Archive for October, 2010

Is Your Child Real?

Friday, October 8th, 2010

When you look at your kids, do you ever wonder whether or not they’re real?  Are they real children or just elaborate fakes, cheap imitations of the real thing, shadows of that which they pretend to be?  That’s the question Cathy Lynn Grossman, writing in USA Today’s Faith and Reason section, posed regarding children conceived via in vitro fertilisation.  Her query was prompted by the news that the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to Robert Edwards, the British scientist who pioneered the process in 1977.  “Do you think,” she asks, “a baby conceived in [a] test tube is still a child in the eyes of God?”

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Halloween Costumes: The Milk Jug Storm Trooper Helmet

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Although my kids are not huge Star Wars fans (they’re too young for it), quite a few of their friends are.  So for them, this Storm Trooper helmet, made from two 1-gallon milk jugs, has got to be one of the coolest ideas ever.  I’m not sure I could make it without a few practice runs, but that’s only because I’m completely inept at such things.  It actually does look pretty easy to make.

The way I see it, this is a fantastic re-use of a discarded item and would make for the basis of a great holloween or  a nifty addition to the dress-up corner.  And if that isn’t enough for you, the same site has instructions on making your own lightsaber from a flashlight and a balloon.  So get out the hot glue gun and send your children off to join the legions of the Galactic Empire’s finest!

Walk To School Day

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Did you know that today is International Walk to School day (at least, here in the US)?  I did.  I was made painfully aware of it because my kids’ school makes a big deal out of it and my kids begged me to walk the three-and-a-half miles from our house to their school.  Given that they’re only six and eight years old and that I’d have the two-year-old in tow as well, it wasn’t going to happen.  There was no way I was going to leave the house an hour or more early just so I could listen to them whining about being tired for the last three miles of the trip.  But, as it turns out, we did participate in Walk to School day.

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If Disney Did The Bible

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

The Bible — be it the King James, the New International, or any of the more than 80 other English versions — is not an easy read.  There’s a lot that is difficult, confusing, or just downright boring (lists of who begat whom, anyone?).  Is it any wonder that most six-year-old girls are more interested in Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty than Matthew and Mark?  Well have no fear, theist parents, now there’s a solution to this dilemma!

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Spelling Is A Safety Issue

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Proper spelling is important for several reasons — it avoids ambiguity of meaning, it presents a professional image, and prevents the reader from being distracted from the core message.  According to one charter school, however, spelling correctly is also a safety issue.  So much so that one student was given a ten-day suspension for misspelling the school’s name.

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