Clunkers and other stimulus ideas

So I looked into Cash-for-Clunkers and I found my '97 Suburban would qualify (duh). I could get the full $4500 if I spent $20,000 on a new car.

Or I could just keep the truck and save $15,500. It would take a while to spend that much on gas.

If we got rid of the truck, we couldn't loan it to our church youth group to haul kids to activities. There would be more cars on the road. We couldn't help people move furniture. They would have to spend money (stimulus?!) to rent a truck. We wouldn't be able to help out a friend whose kids need a ride home from daycamp next week - she's in the hospital on bedrest during a difficult pregnancy. Not many people can add 3 more kids to their vehicle.

Anyway, there are other things the government could stimulate me to trade in.

How about bookstore vouchers for trading in books? We have some boxes of old sci-fi paperbacks I'd be happy to get rid of. Extra $ if the traded-in books are politically incorrect? But I guess there might be books I want that "they" wouldn't want us to have. I need a new copy of Huckleberry Finn.

Could I trade in my crummy Revere Ware saucepans for some new All-Clad?

I'm sick of my living room furniture, and it's getting worn out.

Lots of potential here!

Who's watching the kids?

A family returning home from a trip leaves their sleeping child in a cab. They remember after being home for a few minutes; the cabbie is called, the girl found and returned home. The parents are not angry with the cabbie, in fact they give him a big tip for returning their child. All's well that ends well. Except...

The cabbie gets suspended - then the suspension turns into a warning and a reminder that he is supposed to check the vehicle after every fare.

And the parents?

Police would not release the names of the parents but said they were not being investigated.

No child neglect here? No endangerment? The cabbie is more responsible than the parents? I wouldn't expect prosecution or punishment for the parents, but: were they given a warning? Were they put on notice that they need to be at least as careful as the cabbie with their belongings? Were they asked to pay the cabbie's legal fees (he had an attorney with him at the suspension hearing) since they are the ones who forgot their own kid in his cab and caused his problem in the first place? I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with the fact that the parents are not being investigated; I think there is something wrong with the article. It's incomplete. What about the parents?

I guess I've done my share (or more) of dumb things as a parent. I've never left a child in a cab, on a train, or anywhere else a parent shouldn't leave a kid. I don't understand how that can happen. It just seems impossible to me.

At least the parents aren't suing the cabbie for his neglect. That would really be something.

Fiddly keys and teachable moments

Our boy has reached the age when he needs his own housekey. He's not out and about alone much, but every now and then he comes home from a camping trip while we're at church, or has to walk over to his Scout patrol leader's house for a meeting when I need to be out. So, we got him a new key.

As sometimes happens, the new key doesn't fit into the old lock perfectly, so we have to fiddle with it. I hate fiddly things, but I put my old reliable housekey on his ring and took the new one. Better that I have to fiddle than he does.

Recent events got me thinking about his coming home alone and having to mess around with an ill-fitting key. In the fall when he might walk to Scouts with another guy, and come home after dark sometimes. I doubt we'd be away from home, but what if we were? What might he look like to the elderly lady across the street - this 5'5" tall boy (he'll be 5'7" or more by fall, the rate he's going), standing at our front door, struggling to get the door open?

So the new key gave us a teachable moment (har dee har har). We talked about what to do if he came home alone and the police knocked on the door. We related, without getting into details, the story of a man arrested in his own home after police were called about a possible break-in. We talked about the unlikely chance it would happen to him sometime, but that it could - because anything could happen. We asked what he should do if an officer asked him to come outside. Our girl smartly (as in smart-alec) interjected "ask if he's got a search warrant!" OK, well... he's not asking to come in. Do you go outside? How do you know it's a real cop? Why would he ask you to go outside? How would you prove you live here since you don't have a photo ID? Why should have have to prove you live here anyway - isn't it enough to say "this is my house?"*

We don't want to scare our kids. We know the chances of such a happening are so slim it's probably not worth thinking about. But, unexpected things happen.

It's an academic discussion, mostly. The circumstances of such an occurrence just don't happen. But, we want our kids to know what to do if something ever does. Without giving them nightmares.

*Even a 12-year-old sheltered homeschooled kid knows that a police officer who has been called to investigate a possible burglary can't just go away if a person standing in the house says "yeah, I live here; go away now."

My new favorite homeschool resource

Last week my Boy Scout came home ready to work on his first merit badge: Space Exploration. He had a booklet to read and a 6-page worksheet packet to complete. There were questions to answer about the history of space exploration, space pioneers, and rocket parts and functions. He had to draw a diagram or make a model of an inhabited space base and describe how it would work. Design a mission to another planet. It looked like a lot of work, and he had one week to complete it. (The short time frame has to do with the upcoming summer camp, at which the boys working on this badge will build and launch rockets.) Along with the questions, the worksheet packet included a list of websites to use for additional research.

This boy does love to read and learn about space (and many other topics as well), but does not like to write, and the thought of filling out those worksheets by hand was very daunting. I started looking around online, and did I ever find a treasure: Boy Scout Merit Badge worksheets. Worksheets for all 100+ Boy Scout merit badges. Stuff for Cubs and Webelos, too, though I didn't really look at that. Printable as .pdfs or Word documents.

Whew! My boy was happy to learn he could type his up. Still a lot of work, but not as tedious as hand-writing it all. I was happy to find this great resource. The worksheets are free printables. The booklets are available for less than $5 from the Scout website (and, maybe, Scout stores).

Now I'm dreaming of the ways I could use these as study guides for various topics for both my kids. (I looked around the Girl Scout website but couldn't find anything comparable.) Art, Bird Study, American Heritage, Citizenship, Chemistry... lots of great stuff to study.

My Scout is also working on his First Aid badge, and while his leader is not requiring the worksheets for that, I am. He needs all the opportunities he can get to improve his written communication skills. It's an area in which he struggles. But this is a great way to combine two "subjects." Compare assignments: write a book report, or write an explanation of the proper way to treat a shock victim or devise a splint in the wilderness. For my kid, anyway, there is no comparison. If one of the goals of the assignment is getting a child comfortable and proficient in composition, grammar, punctuation, and spelling, the result is the same. (If literary criticism is a goal, go for the book report.)

Of course a Scout working on a merit badge has to have a leader on board and use the official Scout booklet to work on a badge. But I think a non-Scout who wanted to use a worksheet as a sort of "study guide" for learning about a particular topic could do without the booklet, though the two I've seen have lots of great information and are pretty cheap. The worksheets I've seen include links to useful websites, and of course most kids have their own books, library books, and google at their fingertips for their own research.

Sometime back I'd heard about a homeschool mom who keyed her curriculum to her Scouts' badge work. I didn't really understand that at the time. Now I get it, and as I've looked around the 'net the past few days, I see other homeschoolers have had this idea long before I did. I'll give my Scout all the time he needs to work on his badges. Besides learning about the topics themselves, all the writing required is going to help him more than any "language arts" curriculum I could toss his way.

Let's see, I think I'll start my girl on the Dog Care, and then go on to Nature. Hmm... maybe I should work on Home Repairs and Gardening myself...

Without further ado, I bid you adieu...

No, I'm not going anywhere. But after my last post I'm still feeling a bit peevish, I guess. So, without further ado...

I guess it's always been fashionable to toss French words or phrases into the conversation. But "adieu" is not French for "ado." So why do I keep seeing "without further adieu..." in blog posts?

If I am in the throes of cleaning out my closet, I might throw everything onto the floor. If I am in the throws of throwing everything on the floor, I think I'm in trouble.

Allot/alot/a lot: I love this explanation. Looks like a great site all around. No, we wouldn't say "alittle" so why do we say "alot" when we're talking about how much time we spend online?

Irregardless of what you may think, regardless is the word you are looking for.

What are your word peeves?

Would we let our kids get away with this?

A discussion on a new homeschool board I've been reading hit a pet peeve of mine: poor grammar and spelling in blog and message board posts. One woman wondered if it bothered others as much as it bothers her. Of course there's a lot of misspelling, bad punctuation and bad grammar out there. (She wasn't and I'm not taking about the occasional misspelling, misplaced apostrophe, or wrong their/there/they're, but a posting full of errors.) People don't always take the time to proofread, or don't care to. I know I miss mistakes even when I try to proofread before hitting "send" or "publish." Of course it's worse when trying to be quick about it.

The general consensus seemed to be that it's a bit troublesome but in a casual setting, when people are often in a hurry, it's understandable and we should just let it go. I was surprised by a minority who felt that in the setting of message boards, etc., they don't care, are just relaxing and "being themselves" and so didn't worry about it. I don't see part of "being myself" as writing in a such a way that it's hard for others to read, but OK. I get that sometimes people just don't want to spend the time and effort to edit.

I wondered, but didn't ask, if these same folks would accept that from their kids. Would they want their homeschooled kids posting and blogging using grammar, spelling, sentence construction, etc., that made them look uneducated? Or worse, stupid? I think they'd be embarrassed. I guess I hope they'd be embarrassed.

Do they not get that people considering homeschooling read their message boards too? And people who are skeptical about it, or against it altogether? Do they not see that readers might wonder about these homeschooled kids - or their mothers - who can't spell or punctuate?

It's particularly troubling to see in posts and articles about the superiority of homeschooling. I can just hear the snorts of derision as homeschooling skeptics read those. Like it or not, homeschoolers who engage in discussions in the public sphere are held to a higher standard of scrutiny than parents of children who go to school. It may not seem fair, but it is: we are the ones saying that we don't need the school system; we are taking responsibility; we are competent. More than competent: we are superior, many say.

The more we allow ourselves to be lazy, the lazier we will get. This is especially true of our kids who are still learning and building their skills. If we say that good writing habits don't matter in some venues, eventually they won't matter anywhere at all.

Feels like fall...

Rainy and 65 here in the west Philly 'burbs.

Back to school sales on school supplies at WalMart. New glue sticks! Actually they were all gone, but we scored some new Sharpies. And I realized that I don't need crayons anymore!

I love fall. I love school supplies.

Ah... if only it would last through August. Well, both. The weather and the sales.