Homeschooling and software development

Three weeks ago I joined a new company.  I am a software engineer and build tools to check the quality of databases.  I have been assigned to a new project.  Most of the successful projects in the industry go through some basic phases.

The people involved in the project build a list of requirements.  They may talk with customers to find out what they want in a new application, or what additional features they want in an existing application.  They may talk with experts in the product space to understand how the software needs to perform.  They may check other existing applications.  They may do combinations of these, and even try other options.  Inexperienced development teams will jump right into writing code only to find they are wasting time building a product which doesn’t meet the market’s demands.

Once they have a concrete, specific set of requirements they will create a design for the software.  This is typically done by senior software developers or even by people who have the title of software architect.  Normally several designs will be considered.  For complex projects it came be an iterative process.  One design may be picked, modified, folded in with another design, being changed and changed again until a final design feels right and gets approved by various people.

Then the software developers will divvy up the project and start writing code.  If the requirements are clear and the design is well thought out the process of creating the software will go so much easier.  Over the years seasoned software developers have learned the value of nailing down the requirements and spending a serious amount of time to come up with a good design.  Without these a project can take much, much longer and end up with a buggy piece of software which customers won’t buy.

So what does this have to do with homeschooling?

Well as parents I think before we jump into trying to teach our children it is good to step back and really think about what it is that we want.  We need to ponder our own requirements for a successful homeschooling experience before we jump in.   We can consult with others to get some ideas.

And once we figure out our goals we then need to work on how we will homeschool.  It is also valuable here to get suggestions for others.  We can design our curriculum to match our goals.

Once we have figured out our own requirements and come up with a good approach for homeschooling then we can start in on the homeschooling process with a much better chance of success.

With both software development and homeschooling it is important to be flexible.  After a couple weeks or a couple months we may realize that we missed an important requirement.  Or that a requirement we thought was important turns out to be something we don’t really care about.  And it is OK to change the design.  Sometimes we just need to tweak it.  Other times we may to toss the design out and start all over.

If we'll be thoughtful about our end goals for homeschooling and how we do it, we'll have a much better chance of success.

Please remember to send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling, which will be held at momSCHOOL.

This will be the 431st edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.

As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.

I took the AP US History test before it became a brain-washing session

This is sad: New Advanced Placement Framework Distorts America’s History:

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A dramatic, unilateral change is taking place in the content of the College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. history course. In fall 2014, almost half a million high school sophomores and juniors will learn a very different version of U.S. history from the course of study now in place. Currently, a five-page topical outline gives teachers clear guideline for their course. This long-established outline conforms to the sequence of topics state and local boards of education have approved. In contrast, the new, redesigned Framework is a detailed 98-page document that does far more than list required topics. 

 This change in format is best described as a curricular coup that sets a number of dangerous precedents. By providing a detailed course of study that defines, discusses, and interprets “the required knowledge of each period,” the College Board has in effect supplanted local and state curriculum by unilaterally assuming the authority to prioritize historic topics. This inevitably means that some topics will be magnified in importance while others will be minimized or even omitted. If concerned parents, educators, and elected public officials do not speak out, the College Board (led by David Coleman, generally considered the architect of the Common Core national standards) will continue to develop similar frameworks for its 33 other Advanced Placement (AP) courses and thus become an unelected de facto legislature for America’s public and private high schools.
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Every 25-Year-Old In America Should See This Chart

I think every child should see this:  Every 25-Year-Old In America Should See This Chart.

Hat tip: Instapundit

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Learning Lifestyle, Reading, and News edition

Janice is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Janice Campbell  Taking Time For Things That Matter.

We have a great round of posts.

Can you believe it, we're up to the 430th carnival!

Enjoy.

Homeschooling in the age of Common Core

My local school district is one of the many who have jumped on the Common Core band wagon in the hopes of securing money from the federal government.


There are people more sophisticated and experienced than me who are sounding the alarm. I agree that Common Core is a train wreck coming down the track which will cost money and do harm.


How will this effect me as a homeschool?

Before Common Core, I rarely looked at and never followed the state standards for what should be taught and when it should be taught.  I don't think that will change.  I ignored them before and I will continue to ignore them.

Since we use community college transcripts to get into college, I don't think the Common Core will have much effect on us either.  Community college doesn't use ACT or SAT scores.  [As a result of Common Core, the ACT and SAT tests are changing, mostly in the dumbing down direction. ] Community colleges use their own placement tests and I imagine they will continue to do so. Those tests might change under the influence of Common Core, but the material is so basic that I don't think they can do much harm on that level.


Common Core will influence the educational materials available to homeschoolers.  Since we don't use many of those kinds of resources, the impact on us should be minimal.  [However, I really hate the changes to Saxon Math that have already been made, so I imagine it will get worse under Common Core.]

I'm predicting that Common Core will fall out of favor very quickly.  Because of the legislation involved, it could take years, if not decades to undo the damage.

In the end, Common Core may inspire more parents to pull their children out of public school to homeschool.

I like this thought

Recently posted on Facebook:

Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our hear rather than a piece of our mind.

Life Humor 2.R

From the Henry Cate Life Humor collection:
Life Humor 2.R was originally posted 18 February 1988

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"We trained hard, but it seemed every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization"

From Petronii Arbitri Satyricon AD 66. Attributed to Gaius Petronus

Gaius Petronus, a Roman General, later committed suicide!

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     A few years back, some poor fool decided to rob a bank on a Friday afternoon. Stupid fellow that one.  If he had looked across the street, he would have realized that this bank was next to FBI headquarters, and it was payday. Virtually every person in the bank was an agent!  Needless to say, this hapless fool got a quick lesson in law enforcement technique...

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     This reminds me of the stories which appeared in the press a few years ago during a garbage strike in N.Y.  Apparently, the cabbies started wrapping up their garbage and putting it in the back of their cab. It was always gone by the end of their shift.

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     The stupidest tricks I've heard of, though, are always bank robbers. Like the guy who was caught walking back to the bank with a can of gas after his car ran out of gas while he was in robbing the bank.

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     They managed to enter the place without setting off the alarm, but they were unable to crack the safe by drilling holes in it or trying to hear the tumblers fall.  So they decided to blow the thing open.  After a loud explosion the safe was still locked tight, but the alarm had been set off.  When they got to the getaway car it wouldn't start.  So they each ran off in a different direction as the sirens approached.  The police had no problem identifying and apprehending them, though.  One of them had left his wallet on the front seat of the getaway car.

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     How about the bank robber in Champiagn IL. who robbed the bank one day and return to the same bank the next day to deposit the money into his account and even went to the same teller. Well the teller keep him busy while someone called the police.

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A couple of TAC pilots were flying F-102's in escort with a B-36 bomber and were chinning with the pilot of the bomber to pass the time.  Talk fell to the subject of the relative merits of their respective aircraft with the fighter pilots holding that their planes made for more interesting flying because of the maneuverability, acceleration and the like.   The B-36 pilot replied "Yeh?  Well this old girl can do a few tricks you  guys can't even touch."  Naturally, he was challenged to demonstrate.
"Watch," he tells them.

After several minutes the bomber pilot returns to the air and says,"There!  How was that?"  Not having seen anything, the fighter pilots  say, "What are talking about?"  Reply, "Well, I went for a little stroll,  got a cup of coffee and went downstairs for a chat with the navigator."

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"Are you going to see him Samoa?"  "Don't be Sicily, he's a Spain in the neck."
   
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"I don't Bolivia."  "Denmark my words, you'll regret it."
   
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"Swell town you got here.  Lots of big men born here?"  "No, only babies."
   
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"May I see you pretty soon?"
"Don't you think I'm pretty now?"
   
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"How should long girls be courted?"
"The same as the short ones."

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Did you realize that bank robbers are all going to Canada now?  That's the only place they have Toronto.
   
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The local banker really likes the Swiss slogan: every little bit Alps.
   
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He used to have her picture over the fireplace, then he proposed, and she gave him the negative.
   
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He's rather good looking, in a way.  Away off.
   
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He fell in love with her when she ignored him.  It was love at first slight.
   
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"How did you find your steak?"  "I found it under the potato."

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The doctor won't be back for a long while, he's out on an eternity case.
   
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A young women at the hospital was given a private room, she was too cute for wards.
   
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Tomas R. Marshall, Vice-President to Wilson, dedicated one of his books: "To President Woodrow Wilson from his only Vice."
   
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A book review: the following are taken from "The Washington Wits" edited by Bill Adler, 1967

     Thumbing through a promotional pamphlet prepared for his 1964 Senatorial campaign, Robert Kennedy came across a photograph of himself shaking hands with a well-known labor leader.
     "There must be a better photo that this," said Kennedy to the advertising men in charge of his campaign.
     "What's wrong with this one?" asked one adman.
     "That fellow's in jail," said Kennedy. (p 10-11)
   
     On the campaign trail during 1964, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater stated, "The immediate task before us is to cut the Federal Government down to size ... we must take Lyndon's credit card away from him." (p 88)
   
     A favorite 1964 campaign stunt of Barry Goldwater's was to poke a finger through a pair of lensless blackrimmed glasses, saying, "These glasses are just like [Lyndon Johnson's] programs.  They look good but they don't work." (p 88)
   
     Somewhat alarmed at the continued growth of the number of employees on the Department of Agriculture payroll in 1962, Michigan Republican Robert Griffin proposed an amendment to the farm bill so that "the total number of employees in the Department of Agriculture at no time exceeds the number of farmers in America." (p118)
>What's even funnier is that the amendment FAILED.

     Republican Senator Karl Mundt of South Dakota reports that the citizens of East Berlin, who have their eyes fixed upon the prosperous Western sector as a symbol of freedom, have managed to retain their optimism and a good sense of humor.  He tells the story of a young East Berliner who had been told that his "mother" was the East German "Republic" and his "father" the Communist party.  Asked by Brezhnev what his ambition was for the future, he replied, "I would like to be an orphan."  (p118)
   
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college statistics

Here's a few statistics I found interesting:

One in four college students has an STD

44% of students attending 4-year colleges drink alcohol at the binge level or greater. However, about half (49%) of American college students don’t drink alcohol on a regular basis.

1,700 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries.

Every year, 599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol, while more than 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.

Each year, college students spend about $5.5 billion on alcohol.

Student loan debt will hit 1 trillion in 2012.

Nearly 1,100 suicides will occur on college campuses this year.

Nationwide, 40 % of students (and over 60% of students from urban districts) are required to take at least one remedial course upon entering college. Most students enrolled in remedial college course work had good grades in High School. In California, 84 percent of students enrolled in community college are required to take remedial English coursework.

Please remember to send in a post for the next Carnival of Homeschooling

Please remember to send in a post about homeschooling for the next Carnival of Homeschooling, which will be held at Janice Campbell  Taking Time For Things That Matter.

This will be the 430th edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Go here for the instructions on sending in a submission.

As always, entries to the Carnival of Homeschooling are due Monday evening at 6:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

I have a reminder mailing list. If you would like email reminders, please tell me.

Life Humor 2.Q

From the Henry Cate Life Humor collection:
Life Humor 2.Q was originally posted 8 February 1988

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     Fred noticed his roommate had a black eye upon returning from a dance.  "What happened?"  "I was struck by the beauty of the place."

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     A pushy romeo asked a gorgeous elevator operator, "Don't all these stops and starts get you pretty worn out?"  "It isn't the stops and starts that get on my nerves, it's the jerks."
   
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Lawyer:  Did you say the plaintiff was shot in the woods?
Doctor:  No, I said he was shot in the lumbar region.

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Real-estate man:  Would you like to see a model home?
Man:  I sure would, when does she get off work?
   
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     Penn's aunts made great pies at low prices.  No one else in town could compete with the pie rates of Penn's aunts.
   
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     During the American Revolution tried to raid a farm.  He stumbled across a rock on the ground and fell, then an aggressive Rhode Island Red hoped on top.  The farmer came out at this moment and commented, "Check catch a Tory."
   
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     A new chef from India was fired a week after starting the job.  He keep favoring curry.
   
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     A banker fell over board.  His friends couldn't find a life preserver. One asked, "Can you float alone?"
   
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     A filibuster, throwing your wait around.
   
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     A reverend wanted to call another reverend.  He told the operator, this is a parson to parson call.
   
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     A friend  got some vinegar in his ear, now he suffers from pickled hearing.
   
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     Two brothers, Mort and Bill, like to sail.  Mort is the expert.  Bill is not the rigger Mort is.
   
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     Inheritance taxes are getting so out of line, that the deceased family often doesn't have a legacy to stand on.
   
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     The judge fined the offender fifty dollars and told him if he was caught again, he would be thrown in jail.  Fine today, cooler tomorrow.
   
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     A rock store was closed by the police, they were taking too much for granite.
   
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     A man who keep stealing mopeds was an obvious cycle-path.
   
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     A man pleaded innocent of any wrong doing when caught by the police during a raid at the house of a mobster.  His excuse, "I was making a bolt for the door."
   
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     A farm in the country side had seven turkeys, it was known as the house of seven gobbles.
   
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     A women was in love with fourteen soldiers, its platoonic.
   
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     Max told his friend he didn't want to go for a hike in the hills.  "I'm an anti-climb Max."

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     A new wagon designed for LA rush hour traffic is called the Stationary wagon.
   
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     An Uncle died, left several hundred clocks to a niece, she's busy winding up the estate.
   
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     Two cheerleaders ended up married, they met by chants.
   
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     Advice to ice skaters: You can't always tell a brook by its cover.
   
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     What do they call a man who builds twenty boats a month?  Sir Launchalot.
   
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     A fortune-teller started laughing seconds after looking into his crystal ball.  The client hit him.  "Why did you do that"  "My mother always told me to strike a happy medium."
   
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Borrowed and modified from Arkady Shevchenko's  autobiography.

        A man walks into Red Square on day screaming "Gorbachov's an idiot! Gorbachov's an idiot."  Well, the KGB chased him around for a while until they   finally caught him.  They immediately took him to court where the judge decided on his sentence.  The poor fellow was given exactly 10 years and seven days in  jail.  Two days for disturbing the peace,  five days for insulting the leader,  and ten years for revealing a state secret!!!

     An inspector was making the rounds of the communal farms in his district, and he approached a potato farmer. "How was the potato harvest this season, comrade?" he demanded.  "Excellent, excellent," exclaimed the farmer, "our potatoes could be piled high enough to reach the toe of God!"  A bit taken aback, the inspector said, "But comrade, this is the Soviet Union; there is no God."   Replied the farmer, "That's no problem, because there aren't any potatoes, either."

     "In News, there is no truth; and in Truth there is no news." I guess it makes more sense in russian.. Pravda is truth, and Isvestia is news.  The two big Soviet papers: Pravda and Isvestia.

     Seems the Department of Information Services (Ministry of Propaganda) was out in the field, taking 'the Revolution" to the people: explaining the fundamentals of Socialism to the populace to bolster popularity. A member of the Department was out talking to a farmer in Siberia... Official: So you see, comrade, dat it iz de way Marx explained: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." You understand?
Farmer: (confused) Nyet...
O: OK. Iz like dis: Say a comrade has two cows. Ve take one cow from him and give it to comrade that has no cow. Dat is de Revolution. You see?
F: (Happily) Da, Da! Iz good!
O: And if a comrade has two tractors, ve take one of his tractors and give to man who has no tractors. Da?
F: (Very excited) Da! Da! Is WERY good!
O: And if a comrade has two cheekens, ve give one cheeken to man who has no cheekens. Da?
F: Nyet! Iz not good!
O: Vy iz not good?
F: (Despondently) I have two cheekens...

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     A badger is quietly walking through Red Square.  He sees two rabbits, running just as fast as they can, come from one street.
Badger:  "Wait!  Why are you running!?"
Rabbit 1: "The KGB is arresting all the camels!"
Badger: "But you're rabbits!"
Rabbit 2: "Yeah, but try telling the KGB that!"

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Diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to "Go to hell" in such a way that he looks forward to the trip.

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Why did the turtle cross the road???
To get to the Shell station!!!

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  A newspaper headline:  "Escaped Leopard Believed Spotted!"

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Being good at one thing doesn't mean you will be good at something else

Often I'm bemused by people who are experts in one field and then will pontificate on all kinds of subjects.  Sometimes I'll know they are wrong in what they say about matters outside their area of expertise.

High Performance Is Not the Same as High Potential is a good article which reminds us that just because someone is a higher performance doesn't mean they will be a great leader.

The article starts with:

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If your company is like most, you probably identify your next leaders from a pool of your top performers. They might be salespeople or project managers or skilled developers, but in any event, they've got a reputation for delivering results.

Strong performance and the results it carries are all well and good, of course, but it does not necessarily indicate that an employee will make a good leader. And according to research from member-based executive team advisory company CEB, companies are seriously hurting themselves by failing to differentiate between performance and potential.
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This is a good reminder for us as parents to recognize that our children may be strong in one area, but not all areas.

We never really had winter

From Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list:

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.
The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.
-Henry Van Dyke
Brainyquote

We live out in California.  We never really had a winter which is our rainy season.  It has been very warm the last several weeks.

Best and Worst earning college degrees.

I stumbled across these news articles this morning.

The 13 Worst-Paying College Majors: PayScale List

and

The 13 Best-Paying College Majors: PayScale List


Suprise, suprise, all the best paying jobs are hard sciences, the least paying are in touchy-feeling majors.

A great benefit to having principles

Tiffany Holley  posted this on Facebook:

When you base your life on principles, most of your decisions are already made before you encounter them.

Dave Ramsey's photo

We may be starting a new family tradition

A friend of ours suggested that as a family we read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.  So about two months ago I bought five copies.  Our son is seven and isn't reading a lot yet.  We read the first fifty pages and then had a family book club.  We talked about the main points and what we thought was valid.  Then we took a couple weeks to read the next fifty pages and Saturday we talked about what we liked, what we believed and how we wanted to change in the way we deal with people.  We'll continue to work through the book.  We all agree it is worth reading.

If you haven't read How to Win Friends and Influence People, or haven't read it recently, I encourage you to do so.  It is a good book.

I like how we are reading a book together as a family.  I'm thinking once we finish this book we'll move on to another one.

Blogger reports we've crossed a milestone

According to Blogger we have 6000 posts on our blog.  This is the 6001st.  I sort of doubt we'll make another 6000 posts, but we'll see.  It has been a good ride so far.

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up - The Still Winter Edition

Lisa is hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling at Golden Grasses.  She starts the carnival with:

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It's been a long winter 'round here. And it's still happening- today was a day full of blowing snow, school closures and other winter nonsense. So, yeah, we are all about a change of season, and soon Till then, we are getting lots of school done, including tons of reading, read-alouds, CD-listening, DVD watching, and texts gone through.
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Enjoy!

Life Humor 2.P

From the Henry Cate Life Humor collection:
Life Humor 2.P was originally posted 1 February 1988

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Last week at Carnegie Mellon...

Someone walked off with a laser printer that was in our Computing Center.  The  center is open 24 hours, and he just took it right out under everyone's nose.

How did they catch him?

The User Consultant on duty got a phone call a couple of days later.  The  caller asked, "How do you hook up a laser printer?"  While the one consultant  stalled the caller, another one had the call traced.

The police got a warrant for the guy's arrest, went to his apartment, and  found the laser printer, an Apple Image Writer stolen from our library, and a  Mac SE stolen from our DoD-sponsored Software Engineering Institute.

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A father gave his teen-age daughter an untrained pedigreed pup for her birthday.  An hour later, when wandered through the house, he found her looking at a puddle in the center of the kitchen.  "My pup," she murmured sadly, "runneth over."

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A crow perched himself on a telephone wire.  He was going to make a long-distance caw.
   
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A musical reviewer admitted he always praised the first show of a new theatrical season.  "Who am I to stone the first cast?"
   
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A hard-luck actor who appeared in one colossal disaster after another finally got a break, a broken leg to be exact.  Someone pointed out that it's the first time the poor fellow's been in the same cast for more than a week.

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A girl spent a couple hours on the phone talking to her two best friends, Maureen Jones, and Maureen Brown.  When asked by her father why she had been on the phone so long, she responded "I heard a funny story today and I've been telling it to the Maureens."
   
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Three actors, Tom, Fred, and Cec, wanted to do the jousting scene from Don Quixote for a local TV show.  "I'll play the title role," proposed Tom.  "Fred can portray Sancho Panza, and Cecil B. De Mille."

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Seems that there was an auto race with just two entrants:  An American car, and a Soviet car.  The American won.  The Soviet press announced the results this way:  "The Soviet car came in second.  The American car came in next to the last."

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The following were taken from the Jan 11, 1988 US News & World Report:

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith:  The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

Donald Petersen, chairman of Ford:  Genius is lasting 5 minutes longer than the other side.

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     Catching his children with their hands in the new, still wet, walkway, the father spanked them.

His wife asked, "Don't you love your children?"

"In the abstract, yes, but not in the concrete."

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     After Snow White used a couple rolls of film taking pictures of the seven dwarfs, she mailed the roll to be developed.  Later she was heard to sing, "Some day my prints will come."

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Archaeology is the only profession where your future lies in ruins.

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The advantage of modern means of communication is that they enable you to worry about things in all parts of the world.

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Extremists think "communication" means agreeing with them.

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Dear Maid,
        Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial.  Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and and other three in the shower soap dish.  They are in my way.  Thank you,
                                        S. Berman

Dear Room 635,
        I am not your regular maid.  She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off.  I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested.  The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind.  This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily.  I hope this is satisfactory.
                                        Kathy, Relief Maid

Dear Maid -- I hope you are my regular maid,
        Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap.  When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet.  I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won't need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf.  They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc.  Please remove them.
                                        S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
        My day off was last Wed. so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed by the management.  I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was.  I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn't remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday.  Please let me know if I can of further assistance.
                                        Your regular maid,
                                        Dotty

Dear Mr. Berman,
        The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this A.M. that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service.  I have assigned a new girl to your room.  I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience.  If you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.  Thank you.
                                        Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper

Dear Miss Carmen,
        It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 745 AM and don't get back before 530 or 6PM.  That's the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night.  You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap.  The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bath- room shelf.  In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap.  Why are you doing this to me?
                                        S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
        Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps.  If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.  Thank you,
                                        Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper

Dear Mr. Kensedder,
        My bath-size Dial is missing.  Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial.  I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets.
                                        S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
        I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem.  I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room.  The situation will be rectified immediately.  Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.
                           Martin L. Kensedder, Assistant Manager

Dear Mrs. Carmen,
        Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room?  I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap.  I don't want 54 little bars of Camay.  I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial.  Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here.  All I want is my bath size Dial.  Please give me back my bath-size Dial.
                                        S. Berman

Dear Mr. Berman,
        You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed.  Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them.  The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily [sic].  I don't know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets.  Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays.  I don't know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial.  I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.
                                      Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper

Dear Mrs. Carmen,
        Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory.  As of today I possess: On shelf under medicine cabinet - 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2. On Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3. On bedroom dresser - 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size bath-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.  Inside medicine cabinet - 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2. In shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist. On northeast corner of tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used. On northwest corner of tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3.
        Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted.  Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip.  May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
                                        S. Berman

I have read 24 books from this list

BBC Believes You Only Read 6 of These Books... has a list of 100 good books to read.  I've read at least 24.  There are 2 which I think I read, but I'm not sure.

Some of our best posts from March 2009

Janine and I have been blogging about homeschooling for almost eight years. If you missed some of our early posts, you have missed some of our best thoughts. Here are some highlights from March 2009: 

Janine lists some of the things she loves about homeschooling.

Another great reason for homeschooling - to avoid the mealtime Gestapos.

Another great reason for homeschooling - keeping the faith.

One of our favorite reasons for homeschooling - vacations.

If you haven't read any Paul Graham essays check out Your children and Paul Graham's essays.

Some politicians claim to spending money on preschool education saves money.  Turns out at least some of the studies are flawed.  For more info check out Details on the claim that spending money on preschool education saves money.

How to learn any language in six months

My brother-in-law posted a link on Facebook to: How to learn any language in six months: Chris Lonsdale at TEDxLingnanUniversity:


I think he has some good points.

University essay from a homeschooler

Our daughter was recently accepted to a University with a high standard.  We weren't sure she would make it.  Two weeks ago she got the exciting email that she was accepted.

Here is her essay:

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University: Tell us anything else you want us to know about yourself that you haven't had the opportunity to describe elsewhere in the application. Include any special circumstances, experiences, etc. that could influence your admission to the university. (250 words maximum)

I have been homeschooled since kindergarten. Because I was homeschooled, my mom was able to adjust my education around my reading disabilities. I struggled with reading and spelling all through grade school. I didn’t read well until I was almost ten years old. The summer before I turned ten, I finally started to enjoy reading. I went from being unable to read to reading The Lord of the Rings in a year.

I am very self-driven and know how to learn. I love reading and writing; I have participated in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, twice completing a fifty thousand word novel each time. I am currently working on a third. Participating in NaNoWriMo is what finally got me spelling more accurately. I wrote over fifty thousand words in a month. Spell check caught a lot of incorrectly spelled words. The constant correction and effort finally changed my spelling level.

I know how to overcome learning difficulties. I’m a hard worker and I love books. I want to help other people overcome obstacles and progress. That’s why I want to go to this university and become a speech pathologist.
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Fight The New Drug

This weekend Janine and I went to two meetings featuring a speaker from Fight The New Drug.

The speaker made three main points:

Pornography is just as addictive as drugs, alcohol and tobacco.  While watching porn the brain will rewire itself just like with other addictions.

Pornography destroys relationships.  The speaker cited several studies on how porn is destroying people's ability to relate to real relationships.  In a video clip a young woman talked about how both her and her husband started turning to porn rather than each other.

Pornography is harming society.  The speaker focused on how the porn industry is often abusing women to make the movies, and sometimes even children and men.

It was a sobering presentation.  Check out their web site for more information.

A good thought

A friend posted this on Facebook yesterday:

Life is too short to argue and fight with the past.  Count your blessings, value your love ones, and move on with your head held high.