Science Experiment

My boys love to watch Beakman's World - a show that teaches kids about science. On this particular episode, they were talking about chemistry and acid and bases. They said that even if kids don't have a chemistry set, there are certain things they can do at home.

One of the examples they gave was in the form of a challenge: How do you get a piece of ice off the table when all you can use is a piece of string? And no, tying the cube with the string was not allowed. The answer was:

Get the end of the string wet, set it on the ice cube, sprinkle salt on it, and then wait about 2 minutes.

Here's what happens:

Here's Gryffin proudly showing off his experiment, which - by the way - he disappeared into the kitchen and did all on his own without letting any of us know, lol!

You can even see Beakman in the background on TV. Yes he is blurry, but it's him, lol!

However, when they tried to replicate the experiment for Phoenix, it didn't work, but I think that was because they didn't have the string wet enough :-)

Here's why that works. The salt lowers the boiling/freezing point, so when you add unfrozen water - via the string - onto an ice cube, and then add salt, it starts to freeze the water, thereby sticking the string to the cube.

Pretty cool! :-)

To Homeschool or Not To Homeschool, That is the Question

Shortly after I turned 18, I moved out of my mom's house. She was hurt that I was chomping at the bit to get out, but I was tired of putting up with my stepdad, and decided that moving out was vital to my happiness. A month later, I dropped out of school because school had always been the bane of my existance.

All the way up to 6th grade, I was a straight A student. I soaked up all knowledge like a sponge. I remained pretty much an A student through 8th grade, but I began to grow bored at the repetativeness of the lessons. I never felt challenged. I realized in 9th grade that they were literally repeating everything I had learned in the previous 8 grades, and I HATE repeat work. My grades slowly fell so that by 12th grade, I was getting D's and F's. Not because I couldn't understand the classes, but because I was not interested in learning the same things over and over. I got an A in Avionics because it was fresh and new and interesting.

To clarify the point a bit, begining in 6th grade, every student is given a standardized test for reading/writing and comprehension. I passed it with nearly 100% score in 6th grade. In 8th Grade, they start to give a standardized math test. I have no idea what I would have scored because I was sick when it was given. They didn't tell us beforehand, so it wasn't me trying to skip out. When I found out I had missed a test, I wanted to make it up, but was told that I couldn't. They give that test out every 2 years (as opposed to every 3 for the reading test), and come 10th grade, I scored high enough on it to not have to take it again.

In 12th grade, before dropping out of course, I was in homeroom one day when the teacher passed out a test to everyone but me. I looked around and raised my hand, "You missed me."
"No I didn't, you don't have to take it," she replied.
"Huh?" Then she explained that this test was given once every 3 years and was a standardized test of how well a student could read write and comprehend. At first, I seriously had to think when I could have ever taken such a test, and then I burst out, "You mean that thing I took in 6th grade?!"
Needless to say, as I once again looked around the room, not too many of my classmates were pleased or even impressed to hear me say that. Me, I was in shock that I was the ONLY one who didn't need to take the test. I mean come on, it was so easy I passed it 6 years prior! It also occurred to me that I may have wasted 6 years in school taking the same classes over and over not because I needed to, but because everyone else did.

Hubby had a similar experience, only he did not have the benefit of being a perpetual favorite of his teachers. In fact, he seems to have been picked on by students and teachers alike. If I thought school was a waste of time, he thought it was hell. So, when we got married, and heard of homeschooling, we were in perfect agreement; no way in hell were our kids going to school!

I researched homeschooling in depth before I ever even conceived my first child, and I had a definite and clear plan of attack, so to speak. Then I had Gryffin and Phoenix, and now I realize that homeschooling is not like regular school in which you can just shove a lesson down a student's throat at your convenience. Good homeschooling is led by the child; when they are ready to learn something, they do, and there's really very little you can do to stop them. If they are not ready, all of the bribes, coaxing, and threats in the world can't force them to learn. This is a concept that public schools cannot cater to, and is why so many students are labled as learning disabled when they really just need more time to be ready, or have a different learning style.

Then there is the nutrition aspect. Plenty of studies have proved that good nutrition helps a child learn better, but the food in school is definitely NOT condusive to good health or learning, sigh!

This year, Gryffin turned 6, and I have been officially homeschooling him his whole life, but now it is extra official because he is actually old enough to go to school. I don't have to make it official through the state until the first October AFTER he turns 7, and since he turns 7 IN October, I don't have to make it official until he is almost 8. He's a social butterfly, so he BEGS to go to school. He doesn't seem to know that a kids goes to school to learn things, all he cares about is having as many friends as possible. He is like me, so I know that, like me, he will be gullible, and take the things that his friends say literally, or perhaps I should say, he'll take it as the gospel truth, even if it's not. In that respect, I am glad I get the chance to choose his friends for the time being, but I am big on independance, so he will get to choose his own friends soon enough.

That said, I know it is hard on him to stay home with no one to play with but Phoenix and me, so I try to make sure he gets as much social interaction as possible. I take him to swim lessons at the local YMCA, and I let him play to his heart's content in the YMCA play area with tons of other kids. I also arrange playdates with other homeschooled kids, albeit not as often as I should.

But here's the thing, there ARE things I think he should learn that I just can't teach him, such as gym, art, and music. Luckily, I can homeschool Gryffin AND enroll him into the public school for just those 3 classes. That means that come fall, Gryffin's going to school, lol!

As for Phoenix, I have an even less active role in teaching him, because he learns just by being in the room with Gryffin; he always has. When he wants to know something, he comes and asks me, and we figure it out. Gods! Homeschooling is such a beautiful thing!

Finally, now that I have managed to actually track down some other pagans in St. Cloud, hopefully they will learn a bit more about religion, and their education will be complete... for now, it's an ever evolving thing.

So, that's why I homeschool. Hopefully, in doing so, my boys will grow up following their passion, rather than, well what I did, which is pretty much nothing at all, except try to be the best mama I can be.

First Post

For some time now, I have mentally debated starting my own blog. Almost immediately, I became my own nay-sayer. "Who really wants to read yet another foodie blog written by a homeschooling mama?" I asked myself, and this is why I procrastinated.

Last night, I was typing up a "note" on Facebook when I realized that my Facebook profile was my "keep it nice and clean in case people decide to judge your book based on what you post" profile. As a result, I keep quiet on a few things, and it hit me, that's my niche! If I started a blog that was not limited to any one aspect of my eclectic personality, but inclusive to all of them, I might actually differentiate myself from the rest of the blogs on the web!

That is when I decided that I would use this blog to make glaringly public all the things I tend to keep on the down low unless asked, because once asked, well... it can be hard to shut me up, lol! Herein enters the main self-conscious problem of mine; I like to think I am funny because I crack me up all the time, but apparently no one else seems to think so. It's a side affect of being married to my hubby. He IS stand up quality funny, and I pale in comparison. So, if anybody out there ever reads this blog, please let me know if ANYTHING I wrote ever made you chuckle in the slightest.

Ok, so on this blog, I warn you now, I will be posting anything and everything that crosses my mind, and it will trip over a wide range of topics, including my 5 Degrees of Weirdness. They are:

1- Food Nazi - This means that I value nutrient dense, preferably organic foods over all else... but have to live within a food stamp budget, so compromise must ensue.

2- Homeschooling Mama - This means I will ramble on with something akin to motherly pride and wax poetic of my 2 boys at the drop of a hat, pin, or the occasional frog.

3- Nudist - Yep, I'm letting it all hang out here, lol! We as a family believe clothing to be unnecessary and optional. Aside from theoretical savings on laundry, this is mainly due to The Best Summer Ever in which Hubby and I worked at a nudist resort/campground. I took my clothes off there, and haven't put them back on since... while I'm at home anyway. The unfortunate part is that I am also bordering on so ugly I should wear a bag over my face at all times, plus fat that's hard to look at, SO it's a good thing that my pumpkins - AKA breasts - are distracting enough to draw the eyes away from the unfortunate parts.

4- Wiccan - Oddly this used to bring more gasps than the nudist thing, but these days, people actually do try to be open, or at the very least, I have been so down low for so long that people don't actually know I am wiccan. I did not "go underground" in an attempt to hide my beliefs, more like I just got tired of arguing religion one day, and stopped talking about it altogether. AND lastly,

5- Swinger - Yep, swinger. That means that Hubby and I have an open relationship, and we are not encumbered by The Rules of The Lifestyle. Therefore, if something happens, it happens (YEA!) if not, oh well. C'est la vie!

Then, of course, I will drone on about crochet from time to time.

And there you have it, my 5 Degrees of Weirdness, and the theme of my blog. I want to be one of those bloggers that posts a good pic whenever possible, but rest assurred that I will make sure I am hiding Weirdness #3 (and 5) in all pics in order to conform with The Rules of Blogging, lol!