We're back home in Ohio! I'm happy to be back and working on our house again. It was definitely deteriorating from being left unattended for two years. We are very lucky that no vandalism or permanent damage transpired. We've been back for about a month now and are slowly losing steam on our home improvements. Jim is still commuting. Between all the driving, his work during the week, and working at home on the weekend, he is getting tired. He actually has a cold right now. I'm sure we'll up momentum again once he is officially laid off and home full time. I really need to take pictures of the changes taking place! When will I ever learn? I was doing so well for awhile as you can see from previous posts. I must get back into the habit of taking pictures.
We changed the floor plan of the house by adding a few walls. The former living room is now the master bedroom. The old dining room is now the living room. We were going to reinstall a full set of steps but have decided for now we like our Little House in the Prairie ladder/steps! I know a lot of people don't like or understand them but I tend to appreciate outside of the box thinking/design. I like different and they work! lol The small downstairs bedroom is going to be our new workout room once its contents are sorted and unpacked. That will be so nice. I'm ready to get back to my weight training.
I've been running a lot and have a blog devoted to running and working out. It's in my favorite links under The Reiki Runner if you are interested in taking a look! In the meantime, I'll see what I can do about taking some pictures for this blog. : )
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
What is Socialization? Should Schools be Part of the Picture?
I recently made a commitment to myself to make the utmost effort to view each and every person, conversation, and situation as a potential teacher. I just had such a conversation. It's in this spirit that I am inspired to write my thoughts about socialization in public schools. It's best to be clear to yourself (meaning me) why you believe what you do. In that way you can be more clear to others.
First of all what is socialization? Most think of pleasant conversations and fun times. But the actual definition may surprise you. Socialization is the process of learning interpersonal skills that are in conformity with the values of one's society. That's all good and well. Right? It is all good and well as long as who your children spend the majority of their waking hours with are people who share your values and that of your society. You may or may not get that with teachers. You definitely will not get that with 20- 30 children of your child's same age that may have absent parents and little to no wisdom or life experience except what they learn from the media and video games.
Most socialization in schools is unsupervised such as the playground, hallways, and cafeteria. The powers that be may be watching but then maybe not well enough. I've heard tales of 2nd graders kissing behind playground equipment! Now who told them that was normal? My guess is some combination of the 20-30 other kids of the same age in their class. How's that for socialization? And I haven't even touched on other subjects such as drugs, sexuality, etc. that these peers are socializing to one another. And bullying is a another whole subject! Maybe parents are better suited to pass along our society's values.
Since when has spending the majority of your time with people all the same age been considered normal? The "real" adult world isn't like that. So how can we say this is training for the "real" world? The "real" world consists of people older, younger, and of different ethnic groups and religions. And it's not required that we all agree! I just think it's required for our own collective good to get along and live peacefully.
I think we would all be in agreement each and every one of us wants to be happy and is doing our best. I believe that at the core of our very being we ARE joy and happiness! Even those who behave badly are inherently good and bright like little children. But then we become conditioned over time by people and experiences. And that joy gets a bit obscured like dust or in some cases dirt on a mirror.
It's difficult to remain joyful when you can't be who you truly are. It's hard to BE happiness when there's constant pressure to fit in with the "group think." It's challenging to juggle all the roles we play for all the various people we know. The best advice ever is to just be yourself! The famous author Beatrix Potter wrote: Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
The majority of our free thinking and radical for their time founding fathers never went to school. The public school system is a recent institution designed to indoctrinate and produce cooperative , drone like workers for the manufacturing industry of that time. It was much easier to get things done and run a government if the people didn't really think for themselves. The public school system's use is outdated. Academic education and tutors can be found online now. If anything over time we've made children less productive and efficient with public education. Most children today including my own could not work up to par with a similar aged child in the beginning years of this country. Yes, the work may be different now but the work ethic has evaporated. I can't tell you the number of unkind, unmotivated, nonverbal, unresponsive teens I've seen working in public places. That wouldn't have been tolerated even 50 years ago.
So in my estimation education and true socialization is best left to parents and extended family. If a family doesn't feel equipped to educate then use a school. If you want your kids to join groups, sports, and have dances then organize them as a community apart from the school. Dances, sports, picnics, ice cream socials, and sewing bees were church/community activities in the past. Taxes would be lower, but that's yet another subject entirely. In my opinion schools are best left to academic education only!
First of all what is socialization? Most think of pleasant conversations and fun times. But the actual definition may surprise you. Socialization is the process of learning interpersonal skills that are in conformity with the values of one's society. That's all good and well. Right? It is all good and well as long as who your children spend the majority of their waking hours with are people who share your values and that of your society. You may or may not get that with teachers. You definitely will not get that with 20- 30 children of your child's same age that may have absent parents and little to no wisdom or life experience except what they learn from the media and video games.
Most socialization in schools is unsupervised such as the playground, hallways, and cafeteria. The powers that be may be watching but then maybe not well enough. I've heard tales of 2nd graders kissing behind playground equipment! Now who told them that was normal? My guess is some combination of the 20-30 other kids of the same age in their class. How's that for socialization? And I haven't even touched on other subjects such as drugs, sexuality, etc. that these peers are socializing to one another. And bullying is a another whole subject! Maybe parents are better suited to pass along our society's values.
Since when has spending the majority of your time with people all the same age been considered normal? The "real" adult world isn't like that. So how can we say this is training for the "real" world? The "real" world consists of people older, younger, and of different ethnic groups and religions. And it's not required that we all agree! I just think it's required for our own collective good to get along and live peacefully.
I think we would all be in agreement each and every one of us wants to be happy and is doing our best. I believe that at the core of our very being we ARE joy and happiness! Even those who behave badly are inherently good and bright like little children. But then we become conditioned over time by people and experiences. And that joy gets a bit obscured like dust or in some cases dirt on a mirror.
It's difficult to remain joyful when you can't be who you truly are. It's hard to BE happiness when there's constant pressure to fit in with the "group think." It's challenging to juggle all the roles we play for all the various people we know. The best advice ever is to just be yourself! The famous author Beatrix Potter wrote: Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
The majority of our free thinking and radical for their time founding fathers never went to school. The public school system is a recent institution designed to indoctrinate and produce cooperative , drone like workers for the manufacturing industry of that time. It was much easier to get things done and run a government if the people didn't really think for themselves. The public school system's use is outdated. Academic education and tutors can be found online now. If anything over time we've made children less productive and efficient with public education. Most children today including my own could not work up to par with a similar aged child in the beginning years of this country. Yes, the work may be different now but the work ethic has evaporated. I can't tell you the number of unkind, unmotivated, nonverbal, unresponsive teens I've seen working in public places. That wouldn't have been tolerated even 50 years ago.
So in my estimation education and true socialization is best left to parents and extended family. If a family doesn't feel equipped to educate then use a school. If you want your kids to join groups, sports, and have dances then organize them as a community apart from the school. Dances, sports, picnics, ice cream socials, and sewing bees were church/community activities in the past. Taxes would be lower, but that's yet another subject entirely. In my opinion schools are best left to academic education only!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
HAPPY EASTER !!!
Everyone had a great time! Lots of excellent food as usual. Had an Easter egg hunt for Thomas and Damien. Jesse joined in (after all he's only 11)! Paige made the bunny art from different pieces of colored paper. She also made and decorated the 2 cakes pictured. I hope everyone else in Ohio had a good day too!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Jim's Birthday
Jimmy's birthday was on Weds, January 28. Instead of having two cakes in the same week like we did with Jesse's birthday, we made a batch of sugar cookies for Weds. and gave him some of candy we thought he would enjoy. He got a hershey bar, m&ms, maple easter eggs, and turtles. On Saturday he got movie theater gift cards from Barb and Jim and Chrissy.
These are some random pictures from our get together at Barb and Jim's on Saturday. Everyone is looking at Pam's Bent Nail Ranch blog in the third picture.
More pictures from Barb and Jim's.
The first two show the cards the kids made for Jim on Wednesday. Paige's card is a character sketch from Twilight. James drew his card on card stock. Jesse made his from folded card stock and scrapbooking stickers. I was surprised how even and straight he got everthing!
The third picture is the Mr. Hanky cake that Nicki made for Jim. I'm sure my Mom doesn't know Mr Hanky. So Mom he is a character from a show called South Park. He is a piece of poo. Funny! I've never really watched this show but have heard about Mr Hanky because he is fairly popular with younger people. Even more funny we had to explain it to our own kids!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Art Gallery
The kids wanted to show some of their drawings to you. Paige sketches consistently in a sketch book. She picked a few that she likes best and then I picked a few more that I like. The boys draw randomly but often, so I picked a few that I thought were cute.
The first picture is from the cover of the popular teen vampire book called Twilight.It was recently released in the theater as a movie. Paige has been reading this series and really enjoys them. The third picture is her portrait of James. The other two are random creations.
The third picture is Jesse's portrait of James. The other three are more of Paige's art.
The first three are MORE of Paige's! LOL! The last picture is James' portrait of Jesse. We really like this one because we think it's cute and really looks like him in a strange way and have had it on our refrigerator for awhile.
I hope you enjoyed seeing these!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Jesse's Birthday
Jesse turned 11 on Friday, January 16! Paige decorated a cake for him. She designed a guitar and flames on it because he used to play guitar hero and now plays guitar or drums in their Rock Band 2 game. That game is so fun! Sometimes I get to be the lead singer! We gave him a pocket knife he had been asking for and some money.
On Sunday we had a birthday gathering at Jim and Barb's. Nicki has a new cake decorating kit that she got for Christmas, so she made the cake. It was really good and had a wizard and dragon on the top. Jesse likes role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, Oblivion, etc. so it was right up his alley. He got some cards with gifts inside. He is no longer broke! Thanks to everyone who made his birthday so special.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Christmas: Better Late Than Never! LOL!
Here are a few pictures!
The older the kids get the simpler Christmas becomes. Gone are the days of finding the perfect toy. LOL! Now they prefer money to do their own shopping. Paige and James are big savers. So they still have most of their money. There isn't really anything they want right now. I say good for them! Thank goodness Jesse has a January birthday because he is broke!
We had a nice day with good food over at Jim and Barb's house.
The older the kids get the simpler Christmas becomes. Gone are the days of finding the perfect toy. LOL! Now they prefer money to do their own shopping. Paige and James are big savers. So they still have most of their money. There isn't really anything they want right now. I say good for them! Thank goodness Jesse has a January birthday because he is broke!
We had a nice day with good food over at Jim and Barb's house.
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