Schnitzel Von Krumm

A few years ago, friends from New Zealand introduced us to a wonderful little pup, Schnitzel Von Krumm and his very low tum. Terzo was the intended audience for these books, but never took to them as much as I did, so they spent most of their time on the bookshelf biding their time until someone would come along and appreciate them. Fast forward about 5 years, and they have found a fan... two actually.

Quarto and The Man (the three year old who becomes part of the family during the weekdays) LOVE Schnitzel Von Krumm... and yes, you must say his entire given name whenever reffering to him. It's just the way it is. Every day, we have a story time just before the kids go to quiet time, and every day for the last couple of weeks, Schnitzel Von Krumm has been enthusiastically brought as the day's selection.

Schnitzel Von Krumm is a dachshund with a very low tum who is quiet and lovable and doesn't ask much but to be surrounded by life's comforts - his family and his favorite beat-up, smelly, threadbare but comfy dog bed. His name and droopy little ears will immediately win your heart. If you are a little more difficult to woo, Lynley Dodd's playful artwork and engaging rhymes will have you hooked before you finish the first story.

Today, Quarto brought as his reading selection Schnitzel Von Krumm Forget-Me-Not.

However, the recent favorite of both Quarto and The Man has been Schnitzel Von Krumm's Basketwork.

I love reading this one aloud to the boys. A typical reading finds me reading along in the story,

He liked all the tatters,

he liked every tear,

the broken down edges,

the holes and the hair.

The smell was so friendly

and as for the fit-

if he needed to squeeze,

did he mind?

All this time the boys' anticipation has been growing. They've been squiggling and squirming and repressing giggles. They are so happy as I finish the line and then they burst out with,

"Not a bit!"

This joyous refrain is repeated numerous times throughout the reading, and each time the boys greet it with the same anticipation and glee.

There are many childrens books that I enjoy, but after the 20th reading in half-as-many days, I want to rip out my vocal chords after most of them. Not so with Schnitzel Von Krumm. I could read them over and over again... and I do. With a very happy and not-at-all hesitant audience.

Generally, you can tell which books in our library are well-loved because they are wrinkled and torn and dog-eared and probably have many, many patches of packing tape. The Schnitzel Von Krumm books do not have that "well-loved" look however... they have a "cherished" look. You can tell they aren't new - barely. They have been read over and over, but they are treasured. They are put away with care not to wrinkle them. They are closed when not being read or looked through and set in a safe place so as not to be accidentally trodden on. They are not used as magic carpets for action figures or barricades for army men. To the boys, they are Schnitzel Von Krumm, and they are treated like any well-loved canine best friend should be.

There are three books in the Schnitzel Von Krumm series, but our little dachshund friend did not make his debut in these books. He is actually one of three canine friends of the apparently popular series of books starring Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy (the books are very popular in Dodd's native New Zealand as well as in Australia and Great Britain, but in America, their fan base, although just as dedicated, is still very small). The Hairy Maclary series, also by Lynley Dodd, follows the antics of a hairy, rather shaggy little black dog who looks mysteriously like our own, aging Gideon. I have a feeling we will be adding the Hairy Maclary books to our library in the very near future. I know I can't wait to read them, and I will enjoy many more afternoon story times on the sofa with Quarto and The Man... I am sure I will enjoy reading these again and again as I have the Schnitzel Von Krumm books - no matter who else in enjoying them with me.

Happy Birthday, Paddington!

Today is the 50th birthday of Paddington Bear... the bear responsible for making me an anglophile. I was absolutely enthralled with the idea of tea and marmalade. It seemed amazingly refined. But Paddington does not fit any idea of "refined" yet he still enjoys tea and marmalade. If not him, why not me? So tonight, brew yourself a pot of tea and enjoy a bit of toast with marmalade and enjoy of taste of refinement. In the morning, grab a copy of A Bear Called Paddington and introduce your children to the most polite, if not the most refined, bear to come from Darkest Peru.

Paddington, who all this time had been too interested in his bun to worry about what was going on, suddenly became aware that people were talking about him. He looked up to see that Mrs. Brown had been joined by a little girl, with laughing blue eyes and long, fair hair. He jumped up, meaning to raise his hat, and in his haste slipped on a patch of strawberry jam which somehow or other had found its way on to the glass table-top. For a brief moment he had a dizzy impression of everything and everyone being upside down. He waved his paws wildly in the air and then, before anyone could catch him, he somersaulted backwards and and landed with a splash in his saucer of tea. He jumped up even quicker than he had sat down, because the tea was still very hot, and promptly stepped into Mr. Brown's cup.

- p. 16

From the huge birthday cake down to the last marmalade sandwich, everyone voted it was the best tea they had ever had. Paddington himself was so full he had great difficulty in mustering enough breath to blow out the candle. But at last he managed it without singeing his whiskers, and everyone, including Mr. Curry, applauded and wished him a happy birthday.

-p. 120

Know Your Enemy

When we were on vacation at the shore with friends a few years ago, we bought a hurricane tracking chart. I thought it would be a fun addition to weather studies and map reading. During hurricane season, we'd keep tabs on devloping storms by listening to the weather report on the radio. When we heard about a named storm, we'd go to NOAA'a National Hurricane Center website and look at the storm's location and projected track and mark it on our map. Not only was this practice educational, but I thought it would also help allay Primo's nearly pertrifying fear of severe weather. "We live in central PA; we don't get hurricanes," I assured her one day.

Then Ivan arrived.

Now, the effects of Ivan on our land-locked region were nothing compared to that of coastal regions, but they were sufficient enough to finger me as a liar - or at the very least, highly misinformed. Thus, the hurricane tracking chart moved from the purely educational realm and into that of "emergency preparedness equipment." Primo became obsessed with listening to weather radio, keeping the hurricane map up-to-date, and making sure our emergency kit was properly stocked and easily accessible in case the need to evacuate should arrive. (By the way, this fear of severe weather is apparently inherited as my dad's state-of-the-art home weather center and obsession with interest in The Weather Channel can attest. Right, Dad? *wink*)

When Frodo was first looking at graduate schools, the University of Kansas came up and Primo put her foot down. There was no way she was going to live in tornado alley. She was happy when she found out we would not be moving to Kansas. Instead, we moved to Mississippi.... aka the forgotten victim of Katrina... right smack in Dixie Alley. (Yeah, we'd never heard of it either 'til we got here.) Primo learned all these wonderful weather facts after we got here. She was thrilled. [insert eye roll here]

Today we began tracking Tropical Storm Gustav.


It's projected 5-day track has it making landfall (at hurricane strength) at the Louisiana/ Mississippi border... right where Katrina made landfall three years ago. I attempted to comfort Primo by pointing out that the area where we live is covered by the map key. "The makers of a hurricane tracking chart wouldn't cover an area with the key if hurricanes frequently hit that area, would they?" She's still made plans for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we'll be checking to make sure our emergency kit is up to date... replacing any expired canned goods (or at least making a shopping list), putting in fresh batteries, making sure changes of clothes will actually fit everyone, removing the diapers we put in for Quarto now that he's potty trained and replace them with a couple of "just in case" pull-ups, and making sure we have supplies and contact info for the two kids we watch during the day. We'll also:

-change the back-up battery in the weather alert radio and make sure our hand-crank radio and flashlights are easily accessible (and the flashlights have fresh batteries)
-set aside some containers to fill with drinking water should it look like we'll need it
-review what to do in case of an emergency
-read The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane and National Audubon Society First Field Guide: Weather (hey, we're homeschoolers; we see life's experiences as reasons to buy and read books)
-update any changes in Gustav's status and track on the hurricane chart
-be shushed by Primo every time the weather report comes on the radio

We are diligently trying to put into practice what Terzo learned in Cub Scouts (particularly during our family emergency preparedness sessions): Be Prepared

As Sun Tzu stated in The Art of War (and as I am trying to impart to Primo through this study of hurricanes and emergency preparedness):

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles. If you know only yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

Book Meme

Heather, over at Stepping Heavenward, "tagged" me for this meme... in a laid-back, non-tagging sort of way. *grin*

From The Equation for Excellence: How to Make Your Child Excel at Math:

A parent gives a child a problem. The child gets the problem wrong. The parent should then just give an easier problem, right?

Share a taste of your most recent read... or at least the one most near at hand. If you'd like to participate, consider yourself tagged and follow these guidelines:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages.)
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people. Or not. I'm in favor of just opening up for anyone who wants to play along.

Little Serendipities Go A Long Way

I am a planner by nature. If I find out that we are traveling somewhere (and it doesn't have to be far; if we are going to be away from home for more than a couple of hours, that's enough) or having company, out come the paper and pencil, I pull up MapQuest and Google on the computer, and the research and planning begin. And although I get great pleasure out of planning little (and big) excursions, it is often those little serendipities that provide the most pleasure and the greatest memories. We recently experienced one of these little serendipities, and I know it is something I will always remember.

My parents came to visit a few weeks ago. They had never been to our new place here in Dixie, and since our new home is over 1,000 miles from their place, we haven't seen each other in almost a year. With the price of gas soaring as it is, who knows when we'll get together again, so I decided to try and plan some short trips that would give them a good taste of the area in their short trip plus include some places our family hadn't had a chance to explore yet. One of the places we went was the University Museum. Our family had been there before, but it is quite an impressive little museum. They have a wonderful antiquities collection that includes pottery, coins, mosaics, and busts as well as a doll collection, a Civil War (or should I say "War Between the States" or "War of Northern Aggression") collection, a small but broadly representational art collection, and a collection of historical scientific instruments that my children always find fascinating and wish they could touch. Tucked off on the side is a small room that usually houses a temporary exhibit. Terzo was very disappointed when he investigated back there this time and found that the Art of the Faulkners exhibit that we had seen on our last trip was gone. "Now it's just some old books," he lamented to me. Not connecting his statement with some information Frodo had given me earlier in the semester, I took my time moseying back to the exhibit and stood only feet from it is a I re-examined a sketch created and autographed by Kurt Vonnegut that is part of the museum's regular collection. Frodo was just behind me as I finally made my way to the "old books" and I could hear him gasp as we entered, "These are the Remnant Trust books. Remember, Hon, I told you about these? Cool."

At the beginning of the spring semester, Frodo mentioned that the University was going to host a tour by the Remnant Trust. The tour consisted of books considered significant because of their age, rarity, or influence on the world, but even cooler, you not only got to see the books, but you also got to touch them. When I went to the University Museum's website to see if I could take the kids over to leek at the books, I came across this notice:

These books are available for professors to use in their classes under supervision in the museum. The books cannot be removed from the museum. We can accommodate groups up to 70 in our [gallery], up to 40 in our classroom and up to 10 in our board room. For larger classes special arrangements may be possible. We need two weeks notice to arrange to host your class at the museum. Our regular hours are 9:30-4:30 Tues.-Sat. We will try to accommodate classes that meet outside of those hours when ever possible but we cannot guarantee that. Call... to book a class.

Drat. We weren't going to be able to go. Frodo was hoping to arrange a time for his university students to go to the exhibit, but he wasn't able to get a hold of the correct person to arrange an appointment. With the end of the semester, we figured his chance to view the exhibit had gone.

Fast forward to my parents' visit two weeks after the semester ended. The RT was late in picking up the collection, so the University Museum still had it on display! As we were oohing and aahing over the books in the display cases, a museum employee approached us and asked if we wanted the curator to open the cases for us and give us a closer look at the books. Minutes later, we were getting a personal lesson on the books on display.



This is the curator showing us a handwritten, illuminated manuscript (on parchment, I might add) of the Magna Carta from 1350. 1350!

Then, it got even better:

That's Frodo and Primo holding and casually thumbing through a handwritten, illuminated manuscript of the Magna Carta from 1350. How cool is that?!

Here is a closer view. (Handwritten! 1350! Did I mention that it was handwritten and illuminated on parchment in 1350?)

The curator shared the books in all the display cases then left them open for us to go back and pick up and leaf through the ones we wanted and to ask questions.

What other books were there? Well...

Secondo's favorite was the illuminated copy of St. Augustine's City of God c. 1494 (two short years after "in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.")



I tried to take a picture of her flipping through it, but every time she suspected she was being watched, she took her hands off the book. See, here she is doing the "Me? I wasn't touching the book. I was just standing here rubbing my eye" move. I think she had "don't touch the exhibits" going through her head no matter how many times we were told to feel free to pick up and examine the books.

A first edition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense... printed in England in 1776.


If you ask Primo which book was her favorite, she will tell you it was this one, Summa Theologica Pars Secunda c. 1497. From the accompanying plaque:

"One of only three known copies in the world. One in the British Museum in London and the other in the Newbury in Chicago. This is the most perfect of the three."

See the large blanks in the copy? This copy was supposed to be illuminated, but apparently no one got around to it.


Although she says Aquinas' book was her favorite, Primo spent most of her time paging through this 1862 copy of William the Conqueror's Doomsday Book.


Terzo's favorite was this print of the Boston Massacre made from the plate created by Paul Revere and his silversmiths. (The curator was impressed that Primo knew that the Boston Massacre was instigated by the children of Patriots, and some Patriots, throwing snowballs at the British soldiers... although something was bound to happen sooner or later after months of military occupation in Boston.)

Frodo had a hard time nailing down a favorite. Besides City of God, the Magna Carta, and Summa Theologica which I have already shared, he probably would list the two works by Frederick Douglass that were included in the display.


Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1945)



My Bondage & My Freedom (1855) signed by Frederick Douglass

On the top of a list of Frodo's favorites, if he had been forced to rank them, would have been the copy of John Calvin's Institutes printed in 1578. William Shakespeare was apprenticing at the print shop where this edition was printed and probably set some of the type for the volume. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the book. I got a picture of the plaque, but not the book. (Mom, do you have a picture of Calvin's Institutes?) Not sure how that happened. I was probably distracted by my favorites in the collection.


William Penn's The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience c. 1670.


I was also amazed to see the Minutes of the Second Continental Congress from 1778 and the Illinois broadside of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln. (Each president signed all broadsides sent to his home state.) I couldn't get a good picture of the broadside because it was framed under glass, and I have no idea why I don't have a picture of the minutes. (Mom? Did you get one?)


Other books in the collection were William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Law, 1771 (above), Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication on the Rights of Women, Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Document (1787), and Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733) by Voltaire.

What a great day!

Wayward Christian Soldiers by Charles Marsh

I had gone to one of my local Christian bookstores to find a Bible for my goddaughter. On a whim, I also decided to to look for a Holy Spirit lapel pin, the kind that had always been easy to find in the display case in the front. Many people in my church and in the places where I traveled had been wearing the American flag on their lapel for months now. It seemed like a pretty good time for Christians to put the Spirit back on. But the doves were nowhere in sight. In the place near the front where I once would have found them, I was greeted instead by a full assortment of patriotic accessories - "support our troops" ribbons, "God Bless America" gear, and an extraordinary cross and flag bangle with the two images welded together and interlocked. I felt slightly panicked by the new arrangements. I asked the clerk behind the counter where the doves had gone; they had always been so popular in the subculture. The man's response was jarring, "They're in the back with the other discounted items," he said, nodding in that direction.

- page 6

On Friday, February 1st, our family went to hear a reading by author and University of Virginia professor, Charles Marsh. The reading was for his latest book, Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity, in which Prof. Marsh attempts to shake the Evangelical Christian body by the shoulders and wake it up to the fact that it has taken the trust, passion and faith it should have reserved exclusively for God and has adulterously given them to the American government instead.

We have become idolaters. Egotistical idolaters. As the American Church, we have looked to ourselves as the standard which God uses to measure truth throughout the world. The more American a foreign populace appears, we assume the more Christian it must be. God warned us against this in the Scriptures, in Mark 7:5-8:

The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?"

And He said, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'

"Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men."

As members of the American Church, are we promoting the Gospel or the Constitution? With which are we more concerned? And who was charged with the Great Commission? Was it the Roman government? No, it was the disciples and the disciples to come. It was a command given to the Church. When missionaries travel the globe to share the Gospel with those who may not have heard, they learn the language, traditions, and cultures of the people they are serving. In her book, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, Edith Schaeffer tells of her parents' taking on of Chinese culture when they were missionaries in that country:

My father went to China at the turn of the century, as a missionary under the China Island Mission (now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship). At that time China could be better reached by missionaries dressing in Chinese dress, looking as much as possible like the Chinese, so that the message would be listened to, rather than the missionary simply being stared at as a curiosity, or being rejected as a 'foreign devil'. So missionaries wore native dress. For my mother this consisted of trousers and a high-collared Chinese robe made of a very lovely blue Chinese damask, frog buttoned down the side and embroidered... My father wore a long gown with very wide long sleeves and a stand-up collar. The frog closings were made of handsome twists of satin. Now some may say that a man should wear men's clothing. But a gown was men's clothing in that place, at that time. But there was more than that. Chinese men, at that moment in history, wore plaits. They had very very long hair, and braided it in a single braid that hung down their backs. The head was shaven in a circle so that no hair showed around the face. A black silk 'pill box' type of hat was worn, with a hole in the centre out of which the plait could come. Some missionaries bought ready-made plaits, and sewed them to the top of their hats. But my father disliked 'falseness' and grew his own hair. But - long hair for a man? The point was that at that time, and in that place, it 'fitted in' with the people to whom God had sent him.

God warns us in Scripture that we must beware of holding culture and tradition above God's Law and mercy; in Matthew 10 Jesus warns that those who love their father and mother more than Him are not worthy of Him. Now, the Scripture also tells us to honor our fathers and mothers and to love our neighbors (our neighbors being those to whom we show mercy and all are in need of being shown mercy), and we should honor them. However, our parents are also fallen and can make errors. We must hold their teachings up to the filter of Scripture. The home is the central classroom of the culture. We must be willing to scrutinize and either embrace or reject various elements of culture as taught to us through our parents, schools, communities and governments. If we cling to a teaching simply because it was taught to us by our parents or our culture, we are not worthy of Christ. Many American evangelicals have done just that. And what is worse, we have tried to harness the power of our government, supported by its military and judiciary, to impose those tightly held cultural beliefs upon others. We are trying to legislate or battle the Kingdom of God into the hearts of people instead of loving them sacrificially and possibly causing ourselves personal effort or discomfort. Is our vision of and trust in God, who is all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful, so weak that we are willing to entrust our lives and devotion to a government composed of fallen men? They deserve our honor because they have been chosen and placed by God Himself, but it is not blind honor. It is honor with the knowledge of who rules the universe and to what standard we are all held to.

The fear of man brings a snare,
But he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted.
Many seek the ruler's favor,
But justice for man comes from the Lord.

- Proverbs 29: 25-26

Americans are not the only ones who are commanded to honor their authorities. The French, the Iraqis, the Chinese, all people are commanded to respect their authorities. The Scriptures attest to the fact that all authorities are put in place by the God of the universe.... President Bush, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and President Jalal Talabani. Should we not then use caution and pause before taking our military into other countries and imposing our customs and system of government upon them? These leaders we are planning to overthrow have been ordained by God. Why are American evangelicals so quick to attribute God's blessing to our military actions and successes? If the fruit of the Spirit includes love and peace, why are we so quick to cheer on Shock and Awe?

Franklin Graham boasted that the American invasion of Iraq opened up exciting new opportunities for missions to non-Christian Arabs. But this is not what the Hebrew prophets or the Christian teachers mean by righteousness and discipleship.

- page 14

In the movie musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, six brothers, with the encouragement of their oldest brother who easily attained a wife for himself after a quick trip to town one day, decide to "do as the Romans did" and kidnap some girls to marry. Without giving too much of the story away (it really is an excellent musical, by far my favorite), the oldest brother, Adam, decides to bring the girls back to their families, but his brothers want to fight to keep them. Adam confronts them by asking, "And who would you be fighting? Their fathers. Brothers, maybe. Don't you see that the only way you're gonna get 'em is by bringin' 'em back?"

Yes, God is sovereign. He can turn the hearts of the Arabs to Christ through this war if He so chooses. He used the wickedness of Joseph's brothers to bring glory to Himself and save the Israelites, after all. But why are we voluntarily making our task of evangelism and discipleship that much more difficult? Why should an Iraqi accept food from us when we offer it with fingers stained with the blood of their fathers or uncles or neighbors? Why would they listen to the good news of the love offering of Christ from the same lips that cursed their customs and spoke of them with disdain?

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you great only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

- Matthew 5:43-48

I haven't finished reading the book. Most of these thoughts were spurred by the reading and discussion we attended. I am still struggling with these ideas and many more. Are there times when war is necessary and we should support it? If so, when? Should evangelicals become pacifists, like the Amish, and never participate in military activity? How should we mourn for the babies that are lost to abortion while we sacrifice and love the mothers who see abortion as their only option? Do we really know how to grieve over sin like God does? Why are we so willing to allow the government to take over the job of the church? Do we not believe that God is all-powerful? Why do we protest in the streets? Do we think that God cannot really hear our prayers spoken in the closet?

I will leave you with a couple more quotes from the book:

Have we in the Christian community forgotten that we serve a God who really is, who sees and hears and shares our sorrows, and a God who listens with favor to the victim and the oppressed; that the God we confess to be the true and living God is a God who stands in our midst?

- page 13

If only holiness were measured by the volume of our incessant chatter. We would then be universally praised as the most holy nation on earth. But in our fretful, theatrical piety, we have come to mistake noisiness for holiness, and we have presumed to know, with a clarity and certitude that not even the angels dare claim, the divine will for the world. We have organized our needs with the confidence that God is on our side, now and always, whether we feed the poor or corral them into sweltering, subterranean ghettos. The demands of scripture and tradition, the study of Christian doctrine, and the catechisms of the faith have been abandoned for pleasurable technologies and relevant guidebooks. No wonder we have no qualms about mining the faith for sound bites.

- page 15

**************
Alright, I can't resist sharing this story about what happened after the reading was over. We were taking a stroll around the town square where the bookstore is located, and two women who attended the reading were walking behind us, and as their conversation was rather loud, I couldn't help overhearing. Keep in mind the book we had just heard a reading from and discussed was the one I just discussed above.

Lady 1: "Hmmm. That was interesting."

Lady 2: "Yes, it was."

Lady 1: "I really don't care for any of the candidates. Although I really don't know much about Hillary or Obama. Hillary's a Methodist, isn't she?"

Lady 2: "I don't know. I think I've heard that, but I'm not sure."

Lady 1: "What about Obama? Is he Methodist, too? I thought he went to a different kind of church."

Lady 2: "I've heard about his church, too. If it's Methodist, I guess it's okay, but I don't know about anything else."

Lady 1: "Yeah, I guess Methodist is okay, but I'm really not sure about Methodists."

Huh? Seriously, I'm not sure they were listening to the same talk I was.

Well, this looks intriguing.

Dr. Ron Paige, former teacher and Secretary of Education, has written a book which lays much of the blame for the sad state of our government school systems on the shoulders of teacher's unions.

Subtitle: How Teachers' Unions Hurt Children, Hinder Teachers, and Endanger Public Education

I just watched an interview with the former Secretary, and I would say that I agree with some of his arguments, however, I find others problematic. For example, he says that he is not against teachers' unions but against "union excessiveness, the over-unionization of schools and school districts". He defines these 'bad unions' as those who hold the concerns of their members over those of the schools where their members work. Isn't that what the purpose of a union is? To look out for its members? If I belonged to a union then that union went out and used my union dues to protect the rights of someone other than me, I wouldn't be a member of that union very long. What would be the point? Dr. Paige says that he is not completely against teachers' unions because "sometimes teachers need representation to protect them against administration abuse". I commend this concern and I am not an expert on unions, but I thought that this is what the courts were for. Of course, that opens a whole can of worms about the state of our court system, so maybe I should just leave it at that.

I also have a problem with Dr. Paige's view that a federal take-over (largely in the form of a Constitutional amendment) of the government school system would move us in the direction of a better school system. An amendment to the Constitution would be necessary first because, as it stands, the U.S. Constitution does not allow for federal involvement in education by not expressly stating it as a role of the federal government. Our federal government runs on the concept of "delegated authority"... i.e. unless "We the People" delegate it, they have no authority. Since the federal government is not given specific authority over education in the Constitution and the Tenth Amendment gives all authority not delegated in the Constitution to the states or the people, an amendment would be necessary. (Million dollar question: Does this make the Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind Act unconstitutional and mean that those congressmen who voted in favor their enactments violated their oaths of office?)

Alright, that was a bit of a tangent. Let me try to get back on track. Federalizing the government school system would also violate a key component of federalism: subsidiarity. The principle of subsidiarity states that "matters ought to be handled by the [lowest] competent authority" (Wikipedia). Or, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "subsidiarity is the idea that a central authority should have a central function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level". Practically speaking, if government schools were federalized, the majority of parents would be wiped out of the decision-making process when it came to their children's education. Voters in California would have a say in how Vermont school children learned grammar. Floridian voters would have a say in how Alaskan school children's physical education classes were structured. It also means that we would loose a very valuable tool in controlling how our schools function: protest. As it is now, if we don't like our school district, we can move to another. When enough families move out, a school district will change to try to woo families back. If we had a federal school system, protest would become nearly impossible. It is much easier to move to a new county than to a new country. (Just ask parents in Germany.)

Lastly, let's look at this from a practical standpoint. I mean, the federal government manages its current duties so well. The IRS and US Postal Service are upheld as banners of efficiency, right? (insert eye-roll here) Can you imagine what would happen if they got a hold of our educational system? They are already inching their way in through No Child Left Behind (of which Dr. Paige was a contributer) by dangling the "federal money" carrot in front of school districts who show progress... they don't actually have to progress, by the way, they just have to look like it.

Well, since I haven't read the book yet *grin*, I'll stop there. Now I'm off to see if our library has a copy of the book.

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead

He tried to explain and to convince. He knew, while he spoke, that it was useless, because his words sounded as if they were hitting a vacuum. There was no such person as Mrs. Wayne Wilmot; there was only a shell containing the opinions of her friends, the picture post cards she had seen, the novels of country squires she had read; it was this that he had to address, this immateriality which could not hear him or answer, deaf and impersonal like a wad of cotton. - p.162


Wynand and Dominique sat in the center of the fourth row, not looking at each other, listening to the play. The things being done on the stage were merely trite and crass; but the undercurrent made them frightening. There was an air about the ponderous inanities spoken, which the actors had absorbed like an infection; it was in their smirking faces, in the slyness of their voices; in their untidy gestures. It was an air of inanities uttered as revelations and insolently demanding acceptance as such; an air, not of innocent presumption, but of conscious affrontery; as if the author knew the nature of his work, and boasted of his power to make it appear sublime in the minds of his audience and thus destroy the capacity for the sublime within them. The work justified the verdict of its sponsors: it brought laughs, it was amusing; it was an indecent joke, acted out not on the stage but in the audience. It was a pedestal from which a god had been torn, and in his place there stood, not Satan with a sword, but a corner lout sipping a bottle of Coca-Cola.

There was silence in the audience, puzzled and humble. When someone laughed, the rest joined in, with relief, glad to learn that they were enjoying themselves. Jules Fougler had not tried to influence anybody; he had merely made clear- well in advance and through many channels- that anyone unable to enjoy this play was, basically, a worthless human being. "It's no use asking for explanations," he had said. "Either you're fine enough to like it or you aren't."

In the intermission Wynand heard a stout woman saying: "It's wonderful. I don't understand it, but I have the feeling that it's something very important." - p. 491

Get 'em While They're Hot (I Mean, Cheap)

The other day I mentioned Susan Wise Bauer's new book, The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. Well, I have good news, my copy shipped yesterday! (Thought you'd be excited.) Actually, there is good news for you too. The book's release date is technically March 26th, but many book sellers, including brick and mortar stores, have it available now. The good news for you? If you order it from Amazon before the March 26th "release date", you will still get the pre-order price. This amounts to a 34% discount... which all book-lovers know translates to "you can order another book and qualify for free shipping." (I ordered Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender which I mentioned in my post Women in the Church: Addendum. I knew you'd want to know.)

Filling in the Gaps

I was a pretty good student in school, and although my interests were mainly in the scientific realm, I enjoyed learning about history... especially American history. All these years later, I would say that I have a fairly good grasp of American history and a basic grasp of world history. However, when I began teaching my own children history, I was amazed at what I didn't know. I knew the history of various places (American history, European history, Asian history, etc), but I couldn't tell you what was happening in Japan while Europe was in the throws of the Thirty-Years War. I couldn't tell you what was happening in Babylon while the Egyptians were building the pyramids. I couldn't tell you what was happening in South America while the Thirteen Colonies were declaring independence from Great Britain. I had a basic knowledge of history, but it had no context. As I began teaching my children sequential world history using the four-volume Story of the World curriculum, all the pieces began to fall into place and world history began to make much more sense to me.

Now that I have a taste for contextual world history, I want more than can be provided through a grammar-stage level curriculum. I want to move on to the logic stage. Fortunately, the author of the Story of the World curriculum that I am using with my kids, Susan Wise Bauer, has just come out with the first of a four-volume world history series for adults. I just ordered my copy of The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Account to the Fall of Rome and can't wait until it arrives and I can delve in and enter the next level of understanding of sequential world history. Care to join me?

Alive and Well

A couple weeks ago, I promised an update, so here it is. I hope it doesn’t disappoint. We have been having great fun, but someone else’s experiences read are never as exciting as one’s own experiences lived.

Actually, the main reason we have been scarce (especially ‘virtual me’) is that we found a school day routine that works really well for us, and I haven’t wanted to interfere with it by coming online during school hours. If we stay on track, school takes anywhere from 4 to 6 hours depending on the subjects we are studying that day. What about after school hours? Well, I have been trying not to do much housework while teaching, so I have to do housework during quiet times and after the kids go to bed. Thus, my screen time has been limited.

I thought this year would be more of a challenge because I am teaching three grades, kindergarten, third and fourth, and in many ways it is more of a challenge. However, I have always done better under pressure than I have when I have seemingly limitless time, so I think that has worked to my advantage this year. Primo and Secondo have many subjects that they can do together… history, chemistry, Latin, grammar, art, music, some math, and Bible. They do some math and spelling separately. Terzo joins them for Bible, art and music.

He even joined in our last Chemistry experiment (who can pass-up making marshmallow molecules?). The main focus with Terzo this year is learning to read, but he insisted on doing math, so I pulled out the first grade Saxon Math book, and he loves it. He also loves word finds, so I print out a new word find every time he learns a new phonics sound. (By the way, if you haven’t discovered Enchanted Learning, I highly recommend it. This is where I get Terzo’s word finds, and I have gotten art and science pages here as well. It is well worth the $20 annual fee to become a member and have access to additional pages and remove the advertising from printouts.) Keeping Quarto occupied has been a bit rough, and apparently including him in our studies can be hazardous to his health.

As to what else we’ve been up to:

-4H for the girls

-Soccer for Primo

-Cub Scouts for Terzo

-Keepers at Home for the girls

-Weekly library trips for everyone

-Homeschool Book Club for Primo, Secondo and Terzo

-Square Dancing lessons for the girls (although Terzo joins for the line dances)

-celebration of International Talk Like A Pirate Day

-field trip to the Smithsonian’s Folk Life Festival for everyone

-Field trip to the zoo for everyone

-joint field trip to Native American Day at the local museum with Aduladi’ Homeschool Academy

-Titus 2 bi-monthly meetings with another homeschool family from our church for me and the kids

-Bi-monthly cleaning exchanges with a second homeschool family from our church for me and the kids

-Bi-monthly Sunday night teaching at church of 2 and 3 year olds for me and Frodo while the kids go to their own classes

-American Girl Book Club at the library for Secondo

-Series of Unfortunate Events party at the library for the girls (they won a copy of The End… very cool)

-monthly homeschool support meetings for me

-graduate school classes and thesis writing for Frodo

-teaching weekly childbirth class for me (this includes making dinner for the couple I’m teaching… it is one of Frodo’s former students and his wife and we all have a wonderful time when they come)

-Great Books Reading Partnership reading for me (I should be posting, too, but I haven’t had time)

And last but not least:

-potty training for Quarto

Yes, we’ve been busy, but we have been learning and having fun doing it. Soccer is almost over, Frodo will graduate in December, and the couple I’m teaching will have their baby. Even as these things end, other things are waiting to take their places… skating lessons, holidays, applications to Doctoral programs. But some things will remain the same… Sunday will remain a day of rest, family meal time will be protected, and we will look at every experience as a chance to glorify God and learn, learn, learn.

Time to get ready for...

Banned Books Week

September 23-30

The American Library Association has a list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. However, I like The Forbidden Library’s less-complete but amusingly annotated list of Banned and Challenged Books which includes selections covering the entire history of the written word.

Some quotes to put it all into perspective:

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. - Constitution of the United States, Bill of Rights, Amendment 1

Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but unlike charity, it should end there. -Clare Boothe Luce

First they burn books, then they burn people. – Unknown

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' -Ronald Reagan

Poetic Procrastination

Along with the other members of The Great Books Reading Partnership, I am reading Chapter 9 (History Refracted: The Poets and Thier Poetry) of The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. However, I am finding the section on the history of poetry very difficult to get through because of an anology Ms. Bauer uses that makes the topic more, rather than less, confusing for me.

Anyway, I decided to take a break from reading in the hopes of clearing my head and starting anew after the kids went to bed. I went out to the back porch to watch the kids play outside and to watch the beautiful flights of the brown bats that hunt bugs in our backyard. As I was watching Terzo pick up a stick to fight an enemy I could not see, a poem formed in my mind. Although I like to read poetry, all my attempts at writing it are very juvenile and uninspired. I am generally too concrete and to-the-point in my thinking... i.e. not poetic. This time, however, I wrote the poem down and read it to Frodo... and he liked it. So here it is... such as it is.

It is so

The Child stands, spies a stick

He stoops, “You shall be my sword.”

And it is so.

The Child looks, observes the air

He commands, “You shall be my enemy.”

And it is so.

The battle begins, creature against creator

The victor is no mystery, still the battle must be fought

There is honor in it.

Armageddon, the fates of worlds

The creator triumphs, “I am the hero.”

And it is so.

Tagged For Homeschool Resources

Tagged by : Stepping Heavenward

1. One Homeschooling Book You Have Enjoyed

The Well-Trained Mind

2. One Resource You Wouldn't Be Without

Story of the World

3. One Resource You Wish You Had Never Bought

Loads of used easy readers. Better to borrow from the library.

4. One Resource You Enjoyed Last Year

First Language Lessons

5. One Resource You Will Be Using Next Year

Real Science 4 Kids: Chemistry Level 1

6. One Resource You Would Like To Buy

Good-quality, college level microscope

7. One Resource You Wish Existed

Clasically-oriented, grammar-stage science curriculum.

(I'm typing it as fast as I can!)

8. One Homeschooling Catalogue You Enjoy Reading

Rainbow Resource Center

9. One Homeschooling Website You Use Regularly

Well-Trained Mind Message Boards

10. Tag Five Other Homeschoolers

You know who you are!

It's That Time of Year Again

Time for the library's annual summer reading club!

Today we made our annual pilgrimage to the "big" library (the one with the greatest selection of books and the best reading rewards) to sign all the kids up for the reading club... even 2.5 year old Quarto was able to sign-up this year! Our library has great perks for participating in the summer reading program: minor league baseball tickets, coupons for free food, a big end-of-program picnic with live entertainment, family movie nights, free books, stickers, toys, and drawings for everything from stuffed animals to autographed baseball paraphernalia.

Most libraries throughout the country have some form of summer reading program, but don't forget to look for reading programs in more unconventional locations as well. Such as:

Barnes & Noble: Summer of Unfortunate Events

-Okay, maybe not "unconventional", but I had to mention it. This program is for kids in grades 1-6. For every 8 books he reads (each child may read 16 total), the student receives a free book from a preselected list plus a chance to win a signed copy of the 13th and final installment of the Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket (due out Friday, October 13, 2006... whenelse?) entitled The End. Primo's summer wish is to win the autographed book!

Commerce Bank: Wow! Zone Summer Reading Program

-Contact your local Commerce Bank branch and pick up a summer reading club form. Each child who reads ten books (limit is ten books per child) receives $10 in a new or existing Young Savers account. There are no fees associated with the account and your child will get personalized deposit and withdrawl forms. Commerce Bank also has free coin counting machines in every branch.

Red Robin Restaurants: Reading With Red

-Ask at your local Red Robin restaurant for a "Reading With Red" book list for your child. For reading ten books, your child receives a free kid's meal. This club is for children ages 10 and under.

Also, don't forget to check your local newspapers. If students complete our local paper's summer reading program, they receive a free child's ticket to a near-by major amusement park plus a pass for free parking.

BTW, each book read can go on ALL the different book club lists until you fill them up. And don't forget to encourage big sister to read to little brother because the book can go onto both lists. (Thus, why both Primo and Quarto have Berenstain Bears: The Big Road Race on all of thier lists!)

And while we are focused on reading programs, I hope you didn't forget to sign-up your homeschool for next year's Book It! program sponsored by Pizza Hut. Free personal pan pizzas are a great motivator!

Get out those library cards and get reading!