XXX for the 30th Olympiad

Have you been watching?   I don't suggest sitting like a coach potato with picture in picture so you can watch two channels at once.  Nor is it necessary to watch every hour of broadcasting.  But it is nice to see discipline and dedication pay off.  And yes...my Schnickelfritz and I have chanted USA....USA in our living room from time to time.

There are plenty of opportunities to sneak a little learning into the Olympics as well.  The obvious choice is to keep an atlas nearby and look up countries you've never heard of before.  What about converting meters and kilos to American weights and measures?  You can discuss the history of the Olympics.  Our local station has been running a series about the 1904 Olympics that took place in the U.S.  Know where?  Just down the road in St. Louis as part of the Worlds Fair.  Several websites (like SchoolhouseTeachers.com) are offering Olympic themed freebies.

Unfortunately, there has also been the opportunity to talk about ethics--the Badminton athletes that threw their matches to get easier draws.  What about the Chinese system of taking children from their families and force them into a life of training for the state?

W for Where Did the Summer Go?

We've been on our school break since May.  All our summer plans are now pleasant memories--Camporama, the trip to Branson, etc.  I've spent the last week canning salsa and stocking up on freezer meals.  It's time to start our lessons again--next Monday.

The Homeschool Crew is getting ready for the new school year too.  All next week you can follow the Back to School Blog Hop.

If you're looking for motivation for getting your school year ready, or if you're just considering this homeschool notion, you'll find hundreds of helpful posts. I'll be joining in Tuesday through Friday (but I'll post links to Monday's posts as well. 

V is for Vote

I realize that I may be preaching to the choir here, studies show that homeschoolers are more involved politically than the average person.  We know our rights to keep our kids at home is constantly threatened.  I've made several last minute trips to Jefferson City to make sure our legislators know we're paying attention to the details in the bills they're considering (let's not talk about the whole "we have to pass it so we can find out what's in it" argument).

The fall election is often a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils.  It's the primaries where you can really select a candidate that represents your values and views on government involvement in your life.  I take my son with me every time.  I remind him that men have died to protect our right to vote.  Showing up at the polls is our way to honor and thank them.  I show him the voters guides published by several non-partisan sources and teach him that actions often speak louder than words--especially the words of campaign promises.

T is for Titanic Museum

Being several hundred miles from the nearest body of seawater and with the recent triple-digit temperatures, the last thing you'd expect to see on a road trip is an iceberg with a towering ocean liner close behind.  Surprising unless you're traveling through Branson, MO and then you're not only NOT surprised, but you've probably reached your destination.

We had seen the majestic ship rising about Highway 76 on our last trip but didn't have time to fit it in our schedule.  This time it would be a highlight of our trip--at least for my husband and me.  Neither of us was sure how our Schnickelfritz would react.  He's not a museum-enjoying kid, especially with all the other activities Branson has to offer right outside the door--go karts, miniature golf, etc.  Note: No photography is allowed inside the museum to preserve the artifacts.  The pictures in this post come from titanicbranson.com.

We arrived first thing Saturday morning and after taking a few photos outside, we stepped up to a crew member who handed us our boarding pass and an audio-tour device.  The boarding pass had the name of an actual passenger or crew member printed on one side.  We couldn't have asked for better bait to hook our son's attention.  Now he had a stake in the trip--he'd learn along the way whether his passenger survived or not.  Both my son and husband had the names of first class men, I had a third class female. 


Whenever we saw a numbered blue circle, we could key in that number into our audio device to hear more information.  Sometimes it was a recording of a Titanic survivor.  Sometimes we heard from Jaynee, the museum's human ambassador (there are also two dogs) or Bernard Hill who played the captain in the epic film.  I saw two benefits to the audio devices. First: it limited the number of guests in the museum at one time, making it much easier to see everything and interact with the "hands-on" features.  Second: my son viewed it as a scavenger hunt--looking for numbers.  He wasn't likely to read all the information on the walls and in the cases, but he didn't mind hearing it.  We could not leave a gallery until he had found and listened to all the audio messages.  Some of them even seemed geared towards kids--like the boiler furnace that growled "feed me."  We all tried our hands at lifting the shovel weighted down with coal.  No need to worry about gaining a few pounds on a cruise if you had to do that all day!




Shoveling Coal

My husband called my attention to a menu in the area dedicated to third class passengers.  The daily fare included gruel for dinner with a little note that any complaints should be taken to the steward.  We snickered at what we thought was a joke, but a museum employee dressed as a crewman informed us that the Titanic was one of the first ships where even third class passengers had rights.  They had private, albeit small cabins when most vessels just had steerage passengers in open dorms where they were packed like cattle. 

Third Class Cabin

It was here that I found a poignant display dedicated to my passenger, Emily Goldsmith.  She had been traveling with her husband and 9 year old son, both named Frank.  That hit a little close to home as my 9 year old son also shares his father's name.  A post-wreck photograph shows Emily's left hand on her son’s shoulder.  She was wearing two wedding bands.  It seems when the order went out for "Women and children first" that a traveling companion had taken off his wedding ring and asked her to carry it on to his wife who was already in America.  Emily's prized possession, her new sewing machine, went down with the ship. 

Some galleries were geared to providing information--the first and third class cabins, the room about the ship's design and construction, the maps of the voyage.  I learned that the Unsinkable Molly Brown was never called by that nickname--her friends called her Maggie.  Other rooms were more about developing a "you were there" experience--climbing the grand staircase, standing in the frigid air on the captain's deck or sitting in a life-size replica of a lifeboat.  Scnickelfritz was especially pleased by the hands-on room where he could climb the steeply sloped deck or see how long he could keep his hand in 28 degree sea water.  Believe me, it's not long and my hand burned for several minutes after I dried it off.

All of this lead to the memorial room with its list of all the passengers and crew.  We could search for our boarding pass names on the alphabetized lists.  Names written in italic font perished in the tragedy.  During our  tour Schnickelfritz and I had already discovered that our passengers had survived (ironically escaping on the same lifeboat I discovered during post-trip research) but we didn't know about my husband's name.  It was in italics.  Another well-informed crew member said that this man had thought he'd seen the lights of another ship and jumped into the icy waters hoping to swim to it.

I wondered how my son was taking in this whole experience, if he truly understood the tragedy.  Was the boarding pass lesson just a game to be won or lost?  As we stood in the memorial room I had a brief conversation with him.  I explained that although there was no finger-pointing in the museum, the White Star Lines boasted that "God himself couldn't sink the Titanic" so there was no need for lifeboats to accommodate everybody.  Others believe that the company's director wasn't satisfied with being the grandest ship afloat and  pushed the captain to go for a new Atlantic crossing speed record.  If the ship hadn't been traveling at night at unsafe speeds in a ice field...... My son took a few seconds to digest that information and then covered his eyes with his hands and buried his face in a bench cushion.  When he looked at me again he whispered  "I killed all these people."  You see the name on my son's boarding pass was Bruce Ismay, Director of the White Star Lines.  Yeah, he got it.  He had become so immersed in the last 90 minutes that he bore the guilt of what another man may or may not have done over a century ago.

As a homeschooling mama, I was impressed with the amount of educational material available online to prepare for or to summarize our visit.  I printed out the Scavenger Hunt for my son to complete during our visit.  The Language Arts suggestions include making a travel brochure for the voyage, writing a newspaper article of the tragedy, creating job descriptions for the crew,  learning Morse Code, or writing an essay on the concept of "Women and children first."    The obvious Science topic is buoyancy and how the "unsinkable" ship went down so quickly.  Other study areas are Math, Geography and even Religion.  The Religion section focuses on Father Frank Browne, who disembarked in Ireland and wasn't on board when Titanic struck the iceberg.  I wish there would have been some mention of Pastor John Harper, who spent his last minutes sharing the Good News with fellow passengers in the freezing waters of the Atlantic.

For full disclosure, none of the objects in the museum were brought up from the ocean floor.  That is the final resting place of hundreds of souls and shouldn't be disturbed.  Some items were grabbed in haste and carried on the lifeboats.  There was a lovely beaded purse of a third class passenger--she thought she would need the luggage claim tickets it held.  There's an Egyptian talisman that Molly Brown kept in her coat pocket.  Some pieces came from Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic, that represent the craftsmanship in the woodworking.  There was a remnant of Titanic's carpeting that some worker took home with him.  The photographs came from Father Browne who disembarked in Ireland.  Everything is the collection is still authentic and priceless.

In conclusion, there are plenty of attractions in Branson vying for your vacation dollars.  I heartily recommend a stop at the Titanic Museum.

Disclaimer: I received free tickets to the Titanic Museum for the purpose of completing this review.  There was no other compensation for my honest opinions.

S is for Scrapbooking---Digitally

I confess, I love to scrapbook.  When Schnickelfritz was younger and we lived in Indiana I would join several ladies at the local church for scrapbook night.  We'd have snacks and door prizes.  I managed to get 3 or 4 pages done in between chatting.

Now it's become more of a burden.  I don't want the mess of hauling out the papers and punches or worse, putting them away after.  And I don't seem to have the time I used to.  Last fall we took a trip to Disney World and I hadn't even finished scrapbooking the trip we took five years before. 

Then I discovered digital scrapbooking and I'm feeling that creative bug again.  It's all done on the computer.  I use Photoshop Elements 10  which I picked it up free using Office Max perks  (homeschooler are eligible for the Teacher Perks program).  Here are some of the advantages:

1. It doesn't take up space.  It's all done virtually on the computer so I don't have to lug out supplies to the dining table.  Better yet, I don't have to leave supplies on the dining table while I wait to find a few spare minutes.
2. It doesn't have to cost money.  Google scrapbook freebies and see how much people are giving away:  digital papers, great alphabet fonts, embellishments, and templates.  You can find all sorts of themes from Christmas to Disney vacations.
3. If you do purchase something you can use it over and over again.  No more running out of paper or worse using up all the "E"s in your sticker letters while you've got a stack of unused "Q"s and "X"s.
4. Lot's of the work is already done for you.  Some people create complete pages and all you have to do it plop your own images in the appropriate spots.  Other folks create templates--designating where journaling and photos should go but giving you the freedom to choose background paper and embellishments.  Here's an example:

I used a free template from Yin Designs.

I'm in the process of adding digital paper and embellishments from KellyBell Design's French Quarter kit.  (I purchased this kit).

There a  few concerns with digital scrapbooking as well, but nothing that can't be overcome.  First is the possibility of losing everything if the computer crashes.  I had lots of freebies lost when our laptop died.  So backup, backup, backup.  Second is how to print your finished work.  Most home printers can't accomodate a 12 X 12 sheet of paper.  I've found Cosco will print this size for around $3 (I'd spend that much per page buying paper and stickers the old way).  You can also use 8 X 11 templates which can be printed at home and just mount them on a sheet of scrapbook paper.

While delving into the digital scrapbooking world I found an intriguing idea by Robin Sampson of Heart of Wisdom.  She's starting to use digital scrapbooking techniques in her homeschooling.  Rather than simply notebooking, they have colorfully embellished pages to remember what they've learned.

From Heart of Wisdom

You can check out her ideas at Faster than a Lapbook, More Powerful than a Book Report!.   I'd like to try something like this next year with Mystery of History.  We may not do each lesson, but it would certainly help emphasize the dozen "Dates to Remember."

Be sure to check out the other "S" entries at Ben and Me's ABC Challenge.

 



R is for Royal Rangers

When we first moved to Missouri I was looking for any opportunity for Schnickelfritz to meet and make new friends--there aren't many on our rural road and he wouldn't be going to school.  He was only six years old and too young for Cub Scouts, and 4-H.  One day, at the local community college's International Fest, I spotted a fellow homeschooler's son in a red shirt and vest with badges.  He was on his way to a Pinewood Derby.  The rest is history.  Fritz is starting his fifth year of Royal Rangers.  Last year he advanced from Ranger Kids to Discovery Rangers (earning his Gold Trail Award in the process).  Next month he's off to Camporama, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Royal Rangers with  6000 other boys in southwest Missouri (it help's that we live in the same state as the National headquarters!)



Presentation of Gold Trail Award

 This scouting program was started by the Assemblies of God in response to leadership concerns that young men were leaving the church and the few remaining were inadequately prepared to live life as strong followers of Jesus Christ.  While the boys learn typical scouting skills ( starting fires, first aid, etc.), there is also a Biblical componant.  In Ranger Kids Fritz had two memorize dozens of verses, the names of the Disciples, and hymns like Amazing Grace and Trust and Obey.  I wasn't sure about a first grader having to learn the whole 23rd Psalm, but he did it.  To advance in Discovery Rangers, the boys must complete two Bible merits (using 5 weeks of studying a specific book of the Bible) for every skill merit they earn.

I've been pleased how many merits have worked into our homeschooling.  Fritz made his own book of Presidential facts (history),  learned sign language (foriegn language), and first aid (health).  Next fall's science classes will include the requirements for Astronomy and Space Exploration.

For full disclosure, we are not members of the Assemblies of God church.  There are some areas where we have to "agree to disagree" in the church's teaching (Baptism of the Holy Spirit for one), but so far this hasn't been an issue.  When he needed to learn that doctrine we had the option of reading material from the handbook or reading the passage in Acts about the day of Pentecost. 

Schnickelfritz has every intention of sticking with Royal Rangers until he's eighteen and earning his  Gold Medal of Acheivement.  I'm hoping that when he's old enough he'll join the offshoot organization--Frontiersman  Camping Fellowship.   In it, he'll develop advanced camping and leadership skills but also have the fun of re-enacting the age of the fur-trappers and mountain men.  He's on his way having already earned his Compass, Tool Craft, First Aid and Ropecraft merits. 

This post is part of Band and Me's ABC Challenge.  You'll want to check out what the others chose as their "R" topic by clicking here.
 

Queen Anne's Lace

It may be classified as a "noxious weed," but the Queen Anne's Lace I pass on my daily walks makes me smile.   The road to town is decorated with it--with bright punches of blue Chicory and the yellows of Black-eyed Susans.  I'm certainly a distracted driver.  Still, it's the wild carrot that's the quaintest flower along the fence row.  My mother wrote this poem about it.

Lacy Weed

Country roads are edged

in regal grace

by an exquisite weed,

Queen Anne's Lace.

Uncultivated, untamed

it thrives, tall and free.

Such delicate strength

challenges me.

P is for Persimmon

I love my morning time walks with the dog...it's when I do a lot of my blog planning.   We took a field trip to watch naturalists catch bats in mist nets,  we got two new Science of Disney Imagineering videos to watch, Fritz just went to his first Royal Rangers Pow Wow.  There's a "P" for Pow Wow but I wasn't in attendance and hardly felt qualified to write about the experience.  Then I found myself  carefully observing my neighbor's trees for signs of fruit and it hit me ---Persimmons! 

Ever since we moved to Missouri we've been reaping the harvest.  Actually, these was a giant persimmon tree in the field where The Toolman's astronomy club met in Indiana, but I didn't appreciate the fruit yet.   It can be a little intimidating to try for the first time, especially if you're familiar with sayings like "he's a puckered old persimmon."   Let me assure you that in real life it's only the young or unripe fruit that can put a pucker on your lips.  The mature fruit is sweet and citrus-like.

Persimmons mature from a green color to orange, even slightly purple.  (The ones below came out of the freezer--hence the frosty appearance). The easiest way to tell a persimmon is ripe is to wait til it falls to the ground. 

Of course this means you'll need to pick early and often before local critters carry them off -- I've heard possums like persimmons.  And I'm rather picky about what I pick up--some fruits split when they hit the ground and I leave those for the ants.

I have seen persimmon pulp sold at a local apple orchard.  Originally I balked at the price, but having processed pulp myself now I realize how labor intense the job is. 

Persimmons contain a number of large seeds--remember the folk lore that persimmon seeds can predict the severity of winter?  If you cut open a seed and see the image of a spoon it means a lot of snow, a knife predicts a cold, cutting wind.  All I know is that it means a lot of work removing seeds--they're too big to run through my Squeezo processor so I have to do it by hand with a sieve and potato masher.

I consider the finished product worth it though.  I usually end up with close to 20 cups that a freeze.  I've never found a tested recipe for canned persimmon pulp and since their funding has been cut, the National Center for Food Preservation isn't likely to come out with a method soon so freezing is the way to go.

I've posted my favorite recipe before, but I'll repeat it here--a delicious Persimmon Orange-Nut bread that I've given as Christmas gifts. 

3 cups flour                                                                   1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar                                                                1/2 cup milk
1 Tbs. baking powder                                                   1 cup persimmon pulp
1 tsp. salt                                                                      1 Tbs. grated orange rind
1/4 tsp. baking soda                                                      2/3 cup orange juice
3 eggs                                                                           1/2  cup chopped nuts


Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and soda. In separate bowl beat together eggs, butter, milk and pulp. Stir in orange rind and juice. Stir pulp mixture into flour until moistened. Fold in nuts. Pour into two greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until it tests done.

While writing this, I've thought of several other great "P" topics--pizza for one which is cooking in the oven right now.  I'm sure the other folks participating in Ben and Me's alphabet challenge have come up with others so be sure and check them out.

O is for Orienteering

Internat'l symbol for Orienteering

Last April Schnickelfritz and I rode the Metrolink downtown to see the FIRST Championships in St. Louis.  Seated behind us on the commuter train was a lady who worked with public schools to fight the growing problem of childhood obesity.  It didn't take long for Fritz to present his solution, "You should take them orienteering."  The women had never heard of the sport and perhaps you haven't either so this week's ABC post is on Orienteering.

While Americans were inventing basketball and volleyball, the Swedish military thought a little competition might help their officers improve their land navigation skills.   In 1919 the first public competition was held.  



A traditional course

 In a traditional race contestants are given a very detailed topographical map. The background colors indicate the denseness of the brush.  The distance between contour lines shows how steep or flat the terrain is.  Even man-made objects as small as a drinking fountain will be symbolized.  Each numbered circle on the map represents the location of a control (usually a windsock or flag with the orange/white triangles) that must be found IN ORDER.  Once you locate the control you'll find a paper punch attached with which you can punch your race card.  Each punch has a unique number of pins to make a shape or letter to prove you found the right one.  In fact our club is now switching over to electronic thumb devices so you really can't cheat.  The start is often done in staggered intervals and the fastest to complete the course wins.

A second popular race format is an O-meet is sort of the inverse of a traditional race.   These races have a time limit and you decide the course you will take to find as many controls as possible.  Controls that are farther away may have bonus points for the extra efforts you'll need to make.  You may also been penalized points if you return after the deadline.

The winner is not always the fastest person, but the one who can best keep his or her head.  Last year Schnickelfritz and I were neck and neck with a group of Boy Scouts.  When it came to the last control the scouts took off in one direction because he'd seen a control earlier that day.  However there were multiple courses being run in the same areas (some even using the same controls but in a different order).  They headed toward the river but I could tell the last marker was further south and on the opposite side of the road (#9 in the traditional course map above).  By the time the scouts realized their error they couldn't catch up. 

These two formats can be used for bike races or cross county skiing, they can be short sprints or last 6 hours.  Our favorite versions take place at night when everyone wears or carries flashlights.  While Schnickelfritz and I are drawn to the competition, others simply like to take a stroll in the state or county parks.  I've seen grandparents and dads carrying kids on their shoulders.  The O-meet map above is of a sculpture park.  Now if I'd tried to get Fritz to go observe some art with me, he'd have a fit.  But the clever organizers placed many controls on or in or around the statues so he had to interact with them.

If you like to this a try, check the Orienteering USA  website for a club in your state. Most clubs offer a training session for beginners before races.  I've also seen state and county parks offer classes/races in conjunction with a local club.  Start up costs for this sport a minimal--a good pair of shoes and a $3-5 compass (and perhaps a can of bug spray, this year the ticks are bad). 

But before you head off into the woods, be sure to check out the other O blogs at Ben and Me.



Nice!...New?...Not Necessarily

With the exception of Memorial Day weekend when our typical hot & humid summer weather decided to crash the party, we've been enjoying a really beautiful spring.  Fritz and I wrapped up our school year by taking class outside to our deck.  As I sat under our pergola  in a comfortable, cushioned chair it occurred to me that everything on our deck we got for free.  That's right--even the new gas grill.  Now that's some news to share.  And I might have a few thrifty tips to throw in too.

Let me say that this is the first season our deck has been so bedecked even though we're on our fourth year living in Missouri.  THRIFTY TIP --Patience is a virtue.  Patio furniture is a want, not a need so it comes after normal bills and home maintenance.  We passed up numerous end of season sales because we hadn't saved up for the expense.  A bargain isn't a bargain if you use debt to pay for it.

Shortly after we moved to Missouri our neighbor lost his home in the housing crisis.  We had struck up a relationship during our brief time and when he left he said "Help yourself to whatever's left behind."   On his back deck was a glass top table and a stand-alone porch swing the dog used to sleep on.  THRIFTY TIP--Dirt is temporary.  Both pieces looked terrible but their structure was sound.  A little quality time with a pressure washer did wonders.  We began using the table immediately with a few plastic chairs.  The swing cushions had to be thrown out so it went into our barn until replacements could be had.  (Cushions are a want too).

Step forward to last fall when Schnickelfritz's grandparents finally followed us from Indiana to Missouri.  Their backyard had a small concrete slab to which  the previous owners had added a deck that appeared to be made out of pallets.  It was covered by a pergola that had seen better days.  Some of the overhead bars had trapped water and over the winter they had bowed and buckled.   We found the tarp in the garage but the ties had been torn and the seams were rotting.   We helped my parents remove the wreck and took it to our home (we live outside city limits and have a barn to hold "junk").  The keen-eyed Toolman found a name on one of the vertical post footings.  A little Internet search helped us get the number for customer service.  Now we made clear to the company that we weren't the original purchasers of the pergola and just wanted to know if replacement parts were available.  I guess we weren't the first to bring the trapped water and ripped ties to their attention.  They sent us a new set of overhead poles that now had seep holes in the ends.  The new ties were separate from the tarp and wrapped around the poles that weighted down the ends rather than tug on the fabric.  And they sent everything for free.  THRIFTY TIP--Customer service can be your friend, even if you're not the original owner.

A big change came to the deck when we were offered first dibs on a set of chairs and end tables before they ended up on the curb for pickers.  They were replacing their patio furniture after 25 years or so based on its dusty rose paint.  We found some evidence of retained water freezing and distorting the tubes again and once again the mold had a date with the pressure washer but most of the cushions were in good shape this time.

The Toolman banged out the tubing into its original shape and drilled his own seep holes to prevent a recurrence.  Then he picked out a lovely can of Hammered Gold paint.  Look at the results. THRIFTY TIP--You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, but furniture can always be restored, recovered and repainted.

Our final piece arrived on the eve of our neighborhood garage sale.  While helping a single lady down the road bring up some furniture from the basement,  my husband The Toolman spotted the 6 burner, stainless steel monster with the sale tag on it.  She had won it in a raffle at work.  He wanted it badly to replace the ancient grill we'd been using (I won it in a contest when I was 11 years old, believe it or not).  Of course we had already agreed that our profits from the sale were going to repaint the house so he sent me down to negotiate.  Now what did we have that Miss Brenda wanted?  Turns out she was in the market for lawn furniture herself.  Now I wasn't going to give her any of our new (at least new to us) pieces, but do you remember the swing we had stored in the barn?  I'd purchased outdoor fabric (on clearance + a 50% off coupon) but had never found a bargain for weather-resistant cushion material so it still sat out there collecting cobwebs.   Both of us we satisfied trading our free items that we didn't need for free items that we wanted.  THRIFTY TIP--Bartering is a lost art, it's time to find it again.

So is our deck perfect now?  Well, I'm not crazy about the white plastic table with everything else looking so posh but I can live with it.  It's becoming a game now to see how its replacement will arrive and in the meantime, we're trying to figure out if we can spray paint it without taking out the glass. 

Now before I close, I want to be clear that we aren't  nice to people just so they'll give us things.  We practice kindness and courtesy because our Savior taught us the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.  The final THRIFTY TIP--Sometimes you can find yourself being blessed when your bless others.

M is for Movie Night

 When I was a little girl, movies used to be special.   You didn't get to go to the movies very often.  There was no such thing as DVDs or VCRs, certainly no cable or satellite or streaming downloads.  When we did go to the movies, you exercised some care about what you spent your money to see.  Nowadays, the studios just seem to be cranking out flicks left and right--if they're not good enough to release in theaters (a very low threshold I might add) they can go direct to DVD. 

We're fairly careful what films we allow into our home and into our eyegates if you will.  And I'd like that experience to be special for the whole family.  So this year we're kickin' it up a notch and starting a backyard theater.  The Toolman stalked the online auctions and Dell's reconditioned sales site and found a bargain for a projector.  We tested it out last night using read projection from the garage.

We couldn't set the projector right behind the screen because it created a "hotspot" right in the center of the shot.  The projector allowed you to skew the image so that everything appeared dead on even though the shot was actually coming from about a 45 degree angle.

Eventually, we'd like to show movies projected on the front of our barn in the back yard.  We've got a sloped hill that would make a natural amphitheater.  Off to one side is our fire pit so we could have hot dogs and s'mores  --a snack bar for the drive-in if you will.

I've got a long list of movies to share with family and friends.  Epics like Ben Hur, old Disney flicks like So Dear to My Heart, comedies like Bringing Up Baby.  Maybe we'll start a Friday Family Flicks review feature and I'll tell you how each one went over.  Anybody have any films they'd like to recommend?

This M is for Movie Night is part of the Ben & Me's ABC Challenge.  You can check out the other M topics by clicking here.

L is for Lego League

Normally when I blog, I try to write about something I'm very familiar with.  Today's L in Ben and Me's Alphabet Challenge is actually something I want to learn more about myself.  A few weeks ago, Schnickelfritz and I went on an adventure (code of field trip) to the FIRST Robotics Championships in St. Louis.  Although the glitz and glamor went to the 14-18 year olds building basketball shooting robots, there was a minor leagues version for up and coming programmers and engineers.  FIRST's  Lego League is a world wide competition for 9-14 year olds.

Each Annual Challenge is made of three parts: The Project, the Robot Game, and Core Values.  I'll share what I've discovered about the 2012 Challenge: Food Factor (each year has a new theme).

The Project

The students had to:

• Identify a problem associated with food safety.
• Research a solution that is either a new idea or improvement on something already being done.
• Create an innovative solution for safely harvesting, transporting, preparing, or storing certain foods.
• Share their solution with their community
• Make a 5 minute presentation before a panel of judges

Sounds like their logging some serious Language Arts hours to this home schooling mom!  Research skills, public speaking, perhaps marketing, graphic design etc.  I didn't get to see any presentations--I believe there all done behind closed doors so the kids don't have to deal with stage fright. 

The Robot Game

Each team has about 10 weeks to build and program a Lego Mindstorm robot that can navigate the playing field and perform tasks: drop off loads, pick other loads up, turn a dial, pull a wagon etc.  Each task has a point value based on difficulty and distance from the base corner.  I believe there are 300 points available in a 2 minute 30 second match.  Here's the kicker--the kids have to design, build, and program their robots themselves.  They have to learn about sensors and a programming language.  Coaches are encouraged to help students experiment to discover what works best but they're strictly hands off the robot.  All decisions are to be made by the kids.

Core Values

I couldn't say this better than they do themselves, so I'm copying this from the FIRST Lego League website.

The FLL Core Values are the cornerstones of the FLL program. They are among the fundamental elements that distinguish FLL from other programs of its kind. By embracing the Core Values, participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.

We are a team.

We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.

We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.

We honor the spirit of friendly competition.

What we discover is more important than what we win.

We share our experiences with others.

We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.

We have FUN!

I'm attending an informational meeting to learn how to coach a Lego League team myself, so I hope this is this first of many FLL posts.  In the meantime I'll keep blogging through the alphabet.

K is for Kay Arthur

Here we are at another post for Ben and Me's ABC challenge.  Since the beginning I had planned on sharing about my Kindle, but several others beat me to it and I hate to be a copy cat.  I really struggled with what my K would be--I even looked for my 20 year old picture of me holding a koala bear.  But when I was organizing workboxes for the upcoming week I spotted the author of our Bible curriculum--problem solved!

I mentioned a few posts back that my Schnickelfritz is serving our church by running the sound equipment for the children's worship.  A requirement for the privilege/responsibility is to keep up a daily Bible study.  To meet this (and for homeschool) we've been using Kay Arthur's Bible studies for kids--Discover 4 Yourself.  It is still the inductive Bible study used in the adult program, but each lesson has an introduction involving Molly and Max and their dog Sam.  For the Daniel studies they were helping an aunt write scripts for a TV series,  in the Genesis studies they are helping an uncle with an archaeological dig.

I think what originally appealed to my son was wrapping his head around the idea that is was okay to color in his Bible--in fact it was a requirement.

Here we've been marking the key words of Daniel 2 where King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about a large statue made of different materials: kingdom, God, (the "you/your" are all pronouns for the king and are marked the same as his name).  We also have underlined placed in green and made green clocks for time references. 

After marking the passages we may have questions to answer about the text or we may fill in a chart to make things clearer.  I wish I could find the book covering the second half of Daniel but I've apparently left it in a "very safe place."  Or Fritz has been looking through it--he still gets out former studies and reviews them on his own).  But here is the statue from Daniel 2.

I was a little hesitant to study the prophecy in the second half of Daniel--it's intimidating to adults never mind kids.  But everything was handled step by step.  It did this mama's heart proud to see her son reason out that the small horn in Dan  8 couldn't be the same as the little horn in Dan 7--one grew out of four horns and one grew out of ten.  He also made the connection between the four horns on the goat and the four headed beast and realized they referred to the same kingdom. 

If you're looking for a Bible study for your children I highly recommend the Kay Arther Studies.  Some studies cover books (or portions of books) of the Bible, one is a generic "how to study", and two cover Names of God and How to Pray.  The Bible books with studies so far are:

• Genesis (5 studies)
• Daniel (2 studies)
• Esther
• Jonah
• John (3 studies)
• James
•  2 Timothy
• Revelation (2 studies)

Since we've started these studies my son has insisted we do Bible study every day.  Sometimes he's even said Bible has replaced math as his favorite school subject.  I've been learning alongside my son so don't think these studies are just for kids.   I share all this as a customer, not a reviewer.  I've bought all the books in the series and we'll work our way through them.



J is for Jenga Blocks

Do you remember playing Jenga growing up?  I seem to recall spending a New Year's Eve party with the church's youth group, seeing how tall we could build a tower of blocks without it tumbling.   I still had my set when Schnickelfritz was born so I turned it over to him when he reached the building with blocks age.  Trust me when I say he's taken Jenga blocks to a whole new level.  I started buying more sets.  You can't believe how cheap they are to come by--one block gets lost and they end up at a garage sale for a quarter.  We probably have 7 or 8 sets now, some plain and some in primary colors.

Sometimes he uses them for two dimensional art, like this outline of the state of Missouri.

Other times he builds up.  He went through a phase where he'd wath You Tube videos of roller coasters and then build his own--sometimes with the wooden tracks from his Thomas trains and sometimes with Jenga pieces serving as tracks.  Last year he entered a highway interchange phase as you can see below.

He's even created his own Jenga font--letters and numbers, so he can track the contestants and points on his favorite show--Fetch with Ruff Ruffman. 



I can alway's trace Fritz's activities for the day by following the trail of blocks left behind (they usually travel in groups of four).  It's a quiet activity, it encourages imagination,  and I don't have to replace batteries all the time.  Someday if you find out Schnickelfritz has designed the latest, greatest roller coaster at a theme park near you, you'll know it all started with a set of Jenga blocks.

Be sure to check out the other J posts at Ben and Me.

I is for Immigrant's Letter

Long before there was a TV show called “who Do You Think You Are” or Ancestry.com or Family Tree Maker,  my family has had a passion for learning about the past (granted, it’s gotten easier since those things have arrived).  They would visit old country cemeteries and look through old church records.  We spent a recent family reunion browsing through attendance records and teacher’s notes from the one-room schoolhouse my grandparents attended.   There’s the story of one relative that hid in a cave rather than be conscripted in the Confederate Army while a younger boy had to drive a wagon load of salt to the Confederates before he was allowed to return home.  One of our dearest treasures is a letter written in 1851  by my great-great-great grandfather.  The story of how we got the letter is fascinating in itself:  Johann Kuhlenhoelter wrote back to friends and relatives back in Germany about the wonderful opportunities of life in Missouri.  In case anyone wanted to join him, he gave 19th century directions to the farm—

“…take a bout on the Mississippi to St. Louis, from St. Louis he has to take a boat on the Missouri river to Herman, from Herman on foot circa 7 hours to Second Creek.  From second creek I am three quarters of an hour away.” 

A descendant of the letter’s recipient brought the letter with him when he vacationed to the United States more than 150 years later.  He stopped at the county historical society and asked if there was anyone around with the same last name.  Because of our family’s research trips to the society, they knew my grandmother would be interested.  They even helped us find a translator for the letter.

The letter itself is long and rambling—apparently in those days (at least in Germany)  the recipient had to pay a steep fee before the letter was handed over.  Johann wrote to the one who could best afford to pay and asked him to share the news with everyone else, answering their questions helter-skelter. There are also some issues in translation that make the phrasing sound awkward but there are a few passages I’d like to share----

Mid August 1851
In the name of Jesus
Yes, Lord, in your hands are my beginning and my end—and also while I am writing this letter.  Jesus Christ the crucified, the true Savior, or only salvation in life and in death, be with all who seek thee and who love Him with all their hearts.  To live with the most beautiful among the living and in true belief and love to trust Him, that—wishes you your least worthy brother (Johann Otto Kulenhoelter) with all his heart. 


First let me pause to say “How cool is that?”  It sounds like the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians, not some farmer letting the folks back home know he’s okay.  It just proves God’s promise in Proverbs 20:7 “The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him.”  (I can say that as a great-great-great granddaughter.  Even my son, another generation, has accepted Christ as his savior).

Of course everyone back home is curious about life in the states.  Johann writes about the weather, his crops, his farm...

 My beloved readers--it is a rare occasion to read about the conditions of this country.  How one lives and what is happening here...therefore the reader in Germany cannot get the whole picture and remains doubtful and confused.  Even I cannot give you everything I know, because my time and the paper is limited. 

Nobody will find America to be the way we all thought it would be.  I live in the State of Missouri.  As you look at the map, this is a southern state of America.  The longest days here are about two hours shorter than the longest days in Germany.  From that you can conclude that the climate is a lot warmer here and the winters not so cold and long lasting.  The weather here is quite changeable, and we have a lot of thunderstorms.  Spring comes a little earlier than in Germany.  Crops come here to an end much earlier.  Grain, for instance, is ready to be brought in by the end of June.  Oats can be harvested in the middle of July.  Maize is one of the main crops and can be planted around March to June.  The plants are separated by around 4-5 feet, because the whole plant can be about 10-12 feet high, and even higher at times.  This way you can keep the underbrush from spreading out between plants, and you can plow on both sides just using one horse.  When you start the plants, you have to keep the ground raked, which you can do with small rakes or a mall pick ax.  But whoever is too lazy to take the time and look after the plants has only himself to blame.  In good times and with good care an acre can produce up to 60 or 80 bushels, even more if there is some top soil.

Wheat and oats don't grow here as well as in Germany.  It must be the heat--they ripen much too fast.  And one doesn't change the ground as much as one does in Germany. Corn can be grown in the same spot for several years.  Germans will grow potatoes, Americans don't even try.  I haven't seen brown cabbage grown here but white cabbage grows very will and all like it.  Peas are grown here also, but like beans, they are more likely eaten by Germans than Americans.  But they are not considered to be the main meal.

Main meals here consist of pork, fried or cooked, with bread, which is made various ways.  It's not baked in the oven, but made in pots and pans and consists of flour of various grains.  Coffee, eggs and sweet milk and butter is good in the summer time, when everything like that is in plenty supply.  In the morning one drinks the coffee first and then makes sandwiches with various meats.  Now, in the spring we eat eggs, fried or boiled, because there are so many chickens and they lay many eggs, and it goes on all day.  Now the reader shouldn't get angry--it's the truth, we have meat with every meal.  Same in the wintertime.  Then we have plenty of sausages.

Anyone can live like that, even if you come to this country without a penny to your name.  Granted, not quite as much in the first year, a little more in the second year, but in the 3rd and 4th year everything will be improving, because the livestock has been started and is growing.  And this happened with much less work than in Germany.  Dear reader, America is a country which leads poor and honest people to the road of prosperity. From the food that is just enough to the food that's plenty.

Now you would like to know how much I have.  I have restored 8 acres of pretty good land.  On all 8 acres I have planted corn, because it brought me the best reward.  I had more than 50 bushels from last year...On my grounds I have 3 little houses, the biggest is the size of your living room Bernd.  That is the henhouse, then I have a horse house and then my house where we live.  I will build another 2 houses this year--a larger house for ourselves and a house where I can keep my grains.  I want to build two  more-- a larger horse house and a smoke house.  And when the Lord is willing I will have 5 more acres and a meadow, but not all in one year, and only if the Lord says yes.  My livestock is rather small.  I have one horse, two oxen, two cows with calves and two more cattle.  This fall I will buy two more small oxen.  I have not been lucky with pigs.  I have all together only 14.  It should have been 30.  Sheep I don't have at all.  I had 2 the first year, but I sold them because they are hard to keep because of wolves.

Dear Brothers, I need to answer your questions:  How does a man start to live and earn if he comes here without money?  I will tell you--nobody puts you and your things into the cold and leaves you there.  The oldest farmers take the newcomers into their houses and keep you there until you have worked the ground and have put a house on it.  

[ Imagine that...neighbors helping neighbors.  No one asking the government for a handout...I'm just saying.  Johann concludes with the American dream, but with a Christian twist]

If I would have stayed in Germany you know what my fate would have been.  I would have been a day worker, and how hard that kind of life is you know yourself.  Here I don't need to pay rent to anyone, no money to pay for wood, no money to rent some land.  And I don't even need to buy bread.  Here I am every day with my family, here I use my own livestock to work the land.  No police will come by, no miner boss and no judge of farmers will appear.  No farmer will employ me and fire me at will and nobody can evict me from my house.  In this free county I don't take my hat off to anybody but my Lord.  In this free country anybody can worship his belief as he pleases.


Now I am getting to my last page.  Anyone reading this letter will have to see how he wants to see the truth, because I have not written this letter to antagonize nor to entice anyone.  He who has the notion and the ability to leave, should leave the misery of Germany and come--in God's name and fortified with prayers, and with faith in HIM, you will make the crossing over the Atlantic into this large, wide country.  There is room enough for millions of people who wish to live free and not worry about food and drink.  Whoever doesn't want to come, nor has the means to come, will have to stay in Germany.  When the days of your life are up, it doesn't matter where on dies, in Germany or America.  It depends on who is the boss: belief in God or belief in man, the Holy Ghost or one's own pursuit, if we are children of God or the children of Satan.  Nobody will ask you that but you have to ask yourself that question.

I remain--for the grace of God, the least of your brothers,
Johann-Otto Kuhlenhoelter

Someday I will get to meet this ancestor of mine in heaven  and I will thank him for having the courage to come to this new land and also for the heritage of faith that he passed down. 

This was week 9 of the Ben & Me's ABC challenge.  Check her blog to see what others have come up with.

H is for Home Management Binder

Here week are at week 8 of the ABC challenge at Ben and Me.  My H is for Home Management Binder.

I have to confess that I am not a naturally organized person (I'll pause here a moment to allow those who know me well to get up off the floor and quit laughing at my stating the obvious).  I do see the benefits of being organized  --  school can go much faster when you don't have to search for the book, the pencil, the whatever;  there aren't as many heart palpitations when the doorbell rings and you're nervous the person on the other side will see the dirty dishes on the table,  you don't waste money on fines for library books that aren't returned on time or late fees for the electric bill.  I'm usually pretty good when it comes to things that cost me money, but lately I've been slipping up so perhaps it's time I kept my brain in a binder.

If there's something you truly can't afford to forget--WRITE IT DOWN.  Then you have to take that further step and make sure what you've written it on doesn't get lost.  So I went to my local office supply store and purchased a perky, green three-ring binder to collect those "do not lose" papers.  So far the sections I know I need are :

• Phone numbers for utilities, doctors, other members of the co-op, etc.
• A calendar with appts, field trips, and other not to be missed events
• A check off list of monthly bills to be paid and their due dates
• a calendar to track when I have reviews due and other blogging deadlines
• A list of household chores--I just don't come by this naturally

I started by looking through the pages of my Schoolhouse Planner (which has plenty of non-schooling related forms).   There's the library item list (is it a homeschooler thing or a bibliophile thing, but I go to the library more than once a week so nothing I get has the same due date).   I also printed out medical history forms,  shopping lists,  chore charts, and phone/address pages.  Then I went online to find recommendations for how frequently to do certain household chores (not the frequency with which I was currently doing them obviously) and wrote them on calendar pages.  Now I at least have a reasonable shot at remember to clean the refrigerator coils or change the furnace filter.

Here's my own contribution to a Home Management Binder, two-sided sheets where I list all my family's favorite recipes and where I can find them under the appropriate category .   This way we don't forget a favorite just because it's in a cookbook I don't crack open often.  The Planned Over pages are for recipes that use meats left over from a roast on a previous night--cooked, chopped chicken for example.  It's a great place to list what you're going to do with the leftover Thanksgiving turkey.  On the protein type pages there is a column to list the specific cuts of meat and amount to purchase.   This way when you see a  sale price on meat you'll know immediately what recipes you can prepare.

Recipe Organizer Printable

Speaking of sale prices, if it's really a stock up value you may want to buy more than you can consume in a week (or would care to, who wants pork chops five nights in a row?).  There's a column labeled Freeze?  I may a check mark if the dish can be assembled ahead of time and frozen to cook and serve later.  You'll want to check back May when I present 5 Days of Freezer Cooking and part of the Homeschool Crew's Blog Hop.