Critical Thinking Skills from the Man of the House

3 May

As requested by me so I can implement them in homeschool.

Ten reasoning abilities and habits of mind necessary for critical thinking:

  1. Consciously raising the questions: what, how do we know?, why do we accept or believe?, what is the evidence for?
  2. Being clearly or explicitly aware of gaps in available information.
  3. Discriminating between observation and inference, between established fact and subsequent conjecture.
  4. Recognizing that words are symbols for ideas no the ideas themselves.
  5. Probing for assumptions (particularly the implicit, unarticulated) assumptions behind a line of reasoning.
  6. Drawing inferences from data, observations, or other evidence and recognizing when firm inferences cannot be drawn.
  7. Performing hypothetico-deductive reasoning; that is given a particular situation, applying relevant knowledge of principles and constraints and visualizing, in the abstract, the plausible outcomes that might result from various changes one can imagine to be imposed on the system.
  8. Discriminating between inductive and deductive reasoning; that is, being aware when an argument is being made from the particular to the general or from the general to the particular.
  9. Testing one’s own line of reasoning and conclusions for internal consistency and thus developing intellectual self-reliance.
  10. Developing self-consciousness concerning one’s own thinking and reasoning processes

Zekey Pie

2 May

The Man of the House gave the twins a summer haircut. Zeke got a fade because he was able to sit still better.

Scooter Pies

29 Apr
Ultimate indulgence: eating raisins in Daddy’s bed
Little technology lovers

Happy 15th Birthday, Cherry Pie

26 Apr

Mere Motherhood

21 Apr

Today I handed the girls a book about Egyptian hieroglyphics and told them to have fun. I snuggled the twins and read Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins. I couldn’t put it down. Though our lives have been quite different, I felt that our hearts are much the same, and she said things that I needed to hear, so much that I’ve been grasping at but not quite catching hold of.

Its all there, the joys of Motherhood, the agony of it, and redemption in the end. I rubbed shoulders with a kindred spirit today.

April Fools

21 Apr


For the most nasty and creative April Fools prank ever, Pumpkin Pie and Peach Pie made “orange juice” from water and the cheese powder from a box of Mac-n-cheese.  They totally tricked the Resident Captain into drinking a big glass when he got home from work.  

Additionally, they made fake cat feces with some wet cardboard and told me that the cat had made a mess in the laundry room.  They then transferred the mess to Blueberry Pie’s room and got him as well.  

You might ask, if you know us well, how on earth we came to have a cat?

George is a stray cat that adopted us. He is an OUTSIDE cat, but Apple Pie sneaks him into the house pretty often.


He puts up with a lot of silliness–I’m often surprised that he stays around.


Some days I wonder if I’m only fooling myself when I call him an outside pet.

The Scooter Pies Discover Mud.

20 Apr
Skeeter

Spring has arrived, and on one balmy afternoon I let the twins outside, knowing they would find the mud puddles–even though they’d never played in puddles before.  It didn’t take long for them to find the puddles.

Baby Bean and Key Lime Pie (not pictured) joined in the dirty fun. I just sat on the porch and enjoyed watching their excitement and curiosity.

Skeeter likes to dip his head in the water

The downside is that they know about mud now, so they beeline it to the mud puddle every time they get outside.  (Which is pretty often because Skooter learned how to open doors. Curses.)

Zeek

It was still worth it.

Tasting the muddy driveway gravel.  They had to taste the mud several times. Seriously these boys have refused to taste so many delicious foods, like flan 🍮(!!), but the mud went right into their mouths–more than once!

A muddy bath to extend the fun. And there were little muddy bite marks in the soap when they got out of the tub.  Seriously, I don’t know why I bother cooking.


Muddy paw prints are clues that fun was had today.

In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the fresh air.

Charlotte Mason

George the Homeless Cat

20 Apr

George the homeless cat is still around.

Pretty sure the only person who listens when I say George is an outside cat is me.

Apple Pie is certainly not listening. #catnap

Happy Easter 2017

16 Apr
Skeeter- green tie, Zeke- orange tie
Blueberry Pie and the Scooter Pies

Corrie ten Boom wrote:

Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. “Corrie,” he began gently, “when you and I go to Amsterdam-when do I give you your ticket?”

I sniffed a few times, considering this.”Why, just before we get on the train.”

“Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need-just in time.”

Grandpa’s Airplane

15 Apr

Flights on Grandpa’s teeter-totter are never over booked

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