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August 30, 2006
Embalming Is Not My Forte
So, we're doing the infamous chicken mummy project.
The unfortunate chicken (a Tyson) has been packed in salt and baking soda for six weeks, with said mixture changed at regular intervals. Almost all of the salt/baking soda mixture was dry when I took the chicken out this morning.
The chicken itself, though, feels ... moist. I don't find that encouraging. I am not at all convinced that this thing is not going to to start stinking up my kitchen.
We wrapped the sucker up in strips of cheap bedsheet (pictures to follow). It was much more difficult to wrap than I had anticipated. Tomorrow, hopefully, we'll entomb it in its sarcophagus. After that ... er, what does one do with these things?
Lachlan is very sorry that the chicken is dead, and that it doesn't have a head. No matter what we say, he still clings to the belief that the farmer killed the chicken because the farmer didn't like the chicken. I can't imagine what must run through his head when we're in the grocery store. Does he look around and see the results of hundreds of farmers with pathological anger management problems and a special hatred for animals?
This is not exactly the world view I am trying to promote.
Posted by lynx at 3:25 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
We're Not in Texas Anymore
The temperature is beautiful here. Today's high will be 73. 73!! in August!
However, the humidity has been above 70% for at least a week.
I hope this is seasonal ... and when fall rolls in the humidity will drop? Please?
Posted by lynx at 8:08 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 28, 2006
When Crafts Take a Weird Left
So, can you identify this?
I know, it looks vaguely obscene. If you click on the picture, you should get the full file in all its glory.
A couple of weeks ago I bought some clay. I poked around Michaels until I found clay, plain ol' clay, at a decent price. Not Sculpey. Not Fimo. Just clay. And that's what I've got. It even smells like dirt.
Last week, while I was ill, Jeff got out said clay to occupy the small ones. Earlier in the day I gave an assortment of beans to said small ones, to glue on things. Lentils, black-eyed peas, black beans, that kind of thing. Bored with gluing, they pounded several into the clay. Well, who wouldn't?
When I found the dried beans in the clay my only thought was to get the clay into an airtight bag, where it would not dry up. Then I placed the bag in a nice, dark cupboard for a couple of weeks.
Did you know that beans will sprout in clay? I had no idea. Maybe the fact that it smells like dirt should have been my clue. There was a definite moment of panic when I reached for the clay only to realize that it was growing things.
We had to de-root the whole thing before we could use any of it. True to form, the little ones gathered up all the traumatized seedlings and planted them anywhere they could. I hope lentil plants are not aggressive. That would be ironic, wouldn't it? Lentils are such a bland, unassuming food ...
So there you go. Art and biology all at once, and not nearly as worrying as combining art and biology so often is.
Posted by lynx at 7:07 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 26, 2006
It's Happened
I knew it would happen, and I guessed it would happen this year. This early in the year, though? That's humbling.
Connor had a word problem in Singapore 5A that he could not solve. So I sat down to help him through it. And at first, I couldn't solve it either.
Singapore, mind you, specializes in tricky word problems. They give the child problems that are easily solved with algebra, but child is meant to solve them without algebra. To this end, they teach a nifty method of working out the problem with bar diagrams.
Which is great, if your mind can figure out how to structure the problem to draw the bars correctly. Which, of course, is the whole point - learning how to structure the problem. Once you do that, the calculation is easy.
It took me 15 minutes. I did solve it, I did not look up the answer, and I did not call my husband. Nor will I, damn it. If I can't work out the 5th grade word problem, all is lost. (But you begin to understand why I didn't pursue my initial dream of being a cosmologist, don't you?)
I can only hope Connor learned the right lesson from this experience: We didn't give up, we worked at it until we conquered. And I hope that these kinds of problems will teach him better mathematical thinking than I learned. I still think I can persevere through Singapore 6; after that, I'm going to be as much of a student as Connor is.
Edited to add the problem: Lily and Sara each had an equal am ount of money at first. After Lily spent $18 and Sara spent $25, Lily had twice as much as Sara. How much money did each have at first?
Edited to add my nifty bar diagram graphic. This is what Singapore Math wants kids to do to solve problems like this. And, once you figure out how to do the bars, solving the problem becomes obviously easy.
See? Once you figure out how to draw the thing, you see immediately that the difference between what Lily and Sara spent is your key. It's $7, and boom, your answer is that they each started with $32.
I'd like to clarify something: Even if I hadn't figured out how to do the bars, I still would have gotten the correct answer just by plugging in numbers until one fit. But of course, that's not the goal here.
Posted by lynx at 10:53 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
August 24, 2006
Down to Eight
I was rooting for them to vote the other way on this, but it looks like we're down to eight planets.
The new definition of a planet makes sense (must orbit the primary, must have enough mass to be spherical, must clear its orbit), and probably preserves a lot of sensibilities. I bet the astrologers are bummed, though. Does this mean I don't have to worry about Pluto transiting my Sun on my Descendant?
Update The full text of the resolution can be found here. But ... but I have questions! Quick, where's an astronomer? Mainly ... hasn't Pluto cleared its orbit? Or are they only disqualifying it because it crosses Neptune's orbit?
Posted by lynx at 10:24 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
August 23, 2006
The New Day Dawns
... and we're all sick.
So, there you go. Let that be a lesson to you. Don't attempt formal schooling the day before you're all going to produce a nasty cold.
Posted by lynx at 8:26 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 22, 2006
Warts and all
I decided to do a "Day in the Life" for today, blogging it as it happened. As it turned out, the day has been ... not one of our better ones. I was sorely tempted to not post, but figured some of you would appreciate this.
It's 9 am. Our family has been mired in bad habits, lately: We are all, all of us, staying up too late at night. We've got to fix this, because these mornings are terrible. One child of the four is up, and ideally I'd like to start schoolwork by 9 am. Too bad they don't drink coffee. Thank goodness I drink coffee.
9:30 - One has had breakfast and is in clean clothes. Child #2 is now dragging himself down the stairs, looking daggers at us and just daring us to talk to him. Pumpkin bread is in the oven to soothe the savage beast.
10:20 - Connor has started math. Aidan has become human. Griffin is up. In an effort to get energy going, and because humor is the best medicine for grumpy boys, I allow them to turn on XMKids. XMKids responds by playing Barenaked Ladies and Queen, proving that it is the coolest kids' show ever. Mom, at least, is in a better mood. The children, however, would rather listen to Crazy Frog, because I have failed as a Mother.
11:00 - Math is completed for all children (Connor's lesson was on learning to multiply by two digits, Aidan's was a Right Start review which he got 100% correct), and we move on to Latin.
11:15 - Aidan does not understand the Latin grammar lesson for the day, and melts down.
11:30 - Connor finishes his Latin. Aidan is in his room, still melting down. Griffin and Lachlan are, thank goodness, playing happily. Aidan comes back downstairs and demands to go on with the lesson. While he waits for me he engages in an uncharacteristic act of destruction of Mom's property. Appropriate discipline ensues. I give up on schoolwork and call a friend to vent.
12:30 - Lunch. Aidan is happy again. After lunch all the kids head to the basement to, once again, play nicely. I toss dinner in the crock pot and read Dorothy Sayers, as balm to my wounded soul.
3:00 - I steel myself to redeem the day, and Connor and Aidan and I do analysis in Classical Writing, and work with Spell to Write and Read. I teach Aidan the Latin grammar lesson, which he now understands easily. The little ones are still playing happily, in the basement. No, this is not normal, but I'm not going to knock it.
4:00 - We have finished all that I consider essential, and the boys have their assignments for the rest of the day (reading, history, copywork, chores). Right now, though, they're playing outside. I have a history craft activity set up for the little boys, so whenever the basement loses its charms we'll make pyramids and shabti figures out of clay. I will read to them this evening. I'm now going to turn on loud music, and cram in as much housework as I can before Jeff gets home.
And tomorrow will be better, eh?
Posted by lynx at 7:57 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 20, 2006
Pete's Pond Webcam is back!
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/
It's on a loop at this moment, but as of sunrise Monday should go live. Now we can all spend our copious free time staring at a pond in Africa.
You know, I have a whole pond in my back yard. It is true, though, that it's less likely to have zebra wander by. As far as I can tell, anyway.
Posted by lynx at 9:40 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
August 18, 2006
Maybe I'm Naked
No, not me. Funniest. Comic. Ever.
Well, at least in a long time.
Click through them. You'll laugh out loud, you'll be disgusted, and you'll occupy precious time out of your life on this earth.
Posted by lynx at 10:12 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
August 17, 2006
Nothing Says "Global" Like
... trying to figure out the German instructions for subscribing to a Latin podcast. I guess as long as I'm at this site, I could also subscribe to Funkhaus Europa.
Have I mentioned how much I love the internet? And my iPod?
Posted by lynx at 8:24 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 16, 2006
Jeff Says I Don't Get Out Much
After reading to my four-year-old, I have come to the only logical conclusion:
The Cat in the Hat is Q.
Posted by lynx at 10:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
It's a Big Internet Out There
Hive Minds.
Few things amuse me more than watching people discuss message boards, email lists, and other various online communities, including blogs. Everyone has an opinion about them.
I think disillusionment with an online community comes mainly from a lack of understanding about the reality of the community. Let's take a message board for parents who are classically homeschooling their children: Just because a parent is a homeschooler does not, unfortunately, mean they are intellectually robust autodidacts seeking to join the Great Conversation. Thankfully, many are, but not enough to assume. You can't even assume it of classical homeschoolers.
But putting that aside, what do the vast majority of people, certainly the majority of homeschooling parents, come to message boards for? The come for the socialization. Sometimes they do come to think, to discuss, to debate, but most of the time they're tired and want to veg out. If we're charitable, we could even say that they're mentally tired after discussing the ethics of war and negotiation, or working with a child to translate Cicero. The result is the same. Most people are there because they want to relax, let off steam, whine, ask a question, feel like they've connected with someone in a stolen 15 seconds.
And then, of course, many, many people want to be one of the collective. They come for validation (though let's face it, sometimes the non-Borg come for validation too). Personally I love the whole hive mind concept, but perhaps that's because I've never, ever been subject to peer pressure. I operate by finding out what everyone else thinks - and I love to find out what everyone else thinks - and then doing things my way. I understand that others are not like that, and some come to depend on the hive mind for their every decision; I can't help them. I barely understand them.
Should we give into the urge to veg out online? Maybe not. Undoubtedly too much of it is bad for both the brain and real-life relationships. But some people take their intellectual stimulation elsewhere ... you know, in real life ... and so don't feel the need to engage in meaningful intellectual talk online. Or at least, not constantly. Perhaps not even often. It doesn't mean they don't think, learn, or discuss. Just not online.
So it amuses me when people feel that online groups let them down, because they have become one big, banal, social club. The group didn't become that. That's what it always was, from day one. To think otherwise is to fail to understand people online.
To have a specialized community online, in which the life of the mind is celebrated and banality is kept at bay, you have few options. You must set up your group deliberately with your goal in mind. You must state it clearly, to every prospective or new member. And then you must moderate it to keep out unwanted chatter. Your group will be small, and after the initial burst of activity, it will die down. If you're lucky, it won't die off. It will take constant work to maintain the group as you wish it to be. You will be fighting against entropy. The chatter will creep in, and the banality will follow. But if you are willing to put in the work, it is possible to have a great, focused group ... or at least one safe from the kind of chatter and whining you're trying to escape.
And it's as easy as ... doing it. The internet being what it is, anyone can have any kind of community. So the one you were at doesn't suit your needs? It's so easy to find another, or run one of your own, that it doesn't really bear complaining about. It's like complaining about blogs. If you don't like them, you don't read them. Your opinion on the worth or quality of the product is not likely to change anything, not in this world of free publishing.
You can't expect an online group to be anything for you. It is not a real group. It's not being what you want it to be? Well, then stop basing your needs and wants on a group of virtual people that someone else created and runs. It doesn't owe you anything.
Posted by lynx at 4:09 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 15, 2006
Classical Homeschooling Fun
KathyJo's kids play-act myths with lightsabers.
Yesterday, while we read from Famous Men of Rome, Aidan made the connection between the actions of Rome (conquer, assimilate, repeat) and the Borg.
We are Rome. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Posted by lynx at 7:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 14, 2006
One of THOSE days
... you know, where everyone gets up late, and it all goes downhill from there?
There's really no getting up "late" in homeschooling. It truly does not matter when we do anything. On the other hand, Mom (and at least some of the kids) functions best with a routine to the day. Not a schedule, nothing by a clock, but a routine. And if breakfast and morning chores are still happening at 10:30 am, Mom's inner sense of routine gets really, really grumpy.
Three subjects this morning: math, spelling and Latin, took two hours ... but felt like they took forever. And a certain 8 year old has made it his mission to pick a fight with everyone in his path today.
Thinking about homeschooling? Is your head spinning with lovely visions of happy children learning particle physics while romping in the fields? Here's your reality.
But even in the midst of the general grump today, we had one of those classic moments. Aidan was plugging along in Right Start, subtracting 4-digit numbers, when he stopped to ask, "When do we do negative numbers?"
Um ... check the curriculum. Nope. Check Connor's curriculum. Not there either. Huh. Okay. Five minutes on Google, and we had ourselves a numberline and an impromptu lesson on negative numbers.
By the way, Singapore 5A is irritating me. They present several lessons on estimating. They teach the kids to round up to the next highest 10/100/1000 after 5/50/500, then work the problem, and give an estimated answer. Okay, fine. But the answers in their answer key do not match they way they've taught to estimate ... unless Connor and I are both not getting it, which, yes, is very unlikely. There have been several problems in which the only way they could have come up with their answer is if they rounded up, when it was clear they should have rounded down. It's easy to catch, it's easy to fix, but it's irritating.
Posted by lynx at 4:13 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 12, 2006
To Work or Not to Work
I posted this darned thing, and then realized that somehow I posted it back in July instead of yesterday.
I left a comment in Hornblower's blog saying that I would blog about Linda Hirschman piece on whether or not women, should work outside the home.
And then I decided that I didn't give a damn about Ms. Hirschman. However, since then people have asked for my opinion, and because that happens so rarely, I forced myself to re-read the original article.
For twenty-five years, she watched as the backlash generation slowly walked away from the promise of a better life. Women — whether they stay home or, like most women, just carry the responsibility for home to work and back — are homeward bound. Their husbands won't carry enough of the household to enable them to succeed fully in the public world. Glass ceiling? The thickest glass ceiling is at home.Their bosses, who are mostly someone else's husband, won't do the job their own husbands turned down, so there is no employer day care and there are no government tax breaks. Look deeply and you will see that liberal and conservative commentators largely agree that ideally women belong at home.
And women say they choose this fate, and the feminist movement backs them up.
The women Ms. Hirschman is concerned with are the "intelligent and privileged" women, women who are on track to high-profile, high-powered jobs: lawyers who could become Supreme Court justices; television producers who could shape programming for a nation; policy makers of all types. Her argument is that if these women drop out of the work force, feminism loses ground. Strong, important female voices disappear from the spheres of influence, a loss for all women. She also argues that although these women say they are freely choosing home and family, they're not; the glass ceiling at home weighs too heavily on their "choice." Besides that, she pulls no punches in admitting that she sees staying home as the wrong choice, undermining the aims of feminism. And so, these privileged women have a duty to have few or no children, and remain in the workforce leaving the childcare and housekeeping to someone else.
As you might guess, I disagree.
First of all, I disagree that these "privileged" women have as much of a glass ceiling influence as she claims. True, they may be married to privileged men with high-powered jobs who assume housekeeping and childcare to be beneath them (Ms. Hirschman provides not one single example of a supportive husband who actually shares in the childcare and household duties - presumably she doesn't believe the exist?). However, these are the very people who can afford nannies and housekeepers. They can pay to have the everyday grind taken care of by someone else. No, if these women are choosing to stay home, I believe they are honestly choosing to stay home.
That rubs Ms. Hirschman the wrong way, and I can understand why. When a woman has a first-class education and the resources to go forth into the world and be successful, to make a difference, it's a slap in the face to the feminist powers that fought for those very opportunities for her to choose to stay home and do childcare instead.
The unfortunate down side to fighting for freedom means that people just might use their freedom to make choices you dislike.
Do these women make the choice to stay home at the expense of other women? Perhaps. I'm not convinced. I sense a kind of social elitism in Ms. Hirschman's arguments that bothers me. I don't like her implication that this is the duty of the privileged woman, to work and advance womankind, while leaving her children in the care of ... presumably less-privileged women. Certainly Ms. Hirschman's portrayal of men in her essay leads me to believe she has no faith in men picking up the slack (all her examples of men are selfish and look on housework/childcare as anathema). So it must be professional child-care workers. You know, those people who do that job that is so looked down upon, and who do it for so little pay.
This is America. Is it not still possible for a less privileged, but determined, woman to make her mark on the world? To say this is the duty of the privileged is, I think, insulting. It assumes that the elite have to do it because they're the only ones who can. I don't buy it. I still think anyone can do anything, with hard work and ingenuity. Perhaps if one of these more gifted women bows out of the workforce after finding she'd rather care for her own kids, she's simply leaving the field open for someone with fewer natural opportunities but who wants the job more.
But back to the big question: Why do women who seem to have it all in the workforce choose to stay home? I think it comes down to this: Biology is destiny. Not in a sense that means women are only genetically capable of having children and cleaning a house. But realistically, it's women who have the babies. We can't change that. Men can't have them. We can't stop having them, not entirely. No matter what work we choose to do in the world, we have to take childbearing into account. We have no other choice.
If we choose to have children, we must choose to either interrupt our work or delay it. We must choose to structure our work around the lost time and chaos a complicated pregnancy might cause. We must manage the time and energy that giving birth and caring for a newborn take. We must accept the fact that we are likely to have strong feelings about the child, again based on biology, that prompt us to want to focus more on it and less on the job. For some professions and career ladders, these interruptions spell disaster. Sometimes they can be managed, and our work will go on. Sometimes the women choose to focus on the child instead and the career later, if at all.
Ms. Hirschman hopes that privileged women will choose to have few children if any, and manage the interruptions so the work can continue. In this way, she hopes we will gain and maintain equality in the spheres of influence in our society. But because women have babies and men don't, this is not equality! Our influential jobs, our definitions of success, our offices, our workdays ... all of these things are based on men, and on male biology. The only way for us to be equal in such a world is to eliminate, or at lease minimize, the childbearing aspect. But why is it "equality" for women to have to smother such a basic part of ourselves? How is it "equality" to pretend we're just like men?
Equality in the workplace, and in the leadership of this country at all levels, can only happen by a fundamental restructuring of values and social constructs. Equality doesn't happen when women have children furtively, pretending the job of motherhood is not important and keeping the whole baby business tucked away from the boss; it happens when we can change work and success to something that is more flexible, and that values the care of children. It happens when men accept their share of family and home care, and adjust their work accordingly. It happens when we change our definition of success, and influence.
So, yes, "choose your choice," ladies. Work if you wish. Stay home if you wish. Choose meaningful work from your home and have the best of both worlds. Find a real way to work for equality.
Besides, you've got to wonder what all this time of intelligent, influential women in the workforce has brought us, when we still get ads like this and this. I want to see a man in that bathtub. Pronto.
Posted by lynx at 4:26 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
That Old Let's-Test-All-Homeschoolers Thing Again
But why should I write about it when there's Kathy Jo? The bit about how the government knows we're not breaking the law is especially good.
Posted by lynx at 8:37 AM | Comments (3)
August 10, 2006
Sorry, kids ...
Homeschool band and music classes - $400
Science and art classes (LEGO engineering and claymation) - $600
PE - swimming? Martial arts? Who knows? - $who knows?
Scouts - various fees, not to mention all the popcorn we have to buy for the "fund raiser"
Sorry, kids. It's activities, or your doctor visits this year.
When did things get so expensive?
*PS: You just know, don't you, that some anti-homeschooler is going to see the above and use it as evidence that homeschoolers are likely to deny their kids medical care.
Posted by lynx at 9:27 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
August 8, 2006
Amy in China
While I'm sitting here doing nothing, recovering from company and working towards getting school started again, y'all should all go read Amy's blog. Amy's a fellow homeschooling Texan, from McKinney. She recently received an opportunity to do medical missionary work in China, and is blogging her experiences.
Posted by lynx at 11:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 5, 2006
Geometry in Poem Form
Thanks, Drew
Posted by lynx at 9:22 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 3, 2006
Hey Britain, Homeschooling Looks Better All the Time, Doesn't It?
Jeff forwarded me an article about upcoming changes to England's teaching policies. From now on, English schools will officially not teach the difference between right and wrong. But you know, I'm okay with that. Schools should teach information and educate children. Parents and religious organizations should teach right from wrong.
I'm more bothered by the decision to no longer teach Britain's cultural heritage. Instead, "the school curriculum should contribute to the development of pupils’ sense of identity through knowledge and understanding of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural heritages of Britain’s diverse society.” Diverse, of course, meaning anything but British.
"The proposals say that individuals should be helped to 'understand different cultures and traditions and have a strong sense of their own place in the world'"
How can you have a strong sense of your place in the world if you know nothing about your place in the world? Britain's history is so remarkably important to the western world that this makes me want to cry. And if Britain isn't teaching about it's history, who will? The countries the immigrants come from? No, I know what they're teaching, and it has nothing to do with the Magna Carta or the evolution of traditional common law.
And more:
References to developing leadership in pupils have also been removed. One of the present aims is to give pupils “the opportunity to become creative, innovative, enterprising and capable of leadership”. This is due to be replaced by the aim of ensuring that pupils “are enterprising”.
Was this change made because we don't want any more pesky British leader-types, with their heads full of that pesky British cultural heritage and ideas? Or do they just think that creativity, innovation and leadership are beyond the reach of their present students and are giving up?
All right, British parents. The ball is in your court. Take it and run. Far away.
Posted by lynx at 9:17 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
August 1, 2006
Well, that was different.
So yesterday, Jeff was told that he had to travel. That night. To France. My husband is in France.
Life is not fair, is it?
France.
Posted by lynx at 8:42 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack