Our Four Ring Circus - Homeschool Blogger

A Chase moment

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:52:00 -0600

I don't really blog anymore but I wanted to record for posterity another of the cute things Chase comes up with sometimes. Today we were listening to the radio in the van and 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town' was playing. He was a little taken aback by the line, "The kids in girl and boy land, will have a jubilee, they're going to build a toilet all around the Christmas tree."

The Results Are In - Follow-up on the Costco Poll

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 00:38:00 -0500

Earlier this month I posted a poll being taken by Costco asking if homeschoolers should be required to have state teacher certification. Obviously, I wasn't the only one who posted that poll. Here is what Costco had to say in their October issue of The Connection magazine:

"The response to this debate was unprecedented, with more than 10 times our normal response, in great part due to its being picked up on Internet discussion blogs. The overwhelming consensus was that certification was not needed, something that California's state appellate court agreed with shortly after the September issue of The Connection had gone to press. While thanking all those who participated, The Connection would like to reassert that the aim of the Debate, which is published every month, is to present topics for discussion that we feel would be of interest to our members. The company and the magazine take a neutral stance." (link)

Hmmm... it seems Costco might have heard from more than few homeschoolers on this issue and obviously, they don't want anyone to get the wrong idea.

Drum roll please...

97% said that homeschoolers should not be required to seek teacher certification. (link)

Thanks to all who took the time to respond!

Preschool - now the required prerequisite for Kindergarten

Sat, 6 Sep 2008 22:02:00 -0500

John works with a lady who was in tears this week over her 5 year old son - just one and a half weeks into his Kindergarten career and things aren't going well. It seems the teacher called her to set up an appointment to meet as her son was having trouble handling the academics of Kindergarten. Each day the children take turns putting up the month, day and year and her son just doesn't get it. It seems he doesn't 'get' a lot of things. He's behind. Exactly 8 days into Kindergarten and already he is behind in school.

How ridiculous! How could anyone be 'behind' not even 2 weeks into Kindergarten? Wasn't Kindergarten supposed to be that optional year to give kids a head start on 1st grade? Wasn't Kindergarten supposed to be about learning how to get along with others, function in a semi-structured environment, listen to stories, learn colors and shapes and letters? Not any more.

You see, this mother decided not to send her son to preschool last year. Because of this he hasn't learned all the 'pre-requisites' for Kindergarten and she is being made to feel as though she as done her child a great disservice. It is working.

I would assume 90+% of Kindergarteners in California have attended 1-2 years of preschool. Most of the kids know all those things Kindergarten used to be about and if your kid doesn't, he's behind before he ever walks through the door.

To add to my complete disgust this week with the idea that we should turn our kids over to the government to start their indoctrination prior Kindergarten, yesterday afternoon I was in Sam's Club with the kids. As the lady at the door was checking our receipt, she asked, "Has school started already, Mom."

I replied with a simple, 'Yes". We've actually been having school for 2 weeks now and she didn't need to know where.

She then volunteered the strangest little tidbit, "You know, they've got a program before Head Start now that will take kids as young as 18 months. They'll even potty train them for you."

Amazing! I'm sure that young mom working at Sam's thought she was doing me a big favor letting me know about this great new opportunity.

Why bother having children if your just going to turn them over to the 'system' at the first opportunity which apparently now comes at age 18 months.

To add insult to insult, as I exited Sam's, I found someone had attempted to remove my Palin/McCain bumper sticker. What is the world coming to?

Attention Homeschoolers - take an online poll from Costco

Mon, 1 Sep 2008 22:56:00 -0500

I haven't been browsing the blogs at all lately so this may have already spread around here like wildfire but in the event some may not have seen it, I wanted to bring your attention to Costco magazine's current debate topic. You can participate in their online poll on the topic of "Should parents be required to have teacher certification to homeschool their children?"

This is the link. Click on the check-mark to participate.

I believe you can take this poll daily. Not exactly a scientific survey but I hope the results are quite in our favor. It looks like the cut off for inclusion in next months issue of the print magazine is probably around September 11, 2008.

Enjoy!

Happy 40th Kelli!

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:29:00 -0500

My long-time friend Kelli, the maid of honor in my wedding, turns 40 today. Happy Birthday Kel!

The Nanny State

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 08:59:00 -0500

This is not what I had envisioned as my first post after my little hiatus but I just had to get this out of my head.

Yesterday I sat with the coaches wife watching Chase's T-ball game. The coach and his wife are wonderful people as people go. We have known them for 5 years as he coached Brendan for 4 years before becoming Chase's coach this year.

These are not particularly 'religious' people but they are doing their best to raise their kids right. They are very involved parents who make family the priority but the conversation I overheard between the wife and her mother disturbed me.

Her 4th grade son came home from school and shared with her all the things he had learned about his body including some of the anatomical parts and how they change and what they do. Her comment was, "My baby is growing up."

The grandmother remarked, "It's too bad they have to learn all that so young."

The mother replied, "Yeah, we didn't learn it until the 6th grade."

The grandmother said, "I don't think we learned it until 8th."

The mother then said, "But now they have to do it sooner because kids are maturing faster."

What struck me is the absolute trust these people placed in their public school to know that now is the best time and this is the best way to accomplish what has to be done.

In a way, they were lamenting some loss of innocence of this 9 year old little boy but they weren't upset about it and they were not second guessing the school's decision to teach him these things at this time.
It was completely natural to them for the school to perform this function as if it were no different than teaching him to read and write. It was just a given that children should learn this stuff in school on the school's timetable and in whatever why the school deems best.

It is so foreign to me to trust the educational system of this state and yet obviously many good people think that because the curriculum is chosen by professionals who have experience in these matters, it is what is best for their child.

Wake up people!

Breaking the Law in California

Sat, 8 Mar 2008 22:38:00 -0600

I suppose there isn't a homeschooler on the planet who hasn't heard of the recent decision here in California which determined that all children must attend a full-time public or private day school or be tutored at home by a teacher certified to teach the specific grade level of the child.

It is somewhat amazing that a 3 judge panel ruling on a single complaint against one family has managed to effectively make 100,000 parents now criminally negligent for the truancy of their children.

The reality is, this is a day that was almost bound to come eventually but no one anticipated it would come at this time or in this way. Because this was a case of suspected child abuse in a single family, the proceedings were confidential and completely off the radar of our watchdog groups such as Home School Legal Defense Association. We didn't see this coming because unfortunately, the parents in this case allowed themselves to be represented by a court appointed attorney rather than availing themselves of the many Christian legal associations which are set up just for situations like this.

The thing I find most annoying is the reason the prosecuting organization gives for insisting the children in this family be placed in school. "The organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

Obviously Child Protective Services did not find enough evidence of abuse to remove the children from the home but they wanted these children to be watched and they wanted the school to watch them. It puts a whole new spin on the idea of 'nanny state'.

The Department of Education in California has long been in the business of more than just educating. A child who enrolls in public school here must visit the dentist and receive certification of their oral health. They must visit a doctor to ensure their physical health. They must provide proof of several required immunizations. Their parents are asked to provide income information so it can be determined if the child qualifies for free breakfast and lunch programs whether or not the parents actually want to avail themselves of these programs. Free breakfast and lunch are not limited to school aged children nor are they limited to the school year. These school based breakfast and lunch programs are available all summer to qualifying individuals from ages 2 to 17.

The state also provides free before school and after school care as well as preschool services. Special education services such as speech therapy are available to children as young as 2.

Teachers have long been required to report any suspicion of abuse and it seems now, children are required to be seen regularly by teachers to ensure their safety.

The family in this case did have their children enrolled in a private Christian school which acted as an umbrella providing oversight to the homeschooling of the children but apparently, this wasn’t enough to appease the court.

How could a court make such a finding? Because the statutes in the education code pre-date the current homeschooling movement and require "children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child's grade level." No one has ever found it necessary to challenge these statutes until now.

Until now, homeschooling in this state has operated under the statutory provisions afforded to private schools and so, in effect, homeschooling doesn't exist in California and it never has. Private schools here are completely unregulated and all you have to do to be a private school is file a simple on-line form once a year. For this reason, rather than homeschools, we just have a zillion family sized private schools. This is how the game has been played and the state was happy to play along.

As evidence of this game, homeschool organizations here (which aren't called homeschool organizations because homeschooling doesn't exist) have long cautioned us not to call ourselves homeschoolers but to say that we "privately educate our children at home."

Both the Department of Education and the homeschooling community found it easiest just to let sleeping dogs lie on a rather grand scale. Now it seems someone has finally kicked the dog.

What happens next? We have several avenues of recourse and wonderful representation for our cause. I am not the least bit worried.

The Home School Legal Defense Association has already set the wheels in motion on a variety of options any of which could solve the problem. Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute has agreed to take over this case and appeal it to the California Supreme Court (the same court which is very likely to legalize gay marriage in California within the week). Brad's grandmother was a long time friend of my family and Brad is a very competent attorney with lots of experience defending Christians against the assault on our values. Just last month Brad offered to take our case if we chose to pursue our complaint regarding evolution on California state testing.

If all of these legal avenues should fail, our governor has already committed to changing the laws in our favor. Governor Schwarzenegger released a statement yesterday calling the ruling "outrageous" and saying "If the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will." Let's just hope this all plays out before the changing of the guard at the governor's mansion.

In addition to all of these human resources, our greatest confidence is in God. The first I heard of this case was a comment here on my blog from a blog friend all the way in Rhode Island who was already praying about this situation before most Californians new it existed. With our army of prayer warriors, our faithful Heavenly Father, strong legal representation and a governor who has pledged to protect us, I just don't see how we could lose. The worst case scenario is that we would have to move and there are 1000s of families that would move before they would put their children in public school.

To all of you who are praying, thank you. I look forward to the day when this situation is resolved and hopefully homeschooling will gain even stronger footing here in California because of it.

To learn more about this case and to sign an on-line petition sponsored by HSLDA, please click here.

Simplifying the simple

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 16:16:00 -0600

A few worthless observations I've made lately...

If you take something that is already very easy and make it even easier, it will sell.

Two acquisitions we've made recently illustrate this point. For a few years I have considered purchasing new toilet paper holders. Our old holders were still very functional but John had long complained that people would tend set the new roll on the counter rather than load it into the dispenser. Our holders were the pressure bar, spring loaded type - it takes about 2 seconds to take off the bar, drop the empty roll in the trash and replace it with a new roll.

Now I've found an even simpler way. I purchased new hook style fixtures last summer. They don't require removing the bar. You just slide the empty tube off and slide on the new roll. This has completely solved the problem. We've taken a two second job down to a 1.5 second job but somehow that half second made all the difference.

Similarly, a few years ago I changed dishwasher detergent. I found that the little Electrasol tablets were actually cheaper by the load than the old Costco powder I had previously purchased so I switched. I liked the tablets better - you just unwrap, drop and close rather than pouring the powder which often tended to overfill the trough.

Now I have discovered an even easier way. The new Cascade tablets have no wrapper to remove but instead the coating dissolves releasing the detergent. By just eliminating that little step of removing the wrapper, Cascade has me hooked. I don't even want to use the half a box of Electrasol I have left in the cupboard.

From powder, to wrapped tablets, to unwrapped tablets the difference in time and energy required is ever so slight and yet that slight difference makes all the difference.

I still buy coffee in a tin as opposed to the pods. I still buy old fashioned laundry detergent rather than the more expensive all-in-one premeasured packets. But when price isn't an obstacle, appealing to folks lazy nature by making a task even slightly easier is a sure ticket to success.

Back in business

Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:54:00 -0600

I've been frozen out of Homeschoolblogger for about a month now. I was not able to get any homeschool blog site to load and yet seemingly every other site on the Internet was at my disposal. It was odd. I tried everything I could think of on my end to troubleshoot the problem but nothing seemed to work. I did report it to Homeschoolblogger a week ago, maybe they pushed the magic button because this morning I got in with no trouble. I hope it lasts. More later...

Discrimination pays us a visit

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:01:00 -0600

UPDATE 1/23: I'm not the only one who saw the inclusion of evolution in testing as discrimination. Last weekend my mother happened to be talking to an attorney who heads a prominent Christian law firm here in California. She mentioned this situation to him and he told her if questions on evolution ever negatively impacted our scores, to let him know and he would take our case.

Last night as I was resting with Alyssa before she fell asleep, she asked me some questions that came back to haunt me this morning at 3 AM. The more I've thought about them, the more they bother me. I don't know why this took me by surprise but I just never gave it a thought until now.

The homeschool program we joined this year offers us the opportunity to have the children tested by a couple different methods each year. This week Alyssa and Brendan are taking a test made by the Scantron corporation. I've known of Scantron for as long as I can remember as they made the answer sheets we used on all Standardized Testing I took growing up. When their name surfaced as the publisher of this testing, it struck me as a little odd so I did some research.

Scantron is still in the business of making answer sheets but they have also developed testing of their own. It is internet based diagnostic type testing and it intrigued me. Everyone starts at basically the same place, the tests are not different for each grade level as I understand it. The test progresses with increasingly harder questions until the student no longer answers the questions correctly and then the test adjust alternating easier and harder questions until it finds the highest level at which the student is able to function. It pinpoints strengths and weaknesses along the way. It is not timed and the student can take the test in as many sittings as desired as the test can be stopped and started again from any point.

The tests can be taken at home but the homeschool program recommended we use the services of their computer lab as it is a more ideal testing environment. The test has 4 components: Math, Reading, Language, and Science/Social Science. Brendan, as a 3rd grader, only takes the first 3 while Alyssa takes all 4. Yesterday Alyssa completed the Reading and Science portions and last night was obviously still dwelling on some of the questions.

The questions she asked me were on evolution. She is plenty familiar with the concept of evolution and she recognized immediately what these questions were. Though she knows we believe evolution to be false, she did her best to apply logic to the questions and get them correct. When asked to name the animal from which the frog evolved, she reasoned fish was the best answer. When asked to date the earliest turtles, she gave the best answer from her experience though it was certainly not what they wanted. The choices were 3000 years, 30,000 years, 300,000 years, 300 million years. She went with 3000 which, of the choices, is certainly the closest to what we teach. The answer they were looking for was the opposite extreme of course.

Why didn't it occur to me that my children would be tested on evolution? I suppose because in my experience, I don't recall evolution ever appearing on standardized testing. Having grown up in Christian schools, perhaps the curriculum publishers from which we obtained all our testing materials made sure they used versions that were sanitized to suit us. I don't recall evolution appearing on the SAT or ACT tests I took in high school. Maybe I've just forgotten or perhaps 20+ years ago, they didn't test on evolution.

Last year Alyssa took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. If evolution appeared on that, she didn't mention it. We obtained this test from Bob Jones so perhaps they have managed to find testing without evolution.

It is interesting to note that when I checked the California Education Code content standards for science, evolution does not appear until grade 7. The testing we are taking is supposed to match content standards. It seems Alyssa may have made her way up to 7th grade science questions but I kind of doubt it. More likely, the people who wrote the test know very well that children are exposed to evolution in school long before junior high.

Why does this bother me so much? Because America was born of the sacrifice of Christians who believed that people were endowed by their CREATOR with certain rights. Because the educational system now requires that we replace that CREATOR with a system of unprovable scientific theory and it discriminates against those who refuse to do so by relegating them to lower test scores. Because my daughter wasted her mental energy and the logical mind God gave her trying to sift through answers she knew weren't true to questions that weren't relevant and should never have been asked. Because this is probably the first of many times this scenario will happen to my children.

I could decline to have them take the science test in the future. I could decline all the tests. I could choose to have them do the science test at home where I can help level the playing field on the questions I don't want them to answer. But I shouldn't have to do any of these things because I should live in a country with an educational system tolerant enough to make room for the beliefs of the people who founded it; open minded enough to see that something that can't be proven should at best be relegated to the realm of possibility and not force fed to everyone as the one and only absolute fact.

The supposedly tolerant, open minded, non-discriminatory educational system that claims to make room for all in reality has no place for people like me. This is one of the big reasons I homeschool. I make the sacrifices necessary to make sure my children get the facts the way I believe them to be and it really irks me to be blind sided by the educational system I try so hard to avoid.

This concludes my rambling rant for today.

Do I still blog here?

Tue, 8 Jan 2008 15:59:00 -0600

I certainly want to but life just isn't cooperating. I've had so many entries running through my mind but none of them have made it onto the screen.

I popped in to make a quick note of a conversation I just had with Chase. He came up to me and said:

"Mom, you know what's kind of sad?"

"What?"

"We are almost out of milk?"

"Oh, that's OK, we can buy some more."

"Yeah, but it is kind of sad because when you're out of milk there are lots of things you can't have like cereal."

When being almost out of milk qualifies as sad, you know life is good.

A must see for every homeschooler

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:46:00 -0600

This video came to me this morning compliments of my friend Allison. I don't think there is a homeschooler on the planet who won't find something to appreciate it this. It's only a minute or two. Link

Christmas Cheer!

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:29:00 -0600

I don't know how long this link will last but I thought others might have some fun with this as well. It was very easy to do. Here are Alyssa, Brendan, Chase, and Emily doing the elf dance: link (takes a minute to load - works best in IE) Enjoy!

Our November +1

Sun, 2 Dec 2007 23:36:00 -0600

In my last whirlwind update, I predicted I would update again in mid to late November. I really tried to get this done last week but I've missed the mark by a few days. We had a great trip back to Virginia/DC and we brought back over 300 pictures as proof.

The +1 in my title refers to this picture obviously from Oct. 31. This is the first year we have attempted to use patterns to carve our pumpkins. When Alyssa selected the Trick or Treat pattern, I was a scoffer. I was sure it wouldn't work as it seemed to me to be just too complicated. She carved every inch of it herself and it turned out great. She is so far superior to mom in her artistic abilities. Brendan chose a scary face and did nearly all of it himself. Chase's had a little friendlier persona and I did most of it for him. Emily had a small pumpkin decorated with little plastic pins to look like a kitty. Since I didn't gut hers, we couldn't light it so it is barely visible here.

We headed to Norfolk, VA on Nov 3 to visit John's parents and see the sights. We spent 2 days in D.C. John and I hadn't been there in more than 10 years and of course, things are different after 9/11. We had an appointment to tour the White House at 8:30 AM which meant a very early morning. We arrived in DC the afternoon before so we could go down to scope out our route and figure out where we needed to go in the morning. They don't allow cameras, strollers, or even purses in the White House so this picture was taken on our trial run just outside the gate near where we entered the White House grounds for our tour. It was bitterly cold in D.C. and all we had with us were 'California coats' so we froze.

We arrived for our White House tour a little early and they let us right in. While standing in the Blue Room, Marine 1 landed just outside the window. We watched for a few minutes and soon a photographer came out and positioned himself facing the door of the helicopter. A few minutes later, Pres. Bush emerged from the building, boarded the helicopter, turned to wave for the camera and off it went. That was sort of the highlight of our trip.

After our White House tour, we took the metro back to our hotel about 20 minutes outside the city to retrieve our stroller, camera, etc.

The Metro was pretty empty as we traveled back into the city late in the morning and the kids had a great time holding the poles the whole way. Emily was showing off in this rather dangerous manuever. She's lucky she didn't fall on her backside when the train jerked to stop.

This was our feeble attempt at trick photography. We weren't able to go up in the Washington Monument as you had to be in line early the morning to get tickets to come back later in the day to go up but we took a good look at it.

We stopped by a Target on our first evening in DC and picked up gloves and ear warmers for the kids. This was the coldest day they had had so far. We had been watching DC weather for 2 weeks before we left California and it had been very moderate right up until the day we went.

As we walked along the Mall from the Washington Monument to the Capital Building, John spotted this sign and naturally, had to stop and take a picture in front of it.

Long may it wave!

The biggest disappointment of our trip was not getting to go inside the Capital Building. In the past, we've always been able to walk right in and see the Rotunda and walk down the halls but no longer. Now you have to get in line early in the morning and get an appointment to return for a tour later in the day. We had no appointment so this is as close as we got. While we were sitting at the base of the steps (which are completely blocked by barricades and no one is allowed up them) lamenting our misfortune in not being able to show the kids the inside, Emily announced she needed to pee. We asked a guard to direct us to the nearest bathroom which was all the way back at the Botanical Garden on the Mall. Off we went for unplanned visit to the National Botanical Garden.

The botanical gardens were very nice and wonderfully warm so we spent quite a bit of time looking at the plants and taking pictures of the flowers. By the time we were done there, we were so tired from our early morning (we were up at 5:45 to get ready and get to the Metro station by 7) we decided to call it a day and we headed out of the city before rush hour.

The following morning we drove into the city and John dropped the kids and I off to see the Memorials while he drove the van around. The kids were all very impressed with the Lincoln Memorial and we took the time to read the Gettysburg Address inscribed on the wall.

It was Nov. 9 and they were having a special ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial which included reading all the names in preparation for Veteran's day.

I had never seen the Korean War Memorial as it is fairly new (1995).

These were more preparations in anticipation of Veteran's Day.

A friend's father passed away earlier this year and was buried at Arlington. We were obviously not the only ones to visit around that time because these beautiful flowers were in place when we got there. Because we were there to visit a grave, we got to drive in and we spent quite a bit of time just seeing the sites there. They have several little monuments to various things that you would never see on foot. There are also wonderful views of the Pentagon and other very scenic landscapes. We got several nice pictures.

We also saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier and a very nice wreath ceremony there. I'm not sure if this wreath ceremony was routine or in honor of Veteran's Day. We were also there on the eve of the Marine Corp. birthday which may have had something to do with the special events taking place.

We drove back to Norfolk that afternoon, leaving D.C. around 2 PM. We got stuck in the worst traffic jam I have ever experienced (and I lived in L.A. for 3 years). We literally sat virtually motionless in traffic for 3 hours due to an accident and of course it was a holiday weekend which only made matters worse.

The one place I really wanted to see in Virginia was Jamestown Island. It is only a 40 minute drive from Norfolk so we spent a day there. The A Beka history book we are currently using actually includes a 2 page commercial about this place and that is how I found out about it. It is called Jamestown Settlement and it has a mock-up of the Powhatan Indian Village, replicas of the three ships the settlers arrived in, as well as a full scale replica of the Jamestown Fort.

.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Jamestown Settlement was actually built in honor of the 350th anniversary and Queen Elizabeth attended its grand opening. She was back earlier this year to commemorate the anniversary.

Apparently they change the fort from time to time to reflect different periods in its history. The fort we toured was the 1610 version and was a little less primitive than the original 1607 fort would have been.

We got to see this guy fire the musket a few times and he gave a nice little history lesson.

Everything at this place is designed to be very 'hands on' which was a lot of fun for the kids.

Here is Emily trying out a 17th century style broom.

Just a few hours before we had to catch our plane for home, we decided to head down to the beach for a quick peek at the Atlantic. We only had about 30 minutes to spend if we were going to get to the airport on time and we had no intentions of getting wet.

I don't know what we were thinking. Kids+beach+beautiful day=wet

Before it was over, they looked like this. We headed back to the house for a quick change and then it was off to the airport.

We had an hour or so lay over in Chicago and we took advantage of the opportunity to give the kids a last little cultural lesson with Chicago dogs for everyone to share. Sadly, none of us really liked Chicago dogs but once we got rid of the onions and the peppers they were alright.

We got back late on Nov. 14. November 17 was the last day of Soccer season and for us featured 3 games and 3 end of season pizza parties all in one day. I was the team mom for both of the boys' teams and so I got to organize the parties and I spent Friday making 84 soccer cupcakes. It is so wonderful to be done with soccer!

We had my parents down for Thanksgiving and had a nice holiday with all the trimmings.

The last week of November we focused on school and got quite a bit accomplished. With all of the activity during the first 3 weeks of the month, school was nearly untouched so we are now trying to make up some of that lost time. If it weren't for homeschooling, we wouldn't have been able to take such a trip during leaf season and it was certainly worth missing a few days of school for all the things seen and experiences had.

Ruth is having a contest

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:55:00 -0600

We are back! It's been so long since I've logged in here, I had a little trouble navigating to the new entry page.

Real life catching up has me running in all directions at the moment but I wanted to get in a quick contest entry. Ruth is giving away some beautiful hand made snowflakes which she has also made available for purchase. Of course I only know Ruth as a blog friend but she is always a wonderful encourager and her blog, appropriately named "Heart of God", is a beautiful window into her heart for God. Stop by and see what Ruth has to say and take a look at her handiwork while you're there.

Catching up: the circus, a birthday, and a trip to the pumpkin farm

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:33:00 -0500

It seems like things just haven't slowed down in ages around here and blog time has been nil. I wanted to get a few things on the record for posterity.

The Greatest Show On Earth

We made our first appearance at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. John and I both grew up in small towns so while we saw a circus or two in our day, I doubt either of us had ever been to this one.

We arrived before the doors opened so as not to miss a thing. The kids amused themselves while we waited in line.

The preshow was really cool because we got to be right on the floor with the performers.

They had some great acts all going on just a few feet from the spectators.

The kids and I were standing in the front and Alyssa got picked to be part of the act.

She was a good sport - never one to shy away from the spotlight.

Once the real deal started, we took our seats in the front row of the balcony. We had about the best cheap seats in the place.

The Monday before the circus, we just happened to be traveling a few miles from our home when the circus train arrived. We got to stand on the side of the road as the 'circus parade' passed. They walked all the elephants, horses and ponies from the train tracks to the arena and had them do little tricks along the way. It was an unannounced parade so only a few of us fortunate enough to be on the road at the time got to see it. It was wonderful way to build excitement for the show that was to come.

Emily turns 3

For Emily's 3rd birthday, we took the family to Chuck E. Cheese (thus the crown). We had pizza and let the kids play for a few hours and then returned home for cake and presents.

It was a store bought cake though it had a certain homespun air about it.

Brendan got Emily this strobe light which casts kind of an eerie mood on the room. Emily had the perfect expression to match.

Our annual visit to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm

We just love this place. It is our Columbus day tradition and since John is one of the few who has the day off, it is never crowded when we are there. An added benefit of going on a weekday is free parking!

We started with a hay ride out to the pumpkin fields. We didn't find a pumpkin we liked so we saved a few dollars and went home without one.

They have a wonderful petting zoo and many little attractions for the kids all free of charge. Here our camera had a rare moment of clarity and actually caught Brendan before he hit the ground.

This is supposed to be a jail but it looks more like caged monkeys.

Lest you think we got away without spending a dime, we did spring for a train ride (though this particular train doesn't move) and of course, we couldn't leave without a gallon of fresh cider and a pumpkin cake.

For our next big adventure, we are off to Virginia and Washington D.C. for 11 days. John's parents are in Norfolk and we plan to cram in as much sightseeing as we can while we have the chance. There is so much history in that part of the country and I hope the children will really come away with a better understanding of the people and places we have studied over the past few years.

To be continued... (probably mid to late November).

Squanto? Never heard of him.

Mon, 1 Oct 2007 09:13:00 -0500

John and I teach children's church a few times a month and yesterday it was our turn. We were talking about the idea that God sometimes takes bad things and uses them for good. Our story was Daniel in the Lion's Den and to illustrate the point further, I shared the story of Squanto.

When I asked how many had learned about Squanto in school, only the Christian school/homeschool kids raised their hands. I have some very bright 3rd graders in this class and I'm always amazed at how much they do know but this time the response was, "Never heard of him."

I shared how Squanto initially went to England for the experience of it. When he wanted to come home, he spent many months trying to find passage. He finally got back to America only to be taken against his will right back to Europe without ever getting to see his family. He spent another few years again finding a ship that could take him home and when he finally got back, he found his entire tribe had been wiped out by disease. How very tragic and yet if Squanto had been with his tribe, he would have likely died too. Without his help, who knows if the Pilgrims would have survived their second winter in the New World.

The kids had heard of the Pilgrims and they new about the first Thanksgiving but I think our schools today are leaving out much of our Christian heritage.

If you know any curriculum developers out there, I would love for someone to write a Children's Church curriculum which illustrated the Biblical truth of the week with stories from American history. I think Christianity has pretty much been written out of the history curriculum in our schools so it may be time we write history into our church curriculum. I am certainly going to be more aware of this as I prepare my lessons for Children's Church.

In the past, I have typically tried to illustrate as much as I can using science. The kids love to see little feats of scientific magic and it is so important to demostrate how all of the principles of the universe were designed by God and didn't happen by chance.

Of course I realize that in the one hour a week we have for children's church, it is impossible to adequately present the flip side what they are taught in school. However, I think it is worth a concerted effort to present the Christian worldview in the areas of Science and History as much as we can.

Some of the staff in the homeschool program we joined this year are not Christians. I was talking with a teacher there and the subject came up of Columbus day. She remarked to me, "Isn't it amazing that we dedicate a day to someone who made so many mistakes?"

I thought to myself how her views must seep into her teaching and how the children in her classes would automatically accept these views as truth. Obviously this is one of the big reason people homeschool and it was a huge red flag that reminded me just how selective we have to be in choosing teachers and classes in this homeschool program.

In the past, even public school curriculum taught the facts about the influence of Christianity on the founding of America and in all eras since. Today, I don't think that is the case. We know that science curriculum now presents evolution as the one accepted explanation for the origin of the life.

The church didn't have to concentrate on these areas in the past because everyone got the teaching in school. With things as they are now, I think it is time we integrate what we previously considered academic areas of science and history into our Bible teaching.

Silky Made It!

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:45:00 -0500

We watched Silky for 2.5 weeks wiggle around in his cocoon and finally on Friday evening we noticed that his cocoon seemed much smaller. A quick look around his jar and we spotted our little moth.

We took him outside and removed the lid. It was very breezy so he noticed right away. He crawled up the side and out only to turn right around and crawl back up the outside and in.

He snuggled down inside a curled leaf and went to sleep. When I checked on him a few hours later, he was still in the leaf so I brought him in for the night. Yesterday we took him out again. He wouldn't leave the jar. We picked up on the stick he was on and put him on our patio table. He didn't move. We thought maybe he was dead. He sat on the table for an hour or more apparently asleep.

We finally managed to wake him and watch his maiden flight. He was obviously quite inexperienced as he went about 4 feet before hitting the supporting beam of the patio and falling onto the grass. He sat here for a few minutes and then off he flew to join the food chain.

Alyssa and I are not fond of bugs and moths are certainly included on the list of things we avoid. Somehow it's just different when it's 'your moth'. Alyssa considered herself his surrogate mother and remarked at how cute he was. Truly a face only a mother could love but we enjoyed watching the miraculous transformation of our ugly worm into our ugly moth.

In other news, John turned 40 yesterday. We had a family party and the kids found lots of wonderful treasures for dad at the Dollar Tree.

Here is Chase eagerly awaiting the opening of the bag of gifts he picked out. They get so excited to help unload the treasures and explain each one.

We have always made good use of the dollar store to allow the kids to pick out gifts. We end up with some things we don't really need (or want) but the money is well spent just to see them experience the joy of giving.

Chase goes to Kindergarten

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:32:00 -0500

The new homeschool program we joined gives Chase the opportunity to attend a Kindergarten class for a few hours once a week. It isn't often that a 3rd born like Chase gets to be the first in the family to go off to Kindergarten and he was very excited.

He looks a little wide eyed in the pictures but he actually couldn't wait to get out the door. This was such a change from one year ago when he wouldn't even go to Cubbies without tears (which was really odd since I was the teacher). He marched right into Kindergarten - a completely unfamiliar environment filled with people he had never met - and he didn't think twice about it.

I had the usual first day of Kindergarten gitters. This was the first of my children to go off to school without me and I didn't particularly like it. I guess I need to add this to the ever growing list of reasons why I home school.

Our newest addition!

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:43:00 -0500

12 days ago we had a rather unwelcome guest. While shucking an ear of sweet corn in anticipation of a tasty dinner, I discovered it had already been enjoyed by a nasty little worm who was still quite alive.

The caterpillar was immediately adopted as a pet and since we knew just what to feed him, we have actually been able to keep him alive. Alyssa named him 'Silky' since he was found in the corn silk and this morning Silky has moved from larvae to pupa and is in his cocoon.

I failed to get a picture of Silky but if you've seen one corn earworm, you've seen them all. He looked just like the one pictured here.

We have been studying life stages of insects in science and this fits perfectly. What we didn't know until today is that earworms like Silky prefer to dig into the soil to pupate. Silky seems to have adapted to his environment and instead formed his cocoon right on the bottom of his jar.

Here is Silky today.

From what I can gather online, Silky should remain in this state for about 2 weeks and then hopefully he will be a moth ready to go out and wreak havoc on more corn. Since corn season is over here in California, hopefully we haven't just introduced another pest into the agricultural market.