This is what I love about Trader Joe's
I was shopping at Tj's Friday, with the younger two, wanting a little something chocolate but not too expensive or buttery. I came upon their Belgian Dark Chocolate thins and after reading the box, was puzzled. i asked M, a clerk whose taste I trust; "Can you tell me if this is a cookie or a candy?" She didn't know and went ot aska manager. He didn't know, so there was only one thing to do- open a box, try some, gve the customer and her kids some. I still can't tell if they're cookie or candy, but they're incredibly tasty- I bought a box, and I'm sure to buy more.
Labels: Trader Joe's. Belgian Chocolates
The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
I don't get lots of flack, but I think this addresses it all:
http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/001/bitter_homeschooler.htmlThe Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?
2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.
3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.
4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.
7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.
8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.
10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.
11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.
12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.
13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.
14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.
15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.
16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.
18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.
19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.
20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.
21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.
22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.
23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.
24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!
Labels: homeschooling
Maturity, and ravelry
One of those ways ou know your kid is growing up...
Sunday we watched The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, which included a re-run of 2006's special. For those of you who have not seen it, there's a part where Homer, turned into a cannibalistic blob, eats a pimply teenager who falls into a campfire. After consuming the kid he says, "MMM, extra virgin". Last year, that went over The Boy's head, but this year he turned red and laughed.
Also, to stop boring you here, those interested in my knitting projects can check out my ravelry page:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/gojiramaLabels: ravelry, Treehouse of Horror
Some Homeschool geekiness
Tuesday HRH had as one of her missed spelling words spread. As usual, she then had to write it 8X each ( one for each year of her age). She started in the expected manner, but by # 8 she was writing Sigma Pi Rho Epsilon Alpha Delta. I asked her why she decided to do that and she shrugged and said, "I don't know, it just started turning Greek"
We also were studying the Dutch settling New Amsterdam and building the Broad Way. i asked them what they knew about the modern Broadway and The Boy said "You can't succeed there if you don't have any Jews?" (Spamalot!)
I have also discovered that Turbo can do written addition probelms, and get them right!!!
Labels: Greek, homeschooling, Spamalot
God Trick or Treats for love
Some cute moments from prayer time with Turbo last night
Turbo: Do you know what God trick or treats for?
Me: No, what?
Turbo: Love!!
Turbo: I God bless God, and the only one better than God.
Me: I didn't think anyone was better than God.
Turbo: Yes, the one who made God.
Me Well, who made God?
Turbo: Robo-God!
Labels: children and God, robo-God
