Summer Social Studies Project Recap: Finished On Schedule, Over and Out!

Lars's and Anders' Projects On Display in the Dining Room

Lars and Anders both finished their projects a few days ahead of schedule, and both boys did a great job! 

If you missed the earlier posts about the 2012 Summer Social Studies Research Projects that have been going on at our house for the past five weeks, you can catch up here. 

In the last lesson plan I posted, I talked about research note cards being like LEGO blocks, and each note card should only get one "brick" of information unless it was a set of related information that only made sense together, like a LEGO figurine that consists of a head, body, arms and legs.  Why do I care how much information they put on the note cards? 

Fast forward to two little boys getting ready to write their research papers. 

LESSON FOUR: THE REALLY EASY WAY TO WRITE A RESEARCH PAPER!

The hardest part of writing for many students is that intimidating blank screen or blank sheet of paper.  If you do your notecards the way I suggested, the paper practically writes itself. 

1.      First, sort the notecards into pile by subtopic, then put each pile into a logical, sequential order of supporting details.  Subtopics?  Supporting details?  Do you see where this is going? 

2.     Once your notecards are organized, use them to type up an outline for the research paper.  Why type the outline instead of writing it out by hand?  Because, if you save the outline file under a new name, you can use it as a roadmap for writing the paper, without ever having to face a blank screen or blank sheet of paper. 

3.     How does this work?  With your outline file open, move your curser to the top of the page, right under the title, and start writing the introductory paragraph at the top, right before the outline, and then delete the I. INTRODUCTION portion of the outline. 

4.     What's next?  It's right there on the screen -- II. SUBTOPIC WHATEVER IT IS and IIa. Supporting Detail One, IIb. Next Supporting Detail, etc.  Another thing I like about this method is that you can skip the introduction if you want, write the main body paragraphs, and then go back to write the introduction and conclusion once you’ve finished with everything else.

5.     There you go – your first draft is finished!  Put it away, and look at it again tomorrow with fresh eyes to see if you can tighten up your writing and correct any typos.  Then give your paper to someone else for proofreading and suggestions.  Once you’ve incorporated the revisions, you’ve got a final draft of your paper that you’ll be proud to turn in!

This method worked especially well for Anders, who usually requires a great deal of supervision, cajoling, encouragement and chocolate bribery in order to produce any written work.  Using the computer, replacing his outline with text as he worked down the page and incorporating notecards that he had already organized ahead of time, Anders produced some of his best written efforts to date with MUCH less assistance than usual. 

Anders' Project on the Republic of Ireland

Lars's Project on Japan

In addition to the main research papers, they also selected and completed several additional assignments from a list of choices in the original assignment packet.  Anders wrote essays about Irish folklore, strengths and weaknesses of his country, and designed a new flag for Ireland.  Lars researched and wrote about a famous Japanese historical figure, designed bumper stickers advertising his country, and created a board game that teaches players about Japan.  They each created a trifold display board to present what they learned, and Grammy and Grampa will be coming over on Saturday for their presentations and a celebration/sendoff dinner.  Meanwhile, tomorrow after camp finishes up, I'll be driving little boys to the LEGO store to pick out a little End of Project Prize. 

LESSON THREE: TAKING NOTES ON NOTECARDS

In case you've missed earlier posts, I've been teaching Lars and Anders how to plan and organize a large research project this summer.  Their respective essays have just been posted on their blogs today (Anders researched Irish folklore and Lars wrote about a Japanese historical figure, Toyotomi Hideyoshi).  So far they are right on schedule with this multi-assignment project, and haven't had to spend more than an hour or two working on it on any given day.  If you're looking for any of the earlier lesson plans, you can find them all here.  I also found some clear, child-friendly guidelines for developing thesis statements in Research Papers for Dummies, available on Amazon here, and excerpted here on the publisher's web site. 

Without further ado, here's

LESSON THREE: TAKING NOTES ON NOTE CARDS

WAIT!!  Put down that pen!!!  Without a plan, you can waste a lot of time writing down the wrong information, and that will make it even harder to write a good paper later.  So, pick up your first resource and…

1.      SURVEY YOUR SOURCE:  Before you begin, “survey” your resource by skimming through the material, paying attention to chapter titles, headings, pictures and their captions, etc. to get an overview of what kinds of information you are going to get from this source.

2.     QUESTIONS:  Jot down some questions for yourself that you will be answering on your notecards as you read this source.  Make sure your questions have something to do with your THESIS STATEMENT, because you want to take notes that will help you prove your position in your paper.  Depending on how long the source is and how many notecards you need from each source, you may be turning all of the headings and bold-face words into questions (if it’s a short article), or you may have to be very selective and choose only the main points or those that best relate to your research project (especially true for a long book or a website that is packed with information).  You can either write your list of questions on a sheet of paper, or you can put them at the top of blank notecards so you know what information you’ll be writing on each card.  These questions are just for you, so they do NOT need to be complete sentences.  It can be as simple as “Famine Causes?” or “Shogun Legacy?” 

3.     READ:  Now start reading through your source, keeping an eye out for the information that will answer your research questions. 



What Goes on One Notecard?  Remember the LEGO Rule!  Photo courtesy Instructables

4.   WRITE NOTES: When you come to information that answers your question, jot it down on your note card.  Remember, note cards do not get complete sentences.  Each notecard should have either one “piece” of information, like one LEGO brick that can’t be taken apart, or several related facts that need to stay together to make sense (the way a LEGO figure’s head and arms COULD come apart, but they make more sense attached to the body!).  For example, one notecard might look like this:

Causes of French Revolution?

n  Government went bankrupt b/c couldn’t agree on tax reform

n  1788-1789 food shortages

n  Enlightenment ideas about equality

n  Louis XVI was not a strong ruler

Or like this:

U.S. Education?

n  Literacy: 99% over age 15 can read & write

n  Free K-12 paid for by fed, state & local taxes

n  Compulsory for children, ages vary by state

n  Private schools, colleges & universities optional but $$$

Here’s an example of what NOT to do (listing random, unrelated facts on the same note card):

Spain?

n  Neutral in both World Wars

n  No team sports at Spanish schools

n  40% of adults are smokers

n  Lunch eaten at 2 PM, dinner at 9 PM

LESSON TWO: GATHERING RESOURCES FOR YOUR PROJECT

So Lars and Anders finished the first part of their Summer Social Studies Projects, their research papers, right on schedule.  Both papers are posted on their blogs, and I'm sure they would appreciate comments and congratulations from friends and family, so please stop by their blogs to check out the fruits of their labors when you get a chance.  They worked on their research papers for two and a half weeks, compiling note cards, creating outlines, rough drafts, and finally their finished research papers complete with end note citations.  I'm very proud of both of them, and they are very much looking forward to playing their new LEGO Harry Potter Playstation game when they get home from camp this afternoon!  Then tomorrow they'll begin the next component of their projects, which for Lars is an essay about an important Japanese historical figure, and for Anders is an essay about Irish folklore. 

For those of you parents who are struggling to help your own children manage large projects like this one, I'm posting my lesson plans from our summer research adventure.  You can find all of the lesson plans at once by clicking here.  Without further ado, I bring you

LESSON TWO: GATHERING RESOURCES

1.    What’s your thesis?  Remember, your SUBJECT + your OPINION = your THESIS.  If your main topic is something you know little about, you may need to do some BRIEF background reading before you can come up with a working thesis.  Encyclopedia articles can be helpful for this preliminary reading.  Remember that the goal of all of your research and note-taking will be to find information that helps you “prove” your thesis!

2.   With a big project, you need to identify subtopics so you know what kinds of information you are looking for.  Make a list of possible subtopics, or categories of information that you will use to support your thesis.  Think of each subtopic as one paragraph of your paper, and each notecard as a supporting detail that belongs in that paragraph.  You may think of other subtopics once you begin your research, but you should have a few to start out with.  Make sure that most of your subtopics relate to the subject (Science, Language Arts, Spanish, Social Studies, Math, etc.)  area of your project! 

3.   Next to each subtopic on your list, write which type(s) of sources would have the best information for each.  Make sure you have some books, articles, and web sites.  Often your teacher will stipulate how many of each type she wants you to have, so check your assignment packet.

4.     Now you can start finding your sources!  Find your books first, then your articles, and your web sites LAST. 

5.     Be choosy about your sources!  Do NOT check out every single book on your topic or print out articles/web sites without reading through them first.  Choose the best sources, making sure that you don’t get two books or articles that have the exact same information.  Are your internet sources reliable?  Are your facts and figures up-to-date?  How long ago were your books/articles published?

6.   Taking Notes: Check to see how your teacher wants you to cite your sources before you begin research.  Note cards do not get complete sentences; just facts and the title and page number of where you got the information.

LESSON ONE: WHEN A BIG PROJECT IS ASSIGNED

Image Courtesy of Frugal Village

As I shared in my last post, I'm attempting to teach my sons organization, research, and time management skills this summer so they don't crash and burn (again!  and again and again!!) when they are assigned long-term projects at school.  This momma can't take anymore panic-filled nights of it's-not-started-yet-but-it's-due-tomorrow!  I know most of you sane folks out there would rather read about sea stars and sandy beaches in June, but feel free to bookmark this and come back to it in September when that first big project packet shows up in your child's book bag.  I know a lot of other kids struggle to manage long-term school projects, so I'll be posting my lesson plans throughout our summer research adventure and you can find them all by clicking here. 

My sons are both especially challenged with time management and organization, so I have devised a binder system to help them plan these monster projects, keep track of all of the parts, and have everything all in one place, easy to find.  I now bring you

Image Courtesy of Cannon Beach Gazette

LESSON ONE: WHAT TO DO WHEN THE BIG PROJECT IS ASSIGNED:

1.      As soon as you receive the project assignment, WRITE THE DUE DATE IN YOUR PLANNER IMMEDIATELY!

2.     Next, read through all of the instructions in the packet carefully.  As you go through, underline, circle, or highlight each subtask (each “thing” that you are expected to turn in).  How many “things” do you need to complete?

3.     With help from Mom, set up a binder for your project with one section for each subtask.

4.     List these subtask items on a separate piece of paper.  Are all the subtasks worth the same?  Sometimes your teacher will give you a rubric that shows what percentage of your grade each item represents, but if not, use common sense.  Would the teacher count a poem or a comic strip as much as a research paper?  Not unless it is a creative writing project for your Language Arts teacher or a drawing project for your Art teacher!  Put stars next to the most important subtasks.

5.     Which tasks are you dreading, and which sound like the most fun?  Put smiley faces next to the subtasks that you think will be fun.

6.     With help from Mom or from your teacher, set interim due dates for each subtask of your project.  Make sure the biggest/most important subtasks (like research!) get done early.  Alternate hard subtasks with fun assignments to reward yourself!  Write these due dates in your planner and in your assignment packet.

7.   Look at your planner to see which days you will have the most time available, and block out time to work on your project.  Keep in mind that you will have other assignments from other teachers to work on that you don’t know about yet.  With Mom’s help, block out enough time for working on your project.

8.       Now you can start working on the first subtask! 

So, as you know, Lars's summer research project is on Japan, and Anders is researching Ireland.  How's it going so far?  Well, unsurprisingly, although both boys were able to identify the most important subtasks from the 9-page instruction packet, they needed more help when it came to setting those interim due dates and budgeting their time.  For instance, Lars's initial plan relied on an unlikely scenario in which he would get home at 6 PM after a full day of theatre performance camp, and then in the half hour before dinner he would somehow miraculously practice piano AND complete 20 note cards' worth of research.  I let him write this ill-fated plan in his calendar, but then after a couple of days I said, "Let's touch base to see if you're still on track with your project."  We moved some things around at that point, recognizing that some days he would have more time to work on the project than others, and on really busy days with other activities he might not get to work on it at all.  I'm glad that I have different day camps, Chinese tutoring and music lessons going on for the kids while they're working on their summer research projects, because that's what it's like when it's a real school project. 

They will both be finishing up their research tomorrow afternoon, and they are on track to have their research papers written by the interim due date we set for June 25th.

One more thing: Motivation is a powerful thing.  The LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 game for Play Station is on its way from Amazon and little boys will be blissfully blasting away at Death Eaters as soon as their papers have been written and revised to my satisfaction.  Hey -- a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!

The Great Summer Social Studies Research Project

Yeah, I wish I was kidding. 

It turned out that Son the Elder had been given five weeks to work on an in-depth country study project for Social Studies, due the second to last day of school at a 5th grade Social Studies Fair.  There was a research paper, with a minimum of 60 notecards and full citations, several essays and creative activities, and a tri-fold display.  They were supposed to rehearse their presentations and prepare to defend their research and their conlcusions.  My son, bless his heart, was assigned the Republic of Iceland.  When the teacher read through the NINE-PAGE INSTRUCTION PACKET for the assignment, my child heard something like "Blah blah blah, sources, blah blah notes, blah blah FOLKLORE!!  blah VIKINGS!!  Blah blah blah DRAW A CARTOON blah blah..."  After five weeks of class time to work on the project, my son realized the due date was approaching in just two days.  What had he accomplished?  A total of two notecards, several pages of Viking folklore printed off the Internet, two vague, rambling paragraphs that were completely devoid of factual information, and several pages of cartoon drawings of little fighting people with horns on their heads.  My blood pressure spiked so severely that it's amazing my veins didn't explode.

(Sigh).  Because, what else can you do?  I raced around during the day, collecting resources for my child and created a desperate two-day plan that would enable Lars to have SOMETHING to turn in and to present in front of his class mates.  Apparently this project was worth almost his entire fourth quarter Social Studies grade.  It was like a giant bank that was just too big to fail.  Ahem.  The emphasis was on speed and quantity over quality, and even with keeping him up past eleven both nights, he still had only two notecards to turn in, all of his papers were first draft quality or worse -- some were more stream-of-consciousness -- and the entire experience was a nightmare. 

Moreover, it's been a recurring nightmare.  It was the Science Fair project, and it was the Language Arts Project, and the Math Research Project, and the World War One project for Social Studies earlier in the year...  Get the picture?  The alarming thing about this is that these types of projects are only going to get more complex as he progresses through school, and he doesn't seem to be getting any better at figuring out how to manage them on his own.

Once the project had been turned in, the school year had ended, and my blood pressure returned to normal, I asked Lars if he would like to do the project over again on another country, and do it the RIGHT way this time.  I was bracing for a fight, but Lars surprised me by agreeing to this enthusiastically, as in "Cool!  Can I do Japan?"  What's more, Anders chimed in, "Can I do it, too?  I want to do Ireland!"

So here I am, in the middle of June, basically conducting summer home schooling in the alternate universe in which I apparently live.  So much for taking it easy.  I'm using the same assignment packet that Lars's teacher created for the Study of a Country project, but I'm teaching them lessons on organization, planning, and research skills as we go along that they will be able to apply to any multifaceted school project -- and there will be many more of them in the years ahead.  My objective is for them to learn strategies for planning, pacing, and executing a big project so that the work is spread out over the entire time allotted by the teacher.  They also need to learn how to organize all of their notes, papers, books, and other materials so that they can find everything when it's time to turn it in.  My goals are all about executive functioning and task management -- whatever they learn about their countries or about the writing process is just gravy.

In case other parents out there are trying to figure out to help a disorganized child manage large projects, I'll post my lesson plans as I come up with them.  Their projects are due on July 13th, so they probably won't have a chance to write on their blogs between now and then.  Wish us luck!

Of Kiddie Blogs and Mommywork

For the unfortunate children who live beneath my roof, school work does not cease on the last day of school. Homework may end, but the Mommywork is just beginning! I haven't assigned any major projects over the summer (yet!), but instead of having a summer free-for-all we shift to a more laid-back, simplified version of the schedule and routine that has been working throughout the school year. This means that both boys must get dressed in the morning and eat breakfast regardless of whether they are enrolled in a day camp that week, they both must practice piano every day, and if they want to play with their iPods, Nintendo DS or Playstation games, they must complete one Mommywork assignment for me. I feel that this makes the transition back to school at the end of August much smoother, for one thing, and there's much less chaos in the house when everyone knows what is expected of him. Don't worry -- they still have plenty of free time to read, play with Legos, and splash around in Grammy's pool!

The first summer that I declared Mommywork, I picked up a couple of those summer skills workbooks from Barnes & Noble and insisted on a page a day. My shrewd Lars would flip through the book and find the easiest page possible, something he knew backwards and forwards already and did not need to practice. In subsequent summers, I've focused on skills that I knew they needed to reinforce, like memorizing multiplication facts or long division coloring worksheets. This summer, I'd like both boys to practice writing and keyboarding. 

Writing assignments are particularly onerous for both of them, and they haven't been able to take full advantage of word processing time savers like copy, cut and paste editing because they were plucking away at the keyboard with their index fingers, searching out one letter at a time.  I purchased a copy of Type To Learn 4 a few weeks ago, and they've been learning the layout of the keyboard and which fingers go where as they work through the typing game lessons, but in order for their speed to improve they are going to have to reinforce what they are learning through additional typing practice.  I briefly considered asking Anders to type up my grocery lists or copy pages from a book, but then I got the idea of introducing kiddie blogs!  I found the perfect free Blogger templates for each of them and set up their blogs while they were at school, as a surprise.

Lars's Blog

Anders' Blog

As I'd hoped, both boys were elated to have their very own blogs.  Little boys who would have grumbled and complained of child abuse if I asked them to write so much as a paragraph scampered off eagerly to separate computers and began typing away unbidden.  Bliss!

Lars's and Anders' blogs are set up under my Blogger account, and the boys are set up as authors, but not administrators of their blogs.  That means they can post whatever they want, but they can't waste time messing around with their blog layout, template, widgets etc. like I did last week.  I set them up as closed blogs, viewable by members only, and sent invitations to their relatives and close friends.  Their blogs do not generate RSS feeds, are not viewable to search engines, and are not listed on Blogger.  This way, if either of them should happen to post something foolish (remember what happened when other kids found the notebooks written by Harriet the Spy?), it's not out there on the Internet for the world to see, and I can go in and edit or delete anything before too much damage is done.  The downside to this is that anyone who wants to read their blogs needs to physically go to their blog site periodically to check for new posts.  You can't just subscribe to email updates for a blog that does not generate any feeds.

Troll Image courtesy Blogrulon

The other parental safeguard I enacted is that all blog comments are moderated by the administrator (me) and no comments will post until I approve them.  This would be even more important if their blogs were visible to anyone with an internet connection instead of members-only.  Kids need to work on their writing in a supportive environment where criticism is constructive, and the last thing they need is some anonymous "troll" to come along and blast them with hateful comments.  (In case you're not familiar with the trolls of the 21st century, Kristen Lamb has a great post about them here). 

So far, Lars and Anders have posted about LEGO Ninjago and about the Avengers movie we saw recently.  They are spending more time searching the Internet for images of LEGO figures than I would like, but at least they are writing.  It's kind of like the dialogue journal Anders' class was doing throughout the school year, where they had to write about something of their choosing once or twice a week and then their parents or their teacher would write back to them in the notebook.  The difference is that they are honing their typing skills as well as practicing writing, and that they are getting responses and encouragement from relatives all over the country instead of just from one person.  They were positively gleeful about the comments they read this morning before school, and I know they will be excited about sitting down to write some more after piano lessons today.

I'd like to encourage them to branch out a bit, so I'm thinking of making up some index cards with writing prompts or topics that they can choose from, such as "Why Kids Should Rule the World," a book review, Instruction Manual for New Parents of Boys, Best/Worst Thing that Happened to Me Today, etc.  Maybe they can alternate their LEGO advertisements with my non-LEGO prompts!

Do your children write blogs?  If so, what do you do to supervise their interaction with strangers on the Internet?

How Do You Like the New Me?

So, Folks -- what do you think of the new look?  My son Lars and my husband both like the old blog template better, but I was getting tired of it and wanted a change.  I especially disliked the background of the old template, which reminded me of ugly plywood paneling.  I didn't know how to edit the old template to change just the background, so I threw out the baby with the bath water and started from scratch with a different template.

I think the new blog template is cheerful without being too busy or distracting, and the bright colors are refreshing.  I also like that I can list links to my most frequent topics on tabs at the top of the page; this makes it easier for readers to find the posts they're interested in without having to wade through everything else.  I think that the Features Slideshow at the top will also be a useful tool to help readers find the content they're looking for.  I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for my father-in-law to avoid the sewing posts without missing out on any of his grandsons' adventures!  ;-)

Since Lars and Bernie have been so vocal with their opinions, I'm curious about what the rest of you think.  Cast your vote and you just might get me to put the blog back the way it was.  Then again, as obstinate as I am, I might just keep the new blog to spite everyone...

By the way, I set up blogs for Lars and Anders yesterday!  They have been working on their keyboarding skills with a program called Type To Learn 4, and both of them will benefit from practicing writing and typing over the summer.  They are closed/private blogs, so you can't see them unless you're a member.  If you're a close friend or family member who would like to read Lars's and Anders' blogs, let me know and I'll send you an invitation.  They are both very excited about their blogs.  They will be posting throughout the summer, sometimes on topics of their choosing, but I will also give them writing prompts to guide their efforts.  I know they will appreciate your comments and encouragement!

5/26/2012: After spending several hours installing and customizing the Featured Slider at the top of the blog, I decided it's annoying to pictures constantly moving at the top of the page when you're trying to read, so I deleted that gizmo.

As the Homework Ceases, the Mommywork Begins!

Over the last month of the school year, the boys' homework tapered off considerably and finally stopped altogether towards the middle of last week.  Disgusting, isn't it?  Miss one lousy school day due to a snow "storm" (that means anything that sticks to the ground for more than 5 minutes here in Charlotte), and they slap you with a makeup day because each day of instruction is supposedly so crucial to the kids' intellectual development.  Meanwhile, the last 10 days of school are pretty much a waste. 

So this year, I decided to fight back -- with the invention of Mommywork!  As we were driving home from school on Thursday, 9-year-old Lars gleefully informed me that he would not have any more homework for the rest of the year. 

Me: "When we get home, I want you to put your shoes away and go straight to the kitchen table to do your homework."

Lars: "I don't have any homework!  Homework is over for the rest of the year!"

Anders: "I don't have any homework, either."

Me: "Good!  Because I picked out some Mommywork pages for each of you out of your workbooks!"

Boys in unison: "Whaaaat?!!!"

Lars: "But that's not fair!  Everyone knows the best thing about summer vacation is no homework!"

Me: "Wrong.  The best thing about summer vacation is no school.  And anyways, it's not homework; homework is assigned by your teacher.  This is Mommywork, which is totally different.  If you guys want me to keep buying books all summer long, you'll do a couple of quick Mommywork assignments every day.  All those books are expensive!  Remember those Ranger's Apprentice books I just ordered from Amazon?  They'll be here tomorrow, and I'm only going to give them to you if you do your Mommywork.  Deal?"

[Boys grumble in reluctant acquiescence.]

Meanwhile, I'm inwardly chortling with glee -- I have just convinced two little boys to do extra homework all summer long in exchange for the privilege of reading.  I must savor this moment.

So, what exactly is Mommywork going to be?  Well, the boys are both well above grade level in just about everything, so my objective here is not for them to catch up or necessarily even get farther ahead by doing extra work over the summer.  It's just that it took the whole first month of school to get the homework routine established.  Their ADHD meds wear off about an hour or so after they get home from school, so if they don't go straight to the kitchen table and crack open their books the instant they walk in the door, they are doomed.  If they still have homework to do at 5 PM, then keeping them on task to complete a simple assignment becomes an excruciating saga of tears, threats, desperation, and misery for the entire family.  So Mommywork is more about keeping up the routine of homework and the habit of sitting down to do homework as soon as they get home from their half day of summer camp.

However, I don't want to waste their time with boring busywork, either.  So I went to Barnes & Noble and got an assortment of colorful basic skills workbooks that would reinforce what they've been doing in school.  I like the Flash Kids series Gifted & Talented: Reading, Writing & Math by grade level (you can find this series here at Amazon) , but the reading and writing exercises in the fourth grade book are nowhere near challenging for Lars, so I also got him a Basic/Not Boring Language Skills: Writing workbook written for grades 6-8+. 

You can find that one here.  The first time Lars saw the book, he was intimidated by the grade level and I had to put the book away.  But today I tore the page out ahead of time so he wouldn't know which workbook it came from, and gave him one page of identifying passive voice sentences and rewriting them in active voice, and one page of using personification to create strong visual images.  He did great on both.  Some of my favorites of his personification sentences:

"The sun glared down on Bedullin (?) tribesmen in the desert."

"The numbers marched across my math test."

"Our porch light winked repeatedly as we slowly unplugged it."

"The fog swam through the neighborhood."

I'm liking this Mommywork concept more and more every day!

Here's one parting photo for today, Lars and Anders hanging out on a bench at the grocery store while the cashier was ringing up our groceries.  They have little brain teaser activity books that they asked us to buy from the magazine rack in the checkout lane.  Don't they remind you of young Nils and Frasier?  I hope I don't end up with a Maris and a Lilith as daughters-in-law someday...