Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to you!!!

What a great thing to have a day set aside to remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Of all the many things I read and have read and have learned from, the scriptures and especially the words of Christ from his own mouth are the most uplifting and enlightening. I am always amazed when I get to 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon and read the words of the Savior which he spoke to those people. Some of it is almost word for word what he told the people in Israel in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the book of Matthew. Every sentence is a jewel, each line is so full of wisdom. Here are a couple of them:

" And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away." 3 Nephi 12:41-42

"But behold I say unto you. love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;"
3 Nephi 12:44

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." 3 Nephi 13:21

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
3 Nephi 13:24

"Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 3 Nephi 13:1-2

"Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." 3 Nephi 14:7-8

"Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them." 3 Nephi 14:20

I could go on and on. Look at how succint and brilliant and to the point these sayings are. How true they are, how many ways we can apply them to our own lives. Wow!! If I could only have one book it would be this one!!

Merry Christmas!!

The Economy -- Ron Paul was right!!!

Learning Greek is Great!!!

My oldest child was upset today because her Greek work was so hard and she was so tired and couldn't do any other "school" work today!!! I am so pleased!! We have been using a program written by Cristine Gatchell called Elementary Greek. My oldest finished her first year workbook a few months ago and has started on the second year, and I have too for that matter since I'm learning along with her. It was pretty frustrating at times that first year, because we had to take about 18 mos. instead of just 30 weeks as the book is set up. But we were thorough and we didn't move on until we understood everything in the first year book ( although we could use some continued vocabulary review), but other than that, we got it. We understand nouns, verbs, nominative case, genetive case, adjectives, prepositions and number. In Greek the ending of the noun will change according to it's part of speech in the sentence, so you really have to understand exactly what it is you are saying in order to get the right endings on all the nouns and the adjectives for that matter. So we spent a lot of time memoriziing and reciting noun endings for masculine nouns, neuter nouns and feminine nouns. Also, the articles and adjectives match whichever ending is being used. So there really is a lot to it and there is a ton to learn. And my little girl gets it!! It is hard brain work, but her brain is being wired and trained to think and to understand grammar and speech and meaning. It is also neat how many of our English words come from Greek!!

So anyway, after being excited that she is tired, but successful, I thought about all the things we've learned and learned well from just this first year of Greek and I grabbed the 3rd year book to look at where we'll be in approximwtely 2 years and we'll know all about the verbs and all the tenses. I'm so excited!! It's really hard to learn a lot of these from English because the endings just don't change. We express the same tenses like I was looking in the store would be something like imperfect past or something ( I haven't learned it yet) but in Greek the endings would change according to the tense and use so it is a little more clear and necessary to understand grammar than it is for us English speakers even if we did learn to diagram sentences.

Now that is an education!!! I wish I had learned Greek, Latin and Hebrew as a teenager or kid. Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to read the Bible in its original language?, as well as all the other great books like the Iliad. I bet it sounds so much better in Greek!!

Anyway, today was a nice acknowledgment day. All this hard work is starting to pay off, even if we never did mop the floor last week!! Maybe tomorrow, but probably not, we've got to get our Christmas presents mailed!!!!

Talk about Tuesday

I was just trying to post a comment on my good friend's blog and ended up joining her Talk about Tuesday project by accident so in case anyone links over from that, I thought I'd better at least acknowledge it.

Let's see.... a new project or habit?

My goal for this week is to teach the kids how to mop the floor on their hands and knees and then dry it with their feet. They'll each get their own section with their own rag, spray bottle and drying towel. The dishes are done and the counters are clean and wiped and the family room is vacuumed and clutter mostly put away, so the prospect of this happening tomorrow look good!!

Work is good and I am very grateful for friends like Lazy and websites and books like www.flylady.net who have taught me how to clean and how to teach my children to clean in formal settings. I'm also grateful for the good examples I've had from many of my friends in informal settings. Having grown up with a maid and a very clean, love to clean mother, cleaning up after myself and teaching my children how to clean up after themselves has been a huge struggle for me!! But I think we're getting it, one baby step at a time!!

Meno by Plato

This is a great short read, about 15 pages in the Great Books series on the subject of virtue. It is a conversation between Socrates and Meno and Meno asks Socrates whether "virtue is acquired by teaching or by practice; or if neither by teaching nor practice, then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way?", and the 2 of them work through a few ideas to get to end idea that virtue cannot be taught and it comes from God.

A couple ideas I found to be enlightening in this essay were about men's desire to do evil, learning consists of remembering, virtue cannot be taught and virtue comes from God.

Meno declares that some men choose to do good and others choose to do evil, but Socrates asks questions which lead down the path to realization that men who choose evil do it not because they want evil, but because they falsely believe that the evil will bring them some form of joy. Socrates says "if there is no one who desires to be miserable, there is no one, Meno, who desires evil; for what is misery but the desire and possession of evil?" So if no one desires evil, then why are so many miserable and fallen into evil? No doubt Socrates knows how to get one thinking.

Another interesting idea Socrates brings out is the idea that the soul is immortal and learning is not learning, but recollecting what we already know. To prove this point, Socrates draws a square in the dirt and has an unlearned boy answer questions for him which the boy is able to answer without any previous training and only guided questions from Socrates. From those questions the boy gives correct answers without any outside help. Socrates says " And if there have been always true thoughts in him, both at the time when he was and was not a man, which only need to be awakened into knowledge by putting questions to him, his soul must have always possessed this knowledge for he always either was or was not a man? (Obviously) And if the truth of all things alwasy existed in the soul, then the soul is immortal. " Wow!!

Another interesting idea that Socrates shows to be true is that virtue cannot be taught. There are no teachers of virtue as there are of other forms of knowledge such as carpentry or medicine. And those men who are considered to be the most virtuous would certainly train their children to be virtuous also if they could and yet he showed that their sons were not as virtuous as the fathers. So therefore, it cannot be taught. There is something more to virtue than just knowledge.

Then to show that virtue comes from God, he shows the difference between knowledge and true opinions. A person who know the way to go to a certain place and one who has a true opinion of how to get there but has not been there can both lead a person to that place equally well, so " the only right guides are knowledge and true opinion-- these are the guides of man; for things which happen by chance are not under the guidance of man: but the guides of man are true opinion and knowledge." And to end, Socrates says," the conclusion is that virtue comes to the virtuous by the gift of God." I think it's notable that Socrates says God singular and not in the usual plural form of the Greek gods. I think he is talking about a one true God here. What wisdom!!

Thank you, Socrates!!

Household tips

These are some household tips that may seem like common sense, but I have not realized the importance of them and the huge benefit they bring for the same amount of effort done ahead of the curve instead of behind it. Here they are:

Tip #1 -- Keep up on the laundry. When a load is done, fold it and put it away or have your kids do it, but keep up. I have been doing well at it for about 2 months now and it is amazing how much smoother the household runs. It's the same amount of work without the enormous pile of clean or dirty clothes blocking the pathway everyday and the house just seems more orderly. I know some of you already knew this tip, but have patience with those of us who have had to learn it the hard way!!

Tip #2 -- Start making dinner at 4 p.m. so that your family sits down and eats by 5 or 6. I get interrupted a ton when I'm making dinner so it usually takes me twice as long to actually get it on the table. Because everybody is fed no later than 6:30, they are not too grumpy to help with the dishes and cleaning the kitchen afterwards. The after dinner kitchen help goes a long way in runnning a well-kept house. Then I can spend my time on the deeper cleaning organizing chores and the kids start to form good habits of cleaning up after themselves right away, which I am still trying to develop in myself today! Definitely have the dishwasher loaded before you go to bed. A clean kitchen makes for a smoother morning.

Homeschool Tip -- learning vocabulary words

Here's a Tip:

A great easy way for kids to review foreign language definitions is to have them make their own memory game with the matches being between the English word and the foreign word. This gives them practice when they write each word for the game and then it gives them lots of fun review as the play the game. I cut 3x5 card in half for our game, they wrote their vocab. words on them during little kid story time and then we played it with everybody for review. The younger kids are going to fly through their lessons when they get to that point.

Food Storage

Given the current climate, I have had more questions on food storage than before, so here's some info for whoever is interested:

First of all, let me share the best advice I've heard on food storage:

Get your survival food first, the stuff that will keep you alive, then get the tomato sauce and dehydrated fruit and pop tarts to make the survival food go down easier. Variety is extremely important though, especially if you have kids, because "if your kid don't like it, your kid don't eat it", and try to incorporate the survival foods into your regular meal planning. It's a lot healthier for you anyway, especially if you start sprouting and growing miniature greens like wheatgrass.

How much food do you need?

If you go to www.providentliving.org you will find all sorts of info and a food storage calculator. The total recommended amount of food you need is 30lbs of food/ person/ day, that comes out to 1 lb. of food per person per day, that is a 1 lb. loaf of bread (1 lb. of wheat = 1 lb. of flour). I think I would be happier living on more than that. I've heard that 300 lbs. of grain per year is how much the Jews in concentration camps were fed during the Nazi regime so that gives you an idea, but at least you would be alive. That's where you start. Get 300 lbs. of grain and 60 lbs. of dry beans and other legumes and be sure to get some good oil (non-hydrogenated and non-GMO) and salt because they say you can't live long without salt and oil. I think seeds would be a good thing to have also, so you can grow more food, and sprouts are a must for the vitamins we need.

Here's some info on sprouting and some recipes for sourdough bread and pancakes that only require flour, salt, water and baking soda and they taste good. My kids love both.

That's it for the bare basics of food storage. It takes up a lot more space than you would think and it is a major effort, but the Lord will provide for any who seek his blessing and guidance and do their best to keep his commandments. So good luck!! I hope everyone gets their food storage, because I think we may need it desparately someday.... if only I knew when!!

Science Curriculum

My pick at this point for a good elementary school science curriculum is the God's Design series by Debbie and Richard Lawrence.

There is a separate book for each science subject such as plants, animals, the earth, the universe, weather, atoms and molecules, matter, etc. Then each book is divided into chapters that build on each other. It is so organized and full of good information in a format easily understood by the child. Also, each chapter lists the materials you may want to have to do the activity or experiment suggested for each chapter. It is so nice to have it all done for you. I read the chapter to my kids which is written in language for kids and we talk about what we read and then do the activity or experiment to go along with it. There is very little prep time. My kids really like learning real science and I even learn new things along with them. It is very fun!!

Just thought I'd pass this along, I am working on War and Peace and the first 2 books of Herodutus, slowly but surely. I'll finish my essays on the Greek plays at some point, but I got a little burnt out, if you didn't notice!! I've had to give up sewing in order to read, but this month I went back to sewing (for Halloween) and thus the reading went out the window. It's been a nice change of pace, but it's time to get back to reading and cleaning!!

I like turtles

This is just plain funny!!! I had a long hard laugh. It's only 17 seconds long!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y

Jon Stossel's Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics

This is an excellent piece showing the ludicrous position of the government and how stupid it is to expect anything from the politicians or the government. The good things that we have in our society come from people. Just like we don't need a leader to tell which way to go when skating at an ice rink, we don't need leaders and politicians giving us regulations. It's called spontaneous order. He asks great questions and shows exactly what people have to go through to get anything done through government from building permits for New Orleans, to filling out paperwork to run for office, to farm bill subsidies. Let's get government out of the way!!! Go watch it on YouTube and you may find you feel the same way I do. Let's do something!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phs6CwnutoY&feature=related

John Adams mini series from HBO

My husband came back from Wal-Mart with this series and we've watched 2 episodes. It is pretty good so far. John Adams looks old and fat, and George Washington looks old and fat too. Most of the congressmen look like they are deathly ill and the American people in the film look extremely rough, but I got over it after awhile because the story is really great. It is based on the book, John Adams by David McCullough who also wrote 1776. I think it does a great job of portraying what it was like to live at that time and the real decisions these people faced.
The first episode shows the Boston Massacre and how John Adams defended the British in that skirmish even though it was unpopular to do so, and it introduces his relationship with his kids and wife, Abigail. The second episode shows him riding through the forest after the first battle at Lexington and Concord and how he joined the Continental Congress and worked to get them to support a continental army and later for independence. It is very sobering when the congress tries to put out an olive branch for the king and are answered with the threat of death if they continue their treason. It is also sobering at the end when they ratify the Declaration of Independence; no one cheers. One of the delegates didn't show up to vote because he felt it was not the right thing to do and did not want to vote for it in good conscience, but didn't want to keep the others from what they deemed to be their duty. It was so good!!

This is the stuff that makes history come alive and makes me want to check and see how accurate it really is.

3 plays by Aeschylus

I just wanted to record here that I tried to analyze these plays, did a search to make sure I understood them and found that I certainly did not!! There is a huge back story to these plays!!!! Before I read any Greek play again, I'm going to check out the plot summary and find out all the back stories, there were a lot of back stories to the Iliad too, like the Trojan horse that just simply are not written down in the story and you practically have to think like an ancient Greek to get it.

So here is what I wish I had known when I read Agamemnon, Choephoroe and Eumenides, this is a summary and not exact:

It all started with Agamemnon's grandfather, Pelops. Pelops won his wife unfairly in a chariot race and then murdered his accomplice afterward. But before the accomplice died, he cursed Pelops and his family. Then Pelops had 2 sons, Thyestes and Atreus. Thyestes commited adultery with Atreus' wife so Atreus banished him. Thyestes asked to come back and be forgiven and Atreus agreed and served him a wonderful banquet in which he served to Thyestes, Thyestes' own 2 murdered sons to eat. Thyestes was livid and left, and had another son, Aegisthus, possibly in an incestuous relationship with his remaining living daughter in order to avenge the deaths of his sons. And that is the curse referred to on the house of Atreus.

Atreus had two sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon. Menelaus married Helen who was stolen by Paris and taken to Troy which is what the Trojan war was all about. Agamemnon married Clytaemnestra who was the twin sister of Helen although Helen was fathered by Zeus and Clytaemnestra was fathered by a mortal. So anyway, Agamemnon of course wanted to help his brother for many reasons against Troy, but when they went to sail away there was no wind because the goddess, Artemis, was mad at somebody for killing a rabbit and demanded Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigeneia, as a sacrifice to atone for the rabbit. So Agamemnon delivered his daugher to be sacrificed at the temple of Artemis without the knowledge or consent of Clytaemnestra, her mother, and then he was gone to Troy for 10 years.

While Agamemnon was gone, Clytaemnestra hooked up with Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes, the cousin of Agamemnon, and they ruled Argos together and planned to kill Agamemnon when he returned. They sent Orestes, the son of Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon, into exile so that he would not be able to claim the throne, and treated Electra, his sister, like a slave.

The first play, Agamemnon, starts when Agamemnon is returning from Troy.

Also, interesting to note is that Cassandra, daughter of Priam, king of Troy, and the slave to Agamemnon, refused to have sex with Apollo at some point prior, and so Apollo refuses to help her in her need when she knows she will be murdered along with Agamemnon.

There!! I think I got it all!! After finding this all out, the plays have so much more meaning and depth. I will write about it after our next discussion as I'm sure we'll come up with some more interesting ideas!!! Wow!! Those Greeks had an imagination, no wonder we are still interested, it's quite the back story!!!

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin in VP debate on SNL

I just watched a few videos of Saturday Night Live impersonations of Sarah Palin because I heard it was funny. I hadn't paid much attention to Sarah Palin because I'll definitely be voting 3rd party so I figured it didn't matter to me, but I did watch a segment of the VP debate the other night. I didn't think much of it because she does seem like a nice person. Like I said I watched some of the parodies and I laughed, but then I had to watch the real interviews. I am flabbergasted!!! I am amazed at how close the impersonations are to the real thing. It's funny at first, and then it is kind of sad. Palin seems like a nice mom, but she is full of hubris. She doesn't know what the interviewers are asking sometimes and she seldom answers the questions. She spouts off every catch phrase about taxes and patriotism and job creation and Israel she's ever heard. She is so unprofessional, she acts like a person they just grabbed off the street. Unbelievable, what an embarrassment. It's not like I'm surprised, but what a sad disappointment for this country and for women at that.

Here's a link to the debate skit, the interview with Charlie Gibson is also pretty good and so is the one with Katie Couric, just google them: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/04/tina-fey-as-sarah-palin-i_n_131964.html



Also, some of you may find it interesting that Japan's market closed down 4 % on their Mon. and Russia started out very low and our futures market is looking like we'll have another low day tomorrow. Even with the bailout we crash!! What a mess!!! We'll see what happens.

Ron Paul's Response to the President

This was an excellent rebutal to the ridiculous bailout plan now termed a rescue plan as Paul points out in his essay. It was very refreshing, informative and funny in places. I won't go into a lot of detail here because I think Paul's words speak for themselves. If you're not sure about what the heck is going on out there with all these failing banks and companies and buyouts, read this essay. I think it will shed some light.

We need as many educated people as possible, as Ron Paul says, go educate yourself and then educate and encourage others to do the same. If we don't educate ourselves, we could end up with something much worse, like the Amero or I don't know what else. Buy tangibles, things that have intrinsic value, have some cash on hand in case you can't get your money out of the bank, and as the LDS prophets have been saying for years: GET OUT OF DEBT and GET YOUR FOOD STORAGE!!!

Here's the link to this most excellent essay, it's not too long, please read it!!:
http://www.campaignforliberty.com

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx

I have postponed posting on this because it was a little sobering to read and discuss even though I have been aware of what is in there for awhile. It is a very short piece probably about 30 normal pages (my great books pages have very small print and large pages, it was 15 pages in there), it is worth reading. It really doesn't take long. There are 4 sections.

The first section is about the proletariat (the people) and the burgeoisie ( the ruling class) and the problems between them and how the proletariat could oust the burgeoisie if they combined against them. He talks about some of the problems of capitalism such as how laborers are replaced by machinery and improved methods of production, there is a great problem of over production and the constant revolutionizing of methods and finding of markets cannot go on forever. I found myself agreeing that there are definitely some problems with capitalism. Then he talks about how the proletariat is the revolutionary class and they should combine against the evil burgeoisie.

The second section talks about how the proletarians should adopt the communist view. And he talks about how we should ban the private property of the rich beorgeoisie and abolish the family because burgeoisie husbands and wives are unfaithful to each other anyway and a few other things. He sets out 10 mandates to make a society where "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." They are:

1-Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2- A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3-Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4-Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5-Centralization of credit in the hands of the state by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6-Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7- Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringining ino cultivatioon of wastelands, and the improvemetn of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8- Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9-Combination of agriculture with manufacturning industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10-Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of child factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production etc.

So this is the sad part, how many of these mandates have we adopted? Too many!!! Are we really a capitalist country anymore? In light of the recent and future bailouts, not to mention other indicators, I would say we most definitely are not. That is why I postponed this post. Our awesome America is simply not the same country it was 100 years ago. I don't think the communists stopped trying to implement their ideas when we had the red scare in the 50's; they just changed their approach or influenced people to adopt their ideas and here we are today in the United States following more than half the mandates for the communist manifesto.

In the third and fourth sections he talks about the socialist parties in Europe and how that is not enough. Communism will also abolish the differences between cities and towns and countries. Everybody will be equal. The best way to run countries and people is through communism and the above madates. This is the final paragraph:

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians hve nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!

Update on Gatto post

I added this postscript to the Gatto post, it is my personal take on public schools:

P.S. Also, I want to make sure those of you who like your public school or have no other option, know I have nothing against the public schools. I came out all right and lots of people I know came out way better than I did. When I say that the public school system has failed to produce well-educated and free thinking people, I am saying that as a generalization of the entire school system and not for individual students. Parents are definitely the key to well-adjusted and educated children. Many of them make public school work, and their kids do great. I'm glad we are all free to teach our children how we see fit and do what is best for our families. I do think we all gain by understanding the disadvantages we face in our public schools. Those who choose to stay in them can combat those disadvatages when their children are home, and those who choose to homeschool or private school or whatever can make sure they don't duplicate the disadvantages in their new educational choice. I think the public schools do well at some things like math and science and not as well at others like history, languages and classics. There are definitely disadvantages to homeschooling and other educational choices too. The key is to decide which ones you are most willing to deal with and go from there!!

The Iliad by Homer

I did it!! I listened to 14 1/2 hours of audio to hear the whole thing!! I can't say that I understood the entire thing, but I think I got the main jist. The biggest surprise I encountered was that the story of the Trojan horse is not included in the Iliad. Apparently we don't have all the writings, but it is refered to in the Odyssey. The Iliad also was not written originally, it was sung by a bard and the people would gather for a couple days to listen to it. Maybe someday I will be able to read it in the original Greek because I'm sure it sounds great in Greek. The story is excellent although there are a ton of fighting scenes, that made it reminiscent of The Red Badge of Courage, but hey, war is not pretty and I'm just reading about it, I'm not actually there so I think it is only fair I try to understand the ugliness of it so I can appreciate that I don't have to fight and so that I know what is actually involved before I give support to any war. I better be sure the war is really just and necessary, because war is terrible and I don't like it.

O.K. here is a quick summary of the story: At a wedding feast, Eris who was not invited throws in a golden apple with the inscription: to the fairest, three of the goddesses in attendance want the apple and Zues makes Paris a mortal decide who gets the apple. Each of the goddesses promise him a reward, he picks Aphrodite because she can make the most beautiful woman in the world fall in love with him. That woman is Helen, the only problem is that she is already married to Menelaus, King of Sparta, so when she runs away with Paris to Troy, Menelaus declares war on Troy and all his allies come to his aid. None of this is in the Iliad, the Iliad starts around the end of the war and deals with that year to the time of the deaths of Hektor, the hero of Troy and Achilles the hero of the Achaens which are all the other Greeks.

So Achilles refuses to help the Acheans anymore because Menelaus dishonored him. Hektor is the main leader of the Trojans and does an excellent job defending his city and causes great havoc among the Acheans so that Achilles decides to send his friend Patroclus to fight and help the Acheans. He is killed by Hektor, but the Acheans save his body and bring it back to give him a proper funeral. This infuriates Achilles against Hektor and he decides to fight and eventually kills Hektor, but shows him no mercy when he pleads that his body be taken back to his family. Achilles drags it through the street. Hektor's father recovers the body with the help of some of the gods and the Trojans mourn his death. That is where the Iliad ends. Achilles is killed later.

The contrast between Achilles and Hektor is striking. Achilles is selfish and revengeful. Hektor is fighting for his city. There is a sweet part where he parts with his wife and baby son. It is very tender and you can see that he doesn't thirst for blood and he really loves his wife and son, but knows he must fulfill his duty even though he may die.

There are many good points I gleaned from this book. No wonder it is still around and has passed the test of time. I highly recommend it. I'm tired now so that's all for now.

Here is a point I was going to work in nicely but oh well:
I think we are too far removed from actual fighting in this day and age. Back then, they faced their opponents and killed each other head on, now we push a button and a bomb will be released that can kill thousands without us ever personally knowing or seeing our victims. I think it makes us more likely to kill when the enemy has no face. These Greeks saw and respected each other. They would stop for various reasons and talk to each other, then when it was time to fight again, they would kill each other the next minute. It was very open. That is a big difference from today. An ironic point given in this book is how glorified the war seems to be, and everybody wants the glory of performing well in the war and they look forward to the spoils, but in the end it takes about 10 years to sack Troy and in that time so many people on both sides are dead I think it shows how awful war really is.

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

I didn't read this book because I was trying to finish the Iliad and the Communist Manifesto for my other book club and because I was kind of tired of 19th century England classics especially Portrait of a Lady that was sooooooo long. But it turned out to be a favorite that the ladies couldn't put down!!! It is on librivox.org, so I will download it when I need a little less heavy sort of a book, but I just downloaded War and Peace from audible.com and finished the first 2 chapters. It is already interesting. I'm excited to hear how these people dealt with all the wars going on around them. Has anything really changed? I will let you know!! It is about 30 hrs. long. We'll take a couple months to get through this one!!

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

This is one of the best books on the modern public education school system. It really helped me understand what goes on in the public schools better and what I went through as a student. I read another of his books called A Different Kind of Teacher, after I read this one and it was just as good. I can't get enough of Gatto's insight into this subject and the subject of humanity as a whole. Some of the things I got out of these books are the need we, especially children, have for time to think about things and to daydream, the importance of spending time with family and appreciating them, I did not need to feel any guilt about not completing every assignment given to me, and that the public school system has accomplished its goal. That goal was never to assist students to become free, independent thinkers and human beings, it was always to fit people into their proper place in society and to make them complacent with their station. It has worked!!! The reason so many people see the system as being a problem is because they thought school was for academics and learning and it has failed miserably in that regard. What they don't realize and Gatto does an excellent job of documenting this in his book, Underground History of American Education, is that public schools were set up as social institutions for the good of the whole and not as not places of learning for the good of the individual.

Gatto is so insightful in his books. I learned so much and realized some things about my own education and some misconceptions that I may have passed down to my children had I not read his book. He also does not hold back on his descriptions and when he says something outlandish, I was surprised at how true his statement actually was. Now, so that you will want to go grab His short book, Dumbing Us Down, I will give you the title of the seven lessons he taught to the students as a public school teacher for 30 yrs. in New York city, you will have to get the book so you can read the explanation and realize he's right, he's not making this up!!!

Here they are, the seven lessons he taught to students as a public school teacher:
1-Confusion
2-Class Position
3-Indifference
4-Emotional Dependency
5-Intellectual Depedency
6-Provisional Self-Esteem
7-One Can't Hide

I know it is hard to believe at this point, but go get his book at the library or online or borrow it from me and read these 10 pages, and I think you will be very surprised as I was to see that he is right, and all that time you felt a little uncomfortable in school, you may find you were perfectly justified!!

Take care and have fun, I would love to hear comments on this one!!!

P.S. Also, I want to make sure those of you who like your public school or have no other option, know I have nothing against the public schools. I came out all right and lots of people I know came out way better than I did. When I say that the public school system has failed to produce well-educated and free thinking people, I am saying that as a generalization of the entire school system and not for individual students. Parents are definitely the key to well-adjusted and educated children. Many of them make public school work, and their kids do great. I'm glad we are all free to teach our children how we see fit and do what is best for our families. I do think we all gain by understanding the disadvantages we face in our public schools. Those who choose to stay in them can combat those disadvatages when their children are home, and those who choose to homeschool or private school or whatever can make sure they don't duplicate the disadvantages in their new educational choice. I think the public schools do well at some things like math and science and not as well at others like history, languages and classics. There are definitely disadvantages to homeschooling and other educational choices too. The key is to decide which ones you are most willing to deal with and go from there!!

Craters of the Moon National Park

This park is in Idaho and it is basically a huge area full of dried lava rock. We even got to look down the centers of two very old volcanoes. One of them had snow in the bottom. It was pretty cool. It is interesting to see the rocks covered with lichens and then once the lichens turn the lava to small rocks other small plants come in and grow and then eventually the lava is broken down enough for sagebrush, trees and other vegetation to start growing. What a planet!! We also saw a lot of chipmunks there!!

The Teaching Company

We love the teaching company!! We have almost all of their lectures and they have all been fabulous. They are a major part of the high school education we want for our children. My favorite is The History of Freedom by Rufus Fears. He starts with the battle of Marathon in Greece so we learn that the marathon is named for that battle when a soldier ran from Marathon to Athens to tell the Athenians not to let the invaders in because they beat them at Marathon and then he dropped dead after delivering the message and it was 26 miles that he ran. Dr. Fears tells it much better of course!! Then Dr. Fears go through some Roman history and Alexander the Great to Constatine, to England and finally the United States and the constitution. That's just what I remember from first listening to it about 2 years ago so my facts may not be exactly right on. It was so enlightening to hear all these historical events in perspective with each other and how we got to the United States and the constitution. I highly recommend that lecture. The others have been very interesting and enlightening too. I just love learning new things!! I think libraries have them too because they do get expensive, always buy them on sale!!

Their website is www.teach12.com

I hope you enjoy. They have free lectures you can download and those are always interesting too!

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

This was a very long book!! My audio files came out to about 17 hrs. Volume I is especially lengthy in describing and protraying the main characters of the story. The real interesting attention-getting part doesn't come until volume II. If I had to recommend the book to anybody, I would explain the point of vol. I which is that Isabel Archer is a perfect American lady who attracts the very best of men and turns them down. She is also admired by her invalid cousin, Ralph, who convinces his dying father to bestow half his inheritance on her, thus making her a free and rich woman- able to do whatever she imagines in life. There are some good comparisons between the old and new worlds and the difference in social behaviors between the 2 that are quite interesting and just seeing the way things were back them might be worthwhile, but it does take a long time.

Then we get to vol. II. Isabel actually gets married!!! She was deceived into it though on account of her large inheritance. She also comes to find out that her husband had been an adulterer and her good friend his partner and the true mother of his fine daughter. The descriptions of the way Gilber, her husband, treats Isabel and Pansy, his daughter are very educational. He was so underhanded and good at manipulating appearances so that he would always be obeyed. Even so, Isabel has a hard time breaking away from him to comfort her cousin before his death, because she is so commited to the contract of marriage and admits she did it of her own free will. This is admirable and yet Gilbert was so mean, that I hoped she would leave since there were no children involved. Her longtime suitor whom she turned down many times again tried to canvince her to marry him, but in the end she returns to Rome although we don't know what she does once she gets there.

This book is all about relationships. There are several throughout. It is interesting to read about the different ones described. It is also nice to see the consequences of the heroine's decisions. Overall, I think it was worth listening to, but there are probably many other better books to study before this one.

Thanks for reading!!

Money As Debt

There is an excellent video you can watch for free online that explains our money system pretty well. It is a cartoon and it will help you understand a little better why we are in the situation we are as far as the economy goes. Basically our money is not backed up by anything substantive like gold, and the way we get more money is not through working first and then getting paid, it is by taking out loans. The loan money we get from the banks is not actual money they have, it is money that we promise to pay in the future and therefore DEBT!!! Our Money today is DEBT!!! So when people forclose on their homes and stop making payments, the loan money they received and used is essentially gone - disappeared- no longer there. So that causes the bank to scramble because they've been using that promise to pay to lend out more Debt money. It is a huge mess!!! This video does a great job of explaining banking and how this system of money as debt works. Their idea for how to fix it is interesting, but I think we would be better off to just move to a gold standard and have our money have intrinsic value. I think that would fix this mess. In a lot of ways, I hope the whole system does come down because it is so messed up. The fear is that we could end up with something worse though since most people just don't understand basic economics and money. But if that is you, then this video will help!!

Here's the link : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith Book 1 and the introduction

Adam Smith is considered the father of economics and now I know why. I read chapter one and the introduction of Adam Smith's, The Wealth of Nations. If we as Americans read and understood what Adam Smith was telling us in 1776, maybe we wouldn't be in the economic situation we are in now. The aspects I will discuss in this essay are the devaluation of currency, price of commodities and price of labour and wages.

Smith gives an excellent history and lesson on money and how metals were first chosen as a means of exchange because of their portablility and stability. Then he talks about how rulers would issue coins that actually contained less gold or silver than they did previous and how this devalued the money which would lead to inflation. I wish we understood this concept today. The dollar isn't even backed by anything, all it is is a piece of paper and in many cases today it's not even a piece of paper; it's just a number in a computer somewhere. No wonder we are experiencing massive inflation now. We don't have a stable means of exchange. It's unfortunate we left the gold standard, we are paying the price now.

Another very interesting and applicable point Smith makes in this first book is that prices are almost always measured by the amount of corn or wheat that can be bought. In times of plenty the price of food is lowered and price of luxuries are increased, but in times of scarcity, the price of food will rise and luxuries may no longer even be exchanged. People will not care for extras, just the necessities in times of scarcity. Food is always necessary and is a good measure of the economy. He also discussed the interesting idea that laborers earn more money in times of plenty and are more independent than in times of scarcity. He says the opposite is also true:

"Masters of all sorts, therefore frequently make better bargains with their servants in dear that in cheap years, and find them more humble and dependent in the former than in the latter. They naturally therefore, commend the former as more favourable to industy." (towards the end of Chapter VIII Of the Wages of Labour)

He also points out that the masters, landlords and farmers, often make a better profit in dear years because the price of labour is less. Another interesting point he brought up earlier in this chapter is that wages for laborers are the highest when the economy is growing rapidly. He says:

"It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which occasions a rise in the wages of labour. It is not, accordinigly, in the richest countries, but in the most thriving, or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the wages of labour are highest."

This was an excellent read and very thought provoking. I highly recommend this book especially if you want to learn more about Economics. So many things begin to make sense under this new light. Adam Smith is very exact and uses many case studies from history to illustrate his points. If you are willing to take the time to really delve in and understand his points, then you can certainly draw parallels to the present. Good luck, thanks for reading!!

Red Badge of Courage

This is a male novel. The youth/ soldier/ main character, Henry Fleming is excited to fight in the Civil War and to be a war hero. He runs off in his first battle when he thinks they are losing only to find that they won that battle and he should have stayed. He was extremely disappointed in himself but tried to justify his action and eventually found his way back to his regiment and in the following battles fought bravely and eventually died in battle to gain his Red Badge of Courage and was at last a man.

My moms' book club was unimpressed and spent only about 15 min. on the whole thing( I unfortuantely had to miss it this month). Moms don't like war. Henry Fleming should have listened to his mother and stayed home where it was safe. War is stupid. I suppose there are times when we have to defend ourselves, but the Civil War was just a great slaughterhouse. No other country fought a war to defeat slavery, they just slowly outlawed it as Great Britain did. What a shame we could not do the same. There are better ways of dealing with things, but I guess that if you can't work it out, then you have to kill each other and hopefully the good guys win.

We were going to read War and Peace next, but decided we have had enough of war stuff so we will be reading Portrait of a Lady and Wuthering Heights next and then we'll start War and Peace.

Is Harry Potter good or bad?

There is a great article on this subject on the Memoria Press website.

The idea basically is that all literature can be dangerous if it is the only literature a person has read, the only ideas they have come across. Literature becomes less dangerous the more one reads. By being exposed to many ideas one learns to discern when they are reading something bad, good or great. Great literature is literature that teaches truth and inspires a person to do good.

Harry Potter is only dangerous if it is the only thing read. Otherwise, it is a good book with a good story, but not a great book.

Read the article here http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/08/potter.html and check out some of their other articles here: http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/index.html

Classics I am now Reading ( or listening to)

I found a fabulous website from a list given in the UHEA convention handout. It is www.librivox.org . They have lots of audio books for download for free. I listened to part of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith for my Great Books of the Western World Book Club and I am listening to The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane for my Well Educated Mind Book Club. I used to read while I nursed the baby, but he’s all grown up now and I was falling behind on my reading, but this has solved my problem.

My thoughts on the Wealth of Nations so far: It is a great review of the Economic 101 class I took in college. It is actually quite interesting to think about how the “invisible hand” works to allocate resources where they need to go and the way prices are set according to supply and demand. The section on the Division of Labor was very interesting to me on how much more can be produced when people specialize because they don’t switch mindsets or spend time moving from one aspect to another. He gives the example of the safety pin, where a single man can make lie 100 pins on his own in a day, but if you divide the labor of the pin into 20 different parts, then 20 men can make like 100,000 pins (I’m not remembering the exact numbers) which is many times more than they could make individually. I wonder if there is a point where things can become too specialized though and where is the human aspect to all this. Is there a point where even though a person could make thousands of pins more in a day with a specialized group than by himself, maybe he would like to customize his pins or just make the whole thing himself?

My thoughts on The Red Badge of Courage so Far: First of all, the youth is excited to join the Union side of the Civil War only to find that he spends a lot of time waiting around and not fighting although he wonders if he would actually be as brave as he fantasizes he would be. They eventually fight and he runs off in the middle and eventually gets hungry enough to go back to his regiment. Isn’t this so like human nature? -- not wanting to get caught or punished for doing something wrong and trying to justify our actions even though we know we’re wrong. He almost wishes the Union army would lose so that he could say he was right for running!! Also, it’s hard to wait for things to happen. That would be rotten!!

How to Begin the Homeschooling Journey

How to Begin the Homeschooling Journey

Determine the educational goals, opportunities and life experiences you want your child to obtain. What is most important for them to learn? What kind of a person would you like to see them become? Prioritize, plan and follow through.

Then evaluate the public school experience. As a homeschooler, you need to make sure your child has at least the same skills as those who graduate from the public schools. This shouldn't be hard to do as there is such a spectrum of students who come out of the public schools and many times the standards are incredibly low.

What many public schools are good at:

Most children can read, write, type and do basic math when they leave the public school. Public schools usually have strong science and math programs and good extra curricular activities and school to work programs. Depending on the teachers and classes the students take, they will know about different things. Public schools tend to be poor in areas such as history, rhetoric, logic, languages, communication, philosophy and classics. Some schools have wonderful music, art and sports programs depending on the school. Some students are able to find areas where they can excel and do well in public school and in life. Many students leave either thinking they are extremely well educated and smart or thinking they are stupid and unable to do academics; often neither of these is true.

Once your student can read, write and do basic math, everything else they learn or study will be either comparable or greater than what is learned in the public school. The standard of the public school is surprisingly low. Many elementary school teachers admit that out of the 6 hrs. given to the public school each day, 45 min. to 1 ½ hours of it are spent in actual learning time.

Because of the great success of homeschoolers, the only argument left to support the public school system is that it is a great way to socialize our children. Many homeschoolers in fact reject the public school because of the socialization that goes on there especially with regard to bullying and other problems.

However, public school is not all bad and there are many well-meaning wonderful teachers and administrators who really just want what is best for the children and when the parents take an active role in their child’s education and help at the school, it can be a great experience as evidenced by many people we see all around us.

There certainly are disadvantages to homeschool. It is very time-consuming for the parent. The child may feel lonely if there are not other homeschoolers around. And it is hard work for both parents and children. But the payback is worth it. Parents and children get to spend more time together and learn together. It is so rewarding to watch your child learn. There is much more flexibility in what to study and for how long and how in depth. There are tons of opportunities for field trips, classes and time to serve and enjoy nature. It can be scary at first, but homeschooling is no longer uncharted territory and we are seeing the benefits more and more each day as more and more people make the leap to homeschool.

Choosing a curriculum:

There is so much to choose from. It could be overwhelming. I like the trivium and classical approach to education. The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer is an excellent resource with many good curriculum suggestions. Rainbow Resource has a huge catalog great for perusing. Latter-day Family Resources also has good advice on curriculum. I have heard that Abeka is wonderful for the elementary levels. Saxon Math seems to be the favorite once the student reaches the 5^th grade level.

The curriculum I have enjoyed so far is as follows:

Math:

Singapore Math --- It comes with a text book and workbook. The kids go through the work book and when they get stuck they ask me and we can over it in the textbook until they understand it. Also, I correct their workbooks and make sure they understand as they go, but it is nice because they mostly do it on their own. Math is a matter of practice.

Reading—

The Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD is the best quickest way to learn the letters and their sounds. Then they need to learn to blend the sounds together to make words. The best way to do this is to say it slow, then say it fast. Then the child is ready for BOB books and The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise. We also use a set of phonics games put together by Diane Hopkins that help with all the stages of reading and make it fun.

Language Arts such as writing and grammar ----

Greek and Latin are my choice for teaching English grammar, vocabulary and spelling with all the English words that come from Greek and Latin. I like the Elementary Greek series found at www.opentexture.com. We will start Henle Latin around age 12 or when we are finished with the Greek series.

For writing and composition, the students keep a journal, write imaginative stories and book reports as they are able. They also give narrations when they are young to get used to expressing themselves before they have the ability to write it down on their own.

For Penmanship, they begin by tracing the scripture of the week in cursive. I print it in grey with a cursive font. This also helps them with memorization. Once they are good at writing in cursive, they simply copy the scripture exactly which gets them used to punctuation and word usage, or they may choose a different selection to copy such as a poem or section of other literature.

Literature:

We read poetry, short stories, novels, the scriptures, and picture books out loud for learning and enjoyment. We talk about what we read and what the new words mean. There are many great lists. www.mainlesson.com has many wonderful stories and poems and other selections you can print or read online. Just the listing of what they have is a great resource. There are many lists of classical children’s literature when you search. Homeschooling conferences are packed with veteran homeschoolers willing to share their knowledge. The UHEA (Utah) conference held each June is a great place to get lots of good advice and list books and websites that are so helpful.

History:

I like the Story of the World Series by Susan Wise Bauer. The series is divided into 4 books, the first on the Ancients, 2^nd on medieval times and the renaissance, 3^rd on Early modern times including the establishment of the USA and the 4^th is on Modern times. Each book is compiled of stories from history in chronological order and is complemented by an Activity book complete with maps, coloring pages and additional reading ideas.

Science:

We have been using the God’s Design series. Each chapter covers a topic in science and then has experiment ideas or worksheet to go along with the material covered. We also read different science books, observe nature and grow a garden. Telescopes and microscopes are also fun, and we may get brave and take a dissection class this coming school year.

Music, Art, Extras:

My children are required to take piano. I am fortunate to be able to teach them myself. I love the Music Master Program by Roger Lewis at www.mmgroups.com . We also enjoy singing together and listening to all sorts of good music. Once they have mastered the piano and the guitar, they can learn to play another instrument if they so desire. We take time to make crafts, draw and enjoy good art at museums and in books. Some years they have taken dance classes, gymnastics, soccer, choir or art classes. Girls Club and Boys Club has also been great for making other homeschool friends. Field Trips are a must, and book clubs have also been a lot of fun.

So that pretty much covers what I know about curriculum. There is so much out there, you have the freedom to tailor it to your specific wants and needs. Good luck!! If something doesn’t work, just try something else ‘til you get it. It will work out!!

So now all that’s left is to figure out how to fit this all in. Some families like to keep at it 5 days a week and take the summer off. Others work 3-4 days per week and continue through the summer. Others may work 3-5 weeks in a row and then take a week long break. And then there is everything in between and sometimes longer breaks or fewer and shorter breaks. Once you have your goals and priorities clarified, then you just do what you have to do to accomplish your goals.

One very important thing to remember is that it is just about impossible to mimic the public school at home. There is a reason the public schools are run the way they are, mostly to keep order with so many children and very few teachers. Just figure out what will work for you and your children. Focus on your desired outcome. Most homeschoolers I know prefer to get it done in the morning when the mind is fresh and clear, but others find it easier to do it in the evening depending on parents schedules and other factors. You just have to try things out until you figure out what works, and that may change many times. The Miracle Music program www.childrensmiraclemusic.com has been a great help in getting our children up and ready to start the day in a timely manner and develop good habits.

So that's it!! Don't be afraid, just jump in and enjoy the FREEDOM!!!!!!!