msk
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Posts posted by msk
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March is Archaeology Month in Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida. There are a lot of fun events for families, almost all of them free!
Other states celebrate in April, May, September, or October. You can look yours up here: http://saa.org/ForthePublic/NewsEvents/ArchaeologyWeeksMonths/ArchaeologyWeekMonthbyState/tabid/143/Default.aspx
My fellow Arizonans can check out all the activities by downloading the "Event Calendar" from the State Parks website, http://azstateparks.com/. My young daughters and elementary-aged nephews especially enjoy the Archaeology Expo and Ancient Technology Day events here in the Phoenix area; we've tried throwing spears with an atlatl, tasting roasted agave hearts, and mock excavations, and have met all sorts of interesting people. The hikes and lectures tend to be more middle/high school speed.
The event calendar for Arkansas is here: http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/archmonthevents2011.html
Florida doesn't seem to have theirs up yet for 2011, but the 2010 version is here: http://www.flheritage.com/archaeology/education/month/index.cfm
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We were able to find a baby gate that my older daughter (almost 4 when we bought it) could open, and my younger (now 14 months) still can't open. It has a latch at the top that requires more thumb strength than the little one has. We bought it to keep the baby away from the choking hazard toys in her big sister's room, but it also provides a place to escape to for some big kid time. As others mentioned, having her own space available seems to make it easier for her to be nice to the baby the rest of the time.
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My daughter turned 5 a couple of weeks ago. We're reading for fun and not following a curriculum or spine, but her favorites have been:
The First Dog, by Jan Brett
Mammoths on the Move, by Lisa Wheeler (short but with a fun, rich vocabulary)
Temple Cat, by Andrew Clements (Egypt; this one is very short and simple)
Miranda the Great, by Eleanor Estes (Rome; a chapter book at the upper edge of her comprehension level, but she really enjoys it)
Croco'Nile by Roy Gerrard (she also liked The Roman Twins by the same author)
A Street Through Time by Anne Millard (A European street through many time periods; great pictures to pore over)
Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Peters (surprisingly warm and fuzzy)
Archaeologists Dig for Clues, by Kate Duke, is good for this age level too and very accurate (I'm a picky archaeologist), but she really prefers "stories."
All but one of those are picture books. I think a bunch of them came recommended on a older thread called "your very favorite books for Ancients" or something along those lines.
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Isn't the author assuming that ID is an "alternate explanation" with the continued use of "design"?
I'm really not trying to argue, just to understand what you are trying to say...
I find the word design workable for many homeschoolers but I have a hard time saying it's unbiased with the admissions of the author's beliefs.
I guess I wasn't clear: I'm agreeing with you that it's *not* unbiased, and that even in the lower two levels (where I didn't see anything about "design" at all) leaving evolutionary theory out altogether constitutes a significant bias all by itself. So, thanks for the heads-up on the author's perspective, since I'm new here and missed this whole issue last time it came up.
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As I said before, I don't think writing an "unbiased" biology textbook is actually possible. Leaving things out is NOT "neutral." It is a conscious decision on the author's part to leave out evolution, or a literal interpretation of Genesis, or any other important explanation for the patterns biologists study. But leaving out something that's absolutely fundamental to the way a huge number of scientists understand biology is not "neutral." I am perfectly happy that different texts include or leave out different things-- that is why so many alternatives exist. It is calling them "neutral" or "unbiased" because of what they choose to leave out that is a problem.
So, can we just describe this as "a curriculum that carefully avoids any mention of either evolution or any alternative explanations" and not as a "solid, unbiased" one?
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I really appreciate knowing an author's perspective ahead of time. I don't think it's possible to write an "unbiased" science curriculum any more than "unbiased" history, so I want to know the bias and choose one that suits my family.
For example, as a person with no problems with evolution, reading Chapter 1, Level 1 of Biology on the sample site (I love that the sample exists, by the way!), I'd be left wondering, "Huh, why didn't the book explain WHY some groups of animals are more similar to each other than others??? It's much easier to understand and remember all this stuff if you know what the pattern is and why that pattern exists, isn't it?" For me, the "why" is that these animals are related by a common ancestor; leaving that explanation out is a critical problem for me, and I don't want a science text with what I personally perceive as big gaping holes cut out of it. It would be like reading those history books everyone complains about that never, ever mention religion. But, I realize that for other families who have a different explanation of the "why," having important spaces left open to fill with their own answers may be the high point of the books. The fact that those "blank spaces" are there DOES need pointing out, however, because for people like me the "blank spaces" really stand out, and make it *not* a solid science choice for my kids.
It's impossible to write about biology in a way that's going to make everyone happy, and anyone who says differently is selling something. (Cough.) So, thanks to those who pointed out what the author's perspective was here.
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Anyone who becomes a devotee of dead chicken projects might want to check out "Make Your Own Dinosaur out of Chicken Bones" by Christopher McGowan. My daughter isn't quite old enough for it yet, but I can hardly wait! My paleontologist friend tells me the mounting methods in it are exactly the ones he uses in our local museum.
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Is TERC Investigations the same thing as Scott Foresman Addison Wesley Investigations? That's what my local district uses, but my daughter hasn't started K yet and I've had a hard time figuring out whether they're the same program or just related in some way.
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Not sending girls to college is a very effective way of ensuring that they have absolutely *no choice* but to be a stay-at-home wife and mother (or forever a stay-at-parents'-home, dependent adult daughter). Sending sons to college but not daughters sends a strong message that sons should have choices about the directions their lives take, while daughters have only one "choice": the one their parents have already made for them. Is that the message your friends want to send? If it is, I assume they are saving their money and planning to happily, non-judgmentally, and generously financially support those daughters and their families if anything they cannot control ever goes wrong-- in their marriages, if their husbands are ever injured or lose their jobs, etc-- something that will probably cost far more than college. I'd probably ask just enough to find out whether they've really thought about both the message they are sending and the increased financial responsibility they are taking on, and if they have, pass the bean dip.
If they're not sending their sons OR their daughters to college, that's a different kettle of fish.
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I'm not an expert, but I've found answers to my carseat questions by browsing around here before: http://www.car-safety.org/guide.html.
If you don't see what you need in the links, you can search their forums from a link near the bottom of the page.
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I'd look for dachshund clubs in your area, then start emailing or calling the listed members; often they'll have a list of active club members who breed. You may be able to find a link from the AKC website, or a google search. It may take a few months to find a litter with room on its waiting list, but (at least in my experience) these people know each other pretty well from all the shows they attend together, and someone should be able to tell you who's "expecting" in the next few months. People in the local club will be breeding for health, temperament, and other good things, so their "pet quality" puppies will be just as good as their show dogs from an average owner's perspective; you should expect to sign a contract saying you'll be spay/neutering a pet quality dog, though. As others mentioned, a reputable breeder is doing good for the breed, and that's not something you should feel guilty about supporting at all.
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That doesn't sound like a big deal at all to me! If you do decide you feel like practicing that at some point though, Cranium Cariboo was VERY helpful for my daughter the year she was three. The game has a plastic key that must be used in order to take a turn, and it gets passed from player to player. Having an outside factor to reinforce the turn-taking rather than parental reminders seemed to make it sink in much faster at our house.
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The one nonstick pan I feel like I can't give up is a skillet. We use cast iron for lots of things, but for eggs nonstick really works best for us. We recently replaced an older one with a Tfal (Cook's Illustrated's top rated "inexpensive nonstick skillet") and have been pleased so far.
Speaking of CI, according to them nonstick cookware only emits fumes at temps over 600; not something that would normally happen to a pan with food inside, but still not worth taking a chance on if birds live near the kitchen.
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Yep, The Art of Manliness was where my husband got it. Heavy sigh. Thanks for the warning Spy Car, thank goodness we have girls.
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Personally, I would hesitate to mention the words "old fashioned razor" at all unless you won't mind your son being in the bathroom approximately FOREVER. My husband is a recent convert to that method, and now spends much, much more time in the bathroom than I do. And always at the precise time in the morning when the "big" kid is spilling cereal and milk everywhere and the baby is scampering gleefully about pulling everything out of the pantry and kitchen drawers and sticking half of it into the dog's mouth, or so it seems...
Tara (and any like-minded people with similarly odd-minded friends), you should read the Connie Willis story "Even the Queen" (I found it in a short story collection called "Impossible Things"). It's about that very debate and is one of the :lol: funniest things I read last year. I love it.
ETA: I just googled and found it online, albeit in a somewhat odd format: http://ebookbrowse.com/willis-connie-even-the-queen-pdf-d11522181
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Do any of the players mentioned above have a picture or icon (like CD cover art or something) that shows up on their screens along with a file name, or are the screens text-only? My almost-05yo can't read alone yet, so without a file-unique icon I suspect she'd be frustrated at not being able to find the files she wants on her own. This kind of thing was easy in the days of records and cassettes, but seems to be an unfilled market in the MP3 era...
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Chastity.
'Nuff said.
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Thanks! Unfortunately my friends' kids are either younger than my daughter, in religious schools (we're not religious), or homeschooled, so I don't really have the usual sources. And, I feel like kind of a hypocrite looking at standardized test scores (although I do look at them) when one of the things I'm worried about is too much emphasis on standardized tests! It's good to know I can probably trust my gut on the visits, though.
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Would anyone be willing to share some words of wisdom on choosing a public or private elementary school? What was your family looking for, and how did you figure out which school was the best fit for your situation? I know there's no one-size-fits-all answer here, but school open houses are coming up next month where I live, and I'd like a few ideas.
I'm lurking here and getting ideas of ways to supplement my oldest daughter's education (she starts K in fall of 2011). I've found a lot of great ideas on supplementing, but couldn't find any threads on what to consider in choosing the "school" part of "afterschooling." Thanks in advance!
(PS-- If anyone in the Chandler, AZ area feels like sending me a PM with your experiences in local schools, I'd love that too!)
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Regarding the "not helping the other kid" business-- in my opinion your son has probably done more to help other potential victims in the future by knowing he had to tell you what happened, than he would have accomplished by pushing the bully away from the other kid that day. You're now on the path to stopping the bully from escalating his behavior into even worse forms of hurting others (whatever form that path ends up taking, and whatever you end up having to do). It can be really hard to "tell" about these things, and it takes more courage to overcome that than it does to react by instinct in the heat of the moment. Your son probably knows this already, but it can't hurt to repeat it!
Anybody in AZ?
in Parents' Forum Networking Board
Posted
I'm in Chandler. My oldest is barely 5 and we're planning on supplementing/afterschooling, so I mostly lurk around borrowing people's lists of read-alouds.