Debate

Dylan and Merrill are in homeschool debate class, pondering and preparing to argue that a government's legitimacy is determined more by its respect for popular sovereignty than individual rights.  Or not -- maybe government legitimacy is based more on individual rights.  They talk about slavery, Stalin, China, the health care bill, consent of the governed, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, and much more.  They read and write and speak, read some more, rewrite, say it over.

They practice at  meetings of the local speech and debate club and then, every few weeks, gather with homeschoolers from five states to argue their ideas at tournaments.  Each competitor must first defend one viewpoint, trying to convince a judge that popular sovereignty determines legitimacy. The next round, they face a new opponent and this time must convince the judge that legitimacy is based on individual rights.  Then there's another round, another opponent, and they flip sides again.  Six or eight or nine times, back and forth, back and forth, over three days of speaking and debating.  

I am their coach.  I never took a debate class, and never even thought much about debate until last year when Merrill joined this league.  Last year's coach moved on at the end of the year, and the job fell to me.  This is one of the best things about being a homeschool teacher - you learn so much,  right alongside some of your favorite people.  We're having a lot of fun. 

ish

Have you noticed that "ish" has become all the rage?

We used to be home around seven-ish, or maybe her eyes were bluish-grey.  But the new vernacular seems to allow the attachment of "ish" onto any word or phrase, in order to mean "sort of, but not quite all the way."

"Did it work?"   "Yes...ish."
"How was the film?"   "It was good, ish."
"The exam went well, ish."

I can either roll my eyes or roll with this, and I've decided to just roll.  I'm not saying I like it, since my nature leans me toward grammar stickler.  But I can flex, and I no longer cringe every time someone adds "ish" onto the end of her sentence.

But yesterday I had to draw the line.  The answer to "What is the slope of this line?" on an algebra paper was written as "3.5 - ish."

Because my student is a visual learner, I used a Venn diagram to make my point.  You remember Venn diagrams, don't you?  Circles or ovals that represent sets, with the items that belong to both sets written where the ovals overlap?  I first illustrated with "people genetically related to your dad" and "people genetically related to your mom," each represented by a separate oval.  And then there you are, right in the middle where the two ovals overlap.

Then I made a Venn diagram for algebra and ish.

There is no ish

in algebra.

What To Do

Q: What should you do when your house is a torn-apart disaster, your wood floors are halfway refinished, cows calving in the slop need constant attention, it's two weeks until your big party, and strawberries go on sale?


A: Make strawberry jam with your daughter, of course.

My kitchen counter.

The last time we made jam - apricot - was before Audrey and I took up physics. I wrote then that we gave only a passing nod to the physical changes that went into preserving fruit jams. This time, armed with our newfound knowledge, we could actually discuss the process from a scientific standpoint. It was fun. Take physics if you get a chance!

Sudoku

WeDuSudoku.

DoUSudoku?

To try your hand at these logic puzzles, look in today's paper. If you really get hooked, as we might be, go here . Choose your degree of difficulty on the left, and then print out all you want. Stumped? Try here for solution strategies.

Crayfishing

Every now and then we run across a crayfish.
          Crawfish.
          Crawdad.
          Crawdaddy maybe, if you live in the deep South.



Maybe what you call it depends on where you got it. If you order it through a catalog, if it comes vacuum sealed in clear thick plastic, with bright pink dye shot through its important internal organs, it's probably a crayfish.

Erica is dissecting a crayfish.

If its internal organs are all the color of pond-bottom mud, and you're planning to chase your sister with it, I'd say it's a crawdad.

Sam's crawdad.

Nerds and Geeks

Did you realize that Tim Tebow, winner of the 2007 Heisman Trophy, was homeschooled until he went to college?

I know of homeschooled people who are good at lots of different things, both in my locale and around the country. Things like building computers, filmmaking, constructing houses, writing and publishing books. They are privately and successfully running homes and businesses with little notice from the rest of the world. But it's also nice for homeschooling to occasionally put on a big, successful public face like Tim Tebow's. These people are public banners, proclaiming that the quiet universe of homeschooling actually works, and proving that we're really not just an assortment of nerds and geeks.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Internet photo

Help for Homeschoolers

Someone recently asked me to explain the difference between "affect" and "effect."

Part of my job description is to teach my children how to comunicate effectively (that's correct usage), since clear and correct writing can affect (right-O!) who gets the job or scholarship, and who is left paging through the grammar book, wondering why. So I dug around the internet until I found a cute way to remember which word to use when.

Most of the time, affect is a verb. It means to influence. Effect is a usually a noun that means a result.

This cartoon can help you remember, since the arrow (starts with a) did a verb-job ("affected"-starts with a) the aardvark (you get the idea). Affect is an action - a verb.

If you remember that the effect (noun beginning with e) was eye-popping (yes, another e), then you'll know that effect with an e is usually a noun.

That'll do for most situations--upwards of 90% of the time. However, since English is not science, the rule doesn't always apply. You can get by with thinking that "affect" is a verb and "effect" is a noun, or graduate to the next grammar level by mastering the following quirks:

1. Affect is occasionally used as a noun when you're talking about psychology. It means the mood someone appears to have. The psychologist on the witness stand noted the alleged murderer’s disturbing affect during the confession.

2. Effect can be used as a verb, when it means to cause to come into being; to bring about. If you want to use effect as a verb, ask yourself if you can replace it with "to bring about." The trade embargo effected a rise in oil prices. Notice that you could have written, The trade embargo brought about a rise in oil prices. (Or, you could just go back to the 90% usage, and write that The trade embargo affected oil prices. In this case, you don't mean that the trade embargo brought about or brought into being oil prices, just that it influenced them.)

Refer back to this post often--whenever you teeter on the brink of misusing "affect" or "effect." If this sort of thing really trips your trigger, or if you can't remember the cartoon that's supposed to help you remember the rule, you can wear your grammar on your sleeve, so to speak, until it is cemented in your mind.