Homeschooling Thankfulness

I am very thankful for all the wonderful things in my life: my health; my family; friends both near and far; the opportunity to homeschool my children; my adopted country and the country of my birth; this wonderful Earth we live on; good food and clean water; heat and light; books and learning; a comfortable bed to snuggle in at night; safe soil to grow food in; trees to shade me from the summer sun... you get the picture.

Whatever I may feel is lacking in my life, or myself, today I push that aside and realize all the wonderful things I have to be thankful for. Thank you for reading.

From Refugees to Heroes

I don't want to imagine what it would feel like to have to flee my home because my life was in danger. Still, I imagine I might survive many things provided my family was intact. As a subscriber to blogcatalog I was asked to take part in Bloggers Unite, today, November 10th and blog about the plight of refugees. Knowing how devastated I'd be if this happened to me I could hardly refuse. So here's my post. By the way, Refugees United provides a way for refugees to find missing family members while remaining anonymous.

Blogcatalog have set up a nice page with suggested links to organizations and information about the plight of refugees. I took a look and picked out the following as my favorites: Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children and stories of refugees at The British Red Cross site. I also want to mention stories of refugees who are making a new life in the USA and who wrote their own stories as they study English in a local USA college. Obviously though we can't rescue every refugee and bring them to the USA. Displaced people need water, food, shelter, a way to reconnect with seperated family members, and, additionally, their dignity.

The previously mentioned Women's Commission... are starting an initiative today called Beyond Firewood: Fuel Alternatives and Protection Strategies for Displaced Women and Girls. Apparently refugee women and girls who go out searching for firewood are in personal danger. Aid food that is provided needs cooking and fuel is a limited resource. Obviously it's in everyone's best interest if they are able to conserve fuel by using alternative, fuel-efficient cooking strategies. Being as I support the use of stick fueled rocket stoves, solar ovens, and other fuel-saving alternatives I thoroughly approve of this initiative.

Now onto the hero part. Last week I had the honor of meeting a real live hero. Yohannes Gebregeorgis is one of 10 nominees for the CNN heroes award. As a political refugee from Ethiopia, he arrived in Texas in 1981. After putting himself through college and obtaining a graduate degree in library science, Yohannes worked as a children's librarian in San Francisco. In 1988 Yohannes started the non-profit organization Ethiopia Reads. He began working with others who care about children in Ethiopia and opened the first ever free public Ethiopian children's library in 2003. Yohannes told me last week that a second Ethiopian children's library has now been opened. My favorite of all is the donkey mobile library, which takes books out of the city to children who know how to read but have never held a book. You can read more about Yohannes at CNN, vote for Yohannes and/or other heroes at http://heroes.cnn.com/, and see a picture of the donkey mobile library at Ethiopia Reads.

Lessons I Learned From My Goldfish

Fish School at Amazon.com
Children can learn a lot from pets; in fact we all can if we stop and think about it. Most of the lessons seem simple, but perhaps they are actually profound.

The very first pet I ever part-owned was a goldfish, won at a carnival, and proudly carried home in a plastic bag. I was very, very excited about having a pet. After we got home Goldie was temporarily housed in a bucket until we could get to a pet store to secure an appropriate glass globe bowl for him. Once safely installed in his bowl, Goldie was overfed and under-cared-for to a dramatic extent. It's a testament to the toughness of goldfish that he lived for what seems to me like a long time (most likely several months), rather than a mere matter of hours. So what exactly can I thank Goldie, and the string of pet goldfish who followed, for?

1. There's stuff around us that we can't see. Somehow Goldie's bowl if left uncleaned would start to grow green algae. It was a great mystery to me how algae could appear apparently from nowhere. My parents' explanation that algae could come out of thin air seemed like magic, yet it taught me that there are great mysteries all around us and we can't always believe our eyes.
   
2. It takes energy to maintain a steady state. Goldie's bowl did not stay clean without effort on the part of my parents. I'm ashamed to say that when I was a child the way we cleaned out a goldfish bowl was as follows: on a weekly basis goldfish and water were tipped into our dishwashing bowl; the bowl was cleaned out with a cloth or sponge; fresh tapwater was put into Goldie's bowl; Goldie was caught in a jar or mug and emptied back into his nice, clean bowl. You'd have thought he'd be happy at that point.
   
3. Living things need clean water that is not polluted with chemicals. Abrupt change leads to shock. Since we'd paid no attention to getting rid of the chlorine in tap water or to getting the water up to room temperature Goldie was rather shocked on return to his bowl.
4. Alcohol makes you go kind of crazy. If Goldie's shock on return to his bowl looked like it was too much for him, the usual remedy was to add a few drops of brandy to his water. I kid you not! At that point he would zoom around his bowl at hyperspeed and either recover, or deteriorate quickly and be destined for flushing down the toilet.
5. We feel better if we take deliberate action, no matter if it is inappropriate and futile, rather than watching something go wrong while we fail to act. I'm sure that the brandy did not help Goldie one bit, but I hated to stand and watch him wobble around the bowl in his "nice, fresh, water" and felt that I should be doing something to help. Pleading with my parents caused them to bring out the brandy. At that point I felt I'd done my best to help him (or subsequent goldfish) whatever the outcome.

Apparently I could even have learned about operant conditioning by training Goldie. As it is, today while thinking about the Earth and our finite resources I was reminded of Goldie and his life in the goldfish bowl. I'm satisfied that goldfish toys would have been an unimportant distraction from the important things in life.

Thank you Goldie for some very important lessons and I'm sorry that I did not take better care of you :-(

Baby Dad

The Father's Almanac at Amazon.com
Once upon a time Handyman Hubby was a baby dad. He'd never changed a diaper, never bounced a baby, and didn't know how to play roughhouse. Sixteen years after purchasing The Father's Almanac, I looked up today in search of a favorite book to write about and saw this book still on my shelf. I guess that's some kind of testament - unless you believe that I've never, ever thrown a book out. Now, that's not a polite accusation! There may be a grain, or even a boulder, of truth in it, but I do actually take a lot of time over choosing what gets on my bookshelf in the first place :-)

Maybe I actually bought this book for me, or at least because I thought it was full of the kind of "baby dad" I'd like to have in my home. Just as I was starting to write this article Handyman Hubby chanced by my desk and looked to see what I was doing. When I told him that this book was the reason and source of the roughhousing that has been a favorite dad/kid interaction in our home since Artist Girl and Game Boy were tiny, he was surprised. Well, there is a lot more to this book than roughhousing safely, though I have to say that for me it was worth the price just for that alone.

Checking Amazon.com to see how many people who view this item actually purchase it, you'll see a figure of 55%. I can't say why 1/2 the people end up choosing something else, but I can give you a few gems from this book. And if you know someone who will be a father shortly, or who has a young child, you just might give this book a check.

First up, there's good practical advice about getting involved in pregnancy and in birth choices, with words of advice on such diverse things as back rubs, trial runs and emergency delivery. Moving on, the man in question will learn about bonding, celebrating, and big adjustments. Baby dad can learn how to do the football hold and how to build a hip baby seat (men just aren't endowed that way)! Moms to be will be reassured to know that dads will get an explanation on diaper changing, burping, and on comforting criers. I think all of that is great and as I read through this book again, I realize how much of that we did use. However, I think my favorite part of this book is all the little projects it details from old-fashioned simple toys like clacker blocks, and spinning tops to sleds, musical nails and a bouncing swing.

This book really is a complete pre-birth to preschool guide for an involved dad and would serve as a pretty complete preschool curriculum for either parent, or for both parents.

By the way, I do also own the equivalent Mother's Almanac, but it's not one of my favorite books and I shouldn't really give it shelf space. The Father's Almanac IMO is better organized, nicely indexed, and considerably more fun!!

Do you have a favorite baby advice book on your bookshelf, a favorite dad and kid activity, or a favorite dad and baby story to share. Let me know and I'll give you a link.

I have the most awesome readers who have amazing partners:

• Janet of 32-Acre Wood reports that Mountain Man was a great baby dad. He stepped up to the plate and changed all her first's diapers after she was in bed due to a C-section.
  

* I Admire You Because...

This article can be found at Loving Nature's Garden.