What’s Happening Wed: Thinspiration on Instagram

Have you heard about this “thinspiration” crap going around the web? Appalling photos of anorexic bodies are shown along with captions about how looking in the mirror is more painful than not eating. Instagram had a ban on these images (as well as hashtags like “bitch”) but now the bans are being removed (although bans on hashtags like “bra” are still in place… because that makes so much sense). I’m not an Instagram user, but it sure sounds a lot like Facebook.

I love Geena Davis, I love her Institute on gender media research and I absolutely love everything about this video. Please watch it and donate if you can.

Project-Based Homeschooling has a great piece up about kids’ DIY and projects. Our kids are engaged in so many different projects and cool science experiments, but are they the kids’ own ideas and are they leading the projects themselves? If not, they are missing out. I was really surprised when Wood Sprite chose her own 4-H projects this year. I didn’t expect her to choose geology over cats, for example. She’s very much into rock formations and caves right now, which is so much fun. How do you encourage your kids to follow their own interests?

Beatrice Ekoko has a wonderful article in ParentsCanada this month about why kids don’t need our praise. She argues that they need our presence. I agree with her.

Teach Kids Art has a great guide for starting an art program at your school. With a few simple modifications, you could use this in your co-op or homeschool group, too.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia