Progressive HomeSchool

Growing and drawing

2007-06-18T10:50:00.000-04:00

Recently, we have been doing a lot of learning through our new garden.

You can read all about that at Humble Garden.

We have also been doing art. Q continues with her dragon artwork.

KD is now pitching in with drawings of family members and today, of a bus.

Sci-casts: Zeptoliters and tiny tiny bits of fluid

2007-04-20T08:44:00.000-04:00

What do you call 10,000 atoms of liquid?

Try a Zeptoliter

(sourced from Wikipedia)

This table shows you how we label various volumes of fluid using the metric system.

Recently, we have been listening to podcasts of all sorts (got a new computer that has the ability to play the multimedia we need, before we were deaf to the podcast world!)

A podcast, lasting 60 seconds, that talks about the way scientists can dispense a zeptoliter of fluid can be found at the Scientific American podcast site.

"Using what is thought to be the world's smallest pipette, two researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown that tiny droplets of liquid metal freeze much differently than their larger counterparts. This study, focused on droplets just a billionth of a trillionth of a liter in size, is published in the April 15, 2007, online edition of Nature Materials." SOURCE

"Our findings could advance the understanding of the freezing process, or ‘crystallization,' in many areas of nature and technology," said Eli Sutter, a scientist at Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) and the lead author of the study." SOURCE

There are many more 60 second scientific podcasts there for you to explore.

Here is a list of other science podcasts, have fun!

Parents - preview them to be sure they are ok with you.

Science podcast directory
This week in science
Science Friday
NYT - Science Times
The Guardian
Berkeley groks science (go Heinlein!)

KD is beginning to homeschool now

2007-04-18T15:22:00.000-04:00

3 year old KD is counting everything, anything at all, including completely imaginary things. This is a shot of a piece of paper she wrote over as she counted to a 100. Hope you can see how she was writing in lines.

Auto-homeschooling is awesome.

We have been printing a number chart for her to count with. She will, completely on her own, point to each number and say it out loud.

find it here

As with most kids this age, she does it intensely, constantly, and completely. She will not stop counting until she hits her target (often 100).

Some of the things she counts are:

things she is eating
snow flakes
crayons
pens
coins
bits of playdo

She has to say a number if she sees it printed somewhere. That often gets her started again.

She is really getting place values. When she sees the number "35" she doesn't say "three", "five", she says "thirty five."

The ONLY drawback with this is when it comes time for time-outs. We do them where the child has to count out loud.. this is now no longer the trial is was before!

Baby O continues his crazy self. He is getting better at being up on his tummy and doing pre-crawl stuff.

Here he is this last Easter.

Q is taking a break from EPGY this trimester (most of the kids in her class are). We recently did some photo-safari in Boston's Chinatown.

Will post that at another time.

Here she is at Easter.

Here is KD on Easter too.

Q's video from the International Boston Seafood Show

2007-03-16T17:47:00.000-04:00

Below you should see a YouTube video Q took this last Monday at the International Boston Seafood Show. If you do not see it let us know.

More videos are coming of some nifty machines they had for processing fish and stuff.

There are some related posts at my food blog (Nika's Culinaria):

International Boston Seafood Show 2007: Frozen Sushi from Polar Seas - Delicious!

Post Preview: International Boston Seafood Show 2007

International Boston Seafood Show 2007

Fishing for some clarity - Well Fed Network article

Auto-design that has gone to the fishes

Ducktrap orgy

Ichthyological super models

King of Crabs

Birth of a New Essay

2007-03-07T18:05:00.000-05:00

Q is currently getting ready to work on her new essay in her Spring Stanford EPGY writing class. As you might imagine, there is brainstorming in the beginning (painful stuff for EVERYONE in the house, let me assure you).

The current essay-in-the-works is meant to be a work on personal experiences on one of three topics:

Growing up
Learning about disappointments
about what being a friend means

She chose to write on "Growing up".

If you come back to visit, you can watch the process of this building into an essay.

Today we have her premise and a bit of fleshing out of the idea.

Thesis statement: Growing up is mental as well as physical, and you sense yourself growing up.

The mental part about growing up is about feeling older and being older. The sense of feeling older is that years pass by, and you count the years, and you feel older than ever. You feel more mature by being able to do things that younger people can't.

The physical part is about getting taller, and stronger. When you get older, bigger, stronger, you acquire the ability to lift heavy objects and reach high objects. You concentrate more on activities, and are able to more control your emotions. You feel more mature and become more mature.

You become aware of various events and objects as you grow, seeing the world more and more. Events like the new millennium, you become aware of, because you see that there are only 7 years after the 2000, which you did not notice before. You learn about presidents that were in control while you were too young to know. You learn more things as you grow up. You start to understand what happened before you were born.

Evolution vs. Creationism / Intelligent Design in Our Schools - by Q

2007-02-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

(Charles Darwin as a 7 year old boy in 1812)

As I mentioned a while back, Q was taking a distance learning course EPGY Writing last fall (she is now taking the next in the series).

Her final assignment was to write an essay on a controversial topic. What you see below is that essay.

Evolution vs. Creationism/Intelligent Design in Our Schools
By Q
December 6, 2006

The goal of public education is to teach children about the world so that they can get a job, to think clearly, and to know about the world. Most people agree that what is taught in school should be based on facts. This includes subjects like language, history, and science. These days, some religious people are trying to have religious topics taught in public school, and specifically they are trying to have Creationism taught along with Evolution. This is a big controversy and has caused a lot of negative feelings between some religious people and people who want to keep public school free of religious teachings. I believe that Evolution and not Creationism or Intelligent Design should be taught in public school.

In America, our public schools have traditionally followed the idea of government (which includes public schools) and religion being separate so that people can be free to believe what they want. (See this link about the doctrine relating to the Seperation of Church and State) Kids should not be forced to believe religious ideas that are different from their own, and they should not be taught that things are facts when they are actually made up myths. This means that religion should not be taught in school but in churches and temples or people's homes. It would not be fair to teach just one religion because each person has the right to their own religion and a public school that taught just one religion would hurts the rights of those from other religions (and those with no religion).

To understand the controversy, the ideas of evolution, creationism, and intelligent design need to be understood or defined. According to the Theory of Evolution, life evolved from simple ancient life forms into the species that we see on Earth today through a huge number of small changes called mutations from one generation to the next over billions of years. Even though Charles Darwin didn't know about DNA molecules, he is credited with stating the whole Theory of Evolution in the way we know it, which is that mutations that turn out to be helpful for a species' survival and reproduction are the ones that get passed on to future generations, and the ones that lead to death or less reproduction just don't get copied into future generations of a species. (On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin) The theory of Evolution says nothing about how life started or why, just how it has changed over time. Understanding evolution helps scientists better understand everything from how molecules in the body behave and came to exist the way they do today to how ladybugs got their red shells to why butterflies migrate.

People who believe in Creationism believe that one single all powerful supernatural being, usually referred to as a god, or just God, created the universe and all of the things in it, including the Earth and the living things on it, in their presently observed forms. There are actually many different forms of Creationism or creation myths (See this link). The ancient Norse, for instance, had an entirely different mythology that had a Theory of Creation with it. (See this link). Most religions have some kind of story about the origin of the universe and life.

Intelligent Design, as it is being used today, is a very recent set of ideas that argues that there are aspects of life and some molecules inside living cells that are so complex that they could not possibly have been formed spontaneously in nature without a supernatural "intelligent designer." Thus a supernatural designer had to exist before life existed. Like Creationism, Intelligent Design comes in different varieties, including some that say that a Christian God was the entity that had to be that supposed designer and some that don't. For the purpose of this essay, they can be taken together with all the different varieties of Creationism because they all imply and assume the existence of a supernatural being with power and influence over the origin of the universe and life.

One goal of the supporters of Intelligent Design is to have these ideas taught in public school along side or instead of Evolution in biology classes. From the beginning, public school teachers and principals and others involved in running the public schools have had a problem with this. (See National Academy of Sciences) Many believe that the two would clash, and kids would get confused almost to the point of saying that Evolution means that God created the universe. In 1925 there was a court trial that concerned just this problem. It is called the Scopes Monkey Trial (See this link). The basic idea was that it should not be illegal to teach Evolution in schools. The jury said that they agreed that teaching Evolution in public schools should not be illegal. Since then, many different states have tried to pass laws that make it illegal to teach Evolution, then trials have occurred to stop these laws. (See this link)

It seems like there has always been controversy when new scientific ideas have developed, especially those that suggest something different than the established religious ideas of the day. The idea that the creation story in the Bible is not the only true answer to the question of how man came to be has been brutally attacked for hundreds of years. It is no surprise that this controversy continues today.

I believe that the big conflict between evidence and fact-based science and Creationism / Intelligent Design would not happen if everyone just kept them separate, with Evolution taught as science in school, and Creationism / Intelligent design discussed elsewhere if people want to. But it seems like this conflict might go on for decades or more. We might not ever stop fighting about it because its very, very fierce on both sides, and it looks like nobody is backing down. Everyone is rushing to get a tiny bit of proof, or at least a logical argument, so more people will believe their side of the debate.

But the basic important fact is that that Theory of Evolution has a great deal of evidence supporting it ( See "Evidence of Evolution" for a summary of some of it; there exists a great deal more), and Creationism has none at all. No offense to people who take the Bible as historical fact and truth, but the Bible is a collection of myths written by human beings many years ago. There just isn't any scientifically verifiable proof that the Genesis story of how the Universe and Earth and humans that comes at the beginning of the Bible is a true explanation of what actually happened. On the other hand, scientists in the fields of biology, geology and paleontology have discovered a great deal of evidence to support the basic predictions of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, and those many individual pieces of evidence have been subjected to a lot of debate over the years and still seem to point to proof of Evolution. It's not any single piece of scientific evidence that proves Darwin's theory is correct, it is all of the evidence together that agrees with each other that makes a strong case for the factual correctness of the Theory of Evolution as we know it today.

As I wrote above, Intelligent Design seems very similar to Creationism because it assumes that a supernatural being played a role in creating life and guiding evolution. Michael Shermer, who is a philosopher and a regular columnist in Scientific American and Skeptic magazines, made a good argument about why Intelligent Design does not come close to what scientists would consider as a good scientific argument.

In an essay titled, "Not Intelligent, Surely Not Science" in March, 2005, Shermer wrote that Intelligent Design (ID) "is saying, in essence, that if there is no natural explanation for X, then the explanation must be a supernatural one. IDers cannot imagine, for example, how the bacterial flagellum (such as the little tail that propels sperm cells) could have evolved; ergo, they conclude, it was intelligently designed. But saying 'ID did it' does not explain anything. Scientists would want to know how and when ID did it, and what forces ID used."

I agree with what Shermer said. If we assume that science that is taught in public schools should be theories based on actual evidence and not myths like what is written the Bible, and also that recent ideas based on unscientific bad logic should not be treated like real evidence-based science, then clearly only Evolution should be taught as the real scientific theory about how life came to be on Earth. Evolution has a huge amount of evidence that makes it worthy of being taught as science in public schools. Creationism and Intelligent Design simply don't.

Bibliography:

Books:

The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin

Wikipedia articles that are used for general background and not for quote evidence for proving things:

Wiki on Evolution

Evolution. (2006, November 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:08, November 17, 2006

Evidence of evolution. (2006, November 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:09, November 17, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evidence_of_evolution&oldid=87493218

History of evolutionary thought. (2006, November 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:10, November 17, 2006

Creation-evolution controversy. (2006, November 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:11, November 17, 2006

Creation science. (2006, November 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:12, November 17, 2006

Intelligent design. (2006, November 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:12, November 17, 2006

Creation and evolution in public education. (2006, November 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:13, November 17, 2006

Teach the Controversy. (2006, November 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:13, November 17, 2006

Scopes Trial. (2006, November 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:18, November 17, 2006

Separation of church and state. (2006, December 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:27, December 6, 2006

Essay by Michael Shermer:

"Not Intelligent, Surely Not Science", March, 2005

Websites that are also just for background:

www.discoveryinstitute.com
www.skeptics.org
Tree of Life
Evolution for teachers at Calif Museum of Palentology
Evolution 101 at Calif Museum of Palentology

Challenger Jan 28 1986 RIP

2007-01-28T10:15:00.000-05:00

Never forget that space exploration takes a LOT of tenacity, guts, vision, dreams, and fortitude. NASA deserves all our respect for the work and risks they take for all of mankind.

Take a moment to remember that on this day in 1986 the Challenger exploded before our very eyes. Try to remember where you were when you learned of the news. Tell your children. Let them know how much you care. They will learn more than you could guess by seeing the concern in your eyes and hearing the story from your lips. You can refesh your memory by visiting this site for more details.

I remember that I was at the mall with my mom. We saw this huge number of people standing quietly in front of a TV sales storefront. We walked up and watched in our own silence, in our own shock.

A very similar thing happened when the US started to blitz Bagdad back in Daddy Bush's Gulf War. I was picking someone up from the airport. I saw a huge number of people standing quietly in a concourse bar, staring up at the TVs hanging from the ceiling. I stopped and stared for some time, in shivering silence, as scenes of apocalypse in Bagdad flashed on the screen.

NASA and affiliated agencies have suffered considerably under the Bush administration. It is our responsibility as citizens to demand that the Democrats repair and rebuild all that has been lost to Bush's Folly. It is for ourselves and our children.

Homeschooling temporally challenged children

2007-01-08T15:29:00.000-05:00

Homeschooling temporally challenged children .. or how to homeschool your infant.

Pick up a rattle. Put rattle in baby's hand. Put rattle back in baby's hand until said baby gets the holding concept.

Guide baby's hand so rattle touches the baby's lips and tongue. Allow baby to chew rattle. Take pictures.

Recover rattle from older siblings who should be reading instead of playing with rattle. Start over again with the baby.

Its so easy, even an adult can do it!

Carnival of Homeschooling - Week 53 - the Anniversary edition

2007-01-02T09:57:00.000-05:00

(KD at monitor, playing G'compris)

We are getting ready to change the homeschooling deployment technology AGAIN :-). (Ok, its more like adding to it) We will be installing a computer monitor on the wall (that is actually a HD TV) for Q's EPGY lessons (math and english) as well as KD's content. Baby O doesnt really need any baby-purposed content yet because the whole environment is his classroom.

Progressive HomeSchool was featured in this week's 53rd Carnival of Homeschooling! Its their one year anniversary too! Visit to learn about other homeschool bloggers. Its always an interesting place to go to to see what others are doing in their homeschool blogs and lives.

Happy Winter Solstice! May you have light

2006-12-21T09:29:00.000-05:00

(Through the portal © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

Today is the shortest day of the year and tonight is the longest night. It is an important time for those of us who live in northern lattitudes because it marks a very real and very important occasion, the switch from loss of light every day to the slow return of light, precious seconds every day. I dont get SAD (seasonal affective disorder) so much as just sensitivity to light length and quality. On this day we celebrate the Sun and light candles at night in anticipation for the new year and rememberance for the past year.

If you would like to learn more about the winter solstice and traditions around it (ancient and new) try these links:

Winter Solstice wiki entry
Stonehenge wiki entry
Maps and layouts
Amazing Stonehenge photo gallery
Stonehenge clones and morphisims
Party at the henge
Modern Stonehenge Solstice Ritual
Modern Druids and the Stonehenge
Information on Druids and the Stonehenge
List of Solstice websites that may interest you

To mark the occasion, we made our own stonehenge cake! We printed out some layouts and photos.

(Stonehenge site)

Then we set to work!

We gathered the various materials we would need to build our stonehenge and sat down to the hard work of nibbling on ladyfingers and sneaking bites of frosting.

(Materials © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

We trimmed off the ends of the ladyfingers and cut a few in half lengthwize (for the capstones).

(Cutting the stones © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

(More cutting © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

Q spread frosting on her plate as a foundation.

(Spreading the foundation © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

KD did the same. Baby O worked on his nap.

(KD working on her henge © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

The frosting had to be put all over the plate. Here Q is using an off-set spatula.

(Spatula in hand © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

She had to be sure to get a deep enough layer of "snow" so that the ladyfinger stones would stand upright.

(Frosting "snow" © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

Q studied the photos and layouts of the Stonehenge and then set to work constructing hers. If you look carefully, you will see that she stuck very closely to the actual layout.

(Frosting does an excellent job of anchoring the stones © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

Almost done.

(A few more stones © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

The henge takes shape!

(Henge-in-progress © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

KD's henge is coming together beautifully. It did not last long tho. Alas, cake and frosting are too tempting for a 3 year old.

(Little fingers work the stones © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

And voila, CakeHenge 2006!

(CakeHenge 2006! © 2006 Nika All rights reserved)

Slice of Life

2006-11-16T14:10:00.000-05:00

Wow, its been quite a few days since my last post and look whats happened!

We continue to homeschool and adjust to baby-ness as part of the management of homeschool. Baby O is 5.5 weeks old now and very used to the chaos. He takes it better than I do most of the time. Heck, if I could lie down in a cozy bassinet and shut my eyes, I would be able to cope with the chaos too.

I got KD a cabbage patch newborn some weeks before Baby O was born. Since the birth she has gotten a bit more into the nurture thing (as much as she needs to). Today I found the following scene!

Cute huh?

Well, when KD saw me shooting this, she decided she didnt want all that attention on some cheesy doll and smelly newborn so she did this:

Cant blame here! She is too cute to not shoot too :-).

Q has been proceeding with EPGY Writing and is starting a 7 week project on writing an essay relating to something that is controversial. We/she chose EVOLUTION and the whole misguided "controversy" around it. It will be an excellent introduction to the politics of absurdity that America wades through on a daily basis. She will learn about queer perversions like Creationism and "Intelligent Design" (sic).

We had an election. America decided that its ALL about the corruption (thats my take home message). America decided its time to actually take its vote seriously and vote the BUMS out. Thankfully, thats what happened! The amount of angst and focus and anger that got us as a nation to the message we were able to send on Nov. 7 may translate into an electorate that will ride the new pols like the donkeys they are so that we get GOOD government. A government that is of and for the PEOPLE and not of and for Halliburton.

So with that in mind, we took this picture.

Modern Homeschooling

2006-10-24T13:15:00.000-04:00

(Q at the keyboard, getting ready for EPGY Writing © 2006 Nika)

Right now we are doing two classes with Stanford EPGY, Writing and Math. The writing class has a real-time didactic component once a week where Q sits down to a web served class. An instructor at Stanford speaks over the internet and also serves up various screen-based content as kids from all over the world listen in and also speak with their microphones. There are kids connecting from Europe and Alaska and I am not sure where else. About 15 or so kids are part of this course.

This photo shows Q writing up a book review to be posted to the class discussion board and also commenting on some of the other kid's posts. The level of writing and critique is set quite high, Q is having to work to reach up to the level needed.

Its great stuff, not always easy by any means. One thing that keeps her interested is the interactions with the instructor and the other kids.

News Bubbles

2006-10-16T11:33:00.000-04:00

I am trying this new widget and deploying it in this post. If it turns out interesting, it might be integrated into the site design.

News Bubbles

Newzbubble gathers most of the major news feeds (depending on the edition you select) renders them as bubbles and allows you to see which stories are the most popular.

About the author
Vincent Maher is the director of the New Media Lab at the Rhodes University School of Journalism & Media Studies. Feel free to email him if you have suggestions, or visit his blog.

Our baby has arrived

2006-10-10T13:11:00.000-04:00

Its hard to get online these days so here is a quikie update.

Our little boy, Baby O, was born 10/7/06 at 7:20 pm (EST).

8 lbs 8 oz. 22 inches long 15 inches head circumference.

We went in on Saturday because I thought my water had broken (had not). They could not get a good heart tracing in the usual spots, only up high on the tummy.

Turns out that our little guy was frank breech. Sitting yoga style, like a little zen master, full lotus.

I knew it was time but the cervix wasnt filling the medical criteria.. they were going to send me home to do a c-section later next week.

As I am a hypnobirthing mom.. I concentrated on the cervix and then before we knew it we fit the criteria (dilation). So I was being prepped for a c-section.. all the lovely needles and scary ideas.

I continued to lay there with more and more labor, doing my hypnobirthing, thinking about how I had seen a video of a mom who turned her breech baby by hypnosis..

Docs came to check and, against all odds, the baby had flipped and we avoided a c-section! The docs were blown away.. I was in labor so I didnt care if they were impressed, I wanted pain relief at this point.

NEVER got it!

I had two epidurals and neither worked at all.. so it was a "natural" birth for me and it was hard-fought I tell you. Delivery was fine for the little one, I was thanking dieties it was over, the doc's ears were burning from my indelicate language that came out of no where! (I never expected to do that, ever, but I survived!)

All apgars were 9s, he is a professional eater, very calm. All that interuterine zazen helped make him my second meditative hypnobirthed baby. So glad its the last labor!

Eggstra Eggstra - A heads up

2006-09-24T11:34:00.000-04:00

(Zygote © 2006 Nika)

That time is almost nigh, the baby is almost done, his appearance is just around the corner. I may not be able to keep up on this blog as much as I have in recent times but its not because I bored with this, its just tiring to just sit at the keyboard! Photo shoots are also a bit more tiring than usual so its harder to get those going as well.

I am hoping to pace myself through the next few weeks to a couple of postings a week on both my blogs.

Dont go away! :-) I know you wont.

Eggs hold great potential and they hide special treasures.

(Challah eggs © 2006 Nika)

Early gestation is a quiet hopefully calm thing.

(Eggland's Best © 2006 Nika)

Sometimes gestation can make you batty

(Screaming eggs © 2006 Nika)

If you open yourself to it, it can be a transcendant inward spiraling journey

(Spiral egg © 2006 Nika)

Or it can make you feel like we are in the End Times (sic)

(Sidewalk egg © 2006 Nika)

All of a sudden, its all over and then other types of fun start!

(Post labor © 2006 Nika)

Hopefully one ends up with a well cooked outcome

(Heart o' Gold © 2006 Nika)

And not scrambled brains!

(A perfect scramble © 2006 Nika)

Another harvest for Q

2006-09-21T09:01:00.000-04:00

(Thumbelina carrots © 2006 Nika Boyce)

Ages ago we planted some thumbelina carrots (Daucus carota sativus) and a variety of eggplants in small containers on the deck. I thought this would be lots of fun for my oldest, Q, to grow, pick, and eat.

(Sprouting thumbelina carrots © 2006 Nika Boyce)

(Thumbelina carrot tops © 2006 Nika Boyce)

At one point we had these wild mushrooms growing around the carrots

(Mushrooms from the planter of the thumbelina carrots © 2006 Nika Boyce)

Yesterday Q decided it was time to harvest the little guys and has been enjoying their sweet flavor and cute look.

(Thumbelina carrots © 2006 Nika Boyce)

(Thumbelinas and one white eggplant © 2006 Nika Boyce)

Quiet moments, learning

2006-09-20T10:30:00.000-04:00

(KD in the sun © 2006 Nika Boyce)

We didnt start homeschooling Q until 4th grade and we had been through a painful process that turned out to be pretty unproductive in the local schools. In the end even the teachers, counselors, and administrators agreed that homeschooling was the best fit solution.

As a result, Q has quite a lot of difficult deschooling to do. Heck, we all do.

KD, at 3 years, is fresh and unspoiled by the "system" and is also, obviously, a completely different child! It is so much fun to get her into more structured learning experiences because she reacts to it without any negative bias. Unbelievably refreshing. This is common to all little ones at this age, homeschooled or not. Its what allows them to learn so well. I wish I had given that gift to Q but hindsight is mostly 20/20 and we have learned a few things through Q's experiences that help with KD.

(Q doing her Hiragana © 2006 Nika Boyce)

Carnival of Homeschooling Week 38

2006-09-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

I was invited to participate in this week's Carnival of Homeschooling, very exciting! I have run community events on my other blog, Nika's Culinaria, but have been really low key with this blog.

Welcome to all you new visitors from the CoH!

The featured post for my part of CoH is a post I did on Phylogeny and Evolutionary Biology.

I hold a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology and was trained with mechanism and biological networks as a very prime concept. There is no holistic understanding of Biology and many sciences without an understanding of the evolutionary relationships between chemical species, molecular species, organism species, ecosystems, and other meta-level systems. Its a very complex and beautiful thing.

I hope that more homeschooling families embrace science more fully if for no other reason than to immerse themselves in what can be an infinitely interesting universe.

After all, it IS our universe, might as well revel in it's beauty!

I created this blog out of a need and desire to meet like-minded progressive homeschooling families out there. I have "met" many and each has been a dear wonderful person and family. My only regret is that we are all so darn busy that I dont have a stronger relationship with my fellow progressive homschoolers. I continue to blog in the hopes that it WILL happen, eventually :-).

This blog is a documentary at times of what my older daughter Q is doing, what her little sister KD is doing, what I am doing, sometimes its off topic political comments, sometimes its science and math and geography.

I dont know if readers are put off or appreciate the uneven texture of the blog but thats just the way my mind and our lives work!

I am due to have the third and last addition to our family in the middle of October (hope we make it to full term) and then I am hoping to get to a few meta-homeschool projects.

Without a hard commitment but rather a statement of intent, I am hoping to:

- get our homeschool electronics concept more launched
- I am also working on an online classroom (based on Moodle) that will, with the help of everyone who is interested, provide an online co-op experience driven by parents and children
- continue with our podcasts

I appreciate you visit, drop a comment, inroduce yourself!

Genius - meaning and practice

2006-09-18T07:42:00.000-04:00

So this morning I could not sleep past 5 am (good practice for when the baby comes I guess) and I found myself watching Sanjay Gupta's program called "Genius: Quest for extreme brain power" on CNN.

I was left with mixed feelings.

Its great that they have put together this show and the site. I am sure it represents a lot of work and it does a respectable job of illustrating the extreme disservice our public schools pay to our gifted children (especially here in Massachusetts). It also points out how NCLB has further devastated gifted programs.

"NCLB: No child left behind, no child leaps forward" is my motto relating to this boondoggle of a republican travesty.

I think my negative reaction lies in this impression that is given that genius children are destined for greatness and that is how they SHOULD actualize. What I mean is that if a child has an IQ over 145, they must be hyperachievers to truly reach "full potential".

I find that offensive. Our minds are not only for the use of the State or Race. How we succeed or not should be by our OWN definition.

Even more importantly, this program doesnt deal with the reality of most gifted kids (and adults) - asymmetrical giftedness. VERY few kids are globally gifted. This program does not explore that and can mislead parents of kids who are profoundly gifted in one area and who are average or challenged in other areas to never identify the needs of their kids.

It doesnt deal with Dual Exceptionality (those who are gifted and have a disability or are gifted and have ADHD).

"These children show a greater degree of asynchrony among cognitive, social and emotional areas of development, and much greater variation in their ability to act maturely. Cognitive deficits, compared to other gifted children, are shown in less ability to think sequentially, to use working memory adequately, to solve problems using part to whole relationships, and to reason inductively especially since they have trouble picking out the main or salient feature among data. Gifted children with AD/HD, compared to gifted peers, complete less work, tend to try to hurry through it, often change topics on projects, or take inordinately long to complete simple exercises. They find it particularly difficult to work in groups, even groups of gifted children. Gifted children with ADHD also find completing tasks less rewarding than do other gifted children, that is, for many, the intrinsic reward of completion is not as satisfying to them. On the other hand, when working on a self-chosen activity, gifted children, with and without AD/HD, are able to immerse themselves in the task and work for long hours without much external reinforcement. This ability to hyperfocus, the falling into "flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996), is what makes creative work so satisfying to so many gifted children, whatever their other problems."

Our journey with our profoundly gifted dual exceptional child (and love of my life) into homeschooling is just beginning. There is no way to buy a curriculum off the shelf and motivation is ALWAYS the hard part.

Dear Flickr Friend has passed

2006-09-17T12:01:00.000-04:00

We have never held or seen this kitty in person but we fell in love with him on flickr (and his wonderful dad Kenny who we send our thoughts and love today).

He may have lived and died in far away Kuala Lumpur but we could see through his lovely photos that he was a sweet soul.

Rest In Peace little Tino

On the Origin of Disco Species

2006-09-15T09:06:00.000-04:00

(Sabre Tooth Tiger, fitted out in disco gear © 2006 QB)

Q watched a Science Channel documentary on the Sabre Tooth Tiger the other day. I was reading so I didn't watch it with her, so I am not exactly sure what spurred the following piece that Q wrote. After the program, she came to me with a gleam in her eye and said, "You know, Sabre Tooths COULD have worn disco clothes". Her assertion was that we could not really rule it out per se because the fossil record didnt negate it or support it. I thought it was a great beginning, so I asked her to draw and write on it.

That drawing is at the top, the writing is below.

On the Origin of Disco Species, according to Q:

"I made a picture about saber-toothed tigers with disco clothes. It looks like a bear with a disco fur. It has a disco hair head. Sometimes I think it is like a lion. It's really weird but cool.

It is very possible that they wore them and the clothes rotted when they died and are not there anymore like the flesh. The bones are the only thing that remained and that the colors on their teeth rotted away because of the tar pulling on the color.

They might have been very civilized creatures. They might have had cities that just rotted because this was a few million years ago. Maybe they took the hides of their prey and made huts.

On the other hand, maybe they made a lot of paint. Or they just lived normal lives as big lions with gigantic teeth.

Disco clothes really sound like they would give away the saber tooth to the prey and the prey would get a head start, letting it get away and the saber tooth tiger dying of hunger. If that happened then the tigers would die out and they could not stumble into a tar pit. Therefore, they must have just had brown fur and normal colored teeth.

Still they might have had inner teeth that were colored. They do not show that often when they are hunting. Only when they bit stuff that it might show if they had it colored. Maybe they would have a rainbow tail fluff thing.

I really think that my picture that I drew really looks like a saber-toothed tiger dressed in clothes. Sometimes it looks like a big bird with wings and a clown nose but I do not really want to draw another one.

Millions of years ago, saber-toothed tigers roamed the lands and we do not know their colors. If they did have disco clothes, that would be astounding."

Soon Q will be starting the distance learning Stanford EPGY English Expository Writing Course (ages 9-11). It will be great to see how they work with kids to develop their writing skills. The course is deployed online as well as voice-based group lessons.

Old Sturbridge Village Homeschool Day!

2006-09-13T10:26:00.000-04:00

(Musket demonstration © 2006 Nika Boyce)

Q and I spent the day yesterday at Old Sturbridge Village at their homschool day. We got to meet several of the homeschooling families from nearby Worcester, was wonderful!

The day was astounding in it's beauty.

Here is some information from their site about homeschool day at OSV:

Join us for an event day designed for Home School families. We offer you and your children the opportunity to visit the Village and engage in hands-on activities and participatory programs. This is a great opportunity for children to gain exposure to many aspects of 1830's New England life in an interactive way.

We did it pretty much freeform activities, they had more structured things but we have been here before and like to do certain things.

We had a picnic on the common (way too expensive sandwiches from Micknucks Fresh Marketplace in Stubridge - I am boycotting them, I recommend you do the same, their customer service is simply pathetic).

We walked around a bit and then saw a musket firing demonstration.

(Musket demonstration - the fire © 2006 Nika Boyce)

(Musket demonstration - the smoke © 2006 Nika Boyce)

The kids played 10 pins in the bright sunshine

(10 pins © 2006 Nika Boyce)

We then went to the pottery demonstration, early, only to wait MORE than an hour for Q's turn! We have never had to wait so long before.

(Getting ready to make a clay pot © 2006 Nika Boyce)

(Throwing the clay pot © 2006 Nika Boyce)

In that hour, I had time to contemplate life, watch how the kids related with each other and how some parents let their kids run wild! (even little ones)

I also took a few photos of the scene around the pottery barn.

(Pottery barn door © 2006 Nika Boyce)

(Field near the demonstration farm, one of my favorite places but no pics of that because we didnt visit there yesterday © 2006 Nika Boyce)

Bush's failure is his legacy

2006-09-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

Disney's and ABC's "Path to 911" propaganda - what you can do

2006-09-10T18:02:00.000-04:00

(Graphics credit: fubar of Needlenose)

How is this anything but Terror Porn?

As distributed from DailyKos

IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTED RESEARCH HELP NEEDED

A large rebuttal project is underway to combat the lies that will be broadcast on ABC tonight. We need your help NOW. There are only a few hours before a bare-bones site must go live.

The site will be at http://thepathsince911.com, with many other similar domains purchased by generous Kossacks redirecting there, as well.

You can help now by doing some distributed research for content. It is good to post here, but please also go to the message board set up specifically for this project:

http://www.thepathsince911.com/

Register there and help flesh this thing out.

Also, if you have any special skills to contribute, or iron-clad, crashproof server space, etc., please e-mail anothermassachusettsliberal, who is coordinating the team.

Here is what we need you to collect:

- Links to Statements/Letters of Objection
- FALSE Reviews/Articles: Defamation Accomplished
- Links to Primary Source Documents
- Links to ABC/Disney Statements
- Timeline Links
- Links/Info for Actions to Take

In addition, you can also help with the following:

- Ideas for content, organization, navigation, etc. Brainstorm.
- Purchasing likely domain names and forwarding them to the site above.

We only have a few hours to do this. We want something basic and live by the time the movie airs.

YOU can help make this happen.

(AnotherMassachusettsLiberal (the site developer) will be along later to post, as well. Please pardon a bit of repetition today. The time crunch is vicious on this one.)

Update: Please DO feel free to spread the word to other friendly sites. I don't have time to post everywhere, so I need your help in gathering volunteers. Try not to be obnoxious about spamming, of course.

In Memory of Steve Irwin & a Q Tribute

2006-09-05T09:08:00.000-04:00

The following is a tribute written by Q.

Steve Irwin was a man who changed the world of animal protection and science. He and his wife Terri captured and released countless crocodiles and alligators. I am really shocked that he died. He was a person that I learned a lot from. I learned that crocodiles are different from alligators by their teeth. He took care of hundreds of animals at the Australian Zoo. He released countless more. He died from a stingray wound through the heart.

According to the Wikipedia article about Steve Irwin on the day of his death,

"Shortly after 11:00am local time on 4 September 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while diving in Queensland's Batt Reef, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. The events were caught on camera and the footage is now in the possession of Queensland Police."

News reports said that Irwin was snorkeling in shallow waters while being filmed for a kids' nature show to be hosted by his eight-year-old daughter, Bindi.

The Wikipedia entry cited news reports that said, after reviewing the footage of the incident and speaking to the cameraman who recorded it, marine documentary filmmaker and former spearfishing champion Ben Cropp speculated that the stingray

"felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead..."

Cropp was quoted saying that, in such a case, the animal responds by automatically flexing the serrated barb on its tail, which is up to 30 centimeters (roughly 12 inches) in length, upward. In this case, the motion struck Irwin's chest and pierced his heart.

The Steve Irwin Wikipedia article cited reports that

"crewmembers aboard his boat called emergency services in the nearest city of Cairns and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later."

Steve Irwin wrestled 12-foot long boas and pythons. He usually was always trying to find animals in need of help. He also tried to stop crocodile farmers and other exotic animal farmers. He called them "Hitlers". Sometimes he got bitten badly and couldn't film for many weeks.

Steve Irwin died instantly if the news is correct. I really wish he didn't die. He was a person that the world of animal protection needed.

Wales Old Home Day

2006-08-18T11:08:00.000-04:00

Downtown Wales

Wales had it's "Old Home Day" this last weekend (was a stunning day) and Q and KD got to get out of the house and have some fun.

Jumping together

KD's first tattoo - aged 3

Q on a gyro

More gyro

Even more gyro

KD and her awesome dolphin balloon

Other shots around the village of Wales (mid-spring)

Wales, MA old town hall

Wales mill pond - down town

Wales Public Library

Lake George

Village Catholic Church

Town center sculpture

Entrance to original Wales cemetary

Inside the cemetary

Marker in the cemetary

Old slate grave marker (1785)

Homemade Butter - perfect kid's project

2006-07-31T12:27:00.000-04:00

Lately, I have been focusing on some basic cooking with Q. I posted about Q and her little sister KD in a recent post on my food blog on making Challah. We also did the whole homemade strawberry jam making post (with upcoming blueberry post). We have gotten a lot of good feedback from these series so I am continuing to shoot our basic skills work.

Today is a series of rather static non-action shots of how to make butter. I was testing a new light set up and it was geared more toward product photography than editorial type of shots.

We started with organic sweet jersey cream. Its really worth the money to go with this more expensive product because you get a wholesome, flavorful, and colorful butter in the end.

Why does it matter if the animals pastured on greens instead of cereals from a bag?

The chlorophyls and other colored plant constituents (phytochemicals like beta carotenes) are partially carried over into the milk and thus cream. Commercially produced milk from huge dairies does not have these phytochemicals and thus butter made from this sort of milk must have food coloring added. The breed of dairy cow also determines butter color, Jersey (which we used here), tends to have a more yellow butter color.

Wikipedia entry for butter

Back to "The Making of Butter" (Imagine a majestic announcer voice like from Monty Python)

Ingredients:

COLD Heavy Cream

(try not to get the homogenized type, the fat droplets have been hyperfractured and may be a bit more difficult to coalesce into butter)

Salt, to taste (at the end, do not add to the cream)

Hardware:

A large plastic soda bottle that has been thoroughly washed

(If you need to, rinse with alcohol or a light chlorine solution and then rinse with water - A LOT. I figured the carbonic acid in the soda (VERY LOW pH) would have kept anything nasty from growing in the seltzer bottle I used)

One COLD clean glass marble

COLD stainless steel bowl

COLD stainless steel or plastic fine sieve

COLD spatula

Xacto knife

Directions:

Make certain that your bowl and sieve are washed and in the fridge cooling.

Assemble your cream whipping supplies: cream, soda bottle, and marble.

Put the marble and cream inside of the soda bottle.

Now I handed the bottle to Q and had her shake the bottle. First it will be what you expect, sloshing cream and a marble rattling about.

Then the solution changes as the fat droplets begin to come out of solution and the marble rattling sound goes away (must be coated with fat). This may happen quickly (like in 5 minutes for us) or longer (perhaps 15 minutes, depends on the size of you container. The bigger container with more shake room the faster the process is.)

Continue shaking until the sound of the rattling marble comes back. Now the fat has come together in a nice big ball in the soda bottle and you are done with shaking. This might be quick or take 15 - 30 minutes. If its taking a while put the bottle in the fridge to chill after about 20 minutes, you do not want the fat to melt.

Once done, have the child rest, maybe some juice would help. Q did her shaking quite vigorously so she needed liquids, hugs, and some time out from the whole butter thing. That was ok, the butter needed to rest in the fridge.

Put the bottle in the refrigerator so that it can get a nice chill back.

Have your bowl and sieve ready.

Pour buttermilk out the top of the bottle and then cut it open around the middle. (Dont let you child do this, blood is not a recommended ingredient in butter) Let the ball of butter drop into the sieve and use a cold spatula to scrape down butter on the walls of the bottle.

Save the buttermilk for other uses.

Rinse out the bowl with cold water and then put the butter in the bowl.

Massage the butter with the spatula by pushing it against the side of the bowl repeatedly. You will see more buttermilk come out of the butter, rise with cold water.

Continue until no buttermilk comes out. (The buttermilk, if left in, will make the butter go rancid).

Add some salt and mix in. You will want to do this until a taste test tells you it is salty enough for you.

Store the butter in a container that excludes air (oxygen will form free radicals with the fat – goes rancid).

Enjoy on some fresh bread!

(This is actually a shot with store bought butter but I could not resist :-))

Technorati taggage:
butter, homemade, handcraft, food, culinary, cooking, handcrafted, fat, lipid, phytochemical, chrlorophyl, bread, cream, jersey, organic, heavy cream, cold.

Exploring Geometry - Cube-a-rama

2006-07-18T09:32:00.000-04:00

(Image Source: Nika's Flickr)

Q disappeared into her room yesterday and things were very quiet for a while. Such quiet is a nice change and if she were still an only child I would have checked to see what was happening up there. But she is not the only kid anymore and so she was left to her quiet devices! Just about every time this happens she comes back downstairs with some marvelous thing that she put together. Today I share what she brought us: an exploration in geometrical space.

We are calling it a skewed cube. We were thinking it might be called by some other more difficult to pronounced word like a trapezoidehedron or, who knows, a multidimensional transinfinite cube from some other reality. *winks*

To learn more about cubes and for patterns of interesting ones visit this Wolfram MathWorld page on cubes.

You could also use this Wolfram MathWorld polygon online classroom to explore this shape.

Mostly, this skewed cube was a chance for Q to use her hands to create a shape and the space around the shape and understand the restrictions necessary to form a particular shape. What I mean by that is that she had to adjust the sides and add various additional supports (extra cross bars and the purple clay) to stabilize the shape.

(Image Source: Nika's Flickr)

She could also see that some sides, due to the length of side members (sticks) would simply never form a flat face.

(Image Source: Nika's Flickr)

We could have talked about this but her doing it in a tactile way teaches lessons that even adults may not be able to articulate.

I remember as a small child holding and rotating a puzzle piece for a long time (maybe 30 minutes, that's a long time for a 5 year old) and intuiting chirality.

From the Wikipedia Chirality page:

"Chirality (Greek handedness, derived from the word stem χειρ~, ch[e]ir~ - hand~) is an asymmetry property important in several branches of science. An object or a system is called chiral if it differs from its mirror image. Such objects then come in two forms, which are mirror images of each other, and these pairs of mirror image objects are called enantiomorphs (Greek opposite forms) or, when referring to molecules, enantiomers. A non-chiral object is called achiral (sometimes also amphichiral)."

From the Wikipedia Chemistry Chirality page:

"A molecule is chiral when it cannot be superimposed on its mirror image (see diagram) with the two mirror image forms referred to as enantiomers. A mixture of equal amounts of the two enantiomers is said to be a racemic mixture. Chirality is of interest because of its application to stereochemistry in inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry and biochemistry. The study of chirality falls in the domain of stereochemistry."

Puzzle pieces are lovely little lessons in chirality because you are forced to deal with chirality as you assemble the puzzle. I did not get a name for the handedness of shapes until undergrad organic chemistry when I learned about the chirality of molecules and how very important the orientation of shapes are to the molecular interplay between various species of reactants. This is especially true in biochemistry. An example is invert sugar. Some inverted sugars are not usable (metabolized) by the body because the chirality of the sugar doesn't fit into the enzymes that make the sugar useful to the body.

As I sat in that organic chemistry class I had no problem with understanding chirality because I sat and marveled over a puzzle piece as a tiny child.

Teachable moments wash over our children constantly. Without the chaos and cacophony of an over-crowded class room, my child was able to explore geometry in a way that is likely deeply integrated into her understanding of the world.

July 2, 2006 Inaugural Progressive HomeSchool PodCast!

2006-07-02T18:23:00.000-04:00

Today we have the inaugural edition of Q's homeschool podcast! Click the icon below and check it out!

In this podcast, she mentions the various links listed below.

Latin-English dictionary

www.neopets.com

Computer project blog entry

Computer Project Flickr slideshow

Music Credits: The music that was used in today's podcast came from the DJ Fuss album "f.u.s.s. about broken glass" and particularly the single "Newspaper" (artist said: New single with great russian lyrics and unusual music). The download site is at this link.

Thanks for visiting and listening! Do drop a note in the comments to let us know what you think.

Q helps with optimizing our computer set up! Gcompris too!

2006-07-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

I HATE the loud noises of CPUs, especially when they are in our living room. After YEARS of asking for a change, the husband and Q set to work on moving the CPUs into the basement.

They cleaned out part of the basement (major bonus!) and then set up some shelves. The CPUs were moved down along with the router.

They drilled a hole between the office area upstairs and the basement area downstairs. Extension cabling was threaded down and connected to a USB and hotwire combo hub for management of data input from the upstairs office area.

Here is a shot of the router and cable modem

Here is a shot of the upstairs office area, free of CPUs

Here are two shots of the hub

Back end

We are ready now for the arrival of KD's desk and we will be setting her up with her own newly constructed CPU (with Q's help) and a wall mounted flat screen display. Cant wait! She is ready for her computer lessons, will be starting her on Gcompris.

Gcompris is an interesting and free early education software program created by the French Government.

Their site says:

GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10. Some of the activities are game orientated, but nonetheless still educational. Below you can find a list of categories with some of the activities available in that category.

- computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
- algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
- science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, electric simulation ...
- geography: place the country on the map
- games: chess, memory, connect 4, oware, sudoku ...
- reading: reading practice
- other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, ...

Currently GCompris offers in excess of 80 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere.

I will share pics of that set up when we have it set up!

A sneak preview of the desk we got, to which the keyboard and mouse will be tethered.

Testing our podcast

2006-06-30T12:17:00.000-04:00

We are working on delivering audio and other multimedia to you our many readers (and also to be fun for Q).

I am sorry if this causes lots of pings on your rss feeds over the next few days.

Please comment back here on how you experience this.. I want to know if you can hear us and if it is hard to figure out HOW to hear us.

Lets start with the following podcast link.

A direct link to podcast LINK

Link to lead in music

Never forget - Our Grim Reaper-in-Chief

2006-06-25T09:38:00.000-04:00

This is a mosaic of photos of dead US Soldiers.

Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. - George W. Bush May 1, 2003

Chimpy McFlightsuit doesnt allow photos of our dead and injured returning to the US, they come in the dark silence of the night. Nor does he take the time to attend the funerals of our dead.

For shame.

Do not ever forget, he is an American and we all share the blame.

For links on getting this image:

small version
medium version
large version

Elephantus, Felis, Canis, Oh My!

2006-06-24T13:21:00.000-04:00

We FINALLY splurged on a language course from The Rosetta Stone company. We have been lusting for a chance to use one of their products and we finally took the dive.

They have a special subsection geared to homeschoolers that seems to be a good deal.

The Rosetta Stone language software concept is good for kids who are used to sitting in front of the computer and lack sensation in their behinds *winks* (ok, I really mean, have the computer skills), like to do high tech things for themselves and troubleshoot if need be (there really is no need with this software but it's a good attitude to have in the learning phase for getting acquainted with the user interface, which is very simple), and like to go through the program at their own pace (what kid doesn't?!).

We thought about getting the Spanish or French but we decided on the Latin 1 course.

(Image source: Rosetta Stone)

Level 1 Includes:

3,500+ real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons
More than 300 hours of instruction
Speech recognition for accent perfection
Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills
Previews, exercises, and tests for every lesson with automated tutorials
Written ancillary materials

Why Latin? Well, if Q were to get that invite to festivities at the Vatican next year, she will be prepared. She will also get a firm foundation in the root romance language. Q could pick up on that right away when she said that some of the words reminded her of disease names.

Q especially loves the verbal exercises where she speaks into the microphone we got her and the software lets her know how close it gets to the example sound profiles.

Before we knew it Q had spent hours practicing vocabulary and grammar.

I knew it was a mega-hit when the 3 year old was walking around the room chanting words like "Felis" out loud.

Homo sapiens spongificus, our children.

PS: I don't really care who recommends this product (you will see some of that on the homeschool specific pages) because, as with ANY product, we do extensive research but do not look to these awards and recommendations for real honest input. We figure we will risk the money on the first try and then use it again if it is worth it.

Phylogeny - Tree of Life

2006-06-20T09:45:00.000-04:00

(Image Source: Tree of Life)

Since I used some big words and concepts without explanation in my last post about the Sarcophaga sp. fly, I thought I would do a little discussion with links here about Phylogeny and the Tree of Life.

Humans have always been driven by curiosity to learn about the world around them. After making some observations about a particular living thing, a name is needed for that thing to be able to communicate your findings to other people. For this reason, the naming, description, and characterization of all the species known to us started early on. With time, relationships between various animals and plants became part of how that thing is described. So first generation "maps" of being-to-being relationships began to be made and shared in the growing neo-scientific communities.

Second generation maps began to form with a growing understanding of the developmental changes in animals over time to form new species or distinct types of animals or plants that can not breed outside of their species group.

Thus, today, we have many maps of our natural world. A good link to one of these can be found at:

The Tree of Life Web Project

(Image Source: Tree of Life)

As there are something like 1.8 million described organisms, drawing a truly representative map of our biological world can be difficult. A site that serves as an index of some of the more successful maps is found at this link.

Here is an example of a dynamic space filling model of an evolutionary map. This was generated by the WALRUS modeling program using data from all organisms cataloged on the NCBI taxonomy database, which currently contains approx. 180,000 nodes

(Image Source: WALRUS model)

A neat map that shows the complexity of the tree of life. A PDF version printing is here.

(Image source: Laboratory of David M. Hillis and James J. Bull)

In aide of your quest to teach about the natural world and evolution to your kids (and yourself!) try this amazing resource at Berkeley University called The Berkeley Evolution Project for Teachers.

Phylogeny Glossary:

Evolution: Genetic changes in lineages of organisms over time. Through this process, a lineage may split and diversify into new species.

Links to further understanding of Evolution are here and here.

Phylum: is a taxon used in the classification of life, adopted from the Greek phylai the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. WIKI link

Phylogeny: The evolutionary history of a group of organisms.
Any group of species are descended from a common ancestral species, which, over time, split into two species, with these descendents splitting again, and again, until the entire collection of species was produced through evolution and speciation (the splitting of a lineage). The genealogical connections thereby formed in general take the shape of a tree, called the phylogeny of the group.

Link for further understanding of phylogenies

Phylogenetics: The scientific discipline of resolving phylogenetic relationships between organisms.
Species: A leaf on the tree of life. A group of organisms that share a common gene pool as well as a unique evolutionary history distinct from other groups of organisms.

Speciation: The splitting of an evolutionary lineage producing (usually) two new, separate species, which thus begin their own, unique evolutionary histories.

Link for further understanding of Speciation

Taxon: taxon (plural taxa), or taxonomic unit, is a grouping of organisms (named or unnamed). Once named, a taxon will usually have a rank and can be placed at a particular level in a hierarchy. WIKI link

This LINK is an excellent resource for teach evolution, even with lesson plans!

Sarcophaga sp. - not your average fly

2006-06-18T08:42:00.000-04:00

The natural world is the best and most therapeutic classroom. When I was a kid I loved sitting next to a plant and sketching it. It really got me in touch with all the minute details and helped me appreciate nature's complexity and flexibility.

I think an important lesson that can come from observing nature is to get a better intuitive understanding of evolution. Living things are the way they are because they became that way versus simply being that way. A child can see that a plant can be perfect in it's symmetry and can be a textbook demonstration of that species but also that a different specimen can be imperfect and one can see how the plant's systems failed in some way.

For those who are not inclined to sit in the hot sun and humidity with pencil and paper, the camera can be an amazing resource for capturing nature.

This morning I caught this little fly outside sipping the morning dew in the shade. He or she is beautiful up close and not a pest at all.

You might notice that our photo shows a fly with 3 stripes on his back while many of the shots I find online of house flies have 4 stripes. Ours is actually a Flesh Fly (Sarcophaga sp.). We have a horse stable near our house so I am guessing this came from there. I used blood meal to fertilize our organic garden pots so they must be going to town on bits of that.

(Image Source: House fly - Novartis)

Information on the flesh fly can be found at these links:

Identification by Thomas Pape, Curator Ph.D. Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen

British Insects: the Families of Diptera

National Center for Biotechnology Information Taxonomic Data

The full lineage of this fly is:
Eukaryota; Fungi/Metazoa group; Metazoa; Eumetazoa; Bilateria; Coelomata; Protostomia; Panarthropoda; Arthropoda; Mandibulata; Pancrustacea; Hexapoda; Insecta; Dicondylia; Pterygota; Neoptera; Endopterygota; Diptera; Brachycera; Muscomorpha; Schizophora; Calyptratae; Oestroidea; Sarcophagidae; Sarcophaginae; Sarcophaga

Flesh Fly Wikipedia Entry

For things to learn about the common house fly or Musca domestica Linnaeus, see these links:

Common House Fly at Enchanted Learning

This site has this lovely drawing

House Fly Wikipedia entry

House Fly life cycle

(Image source: Novartis)

National Center for Biotechnology Information Taxonomic Data

This site tells us that the full lineage of the house fly is:
Eukaryota; Fungi/Metazoa group; Metazoa; Eumetazoa; Bilateria; Coelomata; Protostomia; Panarthropoda; Arthropoda; Mandibulata; Pancrustacea; Hexapoda; Insecta; Dicondylia; Pterygota; Neoptera; Endopterygota; Diptera; Brachycera; Muscomorpha; Schizophora; Calyptratae; Muscoidea; Muscidae; Muscinae; Muscini; Musca; Musca

Avian Funeral Services

2006-06-10T13:27:00.000-04:00

Image source: eFinch.com

Alas, our boy white zebra finch met a sad ending in the mouth of our cat Leo.

Q is still angry with him and I understand that so we do therapeutic hugs with the cat every once in a while to help her get over it. She fills with anger and sadness and tells him he is a bad boy but gives him a hug and agrees its just cat-nature to want to eat the poor bird.

Q and her dad boxed up the bird and went to the back of our property for burial. She took along a camera and we have a few shots from the event.

She chose a nice spot, dug a hole, put the box with bird inside into the hole, put some flowers she brought for the service onto the box and they burned some incense. Then they covered the box and put leaves back over the site.

Here are the pics:

Photos of our land as they walked back to the plot.

Trees

Ferns

The box

The box with flowers in the hole.

The plot covered up.

No more birds for a while.

Cheers and Jeers to the new economy

2006-06-09T09:52:00.000-04:00

I am of a split mind on this new telecommuting world I live in.

I work 100% from home (tho not terribly well compensated, its all a trade off).

So does my husband.

We work, it seems, all hours of the day.

We homeschool.

We are hermits!

Our children are getting a "warped" sense of the workplace (wont be so warped when they are grown up I guess).

How can I tell? Look what my toddler is driven to do:

She is a work at home toddler.

She doesnt play with dolls, she doesnt play much at her play kitchen like she used to:

She sets up her etch-a-sketch on her keyboard and gets a very serious look, and types madly on her keyboard.

Spring recital

2006-05-30T09:05:00.000-04:00

In mid May Q had her recital and post-recital auction. We spent the morning in western MA at the Sirius Community where they hold a permaculture course and have an amazing meeting center, organic gardens, alternative houses (like straw bale buildings), and a greenhouse.

We got lost on the way but were able to take a pic of Q in front of the Quabbin Reservoir!

After the morning at Sirius we RUSHED to Brookfield, MA for our recital and festivities.

This was after the recital, no pics during the performance.

Goodies for the auction.

Counting her "composer bucks" that she earned throughout the year by practicing and listening to suzuki music.

Q got quite a lot actually including a really cute piggy bank of a pink pig with a tu-tu on it.

New England Small Farm Institute, beautiful sun!

2006-05-26T09:39:00.000-04:00

[NESFI buildings in the distance]

Yesterday we spent an amazing day in the sun, visiting several farms, one of which is the New England Small Farm Institute in Belchertown, MA, which is dedicated to supporting extant local farms and those people who are interested in starting up a farm.

Part of our ethic, which is embodied in our homeschooling, is striving for self-sufficiency and sustainability. These two terms can mean different things to everyone (gotta love that). To us this means planning and investing in a future that will nurture our children and their children. This doesn't mean building a massive trust fund, that is beyond our means. Because we are not affluent and also because the trust fund-wealth-accruing game is not ours, we have to put in sweat equity along with creative financing and much frugality.

Every day, homeschooling is absolutely about sweat equity. It is also about the life-of-the-mind, which makes the sweating noble :-).

We also are on a long term plan to implement a home-centered non-commuted oriented future for our children in the face of a very uncertain and intimidating future where peak oil has come and gone and the third stage oil wars are ravaging our economy.

We want to survive swimmingly in that time, we do not want to be swept away in the chaos that will certainly happen for many who do not have the foresight to appreciate the at-risk nature of our children's world.

This doesn't mean stock piling 30 years worth of nasty dried survival food, water in huge cisterns, amassing large caches of guns, throwing up fences or forming survival cults.

What this means is integrating non-oil based energies into our living and going off the grid. It means cultivating our land (which is UP-NORTH so that includes greenhouses as well as cold-tolerant outside gardens) and enriching it to full abundance.

It also means implementing systems for these goals that provide surplus that can be sold to a public that is/will be paying a premium for purity and green energy.

More on this later, I just wanted to share some shots from the property at the New England Small Farm Institute.

KD sitting in the sun at the door of the horse barn

Q contemplating the geese

Main NESFI building and little ones.

Chicken housing and chickens

NESFI greenhouse

Technorati taggage:
survival, self, sufficiency, self-sufficiency, Net Neutrality, organic, farm, organic farm, grid, biomass, cogeneration, permaculture, oil, peak oil, garden, off the grid, homeschool, green, electricity, energy, green energy, aquaculture, vermiculture.

A somewhat educational roadtrip

2006-05-23T09:31:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we visited the Ecotarium in Worcester, MA. Due to our constantly changing weather and the promise of rain, we chose the Ecotarium because it had outside things to do and inside things to do.

The Ecotarium is a learning center mainly focused on animals and the MA environment.

From their site:

Inside the museum
Exhibits - Three floors of interactive learning
Wildlife - Meet some of the animals in our care
Alden Planetarium - Stellar shows under simulated skies
Discovery Room - A place for preschoolers to play
Museum Store - Stocked with gifts, learning tools and toys
Hirsh Telecommunications Center - A great space for educating and entertaining

Outside the museum
Wildlife - A polar bear, bald eagles, foxes, owls, river otter and more
Interpretive Nature Trails - Woodlands, wetlands, and a beautiful meadow
Tree Canopy Walkway - Go out on a limb to explore the treetops (guided programs)
Explorer Express Train - A delightful tour of the grounds
Observatory - Housing one of the region's most powerful telescopes

It has a few lonely animals in cages outside (which made me sad more than anything) including bald eagles and polar bears.

I saw the bald eagles and my immediate thought was anger and then sadness. These poor things are all cooped up in an avarium that could never be even close to their habitat. Might as well put them in a closet.

Inside there are exhibits that help kids get in touch with things like animal tracks and their habitats. They have some stuffed African animals too.

The moment we stepped out of the car KD decided she was not into the trip and proceeded to cry through much of the exhibits! Poor baby, I don't get it. She started crying in the parking lot long before we even got close to any of the buildings.

What follows are pics of some of the happy moments :-).

Ferret exhibit in the Discovery Room - Q shows KD the ferrets.

A closer look

Crazy ferrets

Contemplating ferrets

Activities in the Discovery Room

In the gift shop - KD with a butterfly mask

Q with a polar bear mask

A lot of the stuff to do there is not appropriae for a toddler in the middle of an extended tantrum/ yucky mood. We will go back when she is over this phase!

At the end we bought a stuffed animal snake and that was the most appreciated thing about the day!

Rain to beat the band

2006-05-19T13:12:00.000-04:00

Just thought I would share with you that we, here in Massachusetts, are getting MORE rain and its not stopping in any future day as per the weather forcasts. Good thing we live on a mountain is all I have to say.

Cant do potting, everything is all waterlogged.

The view from the window.

Last year we had really bad rain and this is what happened then (you may remember this from a previous post!)

We should do a drive by to see how this spot is doing.

Save the Internet protest day - May 16

2006-05-16T08:42:00.000-04:00

"What we have here is a failure to communicate" - Captain, Road Prison 36 "Cool Hand Luke".

Ok, maybe not YET but it may be on the horizon.

We global blogizens assume that the internet is a democratic and free space. Its not and there are market pressures at the hubs of the large backbone providers to split the internet into first class commercial citizens and second class proletariat.

Just to clue you in, we are the proletariat.

Why?

Not just because we are wage slaves, per se, but because we are not huge multinational corporations willing to pay bucks to hardwire a distinction between them and.. well... US.

How you say? Seems that the backbone providers are offering to split the "pipes", giving the big guys fast service and the rest of us slow service.

On first principles, this is offensive but not surprising. A multinational corporation will be a multinational corporation, bless their little ferengi hearts (NOT).

On second principles, it brings we proletariat closer to obsolescence, something we are rising out of with the current net.

Today is a net-wide protest against this change. You too can spread the news by blogging about it at your blog.

Get your blogging tools at this link

Learn more about it:

Save the Internet
Sign up your blog as part of the protest
Robert Reich on this issues

Technorati taggage:
Save, Internet, Save the Internet, protest, Net Neutrality, May 16.

Noggin Nemesis - The Backyardigans and The Wonder Pets

2006-05-14T17:11:00.000-04:00

Must .. Block .. Backyardigans ... before I completely lose my mind.

Noggin, the Nickolodeon preschool channel (best part = ZERO ads), has lots of good stuff that is consistently within the developmental range of our toddler. It is much appreciated but I MUST find a way to block to the following shows: The Backyardigans and The Wonder Pets.

Why you ask?

Because they DRONE ON in monochromatic and repetitive melodies (on different topics) that would serve well for torture interrogation techniques (that would contravene the Geneva Convention for sure).

Don't be mistaken by the good review for wonder pets in it's wiki-entry. A chimp could write better and DIFFERENT scores for these episodes (and THE SAME THING HAPPENS IN EACH ONE).

I can imagine that if they had the Backyardigans or Wonder Pets to blast during the Waco siege, we would have had a different outcome. Everyone would have run for surrender on the first day.

A beautiful example of a musical show that totally GETS it and doesn't make you want to rip your eyelids right off your own face is Jack's Big Music Show. My goodness its like comparing twinkies to apples, saccharine to fructose, ABBA to New Order, ok, I think that's far enough.

I must figure out how to block individual shows on a satellite channel without blocking the entire channel.

Rock Hunting

2006-05-06T09:15:00.000-04:00

Q is always out in the yard looking at rocks she has dug up, asking me questions about this or that aspect of the rock. I can answer some of the questions but never really help ID the rock.

One day we were cruising a bookstore and she requested that we buy a rock field guide. This is a great one, called Collins wild guide "Rock and Minerals" by the Smithsonian.

Now she brings the rocks inside and tries to figure out what she has. Its still a challenge!

Geographic buddies

2006-05-03T10:30:00.000-04:00

Q gets some help from her study-partner, a stuffed cat.

I never took a "real" geography class until undergrad and even then only because it was a prerequisite. I thought I was going to be bored, like I was in scociology and psychology classes. But, I LOVED IT! I think its because I am a traveler at heart. One without money and thus one that always WANTED to travel. In geography class you get to learn deeply about places far away or next door. Its always fascinating to delve into maps and archeological data and current demographics.

We are working through a resource book now that helps Q learn more about geographical resources. When we want to take a step further we always surf to the National Geographic site and immerse in whatever strikes the fancy.

You can visit National Geographic for Kids site at this link.

Old maps are amazing things!

Neil Young - Living with War - hear it now

2006-05-02T09:06:00.000-04:00

We have pre-ordered our copy of Neil Young's new protest album "Living with War". You can get it too at Amazon at this link.

Read his blog here.

In case you have not heard about this, Neil Young has pushed out this album in record speed and with MAJOR record company backing. It features the song "Let's Impeach the President."

Young is also pushing it out into the cyberspace as a free listen and you can get a stream of the entire album at this link.

As Young says at his site, foreign media have been predicting that this album would get no play in the US, a rational assumption considering the lock that Clear Channel and other pro-Bush pro-war multi-national conglomerates has on all aspects of our media.

Thankfully major radio stations ARE playing this album. KLOS in LA played the album IN ITS ENTIRETY, with no commercials, on a recent Saturday AND Sunday.

If you are so inclined, please host the free listening option at your blog/site by going to this link (recommended by the Neil Young site) and post something for your readers to consider.

"Lets Impeach the President" - Lyrics

Let's impeach the president for lying

And leading our country into war

Abusing all the power that we gave him

And shipping all our money out the door

He's the man who hired all the criminals

The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors

And bend the facts to fit with their new stories

Of why we have to send our men to war

Let's impeach the president for spying

On citizens inside their own homes

Breaking every law in the country

By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees

Would New Orleans have been safer that way

Sheltered by our government's protection

Or was someone just not home that day?

Let's impeach the president

For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected

Dividing our country into colors

And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he's racking down on steroids

Since he sold his old baseball team

There's lot of people looking at big trouble

But of course the president is clean

Thank God

Thanks for reading!

Technorati taggage:
Neil, Young, Neil Young, Living, War, Living with War, Impeach, President, Impeach the President, George, Bush, George Bush, Impeach Bush, George W. Bush, album, protest, lyrics.

Waking from hybernation

2006-05-02T08:43:00.000-04:00

This last weekend Q and I got out of the house and went out to find a flea market or yard sale. Mostly we wanted some exercise and sun. The sun was amazing! As is usual with our trips to yard sales and flea markets, we bought exactly nothing! But we did take along a camera and Q did a bit of a photo-essay of the trip.

First off, we drove a WAYS to a flea market in Charlton that turned out to be a major let-down! It was one of those markets where you dont see any real antiques or anything of interest but lots of new socks, assorted cheap junk, and shampoo.

Q has sharp young eyes and so she caught stuff on camera that I didnt even notice!

The wonderful thing about this flea market was not the market at all. It was the horse ranch right next to it. We spent some time with the horses.

After this, we found a really scrappy yard sale that had much more interesting things to shoot.

Q found some tiny wrenches that she wanted a pic of.

KD got out into the sun too!

I would say that Q took some beautiful pictures and has a good sense for composition and subject. We will definitely go out on photo expeditions again soon!

Auto-schooling - Toddler style

2006-04-29T19:05:00.000-04:00

(nap-hair!)

I love to watch our little toddler self-school. She is constantly reading, bringing me books to read, singing her ABCs, saying her numbers, counting by 1s, 10s, even 100s up to 10 hundred! She says her numbers in spanish. She plays the piano and the drums. She does her own special aerobics. We especially like "Shake your belly like its jelly" with Grover. She covertly sketches masterpieces on the walls with her crayons.

She is constantly busy with all of this. Our homeschooling has already begun with her!

Buddhist Children

2006-04-20T10:56:00.000-04:00

I came across this amazing resource for Buddhist teachings geared towards children (not to say that adults can not use this just as effectively) at BuddhaNet.net.

You will find syllabi (primary and secondary) and texts, ebooks, bibliographies, and an awesome audio library that I am still exploring.

Yesterday morning we listened to the morning bell chant (in Vietnamese) that is said in Buddhist monasteries.

Transcendent.

Tricycle, the Buddhist magazine, just sent out an email this week regarding the inception of their guest bloggers.

I am reading through Stephen Bachelor's blog now where he discusses his journey into Buddhism from an agnostic background and how an agnostic integrates (or not) the core tenants of persistent soul-ness (beyond the mortal coil) and rebirth.

My flavor of Buddhism is Zen Buddhism where these sorts of issues are not core. If one is caught up in the logistics of one's soul then satori will remain infinitely inaccessible. The same goes for involvement with any sort of question such as the logistics of attaining enlightenment. To strive purposefully towards that goal results in failure.

Bachelor speaks of belief in our physical reality. This is close to a true seeing because what we perceive of as "reality" is a concoction of our personal delusion. Belief is required to assume that it is THE reality. The belief is something humans need to forget that they have forgotten.

Bachelor speaks of his revelation of how, even if one "chooses" to not believe in the core precepts of common Buddhism, the functional aspects of being Buddhist remain strong and relevant. He says:

"To live according to Buddhism's ethical precepts, to apply its instructions on meditation, and to engage with its philosophical ideas seemed sufficiently self-validating and worthwhile in themselves. None of these activities needed to be justified or motivated by arcane theories of multiple lives and karmic causation.

Practices such as generosity, tolerance, compassion, non-violence, detachment, mindfulness, concentration and enquiry into the nature of emptiness and contingency were not only compatible with my post-Christian, secular humanism and its scientific worldview, but appeared to enrich and enhance them."

Do, do not think.

Just Saying - A political moment

2006-04-17T10:32:00.000-04:00

Taking a moment to step outside of the usual HS topic to bring you an interesting image. If you are familiar with christianity (being christian or not) this may give you pause to consider our "Fearless Leader" (tm).

Electric Potato Writing

2006-04-15T11:59:00.000-04:00

Q continues to experiment with electricity! We picked up this electricity-food project kit and did this experiment where you cut a potato in half, coated it with Phenol Red and salt, stuck a lead in it, connected the lead to a battery (9 V) and then wrote with another lead. Q took all of these pictures!

Q didnt really like this project. She said this:

"The potato experiment was't very fun. It only lets you draw on a potato and it makes it rot in one hour. It was disgusting. I didn't like it. It really smelled bad. The electricity thingy popped out a lot. That makes it even yuckier. It faded in 1 minute. It was frustrating. I lost an alligator clip. I don't recommend this for anything."

So she didnt give it a big thumbs up!

The kit also had a project that had you use two lemons (we used grapefruits, had no lemons at the time) and make electricity.

It didnt work for us (the red LED didnt light up). Must not be acidic enough, will retry with lemons.

Ionic bonds

2006-02-10T07:49:00.000-05:00

Q continues with her chemistry and has moved onto Ionic bonds. I loved inorganic and organic chemistry in undergrad so its fun to share it with Q.

I am getting more impatient for warmer weather to come so that we can do a life-cycle or seasonal study of the life around our house.

As it is, we are in for something like 18 inches of snow this weekend. The Joys of New England. At least we dont live in tents like our ancestors used to or even the old drafty houses that people used to build around here, with no insulation, yikes.

Resources on Ionic Bonds

Covalent and Ionic bonds
Ionic bonds at Wiki
Ionic Bonds tutorial - 1
Ionic Bonds tutorial - 2
Ionic Bonds tutorial - 3

Up and running again!

2006-02-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

Whew, our baby-safe office has been cleaned up and the fixed machines replaced! I have a better view now too :-)

update - Machines are down

2006-02-07T11:57:00.000-05:00

Just a note, my machine that has Photoshop on it is down for today (has been for a few days) and am hoping to be able to get back to blogging about our homeschooling in the near future (tomorrow?!)

Sorry for the delay.

Geography - Terrestrial and Martian

2006-02-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

Today we are extendng our knowledge about geography by working on a lesson plan on Mapping Mars from National Geographic.

National Geographic Xpeditons is an amazing online resource for k-12 lessons and fun online activties.

The overview of today's lesson is:

Overview:
This lesson introduces students to some common map projections and representations (e.g., globes or close-ups) and asks them to consider the ways that each representation can be used to show specific features of Mars. Students will draw three different representations of Mars and will illustrate each one with details of research they have conducted on the planet.

Some of the online resources for this lesson include:

Xpeditions' Globe Projector
Maps of Mars at the MapMachine
National Geographic: Return to Mars
NASA: Mars Exploration Program
Red Album activity
Return to Mars
NASA's Mars Exploration Program site

A very sad day indeed

2006-01-31T11:27:00.000-05:00

Today, the US Senate has confirmed Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court.

Read these links to learn more about a man who is the appointed hit man on women's and other minority rights.

Samuel Alito - Wikipedia entry
Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the dKosopedia
Samuel Alito's America on Think Progress

Think it cant get that bad? Read The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood), she foretells the future the Religious Right is fighting for.

If you want to get a good vision of what Bush wants for our future (he is doing the Hard Work for this as we speak) read 1984 (George Orwell) and you tell me you dont see the course he wants to "stay".

We are moving into a time that will be historic for the losses of so many gains in a civil society.

Make no mistake, this man does not walk alone, he will not proceed with his decisions alone, he represents the desires of the Religious Right that wish to curtail the right to choose and devolve so much of what makes America great into a christian state filled with state-sponsored hate. We are already a good way there, Alito is an important milestone.

When will these people ever learn to mind their own business?

Pshaw you say? What about this great news for the Religious Right, this morning:

Sweeping anti-abortion laws proposed - Washington Times

With the goal of challenging the Roe vs. Wade ruling that ensured a woman's right to an abortion, lawmakers in Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee propose banning all abortions except when the woman's life is in danger, Stateline.org reported.

Read more at StateLine.org

Light a candle, think on what you and your family has to lose, and then think about how you can help the cause.

Dark, hidden, black-box math - its a good thing!

2006-01-27T10:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, I admit that when I was in high school I wanted to be in all the clubs (just to say I did and it was a contest between me and my best friend - from what I vaguely remember, that was so long ago!). I joined just about everything. Science, Pente, Latin, Spanish, French, German, etc. I also joined Math club because 1) it was a club, and 2) I thought it would be good to buck up my math skills (also had several friends in it).

Anyways, the first thing the Math Club advisor does is give me a timed math test, a sheet filled with simple arithmetic and I realized that I was not going to like it. That sheet was so intimidating! I kept up with the club and went to competitions but those reminded me too much of swim team (on which I LIVED in high school and that was just a bit much) so I was not a long term Math Club member :-/.

I find myself now working with Q on sheets of math practice that are just as intimidating (but not timed!)

She has additional challenges that make it even more overwhelming than for me so we came up with a solution that is working for us, it might work for you!

Its simply a matter of cutting a small window out of a sheet of black construction paper and using that to mask the other problems. Now she powers through pages that took all day of agony before.

This might seem like a gimmick but it works, Q doesnt feel like I am pulling the wool over her eyes, she knows that she was being distracted and she could not manage it. This way we both assert control!

Snow Constructions

2006-01-24T09:34:00.000-05:00

We got almost a foot of snow and it was the wet sort, perfect for making things like forts! Q made a start, perhaps it will get a few more walls before the thaw comes or the plow guy thinks it needs to be plowed.

Tools

Details

Winter Piano Recital

2006-01-23T10:15:00.000-05:00

Sunday was Q's biannual piano recital. She enjoyed it very much, KD did also, sat very still and then got to play in the nursery! I have a bit of pictorial from the day. Our recitals are held in the Unitarian Universalist church in North Brookfield, MA.

Enjoy!

Outside the church.

Windows at the back of the church.

The nave.

Q waiting for her turn.

Q playing her two pieces.

There was also a reception after but I felt odd taking pics of people without asking their permission!

Electrical Excitement

2006-01-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

We had a bit too much excitement on Saturday. Just after our supper chicken was put on to bake, the power went out. Sometimes our power flickers and comes back but Saturday it was out. Q and I went down to the road and saw that a huge tree had fallen on our power line. For the next 8 hours we went without power, our poor chicken had to be pitched, and Q's dad helped the police keep traffic from passing under the tree.

At 12 midnight the power came back on and the whole house sprang into bright light! We had to get up and turn them all off.

We are so very happy to have the power back!

Here are a few scenes from all of the excitement.

A picture, in the dark, of the downed tree.

We lit many candles to try to get some light so that the 2 year old wasnt too upset by it all.

Flash is a good thing. KD was running around in the dark, chasing cats.

Q comforted Fiesty and other cats.

The aftermath!

The tree was very large. As you can see where the stump is, the tree next to it was how big the fallen one was.

Anatomy - Skeleton

2006-01-21T09:59:00.000-05:00

Q gets to do her Anatomy coloring as a break from other more demanding things (like multi-digit subtraction and fraction multiplication). She gets to choose which page she wants to work on and today it was the skeleton.

She has worked on the eyeball, the brain, the integumentary system, and other features of the human body.

This is always fun to do and fun for me to watch because she is relaxed about learning things which she might not have been exposed to until sometime in high school.

Archaic calligraphy - Colonial America

2006-01-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

In our History Pockets, Q is learning about colonial schooling. Kids were homeschooled and also sent off to local "Dame" schools. Girls of wealthy parents were then sent off to Europe to finishing schools (foreign languages, wine and cheese appreciation, various arts) and boys were send off to schools like Harvard and Yale.

She learned how to make a horn book.

She also got to practice some of the cursive kids had to learn then.

Its not easy and her quill pen (which we got at Old Sturbridge Village) isn't the easiest to control!

Here are some links to learn more:

An amazing site on colonial America
Map of colonial educational institutions

Education in the
Northern Colonies
Middle Colonies
Southern Colonies

Horn book replicas and cookie molds (?)
Site on Children's lives in Colonial America
Reproduction of The Colonial Horn Book

Some lesson plans around Colonial schooling

Q's first blog entry - On Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2006-01-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

Q wrote the following, by herself, after today's homeschooling which included reading Chapter 17 of Howard Zinn's "A People's History", watching and reading the "I have a dream" speech, and after reading the entire Wikipedia entry on MLK.

"My mom let me make my first blog. Call me Q. (My mommy doesn't want my full name on the internet.) I am going to tell you about Martin Luther King Jr. I listened to the "I have a Dream" speech. I was inspired by this quote:

"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds"." And this: "It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges."

I loved that part of the speech but you can read the whole thing here: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm . MLK Jr. protested harder than anyone else. He led dozens of protests. He was very persistent and even kept doing it after someone bombed his house. He went homeless but still did it.

He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at 6:01.

He was assassinated by James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty because if he didn't he would have the death sentence. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He tried all of his life to withdraw the plea and get a trial, without success. He died in prison. He said that his brother and 10 million dollars were involved. The court didn't believe him and ignored him.

They had a memorial erected for MLK Jr. It is a large memorial. MLK won a Nobel peace prize. He is very famous. He is in the 20 most famous people. MLK was a good man and he made extremely long speeches just to convince people it's not okay. I like MLK because he was a brave and a very much needed man in history."

Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Step beyond the platitudes and propaganda

2006-01-16T12:08:00.000-05:00

List of resources

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968 - Democracy NOW
Wikipedia - MLK Jr. Day
Wiki - About the Man Martin Luther King Jr.
"Real Audio" online version of the "I Have a Dream" speech at the HistoryChannel's site
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
The King Center
Martin Luther King Jr.'s FBI file
"The MLK you don't see on TV" from FAIR
Listen Live to MLK Jr. sermons (today only) - select a player and listen to web stream
Democracy NOW's radio chat with Howard Zinn "Bush Represents Everything That Martin Luther King Opposed" (transcript on this page and also links to listen)

As you might well imagine, awareness of who Martin Luther King Jr. was, what he did, what he was fighting for, and how it was that he was murdered are all poorly understood and taught in our schools and society.

I have provided the links above for you to check out for yourself and to help you teach your children (homeschooled or not).

As a grad student at Emory, I would listen to radio broadcasts of the King sermon archives. He was electrifying and he must have been terrifying to those who were not interested in the change he sought.

Dont believe the hype, much of what he sought has yet to pass.

Its up to each of us to value his vision and to do what we can to nuture that vision in our children.

Truly, hope for a better society lies in the questioning and trusting eyes of a child who has not learned to hate, yet.

Our job as parents is to make sure that hate is not passed on, that love is shared, and that hope is invested.

H5N1 flu is active and spreading in new outbreak

2006-01-09T10:08:00.000-05:00

Flu pandemic survival starts and ends at home.
[Visit the Flu Wiki - EXCELLENT source of info]

Latest news

Bloomberg is reporting that the H5N1 avian flu has spread beyond the initial 2 Turkey cases we heard about in the past few weeks. Now 14 confirmed cases (2 deaths, a third death is still in testing) have been reported and some 45 more hospitalized people are suspected cases.

From that report:

"It seems that the epidemic has been spreading among animals in Turkey for much longer than believed," Klaus Stoehr, who heads the WHO's global influenza program, told German radio, according to AFP.

These cases span Turkey and are not just in one small village.

For now it seems that the H5N1 strain remains B2H (bird to human), we are all just watching with trepidation for when it mutates to a H2H (human to human) strain. When that happens, it could be a matter of hours for it to go global, days for it to be apparent, weeks for it to devastate, years and years for it to settle down into an epidemic that is not so virulent that it kills a huge number of it's hosts (millions instead of billions).

US Gov issues new report for preparedness

So the government has JUST released (January 6th) its latest busy work report. I have linked it to the right on this page and the link is here too.

This report is actually interesting as it is setting the groundwork for the Martial Law that they will institute once the pandemic gets rolling (if or when it does). Take from it what you wish.

They have a small list of things you should have on hand for the "extended period" of flu impacted time we may experience (html, PDF)

There is even a listing of Flu State Plans at this page. And this page has links directly to your state flu page.

I suggest you look at the PDF for your state. More importantly, call up your local health department officials and see if they have any info on how they are going to respond on the local level (it doesn't matter what they will do in Las Vegas if you live in Portsmouth, NH). Our tiny town of 1500 held meetings on smallpox preparedness back in 2001 or 2002. That was instrumental in my realizing that there was NO plan or understanding of communicable diseases (i.e., you do NOT allow people to assemble in a location to get information, you disseminate it so that people remain sheltering in house.)

We may dodge the bullet on this and other diseases, who knows. Its not good for mental health to obsess about it but its also not good to ignore it. I think one huge take home message should be this: In a pandemic or biological attack where we humans are the vectors, YOU WILL BE ON YOUR OWN. You should have a stocked pantry, other house preparedness preparations (do NOT duct tape your house PLEASE) and understand how to keep from infecting yourself and your family.

Tamiflu resistance - evolution of a nightmare

Remember the great promise of Tamiflu, the nasally delivered anti-flu vaccine you could take if you thought you had very recently been exposed to the flu (it's a broad spectrum medicine, not targeted to H5N1). As with other viral organisms, while the H5N1 strain is mutating and possibly picking up the ability to go H2H (human to human) it is also picking up resistance to what we use to try to kill it off (very basic concepts in evolution).

The December 22nd issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that resistance to Tamiflu has been detected.

From that freely available report (in PDF, in HTML) we have the following diagram on how the virus picked up the resistance (oseltamivir = Tamiflu):

The neuraminidase active site changes shape to create a pocket for oseltamivir, whereas it accommodates zanamivir without such a change (Panel A). Any of several mutations may prevent the binding of oseltamivir by preventing the formation of this pocket (Panel B); the oseltamivir-resistant viruscan nonetheless bind to the host-cell sialic acid receptor and to zanamivir. The pocket for oseltamivir, illustrated by key amino acids in Panel C, is created by the rotation of E276 and bonding of the amino acid to R224 - events that are prevented by the mutations R292K, N294S, and H274Y and therefore result in resistance to oseltamivir. An E119V mutation may permit the binding of a water molecule in the space created by the smaller valine, also interfering with oseltamivir binding. None of these mutations prevent the binding of zanamivir or of the natural sialic acid substrate.

You can even see a nifty animation of this mechanism at this link. Click the little blue figure on the left side.

Homeschool Electronics

2006-01-04T11:33:00.000-05:00

(A quick foreward. After we have looked far and wide for AFFORDABLE and reasonable electronics supplies, projects, and components, we have decided that, as with WAY to much of the educational toy and kit market, electronics kits on the market are: 1) too dumbed down, 2) too sparse, 3) TOO expensive for what you get, and 4) unimaginative. Thus, we are exploring the possibility of starting a cottage industry - work at home business in modern parlance - of creating, assembling, packaging, and selling electronics kits that are not budget busters, are interactive, are fun, are NOT dumbed down, and which have nice artwork/project ideas. The skills needed for this lie in our extended family on both sides so this should be an interesting enterprise.

I would like to know YOUR thoughts about this. Would you be interested? Are you happy with what you have seen on the market? Do you even plan to cover any of this in your homeschooling? Do you figure your kids don't need to learn this? What sorts of projects do you think you would want? Is the fact that it would support a homeschooling family an attractive aspect that might help you decide to buy a kit from us? Please reply in the comments of this post or email us at nika7 at yahoo dot com!)

We continue with our electronics project and have some fun pics to share.

First, Q is continuing to learn about binary numbers.

We got a grab bag of used "seven segment LED display" (and other types of LED displays) and Q has, after having to google a bit for how to work with these things, lit them up on the prototype breadboard. Next she will set up the logic chip to be able to form numbers and letters.

Q futz'd with resistors, in series with the LED, to hardwire the number three! Its neat what you get when you mix 1 kid + electronic components = new discoveries.

Getting ready for robotics

Evolving Diseases - Object Lessons

2006-01-02T11:13:00.000-05:00

Current events can teach us about very complex topics, ones that may be difficult to grasp immediately but which, if discussed, will become understandable with time.

One example is the Avian flu pandemic topic. If one is paying attention they would also realize this story has, at its core, a powerful object lesson for understanding Evolution (any even cursory study of viruses will help the thinking person to understand Evolution but many people need it thrust in their face before they wish to consider alternatives to their dogmatic framework.)

Unless you ascribe to a worldview that is pre-modern era wherein there was no understanding of the lifecycle and progression of mutations in virus, you will accept that we have occasional pandemics that arise from pivitol mutation events in viruses in an advantageous context. In other words, viruses are CONSTANTLY mutating (as are many and perhaps most organisms here on Earth), "testing" their environment (as a population), "experimenting" on new permutations of changes in coat proteins, DNA and other nucleic acid specific enzymes, and other functional or heritable genomic characteristics, and the population settles (momentarily and within a particular host/context) on a seccessful matrix of mutations.

Remember that when we scientists use words like "they test" or "they experiment" with mutations to become more fit, it is a quirk of our colloquial language that makes anthropomorphism desirable. Viruses and other organisms no more "want" to "test" or "experiment" than a volume of liquid or gas "wants" to fill the container it is in. These activities are artifacts of basic physical and genetic properties. None of this language is EVER meant to imply genomic intelligence alike to what we perceive to be our own intelligence. True, there is a resultant "genomic intelligence" but that is jargony language that really confuses, not useful.

It seems that, indeed, even as Bush tries to capitalize off the fear of the potential avian flu pandemic (just as he capitalizes off of fear of 9/11, boogy monsters, and perhaps the Loch Ness Monster), he has really helped alot of people OPEN THEIR EYES to the concept of evolution.

In polls that judge American "acceptance" of the concept of Evolution, before and after the avian flu pandemic rukus (there has been NO pandemic, yet), we see that people get the object lesson.

Here are some further resources for understanding evolution:

Evolution Outreach Projects - stuff you need!

Getting ready for robotics

2005-12-31T11:48:00.000-05:00

As you can imagine, there are many new things to learn when you learn electronics. Q has been introduced to atoms, electrons, electrical current flow in metals, electronic orbitals, etc. Now she needs to learn about circuits and, in order to extend basic electronics to what she REALLY likes, which is robotics, she needs to learn about binary code.

To this end, Q is learning how to convert decimal numbers to binary code.

What is binary code? Taken from the Wikipedia we get:

The term binary code can mean several different things:

- There are a variety of different methods of coding numbers or symbols into strings of bits, including fixed-length binary numbers, prefix codes such as Huffman codes, and other coding techniques including arithmetic coding.
- Binary and text files on computers are represented as binary codes and
- Characters within text files can be represented by any of a number of character code systems, including ASCII, EBCDIC and Unicode.

You can get spiffy conversion tables at this site.

From this site we get the follow walk through explanation of Binary numbering.

A series of eight bits strung together makes a byte, much as 12 makes a dozen. With 8 bits, or 8 binary digits, there exist 2^8=256 possible combinations
Uses numbers 0, 1,, that's 2 numbers. Hence base 2.
Binary numbering is the number system that is used by computers.
Note: The positional value doubles as you go to the next positional on the left

Power of the base: 2^4 = Positional value: 16
Power of the base: 2^3 = Positional value: 8
Power of the base: 2^2 = Positional value: 4
Power of the base: 2^1 = Positional value: 2
Power of the base: 2^0 = Positional value: 1

A binary digit is called a bit. There are two possible states in a bit, Usually expressed as 0 and 1, the two numbers used in the binary number system.
But the bit could represent on / off of an electrical circuit, yes / no, true / false, -1 / 0, -1 / +1, zero / non zero, or similar 2 state binary wording.
A byte of memory can store a number in the range 00000000 to 11111111 binary.
Numbers are often displayed in groups of 4, as follows, to make them easier to read. 0000 0000 to 1111 1111 binary.

Time Out for a Pause Political - Open Your Eyes

2005-12-29T10:32:00.000-05:00

This would not be a progressive blog if I didnt take a moment on occasion to highlight some of the fundamental issues that we all (not just those of us who have come to the name progressive) must deal with.

As with any person who is driven by a crass profit motive, our president is not focused on what is in our best interest. His 8 years will be about the Big Grab. Why do we let him plunder what is ours?

Go here to learn more and to take action, like many of the rest of us.

A snapshot from our holiday

2005-12-26T21:55:00.000-05:00

Cooking up a storm with her new food and frying pan, takes after her momma :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2005-12-25T12:26:00.000-05:00

I hope that you all have had a great holiday!

Q got a whole range of electronics parts for her homeschooling for christmas. Her grandpa gave her a very special osciliscope that is 40 years old, very expensive, and helpful for her in testing the circuits she makes. We will be kicking off new projects with this and other components, stay tuned!

A Colombian Kitchen in the frozen wastes of Massachusetts

2005-12-21T13:48:00.000-05:00

The Kitchen :-)

We are cooking up a Colombian food storm. We will be posting up illustrated recipes for a traditional Colombian fritanga.

Holiday Baking -> kid-made THE best :-)

2005-12-17T13:11:00.000-05:00

Q made the most delicious and attractive cookies! They are almost gone! Next we will make some pumpkin cookies (instead of gingerbreads, forgot to get the ginger!)

Stay Tuned :-)

Our homeschool images

2005-12-12T12:07:00.000-05:00

Flash Slideshow

This is our homeschool flickr photostream. It will be updated dynamically as we add more pics to our stream. I apologize if you have problems viewing flash, ahead of time. I am adding a link to the right column here for easy access in the future. Come on back and visit for new pics.

To the light, our hearts and minds turn

2005-12-11T14:35:00.000-05:00

While I wish the holidays were not so clumped together, what can you do. If you live in the north, where your days wane and the great eye of the sun graces your days for a very short time in the winter, you will understand this post perhaps better than those who have a pretty constant day-night light cycle.

Our diminishing days really torque our diurnal clocks. I feel it, I cant possibly ignore it. To quell some of the sadness that comes in February when its -20F for weeks at a time, I am strongly compelled to celebrate and wholly process the winter solstice, when the pendulum of day begins to swing back in our favor.

We monkeys are pretty frail, and my particular weakness is a need for photostimulation to keep the cheer up.

For some, this time of year is about rigidly held and specific traditions. Always eat the same meal, same place at the table, same plates, same old christmas tree out of the closet, same lights out front on the bushes, go to the same midnight mass, same christmas morning wake up ritual. Many people LIKE it that way because it is a groove into which they put their mental record player needle, checking out.

We dont do that and now with our homeschooling, we can blow it all away with even more abandon.

This year we will celebrate the Winter Solstice, as we do every year, with candles and some sort of sun cake, but I am hoping to make it an intergenerational exploration into Saturnalia (food, revelry, consideration of older customs, times, cultures, religions), Mithra's birthday (the precursor to the Christ birthday meme/myth) and how that was celebrated.

With each of these celebrations, we will touch on the old but also use our own context to bring some familiarity to it (for example, as we are descended on my side from Colombia, we will do a huge Fritanga, and fry up chicharrones, patacones, yuca fritas, empanadas, arepas, bunuelos, rice, beans, and we will also do the traditional midnight tamal (am gonna squish christmas with new years because my mom will not be here for the latter holiday)).

We do not celebrate the fact that we GET gifts. We celebrate that we have each other. For this reason, gifts are a relatively small part of our tradition.

I hope that you fellow homeschoolers are able to maximize the teachable moments in your holidays and find the light that can be hard to keep in the cold winter months.

Recipe:

Like most of colombian food, empanadas are a labor of love. You HAVE to make pique with this and spoon it into a piping hot empanada that you have bitten the end off of. -sighs- heaven on earth!

I found the following recipe here.

Recipe for Colombian EMPANADAS
(15 APROX.)

Ingredients:

• One pound of ground beef
• Two bunches of green onions finely chopped including ¾ of green part
• Half white onion finely chopped
• Half red bell pepper finely chopped
• Three large garlic cloves smashed
• Two large potatoes or three average size
• Large bottle of canola oil
• Spices (Mainly soy sauce, basil, oregano and black pepper)

To prepare the masa:
• One package of yellow corn flour “La Venezolana” or “La Colombiana” brand available at Liborio Market
• Goya seasoning with culantro & achiote
• Salt and warm mixture of water/milk (80%-20%) milk is optional

Preparing the primal ingredient: LA MASA:
After being psychologically prepared to be in the kitchen for a couple of hours, pour the flour on a wide clean hard surface (counter) and form a volcano-shape crater in the middle, pour some of the warm water and one pocket of Goya seasoning, to give the masa flavor and an orange color to it. Mix carefully by pouring the flour around the crater inside it with a spoon, until it soaks the water. Open a new crater with the moist flour and pour more warm water, pouring the dry flour around with the spoon. Repeat until all the flour is moist. Knead constantly with your hands and fingertips for around ten minutes, adding salt along the process. The key to a perfect masa is to reach a point where it is neither too dry, because the empanada might crack open while frying, nor too moist with water, because the empanada could “explote” once getting in touch with the hot oil, endangering the safety of the cook.
The trick is to add small amounts of oil while kneading, until reaching the ideal consistency, which is not cracking, neither getting sticky. It might take longer to reach such point when it’s the first time, but patience is the virtue of the best cooks.
Set aside, covering the masa with moist paper towels or kitchen rag to avoid cracking on the surface.

In the meantime, cook the potatoes in boiling water until soft.

EL RELLENO (stuffing):
Cook the carne asada (preferably on the grill for better taste). Set aside to let it cool off. On a cutting board chop the cooked meat finely. Separately, on a wide pan, sauté the garlic with 3 spoonfuls of oil, adding little by little ¾ of the total of the green onions, the white onion, the bell pepper and the seasonings at your own taste, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon, for about 10 minutes. Add the finely chopped meat. Keep on stirring for another couple of minutes to blend the ingredients very well. If the mixture is getting dry, add some oil. Take note of the fact that this relleno will be mixed later on with the smashed potatoes, and is the one carrying the flavor, so don’t be shy seasoning it. The stuffing must have a rich and tasty flavor. An empanada with no flavor is as sad as rice with no salt…
Set the mixture aside. Once the potatoes are soft enough, let them cool off and peel them off. With a large fork smash them, although it doesn’t have to be smashed all the way through. Tiny lumps are OK.
Add the potatoes into the stuffing mixture. Mix well. Double check for flavor and salt. You never know…

Prepare a frying pan with oil up to the middle. Heat well.

Take the masa and start making balls larger than a golf ball. Find a hard round surface to flatten the ball against. It could be a flat dish. You will also need a rectangular piece of thick plastic (like a large zip-lock bag open on both sides) to avoid the ball sticking to the surface of the dish. Have a cup of water at hand to constantly moist your fingertips while flattening the masa balls.
Put the plastic moist with water on the flat dish. Wet your fingertips, take one ball and put it on the dish covered with one end of the plastic then cover the ball with the other end of the plastic. Take a second smaller flat bottom dish and smash the ball against the larger dish underneath. The result should be a round-like masa “CD” of aprox. 5 inches wide and aprox. 1/16 thick. Put the masa on one of your hands still with the plastic, bending it like a hard taco, and with the other hand take some stuffing and put it in the center of the masa. Seal the ends with your moist fingertips making sure to leave some flat in order to make a decorative waving form along the sealed seam, as of an eel’s fin.

Put no more than two empanadas at the same time in the oil, since they might break open. Leave in oil for a few minutes, turn around and wait until golden. Put them on a tray with paper towels to soak the oil.

EL “PIQUE” (Colombian style salsa for empanadas):
Put the remaining chopped green onions in a bowl, adding chopped fresh cilantro, some water, vinegar, lemon juice and some hot sauce, depending on your taste. Pour this pique in every bite you make.

New long term project - frugal hydroponics

2005-12-10T11:44:00.000-05:00

We are working on gathering resources and ideas about how to make a frugal but high productivity hydroponics system.

Once we have the initial system rigged up, we will post photos here.

If any fellow homeschoolers want to be remote partners (hydroponic penpals?) drop us a note and lets have some fun!

This last summer we did on-deck hanging container gardening with some success.

Even tho we have land, every time we have gardened in the ground we have been beset by pests, large (deer, wild rabbits) and small (aphids, slugs, moles, chipmunks). I also hate to weed so it doesnt happen and so the weeds are the usual crop (we have some evil virulent weeds here).

First we started from seed:

We took some cheap hanging pots (98c - walmart), cut out 4 square holes in the bottom, put our home-sprouted tomatoes in, upside down, filled in with souped up potting soil (ripped up some of the diapers that our baby had grown too big for, and used the hydratable gel as an amendment to the soil, knowing that we were going to over seed the pots.), then seeded the top of the pots (somehtng like 10 or so pots) with lettuce, cilantro, pumpkins, pole beans, bush beans, chives, margolds for protection, forgot what else.

We rigged up some trellises on our deck railings to hold up the pots (see pics below)

First crop was lettuce, mighty fine, full success.

Tomatoes, beans, well, everything grew (We used some fertilizer and had to water every day, with the watering becoming more crucial as time went on).

Some of our fruit are shown below. The cherry tomatoes were the most successful tomato. The plums grew but none really ripened.

The beans, pumpkins, and squash were such water hogs that they never fruited and reallllly drained the tomato plants.

Lessons learned:
- forget the pumpkins/squash
- forget the beans (my family choses lettuce over beans any day so this is ok)
- put in more of the gel (need to find cheap source of this stuff)
- use more Jobe sticks (are there organic solid sticks?)
- keep planting and replanting successive lettuces.

This truly was a great luttuce growing operation and we so enjoyed lettuce live off the deck, nothing like completely fresh leaves.

No snow days in homeschooling (updated)

2005-12-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

There aint no cheesy snow days when you homeschool. You dont have to worry about your child being in an unheated school bus, with no seat belts, sliding on poorly plowed roads, riding for HOURS.

I used to walk through hip deep snow to the bus when we lived in Iowa. Frozen pant cuffs cutting my ankles then thawing and coating the same ankles with freezing water all day at school.

The only time we didnt go to school there was when it got down to MINUS 50 degrees F real temp and MINUS 80 F windchill factor. They didnt want us to breathe the cold dry air so we didnt go to school that day. Iowa can be more cruel than Alaska (lived both places).

Nope, we just snuggle up and go on with our day like its just another day (which it is).

White out! Its now snowing at a rate of 3 inches/hour.

Alls clear, a foot of snow and then the sky cleared, sun came out, and then the sun set. Kids got to play just a bit.

Daily Spark - from the mouth of babes

2005-12-08T09:01:00.000-05:00

Writing (SparkNotes Daily Spark)

We do our DailySpark every day. A recent page was on foreshadowing. It asked Q to write a paragraph. She didnt stick to the suggested topics (inheritance of a fortune, downfall of a corporation, or the discovery of a crime) but did one on politics.

She wrote:

"A storm gathered as they walked to the rally. When they got there they waited and then they protested. Then someone broke out a mob. Then someone started a fire. They fed it until it was an inferno. It wiped out the whole city. Finally, the storm that gathered put it out."

Powerful huh? Depending on which side of the political spectrum you are planted, you will see this differently. I think she is hooking into a vision of a rather violent social correction for a corrupt system. She mixes real world experience (rallies and protests) and sims game experience (mobs, catastrophies, etc) to come out with something that is rather interesting.

Science - Polymerization

2005-12-06T09:25:00.001-05:00

Today, we broke open a new science kit that related to the polymerization of several chemicals including polyvinyl acetate (opaque laundry starch), polyvinyl alcohol, and sodium tetraborate (borax) (the polymerizing agent).

First Q examined the liquid qualities of polyvinyl alcohol and then she added the sodium tetraborate. She watched it change and become a very goopy and interesting goop.

Next she added the sodium tetraborate to the polyvinyl acetate, watched it change, and then got an opaque goop that felt more slimey than the previous one and it was slower to goop about.

Finally, polyvinyl acetate and polyvinyl alcohol were mixed and then polymerized. Q saw that it didnt form a new mix but rather that each chemical polymerized to itself, bringing each out of solution seperately.

This was a great kit and we have lots left over for out-of-the-box experiments too!

Whew what a week, and a doozie is coming up!

2005-12-04T14:17:00.000-05:00

We have been working on breaking through some barriers and I think we are closing in. One thing about working with and around children, you KNOW they are NOT adults :-)

One beautiful thing about childrens's minds is that they are NOT adults and can be much more flexible about things.

Sure, tantrums can happen and oppositional behavior of all sorts can make your days hot with angst but if you remain constant (thats only fair), calm (hot headed mommas only get hot headed kids), and cognizant of the fact that its a continuum, both parent and child will likely move through rough patches without too much blood loss and with having learned a bit more about themselves.

On a lighter note, we are looking down the barrel of a Nor'easter this coming Tuesday. We are pretty much ready for anything, with our woodstove and wood pile. Power outage is better in the winter because we just take the food out of the fridge and put it in the vestibule, nice and cool in there.

Today we got about 4 inches as a pre-storm dusting. (Think of it as that crumb layer of frosting you put on a cake before the main frosting job).

Not all is cool and white, our christmas catcus has blossomed and is so very lovely.

Hope you all have a beautiful Sunday and see you next week.

Blue Math

2005-11-29T11:07:00.000-05:00

I think its time to clear the moorings and set sail for balmy seas and clear blue waters.

Instead, we have entered a doldrums of the mathematical sort that have extended their high pressure fronts into other subjects.

In short, its been hard for Q to concentrate today and get work done. I see this as a natural part of the process and hope that we can both come together to find something that scintillates for her, something(s) that dont make her blue :-)

Our bounty was great

2005-11-25T12:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I hope your turkey day was as delicious as ours! Q helped out and learned alot about how to make this feast.

Pics below:

Bread that Q helped me make.

The Turkey and some fixings.

This is what it looked like outside when I got up at 6:30 to start the bread dough. A lovely delicate snow all day long, was amazing.

Apple Pie Pastry Purses

2005-11-23T18:28:00.000-05:00

Like I said earlier, we started on our Thanksgiving prep today and we just finished our desserts!

Q made these pastry purses. Arnt they yummy!

Enjoy!

(Recipe, as per request. This is not meant to be a professional recipe :-) and I made it up myself. As you can see, its not hard to do)

This is quite easy, the hard part is not eating them immediately.

My 9 year old made the ones you see above.

Ingredients:

- Store bought pastry dough (I have made this from scratch before and it IS good but I was not in the mood to make pastry dough for like three days straight).

- Apple Pie Filling in a can

- Egg wash (make 30 mins before baking (or overnight) - 1 egg, some salt, a bit of milk to thin.. beat the bejezuz out of it, let sit in fridge 30 mins)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F

Cut squares of pastry dough (dunno - 3 inches per side?), roll out a bit, cut little strips too for the purse. Keep these as cool as possible and re-fridge it all before baking.

Put a dollip of apple pie filling in center, bring opposite corners of square together and then pinch just so to form them into little purses, add the "string".

Brush with egg wash, spring with granulated sugar.

Put on cooking sheet with parchment paper, cover with foil, bake until they look like the pic above. This varies per oven, make sure not to burn the little guys (check often). Dont take out too soon else you will have raw dough in the neck of the purse.

Let cool a bit or they will burn you when you bite into them. Keep them from humidity while storing.

A Homeschooled Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T09:55:00.000-05:00

First, I hope you all out there have a joyful Thanksgiving! It surely can be hard, what with financial pressures and job market instabilities. We had an oh-so lovely visit from Santa Greenspan and now we will have to work even harder ($200 a month harder) to stay where we were treading water just last month. Nice of him wasn't it?

ANYWAYS, frugality is always something I admire and aspire to.

For this year's Thanksgiving, Q and I will be working together to create the feast.

She will get a chance to make apple and pumpkin pastry purses (two different kinds, not together), a baked brie, snap beans and help me steam them, steam/prep other veggies, make a bechamel sauce, makes the cranberry sauce from cranberries - oranges - ginger, prep the turkey and learn about how best to do that, and cook said bird without drying it to jerky.

She has been preparing for this by browsing our cooking techniques book (with amazing pics of "how to").

Encyclopedia of Cooking Skills and Techniques

She is also browsing our Culinary Institute of America's text book "The Professional Chef".

As well as our Professional Patry chef book:

These are both text books at the Culinary Institute of America and excellent resource books for much of what one would want to learn about cooking!

We will also do a photo-documentary of Q's work, so Stay Tuned!

Saxaphone Monday

2005-11-21T09:29:00.000-05:00

We start our week with a sax lesson. The cats become scarce, the baby dances to the sounds (looks like toddler modern dance in the living room), I sip my tea, and we encourage sibilance from a reluctant saxaphone.

A nice sunny place

2005-11-20T11:53:00.000-05:00

Winter sun is so beautiful! We reconfigured our homeschooling space and now it catches so much sun, its wonderful!

Old Sturbridge Village

2005-11-19T17:32:00.000-05:00

We got out of the house this saturday and spent an afternoon in Old Sturbridge Village doing "old things" and generally enjoying being out of the house and in the fresh cool air.

I took a few pics:

Q carded wool

Here is an early carding machine:

Q tended shop:

Q and her little sister played shopping together:

Q got to practice writing with a quill pen:

Q's little sister played in period costume too:

I was sorely tempted to get the Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook but held firm!

Native American History Pocket

2005-11-17T15:05:00.000-05:00

(sorry for not posting a few days, been balancing homeschooling with the job hunt - telecommuting stuff - so the blogging has had to go to a non-primary status)

Today Q, other than her Spanish, math, and English, did the Native American part of her "Colonial America" History Pocket.

I wanted to share the work she did here! (We listened to Carlos Nakai while doing this)

This project had her making an ear of corn that told of the Three Sisters, a homemade Native Languages - English language dictionary (with illustrations), a bookmark with some facts, and she learned a bit about peace treaties. She knows better than the average propaganda on this as she has read in Zinn's "A people's history" about the way whites treated native peoples in colonial and later times.

Exterior of pocket

Interior of book/pocket

The Three Sisters

Bookmark with some facts

Native Languages - English dictionary - exterior

Native Languages - English dictionary - interior - muskrat and opossum entries

Some information about a peace treaty

Q writes out the conditions

Ancient Rome!!

2005-11-12T15:42:00.000-05:00

Recently, we have been learning a bit about the Romans by looking at this kewl fold out cut out diorama from DK books.

I took some close up macros from the book and thought I would share them here, lots of action shots!

Learning about pH, Acids, Bases, measurements, fun.

2005-11-11T16:54:00.000-05:00

Today, after practicing her cursive and some hiragana characters, Q and I opened up our second super-cheap science kit from Michaels Art Supply called "pH Fun!", by The Wild Goose Company.

As you can see we have some bromphenol blue (pH indicator), a silk rose with another pH indicator in it's petals, some pH strips and a booklet of experiments.

First, I took Q to a web page to learn some scientific background on acids and bases. This site is good for a graphical representation of the pH scale.

Then we visited this other amazing site that has a flash animation that illustrates a pH meter and we messed around with various solutions and measured their pH. At this point we took a side trip into a discussion of Scientific notation and a 30,000 foot view of molarity so that she could understand what is going on with the pH meter.

Regarding scientific notation, here are a few sites and I found the following blurb here:
Scientific Notation - A positive number is written in scientific notation if it is written in the form: a x 10 [superscript r] where 1 < a < 10 and r is an integer power of 10.

We also found another site that helped us explore pH titrations with an animated buret and solutions.

With the end of these discussions, we went on to the fun stuff!

The first task was to test things around the house. We assembled a variety of fluids including (clockwise starting at 1 pm): Wasabi, ponzu sauce (citrus soy sauce), onion slices, milk, lemon juice, orange juce, buffalo wings hot sauce.

You can see the pH strips. The results were as follows: wasabi - 4, ponzu - 3, onion slice juice - 5, milk - 7, lemon juice - 3, orange juice - 4, hot sauce - 3.

We also tested other materials and got the following results: Hydrogen Peroxide - 5, alcohol - 5, woolite detergent - 8, well water - 6, windex with ammonia-d - 10, acetic acid (vinegar) - 2.

The next experiment was to titrate the pH of a solution of water and bromphenol blue (a pH indicator). Approximately equal amounts of water were aliquoted out, same amounts of bromphenol blue were added to them and then the experiment was to add acetic acid (AA) and see what happens.

We made a digital movie of this part and it can be found here. (Please let me know how this site works for you re: getting the move to play for you! Lke it? Didnt work? Looks good? Looks horrible?)

Next, we titrated the pH back in the other direction with ammonia! See the digital video here.

We then experimented with the silk flower pH indicator experiment and the video is here.

Here are a few resources/tutorials on pH and chemistry!

Chemistry Hypermedia Project which features comprehensive on-line course in general chemistry.

The Element Song
This is a cute little ditty that is supposed to help students learn the names of the Chemiscal Elements. The lyrics are by Tom Lehrer
with lyrics or audio only file.

WebElements
The periodic table on the WWW. Vastly updated. Mark Winters highly recommends this site. I have been there and for knowledge of the elements, there is no equal. A real five star rating. It has the latest developments on current new elements being synthesized. A must visit!!

LearnChem This site is chock-full of tutorials, practice problems (with solutions), quizzes, exams, and more!

The Amazon Goddess Cometh

2005-11-10T13:25:00.000-05:00

I love to see the Amazon boxes come in the mail :-) I know, its an expensive habit, but I prefer to own my books than to borrow. Borrowing from the library always twists my insides. I think about stern librarians and pissy staff members who give me judgemental looks. Only place I get worse treatment is at the dentist!.

ANYWAYS, back to the Amazon fetish.

This week, the Amazon Goddess brought us several books, including this amazing workbook "Exploring the Shape of Space" by Jeffrey Weeks, an adjunct to his text "The Shape of Space". This workbook even comes with a CD ROM with further materials!

We also got a great source book for mathematics called "Math on Call: A Mathematics Handbook"

One uses this book in the following ways:
* low key browsing (lots of nice but not irrelevant graphics)
* If stuck on a problem (how to approach a problem) parent or child can use this as a reference
* Child uses this as a reference to also build self-researching skills so that they do not feel that the parent is the only source of solution re: a block in some homeschooling activity!

Wired! Fun with electricity

2005-11-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

We found a quickie science project at Michaels the other day called

"3 in 1 science kit - Wired" put out by the Wild Goose Company.

This has a few alligator clips, a circuit board, copper wired, an LED light, and a battery connector.

As suggested in the wired book, Q made a testing circuit with an LED light as indicator of a closed circuit. She then placed various test items in the testing loop and looked for whether the LED lit up or not. If it lit up then the test item conducted electricity!

Some of the things Q tested were:

Well water (weak positive)

Salt water (strong positive)

Milk (medium positive)

Orange Juice (VERY STRONG positive! Who could guess that huh?)

Test Paper strips with:

No water (no signal)

Well water soaked (middle strip, weak positive with leads very close to each other)

Salt water soaked (bottom strip, strong positive with leads very close to each other)

Oil (no light at all)

Ceramic (nothing)

A basil leaf (extremely weak and very close to the other lead but definitely some current)

She tested a cast iron pan and was not able to get any light at all!

A stainless steel measuring cup (VERY STRONG!)

She tried dry salt and that was conductive too, even without liquid.

This was a super cool project! A lot for the $5.95 investment :-)

THE CUTEST, EVER.

2005-11-07T18:47:00.000-05:00

, originally uploaded by Colla-Dickel Cats.

I had to share this shot of the most precious little kitty, Poo, who lives with a lovely family of people and cats in Brazil.

History Pockets

2005-11-07T12:07:00.000-05:00

Today we are starting on a workbook I found at Barnes and Noble called "History Pockets: Colonial America"

Its nice in that it has some good get-started directed exercises and will be nice as a run up to Thanksgiving. Am thinking about then taking Q to Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth Rock on the coast of MA) to do the pilgrim re-enactment thang.

Check out this image, I think I want to be a part of this! Hmm.. Maybe we will dress up for this thanksgiving!

They have a great online section called "You are the Historian" where you can explore this time period.

They also have this amazing "Educator's Resource Pack" thats $15.04.

Other packs can be found here.

Tell me if you have found other good unbiased interactive stuff on this theme (online or off) for the 4-8th grader range!)

Fun With Science!

2005-11-05T09:41:00.000-05:00

Emily at www.fun-with-science.com is such an inspiration! This is grassroots science education at its best. Emily and her family have designed and tested science kits for homeschoolers (hey, for anyone!) that bring together all the resources you might need to teach science.

Check out her site and explore her kits!

This is My Blog on a grindstone

2005-11-03T23:56:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to apologize for the silence here. I have been strapped to the grindstone and relief aint near. Am hoping to be able to post up some of Q's work tomorrow.

American Science & Surplus

2005-10-31T10:41:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to share this neat resource for scientific supplies. We often look for things in Edmund Scientific but for all the truly wild and fun check out American Science & Surplus!

Where else can you get things like:

Bacon Bandages!
Mend it with these bacon bandages. Or use them to patch ordinary cuts and scrapes with a bandage strip that you won't see on every other klutz in the office or kid in the classroom. Our each is an old-fashioned metal tin of (15) 3" bandage strips, each of which mimics a small slice of bacon. BONUS: A few of them end to end would make quite realistically disgusting scars for those costume parties. ADDED BONUS: A free tiny pink plastic pig in every box!
92725 BACON BANDAGES $4.95 / EACH Buy It!

Microscope
No, it's never been in jail. But it could have helped crack a lot of cases using forensic evidence. Top-quality binocular microscope for advanced medical and biological research. Magnification is 60 to 1500X achieved with (4) standard achromatic objectives, 4X, 10X, 40X and 100X (the last being oil immersible, and the last two spring loaded.) Eyepieces are 10X wide field. The standard binocular head it comes with provides an additional 1.5X magnification, diopter and interpupillary adjustment. All lenses are multicoated. Includes coarse and fine focusing, large mechanical stage, and built-in halogen illuminator with abbe condenser, iris diaphragm and filter holder (two filters included). This is a superb product available to you at an excellent price. Made in Russia. As a special extra, we offer the monocular head below which is fully Interchangeable with the binocular head. Limited Lifetime Warranty. Please contact our tech. department for extensive info on the phase contrast and the photo attachment.
90197 BIOCON MICROSCOPE $595.00/EACH Buy it!
27600 MONOCULAR HEAD $12.50/EACH Buy it!
14385 PHASE CONTRAST UPGRADE $449.00/EACH Buy it!
14386 PHOTO ATTACHMENT $425.00/EACH Buy it!

Dichroic Wow!
Here's an amazing, top quality dichroic optical assembly at a fantastic price for those who know what to do with it or its parts. White light entering one end splits chromatically and emerges from the other with virtually no loss of intensity. The assembly includes an iris, a dichroic wheel with two color filters, an infrared filter mirror, and a rectangular quartz prism all assembled around a 60 mm aspheric lens. The whole thing would fit into a 7" x 7" x 9-1/2" box. It has got to have applications in the physics classroom for demo purposes, perhaps in the lab, too. We are guessing someone paid hundreds of dollars to have these dudes made.
29649
DICHROIC ASSEMBLY
$35.00 / EACH
Buy It!

Gear & Pinion
Talk about a heavy-duty set of straight-bevel gears! This is a takeout from an outboard motor. The set is made to work at a 90° offset angle, with a reduction ratio of slightly under 2:1. The gear is 5-5/8" OD, 1-1/4" ID. The pinion is 3-1/4" OD, 1-1/4" ID. Heavy. Nice.
33723 GEAR/PINION $12.50 / EACH Buy it!

The stunning beauty of Cell Biology - man's advance at the hand of Art

2005-10-27T17:20:00.000-04:00

These amazing images are to-scale watercolor illustrations of a bacterium and blood cells. These are small sections of a larger piece made by Dr. David Goodsell. Notes on this work say

Macrophages circulate through the blood, searching for bacterial infection. When bacteria are found, macrophages engulf and digest them. This series of three paintings shows a macrophage engulfing a bacterium. Only a portion of the two cells, where a pseudopod of the macrophage is extending over the bacterium, is shown. The original paintings are 1 meter tall--at this magnification, the macrophage would fill most of a building.

David S. Goodsell is someone I admire deeply for his ability to illustrate Cell Biology (my favorite part of the life sciences, cant help the bias).

He is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. He is the author of Bionanotechnology: Lessons from Nature (J. Wiley and Sons, 2004), Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines, and Messages (Springer-Verlag, 1996), and The Machinery of Life (Springer-Verlag, 1993). His recent biomolecular artwork can be viewed here. Address: Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037. Internet: goodsell@scripps.edu (I got this blurb from here)

Read about his scientific interests here.

Read about his artistic work here.

A nice online presentation he has on Overview of Biological Machines from the Designing Nanostructures: A tutorial site can be found here. And you can pull up a nice slide presentation here.

Here is a lovely poster on Molecular Machinery (PDF 5MB)

Snow on 10-26-05

2005-10-26T08:49:00.000-04:00

Snow on 10-26-05, originally uploaded by nikaboyce.

Mother nature has decided that it shall snow on the 26th of October in centeral MA!

Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandalas - Like raising your children

2005-10-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

It occurs to me that raising and living with your children (especially for homeschooling families), if done well, is a bit like the Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandala ritual. link link

(Learn more about this and the Tibetan Buddhist monks who travel the world to bring compassionate and beautiful Tibetan Buddhism to those of us who cant go to Tibet.) (super cool video of the process!)

Tibetan Buddhist monks train for weeks and months, meditating on a certain message and "type" of Buddha to "bring to life" in a mandala sand painting. They then render the mandala on a board with tubes that guide the sand into patterns. In earlier times, Tibetan Monks used ground precious stones like rubies, sapphires, and pearls. Other monks are chanting prayers so that, as the ritual of making the mandala proceeds, the Compassionate Intention emanates into the neighboring world. At the end of the ritual, the sand is scattered, collected, small amounts given to people watching and also used to bless nearby rivers and other things which need to be purified by Compassionate Intension and Love. (The whole world in my view).

How is this like raising kids? Do I really have to answer?! :-) Each child is a beautiful and infinite possibility matrix who, with our love and compassion and teaching, manifests in the world all of the goodness and right that flows from ourselves. Their complexity makes them unique in every way and that complexity should be honored, celebrated, seen, allowed to grow, and allowed to be as colorful as possible. The sand of our children is exquisitely precious, way beyond ground pearls and rubies.

But most beautiful and grand is that our little human madalas are not blown apart but must be allowed to exist on their own, freed to affect the world in wonderful and unpredictable ways.

Progressive HomeSchool

Growing and drawing

Sci-casts: Zeptoliters and tiny tiny bits of fluid

KD is beginning to homeschool now

Q's video from the International Boston Seafood Show

Birth of a New Essay

Evolution vs. Creationism / Intelligent Design in Our Schools - by Q

Challenger Jan 28 1986 RIP

Homeschooling temporally challenged children

Carnival of Homeschooling - Week 53 - the Anniversary edition

Happy Winter Solstice! May you have light

Slice of Life

Modern Homeschooling

News Bubbles

Our baby has arrived

Eggstra Eggstra - A heads up

Another harvest for Q

Quiet moments, learning

Carnival of Homeschooling Week 38

Genius - meaning and practice

Dear Flickr Friend has passed

On the Origin of Disco Species

Old Sturbridge Village Homeschool Day!

Bush's failure is his legacy

Disney's and ABC's "Path to 911" propaganda - what you can do

In Memory of Steve Irwin & a Q Tribute

Wales Old Home Day

Homemade Butter - perfect kid's project

Exploring Geometry - Cube-a-rama

July 2, 2006 Inaugural Progressive HomeSchool PodCast!

Q helps with optimizing our computer set up! Gcompris too!

Testing our podcast

Never forget - Our Grim Reaper-in-Chief

Elephantus, Felis, Canis, Oh My!

Phylogeny - Tree of Life

Sarcophaga sp. - not your average fly

Avian Funeral Services

Cheers and Jeers to the new economy

Spring recital

New England Small Farm Institute, beautiful sun!

A somewhat educational roadtrip

Rain to beat the band

Save the Internet protest day - May 16

Noggin Nemesis - The Backyardigans and The Wonder Pets

Rock Hunting

Geographic buddies

Neil Young - Living with War - hear it now

Waking from hybernation

Auto-schooling - Toddler style

Buddhist Children

Just Saying - A political moment

Electric Potato Writing

Ionic bonds

Up and running again!

update - Machines are down

Geography - Terrestrial and Martian

A very sad day indeed

Dark, hidden, black-box math - its a good thing!

Snow Constructions

Winter Piano Recital

Electrical Excitement

Anatomy - Skeleton

Archaic calligraphy - Colonial America

Q's first blog entry - On Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Step beyond the platitudes and propaganda

H5N1 flu is active and spreading in new outbreak

Homeschool Electronics

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Our homeschool images

To the light, our hearts and minds turn

New long term project - frugal hydroponics

No snow days in homeschooling (updated)

Daily Spark - from the mouth of babes