We’re theoretically in the home stretch, with just a few more weeks left in the school year.  Somehow bio labs have gotten away from me, so we’ll be doing several (OK, more like 14) in the next few weeks.  On the good side, co-op turned out OK – the kids remembered all the saints we studied, and they LOVED playing with clay on our last day.  No one from church called to complain about tiny clay bits, either.  Perhaps that’s because the RE classes left so many potato chip chunks on the floor.

More to come, God and bio labs willing!

Dancer Girl:  What?  (ignoring excitement of older brother)

Question Boy:  If it takes your stomach 10 minutes to realize it’s full, then if you eat at the exact same time the Sun explodes, you’ll be incinerated before you realize you’re not hungry any more.

Otherwise, things went reasonably smoothly.  I figured out a way to get the class to quiet down (the famous Scout Quiet Sign!) and that helped save my voice.  The younger kids liked learning about famous skyscrapers and seeing photos of them, but struggled a bit with the straw and paperclip construction project.  The older kids really liked the straws and paperclips.  Even my assistant sat down and started building!

I’ve got my next two weeks’ lessons figured out, and I just found a great book at the library.  It’s called Steven Caney’s Ultimate Building Book, and it’s huge.  It’s just stuffed with incredible building projects, using everything from Q-tips to PVC pipes.  I skimmed through it and now need to devote some serious time to reading some of the project ideas.

We’ll preview a DVD today to see if it will work for a future co-op class; I am sure my children will enjoy the break from our normal routine (well, we don’t have a routine, just a vague plan, but still…).

Did I miss some Earth-shattering, paper clip-focused event?  A contest to see who can create modern art out of paper clips?  I am completely mystified.

School started weeks ago.  Office workers use paper clips all year ’round. 

I’ll remember all the paper clip hoarders when I’m frantically unclipping drinking-straw structures between co-op class periods tomorrow.  Sigh.

It was fun, but incredibly tiring.  Last time I taught anything like this, it was 5th grade CCD and I was several years younger.  The kids were welcoming and fun and outgoing and LOUD.  It’s easy to see they don’t spend much time in classrooms, although most did raise their hands.  Almost everyone enjoyed building newspaper towers.  I practically fell asleep once we got back home.  Looks like I’ll need to get more sleep on Tuesdays, right?

I’m teaching co-op classes for a couple of reasons.  First, so my daughter can make some friends at our church…she has lots of friends, but few who live nearby.  Second, to see if, after homeschooling is over, I’d be interested in doing something in the education field, such as teaching homeschoolers something like writing. 

I can tell already that this will be an interesting experiment.

Sarah’s House provides shelter and transitional living services for families who have become homeless, often because they’ve fled abusive situations.  From basic food and shelter to job placement, vehicle purchase assistance and tutoring, Sarah’s House works hard to meet the needs of Baltimore-area families who have lost everything.

One year, we were moving overseas.  I rounded up all of my business suits and donated them to Sarah’s House.  I wear (well, I did then!) a popular size, and I was sure someone could use my office wardrobe for job interviews.  When you have no home and no car, it’s mighty hard to come up with $200+ for a suit and nice shoes.

Sarah’s House works with homeless women and families to transition them to employment and normal life in the local community.  The families first receive shelter, food and other basic assistance.  Then, Sarah’s House provides child care and job training for the women who must now provide for their families without help from their former partners.

Finally, Sarah’s House collects furniture, linens, appliances and the other basics essential to setting up life in a home or apartment.

The need is great.  Sarah’s House operates out of former barracks buildings at Ft. Meade, Md., and gives shelter, counseling and more to up to 22 families at one time.

Please pray for the staff and volunteers at Sarah’s House, who work so hard to bring homeless families the resources they need to turn their lives around.

Very popular in Korea, hacky sacks can be tossed or kicked between friends or kept in the air by one person.  Here’s how to make a simple hacky sack.

For each hacky sack, you will need:

2 8” squares of lightweight stretchy fabric, any color (contrasting is nice, and very Korean – the yin/yang concept is important there)

A rubber band

A palmful of uncooked rice

Scissors

Directions:

Using your scissors, cut fringes all around the edges of both fabric squares.  They should be about two inches long, but perfection isn’t necessary.  You’ll probably need to help younger children with this part.

Stack the fabric squares together.  Place the rice in the center of the top square. 

 Gather the squares together around the rice and secure with the rubber band.  Be sure the rubber band is tightly wrapped around the fabric so the rice doesn’t come out.  The fringe will make a nice decorative “tail” on the hacky sack.

Hat tip: My Korean friend, Lee, who taught her Girl Scout troop to make these for Thinking Day.  Lee wrote all the girls’ names on the hacky sacks in Hanbo (Korean writing), using a Sharpee marker, too.

I took a look at the National Anti-Vivisection Society’s website and was amazed at the number of dissection alternatives they offer, simply for the price of return shipping.  I’m sure I will be contacting them to borrow some CD’s.

I went to Catholic school and we dissected all kinds of things.  I was fascinated when I discovered how an eye was really put together and how beautiful the retina is (shimmery blues and greens in a cow’s eye).  I realized then that God places beauty everywhere, even where we can’t see it, simply because He wants it there.  Certainly I think doctors-to-be and other science professionals benefit from the dissection process; you can’t learn to be a vet, for example, without working with real animals.

My son absolutely refuses to dissect anything.  I’ll be lucky if he takes up a scalpel to slice a plant stem.  He’s studying biology this year, and enjoys looking at microscope slides, even of animal tissue.  For him, the process of dissection is the difficulty.  We’ve agreed as a family that we don’t need to dissect, given the availability of alternatives such as websites and, now, loaner CD’s and models.  He will sketch from other materials and learn about animal systems that way.  He already knows, as a teen, that he has no interest in a health care profession, so we’re all OK with his “no dissection” decision.

In its own way, this topic is as controversial as animal testing, or perhaps even stem cell research.  One of my old colleagues successfully sued the Virginia Beach school system because she didn’t want to dissect in high school – she proposed sketching from CD-ROM’s instead – and she won.  I was amazed that she had to go to court over this issue, but she did.

Personally, I’m glad there are so many dissection alternatives out there.  I’d hate to slice open any of God’s creatures “just because,” and now we don’t have to.

Why, then, can’t I fall into a predictable routine this year?  Is it too hot outside?  Are my writing projects (all incomplete) getting in the way?  How do those other moms write while their children are learning geometric construction?  I have no idea.

Just as I struggled with this summer’s mission of hospitality for several weeks, I’m sure I’ll wrestle with the calendar and finally figure out what the real plan for the school year is.  It’s never my plan, that is for sure.  It’s God’s plan.  Sometimes He takes a long time to let us know what the journey’s all about, doesn’t He?

Meanwhile, I’ll prepare my lessons and hope for the best.