An Abhorrent System

I'm posting this for Tim. It's about beauty and art from a blog about music.

And here's an article about New St Andrew's.

Homeschoolers Qualifying for the National Merit Scholarship program

Found on HomeschoolBuzz.com. This is from an article in the Washington Times:

"...Home-schooling has developed an impressive track record. In particular, home-schoolers are consistently achieving in the arena skeptics believe should be out of the range of average parents, which is preparing students for college.

If parents can successfully prepare children for college, then the rationale for heavily subsidizing public schools weakens significantly. Recent results from ACT show home-schoolers have scored above the national average for the past 10 years, which helps show that home-schoolers are well-prepared for college.

But there's another program in which home-schoolers are making their presence known — the National Merit Scholarship Program.

The NMS program has seen a dramatic increase in the number of home-schoolers who place as finalists. Of the 248 home-schoolers among the 2003 semifinalists, 129 of these students advanced to finalist standing, receiving the National Merit Scholarship.

As noted by Kate Grossman, a reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times, the number of home-schoolers receiving National Merit Scholarships has increased more than 500 percent: from 21 in 1995 to 129 in 2003. Recently NMS announced that for 2008 there are 237 home-school semifinalists..."

Read more here.

Now I Can Read On My Treadmill!

I haven't been on my treadmill for awhile - months. First, I stopped because of leg cramps. Now that isn't as much of an issue, but I'm so busy and I need to have something to do while I'm on there. I usually watch a DVD for 30 minutes or so - we've seen the Pride and Prejudice miniseries in 30 minute installments more times than I can count, as well as episodes of All Creatures Great and Small, Christy and The Waltons. But it's hard to justify the loss of productive time every single day to watch movies. If only I could read on the treadmill . . . but the book holder I have attaches to the bar on the side of the treadmill with a screw thing, and constantly looking to one side to read is hard on the neck, plus the bouncing motion makes it hard to focus.

Finally I hit on an idea of removing the book holder from the screw-on post, and tying it onto the treadmill with a long shoestring. It rests on the dash so that it covers the digital display, but that can be seen by lifting the book. It seems to work well, the bouncing is lessened, and I can see the book straight ahead instead of to one side. Now my treadmill time isn't just wasted video time, it's productive reading time.

I think this is going to change my life.

More Goethe

From his book Italian Journey.

"The art of mosaic, which gave the Ancients their paved floors and the Christians the vaulted Heaven of their churches, has now been degraded to snuff boxes and bracelets. Our times are worse than we think."


Charlotte Mason tells about how Goethe grew up looking at some prints of Venice, and hearing his father talk about Italy, all his life. He had read about Italy, but hadn't yet visited it himself. The yearning to see it for himself became so strong that he had to limit what he read about Italy because it made him miserable. But now he's finally in Italy:

"My passionate desire to see these things [Italian sites] with my own eyes had grown to such a point that, if I had not taken the decision I am now acting upon [the decision to travel through Italy], I should have gone completely to pieces. More historical knowledge was no help. The things were in arm's reach [from Germany], yet I felt separated from them by an impenetrable barrier. Now I feel, not that I am seeing them for the first time, but that I am seeing them again."



"I have spent the day well, just looking and looking. It is the same in art as in life. The deeper one penetrates, the broader grows the view. In the sky of art, countless new stars keep appearing . . . "

Home schooling improves academic performance and reduces impact of socio-economic factors

From Mama Squirrel's blog. This is quoted from an article at The Fraser Institute, which writes about "competitive market solutions for public policy problems."

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<>Home schooling appears to improve the academic performance of children from families with low levels of education, according to a report on home schooling released today by independent research organization The Fraser Institute...

“Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools do. One study we reviewed found that students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school scored a full 55 percentage points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels.”...

The study also reports that students educated at home outperform their peers on most academic tests and are involved in a broad mix of social activities outside the home.

Research shows that almost 25 per cent of home schooled students in the United States perform one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. Grades 1 to 4 home school students perform one grade level higher than their public- and private-school peers. By Grade 8, the average home schooled student performs four grade levels above the national average.

...a growing body of new research also calls into question the belief that home schooled children are not adequately socialized...

Our Furniture Store Discovery

During our few days in Orlando, we passed by this little building a few times; you can see it right off the freeway:

Of course, the boys were curious to see what such a place might be like on the inside, so on our way out of Orlando, we stopped and went in. It turned out to be a highlight of our trip. The place is like a museum. They sell furniture and art for homes looking for that unique touch. I think it's all reproductions; everything is massive. The paintings are handpainted and signed copies of famous art. I'm just going to post a sample of what we saw. They have a website if you'd like a complete list of prices and what's in stock.

A fireplace:

Four-poster bed:

A chair for that awkward corner that every home has:

Goethe: Italian Journey quotes

This is a book where Goethe details his trip to Italy in the 1700's. Here are a couple of quotes.

"Looking at the noble buildings created by Palladio in this city, and noting how badly they have been defaced already by the filthy habits of men, how most of his projects were far beyond the means of his patrons, how little these precious monuments, designed by a superior mind, are in accord with the life of the average man, one realizes that it is just the same with everything else. One gets small thanks from people when one tries to improve their moral values, to give them a higher conception of themselves and a sense of the truly noble. But if one flatters the 'Birds' with lies, tells them fairy tales, caters daily to their weaknesses, then one is their man. That is why there is so much bad taste in our age. I do not say this to disparage my friends; I only say - that is what they are like, and one must not be surprised if things are as they are."

"To wander about among a vegetation which is new to one is pleasant and instructive. It is the same with familiar plants as with other familiar objects: in the end we cease to think about them at all. But what is seeing without thinking? Here, when I am confronted with a great variety of plants, my hypothesis that it might be possible to derive all plant forms from one original plant becomes clearer to me and more exciting. Only when we have accepted this idea will it be possible to determine genera and species exactly. So far this has, I believe, been done in a very arbitrary way. At this stage in my botanical philosophy, I have reached an impasse, and I do not yet see how to get out of it. The whole subject seems to me to be profound and of far-reaching consequence."

I've heard of a unifying theory that all matter is derived from a single element, but I didn't know this theory existed for plants. And I've heard of Goethe's theory about color, but I didn't know he dabbled in botanical philosophy. The more I learn about him, the more amazed I am with his mind.

More Orlando

We spent a couple of days with family; they live on a small farm with chickens, pigs, goats, cats - and Miss M rode a cow.

Her cousin dolled her up with play make-up and fingernail polish. I think that was the highlight of the trip for her!



Mr. B. and the boys went to Tampa to see a Red Sox "away" game. The Red Sox lost that game, but they still won their division title for the season.

More Medieval Times

I'm posting some of the artifacts from the Medieval Times village in a separate post. Some of these were authentic, some were reproductions. There are craftsmen who work there; we watched one guy working with bronze sheet metal. There was an 800-year-old weaving loom there.









When you sit down, there's a pewter plate and plastic mug at each place - no silverware, because people in medieval times ate with their fingers. I'd been carrying around a stainless fork of Miss M's in my bag all trip, so I was pleased to eat in a more modern fashion.



We didn't take many pictures of the actual jousting; we didn't want to use a flash.





There was a gift shop that sold souvenier clothing (although most of the women's apparel said "wench" on it), swords, DVD's of the jousting, and little gift items.

Medieval Times

The one touristy place we scheduled was Medieval Times, a jousting dinner theater in Kissimee, Florida. We found out after we got there that the site includes a replica of a medieval village with actual period antiques on display. There are a few Medieval Times around the country, but this was the first, and it's the only one with a full village.







Some of the architecture and buildings made some interesting images.