Friday, December 31, 2010
End of Our One Year Blog Project
Wow! We started this blog back in January 2010 as a way to enlighten folks about our homeschooling. It's fun to go back and read what we have all written, back to back, chronologically. I think we've done the best possible job we can at giving a window into our atypical world. I hope we've answered your burning homeschooling questions! When we first started out, we didn't have a way to see if anyone was reading the blog; however, since then, Blogger has added a "Stats" tab, and we now know that our little homeschooling blog has received over 5000 page views from 10 different countries. We've done very little to advertise, but I think more and more people are searching out information about homeschooling. I hope we have given a realistic and positive light on the subject. I have never looked at our homeschooling as anything other than, "Okay, we'll give this a try and see how it goes," and here we are nearly 5 years later still homeschooling. I don't know what the future holds: Patrick says he would like to give high school a try, and Rebecca thinks she wants to just go straight to community college as soon as they'll let her in. I will support whatever decision they make. I'll try to keep Our Homeschool Mystery updated from time to time, but the posts won't appear as frequently, as we move on to other interests. After being asked over and over again about the how and where of our hikes, I am in the process of launching a new blog, Our Hiking Mystery. Stay tuned for all our hiking secrets revealed! Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
"Changing Education Paradigms"
Just thinking about some of our homeschool plans for this week which include building gingerbread houses and baking cookies! We aren't getting much "school" (in the traditional sense) done during the holidays, but we are tapping into our creative sides. So this morning I am considering the value of creativity in all aspects of life, and how I can continue to nurture that in my children. I was reminded of a great video by Sir Ken Robinson where he states that creativity is, "Original ideas that have value," and "Divergent thinking isn't a synonym but is an essential capacity for creativity." Here is the video with help from RSA Animate and YouTube. I'm also including him in our blog's "Links We Like" section. His website has the rest of the hour-long talk on the subject.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Disspelling the Doubts of Homeschooling
This month, I decided to google search for some topics for a post. One of the most popular topics I found was about how bad homeschooling is. So, I thought I'd dispel some of these doubts about homeschooling.
1) The first anti-homeschool result I found was from http://www.ehow.com/list_6603210_reasons-against-home-schooling.html. It said, "It is difficult to understand how a parent or parents can provide their children with the same level of academic opportunity as an entire staff of trained professionals. They must depend upon a self-planned curriculum or those they have found elsewhere. Each curriculum varies widely in efficacy and can lead to different levels of learning. A school setting offers specialists in each field, including music, art and speech. As bright and dedicated as a home educator might be, he/she simply cannot fill all of those roles." You don't need a curriculum to teach. We actually only have two curriculum we use, one of which we use rarely. The rest is just things like writing blog posts, or taking music lessons. No one person is filling in all the roles. Many people are filling in all the roles.
2) Another search result took me to a site called http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/ Number seven on the list said, "God hates homeschooling. From my side, to take your faithful children out of schools is to miss an opportunity to spread the grace, power and beauty of the Lord." Theoretically Jesus was homeschooled. At the time Rome didn't have free schools, and you can't say a guy who was born in a hay trough was rich. So who schooled him? Exactly, his parents.
3) The next site I found was a site called http://www.educateexpert.com/argumentsagainsthomeschooling.html. My favorite argument from this site is the third argument. It says, "You need to think about when it comes to the arguments against home schooling is the distraction factor. If a child is schooled at home, the result can be that the child does not take their studies seriously, especially when a parent is their teacher. This behavior could thus result in poor grades." True they could be distracted, but that doesn't mean they'll get bad grades. Even as I write this post, Rebecca's computer is playing the annoying, almost jazzy music that comes with her Kitty Care video game. I think that's distraction enough. Yet I still write this blog post, and the last thing I'm thinking about is watching her play her game. It is still possible to work at home without distraction, you just need to know how to avoid being distracted. Don't adults get distracted at their jobs, too, and have to learn how to deal with it?
4) The next anti-homeschooling thing I found was the third or fourth comment on http://www.pjnet.com.my/ftopict-3660-.html. It said, "I personally dislike homeschooling because it deprives the children from interacting with other kids their age. This does limit their social skills." I think people against homeschooling take the term to literally. They think that we only school at home. However, I honestly think we school more away from home than we do at home. With the many field trips and events between our two homeschool groups we really only homeschool at home on Thursdays, some Fridays, and Saturdays. That's four out of seven days that we are interacting with other homeschoolers. So, socialization isn't a problem.
If this blog post didn't dispel some of the doubts about homeschooling I don't know what will.
1) The first anti-homeschool result I found was from http://www.ehow.com/list_6603210_reasons-against-home-schooling.html. It said, "It is difficult to understand how a parent or parents can provide their children with the same level of academic opportunity as an entire staff of trained professionals. They must depend upon a self-planned curriculum or those they have found elsewhere. Each curriculum varies widely in efficacy and can lead to different levels of learning. A school setting offers specialists in each field, including music, art and speech. As bright and dedicated as a home educator might be, he/she simply cannot fill all of those roles." You don't need a curriculum to teach. We actually only have two curriculum we use, one of which we use rarely. The rest is just things like writing blog posts, or taking music lessons. No one person is filling in all the roles. Many people are filling in all the roles.
2) Another search result took me to a site called http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/ Number seven on the list said, "God hates homeschooling. From my side, to take your faithful children out of schools is to miss an opportunity to spread the grace, power and beauty of the Lord." Theoretically Jesus was homeschooled. At the time Rome didn't have free schools, and you can't say a guy who was born in a hay trough was rich. So who schooled him? Exactly, his parents.
3) The next site I found was a site called http://www.educateexpert.com/argumentsagainsthomeschooling.html. My favorite argument from this site is the third argument. It says, "You need to think about when it comes to the arguments against home schooling is the distraction factor. If a child is schooled at home, the result can be that the child does not take their studies seriously, especially when a parent is their teacher. This behavior could thus result in poor grades." True they could be distracted, but that doesn't mean they'll get bad grades. Even as I write this post, Rebecca's computer is playing the annoying, almost jazzy music that comes with her Kitty Care video game. I think that's distraction enough. Yet I still write this blog post, and the last thing I'm thinking about is watching her play her game. It is still possible to work at home without distraction, you just need to know how to avoid being distracted. Don't adults get distracted at their jobs, too, and have to learn how to deal with it?
4) The next anti-homeschooling thing I found was the third or fourth comment on http://www.pjnet.com.my/ftopict-3660-.html. It said, "I personally dislike homeschooling because it deprives the children from interacting with other kids their age. This does limit their social skills." I think people against homeschooling take the term to literally. They think that we only school at home. However, I honestly think we school more away from home than we do at home. With the many field trips and events between our two homeschool groups we really only homeschool at home on Thursdays, some Fridays, and Saturdays. That's four out of seven days that we are interacting with other homeschoolers. So, socialization isn't a problem.
If this blog post didn't dispel some of the doubts about homeschooling I don't know what will.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Massacre Grounds
Thanksgiving Tuesday is coming to a close here at our house, and we'll be working on turkey leftovers for the rest of the week. We celebrated early due to the homeschooling parents' crazy work schedules, but the good news is that both Mom and Dad will be off for Christmas this year for the first time in three years. Woohoo!
While the turkey was in the oven, we took a short hike to the Massacre Grounds along the northwestern slope of the Superstition Mountains off of First Water Trailhead. The Tonto Forest Rangers have closed the dirt access road to the Massacre Grounds, but the trail can still be reached by parking in the Crosscut Trailhead parking area, and heading southeast along the dirt trail following the many rock cairns. Here are a few shots of the ones I photographed along the way. We all thought this was a cool way to keep track of a pretty unused trail. We never saw a soul the whole afternoon. The entire trail with the new trail access is about 5 miles round trip with approximately a 1000 foot elevation gain with great views. We could see Four Peaks and even the Phoenix skyline distantly to the far west.
The Massacre Grounds take its name from the alleged massacre of the Peralta mining family by the Apaches around 1848 because the Apaches held this part of the Superstitions as a sacred place of the "Thunder God," and the Peralta family continued to mine there and transport the gold back to their home in Sonora, Mexico. There are many different versions of the story, but it is thought that after the massacre, the Apaches dumped all of the Peralta gold in this area, and subsequent miners have attempted to locate it here. As with all of our Tuesday trips, we try to make it as educational as possible, and we frequently remind the kids, "Hey, you could be in school right now," but they really liked this trip to the Massacre Grounds on Turkey Day because of the relation to the massacre of "Alfred the Turkey" (I don't know why they started naming the turkeys -- we buy them wrapped in the grocery store just like most people do.) Anyway, Happy Turkey Massacre Day, for those of you that have not yet celebrated! Hope you, too, can enjoy a nice Thanksgiving hike!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Being Weird
(sigh)
No, we've never heard that before!
(aahhh... the smell of sarcasm)
As we're sort of starting to wrap up our year-long project-blog of providing just a little window into "our homeschool mystery," I'm considering topics that I haven't yet hit on. I know our tag cloud is fairly long, but I wanted the kids to see some of what they have accomplished in one year, and I also wanted readers interested in certain topics to be able to find them. The tags increase in size as we return to those subjects, and I see that "socialization" is nice and big! If you click on the socialization tag, you will see all the times we have referenced the socialization process when writing about our homeschool journey. I enjoy reading them all back to back since I like stories about times with our friends.
So I find that even if I'm able to convince the doubters that homeschooled kids are, in fact, plenty socialized, I still get the, "but they're weird" response. So I officially give up! That's right, for those of you that know me, miracle of miracles, I'm not going to argue this one! I do believe that homeschoolers eat, sleep, and breathe just like everyone else in this world, but I will accept the "weird" title. If being weird means that we make our own paths and don't follow the crowd, then I'll take it! There's no coincidence that I'm timing this blog post with Halloween, a holiday that I've always enjoyed. To me, there's something so fun about dressing up and being silly and weird for a night. It's the only night of the year that we "get to try on something new" for a change, and it's accepted by most of society. I think it would be nice if we could embrace that philosophy the rest of the year.
I have three favorite blog articles on the subject of homeschoolers "being weird." The first is "The Weird Homeschool Girl Goes to School" by Tammy Takahashi where she points out the irony that if schooled kids are so accepting of people who are different, then how come they don't help the weird kid at school?
Here's a link: http://www.justenoughblog.com/?p=1468
I also like her article, "School Pot Calling Homeschool Kettle Black -- Acceptance is not taught in school" which has one of my favorite quotes, "School is not better simply because you went to school." As someone who also went to school, can I please be spared of one more person telling me, "Look, I went to school, and I turned out fine." Yes, I get it -- it's possible. I'm only trying to present that homeschooling is also a viable option for turning out "fine."
Here's a link: http://www.justenoughblog.com/?p=1735
So I find that even if I'm able to convince the doubters that homeschooled kids are, in fact, plenty socialized, I still get the, "but they're weird" response. So I officially give up! That's right, for those of you that know me, miracle of miracles, I'm not going to argue this one! I do believe that homeschoolers eat, sleep, and breathe just like everyone else in this world, but I will accept the "weird" title. If being weird means that we make our own paths and don't follow the crowd, then I'll take it! There's no coincidence that I'm timing this blog post with Halloween, a holiday that I've always enjoyed. To me, there's something so fun about dressing up and being silly and weird for a night. It's the only night of the year that we "get to try on something new" for a change, and it's accepted by most of society. I think it would be nice if we could embrace that philosophy the rest of the year.
I have three favorite blog articles on the subject of homeschoolers "being weird." The first is "The Weird Homeschool Girl Goes to School" by Tammy Takahashi where she points out the irony that if schooled kids are so accepting of people who are different, then how come they don't help the weird kid at school?
Here's a link: http://www.justenoughblog.com/?p=1468
I also like her article, "School Pot Calling Homeschool Kettle Black -- Acceptance is not taught in school" which has one of my favorite quotes, "School is not better simply because you went to school." As someone who also went to school, can I please be spared of one more person telling me, "Look, I went to school, and I turned out fine." Yes, I get it -- it's possible. I'm only trying to present that homeschooling is also a viable option for turning out "fine."
Here's a link: http://www.justenoughblog.com/?p=1735
The last article is from the blog, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and the post, "Why Are Homeschoolers So Weird and Unsocialized?" attempts to define what it means to be "weird," followed by one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost. I also encourage you to read the comments after the post so you can get an idea of the kinds of things people say to homeschoolers all the time. Do parents of schooled kids endure this much hostility towards their decision to send their kids to school?
Here is the link: http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2008/08/why-are-homeschoolers-so-weird-and.html
Here is the link: http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2008/08/why-are-homeschoolers-so-weird-and.html
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Return of the Tadpoles
Along time ago, about three or more months, I went kayaking with my family at Watson Lake. While we were there, Patrick and I caught six tadpoles. While we were catching tadpoles, I spotted a tadpole that had actually started growing legs. It was even bigger than the frog that we saw earlier. Patrick nearly caught it, but the tadpole escaped too quickly. We put the others in an old water bottle we found in the car so we could take them home. When we arrived at home base, we left them in their water bottle on the porch. We had decided not to move the tadpoles into something bigger until Patrick and I got home from Eagleridge the next day. Now you are to hear the more recent story of the "tadpoles."
The day after we went to Eagleridge, we spent our day studying tadpoles. We learned what they like to eat, how long it takes for them to turn into frogs, and other helpful things about tadpoles. We also tried to figure out what type of frog would come out of our tadpoles, but we couldn't find our type of tadpole. That's when we found out they were not tadpoles at all. Our dad had suggested they were this from the beginning, but we didn't believe him. After a little research we found the truth. These animals live in large groups. We saw some real tadpoles swimming around with them which was why we thought they were all tadpoles, but they weren't. We had caught a group of minnows!
Just this week we went to Flagstaff to see some fall color. We wanted to go to Hart Prairie, but it was closed so we just drove around in the mud pretending we had four-wheel drive. :) We had decided to bring the minnows with us so we could drop them off in one of Flagstaff's lakes. We wanted to put them in something similar to their environment. When we were done driving through the aspens, we started driving to Lake Mary. We turned of onto this dirt road thinking it led to Lake Mary. We drove on this street that wasn't even on the map for an hour to only get about two miles. During our nice drive, we thought we had passed Lake Mary and were on our way to Mormon Lake. Then we thought we had passed Mormon Lake when we got out of the dirt. We saw this horse while we were going one way off the forked road, but he kept telling us to go the other direction. In the end he was right.
We ended up at Lake Mary where we deposited our minnows. We weren't even sure if they were alive, but we didn't fret over it. We arrived home late on a school (Eagleridge) night. That was okay though because we learned a lot from this trip. This is one of the ways a homeschooler learns. By experiencing! I also learned never to catch my pets again.
The day after we went to Eagleridge, we spent our day studying tadpoles. We learned what they like to eat, how long it takes for them to turn into frogs, and other helpful things about tadpoles. We also tried to figure out what type of frog would come out of our tadpoles, but we couldn't find our type of tadpole. That's when we found out they were not tadpoles at all. Our dad had suggested they were this from the beginning, but we didn't believe him. After a little research we found the truth. These animals live in large groups. We saw some real tadpoles swimming around with them which was why we thought they were all tadpoles, but they weren't. We had caught a group of minnows!
Just this week we went to Flagstaff to see some fall color. We wanted to go to Hart Prairie, but it was closed so we just drove around in the mud pretending we had four-wheel drive. :) We had decided to bring the minnows with us so we could drop them off in one of Flagstaff's lakes. We wanted to put them in something similar to their environment. When we were done driving through the aspens, we started driving to Lake Mary. We turned of onto this dirt road thinking it led to Lake Mary. We drove on this street that wasn't even on the map for an hour to only get about two miles. During our nice drive, we thought we had passed Lake Mary and were on our way to Mormon Lake. Then we thought we had passed Mormon Lake when we got out of the dirt. We saw this horse while we were going one way off the forked road, but he kept telling us to go the other direction. In the end he was right.
We ended up at Lake Mary where we deposited our minnows. We weren't even sure if they were alive, but we didn't fret over it. We arrived home late on a school (Eagleridge) night. That was okay though because we learned a lot from this trip. This is one of the ways a homeschooler learns. By experiencing! I also learned never to catch my pets again.
The Mystery of the MIM
Yesterday we went to the new Musical Instrument Museum (MIM for short) with our homeschool group. Before we went into the museum, while we were standing in the courtyard, we learned from the tour guide that the entire building was made from sandstone shipped from India. She also told us that it took six years to collect all the instruments that are in the museum. I found it very interesting how they used different classes of instruments to organize our presentation, how each part of the world has all different types of instruments, and how they acquired the biggest stringed instrument in the world for this museum.
For the first part of the tour, there was a small demonstration on the different categories of musical instruments. These categories are: Aerophones, Membranophones, Electrophones, Idiophones, Corpophones, and Chordophones. The museum classifies these instruments in these categories to better understand how they are played. The best Example of these classes is the Theremin. It Makes sound by sending an electronic signal to an ampliffier when it's magnetic fields are disturbed. So, the Theremin is an electrophone.
Another thing that made the museum interesting was all the different types of instruments they had. It seemed like there were at least two instruments from every country in the world. That's more than 390 instruments from around the world. Other wise know as enough instruments to give a musician a headache trying to remember them all. Along with these instruments they also had some historic ones on display including one of the light up drums from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Peace Piano, Eric Clapton's guitar "Brownie", and a couple of amplifiers that Dick Dale blew up. Who knew a broken amp could be considered historic.
My favorite instrument in the museum is the Octobass. It is a 12 foot tall three stringed Double bass that is so deep that it can barely be heard by human ears. Only three were ever made, and there is only one person in the western hemisphere who can play one. After we got home, Omar Domkus (the parent who set up the tour and he is also a bass player) sent us a YouTube video of someone playing the same Octobass. It sounded like a dying whale.
Another thing I noticed about the tour was the fact that the tour guide seemed to think we didn't know much about instruments. During our second run through the museum, (the tour guide seemed to be rushing us through the exhibits) the tour guide met up with my dad and I while we were looking at the electric guitars. She told us about how on the web-site they had a whole curriculum on how electric guitars and amps work. My dad then explained how we had just finished building one (picture of the guitar we built is below), and he told her that I work the sound board at our church. The look on her face was priceless.
This concludes the mystery of the MIM: Idiophones don't mean the maker was an idiot, broken amps can be historic, and the tour was most likely made for public school groups.
For the first part of the tour, there was a small demonstration on the different categories of musical instruments. These categories are: Aerophones, Membranophones, Electrophones, Idiophones, Corpophones, and Chordophones. The museum classifies these instruments in these categories to better understand how they are played. The best Example of these classes is the Theremin. It Makes sound by sending an electronic signal to an ampliffier when it's magnetic fields are disturbed. So, the Theremin is an electrophone.
Another thing that made the museum interesting was all the different types of instruments they had. It seemed like there were at least two instruments from every country in the world. That's more than 390 instruments from around the world. Other wise know as enough instruments to give a musician a headache trying to remember them all. Along with these instruments they also had some historic ones on display including one of the light up drums from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Peace Piano, Eric Clapton's guitar "Brownie", and a couple of amplifiers that Dick Dale blew up. Who knew a broken amp could be considered historic.
My favorite instrument in the museum is the Octobass. It is a 12 foot tall three stringed Double bass that is so deep that it can barely be heard by human ears. Only three were ever made, and there is only one person in the western hemisphere who can play one. After we got home, Omar Domkus (the parent who set up the tour and he is also a bass player) sent us a YouTube video of someone playing the same Octobass. It sounded like a dying whale.
Another thing I noticed about the tour was the fact that the tour guide seemed to think we didn't know much about instruments. During our second run through the museum, (the tour guide seemed to be rushing us through the exhibits) the tour guide met up with my dad and I while we were looking at the electric guitars. She told us about how on the web-site they had a whole curriculum on how electric guitars and amps work. My dad then explained how we had just finished building one (picture of the guitar we built is below), and he told her that I work the sound board at our church. The look on her face was priceless.
This concludes the mystery of the MIM: Idiophones don't mean the maker was an idiot, broken amps can be historic, and the tour was most likely made for public school groups.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Happy Emergency Nurses Day!
We like to celebrate holidays here at Our Homeschool Mystery so today we are celebrating Emergency Nurses Day! Cheers to all the great Emergency Nurses out there! I feel so lucky to be one of them! Every working day is a new and different adventure with people from all walks of life... patients with delayed care, intoxicants, language, cultural, and educational barriers... we see everybody!
We see patients BEFORE a diagnosis is made, and we are the ones that deal with patients and families in their time of anxiety from the "not knowing."
We shift gears on cue... never knowing what is going to walk through the doors next!
We have FUN! We play charades in triage when the patient does not know what meds he takes... "Little blue pill... sounds like... starts with... 2 syllables... rhymes with..."
We're crafty... ever see our "stinky feet" combat creations?
We also love patient makeovers... "We had to cut all your clothes off of you, but we're sending you home in these donated clothes... the hot pink biker shorts are a new look for you, sir."
We're resourceful... "Oh looky, I found the one last vein for an IV that you DIDN'T already use for your heroin!"
We're the cheerleaders... "You're a natural with those crutches -- it's like you've had a broken leg your whole life!"
I have to think that many of these emergency nursing skills are a lot like being a homeschooling mom... adaptable, strong, fun, crafty, resourceful, and encouraging. But most of all, we just CARE about our patients, much like we CARE about our kids, and that's why we do it, and it all seems easy for that reason. :)
We see patients BEFORE a diagnosis is made, and we are the ones that deal with patients and families in their time of anxiety from the "not knowing."
We shift gears on cue... never knowing what is going to walk through the doors next!
We have FUN! We play charades in triage when the patient does not know what meds he takes... "Little blue pill... sounds like... starts with... 2 syllables... rhymes with..."
We're crafty... ever see our "stinky feet" combat creations?
We also love patient makeovers... "We had to cut all your clothes off of you, but we're sending you home in these donated clothes... the hot pink biker shorts are a new look for you, sir."
We're resourceful... "Oh looky, I found the one last vein for an IV that you DIDN'T already use for your heroin!"
We're the cheerleaders... "You're a natural with those crutches -- it's like you've had a broken leg your whole life!"
I have to think that many of these emergency nursing skills are a lot like being a homeschooling mom... adaptable, strong, fun, crafty, resourceful, and encouraging. But most of all, we just CARE about our patients, much like we CARE about our kids, and that's why we do it, and it all seems easy for that reason. :)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
September News Now!!!
This September must have been the most exciting yet tiring September in my life (I think.) We started going to a new homeschool group, the youngest member of the Murphy family (our best friends) slept over for the first time, I started a new instrument, and, well, I'll just let you hear the story yourself.
We'll start with VHE (Valley Home Educators.) This is the new homeschool group we have joined. When we went to the kick-off meeting, I met a bunch of people my age. A few of them I already knew. At the kick-off we had a potluck lunch. After a few hours of chatting, all the kids around the ages 10 and up (as long as they were kids) went outside for the TNT meeting. TNT stands for teens-n-tweens. Every year in November, they have a yard sale to help a charity. This year will be there fourth annual, or that's what I remember. The next week we went to the Sea Life Aquarium with the rest of the group. We saw many different fish and sea creatures. During the tour of the of the aquarium, we answered questions that were painted on the wall. Then we scratched out the answers on the cards they gave us to turn in and get a sticker. Some facts I learned from the trip were that lion fish are one of the most dangerous fish, that manta rays are most closely related to sharks, and much more. At the end of the tour, Brenna and I played in the tubes with Ailish. Then I went to Brenna's house for a sleep-over. On the second day of the sleepover (the day I was going home) Brenna was going over to one of her friend's house to help her do something. While she was gone I babysat Ailish. It was fun.
A few weeks later, Brenna, Ailish, and Devin came over to spend the night for five days. It was exciting since it was Ailish's first time sleeping anywhere, but home. During our un-sleepover, (Ailish chose not to sleep at night, every night, but the first one) we took Ailish and Brenna to my French horn lesson. I should probably put more detail into this picture. Back in the second, or maybe the first week in August, I went back to my two-day-a-week enrichment program, Eagleridge. As you know, (or should know) I play flute in our Monday band. Actually I used to play flute in band. This year we added a lot of flutes. We took up 1/3 of the band all put together. Mr. Hink, our band teacher, mentioned one of us playing French Horn. I told it to my mom and she said I probably should try it because she remembered when she was a girl, she played flute and she knew this girl who played French Horn and had always wanted to switch, but her mom said no. So I switched and I'm glad I did. It has been six weeks and both my band teacher and my French horn teacher said I'm doing great for a kid that started six weeks ago. I really enjoy it.
Just this Wednesday I went to Open House and Mr. Hink told my parents about how good I was. At Open House I performed a song with my fellow classmates, about 1/4 of them. We also did a hand clapping routine like the one from the Kleenex clapping commercial with 6th grade Wed., 6th grade Fri., and 5th grade Fri. It was great. I did the clapping almost perfectly. It has been busy, busy around here, but September was fun.
We'll start with VHE (Valley Home Educators.) This is the new homeschool group we have joined. When we went to the kick-off meeting, I met a bunch of people my age. A few of them I already knew. At the kick-off we had a potluck lunch. After a few hours of chatting, all the kids around the ages 10 and up (as long as they were kids) went outside for the TNT meeting. TNT stands for teens-n-tweens. Every year in November, they have a yard sale to help a charity. This year will be there fourth annual, or that's what I remember. The next week we went to the Sea Life Aquarium with the rest of the group. We saw many different fish and sea creatures. During the tour of the of the aquarium, we answered questions that were painted on the wall. Then we scratched out the answers on the cards they gave us to turn in and get a sticker. Some facts I learned from the trip were that lion fish are one of the most dangerous fish, that manta rays are most closely related to sharks, and much more. At the end of the tour, Brenna and I played in the tubes with Ailish. Then I went to Brenna's house for a sleep-over. On the second day of the sleepover (the day I was going home) Brenna was going over to one of her friend's house to help her do something. While she was gone I babysat Ailish. It was fun.
A few weeks later, Brenna, Ailish, and Devin came over to spend the night for five days. It was exciting since it was Ailish's first time sleeping anywhere, but home. During our un-sleepover, (Ailish chose not to sleep at night, every night, but the first one) we took Ailish and Brenna to my French horn lesson. I should probably put more detail into this picture. Back in the second, or maybe the first week in August, I went back to my two-day-a-week enrichment program, Eagleridge. As you know, (or should know) I play flute in our Monday band. Actually I used to play flute in band. This year we added a lot of flutes. We took up 1/3 of the band all put together. Mr. Hink, our band teacher, mentioned one of us playing French Horn. I told it to my mom and she said I probably should try it because she remembered when she was a girl, she played flute and she knew this girl who played French Horn and had always wanted to switch, but her mom said no. So I switched and I'm glad I did. It has been six weeks and both my band teacher and my French horn teacher said I'm doing great for a kid that started six weeks ago. I really enjoy it.
Just this Wednesday I went to Open House and Mr. Hink told my parents about how good I was. At Open House I performed a song with my fellow classmates, about 1/4 of them. We also did a hand clapping routine like the one from the Kleenex clapping commercial with 6th grade Wed., 6th grade Fri., and 5th grade Fri. It was great. I did the clapping almost perfectly. It has been busy, busy around here, but September was fun.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Eagleridge Update
I thought I should give you an update on what has happened at our homeschool enrichment program, Eagleridge. On Wednesday, we officially started our third week back to Eagleridge and on Monday, we will officially end it.
We will start with my first class, music. In music we talked about body language. Over the past weeks we had been talking about communication. The first week we talked about slit drums, and the second week we talked about talking drums. One of the things we did was take a white sheet and put a light behind it so we could use body language to say something. It was fun, but the thing I was supposed to show was quick and tiny and to do it, I had to shuffle across the floor really fast on my knees, and I got a bad rug burn.
In my second class, P.E., my P.E. teacher worked us to death (not literally.) For our introduction, we played "Home Base." For our fitness, we did "Race Track Fitness." That's where we died. We had to run around the gym, and then come back to our cone to do push-ups or sit-ups or something like that. I went around the gym about 16 times and it's a big gym. Then we had to jump rope for the rest of the class. At the end, we got to play cage ball though.
In science we looked at samples of human skeleton muscle, cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and blood on microscopes. Just before music extras, one of my friends asked me if I would take her to the bathroom. At our new campus, we have to take a buddy to the bathroom and the bathrooms are only unlocked between classes and at recess. We missed 10 minutes of class because something like 15 kids were in there. We missed getting singing solos, but since we wanted solos, too, the teacher made them duets.
After a lunch of mini corn dogs, applesauce, and chocolate milk, and recess, my class and I went to art class. In art we started working on our calligraphy poems. We got the poems from last week's composition work of diamontes. This week in composition we're working on cinquains. Here are a few I wrote:
We will start with my first class, music. In music we talked about body language. Over the past weeks we had been talking about communication. The first week we talked about slit drums, and the second week we talked about talking drums. One of the things we did was take a white sheet and put a light behind it so we could use body language to say something. It was fun, but the thing I was supposed to show was quick and tiny and to do it, I had to shuffle across the floor really fast on my knees, and I got a bad rug burn.
In my second class, P.E., my P.E. teacher worked us to death (not literally.) For our introduction, we played "Home Base." For our fitness, we did "Race Track Fitness." That's where we died. We had to run around the gym, and then come back to our cone to do push-ups or sit-ups or something like that. I went around the gym about 16 times and it's a big gym. Then we had to jump rope for the rest of the class. At the end, we got to play cage ball though.
In science we looked at samples of human skeleton muscle, cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and blood on microscopes. Just before music extras, one of my friends asked me if I would take her to the bathroom. At our new campus, we have to take a buddy to the bathroom and the bathrooms are only unlocked between classes and at recess. We missed 10 minutes of class because something like 15 kids were in there. We missed getting singing solos, but since we wanted solos, too, the teacher made them duets.
After a lunch of mini corn dogs, applesauce, and chocolate milk, and recess, my class and I went to art class. In art we started working on our calligraphy poems. We got the poems from last week's composition work of diamontes. This week in composition we're working on cinquains. Here are a few I wrote:
Autumn
Colorful- Leaves
chills, crunching, rustling
Beautifully colorful around me
Fall
Eating
Delicious- Food
munching, chewing, crunching
Defeating my agonizing hunger
Devouring
Music
Graceful- Notes
playing, listening, affecting
Telling me a story
Songs
In computers we reviewed the tools in Word. Then I went home. Now my work is officially done.
Poetry Is Music
We have had a pretty busy summer this year, and we haven't had very much time for blogging. We started the summer with a camping trip on the beach with my best friend and his sister. Rebecca and I also went on a camping trip with our grandparents and cousins.We've also done a whole bunch of other activities this summer. One of these activities was a concert at which Natalie Merchant was promoting her new album Leave Your Sleep. I really liked this concert because all of the songs were poems set to music, and we have been doing poetry in my homeschool composition class and at home. It is very interesting how this form of songs works, and because it is very interesting how she used certain instruments for certain parts of the songs.
The songs on this album were of a collection of poems either by children, for children, or of children and turned into music. Some of the poetry that she used was The Dancing Bear by Albert Bigelow Paine, Bleezer's Ice-Cream by Jack Prelutsky, and The Sleepy Giant by Charles E. Carryl. All of the songs came with a short biography about the poets. There were some bad reviews about the concert that we read before we went. People were complaining that the concert was more like a poetry lecture as opposed to a concert. However, I found these people she talked about very interesting. One of the most interesting was Albert Bigelow Paine, who was a close friend of Mark Twain, and he eventually wrote his biography.
I really like how Natalie Merchant turned these poems into music because poetry is meant to sound like music. Music is essentially made up of rhythm and sound, and poetry is exactly the same. Just last week, we were doing limericks in my homeschool composition class, and Mrs. Pittman was talking to us about how rhythm is part of poetry by the way things are accented. The week before that, we were doing haikus which all have the same rhythm made up of the same number of syllables per line: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and then 5 syllables again. Shakespeare's poetry and stories are good examples of using rhythm in poetry because they were all written in iambic pentameter. Iambic Pentameter is a form of rhythm which alternates using 5 stressed and unstressed syllables per line. These forms of poetry are only three examples of the many ways that rhythm turns poetry into music.
It was also very interesting which instruments she used for the album. At the concert there was a clarinet, a bass clarinet, a saxophone, a violin, a cello, a double bass, a tuba, two guitars, drums, and a keyboard. Some of these instruments she only used in certain parts of the songs. For example, in the song, The Peppery Man, whenever she said "The Peppery Man," one of the guitarists would echo it in an unnaturally low voice while the double bass player played three or four notes on the tuba making it sound hilarious. I know this sounds confusing, but all of the people on the stage were able to play multiple instruments and some sang back up. It was also really funny what was said by Natalie in between songs. During the beginning of the second song, the speakers started making a weird static sound which they called, "The dragonfly in the Dodge Theater air-conditioning system."
I am also impressed by this album because it took her only six and a half years to turn all 26 poems into songs. I hope this post explains what we have been doing this summer, and that poetry is music. I can't wait until Natalie Merchant's next concert here.
The songs on this album were of a collection of poems either by children, for children, or of children and turned into music. Some of the poetry that she used was The Dancing Bear by Albert Bigelow Paine, Bleezer's Ice-Cream by Jack Prelutsky, and The Sleepy Giant by Charles E. Carryl. All of the songs came with a short biography about the poets. There were some bad reviews about the concert that we read before we went. People were complaining that the concert was more like a poetry lecture as opposed to a concert. However, I found these people she talked about very interesting. One of the most interesting was Albert Bigelow Paine, who was a close friend of Mark Twain, and he eventually wrote his biography.
I really like how Natalie Merchant turned these poems into music because poetry is meant to sound like music. Music is essentially made up of rhythm and sound, and poetry is exactly the same. Just last week, we were doing limericks in my homeschool composition class, and Mrs. Pittman was talking to us about how rhythm is part of poetry by the way things are accented. The week before that, we were doing haikus which all have the same rhythm made up of the same number of syllables per line: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and then 5 syllables again. Shakespeare's poetry and stories are good examples of using rhythm in poetry because they were all written in iambic pentameter. Iambic Pentameter is a form of rhythm which alternates using 5 stressed and unstressed syllables per line. These forms of poetry are only three examples of the many ways that rhythm turns poetry into music.
It was also very interesting which instruments she used for the album. At the concert there was a clarinet, a bass clarinet, a saxophone, a violin, a cello, a double bass, a tuba, two guitars, drums, and a keyboard. Some of these instruments she only used in certain parts of the songs. For example, in the song, The Peppery Man, whenever she said "The Peppery Man," one of the guitarists would echo it in an unnaturally low voice while the double bass player played three or four notes on the tuba making it sound hilarious. I know this sounds confusing, but all of the people on the stage were able to play multiple instruments and some sang back up. It was also really funny what was said by Natalie in between songs. During the beginning of the second song, the speakers started making a weird static sound which they called, "The dragonfly in the Dodge Theater air-conditioning system."
I am also impressed by this album because it took her only six and a half years to turn all 26 poems into songs. I hope this post explains what we have been doing this summer, and that poetry is music. I can't wait until Natalie Merchant's next concert here.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Highlights of My Summer
Over the summer recently, I've been busy. Between studying comets, to watching the tide pools, to going back to our homeschool enrichment program, we haven't had much time for blogging. So now, I'm going to give you the complete overview of everything that has happened since my last post, er, sort of.
We're going to start by going in chronological order which means first you'll learn about our trip to the beach. Back in July, I went on a seven-day camping trip with my family, my friend Brenna, and her brother Devin. On the second day, we went to go play at the beach. We had learned most of what we knew about riptides from our first camp out at the beach last year. Actually, I had been to the beach before, but I only learned about riptides last year. I had learned that riptides are waves that go at an angle to pull you out to sea and the only way to escape it was to swim sideways. We learned on this camp out though that you can tell where riptides will happen by how dark and choppy the water is. On another day we went to go see the tide pools. Devin found a crab and caught it. We also saw a crab eating. It was funny because the crab was shoveling food into it's mouth. We also saw some sea anemone, mussels, and many other creatures. On the last day, one of my mom's old friends came over to our campsite for dinner. She video taped a video of us pretending to be caught in a tsunami. We do a different video every year of one of the dangers of the ocean to scare Devin and Brenna's parents. It's quite enjoyable.
On the 11th of August, I started going back to my homeschool enrichment program, Eagleridge. We have moved the school to a new campus, so it's going to take some getting used to. On the next day, August 12th, was the Perseid meteor shower. At nine pm at night we went into the front yard with our folding chairs to watch the shower. Earlier that day we had played a game of "five questions." "Five questions" is a game my mom came up with to help us learn. To play, she comes up with a subject and writes down five questions about it. Our part is to answer the questions. The subject this time was the Perseid meteor shower and our five questions were:
We're going to start by going in chronological order which means first you'll learn about our trip to the beach. Back in July, I went on a seven-day camping trip with my family, my friend Brenna, and her brother Devin. On the second day, we went to go play at the beach. We had learned most of what we knew about riptides from our first camp out at the beach last year. Actually, I had been to the beach before, but I only learned about riptides last year. I had learned that riptides are waves that go at an angle to pull you out to sea and the only way to escape it was to swim sideways. We learned on this camp out though that you can tell where riptides will happen by how dark and choppy the water is. On another day we went to go see the tide pools. Devin found a crab and caught it. We also saw a crab eating. It was funny because the crab was shoveling food into it's mouth. We also saw some sea anemone, mussels, and many other creatures. On the last day, one of my mom's old friends came over to our campsite for dinner. She video taped a video of us pretending to be caught in a tsunami. We do a different video every year of one of the dangers of the ocean to scare Devin and Brenna's parents. It's quite enjoyable.
On the 11th of August, I started going back to my homeschool enrichment program, Eagleridge. We have moved the school to a new campus, so it's going to take some getting used to. On the next day, August 12th, was the Perseid meteor shower. At nine pm at night we went into the front yard with our folding chairs to watch the shower. Earlier that day we had played a game of "five questions." "Five questions" is a game my mom came up with to help us learn. To play, she comes up with a subject and writes down five questions about it. Our part is to answer the questions. The subject this time was the Perseid meteor shower and our five questions were:
- When is the Perseid meteor shower?
- Will we be able to see the shower from here in Arizona?
- What causes a meteor shower?
- How often can we see the shower?
- Why is it called Perseid?
- The Perseid meteor shower is on the night of August 12th.
- Arizona is the best place to see the shower because we'll be hitting it head on.
- A meteor shower is caused when Earth enters a cloud of debris left behind every time a comet nears the sun. The Perseid Shower is caused by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
- The Perseid Shower occurs every mid-August.
- The shower is called Perseid because the meteors seem to radiate out of the constellation, Perseus.
Gifted Education
I want to scream so therefore I will blog. The phone rang this morning at 8:02AM while we were sleeping in after a late night of sitting in lawn chairs in our front yard watching the Perseid meteor shower. The viewing coming after a week of immersing ourselves in meteors, comets, and all things astronomy. I didn't recognize the phone number so I wandered out to listen to the answering machine located in the kitchen. It was the school district wanting to know if Rebecca would be joining them this year in their "ELP." ELP stands for "Extended Learning Program," and from their own website, the program, "is designed to challenge intellectually and academically gifted students." One of my first questions is why these programs are always being disguised in covert acronyms: MGM - "Mentally Gifted Minors" (that's from WAY back in my elementary school days), GATE - "Gifted and Talented Education," and TAG - "Talented and Gifted Education." I'm sure there are more. I do believe it is the first step in the weed-out process by making the acronym so confusing that the ordinary parent cannot figure out what it is.
I mean no offense to the nice teacher calling to inquire about Rebecca, but the message itself made me laugh when she said, "We're practically on the other side of the world from you," in relation to where the school is located: distance to the school = 22 miles, distance to my work = 38 miles, distance to Mike's work = 29 miles, distance to the pediatrician = 27 miles, etc. Seeing a pattern? If 22 miles away is, "the other side of the world," then I would like to know how this program plans to broaden my child's scope of the world? So I looked again at the handout they sent home with Rebecca on the first day back to her homeschool enrichment program. The program meets once per week, all day, and some sample sessions are: "Snap It" - take pictures using iPhoto complemented with creative writing (CHECK: Does making her own vacation DVD this summer using iDVD count? How about writing and publishing her own posts for this blog?) "Fold It Up" - learn about Japanese art and origami. (CHECK: I think she earned a girl scout badge for origami because I remember the two of us one day making oodles of origami creatures to take to a meeting. How about our recent trip to the Phoenix Art Museum and checking out the Asian Art display? Her haiku notebooks she keeps?) "Flying High" - the principles of flight and designing a structure that will survive launch into orbit. (CHECK: Challenger Space Camp? The rocket she built and launched with her dad, the cub scout leader?) I'm sure these activities would be great if she wasn't ALREADY doing them! If she needed a break from the boring classroom where she was already way ahead of the rest of the class, then I would sign her up. However, here's where I want to make another case for homeschooling: I designed the curriculum with my child's individual needs already in mind!
New day and I'm still trying to figure out if I'm challenging my "gifted" child. I've decided to analyze what we're doing for signs of "gifted." Here is a true sample window into my world this morning:
I asked Rebecca if she wanted to go to the gifted school because ultimately we have a democratic household. Her response: "I would miss my friends." I said: "But maybe you could make new friends?" Her response: "The kids in that class are all nerdy boys, one annoying girl, and one sassy girl." Well, that sounds fun! After her first day back to her two-day-per-week enrichment program, the first thing she wanted to tell me when I picked her up was how she led the class around to all their rotating classrooms because she had "memorized the map" and knew where everything was (they are at a new campus.) This was the most fun part of her day. She enjoys being the leader. She likes it when her peers ask for her help with things. Why would I want to put her in a class where she is no longer the leader? When she gets in the "real world," will she not be with all walks of life -- followers and leaders? So . . . for all those people that criticize homeschooling for segregating children, I say to you: school segregates children! Homeschooling allows kids to learn at the pace and level appropriate for each child, and they can then make friends the way the rest of us do: through common interests, clubs, groups, church, sports, and shared social time together.
.
I mean no offense to the nice teacher calling to inquire about Rebecca, but the message itself made me laugh when she said, "We're practically on the other side of the world from you," in relation to where the school is located: distance to the school = 22 miles, distance to my work = 38 miles, distance to Mike's work = 29 miles, distance to the pediatrician = 27 miles, etc. Seeing a pattern? If 22 miles away is, "the other side of the world," then I would like to know how this program plans to broaden my child's scope of the world? So I looked again at the handout they sent home with Rebecca on the first day back to her homeschool enrichment program. The program meets once per week, all day, and some sample sessions are: "Snap It" - take pictures using iPhoto complemented with creative writing (CHECK: Does making her own vacation DVD this summer using iDVD count? How about writing and publishing her own posts for this blog?) "Fold It Up" - learn about Japanese art and origami. (CHECK: I think she earned a girl scout badge for origami because I remember the two of us one day making oodles of origami creatures to take to a meeting. How about our recent trip to the Phoenix Art Museum and checking out the Asian Art display? Her haiku notebooks she keeps?) "Flying High" - the principles of flight and designing a structure that will survive launch into orbit. (CHECK: Challenger Space Camp? The rocket she built and launched with her dad, the cub scout leader?) I'm sure these activities would be great if she wasn't ALREADY doing them! If she needed a break from the boring classroom where she was already way ahead of the rest of the class, then I would sign her up. However, here's where I want to make another case for homeschooling: I designed the curriculum with my child's individual needs already in mind!
New day and I'm still trying to figure out if I'm challenging my "gifted" child. I've decided to analyze what we're doing for signs of "gifted." Here is a true sample window into my world this morning:
- Around 8:30AM wandered out to find Rebecca on the couch reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. She's excited about reading this book because she wants to partake in a book club with her friends, and this is the book they're reading. "Did you eat breakfast?" I say. "Yes, I had Nutella on toast, watermelon, and milk," she says.
- I make tea, and check to see if I'm up on Facebook Scrabble (a.k.a. "Mommy's teacher lounge.")
- Patrick wanders out and pours himself a bowl of Raisin Bran and a glass of orange juice. He sits at the table and starts reading his 933-page Philip Pullman novel that he selected for himself at Half Price Books earlier in the week. I laugh at parents struggling to find "A.R." (Accelerated Reader) books from the school's list when this process is so easy, and I want to brag for a minute: they both had near-perfect reading comprehension scores on their standardized tests without ever taking a single "A.R. comprehension test."
- Everybody's done with breakfast, and we decide it's time to start math. We spend nearly an hour on the following problem from Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra by Stanley F. Schmidt, Ph.D.: "Snow stopped breathing (he is an army sergeant that has kidnapped Fred, our main character through the math book, who is a five-year-old college math professor), and the nurse indicated to the doctor that there may be something wrong. The doctor concurred and ordered that Snow be given some medicine. What he said to the nurse was, '30 cc of 25% cough medicine,' figuring that if Snow would cough, he'd have to start breathing again. The nurse ran to the cabinet and found two bottles. One of them was too weak. It only contained 20% of the cough medicine by volume. The other bottle was too strong. It was 35% of the cough medicine by volume. The nurse had to mix the two together to get 30 cc of 25% medicine. (A "cc" is a cubic centimeter. That's about the volume of a small sugar cube.) How much of each were used?" This math question led us to pull out a bottle of Robitussin, a bottle of Axe (we didn't have another cough medicine), and a medicine syringe, as we did a physical demonstration of what was being asked. They made legends, devised an equation, added the values, discussed the hypothetical possibility of whether or not this medicine would solve Snow's medical issue, and they argued like all good 10 and 12-year-old siblings do. In the end, they solved the problem.
- After math, they went to work on writing blog posts for Our Homeschool Mystery since we have a loose goal of one blog post per month, and they haven't done one for August yet. While they write, I write too, as I am doing right now. I can't think of a better way to motivate them to write, then for them to watch me do it, as well.
I asked Rebecca if she wanted to go to the gifted school because ultimately we have a democratic household. Her response: "I would miss my friends." I said: "But maybe you could make new friends?" Her response: "The kids in that class are all nerdy boys, one annoying girl, and one sassy girl." Well, that sounds fun! After her first day back to her two-day-per-week enrichment program, the first thing she wanted to tell me when I picked her up was how she led the class around to all their rotating classrooms because she had "memorized the map" and knew where everything was (they are at a new campus.) This was the most fun part of her day. She enjoys being the leader. She likes it when her peers ask for her help with things. Why would I want to put her in a class where she is no longer the leader? When she gets in the "real world," will she not be with all walks of life -- followers and leaders? So . . . for all those people that criticize homeschooling for segregating children, I say to you: school segregates children! Homeschooling allows kids to learn at the pace and level appropriate for each child, and they can then make friends the way the rest of us do: through common interests, clubs, groups, church, sports, and shared social time together.
.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Back to School
I am a spectator at this sport. I merely watch seemingly normal people lose their minds for one week every year as children return to school. Today was the first day back to my kids' homeschool enrichment program (a.k.a. "school two days per week") so we did pull out a backpack, throw some pencils and paper in it, grab a water bottle, and attend "Meet the Teacher" yesterday, but that pretty much covered it. They do have to change classes all day and find their classrooms, buy lunch in the cafeteria, and follow rules, but that's about it. They left the house dressed like they looked yesterday. They felt the same way about life as they did yesterday. Life is as it was yesterday -- before . . . (insert dramatic music here) . . . "BACK TO SCHOOL!"
My husband and I made the mistake of going to Walmart last night to look for a pool cover for our above-ground pool (a.k.a. "the ongoing chemistry set.") You would think that finding pool supplies in August in Arizona would be easy, but first you have to make your way through the entry maze of school supplies that occupy the first five aisles of the store and also a bin conveniently located at each register. I ended up deciding that I would take this opportunity to look for my special four-color ball-point pen since nurses must sign orders in red and chart in black, and who wants to carry two pens? I never did find my special pens, but after a while, I gave up looking because of the zombies standing in each aisle blankly staring at school supplies lists. Seriously? You don't already have these items at home, or you haven't picked them up already? They appeared in the stores two months ago!
When I got home, I decided to research what is being requested of kids these days on these school supplies lists. It's been four years since my kids attended regular school, and the last time I remember buying school supplies, we showed up to back-to-school night with two bags full of tissues and Ziplock baggies because that's what the teacher wanted, and I wanted to get in good with her early on. She was holding the key to my child's future so if she needed tissues, I would provide. As it turns out, tissues and baggies are still on most of the school supplies lists for school districts whose lists I found on the internet. I like to think that the key to a good education starts with a high quality sandwich bag. The rest of the items on these lists were common sense. I had to look up what a Duo-Tang was -- that teacher has got to be a forward-thinker as that term for folder is now passé. I saw several lists which specifically asked for "an old white sock." Do you know what this is for? It's for wiping the dry-erase board because only "an old white sock" will do. I can see myself specifically buying white socks just for that purpose.
On the topic of other clothing needs, I learn from Seventeen magazine that the hot back-to-school fashion trend for 2010 is leggings, boots, and oversize shirts which makes perfect sense when the forecast high today is 107°. I really don't understand why kids need new clothing to go back to school. What did they wear yesterday? Were they walking around in their underwear? The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells me that 77.5% of kids ages 6-17 years have a working mother. This leads me to believe that the majority of these children were in some sort of supervised childcare over the summer while their parents were working. Did they attend naked? Can they not wear the daycare clothes to school? I looked up the dress code for one of my local schools, and I was so impressed by this PDF, that I feel the need to put a link here: http://www.mpsaz.org/brinton/faqs/files/dress_code_1-22-2010.pdf. Really, they've thought of everything complete with photo graphics! This is an elementary school! I particularly like the part prohibiting the body piercings and tattoos, and I don't think they mean the Cracker Jack variety. Okay, so maybe the back-to-school clothes craze is for uniforms. Well, the National Center for Education Statistics tells me that for 2007-08 (their most recent statistic), only 18% of public schools require uniforms, and the percentage raises only slightly when you factor in all schools, public and private. So I don't think the average $600 per American family going towards back to school items is being spent on uniforms. The Back-to-School shopping craze was invented by retailers, and it remains the second biggest money-making time of the year for them, second only to Christmas. Here's where one must realize that education in America is already married to big business. Case in point, Monday's first day back-to-school lunch menu in my district included pizza and "Elf Grahams." Hmmm . . . I wonder who the "Elf" is??? Keebler? Do you know of any other cracker elf? We couldn't just say "crackers" on the menu?
Thankfully, we have Oprah to sort this out for us with a slide-show on how to "Beat the Back-to-School Blues" http://www.theonion.com/articles/back-to-school,16852/#1 Whoops! That's The Onion, but doesn't it look like the same slide-show!? Here's Oprah's: http://www.oprah.com/relationships/How-to-Ease-Back-into-the-School-Year/7#slide! Back-to-School is the most important thing going on in the world right now. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! We're not over-exaggerating or anything here . . .
My husband and I made the mistake of going to Walmart last night to look for a pool cover for our above-ground pool (a.k.a. "the ongoing chemistry set.") You would think that finding pool supplies in August in Arizona would be easy, but first you have to make your way through the entry maze of school supplies that occupy the first five aisles of the store and also a bin conveniently located at each register. I ended up deciding that I would take this opportunity to look for my special four-color ball-point pen since nurses must sign orders in red and chart in black, and who wants to carry two pens? I never did find my special pens, but after a while, I gave up looking because of the zombies standing in each aisle blankly staring at school supplies lists. Seriously? You don't already have these items at home, or you haven't picked them up already? They appeared in the stores two months ago!
When I got home, I decided to research what is being requested of kids these days on these school supplies lists. It's been four years since my kids attended regular school, and the last time I remember buying school supplies, we showed up to back-to-school night with two bags full of tissues and Ziplock baggies because that's what the teacher wanted, and I wanted to get in good with her early on. She was holding the key to my child's future so if she needed tissues, I would provide. As it turns out, tissues and baggies are still on most of the school supplies lists for school districts whose lists I found on the internet. I like to think that the key to a good education starts with a high quality sandwich bag. The rest of the items on these lists were common sense. I had to look up what a Duo-Tang was -- that teacher has got to be a forward-thinker as that term for folder is now passé. I saw several lists which specifically asked for "an old white sock." Do you know what this is for? It's for wiping the dry-erase board because only "an old white sock" will do. I can see myself specifically buying white socks just for that purpose.
On the topic of other clothing needs, I learn from Seventeen magazine that the hot back-to-school fashion trend for 2010 is leggings, boots, and oversize shirts which makes perfect sense when the forecast high today is 107°. I really don't understand why kids need new clothing to go back to school. What did they wear yesterday? Were they walking around in their underwear? The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells me that 77.5% of kids ages 6-17 years have a working mother. This leads me to believe that the majority of these children were in some sort of supervised childcare over the summer while their parents were working. Did they attend naked? Can they not wear the daycare clothes to school? I looked up the dress code for one of my local schools, and I was so impressed by this PDF, that I feel the need to put a link here: http://www.mpsaz.org/brinton/faqs/files/dress_code_1-22-2010.pdf. Really, they've thought of everything complete with photo graphics! This is an elementary school! I particularly like the part prohibiting the body piercings and tattoos, and I don't think they mean the Cracker Jack variety. Okay, so maybe the back-to-school clothes craze is for uniforms. Well, the National Center for Education Statistics tells me that for 2007-08 (their most recent statistic), only 18% of public schools require uniforms, and the percentage raises only slightly when you factor in all schools, public and private. So I don't think the average $600 per American family going towards back to school items is being spent on uniforms. The Back-to-School shopping craze was invented by retailers, and it remains the second biggest money-making time of the year for them, second only to Christmas. Here's where one must realize that education in America is already married to big business. Case in point, Monday's first day back-to-school lunch menu in my district included pizza and "Elf Grahams." Hmmm . . . I wonder who the "Elf" is??? Keebler? Do you know of any other cracker elf? We couldn't just say "crackers" on the menu?
Thankfully, we have Oprah to sort this out for us with a slide-show on how to "Beat the Back-to-School Blues" http://www.theonion.com/articles/back-to-school,16852/#1 Whoops! That's The Onion, but doesn't it look like the same slide-show!? Here's Oprah's: http://www.oprah.com/relationships/How-to-Ease-Back-into-the-School-Year/7#slide! Back-to-School is the most important thing going on in the world right now. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! We're not over-exaggerating or anything here . . .
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Did America Create Fireworks, Too?
America is known for many things. We won the Revolutionary War, we defeated the Japanese in World War II, we conquered the Great Plains, plus more. We are also know for our ingenuity. I have to say, we have created quite a lot of stuff. From the atomic bomb to new battle strategies, we are a creative bunch.
In 1873, an Illinois farmer named Joseph Glidden created barbed wire on his kitchen table. Now sure I can make an owie fence, too, but the fact that an American made it is what really matters and besides, that's something I probably wouldn't think of making. Within ten years, a billion acres of the mid-west are parceled up by half a billion miles of barbed wire. That was a pretty ingenious idea. I can see where it was more helpful then to keep cows out of your yard, but it's still used today. They still use barbed wire to keep the cows in their pasture, but now it is also used on other places too, to keep the robbers away.
In 1879, Thomas Edison invents the electric light bulb. It would soon get a thousand patents. It's almost funny to think about how the light bulb has helped us. It is really helpful. Before the light bulb we had to go try and kill whales to get whale oil. He also created the first commercial power grid. In two years, he sets up 5,000 power plants. Five more years and he creates a further 127,000. The power plants are the ones giving the power to the light bulb so we have it to thank for the light bulb's light. It wouldn't be a light bulb without the light. Then it would just be a useless bulb.
In the 1940s, a single computer was the same size as a Greyhound bus with the same power as a modern PC. It needed as much power as a small town. Many people didn't believe the computer would go very far. Trust me, I don't think I can fit a school bus in my bedroom. In 1976, in a garage in northern California, two computer hobbyist, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, create the first practical, personal, computer (PC). In the 1980's there are just 300,000 PCs, but in the 1990s there are 67,000,000. I thought the 300,000 was a big number, well, compared to the people in the US that number is tiny.
America has created a lot of things. As I'm typing I am thinking of more. We would probably top on the list of "country that has invented the most stuff." I wouldn't be amazed if America had invented fireworks, too. Happy Fourth of July!
In 1873, an Illinois farmer named Joseph Glidden created barbed wire on his kitchen table. Now sure I can make an owie fence, too, but the fact that an American made it is what really matters and besides, that's something I probably wouldn't think of making. Within ten years, a billion acres of the mid-west are parceled up by half a billion miles of barbed wire. That was a pretty ingenious idea. I can see where it was more helpful then to keep cows out of your yard, but it's still used today. They still use barbed wire to keep the cows in their pasture, but now it is also used on other places too, to keep the robbers away.
In 1879, Thomas Edison invents the electric light bulb. It would soon get a thousand patents. It's almost funny to think about how the light bulb has helped us. It is really helpful. Before the light bulb we had to go try and kill whales to get whale oil. He also created the first commercial power grid. In two years, he sets up 5,000 power plants. Five more years and he creates a further 127,000. The power plants are the ones giving the power to the light bulb so we have it to thank for the light bulb's light. It wouldn't be a light bulb without the light. Then it would just be a useless bulb.
In the 1940s, a single computer was the same size as a Greyhound bus with the same power as a modern PC. It needed as much power as a small town. Many people didn't believe the computer would go very far. Trust me, I don't think I can fit a school bus in my bedroom. In 1976, in a garage in northern California, two computer hobbyist, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, create the first practical, personal, computer (PC). In the 1980's there are just 300,000 PCs, but in the 1990s there are 67,000,000. I thought the 300,000 was a big number, well, compared to the people in the US that number is tiny.
America has created a lot of things. As I'm typing I am thinking of more. We would probably top on the list of "country that has invented the most stuff." I wouldn't be amazed if America had invented fireworks, too. Happy Fourth of July!
The People Who Really Won America
We recently finished our History Channel documentary America: the Story of Us, and since I wanted to do a Fourth of July post, I decided to tie them in with each other. I think that the biggest part of our culture is our rebellious spirit and our willing to fight for what we believe in. This can be demonstrated through the actions of the Pilgrims, the colonists, and the slaves.
The Pilgrims went a long way to insure this country came into existence. They went 3,000 miles to be exact. The Pilgrims pretty much sold everything they had to go to a place where there was nothing there. They did it all for religious freedom. Thousands of people died of diseases, starvation, and animals they did not know about. However, they found ways to survive with the help of the Indians, and kept on going with life without even thinking of trying to go back to England.
The colonists were probably the biggest rebels in history. They started with small riots like the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre and then started the Revolutionary War to establish their country. The colonists fought the British for seven years and 25,700 people died, but they never gave in or said, "Fine you can have this place." They fought it out and were able to have that freedom the Pilgrims always dreamed about.
The slaves were also very rebellious. Harriet Tubman even went back and helped other slaves after she escaped through the Underground Railroad. The Civil War was then fought until the Confederate states submitted and the Thirteenth Amendment was signed. Even after the Civil War, racism still continued, and people rioted often against racism until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to prevent it. Because of the rebels like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., racism is now much less. We even have the first black president because of these people's struggles.
Along with these rebellious successes, many other rebellions helped America like the Vietnam War protests, and other slightly more violent protests in which many people lost their lives defending their beliefs like the Kent State Riots. Either way, rebels are definitely a major part of the American culture, and I am proud to be one of them.
The Pilgrims went a long way to insure this country came into existence. They went 3,000 miles to be exact. The Pilgrims pretty much sold everything they had to go to a place where there was nothing there. They did it all for religious freedom. Thousands of people died of diseases, starvation, and animals they did not know about. However, they found ways to survive with the help of the Indians, and kept on going with life without even thinking of trying to go back to England.
The colonists were probably the biggest rebels in history. They started with small riots like the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre and then started the Revolutionary War to establish their country. The colonists fought the British for seven years and 25,700 people died, but they never gave in or said, "Fine you can have this place." They fought it out and were able to have that freedom the Pilgrims always dreamed about.
The slaves were also very rebellious. Harriet Tubman even went back and helped other slaves after she escaped through the Underground Railroad. The Civil War was then fought until the Confederate states submitted and the Thirteenth Amendment was signed. Even after the Civil War, racism still continued, and people rioted often against racism until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to prevent it. Because of the rebels like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., racism is now much less. We even have the first black president because of these people's struggles.
Along with these rebellious successes, many other rebellions helped America like the Vietnam War protests, and other slightly more violent protests in which many people lost their lives defending their beliefs like the Kent State Riots. Either way, rebels are definitely a major part of the American culture, and I am proud to be one of them.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Why the First Amendment is Important to Me
A few weeks ago while at our church's camp, my best friend and I were about to go to the camp's coffee shop, and while I was looking for my wallet, he happened to notice my Blog Notes journal. He asked if my mom was still forcing me to write in this blog. I told him no she wasn't, but whenever I tell anyone the next sentence, they seem extremely surprised. I told him I write in it of my own free will, and then I found my wallet, and we went to the coffee shop with Devin still recovering from shock.
What I don't understand from this conversation is why no one believes I like to write in an online journal which is exactly what a blog is. Throughout history many people have kept journals. Without Christopher Columbus's journal, America would probably be uninhabited; without Lewis and Clark's journals, we would all still be stuck on the east coast; without Charles Darwin's journals, some crucial species of animals would not be known. Other people who wrote journals were John Muir, Anne Frank, and I haven't even mentioned all the people who have written autobiographies so why are people surprised that I'm not being forced to write in this online journal? It's not uncommon for someone to enjoy writing; look at Christopher Paolini: he started writing Eragon when he was fifteen, and I don't think his parents said write a 500 page novel or else.
There are many reasons why I love writing. My favorite part about blog writing is reading it after it's been published because of the thrill of reading my ideas and opinions being publicly voiced. Why people don't voice opinions is another question of mine. Freedom of speech is a right of ours, why do we not use it? Many books, autobiographies, and even journals (real events in history) have been banned because we have not demanded our right to speak out. If writing didn't exist, the world would fall into chaos. There would be no communication because no one would be able to write anything to message, no movies because no one would be able to write the scripts, no internet because no one would be able to program it, and no civilization because no one would be able to converse with more than a few people. Face it, we need writing to survive. Why do so many people insist on hating it? The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government to redress grievances." I love these words drafted by James Madison in the United States Constitution.
What I don't understand from this conversation is why no one believes I like to write in an online journal which is exactly what a blog is. Throughout history many people have kept journals. Without Christopher Columbus's journal, America would probably be uninhabited; without Lewis and Clark's journals, we would all still be stuck on the east coast; without Charles Darwin's journals, some crucial species of animals would not be known. Other people who wrote journals were John Muir, Anne Frank, and I haven't even mentioned all the people who have written autobiographies so why are people surprised that I'm not being forced to write in this online journal? It's not uncommon for someone to enjoy writing; look at Christopher Paolini: he started writing Eragon when he was fifteen, and I don't think his parents said write a 500 page novel or else.
There are many reasons why I love writing. My favorite part about blog writing is reading it after it's been published because of the thrill of reading my ideas and opinions being publicly voiced. Why people don't voice opinions is another question of mine. Freedom of speech is a right of ours, why do we not use it? Many books, autobiographies, and even journals (real events in history) have been banned because we have not demanded our right to speak out. If writing didn't exist, the world would fall into chaos. There would be no communication because no one would be able to write anything to message, no movies because no one would be able to write the scripts, no internet because no one would be able to program it, and no civilization because no one would be able to converse with more than a few people. Face it, we need writing to survive. Why do so many people insist on hating it? The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government to redress grievances." I love these words drafted by James Madison in the United States Constitution.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Companion Post to Rebecca's America: The Story of Us
I want to start by saying that Rebecca has given me full permission to publish her first draft of her America piece, now that she knows the word she misused in paragraph two. As a matter fact, she has taken to reminding me daily that the Revolutionary War was started by "mobs of angry prostitutes" because she knows she gets such a laugh out of me. In our family, there are four of us always trying to go for the biggest laugh -- dinnertime is crazy!
So before I get, "What is she teaching those poor children?" I must say that Rebecca now knows what the word prostitute means, and I don't feel her new knowledge means she has anymore chance of becoming one (but that's another blog post . . .) Remember, she's 10 years old. I love hearing parents' stories of how kids learned certain new words. Feel free to comment and share! Is language acquisition innate as Noam Chomsky suggested, or learned as Jean Piaget suggested? Hmmm . . .
Rebecca's post made me realize that in my pursuit of explaining what we do for homeschooling, I never covered how I went about teaching my kids to read, write, or learn vocabulary. I have spent the last few weeks since she originally wrote this post, trying to figure out what I did or did not do. Unfortunately, researching this topic started a huge reorganization project around the house as I've been frantically looking for some key books and notebooks from several years ago. We're just finishing up the project, and I now have ELEVEN full bookcases in a house that is under 1200 square feet (thanks Ikea!) So as a side note, if you're considering homeschooling your kids, be prepared to turn your house into a small library/school.
So here are a few of the key things I think I did in the language arts arena (which I admit is probably the subject in homeschooling that I have been the "loosest" in teaching):
So before I get, "What is she teaching those poor children?" I must say that Rebecca now knows what the word prostitute means, and I don't feel her new knowledge means she has anymore chance of becoming one (but that's another blog post . . .) Remember, she's 10 years old. I love hearing parents' stories of how kids learned certain new words. Feel free to comment and share! Is language acquisition innate as Noam Chomsky suggested, or learned as Jean Piaget suggested? Hmmm . . .
Rebecca's post made me realize that in my pursuit of explaining what we do for homeschooling, I never covered how I went about teaching my kids to read, write, or learn vocabulary. I have spent the last few weeks since she originally wrote this post, trying to figure out what I did or did not do. Unfortunately, researching this topic started a huge reorganization project around the house as I've been frantically looking for some key books and notebooks from several years ago. We're just finishing up the project, and I now have ELEVEN full bookcases in a house that is under 1200 square feet (thanks Ikea!) So as a side note, if you're considering homeschooling your kids, be prepared to turn your house into a small library/school.
So here are a few of the key things I think I did in the language arts arena (which I admit is probably the subject in homeschooling that I have been the "loosest" in teaching):
- From the time they were babies, I talked to them incessantly. Yes, I am a "Chatty Cathy" by nature, but I think this made a big difference in their learning the spoken word. This is why they make you go into language labs to listen to audiotapes to learn a foreign language -- you want to learn the language, then you must listen to the language.
- From the time they were mobile, I took them to the library. We did story-time every week, Read Your Way to the Ballpark every year, saw movies and puppet shows there, etc. And yes, we brought home bagfuls of books every week, which were always a pain to keep track of and haul back and forth, but I think it was good for them to select their own books, and be exposed to a variety of different subjects.
- I read to them before they could read. And when I was tired of reading, I made sure they had books on tape and CD to listen to -- they loved working the equipment, too.
- I keep a stash of books and magazines in the car and the bathroom -- I find these are two places that they'll spend hours reading in.
- I never said no to a Scholastic book order. Yes, homeschoolers get these, too.Who doesn't love Scholastic Books!
- They've always kept journals, and I save all of them because they love reading them later on. They also keep photo-journals of their vacations and scrapbooks.
- Whenever they write something, I read it with them, and we find their mistakes together conversation-style. I never found the red-pen process to be at all helpful since then they aren't involved in the finding part of the proofreading errors.
- We look stuff up in the dictionary (frequently), we all have our own dictionaries at our desks, have dictionary.com bookmarked on our computers, and know how to use the "tools" section of Word.
- I let them read whatever they want. I LOATHE the AR (accelerated reader) program in schools. If I want them to read a certain classic that they haven't shown an interest in, then I let them watch the movie, see the play, or find a related subject that sparks an interest in the book (for example, Patrick likes fencing so we pick plays with famous duels.)
- The only spelling book we ever used was Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout. I love this book because it teaches Latin and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes, and patterns of words. I can tell what Rebecca was thinking with her "prostitute" and "protester" mix up because she knows "pro" has a Latin origin meaning "before" in both words. In prostitute it is combined with "statuere" which is "to cause to stand" and in "protester" it is combined with "testari" which is "to witness." I myself, never realized how much the two words had in common! If you've seen America: The Story of Us, that particular scene is a little confusing with the imagery, if you know what I mean! Watch it if you haven't seen it! This documentary is a great chronological overview of American history with frequent commentaries by notable people. The kids are both working on American history blog posts to correspond with July 4th patriotism. Check back to find out how else the prostitutes have contributed!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
America: The Story of Us - Part One
Last night, I watched the movie America: The Story of Us part one. Part one told us the story of the Revolutionary War. It told me many things I already knew and just as many that I didn't.
I never knew that one of the main reasons America won the Revolutionary War was because we gathered sharpshooters to hide in the bushes and trees and shoot the British as the hiked to a battlefield. The British were used to fighting on battle fields and they were surprised when a bullet came out of the bushes and killed one of their many Indian guides. The job of the sharpshooters was to kill all the Indian guides and the British leaders. The British needed the guides because they didn't know the area compared to the sharpshooters who knew it very well. The sharpshooters had killed all the guides and all the British leaders but one. The leader of the sharpshooters chose a man named Tim Murphy, an Irish man, to shoot the last British leader. He shot three bullets: the first missed, the second skinned his horse, and the third "hit home." The sharpshooters shot the British and about a half of them died under no leadership, that's double how many Americans died in the Battle of Lexington.
One of the reasons the Revolutionary War started was because mobs of angry prostitutes roamed the streets on May 5th, 1770. They gathered because they had lost their jobs and blamed the British gathered on King Street in Boston. The hundreds of protesters faced off against the eight armed red-coats who were told not to fire. Edward Garrick, a 17-year old wig maker's apprentice "lights the fuse." He is hit in the head with a red-coat's gun. This is how wars start. British Private Hugh Montgomery is hit with a club. Edward Garrick was the first to be shot. African-American Crispus Attucks dies instantly. When the smoke clears, four more are dead.
I would love to tell you more about the movie, but I don't want to ruin it for you. To watch it, go to the History Channel.
I never knew that one of the main reasons America won the Revolutionary War was because we gathered sharpshooters to hide in the bushes and trees and shoot the British as the hiked to a battlefield. The British were used to fighting on battle fields and they were surprised when a bullet came out of the bushes and killed one of their many Indian guides. The job of the sharpshooters was to kill all the Indian guides and the British leaders. The British needed the guides because they didn't know the area compared to the sharpshooters who knew it very well. The sharpshooters had killed all the guides and all the British leaders but one. The leader of the sharpshooters chose a man named Tim Murphy, an Irish man, to shoot the last British leader. He shot three bullets: the first missed, the second skinned his horse, and the third "hit home." The sharpshooters shot the British and about a half of them died under no leadership, that's double how many Americans died in the Battle of Lexington.
One of the reasons the Revolutionary War started was because mobs of angry prostitutes roamed the streets on May 5th, 1770. They gathered because they had lost their jobs and blamed the British gathered on King Street in Boston. The hundreds of protesters faced off against the eight armed red-coats who were told not to fire. Edward Garrick, a 17-year old wig maker's apprentice "lights the fuse." He is hit in the head with a red-coat's gun. This is how wars start. British Private Hugh Montgomery is hit with a club. Edward Garrick was the first to be shot. African-American Crispus Attucks dies instantly. When the smoke clears, four more are dead.
I would love to tell you more about the movie, but I don't want to ruin it for you. To watch it, go to the History Channel.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Case of the Freezing Mine, the Stagecoach Ride, the Crazed Spork Murderer, and the Invisible Ostrich Farm
Earlier this year, the Eagleridge student council decided to go to Bisbee and Tombstone for the 6-8 grade end-of-the-year trip. Earlier this week, we actually went on the trip. We all got to Eagleridge at 6:30AM and got on the tour bus. We then drove for about 3 and a half hours playing many dramatic games of Mafia in which the mafia really liked stabbing people with sporks.
At about 10:00AM we were told by the tour guide that an ostrich farm would be coming up on the right-side of the bus after we pass a trailer park. About half an hour later we passed the trailer park. Another half an hour passed and still no ostrich farm. Another half an hour passed and my friend Devin realized that it either was never really there, or was passed without us knowing it. I have spent the last couple of days trying to find it on Google Earth without success. Three more hours later (or exactly 32 throwing spork murders later) we arrived in Bisbee, Arizona. After we got off the bus, our tour guide for the away-from-the-bus part of the tour met us. Bisbee was originally started as a copper, silver, and gold mining camp before they found the Copper Queen Mine when they decided to make it a city. After the tour of the city, she brought us to the Copper Queen Mining Museum. There, we learned all sorts of stuff from the equipment they used in the underground mine to how they separate the ore from the dirt in the open pit mine (the gasses from a bacteria imported from Norway literally burn away anything that isn't copper ore.)
After the museum, we got back on the bus and drove another twenty minutes until we reached the entrance to the Copper Queen Mine. We went inside a little warehouse next to it and were given bright yellow jackets, hardhats, and a car battery with a light bulb about big enough to cover the head of a pin, and we were told to haul the car battery around on the belt of the jacket. They then loaded us onto the mine cart: a somewhat small engine that stalled often but had a soft cushioned swivel chair. Hauled by this engine was twelve two by fours on wheels with two thin rods running down the length of the cart. Along with the unstable method of transportation, it was also informed five minutes after we entered, that the mine stayed a naturally flat 52 degrees! If you don't believe me here's a picture of a thermometer in there:
It was fun though, and we got to see many old crystal and mining caves along with a lift shaft, detonation cave, and a honey cart (the portable toilet). Here's a picture of the honey cart (I don't know why they call it a honey cart):
After we left the mine, we ate lunch on the bus and went to see one of the many open pit mines. The mine we went to see was the Lavender Open Pit Mine which was literally 80 ft. from the Copper Queen Mine. Apparently the shadow at the bottom of the mine isn't a shadow. Instead, the shadow is a mass of trapped rain water that is mixed with large amounts of copper, lead, iron, sediment, and bits of TNT. This combination makes a black toxic fluid that guarantees a painful death to a person in less than an hour if the person drinks it. Here's a picture of the toxic liquid:
After we went to the Lavender Open Pit Mine, we left Bisbee, and we were able to play another eight games of Mafia (all of which involved someone eating Teriyaki chicken while someone was being killed with a spork) before we arrived in Tombstone. Brief history of Tombstone: founded by a guy who was thought to be crazy for venturing out to the middle of nowhere and told all he would find was his tombstone. This guy (Edward Schieffelin) found silver and named the town Tombstone as an ironic joke. When we got there, we were broken up into two groups for the stagecoach tour. The other group went first. The group I was in went and found the biggest ice creams I've ever seen (a two scoop is about the size of four scoops). The stagecoach tour was a bit of a disappointment, but it was still interesting. To summarize: now you should understand the case of the freezing mine, the stagecoach ride, the crazed spork murderer, and the invisible ostrich farm. This case has been solved. Never trust anyone with a spork. ;)
At about 10:00AM we were told by the tour guide that an ostrich farm would be coming up on the right-side of the bus after we pass a trailer park. About half an hour later we passed the trailer park. Another half an hour passed and still no ostrich farm. Another half an hour passed and my friend Devin realized that it either was never really there, or was passed without us knowing it. I have spent the last couple of days trying to find it on Google Earth without success. Three more hours later (or exactly 32 throwing spork murders later) we arrived in Bisbee, Arizona. After we got off the bus, our tour guide for the away-from-the-bus part of the tour met us. Bisbee was originally started as a copper, silver, and gold mining camp before they found the Copper Queen Mine when they decided to make it a city. After the tour of the city, she brought us to the Copper Queen Mining Museum. There, we learned all sorts of stuff from the equipment they used in the underground mine to how they separate the ore from the dirt in the open pit mine (the gasses from a bacteria imported from Norway literally burn away anything that isn't copper ore.)
After the museum, we got back on the bus and drove another twenty minutes until we reached the entrance to the Copper Queen Mine. We went inside a little warehouse next to it and were given bright yellow jackets, hardhats, and a car battery with a light bulb about big enough to cover the head of a pin, and we were told to haul the car battery around on the belt of the jacket. They then loaded us onto the mine cart: a somewhat small engine that stalled often but had a soft cushioned swivel chair. Hauled by this engine was twelve two by fours on wheels with two thin rods running down the length of the cart. Along with the unstable method of transportation, it was also informed five minutes after we entered, that the mine stayed a naturally flat 52 degrees! If you don't believe me here's a picture of a thermometer in there:
It was fun though, and we got to see many old crystal and mining caves along with a lift shaft, detonation cave, and a honey cart (the portable toilet). Here's a picture of the honey cart (I don't know why they call it a honey cart):
After we left the mine, we ate lunch on the bus and went to see one of the many open pit mines. The mine we went to see was the Lavender Open Pit Mine which was literally 80 ft. from the Copper Queen Mine. Apparently the shadow at the bottom of the mine isn't a shadow. Instead, the shadow is a mass of trapped rain water that is mixed with large amounts of copper, lead, iron, sediment, and bits of TNT. This combination makes a black toxic fluid that guarantees a painful death to a person in less than an hour if the person drinks it. Here's a picture of the toxic liquid:
After we went to the Lavender Open Pit Mine, we left Bisbee, and we were able to play another eight games of Mafia (all of which involved someone eating Teriyaki chicken while someone was being killed with a spork) before we arrived in Tombstone. Brief history of Tombstone: founded by a guy who was thought to be crazy for venturing out to the middle of nowhere and told all he would find was his tombstone. This guy (Edward Schieffelin) found silver and named the town Tombstone as an ironic joke. When we got there, we were broken up into two groups for the stagecoach tour. The other group went first. The group I was in went and found the biggest ice creams I've ever seen (a two scoop is about the size of four scoops). The stagecoach tour was a bit of a disappointment, but it was still interesting. To summarize: now you should understand the case of the freezing mine, the stagecoach ride, the crazed spork murderer, and the invisible ostrich farm. This case has been solved. Never trust anyone with a spork. ;)
In the Attic
I love to write. At Eagleridge, in our composition class, we have been writing lots of stories. Here is one of them I wrote. It is called "In the Attic."
One day I was reading the book Caddie Woodlawn when I got to a chapter where Caddie went into her attic and found some breeches and clogs. I wondered if there was anything in our attic and what it was. I decided to go find out.
Once I had the ladder set below the trap door in our bathroom, I was ready to climb it. I started climbing. Once I was at the top, I pushed open the trap door. It was big and heavy, but I was able to open it. I then climbed inside. It was very dusty inside and hard to breathe in, but I just covered my mouth and nose with my shirt and started walking forward. It was strangely quiet, but then I thought, "How loud should it be in an attic?" Finally I saw a few piles of boxes all pushed aside in a corner. I also saw some tables, chairs, and other types of furniture by the boxes. I went over to one box and peeked into it. Inside was some pretty, exotic fabric pieces. I went over to a table. On it was a deck of playing cards, an old 1950's black-and-white movie, a basket of old Christmas cards, a board game, and a small, pink diary with a bejeweled butterfly on it. Then I went over to a dresser. On it was a few toiletry bags, a hand-held mirror, and a pair of torn-up slippers. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a drawer slightly open and I opened it all the way. I took out the only item in the drawer: a box about big enough to hold a cat. I took the box with me as I went to go sit in an old, dusty armchair. I opened the box. Inside was a library book, a broken name badge, a library card, a bag of German money, and a picture of a teenage girl at a library. I wondered what all of these things were here for, so I left the attic to go ask my mother.
Once I had safely gotten down the ladder, I put it back in the garage and went back inside to show my mom this stuff. I found her checking her e-mail on the computer. When I showed her the items, she was surprised to see them. I asked her whose they were and why they were in the attic. "Oh, these are just some of the things they gave me while working at a German library," she said. "You got a broken name badge for working at a German library?" I said, astonished. My mom laughed. "No, no," she said, " That was the name badge I used while working at a library in Germany." " They gave you a library book also?" I asked. She nodded, "A library card also," she added. "This is the money they paid you with," I guessed. She nodded. "Is that you in this picture?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "that picture was taken by one of my friends in Germany, by the way, where did you find this stuff?" I blushed. "In the attic," I said. She laughed. "Go return it to the attic and don't go up there again without my permission," she said. I smiled and ran to go get the ladder.
While writing this story, I kept asking my mom questions some of which were not included in the story. It is true that my mom worked in a German library back when she lived in Germany when she was a teenager. She told me that she never wore a name badge though. Oops! I wouldn't be able to find that stuff in our attic though because ours is an "unfinished" attic meaning it doesn't have a floor. I hope you enjoyed my non-fiction/fiction story "In the Attic." What's in your attic?
One day I was reading the book Caddie Woodlawn when I got to a chapter where Caddie went into her attic and found some breeches and clogs. I wondered if there was anything in our attic and what it was. I decided to go find out.
Once I had the ladder set below the trap door in our bathroom, I was ready to climb it. I started climbing. Once I was at the top, I pushed open the trap door. It was big and heavy, but I was able to open it. I then climbed inside. It was very dusty inside and hard to breathe in, but I just covered my mouth and nose with my shirt and started walking forward. It was strangely quiet, but then I thought, "How loud should it be in an attic?" Finally I saw a few piles of boxes all pushed aside in a corner. I also saw some tables, chairs, and other types of furniture by the boxes. I went over to one box and peeked into it. Inside was some pretty, exotic fabric pieces. I went over to a table. On it was a deck of playing cards, an old 1950's black-and-white movie, a basket of old Christmas cards, a board game, and a small, pink diary with a bejeweled butterfly on it. Then I went over to a dresser. On it was a few toiletry bags, a hand-held mirror, and a pair of torn-up slippers. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a drawer slightly open and I opened it all the way. I took out the only item in the drawer: a box about big enough to hold a cat. I took the box with me as I went to go sit in an old, dusty armchair. I opened the box. Inside was a library book, a broken name badge, a library card, a bag of German money, and a picture of a teenage girl at a library. I wondered what all of these things were here for, so I left the attic to go ask my mother.
Once I had safely gotten down the ladder, I put it back in the garage and went back inside to show my mom this stuff. I found her checking her e-mail on the computer. When I showed her the items, she was surprised to see them. I asked her whose they were and why they were in the attic. "Oh, these are just some of the things they gave me while working at a German library," she said. "You got a broken name badge for working at a German library?" I said, astonished. My mom laughed. "No, no," she said, " That was the name badge I used while working at a library in Germany." " They gave you a library book also?" I asked. She nodded, "A library card also," she added. "This is the money they paid you with," I guessed. She nodded. "Is that you in this picture?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "that picture was taken by one of my friends in Germany, by the way, where did you find this stuff?" I blushed. "In the attic," I said. She laughed. "Go return it to the attic and don't go up there again without my permission," she said. I smiled and ran to go get the ladder.
While writing this story, I kept asking my mom questions some of which were not included in the story. It is true that my mom worked in a German library back when she lived in Germany when she was a teenager. She told me that she never wore a name badge though. Oops! I wouldn't be able to find that stuff in our attic though because ours is an "unfinished" attic meaning it doesn't have a floor. I hope you enjoyed my non-fiction/fiction story "In the Attic." What's in your attic?
The Long, Hot Days of Homeschool Summer
It's that time of year again! The season of, "How do your kids get their socialization?" will now be replaced with, "Are your kids 'out' for the summer?" Yippee, I'm already getting this question and school in my district just let "out" today! I CAN'T WAIT to hear this question all summer long! By the way, when does school go back "in" so I know when to get back into socialization mode? Alrighty then . . . here is yet another mystery uncovered...
As we know, the lunar calendar gave way to the Roman calendar, which gave way to the Julian calendar, which gave way to the Gregorian calendar, which gave way to the Public School calendar, and all soccer games Shall Be on Saturdays and church on Sundays (regardless of the parents' work schedules, but that is another blog post...) I digress.
Our current American school calendar of about 180 days with the summer months off, started around the 1900's so that rural kids could be home to harvest crops, and urban kids could be spared from sweltering in un-air-conditioned school buildings. I find it interesting that we are asking our kids to learn a TON more than kids in the 1900's had to learn, and we are asking our poor over-worked and under-paid teachers to teach a TON more than teachers of the 1900's, but we are using the same goofy school calendar. I know many parents fight the thought of ever changing the school calendar because they like having beach vacations in the summer (I'm one of them), and sending their kids to all the great enrichment camps (also guilty of that), but what about the other kids that spend their unsupervised summers watching TV, getting into trouble, and forgetting the previous school year? Here's where I ask myself, do we send American kids to school to get an education or to occupy their time while parents work? I don't have an answer for that. I can only speak for myself, which is: I send my kids to "school," whether "school" is to the dining room table, the couch, a museum, or yes... to the TV, to get an education. Therefore, "school" is not "out" for the summer around here. It's not a grueling schedule, (learning really shouldn't be grueling) and we pretty much lost most of May to all their various projects, but I'm okay with that because there was value in what they were doing. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can stop and start and re-adjust plans as needed. I can tell you that Rebecca has announced that she wants to learn Latin this summer (despite the fact that the three of us started French lessons earlier this year), we will continue with Fred and his Algebra, we're hacking away at America: The Story of Us on the DVR, we're immersed in Ansel Adams and his photography and getting ready to visit his exhibit and do something with Patrick's photos, we have a new-found interest in oceanography and oil drilling (hmmm... wonder why?), and we will blog. I'm sure other things will come up. We have a couple of vacations planned, but who knows... maybe they will be part of their education!
So to answer the question: "Are your kids 'out' for the summer?" No, they are not -- unless you consider that they were never "in." Hope this clears it up :)
As we know, the lunar calendar gave way to the Roman calendar, which gave way to the Julian calendar, which gave way to the Gregorian calendar, which gave way to the Public School calendar, and all soccer games Shall Be on Saturdays and church on Sundays (regardless of the parents' work schedules, but that is another blog post...) I digress.
Our current American school calendar of about 180 days with the summer months off, started around the 1900's so that rural kids could be home to harvest crops, and urban kids could be spared from sweltering in un-air-conditioned school buildings. I find it interesting that we are asking our kids to learn a TON more than kids in the 1900's had to learn, and we are asking our poor over-worked and under-paid teachers to teach a TON more than teachers of the 1900's, but we are using the same goofy school calendar. I know many parents fight the thought of ever changing the school calendar because they like having beach vacations in the summer (I'm one of them), and sending their kids to all the great enrichment camps (also guilty of that), but what about the other kids that spend their unsupervised summers watching TV, getting into trouble, and forgetting the previous school year? Here's where I ask myself, do we send American kids to school to get an education or to occupy their time while parents work? I don't have an answer for that. I can only speak for myself, which is: I send my kids to "school," whether "school" is to the dining room table, the couch, a museum, or yes... to the TV, to get an education. Therefore, "school" is not "out" for the summer around here. It's not a grueling schedule, (learning really shouldn't be grueling) and we pretty much lost most of May to all their various projects, but I'm okay with that because there was value in what they were doing. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can stop and start and re-adjust plans as needed. I can tell you that Rebecca has announced that she wants to learn Latin this summer (despite the fact that the three of us started French lessons earlier this year), we will continue with Fred and his Algebra, we're hacking away at America: The Story of Us on the DVR, we're immersed in Ansel Adams and his photography and getting ready to visit his exhibit and do something with Patrick's photos, we have a new-found interest in oceanography and oil drilling (hmmm... wonder why?), and we will blog. I'm sure other things will come up. We have a couple of vacations planned, but who knows... maybe they will be part of their education!
So to answer the question: "Are your kids 'out' for the summer?" No, they are not -- unless you consider that they were never "in." Hope this clears it up :)
Friday, May 21, 2010
Immigration Frustration Adaptation: AZ SB1070
Immigration
This blog post has been brewing for sometime. I have told myself that my purpose here is to expand perceptions about homeschooling so avoid the political. I just can't though, and here's why: I feel it's the same fight! People forming opinions about other people before they know anything about them. Profiling. You are brown so I have "reasonable suspicion" to believe you are here illegally. Your kids are homeschooled so they are pasty, maladjusted oddballs. At times I find it hard to believe it's the year 2010, and we're STILL dealing with these same issues. Here are some "Landmarks in Immigration History" from a history website we like: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm.
This timeline clearly shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same!
Yes, there is also evidence that illegal immigration is actually down:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=53
http://www.immigrationforum.org/blog/display/in-arizona-its-politics-not-crime-driving-border-insecurity/
http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/04/26/bad-land-why-hysteria-has-won-out-in-arizona-4-26-10
And that the law is unconstitutional and too expensive for Arizona to enact:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/arizona_facts.html
And that cops should not have to function as immigration officers, and that this function will lead to mistrust within the communities they serve:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/29/arizona.immigration.lawsuit/index.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/20/opinion/op-varsanyi20
And a whole host of other misconceptions about immigration:
http://www.immigrationforum.org/images/uploads/MythsandFacts.pdf
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/summer/paranoid-style-redux/getting-immigrat
Frustration
But what this law is really about is TOLERANCE and DIVERSITY. It seems like as our American population gets larger, and as the media can bring faraway places to our living rooms and increased air travel can actually take us to the faraway places, the reverse is actually happening, and we are becoming more segregated as a nation. You live in a blue state or a red state. You Believe or you don't Believe. I could go on and on. This goes for BOTH sides of SB1070 -- for or against.
Don't boycott Arizona because they passed a law that you don't agree with! Come here and let's talk! In 1995, when I lived in San Francisco, a friend of mine in a longtime lesbian relationship moved to the deep south right in the middle of their adoption proceedings to become new mommies. I remember asking her what she was going to do down there with the difference of opinion, and she said, "What good am I here in San Francisco where everyone feels the same way I do!" Whether you agree or disagree with the politics behind that, you have to agree that it doesn't make sense for everyone to have to congregate together based on their belief system. I have held onto that gem for the almost 13 years that I have now lived in Arizona and encountered many wonderful people that just have different opinions from mine. People of San Francisco: they think differently down here! This is the land of Wyatt Earp and block wall fences. You can live here 13 years and never see your next door neighbor -- it's easy! San Francisco County is 46 square miles and Maricopa County is 9,226 square miles. Where San Franciscans interact with their neighbors on a daily basis, Arizonans have sufficient space to hide from them. So tell me how it's going to help to boycott our state? Arizonans WANT to be left alone -- don't let them! Other cities have followed suit with boycotts of Arizona: San Diego, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, El Paso, Austin, Boston, St. Paul, and Boulder -- not to mention the sports teams and civic organizations.
The Arizona House of Representatives passed the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" (AZ SB1070's true name) with a 35 Republican to 21 Democrat straight party-line vote. The Arizona State Senate voted 17-11 with just one Republican voting against the Bill. It's easy to see what's going on here -- there aren't enough Democrats in this state to fight this thing. The ones that are here don't vote because they feel their votes won't count. Call yourself a "Moderate Republican," a "Libertarian," or an "Independent" if it makes you feel better, it doesn't change the fact that when Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, was governor of Arizona for six years before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, similar immigration bills came to her desk, and she vetoed every one of them. Now we have Jan Brewer, a Republican, in office a little more than a year, and we now have a "misguided" immigration law that does nothing to actually "support law enforcement" or "create safe neighborhoods." I actually WANT to support this bill for the mere fact that I don't advocate doing anything illegal. I'm a very law-abiding citizen! But we have 4 million kids in the United States that have atleast one illegal parent. One in seven kids in Arizona schools are sitting in that classroom either directly or indirectly due to illegal immigration. Estimates are that there are already 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States. So how is our local law enforcement supposed to fix a problem of this magnitude? Certainly not by profiling Latinos and risking a lawsuit later on for doing that. We're setting law enforcement up to fail.
I'm sure this is quite a huge mistake to post about this subject in my homeschooling blog, but I can't help but draw parallels between my struggles. When you hear that I homeschool my kids, instead of thinking of all the things that could be WRONG with homeschooling, why not think of all the things that could be RIGHT with homeschooling. When you think of illegal immigrants, instead of envisioning drug lords and human smugglers, which are the vast minority of illegal immigrants, why not think of the person that picked your produce and built your house! I grew up in Encinitas, California, the self-proclaimed "Flower Capital of the World," home to Paul Ecke and his famous poinsettias -- the plants that define Christmas. Well who do you think picked all those flowers and Christmas plants? LEGAL immigrants? Think what you want, but I can tell you a sad past-time of Encinitas teenagers when I was growing up was to go down by the donut shop early in the morning when "immigrants" were lining up for work, and yell "La Migra" and watch people scatter into the hillsides. Do you know anyone that WANTS to do farm labor? Aren't they filling a gap in our economy? I can also tell you that later on when I taught ESL (English as a Second Language) classes that I far preferred teaching immigrants to any other students for their determined motivation to learn and their gratitude that I was helping them. Now, as a nurse, I can work anywhere I want, but I CHOOSE to work at the County hospital where I am taking care of the under-served, many of them illegal immigrants, that have no place else to go.
Adaptation
As a footnote to this post, I want to mention how I have no plans to leave Arizona anytime soon despite it's crazy politics. Anytime I want, I can hop in my car and 20 minutes later be kayaking amongst dramatic canyon walls with only a Great Blue Heron following me. On my way home from work, I can drive alongside orchards with the heady smell of orange blossoms coming in my car window. Every spring I can hike in the hillsides around my town and see yellow Mexican Gold Poppies, purple Lupines, and orange Globe Mallows on display. Every late May, I can look outside my living room window and watch my Saguaro change from bud to beautiful blossom. Every summer, I get to watch amazing thunderstorms and later be rewarded with the smell of wet Creosote. Every fall, I can drive 20 minutes and sit under a grove of red and yellow Pistachio trees. Every winter, I can drive a little more than an hour and play in the snow. And most importantly... Arizona is homeschool friendly! So when I contemplated whether or not I wanted to speak out about something that I feel is so grossly wrong, I remembered that to remain silent is to fear losing rights that you may hold dearly.
This blog post has been brewing for sometime. I have told myself that my purpose here is to expand perceptions about homeschooling so avoid the political. I just can't though, and here's why: I feel it's the same fight! People forming opinions about other people before they know anything about them. Profiling. You are brown so I have "reasonable suspicion" to believe you are here illegally. Your kids are homeschooled so they are pasty, maladjusted oddballs. At times I find it hard to believe it's the year 2010, and we're STILL dealing with these same issues. Here are some "Landmarks in Immigration History" from a history website we like: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm.
This timeline clearly shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same!
Yes, there is also evidence that illegal immigration is actually down:
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=53
http://www.immigrationforum.org/blog/display/in-arizona-its-politics-not-crime-driving-border-insecurity/
http://www.outloudopinion.com/2010/04/26/bad-land-why-hysteria-has-won-out-in-arizona-4-26-10
And that the law is unconstitutional and too expensive for Arizona to enact:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/arizona_facts.html
And that cops should not have to function as immigration officers, and that this function will lead to mistrust within the communities they serve:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/29/arizona.immigration.lawsuit/index.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/20/opinion/op-varsanyi20
And a whole host of other misconceptions about immigration:
http://www.immigrationforum.org/images/uploads/MythsandFacts.pdf
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/summer/paranoid-style-redux/getting-immigrat
Frustration
But what this law is really about is TOLERANCE and DIVERSITY. It seems like as our American population gets larger, and as the media can bring faraway places to our living rooms and increased air travel can actually take us to the faraway places, the reverse is actually happening, and we are becoming more segregated as a nation. You live in a blue state or a red state. You Believe or you don't Believe. I could go on and on. This goes for BOTH sides of SB1070 -- for or against.
Don't boycott Arizona because they passed a law that you don't agree with! Come here and let's talk! In 1995, when I lived in San Francisco, a friend of mine in a longtime lesbian relationship moved to the deep south right in the middle of their adoption proceedings to become new mommies. I remember asking her what she was going to do down there with the difference of opinion, and she said, "What good am I here in San Francisco where everyone feels the same way I do!" Whether you agree or disagree with the politics behind that, you have to agree that it doesn't make sense for everyone to have to congregate together based on their belief system. I have held onto that gem for the almost 13 years that I have now lived in Arizona and encountered many wonderful people that just have different opinions from mine. People of San Francisco: they think differently down here! This is the land of Wyatt Earp and block wall fences. You can live here 13 years and never see your next door neighbor -- it's easy! San Francisco County is 46 square miles and Maricopa County is 9,226 square miles. Where San Franciscans interact with their neighbors on a daily basis, Arizonans have sufficient space to hide from them. So tell me how it's going to help to boycott our state? Arizonans WANT to be left alone -- don't let them! Other cities have followed suit with boycotts of Arizona: San Diego, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, El Paso, Austin, Boston, St. Paul, and Boulder -- not to mention the sports teams and civic organizations.
The Arizona House of Representatives passed the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" (AZ SB1070's true name) with a 35 Republican to 21 Democrat straight party-line vote. The Arizona State Senate voted 17-11 with just one Republican voting against the Bill. It's easy to see what's going on here -- there aren't enough Democrats in this state to fight this thing. The ones that are here don't vote because they feel their votes won't count. Call yourself a "Moderate Republican," a "Libertarian," or an "Independent" if it makes you feel better, it doesn't change the fact that when Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, was governor of Arizona for six years before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, similar immigration bills came to her desk, and she vetoed every one of them. Now we have Jan Brewer, a Republican, in office a little more than a year, and we now have a "misguided" immigration law that does nothing to actually "support law enforcement" or "create safe neighborhoods." I actually WANT to support this bill for the mere fact that I don't advocate doing anything illegal. I'm a very law-abiding citizen! But we have 4 million kids in the United States that have atleast one illegal parent. One in seven kids in Arizona schools are sitting in that classroom either directly or indirectly due to illegal immigration. Estimates are that there are already 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States. So how is our local law enforcement supposed to fix a problem of this magnitude? Certainly not by profiling Latinos and risking a lawsuit later on for doing that. We're setting law enforcement up to fail.
I'm sure this is quite a huge mistake to post about this subject in my homeschooling blog, but I can't help but draw parallels between my struggles. When you hear that I homeschool my kids, instead of thinking of all the things that could be WRONG with homeschooling, why not think of all the things that could be RIGHT with homeschooling. When you think of illegal immigrants, instead of envisioning drug lords and human smugglers, which are the vast minority of illegal immigrants, why not think of the person that picked your produce and built your house! I grew up in Encinitas, California, the self-proclaimed "Flower Capital of the World," home to Paul Ecke and his famous poinsettias -- the plants that define Christmas. Well who do you think picked all those flowers and Christmas plants? LEGAL immigrants? Think what you want, but I can tell you a sad past-time of Encinitas teenagers when I was growing up was to go down by the donut shop early in the morning when "immigrants" were lining up for work, and yell "La Migra" and watch people scatter into the hillsides. Do you know anyone that WANTS to do farm labor? Aren't they filling a gap in our economy? I can also tell you that later on when I taught ESL (English as a Second Language) classes that I far preferred teaching immigrants to any other students for their determined motivation to learn and their gratitude that I was helping them. Now, as a nurse, I can work anywhere I want, but I CHOOSE to work at the County hospital where I am taking care of the under-served, many of them illegal immigrants, that have no place else to go.
Adaptation
As a footnote to this post, I want to mention how I have no plans to leave Arizona anytime soon despite it's crazy politics. Anytime I want, I can hop in my car and 20 minutes later be kayaking amongst dramatic canyon walls with only a Great Blue Heron following me. On my way home from work, I can drive alongside orchards with the heady smell of orange blossoms coming in my car window. Every spring I can hike in the hillsides around my town and see yellow Mexican Gold Poppies, purple Lupines, and orange Globe Mallows on display. Every late May, I can look outside my living room window and watch my Saguaro change from bud to beautiful blossom. Every summer, I get to watch amazing thunderstorms and later be rewarded with the smell of wet Creosote. Every fall, I can drive 20 minutes and sit under a grove of red and yellow Pistachio trees. Every winter, I can drive a little more than an hour and play in the snow. And most importantly... Arizona is homeschool friendly! So when I contemplated whether or not I wanted to speak out about something that I feel is so grossly wrong, I remembered that to remain silent is to fear losing rights that you may hold dearly.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
What is Age?
My brief interchange with a quasi-celebrity went like this: my 12 year-old son and I stood in the bookstore line with a copy of Dave Barry's, I'll Mature When I'm Dead. When we got up to Dave, he asked for whom he was signing the book. To which I told him that it was for Mike, my husband. So he wrote in the book, "Mike, Do NOT grow up - Dave Barry." And I said to him, "That's perfect, I'm married to a child." To which he turned to my son who was holding up his cellphone to take a picture and said, "So who is this?" And I said, "That's the child's child. He's the only one that can work the cellphone camera." We all had a good chuckle out of that, then we sat down to listen to Dave tell us excerpts from his book. It was a pretty packed house, and Dave was very funny. My son was CRACKING UP. Until this point, Patrick was pretty much along for the ride, hoping that I would buy him something later. People sitting in front of us were actually turning around to see my son laughing so loudly. I looked around the room, and Patrick appeared to be the youngest person there -- by a lot. This observation got me thinking about why that might be. If you have been following this blog, you know that my kids partake in their fair share of kid-specific activities: everything from scouts to camp to their homeschool band. But my kids are equally comfortable around a variety of age brackets, and I think this is yet another wonderful aspect of homeschooling.
Starting with homeschool park days, kids all play together with a variety of ages -- there are toddlers all the way through teenagers. I remember one of my first impressions of homeschooled kids is how sweet they were with all the other kids at park days and not cliquey at all. Homeschooled kids get used to welcoming new families into their group all the time so they are not standoffish with newcomers like some schooled children are. These park days are often pretty unstructured so the kids become resourceful at starting and making up new games to play, unlike P.E. classes at school where the activities are directed. Even when they go to their homeschool enrichment program, they have many multi-age classes. Right now, my kids are knee-deep in group-work building a medieval castle, a cardboard boat that they will be
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Earth Month
It's almost the end of Earth month! Oh no! Help celebrate while you can. Here's three things you can do to help the environment:
One: clean up right. Most light bulbs contain mercury. Because of that fact, we must properly clean up our light bulbs. If we don't, the mercury will get in the air and the water. Lots of fish have mercury in them, in fact, fish, out of all animals, have the most amount of mercury in their bodies. Mercury gets in their water and their food from toxic waste. The larger the fish, the more mercury the fish contains in its body. This is because a larger fish eats more than a smaller fish so it takes in more mercury. At our Earth Day celebration, I learned how to properly clean up a broken CFL light bulb you must:
1) Keep people and pets away from the breakage area - do not step on the area when leaving.
2) Open windows and leave the area for 15 minutes before returning to begin cleanup.
3) Wear rubber gloves and dust mask - put in glass container when finished.
4) Carefully remove large pieces and place them in glass container.
5) Using duct tape pick up all the remaining fine particles and put in glass container.
6) Wipe the area with a damp micro fiber cloth, then put the cloth in glass container but, do not rinse the cloth between uses.
7) Put all waste and cleanup materials in the glass container, seal and label it Toxic Waste Broken Light.
8) Wash your hands and face carefully with soap.
9) Remove glass container from the home.
10) Continue ventilating the room for several hours.
11) Take the glass container with the waste material to a facility that accepts toxic waste.
12) Check http://earth911.com/ for a toxic waste facility near you.
13) If you have throw rugs, remove them and bring them to the toxic waste facility.
14) If the break happened on carpeting, cut the area of carpet were the breakage occurred particularly if the area is requested by infants, small children, pregnant woman, the elderly, pets, or people with compromised immune systems
Never:
Use a vacuum even one with a HEPA filter.
Use a broom.
Pour mercury down a drain in your yard or sewer.
Wash clothing or other items that have come in direct contact with mercury.
Walk around your house or yard if your shoes might be contaminated with mercury.
Two: think before you throw. Our front yard has been totally trashed by litter. We live on the end of our street and people throw everything on our yard. One time we found a bike behind one of our really big bushes. The sad part was at that time we had a rabbit living in another one of our bushes. About a month later he left. All this litter is killing our plants and animals. Throwing our trash away is no better. It's just being put in landfills which also hurt the environment. The best we can do is recycle so we can reuse what we already have. I have a poster on my closet door showing endangered animals of Arizona. There are 18 types of fish, 17 types of plants, six types of birds, six types of mammals, and one type of reptile on this poster. That's 48 types of almost extinct animals! I would think before I throw.
Three: no more oil(!) Recently, there was a large oil spill near the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, it's losing a few thousand gallons a day! Oil spills kill lots of animals and coat their fur in oil. The oil spills are more dangerous than you probably think. The oil pollutes the water that fish breathe, and it kills the fish. Once all the fish are dead, then the animals that eat the fish die. Then all the animals that eat those animals die out and so on until there's nothing else on this planet. It's definitely worse than you think. No more oil!
That's just some of the things you can do to help the planet. There's also one other thing you can do to help the planet without doing labor at all. Start a writing campaign or a series of shows on YouTube or another website that you can show to the public to help the environment. One last thing: remember, every day is Earth Day.
One: clean up right. Most light bulbs contain mercury. Because of that fact, we must properly clean up our light bulbs. If we don't, the mercury will get in the air and the water. Lots of fish have mercury in them, in fact, fish, out of all animals, have the most amount of mercury in their bodies. Mercury gets in their water and their food from toxic waste. The larger the fish, the more mercury the fish contains in its body. This is because a larger fish eats more than a smaller fish so it takes in more mercury. At our Earth Day celebration, I learned how to properly clean up a broken CFL light bulb you must:
1) Keep people and pets away from the breakage area - do not step on the area when leaving.
2) Open windows and leave the area for 15 minutes before returning to begin cleanup.
3) Wear rubber gloves and dust mask - put in glass container when finished.
4) Carefully remove large pieces and place them in glass container.
5) Using duct tape pick up all the remaining fine particles and put in glass container.
6) Wipe the area with a damp micro fiber cloth, then put the cloth in glass container but, do not rinse the cloth between uses.
7) Put all waste and cleanup materials in the glass container, seal and label it Toxic Waste Broken Light.
8) Wash your hands and face carefully with soap.
9) Remove glass container from the home.
10) Continue ventilating the room for several hours.
11) Take the glass container with the waste material to a facility that accepts toxic waste.
12) Check http://earth911.com/ for a toxic waste facility near you.
13) If you have throw rugs, remove them and bring them to the toxic waste facility.
14) If the break happened on carpeting, cut the area of carpet were the breakage occurred particularly if the area is requested by infants, small children, pregnant woman, the elderly, pets, or people with compromised immune systems
Never:
Use a vacuum even one with a HEPA filter.
Use a broom.
Pour mercury down a drain in your yard or sewer.
Wash clothing or other items that have come in direct contact with mercury.
Walk around your house or yard if your shoes might be contaminated with mercury.
Two: think before you throw. Our front yard has been totally trashed by litter. We live on the end of our street and people throw everything on our yard. One time we found a bike behind one of our really big bushes. The sad part was at that time we had a rabbit living in another one of our bushes. About a month later he left. All this litter is killing our plants and animals. Throwing our trash away is no better. It's just being put in landfills which also hurt the environment. The best we can do is recycle so we can reuse what we already have. I have a poster on my closet door showing endangered animals of Arizona. There are 18 types of fish, 17 types of plants, six types of birds, six types of mammals, and one type of reptile on this poster. That's 48 types of almost extinct animals! I would think before I throw.
Three: no more oil(!) Recently, there was a large oil spill near the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, it's losing a few thousand gallons a day! Oil spills kill lots of animals and coat their fur in oil. The oil spills are more dangerous than you probably think. The oil pollutes the water that fish breathe, and it kills the fish. Once all the fish are dead, then the animals that eat the fish die. Then all the animals that eat those animals die out and so on until there's nothing else on this planet. It's definitely worse than you think. No more oil!
That's just some of the things you can do to help the planet. There's also one other thing you can do to help the planet without doing labor at all. Start a writing campaign or a series of shows on YouTube or another website that you can show to the public to help the environment. One last thing: remember, every day is Earth Day.
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