Another Goodwill Trip

Today was what I call "reasonable price day" at Goodwill (50% off day, which compared to their normal prices [OUTRAGEOUS!] is reasonable for second-hand stuff)

I didn't find much good stuff for making bits. But I found quite a few useful things, including a "Worst-Case Scenario" survival game, a Thomas the Tank Engine bilingual dictionary (Spanish and English) with over 400 words, "Of Frogs and Toads" which is a very cute poetry book about our amphibian friends, "The Great Dinosaur Mystery SOLVED!" (written from a Creationist perspective!), a Little Golden Book called "Prayers for Children", and an "Animal Baby" magazine with a few pictures for making homemade books.

The "Worst-Case Scenario" game looks fascinating, I really enjoy learning stuff like that and would like to become more educated in that area. It's just got several hundred cards with multiple choice questions, which ask (and answer) everything from "how to predict an earthquake" to "how to treat snow blindness" to "how to treat heart attack at home" to "how to conserve energy when traveling on foot" to "how to disable a car" to "how to remove a leech" to "how to stun an attacker without permanent injury" to "how to fend off a shark". Those types of "survival skills" are things that fascinate everybody, the answers at least, even if most people do not take the time to learn them. Survival skills for the wilderness, the medical arena, and the streets are something everyone needs to know. Schools have taught us that the only important survival skill is survival of the business world, but that is so limited and so unsatisfying. There is a great satisfaction, pride, and confidence in knowing that you could, if ever need be, take on the wilderness. Nonetheless I am quite excited about learning along with Hunter the basic and simple survival of the world we live in - all the world we live in, not just the business world.

The poetry I'm excited about too, it looks really cute and Hunter LOVES frogs and toads. The dictionary book looks quite useful - he loves trains - and it will help us with our Spanish.

Great educational materials can be found at practically any thrift store, and if you look right it doesn't have to cost loads of money to teach a child many wonderful things. The resources to teach anything are bountiful - all you have to do is look.

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits... Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."

Psalm 103:2,5