Our current event study this week will focus on the island of Cuba.  Cuba has been in the news quite frequently lately with it's recent leadership change and some policies and practices in the communist country have subsequently changed as well.  Microwaves and cell phones are now allowed on the island and even a TV channel with foreign content will soon be broadcasting.  I think it will be interesting to watch this small country in the months and years to come.   Here are some links to news stories on some of the recent changes.  I am going to read them with the boys and see where the discussion leads. 
Cell phones in Cuba
Cubans Struggle to Enjoy New Economic Freedoms

Cuba Giving Land to Private Farmers

Cuba to Open TV Channel with Foreign Content

Enjoy!  Dee

Martin Luther King Jr. felt poorly the night he delivered this speech, the last one of his life. The venue was a mass meeting held in the Bishop Charles Mason Temple Church of God. Andrew Young, who was with him at the time, said King initially decided not to speak at all that night. King and his small entourage - including Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, and Benjamin Hooks - had led a march that day protesting low pay for black garbage collectors in Memphis. A rainstorm was gathering. King decided he was too sick to preach. He asked his best friend, Abernathy, to speak instead. Once in the church, Abernathy felt King would have to speak to the crowd, so he phoned King and asked him to come down. Abernathy promised that he would still do the preaching; King would just have to say a few words. Abernathy spoke for more than half an hour, his words energizing the crowd. That called up the spirit in Reverend King, and he spoke that night without a single note in hand.

Enjoy!  Dee

This week's current event study is on the hot topic of ethanol.  This topic has science, math, and a good debate - who could ask for more!  Hubby, our 17 year old son, and I all enjoy watching Glenn Beck on CNN.  Last week he shared some of the drawbacks that producing ethanol has on our economy. 
He shared how corn prices are rising because it is more in demand for ethanol production.  This is making it more costly for farmers to feed their cattle (corn).  This in turn drives up the price of milk and meat. 
Wheat farmers are now seeing more profit in corn than wheat and many have already switched to growing corn.  This is driving up the price of wheat, which of course raises the price of almost any food imaginable - bread, cereal, you name it. 
Is ethanol worth it?  Do the benefits of ethanol outweigh the problems it causes?  That got me thinking that I need to let my children in on this national debate and is what we will be discussing this week.
I have links below if you would like to study along with us in your homeschool.   The links are mostly for readers at a high school level but I believe that is important to discuss current events as a family - with all ages.  Even your little guys can understand quite a bit.  My 8 year old always has an opinion about our current events topics and the questions the younger ones ask usually show me areas that I need to clarify. 
We plan to:
- study the pros and cons of ethanol
- try to figure out if wide spread use of ethanol would considerably cut back on oil consumption
- and discuss the impact that ethanol production has on our food supply and economy
The question I will ask my guys to answer is:
Assuming we are continuously seeking out other alternatives - In your opinion, should we as a country still agressively pursue the production of ethanol?
Here are the links that we are using:
The Pros and Cons of bio-fuels from about.com
The Ethanol Fallacy from Popular Mechanics
Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax from Student News Daily and their discussion questions
Glenn Beck's site (on this link stop at reading at the photo of the fish)
Happy learning!  Dee

This week's current event study is the world's newest nation - Kosovo - who declared it's independence last month.  Here are the links to this interesting story . . .
Article -  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/world/jan-june08/kosovo_2-19.html
Map of the area - http://www.time.com/time/daily/special/kosovo/kosovomap.html
Reading Comprehension and discussion questions -
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/world/jan-june08/kosovo_1-22_printout.pdf 
This week our family will be discussing:
- Why Russia is concerned about Kosovo becoming independent
- What it means when we call a country soverign
Happy learning!  Dee

Last weeks current event study led to some surprising results in our little family poll.  The boys learned about the debate over the Georgia border line and then voted as to whether they thought the border should remain where it is or be moved to where it originally should have been placed over 100 years ago.  We read the facts and before discussing it further we took a vote.  Every one of my boys thought the border should be moved to fix the mistake that was made so long ago.  Daddy and I have the exact opposite opinion (of course) and we had a great discussion which helped us all see both sides.  Very fun!  So anyway, if you are interested, here is our current event study this week . . .

We had talked about this art heist when it first happened but I wanted to dig deeper into the subject when we had more time.  So, now that two of the stolen paintings have been found, I thought it would be a good discussion.  Read about it here:
Stolen Monet, Van Gogh paintings found in Zurich
‘Spectacular’ theft nets $163 million in art
The paintings that were recovered were Monet's "Poppies near V'etheuil" painted around 1880

and Van Gogh's "Blossoming Chestnut Branches" painted in 1890

The paintings that still need to be found are Degas's "Count Lpic and His Daughters" painted 1871

And Cezanne's "The Boy in the Red Waistcoat" painted 1894/95

Interestingly enough, the owner of the collection and museum, Buehrle, was a German-born industrialist who provided arms to the Third Reich during World War II.  He owned at least 13 works of art at the war’s end that were included on British specialist Douglas Cooper’s “looted art list,” which was used to recover pieces stolen from Jews by the Nazis.
This will be another good discussion I'm sure!  We will be:
- Looking at  each piece and reading a little about them from the links above. 
- Talking about the fact that all these artists were a part of a "movement"
- Talking about art looting during war
- Our poll question will be: If you purchased a piece of art - not kowing that it was stolen -  but found out years later - do you think you should be obligated to return the painting?
Righting past wrongs is becoming a theme around here! 
Please share your current event studies if you are doing any!  I would love to hear about it.

I like to do some kind of "Interesting or Current Event" with my boys every week so I thought I would share what we are learning about. 
This week we are learning about the border conflict in the state of Georgia.  I had never heard of it before, but apparently this has been around since the 1800's.  Here is an excerpt:

If Tennessee's southern border were the 35th parallel - as Congress designated in 1796 - Georgia would have a share of the Tennessee River. But a surveying team sent by Georgia to chart the line in 1818 was a bit off the mark.
Historians say mathematician James Camak, who led the team, begged the state to provide him the latest equipment, but instead he had to rely on an English sextant _ an instrument more familiar to sea captains than land surveyors. Other stories say Camak's team was scared away by an American Indian party.
Surveyors now know that the Georgia-Tennessee border was placed about 1.1 miles south of where it should be. But that, surveyor Bart Crattle said, is history.
"Just because you have more accurate equipment, you can't start moving border lines," said Crattle, a Georgian who works in Chattanooga and is licensed to survey in both states. "Can you imagine what would happen to our boundary lines? They'd be all willy-nilly.
"It's correct _ no matter how wrong it is."

Interesting statement!  "it's correct - no matter how wrong it is."  That's a new one! 
Two side effects of making the 35th parallel Tennessee's southern line would be: Georgia would get a chunk of Chattanooga, and Mississippi would get a slice of Memphis.
I thought it was an intriguing story so here is what we are doing with it this week:
- I printed out the news story for the boys to read.
- I printed out a map of the the boundary in dispute for them to study
- I had them watch the newsclip from FOX news
- I made a ballot for them to vote on.  They can vote either that they think the border should remain where it has always been or that they think it should be moved to where it originally should have been.
Here are the links if you are interested:
News story: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Feb08/0,4670,DroughtStateLine,00.html or
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/09/AR2008020902283_pf.html
Map of area: http://tinyurl.com/2cffvs
Video news report (watch if you can): http://tinyurl.com/2269g4
Enjoy!  Dee