Melissa Wiley

New Post at GeekMom Today: The Importance of Braille

Melissa Wiley — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:16:43 +0000

I’m proud of my piece at GeekMom today: An interview with my friend Holly Miller, who battled her school district for three years to get necessary Braille instruction for her son, Hank. Hank, like my own Wonderboy, has oculocutaneous albinism—in Hank’s case, the effects on his vision are severe. He is legally blind. But the school district considers him a sighted reader and opposed teaching him Braille. Holly and her husband Jeff took the case to court—and won. I hope you’ll click through and read the article!

In a Digital Age, Braille Is Still Important | GeekMom | Wired.com.

Where the Weekend Went

Melissa Wiley — Tue, 22 May 2012 02:24:18 +0000

The eclipse through Scott’s homemade pinhole lens.

Eclipse shadows through the trees—lovely.

I watched him walk back and forth past my overgrown coreopsis for a good five minutes—walking deliberately close to them so that they repeatedly thwapped him in the face. This is fun because…why?

Scrub jay. Showed off for half an hour in various parts of the yard, preening, strutting, demanding admiration. We obliged.

wild and precious life

Melissa Wiley — Sat, 19 May 2012 03:52:56 +0000

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day…

—from “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver

Astronomy Lessons Before Breakfast

Melissa Wiley — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:54:46 +0000

It’s that episode of Little Einsteins where they’re wending their way toward the Crab Nebula. Rilla is apprehensive. “Mommy,” she whispers. “Can you look it up? The real one.”

I google obligingly. She ponders the images with troubled eyes.

“What…what harm does it do?”

Scott hastily explains. Stars, light, not a monster. Not a Giant Thing with Pincers lurking in outer space.

It’s always the preschool shows that scare the pants off you.

“He felt he had no choice but to side with the pencils.”

Melissa Wiley — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:52:53 +0000

The Great Crayon-Pencil War of 1953. This. This is why I’m in stitches all day long.

Methinks You Just Did

Melissa Wiley — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:07:46 +0000

Huck: “Mommy! Me spilled something.”

Me, reaching for towel: “A lot or a little?”

Huck: “…me not telling you.”

If it’s May, it must be time for me to make redundant statements about agapanthus.

Melissa Wiley — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:25:32 +0000

The Lilies-of-the-Nile are being impish again. I was going to remark that as much as I adore their purple spheres of bloom, this bud stage is when I love them best—but I see I already said that, a year ago. I really am repeating myself; I see too that I posted an agapanthus bud exactly one year ago today. Impish they may be, but they are punctual little fellows!