Week 4- Life Hit Hard

Quote of the Week

When we say yes to Christ, we are saying yes to the most abundant life possible.

Steven D. Shumway

An experiment gone right

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I was going to title this section "Core Subjects" but, to me, knowing history, knowing how to create art and music, knowing how to formulate and sit with ones own thoughts, these, too, should make up our core. For some reason, as a nation, we have decided these 3 things- math, language arts, and science- are what matter above all other knowledge. However, the nation's "report card" recently came out and the number of 12th grade seniors proficient in the these subject has been decreasing for decades. For example, in 2013, those proficient in math was 26 percent while those below basic understanding was 35 percent. As of 2024, only 22 percent of seniors were found to be proficient in math, 33% had a basic understanding, and 45% fell below basic understand- that's a 10 percent increase in the wrong direction. The tests show our current educational system is failing our students. We know how to better educate our students, the research is there, now we just need someone who has the power to change it on national level, with enough courage to do so. In the meantime, I'm going to keep trying to give my kids an awesome education, even when I fall short of the ideal.

 Now, I'll admit, when it came to homeschooling, this week was pretty rough. I reflected on a lot of things, which I will share at the end. But first, to fulfill requirements, the 3 subjects OpenEd asks I report on...

Math: We finished adding and subtracting decimals. And moved onto multiplying decimals.

LA: Creative writing, mindfulness journal, spelling 10 of the first 100 fry words, handwriting practice, and lots of reading both out loud and silently.

Science: TGTB reptile lessons 3 and 4 and a "How Marshmallows are Made" video.

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Music: Piano practice

PE: I truly believe being outdoors and moving our bodies is one of the best things we can do for our brains.

History: Brief Mia Academy videos on the lost colony of Roanoke, Jamestown and the three regions the became the 13 colonies. We are almost ready to talk about the colonist fighting for their freedom. But we paused to talk about our own freedoms and the impact of September 11th.

 “When Americans lend a hand to one another, nothing is impossible. We’re not about what happened on 9/11. We’re about what happened on 9/12.” 

— Jeff Parness

“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend―even a friend whose name it never knew.”—George W. Bush (speaking of Sept. 11th)

A1 also started both Minecraft club and Chess club this week through OpenEd.

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This week, A2 enjoyed story time, painting, and Joy School. We also read more books toward the 1,000 books before kindergarten program. And we celebrated a special day.

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REAL LIFE  

I'll be frank, we did not get all the schooling done this week that I had hoped. Sometimes life just hits you hard. In our case, "life" was a deer. 

No one, but the deer, was injured.
My husband was the only one in the vehicle at the time,
and yes, it ran into him, not the other way around.

Meanwhile, for us at home, life also was the Kitchen Aid losing its head. It also damaged one of my most used measuring cups. 

Fortunately, we are creative people and recognize there is more than one way to a solve problem. Especially when bread and special cupcakes need to be made.

The next day, life took the form of me losing a game of Bumper Brawl with an open kitchen drawer. That slowed us down a bit.

Life also meant parent teacher conferences for the two kids in public school and one of the busiest work weeks of the year for my husband where he worked late multiple nights and all day Saturday. He was hosting a large outdoor event when this happened. 

Because a tornado in Utah is more improbable than a deer running into the side of your car, so why not? In fact, nature decided to make it three tornados, just to keep everyone on their toes.

But nature and bruises weren't the most challenging aspects of the week. Perhaps the thing that took the greatest emotional toll was a public political assassination right here in Utah. While I've heard his name mentioned before, I didn't really know what Charlie Kirk did until earlier this week. And I'm still so sad. I mourn with his family. My heart goes out to the terrified college students and for the family of the shooter. How hate destroyed so many lives on September 10th. The following day I taught my children about September 11th, 2001 and how hate tried to destroy our county then.

“When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group. What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option.”

 –Charlie Kirk

Of September 11th:

“If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.”

 — Sandy Dahl, wife of Flight 93 pilot Jason Dahl.