The diligent blogger

So one of the foremost rules of publishing is "content, content, content," and the Internet has added one crucial addendum: "frequent, frequent, frequent." And because I am SOOO committed to blogging for a mass audience, I diligently observe those rules and am now posting for the second time in only - six-and-a-half months. Oh, well, it HAS been a busy, eventful, but overall very good last six months, so I'll give myself a pass - this time. The kids give me enough material that I really could do this more frequently - I just have to remember to do so (reminders are welcome). So, without further ado -

Yesterday, Matthew came to me before school and asked "Do artists have to be only men?" I'm used to having to help the kids overcome the overwhelming numerical dominance of depictions of men in the arts (quick, name me a truly FAMOUS female composer?), so I explained why he might not see many examples of artists who are women, but that there ARE a lot of artists who are women. Then he smiled broadly and said, "I know an artist who is a woman: Grandma Moses." I spent a brief moment in surprise that the first grade art class was talking about Grandma Moses, but wow - that's a pretty good first-grade art class. And good for Matthew, he really pays attention in art class.

Today, Chiara's teacher told me that Chiara (who loves, loves, loves to talk, and now loves, loves, loves to write) asked her how to spell chocolate. The teacher began spelling - c-h-o-c - and then had to do something else, then came back to Chiara. She thought she had left off at the "l", so she said "a", and Chiara stopped her and said "No, it's O". Aside from the fact that she was aware of how to spell chocolate, this was also one of the prime examples of one of Chiara's favorite ways of engaging in conversation: asking you a question to which she already knows the answer. I wish it was always that cute - it is frequently more frustrating than cute to find out that you just spent ten minutes answering her question that she already knew. But I'm slowly catching on - and it sure seems like she will be well suited to a career as a courtroom lawyer, a teacher, or anyone else who solicits answers to their expert questions.