The Dawn Treader

We Dawntreader's are homeschoolers, in case you didn't know.  One of my jobs is to teach math.  Since kids learn better when they are having fun, I always look for ways to invent games so my kids learn while playing.  One of my all time best inventions was a game called "Bug Hotel".  That game was played on a white board (laying flat on the ground) and with math cubes and dice.  As good as Bug Hotel was, however, it was not my greatest invention.

My greatest invention and contribution to the world of education is the quizinator (we also call it quizanations).  It is a Microsoft Excel based flash card game.  It keeps your scores, keeps track of what you missed so you can practice on the math facts where you are weak, and it even keeps total time elapsed and average time per answer.  There are endless varieties of ways to play and learn.

You can quiz for math facts or straight memorization facts.  I use it to quiz my sons on their state capitals and knowledge of the presidents, for instance.

If you want a free copy, please post a comment and I will send it to you.  If you know homeschoolers (or other parents who want to reinforce learning for their kids), then post a link on your blog to this post and send them over.  My rule is simple.  Post a comment and request a copy, plunk in your email, and it is yours free.

A little Microsoft Excel knowledge will help you operate this game.  If you have never used Excel, this tool is not for you.

P.S.  I found a cool web site that generates all manner of math worksheets on the fly.  It is called The Math Work Sheet site.   Use it to reinforce learning.  The work sheets it makes are quite impressive.

"As health, strength, vigor and vitality are bodily goods, so information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom are goods of the mind - goods that acquired, perfect it."

Mortimer Adler, A Guidebook To Learning For The Lifelong Pursuit Of Wisdom, p. 110

We live in what some call the information age.  It is the age of the internet.  Information is in super abundance.  But what is the goal of learning this information?  Is education a game of Trivial Pursuit?  What is the point of learning?

Time for a shout out to an excellent, high quality thread about school choice.  In particular, should we allow market based economics to reshape public school education?

Where is this fine thread?  Why right here on the Dawn Treader.  I started a silly little thread about I.D. and it has blossomed into an excellent discussion that you don't want to miss.

Join the fun.  Weigh in.

It is no secret, folks.  American colleges and universities are bastions of liberal thought and indoctrination.   At elite schools, liberal faculty outnumber conservative faculty nearly nine to one if recent polling data is accurate.

This is wonderful news for non-Christians and liberal Christians.  For the rest of us, however, this should give us cause to think through the wisdom of punting the college decision to our children.  In other words, letting our children completely own the decision of which college to attend.

Update: Brian at the Worldview Warrior offers some thoughtful counter points to my commentary.   He makes good points.  I especially like his swimming analogy.  Brian, incidentally, is a VTU grad.  Perhaps he wants to weigh in with his own opinion on the worldviews observed at VTU by Andrew (cited below).

2nd Update : Brian shares about his experience at VTU.  Brian took an engineering track and had a wonderful experience.  He never ran into a Marxist on campus.  Those Marxists Andrew found must be over in the literature deparment ;)  Brian is an excellent example of an ambassador for Christ who was intentional about living out his faith and ushering in the kingdom.  You may think I mean that he went around handing out tracks and witnessing to people.  And you would be wrong.  Go read his commentary and pay special attention to point 9.