DoodleBlog

Tuesday we discovered that we really didn’t understand what “breaking the sound barrier” practically means.

When two F-15 fighter jets broke the sound barrier (responding to an attempted intercept of an aircraft which had invaded the Temporary Flight Restriction area imposed for President Obama’s visit to Seattle) and triggered sonic booms which were heard throughout the Puget Sound region, we realized that while everyone was talking about the event no one could explain it.

If you also find yourself struggling to explain the concept to your homeschoolers, than you will probably be just as grateful as we are for this short explanation complete with live illustrations!

During a highschool graduation a valedictorian speaks out against traditional schooling! Interesting to hear a student’s perspective fresh from school.

Gregg and Sono Harris have been longtime faithful homeschoolers here in the NorthWest for many years, and they and their children have been influential leaders for the cause of Christ throughout the world. Please keep husband Gregg and children Josh, Joel, Alex, Brett, Sarah, Isaac, and James in your prayers as they face this recent loss of Sono.

Thanks to Randy Alcorn for this eulogy of the life of Sono Sato Harris and testimony to God’s faithful kindness in her life.

What we homeschoolers have been incorporating for years throughout our educating is now being brought into public schools! We have long believed that engineering is a foundational skill and should be taught young and often.

So it is interesting to see, in this article by The New York Times, that this concept is now being brought into the lower grades of some public schools and is being reinforced, outside of the homeschooling community, as being an important component to education.

Break out your construction sets or send your homeschoolers outside to engineer today!!

Full article here.

If your younger homeschooled children have been out of the loop on the oil spill, these pictures from Boston.com – The Big Picture are a staggering way to show them what is happening and what the consequences from this “nation’s worst environmental disaster” are.

Just The Way I Am is a new release from Desiring God, and if you like many, wish that you could find a God-honoring book about disabilities, this book may just fit the bill.

We have our copy on order from Desiring God and I can’t wait for it to arrive. Read more about this new book here.

If you have been following the story of Artyom Savelyev (Justin Hansen), you may have found that you, like me, are filled with sadness at the outcome. How could someone, when given the opportunity to raise, nurture and love a child, decide that the child is too much work and send them back? Can’t they see the trauma this inflicts?

Yet as an article I read in the New York Times portrays , it must be undeniable that each child and each adoption is not a cookie cutter experience; parenting is hard work filled with many unanswered questions. But tragically this particular parent’s decision has resulted in a freeze on all USA adoptions of children from Russia.

Russell Moore’s response to this tragedy (as a father of two sons from Russia) is a call for us to pray. And what better call could there be? Take a minute to read Russell’s thoughts and to hear a refreshing perspective from the heart of a Christian father.

P.S. When I finished reading about Artyom Savelyev, I found I now had more questions. If you likewise find yourself left with many questions about adoption, I would recommend Russell Moore’s book, Adopted for Life. Russell gives a helpful, Christ-centered, life changing perspective on adoption and reading Adopted for Life has given me answers for many of the questions adoption raises.

A Doctor’s license is lost over an “unsuccessful” abortion where the “wrong twin fetus” was aborted. And as Albert Mohler so wisely points out, “What is the real scandal here — that this doctor was ready to kill a baby with Down syndrome, or merely that he aborted ‘the wrong baby’?”

If your children are mature enough to handle this information, this is an opportune time to work this story through with them, help them decipher where this whole tragedy begins and where it will inevitably lead.

Read Albert Mohler’s Article Here.

It is interesting to note that the reason for the current concern about Apologia curriculum is it teaches creation. MSNBC presents the issue from what I would have in the past considered an atypical point of view: homeschoolers who don’t believe in creation.

While years ago it would have been unusual for families to decide to homeschool without religious reasons driving their decision, I have found that for multiple reasons this is now becoming a more frequent occurrence. And as these secular parents have discovered, there is an unusual obstacle which arises when you try to homeschool from a secular viewpoint: finding homeschool curricula which does not embrace a Christian worldview.

Read what MSNBC and the Associated Press have to report here.

Here is an opportunity to participate in a worldwide math race! Compete both for a worldwide record and also to be the fastest mathematician!

World Maths Day website states:

Last year a “new world record was once again set with 452,681,681 questions answered correctly in 48 hours. A staggering 1,952,879 million students registered, 38,058 schools participated from 204 countries”, and guess what… homeschoolers are welcomed!! All you need to do is register BEFORE Monday, then all you will need is an internet connection and you will be ready to go!

So what are you waiting for? Break up math monotony this week and participate! Then let us know how it went!