This blog on extended vacation....

Current blog:
http://internetfree2009.blogspot.com/

Thank you for reading, cherished reader!

Another ordinary day

Today: the clear blue sky of October in Northern New England. Sugar maples and oaks on fire in the morning sunlight. So luminous they seem to bear their own light.

Younger son is off with teacher for the morning. Older son and I are settling into the day: Drinking tea, practicing reading with starfall.com, about to play a game of monopoly. We'll also work on his math curriculum, which he loves. In between--getting dressed, laundrey, sorting out obsolete winter gear in prep for the colder weather which is rapidly upon us.

Later--raking, reading aloud, playdate with some homeschooling friends.

Pesky Bailouts for Dummies

This is a great article if you want someone else to explain what's happening with the world financial markets.

Kyle and the Carolina Low Refuse to Marry

Came home in the rain on the bus, somewhat damp by the time I walked in the door....and there was a nice little fire in the woodstove to take the edge right off.

Now it's 9:26 and it's raining like hell. It sounds like being under an M&M factory when the bag breaks. Looking at the radar, there is just a big nasty red splotch over Portland.

Looking at the National Hurricane Center, however, it looks like that low in the Carolinas isn't even making the cut for their interactive map, and Kyle is steering more to the east.

I love a good storm, but I'm relieved for Maine, because if we got a hurricane, the fall leaves would get blown away before the leaf peepers even showed up and that puts the good Mainers out of cash.

So rain on, gentle low! Rain to your heart's content. And see ya later, Kyle!

Donuts: Occupational Hazard?

Today I'm at the office in the Old Port district studying the Occupational Safety unit I need to complete toward my massage school requirements. Boring but important. Headed out at 3 for a massage that never happened due to a scheduling glitch. So, I walked back down the brick sidewalk in the rain.

BUT....as some like to say, it all happens for a reason.

As soon as I got my (still hypertonic) bum in my chair at the office the phone rang. "Special delivery coming up in a moment," said my husband's voice. Minutes later the boys walked in bearing brown wax paper bags with home made donuts in them. Four of them. Homemade. Enough to get fat on.

Thanks, guys!

That Pesky Bailout Bill

Please understand that I'm registered as a Green, and believe in taxing the rich and giving to the poor. OK, now get out the capers, cuz you're probably going to fillet me for some of what follows!

I was feeling pretty depressed about the $700 billion housing bailout bill, until I read comment #44 on this article:
Buffett Calls Bailout Bill ‘the Right Thing’

Commentator #44 has a good point....do we really want foreign investors to bail us out instead?

However....OTOH, must we blame the regular folks in America who are desperately trying to make ends meet? I agree that a bailout is critical at this point. But HTH did we get here to the point of needing it? Maybe we can learn from this and not make this mistake again??? We expect that from ourselves and our children--why not Wall Street?

On a nearly random and unrelated note: I did some research and $700 billion is roughly what we've spent on the Iraq war to date. Coincidence?

Kyle + That Carolina Low

Today's studies include the weather....as usual. We're watching www.nhc.noaa.gov for updates on Tropical Storm Kyle, due in Maine perhaps on Sunday. Might decide to marry the low pressure area over the Carolinas, in which case we could have a helluva storm.

This weeks topics have included (but are not limited to): fighter planes (F-15s, F-16s, Corsairs, and a lot of other ones Baxter made up); atoms, molecules, and their relationship; soccer; power tools; building; and how it feels when you accidentally hit your thumb with a hammer.

Dinosaurs and apocalyptic species

One of the best things about homeschooling is the opportunity to learn and learn and learn. My two boys guide me into areas I never would travel alone as an adult: Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood (replete with homemade bow and arrow); elaborate make-believe involving Harry Potter and panther hunting; and of course, the classic childhood fascination with dinosaurs.

There were way more types of dinosaurs than I ever remember learning about, such as Yangchuanosaurus and Edmontosaurus, two carnosaurs (relatives of T. Rex and remarkably similar) discovered in China and Canada. Dinosaurs were alive for much longer than I ever realized--by comparison humans have been on earth for a mere few seconds compared to the eons during which the dinosaurs evolved, lived, and died.

Of course in the course of our reading we have discussed the mass extinction of the dinosaurs which happened 65 million years ago. The latest theories on this involve a giant asteroid striking the earth and triggering massive, sudden climactic changes that caused species to die in droves.

There is a lot of evidence to prove this theory, and I am not a scientist, but what if this was not the whole story? Humans have been on earth for barely any time at all, and in the last hundred and fifty years may have triggered a massive, sudden (in geologic terms) climate shift, as well as environmental destruction and over-hunting and over-foresting. These shifts have over a very short period of time caused directly and indirectly the greatest mass extinction since the death of most of the dinosaurs. We may also wipe out ourselves in the process, leaving us as a relatively short-lived species on earth, a mere blip on the evolutionary screen.

Humans are what I call an apocalyptic species--a species that is directly and indirectly responsible for killing off hundreds if not thousands of other species. What if such a species were responsible for knocking off the dinosaurs?

I'm sure I'm not the first person to consider this and I invite anyone who has leads to research on this topic to please write me and point me in the right direction! I'll be reading dinosaur books with my four-year-old.

Why homeschooling? Part 1

When I was nineteen and taking a year off from college, I went to visit an ex-nun friend of mind, Virginia Mary Osborne, in Hudson, New York, where she was living on an intentional farm community for developmentally disabled adults. Virginia, then in her mid-forties, had in two short years become a major influence on my view of the world. We had worked together on a farm when she was still part of the convent, weeding in her flowing black robes which only came off for a swim across the lake in her black Speedo bathing suit. Her spiritual life was so strong and positive that it flowed out of her and into all the communities, friends, and people in need she frequented. It was impossible not to be influenced for the better by her.

One night while visiting, we paid a call to a family she knew nearby with a seventeen-year-old son. "He's homeschooled," she told me excitedly. I'd never met a homeschooled person before, to my knowledge, so I was curious.

He was different than anyone I'd ever met in my years of schooling (elementary through high school in elite private schools, and one year at a top private university, from which I was then taking a years' break). He was centered, and calm. He seemed older than his seventeen years by quite a bit. Just being near him his emotional intelligence was palpable. Meeting him left an indelible impression and the seed of someday homeschooling my own kids.

Sitting with this exceptional young man I began to wonder if part of my lack of inner well-being was related to education (something I wasn't taught in the midst of all the many wonderful things I'd learned), or if, perhaps, homeschooling could be one answer to raising emotionally intact young people.

Next time I'll tell you about the very special farm where Virginia & I met, and why I ended up there, and how at 16 it permanently changed my view of education.

Beginning again

The most notable thing about beginning homeschooling is that I'm having a chance to relive my education...and add to it.

While trying to make up my mind about homeschooling, I one day had this wonderful visual epiphany: The school bus pulls up in a nearby meadow, everyone else jumps on, and we are left behind in a field of dandelions. After the momentary panic, I realize we are in a field of dandelions, the sunlight straying through the leaves and the grasses, the gentle breeze soothing us with its subtle sounds in the tops of nearby maple trees. My boys immediately start asking questions about dandelions, bugs, clouds, we play, we read, and suddenly it is not the panic of being left behind but an education happening.

It's this vision I look forward to sharing with you as it fleshes itself out with each new day.

And I promise to 'get real' when I hit burnout in the dim, snow-buried months of winter here in Maine!