Ironic isn't it that my religious friends seem to think the world is becoming more wicked, ruled by Satan, and headed towards its ultimate demise, Armageddon, when really it seems to be an increase in ignorance, majorly perpetrated and propagated by religion, that could cause our demise?
The Tree of Knowledge, ha.
Random Classic Art
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Camp Reports
Sarabelle is up in the northern part of the state, or, as she first referred to it on her Facebook status, "Tallastupidhassee," at the 4-H Legislature, and here are the texts I've received so far:
Monday - We r basically at the place so tell dad ok
Monday - This is gay I want to come home loads of weirdos and nerds and I don't get what I'm supposed to be doing I haaaaaaaaaate thissssssss but yay for sat and sun don't ever make me do this again ok? Love [Sarabelle]
Tuesday - This sucks I hate it and want to come hooooome its so boring it makes me hate politics so much
Wednesday - [Upon receiving word about our given-up-for-dead cat] DID ORLANDO COME BACK??!!?? ps everything is better now I got picked to be an assistant to the secretary of senate which is what I wanted so yayayayayayayay but ya did he come back??? love [Sarabelle]
Meanwhile, Elle is at kayak camp this week with a friend. The wind was gusty Monday and Tuesday which limited their adventuring somewhat, and today's fishing trip looked promising with hardly a breeze this morning, though the wind has since picked up and we are getting some much-needed rain. Grice was able to slide out of kayak camp, her spot given to Elle's friend, as we were awaiting the results of a series of back x-rays. She's been officially diagnosed with scoliosis, how bad I don't know until we can get up to Shriner's for a more in-depth look. She's got a friend camping out at our house for a few days to keep her occupied.
Later next month, all three will be going away to Camp Cloverleaf with 4-H...
Monday - We r basically at the place so tell dad ok
Monday - This is gay I want to come home loads of weirdos and nerds and I don't get what I'm supposed to be doing I haaaaaaaaaate thissssssss but yay for sat and sun don't ever make me do this again ok? Love [Sarabelle]
Tuesday - This sucks I hate it and want to come hooooome its so boring it makes me hate politics so much
Wednesday - [Upon receiving word about our given-up-for-dead cat] DID ORLANDO COME BACK??!!?? ps everything is better now I got picked to be an assistant to the secretary of senate which is what I wanted so yayayayayayayay but ya did he come back??? love [Sarabelle]
Meanwhile, Elle is at kayak camp this week with a friend. The wind was gusty Monday and Tuesday which limited their adventuring somewhat, and today's fishing trip looked promising with hardly a breeze this morning, though the wind has since picked up and we are getting some much-needed rain. Grice was able to slide out of kayak camp, her spot given to Elle's friend, as we were awaiting the results of a series of back x-rays. She's been officially diagnosed with scoliosis, how bad I don't know until we can get up to Shriner's for a more in-depth look. She's got a friend camping out at our house for a few days to keep her occupied.
Later next month, all three will be going away to Camp Cloverleaf with 4-H...
Summer Reading Lists
Grice's summer reading list has yielded a few good reads for me. I devoured The Secret Life of Bees, her selection for English, and am onto her honors biology suggested selections now. Can I just try and tell you how happy I was when I saw the choices?
Only a Theory: Evoution and the Battle for America's Soul
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
The Selfish Gene
American Women of Science
Gorillas in the Mist
The Young Charles Darwin
Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love
The Everglades: River of Grass
Yeah, that happy!
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Any Michael Crichton novel can be read with an eye toward analyzing the science behind the fiction, and the teacher welcomed suggestions from students as well. We ran The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by him and received his approval. Students can read and report on either two books or one book and three of NPR's Science Friday podcasts.
It looks like it's going to be a good class.
Only a Theory: Evoution and the Battle for America's Soul
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
The Selfish Gene
American Women of Science
Gorillas in the Mist
The Young Charles Darwin
Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love
The Everglades: River of Grass
Yeah, that happy!
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Any Michael Crichton novel can be read with an eye toward analyzing the science behind the fiction, and the teacher welcomed suggestions from students as well. We ran The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by him and received his approval. Students can read and report on either two books or one book and three of NPR's Science Friday podcasts.
It looks like it's going to be a good class.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
"Come with us now on a journey through time and space..."
Old Form ancient Greek comedy: All male cast consisting of a handful of performers playing numerous roles; costumed chorus; the agon, or dispute between characters; the parabasis, or choral section halting the action and speaking directly to the audience; scatological and sexual references; ridiculous and surreal plot lines used as a means of discussing political and social realities; pointed satires of well-known individuals.
Sounds like The Mighty Boosh to Sarabelle and me.
Some highlights from Adult Swim:
Sounds like The Mighty Boosh to Sarabelle and me.
Some highlights from Adult Swim:
Sunday, May 31, 2009
What Are the Odds?
Grice and I attended the inaugural class luncheon and tour for her new collegiate high school yesterday. I was amazed at the turnout. The group seemed to be pretty balanced between boys and girls, and minority students were fairly represented along the lines of our county's demographics. I thought it was interesting that a random draw would produce such an equitable result. My friend was more skeptical about the supposed randomness of the draw. I don't believe there was enough room for tampering, but then again, I don't know enough about statistics. If there were 100 students chosen out of only 139 applicants, is it likely for such a fair sample of students to be selected?
Friday, May 22, 2009
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
The English IV online course Sarabelle signed on for is pretty lame. The entire first module was an investigation in choosing college, a vocation, or the military. I think by twelfth grade a student might (should? would?) have already taken this step. Or at least thought about it just a teensy little bit? There were numerous websites to visit and minimal writing assignments that were all about feelings toward the various options. Bleah. So to complete Sarabelle's English requirements for high school, I pulled out the Teaching Company's Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition. We're watching the lectures, discussing them, and she is writing answers to the comprehension questions from the course guidebook.
She'll continue online for now with the Algebra II and should have a good part of it completed before she heads Down Under. Depending on the length of her stay, which depends on the length of time her father can devote to the trip, she may be able to work on it while she's there. Her plan is to sit in on classes at her former high school during the visit. They have been fairly accommodating with guest students in the past. An alternate, should the online teacher get picky about the work-at-your-own-pace-but-we-want-to-see-steady-progress statement, since she doesn't need the fourth math credit to meet Florida standards and has already completed Algebra I which satisfies requirements for Florida's Bright Futures Scholarship (though we probably won't be attending an in-state school, but just in case), and because most colleges look for four maths, will be to view another Teaching Company series I have on hand, Joy of Mathematics.
We're still waiting to see what the American History looks like. It's a new course that's played online. Yeah, like a video game. If it's too ridiculous, we've decided that a read-through of A History of US and a study of the foundational documents will suffice for that credit.
The 4-H Legislature will take care of that measly half credit in American government and the other missing half credit will be completed with yet another Teaching Company course from the shelves, Economics.
But wait! There's more!
Even with all her credits complete and in the right places, we're still not going to call her graduated. She is now considering art school and will need a substantial and varied portfolio for some of her top choice schools, so we're planning to reserve one more year for nothing but drawing, sculpting, and painting classes, all offered by local area artists.
She'll continue online for now with the Algebra II and should have a good part of it completed before she heads Down Under. Depending on the length of her stay, which depends on the length of time her father can devote to the trip, she may be able to work on it while she's there. Her plan is to sit in on classes at her former high school during the visit. They have been fairly accommodating with guest students in the past. An alternate, should the online teacher get picky about the work-at-your-own-pace-but-we-want-to-see-steady-progress statement, since she doesn't need the fourth math credit to meet Florida standards and has already completed Algebra I which satisfies requirements for Florida's Bright Futures Scholarship (though we probably won't be attending an in-state school, but just in case), and because most colleges look for four maths, will be to view another Teaching Company series I have on hand, Joy of Mathematics.
We're still waiting to see what the American History looks like. It's a new course that's played online. Yeah, like a video game. If it's too ridiculous, we've decided that a read-through of A History of US and a study of the foundational documents will suffice for that credit.
The 4-H Legislature will take care of that measly half credit in American government and the other missing half credit will be completed with yet another Teaching Company course from the shelves, Economics.
But wait! There's more!
Even with all her credits complete and in the right places, we're still not going to call her graduated. She is now considering art school and will need a substantial and varied portfolio for some of her top choice schools, so we're planning to reserve one more year for nothing but drawing, sculpting, and painting classes, all offered by local area artists.
Friday, May 15, 2009
The Biggest Lesson
I had a great post planned out in my head this morning as I showered. Not that I think of you all when I’m showering, that would be weird (though at this point with few recent posts and dwindling readers you all could certainly fit into my bathroom -- just please don’t lean on that collapsing tile wall over there), but I’ve been researching and synthesizing vast amounts of material lately and this little posting session popped into my head during a rare relaxed and undisturbed moment and served to consolidate my thoughts. Of course, once I shut off the faucet, most of those ideas ran right down the drain with the water, but I figured I might at least try and explain my relative silence -- before I chase off the remaining few of you.
I’ve been off on a rabbit trail lately. A fascinating one that caused me to abandon the giant heap of school study-related books I’d been slowly picking away at. One that sent me off to new websites and blogs and a whole new stack of “must-reads.” One that is the apex of studies in logic, history, science, and literature; a giant detective story; a search for truth. The Truth. And one with both disturbing and comforting answers.
The only explanation to the big question that makes sense to me -- from the genesis of my revelation as a skeptical and then lapsed Catholic, to my comparative studies of and eventual distrust and dislike for all religions, to my recent earnest Bible studies -- that answers the doubts, inconsistencies, and lapses in logic without complicated twisted interpretations, is that there is simply no God. What was initially a disturbing idea to me, and I’m not just talking about self-identifying with the likes of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, a woman who simultaneously terrified and baffled me as a Catholic school girl, but losing the comfortable and unexamined ideologies I’d grown up with and stepping beyond the safety net of the fence-straddling agnostic label toward full-blown, strong atheism -- the realization there is no personally involved heavenly father, that a man named Jesus may have existed but his story is merely a continuation of the sun god myth and the legend overpowers any historical substantiation, that we are merely a happy cosmological and evolutionary accident -- has become a source of solace and strength.
This is it, folks. We’ve got one chance to get it right and enjoy the ride. We’d best not sit by and twiddle our opposable, naturally selected thumbs in denial of reality, fantasizing a shot at a better supernatural existence. I must relish every minute and make the best of my too-short time here. The depression I fought for years is now chased away with the knowledge that I don’t have time for it; every minute is precious, even the unpleasant painful ones. I’m not wasting any more of my life on this planet in anticipation of a better world yet to come, and will instead appreciate the wonders that exist and try to leave this world a better place.
For those who cannot believe as I do, I don’t dare say you are stupid, as a fundamentalist Christian friend accused, only possibly intellectually dishonest with yourselves. Perhaps you have not truly examined the evidence from the other side. It is a hard thing to do; a hard thing to let go of. But wanting something to be true just doesn’t make it so. Now that my eyes have been opened, I find it nearly impossible to imagine that anyone engaged in a scholarly study of history and science could come to any other conclusion. Now that this greatest of questions has been answered to my satisfaction, I can get on with my life.
I’ve been off on a rabbit trail lately. A fascinating one that caused me to abandon the giant heap of school study-related books I’d been slowly picking away at. One that sent me off to new websites and blogs and a whole new stack of “must-reads.” One that is the apex of studies in logic, history, science, and literature; a giant detective story; a search for truth. The Truth. And one with both disturbing and comforting answers.
The only explanation to the big question that makes sense to me -- from the genesis of my revelation as a skeptical and then lapsed Catholic, to my comparative studies of and eventual distrust and dislike for all religions, to my recent earnest Bible studies -- that answers the doubts, inconsistencies, and lapses in logic without complicated twisted interpretations, is that there is simply no God. What was initially a disturbing idea to me, and I’m not just talking about self-identifying with the likes of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, a woman who simultaneously terrified and baffled me as a Catholic school girl, but losing the comfortable and unexamined ideologies I’d grown up with and stepping beyond the safety net of the fence-straddling agnostic label toward full-blown, strong atheism -- the realization there is no personally involved heavenly father, that a man named Jesus may have existed but his story is merely a continuation of the sun god myth and the legend overpowers any historical substantiation, that we are merely a happy cosmological and evolutionary accident -- has become a source of solace and strength.
This is it, folks. We’ve got one chance to get it right and enjoy the ride. We’d best not sit by and twiddle our opposable, naturally selected thumbs in denial of reality, fantasizing a shot at a better supernatural existence. I must relish every minute and make the best of my too-short time here. The depression I fought for years is now chased away with the knowledge that I don’t have time for it; every minute is precious, even the unpleasant painful ones. I’m not wasting any more of my life on this planet in anticipation of a better world yet to come, and will instead appreciate the wonders that exist and try to leave this world a better place.
For those who cannot believe as I do, I don’t dare say you are stupid, as a fundamentalist Christian friend accused, only possibly intellectually dishonest with yourselves. Perhaps you have not truly examined the evidence from the other side. It is a hard thing to do; a hard thing to let go of. But wanting something to be true just doesn’t make it so. Now that my eyes have been opened, I find it nearly impossible to imagine that anyone engaged in a scholarly study of history and science could come to any other conclusion. Now that this greatest of questions has been answered to my satisfaction, I can get on with my life.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Score!
Sarabelle is in the 4-H Legislature! From the manual:
Meanwhile, Grice and Elle got a spot in kayak camp. The first session was full and the third session conflicts with potential travel plans, so they got the second session. It happens to be the same week Sarabelle will be away for the legislature. How perfect is that?
The Florida 4-H Legislature provides an opportunity for teen 4-H members to have a “learn by doing”
experience in state government each summer. When delegates participate in the Florida 4-H Legislature they have an actual experience in all three branches of Florida’s government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Florida 4-H laws are considered and passed or vetoed in a model legislative session at the Florida State Capitol.
During this five-day event, 4-H’ers will serve as Florida 4-H senators, representatives, lobbyists, reporters, Lt. Governor or Governor. Lobbyists will also have the opportunity to serve as a page and/or experience being a Supreme Court Justice, lawyer or juror.
This event is a “mock” legislative experience. Proposed bills do not represent the position of the State 4-H program. 4-H’ers may defend a position just to learn how to debate and not necessarily because they would choose that position in “real life.”
The purpose of the Florida 4-H Legislature is to provide experience that prepares 4-H members for leadership in the American democratic process. Each participant learns, practices and defends the theory and process of representing citizens and making public policy.
THE FLORIDA 4-H LEGISLATURE IS DESIGNED TO HELP TEENS:
1. Learn about state government.
2. Understand formal and informal government structure.
3. Become aware of societal issues and potential solutions.
4. Apply moral and ethical valuing processes to public policy making.
5. Develop confidence in — and dedication to — the democratic process.
6. Gain communication skills.
7. Listen to varying viewpoints.
8. Respect the opinions and rights of others.
9. Learn about career opportunities in government.
10. Be prepared to return to a local community and be an active citizen.
During the week, we are fortunate to be able to use several Capitol, government and historic buildings and facilities. The Old Capitol, New Capitol, House and Senate office buildings, Supreme Court and other historic and public buildings will be used.
Meanwhile, Grice and Elle got a spot in kayak camp. The first session was full and the third session conflicts with potential travel plans, so they got the second session. It happens to be the same week Sarabelle will be away for the legislature. How perfect is that?
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
And So On
Sarabelle has finally begun her first class, English IV, through the Florida Virtual School. We're still waiting for placement in the Algebra II and United States History. She's planning to visit Australia over the summer and the online courses will accommodate that schedule. This would leave her with only one half credit each in American government and economics to fulfill her Florida graduation requirements. She's got more than the twenty-four credits necessary, quite a few more in fact, just not in the right places. We're hoping to get her a late entry into the 4-H Legislature as one of the kids involved has had to drop out. If she gets in, I'm counting that as her American government requirement. It may not be equivalent hour per hour, but the quality blows the quantity away. The economics she can either take online or at home using the Teaching Company course I have. Let's see, SATs are out of the way... Nearly done! She is interested in art school and I am hoping she heeds the advice of Uncle Mike, a tremendously talented and successful commercial artist who wishes he had completed his associates degree along with his art and technical training.
Grice is getting a big fat vacation, at least until August 10, when she begins her new collegiate high school program.
And Elle, she's plugging away. We're trying to decide what to do to get her out of the house -- to get me out of the house -- Kayak camp? YMCA gymnastics? Ballet? Riding Lessons?
Grice is getting a big fat vacation, at least until August 10, when she begins her new collegiate high school program.
And Elle, she's plugging away. We're trying to decide what to do to get her out of the house -- to get me out of the house -- Kayak camp? YMCA gymnastics? Ballet? Riding Lessons?
Monday, May 04, 2009
Back. Sort of.
The wedding and associated trip was a success*, although I think next time I ask the universe for something I'll be more specific. The girls had been fighting their second round of respiratory illness prior to our departure and I had been repeating to myself "Don't get sick for the wedding, don't get sick for the wedding," when I should have left the qualifying prepositional phrase off entirely. The day after the wedding, Easter Sunday, I finally succumbed. Good thing the Mexican Swine Flu (sorry, H1N1 lacks color and drama; it'll always be "swine flu" to me) scare hadn't begun yet because I would have definitely been yanked off the plane and locked up in quarantine somewhere. As it is now, it wouldn't surprise me if I actually had it, but I'm not going for any blood tests. I prefer good ol' self-imposed social distancing.
*In spite of the freezing temps, six cancelled flights, lost luggage, and unexpected overnight in Atlanta on the return leg at a hotel that could have been a text book study for a CSI.
The girls had one of those Best Day of My Life (TM) experiences when we went into New York City for the day to see Phantom. Not only was I able to get a couple of last-minute extra tickets for my nieces so they could join us instead of having to be sent back in a cab to their dad's office, and use some credit card points so it was essentially free, it actually snowed while we were in Times Square, something my girls had been fervently hoping for, but something nobody ever thought would occur. It was magical, though my initial reaction to the spectacle was that someone was spitting or throwing confetti out a window (our own tickertape parade!) The locals were not amused by the weather nor the simple southern children twirling around like Mary Richards in Minneapolis, throwing hats in the air and taking pictures of themselves on their cellphones. And the show? The best thing they had ever seen. Ever. Lunch was not my much anticipated trip to Zabar's, maybe next time, but heaps of appetizers at the Hard Rock Cafe. Way more fun with five very excited girls.
For now I'm just kicking back, drinking lots of juice and hot tea, getting a little schoolwork done, and hoping I don't become a CDC statistic.
*In spite of the freezing temps, six cancelled flights, lost luggage, and unexpected overnight in Atlanta on the return leg at a hotel that could have been a text book study for a CSI.
The girls had one of those Best Day of My Life (TM) experiences when we went into New York City for the day to see Phantom. Not only was I able to get a couple of last-minute extra tickets for my nieces so they could join us instead of having to be sent back in a cab to their dad's office, and use some credit card points so it was essentially free, it actually snowed while we were in Times Square, something my girls had been fervently hoping for, but something nobody ever thought would occur. It was magical, though my initial reaction to the spectacle was that someone was spitting or throwing confetti out a window (our own tickertape parade!) The locals were not amused by the weather nor the simple southern children twirling around like Mary Richards in Minneapolis, throwing hats in the air and taking pictures of themselves on their cellphones. And the show? The best thing they had ever seen. Ever. Lunch was not my much anticipated trip to Zabar's, maybe next time, but heaps of appetizers at the Hard Rock Cafe. Way more fun with five very excited girls.
For now I'm just kicking back, drinking lots of juice and hot tea, getting a little schoolwork done, and hoping I don't become a CDC statistic.
Monday, March 30, 2009
On the Road Again
This next week and a half promises to be a lot of fun. And busy.
My New Jersey brother, the one who suffered an annus horribilis with a divorce, year-long overseas estrangement from his girls, job loss, and a fire that gutted his condo awhile back, is getting remarried. I had originally planned to drive up and catch up with some friends along the way, but found airfares and a car rental comparable to the expense of driving, and it gives us a few extra days to visit. I can't wait to see my growing-up-so-fast nieces and meet my new sister-in-law and her beautiful daughters.
Before the wedding, being celebrated in Pennsylvania, we'll be popping up to Boston to visit a few cousins, and the girls and I will take a day trip into New York City with my brother to visit his office, which, because of the work he does, is always very cool, get a bite to eat (I hear Zabar's calling), and take in a performance of Phantom. After the wedding, but before my brother and his new wife fly off to a very romantic Parisian honeymoon and their happily-ever-after, there will be a visit from the Easter Bunny and an egg hunt.
See some pictures of the happy family here at Angela Purcell's Photography Blog.
My New Jersey brother, the one who suffered an annus horribilis with a divorce, year-long overseas estrangement from his girls, job loss, and a fire that gutted his condo awhile back, is getting remarried. I had originally planned to drive up and catch up with some friends along the way, but found airfares and a car rental comparable to the expense of driving, and it gives us a few extra days to visit. I can't wait to see my growing-up-so-fast nieces and meet my new sister-in-law and her beautiful daughters.
Before the wedding, being celebrated in Pennsylvania, we'll be popping up to Boston to visit a few cousins, and the girls and I will take a day trip into New York City with my brother to visit his office, which, because of the work he does, is always very cool, get a bite to eat (I hear Zabar's calling), and take in a performance of Phantom. After the wedding, but before my brother and his new wife fly off to a very romantic Parisian honeymoon and their happily-ever-after, there will be a visit from the Easter Bunny and an egg hunt.
See some pictures of the happy family here at Angela Purcell's Photography Blog.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Wait Is Over
We got our call this morning, Grice is in! Four of the five homeschoolers, including her best friend and her best friend's cousin who also happens to be a good friend, were accepted as well. The other buddy is on the wait list though we don't yet know where on the list of 39 she is.
Information and confirmation packages are being sent out today and then meetings between the parents, students, and principal will be scheduled. A get-together is being planned to welcome students and parents sometime in May.
Huzzah!
Information and confirmation packages are being sent out today and then meetings between the parents, students, and principal will be scheduled. A get-together is being planned to welcome students and parents sometime in May.
Huzzah!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Change
Rolling along, in a routine, and then WHAM!, something new.
Sarabelle, who has been attending the local high school and doing well with her mostly honors classes, but hates it, begged last night to return to a homeschooling program. She acknowledged this would not be the easy way out -- that would be staying in school -- and realizes she will have to work harder at home, but prefers that option now. Most of it has to do with the fact that her best friends here homeschool and she enjoys participating in the P.E. group and 4-H Cooking Club with them and misses the freedom of being able to jump in the car and go off on a field trip or just a quick trip over to the island at a moment's notice.
She has nearly all the credits Florida requires for graduation already except for American History and Government credits, so she is beginning Volume 2 of the Great Ideas Program The Development of Political Theory and Government with all its associated readings and going through Hakim's A History of US series.
I want her to tune up her writing skills and would like to have her begin either Horner's Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition or D'Angelo's Composition in the Classical Tradition. She will also benefit from an SAT prep.
Some other books on her To Read If You Can list are:
How to Read a Book
In Defense of Elitism
Amusing Ourselves to Death
As this makes plans for attending my New Jersey brother's spring wedding so much easier I am happy to comply, but it necessitates a study of my own in crafting transcripts for college.
Now to send off another letter to the county school superintendent announcing our intention (now that we are on their radar), officially withdraw her from school, and return her books...
Sarabelle, who has been attending the local high school and doing well with her mostly honors classes, but hates it, begged last night to return to a homeschooling program. She acknowledged this would not be the easy way out -- that would be staying in school -- and realizes she will have to work harder at home, but prefers that option now. Most of it has to do with the fact that her best friends here homeschool and she enjoys participating in the P.E. group and 4-H Cooking Club with them and misses the freedom of being able to jump in the car and go off on a field trip or just a quick trip over to the island at a moment's notice.
She has nearly all the credits Florida requires for graduation already except for American History and Government credits, so she is beginning Volume 2 of the Great Ideas Program The Development of Political Theory and Government with all its associated readings and going through Hakim's A History of US series.
I want her to tune up her writing skills and would like to have her begin either Horner's Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition or D'Angelo's Composition in the Classical Tradition. She will also benefit from an SAT prep.
Some other books on her To Read If You Can list are:
How to Read a Book
In Defense of Elitism
Amusing Ourselves to Death
As this makes plans for attending my New Jersey brother's spring wedding so much easier I am happy to comply, but it necessitates a study of my own in crafting transcripts for college.
Now to send off another letter to the county school superintendent announcing our intention (now that we are on their radar), officially withdraw her from school, and return her books...
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Charter
Grice is applying for admission to a new collegiate charter high school opening here in the fall. It's on our local state college campus and operated by our county school board. Because it is a county public school there is no tuition and books and travel are free. Upon graduating, students will have earned a full associates degree in addition to the usual high school diploma. They are accepting only 100 ninth grade students. All applying, and that includes two of her best homeschool buddies, should be enrolled unless applications exceed 100, in which case students will be chosen in a lottery. A week ago this past Friday, before the college closed for its spring break, her friend's package was accepted and marked #47. We will be turning her package in first thing tomorrow morning before the March 20 deadline and waiting for the announcement on April 1.
So these past couple weeks have been busy with doctor visits, shots, digging up records, and taking tests. Grice was especially unnerved by the college placement exam she was required to take and the timed essay she had to write. I tried to allay her fears by reminding her the test was meant for those who have already completed high school level work and used only as an indicator of where students are academically rather than as a qualifier for admission, and pointed out to her that an essay is merely a short piece of writing on a particular subject, in this case on your reasons for wanting to attend, and again, was not being judged for entrance but used as a sample of student's writing for the file. Learning plans will be created and customized for each student so that by the end of tenth grade all students should be on track to begin and complete the college coursework in eleventh and twelfth. She did well, 91% Reading Comprehension; 88% Sentence Structure; and 31% Math. She was horrified by the math score until I reminded her this was a test designed to be taken after completing high school and she therefore is nearly one-third of the way toward being ready to begin college level math work in two years and ready now for college level English only having graduated eighth grade. She was skeptical until her friend reported nearly identical scores. With the test out of the way she is now rather low-key about the whole thing. She's excited to go, but only if her friends get in. Otherwise, she's happy to continue homeschooling.
My big concern is that four years of staying in one location is a big commitment...
So these past couple weeks have been busy with doctor visits, shots, digging up records, and taking tests. Grice was especially unnerved by the college placement exam she was required to take and the timed essay she had to write. I tried to allay her fears by reminding her the test was meant for those who have already completed high school level work and used only as an indicator of where students are academically rather than as a qualifier for admission, and pointed out to her that an essay is merely a short piece of writing on a particular subject, in this case on your reasons for wanting to attend, and again, was not being judged for entrance but used as a sample of student's writing for the file. Learning plans will be created and customized for each student so that by the end of tenth grade all students should be on track to begin and complete the college coursework in eleventh and twelfth. She did well, 91% Reading Comprehension; 88% Sentence Structure; and 31% Math. She was horrified by the math score until I reminded her this was a test designed to be taken after completing high school and she therefore is nearly one-third of the way toward being ready to begin college level math work in two years and ready now for college level English only having graduated eighth grade. She was skeptical until her friend reported nearly identical scores. With the test out of the way she is now rather low-key about the whole thing. She's excited to go, but only if her friends get in. Otherwise, she's happy to continue homeschooling.
My big concern is that four years of staying in one location is a big commitment...
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tea
Well, after spending one half an hour looking for a parking spot and then walking toward what we determined was the crowd gathered at one end of the park, we were surprised to find ourselves at an outdoor bar and grill. The only demonstration had been at the entrance to the parking lot where a group of about 100 people were carrying protest posters. One bubbly old lady thanked my kids for paying her bills which amused them. But that was it.
We enjoyed a nice walk along the Sarasota waterfront in absolutely perfect Florida winter weather and consoled ourselves with a take-out lunch from the nearby Whole Foods Market.
I was there merely as an observer. I'm inclined to think some sort of bailout may be necessary at this point, but certainly not the free-for-all currently being legislated. I'd prefer Americans just toughen up and ride out the storm. This from someone who admittedly feels no economic pinch. Yet. I think a free market is really our best option and have the sneaking suspicion we may be selling our children into slavery.
We enjoyed a nice walk along the Sarasota waterfront in absolutely perfect Florida winter weather and consoled ourselves with a take-out lunch from the nearby Whole Foods Market.
I was there merely as an observer. I'm inclined to think some sort of bailout may be necessary at this point, but certainly not the free-for-all currently being legislated. I'd prefer Americans just toughen up and ride out the storm. This from someone who admittedly feels no economic pinch. Yet. I think a free market is really our best option and have the sneaking suspicion we may be selling our children into slavery.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tea Party, Anyone?
I have to take Sarabelle to the doctor this afternoon at 3:30, but the kids and I are going to try to be there, at either the Fort Myers or Sarasota location. I can't believe there are three within a relatively short drive from our house.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Fill-in-the-blanks
Schoolwork as usual. Nothing new to report there. What I have been keeping busy with, aside from a week-long break when my Boston cousin and her family came for a visit, is filling out forms. I'm working on Australian passports for myself, Sarabelle, and Grice, and an application for a new charter school for Grice.
Yeah, we homeschool, but we're not afraid of using the public system, or any other system for that matter, when it works for us. While we were away, Florida absorbed its community colleges into the state university system, so we now have a real state college not too far from our house here. That's where I tried to get Sarabelle in as a dual enrollment homeschool student but courses weren't any available until the spring term. This particular college is currently taking applications for a collegiate high school charter opening in the fall. One hundred ninth graders will be accepted the first year. At the end of the four year program students will not only earn their high school diploma, but will graduate with a full associates degree. Grice is interested, but only if her two best homeschool buddies get in. Right now, if there are 100 or fewer applications, everyone is admitted, and if it goes over 100, students will be selected in a lottery. My biggest concern was about transportation because though it's in our county, it's as far away as it's possible to be. But since this is a county public school, students will be bused. Yay!
Deadline for applications is March 20. Students will be notified of acceptance by April 1.
Stay tuned...
Yeah, we homeschool, but we're not afraid of using the public system, or any other system for that matter, when it works for us. While we were away, Florida absorbed its community colleges into the state university system, so we now have a real state college not too far from our house here. That's where I tried to get Sarabelle in as a dual enrollment homeschool student but courses weren't any available until the spring term. This particular college is currently taking applications for a collegiate high school charter opening in the fall. One hundred ninth graders will be accepted the first year. At the end of the four year program students will not only earn their high school diploma, but will graduate with a full associates degree. Grice is interested, but only if her two best homeschool buddies get in. Right now, if there are 100 or fewer applications, everyone is admitted, and if it goes over 100, students will be selected in a lottery. My biggest concern was about transportation because though it's in our county, it's as far away as it's possible to be. But since this is a county public school, students will be bused. Yay!
Deadline for applications is March 20. Students will be notified of acceptance by April 1.
Stay tuned...
Surprised?
Your morality is 0% in line with that of the bible.
Damn you heathen! Your book learnin' has done warped your mind. You shall not be invited next time I sacrifice a goat.
Do You Have Biblical Morals?
Take More Quizzes
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Insane
Via Joanne Jacobs:
Are books dangerous?
I plan to continue exposing my children to these potentially lethal items. Does this make me a criminal?
Are books dangerous?
I plan to continue exposing my children to these potentially lethal items. Does this make me a criminal?
So many books...
Via Meg at Get In, Hang On:
The introduction states, “apparently the BBC reckons most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here.” Some of the list seems to come from the BBC’s Big Read list of 100 favorite books in Britain, although not completely and not in entirely the same order.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien *
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X +
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee *
6 The Bible – X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell *
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X +
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
Running total: 6
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy *
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller *
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare *
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier X +
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger *
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot X
Running total: 10
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell *
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald *
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens *
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy X
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X +
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X +
Running total: 15
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy *
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens *
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen *
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen *
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres *
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X +
Running total: 18
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X +
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X +
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery *
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X +
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding *
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
Running total: 21
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen *
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth *
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley *
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
Running total: 23
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov *
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac *
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville *
Running total: 24
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens *
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson *
75 Ulysses - James Joyce *
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray *
80 Possession - AS Byatt
Running total: 25
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens *
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker X
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro *
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert *
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
Running total: 27
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad *
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery *
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams *
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X +
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X +
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Grand total: 29
Not so many but more than most according to the Beeb. My list of plan-to-reads is much longer, of course, and many are sitting on my shelf waiting patiently for their turn. How about you?
The introduction states, “apparently the BBC reckons most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here.” Some of the list seems to come from the BBC’s Big Read list of 100 favorite books in Britain, although not completely and not in entirely the same order.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien *
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X +
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee *
6 The Bible – X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell *
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X +
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
Running total: 6
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy *
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller *
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare *
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier X +
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger *
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot X
Running total: 10
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell *
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald *
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens *
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy X
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X +
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X +
Running total: 15
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy *
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens *
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen *
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen *
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres *
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X +
Running total: 18
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X +
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X +
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery *
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X +
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding *
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
Running total: 21
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen *
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth *
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley *
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
Running total: 23
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov *
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac *
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville *
Running total: 24
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens *
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson *
75 Ulysses - James Joyce *
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray *
80 Possession - AS Byatt
Running total: 25
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens *
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker X
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro *
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert *
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
Running total: 27
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad *
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery *
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams *
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X +
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X +
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Grand total: 29
Not so many but more than most according to the Beeb. My list of plan-to-reads is much longer, of course, and many are sitting on my shelf waiting patiently for their turn. How about you?
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Blowing Sunshine
From a posting on our local support group:
Governor Charlie Crist invites Florida students to participate in the Florida Sunshine Week essay contest. The essay contest is open to all Florida school students in grades 9-12, and winners will be notified the week of March 9, 2009.
The first place winner will receive a $3,500 scholarship, the second place winner will receive a $2,000 scholarship, and third place will receive a $1,500 scholarship. All winners will be invited to attend an event at the Governor's Mansion.
The essay topic is: "Describe the various public records available under Florida's open government laws and how access to these records strengthens citizens' civil rights and liberties." For more information, visit: http://www.flgov.com/og_sunshine
I guess they're not talking about the right to privacy...
Governor Charlie Crist invites Florida students to participate in the Florida Sunshine Week essay contest. The essay contest is open to all Florida school students in grades 9-12, and winners will be notified the week of March 9, 2009.
The first place winner will receive a $3,500 scholarship, the second place winner will receive a $2,000 scholarship, and third place will receive a $1,500 scholarship. All winners will be invited to attend an event at the Governor's Mansion.
The essay topic is: "Describe the various public records available under Florida's open government laws and how access to these records strengthens citizens' civil rights and liberties." For more information, visit: http://www.flgov.com/og_sunshine
I guess they're not talking about the right to privacy...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Happy 200th!
I never thought Darwin was such a big deal. Raised a Catholic, I knew the Adam and Eve story and after probably believing it to be absolutely true as a child, much like Santa Claus, I eventually believed it to be just another creation myth, nothing to be taken literally. I'd heard about evolution, natural selection seemed pretty obvious, and I could certainly see the resemblance between apes and man, but I never gave it much more thought.
Until one day when Jorge and I picked a nephew up from his strange little Baptist school. We asked him how his day was:
It was awesome! We listened to a recording of a dinosaur!
A story about a dinosaur?
No! An actual dinosaur! They played a tape for us. This man studied dinosaurs and had a recording of a real live one!
Maybe they were imagining what they might have sounded like...
NO! This guy found a real live dinosaur...
That's impossible, [Nephew], dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years...
And recording devices have only been around about a hundred years...
And dinosaurs were never around when man was...
Uncle, Jorge! You're an evolutionist!
Well, I guess I am then, [Nephew].
Me too, I announced after hearing our nephew's disgusted accusation and my husband's avowal. It had never occurred to me before then that a school would teach outright lies. Or, at least if they were not intentionally misleading students, be so damned stupid. I was outraged and glad to count myself among the heathens.
Today I'm making sure that my children understand that evolution is true, and what a difficult decision Charles Darwin faced over publishing his revolutionary findings.
Out of all the books we've read and enjoyed on the subject these last couple of weeks, my favorite has been the elaborate and gorgeously illustrated The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis, while Elle prefers Virginia Lee Burton's Life Story and has been eagerly taking notes chapter by chapter. To celebrate Darwin's milestone anniversary and because I realize now more than ever how important this knowledge is in the face of growing ignorance, I'm going to set aside all my other current reading in favor of Darwin's own groundbreaking classic, On the Origin of Species.
Until one day when Jorge and I picked a nephew up from his strange little Baptist school. We asked him how his day was:
It was awesome! We listened to a recording of a dinosaur!
A story about a dinosaur?
No! An actual dinosaur! They played a tape for us. This man studied dinosaurs and had a recording of a real live one!
Maybe they were imagining what they might have sounded like...
NO! This guy found a real live dinosaur...
That's impossible, [Nephew], dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years...
And recording devices have only been around about a hundred years...
And dinosaurs were never around when man was...
Uncle, Jorge! You're an evolutionist!
Well, I guess I am then, [Nephew].
Me too, I announced after hearing our nephew's disgusted accusation and my husband's avowal. It had never occurred to me before then that a school would teach outright lies. Or, at least if they were not intentionally misleading students, be so damned stupid. I was outraged and glad to count myself among the heathens.
Today I'm making sure that my children understand that evolution is true, and what a difficult decision Charles Darwin faced over publishing his revolutionary findings.
Out of all the books we've read and enjoyed on the subject these last couple of weeks, my favorite has been the elaborate and gorgeously illustrated The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis, while Elle prefers Virginia Lee Burton's Life Story and has been eagerly taking notes chapter by chapter. To celebrate Darwin's milestone anniversary and because I realize now more than ever how important this knowledge is in the face of growing ignorance, I'm going to set aside all my other current reading in favor of Darwin's own groundbreaking classic, On the Origin of Species.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Save the words!
Countless words are languishing unused and forgotten. Please consider adopting one. Take it home and make it your own.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
The Truth, The Whole Truth, or Nothing Like the Truth?
I've been trying to write a letter. It's a very hard letter to write. And not just because I am determined to share the recipient's dedication to elegant handwritten missives highlighted with clever and thoughtful illustrations.
How do you tell someone you think they are wrong, about everything, about the most fundamental things? How do you tell a very dear someone whose primary interest in you is saving your soul that you don't believe one single word of it, that she is the one being misled?
Do you bother to cite the plentiful evidence? Do you send her a book to read in honest enquiry of the truth knowing full well she has her own more important book and will only discredit any evidence as Satan's red herring?
Do you say nothing because your relationship has never been about small talk and without this key discourse you really have nothing to share?
Do you break someone's heart for the sake of being honest?
How do you tell someone you think they are wrong, about everything, about the most fundamental things? How do you tell a very dear someone whose primary interest in you is saving your soul that you don't believe one single word of it, that she is the one being misled?
Do you bother to cite the plentiful evidence? Do you send her a book to read in honest enquiry of the truth knowing full well she has her own more important book and will only discredit any evidence as Satan's red herring?
Do you say nothing because your relationship has never been about small talk and without this key discourse you really have nothing to share?
Do you break someone's heart for the sake of being honest?
Monday, February 02, 2009
Monday Morning Quarterback
Confession time. Although it probably comes as no surprise, I hate professional sports, the big, blown-out-of-proportion, wastes of time and money (and please, don't even get me started on people who drive around at high speeds in circles for a living), but I will admit to watching that thing last night and maybe even yelling at the television a time or two, like during that one play just prior to halftime. I watch for the commercials because my brother is head of a CGI department for a trendy Manhattan agency and often has one running (not this year, though he did tell me to keep an eye out for Coke's insects stealing the bottle ad), and for the halftime show because you never know when there could be a spectacular wardrobe malfunction (fortunately Springsteen's garb remained intact and he put on a great show, and I'm not even a fan.)
This morning I thought it time to review the post-season goings-on and critique my plays. And for your sake, the football metaphor ends here.
Sarabelle's stubborn plan to return to Australia for school has finally withered. I stood back and tried to keep my mouth shut, offering sympathy and empathy for her plight, subtly mentioning once that whatever her college plans may be, she's into her eleventh year of school and it's time to prepare. Putting it off any longer in hopes of getting back to school in Australia wasn't beneficial. With an interest in becoming a doctor, journalist, or treasure salvor, and a refusal to "be a homeschool nerd" (though she loves participating in our support group's P.E. and Park Days) and the community college's dual enrollment classes filled until spring, remaining options involved either the local public high school with AP, Honors, or dual enrollment courses, or the high priced prep school in Fort Lauderdale which would simply look good on a transcript. The public school was able to offer her a decent schedule and eliminated the necessity of living with cantankerous older relatives on the other side of the state. The guidance counselor stated it would be possible to register her as a twelfth grader because she has nearly all the credits required for graduation in Florida, but we all agreed she could use the extra year to fill in gaps and strengthen skills. She still hates being here of course, would much rather be in Oz, but has been placated with the promise of spending her summer holiday overseas and is genuinely enthusiastic about her classes (Music - Jazz band playing upright double bass; English Honors; Marine Science; Journalism; Algebra 2; and American History Honors.)
Grice grumbles about it, even though we are still waiting on her math books to arrive and she has a lighter than normal schedule, but she is generally amenable to the idea of learning at home. She participates in the homeschool P.E. and 4-H with her best Northern hemisphere buddies and is interested in the Y's gymnastics program and cotillion.
Elle is a moth to the electronic flame. For this reason, with the built-in DVD player on our TV out of commission, I'm ready to cancel the cable (basic service that doesn't include the History Channel but does have Nickelodeon and which was never desired or required but was unfortunately bundled with our long distance and DSL) and chuck the thing out. We have Netflix now and I have my laptop, that's all we need. We're attending the South Florida Renaissance Festival as an end to that period of study and will be starting soon with Story of the World Volume 3. She likes the 4-H Cooking Club, mostly because she gets to hang out with the big kids, and is also interested in gymnastics, which would be a terrific vent for her perpetually high energy.
I've been learning to take it easy and give the kids a chance to settle in and find themselves. Then back to the pushing. It's all about moderation. For now it seems to be working.
This morning I thought it time to review the post-season goings-on and critique my plays. And for your sake, the football metaphor ends here.
Sarabelle's stubborn plan to return to Australia for school has finally withered. I stood back and tried to keep my mouth shut, offering sympathy and empathy for her plight, subtly mentioning once that whatever her college plans may be, she's into her eleventh year of school and it's time to prepare. Putting it off any longer in hopes of getting back to school in Australia wasn't beneficial. With an interest in becoming a doctor, journalist, or treasure salvor, and a refusal to "be a homeschool nerd" (though she loves participating in our support group's P.E. and Park Days) and the community college's dual enrollment classes filled until spring, remaining options involved either the local public high school with AP, Honors, or dual enrollment courses, or the high priced prep school in Fort Lauderdale which would simply look good on a transcript. The public school was able to offer her a decent schedule and eliminated the necessity of living with cantankerous older relatives on the other side of the state. The guidance counselor stated it would be possible to register her as a twelfth grader because she has nearly all the credits required for graduation in Florida, but we all agreed she could use the extra year to fill in gaps and strengthen skills. She still hates being here of course, would much rather be in Oz, but has been placated with the promise of spending her summer holiday overseas and is genuinely enthusiastic about her classes (Music - Jazz band playing upright double bass; English Honors; Marine Science; Journalism; Algebra 2; and American History Honors.)
Grice grumbles about it, even though we are still waiting on her math books to arrive and she has a lighter than normal schedule, but she is generally amenable to the idea of learning at home. She participates in the homeschool P.E. and 4-H with her best Northern hemisphere buddies and is interested in the Y's gymnastics program and cotillion.
Elle is a moth to the electronic flame. For this reason, with the built-in DVD player on our TV out of commission, I'm ready to cancel the cable (basic service that doesn't include the History Channel but does have Nickelodeon and which was never desired or required but was unfortunately bundled with our long distance and DSL) and chuck the thing out. We have Netflix now and I have my laptop, that's all we need. We're attending the South Florida Renaissance Festival as an end to that period of study and will be starting soon with Story of the World Volume 3. She likes the 4-H Cooking Club, mostly because she gets to hang out with the big kids, and is also interested in gymnastics, which would be a terrific vent for her perpetually high energy.
I've been learning to take it easy and give the kids a chance to settle in and find themselves. Then back to the pushing. It's all about moderation. For now it seems to be working.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Where there's smoke...
Other than sharing it with my husband I usually don't spread gossip. But sometimes it's just too juicy. Does anyone remember my encounter with the cheesy leader of a sales seminar I took at my real estate company?
She and her family recently moved from their estate property, a large house on five rural acres purchased at the the top of the market, to a much smaller but still ostentatious house in our neighborhood purchased at clearance price from the builder after their big house burned to the ground. Not only does her general character cause people to immediately be suspicious, a mutual friend confided she had lost another house in another state to another fire.
Last week she bought space in the local paper and for two days running published shrill denials of the rumors. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
She and her family recently moved from their estate property, a large house on five rural acres purchased at the the top of the market, to a much smaller but still ostentatious house in our neighborhood purchased at clearance price from the builder after their big house burned to the ground. Not only does her general character cause people to immediately be suspicious, a mutual friend confided she had lost another house in another state to another fire.
Last week she bought space in the local paper and for two days running published shrill denials of the rumors. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Fool
My future sister-in-law, a second grade teacher in a New Jersey public school, was told by her principal that the teachers were not allowed to turn on the inauguration for the children in the classrooms in case there happened to be an "act of violence."
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Cleaning Up
I've been on a mad cleaning jag since we got back. Bags and bags of clothing, toys, and nicknacks have been donated and loads of other useless junk trashed. My goal is minimalism, with only one place for necessities (as opposed to looking for pens in either the junk drawer by the phone, the art cabinet in the garage, or among the office supplies in my bedroom closet) and necessities in their logical place.
There has been a big bonus to this reorganization, aside from the peace of mind simpler living brings, and that is the discovery of gift cards. Some of the people I try to reason with before December's holiday asset exchange actually either pay attention to our replies for gift suggestions or out of pure frustration at not knowing what to give shower us with gift cards. And since I despise hanging around in stores, unless there is an online option for purchasing items or a some specific object I need immediately, sometimes I put them away and forget to use them.
Yesterday we treated ourselves to a stop at Einstein Bros. Bagels (a rarity here on the west coast which meant a trip up to Sarasota after Sarabelle's almost-in-Sarasota dental appointment) and stocked up courtesy of an '07 Christmas present. Two old Books-A-Million cards warranted a stop there too.
A funny thing about BAM, and maybe it's less a fault of that corporation than the local store management, or possibly just indicative of the status quo, but there were forty sections of books classified either Christian Living or Bibles versus two sections for Philosophy. The Science and Social Issues shelves were noticeably scanty as well. After much searching I did manage to dig up two books from my wish list, Christopher Hitchen's Thomas Jefferson: Author of America and Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason (which serendipitously opens with Jefferson's quote, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."). Elle, starter of so many chapter books of late including Nancy Drew's The Bungalow Mystery and The Mystery at Lilac Inn; Poppy; Little House in the Big Woods; A Series of Unfortunate Events The Bad Beginning; and many more, found a book she could not put down and will most likely finish, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Not great literature, not a classic, not even close, but I will take what I can get at this point. Sarabelle snagged the latest issue of Vanity Fair, I got my educator's discount card updated and we were off. But not before thoughtfully reorganizing some of the shelves, relocating The Nude Bible from the paltry Art section to its proper place among those other forty sections of Bibles.
On the way home we spied this monstrosity and along with the fistful of play money Sarabelle picked out as a prize for her good behavior at the dentist (at the behest of Elle) we documented life in America for our Aussie friends.
There has been a big bonus to this reorganization, aside from the peace of mind simpler living brings, and that is the discovery of gift cards. Some of the people I try to reason with before December's holiday asset exchange actually either pay attention to our replies for gift suggestions or out of pure frustration at not knowing what to give shower us with gift cards. And since I despise hanging around in stores, unless there is an online option for purchasing items or a some specific object I need immediately, sometimes I put them away and forget to use them.
Yesterday we treated ourselves to a stop at Einstein Bros. Bagels (a rarity here on the west coast which meant a trip up to Sarasota after Sarabelle's almost-in-Sarasota dental appointment) and stocked up courtesy of an '07 Christmas present. Two old Books-A-Million cards warranted a stop there too.
A funny thing about BAM, and maybe it's less a fault of that corporation than the local store management, or possibly just indicative of the status quo, but there were forty sections of books classified either Christian Living or Bibles versus two sections for Philosophy. The Science and Social Issues shelves were noticeably scanty as well. After much searching I did manage to dig up two books from my wish list, Christopher Hitchen's Thomas Jefferson: Author of America and Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason (which serendipitously opens with Jefferson's quote, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."). Elle, starter of so many chapter books of late including Nancy Drew's The Bungalow Mystery and The Mystery at Lilac Inn; Poppy; Little House in the Big Woods; A Series of Unfortunate Events The Bad Beginning; and many more, found a book she could not put down and will most likely finish, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Not great literature, not a classic, not even close, but I will take what I can get at this point. Sarabelle snagged the latest issue of Vanity Fair, I got my educator's discount card updated and we were off. But not before thoughtfully reorganizing some of the shelves, relocating The Nude Bible from the paltry Art section to its proper place among those other forty sections of Bibles.
On the way home we spied this monstrosity and along with the fistful of play money Sarabelle picked out as a prize for her good behavior at the dentist (at the behest of Elle) we documented life in America for our Aussie friends.
Friday, January 16, 2009
So Proud
You may have seen this Durex ad already, it was developed for Canadian and European television markets and intended as a viral campaign as well. So I'm just doing my part.
This is what my brother sits around all day doing. He is the head CGI animator for Superfad in the Manhattan office and this is his baby. I must say, the animation is fanastic. The content? Well, before you watch it, make sure there are no little ones peeking over your shoulder.
Outtakes here.
This is what my brother sits around all day doing. He is the head CGI animator for Superfad in the Manhattan office and this is his baby. I must say, the animation is fanastic. The content? Well, before you watch it, make sure there are no little ones peeking over your shoulder.
Outtakes here.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Back to School!
This week we pulled out the books and got back to business. Somewhat. There were a few hitches, like when I realized the Saxon Math I had on hand for Grice was not quite right and had to order a higher level after giving her a placement test; and our unsuccessful attempts at structuring time rather than content; but the books are on their way and we'll be structuring everything for awhile until we all develop a little more self-discipline.
I placed an order for children's books on evolution and Darwin in honor of Darwin's 200. Visit Charley's Playhouse for some great ideas. This year, instead of just our basic history, math, English, and Latin, I'm going to make science more of a focus.
And that includes my own education as well. If you thought my 2008 reading list was interesting, you should see my Amazon Wishlist for this year's selections:
I want to read these all right now, though I should probably try to finish some of the ones lingering on my bedside table first and quit being distracted by the kids' vampire stories. In order to make more room on my dangerously overloaded shelves I have begun listing books on Half.com. So far I have sold one book and bought eight more.
Grice and Elle attended their first 4H event last night, a cooking club hosted by their good friends' mother, and today we wrapped up our first week with the year's first meeting and park day for our local homeschool group. It has been nice reconnecting with old friends.
Sarabelle has passed her state mandated online drug and alcohol course as well as her online road rules exam and only has to pass the eye exam and physical driving test before she is issued a Florida Driver's License.
We've already got our first field trip planned, the Florida Renaissance Festival, set for next month.
Let's see how it goes next week.
I placed an order for children's books on evolution and Darwin in honor of Darwin's 200. Visit Charley's Playhouse for some great ideas. This year, instead of just our basic history, math, English, and Latin, I'm going to make science more of a focus.
And that includes my own education as well. If you thought my 2008 reading list was interesting, you should see my Amazon Wishlist for this year's selections:
I want to read these all right now, though I should probably try to finish some of the ones lingering on my bedside table first and quit being distracted by the kids' vampire stories. In order to make more room on my dangerously overloaded shelves I have begun listing books on Half.com. So far I have sold one book and bought eight more.
Grice and Elle attended their first 4H event last night, a cooking club hosted by their good friends' mother, and today we wrapped up our first week with the year's first meeting and park day for our local homeschool group. It has been nice reconnecting with old friends.
Sarabelle has passed her state mandated online drug and alcohol course as well as her online road rules exam and only has to pass the eye exam and physical driving test before she is issued a Florida Driver's License.
We've already got our first field trip planned, the Florida Renaissance Festival, set for next month.
Let's see how it goes next week.
Monday, January 05, 2009
2008 Reading
MY READING
The Power of Now
Buddhism for Mothers: A Calm Approach to Caring for Yourself and Your Children
Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment
Women Who Run With the Wolves
God's War: A New History of the Crusades
The Thorn Birds
Cat's Eye
Bluebeard's Egg
The Bostonians
Toontown Player's Guide
Basic Watercolor Answer Book
Watercolor Secrets for Painting Light
Step-by-step Watercolours
Simply Watercolor: Paint Techniques That Work Every Step of the Way
The Encyclopedia of Watercolour Techniques
Masterstrokes Watercolour: A Step-by-step Guide to Learning from the Masters
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
Becoming an Australian Citizen
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Duma Key
Nature Girl
The Twilight of American Culture (again)
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century (again)
Ella Enchanted
George's Secret Key to the Universe
Kurt Cobain: Journals
A Tale of Two Cities
Twilight
The Metamorphosis
The God Delusion
The Portable Atheist
The Power of Now
Buddhism for Mothers: A Calm Approach to Caring for Yourself and Your Children
Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment
Women Who Run With the Wolves
God's War: A New History of the Crusades
The Thorn Birds
Cat's Eye
Bluebeard's Egg
The Bostonians
Toontown Player's Guide
Basic Watercolor Answer Book
Watercolor Secrets for Painting Light
Step-by-step Watercolours
Simply Watercolor: Paint Techniques That Work Every Step of the Way
The Encyclopedia of Watercolour Techniques
Masterstrokes Watercolour: A Step-by-step Guide to Learning from the Masters
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
Becoming an Australian Citizen
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Duma Key
Nature Girl
The Twilight of American Culture (again)
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century (again)
Ella Enchanted
George's Secret Key to the Universe
Kurt Cobain: Journals
A Tale of Two Cities
Twilight
The Metamorphosis
The God Delusion
The Portable Atheist
Sunday, January 04, 2009
2008 Read-Alouds
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Red Fairy Book
The Book of Virtues
The Green Fairy Book
Hoot
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Otto of the Silver Hand
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Red Fairy Book
The Book of Virtues
The Green Fairy Book
Hoot
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Otto of the Silver Hand
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Free Ranging It
Came across this excellent website after poking around at O'Donnell Web and BoingBoing.
It is encouraging to know so many other parents still have some good old fashioned common sense and are teaching their children how to really live. Lenore Skenazy, you might remember, is the mother raked across the coals for letting her then fourth grade son navigate his own way home on a NYC subway from a department store. Her blog is evolving from being a clearinghouse for stories and tips to spearheading a rights movement, supporting the rights' of children to actively participate in the real world and of parents to let them without fearing charges of neglect.
When I see people like my parents, who were surely free-range kids in their own time and who let my brothers and I range freely (even after a friend and I were nearly abducted), with their elaborate home security system beeping and booping and announcing various level alerts, and who first carve up the carton from their new gigantic flat-screen HDTV and dispose of it in pieces over a period of weeks to avoid the notice of roving gangs of garbage-gawking thieves (not that leaving the old 32" monster on the curb isn't already a pretty good indicator a better model is now on the premises), and who peel address labels off magazines before disposing of them; or kids so cowed by their parents they avoid speaking to strangers or making eye contact with them, even if the 'stangers' are merely less oft seen relatives, I blame the media: the twenty-four hour cable news networks, the tabloids, the whole lot of fear-mongering, paranoia-inducing, sensational sources of crap. The influence of the media has turned most of us into insecure quivering piles of jelly. It's a culture of fear.
How many times have I worried about being the lead story on the local evening news? Plenty. But that won't stop me from letting the kids have the opportunity to learn new skills and develop responsibility, independence, and good judgment. The focus of our never-ending search for a home has always been finding a place where the kids could be kids.
So far I've raised three kids on a boat-only island, allowed them to swim and explore pretty much at will frequently unattended and never forcibly encumbered by flotation devices. They've played with fire, driven the powerboat and taken their own rowboats out on adventures, and been left alone for short periods of time. In Australia they drove cars, rode bikes without helmets, jumped on horses and went off sightseeing, fished, swam, and snorkled in waters inhabited by crocs, sharks, stingrays, and box jellyfish, swam in creeks and rivers without adult supervision, swung off rope swings, camped in cattle yards with dingoes about, prepared meals from scratch, slicing and dicing included, and cooked them with gas appliances, walked unchaperoned around town. I even let Sarabelle go bungee jumping with a group of friends and another parent. They rarely wore shoes. They played in the rain. Back here in Florida they have gone for bike rides around the neighborhood out of our sight and walked about three-quarters of a mile to the supermarket for various items.
There have been a few misadventures among their pursuits, but we are learning to face our fears and they are learning to judiciously experience the world.
Ready to call the authorities over my seemingly laissez-faire parenting? Don't. I understand the difference between possibilities and probabilities. Is it possible for one particular bad thing to occur? Of course. But, how likely is it to actually occur? Not very. Most people don't understand that crucial difference. We do our kids a huge disservice protecting them from every potential bad thing.
Those parents who would bubblewrap their children in their gated 'communities' and attend only structured liability-conscious activities have only a false sense of security. Their child is in more danger given the fact they are dependent and grossly unprepared for the risks of real life where they will sink or swim without mommy and daddy and their water wings.
Fellow free-ranger, Becky, has a tremendous collection of posts and links on her Farm School blog under the header "Courting Danger". Kick the kids outside and have a look.
What dangerous things have your children done? What dangerous things will you allow them to do?
Have an exciting, adventurous new year.
It is encouraging to know so many other parents still have some good old fashioned common sense and are teaching their children how to really live. Lenore Skenazy, you might remember, is the mother raked across the coals for letting her then fourth grade son navigate his own way home on a NYC subway from a department store. Her blog is evolving from being a clearinghouse for stories and tips to spearheading a rights movement, supporting the rights' of children to actively participate in the real world and of parents to let them without fearing charges of neglect.
When I see people like my parents, who were surely free-range kids in their own time and who let my brothers and I range freely (even after a friend and I were nearly abducted), with their elaborate home security system beeping and booping and announcing various level alerts, and who first carve up the carton from their new gigantic flat-screen HDTV and dispose of it in pieces over a period of weeks to avoid the notice of roving gangs of garbage-gawking thieves (not that leaving the old 32" monster on the curb isn't already a pretty good indicator a better model is now on the premises), and who peel address labels off magazines before disposing of them; or kids so cowed by their parents they avoid speaking to strangers or making eye contact with them, even if the 'stangers' are merely less oft seen relatives, I blame the media: the twenty-four hour cable news networks, the tabloids, the whole lot of fear-mongering, paranoia-inducing, sensational sources of crap. The influence of the media has turned most of us into insecure quivering piles of jelly. It's a culture of fear.
How many times have I worried about being the lead story on the local evening news? Plenty. But that won't stop me from letting the kids have the opportunity to learn new skills and develop responsibility, independence, and good judgment. The focus of our never-ending search for a home has always been finding a place where the kids could be kids.
So far I've raised three kids on a boat-only island, allowed them to swim and explore pretty much at will frequently unattended and never forcibly encumbered by flotation devices. They've played with fire, driven the powerboat and taken their own rowboats out on adventures, and been left alone for short periods of time. In Australia they drove cars, rode bikes without helmets, jumped on horses and went off sightseeing, fished, swam, and snorkled in waters inhabited by crocs, sharks, stingrays, and box jellyfish, swam in creeks and rivers without adult supervision, swung off rope swings, camped in cattle yards with dingoes about, prepared meals from scratch, slicing and dicing included, and cooked them with gas appliances, walked unchaperoned around town. I even let Sarabelle go bungee jumping with a group of friends and another parent. They rarely wore shoes. They played in the rain. Back here in Florida they have gone for bike rides around the neighborhood out of our sight and walked about three-quarters of a mile to the supermarket for various items.
There have been a few misadventures among their pursuits, but we are learning to face our fears and they are learning to judiciously experience the world.
Ready to call the authorities over my seemingly laissez-faire parenting? Don't. I understand the difference between possibilities and probabilities. Is it possible for one particular bad thing to occur? Of course. But, how likely is it to actually occur? Not very. Most people don't understand that crucial difference. We do our kids a huge disservice protecting them from every potential bad thing.
Those parents who would bubblewrap their children in their gated 'communities' and attend only structured liability-conscious activities have only a false sense of security. Their child is in more danger given the fact they are dependent and grossly unprepared for the risks of real life where they will sink or swim without mommy and daddy and their water wings.
Fellow free-ranger, Becky, has a tremendous collection of posts and links on her Farm School blog under the header "Courting Danger". Kick the kids outside and have a look.
What dangerous things have your children done? What dangerous things will you allow them to do?
Have an exciting, adventurous new year.
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