Hotel Greatness - El Encanto

I can't say enough wonderful things about this week in Santa Barbara. Just as in my previous post, I could have written extensively about the wonderful things about the Gilbert House. I just wrote about the pie safe. This is because it is a part of that experience that I want to take with me and emulate. I haven't even spent the night here at El Encanto. I checked in about noon and spent most of the day elsewhere. Already I am in awe of this hotel.

It has dawned on me that it is all in the details. The more you spend on accommodations the more details you get. As I carry one sleeping child and the other groggily follows. We enter the room at 10:00 pm. I realize it is not how I left it. It has been turned down. The room had been tidied; towels replaced. Fireplace on. Bed turned down. Hidden secret attached to the headboard reading lights out and illuminated. Water bottles and glasses by the bed (the latter currently being used for whiskey (something out of a modern country song about drinking $15 whiskey in a $600 room)). A caramel left on the bed with a card indicating tomorrow's weather forecast. A pair of slippers left on each side of the bed. I had previously experienced turn down service on the train. This makes sense this this hotel is owned by the Orient Express. 

I can't wait to see what details tomorrow brings. There are many wonderful things we are doing these next five days, but I hope I do get to just chill in this room a bit. 

I realize that I still have to post some notes about the first wedding I did, but second things first. I am in beautiful Santa Barbara. I am currently staying in beautiful very large victorian house. There are many things I could say about the house, but I am stuck on the smart pantry in the kitchen. I am also stuck on my desire to emulate it in my house. Here it is. 

It looks old. The front is old. Open it up.

 There is spice and small bottle shelving in the door. Nice deep shelves in the middle...

The middle shelves each swing out to reveal larger deeper shelves! For those familiar with my house. I am thinking of doing this to the cabinet next to the fridge.

I did it! I figured out how to create an html version of my calendar that would work on the blog. Not bad for an old guy!  look to the left-------------->

36 Parties in 2 years.

Thanks to the generous support of my network of friends and family and their friends. I am now working on getting wedding gigs lined up for the next two years. I have about 7 parties lined up in the next several months so far. Please help me spread the word about what I am doing. Let folks know what I am doing. Let them know my services are available and free!  

I am going to start using this blog site to discuss how this working out. What music I used, what I think worked well. What I can work on. In addition I will figure out how to post a version of my calendar here so that folks can see the dates that are booked. In the meantime, I am feverishly working on slogging through 225gb of music making playlists and getting to know the Traktor S4. 

Speaking of the Traktor Kontrol S4. It is a phenomenal mixer/controller package. It is a little disappointing in its ability to control vinyl alongside digital. This is mostly in that the turntable sound is really low. With that said, I am thinking that vinyl will mostly be at home. With 225gb and climbing of music. There are very few things that I have on vinyl that I don't have in a digital format. This will make me much more portable. I will only have to carry the S4, Laptop, and headphones (and PA if necessary). 

99% of blogs and lite brite as a literacy tool

I haven't posted in over a year. At that time I announced that this blog was going to be a regular newsletter about literacy. I bet 99% of blogs start off with really good intentions. The road to hell is paved with mostly empty blogs. At least those pot holes are fixed. I come up with ideas regularly to write about. Some are even related to reading, literacy, and education. I would say that I'll try harder, that just sounds lame though.

So here is the first post in a while. One of the biggest things about learning is that it is everywhere. Literacy is no exception. When Adrian started to recognize the symbols in his environment, we were excited. Lately it has moved up to whole words. Car trips are perfect for this because there is so much sign pollution out there. The only problem is when he asks, "what did that sign say?"
"What sign?"
"The one over there?" This leads to nowhere fast since he sits directly behind me in the car.
Literacy learning also occurs in Lite Brite. I had no idea. I pulled out a brand new Lite Brite that I had bought for him years ago. After we assembled it, (did they require assembly when we were kids?) I showed him the patterns. We went through all the letters and matched up the color pegs. He needed help with violet. P is for Pink so V is for Violet. So each letter on the pattern stands for a color. He was set to work. After a few minutes I hear him mumble out, "p-p-p-p pink" He did this with some other colors. Lite Brite is a way to reinforce the sounds letters make in words. Initial sounds is a large part of learning phonics. Way cool.
what's next? who know's maybe we will find a Mr. Potato Head and learn some good old fashioned science.
-Peace

My Reading Newsletter.

This is the first installment of my new reading newsletter. As I send these out, I will also post them here. If you want to this newsletter to come to your inbox let me know.

Triumphs and Challenges of Alphabet Books

A lot of the things that come up for me with children's books occur as I am reading them to my own kids. As Adrian is starting to become more interested in the sounds that letters make and their relationship to print symbols, we are spending more time with his alphabet books, around here we call them ABC books. There are many wonderful ABC books. Some focus on a particular topic, for example the ABC's of Airplanes or Eating the Alphabet; others use familiar characters like Clifford's ABC's.

Lately we have been reading through Christopher Wormell's The New Alphabet of Animals several times. I am going to use this book as my example of some great things and some pitfalls you may find in these types of books. I love this book. It has very bold print examples of both upper and lower case letter above the name of the animal pictured on the opposite page. The pictures are beautiful linoleum block prints with dark and rich colors. That's why I bought it; it's very visually appealing. It is important that the pictures stimulate the reader since there is no story to carry the reader forward.

Wormell included some animals that are not usually in alphabet books, probably in part because this is his second animal alphabet book. One problem with that there are animals in it whose name I am not sure how to pronounce (Ibex and Uakari). This might also come up in alphabet books that focus on a narrow topic, such as animals of the rain forest. Remember that it is ok to let your kids know that you might not know something. Model to them what a good reader does when he comes to a word he doesn't know. Another aspect that comes into play is prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is a large part making meaning while reading. It can be really helpful if your child knows a lot about dinosaurs and you are reading a dinosaur alphabet book together. In this book, Wormell uses Newt for N. To my three and half year old son, the linoleum cut print of the newt looks like an iguana, which appears in another book he has. Finally for the letter s the book uses sheep. This presents a challenge. Children that are beginning learn letter sound relationships might get confused. These are diagraphs: new sounds that are created when two letters are combined. I have also seen it defined as a double consonant that creates one sound. Other examples would be ch and th. (Two or more consonants together where each has a distinct sound are a blend, for example sl in slow, fl in flood.) The issues I have with the book do not take away from the experience. Similar issues can come up in many alphabet books. Its important to expose your child to a variety of alphabet books. Wormell's book is still a really fun, beautiful, and useful alphabet book. I applaud books like this one that do not use xylophone and zebra for x and z. (I have seen xylophone used in an animal alphabet puzzle, along with u for umbrella.)

Book Sources

The New Animal Alphabet came to our house via a yard sale. Remember that there are a variety of inexpensive ways to fill your house with good books. One such opportunity are the Scholastic Warehouse Sales. Everything in the warehouse is on sale. My favorite sections are the dollar section and the dent and scratch section. There are some sales going on right now. It seems these sales are better and longer during the recession. They are set up for people directly involved with schools. Because of that the registration may seem awkward. Parents are welcome.

Another good resource for inexpensive books is a library book sale. Booksalefinder.com is a site that lists library book sales by location. It is a bare-bones listing of sales in the area alphabetically organized by city. Many of these sales will have clearance pricing at the end of the sale. This may limit your choice but you can't beat two dollars for a bag full of books which what happens during the last two hours of the St. Louis Park Community Library sale.

Read to them. Let them see you as a reader. Let them read to you. Have fun with books.

Hard Wired

I know that a lot of learning occurs by watching and following. This is why when we swear or something like that we are not surprised (although sometimes embarrassed) when they repeat it. Is the repeating language and watching for context and meaning a hard wired process?
The reason I ask: Adrian was sleeping in his room. I came in a midnight to make sure he was tucked in and well covered. I being terminally clumsy stepped on a toy. It cracked rather loudly. My response was, "Shoot." It was a loud whisper. Without missing a beat or waking up, Adrian responded with his own, "Shoot." It really threw me.
Many people use the sponge metaphor. They soak everything up. Even while they are sleeping?