

I'm like cards. They're like chessboards.

Their history brought them where they are, but it shakes off easily. They pursue today's goals with fresh ardor, yesterday's despairs and dreams so irrelevant that their old gravity is already forgotten.

Risks of Teaching the Old Testament

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:52:00 +0000

Numbers 14:27

How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.

Camille was speaking to Jessica about what motivated the September 11 terrorists:

"There were a lot of reasons. They don't like America. They're mad that we support Israel...."

"I wouldn't support Israel."

I cringe. Are we raising an anti-Semite?

"Why not?" I ask.

"They're always grumbling and complaining."

Barbie and My Daughter on Math

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:38:00 +0000

I worked for Mattel when the Barbie doll was at its international peak, shortly after the Teen Talk Barbie notoriously proclaimed, "Math class is tough!" But really it was not her political gaffes but the Disney Princesses and their saucier sisters, the Bratz dolls, that dethroned Barbie.

When Jessica was almost seven, an English exercise required her to put the following words into a sentence: lettuce, magic, underground, and sweet.

Jessica's answers:

1. I ate the lettuce.
2. Math is magic.
3. Satan is underground.
4. I am sweet.

Camille commented, "I should be bothered by number 3, but number 2 is the one that really disturbs me."

Moonlight and Love Songs: Never Out of Date

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:41:00 +0000

I'm much too young to remember, but I seem to recall reading a line from Jimmy Durante. Somebody said to him "You're no Caruso!" and he responded with something like: "It's true I ain't. But sometimes I sing so pretty I could break my own heart."

I'm shy to a fault and can't carry a tune, but I've always sung to the children.

The first song I remember sharing with them was Dream a Little Dream, a good song for rocking a baby.

Sweet dreams 'til sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams, whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me.

Jessica has always wanted to sing, too. Before she could say her prayers, she struggled to sing Taste and See, her favorite hymn.

Years later when I walked almost daily to the library with kindergarten-aged Jessica, I turned her love of song to my advantage. She protested these trips terribly. But I would sing on the way, and she eventually stopped fussing and joined in.

I love you
For sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart

That one must have sunk in: I once overheard her explain to a doll that there's not just one, but "sanny many reasons" for people to love each other.

Both kids also protested at having their teeth brushed, and I fought those complaints with song too, picking disco or techno dance tunes in case Camille overheard. (I like to give my love a chuckle.) Many uninspired lyrics have I sung into Jessica's gaping, foaming mouth while she rolled here eyes helplessly.

Mostly our children are growing up on the lyrics to old standards. I didn't. My earliest memories include Mom listening to soft rock and Motown while driving, but by the time I was eight or nine she had shifted to non-vocal arrangements. When I finally discovered Cole Porter and Lorenz Hart, I was enchanted. In college I worked my way through my grandparents' LPs, and though I never cared for Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra, I love the words to their songs.

Camille, on the other hand, grew up with a father who might at any moment erupt into clamorous song. His singing charms our children, too, and he introduced much older songs to them: counting songs and alphabet songs with a romantic twist.

One, two, button your shoe.
Put on your coat and hat.
I play a game like that
While I'm waiting for you.

Three, four, open the door.
Hurry for heaven's sake.
I count each breath I take
While I'm waiting for you.

and

A you're adorable
B you're so beautiful
C you're a cutie full of charm
D you're delightful and
E you're exciting and
F you're a feather in my arms

One December day a couple of our children's friends visited. At the piano I started my stilted renditions of some carols. The visiting girl, who could already read easily, sat on the bench with me and began singing along. Jessica, unfamiliar with the words, so young she could hardly remember an earlier Christmas, was agape with envy. Perhaps the green-eyed monster did more than picture books did to propel her to early reading.

When Nathaniel was two, I made up a Good Morning song.

Good morning! Good morning!
It's time to wake up. It's time to go downstairs!
Although it's still night, I can turn on the light
So sleepy-heads beware.

Good morning! Good morning!
It's time to wake up. Get up, get out of bed!
We can play with our toys! We can make lots of noise!
Too bad for sleepy-heads!

It has a sort of upbeat circus tempo. I'm not sure from where I stole the melody--it always reminds me of Herod's song from Jesus Christ Superstar.

An early-riser, he loved it. We sometimes used it to wake up Mommy who didn't love it so much. At night he would ask me to sing it. And instead I would sing these lovely lines from Harry Revel, softly and slowly:

Good night, my love, the tired old moon is descending.
Good night, my love, my moment with you is now ending.
It was so heavenly, holding you close to me.
It will be heavenly to hold you again in a dream.

Then Nathaniel would plead until I finally gave him the Good Morning song and put him to bed. In my heart I agree with him: we should always fall asleep to the promise of morning.

Though eager to trot out his violin in front of strangers, Nathaniel is terribly embarrassed about singing. Altar-serving appeals to him partly because it allows him to wear a silent, stoic mien while the rest of the church is in song.

On the rare occasions when he has sung, he has always been a one-trick pony. In diapers he struggled to sing Chim Chim Cheree. Then he switched to Holly Jolly Christmas, but nothing else.

Oh, by golly have a holly, jolly Christmas this year!

That last line was a tongue twister for him, and I used to love the way he plunged through it, tossing random consonants onto the words.

That was displaced by the theme song from the Mighty Machines videos (low-budget tapes of construction trucks at work). Nathaniel did a yeoman imitation of the singer's guttural voice, but I don't think he ever made it all the way to my favorite line:

Liftin' and pullin' and flyin' so high. Building a building up to the sky.
You can watch them all day and never know why. They're Mighty Machines!

I recall a brief period when the only thing he sang was from the Muppet musical of Treasure Island.

Shiver my timbers, shiver my soul.
Yo, ho heave ho
There are men whose hearts are as black as coal.
Yo, ho heave ho

It's as dark a tale as was ever told
Of the lust for treasure and the love of gold
Shiver my timbers, shiver my sides
Yo, ho heave ho

After pirates lost their attraction he prided himself on his public performances of the theme from Star Wars. It has no lyrics so, with charming earnestness, he hummed it.

It occurs to me that my memories of our children's music must differ from theirs. When I was small, my brother and I played a handful of albums hundreds of times in the basement. My parents were busy upstairs, and today they would probably be surprised that I recall all the lyrics to Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. These were etched into my developing brain alongside Mr. Rogers' piano melodies, Joe Raposo numbers from Sesame Street, and even some awful tunes from a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang record.

My children still fall asleep to CDs every night, and I bet those lullabies, Disney ballads, Mozart sonatas, Raffi songs, and Taizé chants that repeat endlessly in the dark sit deeper in their memories than the songs we sing together. But as a parent, I treasure the songs that unite us, the ones that bridge a generation.

Last summer I picked up a songbook from an antique store. Camille's parents, in their nineties, recognized songs from their own youth like these lines Alfred Bryan wrote seven years after the Wright brothers took off:

"Oh! Say! Let us fly, dear."
"Where, kid?" "To the sky, dear."
"Oh, you flying machine!"
"Jump in, Miss Josephine."

"Oh! Joy! What a feeling!"
"Where, boy?" "In the ceiling! . . . "
"Whoa! dear. Don't hit the moon!"
"No, dear, not yet--but soon!"

Last night I was alone banging out very old tunes like that one, songs from my parents' and grandparents' times, when I sensed someone at my shoulder. Jessica peered to find my place in the music. I pointed, and she picked up the melody and started to carry it forward:

If you knew Susie like I know Susie
Oh! Oh! Oh, what a girl!

There's none so classy as this fair lassie
Oh! Oh! Holy Moses! What a chassis!

Out in public how she can yawn,
But in a parlor, you would think the war was on!

If you knew Susie like I know Susie
Oh! Oh, what a girl!

I bet you're smiling, Mr. Durante. Wherever you are.

Bossing and Begging

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:47:00 +0000

Me, from the driver's seat, engine running, car in reverse, foot still down on the brake: "Are you belted in yet?"

Jessica, from the back seat: "So where are we going to meet Mom and Nathaniel? What time are we meeting them? How far is it?"

Me: "Could you please just get strapped in?"

Jessica, reaching idly for the seat belt: "I'm just asking what time we're going to meet them."

Me, handing her a coupon: "And hold this for me. Don't lose it."

Jessica clicking the belt at last: "Well, I guess that's the way it is. The parents get to boss the kids."

Me: "I'm not bossing you."

Jessica, indignant: "Yes, Dad. You're bossing me. That was a command." In her deepest voice: "'Hold this for me! Hold this for me!' That was a command, and it ended in an implorative period!"

I think she meant "imperative." On the other hand, bossing the kids can sure feel like imploring.

A Chip Off the Old Block

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Hardt) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:15:00 +0000

From my lovely spouse:

As we were doing our writing exercise this morning Jessica asked how to spell the word pretty. This was about her fifteenth spelling inquiry, and it was really slowing us down. (Also, she's an excellent speller and was doing this for dramatic effect. But I digress.)

I told her we'd make all corrections after we read what we'd written and she said, "But I can't. I'd just die if I don't spell it right." I retorted, "Well, we'll give you a lovely funeral and on your headstone we'll inscribe, 'If only she knew how to spell pretty.'"

At this point Nathaniel popped up and said, "Yeah and we'll spell the word wrong just as a joke."