learning

Simply 6 Minutes — Miss Monica’s Day Care

Fandango15 Comments

Miss Monica runs a small kiddie day care service out of her home. She is not registered as a pre-school, but in addition to taking care of young children, teaching them to play games, and how to share, she tries to teach them some skills they will need as they get ready for kindergarten in a few years.

She currently has five children in her charge. She wanted to give them a snack, while teaching them manners and socialization. She explained to them what she expected and put out the five boxes of French fries.

Mateo was the first to act and grabbed the longest fry. Olivia went for the ones with the most salt crystals. Jonah was the quiet strategist, building little fry towers before eating them, while Anna dipped hers slowly in ketchup, savoring every bite. Then there was Liam, the adventurous one who tried to eat two at once. “Liam, you must share with everyone else,” Miss Monica gently chided.

In that warm bubble of laughter and grease-scented air at Miss Monica’s Day Care, the world outside didn’t exist. It was just them, five tiny friends united by friendship, curiosity, and the golden magic of French fries.

Written for Christine Bialczak’s Simply 6 Minutes Challenge.

Get To Know You — Comfort, Losing, Learning

Fandango11 Comments

Kymber Hawke wants to Get To Know Us. She poses three questions and asks us to respond to them. So let me help Kymber and you get to know Fandango…whether you want to or not.

Here is round 42

1. Who is the first person you go to when you need comfort?

The first person I go to is my wife. The first creature I go to, though, who can be even more comfort to me than my wife, is our dog.

She seems to sense when I need comforting and will climb up onto my chair, look at me as if to say, “I’m here for you, buddy,” and she may give me a reassuring lick or two, and then curl up next to me, her warm furry body pressed up against mine.

2. What is one thing you are constantly losing?

My patience with people who support and/or defend Donald Trump. As author Isaac Asimov wrote, “When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.”

3. What was the one thing you could never learn how to do no matter how hard you tried?

I never learned how to read music, although to be honest, I never really tried all that hard.

Truthful Tuesday — To Cursive or Not to Cursive

Fandango15 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuyIV, is back with another episode of Truthful Tuesday. The idea behind Truthful Tuesday is for us to respond to the question (or questions) Frank asks and to be 100% truthful in our responses. No glib answers, no funny business, no fibs. Just raw honesty.

For this week’s Truthful Tuesday, Frank asks:

What are your thoughts on learning cursive? Is it a waste of time or is there still value in learning it?

I have to say that I’m concerned about what appears to be a growing trend to no longer teach cursive handwriting in schools. My cursive may not be very legible, but it’s my cursive. My signature looks like a couple of humps followed by a squiggly line with a trailing tail and it bears little to no resemblance to my actual name, but it’s my signature…unique to me.

Sure, people today don’t bother to write and mail handwritten letters. Instead, they sit behind their computers, at their laptops or tablets, on their iPhones, or Android devices, and type e-mails, send text messages, or post all kinds of, um, fascinating tidbits on Facebook, Instagram, or X. But does this mean we should abandon teaching cursive handwriting?

What will tomorrow’s kids do if they’ve never been taught cursive when they have to affix their signatures to some official document, like a driver’s license, a passport, a mortgage application? Will they print their names in block letters? Put an X-mark on the signature line?

A few years back I read an opinion piece by a Time magazine writer, Kayla Webley, now a Deputy Editor of ELLE magazine. She thought that eliminating cursive was a smart move. Being able to type efficiently, she wrote, is “a vital skill in today’s world.” Writing cursive, she believes, is about as useful as “being able to churn butter and knowing how to hitch a horse to a wagon.”

Okay, Kayla, if teaching cursive in school is a waste of time because people no longer write in longhand, perhaps schools should stop teaching math, as well. After all, doesn’t everyone use calculators to add, subtract, divide, and multiply? Even smartphones have built-in calculators. And since everyone is so adept at using keyboards and computers, can’t we just teach students how to use Excel to perform a wide variety of sophisticated mathematical functions? Who needs to learn math?

In fact, perhaps schools and teachers are obsolete. All anyone needs to know is how to Google. And with AI apps like Chat-GPT, people can get answers to virtually any question, information about any topic, and even self-help, do-it-yourself instructions for just about any project.

And if they can’t find what they’re looking for on Google, YouTube, or using AI chat, they can always text someone.

By the way, to answer Frank’s question, I do believe there is still value in teaching cursive, even though my handwriting is so bad, if I had written this post in cursive, you probably wouldn’t be able to read and understand what I wrote.

Throwback Thursday — Learning Skills

Fandango5 Comments

Maggie, at From Cave Walls, and Lauren, at LSS Attitude of Gratitude, alternate hosting Throwback Thursday. The idea of the prompt is for them to give us a topic and for us to write a post in which we share our own memories or experiences about the given topic. This week, Lauren noted that, as kids, we are exposed to a huge variety of learning experiences. We can never succeed unless we are willing to make a commitment to the process. Hence, she asks the question about our experience when it comes to “learning new skills”

Here are Lauren’s questions.

1) When did you learn to ride a bike? Were you self-taught or did someone teach you? Any major injuries on the way? Did you master the skill? Do you still ride? If applicable, did you teach your kids?

I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I think I was pretty much self-taught. My first two-wheeler was a Schwinn. But my pride and joy was when I got my three-speed Raleigh English Racer, similar to the one pictured below.

I will say that I mastered bicycling, although not competitively…just for fun and pre-driving transportation. I didn’t get what might be called “major” injuries. Just minor scrapes and bruises. I do still bike. Last December my wife and I sold our Trek bikes for two electric bikes, so we’re still going strong, even at our advanced age.

Both of our kids are avid cyclists, so I’m going to take credit for teaching them, even though I probably didn’t.

2) Did you learn to play a musical instrument? At what age? Who taught you? How often did you practice? Were you in band at school? How good were you? Do you still play? If applicable, did you encourage your kids to play?

One of my biggest regrets is that I never learned to play a musical instrument. I was in a band in high school, but I was a singer. And in college I was in a barbershop quartet. Our daughter doesn’t play any instruments but our son taught himself to play harmonica and ukulele. He also dabbles in piano playing.

3) Did you sing in a choir in church or at school? At what age? How often did you practice? Did you enjoy it? How good were you? Do you still sing with others?

I sang in a school choir in junior high school, a band in high school, and a barbershop quartet in college. For the junior high chorus, we practiced 2-3 times a week. Our high school band’s practice was sporadic, as was practice for my college barbershop quartet. How good was I? Well, let’s put it this way: I no longer sing with others or in public.

4) Did you have formal instructions on speaking a second language? Were you fortunate enough to be raised in a house with two or more languages? Did you learn a second language in school? Are you fluent in more than one language?

I took French in junior high school. At home we only spoke English. Je parle un peu le Français, mais je ne parle pas couramment.

5) Did you to play on a sports team or learn martial arts? At what age did you start? Did a parent become a coach? Did you practice at home? Do you still play sports? If applicable, did you encourage your children to play on a team?

I played Little League baseball and Midget League football in elementary school. I was also on a bowling team and a mixed softball team with work colleagues after college. When my kids were younger they were on local and school soccer teams. These days I watch, but do not play, sports.

6) Did you ever take dance, tap, ballet, baton, cheerleading, etc. lessons? When did you start? How long did you take lessons? Did you practice on your own in addition to the lessons? How skilled did you become? Did you encourage your children to do the same?

My parents made me take ballroom dancing (waltz, foxtrot, jitterbug, cha cha) and I hated it. I probably went for two years. I never practiced and I was never a very skilled dancer. My wife made me take dance lessons later in life and I hated it then, too. I did not encourage our kids to take dance lessons.

7) Did you learn to roller skate or ice skate? Did someone teach you or did you take lessons? At what age did you learn? Did you become skilled quickly? Can you still skate? Did you teach your children.

I did learn to roller skate in my pre-teen years. No lessons, purely self-taught and I was a decent roller skater. My friends and I would often go to an indoor roller skating rink on weekends. I tried ice skating, but was never very good at it. Nor was I good at rollerblading (in-line skates), although that’s what my kids preferred. I no longer roller skate, as I would prefer to not break any bones when I would inevitably fall on my keister.