Oak Meadow Civics

One of our successes this year, at least from my perspective, is Oak Meadow's 8th Grade Civics. Noach is doing this with 3 Boy Scout badges, Citizenship in the Community, Nation and World.

Last week, Week 5, was the Bill of Rights. He wrote an essay on the pros and cons of the First Amendment. Can you think of any topic more timely? We have had some wonderful discussions. The Supreme Court is considering a case involving the obnoxious Fred Phelps and his "church". The speech is hateful but legal. And I for one cannot condone limiting it. (Now I don't feel the same for Koch Industries but that's another post.)

Yesterday there was the case of the young activist stomped on the head/neck at a Rand Paul event. In the past it was common to have protesters at political events but the people who swear they love the Constitution have a problem with tolerating free speech.

This curriculum is rigorous, just ask Noach. He has one long and 2 short essays to write this week on freedom of religion. He is working on a 3 or 4 week paper, begun last week, on the Fred Phelps case. Also he has an ongoing project collecting news articles that illustrate the Bill of Rights. I had to resubscribe to the local newspaper for the year and I have to admit that I have enjoyed reading it daily. I just wish I could justify the expense of the NY Times. Many of the assignments are discussions rather than essays and he will be going to City Council meetings later in the year.

I highly recommend this. And it is especially relevant during an election cycle. PRM

2010 Trip

On September 25th, JP, Noach and I flew from NC to Denver, loaded our stuff into a rental SUV and began a 20 day tour of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. The sites were wondrous, Yellowstone, the Black Hills, the prairie. I always try to imagine what our early European settlers must have been thinking when they saw the Rockies, when they looked out over prairie that seemed to go on forever. Some highlights -

Wildlife. We saw many bison but they never failed to be awe-inspiring. A bald eagle. As a birdwatcher I enjoyed Western and Mountain Bluebirds, Pinyon Jays, Western Meadowlarks, a Trumpeter swan and so many more. Mountain goats, elk, pronghorn, deer, I could go on.

Museums. We especially enjoyed the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman and the Journey Museum in Rapid City, SD. The unexpected delight was the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron, NE. We found ourselves spending the night in this little town on our way back to Denver. Before leaving the next morning, we checked out this little museum which had a huge collection of guns, textiles and as well as the tools of the early fur trader.

Geology. I had purchased the Roadside Geology of Wyoming before we left and we consulted it repeatedly as we drove through the state. Sometimes not only could you see for miles but also for eons.

Mountains. The Grand Tetons, the Rockies and the Black Hills. Truthfully I was relieved to get out of the mountains after several days. Noach and I are both prone to motion sickness, JP less so. Thus I had to do much of the mountain driving with Noach riding shotgun and poor JP in the back.

History. Little Bighorn Battlefield.Minuteman Missile Silo. This is a relatively new national park and not exactly well organized but as children of the Cold War it was engaging nevertheless.

Homeschooling. I had a list of chemicals in my purse that I was planning to order so they would be waiting on us when we got home. One morning in Billings we drove by this as we were looking for good cup of coffee. I saved on shipping.

That's just a taste of what we saw and enjoyed. We loved Bozeman but not the flies. Actually there were flies almost everywhere. The Aspens were turning. The weather was beautiful except for rain and mist when we were at Mt. Rushmore. Fortunately it lifted in time for photos. PRM

Coloring in the states

We are home from a 3 week jaunt around the West. We can color in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. The weather was lovely. We saw some wonderful things. More later but here is our updated map. PRM


visited 29 states (58%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Wordless Wednesday

PRM

1776

Beginning this past week, one of Noach's friends and her mother, my friend, starting coming over on Thursday mornings to watch movies for American History. She is studying American History and we are just watching for pleasure. Some of the movie choices will reflect topics in Noach's Civics but I don't expect him to do any assignments related to the movies.

Our first movie was a light one, 1776. Not a great movie, only somewhat historically accurate, no memorable songs. Well actually, JP, who played in his high school orchestra and thus knows ALL of the lyrics to MANY musicals produced by high schools in the early 70s, is known to sing the Richard Henry Lee song whenever this movie is mentioned but otherwise it's not a musical known for its show tunes.

But I thought it did show how the founders, those venerated, almost worshiped, men were not of a single mind about the beginning of our country. I know this was not the Constitutional Convention but it was many of the same men, the same contentious, egotistical, opinionated men. You don't have to know too much about American history to know that there were Federalists and Anti-Federalists, that much compromise was necessary to produce a document that would be acceptable to enough people and states. That some of the compromises were quite ugly and have been corrected by amendments.

So when people talk about getting back to the Constitution, whose interpretation do they mean? PRM

All in all

it was a good Yom Kippur. We all agreed the fast was not too bad, as we jostled in line to get water Saturday evening. Yakov came home Friday night and stayed through a break the fast Thai dinner.

This was the second year our family did the Jonah haftorah for the late afternoon service. We missed Shoshie's help but were grateful to have Yakov's. JP did most of the Hebrew chanting and gave the D'var. Noach did the blessings before the reading and could easily learn the blessings for after if someone would just take the time to work with him. Unfortunately my Hebrew is inadequate to the task. I'll try to pay attention next year and get it done. PRM

Cooking lessons

This was Noach's submission for dinner last night. Seared fish with shallot parsley butter. Delicious, too.

He is working through the chapter on searing from the book How to Cook Without a Book by Pam Anderson. He will be preparing something from this chapter weekly for the next few weeks. PRM

First Amendment Right to be an ass

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Just as we have the right in this country to religious freedom, we have the right to free speech, a right that often equals the right to be an ass. The attention seeking preacher in Florida has the right to burn a book, even a holy book. What is most offensive to me is the press's giving this creep the attention he desires. Why can't we just ignore him? Move on! Just another religious jerk. Move on! PRM

Week 2 in Review and more

Our second full week was largely uneventful. We watched all of It Happened One Night and both enjoyed it. He chose Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the next movie.

We have settled on a routine for the morning. First we listen to the Writer's Almanac, followed by CNN Student News. Noach is very fond of poetry and the Writer's Almanac is usually a charming beginning to the day.

OM Civics really increased his workload and he was displeased by that. There is a lot of writing to do. There were two essays to be done last week. Since this is a very short week I let him put one of them off.

Math at the whiteboard is much less stressful for both of us. He hates to write on paper.

Week 2 1/2 Preview

We are not adding in any other Civics or Science during this week which will be Week 2 1/2. Rosh Hashanah will take up the last two days. Practicing the Ashrei for Thursday morning will be Hebrew for this week. Completing the literary essay from K12 Language Arts will be the prime focus of work. Finishing the last essay from Lesson 2 in Civics will be the second focus.

L'shana tovah. PRM

It Happened One Night

My choice for the lunchtime classic movie festival. I wanted to chose a comedy.

I first saw this movie at a college movie festival, long before you could buy a movie and watch it whenever you wanted to. Everytime this was shown on television in Nashville, the newspaper would note that one of its editors had a brief role greeting Clark Gable in the newspaper locker room.

So far we've seen the "walls of Jericho" and the hitchhiking scene is soon. PRM