St. James Chess Tournament

Emperor won in the grades 1-3 division of the St. James Chess Tournament today. Our piano now has more trophies than candles. It is now time to ask about sending Emperor in to play K-6 or even high schoolers next time, what do you think?

Homeschool Chess Lessons

Chess can cost you practically nothing, which makes it the perfect homeschool elective. I've found several boards for sale in secondhand stores and garage sales. But I did break down and purchase a standard tournament board after we got into the game for a bit and began playing in tournaments.

A simple library book or three can help you learn which pieces move and how. Ages ago, we bought some sort of chess disk to play on the computer. Software isn't very expensive. For that matter, you can play for free online at http://www.chesskid.com/ or http://www.chess.com/. We bought "premium" memberships in chesskid after we tried it out for a while and figured that it was something we would really use. There are videos and tactics exercises galore.

One book I found pops up for sale frequently with homeschool curriculum providers is Starting Chess. My nine-year-old, Emperor, took a look at it lately and declared it far too simple. Which to me means that it likely is a truly "starting chess" sort of a book that most anyone would find understandable. Currently we are working through the Simon and Schuster Pocket Book of Chess. I'd recommend it for a middle school through adult beginner. It contains some basic tactic puzzles and teaches algabraic notation (the current standard) after a brief introduction of the pieces and their moves.

There are a good number of youtube videos and websites devoted to chess and chess tactics as well.

We've found there is a chess club and a chess league not too far from where we live. We've been playing at the league level for about 6 months and now we are ready to try going to the club each week. I don't think we'll ever get as ambitious as our friends who are going to NATIONALS this week in Dallas (Good luck, S family!!), but I think we'll always enjoy the game.

Juicy Watermelon

Cupcakes skillfully decorated by Elf and Emperor. I got the idea from little mini-cakes in the local grocery store. I had just made a couple extra little plates up when the mailman came by with homeschooling stuff. I was *so* glad we could brighten his day with a little sweetness. He has been our mailman since we moved in 14 years ago and we sure appreciate his careful driving and accurate delivery. :)

Elf at School

At school, everyone is nice. No one is ever mean. The only thing that is very bad is the angry art teacher. Mr. McC told the class that there had better not be another "massacre" in the art class before he took them over. He told Elf that it is best that he not everr knowww what happened in art class before he got there. Angry Art Teacher told all the students they had best shut their mouths and not talk.

Elf said he was veryy quiet and made a cutout picture of some kind in that art class for the school art fair, did you know that? That was fun. Art class is *great.* Maybe the art teacher is great, too, but had a bad day because of the "massacre" that happened before. Mom, what is a "massacre?"

In class, sometimes they play games. Elf won a grape pop! It was super cold because it had been in the freezer. Mom doesn't usually give grape pop. School is *great!*

Every week, they get to watch a movie. This one was a ghost story and a lot of the kids were screaming and scared. Was Elf? Welll, let him just say that it *was* sort of a scary story with a surprising part to it. He got to eat his lunch by the screen. Mom doesn't let him mix up his movies with his meals.

They also have "PE" in school. They will not let him run or play because of his broken bones. He has to stand or sit to the side with a couple of other children who are also not allowed in PE. That part of school *would* be great, but isn't right now. Elf is sure he can do bunches of pushups when he is allowed.

Elf's teacher is also really *great.* He can teach better than his mom! Mr. McC says this part of his starting school is called a "honeymoon" and that we should enjoy it while we can. :)

Bullying?

When someone dies, everyone wants to know why.

The news stories seem to indicate that Phoebe Prince was very wild and unstable. She apparently stole boyfriends and didn't understand why people wound up hating her for her manipulation. It appears she had mental problems and her mother, on at least one occasion, left her alone at night. (Trouble, of course, ensued.)

Phoebe later killed herself after the chickens came home to roost with interest. Now the "bullies" are up on criminal charges and the grieving if somewhat inept mom is Scot-free.

It isn't nice to call someone an Irish slut. Or a whore. Or a c-word. But at the same time, I could picture myself at 15 or 16 saying that sort of thing to someone if she were sleeping around with my boyfriend and some other fellows. I could also easily imagine getting together with friends and snickering about her and/or gossiping. Spreading rumours about her on facebook and just about everywhere else. I'm not saying it's RIGHT. But I'd like to think it isn't criminal, particularly as it's somewhat instigated behaviour.

Bullying isn't always very clear-cut. Often the person bullied has contributed in some way to the problem. And sometimes what appears to be bullying on the surface is tit for tat sort of stuff that escalates. It would be easy to defend against libel if Prince were a public figure; the kids would simply show that what they have said is TRUE. Chick is sleeping around? Check. And is Irish? Check. Um, "Irish slut" would sorta fit there...

So I'm very concerned that everything seems to be labelled as "criminal bullying" now. If the other teens had threatened bodily injury to the "Irish slut," or in some other way done something a reasonable person would find frightening, that would be more in line with what I feel ought be prosecuted. If you've seen bullying, REAL bullying, where kids are smacked around and constantly belittled for things they can't help such as a disability, you'd understand that having people just plain old hate you and call you names because of stupid crap YOU DID, that YOU KNOW is stupid and wrong, should NOT count. "Bullying" should really imply some sort of defenselessness on the victim's part or some sort of threat or intimidation.

Now, wait. I'm not saying that these other kids were all nice or that nothing should be done about their mean-ness. If it's true that there were several yelling at her and throwing stuff, punish them for THAT. Not criminal charges for her death.

It just seems everyone wants to blame the schoolyard "bully" without looking at the entire picture. When someone dies, it shouldn't erase every blemish of the character of that person. It is considered impolite to speak ill of the dead but I think somebody probably has to to defend some living teenagers who are probably going through their own special hell right now.

The truth is that Phoebe's actions (or those of anyone who actually kills him/herself) were likely either borne of selfishness or mental illness. I would be inclined to think the latter.

This kid *should* have been ostracised for the way she acted. Not screamed at and having stuff thrown at her, but hello... you just CANNOT act the way she allegedly did and not expect a social consequence. The young lady should have learned a lesson from this ostracism, vowed never to have sex again before marriage, and apologized nicely to all the affected parties. The mother should have then taught her wayward daughter that yes, everyone will now shun you throughout your high school years. This is the price you pay for acting like a jerk. Stop acting like one.

Maybe I'm being too blunt. But this was a real child who did something horrible, drastic and wayyyy worse than what the so-called bullies could ever perpetrate. Her parents either let her get out of control, or needed and were unable to obtain enough help for their daughter. If I were the defense attorney for these kids, I'd want to know what the hey about why the parents aren't being prosecuted for negligence. You don't just leave a mentally ill and sexually active teen alone overnight unless someone cuts your leg off and you need to drive yourself to the emergency room, yk? But it may just be that these are simply fallible human parents who desperately wanted mental health help for their little girl and were unable to find any that really made any difference.

People aren't all good or evil. They just seem to be drawn that way in the news...

Elf Goes to School

I took about 50 pictures but since I got there early, I didn't hold up the dropoff line. ALL the pictures in which he is facing the camera wound up with his eyes squeezed tight, so I am posting the pic of what I saw as I was getting ready to drive away... *sniff*... Goodbye, Elf. He says he will miss me, but I don't think he will. Do you know who is very sad? Emperor. I've already played (and lost) two chess games and he's been online "battling" other players for a while now. I'm going to have to pull him away soon and tell him it's time for other lessons. He will have a hard time doing his schoolwork without his best friend. Thankfully for him, Elf will only go half days for a while, so math and science are done at home. And chess. DO NOT forget chess.

Carnival of Homeschooling!

Check it out at the Corn and Oil blog! There is a wide variety of posts this week; everything from egg shell art to owls are covered. :)