Happy Birthday to me

Sometimes you know before you start that you just shouldn't read that blog post. Similar to the knowledge that you just shouldn't EAT that cake. And equally ineffective. The title alone was a warning, Book Shopping, at Farm School.

Well, birthdays were mentioned in the intro. It's beshert. It is MY birthday. And Bookcloseouts. I could avoid Amazon, ca and Chapters but not Bookcloseouts. I have a discount coupon from my order last month, the one where I ordered our next choice for everyone else in the local book club and forgot to order a copy for myself. Now I am reading a library copy, which is undeniably cheaper. But, surely, I cannot let that coupon expire unused.

Let Me Finish by Roger Angell. The library doesn't have a copy, I've already looked. I read an excerpt several months ago and wanted to read more.

Cooking in a can. Perfect as a gift for the Cub Scout, crossing-over to Boy Scout, who also wants to be a chef. In fact the only thing about campouts that appeal to him is the cooking. And maybe eating.

The coupon only applies if the total amounts to $35, so further searching is necessary.

Science Experiments You Can Eat by Vicki Cobb. More cooking. And I enjoyed her blog post at this site, Interesting Nonfiction for Kids.

Israeli history for Noach, A Promise Fulfilled and Israel: The Founding of a Modern Nation.

Walking the Bible for children and the last copy for adults for myself. I read part of this when we were in Israel and would like to finish it. I am always picking it up at the local Barnes and Noble when it is on the Buy 4 for the price of 3 shelf. Usually I can only find 3 I want on that shelf.

Tamar by Mal Peet. I saw this mentioned on the February reading list by Sherry at Semicolon and checked it out on Amazon. Sounded like it would fit in my Young Adult category of the 888 Reading Challenge. And not found in the local library.

So, yesterday, it was Happy Birthday to me. You can never have too many books. Actually you can. I may be proof. PRM

Educating a new voter

Yakov will be 18 before the election in November so he is eligible to vote in our May primary. He registered yesterday through Rock the Vote.

So we have taken on the job of educating him on the local and statewide races. I split up the work between the 3 kids. Every Wednesday at lunch, we sit down and talk about what's happening in the assigned races. Yesterday they were showing me the relevant attack ads and we were discussing their effectiveness. Also we are noting the web presence of the candidates.

Yakov is covering the Senate race in which we are hoping to replace our female Bush-clone, Elizabeth Dole, with someone good. There are 2 main Democratic contestants and a few interesting, if somewhat scary, outliers. I like Jim Neal who strikes me as a good progressive candidate and I am all over progress. The other likely contender is Kay Hagan who is not so progressive. She lost me when she said she would have voted for telecom immunity. Not me. Somebody has to stand up to these people and I want a Senator who will do just that. Since presidential power has been expanded so, I want someone who is willing to stand up to a Democratic president as well. I don't want to elect an Obama-clone or Hillary-clone either. And certainly not a McCain-clone.

I am hoping we will get the opportunity to see these 2 soon. Neal has a major electability problem, he is gay. This is North Carolina, after all. It was only a few years ago that we were listening to Jesse Helms warn us about the "homer sexuals".

Shoshie is following the gubernatorial race. There are a number of candidates and it has been difficult to narrow our focus so far. Yesterday we were comparing attack ads in this race. Each has a website to debunk the other's positions and claims. The funniest was a poem embedded in a blog on Fact Check Perdue. This was posted December 21st and was written in the style of T'was the Night Before Christmas.

More rapid than eagles the attacks, they came,
Trumped up and untrue, they tried to name names;
"He did it, he did it, It’s all Moore’s fault!
.....

And the smoke coming from Bev’s ears looked like a wreath;
For the facts from Roanoke Rapids might have been a little smelly
But they seemed to be pointing to the Perdue campaign’s belly.

This is about Bev Perdue who has been saying bad things about Richard Moore, one of her opponents. Her website is Know Moore. It's not as poetic.

Noach is following the Lt. Governor's race. This one is not very exciting and Noach is, of course, the most enthusiastic political student of the lot. I need to re-assign him before he loses interest. PRM

Another crusader

JP wondered what you get for $4000.

I'm thinking about 10 hours with a divorce attorney.

I will not post the picture with his wife. She doesn't deserve it. PRM

Starfish dissection 3/10

Unwilling participants
I read the guide on this page and adapted it for my own. Then I laminated the instruction sheets so they could be wiped off and used again. I also found some pictures of dissected and labeled starfish and laminated those.
Girls at work
Ambulacral grooves

The joke's over. Bring back the Constitution.

So says the bumper sticker on the back of my car.

I have been quite distressed by the infringement on our constitutional rights by the current regime and the absolute lack of outcry by the public. So my teens and I are now among the, no doubt few, Americans who have actually read the Constitution and all the amendments. We have been doing this for the last 2 weeks, reading it in chunks and discussing. It has been enlightening. The kids always bring such fascinating, thoughtful comments to the table when we do things like this.

These are some of the resources we are using

1. The real thing, such as this one, The Constitution of the United States. There are many versions online and I cannot find the one I used but I chose one to print out and write on.

2. This book, The Meaning of the Constitution by Angela Holder. JP gave this to me a year or more ago. I read the Constitution and the commentary in this book to help me open the discussions. It was from about 1997 so some of the new issues that come up are not considered. LOTS of examples.




3. I love Russell Freedman books and that includes this one.





4. Several Cobblestone magazines including "Voting Rights", "The Balance of Power" and "The Congress".

5. The following website http://www.southwestern.cc.il.us/adultbasiced/constitution/index.htm.

6. And this one which is not complete but the Constitution page has some good material.
http://www.homeschoolpolitics.com/constitution.htm

We aren't quite through but this is a start. PRM

A mother worries

Yakov will be spending 7 weeks in Israel this summer with his Jewish camp program. As you can imagine, the news yesterday has made me uneasy. I know that extraordinary efforts will be made to keep him safe but a mother worries. PRM

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Homeschool Field Trip - Geometry, Nutrition and Drug Awareness

Spring is coming -Follow up

February 12







March 3








February 12








March 3, almost a bloom.

Biology lab 3/3

Cow eye dissection was done by me per instructions found here. There is a video to watch and the site has written instructions as well. This was a bit disgusting. I had to do it as only one teen volunteered to dissect and he was a little too enthusiastic, KWIM. He has a tendency to be a bit too blunt in his dissections. And I think he was bluffing.

The lens is on the left. It is fun to read print through the cow's lens, which should magnify the image. Our specimen was too opaque to see anything through unfortunately.

The blue-green back of the eyeball is tapetum, which is light reflective and enables night vision. It's what makes the cat's eye shine in the headlights. I guess a cow's eye would shine in the headlights, too.

"Arrgh, I see me retinal capillaries".

I found instructions here to visualize your retinal vessels but I had to alter them. I couldn't get the original technique to work for me. Pirate eye patch was just part of the alterations.





I used this site to map our blind spots.








Then we went to lunch. I'll try to add a picture of the kid's shooting pool under a Miller Lite sign. Just another homeschool field trip. PRM

Biology lab today

The living room is vacuumed and the bathroom cleaned because it is lab day.

Planned-
Shoshie may share her comparative anatomy project
cow eye dissection
blind spot mapping
retinal vascular visualization
then, lunch out as usual?

Mystery class follow-up -Pictures later

Finally, the Y and Cub Scouts.

It's nonstop Monday. PRM