8 Facts Every Child Should Learn About the Most Sublime Creature on Earth→

What creature is that you are probably wondering?

It is the whale.

We studied dinosaurs in the second grade, yet, dinosaurs pale in comparison to whales. While reading Moby Dick, I discovered a fascination for them because whales are truly sublime.

I’m now convinced that no child should complete childhood without learning about their amazing lives.

Here are 8 facts about whales that you can share with your child:

Fact 1: Whales Are the Largest Creature on Earth

Did you know that whales are the largest animal on Earth, even bigger than the T-Rex Dinosaur? The nine heaviest creatures in the world belong to the whale family. A blue whale weighs 200 tons, and when they give birth, their babies weigh three tons and gain 200 pounds per day!

Compare this to the largest elephant ever to exist (as far as we know), who weighed only 4 tons, and you begin to realize the magnitude of of whales. 

Fact 2: Whales Have the Largest Brains

The sperm whales have the largest brains of any animal, including man. Not only do they have the largest brains, but their brains contain a neocortex, like the human brain. The neocortex governs higher cognitive functions such as planning, memory, empathy, and language.

The sperm whale has a highly sophisticated language that is based on sound. They emit coded clicks at the speed of milliseconds and can emit these sounds at vast distances. 

Scientists today are trying to decode their language using artificial intelligence. Someone even wrote a book about real conversations with whales and how the lessons we learn from them can help us live more joyful lives.

“As for his true brain, the whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world. ”

— Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Fact 3: Whales Rely on Sound to See

Because most of the whale’s life is spent at the bottom of the ocean, they must rely on sound to see. Whales use click sounds to communicate which is called echolocation. Echolocation is when their sounds bounce off of an object and send back an echo to the whale that tells them where the object is. 

Fact 4: Whales are the loudest animals alive

They rely on click sounds to see, but these sounds can be as loud as 230 decibels making them the loudest animals on earth. In comparison, if you stood next to a jet engine, the engine's sound is about 150 decibels.

Whales are so loud that their clicking sounds can kill a man! 

Fact 5: Whales Can Hold Their Breath for 90 Minutes

Whales can live underwater for about 90 minutes because their bodies can store massive amounts of oxygen in their muscles. When whales surface to breathe, they breathe for about seven minutes before they go underwater again. 

Fact 6: Whales Have Complex Social Structures

Female whales live in multi-generational families. In contrast, the male whales live solitary lives and return to the females only during the mating season.

Whales will mourn the death of a loved one, and they will celebrate the birth of a calf, according to Shane Gero, a behavioral ecologist and founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project.

They have different dialects for each whale pod.

Fact 7: A Whale’s Excrement Is More Valuable than Gold!

Yes, it’s true. Whales eat large squid, and the indigestible parts of the squid are eventually excreted. These excretions float in the water for seven years, going through various changes, and can be washed up on shores in the form of what is known as ambergris. 

“It’s beyond comprehension how beautiful it is, It’s transformative. There’s a shimmering quality to it. It reflects light with its smell. It’s like an olfactory gemstone,” is how Mandy Aftel, a perfumer describes ambergris.

It can sell for anywhere from 10K to 100K, depending upon the size. 

In 2021, a group of Yemeni fishermen found 1.5 million dollars worth of ambergris in the floating carcass of a sperm whale!

Fact 8: Great Whales Are an Endangered Species

Sperm whales are the citizens of the ocean, and they are dying.

"Why are they dying?" asks Shane Gero.

And then he answers his own question: "It's us," he says. "All of us." 

The deluge of gargantuan shipping fleets bringing us our goods from all over the world are killing the greatest creature on earth.  Calves are born, but they are dying from accidents caused by large freighter ships.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, sperm whales were hunted for oil and spermiceti, but now they are killed because of our ignorance. It’s ironic that arguably the most intelligent animal on Earth is going extinct because of man’s stupidity, or greed.

Today, six out of 13 great whale species are considered endangered, including the sperm whale who was the subject of Melville’s masterpiece, Moby Dick.

Teach Your Children Well

Teach your children about the greatest creature on Earth when they are young, and you will have no problem getting them to read Moby Dick when they are older.

Moby Dick is the story of an obsessive pursuit for one albino sperm whale named Moby Dick by a man with a wretched heart called Ahab.

While it's not easy to read, it's a powerful and often humorous book with themes of human nature and human folly gracing the pages.

“God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates. ”

— Moby Dick, Herman Melville

John Taylor Gatto used to have his sixth-grade students read Moby Dick.

Though I never asked him why out of all the great Western classics, he chose Moby Dick; my guess is because once you read it, you can successfully tackle any other work of great fiction.

☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.

Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.

When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents of school-age children, we guide you in homeschooling with the classics to raise more intelligent children of a better character.

Enroll using the link below and feel confident knowing you have the guidance and support you need to homeschool successfully.

For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.

Utilizing her unusual skill set, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.

She is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.

“Elizabeth has given us counseling and guidance to help us succeed with our home school planning. When I feel overwhelmed, scared, or lose my confidence, she offers words of wisdom and support.”

— Sherry B., Pittsburg, PA

One Reading Habit That Will Increase Your Child's Intelligence

Not just any kind of reading will help develop and strengthen your child's mind.

You want to provide your kids with literature that will challenge their minds and get them into the habit of applying effort when reading.

Because the more your child actively uses his mind when he's young, and the more he continues to use his mind as he matures, the brighter he'll become.

We know that the brain is an ever-changing organ. It can weaken from misuse or neglect, and it can also become stronger from the right kind of use.

“John Taylor Gatto had his sixth-grade class read and discuss Moby Dick by Herman Melville. ”

Parents say things like, "Well, he only reads comic books, but at least he's reading!"

As John Taylor Gatto put it, "Teach your children to grow up to be readers of more than the daily newspaper."

Comic books are fine for comic relief on occasion. Maybe you're on a road trip or flying cross-country; this might be a time to let your child read a comic book or two or three.

☞ It’s probably prudent not to let comic books work their way into your home though.

Comic books will make his mind lazy because they require almost no effort to read. The pictures tell the story, and the dialogues are simple. When it becomes time to read challenging literature, he won't be able to tackle the vocabulary or follow the longer and more complicated sentence patterns.

He'll complain to you that the book is "boring."

It's not boring; he just hasn't learned to read well. Do not let him blame the book!

Great books expand the mind and help us to understand the complexities of life and ourselves. If we replaced the department of psychology with a department of Shakespeare, we'd be off to a good start in improving our colleges and universities.

The inner workings of the mind and heart are there in his plays.

Once you get used to the language, Shakespeare is no more difficult to read than authors such as Tolstoy or Dostoevsky.

The ability to read great literature is what you want for your children. You want them to be exposed to the great ideas of Western thought that take us all the way back to Ancient Greece.

John Taylor Gatto was very in support of reading great books. It's where he got the seeds for many of his ideas. Had he not been a good reader himself, he would not have been able to plow through all of the material he read to uncover the real history of modern education.

☞ It took a competent reader and thinker to accomplish such a great feat.

I said there was one thing you need to do to increase your child's intelligence, but as I was writing this, another occurred to me, so there are now two things.

The second thing is to homeschool your children, so you expose them to great literature. I say homeschool because, sadly, your children won't get the kind of education they need in public school.

☞ And with a lousy education system comes a dumbed-down people.

Here’s a poem by Emily Dickinson to inspire your kids:

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot

That bears a human soul!

Have your children memorize Emily Dickinson's poem, and supply them with the kind of books to travel lands away!

Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.

Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents and let me guide you in homeschooling to raise intelligent children of good character. You can enroll using the link below and be confident knowing you can and will homeschool successfully.

For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.

Utilizing her unusual skill set, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.

She is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.

☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.

Should We Teach Sex Education in Schools?

Are four-year-old children developmentally ready to learn about sex? Are children of any age ready for this kind of education?

No, they are NOT!

Ironically, we teach children to believe in Santa Claus, but, in the same vein, we have sex education classes for preschoolers. Freud would have fun untangling this web of inconsistencies. 

One of the problems is that rather than deter children from an interest in sex, sex-education classes have the opposite effect.

A Not-So-Good Idea, Possibly?

According to Dr. Melvin Anchell, who wrote the book What's Wrong With Sex Education, teaching sex education in the classroom has led to significant increases in teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, promiscuity, teenage abortions, and, not surprisingly, depression and suicide. 

While the reasons for this are more than we can tackle here, let's look at a few of them to get a sense of what is taking place in the classroom.

For starters, when we introduce children to the concept of sex at an early age and do it in mixed classrooms, we remove that natural barrier of modesty which children have, especially the modesty between girls and boys. 

We then reduce sex education to the mechanics of a physical act and ignore its purpose, which is procreation and a physical expression of an emotional state called love. 

The earlier children begin to think about the mechanics of sex; however, the more desensitized they become to a physical act that was once held sacred.

Having removed the barrier of modesty, the more curious young people become about sex and the less forbidden it begins to seem.

Dr. Anchell's findings make perfect sense in a world where elementary sex education has been normalized for the masses of children attending public schools.

The New “Lifestyle Choice”

If things weren't bad enough, in the 21st century, we have begun to teach children that sex between two women and two men is a "lifestyle" choice. 

A lifestyle choice according to whom?

The idea of teaching four-year-olds that two fathers make a family and two mothers make a family is bizarre. Children do not think in these constructs until they are older.

Children do not judge the various types of "families" in the world. Children take life as it comes without preconceived notions. Whatever world they grow up in will seem normal to them until they are old enough to evaluate it objectively.

Furthermore, what happened to schools teaching subjects such as grammar, Latin, poetry, and Ancient history? Why do we no longer teach these subjects, subjects that children do need to learn if we want them to acquire an education? 

After all, isn't that why they are in school?

Benefit vs. Harm?

And, if teaching sex education to children leads to significant increases in teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, promiscuity, teenage abortions, depression, and suicide, as Dr. Anchell reports, then doesn't this tell us that sex education in the classroom is potentially harmful to our children?

If this is true, it would be prudent to understand what your children are being taught in the name of education.

“If no set of moral ideas were truer or better than any other, there would be no sense in preferring civilized morality to savage morality.”

— C.S. Lewis

Planned Parenthood has many videos on Youtube produced for children ranging from learning to name their genitalia to knowing about gender identity. As you watch the videos, pay close attention to the language that is being used and the assumptions being made.

This is the same language and the same assumptions your children are being exposed to in public school.

The videos would be laughable if they weren’t so disturbing.

The Sex Education Standards

You can easily check out the National Sexuality Education Standards to learn about the K-12 sexual education objectives as taught in public school today. The information is online and available to anyone who chooses to investigate the matter further.  

To give you an idea of what you'll find in the Standards, for example, kindergartners are now taught anatomy. There is nothing wrong with teaching anatomy, but, curiously, no other body parts are mentioned except for the proper names of the male and female genitalia.

A Novel Idea

Have you ever heard a child refer to their private parts by their proper names? On the contrary, as already stated, children have a natural modesty about these things. Why take that away from them?

Furthermore, most adults cannot identify the location of their liver or pancreas, but somehow, a kindergartner should know the proper names of their genitalia?

It would be more fitting to teach students where their organs were located, but maybe not when they are five-years-old.

Feeling Feelings

Consider this standard: "Identify healthy ways for friends to express feelings to each other." Take note that this need to "express feelings to each" is a part of sex-education courses, not a course in communication.

What do they mean by healthy ways that young children express their feelings to one another? Can you imagine an eight-year-old boy going up to his eight-year-old friend, also a boy, and saying, "I'd like to express my feelings to you by telling you that I really like you." 

This is not the kind of conversation boys and girls engage in. Maybe they will say something such as, "I like you" or "let's be best friends," as I remember saying to my childhood best friend, but that is the extent of it. 

Children are not thinking about their "feelings" for one another because they don't understand the abstract concept of "feelings."

Attempting to teach children about their feelings within the context of sex education, and then teaching them sexual practices, some of which have always been considered deviant, will naturally get them wondering, which may explain why another sexual practice is also on the rise…

Yes, these are things our schooled children are thinking about today whether we like it or not.

“How can one be well...when one suffers morally”

— Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Won’t Boys Be Boys?

Here's another of the Standard's objectives: "Provide examples of how friends, family, media, society and culture influence ways in which boys and girls think they should act."

Shouldn't a healthy society teach girls to behave like girls and boys to behave like boys? Evidently not. Instead, we teach them that they can choose their pronouns as easily as they can choose the color of their water bottle. 

Which begs only one question, have we gone totally insane?

In public school, children are expected to ponder the societal influences on their behavior, based on their gender type, yet, Western psychology understands that children are too young to ruminate over these concepts. So...who is fooling whom?

“The goal of a boy should be to become a man, and that of a girl to become a woman.”

— Dr. Melvin Anchell

Gender type, that's another good one.

Between the third and the fifth grade, a child should: "Define sexual orientation as the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender." 

No comment.

Between sixth and eighth grades, your child should be able to: "Differentiate between gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation."

No comment.

There are many reasons to keep your children out of public school, but protecting them from inappropriate exposure to sexual material and subsequent non-sensical value judgments should be at the top of any diligent parent's list.

The environment your children grow up in will help to shape who they become. Research shows that 75% of children will adopt the beliefs they are taught in school.

Childhoods for Children

Children cannot have a wholesome childhood without keeping their innocence intact. Part of their "coming of age" includes being introduced to matters reserved for the adult world when it is appropriate to be introduced to them. 

WHEN IT IS APPROPRIATE TO BE INTRODUCED TO THEM.

The Perpetrator

There are developmental stages in which this happens. But when the stages are interrupted and sped up to meet a perverse agenda largely pushed by taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood, one has to wonder what is going on?

Did you know that between 2013 and 2015, taxpayers funded Planned Parenthood to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars? This is an organization that earns a lot of money itself, not only by performing abortions but by selling the aborted fetal cells and body parts to research companies including the vaccine industry which uses fetal cells to grow its viruses.

“Planned Parenthood lied to the public and to Congress, but now there is no longer any reasonable doubt that Planned Parenthood sold fetal body parts, commodifying living children in the womb and treating pregnant women like a cash crop. The U.S. Department of Justice must escalate the enforcement of laws against fetal trafficking to the highest level of priority.”

— David Daleiden, CMP

Thanks to Planned Parenthood, since the 1960s, we have children who are being deprived of a normal childhood in the name of "social change" and the sundry societal ramifications that come with it. 

Parents as Protectors

Therefore, each parent should do everything in their power to oppose Planned Parenthood’s influence on our children by providing a wholesome childhood for the precious being they brought into this world.

Protecting your children has to begin with keeping them out of any school, public or private, that does not protect their innocence. 

Sex education is something children should learn about in the home, from their parents (In modest cultures, it isn’t even a topic that’s discussed between parent and child). It is a parent's right to decide if and when to approach the subject; it should never be a decision for public or private schools to make.

As we raise our children, we must remember that we are our children's guardians, and we must guard our children well.

Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.

When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, I train you to homeschool your kids with a focus on critical thinking, good character, and the classics. You can enroll using the link below and be confident knowing you can and will homeschool successfully.

For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.

Utilizing her unusual skill set, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.

☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.

Homeschool Your Child to Think Like a Leader→

There are many advantages to homeschooling, and one of them is leadership.

When done right, homeschooling your kids should lead them to a state of personal sovereignty, a word John Taylor Gatto used often. In other words, raise your kids to march to their own beat, or, as John liked to advise us, to be the writer of their own script.

“You either learn your way towards writing your own script in life, or you unwittingly become an actor in someone else’s script.”

— John Taylor Gatto, Author, Distinguished Educator

There are a few strategies to know if you want to reach this goal which I’ll share with you. These strategies will assist you in giving your child a serious education, not a public-school education

#1 Know your objective

Assuming your long-term objective is to provide your child with an excellent education and the tools to think independently, you want to be clear about his educational goals.

For each school year, you will need to know what you want your child to accomplish for that year. For each subject, you will need to decide what your child should learn about that subject. 

Don’t cut any corners here as planning is everything.

A lot of thought should go into you homeschool plan. If we are going to reach any goals in life, we must be intentional and have a map of how we will get there. Intentional homeschoolers plan out the school year and know their end-year objectives.

#2. Be Flexible

Your child will become interested in subjects you may not have anticipated. Even though you have prepared a homeschool plan, you've got to be flexible enough to shift when the winds change direction.

Any time your child becomes interested in something, that's when you want to teach it. We learn best when we are motivated to learn. A desire to know something motivates us.

There are things your child must know, such as how to read. There is no way around it, but there are things you will not have on the schedule that he may show an interest in. Usually you can be more flexible with subjects, such as science, history, and literature.

Adjust your schedule to your child’s interests when it makes sense to do so. This should not interfere with your goals, but enhance them.

#3 Have High Expectations

Don't expect mediocrity from your child. Let me tell you a story to illustrate this: I met two brothers in a hotel in Gocek, Turkey; a yachting town on the Mediterranean. They were from Israel, and they were somewhere in their 70's.

Gocek, Turkey, 2020

I was having breakfast when they sat down at the table next to me.  We got to chatting about how the Jewish people are known for being very intelligent. They said it was because they had superior genes! I asked them to tell me about their childhoods.

I explained that I worked in children's education and, contrary to what they thought, I didn’t believe that they possessed superior genes! Jewish children must be raised in a way that nurtured their intelligence.

Both of their faces lit up, and they said passionately, "Our mothers drill it into us from an early age that we are going to grow up to be an engineer or a doctor or something of importance. We are raised to understand that anything short of this isn’t an option!"

They were laughing as they said it, but it was obviously an impressionable part of their childhood. They were raised to reach the top. Mediocre expectations were not a part of their upbringing.

With all due respect to natural ability, people who excel often do so because it was expected of them or someone inspired them to excel when they were young.

“I’ve come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us. ”

— John Taylor Gatto, Author, Distinguished Educator

#4 Know what to teach

Most of us went through the public school system. Consequently, our standards for an education are naturally low. Without knowing what a serious education looks like, it's natural to adopt a public-school-at-home model of homeschooling.

Warning: you do not want to recreate public school at home!

“That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.”

— John Taylor Gatto, Author, Distinguished Educator

You want to understand the subjects a child should learn and the books a child should learn from. This is a whole other topic, but let me say that a thorough knowledge of grammar would be a good place to start, something that is no longer taught in public school.

Which means that if you want to give your child an excellent education at home, you have to opt-out of any public-school-related programs and do it yourself.

#5 Enjoy homeschooling

As the teacher to your child, you want to enjoy teaching your child. If you don't, your child will sense this, and it will put a damper on his experience of learning. You want to nurture your child's love of learning instead by being passionate about learning yourself.

If you aren't enjoying teaching your child, it's probably because you haven't found the sweet-spot in homeschooling. It's there, you just need to discover it.

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

— Mark Van Doren

Start by recognizing the magnitude of what you are doing: you are educating your child. What more noble task is there?

Acknowledge your courage and your dedication to your family. Focus on the positive aspects of homeschooling and avoid harboring thoughts of all that you have to do today. Our “to-do” lists are always too long. Set realistic daily goals and check them off as you complete them for a quick boost of happiness.

Keep in mind that even if you weren't homeschooling, you'd still have a lot to do. You may have more free time when you kids are in school, but you'd quickly fill it up with other things. 

When you’re homeschooling, you’re filling your time up with a service that will pay you back 100-fold for the rest of your life.

#6. Be content

Homeschooling is a service we provide to our children. It takes up our time and it takes up our energy. It's important to structure our days and weeks so we don't get burned out and lose our motivation.

It's important to build some fun time into your life that does't involve your children.  What is it that you enjoyed doing before you had children? What is is that relaxes you and boosts your mood?

Whatever it is, make sure you schedule it into your week. 

There is nothing worse than a cranky homeschooler, and you'll become cranky if you don't fill your own reserves at least once, if not twice a week.

A friend once said to me, "Life is difficult, but it should be enjoyed." There will be difficult days when you homeschool.

There are always difficult days no matter what we do.

But overall, you want to enjoy it. If you enjoy homeschooling, your children will enjoy it, too. 

And they will learn to write their own script in life.

Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.

Become a Smart Homeschooler to raise smart, ethical, and critically-thinking children. Join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course and feel secure knowing that you have what you need to homeschool successfully.

For parents of children under age seven who would like to prepare their child for social and academic success, please begin with our online course, Raise Your Child Well to Thrive in Life and Excel in Learning.

Elizabeth Y. Hanson is an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and a Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach with 20+ years of experience working in children’s education.

Utilizing her unusual skill set, coupled with her unique combination of mentors, Elizabeth has developed a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child. She devotes her time to helping parents get it right.

☞ Disclaimer: This is not a politically-correct blog.