Homeschool and Etc.

The Zhu Zhu Pets Are HERE!

2009-12-20T00:08:00.004-06:00

When I log onto my email account, I get *plenty* of notices about the Zhu Zhu Something Whatever Pets. They are at such and such location at 6 a.m. Be there EARLY to be sure to have your opportunity to purchase one of 50 located in each store!! GO NOW!!!

Um, we don't need pets, real or otherwise. I had no clue there were even these "Zhu Zhu" pets in existence until the constant ALL CAPS emails screamed to me about my absolute need to get them for my children. They're what every kid wants for Christmas! What kind of bad Mom would I be if my children didn't have a "perfect" Christmas with these recycled Furby-looking things?

Elf and Emperor have never heard of Zhu Zhu, but I have been asked for a pony, a goat and a horse within the last month. Oh! And a Crusader outfit. You just can't play holy war properly with the paint stirrer sticks provided by Mom and Home Depot. One *must* have the Crusader outfit to rid the world of infidels/ jab our brothers in the ribs.

I don't think I'm going to tell them about this great new Zhu Zhu "need" they have when they already are not getting the pet chickens and Robin Hood bow and arrow sets on their list. They are getting Tinkertoys, some Pokemon cards and a couple of Spongebob books I found at the thrift store. I have also bought some paint and we will repaint their room. I am hoping someday to replace the furniture as well. I have some pennies aside and hopefully D will let us get something cool sometime.

The Zhu Zhu link provided in these emails makes the "pet" look like a small rock covered in fake fur with a couple of buttons for eyes. I don't know what a kid would do with a little non-living gerbil, but then again, I remember the "pet rocks" we used to have as kids. Since we lived in the Stone Age, we thought a rock with some glue-on google eyes and a doodled smile was an awesome pet. What's really hilarious? Our parents probably paid a lot of money for them. If we were really rich, our "pet" got carried in a basket and had some Easter straw for a bed.

By the way, I'm seeing a LOT of those Billy Bass Singing Fish things in the thrift stores now. Remember how clever everyone thought they were? And how they paid $19 for 'em? They're $1.98 now, boyo, but if you go on Sunday morning, the blue tag items are a quarter and you might just glue a little fake fur and a boa on there and pass one off on Christmas morning as Zsa Zsa, Zhu Zhu's outdated if flamboyant cousin.

They would be a real hit, dahling.

Cue the "Evil" Music

2009-12-19T20:10:00.003-06:00

The NEA bursts forth onto the national scene to remind us all that they're really, really GLAD that there is a proposed bill restricting the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. They're really, really glad. No, really. And they've been working a long time with disability groups and stuff and are heralding this great step forward blah blah blah and et cetera.

Have you puked yet? I'm kinda getting the angry dry heaves coming on here. When was the last time they have "advocated" for any teacher who slaps, restrains, secludes and/or otherwise abuses a student to be FIRED ON THE SPOT? Hmm? You just wow me with that overwhelming evidence *right now* and maybe we'll talk about how sincere this press release really is. Cue the "evil" music:

“We must work together to ensure the safety of all students and educators and create supports that provide proper training for school staff,” states NEA President Dennis Van Roekel.

Yeah.

Is this the same "working together" on common educational goals that the staff at my son's elementary wanted to do when they continually refused to provide a one-to-one aide, preferring instead to seclude him in a closet for his "manipulative" behaviour? I'm just wondering.

Maybe I need to stop being so cynical. Maybe we really DO need to work together. But I'd sure like a little more power on my side of the "bargaining" table when we're doing that. Is the union just giving in on this because it knows some of its members are abusers and need clear guidelines so they don't make the union look worse than it already does? I'm just trying to think of what it is about this bill that would make it in the teachers' union's best interest. More money for training/ higher pay for "qualified" disability teachers? That's a compromise I could certainly live with if it means that children's civil rights are respected.

What's your take? Am I just casting the NEA as the villain in every act of every play? Could they actually just get around to doing something right for a change, because they made a mistake and did something nice that would benefit a non-union member? (Gasp! LOL)

Or... wait. Wait. Don't tell me. It's political/liberal stuff, right? Is treating kids with respect a "liberal" thing now? "They" own that? Maybe that's it. Um... the more I think about it, the more I think probably that's it. At least on paper, "they" at least know we need to be nice to people. It's a pity more can't be said about conservative leaders who advocate swatting with belts as a logical consequence for common misbehaviours.

Um... and that's the moderate conservative. The extremists advocate absolute parental freedoms and all (you know, parents "free" to abuse their kids with no repercussions because God put 'em in the family, so God must like what's going on). These folks also think schoolteachers shouldn't do that, though... because there shouldn't BE any teachers outside Sunday School if y'all are being GOOD parents and homeschooling, right?? Though if it happens in Sunday School, that's ok because of some verse in Romans 13 about the powers that be being ordained by God, so shut up if the Sunday School teacher slaps your kid...

Siiiiiigh... Or worse yet, on another blog I read about how it is ALL YOUR FAULT, Mom, if your child is sexually abused in church because of some verse in Deuteronomy. And um, the verse means that you have to keep your kid with you at all times until she is married. If anything bad happens, you are 100% responsible (not the abuser; you've just placed "temptation" in his way with that hot 7-year-old of yours and her wily ways... *barf*) because you did not tomato-stake her properly.

I'm not going to link to the extreme stuff because it's so brainless and authoritarian that any good Christian should resist it. (Really. Read Galatians sometime. It's ok to think for yourself and figure out what the Pharisees don't want you to know about grace. And I am beginning to suspect that some legalism is a cover for very sinful behaviour; that of CONTROLLING OTHER PEOPLE, whether what they're advocating is right or not.

And MOST Christians don't buy it; they really don't. Please don't confuse "I agree with you that families are important" with "I agree that parents should be able to swat their kids with paddles until they bruise and gay people should be burnt at the stake." There's kind of a jump in logic that the simple questions of, "Do you support traditional marriage?" and "Do you think gay marriage is ok?" are not going to tease out... a jump in logic that differentiates most Christians from people like Fred Phelps.

Though maybe that is NOT a jump in logic if you find gay sex to be an absolute right akin to beating your kid senseless with a paddle. (!!??) Nothing really makes sense to me... no one's viewpoint really seems to be consistent on everything, including my own. That line between freedom and responsibility to others can be very tricky to draw indeed.

I tell you, the world is a topsy-turvy place sometimes. Sometimes, the people we think are evil don't turn out to be *wholly* evil... and the people we think are our allies? Well, you need to look out for them because you just never know, friend, what tomorrow may bring.

I am ready for the NEA to do something right. I'm ready for it to earn my admiration and respect, even. I'm going to try to keep an open mind on things.

But even as I tried to contact my congressman about this issue, I couldn't categorize it properly under "Civil Rights." The fellow had NO "Civil Rights" button, but there were about fourteen different words for "abortion" (pro-life, abortion, etc.) and tea party protest/ tax helps. I hope that doesn't mean that civil rights aren't important to him and that he wants five times as many comments about tax reform than education. Just an oversight? Will he listen?

I have a lot of questions about everything.

On Australia.

2009-12-18T06:26:00.004-06:00

How odd that I came across this story about the Australians' new idea for highways. We're doing a brief overview of "seaport cities" in our fourth-grade LIFEPACs, and right now, we're in Sydney.

So what do you think? Should the Australian government build speed bumps every 100 metres on the highways? It sure would cut down on high-speed accidents. I thought this story was for real at first because I had just been reading of another hare-brained idea in Veronica's blog that would entail zie government reviewing every website and see if it is safe for children. We want to keep the kiddies safe... so... the government will make sure that no bad ideas - I mean- porno websites enter the country. And anyone who doesn't agree with that must hate children.

I have to say that I didn't make any connections between the Clean Feed and that highway story until I read everything through and saw the web link. That's good satire, but I had just *assumed* the entire government had gone bonkers. :) But I have to tell you that this government censorship, on such a LARGE SCALE, is absolutely chilling. Though I do have to wonder if that sort of thing happens here, too, and we are just not told about it. No, I don't have any conspiracy theories. Just wondering aloud.

Back to our homeschool. One of our LIFEPAC review questions was along the lines of, "Name three ways you can tell Australia was founded by British people." Emperor said that you can NOT tell by their accents, because they do an "awful" imitation of a British accent. Umm... kid... it's a different accent. They're not trying to be British.

"But the question said..." Sigh. Nevermind. Elf?

So Elf comes up with ideas such as, "People speak English in Australia" and "Just look at the FLAG! It's obvious!" and "Because all Australians are white."

Thanks to the Wiggles, I thought, I'd be able to disprove this easily. But Elf and Emperor do not see the difference between Jeff and the other Wiggles. See, because they are all Australians, so he must be white. Actually, he is the PURPLE Wiggle.

I tell you, I deal with this logic EVERY DAY.

A Thrift Store Education, Part II

2009-12-16T22:14:00.003-06:00

Usually I'm a literary purist, but I *really* like this series of books. I started reading Oliver Twist and thought it was a faithful if simplified version of the original. The series does a great job of helping the younger student while maintaining the "voice" of the author. D and I began keeping an eye out for these at the thrift store about a year or so ago. Thankfully, the books are all pretty much the same size and have the same type, so they're easy to spot. Most of these were purchased for 50 cents each and yes, we have two copies of Oliver Twist and Heidi. When you have two children who enjoy reading at night together and following along, 50 more cents and an extra spot on the bookshelf isn't that big a deal. Robin Hood is in this series as well, but is currently hiding in a little box under Elf's bed.

A Thrift Store Education

2009-12-16T21:58:00.003-06:00

Spending $25 on some books at the thrift store seems like a bit much, until you price these materials new. We have a full curriculum for sixth grade reading once I buy the workbooks. Even these would not be necessary, but greatly enhance the experience. I just love Bob Jones stuff, but it is usually very teacher intensive, so I don't use it in every subject. In the pile D purchased are also some ABeka books, pieces of various science sets, a social studies textbook and a health curriculum complete with teacher and test manuals and the test answer key. If I decide to use these, I just have to buy the workbook$ and away I go. I might just wait until next April or so and go to a homeschool convention and try to find them used. If I can't find them used, I can order from the ABeka booth and get free shipping. :)
***************
I enjoy buying certain staple items new, but reading-wise, our entire collection is pretty well cobbled together thrift store finds, McGuffey readers and the good old King James bible. I also use www.crayola.com and print colouring pages for the flags of the countries we study in social studies. I also like the Dover sticker paper dolls and colouring books we used during our brief overview on Japan.

Layers of Story

2009-12-16T11:10:00.003-06:00

Here, a pregnant woman shows up at the ER. As is quite common, she's pretty well ignored for hours. Yep, triage and go sit and wait over there. And wait. And wait. So, she gets tired of waiting next to all the flu patients, figures out that this "sit in the waiting room and hope someone gets 'round to me" isn't working, goes home and gives birth to a premature infant that dies.

Ok.

Would the baby have died anyway? We'll never know. Not that that makes it ok to leave her in the waiting room forever. Should she have gone home? Was it a reasonable and advisable thing to do? Maybe not, but then again, I wasn't the one there dealing with the situation, pregnant and hurting with God-knows-who filtering into the ER room. Was she scared for her safety? Were the sick patients kept isolated?

Is this lady some big-money seeker looking to make a fast buck by suing? Well, if she is, she's going to some pretty extreme lengths for her cash. Most people don't start their day hoping their kid dies so they can get a few million. It bothers me when doctors' advocates make victims out to be cash-hungry crazies who sue at the drop of a hat. I remember once in eighth grade a peppy trial lawyer with a "power tie" came to talk to our health class. (Yeah, stuff like that was common where I lived. Really.)

"Who wants $250,000?" he energetically asked us. OOOOO, every hand was raised. "OK. Now, what would you say if I told you that in exchange for that $250,000, you had to lose the hand you're holding up right now?"

Stunned silence. I'm telling you, it made us think.

Also in the article: Good luck getting any cash out of the system. It's owned by the county. And maybe it's racist of me to assume, but "Roshunda?" Was she poor and black, maybe? Medicaid patient? Do providers ever roll their eyes at the Medicaid folks showing up at the ER? I'm just wondering aloud here, as I could be totally wrong and Roshunda could be the name of Paris Hilton's cousin, who happened to arrive by limousine. But I don't think she is. Then still again, maybe they would have treated Hilton's cousin the same way because they were dealing with many other serious issues at the moment.

Now, watch. We'll never hear of this story again, either because the parties settle or it gets forgotten. But sometimes I will think of stories like this years later and wonder how the folks involved are doing. My prayers go out to Roshunda Abney and her family.

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