What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

I expected vanilla, I love vanilla.

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Look What We Found!

This was on the floor in the boys' room. For more views, click here and here.

Grapes and Running Water

These are some of my recent photos. They've all been digitally enhanced, especially the last two.




For the technically minded, the pictures were taken with a FujiFilm FinePix 2800Z. DOF and some extra contrast/color enhancements were done on the computer.

May the Fourth be with you

I found this picture online, the full version is here. Happy Independence Day!

A modern-language translation of the Declaration of Independence HERE

We are currently listening to:
One Nation Under God, by The Sons of Tennessee

New Template

We've remodeled our blog. See that picture up top? That's our house! Well, it's our house, but it's moved to a more scenic location (one of Tim's photos of the area), thanks to Tim's graphic magic. We live in a rural area, but not quite that rural. It used to be a lot more rural, but suburbia has been creeping up on us, and now it's more like semi-rural.

What Kind of Soul is Tim?

You Are an Old Soul

You are an experienced soul who appreciates tradition. Mellow and wise, you like to be with others but also to be alone. Down to earth, you are sensible and impatient. A creature of habit, it takes you a while to warm up to new people. You hate injustice, and you're very protective of family and friends A bit demanding, you expect proper behavior from others. Extremely independent you don't mind living or being alone. But when you find love, you tend to want marriage right away. Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul and Visionary Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

What Kind of Soul Are You?

I got this from fellow-mom Elizabeth's blog.

You Are a Retrospective Soul

The most misunderstood of all the soul signs. Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are. You are intense and desire perfection in every facet of your life. You're best described as extremely idealistic, hardworking, and a survivor. Great moments of insight and sensitivity come to you easily. But if you aren't careful, you'll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes. For you, it is difficult to seperate the past from the present. You will suceed once you overcome the disappoinments in life. Souls you are most compatible with: Traveler Soul and Prophet Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

A Picture of a Room

Tim made this image from a cardboard box and some toys. See how here.

Education vs. Brainwashing

I hear talk about children not turning out the way people wanted, or how the new generation has a different mindset than intended. This sounds as if we had tried to teach the children what they should and shouldn't think--as if all our education was just an attempt to brainwash them. And really, education is a lot like brainwashing, at least on the surface. The difference is that brainwashing teaches what to think, while education teaches how. If all we teach children is what to think, we are simply programming them as we would machines. This de-humanizes them. Teaching children how to think makes them rational creatures, which makes them more human. If we follow Plato's reasoning, the perfect human in the realm of ideas is a rational creature, and therefore the more rational we become the more we become like the 'idea' human.

Which, then, does education do today? Does it teach what or how? I can't speak for all forms of education or curricula, nor do I have an intimate knowledge of public schools in general. I can tell what I do know:

Right now there is a struggle going on over whether or not Evolution should be taught as fact in schools. So far, any attempt to cast even the shadow of a doubt on the theory (note it well!) has been fought and defeated. This isn't about the truth of Evolution as a theory, so I will go no further than to say that its validity is very much in question. But even if it were universally accepted as truth, teaching it as a fact--a fact that not only should not be questioned but cannot be questioned--defeats the purpose of education. It teaches students what to think, not how or why.

I compare this to my homeschooling. Again, I only know the curriculum I have used. But by this curriculum I am learning to think logically and to scrutinize ideas with reason: not to accept them blindly as 'fact'. I am learning, when I come upon a piece of information, to discern whether it is true or not, and what meaning it has, if any, in the broader scope of the world. I am learning, as someone (I forget now who)* said, to greet reason with open arms. And that should be the purpose of education.


* This in itself says something. I've forgotten the fact of the name, but I remember the idea.

Friday's Responses

Our final day of exams.
The map questions are giving the younger two difficulties. I guess we'll have to focus more on that next year. (sigh)

Year 3 Student

What invention do you think most changed the world? What can you tell about how it came about?

The car. And the reaper. There were five reapers invented, but only one really worked. One would actually cut the grain and bind it, but when the men went to put it in the barn, they were getting cut because the little pieces of wire they used to bind them up were getting in the wheat and were cutting the men. But I guess one man succeeded in making a good reaper and I guess nowadays they have tractors instead of reapers. It used to be, all the families were going out and cutting the grain with something that looked like hooks but they had blades and I guess the women as well as the men were binding grain and the children were tying it up and it made a big difference in the world to make a reaper because people didn't have to do that anymore.

Trace Minn's journey on a map.

(Student traced route on a map with his finger, pointing out a few cities along the Mississippi River after going over the book again!)

Year 5 Student

Trace Lewis and Clark's route on a map.

(Student traced his route on a map with his finger after a short review)

From the Complete Book of Marvels - tell about your favorite place he visited.

I like them all, but the Rock of Gibraltar is the one whose name I remember. The Rock of Gibraltar is guarding a bay. The rock is hollow. It belongs to England, but it used to belong to someone else. The French and the English fought over it, but the English won. Ever since then, England's been guarding it. When you visit it, they show you the old guns but they don't show you the new guns. There are passages all the way around and it provides a great view all around of the sea.

Year 9 Student

Trace Richard Halliburton’s travels in Europe.

First he climbed the Matterhorn with almost no previous climbing experience. The guide helped. Then he went to France, visited Paris and the Eiffel Tower, visited a French cathedral and then traveled south to Carcassonne. From there he went south, over the mountains, through Andorra, to Spain. He spent a night on the Rock of Gibraltar and ended up in jail for it. But he got some pictures just the same.

What were some of George Washington’s strengths?

He had very strong emotions, but such complete self-control that he almost never expressed them. He was modest and humble but committed to his duty. He had an unimpeachable character and reputation. He was tall with a dignified bearing and majestic carriage equal to any king. But most of all he was a complete patriot who put his country’s good before his own and cared for its welfare in his generalship, presidency, and beyond.