Basketball

Z had his last basketball game of the season.  They played against another team for 11 minutes before the Skyforce game started.  (Skyforce is a professional team that is a feeder for for the Miami Heat).  I think Z enjoyed the season very much!

Z is on the far left.

Regular Life

Eden got a haircut!!  She loves getting her hair cut by a "professional," as she says.  I overheard her having a very nice conversation with the lady who cut her hair about how she learned to cut hair and whether she liked her job or not.

The kids had a long break over President's Day weekend so we invited Jackson to go to the Children's Museum in Brookings with us.

Climbing the cloud.

Painting the glass wall.

Eden got hold of my phone and took some pictures.

This is the baby kangaroo in her Little Critters collection.

 Wrestling with Daddy is always a favorite pastime!

Tell Me, What Is the Soul?

A real dialogue between Nathan, Eden and Z on Feb 20, 2017.

E: Would you rather die, die, or die?

N: I choose none of the above.

E: You have to choose one.

N: No.

E: But if you die, you turn into a ghost.

N: No, I don’t think so. 

E: When people die, they turn into a part of themselves.  They turn into ghosts [pronounced ghost-ez].

N: You mean peoples’ souls leave their bodies?  I’m not sure that’s a good thing.  Some argue that souls apart from their bodies are full persons, but it could just as well be that our souls are less than our full selves.  It’s like they’re copies or pieces of ourselves, but that’s it.

E: It’s, like, an unimportant part of ourselves?

N: Sure, I guess.  It’s like the soul is a less important part left behind.

Z: Like a liver.

Gerbils

Philosopher Z

Yesterday the kids didn't have school and Z was up before me.  When I got up, I asked him what he'd been doing and he showed me this:

He had been reading The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy, a book I'm reading for a paper I'm writing about Harry Potter.  The first chapter is about the nature of the soul in the Harry Potter books.  The author begins with an explanation of five different philosophical views on the soul.  Z's notes say,

"Life source view.  Very good view till the plants.
Sentince view.  More like the real world much like nerves.
Cartesian view: Rene descartes thoughg [thought] that the setinces [sentient] stuff could be completed by material causes.  We need souls to use language and formulate complexe beliefs.  Thinks animals don't have souls to what I understand.
Materialism: Thinks that the senses just phicical [physical] forces.  All mental function is phisical proces.
Sentimental view:"

He didn't quite get to notes on the sentimental view, but I have to say, I was impressed.  If you read the chapter you'll see he's dead on, but that most of his notes are in his own words.  Wow!  I wish I could get my Intro students to do this!

He then asked me which view I agreed with and I told him my view was more biblical and theological than philosophical, and had to do with the idea that what we call the "soul" is about the idea that God chose us to love and to love him.  When I asked him which view he liked, he said he wasn't sure.  He said he had to read the Cartesian view three times before he understood it.  I told him I have to read things over all the time, and that is just fine and a great way to make sure you really understand something.

Pretty awesome.

Christmas in South Dakota

We began our Christmas vacation in South Dakota.  On Christmas Eve we went to church and then had a great meal and opened presents with Amah and Papa John.

Eden decked out in all her new outdoor clothes.

Z and Eden playing their new game.

On Christmas morning we opened stockings at home.

Z made letters for each of the stockings so no one would be confused.  And Phin looks a little possessed.

Eden wearing and holding some of her stocking loot.  She's been wanting that remote control puppy ever since we bought it for one of her friends on her birthday back in September.

We had planned to leave right away for Kansas, but we were right at the tail end of some freezing rain, so we waited it out for about an our.  Z finished one of the lego sets he'd opened the night before.  He's also wearing his new Stampede sweatshirt.

And then we piled in the van and drove down to Kansas.  More pictures soon to come!

From the Past

I just found these videos Z made at Spanish camp a couple of years ago.  The kids got to work with a green screen.