The Sky

My husband had a wonderful class in college called The Sky which explored naked eye observations of the sky and its machinations. Guess who now knows what a waxing gibbous moon is--yes, that's right, my kids! My husband has been relaying all sorts of sky information to the kids with very clear explanations and drawings on our fabulous giant dry erase board that my husband snagged from work when they were throwing it out.

Actually, we've both been showing the kids all sorts of things now that the board is hanging on the kitchen wall. The kids are also drawing various things up there and it has dramatically changed how we homeschool around here. Who knew such a simple thing could have such a huge effect? And yet, sometimes the right tools make a difference in whatever you're doing. It's there and everyone in this house is now drawn to it.


Last night, my son was looking at the sky with my husband through binoculars and they both saw all sorts of features on the moon. To the east was Jupiter, and then east of that was Uranus. My son is 12... Yes, there are certain jokes that seem to always come up with regard to that particular planet, but we didn't care. He was seeing our universe and understanding it a little bit more.

Today, I saw a story on Huffington Post about a dad and his son who sent a weather balloon into space with an insulated, protective foam wrap around a video recorder and made a film of the balloon ascending 20 miles up into the sky. Inside the foam was an i-phone which acted as a GPS so that they could then retrieve it once the balloon popped and the parachute allowed it to come safely back to earth.

Amazing and fun!

When's the last time you looked up at the sky with wonder and curiosity and interest? You should look up. It's awesome up there! And, if you're 12, it can inspire some hilarity. If you know what I mean...

Huckleberry Finn

I am reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to the kids. I just started it last night, complete with dead-on accents and full emoting. The kids thought the whole Tom Sawyer gang requirements were hysterical: no telling the secrets of the club upon the penalty of family being killed. If no family, as is the case with Huck, a proxy will do, namely Miss Watson. Also, they will hold captives and ransom them, which to their confused minds means clubbing them to death. The women captives they figure will all fall in love with them. The gang admits that the cave will become mighty crowded what with men waiting to die by ransom, and women swooning in love with them.

It all takes place in the early 1800's and Huck refers to the slaves as n******. It was difficult to even say the word, and Huck says it repeatedly. My kids had never heard the n word (they haven't heard a whole lot of words). I explained that it was a word to dehumanize and vilify the slaves (and people of color since then) and my daughter said, "Oh, like 'mudblood'." Yes, exactly--like mudblood.

I realize that there are critical views of Twain and the language he used. I know that this is a banned book in many places, because of it. But, I feel that Twain pointed out the extreme hypocrisy of the lifestyle of that time. I want my kids to learn about that. I want them to recognize it now, when they see it. I think it's important to learn. I also think Twain is a wonderful writer and I love his wit and sensitivity. I love how he understands kids and their imaginations and how their thinking is generalized and absolute. He has sympathy for them. I like my kids to know that too.

Busy

I have a friend in our homeschooling group who has counted up all of her kids' outside commitments for the week and it totalled 19! That's classes and swim practice etc. for three kids. Some of the kids are in the same classes or have lessons at the same time, but it still means making sure they have all of their stuff and organizing the household around a crazy schedule.

My kids are taking a variety of classes and lessons: flamenco, castanets, tap, jazz/hip hop, modern dance classes and drumming, horseback and gymnastics. They each have 5 outside commitments, and this time they're skipping the community theater play after being in three productions basically back-to-back.

Add to all of this, playdates, group park day, and doing things around the house and we're fairly busy.

So, are you busy too? What do you have going on, and are you ready to pull your hair out yet??

Happy With You

I'm not feeling it lately, I gotta be honest. My kids are great. My husband is great. Our life is great. However...

I am sad. I feel overwhelmed by the news lately and what I know to be true--we're all in trouble. When I am only concerned with my own life and our own little struggles and triumphs (which when in the midst of them are not little at all), I am distracted and blissfully unaware. I am exceedingly lucky to not have many problems in my life. For this, I am grateful.

My kids are healthy. They are wonderful. My husband and I are both mostly healthy (seasonal allergies stink--yes, we use a neti pot, and consume local honey--perhaps more probiotics or some acupuncture is in order).

It's just that lately I see what is happening in the world and a pattern is emerging. HAS emerged. I feel doomed by it. WE ARE SCREWED!!!!

I think we have reached the tipping point and have gone right over the edge. I think we are past the tipping point.

This summer:

• a fifth of Pakistan is under water because of crazy flooding
• hundreds have died in China because of mud slides due to flooding
• the Urals in Russia were/are on fire causing terrible pollution in Moscow
• there is drought in numerous places around the world--our own country has broken heat records in many places
• a gigantic (really, monstrous proportion) chunk of ice broke off of a glacier in Greenland--it's the size of four Manhattans or so and is now bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean
  

Now, I know storms come and go. I'm a Chicago girl. I grew up here with extreme weather--hot and muggy summers, cold and snowy winters. I know weather happens here and elsewhere. I know there are monsoons and loads of people get flooded out every year in Bangladesh and other parts of Southeast Asia. But, the points I listed above seem kind of unprecedented. This is a lot to happen all at once.

I am feeling defeated by it all. And, really, I feel like I should turn that feeling of defeat into rage and passion and motivation so that I can join others so we can all DO SOMETHING about it.

It seems so silly to not buy new things and recycle and commute to work on a bike when glaciers all over the world are melting and drought is causing fire which is destroying crops and bees are giving up the ghost and no longer there to pollinate everything. What are our little actions in the face of all of that?

What we need are policy changes worldwide that are serious and comprehensive. We need to get together on this and quit being distracted by buying green and so thinking we have a moral edge on those who don't. Biodegradable umbrellas aren't going to slow climate change--they just aren't! It is silly and self indulgent to think otherwise.

God damn it--we are fucking up here and buying a bunch of greenwashed products isn't going to save endangered species or stop Ames Iowa from being flooded out where they have no drinking water.

10,000 year floods seem to be happening with amazing frequency these days. (Psst. Warmer air holds more water. So, snow storms are bigger too...) If you are not in drought, you are flooded out. Rhymin' timin'!!

So, I'm feeling sad and useless. I'm busy homeschooling my kids, which has its own inherent value, but isn't there some way to act to affect change also? We need it now and in a big way.

I heard this group on NPR, The Bewitched Hands on top of our Heads. Isn't that an interesting name? They are French (but sing a lot in English). Oh, by the way, our French is going tres bien! I don't know how to put in accent marks as I type, but believe me they are there in spirit.

Although I am sad, I am plugging away and helping my kids learn and doing things to contribute and have fun. This song is uplifting and fun, so enjoy it--EVEN IF WE ARE SO SCREWED!!!!

Happy With You

Oo, La, La!

Every once in a while, I see how my family and I fall into a rut. Either we're doing the same things over and over, or we are creating and then grooving bad habits.

I am an addict.

I LOVE reading, and lately I love reading various sites online. I post every once in a while to Facebook. I leave comments on others' blogs. I read Huffington Post and Daily Kos, and then read the links where the writers got their information. It adds up to a ton of reading, some writing, here, and on the other blogs. In short, it's a huge time stealer.

My kids, meanwhile, are watching fun TV shows, or on the computer as well (playing games), or watching a Netflix pick. They also read and do other things of course, but I was appalled the other day when I realized the total of our screen time around here. It's ridiculous.

It would be one thing if it had no negative impact. Some may argue that it doesn't. I think it does, and my kids know that it does. We are all grumpy when we've been sitting too long or when we've been in front of a screen. We are all happy when we've gotten outside and moved our bodies and talked with one another and done something or created things with our own hands.

So, limits have been set up for everyone. Everyone agreed to the limits. We started with me, because as I said to my kids, I'm the worst offender of all of us. By way of example, I told the kids how often I will get on the computer to read and to check e-mail, and then they followed suit.

What are we replacing all of this screen time with?

FRENCH! We are going to learn French, together the kids and I, and as my son proclaimed this morning, then go to France!

I think that's a fine trade off. And already the kids are more patient with each other, and generally more easy going.

I ordered some materials from Funbooks: some coloring book/dictionaries, a larger 100 word dictionary and a CD/card game set. This is all a nice beginning and we will see how far we can get on our own. Then, we will take a class somewhere.

The kids and I are serious about this and are determined to learn.

For those of you who have successfully learned a foreign language at home, did you use a more comprehensive system like Rosetta Stone or Mango or Muzzy? What worked, what didn't? Are these systems worth the cost?

Oo, la, la!

Homeschooling--What?? Are You Crazy?!

Have you encountered naysayers, critics, overly worried relatives who question your choice and or ability to homeschool your kids? You are not alone. It can come up a lot.

You know what you can offer them in response?

Bean Dip! (AKA how to set boundaries with your loved [and not so loved] ones.)

Yummy, yummy bean dip.

Here's how the bean dip offer might be put into action. Shhh. Let's listen in:

Your father and I are very worried about you guys homeschooling. Children belong in school because that's just the way it is and always has been and we think... What's that delicious looking treat? Bean dip, you say... Yes, I'd like some, thanks. Mmmmm. *chewing noises as she relishes the tasty party treat* As I was saying, we don't think you should be homeschooling the kids, because... Yes, thank you, I would like a drink. Sangria!! I love it! Homemade! Wow, the fruit in it looks so appealing! Kids should be around their peers all day long *big sipping noises followed by Mmmmmms*--you guys just can't supply the needed *drains glass*... OK, I'd love another one... Wait, what were we talking about?

Bringing You up to Date

The homeschooling conference last weekend was a smashing success. There were only a couple of glitches, but on the whole, I think everyone had a good time. I know my family did.

The presenters who held workshops for me all were well liked--they did a great job. I've thanked them and they all let me know that they want to return next year, because it was a good experience for them too. So, despite the two presenters dropping out and leaving us high and dry and needing to fill ten workshops at the last minute, everyone and everything else worked out.

Today, my son came screaming up to me where I was still snuggling in bed with my daughter (the kids come in the moment they wake up in the early morning and come for a snuggle and talk in our bed). He had been in the downstairs bathroom and the toilet was overflowing. You know, overflowing like how you see in movies where it seems improbable that anything could behave like that in real life, and yet, sometimes art imitates life.

My son was both panicked and laughing as he ran to me which made me alternately skeptical about his veracity and then mad as I realized he was laughing in the midst of a crisis! Don't laugh in a crisis situation--keep your cool!! KEEP YOUR COOL!!! Calm reaction on my part, eh?

There was at least an inch of standing water on the bathroom floor, when I got there. It was starting to just seep into the adjacent laundry room and was being wicked into the family room carpet outside of the bathroom door.

I rolled up my pant legs, ran into the bathroom, and tried to see the shut off valve under the toilet. Find it--find it!! I found it and gave it a good hard turn where it crumbled in my hands. WTF!!!! It worked though, before it crumbled.

The kids ran and got me towels and old cloth diapers and I soaked up the water and washed towels and mopped the bathroom floor. That bathroom is now out of order--no one allowed in.

(May I interrupt here? Attention young mothers of cloth diapered babies:

Don't ever throw out your diapers. They will be invaluable rags for many, many years to come. Save them and use them. Yet another reason to cloth diaper...)

Here's an image of how the water looked flooding the bathroom floor--yes, it really was this bad...

I called my industrial designer husband who was disgusted that the one time in however many years we have needed to use the toilet shut off valve, it almost didn't work and is now broken. Which brings me to health care reform.

My husband when he was my fiancee, filled with the promise of our future life together, was having a tightening of the chest, a racing of the heart, a breathlessness, an overwhelming feeling of panic. My God--what could be wrong?!

He had never gone to the doctor. He spent a decade not making a claim. The insurance people lost no money with him.

We rushed ourselves over to a hospital emergency room, without getting the OK of his HMO people first, and had him checked out. Turns out there was no real health issue, but we didn't know that at the time. We didn't know he was not having a heart attack, we just knew there was something wrong.

The next week, he had a stress test. Fine--nothing wrong. I started to put it all together... Might my fiancee be freaking out about our upcoming wedding? Might he be physcially manifesting all of his anxiousness in his typical male way instead of connecting with someone and talking about it?

Yes. Yes, he was.

No, I am not offended that my husband thought he might be dying when he was about to marry me... Why do you ask?

Getting married is a big deal. It is supposed to be a lifetime commitment. Having heart attack symptoms before the nuptials might make you think long and hard about the direction your life is taking. It might make you be sure of what you're doing. Or, you don't connect any of that and are unaware of the mind/body connection and think you are having heart problems just as the mainstream doctor thought.

HELLO! We're getting married in two weeks--do you think my fiancee is freaking out about it? Could that cause his symptoms? Why do doctors not ask questions about your life? Why do they not ask about your lifestyle--what you eat, drink, how you exercise, or don't? Why do they not ask what's happening to you as an individual? This doctor didn't.

Any way, when we got back from our honeymoon we were bombarded with bills from the hospital. MY HUSBAND'S INSURANCE COMPANY WAS NOT COVERING THE INITIAL EMERGENCY HOSPITAL VISIT BECAUSE HE DIDN'T GET A REFERRAL TO GO FROM THEM AND IT TURNED OUT THAT HE DIDN'T HAVE A HEART CONDITION. HE WAS NOT HAVING A HEART ATTACK, ALTHOUGH WE THOUGHT HE MIGHT BE, AND SO THEREFORE THEY WOULDN'T COVER IT AFTER THE FACT!!!!

No. That was ridiculous and wouldn't stand.

I called them and berated them for having the audacity to not cover any kind of claim my husband might have made after not EVER going to the doctor for a decade. I told them that we didn't know he was not having a heart attack and that it was absurd for them to ever expect people to call for permission to go get help when they thought their lives were in danger. I told them that we would not pay any of those bills, that they had better, and that it was arrogant and nasty of them to even think not to cover my husband.

The insurance person put me on hold for a couple of minutes, talked with a supervisor and then got back on to tell me that I was right. No, we would not be responsible for any of those bills.

Damn straight we won't.

Others are not as lucky as I was in that phone call. They get stuck with bills that they shouldn't get stuck with. They get turned away. They get stiffed. They can't go to a certain doctor because he/she is not in their pool. Health care in this country has been messed up for a long time. Now, things are turning. It's about time.

Guess What!

Guess! No really, what might it be?

Give up?

OK, I'll tell you.

Another homeschool conference presenter has dropped out who was also going to do five workshops. Ha! Cosmic joke on me.

Could be worse--could be rainin' (Name that movie)

When you have 10 workshops all lined up, don't be jaded and take that for granted--it could all go away like this *snaps fingers*. Appreciate what you have. Be thankful.

Because it's Thanksgiving, here's Alice's Restaurant.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and don't get busted for litterin'...

PartI



Part II



Part III

An Appropriate Song

OK. I'm trying to do my part for the upcoming homeschooling conference. I agreed to be on the Children's Workshop Planning Committee so that I could help arrange presenters. I will be rewarded with a hotel room and free admittance to the conference for my entire family--this goes a long way. We will all appreciate it and enjoy the conference. That is good and I am glad for it.

However...

Of the several workshops I lined up, a full five have recently been dropped because one of the presenters realized he couldn't do it--after agreeing to months ago. FIVE workshops to be replaced! Arggghghghghggh!

And, another presenter hasn't returned phone calls or e-mail. That represents another FIVE workshops. I'm still hopeful about that one, but where's the communication? "Where are you wonderful presenter who agreed to do it oh these many months ago?!" Do you guys hear me yelling? That is because I'm feeling anxious and desperate and frantic.

You can't always get what you want...

Long Time No Post

Hello cyber friends! Hello internet folks! Hello pixel readers! How are you?

I said I wasn't going to post here much because of the homeschooling conference work I'm doing. It is now ramping up with database entry and hounding workshop presenters to return contracts and working out all of the details. And, you know what? I really, really hate that kind of work. I do! There is no joy in this. It's not exciting figuring out what workshops there could be for the kids at the conference. It just feels like a lot of work and responsibility and pressure.

I do not like that. Plus, I can't procrastinate like I would like--there's a deadline! I can't really wait until the last minute to have someone just sort of wing it. No. This is a well thought out, well planned, well executed endeavor that I somehow am involved in. Yikes...

Have we been buying new things while I've been away from the blog? Sort of a mice will play while the cat's away thing? Me, not accountable to you compact watchers? NO! HA! We have not bought new things--well, not much any way.

My daughter said she would like new clothes. Not the nice ones I'm able to find her from Goodwill or The Salvation Army, but honest to goodness, brand new, fresh from the giant container shipped over from China clothes from Target. So, you know what I did? I got her some nice, cute clothes from Target and she was happy. Also, although I was able to avoid it for many years, I got her some American Doll stuff for her birthday. She already had a hand-me-down doll from one of her cousins and she wanted some outfits for her.

Here is my thinking. The Compact was all my idea. The kids willingly agreed to it two years ago at the tender ages of 9 and 7. They have been very thoughtful and understanding about things and wanting things and the value of things and the need vs. want of things. So, when they've really wanted something, I have seen how they value it and have gotten it for them.

We're not going for monastic here. We're going for relevance and self control and to try and avoid choices that are dictated by popular culture or peer pressure.

My kids still (still!!) have fun with a cardboard box. They have fun with sticks in the yard. They have fun with leaves and bugs and tape and yarn and cool new clothes from American Girl for my daughter's doll.

You know what else? If my daughter wants to play with dolls at the age of 9, I'm going to support that for as long as it lasts. If my son is happy making faces and noises and playing tag and hide-and-go-seek at the age of 11, I'm going to also support that for as long as it lasts. These are my little kids who are behaving like little kids.

Yes, they have occasionally mentioned other things. My daughter, out of the blue and with all seriousness and some contempt, asked my why couldn't she have an i-pod?! Hmm? Why?! (Her 12 year old friend had just gotten one). My son has asked when both kids will get a cell phone... Um, that would probably be a "never" from me, but who knows what the future holds? My husband doesn't even have one. Partly it's because he doesn't need one, and party it's because that would presuppose that he would want to talk to people more, and on the phone.

My husband once pointed out to me the silliness and ridiculousness of my sister and I talking on the phone when we were only one room away from each other at a hotel. It didn't seem silly at the time. My son has also jumped on the point-out-ludicrous-things-when-you-see-them band wagon. He asked me why I gesture wildly with my hands when I'm on the phone...

What's your point son?! And, what's it to ya?!

We also bought a new car! Whoooo! A new, used car that is. It's only three years old and has four doors--decadent! Our old car was fourteen years old, had two doors and was on its last legs. We held out and didn't make any little repairs on it because we didn't want to put any more money into it knowing that we would soon buy another car. So:

• The horn was broken (the fuse not replaced, I should say)
• The cloth ceiling liner shredded and my husband just took it out so we had a metal ceiling
• The air conditioner was out
• The emergency brake didn't work--how often does that come up, really?
• The driver side door handle had come off and the only way to open it was by lifting one of the two nubs (automatic theft deterrence)
• The driver seat was ripping
• My tall 5' 10" body could barely fold into the passenger seat and I was unbelievably cramped and uncomfortable for long rides

Our new car has four doors! Great gas mileage (30, 34)! Room to easily hold a canoe on top! Air conditioning! Is only three years old and will accommodate our growing kids and a friend in the back.

We got a Scion xb. Aren't we cool? We are so inherently cool that we can drive a boxy, unstylish car with impunity.

Here is our cool car, 'cause that's how we roll.

Yeah, that's right. So cool, it's exponential cool and the sum is greater than the parts. It all adds up.

Enjoy your weekend and enjoy your ride, whatever that might be!

Great America Homeschooling Day

My kids don't "go back to school" because we homeschool. We don't have a start to the year and just keep doing what we do all year round. We do however have a homeschooling day at Great America while other kids are at school and it is still nice out. Great America gets a whole lot of cash that they wouldn't otherwise and the homeschooling attendees get a whole lot of rides because there are no lines! It is shocking how short the wait is for the rides. Some rides had no wait at all and because of it the kids were allowed to go again without even getting out of the car.

We ran into some friends and the kids went on some of the rides with them. We also peeled away to do our own thing sometimes. All total my kids went on rides 17 times. They went on roller coasters, water rafts and spinning cups called the Fiddlers Fling. They dropped from towers, were flung upside down, spun sideways and defied gravity in other interesting, dizzying ways.

I only went on the water raft because I am lame. I am not ashamed to admit that and readily accept how it mirrors my own mother's behavior from my childhood. "We mock the things we are to be!"

My husband went on almost all of the rides with the kids. They all loved it and no one got sick.

While they rode, I sat on a wooden bench in the pleasant shade and read a book and enjoyed all of the other homeschooling kids walking with their friends and their parents and siblings going from ride to ride.

How is it that I am now exhausted?

That Highway

If I was going on an adventure, I might go down Highway 61. As it is, we might just go to Park Day instead which involves no highway travel... this time.

Enjoy your weekend.

What a Surprise--I am Procrastinating

I should be calling people. I should be getting them to commit to hosting one of a jillion children's workshops that I am responsible for setting up for the homeschooling conference that is in March.

March is right around the corner, people--it is not that far away! Besides, we need to get contracts sent out and returned, signed, so we can hand it all off to the people who will print up brochures and get it all entered in the database for the conference site.

If I don't post here for a while, it is because my attention is turned to organizing workshops for little children to enrich them and illuminate them and expose them to the big beautiful world out there.

Or, I am procrastinating...

Words of Wisdom

I just read some very sage words on a young mom's blog (Presidio Unschooling). She is just starting out unschooling her little kids and she's feeling some impatience and guilt over not being fully available to her kids at all times. Been there. I've experienced that too.

Here are her very wise words:

Don't do a fancy craft project when you're PMS.

Bingo! Words we can all live by...

Homeschooling Lesson of the Day

Today's lesson is that if you sit on the trunk of the car in front because you want to watch the treetrimmers from the village absolutely mangle the neighbor's tree across the street, your mom will make you get off the trunk of the car and you will have to drag chairs from the wood shack in the backyard instead and bring them to the front yard and watch the workers from there.

Also, the chocolate chip cookies you were going to help mom make will be made by her alone, but she will fix up a tasting plate, so you don't miss out on any of the dough goodness.

And, you will see how long the workers' break lasts. You will note how hard they worked beforehand (very).

Please notice how the chipper grinds up a huge amount of trimmed material and how cool it is to see it come shooting out into the truck in front of it.

This will be independent work, although you may partner up if you so choose. All observations are to be shared.

Mom will routinely look out the window and make sure that the workers are not getting creeped out by two highly curious kids sitting in the front yard staring at them. So far, mom notes that the workers are not impeded at all by the onlookers.

At the end of the lesson, cookies will be served and there will be a conversation where we will talk about: what they did, why the did it, who paid for them to do it, how it effected the trees, its necessity, or lack thereof, how the chipper works, its ability to handle that much material, what fuels it, where the wood chips go, how quickly the shredded matter would decompose, whether the village composts, how we will compost, how quickly a banana peel would decompose in our pile. Or not. We might just talk about how loud it all was. Either way, a lesson will be had of some kind.

I am Deluded..it is Spring, right?

Well, as much as I love beautiful, fluffy, flaky, crystalline, icy snow, I think it really stinks when it's supposed to be Spring around here. Its timing is waaaay off. We need daffodils and tulips and magnolias and nest building sparrows twittering amid the buds on our maple tree. I need to wash clothes and hang them on our clothes line. My daughter needs to be able to transplant her flower seedlings outside.

My husband loves to initiate projects with the kids. He and my son are going to build an 8 ft. trebuchet and launch things with it in the Summer. (No, I'm not concerned, why do you ask?) Any way, he thought he could help my daughter plant up some flower seeds and we'd see what happens with them. It is her job to water them and see how they're progressing. She's doing a great job of it.

My husband set up a long table in the living room, displacing our other furniture--because this is more important, that's why--in front of the windows where the seedlings will get some needed light. And, there they're growing beautifully in the egg cartons we saved from the farmers, and the plastic trays our friend Neo-agrarian lent us (and thanks for the seeds too!).

Let's look at these hopeful, bright, tender shoots leaning hard into the light. Grow little ones, grow!

Look how earnest and innocent they are:



This one still has the seed attached...



Look at this beautiful leaf growing into form.


And here, past this micro grove of seedlings, on the other side of those windows, you can see snow piled up on the bushes outside.


It's in the crooks of trees where mighty branches join up with thick trunks.


It's on the buds that are setting out their maple propeller seeds that will litter our lawn in a few weeks time.


And, the snow is on my clothes line.

Springtime in the Chicago area is a fickle thing and always has been. How I am lulled and seduced by the first hints of it every year is amazing to me. Why, why, why do I never expect any more snow after we've had our first freakishly warm day of the 70's way back in March? Why? How do I not learn from my mistakes of the past?

It will ALWAYS snow again. Always. I must remember that and never forget it again.

A Blog by Any Other Name...

My kids have blogs!! What was just an offhand suggestion that maybe they would like to create their own blogs, has become a viral popping up of all sorts of blogs throughout our homeschooling group--lots of the kids now have blogs, with more being created every day!

My son and daughter now have their own e-mail addresses, the better to create their own autonomous blogs where they can download pictures and polls and movies and funny stories about their family. And, by the way, where they can write and read and share in meaningful ways with their friends and family.

With all of this creativity expressed by my kids, they have been using up a lot of computer time--I'm not getting any! OK, I'm still getting some, but it is far less than I had.

I'm sure that screen time is damaging to them--right? I'm sure I should be limiting it far more so that I can have my screen time--right? Isn't there a study somewhere to support the idea that the unbridled, shared creativity of kids is a bad, bad thing?

Really, what good can possibly come from this? I ask you...

Wicked Cool--Eagle Cam!

The Norfolk Va. Botanical Garden has a camera trained on a bald eagle's nest. A few eggs have hatched within the last few days.

You can get updates about it all on a blog and see clips and photos there as well.

Wicked cool.

DoulaMomma Wins!

Not only was DoulaMomma the only one to enter the Homeschooling Quiz contest, she happened to get it all right. You win DoulaMomma!

If you leave a private message to me in my guestbook with your address, I will send you some Mexican candy.

Congratulations to you. To the victor go the spoils--you get them all!

Let's review the quiz and see DoulaMomma's answers:

1) I asked how many homeschoolers currently in U.S.

DoulaMomma's answer--

estimated number of homeschoolers in 2008 in the US: 1,273,089

Close enough. I've heard around 1.5 million and some sources say that it's closer to 2 million. I'm not going to quibble.

2) I listed all sorts of famous people and asked what they have in common.

DoulaMomma's answer--

They are famous people who were homeschooled?

Bingo. They were all homeschooled. Alan Alda? Who knew?

3) I wrote up a huge list of very competitive and prestigious colleges and universities and asked what they all have in common.

DoulaMomma's answer--

Universities that admit homeschoolers?

Yes. Not only do they admit homeschoolers but some, notably Stanford, court homeschoolers and actively recruit them.

I think it's fun to note that DoulaMomma said she herself had been homeschooled until 4th grade. We should put her on the list of famous homeschoolers.

If you haven't visited DoulaMomma's blog, please go check it out. She has all sorts of interesting articles about pregnancy and birth and how doulas support a normal, healthy birth. What a noble job she has. She also writes about her own kids, including an essay she recently wrote about the time her son caught her throwing his art work into the recycling bin, and she has links to interesting blogs.

Thanks for entering the quiz DoulaMomma. Congratulations again.

Easy as Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day tomorrow everyone! Whoo!! 3.14159 26535...yadda, yadda, yadda out to several thousand, millions really, and beyond... Pi doesn't end. It just doesn't. It keeps going and the digits do not repeat in any kind of pattern.

Wait, what? Yes, you heard me.

It just seems random and arbitrary, but pi is not. It is exact and applies to all circles regardless of size.

If you multiply the diameter of a circle by pi, you will get the measurement of the circumference. There is a constant relationship between the diameter and the circumference of every circle and it is expressed by pi. If you take nearly 3.1459, or pi, diameters of any circle, you will get its circumference. Amazing.

I can't teach my kids about how mathematicians go about finding the digits of pi--must look into that. However, I do have a great series of story math books, that explain some math concepts including pi.

Tomorrow we will again read, Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, where Sir Cumference's son, Radius, will save him using math!! His mother, Di of Ameter shows up sometimes too. These Sir Cumference books are a kick. The stories are set in Medieval England and feature castles and dragons and knights all the while demonstrating different math concepts.

So, we'll read that book and then we will make pie to celebrate pi! Chocolate pie to be exact. My kids don't know about that and will flip when they do find out. Shhh. Don't tell.

Happy Pi Day this March 14th, that's 3/14--get it? 3.14. See?

Go get some pie and celebrate.

That's good pi.