Your House as a Museum

http://chatnotes-unschooling.blogspot.pt/2014/05/may-21-chat-your-house-as-museum.html

From Sandra's notes for this chat: 

"There might be something in your house that's very interesting. Or you might have visited someone else's house and seen something exciting. Things in museums used to belong to people, generally. So what makes a "museum-quality" object? Age? Rarity? Quality?

Plan A: Think about the questions above and bring us some stories.

Plan B: Read this article I wrote years ago, if you can't think of anything. It will give you ideas. http://sandradodd.com/museum"

Marta Pires joined the chat

Serah joined the chat

Serah: Hi Marta

Sara Vaz joined the chat

Sara Vaz: Hi Marta and Serah! 

Marta Pires: Hi everyone!

Misa Knight joined the chat

Sandra Dodd joined the chat

Sandra Dodd: For a while we used a chat program/site that showed a flag for the country of each poster. We would already have three here (maybe more; don't know where Misa is )

Sandra Dodd: We would have two Portuguese flags, a Canadian, an American and Misa. The flag of Misa.

Sandra Dodd: I miss that. 

Marta Pires: 

Serah: That sounds so cool, Sandra! I wonder why they stopped that.

Misa Knight: Ha ha. I'm my own country. (Not really. I'm in Seattle, so another US flag.)

Sandra Dodd: That company dissolved. They were in Eastern Europe somewhere. It was a cool layout. There have been many free chat sites over the years. This one isn't free. They used to charge us by usage, and as we only use it a few hours a week, it was cheap! But they went to quarterly regardless of usage, so… that's how it is. 

Sandra Dodd: I have the house to myself for three days. I need to pack for Minnesota (leaving Monday), send descriptions of talks for Californian August, and a site for sign up and schedules for Maine in September. And start applying for a visa for Holly to go to India, maybe. Until I know whether I can use my airline credit to pay for that, I don't know whether Plan B will be to try to pay for a flight to Maine.

Sandra Dodd: I took a bump and got airline credit last summer. It needs to be spent very soon.

Sandra Dodd: I hope I get in the mood to do some of that stuff. Right now… I just want to sleep.

Marta Pires: Wow, busy days ahead of you. 

Marta Pires: 

Sandra Dodd: My adrenalated too-much-energy phase will return.

Serah: I'm so excited to be meeting you next week. 

AlexPolikowsky4 joined the chat

Misa Knight: I can totally see why you've talked about wanting to be home more in 2015. I'd be exhausted with all of what you've done/are going to do!

Sandra Dodd: And this chat and I'm being interviewed friday morning, and that's all. (Plus just generally working on my site, keeping Just Add Light coming, and being happy about all the cool Learn Nothing Day art that's coming up.)

Marta Pires: You needed some down time, right Sandra? After Australia and Texas and all!

Sandra Dodd: I think it's more than that, Marta. I did. And I got sick. But I think I've travelled enough. It was a need and an urge and an opportunity, but something has changed.

AlexPolikowsky4: At least someone is sleeping. I have been going to bed exhausted everyday because it has been crazy here. I hit the bed and I cannot sleep all night! When I do it's little cat naps here and there! I have been an insomniac pretty much all my life but when I am physically tired I so want to sleep!

Sandra Dodd: I need to be with Keith more, and pull weeds out of my yard, and find things I've lost in the sewing room, and finish books I started.

Marta Pires: Yes.

AlexPolikowsky4: I love travelling but I love to stay home. 

Marta Pires: I understand.

Sandra Dodd: Alex, I'm sorry if the symposium is a big cause of your sleeplessness.

Sandra Dodd: I wish I could sleep for you! And you could wash my hair for me. That would be nice.

Marta Pires: 

AlexPolikowsky4: It may be a factor but this is my normal. It is just that I have been doing so many physical things around the farm that my body and my mind are not agreeing. I used to be like that when I showed dogs. No sleep and physical work at the dog shows and getting dogs ready. The difference is that was I much much younger. 

AlexPolikowsky4: I will wash you hair! I am pretty good at it and you have lovely long hair. I love it!

AlexPolikowsky4: Serah, I am excited to be meeting you too. 

Marta Pires: You guys have got a pretty great schedule for the Minnesota symposium. I wish I were there!

Serah: Same here, Alex!

AlexPolikowsky4: I wish you were too. 

Rippy joined the chat

Marta Pires: 

Rippy: Hi everyone!

Serah: It's a pity we are all so far apart. I would love to meet Marta and Rippy too. 

Marta Pires: And I would love to meet you!

Rippy: And I'd love to meet *everyone* here too. 

Sandra Dodd: Marta might possibly be in Albuquerque in December 2015. I hope.

Misa Knight: Somebody needs to invent transporters.

Marta Pires: Maybe next year, if you can make it to Albuquerque!

Sandra Dodd: Today's topic is "Your house as a museum."

Marta Pires: I hope so too, Sandra! 

Sandra Dodd: There are probably some small things, maybe made of paper (letters, photos, books), maybe made of metal (kitchen equipment, scissors, tools) or wood (furniture, carvings, musical instruments) that are old or have a good story about where they came from.

Sandra Dodd: People forget to share those stories, sometimes, with their friends and with their children.

Serah: Sorry to be in and out so soon. Just wanted to check in. Bye everyone

Serah left the chat

Sandra Dodd: Maybe you have some old recordings and an ancient player to play them on. Record player. Cassette player. Reel-to-reel 

Sandra Dodd: Young children would be interested in that.

Sandra Dodd: Older ones too, maybe.

Rippy: Bye Serah!

Sandra Dodd: I have some 78 rpms that were my mom's, and we bought a (cheap from K-Mart) record player that had a 78 setting.

Sandra Dodd: But it won't play them.

Sandra Dodd: The 25 year old Japanese engineers (or whoever it was) who built it had NO IDEA that they need a heavy tone arm and a wider needle.

Sandra Dodd: They make the turntable turn at 33, 45 and 78, but that's not all it takes to play those old records. 

Sandra Dodd: But now more time has passed, and it's quite likely that the recordings could be found on the internet.

AlexPolikowsky4: My dad collected cool old stuff. We had a beautiful gramophone and some records. It was lovely.

Sandra Dodd: In a one-thing-leads-to-anoth​er connections way, though, something interesting at your house can be tied to other things, and researched, and documented. If you don't find something like it on the internet that's a GREAT excuse to take photos and PUT it there! In a blog post, on YouTube.

Rippy: I've got some steel cups that my grandparents in India made for me, my brother and my cousins. They engraved our names on them. I think they got every single spelling of their grandchildren's names wrong. I first saw them when I was 8 years old and when my grand mom died (my granddad had passed away a long time before that), that was what I asked my mom to bring back from India when they were packing up the house. It's sweet to see my children sometimes drink out of those simple steel cups now that were made with love from their great grandparents.

AlexPolikowsky4: That is sweet Rippy.

Rippy: My name was spelled Ripi

AlexPolikowsky4: There are many things I wish I had still. My dad may have some in Brazil but after my parents divorce (I was almost 30 then), I think most things were just lost.

AlexPolikowsky4: My husband and kids like to keep things. Not everything but items that have some sweet memory or story. I am glad I have a huge attic!

Marta Pires: So sweet, Rippy.

Marta Pires: Or should I say Ripi? 

AlexPolikowsky4: Brian and I are saving all of my son's wood toy train engines for him. I know I could sell them for lots of money . But we both think they are too special for him to do that.

Rippy: I just checked, it was Ripy 

AlexPolikowsky4: My son even loves classic game consoles! Today you can download Super Mario to your Wii but Daniel wanted the old cartridge and a retro console! We got it for him 2 Christmas ago.

Virginia Warren joined the chat

Misa Knight: I went through some photos recently and had to explain to Kai what "negatives" were, why people kept them, etc. He thought it was all pretty neat, "...but not very efficient."

Sandra Dodd: My kids can't read cursive very well, but I have letters from both of my grandmothers (several), and lots from my mom (mostly depressing to me, but might not be to Holly someday).

Virginia Warren: My daughter loves old game consoles and retro gaming.

Virginia Warren: Lydia wanted a classic gameboy.

Virginia Warren: She bought two, and gave one away.

Rippy: I want to save toys too. I've got a little rubber horse that my baby brother used to play with. I am more inclined to save things that can be touched and used, rather than things that require super duper carefulness.

Sandra Dodd: I have some and some. 

Rippy: You have a bigger house. 

Sandra Dodd: I have an old Beatles game that has more parts missing than present, that my sister bought at a garage sale.

Sandra Dodd: But just having the box and the game board and a (very) few cards seems cool.

Virginia Warren: I saw an engineer make a key-tar bass out of a commodore 64 and wished I still had mine.

Rippy: I just watched Modern Family yesterday and they went through a box filled with things they kept in the basement and one of the things was an answering machine with some old messages still saved on it. Cool!

Sandra Dodd: I have a wall image piece of art from India. Hema's housekeeper (I don't know the name of a servant who comes to clean each day and do laundry; she wasn't the cook—another woman came to cook)--she bought it for me as a gift.

Sandra Dodd: It's Krishna and one of the ladies of the stories-one of Krishna's wife-buddies—in a deep frame. They're metal-looking plastic, and they're in 3-D and deep in behind another frame, with… I can't describe it all.

AlexPolikowsky4: I need to get another Gameboy! We have one but the sound is not working! Now we have a Nintendo DS that can play the Gameboy games but my son likes the original!

Sandra Dodd: But she bought it and I know she hardly makes any money and didn't want to take extra money from me, and just this week I finally did what I needed to do. I took it to Radio Shack and asked them to make it work

Sandra Dodd: It should light up from the inside.

Sandra Dodd: But needed a "reverse voltage converter" (I wrote it down inside the box, and came home and ordered one which should come tomorrow).

Misa Knight: The other day, I introduced Kai to Zork (a text-based adventure game). He thought it was so weird that you'd play a game on a computer with no images.

Sandra Dodd: But it's been three years, so I'm an unappreciative bum.

Sandra Dodd: It was up on a shelf, but not plugged in as it should be. 

Sandra Dodd: We played that at the university before it was called Zork. I think it was called "adventure" and it was almost unplayable.

Sandra Dodd: Do you know of "Thy Dungeonmaster," a parody of it on the site where Strongbad emails are, Misa?

Sandra Dodd: It is really funny. It was mentioned in an e-mail (video), but they actually made a playable little game.

Misa Knight: I think I know what you're talking about.

Sandra Dodd: Oh. "Thy Dungeonman"

Sandra Dodd: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail94.html

Virginia Warren: I loved those text adventure games. I played them so much.

Misa Knight: Ha ha! Yes, I HAVE seen that. Very funny.

Sandra Dodd: But now Kai might appreciate it. 

Misa Knight: When I was little, I'd write text-based adventure games myself. And there were also games I played where you basically had to type in each line to code in the game before you could play it.

Misa Knight: I'll have to show it to him.

Virginia Warren: BASIC

Sandra Dodd: "Your head asplode"—I do miss Strongbad. I should watch all of those this week instead of those other things I'm supposed to do. 

Sandra Dodd: http://www.homestarrunner.com/dungeonman.html

Misa Knight: Kai once looked at a rotary phone and asked me how you played games on it.

Misa Knight: I had to explain that, once upon a time, phones were really meant just for making phone calls.

Sandra Dodd: There is a site where they show things to young kids. They showed them a rotary phone. They showed them a portable tape player and called it a Walkman, but it wasn't. 

Sandra Dodd: The people showing them the old technology are also too young to really understand it. 

Marta Pires: 

AlexPolikowsky4: I remember seeing those videos Sandra!

AlexPolikowsky4: We tell our kids stories about the old days with no computer and such!

Sandra Dodd: But I remember being little and seeing the kind of phone you had to crank, and hold the ear piece, at some second-cousins' house. It still worked.

Sandra Dodd: Maybe those are the only two: http://k1047.cbslocal.com/2014/04/24/watch-kids-react-to-old-fashioned-technology/

Sandra Dodd: ("walkman" and rotary phone)

Sandra Dodd: We have a working rotary phone in our bedroom. Keith and I know how to use it, but I only call him at work because I don't know the kids' cellphone numbers without a cellphone  (Keith knows their numbers.)

AlexPolikowsky4: I like it so much better now with computers and smartphones! I don't have the "Good old days of no technology" way of thinking. That was then this is now 

Misa Knight: My "phone" conversations also brought up some terms Kai didn't know. And things you don't have to do anymore. I told him that I was considered a "latchkey" kid. And that we had special "rings" - that we had to do manually.

Misa Knight: And we talked about "party lines".

Misa Knight: And he didn't understand why you wouldn't just look at the phone to see who it was.

Marta Pires: My dad found this gameboy the other day. I loved it so much!!! We played a lot with it, my brother and I and even my dad, so he told me. https://www.flickr.com/photos/falcon-69/2095164911/

Marta Pires: (he found it when he was cleaning something at his place)

Misa Knight: And thought it was silly that we'd call the "time recording" to figure out what time to reset our clocks to. (Again... "Why wasn't it on the phone?")

Marta Pires: It was so nice to play with it again. It all came back pretty quickly, how to play the game. 

AlexPolikowsky4: OMG Marta! That is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Marta Pires: It is, isn't it? I was so happy!!! 

Marta Pires: And it still works!

Sandra Dodd: Are there home-games (I wrote games… I meant tools, equipment) for making jpgs from photo negatives?

Sandra Dodd: I have lots of negatives.  Some are on little disks, like miniature Viewmasters. Probably things that are in odd formats would be harder to work with.

Sandra Dodd: Negatives ARE odd. I have tons of them.

Sandra Dodd: Older board games tend to be taken care of.

Sandra Dodd: Lots of families will have an old Monopoly set, or Risk with wooden cubes instead of plastic.

Misa Knight: Some scanners have built-in slots for them.

AlexPolikowsky4: was just showing it to Daniel.

Marta Pires: We brought a lot of older board games from my parents' house the other day. My dad didn't want them anymore and he really took care of them, so they're in pretty good shape.

AlexPolikowsky4: OMGOSH the cats are wild here today. The grey kitty wants to play with KitKat and KitKat is freaking out! The screams are piercing!

Sandra Dodd: The good thing about video tapes over DVDs was that you could save your place. 

Marta Pires: Some of them are beautiful. 

Sandra Dodd: Many people in their 20's don't want DVDs; they just own things online, if they own a copy, so they can see it from other places or let their friends borrow them just by knowing their password.

Misa Knight: Also, some scanners allow you to scan transparencies. If you can do that, you can scan a negative.

Sandra Dodd: And then take it to photoshop and reverse it?

Sandra Dodd: Alex, it's funny that the same chat at your house has cat noise.

Sandra Dodd: One of the first online chats I was ever in was on AOL. It was SO high tech, for people to be able to communicate that way, without e-mail.

Sandra Dodd: All in one discussion.

Sandra Dodd: And one woman said "My dog just farted." A big dog, right under the desk.

AlexPolikowsky4: Funny Sandra!

Misa Knight: If need be. Also, saving as a TIFF is better than a JPG. More detail.

Sandra Dodd: I thought "This is IT! This is the first time ever that someone has reported to eight or ten (however many we were) people at once that a dog just farted in Georgia, and we can comment on it before the stink goes away. 

Misa Knight: However, TIFFs take up more space.

AlexPolikowsky4: The first place I chatted online was ICQ. Who had ICQ? I made friends on it. It was a board for people over 30. Really nice people. Clean and fun chats!

Marta Pires: Hahaha Sandra

Marta Pires: 

Misa Knight: Ha ha. I remember when I had a "phone book" for the Internet, with URLs and I think there were ads for sites, as well.

AlexPolikowsky4: Once I showed my kids how to send S O S codes using your flash light. When I was a kid Morse code was something we talked about all the time!

Sandra Dodd: I think it was in Bad For You, the war on fun that I read that when they were setting up the transatlantic cable for being able to send telegraphs to Europe from north America that there was criticism that it was worthless and a waste, and that people would just want to know about fashions and scandals (or gossip).

AlexPolikowsky4: I am so glad I love the old but embrace the new  I get the best of both worlds!

Sandra Dodd: I miss local phone books, and I REALLY really wish I had saved some from my home town. They were small and full of details about everything.

Sandra Dodd: When I would visit people I would read their phone books. I would look to see what kinds of churches were in that town. Some had lots of synagogues; some none. Some LOTS of Catholic churches; some one. Some full-page ads for some churches.

AlexPolikowsky4: We have local phone books still here in Minnesota. I used to look up stuff up until a few years ago but now it is easier to find stuff online

AlexPolikowsky4: Oh you are a Phone Book Reader are you??

Sandra Dodd: Every phone book used to have emergency information. In Oklahoma, all about tornado safety. In California, earthquakes.

AlexPolikowsky4: I absolutely LOVED reading phone books when I visited people.

AlexPolikowsky4: I did not look up churches...

Sandra Dodd: It was a way to get a picture of what was important there. (Alex, I'm glad not to be the only one).

Sandra Dodd: I would look for my own name, and for "Martinez" (the most common name where I lived) and just see what some of the "A" and "Z" names were. You got ideas of the ethnicities.

Sandra Dodd: In Georgia I saw pages of "dehumidifiers" and I didn't even know what they were.

AlexPolikowsky4: Exactly! You could look at the map of the city, what was available, parks, restaurants, supermarkets, government offices, recreational stuff...so much stuff right there.

Sandra Dodd: I would look at the restaurant section too, to see what kinds of things, and how hoity, to gauge how rich the place was and how diverse.

Sandra Dodd: Phone books were museums, and they were profiles.

Misa Knight: I've got to run. Time for food for the family. LOVED the chat.

AlexPolikowsky4: Yeah I loved Phone Books!. Ask me when you get here and I will show you a cabinet full of them in my kitchen that I can't seem to part with them 

Marta Pires: Luckily, we've got a huge museum in the family. My grandparents' house. They died some years ago but the house is intact. It's just the way it was when they were alive -- filled with tons of old and beautiful things! When you come back to Lisbon (if you ever come back) Sandra, I'll take you there. 

Sandra Dodd: If. 

AlexPolikowsky4: There is one that has the maps with who owns the land all around our county!

Marta Pires: Yes, I know. If. 

Sandra Dodd: If Keith will go, maybe.

Virginia Warren: "Your house as a museum" is one of my favorite...um...

AlexPolikowsky4: Cool Marta! I would love to see it someday!

Marta Pires: And if you don't come back, I'll take tons of pictures whenever I go there to explore with Conchinha and send them your way. 

Sandra Dodd: I'm trying to interest him in going the way Jihong does, but he said that many days on the ocean doesn't sound like fun.

Sandra Dodd: We'll see. 

Sandra Dodd: Take artsy photos of things I can use for Just Add Light.

Marta Pires: I'll show it to you too, Alex! You just need to come visit! Or I can send you the pics as well.

Sandra Dodd: So tell us about something you've seen in a friend's house that you thought was very cool for them/him/her to have owned.

AlexPolikowsky4: I am with him. I am not a cruise person. I rather get somewhere and explore.

Marta Pires: My grandparents travelled a lot and my grandmother loved to decorate the house with beautiful things. My grandfather loved to read, so the house has tons of books too.

Sandra Dodd: Wooden jigsaw puzzles from 1900 or so, at my friend Derek's house in the 1970's

Marta Pires: Bruno and I got married there -- that's how much I love the place! 

Marta Pires: Photos for Just Add and Light, what a great idea!

Sandra Dodd: Well then I did see some photos of it, but there were all those people in the way!

Marta Pires: 

AlexPolikowsky4: I visited a house in Colorado and I cannot for the life of me remember who it belonged to, that was a museum chuck full of interesting stuff. Apparently the people traveled a lot and collected stuff from all over the world. very cool!

Rippy: My aunt and uncle used to live in a small town and they had a very common Indian last name. They sometimes had other Indians (complete strangers) ring them up and ask if they could stay at their house instead of a hotel. I seem to remember them agreeing to it. I guess hotels were very pricey back then and the Indian community was pretty tiny, so it was a good way of expanding your network. It was in the 1970s, maybe even 1980s.

Sandra Dodd: Some people have beautiful Christmas ornaments. My Christmas tree ornament boxes are another museum. 

Sandra Dodd: In a small town in Canada?

Sandra Dodd: Some of my ornaments are old McDonald toys.

Rippy: a small town in Canada. The town where I was born.

AlexPolikowsky4: I have a little cup from Japan our Japanese trainee gave us and a little bowl from Africa that my neighbor got for us. I will keep all those little things around. But I moved a lot so only the last 14 years I have been able to accumulate interesting things!

Sandra Dodd: I have things from Africa, but they came from thrift stores. 

Sandra Dodd: That might be a kind of checklist for your "museum" thoughts.

Sandra Dodd: Do you have something from every continent?

Sandra Dodd: Something from the 19th century, 20th, 21st? Anything older?

AlexPolikowsky4: garage sales are also great to find interesting things!

Sandra Dodd: Do you have older coins than what's currently in use? (A Canadian $1 bill you could show your kids, for example?)

AlexPolikowsky4: My Mother-in-law's husband has a collection of old tractors and some other John Deer memorabilia!

Marta Pires: I think we're lucky that all of us (my grandparents, my father mostly and I) like to keep things. 

AlexPolikowsky4: I don't have anything from Australia I suppose 

AlexPolikowsky4: I have a little collection of foreign and maybe some old coins!

Rippy: Marta, who lives in your grandparents home?

Sandra Dodd: Yesterday arrived a box with four seasons of a TV show about Robin Hood. I mentioned watching it on TV when I was very little and not really getting it, but that it really sparked my interest in the Middle Ages. Two others in the discussion (on facebook, which is as awesome as it is irritating) knew exactly the names of the actors and stuff and said it was on DVD, so I got one.

Sandra Dodd: I can't remember ANYthing specific, so it's going to be fun to see whether there are scenes or actors that I will recognize. I was three, four, five. It was on for four years.

AlexPolikowsky4: I have a couple of old jewelry pieces that were my great grand mother.

Sandra Dodd: Half hour shows, I think. Black and white.

AlexPolikowsky4: I do not know how old they are.

Marta Pires: Oh, that's a long story Rippy.  My aunt, my father's sister, lives there. My father wanted to go live there too, but they never got to doing some work on the house (they needed to renew the electrical and plumbing parts) and so my parents never moved in. It's a huge house and they would have divided it in two.

Marta Pires: Plus, the house was designed by a famous Portuguese architect, called Cassiano Branco. 

Sandra Dodd: Keith's mom had come from a well-off family, in Canada across from Detroit. Her dad moved to Detroit to work designing cars or something cool. But she gave me rings for babies—toddlers. Gold. One had a little gemstone. Kirby and Marty used to wear them with their medieval costumes. I still have one or two, of three.

Rippy: Wow - it sounds so grand 

AlexPolikowsky4: Maybe it was best they did not divide and renew stuff yet. Maybe they would have remodeled and replaced cool old things for new ones-

Sandra Dodd: I love digital cameras and blogs.

Marta Pires: https://www.google.pt/maps/@38.738283,-9.139292,3a,75y,326.17h,88.31t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s5C2F9YlFjwI4bkjTVKN4Dw!2e0

Marta Pires: Not sure if this will work.

Sandra Dodd: People can share things, get information about things, show things, compare them, and still find the photos again later. Until whatever happens to blogs and the internet happens so we can't see them anymore. 

Marta Pires: Yes, it worked. That's my grandparents' place. 

Marta Pires: True, Alex.

Marta Pires: I hope my brother and I can find a way to keep the house.

Sara Vaz: A while ago we went to our landlord's house, which is a very old house, and Gabriel was fascinated with the size of the doors, and the keys! He was amazed by the keys! So big! 

Marta Pires: I would LOVE to move in there one day. 

AlexPolikowsky4: It worked! How old is the house. I does not look very old. (when you live in a house that is over 100 years like me!)

Sandra Dodd: Does it have a back yard?

Marta Pires: It's from 1930 something.

Marta Pires: It does. Not a huge back yard, but we could do something out of it.

Virginia Warren: My house is in a historic district. It's kind of old(1935) but feels older because we're not allowed to update many things.

Sandra Dodd: Sara, that's nice that he got to see big keys. New keys are very different. Marta's has little circles on it. Schuylers has a hollowness (so twice as many "bumps, on two edges facing the same way)

Rippy: Cool house Marta! And cool that in the 21st century, you can just mention a house you love owned by your grandparents and then just a few minutes later, send us a photo. 

Marta Pires: Right Rippy, so cool! 

AlexPolikowsky4: One of the houses we live in Brazil for a long time was build using a lot of materials from older houses. Amazing wood and bricks. The guy the built the house was an Engineer and he was one of the big shots that worked when they built the subways in Brazil and he used the material from demolitions. It was awesome.

AlexPolikowsky4: Cool Marta!

Sara Vaz: Yes 

Marta Pires: And now that we're talking about keys, I just remembered the huge keys at that hotel in Óbidos, Sandra. 

AlexPolikowsky4: Would that be Art Deco then?

Rippy: We went to Italy a few years ago and I spent a lot of time just in awe of doors. Beautiful. Huge. Works of Art. I would love living there just to walk around and look at the doors. The name of the city was Bologna.

Sandra Dodd: These stories might not be what your kids want to talk about at length, but even if they've just seen the thing, touched the big key, they don't need to know more. Learning will be happening.

Sandra Dodd: But the moms can enrich themselves and deschool some more by taking that sort of inventory of immediate amazing resources.

Marta Pires: Alex, I was just reading that he was influenced by it, yes.

AlexPolikowsky4: I love Pintarest for this too. Just search doors and you can see amazing doors.

Sara Vaz: Indeed! He asked to hold the key! It was big, and heavy, and beautiful!

Sandra Dodd: If you know it's more than you could possibly ever share with them, you won't worry that they won't see it all. You'll know that they *can't* see it all!

AlexPolikowsky4: http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=doors

Virginia Warren: The 30s? I think so. The houses in my neighborhood in Alabama have the same cut glass doorknobs and "subway tile" bathrooms as the apartment buildings from my childhood in Manhattan.

Marta Pires: Wow Alex, what beautiful doors!!! 

Rippy: I love blogs too. I'm a terrible blogger, but have lots of ideas saved in draft. One of my posts is about how much we "cuddle wuddle" in the mornings (Gislele's word for cuddling in bed). I often sing songs to them. In the draft version of that post I've linked songs that my mom used to sing me when I was a baby/toddler/child and now I sing those songs to the kids. So awesome that you can find that stuff on the internet to add on to your blog posts.

AlexPolikowsky4: It changes everyday! It is amazing. I love doors too  and windows!

Marta Pires: Indeed, Rippy.

Sandra Dodd: My house had two glass doorknobs. Hardware is cool, but at the time it was probably just like going to walmart and buying their cheapest doorknob, thinking it's not too special.

Sandra Dodd: But say somone has all their furniture from IKEA in the past ten years. Nothing new. Dishes, just from Target or somewhere cheap. Pans from Costco.

AlexPolikowsky4: Rippy, do pictures and simple writing. I am not a good blogger. I blog mostly to save memories and ideas. I want to do more but I get busy. I could write pretty much everyday about something cool.

Sandra Dodd: But forty years from now, seventy years from now, that will be the kind of stuff that people will say "My grandmother had one of those! I wish I had saved it.!"

Sandra Dodd: That's where antiques come from. 

AlexPolikowsky4: Exactly!

Marta Pires: I'm such a bad blogger that I don't even have a blog yet! I've been thinking about it for ages, but still, no blog. 

Rippy

I found the songs on my draft blog, called knuddle (also Gisele's world for cuddling). Lala lala loori (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHErjN1pcAI) and Chanda hai tu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCoHSjMEkt8).

Sandra Dodd: The first time I went to England, before digital cameras, I was using up my cartridges on doorways. Little doorways to janitors rooms, behind fancy buildings. Close-ups of church doors. Doors to row houses.

Sandra Dodd: I still photograph windows and doors. An open doorway with someone standing in it, I LOVE.

Marta Pires: 

Virginia Warren: I agree that seems likely Sandra. I always thought those glass doorknobs were lovely when I was a child. I still do.

Rippy: I'm not a good picture taker either, Alex. I can't seem to multi-task well. I can be a pretty good unschooling mom or a good blogger. I haven't figured out a way to do both.

Sandra Dodd: They were BEAUTIFUL and they felt good. And if they had been outside, they would probably have cast rainbows. Ours were very internal, between the kitchen and dining room, on a glass-panes door. No sunshine ever touched it. It was an adobe farmhouse from 1915 or so (I think).

AlexPolikowsky4: I would love to have a nice camera. My camera is my phone. Someday!

Sandra Dodd: One summer I was in England and my phone was my camera and those are some of my favorite photos ever. Most camera phones are better than any camera 20, 30 years ago. AND you can switch to video, just like that.

AlexPolikowsky4: 

AlexPolikowsky4: That is the thing! I always have a camera for photos and pictures with the phone!

Marta Pires: I have a very good camera but it's so heavy. I wouldn't be able to carry it around and capture all the moments I've captured so far with my phone. 

Virginia Warren: My daughter was pranking us with my phone and a wireless speaker. Recording eerie messages and setting them off remotely.

Sandra Dodd: Fun.  She can do some cool stuff when Halloween comes! Ghosts in trees.

Sandra Dodd: My camera needs replacing. I got it before I went to India. When I zoom in a video now, half the time you can hear the mechanism zooming. And there's a little smudge on the lens that only shows in a sky shot, but it means it's in all of them.

Sandra Dodd: So I need to decide whether I want another pocket-sized one so I DO take it and CAN take it.

Sandra Dodd: Probably.

AlexPolikowsky4: I love my Flip video camera little thing. They stopped making it. I get great videos on it!

Sandra Dodd: I've thought of getting another one just like it, used, so I don't have to learn anything and so my extra battery is still usable.

Virginia Warren: My older daughter gave her 3ds to my younger daughter last week, and she's mostly used it to record videos.

Rippy: Gianluca has these sound boxes. It's sort of looks like a calculator. But each button gives a different sound. He has SO MUCH fun with those. I saw The Graham Norton show and they showed Jamie Fox speaking into a microphone and then his voice coming out sounding like Electro's voice. I wish I knew where to find that microphone! Gianluca would love it. Maybe it was just a prop.

Sandra Dodd: My closing comment is to remember you don't need a museum to find things your kids will be fascinated by and learn from.

Sandra Dodd: You probably have things right in your home that would not only connect to history, but it might be THEIR history. And will be from then on, anyway. Things we have from thrift stores aren't from MY family, but for my grandchildren they will be from their family.

AlexPolikowsky4: The kids and the parents. Curious parents are great! 

Marta Pires: I didn't even notice it was time already!

Sandra Dodd: Yes. Parents should remember to keep their curiosity open and looking.

Sandra Dodd: Thank you for being here and I want to say a P.S. thing. 

AlexPolikowsky4: Got to go! Was going to mow today. Perfect day. Perfect temperature. Dang belt needs replacing. It will be here tomorrow.

AlexPolikowsky4: See you next week Sandra!

Sandra Dodd: Thank you for trying these ideas and passing them on someday to other people.

Marta Pires: Thank YOU for sharing them in the first place, Sandra! 

AlexPolikowsky4: Bye all!

Sandra Dodd: Next week from Alex's house. I hope. Unless that's the time to pick up Pam Laricchia.

Sandra Dodd: I'll leave a message at the blog on Sunday.

Rippy: Thanks for the chat and have a great symposium at Alex's place!!

Sandra Dodd: Bye, all!

Sandra Dodd left the chat

Marta Pires: Bye everyone!

Virginia Warren: Thanks Sandra.

Virginia Warren left the chat

Sara Vaz: Bye everyone and thanks for the great chat!