I'm going to try this by writing my post first and then copying and pasting it into this happy little box. The reason why? Because for the last two days, every time I was about to update my blog, we've had a power outage. As far as I can tell, I am not doing anything in particular to cause it--just coincidence.
Today, we returned home from our homeschooling co-op only to find that the lights were off. Because we have had complications with the wiring in our house and our fuse box before I went to the neighbors to make sure it was not just me. ;). She said that the power went out and a few minutes later, the fire trucks went by. Our power was out for several hours, and because it is so gray here today, we really couldn't do much of anything. It was quite dark in our house! I couldn't even warm up a cup of coffee in a microwave. I couldn't even get some water, as our water comes from a well (with an eletrical pump).
Thankfully, it is back on, and so we are busy trying to do some cleaning up and further work on some research reports everyone has been assigned. Each of our kids is doing a report on a different country, and we're going to be getting together with some other families to have a night of international food and presentations. The kids, largely working on the computer, have been quite distressed over the power going out while typing reports or doing research, though Edison assures me they think they fixed it this time.
Co-op went well, though I forgot my chess pages (d'oh!). I have written up some chess stuff for my students who are all quite new to chess. I was so excited about doing the chess class, but then after losing a few times to my son, I became concerned that maybe I wasn't qualified anymore. I think I lost brain cells when I had kids ;). I used to be able to beat my husband in chess but now I can't even beat my son.
I also have a cartooning class, for which I feel infinitely more qualified. I will be getting a cartoon strip together pretty soon to put up on my blog regularly (It is about a momma having kids, cats, and dogs and the funny things that occur in a normal day).
I really enjoy teaching kids how to draw. There are so few good books out there for that purpose (at least ones that go beyond the very basics). For example, I couldn't find too many cartooning books that had good information on shading, so I had to write my own. Good thing I'm an author LOL. Anyway, next semester, we are going to tackle how to write cartoons. Now THERE's a topic I have not seen AT ALL, and I am still trying to develop my own thoughts of how to explain to them what I know in a way that they can both do it and understand it. You really learn a subject better when you have to think about teaching it.
Speaking of my dead brain cells, I also remember being very good at math when I was younger. I nearly aced the SAT and I did ace the ACT, and I took (and passed) a placement test for Calculus. However, yesterday I found myself trying to help my 14 year old understand those idiotic algebra word problems about Suzy being in a car travelling so many miles per hour in one direction, and Mary being in a car driving the other way, and when will they meet...blah blah blah. My daughter put it well when she asked what the real world application is. I'm turning 38 on Monday, and I still don't know what the application is for those. Math is all around us, and we use so much of what we learned when we need to calculate yardages for fabric, or figure out how many ceramic tiles we need for the floor and things like that....but the ones about the two trains going in different directions... I still don't get it. I feel sorry for parents who didn't like or didn't do well in Algebra.
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