The much-belated Christian Carnival is up over at Wittenburg Gate. Go check it out!

I got this in an email from one of my homeschool groups. It was just so sweet I had to share.

Real Homeschool Mothers don’t eat quiche; they don’t have time to make it.
Real Homeschool Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.
Real Homeschool Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Homeschool Mothers know that dried playdough doesn’t come out of shag carpet.
Real Homeschool Mothers don’t want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.
Real Homeschool Mothers sometimes ask “why me?” and get their answer when a little voice says, “because I love you best.”
Real Homeschool Mothers know that a child’s growth is not measured by height or years or grade … It is marked by the progression of Mama to Mommy to Mom.

(HT: Shasta)

Ok, NerdDad came home with another one. I am surrounded by American Idol nuts so with the finale this week I decided to help them launch their own Idol dreams. Sara, April, Maya and the rest of you. Just invest in this for $12 from Target.
I am not to be held resposible for your lack of washing in the shower or your extended time in there;).
(HT: Gizmodo)

As I am entering into homeschooling kindergarten I am evaluating the place testing will have in our home. This is going on at the same time I am hearing about all the testing going on in the public schools. Between No Child Left Behind and the new High School Exit Exam here in California, we are all hearing the horrors of “teaching to test”. I hear friends of mine who are teachers complaining all the time that all they do is test. I hear parents complain and some do even more than complain. I know 1 parent who has decided that all the testing is ridiculous so she pulls her kids out for the testing (I do not endorse this method, play the public school game or don’t). She says the kids no longer even take the tests seriously so they make patterns on the Scantrons and other nonsense. So what is the purpose for all this testing? It is for money right? I disagree and put forth another theory. Some teachers and schools do a bad job and we need to monitor the progress. We have been getting kids coming out of high school who aren’t ready for college, balancing a checkbook or just being an informed adult.
As I started thinking about how much testing my own kids needed, being homeschooled, I started really looking at the reason for testing. I think that testing is really just a way to mark a child’s progress. So in theory, testing is not needed. Just be diligent in what the students are learning and watch their progress on their homework. But, it isn’t that easy. The National Department of Education says that they get $71.5 billion a year and that is only 8% of the money sunk into public schools. What are we getting in return? Not much. According to the Secretary of Education:

Currently, our 15-year-olds rank 24th out of 29 developed nations in math literacy and problem solving. Almost half of our 17-year-olds don’t have the necessary math skills to work as a production associate at a modern auto plant.

The testing provides an element of transparency and the ability to see where the problems are. We, as a nation, have tried to just throw more money at the problem but that has proven to be a mistake. Money without accountability is not helpful and if you are unsure look at Washington DC. They spend more per student and test the worst in the nation.
Yes, I understand that teachers are teaching testing material instead of concepts but at least that is something. According to Secretary Spellings, in his testimony before Congress:

With No Child Left Behind, we’ve laid a solid foundation of student achievement. Scores are at all-time highs for African-American and Hispanic students, especially in the early grades. Over the last 5 years, more reading progress has been made among 9-year-olds than in the previous 28 combined.

How many times do they have to hear these individual facts before they have an effect? Well, it may be a path worth taking. Compare that with the High School Exit Exam here in California. Over at Why Homeschool there was a good analysis on the test:

There are 60 Mathematics Sample Questions. The first 50 problems are on concepts taught in grades 6 and 7. The last 10 problems require some basic algebra. If students only need to get 50% correct to pass, and they get several chances (over 2 or 3 years) to pass, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to require students to get a passing grade to get a diploma.

Is it reasonable to expect them to pass? Well, according to the LA Times, at least 10% of seniors can’t pass it. While I think testing isn’t the best cornerstone to education, I think that while we are paying we should have some sort of accountability. We as a nation are not dumping millions of dollars into a system to produce people we will have to continue to support forever. If I am not paying for other’s education, you can run it however you would like but until then I believe the testing is here to stay.

The 21st Carnival of Homeschooling: The Map to A Progressive Dinner is up over at Principled Discovery. She has done a great job and there looks like there are many great articles. Make sure you go check it out!

So you may all have read my post on types of schooling last week. Well, since I am just doing kindergarten this year I am winging it;). I think on the whole we are going to go with classical unschooling but right now I don’t think it matters. Since the NerdBug doesn’t read yet I think I am just going to get a good math and reading program. I have had Explode the Code highly recommended so I am planning on using that. I figure that all the other subjects really are secondary to reading. In other words, he probably needs to learn how to read before we jump into science, geography and history. Now the math program is giving me pause. I was a huge math geek in school (I know everyone is shocked;) and I used Saxon a large portion of the time. But, I have heard in the last few years that the Saxon program is faltering. A program that I have heard great things about is Singapore Math. It appears to be highly logical so it naturally appealing to the NerdParents. But, the Well Trained Mind seems to have concerns but Sonlight seems to like it. The Well Trained Mind seems to question wether kids are ready for such a logic based approach so young. So I still have questions that I am researching and asking advice for.
1) What math programs do you recommend?
2) Am I doing harm by waiting to introduce other subjects?

OK, there are new, cool things happening all the time.  Scientists slow light down until it goes backwards, for example.  But this is definitely futuristic.  A robot in Italy (monitored by a PC in Boston) performed surgery on a heart patient.  Yes, the machine repaired the human.  This is a turning point in robo-human relations.

So the question is which robot would you want to operate on you?  CP3O might have a good bedside manner, but R2D2 is more discrete.  Robbie the Robot seems like he’d panic, where the Terminator is calm under pressure.

The Kid’s Comedy Carnival is up over at World’s Greatest Place to Live INSIDER. If you need a good laugh go check it out!

This week has been a collection of cuteness from the NerdBug. When my 3rd child was born (9 months ago), upon seeing him, the NerdBug loudly declared that we would have another baby in the future and that it would be a girl. Periodically since then NerdBug has asked when we are going to have another baby. Well, for those of you who don’t’ know, baby #4 is on the way. This means a lot of morning sickness (well actually, all day sickness). So yesterday NerdBug was asking why I was eating something different than the rest of the family for lunch. I tell him that when I am pregnant, mommy’s stomach can feel sick so I eat different things so it feels better. So today we are at Costco and I decide to pick up lunch for everyone. I get my self a turkey hye roller and a pizza for everyone else. As we are making our way out NerdBug very loudly proclaims, “You aren’t having pizza because you don’t want to share with the baby in your tummy!”. I look around and there were people at 3 different tables just cracking up. Oh well, who can deny that he is very cute?

Ok, let me start with I am not just a Pat Robertson basher. In 6th grade I accepted Chirst as my personal Savior while watching the 700 Club and in high school I did stuff with my parents in the Christian Coalition. That said, what is wrong with that man? For those who do not know, Pat Robertson has decided to share what God “revealed” to him. According to an AOL article:

“If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms,” Robertson said May 8. On Wednesday, he added, “There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest.”

This comes after he made a statement that the US should assasinate Hugo Chavez. And while I am not a fan of Chavez, that was uncalled for. I understand that Robertson may desire to be the “Jeremiah of his time” (a description often used of Winston Churchill) but I don’t think that he is even coming close. Is this helping? Hurting? I don’t think that Pat Robertson is helping anyone. Wheither or not God revealed this to him is almost irrelevant. Was he sharing this to help people in love or scare them. I understand the “hell fire and brimstone” method of preaching but this isn’t really the situation. For those of you not familiar, this was a method of scaring you into realizing that you need God and then tells you about God’s grace and mercy. While this isn’t my preferred method, it can be effective. The difference with that and what Pat Robertson is doing is large. A preacher has you for the hour, Pat Robertson has you for the sound bite. When we all hear these quotes we aren’t getting to have the chance to hear about God’s love for us and grace. I have to say that I am quite sad by what Pat Robertson is doing to himself and his reputation. I also hope that people don’t judge God and His Son by a Robertson sound bite.