End of year overview

It's the end of the year, so time for a quick overview of what Mulan and Miya have been doing.

Ballet:
We changed to a new ballet teacher (Rowe Dance) at the beginning of the year, as the teacher we had been with for two years stopped.  Both Mulan and Miya are loving their classes, and, with exams in September and a show in December, ballet has become a big part of their lives.  For the past few months, in their free times at home, both girls have often been discussing and practicing dances together.

With the change of teacher also came a change in exam system, from Cecchetti to RAD.  Both girls were awarded Merit (Mulan Grade 4 and Miya Grade 1).  Mulan's score was at the high end of Merit, and she got the third highest exam score in the school.

It seems like Mulan will be starting Intermediate Foundation next year (as well as doing Grade 5), so we may be even more ballet-busy!  Miya will be in Grade 2.

Music:
This year, both girls have been learning three musical instruments each -- Mulan has recorder, flute and ukulele, while Miya has recorder, violin and ukulele (ukulele is with Yeye at home, while the other instruments are at Belmont Music Centre).

Mulan has been very lucky to have motivated classmates, as well as excellent teachers, at Belmont, and the music they play together is sounding really beautiful.  Miya has been less lucky with respect to motivated classmates, and classes have sometimes been a little frustratingly slow.

At the end of year concert last weekend, Mulan was awarded two Senior Prize medals for the recorder and flute.

Next year, both girls will continue with these same three instruments, and Mulan plans to also start a new instrument -- probably cello.

Swimming:
Both girls are continuing to make good improvements with their swimming at Swim Lovers' Swim School.  Mulan is doing well in all four strokes, and has learnt tumble turns this term.  Miya has become much steadier and stronger with her freestyle.  Both girls are trying out water polo, and this may turn out to be yet another sport for us next year.

Athletics:
The girls and I all join Takapuna Athletics Club over summer.  Both girls continue to make amazing improvements in their times and distances, often getting new PBs (personal bests) each week.

I am especially impressed by the girls' achievements in their field events.  Running is, to some extent, genetic luck with respect to how speedy one's muscles are.  But with the field events (at least at the local club level) a big part of it is whether the kids take the time to practice and learn good technique.  Three years ago, Mulan started out amongst the weakest throwers in her age -- now she comes a clear second each week in both shot put and discus.  This is entirely because she has worked at it.  She is also doing well in the jumps.  Miya is similarly doing extremely well.  At grade 7, this is her first year doing competitive field events, and most weeks she is winning both throws, thanks to her regular practice.

Gymnastics:
Both girls started gymnastics at the beginning of the year at the YMCA.  They have both made huge improvements in terms of strength, coordination and movement skills, and plan to continue next year.

Netball:
Mulan played netball over winter (terms 2 and 3) with the homeschoolers (HASCA), though unfortunately we couldn't find enough players to get a team together for Miya.  Both girls love playing, and are very competitive and active.

We'll probably contact the local schools next year, to see about playing for them instead of HASCA, as there are too many problems with getting together homeschooler teams, with a decent amount of time for practices.

Basketball:
Mulan attends a weekly basketball skills class at the YMCA, and in the first half of the year was in the homeschoolers (HASCA) basketball team.  We decided to stop the games (too busy!), but the classes are good and we will continue with them next year.

Mathematics:
Both girls continue to do a little maths every day (7 days a week, all year round), using Khan Academy.  They are both making steady improvements, at a level that is challenging but doable.  Mulan is about three quarters of the way through US 7th Grade, while Miya is just starting US 4th Grade, meaning they continue to be a couple of years ahead of their ages.

Typing:
Both girls are learning touch typing, doing a little most days at typing.com.  Both are now doing around 35 to 40 words per minute (full keyboard).

Coding:
Both girls have started learning coding (aka computer programming) through Khan Academy.  They are learning JavaScript, and are having fun making animations.  Mulan is getting the idea of more complex structures like functions and if statements, while Miya is happier to just work on shapes and text.

Reading:
Both girls find time to silently read during the day, often up to a couple of hours.  Miya is now comfortable reading chapter books (eg she has completed the Secret Seven series), and Mulan reads anything and everything.

I still like to read to the girls each evening before bed.  We are currently reading The Swiss Family Robinson.

History/Geography:
As a family, we irregularly watch YouTube videos on history and geography.  The problem is, we are still trying to find something suitable -- some are too "adult" (or at least teenager), with talking heads and dry information, while others try to be too "fun" and end up being too loud and chaotic.

Gardening:
Over summer, the girls (with the help of Nainai) do the family vegetable garden.  Miya is especially interested in raising the plants.  They have got lots of tomatoes, bok choi, apple cucumber, and kale.  They have also got swan plants and supposedly five metre tall sunflowers, which are about 15 cm tall so far.  They are planning to put in capsicums and courgettes.

Sewing:
Both girls also do weekly sewing lessons with Nainai.  They are learning the basics of repairing clothes, as well as knitting, crocheting, etc, etc.

Chinese:
Both girls are continuing their Chinese studies with Mama, though I have no idea what they are up to.

3-legged cat

Here's a couple of photos of our 3-legged cat, taken today:

Yup, that's Maggie.  (With Kitty in the background.)

Back in April, she was run over in our shared driveway by the neighbour.  It seems that she was sitting in the middle of the driveway, and he backed out too fast, not looking where he was going, and drove right over her.

Her leg was badly damaged, and had to be amputated.  Her hip was also broken.  But after several weeks of rest and recovery, she is now hopping around the home, mostly feeling okay about things.  The main thing she seems to feel frustrated about is not being able to scratch that side of her body; she sits in the scratching position, with her stump wobbling, until we come to give her a scratch.

Is taxation theft?

This is a really clearly written article looking at the various reasons we might think that taxation is the taking of something that is fundamentally yours.

However, after carefully and clearly setting out and analysing the reasons, it concludes:

It’s hard to shake the feeling that the gross income figure on your payslip represents your money, and that the difference from your take-home pay represents how much the state has taken from you. In fact, there is no coherent way of justifying this conviction. Even if the most radical forms of Right-wing libertarianism are true, it remains the case that you have no special moral claim on your gross income.

Introduction to ethics

The TV series Ethics Matters is a really good basic introduction to some of the key issues in Ethics.  I highly recommend it.

It  is currently a series of 12 12-minute videos, each of which introduces a different topic/issue in ethics, such as the environment, nationalism, justice, rights, religion, freedom, etc.

I've decided to start using these videos with my critical thinking / philosophy students (young teens).  We watch the videos together, stopping and starting them and discussing it along the way.  So far it is working well.

Enid Blyton, moral guide

My blog post title is simply following the title of this very interesting article on Enid Blyton.  I highly recommend it.

We have got many dozens of Enid Blyton books here at home.  I loved them as a child.  Mulan and Miya love them.  Blyton's books are among our first chapter books for new readers, and they continue to be loved well into the tween years (or even teen years!).  Whenever we get a new pile of books from a book fair, it is always the Enid Blyton books that get read first.

In other words, there is something about Blyton's books (like Harry Potter, or Roald Dahl) that just seem to appeal.  Her storytelling is simply very, very enjoyable.

But yep, Blyton's morality is sometimes question-raising, and we need to acknowledge those dubious aspects of her moral teaching.  (When I read aloud books to Mulan and Miya, we sometimes discuss together the questionable aspects.)

But nonetheless, the article does a nice job of picking out the morally admirable aspects of Blyton's books -- the bits that make Blyton's books, on the whole, pretty good moral guides for young children.

(There are a few of Blyton's books that I have chosen not to keep, such as the Amelia Jane stories.  Blyton's characters can sometimes be vindictively nasty, but these stories seem to be based entirely around vindictively nasty oneupmanship, and I can't see anything worth keeping in them.)

Solo dad, three daughters

Yup, I'm solo dadding again.

Mama is in China, looking after Laolao, who is in hospital having her pacemaker battery changed.

And I have got an extra daughter at the moment (a teenager, too!), as we have a homestay girl for a couple of months while her family is also in China.

The hardest thing is having to get up at 7 am every morning to get breakfast/lunch organised before our teen leaves for school.  It would be much better if she homeschooled!

More books

'Tis the season of book fairs.

Yesterday, there was the one at Devonport Holy Trinity Church.  They have an unusual system of charging by weight -- $4 per kg I think.

I picked up 53 books for $44.  About 20 of those books are good for Mulan and Miya now, while the rest are either for me or for their future.  I see that Mulan has already started on the new Enid Blyton books.

And two weeks ago we had the annual Rotary book fair at Northcote College.  I paid $33 for probably a similar number of books.

Our books shelves are once again bulging.  Do I need to buy yet another bookcase?!

(PS, these are just the English chapter books.  We've got another five bookcases for English picture books and Chinese books.)

Reluctantly following the school year

It's school holiday time.

That shouldn't make a difference to us homeschoolers, but it does.  In a big way.

The thing is, like it or not (and Mulan does not like it!), homeschoolers mostly follow the school term system, stopping and starting their activities at the same time as the schools.

Sometimes it's because we do the same after-school activities as the schoolers, such as:

• Ballet -- during term-time, Mulan has two classes each week and Miya has one class.
• Music -- during term-time, Mulan has recorder and flute classes, while Miya has recorder and violin classes.
• Swimming -- during term-time, both girls have a class each week.
• Basketball -- during term-time Mulan has a team game (playing for the homeschool team, against school teams).
• Netball -- during winter term-time Mulan has a team game (playing for the homeschool team, against school teams).

But sometimes it's because homeschoolers choose to make their homeschooler classes run with the school system, such as:

• Gymnastics -- during term-time, both girls have a class each week.
• Basketball -- during term-time, Mulan has a skills class and each week.
• Sewing -- both girls have sewing lessons with Nainai and the cousins.

What's more, with our teaching business, both Mama and I contribute to the socially-constructed term-based mentality for children's learning.  Almost all of the children we teach have stopped their lessons over the school holidays.  (In contrast, Mama's adult students are continuing their lessons.)

Nonetheless, despite all this social pressure to stop and start our schooling, my attitude is that learning is a life-long activity that should happen all-year round, day by day, in a gradual way.  To me, learning is no different from eating, sleeping or exercising, as an everyday (mostly) enjoyable activity that continues us along that winding path of self-improvement.

So, here at home, in our little family, completely oblivious to the school holidays around us, we are continuing to do our usual schooling activities.  These include:

• Maths -- both girls work on Khan Academy every day.
• Silent reading -- both girls read every day (Mulan reads at least an hour or two every day).
• I read aloud to both girls most days.
• Social studies -- most days as a family we watch and discuss history/geography YouTube videos (eg Geography Now and Khan Academy).
• Chinese -- Mama does lessons with the girls every couple of days.
• Ukulele -- Yeye gives lessons once a week.
• Tennis -- the girls and I play once a week.
• And heaps of the usual family discussions (and play) that are hard to label but grow the critical thinking skills and general knowledge.

Congratulations Miya

Miya is now independently reading chapter books.

A few weeks ago, I started reading the Animal Ark Pets series of books to Miya and Mulan.  I read the first book, Puppy Puzzle, and got halfway through the second book, Kitten Crowd.

But about a week or so ago, Miya couldn't wait to hear the rest of the story, and so she took the book and finished it by herself.  She then continued on to the next book, Rabbit Race, and beyond.

She also picked up our Nook e-reader, which has the Magic Tree House series on it, and has continued reading those by herself.  (I had previously read up to number 13 in that series to her.)

I think I can safely say that our project to get Miya reading, which we started 15 months ago, has been a success.  (I blogged about it in August last year, with an update this April.)

Congratulations Mulan

Yesterday, Mulan finished her US 6th Grade maths at Khan Academy.

She is now working on 7th Grade, and as of today has finished 24%.  (There is some overlap between grades, so some skills mastered in 6th Grade are counted as mastered in 7th Grade.)

Miya is also doing very well, and has completed 70% of 3rd Grade.

I last wrote about the girls' maths work in January.  Since writing that, we have slowed down a little with regards to introducing new skills.  The girls are still doing some Khan Academy every day, but on many days they are consolidating skills by repeating already "mastered" "practices", rather than continuing on with introducing new skills.

My general rule of thumb with how much new stuff to introduce to them is that it is okay if they can't do the work completely independently, but of the bits of the problem that I talk with them about, they need to be able to understand my explanations and do the steps of calculations themselves.

Continuing the theme

I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression that this is an obsession of mine.  I really almost never think about it.

But in my inbox this morning was an ad for ballet lessons for homeschoolers in our local area.  Part of it went as follows:

Dress Code: 
A pink leotard is ideal but any color leotard or swimming costume is fine. Alternatively leggings with a fitted t' shirt will suffice. 

My immediate thought was, "what about the boys?  Is that what they wear in class, too?"

Well, obviously not.  Obviously the boys have simply been overlooked as possible ballet students, and the teacher has forgotten to mention the boys' uniform in her ad.

No harm done, no big deal, right?

Well, sort of.  But much like my previous post about casual sexism with homeschooling dads, these sorts of public writings both show and reinforce gender stereotypes of what is socially acceptable for boys and men to do.  This ad shows that the teacher's vision of her class didn't include boys.  And when parents read the ad those with boys will be less likely to consider signing their sons up.

Fortunately, we attend a ballet school (Rowe Dance) in which boys are very welcome.  About half of the students in Mulan's ballet class are boys, and the teacher also teaches separate boys-only ballet classes.

For this reason alone we would support attending Meaghan Rowe's classes, but on top of that she is a great teacher and also her classes are cheaper than this homeschooling one.

Casual sexism?

The AHE (Auckland Home Educators) conference is happening in a couple of weeks.

I know this because they've been advertising on a few of the Facebook homeschooling groups I am subscribed to.  One repeated ad went as follows:

So what DO Dads do? What role do they play? What’s their perspective? 

Don’t miss out on the “Dad’s Panel” at the AHE conference in two weeks time. A bunch of experienced homeschool fathers will share how they are involved in the home-schooling journey and respond to your questions. 

The panel includes [five names].

In all seriousness (to get an idea if it was worth me going to the conference), I replied to one of the more actively commented ads, asking whether any of the dads were the main homeschool parent.

My question was ignored, though the poster of the ad sent me a private message to say that she is friends with a homeschooling dad.  I guess this means that none of these conference panelists are the main homeschooling parent.  (I'd be very happy to be corrected if I am wrong.)

Let's put that aside for a moment.

Suppose there was a medical conference.  And suppose that at that medical conference there was a panel discussion called "Women's Panel", which asked the question of what role women play in hospitals.  Now, it would seem a little odd (at least to me) if all the panelists at that discussion were receptionists, cleaners and part-time junior staff.  Moreover, it would seem a little odd (at least to me) if, in reply to a question about whether any of the women there were doctors or nurses, one were privately messaged by someone saying that they are friends with a woman doctor.

But let's return to the topic of the homeschooling conference.  And at the risk of being boringly pedantic, I'll spell out my thoughts more directly.

As we know, in almost all of the homeschooling families the dad is the main money-earner while the mum is the main day-to-day educator.  That is, the dad is part of the essential support (like receptionists, cleaners and part-time junior staff in hospitals), without which the institution would probably very soon collapse.  But his role is not to be full-time involved in the core function of the institution (medicine for a hospital; education for a homeschooler).

With this in mind, it is understandable that, at a practically-focused homeschooling conference, the emphasis should rightly be on giving advice/information on how main-money-earning dads can also get involved, in a part-time way, in the educational side of things.  So, it makes sense that a majority of panelists on a "Dad's Panel" should be experienced "support staff", rather than main homeschooling parents themselves.

But is it right that all of the panelists are support staff, not main homeschooling parents?

I say no.

Firstly, there are some of us dads who are the main educators, and we may be interested in hearing the wisdom of other, more experienced, dads-as-main-educators.

But secondly, and more importantly, this is an issue of gender roles and casual sexism.  Just as in the early days of feminism (and sadly sometimes still today) we needed to go that extra distance to acknowledge and promote women's inclusion in male-dominated professions, so too do we now need to acknowledge and promote the possibility of men as full-time stay-at-home homeschooling parents.  Having one full-time homeschooling dad on the panel would raise the possibility in people's minds that such a thing is possible, and hopefully take that little step towards reducing gender-role prejudices.

Consequently, I say, on these sorts of panels and at these sorts of conferences we should have at least one dad who is the main homeschooling parent.

If you think I am overreacting, underneath some of the Facebook ads for the "Dad's Panel" was this picture:

Sigh!  Really?!

I mean, in other contexts it is kinda funny and cute.

But used to advertise a panel discussion at a conference where they are discussing the role of homeschool dads?

It just reinforces those sexist notions that the dad could never, gasp, actually be the kid's teacher.  That his role is, dare I say it, one of sexual titillation and amusement.

I have a sudden urge to burn my g-string.

Update on Miya's reading

We've now been consciously working on Miya's reading for a little over a year.  Last March, when we began, she was a near complete non-reader, recognising maybe only a half-dozen words or so and knowing only some of the letter sounds.

In August, I wrote about where we were at, five months into our project, and the method that we were using for her learning.

In the past eight months, we have mostly followed this same method, with Miya reading out loud to me most days and me reading out loud to her most days.  (We do skip days sometimes if we are too busy with other things!)

So, here is where we are at, right now.

A couple of days ago, we got out our Frances books (some pics of the books in the link below) and Miya started reading out loud to me A Birthday for Frances.  She didn't feel like reading it all in one session (or even two), and she will likely finish the last couple of pages today.  She is probably about 95% correct in her reading of it for the first time.

Notably, she didn't know words like "closet" and "pail" (she struggled to pronounce them and also didn't know what they were -- they are not Kiwi English words).  She also struggled to pronounce names like "Ida", "Albert", and "Gloria".  But with all of these words, after a few repeat occurrences of them in the story she was saying them smoothly.  She continues to sometimes mix up "said" and "and" with each other, as well as mix up "when" and "then" with each other -- that is an ongoing thing with all the books she is reading at the moment, though she almost always self-corrects immediately after saying the wrong word.

But all in all, a pretty good effort.  Sometimes I get Miya to read a book two or three times to solidify the new words, but I don't think we need to do this with these Frances books.

Back in 2013, I wrote about Mulan's experience reading these Frances books.  It seems that Miya, at 6 years 8 months, is reading at about the same level that Mulan was when she was 6 years 3 months.  But Miya started later and is learning faster than Mulan did.

Waitomo

Last weekend, we had a quick 30-hour car trip holiday down to Waitomo and back.

Mostly, it was in aid of showing Mama's friend from China (who Mulan and Miya call Ganma) around the country.  (Ganma is here in New Zealand for about a month, staying with us in our home.)

We left on Saturday afternoon, after Mulan and Miya had finished their morning music lessons.

Our first stop was Huntly, to do a property inspection of an investment property we own there.  The little two-bedroom cottage, which we bought a couple of years ago, is about 110 years old.

All was good at the property, so our next stop was an afternoon tea break in Hamilton.

With not much of a plan, and simply wanting a nice scenic park alongside the Waikato River, we found the Parana Park/Soldiers Memorial Park area and wandered down to have a look.

After eating, the girls and I discovered the old Rangiriri boat, and so took the opportunity to learn a bit about the history of the area.  The official information signs at the park taught us something of the English colonisation of the area in 1864.  The handwritten graffiti scratched into the signs taught us that what some see as "acquired" land, others see as "stolen" land.

And then it was off to Kihikihi, where we were staying at Free Range Farmstay for the night (no they are not homeschoolers, we were told, but they do let their kids run free there).  The accommodation was very comfortable, and we highly recommend it.  They had set up their homestay accommodation in the granny flat above their main house, giving the five of us two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchenette.  The flat had its own external entrance in the form of a spiral staircase up to the bedroom balcony.

The next morning it was raining, but we had a short walk around the farm and a swim in their pool.

Just after 11 am, we headed to Waitomo to see the caves.  Our farmstay owners work in tourism in the area, and they were able to get us discounted tickets to the caves.  So, since two caves was cheaper than one we decided to go to both the Ruakuri Cave and the Glowworm Cave.

Two years ago, the four of us had visited the Glowworm Cave during our winter campervan holiday, but none of us had been to the Ruakuri Cave.

At just over an hour, the Ruakuri Cave was a decent walk through a pretty spectacular cave system.  The highlight for me would have been the sheet-like stalactite formations on the ceilings.  There were glowworms in the cave, but not nearly as many as in the Glowworm Cave.

Immediately after that tour finished, we drove the few minutes to the Glowworm Cave entrance for the start of our tour there.  This tour is less than an hour, and has much less walking.  Once again, the big highlight for us was the boat ride through the dark with countless star-like glowworms above us.

Visiting these caves is expensive, and it is not something that we would want to do regularly, but they are indeed spectacular and must-sees at some point for everyone.

After the caves, we headed back up north towards home.  We stopped off for afternoon tea at Pirongia, parking on a side-street in front of a small alpaca farm.  The girls enjoyed watching the animals, and were fascinated to observe that each animal had a quite distinctively recognisable face.

All in all, a pleasant little holiday.  It is a good reminder that we should do these sorts of short trips more often as a family.

Free online courses

I've just discovered this site, which collects free online courses.  It looks very useful, and I'll probably sign up to some of the courses.

Typical day

On the National Council of Home Educators New Zealand website there is a page of a variety of New Zealand homeschoolers' "typical days".

I was asked to send them my "typical day" story for their website, which I did.  But I was probably too wordy (!), since they haven't added mine up there.  So, here is what I wrote:

---

On a typical day in our family, we have a mix of strictly timetabled events, important/necessary events that should be fitted into the day at some time, and optional extras that would be nice to do.

The strictly timetabled events take two forms.  Firstly, my wife and I both work from home as teachers, with my wife the primary income earner (my wife teaches Chinese and I teach critical thinking).  We have a classroom set up in our home, with paying students coming and going at various times of the day for classes or individual lessons.  Our children are sometimes involved in the classes as either teaching assistants or learners.  The second type of strict timetabling is that the children have outside organised activities (currently swimming, ballet, music, netball, basketball, athletics, tennis, sewing, gymnastics) most days, which I take them to.

The important daily events (besides, of course, our usual household duties, which everyone helps out with) include the core academic subjects.  At some point during the day (seven days a week, all year round), I work with the children on their maths and English.  The children need their free play time each day, and this involves both imaginative/creative play and outdoor physical play (we live next door to a school, so in addition to our own backyard, we also make use of the school's fields and playgrounds).  Throughout the day, I am also always on the lookout for those teachable moments, where something will inspire us to have an impromptu lesson on any subject; many hours are spent in our family observing and discussing anything and everything in the world around us.

Most days the children practice their musical instruments, and they also spend time learning touch typing.  Perhaps every second day my wife works with the children on their Chinese (our children are bilingual English/Chinese).  I frequently use P4C (Philosophy for Children) inspired lessons to teach the children critical thinking.

The optional extras typically include day-trip outings, including nature walks, the beach and playgrounds.  We often have overseas visitors staying with us, who we might show around our local area.

We probably spend about six weeks away from our home each year, with three main travel events.  We spend a few weeks each year in China (we lived in China up until the end of 2014), we have a one-week campervan road trip, and we have a couple of weeks camping over summer.

Do I believe in God?

In the past few days, I have been revisiting some thoughts I thought I had already thought about before.

Every once in a while I am asked the question, "do you believe in God?"  And I always have a hard time answering it.  It seems like such a simple yes/no question, but neither answer seems to do justice to what I really believe.

While re-reading more properly Robert Paul Wolff's small book Moneybags Must Be So Lucky (which I highly recommend), I came across a side-point example, being used to explain his main point.

Wolff writes:

Imagine, for example, that I have been raised in the Catholic faith, and have arrived at my present atheistical condition through a lengthy and painful process of questioning and selfcriticism.  The symbols, the myths, the liturgy, the language of Catholicism retain for me, as for many lapsed Catholics, a residual power that I cannot wholly subdue, and whose direct and indirect effects in part define who and how I am. If I am asked, “Do you believe in God?” how can I answer in such a way as to communicate this complex state of affairs, with the weights and resonances of the several portions of my religious condition given their proper magnitude? 

Simply to answer, “No, I do not” would be, strictly speaking, to lie. It would be to lie by omission, but to lie nonetheless. Such an answer in no way distinguishes me from one who has had no religious upbringing and who has never believed. To say, “I once did, but I no longer do” comes closer, but still misrepresents the true situation by treating the remnants of Catholicism as no longer present in me, as having been externalised and destroyed.

We might think that a true, though tedious, answer to the question would be a thorough unpacking of the situation in flat, declarative prose, more or less as I have been doing in these past few paragraphs. But that really will not do. To speak that way is to invent a voice that is neither the voice of the victorious portion of myself, nor the voice of the subdued portion, but is the voice of an external observer, a scientific reporter, a neutral party not implicated either in the original Catholic faith nor in its rejection. It is the voice of the cultural anthropologist describing native customs, of the social theorist denying complicity in the popular culture of his own society by his very manner of reporting it. Insofar as I purport to be voicing my religious condition in that voice, I am lying. In all likelihood, I would be deceiving myself at least as much as my audience. What is more, the declarative unpacking of the complexities of my loss of faith would entirely miss the sensuous immediacy of feeling that is an essential part of my present rejection of, and residual clinging to, Catholicism. 

Consider now what might be accomplished by means of the adoption of an ironic voice. Asked whether I believe in God, I might reply – employing, ever so faintly exaggeratedly, the singsong tone of the Apostle’s Creed – “I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth and in Jesus Christ…” These few words, uttered thus, would capture, for an audience capable of understanding what I was saying, the entire state of affairs: that I once was an unreflective communicant of the Roman Catholic faith, that I no longer am, that I view my former beliefs with amusement, rather than with superstitious fear, but that those beliefs, and the associated rituals, still have some power for me, so that what I now am and believe can only be understood as a development out of that earlier, credulous state. To a naive audience, it would of course appear that I was simply answering the question in the affirmative. 

Since this point is, in fact, the pivot on which my entire argument turns, I shall belabour it a bit at the risk of growing tiresome. The literary complexity of an ironic reply to the question, “Do you believe in God?” is required by the complexity of the speaking subject who gives the reply. If the self were substantively simple, so that either it believed or did not, asserted or did not, and so on, then simple declarative discourse would suffice. Even if this simple self had emerged from a complex process of development, in the course of which first one belief, then another, first one passion, then another, had held sway, even then, so long as the product of the developmental process were simple, unambiguous discourse would suffice to express its present state. The complexity of the historical development of the self would require no special complexity of expression, so long as that complexity were fully represented in the unified nature of the present ego. But if the speaking self is complex, many-layered, capable of reflection, self-deception, ambivalence, of unconscious thought processes, of projections, introjections, displacements, transferences, and all manner of ambiguities – in short, if the history of the self is directly present as part of its current nature – then only a language containing within itself the literary resources corresponding to these complexities will suffice to speak the truth. [my emphasis]

In the example we have been discussing, the immediately experienced tension between the antireligious conviction to which I have won my way by an inner struggle and the old, defeated but not banished faith that still asserts its claim upon my allegiance is a part of what I actually believe. It is false to suggest that I believe the proposition “There is no God” neutrally, unambivalently, purely assertorically, but also that, as an added and separable fact of my consciousness, I am experiencing certain inner feelings that can be characterised, phenomenologically, as feelings of tension or conflict. The tension is a tension in the belief, in such a manner that my belief differs in its nature from that of a complacent atheist who has never known God. It would be strictly false to say that we two believe the same proposition, and it would be manifestly obvious that we might fail to communicate with one another if each of us were to say to the other, in turn, “I do not believe in God “

This rings true for me.  I was raised in a Christian faith, and have arrived at my present atheistical condition through a (now distant, and occasionally painful) lengthy process of questioning and self-criticism.  And not only is my current state a development out of that earlier state, but I am also sure that a lot of those early beliefs and attitudes remain.

However, I wasn't raised in the Catholic tradition, meaning that all those fancy ceremonies and traditions are alien to me.  The version of Christianity that I was raised in was ceremonially simple, and the Apostle's Creed is not a part of me.

Moreover, I don't now view my former beliefs with amusement, so that singsong irony doesn't sit comfortably with me.

And there is family to consider, too.

So, Wolff's example ironic response would not work for me.

And I am struggling to think up any alternative.

The best I can think up is to say that I was born into Christ's house, and when I left home Christ came with me.

Not perfect, but I think I sort of get the right ironic tone of voice with that.

Flute update

Sometimes the Chinese friend network doesn't work.

You might remember I wrote here about how we bought a flute for Mulan in China.  We got it from a friend of Laolao's friend, who used to make flutes.  At the time we chose to trust him completely with what would be best for Mulan, as we don't know enough about flutes to trust ourselves.

When Mulan tried the flute out before we bought it, she commented that it was hard to play the low notes.  The friend's response at the time was that Mulan has been used to playing a Yamaha, which has larger keys, and it will just take a bit of time for her to get used to this other one.  Fair enough we thought, so we bought it.

When we got back to New Zealand, Gugu, who has played the flute for many years and teaches it part time, had a look at the new flute.  She immediately spotted three problems with it:

• The low notes are hard to play because a key isn't sealing properly, as it is not properly aligned.
• A pad is cracked, and will need replacing soon.
• Another pad is sticky and loose, and will also need replacing soon.

The clear message is that this is an old flute that at the very least needs a good servicing.  And that would cost about half again what we paid for it.  Either the friend should service it or give us a refund.  The friend chose to give a refund.

So, with no one else to trust to help us get a good cheap flute, in the end we went with the tried and trusted and bought a Yamaha.

Mama bought a YFL-212DR online for 2468 Yuan.  It also came with a music stand, which the girls are delighted with.  Hopefully we will have many years of trouble-free playing with this flute.

Maths update

Here's another update to what I wrote four months ago on Mulan and Miya's maths learning.

Both Mulan and Miya are still using Khan Academy, logging in and doing a few problems every day, seven days a week.  Some days this might just be a few minutes each, while other days it may be 30 minutes or so.  But the important thing is that they do something every day.

I sit alongside the girls 90% of the time while they are doing their work.  Even though Khan Academy is theoretically a self-teaching resource, with video lessons, etc, I am still there alongside as the primary teacher.

Both girls have now got to their right level with their learning, both completing all the way from the beginning at US Grade K.  What they are each doing is challenging for them, but still doable.  As of today, Mulan is 92% through US 6th Grade, while Miya is 52% through US 3rd Grade (making them both, as far as I can see, about two years or so above their age level).

Now that the girls are at their right level, we have slowed down with introducing and mastering new skills.  What we now do for both girls is this:

1. We look through the skills at their grade level that they have not yet started, and choose one that looks good.
2. On one day, they complete the "Practice" problems for that skill.  Sometimes they may need me to explain things a bit, possibly working through some problems together before they can do it for themselves.  Occasionally we may watch the video lesson together, to give another perspective on how to do it.
3. For the next two or three days, they then complete "Mastery" problems, one per day.  They level up that skill until it is mastered, while at the same time review other skills that have previously been mastered.
4. When that skill has been mastered, we return to step 1, choosing another skill to work on.

At the rate we are now going, my rough guess is that the girls might complete a grade every eight to ten months.

Mental health

This short and clearly written article explains why mental health is necessarily a moral issue.  Quoting from the article:

The positive conception of mental health is dangerous, because it takes the concept of health, which we usually treat as objective and scientific, and applies it to the questions of how we should think and how we should live. It hides moral and political ideals beneath a veneer of medical inevitability.

Beijing again

Mulan, Miya and I have just got back home from a two and a half week trip to Beijing, China.

We left Mama up there, as once again she is looking after Laolao for a bit.  I'm solo-dadding again until Mama returns home at the end of the month.

While I have been to Beijing many times over the past ten years (eg here and here), usually staying for weeks at a time, this was the first time that I (and the girls) had been there in winter.  The girls and I had been hopeful of even getting to have a first white Christmas, but sadly it wasn't to be.  We just had to content ourselves with a cold, grey Christmas.

But even though the ground was never white during our time there, twice it did snow for a bit, with little flutters of whiteness that melted the moment they touched the ground.

(Yep, those white dots are snowflakes.)

We were up in Beijing for two reasons:

Firstly, it was our yearly back-to-China holiday, to let the girls stay connected with their Chinese side.

Secondly, it was to help out Laolao, who has been having chemo treatment for her cancer, which returned a few months ago.  So far, Laolao is doing okay, though she is very weak with it all.

Pollution:
This time in Beijing, the big thing is pollution:

(From my bedroom window.  That's the morning sun trying to break through the pollution on New Year's Day.)

To fight the PM2.5s in the home, we bought Laolao a machine that supposedly filters out the bad stuff and purifies the air.  The machine lit up with a red PM2.5 light when the pollution at home was bad, and orange when it was just moderate.  We pushed the machine from room to room, clearing each zone in turn, and watching the light eventually changing from red to orange.

Here in New Zealand, before we go out we check the weather for rain.  In Beijing, before we go out we check the pollution.  On really bad days, we stayed inside with the windows sealed shut and our PM2.5-clearing machine busily working.  On moderately bad days, if we had to go out we would wear face masks that (hopefully) filtered out the pollution.  On a few days that we were there, the wind had blown the pollution away temporarily, and there was blue sky; on those days we raced out to the playgrounds and parks.

From my perspective, we went to two notable places during our time there.

Olympic Park:
Firstly, like I always do when I am in Beijing these days, I wandered around the Olympic Park area.  It is a great place to get away from it all, and I went three times:

Once with Mama, when we had a date-walk.

Once with the family, with the girls enjoying seeing the frozen lakes, ice and snow.

(That is snow-machine made snow, spilt over from a children's amusement park.)

And once on my own, when I did an 11 km round-trip walk from home, up the dragon's body, around the dragon's head and back home again.  I ate lunch overlooking the dragon's frozen body, and sat near the dragon's head reading.

(For those who don't know, the dragon is the Olympic Park lake, which starts with the tail at the Bird's Nest Stadium and travels about 3 or 4 km past several Olympic buildings and into the forest park area.)

There were skaters in action on the dragon's body, next to one of the many "no skating" signs:

But sadly for this businessperson, the security guards drove up a few minutes later and (slowly) shut his business down, confiscating some of his seat-sleds and herding everyone up onto land.  This was probably wise, as the temperature there at that time was 15 degrees and the ice must have been melting.

National Museum:
The second notable place we visited was the National Museum of China, and it was the first time I had been inside. But sadly I don't have any photos of it, as I discovered when I got there that the camera had no memory card -- Mama had been looking at our photos and the card was still in her computer!

One of Laolao's friends used to work at the National Museum before she retired.  (In her day there were 83 staff, now there are over 1000.)  It is all about who you know in China, and so by going with her we were able to enter via the staff entrance and bypass the long queues of people waiting to go in.  We were also able to eat lunch in the staff buffet-style canteen.  (Apparently, staff pay 1 Yuan for their meals there, which cost the museum 25 Yuan per meal.)

In my opinion, based on a brief half-day visit, the museum is an impressive and fairly awe-inspiring building, but the contents didn't jump out at me and the information signs were unhelpful.  As far as museums go, it was one of the worst I have been to in recent years for displaying its contents in an inspiring and educational way.

The children's section of the museum was closed, as we were there on a Sunday.  But it did not look very interesting anyway -- mostly just classroomish-looking seating facing screens for showing videos.

The most interesting and fun section for us was the display of hundreds of gifts that international politicians have given Chinese politicians over the years.  The display setup itself wasn't that interesting, but we played a fun game of guess-the-country-of-the-gift.  There were lots of elephants from Thailand, wooden animal carvings from various African nations, maple leaves from Canada, a Taj Mahal from India and a picture of Nixon from the USA.  We spotted two Maori-influenced gifts from New Zealand.

Another section we visited was a brightly lit room (all the other areas were quite dimly lit) with pictures commemorating the Liberation of 1949.  Last-supper-style, directly opposite the entrance doorway there was a big picture of Mao and several dozen leaders of the day.  And hung around the other walls there were lots of other inspiring pictures of people struggling and dying under attack from bullets and bombs.

Mama had wanted to see the furniture section, and I had wanted to see the oracle bones section, but Miya had had enough of it all after about five hours so we skipped them.

Music instruments:
Finally, the other noteworthy thing we did while in Beijing was buy Miya a violin and Mulan a flute.

Miya's violin was bought unseen online.  For Miya, we just needed a fairly cheap 1/4 size instrument to start her off in her first year of learning.  At 520 Yuan, it was cheaper to buy than to hire one for 10 months from the music centre.  In our non-expert opinion, it sounds okay, and hopefully it will last her a couple of years until she grows into the next size.

Mulan's flute needed to be something that will last her for at least several years.  We were tossing up whether to go for one of the reliable Yamaha ones (at over 3000 Yuan) or risk it with a no-name brand version for less than half the price.

Fortunately, again, our Chinese social network helped out.  A friend of a friend of Laolao's used to own a wind-instrument manufacturing company, before he retired.  He is also a flute player.  His non-branded instruments got sold to several overseas companies to stamp their brands on and sell to their own local markets.  We bought one of his remaining non-branded flutes for 1500 Yuan.  Being a friend of a friend we are pretty sure we can trust him when he says it will last.

Our musician friend/expert has also got into violins in his retirement, and he showed off his collection of a dozen or so pieces, including some over 400 years old.  Very beautiful, both in look and sound.  Miya was very interested in it all, and said she would like to do that when she is older.