It looks good. And the price is right.
Classic Science - Elementary Life Science - A free 36 week course
HT to DawnÂ
And on this note, Doc has started formulating her OWN elementary science program. I do hope to have the outline done very soon so my many critics can make suggestions.
In the meantime, I need to clear my head of a few things, or not, so I’m hitting the road today. No idea where I’m headed.
See you in a few.
In a week.
Anyone familiar with this blog knows how much I LOVE being tagged for a meme.
However, sometimes, when I just don’t feel like writing, or I can’t, which is more the case right now, they come in handy as “filler”. So here you go.
Tag #1 is easy. I’ve already done it, so I am going to link to answers.
The second is from Katie, and I don’t want to diss her. My daughter’s moving to LA next month and I might need a place to crash.
Ten Years Ago what were you doing, Doc?
I was juggling the homeschooling of 3 third graders and an obnoxious teen, working, and valiantly trying to break up gently with a woman because she wanted to “marry” me and I just wanted the sex. Ugh. It ended badly. But then, they all seem to.
Five Things on Today’s “To Do” List (I don’t have 5 things on my list today)
- Go to an 11 AM wedding. done
- Go to the reception afterward. done
If I were a Billionaire
Start a college fund. I already have enough $$ to last me a long time.
Three Bad Habits
- Letting things go that I should probably try harder on
- Not letting silly shit go
- Not knowing the difference
Five Places I’ve Lived
- Yakama Indian Reservation, Washington
- Puyallup, Washington
- Spokane, Washington
- Beaverton, Oregon
- Corvallis, Oregon
Five Jobs I’ve Had
- Camp counselor
- Medical Supply Delivery Driver
- Donut counter person
- Electronics Tech
- College Instructor
Tag - you’re it!
Google reader was “upgraded” yesterday. Now when I call it up, I get a blank screen. I’ve already cleared everything, and even tried using IE. Nothing. Suggestions?
I received this a week or more ago, and sat on it, because, well, everyone loves me, and I wanted to reward a few people (one at a time) who really, really, love me. Ree really loves me. And I really love her. Really. In a purely platonic way of course. Purely. So this award is hers.
Every morning, I awake to pictures of her cows and cowboys hanging on the wall opposite my bed, so sometimes, if I’m actually awake, which isn’t often, sorry Ree, I think about her first thing. I may have inspired her love of blogging, but she has inspired my need to remodel my bathroom (which is still not done) or castrate something (it’s okay, I live on a farm, I’m not indiscriminate).
I mean, any other time when I see I have 2650 hits before breakfast, I’d freak out and assume some fundy had linked me from the “satanists want to steal your children site” and I have palpitations, but then I see the links all come from the ol’ pioneer woman. So I think “shit, did I win a prize???”, but no, she’s just giving me kudos for creating the CPW empire. Today is Ree’s 2nd blogiversary, so swing by and say howdy. If you’ve never been there, boy - you’re in a Texas-sized treat. Okay, Oklahoma, but Texas sounds more ranchy. Not raunchy.
Yeah, that’s me. I made the magic. Okay, I inspired the magic. But just the blogging part. She comes up with all those weird stories by herself.
Well, April was boring, blog-wise, because I tried (sometimes unsuccessfully) to keep my fingers out of controversy. Fuck that, give me a good edutard to dissect. The Thinking Parents Wiki is off and running, and I’m finding it a pleasant alternative. The next edition is May 15th. The farm was quiet, puppies (that are little dogs now), the loss of a beloved pet, the fence almost finished, snow!, and now May has arrived warm and gentle.
A year ago, May was bit boring - blog-wise. A lot of spark over the Creation Museum. The discovery of LOL cats. In my life, it was the death of a family friend and my daughter’s final break with her awful teenaged romance.
This May has started with a bang. The age old arguments defending homeschooling vs public school. Enough already. Statistics, if you choose to look for them (and I have lots posted here) prove that homeschool parents are doing as good but mostly better than public schools. However, your pro public school diatribes are fodder for the homeschool cabal to test their rudimentary spy skills, so keep it up if you have to, but be prepared to walk away bloody.
We are entering the last phase of homeschooling, which included the final year of 4H competition. May begins our countdown to (our last) fair as a family of 4H’ers (I still have kids in my club as young as 9 so I’ll be at this for awhile) with livestock learning day, presentations, and weigh in of market animals. We have our best crop of lambs ever - considering the neighbor dog chomped on 4 of them, killing two, and rendering one unshowable. The fourth has recovered from the bites and should be good for competition.
The fence is almost done - we may even finish it today.
College for my younger kids seems so all-over-the-place. They change their minds and their dreams as often as I change my socks. Wait, I rarely wear socks…
My daughter was supposed to continue schooling in Texas in the coming year. She’s been offered a really good internship at a small newspaper in the LA area. She’s taking it. Boyfriend can’t imagine her in Los Angeles alone so is frantically applying to grad programs in that area - UCLA, Stanford, USC, he may have to wait a year, but he’s adamant about staying with her. They have finals over the next few days, his graduation is in 2 weeks, then they’re loading a uhaul and heading for California. To be young! They have no clue where they’ll live - and they don’t care, they don’t want help dealing with the move. They appear to have sort of a plan. As far as I’m concerned, if she has to be far away, this is better. LA is a 2 1/2 hour flight or a full day’s drive away. Her co-mother lives in Santa Barbara. They’re young and their plans extend no farther than the next couple months. I am envious of that kind of life.
My personal goal for May is to step back and let my kids (adults!) do their own thing. It’s really hard. I want to make suggestions, but the vicious eye rolling kills me. I vow to keep my mouth shut unless asked for advice. We’ll see how it goes….
Spineless. No visible sex organs. Parasitic.
Just like Greg Laden.
Like the cat and the roundworm, this is not a beneficial relationship. Greg takes and takes, using the popularity of blogs like this to generate a few hits to his own feeble link farm.
Too bad we can’t simply dose the host (blog) with piperazine and be done with him.
Extra: Coloring Sheet Search Engine
Doc’s download page has lots of thematic downloads!
May - Monthly Celebrations
National Bike Month
Kid Stuff
Official Site Includes a file to download - 50 Ways To Celebrate Bike Month
About.Com Bike Ideas
Order your own custom bike license plate!
National Military Appreciation Month
Resources
National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
President’s Challenge
Kid Stuff
About.Com Sports Crafts
May - Weekly Celebrations
Be Kind To Animals Week: 4-10
American Humane Society
Girl Power! Pet site
National Etiquette Week: 12-16
RudeBusters
Download: Manners
Character Building Activities
Manners Resources
May - Daily Celebrations
May Day: 1
Resources
Kid Stuff
About.Com page
Pagan History of May Day
Marxist History of May Day
National Space Day: 2
Space Day at Lockheed Martin
Astronomy Day
Star Maps
Solar System Resource Page
Planets Resource Page
Internet Resources and Activities
About.com Resources
Solar System Coloring Book
Holocaust Remembrance Day: 4
Resources
More Resources
Cinco de Mayo: 5
Resources
About.com
Kid Stuff
History
Mother’s Day: 11
Resources
Kid Stuff
More good stuff
About.com
Limerick Day: 12
Resources
International Day of Families: 15
Resources
Armed Forces Day: 17
Hug your soldier, sailor, or airman today!
Official Site
Africa Day: 25
Resources
Download: Africa
Memorial Day: 26
Resources
Resources
Download: Memorial Day
Amnesty International Day:29
Resource Page
Related Tags: unschool, unschooling, homeschool, homeschooling, secular holidays, May holidays, may resources, may special days, may celebrations, National bike month, national military appreciation month, space day, may day, be kind to animals, cindo de mayo, mothers day, amnesty international, memorial day
While I have a spare second (between wrangling puppies and doctorin’ goats).
If you have a cat, or even a special dog, but a cat is better - give him/her an extra hug today.
Thanks.
And I really can’t comment on either in a “reasoned” way. I wasn’t even going to write about it. But then I was assaulted by an unreasonably stupid person, and felt that if I addressed one, I should address the other.
When I was very, very sick, chemo was both killing me and keeping me alive. Killing the cancer, but preventing me from eating. Preventing me from being well enough for medical science to kill off my immune system so I could have a bone marrow transplant. It was a delicate balance and I was losing.
Then people in my community started praying for me. Hard. And coming to see me and telling me they were praying for me. I would croak out that I wasn’t Christian so I didn’t think their God was interested in me, but that didn’t deter them. About two weeks after they started praying, I suddenly got well enough for the BMT process. And here I am today.
So, maybe it was the prayer, maybe it was coincidence, maybe it was me not wanting to let my neighbors down. I don’t know. I don’t care either. If people want to pray for me, that’s fine.
However, I don’t think it’s practical for the government to call for a special day of prayer. People who pray do it when they want to, not when the government tells them to. What the government is doing by calling for a special day of prayer is drawing attention to the act of prayer, giving the populace both a directive and permission, which is absolutely against the original purpose of prayer, which is a personal communication with the supreme being of choice. What does the bible say about prayer?
Matthew 6:6-6:8
6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
I’m not against prayer. I think anyone should be able to pray anytime they want, because if they’re doing it according to scripture - nobody knows they’re doing it. I think the government calling for a special day of prayer seriously undermines the separation of church and state, but in the end, as long as they don’t spend any money on it, I don’t care if a bunch of theistards stand around in public praying - cuz according to scripture, God’s ignoring them.
Now, as for the reason part - finding reason in today’s society is rare. It’s obviously not taught, and it’s obviously not something people come by naturally. Today, I encountered one of the most unreasonable requests I’ve had in a long ass time - and I get more than my share of unreasonable requests, living in a virtual group home of teenagers.
Stay with me, because this gets complicated. I have a sick goat. I found her last night, and her symptoms stumped me. Stumped me after I consulted my Mercks vet manual, after I contacted the vet, and after I searched the Internet. In desperation, I consulted a dairy goat message board - ONLY because I value the advice and opinion of one particular poster. Now, I’ve had goats for long enough to encounter the most common ailments, treat them, and feel confident enough that most people in my county (including the vet) call me when they have a goat problem. So, I break down and post on this board. I’ve avoided it except for desperate situations because the people there are mostly new and obsessed with CAE (a rare and mostly asymptomatic disease of goats which poses no threat to humans). I get a couple of predictably stupid responses (which I ignore), and then get some help, and go tend to the goat. When I check back, I have a nasty-gram from some idiot moderator that demands I start signing my posts (all 5 of them in the last year) with my real name because, as she says, some posters feel more comfortable if they know who they’re talking to. I replied that I would not be signing my real name, that Doc would have to suffice, and that I thought it was a stupid rule. I then posted to my thread that my name was Doc and if that didn’t satisfy anyone, too bad.
I’m now in “time out” and I will probably be banned. She called me “hostile”.
Where’s the reasoning behind signing your “real name” on an advice-type message board, instead of the pseudonym that most people know you by?
On this, Day of Reason, Doc is questioning the reasoning ability of quite a number of people. This of course, is just one example. Most of my rants belong in the category of “stupid, unreasonable people”. Got logic? Welcome! Are you a fucktard? GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
The goat’s still sickly, so maybe those of you who pray? Get with it.
I entered college without much science. In fact, I entered college with virtually no science, and very little math.
My parents traveled a lot for my father’s job; until I was 13 we never stayed in one place longer than a few weeks, except for a couple of months each late summer when we returned to the family compound to help with the wheat harvest.
My mother homeschooled us children, using library books and correspondence lessons from a catholic organization. I started reading at about 4 and so mostly, I read books. When my father’s health forced him to take on less stressful work, we settled into a neighborhood and I began attending a local Catholic girl’s school. My older brothers had all left home for college by then (where their total lack of organized schooling was never a question - I have no idea what the entrance requirements were in the late 60’s, early 70’s - my brothers all became professionals, two doctors, a lawyer, an architect, a teacher, an accountant)
Apparently my lack of socialization and academics didn’t make much of an impact, I remember having lots of friends, going to slumber parties, skating parties, horse back riding parties, all the normal things girls did on weekend in the early 70’s. We listened to three dog night (one is the loneliest number!) and sang along to Rod Stewart’s Maggie May when it came on the radio. I was on the honor roll every term. I played sports. I don’t remember science. I barely remember math.
Okay, we had “ecology of Oregon” in 8th grade, remembered only because of the backpacking trip that ended the class. I took some kind of rudimentary general science in 9th or 10th grade, but science isn’t real important at a Catholic girl’s school. Lots of English, literature, and just enough math to pass whatever requirements Oregon had in 1977, the year I graduated (with honors). I never took chemistry, physics, or advanced math. I think Algebra II was it. I did take honors Latin though!
I entered college and took classes designed to turn me into an electrical tech, something I figured I could get a job doing so I could afford more school. My parents would have sent me to university but I was stubborn in a weird way and wanted to do everything on my own (and the apples don’t fall far from the tree around here, sigh). I had to take more math, which wasn’t a problem because apparently all my public school peers didn’t take enough math either and we were all in the same classes. In two years of community college I somehow battered my way through a bunch of electronics courses (with no science background) and advanced math (calculus and trig) without understanding that I was unprepared - because the classes were full and we all seemed to be on the same page academically. I passed all my courses with A’s.
I’ve always wondered how one is supposed to be prepared for a class they haven’t yet taken. If you already know the material, why take the class?
I went to work for a huge electronics company in Oregon, you can guess which one if you’d like. They had tuition reimbursement and I took full advantage, working and going to school. Somewhere along the way to what I assumed would be an electrical engineering degree, I had to take biology to complete a stupid science requirement. Biology! Ugh. Bugs and dissecting frogs. Three weeks into the course I was hooked. I quit my job at big name electronics, applied for student aid, took every biology class (and microbiology, chemistry, physics, anatomy, pre med, and pseudo science like sociology and behavioral science) class the university offered. I transferred to Oregon state and took even MORE science. I kept graduating and then going back for more, until they got sick of me and made me start teaching classes and doing research. I guess that wasn’t so bad.
The real point is, it didn’t matter if I was “prepared” or that I’d had very little science and math. I took them in college. If I’d had more math and science, I’d still have had to take them in college for the undergrad requirements. If every student in public school is so much more prepared academically, then why do they offer 100 level science and maths, and why are those classes always full? I can guarantee you this - not once did any of my professors ask me about my previous schooling - since I was in their lower level class, they assumed I didn’t know anything and taught me. It wasn’t a big deal.
And I can also tell you this - 99% of the time, I never knew my own students academic background. They may as well have all come from caves. They were in my class, and either I taught them, or they figured out the class was too high a level and they dropped down. Or it was too easy and they withdrew and took a higher level. I didn’t ask them if they were homeschooled - the only times I knew - when the student shared that info - usually the fundies who wanted to question a few minor science topics. When you get your schedules at the beginning of the term, it doesn’t tell you where the students went to school, so all this BS about public school teachers “knowing” their homeschooled students is just that - b u l l s h i t. I would venture that ALL the students I ever flunked were publicly schooled.
Educational gaps? Show me a high school graduate who doesn’t have gaps. Show me a bright student with little or no science background who can’t handle an entry level biology class. Please, if you’re too lazy to teach science to your students, find a new career. They come to you to learn, don’t expect someone else to have taught them. Biology isn’t rocket science. Okay, sometimes it is, but it’s not like it can’t be learned as easily at 19 as it is at 12. In fact, it’s usually easier.
Unprepared for college? Says who?
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