ILL Wrap-up -- March

HEALTH AND SAFETY

-- Compared and contrasted nutritional value of Cocoa Puffs and Froot Loops
-- Discussed danger of climbing on and leaping from furniture


MULTICULTURAL STUDIES

-- Ate Indian food
-- Ate Thai food
-- Drank Chinese tea
-- Discussed meaning of and practiced working the expression, "Not for all the tea in China" frequently into conversation


CIVICS

-- Debated home government styles: Oligarchy vs. Democracy


LOGIC/CRITICAL THINKING

-- Posited various theories behind LOST


MATH

-- Proved that one weekly trip to the grocery store is more economical than several trips to the convenience store
-- Practiced sequencing (One...Two...THREE!) and discussed probability of time-out


ENGLISH

-- Demonstrated importance of spelling and how the omission of an "L", from the MSNBC.com Top Headlines, "Bush Sautes Tuskegee Airmen" made a difference


ART AND CULTURE

-- Took children to see bawdy performance of "Dimboola" by local theater group


SCIENCE

-- Discussed Newton's first law: An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an external or unbalanced force and compared it to Mom's first law: Those toys didn't get all over the house by themselves...

Case in point:

The Second Coming?

Followers of the Antichrist

Hitleresque, macho, scary.

Glory, glory hallelujah

My Witness friend is saddened by the fact that her staunchly Catholic parents will not accept her Jehovah as the one true god. They refuse to believe in the government of Jehovah led by the 144,000 anointed ones that will rule here on earth when paradise is restored. She can’t save them, they have to come into the truth themselves and be saved.

After reading Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire we can agree on the signs that she excitedly believes hail the Great Tribulation, and what I believe is simply a coming dark age: A government empty of content hiding behind slogans, nationalistic pride, imperialist wars; a culture empty of virtue costumed in bread and circus; an empty-headed populace obsessed with filling their empty lives with material possessions; and empty, false religions.

Unlike my friend, I don’t believe I’ll live to see her fairytale happy ending. Though we both believe hard times are coming, it is ironically her conviction I find most frightening. When religion and superstition top science, when new-ageism and fundamentalism and rapture enthusiasts and self-described saviors and flaky sects step in to fill the void for meaning in these empty times, the lights aren’t just being dimmed on civilization, the switches are being flipped, the bulbs smashed, and the powerlines cut.

I too am saddened. My staunchly American family will not accept their culture and country is in decline. I can’t save them, they have to come into the truth and save themselves.

Compromising My Credibility

Ahem.

After my last post, I figured I'd better do something to redeem myself in the eyes of my readers, therefore I've signed up for The Great Conversation Secular Yahoo group. The plan is to read and discuss a major portion of the Western Canon, something I've been meaning to do for some time now, over the course of about seven and one-half years. Being the geek that I am, I had several of the texts already downloaded on my computer, and a good thing too, because locating these books new or used around here has not been easy or affordable. I've got my notebook handy and I'm raring to go.

First up for the month of April: Plato's Apology, Crito, and Republic (Book I-II); Aristophanes's Clouds and Lysistrata; and Aristotle's Ethics (Book I).

See? I'm not just a zit picker, I'm a serious scholar.



(Thanks to Becky for tipping me off to the Yahoo Group and for walking me through the photo link!)

Six Weird Things About Me

Judy tagged me a long time ago, so without further ado:

I am hypersensitive to the hairs that constantly fall out and get lodged somewhere between my clothing and my person, usually my cleavage. So if you catch me on Aisle 5 of the supermarket with my hand down the front of my shirt, I am not a pervert, only a maniac trying to get that nearly invisible, tickly hair off of me!

When I take eggs out of the carton, I always take an even number, one from each end, so that just in case the carton is near the edge of the refrigerator shelf and the kids are being careless, it is less likely to become unbalanced and topple out onto the floor.

I enjoy picking blackheads. This probably stems from the time when my kindergarten teacher kept me sitting on the bench during recess to pick my face. Reason #42 to homeschool, courtesy of Miss Helen. If you have a blackhead I will be contemplating reaching over and squeezing it throughout our conversation. (Okay, maybe that should more properly have been listed under Six Totally Disgusting Things About Me, and if you never want to speak to me again, I can hardly blame you.)

I prefer decaf.

I invented the Chicken Nugget. Tyson and McDonald’s stole it.

The Fisher-Price Little People held a bizarre fascination for me until the ripe old age of…er, let’s just say, way longer than most people would consider normal or healthy.

If you want to play,

::tag::

you’re it.

The Trade Off

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

--Benjamin Franklin


Would you trade your freedom for security? A little bit? To be a good citizen? To live in a "safe" society?

Would you turn in your neighbor because he drove a car that emitted a bit too much smoke? Would you tolerate contractors entering your property and erecting a pool fence on your property whether you wanted one or not? Would you put up with a government that requires you to take a certified safety course before allowing you to operate a chainsaw on your own property? Or that keeps a public registry of your Pap smear results? Or takes three months to deliver a package to you after tearing it open to inspect its contents?

Would you want your children to grow up accepting that a government can breathe down their necks and dictate how they behave in nearly every circumstance without guaranteeing any individual rights? Would you want them enveloped by an egalitarian society that believes everybody should not only start out on an equal footing, but end up on that same footing?

At this point, I’m ready to give up the safety of living in this particular society for the sake of my liberty. Technically Australia is a free country, and one with a high rating on the United Nations Development Programme’s 2006 Human Development Index, but given the level of government intrusion into daily personal life here, it feels positively oppressive and hasn’t been scoring so high on my 2007 Index. I’m thinking it may be a fair trade off to live in a country where the occasional kidnapping or machete murder occurs, a country rated down there say, around 95, where there are no zoning or health and safety or building inspectors standing over your shoulder, no police officers pulling you over for not wearing a seatbelt, no teachers rating your child’s homemade lunch on a red, yellow, or green scale, and the realtors are unlicensed; just freedom.

Blind-sided

After I wrote a very pleasant, "Thanks, but no thanks" response for the position of P&C President, Jorge and I attended the annual general meeting to participate in the election of a new board. My heart was light. I was off the hook.

Until sealed written nominations for the position of Vice-President were opened.

Me.

Speechless, someone suggested I take a moment to review the Help! I've Been Elected P&C Vice-President booklet listing the responsibilities of VP, which I eagerly grabbed, not truly considering, stalling, and finding a convenient hiding place for my burning red face.

They proceeded to open sealed nominations for Secretary.

Me, again.

By now my face was magenta.

Repeating the mantra in my head: I'm-homeschooling-my-daughter-I'm-already-secretary-of-the-tennis-club-I'm-homeschooling-my-daughter... I politely declined to the large group of people around the table staring at me, and stuck to my guns even after a very awkward, painfully prolonged period where other nominations were sought and finally extracted from the gathered masses.

If they had opened the nomination for Treasurer and read my name, I'm sure I would have either burst into hysterical laughter or keeled over.

Day Off

Today Elle has a substitute teacher.

Grice requested to skip school today, not because there is a test or some homework assignment she did not complete, but because she has nits. Again. We did the conditioner-comb-through and seem to have caught it in the early stages, not the full-blown infestation of the last time and will stay on top of it. (I'm sympathy scratching -- I hope -- as I type this.)

Damn camp.

In the meantime, both girls requested that Grice teach today's lessons, so I have officially been given the day off. Squeals of delight were heard after I gave her the history lesson plan: Read Story of the Word chapter 13, review questions, oral narration, and additional reading from the Usborne Book of World History (I love this book!) She has asked me why Elle is not writing more of her own narrations and doing as many projects as her sisters did.

Well. We'll have to do something about that won't we?

----

And in a hilarious turn of events, guess who was offered the position of President of the school's P & C (Parents and Citizens) organization?