New York Times Opinion - Politicized Curriculum in Texas

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/opinion/26wed4.html?src=mv

It would seem that some minor changes are being made. But not enough. I hope pressure will be maintained to stop this outrageous attempt to manipulate and gloss over history and facts. I wish Howard Zinn were still around. The funny thing is that I stumbled across that 'reader opinion' in my search for a new curriculum for my daughters' upcoming school year. Anyone have suggestions please help me!!!! She will be in 5th grade.

By the way here is another interesting read. Since many textbooks are printed in the South and are influenced by publishers in the South this isn't something the rest of country can afford to ignore. What's next? Mandatory Creationism? I'll stick with evolution, thank you.

Unschooling : How Good Morning America Got It All Wrong according to Lee Stranahan

I found a link to an interesting article on Alasandra's Homeschool Blog. Since my reply to the article and post turned out to be so lengthy I decided to do it on my on blog. Alasandra, with her amazing skill at finding interesting articles, posts and other information did it again. Thank You!
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While the article was certainly well written and witty at times I noticed the fact that Mr. Stranahan noted how his son enrolled and successfully caught up with his 7th grade peers in public school. What shocked and dismayed me that the youth was unfamiliar with basic math concepts such as long division etc. Fortunately he was able to catch up. I wonder though, would Mr.Stranahan have taken him out of public school again if his son had struggled with the lessons and not been able to catch up? Would he have realized at that time that while the youth had in many regards undoubtedly a well rounded education he was lacking some important mathematical concepts he would have to be able to use in real life later on? Would he have abandoned some of the unschooling method he employed to fill those glaring gaps in education ? Kudos to the child for being able to do so and a fair amount of luck too.


I went to a German Waldorf school from 3rd grade through 8th grade until we switched countries in '84. I had to learn English and eventually enrolled in a very good private school. I was lucky to be admitted for 8th grade in '86 in February. I did awfully in the finals which were only a few months later. When they promoted me to 9th grade due to my age I refused. I insisted that if I were to have any chance at all I would need to repeat 8th grade as I had seen that a lot of key highschool academia was taught then and I had missed it all. Waldorf, while a cozy, feel good, kumbaya sort of a school failed to provide me with a strong basic science and math background. I had a great art background. Music, art, history... I loved and aced it all. But I lacked a thorough basic science education. That basic science background was taught at the other school 6th grade onwards. I struggled on and eventually did alright in Math, fabulously in Biology (which I loved) and abysmally in Chemistry which to this day I don't really get. My first day of school saw me getting into trouble with Mrs. Singhdeo, the geography teacher, when she asked me what the atmosphere was made up of. I innocently answered 'AIR'. She though I was being a smartass because the whole class errupted in giggles. I was in 8th grade and had never learned what the atmosphere surrounding our planet really consisted of. But man, I knew how to make beautiful candles. I knew how to grow wheat, grind it and make bread. I knew how to make lovely dolls, I could play Bach, Mozart and other composers works on various instruments. Watercolor painting, knitting and sewing, carpentry, woodworking, pottery, it was all right up my alley. But a simple question about Earth Science left me floundering and pissing off annoying a teacher on day one.  And Mrs. Singhdeo was not a woman to be triffled with. What I am driving at here is the fact that Mr. S. was goshdarned lucky that his son was able to catch up. Actually his son was luckiest of all. It turns out that I love biology and medicine. I read college level biology and some medical books while still in highschool. Just for the fun of it. Had it not been for the fact that I thought Chemistry was magic and never to be comprehended by my puny mind I would, undoubtedly, have gone into medicine.

While I condemn GMA for their hack-job journalism in the case at hand I must state a clear reservation when it comes to pure unschooling. I imagine that almost all homeschooling parents indulge in a bit of unschooling. We did this morning. The children went (unplanned) outside with their sketch books and sketched some plants in our backyard. Then they came in, learned about them and wrote about them. Now, while this is all very nice and they had a blast, how many unschooled kids will ask to learn necessary skills such as long division, algebra and fractions? I learned from my example that my children must be taught a variety of subjects, even the ones that don't always appear to be the most fun. To do otherwise would limit their future.

Product Review and No ! I am not getting paid for it.

My daughter has a severly defective skin barrier. Her skin was always dry to the point of me vaccuuming her bed in the morning because of the 'snow'.  We used to go through about a 1 lb container of Vanicream every 3 weeks in addition to other lotions, potions, oils, creams, medications etc. And then about 2 months ago we found Aveeno Intense Relief Repair Cream. Since it cost as much as the Vanicream and we had a basket full of all kinds of creams etc we decided to try it. Her skin since then improved by about 90%. It is fragrance free and unscented which is a must for us due to allergies to that as well.  This stuff is UNBELIEVABLE.  I have to write them about it because we are absolutely terrified they'll stop manufacturing it. That stuff has truly helped to change the quality of her life. The skin remains well moisturized even hours after application. It doesn't burn her sensitive skin and absorbs cleanly.  I told the nurse at the Pediatric Pulmonary and Allergy Clinic of Iowa University Hospital about it too. My washing machine is happy as well. Before starting this cream I had to clean the crud off the top of the bucket every few weeks because of the scum that adhered to it. No more! For us this cream is nothing short of a miracle. Since we've started using it we've been able to stop her topical medications since she doesn't need them. The topical stuff included Protopic which has  been endowed with a black box warning and tons of topical steroids. One note of caution... this cream does contain Shae butter so avoid using on tree nut allergic individuals.

The TODAY (NBC) show wants to hear from Homeschoolers.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36917674/ns/today-today_participate/

Click on the link above and write them a note. Hopefully they will do a better job than the hack job GMA did.

Farewell my trusted friend of 15 years. Rest in Peace.

At 3 AM my husband woke me with our old dog in his arms. I rose asking 'what happened, what happend'. But once I turned on my bedside light I knew what was happening. My darling Yorkie was dying. He was barely conscious and fighting for air and clearly not winning the battle this time. He had a leaky heart valve  leading to congestive heart failure. For over 2 years we fought the battle together and fought it well. Until this morning that is. I had suspected for the last several days that the end was near. There were a lot of signs. But he still enjoyed his treats and was snooping around for crumbs from the kids. He still had his attitude. But there were signs and they didn't go un-noticed.  When I layed eyes on him I knew the end was near and so I grabbed a towel and we went downstairs. By the fireplace we laid our puppy who was by then unconscious and told him we loved him during his last few breaths and last few hearbeats. And then he was gone. Just like that. Of all my dogs, his passing was the easiest and best. He was held by us, who had known and loved him since he was 4 weeks old. And I told him we'd be alright and that Brutus, our other dog, his big brother, was waiting for him. I am weeping as I type this and yet so incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to say goodbye. And that I was able to tell him one last time we loved him. He didn't suffer and he enjoyed even his last day of life with treats and his favorite food.

Goodnight, sweet furry friend. Sweet furry child. Go run again. Run with Brutus. It's been too long.

This is a poem that always meant a lot to me.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn’s rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and forever cry.

I am not there. I did not die.

(Melinda Sue Pacho)

Experimenting with a new style of learning.

This week we started to experiment with a new style of learning. We noticed that Sissy loved delving into a subject and spending all day exploring it. So we had a Science Tuesday (we were involved in some legal proceedings on Monday so no school), Math Wednesday and History Thursday. We couldn't do school today (Friday) because I was needed at the office. One of my administrative assistants went to attend her best friend's funeral. The poor girl took her own life and my assistant is understandably a wreck. But I digress, let me get back to the topic at hand. I had, until now, tried to maintain a school style schedule while attempting to cover all  or most of the necessary topics in a given day. But while this worked fine on many days, on other days it was simply counter intuitive. There were days when we found it hard to abandon a subject we really wanted to continue working on simply because the clock told us it was time to go. Therefore, this week we decided to allow ourselves to really soak in the lessons and discovery as long as we wanted to. And it was bliss. We pored over books and other material and researched on the Internet. She worked on notebooking and illustrating what she had learned about and it was altogether very rewarding and enjoyable.
While we will certainly do this again I don't think it's a sustainable daily experience. As fun as it is, it would be a challenge to muster the same level of concentration every day. Some days doing a little of this and a little of that makes sense.  I guess, as I learn arguably more than my children in this journey of homeschooling, I am yet again reminded that something that works fine some of the times, doesn't always work every time and flexibility is key. The other thing I learned about learning is that inspiration comes in many guises. As it turns out this homeschooling thing is less about me teaching and more about our mutual discovery of the world.

I am a doofus! I won something and can't find the site anymore :(

Hi, my name is Marlis and I am an addict. My addiction? Foodie sites. And so, the other day, I stumbled on one I liked, left a post and moved on to drool over the next site. It's pathological. I can't tear myself away. Curse you FoodGawker. That's the site that has me hooked. Of course you go to one blog and then see a link that interests you and voila you are suddenly with the second cousin thrice removed.... And I was just notified that I won the KitchenAid cast iron casserole. How cool is that? Except that I now, can't find the site anymore and its 1:15 AM and I am tired and need to sleep. I want that casserole so baaaaaaad.  Alas. Well, to look on the bright side, even if I actually never get to hold it, let alone cook in it (my dream would be to cook my Papa's Shahjahani Biriyani in it) at least I know I actually won something once :)

Good night.

I want that casserole........



I FOUND IT, YEAH MEEEEEEE!!!!!


4/28/10 A short and sweet update, I was able to contact lulu and give her my info for the giveaway.  She e-mailed me back and said someone from CSN stores would contact me which they promptly did. Anyone who likes tasty food would do well to visit this site http://www.lululuathome.com/2010/04/arroz-con-leche-spanish-rice-puddingand.html Her food is appears deceptively simple but so tasty. I've cooked the arroz-con-leche and it's definitely something I'd fight a baby for LOL.  Once I have the casserole I'll blog something about it. How can I not? It's something I've been wanting for a very long time.