Day Plan

This is a really boring post. (As opposed to most of my posts, which are such thrillers, right?) I would recommend that no one should read it......except I really need help.

A few weeks ago, I read, and listened to this podcast about Finding a Framework for Your Day. The message this faithful mom has shared there has really been on my heart and in my mind since then. I keep tossing my week around in my head (and, sadly, only occasionally in my prayers.) I really appreciate Keri's sentiment that "God will always give you enough time to do everything He desires you to do."

My prayer of late has been that God will show me exactly how he wants everything to come together in my day and in my week during this upcoming school year. Especially because I can't seem to figure it out.

Those of you who know me well, know that I'm not, and never will be, Queen of the Schedule. BUT, because I'm lacking in time management and organizational skills, I feel I need to be especially diligent about how I spend my days and count my time, otherwise I'm living in chaos and feeling overwhelmed because too many things are being left undone, and I can't account for why or what *did* happen during the day. So, though I'm not a person who is naturally punctual or inclined to strict schedules, I do need a framework for my day and a detailed plan for how to spend my time. There is a certain liberty in regular routines and a preset structure.

That being said, here's the school plan I came up with for us for this coming school year. I'm really happy with its layout. This was done during the time last March when I was spending a lot of time in prayer and reflection about our homeschool journey and I feel that the wisdom granted to me when I was laying out this schedule was part of God's provision and guidance for me during that process.

So, I would like to keep this schedule as the basic foundation of our week. What I need help with is scheduling in a few other things that are also necessary for the smooth running of our home (like laundry, lesson prep time, grocery shopping, housework). Because if I don't have a plan for attending to those things, everything is going to come unraveled.

Here's our weekly lesson plan: (click on it to see the whole thing).

What is not included in this plan are the following prescheduled activities:

Monday: co-op from 10 to 3 (which means were out of the house from 9:15 till 3:30 or 3:45 and tired when we get home.) During co-op, I do have two free hours, one from 11 to 12, and one from 1:30 to 2:30 that I could use to schedule in something.

Tuesday morning: Women's Bible Study and prayer group. Sweetling can use this time as a study hall, which is what is scheduled in for her.

Tuesday evening: Sweetling's Tae Kwon Do from 6 to 6:45, which the Jedi takes her to, but I need to have dinner on the table close to 5pm those nights.

Tuesday evening: Worship dance for me from 6:30 to 7:30 (maybe, OR maybe it will be held on Sunday nights).

Wednesday evening: Church from 6 to 8:30--youth group, Awana.

Thursday evening: Sweetling's Tae Kwon Do from 6 to 6:45, again the Jedi takes her to this, but I need to have dinner on the table close to 5pm those nights.

Saturday:  We observe a Sabboth rest on this day, so no grocery shopping, housecleaning, laundry, or school work can go on this day.

Sunday morning: Church from 9:30 to 12:30

Sunday evening: MAYBE worship dance from 6 to 7.

What I need help scheduling:

Lesson planning time:
--time to look over and gather materials for the My Father's World curriculum, preferably in the evening of each day to prep for the following day. This just needs to become part of the stuff I do every night, so nevermind about scheduling a block for it during the week. See, I'm thinking through typing.
--time to read and understand Sweetling's biology book. This does need about an hour or two of time blocked into each week.
--time to email Tia Smurf, the Jedi, and Mama Sweetling's vocabulary exercises for the week so that they can attempt them and we can have a group dialogue about the words, the meanings, the exercises, etc. Again, an hour block of time each week.
--time to plan for the Intro to French class I'm teaching at co-op. I'll need two to three hours for this each week.

Grocery shopping:
--time to cut and sort the weekly coupons. Maybe an half and hour to an hour time each week.
--time to put together a grocery list and match up the coupons with the list. Half an hour or so. Please note, I use a site called The Grocery Game to help me match coupons with deals and it has had a significant impact on keeping our grocery budget manageable. The drawback to this site is that it doesn't have info up for the week until Tuesday morning, so I can't put together a list and do my shopping until after this occurs.
--time to go grocery shopping and put all the groceries away when I get home. Two to three hours.

Housework:
--vacuuming. This is happening once a week now. It maybe should happen twice a week.
--sweep and mop the kitchen. Sweeping happens multiple times a week, but the mopping takes longer cause I move all the chairs out and back in.
--dusting and general straightening. Yeah, if it's not scheduled, it doesn't happen.
--deeper cleaning, things like windows, ceiling fans, blinds, scrubbing ovens, cleaning out the fridge that needs to happen, but don't need to happen every week.

Laundry: You might think this should fall under housework, but it gives me enough headaches to warrant its own category.
--sorting. Right now, the routine is that the kids grab their own laundry hampers and the three of us all sort laundry after church on Sunday.
--washing/drying. Right now, I generally start moving loads through the machines on Sunday and finish up the machine moving part on Monday. However, co-op on Monday might through a wrench into these works.
--folding, hanging, put away. I am le fail on this part.

Things that I would like to have time scheduled for:

Gardening. A little regular maintenance would go a long way to keeping the outside looking nice. Right now its not quite a health department concern, but pretty darn close.

Blogging and writing. Right now, this just happens whenever I throw in the towel and ignore everything else I should be doing in order to get a little writing done or a post up on my blog.

My psuedo-regular daily routines:

Because I'm not a Queen of Scheduling, these things do not happen every day, or very smoothly every day...but I'm regularly making an effort in this direction.

Morning-
--wake up 6:30 (and thus begins the "psuedo" portion of this routine).
--move, stretch, and  exercise. I generally, generally wrap this up around 7:30. The dreaded "psuedo" strikes again here.
--I'd like to get in the shower by 7:30, but Mama is never out until closer to 8, so dishes and shower happen between 7:30 and 8 ISH. More psuedo casualties, but dishes and showers do eventually happen.
--get kids breakfast, get my breakfast, and do devotions. In theory I'd like to have 8:30 to 9 to sit in peace, sipping hot chocolate, reading my Bible, and write in my devotion notebook. Theories are such fleeting, intangible things.
--school at 9. This fall, I believe I shall add, under penalty of death, school will begin at nine.

Afternoon-
The phone sings every afternoon at 4:15. That's everyone's cue to start their afternoon routines. My afternoon routine includes straightening the living room, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the kitchen, clearing off the kitchen table, and starting dinner. Afternoon routines generally go pretty smoothly. We only run into trouble here if we are trying to squeeze in errands or are out on field trips during the day. But, when we are home, our afternoons are nice and smooth.

I have no evening routines. No, that's not true. I have no SUCCESSFUL evening routines. Here's what I'd like to happen:

Snack time at 8:15 for both kids. (In reality, this gets often forgotten until the last minute and throws other things off.)
Story time at 8:30 for Toa of Boy. This happens once in a blue moon.
Teeth brushing at 8:50 for Toa of Boy, so that he can have..
Bedtime at 9pm for Toa. In reality, teeth brushing starts shortly after nine.

Jedi time from 9pm to 9:50. Except Toa's bedtime doesn't happen on time, so this often gets infringed upon.
Sweetling betime at 10pm. Which never happens. Ever.
Grown-up bedtime at 10:30....which always seems to become 11:30 or later.

So, help please??

Independence Day Reading

I originally arranged these quotes for a July 4th reading at our church several years ago. The selections are meant to be read aloud, by three different speakers. One speaker always reads the historical quotes, one reads the scriptures, and the third speaker gives the references for both the quotes and the scripture passages. I'll show the different speakers here through different font colors.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 John 1:14

[Jesus said] I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

-- John 5:24

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

--John 14:6


We hold these truths

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

-- 1 Corinthians 2:13

 To be self-evident


 since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

--Romans 1:20

That all men are created

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them

-- Genesis 1:27

Equal

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

--Galatians 3:28

And are endowed by their Creator

 Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?

-- Malachi 2:10

With certain inalienable rights

What will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account? Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

-- Job 31:14-15

That among these are life

 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

-- John 11:25

 Liberty

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

-- John 8:32

 And the pursuit of happiness

 I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

-- Philippians 4:11-12

 The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were...the general principles of Christianity

-- John Adams

 There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

-- Romans 13:1

 If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?

-- Benjamin Franklin

 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

-- Joshua 24:15

Sir, I am not at all concerned [whether God is on our side], for I know the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side.

-- Abraham Lincoln

 In my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

-- Romans 7:22-25

 We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

-- John Adams

 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

-- Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis--a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.

--Thomas Jefferson

 God bless America!

America, bless God!

Facebook Friday

yes. It's Thursday, not Friday.

But I just ordered my curriculum (well some of it) for next year. And I need something to keep me from second guessing myself.

Here's what I ordered--Exploring Countries and Cultures from My Father's World. I ordered the basic package and tacked on extra student pages, an extra passport, an extra sticker book and Writing a Country Report and World Facts and Landmarks flashcards. This is our core curriculum and should include Bible, history/geography/social studies, science for Toa, reading, art, and music.

I already have a Exploring Creation with Biology for Sweetling. (I found a 1st edition at a used curriculum sale for $10.) My math goal for Sweetling this year is to reawaken her enjoyment and enthusiasm for math. So we're reading Asimov on Numbers and I picked up a couple fun looking math puzzle books to reengage her creativity. We're finishing up last year's vocabulary from classical roots book, and then we'll order the next book in the series. Tia Smurf doesn't know this yet, but she's going to help me come up with an answer key for both books, cause I'm not shelling out the extra dough for a teacher's edition. I still need to track down a Writing Strands 5. And at some point during the year, we'll order a couple of literature study guides from Progeny Press.

For Toa, I've already got (again, at a used curriculum sale) Singapore Math 2A and 2B. We'll be doing a lot of read alouds together in addition to a daily guided reading time (using library books) and a daily journal/free writing sentence. I'll be ordering the first of the Sequential Spelling series at the beginning of next month. In addition to the hands-on projects in our main curriculum, Toa wants to learn about animals. So we'll be using library books to study animals that live in the countries we're covering in our core curriculum. He's also picked out some animal workbooks at a used curriculum sale and he found My Nature Journal at the same used curriculum sale. Also, he wants to learn cursive, so I'm ordering Cursive Handwriting from Handwriting without Tears.

Sweetling's taking Jewish dance, Beginning Guitar, Discovering Artists, and Introduction to Sign Language at co-op. Toa is taking Country Studies, Exploring Science, Gym, and Art at co-op.

That covers everything, right? So I can stop fretting over this and go to bed, right?

Oh, but first, for my own amusement...

June 4
Lunch today, a salad of fresh greens from my garden and a slice of beef brisket. Why? Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, dog gone it, people like me. :)

June 5
Two used curriculum sales, spent a total of $60, $19 of it on two books that I don't need after all, but saved $65 off of the totoal cover price for three books which I do need.....so I'm still up overall, right?

June 6
So, who's going to which daytime VBS's this year? We're looking for some VBS's to visit!

June 6
Tomorrow morning we are hitting the Parcours Trail in Winton Woods if anyone wants to join us. We are planning on getting there between 9:30 and 10. Give me a call on my cell if you can make it. (PM me if you need my cell phone number.) Wear exercise clothes and bring a water bottle.

June 8
you can offer me some cheese to go with my whine. Woke up at 2:40 am, was awake till 4:20 am. woke up at 7am. Got out the box of 12 hr decongestants and a glass of water. Sat down at the table, flipped open Susan's biology book....and couldn't remember if I actually took the darn pill or not. So now....risk a double dose or just be miserable and wonder?

June 8
Ok, second question of the day. I'm working on Susan's biology lesson plans. i have her biology text book, questions, labs, study guides, and tests all broken down into 148 lessons....which is about 8 more lessons than i really want. I counted it out, and we would have exactly 148 days of school in our school year (not... including co-op days.) So, should I leave well enough alone?

June 9
What can I serve with my homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to make them a nutritious breakfast item? Ah....canteloupe!

June 10
I need new shorts. I don't want to pay more than $5-$7 a pair. Suggestions?

June 10
Shame on all y'all who told me to go to Good Will. You should have just offered me some crack cocaine while you were at it. it would have been just as addicting. The only reason I got out of there at a reasonable time tonight was because the store closed at 8:30. I got home with 8 purchases....and realized not a single... one of them was the shorts I went into the store for!

June 11
I'm on the road and I forgot my B90 bookmark. Can someone tell me what todays reading is?

June 17
2 gripes tonight. 1-two days w/o internet cause Duke couldn't make an 8 hr maintenance window. 2-why does a mail-order flower co think that badly photoshopped images sells plants?

June 18
I have nothing to note today....except that after my shower this morning, I noticed one of the living room chairs covered with paper towels. When questioned, one child admitted that the chair had "accidentally" been squirted with a super soaker.

June 19
The cure for spending too much time out in the sun is double chocolate chip ice cream from Graeters. Its a well known medical fact.

June 20
Could someone please tell me how and why I keep finding bits of hot pink feathers stuck to my black pants? There is no item in our house which has any form of hot pink feathers, and yet, here they are all over my pants.

June 20
Parcours trail in Winton Woods Monday sometime between 9:30 and 10. Call my cell in the morning if you're coming.

June 21
The shady trees along the parcours trail provide releif from the sun, but not from the humidity or the mosquitoes. We did the short trail, and I think today was our last trip of the summer. On to air conditioned bowling!

June 21
spent a little while today trapped in a walmart with no power. We played I spy while we waited for the storm to pass so we could go out to our van and go home.

June 23
What can I make for dinner that doesn't involve an oven or a grill? I have ground beef and some chicken. Eswin is voting for ice cream sundaes for dinner. If I had any Heggy's hot fudge sauce, I'd totally serve up ice cream sundaes for dinner.

June 24
Why did I say I liked summer? It's too hot to do any of our fun field trips. If I had my curriculum already, we'd do school through July and August, then take the month of September off to play and have fun outside.

June 24
Ok. I take back my whiney post. It actually isn't too bad today. We went to Farbarch Warner Nature Preserve and found a red mulberry tree to climb. (After all, I had to do something to distract my kids from their plot to kidnap the sweet baby Katie-pillar we visited with this morning.)

June 25
I just did irreparable damage to the bottom four inches of my hair. Now, to grab the scissors or not to grab the scissors....that is the question.

June 26
Caught up on my B90 reading. :) It's too hot today to talk the kids into another letterboxing adventure. The Jedi is helping a friend with yard work. What else can I do with my Saturday?

June 26
Ah, disillusionment. I just got my Neilson scanner in the mail. I logged into their members only section to see how many points I could earn, and how many points the items in their reward catelog are worth. (Cause that's how they compensate their home panelists.) If I scan my grocery and other purchases every week, I'l...l earn 14,300 points my first year. A lousy dual charging station for the wii motes-32,000 points.

June 27
One should not attempt a super-glue repair od a church strap while in the car on the way to church. See, I do have *some* sense. (Apparently, one should also not attempt to facebook on one's phone in the car on the way to church. That sentence should read 'One should not attempt a super-glue repair of a purse strap...' See how much more sense that makes?)

Monday, June 28
True confessions of a slacker....I only skimmed the first 9 chapters of Chronicles. Nine chapters of geneologies was a bit much for me.

Tuesday, June 29
The sell by date on the end of this can of crecsent rolls reads 20JUN10F22. How would you interpret that?

Tuesday, June 29
Second food question of the day: I'm sick of packed lunches and of pb&j. We have to pack lunches twice this week. What can I pack that isnt a sandwich? (I do have two more rolls of crescent rolls that I need to bake soon.)

Thursday, June 30
you know, i'm pretty sure i've never done anything to deserve such scorn from my computers.

Thursday, June 30
This is a feelings based conversation. I'm about to order $320 dollars worth of curriculum, and I just need someone to tell me that they are sure I'm making the right choice.

Toa's Train of Thought

Toa woke up this morning at 7:30. He came out into the living room where he laid on his stomach on the floor by his hamster cage and sang a lullaby to his pets while I was making breakfast. He came into the kitchen to discover that maybe he did like crescent rolls, especially when they were full of grape jelly. He had two slices of pineapples with his crescent roll....a part of one slice ending up on his lap. He discussed with me in length about whether Sweetling discovered the name of the ghost which had stolen Mario's identity in Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door. He had had to go to bed before Sweetling resolved the end of that chapter in the game, so I gave him a detailed account of the action he missed. He went off to get his morning list done, coming back in the kitchen to discuss whether or not he needed a bath today, if he had just had a bath only two days ago.

While I was unloading the dishwasher, he came back into the kitchen, twirling a little Webkinz hippo in his hand and shuffling in and out of the kitchen while he talked. Step forward, step back. Step forward, step back, and round and round the stuffed hippo goes.

Here was the conversation:

Toa: Are hippopatamuses good swimmmers?

Me: Yes, they are very good swimmers. They spend most of their day in the water.

Toa: Can they swim faster than a fish?

Me: I think that would depend on the kind of fish. They probably swim faster than some fishes, and some fishes probably swim faster than hippos do.

Toa: How fast do dolphins swim?

Me: I don't know how fast dolphins swim.

Toa: Are they the strongest animals? Cause of their bite?

Me: They are very strong animals, and they have a very strong bite, but I don't know if they are the strongest animal.

Toa: What's the strongest animal?

Me: I don't know what the strongest animal is.

Toa: And the flea?

Me: ???

Toa: You know the flea and the hippo and the monkey and the owl?

Me: ???

Toa: I'll be right back.

Whereupon Toa takes off for his bedroom. Puzzled, I wonder into the living room and boot up my netbook, intent on blogging that conversation before I forget the sequence of questions. While my computer boots, I reflect on what he could of been talking about.

Toa is back.

Toa: I couldn't find it.

Me: Do you mean the story about Why the Mosquito Buzzes in Peoples' Ears?

Toa: Oh yeah!

Me: Yeah, that was a mosquito, not a flea.

Toa: Yeah, I just got confusing.

I nod.

Toa: But I remember it was an African book.

Now I'm off to do a search for the story of why mosquitos buzz in people's ears.

Robo Hamsters

The sign at Petsmart said that Roborovski hamsters were the smallest, fastest hamsters in the world. It also said that they were very difficult to catch when they escape. The sign was not lying.

Toa of Boy just turned seven, and got a dwarf hamster for a pet. The hamster was an older hamster, who was in need of a new home and a new family to care for him. Toa named his hamster Nibbles. Nibbles was quite obviously in the twilight of his life when he came home, and he lived for less than a week in his new home. Nibbles passing was accompanied by some heartfelt tears. Toa slept in Mommy and Daddy's room that night and was reassured many times that he had done a wonderful job taking car of Nibbles, and that he had made Nibbles' last few days the happiest days of Nibble's life. A full funeral was held the next morning, and a garden stepping stone was carefully painted and place over the burial site as a marker.

Two days later we were at Petsmart. The liveliest, most fun looking hamsters were coming home with us, despite the sign's warning. The hamsters were quickly named Cutie and Crazy. They are virtually indistinguishable from one another, so they 'share' the two names. They don't seem to mind.

What the sign didn't mention was that robo hamsters can a) flatten themselves and squeeze through any half inch wide opening, and b) teleport.

We just got finished cleaning the cage for the first time. Now, to be safe, we set up the "small animal playpen" around the periphery of the cage while we had the door open and were removing items for cleaning. The "small animal playpen" had a gap between it and the main cage at least a half an inch wide.

Have you ever tried to catch a two inch creature which is quick as lightening and can teleport short distances? It isn't easy. I got to do it twice. With an overly excited seven-year old assistant.

This is their home-coming photo. Can you see them? Of course not, cause they are nothing but a blur. Two small blurs. (And no, I didn't use the flash. We had just buried one tiny guy; I didn't want to add two more graves to the garden path.)

Making Memories: Yellow Car Rules

Here are my family's official rules for playing "Yellow Car" while on the road. We often play this game on short trips, but the Jedi announced we were going to have a Yellow Car Marathon game during our road trip to Buffalo NY last fall. All the car activities we did during that trip were a big hit with the kids. So much so, in fact, that when we were discussing our much shorter trip to Marietta OH, Toa immediately asked which car games we were going to play.

After a frantic search, and several stress induced chocolate chip cookies, I found the beat up yellow legal pad with our yellow car rules, the yellow car official tally, and the results of our ABC I Spy games. For yellow car, the person who spots, and calls, a yellow vehicle first gets a point. I kept a running tally on the official legal pad during the whole trip. Many of these rules have been fined tuned after great discussion sprung from hotly contested points during previous, shorter, games. I'm not going to clutter up the rules by explaining why each stipulation was needed, but oh, they were needed.

Sadly, while I can share the rules, I can't share the illustrations children added to the rule page. You'll just have to let your children add their own illustrations. Oh, and everyone should sign their name to the official rules before entering the contest. For our marathon game to Buffalo and back, a homemade trophy topped with a yellow hot wheels car was awarded.

Yellow Car Rules

What Counts?

• Yellow cars, yellow school buses, yellow trucks
• A self-propelled vehicle which is at least half yellow, whether it is currently propelling itself or not
• The yellow trailer of a tractor-trailer truck counts if the whole tractor part is yellow, even if the cab is not yellow
• The cab of a tractor-trailer truck counts, even if the trailer portion isn't yellow

What Doesn't Count?

• Construction vehicles ("snorts" writes in one child) only count if they are doing their job or moving under their own power
• School Buses parked in front of a school building or in a bus lot do not count individually, see below
• In any one group sighting, the entire cluster may only count for two points.

Color?

• Yellow. Not gold, not yellow-green, not yellow-orange, or schmorange, "not," adds a child, "sha-la-la-la morange. Just yellow."

Darkness?

• Yellow car can not be played during mandatory headlight hours. If the headlights of your vehicle must be turned on, the game is on hold.

Ownership?

• When the word "yellow" leaves your mouth, and is heard by at least one other person in the car ("no bat voice" writes a child), the point is yours.
• Ties are allowed and will be awarded by the official scorekeeper or the driver. Yelling yellow as fast as you can after someone else has already said yellow does not qualify as a tie.
• "Look there's one" does not earn a point. Another passenger who then calls "yellow" may take that point.

Calling Wolf?

• Calling wolf too often, chanting yellow,  or trying to mention the word yellow as often as possible in your speech.....all these infractions can result in a 15 to 30 minute suspension from the game.

How about you? Does your family have a favorite road trip game or car activity? Please use the linky tool below to link directly to your post.

Baby Birds

I just walked into my bedroom with a basket of clean laundry on my hip. On my bed are two children, pretending to be baby birds in a nest.

Sweetling asks me, "Do you think baby birds would invite their cousins over?"

"Yes," I answer, "I think that would be a nice thing to do."

Then, "We're debating whether baby birds would go to a bird bath."

"Hmmmm," I ponder, "probably not, since they can't fly yet. They probably have to stay in the nest."

"Then how do they get baths?!?' demands Toa.

"I don't think they do," I say. "I think they don't get a bath until they are big enough to fly."

Toa's eyebrows climb up his face.

"Are you thinking you'd like to be a baby bird so that you'd never have to take a bath?"

Toa of Boy nods his head vigorously. Ah, to be a bird. 

Facebook Friday

Don't read this if you already follow me on Facebook. All this is is a collection of some of my facebook updates for the last 3 weeks. Really. I am that lacking in a life.

May 15
So, the flowers and baby plants and vegetable seeds that I water and love and fertilize and tend grow pitifully while the weeds that I dig up spray and curse at thrive and take over. I ought to start trying to coddle the weeds and eraticate my plants and then maybe I'd have beautiful garden.

May 17
What do get when you cross Pikachu, a pinata, and Quasi Motto? Answer: The abomination that is now sitting on my kitchen table. I'm lying to myself and telling myself it will look better when the yellow crepe paper goes on it tomorrow.

May 18
I can remember when I was a little girl thinking that pigeons, with their shiny feathers of blue or grren or grey, were really pretty. That's how rosey my glasses were.

May 19
Once again, the o-n-o-f-f dial on the dishwasher defeated me last night. Plus, I'm not entirely convinced that I haven't left a dirty hot chocolate mug sitting somewhere in the house. I did a search for it last night, but couldn't find it. Now, its possible that I had already brought it to the sink, rinsed it out, and ...put it in the dishwasher without remembering doing so, but I find that scenerio highly unlikely.

May 21
Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl!

May 21
We had a wonderful, if tiring, day of birthday celebrations. Quick highlights: Co-Co Keys Waterpark, PizzaHut for lunch, a Rock-Paper-Scissors game during which a special ruling had to be made against tornados and guns, spaghetti diner on china with crystal goblets, ice cream cake, cool beaded bracelets....

May 21
(down with status update limits! Here's the rest of my update.) MarioKart almost became a pillow fight, guest sugar gliders and a guest boa constrictor (not at the same time). Whew. And now, we do another full day of birthday celebrations tomorrow for my great little guy!

May 22
And today, its Happy Birthday to my amazing boy who woke up this morning and said, "I don't think I'm any taller, Mommy."

May 22
More Bday highlights: Eswin's day started with a double decker omelet made by Grandma, then he put candy in the pinata with candy and inflated balloons in large bags for transport. We had beautiful weather for a park party w great games, cake, and terrific presents. At home, the last birthday present of the day must be... kept a secret for now; Eswin wants to share that news himself. Chinese buffet for dinner.

May 24
Just saw a hairless rat for sale at Petsmart. First of all, ewwwww. Second of all, why???

May 25
Today is the first day of our summer cleaning and decluttering "adventure". See, if I call it an adventure, it makes it sound fun and exciting, right?

May 26
Hmmmm....to declare a jammie day and start school on time OR to get a shower and start school late? Decisions, decisions.

May 28
My family has no groceries 'cause we're all watching videos like this on youtube. Watch and be amazed!

May 29
mmmmmmm......ribs and beef brisket from R2BQ :) Plus, new fav method of cooking corn on the cob, microwave the whole ear, with the husk on it, for three minutes. Thanks elderly gentleman at meijer who gave me the tip!

May 31
Sweet Streets play time quotes....the little plastic teacher says,"Let's talk about James Madison. Now, what did he write?"....And then a little later, "Now, let's talk about Barack Obama." This is followed by the little plastic student's comment, "Isn't he the new guy?"

Tuesday, June 1
1) exercised. 2) still have ants in the dishwasher. Yes, IN the dishwasher. 3) signed up for the summer reading club. 4) read Genesis 1-24....granted, I did this yesterday, but Im still claiming it on my morning list this morning. 5) today launches the new system of buying electronic time through earning tokens. I expect a slight adjustment period.

Wednesday, June 2
What's for dinner tonight? Jumbo double chocolate chip muffins, that's what. Don't worry, I bought jumbo blueberry muffins for those family members who don't like chocolate. I am, after all, a responsible adult.

Thursday, June 3
Why is it that the more hours I spend trying to clean and organize the school room, the worse the school room looks?

Friday, June 4
i'm skipping my morning exercises, but i'll be gardening a lot today, so that counts, right?

Cincinnati Dayscapes: Big Red Bag Book Sale!

Say that five times fast.

This week, there is a used book sale at the Main Library downtown.

On Friday, June 11, they have what is called a bag sale. For $10, you can purchase a jumbo plastic shopping bag and stuff the thing with books and books and books. You may purchase as many $10 jumbo bags of books as you like, but be careful...its very, very addicting. There is a large number and a large variety of books to choose from, from children's books to non-fiction books, to adult fiction, to craft books....you name it.

The library opens at 9 am, and I would recommend arriving before opening. My favorite place to park is on nearby East Court Street, between Main and Walnut. There are many diagonal parking spaces there (I can't parallel park), and the meters are good for 2 hours and cost 2 dollars. Just be sure to set a phone or watch alarm to go off 15 minutes before your meter expires. You don't want to lose track of time browsing through tables upon tables of books and risk a parking ticket!

Also, while the parking on Court Street is within easy walking distance of the library, its not such an easy trek back to your car with two heavy bags full to bursting with books. When we went last year, the kids and I stayed with the books outside the library, and the Jedi brought the van around to load it up. Of course, if you have strapping teenage boys, you can load them up instead ;) But whatever you do, put some forethought into how you will get your treasury of books from the library to your vehicle.

Happy Book Hunting!

ps---If you are wondering why the title of this post includes "Cincinnati Dayscapes", please read the first two paragraphs of my last post.

Cincinnati Dayscapes: Parcours Anyone?

This post is a result of a conversation I had in my church hallway with my Signing Friend. (On a side note, aren't prepositions amazing little things when you really stop and think about it?)

My Signing Friend stopped me and asked me what was up with this whole blog thing of mine she was reading about on Facebook. So I explained what I was doing with the whole Making Memories idea and why. She thought that was an awesome idea. She also said she'd really like specific ideas for day trips in and around our area.

So, here's the first of my Cincinnati Day Trips...or Day Escapes....thus the extraordinarily clever title of Dayscape. See, inventiveness like that is exactly why I'm pulling in the big dough as a free lance writer. (I'm not by the way, in case you thought for a momment I was.)

Winton Woods has a great parcours fitness trail.

The trail itself makes for a very pleasant, well-shaded nature walk through the forest. (Well-shaded is a very important adjective during the heat of summer.) The activity stations along the trail are spaced just far enough apart that they provide a welcome diversion for active children.

The stations catered to a variety of different exercises and challenges and would appeal to teenagers and older kids as well. (In fact, there were a few stations that our little guys couldn't do at all, but they still had fun climbing around on equipment.)



We've been on this particular trail twice now...once a few years ago with the Incredibles (plus Pinky), and once with the Jedi as a family on Memorial Day. The trail has a short and a long option, but I highly recommend the long option. Its not too long, even the preschooler handled it without any trouble. Both times we've taken waterbottles, and I highly recommend that as well. Nothing kills the enjoyment of a walk more than a thirsty, grumpy hiker. When we walked with the Incredibles, some light snacks, like pretzel sticks, were packed and consumed at some point along the trail.

When we went recently with the Jedi, we were looking for a nice after dinner activity for the family. I wanted to go on a hike, and Toa of Boy wanted to go to a park to play on a playground. So, we compromised and went along the parcours trail....which was like a leisurely hike with playground equipment evenly spaced along its length. We skipped the snack when we went with the Jedi, and no one seemed to miss them. Instead, I made s'mores under the broiler as soon as we got home.

I think it took us about an hour to hike and play along the trail. Not because the trail is that long, but because we took our time at the various stations. So, while the parcours trail at Winton Wood doesn't count for a day-long get away, it still a great destination for a morning's excursion.

If you don't happened to be blessed enough to live in the Queen City, check out your local parks and see what sort of parcours trails they have to offer!

So there you have it, my first "Dayscape" review. Please let me know what you think; I'd love your feedback!

Making Memories: Summer Bucket List

How short the days are long
How fast the days of slow go away
So I'm wading right in, playing your games,
And I'm running the full length of summer...
By your side

I love that song by Christine Dente. For the past few years, I've really tried to make our summertimes full of interesting outings and activities, while preserving the carefree, lazy feel of summer. Sound contradictory? I think it is. On the one hand, I want my kids to relax, to have fun, to enjoy their childhood, and I don't want to over schedule their days. On the other hand, I want them to explore, to grow, to create, and to engage with life....and I don't want them to play video games or watch t.v. all day. So, how to find a healthy, fun balance?

We kick off our summers by making a "summer bucket list". Here's how it works. Everyone sits around the kitchen table, and I have a notepad. We take turns going around the table, and everyone names one thing that they'd like to do that summer. It doesn't matter how silly, extreme, or extravagant the item is...I faithfully write it down. (I also get to put my own ideas on the list on my turns.)

When we have a nice list, and everyone has had three to five turns, we hang our list on the refridgerator. We begin brainstorming on ways to make the list a reality. For example, "Go to acorn land," was suggested by my little boy. We decided a nature walk through the woods to look for acorns would be a good interpretation of this desire.

Through the summer, at the end of each week, we look over our list. We try to schedule at least one item from the list on the calendar for next week. We put a check mark by anything on the list we did during that current week. We also jot down "extras"....things that we did during the week that weren't on the list, but that we got to experience and everyone thought was really cool. Thus "pet an alligator" and "discovered pig island" got added to the list over the course of the summer.

I must also add that we are very blessed to live in an area with an outstanding public library system and an outstanding county park board. Our public libraries and the parks offer free programs throughout the summer. We always look over their programs, and the children pick out things like guided creek explorations that they'd like to participate in.

This is how I keep track of our schedule over the summer. This is a paragraph taken from my blog during August of 2008, at the end of the first summer I put this system into place.

... my plan at the beginning of the summer to do a “space camp” theme. We absolutely did that, and it went *great*. The kids really got into decorating the fridge to be our mission control center. I cut sections out of colored paper and taped them together to make on sheet of paper with five colored sections in yellow, orange, red, purple, blue. At the top of each section I wrote a day of the week, then I laminated the paper. That was our dry erase board for our “shuttle flights”. Since Little Guy is working on learning to tell time, I also printed some blank clock faces, cut them out, and laminated them as well. For each “shuttle flight” I used sticky tack to put a clock face on that day, and drew clock hands to show what time we were leaving the house for that outing. We also each had a “pre-flight routine” and a “landing procedure”…which were our checklists for our morning and afternoon tasks. I got foil star stickers and kept a sheet of them on the fridge. Each day, when the kids finished the items on their lists, they put a star next to that item. At the end of the week, whoever had the most stars, got to pick a special activity that we all did together (like family game night, bike riding, pick a movie from blockbusters, make cookies, etc). And if they tied in their number of star points, or came close to tying, they each got to pick an activity. The whole system worked so well, and was enjoyed so much, we going to continue it through the school year.

This summer, I'm doubly challenged, because this summer, for the first time, we have a Wii and each child has their own Nintendo DS games. I have some thoughts on what I might do to balance active play and enriching activites (like reading and art) with their video game time. But, I'll save that for another post.

In the meantime, here is our "bucket list" for this summer:

--go to China (this is from the same child who said "go to acorn land" last year)
--go to COSI
--visit Serpentine Mound
--go to the Children's Museum
--meet an alien
--see some buffalo
--see Pig Island
--go miniture golfing
--go bowling
--Acorn Land again!!!
--make chocolate
--learn orienteering and go Letterboxing
--go on the slip and slide
--make apple pie
--set up a sundial
--go to a mall
--go to a waterpark
--visit a historic village
--go to the movies
--climb a tree
--make homemade ice cream

Have fun making your own "summer bucket list"!

For the Making Memories introduction and guidelines, please click here.

Making Memories: Web Meme Launch

Tell me about the time when.....

Growing up, I always loved hearing my mother tell stories of her adventures, and misadventures, when she was younger. She could tell stories about her brother, or stories that her mother told her as well. I loved hearing them and would ask for my favorites over and over. What a rich treasure these stories were.

Recently, I've noticed that my own children have been asking for stories of things I did when I was a girl, and, more encouragingly, stories of things they remember, or barely remember, from their own childhood.

We strive to do so many things as parents. We want to raise, to nurture, to love, to teach, to cherish our children. Yet I also want my children to grow up with stories, good stories, of their own. I want their childhood to be a rich tapestry of memories. Life can get so busy, so overscheduled and so hectic. I don't want their childhood to be completely lost in regimen and routine.

So last summer, and the summer before that one, we started a tradition of making a "summer bucket list". And since then, I've been mindful of trying to create memorable experiences in the midst of our ordinary, everyday lives. I've written about a few of them, like building fairy houses, before.

This summer, I want to invite others along the journey with me. I love reading the ideas and adventures other families have. Bloggers are such a creative and interesting group of people, and I would love to read some of unique ways other are Making Memories with their children.

Please consider being a blessing to myself and others by sharing some of your own stories. Be blessed by reading suggestions and activities that others share. Please join us in a twice monthly blog meme designed to share the many ways in which we are all Making Memories.

Making Memories Meme Guidelines

Why: Because the times we have to spend with the children we love goes by all too quickly. The days are fleeting, the hours are few, and too soon they are grown.

Who: Parents, grandparents, caregivers, aunts and uncles. Anyone who desires to spend some quality time with the special child(ren) in their lives.

What: An opportunity to get and share ideas for child-friendly fun, activities, projects, and adventures. What you share can be a quick project, tips for a vacation or a road-trip, or a way of making an ordinary outing fun and memorable. What you share can be just for fun or it can have some educational or other value. As long as it's something you think the kids you know will look back on and treasure. Please share your ideas with the purpose of enabling another family to repeat your success.

When: Twice a month in the summer. I'll launch the web meme on the 1st and 15th of June, July, and August. Through the school year, this will likely drop down to once a month.

How: On the first and fifteenth of the summer months, I'll post my own Making Memories idea. At the bottom of my post, I'll have a linky tool. If you have an idea to share, please post a link to your own blog. Please make sure the link goes directly to the relevent blog post, and not just to your blog in general, so that readers can easily find what you'd like to share. Also, in your own post, please include a link back to my making memories post, so that your readers can enjoy others' ideas as well.

What about you? For this first round of sharing, please tell us about how you are planning on spending some of the summer. Do you have a typical summer kick off? Or do you have special routines or a system to balance "screen time" with more enriching activites? Do you have any insights concerning how to balance keeping your children active with preserving the spirit of the vacation days of summer?

Coming Soon....

These are the things I'm thinking about blogging about. Yes, that's how lame this post is. It isn't about anything in and of itself, its just about something that might be about something at some point in the future.

First of all though, a little girl whom has been on the hearts of my family and in our prayers just received a new heart last night. They did the transplant overnight. I can't imagine what a long night that must have been for the mother. The little girl went through the proceedure well, and is now in recovery. I can't write about anything else without getting that news out first. It will still be several weeks before they are sure that her body will accept the new heart.

With that said, I shall move on to far less critical issues.

Here are somethings I'd like to blog about. I'm just listing them out here, and organizing my thoughts

--I'd like to start a Making Memories blog meme for the summer. If I get my act in gear, I can launch it in the upcoming Homeschool Showcase over on Wierd, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. The deadline is May 30. (Hear that, self? Deadline.)

--I have a bunch of pictures of a pinata in various stages of completion awaiting a "how to make a pinata" post.

--I am perhaps crazy for the amount of work I put into the birthday parties for my kids, especially since I have two birthdays back to back. Further thoughts may or may not be forthcoming.

--I have an idea for how to regulate the amount of video games and screentime my kids engage in over the summer. Will it work? Who knows. Its another one of my brilliant ideas. Either it'll be a smashing success or a crash and burn failure. I never seem to have mediocre ideas.

--I have my own take on the Proverbs 31 woman, specially rewritten for a homeschooling mom. Or at least or me.

That's just five things. Not bad. Typity type. Typity type.

Ah, look, here's a Linky test. Could some kind soul help me test by posting a link to any family friendly blog post?

Ooooo....I'm surfin my life away....

I am ONE load of laundry away from being done with laundry for the week. The load is done and sitting in the dryer....but here I am blog surfing.

I am rationalizing this little slothliness by trying to pass this off as "teacher planning time."

See, I even found some math games to check out later.

I'm a regular workhorse I am.

Paddle-to-the-Sea, lessons 6-11

You can find our first 5 lessons here.

6. Paddle Meets a Sawmill

We briefly discussed diameter and what it meant that the log Paddle was stuck to was 4' thick. (In retrospect, I should have had the kids make a circle with a 4' diameter on the floor with yarn. Hindsight.) We talked about the spikes on the loggers boots and how the bull chain worked. We thought of other examples of a chain and gears or other examples of conveyer belts. We didn't have anything to build a bull chain or a conveyer belt with, but we did get out the K-Nex set and build some gear assemblies.

7. Paddle Meets a Friend

We studied the diagram of the sawmill in the book and talked about what happened at each part of the process. We talked about why the Frenchman dropped Paddle back into the river and why he added something to the message carved in Paddle's canoe. Then the kids each drew a detailed diagram of a factory from their imaginations.

8. The Largest Lake in the World

During the reading we discussed migration a little as we talked about the bird that landed on Paddle to rest. After the reading we did a lot of mapping. We had already traced the outlines of the five Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River during our activites for lesson 2. Now, I got their maps back out and they labeled Lake Nipigon, Lake Superior, and the Provence of Ontario. We reviewed some of the facts about Lake Superior. Then we marked Paddle's starting point, and used a pencil to draw in Paddle's route so far. "That's it?" asked Toa. "That's all he's gone? He has a long way to go!"

9. Paddle Crosses Two Borders

We discussed what driftwood was and the different types of grain. We talked about all the foods that can be made from various grains. We used a red colored pencil to trace the U.S/Canada border on our maps. We colored a dark green area around Lake Nipigon to show the tall pine forests. We colored a light green area in central Canada to show the grain fields. We drew a tiny railroad from the grain fields to Thunder Bay. We traced more of Paddles short route so far.  I was going to do a cooking project with them, finding and using a recipe that called for many different kinds of grains....but the house was overflowing with muffins, cookies, cake, and brownies, so we skipped the cooking project.

10. Life in a Northern Marsh

After the reading, we made a list of all the plants and animals that Paddle encountered in the marsh. We looked through magazines (a friend had given us a number of National Park and National Wildlife magazines) and we cut out pictures of those plants and animals. The kids each made a collage of the plants and animals of a northern wetland.

11. Paddle Finds One End of Lake Superior

Back to the map to label Minnesota and Wisconsin and to draw more of Paddles route. We put red dots on the map for the cities of Duluth and Superior. We started a rust science experiment in four clear plastic cups. We labeled the cups "control", "air and water", "no air, no water," and "water, no air". Then I cut four sections of steel wool approxiamately equal sizes. (Plain steel wool, not S.O.S pads coated in cleanser). We placed the control in its cup without doing anything to it. We soaked the two 'water' sections with 5 mL of water each, and then wrapped the "water, no air" tightly in plastic wrap before putting it in its cup. Likewise, we wrapped the "no air, no water" in plastic wrap and put it in its cup. The "air and water" section, nicely soaked, went into its cup as well. We set all four cups on the kitchen window sill, since we do most of our projects in the kitchen. It might have been interesting to do another set of four cups to place someplace dark. So far, we've had to pour a little more water in the "air and water" sample because it keeps drying out. Yeah, yeah, sue me for sloppy science. Before we put the steel wool away, we snipped off a tiny bit of it and the kids grabbed some magnets. We talked about how the steel wool was made from iron and was, therefore magnetic. Finally, we headed downstairs and listened to a cd called Listening to the Loons, part of a series called Solitudes. (Before reaching the western end of Lake Superior, Paddle drifted past a mostly wilderness border and encountered some loons. I think the loon has such an interesting sound, I wanted the kids to hear it.)

Weekly Wrap-Up: Paddling Away

First I need to sing a little freedom song. I'm so happy to no longer feel constrained to our old curriculum. We're still using it for Sweetling's history, literature, and vocabulary, but we've come out from under what had gotten to be a burden.

So last week and this week and the week before that, since I haven't updated in a while, we started reading Paddle-to-the-Sea together. I'm really pleased with the lessons and activities we're doing with it. Here is what we've done so far. I especially like the hands-on activities, that's been really good for Toa of Boy, and the family involvement has started to engage Sweetling again too :)

Last Thursday (remember, haven't updated for a while) was the end-of-the-year picnic for our co-op. My sister came along and helped me run an egg drop, which was a big success. Here are the rules I wrote for the contest. I think it went really smoothly, organizationally, but it did take a little longer than anticipated. We started inside-- after the kids had signed up by grade level, I had all the participants sit at one long table in the cafeteria with their projects. Smurf and I went through and checked each project. We had a few that didn't quite fall in the guidelines, so we agreed that those projects could participate, but would receive a slightly lowered prize category. So after we checked in projects, we headed outside for the drop.

The kids loved it. We did the first drop at about four feet or so. We used the top of a chain link fence as our height marker. The kids all lined up, everyone held their project at the same height as the fence, and took a step or two back. We all dropped together on the count of three. Then each project had to be opened, and the egg checked, its status marked, and the egg replaced (substituting any cracked eggs for new eggs.) This part of the drop took a little longer than I anticipated (and the start of the drop didn't happen as early as I was hoping, since we didn't get started on cleaning the rooms right at ten either.) Still, it went pretty smoothly, since I had already arranged the sign up by grades and had columns for each drop category and symbols for the condition of the egg.

(I have to add, at the bottom of each page I had Legend: 0=intact; /=cracked; X=broken. Underneath my word "Legend", Sweetling came along and wrote "of Zelda" in pencil.)

We then went on to drop from the first set of windows, which are about 1 1/2 stories high, and then, after eggs had been checked, from the second set of windows, about 2 1/2 stories high. We had 5 out of 14 projects that had followed all the guidelines and survived the highest drop.

Sadly, since Smurf and I were running the event, I didn't get any pictures. I should have given my camera to another mom to snap photos for me, but I didn't think of it. Boo hoo :(

Also last Friday, we found a new park not too far from us with a really cool nature trail. Pinkie joined us for a nature walk there. She showed Sweetling how to pull apart a honeysuckle blossom for a tiny taste of its nectar. Since either side of the nature trail was heavily lined with honeysuckle bushes, this was an activity often repeated on our excursion. We found two snake skins and glimpsed two frogs (well, the kids glimpsed one frog, and Pinkie nearly stepped on a second frog). We also saw an interesting, as yet unidentified bird that had the strangest call. It sounded like the chirping of a car being remotely locked or unlocked. And no, I didn't have the presence of mind to photograph it so we could figure out what it was. I didn't have my camera. I took photos of the kids on my cell phone though :)

This Monday, check it out, I'm in the current week now! This Monday I went to my first ever used curriculum sale. I showed great restraint in my purchases, only spending $20 dollars...and $10 of that was even something that was on my list! Be amazed with me. I found Sweetling's science textbook with a test and solutions guide for ten dollars, as opposed to the $65 its listed for on amazon. Toa of Boy went with me, and at his request, we got several books for him....cause anytime Toa gets excited over a book, I'm excited too! For himself and by himself, he found A Treasury of Beatrix Potter, The Adventures of Frog and Toad, My Nature Journal, and Reading to Learn about Animals...which I can't find a link for. It's a workbook from Bryan House Publishers of basic reading comprehension and some phonics exercises themed around animals and animal facts. Toa picked it out and said he wanted to do it. So, we have it.

But his favorite find of all was this amazing building set. I've never seen them before. They are like a cross between legos and erector sets called Universal by FischerTechnic. These things are incredible. If you don't follow any of the other book links, follow this simple amazon link to check these out. Or read this review I just found. Here is Toa with his first construction. It's a large fan turned by a crank attached to several gears and gear shaft assembly. (Toa has also attached a blue chair to the top of the fan's tower. I don't know why or who is going to sit near the spinning blades of death, but there you go.)

This Thursday, see I'm already on yesterdays stuff! This Thursday was our first week without co-op for the summer. I declared it a "get ready for birthday parties day", since both Toa and Sweetling have their parties next weekend. We started building Toa's pinata yesterday morning. Which means that for the next several days, the only dining table we have is covered with pinata in progress. I'll post directions on how to build your own pinata after the parties, in about two weeks. In the meantime, this is the state of my kitchen table.

Don't these photos want to make you just jump right in on making your own pinata?


Check out what others have been up to in more Weekly Wrap-Ups.

Paddle-to-the-Sea, lessons 1-5

We're reading Paddle-to-the-Sea as our Geography/Science study. I know there are a lot of other lesson plans already out on the internet, but I couldn't find the "perfect" one for us....so I'm making my own.

I'm sharing what we're doing here, in case its a help to anyone else.

We're reading one chapter, which is just one page, together a day, then doing a short activity that relates to the chapter. I'm not going to include a chapter summary with each lesson. Here's what we've done so far:

1. How Paddle Came to Be
During the reading, we talked about what a rudder was and what a ballast was an how metals had differing melting points. After reading, I gave each child a bar of Ivory Soap and got out the vegetable peeler, a grater, a pumpkin carving knife, and some other misc kitchen tools. We had a quick safety lesson about how to carve away from our hands, and then they carved some rough canoes out of their bars of soap.

2. Long River Reaching to the Sea
I printed an unlabeled map of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. After reading, the kids traced the shoreline of each of the Great Lakes with a blue colored pencil. As Paddle goes along his journey, we'll use these to map his progress and label each lake he passes through.

3. Paddle Starts on His Journey
After reading, we looked up animal tracks in the Jedi's old Boy Scout Manuel. The kids hand drew the different types of tracks the boy found in the snow around Paddle.

4. Brook and Beaver Pond
After reading, we watched two BBC videos I had found on you tube.
This one on beavers building a dam and pond.
And then this one, about their lodge.
I was going to have Sweetling transfer the metric measurements given in the videos into standard for us, and have Toa of Boy draw a beaver lodge or a map of a beaver pond, but by the time we had read, watched the videos, and discussed them, it was time to move on.

5. Breakup of the River
For this lesson, we talked about how and why ice floats and how because ice floats, fish and other water animals can survive the winter underneath an insulating ice sheet. We talked about the composition of the water molecule and built little models with toothpicks and styrofoam pieces. First we put individual "molecules in a bowl to see how much space they would take up. Then, we took those same molecules out and started putting them together into a rough lattice work to compare how much space it now took up. (Yeah, the science isn't perfect.) Then, we filled up some plastic bathroom cups with varying levels of water. We marked the water level of each cup with a permanent marker on the outside of the cup. We put the cups in the freezer, so we could compare how much space the water will take up when it is frozen versus when it was a liquid.  

Paddle lessons continue here.

Pokemon Party

Toa of Boy wants a Pokemon Party for his birthday this year.

Ok, so I can make a 3D cake shaped and decorated like a pokeball and I can send out invitations that say "[Friend's name]....I choose you!!!!! To come to my birthday!" And I can make a pickachu pinata.

But other than that, I was rather stumped for Pokeman birthday party ideas. Pin the Tail on the Pickachu occurred to me, but I'm not sure how popular that will be with boys at the party.

Google. Google has the answer to every question. Forty-two isn't really the Answer, Google is.

From a google search then:
*PokéRinger Toss: For this Pokemon birthday party game, you'll need 2 stakes or sturdy sticks, large tossing rings or rope, masking tape or string.

Before the party, hammer 2 stakes into the ground a good distance apart. (Keep in mind the age of kids and their skill level when determining the distance.) If you find that the tossing rings are too heavy for your guests, you can make rings out of rope. Form rings that are about 10" in diameter, so they'll easily slip over the stakes.

Have the kids stand behind a masking tape or string, and invite the players to take turns tossing their rings around the stakes.

*Pikachu Stomp: It's best to play this Pokemon birthday party game outside. You'll need about 50-60 balloons and Pikachu sticker (or a small theme item). Before blowing up balloons, put a Pikachu sticker in one of them. During the game, the kids have to pop the balloons by stepping on them. A person who finds the sticker wins a prize!

Gotta Catch Them All:
Hide 32 Poke balls in the grass and have an Easter-egg hunt style game. Use permament markers to color styrofoam ball to look like poke balls.

And I really liked this one, but neither Toa nor Sweetling knew what a Baltoy was. We don't watch the Pokemon cartoon. In fact, I'm not sure Toa knows there even is a Pokemon cartoon. (Shhhhh....don't tell him!) So, I can't use the tag game below, but I think I'll come up with a more generic Pokemon version:

*Baltoy Bust: Pick one or more players to be Robots and everyone else is a Baltoy. When Robots hear the command "Get 'em", they must try to catch the Baltoy. If players get caught, they must go to a designated area called "the crying pen," where they must stand still, on one foot, until more than one Baltoy is in the pen. (Baltoy sleeps while standing on one foot, but it can't be rescued while sleeping.)

When several Baltoy are caught in the pen, they must stand with their legs spread out and pretend to cry until rescued. (Baltoy always cries in unison with others of its kind.) To be rescued, one of the free Baltoy-friends has to crawl through the captured player's legs. Keep playing the game until everyone has been caught, or it's time to move to the next game.

Egg Drop

The 6th graders are studying "Our Place in the Universe" in science at co-op. Now, all year I've thought, man...an egg drop contest would be really cool. Now I think, man, we could do an egg drop and tie it in with a lesson on unmanned space exploration to talk about the unique design challenges the Mars Pathfinder, and other surface probes, face.

Of course, tomorrow is the last day of classes, and next week is the building cleanup and picnic, but I bet I can sweet talk the co-op leadership into letting us drop some eggs out of the second and third story windows before we head out for our picnic next week. Especially if the eggs are in ziplock bags to keep them from truly going splat. (I hope).

So, rather than doing laundry or feeding my son breakfast, I've been googling egg drop projects.

Here is the rough list of rules I'm considering going by:

Grades
Contest is open to all co-op, grades first and up. Students should work as independently as possible on their own projects, though its understood that the first and second graders will need some help.

Materials and Structure
1. Each construction must be less than 12 inches on each side.
2. Each construction must have some easy means of removing and replacing an egg. (No giant balls of wound and rewound bubble wrap.)
3. No construction may use a pre-manufactured container of any kind. (So, no rubbermaid containers, small shipping boxes, etc. However, packing materials, such as styrofoam or bubble wrap or other recycled materials such as plastic straws, paper tubes, crumpled paper, may be used as cushioning. Also, you may construct your own container out of pieces cut from another container.)
4. Each construction should be an original student design. We are working on the honor system here. You may look on the internet for some ideas, but please do not simply copy someone else's design.
5. No other food items may be included in the construction.
6. Each project must be clearly labeled with the students first and last name.
7. Clear packaging tape or scotch tape is permitted to tape the project closed once the egg has been placed inside. Students should bring their own rolls of tape for this purpose.

The Egg
1. Each construction must be able to hold one chicken egg. Students should bring at least three eggs. (Two for the drop contest, and one for the rolling contest.)
2. The egg must be placed inside a ziplock bag, either sandwich or snack sized, to aid in clean up. The students should bring their own ziplock bags. Each ziplock bag should be labeled with the student's first and last name in permanent ink.
3. The eggs must be raw and unaltered. No hard boiled eggs or vinegar soaked eggs will be allowed to compete.

The Drop
1. Projects will be dropped from three heights....6 feet, the second story window, and the third story window.
2. Students may drop their own projects from the 6 foot height. Projects from the second and third story windows will be dropped by a teacher.
3. If a project hits an obstacle on the way down from a second or third story window, such as the building or the chain link fence along the school's basement windows, the drop is still valid and the results still count.
4. An egg which survives a drop completely intact, with no cracking, will be awarded the highest prize category for that drop height.
5. An egg which cracks upon impact, but does not break, will be awarded the highest prize category for the next lowest drop height. (Thus, an egg which cracks, but does not break, when dropped from the third story window will be awarded the same prize as a completely intact egg dropped from the second story.)
6. The student is responsible for removing the baggie with the egg to show to the judges. The judges have the final say in determining whether an egg is intact, cracked, or broken upon impact.
7. Once an egg breaks, that project may not compete on the next drop level. A cracked egg may be replaced, and the project may advance to the next drop level.

The Roll
1. To simulate the tumbling the Mars Pathfinder must have endured upon impact, we will also roll our projects down the outdoor basement steps at the rear of the building.
2. Students must roll their own projects down the steps.
3. Students may only give their projects one push, or one toss, at the top of the stairs.
4. Projects must make it all the way to the bottom of the stairs to qualify.
5. A project which stops before it reaches the bottom may be rerolled or re-tossed from the top of the stairs, up to three times. However, the egg inside cannot be replaced between the attempts.
6. Students may choose to do a practice roll, without an egg, if they desire. The practice roll is completely optional and does not count towards their three attempts.
7. A project which reaches the bottom on the first try does not have to be rerolled.
8. Once again, the student is responsible for removing the baggie with the egg to show to the judges, who have the final say on its condition.

Prizes for the Drop
Prizes for the drop will be awarded as followed, and are not cumulative:
1. For the 6 foot drop....a miniature candy bar.
2. For the second story drop...a full sized candy bar.
3. For the third story drop....a king-sized candy bar.

Prizes for the Roll
1. An egg that makes the roll to the bottom of the stairs completely intact, will win a full-sized candy bar.
2. An egg that makes the roll to the bottom of the stairs and cracks, but does not break, will win a miniature candy bar.

Adult Volunteers
A panel of three adult judges are needed. Also, a couple of adult assistants to help manage the contestants and the projects would be appreciated :)

Easy Cheesy

Those of you who know me know that potatoes and I don't have a very good track record. I don't know what potato spirit I offended or how I offended it, but long have I been cursed when it comes to potatoes. Monday was no exception. I'll offer you my tale of woe, for your amusement and entertainment, after I tell you of my fleeting success.

First, what I found that Works for Me:

On Monday, I made these delicious barbeque ham slices.  I really wanted some cheesy hash browns to go with them, but since I have a potato curse, haven't found a recipe that I can cook. So, feeling confident and adventurous, I decided to invent my own recipe.

What resulted was incontestably the worst kitchen failure I have ever had.

With the barbeque ham slices now ready to come out of the oven, I had no side dish. But, I did have a small sauce pan of delicious cheese sauce, so.....

I scrubbed and pricked five potatoes and started them in the microwave. I put some green beans on the stove. I turned off the oven so the ham didn't burn. I set the table, and tried to hide the evidence of my earlier failure.

About 20 minutes later, we were sitting down to a delicious dinner of bbq ham slices, baked potatoes with cheese sauce, green beans, and homemade biscuits (which just happened to be leftover from Sunday's cooking project.) Sweet, sweet success.

The Cheese Sauce that Worked:

3 or 4 thick slices of Velveeta cheese
2 or 3 tablespoons milk
couple dashes of paprika
seasoning salt to taste (or Mrs Dash for a low-sodium alternative)

Place the cheese and the milk in a small sauce pan. Cook on low heat while stirring to melt the cheese. Add seasonings and continue to stir. When sauce is smooth and warm, pour into pitcher for serving over baked potatoes.

Voila!

That's really the end of the useful information. For those of you who are wondering, no, the Jedi didn't eat the green beans. Neither did Sweetling. In fact, I asked Sweetling if I could give her some "delicious green beans." She gave me a look. The Jedi said, "Well, you could....if such a thing existed."

The potatoes that didn't work:



Notice this section doesn't get the large font size.

Potatoes have this terrible habit of refusing to cook for me. I mean it. I'm not making this up. Thus, I can't make shredded hash browns, because no matter what I do, I have shredded raw potatoes in a sauce that browning and scorching. I've tried oodles of recipes.

Over the weekend, Telephone took me to a wonderful bed and breakfast in Amish country. She bought a cookbook full of the recipes they serve and was reading it to me on our drive home. (Obviously, I was driving.) We had delicious cheesy hash brown potatoes for breakfast on Saturday, and lo, there was the recipe.

Of course, come Monday night, I didn't have the recipe, but I thought it called for so many cups of *cooked* shredded potatoes. I decided, I would beat my potato curse by shredding the raw potatoes and THEN boil them. Then, surely, it would just be a matter of dumping them into a colander before putting them back into a pot with some cheese sauce.

The resultant gray sludge of starch which I dumped into my colander was by far one of the grossest items ever to come off my stove.

But, I did have nice little saucepan of cheese sauce from the experiment.

I would say that I'm never ever trying to make hash browns again, but we all know that would be a lie.