Goings On

Here's baby Case before he got his 6 month shots today. He's showing you his new tooth! He's also quite happy in this picture. After 11:30 am today, he wasn't happy anymore! By the way, he's now 19# 7 oz and 28" long. On the chart, if he continues to grow this way, he's headed toward a height of 6'2".

Here's studious Haley working on our history lesson of the day, which happens to World War I.

And here's Brooke working on her answers to questions regarding blockades, Germany, Britain, and America's involvement in WWI.



Finally, here's Moriah in deep discussion. The question was something like this, "If everyone is so against war, then why are there so many wars?" She was debating both sides of the issue, which is always entertaining to listen to and often very insightful.

Of course, these pics were taken before they got the opportunity to go outside in the "boiling hot weather" today - I believe it reached 81 degrees! Swim suits were donned, the hose was spraying, and shrieks were heard for blocks. It has been a good day.

Renovations Continue

And the renovations in the attic of our 3-story 102 year old house continue. Nearly 5 years ago we moved into a beautiful ginormous house and immediately my DH installed insulation and rewired the 2nd floor. He's been working like crazy to finish the attic into a family room space.

Below: He's standing in my new laundry room! I can't even wait! Mounds and mounds of laundry will have their own dedicated space instead of sharing space with 3 girls in a 2nd floor bathroom...which I was very grateful for that my DH put in nearly 5 years ago, moving the then laundry from our mud room. But, we've outgrown the bathroom - a laundry room....whoo-hoo I am truly excited!!!

Soccer

Well, yesterday was our first soccer date. Brooke started soccer this year and seems to really enjoy it, although her face got really red from all the running, and this morning she said, "I can hardly move my legs!"

At the risk of sounding like an old person, back in my day soccer was something we just played in p.e. class. How has it turned into this huge sport that has overtaken parents' weekends in every town across the nation? How has it become a normal part of a child's childhood?

Needless to say, Dan and I need to brush up on soccer rules. We had no idea why Brooke wasn't crossing the middle white line or what offsides is.

Earthquake!

I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down tumbling down, tumbling down...

Ok, so the sky's not really falling, but I did feel the earth move! It was 4:36 am this morning and the bed was shaking, there were some strange noises, and I thought it was a shaky bed - I was in a half sleep stage.

This morning, around 10:18 am, the girls and I felt an aftershock at the dining table where we were doing school. I had a full cup of coffee and thought it would spill over the rim. It resembled being on a boat.

So, as my DH pointed out, this house that's now 102 years old, has withstood a tornado and now an earthquake in less than 12 months! What's next?

Reading Programs

Hi -


Below are a few websites I'm looking into regarding remedial reading. A friend of mine who homeschools is having trouble finding suitable material for an 11 year old who needs some help excelling from behind the curve. I'm in the beginning of doing some research....





http://www.tampareads.com/ This looks like a program that will use a combination of phonics and vocabulary building to create a foundation for reading. K-6 materials and there's some free pages they allow you to download before ordering their program, which looks to run around $100.





http://www.readinga-z.com/ I stumbled upon this website and it's got a wealth of information and books. It looks really good! I downloaded some free materials to use myself.

Publik Skule

My DH found this hilarious column the other day about sending (or not) your children to our public schools. This was written following the attack of a teacher in a classroom last week by students. None of the bystanders took any action to help save their teacher, who suffered major injuries in the attack.

Hmm, why did I quit teaching???

Actually, it's not a surprise to me to see that kind of terrorism by kids. And, frankly, I didn't feel safe at my job as a middle school science teacher. The reason kids think they have the right to pummel their teacher is due to the lack of enforcement on minor infractions, which inevitably leads to major infractions. In this case, I'm willing to bet the administration gives out a pop to a kid who normally misbehaves day to day, but when "caught being good" the kid gets a reward. What about those kids who always do right? No pops for them. "They don't need reinforcement," as I was once told - by an administrator, of course.

One day in April last year, you know, towards the end of the school year, a girl who was a "troublemaker" in most of her classes except for mine, decided to act out in my class. Surprised, because she'd never done anything so rude before in my classroom (she and I actually had a decent relationship and I thought I had her respect), I was left with no other option that to kick her out of my class. Kicking and screaming, it was necessary for me to actually escort her to the principal's office. Having calmed down a bit on the walk down the hall, I turned to her and asked her, "You've never behaved like this before in my presence, what's up? Why are doing this?" And her response - I literally quote her word for word - was, "Because I can."

"Because I can." That's why kids do what they do. They can. They do. They get away with it. And if they stop goofing off for a day, let's reward them with a Mountain Dew! Who-hoo!

Long post - I guess I had to make up for the lack of them. Hope you find the article as disturbing, yet as insightful as I did.

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Below is the link to the article, which appears on Townhall.com
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2008/04/12/don%e2%80%99t_send_your_kids_to_publik_skule_if_you_love_them

Or, you can read the article here below:

Don’t Send Your Kids to Publik Skule (If You Love Them)
By Doug Giles
Saturday, April 12, 2008

Did you catch the video this week of a student kicking the stuffing out of an art teacher in Baltimore, Maryland while the rest of the class cheered the pounding on? Y’know, if that teacher was moi, and some F-bomb dropping Darwinian throwback came over my desk to accost me, I’d grab my handy dandy scissors and plant ‘em in the feral teen’s skullcap, Jason Voorhees style.
From there I would proceed to snag the American flag from the corner of the room (if there was one) in order to stave off the rest of the flesh eating zombies ‘til Jason Statham came in with dual SKSes, spitting 154 grain FMJs, to assist with my safe exit.

As a teacher, I’d have painted on the front of my desk: DON’T TREAD ON ME—and I’d have the moxie to back it up.

Bumming a line from a movie with the late great Charlton Heston, it looks like the public schools (especially in the inner cities) are being run by “damned dirty apes.” The violent and obnoxious students are becoming emboldened in their bellicose behavior within the ridiculously overcrowded Public Stool System, and I believe we haven’t seen the half of this catastrophic snake. Teachers, you’d better have a serious plan in place—other than pushing a panic button—should you be next.

I’m not a prophet or a betting man, but (as stated) I’m a guessing it’s going to get worse. I’m talkin’ way bad (pardon my English; I went to Publik Skule). Mark my words. And I don’t care how much Obama talks about hope, or how many inspirational songs American Idol contestants cover, the dysfunctional die has been officially cast for increased chaos in the inner city classroom. Thank you, liberals.

We’ve got a stack of untamed teens who can’t do arithmetic doing the math and figuring out that they can bank street credit for their constant disruptions and violent attacks upon students and teachers with the penalty for their crimes being (maybe) a milquetoast slap on their tattooed wrist. Maybe. And the perks for their misbehaving? Well, they radically trump the mild and tame thump the delinquent gets on their never-utilized head.

Can you say, “Hello, pandemonium?” I knew you could.

Who the heck would want to be a teacher within such an out-of-control environment? I know if I were an undergrad with dreams of teaching “the next generation” within the Public Fool System, I think I’d switch majors after YouTubing the video of that teacher getting tenderized this week while the class was hooting and hollering.

Yep, I’d be looking for something less threatening like being a mole inside of an al-Qaeda death squad, or perhaps working as ranting Rosie’s personal assistant, or perhaps a vocation in neutering un-anesthetized, unusually angry wolverines.

It’s been four years since we pulled our teenage daughters out of the public school system and started to home school them, and I could kick myself for having waited so long. I owe you, girls. The educational, emotional, spiritual and physical progress they have made has been amazing. I’ve been ecstatically stunned at how they’ve aggressively embraced the new lease on their educational life.

Since we began this program, my oldest has graduated and is now in a great university and on her way to Boardwalk and Park Place. My other daughter is currently cruising through her online honors level classes as a girl uninterrupted.

Yep, it’s amazing that with their virtual schooling they actually get to study the basics, pursue their educational and athletic interests, and do it from wherever in the world they can get online (unlike public schools).

No longer do they have to wait for the 186% overcrowded class to decide to cease fighting and stop cussing and humping long enough that the teacher can teach the students how to write their name so that, later on in life, they can sign for their stuff once they leave whatever prison they’re in.

Classic Quote

Last night, Brooke and I went shopping for a few essentials - diapers, formula, hamster food...you know, essentials for the household. We went to Walgreen's so I could redeem an in-store coupon for Case's formula. In the process, she found a pretty good deal on some Crocks knockoffs. Pink.

So I checked out first (Brooke was going to pay for her own shoes). I got an in-store coupon for $5 off for my next purchase, so I handed the coupon to Brooke. She gets her shoes for about $2. She thinks this is the best store ever now.

So, on the way out, she begins trashing Wal-Mart, wondering why their advertising stresses that you save money when you shop there. Here's the classic quote from someone who cannot hold onto money very long because it's just burning holes in her pockets:

"You can't save money if you spend money."

How true. How true.

A lesson we should all learn and put into practice. So, as much as I'd like to spend that stimulus check we're getting....perhaps I will save most of it instead. Perhaps.