10 Things I Learned From My Son's Science Report

Today I am spending my early hours helping my son finish a Science Report that was due yesterday. The teacher was nice enough to let him finish it over the weekend. The report is over the heart and blood. The format of the report comes in the form of 10 questions that he has to research and answer. I really enjoyed the time spent with my son researching this information. We were excited to learn together.

Here are the results of our findings...

Question 1: Was it possible for John F. Kennedy to read in a newspaper about the first successful open-heart surgery? Answer: YES (The first successful open heart surgery was performed by Dr. John Gibbon in May of 1953, approx. 10 years before President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.)

Question 2: Was it possible for Napoleon Bonaparte’s doctor to examine him with a stethoscope? Answer: NO (Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on St. Helena in 1815, approx. 1 year before the earliest known stethoscopes were invented by Rene-Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec in 1816.

Question 3: Was it possible for Abraham Lincoln to have an EKG run on him?
Answer: NO (President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 12, 1865. The first known uses of the electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) was recorded until about 1872. More accurate versions were not used until the late 1890's.

Question 4: Was it possible for an American Revolution Soldier to use Digitalis if he had abnormal heart rhythms? Answer: No & YES. (If the soldier wanted to use the plant Digitalis, also known as foxgloves, during the war, then the answer would be NO. The American Revolution was fought between 1775 and 1782. Digitalis was not used to treat heart conditions until 1785, when it was used by William Withering. However if the soldier in question survived the war, then he possibly could have used this new medicine, while as a veteran.

Question 5: Was it possible for Thomas Jefferson to know his blood type? Answer NO (The most common type of blood classification, the ABO System was discovered by Karl Landsteiner in the early 1900's. Sadly Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826.

Question 6: Was it possible for your Great-Grandparents to know about the RH Factor in blood?
Answer: It all depends on if your great-grandparents were alive in 1940. (The RH, or Rhesus, Factors in blood were discovered by Karl Landsteiner and A.S. Wiener in 1937. They did not publish their findings until 1940. So if your great-grandparents were still alive in, or born during or after, 1940, then it is quite possible they could have read about this new revolutionary discovery.

Question 7: Was it possible for George Washington's doctor to take his blood pressure with a blood pressure cuff? Answer: NO (The earliest known uses of the sphygmomanometer, aka: the blood pressure cuff, was not until the early 1860's, and not widely used until 1896. George Washington died in 1799.)

Question 8: Was it possible for Mark Twain to donate to a Blood Bank? Answer: NO (This true for two reasons. #1 Mark Twain was not real, it was a pen-name used by Samuel Clemens. #2. Samuel Clemens, aka: Mark Twain, died in 1910. The first known "blood bank" were not used until 1917. They were created by Oswals Hope Robertson for use in France, while serving in the U.S. Medical Corps during World War I.

Question 9: Was it possible for Pocahontas to hear about William Harvey's description of the circulatory system of the blood? Answer: Possible but not likely. Dr. William Harvey first announced his discovery of the circulatory system of the blood in 1616. He later published his findings in 1628 in his thesis called, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus. Pocahontas, better known at the time by her Christian name of Rebecca Rolfe, died in 1617. Since Pocahontas and her husband John Rolfe did hang around the elite society of England at the time of Dr. Harvey announced his findings, it is possible Pocahontas may have heard about Dr. Harvey's discoveries by word-of-mouth only. If she had wanted to read his published works, it would have been to late.

Question 10: Was it possible for Gen. Sam Houston to be a volunteer in the American Red Cross?
Answer: YES (Sam Houston served as a General & later President for the Republic of Texas. He also served as U.S. Senator and later Governor for the State of Texas. He died in July of 1863. The American Red Cross was established by Clara Barton and a few associates in May of 1861. It's possible Sam Houston could have tried to travel north to be a volunteer for this new organization but he would have been a very old volunteer.

Hope you had fun reading and learning new things as much as we did!

The Pains of Being Disciplined

One of the hardest things to do when you are a parent is to effectively discipline your children, and yourself on occasion. It's hard not to let emotions take over and ruin good teachable moments or take the focus of the lesson you want your children to learn. For example...

Near the end of last year our family changed our rules system in an attempt to be more fair and be more ordered in our approach to discipline. The rules we adopted are based upon a book called, FAMILY Rules: Positive Parenting with a Plan (Grades K-12) by: Matthew A. Johnson. As a part of this system, when a family rule is broken, the offender must pull a card, or cards depending on the rule broken, to try an re-enforce positive behaviors rather than the negative behaviors we chose to do. Even parents must pull cards when they break rules. I have had to pull more than anyone since we started the system. (I accidentally ran a red-light {10 cards}, I have cussed twice {3 cards each time}, I was sarcastic in my words three times {1 card for each offense}, I failed to have my part of the parent's room straight in a timely manner {1 card}, I failed on my one day of the week to feed the dog {1 card})

The hardest part is when your children must pull cards when they feel they were "justified" in what they did or they feel they did nothing wrong. It's not hard to make the decision to have them pull cards or to even explain why what they did was wrong. It is hard to see them, when they genuinely feel remorse and they have to struggle to do the "punishment/good behavior re-enforcer" the card tells them to do. It's hard not to run over to them and just hug them and forgive them of all wrong doing. It's hard not to "take back" the punishment to stop their hurt. But we can't!

We can't stop them from feeling remorse. It's the feeling of remorse that causes our "pride" to hurt. It is that kind of pain that causes us to look inside ourselves and seek what can truly stop all of our pain and suffering. It causes us to seek our Father, Our Creator. It causes us to see that what wrongs we have done not only hurts ourselves, but it also hurts others. Our wrongs hurts other family members, friends, and most importantly it hurts our God. When we finally come to grips with this fact. We can seek forgiveness and accept His grace for what it really is. Not just an excuse to keep doing our bad behaviors, but the freedom from having to do the bad things in the first place.

So we watch our children as they cry and attempt to sort through their budding new emotions and feelings. We watch them and attempt to guide their feelings in positive ways so they don't feel that they are "totally evil." We listen to them as they try their best to relate their feelings to you. Sometimes it comes in angry outburst. Sometimes it comes in confused bits of conversation or writings on paper. We do our best to be patient and understanding. We know, sort of, what they are going through because we were kids once ourselves. It's just hard.

So really the hard part is just watching them learn. It's hard and painful sometimes, but they will live through it. I hope I'm not just rambling on and on. I tried to make a point. Maybe I am still learning as well and need to just write a few minutes to sort through what I am feeling as well. After all I am still a child myself. I am a child of the King!

Shows My Kids Watch (Cartoons at least!)

I always make it a point to at least try to watch what my kids are watching on television. You never know what kind of messages and values the world is trying to instill in your children that is contrary to what God's truth is. Mostly our family does not watch much network television, but my kids, thus I by default, watch a few of the shows on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and the Disney Channel. We do not watch them all the time, we just pick these if we have nothing else to do. (Most of the time they would rather play outside or play video games.) After watching some of the "newer" cartoons, I have come to the conclusion that the majority of the new animated shows are stupid and are very annoying. It makes me miss the classic cartoons I used to watch as a child.

A brief list of some of the shows my kids watch from time to time (I try to steer them away from these shows as much as possible) are: Naruto (This is an excessively violent and annoying Japanese cartoon with a lot of yelling that hurts my ears. It also had some vulgar language and the main character harnesses the power of a demon, that he has inside of him, to try and do good things.), The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (This show features an extremely rude and disrespectful girl whose parents are afraid of her, an extremely gross and stupid boy with very stupid parents, and the Grim Reaper. It teaches kids that parents are dumb and easily manipulated and that stupidity and outright cruelty are acceptable behaviors.), Ed, Edd and Eddy (Yet another show with greedy, stupid and annoying sounds that get on my nerves. It teaches kids that its OK to cheat or injure others in order to achieve what ever goal you want, especially making money.), My Gym Partner is a Monkey (A show about a boy whose is sent to an animal school because of a mix up in his last name. It features a monkey who is obsessed with his butt and anything else gross. It also has annoying sounds that just grates your nerves.), Code Name: Kids Next Door (This show portrays parents as dumb people who are dictators and should be controlled by children who are really the smartest and dominate people on the planet. Grown ups in general are the enemy and should not be respected.) and Yu-Gi-Oh! (This show is another Japanese import that features a kid possessed by an Egyptian Prince? and it teaches kids that demons and false gods are real and their powers can be harnessed through sets of "playing cards".)

There is at least one show that we watch regularly that I am starting to grown concerned about; Pokémon. This show started out as something even I liked, but the more I watch it the more I am growing concerned that the show is teaching nature worship. The more recent episodes and books based on the series also teach that the universe was possibly created by the creatures called Pokemon and that they are responsible for the balance of the nature, time, and humanity as well. I am not sure this is the message I want my kids to be indoctrinated with.

Some current "family" shows I will not allow my kids to watch at all are: The Simpsons (The epitome of a bad TV show. A stupid and abusive father, rude and disrespectful children, not to mention the crude and gross behaviors of everyone else on the show.), Futurama (from the creators of the Simpsons, this show is outright vulgar, sexual and crude. Lucky for us it comes on very late at night.), and South Park (vulgar language, crude behavior, racist attitudes, and violent.)

Not all of the newer shows are bad though (At least as far as I can tell). Some shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Kim Possible, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Code Lyoko and Back at the Barnyard may have annoying things in them, but so far I have not found anything I particularly object to. I am still forming an opinion about the newest show my kids are watching called, Chowder (The show is about a little "kid" who eats almost anything and wants to be a great chef. Funny thing about this show is that all the main characters are named after foods. It is a dumb show but nothing objectionable yet.)

What happened to the good shows that taught some basic good moral values like: Rugrats, Doug, and PB & J Otter? Those were some good shows! Some shows I am glad to see off the air, such as Beavis and Butt-head and Ren and Stimpy.

At least I keep track of what my kids are watching. Some parents don't even know anything about the shows that their kids watch. Let me know what you think?

How to Turn a Dime Into $100

Today started out as pretty much a normal day. Nobody wanted to wake up and go back to school and work after spending time off for Thanksgiving. Despite the temptation to stay home and just sleep, I managed to get up and head off to work. I had been at work for about an hour when I one my co-workers, interrupted my class. She had a "While You Were Out" phone message for me. This struck me as strange, since normally I just return any calls after instruction time. She had a weird expression on her face as she told me, "It's about your son, you might want to step outside to read this." Of course I read it right away. The message was from the school nurse at my son's school. The message said, "Dime stuck in his nose!"

After initially bursting out in laughing in front of my room, I composed myself and asked if the message was real. After being assured the message was real, I got on my cell phone to find out my beloved wife had been trying to reach me, and had left a voice message. My wife's voice message confirmed, what the phone message said, my son had a dime stuck up his nose. The nurse had tried to get it out, but she was afraid because it was stuck up there pretty good, that it might have caused some minor damage to his nose, and she recommended we take my son to a Doctor, or the E.R. to have it removed. To bad my wife was already taking some time off to take my daughter to the orthodontist. So I had to go show the note to the program director and ask for the rest of the day off. If the situation wasn't happening to my own kid, it would have been hilarious. Ok, it was hilarious anyway, but I really didn't want to miss work.

By the time I got permission to leave, my beloved wife had already picked up the kid from his school. I took him to our family doctor where we spent about 10 minutes waiting to see if the doc can work him in to his already busy schedule. Since it was not an "emergency", he could not work my son and his 10 cent booger into the schedule. Meanwhile my son is worried he is going to snort the dime into his nasal cavity and swallow it, or choke on it. So we left the doctor's office and went to the E.R. After much paper work and another 10 minute wait, the doctor finally saw my son. She told him, that they could try to use high air pressure and blow the coin out or they could try to pull it out. He opted to have it pulled out. (Darn it, I really wanted to see the dime fly out his nose and roll across the floor!) After failing a good grip on the coin, they told us they might have to send him to a specialist and they might have to put him under anesthesia to pull it out. This scared my son and he started to "blow his nose" over and over again. By the time the nurse returned, the dime and finally slipped down enough that you could see it again. They gave my son a pair of small pliers and he pulled out the dime for himself. (I think they ought to give us a discount on the bill for that!) He thought it was funny that they put the dime in a Bio-Hazard bag because of the snot and mucus on it. It would have been more funny to me, if it wasn't for the $100.00 co-pay this will cost us, after insurance. For a 10 cent problem, it cost us 10 times as much to have it removed. It also cost me a day of my sick-leave.

You always hear about stuff like this happening to other people's kids! I guess my wife and I are just one of those "other people" after all. At least I got the rest of the day off after all. Oh, by the way -- He was trying to do some sort of magic trick for his friends in P.E. Some trick boy!

For my son's version of this story Click Here! For my wife's version of the story Click Here!

Time to Change the Way I Think

As you may have read before, my family has decided to implement a few new rules around our house. (See Previous Blog) One of the new rules will probably be that our children may not watch movies, television shows, view web-sites or listen to music that is not appropriate due to age or morally. This got me to thinking. I watch a lot of movies. My family and I have been active members of Netflix for at least two years. We, mostly me, have watched all sorts of movies. Our kids definitely do not watch anything rated R or above. My wife and I don't watch anything rated above R. There are; however, a few movies rated PG or PG-13 that do push the limits of what is appropriate or not, that we have watched or are currently on our cue list. Movies like Transformers. My kids (ages 10 + 12) and I loved this movie, but is this movie really age appropriate? There is bad language, some sexual humor, and plenty of violence (just not gory!). Under our new rules, would I allow my children to watch this type of movie? It's a tough call, but one that has to be made.

It reminds me of a story...There were these two teenage children who lived in a Christian home. They were raised by good parents, although not perfect, who tried to raise their kids with good values and good decision making skills. One day the children came home with a group of friends with a movie they wanted to watch. The movie was rated PG-13, or R depending on the story. The father asked the girls what the movie was about and after hearing the movie's details, the father quickly decided this was not a good movie for the girls to watch. "But it only has a little bit of bad language. It only has a little bit of sexual themes in it.", the children insisted. The father, being a wise man, made a deal with the children, he would make a batch of brownies and if the children would eat the brownies then they could watch the movie. The children agreed. So the father went to the kitchen and gathered all his ingredients. He got flour, sugar, eggs, brownie mix and then he got a little bit of dog poop from the yard and mixed it in with the brownie mix. After cooking the brownies, he set them out for his children to eat. Before they started to dig in; however, he told them about the "surprise ingredient" he had added. "Gross!", his children asked. "But it only has a little poop in the brownies!", the father said. It was then his children realized what the father was trying to teach them. It doesn't take a whole lot of "crap" to be in a movie, T.V. show, or the music you listen to, in order to taint it.

It may look and even taste like a great brownie, but inside of it there is something that makes you sick. The movie may be a "great" movie, but hidden inside is the agenda of someone who wants to make you sick. Satan will do anything to turn us away from God. How many of us, myself included, have been feeding our kids "tainted brownies" and letting them watch programs they have "just a little-bit" of bad stuff in it. For that matter, who much "poop" have we been feeding ourselves.

Maybe it's time I change the way I think.