Month: December 2020

A Changing Castle, a Change in Theme

I am not the target audience for Tuesdays at the Castle or the other books in the series. Likewise, the books are of little interest to my three sons. My wife describes them as “cute and predictable”. However they do tell stories which interest my daughter who gets excited when she is interested in something and who loves to share her excitement.

I suppose I should be honored that my daughter brought Tuesdays at the Castle to me as soon as she finished reading it so that I could [presumably likewise] enjoy the text. While I thought the concept of a castle that irregularly changes on a regular basis to be interesting, overall I think my impressions were that of a reader who is reading a book target towards young girls and is not part of said target audience. Nevertheless, it is not the worst thing I have read and it allowed for various conversation with my daughter. At her urging I think I have read all but one of the books in the series.

For many years (even predating the birth of the girl-child), my family has read various books at the table after dinner. With three older brothers, the books selected are frequently not the books my daughter would choose. Or sometimes, such as when we read Where the Red Fern Grows she does get really into the book only to become emotionally scarred. So when she proposed reading Tuesdays at the Castle as an after dinner book, it seemed only fair.

Even with an only marginally interested audience, the reading went quite well. Despite knowing what was going to happen, my daughter would get excited and her enthusiasm tends to be infectious. She was also a good sport and did not get offended at [amusing but snide] comments by brothers or the less-than-flattering voice affectation I employed for the characters. So despite it not being a preferred text for the majority, a good time was had by all.

Another good thing that came out of this was a renewed effort by the boys to find “good fit” reading material for the girl child. With a better understanding of what she likes, they raided the bookshelves and found several books they thought their sister would enjoy (and they did a pretty good job). This led to my daughter being exposed to even great books.

I’m glad that the family read Tuesdays at the Castle together and that I read the books as well. In both cases the change in reading material theme brought about happy memories and positive interactions.

Homeschool PE

I’ve been fortunate to work for companies that are supportive of families. While I was working for Datastax, the company supported employees and their families in various ways including reimbursing up to $1000 for expenses related to physical and mental health. And as for my current employer, Circle’s mission is to make families’ lives better online and off.

When Covid-19 quarantining started and everyone was home, my wife and I quickly realized that it was too easy to fall into into a slothful pattern of lounging around in soft pants all day and never leaving the house. While there are merits to said lifestyle (particularly during inclement weather), it didn’t seem conducive to a health family life. So we instituted “Homeschool PE”.

Every weekday at 11:00am, the family would head outside and do something. Examples include:

The Datastax health expense reimbursement paid for a lot of Homeschool PE equipment and members of my team refrained from scheduling meetings during my family’s Homeschool PE block. When I started at Circle, the first time I met the [woman who would soon become] CEO was when she dropped off a computer at my house while I was playing table tennis in the driveway with my kids. She commented that at her house they played table tennis on the back patio. She responded favorably when I told her about Homeschool PE and I later learned even suggested it to other employees.

As online school started up in the fall and the weather became less amenable, regular Homeschool PE faded away, but during the spring and summer it was definitely a good thing for my family. Sometimes it was hard to get everyone to get up and outside, but once we started playing it was generally a good time all around. I’m grateful for the fun experiences and happy memories from Homeschool PE and appreciate my employers who support me and my family.