I have to share
Kim Warthman
We have been unschooling for about a week.
My 9 year old daughter came to me and said she wanted to start a business of repairing broken light bulbs.
Previously this would have been met with "That is an interesting idea, but people don't really repair light bulbs. They are cheap and people just buy new ones," along with an unspoken "Now, let me read my emails. Leave me alone."
Instead I said "Well, you are going to need to know about light bulbs and electticity." We went into a talk about how tiny lightning runs along wires; how old Christmas light strings used to go out if just one bulb burned out, how the tiny lightning (electricity) will take the shortest path and the wires need to be kept apart and covered.
"How about tomorrow we look up the inner workings of lightbulbs online?" (It is getting on towards dinnertime.)
"How about you finish that email and then we look them up right now?" And here I thought my "Say Yes more often" efforts were going unnoticed...
We spent about 5 minutes online looking at a diagram while I paraphrased an untra-scientific explanation. She still came away learning what "combustion", "inert", "contact", and "mount" mean. Then we moved on to examining a burned out bulb in real life. We saw where it looked like the diagram and where it differed. We got another out of the chandelier. (I have an inordinate amount of readily available burned out bulbs.) It has a different shape but the inside looked about the same. On to the bathroom where there are bigger burned out bulbs to look at. I took a burned out one and a good one from there and mixed them up. "Take a look and tell me if you can tell which one works and which one doesn't." She nailed it!
We put her "light bulb" collection into a box, along with the printed out diagram from the web. She grabbed a pen and paper and made her own picture of the structure of a light bulb, complete with filament, support wires, glass mount, and electrical contacts.
Later we are going to look at a brand new bulb and see what differences we can see between it and the working-but-older bulbs and burned out bulbs.
Tomorrow I am going to dig out the circuit making board toy thing I bought years ago that never got used.
I feel so much better than I would have if I had told her it was after hours and people don't repair light bulbs anyway. And, what do you know, I managed to learn something myself.
Kim Warthman
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
My 9 year old daughter came to me and said she wanted to start a business of repairing broken light bulbs.
Previously this would have been met with "That is an interesting idea, but people don't really repair light bulbs. They are cheap and people just buy new ones," along with an unspoken "Now, let me read my emails. Leave me alone."
Instead I said "Well, you are going to need to know about light bulbs and electticity." We went into a talk about how tiny lightning runs along wires; how old Christmas light strings used to go out if just one bulb burned out, how the tiny lightning (electricity) will take the shortest path and the wires need to be kept apart and covered.
"How about tomorrow we look up the inner workings of lightbulbs online?" (It is getting on towards dinnertime.)
"How about you finish that email and then we look them up right now?" And here I thought my "Say Yes more often" efforts were going unnoticed...
We spent about 5 minutes online looking at a diagram while I paraphrased an untra-scientific explanation. She still came away learning what "combustion", "inert", "contact", and "mount" mean. Then we moved on to examining a burned out bulb in real life. We saw where it looked like the diagram and where it differed. We got another out of the chandelier. (I have an inordinate amount of readily available burned out bulbs.) It has a different shape but the inside looked about the same. On to the bathroom where there are bigger burned out bulbs to look at. I took a burned out one and a good one from there and mixed them up. "Take a look and tell me if you can tell which one works and which one doesn't." She nailed it!
We put her "light bulb" collection into a box, along with the printed out diagram from the web. She grabbed a pen and paper and made her own picture of the structure of a light bulb, complete with filament, support wires, glass mount, and electrical contacts.
Later we are going to look at a brand new bulb and see what differences we can see between it and the working-but-older bulbs and burned out bulbs.
Tomorrow I am going to dig out the circuit making board toy thing I bought years ago that never got used.
I feel so much better than I would have if I had told her it was after hours and people don't repair light bulbs anyway. And, what do you know, I managed to learn something myself.
Kim Warthman
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
-=-I feel so much better than I would have if I had told her it was
after hours and people don't repair light bulbs anyway. And, what do
you know, I managed to learn something myself.-=-
Very cool story!
Here's something for later, if she's not tired of light bulbs:
What you can do with old lightbulbs, from CrookedBrains.net
http://www.crookedbrains.net/2009/12/interesting_11.html
and a google image search on light bulb art
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=light+bulb+art&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
after hours and people don't repair light bulbs anyway. And, what do
you know, I managed to learn something myself.-=-
Very cool story!
Here's something for later, if she's not tired of light bulbs:
What you can do with old lightbulbs, from CrookedBrains.net
http://www.crookedbrains.net/2009/12/interesting_11.html
and a google image search on light bulb art
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=light+bulb+art&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bernadette Lynn
On 27 April 2010 03:12, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
Here's something else:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/series2/challenges/torch/
It shows you how to make a light bulb. And try googling for Rough Science -
I think it's the second series where they make the light bulb, it's a really
interesting programme.
Bernadette.
--
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U15459
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> -=-I feel so much better than I would have if I had told her it was=============
> after hours and people don't repair light bulbs anyway. And, what do
> you know, I managed to learn something myself.-=-
>
> Very cool story!
>
> Here's something for later, if she's not tired of light bulbs:
>
Here's something else:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/roughscience/series2/challenges/torch/
It shows you how to make a light bulb. And try googling for Rough Science -
I think it's the second series where they make the light bulb, it's a really
interesting programme.
Bernadette.
--
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U15459
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jenny Cyphers
"Tomorrow I am going to dig out the circuit making board toy thing I bought years ago that never got used."
While she playing around with it, you could put on the Mythbuster episode all about light bulbs. I saw that there was a google video of it, but it's also on netflix, and it could be on the Mythbuster website. It's a really great episode, one that my 8 yr old loved. They have on there, a light bulb that has been on for about 100 yrs, can't remember exactly. It's in a firehouse and it's huge!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
While she playing around with it, you could put on the Mythbuster episode all about light bulbs. I saw that there was a google video of it, but it's also on netflix, and it could be on the Mythbuster website. It's a really great episode, one that my 8 yr old loved. They have on there, a light bulb that has been on for about 100 yrs, can't remember exactly. It's in a firehouse and it's huge!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Laura Wray
~~> Kim Warthman wrote: <snip> I feel so much better than I would have if I
had told her it was after hours and people don't repair light bulbs anyway.
And, what do you know, I managed to learn something myself. <unsnip> <~~
It's a great feeling when you first start out and get to the whole
unschooling philosophy at work! I have another link for you - it's a really
great site, with all kinds of stuff to explore.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/light-bulb.htm
We've used this site for many things over the years, since my son has
*always* been curious about the workings of things - to the point of taking
things apart to try and figure it out... whether it was a broken thing or a
working thing. ;)
Laura W
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
had told her it was after hours and people don't repair light bulbs anyway.
And, what do you know, I managed to learn something myself. <unsnip> <~~
It's a great feeling when you first start out and get to the whole
unschooling philosophy at work! I have another link for you - it's a really
great site, with all kinds of stuff to explore.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/light-bulb.htm
We've used this site for many things over the years, since my son has
*always* been curious about the workings of things - to the point of taking
things apart to try and figure it out... whether it was a broken thing or a
working thing. ;)
Laura W
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Pam Sorooshian
On 4/26/2010 11:03 PM, Laura Wray wrote:
would bring lots of different kinds of tools and lots of old appliances
= old toasters, ice cream makers, hair dryers, whatever they might have
or even a few things bought at garage sales for this purpose.
-pam
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> We've used this site for many things over the years, since my son hasOur homeschool group used to occasionally have "take-apart day." People
> *always* been curious about the workings of things - to the point of
> taking
> things apart to try and figure it out... whether it was a broken thing
> or a
> working thing. ;)
would bring lots of different kinds of tools and lots of old appliances
= old toasters, ice cream makers, hair dryers, whatever they might have
or even a few things bought at garage sales for this purpose.
-pam
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
BRIAN POLIKOWSKY
About plastic surgery:
Plastic surgery was actually created to help people who suffered deformities from accidents, war , burn and birth and not to make people change the looks they did not like.
Alex Polikowsky
http://polykow.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschoolingmn/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Plastic surgery was actually created to help people who suffered deformities from accidents, war , burn and birth and not to make people change the looks they did not like.
Alex Polikowsky
http://polykow.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschoolingmn/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
-=-About plastic surgery:
Plastic surgery was actually created to help people who suffered
deformities from accidents, war , burn and birth and not to make
people change the looks they did not like.-=-
Sure. But neither my kids nor the kids on the tv talk show had
deformities from accidents, war, burn or birth.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Plastic surgery was actually created to help people who suffered
deformities from accidents, war , burn and birth and not to make
people change the looks they did not like.-=-
Sure. But neither my kids nor the kids on the tv talk show had
deformities from accidents, war, burn or birth.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
BRIAN POLIKOWSKY
"Sure. But neither my kids nor the kids on the tv talk show had
deformities from accidents, war, burn or birth."
As a child the worse influence I had growing up and not thinking I was pretty enough and wanting to be difference came from watching my mom criticize herself.
She would be in the mirror saying how her nose was this, or how her lips were that.
She was never skinny enough or toned enough.
I tell parents to please don't do that in front of their children.
Amazingly it was working for Channel Make-up as a counter manager and training as a make-up artist that started making me see beauty in ALL people.
I specially was influenced by a woman who worked in another counter who found EVERYONE beautiful and always pointed out beauty on people. I them stated seeing the beauty on everyone , including me.
I started seeing that there is more than one type of beauty.
As a child I thought you had to be one specific way to be beautiful. Not anymore.
Alex Polikowsky
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
deformities from accidents, war, burn or birth."
As a child the worse influence I had growing up and not thinking I was pretty enough and wanting to be difference came from watching my mom criticize herself.
She would be in the mirror saying how her nose was this, or how her lips were that.
She was never skinny enough or toned enough.
I tell parents to please don't do that in front of their children.
Amazingly it was working for Channel Make-up as a counter manager and training as a make-up artist that started making me see beauty in ALL people.
I specially was influenced by a woman who worked in another counter who found EVERYONE beautiful and always pointed out beauty on people. I them stated seeing the beauty on everyone , including me.
I started seeing that there is more than one type of beauty.
As a child I thought you had to be one specific way to be beautiful. Not anymore.
Alex Polikowsky
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
BRIAN POLIKOWSKY
Nor "Channel" but Chanel. Spell check does not flag that !
I wanted to add that Loving how you look is something that can really influence how your kids feel about themselves.
Alex Polikowsky
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I wanted to add that Loving how you look is something that can really influence how your kids feel about themselves.
Alex Polikowsky
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jenny Cyphers
***As a child the worse influence I had growing up and not thinking I was pretty enough and wanting to be difference came from watching my mom criticize herself.***
I know exactly how you felt!!! My mom did the same thing. I remember a moment when I was about 8, and hearing my mom say all these things about herself that were very critical. People used to say that I looked like her, and here is my mom, the person who I think is the most beautiful person on the planet, saying that she's ugly. I feared that I would grow up to be ugly, just like her. Since I thought my mom knew everything, she must know something I didn't.
I caught my sister doing that to one of her kids once. One of her daughters looks just like her. I stopped her right in that moment and told my sister to knock it off and that she is beautiful and that her daughter, who was standing right there, was going to grow up to be as beautiful as she is and how lucky they both were. Here's a picture of my sister lest anyone think I'm BSing here... http://jilldomschot.com/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I know exactly how you felt!!! My mom did the same thing. I remember a moment when I was about 8, and hearing my mom say all these things about herself that were very critical. People used to say that I looked like her, and here is my mom, the person who I think is the most beautiful person on the planet, saying that she's ugly. I feared that I would grow up to be ugly, just like her. Since I thought my mom knew everything, she must know something I didn't.
I caught my sister doing that to one of her kids once. One of her daughters looks just like her. I stopped her right in that moment and told my sister to knock it off and that she is beautiful and that her daughter, who was standing right there, was going to grow up to be as beautiful as she is and how lucky they both were. Here's a picture of my sister lest anyone think I'm BSing here... http://jilldomschot.com/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
BRIAN POLIKOWSKY
Exactly Jenny. I was also told by everyone how I looked like my mother.
I have the same wide round face she complained about and the samll mouth.
I always looked at my "faults" and could never see anything beautiful in my body or features, they just were not "perfect" the way my mother said hers should have been.
I once had a an abusive boyfriend ( mentally but that is another whole post) that
asked me what I thought about my body that I found beautiful and I could not find anything beautiful because nothing was perfect.
That was when I was really athletic and fit!
Thank goodness have always felt confident in me as a person ( even if not about my body or facial features) and I got out of that crazy relationship fast.
Abusive partners look for people who don't like themselves.
Jenny
Your sister is beautiful!
Alex Polikowsky
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I have the same wide round face she complained about and the samll mouth.
I always looked at my "faults" and could never see anything beautiful in my body or features, they just were not "perfect" the way my mother said hers should have been.
I once had a an abusive boyfriend ( mentally but that is another whole post) that
asked me what I thought about my body that I found beautiful and I could not find anything beautiful because nothing was perfect.
That was when I was really athletic and fit!
Thank goodness have always felt confident in me as a person ( even if not about my body or facial features) and I got out of that crazy relationship fast.
Abusive partners look for people who don't like themselves.
Jenny
Your sister is beautiful!
Alex Polikowsky
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bob Collier
--- In [email protected], BRIAN POLIKOWSKY <polykowholsteins@...> wrote:
Bob
>It was a plastic surgeon who first explained the phenomenon of the "self-image" and its influence on human behaviour. Maxwell Maltz, in his 1960 book Psycho-Cybernetics.
> About plastic surgery:
> Plastic surgery was actually created to help people who suffered deformities from� accidents, war�, burn and birth and not to make people change the looks they did not like.
>
> �
> Alex Polikowsky
> http://polykow.blogspot.com/
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unschoolingmn/
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Bob
k
My mom's parents worked in a NC textile factory (near Durham) all their
lives. They had six kids, half were girls and half were boys. The oldest two
were to take care of the other four, my mother was second oldest. When the
younger girls came along, they were fussed over and gussied up. I always got
to listen to stories about them getting their hair curled, permed, etc. My
mom with naturally wavy hair got none of that (I wasn't there so I'm
assuming it's so because I've heard it a lot).
Mom had four girls and all of us "had to" keep our hair curled. I was the
one who had no interest in it and made to feel I was neglecting myself for
*not* bothering to "look my best" at all times. :P I definitely felt ugly
and gawky... to "have to" gussy up in order to look good. This was the 70s
when people were just starting to talk about natural unmade-up beauty. Once
I left home and stopped having constant reminders about my looks and what to
do with them, I got to the point in my late 20s where it didn't matter to
me. I'm lucky I didn't care as much as I was supposedly trained to, and it
doesn't hurt that I'm absentminded enough I effortlessly ignore a certain
amount of what people say.
~Katherine
On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 2:55 PM, BRIAN POLIKOWSKY <
polykowholsteins@...> wrote:
lives. They had six kids, half were girls and half were boys. The oldest two
were to take care of the other four, my mother was second oldest. When the
younger girls came along, they were fussed over and gussied up. I always got
to listen to stories about them getting their hair curled, permed, etc. My
mom with naturally wavy hair got none of that (I wasn't there so I'm
assuming it's so because I've heard it a lot).
Mom had four girls and all of us "had to" keep our hair curled. I was the
one who had no interest in it and made to feel I was neglecting myself for
*not* bothering to "look my best" at all times. :P I definitely felt ugly
and gawky... to "have to" gussy up in order to look good. This was the 70s
when people were just starting to talk about natural unmade-up beauty. Once
I left home and stopped having constant reminders about my looks and what to
do with them, I got to the point in my late 20s where it didn't matter to
me. I'm lucky I didn't care as much as I was supposedly trained to, and it
doesn't hurt that I'm absentminded enough I effortlessly ignore a certain
amount of what people say.
~Katherine
On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 2:55 PM, BRIAN POLIKOWSKY <
polykowholsteins@...> wrote:
> Exactly Jenny. I was also told by everyone how I looked like my mother.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> I have the same wide round face she complained about and the samll mouth.
> I always looked at my "faults" and could never see anything beautiful in my
> body or features, they just were not "perfect" the way my mother said hers
> should have been.
> I once had a an abusive boyfriend ( mentally but that is another whole
> post) that
> asked me what I thought about my body that I found beautiful and I could
> not find anything beautiful because nothing was perfect.
> That was when I was really athletic and fit!
> Thank goodness have always felt confident in me as a person ( even if not
> about my body or facial features) and I got out of that crazy relationship
> fast.
> Abusive partners look for people who don't like themselves.
>
> Jenny
> Your sister is beautiful!
>
>
> Alex Polikowsky
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
keetry
I guess maybe I had the opposite experience about looks with my mother growing up. I still ended up feeling inadequate. My mom has never been one to spend a lot of time making herself up. The only make-up I've ever seen her wear is lipstick. She has always worn her hair natural. The most she does as far as styling it is blow drying but that's it. She doesn't style it with a special brush and hair goop. She just blows it dry. She never, ever wore high heels because they were uncomfortable and impractical. My dad has essentially the same opinion of how women looked. He doesn't think big, fancy, styled hair and lots of make-up is attractive.
I was embarrassed by her. I thought she was uncool, too intellectual to be pretty. I got messages outside my family and their friends from a very young age (probably in 2nd grade at school) that is was not good for girls to be too smart. Mostly, they should be pretty and nice. I worshiped my friends' mothers who had make-up and fancy clothes and high heels. Oh, how I loved high heeled shoes! I wished my mother were more like them. I wished she would help style my hair and put on make-up so I would be as pretty as those other girls. I always felt not quite pretty enough, which is kind of funny considering that people close to my mother talked about how pretty she was and that I looked just like her. One of her adult male friends even told me once when I was probably 10 or 12 that I couldn't rely solely on my looks my whole life.
I got major mixed messages. Maybe that's why I never felt pretty enough even though lots of people told me I was or smart enough even though I was "gifted" in school. Those messages about self and body image come from so many sources. I can't pinpoint any specific source that influenced me. Those ideas are everywhere. Maybe my problem was that my parents never told me I was beautiful just as I am or that I was good enough in any way. My seemed oblivious to it all and my father was too busy trying to make sure I didn't end up just like my mother.
Alysia
I was embarrassed by her. I thought she was uncool, too intellectual to be pretty. I got messages outside my family and their friends from a very young age (probably in 2nd grade at school) that is was not good for girls to be too smart. Mostly, they should be pretty and nice. I worshiped my friends' mothers who had make-up and fancy clothes and high heels. Oh, how I loved high heeled shoes! I wished my mother were more like them. I wished she would help style my hair and put on make-up so I would be as pretty as those other girls. I always felt not quite pretty enough, which is kind of funny considering that people close to my mother talked about how pretty she was and that I looked just like her. One of her adult male friends even told me once when I was probably 10 or 12 that I couldn't rely solely on my looks my whole life.
I got major mixed messages. Maybe that's why I never felt pretty enough even though lots of people told me I was or smart enough even though I was "gifted" in school. Those messages about self and body image come from so many sources. I can't pinpoint any specific source that influenced me. Those ideas are everywhere. Maybe my problem was that my parents never told me I was beautiful just as I am or that I was good enough in any way. My seemed oblivious to it all and my father was too busy trying to make sure I didn't end up just like my mother.
Alysia