My Scientific Fix-It Girl

Maddie decided that she was a science fix-it girl and wore her handy dandy goggles as she fixed everything with a pair of chopsticks.  Although I honestly think the sound effects were fixing more than the chopsticks!

Obama's School Speech....

In an interview with Education Secretary Arne Duncan that was released this morning, she discussed Obama's upcoming speech to US school children.

There has been a huge outcry at the fact that the Obama administration overstepped parents, schools and state rights when he planned this out...more on that later.

But in this interview, Arne was asked, "What ideas, broadly speaking, do you expect him to talk about?" Instead of ANSWERING the questions, the response was, "What's so fun about working for the president is this is so personal for him. He did not grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father wasn't around much. There were times when his family was on welfare.
And here he is, the president of our country, the leader of the free world, because he received a great education and worked so hard."
Thanks for gushing, but GET TO THE POINT. This entire administration is really good at avoiding answers....

An interesting point that was made at the end was this gem....

"The idea of schools being open five days a week, six hours a day, nine months of the year just doesn't work for families in our country anymore.
Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet. Schools are safe havens. We want to make sure those are open longer hours, after school, weekends, throughout the summer."

So now it's the government's job to care for children so parents are free to work harder? Wow....I see the socialist ideology just oozing out here....

Sorry HOMES ARE SAFE HAVENS, not schools. Schools are not day care, having school teach longer hours only pulls children away from home longer. We hare having a hard enough time instilling family values. Children need to be in a HOME, not a state run institution. With the governments logic, that would lead to parents having no valid reason NOT to work full time...after all, they arent' needed to care for children at home. The state can raise them. So the parents can work longer and harder to serve our beloved leader....oh wait, sorry about that. That's North Korea.


So I've been thinking about this speech for a couple weeks, since it was announced. I object on several grounds but the socialist lesson plans that were originally distibuted bothered me a lot. The administration has since changed it and made a huge deal about how they don't understand why people were all flustered and upset. They have since put out what Obama will be talking about in an effort to show everyone that the Right Wing Freaks are overreacting.

But I suspect something much sinister. They refused to put out information initially and posted lesson plans that asked kids why and how they could obey the president blah blah blah....no details, just mantra designed to instill as sense of obedience to the Almighty President Obama.

Now that there is an outcry, I have a feeling that the teleprompters will be spitting out much milder rhetoric than originally planned.

After all, a group of people who will push a political point at a freaking funeral are not about to show restraint in a school...

Trapeze Baby!

My baby, the one I agonized about letting go to public preschool, the one I think is so tiny and small....I let her fly on the Trapeze today.

That's right. I let her fly on the trapeze.

She has talked about it for years, but always in the "one day when I'm a big kid, I want to fly"

Today, she was antsy and begging to go on the practice bar. She was pretty confident and fooled around for a min before asking to get down.

So I was a bit suprised when she asked if she could fly on the "big bar". She asked several times throughout class, so I got permission for her to try it out at the end of class. (I'm not paying big bucks for a 4 year old to try trapeze and have her refuse to go up more than once)

She made it 1/2 way up before she got scared of the height. But it's a ONE WAY ladder. Once you go up, you go ALL the way up. It's too dangerous to climb down for a little kid. So up we went. She was pretty nervous until she got to the top.

"She looked down." (brownie points if you know what movie that line is from.)
AND THEN she freaked out. Tears and sobbing. I felt HORRIBLE. Did I push her into this? I know she WANTED to go, but still. My baby is terrified!

But then she grabbed the bar and swung out. She stopped crying until the guy on lines jerked her to a stop (jerk!) and scared her again. But when she let go and bounced in the net, she was fine. She flipped out with considerable help and made all my worries disappear when she said,
"So next time I go, I'm not going to cry. That was FUN!"

My rockin' cool baby girl. At bedtime she told me. "I was scared of being too high, but now I know my belt is on so I will be safe. It was fun. My favoritest part was when I bounced in the net! I was swinging front and back and front and back and that was AWESOME!" (in reality, she only had 1/2 a swing but still...in her mind she flew more.

So now I REALLY NEED a DAYTIME class. I will go broke if I have to pay for me, my son AND my daughter when I fly....unless someone wants to sponsor us? Volunteers?

Here is the full length video...


Here is a short clip if  you don't want to watch the whole thing....
Just be aware that she is crying in the video....I feel bad enough about letting her cry, but dang it, you have to come down even if you are scared.  You can't stay up forever.