Visual Literature

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

school ~ books ~ difficulty ~ letter ~ budget

They were submitted by: https://cognitivescript.blogspot.com/

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This is my 5th year homeschooling. I think. Time has lost all meaning in the brain fogged existence I lead planning lessons and grading papers and begging, pleading for this child to pull more adjectives out of his ass than "good" or "interesting" when writing an essay and to actually learn to write in such a way that I no longer need a decoder ring to decipher almost every letter in the answers to the questions he's assigned.

There are not enough words in the English language to describe the difficulty of teaching a child, at least MY child, at home. It is a drain of patience and my precious little energy considering what is already drained with me/cfs, and I have realized all too keenly that my child was perfectly constructed so as to be able to tune out almost every single thing I say. He thinks "skimming" counts as reading. He skips rules and takes shortcuts and refuses to ask for help even when he desperately needs it. He loses every. single. pencil. I buy him which I blame all on his father's half of his genes (only half-jokingly).

It's a lot of responsibility. I have to know what the average kid in his grade level should be learning, what the state standards are, and the laws involving homeschooling. I have to make it fun but informative, challenging but ability-appropriate, varied enough to hold his interest but not so varied we lose the sense of routine that helps him stay focused despite being unmedicated with ADHD. I have to prepare this kid who is terrible at written tests (but gets the answers 100% right every time if we do it orally 😑) for a standardized test every 3 years to make sure we're on track with our learning. It's work, hard work. We don't always get along during the school day. My expectations and his motivation are hardly ever at the same level. We end a lot of days stressed the fuck out and in need of a breather.

But.

I don't think either of us would have it any other way. He has not yet answered affirmatively each year when I ask him how he wants to handle things regarding going back to public school, and even though he drives me crazy so much of the time...I like the control I have over what he learns, and I can make sure his education is tailored to him personally. We choose classes together. I choose the books which means I don't go with the ones tailored just for Georgia students used by the school system here that whitewashes much of history and skips a lot of evolution. It's my budget not a school budget dependent upon the overall test results of the students. If we need extra books, we get them. We handle our own supplies and skip a lot of germs. We work on our own schedule meaning we stay up late and sleep in most of the time. If we need a day off, we take one and make it up elsewhere. When he has a grip on a lesson, we move on, and when he doesn't, we repeat it. It's less stress for him than going to an actual school, and he still gets plenty of socialization. And we're obviously doing something right since he tested more than 2 grades above his level this past year in reading comprehension, language skills, and math.

So difficult...but also worth it.

Right now we're doing pre-algebra, biology, grammar, ancient world history, and computer fundamentals. But I also added film studies in place of literature this year, and so far it has been amazingly fun and has gotten us sharing movies and talking about them more in depth every school night. I happen to think visual stories can be as important as written ones, and the work that goes into them can be fascinating. Understanding lighting, color, continuity, transitions, camera angles, and the like can tell you more about the stories you're watching. We've watched Citizen Kane, Jaws (compared to Wet Hot American Summer), What We Do in the Shadows, Almost Famous and This Is Spinal Tap. We watched parts os Sin City and clips from Clerks. Pan's Labyrinth, SLC Punk, Taxi Driver, Snatch, and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World... and we're only 3 weeks into the year. 

I share with him insights as we watch pointing out the elements he has read about in his film studies class. I taught him why the color palette of Jaws is so calm and neutral or why Sin City is in mostly black and white. He learned what film noir is. He knows now why some characters are bathed in light and some in shadow in certain scenes. We talk about why a shot is wide or why it's a close up, what the intent is for the viewer and what the director is trying to say without saying it with dialogue. We looked at Guy Ritchie's signature montages and how he uses transitions and narration so successfully and so uniquely that you can watch a movie and just know when he's the director. And we have so much left to cover--genres, directorial style, plot, chopped narratives and straightforward ones, what defines a "cult classic," scores that change the entire movie, movies that are a product of the culture in which they were created and more.

Now that we've started, he can't stop. Even when he watches movies for fun, he notices the things we've gone over. Finally my child can actually listen to me talk about something and appreciate the knowledge I'm giving (knowledge I had to teach myself)! It only took how many years?! Either way, I'll take this win and put it in my motivation bank for the next time I look at his worse-than-doctor-scribble handwriting that might say plates ate the sordid phantom or might say hydrogen is good.

***Before I go, I do want to add that he listens to me about other things because I like to talk shit about historical characters. it's fun and more relateable for me to call Christopher Columbus an incapable, lying mf than what he can read in a book. it's like he has Samuel L. Jackson for a history teacher.

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Baking In A Tornado https://www.bakinginatornado.com/2018/08/no-more-pencils-use-your-words.html

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/2018/08/plastered.html

The Bergham Chronicles https://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com

The Blogging 911 http://theblogging911.com/blog

Cognitive Script https://cognitivescript.blogspot.com/2018/08/puppies-and-tornadoes.html

Part-Time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2018/08/use-your-words-parking-lot-picnic.html

My Brand of Crazy https://sarahsbrandcrazy.blogspot.com

I Theme Therefore I Am

Sometimes I get so lost in sharing the world that lives inside my head, the inner dialogue that needs to be spilled forth into text, the stories that swirl around begging to be told that I forget to share my reality at times.

I have my passions as evidenced by what I write. Feminism, rape culture, politics, privilege, love, relationships, the death penalty, the justice system overall... so many important things needing change and attention and impassioned voices. If you were to walk in my home, however, you'd see more of my other obsessions--music, movies, retro decor, gaming, the macabre. Every room has a theme and theming is apparently what I love. I can't say I'm the queen of interior design, but it's all me. You see part of me in every nook and cranny.

The living room is all about film. Prints from my favorite movies, vinyl soundtracks from movies, pop culture prints that are mashups of film and other elements line the walls. My tables are all collages of old VHS and DVD covers. The throw pillows are shaped like VHS cassettes, retro televisions, and the bride of Frankenstein. My favorite movies are on display on the entertainment stand, and the lamps were handmade by me in tribute to two of my favorite films. When I theme, I go all out.

can you guess the films the lamps are tributes to???

my first album 

My room is music...I sleep, breathe, live it, and for my room, it's totally fitting. The walls are covered with records, music note decals, and concert posters. Every single thing on the walls is related to my love of music. When I inherited some records from my dad after he died, there was a box of old 45s in the mix that were already damaged after being stored in the attic and were unplayable. I knew that I had to put them to use though...There are some great ones among the bunch. Bobby Fuller, The Beatles, Elvis, Bread, The Who, The Monkees... So, I used them to construct a music note on one of my walls amidst all the other music related wall decor. It's pretty killer. I can't imagine ever doing anything else with my room. When I'm 80, I'll be the baddest Grandma in the land, I suppose.

The kitchen is all retro mushrooms and owl. I have vintage mushroom decor and lots of wall decals. I even have a John Entwistle record on the wall that has an owl on the cover. And, I also took some vintage shelf liner paper covered in mushrooms and covered my lightswitch covers and found some vintage light globes in an abandoned house that belonged to some of my best friend's family. I couldn't believe my luck when I found them... the house has been broken into and damaged from stupid kids in the area but there were these awesomely retro globes untouched and gorgeous and perfect. I still have plans to do something more with my cabinets and possibly retiling the floor to something with a more vintage vibe, but for now, I'm totally in love with it. Oh, and I also have some plans to do a backsplash behind my stove using some pieces of mushroom tiles that are often
available on Etsy.

The master bathroom is a work in progress. I've begun a sort of macabre theme in there after some

trial and error with past decor. This time, there's a zombie cameo shower curtain, apothecary style jars, and even a skull toilet brush holder. I'm hoping to do a little more in here... paint the walls a deep gray color with some bright accents like bright teal rugs and light switch covers as well as some bright accent paint. I have some wall decals for this room too and am really looking forward to getting them up. I've even found a skeleton cameo decal on Amazon that will look perfect with the shower curtain.

The kiddo has his own tastes which are just a mashup of everything he loves in the world--minecraft, adventure time, star wars, and mario. And he's just recently asked for his bathroom to change from silly little monsters to pirate-type stuff. So eventually every room will have it's own perfect little theme and it will be awesome.

So that's the actual physical world I live in day in and day out...Seeing it laid out here and talking about it makes me realize it's just as magical as the worlds I live in inside my own head. I've done a good job making this house an extension of my personality and I have to admit I'm pretty in love with it :) It's just as unconventional as me, don't you think?

Today's Prompt was Design for Sunday Confessions with More Than Cheese and Beer. Please check out the other link ups from great bloggers over on her page and stop in for anonymous confessions on her Facebook page. Thanks for reading!