Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Guardian has an interesting chart up, showing the decline of state of the union addresses as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability test. See here. Or perhaps it shows the improvement of presidents’ ability to speak intelligibly … Does anyone … Continue reading →

I called the local kindergarten this morning and learned that registration is in March.  Okay, Katherine, here we go! Erin

I’m gearing up for some massive reading alongside my students this spring.  First up is Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which presents me with an interesting (and complex!) discussion opportunity: an Iowa native (with more than a whiff of the East Coast … Continue reading →

“And the woman was crying, ‘Ugh!’ because the dinosaurs ate her.  No, she couldn’t get into the ark, so the shark ate her.” This is what I heard through the door while I was working in the study this evening.  … Continue reading →

This week we began another Grand Experiment in the Penner household.  Sydney will be away at Ohio State to teach from Tuesday afternoon to Friday evening each week this spring.  In this, his first week on the job, he’s busy … Continue reading →

Although we don’t intend to make a habit of it, this seemed to be the year to give the kids big toys for Christmas.  We’d spent three years in England sticking to tiny forms of entertainment, always with an eye … Continue reading →

We’d planned a major coup for Christmas: all of Sydney’s family was going to fly to Kentucky to spend the holidays with us.  We were hoping to skip the six days of driving that it would take for us to … Continue reading →

Last Sunday, Katherine joined the other big kids in church in acting out the Christmas story.  She was a bit shy, but she practiced singing “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” in the car for over a week to … Continue reading →

Although we’ve had a few cold spells recently here in Kentucky, we are enjoying the fact that we can expect regular bursts of warmer weather throughout the winter, and a long, lovely fall.  These nice days have allowed Sydney to … Continue reading →

This Thanksgiving finds us alone in our house, with Sydney and Erin taking turns lying down as we work through nasty colds.  Not quite the Thanksgiving we had been hoping for (which would be low-key family time with lots of … Continue reading →