One of Rockford’s family’s traditions is to provide one another with Christmas wish lists the week of Thanksgiving. There’s not really anything I need, but I did find a few things I’d like. Such as…
What’s going to happen in season three of “Stranger Things”?
We just finished watching “Stranger Things 2” with Poppy last night. She was thoroughly invested and love the show, and when it was over she had one question: “What are they going to do next season?” And Rockford, of course, had an answer, because he’s a pop culture junkie. Here’s what he thinks is going to happen in “Stranger Things 3.”
So, I think they’ll use ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘The Goonies’ and potentially ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’ as influences, because those were all top movies in 1985. ‘Back to the Future’ from a characterization standpoint seems to fit the Steve model. Marty McFly is well-intentioned but kind of clueless. So maybe Steve has a story arc that involves some time travel or just where he meets a crazy old guy. Since he’ll be going off to college, that would seem like a natural way to introduce a wacky professor — his own Mr. Clark, maybe. If there are two movies from the ’80s that best describe this crew, it’s ‘Explorers’ and ‘The Goonies.’ Both of those movies came out in 1985, so we should see more clear connections and references to those. And then with Mad Max, we’ve already had the scene where Max was driving the muscle car. If they continue with that thematically, it may be that she has to go through some tests and rigors of her own to lead them through some challenge.”
I think we can also expect to hear a soundtrack featuring some Tears For Fears, some Jesus and Mary Chain, Talking Heads, probably some New Order. Given Jonathan’s propensity for ‘edgier’ music, that was also when Sonic Youth was just releasing their first albums. Maybe some Simple Minds.
And then there’s the overarching ‘Breakfast Club,’ which was also 1985. We’ve already had a John Hughes movie referenced (“Mr. Mom,” who ended up being Steve). And now we’ve got ‘The Breakfast Club.’ You’ve got Steve as The Jock, Jonathan as The Nerd, Nancy as The Princess, and Billy as The Criminal, which suggests that they might introduce a new teen character to fill the role of the Basket Case. Maybe they’ll bring in Kali for that, but my guess is we’ll get a new female character to play off of Billy or a new love interest for Steve. If you remember, The Jock and The Basketcase did end up together in ‘The Breakfast Club.’
We also saw Paul Reiser (who was in the ‘Alien’ movies) and Sean Astin (‘Goonies,’ obviously) this season. Maybe we can look forward to Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez or Michael J. Fox next season?
While I’d love to see just a straight-up remake of “Back to the Future” with Joe Keery, I think it’s more likely that we’ll just see Steve in a puffy orange vest than actually heading back to the ’60s. I think Rockford’s “Breakfast Club” casting connection has some potential, though. What do you expect from season three?
A few words about school
I used to write about our homeschooling adventures all the time, and then this year came along and I stopped writing about it altogether. There’s a reason for that, and the reason is not that the children have stopped learning but that I have for the most part become more of a homeschool administrator. And that’s just for Poppy. Pete isn’t homeschooling at all this year.
The last time I posted about homeschooling was in April, in The Evolution of a Homeschool Mom, in which I said I was struggling to figure out my new role. And that’s just what I’ve done this year. My job this year has been to keep up with their schedule and get them where they need to be and make sure they’re doing their homework. And it’s gone pretty well, for the most part.
Our semester of co-op just ended. Poppy took video production (in which the kids made a sequel to “Pretty in Pink” with puppets), French and literature, and I taught Creative Writing to 9- and 10-year-old girls. One of them wrote an amusing little poem about Elvis meeting Nixon. It was a fun class. I had fun, anyway. I don’t know if the kids did.
Poppy’s also taking US history, physical science and writing elsewhere, and she’s also participating in a book club and working on a monthly newsletter there. She loves her classes there, although she’s a little disillusioned with it today because one of her teachers assigned a lot of homework over Thanksgiving break.
Pete got his first report card recently, and he’s done just fine. He made the A/B honor roll, and he’s made a few friends. My primary concern for him and public school was that he’d be in trouble for talking all the time. That hasn’t been an issue at all, though. I had to laugh in our parent-teacher conference earlier this year when his teacher said, “I was worried when I saw he’d always been homeschooled, but he’s fitting in just like he’s always been here!” I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
So all in all we’re having a fine school year. I’m mostly just driving people hither and yon and saying “Did you do your homework? Do your homework!” a lot. The kids are happy and healthy and they’re learning, so I’m OK with that.