Attention Missouri Train Fans

If you've got a little one who loves the I Love Toy Trains or I Love Big Trains videos, there's a once in a lifetime opportunity coming up in October.  The largest steam train ever built, the Challenger, will be passing through our state on a multi-day tour.  Arriving in Kansas City on Oct.   2nd, it will cross the state, turn around in Illinois, and eventually return to K.C. on Oct. 10-11.  There will be overnight stops or whistlestops in Jeff City, Washington, St. Louis, Pacific, and Sedalia.   A complete schedule can be found at the Union Pacific site.

Orienteering at night

If you follow my blog, you may recall that Schnickelfritz and I learned about orienteering a few weeks ago.  Tonight we had the chance to "kick it up a notch" with a Night-O, or nighttime race.   The event was held in a city park and there were hundreds in attendence.  It wouldn't surprise me if nearly half were under the age of 12.   A fair number of controls were to be found on the parks baseball diamonds or public buildings so kids of all ages could join in the fun.   Through the dark you could see bouncing lights and  hear squeals of delight as young ones found the orange and white windsocks. 

Other markers proved to be a challenge.  One was hanging from underneath a bridge.  I tried to hop on the rocks across and ended up slipping and soaking by backside.  Fritz found a more stable and shallower path a few feet away, but enjoyed laughing at my expense.  

In the woods,  the controls were only 4 inch squares on stakes.   You try to find a four inch target with a flashlight while your huffing and puffing and see how hard it is.   I'll confess at least once we ran right past a control and then heard a voice behind us yell "Here it is!"  A storm was approaching so the organizers shortened the amount of time we had to search.  We managed to find 11 controls in 45 minutes.  Sorry there aren't any pictures but I didn't want to risk the camera by stumbling in the dark.

Review: I See Cards

 

One of the first products the Homeschool Crew received this year to review was the Pyramath  by I See Cards.   While playing the game, the student will be practicing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts to build a pyramid of cards.  I'll confess right up front that math is my Schnickelfritz's favorite subject.  In fact, I will often dangle it as the carrot to get him to complete his spelling or reading assignment.  I'll also say that if I wasn't already calling him Schnickelfritz (a German endearment), the next most appropriate pseudonym for him would be "Young Mr. Competitive."    Pyramath was an instant hit at our house.  We play it for fun outside school hours (although we homeschoolers realize that learning never ends), but I will try to review this product for the parent trying to find a fun way for a struggling student to drill math facts.

 

The playing cards display both roman and arabic numerals and their names written in five languages.   The game begins by laying 5-7 cards side by side.  Taking turns, each player  draws a card and tries to place it over two adjoining cards.  In order to do so, it must be the answer to an equation made by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing the two original cards.  I've created an example using 3 and 5 as my base cards.

In cases where the equation creates a two digit answer (3 x 5 above)  we only focus on the units or ones digit.    The weak link in Pyramath comes from practicing division facts.  Besides dividing a number by itself or by one, there are a very limited opportunities to divide a one digit number by another.  Since division is our focus in math this year we had to come up with a new rule for Pyramath.  We chose to treat any adjoining cards as a two-digit number.  Then we could place a connecting card over them if it was a factor of that number.

The website includes rules for variations on the game.  You can also play 5-card and 7-card solitaire versions online.  (WARNING: These games are addictive.  Do not play if you have dinner on the stove or other reviews to complete).   If I were playing this to reenforce math facts I would stick to the basic game and require both players to vebalize the equation they're using as they palce their cards.   This will help you as the teacher  catch any math errors right away.  You may also see that the students areoverlooking opportunities to play cards because they choose to avoid the harder facts and just stick with addition or subtraction.   It may be necessary to give gentle nudges--"Do you see any numbers you can multipy that will end in 8?" 

In addition to Pyramath, I See Cards carries Fractazmic (fractions) and Prime Bomb (prime numbers) for math card games.  Each deck retails for $6.95.    I see these games as inexpensive tools and you can customomize the rules to grow as they improve in math.    To see what others on the homeschool crew think about Pyramath click here.

Disclaimer: I received a free deck of Pyramath cards for the purposes of completing this review.  I received no other compensation for my honest opinion.

Insect Collection

This year we are using the Apologia text Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.  After completing the introductory chapter, we jumped ahead to Chapter 9 on insects to take advantage of  outdoor observations while the insects are still around.

At one point

Royal Rangers Day Camp

Schnickelfritz and I attended day camp today.  It had been postponed due to storms last spring (and it certainly looked like we might get soaked again, but their was a gymnasium for back-up).   The turnout was certainly lighter, I assume because most outposts are just gearing up for the new year.  This year's theme was knighthood.  The events included jousting, throwing knives and hatchets, decorating shields, and pummeling each other with "swords" made with pool noodles.   Commander Bob's obstacle course drew the largest lines and repeat participants.  It began with a rope bridge constructed that very morning.

A miscalculation in the number of medals purchased meant that rather than award gold, silver and bronze awards for each age level there would only be medals for over-all winners.  Fritz managed to earn a bronze and gold.  We never did hear what the bronze was for, but the gold was for the Court of Honor--where boys recited pledges to the flags, ranger codes, and Bible verses.    In this case, they were actually the verses they learned last year (since the event was post-poned).  I was so pleased and proud to see Fritz was actually hiding God's word in his heart.

Pear Butter

For the past two days I've run into a fellow homeschooling mom and both times she's been loaded down with pears.  We had a big storm blow through last night and this lady's mother was picking pears off her tree like crazy before the branches broke in the storm. 

I've never been one to turn down free food, but I just didn't know what to do with pears--neither Schnickelfritz nor the Toolman had requested pears to eat before.   It turns out you can use pears almost any way you can use apples--pies, sauce, butter.  We are awfully fond of apple butter on biscuits and cornbread so that's what I decided to try.

Fritz was quite excited to see the Squeezo food strainer I had assembled in the kitchen; it was a recent ebay find.  "That's some machine!" he said.  I promised he could not only look at it but make it work before the day was done.  The pears went into a large stockpot on the stove while we started our schoolwork.    When they were sufficiently softened we started to load them into the Squeezo.   Fritz, who is destined to be an engineer some day,  interrupted the work several times so that he could look from a different angle.   When his curiosity was satisfied he was more than happy to turn the crank or push down the pears.  He was also close at hand when I disassembled the strainer to clean it.

At this point what we had was pear sauce and we both agreed that it would be fine to leave it in that form--the taste was delicious, but we had pear butter as our goal.  We loaded it all into the crockpot and added nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice.  We left the lid off to allow steam to escape.  The boiling down took  the rest of the day.  In fact, I finally filled 4 pint jars at about 10:30 at night; long after Fritz had gone to bed.  He didn't get to taste the results till this morning on cornbread.  The whole family agreed it was a hit.

Separation of Church and State:  it's the phrase used in arguments to tear down desert memorials to fallen heroes and prevent prayer before high school football games.  Today the phrase is probably heard more often than the author's more famous work--The Declaration of Independence.   Just look at what I found on the Library of Congress website.

It doesn't appear in the Constitution, in fact Mr. Jefferson wasn't even in the country when that document was written. 

The phrase isn't even quoted word for word from its original source: a letter by President Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist.  Here is the phrase in context.

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

This letter was dated January 1, 1802.  Anyone want to guess what the President was doing just a few days later?  He listened to a sermon by John Leland in a church service held in the US Capitol building!!   The event was recorded in the Journal of Manessah Cutler, a congressman from Massachusetts. 

According to another source, Margaret Bayard Smith, this was not an unusual occurence.





In case you have trouble reading the script I will type the text starting near the end of page one:

"The custom of preaching in the Hall of Representatives had not then been attempted, there after it was established, Mr. Jefferson during his whole administration was a most regular attendant.  The seat he chose the first day Sabboth & the adjoining one, which his private secretary occupied,  were ever afterwards by the courtesy of the congregation were always left for him and his secretary."

 

If the source of "Separation of Church and State" had no problems with attending services in a government building (which I assume would include prayer, Bible reading, and perhaps communion) then why can't little Johnny have his hand drawn picture of Jesus on the wall at school?

I guess I've just answered my own question.  If I don't know the correct interpretation of "Separation of Church and State," I can't object when my right to practice religion is taken away from me.  I may never have been taught this in school, but you can be sure my son will learn it!