Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Homeschooling My Children

I love my children and their quick wit.  Or so I am saying right now.  Charlie is doing a Spectrum Science workbook and we have been discussing the difference between theory and law.  To give an example about theory, I had him stand up.  Then I told him to float.  He tried for a couple of minutes and finally said "I can't" in that "Mom, you are acting strange" voice. 

When I asked him why he couldn't float, he said "Because of gravity."  I explained how gravity is a law of science.  He asked about birds and said that they can fly.  I said "That is another law" and went on to explain it and how that is the way that God made them.

I briefly went into theory and mentioned the theory of evolution.  I told him this is what we will come across quite a bit, but to remember that it is a theory and not a scientific law.  I told him that there are scientists that think we evolved from monkeys.  Primates.  That there are a lot of people who believe that and look at it as fact.  Then I asked him the question.

"Did we come from primates?"
"No."
"Where did we come from?"
"Indiana."

Smart alek.  I gave him a "look" and he laughed.  He then said "The God of Israel."  He has my sarcasm.  Lovely.  I'm in trouble.

Hannah lost her crayons already.  I am going to buy 100 boxes of crayons and hide them.  I bought each of the children a box of crayons, a box of colored pencils, loose paper, a three ring binder, three single subject notebooks each, and had them each pick out their own backpack.  They love it and Bethany has been carrying hers with her everywhere.

6 comments:

Lisa A. Goff, writer, stained glass, homeschooler said...

Ha, ha, I was going to say that Charlie is just like you in the sarcasm department . . . but, you beat me to the punch. Funny.

Human Ape Along for the Ride said...

Okay, first off: humans did not evolve from monkeys. Monkeys and humans evolved from a common ancestor. Both monkeys and humans are exactly the same with regards to how evolved they are.

Funny, but this is something I've been talking quite a bit about today, including the difference in chromosomal number from chimpanzees to humans (48 in chimps, 46 in homo sapiens) and how chromosome #2 in humans has telomeres in the *middle* of the chromosome. See, funny thing about that is that telomeres are present *only* at the end of chromosomes. The current logic is that this particular "missing" chromosome (with regards to us having less chromosomes than chimps) in humans is actually a fusion of two. Where you have that fusion is where you have the split from Pan (ape) to Homo (human) with regards to genus. That combined chromosome made it so there was no possibility of cross-breeding and thus the fork in the road was evolved. When looking at the DNA level, geneticists have actually seen the information contained on two separate chromosomes in chimps that is on just one chromosome for humans.

I know our belief systems are vastly different, but this is information that is widely available from peer-reviewed data and research, as well as Wiki.

Here's the wiki article on evolutionary "theory" which also mentions the theory of gravity. Yup, gravity is a theory as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_as_theory_and_fact

Now, if it's all the same to you, I'm going to go put my head in a bucket of ice water because I just received a crash course in "law" versus "theory" and both Einsteinian and Newtonian gravitational ideologies. Dratted engineer husbands. Owie.

You suck. :-P

Poopy said...

Geesh, HAAftR, kinda harsh with the "You Suck". Unless you're somehow referring to World Breastfeeding week, in which case that's funny.

But since you're probably not that funny, I have to say that you're not going to change anyone's mind by being rude and superior. It's too bad, because you are obviously smart, articulate, and well-educated but your message is obscured by your immature desire to show off. (See how I did that? - my OWN extreme rudeness in accusing you of immaturity and show-offiness probably made you defensive, and so clouded the validity of my argument.)

Mrs. Hoppes was simply relating an incident in the course of her daily life. That's the point of her blog. And that's why I (you?) read it - her daily life is a lot different than mine (yours?). That's interesting to me (you?).

HAAftR, you suck. :)

Human Ape Along for the Ride said...

Um, Poopy, you obviously know me not at all, as Mrs. Hoppes does in *real life* and could hear me saying: "You suck!" with the inference that my head hurts from having to listen to a lecture about physics.

It was not an insult and it was not said with any rancor at all. Funny thing about the internet: tone doesn't translate at all, added to that: you have no idea at all who is behind the screen or what their relationship is to the poster.

Quite frankly, it wasn't a desire to show off at all, but rather a redirect to common scientific knowledge. Perhaps there are others that read her blog and would be interested in a different discourse, or at least wondering where I get my harebrained ideas.

And I happen to take umbrage at you saying I'm not funny. I happen to find myself quite hysterical.

So in closing: nur nurny nur nur! How's that for immature?

Mrs. Hoppes said...

Everybody back to their corners!

Poopy, I appreciate your desire to come to my defense. It makes me feel good to know that there are people on line who do defend me should the need arise. In this case, it is not needed. I know Human Ape very well. We've known each other for five years now (WOW!) and not only enjoy each other's company and like hanging out together, but actually enjoy various intellectual discussions.

It is possible for people of different beliefs to have discussions, get along, be friends, argue, disagree, get mad at each other, and still be friends and get along.

Human Ape, fear not when it comes to evolution/creation. When the children get to high school age, I am going to have each of the children write two researched scientific papers (term papers.) One will be in support of evolution and one will be in support of creation. :) It will be interesting to see what they come up with when the times comes.

As for me sucking.... So many comments. None appropriate for my G-rated blog. ;)

Human Ape Along for the Ride said...

A good site for my side of the coin for future reference: http://www.talkorigins.org/

Thanks for the call this afternoon, you always manage to crack me up!