Blog to Learn

I found this on Edu-tube, but it is as relevant to homeschoolers as it is to regular school children.



If you want to see my daughter's blog, check out A Cup of Tea with Mom and Me.  Theoretically it is both or ours, but realistically it is more hers than ours.  And I would agree it has been a great platform to improve her writing.  It certainly isn't her only writing, but I will tell you that I don't have to beg her or plead with her to post.  It is all her and if you look through it from beginning to end, you will see that she has shown a great deal of development.  So after reviewing all the safety rules with your children, encourage them to Blog ON.

Ordinary People?

I thought you might enjoy this:

If you could be any superhero, who would you be?

Tonight, my son is glued to Incredible Hulk the Movie (2000+ version).  I asked him if he knew that we used to watch this as a weekly series.  Apparently, he did because he even knew Lou Ferrigno who played Hulk (apparently he had a cameo on Sunny with a Chance today ironically).  We then started to talk about other Superheroes of our time.  He joked that I would have been Wonder Woman.  I corrected him to say that when I was growing up, I actually wanted to be Isis.  He of course had no idea who I was talking about.  Do you remember Isis?



Now mind you I would never be ashamed to be Linda Carter (the Wonder Woman of the 70's), but Isis was extra cool.  The show wasn't long run, but I loved it.  If you could be any superhero, who would you be?

A Vegetarian Recipe that Even Meat Eaters Will Like

DD has decided to become a vegetarian.  She has been fairly diligent about her decision and frankly, fairly inspirational. Monday night when my husband was out and I had to make dinner, it seemed foolish to make a meal that one out of the remaining three of us wouldn't eat, so I started scouring her Vegetarian Times for something to make.  I flipped across this recipe and decided that that was what I was going to make.

I used my Tightwad Gazette dough recipe as I didn't have any refrigerated pizza dough in the fridge, replaced garlic powder for minced garlic, and olive oil for the non-hydrogenated margarine, but all in all I followed the recipe.  It was delicious.  This is definitely a recipe that we can all agree on - carnivore and herbivore alike.

Can a Homeschooler get into college?

One of homeschooling parent's worst fears is: have I done enough to help get my child into college.  Ok, maybe I am projecting my fear, but I do know some other parents who share this fear.  Well, we have actually now taken a partial step toward alleviating this fear.  Last night DD took her placement exams at the community college.  Mind you DD is technically a Sophomore in high school, but it has been my plan that she begin working on her Associates degree in the last two years of high school and then transfer to a four year school for her Bachelor's.  She then has it planned to go on for her Master's in Library Science at Simmons College in Boston (yes, this may be a little specific and hopeful, but she actually has already toured the campus and talked to a professor there and I think her heart is set).  She placed well on the exam.  So I can begin to breathe a little easier.  Next step will be registration for either summer session or fall and then it is up to her from there . . . Now, I just have to worry about her brother.  That one may be a little more complicated.

Kim Kardashian Tweets about Teen Mom 2

Ok, I have to make an admission.  It is neither that I occasionally watch Keeping up with the Kardashians, nor is it that I have watched MTV's Teen Mom.  The admission is that when my husband travels, I don't sleep.  So this past weekend was very, very long and apparently one night I fell asleep to E! (not my normal channel to watch but it is tough to find something to watch the later it gets) and woke up to E!News.  The big "news" (I use that word carefully) was that Kim K tweeted "It seems that shows like Teen Mom are all of a sudden making teen pregnancy seem cool in the eyes of young girls...but girls, these are not people you should idolize!' Now that statement woke me up.

Having a daughter who is 15, I have seen both the Kardashians and Teen Mom.  Now I must say that I was apprehensive about Teen Mom the first time I watched it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the honesty of the show.  Pregnancy was by no means glamorized.  The show portrayed the good and the bad of being pregnant young.  Frankly, any glamorizing of the situation or admiring of the moms is occurring outside of the MTV show in the tabloids and other print media.  In contrast, Keeping up with the Kardashians and the other Kardashian shows are horrible.  In general, they promote excess: excess in spending, excess in drinking, excess in permissive behavior, excess in attitude.  While I appreciate that they try and support one another as a family and that we all have faults,  I think that one should maybe be self reflective before commenting about other shows.  And if truly Kim is concerned about how tv affects our youth and their morals then perhaps she should get more involved in the development of her own family's show.

Planning a Sweet Sixteen Birthday

Can you believe that it is almost that time?  My sweet daughter is about to turn 16.

So as everyone knows, 16 is the time for that time honored tradition of a sweet 16 party.  Unfortunately, not everyone is bi-statal (My new word for half living in two different states.  We lived in CT for the first 14 years of her life and have lived here now almost two year).  What does this mean for a 16th birthday party?  It makes it very difficult.  Where do you have it? Who do you invite?  She has made a few friends up here, but not as many as she had down there.  But now we've been gone from down there long enough that some friendships aren't what they used to be.  Needless to say, we have opted out of the traditional big shin dig and have decided to do a small but very special day at my cousin's tea shop, Tea Roses Tea Room.

We have planned a delightful afternoon tea and have rented out their back room. We have been very blessed with a tight knit Girl Scout troop that will travel anywhere to do anything together and so we are keeping it small with all the girls and their mom's (these girls have been together since Daisies).  After what I'm sure will be an unforgettable afternoon (it always is with this group), I suggested to DD that she contact an old friend to go to the movies.  DD and her friend haven't seen each other in a while but talk on Facebook, texting, etc almost every day.  So I'm hoping although this may not be the bash that she once dreamed of, but  that it will be unforgettable anyway. 

I will keep you posted on how the actual day turns out.