Birthday Party

I should have known I was worried for nothing.  These kids know how to entertain themselves.  The hits of the party were the two leaf piles on either side of the yard.  Someone found a yellow baseball which they would chuck in the leaves and then there would be a mad scramble to retreive it.  We also ended up having to search for a size 3 boot at one point--a little tougher since it was brown and blended in so well.  Toolman put the yardcard on the lawn tractor and was giving little rides through our woods for the younger kids.

Birthday Party Plans

This Friday my Schnickelfritz turns eight years old and we're planning a birthday party/cookout to celebrate with some other homeschooling families.  I have to confess I feel myself getting caught up with the notion that I must be entertaining rather than  showing hospitality to our guests.   We'll have hot dogs and marshmallows to roast over the fire.  Fritz wants one of those giant cupcakes made in a silicone mold he's seen on TV (we found the mold at a hardware store for 1/4 of the television price).  I'm also making a pineapple upside-down cake in our 14 inch dutch oven. 

My main concern is what the kids will do.  They range in age from 12 down to 3.  Most are homeschooled (and the parents are staying), so I'm not too worried about a riot breaking out if they're not entertained every minute.  These are the simple ideas I've come up with.

• An Orienteering Course--this is Fritz's favorite activity right now.  We got out the compass and plotted a course to various trees and objects around our three acres.   I'll give a quick lesson in how to get a bearing and determine distances.


• A Scavenger Hunt--I've got a list of common objects in our yard--different species of oak leaves, rocks, sticks that look like letters of the alphabet.  I've got posters from the Dept. of Conservation to help the kids determine which tree is which.


• A Squirrel game--I've been saving plastic juice bottles to make bird feeders for our Flying Creatures' curriculum.  For now, the kids will act like squirrels preparing for winter by gathering acorns and depositing them in the bottles.  The first team to get their bottle full wins.  I figure even the 3 year old can participate in this game. 

 Thankfully, it looks like we'll have decent weather for Saturday.   If all else fails the kids can play in the giant leaf pile we've raked to the back of the property.  I still have memories of forts and hide and seek in the leaves.

What's Cookin

All summer long I've been doing my best to avoid the kitchen--fruit smoothies, cold sandwiches, etc.  The last thing I wanted to do on a hot, humid day was spend time making my kitchen hotter.  Although we've still had warmer than average temperatures, a cool breeze and falling leaves always motivates me to cook.  Maybe it's some built in instinct to stock up for winter or maybe it's the thought of  hearty soups and stews to warm me up from the inside out. 

A fellow homeschool mom gave me to boxes full of apples at Spanish co-op this week.  They weren't in the best of shape--a lot of bad spots to cut out.  I reasoned that just proved the apples weren't saturated with pesticides , as close to organic as I could come and free!  I always wanted to learn how to can.  I picked up a Squeezo strainer on ebay and all the pint jars on clearance at Tractor Supply over Labor Day weekend.  I cut up and cooked the apples.  Schnickelfritz, still intrigued by the machine from our pear butter experiment, lent a hand at turning the crank at pressing the fruit down.  My 10 quart stockpot only held 5 pints so I had to process two batches.  But we ended up with 9 pints of practically organic, sugar-free apple sauce.

Second,  I received an email about an e-course in freezer cooking by Shelley from One Roast Vegetable.  This is something I've dabbled in from time to time.  I'm the first to admit that our homeschool day goes SOOO much better when I know dinner is already taken care of.    Shelley has seven lessons online so far.  She has started with some experiments on what is really freezable or not--dairy, vegetables, and fruits.  I'd rather learn from her trial and error than ruin my own food in experimenting.  And the course is free, free free!  You can sign up yourself at Fresh From the Freezer.

A second e-course (and really a third) was shared by a fellow Homeschool Crew member.  She's friends with Wardeh Harmon, who espouses "God's Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season," hence the website GNOWFGLINS.com.  The course is like the lab work for the book Nourishing Traditions.   I'm learning the traditional ways to prepare grains, beans, and dairy foods to make their nutrients more bio-available.  This week I learned how to soak brown rice to eliminate the phytic acid that binds to the calcium, magnesium, and iron in the grain and prevents their absorption.  Wardeh provides lists of ingredients and equipment,  mp3 lectures about each topic, a whole binder-full of notes and recipes, and best of all for my learning style--videos of the step-by-step procedures.   There is a second course available on this site that is strictly to learn how to use sourdough in creating breads, pizzas, tortillas, etc.  The two courses are NOT free, but they are made available on a pay as you go/pay what you feel it's worth system (please don't take advantage of Wardeh's generosity by downloading everything without any compensation).

Review: PGKey

Most homeschoolers will agree that to some degree their decision to keep their children at home is to protect them from the violence and sexuality so pervasive in the world today.  And yet, we often leave major gaps in our armor by allowing that world in through television, popular music, and the internet.  Recently I received a product to review designed to help boost our defenses in the last category.  The PGKey SafeKey, which  looks like a thumb drive, touts "Protection for Your Children. Peace of Mind for You." 

According to the packaging PGKey includes:

• SafeKey Session Recorder


• SafeKey Encryptor


• Safe Key Safe Search


• SafeKey Time Lock


• SafeKey Alerts

You simply plug the PGKey into an empty USB port, the software loads automatically, you select a password for yourself as administrator and set up user ID's for the children you want to monitor.  When you go online you can customize the system by either blocking certain websites or only allowing access to a list of specific websites.  You can set  time limits  for computer usage and you can set up alerts if you child types certain words or phrases.  When I set up accounts for myself as administrator and my son as a user, the program automatically set us up as separate users when we start up Windows.  For myself, I had to type in a password at start up.  My son had no password but the computer would lock up unless the PGKey was plugged in--not just for internet access but any computer usage.   Now let's go through those features one by one:

Session Recorder--Most of the space on the PGKey is set aside to record screenshots at intervals of time you set.  As administrator you can then view the screenshots as a slideshow.  This is not just internet time, but any time used by the child ( I got to see a lot of solitaire games).  When the key fills up (60 hours worth)  it should discard the oldest data to make room for the new information.  I don't know if that actually occurs because my son is not allowed that much computer time.  I do know that when I first installed the PGKey, I would get a "write stream error."  The technician discovered that a dummy file they use to test capacity had not been removed from my key before shipping.  It would not record any screenshots until the dummy file had been removed.

Encryptor--The PGKey  relies on a parents password to disable its use, change blocked sites and alert words, and allow additional usage time once the limit has been reached.  If the key has been removed or someone tries to "hack" it, the information will be recorded.

Safe Search--The PGKey changed our default search engine to its own Google based Safe Search.  We use Google anyway, but this new version only allows for web searches not video, images, books, etc.   Of course you can always go to the search engine's website and use it rather than using the one on your menu bar.

Time Lock--I tested this by setting the limit to 10 minutes.  The feature worked perfectly--after ten minutes (not all internet time) a window popped up saying the limit had been reached.  The was a place for me to type in my password giving Fritz an additional 10 minutes of time.

Alerts --  To test this feature I set up an alert any time the phrase "Mississippi River" was typed.  When I put the phrase in the search engine I got an email alert within the hour.  Not satisfied with that (and assuming some teens will spend a lot of time and energy devising ways around the system), I typed in "river near St. Louis."  I used one of the phrase words and received a list of sites and images with the phrase "Mississippi River" in their titles and texts, but no email alert.  As a parent, you'll have to spend a lot of time inputting phrases and individual words if your goal to know when your kids are delving into forbidden areas.  NOTE: the keywords do not deny access to information, they just trigger an alert to the administrator.

The final feature I tested was blocking websites.  The online tool indicates that any website I list will be in addition to a list kept by PGKey (I'm assuming they've researched the seedier sites I don't even want to know about).  I chose a benign little site--Ultimate Disney, that provides information on Disney movies and DVDs.  When I typed in the address I was redirected to their main host site that has a completely different address (DVDizzy.com) and the site was not blocked.  I set up a new blocked site (Amazon.com) and this time the blocking worked.

Since my Schnickelfritz is so young and has such limited computer usage anyway, I think the best use for us at this time is to just allow access to a short list of sites.   As he gets older, we may take advantage of other features.  The PGKey is more of a reminder that "Mom is watching" than a real shield against filthy language and inappropriate images and videos.

The PGKey retails for $49.99.  Once it's purchased there are no continuing fees but you will need  to purchase separate keys for each computer in your house.  On their website  you can request a free trial (it doesn't say how long the trial period is).  You can see what my fellow Crewmates thought of the PGKey by clicking here.

Disclaimer: I received one free PGKey for the purposes of completing this review.  I received no other compensation for my honest opinion.

Castlewood State Park Orienteering

Schnickelfritz and I participated in our third O meet this past weekend.  As the weather gets cooler and the vegetation dies down, the events move from municipal parks to the big state parks.   Up to now we've just been covering 100 acres or so, today's event was held on over 1800 acres.  More controls were hidden off the paths then on, the  changes in elevation were much steeper and more frequent.

We began the day with a new training class for junior orienteers.  Fritz and three other boys learned tips for better navigation with the detailed maps.  A "catching feature" is some object or formation located past the control you are seeking.  If you reach it--say, a bridge, you know you need to turn around to keep looking for your target.  A "handrail" is a feature that you can follow to guide you in the direction of the control you are seeking--perhaps a fence line or the ridge of a hill.  The map the boys studied was a mini course laid oud by their coach.  When asked if they wanted to navigate together or by themselves all the boys chose the latter, even my Schnickelfritz.  Now the last time my little adventurer wanted to leave me behind in the dust was last year when we explored the Bathtub cave.  He was the first (after our guide) to disappear down the hole and the first to scramble out again.  There was only one way in or out so I knew he couldn't get lost.  Now I was putting my faith in God and a seven- year-old's ability to read a map.

 The coach gave each boy a two minute headstart before sending the next in line.  Fritz was going last and was really raring at the bit.  He must have asked "Can I go now?" five times in those two minutes.  I stuffed a whistle in his pocket in case of emergency and was still praying he'd decide he really wanted me to go with him.  When he had the green light, he tore up the trail, rounded a bend, and was lost to sight.  The coach waited another two minutes before he and I started up the path.  We were going to shadow the boys and collect the tape used in place of regular control markers.    Somewhere up ahead I heard a voice "Mama, I found the first control!"   After the third control we left the trail and started up a dry creek bed.   My initial reaction was fear that he was just running up the trail so fast he would miss the turn, but then I caught a flash of red shirt scrambling over a fallen tree.  I had to give him credit--the boy can read a map.

We caught up with Fritz on two occasions as our long legs and the coach's familiarity with the course allowed us to travel faster.  In both cases Fritz begged for another two minute lead.  He was determined to do this on his own.  He managed to find 12 of the 14 controls on his own and passed one of the older boys (who had fallen and scraped his knees).  When he reached the finish line, my little adventurer was ready for anything.  The real event was starting in 30 minutes and Fritz informed me we were going to find all 24 controls because he was "full of energy!"

This time we'd be competing as a team and I wasn't sure I was so full of energy.  I began trying to lighten my load as much as possible.  Rather than carry around a clunky bunch of keys, I only needed the one to unlock the car.  I took a familiar key off the ring and hid the rest in the car.  Did you notice I said "a" and not "the" key?  When I tried to unlock the car to get a highlighter pen for marking the map I realized I had removed the house key, not the own for the car.  Instead of using our 30 minutes to plan our course I spent it borrowing other folks' cell phones trying to reach the Toolman to come with a spare key.  He was evidently working with a leaf blower and hearing protection and missed my call.  I left messages for him and then Fritz and I joined the others for a mass start.  I figured it would take at least an hour for Toolman to get the message and come to the park so we might as well keep busy while we waited for him.

Remember that energetic little man I spoke of just a paragraph ago.  After six controls and two miles he wasn't quite so energetic.  "My legs are burning!" , "I'm exhausted!" and the ultimate sign of fatigue "I'm going to take a nap when we get home!"  We managed two more controls before nature called to Schnickelfritz and it was the type that boys can't do off the side of the path.  We headed back to the finish line and the bathrooms.  Fritz was at first disappointed at our score, the smallest we've gotten so far.  But I reminded him how much more territory we were covering.  In the past two events we only found half of the total controls.  This time we found 8 of the 10 required for the short course we were running.  That's quite an improvement if you look at it percentage-wise.

We've got two weeks to build up our endurance before the next event.

Wrap up week 10/18-22

Schnickelfritz is busy taking his Unit III test from Math U See Gamma--a whopping 56 questions.  It still won't take him very long.  He is determined to start MUS Delta before Christmas. 

We completed All About Spelling Level 1 this week as well.  This is a program we discoved as a member of last year's Homeschooling Crew.  I can't tell you what a difference it has made to ease the frustration levels of both student and teacher.  Fritz loves moving the magnetic tiles around rather than writing.  I love the step by step instructions--for some reason teaching language arts intimidates me.  We've had to move the tiles from our whiteboard to a new permanant home on the basement refrigerator.  Fritz was constantly using the whiteboard for drawing maps and pretending to be Mr. Demme teaching math.  He would just pick off the letter tiles to get them out of his way and it would take me a week to find them all again.

The weather has turned cool enough now that its difficult to find insects so we've returned back to the bird chapters of our Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.  We made a field trip to the World Bird Sanctuary open house last weekend.  While it's always a thrill to see bald eagles, even flightless ones,  this weekend was special because we were given access to the clinic where they care for injured birds of prey and their breeding area.   To go with our bird study, I also started reading aloud E.B. White's The Trumpet of the Swan.

We've been reading our way through the Bible this year (I have chosen not to read certain passages containing more adult content like Lot and his daughters).  We started Exodus and by coincidence Fritz's Royal Ranger commander decided to show the boys The Prince of Egypt.  She had to divide it and show it over two weeks.  Fritz insisted that we read far enough in the book to meet up with the story so I had to read 4 or 5 chapters a day.  Fritz listened without complaint and even insisted I "Keep going," --words to a mother's ears.

I've really slowed down our Mystery of History because I want to tie in to our Bible reading.   Growing up I never understood the relationship between the things I learned in Sunday School and what I learned about history on weekdays.  I want Fritz to understand that what we read in the Bible were real events that we can add to our timeline.  I can only read so much in a day though, so history lessons will just have to go slow for now.

Tomorrow we have another Orienteering meet.  This will be our first in a state park rather than a municipal park.  I have  a feeling it will mean more compass work and less relying on controls being on paths or easy objects.  There's going to be a new training couse for junior members before the main meet.  I hope Fritz will be able to make some new friends that share his enthusiasm.

A walk in the fall

Tonight it was a real pleasure taking the dog for a walk.  Down the road, where the neighbors keep horses,  there must have been two dozen bluebirds resting on the fence.  he birds took flight as we approached and when the broke out from shadow to sunlight their vivid blue coloring  just popped.  

Schnickelfritz caught up with us on his bicycle.  Further down the road we discovered a dead snake.  I can't be certain what kind it was but it wasn't a copperhead.  Fritz asked if he could touch it.  He's come a long way since we've moved from our urban home in Indianapolis.  He used to be scared of bugs--even the cute ones.  Now he wanted to touch a snake carcass.  He dismounted his bike, got a stick, and dug a trench to give the snake a decent burial.

It reached almost 72 today--rare for this late in the year.  The leaves are as brilliant as they're going to get (actually, they're all expected to fall with the rain this weekend).    I had good company.  It couldn't get any better.