Why I Don't Read The News

I heard three separate news incidents in the last couple weeks, all very disturbing, all involving children. While other children were enjoying the first signs of spring and anticipating Easter, drifting to sleep with a favorite stuffed toy, daydreaming while watching raindrops roll down their bedroom window, imagining in their own little make-believe world, these children had other appointments. I won't detail any of the incidents or provide news links, it's the kind of information that nobody needs to know. The kinds of things we want to protect our children from even knowing about, these unfortunate children had to live. After a few days of disbelief and shock, and a few sleepless nights, and more days of numbing depression, I'm finally able to go over the news somewhat more objectively in my mind and possibly talk about it. If I could compose music, I'd write a lullaby for those children. I know it doesn't help, but it somehow seems appropriate and oddly necessary. While all of this was on my mind, the scripture from Revelations came into my mind that says 'God Himself will wipe away all their tears,' and I was reminded that there is comfort for them now and they truly are fine where they are. And then, last night, as if the most fitting word was sent at the right time to confirm that, I came across this in my CM reading of volume 4: '...it is conceivable that death is less momentous in the thought of God, who knows the hereafter, than to us, who are still in the dark. Christ wept, not for Lazarus, his sorrow was for the griefs that fall upon all men, as upon the two sisters. Perhaps He would have said, If they only knew!'

More Pictures

Probably my favorite recent picture of Miss M.

And this is in our backyard with brother L.

Easter Pictures

Counting: "One, two, five, nine..."

Enjoying a dance in a twirly dress.

I tried making my own Hot Cross Buns; since we'd never had them before, we didn't know what they were supposed to like, so we picked some up at the grocery store for comparison. Theirs are on the left, mine are on the right. Theirs are much prettier!

Easter Candy! Miss M had her first jelly beans today. She liked them until she discovered the jelly center; then she spit them out.

Pictures

It was finally warm enough to let Miss M play outside in some water. The little pool isn't cleaned out, so I filled a small tub and brought it outside. She was mostly very busy, intent on exploring the properties of water. I haven't had any luck uploading pictures with Mozilla, so I'm trying something new, I'm posting from IE.

How interesting, it insists on putting the picture at the top. Not sure how this will work out.




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Toddler Talk

The way toddlers remember details and articulate them is like those crazy kinds of dreams where bits and pieces are thrown together so they don't make any sense. Here's how Miss M 'read' a book of children's prayers this evening:

"God hears. He keeps you through the night. Hop foss buns, hop foss buns. Thank you, God, for flowers and birds and butterflies. Butterflies make you sick . . . if you eat them."

At least I know she's listening when I tell her not to eat bugs. :-)

Exams Thursday

Thursday

L - Year 3.5

What was one of the things Paul wrote about to the Corinthians? - Paul was talking about how God promised eternal life and that he will keep you strong until he comes again and that was part of it. You shouldn't invite somebody over and then eat meat sacrificed to idols although you know he thinks its wrong, you should never do that. You should never eat food that the other person thinks is wrong to eat because you're encouraging him to do something he believes is not right. Part of the reason he's writing is because he's going to be coming to Corinth in a little while and so he's writing letters before he gets there.

Can you explain why the sun never seems to remain still in the same place? - Because the sun stays in one spot, actually, but all the other planets orbit around it and it looks like the sun is moving but it's actually the earth that's moving around the sun instead of the sun moving around the earth.

Tell what you know about the planets. - Saturn we can't land on it because it has poisonous gasses and clouds around it so we can't see what's underneath the clouds It also has a ring of like rocks and dust around it. Saturn has six moons. And Pluto, which is the smallest planet and farthest away from the sun, doesn't get much light or heat just because it's so far away friom the sun. Also, some of the planets get closer to the sun and further away from it during their orbit. I think that's why the temperatures go up and down. There's Jupiter, Jupiter also had clouds around it. Jupiter has four moons. On all the planets, there's no oxygen. Mars is very rocky and it's very cold and some scientists think that the valleys and everything in it might have had water in them at one time that all evaporated. And Mars has a solar ice cap which you might be able to get water from, but it's dry ice. And so we've sent like robots and everything up there just to look around. The names of some other planets are Uranus, Neptune, Earth.

Describe "The Milkmaid" by Vermeer - A lady is standing beside a table pouring milk from a pitcher. Up above her is a pretty big window and there's tile down on the wallinstead of baseboards and the tiles have designs on them and everything, and what the tile is for is that there are no water leaks. She has some sort of headband or something, like a shawl on her head, and a blue skirt, and on the table is like a cheese grater and like a bowl, I think. Theres a knife and it looks like she's just been cutting some bread because there's some bread on the table and there's a basket up on the wall and a foot warmer on the floor.

J - Year 6

What kind of body will we have? I Cor 15 - Paul said two things: one, that when we get to heaven they'll be glorified, and two, our bodies that are weak now will be strong.

Describe one of the Persian attacks ancient Greece OR the civil war in Rome - The Persian king wanted to conquer Greece so he raised an army of two million men and eight million squires and stuff. And they marched on Greece but there was one crossing where there was a bridge across a river, and there was a town on the other side, and it took them one month marching night and day to cross through the town. When they came to Greece they were expecting to have a quick and easy victory but the Greeks, with the help of the Spartans, the Athenians and a few others, raised an army of several thousand, and went to match against the enemy and succesfully defeated them in several battles, then the enemy tried a different tactic. They used a fleet to attack one of the ports but the Spartan fleet intercepted them and destroyed the whole fleet and so the Persian king had to go back completely defeated.

How did Demetrius come into power? - He was the son of Antigonus, one of Alexander's generals. His father sent him out pretty much as his commander and Demetrius was such a good general that most of the other kings were afraid of him and because of that he had a lot of enemies and he was in power several different times. Once he was king of the Macedonians, once he was befriended by the Athenians, and on several other occasions he was the king of some small city, but because he had so many enemies, he was overthrown and had to go to some other kingdom. He finally died in prison.

Tell about his death. - He tried to do a campaign against one of his enemies, but famine and sickness came against his men, so he went to another king for help but they wouldn't help him. So they went to war against each other. Demetrius was eventually taken captive and while a prisoner, he died.

T - Year 10

Explain how Lincoln's character influenced his actions during his term as President. - His patience and goodwill kept him from becoming overbearing or harsh with his critics and staff, and helped him bear with the Union generals who had bad luck (or bad strategy) in the field. His sense of humor kept him from despairing during the long war. Because of his humility he thought only of his country and how he could help her, even to the point of neglecting his personal safety. Because of his kindness he pardoned many condemned soldiers and was lenient with the South after the war. Because of his morality he emancipated the slaves when he had the chance—and did it legally through the war power vested in him.

Give an account of Cairo during the plague. - There were funerals every day. Doctors were scarce, and someone wanting a doctor was looked on suspiciously. The plague was thought to be transferred by contact, so many people quarantined themselves in their houses, and those who went out tried to avoid touching other people. Kinglake himself did not completely believe the disease was transferred by contact, and he made a game of seeing how far he could go in the street without touching anyone.

Explain a few flaws in the liberal movement. (Vision of the Anointed) - 1) It is cut off from feedback. Because it is a vision rather than a view built upon observation, facts and results cannot affect it. Opposing views are usually ignored or brushed off without argument. 2) It plays to the pride of the Anointed. Within the vision they are the Intelligentsia, the Ones Who really care (or really know), the Rescuers of the unfortunate victims of society—-in other words, they are special. Therefore, they are the ones who should make decisions. Any opposition must be less understanding or less caring (see 1).

Grammar: pick out the eight parts of speech of the italicized words from this poetry selection by Robert Browning:

Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brush-wood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England -- now!

to be: infinitive verb
England: proper noun
wakes: intransitive verb
lowest: superlative adjective
chaffinch: concrete noun

Christmas or Easter?

When I was younger I used to wonder which of the two was more important. I think I vaguely understood that, since the resurrection of Christ depended on his birth to be able to happen, the birth should be, at least, no less important than the resurrection. Of course you can say that they are equally important, because Easter wouldn't have been possible without Christmas and Christmas without Easter is useless. But I have also come to the conclusion that which one you choose depends on your viewpoint. If you already believe that Jesus is God then the amazing thing is that He was born a man: that the One who created all things lay begotten in a stable. If you really understand that, it should be no surprise that this God in man had power over death. But if Christmas was just another normal birth of one more normal child, then Easter must turn the world upside-down. For on that day a mortal conquered death, and the one great constant was broken forever.

But of course we can have it both ways, because Jesus was both man and God. Christmas really was the birth of the Everlasting One; and when death died the world did turn upside-down. Or rather, an upside-down world was put right side up again.

Exams Wednesday

L - Year 3.5

Where did the religion of Islam come from? - When Mohammed was a little boy, his parents died and so he went to live with his uncle, and his uncle was a caravan driver and what that meant was that Mohammed went with the caravans and he helped him with the supplies and I guess Mohammed stayed with him and everything. When Mohammed grew up he had a vision one night and in the vision the angel Gabriel told him to start preaching a religion and he woke up and then he went out and started preaching a new religion that had never been taught before and it ended up being called Islamic. One of the things Islamic people did everyday around the middle of the day a bell was rung from basically the church, and everybody kneeled down and started praying. No matter what what you were doing whether it was a big thing or just a minor thing, you had to stop whatever you were doing and kneel down and pray. And some people even got mats to put under their knees.

Tell your favorite part of Bambi. - That's easy. One day Bambi and his mother were walking in the meadow and Bambi played tag with his mother like the first time but all of a sudden he noticed that his mother was standing very still and so he went uip to her to see what she was doing and he saw two long ears sticking up from the grasss stems and his mother told told him to come over to where she was and she introduced him to their friend the hare, and Bambi was a little bit critical of the hare's long whiskers and they talked for awhile and the hare studied Bambi and finally he had to go home, and I guess Bambi's mother started to graze and Bambi went off a little ways to see what he could do and he noticed a ways off on the other side of the meadow that the grass was moving and everything, and he saw two backs with white spots on them and he bounded back like he wanted to run away, and his mother looked up to see what he was doing and she asked him, and he told her to look where he had seen the backs. So she looked over and she noticed that it was her sister and so she told Bambi to follow her, so he did and everything. They went and said hello and what Bambi had seen was actually Gobo and Faline, his aunt Ina's children. They started to play and then they romped in the grass and they stopped to take a breather and then they started talking, already good friends. Bambi asked Gobo if he knew what danger was. And Gobo answered and said that danger was something very bad and they all sort of stood there sort of scared and evertything, trying to figure out what danger was. But finally Faline bounded away saying, "I know what danger is, it's what you run away from!" and then they started to play again and totally forgot about the absorbing question. Finally they stopped again and looked over at their mothers but they were still grazing and then they started to talk again and Bambi told them how he had talked to the grasshopper and the butterfly and Friend Hare. And Faline asked if he had ever talked to the goldbug and Bambi said no. Faline said pertly that she had talked to him often and Gobo said that the hedge hog had struck him in the nose, but he only mentioned it in passing. Then the mothers looked up and said that it was time to go but they started to plead asking for more time and Aunt Ina told his mother about how she told her that they wouldn't want to separate. Suddenly they heard something that took their minds off everything else. It was like a crashing and everything in the bushes and they looked up and saw two stags, and the two stags ran out and ran right back into the thicket and then they came bursting out again and then they stopped about twenty feet away from each other and then they turned around and walked back to the thicket in opposite directions. And then Faline asked who they were and so did Gobo, and Aunt Ina said that they were their fathers. Then they said goodbye to each other and separated. After that Bambi and his mother started to walk home and on the way Bambi asked his mother why their fathers hadn't spoken to them and his mother said that they don't speak to them anymore, only when they wanted to. And he asked her why didn't they stay with them and she said they didn't stay with them anymore, only when they wanted to.

What is a diving bell? - Just like a square bell that sits on the surface of the water and a little bencj on the bottom of it where you can sit and there wasn't really a floor. (He drew a diagram.) You could dive and go down and look for stuff instead of using a boat you could use it.

Add 343 + 237 + 522 - 1102

Father to choose a poem, and a memory verse.

J - Year 6


Describe the city of ancient Rome OR Athens OR Sparta - Sparta was a very plain city and the people in it were rather plain, too They didn't go for finery, they just went for practical things. In the city they had schools where the boys went and schools where the girls went. The girls were taught to basically keep a house, and the boys were taught to go to war. They were trained as soldiers and prepared for battle.

Briefly explain the theory of relativity OR give an account of Archimides's contribution to science. - Archimides pretty much invented how to use math the right way He discovered that there was no end to numbers, that you can just keep going. He also invented several other things that help do things such as he invented a machine that could draw water from a stream just by turning a handle. He used his science not so much to do things for himself, but to help other scientists and to improve the science that they had.

How many square feet of wall are in a room 12x13 feet, 8 feet high? 1248
Minus a door 3x7 feet? 1227

Describe "The Milkmaid" by Vermeer - She's standing in a rather plain room with a table underneath a window. She has a basket of bread, a pitcher of milk and it looks like some peices of cloth on the table as well. There is a foot warmer on the floor and on the baseboard there are little paintings.

T - Year 10

Explain how Abraham's children with Hagar and Sarah illustrate the two agreements between God and man. (Galatians) - Ishmael is illustrative of the first agreement, the Law. Abraham tried to fulfill the requirements by his own works, and his child Ishmael by Hagar was the result. Isaac is illustrative of the second agreement: promised and accomplished by God and received by man through faith.

Describe one of the generals of the Civil War. - Robert E. Lee was described by Churchill as the military genius of the Civil War. He was also a wise and honorable man. He had wished that the war would not have to happen, but when his state, Virginia, joined the Confederacy he went with her (despite being offered command of the Union army). During the first years of the war he won many battles, even though he was usually outnumbered. When the Confederacy was at last overpowered and he was asked to surrender, one of his subordinates suggested that they shouldn't give up, but go into hiding and fight a guerrilla war against the Union; but General Lee said no, because this would help neither the Confederacy nor the Union. (And he did sign General Grant's terms of surrender, at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865.)

Describe the scene where Dr. Frankenstein stops working on a second monster. - Frankenstein had been working on the creature for some time. But one day he decided he could not go on with it. He had seen the evil that one such creature could cause, and he could not create a second. So he went to destroy what he had done so far—-and was met by his first monster. The monster argued and pleaded with him to finish his work, but Frankenstein was unmoved. The monster left in a rage, telling Frankenstein that he would be with him on his wedding night. Frankenstein then took all the pieces from his work on a second creature, went out to sea in a small boat, and sunk them.

Describe Vermeer's "The Milkmaid" - A lady stands pouring milk from a pitcher into a vessel on a table. She wears a blue skirt, yellow blouse, and white head-covering. The room she is in has plain walls but there is a row of decorated tiles around the base. Light comes in from a window towards the upper left of the painting. There are loaves on the table; baskets hang behind the lady on the side wall; and there is a small wooden box (a foot-warmer, if I remember correctly) on the floor.

Exams Tuesday

Tuesday

L - Year 3.5

What was the golden age of Greece like, OR tell about the gods the Greeks believed - They had the god of the sea which might have been Neptune, they had the god of peace, the god of war, the goddess of love, and her son went down and shot arrows at people in their hearts supposedly to make them love each other, I guess, and then they had the god of the sun, and the god of the moon and the stars, and they might have had a god over all of them. And some of the names were Neptune and Pluto. This is how the daughter of one of the gods was born. One day one of the gods had a headache. It kept getting worse so he called a blacksmith to come and hit him on the head with a hammer, and as strange as the request sounded, the blacksmith did it anyway without question. And then--out popped his daughter.

Describe a compass. What does it tell us? - A compass is basically almost like a clock. But instead of having numbers, it has N for north, S for south, W for west and E for east. It has a little red arrow that always points north. And since it's always pointing north, we can tell the other directions from north.

What do you know about light? - Well, for one, if you take a piece of cardboard and you put a pinhole in it, and you shine the flashlight beam through it, then the image of the lightbulb in the flashlight will show a picture of it on the wall. You can't see around a corner because light goes in straight lines. There are two things that can bend light - water and glass.

3X + 4 = 13 - x = 3

J - Year 6

Dictation (prepared, from School of the Woods) - "Now cut ahead of the dogs to the runway and watch for the fox. Here is the hunted creature." (done perfectly)

Explain how and why Octavius became Augustus - After he conquered Antony, the priests and all the higher people wanted to honor him, but because they wanted to gain his favor they wanted to think of something new and so they called him Augustus.

What are some things that cloth is made of? OR describe what Norway looks like. - Cloth is made out of cotton and from sheep's wool.

Describe your favorite episode in The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies: The dwarves' army started to attack the elven army but Gandalf, as soon as the attack began, shouted that he could see orcs. Immediately Dain went to talk to the elven king and Bard. They decided to do combat together against the orcs, and the elves took one arm of the mountain to defend, and the dwarves and men took the other part. The orc host came and attacked from the front to begin with, but when the elves charged, they fell back. Then slowly by weight of numbers they started carrying the elves back towards the mountains. Then the dwarves and men attacked and sent the orcs back again but then some orcs who had climbed over the mountain attacked behind them. So the elves and the men and the dwarves were fighting in a circle Then the eagles arrvived to bring help as well as Beorn, and soon he sent the orcs packing.

What is two-thirds of 48? - 32

T - Year 10

What were some of the blessings and curses that Moses described to the Israelites based on their obedience or disobedience? (Deuteronomy) - If they obeyed they would be given a large and bounteous land, their labor would be fruitful, and the Lord would be with them. If they disobeyed, their enemies would overcome them; other people would reap the fruit of their labors, and they would be driven out of their land.

Give some account of one of the battles of the civil war. - At the taking of Richmond in the last period of the war, General Grant first assaulted the heavy fortifications to the north of the city. He received heavy losses, changed plans, and circled around the city (as McClellan had attempted) so that he could take it from the back. 1-0 (Union-Confederacy).

Trace the ups and downs of Demetrius's life. - Demetrius was the son of Antigonus, one of Alexander's four generals. After Alexander died the generals quarreled and Demetrius led part of his father's army. He and his father made a campaign into Greece and liberated Athens from a previous conqueror. The Athenians loaded the two with honors, even to the point of deifying them. Demetrius and his father made several more campaigns, but they were in the end defeated, Antigonus was killed, and Demetrius fled back to Athens. But the Athenians spurned him and he had to flee again.
In his final campaign he started well, but there was a famine and he ran out of supplies. He had to surrender and was placed under a sort of house arrest. He spent the rest of his life hunting, dicing, and drinking.

Solve 4.59 + 8.125 - 7.68 - .981 - 1.406 = 2.648

Narnia!

Today's the day! We have our copy and that's what we're watching tonight! :)