homeschool conversations

Alaina: Why is it called an inch ruler?
Me: Because its main unit of measurement is an inch.
Alaina: (matter-of-factly) It could be called a footstick.
Me: Yes, it could.

What did you get out of college?  Seriously, think about it.  What did you actually get out of college other than a mountain of debt, unless you were really good at playing the game and finagled some scholarships? 

I played the game. 

I'm not going to make my children play the game. 

Obviously, some people need college.  Those are the people who actually learn something applicable to a career (engineers, doctors, the like). 

What could you have done if you hadn't wasted so much time and money in college?  What could you have started? 

I realize that questioning the value of a college education is extremely counter-cultural.  I'm just asking you to really think about it - what did you get out of your college education?

On the flipside, what can you not learn about these days...completely free?  Or at worst, for the cost of a book or two?

I came across this article: http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/04/12/why-skipping-college-was-one-of-the-smartest-decisions-of-my-life/?singlepage=true

I'm sure some of you have heard me making the same points.  What do you think?

I let the kids play, too.

So, I'm a nerd.  But aren't these eggs pretty?  :)  As a bonus, I get to eat them!  Plain is delicious, but I do love egg salad.  What's your favorite way to eat boiled eggs?

the clock is ticking...

Dear Trader Joe's,

Despite the fact you have defied all logic by choosing to open your first Houston-area store in The Woodlands, I am still eagerly anticipating the grand opening.  Fortunately, I have recently been to Omaha and was able to stock up on essentials such as Dark Chocolate Almonds (with Sea Salt & Turbinado Sugar) and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.  However, my supply is limited.  I respectfully request that you at least post an anticipated opening date for the new store, so I can ration myself and have a chance of making my stash last until the new store opens.

Don't make me move to Omaha just to get some Raspberry Lime Sparkling Mineral Water.

Sincerely,
I'll Take One of Everything

"Mom, do you have to have clean shirts at STAR Open House?  Because, uh, macaroni fell on my shirt."

Somedays, it's just hard.

I realize, in the grand scheme of things, I have very little to complain about.  But on those days when the boys have reached new heights of boy-ness, and on the days when being a parent comes before doing the one thing that I want to do, it's hard.

So we'll just take a deep breath, knowing March cannot continue to be terrible since it is birthday month, and move on to the next thing. 

After all, what else is there to do?  :)

So you think you know the Constitution?

I'm sure you're wondering why on earth you're reading the homeschool nerd mom's blog right about now.  But the Constitution is cool, and the circumstances surrounding its writing are cool.  And learning about it is likewise cool!  Especially when it's a free college course!

Go here and register for the course, and when I get around to each week's readings and lectures, I'll post some thoughts on my blog.  But if you get around to the readings and lectures before I do, feel free to post your thoughts here or on your own blog (and if you don't have a blog, just click on the orange and white "B" in the corner and go make one already).

Nerds are cool.  You know it's true.

Would you look at that? Google finally released a Blogger app.  Hmm, perhaps there is hope for a blog resurrection.

A PSA.

Are you, your family and your friends aware of the number one threat facing humanity today? 

This threat is insidious - it's in your home, your business, everywhere you go.  There is no escape, and there is no cure.

It may start small, but it will breed, not unlike a Gremlin who has been fed after dark - a greedy, monstrous creature.

What is this dire threat facing us? 

Entropy.

This hideous creature knows no bounds, no decency.  No one is safe from its reaches.  You can try and fight it, but it will beat you every time. 

Won't you join me in raising awareness of this terrible threat?  Simply stop fighting it for a couple of days - don't do dishes or laundry.  Don't even throw away your trash.  Soon, everyone around you will be asking questions, and you can do your part to increase humanity's awareness of entropy.

Leave the lawn unmowed.  Do it for humanity.

Day 1

After day 1 of training, I am considering reevaluating my goal of running a half marathon at the end of September.

Just kidding. I'm going to do it.

You know sometimes things seem like such a good idea in your head, and then in the midst of executing them you wonder just what it was you were thinking?

That's pretty much what happened to me tonight. :)

I'll try not to be boring with daily posts of my training progress. (As if I could manage to work out daily! Ha!) But for my first day, I ran 2/3 of a mile in 10 minutes. Nothing spectacular, to be sure, but it's a start. :)

Jadyn: (in the midst of her snack) Mama, does your mouth have gravity?

Me: (pausing a moment) Everything, everything, everything, everything is pulled down by the earth's gravity.

Jadyn: Yeah, but what about what's in your mouth?

Me: Even what's in your mouth is pulled down by the earth's gravity.

Jadyn: Okay.

pause

Jadyn: Like a magnet!

pause

Jadyn: We stick to the earth like a magnet sticks to the fridge!

Me: (what else is there to say?) Yep.


Isn't homeschooling swell? :)

Dear Unconstitutional Census Takers,

While you are hard at work wasting taxpayer dollars sitting in Chick-fil-A discussing the aforementioned unconstitutional census, please keep your comments about my children and myself to yourself. Fortunately, the right you enjoy in this country of saying nearly anything you want also affords you the right to be wrong. Furthermore, if "graduation" and "prom" are the first two things you name when referring to school, as examples of "getting out into the world," might I point out that both of those events have nothing to do with education? Likewise, if graduation and prom are your foremost memories of school, then it's no wonder you're participating in another example of the fleecing of America. And in a fit of irony, my children whose lifestyle you see fit to criticize this fine morning were actually "out in the world" rather than cooped up in some classroom.

Sincerely,
7 People Live Here

ah, homeschooling

We're discussing ancient Egypt and what their houses looked like. We talked about how they spent a lot of time on the roofs of their houses because it was cooler up there. We talked about how Grandpa used to sleep on the roof in India when he was growing up. We talked about how only rich people in ancient Egypt had a bathroom indoors, but they probably only had one and had to share, and the servants had to empty the lavatories and pour the water for the showers.

Alaina: "I'm glad I don't live in ancient Egypt."

Jadyn: "Me too. I'm glad we're Texans."

reason #512

...why I love Crocs.

A.J. (not yet 18 months old) put his Crocs on his own feet this morning. Each on the correct foot.

Hooray for things that make my life easier!

a photo progression

unaware of the camera, doing his thing

wait, someone is watching me?

sitting up straight and hamming it up for the camera!

overachiever

To prove his talent and/or his stubbornness, Jared managed to get an ear infection WITH tubes in his ears. So what's next? Antibiotics and then tubes again. Happy Monday!

it's really true

You may or may not have heard that my friend Ashlee is turning 30 next month. Today was the beginning of her 30 Rock Tour. (Links to follow. I'm blogging from my phone at the little gym.) It's just as much fun to see her blog about her gifts as it was for me to open my own last year!

Hopefully this marks a return to my poor neglected blog. It's been a little crazy at my life lately. More so than usual, believe it or not. At the very least I'm sure I have some amusing photos to share.

And now I have to attend to a crayon disagreement. Never fear, I will prevail.

autumn? nope. crazy season.

I'm not sure this past weekend will fit into one blog post, but I'm going to give it a whirl!

Friday night, thanks to my mom being here to oversee what's here of the collective, Joe and I went to the Switchfoot concert. Despite the fact that they are my favorite band ever, this was only the second Switchfoot concert I'd ever been to. And it was fabulous! It was just Switchfoot, no openers. They played the new album ("Hello Hurricane") in its entirety then they played some older stuff. The concert was at Warehouse Live, which is a pretty good venue. I'm not sure I'd willingly attend a standing room only concert for just any band, but with this concert it actually worked. And here's a picture of Jon Foreman when he came out into the crowd and stood with the guy directly in front of us to sing a chorus of one song.


Saturday was Jared's birthday party. He had requested a Thomas (the Tank Engine) cake for his birthday party. And this is why it is useful to marry an engineer (among other reasons):


I also had train engine shapes for the kids to color and then I would assemble them with shoulder straps so they could be trains on the train tracks. Well, that didn't pan out. Instead, after Jared opened his presents, which were literally *all* trucks, with a few clothes thrown in for good measure, he took to driving his trucks around on the tracks. So it all worked out.


Sunday was Ashlee's 5th anniversary at our church. She got a golf cart for a gift. That didn't really have anything to do with us, nor did it add to the craziness of my weekend. I just thought I'd share.


Today, I implemented plan A of the "get Jadyn to stop chewing on her fingernails" attempt. This consisted of painting her fingernails (and her toenails, just for kicks). She chose red glitter polish - one of my personal favorites for the Christmas season. So I painted my toenails too. Her toes look cute, and so do mine! Hooray for having daughters!

I talked to Alaina today...she's doing well. I am really looking forward to seeing her pictures!

This is the conversation I had with Jared this evening. He decided that one of his little cars - a school bus - also had ice cream in it. So he offered me some.

Jared: "Here's your ice cream!"
me: "Thanks!"
pause
Jared: "Give me a money!"

A little later, he offered me some more ice cream.
me: "I don't have any money."
Jared: "Get some!"

hooray technology!

Check this out! Clearly she's tired, but my dad told me today that she's doing really well and having a lot of fun.


She told me that she hadn't written in her journal yet, but that she was going to do that tonight before she went to bed. She also has a black and white (her favorite colors) punjabi, and she has chosen punjabi material for Jadyn that will "look like a pretty princess dress."

So far, so good. /whew!

Thanks to my cousin Dev for posting pictures on Facebook! Isn't technology amazing? :)

boys are special, reason #111 and #112

So I'm driving home from the Galleria area at 6:00pm tonight. (Enough said, right? It gets better.) I was picking up my sister's and daughter's passports which had been freshly approved and stamped with visas to India. I had Jared and A.J. with me. (Told you it was better.)

Determined to suck it up and deal the best I could, we made it out of the visa office without a trip outside/to the bathroom/wherever for some, um, more stringent discipline. Anyway, we're in the car, sitting in traffic, and Jared is alternating between entertaining me and telling me which way I should be driving. At one point, he starts singing "Twinkle Twinkle," and asks me to sing along. So I do. Then he asks me to sing the Doxology (we've started singing that at bedtime also...long story), so we sang that together too. As soon as we finish, he says, "Okay, time to go to bed now! Going to sleep in the car!" He then closed his eyes and leaned against his headrest, feigning sleep.

Of course I had to play along. "Jared, are you sleeping?"

Without blinking, "Yes!"

A few seconds later, in his delightful yelling voice, "Wake up time!"

After about 30 minutes and 10 miles, I asked him about one of his classmates at Mother's Day Out. I had been tipped off about this particular classmate from my informant.

"Jared, was Aubrey in your class today?"

"No."

Knowing otherwise, I persisted. "Jared, was Aubrey in class today?"

Unintelligible mutterings, then, "Yeah."

Different tactic. "Jared, is Aubrey your friend?"

Without hesitation, "Aubrey's a girl."

Clearly, being a girl disqualifies one from friendship status in Jared's world.