March 31, 2005
Civics 101
Doug, a homeschooling father from Houston who took time off from work to attend with his daughter, said that “I never knew until my visit that that I could have direct influence in decisions that are made in the government. I did not know that individual citizens could get involved.”
via Daryl. The quote is so bad that I don't even need to provide context.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 30, 2005
MT Blacklist hates me
I am so tired of my blog comments in other corners of the blogosphere being rejected for "objectionable content" that turns out to be my URL in the URL field. Since it doesn't happen everywhere, I'm guessing it's more of a user error issue than a software problem.
Either that, or this is what I get for criticizing Six Apart in the past ;)
Todays irritant is Baseball Musings
Update: This is just beautiful...from my MT logs.
Ping 'http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/6149' failed: Your ping was denied for questionable content.Permalink | Comments (4)
March is Homeschooler Burnout Month?
Did you know that? It must be true, since Ed Dickerson has proclaimed it so, and The Carnival of Education pointed to him.
Ed even goes so far as to compare it to the necessity for a March Spring Break in the public schools.
Hello McFly, is anybody home in there? If you experiencing burnout in March because the grind of the Aug - June school schedule has got you down - you might be missing the point of homeschooling.
We are not bound to some arbitrary government school schedule.
Take February off if you want to. Do half days all year round. Do what you want, it's called freedom. Obviously burnout happens to homeschoolers too. It may even happen to us more, as we do take on quite a responsibility. However, we have the freedom to deal with it when we want or need to.
If you are dutifully doing school all day August - May you have totally missed the point of the home education journey. Stop now, take a break - read my home education archives, read Daryl, and get a grip. This is supposed to fun.
Permalink | Comments (0)Almost Famous (again)
Laze reports that his election season project Political Bumpers is going to be featured in the New York Times this Friday, April 1st.
I was one of the spotters for the project, collecting bumper sticker data as I commuted to and from the office.
I've been trying to decide if the 4/1 thing is a coincidence, or if Ryan is being funny. However, fooling the 15 people that helped him on the project doesn't seem nearly ambitious enough for Ryan.
Somebody else conning Ryan into thinking he would be in The Times on 4/1...now that would be one hell of a good April Fools gag.
Permalink | Comments (2)Is walking that difficult
"It's a wonderful program," Sutton said. "I home school and my girls don't get a regular school physical education program. It helps teach better nutrition and offers fitness activities."
You know, us homeskoolin' folk just aren't smart enough to get our kids out for a walk once in a while. That kind of intelligence only comes from an education degree.At least she was talking about a YMCA program and not a public school program.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 29, 2005
Flawed Analysis
This home educator is looking at the opportunity cost of lost wages and asking if it is worth it. (Her answer is yes, BTW)
Her analysis is flawed though. First of all, the salary you didn't earn has to be offset by the taxes you didn't pay. So right there the $50K she figures should could earn next year becomes $25K. Then subtract out vehicle wear and tear, maintenance, gas (no small expense at $2 a gallon) work wardrobe, lunches out, etc.
So now her $50K is down to $20K.
After school care - particularly in the early years. Another $5k at a probably unrealistically low $100 per week. So now we are down to $15 per year.
School lunches, new school clothes every year. Missed days because the kids are always sick. Expensive vacations that become "necessary" because of the stress of running a family when neither parent is home, yada yada yada.
You get the point. That second job is not worth nearly what many people think, particularly when there is a good sized spread between the income of the parents.
When we were making the daycare vs SAHM decision (well before we even knew what homeschooling was) I made a detailed spreadsheet and calculated that our net financial benefit of my better half working full time was about $100 per week. She stayed home and I delivered pizza at night to make up the difference.
The necessity of the two income family is a myth in many cases.
Permalink | Comments (3)Education reform in VA
We have a gubernatorial election this year in VA. Here are the details of the Republican front runners education platform. Remember, Republicans are supposed to be the party of less government.
He has modeled his plan around the three R's - recruit, retain, reward. The taxpayers might as well bend over now. I can summarize it for you.
Spend more money.
He wants to pay off the student loans of teachers that take jobs in distressed school districts. He wants to pay teachers to get advanced degrees and training. He wants to pay teachers extra to get certified, and pay them another bonus if they actually stick around. He wants to form a statewide committee to spend millions of dollars producing some blueprint report that nobody will ever read.
Notice what is missing? (besides any original thought) How about results? Absolutely nothing in his plan addresses the crappy education so many public school students will receive. Nothing in his plan addresses the fact that warehousing kids all day in an institution is a fundamentally bad way to educate them. Nothing in his plan addresses the lack of choice most parents feel in where they send their kids to school. It's a classic socialist agenda. Just throw more money into the bureaucracy and hope for the best. It hasn't worked for the last 30 years, but this time it will be different.
Yeah, right.
And this is from the Republican candidate? Can you imagine how bad the Democratic plan will be? The NEA is probably writing it for them.
I wanted to comment here, but it's Blogspot and comments are timing out, as usual.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 28, 2005
Name That Quote
Standardization is an evil idea. Let’s pound everybody flat, so that nobody has any unfair advantage. Diversity enriches us, almost without exception
1. Dash, in The Incredibles
2. Standardized Testing Guru Kymberly Swygert
3. Jesse Jackson
4. Baseball Sabermetrician Bill James
March 27, 2005
Girl Scouts for sale
Google might want to work on that auto ad insertion script thingie.
Doogie Howser, Blogger
Was Doogie Howser the first blogger? He had an electronic personal journal read by millions...
However, I have to disagree with Capt. Kirk being the first audioblogger. Star Trek takes place in the future. If you audioblog today you are several centuries ahead of Capt. Kirk.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 25, 2005
Ipod, do you Pod?
Thanks to a sales spiff from a vendor, I am now the proud owner of an Ipod Mini. I added a car charger / FM transmitter and I now have about 100 CD's worth of music available to me in the car, all in a package about the size of a large Zippo lighter.
Sweet.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 23, 2005
No, we don't have to turn our kids over to the savages
I have the utmost respect for Real Live Preacher and reading his blog is usually an exercise in learning and enrichment.
And now that two of them are in secondary schools, we must turn them over to the savages. Middle school is Lord of the Flies. High school is a little better, but still brutal.
No you don't - you have options.
Observing Breck's Boy Scout Troop has been real interesting. This behavior is not present. Sure the boys tease - however its all in fun. If somebody is confused they help, if the younger boys need help on something an older boy just does it - no adult has to direct it or demand it. And these are boys ranging from 11-15, the prime years for Lord Of The Flies type behavior, but it just doesn't happen. And this is a normal Boy Scout Troop - with a mix of kids from various backgrounds.
It's amazing what happens when expectations are set high in the first place. And I really think that is the key. From day 1, embedded in the Scout Oath, there is an expectation of proper behavior. And they get it.
The school system apparently expects savages, and they get it.
Permalink | Comments (5)Us Mean Ole Overprotective Parents
In this long and rather unexciting article about how bad off kids are today because of their overprotective parents, this blurb caught my attention.
"The kid's world is becoming more narrow," says Mintz. "Religion is not so important, extended family is not so important, so kids have one world and that's school. And that's one thing if you're the star athlete or the most popular kid." If you aren't the homecoming queen, though, there really isn't anywhere else for you.
I don't know too many homeschoolers that feel their kids world is too narrow. The hard part for us is narrowing it down to something manageable and reasonable.
Permalink | Comments (0)Note To Self
Next time I placed a free classified in the paper to give away a Little Tykes Outdoor Playhouse - specify no calls before 8 AM.
Note to the 10 or so people that started calling at 6:09 AM this morning. You are not getting it. I gave it to the first person that called after 8 AM - when I turned my cell phone back on.
I've had over 20 voice mail messages already, and it's only 8:30 AM. It's 8 year old and faded. It's not that great of a prize. Sheesh.
Permalink | Comments (7)March 22, 2005
So that's what Rock Candy is...
Reader Henry sent this news of a first grader with aspirations in the pharmaceutical distribution business.
While the district takes a tough stance on drugs, the boy, who is 6 or 7, isn't likely to face discipline because he didn't know what he was doing, Helsel said
What, no zero tolerance foolishness? I actually agree with this - there was no intent. Interestingly, the story makes no mention of the arrest of the family members who are dealing crack.
Permalink | Comments (0)One Shot in a Million
This may be the greatest basketball shot I've ever seen. In a MN AAU tournament, a kid sank a game tying shot from his back at the buzzer. You really have to see this. The video link is in the top right corner of the page, and I had to go to IE to get it to work.
March 21, 2005
Babe Ruth's Original Contract for Sale
I'll bet it goes for more than the he ever got paid for playing :)
Hat Tip: Ryan
Permalink | Comments (0)March 19, 2005
The Sound of Music
I did something last night that I haven't done in quite a while. I sat in the basement, lights dimmed, Guinness in hand, and listened to music. I mean really listened. I often have MP3's playing on my PC, but since I'm always doing something else at the time, and my PC has crappy 5 dollar speakers attached, it's not quite the same thing.
I've got a decent stereo system - I need to use it more often for music. It gets used mostly for PS2 and movies. I put the CD jukebox on random play and let it go. I heard songs I've played a lot recently, but in a quiet darkened room through good speakers, there was much more depth to the music.
If you are curious, here are the pictures I posted for the home theater board I hang out on. It's nothing special, I really need to "theaterize" my home theater and add some movie posters, lighting, etc.
Permalink | Comments (2)Even Homeschoolers can be nutcases
I find this almost funny. Indymedia, a web hang out for the most extreme of the left wing moonbats (people that believe Kerry really won, etc) is pushing a theory that there were no Arabs on Flight 77 on 9/11/2001. In their opening paragraph, they say;
The Gentlemen who conducted the research and original report on Flight 77 is a Naval line officer and a psychiatrist in private practice in New Orleans, a Christian and homeschool dad (his words).
as evidence of the authors reliability.
We really don't need cranks like this sullying our good name.
Permalink | Comments (2)March 18, 2005
Movie Review: Ray
In a word, brilliant.
Permalink | Comments (0)63 days of hell
You absolutely must read this.
As a teenager I was kidnapped out of my bed and taken into the wilderness desert of Utah where I was to stay for 63 days. It was actually longer, as fate would decide. I'm just now starting to recover memories, copy entries of my journals from that time and to talk about this strange and painful adventure I endured. This is my story, this is my life.Permalink | Comments (5)
March 17, 2005
Happy St. Patricks Day
With a name like O'Donnell you'd think March 17 is a big deal for me.
You'd be wrong.
I'm Irish, I don't need to designate a single day for heavy drinking ;)
Also, why is alright for people to dress up and pretend they are Irish while they exaggerate the worst stereotypes of the Irish? It certainly wouldn't go over well if we all pretended to be black on MLK Day while exaggerating the worst stereotypes of blacks.
I'm just saying...
Permalink | Comments (2)On Girl Scout Cookies
Eve Winer has a problem with Girl Scout cookies.
I do not think that children should have the responsibility of raising funds for any volunteer organization
Fund raising is the lifeblood of any volunteer organization. Since the kids are the ones benefiting from Girl Scouts it is perfectly reasonable to expect then to assist in fund raising. Sooner or later, they need to learn TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch). Personally, I think too much of the cookie money goes to "corporate" versus staying with the local troop, but that is management issue, not an indictment of the act of fund raising. A portion of the money raised is put "on account" for the girl and is used to offset the cost of summer camp or other optional activities. The kids help sustain the organization, and they benefit personally. It's not a perfect system, but it's not bad either.
Children (girls) should not be put in a position of approaching strangers to buy their products
They aren't. Girl Scouts (as you would expect) very specifically advises against sending kids out alone. The cookie booths out in front of the grocery store are always supervised by adults. If there is an 8 year old out door to door alone - that is a parenting failure.
Cookies are very unhealthful and we are encouraging consumption of a poor food that only results in furthering the obesity in our country and among our children.
My daughter has sold cookies for 3 years now, and somehow she and my son are both below the 50th percentile for weight. If your kid considers the serving size on Thin Mints to be the box, that is a parenting failure.
Let's just say for fun that the Girl Scouts dropped the cookie program and starting selling tofu. How much tofu do you think they would sell? Assuming costs stay consistent, parents would have to make up the lost revenue in increased fees. The cost of participating in the program would rise dramatically, and then we could probably expect Eve to write a diatribe against Girl Scouts as being discriminatory against low income kids.
Permalink | Comments (4)March 16, 2005
Your tax dollars at work
This nifty site provides cost breakdowns of pending federal legislation.
The FY2006 budget - $26,712 per average family
The Wild Sky Wilderness Act of 2005 - $.18 per family
The Salt Cedar and Russian Olive Control Demonstration Act - $.35 per family
What the hell is Salt Cedar and why do I want to control it? And how is it related to Russian olives?
OK - apparently they are weeds. With all the problems our nation is facing, you'd think landscaping would be a little farther down the priority list.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 15, 2005
SUbscribe to my link stream
Did you realize that you can subscribe to my del.icio.us link stream? Did you even realize that I had a list of frequently updated links in the left column of this website? I bookmark lots of stuff that never makes it to the blog. Use this link to add my link list to your RSS reader. The stuff that shows up in the link list is more diverse than what I blog about. That can be taken as a selling point, or a warning ;)
Permalink | Comments (0)Queer Eye For The World Champion Guys
They may be just a bunch of idiots that play baseball, but they are also the stars of the June 7 episode of Queer Eye.
And no, they aren't cutting Damon's hair. His book contact requires him to keep it long until he completes the book promotion appearances.
Permalink | Comments (0)There is no Christian Homeschooler Army
Daryl went out on the edge (for him) and used the BS word. This of course, forces me to go even farther ;)
There is a silent army loose in the Nation. It numbers more than 4-1/2 million strong. This army marches to a different drummer, but with greater discipline, power and enthusiasm than can be imagined. In a few years this army will reach Washington, Atlanta, New York and Chicago: all the places where liberals extend control of the culture.. These soldiers are Christian home-schoolers- and this army will turn the world upside down.
Apparently, they are handing out crack lollipops to the editorial staff at The Conservative Voice. 4.5 million homeschoolers? She must be smoking the good stuff. 2 million is a very optimistic estimate, and the majority of those are not conservative Christians.
Repeat after me, the majority of homeschoolers ARE NOT conservative Christians.
I know they have this little fantasy about marching on Washington and turning the country into a Christian theocracy, but I'm telling you it's never going to happen.
It's never going to happen.
If it even gets close, I'll be out there on the front lines with my new liberal friends fighting it tooth and nail. If my 2008 presidential choices are Hillary Clinton and Michael Farris, I'll probably be moving to New Zealand. However, if I do have to stick around and vote in that election, I'd vote for Hillary.
I'm serious.
Permalink | Comments (6)90210 vs The OC
ESPN columnist Bill Simmons did a hilarious comparison of 90210 and The OC. (Scroll about 1/2 down the page.)
I haven't watched a single minute of The OC.
I think I've seen all the 90210 episodes though.
Permalink | Comments (1)Freedom Isn't Free
Frequent commenter at The Soxaholic Da Kine was seriously injured in Kuwait yesterday. Iraq isn't the only dangerous place we have troops right now.
A Red Sox fan and a soldier, he is obviously one hell of a guy. He could use whatever prayers, incantations, etc that you can throw his way.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 14, 2005
Sunday Movie Report
Sunday was a two movie day. While Michelle was battling the crowds at the nations largest indoor outlet mall, I took the kids to see Robots. It was ok, nothing special. Too formula-matic even for an animated feature. It was your basic boy goes to the city to make his fortune, boy gets crushed by evil corporate overlord, boy almost quits until he meets girl who inspires him, boy recruits ragtag group of outcasts to fight the evil overlord, movie.
I think you know how it turns out.
Sunday night, the Mrs. and I sat down to a recent Netflix delivery, 50 First Dates.
Best.Date.Movie.Ever. Your girl will love it, and it's funny enough to keep us guys interested.
It's got the bad boy who is redeemed by the girl of his dreams, except in this case the girl has no short term memory and thus wakes up every morning with no memory of the guy. It's got the bad influence best friend of the guy, a dope smoking loser with a big heart. It's got cute animals, in this case a walrus and a penguin. It's got an overprotective father.
Again, I think you know how it turns out.
The Six Million Dollar Dream
Last night I dreamed that I was off-roading on a beach with Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man. He had a really cool vehicle that drove on and under water, so we weren't limited to the beach. There were also a bunch of hot air balloons in the dream.
If you want to take a crack at interpreting this one, comments are open.
Permalink | Comments (3)Spring break Camp
Spring Break Camps are the newest thing for parents who can't imagine spending a whole week their children. The whining about schedules, work, etc in this article is great. Opting out of the government imposed schedule tyranny never seems to be considered by these folks.
Their loss.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 13, 2005
I love the 80's
Famous James has a good take down of a humorless pop music critic for the Chicago Sun Times who has a big 80's chip on his shoulder and can't deal with the the fact that Motley Crue sold out Allstate Arena this week (let me repeat that...Motley Crue sold out Allstate Arena).
Is Allstate Arena what we knew back in the 80's at The Rosemont Horizon?
Permalink | Comments (2)The End of Men
My readers are the best. How else would I know that the Y chromosome is shrinking and someday may cease to exist. No Y chromosome, no men.
NOW is probably already planning a party.
Hat tip: Diane.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 11, 2005
1 link away from Lileks
It's like the six degrees game, only much, much lamer. In today's Bleat, Lileks linked to 43 Folders. Merlin, the proprieter of 43 Folders, left a comment here yesterday.
Since Lileks writes The Bleat a day in advance, he linked to a site on the same day that said site owner left a comment here.
This is probably as close as I'll ever get to a link from Lileks!
Even more Lileks weirdness. Also in todays Bleat, he links to this ridiculously lame review on Amazon.com. The writer of the review is from Fredericksburg, VA.
Permalink | Comments (0)March 10, 2005
We are all screwed
These physicists have discovered a cycle of extinction on Earth that repeats every 62 million years or so. What they don't know is why or how.
BTW, we are about 65 million years out from whatever killed off the dinosaurs, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Permalink | Comments (0)An A List Set Up?
Yesterday, Metafilter founder Matt Haughey blogged about how the new Kelly Clarkson song (yeah, the American Idol winner) was stuck in his head. I couldn't imagine her putting out a good song, so I checked it out. It's standard formula pop for the masses, been done a bazillion times already.
This morning Kottke blogged the same thing.
What are the odds the two A-List, left wing hipster, cooler than thou, bloggers would both be obsessed with a bland pop song from Kelly Clarkson? Even if they are friends and "discovered the song" together.
I put those odds somewhere very close to zero.
It's got to be a joke, maybe to see how many Kelly Clarkson fans they can bring out of the closet. The alternative, that Kelly Clarkson has that kind of power, is just too scary to contemplate ;)
History Channel Rejects Homeschooler
Update: The History Channel has revised the rules to include homeschoolers. I'm not going to rail on about the power of homeschoolers because as I stated in my letter below, I thought it was a rather boneheaded decision in the first place. I think the History Channel realized that too, and didn't need a whole lot of us to help them. Although I'm sure it didn't hurt! I think in the end this reflects positively on The History Channel. They made a bad decision, and when confronted about it, they changed it. Kudos to them.
Jema sends this link from Natalie about The History Channel rejecting a contestant for an essay competition because she is homeschooled.
I sent the following email to Lynn Gardner, Dir Public Relations. She reports directly to Michael Mohamad, the Sr VP of Marketing for The History Channel. I really wanted to email Mohamad, but several attempts to email him bounced.
Ms. Gardner,
It has recently come to my attention that a home educated high school student in Texas has been denied the right to participate in a History Channel sponsored FDR Scholarship Challenge for the specific reason that she is home educated. She received the following reply to her inquiry.
Thank you for your interest in The History Channel(r) FDR- A Presidency Revealed Scholarship Challenge. Unfortunately, home schooled students are not eligible for the challenge, per the official rules. The rules state that "the Challenge is open to High Schools Students, grades 9 - 12, who are legal residents of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia, and are currently enrolled in a High School located in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia at the time of Entry."
Should you have further questions please contact us kbell@gemgroup.com or call 917.256.0768. Again, The History Channel would like to thank you for your interest in this program and don't forget watch the premiere of the two-part documentary special, FDR- A Presidency Revealed Sunday, April 17th 9PM/8C.
Your Friends at The History Channel, Kim Bell 917.256.0786
As a homeschooling parent myself, I am deeply disturbed by this apparent discrimination. Prior to the 20th century, home education was the norm for young Americans. In fact, President Roosevelt was educated at home by private tutors until the age of 14. Homeschooling is a legally recognized education option in all 50 states, and in Texas homeschools have the same general legal recognition as private schools. There is simply no logical reason to exclude a student from the competition purely because he or she has chosen an educational model that is divergent from the normal path today. Let's face it, without people willing to diverge from "the norm," history would be a lot less interesting!
Another relevant point is that by discriminating against homeschoolers, you are alienating a large population that also happens to be a voracious consumer of History Chanel programming. There are approximately 1.5 million home educated students in the US, and typically their parents aren't spending the $8000 per year average that the public schools spend on a student. We make do with books, trips to the library, videos, and cable programming such as The History Channel. Although I'm not aware of a study with conclusive numbers, I'm very confident stating that home educated students watch more (probably a lot more) History Channel programming than their public school peers. And when you consider that home educating families are more likely to watch the programming together, you are alienating a rather large market with this action.
Please reconsider this decision and open up the scholarship competition to ALL students of the appropriate age, regardless of how they choose to pursue their educational goals.
Thank You.
IMO, contacting Kim about this is a waste of time. She works for a marketing firm hired by The Histroy Channel. Somebody from The History Channel needs to tell her to include homeschoolers for the change to happen.
March 09, 2005
From the really, really stupid ideas department
Richmond VA mayor Douglas Wilder believes parents should be graded, by their kids, and the school system.
Mayor Wilder believes students should report to their teachers and school how much their parents are doing to further their education.
I don't live in Richmond, but the phrase cold day in Hell certainly comes to mind...
Permalink | Comments (2)Apparently, I am low and cruel
It's been a while since I got any fan mail. However, this person stumbled into my old and forgotten fan mail page and still thinks I might be the actor. I'm not sure how he found the page though. I never changed it to a php extension when I redesigned last year, so it should have been inaccessible because I use .htaccess to change incoming .html page requests to .php automatically. I had to rename the page to get it to load, I have no idea how this person got to it.
From: Iseeumuhahaha@aol.com
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:18:15 EST
Subject: Yury- here again
To: xxxxx@yahoo.com
I just sent you a message.... and the reason i sent you that message was because i skimmed through all your fan mail and it seemed as if sometimes you were speaking in 3rd person. Now i don't know if this really is you or not... but if it is, I'm really glad that you have taken such respect towards your fans to reply to each of their messages. And it will just make me respect you more as an actor; with even more respect that I had for you before.
Although, if this isn't Chris O' Donnell i think it's just cruel to play around with their feelings by pretending you are the actor. It is just simply low and cruel.
i hope you can please reply to this message.
March 08, 2005
The Free Agent Education
This might be my first rerun ever. I originally linked to this article in Oct 2001. However, it remains one of my favorite published homeschool articles. In it, business author Daniel Pink looks at the rise of the self-employed free agent in the business world and concludes that the rise of the education free agent (homeschooler) is inevitable. Here are a couple of excerpts:
Schools had bells; factories had whistles. Schools had report card grades; offices had pay grades. Pleasing your teacher prepared you for pleasing your boss. And in either place, if you achieved a minimal level of performance, you were promoted. Taylorism -- the management philosophy, named for efficiency expert Frederick Winslow Taylor, that there was One Best Way of doing things that could and should be applied in all circumstances -- didn't spend all its time on the job. It also went to class. In the school, as in the workplace, the reigning theory was One Best Way. Kids learned the same things at the same time in the same manner in the same place. Marshall McLuhan once described schools as "the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing." And schools made factory-style processing practically a religion -- through standardized testing, standardized curricula, and standardized clusters of children. (Question: When was the last time you spent all day in a room filled exclusively with people almost exactly your own age?)
Perhaps most important, home schooling is almost perfectly consonant with the four animating values of free agency: having freedom, being authentic, putting yourself on the line, and defining your own success. Take freedom. In the typical school, children often aren't permitted to move unless a bell rings or an adult grants them permission. And except for a limited menu of offerings in high school, they generally can't choose what to study or when to study it. Home-schoolers have far greater freedom. They learn more like, well, children. We don't teach little kids how to talk or walk or understand the world. We simply put them in nurturing situations and let them learn on their own. Sure, we impose certain restrictions. ("Don't walk in the middle of the street.") But we don't go crazy. ("Please practice talking for 45 minutes until a bell rings.") It's the same for home-schoolers. Kids can become agents of their own education rather than merely recipients of someone else's noble intentions.
I got no comments the first time. Let's do better this time, eh?
Permalink | Comments (2)The Dr. Demento Show
Almost every show is online at a fan site.
Wow.
How long till the copyright police send them a letter?
Permalink | Comments (0)Weather Update
Yesterday it was 70 and sunny.
Right now, it's snowing.
Sigh.
Permalink | Comments (1)Frank is still dead
David Dingman-Grover, the young boy who named his tumour Frank, was on the Ellen Degeneres show last week, on his 10th birthday. Did you ever think I'd be linking to Ellen? Watch the clip, it's very good - with a great surprise at the end.
via Famous James
Permalink | Comments (1)March 07, 2005
A sighting of the homeschool ignoramus
A collection of people exceptionally ignorant about what we do has gathered around this post from a public school employee. I'm sure they would greatly appreciate some input from my wise readers :)
Let me know if my post is gone. I expect it to be deleted.
Permalink | Comments (6)Horseballs
Because horses need something to play with too?
Permalink | Comments (0)From the funny because it's true department
Anybody else think Frazz looks like a grown up Calvin?
Permalink | Comments (1)March 06, 2005
Weekend Media Update
After taking 30 days to get through the first 60 pages of Pattern Recognition, I blew through the final 300 yesterday. Great book, but it takes sixty pages before the plot really kicks in.
We watched Garden State last night. It was good in a quirky sort of way. There were several laugh out loud moments, and one laughing so hard I should pause the DVD and get control of myself moment (the hamster graveyard). It's a nice, pleasant movie, but I don't think the hype that accompanied it's release last year was really justified. That said, any movie starring Natalie Portman is ok in my world.
Oh, and to the person who got here via a Google search on hottest man in the world, thank you :) BTW, I'm #7 in Google for that phrase.
Permalink | Comments (2)March 04, 2005
Frackin Awesome
The Sci-Fi Channel really seems to get the intersection of TV and the Internet. Now they are posting directors commentary podcasts, which can be downloaded and listened to while you watch the show. It's like the directors commentary track on a DVD, without waiting for the DVD.
I am so doing this. Not tonight though - poker calls tonight. Battlestar Galactica on TIVO plus the audio commentary on the DVD player will be tomorrow evenings entertainment.
Permalink | Comments (0)Metallica in church
This Pastor built a sermon around the lyrics in a Metallica song. That's one way to keep the kiddies interested.
Permalink | Comments (1)March 03, 2005
Lucky On The Side, The Review
Great tunes and intelligent songwriting by Rob Russell and The Sore Losers combine to produce a country influenced rock and roll record that just grooves. I don't know how else to describe it. This is rock and roll for adults.
This record flat out kicks the ass of 99.9% of the crap you'll find at the mall record store.
The fact that I have an autographed copy of the CD in no way influenced this review ;)
Seriously, if you buy just one record this year because some joker on the Internet said it was great, this is the record to buy.
Available from the RRSL web site, or you can listen to song samples of every song at CD Baby.
From the CD Baby review, " The Boss fronting the Replacements playing Kinks covers with a southern accent." That's not bad, although I think they have more of a Mellencamp groove than Springsteen, but that might just be my Midwest bias.
Permalink | Comments (0)I'm glad I don't live with them.
As home-schooling parents, we find it is often difficult to find the necessary enrichment opportunities to supplement the education we provide for our children at home.
Music, the arts, language, and physical activities must be sought outside the home.
Fredericksburg Free Lance Star LTTE, via Daryl.
As a homeschooling parent, I find it difficult to choose between the countless very cool and enriching things we can do with the kids each day.
Permalink | Comments (0)The Nanny State Continues to Expand
Local schools are considering getting into the day care business.
Check out the headline on that link.
Parents would pay about $55 to $80 a week per child for the service, which would start about 6 a.m. and end about 6:30 p.m.
Let's see..
24 hours in a day
minus 12.5 hours in the care of the government
minus 8 hours for sleep
equals 3.5 hours a day with your kids, or about 15%.
March 02, 2005
I am a grammar expert
My wife will never, ever believe this. However, on this grammar and word usage test, I got the following result, without cheating!
You scored 93% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 72% Expert!
Go ahead sweetie, take the test and post your score in the comments. I dare you :)
Hat Tip: Deacon Paul
Permalink | Comments (1)Wiki Wiki
Last year, I experimented with running a wiki on my web server. It was fine, but I wasn't quite comfortable leaving stuff on the wiki, even though it was password protected.
I'm trying again, this time with Instiki, a nifty, self contained app that only requires Ruby to run. The install was painless, it's running on my back up drive in my home office machine. Since I work from home most of the time, having it local is no big deal. I'm going to play around with port forwarding on my firewall to see if I can get external access, just for fun.
The Circus comes to Fredericksburg
If you are a real estate agent Spring 2007 would be a good time to call me. I'll be looking to move.
Permalink | Comments (1)Silencing Homeschool Critics without resorting to tired statistics
This is pretty good. Especially if you need some help answering the inevitable questions politely. I'm not real good at that polite part ;)
Permalink | Comments (0)