11.25.08
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 11:48 am by Meg
or the effect of homeschooling on the parent who is guiding the child…
According to this article
US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.
Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).
So I went to take the quiz.
Out of 33 questions I got 3 wrong, or 90.91%
So, homeschooling has been success in educating myself. (Of course, I’ve covered US history about 3 times in the last 10 years and Boy studied economics and government just a couple of years ago.)
Of the three questions I got wrong…hmm, maybe I’ll put a fold here, so you can take the quiz without me discussing my results.
So, go try it yourself, and then read on (and tell me how you do!) Read the rest of this entry »
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11.24.08
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 3:56 pm by Meg
yeah, right.
You know, I’d love not to feel like such a minority pov, but I really don’t see religion going away any time soon. In fact, I’ve said before that I have a problem with organized atheists because they seem just a bad in so many ways.
“Atheists can act very much like Christian fundamentalists from time to time,” said James Webb
But it looks like more of my “fellow athiests” are feeling the need to organize and speak up.
I wish them luck at it. I think it’s great to have it more out there for people to realize that it’s not that “unusual” or that it doesn’t mean that I might not still have standards.
The new ad campaigns and other public-relations efforts are designed to raise comfort levels about atheism by making the point that nonbelievers are “just as ethical and moral as anyone else,” said Lori Lipman Brown, who lobbies Congress on behalf of the Secular Coalition for America.
A, who is good friend and deeply religious, actually told me years ago that she hadn’t thought someone who is an atheist could be ethical and moral. She was very surprised to discover that I was.
But I’m still not looking for an organization to join.
Shot, which third do you think I fall in?
“A pastor can say to his flock, ‘All rise,’ and everyone rises. But try that in an atheist meeting,” said Marvin Straus, co-founder of an atheist group in Boulder, Colo. “A third of the people will rise. A third will tell you to go to hell. And a third will start arguing….That’s why it’s hard to say where we’re going as a movement.”
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Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 2:28 pm by Meg
I started this post yesterday morning, but with dealing with our dog, I ran short on time. I expected to be back home before midnight, so I just saved it to come back to.
Ha, we weren’t home until after 1 AM. Losing my window of opportunity to get “something” posted yesterday.
oh well, here’s what I had written - pretty short, but I’ll leave it and then continue…
Girl and I are running out to Indy in about 15 mins and won’t be back until late, so I thought I’d trot out a quick post. She’s going to a rock concert with her bestest friend -Papa Roach, Seether, and StrainD.
Bestest friend’s Dad works for the facility where the concert is happening, so he is getting them in free (possible back stage passes I hear) and promising to not let the girls out of his sight.
While she does that, I’m going to shop and hang out at a bookstore - ALL by myself. Fun!
Yesterday, OTH, was a roller coaster of emotions coming from Dater.
About a week ago the coordinator contacted us that Dater was feeling like she wasn’t part of the family - that we weren’t including her in things.
Hmm, came as a shock to us, because we do include her in about everything - or at least give her the option/make sure she’s up something else. OTH, the day before she called, she had
(yes, I did stop in the middle of a thought)
Anyway..
she had wanted to watch something on the TV when she came home from school and Girl was still finishing up some work. Where our TV is, it is very distracting for almost the entire “living space,” and I had asked her to turn it off.
So, the coordinator called and said that she had told Dater to talk to us about her feelings. The following weekend was Dater’s birthday and we spent about 3 days focused on her between everything. She never tried to talk to us. On Tuesday, though, she came home to the house full of the biology kids on their (slow) way out. As the last of the group left, she sat down and flicked on the TV.
But Girl wasn’t finished with her work and I (again) reminder her we were stilling doing work and the TV needed to be off.
On Wednesday afternoon, she called the coordinator again. The coordinator called us on Thursday evening and said that Dater wasn’t happy and would like a new home.
It kind of surprised us considering the previous weekend, but when we got off the phone we talked to Dater. What we got from her was not that she’d just like a new home, but that she had one all set up with one of the friends that she had made at the high school.
Okay… since she had this set, we weren’t going to stand in her way and called the coordinator back to set up the move. We did not expect it to go very quickly between the national office okaying it and the new family doing all their paperwork and background checks.
The coordinator called back on Saturday morning that as soon as Dater was packed, she’d be by to pick her up.
With the abruptness of it, Dater started to scramble to get herself ready. And then it hit her that maybe it wasn’t a great idea.
Our response was to tell her that it was her year and she should have a “good” one, so we wouldn’t keep her from changing homes if she thought that would be better. But we would take her back if it didn’t work out.
Except the national office nixed that idea.
And so the final result is that she’s staying here and we don’t have any problems with her watching movies on her laptop in her room after school (never really did). And hopefully she’ll talk to us if there’s problems in the future, or decides that she really does want to move.
As for the concert. Girl had a great time. They were nearly within touching distance of the lead singer for Papa Roach (he climbed up on the railing next to where they were sitting).
And the dog?
She’s had runs on Saturday night and I thought she was over it before we all went to bed - MISTAKE! The worse thing is that while she was fine all day on Sunday, it hit again Sunday night.
Me thinks, she’ll be sleeping on the porch tonight - chilly weather and all.
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11.22.08
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 10:17 am by Meg
Just a quick link before I run out the door.
I enjoy reading Milton Gaither’s blog about homeschooling, and he has a published article, that looks interesting, about the current population of homeschoolers (I’m only on page 7, so LOOKS is the operative word.)
I’ll read it completely when I get back, but I enjoy someone writing (and getting published) without HSLDA’s oversight.
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11.21.08
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 11:00 am by Meg
Hmm, I’ll get to the gory parts first.
Yep, I’ve seen Twilight. The girls and I went to the midnight showing (the 12:02 show to be exact) last night. It was a MOB scene. Some of our homeschool friends went in prom dresses and suits (they were in the 12:01 show) and we got to hear the comments of the people standing near us in line as they were noticed. Surprisingly, there weren’t many and most were matter of fact.
We got there at 11 PM with our tickets in hand, or so I thought. I had purchased them last weekend when we went to see Eagle Eye and the girl had put the tickets and my receipt in an envelope which I stuck in my purse. When I opened the envelope and gave them to the ticket taker, he only found 2 tickets. Luckily my receipt clearly showed three tickets, so they let me in.
We then ended up standing in line for 40 mins. And it wasn’t a short line either. They finally opened the theater at 11:30, but it easily took us 10 mins to get in the door. We were able to find decent seats.
As for the movie (without spoiling it, I hope) I thought they did pretty well bringing the book to life. Nothing jumped out at me as totally offtrack or missing, though the girls pulled the Cullen’s house apart and especially Edward’s room.
(Doc, I don’t know how much of the town scenes and overall scenery shots were from around your place, but it looked gorgeous!)
On the topic of vampires. I’ve been watching Trueblood on HBO. Now I read the books when I found out about Trueblood coming out and they are cute, brain-candy, stories that I certainly enjoyed. (Remember, I’ve said before that I enjoy vampire stories.)
But while Trueblood started with the beginning of the first book. It is no longer telling the same story. They have taken it similar directions but added in so many “things” that it’s not the book and most of the “things” are things that are ruining what little quality it had.
For anyone following it: Lafayette is not a drug dealer and should be dead by now (okay, I’m enjoying him, so not killing him off is a good thing). Tara’s mother is not in the books at all, so all that story line is made up. Jason is not a druggie, and this girl, Amy, is not in the books either. V does come into that scene where Sookie meets Bill, but after that, there’s only stray references to it.
Anyway, this last espisode had Bill turning a young girl inorder to make up for killing Chow to save Sookie. (Okay, the killing Chow is in the book, but not Bill having to turn a young girl because of it.) And it turns out that while Bill feels soooo guilty doing it, the girl is ….
wait for it….
…
HOMESCHOOLED!
and comes from a right-wing, fundamentalist, over-protective, child hitting (with a belt) family. And she goes absolutely batty finding out that she’s FREE!
Okay, it makes Bill’s guilt at what he’s had to do obvious, but I will admit that I flinched when I saw the protrayal of homeschoolers.
Anyway, yesterday was a busy day with our homeschool group going down to Bloomington is see the IU Drama Dept’s performance of Hamlet. It was good, but very, very, very, very long at 3 hours and 15 mins. Their staging was amazing with these moving staircases that broke into pieces and shifted between every scene.
One highlight for me was that I finally got to meet Fuzzy and her two boys. That was neat though we didn’t get to chat for very long. She did bring me the soap that I purchased from her. (and some cookies for fun!)
The jigsaw pieces are for my step-mom and my sisters because we all do jigsaw puzzles. The Lego shaped soaps are for my two little nephews, and the skull and cross bones are for Girl (who I am hoping will be able to handle, but she’ll get a kick out of any way).
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11.20.08
Posted in Meme at 12:16 am by Meg
For parts one and two, follow the links.
I am thankful ….
1. That I have finished processing my Dad’s papers and pictures. It was an amazing experience going through all his stuff and learning more things about him, but it kind of buried me for a few days. Except for the final dealing with the pictures (both of my sisters would like me to give them some) it’s time to put it all behind me - and I’m ready.
2. That Boy will be home almost exactly a week from this posts. It’s only a quick Thanksgiving visit, but it will be nice to see him and have him here for a few days. Before he flies back out to his “life” and the end of the term.
3. That Girl thinks nothing of “playing” with her mother. Wednesday, because of the high school not being clear on their schedule (again), I wasn’t there on time to get her (I thought she wouldn’t be ready for another 10 mins!!) and was treated to crank phone calls from her cellphone (yeah, she blocked the number).
4. For my Mother-in-law because while she has never met Dater, she was more than happy to make her a present for her birthday. A Christmas stocking like the ones we have, so she’ll have it for Christmas morning.
5. For my Hubby, who works long, long hours and yet is willing to be chased out of his livingroom for a group of my friends to sit around and talk all evening, when he probably just wants to sit and read his newspapers for a bit.
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11.19.08
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 3:38 pm by Meg
The worst thing about missing yesterday is that I have a pile of thoughts for posts and trying to find the time to write, didn’t happen.
And that’s not counting the clippings that have been building up on my desk of things that I’ve seen in the news that seem interesting.
Oh well, I’ll leave you teased about that - though I will mention that the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld that these plates are legal without any extra charges. A load of BS, if you ask me.
Go back and reread my previous post about how people are asked which one they want. Suggestive anyone?
Anyway, I should make this a little more “homeschool” oriented since that’s what we do here - yeah, right - and tell you that you didn’t hear about last week’s bio lab because it was on Veteran’s Day and since the ps was off, I figured on taking the day off as well. Well, we had no lab, but since Girl had been sick for a few days before that, she ended up doing some work to get back on track. We’re on break for all of next week (well, not the ps schools, so she’ll have Spanish) and she’ll have some other work to catch up on then, but we didn’t have lab.
This week’s lab - yesterday - was basically straightforward. We were looking at inheritance and so they were flipping coins with their partner to determine the facial characteristics of their theoretical offspring. (yeah, I was cute and matched them up girl-boy - until one of the boys didn’t make it and so that made a set that was boy-girl-girl.) At this point I’ve matched them every which way and I’m not sure they even pay much attention to who they are working with.
Each offspring had about a dozen things they had to determine and for each characteristic they would assume that heads was dominate and tails was recessive. Many of the characteristics were for things that had three choices - an additional one for a heterozygous result. They had fun.
I also gave them their assignments for the next lab in two weeks. That lab will be constructing karyotypes and while the first will be “normal” the next two will not be and they need to be diagnosed. Rather than assume that they all will be on top of their reading, I found 13 different syndromes that would produce an abnormal karyotype and assigned them each one. They are suppose to bring to class an image of what their karyotype would look like and then a short write up of what it is (how it happened) and what the symptoms would be.
My hope is that doing this will help them to realize that the stuff they are learning is not just “knowledge” but has a connection to the world around them. As a resource for info I did give them this link to get started.
And before I run off…I mentioned my baking for book group, so I thought I’d share.
We were discussing Twilight and since there were those of us with teenage daughters, we decided to bring them along as well. With that in mind, I made two treats.
A extremely rich chocolate cheesecake (that I’m off to have another slice of shortly)
and for those not looking to overdo the sugar, a simple cherry tea ring.
We had fun chatting, though it stayed on “topic” more than we usually do, and I was pleased with how my baking came out.
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Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 8:13 am by Meg
I missed a day.
I was trying to informally do NaBloPoMo to see if I could do it. But I didn’t count on what a weekend of cleaning out those boxes and dealing with Dater’s birthday; followed by organizing bio lab and then hosting bookgroup (including the baking for it) yesterday, would do to me.
Last night I cleaned up….and crashed.
Oh well.
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