Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

You’re Teaching Adults, Did You Know?

Posted on May 19, 2014August 1, 2016 by Katharine

Greuze, Jean-Baptiste - The Spoiled Child - lo... — Greuze, Jean-Baptiste – The Spoiled Child (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Did you notice?”

I asked my husband that question recently, and he just nodded.

We were watching an adult who acted just like a little spoiled child.

Ever seen that?

And how it’s harming us all?

Sure you have!

And there’s a remedy for it, an easy remedy.

And you can play your part.

We see so many adult-sized children floating around and directionless, these days because someone forgot to train them for their jobs.

(You know how immature you feel when you arrive unprepared–like a little bad girl…)

So where are the trainers for the adults who act like little rotten kids?

Look in the mirror.

You see, the training for the job of being an adult comes during childhood, don’t you think? And we adults must do the training.

There is no other really effective and efficient way.

I wanted my children to learn, during their childhoods, how to be great adults. Not greatly over-sized children.

I wanted them to arrive prepared.

I know you want the same thing for your children.

Let’s raise our children to maturity while we can; the day comes when they will rule us.

Let’s all think more about home schooling next year.

'Tis the Season, Home School, P.S. Fail., Wisdom

Not another dead child…

Posted on April 26, 2014April 27, 2014 by Katharine

At just after 7:00 a.m., at Jonathan Law school, a 16-year-old Connecticut honor student was stabbed to death (no guns in Conn.) because she did the honorable thing:

She told a boy who asked her out, “no”. She did not want to go out with him.

Do we wonder why? Did she know he was bad news? Did she not feel safe? Did she know his reputation?

Did she not even date? My daughter would have said, “no” because she was too young to date…

“The greatest concern we have is for students who are hurting will keep it inside,” Feser said. “We want them to know we are here for them.”

State Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, said she has spoken with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and he said the state is ready to provide whatever services it can.
Police were still on the scene investigating Friday afternoon. Mello said they expect the school to be open for classes Monday.

Really. Their main concern is that the kids won’t talk about their pain after a state-enforced exposure to murder.

Really. the governor is ready to do whatever. Right.

And school will continue, business-as-usual, as in murder-is-the-usual-and-we’ve-already-had-too-many-snow-days-so-please-get-over-it-this-weekend is the usual, in collective schools.

My heart is breaking and it’s not even my daughter, my child, my district, my state, or even my problem. It’s just a sweet little girl-woman murdered by a . . .

Meanwhile, local to me, law enforcement workers recently announced that in light of school violence leading to death, first-aid kits will be provided for every classroom.

Right.

Oh, also, instructions will be provided to every staff, as to how to apply band-aids and antiseptic ointment.

Right.

PEOPLE! Please, please, please homeschool.

_____________

Photo credit: A Call to Repeal ‘Citizens United’ (Photo credit: CT Senate Democrats)

Home School, Inspiring, Photos, Pre-schoolers, Sayings, Wisdom

What a Rush!

Posted on March 14, 2014March 14, 2014 by Katharine

3/14/14 – Reposting this to honor the man.

This is not about speed.

It’s about that rush I get when I teach.

Sometimes I say my bones are aching and it helps if I teach. Ever feel that way?

I think it’s maybe being part of the Creation process. When I see the lightbulb coming on in someone else’s understanding, it moves me, thrills me to the bone.

I love teaching, helping understanding to exist where it never did before. It’s not exactly creating, but like a potter with clay, I can mold someone’s mind to fit around new material, new cognizance, or even completely new thoughts that no one has ever realized before.

Research also thrills me. Discovering small things about big events or important people makes me want to teach some more. For instance: Did you know that as a child, Albert Einstein absolutely loved Euclid’s geometry and called it “that holy little algebra book” or that at age 5, he wondered what frozen light would look like? Who ever thinks of THE genius as a small child with wonderment inside his soul? Or that some adult fed him books over most children’s heads, just for the joy of watching that light come on?

See, I just taught you something and opened your thinking more. What a rush!

Sometimes I tutor. One young girl is learning so much about writing, she has developed an enjoyment for the writing process. Seeing the difference in her output this year gives me such excitement. I think of the joy she will bring to her family as her skills increase and she cements them through practice.

I tutor a couple of legal immigrants in their new language, English, and we have fun exchanging culture, too. I explained our local phrase regarding appetites for all foods, as we say, “eat everything that is not nailed to the table.” They laughed enormously at that and now use the saying (in their own language, which is fine with me.) Then they confessed their tiredness of pizza and their longing for cultural dishes they cannot yet prepare. I taught them to say, “I am tired of pizza, but it is better than nothing,” and as they remember their old country and having nothing to eat, they sober and regain resolve to find a way to afford gas for their stove.

And though it is a small spark, I love seeing that light.

The most exciting teaching I do is from the Bible. So much light there. So many people don’t get it, cannot see it. Or don’t want to.

But when I see that light come on, what a rush!

Believe it or not!, Home School, Inspiring

Romeikes are in. Yes.

Posted on March 4, 2014March 4, 2014 by Katharine

Tell us about a situation where you’d hoped against all hope, where the odds were completely stacked against you, yet you triumphed. Be sure to describe your situation in full detail. Tell us all about your triumph in all its glory.

Okay, WordPress, you asked for it!

The Romeike family has faced nothing but opposition and hindrance and persecution for many years. Why? Because they care about their children and had the misfortune of being born in the land of Hitler.

I’m telling it like it is, here, in all its glory, as requested, I cannot believe this was the daily prompt for today. Perfect! Pardon me if I emote. Or not. I don’t care. “And you can rattle me, shake me, smell my breath and make me roll up both of my sleeves. I’m clean. I’ve got nothin’ to hide.” –Nancy Higgenbaum.

Anyway, they were threatened, harassed, etc., just as if they were living in the land of Hitler.

So they sought refuge in the land of the free and the home of the brave and were granted permission through all the legal channels we require to live here.

GET THIS: THEY WERE LEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

After setting up housekeeping and actually finding gainful employment, THEY WERE DENIED.

Yes, I’m shouting part of the time = All its glory.

Okay, so they’re here, LEARNING ENGLISH, employed, doing everything right, being good, minding their own business, when…

BAM

Permission denied. Just like that.

While every Tomas, Ricardo, and Enrique who wants to teem over here and pander drogues is welcome, welcome, welcome…

The Romeikes were denied.

The Homeschool Legal Defense Association fought and fought and fought in courts to get them permission to live here. They are brilliant lawyers and know exactly what they were doing.

And lost. And lost. And lost.

And that is precisely why they won. Because they knew the Lord holds the king’s heart in His hand and turns it whatever way He wants.

And He wanted them to stay.

But He also wanted it to look like He had something to do with it.

So He waited. And waited. And waited.

He owns time, did you know that?

And now, after every cotton pickin’ avenue has been exhausted.

The Romeikes are in.

Just like that.

And I’m not done.

All its glory, remember?

Okay, so…

The story goes that Abraham’s wife was barren, which means physically unable to get pregnant, and in their culture that was more than just never having babies to cuddle; it was grounds for divorce.

But, the Lord promised Abraham children, so, to make a long story short, eventually He gave Abraham’s wife one child, a son they named Isaac.

Then God told Abraham to take Isaac up to a mountain in the same area as Mt. Moriah, and to sacrifice Isaac on top of the mountain He would show him.

I believe it was the mountain they would later name Golgotha, the place of the skull, because that’s what it looked like, a human skull.

And so, ever obedient, Abraham did what God said, but at the last moment, God told him not to.

Go ahead, you can laugh.

But…

Many centuries later, God sacrificed His OWN Son on Golgotha, as Abraham prophesied. (Genesis 22:8)

All its glory, remember?

So, the reinstatement of the Romeikes, today, after being hopelessly denied, yesterday, is a picture of salvation.

And the Holy Scripture tells us to: Stand back and see the salvation of God.

And for those who have eyes to see, that is what we are seeing today.

And this is the end of this post.

But not the end.

Not by a long shot.

New Kids on the Blog

WordPress Automattician? Homeschooler? Blogging co-op?

How-to?

Go tell Karen Alma THANKS!

Karen Alma

I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a blogging class for kids for a while. I homeschool my kids and for some reason it is so hard for me to get my kids blogging. I suppose it’s the old shoemakers kids scenario. Finally, I decided the best way to get them blogging would be to offer a class to my homeschool group. Committing to working with the children of my friends would mean my kids could ride along.

After talking about it and talking about it, we finally did it. Last week, I had six kiddos in my house, sitting around the dining room table: taxing my wifi, setting up blogs and publishing their first post and second and third in some cases). In case anyone is interested in replicating this experiment, here’s how it goes:

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