The Gap

This morning I woke to an NPR news story about the gap between the rich and the poor. I don't remember where the numbers came from so I can't vouch for accuracy of the data but the story said something like, "wealthier Americans made 11 times more money than poorer Americans in 2008 and the economic troubles hit poor and middle income Americans the hardest".

Of course, this leads to other questions. How do you define rich? How do you define poor? But I'll tell you something about this economy that you won't realize if you are on the upper end of that gap. Food prices are fluctuating enough to hurt those of us that have to scrape together grocery money. Think about it this way; the ground turkey that I put in a pot of chili for my family used to be a dollar a pound. Now it's two dollars. From the up side of the economy you might think, "it's only a dollar more". From here the thought is more like, "oh no, the price has doubled"... and then we might have chili with no meat in it that week.

Next time you are tempted to tell somebody who's hurting all about how the economy isn't that bad... remember that it's all in perspective.

IF: Strong

Click to see the image bigger. I had so much fun making this one and I'm really happy with it.

Illustration Friday gives a prompt on Friday and you have all week to come up with an illustration. I did mine in Blender, an open source 3d software that I love.

For more Friday illustrations: Click Here

COVA

COVA is the Colorado Online Virtual Academy that uses the k12 curriculum... K12 seems to be doing a lot of online advertising lately, so maybe you've heard of it. Anyway, that's what we're doing this year and I'm really happy with it so far. Here are a few reason's why.

1. It still feels like homeschooling.
We want Jasmine to go to high school but don't really feel like she's ready for public school just yet (she's a 7th grader). This feels like a way to transition her to a more rigorous academic track without too much pain.

2. High expectations.
It's a really nice curriculum that feels very well rounded and well thought out. I couldn't afford such a nice curriculum on my own, so having it available through an online public school is wonderful.

3. Technology, but not all technology.
We've found, especially for math, that the online lessons are really helpful but none of the subjects are done completely online. She still reads from books and does her math practice with pencil and paper.

4. There are real teachers involved.
When we need help there are people available to ask. Honestly, they seem to be spread pretty thin and we sometimes have to wait for a response, but this is the first time I've ever had anybody to turn to when I had to teach Jasmine something I didn't understand myself.

Her favorite subject seems to be Spanish, which is really ingeniously designed to feel like a game most of the time. Unfortunately there have been some technical issues with it the last week or so... but I'm sure it will get ironed out soon.

Anyway, if you are thinking about K12, I recommend it. I wish we had done it sooner.

IF: Magnify

This is an image I made in Blender for Illustration Friday. One of my problems with Blender is that the projects I work on in it take forever and I get burnt out before I finish them. I.F. gives a theme on Friday and you have all week to post an image on that theme. This gives me a deadline. I am not overjoyed with this image, but I'm fairly happy with it and I learned a lot making it. If I can make another next week in the given time line, I'll learn even more. As always, click to see it bigger.

I realize I've been a rotten blogger lately. I seem to have moved over to Facebook from blogging but I'm not ready to give up the blog just yet. I hope all is well with you and yours.

More Friday Illustrations: Click Here