Summer Travel, sort of

In 15 years of marriage, we've house-hunted three separate times.  Our last house-hunting expedition took place without the help of a realtor, because I discovered something about myself after the first two rounds: I have a hard time giving criticism.
My children will tell you different, and probably my husband as well.  The funny thing is, when it comes down to a house, the realtor WANTS to know your criticisms about the house, so they can do a better job in finding what you want.  I'm just very bad at doing that.  I feel like I'm going to hurt the realtor's feelings, or worse, get talked out of feeling that way.
All that to explain why I've been hesitating on this review, even though the material has been in my hands for a month and was put into use only a couple days after I downloaded it.  I realize that the point of reviewing curriculum is to help others avoid the material that may not be the best for them, to help the publishers address flaws, and to help steer users toward the best materials for their homeschool.  Even so, I found it extraordinarily difficult to write down my thoughts and experiences without reverting to my old house-hunting faithful, "It's okay."  I've had to push myself out of that "appeasement" comfort zone and into doing the work I've agreed to do in honestly reviewing the material I am sent.  So here goes...

The Material: The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner June 2010 Module: Travel the World  This was provided to me at no charge through the TOS Homeschool Crew program, in exchange for this review.
Travel the World is an e-book that retails for $7.95 at The Old Schoolhouse's website store  It is part of a larger series contained in the Schoolhouse Planners. 


At first glance, Travel the World confused me.  The front page clearly said "Schoolhouse Planner" but the rest of the e-book was just a geography lesson(s) and activities.  I jumped back to TOS website to track down the full planner, and found through the sample downloads that the full planners include homeschool forms, calendars, recipes, articles, lists, resources, links, activity ideas and more.  But the module I was sent was clearly just the geography lesson.  That was my first criticism: the TITLE of the material did not match the SUBSTANCE.  After looking through the website, I did find this:

What is a module?

A module is an add-on for The Schoolhouse Planner, the amazing planner brought to you by The Old Schoolhouse®. This module includes a study guide, activity pages, quizzes, coloring pages, copywork, lapbooking, and more!

You do not have to have The Schoolhouse Planner to use the modules. Each module is designed to be its own stand-alone unit study. You can choose to purchase the modules by themselves or bundle them with The Schoolhouse Planner.

That didn't help me a whole lot - I was still confused as to why the MODULE said PLANNER and why these things were related, but not together...  It just did not (does not) make sense to me.  But I can be dense sometimes, so I told myself to get past that, though, and jumped into the geography lesson with all four of my children.  For my younger children (ages almost-5 and almost-7; we've got 3 birthdays right around the corner), the material presented was brand new to them.  For my older kids (ages almost-11 and 13), the material was mostly review.  

Travel the World presents the basics of geography (what is geography? globes and maps, oceans and continents) over the course of eight pages.  There is a plethora of links, including several very fun games that help kids locate the parts of the world correctly.  Okay, let's face it: the games also helped mom located parts of the world correctly.  However, with the links, came the frustration I faced when reviewing Expedition: Australia - EVERY time I clicked a link, a warning popped up "The document is trying to connect to {url}  If you trust the site, choose Allow.  If you do not trust the site, choose Block."  And while I could remember my action for that particular site, there was no shortcut to allow all the links in the PDF to just open automatically.  Criticism Two! and given that it wasn't limited to only this PDF, I truly hope that it won't continue in the rest of the e-books I'll have to review throughout the year.  An extra click every now and then is fine; an extra click 50+ times in one document is overwhelming and frustrating!
The material itself is very sparse, just the bare-bones basics of geography.  It's a good beginning or overview for children not familiar with the subject.  It's a good review for those who already have some geography knowledge.  The links provide further study on numerous topics.


Following the source material is 28 pages of work-sheets, crosswords and word-finds, lap-booking materials,  coloring pages and handwriting exercises.  Again, very basic, but good reinforcement of what the child has just learned.  The lap-booking materials provided are just a start of what could be lap-booked with this study.  We chose to skip the lap-booking exercise this time around; I barely got my feet wet when we did the lap-booking activities in Expedition: Australia and I didn't feel confident enough to come up with my own activities for this one.


I'm not sure how to do this gently, so I'll cut straight to the point.  I wasn't impressed with the geography study.  The material was sparse, and seemed to manage to be both too juvenile for my big kids, and too mature for my little ones.  Even the high school expansion supplement at the end, which included a harder word search and a couple of recipes, did not seem to be any more in-depth than the main lessons.  Many of the challenges suggested in the high school expansion were more writing-intensive than geography-intensive.  I realize that many subjects have a writing component to them, but even my 13-year-old correctly identified the assignments as "geography-themed English."  Criticism three: light on actual geography.


Final criticism: the language in the lesson itself jumped back and forth between sounding like a read-out-loud lesson and a do-it-yourself lesson.  For instance, this excerpt from the section on globes:

"Do you have a globe at home? If so, have it with you as we discuss what

we see on a globe. If you don’t have one with you, use this picture on the right."

This part to me sounds like something the child would best understand if he read it to himself.

Okay, what is the first thing you notice about a globe? You’re right—it’s round.

Whereas this part seems much more like something that should be read out loud - essentially a script for the teacher.  On the same token, if the child is reading along, they have no incentive to guess the answers because many times the question is asked and answered in the following sentence.

To sum this up, the module is good for a light summer course on geography.  The links are very helpful and many of them have been added to our computers for daily geography practice.  For what it's worth, after looking through the sample pages provided for the 2010 Schoolhouse Planner, I am impressed with the full planner and feel that it is probably worth the investment, especially if it has more lessons like these to use as a jumping-off point for further study. Overall, though, I feel that I could have invested the same amount of time and effort in Google and come up with a more in-depth study with the same amount of handy links for future reference.
You can find more reviews of this product on the Homeschool Crew Blog

Ride Along with Mitch

Ride Along with Mitch

For the majority of my time lived in Indiana, Mitch Daniels has been governor. I've been continually impressed by the way this man has handled the authority he's been granted by Hoosiers, and this article does an incredible job of summing up the man and his work. It's long, but SO worth the time to read. Despite his family's wishes to the contrary, I find myself hoping that he will make a bid for the 2012 Presidential race. He is very much what this nation needs; read the article and discover why!

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

Today's Speed Bump comic strip:

I don't want this to be me, but there are days when it hits pretty close to home.  It makes me wonder, if I asked my kids what they thought was most important to me, what would they say about me?  Frankly, given the fact that I actually just "shoo'd" my youngest away so I could concentrate on writing this, I'm pretty sure I know what they'd say.  I'm just not brave enough to pull out a camera and record their answers.

Expedition Australia: Take One

My first reaction after we finished the week of Expedition Australia was, "Now that that's over, I'd like to try it again."

I am fairly new to the world of unit studies, brand new to the world of e-books as homeschool curriculum, and not only new to, but completely intimidated by, the world of lapbooking.  Expedition Australia combined all three, and in my first attempt I stumbled and stuttered my way through.  When I was done, I took a look around, surveyed the results, and realized that it went better than I expected.  And now that I know what I'm doing a little, I'd like to give it another shot.  Who knows what we'd learn about Australia the 2nd time around?

Expedition Australia is the 2nd e-book unit study provided to me by The Old Schoolhouse (TOS) for the purpose of "auditioning" for the Homeschool Crew.  My job was to use the e-book with my children, evaluate the resource and write a review.  Expedition Australia retails at TOS for $7.95 and is part of TOS's new "Download 'N Go" series produced in conjunction with Amanda Bennett.

TOS also offers the option of purchasing sets of the "Download 'N Go" series at a lower price per item.  The series is geared toward kindergarten through 4th grade students, and is specifically written to incorporate lapbooking into the unit study experience.

EXPEDITION AUSTRALIA

The review: The summer after my freshman year of college, I worked for a temporary employment agency.  The first job they sent me on was in a medical office, doing "light filing."  My first day on the job, one of the women who'd worked there for several years showed me the ropes and explained what I would be doing.  She pulled out a medical file, into which had been crammed some 20 or so loose pages, and her hands and mouth flew while she told me how those pages were supposed to be arranged into the file.  She opened the brads, lifted a stack, over to the hole punch, "this goes here," pulled out a staple, "stick these behind this section," flattened the brads, flipped to the other side, open those brads, "take this off," back to the hole punch, another staple out, "these go in reverse chronological order," "this goes behind the green sheet," set the stack back on, close the brads.  Then she handed the finished file to me, pointed to a stack of identical files and said, "Any questions?"

I felt the same way then as I did when I first glanced through Expedition Australia.  Overwhelmed.  I've only done a few unit studies, and the ones I have done were very "read this, do that" straightforward.  Which is not to say that Expedition Australia is not straightforward, but rather that the layout was very different from anything I've ever used.  The first time I clicked a link, it fast-forwarded me some 80 pages in the e-book, and I backed slowly away from the computer, hoping to avoid "breaking" it further.  It took me a minute to figure out that the page I'd navigated to had a link back to the page I'd come from.  I honestly had to take a few running starts at this one before I got up the guts to go for it.  It was just a lot of "new" for this homeschooling mom.  Just like that medical file - once I realized that I could study the finished product to figure out how to get the works in progress to completion - I was able to tackle the newness of unit studies, internet-linked PDF files and lapbooking, all rolled into one.

A quick rundown of our first attempt at this:
Day One:  Okay, I am doing this.  No, not checking my e-mail or reading an extra chapter of Swiss Family Robinson to delay the inevitable.  I am plunging in feet-first.
Day Two:  Um, do I remember how to do this?  Wait, was I supposed to print those pages yesterday?  Yup,  I was.  Okay, now where was I?  Oooh - I love this poem [get completely distracted for 20 minutes memorizing poem with kids]  Okay, now really, where was I?
Day Three:  I've got this.  Quick read-through to figure out what we're learning.  Print the pages, do the activities.  (side conversation with self: You know what would be really cool? If my computer was linked to some type of projector, so the kids could see these videos on the "big screen."  I wonder if DH would hook up some sort of computer-TV link for me?)  Oh...I think I get it.  The pages are for a notebook, the activities are for a lapbook.  Right?
Day Four:  Yes, kids, I'd like to go to Australia too.  No, we cannot get a platypus for a pet.  Yes, we'll go to the library and get more books about Australia this afternoon.  (side conversation with self: No one ever told me that these unit studies could lead to so much enthusiasm about a subject.  And someone should probably be alerted that the 7th-grader is having as much fun as the 1st and 4th graders are.)
Day Five:  Is it over already?  OH WAIT!  That means I have to actually DO the lapbook part, doesn't it?  Did I mention I'm not the crafty type?

Expedition Australia was a HUGE hit in our house.  The students in this particular homeschool are 4 (pre-k going on 2nd grade), 6 (1st grade), 10 (4th grade) and 13 (7th grade).  Even though the study is geared toward the K-4th grade crowd, everyone participated.  The study was like a little mini-safari each day; one that we all truly enjoyed.  The kids, ALL of them, have retained so much of what they learned.  Even now, several weeks after finishing, they're still talking about the things they learned.  Last night we were watching a nature show and all four immediately identified a koala, before the name was announced.  Not only that, but they went on to tell Dad where koalas live, what they eat, and how they raise their young.

The study did not stop when the last lapbook was complete.  For the past three weeks we've continued to explore on our own, using many of the books suggested in the study, as well as going back and reading more of the information provided through some of the links (and links of the links).  I contacted a friend of mine who lives in Australia, and she was kind enough to send the kids their very own Expedition Australia surprise: A genuine, aboriginal-hand-carved, hand-painted boomerang.  The kids have been researching how to best throw it, working on their form and a couple of them are actually able to throw it and get it to come close to returning.  This same friend is also fostering a baby kangaroo, so we're following her adventures with that as well.  (No kids, we won't be getting a kangaroo as a pet; that family is just taking care of that one until it's big enough to survive on its own.)

I was definitely a reluctant user of the Download 'N Go product, and I've been totally and completely won over by this product.  We will be using more of these unit studies.  I found the content to be very engaging and fun.  The activities were enjoyable for all of us.  Yes, even when I had to pull out craft supplies and help assemble lapbooks. {grin}  My 4th-grader was able to easily complete all the writing activities.  My 1st-grader needed some help, but there was not so much to do that it was overwhelming to her.  My pre-k daughter enjoyed learning right along with the others, and even though she's just starting to read, she's excited to have her own lapbook and shows it to anyone who will look.  While the difficulty level was far below what my 7th-grader would normally do, he too enjoyed doing the study with us.  With very little effort, I was able to extend this study to challenge him a little bit, assigning him some extra things to do that coincided with what we were all learning.

I had only two very minor issues with this study.  First, it would have been nice to have a little bit more guidance on how to use this.  Even a one-page introduction that explained the concept of the internet-linked PDFs and a little more explanation on what to print and how to use it would have gone a long way in alleviating my anxiety about using this for the first time.  Second, every single link in the entire e-book that connected to an internet site popped up a security warning on which I had to click "allow" to be able to access the website.  Once or twice wouldn't have bothered me, but with 20+ links per day, it got old REALLY fast.  This appears to be some type of security issue that may be fixable on the publisher end.

However, even with those two problems, I still have to give this curriculum a very hearty A+.  I don't come across a lot of curriculum that excites my children to the point of going out on their own to find out more, and this one did so, in spades.  Kudos to TOS and Amanda Bennett.  They've truly developed a winning curriculum.  We'll be using this one again, and downloading a few more to go with it.

Disclaimer: Expedition Australia was provided to me free of charge, courtesy of The Old Schoolhouse, for the purpose of this review.  I was not compensated in any other way for the review.

My very first curriculum review!

Who, me?  Opinionated?  Well, sure, when it's important, and I think this is most definitely important.  I'm "auditioning" for a chance to be a member of The Old Schoolhouse (TOS) Homeschool Crew - a group of homeschool families that get a chance to try out new curriculum and products and share our opinions with the rest of the world.  I'm excited about this chance, and a little nervous.  As a violinist, I've had plenty of auditions; as a writer, I've had plenty of chances to write; as a homeschooling mom for the past eight years, I've tried out a LOT of curriculum and a LOT of homeschool products.  But I've never had the chance to put all three things together, and I'm praying that this effort reflects the best of all those skills.

So, without further ado...

The Product:

WannaBe Series: When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Firefighter E-book

Available from The Old Schoolhouse; $8.95

This is an E-book, which will be delivered straight to your computer, no shipping charge.

80 pages



We live 1.5 miles south of the fire station that serves our local suburban area.  Three or four times a week, we'll hear a siren screaming down the street and the kids will run to the windows to watch the truck sail past.  Then come the questions: "Where do you think they're going?" "What do you think happened?"  "Is there a fire?"
After spending a week using this unit study, the questions are the same, but they are now asked with the distinctive air of a child who knows what those firefighters on that truck do.

A quick caveat: To be honest, I'm not 100% comfortable with e-books.  I prefer the look and feel of paper, and have a hard time reading a "book" on a computer screen.  I have been known to print out 200+-page PDF files (four pages to one sheet, double-sided and in draft mode, lest you think me wasteful) to read through once, just to avoid having to read it on a computer screen.  I did print this one out, minus the first color-heavy page and the last two pages (TOS ads at the end of the file), using the fastest, most ink-saving mode on our printer.  This made it easier for me to work with, but wasn't exactly financially (or ecologically) responsible.

The review:  This is billed as a multi-age unit study.  In some ways, it worked for all four of my kids, ages 13, 10, 6 and 4. Many of the information sections were perfect for reading out loud, and the kids did seem to enjoy hearing the information.  The older three could answer my verbal questions about the information very well; the 4 year old remembered the bare-bones basics.  Overall, I agree that as a read-aloud, the majority of this study works very well for a large range of ages.

I found a couple of the sections of this study to be somewhat off-topic.  A short paragraph about how robotics are being developed to help detect and fight fires leads to the entire science section...on robotics.  That didn't make much sense to me, even though the activities in the science section are both interesting and fun.  However, I could think of several other "science" ideas and activities that would tie in much better with the theme of this e-book.  How about the way the gauges on the truck work?  How valves function in the firefighters' breathing equipment?  The mechanics of air and water pressure in the hoses?  The robotics section did not tie in very well.

Additionally, there was a page of American Sign Language finger spelling that spelled out several fire-related phrases.  I could find no explanation for this which led me to assume that it constituted the "foreign language" component of the unit study.  Wouldn't it make more sense to learn the word fire in several languages?

The activities in the book seem to be geared toward the mid- to late-elementary years.  Most of the written activities could be done orally, but only my older two could come up with the answers to all the questions.  The math was too easy for the 10 year old, but too hard for the 6 year old, so somewhere in between the two is where most of the math was geared.  The "fill in the story" activity we did together, and it worked really well.  My older two then suggested we go back through and figure out the part of speech that each "blank" was supposed to contain...and then turn it into a mad lib. {smirk}

Many of the games were a hit in our house, and the party ideas, which I'd carefully hidden under several other things on my desk, were discovered by my children and I was subject to a chorus of "please can we?"  I sense a fire-truck cake-making in the very near future.

Overall, I'd give this e-book a B-minus.  It provides some good, basic information about firefighting and life in the firehouse.  It provides a variety of activities for a range of ages, in creative writing, spelling, vocabulary, science, math, history, handwriting and ?foreign language?.  The e-book includes links to more information, and more than a page of suggested books for further study.

However, the information doesn't always flow smoothly.  Even my 13-year-old noted several times that it seemed to jump to the next topic before concluding the previous one.  Several of the sections seemed out of place.  While this is an interesting overview of the job of firefighting, it falls short of my expectations for an elementary-grade unit study.

Disclaimer: This unit study e-book was provided to me free of charge, courtesy of The Old Schoolhouse, for the purpose of this review.  I was not compensated in any other way for the review.

When money doesn't equal work

I'm currently reading the Little House on the Prairie series out loud to the kids.  We're about half-way through Farmer Boy and a couple days ago, we read the chapter "Independence Day" about their Fourth of July celebrations.  The following is an excerpt from that chapter:

The nearer he got to Father, the more he dreaded asking for a nickel.  He had never before thought of doing such a thing.  He was sure Father would not give it to him.

He waited till Father stopped talking and looked at him. 

"What is it, son?" Father asked.  

 Almanzo was scared.  "Father," he said.  

"Well, son?"  

"Father," Almanzo said, "would you - would you give me - a nickel?"  

He stood there while Father and Mr. Paddock looked at him, and he wished he could get away.  Finally Father asked:  

"What for?"  

Almanzo looked down at his moccasins and muttered: 

"Frank had a nickel.  He bought pink lemonade."  

"Well," Father said, slowly, "if Frank treated you, it's only right you should treat him."  Father put his hand in his pocket.  Then he stopped and asked:  

"Did Frank treat you to lemonade?"  

Almanzo wanted so badly to get the nickel that he nodded.  Then he squirmed and said: 

"No, Father."  

Father looked at him a long time.  Then he took out his wallet and opened it, and slowly he took out a round, big silver half-dollar.  He asked:  

"Almanzo, do you know what this is?"  

"Half a dollar," Almanzo answered.  

"Yes.  But do you know what half a dollar is?"  

Almanzo didn't know it was anything but half a dollar.  

"It's work, son," Father said.  "That's what money is; it's hard work."  

Mr. Paddock chuckled.  "The boy's too young, Wilder," he said.  "You can't make a youngster understand that."   

"Almanzo's smarter than you think," said Father.  

Almanzo didn't understand at all.  He wished he could get away.  But Mr. Paddock was looking at Father just as Frank looked at Almanzo when he double-dared him, and Father had said Almanzo was smart, so Almanzo tried to look like a smart boy.  Father asked:  

"You know how to raise potatoes, Almanzo?"  

"Yes," Almanzo said.  

"Say you have a seed potato in the spring, what do you do with it?"  

"You cut it up," Almanzo said.  

"Go on, son."  

"Then you harrow - first you manure the field, and plow it. Then you harrow, and mark the ground.  And plant the potatoes, and plow them, and hoe them.  You plow and hoe them twice."  

"That's right, son.  And then?"  

"Then you dig them and put them down cellar."  

"Yes.  Then you pick them over all winter; you throw out all the little ones and the rotten ones.  Come spring, you load them up and haul them here to Malone, and you sell them.  And if you get a good price, son, how much do you get to show for all that work?  How much do you get for half a bushel of potatoes?"  

"Half a dollar," Almanzo said.   

"Yes," said Father.  "That's what's in this half-dollar, Almanzo.  The work that raised half a bushel of potatoes is in it."  

Almanzo looked at the round piece of money that father held up.  It looked small, compared with all that work.  

"You can have it, Almanzo"  Father said.  Almanzo could hardly believe his ears.  Father gave him the heavy half-dollar.  

"It's yours," said Father.

 - Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

That was two days ago.  We often stop and discuss what we're reading, but this wasn't one of the things we talked about.  Today, Ryan (13) asked me if I remembered the story from Farmer Boy and I said that I did.  Then he said to me "These days, money isn't always work."  I asked him to explain his statement, and he replied, "Well, welfare.  Welfare isn't work."  Then he clarified his statement.  "Actually, it IS work, but it's somebody else's work."

It amazes me that he figured that out, with no help from anyone.  It amazes me that he considers these issues, even after the story is over and the book is closed.  But what really amazes me is that he understands this concept much better that many adults. 

Stuffed up

I was 20 years old when my grandma died.  My husband and I drove the four-hour drive from Albuquerque to Alamogordo for her funeral, and after it was over, I stayed to help parents start the process of going through her home and essentially "wrap up" the loose ends of an 80+ year life.  I was also 2 months pregnant at that time, and gripped by the vice of unending morning sickness.  I quickly discovered that I was not going to be able to do any work in any of the bedrooms or bathrooms; the air in all those rooms was heavy with the cloying scent of my grandma's perfume - Jean Nate' - and it would have me heaving within seconds.
I was relegated to the kitchen, to sift through the dishes, the food, and all the 'extra' stuff that had accumulated over the years.  Though my grandma had moved into that particular house only 8 years prior to her death, the sheer mass of STUFF I encountered was overwhelming. There were blenders and other appliances that no longer worked; I even discovered two that didn't even have an intact plug - just a cord ending in stray wires.  There were four or five different sets of dishes: dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, mugs.  Those sets were nearly intact, if not complete sets of 8 or 12-place-settings, but I'm pretty sure that when my family came to visit, that was generally the largest group she ever entertained and we always ate on the same set.
The finding that shocked me the most was the plastic storage that she'd amassed over the years.  There was a cabinet in her kitchen that was two doors wide and double-depth - it went all the way through to the other side, which was the bar for the eat-in kitchen.  This entire cabinet was crammed full of plastic storage tubs in all shapes in sizes.  I counted over 100 Cool Whip containers - JUST Cool Whip containers - and many, many more plastic butter tubs in all sizes, deli containers, even several nondescript plastic containers that bore the stamp "DO NOT REUSE".  I filled several large garbage bags with these items, knowing full well that there was no NEED for these things, and that everyone involved in emptying out this house would be better off without trying to find a new home for over a thousand pieces of plastic.  I threw them away, happy to be done with that huge portion of the kitchen, and never looked back.
I always knew my grandma was a saver and I figured it had something to do with her spending the early part of her marriage going through the Great Depression.  Many people her age never threw things away if there might possibly be a use for them somewhere down the road.  In fact, as I write this, I actually wonder if America's ever-growing need for larger houses stems somewhat from this Depression-era mentality?

But I digress...
I made short work of that kitchen.  Left on my own, I was able to decide what was trash, what was not.  I made a pile of things to sell, things to keep, things to give away, and things to throw away.  I was smart enough, or perhaps close enough, to know that my mother would want my grandma's Franciscan Apple dinnerware; I was just as smart to figure out that no one was going to want the blender from the mid-1950's with no jar, a broken lid, and a missing plug.  When I was done with the kitchen, the space was clean and well-organized.  Clutter-free.
I thought about that moment several times over the last fifteen years.  I always put my grandma's habits down to her history or her circumstances.  Even though she died wealthy, she never gave up her frugal ways.  So she had forty-three thermometers?  Depression-era thinking.  You would never catch me holding onto hundreds of pieces of useless plastic.

I was reading this morning when my 4 year old daughter brought me two ponytail holders and asked me to do her hair.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that the two purple circles weren't the cloth-covered elastic ponytail holders we normally use, but rather two bits of purple plastic material.
"Honey, we don't use those." I told her, and suggested that she put them back and go get the ponytail holders we normally use.  She turned to go, but then turned back.
"Why not?"  She held the two bands out to me again.  I take them from her and rub her fingers across the material so she can feel how "sticky" they feel.
"These are like rubber bands.  They will hold your hair in a ponytail, but they'll let the hair get tangled around them and when we take them out, they'll pull your hair and hurt.  Your other ones are soft, and they don't pull your hair."  I hand them back.  "Just put these back and go get the other ones."
"Ok."  She turns again and starts to leave.  Two steps away, she turns back to me again.
"Why do we have them?"

It took less than a minute, the conversation with my daughter that ended up with nearly 250 pieces of useless plastic in the trash can.  The odyssey of the plastic ponytail holders was finally over.
It started four years ago.  I stood in front of the hair product display at Target, trying to decide which ponytail holders to buy for my then-2 year old daughter.  She didn't have much hair, and what she did have was wispy and thin, but it was steadily growing thicker.  The fabric covered bands were more expensive at 25-50 to a package that was $4-6 dollars, and only came one-size-to-a-pack.  In contrast, these plastic bands were in a package of three different size (great for growing child) AND were the bargain price of $3 for 250 bands.  And the package proclaimed OUCHLESS - it was a no-brainer.  The first time I used the bands, I would discover that OUCHLESS was only a trademark, and not actually an indicator of how the product would perform.  My poor daughter's thin hair got a little thinner that day.  I knew after that first use that I wouldn't be subjecting myself or any child of mine to the stupid things, and yet for four years I held onto them.  For goodness sake, I MOVED them from our rental house to our current home, and in the time they've lived here, I've shuffled them between several storage places.
Until today, when my four year old daughter saw them for what they really were: TRASH.

I have to admit, after she'd dumped them and run off to some new endeavor, I sat there for several minutes contemplating whether I'd made a good decision in agreeing with her that they belonged in the trash.  Several other possibilities ran through my mind as I struggled with giving up the STUFF that I'd hung onto without reason.  I could have taped up the remainder in their box or dumped them all into a baggie and put it in a yard sale, get maybe ten cents for them, passing the misery onto someone else who will soon realize that OUCHLESS is just an uppercase lie and no indication of function.  I could call the manufacturer, four years and a very expired receipt later, and demand a refund for their defective product, and we could have a blood-pressure-raising argument on whether their trademark does or does not imply function.  I could have found some other use for them - put them to work as ultra-small colorful rubber bands that stretch out with use and never regain their original size or shape.
But in truth, my daughter was right.  The product was useless to me.  It might have been useful to someone else, but would have cost me more in time and effort to find that person and get them into their hands than would make it worth it.  I'd been dragging them around for years, and it took a 4 year old to put them where they really belonged.

My grandma and I are a lot more alike than I realized.  Maybe it was Depression-era thinking on her part, or maybe it was just human nature.  Everyone has stuff they hang onto; some of us more than others.  And most of us need someone with an objective eye to point out when we're hanging onto trash, instead of treasure.  I can tell you that my grandma would have been furious if I'd tried to throw out her saved plastic storage tubs while she'd still been alive.  I can hear her now telling me "You'll never know when you might need them."  Except that I did know, because I was looking at the situation without being attached to the STUFF.  My 4 year old could do that with my STUFF, but she can't do it with her own.  I considered the matter throughout the day, and came to the realization that it either takes someone else to help us remove the STUFF from our lives, or we have to be strong enough to make the decisions about the STUFF objectively, without the attachment.

So now it's time to look around and step outside myself so I can ask, "What else am I hanging on to?"  And then take the steps to put it where it belongs.