Homeschool Update

We got sidetracked a little bit in science. You'd think that reading a page in our LIFEPAC book that the children would memorize the information and move on.

But noooo. Thermometers usually have mercury in them, did you know that? Elf has the fantastic idea that they should use water instead because mercury is bad for you. I'm trying to tell the kid that NO WAY a water thermometer would work. Emperor demands to make a thermometer with water to prove me wrong. So, fine.

The temperature inside is marked with a line when we began. As it got warmer through the day in the house, the thermometer read the same. We put the thermometer outside. After a while, the temperature reading was "ice cube." We left it inside for a while and it returned to the previous line. After a few days, I had a hard time convincing the children that the temperature did not go down... the water is just evaporating.

I don't think that there is a great demand for Elf's idea, and because I'm not running to the patent office this minute, I suppose I should share it with you.

In other news, despite growing up as a relatively well-read child, I had never read Robin Hood. We started that adventure in our homeschool a couple of weeks ago. Emperor came across a passage discussing the beautiful forest and the gay dragonflies.

"GAY DRAGONFLIES? Who wrote this book??" Emperor yelled, turning to look at the cover.

"No, it's ok," Elfie assured him. "It's a word that used to mean happy."

"Yes, Elfie's right," I chimed in. "There are a lot of words like that that have changed meaning over the years."

"Like pussy," Elf said. Ok, I almost fainted when I heard that word from him...

In any event, I have to say Robin Hood is not the best example of godly manhood there is. This fellow is hiding out in the forest, drinking ale, swacking passers-by with his staff and stealing their money, and shooting arrows about just to show how awesome and full of testosterone he is. They've just recruited some drunken monk as chaplain. Apparently you can have a hundred or so guys hang out in the forest through English winters (brr!) and the authorities/townspeople are powerless to stop them.

Well, it's not my favourite book. And speaking of classics, when Patrick was reading Romeo and Juliet, I read it and found THAT disappointing as well. Romeo is in this rebound relationship with some 14-year-old chick in a dysfunctional family. And in true Springer style, the families just fight it out whenever they see each other in the street with knives and call each other names. The final answer to all your problems, though, is to just kill yourself when life doesn't work out well. Then everyone else has to feel sorry for THEIR mistakes. That'll teach 'em.

How messed-up is that? I'm not sure that I want to bother including that one in our high school literature pile when the children are older. Just because everyone else thinks it's great doesn't mean we have to read it.