Homeschool and Etc.

The Look.

2009-12-14T23:01:00.002-06:00

Leather jacket for about $5 at the thrift store. It really looks *sharp* on G and he has gotten a lot of compliments at school. Yes, it is missing a button, but it's otherwise in excellent condition and is old enough to be back in fashion again. This leather is super-soft, too. D bought it to tear up and make little projects out of, but G is giving it some new life. I wish, with the negative temperatures out there, that he did not go out to the bus stop to wait just as you see him here. Apparently wearing a hat or jacket/ being sensible is very out of fashion.

Homeschool Update

2009-12-13T09:12:00.005-06:00

We got sidetracked a little bit in science. You'd think that reading a page in our LIFEPAC book that the children would memorize the information and move on.

But noooo. Thermometers usually have mercury in them, did you know that? Elf has the fantastic idea that they should use water instead because mercury is bad for you. I'm trying to tell the kid that NO WAY a water thermometer would work. Emperor demands to make a thermometer with water to prove me wrong. So, fine.

The temperature inside is marked with a line when we began. As it got warmer through the day in the house, the thermometer read the same. We put the thermometer outside. After a while, the temperature reading was "ice cube." We left it inside for a while and it returned to the previous line. After a few days, I had a hard time convincing the children that the temperature did not go down... the water is just evaporating.

I don't think that there is a great demand for Elf's idea, and because I'm not running to the patent office this minute, I suppose I should share it with you.

In other news, despite growing up as a relatively well-read child, I had never read Robin Hood. We started that adventure in our homeschool a couple of weeks ago. Emperor came across a passage discussing the beautiful forest and the gay dragonflies.

"GAY DRAGONFLIES? Who wrote this book??" Emperor yelled, turning to look at the cover.

"No, it's ok," Elfie assured him. "It's a word that used to mean happy."

"Yes, Elfie's right," I chimed in. "There are a lot of words like that that have changed meaning over the years."

"Like pussy," Elf said. Ok, I almost fainted when I heard that word from him...

In any event, I have to say Robin Hood is not the best example of godly manhood there is. This fellow is hiding out in the forest, drinking ale, swacking passers-by with his staff and stealing their money, and shooting arrows about just to show how awesome and full of testosterone he is. They've just recruited some drunken monk as chaplain. Apparently you can have a hundred or so guys hang out in the forest through English winters (brr!) and the authorities/townspeople are powerless to stop them.

Well, it's not my favourite book. And speaking of classics, when Patrick was reading Romeo and Juliet, I read it and found THAT disappointing as well. Romeo is in this rebound relationship with some 14-year-old chick in a dysfunctional family. And in true Springer style, the families just fight it out whenever they see each other in the street with knives and call each other names. The final answer to all your problems, though, is to just kill yourself when life doesn't work out well. Then everyone else has to feel sorry for THEIR mistakes. That'll teach 'em.

How messed-up is that? I'm not sure that I want to bother including that one in our high school literature pile when the children are older. Just because everyone else thinks it's great doesn't mean we have to read it.

In the News

2009-12-12T07:57:00.004-06:00

Yowzers. A charity wants to do a free medical clinic for a few days during January, but can't afford the estimated $77,000 fee the authorities would charge. Well, I suppose they have a right to charge something for the extra cleanup and etc. the event would necessitate... though $77,000 seems just a mite steep to me. But the newsguys, instead of including relevant facts about the fees or examples of other charity events and corresponding fees, made sure to interview some dude about whether doing medical charity is even a good idea at all:

"Many District residents have chronic conditions, Keane said. 'What they need is comprehensive care, and I think the worst thing you can do to a patient is diagnose his problem and then not be able to treat it over the long haul,' he said."

So... in other words... don't bother doing charity work for the poor. I mean, unless they can have "comprehensive" care provided by the government, just forget about diagnosing conditions because these folks will have a hard time with that follow-up care thing. Better just to let these folks NOT KNOW they have diabetes or a heart condition, since unless they can see the magical doctor-person and get some pills and an MRI? Diet and exercise are useless, and it's just not useful to know that you have a problem. Better to let things go on as they are.

And I'm thinking that by this reasoning, we need to stop giving bottled water to people after hurricanes. I mean, it's just unacceptable here in America that we don't have a "comprehensive water system" no matter what, so it's a bad idea to give that short-term help.

Know what? People like this would rather things got really crappy for poor folks so they could magically prove their "point" about comprehensive medical care. Let those kids suffer with the scarlet fever that's easily treated now, but could mean blindness or death in a few weeks. That'll show those politicians.

Ok, I just shake my head at that attitude. You know, I don't think that government health care is the "solution," but that doesn't mean I would get all happy about someone's kid dying because the parents delayed going to the ER because they "can't afford" it if it doesn't pass. Life isn't about scoring political points. Good grief...

I think a little charity in our thoughts as well as our deeds is warranted.

Marshmallow Teeth

2009-12-11T00:48:00.000-06:00

We took a trip to the dentist yesterday, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to learn a little about teeth today. We made a little poster about the parts of a tooth, did a worksheet and made a snack. The snack was Emperor's idea: on a peanut butter base, we placed marshmallow teeth symmetrically and then Mom gave everyone "cavities" (raisins) to put into them. Woodjie is eating some lemon pudding because he's allergic to marshmallows, but Hunt's lemon pudding has no milk or egg in it. :]

Proposed Law!

2009-12-10T06:18:00.002-06:00

Dare I hope? It ends restraint in public schools and gives guidelines limiting the use of seclusion rooms. Ange is currently in Washington, advocating. BIG hats off to her, because what she's doing is so important. I got the link to the legislation from her blog and want to pass the word on to you.

Will you pray? Will you call your senator when this gets up for a vote? This is big stuff, folks.

And dare I say it? The Obama administration is taking some steps we never saw under Bush. And Senator Dodd of CT, big thanks to him as well. I very much wish that we had some more conservative folks who would "get" that abuse in school is not ok.

Truancy Sweeps

2009-12-09T10:32:00.002-06:00

Not in question: education is important. Yay. Also not in question: I sure don't want bunches of unsupervised children hanging out around my neighbourhood. And likely these children ARE skipping classes and shouldn't be. But my question would be about the Constitutional rights of the PARENTS of the children who are carted off in a paddywagon, whether the kids are public-schooled or not. I also wonder about this "cooperation" between truancy officers, the cops and the schools. Does that not scare you a little bit? I'm *guessing* that a cell phone call to Mom might get a "truant" homeschooler out of trouble with the cops in Dayton as homeschoolers are actually registered with the schools in Ohio and they already have your info on file (shudder). And on a *somewhat* related note, our city and school district and local grocery store are working together on something called the "Mayor's Christmas Tree," which gives out presents and food to needy families. They've REALLY been pushing the older kids in public school to attend several events and bring canned goods and money for a "good cause." I am Scrooge in this house to the older children because I refuse to participate or give a dime. All recipients of these "free" gifts MUST have their children "enrolled in a (cityname) school" to receive help. IMO the help should go to the NEEDY families regardless of whether their children are enrolled in school. It is not the time or place to push your agenda while being "generous." Maybe I am pushing mine by not giving. I thank God that I am not in "need" of this kind of "help" this year... and while it's true most very financially needy families don't homeschool, I don't like this coersion.

Websites.

2009-12-08T15:20:00.000-06:00

FOX News

FOX News is the bastion of conservative opinion... at least according to some of my liberal friends. It features, you know, articles that conservative people like to read. Articles like this one about people going to strip clubs. Did you know that watching strippers sets a woman's mind at ease and is a great bonding experience for couples?

I mean... even when I was an extreme "liberal" and atheist, I didn't go for this stuff. By any measure, this junk is degrading to women. So how is this smutty article, complete with a pic of the author trying to look sexy while eating eyewear, conservative stuff? 'Splain it to me, Lucy.

"Even if they don't like watching" their boorish love interests fawn over wiggling silicone, the article claims, "some women would rather know what their partners are doing than be left wondering. Accompanying him to a strip club makes her feel like she’s more on top of his sexual liaisons." (Barf!)

I guess if FOX News is "conservative," that I am not ready for what the "liberals" want me to read. This stuff is icky.

People of Wal-Mart

Well, I have to say when I first saw this website I was intrigued as to why my friend enjoyed it because many of the pictures don't look all that unusual. Certainly I don't get myself all gussied up for a trip down the shampoo aisle myself. But there's a certain appeal to people watching, and this site certainly has (in addition to the usual ALL-CAPS unkind commentary) some strange folks to look at.

Do you know what really intrigues me about the website? I keep wondering about the people who shot the pictures and how they got away with it.

Woodjie's Day

2009-12-07T22:08:00.003-06:00

Here's one of several pictures we took of sleepy Woodjie after he got off the bus. Judging from this form sent home, he must have eaten up a storm at school. I swear I feed him at home, but I know from experience at church that he likes to wander about and eat everyone else's food... so EVERYONE has to have milk and egg-free snacks. I like this sheet because it gives me a good idea of how he functioned at school without the teacher having to write an essay. I wrote her back on the other side of the paper. Woodjie fell asleep on the way home (look how tired he is in that top pic!), ate dinner half-awake, and was very grumpy/out of sorts. We put the tv on for him and got his fave pillow out. He seemed a bit better after the Monsters, Inc. movie. It is now 10:30 p.m. and do you think he is asleep yet? He is not. Nope.

Goodbye, Woodjie.

2009-12-07T14:09:00.002-06:00

Woodjie's first day of preschool. Here he is waiting for the bus and getting on. I swear I have five other children, but this week, life is all about him. :] Can you tell it's starting to get cold outside?

Woodjie's Reasoning Ability

2009-12-05T18:32:00.002-06:00

He not only matches the proper colour tile to the shape below it, he is now substituting the blue square tile where two green triangles were together for a perfect match. He loves doing this matching tile set he got for his birthday. He has a little difficulty with the fine motor (see top pic) but with a little help, he can do all the boards in this Melissa and Doug set.

Happy Third Birthday, Woodjie!

2009-12-05T15:38:00.003-06:00

No festivities yet. Napping with Dad. I have a sore throat and I'm not sure if I'll make him an egg/milk-free cake today. I might put it off and do it later this week. Look for more Woodjie posts this week as he starts preschool on Monday. Prayers appreciated. :]

On Gratitude.

2009-12-03T11:09:00.002-06:00

by Elf, Age 9:

I show gaditude by doing what mom says. My mom makes my home comeftubul. My mom lets us do fun things in school. She makes us happy all day. She gives us things we don't desurve. She lets us play with the babies. Thank you mom for what you have done for us! The way I show thaks for what she's done is that I help her. Obeying her. I wach the kids for her so she can eat. We do school so she can know that she is raising good childrin. We clean our room for her. That is how we show gratatude to her.

by Emperor, Age 8:

I show gratitude by whatching the kids. I Somtimes I mess up trying to show gratitude. The only thing I do when that happens is to be a minus not a plus. (Mom's note: I tell the children they must be a PLUS, or a helper, when we go out and not a MINUS, or a pain-in-the-butt. Mom needs helpers!) Mom takes us out for lunch or dinner sometimes. Mom sometimes takes Elf and I to Target or Walmart even. Showing gratitude is hard.

Thanks to Elf and Emperor for a sweet little assignment today. They were asked only for a few sentences on gratitude in their journals. By the way, their posts about hurricanes and storms can be found on their blogs:

Emperor's post

Elf's post

Thanks for reading!

Pink Toys Are Sexist And Evil

2009-12-02T20:02:00.002-06:00

...according to the Pinkstinks people. It's not ok to be marketing toys that perpetuate gender stereotypes. It's a way to keep the girls down and teach them that they're good for nothing but wiping baby bottoms! It has to end, folks. Boycott time.

Bleh.

First off, boycotts are danged overused and downright boring. If you don't like the pink toys, and your friends don't like the pink toys, how about... just not buying the pink toys and writing to the company in question about why YOU don't like them? Why does everyone have to get all organized and angry about it?

Now... I think a man can live in a pink house. I think he can cook in a pink kitchen with a pink pot. It's when he wears the princess high heels and the boa that I start to worry. I also think that men can occasionally have... female children. You know, baby girls. Said baby girls are usually pushed around in little pink strollers and wear little pink clothes and drink from pink bottles. Though the toymakers marketing almost ONLY EXCLUSIVELY pink things does send my sons the message that men don't belong at home with kids except on alternate weekends if they've paid their child support. But as long as they make money with the Pink Princess Plastic Palace and the purple glitter ponies made in China for super-cheap with toxic chemicals, I don't think the toymakers care.

Something else, though, bears mentioning. Dear toymakers, I know this may come as a surprise to you, but occasionally little girls marry MEN who insist on having the singing Billy Bass hung in the living room or who want to have their house painted a poop brown colour. (The nickname for the exact shade of our house is "Porta-Potty" brown, come to think of it.) It's also a simple fact that most of us living within our means don't buy entirely coordinated furniture and have a "theme" throughout the house. Can your playhouses reflect this fact, please?

And while I'm at it, I need to mention that occasionally... just occasionally... little girls grow up to be women who have SONS. They need to learn to push the BLUE stroller as well as the pink one. I'm not feeling that the gender role of my daughter is squashed by your marketing the pink kitchen and the pink-clad dolly, and I do buy some pink little dollies. But I buy boy dolls as well and can't find fun little "boy" accessories for them. A pack with a "boy"rattle, puzzle or outfit/blanket set would be nice.

While we're on the subject of gender roles and stereotypes, how 'bout this one? I'm thinking the truth is probably that the teacher is a liberal snit who wants to impose her values on everyone in the school and the dad is a jerk... who wants to impose his values on the everyone in the school. But... that's just from reading the article. The truth may be something so way different. Funny how that goes.

Having "The Talk."

2009-12-01T17:06:00.002-06:00

"Mom, I need to ask you something." Emperor is trotting after me as I clean the living room. "'Member how you said that scientists like to put everything into groups? And give them names?"

Mm-hmm. "Well, how do the scientists figure out which are the boy and girl hurricanes? And how do the hurricanes make new hurricanes?"

Awww, you're so cute, Emperor. Hurricanes aren't alive.

"They AREN'T?? But how do they give them names if they're not alive? And how do they get new ones then?" Sideways look. Mom must be holding out some important information.

Hmm... Well, here are some books on the subject. And if you have any questions, we can wikipedia about it or ask someone who knows more about it than I do. Or maybe you need to do your own research.

Be looking on Elf and Emperor's blogs in the next few days for a post about hurricanes. :]

Riff-Raff Homeschooling.

2009-11-30T22:22:00.003-06:00

A "home education facilitator" reminisces that homeschooling used to be something to be proud of before all the riff-raff joined up and wrecked everything. I mean, they're so uncommitted these days. It took REAL "I know I might lose my kids and/or get sucked into the legal system for years" - type commitment to homeschool, so way back when only a few really brave and determined families tried it.

"Today, homeschooling is almost commonplace," yawns Dianne Dachyshyn. "It seems that everyone knows someone who homeschools, and unfortunately, it also seems as if all of us know someone who has homeschooled poorly. Stories abound of that one, odd homeschooling family that someone knew from someplace." You know... the kids in the STORIES.

The real kids, though? I'm thinking the nice social worker might have other things to worry about besides whether Janie learns her times tables at nine instead of seven... but... I have also read the HSLDA bulletins and maybe I need to freak out. And the freak-out dance would be because of STORIES of people like THIS nosing into other people's business and getting all "concerned."

"I hate to say it, but in some of the cases that I have seen in the past five to ten years, the kids would have been better off in public school," Dachyshyn sniffs. She promises to continue her "thoughts" about why she would "dare to speak such heresy" and purport to be a committed homeschooler in some other future article that I probably won't read.

This lady assists families with the review they must submit to the state twice a year in Alberta, Canada. In other words, she makes money because of the stringent requirements in that province. She also has very intimate access to educational testing results and the families themselves. I would have to wonder if she were able to interview public schooling families and look at THEIR portfolios and go through THEIR testing scores and talk about how THEY intend to meet educational goals in the next six months if she wouldn't be singing a different tune. (I'm not saying that would be fair to do to every public school family, either, but insert goose/gander analogy here.)

I can't say I've *never* met a kid that I didn't think might be "better off in the system," but I also realize that HELLO? Every system of education or method you would choose for your child has its advantages and disadvantages. Certainly if you're a lazy mom and would never get 'round to teaching your kid to read, homeschooling probably isn't for you. Certainly if your kid is constantly neglected by the teacher and bullied at school despite your raising concerns, public schooling probably isn't for you right now, either... BUT I DON'T SEE PEOPLE SNIPING AT THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM even though the child may be going through severe emotional hardship ... sigh.

But it isn't MY PLACE to decide what you do with your child. You raise your own kid, and I'll raise mine. Tolerance, yo, though I have to also say it drives me nutty bananas to see attitudes like this from people who should know better.

Beware Samurai Bearing Gifts

2009-11-30T10:13:00.002-06:00

Many thanks to Sue for directing us to this neat tutorial on YouTube on how to make samurai kabuto (war helmet). Click here to see the craaazy picture she posted that inspired us to ask for help in making our own! And yes, this counts toward our Social Studies hours, mmmkay?

Hoarders

2009-11-29T12:25:00.003-06:00

I could *very* easily see us living this lifestyle to a lesser degree if I weren't prone to giving stuff away when we're all done with it. D likes to save Cool-Whip containers, pickle jars, peanut butter jars, empty pill jars and ... about everything you can think of because "we might need it" and it's "useful." I honest-to-goodness have found uses for about everything. Yes, we use ice cream buckets to separate toys, and we have bunches of them. It's helpful to organize our toys that way.

But now he's bringing recyclables home from work because it upsets him to see people just throw their lunch leftovers away. It's not being a good steward. Arg. We have a 60-gallon container we've stuck INTO the little recycling container the trash company gives us... and it's FULL each week. He collects hundreds of yogurt jars, each carefully washed, and expects me to find a good use for them. Ok. We use them to paint with ... but we don't paint quite so often that we can use hundreds... so I am left sending my children to school with these yogurt containers. They don't recycle them (I think they're number four and our recycling only does 1 and 2), so the preschool, junior high and high school are well-supplied with these. They ARE useful. But it just drives me nuts. We have to save every container AND its lid because... it might be useful.

I've also saved every outfit Patrick ever wore from babyhood on because... it WILL be useful. But there is a 15-year-gap between the oldest and youngest child... so stuff sits in storage for quite some time. Imagine having the entire childhood collection of two older teens, a nine and eight-year-old, and a soon to be three-year-old because it might be useful... imagine the boxes and boxes of things... arg.

And yet, no way I'm pitching it to buy new for each kid. I have the boxes stacked and organized and dive through each season. D says I lose things this way, and sometimes I do. Suppose this 3t is really more like a 5, so you store it with the 5s... but the next kid is skinnier and uses smaller sizes, or chubbier and needs longer sizes... or you have to go through three YEARS worth of stuff, including shoes, to patch together outfits for each of the four children twice a year. I save a lot, but I miss some things with any system I rig up as well.

But at least I can say there is a general purpose to the hoarding, and that when the "season" is over, I will be glad to give things away. We're done with the baby stage, so giving things away like the car seat and baby outfits is just a natural thing to do. D usually wants to save it and find someone specific to give it to. I might cull a few of the nice outfits out and mail them to friends or that sort of thing, but generally speaking? I need the space and the sanity more than I need to fill custom orders for friends who "might" find our old stuff "useful."

How about you? Is one person in your home the pack-rat, and the other the tosser? Do you live in cluttered spaces, happy medium or bare minimum? I'm kinda doubting most of my readers are folks who have **76** dead cats and literally tons of rotting food on their properties as in the video. You will love the videos I linked to above. They are really... amazing. I spent an entire afternoon watching this.

Updates.

2009-11-29T00:47:00.002-06:00

Woodjie can say "No, thank youuu." Well, it sounds like, "No, ee-eu," which is clear enough. Want some of this malt vinegar Mom's eating? "No, ee-euuuuu." Diaper change time. "No, ee-eu." And tonight at 11:30 p.m., Woodjie woke up to tell me "No ee-eu ni-ni." (Sounds like a Hawaiian serenade, but hey, we'll take it!!!)

Elf was a bit exasperated with me tonight during book reading time because I can't say what I mean. I told Emperor that one of the villains in Pilgrim's Progress was killed, and that's just wrong of me. He was SLAIN. I got the word wrong. Another example of a word I frequently get wrong (he helpfully continued) was that I call a slough a "swamp." And I shouldn't do that.

Thanks, Elf. Next time I think someone is just "going around the world," I will be sure to say that they are "circumnavigating" instead, ok?

Emperor and Elf have been very busy colouring a new Dover book about samurai swordsmen. Somehow the mounted warriors have different names and each type must be carefully researched. I had to look up each kind so that all the little outfits have the proper colour on them. It just wouldn't do to make them historically inaccurate. Elf's warriors all have blue eyes. The drawings we had been looking at were unclear on this issue, go figure. Emperor likes to talk about the different kinds of warriors, whereas it would totally escape my notice what kind of outfit the guy is wearing. How can a kid who wants to wear pajamas to church notice the difference between warrior outfits?? Astounding. I'd let him wear his Spongebobs to church but D says not. :P

New Lunchbox for the Homeschooling Dad!

2009-11-27T21:19:00.000-06:00

We've been looking in thrift stores about *forever* for a new lunchbox for D. We refuse to pay the $20 for a new one, but just hadn't seen any adequately-sized lunchboxes in good condition... until now. D wasn't sure if he should get it or not. I told him he should get this $1.98 bargain, because it not only holds his work lunches, it's also *blogworthy.* :P

Yowie!

2009-11-27T14:26:00.003-06:00

This is the sort of thing that I'd be afraid of happening if I brought my older kids home. No... not to that degree (LOL!) but the jumping right into geometry before figuring out the parameters of "this is schooltime" and "this is the time to eat cereal" that my younger children have down pretty naturally. I would imagine it would take quite a bit of working through those boundaries even in the best of circumstances. Patrick says it bothers him that all of our schoolbooks have "because God said so" or the like as the correct answer frequently and feature stories about nice little children who get oranges if they behave and lose their schoolbooks if they do not. And objectively? Yep. He's right. Conversely, he says that on his papers at public school, he just needs to "write something crazy and liberal" if he wants a good grade. Mind you, he was surprised to receive a C on a paper comparing public school to the Nazi death camps recently. And he wonders why this English teacher doesn't like him very much. Yeah. I'm thinking the "draw a political cartoon" assignment in which he depicted his teacher as a two-headed worm eating papers on one end and "producing" grades on the other, and forcing the children to drink Kool-Aid miiiiight just have something to do with it. I keep waiting for that phone call from school, but technically he completes all work as assigned. :P

Teen Fun at the Mrs. C House

2009-11-26T22:03:00.002-06:00

Whoever said that "life's a b*$$ and then you die" was wrong. The correct saying, my friends, is that "life is an autistic teenager and then you clean up the stupid pieces of the stuff he's breaking everywhere so no one cuts their feet open on the shards. Then you go and try to convince him that this is not ALL Mom and Dad's fault when HE was the one throwing it. And YES I mean to punish you even though it was your stuff that got broken! And JUST because Mom and/or Dad said something that made you angry, does NOT mean you have the right to act like a wompus-brain."

Well, ok. Maybe the first saying is a little more concise and universally applicable. Anyway... Thanksgiving (and for that matter, many days!) at our house look more like Stuart Smalley's descriptions of family life than normal everyday livin'. So say a prayer, would ya? G actually went to bed at 7:30 because causing a ruckus on a regular basis can get doggone exhausting. I'm up past 11 p.m. because living with a ruckus can set you on edge. I feel doggone exhausted in the morning, but the "nuggets are tough" as I tell my children when life doesn't go their way.

Now on to Patrick. We love Patrick. Momma's sweet little Patrick hurt his thumb terribly badly at school a few weeks back. I got a VERY concerned call from the high school school nurse. Now, how bad do things have to be for the high school nurse to see a male child in the office AND be allowed by said child to call his home? Pretty bad (if you didn't know the answer). We ran off to the doctor for x-rays and I was pretty worried. What does he MEAN, he's "not sure" how he hurt it? This could be serious, folks.

And in fact, it was just a sprain. But some young man was unable to do jobs properly for a couple weeks and was in some genuine pain. It troubled me that he had no clue how this happened.

Did you know Patrick has a blog? I'm not allowed to link to it, but you could probably figure it out if you click around diligenly enough and/or know his real first name. Anyway, it's mostly silly stuff such as how to draw smilies, yo mama jokes and some guy winning the Nobel Peace Prize:

"Warning: Any references to major political characters are completely unintentional, please do not be offended.

Warning: Coffee may be hot

Joebama sat and twiddled his fingers. He was forced to sit and watch another loser get the Glodal Peace Prize. He wanted to get back home and play video games. His favorite video game was, by far, World of Warcraft. He loved wrecking havoc on poor souls by declaring war. This also helped his career as Military Chief Assassin.

Just then, out of the blue, came a voice from heaven. "Purely for the sake of irony, I decree Joebama shall win the coveted Global Peace Prize."

Then, everyone applauded and bowed to the great and mighty Joebama. He strode to the stage where some old person gave him his prize.

"Thank You!" Joebama shouted to the microphone, "I deserve this award, you don't. The end. But I didn't do it alone. I would like to thank all those fools... uh... people who voted me supreme chancellor in time of war."

"Here is your money." the old guy said, trying to hand millions of dollars in small bills.

"You can keep it, sucker. I'm the president, I can just steal... uh... tax the people."And with that, he ran from the stage, out the doors, and to the White House, with his bodyguards still trying to catch up.

/end quote.

YES, this is the sort of humour we must deal with on a regular basis, and it knows no political or religious boundaries. Annnyway... he has a blog. And I see his friend, who also has a blog, is following his blog.

I am a stalker mom or something, because I trailed over to the friend's blog and watched allll the videos his buddy was posting. And...

THE HURT THUMB MYSTERY IS SOLVED! But not as I would have expected. Momma's sweet little Patrick-woozle, snuzzle muffin cuddle dude, was ON FILM bullying this other kid on several occasions. No kidding. It's a good thing the high school doesn't have this or he'd be suspended or something. The other kid? After many threats, just slammed his hand down onto the table. "OW MY THUMB!" is audible there somewhere.

I have half a mind to make the kid pay the medical bills and reimburse me for my time and trouble, taking his sorry butt to the doctor. But I'm more upset that he wasn't kind in the video. D says boys are all like that at that age.

(Do I still have a chance to raise Elf and Emperor better than this? Gracious, bad week for old Mom!)

In other news, "your face" is a big comeback among the teen set. For reallio. So. Say you're talking about chicken nuggets and how many are in a 10 piece chicken nugget meal.

"Chicken nuggets? Yo FACE is chicken nuggets!"

Now see how that really made you feel insulted and inferior? It's almost like the "your face" argument is an automatic verbal-boxing winner. Of course, I'm old-fashioned and am more partial to the "I'm rubber, you're glue" standby.

Chatting with Woodjie

2009-11-26T09:33:00.002-06:00

(His sweet little comments are in blue.)

Here we are, ready for breakfast. Woodjie is all strapped in to his booster seat and is about to make his breakfast choice. I'm holding up the Coco-Roo cereal, the "ball" kind.

Woodjie, want ball? ball? Or Fruit Loop. doo-oop.

BALL? BALL?

Or LOOP. DOOP.

BALL??? BALL???

LOOP?? LOOP!!

Which ONE? ONE! Which one? ONE! (BIG happy smile. Woodjie starts to flap his arms and stim.)

You want the loop, right? right?

The ball kind? Ind?

You want BOTH? BOTH?

Ok, there ya go! GO! Yay!

Assorted Education Post

2009-11-25T23:38:00.000-06:00

... full of notes too small to be posted separately.

It's a Teacher!

Don't you just love all the little baby things at showers? Isn't it fun to plan gift ideas and see some of the silly games the hosts will come up with? I'm thinking giving a tiny prize to the random person with the "raisin" in her napkin diaper decoration is a whole lot more classy than the melted chocolate bar in the diaper/ taste it and guess what kind it is game. (Blech!)

Now here's a new and different idea. A shower for a new teacher! I'm thinking every new teacher should get one. Wouldn't it be fun if new teachers could register for supplies and other things they'll need as the year begins? Or that veteran teachers would be able to gift extra supplies and books they're no longer using? Well, it's a *fun* idea.

Homeschooling Older Children

Christine over at the Thinking Mother has an excellent post up about homeschooling older children. It sure seems that most of the homeschooling blogs are about little kids, have happy pictures and captions like, "YAY, we learned about birds today because we saw a nest!" Great... when your kid is five. No, really, that's great, and you'll find me jealous that *I* don't have a nest, too, when I see that cute kid of yours looking at those eggs. Or wow, you downloaded a worksheet about "blue," and found five things that are blue.

How does one structure an entire high school curriculum... one that others will take seriously... from that point? How to get from here to there? Whoo, I'm nowhere near that yet and assume it will be a bit clearer when I'm closer, but I do appreciate posts like this.

Myyy, Myyy.

What do you think of this comment, left on an education blog? I'm not sending any flaming arrows over to the blog author as he didn't write the comment, but am letting this little gem stand on its own:

"Never underestimate the power of a teacher. Each day of the 42 years that I taught, I entered my classroom at 7:15 a.m. and taught by myself until school was dismissed. Only rarely did another adult enter my classroom. One day I thought to myself, 'This is like being self-employed, only without the overhead.'"

"When a directive came from above, if I didn't agree with it, I had 1001 ways to be creatively non-compliant, and so I always did what I thought best. Like most teachers, I kept it to myself. When one principal requested that all teachers put their objectives on the board, I copied objectives out of a book and kept the same ones up for months, knowing that he'd never notice. I was right."

"Unless the 'reformers' can come up with the money to have an administrator in every classroom, teachers will continue to teach subversively. As Stanford professor Larry Cuban used to say, nothing will ever happen without the cooperation of the classroom teacher.
Are teachers involved in making decisions at the national level? No. Are they powerless? No. Once the classroom door is shut, teachers make 100% of all the decisions and will continue to do so. There will be no 'innovation' or 'reform' without them."

I think teachers should have reasonable control of their classes and how to teach them, but I'm thinking yikes on this one.

A Pokemon Christmas

2009-11-24T08:46:00.002-06:00

We've already decorated the tree, and we're using some "Pokemon" themed art made with iron-together beads the boys have been making throughout the year. After Christmas, they will still want to hang these in their room or in the kitchen window.

Big Problem?

2009-11-23T23:11:00.002-06:00

It doesn't sound like too much TV is the big problem some folks want to make it out to be in daycare centers.

Sure, Mom, you would PREFER the kid get personal, one-on-one attention from her caregiver, or at least be her favourite. You would PREFER that the caregiver make macaroni projects and play play-doh and mini trampoline all day with your child, except for that precisely scheduled nap between 12:40 and 2 p.m. Then it's time for a small cup of half-juice, half-water. We're concerned about sugars, you know.

Wake up.

Now. Pretend you're a low-income mom. You're spending $15 or so a day on daycare each day, maybe a bit more. You do NOT have the $290 weekly special super deluxe preschool fees (um, that's for the HALF-day program, ma'am?), so you'll send your kid to May's up the street. You deal with what you have. You know May leaves the TV on a bit too much. But she's cheap, reliable and she keeps your kid no problem. You have to work. That's the end of it. You do the best you can.

Do you notice that the article doesn't say that a big, big concern is child molestation? I'm sure it happens, and I'm not minimizing that. I've read articles about kids getting tied up in some of these places, too. THAT would be a huge, horrendous deal for me. But does two hours of TV per day qualify as something that should give American parents a "wake-up call" as the article suggests?

I'm thinking no.

I'm thinking, that's not the ideal situation, and I wouldn't be happy about that aspect of things, but then again, some of these parents are just doing the best they can to get by. Are the children clothed, fed and given appropriate opportunities for naps? Do the caregivers put the guns in a locked cabinet? Are the hunting knives out of reach?

Is America a great country or what that we can freak out and worry about TV time and not whether our children are eating? Praise God, wouldya?