Socialists & Homophobia - A Long History

Suddenly he [Robin Hood] pointed and broke the silence. "Look at that gaily-feathered bird."

The others looked and saw a young man walking slowly down the highway. Gaily colored he was indeed, dressed in scarlet silk and velvet, with a broad feather in his cap and threads of gold in his leather scabbard. His hair was long and yellow and curled upon his shoulders.

"But by my life!" cried Robin, "I believe he would faint if a furious mouse crossed his path."

Tights....the feather....knees knocking....fingers flailing....and the mouse....

It was all I could do to contain my laughter and my urine upon reading that to my 5.11 year old son in The Merry Adventures Of Robin Hood!

What, don't get the title?

Recall that Robin Hood was a legendary redistributer.

And recall the aspersions cast upon Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, Condoleeza Rice, and many more that I can't name off the top of my head.

BTW, I am reading TONS to my kids now - and we're moving on to some good books finally, like the *illustrated classics*. The Prince LOVES them. All he does is ask questions: 'what's blacksmith?', 'what's a harp?', 'what's a bagpipe?', 'what's a balcony?', 'what's a lass?', etc. I answer most of them with my formidable powers of articulation; but others I leave for his *google work*. He interrupts and asks so many questions that I have to constantly SHUSH him!

First thing each morning, he goes over to the computer and googles whatever unknowns we wrote down on a Post-It note the day before. Tomorrow, as I look at the note beside me, I see he has to look up: "porcupine", "DNA", "miller", and "Scotland".

For most queries, he finds an image and saves it in his folder. But for some, like 'country music' and 'bagpipes', he gets a better illustration via YouTube.

It's hard to beat the reinforcement and stickiness of learning about something within the context of a great story, having it explained on the spot by a competent adult, googling for better visuals, and then saving an image in a treasured pic folder. My homeschooling methods may well be just a *work in progress*....but so far the results have been off-the-charts impressive.

Lastly...

So my nosy son keeps seeing my blog up on the screen....and he keeps asking about it.

AND I keep completely ignoring him. I really don't need him telling third parties on the playground about my anonymous blog.

But the sharp little rascal in on my scent. Yesterday he pointed to my decapitated avatar:

Prince C-Nut - Hey Dad,...that looks like you!

No joke!

It's pretty intense, but I think my son will enjoy seeing Bear Grylls dig up that porcupine tomorrow:



I know my blood pressure exploded when I first saw it!