Catching Up

I’ve let a few things slide by without mentioning them on my blog because we had a very busy weekend (and, by extension, a rather crazy week).  So here’s a little catch-up:

Yesterday the kids and I took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch with our local homeschool group.  We almost missed it this year, first because I forgot to sign up and then because of Junior’s tangle with croup this week.  But we were able to squeeze into an open spot when someone else canceled, and after much deliberation I decided Junior was probably well enough for us to participate in the kids’ favorite fall tradition.  When we left the house at 10:00 A.M., the temperature on our van thermometer read 48 degrees, but we managed to stay comfortable by pulling out our winter gear.  Pictures from the event are here.

Baba hit an important milestone yesterday with his first piano lesson!  James used the rest of his motorcycle insurance money to buy a digital piano (bless him!), and a lady in our church was able to work Baba into her teaching schedule.  Although he begged all week to be able to start learning to play immediately, he seemed rather nonchalant about the lesson itself, possibly because he expected to be playing music rather than learning how to sit on the bench and position his hands.  But I bet it won’t be long before I’ll have music to share on my blog.

Speaking of milestones, today is Baba’s last day as a seven-year-old.  He and Margie are sleeplessly excited about our celebration plans–I’ll post more about that later this weekend.

Baba’s also got a fun evening ahead of him–he’ll be starting gymnastics classes tonight!  For three weeks now he’s been watching his sister through the window of the observation room at the gym, sighing wistfully because he’s not the one learning to use the bars and balance beam.  James told the gym owner (who happens to be a member of our church) about Baba’s longing, which resulted in an invitation to the "Boy’s Only" gymnastics class on Thursday nights!  We haven’t told him yet, so listen carefully to hear the shouts of excitement coming from the Cartoon House later today.

No Photos? No Business.

OK, ya’ll know I don’t get up on soapboxes very often here.  This blog is usually about our school and our family, mostly a way to share what’s going on in our lives with friends and family.  But every once in awhile I run across something that seems . . . well, patently stupid . . . and I have to say something just to get it off my chest.  Ignore it if you want to, this is blog therapy for me.

First read this, and then come back and answer a couple question for me: Do they really expect us to believe this is about the safety of mothers and babies?  Wouldn’t you say this is more about the safety of doctors and hospitals?  After all, even the people making the rules "couldn’t cite any examples of someone with a camera causing problems." 

At least the former president of the AMA admits that videotaping is "a potential nail in the coffin from a liability standpoint."  Every last one of us would like to be able to cover our mistakes and wrongdoing.  That’s a large slice of our fallen human nature.  But that doesn’t make it right, especially at the cost of family memories or legal justice.

A few more random comments concerning this article:

1. Let’s all say this together so that Pat DuRant, Florida Hospital’s assistant vice president of women’s and medical-surgical services, can hear us: BIRTH IS NOT A SURGICAL PROCEDURE.  At least it’s not meant to be.
2. Ladies, you don’t have to put up with this.  Vote with your feet.  Find a hospital or birthing center that respects your wishes as a parent.  Or *gasp* have a homebirth, where the attendants are guests in your territory rather than you in theirs.
3. Let’s all take responsibility for our part in the medical circus.  Not a single one of us is guaranteed a safe anything, and that includes birth.  Sometimes there’s nothing anyone can do.  It’s just as bad for us to expect medical professionals to be God as it is for them to try to play God.

Climbing down now . . .

Dictionaries

I’m so excited because I just found a great resource online that I can use today!  You may have noticed in my plans for this week I’m teaching Baba how to use dictionaries in conjunction with our study of Connecticut (Noah Webster was born in Hartford).  I had planned to wing it, but this morning I noticed that the freebie of the week at Homeschool eStore is a workbook titled How to Use the Thesaurus.  I thought, "Certainly they’ll also have something called How to Use a Dictionary," and I was right!

At the very least you should go to the Homeschool eStore website and sign up for their email newsletter, which will inform you of the weekly freebie.  The best thing about this store is that when I find something I like, I can download and use it immediately rather than waiting (and paying) for shipping.  If you do plan to buy something from them, please use any of the links I’ve provided above–I receive store credit for each purchase referred from my blog.  Thanks!

“Fossil”

"Look! I found a fossil!  The museum will want to see this!"

(Yes, that is a deer skull.  Don’t ask.)

Big Boots To Fill

Here you will find more pictures of Junior (who’s sick with croup today).

Week 4:Connecticut and Massachusetts

We’re studying Connecticut and Massachusetts this week.  I had a hard time culling the books for Massachusetts, so there’s a lot of reading this week:

Week 4:Connecticut and Massachusetts

Behold, the Power of Editing

The scene: An oppressively-dark gently-raining September morning.  9:17 A.M

An unsuspecting always perfectly-composed mother, moving her computer across the table so her second-grader can watch his math instructional video, knocks over a vase filled with roses her husband and daughter picked for her.  The vase, also full of water, spews dumps its contents as two children and one mother bolt carefully move to set it upright and rescue objects lying in the path of destruction.  Mother prays there’s nothing important under the dripping pile of children’s artwork (prayers are retroactive, right?).  While moving the camera and science book which narrowly escaped damage were, as usual, put away exactly where they should have been, the poor frazzled everlasting patient mother knocks the same vase in the opposite direction, causing what water is left to drain into her second-grader’s lap.  Stepping on the missiles math blocks her toddler fired at accidentally dropped on the floor, she holds back tears of frustration smiles sweetly as she tosses serenely hands a pile of paper towels in her son’s direction and hears the little wisecracker humorist quip, "Well, that’s one way to wash the table."

The Three “P’s”

Today we learned that Georgia leads the U.S.A. in the production of The Three "P’s"–peaches, peanuts and pecans.  For a surprise snack today we’re sampling a little of each (with Coke, an Atlanta invention, thrown in for even more fun).  Baba apparently approves of Georgia cuisine: "This is the best snack I’ve ever had!"

For those who’d like to learn more about peanuts, we highly recommend The Life and Times of the Peanut by Charles Micucci.  Don’t forget to sing "Goober Peas" as well!

Smelly Cat

The kids and I are stamping this afternoon.  Margie’s watching Baba over his shoulder, and here’s the ensuing conversation:

Baba: Margie, will you move?

Margie: Why?

Baba: Because either you’re sweating or you tooted, and I don’t like the smell.

Margie: But if I go over by Mommy, she’ll smell it.

Baba: Well, it’s either Mommy or me.

Poor little gal, she is kinda smelly.  Reminds me of a song.

We Be Cartoons!

Aaaargh! We be talking like this in honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day!  I be needing to take a class on this because I be a scurvy dog when it comes to pirate dialect.  But the kids and I’ll be swabbing the deck and buckling swash and, it being fall, we might even head to Boston for the day. Fair warning, if you call our house today, you might hear something like this:

There’s even a free pirate curriculum available (in PDF format).

Incidentally, I asked Baba if he wanted to dress up like a pirate and sing a song for a video to post on the blog.  His answer? "Can I stand on your head?"  Aaargh, he’s walkin’ the plank!

HT: HE&OS