Schooling, at Home….

Our kids “School at Home”.  I am pretty particular in using that specific phrase versus homeschooling.  For one, I have come across some homeschoolers who appeared offended when they corrected our then five year old when she claimed to homeschool.  It is also the accurate term for what we do.  Our kids attend a public school, they just do it outside of a school building, with me as their primary educator.  We have assigned curriculum which we must complete and teachers who I can draw on as a resource and who check to make sure we’re actually doing the work we say we’re doing.

Today was one of those days which further convinces me that learning and neuron’s firing in their brains makes our children hyper and craving more.  We choose the public school at home option in large part because it spoon feeds us the curriculum .  They send us all of the books, workbooks and manipulatives we could ever want.  They give us the lessons, different ways to teach each new concept and hands on projects to go with many of them.  Oh the projects!  This is what our kids eat up like candy on Halloween night.

On my own I could never satiate them.  I am not sure I am creative enough, or knowledgeable enough to meet their every request for a new experiment, a new story idea to write, a new art project, etc..  It could also be simply that I don’t have the stamina to keep up with them, or I could just be lazy.  Either way this is working for us, it’s working well.  Our kids worked until dinner tonight and then did more experiments after.  We had to kick them out of the house to go run around outside with the neighbors else they’d be inside right now doing some other activity, or maybe they’d just be watching Eureka.   Either way I think we are lucky.

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Back at it.

The kids have been playing outside, enjoying the spontaneous beautiful weather and it has allowed skepDaddy and I some time to chill out inside.  This has given us some much needed time to refocus on this blog.  We’re trying to get this done but the kids and neighbors keep offering us some wonderful distractions.

The kids started to build a shaduf by the creek but were soon distracted.  It would seem that a squirrel had possibly fallen from a great height and landed on a branch that stretched over the creek.  The poor squirrel was dead and had attracted lots of flying critters.  Amidst the conversation regarding the dead squirrel there was sadness, some talk of the nutrient cycle and the firm decision to move the shaduf construction further up stream.

The moving of the shaduf along with the dead squirrel were completely forgotten with the discovery of a wooly, white caterpillar.  The kids scrambled inside to ask google what kind of creature it was and would become.  They’ve determined moth for sure and I can’t recall the type.  They’ve ventured back outside or else I would ask them.

So it begins again.  Our now nine year old wishes to have a blog herself after studying the differences between diaries and journals.  This is what brings us back here now.  We’ll see how far we all make it this time.

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“Paleontology and Creationism Meet but Don’t Mesh”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/science/30muse.html

If I’d known about it I would have loved to have shadowed them with a video camera. 

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Camp Quest in the UK

Camp Quest is a summer camp “for the children of Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists, Brights, or whatever other terms might be applied to those who hold to a naturalistic, not supernatural world view.”  http://www.camp-quest.org/

For those in the UK who would like this option for their children there is now one for them as well. 

DaddySkeptic and I have independently come upon many sites and articles talking about the UK camp.  As with anything on the internet there is much misinformation out there.  I humbly request that people on either side of the belief fence please use the same skeptical judgment with the information you read about Camp Quest UK or the US versions as you would with any other piece of news. 

The original article is here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6591236.ece

Camp Quest UK Director Samantha Stein has issued corrections to the piece:

http://www.camp-quest.org.uk/media/press-releases/corrections-to-sunday-times-series-of-articles-printed-2862009/

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A day in the life….

Sound asleep in my bed, I was in the midst of a vivid dream that in seconds I would no longer recall as a sweet little voice said, “Mama, how do I get the laptop to scroll on Webkinz?”.

“What?” I said in a daze as the dream completely escaped me.

“You said I could go downstairs….”

And so I was awake and immediately put to work changing the screen resolution for our eldest so she could play some games with her younger sister.  Today was filled with accomplishments.  Our five year old is officially a self sufficient swimmer after begging in the pool for her sister and I to give her more swimming challenges and ‘tests’.  Our eight year old started to learn the butterfly stroke.  I was inundated with “Mama, watch me, watch me!” and learned that removing myself from the equation gave me the opportunity to witness two amazing sisters play together in a pool and enjoy that time with just each other.  We grocery shopped, we laughed and we played games.  Our eldest loved today’s Kung Fu class so much she came home and continued practicing her sword work into the night.  Right before bed our youngest asked to practice reading and brought me a reading book she’s been working on.  The girls diligently flossed their teeth to remove all traces of corn-on-the-cob and we said our sweet goodnights and tucked them into bed with chuckles and snuggles. 

I think we’re a fairly average family: two parents, two kids, a cat, some fish….  We fit the mold pretty well.  DaddySkeptic and I have been married for almost 13 years.  We have an eight year old daughter and a five year old daughter.  Family is important to us.  We sit down for dinner together, we turn off the electronics for that time, we enjoy each other.  We do this without spiritual beliefs of any kind, and this is our journey. 

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Testing out Windows Live Writer

So now that I know the iPhone app works, I’m looking at some Windows based apps to make it easier for the kids and wife to blog.  First up, WLW.  Seems to run fairly well on my NetBook, and adding entries seems to be pretty straight forward and easy.  Let’s see if I can add in a photo.

IMG_0420 Here’s where I sit, out on my deck when I’m working on the computer in the evenings. 

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Testing iPhone App

Last night I downloaded the WordPress app for the iPhone, figured I’d give it a try and see if it actually works!

Have a skeptical day!

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Trying Again

I’ve recently installed this new software, in another attemp to set up and finally get up and running, some sort of community/information about the random things going on with my skeptical family.  Let’s see if I can possibly get things going again.

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