Smrt Lernins

That big stack of Tournaments Illuminated I have been hanging onto from my SCA days has finally come in handy (And yes, I also have several issues of The Compleat Anachronist. Shuttup!). Who’s a geek now, mister?*

Captain Science is working on his big history project to wrap up the year, the “Persona Project,” as I have dubbed it. His job is to pick a time period and come up with a solid persona for who he would have been in that time period. His only limitations are that he must choose from a time period between 1100 and 1600, that he must be his same age (10), and his same sex (male). The first rule is because that’s the time period we’ve focused on this year. The other two rules are not because we lack imagination or want to confine him to rigid gender constructs, but because I want him to get a better understanding of what life would have been like for him — not just a child, but Captain Science his own self — during his time period.

Child of my heart, he chose 1389, which puts him in the same period that I my old SCA person was in, back when I was a SCAdian. He’s going with 1938 England (“London, England!”) and while his original plan was to be a page, now he’s considering some appropriate trades in which he could apprentice. This afternoon, he’s been reading and highlighting the “Growing Up in 12th-16th Century Europe” article from TI. I pulled a few other Tournaments Illuminated issue for him, including one with an article on observing Lent in the middle ages and one on recreating a medieval village.

Before this is done, he’ll have a well developed persona with a thorough past, he’ll have clothes to wear, and he’ll really be able to get a feel for what it might have been like for him in the middle ages.

*Still me

Captain Science is finishing up the Renaissance/Elizabethan era today. I don’t think an in-depth study of Shakespeare is necessary at this age (though he is reading part of an adult biography of Shakespeare), but I do want him to read and watch Shakespeare’s plays throughout his life. Today, he will read select scenes from Romeo & Juliet, then he will watch those same scenes from the 1968 Romeo and Juliet and 1996 Romeo + Juliet. I really wanted to include the BBC production in there, too, but it isn’t available on Netflix instant watch, and since we only get one physical disk at a time, I am sticking with the available versions.

Why the movies? Because plays were meant to be watched, and lacking easy access to a stage production (while the Shakespeare Tavern is just downtown, we missed R&J for the year), movies are the easiest way to see the play performed. I think that most moans and groans over reading plays come from the fact that plays are not written to be read, but performed and seen.

Today, he’s reading the Prologue and act I, scene I (through the Prince’s speech), Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech, and the ubiquitous balcony scene. Since I’m Mean Ol’ Mom, he’ll be writing about it. THE HORRORS!

What do the Rosetta Stone language curricula have to do with creationist pseudo-science?

Yeah, my first answer would have been “nothing,” too, but now, if you “like” Rosetta Stone Homeschool on Facebook, The Old Schoolhouse magazine will be happy to send you free creationist e-books to befuddle, mislead, and indoctrinate your children into the glorious world of creation non-science. All you have to do is email gena@tosmag.com and you’ll be sent a list of The Curiosity Files e-books from which to choose*.

Personally, I’m having a hard time choosing. Which burning scientific inquiry do I most need answered?

Does the dung beetle really “bring glory to God?”
What does the Bible tell us about MRSA?
Were blue diamonds sent as a special gift to us?
Is the blue-footed booby an “evolution stumper” that “defies the theory of natural selection?”
Can these handy curricula can help hammer home the important fundamentalist idea that “male and female roles [are] very different?”

So hard to choose! *sigh*

Seriously, folks. Pseudo-science like this is insidious. It’s dressed up in fun little packages, but the stuff inside is designed to lead children away from real, evidence-based science. I genuinely pity children who are taught to blindly accept creationism, rather than developing a truly scientific mind and learning to discern fact from fancy, evidence from belief, and science from religion. Let faith be faith and science be science.

*A friend told me about this giveaway, with no info as to the name of the curricula that would be given away, just that it was science. Yes, I suspected that any science e-books given away by TOS would be creationist. However, I was under the impression that Rosetta Stone was a secular curricula, so I’m curious why the “reward” for liking their company’s homeschool curricula branch is a decidedly religious curricula.

On my Facebook today, I made this declaration, “I don’t get the whole ‘I don’t force my children to say please/thank you’ nonsense. It’s not oppression, people. It’s manners. When your kids deal w/ me, they better damn well say please, thank you, and call me ma’am.”

I won’t say I was surprised at the mix of responses or which responses came from which people on my FB. I think I know my friends reasonably well.

I continue, however, to be baffled by the growing phenomenon of viewing manners as some form of oppression. It seems to have become a new parenting trend, one that seems slightly more common in the attachment parenting world. I think it goes hand-in-hand with that whole “consensual living” stuff and, to a certain extent, unschooling. The mantra seems to be “If you don’t want to do it, we won’t make you.” The attitude is that it’s never ok to make your kids to do things they don’t want to do, that all learning can happen through modeling (not that all of these adults also model splendid manners), and that expecting polite phrases is either harmfully oppressive or teaching them to be fakes/liars. It would be laughable if I didn’t have to interact with these kids in public.

When a child is in my house, in my care, in my class (such as my writing classes), or addressing me directly, I expect please, thank you, you’re welcome, and yes/no ma’am*. I expect my own children to behave in such a way no matter where they are. I love my children. I value their lives above my own. I value children’ human rights as equal to or exceeding my own. However, they are not my social equals and they are certainly not my social betters. I am the provider and caretaker, the teacher and meal cooker and wound healer. I wipe the asses and the noses (though not with the same tissue). I will be spoken to with respect. I also treat my children respectfully, say please/thank you/etc., but I expect them to show an additional degree of deference and respect to their elders. Period.

I’m not sitting around prompting kids with, “Now, what’s the magic word?” It’s more than that. Still, if my child says, “I want more potatoes,” I’m not giving them more potatoes. I’m saying, “Is there a more polite way to ask for potatoes?” or “Can you ask for potatoes in a way that might make someone want to serve you some?” Daddyman and I say please to each other, too, and I don’t hand him the potatoes without a “please,” either. If one of my kids hits the other, I’m not just saying, “Say you’re sorry.” First I ask if they understand how hitting makes the other person feel, then I tell them the appropriate response is an apology, maybe a hug if the victim of the hit wants it. If the apology doesn’t sound sincere, we do it again, because sometimes just modeling isn’t enough; coaching on the proper way to do it may be required. A good apology involves eye contact, a polite and contrite tone, and clear speech, no half-hearted mumbling. If they refuse, they can excuse themselves from decent company until they’re ready to act like they belong in it.

Plenty of people disagree with me. I’m Smrt Mama the Oppressor, with my pushy and demanding insistence that my kids be polite. Not just “act in a polite way,” which so many parents seem sure their children can do without adequately polite language, but actually use the niceties that are a part of good manners.

So yeah, I make them say “please” and “thank you.”

Expecting your children to say “thank you” when they receive a gift, even if they don’t particularly want or like the gift, isn’t somehow compromising your integrity or theirs. It’s giving your children the language to politely express gratitude when gratitude isn’t naturally forthcoming. Prompting them to say “thank you” in those circumstances where the gratitude isn’t naturally springing to mind isn’t doing them a disservice, but reminding them that they have a social obligation to politely express appreciation that a gift (which is never an obligation) was purchased for them. By insisting on the thank you until it’s a more natural response, you are not only instilling manners, but reminding them that they aren’t entitled to receive gifts and encouraging them to keep others’ feelings in mind, to boot. Why is this a bad thing? What would you rather your children do? Say nothing at all as they cast the unwanted gift aside? If I were the gift-giver, I would not only view those children as impolite and ungrateful, but wouldn’t think very highly of the parents. In fact, if I gave them another gift at all, it would likely be How to Behave and Why.

Using manners isn’t “being insincere.” Manners are a social contract. They provide a framework for civil interaction. They not only show respect to each other, but they provide a mutual social language from which to work. They provide a method for coming to an accord, protect feelings and dignity, offer an exit strategy for a lapse in behavior. And yes, they teach important life skills. You won’t get far in the South without saying “ma’am” and “sir” (and even if you do, nobody thinks much of you). You won’t get far in business without the ability to apologize or act grateful when you don’t necessarily mean it, so yeah, the ability to apologize in a way that appears sincere is pretty useful. Honestly, acting like you’re sorry for your behavior can often be a good stepping stone towards genuinely feeling sorry.

And please, if you don’t like this post, kindly excuse yourself. Be like Billy…behave yourself!

*ETA: It’s pointed out to me that not all of you are lucky enough to live in the South, where “ma’am” and “sir” are the standard. I’m terribly sorry. Have you considered moving? Or perhaps starting a new trend of politeness where you live?

The boys were in dire need. They look so much tidier now and a lot less like homeschoolers.

Officer Daddyman got a haircut, too, but I didn’t take a picture. His FTO panel went really well and there’s a chance he’ll be activated in a week!

Let me tell you about Officer Daddyman’s cast and two slings.

Earlier in the week, Daddyman hurt his shoulder while exercising. He’d probably irritated it a few days before then, but he really did on a number on it Wednesday night. That’s the same day that Babypie came down with the Death Cold. On Wednesday night, I came down with the Death Cold, and was sick throughout Thursday, the day that Daddyman went to the doctor and was told he had a torn or pulled tendon in his shoulder. He was ordered to two weeks of PT.

Since Officer Daddyman is a police officer, he kind of needs two arms to do his job, so this was already pretty stressful for him. The shoulder would not, however, be the low point of Daddyman’s no good, very bad week.

No, the low point was yesterday, when I left the kids with him for an hour to go run some errands. While browsing the aisle at Target, I received a call from Daddyman, saying that I probably needed to come home and take him to the urgent care, because he’s pretty sure he just broke his hand and he can’t drive himself. Apparently, Babypie had knocked or pulled over some part of the Wii equipment and Daddyman did a poorly-planted “take a knee” to catch it, favoring his right side to avoid hurting his shoulder further. His hand hit the floor at just the wrong angle with all of his body weight on top of it, fracturing the fifth metacarpal. He’s in a splint-cast thingy and has to go see an orthopaedist on Monday to find out whether the (rather inept) urgent care doctor was right when he said the bone might need a pin.

The long and short of it is that Officer Daddyman now has NO good arms. He has limited arm mobility on the bad shoulder side, but no shoulder mobility. He has shoulder mobility on the broken arm side, but no arm/hand mobility. He can feed himself, though he wasn’t too great with the grapefruit, and he managed to do a little on the computer with his left hand on the mouse, which means he will hopefully be able to return to work after the ortho checks him out. He’ll quite obviously be on light duty for several weeks, so he’ll probably be stuck on PDO (the desk), and he won’t be able to do his part-time work, which is something of a financial blow. I’m really glad I’m going to be watching his co-worker’s child, because that’ll mean we won’t actually be making less money. *phew* So relieved that’s lined up!

Anyway, send some love and/or prayers and/or positive thoughts and/or sympathy Officer Daddyman’s way, because it sucks to have two arms in slings.

For starters, Happy (almost) International Darwin Day and Happy Evolution Weekend!

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know I’ve had my share to say about Conservative Christianity and its view of evolution as being mutually exclusive with faith. I’ve talked about how appalling it is for parents to teach their children as fact something that is not only NOT evidence-based, but which flies in the face of all sound science. I’ve discussed my concerns about a creationist mentality encroaching into our laws and our schools. I’m concerned about the general dumbing-down of American in the name of God.

Luckily, it turns out that I’m not the only one with those concerns! Even more luckily, Christians themselves are raising their voices in support of evolution science. In 2006, a large group of clergy (467 in total) came together to sign a letter decrying the false dichotomy of religion vs science. Rather than force people to choose between their religion/denomination’s beliefs and strong scientific evidence, they instead started looking for ways to show that scientific theory and spirituality aren’t in opposition to each other. This year, 642 congregations, which include groups from every state and 13 countries, to demonstrate that:

Religious people from many diverse faith traditions and locations around the world understand that evolution is quite simply sound science; and for them, it does not in any way threaten, demean, or diminish their faith in God. In fact, for many, the wonders of science often enhance and deepen their awe and gratitude towards God.

Or, as pastor Carl Gregg so eloquently states it, “As people of faith in the 21st century, we can do better, and Evolution Sunday is an explicit invitation to remind both ourselves and our congregations that we shouldn’t have to check our brain at the door of the church.”

Or, as my former biology teacher, Dr. Wes McCoy, put it, “Understanding how humans are intimately connected through genetics to all other living species fills my soul with wonder. My understanding of evolution does nothing to diminish my faith in God. In fact, my connection to God is deepened when I contemplate the intricate beauty of evolution.”

Secular science and religious belief don’t have to negate each other. Nearly 650 congregations have come together to declare this. That’s nearly 650 congregations full of people who don’t think the Bible has to be believed at the expense of research or our own exploration of the world. That so many people can embrace the compatibility of both spirituality and science shines a rather pointed light on those who say the two must be in opposition. Evolutionary Christians are out there, exploring how science and faith can relate, be reconciled. Every single one of them makes the science-deniers look all the more foolish.

Why would the God you believe in give you an incisive brain if he didn’t want you to put it to good use? I’m legitimately sorry for those who believe in a God who gave them a brain and keen senses in order to trick or tempt or fool them. What a sad state you must exist in, trying to figure out if every bit of evidence is another attempt to lead you astray and then punish you for it. You decry all the evidence as being chicanery on the part of scientists, some kind of devil, or God, because you believe what you have been told: believing in science means you can’t believe in God. How very sad for you that your own denomination or congregation works so hard to keep you in your own private Dark Ages.

I want to see more evolutionary Christians in the world. If faith is going to continue to play such a huge part in our society — and I see no way around that — I hope for a rise in the number of congregations who don’t accept a handful of narrow interpretations of translations of widely-varying accuracy of millennia-old texts over the mountain of evidence supporting contemporary scientific theory. The secular and the spiritual can live together in harmony. There can and should be a place for both. There shouldn’t, however, be a place where “it’s true because I believe it” outweighs “it’s true because the data supports it.” Faith can make us strong or compassionate or hopeful. Blind faith just makes us dumb.

Ok, this isn’t actually a treatise, but it is his explanation (swiped from the comments of the Weekly Reviewins I posted today) of how he uses the abacus with Tank. I’ve had several people ask me how we’re integrating the abacus, but I’m not the one doing it, so I had to rely on Officer Daddyman to betray his secrets. Since not all of you read all of the comments, I thought I’d post it here for your enjoyment:

The abacus I bought for Tank has 2 rows each of 5 different colored beads (blue, green, red, yellow, tan). We started by just using the blue beads to count to 20, as well as writing the numbers on the dry-erase board. About two weeks ago I started writing some simple addition and substraction problems on the dry-erase board, Tank would use the abacus to find the answer, and then he would write the answer on the dry-erase board.

Last week we used the green beads to count by 10’s, and wrote that sequence on the white board. We then did simple addition problems using multiples of ten to illustrate how the tens and units place combine in written form and with the abacus. For example, we would write out 20+2=22 and he would count out 22 on the abacus.

Today we ventured into subtracting from numbers greater than 20. First we practiced substituting 10 blue beads for 1 green bead, and vice versa. Next, I wrote down some subtraction problems on the board with numbers greater than 10, and we practiced starting with a green bead and exchanging it for 10 blue beads to facilitate the arithmetic. The final problem (his Challenge problem) was 30-14. He was a little confused at first, so I re-wrote the problem as 30-10-4. He understand that no problem. We started with 3 green beads and he took away a green bead (10) and then exhanged a green for 10 blue to subtract the 4.

When I told him how well he did with subtraction, and that he even figured out the Challenge problem, he said “I know! That’s what’s making my mind get bigger!”

The abacus is a great tool, and I have the advantage of first learning arithmetic using one. I used poker chips to teach Cpt. Science about odds and ratios. I highly recommend Texas Hold’em for those concepts.

In the midst of the Egyptian Revolution, JJ asked, “How do you integrate breaking news into your school day? Do you put lesson plans on hold and devote the day to a discussion of freedom, rights and civil action? Or do you integrate it in, but limit it so as not to overwhem the kids?”

We don’t have any live TV being pumped into the house, so all our breaking news comes in online. This makes it a lot easier to moderate (or modulate) the news. They can’t just turn on the TV and see protesters being run over by police vans or villages burning or women weeping in the streets. While I think these are important images for us to see, I think that most news channels tend to hyper-focus on a handful of shocking images for the sake of sensationalism, rather than present a broader picture of what’s happening. As an aside, this is one reason why I have come to value Al Jazeera English — no histrionic fear about Islamists, no “pro-Western to the exclusion of all other” viewpoints, multiple perspectives.

We don’t interrupt our lessons for breaking news under most circumstances. I try to give the children the security of routine. Upsetting news is hard enough to hear without throwing off the schedule on top of it. Additionally, not all upsetting news falls within the purview of topics my children need to know about. A revolution in Egypt (which sparked this question) is something I want them to hear about. Police officers being killed on the job? Horrible things happening to children? I’d rather preserve their innocence a little longer.

One big reason why I don’t cancel our regular school plans for news is that I’d rather awareness of local, national, and global happenings be viewed as part of the normal course of life. I don’t want them to wait until special events to engage. I don’t want them to be drawn to the news because of crisis, but because they’re invested in what’s happening in their world. We don’t turn off the news or stop discussing it when they’re around. We also don’t sit them down in front of it and say, “Here. Watch this.” It’s integrated into our lives. Interest in current events should be a regular thing. I will call attention to certain topics of interest, such as initiating discussion with them about the Egyptian revolution, because I know they’re hearing the adults talk about it and should have a broader context for it.

If you wait to talk about civil rights or political unrest until they’re upon you, you’ve missed a lot of golden opportunities for discussion. I try to engage my children in these kinds of conversation on at least a semi-regular basis, because I want them to know my views, to understand what the opposing views are, to look more deeply into the motivations of both sides, to develop educated opinions of their own, and simply to grow up with the knowledge that just because they’re white, middle-ish class, and male, with all the intrinsic privilege that comes with that, it doesn’t mean everybody has it so easy…or that they will always have it so easy. They need to know that people may one day treat them differently, even badly, because of a difference of belief, background, or biology. They need to know that there is no perfect political system, that things don’t always stay the same, that the world is in a constant state of change and movement.

There’s also the element of filtering the news for myself. I’ve scaled back my own news watching over the last two years, because I really stopped being able to handle the “police officer killed” stories. Oddly enough, I am a regular reader of Officer Down, because I do feel it’s important to know what risks are out there for my officer, but the format (a police, formal report, not a drama-filled and/or morbid newscast) is more comforting. I get a little obsessed and even a little worked up over horrible things happening to people, especially when I know there is very little I can do to help. I try to limit myself to a few trusted news sources, only x amount of time spent mulling over one topic, only a handful of blog posts or Tweets or FB status updates about a topic. Uncertainty about the world is difficult for me. I like everything to be neatly wrapped and everyone to be safe and happy. The news puts too big a dent into my pretty pink and blue thoughts!

Anyway, that’s how the [Smrt] Homeschooler treats breaking news. We watch and learn, but not to the exclusion of our normal lessons. How about you? How do you integrate breaking news into your school day?

Well, piffle. I’m way behind on Weekly Reviewins again! Life keeps getting away from me. I need a break! *yawn*

We’ve made it through 120 days, and 60 days remaining looks like a whole lotta nothing from this side of things.

Tank has been making tremendous strides in his math. He’s doing double digit subtraction using the abacus and white board, and often comes up with the answers without having to use the abacus! Today, he did 11-8=3 without having to refer to his abacus. He has also memorized the I and O verses of his vowel poem. I would like to be doing more, but his ability to sit still is still quite limited. He’s much more active than Captain Science ever way, and while he loves memory work, he could give or take the other activities we’re doing (making words on the magnet board, guessing which vowel is in a word). We’ve continued with reading poetry to him, though I made the horrible mistake of reading The Giving Tree to him, which sent him into a spiral of sadness that resulted in him standing on the top of the stairs at 10 o’clock one night, sobbing, “I don’t understand, Mama! Why did the tree give away all her things just to be wasteful!” Oops! MomFAIL. He also has continued working on mazes, which I think are great for both his hand-eye coordination and his problem solving skills.

Captain Science hasn’t been any less busy. Over the previous two weeks, he has:

• Attended two more STARBASE days, where he’s done flight simulation, worked on safety systems to keep an egg from smashing during a rocket launch, did tests using various materials under different conditions, and learned about air and space travel. He also left an apple core in his lunch box for a week, resulting in an impromptu science experiment for Smrt Mama. Imagine my joy.
• Completed lessons 56-60 in Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra/Fred’s Home Companion and attended a Math Olympiad meeting. The other was canceled on event of inclement weather, which is different from increment weather in that it gets nasty suddenly, rather than progressively.
• Finished chapter 7 in Essay Voyage, wrote an essay on the Crimean War (two drafts) with quotes/citation, and started Chapter 8 (“Conclusion”).
• Read the section on sonnets in World of Poetry and written a beautiful sonnet.
• Read and took notes on sections in History: The Definitive Visual Guide covering exploration of the New World.
• Read a biography of Christopher Columbus, prompting the remark, “Now I understand why people think he was such a bad guy!”
• Completed chapter 15 in Caesar’s English II and all the activities therein.
• Worked on a few sentences in Practice Voyage, just to keep things fresh.
• Wrapped up PLATO Earth & Space Science by finished in the final unit, “Space: Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe.”
• Completed two chapters of Kid Coder [thank you, Officer Daddyman, for reminding me!]
• [Argh! Remembered one more thing!] Started Type to Learn 4. We’re doing the 30 day trial right now, but I think we’ll end up purchasing it.

I always feel like I’ve forgotten something [and I had, but Daddyman reminded me]. He probably did a lot of additional reading in there, but it’s hard to track that, since he reads so much and so often. Mostly, unless I’ve assigned it, I don’t even try to keep track!

Babypie continues to use the potty (with a few accidents here or there), has expanded her vocabulary yet again, and is telling stories and knock knock jokes. “Knock knock. Who dere? Beepst*! Beepst who? Beepst inna water!” Yes, she not only made that up herself, she tells it herself, with no need for an audience.

Everybody send positive thoughts for Officer Daddyman, who is sitting before the FTO board next week to find out if he’s being activated as a Field Training Officer. Not only would this be a raise for him, but it would be incredibly fulfilling for him to be able to train the next crop of officers coming out of academy. I don’t think it’ll be a problem, as he has been recommended with glowing praise, but still, every well-wish helps, right?

I am about to embark on a new venture: providing childcare for one of Daddyman’s co-workers. More on that later, though!

*Beepst means Beast, her imaginary friend. Sometimes Babypie is the Beast. Sometimes the Beast is outside, playing in the street or the trees. Sometimes he does naughty things, like teetee in Babypie’s panties or knock things over.