We're All Sick

It started with Miss M, then we all started coughing, and now it's developed into full-blown colds. So, we're watching a lot of movies and Lassie re-runs. I started back on my healthy diet plan a couple weeks ago - two green smoothies without fruit, and a healthy diet with no gluten/dairy/sugar besides that. And, in spite of the cold, I've done very well with that, and have even been on the elliptical for twenty minutes a day. It doesn't seem to be helping the cold. I hoped that eating this well would mean I would never be sick again. Vain dreams, I guess.

I'm spending the down time by looking through etexts at mainlesson.com, looking for books I might use with Miss M this year, and maybe even find some to add to AO. I found one about Abraham Lincoln, and I'm looking at a biography of scientists.

I'm also watching the latest news about the CPSIA lead ruling, mostly by keeping up with The Common Room's blog.

Poetic Knowledge chapter 1

Let me see if I can clarify what the term "poetic knowledge" means.

It's the difference between knowing about a person - his name, address, phone number, where he works, what his favorite color is, where he spends his saturdays - without ever actually meeting the person. But poetic knowledge is like being that person's close friend.

With poetic knowledge, a child discovers that he loves books and wants to read because he enjoys having his stories read to him. But our tendency is to drill him in letter sounds and make him sit through phonics rules until he begins to get the idea that reading is a chore.

In a CM context, it might be the difference between reading facts about local plants, where they germinate, when they flower, how they're pollinated, etc - and going outside and just absorbing the delight of the outdoors and becoming acquainted with plant life first-hand.

Poetic Knowledge

I've started reading Poetic Knowledge by James S. Taylor (no, not that James Taylor!) with Katie - she's already posted on chapter 1; meanwhile, I still haven't gotten through the introduction. This isn't any reflection on the book; I just can't get my mind into gear lately. I've been focused on computer issues - I upgraded to a new computer with Linux Ubuntu installed, and installed Xubuntu (Ubuntu Lite) on the old one to make it run faster and prepared that one for dh. And I've been spending a lot of time figuring out what MBTI types everyone is since I read fellow INTJ Merry K's blog post about the INTJ type. So, I've just been too preoccupied to focus my mind on any serious reading. Even my Parents' Review proofreading project has suffered.

After numerous attempts, I've decided to abandon hope about ever finishing the introduction and just jump into chapter 1.

A few weeks ago, when I first got the book and was all excited about reading it and sharing it, I tried to explain to a friend what I thought was meant by the term Poetic Knowledge. I knew it wasn't knowledge about poetry, but I figured it was a sense of the big picture, including all the big questions everyone wonders about - why are we here, what is happiness, what meaning is there to life, etc. I thought it might be tied in with philosophy.

Here's the definition Mr. Taylor gives in chapter 1:

"First of all, poetic knowledge is not necessarily a knowledge of poetry but rather a poetic (a sensory-emotional) experience of reality. . . What must be at the beginning of this understanding is the phenomenon of poetic experience. Poetic experience indicates an encounter with reality that is nonanalytical, something that is perceived as beautiful, awful (awefull), spontaneous, mysterious. It is true that poetic experience has that same surprise of metaphor found in poetry, but also found in common experience, when the mind, through the senses and emotions, sees in delight, or even in terror, the significance of what is really there."

I think I might have been on the right track, but I'll know more when I read farther. And, when I'm clearer about what Poetic Knowledge is, I'll see if I can put it into words I understand.

birdwatching

write every day just
to stay familiar with words
and learn their ways
                                    like
the pianist who plays each note
a thousand times until
he knows its place by touch.

or is it more like birdwatching?

at the park I saw a man
who fed the birds: he filled his hands
with seed and held them out.
he didn't move. he whistled
and they landed in his hands.
he'd been coming every day for weeks (maybe months)
just to sit
            to watch them
                        wait for them
so they knew him.

people are like birds sometimes.

wouldn't it be nice if
            words came for the asking
faith was instantaneous
            people didn't need to trust?

            but perhaps
it's better this way.

The Pilgrim's Song

My blessing fall on this fair world,
On mountain, valley, forest, ocean,
The clarion winds in ceaseless motion,
And heaven's blue banner high unfurled.

And bless the staff that hither bore me,
And alms that helped me on my way,
The boundless plain that lies before me
The glowing morn, the evening grey.

The very path by which I wander
Shows glorious, golden, bathed in light.
No blade of grass that glistens yonder
But seems a star in heaven's height.

O might I in my exultation
To all the world this joy impart,
Would I might clasp the whole creation,
Lovers or strangers, foes or brothers,
Would I might clasp them, the whole creation,
In fervent rapture to my heart.

- Alexey Tolstoy, with an unknown translator

Tchaikovsky composed a lovely setting for this poem, which I learned for voice lessons a couple of years ago. It's not a song that hangs around my mind a lot, but it came to me strongly today. YouTube has a beautiful recording of it in the original Russian. The best English version I can find is this one by Jerome Hines.

Don't miss it!

A couple days ago we were all driving together in the van, and Miss M, who was sitting beside me, was talking excitedly about wrapping presents and baking cookies and all our other preparations for Christmas. She knew it had to be coming soon, so she turned and asked me, "Timmy, what day is Christmas?"

"It's this Thursday," I replied.

"The day after Tuesday?"

"No, it'll be the day after that. The day after Wednesday."

She was thoughtful for a moment. Then, with a touch of concern in her voice, she said, "Mommy, will you make sure you tell me when it's Christmas?"

We've assured her that she won't miss it.

The New Homeschooling

I saw this posted at HomeschoolBuzz.

Homeschooling 2.0 from FrontPageMag.com

This refers to an article about the current state of homeschooling since its beginning by extremists who were willing to risk legal opposition for the right to educate their own children. I'm just going to summarize parts of it, in hopes that others might be enticed to read the whole article. It can be found here.

These days, homeschooling is growing among African Americans, Hawaiians, Native Americans, Jews, Muslims, Aryans and wiccans who don't want their children assimilated with everyone else. The homeschool population is more diverse and no longer the exclusive domain of protestant evangelicals.

People homeschool for a greater of reasons than they used to - no longer for religious reasons, but because of academics, learning disabilities that schools aren't handling well, as a way to allow students time to compete in professional sports or acting, to accomodate families' travel-lifestyles. One mom said, "My homeschooling group . . . [is] FAR more diverse than the neighborhood school I pulled my oldest child out of years ago."

"The number of homeschooled young children is beginning to plateau, but homeschooling for older children is still a high-growth market. The result has been an explosion in innovative programs for older children."

The ways people homeschool is also changing. More are unschooling, using co-ops, and creating other alternatives. As more people start homeschooling for non-religious reasons, homeschool groups are more diverse - and that can lead to problems: "Disagreements over 'what kinds of uniforms are appropriate for home-school cheerleaders and whether rock music may be played at home-school events' are not uncommon as life-long homeschoolers rub shoulders with each other and with new recruits fresh from the public schools. Not a few Christian homeschoolers have pulled their children out of co-ops, clubs, and sports teams over such concerns. None of these small-scale culture skirmishes begin to match, however, the controversy generated by the growing popularity of government-sponsored programs for homeschoolers. Many public school districts, having lost the fight to criminalize homeschooling, now openly court homeschoolers. School districts with high rates of homeschooling have seen significant drops in funding, tied as it is to per-pupil enrollment." Public schools might offer off-campus classes, use of on-campus computers or library, dual enrollment--but that can be a way for government schools to get their foot in the door, so to speak, and can lead to more government regulation and limits on homeschooling as more homeschoolers come under the umbrella (and potential control) of government-sponsored programs.

Online charter school programs (virtual schools) have popped up recently "both to service homebound or other special needs students and as an effort to lure homeschoolers (and the tax dollars they represent) back into the public education system." Some private corporations started their own cyber-schools, with government funding, but after a bad beginning, and complaints from school districts whose money was being paid to these private corporations, many closed and "those that survived tightened their lines considerably, to the great frustration of the many formerly-independent homeschoolers lured by free computers and textbooks into these schools but resentful of the regulations and regimentation that seemed to increase every year."

"Cybercharters have many enemies. Many politicians and public school people agree with Texas Democratic Rep. Patrick Rose that 'we ought not be in the business of supporting for-profit education. Any program that takes money out of our public schools would be against our better judgment.' ... They also note that textbook suppliers have been making tremendous profits from public schools for decades. Some cybercharters have been criticized by public school advocates for supporting religious instruction with public monies. In the early years of the movement cybercharters in some states allowed parents to purchase their own curricula, and many chose religious homeschooling materials... Over time, however, state governments have clamped down on such activities. ... Charter schools are now, with rare exception, wholly secular."

Virtual charters, who expected opposition from government schools, are surprised that homeschoolers themselves have opposed them. "HSLDA Senior Counsel Chris Klicka has called the virtual charter movement a 'Trojan horse,' warning that 'if anything can destroy the Christian homeschool movement, this will.'"

The entire article can be found here.

Christmas Greetings

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Homemade Bows

I stumbled onto a really neat blog, the family spent time in Hawaii (that's what drew me to the blog in the first place), but their most recent post shows how to make package bows.

Note to myself: I think there are Hawaiian recipes there, too - and I'll want to go back and find those; I also want to take more time looking through these posts from another blogger I just found who spent two years in Hawaii.

If the moon looks brighter than usual tonight...

...that's because it probably is. The moon will be closer to the earth tonight than it has been for fifteen years, which could make tonight's full moon look bigger and brighter than it has in a long time. (The BBC has an article about it.) I'm afraid our sky will be cloudy tonight, but if it's clear where you are you should go outside and take a look! (Though you may want to bundle up first. ;-) It would seem that even the moon is brightening up for the season...