The McEldowney Family: February 2009

Friday, February 27, 2009

February

Well, we haven't had a very exciting month. I generally loathe February. We are auxilliary pioneering in March and we are celebrating our 17th anniversary on the 14th!! We all bought roller skates as a gift to one another. I have taken on more exercise, walking the dog, and drinking more water each day. We are planning a trip to unassigned territory in June, so we are excited about that. Riley is doing great....he is one of us. And tonight, we crossed a milestone. He and the cat ate a treat right beside one another....amazing.
We have done some interesting projects with school. The kids did some mind maps over a book that they each read and Sean is doing math with them 3 days a week during his lunchtime. We are planning on making the month of April a Science month. They are really itching to do some cool projects and experiments. We might even organize a family science fair. I am also thinking about doing a homeschool field day in the late spring. I got that idea from one of my friends who participated in one in her area. Well, we are watching a few movies tonight and I need to mend a few skirts for service.
By the way, our new favorite artist is Darius Rucker,...we are old "Hootie and the blowfish" fans so its no wonder we like his songs.

Take care, and keep in touch,
Danita, Sean, Lexi, & Aidan

My current favorite quotes about education and life

"What does education often do? It makes a
straight-cut ditch of a free meandering brook."
~Henry David Thoreau, Journal,
1850

"Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he's not interested, it's like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating."
- Barbara Lamping
"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience."
-- Anne Sullivan (Helen Keller's teacher)