Mind & Media

I am now a reviwer of Mind and Media. Go check it out. With a minimal investment ($25) you begin getting free books and such to review. Then they are yours for free! If you sign up just let them know that I referred you!

Carnival of Homeschooling is up!

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at The Common Room. Go Check it out!

Cool Math Contest

Crazy 4 Math has a cool contest going. You enter online and here are some details:

Kids, share your creative math ideas! Describe how you use math in any activity you love to do - a sport, game, craft, hobby or anything else. Send in a description of the activity and how you use math. You can also include a drawing or diagram. Class entries are also accepted. All participants will receive an MP3 of Googol Power's new song "Crazy 4 Math" when you enter. There are many other great prizes to be won. Win or not, you'll have... .

They also have lessons, worksheets and other freebie's on their site. Go check it out!

Carnival of Recipes

The Carnival of Recipes is up over at One Happy Dog Speaks. There are lots of great ideas so go check it out!

Top Chef Winner!

Ok, I admit it. Being a food geek I watched all of the Top Chef series. I have finally watched my Tivo'ed finale and I am thrilled that Harold won. He seemed serious about food but not pretentious. I have to say that there is something attractive about a laid back, straight man who cooks (let us be honest, that is one of the many ways that NerdDad won me;). So when I watched the reunion show it didn't suprise me in the least that he was so popular with the women. I bet that Harold does well in his future resturant!

Asparagus - Quick and Easy

This recipe has been moved over to NerdFamily Food!

Free Krispy Kreme!

I just received an email from a friend. They got a flyer that you can get a free donut on June 2 here in Fresno. Because they are franchised owned I would check with any other location first!

Christian Carnival Up!

The much-belated Christian Carnival is up over at Wittenburg Gate. Go check it out!

Real Homeschool Mothers

I got this in an email from one of my homeschool groups. It was just so sweet I had to share.

Real Homeschool Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it.
Real Homeschool Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.
Real Homeschool Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Homeschool Mothers know that dried playdough doesn't come out of shag carpet.
Real Homeschool Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.
Real Homeschool Mothers sometimes ask "why me?" and get their answer when a little voice says, "because I love you best."
Real Homeschool Mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or years or grade ... It is marked by the progression of Mama to Mommy to Mom.

(HT: Shasta)

American Idol Shower Radio Microphone

Ok, NerdDad came home with another one. I am surrounded by American Idol nuts so with the finale this week I decided to help them launch their own Idol dreams. Sara, April, Maya and the rest of you. Just invest in this for $12 from Target.
I am not to be held resposible for your lack of washing in the shower or your extended time in there;).
(HT: Gizmodo)

Is Testing a Necessary Evil?

As I am entering into homeschooling kindergarten I am evaluating the place testing will have in our home. This is going on at the same time I am hearing about all the testing going on in the public schools. Between No Child Left Behind and the new High School Exit Exam here in California, we are all hearing the horrors of "teaching to test". I hear friends of mine who are teachers complaining all the time that all they do is test. I hear parents complain and some do even more than complain. I know 1 parent who has decided that all the testing is ridiculous so she pulls her kids out for the testing (I do not endorse this method, play the public school game or don't). She says the kids no longer even take the tests seriously so they make patterns on the Scantrons and other nonsense. So what is the purpose for all this testing? It is for money right? I disagree and put forth another theory. Some teachers and schools do a bad job and we need to monitor the progress. We have been getting kids coming out of high school who aren't ready for college, balancing a checkbook or just being an informed adult.
As I started thinking about how much testing my own kids needed, being homeschooled, I started really looking at the reason for testing. I think that testing is really just a way to mark a child's progress. So in theory, testing is not needed. Just be diligent in what the students are learning and watch their progress on their homework. But, it isn't that easy. The National Department of Education says that they get $71.5 billion a year and that is only 8% of the money sunk into public schools. What are we getting in return? Not much. According to the Secretary of Education:

Currently, our 15-year-olds rank 24th out of 29 developed nations in math literacy and problem solving. Almost half of our 17-year-olds don't have the necessary math skills to work as a production associate at a modern auto plant.

The testing provides an element of transparency and the ability to see where the problems are. We, as a nation, have tried to just throw more money at the problem but that has proven to be a mistake. Money without accountability is not helpful and if you are unsure look at Washington DC. They spend more per student and test the worst in the nation.
Yes, I understand that teachers are teaching testing material instead of concepts but at least that is something. According to Secretary Spellings, in his testimony before Congress:

With No Child Left Behind, we've laid a solid foundation of student achievement. Scores are at all-time highs for African-American and Hispanic students, especially in the early grades. Over the last 5 years, more reading progress has been made among 9-year-olds than in the previous 28 combined.

How many times do they have to hear these individual facts before they have an effect? Well, it may be a path worth taking. Compare that with the High School Exit Exam here in California. Over at Why Homeschool there was a good analysis on the test:

There are 60 Mathematics Sample Questions. The first 50 problems are on concepts taught in grades 6 and 7. The last 10 problems require some basic algebra. If students only need to get 50% correct to pass, and they get several chances (over 2 or 3 years) to pass, it doesn't seem unreasonable to require students to get a passing grade to get a diploma.

Is it reasonable to expect them to pass? Well, according to the LA Times, at least 10% of seniors can't pass it. While I think testing isn't the best cornerstone to education, I think that while we are paying we should have some sort of accountability. We as a nation are not dumping millions of dollars into a system to produce people we will have to continue to support forever. If I am not paying for other's education, you can run it however you would like but until then I believe the testing is here to stay.

Carnival of Homeschooling

The 21st Carnival of Homeschooling: The Map to A Progressive Dinner is up over at Principled Discovery. She has done a great job and there looks like there are many great articles. Make sure you go check it out!

Curriculum Choices

So you may all have read my post on types of schooling last week. Well, since I am just doing kindergarten this year I am winging it;). I think on the whole we are going to go with classical unschooling but right now I don't think it matters. Since the NerdBug doesn't read yet I think I am just going to get a good math and reading program. I have had Explode the Code highly recommended so I am planning on using that. I figure that all the other subjects really are secondary to reading. In other words, he probably needs to learn how to read before we jump into science, geography and history. Now the math program is giving me pause. I was a huge math geek in school (I know everyone is shocked;) and I used Saxon a large portion of the time. But, I have heard in the last few years that the Saxon program is faltering. A program that I have heard great things about is Singapore Math. It appears to be highly logical so it naturally appealing to the NerdParents. But, the Well Trained Mind seems to have concerns but Sonlight seems to like it. The Well Trained Mind seems to question wether kids are ready for such a logic based approach so young. So I still have questions that I am researching and asking advice for.
1) What math programs do you recommend?
2) Am I doing harm by waiting to introduce other subjects?

Robot Heart Surgeon

OK, there are new, cool things happening all the time.  Scientists slow light down until it goes backwards, for example.  But this is definitely futuristic.  A robot in Italy (monitored by a PC in Boston) performed surgery on a heart patient.  Yes, the machine repaired the human.  This is a turning point in robo-human relations.

So the question is which robot would you want to operate on you?  CP3O might have a good bedside manner, but R2D2 is more discrete.  Robbie the Robot seems like he'd panic, where the Terminator is calm under pressure.

Kid's Comedy Carnival

The Kid's Comedy Carnival is up over at World's Greatest Place to Live INSIDER. If you need a good laugh go check it out!

The Kid Perspective

This week has been a collection of cuteness from the NerdBug. When my 3rd child was born (9 months ago), upon seeing him, the NerdBug loudly declared that we would have another baby in the future and that it would be a girl. Periodically since then NerdBug has asked when we are going to have another baby. Well, for those of you who don't' know, baby #4 is on the way. This means a lot of morning sickness (well actually, all day sickness). So yesterday NerdBug was asking why I was eating something different than the rest of the family for lunch. I tell him that when I am pregnant, mommy's stomach can feel sick so I eat different things so it feels better. So today we are at Costco and I decide to pick up lunch for everyone. I get my self a turkey hye roller and a pizza for everyone else. As we are making our way out NerdBug very loudly proclaims, "You aren't having pizza because you don't want to share with the baby in your tummy!". I look around and there were people at 3 different tables just cracking up. Oh well, who can deny that he is very cute?

What is Pat Robertson Thinking?

Ok, let me start with I am not just a Pat Robertson basher. In 6th grade I accepted Chirst as my personal Savior while watching the 700 Club and in high school I did stuff with my parents in the Christian Coalition. That said, what is wrong with that man? For those who do not know, Pat Robertson has decided to share what God "revealed" to him. According to an AOL article:

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8. On Wednesday, he added, "There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."

This comes after he made a statement that the US should assasinate Hugo Chavez. And while I am not a fan of Chavez, that was uncalled for. I understand that Robertson may desire to be the "Jeremiah of his time" (a description often used of Winston Churchill) but I don't think that he is even coming close. Is this helping? Hurting? I don't think that Pat Robertson is helping anyone. Wheither or not God revealed this to him is almost irrelevant. Was he sharing this to help people in love or scare them. I understand the "hell fire and brimstone" method of preaching but this isn't really the situation. For those of you not familiar, this was a method of scaring you into realizing that you need God and then tells you about God's grace and mercy. While this isn't my preferred method, it can be effective. The difference with that and what Pat Robertson is doing is large. A preacher has you for the hour, Pat Robertson has you for the sound bite. When we all hear these quotes we aren't getting to have the chance to hear about God's love for us and grace. I have to say that I am quite sad by what Pat Robertson is doing to himself and his reputation. I also hope that people don't judge God and His Son by a Robertson sound bite.

Mexican Government Suing US?

So I am toodling around the blogs and I see that Mexico is a little upset with President Bush's plan to send the National Guard to the border. Last Night on the O'Reilly Factor, Bill said:

After hearing President Bush order 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border earlier this week, Mexico's Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, went on a radio program in Mexico and said, "If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people, we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates."

Where does the Foreign Secretary get off? Does anyone else think that they would have no right to walk into our courts and sue our government? One of the biggest miscommunications of our system is that rights are for noncitizens. This is a constant issue. Who all has a right to a license, education, free health care (which I don't get), etc? Now because we, as a nation, are trying to secure our borders the Mexican government is going to sue us. Now I don't take quite as a hard line as Bill O'Reilly, who says if they sue boycott anything from Mexico. But I do think that something has to be done. According to a news story from KFOXTV in El Paso, the Mexican government has sent armed soldiers over the border. Some claim it is to investigated what we are doing but others fear for the safety of the people living on the US side of the border. Given all this, I think that if the Mexican government doesn't help to secure the border and deal with illegal immigration, we should seal the border. What all would that entail, I am not sure. But, something has to happen. When one nation decides to violate another country's border we call that declaring war. This is no longer just individuals wanting for a better life but it appears to a nation trying to invade our space and way of life. What are we going to do about it?

(HT: Two Babes and A Brain)

Math and Faith

So last week I was at Bible Study and we were studying Philippians 3. One of the things being discussed was Philippians 3:8-9:

8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

One of our study questions was, "What does faith look like to you?". Someone said they trust science and math so believing in anything unquantifiabled was faith. Our leader was talking about God being the same today, yesterday and forever. Suddenly it clicked. Living with God leading your life is like a Calculus problem. Before we go any further you have to know that I loved calculus. There is nothing more satisfying than working on a problem that takes at least a page to solve (ok, at least academically).

So how does this work in my twisted little mind? When you are sitting in a classroom you are assigned a problem. Your teacher knows that you have the tools (books, past problems, class notes, etc) to solve the problem but you are not sure. This is similar to God. God put's things in our life (problems, obstacles, growth opportunities, etc) but He has equipped us with all the tools we need to get through it (the Bible, prayer, wisdom of other mature Christians, etc). When you start to solve a complex math problem you review all the details and occasionally diagram the problem. Then using your various tools, take it one step at a time. When you take the first step, you take blind. You do not start a complex calculus problem knowing what the answer is. Frankly, you don't even always know what you 2nd step is until you take the 1st step. That is similar to faith. You have to believe that you have the tools to complete the task you have been given. You just have to take it one step at a time until you reach completion. You will just frustrate yourself if you look to far ahead. God will never give you anything that you don't have the tools for. You have to also remember that one of the biggest tools is prayer because that is how we communicate with God. Just like our math teacher is always there if we need help, so is God. So while people think that math and faith are at odds, really math can teach you how to have faith.

Carnival of Family Life

The new Carnival of Family Life is up! There are so sweet and funny family stories.

Homeschooing Carnival

The Homeschooing Carnival is up over at Home Sweet Home! Melissa has done a great job. I am looking forward to reading all the great posts when I get home from church! Go check it out!

Christian terms defined

While aimed at our secular friends, this primer of Christian terms contains a few facts some of my fellow Christianists might not know. Such as:

• The first Baptist was John the Baptist, who was said to eat locusts and honey, although contemporary Baptists generally prefer barbecue.
  
• The Bible was so successful that God wrote a sequel, "Bible II: On to Rome," now generally called "The New Testament."
  

From holyoffice: The Interpretative Dance Theocrats:

Education Styles

The NerdBug is going into kindergarten next year and I am a little daunted in the planning of our year. So I just rechecked out So You're Thinking About Homeschooling by Lisa Whelchel from the library. I have already read it and it is a great book full of encouragement. That is providing me with the "You go girl!" that I need but it doesn't do the work for me. In the book there are various ways to homeschool mentioned. I will be honest, the more I look around to see what there is, the more my head hurts. Right now I have decided to just look at 2 ways and then move on to the next options, so first up is Classical and Unschooling.
(A side note, when faced with many choices I usually look and compare 2 at a time. Take the winner of those 2 and then compare it with the next. It stops me from getting overwhelmed, as much.)
Unschooling, in a few ways, naturally draws me. To start with, I don't think traditional school is working so isn't all unschooling from there? According to the Family Unschoolers Network:

Our primary purpose in unschooling is to keep alive the spark of curiosity and the natural love of learning with which all children are born. We want our children to accept learning as a natural part of living, and an ongoing process that continues throughout life. We want their learning to remain an integrated process in which all subjects are interrelated. We also want to allow them the time to pursue a subject as fully as they want, rather than imposing artificial time constraints on them.

I was very self driven to educate my self on many things as a child. I would hear my parents discussing a historical or political issue and I would go research it. Then the next time it came up I could join in the conversation (Now really was this my quest for knowledge or fitting in, who knows?). In reality, this drove my stepdad nuts. He would give me a hard time about "having to know something about everything". This gives me some faith that children want to know about everything so if they are self directed they won't just learn nothing. But how are you to accomplish that? According to Unschooling.com:

Read, play, sing, dance, grow things, write. All of these things and more are things unschoolers do. We do them because they interest us and bring us joy or because they help us accomplish our dreams. We do the things that have meaning in our lives and contained within those activities is real learning.

To me it appears that the children pick out what they want to learn about. In many ways, as I stated before, I think that might work but..(there is always a but). If college has taught me anything it was seeing that many people choose to have tunnel vision. I know many(not all are this way) wonderful, brilliant engineers but the only thing they really know about is engineering, math and science. They probably know who is President and what party they are a member of but that is about it. If you want to discuss any political issue, historical event or religious history they are at a loss because it never interested them as kids.
Classical is another method that really interests me. It seems to also include the Charlotte Mason theory. According to the Well Trained Mind:

Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments. In the high school years, they learn to express themselves. This classical pattern is called the trivium.

This makes a lot of sense also. Both NerdDad and I read so much as kids and memorized so much, we both reap the rewards (both of us separately read the dictionary and the encyclopedia). It is logical that if you have a rich base you can build anything. This method does appear to be stiff and a bit rigid. According to many sources I found, the kids should be doing Latin and Greek very young and that has a lot to do with the logic development. I admit that intimidates me a bit. The other side is, I see the lack of logic in the world and the price is very high.

Now, I admit I feel a little burned by the Unschooling method already with my kids. I took some of this approach with potty training my eldest. Everyone said, "don't push a boy, you will scar him for life" and I listened. I waited, he was 2 no interest, I waited, 2 1/2 no interest. Finally at 3 NerdDad said, "Sit on the potty and try". We had to give him a schedule and structure to at least try or he wouldn't at all. This creates a fear in me that the children may not be willing to do the work to acquire the needed logic, math and reading skills. Can you marry these 2 styles to encourage a love of learning? Maybe use classical education very young with a little unschooling on the side and as the kids get older shift? As I am looking at books and planning out the year I am scared. While frankly, I know I will do fine in comparison to public school, will I be giving my son all that he needs to be his best. Hopefully, I will get copious amounts of input from all of you in the blogosphere and with that and prayer we will muddle through.

Birthright Citizenship

So the other night a friend of mine and I were talking about a variety of historical and citizenship issues. Real quick we both said that we thought that it was unreasonable to automatically give someone citizenship simply because they are born on US soil. I thought that was true but something that would not be approached for a long time, as far as a policy change. Well this morning, by way of the Corner, I found a blurb on Free Republic that talked about this in New Zealand.

Changes to the Citizenship Act mean there are tighter rules on children acquiring citizenship at birth.

It will only happen now if at least one of their parents is a New Zealand citizen or is entitled to be in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Tokelau or Niue indefinitely.

I think that this would be a great policy here. We don't want people scheduling their vacation visa to coinside with delivery time. Also, this has been a common theme in illegal immigration. Because, if an illegal has a baby who is a citizen, do we strip the parent away and send them back? That doesn't seem reasonable but neither does rewarding illegal behavior. So why can't we pass legislation to take care of this problem? Some people just say that it is because we have to many democrats, and sure that is a problem. Could the other problem also be that the Republican Party is scared? Scared of seeming mean, uncaring and losing the minority vote? Maybe the Republicans should do this just because it is right? Just some musings.

Top Ten Left Wing Scenes on The West Wing

The Media Research Center has rated the top 10 left wing scenes from The West Wing.

My personal favorite:

Donna, played by Janel Moloney, as she and Josh walk down a hallway: "We have a $32 billion budget surplus for the first time in three decades. The Republicans in Congress want to use this money for tax relief, right?"

Josh: "Yes"

Donna: "Essentially what they're saying is we want to give back the money. Why don't we want to give back the money?"

Josh: "Because we're Democrats."

Donna: "But it's not the government's money."

Josh: "Sure it is. It's right there in our bank accounts."

Donna: "That's only because we collected more money than we ended up needing."

Josh: "Isn't it great?"

Donna: "I want my money back."

Josh: "Sorry."

Later, they pick up the argument:

Donna: "What's wrong with me getting my money back?"

Josh: "You won't spend it right."

Donna: "What do you mean?"

Josh: "Let's say your cut of the surplus is $700. I want to take your money, combine it with everybody else's money, and use it to pay down the debt and further endow Social Security. What do you want to do with it?"

Donna: "Buy a DVD player."

Josh: "See."

Donna: "But my $700 is helping employ the people who manufacture and sell DVD players, not to mention the people who manufacture and sell DVDs. It's the natural evolution of the market economy."

Josh: "The problem is the DVD player you buy might be manufactured in Japan."

Donna: "I'll buy an American one."

Josh: "We don't trust you."

Donna: "Why not?"

Josh: "We're Democrats."

Donna, exasperated: "I want my money back."

Josh, snickering: "You shouldn't have voted for us."

If that doesn't sum it up what does;).
(HT: Hugh Hewitt)

Shocking Roulette

Am I just boring or are people crazy? Electic Shock Roulette is a game where the participants put their finger in and the light starts going around. Then it slows and finally shocks one participant. I just found this interesting!

(HT: Gizmodo)

The universe is full of dead-serious super-parents!

An article called "Why We Haven't Met Any Aliens: A radical explanation for a conundrum about extra-terrestrial life, and what it means for the future of humanity" attempts to answer Fermi's paradox: If there is intelligent life among the stars, there should be a lot of ETs running around and so we should have met one by now.  Where are they?

Most bright alien species probably go extinct gradually, allocating more time and resources to their pleasures, and less to their children.

Note: "Most species". The rest?

Heritable variation in personality might allow some lineages to resist the Great Temptation and last longer....Christian and Muslim fundamentalists and anti-consumerism activists already understand exactly what the Great Temptation is, and how to avoid it.

Is this good news for my lineage, or bad news?  It does sound like the lead-in to a joke, "The Pope, Osama, and Ralph Nader walk into a bar?"

Socialized eductaion

From The Cato Institute's blog, a short post titled Repeat After Me: “We Are All Individuals” that had a fun quote:

The sooner we overcome the Stalinesque notion that educational excellence can be pursued through more or better central planning, the better off our kids will be.

I use the term "socialized eductaion". It helps me keep the public school system in perspective. It also helps me answer the question, "Aren't you worried about socialization?"

No, I'm not a socialist.

Christian Carnival

The Christian Carnival is up over at Something Epic!

Basic Cheesy Breakfast Casserole

This recipe has been moved over to NerdFamily Food!

The Carnival of Education

The Carnival of Education is up! Go check it out for everything educational. They have very graciously included our post on Prop 82!

Prop 82, Preschool, Money and Society

One day last week I received my California Primary Election booklet for the election on June 6. I knew that one of the propositions was on Universal Preschool but I didn't really do much contemplation on the subject (I am against it, big shock). I started getting all kinds of emails from a yahoogroup on homeschooling in California about stopping this and I filed the material to read later. Then the straw that broke the camel's back, I was reading one of my new found favorite blogs, Spunky HomeSchool, and she was doing an article on Outsourcing Bedtime. She had a quote from the Telegraph:

Four in 10 parents want schools to set bedtimes for their children because they cannot do it themselves,

That caught my attention and I went a read the article and it is true. I admit I had my doubts because you can always get a crazy quote out of the Telegraph. This quote from the article (and the true jist) made Prop 82 fall in view.

Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "It's quite bizarre, but on the other hand it could be a cry for help and when schools and parents work together it can be a very effective way of enforcing discipline."

I have now read the entire analysis provided in the booklet and frankly, their own material condems it. In the background information they tell you that:

Survey data suggest that 62 percent of the state’s 4-year olds attend some kind of center-based program prior to attending kindergarten.

Let us skip ahead to the goal, also found in the booklet:

Based on information from other states that offer public preschool for all 4-year olds, our best estimate is that—over time—roughly 70 percent of 4-year olds would participate in the new preschool program.

This means in money, to acquire an additional 8% of the 4 year old population it will cost $109,000 per new student (according to Lisa Snell). Now that is not per kid but per NEW participant in a preschool program. I understand that a big reason for this push is for lower income families, but these resources already exist (and are already funded). Here is a logic question, if they are not willing to exert the engery to take advantage of free preschool(like Head Start), why would they do it if Prop 82 passes?
Let's move on to the real problem, the wresting of our children from us. Granted that this is a voluntary program not mandatory. I believe that this is the state's biggest problem (taken from the Voter info booklet):

Children not in center-based care are tended by parents or relatives, or served by other arrangements (including babysitters, nannies, and family child care providers).

The proponents of this program say this way more kids will be reading by 3rd grade. Shouldn't we focus on k-3rd then? Is this really because they want to be indoctirnating their PC values and not ours? Maybe we as parents should make our children's education a priority in our own lives but (according to Spunky):

We heard alot about outsourcing jobs in the last election. Everybody was worried about the number of jobs moving overseas. Yet, a bigger problem is brewing right here in the US. We are outsourcing parenthood. Parents are knowingly giving the job of raising their children over to another.

We know that parental involvement in education and specifically reading is essential. Here are some quotes from a report from the National Literacy Trust.

• Early reading experiences with their parents prepare children for the benefits of formal literacy instruction. Indeed, parental involvement in their child’s reading has been found to be the most important determinant of language and emergent literacy (Bus, van Ijzendoorn & Pellegrini, 1995). Furthermore, parents who introduce their babies to books give them a head start in school and an advantage over their peers throughout primary school (Wade & Moore, 2000).

• Although parental involvement has the greatest effect in the early years, its importance to children’s educational and literacy outcomes continues into the teenage and even adult years (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003). For example, Feinstein and Symons (1999) found that parental interest in their child’s education was the single most powerful predictor of achievement at age 16.

Maybe we should vote No on 82 and we should all look at educating our own kids both in academics and in life.

Carnival of Homeschooling Is Up!

Why Homeschool has put up the Carnival of Homeschooling Week 19. As usual they have done a wonderful job. In addition to reading about great posts you can also read about one of my favorite people, Einstein!

A Great Idea for Little Kids!

The HeadMistress over at the Common Room had another great idea From the Index Card Files for little ones. I decided to bring it over here since so many of my friends have multiple toddlers!

Name the Object

Get two bags, boxes, or big socks. Put several identical objects in each bag.

Player one reaches into his bag, pulls out an object, and asks the other player to show his matching object ('show me your spoon').
The other player must reach in his bag and find it without looking.

This will be played often over here!

An Educational Mother's Day

Ok, so one of the big benifits of public school for parents are the gifts and holiday training. We moms don't want to tell our children how important we are and how they should make us stuff or give us gifts. How about we take a different tact (or Dad can just teach this unit;)? Let's look at this holiday as a historical event, a learning occasion and an event to celebrate our mothers (kids are smart, they will get the hint;). I have found a collection of resources to help with this endeavor. Mother's Day on the Net has the history of Mother's Day. Wilstar has a great list of verses on what the Bible says about mothers. For a little learning fun, Kids Domain has a list of printables including mazes, word searches and crosswords on the bottom of the page. Now onto creative fun. Crayola has a list of crafts, "lesson plans" (their term) and activity pages. Enchanted Learning has some great craft projects and fantastic pop up cards with instructions. I hope you all enjoy Mother's Day and tell a mom you love her!

Oy! What to do with left over Matzos?

So I was over atthe 5th Kosher cooking Carnival and me-ander reminded all of us that just because Passover is over, we can all eat matzo all year. This reminded me of a great recipe I came up with a few years ago to use up leftovers. I don't know if I would call it a recipe or more of a method.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lube up (with fat of your choice) a baking dish (of your choice).
2. Take a couple of eggs and come water and mix it up to make a dredging liquid. I would also add any herbs, spices or seasonings you would like. At this point don't make the liquid to thin, you want it like a batter(ish).
3. Pick the leftover meat of your choice. By picking (a southern term) I really mean shred. Now, I have done this with cornish game hen and beef roast but I am sure it would work with anything.
4. Put a layer of meat in the bottom.
5. Now dip so matoz (what ever will qualify as 1 layer across) into the egg mixture and place it on top of the meat.
6. Continue until you have used all your meat, ending with a layer of matzos on top.
7. Top with oill and cover with foil.
8. Bake for 30 minutes (for 8 by 8) to an hour (9 by 13) or until matzos are set and everything is warm.

I am sure that you could also add root veggies but I have always had them on the sides.

Nerd Facts!

Here are some nerd facts out of this week's Parade Magazine.

Here is why taxi's are yellow!

Chicago car dealer John Hertz had an idea to make money off his inventory of used cars: turn them into cabs for people who couldn’t afford pricey limousines. To attract riders, he painted the cabs sunny-side up. By 1925, Hertz’ Yellow Cab Company had produced 2,700 cabs—the largest taxi fleet in the world. John Hertz also started another business for America’s newly mobile masses: DrivUrSelf, which later became Hertz Rent-A-Car.

Here is an interesting fact about the first plantiff in Brown v Board of Education!

Lucinda Todd was angry: Her daughter Nancy, a music student, was not allowed to play in a school concert because of her skin color. So Todd, a teacher, opened her Topeka, Kan., home to the local NAACP chapter in 1950 for strategy sessions to end school segregation. That same year, Todd took the brave step of signing on as the first plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit Brown v. Board of Education. In 1954, Todd and the other plaintiffs (including Oliver Brown) prevailed, and the U.S. Supreme Court denounced school segregation as unconstitutional.

The Essential Homeschool Tools

The HeadMistress over atThe Common Room has a great post on the basic tools to start homeschooling. I encourage all to check it out!

Live Super Mario Bros.

So NerdDad came home with this one. I will admit that it is a little goofy but for those of use who played through this game a million times it will be funny.

Carnival of Kid Comedy #9 is up

Carnival of Kid Comedy #9 is up over at In A Shoe. For childhood hijinks and hilarity go check it out! You will even find a couple of Nerd Family tales.

There is a Reason for Menopause

It is God's Mercy. I know, there are women out there who are wondering where this 30 yr old gets off saying hot flashes are a blessing. Remember ladies, I have perspective. I am 30 and have 3 kids under 5. I can't imagine starting this journey 30 years from now. Menopause has been God's way of breaking our lives into groupings, like baby time. This isn't an orginial idea. A wise man, King Solomon, wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:1

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

This isn't just done for us, as women, but also for our children. That is why the news of a pregnant 63 yr old woman was so disturbing. The doctor claims that

"She should live for at least 20 to 25 years -- we are not giving birth to an orphan," he said.

Is that all the influence we should desire in our childrens lives? Or the span of relationship our children desire? This isn't even to mention the physical limitations of a woman this age with her baby. I am 30, my mom (yes mom, I am outing you) is only 50, her mom is in her early 70's. My great-grandmother was alive until I was in jr high and I cherish having known her. Now pair that with my husband who barely a chance to know any of his grandparents (the ony one living died when he was about 8). Which reality would you want to give your children. I want to be there when all my kids get married, when they have their babies and when their babies get married. Now, I know there is no promise of long life but there is an old quote that, "You hope for the best but plan for the worst". While I may not make it 80 (which means most of my kids will be at least 50) the chances of me making it to 110 are slim.
We as a society wonder were the extended family has gone. Let us not add to the reasons by the extended family being dead.
(HT: Two Babes and a Brain)

I am Banned!

I have been banned from commenting on a blog. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me. Let me catch you all up. So there is a little controversy going on in the Homeschooling Carnival this week. It is not a new issue. It is all over spanking and child abuse. There is a couple, the Pearls, who wrote a child training book, To Train Up A Child. In the book they propose some practices that I consider child abuse. A woman (whom I do not know) was supposedly following them when she basically tied her kid into bed with blankets and he suffocated. The Old Schoolhouse, and their blog site HomeSchoolBlogger, accept advertising money from the Pearls Ministry, No Greater Joy. Well, this has appeared to have caused a Christian vs non-Christian throw down. HSB (and all who blog upon it) is now being boycotted by some and the arguement has now gone from just child abuse (the Pearls propose hitting your child with plumbing hose starting with a set of 10 hits) to just spanking. Some believe that it is all child abuse while others of us believe in corporal punishment (within bounds, of course). One of the posts in yesterday's carnival was on the Strong Willed Child. Within that post was one phrase, "the occasional infliction of pain", and that sent everything into a frenzy. Questions like, why was this included, were asked and conversations on another blog abounded. I posted a comment to clarify a point (specifically, when is it ok to "beat" a child) that someone else was making. Don't take my word for it, here is is:

The post in question didn't say beat. There is a large difference between a swat on the bottom for doing something dangerous (one of my little ones tunred his 4 foot hamper upside down, climbed on top of it and was trying to shimmy up his 7 foot dresser, he is 4 logic doesn't always work) and beating them. I thought that the boycott was good because the Pearls were puporting abuse but be careful with that wide brush. Just because it isn't abuse doesn't mean you have to do that. I believe that is where energyanalyst was going with it.

I am now banned from commenting ever again, she will delete my comments (and she replied with a cuss word).

So now you all are caught up. NerdDad says that he is shocked it has taken this long in my bloggin career. No big deal, right? She was unreasonable in her views, isn't it expected for her to respond unreasonably to me. Sure, only it isn't that easy. It has been driving me crazy since it happened yesterday. I love discussing things with others who don't agree with me but have the same real goal. I have friends, whom I respect, who don't spank. This statement make shock some who see me but don't really know me but here it goes...I hate it when people don't like me or think poorly of me. I want to cry (and I am not a crier). I have an urge to go back to this blog from which I am banned, and justify, pander or otherwise convince this person that I am a good person. But should I? NerdDad says no. I know that I was correct in my statement and my intentions were good. I just need to walk away. It does make me afraid to deal with other that don't hold to all my beliefs. While I can look past a lot (the blog owner is gay but that doesn't effect our discussions on good homeschooling resources) but I don't want to be attacked. I have always had some non-Christian friends and study partners in school. We always learned a lot and respected each other. My liberal professors even respected me because we could talk about isses without attacks. As I enter into educating my kids it grieves me that those opportunities may be gone from my life forever.

Oh, by the way, I spank....I hope to be done by the time they are 6 (ish) and I am open to other approaches but if they don't (and person or property are at risk) I spank. Book is over, back to our normal nerdy blogging.

More Free Ice Cream!!

On May 7th Baskin Robbins will be having a Buy one Sundae Get one FREE Sunday!! This isn't quite as good as the Ben and Jerry's deal but that is over and here is a new opportunity to meet our ice cream cravings!

The Carnival of Education

The Carnival of Education is up over at Education Wonks. Thanks guys for including us!

7th Heaven and the end of an Era

So I am watching my Tivo'ed episode of 7th Heaven from last night. After this week there is only one more. They kept showing a scene from the first episode and then would come back to the current. So of course, I am tearing up but why? I don't like Eric and Annie Camden, matter of fact I want to know what denomination he is a minister in. They never mention Christ or God, I would never want to go to their church;). It hits me why I am so teary (no, not just because I am a chick;). This was one of the first shows NerdDad and I started watching when we first got married. We have gone from being newlyweds to parents of 3. 10 years later, 3 kids, it has been a long time and a show like 7th Heaven reminds us of this. You see the kids growing up into adults and it reminds you of how time has past.

Cool Measuring Tape Tape

This tape is very cool and very practical. It looks like it restarts every 12 inches. If not it isn't quite as useful but with a little simple math it is the same deal. It would be neat to use in home improvement and crafts.
(HT: BoingBoing)

The Thinking Mother: 18th Carnival of Homeschooling: A Cornucopia of Wisdom

The Thinking Mother: 18th Carnival of Homeschooling: A Cornucopia of Wisdom is up! As usual a wonderful job was done. I particularly liked the piece on the strong willed child over at Higher Up and Further In. Not that i havce any of those;). I am still reading through the carnival, so I am sure I will be commenting on more articles later!

Why are jerks successful?

A great post on the lessons jerks can teach us. (The lessons are bold, the irritating implementation follows.) Here's a couple:

They are almost incapable of being embarrassed. They bounce back from setbacks that would send the rest of us to bed for several days. They are willing to be obnoxious until they get what they want. They know the power that comes with caring less.

They let upper management know about their accomplishments. They advertise every minor accomplishment while those schmoes who believe that hard work is its own reward don’t.