Some day my prince will come

When I was a little girl, I wanted to marry Prince Charles. Not because I thought he was cute (I'm not crazy), but HE WAS A PRINCE! What little girl in the 1950's didn't want a prince to come and carry her off to his castle to live happily ever-after? Fortunately the 1960's arrived and altered my opinion.

Our parents and siblings were about the same age, so over the years I still felt a bit of kinship. The Prince and I grew up together in different parts of the world through the same decades of turmoil and change.

Years later he married a woman with my first name, and their sons were born the same years as my daughters. Could there be a fateful union of his princes and my princesses?

Prince Harry celebrates his 25th birthday today and my younger daughter has hers a few days later. But she isn't getting 50 million dollars for a birthday present.

For some women, a title of Prince and 50 million dollars in the bank can make a guy very appealing, even if he is red-haired and freckled and a bit on the wild side. They might pursue the guy because of their love of money, power, and celebrity, not for the love of who he is inside those trappings.

I don't think there will be a union of Charles' and my children. Fortunately, my daughters understand that fairy tales don't often have happy endings, that money isn't everything, that a title doesn't make the man, and you don't even need a man to be happy, but men sure are nice to have around when you find the right one.

So happy birthday to Harry and happy birthday to Jean. May you each live your separate lives to the fullest. And, Jean, I think you're the real one with a Royal Flush.

First them, then US?

Phillip Pullman and other children's authors are now refusing to give lectures and readings to youngsters in the UK because of the new Independent Safeguarding Authority regulations, the Vetting and Barring Scheme, currently coming into effect. Every person who comes in contact with children is now required to go through a vetting process to make sure they are not pedophiles.


This includes people who teach, transport, advise, and supervise children, volunteers, trustees of children's charities and more. All of these people will be registered and issued cards. The information database gleaned from these investigations are then required to be shared with other government agencies.


Under the guise of protecting the children, Big Brother government is looming large. Of course, there is suspicion if you don't want to be investigated. Here's an interesting commentary about the consequences.

Moon Over Vail & Champaign

By now I think everyone has heard about or seen pictures of the poor guy in Vail, Co. who was flipped out of his ski lift chair (and pants) and suspended upside down, clothed only from the waist up. It had to be humiliating enough without folks taking cell phone pics and videos and transmitting them around the world.

I can think of nothing quite so embarrassing as having one's bottom on full public display through no fault of one's own. I speak from personal experience, although not quite as revealing as his.

For reasons I cannot now remember, I needed to transact some business at the main headquarters of the area newspaper. Locals know that the building is fairly new and modern with a large expanse of glass overlooking a public sidewalk, a busy street, and the downtown business district. Although adorned in business dress, stockings and heels, I had my then 3 year old in tow, as we were killing some time before picking up her older sister.

Small children can get easily bored, especially when the mother's attention is elsewhere, and young daughter was restless. While holding my hand she decided that sliding up and down the wall of the reception desk was mildly entertaining. Somehow during the course of my conversation with the receptionist, daughter moved her vertical sliding around to the back of my legs. Before I realized what was happening, my dress hem had been slid up to my waist-line and was snagged tightly under my belt. I think the draft between my thighs was my first clue that something was amiss.

I looked over my shoulder to find a full presentation of my pantied rear end and a giggling daughter. Every thing else in the scenario was a complete blur, but I am certain there were people behind me and on the sidewalk and in cars driving by. Fortunately my business was finished and with hands faster than a speeding bullet, the hem was removed, the child grabbed, and never had I run so fast in high-heels. The only saving grace for me was that it was over in less than a minute and that this occurred long before there were cell phone cameras. I can just imagine the Internet blog post titles: "Child offers mother's buns to newspaper employees" or "Divorcee displays assets as dating lure" You can probably come up with even better ones.

Math for Kids

As part of their homeschooling, my daughters attended classes held by Don Cohen, better know in the Champaign-Urbana area, as The Mathman. He and Jerry Glynn have been offering algebra, calculus and advanced math classes for over 31 years. They truly know how to make mathematics fun and interesting to both children and adults.

In 1988, Don wrote Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7, and up) and developed videotapes and worksheets to coordinate with the book.

On the worksheets cover page, that little girl with the striped blond hair is my daughter #2 (at age 4) and daughter #1 (at age 6) is featured on the inside title page of the book.

Daughter #1 is also featured in both videotapes - Infinite Series By and For 6 year-olds and Up and Iteration to Infinite Sequences with 6 to 11 year-olds. I believe they are now all available on CD.

Here is some of the actual work my younger daughter did at age 4 7/12 (as they liked to say). Mr. Cohen used her workbook for illustration at several teacher workshops.

This graph is from daughter #2's workbook:

What I really liked about the program was they allow children to develop their own problem solving skills in math; they show how one can solve math problems many different ways and still arrive at the correct answer. They also introduce highly complex math problems at early ages and show the relationships of easier math to more complex problems. And all of this is done in an exciting, fun environment.

Both daughters did extremely well in all subsequent math courses in high school and college and received high scores in the math portions of college entrance exams.

If you live in the Champaign-Urbana, IL, area, I would highly recommend their program. If you live outside the area, The Math Program books are excellent for homeschooling programs or for supplemental work in public schools. You can order the books here. We were happy to be a part of Don's publications and we get nothing from the sale of his products. We just really believe in his approach to math.

Smart or Gifted Children

There was a discussion on another blog regarding gifted and smart children. I can state with authority from personal experience that gifted children are smart, but smart children are not necessarily gifted. Here are just some of the differences:

1. A smart toddler can be taught amazing feats, like reading, memorizing presidents or state capitals, with flash cards or by rote. A gifted child will do amazing feats and you won't have a clue how they learned it.

2. A smart kid in a regular classroom will get good grades. A gifted kid in a regular classroom may or may not get good grades. A gifted child will often be extremely bored and will either completely withdraw into his own little world or become the class troublemaker.

3, A smart kid can quickly solve math problems. A gifted kid can quickly solve math problems, skipping several, if not all, steps to solve them, and if asked to explain how he arrived at the answers, will be exasperated at having to explain it in detail.

4. A smart kid who is a social type, will have many friends his own age. A gifted kid who is a social type will have friends who are generally several years older and/or even adult friends.

5. A smart kid will ask you many questions. A gifted kid will engage you in lengthy discussions after you have answered his many questions.

6. A smart kindergartner will see the tv news and know a war is being waged in the world. A gifted kindergartner will see the tv news and empathetically perceive the consequences of a war.

7. A smart teenager will argue with you. A gifted teenager will argue with you by pointing out where you're wrong in your conclusions and will offer a logical, well-reasoned rebuttal.

Children can be taught to be smarter, but they cannot be taught to be gifted. Gifted children are special needs children and, although they have enormous and amazing potential, they are as much out of place in a regular school classroom as are special education children, with their own set of unique learning anomalies.