Anastomoses for Homeschoolers

We're studying human anatomy and physiology in science this year (see An Ode to the Dung Mill). Circulatory anstomoses has been one of the most intriguing things I've discovered. The circulatory system has redundant blood sources for important organs like the heart so that if one source is blocked the organ can continue to function. Ensuring that the kids get a thorough education has been an important concern for me. I'm flighty and I tend to like to eat dessert first when it comes to school work. I was concerned that if the curriculum were left entirely up to me they'd be brilliant at science and writing and not much else. I also felt that it was important that they have the opportunity to develop independant learning skills, particularly the necessary self-discipline to continue an educational project on their own. I built our homeschool system with curricular anastomoses.
Our homeschooling day is divided into two parts affectionately known as "loud school" and "quiet school." We begin the day with loud school which is the parts of the curriculum that I contribute. This year that includes a Bible lesson, early American history, human anatomy, grammar and composition, phonics, and occasionally some drill on math facts (Math is a pronounced weakness of the current curriculum, next year I'm going to work a little Saxon into the mix.) This part of our day is full of activity and discussion, experiments and serendipity. I love being together doing interesting things. I find it builds family unity and curiosity.
Quiet school is unpopular, but perhaps even more important. Each child is responsible for their own work during quiet school. We purchased Switched On Schoolhouse for the older children to work through, and Horizons for the younger children. Switched on Schoolhouse asks very little of me as the teacher. Plug it in and set the kids to work. I grade a few written problems and make sure that assignments are completed on time, but that's all. Horizons requires a little more of me, but with the younger children I don't expect anything else. This part of the day is actually the most demanding. It demands restraint on my part. I have to let them choose how they manage their time. I do have to spend a great deal of energy refusing to accept unfinished work, or dawdling, but I'm starting to see the pay off in my oldest. She cruises through her full workload in an hour or two. She knows how to complete tasks she may not find appealing in a timely manner, and if she's curious about a subject she knows how to go about studying the subject on her own.
By setting the system up in this manner, I ensure that most subjects receive double coverage, and that the kids develop different skills and work habits. The day is long compared with many homeschooling families, and perhaps even with the schools. I'm not as fond of that. I wish that we didn't have to invest so much time in quiet school, but until the others develop the oldest's maturity I'll just have to be patient. The anastomoses also eases my anxiety that perhaps the kids are missing out academically because they are learning at home. They may be missing other things that I enjoyed about a school experience, but I think that academically the education they are receiving is as sound as the one I received. Overall, I'd recommend our scheme to other homeschoolers. I don't think it's required. There are lots of other ways to meet the goals I've mentioned, but this system does work well for us. It may be just the thing for you.

A Famine of the Word

This proud momma couldn't wait for baby's hair to grow before giving you a peek. This story made for a nice break from the other work I've been doing.

She gets up while it is still dark, she provides food for her family.
Willow groaned and hit the alarm. Bleary-eyed she stumbled toward the shower.
This is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.
She dropped her clothes and stepped on the scale. Numbers don't lie. She was losing the war on fat.
Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Looking in the mirror though, she wasn't doing that badly. Ron still got a pretty worthy eyeful when he was looking.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities all is vanity.
The water was warm and comforting and the soap smelled of lavender.
Toweling off, she wrapped her hair in a turban and threw on her robe. What to wear?
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.
Denim it was, again.
She is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate.
Vanity of vanities. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
The shower had taken longer than usual.
Redeeming the time for the days are evil.
She put the kettle on even though she knew it meant an interupted devotional time.
His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.
She read through the Old Testament passage quickly tring to ignore the impending whistle and its call to prepare breakfast. She was halfway through the New Testament portion when she raced over to turn it off.
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.
Finishing the New Testament, Psalm and Proverb she peeked at the clock. It was almost time to wake the family. Kneeling she laid out her prayer list.
"Lord, all these things I pray. Amen"
Let all things be done decently and in order.
There are too many things, way too many things.
You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.
Willow returned to her knees. She wasn't there long before Ron put the kettle back on the burner. Stumping around, he started cofee, hacked up phlegm and poured cereal.
Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
She gave up trying to pray and took over making breakfast.
She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family.
"Well, you got the getting up early part."
"Might have gotten the rest if there'd been servant girls to provide for.
"How profitable is your trading?"
"How respected are you in the city gates?"
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone.
"Would you like eggs for breakfast?"
"I would if I had times which I don't."
A soft answer turns away wrath.
"Is there anything I can do to help you get ready?"
"You can travel back in time and get me up a half hour ago and you can slow my boss down so he'll be late. That's what you can do."
Answer not a fool according to his folly.
Anyone who says to his brother "Raca" is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, "You fool!" will be in danger of the fires of hell.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
She washed up the dishes and laid out breakfast for the kids.
"See you tonight if not earlier." he said and headed out to work.
Fifteen minutes remained. Prayer or breakfast?
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God.
She got the kids fed and dressed and out the door. She closed up the house and drove them to school and then went to Maimee's for Bible study. The topic was submission and she'd managed to fill in the pink booklet completely this week.
Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Maimee had a lovely tray of mini-muffins perched invitingly on a tray next to a chilled pitcher of orange juice.
"Help yourself. I knew you'd be hungry." Maimee smiled and last week's confession about gluttony stung Willow's cheeks.
"I'll just have one, thanks."
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
It was delicious, enticing, perfect. The muffin rivalled chocolate.
Let your moderation be known to all men.
If there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things.
"Maimee, these are so good, I think I'll have another."
The gleam in Maimee's eyes did not escape Willow, but neither did the muffins. They were so good.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation unto himself.
When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.
The plastic knife in the butter didn't look like very useful. Why hadn't Maimee used her stainless? Really, it was rather lazy of her to use plasticware.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Maimee got everyone settled and the study started. Everyone took out their pink booklet determined to become women of submission, or at least to look like a woman of submission. The passage up for discussion was Ephesians 5:21, a general command to all believers to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Maimee being the leader had first say.
"Submission is an issue for every believer, not just women. Paul commands everyone, men included to submit to each other. Now I'm curious what you think about that."
All the women had been cued what to think by the pink booklets, but Mercy was new to the group and still dared to wonder.
"How is it that this one sentence doesn't undermine all the rest of this study? If there's no male nor female, if we all have to submit to each other then why are we working so hard on becoming 'women' of submission? Why aren't we just working on being 'Christians' of submission?"
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Maimee was feeling restrained. "Well that's an interesting perspective, does anyone else have something to add to that?"
She looked directly at Willow.
"Well, this is a women's Bible study group."
Let your 'Yes' be yes and your 'No' be no or you will be condemned.
"Women have a role that is partly defined by submission so it is natural that we have a special interest, perhaps even an expertise in submitting." Mary was Willow's choice to lead the Bible study, but Mary didn't do mini-muffins.
Maimee pursed her lips. "Exactly, Mary. I couldn't have said it better myself."
Willow covered her mouth and tried to smother a sneeze.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.
Mercy stirred. "I don't accept the idea of fixed roles for women."
"Then you might as well turn in your book and go home." Maimee returned.
Mercy did as she was told.
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.
"I hear her marriage is really struggling." Martha offered.
"Ron says Jed's a real flirt." Willow contributed this even though Ron hadn't really been that specific.
Who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman.
"I heard Jed is abusive." Millie chimed in.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself or you also may be tempted.
"Ladies, we did not gather to gossip." Maimee asserted. "Mary, I think you should call Mercy and see if she needs any advice. You are the group expert."
Willow shriveled. She just wanted to get out of that double-wide and back to her little house.
Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
The rest of the Bible study stuck to the pink booklet. Maimee collected requests and led them in a prayer that included a petition on Willow's behalf for help with her "continuing struggle with gluttony."
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
Willow wished Maimee a good day, and headed out to the truck.
"I wish you led the group" she whispered to Mary.
Mary smiled. "I don't do mini-muffins."
"I know" Willow said.
Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
The truck glided along, but Willow's thoughts did not.
If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The grocery store was nearly empty. Not many did their shopping on Wednesday afternoon which suited Willow just fine.
She headed straight for the back aisles and cruised through paper goods and cleaning supplies. Next came canned goods and dried pasta. The kids loved homemade pizza so she picked up a couple of kits. The next aisle was baked goods and she spotted a new spice cake mix. Cream cheese icing is a must with spice cake. There were new peanut butter and butterscotch chips that would make luscious oatmeal cookies.
Then she remembered Maimee's prayer.
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so you can stand up under it.
She remembered Maimee's wicked gleam and put it all back. No desserts this week. The she remembered Tommy's recital. He'd be expecting a sweet reward.
Do not withold good from those who deserve it when it is in your power to act.
She picked up a rainbow sprinkles cake with rainbow sprinkles icing. No self-respecting adult would touch such a cake.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
The tears began as she turned down the cereal aisle. Product 19 beckoned as did Special K and Total. The kids were gonna love Maimee--no Cookie Crisp, no Froot Loops, no Apple Jacks. Down frozen foods she flew blindly grabbing vegetables and ice cream, fish filets and cool whip.
No good thing does he withold from those whose walk is blameless.
The produce aisle was a chaos of recommended regimens.
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Carrot cake was a healthy alternative especially if she used applesauce as a sweetner. She reached for the carrots.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
Just milk and cheese and she could go home. The cashier looked at the cart skeptically. Willow did a hasty calculation. She could afford it all.
In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Counting up the cost of her weekly groceries galled Willow. Her personal definition of rich was throwing everything she needed into a cart and never thinking twice about how much it cost. It was such a small amount, why couldn't she have just that level of security?
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
"Paper or plastic?"
"Plastic" Willow specified planning to line the trash cans. Her thriftiness pleased her.
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
The doors opened like St. Peter's cell door and she was back out in the heat. The bags were overfilled and she was trying to fit it all in the front seat of the truck to save room for the kids. Thinking of the kids she checked the clock.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.
"Please help me get this done quickly."
A bag containing eggs, carrots and five pounds of sugar started to fall and in order to stop it she threw three bags after it.
"SHIT!"
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth.
Tears and epithets began tumbling over each other.
"Goddamn, that is a lovely mess" a grizzled gentleman began to pick things up. "These plastic bags aren't worth a crap. I always bring along cardboard boxes to cart this stuff in. I think I've got an extra."
"Thanks." Willow was full out boo-hooing, no use trying to appear independent.
Carefully the gentleman salvaged what could be salvaged and packed it into a banana box.
"Sometimes it just feels like the whole world's gone to hell, but it hasn't, it hasn't. You only lost three eggs. That's a miracle right there. Can't do much about your milk though. Say are you dehydrated? You look dehydrated, what with the crying and all. My Mrs. talks my ears off about dehydration. I've got some fancy ass water she gave me stock-piled in the Chevy. Hang on."
Willow found a crumpled, pre-owned tissue in the side-pocket of the door and mopped up. It wasn't her first day like this one.
Hank came back with the water.
"Drink up! You'll feel a hell of a lot better. My Mrs. is pain in the ass, but that's generally because she's right. Take care of yourself and God bless."
Willow waved goodbye and got in the truck. She unscrewed the cap and threw back her head to guzzle. She was dehydrated.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Father of My Children

He slammed into study hall with the focus of a missile. Deftly, he grabbed the chair in front of his unquestioned desk and flipped it around to accomodate his size 15 feet. He dropped a nearly destroyed hockey bag over the side and retrieved a paperback novel that was required reading for Sophomores. Without a word or a glance for anyone or anything else in the room he began to read. All around him kids threw planes, drew pictures, gossiped and goofed off, but he was in a world apart.
"Who is that?" I immediately inquired of the only girl who was speaking to me that first day. She wasted my time with a lot of idle gossip that indicated nobody really knew. I kept watching him as he sped through the chapter that was all he had left of his homework. His hair was obviously cut by a military barber. He was absolutely outside of peer pressure in every way. When he finished reading his book, he pitched it into the bag zipped it closed and applied for a pass to the library with the precision of a dress parade. From that moment on if he was in view I was watching him. I'm still watching him. I'm still enjoying the show.

Motherhood

There was a hammering at the window, so I raised the sash
The Tornado lay on its side spewing its treasure
I closed the glass

God must take care of you
I have many responsibilities and you are not one of them.

My Way

For most women my age it's their biological clock that's suddenly gotten noisy, but for me it's my ambition. I already have five children. That just might be all the noise I need. I decided somewhere in the midst of college to put reproduction first and career would come after. There was some research that indicated that women's careers didn't really take off until their 40's, and by then logic would indicate that sexual harassment should be slowing down, so I planned my life exactly backward according to conventional wisdom. So far, it's been a great plan. The kids are all well and healthy. I really love being a full time mom, but forty is getting closer. It's going to be time for me to start focusing on a career. I'm almost certain what I want to do now that I'm growing up, but it's still a little fuzzy. The thing I overlooked as I planned was the insecurity I feel just getting started now when everyone else has been out there establishing themselves. My friends have terrific resumes, and I am just getting a clue. On the other hand, I can savor the process in ways I wouldn't have. I already have a position as a person of value, my career will simply be icing. I'm not overwhelmed by twin demands because I have some experience managing home and family. I can create a career to fit my life instead of trying to fit a baby into an established career.

When it all becomes boggling, I remember that this is a rare opportunity I've been handed. I have had the chance to choose my own life. For better or worse I got to make my own plan and so far, I've been able to see it through. What other time in history did women have such freedom? If my life is a failure at least I got to try it my way. Most of the time that's more than enough.

a kaleidoscope of books

I tend to read books round-robin style with lots of books in the round-robin. I used to try to discipline myself to stick with it one book at a time, but I found that I didn't get the most out of my reading that way. I do better reading a good chunk out of this book and then switching to something unrelated. At the moment I have lots of books whirling around in my home. This particular mix is turning out to be very pleasurable, so I'm sharing it with you.

Up Against the Ivy Wall I had to special request this at the library, but it's terrific research for my novel. The book takes you through the protests at Columbia in 1968. The book is written by student journalists who were attending Columbia at the time and some of whom participated in the protests.

Why Students Rebel This is another period book by a middle-aged reporter about the Columbia protest. This book is more analytical and a tad snide. I'm enjoying contrasting it with the student reporter version. He also takes a bit of a character driven approach. Handy for the novelist.

Silent Spring I've always wanted to read this, and it was on the shelf at the library. I was right to pursue it. The book is alarming, but also elegant. Marvelous propaganda for a good cause.

A Theater of Envy Rene Girard's ideas are haunting me, so when I saw this book was available through interlibrary loan I couldn't resist. It's a combo of Shakespeare and Girard's ideas. Very interesting.

Month by Month Gardening I have this beautiful garden I didn't plant, and I need to know what to do with it and when. So far this book has me hopeful that I can get on top of it all.

Botany in a Day The kids and I are studying botany this summer, so I got this resource to expand my knowledge of the subject. The author is certainly enthusiastic about plants. His certitude that all this is so easy I can master it in a day is bracing, though unlikely to materialize.

The Botany Coloring Book I thought this was just going to be a simple coloring book like the human anatomy coloring book, but instead it's three times as long and full of fascinating information.

The Wholeness of a Broken Heart OK, I whizzed through this one in a day and a half, but I just finished it and it was so good. I'm going to buy a copy of this for each of my daughter's twenty-first birthdays. The insight this author offers into the mother/daughter relationship is priceless.

Slouching Toward Bethlehem I was flying through this, but I realized I was going to come to the end and I'm enjoying it too much to rush to the finish. The essays by Joan Didion written around the time my novel is set are period bound, but I find that period so rich it is almost timeless.

Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes...in You and Your Kids One of those hint, hint gifts from my mom. It isn't intellectually challenging, but I'm having one of those "I just can't concentrate" fugues when I try to read it. Nevertheless, I keep picking it up because I can't stand my own whining. Maybe my mom should have read it when I was a kid? Hmmmm. :)

That's it mostly. I futz around with magazines and such, but I try to stay focused on the books when I can grab time around everything else. A restless mind is both a marvelous source of energy and a distraction from the other drives that push my life--you know, being a great parent and growing as a writer. If I could ever settle myself down to a single task, the world would be in trouble and I might get out of it.

Happy Reading to you and yours.

The Turtle's Chrysalis

This poem is my attempt at a metaphysical poem. I like the cluttered collage of images, but I wish the rhymes were better. Perhaps it would be better unrhymed, but it is what it is.

I live my life in a narrow well
Deeply resourced, but still a cell
Pushed upward by time, walled in by space
Truly this is the turtle’s race

Trapped I am in the day by day
But my hopes by faith escape today
To reflect the beauty of Thy face
And crown the end of this turtle’s race

When time’s measure at last is full
On Spirit’s wings I’ll leave the pool
I’ll burst full-born into eternity’s space
To crown Thee with Thy daily grace

Socialization

The one idea that has permeated the common mind(for a definition of the common mind, read this post)about homeschooling is that children who are homeschooled are not properly "socialized." I suppose there is merit in that idea if you are defining socialization as "having common experiences with your own generation." I prefer to think of socialization as the training of a future adult. A properly socialized child will grow up to be a successful adult. I've begun to doubt the efficacy of mass schooling if this is the desired outcome. Human beings learn by imitating other human beings. We learn to walk by imitating those who walk. We learn to talk by imitating those who talk. We learn to live an adult life by imitating those who are adults. When you put children in mass groups of fifteen or so and then ask a single adult to train them all, you are depriving the children of sufficient exposure to the adult model, and overexposing them to imperfect peer models.
This may explain the boomers all in itself. Previously, American children were growing up in a more agrarian country where parents and children worked together to earn the family livelihood and so spent extended periods of time together. Mass schooling in this context has a limited impact, because the adult models are heavily available to the children outside of the school. With the transition to an industrial economy made complete by the World Wars and their demands for mass production, we now had limited opportunities for children and parents to do meaningful work together. Parents now work separately from their children. Mass schooling now becomes an exacerbation of this limited exposure to quality adults. The mobility of our society also limits the opportunity for children to interact with good adult models because they are now separated from extended family more often than not.
Looking at socialization from this perspective, homeschooling is the more successful option. Children and parents are once again doing meaningful work together. The children have many opportunities to interact with a successful adult model. I'm not saying this is gospel. I haven't had done any research yet, but it is plausible. It certainly gives those who question my life choice something to consider, and it makes it plain that I've considered their concerns.

Zombie

Free dive to the corpse of being
The tomb is a prison beyond your gasp
Scream in dumb unison
wake up

Build-Anything-But-A-Bear

Family rituals are one of my ways of keeping things fair. Five children deserve to know that they are equally loved. (They also deserve to know that they are uniquely loved, but that's another discussion.) Having rituals for celebrations such as birthdays allows the equality factor to be obvious and measurable. I think that that contributes to my children's security in our home.

One of my favorite rituals is Build-A-Bear Workshop. It started with our second born. She was turning three and this new mall had opened with this cute store where kids got to make their own stuffed animals and dress them up. I thought this would be a great way to spend her birthday. That first visit was magical. Rose took forever before deciding on a dalmation dog. Next were endless deliberations over what sound button to put inside her new friend. Stuffing is quite the ritual all in itself; the stuffer gives each child a fabric heart to kiss and then has them do a magic dance to bring the bear to life and then puts the heart in, stuffs the bear at a huge stuffing machine, and pulls the opening closed and ties it shut. Rose was in another world. After her dog was finished she gave it a "bath" in this cute tub that sprays air to remove loose threads and stray stuffing. She was so strongly under the magic of the experience that she chose the dog's name by randomly pointing at a list of names. She was sure that was the one. She then dressed her dog in a ballerina costume and printed out her new friend's birth certificate. We were agog. This experience was a repeater for sure.

We have repeated it--four times so far. Each birthday we return to the store where we purchase a new outfit for the bear. I say "bear" as a sort of species neutral way of referring to the stuffed animals, because none of my children have chosen a bear. We have a dog, a cat, a penguin and a frog, but not a single bear. I am pleased that my children chose a "something else" when they had their turn. I like the idea that they embrace different as a good. I am hopeful that they will be able to carry this perspective into their adulthood. They are also carrying forward their stuffed friends. Our pals go with us on all of our vacations and adventures, and they now have an extensive communal wardrobe collected over many years and many birthdays. Our youngest has a year and a half before he can choose his "bear" and speculation is already running high about what he will pick. Whatever he chooses he'll be participating in a family ritual that highlights his unique yet equal place in our family.

I hope you have developed little rituals that tie your family together. I'd love to hear about them and to poach the good ones!

Campaign Finance Requirements

Politics is an interest I like to deny having. I like to pretend I don't watch the Sunday morning shows whenever possible. I like to pretend that I buzz by C-Span like everybody else, but the truth is I don't. I get stuck, even when it's just a roll call. I grew up near the capitol and beltway gossip still appeals to me. I need to know what those politicoes are up to these days. Lately, campaign finance reform has captured my attention. "Money is speech" is a powerful argument, and I agree with it, but money is controlled by the few. Being rich shouldn't be a political amplifier if things were as they should be. Things being what they are, we need to look at the problem from a new angle. Rather than legislating the budget, we should legislate the campaign agenda. We should make required debates and appearances the bulk of the campaign season. Think of it like figure skating; there's the compulsory round and the free-style.

If I were drafting the legislation, I'd require the presidential candidates to appear at a televised interview or debate in each of the fifty states. I'd leave up to the states to determine how they would use this required time with the candidates. They could have a traditional presidential debate with questions of local interest and import or they could grill each candidate separately. They could have the governor do the questioning or a journalist or a random citizen chosen by lottery. They would be required to have the appearance broadcast to their entire population. Fifty days of the campaign, the agenda would be set, and the candidates would have to do a lot more to earn our vote than buy great ads and Hawaii would finally get to participate in the pre-election hoopla with at least a sample of the immediacy New Hampshire has created for itself. I think that this would go a long way to solving the campaign inequities of fundraising without limiting our power to express our preference with our money. Candidates may actually find fund-raising easier after touching base with supporters in every state.

Just two cents from this midwestern mom. Media is so widely available. Travel is so fast and easy. Why aren't we harnessing these resources to make candidates more immediately available to every citizen?

An Ode to the Dung Mill

Our family treats homeschooling as a joint expedition into the marvels of the life. One of our most successful experiments has been to base our science curriculum around a video course from The Teaching Company. We chose their course on human anatomy and physiology for this year. The course has been a blast. We try to watch the lecture for each week on Fridays as a family, and then the during school time I've been enriching the lecture with experiments and projects culled from resource books. I'll add a list with mini-reviews at the end of this. Currently we are studying the digestive track to the great embarrassment of my girly-girls. I'm afraid it's about to get worse today, I was inspired to write a "jingle" to help them remember the anatomy we are studying. The resultant masterpiece awaits you.

The Digestive Track, The Digestive Track
Food, hop in the mouth and don't come back
Grind it up teeth, swallow it tongue
It's on its way to becoming dung
Down the esophagus squeeze, squeeze, squeeze
Even swallowing upside down's a breeze
Dump it in the stomach to squish around
Add pepsinogen and acid from the pits we're in a rush
To get this chyme ready to go
Open the pyloric sphincter and let it roll
Liver and pancrease, send the bile down
Gall bladder stand by in case there is too much
On to the duodenum, last stop before the ride
Miles of intestine all coiled up inside
Nutrients absorbing all along the way
Villi keep it moving while they groove and sway
Dump it in the colon, pull the moisture out
It's headed for the rectum, make sure no one's about
Have a seat and push it through the anus, Man!
Take my advice and turn on the fan.

I'm sure that was wildly uplifting. We have three doctors in the family, if any of you are reading this, feel free to pass on corrections/additions.

Useful books if my art has inspired you:
Blood and Guts by Linda Allison
This has been one of my favorites since childhood. The presentation is excellent and the experiments are killer.
The Human Body for Every Kid by Janice Van Cleave
The experiments are good though the information has a random feeling to it and the author's voice is rather dogmatic.
Human Body by Martyn Page
I found this little book full of handy illustrations. The size makes it easy to carry around for on the spot information.
The Incredible Human Body by Esther Weiner
We like the terrific exercises and handouts. The game to illustrate blood circulation has been our favorite part of the whole course.
Health, Hygiene and Nutrition
This is a teacher's workbook with reproducible worksheets that I'm using to tie the information we are learning to personal hygiene and food choices. The format is most successful with the younger kids, but the older ones get the point.
The Human Anatomy Coloring Book by Margaret Matt
I love the way the book uses colored pencils to tie together the illustrations of an organ. When you are using light blue you are coloring the diaphraphm in several different pictures so you understand that this is a variety of perspectives, not a variety of organs. The kids just like to color. The text is a little over their heads, but the text isn't the point.

We also picked up some great visual aids and software, but these are harder to find. I recommend being flexible and exploring the options available at your local teacher store. Delta Education is a terrific source for these kinds of supplies and also for math manipulatives. I'm learning not to be a supply snob. Toys R Us had a nice model of the human body including a working stethoscope at a very reasonable price. Just keep your eyes open.

I hope I've inspired you. Even if you aren't interested in homeschooling, a family adventure of this kind could really perk up your summer.

for my brothers and sisters at Lent

Scentual Satisfaction

Throw open the spice cupboard
Indulge in gustatory gluttony
Follow your nose wherever it leads you


Savor the thought of well-cooked meat
Salivate with the embarrassing abundance barbecue inspires
Let the greed spread across your mind like a grin


Picture piles of produce fresh from the field
Revel in the color and the shapes
Finger the memories lovingly and with gratitude


A true connoisseur prefers simple food simply cooked
Just a bowl of rice perfectly steamed with a pinch of salt

Cup the bowl in your hands
Inhale a pure fragrance
Ahhhhh.

Did you catch it?
The scent of shepherd returned from the pasture
Satisfaction.

Spring

Many thanks to Michelle, Nanette, Valerie, and Jodi who inspired this poem.

Deep in the dark where the mushrooms grow
Where the earthworms wiggle and the snow can’t blow
Deep in the sacred heart of earth
Springs a seed to life of forgotten birth

Before you there was me, before me there was you
But look in the earth there grows something new
A something better than each alone
A fresh new self before unknown

Summer's Coming!

Have you started planning for the summer yet? I can't wait. Homeschooling is a commitment to year round learning, but summer is devoted to the fun stuff. This summer we'll be working on swimming, botany, state history, and creative writing. We live near a beach for the first time, and I have already started to stock up on such beach necessities as an umbrella and beach towels. The local arts council offers concerts all summer long, and we've discovered that we love flying kites. Last year we got into stunt kites, but I purchased a classic kite for the younger kids this year.

Last year, I was feeling good just to get us unpacked and out to the beach two or three times. We didn't do any classes or teams. Moving consumed the entire summer. This year I'm looking up swim classes, art classes, chess workshops, and I'm writing a curriculum for a neighborhood writing seminar. I didn't do a good job with the garden last year. We were just getting acquainted, our new yard and myself. This year I'm going to do better, and start adding my own touches. We need some herbs and some flowers for cutting. I'm poring through seed catalogs, though the time to dream is soon going to be over and I'll need to get my orders in. I really ought to do it today.

You probably think I'm a pretty sick puppy by now, but it doesn't stop with summer. I've started laying out next year's homeschooling curriculum. I've already purchased the foundation for our study of physics next year. The older my children get, the more I realize I'm in the summer of my life and there is not a moment to waste. I don't want to be an old woman wishing for days that can't come back. I want to be a busy grandma with great stories to tell.

The Red Cord

The face on Mars isn't really a face we are told. Our mind is simply programmed to see faces in everything. We look for faces and so we see them. This post started with a PBS documentary on the Revolutionary War that described the process of inoculating people against small pox in that period. Evidently they would run a needle and thread through an infected pustule and then run the same needle and thread through skin on a person's arm. How unpleasant an image is that, so, of course, it stayed with me. Later I was reading Rene Girard (you should read him too), and I came across the following passage in I See Satan Fall Like Lightening

Jesus makes allusion to this, I think. It is the deprivation of victim mechanisms and its terrible consequences that he talks about when he presents the future of the evangelized world in terms of conflict between persons who are closely related:

"Don't think that I am come to bring peace on the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. One's enemies will be those of his own household. (Matthew 10:34-36)"

In a world deprived of sacrificial safeguards mimetic rivalries are often physically less violent, but they insinuate themselves into the most intimate relationships. This is what the text I have just quoted specifies: the son at war with his father, the daughter against her mother, etc. The loss of sacrificial protection transforms the most intimate relationships into their exact opposites so that they become relationships of doubles, of enemy twins. This text enables us to identify the true origin of modern "psychology."

I then picked up what I thought to be unrelated reading--Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem and I was stunned by the following passage.

Of course the activists--not those whose thinking had become rigid, but those whose approach to revolution was imaginatively anarchic--had long ago grasped the reality which still eluded the press: we were seeing somthing important. We were seeing the desperate attempt of a handful of pathetically unequipped children to create a community in a social vacuum. Once we had seen these children, we could no longer overlook the vacuum, no longer pretend that the society's atomization could be reversed. This was not a traditional generational rebellion. At some point between 1945 and 1967 we had somehow neglected to tell these children the rules of the game we happened to be playing. Maybe we had stopped believing in the rules ourselves, maybe we were having a failure of nerve about the game. Maybe there were just too few people around to do the telling. These were children who grew up cut loose from the web of cousins and great-aunts and family doctors and lifelong neighbors who had traditionally suggested and enforced the society's values. They are children who have moved around a lot, San Jose, Chula Vista, here. The are less in rebellion against the society than ignorant of it, able only to feed back certain of its most publicized self-doubts, Vietnam, Saran-Wrap, diet pills, the Bomb.

Finally I spent several hours watching Hotel Rwanda and the documentaries attached to it. I was cut to the heart by Paul Rusesabagina's compassionate excuse making for the West. Here is a man who has every reason to be bitter and cynical about Western values and Western peoples, but he is explaining our failure to us in the kindest terms. He expresses hope that we will learn from it and that we will not fail again. Here is a portion of his remarks as I transcribed them. Please forgive any errors in my transcription.

I think the world turned its back on Rwanda because what happened in Somalia. You know America had had a very bad experience in Somalia and this experience was still very fresh in mind. That is why in the Security Council America opposed intervention on having its munitions in Rwanda. And also they had a bad experience of the ten soldiers who were murdered. That is one of the reasons they left us down. A second one is maybe because Rwanda is not worth too much because it doesn't have anything. Rwanda does not produce anything. It has got no diamonds. It has got no gold. It only survives on cofee and tea, the only product to be exported. So, that is maybe why Rwanda was left down. One, some of the reasons why Rwanda was left down, left on its own.

Where is the red cord in the window of the prostitute's house? I find myself desperately seeking it.