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.
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
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 .. 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!
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.
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.
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.
We trimmed off the ends of the ladyfingers and cut a few in half lengthwize (for the capstones).
Q spread frosting on her plate as a foundation.
KD did the same. Baby O worked on his nap.
The frosting had to be put all over the plate. Here Q is using an off-set spatula.
She had to be sure to get a deep enough layer of “snow” so that the ladyfinger stones would stand upright.
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.
Almost done.
The henge takes shape!
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.
And voila, CakeHenge 2006!
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.
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.
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.
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.