Home School Dad

In the neighborhood.

2013-05-02T11:16:00.000-05:00

Since I am posting anyway,. Here is a quick story and picture. My BIL came to visit last night. While many uncles may be content telling their nieces and nephews to get lost, he is the opposite, he brings them maps!

I went over a month . . .

2013-05-02T11:11:00.001-05:00

. . .Without posting and some people are beginning to wonder what's up. I had put blogging on the backburner for a while, and now it seems to be on no burner at all. This is because all is in flux right now. Depending on who you ask and when you ask us we will be putting 1 to 3 of our children in public school in the fall. I have not been blogging and trying to focus on employability and Homeschooling instead.

I don't plan on this being my last post or anything, it's just not a priority at present.

Veggie Give-a-way at Chicagoland Homeschool Network

2013-03-17T01:02:00.001-05:00

My name is Dave, I am not a tomato, but I am here to help.

The good folks at the Chicagoland Homeschool Network are giving away a copy of the Veggie Tale Video, The Little House That Stood. Click here to watch the trailer. Click here to enter the contest.

Obligatory Snow Post: Wordless Wednesday

2013-02-12T22:57:00.001-06:00

To Go Wordless click here.

COH @ DOL

2013-02-05T15:08:00.001-06:00

That means that the Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Dave Out Loud. It's a Reading Out Loud Edition. It was a lot of fun put together.. I hope you enjoy it.

Wolf wallpaper

2013-02-02T13:12:00.000-06:00

In real life we have not called Puppy puppy in quite a while. She prefers to be addressed as Wolfina the wolf. She acts like a wolf almost all the time.

So I was not surprised when I took her to the build-a-bear workshop for her birthday that she chose a wolf and even called her Wolfina.

The "bear" came with a little circular build-a-bear newsletter. One of the articles was about how to take the box/house which the stuffed animal came in/lives in and make wallpaper with gift wrap. Now, I am not ~~very crafty~~ crafty at all, but this actually worked very well

Here are the before shots:

Outside

Inside

And here are the after shots

Inside

Den Sweet Den

The Six Word Saturday in Question

2013-02-02T00:19:00.002-06:00

It's Saturday (well it's actually very late on Friday but by the time I am done writing this, it will be Saturday.) and time once again for Six Word Saturday at Show My Face Dot Com. I have decided to use my six words to ask you readers a question.

Here goes .. .

Do you ever break into song?

The other day we learned that a friend of ours told his wife that he doesn't believe that people ever actually break into song. My wife quickly replied that at our house it happens all the time. Neither Amy nor
myself will ever be confused with champion crooners. I can carry a tune in a bucket, but I generally have a better use for the bucket, so the tune suffers. This doesn't stop us or the kids from spontaneously combusting a tune on a frequent basis.

I grew up in a family that would break into song at the drop of hat. When ~~my musical talent was discovered~~
it was discovered I had no musical talent, they just made sure that no hats were dropped near me. In the family we are raising our children , the hats fall with abandon. We make up songs, make up new lyrics to old songs or just sing it the regular way.

So my question in an I like New York in June fashion, is
how about you?

What are your thought about breaking into song and entering into melody?

To answer my Six Word Inquiry, leave a comment. To See More Six word entries click here.

Friday Fragments: Kid's Update

2013-01-31T22:40:00.001-06:00

It's Time once again for Friday Fragments. Since I have not said a lot about the kids. Here's 1 fragment a piece about them.

Before I do, let me just say that Friday Fragments, aside from being a part of your balanced breakfast is brought your way from Half Past Kissin' Time. Click here for this week's installment.

Kid 1 - Audition Edition

Bunny surprised us a few weeks ago when she showed some interest in trying out for a local production of Seussical: The Musical. She worked hard practicing her audition piece with my Mom. I suggested she sing Suppertime from You're a Good Man Charlie Brown as she was often singing it at home.

About 150 children auditioned for a cast that will be about 80. Whether she makes it or not we are very proud of the effort she put forward.

Kid 2 - Army Surplus

Spider Droid continues to be very creative and 100% boyish. Here is a video he made yesterday. If you know any 8- 12 year old boys who would like to watch this please send them the link on you tube.

Kid 3- A Puppyism

(OF COURSE)

Wolfina FKA Puppy was taking a bath a few nights back when Amy overheard this gem. Apparently she had just finished washing her toes when she said:

"Step aside fingers there's a new cleanest body part in town, toes."

So those are my family of fragments for the week.

Thanks Blago A HSD Rewind

2013-01-30T20:19:00.000-06:00

From time to time, I like to check my statistics to see what if any of my previous posts are getting the most hits. This month, the most looked up of all my posts (by over 100 looks) was a post I wrote about former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich back in June 2011 shortly after he http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/11/10/blagojevich-to-start-working-in-prison-library/
was found guilty on several counts. I wrote this post as an epilogue of sorts to all the teaching and parenting material Blago's missteps had given me.

I am reprinting it here, as an HSD rewind.

It was a Tuesday, that's all I remember for sure. That's the day the kids had their enrichment course. (It's a co-op, but they don't call it a co-op. They call it enrichment courses.) Puppy and I played in a kid's area while Bunny took an art class and then Spider Droid took a chess class. I was driving to enrichment classes, (that's how I knew it was a Tuesday) when I heard on the radio that our state's governor Rod Blagojevich had been arrested on federal corruption charges. The most egregious of which was trying to sell the then President-elect Obama's vacated senate seat to the highest bidder.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a photo by captainleadbottom on Flickr.

It was there in the car on the way to enrichment classes, that our 2 1/2 year civics lessons began. Theses include lessons in filling vacant seats, abuse of power, impeachment, trials, hung juries and retrials. Then today as I went to run errands with the bigs, I turned on the radio and they announced a verdict had been reached in the Blago retrial and would be announced in the early afternoon. As quickly as that, our civics classroom started all over again.

Here are a few educational and pseudo educational moments from the last 30 months of Blagomania:

When Spider Droid first heard about the Blagojevich arrest he assumed that the governor had been framed since a governor would never do anything wrong. What I wanted to say to him was "live in Illinois much?" But I went the AWANA route and reminded him of his memory verse, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Many of Blagojevich's public appearances gave us quite a lot to discuss. I tried to find a video of him quoting Rudyard Kipling shortly after his initial arrest. The only one I could find was merged with Simpson's clips. So instead here is the beginning of an interview he did with Dave Letterman shortly after the impeachment.

(The video did not come up when I cut and past my original post. Click here if you are interested in seeing the video.)

The kids' impression of him was aided by the media. At one point between the arrest and the impeachment, the kids got to calling him "Governor Deadmeat" because he had been referred to that way in a local paper.

We even did a Lego workshop about him. . .

Blagojevich's downfall seemed to be that he felt that his years of service to the public entitle him to some sort of payback. During the past 2.5 years, even in his trial, he talked about all the great things he did for the state of Illinois. His defense seems to be (a) This is what politics is(everybody's doing it)and (b) I deserve something out of this. I am sure that in his mind, which must be an amazing place to visit, he did nothing wrong.

Interestingly enough, these are my kids' two biggest excuses for not admitting when they were wrong. "They started it"and "But I wanted it." Blagojevich serves as a warning to my kids and hopefully everyone who tries to cover up their misdeeds with excuses.

So thanks Blago, for all the civics lessons. I guess we'll just have to wait until your sentencing date to learn more.

Meanwhile back in 2013 . . .

After Blago was sentencedin late 2011, I did glean a few more lessons from his transgressions. That post can be found by clicking here. I had not heard anything about him since his incarceration until I saw this article http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/11/10/blagojevich-to-start-working-in-prison-library/from November 2012 in preparation for this post.

COH Now and Then

2013-01-29T15:53:00.000-06:00

Now: This week's carnival of Homeschooling is up at Living Life and Learning Please enjoy All About Changes.

THEN

I will be hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling next week at Dave Out Loud. Click here to watch and read more info.

New Year at CWF

2013-01-21T18:01:00.000-06:00

We skipped the Fall 2012 semester of our co-op because of my job. One of the first things I did once I quit my job was to sign up for the Spring Semester. I am co teaching a class on Discovering America. I will be teaching the States and Capitals portions.

Here is an idea that you can use in your classrooms tomorrow. Ask your children to take turns naming states as you write them down. The first 25 are pretty easy but the next 25 may be difficult especially if you make sure there are no maps out.

I am also assisting in a pre-school class about animals and a high school class about storytelling in film.

Spider Droid is taking a street drumming class he is very excited about. I am more excited about the Desserts, desserts, desserts class he is taking since he will be bringing those treats home along with the recipes. That means more eating and less banging.

Puppy is taking a class called Heroes and Heroines. Bunny Girl is an assistant in that class. Today they studied Marie Curie.

Bunny Girl is taking a mural painting class. This ambitious class will create a travelling mural as well as a mural to be made in the church that we use for our co-op.

I will be blogging more about these and other classes as the co-op continues through the end of April.

Happy Zoo Year

2012-12-30T16:34:00.000-06:00

We are all feeling better finally. We are having relatives over and while the young ones are watching shows I have a few minutes to post what will probably be my last HSD entry for 2012.

Let me tell you a thing or two.

1. Puppy (who will be to the changing nicknames in 2013)0 faced down a lion yesterday. Amy took her on a special day to the zoo.

2. Before I got sick, I quit my summer job. I had the job from early July to late December. That's some summer. That's 4o+ hours a week I am looking forward to getting back. I am going to use some of that time on our home school co-op and looking for a career rather than a job.

3. I am also planning on getting back to some sort of blogging schedule. I am used to going week at a time without an entry so it will take me some time to get back into practice.

This entry does get me one step closer. I hope to write a quick homeschooling piece in the next day or two. I hope you all have a happy and joyous new year.

Merry Sickmas

2012-12-26T09:15:00.004-06:00

For the past week at least one of the family has been ill. This made for a more hectic (at times), more subdued (at other times) but still very merry Christmas season. Presently, we are all feeling better, but still on the mend. I will be back in a few days when I am at 100%. Until then, The HSD family again wishes your family a joyous holiday seaso

Six Word Santa Day

2012-12-22T02:25:00.002-06:00

It's December 22nd, the Mayan calendar ended and the world didn't. So I have 6 words to share:

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

For more Six Word Saturday click here

WFMW Rubber Bands

2012-12-19T01:43:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I participated in Works for me Wednesday. Today a common household device brings me back the handy dandy rubber band.

Here are 2 ways rubber bands have worked for our family recently.

1.
I have found that at the factory job I have had for the past 6 months that overalls were the best thing for me to waer. The problem was that I only had 2 pairs of overall and one was missing the metal fastener that holds the snap up as you can see in the picture below.

I got this brain storrm to use a rubberband to replace the fastener. It looks a little awkward but with a shirt or sweater on over it, none are the wiser.

2. Recently the power cord formy laptop has become very persnickety. Unless you are holding it at a certain angle and applying a pretty good amount of pressure, it will not recharge the unit. My lovely wife found that by attatching the laptop to the power cord with a that it would not only properly charge the batter, but could also allow us to power it without the battery. This had become impossible without use of the rubber band.

So that's how the rubber band works for me. It has saved us money, time and frustration. To find out how other things (some not even elastic) work for others, click here for more WFMW at We Are That Family.

An Open Letter to the NRA

2012-12-18T01:19:00.002-06:00

Dear National Rifle Association.

I am sure that your leadership is viewing the events at Sandy Hook this past weekend the same way the rest of the country is, tragic, horrific, needless and sad. Many of your membership are educators and countless members parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts of school children. I am sure you will mourn with the families of the victims as they are laid to rest this week. Then I imagine you will go on the defensive as you prepare for a governmental and public outcry to restrict your second amendment rights.

I write you today to discourage the last action. Now let me explain that I am neither a gun or anti gun zealot. I am only zealous for a few things, like Homeschooling, The Chicago White Sox and Sterzing's Potato Chips and not zealous enough in others like personal holiness. That is to say I usually don't have a horse in the race which is gun rights.

However, since I do have a wife who is a school psychologist who sees caring for the children in her school as one of her callings for God much like the School Psychologist killed at Sandy Hook and since I have a first grader who loves to draw and encourage people like at least one of the 20 first graders shot multiple times at Sandy Hook and since I myself would do anything in my power to protect and shield children from danger like the heroic educators living and dead at Sandy Hook, I am putting a horse in this particular race.

It is important and fundamental that the N.R.A. be at the helm of protecting not only your right to bear arms but also the safety and well being of the citizenry that you bear arms for. Last year I attended one of your young hunters traiining classes with my son. He was trained in orienteering, archery and other hunting skills. He was also taught gun safety and the idea that guns, bullets, bows and arrows are tools to be used properly.

That educational wing of yor advocacy group not the legal wing need to be in the forefront in the weeks and months to come after this national tragedy which hopefully is not just another domino in the gun related tragedies of recent memory.

And when it comes to the legal wing, surely some concessions can be made for the saftety of all. If the N.R.A became known as a force for regulating gun use along side advocating the safe use of guns for recreation, by, provision for and protection of our loved ones this would go a long way into strenghting your image in the 21st century. The time for carrying a big stick will come, now is the time for walking softly.

Love,'

Dave

Puppy Upper

2012-12-10T14:36:00.001-06:00

Puppy blew up this giant balloon all by herself.

A Puppyism is Born

2012-12-01T20:14:00.001-06:00

As I said in my last post, we had a recent addition in our family of a niece/cousin. So not surprisingly the kids had babies on their minds tonight as we were driving home from dinner/shopping. We were talking about how all our kids were born by C-section. Amy explained a little about why that was and puppy from the back asked when I was born I had an ear infection? As we all laughed, I remembered that we had studied both Julius and Augustus Caesar in our Mystery of History
curriculum last year. So I asked the kids if they knew what the C in C-section stands for. None of them did, so I said it stands for Caesar. After a little while Puppy said so I must be part Roman.

I thought this quintessential Puppyism appropriate for my 700th post here at HSD. I am sure there will be more posts and puppyisms to come.

Big Niece Little Niece

2012-11-24T23:24:00.001-06:00

I have been an uncle for almost 20 years now. My first niece was born in 1993 when I was living in Russia. I didn't meet her until she was 15 months old. My first nephew was born in 1995. From 1997 to 2008 my sister and my sisters in law added 2 more nephews and 4 more nieces to my collection. Making me the OctoUncle. In February 2010, my wife's side of the family cried Uncle, when my wife's sister had her first child, a son.

My sister's 4 children including her oldest, all live near Washington D.C., while the rest of my nieces and nephews live in the same Midwest state as we do. This means that I am both a long distance and short distance uncle. Last year my oldest niece started attending college a few hour away from where we live. This means we have seen a bit more of her in the past few years than we usually do.

In fact she was at Thanksgiving on Thursday at my folks with the rest of her cousins, uncles and aunts. Today she took a break from her studies and went swimming with me and kids. Our kids really like her and she is gracious enough to treat them as equals even though she is now much more adult than kid.

After swimming, Bunnygirl and I traveled to the hospital to visit another niece. She wasn't sick, just extremely young. She's also not naive, but she was born yesterday. My wife spent Black Friday at the hospital helping her sister give birth to a beautiful girl.

When Bunny girl and I got to the hospital, I realized I had not been in the newborn department of that particular hospital since Bunnygirl was born 13 years ago. The hospital rooms had not changed much. My BIL and SIL were watching a rerun of Law and Order when we walked in. I remember Amy and I watching Law and Order reruns there when Bunny girl was an infant.

One thing that had changed is that Bunny, who years ago, looked similar to my newest niece pictured below

. now does not resemble her new cousin in the slightest. But she does love her as do we all.

Carnival of Homeschooling @ Homespun Juggling

2012-11-20T09:20:00.001-06:00

Tim for another edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. This week it is being hosted at Home Spun Juggling. Please enjoy the Gratitude after Stormy Weather edition. Cristina was nice enough to include my response to" Should Homeschoolers keep a low profile?" in this week edition. I am very grateful.

Should Homeschoolers keep a Low Profile - A Response

2012-11-19T11:45:00.001-06:00

At the end of September, Happy Elf Mom of Home School and Etc. had a guest post entitled Should Homeschoolers Keep a Low Profile? I have been wanting to respond to it for some time now but have had so much on my plate, have not gotten around to it

Well I am enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon/evening and Lo and behold I got one.

I will be responding to parts of the original post which I have italicized.

The author starts out . . .

We're really proud of the local school. It's part of living in this town: we root for the Falcons.

So far so good. Nothing too objectionable. I understand how a school can be part of living in a town. Especially when that school has successes to enjoy. I've seen Remember the Titans and October Sky enough to understand that.

The author continues . . .

If you homeschool, it's like saying you don't want to be part of the social fabric of the town. Your children are not participating in something that is important to all of us.

So much for so far so good! Or as Marlin says in Finding Nemo, "Good feelings gone!".

I have many problems with these small sentences. First of all just because I homeschool does not mean I do not want to be part of the social fabric of the community. My children have been active in athletics, library, park district and scouting programs and even volunteered at the local public school. In what way does that say we don't want to be involved?

Also, I wonder if the author would say that parents who sent their kids to private schools or parents who sent their kids to other public schools that better met their childrens' need rather than her public school, did not want to be part of the community. Or is it just us homeschoolers?

She continues to continue . . .

You're also unintentionally hurting the feelings of some very nice, dedicated people who work hard to keep our local school one of the best in the region. And you're basically saying that my school isn't good enough for your kid . I know you don't mean it that way, exactly, but that's how it comes across to a lot of people."

I don't have a lot to say about this part. Except to say as I am working on this post, my wife is e-mailing a local radio host applauding the staff of a local public school for the exemplary work they do in our community. No doubt, because she feels so guilty about hurting their feelings.

Speaking of guilt, the author continues her thoughts . . .

There's also the fact that not everyone can homeschool like you. People feel guilty or obligated when they hear about the good things that you are doing with your child. You don't have to say one word about them homeschooling for them to feel judged. I know you don't want to hear that, but that's just human nature.

By that logic, parents of honors students would not be aollowed to have those bumper stickers cause other parents would feel guilty or obligated about the good things others kids were doing. I know they don't want to hear that, but that's just human nature.

After one last closing salvo regarding some home school parents saying it is God's will that they homeschool. She concludes by saying . . .

I know you really enjoy homeschooling, but I think you should just tone it down a little.

But that doesn't seem to be at all what she's saying. If people can feel guilty even if we say nothing, how does toning it down a little help? I really think she's giving reasons (not good ones) why people shouldn't home school.

Now we know people who proudly send their kids to private schools, some just as proud about their local public schools. We don't feel guilty when they brag on those institutions. We know they are really just bragging on their kids. We see no problem going on about our home educated children in the same way.

As one of the comments on the original post said.

Why would I keep a low profile on it?

It's legal and we are awesome at it! :P

I wouldn't say I am exactly awesome at homeschooling, yet. But I would say it is awesome to live in a country where parents can choose what's best for their children. Now we just need to learn to be more tolerant of other people's choices.

If you have entered here by way of the Carnoval of Homeschooling, consider this link your breadcrumbs back to the gratitude fest.

Hi Yah!! - A Puppyism

2012-11-18T16:38:00.003-06:00

Puppy was playing with one of her Webkins yesterday when she announced, "Fluffy knows Karate and other Material arts."

Remember our Veterans

2012-11-11T12:30:00.000-06:00

Today is my brother Keith's birthday. Born in 1970, he died 7 months before his 39th birthday. This marks the 4th year that his wife, son, daughter, parents, brothers, sisters,nieces, nephews, and other relatives and friends have had to mark his birthday without his presence.

It s also Veterans Day, the day we Americans celebrate the veterans of our armed services. Dictionary.com say a veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in an occupation, office, or the like: a veteran of the police force; a veteran of many sports competitions. With this definition in mind, I got to thinking of everyone who has lost a loved one recently. How they, like me, have become a "veteran" of grief. Because even the loss of just one person you loved deeply is enough to make anyone a veteran.

We are taking some time as a family today to communicate to some of these "veterans" that we are praying for them and care for them deeply as they continue to experience their loss. If you are a veteran of recent grief, I hope you are encouraged as you reflect on the memories of your loved ones. If your war with grief is less recent and you know of some one dealing with the new loss of a loved one, i would encourage you to communicate with them words of hope and encouragement.

Ah, Yes I had the Lasagna

2012-11-06T14:32:00.000-06:00

Today is election day. Amy and I voted right before I drove her to work. I had the hardest time deciding who vote for for President. The election seemed to be a choice of Steak or fish and I had the distinct hankering for Lasagna. I literally decided who to choose while in the voting booth. After picking the big job, I then filled out the rest of my ballot with much more conviction.

Without knowing the outcome, I can tell you that the most important thing I did today was not who I voted for, but that I voted. And the second most important was that I voted my conscience.

Steak or Fish should be served up a little later tonight. Whatever Presidential Entree is selected I as a citizen will definitely come to the table and participate in the meal which is democracy.

*************************************************************************

As I mentioned in my last post, another election is taking place. The HSBA Awards. If you would like to see last years winners and who I voted for last year in each category click here.

I've been Nominated

2012-11-04T19:33:00.000-06:00

Even though this blog has been mostly dormant for the past few months, I have been twice nominated for the 2012 Home School Blog Awards at the HSBA post. I have been nominated in the following categories

Best Home School Dad Blog
Funniest Home School Blog

Voting began today and continues througer 16th Friday November 16th. To vote please click here.