Life On The Planet

Random Links and Family Tidbits

*We're taking Greek lessons! I'll have a post up on it soon at Homeschooler Savvy.

*Tenure makes bad teachers hard to fire. Now there's a revelation.

*I made pepper jelly, and oh, is it good. I dropped a jar of hot pepper jelly on the kitchen floor. Bad side - The mess. Good side - the kitchen smells great.

*Here's a list of summer games. I don't care what the title of the list says, they're not just for kids.

*Salamander was called out last night for Order of the Arrow. We're very proud. He's taller than I am. He's starting highschool. I'm old. It's hard.

Being a Parent of an Autistic Child is a Tough Gig...

especially if you fly American Eagle.

Now that you mention it...

I wouldn't mind a little supervision while I balance the check book!

But for homeschooling?....Nah! I'm good.

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. 

 

 

Homeschooler recommends stricter monitoring of Social Services

Does it seem to you that every time Social Services ignores a report of abuse and a child dies, homeschooling is to blame? This excuse is used whether or not the child is of legal school age. It doesn't seem to matter if the parents are registered homeschoolers or not. Oddly enough, when abuse happens to a child who is enrolled in a public school (here's the shocker) - the school system doesn't get beat up in the media or in the legislature - even if the abuse is perpetrated by a school employee!  

I for one am tired of my educational choice being used to cover Social Services collective rear ends. Not being in favor of child abuse, and therefore looking for a logical solution to the problem, I think we need to more closely monitor Social Services case work.

Lives could be saved.

HT to Dana

She's All That...

and a bag of kibbles. She's the star of blog talk radio - The one, the only, the incomparable...

Scratchy-Cat!!!

Hey there, Scratchy. How do you think your debut on Home School Talk went today?

"How did you get in here?"

I thought it went well. How about you?

"I have no comment at this time."

I especially liked the audio recordings of you meowing. Weren't they great?

"Get that camera out of my face."

It's a shame it only lasted an hour!

"She pushed me! I was pushed! Did you see that? SECURITY!"

Thinks she's the cat's meow, doesn't she? What a Diva!

What exactly is a valid reason to homeschool?

Sunniemom's got me thinking.

Her Debut

Scratchy-Cat will be a guest meow-er on Home School Talk ! Can you believe it? The show's host, Dana from Principled Discovery, has invited Scratchy (and me, her humble servant) to be guests on the first ever Home School Talk. Home School Talk is (or will be) an online talk show about, what else, homeschooling. It will be live Mondays at 1PM CST. Here is the link.

 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/homeschooltalk

If you miss it (although, why would ya?) you can play it back after it's over.

As it is the first ever Home School Talk, very important issues will be discussed. How to meow loudly during a spelling test. How to knock to be let in fifty times a day. How to stare at a door until it magically opens for you to be let out. How to properly chase a pencil while its owner is attempting to complete a math worksheet. How to hamper housework. And finally, how to shred a work book.

Edu-Kitty may make a guest appearance!

"Are you ready, Scratchy?"

How foolish of me to ask!

See ya Monday!

Fireflies

We were driving home this evening and saw the first fireflies of the season. Fireflies are a science question begging to be answered, aren't they? So, if like Tiger, you're wondering why and how a firefly lights up, howstuffworks.com has the answer. Or you can visit this interesting site to learn all you ever wanted to know and more about the little bugs.

Why every simple question has to become a unit study, I'm not sure. However, if you are interested in Firefly poems go here. If you want to learn how fireflies are helping cancer researchers, go here.

If you are looking for some neat and informative firefly sites for kids, go here, here, and here.

Hope you found this illuminating. Gotta glow!

This Slug's for You

The other day my sister, Aunt the Major, called from Korea. (Yes, South Korea.) She told me that my pistol-of-a-nephew, Minor B, thought my story of how my children created a slug themed Mother's day a couple of years ago because I, his beloved aunt and their beloved mother, had skated across the kitchen floor on a slug was hi-larious. He would.

Anyway, night before last, I decided that I would see if I could drum up any slug photos for my pistol-of-a-nephew, Minor B, so I went on a slug hunt. I took this extremely blurry shot of an icky slug - hey, that sucker was moving- on the front porch! Uck.

This was the best of a really bad lot of photos, so I decided to see if I could improve upon it with photo shop. I fiddled a little with the contrast.

Not much better, is it? How disappointing. At this point, I should left well enough alone, but I was tired, and when I get tired, I tend to get a little loopy. So I decided to see how the icky slug would look desaturated.

Bor-ing! I think he needs a little color.

Freaky. "Hey, Sluggo, are you feeling blue?"

This reminds me of those early animated movies - the ones where they would play with all of those psychedelic colors. Am I right?

I don't know about you, but to me, nothing says "I love my nephew" like a green and orange slug shot.

One more? You want one more? Well, what the heck, why not?

Is it just me, or is it getting bigger?

Sorry, but the slug-fest is over. That's all I can handle for now.

I hope Minor B enjoyed the show 'cause I'll be dreaming about that pink and orange slug for weeks. Ick.