HS Comments on the Fly

Okay, so my daughter did a ton of science yesterday, so now that she’s got her math done for the day, we can get on with the other subjects.

• English - Shakespeare
• Geography/Social Studies - Venice and the Doge
• History - Battle of Obdurman (Winston Churchill fought in this battle)
• More History and Literature - Chivalry and Chaucer

Hmmm. Very rigorous, don’t you think? So let’s ponder this. What would be the best way to cover these challenging topics?

No-brainer answer: With movies. Obviously. But remember, I’ve only got one student left and she’s an older teen. These movies aren’t for the youngsters — or even the oldsters depending on your tastes.

• English - Shakespeare - 10 Things I Hate About You (modern Taming of the Shrew)
• Geography/Social Studies - Venice and the Doge - Casanova
• History - Battle of Obdurman - Four Feathers
• More History and Literature - Chivalry and Chaucer - A Knight’s Tale

Well, that will keep us busy through the evening, won’t it. Somebody better warm up the popcorn maker. We’re already mostly finished with the first one on the list.

And look, one week after the death of the much-loved, legendary Heath Ledger, we’re paying homage to him by watching four of his movies on a school day.

And if we wanted to go further, we could also watch Ned Kelly (Australian History), The Brothers Grimm (Literature), and The Patriot (US History). But that would keep us up just too late, and I’ve already slept through Ned Kelly once.

As I topped the french bread pizzas with grated cheese, an aroma wafted up. It was not quite unpleasant, but it was not pleasant either. Of course, I had to have everyone smell it. It was not moldy, but none of us knew for sure if it was safe to eat mozzarella that smelled a little alcoholic. I was encouraged to look it up.

So I tried. I got mostly just goofy sites when I used search terms like: mozzarella smells like alcohol rotten can I eat smelly mozzarella. Is there a site out there that tells us what the progression is on decomposing food? Sort of like, “When going bad, refrigerated guacamole will form a brown-gray layer due to oxidation. For the first 2 hours, you can scrape this off and eat what’s underneath with minimal fear of death.” I have no idea if that’s true or not, but there needs to be a site out there like that, right? I tossed way too much mozzarella in the trash. Maybe the dogs could have eaten it, but I wasn’t sure.

So, anyway, on one site that was rendered as a search engine result for my rotten mozzarella, I found this really good song. It’s from an amusing commencement address and it’s by Greg Crowther. It seems like good advice.

Information all around –
Some is bad, and some is sound.
How can I decide which statements to accept?
There’s a logical recourse:
Locate each primary source,
So conflicting sets of rumors can be checked.

CHORUS:
Show me the data.
You’ve got to show me the data.
If you don’t show me the data,
Then how will I know?
Show me the data.
You’ve got to show me the data.
If you don’t show me the data,
Then how will I know?

Is that candidate a jerk?
Does this toothpaste really work?
I must gather all the facts and then decide.
If there’s truth in what you say,
Let me see Exhibit A.
Then my thirst for details will be satisfied.

CHORUS

In conclusion: remember that the world is full of information and that your success will depend on your ability to distinguish the good information from the bad. Go forth with a skeptical but open mind. Congratulations, good luck, and may the data be with you!

Words to live by. Nice, huh?

Oh, and I put provolone on the pizza instead. Tasted fine.

Okay. The shock has worn off. That was quick, huh?

Yeah, I was not nominated for the 2007 Homeschool Blog Awards. I know you are shocked right along with me.

I will give honorable mention to By Sun and Candlelight for the blog nominated in the most categories. It looks like she’s been nominated in 8 different categories. If you can see that someone else should hold this prestigious position, please correct me. I just did a quick run through of the blogs, and this one stuck out has the most popular.

So how much money can each blog spend on their campaigns? Is that in the rules? You do know that winning means more traffic and more traffic = more $$$ so, of course, campaigning will occur. Besides campaigning, is there something else these nominees can do to help get themselves those coveted awards? Let me know!

True or False. Put a T in front of the statements that are true. Put a F in front of the statements that are false.

__ There are no rivers in Florence.

__ The Arno River’s in Florence.

__ There are no rivers in Pisa.

__ The Arno River’s in Pisa.

Yeah, this isn’t really a test. I just think it sounds funny to say both of those sentence sets quickly. When I read this journal in my dotage, I’m going to need a laugh and this will be it.

My daughter came up with this while we were reading Galileo’s Daughter aloud and chatting the other day.

Here are my three favorites because I am just so sure you are dying to know:

We don’t look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they’re in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we’re doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

Don’t ask my kid if she wouldn’t rather go to school unless you don’t mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn’t rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

Stop assuming that because the word “home” is right there in “homeschool,” we never leave the house. We’re the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it’s crowded and icky.

Honorable Mention goes to:

If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you’re allowed to ask how we’ll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can’t, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn’t possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

You too can read The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List.

Our current motto is “So easy a homeschooled can do it,” which was inspired by our friends the Geico Cavemen.

Today, though, Amy over at Inside the Foil Hat Blog is linking to Link and Rhett who warn folks to “Beware the homeschoolers.” It’s an excellent sentiment, so it’s imperative that it be adopted as our new homeschool motto. It’s part of Rhett and Link’s Viral Boom.

I’ve tried Amy’s soap. Its suds are thick and creamy. I got the Rosemary Mint w/Dead Sea Mud. She’s got all sorts of different soaps, pots of fragrant shea butter, and other spa goodies. Go check ‘em out!

Okay, so I’m out reading homeschool news. I find Thoughts from Kansas. Today’s entry has something to do with teaching science vs. creationism.

So I start to read it and get to the first sentence:

Cato defends childrens’ liberty to be wrong.

I start in on the second sentence, which is a little beyond me because … well, I’m not so bright. And my eyes are drawn inexorably back to the first sentence. And I realize that there is an error or typo … you pick.

Then I remember John Walker’s most noble essay which gives me permission to quit reading at the first error. So I do — even though I know that somewhere in the article homeschooling is mentioned. To be totally truthful, though, the article doesn’t seem too awfully scintillating, so I’m not really feeling terrible about skipping the article.

Yes, please do use Walker’s Strike Out system on my writing also. That’s fair enough. And I know I make plenty of errors and typos … both! When you read the essay, please be aware that Europeans (Walker is likely in Switzerland.) place the periods outside of the parentheses … meaning don’t stop reading when you see that because it’s not an error.

Maybe you’ve already heard the news from Sonlight/Inquisicorp. If not, here’s part of the email I received earlier:

I just wanted to take a moment to bring to your attention our newest endeavor.

www.ascendokids.com

We have stayed with our main focus of learning but shifted a bit by starting with, no batteries needed, toys for the youngest of learners.

We need your help getting the word out.

So now they’ve got these “treasure chests” available, all “age appropriate.”

They may be the best thing since sliced bread, but I’m thinking that they seem a little contrived. Or something. I can’t put my finger on what feels funny. It’s rather late and the noggin’ needs to be put on a pillow.

Some of the items look kinda cute, but I’m not getting on the bandwagon … at least not yet.

UPDATE (at 7:43 a.m.): Well, maybe the “funny feeling” is from the botched-up punctuation. Their sentence would be like totally correcter if it was written like this:

We have stayed with our main focus of learning but shifted a bit by starting with no-batteries-needed toys for the youngest learners.

Those quasi-parenthetical commas in the original sentence above are disturbing.

You remember having to learn about Henry VIII’s wives in school, right?

Here’s a visual site to help your homeschool students remember how each of Henry’s marriages ended. Just drag the cursor over the illustrations of each of his wives.

WARNING: Please preview before showing your students. Some would say this link (to a UK site) is in bad taste.

My daughter is really rocking my boat.

She is calling me on the phone from her bedroom (approx. 30 steps away) to ask questions about math and to do corrections - yes, I’m one of those homeschoolers who won’t give their children the answer keys, at least not for algebra. Call me what you will.

But don’t call me on the phone. It’s unsettling. It’s too new. I guess I’ll get used to it. It’s what I get for switching cell phone companies so that we can get a better signal. With our old cell phone company, we usually couldn’t reach each other on the phone when standing 4 feet from each other.

Anyway, I guess it’s just part of homeschooling in the technological age. It’s handy, I guess. It means she doesn’t have to budge off her bedroom couch to come ask me a question. Well, I guess I’ll resort to a quote from that fabled philosopher, Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”

I think other quotes of his get used more often around here, though. “Where’s your brain?” “Never had one lesson.” Those are popular remarks and even keep with the whole homeschooling flavor of things.

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding! I just found Wikiquote. Oh, I’m going to have to bookmark this. I think they’ve quotes from all the movies. Oops, I think my shallow side is showing.

I suppose other homeschoolers use cell phones throughout the day in their homeschools, but I’ve not heard of it. Maybe it doesn’t bother anyone else. But it really rattles me to be minding my own business and then have to do corrections and teaching over the phone. Seems a bit ridiculous, but it works just fine.  And keeps the student happy.