The Education of Little Women

Today November 13, 2009

2009-11-13T16:31:00.002-07:00

FOR TODAY

11/13/2009

Dawn's Daybook

Outside my window...the weather is turning cold. There are still a few leaves on the tree, but most of the signs of Autumn are now on the ground.

I am thinking... what a great day to homeschool.

I am thankful for... my girls. They continually fill me with much joy.

I am wearing... grubbies today. Something about Friday, I think. Our Thursdays, we leave the house at 7:30 a.m. and get home about 5:45 p.m. It's such a long and exhausting day that Fridays are lazy.

I am remembering... 9/11/01 today. How can we not, when we are bringing the mastermind of the terrorism to America to stand in a much publicized trial.

I am going... to bed early tonight. I need to decide what to make for dinner first.

I am reading... "Here I stand" about Martin Luther, a messianic book on Holidays (to celebrate Hanukkah this year), and a book on education

I am hoping... that I can read all that I need to! It seems I always have three books going at a time.

On my mind... the future. It seems rather bleak with the decisions our government is making.

From the learning rooms... Montessori Math (the bank game), practicing letters, Story of the World (Christianity comes to Britain), matching letters game, Go fish using letter cards. Tonight we will read a bible story and whatever new book the girls want to start.

Noticing that... my children are full of energy on Fridays.

Pondering these words... "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen" Martin Luther

From the kitchen... Drying veggies today to store for future soups.

Around the house... laundry. is it ever complete?

One of my favorite things... cloudy snowy days and sewing Christmas gifts with the kids.

From my picture journal...

Founding Fathers Friday: 11/6/09 Slavery

2009-11-06T10:17:00.002-07:00

One of the most frequent tactics employed to discredit America's Founding Fathers is to say that the Founding Fathers were all pro-slavery racists and hypocrites. If you can discredit the Founding Fathers, then you can also discredit the Constitution, as has been the agenda of many progressives in our government.

African-American professor Walter Williams:

“Politicians, news media, college professors and leftists of other stripes are selling us lies and propaganda. To lay the groundwork for their increasingly successful attack on our Constitution, they must demean and criticize its authors. As Senator Joe Biden demonstrated during the Clarence Thomas hearings, the framers' ideas about natural law must be trivialized or they must be seen as racists.”

The fact is, slavery was not introduced by the Founders; slavery was introduced in America nearly two centuries before the Founders. In fact, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay noted that there had been only a few serious efforts to dismantle the institution of slavery prior to the Founding Fathers.

In fact, one of the reasons given by Thomas Jefferson for the separation from Great Britain was a desire to rid America of the evil of slavery imposed on them by the British.

“I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it [slavery].”
-George Washington

There were signers of the Declaration and Constitution that were in favor of slavery, there is no doubt. Slavery was so entrenched in their economy that they were in fear of losing it, just as socialized healthcare is now about 70% of England's economy and they are in fear of dismantling their current system.

However, the three-fifths clause in the Constitution was not a measurement of human worth; it was an attempt to reduce the number of pro-slavery proponents in Congress. By including only three-fifths of the total numbers of slaves into the congressional calculations, Southern states were actually being denied additional pro-slavery representatives in Congress. It was a PLAN to eventually end slavery. The founding fathers knew that they had to create a unified country to survive.

"[W]hy keep alive the question of slavery? It is admitted by all to be a great evil."
-Charles Carroll, Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Kate Mason Rowland, Life and Correspondence of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1898), Vol. II, pg. 231.

"That men should pray and fight for their own freedom and yet keep others in slavery is certainly acting a very inconsistent as well as unjust and perhaps impious part."
-John Jay, President of Continental Congress, Chief-Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and Governor of New York. Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, editor (New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1891), Vol. III, pp. 168-169. In a letter to Dr. Richard Price on Sep. 27, 1785.

"Domestic slavery is repugnant to the principles of Christianity... It is rebellion against the authority of a common Father. It is a practical denial of the extent and efficacy of the death of a common Savior. It is an usurpation of the prerogative of the great Sovereign of the universe who has solemnly claimed an exclusive property in the souls of men."
-Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Minutes of the Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates From the Abolition Societies Established in Different Parts of the United States, Assembled at Philadelphia, on the First Day of January, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four... (Philadelphia: Zachariah Poulson, 1794), p. 24. "To the Citizens of the United States."

The argument that the three-fifths clause was to degrade and discount black American is completely false and was, in fact, to assure that there would be more of those against slavery in Congress than those in favor of, in order to end slavery.

What version did you learn? What version are your children learning?

Further Reading:

The Real George Washington
The Real Thomas Jefferson
The Real Benjamin Franklin
Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence

November 2, 2009

2009-11-02T15:55:00.002-07:00

FOR TODAY

November 2, 2009

Dawn's Daybook

Outside my window...the weather is hazy, reflecting my mood today.

I am thinking... about how it will be possible for the will of 35% of our population to shove bills down the throat of the other 65%.

I am thankful for... my education today.

I am wearing... brown cords, pink shirt and a sweater

I am remembering... when things seemed more simple and I had my head buried in the sand. Ignorance IS bliss, but that's why we are in the position we are in.

I am going... nowhere today. I'm exhausted from the last three days.

I am reading... craft books and magazines for christmas gift ideas.

I am hoping... that our dollar doesn't tank, like we all know it will. We cannot continue to literally "make" dollars and believe nothing will happen. Every action as a reaction, but we seem to think we are immune to nature.

On my mind... our government today. The House Healthcare bill is 1990 pages! useThese will never be read by the House or Senate. Other bills have things completely unrelated in them: hate crimes in the defense bill, NEA funding up 30% (and we can afford that?! Apparently we can since the white house asked the NEA to create propaganda posters for his agenda (caught on audiotape).

From the learning rooms... quite day of Music Today.

Noticing that... most people don't care, neither do they wish to engage, in their government. Doesn't anyone question why the leader of SEIU--one of the biggest unions--has visited the white house 22 times in 6 months??!! Because the healthcare bill is about the unions, NOT people or health or care.

Pondering these words...

"Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime;
therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
therefore we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, could be accomplished alone;
therefore we must be saved by love."
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the stand point of our friend or foe as it is from our own standpoint;
therefore we must be saved by the final form of love,
which is forgiveness.”

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History

From the kitchen... French Toast, potatoes and eggs--breakfast for dinner

Around the house... lazy day, not feeling well.

One of my favorite things...A mid-day nap...something I haven't had in....years.

From my picture journal...

In honor of All Saints Day (All Souls Day) yesterday, I wanted to post a video of my Grandfather who passed two years ago:

And a picture of my grandmother, who passed away last year:

October 30, 2009

2009-10-30T11:59:00.003-06:00

FOR TODAY

October 30, 2009

Dawn's Daybook

Outside my window... Beautiful Snow.

I am thinking... about how easy it is to forget to just "play" and be with your own children.

I am thankful for... A warm home, warm clothes and crafts.

I am wearing... jeans, white t-shirt, button up shirt...cabin clothes. ;)

I am remembering... the stories I told my children last year about St. Nicholas, the meaning of Christmas, and family stories thanks to Karissa.

I am going... to finish one christmas gift today. The girls are also working on one.

I am reading... not much today. Mostly instructions for crafts. Tonight likely the Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe for our Math talk.

I am hoping... my husband stays warm and happy this weekend.

On my mind... the holidays.

From the learning rooms... Sewing today. Math at dinner: dyad. The number 2. Polarity. Light and Dark. Positive and Negative. Mobius strips after Dinner.

Noticing that... my 7 year old has a fantastic memory! She recited back the story of St. Nicholas (the real one) she learned last year in our studies during Advent.

Pondering these words...
Psalms 150
1
1 Hallelujah! 2 Praise God in his holy sanctuary; give praise in the mighty dome of heaven.
2
Give praise for his mighty deeds, praise him for his great majesty.
3
Give praise with blasts upon the horn, praise him with harp and lyre.
4
Give praise with tambourines and dance, praise him with flutes and strings.
5
Give praise with crashing cymbals, praise him with sounding cymbals.
6
Let everything that has breath give praise to the LORD! Hallelujah!

From the kitchen... Baked up a storm yesterday (4 lasagnas!) so we'll have leftovers for lunch. Not sure about dinner..

Around the house... It feels like the cozy holidays already.

One of my favorite things... crafting with my children.

From my picture journal...

Snow Day! October 29th

2009-10-29T12:15:00.004-06:00

We're having another snow day! Danny is off work again and is using the opportunity to get ready for his hunting trip. They'll be gone tomorrow through Tuesday, so let's pray we score a large Elk cow this year! I'm really hoping for a freezer full of meat.

We spent yesterday preparing food for his trip and playing outside:

The girls are getting a little stir crazy, though. We usually have Church Choir on Wednesday nights and ASLAND (our commonwealth) on Thursdays. The snow is still falling, so we're finding things to do indoors.

I am in the midst of my six month purge. On the top floor, I've gotten rid of four trash bags full of stuff (clothes, toys, misc). The first floor was only a bag full, but I work all year at keeping the clutter out. We are on our way to the basement today and through the weekend....cross your fingers!

Oh, and if you're really bored today, you can read the House Bill on Healthcare released today, all 1990 pages!
http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

FOR TODAY

October 27th

Dawn's Daybook

Outside my window... SNOW! The drifts are up to two feet now.

I am thinking... about how purging the clutter in my home makes my entire life feel more in order.

I am thankful for... my husband who provides for us every day!

I am wearing... um...sweat pants again. Off to the basement to clean, so my good clothes are not to be worn today.

I am remembering... my grandmother. She passed away a year ago and this will be our second Christmas of not putting together a big package for her for the holidays.

I am going... to put the basement back in order if it's the last thing I do! LOL

I am reading... the healthcare bill from the House of Reps. Scary stuff!

I am hoping... my husband gets an Elk Cow for our family and to share with our friends that are going.

On my mind... having another baby. Still.

From the learning rooms... We are doing less formal learning today and more learning about home and clutter and how little "things" mean, especially in regards to our time and mental health.

Noticing that... my children are amazing people full of kindness!

Pondering these words...

From the kitchen... Home made Lasagne (traditional with Italian sausage and Quinoa lasagna for Juliet with her allergies) and Italian Flat bread (made with my 7 year old).

Around the house... Lots of cleaning and decluttering today.

One of my favorite things... The beautiful snow and how it makes me feel cozy in my home.

From my picture journal... see photos above

October 27th

2009-10-27T18:10:00.002-06:00

FOR TODAY

October 27th

Dawn's Daybook

Outside my window... the snow is falling and the leaves are blowing in the air.

I am thinking... about more recipes.

I am thankful for... educating my children at home.

I am wearing... um...sweat pants and a sweat shirt. Lots of baking and cooking today.

I am remembering... how different my life was three years ago and how much happier I am now with my friends and family.

I am going... to put the kids to bed in 15 minutes.

I am reading... The Real George Washington, Jane Eyre, and Bible Traditions.

I am hoping... the snowstorm hits hard and we get a cozy day as a family tomorrow at home.

On my mind... having another baby.

From the learning rooms... We talked about the number one and circles last night, as well as uniform outward expansion, energy waves (instead of water waves); today we carved pumpkins and saved the seeds for eating and planting next year.

Noticing that... my children learn much more than I ever teach them.

Pondering these words... "One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence." --American historian Charles A. Beard (1874-1948)Write something about yourself.

From the kitchen... Roast Chicken, Home made chicken soup, pumpkin puree, roasted veggies for a lasagne

Around the house... Lots of kitchen time today with the kids and preparing to make freeze ahead meals

One of my favorite things... The girls carving pumpkins mostly on their own, and their own creativity.

From my picture journal...

Fall is Here! I think...

2009-10-24T09:39:00.007-06:00

Our weather quickly moved from Summer to Winter, with only a glimpse of Fall in between. I'm happy that I followed my say-go-be-do about Fall and took the girls out on a Tuesday three weeks in a row to the mountains to see the fall leaves.

Did you know that Ponderosa Pines, in late summer and fall, smell like Butterscotch? It's heavenly!

Near the top of Fall River Road. The leaves were beautiful! It snowed that day, and it was only September 15th.

We stayed in Grand Lake the first week of September. We went boating, saw lots of Elk and Moose, and fox came to the back door of our cabin!

Our September was full of mountain trips, wildlife and hiking. We went up to Rocky Mountain a few times for the Elk Rut, drove up Fall River Road three times, and saw lots of animal bones on our hikes. One of the highlights was was man and woman fishing at Glacier Lake. The woman caught a beautiful fish and the girls got to "pet" it and hold it:

We had a wealth of adventures this summer, though we only camped once. We picked strawberries and raspberries at a farm and made jam out of them, fished and boated on a lake, saw a moose for the first time, visited the family in Wyoming, rode ATVs and hiked around, played in the lakes....ah summer!

Fall is here and we're preparing for the holiday season. It's one of our favorites; we make loads of cookies and home made gifts, study the bible, make crafts, and are in (what is seems like) a constant state of either putting up, or taking down, decorations. :)

We are fully blessed!

Personal Story of the Montana Town Hall Meeting

2009-08-24T10:18:00.000-06:00

Hello All,

By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you choose to share this email with others, I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on.

On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.

On about Tuesday Bill found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall" at the airport. (This is only because Bill knows EVERYONE at the airport). Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade, (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public.
(FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking. (gymnasiums/auditoriums). All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!) $$$$$

During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession. $$$$$

Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9 a.m. at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 pm Friday.

Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm......900 tickets just DISAPPEARED!

This same morning someone called into the radio station from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the Recession?? Just think...with all of the traveling the White House is doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for.

On Friday Bill and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama's spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to be. A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd.

The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore pre-printed T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them.....professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and pre-printed signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area!)

Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU men.

So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest.

If you are wondering about the press.....Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar that I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds.

We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho . Speaking of the local media...they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn't want anyone to have to think off the top of their head now, would we?!

It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes...The White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors...EVERYTHING was staged!

I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America , more like the USSR !! I was physically nauseous. Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices.

If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington, D.C. Scary!!

Bill & Jane

Ride 8/21/09

2009-08-21T10:32:00.002-06:00

Gasp! It's been a month since my last ride. I've been such a slug. Time to get moving again.

14.04 miles today.

In his own words

2009-08-12T10:30:00.003-06:00

If you've ever read "Mein Kampf," you know that Hitler said exactly what he was going to do. But it seemed so radical that people said to themselves, "oh, that will never really happen."

In Obama's OWN WORDS:

3/24/07 to SEIU Healthcare Forum: “universal healthcare system”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to eliminate Employer Coverage Immediately. There is going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out…”

2003: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal healthcare plan” to AFL-CIO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk

He also said in his televised Healthcare Townhall that he must follow a "ruthless pragmatism" and that he's not sure his grandmother should have received her hip replacement. He goes on to explain that a huge portion of our healthcare costs are at the end of life.

At what point do we believe HIS OWN words?!

HCAN...funded by?

2009-08-09T10:44:00.002-06:00

There has been a huge rally recently by HCAN, Health Care for America Now, with fancy t-shirts and nice pre-printed signs. At a recent rally with Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, only those wearing HCAN shirts were allowed in his town hall meeting. Those wearing "Tea Party" t-shirts were not allowed in the building.

I researched more and found that HCAN is supported by the following:

ACORN received stimulus money, so therefore the taxpayers are helping to fund these "protests against the protesters."

Grassroots? Harldly! The Laborer's unions are on board because once this bill is passed, they can continue to collect the same amount of dues and put you on the government plan. The result? More money in the labor union's pockets.

The protesters, on the other hand, were funded from their own pockets. Who is the astroturf??? You can continue to try and blame the republicans, please do. It's really helping! ;)

GREAT ARTICLE about the Protest and Organize America

2009-08-08T08:17:00.002-06:00

Do you want to know who the astroturfers are? They are "Organize America," paid for with YOUR tax dollars! The campaign is not over; instead, government money is being used to fund pre-printed signs. Read the article through and you'll read about a few young gentlemen, spanish speaking, who were holding signs of which they knew not what they even said! Or that Organize Now had emailed people who had campaigned for Obama to come out to hold the pre-printed signs.

How did we organize? We sent each other emails. People we knew that were sick of the way things are going. We all spent our OWN money on our OWN signs that said what we really feel.

An amazing thing about grass; there isn't one single root you can pull to kill the rest. :)

The article : http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2009/08/pelosi-astroturf-healthcare/

Amazing. Grassroots? Or scare tactic.

2009-08-06T20:07:00.004-06:00

If you've read the news today, you know that the democrats are spinning the grassroots movement as the fault of the republicans. I've heard the word thrown all day today, including an ad from the "Democratic National Convention" that said this:

http://www.breitbart.tv/enough-of-the-mob-dnc-web-ad-attacks-right-wing-extremist-republican-base/

Apparently, if you oppose the healthcare bill, cap and trade or any other democrat bill, you are a "mob." In addition, if you oppose this ad and find it offensive, good luck contacting the DNC; their site is magically down for maintenance.

I've read the bill. It's scary. What our representatives are saying about keeping our insurance is NOT correct; you can keep your insurance as long as it never changes. If you change ANYTHING, it is subject to the approval of the government.

The cost? Employers will pay an 8% tax, period. In addition, they can pay for your insurance (which equals about 12% average) of payroll. What employer do you know that can afford both??

Please, read the bill. No, it's not fun, and it's written in legalese. But to fundamentally change a system in our government without reading it...don't you at least feel obligated to read it and understand?

We went to a protest downtown. Pelosi is in town, at a homeless clinic, pushing the House Healthcare bill. That in itself is just WRONG. I support homeless shelters, I donate, work in the soup kitchen; so my protest looks as if I hate homeless people. That's the strategy. Had Pelosi's trip centered around the courthouse where we could actually have a dialogue, she would be faced with the fact that more than half of Americans do NOT want this bill.

Do we want no reform? Actually, we would be happy with reform where the hospitals didn't charge us more because other people received free care. In this bill, that would continue to be the case, except that we would pay for the insurance of illegal aliens. Don't think I'm telling the truth? Read the bill. In addition, physicians and hospitals would also like fair payment for medicare and medicaid, but that doesn't happen either, so it's passed on to everyone else. Reform? Get the government out of it. Allow a private company to offer co-op health insurance for those that want to buy it. Of course, there will still be people that choose to eat out 5 times a week, buy televisions and cars and NOT buy their insurance? And why not? This is America. Don't we have the right to choose our priorities?

All of the protests I have been to have been very civil--minus the moveon.org people who scream in our faces. We choose the high road. We chant, of course. We mostly sing patriotic songs. But we don't insult or directly confront.

Our signs? All handmade with our own personal sentiments. The healthcare signs today were all PREPRINTED.

And yet WE are being led by the republicans. We are lemmings. Ironically, no one we spoke to today could tell us the details of the bill. WE are reading the bill. WE are not taking the rhetoric, we are making our own choices.

In addition, we are individuals, most of us have never protested in our lives, and we're just fed up with the socialist agenda. Most of us have studied history and understand what is happening in our country. Most of us have researched Obama's czars: Holdren who believes in sterilizing the population through food and water, Ezekiel Emmanuel who says a 15 year old is more valuable to society than a 65 year old or newborn, so we should spend more money on them, and Van Jones who is a self-proclaimed communist and black nationalist (post prison time) who believes in reparation. These are the people enforcing Obama's wishes.

The truth is not hard to see, if you're willing to open your eyes. We are not just republicans, we are democrats, independents and republicans who are fed up. We're not going away; this isn't just about healthcare, it's about our CONSTITUTION, our country, and the people.

We are all aware that the next attack on us will be from a social standpoint. We MUST be racists if we don't agree with our government. Ironically, my direct reps and senators are all white, and they will all be voted out if I have anything to do with that. It has nothing to do with color; I wanted Bush out too because he started this whole deficit mess. I want the Constitution restored. I want Liberty.

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government,
so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution
so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
Thomas Jefferson

Grassroots? We are going to show what a real grassroots movement is about.

Individuals under assault

2009-08-01T11:08:00.006-06:00

I haven't blogged our homeschool adventures much because, quite frankly, I'm spending all of my "spare" time researching, learning, and determining what is really happening in our country. The fact is, I'm not sure what legacy will be left to my children when they become adults. Will they live in the "land of the free, home of the brave" or will they live in a society where the government believes it knows better than the individual family?

The individual is under assault in favor of the "collective." If you want proof of this, just read about John Holdren, science Czar, who wrote a book called "Ecoscience" that describes how to sterilize the population through our food and water system. Or Ezekiel Emanuel, special advisor (czar) for health policy helping to construct the healthcare bills. He believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens...An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dimentia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov-Dec '96). Thirdly, read about Van Jones, our green jobs czar who "himself stated in a 2005 interview his environmental activism was a means to fight for racial and class “justice,” and that he was a “rowdy black nationalist,” and a “communist.”

If you don't know what the communist view of families is, then I would suggest you search and read on your own. I don't want anyone to take my word for it; do your own homework. Don't just read a "conservative" view or a "liberal" view; read them all and read the person's OWN WORDS. There is nothing more telling than a person's OWN WORDS.

How could we possibly have people in power with these views? Because they do not have to go through confirmation hearings. There are NO provisions in the constitution allowing a President to appoint anyone he deems necessary and yet, here we are with people of influence whom most in this country know NOTHING about and are not willing to find out.

There have been many eras in history when the common person would say "Oh, that would never happen" and yet the worst HAS happened. We have all become complacent. In the words of someone I know, "The government should run itself, I don't want to be here trying to get the government to listen to me."

Sorry, folks, but a republic does not run itself. This is why we are now here, because we didn't take notice. Our Senators are not representing us, they are constantly working towards re-election. Even though thousands upon thousands of people called their Representatives offices (in 10:1 ratio, admitted by the reps themselves) opoposing cap and trade, it was still passed in the house.

Want to learn some of the truths about healthcare, but you don't want to read the bills? Here are some fliers with PAGE REFERENCES to help you:

CNN: 5 Freedoms You'd Lose in Health Care Reform

http://www.liberty.edu/media/9980/attachments/healthcare_overview_obama_072909.pdf

http://www.deserveliberty.com/library/published/Stop_Socialized_HC.pdf

http://www.saveourcountrynow.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=1469

We are still here, plugging along. But we are concentrating on HISTORY, not the history written in the politically correct textbooks. The real history, about how Roosevelt slaughtered 6 million pigs to raise pork prices, or how he burned millions of acres in cotton to increase the cotton prices, then giving "relief" for these actions by using tax payers money for subsidies (that, by the way, didn't go to the tenant farmers--the poor people--but to the owners). History repeats itself. Read about the Great Depression, this would be a great time in history to do so.

Slacker, I am!

2009-07-20T21:24:00.002-06:00

According to the GPS, I logged 13.4 miles today. I thought it had only been a week since my last ride, but to my dismay it's been 12 days!! I have to get in one more ride before we go to Sheridan, WY.

07/08/2009 Route
Find more Bike Rides in Aurora, Colorado

7/8/09 Ride 13.28 miles

2009-07-08T11:01:00.001-06:00

07/08/2009 Route
Find more Bike Rides in Aurora, Colorado

Miles since 6/2009: 61.68

7/4/04 Ride

2009-07-04T10:59:00.004-06:00

07/04/2009 Route
Find more Bike Rides in Aurora, Colorado

According to my hand held GPS, it was 14.4 miles. Unfortunately, I forgot to "start a new route" before I started, so I can't import the data. Why does it take me so long to get it right with this dumb GPS? I'll bet my kids could get it much faster ;)

Now if I can get my 7 year old to ride her bike without training wheels, we can do family rides longer than around the block ;)

Miles since 6/2009: 48.4

The inevitable....

2009-06-28T15:07:00.002-06:00

The Census will be arriving at your door soon.

What will you do?
I've heard it's about 14 pages long. One of the questions? Whether you have a garden and sell any of the produce. Why does the government care? There has been a bill introduced that would restrict you from growing your OWN FOOD in your OWN YARD under the guise of "food safety." Admit to growing food, and you'll fall under their scrutiny.

Does anyone remember that the government power is only limited to what WE GIVE THE GOVERNMENT? Read the Constitution. The ONLY reason for the census is a head count for Congressional districts.

"[An] Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct." Congress first met in 1789, and the first national census was held in 1790."

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/13/141.html

I will be completing our family count, not anything more. I'm willing to pay the $100 to not provide 14 pages of personal information.

Staying young...

2009-06-26T11:17:00.003-06:00

Let's face it, I'm an older mom. As my girls get older, I realize how much I want to do with them: hiking, biking, climbing, and if I let myself get any further out of shape, I'm going to have a rough time keeping up with them!

I started biking again. It's a good solution for me; I'm a terrible runner. I did 4 miles one day, about half running, half walking, and I was exhausted for days. The bike helps strengthen my knees, a problem area for me, and keeps me fit.

So far in the last two weeks, I've done two rides: one 10 mile and one 12 mile. My goal is twice a week, at least 12 miles. Here is today's ride:

06/26/2009 Route
Find more Bike Rides in Aurora/centennial, Colorado

I need to set a lofty goal; at first, I thought I'd choose the mileage to Vegas, since we're going there for a "girls weekend" the first weekend in October. But that's too much of a lofty goal and would mean 70 miles a week! Not quite in my league right now. Grand Junction, though, is 250 miles, well within my reach by the beginning of October.

I'm applying my last two weeks, so I'm at 34 miles to date.

No new taxes under 250K and the new healthcare bills

2009-06-24T09:44:00.000-06:00

Remember during the presidential campaign the slogan, "no taxes for people making under 250K?"

With the new health plans being discussed in Congress, there is talk of taxing YOU on your private insurance plan provided by your employer. Previously, health benefits are non-taxable, however with the new plan it would be subject to your tax bracket.

For instance, we contribute $164.58 every two weeks to our health plan, and my husband's employer contributes $352.56. Combine those for a total of 517.14 EVERY TWO WEEKS. If it were taxed at a lower tax rate of 15%, that would be $77.57 LESS takehome pay every two weeks for a total of 2016.58 cents less takehome pay every year for our family.

No new taxes? This is a tax for us. But those only buying the new insurance, or Health Insurance Exchange, would not be subject to the same taxes, as it is written.

The good news?
Far more than half of all Americans would be eligible for subsidies, but we have not yet been told who would pay the bill.

Why is this a problem? Those who previously paid for their own private insurance will see how buying the federal option with the subsidies is less expensive and switch, even though it's not necessary. This will put an even larger burden on the federal government. Who will pay for it?

I find it ironic that the federal government does not want to support a voucher system because it would weaken the public school system, but cannot possibly see how the new healthcare bill will destroy the current insurance and health arena. People, competition is GOOD.

No new tax? Let's wake up and realize that ALL insurance premiums WILL go up. There's no way around it. So the subsidies provided will not be enough to balance out the increase. What will happen to the private sector? It will be so over-regulated that the premiums will become too high and people will have to opt for the federal program to survive.

I've also read the argument that "why shouldn't the federal government refuse to treat people who are engaging in risky behaviours causing their medical condition?" and yet in the bill outline, an insurance company cannot charge a higher premium for those engaging in risky behaviours. So those who need to use the system more often will be supported by everyone else's premiums.

"Guaranteed issue and renewal combined with modified community rating would dramatically increase premiums for the overwhelming majority of those Americans who now have private health insurance. New Jersey is the best example of health insurance mandates gone wild. In the name of protecting their citizens, premiums are extremely high to cover the cross-subsidization of those who are uninsurable."
http://keithhennessey.com/2009/06/09/house-health-bill/

Group health plans with 250 or fewer members would be prohibited from self-insuring. ERISA would only be for big businesses.

Depending upon which bill is ratified, we would either only allow legal individuals to receive the healthcare benefits, or anyone. The house bill has no specific requirements.

Ride: 6/20/09

2009-06-20T10:38:00.000-06:00

06/20/2009 Route
Find more Bike Rides in Aurora, Colorado

Wake up and smell the cycle

2009-06-19T15:24:00.004-06:00

After studying great civilizations, Alexander Tytler determined that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

Where are we now?
Complacency? Apathy? Or are we cruising down Dependence street?

WAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE UUUUUPPPPPPPPP!
I have wanted to scream and yell for several months now, to shake people and ask them if they know what the H-E-double hockey sticks is going on in the world.

YOU CANNOT BURY YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND. It is our children's future we are playing with. Our abundance has led us to laziness, selfishness and a lack of Public Virtue.
Do YOU know what's going on in our government, or are you someone who says, "I just don't follow politics."

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~Thomas Paine

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security ~Benjamin Franklin

Under the guise of less government, our president was elected. Apparently no one actually READ his books that said he would do and say whatever he needed to get what he wants. You know what? No one thought Hitler was serious, either. And now we are faced with the largest government we've ever had, a national debt larger than all of our previous presidents combined, and push towards nationalized healthcare that has NEVER WORKED....ANYWHERE.

Please, do your homework. Read. Find out the truth. The voyage out of tyranny and bondage is usually bloody, but we can PREVENT that by standing up NOW.

********************************************************************************

If you are interested in being part of a local rally for a free, independent press and a market-based health care system (preserving what's good about our system here in America), please join us at

KMGH TV Channel 7

123 Speer Boulevard

Denver, CO 80203-3417

Time: June 24, 2009 all day, or during the broadcast of Obama’s infomercial for healthcare

Location: Local ABC Affiliate Near You! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ABC_television_affiliates

Organized By: American Patriot

Event Description:On June 24th, join us as we protest ABC joining NBC as official state media by broadcasting an extreme leftist , to help Obama take over our health care system. We must take a stand to help stop the slide toward communism/fascism.This is a line that must be drawn in the sand, and this line must be drawn here and now! We must take a stand! We've already lost so much, and the powers that be seem to have forgotten the message of the TEA Parties, let's remind them that We The People aren't going to just sit and watch while the government takes total control of our lives and robs us of our freedom and our incomes!If our health care system falls to the communist/fascist threat as well, then many believe it's game over.

Let us not go quietly in the night; we won't give up our free market without a fight!

Why do so many Canadians come across the border every year to get everything from cancer treatment to major surgery? Because socialized medicine is a failed system; the quality of care suffers greatly, and the sanctity of life is assaulted, when the Government runs things!

So we have two very compelling issues: a Free Press (yeah, they're ridiculously biased already, but this is simply fascist), and a free-market health care system that is the envy of the world!

We've already lost control of our banks, our automobile industry, and our government. Let's not also lose, in the selfsame year, our free market healthcare system!The time for calling representatives only is past. It's time to surround some TV stations starting at least an hour before the broadcast!

ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSETue Jun 16 2009 08:45:10 ET

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate."...As the national debate on health care reform intensifies, I am deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC's astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices on this critical issue on June 24, 2009. Next Wednesday, ABC News will air a primetime health care reform “town hall” at the White House with President Barack Obama.

In addition, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news “will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.” This does not include the promotion, over the next 9 days, the president’s health care agenda will receive on ABC News programming.

"In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime. The President has stated time and time again that he wants a bipartisan debate. Therefore, the Republican Party should be included in this primetime event, or the DNC should pay for your airtime."

FIND YOUR LOCAL ABC AFFILIATE [at link above]

See more details and RSVP on The 9.12 Project Network:http://www.the912project.us/events/event/show?id=2881797%3AEvent%3A...
***********************************************************************************

Did you know the new healthcare bill is 615 pages long? How many of our representatives will actually READ IT? Very few. In fact, they hired a SPEED READER to summarize the TARP bill, spending $247 billion and not actually reading it? Is this who we hired to represent us?

Not to mention another $100 billion to the IMF, which provides aide money to other countries. We have no money, but we're passing anothe 100 billion?

Do you know the true cost of the healthcare bill? Don't let me tell you, read the articles yourself. If the number $1 trillion doesn't scare you, it should. Do your homework.

*****************************************************************************

What about the United We Serve project? Are you okay with someone forcing you to volunteer? Oh sure, Obama says it's voluntary, but if you do your homework and find out how many things he said and did just the opposite, you'd be concerned!

In a DOI Internal Memorandum:

(Note to Supervisors: Please ensure that employees without access to
electronic mail receive a paper copy of this message.)

June 19, 2009

Memorandum

To: All DOI Employees

From: Secretary

Subject: United We Serve

Earlier this week, President Obama announced the launch of “United We
Serve,” a call to service for all Americans designed to address the
Nation’s growing needs as a result of the economic downturn. It will
empower ordinary people to take an active role in their communities and
in their futures. In announcing United We Serve, the President outlined
its purpose to promote health care, support education and improve
literacy, provide community renewal, and advance clean energy and public
lands restoration. United We Serve will expand upon existing volunteer
programs and give everyday Americans the tools they need to develop new
service projects.

At the Department of the Interior, we will promote service in the areas
of outdoor youth mentoring and public lands stewardship. Across
America, our treasured landscapes are in need of restoration, hiking
trails are in need of maintenance, invasive species are threatening the
health of natural ecosystems, and young people are losing touch with the
outdoors. United We Serve presents us with a tremendous opportunity to
address these problems in an innovative and broadly accessible manner.

Over the coming weeks and months, the Department will highlight key
volunteer opportunities designed to protect and restore public lands and
engage young people in the outdoors. We are working with our partners
to organize and post service opportunities on www.Serve.gov, a
searchable database that allows potential volunteers to locate
opportunities around the country. The site also features toolkits that
will guide volunteers who prefer to develop their own outdoor youth
mentoring or land stewardship projects. These resources will allow
Americans to reengage in the outdoors and to serve their country by
preserving our natural wonders for generations to come.

On June 22, 2009, I will join my fellow Cabinet Secretaries in a
coordinated day of service to formally launch United We Serve
nationwide. On that day, I will issue a call to action for Department
of the Interior employees to participate in United We Serve and commit
to a volunteer service goal this summer. Whether you pledge to take a
child fishing once a month, organize a team to restore one mile of
trail, or serve dinner weekly at a soup kitchen, I encourage you to set
a volunteering goal. I believe the Department of the Interior can be
the standard-bearer for volunteerism and service by Federal employees,
and this summer is our chance to shine. Watch your mailbox for more
details on how to get involved in this initiative as a Department
employee.

This summer is a remarkable opportunity for the Department to invest in
public lands and achieve long-term benefits for the American public. I
hope you will all join me and help make United We Serve a success.

Thank you.

What is the cost of this project? Who knows! Surely there is cost in administration, websites, staff....but that wasn't revealed...yet.

P.S. This was written by another white lady afraid of volunteering. I have to run, though, because we're making dinner for a church family whose dad is in the hospital in critical condition. Then I have to get ready for the funeral we're helping to cater...for free.

If it ain't broke...oh, wait, it is!

2009-06-13T08:51:00.004-06:00

Two and a half years ago, dd1 broke her arm doing cartwheels in the family room. The timing was horrible since she had music class and gymnastics class. Here she is after getting her cast on:

She was five. Yesterday our dd2 was running to the back door to go back outside and she tripped, hit the screen door and then the floor. Somewhere in there she must have tried to stop herself because she broker her humerus bone near the elbow.

Thankfully this time, we're on break from music until August and we finished our two week intensive swim lessons the DAY BEFORE the accident. God is good! She doesn't get her cast on until monday, she's in a splint right now, so we're going to request the waterproof cast straight off this time (hopefully she'll be able to get it first since her break isn't as bad as dd1-poor dd1 had to wear a regular cast for 4 weeks, then got to switch to the waterproof for another 3 weeks).

We've made some great strides in homeschooling this week. With dd2 out of commission for her usual rough house play, we'll likely get alot done this summer.

Games

2009-06-08T14:38:00.004-06:00

We're always in search of new games to play to teach concepts. Here are a few of our favorites so far:

MATH:

Go fish to... This is played like the typical Go Fish game, except that pairs are made to a certain number. For instance, you may Go Fish to 10. In this game, remove all of the face cards and 10. Make pairs in your hand or on your turn, as a fellow player for a number that will sum one of your own cards to 10. The player with the most matches wins!

Money Math. Each person receives a die (or you can just use one). The child rolls the die and receives the number of pennies that appear on the dice. The first to 1.00 wins! In our house, the first to $1.00 gets to put the dollar in their savings bank. DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

Grocery Math. Create an imaginary special occasion (and how many people to feed) and give your child a budget to follow. Use the circulars, or take your child to the store write down the cost of the items. Can he stay within his budget? DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

GEOGRAPHY:

Great States Jr. (ages 4-7) This is a favorite of ours since we can all play together (even my three year old plays). We reduce the time to 5 seconds for the adults to answer and 30 seconds for the children (a minute for the littlest ones.)

Are you listening?

2009-05-24T13:50:00.003-06:00

I went on a four mile run yesterday. Well, let's be honest, I walked more than half of it. I've never been much of a runner and I've let my fitness go lately, so pair those together and it was a struggle for me. But I know that any journey begins with one step, and the fact that I did four miles--whether or not I had to do it in intervals--was an accomplishment.
I took the path behind our house towards a State Park nearby. The path is about 1.75 miles to the entrance of the park, all of it paved. It follows the creek that runs behind our home so it's very convenient.
It is also beautiful and serene. There is a multitude of wildlife (including the coyotes that snatched our neighbor's dog and ate it last year) and the sound of the rushing water is calming. I was never one that liked to run/bike/rollerblade next to traffic; it's counterintuitive to think that breathing faster and deeper is healthier when you are next to car smog. Thankfully, this path is next to traffic for only a short time.
I had my iPod (yes, I finally gave in to popular culture on that) and was really enjoying the upbeat workout music. I've found that having music with a faster beat than my normal walking pace is a great motivator and keeps me from getting lazy.
When I got to the entrance of the state park, I felt the need to remove the earbuds and listen to more nature. I veered off onto a dirt road that leads toward the dog park area. I stopped when I could see the dogs on the horizon and plopped myself right down in the middle of the prairie grasses.
The ground was just barely damp and bustling with activity from worker ants to buzzing bees. The prairie grasses were about 12" tall and sprinkled with wildflowers. The aroma was a mixture of wet earth, wildflowers and the air after a rainfall.
I bowed my head to pray. I've been doing more of that lately, taking more time to pray. I rarely ask for something specific, just for God to lead me to His will and help me find my mission. As I was finishing my prayer, I started to hear more sounds beneath those I'd heard before. I could hear at least 5 different bird calls, someone shooting at a range in the distance, a woman with dogs walking, but what hit me the most was the sound of the prairie grass.
It startled me at first because it almost sounded like someone walking toward me. I sat still and focused until I could pinpoint the sound. It was right next to me, in the grass. It was the sound of one blade of grass rubbing against another...or four or five.
I sat there quiet and still for at least 15 minutes before a woman and her dogs approached. One dog ran straight to me and started sniffing, seeming rather startled by me. I let him sniff me for a minute then put out my hand to him. He was very friendly and accepted the affection.
The lady said, "It's unusual to see anyone out here sitting on the ground in the grass!" That explained why the dog was a little startled. I told her that I really just wanted to stop and take it all in, to hear the sounds and experience the smells. She said her brother had read a book about the 12 types of quiet (I haven't been able to find anything related to this) and that she realizes that few people are able to hear quiet. She was very kind and said she'd let me get back to the quiet before the trail became too busy for solitude.
I sat there for a few minutes longer. I could now hear more people and dogs and realized my quiet solitude was ending. I stood up, brushed myself off, put the earbuds back in my ears, and began to run for home.
The entire time, though, I couldn't stop thinking about what it meant to accept quiet into our lives. How many of us are really able to just sit, relax, meditate and ponder?
I recently attended the seminar "Face to Face with Greatness: A Thomas Jefferson Education." Along with the many other invaluable things I learned, one was about discovering your mission. I've always been a firm believer in knowing your mission, but I haven't always been sure of mine. Motherhood, of course, is one and teaching my children is another. The professor presenting the seminar asked us if we've ever sat, quietly, and asked God to help us find and fulfill our mission? Have we ever been quiet enough to hear it?
As I sat still in the meadow and listened...really listened...those words hit home. I haven't been listening to the sound of the blowing prairie grass. Perhaps if I can do that on a regular basis, things will become clearer.
Remember the lady with the dogs? Although I started down the same path just minutes later, I never saw her again. She wasn't running, just walking leisurely. I kept looking for her.

Part Two: Schedules

2009-05-22T10:47:00.004-06:00

This is part two for a friend of mine who is considering homeschooling. It's always helpful to read someone else's "week in the life" so that you can get a ideas for your own.

Let me start by saying we are not very scheduled yet. Our oldest just turned 7 and doesn't need an immense amount of educational structure. For us, she is just starting the "Love of Learning" phase so our scheduling isn't rigorous. The time scheduled is the important part, not the content. For instance, we will schedule the first two hours after the breakfast dishes are done to learn. My seven year old steers most of what we do: Math game? Story of the World? Music? Gardening? Science? The other children have input and we do it together. Most often, the 3 and 5 year old will drop off the project first and the 7 year old will see it through.

In the fall, we will continue on Thursdays (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.) with the ASLAND Commonwealth and Mondays with our Music classes at Children's Music Academy (5 and 7 year old). Since Monday and Thursday are mostly scheduled, it leaves Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday for choice of activities.

Here is a sample of our Fall schedule (our summer varies because we camp often):

DAILY: up by 7 a.m., breakfast by 8 a.m., dishes after breakfast: the girls (ages 3, 5 and 7) take turns cleaning off the table, sweeping the floor and helping load the dishwasher)

8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.--organized play/study time We do our religious studies first, then we draw from a variety of Montessori activities, math games, Story of the World, Travelling Friend/Geography, Writing Letters to Family and Friends or writing stories, Science experiments, etc. We sit down on Sunday evening and make out a schedule for the week. It is a mutable schedule; if something we're doing just isn't holding their attention, we find something else to do. The object is to INSPIRE.

10:30a.m. to 11:30 a.m. is free time play; around 11:30 a.m., the girls are responsible for picking up any mess made that morning in preparation for mealtime. Lunch is eaten together at the table, but often the girls make their own lunch and take much pride in it. After, they are responsible for cleaning up and putting their own dishes in the dishwasher (I empty it while they are cleaning up and preparing lunch).

One of the principles of the TJed education is that in Core Phase (approx age 0-8 +/- 80 yrs) you are teaching your children right/wrong, true/false and to WORK. Life is work. Survival is work. Every member of the house participates. My 18 month old helps with the laundry. She even puts her bowl in the dishwasher. :) We are a family unit.

After lunch, I put the 18 month old to bed. The older three play....and play...and play. The TV does NOT go on, unless it's a special occasion--at most three movies in a month. We started out an hour a day when I was pregnant and exhausted, then we went to an hour every other day and now we just don't turn it on before the kids go to bed, especially when the weather is nice. The kids can color, create, explore. My seven year old created a picture library--the three older children colored pictures and posted them on the glass doors that lead to the deck. Each person in the family could check out one picture for a day, then trade it for another to make their rooms more beautiful. She also made books and sold them to her Papa for $1 each. That's just the tip of the iceberg in imagination and innovation.

I try to study during the playtime hours, but I generally get little done with little ones. The object for me is to show the children that I study, to be a good example. Right now I am studying the book "The Making of America" and The Constitution of the United States of America. I'm preparing for Constitution Day and filling in the giant gaps in my education.

At about 4 p.m. I start dinner preparation. We have a large family, so the dishwasher is usually emptied (2 loads a day) and the floor swept again. I warn the children to start picking up their messes and anyone that wants to help cook can do so after the messes are clean.

After dinner together, we clean up and decide on an activity. I learned from the TJed book that I should be reading more with the kids as a family (more than just a couple kids books a day), so we're starting to incorporate at least a half hour of reading the classics a night and we'll increase that this summer. We just finished an abridged version of The Secret Garden and are starting on The Wizard of Oz. All of the kids sit and listen (though the 18 mo old isn't very attentive). They are not "picture books" but the kids love them! After that, we find a game to play or, if they made a particularly large mess that day, I have them finish up cleaning. Before bed, we write in our journal what we learned that day.

Our schedule is rather simple, so it works. It has lots of variations, though. Some days we go to the zoo instead of the structured time; when we do, we take a zoo report sheet and the kids pick an animal to draw and write something about the animal. Or we might go the museum and the same general idea applies.

We take field trips OFTEN. It helps to inspire the kids to see things in such a grand display. Our favorites are:

Museum of Natural History, Zoo, Botanic Gardens, smaller History Museums, nature trips to the Mountains, walks around the neighborhood, free concert performances, ...

Our schedule evolves. Be open to that. Scheduling time is important, so stick to that, but the beauty of homeschooling is that you can take opportunities when they arise. Yesterday, we visitied the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens because our schedule isn't tied down.

We thank God every day that we have the freedom to choose for ourselves and our family.

My Homeschooling Help and Hints:

I would caution, however, that as a new homeschooler it's easy to get caught in the trap of wanting to do everything. We were involved in a co-op for a couple years that kept us so busy we had little time for playtime and family. You have to work hard at a balance; if you don't participate in any activities with other families, you feel isolated; but if you try to do too much, you become frazzled and the family unit starts to break down.
This one is hard to hear for new homeschoolers: get rid of 90% of the toys. Just get rid of them. If your children are to be successful at keeping their personal belongings cleaned up, they need to have little to clean. If they have too many toys, they also lose the sense of pride in their things. Ask youself if you are providing the things for their benefit, or your own. If they are begging you for the latest thing in Hannah Montana or Transformers, turn of the TV for a month. Find out what is important when the constant advertising isn't bombarding your children.
Limit the video games severely. How about 1 day per week for a few hours...for example, let the kids play on Friday night from 7 p.m. until whenever they pass out and that's it for the week. DO NOT turn on the TV. Simplicity.
Don't underestimate what playtime gives your children. BOREDOM is good if there aren't 100 toys, video games and TV to choose from. Boredom leads to imagination and innovation.

Brief Why? How? of Homeschooling

2009-05-22T08:03:00.010-06:00

A friend of mine may be hearing the call to homeschool her children. She has so many questions, just as any parent has when starting the process.

Instead of a private email, I thought I'd post this here in case someone searching the internet is looking for answers to their questions. Perhaps it will not only help my friend, but other families.

WHY?

Although today the decision to homeschool is more widely accepted, there are still many people who don't believe in homeschooling. It's not uncommon to have a perfect stranger "quiz" your children to test how well they are educated at home.

Everyone has their own reasons for why, and often socialization is one of them. It is also the most widely asked question about homeschooling: "What about socialization?"

Definitions of Socialization:

Wordnet- train for a social environment; "The children must be properly socialized"

wiktionary: socialize - To interact with others; To instruct, usually subconsciously, in the etiquette of a society; To take into collective or governmental ownership

oregonstate.edu: the process by which culture is learned; also called enculturation. During socialization individuals internalize a culture's social controls, along with values and norms about right and wrong.

unk.edu: The process whereby individuals learn to behave willingly in accordance with the prevailing standards of their culture

wordnet: socialized - under group or government control; "socialized ownership"; "socialized medicine

Let's take these definitions into consideration. The first definition "training for a social environment" makes sense. How can we function as a society if we don't understand what is socially acceptable and moral. The question is: who is doing the training? Is it someone that shares your values? In most cases, a teacher has more than 10 students in a class. More often that number is closer to 20 or 25. How easy is it to teach every individual to make good moral decisions when there is one of you and 20 children? The result is that often one child is teaching another child by example. So you are not only dealing with adjusting social behavior in your own family, but you end up adjusting social issues brought in from other families. In a perfect world, elementary aged children would have rock solid morals that follow their family and the ability to influence their peers. How many adults do you know that can make good decisions when their peers are asserting pressure? Now imagine someone with little experience on this earth. If you are a family that is concerned about passing on your morals and values to your children, a homeschooling situation is optimal.

Let's consider the definitions "To take into collective or governmental ownership" and "The process whereby individuals learn to behave willingly in accordance with the prevailing standards of their culture." One of the first things I recommend to someone considering homeschooling is to read the book Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto. Written by an award-winning educator, it outlines the educational system today and how it schools children to "merely obey orders and become smoothly functioning cogs in the industrial machine." Isn't that taking us into collective ownership? The "prevailing standards of [our] culture" are not my own standards; I could rattle off a list of disagreements with societal standards, but instead I'll say that I value family, my children, modesty, commitment, charity/giving, personal accountability and working hard for what I have. If I were collectively owned, wouldn't I have to subscribe what the majority of people value? The trouble is, societal values change; what was once unacceptable becomes acceptable. I choose to educate my children to hold to their values, not change with the time because it's popular.

I address socialization first because it's the most commonly asked question. Children in a public school situation are trained to socialize with children their own age while in school. Homeschooled children are taught how to relate to all ages of children and adults during a typical school day. The parents have the opportunity to teach their own values that may or may not align with all of the social norms or prevailing standards.

What about your children having friends? Here is where parents have to leave their own insecurities behind and realize that it's not the VOLUME of friends, but the QUALITY of friendships your child finds. How many of us made friends in school with someone that was not really a good fit for us just because the person happened to sit next to us in school? In a different situation, would you have made friends with the same person? We cannot devalue the need for friendships, but children will find those in their daily lives: the neighbor, a friend in gymnastics class, a cousin, Girl Scouts/4H/Little Flowers, etc. And they will be more likely to find friendships from commonality than geography.

If you ask a homeschooling family the question "Why do you homeschool?" you will receive different answers from every family. Some prevailing answers are the lack of depth in the public schools, the lack of shared values, too much structure and not enough innovation, no parental control of content, too prevalent of a social agenda, little emphasis on American History or history in general, and the list goes on. My list evolves constantly and I'm always adding to my "Why I Homeschool" category. You can read all of my musings HERE.

If you're thinking of homeschooling and reading this, what is holding you back? I'm willing to wager it has more to do with the brain washing (only teachers who have learned to manage a classroom can teach, you're not smart enough to teach, your children need socialization, you can't teach what you're weak in) than with the facts. The truth is, if you're willing to put in the time and effort, the rewards are tenfold.

HOW?

Educational Content

This is very individual. The content of an education is dependent upon the goals, values and capabilities of the homeschooling parent.

Some parents choose to keep their children home while using all of the public education content--these are online schools that provide computers, content and testing. They are fully funded by the education system. I've seen parents very successful with this method of teaching in that the children exceed the standards of that particular school system. The bonus is that children are not subject to the socialization issues of a standard classroom and a parent doesn't have to be well-educated to be successful.

Another method is to find your own boxed curriculum. There are so many to choose from! These curriculum include teacher's editions with answers to the quizzes and tests, a student edition and often a workbook. You can find these for any subject! The beauty is that, again, you have to have some knowledge of a subject, but you don't have to particularly skilled.

Eclectic. Some parents love to find different resources on their own and don't follow any particular curriculum. With the resources available online and at the library for free, it's easy to put together a curriculum that is inexpensive. Often, though, these parents have the ability to be critical about the information available, so some good knowledge of the subjects is necessary. Some parents used boxed curriculum for certain subjects and put together their own for other areas.

Unschooling. This is a broad definition. It ranges from those who never sit at a table with their children to do "schoolwork" to those who spend every day schooling but use different methods like museum visits, book choices, or simply they study whatever the child wants to study.

These are all very broad and just touch on the "How" of homeschooling. The truth is, it can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. It can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you choose.

So HOW do you choose? Meet other homeschooling families (join a support group or an online group, read the thousands of blogs on the internet). After learning all you can, make a choice for your family and seek out a support group that is using a similar method of education. There are unlimited resources, sample family schedules, lists and lists of field trip ideas, even free lesson plans online. The beauty is: you can change what you're doing at any time. Are you worried that changing will hurt your children? I read awhile back ( I wish I could find the original reference) that if you take an illiterate/uneducated adult who is WILLING, you can teach the information from grade 1 through grade 12 in 80 hours. Will changing course hurt you? No, and it's likely to renew your commitment to the teaching process.

Before I go any further, though, this must be said:

You can TEACH your children. YOU DO NOT EDUCATE them. They must choose to educate themselves. You can INSPIRE your children and provide them with information. You can mentor them with sharing what you know. Anything you force into them will be remembered "for the test." How much of what you learned in school do you remember? Why?

Here is my recommended reading list for parents who are considering homeschooling:

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto.

A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille

This is the book that helped us establish our educational principles and the one that reformed our education. It centers around having a mission, learning to be a leader, and education by classics and mentors. Here is more information in a previous post.

Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery by David H Albert

The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise

2009-03-28T19:00:00.002-06:00

The end of the day in Palm Springs California

In northern California

Pooh the pilot

Going to San Francisco

back in Salt Lake City.

Pooh met a line girl named Piper in Salt Lake City

Pooh's Time as A Corporate Pilot

2009-03-28T07:35:00.002-06:00

Pooh started off the trip at the by driving from Sheridan Wyoming to Billings Montana to catch a airline to Salt Lake City. Pooh told me he had already been there before and knew the way. We had a good time visiting with Virginia at the airport for awhile before boarding our flight, which is kind of a tradition.

Farewell, Pooh Bear!

2009-03-24T08:28:00.003-06:00

We kept him way too long - but we sure enjoyed having him!

Goodbye, Pooh Bear! Thank you for visiting, enjoy your next destination. We can't wait to read all about the fun things you'll see and do :)

P.S.We hope you like your new Utah pin!

Love,
The Moody Family(Matt, Mandy, Tessa and Asher)

100 Classics in 3000 Days

2009-03-19T13:37:00.006-06:00

I'm starting a new endeavour: A Classics Education. This book list is from "A Thomas Jefferson Education" by Oliver Van DeMille and is a jumping off point for a classics education. My education wasn't poor, but from reading this list, I realize my education is not rich in the classics.

THE GOAL: Complete all 100 classics in 1000 days (June 5, 2017)
That's an average of 1 book a month, in addition to my other reading endeavors .

After reading, they are marked in orange. If I've previously read them and have a good memory of them, they are marked (those that were thoroughly studied in college). If I only vaguely remember (from high school), I am rereading the book.

THE LIST:

Source: appendix A of Oliver Van DeMille's

A Thomas Jefferson Education:

Teaching a New Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century, © 2000.

1. Acton, The History of Freedom

2. John Adams, "Thoughts on Government"

3. Aquinas, "On Kingship"

4. Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

5. Aristotle, Politics

6. Aristotle, Rhetoric

7. Augustine, The City of God

8. Aurelius, Meditations

9. Austen, Pride and Prejudice

10. Austen, Sense and Sensibility

11. Bacon, Novum Organum

12. Bastait, The Law

13. Bastait, "What is Seen and Not Seen"

14. Benson, "The Proper Role of Government"

15. The Bible (Ongoing project)

16. Boethius, The Consolidation of Philosophy

17. Bronte, Wuthering Heights

18. Bronte, Jane Eyre

19. Carson, The American Tradition

20. Capra, The Tao of Physics

21. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (currently reading)

22. Churchill, Collected Speeches

23. Cicero, The Republic

24. Cicero, The Laws

25. Clausewitz, On War

26. Confucius, Analects

27. The Constitution of the United States (ongoing project)

28. Copnicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres

29. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

30. Dante, The Divine Comedy

31. The Declaration of Independence (ongoing project)

32. DeFoe, Robinson Crusoe

33. Descartes, A Discourse on Method

34. Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

35. Dickens, Great Expectations

36. Douglas, Magnificent Obsession

37. Durant, A History of Civilization

38. Einstein, Relativity

39. Emerson, Collected Essays

40. Euclid, Elements

41. Frank, Alas Babylon

42. Franklin, Letters and Writings

43. Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

44. Galileo, Two New Sciences

45. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

46. Goethe, Faust

47. Hobbes, Levathan

48. Homer, The Iliad

49. Homer, The Odyssey

50. Hugo, Les Miserables

51. Hume, Essays Moral, Political, and Literary

52. Jefferson, Letters, Speeches, and Writings

53. Keegan, History of Warfare

54. Kepler, Epitome

55. Martin Luther King, Jr., Collected Speeches

56. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

57. Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry

58. Lewis, Mere Christianity

59. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

60. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

61. Lincoln, Collected Speeches

62. Locke, Second Treatise of Government

63. Machiavelli, The Prince

64. Madison, Hamilton and Jay, The Federalist Papers

65. Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto

66. More, Utopia

67. The Magna Charta

68. Mill, On Liberty

69. Milton, Paradise Regained

70. Mises, Human Action

71. The Monroe Doctrine

72. Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

73. Newton, Mathematical Principles

74. Nichomachus, Introduction to Arithmetic

75. Neitzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

76. The Northwest Ordinance

77. Orwell, 1984 Read in 1988, will read again, even if I run out of time

78. Plato, Collected Works

79. Polybius, Histories

80. Potok, The Chosen 4/09

81. Plutarch, Lives

82. Ptolemy, Algamest

83. Shakespeare, Collected Works (Read: Hamlet, MacBeth, Richard II, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice) Re-reading Taming of the Shrew for a Face to Face with Greatness Seminar 3/09

84. Skousen, The Five Thousand Year Leap

85. Skousen, The Majesty of God's Law

86. Skousen, The Making of America

87. Smith, The Wealth of Nations

88. Solzhenitsyn, "A World Split Apart"

89. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

90. Sophocles, Oedipus Trilogy

91. Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

92. Sun Tzu, The Art of War

93. Thackeray, Vanity Fair

94. Thoreau, Walden

95. Tolstoy, War and Peace

96. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian Wars

97. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

98. Washington, Letters, Speeches, and Writings

99. Weaver, Mainspring of Human Progress

100. Wister, The Virginian

Add ons:

101. Little Britches, Ralph Moody 4/09

After creating this list, I'm actually excited to get started. I remember studying classics in High School and my impression was that they were "boring required reading." In retrospect, I think it was the mandatory multiple-choice tests that were boring. As an adult, the idea of reading to grow, learn and tap into the great minds of the past really motivates me.

The Great Salt Lake

2009-03-17T09:26:00.003-06:00

For our last outing with Pooh Bear we took hin to see Utah's most famous landmark - the Great Salt Lake.

The Great Salt Lake is the remnant of the massive ancient lake, Lake Bonneville. Lake Bonneville existed during the last ice age, between 32,000 and 14,000 years ago. At it's largest, Lake Bonneville was almost 325 miles long, 135 miles wide and over 1000 feet deep. It covered most of Utah! Lots of animals lived in and around the lake. As it dissapeared, it left several lakes behing, including the Great Salt Lake. Here is some interesting information about Lake Bonneville.

The Great Salt Lake is very special for a lot of reasons!

It is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.
It is the 4th largest Terminal Lake (lake without an outlet) in the world
The salinity (saltiness) of the water is about 12% - much saltier than the ocean!
The extreme saltiness of the lake makes it uninhabitable by most species - however, it is home to LOTS of brine shrimp and it's shores are covered in wetlands that are home to millions of shorebirds and waterfowl.
The Union Pacific Causeway divides the lake into two parts
The sand in the lake and on the beaches is oolitic sand - small round pearls of calcium carbonate.
The lake smells kind of icky! Sort of like rotten eggs. The lower the water level is, the more it smells (because the mineral concentration is higher.) Interestingly, the smell mostly goes away once you are on/in the water - it's worst on the shores.

Pooh didn't mind the smell too much! He thought the lake was very pretty and enjoyed learning about Lake Bonneville and about all the unique qualities of the Great Salt Lake!

WE surround Them

2009-03-06T15:57:00.003-07:00

If you haven't been listening to Glenn Beck, he has started a movement to help people realize they are NOT ALONE in their fears about the direction of the country. If we are to protect our civil liberties, we must bind together.

Here is a meeting to view his show about this particular topic: We've started party plans for the metro area.Fri Mar 13 2:30pm for a live viewing at 3:00pmcontinuing into the evening for taped showings"The D Note" Restaurant and Music Hall (food and drinks available but NOT provided, kids welcome)7519 Grandview Avenue in Olde Town Arvada, CO 80002CLICKABLE MAP notice on the map that Grandview Ave. is not a through streethttp://www.dnote.us/... Sign up on Meetup.com Not in the Denver Area? Find a meeting near you

House Bill-Unlimited Presidential Terms

2009-03-06T15:25:00.003-07:00

Once again, a house bill was introduced to repeal the 22nd Amendment, attempting to remove term limits.

Will this one get further this time? Let's keep an eye on it. What is Sen. Serrano's agenda with this?

"In 2005, Serrano introduced a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as president. It was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. "

H.J.RES.5 Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.Sponsor: Rep Serrano, Jose E. [NY-16] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (None)Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

What does it all mean to me?

2009-03-05T14:38:00.002-07:00

I haven't had the drive to blog lately. I'm trying to digest everything that is happening in our country and at the end of the day, I just have little energy to try and sit still to tell about our days.

I have fear for the direction our country is taking. I had fear before, during the Bush Administration with the overspending, banks failing and the economy, but with the current spending bill and the direction of socialization of medicine and forced morality, I am concerned that we are waivering far from the original ideals of the country.

I believe there are few accidents in our lives. God provides the direction we need if we are listening and what we do with it is our free will. A few months ago, a friend introduced me to the Thomas Jefferson Education model. At the time, I felt it aligned with many of my goals. Now I realize it was a little nudge from God about the times to come.

Last night, my dad and I watched the documentary about the commercial jet that landed in the Hudson river in January. A few of the passengers were interviewed and mentioned that they believe that everyone surviving was a gift from God; now they are questioning whether they are living God's purpose for them. I believe with all of my heart that everyone surviving that crash was a gift from God. Have you seen the interview with the pilot? I get chills. He's not proud, he's humble and he cannot explain exactly how he managed it. Yes, he is a fantastic pilot, but I didn't realize the exact angle the plane had to be landed in for it not to break up horribly. I cannot argue that God's hand was in that miracle; I can only ask myself "why?" Are we, as a whole, ignoring that gift of a miracle?

I went to bed last night asking myself, "Am I doing what I would be doing if I had just survived a plane crash?"

I am. Not. I am, and I'm not. There's nothing more important than being with my children and educating them. But there's always more I can do.

The more I read about the founding of this country, the more I see God's hand in it. Just as the nation of Israel was chosen by God, I think America has had immense blessings bestowed on it's formation. Why else would other countries feel the need to eliminate America and Israel? That's not to say that America, as a country, hasn't made mistakes! But listening to God and the principles taught in the bible have helped correct those mistakes. Where would we be without that guidance?

Perhaps we're moving in that direction. That's my fear.

The Golden Spike

2009-02-19T08:45:00.002-07:00

Utah is home to The Golden Spike , which was the last, ceremonial spike driven to celebrate the completion of the First Transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific railroad and the Central Pacific railroads connected here in 1869, making it possible to travel (almost) all the way accross the country by rail.
When the states each designed a new quarter, Utah's design featured the golden spike along with the words "Crossroads of the West"

We have LOTS of train tracks in Utah! We drive over them every single day, several times, no matter where we are going. When I was a kid, we thought it was good luck to lift up your feet and touch something metal in the car (like a screw) when we drove over the tracks. It seemed like we were always holding our feet up!
We didn't take Pooh Bear to Promontory Point (where the Golden Spike actually is) to see the railroad, but we showed him lots of tracks around here!

Nine Principles

2009-02-09T14:16:00.001-07:00

Do you feel alone in your principles? Read these:

The Nine Principles

1. America is good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

You Are Not Alone

If you agree with at least seven of those principles, then you are not alone. Please send a digital version of your picture to: wesurroundthem@foxnews.comand then stay tuned to the radio and television shows over the coming weeks to see how we intend to pull back the curtain.

This is posted on Glenn Beck. He is a statesman and patriot and is trying to spread the word. If you do believe in it, check his website at glennbeck.com and send in your photo.

I am.

Sprouting

2009-01-28T14:10:00.003-07:00

A friend of ours is making a large order to www.sproutpeople.com. We are so excited! It is a great start to our first year of gardening.
We are ordering:Broccoli Sprouts Pea Carnival Mung Quinoa Wheat

To be used in bread and baked goods and on salads. Our little experiment with the Garbanzo beans went really well, even though they were not considered the "sprouting" kind..all 10 of them sprouted!
This summer, we're going to follow the Square Foot Gardening method. Our soil is horrible, anyway, and I like the Mel's Mix that he uses--I don't have to worry about weeds like in normal soild.

Further Insight on TJEd

2009-01-28T10:27:00.003-07:00

From A Thomas Jefferson Education, by Oliver DeMille:
"Professional training and job skills are all thatpeople seek from “education,” and the concept of leadership educationis considered quaint, outdated, frivolous, or absurd." "Teaching, not education, should be our focus,3 because greatteaching inspires students to educate themselves."
"Teachers teach and students educate. Students are the onlytrue educators. Historically, every other method of education hasfailed. Education occurs when students get excited about learningand apply themselves; students do this when they experiencegreat teachers."
"Without great teaching, through mentors and classics, the mostthat schools can offer is socialization, which they often defend asthough it were the primary objective of learning"
"Schools were historically created by parents to allow greatteachers—mentors and classics—to inspire students to seeklearning and then guide students on their path to a quality education.Then schools were attacked by political agendas from bothsides: Conservatives felt that the expense of education should bejustified by training students for the job market, and Liberals sawschools as a perfect place to gain support for social agendas rangingfrom civil rights to environmentalism."
"...I have learned that all education boils down to twothings: the student putting in the work to educate himself, andthe teacher getting the student’s attention long enough and deeplyenough to get him started and help him keep going."
Part of TJEd is being educated as an adult to pass it on. If you didn't learn it as a child (which I would say 95% of us did not) it is an opportune time to learn it! It's never too late to be a Scholar and a Statesman.

A Thomas Jefferson Education

2009-01-27T22:20:00.006-07:00

Not long ago, a friend of mine asked me to read a book called "A Thomas Jefferson Education." She was inspired by the book and thought I (we-other members of our homeschool group) would be inspired as well.

Quite honestly, I read parts of it, but with the busy holiday season I didn't really absorb it. From her descriptions, though, I knew it might be something I'm interested in. From the little information I had, we decided to attend the first colloquium she hosted which included the seminar: "Face to Face with Greatness: “The Four Lost American Ideals” by Dr. Demille. It was really informative and, quite honestly, sparked a passion in me I haven't felt in a couple years.

This set me off on a reading mission. I didn't find many of the books I need at the bookstore, so I've had to order them online. They include the book I mentioned above and the book Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning. I also bought a bound book/reproduction of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton and a book about the founding fathers.

To round out my week of inspiration, I attended an online class called "Inspiring and Responding: Nurturing a Love for Learning in the Hearts of Our Children." Which led me to read a bit more about TJEd online.

The result? A re-evaluation of my educational philosophy.

I know, from personal experience, that when I'm passionate about something I will literally spend hours and hours learning about my passion. If I need to know the answer to something, I will go to great lengths to learn the answer.

And important facet of a TJEd education is:

"Inspire instead of Require."

I've done my share of requiring over the last few years, but for the most part, I've tried to inspire. We started with a Math curriculum that was so very repetitive it was making ME crazy so instead of requiring all of the silly repetitiveness, we picked a few problems per lesson and solved them, then moved on to the next. Even that got boring, so I found a Math Games book at the library and we started playing math games that the kids love. We spend time at the zoo, museum, park and camping as a family, we read and learn things together.

But I've also made the mistake of gross overscheduling. After taking a three month hiatus from most of our activities, I realized that I had fallen into the public perception trap: that unless I socialize my children OFTEN they will have problems. Because, after all, kids should be in school to socialize.

In my core, I just felt that something was wrong with the way we were doing things. We had little time at home together--which was one of the main reasons we homeschool. The girls had less and less time to just "play" together and our home was falling into complete disarray.

I read something after our first colloquium that just "clicked" for me:

"The establishment of the Core occurs roughly between the years of 0-8; the maintenance and nourishment of the Core is a life-long process. …This consists of the lessons of good/bad, right/wrong, true/false, and is accomplished through work/play....Spend most of his time at home with his family, being nurtured and loved" ---Oliver Van DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education, 2nd Edition, pages 31-32

A-ha! That's why I was feeling unsure about our direction. Before our hiatus, we had two music classes on monday (one for A and one for K), A 3-4 hour co-op on Tuesday morning with a few other families then an hour of playtime followed by an hour of gymnastics, on Wednesday we often had a field trip and then later swim lessons, Thursday was our only down day (though we often filled it with a field trip) and Friday K has an all-day once-a-week school. Our weeks were packed!

And just when I was receptive, TJEd dropped in my lap. God works in mysterious ways. Another facet of TJEd is a center around your "core book." You decide what that core book is. Of course for us, it's The Bible. It's what teaches us our morals and values. It's the basis for how we decide our mission in life.

TJEd is leadership education. One of our reasons for homeschooling is to create adults who can think critically, are leaders, and have a sense of the purpose and mission that God has for them.

From the TJEd.org website:

"Leadership Education has three primary goals. First, to train thinkers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and statesmen—those with understanding and competence to lead society (do things right) and the moral character to act with integrity in the areas they lead in (do the right thing). Second, to perpetuate freedom by helping people understand what freedom is and what must be done to maintain it, and inspiring them to actually do the difficult things required to make it happen. Third, teach students how to think, which is how the first two goals must be accomplished. Those who know how to think are able to lead effectively and help a society remain free and prosperous, while those who know only when or what to think will be unable to do so."

I could ramble on and on, but it's late.

Plant Unit: Lesson One

2009-01-22T19:50:00.004-07:00

We started our unit on Plants last week. We're using the curriculum "Great Science Adventures-Plants" to get us started on our way to creating our garden this year.
This week, we started our avocado project. Today was day one: we soaked our avocado seed, cut off the top 1 cm, and planted it:

Each girl made a small book in which to record the growth progress. The girls will draw a picture every 4 or 5 days and I'll take pictures.
We're also starting to sprout our own beans. We didn't take them out of the water yet--apparently we forgot we have to wet them a few times a day, not immerse them longer than 24 hours, so tomorrow we'll change over to wetting them through a cheesecloth. If it works well for us, we'll do it more often. I like to make Thai and Chinese dishes, so having fresh sprouts will be great!

I also checked out a few books on gardening and children. There were some fantastic ideas for fairly easy projects that I'm really looking forward to doing with the kids.
I'm posting a link a tthe top called "Backyard Science" which will highlight all of the science projects we do related to home and backyard.

Great Backyard Bird Count

2009-01-22T15:41:00.009-07:00

The Great Backyard Bird Count is approaching again!

What is it?"The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds. We'll be adding updated 2009 GBBC materials as they become available."

What do you do?

Print a Tally Sheet (birds by region)
On February 13-16, 2009 plan to spend a minimum of 15 minutes per day.
Enter your data ONLINE!

It really is that easy!
Click the links, there are many great resources, including a site for bird identification.

HOW TO ATTRACT BIRDS:
Here is a wonderful "recipe" to make bird biscuits. Hang them all over your trees; they are very low-cost and attractive! We made our biscuits in heart shapes and we're giving them out--along with an information page about the Bird Count--to our friends and family for Valentine's Day!

Birdseed Biscuits
3 Cups of Birdseed6 TBSP Flour3/4 Cup Water
Combine all ingredients, stir well. Place a metal cookie cutter in any shape (we used hearts, butterfly and a flower) on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Spray the cookie cutter and foil with oil (or rub with oil). Spoon the mixture into the cutter. Place a straw in the middle (cut in half or thirds works well) to leave a hole for a ribbon. Pack the mixture down a little.
*After the first batch, we decided the flour needed to be increased from 4 TBSP to 5-6 TBSP. The first batch didn't hold together very well, but the second batch is doing great.

Place in a 170 degree oven for about an hour, until the biscuit is hard. Let it cool, remove from the cutter, remove the straw, and thread a ribbon through the middle. Hang outside!
Makes 6-7 smaller, 4-5 larger biscuits.

Homeschoolers:
There is a special page for kids with activities. What a great way to get your kids involved in "Backyard Science!"

God answers prayers...

2009-01-20T20:12:00.002-07:00

I think, as humans, there's a natural ebb and flow to our lives. Just like the seasons change, we have to expect our lives to change. If we continue to focus only on those things that are constant--or try to hold on too hard to things we think SHOULD be constant--we miss out on the opportunities God is sending our way.
I've been asking God to bring new things into my life that will help me guide my way through the rough spot I seem to have hit with the social part of homeschooling. Being with other homeschoolers has been such an effort; we have to drive far to attend activities (minimum 10 miles, but generally a 20 minute drive to any activity). A simple one hour homeschool swim class turns into a two to three hour effort. With four little ones, it's actually an entire afternoon.
Today was a beautiful day! It was almost 70 degrees (in the middle of January, just the opposite of other parts of the country with record lows). We decided a park day was the prescription for our lazy morning spent watching the Inauguration.
There was a group of moms meeting there. After some time, the last two moms remaining struck up a conversation with me. I learned that they had both considered homeschooling, but hadn't really pursued it any further. We had a really nice talk and I gave them my email address to contact me. They seemed really genuine and renewed my hope that finding homeschoolers closer to us may be possible.
I'm not sure if it was the chance encounter or if I finally got enough Vitamin D this week, but I was feeling rather renewed and positive. So much so, I finally gave in and joined one of the committees for our Homeowner's Association. I had to take all of the kids to the meeting at the neighborhood school and, at the beginning of the meeting, I felt like the "crazy homeschool mom with all of the kids." But as soon as we broke out into committees, I realized God had sent me there, once again.
After spending about a half hour talking to one of the Board Members who was starting the committee and the one other volunteer, I realized that 1) I really did have something to offer and 2) the other committee member was a HOMESCHOOLING MOM that has homeschooled for 16 years and lives two blocks away!
How fantastic. She said she'd like to get together outside of the committee as well and chat about homeschooling. I cannot believe God sent me this opportunity to talk to someone at the "other end" of homeschooling.

Happy Inauguration!

2009-01-20T10:51:00.003-07:00

The girls and I spent the morning watching the Presidential Inauguration of the 44th President. To reinforce the Inauguration, we had another dinner election. My 6.5 year old felt it was "unfair" that her choice didn't win.
Truth be told, we didn't vote for Barack Obama. There are parts of his platform I vehemently disagree with, such as a redistribution of wealth. I believe in true charity; you can't force the salvation of one's soul, nor can you teach someone about personal responsibility by giving him everything. You must "teach a man to fish" not "give a man a fish." I also disagree that it's a woman's choice to abort any time she feels like it; even Obama admitted he's not against partial birth abortion. To me, that's plain murder. I've seen a 24 week old baby survive and THRIVE. So there are parts of his presidency I will never agree with.
However, we cannot let that be where it ends. We have a new president and we celebrated that today. We're thrilled that America has a new president who represents where we want our country to be: one where all men (and women!) are created equal. And how amazing is it that people can disagree on candidates and yet the change in administration was peaceful.
We had a great civics lesson today and learned that, even though "our guy" didn't win, we support and pray for our president.

I'm sure my 6.5 year old will enjoy dinner even if it's not the exact one she wanted :)

Fun Quiz:
Who was the only president to be elected to 4 terms?
Who was the only president to be elected unanimously?
Who was the first president to also have a son serve as president? Who was the second?

To find answers, look here

Greatest Snow on Earth

2009-01-15T09:24:00.006-07:00

Did you know Utah is home to the Greatest Snow on Earth?
It's true! It even says so on our lisence plates!Pooh Bear didn't know before he got here, but he does now!

Our snow is special because of something called the lake effect, which basically means that as the clouds and air pass over the Great Salt Lake they absorb extra moisture and the clouds sort of 'pile up' on top of each other. This causes heavy snow fall and extra light snow - which is supposed to be great for skiing on!None of us in our family ski. (well, Matt used to, but he hasn't been in about 10 years.) That's a little like living in house with a pool in the backyard and not swimming. People are always suprised to hear we don't ski.
But we DO play in the snow when we get the chance! Tessa took Pooh Bear out to play in the snow and they had a great time!

Because we live on top of a mountain (altitude of about 7000 ft) we get a LOT of snow! The city uses a special truck called a snow auger to clear the snow from our streets becuase it take so long to melt off.

It cuts right through the snow and throws is up into the yards to get it off the street. It's amazing to watch! You can see the snow that has been thrown in these pictures.Last year was a very snowy winter, the last of our snow didn't melt off until almost May! This year we have had a lot less snow. There's about 4 feet in our yard - just enough for Pooh Bear to get lost in for months! Don't worry, we took good care of him :)

Moon-2009's brightest

2009-01-10T20:11:00.005-07:00

The biggest and brightest moon of 2009 is tonight!

ARTICLE

My photo, taken at about 6:00 p.m.

"The full moon will be 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter today."

"The moon will be brighest at 3.30 am on Sunday. This is because the Moon' orbit is an ellipse with one side 50,000 km closer to earth than the other side"

Yeah...I'm not willing to get up for that picture. :)

My photo, taken at about 6:00 p.m.

Crayon Crafts: Crayon Necklaces

2009-01-10T12:23:00.007-07:00

The girls like to send their penpals fun stuff for Valentine's Day (penpal moms....shh! it's a surprise LOL). I found a great craft in Wondertime Magazine that combines crayons and cookie cutters. For our first batch, I lined a small glass pan with foil and baked it. You can also use little foil cupcake liners in a muffin pan. After melting the wax into liquid, carefully remove the glass or muffin pan with a steady hand from the oven and let it cool. If you're not careful, the colors will really mix and won't show the fun swirls of color.

CRAYON NECKLACES(our Valentine's Day craft)

Materials:
Foil Muffin Cup liners OR a glass pan lined with foil OR silicone muffin pans or liners (we used heart shaped)
*Peeled crayon pieces (old nubs are good; we used brand new crayons we purchased during the back to school sales--1 box was $.10).
Small Cookie Cutters (we used a heart, cow, pig and duck)
6 Inch wooden skewer(s) (to pierce holes to make a necklace)
Satin cord or ribbon
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Place foil liners in muffin tin OR line the glass dish with foil OR get out your silicon muffin pan or cupcake holders
3. Fill each liner with crayon pieces (for the muffin tin or tin w/liners, about 3 to 4 crayons worth; for the small glass pan, fill the pan with a single layer of crayons, then add a second layer on top)
4. Bake until just melted: 5 to 8 minutes for the muffin size, 10-15 minutes for the small glass pan
5. Let cool until wax is still soft but no longer liquidy, 5 to 10 minutes. It will take longer for the small glas span to cool (15 to 20 minutes). If you start to cut when it is not hard enough, you get fingerprints in the crayons.
6. Remove foil liners from tin and gently peel out wax. Press cookie cutters into wax and gently push out shape.
*For the silicon muffin pan (or cups), poke the hole while still in the pan (be sure it goes all the way through) and let it completely cool in the pan (these are different because we already have our shapes, no need to use cookie cutters).
7. Poke a skewer through each shape that was cut out, and leave it until wax is hard. (we actually poked the hole and pulled the skewer out to cool, it seemed to work fine)
8. Once cool, thread a piece of ribbon or satin cord through the hole and tie a knot. Make sure the ribbon is long enough to slip the necklace on and off. We used neon color cording from a local craft store. The holes are rather small, so cording used for beads works the best.
*A note about crayons: Peeling Crayola crayons is difficult because they use a double heat and wrap process. To make it easier, have a parent score down the length of the paper with a box cutter OR soak the crayons in water to loosen the paper; just be sure to paper towel try them before putting in the muffin tins. Because of the current economy and the troubles with products from China, we used Crayola crayons, made in the USA. (Of course, that doesn't guarantee the paraffin didn't come from China or some other country).

And because I like to get the "inside scoop" on creative recipes and crafts to decrease my trial and error time:
TIPS

The smaller the size of the crayon piece, the more intricate colors. Shave some of the crayon at the bottom (use a crayon or pencil sharpener for shavings) and then add small pieces of different colors for a better variety of color in the crayon.
The foiled lined pan method created rather bumpy crayons. The silicon pan method yielded really smooth crayons.
Also, the smaller the size of the crayon pieces, the more evenly it will melt. In a few of our's, we had a couple larger pieces and they didn't melt as well.

And, of course, the added educational portion of our craft:

Video-How Stuff Works: Crayola Crayons

Crayola Fun Facts:

-The crayola factory produces 650 crayons/minute and 14.2 million per day!

-Since younger users of crayons may have a tendency to peel off a crayon label and ingest it, Binney & Smith uses a non-toxic cornstarch and water mixture for the glue that holds the label on the Crayola crayon. Before 1943, crayons were hand-wrapped by farmers in the winter months to supplement their income.

-Crayola crayons are produced from Paraffin.

Paraffin is the common name for the alkane hydrocarbons with the general formula C_nH_2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to the solids with n=20–40. Paraffin wax, are from the heaviest molecules from C₂₀H₄₂ to C₄₀H_82. Paraffin wax is mostly found as a white, odorless, tasteless, waxy solid, with a typical melting point between about 47 °C to 64 °C ( 116.6°F to 147.2°F), and having a density of around 0.9 g/cm3. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in ether, benzene, and certain esters (it is non-polar). Paraffin is unaffected by most common chemical reagents, but burns readily. Petroleum is composed of saturated hydrocarbons and some aromatics and parrafin.

Our crayons come from petroleum (just like our gas). Here's a diagram:

Click on the Picture to view full-sized

Hope you have some crayon fun!

Pooh Bear Loves Football!

2009-01-08T10:40:00.003-07:00

Last Friday night the University of Utah played Alabama in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.And - to the surprise of many - they won!

Pooh Bear never even knew he was a U of U fan until he came to visit us, but he caught the fever right away! He insisted on watching the game and wearing Matt's U hat.

It didn't fit really well, though, so he used it as a booster seat, instead.

The game was very exciting!
Pooh enjoyed himself. He's asking to watch the championship game (Oaklahoma vs. Florida) tonight. We'll see.

Travelling Friend Update

2009-01-07T09:55:00.003-07:00

We have had so much fun reading about Pooh's travels! Today Maisie and I sat down and calculated the miles travelled so far. This time, we're using the "cheating method" of using the internet, but next time we'll learn about how to calculate distance using a ruler and the map legend. For now, we're mastering numbers and addition of larger numbers as well as time zones.
Maisie wrote down all of the mileage between cities (this isn't exact--there were a few short road trips during visits we didn't take into account):
Denver to Portsmouth: 2,019 milesPortsmouth to Budapest, Hungary: 4,128 milesBudapest, Hungary to Portsmouth: 4,128 milesPortsmouth to Woburn, MA: 44 milesWoburn, MA to Windsor, Ontario, Canada: 606 milesWindsor, Ontario, Canada to Salt Lake City, Utah: 1,490 miles
Total Mileage: 12,415 Miles OR 19,918 Kilometers ( 1 mile = 1.609344 kilometers)

So far, we've had Pooh in 3 time zones: Mountain, Eastern and +8 from Denver in Budapest. Maisie learned that when it's noon in Denver, it's 2 p.m. in Windsor, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It's the same time in Utah and bedtime (8 p.m.) in Budapest, Hungary.

A very bigto Mary, Carl, April, Brannon, Melissa, Gabriella, Mandy and Tessa for their help in this project!

Road Trip: Arizona-Petrified Forest NP

2009-01-05T21:02:00.006-07:00

My friend at Kathalog mentioned she loves to learn about the little-known places in the United States to visit. We've visited a few of these on our many road trips and I thought I'd share some here.

I posted about Meteor Crater in Winslow, AZ in my last post. We will work our way down I-40 and visit Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK

In March of 2007, we were on a road trip with our girls to visit my grandmother in Arizona. The girls were getting restless on day two, so we decided to stop at Petrified Forest National Park. It's a nice round-trip diversion with plenty to see and do. The entrance is off of I-40 near Holbrook from the West, and nearer to Navajo on the east; you can enter from one side of the park, drive through, and loop back to I-40 easily from the other end (see the map by clicking the link above).

It is beautiful throughout the park. The visitors center has some great information and just outside of the building is what can only be described as a petrified wood garden. After getting some great information, we drove from one end of the park to the other.

Petrification (from the National Parks Service Brochure):

Distant volcanoes to the west spewed
tons of ash into the atmosphere,
carried by the wind into this area
where it was incorporated into the river
sediments. Some logs were buried by
sediment before they could
decompose. Ground water dissolved
silica from the volcanic ash and carried
it into the logs. This solution formed
quartz crystals which filled hollows,
cracks, even the interior of the cells,
and sometimes replaced the cell walls.
The process could be so exact the
resulting fossils show many details of
the logs’ original surfaces and,
occasionally, the internal cell
structures. Traces of iron and other
minerals combined with quartz during
the petrification process, creating the
brilliant rainbow of colors. Within the
larger cracks and hollows the growth
of quartz crystals was not limited in
size and larger crystals of clear and
milky quartz, purple amethyst, and
yellow citrine formed.

A few fun facts from the National Parks Page:

Petrified Forest National Park has one of the most diverse collections of prehistoric pottery fragments in the Southwest.
The ecosystem at Petrified Forest National Park is not desert. It's one of the largest areas of intact grassland in the Southwest
On clear days in the Southwest, especially on crisp, cold winter days, you can see landscape features almost 100 miles away!

Are you a homeschooler thinking of visiting the park? NPS offers free online curriculum help:

http://www.nps.gov/pefo/forteachers/curriculummaterials.htm

PRINT THE BROCHURES

If you are a homeschooler, road trips are such an amazing way to experience science, history and culture. The National Parks are also a great resource. Did you know you can buy a National Parks Annual Parks pass for $80? It gets you entrance into any National Park and other Federal areas for no additional fee. Are you aged 62 or over? You can get a pass for $10....LIFETIME. And all throughout the website are lesson plans for teachers.

Pooh Bear in Utah!

2009-01-02T14:20:00.007-07:00

Pooh Bear got to Utah a few weeks ago, but we've been so busy with the Holidays that I haven't had a chance to post until now!

We've had a great time with our traveling friend so far, though!
The first weekend he was here Pooh Bear went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a sleepover with Tessa and Asher. They rode TRAX downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.

Temple Square is the center of Salt Lake City, and the the begining of the grid system that Utah roads and addresses are based on. It is also where church headquarters are located.

Utah is home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Most people know the church (and it's members) by the word Mormon. The Mormon Church has a very interesting history!The Church was started by Joseph Smith in Palmyra, New York in 1829. Church members suffered much persecution in the early days of it's establishment, and as a result moved around a lot before they were able to find a place to settle. In 1831 church headquarters moved from New York to Ohio. In 1838 they moved on to Missouri. In 1839 they moved again, to Illinois. In 1844 Joseph Smith was killed in an Illinois jail. Brigham Young eventually succeeded him as president of the Church. In 1846 the vast majority of Mormons left Illinois and headed West. They ended up in Utah in 1847 and have been headquartered here ever since.
But enough about the LDS church!
Back to the Temple Square Lights!
Each year volunteers, missionaries and church employees wrap tree branches with lights and set up Nativity Scenes for a dazzling Christmas display. Millions of lights are used.

This is what Pooh Bear went to see!He had a great time and was a fun friend to bring!

Road Trip: Arizona-Meteor Crater, Winslow, AZ

2008-12-29T09:30:00.004-07:00

METEOR CRATER National Monument

On our way to Peoria, AZ we stopped to see the Meteor Crater in Winslow, AZ. It's a place we've passed no less than a couple dozen times in the last twenty years, but for some reason we've never stopped.

It's only 6 miles off Highway 40, just a short diversion from the road trip. The building built next to the crater is quite large and houses a decent sized museum dedicated to things falling from the sky.

History:

"Approximately 50,000 years ago, on a continuous plain extending for miles in the high desert plateau of Northern Arizona, out of the northeastern sky, a pinpoint of light grew rapidly into a brilliant fireball. This body was probably broken off from an asteroid during an ancient collision in the main asteroid belt (between the planets, Mars and Jupiter) some half billion years ago. Hurtling about 40,000 miles per hour, it was on a rendezvous course with earth. In seconds, it passed through the earth's atmosphere with little loss of velocity or mass."

"The result of these violent conditions was the excavation of a giant bowl shaped cavity. In less than a few seconds, a crater was carved into this once flat rocky plain. During its formation, over 175 million tons of limestone and sandstone were abruptly thrown out to form a continuous blanket of debris surrounding the crater for a distance of over a mile."

METEOR CRATER National Monument

OUR REVIEW: We didn't get much of a chance to really spend time in the museum, but it was pretty impressive. Lots of interactive exhibits explaining the phenomenom of debris from space and the differences. There is also an actual remnant of the meteor on display--a significant size.

The view of the crater is amazing and the private owners have successfully given the viewer a great perspective of the crater. It doesn't "seem" as big as it is, until you look through the various telescopes and see the 6 foot tall astronaut at the bottom, or the boiler, crane and a manhole that was explored. Of course, they seem tiny through the viewfinder and almost invisible to the naked eye, reinforcing the actual size of the crater.

In all honesty, we didnt' spend half the time there that we wanted. My four little ones, the oldest being 6.5 years old, were tired at 2 in the afternoon when we arrived and had little patience for exploring the museum. It was a little pricey, though for myself and my 4 kids it was only $22.00. If my girls were all 6 and over, it would have been $39.

It is definitely worth the stop; where else can you see where such an event has occured? Be sure to stop when you have time to properly explore the wealth of information offered at the museum.

FUN FACTS:

On August 8, 1964, a pair of commercial pilots in a Cessna 150 flew into the crater for a closer look but were unable to climb out due to downdrafts. They ended up circling the interior until their fuel was exhausted and crash-landed. They survived their ordeal and a small portion of the wreckage not removed from the crash site remains visible to this day-Wikipedia

Featured in the movie Starman. In this, a large spherical shaped UFO hovers over the crater.
Featured in the movie Damnation Alley. In this, it is featured as a nuclear blast crater.
Featured in a montage on the cover of the Midnight Oil album Red Sails in the Sunset. The crater is superimposed several times over Sydney Harbor suggesting the aftermath of a nuclear strike.
In the novel The Martian War, Dr. Moreau and Percival Lowell take a crashed Martian scout to see the crater. It reminds the Martian of its home.
In the novel 3001: The Final Odyssey, Frank Poole views a computer-generated model of the crater, and remembers exploring it as a child.

FUN STUFF RELATED TO METEOR CRATER:

Have some 3D glasses? View THIS IMAGE

Barringer Meteorite Crater Official Site

Play the Crater GAME

Short Homeschooling statistics movie

2008-12-22T14:16:00.003-07:00

And I thought this was an interesting quote from a homeschooling mom; this was said by a private school teacher (her daughter's teacher before pulling her out):

"Your parents think they know you, they don't know you *I* know you. I'm the one who is with you all day long."

Lets Say Thanks-Postcards for Soldiers

2008-12-12T14:24:00.002-07:00

Xerox is printing and sending free postcards this holiday season to soldiers. Just go to:

www.letssaythanks.com

and follow the steps to make a postcard. Xerox will print and send it free!

Happy St. Nicholas Day Eve!

2008-12-05T14:49:00.003-07:00

December 6th
St. Nicholas
Patron Saint of Children

Patron saints have lived a life which is a worthy example of how to faithfully follow Jesus Christ and, as part of the communion of saints, they intercede on behalf of those who call upon them. In other parts of the world, however, St. Nicholas' chief patronage is that of sailors and ships—offering safe voyage and protection from storms

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.

Through the centuries many stories and legends have been told of St. Nicholas' life and deeds. These accounts help us understand his extraordinary character and why he is so beloved and revered as protector and helper of those in need.

Widely celebrated in Europe, St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6th, kept alive the stories of his goodness and generosity. In Germany and Poland, boys dressed as bishops begged alms for the poor—and sometimes for themselves! In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas arrived on a steamship from Spain to ride a white horse on his gift-giving rounds.

How is he celebrated?

December 6th is still the main day for gift giving and merrymaking in much of Europe. For example, in the Netherlands St. Nicholas is celebrated on the 5th, the eve of the day, by sharing candies (thrown in the door), chocolate initial letters, small gifts, and riddles. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the saint's horse, hoping St. Nicholas will exchange them for small gifts. Simple gift-giving in early Advent helps preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child.

St. Nicholas' gifts were usually good things to eat: apples, oranges, nuts, and eventually cookies and sweets. The custom quickly spread across Europe and was adopted by both rich and poor. St. Nicholas' example still inspires acts of charity and generosity.

Why Celebrate?

To learn about the true St. Nicholas: the man of faith who lived his life in devotion to Christ. Saint Nicholas loved children and cared for the needy. He brings the love of Christ and the healing of Jesus. When we honor this saint, following his example of selfless giving, we honor the Christ Child who selflessly gave the greatest gift of all—himself.

LEARN MORE

Urban Homesteading

2008-12-05T12:25:00.002-07:00

I'm a hippie.

Let's face it, I'm a hippie at heart.

My goal: Urban Homesteading. Self-sufficiency. Organic food. Natural Laundry soap. No lead paint in my kids' toys. Teach my girls science, math, reading, writing, and (yes) sewing, cooking and subsisting.

This weekend, we're making Laundry soap.

We're starting our garden in the spring. This is inspiring:

Other Resources:
Gardening Jobs Month by Month
Homestead Simplicity A Primer

Next year, I'm hoping DH will get an Elk. From what I've learned, a good Elk and you don't have to buy red meat for a year!

How Much do you Know about Christmas?

2008-11-29T19:09:00.001-07:00

You Know a Lot About Christmas

You got 7/10 correct

You know tons about the history and traditions surrounding Christmas.

When you celebrate the holidays, you never forget their true meaning - or all the little fun details.

Random Christmas fact: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is the first Christmas carol. It dates back to the 12th century.

How Much Do You Know About Christmas?

His final weekend in Canada!

2008-11-26T08:44:00.008-07:00

Well Pooh certainly had a lot of fun while he was with us! We wanted to take him to see some sites here in Windsor before he left so the best place we thought was down by the river...the Detroit river.

He got to see the big bridge, the Ambassador Bridge, that takes him back and forth from Canada to the United States...there is also a tunnel but you can't see that since it is under the river ;) When you look the other way you can see many big buildings including the Renaissance Building in Detroit, Michigan.
There are some beautiful sculptures along the river walk also and some of them you can sit on. Here is Pooh bear sitting on his first 'elephant' and the 'baby'.

Pooh also learned about some history of Canada...

We had so much fun having Pooh here visiting us. We know that he will have fun at his next destintation, off to Utah he goes to meet some new friends :)

Lesson Plan: Thanksgiving Math

2008-11-13T08:42:00.009-07:00

Lesson: Thanksgiving Math

Ages: 6-15 (by varying the difficulty)
Materials: Printable Worksheet, Grocery store circulars/trip to the grocery store, Play Money (optional), Math Manipulatives (optional)
Concepts: Money math, Multiplication (quantity X amount), Comparison shopping, Calculating Tax (older children), Money management, Charitable giving
Increasing the difficulty: Increase the difficulty by having the child calculate tax, reducing the budget ($150, for example), shopping at only ONE store (deciding among brands), calculating actual servings from the nutrition information from the label and buy as close to 12 servings as possible, calculate total calories per person if one person ate all of the items on the menu (the exception being only one or two desserts instead of 4, like ours)

This lesson has been adapted from THIS LESSON.

Instruction: The students will have $200 to buy enough groceries to feed 12 people for a Thanksgiving feast. The child can look through the circulars (or take a trip to the grocery store) to choose the food for the feast and record the cost on the worksheet. For the older children, have them run the balance as they go, calculating actual dollars and cents and adding in the local tax rate (if any) on groceries at the end. For the younger children, rounding will be more helpful. For both groups, it's helpful to also use the play money to "pay the grocery store." This will allow the children to check their work on the datasheet, comparing the money spent and the subtraction.

Remember, this is a feast for 12! Help your students understand servings and quantities.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Update: We completed this activity in 2 hours. The 6.5 year old did all of the writing and math and our 4.5 and 3 year olds chose the food from the circulars.

Tips: Our 6.5 year old had some difficulty remembering the concept of the hundreds, tens and ones and applying them to whole dollars (for this activity, we rounded; for older children, I would definitely have them calculate cents and even tax rates). To help, we used the Math-U-See manipulatives to subtract as we calculated. Once she could visualize the numbers, it was easy for her. The girls did a great job finding the 'greatest bargain' from the circulars this week.

To check our work, we compared our totals to the money totals (we used monopoly money). We were actually $1 off and figured out that somewhere along the way $1 was confused (probably among the mess of circulars and manipulatives around the table).

From the balance sheet (the running substraction) our 6.5 year old calculated the money we spent: $200-balance=spent. We bought turkey, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, 2 shrimp ring appetizers, stuffing, sparkling lemonade, and pineapple salad ingredients for a grand total of $114.

What to do with the money left over? Maisie decided to buy 12 dinners for the homeless through the Denver Rescue mission ($1.92 per meal, total of $24 rounded up--which we will actually donate). The remaining $62 (she calculated as well) will be put in savings.

We also determined that it cost us $9.50 per person for our Thanksgiving meal. The Denver Rescue Mission provides a meal for $1.92. Maisie was amazed at how much better the Denver Rescue mission is at providing low cost food. :)

We Remembered...

2008-11-11T14:07:00.005-07:00

Today is November 11...Rememberance Day! We wore our poppies proudly to say that we remember those how have fought for us and for those how have sacrificed their lives for us so that we have freedom. Pooh also remembered with us during our moment of silence today and learned all about the importance of this day.

Quick update...

2008-11-11T11:54:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that Pooh is still here in Canada!

The flu bug came to visit our household so our weekend plans were cancelled. But we wanted to let you know that Pooh escaped the yucky flu bug and helped take care of us while we were sick :) He is such a kind, sweet bear.

We will be back soon with pictures of our future adventures!

Dinosaur Dig

2008-11-11T10:54:00.005-07:00

Materials Needed:
DINOSAUR FACT PAGE
Dinosaur Egg Recipe (below)
Mallet or Hammer, dry paint brush
Dinosaur Identification (Dinosaur Encyclopedia or internet resource)

Our current science unit is Dinosaurs (chosen by Maisie). I love that we have the option of doing so many hands on activities and this was one I was really looking forward to.

First we had to make our dinosaur eggs. I found some little plastic dinosaur figures on sale at Target in the summer (2.48 for 12 dinosaurs) and used the following recipe to create an "egg" outer shell:

Dinosaur Eggs

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup flour
1 cup used coffee grinds
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup sand
1 cup water

small plastic dinosaurs

What you do:

1. Mix all dry ingredients together. Slowly add water and knead until the mixture is is moist--like bread dough. (In the recipe I used, it said to try and use less than a cup, but I had a hard time getting the mixture to moisten enough).

2.Form the dough around the plastic dinosaur to look like an egg.

Let dry for 4-5 days, or put in a 100-150 degree oven for a few hours.

Our eggs never dried all the way inside, but it worked out perfectly for us as the outside of the egg was hard to crack (we had to use a heavy mallet), but the girls could get the dinosaurs out of the center because it was mushy.

I hid the eggs in the backyard in various areas, including the rocks. Each girl was responsible for finding two eggs, then cracking them open to reveal their dinosaurs. It was pretty cold, so the girls worked rather fast!

Once the dinosaurs were extracted, we went inside to determine which dinosaurs we found. With our big Dinosaur book and the internet, we named our dinosaurs. Maisie--our 6.5 year old--completed a dinosaur report page. Feel free to use it if you'd like, the file is linked above. Our plan is to create on of these reports for every dinosaur studied and put them in a binder. For further study, one can have the child rearrange the reports by different topics such as Food source (Herbivore/Carnivore), Geographic Location, or Time Period.

Music

2008-11-10T20:50:00.006-07:00

A few years ago, a friend told us about Children's Music Academy. I was a little nervous about the 3.5 year commitment to the program (it's not a contract, just a suggestion that they complete the program) but I wanted to get our oldest dd started in music.

It has been a great experience! Not only do they learn how to read music and play piano, but they sing, learn rhythm, play as an ensemble, and ear train. As parents, we are required to attend every class with our children so that we can actively participate in class and at home.

It's not inexpensive, but the education for us both has been well worth the money. After 2 years of this program I can play basic songs on the piano, which is a huge bonus in the program. I've always wanted to play piano and I'm having such fun with this program.

Our four year old is now in the program. She's been asking for the last year when she will get to start. Daddy is taking her to that class and they are both really enjoying it!

Here are a few videos of Maisie:

This is the song she's working on:

Book Recommendation: Games for Math

2008-11-10T20:21:00.003-07:00

GAMES FOR MATH

We use Math U See and Montessori math, but I've found the best way to reinforce Math is to use a variety of methods. Games are a favorite around here, so I checked out this book for ideas.

Yesterday, my six year old and I played pyramid--similar to the traditional card game but you make pairs that add up to a specific number (you predetermine per game). She had a great time making pairs to ten. We've also tried this with "Go Fish" and instead of pairs, you are using a specific number that your two cards must equal. We also made a game board where you throw two pennies and add up the total. The person with the highest number wins!

I also decided to peek ahead to the more difficult math (the book covers games for K-3) and found a great multiplication game. You start with a blank piece of graph paper. Roll the dice: the number you get starts your rectangle. If you roll a 3, trace 3 squares on the graph. Roll again. If you roll a 6, trace 6 squares in a right angle. You now have the rectangle: two sides with the length of 3, two sides with the length of 6. Count all of the squares in the rectangle for the answer (you now have 6 X 3. My six year old hasn't quite grasped what we're doing, but she understands how we're building the equation and getting the answer. She LOVED this game!

If you get a chance, check it out at the library. I'm now purchasing it and the lowest price I found was on amazon.com.

SOTW: Gilgamesh continued

2008-11-09T16:31:00.003-07:00

We are having so much fun with our history curriculum "Story of the World." This week, we studied the story of Gilgamesh.

"Gilgamesh is one of the oldest recorded stories in the world. It tells the story of an ancient King of Uruk, Gilgamesh, who may have actually existed, and whose name is on the Sumerian King List."

We are in the midst of studying Mesopotamia and having a great time with it. This week's assignment was to write a fairy tale using Gilgamesh as the subject. This is what Maisie wrote:

Gilgamesh and a New Friend

Gilgamesh was a really strong powerful half god half man. He lived in Mesopotamia and his job was to keep the city safe. He was the king.

One day Gilgamesh was walking in the forest and met some animals that were trying to find some food but there was nothing around. Gilgamesh helped them find food and then they found something dead that they ate. Then he went back to the palace to eat real quick and then he went out to the forest and walked some more.

He met a beautiful girl. They become friends and they talk to each other all the time. They like to play games together. They like to sing songs and they like to draw stuff to each other.

One day someone took the beautiful girl away. His name was Jericho. He liked her and he wanted her to be friends but she didn’t like him because she wanted to be with Gilgamesh.

So Gilgamesh grabbed his sword, went to Jericho’s house to get his friend back! Gilgamesh put Jericho in jail because he took his friend away.
THE END

I swayed her from the "guy meets girl, they marry happily ever after" storyline. That one drive me nuts. She learned how a story must have some sort of conflict and resolution. She did a great job!

Hopefully I'll get a chance to post more of our activities. I have pictures, I just don't seem to have the time to format and upload them :(

Teacher bullies children who support McCain

2008-11-07T14:26:00.004-07:00

This is from a Finnish documentary about our election.

VIDEO
Click on the video and watch the footage.

The "VOICE" is the teacher.

VOICE: Obama -- oh, Lord, John McCain.

GLENN: Stop, stop, stop, stop. Did you hear this? Anybody pulling for John McCain? It's okay. Who are you? Obama. Who are you? John McCain. "Oh, Lord." Do you hear this? This is subtly, a teacher subtly telling you, "Oh, you're stupid." Continue.

VOICE: Obama. John -- oh, Lord, John McCain.

VOICE: John McCain.

VOICE: Oh, Jesus, John McCain.

GLENN: Stop. Listen to that. "Oh, Jesus, John McCain." Are you going to answer if your teacher is reacting to John McCain? "Oh, Jesus, John McCain. Okay." Wow. Continue.

VOICE: Oh, Jesus, John McCain. Okay. Now I want to ask you something. Why are you pulling for John McCain? And it's okay but why are you pulling for John McCain?

.....

VOICE: So in other words, Barack is going to end that war in Iraq. What do you-all know about that war in Iraq? Huh? Your dad's in the military. Talk.

VOICE: It's a senseless war. And by the way, Kathy, the person that you're picking for President said that our troops could stay in Iraq for another 100 years if they need to. So that means your dad has to stay in the military for another 100 years.

It's one thing to discuss the election and even ask kids questions about what they know. She seriously crossed the line into indoctrinating her children into believing what she believes.

Another reason I homeschool......

I Voted!

2008-11-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of the early voters, my vote not only counted, but it was completely painless. We loaded up our 4 children under 6 in the car, drove to the grade school nearby (about a mile away), and found a really close parking space in the half empty parking lot.

We walked in to the registration table (no line), filled out our paper, signed the register, walked over to the voting booth (lack-of-a) line, walked into the booth and voted! I had two girls in my booth and my husband had two girls in his. Of course, it was tough keeping fingers off the buttons, but I'm glad we can show them how easy it is to vote.

My only regret is that we didn't walk to the grade school. I was afraid I wouldn't make it back in time for my dentist appointment. :(

The girls are nominating dinner and we are having a secret ballot this afternoon. They won't find out what they are having for dinner until we either cook it or go pick it up. They are voting, too!

Happy Boo Day!

2008-11-01T19:47:00.005-06:00

Pooh had soooo much fun trick or treating! He got all dressed up and received tons of candy.

We made sure that he didn't eat too much candy...we didn't want him to get a tummy ache while visiting us!!

Enjoyed seeing all the pumpkins and kids dressed up and even helped hand out the candy :)

He arrived!

2008-10-31T14:29:00.006-06:00

Pooh made it safe and sound to Michigan...just in time to go trick or treating!

He got to do some more traveling that day from Michigan to Windsor, Ontario, Canada (the custom guards were very nice and had no problems letting me cross the border) and his first night in Canada he got to watch some hockey...

The next day (Thursday) he went to school with his new friend Bella...He is having tons of fun and getting lots of attention from his new friends! Pooh is very excited about going out tonight for trick or treating and can't wait to get all dressed up like all the kids :)

Off to Michigan

2008-10-28T06:25:00.003-06:00

Well it is with a sad heart that I report I have sent Pooh off to his next destination, Michigan. I hope that he makes new friends and has a wonderful adventure. He was a joy to have as a house guest. He never made a mess, didn't snore and didn't eat all of our honey. So we wish him well on his journey to another part of the country. With him are some brochure of the places he visited with us and he has a lanyard with pins from all the places he has travelled thus far. I hope Pooh is glad he ventured out of his corner of the Hundred Acre Woods.

Template

2008-10-22T20:43:00.003-06:00

Yes, I'm messing with the template again...I didn't like it :(It will be updated soon!

TF: Salem

2008-10-15T20:15:00.013-06:00

Salem is a great place to visit most times of the year. October, however has both good and bad points. It is probably the most crowded time of the year to visit. They celebrate Haunted Happenings all month so tourists are many and school groups also. Alot of high schoolers especially after reading the House of Seven Gables and the Scarlet Letter. It is a great seaside town, we really enjoy visiting it whenever we can.

This is probably the most popular and most recognizable museum in Salem...The Salem Witch Museum it chronicles the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in which 180 people were accused 19 people were hanged and one man crushed to death by stones. Pooh was to afraid to go in so we just took pictures outside.

We could not make a trip to Salem without stopping in at the Hawthorne Hotel a beautiful hotel that is in the National Historic Hotel group. That is where Michael works and here is Pooh in the lobby with the pumpkin family.

This is Brannon and Pooh(although he wouldn't hold Pooh for the picture) at the Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial. It is in memory of all of the fisherman that have been lost at sea. Most notable are the names of the men who were lost in 1991's "Perfect Storm", you may recall the movie starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlburg (a Boston native I might add).

We ended our day by stopping in at Hammond Castle, a medievil castle in Gloucester, MA on the northshore. Unfortunately it was closed for the day, but it is a beautiful castle that was built by

John Hays Hammond, Jr. between the years 1926 and 1929 to serve both as his home and as a backdrop for his collection of Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts. In addition, the building housed the Hammond Research Corporation, from which Dr. Hammond produced over 400 patents and the ideas for over 800 inventions

TF: Peabody Essex

2008-10-15T20:05:00.011-06:00

Here is Pooh outside the Peabody Essex Museum. This is a great museum, it has a little bit of everything. It has paintings, furniture, silver pieces (goblets, tea sets, silverware), scrimshaw, and it is rich in maritime history.

The Salem Wax Museum is just down the road from the Pirate Museum.

Next it was a walk up the street to the New England Pirate Museum. A small but interesting museum, it shows how big piracy was off the coast of the United States. I thought Pooh would make a great substitute for a pirate's parrot.

TF

2008-10-15T19:48:00.012-06:00

We walked up the street to Ye Olde Pepper Companie established in 1806. And across the street to the House of Seven Gables made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

This is the Customs House, in the 1700's it was where the mariners paid their duties on the goods they were shipping.

On Monday, Brannon and U decide to take Pooh to Salem, MA. We started our day by parking at Pickering Wharf. We walked to the Friendship, a replica of a cargo ship from Salem, MA that was used to transport goods.

TF: Boston

2008-10-08T17:19:00.007-06:00

This is Pooh checking out the State House a we walked through the Common on our way back to get the train home. The photo below is of the famous "Duck Tours" that travel throughout the city. The "boats" are World War II amphibious vehicles that have become one of the cities most popular tourist attractions. They are also the vehicles that have been used, alot lately, to transport our CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS throughout the city for our rolling rally to celebrate the World Champion Red Sox, Celtics, and Patriots. The poor Bruins haven't had that privelage...yet.

The Union Oyster house is another landmark for the city, alot of people who come to Boston want to eat at the Oyster House. There is even a booth with a plaque that is where John F. Kennedy(35th President of the United States) dined. I have actually had the privelage of sitting in this booth myself.

And this is Pooh with a colonial soldier outside the Bell in Hand Tavern established in 1795 by Jimmy Wilson, Boston's last known town crier. It is the oldest continuously operated tavern. Pooh thought we should head for home, we had a very busy day today...But boy was it FUN!!!!

TF: Quincy Market, Boston

2008-10-08T17:04:00.008-06:00

Pooh and I took the long walk from Quincy Market and the North End to Boston Common (the oldest park in the country) we had a lovely stroll through the Common and to the Public Garden which was founded in 1837. As you can see we stopped and smelled the roses along the way.

We met this very nice Boston Police Officer (we didn't get his name) and his horse Shorty and he was gracious enough to let Pooh climb up and take a picture with him. for a quick rest.

We then walked over to the "Make Way For Ducklings" sculpture in the garden. Pooh really liked sitting on Mama Duck and taking a rest. We had a long walk ahead.

TF: Boston North End

2008-10-08T16:56:00.004-06:00

Pooh and I next ventured down to the North End, ( a kind of Little Italy section of town) this was more for me than it was for Pooh. We stopped at my favorite place in the whole North End (and there are a ton of great places), Mike's Pastry. No it's not my favorite because Mike is my husband's name, but they have THE best pastries in town. Pooh and I looked and looked until we decided to share a piece of Boston Cream Pie. Of course I was a little mad at Pooh because he didn't help me eat that cake at all, I had to eat the whole piece by myself....Oh well c'est la vie. We then walked over to the Old North Church...WARNING WARNING historical facts ahead...This is where the saying "One if by land and two if by sea" The lanterns were hung in the steeple to signal that the British were invading by sea. We met a very nice man from Somerset, England, who wished us a very nice adventure.

TF: Boston

2008-10-08T16:50:00.007-06:00

Pooh and Wally the Green Monster (at Build-A-Bear Workshop) at Quincy Market.

Here's Pooh eyeing the cookies at the Boston Chipyard Cookie store.

Here's Pooh at the TD Banknorth Gahden where the Bruins and the Worl Champion Celtics play.And here's Pooh outside Quincy Market, what a time we had walking through all the shops. He even got to see CHEERS where everybody knows his name. We also walked through the Holocaust Memorial, it is a very somber location, so I didn't include the photo.

Pooh and April go to Boston

2008-10-08T16:43:00.002-06:00

So this morning Pooh and I decided to hop on the commuter rail at the Anderson RTC in Woburn and go to Boston. We had a nice train ride that lasted about 25 minutes. Pooh really enjoyed listening to my ipod as I have quite a few Disney songs loded onto it. We started our adventure around 9:30 this morning and didn't return until 1:45 this afternoon. I don't know about Pooh but my legs are tired. We did some sightseeing and some fun things.

2008-10-07T14:39:00.004-06:00

Well as our day was coming to a close we decided to stop in at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary to a spot called Author's Ridge. It is where many famous New England Authors are buried, like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau to name a few. But I thought it appropriate that we stop by and pay homage to Louisa May Alcott, who wrote Little Women(Blog name ha, ha). We then meandered towards home and Pooh said he was tired so we stopped by Horn Pond and sat on Papa Lewie's bench for a few minutes before heading to pick Brannon up from school. Pooh decided to take a little nap in Brannon's sweatshirt. We had a wonderful day today, but boy are we "POOHPED"

2008-10-07T14:27:00.004-06:00

We ventured out to North Bridge where the"Shot heard around the World" was said to have taken place. We had a long uphill walk to Major John Butterick's house. The top photo is of Pooh on North Bridge. The bottom photo you see is of Pooh and the monument to the American Militia Men who fought there. And the last photo is of Pooh with Aunty Janice, we were surprised to find Aunty Janice enjoying the beautiful fall day. She lives not too far from there and we didn't even tell her we were going there. So she wanted to join in the fun with Pooh.

2008-10-07T14:20:00.004-06:00

Pooh and I ventured to the Hartwell Tavern next, which was built 1732-1733."WARNING" "WARNING"Historical facts:: When Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell got married, Ephraim's father Samuel gave them a new house surrounded by 18 acres of land, as well as 12 other acres (30 acres total). The couple quickly began raising a family. In 1756, when the Hartwells had 9 children living in the house. The tavern was on the main road, the "Bay Road," running from Boston through western Massachusetts out to Crown Point, N.Y. This was the road that the British troops used on April 19. The soldiers passed by the tavern on their way to Concord, and again on their way back to Boston. Three of Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell's sons were in the Lincoln Minute Man Company (Capt. William Smith's Co.) that fought at the NorthBridge and on the battleroad on April 19: Samuel and John were both sergeants, and Isaac was a private. All three went on to later military service in the RevolutionaryWar. They were having a musket demonstration when we got there. That is the second photo, Pooh was ready to leave after that it was a little too noisy for him.

2008-10-07T14:09:00.003-06:00

So the first picture is especially for Danny. It is an information plaque all about Samuel Adams, "WARNING" "WARNING" history lesson approaching, who was one of the Sons of Liberty, which was a secret organization of American Patriots (not to be confused with the NE Patriots ). Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, John Adams (former US President), and John Hancock were also members, The Sons of Liberty were the men who took action to enforce their opposition to the Tea Act and "threw" the Boston Tea Party in which members of the Sons of Liberty dressed like indians and threw crates of tea into Boston Harbor. Okay you can all look now...Samuel Adams is also the name of one of the most famous breweries around. The second photo is of Pooh holding the map that one of the park rangers gave us so we could find our way to the other historical sites that Pooh wanted to see.

2008-10-07T14:03:00.004-06:00

So here is Pooh outside the Woburn Public Library, it is such a lovely building. It is over 150 years old and was registered a National Landmark I believe in 1987. While we were there we went downstairs to the Children's Room to visit with Hardcover the turtle. He has been a longtime resident of the library and we were very lucky to have him out of his house. We visited with Hardcover for a little while, read a story and then we ventured to the Common and to City Hall. Pooh then thought he would like a History lesson, and I said of course, Massachusetts is the perfect place for a History lesson...After all the Revolutionary War was started in Massachusetts at a little place call Lexington and Concord. SO off we went, seatbelts on and excited to learn.

2008-10-07T13:56:00.004-06:00

As you can see we started our journey today in a very special place, the resting place of very dear people to all of us Nana May and Papa Lewie Ferullo. We had a nice visit, it was very peaceful and the trees were so preety.

Pooh arrives in Woburn, MA

2008-10-07T13:44:00.006-06:00

Pooh arrived in Woburn, MA on Sunday, just in time to help celebrate Michael's 40th birthday. We had beef stew, meatball subs, cake of course and New England Patriots football game in HI Def and Surround sound. Oh in case you didn't know the Pats beat the San Francisco 49ers. Then it was home to Hart Place where he decided to sleep in Brannon's Tiger sleeping bag. Pooh took it easy on Monday, he said he still had a little jet lag from the Hungary trip, so I let him stay home and get some much needed rest.

Greetings from Florida!

2008-10-04T11:33:00.003-06:00

I'm on a mommy hiatus in Florida. I'm visiting with my friend Katrina.

Be back soon!
(P.S. Honey thanks for the break, it's really amazing of you to give me this time. I love you!)

Concord NH and goodbyes to Pooh

2008-10-04T05:29:00.010-06:00

Since Pooh arrived he has traveled to Concord NH with me every day (with the exception of when we were overseas of course). I thought as one of the last posts, I would post a little bit about Concord NH.

Concord is the state capitol of New Hampshire. It is the hub of New Hampshire government. Okay I have to put in a warning here... the following paragraph will be deemed boring, but I feel compelled to give a NH government lesson since I do work for the Governor. :-)

---- begin boring part -----

New Hampshire has three branches of government. The Legislative Branch, know as the General Court, is composed of the state senators and representatives; the Executive Branch includes the Governor, Executive Councilors and State Agencies; and the Judicial Branch is made up of the courts. Each branch of government is separate from the others yet has some control over and is controlled by the other two. This is known as a system of checks and balances. All three branches derived their powers from the State's Constitution and the Constitution is controlled by the people of the state. The Governor is the supreme executive and is called His or Her Excellency. According to our the state’s constitution, the Governor is responsible for the "faithful execution of the law". He has the assistance of the Executive Council and state agencies. New Hampshire is unique because of the five member Executive Council who work with, advise and share the governor’s responsibilities. While a few other state have Executive Councils (Massachusetts for example), they exist in an advisory capacity only. In New Hampshire, the Executive Council has a strong check on the Governor’s power. Both the Governor and Councilors are elected to two year terms. This year is an election year. Governor John Lynch has been elected twice already and is campaigning for a third term. Consensus is he will be re-elected.

---- end boring part ----

That said, our state house is a beautiful building located downtown Concord. Most of the state capitol buildings are made of Granite. New Hampshire is nicknamed The Granite State because of all the granite formations and quarries. Our motto is Live Free or Die. It was not taken from the Bruce Willis movie, :-) it comes from a statement written by the Revolutionary General John Stark, hero of the Battle of Bennington.

The phrase comes from a toast written by General Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire's most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington and to send his toast by letter:

Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.

From the above picture, you can see that the dome of the Capitol Building is gold (yes that is real gold). States can only have a gold dome on their State House if they had a person from their state become President. President Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States, serving from came from 1853 to 1857. He was a democrat from New Hampshire, and also considered a "doughface" (that is what they called Northerners with Southern sympathies). A few years later when the Civil War began, he declared support for the Confederacy. He died in 1869 due to complications from his alcoholism. It is not surprising he was considered one of the country's worst presidents. BUT - regardless, we get to have a gold dome! :-)

Saturday we are walking down to the lake, checking out the foliage. (Note: We never made the walk. :-( )

On Sunday, Pooh will continue his journey as we send him on his way to the next recipients. We will miss Pooh. We had so much fun with him. Thank you Karissa for letting us participate in the project.

Pooh is wearing a pin from every state he has been in so far, and the flag of Hungary. We were not able to get the German flag pin, but we are ordering it and will send it out to you to add to the rest.

Quechee Gorge VT

2008-10-03T17:10:00.007-06:00

On Monday, we had to head up to Hanover NH for an appointment. When we were done we drove over to Quechee Gorge in Vermont. You can overlook the entire gorge from the Vermont Route 4 highway bridge. It provides quite a scenic and wild view of the shallow valley that the Ottauquechee Rover has cut its way through.

I took a picture of the sign for the bridge, mainly because it was built the same year my father-in-law was born (1911). He is still going strong at 97, as is the bridge. :-)

Here are pictures of Pooh looking down both sides of the bridge overlooking the Gorge.

It would have been really nice of the foliage was in full bloom. AS we drove up there along Route 89, there were pockets of beautiful colors. I will take some pictures tomorrow (Saturday) of the colors, and then, sadly, Pooh will be moving on from us.

Budapest, Hungary - Part IV

2008-09-25T14:21:00.018-06:00

[Oops - I posted this last week and it should have been part four, not three. Sorry.]

On Saturday evening we took a dinner cruise on the Danube River. It was a cool night, but still comfortable. We enjoyed seeing the buildings we saw earlier in the day, again at night all lite up.

This is the Parliament Building

And the Chain Bridge

This is Ava and Peter. They live in Budapest on the Buda side. Ava was a wonderful hostess to us, showing us Budapest and explaining it's history.

Some sights along the way:

This is a view of Matthias Church and our hotel from the Danube.

Unrelated notes:

Water in Hungary is "gas" or "no gas" (also known as "still"), and that is how you have to ask for it. As you can guess, Gas has bubbles and No Gas doesn't. Didn't matter though, they both tasted bad. :-) This is what Pooh preferred:

And Pooh liked riding on the bus!

And to close our Budapest trip, I want to end it with this special message for Karissa.

Budapest, Hungary - Part III

2008-09-23T12:44:00.036-06:00

While the men sat through their meeting all day, the women (and Pooh) got to explore the Pest side of Budapest. [This is not meant to be sexist, however it was truly all males that were there for the meeting. It is due to the nature of their business that you will rarely find a woman participating.]

First we went to the oldest marketplace in Europe.

On the bottom floor is all the produce, vegetables, fruit and meats. The second floor has all the crafts and hard goods people bring to the market to sell. These include hand made embroidered items, hand painted ceramics, etc. I bought a beautiful set of hand painted glasses.

Paprika is a large commodity in Hungary. You see it everywhere. They have a Paprika paste that is on the tables as a condiment, in the same manner we have salt and pepper.

In this booth, they were selling pig cheeks.

When we were done at the Marketplace, we walked further done the street and found a nice little restaurant for lunch. I ordered a slice of pizza. Thank goodness Pooh was there to help me eat it!

It wasn't an extraordinary day since the sole purpose was to shop. Since I am not really big into shopping, I looked more at the scenery and people around me. Not sure if you can really see it in the next picture, but that woman is wearing a hat shaped like a turtle on her head!

That night we had a formal dinner at Karpatia Etterem Es Sorozo. Pooh was not able to attend this dinner with us. :-(

As you ate, a Gypsy band came around and played. We found this to be a common occurrence throughout Budapest.

The dinner that night was Duck Leg with Paprika Potatoes and Sauerkraut. Of course, the salad was greens with Liver Pate (usually goose), followed by a bowl of Goulash. We ate so much Liver Pate and Goulash that week!

The next day ventured back into the Pest side, but this time on an arranged tour. We took a bus over the bridge and visited Heroes Square, the Parliament and Vajdahunyad Castle.

This is Pooh on the bus:

First stop was the Parliament Building.

Construction began in 1884 and lasted for two decades. It opened in 1902, although it should have been finished by 1896 for the Millennium to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Hungary's founding. It is hard to imagine as we celebrated our bicentennial in 1976, and they were celebrating 1000 years in 1896. We learned the Parliament was built on the Pest side, on the banks of the Danube to counter the fact the directly across is Castle Hill and the Royal Palace. You can see the other side of the Parliament across the river in the picture from our room.

Statues outside the Parliament.

From there we headed over to Heroes Square, one of the most visited sights of the Hungarian capital, it is at the end of the Andrássy Avenue, one of the most important streets of Budapest, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The millenial monument was also built in 1896 to commemorate Hungary's 1000th anniversary (of the arrival of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin).

The two statues on the left represent Work and War.

The two statues on the right represent Peace and Knowledge.

From there we walked over to the Vajdahunyad Castle, stopping at the skating rink on the way. This was also build for the Millennium. It was anticipated the building would be demolished after the festivities, however that never happened, and the buildings stand today, over 100 years later. This skating rink gets iced over in the winter and locals spend a lot of time here.

Vajdahunyad Castle is a 19th-century replica of a Transylvanian castle (Hunyad-castle). The castle was also built for the millennium celebration. It had a massive gate and soaring towers.

There was also a small chapel on the grounds of Vajdahunyad Castle.

All these buildings are replicas of famous Hungarian Buildings that are now outside of Hungarian. Hungary lost a lot of territory in World war I and that land is now owned by other countries such as Austria, Turkey, Serbia, and Romania.

In the courtyard was a statue of who they consider Hungary's first true historian. I never did find out his name. In fact, what we were told was Hungary never knew his name for centuries. It is only the last couple of decades did they figure it out.

From there we walked over to Szechenyi Baths, one of the most famous spas in Budapest. (Pooh is on Craig's shoulder.)

After reconnecting with the bus, we drove to Gellert Hill. Here you can find the Citadella, one of the most exciting monuments of Budapest. Unfortunately we only have pictures of this from the Danube at night. From the top of the hill you have an amazing view over the city and the Danube.

On the way back to the hotel, there were many street closed and a lot of Hungarian Police on the streets. We were told there would be "Gypsy Demonstrations" that day. We were also told not to venture down the hill from the hotel. Here is an article about it, and some pictures.

Since we were scheduled for a dinner cruise on the Danube that night, there was no need to walk down the hill where they were demonstrating. The cruise was late enough that all the demonstrations were done and people dispersed before we headed back over the Pest side that night.

Tomorrow I will post the Danube cruise pictures, as well as some fun ones (or more like random ones). :-)

Budapest, Hungary - Part II

2008-09-23T06:58:00.013-06:00

I wanted to get some pictures posted of the things we saw as we explored around the Castle District. The architecture was beautiful, and very diverse. It was explained to us that when something had to be rebuilt (or reconstructed as they say it), it was always rebuilt in the favorite style of the time. It was not until a short while ago (last 100 years or so) that Hungary determined the older buildings should be rebuilt with keeping history in mind. You will see many buildings now that were originally build in the 1500s or 1600s, rebuilt in the 1800s in a different style, and now being rebuilt to reflect the original style.

Most all buildings are stone or concrete, many with huge wooden doors. The roads are brick, stone or cobblestone - at least in the castle district. Once you get into the city proper, the roads are paved.

Our first morning there we slept passed breakfast time in the hotel and had to go wandering to find a place to eat. We came across a little cafe inside a bookstore. Under the glass of the tables, people left notes. Pooh left his own, so if you are ever in Budapest, look it up.

We went to a quaint little cafe for lunch the first day we were there. When going to the rest room, they call it a water closet over there, we stumbled upon this area of the restaurant. (Can you see Pooh sitting down there on the table?)

As the week went on, we realized that most of the buildings in the Castle District of Budapest had these hidden lower levels. The entire hill is criss-crossed with underground caves. This is from the Budapest Sun:

During the middle ages, the existing caverns, formed by the thermal water, were linked up by man-made passages. The population of Castle Hill had started to expand after the Mongol invasion of 1242. King Béla IV ordered the building of the Buda Castle. In Medieval Buda, 300 houses had 285 wells fed by "cave water". King Béla IV chose the hill, partly because of its strategic location, and because its wells and caves provided water and protection for castle dwellers even in times of battle.

The inhabitants of the medieval castle region probably chanced upon the caves hidden in the depths of the hill while digging wells, even before the castle was built, as exploration work has revealed cave development from as early as the 11th century. It is possible that the arrangement of houses on the surface was laid out according to the cave cellars below.

Fables tell of secret tunnels and covert military actions. One legend has it that during King Mátyás's rule in the 15th century there was a tunnel used as an escape route that led to Margitsziget. Engineers poured cold water on this theory, saying it would have been discovered when digging the tunnel for the second metro. However, one tunnel, leading all the way to Budatétény, 22km away, has been explored. The existence of another supposed tunnel to Visegrád, 40km north, has not been proved. Rock cellars, partly filled with silt, were discovered during the reconstruction of the medieval Church of Our Lady (Mátyás templom) in the 1870s. The Civil Engineering Authority commissioned Ignác Schubert to survey all the cavities. Schubert made the first survey of the underground city in 1882, discovering 120 rock cellars in an area from Szent György tér as far as Bécsi kapu.

(King Mátyás is King Matthias) There are tours you can take which will take you through some of the caves. The tours are not recommended for people with claustrophobia so we passed. :-)

This is a picture of Pooh with a friend Jay at lunch that day. In the picture you can the painted walls. Most restaurants we went into had beautifully painted walls.

Outside the restaurant, we came across a scooter. Pooh was fascinated with it so the owner allowed him to check it out.

Pooh was also fascinated by their phone booths.

I do not remember who this statue is, but thought it was pretty cool. I will try to find out and update the post.

To close this post, here are a few tidbits of Hungary:

Hungary has long stood at the forefront of science, technology and pop culture.

Erno Rubik - inventor of Rubik's cube
John Von Neumann - Father of Binary Code (ok, so this may only be thrilling to me)
Peter Carl Goldmark - invented the color television
Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sisters
Charles Fleischmann - yeast
Bela Lugosi - actor
Eugene Tudor - writes travel guides
First underground railway in Europe
The greatest magician of all time Erich Weiss
One of the founders of punk rock Thomas Erdelyi

Hungary is also known for Paprika. It can be found in almost all the food in restaurants. It is also on the table as a condiment as we would have salt and pepper on ours.

My next post will be our venturing into the Pest side, including the oldest market place in Europe.