Mental Musings

Feeling a little down lately? Wish people would recognize you for the many wonderful talents you have? Guess what? Princeton Premier may be about to fulfill you dreams. Beware any e-mail that claims you have been honored by some unknown organization with a realistic sounding name. Companies like "Princeton Premier", "International Society of Poets" at poetry.com, the "International Who's Who" and others simply prey on the innate desire that humans have for recognition and fame. Once you agree to be listed in their annals of fame, they hound you for money to receive copies of their publication or a framed certificate or some such item to show you have been selected by their esteemed organization. When in doubt, do a Google search or check snopes.com for more information before supply any of these unsolicited e-mails with your personal information. And caution: never click on the link at the bottom to "opt out" of receiving future e-mails. Anyo...

Our youngest was talking to us about Mary, the mother of Jesus yesterday after the Easter service. He said, “Mary was a widow.” My wife said, “You mean she was a virgin?” He replied, “Oh yeah, she didn’t do that thing.” At this I was curious and asked, “What thing?” He responded, “You know, it begins with an ‘s’ but I am not going to say it.” When we ate Easter dinner with some friends we had to share this story with them. Everyone laughed and wondered just what are they teaching the children in the fourth grade bible study classes.

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian. This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow par...

This is book one of the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis. It is also known as the Ransom Trilogy or Cosmic Trilogy. This story begins with the unusual travel of Elwin Ransom, a college professor of philology (study of languages). Ransom is on a hiking trek through the midlands of England. He stops at a cottage to seek a room. The owner agrees to allow him to spend the night if he will go get her son from his workplace at an estate nearby. That is when Ransom’s adventure really begins. The estate is owned by Devine, a man that Ransom knows and does not like. Devine is working with Professor Weston who has invented a spaceship. Devine encourages Ransom to have a drink with him which includes a drug. The two men kidnap Ransom and take him on their trip to Malacandra (Mars). Devine and Weston intend to offer Ransom as a human sacrifice to the sorns who are the inhabitants of Malacandra. However, Ransom escapes into the wild. Lewis goes into great detail about the differences between Earth and M...

Dr. Seuss’ Leap Day Fun Day By Steve Poole I wrote this in about 10 minutes today in an effort to try and get our Homeschool Fellowship group to remember about a Leap Day fellowship we are having. When my wife read it to our boys, one of them went running around, laughing hysterically and ran into the stairway rail. Tomorrow is Leap Day, and that you well know, Is not seen again the next three years, no, no. To celebrate this quite momentous occasion, Why not give your kids a school day vacation. We’ll have some nice snacks, even soda and juice. Come join us for fun, bring along Dr. Seuss His birthday is coming in just two days more If he were still living he would be one-o-four, Our plans as of now, they are really quite loose, We will start with a song sung to dear Dr. Seuss. It all starts at one, but who knows when it ends, I guess that the finish time really depends, On when the fun ends… … and the going begins.

Dr. Joel C. Hunter of Northland Community Church in Orlando, Florida tells this story… A teacher in a young children’s class noticed David as soon as he walked into her classroom. David was missing his left arm. The teacher was worried that the other children would say something about David’s missing arm, so she immediately started going around to each of the children in the classroom and asking them to play the old “Here is the Church, Here is the Steeple” hand game with her. The children were so into the game that nobody asked David about his arm or said anything at all about it. By the end of the class, the teacher was thrilled that she had made it without any negative attention being given to David. Just before their closing prayer, she excitedly said, “Let’s everyone hold our hands together and do “Here is the Church.” She realized her mistake immediately when she glanced over at David. But before she could say anything else, one of the little girls in the class put her right arm ...

I am concerned that the only Republican Presidential candidates who held to the Conservative core values have dropped out of the race. We are left with three candidates who claim to be Conservatives, but do not stand for the same values that I believe most Republicans espouse. Areas that the candidates do not agree with me: McCain, Huckabee and Giuliani’s stances on dealing with illegal immigration; Romney and Giuliani’s stance on stem cell research and gun control; Huckabee’s stance on taxes, McCain and Giuliani’s stance on marriage between a man and women, Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani’s stances on energy, and I do not agree with any of them on their education stances. Usually our candidates stand for the core values of the Republican Party, but if any of these candidates get elected these core values are going to change within the party. I am also concerned that we have the third Southern Baptist (Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister) running for president and he seems ...