Making Memories: Letterboxing

What is letterboxing?

I can't tell you how many times I've been meaning to answer that question. I've had it posed to me multiple times on Facebook, over the phone, and in person.....  which just goes to show how much I've been talking about letterboxing this summer.

Letterboxing is like a treasure hunt. Letterboxing is like a scavenger hunt. Letterboxing is like solving a mystery. Letterboxing can be like an interactive nature hike. Letterboxing is sometimes like a mini-history lesson. But most importantly, letterboxing is fun and intriguing and a little bit addicting.

Plus, letterboxes are hidden all over North America, so no matter which state you live in or are visiting, you can probably find a letterbox hunt not too far away.

Here's how it works....one family or individual is inspired to hide a letterbox. Some letterboxes tell a personal story of a favorite vacation, are a memorial to a loved one, or relate to an unusual bit of local history.  In my area, I've found one letterbox hunt that relates to the underground railroad, one that is in honor of a late family pet, and one that was inspired by Ohio's state symbols.   

The hidden letterbox is a waterproof container of some kind and contains a handcarved rubber stamp and a log book. The hider then posts, or otherwise distributes clues about where the letter box is hidden. Sometimes the clues have very clear starting points, sometimes one must do some research about local history to find the starting point. (We haven't attempted the latter yet.)

From the starting point, the clues will give directions on how to follow a path to find the letterbox. (Such as, 'look to the east and you will see...." or "take the north branch of the path".) Letterboxes don't use GPS coordinates (that's geocaching). Sometimes the clues are pretty obvious....sometimes not so much.

(Thankfully, this was NOT a snake.  Since I was standing right under the thing, no one was happier than me to discover that it wasn't a snake.)

The letterbox itself will be hidden in some out of the way spot, mostly or completely obscured from view. When found, the finder is supposed to carefully remove the letterbox, without being seen by passerby, and carry it away from its hiding place....so as not to draw attention to its location.

The finder carries his or her own stamp, a stamp pad, a waterproof pen, and a log book of their own. (Yeah, I mixed singular and plural pronouns. Neener neener.) They use the stamp that was in the letterbox to stamp their own log book. They use their own stamp to stamp the log book that was in the letterbox. In both log books, they record the date it was found.

In the letterbox log, they write where they are from as well as their "trail" name, and any other notes they'd like to record for the hider of the letterbox as well us other finders who will read the log book later. In their own personal log book, they record the name of the letterbox, where they found it, and any other notes about the hunt.

When both log books are stamped and annotated, everything is placed back inside resealable plastic bags and put back in the letterbox, which is sealed and closed.  Then carefully place the letterbox in its original hidden location, being careful not to be observed, and being careful to leave the area looking undisturbed.



The morning of our first letterbox hunt, we were looking over our summer bucket list, trying to decide what to do that day. "Let's go letterboxing!" I declared. The kids weren't sure what letterboxing was, but I used my awesome power of persuasion to convince them to give it a try. (No, I didn't bribe or threaten them; thanks for the vote of confidence there.)

Just a few minutes later, Insight called. She had been trying to decide what to do that day, and was looking over our bucket list for ideas, and thought she and her boy might try letterboxing. A joint outing was quickly agreed upon.

If you'd like to try letterboxing on your own, here's what you need:

1. A waterproof stamp pad
2. A rubber stamp (you can buy supplies to carve your own at a craft store, or used a premade rubber stamp.) This stamp stands for you or your family. I've also seen families carve a small stamp for each person. 
3. A permanent or scrapbooking marker
4. A small log book
5. A camera. I forgot mine, but Insight remembered hers....thus the lovely pictures.
6. Shoes for walking/hiking.
7. Insect repellent. (It just makes any walk through the woods more pleasant.) Sun screen if your walk isn't through a shady forest.
8. A sense of adventure, a little patience, a dose of perseverance, and a smidgen of luck.

Read more about letterboxing, and find some clues for a letterbox hunt near you at letterboxing.org  This site has clues for letterbox hunts across North America. 

If you decide to try out letterboxing, please drop back in and let me know how it goes!


Check out more Field Trip ideas! (Plus, I'm so proud of myself for figuring out how to include a clickable graphic link!)

Not Me Monday: Kitchen Chairs

Yesterday, I did NOT write down a huge list of housework chores that needed done and then I did NOT decided partway through completing the list that I wanted to reupholster my kitchen chairs. I did NOT work myself into exhaustion trying to do a ton of housework and a big project at the same time. NOT at all. NOT me.

This was NOT at all like the same time last year when I also did NOT decide to reupholster the kitchen chairs at the last minute.

Last summer, I did NOT agree to co-host a baby shower with my sister for a very young first time mother. My sister and I did NOT both assume that the other one was taking car of the guest list and the invitations. We did NOT discover a week before the shower that neither of us had actually invited anyone. We did NOT keep that little oversight completely secret from the guest of honor. We then did NOT both totally over-invite to make up for this lapse, and then did NOT have more guests attending than I could possibly squeeze into my little living room.

The morning of the party, I did NOT drag my kitchen chairs into the living room to make up for the one loveseat and two small arm chairs that were the sole extent of my furniture. I did NOT stare at them in disgust, realizing for the first time how completely old and stained their fabric seats were. I did NOT, repeat NOT, leave immediately for the fabric store. I did NOT drag my sweet and innocent little girl along with me as a co-conspirator.

At the fabric store, I did NOT fall in love with the super-expensive, totally impractical, oriental silk like fabric. I did NOT have to rely on the voice of an eleven year old child to be the voice of reason talking me into the very affordable wipe-off vinyl fabric.

I did NOT get back home, flip all my chairs on their side, and I did NOT crazily take a phillips-head screwdriver to their bases. I did NOT punch out all six chair pads and leave them strewn all over two rooms of the house. This process did NOT produce enough crumbs to feed a starving person.

I certainly did NOT at that point grab the wood cleaner to begin scrubbing down the chair legs and backs.

I was NOT still in the middle of this process when my first guest arrived. She was NOT a family member who had come over early to help because she knew what a complete scatter-brain I was and knew I would need someone sane to keep things together. (She did NOT get there before my sister, who was at a niche grocery store picking up food items I had never heard of and can't remember for the life of me.) She also was NOT pregnant herself and was NOT super-excited about helping out with a baby shower. Walking into my house which looked like Freddy Krueger Does Chairs was NOT like a child waking up on Christmas morning to pieces of a disassembled bike all over the livring room.

Frantically trying to staple squares of vinyl fabric around the not quite square chair pads as the clock ticked down to time for the shower was NOT the first time I had ever used a staple gun. The staple gun did NOT run out of staples on the third chair pad. The Jedi had NOT left the house to run his own errands for the morning. I was NOT all alone with an empty staple gun, a disappointed pregnant woman, and six chairs in twelve pieces.

I did NOT raid the Jedi's workbench for the second time that morning.

I did NOT realize that even after I had managed to wrap and staple new fabric around the chair pads, that I couldn't actually screw the pads back on the chairs. I did NOT consider running back to the Jedi's workbench  for a roll of duct tape. I certainly did NOT ask the pregnant woman to sit on the chairs while I tried to screw the pad back in from underneath.

That is NOT exactly what we were doing when the Jedi walked back in the door. I certainly did NOT have to throw myself on the Jedi's mercy to get my chairs put back together while I cleaned up the massive mess of crumbs.

When my sister showed up and started putting together the most beautiful buffet ever, I did NOT pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had happened in my morning.

Weekly Wrap-Up.....Backwards Day

Thursday, Toa of Boy and I were sitting at the kitchen table having lunch. Toa said, "Can we have a backwards day tomorrow?"

"What," I asked, "is a backwards day?"

Backwards Day, it turns out, is when you say the exact opposite of what you mean. Not when you wear all your clothes backwards. That distinction was clearly made by Toa.

"So," I asked, "instead of saying 'Time for school,' I would say, 'Children, stay in your rooms; we're not doing school today'?"

"Yes!" squeals a delighted Toa.

At this point Sweetling ambled into the kitchen for lunch. We described to Sweetling what Backwards Day was and gave her some examples.

Sweetling got her lunch, sat down at the table, and looked at the two of us, considering this whole scheme. "This," she concluded in her most matter-of-fact Sweetling tone, "sounds like chaos. I think I'll stay in my room doing trip research."

Trip research is what we've spent the bulk of our school time doing this week, as is evidenced by the many travel related blog entries I've posted this week. In late April 2010, we're taking a three week round trip drive to California and back. It just so happens that we are studying America right now in our Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum from My Father's World. I expanded the two week USA study into a three week unit so that we could take the bulk of this week and learn and read about the 16 states we'll be driving through in our trek.

We started by having the kids find and label these states, plus a few key others on a blank map of the US. Then I used google maps to pull up a map of our journey out to California, and the kids drew our route in our their maps, and traced it with a red marker. We did the same for our journey back.

Then we read how each state got its name and its nickname in Greetings from the 50 States. We looked at Our 50 States, A Family Adventure across America as well as some library books I had grabbed, each highlighting a different state. Each day, we read and learned about a group of three or so states, taking them in order that we would be driving. (So the first day, we read about Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.) As we read, we made a big list of anything in that State, that was close to our driving route, that we might want to see. Doing so involved using google to pull up the location of the attraction and checking that location with our route.

It was really interesting, and highly motivating, since we were actually going to get to visit many of the places we were adding to our list. On Thursday morning, I was sitting in the living room at 7:30 am reading my Bible, and two pajama clad children wandered in. They pulled library books off the shelf and started looking through them and discussing them with each other. At one point, Toa jumped up and ran down to the school room to come flying back up the stairs with a large laminated map of the US so he could find one of the places they had been talking about. And, that entire scene, from getting out the books to running for a map, transpired without any input or prompting from me whatsoever.

By Friday, everyone was ready for a break from trip research (well, except that Sweetling would rather be in her room doing research on her computer than participating in Backwards Day.) But we took the morning rather slow, doing some Bible study on Matthew and reading aloud from Kingdom Tales. Then each of the kids had an hour or so of time for "independent explorations." Sweetling did more trip research on her own computer, and Toa of Boy made a diorama of Zumwhere.

Toa of Boy has been really into dioramas these past few weeks. Last night, we cleared off the top of his desk to make room to display his diorama collection. I also need to put out a plea on Facebook for some empty shoe boxes.

That afternoon, we picked up the Incredible's children and headed to Parky's Ark, for an afternoon of water play and ice cream. (Mommy was sick of being trapped inside by oppressive heat.)

Also this week, we made super awesome T-shirts with some old friends we hadn't gotten to see in a while. We had to leave our wet t-shirts there, drying in the sun, so I hope to have some pictures later. But in the meantime, check out this super amazing sun-activated fabric paint.

Lastly, I might have killed my digital camera, which explains the crappy photo quality this week. I swear, all I did was change the batteries and reset the time/date (which always needs redone when the batteries come out.) But now my camera won't turn on to take pictures. It'll turn on and review pictures on its storage card, so I don't think I have the batteries in wrong. But the picture taking function won't come on. I haven't told the Jedi about this yet. The church got struck with lightning again on Wedndesday and it fried a server, which for some unknown reason, had gotten unplugged and moved and plugged into an unprotected outlet. The Jedi was at church until midnight on Thursday trying to resurrect the machine, was back again for a short time last night, and is working on it again this morning. So, my small camera woes shall wait.

Oh, and, in case you were wondering, Backwards Day was a bit chaotic, but it was a lot of fun. Toa often has trouble enough listening to and following directions when they are straightforward. So saying, "Go upstairs (when he already is upstairs), and don't look at the ceiling above your desk for any markers or pencils that floated up while you weren't doing school later," was pretty much gibberish to him. But don't feel bad for him, cause he solved that particular conundrum of directions by making a mermaid out of the paper scraps left out from his diorama building. I'm not sure if the moral of the story is "mermaids make all things better," or, "when in doubt, create." As a mom, I'm hoping for the later interpretation.

Check out what others did this week on Weird Unscocialized Homeschoolers.

Facebook Friday: month of catch up

Again. Cause I never do anything regularly.

Fri/Sat, July 17th 12:44 am 
Tomorrow I'm blogging my little heart out :)

Sat, July 17th, 10:31 am
Which topic should I blog about first today... other stuff we did this
summer in general, letterboxing, or how to make a supercool pinata?

Sun, July 18th, 11:11 pm
Any tips on FINDING and then catching an escaped dwarf hamster?

Mon, July 19th, 7:51 am
Yay! Two hamsters safely back in their cage. I woke up this morning and the escapee was outside his cage, trying to climb the bars to get back in because his hamster brother was inside the cage running like mad on the wheel. What is freedom compared to the glories of running on the hamster wheel?

Tues, July 20th 11:55 am
We should have named Toa's hamsters Cain and Abel. After having the hamster cage to himself for a full night, Cain is unwilling to share with his brother. Abel had blood on his back this morning. After a $30 trip to petsmart, Abel now has his own cage.

Wed, July 21st, 8:59 pm
Things Toa learned at VBS tonight---1) Mummies only walk around in the movies. 2) If you harass teenage boys, they might just pick you up and put you inside the girls' bathroom.

Sun, July 25th, 4:16 pm
My kids had pizza for lunch and dinner on Friday and for lunch again on Saturday. Now its about time for Sunday dinner and I find myself thinking, if only we had some pizza....

Mon, July 26th, 8:40 am
I am now only one day behind with B90 (instead of three) and I can see the surface of my desk again. Things are looking up! Much better than waking up and realizing I had forgotten to turn the dishwasher on before I went to bed last night (AGAIN), trying to make toast without plugging in the toaster (AGAIN) and discovering I was 3 days behind in my reading.

Mon, July 26th, 10:56 pm
I remembered to turn my dishwasher ON!!!! Yes! I am THIS cool!

Tues, July 27th, 8:07 am
Jeremiah is a loo-ooo-ng book, but I finished it this morning :)

Wed, July 28th, 7:19 am
Why is it that whenever I put something "in a safe place", its pretty much guaranteed that I will never be able to find that item again?

Thurs, July 29th, 7:41 am
Guess where I happened to find my cordless kitchen phone this morning? In the hall linen closet, on top of the sheets. Hmmmmm..... (Yeah, its not really I mystery. I put it down there when I was grabbing sheets and blankets for our camping trip. But the good news is that I found it before we left the Jedi with a missing phone while we were gone.)

Sun, Aug 1st, 6;25 pm
uh. laundry (tons of it), homeschooling notifications to write, a day or two of B90 readings, school lesson preps for tomorrow and next week....and guess what I'm going to do tonight? NOTHING.

Mon, Aug 2nd, 3:59 pm
Olive Garden give away is a trap. If I could do an Admiral Ackbar voice for this, I would.

Thurs, Aug 5th, 10:16 am
I put money in the wrong meter this morning. There wasn't a ticket on my windshield. Does that mean I'm safe? Or will they do something sneaky like mail me a ticket?

Fri, Aug 6th, 2:43 pm
Someone snuck the book of Haggai in between Zephaniah and Zechariah. So, instead of only having three books to read in the old testament, I had four. Sneaky people.

Sun, Aug 8th, 3:08 pm
The problem with healthy sancks is that the aren't full of sugary chocolate goodness.

Mon, Aug 9th, 11:13pm
I got a *beautiful* aoelian harp for my anniversary :) !!!

Tues, Aug 10th, 1:03 pm
Apparently, if one does not rinse out one's straw after having a juice shake so that the straw doesn't get nasty...."nasty" does not mean that the straw comes to life at night to crawl around and hunt us down while we're sleeping in our beds. It sounded like a plausible explanation to me, but Sweetling said, "No, Mommy."

Tues, Aug 10th, 11:22 pm
Ta da! Homeschool notification ready to be taken to the post office tomorrow :)

Wed, Aug 11th, 12:50pm
adjective contest: best adjective to describe the heat is_______?? Winner gets, um,....to be "cool" of course!
>>>Oppressive! Stifiling! Unbearable! lol
>>>Hot! LOL
>>>Stultifying. (I think that is a word. If not, it should be.)
>>>abusive
>>>energy-draining
>>>firely. Actually, the adverb is really firelike, but I like firely better.
>>>In retrospect, fiery is the word. I just typed in "fire" and couldn't figure out how to turn it into an adjective. Blasted English spelling.

Thurs, Aug 12th, 7:52 am
I'm just here to preen my feathers and say that at 7:30 this morning, I had two children in their pjs on the living room floor looking through and discussing library books about the 50 states....(ta da.....) ....on their own initiative.

Thurs, Aug 12th, 11:57 am
Doing more trip planning today. There is a whole lot of nothing in central Kansas.

Fri, Aug 13th, 8:45 am
We're tired of being cooped up inside. Who's up for an outing to parky's ark today?

Fri, Aug 13th
parky's ark this afternoon....going once.....

Fri, Aug 13th
At home on a Friday night with no electricity. Time to break out the glowsticks and board games.

Whole Lot of Nothing

The Jedi left me with an assignment. Find some stopping off places on our route between Kansas City and Denver where we can get out and stretch our legs a little. Yeah.

Now, when the kids and I were looking through library books yesterday, we saw an illustration of castle rock in Kansas which looked really cool. So we wrote it down on our list of possibilities. Then we saw pictures of the real thing today.

Toa said, "I don't want to go there."

This is FIVE HOURS from Kansas City.

And, after five hours in the van, we need something. And, as mind-boggling as this might be, this lonely stand of rocks is the most interesting feature on our route. (One of the coolest things about this location is that Castle Rock is actually on privately own land, but the owner welcomes the public to visit this landmark.)

I found a website of photos of the area. Sweetling was upstairs looking through the book 101 Places You Gotta See before You're 12. I ran upstairs and got Sweetling, yelling, "Guess what? Guess what? I found the middle of nowhere! And we're going to drive right through it!"

Sweetling, giggling and excited, ran back downstairs with me where I showed her this photo I had found, aptly titled, "Nothing!"

Toa said, "We're going to have fun there!" And we all laughed.

But really, the badlands near castle rock look cool....

I'm trying to look at Google Maps and follow the directions given on the Castle Rock Badlands website to determine just how much off highway drive time this would be.

All right, I'm coming back to edit this post to say I have maligned Kansas. There is stuff to do and see, I just lack the google-fu to find it quickly. So, I'm not being fair when I say "nothing." I'm just blown away by the flat expanses of empty land.

Just 3 hours out of Kansas City is the city of Salina, Kansas. And 4 hours out of Kansas City is Hays, Kansas. 

In Salina, there is the Smoky Hill Museum, with free admission. I love free. It's open Tues-Fri 12-5, Sat 10-5, and Sun 1-5. And have I mentioned that it's free? Not just free to us 'cause we have a Cincy Museum Membership, but just free and open to the public. (This photo is from the blog of another visitor to Salina, Beth at Home and Abroad.)

Restaurant wise in Salina, I found some reviews for a 50's style hamburger dinner named Spangles. We'll be driving through this area around lunch time, so burgers and fries fast would be good.

In Hays, there is Frontier Park, with buffalo  and Historic Fort Hays. "Fort Fletcher, later renamed Fort Hays, was established on the Smoky Hill Trail in 1865. After the fort was virtually destroyed in a flash flood in 1867, it was relocated to a site now just south of the city of Hays. Four of the original structures, the stone blockhouse, guardhouse and two frame officers' quarters survive today...along with a modern visitor's center. " Admission to the fort is $3 for adults and $2 for students.

But, also in Hays is Stenberg Natural History Museum, which is on our list of reciprocal museums.(ie, free for us to visit.) And from Beth's blog, a restaurant recommendation in Hays with German food, Gella's Dinner. See, I do love my Jedi husband. (And kids eat free every Tuesday, if it happens we're traveling through Kansas on a Tuesday.)

I got excited with a blog that had a link to PrairieDogTown, but I think we'll skip that. Thanks. Even me, who really wants to see prairie dogs, doesn't want to spend the equivalent of three gallons of gas admission (per person, really?) for the animal equivalent of a circus side show.

So, plan A is drive from KC to Hays (a four and a half hour drive), then do lunch and the Stenberg Museum. Then drive the 5 hours 20 min to Denver.  (Depart KC at 9am, Hays at 1:30-4pm, Denver at 9:30pm--note that this has no dinner break and is, therefore, totally unrealistic.)

Plan B, which I like better, is drive from KC to Salina, 3 hrs, have burgers and tour the Smoky Hill Museum. Then drive another 4hr20mins to Burlington. Play on the playground at Outback Territory Park. Have dinner (cause we have to stop for dinner anyway), and then drive the other 2hr 40min to Denver. (Depart KC at 9am, Salina 12-2:30, Burlington 7-9pm, Denver at 11:40 pm. Which sucks getting into Denver so late.)

Plan C, cause I can't leave well enough alone. KC to Salina, as above, then 3hr20 minutes from Salina to Colby, Kansas. Then 3hr43min to Denver. (Depart KC at 9am, Salina 12-2:30, Colby 6-8, Denver at 11:40. I think we just need to pick something on the south side of Denver. We're going to be dead tired otherwise.)

Colby Research for Plan C:

Fike Park. Playground. Enough said.

Restaurants:
Montana Mike (steaks I think)
Gambino's Pizza (no web site)
Chester Fried Chicken. (no web site)
Butch's Smokehouse (no web site, but a description..."Dine-in, Carry out BBQ Restaurant. Meats are slow cooked over wood (oak-hickory-fruitwood) a variety of styles of BBQ from several parts of the US.  We also cater banquets-picnics-reunions and other events." If its a nice enough evening, I'd vote for getting a carry-out dinner from here and taking it to the park.)

Independence MO

Independence MO is 23 minutes east of Kansas City, where we plan on staying two nights. Independence MO was the historic jumping off place for many travelers along the Oregon Trail.

There are two things I'd like to do in Independence.

One of them is The National Frontier Trails Museum.

Its hours are 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday - Saturday or 12:30 - 4:30 p.m. Sunday and its admission rates are $5 for adults and $3 for children. They say most visitors take about one and a half hours to tour the exhibits.

The other thing I think would be cool, are the tour rides given in covered wagons. The Jedi might think it a bit touristy....but its a covered wagon, and I could ride in one :)

The wagon rides run from 9:30 to 4:30, and cost $7 per person for a 15 -20 minute tour (their shortest tour).

Now, when the Jedi and I were planning things out last night, we planned to drive straight through from St Louis to Kansas City, because there are a lot of things in Kansas City that the Jedi wants to do. So, we thought if we left St. Louis at 8pm, we'd arrive in KC around midnight to check into a hotel. We'd crash for the rest of that night, spend the day in KC, spend another night in the same hotel, and then be on the road again the next day.

I wonder if we grabbed a hotel on the east side of KC, the Missouri side, if we couldn't also do Independence MO first thing in the morning of our second day. If we hit the museum when it opened at 9am, we could be wrapped up in Independence by 11:30, and then go back to KC for a bbq lunch and have the rest of the afternoon and evening in Kansas City.


ooooo....check it out, Independence is nearly a suburb of Kansas City. I went searching for hotels on the east side of KC, and they were farther east than hotels in Independence!


I do the dance now.

Resources/Recipes for the Home

Here's a great blog entry on cutting down on processed foods, making from scratch, and staying in a budget.

And I think I can find some good recipes for inexpensive dinners over on Grocery Cart Challenge.

And My Sweet and Savory has recipes for "meatless mondays" that I might check out.

A link, to a link, for links to more sites for restaurants where kids eat free. Good research for our trip. (And a funny story with pictures for the Cow Appreciation Day at Chic-Fil-A.

Convenient frozen waffles from scratch.

Quick and easy way to remove most of the air for freezer bag packing. yeah, the grammar there stinks, but its late and I'm tired.

To compliment all the reasonably healthy recipes I found, here's one for peanut butter burritos. (Filled with chocolate chips and miniature marshmallows.) Of all the recipes I've found this week, guess which one I'm likely to actually try first?

And, finally, I am not the only one to have recipes go wrong, horribly, horribly wrong.

California Drive Plan Out

From city to city, not counting stops for food and sightseeing:

Drive plan out:


 Day 1. )   Cin-St Louis - 6hr; St Louis-KC - 4 hr

Day 2. )   Stuff in KC

Day 3. )   KC-Denver - 9 hr

Day 4. )   Stuff in Denver; Denver-Laramie - 2.5 hr

Day 5. )   Laramie-Salt Lake - 6 hr

Day 6. )   Salt Lake-Reno - 8 hr

Day 7.  )  Reno-Sacramento - 2.5 hr
 
Research Bamforth National Wildlife Refuge; stuff in central Kansas, western Kansas, or eastern Colorado; and, for return trip, Mojave National Preserve.

And check out this awesome van!!!! The family turned the outside of it into a traveling journal of their trip I showed the Jedi and he said, "Yeah, we're not doing that. But, it would be interesting to keep a log of that." So, no journaling all over the van  for me, but I do want to buy a special notebook to serve as a trip log :)

California Trip Planning--Indiana, Illinois, and St. Louis MO

We are California bound! Next spring or next fall, we will be taking a three week trek out to California through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. On the return trip will be driving home from California through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

For the next couple of days of school, we're doing some research together on places we'd like to stop and visit and things we'd like to do and see. My living room floor is covered in library books about the states. The kids and I have been reading through books, learning a bit about each state, and making a list of possible focal points as we read.

From our hometown of Cincinnati, it is only a two hour drive to Conner Prairie in Fisher, Indiana. Admission rates look to be about $13 for adults, and $9 for children. So $44 dollars for our family of four. If Nana comes with us, $56 for a family of 5.

Or, we have a Terre Haute Children's Museum, which is free with our Cincinnati Museum Membership. It's about 3 hours from Cincinnati. Granted, Conner's Praire would be way more cool from a learning perspective....but I'm not sure I want to spend $56 dollars so early in our trip, when we surely won't be spending the day there. So, Terre Haute, and not Conner's Prairie. Food wise in Terre Haute is the Clabbergirl Bakeshop.

Also in Muncie IN is Minnetrista (also free with our Cincinnati Museum Membership). I'd love to tell you what exactly it IS....but I'm not sure. A garden? A nature center? Ah, here we go, "Minnetrista is a museum and cultural center that serves the people of East Central Indiana. Minnetrista offers exhibits and programs for children, families, adults, scouts, teachers and students that focus on nature, history, gardens, and art." And, "Located in the center of Muncie, Minnetrista is an informal learning environment with 40+ acres, a museum, an historic home, a nature area, gardens, a cabin, and other educational buildings."

 I think I'll set Sweetling on a research project to figure out if we want to go to Minnetrista. If I ask the kids "children's museum" or "this other thing that might have some gardens and nature trails..." guess which one they'll pick? But if I say, hey Sweetling, check out this link and tell me what you think, then Minnetrista stands a chance.

(And, I'm an idiot. Guess what? The Terre Haute Children's Museum? That's in Terre Haute. The Minnetrista? That's in Munchie, NOT on our route.)

We have nothing for Illinois. YET. Rather, the things we saw in our library books were either way too north or way too south of our route along I-70.

Dinner, now, more later. Not that I'm addicted.

Dinner finished. I'm back. I know you missed me.

So, having discovered my lack of map skills, I'm ready for more humiliations. We are back to children's museum on the far side of Indiana. No cool artistic gardens for Mommy.

From Terre Haute, Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri is another 3 hour drive. What if we leave Cincy, drive three hours and stop to play and have lunch at Terre Haute. Then, we drive another three hours to St Louis. Now, sadly, that would get us to St Louis too late to go up in the Gateway Arch. Could we do dinner, spend the night, and do the arch before leaving the area the next morning? OR we could (ha ha), leave Cincy at 7am (when the pigs fly), stop in Terre Haute between 10am and 12 pm, and get to St. Louis at 3pm to go up in the arch.

The arch is open between 9:20am and 5:10pm during the time of year we'd be traveling. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for kids. The last tram of the day runs from the bottom to the top 45 minutes before the arch closes.

Also of interest in St. Louis is the St. Louis Science Center, which claims to be one of the top 5 science centers in the United States. It's open between 9:30 and 5:30 Monday through Saturday. (And its a reciprical museum for our membership.)

Plus, we have friends in St. Louis that it would be nice to see again for dinner maybe.

Just for point of comparison, it's a straight 6hr drive from Cinci to St Louis. And you know that driving 6 hrs straight through with no stops isn't realistic with kids. But, neither do I really want to spend a whole day there either. Drat the museum AND the arch for closing so early.

Perfectly Portable School Supply Box

Toa of Boy needed the following supplies for co-op. And, since he changes rooms from class to class, his supplies needed to go in his backpack and travel with him through the day. Here's what he needed:

• crayons
• pencils
• eraser
• glue sticks
• markers
• colored pencils
• a pencil box

I'm presuming that the pencil box was meant to hold all those things together in his backpack. Let me tell you, Toa of Boy can't keep his supplies neatly in one place even when he is reasonably "stationary". The floor and the area around where he is working is constantly littered with a rain of pencils, crayons, etc. His backpack, I was sure, was going to become a bottomless pit of loose supplies which would be irretrievable in times of need. The tiny little "pencil boxes" which were in the school supply aisle could hold only a few of the items he needed on his list. So, I could buy THREE pencil boxes to put his stuff in and wish him and his co-op teachers the best of luck in keeping THAT straight....

Or I could invent a plan B.

Check out my plan B

This beautiful clear plastic box measures 9 x 13 x 2 inches. It fits easily inside of Toa's child-sized "Kung Fu Panda" backpack, still leaves plenty of room for his three ring binder, and allows the backpack to be easily zipped closed. I had Toa test whether he could put his belongings in his backpack on his own and zip it up. He could, no problem.

The box has a hinged, clear plastic lid which latches closed to secure the contents. Toa of Boy can easily do and undo the latches...also pretested. (I can't show the box with the lid closed, cause I already have Toa's first and last name on the lid...and I'm not clever enough to know how to photo edit that out before posting.)

The box came with many adjustable clear plastic dividers so that we could set up the compartments however we needed. The dividers go all the way down to the bottom of each section, and fit flush with the lid at the top, so no matter whether the box is on its side, on its end, upside down, shaken to pieces in a boy's backpack, etc..... all the contents stay in their own compartment.  The compartments make it easy to keep all the supplies neat and easily accessible. Toa, who loves art, is thrilled that his crayons are sorted by color family. (In fact, he sorted them that way himself.)

And, the box cost me $4.98....so only two dollars more than I would have spent for three vastly inferior "pencil boxes". Completely affordable and totally worth it.

Where did I find it? Not in the school supply section, not in the craft section, but.....(drum roll).....

In the fishing department near the tackle boxes.

Just for a further point of comparison, at the co-op we attended last year, the kids kept their supplies in a plastic shoe box sized storage container. Each grade stayed in the same room all day, so the boxes were kept on a shelf of the classroom. I know from being a teacher's aide that the supplies all wound up mixed together inside those boxes. They were just a big jumble of crayons, colored pencils, and markers. Plus, the shoe boxes were two big to fit in the child-sized backpacks. So, no, in my opinion, the larger plastic box is not an alternative "pencil box". This cool storage container is.

Plus, this storage box works for families who

•  * homeschool on the go (don't we all at times?) and need to pack up supplies to travel
•  * want to take school outside to the deck, backyard, or park on beautiful days
•  * school all over the house, and want the supplies to be easily grabbed and brought along into    whichever room is the learning center at that time of day
• * need to take school, or learning activities, with them for a few days or a week when they are going to be away from home. (We did this last year when we spent many days and weeks at my in-laws house when my father-in-law was in and out of the hospital. It was a pretty emotional time, but having some of the lighter lessons to do kept the kids occupied and kept some normalcy in their day and helped keep the situation from being too stressful or worrisome for them.)

So, that's what Works for Me!! Check out some other cool ideas at We Are THAT Family.

Links

Look, its a link to a list of links (about Apologia Biology helps). I also love Russian nesting dolls.

And its a link to a list of likes that tickled my funny bone. 

Weekly Wrap-Up: First weeks of School!

I love calling this a "weekly wrap-up" and then trying to squeeze in several weeks worth of stuff, cause I haven't updated in a while. Here's what we've been up to:


We started school in the middle of July. After a family meeting, the kids agreed that it was way to hot to do anything fun outside (since we don't have a pool). Better to do school indoors in the air-conditioning, and then take two weeks off in September to play, hike, explore, etc. (Note: starting school the same week as our evening VBS was a bad idea. Mommy was exhausted, though the kids seemed fine.)

We're using My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures as our main curriculum this year. For the past 7 years, Sweetling has been doing school through OHVA (Ohio Virtual Academy), which was a great fit for her for many years. (Toa did OHVA for K and 1st grade, but the program needed some serious adaptation to fit into his learning style better.)  But last year, I felt we had really drifted from our goals as a homeschooling family. It was a pretty intimidating decision to break away from something that had been so successful for us for so long. We've nearly wrapped up three weeks with the new curriculum, and its everything I think homeschooling should be for us.

(Of course, just as I finished typing this, Toa and I butted heads during math. Now, Toa is upstairs crying cause he just lost Wii for the weekend. Every now and then, he has to dig in his heels and be stubborn, and I get exasperated. This afternoon, we were struggling to work together on writing number words. Sensing that both of us were frustrated, I said that we just needed to take a short break. I told him to go upstairs and look at books for a little while, and we'd get back to this. This was just gasoline on the fire. A few minutes later, he was refusing to budge and I was threatening the Wii. How can I go from feeling like everything is coming up roses one moment to perhaps being the worst teacher in the world the next moment?)

Ok, the bump in the road aside, I'm still really happy with our curriculum choice. We're loving reading together on the couch, even when it turns into tickle fests. Or maybe especially when it turns into tickle fests.  We're loving the hands-on projects, even though Mommy can't keep a few worms alive in a jar of dirt. (That one turned out so gross. So very, very, gross. I shall spare you the details, but let me say that it was really gross.) We're loving making maps together at the kitchen table. I'm especially loving how this curriculum seems very relaxed, and yet is still engaging and challenging. 


We all love that the kids have time to explore and make and learn about the things that they are interested in too. We have time everyday for "independent explorations", where they can take half an hour and do any enriching activity they want. Here's a poem Toa wrote the other day. I'd love to post at least one example of what Sweetling does during this time, but I'm sure my pre-teen doesn't want her projects up on my blog. (oh how the times have changed.) 

And, even though we get to do a lot of school together, Sweetling still has the opportunity to study several of her subjects completely independently. Since she said this was very important to her when we were discussing a school change last year, I'm counting it as a major success point of our new schooling approach. 

(And, since I'm tooting my own horn, the rest of the afternoon with Toa of Boy went swimmingly. --you all know that I don't actually write an entire blog post in one sitting, right? A get a paragraph here, a paragraph there. Heck, sometimes it doesn't even all get written in the course of a single day.--- Anyway, he calmed down and read a Bionicles graphic novel he had checked out from the library. I went upstairs to announce snack time. He came out of his room, gave me a hug, and asked, "Will you forgive me, Mommy?" So we had a nice talk and a snuggle time, and after snack we got back to math and finished the page with no problems. Then we looked through books about forest habitats, and he saw a picture of a flying squirrel and wanted to learn about them. So we did a little internet research on them and watched some youtube videos of flying squirrels AND some youtube videos of cliff jumbing with windsuits in Norway. Then we found instructions for an origami flying squirrel and we were finishing up that when Daddy came home. See, that's what homeschooling is supposed to be.)

Other really cool projects that we did, cause I am in a cool sharing mood.

In the first  week of school, we were reviewing the globe and the continents. We talked about the different kinds of maps and how a flat map couldn't accurately represent all the shapes and distances on a real globe. To illustrate this, we each drew a globe on an orange. First we drew a line around the middle to represent the equator. Then we drew a line from one pole to the other (the stem things), to be the prime meridan. Once we had those two lines in place, we started on drawing the continents. We started with Europe and Africa, checking out where they crossed the prime meridan and equator for reference. Sweetling's globe turned out amazingly accurate.

On my globe, Asia somehow got way too big, and I had to squeeze in North and South America. The Pacific Ocean was virtually nonexistant.  We called my globe "The Christopher Columbus Globe," since it was seemed much closer to the dimensions Columbus thought the world to be.

After we had our continents drawn, we labeled the continent and the oceans, and let the permament marker dry overnight. The next day for snack, we carefully peeled our oranges and reassembled our maps. We talked about how there were gaps in the map when we tried to lay it out. When we squished one section together to close those gaps, gaps appeared elsewhere. It was a great (and tasty) lesson.

There was also the aforementioned worm atrocities, which we will now quickly skip over. But, we did make a successful terrarium to demonstrate the conservation of water in the water cycle. Toa liked the mist that formed in our little green jungle.

During our second week, we only did a half week of school and went camping with Telephone and company. We set up two tents and a dining canopy and cooked over an open fire, which we built ourselves, for two nights. (Not without a little struggle.)

 It was a wonderful time. The kids loved swimming in the lake and playing on the beach.

And some crazy Mommy let the kids draw with charcoal pieces picked from the ashes of last night's campfire.

This week, we started our study of North America with an overview of the USA. We're taking a three week road trip to California next year, so we're doing some mapping and trip planning as part of our schooling over the next couple of weeks. Today, we mapped our route out to California and labeled and colored the states we'll be driving through, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada.

During our second week, we took a three day camping trip.

Everything, Everything, by Toa of Boy

Everything, Everything
Dinosaur, t-rex, stegosaurus, triceratops.
Everything, everything.
Animals, gerbils, hamsters, monkeys, penguins.
Everything, everything.
Characters, Mario, Toad, Arthur, Kirby.

(Writing a single sentence in his journal was a completely unreasonable expectation on the part of the teacher. So Toa said, "Can I just write a poem during Independent Explorations instead?")

Parts is Parts

So far today I have:

1. Got caught up in my Bible in 90 days reading. This shall be celebrated with chocolate.
2. Got suckered by a marketing scam promising Olive Garden gift cards.
3. Cut toothpicks in half so that they could then decorate a porcupine made out of model magic.
4. Discovered that sandwiches are "too boring", but the exact same ingredients put on hot dog buns and called a sub receive "thank you Mommy!" from an excited little boy.
5. Blogged in an attempt to forget about the ginormous pile of laundry which has taken over my bed.
6. Realized that my lack of patience over the past couple of days can't be blamed on hormones, since that time of the month is still two weeks away. 
7. Found my phone charger AND my house keys.
8. Researched some sites for Sweetling to find an international pen pal. 
9. Discovered that there was a country in Europe named San Marino, and its on the list of the world's 5 smallest countries. 

Also today I worked with Toa on an important lesson in economics....namely, if one looses the cool pieces of the super cool building set Mommy was super excited to find in a used curriculum sale, AND TRIES TO SHRUG OFF THIS LOSS AS NO BIG DEAL, one may find oneself buying replacement pieces out of one's own allowance. (Remember, lack of Mommy patience.)

Behold the chain of events.

Nearly every day, there is a scheduled block of time when we break from our regular curriculum so that each child can work on a self-initiated project or pursue a topic that interests them. Toa has made a penguin diorama, textile art, and such during his "Independent Explorations" time. Sweetling usually works on designing graphics or drawing her own Homestar Runner cartoons.

So, today, time for independent explorations rolled around. Toa asked me what he could do. I replied that he could do anything he wanted, or, since I had some free time, I could help him build something with his building set.

"Oh," said Toa. "I broke that and lost the pieces."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, I broke the fan (the first, and potentially, last thing we built), and the pieces got all lost."

"I let you put that on your desk in your room cause it was so cool and you wanted to keep it safe."

"Anyway, it doesn't matter. What else can we do?"

At which point Toa quickly learned that it most certainly did too matter. And that in, in point of fact, mattered to the tune of replacing any and all lost parts with his own money if those pieces didn't get found TODAY.

Within a span of 15 minutes, all the pieces were on the kitchen table and successfully inventoried against the build list for the fan project.

Long live economics.

Weekly Wrap-Up.....Summer Wrap-Up

This isn't a weekly wrap-up so much as a Summer Wrap-Up. We started our summer making a summer bucket list. I'm happy to say that we got most of the items on our list accomplished.

Monday of this week we held a family meeting and looked back over the summer bucket list. After realizing that the items that were left were nearly all outdoor activities, and since the weather was way too hot to really enjoy being outdoors, the kids and I decided to start school early. We'll take a two week Fall vacation in September to finish up our bucket list.

So here is what we did from our bucket list and how it worked out for us:

--go to China: We went to two Chinese restaurants, one of which had some really interesting interior decorating. We made our own Chinese food at home. We got a souvenir from China (courtesy of a co-worker of the Jedi who really traveled there this summer.) We are planning on making a Chinese craft or art project, but haven't yet.


--go to the Children's Museum: yes :) We went down with Tia Smurf and a friend of hers who was visiting from out of town.

--go bowling. A local bowling alley offers a kids bowl free program in the summer. We're planning on going a few more times with friends through August as well. (Yes, that absolutely counts as p.e.).

--learn orienteering and go Letterboxing. This was awesome. Awesome enough to warrant its own post, which I shall get around to doing soon.

--go on the slip and slide. We took the slip and slide with us and spent the afternoon with Smurf and her little baby Bean and her 6 year old nephew. A great time was had by all, and we left a muddy swath down the front lawn of Smurf's aunts house. Ooops.

--set up a sundial. Earlier this year, we painted our sundial stones with Tia Smurf. We painted 12 stones, each with a number, and, just to be fun, the art of each stone was supposed to co-ordinate with something from the corresponding month on the calendar. In our front yard, we have a big brown circle of nothing left behind when a fir tree died last year. The tree stump is still left in its center. This June, we took a sunny day and had Toa of Boy stand on the tree stump every hour on the hour. Then we put a paver where his shadow fell. (So the number 8 paver marked his shadow at 8 am, the 9 paver at 9am, etc.) Voila, a sundial which can be read by a small child when he's standing on a tree stump.

--go to a waterpark. I love our local parks. For a couple of dollars a child, we get access to a wonderful wet playground. I took pictures, but my computer has hidden them in an undisclosed location. Bad computer.

--go to the movies, Toy Story 3 in 3D, and
--meet an alien, We might be counting the three-eyed aliens from the movie for this. Or we might be dressing one child up as an alien, the other as a reporter, and video taping an interview with an alien.

--climb a tree. Again, have I mentioned that I love our local parks? The pics from this are still on my phone. I need to ask the Jedi how to get them from my phone to my blog.

--make homemade ice cream. Mmmmm....strawberry-banana ice cream on the Forth of July. Happy Birthday America! Later today, we're picking up cream and ingredients for another batch of ice cream. Did you know that this Sunday was National Ice Cream Day? Mommy is campaigning for peanut butter-banana this time.

--make chocolate. We made small heart shaped brownies in the toaster oven. We had heard on KLOVE that morning that it was Chocolate Day. Chocolate Day deserved to be celebrated with chocolate of course. However, Sweetling wants to make small chocolate candies, not chocolate brownies, so we will be doing this again in the fall.

Bonus activities. These weren't on our original list, but we did them and the kids insisted that they be added to the list.

--catch a lightning bug. Always a summer favorite.

--play Bingo. We just happened to be at the library when a big kids Bingo game was beginning. No bingo prizes were won, but Toa had a great time.

--get caught in a thunderstorm. Mommy thought we could be in and out of the store before it hit. Mommy was wrong. Instead, we sat at the entrance of the store, with no power, playing I Spy and snacking on the groceries we had just bought rather than get drenched running to the car. And, even if we had made it to the car, it was pouring such buckets and the wind was so bad that we couldn't drive in it anyway. Better to hang out in the store and stay dry than to sit wet and miserable in the car till it passed.

--ride a roller coaster. Toa and I put our hands in the air. Sweetling thought we were crazy, though she did love the roller coaster. At the same place, we also took...

--a ride on the "Electric Rainbow". This was Mommy's less than brilliant idea. Sweetling said afterwards that we are never doing that again. Sweetling is right. We are never doing this again.

--ride a Ferris Wheel. Well loved by all.

--beat Mommy at checkers. This is not to be taken lightly. Toa of Boy worked very hard at accomplishing this. Finally, he did manage to shut me down, literally, for one game by completely blocking all my checkers. He has since tried for a second victory, but has yet to obtain another one.

--walk across a river. Well, not on water obviously, but across a railroad bridge from the late 1800's turned into a pedestrian bridge over the Muskingum River.

Finally, here is what we still want to do. Most of them must wait until the temperatures come down.

--go to COSI. (This has nothing to do with temps, just gas prices.)
--visit Serpentine Mound.

--see some buffalo. (Big Bone Lick State Park in KY)
--see Pig Island.
--go miniture golfing

--Acorn Land again!!! (Any nature walk through the woods during which time we collect acorns counts, apparently.)

--make apple pie (I'm not turning the oven on in this heat. All our meals are stove top or toaster oven only.)

--go to a mall (So far this summer, we went to Tri-County, Cincinnati Mills, and twice to Northgate Mall. But according to Toa of Boy, none of these malls count because they don't have a Lego store in them.)

--visit a historic village (likely, this will be the Sharon Woods Historic Village. We skipped Pioneer Days there last weekend because it was 87 degrees and full sun.)

Facebook Friday

Yes, I know its really Saturday. Too bad. Today is my day to do whatever I want. Neeener, neener.

Friday, July 9th, 5:24pm
I finished EVERY SINGLE ONE of the items on my to-do list today before five AND I went bowling. As a reward, I should get lots of chocolate. Instead, I'm going to a Children's Ministry meeting at church. There better be chocolate at the meeting. (Hear that, oh organizers? The Xuan needs chocolate.) In other news, do I ...want to know what the cold wet spot on my living room carpet is?

Saturday, July 10th, 10:11am
the Jedi is at a bbq contest today. I was going to go to Pioneer Days at the Sharon Woods Historic Village but its hot and I'm feeling lazy. I therefore declare today Chick Flick Day. I'm goiong to go get The Time Traveler's Wife from Blockbuster.

Saturday, July 10th, 12:21pm
And the blue ray player, like all technology, hates me. Now we're watching Jackie Chan in the Spy Next Door instead of Mommy's chick flick.

Sunday, July 11th, 2:22pm
My most talented computer related accomplishment this week....pressing the power button with my big toe.

Sunday, July 11th, 3:29pm
I bet we're one of the few families that have "colored duck tape, green and blue" on our general school supply list. Though, Christopher Robin might also have blue duck tape on her list, cause she has the same trampoline in her living room that we do.

Monday, July 12th, 10:30am
I can run up to walmart, be back before eight, and never, no never, forget the krispie kremes, cause I'm a woman...W-O-M-A-N! And while I'm crowing, I also made cheesy scrambled eggs for 3 young ladies, folded the laundry, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, straightened my hair, and I'm now off to play wii with Toa of Boy.

Tuesday, July 13th, 9:28am
It's official. We're starting school on Monday, taking a 3 day camping trip at the end of July, and taking another week or so of vacation time in the fall. Go us!

Tuesday, July 13th, 9:43am
Would anyone familiar with speech therapy take a look at this and tell me what they think? I'm considering one for Toa of Boy. Its a pretty cheap device, so not a huge loss if it proves useless to us.
>>>I've never tried anything like that for any of my kids but from what I've read I can see why it would be sucessful :)
>>>I've not heard of this before. Have you talked with the Hamilton County Educational Services Center? As a student, he might qualify for free services through the School District. The speech therapists I've encountered there are top notch.
>>>I am a speech/language pathologist. I have heard of these devices but have never used one. How old is Eswin? I would think that he would need instruction in how to produce the correct sound before the device could be useful for him. Also, Nora is correct - if he qualifies, your district would have to provide services for him. The trick is in the qualifying.
>>>I'm interested in the feedback too. One of my sons isn't quite speaking sounds correctly. I understand him no problem, but others have "complained".
>>>I recommend checking out the school system. Being a product of public education speech therapy, with home reinforcement, I think it worked good. I am very grateful for the 3 years of speech therapy I had in K-2 grades.
>>>ME: We did a summer of speech therapy last summer, and did pursue trying to get him evaluated through a school district (they wanted to label him as an ESL student, despite the fact that he doesn't speak any spanish). When I call his attention to the sounds he worked on last summer, he can take the time and make the effort to make the targeted sound a little more clearly. I dont want to be constantly correcting his speech. I just want him to be more aware of the sounds he's using.
>>>If you are absolutely sure that he knows how to make the sounds correctly, one of these devices can't hurt and might help make him more aware. If he is not sure of how to produce the sound, the device will just be reinforcing the incorrect production.
>>>Thanks for everyone's input! I know he knows how to make s and th ....those are the ones they really focused on last summer (plus a few consonant blends with l). After a year of no therapy, he only forms them correctly when someone else calls his attention to it. He doesn't self correct. I thought if we spent five minutes in the morning doing the ... See Moretonge and lip exercises the speech therapist taught us, and then practiced reading a few words or a single sentence with the tube later in the day, that would help him become more aware of his speech again.

Wednesday, July 14th, 10:18am
There was a woman on KLOVE this morning who claimed the title "professional fun consultant."

Wednesday, July 14th 1:19pm
Google medical text search....good. Google medical image search....BAD.

Wednesday, July 14th, 4:26pm
Does Learning Tree co-op take off the monday before Thanksgiving?
>>we have no mercy, LOL. We also don't have President's Day off.... Barb always said she thought the Presidents would like us going to school on that day, LOL!

Wednesday, July 14th, 9:00pm
I was telling the Jedi that I needed the jars beside the sink saved for school next week. Toa chimes in, "Can we make jet packs???"
>>I hope you said yes! :)
>>What were your plans for the jars next week?
>>Me: While I am a super-cool Mommy, I am not cool enough to say yes to homemade jet packs, despite the fact that Toa had their design all worked out. (You glue the jars together, put the fuel in, tie them on your back and go! Also, there should be a stick for steering.) The jars are going to meet the much less exciting fate of being an earthworm habitat (1 this week), and pond water collection containers (4 in a few weeks from now.)
>>Maybe he'd settle for this.
>>Me: I showed Toa the link and he said, "Can we make it?!"

Thursday, July 15th, 3:26pm
VBS is next week and I'm looking for...a fedora hat, a small ladies trench coat, and a yarn wig (like raggedy ann style, not big clown loops.) Anyone have these items that I could borrow?

Friday, July 16th
hey homeschoolers, do i need to send a separate letter of notification to my school district for each of my children, or can I send one letter and attach a separate intended curriculum and course of study for each child. (Yes, I'm getting my legal advice via Facebook.)
>>Yes, you can send one cover letter and then attach for each child separately your course curriculum, course of study and then the test score results or written narrative proof (whichever route you took if you homeschooled last year).
>>Opps forgot one thing - after your cover letter place your Ohio notice of intent to homeschool, there's room on there for both kids and then the other paperwork which I mentioned. I guess you've got yours all ready to go. I need to start working on mine. I love homeschooling, but for some reason I hate this part! Pray for me!!!!

Friday, July 16th
Tomorrow I'm blogging my little heart out :)

Computer Tech Support at Mrs. Random's House

1. Wake up. Turn on computer using big toe of right foot.
2. Go do the rest of morning routine.
3. Come back to computer. Sit down in chair. Jiggle mouse.
4. Stare at the black screen.
5. Look under desk at computer box. Power light is on and fan is running.
6. Jiggle mouse again.
7. Screen is still blank.
8. Check the monitor. There seems to be a little green light on under the button that might be a power button for the monitor.
9. Push an arrow key on the keyboard. Take that computer.
10. Desktop comes up on the screen. Booyah.
11. Move the mouse around. The cursor stands still. Victory is short lived.
12. Decide maybe the track ball needs cleaning or something. Pick up mouse.
13. Mouse is a lazer mouse. Run your finger over the little red lazer light just in case.
14. Huh.
15. Maybe mouse is unplugged. Jiggle cord of mouse.
16. Look under desk and jiggle cord of mouse to figure out which of the twenty million cables back there is the mouse cord.
17. Crawl under desk. Follow mouse cord to back of computer. Mouse cord appears to be securely plugged in. Jiggle it anyway.
18. Back to chair and jiggle mouse again. Cursor doesn't care.
19. Never surrender.
20. Raid the Jedi's supply of extra computer parts. Grab a mouse off the top of a box.
21. Back to desk with ill-gotten goods. Put unlawfully obtained mouse on mouse pad, drop cord behind desk.
22. Crawl under desk again. Unplug evil non-responsive mouse. Ignore the ominous bleeeep that follows this action.
23. Be smart enough to note that the two mice have totally different pluggy things at the end of their little mice tails.
24. Scooch the computer box out and start a scavenger hunt for a hole that might be the same shape as the pluggy thing on the stolen mouse's tail. 
25. Consider asking Sweetling for help. Discard this notion. Sweetling will probably say something sensible like check with the Jedi. 
26. Find a round green hole that seems to be the same size as the round green plug of the mouse. They are even the same color. This is surely a portent.
27. After a little finagling, plug the new mouse in.
28. Back to chair. Wiggle mouse.
29. Nothing.
30. Maybe it needs rebooted.
31. Realize you can't get to the windows "start" button on your desk top without a mouse. Its a Catch 22.
32. Ah, but wait, there is a reset button right above the computer power button.
33. Push that. 
34. Go water plants.
35. Come back. The computer is asking if you really want to restart. Once again, the mouse is useless BUT the default button is the one you want, so just hit enter.
36. Congratulate yourself on once again outwitting the device.
37. The computer reboots. The mouse you nabbed works. 
38. Pick up the useless lazer mouse. Put it on the Jedi's desk. Worry about how your going to explain all this later.
39. Sit back down at the computer. Realize you have forgotten what you wanted to accomplish on the bleepity bleeping machine in the first place.
40. When all else fails, blog, baby, blog. 

Back to School So Soon, So Soon!

Those of you following me on Facebook know that I've been whining about the heat and considering doing school in July and August, then taking a fall vacation in September when the weather cools down enough to make outing pleasurable again. The kids and I held a meeting on Monday. We looked back over our summer bucket list, and found that of the ten items still on our list, eight of these were outdoor activities. After that discovery, the kids were on board to start school early, and then take two weeks off in September.

Thus, school starts on Monday, baby.

We have all our curriculum from My Father's World. We're still needing to order a few things, but the kids won't cry if we have to delay a few subjects for a couple more weeks.

Over the weekend, I had sat down with the Book Basket list for the first two weeks of Exploring Countries and Cultures. I hopped on the library's website and placed holds on all books that I needed transferred between libraries. I noted which books were already at our local branch, and I checked those out on Tuesday during our regular library trip.

I'm noticing a troubling lack of chapter books in the book basket.

Back to the internet. Though I have weak google fu skills, I did find this lovely list of chapter books organized by countries put together by another homeschooling mom.

More lists of books to read aloud:
from an oregon county library
and, from a los angelas library


What I'm really looking for right now, is an interesting chapter book about traveling the world. Suggestions? Around the World in 80 Days?

Sleepover Quotes

Sweetling has two bffs over for a sleepover. Here are just a few of the things I have overheard. Names have been ommitted to protect the eavesdropping blogger from the full fury of a preteen's wrath.

• "I am an evil mastermind!" (yelled by one girl wearing a green blanket cape while being chased down the hall by another girl)

• "Hey, have you heard the new Toby Mac CD?"

• "Oh.....little brothers."

• "Expellerumus!" (yeah, I can't spell Harry Potter magic and I'm not looking it up.

• "I need a thesaurus to look up all the synonyms for 'disgusting.' "

• "Have we tried the Bag of Lightening yet? If that doesn't work, I think we should try Tornado Breath next."

• "Everything looks better on boxes than it does the real food."

• "They weren't cheerleaders who were zombies. They were vampires. Clearly your mother was misinformed."

Christopher Robin and Facebook Friday

No, those don't go together. But in true Me fashion, I'm sticking both of them in this post anyway.

I went bowling today (look, a third topic) and a friend asked me what sort of responses I was getting to my scheduling dilemma. (On a forth unrelated topic, I'm such a pathetic speller, spell check can't even offer any helpful suggestions on some of my misspelled words.) Speaking of pathetic, I am, in fact, the Gutter Ball Queen. I did moderately well the first game, scoring 100....which for me is reason to celebrate. The next game I bowled four gutterballs in a row, plus a few others here and there, to score a dazzling 65. Sweetling bowled one strike and three spares during her second game for a score of 116. Toa got three spares during his second game for a score of 94.

But, one of the other moms asked me about my scheduling. I shared with the other moms the idea of project week, which I was seriously considering. But, we don't do school year round, and I would have a mutiny on my hands if I took away summer vacation. And I shared that my friend Christopher Robin called and chatted with me for an hour, and then put together an excel spreadsheet for all the stuff I was at a loss about. It was requested that I post the spreadsheet, so I am. Check out this follow through. Click on the image if the blog column cuts some of it off.

And now for the Facebook Friday part of my post, cause I'm self-absorbed this way.

July 3rd

Make a commitment to read and discuss the Declaration of Independence with your family this weekend. Also, check out the prayer of the First Continental Congress

July 4th
What color do I want to paint my toenails today? Sadly, I have red polish, but no white or blue polish.

Tuesday, July 6th
I'll take good music and a little movement over caffeine any morning, thanks :)

Thursday, July 8th
Eswin is vacuuming the living room, hallway, and his bedroom all by himself. He's very excited to get to run the vacuum cleaner...which makes me wonder, what else can I get him excited about doing?

Thursday, July 8th
Hmmm...dishes done, kitchen clean, house vacuumed (thanks to Eswin), laundry all done and folded. I'm caught up on B90 and I read a children's novel today. (Curdie and the Princess by George MacDonald). I have about 45 minutes. I could sort coupons, clean out the Bermuda Triangle under the stairs, ...OR???

Friday, July 9th
Lo, I am Queen of the Gutter Balls.