martinzoo

Somebody hit me with a truck!

That’s what it feels like. Ugh! The rain and the 40 degree temperature have laid me low.

We had a crazy busy weekend. I spent all weekend getting ready for our neighborhood Fall Festival, which we held on Sunday. I was part of a committee of six who put it all together. I think it went really well. We had a chili cook-off, which was really fun. My chili came in second place in two categories, ‘best tasting’ and ‘wimpiest.’  Pretty funny, huh? I even created a real voting booth to make it all legit…..LOL!

We had a 5K marathon run throughout the neighborhood, a bouncy house, carnival games, basketball tournament, a cake walk, and an activity table with arts and crafts. Oh, yeah! We had hotdogs and snocones too. It was really nice to be able to talk with neighbors I knew and neighbors I had never met before.

Speaking of elections…… I did mention voting……. remember? Anyway, speaking of elections, GB wrote two letters this past Friday. One was to Senator McCain, and the other was to Senator Obama. Omg! They were so funny. You could tell that he was really immersed in our election unit. You can read them by visiting the link on the sidebar, under “Pages” where it says ‘GB activism’ or you can just click here to go right to that page. I loved how he took a lot of the issues that he hears the adults talking about and put a child’s spin on them. And the last sentence of each letter cracked me up so much that I had tears (literal tears) rolling down my face.

At which point, he very seriously looked at me and demanded, “What’s so funny?”

I also got some very good news this weekend, which I’m not at liberty to post about. But I will, when I’ve been given the go-ahead by the proper authorities. But I can tell you this, I am thrilled!

Today we had our usual Math day. And it was going pretty well until after lunch. I am at my wits end with this Math cr*p. I don’t understand why this year he just doesn’t seem to want to even try with it. We’ve been using the Time4Learning web site as our Math curriculum because it is visually rich, which is the way he usually wants to learn. But I’m thinking about switching curriculums. I’m very seriously considering the Math U See program. Have any of you used this product? I know Christine uses it and loves it. So, I’m tempted by it. But I hate to put more money into a new program mid-term.

Big decision.

I’ll look forward to any comments.

My sister is a Physical Education teacher at the local middle school. Recently, she went to Aquagirl’s college for some additional career training seminars. And while we were at brunch on Sunday she gave me a new fear. She was telling us that lots of teachers use candy and dry cereal as incentive for kids to do little things quickly. And at the seminar they were explaining how bad that is for the kids.

The focus was on the dye that is used to color the candy and the cereal. In particular, was Red 40 and Yellow 5. She said, and I’ve found supporting data, that the dye is only used to make the food more visually appealing.

I think I’ve kind of heard of this before, but not in an extensive way. My sister was telling me that these dyes are made from, hold on to your shorts, petroleum distillates and coal tar! That’s just sick! She said that animals instinctively know what is bad for their bodies and if you were to put out a dish of fruit loops and another of raisin bran (no artificial colors) the birds would eat the bran, but not the fruit loops.

Well, I had to try that. GB and I put out dishes on Monday to see what the birds would try.

They didn’t touch either one. So, I guess that proves nothing. Or, it just proves that the sunflowers are too distracting…LOL!

****Update: Since this post was written, I noticed that the squirrels and birds have totally eaten the bran cereal, but continue to ignore the Fruit Loops.
But I wanted to do more research on the subject. And I was really not happy with what I found. There are studies that suggest artificial color have an effect on our children’s behavior and of course, they can have an effect on our health and how our bodies function. Some people are allergic to certain artificial colors. And other studies link tumors to certain colors. Remember when they finally took Red Dye #2 off the market and how many thousands of products contained that dye? I really missed that red M&M.

This is the FDA’s response to whether certain food dyes cause hyperactivity or learning disabilities:

Although this theory was popularized in the 1970’s, well-controlled studies conducted since then have produced no evidence that food color additives cause hyperactivity or learning disabilities in children. A Consensus Development Panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded in 1982 that there was no scientific evidence to support the claim that colorings or other food additives cause hyperactivity.

This was on the current FDA web site. But that study was done in 1982! What about now? We know a lot more now. So how about a current statement?

In the UK the British Food Standards Agency is asking food companies to voluntarily get rid of color additives in food products aimed at young children.

Here is what the New York Times had to say on the subject of the British study:

“Common food additives and colorings can increase hyperactive behavior in a broad range of children, a study being released today found.

It was the first time researchers conclusively and scientifically confirmed a link that had long been suspected by many parents. Numerous support groups for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have for years recommended removing such ingredients from diets, although experts have continued to debate the evidence.”

You can read the rest of the article on the NYT’s web site.

And there is a good explanation of the study here.

Going through my refrigerator and my cabinets, this is what I found that contained Red 40:

• Mott’s strawberry applesauce
• Hawaiian Punch
• Pillsbury Grand’s Biscuits (what! why is red 40 in biscuits?)
• Fizzix Lowfat Yogurt snack
• Froot Loops (I bought for the experiment)
• Lucky Charms
• Cinnamon Life cereal (why?!)
• Cherry Poptarts
• Doritos (no surprise here)

These items contained the Yellow 5:

• Mountain Dew
• Pillsbury Grand’s biscuits (again!)
• Jello pudding snacks (vanilla and tapioca)
• Dr. Oetker Tiramisu
• Doritos
• Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
• Pringles
• Country Time Lemonade

Sadly, my family is going to find fewer of these items making their way in to my shopping cart. Because I don’t want to take any chances.

I swear! The more you learn - the more you fear. The internet can be like a double edged sword. I want to know, but when I find out things, it makes me feel as if we are slowly being poisoned by everything we ingest.

So this year I’m going to try and make my focus on our meals be more healthy. I want to learn more about organics and incorporate them more in to our diet - even if our food bill goes up. I’m not buying the bottled water anymore. I’d rather use a filtering product. And now thanks to my sister {sarcasm} I’m going to try to eliminate these unnatural dyes from our diet, because I don’t want us to eat petroleum OR tar!

So, thanks Aunty B! Really! {genuine}

Robert Krampf’s video

I love getting Robert’s videos about once a week or so. And this one went right along with our focus on nature. So I thought I would share it with you all.

After watching his video I came to realize that GB and I don’t actually spend enough time just sitting and watching. GB has a need to keep moving, keep exploring. His curiosities make him wander off. But maybe my job on these nature jaunts should be to stay still and just observe. I don’t want to squash his enthusiasm by forcing him to sit still. But *I* sure like the sitting still part.

I love to watch the birds at my feeders each morning while my husband has breakfast and gets ready for work. But I’ve never paid attention to the aggressions or typical behaviors amongst the different bird species. I have noticed that woodpeckers who come to my feeders take just one seed and then fly off. I thought that was weird since they don’t really have to worry about other birds shooing them away from the feeder.

I think I’ll read the chapter in my Handbook for Nature Study about birds. Maybe I’ll gain some more insight. But I’ll keep letting GB do his explorations. That’s what he likes. And that’s really how we’ve found some of the cool things we’ve studied recently, like the gall and the copepods.

GB is having a Spring Break this week. So I thought I’d post an un-homeshool-ish post.

We talk a lot about ratings in this family. GB is sorta obsessed with tv and movie ratings. He always wants to know WHY a movie or tv show has a certain rating. So it gets discussed a lot. Everything is rated these days. Even our music has ratings.

So, when I was composing an email to my book club this evening, I had to pause and ponder about whether books should have ratings too. One of the ladies in my club was curious as to whether her students (high school English) would find the book, ‘Water for Elephants’ objectionable.

I believe that I am of two minds on the topic. As a mother, I sure would like to know any thing that could be interpreted as objectionable. Especially if I’m going to recommend it.

A good example of one such occasion occurred a few months ago during one of our book club meetings.  One mom had just spent a glorious week in NYC with her husband and kids. They had all gone to see the play, ‘Wicked’. And her twelve year old daughter was now obsessed with the music from the play. At the time of our meeting, that mom was deciding whether she should get the book for her daughter’s birthday. I’m not sure how many of you have read this book. I loved it! BUT (huge BUT) I would never let my 12 yo read that book. Just about every depraved thing that occurs in our society is hidden within the many layers of this book. Stress the word ‘depraved.’

On the other hand, sometimes it’s just so daggum hard to get kids to read. And it would be a shame to discourage them from reading. Don’t you think? So I worry that  rating books would involve some sort of censorship. And to me, that just means lost opportunities for reading.

I remember when the Harry Potter books came out. So many parents were depriving their kids from reading these wonderful books because they believed them to be anti-Christian and full of paganism. And lets face it, there is an awful lot of darkness and adult themes in the HP books. I just read online this morning that JK Rowling suffered from depression in her twenties, to the point of suicidal thoughts. She included aspects of this part of her life within her books by creating the dementors - creatures who literally suck the joy and happiness out of you.

But on the flip side, just look at what JK Rowling has done for reading. More kids read now than they did before. And there is a lot more selection for boys at the bookstore. If we were to rate HP books, we’d have to include child abuse, cursing, extreme violence, and many others.

Would the HP books have been as successful if they had included ratings?

Is it possible that by putting ratings on books you would be encouraging kids to read books that they are not ready for? I know that sometimes that forbidden fruit seems awfully enticing!

Questions for pondering …. How do you feel about a rating system? Do you all have any thoughts on the subject?

So how much email have you received about this California case?

I would say that at least half of my inbox lately has had something to do with the case. Either well-meaning friends asking if I had heard about it, or messages on my support forums discussing the worries that people have over it. Everybody seems so concerned that if it could happen in California, it could happen where we all live.

But I don’t think so.

You know, I used to worry about folks wanting to hear justification for my son being “out” of school whenever we went places during typical school hours - or even when he was out in the yard. But nowadays I find so much more acceptance from everyone: museum guides, store clerks, and especially the elderly (who used to be so skeptical).
Most of them tell me wonderful experiences that they’ve had with homeschoolers. And talk about how much they admire the dedication it takes for parents who decide to homeschool.
Even my parents and in-laws have come around……. Shocking!
So, I’m thinking that there is no way that this California case is going to have the impact that people worry about. I think homeschooling has become such an accepted form of education that state and local governments will really try to provide MORE for homeschoolers, not less.

And here comes the cynic in me: I only worry that by signing these petitions, we are creating a Nationwide master list of homeschooling families. Not that I want to be secretive about my homeschooling adventure. Because, obviously my blog is an open window into our lives. But I also would hate for this list to come back and bite us in the butt.  What do you all think?

This article appeared in our local paper this morning. It’s really nice to see homeschoolers portrayed positively in the news, isn’t it?

For home-schoolers, a place of discovery

Pocahontas State Park hosts programs that fit nature lessons

Saturday, Mar 08, 2008 - 12:08 AM Updated: 01:02 AM

Christen Miller (above), an interpreter at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield County, works with children during the winter/spring series of Discovery Programs for Home-Schoolers. Photo By: MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH

By KATHERINE CALOS

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Think of kids running down a hill at Pocahontas State Park as raindrops starting to flow toward the Chesapeake Bay, and you’ll begin to understand how fun can be used to teach a lesson about the watershed.

The sunny-day romp was one of the ways a group of children worked off some energy and learned about pollution during the winter/spring series of Discovery Programs for Home-Schoolers.

Groups of home-schoolers have used the park as a resource for years by requesting programs that fit in with the children’s lessons.

Now the park is making it easier for home-schoolers who aren’t part of a group to take advantage of the resources. Programs — on insects, fish, a pond safari, vascular plants and nonvascular plants — continue into May. Previous topics included geology, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

A watershed, explained park naturalist Christen Miller on Wednesday, is the area that drains into a river or larger body of water. In Virginia, the land east of the mountains is generally in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Richmond area is also in the James River watershed.

To show how pollution flows downstream, Miller brought out a plastic landscape called an Enviroscape.

The home-schoolers sprinkled cocoa and powdered-drink mix on the landscape to represent soil erosion and chemicals. Bits of styrofoam became litter. Chocolate milk represented sewage or oil.

Then they created raindrops from a spray bottle and watched as the runoff into their lovely lake made it look disgusting.

A few preventive measures kept the lake cleaner on a second try.

Vegetation “planted” with sticky tape along the edges of streams helped keep silt from washing into the water. Fences kept cows out of the streams so they wouldn’t stir up the water and deposit manure in it.

Earthen berms made of clay contained overflow from the sewage treatment plant. Farmers and homeowners had learned not to overfertilize, keeping excess nutrients out of the streams.

“Let’s make it rain and see if it looks quite so bad,” Miller said. Even though “it’s not possible to keep 100 percent of the pollution out of the lake,” the modifications made a difference.

Talking about watersheds tends to make people’s eyes glaze over, said Miller, referring to her experience on summertime canoe trips on the park lake. She keeps talking about it anyway because it is important.

“We’re all connected,” she said. “The watershed is a way to see that connection.”

GB was disappointed that the photographer didn’t get him in the newspaper. But never fear, because MY camera was near. These were my pictures from the same day.

The kids run down the hill, representing raindrops converging on the lowest point.

GB was a bit of pollution within the raindrops

Here, he shakes powdered cocoa to represent soil erosion, and it’s impact on pollution. Other kids sprinkled red, powdered Kool-aid to represent fertilizer. There was also chocolate syrup to represent sludge from cars and factories.

GB produces ‘rain’ with a squirt bottle.

Here you can see the pollution running into the unprotected Chesapeake Bay.

This is how polluted the bay would look if there were no protective measures in place.

Thanks to State and Federal environmental protections, we have ‘wetlands’ (represented by the green felt) and restrictions on factories and fertilizers. These protections should help the health and safety of the bay.

My friend, Dana, from School for Us, has been having some trouble with her daughter. She doesn’t know if her daughter appreciates how good it is to be homeschooled since she has never been to public school. I think Dana also worries, like a lot of us, about whether she is providing a quality education that would stand up to what the public schoolers get.

GB did go to public school for kindergarten and first grade. So we have an advantage in that area. He never asks to go back to public school. He has very negative feelings toward public schools. And his memories are still vivid. So after reading one of Dana’s emails, I asked GB what he specifically did NOT like about being in public school. And I thought I’d post his list because maybe other kids would share his opinions or like to know what his opinions are about ps. Plus, I thought it could help some of the blogging moms whose kids constantly pester them about going off to school like the other kids.

This list is from my email to Dana:

1- He hated waiting for everybody to finish their work before they could start something new, because he always got in trouble while waiting. He just couldn’t stay quiet and still.

2- Every time something outside the classroom was happening (like resource, lunch or recess), they had to clean up, get in a line and then stay in that line while they walked to the activity. Kids would push, or whisper, or fall out of line and then get in trouble for that. **GB always felt like a bad kid in school because the teacher was always punishing the kids.

3- He hated silent lunch. One hundred fifty kids per grade level is a lot of noise, so the cafeteria ladies always wanted silent lunch until 5 minutes before the bell. I got pretty peaved when I went to the school to eat lunch with my child and I was not even allowed to talk to him.

4. GB eats slow, so he hated the fact that lunch was only 20 minutes.

5. Public school kids are gone ALL day. Our kids leave at 8:40, which means you have to get up around 7:30, and they don’t get home from school until 4:20.

6. They have homework, which is supposed to take 5 minutes, per subject, per grade - for example: GB is in 4th grade, so 5 minutes X 4th grade = 20 minutes per subject. That is what is assigned, but if it takes you longer, you still have to do it. And with GB’s disgraphia, he has a hard time with his writing assignments. So that’s a minimum of one more hour of school work. If they have after-school sports, it leaves no time for playing with toys, video games, or just watching a favorite TV show.

7. They move from subject to subject whether you are ready or not. Since GB writes so slowly, he would often miss recess because he hadn’t finished writing. OR he would have to take it home and add it to his homework assignments. OR he would cheat and do crappy work just so he could be done with the writing.

8. If he was really interested in a subject, he wanted to keep talking about it. But the teacher wanted to move on to the next subject. I can understand this from the teacher’s perspective because it’s hard if all the kids want to have a say in what they discuss. But from GB’s perspective, he likes focusing on ONE subject until he gets tired of it. He’s kind of the opposite of ADD…LOL!

9. He did not like it when the teacher would decide what they would play during recess. She would tell them that they were going to play kick ball, then divide the teams herself. GB would have preferred to chose his own recess, like playing Star Wars or something. Sometimes he just wanted to play by himself. That’s the kind of kid he was then.

10. He hated the bus! It smelled terrible, it was too bouncy and he got a stomach ache each day, and the big kids picked on the little kids. And the bus driver ignored it all. GB got his head smashed against the bus window when a kid swung his back-pack up to the front of the bus. The bus driver never noticed.

11. He hated having a music class! He despises singing and got in trouble each week that singing was required because he would refuse to sing….. even in first grade! He’s THAT stubborn. I really got tired of them acting like he was a bad kid because he wouldn’t just do what they told him to do, like singing. And you can forget him dancing, too! That just cracks me up to think about! With homeschooling, we just skip the singing stuff. I’m hoping some day that he’ll enjoy music more.

12. GB did not feel safe in school. He was victimized by bullies (yes! even in first grade!), and felt like the teachers and principal could not be relied upon for help.

Dana and I are hoping to hear from other moms who have taken their kids out of ps. And out of curiosity, I’m wondering about families whose children never went to ps.

So…. Questions….

1) If your child has ever attended public school, did they like it, or dislike it?

2) If your child has never been to public/private school, do they want to go?

3) If they’ve never been to school, do they understand the differences between the educational approaches?

4) Do you think your children are satisfied with the opportunities they’ve been given.

I can tell you positively that GB is much happier as a homeschooled child. And I’m much happier having him home. I wish I’d done it for my older kids.

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In another post I’d like to address how I felt while my kids were in school, and the interactions I had with the public schools and my children’s teachers. Because that’s a whole other ballgame.

My Dad’s friend sent these photos on for us to look at from San Francisco’s Fleetweek and I thought they were so spectacular, I just had to share. I’m including my favorites, but you can see them all on his site, here.

I love this picture with the San Francisco Bridge in the background.

And I like this one because it has Alcatraz in the background…. Very cool!

Look how close he is to the water! I hope the folks in the boats are wearing earplugs.

This is what he says about the above picture, which I thought was so cool!

A closeup of the above pic, notice the visual distortion caused by the shockwaves… cool huh?
The jet itself is not yet supersonic, but is in the transonic region. The air itself is accelerated to supersonic speed when it encounters an obstruction (like a bump on the fuselage). When it slows back down below supersonic speed, it creates a pressure wave which causes the visual distortions. Those pressure waves can be seen radiating from specific points on the aircraft (including the canopy). Someone sent me this explanation…I filed the note away, but can’t seem to find it at the moment! I’ll properly credit it when I find the name.
Forget the Oblique shock wave theory…doesn’t apply in this case since it’s not in the supersonic region.

And this is a very short video of a transonic pass performed by Blue Angels Soloist John Allison over San Francisco Bay during Fleet Week 2007.

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Cool, huh?

If you’d like to see more of BZ’s photo collections, you can click here.