Together Green! Pennies for the Planet

I found this great website from the Audubon Society called Together Green! Act Today, Shape Tomorrow. They encourage kids to save their pennies to help with conservation efforts. On the Downloads for Kids page, you can download a jar label to save pennies for the planet, coloring sheets, a word search, and more. You can learn about saving puffins, protect an ancient swamp forest habitat, or help save a sagebrush habitat. There are even parent and educator pages with special downloads that are great for homeschoolers.

If you check out the toolbar at the top of the site, there are even more resources, including some great downloads and interactive games on the Cool Stuff! page.

Planning Retreat: Words of Wisdom

We take for granted the rhythm of breathing: filling our lungs with air and emptying them again, drawing something from outside into us and then releasing something of ourselves (for we make the CO2!) back out into the world. But how aware are we of the way the soul breathes also-- taking in the content of the world though eyes, ears, etc., transforming it and releasing it again, maybe as a poem, a piece of knitting, a nice clean kitchen? This "soul breathing" goes on all the time and one can see the different rhythmic patterns in it.

--All Year Round, Christine Fynes-Clinton

Activism: Tell the FCC "No Bus Radio!"

At the request of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the Federal Communication Commission will be reporting to Congress about commercial radio broadcasts on school buses and whether or not they are in the public interest.

Bus Radio, much like Channel One, forces children riding school buses to listen to commercial broadcasts. Bus Radio claims it will "take targeted student marketing to the next level," providing companies with a "captive audience," unable to change the station during commercials.

You can find a list of participating school districts here. I'm disgusted that there are four districts in Pennsylvania already signed up.

If you'd like to write a letter to your school district, you can see a PDF of a sample letter here.

Obligation, Inc, has many articles about Bus Radio here. On their site you can also read a coalition letter from over 50 organizations, including the PTA.

Most importantly, you can send you thoughts and comments to the FCC. Instructions are here.

Use this summer for social justice

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”
~ Mother Teresa

Teaching Tolerance recently sent out an article via email: Use this summer for social justice.

1. Take time to renew and reflect.
I found some great resources here.

2. Visit or learn more about a site of conscience.
Visit a civil rights site or other place of significance to the struggle for justice and peace.

3. Broaden your perspective with books and blogs.
You can find a list of books from a Catholic perspective here.

4. Connect with a social justice group near you.
I found a list here. You will, of course, want to be carefully to screen for orthodoxy.

5. Identify three new ways to integrate social justice themes into your curriculum.
I would like to suggest The Butterfly Project through the Holocaust Museum in Houston as one possibility.

And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8

June 5: Feast of St, Boniface

For dinner:

German Meat Balls with Sour Cream Gravy

Melt butter or margarine in saucepan; add onion; sauté until tender. Combine ground beef and bread crumbs; add butter mixture and beef broth or bouillon. Add 1 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, parsley, Tabasco, 3 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and eggs; mix lightly but thoroughly. Shape meat mixture into 2-inch balls; place in baking dish. Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare sour cream gravy: In saucepan combine beef gravy, remaining pepper, salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Add Kitchen Bouquet; heat to simmering point, stirring occasionally. When ready to serve, fold sour cream into hot gravy; heat a few minutes longer; pour over meat balls. Serve with mashed potatoes or buttered noodles. Makes 5 to 6 servings.

Recipe Source: Cook's Blessings, The by Demetria Taylor, Random House, New York, 1965

and for desert

German Cinnamon Stars

Beat egg whites stiff. Add powdered sugar slowly. Continue to beat till it holds shape. Add cinnamon and almonds. Sprinkle a board with flour and sugar. Pat out dough three-eighths inch thick. Cut with star cutter. Bake on greased cookie sheet in moderate oven (375°) for 15 minutes.

Recipe Source: Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, 4625 Beaver Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50310, 1949, 1999

And then, afterwards:
Litany of St. Boniface

Chemicals in plastics linked to childhood obesity

From the Rodale News:
Phthalates, the chemicals used to soften plastic, help cosmetics cling, and make fragrances last that are found in hundreds of personal care and cleaning products, could be making children obese, according to research presented last week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.

THE DETAILS: In a part of a larger, 5-year, “Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem” study, researchers asked 255 girls and 95 boys to answer questions regarding which personal care products they used in the last week, such as shampoo, hair gel, and moisturizers. Product use was highest among girls. When researchers analyzed urine samples taken from the children, they found levels of phthalates were highest among girls with the highest body mass index and weight compared to thinner girls with less body fat.

While phthalates are plasticizers used in vinyl products to make them soft and flexible, phthalates are also used in many lotions and make-up products to help these products cling to your face. They’re used, too, as fragrance carriers in products ranging from cosmetics, soaps, shampoos, hair sprays, body sprays, and perfumes to detergents, air fresheners, and scented candles.

You can read more about the study Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem here.

Obviously, the bathroom and the playroom are a good place to start purging your home of these plastics. Buy phthalate-free toys for your children and look for "free and clear" formulas in laundry, personal care, and cosmetic items as well. Let your baby smell sweet on her own merit, and not because of artificial fragrances.

Planning Retreat: Words of Wisdom

The life of hearth and home is contradictory to the busyness of modern materialistic society. It is less, slower, simpler. It is sitting and reading. It is the fireplace. Meals together. Board games. Going to the movies. Taking walks. Watering the garden. Doing nothing. Brunch. Watching the sunset. Lying in the hammock. These things are not frivolous; they are essential. They are the foundation. They are the roots. They are sacred time. All expansion into the world requires times of contraction, of doing nothing.
- Peggy O' Mara, A Quiet Place, "Hearth and Home"

A Homeschool Planning Retreat

'Tis the season-- wrapping up one year, ready to start another. Even though I don't yet have Michael's portfolio completed or his evaluation set up (note to self: must get on that), I'm already planning ahead for next year. For us, next year begins on the very first day we can start counting towards the 2009-2010 school year, July 1.

I've already warned my husband that I want a planning day. I'm kicking him and 4 kids out for the day--maybe even overnight if Daniel can stand it--and planning out the next school. With Nicholas starting kindergarten next year, Katie Grace in third (and my first year of having to report her to the state!), and Michael in fifth/sixth, and two sets of standardised tests to get through, I think planning ahead can only help.

I already have some general ideas. We're hitting ancient history and mythology over the summer with Olympian Camp, and we may try some Latin again as well. I'm starting to make a list of main lesson blocks I want to hit next year for Michael and Katie Grace, and I'm planning on using a modified workbox system to keep Nicholas busy while I'm working with them. Nicholas will go through a pretty typical Waldorf kindergarten experience, and I'm combing through the Charlotte Mason and Classical reading lists for Michael and Katie Grace. We'll all do Story of the World, Volume 3 together, and I still am looking for a good science program.

I'm hoping to post some inspiration here on my blog as well as over at MDC's Learning at Home forum. I hope you'll join me!

More Activism: Petition Merck

I read over at Getting Into a Funk that Merck has stopped producing the separate components of the MMR shot, leaving parents with no options but to get the whole shot or nothing. You can sign a petition asking Merck to reconsider here.

Children need to play.

On the heels of the Crisis in the Kindergarten study, I wanted to share some resources on play in the early childhood years.

Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why children need to play in school (an 8-page PDF summary of the report)
Articles and books on the power of play
Play: Priceless
Learning through Play by David Elkind
Disappearing Pegs in the Road: Discovering Meaning in Young Children's Social Play, an article from one of my favorite college profs, Dr. Alice Meckley

Now go play!