Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month. To go along with our study I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids science museum. They have an exhibit right now called, Grossology~the impolite science of the human body. I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a little boys dream come true and my girls loved it too.
Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze? Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!
This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose. Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boys dream....
The kids spent lots of time at the life size operation game. Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go. It didn't hurt their eye hand coordination either.
The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day. Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system. The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!
The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too. While they climbed along they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle.
I did not take pictures of all the things to smell. Really gross things to smell. Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog. LOL! Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine. We will have to go back when it is less crowded. The exhibit just got to us and lots of the school groups were there. All in all it was a really cool and gross exhibit. Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY!
My grandpa, my Papafather's dad, was a country vet. He had a little office off the side of the house where he did small animal surgery, and exams. He made house calls all around the country, some trips taking him an hour or more to reach the animal in need of help, be it cow, horse, sheep, or pig. Very often he would have one of his children in tow. He had 10 of them so there was no shortage of helpers. It all sounds very James Harriot like, and in a way it was. James Harriot's stories are popular with that side of the family and each story reminds them of one like it that grandpa experienced.
Grandpa's office was, as I said, just off the house. Just off the kitchen to be exact. My grandma had a dutch door put in so that she could just open up the top half to talk to him and yet keep the little ones inside. Think about that. A vet's office, just off the kitchen. Do you recall how a vet's office smells? That smell still lingers in that office to this day and it's been over 10 years since my grandpa died.
Aside from the smell, I never gave grandpa's office much thought. We would traipse our way through it on the way to play outside, to gather in the clothes from off the line, to pick grapes, collect eggs, or to find grandpa. The office doubled as grandma's laundry room so I suppose that's why it didn't seem like a room that needed much attention. I never spent any time in it other than to get from point A to point B. Which is strange now that I think about it, all those fascinating instruments, chemicals, medicines, and the like just within reach. I never touched them or was ever tempted to do so.
One temptation I did give in to was a special barrel out back that held two skunks. Grandpa would warn us to leave those skunks alone. My numerous cousins and I would stand around the barrel peering in, and those skunks would peer back. The lot of us cousins would look for only a moment and then run away as fast as we could before we got sprayed. I didn't find out until I was much older that those skunks couldn't spray because my grandpa had "deskunked" them. I don't know if my cousins were aware of this at the time or not, they ran just as fast as I did. Grandpa's warning hadn't been for us, he had been worried that we would torment the skunks.
Skunks actually make a great pet and are positively darling, if you can legally keep them. My uncle kept one for awhile. She was just like a cat, had a litter box and everything. Her name was Rosie, and then some, but I won't repeat that part.
We have a family story, told every couple of years or so I guess, about grandpa and one particular skunk he was de-scenting. While in the process of removing the gland that contains the hideous skunk musk, it was ruptured. It squirted all of its contents right in my grandpa's face. He came into the kitchen to clean up and the only thing he said was, "It's such a beautiful color." Apparently skunk spray is an amber color, and my God fearing grandpa could still recognize the beauty of God's handiwork even in a skunk's musk.
Funny, while my aunts and uncles roar with laughter about this story every time they tell it, I don't remember anyone talking about the smell lingering in the kitchen or what on earth my grandma said or did. I'll have to ask them about that.
After the laughter dies down, someone will always mention how my grandpa was such a quiet, gentle, and patient man. Oh he had his moments when a cow would stomp him, but how many men do you know who would take it from a skunk and only comment on it's beauty?
My wife came up and told me that Sesame Street had done another spoof. This time it was a skit called "Desperate Horse-wives." I got a groan when I asked if the characters were less than neigh-borly.
In all seriousness, I'm not that thrilled with how the folks at Sesame Street parody network TV shows. While I am sure that the creators mean simple and innocent fun with their skits, I believe it also sends the message that the shows they represent are normal and acceptable in normal households. I'm not sure how normal we are, but Desperate Housewives is a show that we do not let in our house. My children know that when Extreme Makeover Home Edition is over and they hear, "Previously on Desperate Housewives..." power to the television is to be immediately terminated. It's almost comical how they scramble to turn it off, as if they were diving on a live grenade.
While it may not be a grenade, many TV shows are painfully difficult for us to watch these days. Some of the shows are so corrosive, I wonder how anyone can possibly watch them. Consequently, some nights we simply don't turn on the television set. Instead, we will read a good book or play a game together, if we don't split up to do separate things. We avoid the shows not because we like feeling superior or cerebral, but because we've found that these shows actively interfere with our hearts and minds.
8-9Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (Philippians 4:8, The Message)
I can't come out with a list of TV shows that I think are bad or good. The verse above should be more than enough for the average Christian, especially when it's paired with the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Each person is responsible only to God for decisions like these. However, Jesus did give us a special charge with children.
"And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. Mark 9:42 (NIV)
To me this verse means that God takes the destruction of children's innocence very seriously. This is why the Sesame Street skits irritate me. It feels like they're playing with fire. Look smart all you want, but I would prefer if they would just stick with "C is for cookie," and the yip-yip monsters.
What? You've never heard of the yip-yip monsters? Yip Yip
This morning at breakfast I got to wondering: What would you miss if your dear children went to public school and you did not spend quantity time with them? I am looking for specific answers that don't readily come to mind. If you have some, post them in the comments, and I shall compile a list. I think they would make wonderful reasons to encourage others to homeschool.
My inspiration: the sudden realization that if Miss Dog Lover were not here with me, I would not hear her twanging a concert on the elastics the orthodontist provides for dental alignment. Not even iTunes provides that service, last I checked. :)
Arby reports that (he) "would miss Major Havoc’s long-winded explanations of those random ideas that roll around his noggin’ but take FOREVER to be explained, and the huge grin that he gets when he realizes that I understand him. Those are moments that classroom teachers rarely have time for, leaving the Major Havocs of the world frustrated and disappointed."
My friend Christina ,over at JugglingPaynes, says she "would miss the endless random discussions that pop up in the course of a day. Most topics revolve around superheroes lately, for example why do Spiderman's villains seem unable to live through the end of a movie? Batman's villains are much better at surviving. If you kill all your villains, who is left to fight? New York needed something like Gotham's Arkham Asylum, where they may as well have installed a revolving door considering how easy it is to escape. ~~ Hang on, the conversation just picked up again over here... "
We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down. I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more! Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon! This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change. I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL!
So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives. We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way. The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan. I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it .... The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility.
On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge. We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.
I leave you with this picture of the kiddos! Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them. We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees.
When I was a young and silly girl I really wanted a certain record. Yup, I said record. They still existed even though cassette tapes were beginning to make their appearance. The problem was, I didn't own a tape player, I owned a record player.
I can't even remember now how this record made it to the top of my wish list. I'm guessing that what really happened was that I had seen it while digging through the records at the store and it called to my fickle heart. I trotted off to the nearest money source, which just happened to be my Aunt Sissie. I was spending a couple of weeks with her during the summer. Her children were all grown and possibly gone, that part of my memory is a little fuzzy. Anyway, I guess Aunt Sissie saw nothing wrong with indulging me and she bought it. Oh, I was a happy music lover! I listened to that album for years. Perhaps all of two-years.
I have no idea what my mother thought of this present. I don't recall her ever expressing it to me. I may have to ask her about that. I do remember that my aunt loved me and wanted to give me something simple, like a two week invasion of her home and privacy wasn't enough. She was just like that, quietly giving.
So what record sang to me and held my attention for so long? Irwin the Disco Duck In the Navy.
Groovy! Here are the popular titles on this record that I boogied to:
In the Navy
Macho Man
Y.M.C.A.
Music Box Dancer
Last Dance
Knock on Wood
Le Freak
Instant Replay
I Love the Night Life
Goodnight Tonight
What a horrendous track of songs! I think the only reason they threw in Music Box Dancer was to appease parents who thought the record might rot brains. I know it did mine, but at least I still love Music Box Dancer. Believe it or not this album was made by Peter Pan Records, a company that made records for children.
I'm sure it was that dashing figure of a duck in his sailor uniform that caught my eye in the first place. I wanted to join the Navy after all! As one of those grown cousins that no longer lived in the house was in the Navy, it was probably what tipped the scale in my aunt buying it for me. I wouldn't buy anything like this for my own children, let alone my nieces.
It is however a somewhat fond memory, mainly because of my Aunt Sissie. I can't ever hear Y.M.C.A. without thinking of this record, and I can't think of this record without remembering her.
"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." ~Erma Bombeck
That common thread, I know what it is. It's love. Not necessarily for each other, but for the same group of people. For instance, my sister and I are very opposite from each other, but our love for our mother is the only thing that keeps us together. We also love the same aunts, and uncles, and cousins, but it's our mom that keeps us in communication.
I pray that I will always remember the fun my family has had. I don't ever want to forget the good times. I'm going to be writing some of them down, more for my benefit then yours, but I hope that I write them well enough that you can enjoy them too. I want to weave my memories together on "paper" before my mind unravels. I'm not expecting that to happen anytime soon, but I've already noticed that a few strands have been pulled and the edges are wearing.
My mom keeps a box full of all the comic strips that made her truly laugh. She wants to read them when she is old and feeling unhappy. I want the same thing of my memories. In case I can't remember, I can pull one out and hopefully it will help me to remember and I can be happy because my life has been so truly blessed. I may even pull them out before I'm very old, because so often lately I do forget just how blessed I am.
• Wednesday, November 4, 2009 - Melrose Takes a Day Trip
Posted By Toby
Tuesday Miss Dog Lover and Mr Gingersnap had medical appointments in the big city. So, we decided to make a day of it and visit the plant conservatory there. This was a pretty routine field trip with lots to see and Mom talking altogether too much instead of just letting the student body look. However, Mom was greatly relieved when Mr Music quit making Darth Vader sounds in his efforts to help the plants grow by exhaling extra carbon dioxide for them.
Melrose, of course, begged to go along. Here he is, in a banana plant.
And again, in a different one. He did not eat any bananas whatsoever.
And this is called a Flamingo Plant. I include this for the owner of the world's most amazing fish and who happens to love flamingos. Hopefully seeing this will make her feel better.
For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
I feel this passage works hand-in-hand with Proverbs 3:11 from last week (you can find those copywork pages HERE). It explains why the Lord chooses to correct us. No more than we discipline our children out of spite or vindictiveness does the Lord do so. We correct our children because we love them and wish only the best for them. Our love for our children cannot even come close to the love that our Father has for us, so why would we doubt that He would admonish us when we need it.
Confessions and ramblings from a mommy, teacher, business owner, chef, accountant, housekeeper, sheriff, personal shopper, nose wiper, diaper changer and resident problem solver.
