Year: 2007 Page 4 of 15

We are really starting to ramp up on our homeschool again. Christian finished his last Pre-Algebra homework assignment yesterday and we got everything corrected up. He will be doing some major, end of section testing today, then he will start Elementary Algebra tomorrow. We are all very excited about that. Kelly should be ready to move on from Elementary Algebra to Intermediate Algebra by the end of the week. She will go back to Geometry toward the end of this year, then on to Pre-Calculus in the second half of next year. This is a pretty big deal for us because both of the kids are finishing up a year of material and moving on to new text books. I am very happy with their progress.

We had a great little session last night on logical fallacies. We had previously studied “Red Herrings” and moved on to “Ad Hominem” arguments. What was really great was that, in the end of chapter exercises, both Kelly and Christian were able to identify, not only the Ad Hominem arguments we studied this week, but the Red Herrings we studied several weeks back. We are looking forward to continuing through this book.

We had a nice weekend. Christian and I worked on the computers together on Saturday. We did not get a lot accomplished, but we had a good time being together. Lorena and Kelly went shopping. Then, we had some folks over for dinner after meeting. Lorena cooked a spiral cut ham, green beans, and rice. We had a great time. It was a nice weekend.

The other day, Christian asked me if we could get some knitting materials. We started knitting a couple years ago, but the most we have ever really knitted was a scarf. I made one each for Kelly and Christian. I think it would be kind of cool to try to move on to something else. I do not think we are ready for a stocking cap now, before we move on to slippers, and possibly even a sweater some day. What we really need is a book that shows us how to do pearling as well as knitting. We will try to pick that stuff up on Friday evening to get started this weekend.

Fifteen years ago today, Lorena and I were married at a place called El Tio on Calle Garza Sada in Monterrey, Mexico. It was a great day for us. There were about two hundred fifty people there. Fifty of them were gringos. It was as happy a day as I can remember. Certainly one of the best things I have ever made was to ask Lorena to marry me. God looked out for me in this (and all things). I truly am thankful for my marriage.

A buddy of mine named Jason back in Oregon and I have come up with a great idea for a piece of open source software. We think we can have a lot of fun and maybe even make a medium sized splash in a small pond with our work. I am the technical side of the venture while he is the marketing and business side. We are going to put together product we think has value for a fairly large industry made up of a ton of mom and pop companies. They use technology, but their technology is expensive so they spend all their capital on the equipment that actually does the work that they do and have little left for things like quality control tools. Therefore, they have to go through quite a laborious process to assure quality in their products. We think we can put together a piece of open source software that will allow these people to automate their quality processes. They can use their existing computers, buy a few webcams, combine that with our software, and have a full blown, machine vision based, SPC tool. I am working on it now, but do not expect to have anything to show for my efforts before January.

We took Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah to the airport yesterday. We had an absolutely fabulous time with them while they were here. I will try to put up some pictures tomorrow of the sushi the kids made with Grandpa’s direction. Over the weekend, Lorena and I had some interesting discussions with some of our friends. Some of it was about homeschool, but a lot of it was just about life. We have concluded that it is difficult to please those who are displeased with you, especially if you do not know why they are displeased. That seems particularly true when it comes to homeschool, religion, and tradition. It even gets harder when it comes to morality and raising children. We are really quite happy with the education our children receive. We know that their education is not a traditional American public school education, so except with family and very close, like-minded friends, we rarely speak about the kids educational material and level of study so that we can avoid offending people.

The thing for which we are most grateful is the “socialization” of our kids. We rarely speak about that unless we are forced into a corner. We get forced into a corner more often than I would have imagined when we started homeschool. Some are genuinely interested in the issue because they do not know how homeschool is generally able to produce such well-spoken, confident children. More often, people who have an investment in the traditional system, the government schools, ask questions with an agenda other than that of trying to understand. It is amazing how many of the people who have such an agenda actually work for the government schools as a teacher, aide, or administrator. They all seem to have some horror story about some homeschooler who returned to government school and was socially and academically backwards compared to the other students in the school. The questions and stories are so loaded with rancor, that we choose not to engage. We have read the longitudinal studies on socialization and academic achievement, but you can never win such an argument. The sad part is that such a strategy often leads to increased rancor. We really have no opinion or knowledge about what is best for other people’s children. We just know what has served our own family and children well. We are not trying to convince anyone of the rightness of our homeschool or religion. We just know that it what we are doing is the best we know how to do.

All of the roses and decoration on this cake we had for dinner were done by the kids after Grandpa Milo taught them how to do it.  Tonight it will be sushi!!!

One of the roses

The cake

The dinner party

I thought it might be neat to have a record of what we do at the end of each month.  We had a good month in September.  It was a little topsy-turvy because we spent a couple of weeks at different conventions and had a visit from Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah so the weeks were broken up a little.  Nevertheless we moved forward in all of our important scholastic areas.  I will not report on some things like music or physical education because, even though we have on-going programs, there is really not much change in what the kids do.  Here is our current state of study:

Math
    Kelly:  Finishing up Elementary Algebra.  Will begin Intermediate Algebra in October.
    Christian:  Finishing up Pre-algebra.  Will begin Elementary Algebra in October.

English Grammar, Vocabulary, and Writing
    Kelly:  About a quarter of the way into Teaching Terrific Writing, More than half complete with Wordly Wise 6
    Christian:  Halfway through the last book of the Easy Grammar series.  Starting Wordly Wise 6 in October.
    Future:  I have spoken with our good friend Rebekah in Dallas.  She has found a really good program called WriteShop.  I think I will order that for Kelly as soon as she finishes Teaching Terrific Writing.  Christian will move on to Teaching Terrific Writing when he finishes the last Easy Grammar book.

History and Literature:
    Kelly:  Continues the first year of Sonlight’s two year survey of American history (with accompanying literature).
    Christian:  Continues the first year of Sonlight’s two year survey of World history (with accompanying literature).
    Note:  I will go into this in a little more detail in future posts with respect to the poetry, history books, novels, time line book drawings, etc.

Science:
    Kelly:   Physical Science:  Jay L. Wiles’ physical science book.
    Christian:  General Science:  This is first year in Jay L. Wiles stellar science education series.  Christian is currently studying scientific method along with the world views that underpin the philosophy of science.
    Both:  Lyrical Life Science II – The kids sing songs that help them memorize facts about different animal groups.  The writers and singers of this program are from Corvallis, Oregon.

Bible memorization:
    Kelly:  Will continue memorizing Matthew 5 & 6 through Thanksgiving.
    Christian:  Will continue memorizing Matthew 5 through Thanksgiving.

Handwriting:
    Christian:  A Reason for Handwriting F

Computer programming:
    Christian:  C# Game Programming

Spanish:
    Both the kids are on course to finish the first year of Rosetta Stone Spanish and start the second year by Christmas.

We are doing some other stuff, but this is the bulk of it.  In future posts, I will try to describe what they are doing with some specificity and depth for one subject per month.

Yesterday, I took the day off to drive to North Wilkesboro to visit one of the customers of our little company, Quality Corners with Grandpa Milo.  It was a very nice drive and a good meeting.  We have been enjoying Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah very much.  The kids have been continuing with their homeschool all this time.  Tonight, we will go to our bible study.  Tomorrow, Lester and Ester are coming over for one of Grandpa Milo’s special dinners.  Friday, we are just going to go out to dinner.  On Saturday, we will go to the Holly Springs library in the morning then send them home from the airport on Saturday afternoon.  It has been a very, very good time for all of us.

Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah got here late Saturday afternoon.  We have been having a wonderful time with them.  We took them to Salsa Fresh on the way home from the airport.  Then, on Sunday after meeting, we took them to Sweet Tomato for soup and salad with our friend Troy.  On Sunday night, we had soup again.  So, all we have really been doing is eating.  My diet is not really going that well.  We are going to have a dinner for Lester and Ester that Grandpa Milo, Kelly, and Christian are going to prepare on Thursday evening, there are plans to go to the library and maybe a museum.  I am going to go with Grandpa Milo to visit one of our customers in North Wilkesboro, South Carolina on Tuesday.  We have quite a full schedule and we are still going to try to do all of our homeschool, too.  It should be a great week!

Well, I survived the big code review.  A really nice, bright guy with a Ph.D. from MIT and twelve years experience in the field was there as an independent auditor as well as Ann Rogers (who I really think knows more about this sort of thing than the auditor).  Both of them gave us a major thumbs up on what we are doing.  It was really kind of a relief, because no one in the company really understands a lot about machine vision.  The people in my group, John, Evan, and Ya, as well as my boss Prasant, probably understand the most, but we moved fast in the review because there was so much to cover in only two hours.  We three vision people were pretty much talking a foreign language to most of the people there.  Now maybe they know how I feel when they are talking about Raman spectroscopy.  I am going to have a pretty ugly next three months because the delivery schedule is so compressed, but after that, I hope to have a little breathing room.  I am really enjoying this, but when we get to the end of it, it will be nice to have a week on the beach in Mexico followed by getting serious about finding a house in the area to buy.

Contrary to what I had initially thought, the whole family was able to get together with Ann Rogers last night for dinner at Salsa Fresh.  It was very, very good and we enjoyed our selves very much.  We really hope that Siri will be able to come out with Ann next time if she comes again.  She is here for a big meeting we are having at my company to review the work I have been doing here for the last four months.  It will be a little bit of a nail biter, but I am pretty well prepared.

Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah get here tomorrow!!

Bryan, I am stuck at -10.  What is the bad news?

My colleague from Oregon, Ann Rogers is coming to North Carolina to sit in a review of the work I am doing here as a consultant.  Lorena, Kelly, Christian, and I were going to pick her up at the airport this evening to take her to a vegetarian Indian food restaurant.  We were very excited about it and thought it would be a nice surprise for Ann.  It is looking, though, like my boss wants to meet with her to talk about the project when we were going to do that.  Asi es la vida.  Well, we should get to see her tomorrow for breakfast anyway.  It is pretty disappointing.  The kids were dying to me Ann’s daughter Siri.  I surely hope they can do this again soon.

I do not know if I have commented here about Ann other than just peripherally.  She is AMAZINGLY like Jean.  They are both vegetarians, graduated from University of Portland one year apart in electrical engineering, are hiker athletes (when they are not chasing their kids), cut their hair the same way, and have many, many other things in common.  The amazing thing is that even though they graduated from the same school in the same major that generally has very few women only one year apart, they never met each other.  We are going to have to remedy that someday!

I have been thinking about the verses in Matthew 22 where Jesus spoke about those who were bidden to a wedding but would not come.  They all had excuses.  Then, at the wedding, one of the guests who came after the second invitation did not have on a wedding garment.  The thing we really need to be wearing as a wedding garment is a good spirit.  So there are two things for which we are responsible.  One:  We should never make excuses, rather we should do the right thing when we are asked to do it.  Two:  It is not enough just to do the right thing.  If we are doing the right thing, but with the wrong spirit, we are every bit as much worthy of punishment.

Then, I thought of the verses in Luke 14 where Jesus tells people to always take the lowest place.  The best way to assure that we will have the lowest place is to take the high place.  If we take the high place, we are wrong.  “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

Finally, there are some verses in Luke 16 where the Pharisees derided Jesus.  He responded by telling them that answering back to the things for which Jesus admonished them by trying to justify themselves was an abomination to God.  God knows our hearts and does not want us to respond to admonition by trying to justify ourselves; rather he wants us acknowledge our state and repent.

I know I am not innocent of these things.

After work last night, we did nothing other than work through a little homeschool, talk, and eat dinner.  Lorena bought me a nice cake for which I broke my diet pretty badly.  I cannot think of a better way to have spend my fifty-second birthday.  After the conventions, we are hoping to get settled into our routine again.  As soon as things calm down a little Christian and I can start posting on our next big project; We are going to make a cat tower.  In addition, he is working on his next claymation.  In the meantime, Kelly is writing a ballad.  She has an awesome start on the lyrics, but has not had a chance yet to work on the music.  I am hoping she will let us post it up here when she finishes it.

We got back from Shelby convention last night at about 6:00 PM.  We were going to do a bunch of homeschool stuff, but instead of that, we ended up sitting around the table in the nook talking together as a family for about an hour.  It was very, very nice.  Kelly played and talked with all her new friends at convention just like last time.  Christian did, too, but his friend  Hunter was not there, so I do not think it was really the same for him.  Now that convention is over, we are really starting to get into the swing of homeschool.  Our friend Rebekah from Texas called last night to compare homeschool notes and she gave us some ideas about how we might improve our program a little.  They are heading off to Texas convention in about a week so they will have a little bit of a break from their homeschool for a few days.  It will be great to get them out here for a week soon so they can meet the professing homeschool kids in North Carolina.

Where are you in this Bryan?  I am catching up.  We are headed to convention this weekend in Shelby.  I have at least another couple of weeks of intensity at work, but hope to start posting better posts here shortly.

This is Kelly and Christian’s cousin Lynncito dressed up as the Mexican patriot Allende for a celebration at his school for Mexico’s Independence Day on September 16.  That is his father Tio Lynn beside him with the glasses.

We got a call a couple of days ago, informing us that Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah are coming to visit us on September 29.  We are very much looking forward to having them here.  Grandma Sarah will spoil the kids and go shopping with Lorena.  Grandpa Milo is going to visit one of Quality Corners’ customers, but more importantly, he is going to teach the kids how to make sushi and help Christian make a custom designed cat tower for Rubix and Kiwi.  We are also hoping that he will teach the kids how to make those really fancy frosting roses that he used to make to put on wedding cakes.  I will have a pretty heavy work load until the end of September, but I am hoping to have at least a little time with them.

With all the long hours I have been working, I needed the weekend to catch up with homeschool and the family.  I ended up going in early and working on Saturday morning, but the rest of the weekend was family and homeschool stuff.  We got caught up on some of the homeschool, but there is still more to go.  We really need to stay current on the math because the topics are getting more advanced daily.  Kelly will start Intermediate Algebra (Algebra II) and Christian will start Elementary Algebra (Algebra I) in October.  It is a lot of work and repetition, but we are sticking to it and making good progress.  The next thing on which we need to focus is the science program.  It is a fabulous program and we want to get the most out of it that we can.  The history and literature are so fun and interesting that they kind of take care of themselves, so we are moving along and making what I believe is good progress.