This year we hosted Thanksgivukkah, as 2013 is the first time ever when Hanukkah converges with Thanksgiving. and not again for several thousands of years.
We went to the Bronx Zoo for their traditional Boo at the Zoo celebration. It was a fun day. We were only there for a few hours, but we managed watched the Boo at the Zoo story telling, listened to the band, watched the magic show, and walk around in costume.
We went camping with our friends at Beaver Pond Campgrounds. Our kids setup and slept in their own tent.Afterwards we all went hiking in Harriman State Park to see the ORAK Ruins and Jackie Jones Fire Tower.
We went apple picking at Barton Orchards again.We picked lots of different kids of apples, and I ate too many apples. Then we spent hours playing in their corn maze.
After I finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia to Andrea and Eason, I wasn't sure what I was going to read to them next. There were a few books I was considering. Ever since I heard an interview with the author Tom Reiss on the radio I wanted to read The Black Count. I always thought I would like to read it with Eason, but glancing over it it seemed quite mature, so I was a little concerned, especially since Andi would likely be listening as well. On the other hand difficult emotions have their place in children's stories as well. I considered reading them something else and just reading this myself, and then I realized at least one of the reasons I love to read to my children.
While we were packing up the bungalow for the winter Eason and Andrea had a boat race...on the land.
As parents we all want our children to grow up to be happy and successful, however you define it. To that end there are a host of virtues we try to instill in them, such as perseverance, independence and strength of character. Likewise, not wanting our kids to be jerks, we want them to show empathy and consideration for others.
Eason and I went sailing on the lake in our kayak. We made it all the way to the lake monster and back.
Aviva and the kids went to visit my mom in the city. They had lunch and were heading back to my mom's home when Aviva called me at work. When I answered the phone I heard this horrible, primal moaning in the background. I thought to myself "what's that noise? It sounds like someone's dying back there." Aviva urgently announced "You have to get over here right away! Your mom just fell and it's not good!"
On our long labor day weekend Eason and I continued our Labor Day push-up challenge.
On our last day in Orlando we made the most of the pool, despite a little rain.
We went to SeaWorld. I originally didn't want to use any of our days there, but Aviva really wanted to. As usual she was right. I'm really glad we went. Even though we left relatively early, they definitely have a lot going on.
We weren't originally planning to, but since we had an extra day we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. I'm really glad we did. It was more fun than I thought it would be.
We were originally went to Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park, but when we got there we discovered that our tickets did not allow us access to any Disney Water Parks. So we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom, which we were originally planning on going to the nest day. We visited the Tree of Life.
On our first full day of our vacation we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. We made it on all the rides we wanted to.
The first day of our trip went perfectly. We got to the airport on time. I even had time to go through security twice, because I forgot to finish my drink. (And the pat down I received the second time was very professional, and not all together unpleasant.) 
It was "take your daughter to work if you have a Canadian employer day" so Andi came into work with me. She spent the entire day working on her workbook, so that wasn't much fun, but we went to Comfort Diner for lunch and she did enjoy her fruit stuffed French toast.
Last weekend I gave Aviva a sail for her kayak, but we didn't get to enjoy it that much, because there was no wind. This weekend was very windy and I had a great time. I towed my kids around in their rocking sea horse. Later I rowed across the lake and found The Lake Monster, and sailed all the way back from the far side of the lake, only using my oars to steer.
For my birthday I like to get some people presents, but since it's my birthday I get them something that I want them to have, which is not necessarily what they would want. This year we all got lucky.
We visited some good friends at Lake Mohawk. We had a great time on their boat, swimming on the lake, and hanging out at their beach.
When I read Danielle Leshaw's essay in The New York Times Motherlode blog about her children attending overnight summer camp for the first time, and her response to the backlash I was really touched as I thought her story could so easily be confused with my own. I've often pondered the joys and fears of having siblings so close.
Following the last School Board meeting of the year, with no word on how the board is planning on moving forward with the allegations of "testing irregularities" and two of our teachers left in limbo for the remainder of the summer with little hope of being able to return in September, some parents decided to write to the Commissioner of the New York State Education Department. Since the board is unlikely to make any changes or announcements until after the new school year starts, we're hoping that the state will investigate and set things right. (Please sign the petition.)
I had a great, long Independence Day/Birthday weekend. Besides the usual swimming, kayaking, playing, and "hammocking" my family made it all very special. My kids replaced my old work out beach chair with this awesome new one that reclines and has special holders for all kinds of goodies. Aviva made me my favorite birthday pie. It was delicious. And Babcia cut fruit for us as usual. 
As the sign says, even though "school stops for summer, learning never should." And while there is all different kinds of learning, the kind that kids seems to slack off on during the summer is the academic kind. Apparently this is called the summer slide.
A bunch of parents and I attended the June 25th board of education meeting to show our support for Mrs. Mehler and dissatisfaction with the way the district has handled the situation, again.
I was happy that so many people showed up to support Carin. It may have been more people specifically for her class, even though it wasn't as crowded overall. (You can watch all the commentary in the video below.)
There are many articles about why kids lie and teaching children to be honest. In Po Bronson's excellent piece Learning to Lie he said "Kids lie early, often, and for all sorts of reasons—to avoid punishment, to bond with friends, to gain a sense of control. But now there’s a singular theory for one way this habit develops: They are just copying their parents." Does that mean parents should never lie?
This is how I roll on Father's Day. It's my favorite day of the year.
I went to my town's school board meeting to discuss the situation with our school's teachers being removed based on allegations that teachers provided improper coaching to a small number of students. It was the first time I had ever attended such a meeting and apparently it was unusually crowded. Many people showed up to demonstrate or speak out to support their teachers. The meeting started with tenure and congratulatory announcements to various faculty, including the retirement of our district's wonderful Youth Advocate, Mrs. Low.
Immediately afterwards the floor was opened for guests to speak at the podium, at which point most of the faculty, along with our school's principal left the premises. Right away some fellow parents asked me to speak, and fortunately I had gathered my thoughts earlier in the evening: (You can watch the video from the meeting below.)
During my five years building and running MMA Ratings I poured a lot of time and energy into it. As time went on, it consumed and ever increasing amount of my time, and even though the site (traffic, audience, profit) was growing, it was not growing at nearly the same rate that the demands were. Ironically my first ever post about MMA was about the UFC's strategy to saturate the market and the potential negative impact it could have. Maybe it was a self fulfilling prophecy for me, though admittedly a lot of the demands on me were based on the type of site I was running.
As I've mentioned, when our kids' school implemented the Common Core State Standards, I was optimistic. After the tests were behind us I was very pleased with the way my son's teacher had prepared them, both academically and emotionally. He came home happy that he had a break from homework. His most unpleasant experience with the state testing was after he had completed his tests, having to wait until the allotted time was over. I thought it all was behind us.
I've written before about my challenges with the Boy Scouts discriminatory policies against atheists. As much as this policy bothers me, their discrimination based on sexual orientation has always seemed worse. At least atheism goes against their "Fundamental Principles." Sexual orientation based discrimination requires interpretation of specific beliefs and/or values.
Two scientists are proposing this quantum theory of consciousness that the essence of our soul is contained inside structures called microtubules within brain cells and that our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects in these microtubules.
For Mother's Day we had a delicious brunch at The Beehive. Then we went hiking at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.
We went to Baltimore for Ezra's bar mitzvah. It was great to see our family. We had a lot of fun.
While we were in Baltimore for Ezra's bar mitzvah we went walking around the Inner Harbor. Then we went for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Later we went bowling with the Seegulls.
The Brian Lehrer Show asked What are your biggest social media pet peeves?
I ran my 3rd 5k with Eason, at the Spring Derby. He did a lot better than he did at last year's derby. This time we accomplished three goals:
Minimalist Parenting, ‘Manimalist’ Style makes references to being a "laid-back" parent, as opposed to "over-parenting" and trying to provide the latest and “best” of everything for their children.
I took my mom and the kids to see a Special Screening of Sid the Science Kid: The Movie at The American Museum of Natural History. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. None of us really watched Sid The Science Kid that much. I felt like it included all the science topics I would expect and some topics I was surprised to be familiar with.
