Food for Thought
Social
:: The Year We Broke the Internet @ Esquire
“For most, however, the photos were just another thoughtlessly processed and soon-forgotten item that represented our now-instinctual response to the unrelenting stream of information we’re subjected to every waking hour: Share first, ask questions later. Better yet: Let someone else ask the questions. Better still: What was the question again?”
:: Dear Kids: What You Need to Know About Duck Dynasty, Justine Sacco, and Christmas @ A Holy Experience
“Type up a Facebook status update — and it can be radioactive forever. Don’t be fooled by your keyboard: the Internet doesn’t have a delete button. Screenshots can make your words have a half life of eternity. Social media is exactly that — social. It impacts you socially for as long as you are a member of society.”
:: What if we got all worked up about this instead? @ Tsh Oxenreider
:: Two thousand mice dropped on Guam by parachute — to kill snakes @ NBC News (Taking “Visit Guam” off the bucket list…)
Education
"By universalizing university, you let K-12 off the hook. College becomes the new high school—which is exactly the opposite of what a dynamic, efficient society would be doing: middle school should be the new high school. Early-year education is the most critical; if you screw up the first eight grades, keeping the kid in class till he’s thirty isn’t going to do much to fix things." ~ Mark Steyn (HT: Odoro Amoris)
:: The Miseducation of Education Reformers @ Sultan Knish
"Education is not a science. It is a relationship. And like all relationships, it works best with a healthy beginning. In its truest sense it is not something that is inflicted from outsi...de on a child, but is the expansion of that child's worldview."
"Education is not a system. It is not a technique. It is a culture. The medium of education matters much less than the message. The content matters much more than the techniques used to teach it. Education teaches techniques, but it need not be a technique. And when it becomes a rigid set of techniques then it has already failed."
Words and Writing
:: The End of the College Essay: An essay. @ Slate (Funny and depressing.)
"Sure, this quashes the shallow pretense of expecting undergraduates to engage in thoughtful analysis, but they have already proven that they will go to any lengths to avoid doing this. Call me a defeatist, but honestly I’d be happy if a plurality of American college students could discern even the skeletal plot of anything they were assigned."
:: 77 Latin Words, Abbreviations, and Expressions That You Should Know @ Write At Home
:: 14 Punctuation Marks That You Never Knew Existed @ BuzzFeed (I personally like the “snark” the best.)
Ideas
:: Inside the Box: People don’t actually like creativity. @ Slate
“Even people who say they are looking for creativity react negatively to creative ideas, as demonstrated in a 2011 study from the University of Pennsylvania. Uncertainty is an inherent part of new ideas, and it’s also something that most people would do almost anything to avoid. People’s partiality toward certainty biases them against creative ideas and can interfere with their ability to even recognize creative ideas.”
Parenting
:: What to do with that child who just doesn’t fit in… and who pushes all of your buttons! @ I Take Joy (Yes. A million times, yes.)
Humor
:: 15 Ways Homeschooling Is Like Living in a Fraternity House @ Atlanta Homeschool (I died laughing.)
Lists and Lessons
With an off-kilter December (what December hasn’t been?!), I didn’t keep accurate lists of anything, particularly books. The boys read a ton of Christmas picture books, as well.
Classical Conversations (Cycle 2) Week 11 Foundations classes (includes public speaking). Essentials: (Levi and Luke) (Week 12 was cancelled due to weather.)
Faith:
Telling God's Story, Year Two: The Kingdom of Heaven
Buck Denver & Friends present Clive & Ian's Wonderblimp of Knowledge: 6 Big Questions About God (DVD)
Buck Denver & Friends Present Clive & Ian's Wonderblimp of Knowledge 2: 7 Big Questions About God (DVD)
Independent Bible Reading
AWANAS (Leif)
Math:
Teaching Textbooks (Levi—level 6, Luke—level 5 (finished!!), Leif—level 4)
Life of Fred (Kidneys, Liver, Mineshaft, Fractions, Decimals and Percents, Elementary Physics, Pre-Algebra with Biology)
Timed drill worksheets
Mathtacular 4 (Word Problems) (DVD)
Logic:
Science:
CC memory work
CC weekly science experiments and projects
P.E.:
Swim team practice (Levi and Luke), Swim lessons (Leif)
Archery 4-H (all 3 boys)
Fine Arts:
CC Drawing, Tin Whistle and music theory
Joyful Noise Choir (weekly rehearsals + music theory homework) and performance
Language Arts:
CC memory work (pronouns)
Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power
MCT Grammar Island (with Leif)
Essentials (Levi and Luke) grammar
IEW Medieval history-themed writing
IEW Fables and Fairy Tales
All About Spelling (Levi and Luke: level 4, step 18-22; Leif: level 2, step 10-19)
Read Theory (online reading comprehension quizzes, Luke and Leif)
Latin:
CC memory work (conjugations)
Song School Latin DVD (Leif)
First Form Latin DVD lessons (Luke and Levi (Levi completing workbook lessons), lesson 9)
Spanish:
Geography:
CC memory work
Map tracing and “blobbing”
Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (DVD)
History/Literature/Historical Fiction:
(Nothing formal this month)
Free Reading (Still working through this list.):
Levi:
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (library)
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Born to Trot by Marguerite Henry
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (library)
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (library)
Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (library)
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (library)
The Egypt Game (library)
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (library)
Plus a bunch of Roald Dahl books
Luke:
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (library)
The Great Brain
More Adventures of the Great Brain
Me and My Little Brain
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
The Light Princess by George MacDonald
The Golden Key by George Macdonald
Plus a bunch of Roald Dahl books
Leif:
A Bunch of Roald Dahl books
Plus many Christmas picture books for all the boys.
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