SCHOLA: Odds and ends

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Odds and ends

For those of us that enjoy language and obscure terms, here is the link to the broadcast on NPR this morning about Susan Kelz Sperling's book, Poplollies and Bellibones: A Celebration of Lost Words.

Totally unrelated to anything: Are we overthinking things? Would humans be better off if we had not evolved into cognizant creatures? Witness bees and ants. They get along, they work hard, they have a purpose, and live a fairly peaceful, structured existence. Do you think bees are happy?

Have a Not Back to School tradition? Kim at Relaxed Homeschool would like to hear about it. We haven't done such a thing yet, but I think this will be the year to devise some sort of "official" kick-off for the year. Since we really didn't finish all of modern history from last year -- we made it to the end of WWII, close enough for me. Most major conflicts after that have been recent topics of discussion in our home -- and the girls are on their "official" summer vacation, I'd like to formally mark the transition from one year to another. Thinking cap on.

Today has been spent mostly in the shade of the Fust library's loggia. I am a wi-fi whore, I'll admit it. (I hear the new Fort Myers airport terminal will be wireless. Just in case I'm ever down that way...) There was a tiny baby lizard running around that was swallowed completely by a larger full-grown lizard. But he escaped. Then he was caught again, around the middle this time, and after his second escape from the jaws of death, I ran interference for him, tampering with the survival of the fittest, natural selection law of the jungle. Good thing there's no one else out here today.

And this interesting little tidbit (to me, anyway, since I'm on a reptile kick): It's not just the non-native iguanas that are a problem anymore, now apparently we've got Nile Monitor Lizards invading Southwest Florida. I just heard about it this morning on the radio and could not find a more recent link, but I love the quote in the caption.

More stream-of-consciousness coming your way: This is a cool dictionary search tool. OneLook is quite possibly all you need.

Batteries are low. I think I'll go peruse the shelves a bit. Maybe something on tape...

No comments:

Post a Comment

SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.