Life On The Planet

The New Face of Monday

Thanks for the photo, Aussie Kim!

Three Words

We've been having a little fun over at Principled Discovery in Dana's comment section. Rather than completely hijack her blog with my silliness, I've decided to continue the fun here.

The question posed was, "What can public schools learn from homeschoolers?"

My response (not nearly as intellectual as the others) was,

"Three words...Edible School Lunches."

JJ Ross from Cocking a Snook chimed in with,

"Teaching isn't learning."

Truer words, JJ... My response was slightly less philosophical.

"Sleep until eight."

Well, I ask ya...?

Dana, undoubtedly tired of my goofiness in the midst of a serious conversation, but still a good sport brought up,

"Play outside. Lots."

I figured I'd better get while the getting was good, so I took my foolishness and boogied back on over to my own blog.

So how about it? Feel like giving the public school system a helping hand?

All it takes is three little words. 

 

 

Mates

Standardized testing began today for the girls. I drove down to meet Kim and Co. After getting Butterfly happily through the first section of the test, I absconded with Tiger and Dirt Dude. The following conversation was over heard on the ride home:

Tiger: (Singing a self-composed ditty, whose lyrics are completely nonsensical.)

Dirt Dude: "You know, Tiger, you should really consider becoming a song writer when you grow up. You're really good at it."

Tiger: "Yes. I'm thinking about it. Or I'd like to write books."

Dirt Dude: "Excellent."

I appreciate anyone who affirms my child's inner artist.

Upon reaching my house, they devoured pizza and watched an idiotic cartoon and laughed hysterically throughout the whole thing. Next on the agenda - dancing around the living room, drawing cartoons and the consolidating the PIKMAN universe (that's a video game, for those of you lucky enough not to know). When they are together, they are completely self-entertaining. That's a good thing.

My children have, in the past, made friends with children whose parents I really didn't like. However, I'd be willing to put up with a lot for Tiger to be able to spend quality time with a friend like Dirt Dude. Lucky for me, the kid has a cool mom, even if she does sound like she's from Boston.

The Mighty Mississip'

Y'all may have heard that the Mississippi River is flooding. Rain and snow melt have swollen the river until it spreads from levee to levee. Being the science and weather hounds that we are, and always being ready for a field trip, we hopped into the mini-van and hooked up with Aussie Kim and her crew to check it out.

First we drove over the river to the Arkansas side.

The weather didn't look good. (It's been raining since we got back from vacation, but that's another post.)

Now, when I say we drove over to the Arkansas side, what I really mean is Aussie Kim's Man-of-the-House drove over to the other side. Kim and I were freezing everyone out, hanging our heads out of the windows and snapping photos like a couple of loons. The man has patience. Here is a photo taken well before the bridge. There should not be water there.

We drove to the levee on the Arkansas side. Aussie Kim said there was a board walk and park you could go to within the levee. We saw the signs for the park...

but we couldn't get to it. The sign says, "No Off Road Vehicles In The Park!" The bad news - this was the road...

The good news - apparently the catfish were biting. I wonder if the Off Road Vehicle ban included boats.

We drove back to the Mississippi side of the river and rode the levee toward the spot we visited last August. We couldn't quite make it there.

If you follow the road down and take the curve through the trees, you should come to a beach.

Now, some of you may not have ever seen a levee before. They are large (usually) earthen barriers that run the length of both sides of the river. Most of them are wide enough to drive on. In Mississippi, they come with livestock.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of the mules.

Day Two of the Home Alone With Five Children Chronicles

Journal Entry: March 7, 2008

6:00am - Boys up at the crack of dawn demanding food. Eat everything in kitchen. Retreat to bedroom to dress and regroup.

8:00am - Butterfly sleeps in. Growls when I attempt to wake her. Tough love applied.

9:00am - Request that math work be completed.

9:30am - Request that math work be completed. It is now snowing. Oh, happy day.

10:00am - Scream at the top of my lungs that math work needs to be completed.

10:30am - Math work complete. I proceed to library to drop off Salamander for volunteer work.

12:30pm - Return to library to pick up Salamander. Stop by grocery store to replenish food supply. Go home and throw food at children. Children eat ravenously. Dog in charge of clean-up.

2:00pm - Must drive in snow storm to another town. Mission is perilous, but we return unscathed. Children hungry again. Big surprise.

3:30pm - The C.F.O. returns early from work. Reinforcements have arrived.

4:00pm - The C.F.O. takes the children sledding. I prepare Tortilla Soup and Apple Dumplings. Mmm, Apple Dumplings. Blissful silence. Thank you, C.F.O.

4:45pm - The hungry hordes return. I great them with hot chocolate and instructions to bathe. I mop up snow melt with dirty towels. Yuk.

6:00pm - Feed snarling, tired and cranky kids. Enjoy pleasant meal with the children.

6:30pm - Movie time. Yeah, baby. Two hours til glory.

8:00pm - Read chapter of book to angelic, freshly scrubbed darlings.

8:30pm - Boot the little darlings to bed. It's still snowing. What will tomorrow bring?

9:00pm - MUST HAVE CHOCOLATE!!! Rant to The C.F.O. about need for more chocolate. Request letter to Congress over chocolate issue. The C.F.O. suggests I retire.

9:30pm - Still snowing. Good night.

What's Two More?

While I sort through the photos of the Little Rock trip, I thought I'd let you know about the fun we'll be having this week. Aussie Kim, the lucky devil, and The-Man-of-the-House are off on a Caribbean getaway! How about that? Meanwhile, I will have (gulp) five children in my house. However, they seem to entertain each other very well, so we are all looking forward to the visit.

In honor of this wonderfully festive occasion, here is a link to some neat information type stuff about the Caribbean.

Bon Voyage, Aussie Kim. Have a fantastic time!

Aussie Kim - The Toast of the Art World

I start to wonder about my friendship with certain people when I see what they write about. (Actually, I wonder why someone that snazzy wants to be my friend!) Aussie Kim has pulled another one out of her bag of tricks. Where does she find this stuff? Over at Homeschooler Savvy, she posted about art made out of toast. No kidding.

Hey, try it out! You never know, you could make some dough.

(Or maybe some bread.)

Separated By a Common Language

Four hours of Christmas shopping could have been a horrible thing. Well, it was really, but it could have been worse. Aussie Kim was with me, so the whole trip had a slight comedic element. Kim would smilingly ask for assistance, and nine times out of ten, the clerk would squint, look hard of hearing and slide their gaze over towards me. No help there, mate. I was to busy biting my lip and looking anywhere else.

The highlight of the trip was one poor clerk asking Kim very politely, "Ma'am, would you mind if I ask where you're from?"

"Mississippi," said Kim.

"Oh!" replied the clerk, somewhat confused and embarrassed.

Kim took pity on him. "No, I'm from Australia. Where did you think I was from?" she asked.

"Boston," he replied.

Bean Town Kim. It has a nice ring to it.

You Homeschool, Don't You?

It's the question that every homeschooling parent dreads. This time was no different. I was sitting on the couch in the library at church when one of our parishioners, Judy, a college professor, asked me, "You homeschool, don't you?"

A small knot formed in my stomach. Since moving to our new home here in the frozen tundra of northern Mississippi, I had been asked that question a great many times, and mostly by people at church. Episcopalians, it seems, are not hip to homeschooling. A couple of teachers in the congregation even tried to persuade me that the school system was tops in the state. Hey, why not put the kids in? How do you answer politely and not offend? I am certain that these folks were well intentioned. In general, I have no problem responding to open hostility over the homeschooling issue, but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

However, on that Sunday morning, when Judy sat down beside me and asked me the question, I felt a little queasy. You see, I really liked Judy, and I was hoping that I would be able to continue liking her.

"Well, yes, I do," I told her. She told me about how she likes to have homeschooled students in her classes. She said that they are articulate and well read. She had noticed that they can understand references and know how to write, that they were eager to learn, and not burnt out on school like their peers. She said that she could have a conversation with them.

Sometime during our discussion, a gentleman came in and inserted himself into our conversation. "But what about their social skills," he asked?

"You've obviously never met her children," Judy told him.

I went home from church and cried. It was the first time ever that someone had told me I was doing the right thing. There were no maybes, no qualifications, just an atta girl. I'm glad you're homeschooling. Others, my family and friends, have certainly been supportive of my efforts. Some have been down right helpful. (Thanks, Mom!) But no one had ever said the words, "I'm glad you're homeschooling." I never realized how much I needed to hear them, until someone did.

So, do me a favor. If you have a friend who's homeschooling her children, drive over to her house and tell her she's doing a good job. She'll really appreciate it.

Just don't forget to bring a hankie.

Hannah Montana, Board Games & Cheatin' Australians

After long hours of consideration, and because I don't know how to use the stinking record button on my computer, I have decided to spare you my renditions of every Hannah Montana song I was forced to sing Karaoke style last Friday night by those sadistic girls in my scout troop. (Be grateful. Be Very, Very Grateful.)

While the scouts where pretending to sleep the adults played board games. The first game is one I was not familiar with. You need to get it. I mean, you need to get it if you don't already have it. I doubt you need two. How silly! The game is called Transamerica.

There is also Trans Europa. Trans America was a lot of fun and very easy to play. Basically, you build track (railroad) across the U.S. to connect your cities. You get to lay two tracks every turn, unless you're Aussie Kim, and then you put down three... or four... or however many you think you can get away with. (Cheating on games has a new name in these parts. It's called "pulling a Kim.") Not that Aussie Kim would ever intentionally put down an extra piece of track. No, I'm certain it was an accident.

Speaking of Kim and the games she plays, how's this for home field advantage. Kim, my co-leader, Shelley, and I had finished a game of Trans America and she pulls out a card game. It's a trivia game about AUSTRALIA.

I wonder who won that one?

Next on the agenda, study Australian Geography and the migrational patterns of Australian water birds. She's going down.