Homeward Bound

After much deliberation, we've made the decision to homeschool our children next year.  There were a lot of factors playing into this decision, and we're very excitedly dorking out looking at microscopes that we can have for our home school setting.  :-)

It's February vacation, and the horde has already jumped in with both feet to learning at home.  This morning we looked up systems of classification for living things, and had the boys excitedly yelling out "CHORDATA!" for what animals have spinal cords, trying to climb the walls like anthropods, being mushy mollusks, and squirming on the ground like the annelida worms.  Straight from there we went to writing exercises where Papa Bear independently wrote 2 paragraphs about mollusks and Yogi Bear dictated to me information about athropods.

Here's Yogi's story:

"Hi, my name is Exoskeleton, and I am an arthropod.  Arthropods are different phylums from other animals and other kingdoms, even different from the plant kingdom.  Even different from annelida, the worms, and mushy mollusks.  Because I am an arthropod, I have an exoskeleton.  It is like outside armor bones.  Animals that are athropods are insects that can climb on walls, spiders, and crabs.  To get rid of an arthropod, you step on it, because that cracks its exoskeleton."

Not bad for a kindergartener!  He had some help, obviously, but this was largely his work with my typing and some mild direction.

So, homeschooling readers, how do you structure things?  We're pretty old school and plan on following Classical education principles, but switching it up by keeping a giant question jar and talking over one question per day at dinner time.

Goldilocks turns FOUR today!

This Post Brought to you by the color PINK!  And Princesses!  And JEWELS!  


Happy Birthday, Goldilocks!

This post brought to you by sleep deprivation...

Question 1: Is there enough coffee in the world?

Obj 1.  There is a coffee maker in the kitchen, and a giant can of ground coffee, therefore there must be enough coffee in the world.

Obj 2.  Even should there be no coffee in the house, there is coffee in virtually unlimited supply at the grocery store.  Therefore, there is sufficient coffee in the world.

Obj 3.  Even should it be impractical to get into the store, there is coffee at the drive through at McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts and various sundry purveyors of caffeineation of one's choosing, therefore surely there is enough coffee in the world.

Sed Contra...  "Man shall not live by bread alone."  and "NEED.  COFFEE.  NOW!!!!"

I respond, there are those who say that there is sufficient coffee in the world, if only one is industrious enough to reach it.  However, there is one serious impediment in the life of caffeination when it comes to accessing this beverage which aids the helpless in such a manner which inspires deep reflection on Man's reliance on God.  This impediment is known as the 2 year old boy.  Thus while coffee would appear to be limitless and easily within grasp, so easily we fail to obtain it, moaning and weeping that there is coffee, coffee everywhere but not a cup to sip.

Reply to Obj 1.  The giant can of ground coffee in the kitchen cannot be accessed when the 2 year old boy is eagerly plotting to color his baby sister orange with hot pink polka dots at the earliest opportunity.

Reply to Obj 2.  Clearly the person making this objection hasn't seen a 2 year old boy in a grocery store, and has not considered that taking small children out of the house requires caffeination beforehand.

Reply to Obj 3.  Still have to get the 2 year old out the door to get to the drive through, and if you get a mommy a coffee, her son will want a donut to go with it, and the ensuing sugar buzz will bring on the apocalypse.

This is Why I'm Going To Have 50 Gazillion Kids 2/5/2011

Because I would NEVER HAVE KNOWN that eggs should be cleaned in the dishwasher!

I was unloading the dishwasher (with Thumbelina on my back) and while putting away the last dishes, I saw something odd in the corner of the dishwasher.  On closer inspection, it was in fact an egg.  So, I called over Baby Bear and said "why is there an egg in the dishwasher?" to which he yelled the reply "NOT MEEEEEEE!!!"

I grabbed the camera and called Gil over, and he asked Baby Bear...

Gil: "Did you put the egg in the dishwasher?"
Baby Bear: "Yeaaaaahhhhh."
Me: "Why did you do that?"
Baby Bear: "I want it to be clean!!"

If I hadn't embarked on this quest to have 50 gazillion kids, I would never have known that the dishwasher is the place where eggs should be cleaned!  Good thing we're going to have 50 gazillion kids.