Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Home Educa-SHE-own

Mike and I and my parents are into saying everything like Doug on King of Queens (like vaca-SHE-own, prepara-SHE-own), I'm sure many of you have no idea what I am talking about, and it is much easier to talk that way than it is to type it, but it's my blog, so I get to do what I want. Just be glad there were no blogs in our rhyming days (Jonathan the bonathan and tuna-da-boona were two of my father's favorites). But I digress...

We are learning so much everyday. At least I know I am! Who knew that Italy wasn't even a nation until about 1861? Until that time it was just a bunch of individual states mostly ruled by Austria. In 1850 for example, to be called Italian just meant that you lived on the Italian peninsula. Then there were a bunch of small revolutions (started by a couple of different guys with the first name Guiseppe), some people wanted Italy to become a republic and others wanted Italy to be ruled by the Pope, but eventually they became a kingdom and Victor Emmanuel was their first king. Do you know why most of us never learned this? I'll tell you why...this was very close to the time of the American Civil War and so anything most of us ever learned in school about that period in history was only about American History! I personally never learned anything about anywhere else from Colonial America up to modern times. I have to say I really enjoy the American History part of it more, but I'm glad to be finally learning about other places too! Not to mention part of our learning about Italy today involved making pizza...what could be better than that?

Then for science we learned some more about water, and the kids had to make paper flowers, fold them up, and float them on the water. First they would float and then start to open up and then eventually as they filled with water, they'd sink.


A good homeschool day right? Well, lest you think I have it all together, in the middle of all of this I was ranting to the kids about how they should stop taking advantage of me (ie leaving socks on the living room floor etc) and loading the dishwahser at the same time (multitasking at its best). I guess I was yelling a little too loud (or slamming a little too hard) because one of my glass 9X13 pans shattered all over in inside of the dishwasher. So there you have it the good, the bad and the ugly. And guess what the pizza was made with store flour (not freshly milled).

7 comments:

ann marie said...

the pizza looks excellent! and how hard was that to clean up? i hope you guys have one of those big shop vac's...were there a million peices or just a few...well, no matter, i think it's funny that i'm not the only slammer...
oh, and i watch that show so i laughed when i read that...doug reminds me of my brother david...

Cindy said...

The pizza looks yummy! I love that we are learning right along with you...keep the history lessons coming! You're right, though, we never learned about the history other countries. I also love the part about slamming the dishwasher--we all have our limits! I have my moments for sure when it feels like I'm the only one doing stuff (and I've only got 2 others in the house!

DebiH. said...

We had a CRAZY morning, went to Sonic for milkshakes and finally did math this afternoon! At least your day was productive:)

Melissa said...

I've totally been losing my cool over the kid's Precepts Bible study - there is so much homework, and I have to fit it in with everything else. I'm finally getting myself under control. I quite like to slam things.

Tiffany said...

I'm a slammer too. It feels so good. Confession--sometimes when I'm about to lose it sometimes I will slam a door in the kitchen or something and then say to my kids (so they won't know I'm about to lose my temper--hoping to get under control before I explode) "oops, I didn't mean to shut that door like that." I have to say that part in a nice, calm voice so that they don't get scared. :0)

Cheryl said...

wow! post more food pictures! my family would love you!

Randi Sue said...

Sounds like a good day, a real day.