He Who Began a Good Work

I thought I'd start today by giving each of my kids screen names. I'm choosing Winnie the Pooh characters. My daughter will be known as Rabbit. My twin sons will be Pooh and Tigger. If you knew my kids, you'd know why I picked each of those . In this photo, Tigger is on the left, Pooh center, and Rabbit is on the right.

Each of my kids has had health issues. Rabbit had allergies and food sensitivities, and had bladder reflux. Tigger has a heart murmur. And Pooh was diagnosed with fluid on his left kidney before he was born. Rabbit still has food sensitivities, but everything else seems better. Tigger's heart murmur is actually getting better. But, Pooh, on the other hand, still has fluid on his left kidney, and now has fluid on his right kidney. Today he had a Renal Scan at Children's Hospital. He was sedated, and all went well. We won't get results back for a few days. The scan will show the rate at which his kidneys are emptying, which essentially tells us how well they are functioning. He really seems healthy, otherwise. It's hard to think that there is anything wrong.

One of the reasons my husband and I chose to home school was Rabbit's food allergies and sensitivities. It just seemed easiest to keep her at home and make home made meals that I know won't affect her adversely. But, then I think, what if Pooh needs more tests or surgery or other things that will interrupt home school. I have to remind myself, the reason we chose this path was so we could be more flexible; so we could meet the individual needs of our children. It's not that I'm concerned about the outcome of the tests - Pooh is in God's hands. It's me wanting my way in the day to day operations of things here.

I want to start the middle of August, and finish by the end of May. I want my time and my way. I know this is selfish and wrong. I need to let God lead. I'll get there. A work in progress... Philippians 1:6 says, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Amen.

The Lazy Days of Summer

This summer we're doing "school light" - reading, math and art. For reading we're using the 3rd grade level Pathway readers. I really enjoy these. I'm not sure how much my daughter does, but she is liking it better than All Things Even Frisky - Abeka's summer reader. My daughter has trouble with relationship conflict in a story, and All Things Even Frisky starts out with relationship conflict.

Math is just continuing Math-U-See's Beta book. We're on lesson 23 now. I think my daughter is getting the concepts just fine. Sometimes I wish my daughter would work faster, but that's okay. I think we're even going to bring math with us on vacation, so we can get done before we start this fall.

For art we are going through Drawing With Children, by Mona Brooks. It has been good so far. I like the way she teaches us to look for the shapes of things. I found some lesson plans on the MFWFamilies yahoo group, and have been using those. We shoot for 3 days a week, but that doesn't always happen.

It has been hard to come up with a schedule for the summer. I have lots of little projects (and some big projects) I want to get done. And, I want the kids to have plenty of free time to play. But, I'm having a real hard time sticking to any schedule. Plus, we've not been doing much in the way of fun things. I think I'm kind of a home body, and unless someone invites us, I often don't take the initiative for a fun thing. The other thing I'm seeing, though, is the kids do so much better with some structure as far as not arguing and fighting as much.

Some of my summer projects: put my Exploring Countries and Cultures lesson plans into Home School Tracker Plus (HST+); make triangle math fact cards for multiplication and division; teach my daughter how to clean her room; work on chore training with all the children. I'm about half-way through the first one. But, beyond that I've been stuck in trying to help the kids get along when they play. I get interrupted so much some days, that I don't even feel like trying to get anything done. Just doing laundry, keeping the house clean, and the small amount of school we do each day is taking so much time because I have to keep stopping to work on things with the kids.

Maybe someday I'll find a way to get it all done! But, I don't think it's going to be this summer.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

My in-laws were in town this weekend, and that allowed my husband and me to go see "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." We saw it Sunday afternoon. I had seen all the trailers on the website before going. This movie is NOT about the arguments of evolution vs. intelligent design. This movie is about intellectual freedom and debate in the scientific community and educational institutions of this country. The PG rating is deserved, as there are several clips of the Nazi concentration camps that a young viewer would find disturbing (and even some of us older viewers).

Let me apologize up front, as I can't remember specific names of all the people interviewed. This is one of the cons of the movie: it only shows the name of each person once.

Ben Stein is the narrator and "star" of this documentary. It starts with an interview with a man from the Smithsonian who was forced out of his job because he published a peer-reviewed paper on intelligent design (also known as I.D.). The interesting thing was the man is an evolutionist. He then interviews a professor whose "contract was not renewed," because she mentioned I.D. on a couple of lecture slides in one of her classes. I want to say she was an evolutionary biologist. There was also an astronomer who didn't get his tenure position because he was asking I.D. questions. And there was another professor whose website was taken down and grant money taken away by his university because he wanted to investigate some of the I.D. questions. And finally, a journalist who was fired because she wrote an article comparing evolution and I.D. side by side, without taking sides. The point being, that it isn't just one or two people this is happening to.

Interwoven with the interviews are clips from old movies and news reels. Sometimes it is a partial phrase to set up the next point, sometimes it is clips from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Some of them are new animated clips in black and white to fit in with the feel of the movie or to explain a concept.

He also interviews several people who are either I.D. supporters, or evolutionists who want to have the debate with I.D. (although, there were only 2 of those). As he digs into it, he interviews a philosopher at either Cambridge or Oxford who says the point is your world view: are you willing to believe in a designer, or do you want to deny the existence of a designer. The evolutionists are so anti-designer/God that it was sad. They get angry. They call I.D. people names rather than argue the points.

From the world view discussion, Ben Stein takes a side trip into the past: Nazi Germany. He goes to a hospital where the Nazi's killed the mentally and physically handicapped, and one concentration camp. The point of this side trip is that Hitler and the physicians and others around him were trying to help evolution along by eliminating the weak and useless. Their reasoning was taking Darwin's theory of evolution to it's logical conclusion. Ben repeatedly says that not all people who believe in Darwinian evolution carry it to this extreme, but the point is that it can be taken to this extreme.

From there he talks about the founder of Planned Parenthood and her belief in Darwinian evolution and using abortion and birth control to keep the poor and disabled from reproducing themselves. Again, not everyone heads down this path, but it certainly is pretty easy to take it to its logical conclusion.

One professor that Ben interviewed was an evolutionist that was willing to have a discussion about I.D. He talked about how studying evolution lead him away from God. He said it was very liberating to not believe in God. He had no purpose, no hope, no life after death, and no free will. My husband and I weren't sure about the "no free will" comment. We guessed he was talking about no free will to accept or reject God. This man brought out my sympathy. I felt sad for him. The man had a brain tumor before and had it removed. He said if it came back, he would take his own life. Ben's voice-over said that shortly after the interview, his tumor had come back.

Ben talks to a biochemist (I think) at one point about the structure of the cell. Back when Darwin wrote his theory, they believed the cell was the smallest unit of life. Now, we know a cell is much more complex. An analogy might be something like, if the cell that Darwin knew was a Buick, what we know today is more like an International Space Station. There are some really neat graphics that take you on a "tour" through a cell, but there is no explanation of what you are seeing. A brief explanation of what we were seeing would have been helpful.

If you are going to this movie to find out the arguments about I.D. vs. evolution, you will be disappointed. This movie is ultimately about the fact that the scientific community is repressing discussion about intelligent design vs. evolution. I would recommend parents of teens heading to college see this, and even teenagers heading to college see this movie. It will open their eyes to the politics of science.

Homeschool Day at the Capital, Denver, Colorado

Last Friday, April 11, 2008, was Home School Day at the Capital here in Colorado. What a great event! Some from our home school support group (Abiding Home Schoolers) went. My dear husband stayed home with the twin boys since it was going to be a cold day.

We met at a local light-rail station around 9:15 a.m. It was cold! The wind was blowing and there were snow flurries. To make it a little more challenging, one of the machines to buy tickets from wouldn't take $20 bills. But we all managed get our tickets. We waited in the bridge over the highway to stay out of the wind.

It was a 30 minute ride to downtown. We got off at the California and 16th street stop. We were going to catch the free shuttle to head towards the capital, but the bus was too full for our whole group, so most of us walked. It was good exercise.

As we approached the capitol building, we saw the 10 Commandments Monument. It is a slab of marble 3 or 4 feet high with the Commandments engraved on one side. It almost looked like a headstone. Then we walked over to the replica of the Liberty Bell - without the crack. We took a few group pictures, and then one of the dads who was with us prayed for our day.

Next we went into the capitol building. Only the north entrance was open. We had to have our belongings x-rayed, and walk through metal detectors. The inside is beautiful. The marble is impressive. (My dd said it reminded her of a castle!) We saw several displays put together by home schooled children. We walked through those, and then went upstairs. On the second floor we saw paintings of each of the Presidents of the United State. From the second floor you have access to the Senate and House of Representatives chambers. There were probably 35 lobbyists hanging out around the doors.

Finally, we went up to the third floor. Here is where you have access to the balconies overlooking the chambers. We so happened to go into the Senate balcony when they were reading HJR08-1022, Concerning Recognition Of Home Education Day In Colorado. It was joint resolution. It passed the Senate 34-0. It was God's timing that we arrived to hear the resolution read and see the voting on the resolution.

The rally on the west side of the capitol was at 12:15, so we decided we needed to eat lunch. We went outside to the northeast side of the capitol building. It was windy, but the sun was starting to appear between the clouds. The kids played in the grass, and then we went over to the west side.

We were standing near the front of the crowd. There were several speakers: Ed Roach, Kevin Swanson, Rep. Lundberg, Treon Goossen, and someone from Summit Ministries in Colorado Springs (I can't remember his name). It was inspiring to hear how far homeschooling has come in 20 years. Also, with the recent rulings in California, it was a good reminder that we need to stay on our guard. I was disappointed, though, not to see anyone from the press, especially since we had so many people there. I scanned the local news web sites later, and there was no mention of

the resolution or the rally.

After the rally, we headed down to the Pillar of Fire Church for the Future Statesmen workshop. The kids learned about the 3 different types of government described in the Bible (family, church, and civil), what the responsibility of each is, and examples of good and bad civil government. The kids really got a kick out of the skits.

When we got out of the church, the clouds were back, the winds were picking up, and snow flurries were starting again. Brrrr. So, we walked back to 16 Street, caught the shuttle bus to Stout Street, and then our light rail train home. The train was pretty crowded on the way back, so several of the kids had to stand the entire ride back.

All in all, an exciting and educational day - worth the extra effort to go.

Review

It is funny how God can speak to you twice in one day.

I was talking to our pastor about hand writing some math practice sheets for my daughter for an upcoming Unit Test in Math-U-See. (One of my few complaints about MUS is that it doesn't seem to have a whole lot of built-in review or practice.) I was investigating Open Office's "Math" program. It describes itself as a way to write math problems/formulas. I wanted to see if I could use it instead of hand writing them. He said a friend of his uses some of Abeka's DVD programs for high school level, and he's watched them. One of the things he noticed is that the teachers (especially in math) spend the first 5 minutes just doing a quick review. Sometimes it's a timed drill, sometimes just a few problems, or some quick little game. He said that might help dd retain what she's learning rather than me hand writing math practice sheets.

Then, I was researching All About Spelling as a possible alternative to Spelling Power if Spelling Power doesn't work out for us. I was poking around the All About Spelling website and there was an article about daily review. The article is specific to reviewing spelling, but the same tips could apply to any subject.

So, I think God is speaking to me - more like hitting me over the head with a 2 x 4. Now, I just need to come up with a system to do it. I think that's the hardest part if it is not built into the curriculum. Abeka is really good about putting it directly into the teacher's manual for each subject. But if it isn't there automatically, I need to figure out how to do it myself, and to remember to do it myself.

Visualization

Our home school support group is having a Spelling Bee next month. My daughter wants to participate, so we signed up and got the list for second graders. We've been using it for our spelling list instead of Abeka's weekly lists, and using Spelling Power methods to study the words.

One step in Spelling Power when you study your words is to "close your eyes and visualize the word in your mind and then write it using big arm motions in the air." So we were going through the steps and I told my daughter to close her eyes and try to see the word in her head. She said, "I can't." So I thought I would try. Turns out I couldn't either. But, if I keep my eyes open I could see the 3 x 5 card in front of me and see the word on it. (And no, I wasn't holding the card in front of me .)

But, I was thinking... I can close my eyes and visualize a tropical beach or skiing down a mountain side, so maybe I am using a different place in my mind. I'm going to have to see (no pun intended) if I can figure it out.

I do think my daughter enjoyed the fact that I couldn't do something either, though.

Oh, and have a Happy Easter.

Curriculum Angst

We use Math-U-See (MUS) for our math curriculum. My daughter really likes it. She enjoys Mr. Demme on the videos. And, she really can do her addition and subtraction facts well now. Sometimes, I let her teach her Barbie dolls math class, and she really likes that!

Next year we are switching to My Father's World (doing Exploring Countries and Cultures). MFW recommends Singapore math. And lots of people on the MFW message board sing the praises of Singapore. It makes me doubt my choice of MUS. It's like this little nagging voice in the back of my head. But, I've asked her several times if she wants to change, and she has said, "NO!"

And then I am reminded, tonight, of Philippians 4:6 - 7, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I just need to pray about it and seek God's guidance. He is faithful. He will show me.