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Archive for October, 2009

I first posted this on the 31st December 2008.. I feel compelled to re post it tonight xx In memory of a loved one xxx

Obituary

My parents told me about Mr Common Sense early in my life and told me I would do well to call on him when making decisions. It seems he was always around in my early years but less and less as time passed by until today, sadly, I read his obituary.

Please join me in a moment of silence in remembrance. For Common Sense had served us all so well for so many generations.

Obituary

Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn’t always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.

Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a class mate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Aspirin, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion;

his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

He is survived by three stepbrothers;

I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I’m a Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.

If you still remember him pass this on.

If not, join the majority and do nothing.

Author unknown

Popularity: 4% [?]

I know.. but from next Thursday, were on our Christmas run down in the world of home education.

We have our presents to make, our cards to make, write and send, and our education to fit into this fun packed season.

We also need to look at things such as the pagan christianity, the green man.. and the festival of light.

Anyway.. being interested in the development of that coco cola character.. Father Christmas.

I recently came across this link.. thank you carole B

In response to a question is there a santa clause.

Enjoy :d

ight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

“DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
“Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

“VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
“115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.”

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

more

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Publisher Penguin books, 1992. ISBN : 0 14 0126805

I am currently re-reading one of my favourite books from my teens.. Yes I did read it well before I became a parent!

The first 30 pages of it have some wonderful paragraphs, which i feel are very instumental on explaining some of the ignorance and ways of individuals…I have decided to add them here, as i love all of them!

p14.

..

.and this is rather different from the challenge and protest type of thinking. Indeed some governments see the teaching of constructive thinking as the best protection against blanket protest thinking which is all that is usually availiable to mentally energetic young people who have not been taught thinking…

In the positive challenge we acknowledge the value of existing idea then we create a new idea and lay it alongside the old idea. We then seek to show that the new idea has merits and benefits

p15

Our egos become very much tied up with being right. In western cultures that is the basis of argument and the adversarial system. We are reluctant to admit defeat because of this ego problem. The result is that our thinking is both aggressive and defensive but rarely constructive.

p16

The second reason we have neglected creative thinking is very interesting indeed. Every valuable creative idea must always seem logical in hindsight after someone has had the idea, If the new idea were not logical in hindsight we would never be able to respond to it as valuable So we are only able to respond to those ideas which are indeed logical in hindsight. The rest remain as crazy ideas.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Since August I have been fairly ill, not managing to really do much, but this has lead to some changes in how we do stuff at home.

Asha seems to have finally settled into this house, a few months of play at home, with regular short walks with daddy on the local fields has settled her right down.

She is wanting to read, and some days she is really strugling But then when she is trying to read words such as “grumble,” “grouse”, “frolic,” “warm,” “hurricane,” and can actually do them.. I guess getting stuck on “trailer” must be frustrating!

She has also been continuing with her violin lessons, which she finds frustrating, as she wants to be able to do it NOW..However she is deffinatly getting very confident with it, and its a pleasure to play with her..

The next week or so we will continue our witch and halloween theme. Because its interesting and allows me to cover some words with her which are used in many of her books and right up to christmas..

We had never taken Asha into Argos. Prefaring instead to buy online. A friend of ours took Asha there one day. Asha now wants EVERYTHING in the catalogue..

Solution? Cut out a big letter B.. get her to find things which start with B, and glue them onto the B. We then allowed her to cut any other pictures out she wanted…. and make a collage of them for in her den.. Asha no longer wants everything in the catalogue…. peace restored!

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Up on their brooms the Witches stream,
Crooked and black in the crescent’s gleam;
One foot high, and one foot low,
Bearded, cloaked, and cowled, they go,
‘Neath Charlie’s Wain they twitter and tweet,
And away they swarm ‘neath the Dragon’s feet,
With a whoop and a flutter they swing and sway,
And surge pell-mell down the Milky Way.
Betwixt the legs of the glittering Chair
They hover and squeak in the empty air.
Then round they swoop past the glimmering Lion
To where Sirius barks behind huge Orion;
Up, then, and over to wheel amain,
Under the silver, and home again.

Walter de la mer.

Asha now also knows witch witchWitch, Witch

Witch witch, where do you fly?
Under the clouds and over the sky.

Witch, witch, what do you eat?
Little black apples from Hurricane Street.

Witch, witch, what do you drink?
Vinegar and good red ink.

Witch, witch, where do you sleep?
Up in the clouds where the pillows are cheap.

And the french one… C’est une sorciere

which i will type the words in sometime to…

Popularity: 9% [?]