Exposure

The comments to Latchkey Kid about internet use for children were very helpful. They also reminded our family of a funny story about what kids can pick up without the internet.

We go to the library weekly (Redondo Beach, Torrance, LA County). For the most part, Iris selects her own books. Recently, she found Princess in the Spotlight (The Princess Diaries, Vol. 2) by Meg Cabot in the children's section and asked if she could check it out.

Why not? We enjoyed the Disney movie.

"Sure, throw it in the basket!" The YA (Young Adult) sticker on the spine would have tipped off more observant parents that Disney might have sanitized the storyline for the movie.

On the way home from the library, she asked, "What's wedlock?"

At home, she asked, "What's a hooker?"

Hmm, mommy read the book and wondered about all the things she DIDN'T ask. Does she know more than she let's on? Why didn't some of the other stuff puzzle her?

More times like this:
MPAA Rating and Parental Complacency
Where the girls are...

Asides:
I also figured out why there are so many mommy bloggers with babies & toddlers and so few with older children. Older kids are able to verbalize their need for privacy.

For some time now, Iris has demanded that she has to read and approve any story involving her. She puts the cabosh on some of the best material. Today, she stipulated that she also owns the copyright to all stories that involve her. All content copyright © 2009 iriseverythingblog. All rights reserved.

The copyright notice at the bottom of this page applies only to posts that do not involve her. Got that?

If you want to follow what she is reading, friend her on goodreads.

Latchkey Kid

Iris' carpool drops her off at home every afternoon. She is home alone for 15-45 minutes and loving it.

We leave the computer unlocked because her homework requires her to do internet research. She is "very responsible" about that. LOL

A mommy coworker wonders if I am OK about letting her use the internet.

I am ambivalent. But, even when I am home, I am not always in the same room with her. We tend to leave the doors open and go about our independent activities.

How do you handle this?

Stripes!

Kathleen of Fashion Incubator wrote about Kate Rawlinson: Cutter Extraordinaire. I wonder if Kate could have found a way to make the stripes match on my skirt. Take a look at her work on her Flickr site!

Implications of academic redshirting

I just realized that there is another advantage to redshirting kindergartners--the practice of delaying the start of first grade by one year, either by enrolling a child in an extra year of preschool or an extra year of kindergarten. The rationale given is that the child will be bigger and more apt to be a star athletically, academically and socially.

This practice is an arms race in upper-middle class families, especially for boys. Those families can afford the extra year of preschool, childcare, or a stay at home parent.

Furthermore, the actuarial implications of this are significant. I have read studies that estimate the delay of one year to the earning years for an entire population without changing retirement age or benefits produces a 3% shortfall. Add a "gap year" between high school and college and we are in serious financial jeopardy. (No cheap digs about living in a state issuing IOUs, please.)

Anyway, back to my aha! moment today.

The multiple choice tests to identify "gifted" kids compare a kid's score relative to a nationwide sample of kids in the same grade. A borderline kid with an extra year of schooling under their belt has a relative advantage. Those older kids are more likely to be males and from upper-middle class backgrounds.

You can buy your way to a gifted kid. That is sooooo unfair.

Asides:

• Parents who back this practice like to ask, "Do you want your child to be a leader or a follower?"
  
  My answer has always been, "Neither". I would be surprised if anyone was able to lead Iris. I would be equally surprised if anyone actually follows her.


• BTW, the birthday cutoff for kindergarten enrollment vary by states. In some states, it can be as early as June. In others, notably California, the child need only to turn 5 by Dec 2 of the kindergarten year. If no kids were redshirted, and births are distributed evenly throughout the year (they aren't), the kindergartners in CA are half a year younger than their cohorts in the early cutoff states. That accounts for some of the differences between low and high scoring states on national tests.


• I realized this because Iris is attending the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) camp this summer. Look at their testing requirements for Grades 2-6.
  
  "Achievement at the 95th percentile or higher on one or more areas of a nationally normed standardized test."
  
  When we received Iris' scores in the mail, I learned they were comparing her against kids in the 3rd grade, not kids the same age. Our school district does the same thing for GATE identification. She's a November baby and she had skipped a grade, pitting her against kids 1-2 years older. Luckily, she made the cut.
  
  But what about a bright kid from south Los Angeles whose parents put her in school at the earliest opportunity to save on babysitting costs? What if she barely missed the cut? Should she be denied the privileges given those who could afford the extra year?
  

Links:
The Lengthening of Childhood:
New England Public Policy Center Working Paper No. 08-3
by David Deming and Susan Dynarski, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
You can download a pdf of the entire paper.

Forty years ago, 96 percent of six-year-old children were enrolled in first grade or above. As of 2005, the figure was just 84 percent. The school attendance rate of six-year-olds has not decreased; rather, they are increasingly likely to be enrolled in kindergarten rather than first grade. This paper documents this historical shift. We show that only about a quarter of the change can be proximately explained by changes in school entry laws; the rest reflects "academic redshirting," the practice of enrolling a child in a grade lower than the one for which he is eligible. We show that the decreased grade attainment of six-year-olds reverberates well beyond the kindergarten classroom. Recent stagnation in the high school and college completion rates of young people is partly explained by their later start in primary school. The relatively late start of boys in primary school explains a small but significant portion of the rising gender gaps in high school graduation and college completion. Increases in the age of legal school entry intensify socioeconomic differences in educational attainment, since lower-income children are at greater risk of dropping out of school when they reach the legal age of school exit.

Unsuitable for plaids or stripes

Because there is no way you are gonna match the stripes in Vogue 7607 at the side seams.
But no one will notice when you are wearing this swirly, bias-cut handkerchief linen skirt.
Look how well the stripes match Manon.
The matching top was made with Vogue 1695, a vintage pattern printed in 1986. I made the dress in 1986 and again in 1997, both times out of cotton oxford cloth.
I shortened the top, omitted the side vents, lined the front with black silk habotai, and added 2" of width to the front pattern piece.
I also learned how to make buttonholes with my Bernina 440 QE. Look, the purple disappearing ink markings haven't faded yet!
I can also wear the top untucked with the skirt if I wear a cardigan slightly longer than Manon.
This is half of a twin set made with a funky stainless steel yarn. I bought it at the Harari factory store in Redondo Beach. Sadly, Renko said that Harari had succumbed to the recession.

Although both patterns were rated easy, it took me many hours to make them. In recent years, I have sewn fewer garments and I am rusty. A decade ago, I would have pegged myself as a borderline intermediate/advanced seamstress. Today, I had to look up how to insert a lapped zipper. I also suffered a topological lapse while sewing the shoulder seam with the three layers (front, back and lining). As a result, the top buttons along the right shoulder and neck instead of on the left. ;^)

I am more picky about quality construction nowadays; partly due to psoriasis, and partly because I have a large enough wardrobe that I don't feel the need to rush to produce another outfit. I lined both pieces in black silk habotai, drafting lining pieces myself. (The skirt lining is based upon Vogue 9012.) I clean-finished all the seams because I didn't want to change the serger thread to black just for the lining. That turned out to suck up more time than changing the serger thread would have. But the inside of the skirt looks great. (I know the lining shows, but I deliberately made it longer than the short side of the asymmetrical skirt for coverage.)

I learned how to use my Bernina's zipper foot(35), buttonhole foot (3A)and narrow hemmer (63).) The Bernina owner's manual and Feetures books were useless when I needed to learn how to make a buttonhole. They didn't tell me how to set the length of a buttonhole. The on-line tutorial at the official Bernina website was equally worthless. Watch the offical Bernina video. It doesn't tell you that you need to hit the reverse button when the buttonhole is long enough! Luckily, Robyn posted the much more informative Bernina 440 QE buttonhole tutorial. It tells you everything you need to know with no filler. Bernina should hire her.

I don't have the same body I had when the pattern was new. I remember the size 12 dress/top as loosefitting in 1986. By 1997, it was straining at the front bust. (Perhaps it was the number of hours I spent weightlifting while taking a break from writing the PhD thesis?) Measuring the pattern and grading it up took extra time. Then I took a break to peruse Pattern Magic 1 and 2 again... What are holiday weekends for?

I can't believe my pattern collection now qualifies as vintage. Is my body also vintage?

2009 Wardrobe Refashions

Although I am not currently taking the Wardrobe Refashion Pledge, I am still refashioning.

This pair of pants was an odd shade of light green that didn't work with anything else in my wardrobe. I overdyed it with Procion MX in olive drab. I was expecting something less vibrantly green. Can you say, "Hello, Mr. Greenjeans"?
I haven't worn this midnight blue pleated polyester skirt in over a decade. The old polyester lining ripped to shreds. It only took me a decade to reline it with black silk habotai.
I replaced the elastic in this polyester crepe skirt I made in the 1990s.
Bad Dad leaned up against some wet paint while wearing black jeans. I didn't have any mineral spirts, and I didn't want to use VOCs if I could avoid it. Instead, I scraped and sanded off the paint. While I was at it, I rehemmed the frayed hems, shortening them by 1/2 an inch.

This one doesn't count as a refashion because I bought this silk Shantung jacket yesterday at Renko. I was worried about how she would weather the recession, so I stopped by for some fiscal stimulus while Bad Dad had his hair cut nearby. Sure enough, she had closed her Santa Monica shop on Montana avenue because of the recession. The shop/factory in Redondo Beach is still open.
She charges for alterations for clearance items, but she pin fit the jacket on me gratis so I could alter it easily at home. Some people find the staff too hovering there. I used to find that off-putting, until I learned that the lady waiting on me was also the designer and stitcher. When she asks you how you like something, and fitting it on you, she is actually doing market research and tweaking the fit.

Yesterday, she was looking incredibly chic sporting pink and purple hair and wearing black shorts of her own design. They were slim-fitting, with a deep pleated self-ruffle along the bottom. She must not have read Rediscovering the Forgotten Woman; A Big Middle-Age Demand for the Not So Revealing but Still Stylish. She is not going the baggy Chico's and Eileen Fisher style and she looks fierce.

It is a small shop. There are onsies and twosies of each style. You may not find your size in your preferred color, but most things can be made to your specifications, especially if Renko produced it. She carries other small independent American designers as well.

Years ago, I admired a fantastic raincoat with a pleated collar/hood, but lamented that she didn't have one in my size in my preferred color and style. She said that she could have one made for me in two weeks. They are made in a small factory in NYC and she orders from them weekly. The low waste approach to fashion, and supporting domestic industry appealed to me. I had no choice but to buy it.

Right now, everything in the shop except for the raincoats are 20% or more off. My jacket was 85% off . The size was mis-labeled and there was a small stitching flaw at one cuff which I easily fixed.

And here's a sneak peak at my current knitting project.

Talents

You know the show biz adage about never following the kid act? In the Lair Week 2 Blue Revue (Camper Talent Show), we were on after a kid that played the piano while hula hooping and rollerblading. It was a tough act to follow.

Tent 65 sang to the tune of the Trolley Song with Lair-specific lyrics written by Bad Dad. L to R, we sing in tune about 50%, 90%, 30% of the time. BD wanted to keep the nature of the song secret to preserve the element of surprise. I told everyone in advance that I can't carry a tune, but I am a good sport.
Afterwards, one camper told me that I was a good mom for going up there and singing in public with my family. The song was well-received. the audience laughed at all the right places. Leave some comments at Bad Dad to convince him to post the lyrics.

In all fairness, I have to say that Lair food is much better than one line of the song would imply; he had to do that to make the rhyme. This year, the food was the best ever. The cook's bio said that he was heading to culinary school in the Fall. It must be for advanced studies because he is already darned good.

I unveiled Manon on stage because knitting is a talent, right?

I closed it with a button and a knitted loop a la Finishing Tutorial.
The pattern's armscythe depth is shorter than I normally like, but it is still very wearable.
I shortrowed both the shoulder slope and the back neck edge curve. The pattern bound off the neck stitches straight across. I noticed the Vera jacket rides backwards off my shoulders. That doesn't happen with Eileen Fisher sweaters that also have extended front bands that meet in the center back. When I looked at them, I realized that they have a curved, rather than straight, back neck edge.
So I added some short row shaping at Manon's back neck. Problem solved. The collar band lies more smoothly and it is more comfortable to wear.
Manon received Iris' seal of approval. She asked me to knit her one without sleeves. Now that she is 75% of my width, I think a switch from aran (4.5 sts/in) to DK (5.5 sts/in) yarn and knitting the 30" size instead of the 34" should produce something in the right ball park.

Details:
Pattern: Manon from Norah Gaughan Volume 1

Yarn: 5 balls of Cotton Ease in Stone

Size: I used the chart for the triangles for the 34" sweater, but I reduced the stitch count on the top part of the body slightly because Cotton Ease is slightly thicker than Pure Merino.

Needle Size: 4.0 mm

Button: Assorted singleton vintage buttons bought for a song from Merry Wennerberg of The Button Box. 949-581-9663 She supplied the vintage buttons for the Vera Jacket shown in Finishing Tutorial as well.

Changes: I knit long instead of half sleeves. I knit the front and backs as one. I curved the back neck edge. Instead of binding off the neck and shoulders, I shaped them with short rows and then connected the fronts and back with a 3-needle bind off. I attached the back neck ribbing as I bound off the back neck.

Where the girls are...

when they say they are down at the creek.We thought they meant this.
When they were really visiting the cataract
via the culvert under crabtree road.
We love our free range kids.

*The 7 yo was afraid of the deep water in the culvert (waist deep for her), so she crossed the road alone while the 8 and 10 yos crossed below. The other girls' parents were at the Camp Blue vs. Camp Gold kegger softball game so we said we would keep an eye on the kids. I told the girls to wait for me at the creek while I visited the head and that I would join them shortly for a creek walk.

I just about had a heart attack when I realized how far they can travel in such a short time. When Mark and I finally caught up with them, they were returning from the steep, cataract portion of the creek. I wondered, since the girls were OK, if their parents need know about the expedition. Then they told me that they had gone down there at least 8 times already that week.

Persistence 2

We returned from our annual week at Lair of the Golden Bear to reliable coastal June Gloom. A true child of San Francisco, I feel at home in fog.

We had fun during our three trips this month, but it's good to be home. Coincidentally, each trip was a reunion (of sorts) for alum of three universities: MIT, University of Colorado, Boulder and University of California, Berkeley. There is some truth to stereotypes. The three schools draw similar, though subtly different personality types.

There was knitting. There was outdoor fun. Photos will follow. Right now, I am fighting off another infection and resting.

Related post:
I wrote about persistence almost exactly one year ago. Viva la June Gloom!

Stinky Lives!

When it bloomed at The Huntington in 1999, the gigantic Amorphophallus titanum (a.k.a. the Corpse Flower) created international headlines. A second flowering in 2002 was equally sensational. Now, one of the famous Corpse Flower’s offspring is getting ready to make its debut. Propagated from seed produced by the 1999 bloom, one could call it a genuine “son of Stinky.”
...
A Titan Arum in bloom is as rare as it is spectacular. A plant can go for many years without flowering, and when it does the bloom lasts only one or two days. Some people travel around the world hoping to see a Titan at the moment it flowers. For botanists and the public, being “in the right place at the right time” to see one of these magnificent plants in bloom can be a once-in-a-lifetime treat. This is the third time a Titan Arum has bloomed at The Huntington. In 1999, The Huntington was the site of the first known bloom in California; the same plant bloomed again in 2002. The plant blooming now is an offset of one of the seedlings produced from the successful self-pollination of the 1999 bloom.

Visit the Huntington website to learn more about the flower and when you can view it. Do it soon because the bloom doesn't last long!