Archive for August, 2008



Fewer desks and more open space.

Here’s an interesting little article over at the Wall Street Journal’s blog: Why Kids Hate School.

The article is essentially a review of a new book coming out written by a couple of professors at the University of Texas, Arlington, Ben Agger and Beth Ann Shelton. The book is titled, I Hate School: Why American Kids Are Turned Off Learning.

Choice quotes from the article include:

Our schools are failing because they are warehouses and work houses…. They verge on penal colonies where teachers are wardens and students are inmates.

And:

…in an ideal school, “grading and testing would be minimized, and teachers would not be cops and dictators. Schools would have fewer desks and more open space…. Homework would be minimized, as real teaching and dialogue filled the day.”

I’m thinking I might need to get a hold of this book and have a look. Of course, it may not tell me anything that homeschoolers haven’t already been yelling at the top of our lungs for years and years.

But, it’s nice to know that other nonhomeschoolers are finally getting there.

Now featured on BlogNosh.

Well, here’s something new and exciting.

My post, Just Us… At the Lake, is being featured over at BlogNosh Magazine.

I got an email about a month and a half ago from Tracy over at BlogNosh asking permission to republish that post, and as luck would have it, I had reached a point in my blogging life where I’d sort of stopped checking my email every day. I was bogged down in the last bits of ancient history, the laundry was piling up, my confidence as a blogger had reached an all time low. I couldn’t think of a single thing to write. I was ready to just throw in the towel, power down the laptop and go eat vast quantities of ice cream.

But then, late one night, I thought to myself: gee, when’s the last time you actually checked your email? And I went in there and found Tracy’s request. It was about two weeks old by then. I emailed her back, saying yes, of course you can republish me. And then I waited. And nothing really happened.

Oh, well, stuff did happen. We finished up ancient history, I managed to file the damned affadavit (story on how that went to follow soon), I ordered curriculum, I ate salads, we started repainting the kitchen.

And this morning, I got another email from Tracy, saying today’s the day. I’m up on BlogNosh, and I’m not sure, but does that now make me sort of LEGIT? Am I a REAL BLOGGER now?

I’m not sure how to answer any of that. But I do know that I’m gonna keep on blogging.

Because, it’s true what they say, you know. It’s cheaper than therapy.

Pop on over to BlogNosh and check me out.

And Tracy: THANKS.

The definition of insanity…

is repainting your kitchen. Including the cabinets. Because to do it properly you have to take everything out of the cabinets and it all ends up piled on the kitchen table…

and under the table and downstairs piled up on the treadmill, and the washer and dryer….

Which means, of course, that you won’t be cooking any meals, or exercising, or doing laundry, for the duration of the painting project.

Hey, wait. That doesn’t sound crazy. That sounds like a vacation.

And the colors…

The colors are coming out FABULOUS.

We should be done in about two more days. I’ll post some pictures then. :)

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Doing my part to show the world that the home- schooling community is more than just a bunch of crazy fundamentalists. There's plain old regular crazy people who homeschool, too. Like me.

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