Dear Mommy,

I really love you super lots.  You are pretty.  You are cute.  I love you so much that here's a great big card.  Daddy and R love you too.  I love you.  I think you like our house.  I like our house too.  I think daddy likes our house and R too.  I noticed you got tired of gardening.  I hope you get lots more gardening done.  I hope next year on Valentines day you get a super big styrafoam heart.  I hope its pink, yellow, purple, and green.  When I start growing my very own garden I will plant roses and pick one just for you.

Love L

It's been sooooooooooooooooo long since I updated, just wanted to let y'all know that we're still alive and haven't had much time on the computer.

I've discovered Facebook ;)

And we're opening a business you can see some pictures here. 

Also, just got involved with this project.

Will post kid pictures soon!

Commenting, acknowledging, and praising children for their
achievements and other well-intended interventions foster dependency
on external validation and undermine the children's trust in them
selves. Children who are subjected to endless commentary,
acknowledgment, and praise eventually learn to do things not for their
own sake, but to please others.

When we intervene with praise, wants, advice, and rewards, doubts
sneak in and shake loose our children's trust in themselves and in us…
they perceive that we have an agenda - that we are manipulating them
toward some preferred or "improved" end result…As educator John Holt
has said of children, "They are afraid, above all else, of failing, of
disappointing or displeasing the many anxious adults around them,
whose limitless hopes and expectations for them hang over their heads
like a cloud." In short…the happiness we see (as a result of praise)
is not pleasure, but rather relief that another pleasing act has been
accomplished, securing parental approval (emotional survival) and
concealing a feeling of deep loss.

- Naomi Aldort

OMG, poor girl.  It sickens me that young people have no rights in our society.

Court to hear case of teen strip-searched for ibuprofen
By Bill Mears
Supreme Court Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A 13-year-old Arizona girl who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain reliever will have her case heard at the Supreme Court.

The justices accepted the case Friday for review. They will decide whether a campus setting gives school administrators greater discretion to control students suspected of illegal activity than police are allowed in cases involving adults in public spaces.

Arguments are expected to be heard in April.

At issue is whether school administrators are constitutionally barred from conducting searches of students investigated for possessing or dealing drugs that are banned on campus.

A federal appeals court found the search "traumatizing" and illegal.

Some parents say older children deserve the same constitutional rights as adults, but educators counter that a school setting always has been treated differently by the courts. They say a ruling against them could jeopardize campus safety.

The case involves Savana Redding, who in 2003 was an eighth-grade honor student at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona. Earlier that day the vice principal had discovered prescription-strength ibuprofen pills in the possession of one of Redding's classmates. That student, facing punishment, accused Redding of providing her with the 400-milligram pills.

The school has a zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission.

Redding was pulled from class by a male vice principal, Kerry Wilson, escorted to an office and confronted with the evidence. She denied the accusations.

A search of Redding's backpack found nothing. Then, although she had never had prior disciplinary problems, a strip-search was conducted with the help of a school nurse and Wilson's assistant, both females. According to court records, she was ordered to strip to her underwear and her bra was pulled out. Again, no drugs were found.

In an affidavit, Redding said, "The strip-search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had. I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry."

With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Redding and her family sued, and a federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, ruled against the school.

The court wrote: "Common sense informs us that directing a 13-year-old girl to remove her clothes, partially revealing her breasts and pelvic area, for allegedly possessing ibuprofen ... was excessively intrusive."

The court said the school went too far in its effort to create a drug- and crime-free classroom. "The overzealousness of school administrators in efforts to protect students has the tragic impact of traumatizing those they claim to serve. And all this to find prescription-strength ibuprofen."

In its appeal to the high court, the school district said requiring a legal standard of "probable cause" to conduct student searches would cast a "roadblock to the kind of swift and effective response that is too often needed to protect the very safety of students, particularly from the threats posed by drugs and weapons."

The high court has had a mixed record over the years on students' rights. The court could now be asked to clarify the extent of student rights involving searches, and the discretion of officials over those for whom they have responsibility.

Can be found at the Sprout People website.  They also have an amazing collection of seeds and mixes to sprout!

I have played around with sprouts a bit in the past but I'm still definitely a novice when it comes to sprouting.  I have decided to give it another go because I thought it'd be a great way to get us some fresh salad stuff in the winter--especially considering I haven't gotten around to setting up that cold frame for growing our winter greens. 

I'm trying to get Silly interested, might even relate to her 4h project.  If I really get it together I'll take some pics and post and report back on which varieties are the best :)

What a way to welcome in the winter!  We have gotten hit with the biggest snowstorm in 40 years (so say the weather people).  There's about 10 inches on the ground at our house, layered snow-freezing rain-snow.  Luckily for us, we've got shelves full of food storage and I stocked up an fresh stuff the day before the storm hit.  The spouse got one day off of work and he's had some shortened days when he has gone in.  It's only about a mile and a half drive and he's got chains, so I'm not too worried about it ;-)  Silly had a blast sledding at a nearby park, though she's disappointed that the snow doesn't pack very well as she's really anxious to build a snowman.

Math lesson for the day,

If Mommy makes a pan with 9 brownies and Silly, Mommy and Daddy have to share the brownies, how many does each person get? 

Silly was quick to divide it into 3 and spent the rest of the day watching them like a hawk and keeping me posted on the brownie status.

"Mommy, daddy already had his 3, no more brownies for Daddy!!!" 

"Daddy, stay away from the brownies, you already had your 3!"

"Mommy, you only had 2 that means you still get one more."

Nothing like real world math LOL

OMG, what a night! 

About 4:30 am (10 min. after I've got R down from his night time feeding) we hear some loud knocking at the door. The spouse goes to deal with it and I wait in bed with the kids for 15 min. Finally go out to find out what's going on. Seems somebody's car had slid/crashed into our driveway (didn't hit our car).

A couple guys were trying to get it out but they were very rude to us (I need this! No please, thank you, etc.) think they were at least drunk, maybe stoned? Apparently it was the brother of our neighbor, trying to get home to pdx w/out any traction devices, even though chains are required in this stormy weather.  The spouse tried to help them a bit and came back inside. We couldn't figure out why they were asking us for supplies when the brother lived across the street.

They start yelling at each other, fighting and then one of them comes up to the door again.

It's the cars owner and he asks to use a phone to call for some help. Here's where I make my big mistake. I tell him I'll go get a phone and close the door, but didn't lock it. I grab a phone from the office and when I get back to the living room he's in our  house, door is closed and locked.

The brother starts knocking at the door and the guy inside tells us not to open the door 'cuz his bro is drunk and they're fighting and he needs to stay away from him.

Over the next 10-15 min it becomes clear that the guy is not calling for help and has no intention of leaving our house. He even keeps saying that he wants to hide out in a different room (inching down the hall towards where my kids are sleeping!!!!) and he'll leave in_______ (an hour, a couple of hours, daybreak, when it warms up, etc.)

I'm pretty freaked out by now and while the spouse is talking him back into the living room to keep him away from the kids, I call 911. But, the guy is only 15 feet away from me and I know he'll get pissed if he hears me calling so I just hang up. I tried texting 911 but apparently that doesn't work.

The spouse gets him into the living room and keeps him talking. He tells the guy that he needs to leave (repeatedly) and threatens to call the police but the guy just gets angry so he stops pushing it.

I go into the room with the kids and text my brother, asking him to call the police. I'm still worried about the guy hearing me call 911, especially considering that there's likely to be a long wait with the weather as it is. I don't know exactly how long it was, but it felt like an eternity sitting there listening to him and the spouse talking in the LR, hoping the kids didn't wake up. DH doesn't know that I called the police, poor guy is still trying to get the intruder out of the house without pissing him off too much.

There's knocking at the door again. The intruder says it's his brother and urges dh not to answer. When I see the flashlight coming around the back of the house I'm pretty confident it's the cops.  I tell dh to open the door and the cop comes in to take care of things.

Turns out he's got a warrant out for his arrest, so they take him away.  Later in the day the brother comes and gets the car back across the street.  He didn't come up to the house or say anything to us.  I'm so glad that he's gone but I'm a little nervous about him seeking retribution. Very grateful that the kids slept through the whole thing.

Moral of the story: Lock the door if you go to get something for somebody on your doorstep!

If we could have kept him out of our house it may not have escalated to something that needed police intervention.

you can see the video that goes with the story here.

5-year-old chef starts Portland TV cooking show

Posted by mhaberman December 19, 2008 21:50PM

 

At age 4, he saw a cooking show on Oregon Public Broadcasting and thought, "I should be doing that."

He can't reach the counter without a stool, and sometimes he has to ask his mom the name of an ingredient.

But at age 5, Chef Julian has his own TV show. "Big Kitchen with Food" airs frequently on Portland Community Media.

The blue-eyed blond is home-schooled, or rather, unschooled. That's a brand of home schooling that has the kids direct their learning. If Julian wants to learn how trees grow, he does. If he wants to learn which ingredients make the best cake, he does.

"So everything I see, I can learn about," Julian says.

"Big Kitchen" offers a chance for math and science lessons, but his parents say those are just a byproduct. Mostly, they want him to listen to his heart.

"It's great that he gets to do what he wants to do," says his mom, Kristen McKee. "We want him to do what's in his heart, to follow his interests."

Filming is a family project. Julian's 2 1/2-year-old sister, Eva, works the lights, mostly turning them on and off. His mom, a librarian, directs and sometimes shoots footage. His dad, a producer for the community station, runs the camera and editing software.

His dad's connection helped get the show on the air, but Julian came up with the concept. "We are just enablers," says his dad, Ben Kreusser.

The recipes -- and the theme song -- are Julian's own, but sometimes he needs a little direction.

Episode 2 opens like this:

"Today on the 'Big Kitchen with Food,' we're making chocolate chip zucchini muffins, and we'll use ... um," he says, holding up a bottle of vanilla and turning to whisper to his mom, somewhere off camera, "What is this?"

He can use a knife, but he prefers using the food processor he bought at an estate sale. In Episode 2, he pushed fat zucchini into the food processor.

"Look! It pulverized one out," he says, looking at the food processor with a furrowed brow.

He's learning by experience. Cast-iron skillets don't make good scrambled eggs. Corn cakes need baking soda. But mostly, he just has an innate sense of what will taste good.

A spaghetti sauce he created for his first episode is the best his mother has ever eaten, she says. And a persimmon smoothie he created still has them talking.

Viewers love him, says Portland Community Media executive director Sylvia McDaniel. The station wants to include more young people in its shows and Julian was a particularly good find, she says.

"It even has potential to be a national program," she says. "It's a wonderful show. We're just thrilled. He actually understands what he's doing. He's not just following orders."

But recipes don't always work out how the young chef imagines. He wanted to make Christmas cookies with a twist, for instance. The family had a box of clementines. He decided to mix their juice with a gingerbread man recipe. The concoction -- Yummy Yummy Citrus Boys -- will be featured on the third episode of "Big Kitchen," but Julian says it's not his best.

"I did like them at first," he says. "But then I pushed a bunch of cookies into my mouth, and I didn't like them. It was kind of yucky, really."

Next on his agenda: an on-location spot at his grandparents' home in Michigan.

"It's funny, my grandpa doesn't know how to make fried eggs," he says. "I'm going to show him how."

-- Casey Parks: caseyparks@news.oregonian.com

Sugar, Cocaine, Heroin Equally Strong Addictions, Study Suggests

Posted By MedHeadlines On 14 December, 2008 @ 12:11 In Addiction, Medical Research | 5 Comments

---

Article printed from MedHeadlines: http://medheadlines.com

URL to article: http://medheadlines.com/2008/12/14/sugar-cocaine-heroin-equally-strong-addictions-study-suggests/

Little late, I know.  Been busy!

A Mathematician’s Lament
by Paul Lockhart

music education has been made mandatory. “We are helping our students become more
competitive in an increasingly sound-filled world.” Educators, school systems, and the state are
put in charge of this vital project. Studies are commissioned, committees are formed, and
decisions are made— all without the advice or participation of a single working musician or
composer.

Since musicians are known to set down their ideas in the form of sheet music, these curious
black dots and lines must constitute the “language of music.” It is imperative that students
become fluent in this language if they are to attain any degree of musical competence; indeed, it
would be ludicrous to expect a child to sing a song or play an instrument without having a
thorough grounding in music notation and theory. Playing and listening to music, let alone
composing an original piece, are considered very advanced topics and are generally put off until
college, and more often graduate school.

As for the primary and secondary schools, their mission is to train students to use this
language— to jiggle symbols around according to a fixed set of rules: “Music class is where we
take out our staff paper, our teacher puts some notes on the board, and we copy them or
transpose them into a different key. We have to make sure to get the clefs and key signatures
right, and our teacher is very picky about making sure we fill in our quarter-notes completely.
One time we had a chromatic scale problem and I did it right, but the teacher gave me no credit
because I had the stems pointing the wrong way.”

In their wisdom, educators soon realize that even very young children can be given this kind
of musical instruction. In fact it is considered quite shameful if one’s third-grader hasn’t
completely memorized his circle of fifths. “I’ll have to get my son a music tutor. He simply
won’t apply himself to his music homework. He says it’s boring. He just sits there staring out
the window, humming tunes to himself and making up silly songs.”

In the higher grades the pressure is really on. After all, the students must be prepared for the
standardized tests and college admissions exams. Students must take courses in Scales and
Modes, Meter, Harmony, and Counterpoint. “It’s a lot for them to learn, but later in college
when they finally get to hear all this stuff, they’ll really appreciate all the work they did in high
school.” Of course, not many students actually go on to concentrate in music, so only a few will
ever get to hear the sounds that the black dots represent. Nevertheless, it is important that every
member of society be able to recognize a modulation or a fugal passage, regardless of the fact
that they will never hear one. “To tell you the truth, most students just aren’t very good at music.
They are bored in class, their skills are terrible, and their homework is barely legible. Most of
them couldn’t care less about how important music is in today’s world; they just want to take the
minimum number of music courses and be done with it. I guess there are just music people and
non-music people. I had this one kid, though, man was she sensational! Her sheets were
impeccable— every note in the right place, perfect calligraphy, sharps, flats, just beautiful.
She’s going to make one hell of a musician someday.”

Waking up in a cold sweat, the musician realizes, gratefully, that it was all just a crazy
dream. “Of course!” he reassures himself, “No society would ever reduce such a beautiful and
meaningful art form to something so mindless and trivial; no culture could be so cruel to its
children as to deprive them of such a natural, satisfying means of human expression. How
absurd!”

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a painter has just awakened from a similar
nightmare…


I was surprised to find myself in a regular school classroom— no easels, no tubes of paint.
“Oh we don’t actually apply paint until high school,” I was told by the students. “In seventh
grade we mostly study colors and applicators.” They showed me a worksheet. On one side were
swatches of color with blank spaces next to them. They were told to write in the names. “I like
painting,” one of them remarked, “they tell me what to do and I do it. It’s easy!”

After class I spoke with the teacher. “So your students don’t actually do any painting?” I
asked.

“Well, next year they take Pre-Paint-by-Numbers. That prepares them for the main
Paint-by-Numbers sequence in high school. So they’ll get to use what they’ve learned here and
apply it to real-life painting situations— dipping the brush into paint, wiping it off, stuff like that.
Of course we track our students by ability. The really excellent painters— the ones who know
their colors and brushes backwards and forwards— they get to the actual painting a little sooner,
and some of them even take the Advanced Placement classes for college credit. But mostly
we’re just trying to give these kids a good foundation in what painting is all about, so when they
get out there in the real world and paint their kitchen they don’t make a total mess of it.”
“Um, these high school classes you mentioned…”

“You mean Paint-by-Numbers? We’re seeing much higher enrollments lately. I think it’s
mostly coming from parents wanting to make sure their kid gets into a good college. Nothing
looks better than Advanced Paint-by-Numbers on a high school transcript.”

“Why do colleges care if you can fill in numbered regions with the corresponding color?”

“Oh, well, you know, it shows clear-headed logical thinking. And of course if a student is
planning to major in one of the visual sciences, like fashion or interior decorating, then it’s really
a good idea to get your painting requirements out of the way in high school.”

“I see. And when do students get to paint freely, on a blank canvas?”

“You sound like one of my professors! They were always going on about expressing
yourself and your feelings and things like that—really way-out-there abstract stuff. I’ve got a
degree in Painting myself, but I’ve never really worked much with blank canvasses. I just use
the Paint-by-Numbers kits supplied by the school board.”
***
Sadly, our present system of mathematics education is precisely this kind of nightmare. In
fact, if I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural
curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being
done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soulcrushing
ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education.
Everyone knows that something is wrong. The politicians say, “we need higher standards.”
The schools say, “we need more money and equipment.” Educators say one thing, and teachers
say another. They are all wrong. The only people who understand what is going on are the ones
most often blamed and least often heard: the students. They say, “math class is stupid and
boring,” and they are right.




This is a very long article, but I LOVE it.  Sums up a lot of what I was feeling about math education.  To read the rest of it, you can click on this link: http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

All the neighborhood kids went back to school last week and Silly was not among them.  No surprise, really, as we've been planning to homeschool for years.  Just makes the whole thing so much more real. 

Actually we decided to try out an alternate program called Columbia Virtual Academy.  Kind of an online school but we decide the content/materials and don't have anyone telling us what Silly has to learn and when she has to learn it by.  Got to check in weekly with a teacher via the email or telephone.  The appeal is a "student fund" that can be used to pay for classes, art supplies, etc.  We only signed up part -time because we wanted to retain our homeschooling status but I've been feeling really apprehensive about having any oversight at all.  We'll see how it goes.  Keep telling myself that if it feels too invasive we can just leave. 

Anyway, one of the program requirements was to create a Student Learning Plan for the year.  I was actually really looking forward to this activity as I like to have our goals/ideas written out so that I don't forget them ;)  Really just a record of what we're already doing and some new things I'd like to try (provided, of course, that Silly is interested)

And here it is:

Student Learning Plan for 2008-2009

All instruction will take place off campus.

Assessment/Evaluation will all be done by parental observation.

 

 

A)    Language Arts (reading, writing, communication)

a.      Foster an appreciation for literacy through daily reading and participation in monthly book group with local co-op.  Materials to come primarily from library, and to include a wide variety of genres (fiction, non fiction, poetry, etc.) 

b.      Learn to identify upper and lower case letters by name and sound and begin using phonics to recognize simple words.  Use the Oak Meadow Kindergarten curricula as a basis for alphabet/phonics activities along with various electronic games and activities.

c.      Work on printing alphabet letters and begin building a bank of often-used writing words through story writing, letter writing, journal writing, etc.

d.      Understand language arts to be connected with all other areas of study, as reading/writing practice will be a vital part of activities in science, social studies, and other subjects of interest.

 

B)     Social Studies

a.      Understand the importance of maps and begin to read, understand and create them.

b.      Recognize self as a member of local, regional and world community.

c.      Begin to build awareness of the diversity of cultures in the world through celebration of world traditions and holidays and participation in monthly country-study with local co-op.

 

C)    Mathematics

a.      Recognize numbers and understand their value.

b.      Improve logical, sequential, spatial thinking skills through a variety of games.

c.      Work on problem solving by creating and solving number stories.

d.      Develop an understanding of early mathematical concepts including: counting, matching, sorting, measurement and relationships through literature and weekly reading of math-related texts as listed on the living math website.

e.      Develop a better understanding of the concept of time and begin to read clocks.  Also have knowledge of the days of the week and months of the year. 

 

D)    Science

a.      Maintain curiosity and interest in the natural world through a variety of hands on activities out and about in the world and through science-based activities in the Oak Meadow Kindergarten curricula. 

b.      Learn about plants and natural systems by maintaining personal garden and helping with family garden.

c.      Learn about animals through observation at parks, during visits to the local zoo and reading/doing the activities in Your Big Back Yard magazine.

d.      Explore a variety of scientific topics, as interest dictates, at monthly science day with local co-op and during frequent trips to OMSI including participation in the OMSI lab classes.

 

E)     Arts & Crafts

a.      Begin learning about different artists and styles of art by participating in art day with local co-op and doing projects out of the Discovering Great Artist book.

b.      Begin learning about theater by attending NWCT and OCT plays and possibly trying a related class at the local community center.

c.      Try a variety of crafts as outlined in the Oak Meadow Kindergarten curricula.

 

F)     Music

a.      Learn about several musical concepts (including pitch, tone, instrument families, etc.) by attending the Oregon Symphony Kinderconzerts and doing the related learning activities that the symphony provides.

b.      Engage in daily singing/finger plays and possibly take a music class through parks & rec as interest and availability allow.

 

G)    Health (including Physical Education)

a.      Play active games and exercise on a daily basis, including use of Angel Bear Yoga materials.

b.      Learn about nutrition through participation in family meal preparations. 

c.      Try some active classes as interest dictates including (but not limited to): gymnastics, swimming, and dance.