"sigh" I need to train myself to survive on only four hours of sleep a night.
Watch/listen
I just found these lectures posted by Cambridge University. Thanks Jared. I want to listen to all of them.
Oh and the new two hour Top Gear episode, because we all know that is very important.
Read
Two blogs that would be useful to read every now and then.
In Pursuit of Truth
White Horse Inn
Brandon and I are going to work through the book The Reason for God by Timothy Keller with the youth group. I need to start reading it. The website for the book has a link to a series of questions (Reader's Guide) that can be used to promote group discussion.
16.2.10
15.2.10
Projects: One finished another one to begin, NZ, origins
I just finished up the 2010 Geelong Bible Conference website. The final task was installing code for a slideshow. See "Past Conf." tab to view. There may be a few content changes but everything else is done.
The next project will be concerning the new Geelong Bible College. Brandon and I have been asked to come along to a few meetings and add our input. They are mainly wanting ideas on how to reach the 25-35 age bracket. We will be addressing more of the tech/website side of things. I am looking forward to it.
Brandon is in New Zealand this week. Wednesday morning until Saturday morning. Hopefully my sister will be coming to hang out for a few of those days. Right Abby?
I am still digging into the Signature in the Cell. I have to say I am really enjoying the book. There is a lot on the philosophy and history of science. Many good questions to ponder.
Brandon and I have recently listened to Mark Driscoll's sermon on doctrine: creation. I would encourage you to do the same.
The next project will be concerning the new Geelong Bible College. Brandon and I have been asked to come along to a few meetings and add our input. They are mainly wanting ideas on how to reach the 25-35 age bracket. We will be addressing more of the tech/website side of things. I am looking forward to it.
Brandon is in New Zealand this week. Wednesday morning until Saturday morning. Hopefully my sister will be coming to hang out for a few of those days. Right Abby?
I am still digging into the Signature in the Cell. I have to say I am really enjoying the book. There is a lot on the philosophy and history of science. Many good questions to ponder.
Brandon and I have recently listened to Mark Driscoll's sermon on doctrine: creation. I would encourage you to do the same.
10.2.10
Two Quotes
that Brandon and I have been mulling over.
Timothy Keller - The Reason for God
George Wald (Nobel prize for Medicine in 1967) -"Frontiers of Modern Biology on Theories of Origin of Life" (New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1972), p. 187.
6/2/10 Note: After reading one of the comments, it does appear that there is a controversy over whether this was actually said by George Wald. I have not been able to find copies of the primary source. Sadly, from what I have read on the internet it does seem that this is a misquote. Thanks to the comment that pointed this out. It is hard to verify all quotes that one reads. When putting them on a blog or website you should check to make sure they are correct. Lesson learned. I am ordering George Wald's article from Scientific America : Origin of Species to see what it actually says.
"Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts—not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’. It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them. Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt."
Timothy Keller - The Reason for God
“When it comes to the origin of life, we have only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God. Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved 100 years ago by Louise Pasteur, Spallanzani, Redi and others. That leads us scientifically to only one possible conclusion, that life arose from a supernatural creative act of God. I will not except that philosophically, because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation leading to evolution.”
George Wald (Nobel prize for Medicine in 1967) -"Frontiers of Modern Biology on Theories of Origin of Life" (New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1972), p. 187.
6/2/10 Note: After reading one of the comments, it does appear that there is a controversy over whether this was actually said by George Wald. I have not been able to find copies of the primary source. Sadly, from what I have read on the internet it does seem that this is a misquote. Thanks to the comment that pointed this out. It is hard to verify all quotes that one reads. When putting them on a blog or website you should check to make sure they are correct. Lesson learned. I am ordering George Wald's article from Scientific America : Origin of Species to see what it actually says.
9.2.10
Conversations with a toddler and preschooler cont.
Adele : "Grandma, it says here in the Bible, that you are silly"
Adele : "Jolene, are you my best friend?"
Jolene : "Yes"
Adele : "Jolene, are you my best friend?"
Jolene : "I already said yes!"
Jolene : "Mom, would you imagine if a house was pink and everything inside was pink!"
Mom : "That would be a lot of pink!"
Jolene : giggles "yeah"
Adele : "I do not like spider crabs"
Adele : "Jolene, are you my best friend?"
Jolene : "Yes"
Adele : "Jolene, are you my best friend?"
Jolene : "I already said yes!"
Jolene : "Mom, would you imagine if a house was pink and everything inside was pink!"
Mom : "That would be a lot of pink!"
Jolene : giggles "yeah"
Adele : "I do not like spider crabs"
2.2.10
School
I suppose you could say we officially dove into school this week. Brandon and I like the Charlotte Mason and Classical approaches. I don't know how we will combine them in the end. Time will tell. We will be following the Oz school year. Which means there are four terms in a year. After the first three terms we get a two week break. After the fourth term comes summer holidays which is 8-10 weeks long.
So what does our school week look like? We do most of it when Gids takes his morning nap and then a little more in the afternoon if we have time. On average we are working for about an 1.5 - 2 hours.
Everyday :
Morning devotions - Verse memorization, devotional, Bible story. We do the verse review every day and the others once or twice a week.
Mon, Wed, Fri :
1. Copywork - Write a short sentence or paragraph.
2. Reading
A) Veritas Press workbook
B) Reading out loud
C) Listening and then narration - Basically I just read a chapter of something (Little House series, Nature Readers, etc.) and then ask them to tell me what they remember.
Tues & Thurs:
1. Maths (Plural in Oz land) We are using Math-U-See. Jolene loves it. So we are doing as much as we can. MUS is just a basic program that uses cuisenaire rods.
2. Spanish - I just add a few new vocab words in each day. A couple phrases as well. We decided to go with Spanish for a couple of reasons.
A) It's an easy language to start with - keeps the kids from getting too frustrated
B) I took it in highschool and uni
C) The second language for the US
After Gids wakes up we take a walk, go to the backyard, or another activity until lunch time. I try to get them outside for at least 2-3 hours a day. When winter comes that will change. I don't want to be outside when it is rainy and 12 C.
I have a couple of books on nature studies. I try to work those in after we have come in from being outside. For example, while outside the other day we saw a bee gathering pollen from a flower. Once inside I read them nature study on bees and how they make honey from pollen. I have found reading during lunch to be fun. They are all sitting still for at least fifteen minutes. Before they get up we have a little discussion about what we just read. We are going through the Little House books and a Raggedy Ann one too. Adele grows tired of Farmer Boy quickly. I am hoping the next one will be more interesting for her.
I am trying to work in a few books on ancient Egypt during our reading times as well. In the classical curriculum you go through the ancient period first, then medieval - early Renaissance, late-Renaissance-early modern, and finally modern. You repeat each period of history four times throughout the child's schooling, increasing in detail each time you revisit that period.
The book on classical education that I found to be very helpful is called The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Brown and Jessie Wise.
Two websites on the Charlotte Mason method that I have found helpful are:
1. simplycharlottemason.com
2. amblesideonline.org
We will see how it goes, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Next Monday we might just skip school all together and have a "field trip" to the beach :-) I do like the beach and it will only be this warm for so much longer.
So what does our school week look like? We do most of it when Gids takes his morning nap and then a little more in the afternoon if we have time. On average we are working for about an 1.5 - 2 hours.
Everyday :
Morning devotions - Verse memorization, devotional, Bible story. We do the verse review every day and the others once or twice a week.
Mon, Wed, Fri :
1. Copywork - Write a short sentence or paragraph.
2. Reading
A) Veritas Press workbook
B) Reading out loud
C) Listening and then narration - Basically I just read a chapter of something (Little House series, Nature Readers, etc.) and then ask them to tell me what they remember.
Tues & Thurs:
1. Maths (Plural in Oz land) We are using Math-U-See. Jolene loves it. So we are doing as much as we can. MUS is just a basic program that uses cuisenaire rods.
2. Spanish - I just add a few new vocab words in each day. A couple phrases as well. We decided to go with Spanish for a couple of reasons.
A) It's an easy language to start with - keeps the kids from getting too frustrated
B) I took it in highschool and uni
C) The second language for the US
After Gids wakes up we take a walk, go to the backyard, or another activity until lunch time. I try to get them outside for at least 2-3 hours a day. When winter comes that will change. I don't want to be outside when it is rainy and 12 C.
I have a couple of books on nature studies. I try to work those in after we have come in from being outside. For example, while outside the other day we saw a bee gathering pollen from a flower. Once inside I read them nature study on bees and how they make honey from pollen. I have found reading during lunch to be fun. They are all sitting still for at least fifteen minutes. Before they get up we have a little discussion about what we just read. We are going through the Little House books and a Raggedy Ann one too. Adele grows tired of Farmer Boy quickly. I am hoping the next one will be more interesting for her.
I am trying to work in a few books on ancient Egypt during our reading times as well. In the classical curriculum you go through the ancient period first, then medieval - early Renaissance, late-Renaissance-early modern, and finally modern. You repeat each period of history four times throughout the child's schooling, increasing in detail each time you revisit that period.
The book on classical education that I found to be very helpful is called The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Brown and Jessie Wise.
Two websites on the Charlotte Mason method that I have found helpful are:
1. simplycharlottemason.com
2. amblesideonline.org
We will see how it goes, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Next Monday we might just skip school all together and have a "field trip" to the beach :-) I do like the beach and it will only be this warm for so much longer.
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