When you get that new car
When you go back to school
When you move out really far
When you start to look cool

Are you happy now?

When you finally have children
When your kids are grown
When you are not on the run
When you are all alone

Are you happy now?

When you get out of the rat race
When you try not to lie
When you own that new place
When you finally die

Are you happy now?

-Liese

Posted at 5:34 pm | Comment (0)

28th June, 2008

Cherry Blossom

We went by the Cherry blossom festival today.

Hannah was so excited when she heared we were going to a “vegetable.” “They have egg toss there?” she queried. No, that was just at the Mike fest, because Mike was a chicken. Eggs have nothing to do with cherries. (I think she really liked that egg toss!)

They girls made dragon lanterns and we watched the dancers from the temple dance school. (It was really red under that red tent!)

We wandered around and looked at shirts and origami, bonsai trees and kimonos. Here is Grace being Hello kitty.

I think Hannah is supposed to be the middle of a sushi roll.

We went into the market and walked past fresh fish, rice rolls, gifts and noodles galore. Back outside Joel bought a snow cone to share (they’re huge.)

We looked over the carved seal stamps and calligraphy and then headed out.

We missed the musicians, but we saw a lady playing some of the instruments that they had there at the library one time. It was cloudy at first and nice and cool, but the sun peeked out and it started to heat up. I think I may have to go back to the market, they had an umbrella for Hannah and a whale noodle bowl for Grace (plus origami paper for Joel and notepads for Bethany.)

It’s going on tomorrow too, if you’re in town and have nothing to do!

Posted at 6:11 pm | Comments (3)

27th June, 2008

Presentation club

For presentation club the topic was endangered animals or ways animals help us. Joel did prairie dogs. Target is about to build on the prairie dog site by our house, we also found out there are burrowing owls on the site (which are federally protected.) It remains to be seen if Target can evacuate the prairie dogs and owls.

(Joel)
When land development occurs what happens to the land and wildlife? Natural land is necessary for animal habitats and it is also nice to look at an area in its primitive state. Plants and trees in an undeveloped area support our atmosphere. The air you breathe may depend on land areas remaining uncultivated. The safety of where you live may depend on animals having a proper food source. The chain of cause and effects of homebuilding in our area is rapidly growing into a huge problem.

As a result of the new homes, prairie dog colonies are sucked up with a special machine and relocated to prairie dog farms. Shea homes ships more and more prairie dogs until the farms are full; consequently Shea homes turns the animals over to a ferret program to be used as food. Soon they might just have to kill the prairie dogs as the farms are full and the ferrets have plenty of food. Some people think prairie dogs are a nuisance but they are a vital part of the food chain in their natural environment. In fact, we now have a problem with coyotes by our house because their main food sources, prairie dogs, are slowly being eradicated by Shea homes. Now the coyotes are eating small dogs and cats in our neighborhood.

Bethany did lady bugs, no they’re not endangered, but they do help gardens. We brought our ladybug habitat. We now have some eggs around the tank too.

(Bethany)
The life cycle of the ladybug is between four to six weeks. In the spring the adults lay up to three hundred eggs in an aphid colony. The eggs hatch in two to five days. The newly hatched larvae feed on aphids for up to three weeks, and then they enter the pupa stage.
The adult ladybug emerges about a week later. However, they usually do not have their spots for their first 24 hours of adulthood. There may be as many as six generations of ladybugs hatched in a year. There are nearly 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide and 400 which live in North America. A female ladybug will lay more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime. A ladybug beats its wings 85 times a second when it flies. Aphids are a ladybug’s favorite food.

Grace did blue whales (which are endangered.) She used her blue whale puppet she got for her b-day and I asked it questions (M = Mama, W=Blue whale.)

(Grace)
W: Hi, I’m a blue whale and I am the largest animal that ever lived on Earth.

M: What do blue whales eat?
W: Krill.
M: How do they eat them?
W: I eat them with my mysticeti.
M: What’s that?
W: It’s baleen.
M: How many blowholes do you have?
W: 2 blowholes.
M: What other kind of whale are you?
W: I am a rorqual whale.
M: What does that mean?
W: I have throat grooves.
M: How many do you have?
W: 50-70.
M: Is it true you grow to be 80 feet long?
W: Yes and I weigh about 120 tons.
M: How big is your heart?
W: As big as a Volkswagen bug car.

Posted at 6:11 pm | Comment (0)

26th June, 2008

Tea party co-op

Yesterday at the park Hannah made a nasty marshmallow and cheese cracker sandwich.

She ate it, but still…

Today I dropped Grace and Hannah off for their tea party co-op. I had 2 hours to kill so I went by the library, I know how lame. But, I got my pedometer prize for the book club, read every copy of Teacher’s mailbox and every HS mag. they had. Then I was able to look at some stuff on the internet with no interruptions. It’s amazing how quickly 2 hours goes by.

I picked up the girls, they had their nails and hair done, watched Cinderella, made crowns and had snacks. Hannah really liked being there and playing with her friends, she’s finally over that ‘mama left me’ stage.

I tell you those play dresses are a good investment, both of those were Bethany’s from 4-5 years ago (and she can still wear them too.)

Posted at 2:48 pm | Comments (2)

25th June, 2008

HS Q’s

Homeschool mixer. This is from a site where HS’ers can share answers to these questions. I thought I’d post mine here because my stuff on that site is just links to 2 days that we had recently.

1. Why do you homeschool? Originally it was because my future husband told me that we were going homeschool. Then it was because I really liked having them home with me. Then it was because I felt that God was asking a challenging thing of me and shaping me (and my children) to be who He wanted us to be. Although those are all still reasons we homeschool I have to add: because I know my children best. I know what works and what doesn’t. It’s become our lifestyle, it’s who we are. I really can’t imagine a better job than I have, I get to stay home (well, ok not always at home!) with my kids, doing fun things, and constantly learning with them.

2. What technique or curriculum do you use? Right now we use a Virtual classroom that uses K-12 curriculum. We are part of the Colorado virtual academy, and yes we’re HS’ers (ok, not technically under the law HS’ers.) We have also been unschoolers, unit study, Montessori, car schoolers and workbookers. Even though my entire curriculum is supplied by COVA I still do unit studies and other things on my own.

3. Do your kids work above or below grade level (or both!)? Both. I have 2 that are above and one that is at or below where she needs to be. She has some special requirements though, and she’s getting along fine.

4. What is your educational level? I made it through 12 years of public school intact and one year of college (just to appease my parents who really wanted me to go to college, while all I really wanted to do was get married and have babies.)

5. Do you feel that your education level has an effect on your teaching (both limits and abilities?) No. Simply put, I learn all the time. I am constantly reading and engaging with people and teachers who know as much as I do or maybe a tad more. In order to teach you have to know what you are teaching, so that means I am always remembering what I was taught or having to relearn things I was not taught (like long division, do we really need it?) I am also constantly looking at what my children are imbibing into their minds. Is it really something they need, or is it fluff? As a HS’er I can dismiss the fluff and get down to the core topics in any subject.

6. What does your daily schedule look like? Hah! We wake up (I’m not going to put a time) and eat breakfast/walk the dog/do chores. We have a Bible study most days and then get down to schoolwork. That may be an actual sit down type lesson (like writing an essay) or it may be something I just think up then (like using sidewalk chalk to work out geometry problems.) I have visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners in my house, so I have to present the topic in a variety of ways. I feel sorry for the kinesthetic learner in a classroom environment or an auditory leaner that has a teacher that loves to write.

7. Are your kids always polite and ready to learn? Polite to others, let’s just say they are typical siblings amongst themselves. I like to balance our learning with year round school. That way there are no major breaks in a time frame and we do stay sharp. After all you don’t go to work for 9 months and get a 3 month vacation in the ‘real’ world do you?

8. Do the kids (or you!) get frustrated? Oh, yes. Sometimes once a week. When there’s a problem with a concept I am just like any teacher, I just have fewer students to get the concept across to. Most people tell HS’ers that they could never do it because we are ‘so patient’. Walk in my shoes for a day an you’ll see I am not the patient type. So, God has given me grace in Grace (which is something you didn’t earn, but is given to you as a gift.) She has been a trial to teach, but I am coming out of it with more patience. So, maybe one day when someone says I must have a lot of patience I’ll be able to say, ‘yeah, I do.’

9. How has this affected your parenting? I know everything, because I’m here all the time (well, except for teacher’s night out with my HS group.) I know if someone is having a bad day because they didn’t go to sleep until 1am, I know if someone is sick or tired or cranky or just bored. I know how much information is stored in my kid’s brains because I put it there. I know what they have trouble understanding and what they need more help with. So, I think I’m a better parent for it. HS’ing has definitely helped with communication and having something in common with my kids (besides my genes in their body.)

10. How much free time do they have? More than you’d think. I admit I fill a lot of it with all of the ‘extra’ activates that we do. But don’t think that the ‘extras’ are because I’m thinking they aren’t ‘socialized’ enough. Far from it! I do the extras because I feel it adds to them as an individual, it helps them reach a goal or it’s just fun and I can’t do it without kids (ever see an adult playing in the mud alone? See what I mean?) I have a firm rule that school, by which I mean sit down type work, must be done before lunch. That’s because I don’t like doing school in the afternoon. It is rare, but I will sometimes switch if we have a morning activity and do school in the afternoon, but really no one likes to be sitting indoors after 1.

11. What do they do during their free time? Joel has CAP, archery, park day and volunteering at the Wings museum now. The girls have dance, girl scouts, story time, and park day. Grace will be doing soccer in the fall; Joel is doing flag football in the summer. We also swim, hike, walk, and read.

12. What hobbies do they have? Joel has CAP, which is more of a career step than a hobby. He also likes to build things like nun chucks and rubber band guns. Bethany has dance and loves to create artistic things. Grace has a whale collection, dances and sings. Hannah can tell a really funny joke…..I guess she doesn’t have a hobby yet.

13. What difficulties and challenges do you have with homeschooling? Repetition. Do you realize that I’m about to go over ‘Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons’ for the 4th time?! I have to learn how to teach something differently if it’s not working for a certain child. I might have the same lesson, but I have to give it in a visual, auditory or kinesthetic format (which can be tiring.) I have to monitor 4 different levels of education. Gone are the days when I could do 1 unit study and make it work for the different grades, it’s too hard to make it go from pre-k to 8th now. Also I have to monitor attendance and each child’s progress on our computer curriculum.

14. What makes homeschooling enjoyable? There is so much that makes it worth it. That look on their face when they finally get ‘it’, being able to give them opportunities like flight sims, dancing with the Moscow ballet and volunteering, having time to do what we want. Being at places while kids are in school that are empty and being able to take full advantage of the staff to learn things. Going camping during the week! Having an awesome responsibility to help my children in a way no one else can.

15. How do you get involved in the community? We are involved in our church, CAP, girl scouts and our homeschool group. We volunteer (like at the 4th of July fest or at Wings museum) when we have an opportunity. We can do more because we aren’t constrained to an 8 hour day at school. We help with the boxing of food at our church for our mission, we pick up trash at our park whenever we go, and James is working on his pilot’s license so he can volunteer to teach cadets how to fly.

16. When do you have opportunities to interact with public or privately schooled children? All the time (we’re not ‘unsocialized’!). We see kids at the library or the museum or the park. The difference is that at the library we can sit at story time and check out books at our leisure. The kids that come in from the school are shuttled to a book, shuttled to the check out and shuttled back on the bus. At the museum the large groups of kids are hard to miss. They are the ones who don’t get the hands-on time for the curator because their group is too large or they just don’t have time.

17. Would you like more of these opportunities? No, we have ample time to see kids that are in school as it is and the interactions usually aren’t the best.

18. How can they be created? Meet me on my turf, go in smaller groups and be willing to watch over the kids as the play.

19. What is your least favorite homeschool stereotype? I can’t pick just one. I hate it when people think I’m not smart enough to teach my own children. When people think we don’t socialize enough. I hate when people (especially HS’ers) think that I’m not Homeschooling just because I use a virtual school. I am home all day with them, I am the teacher instructing them and I am sitting right next to them; how is that not homeschooling? On the same point I would never ask that legislation be introduced that lumped virtual schoolers in the same category as homeshcoolers. I was a homeschooler for too long to see those rights violated, so I’m a homeschooler in name only, not under the law. I also don’t like it when we do take a few days off and they kids are asked why they aren’t in school. ‘We HS’ they say and I get dirty looks. That person doesn’t know that we’ve spent the last 8 weeks doing hard school and are just taking a few days off.

Posted at 11:27 am | Comments (2)

24th June, 2008

Flight simulator

Joel says that he can never go back to the $500,000 flight sim. He must have the 28 million dollar flight sim. His CAP unit went to the United airlines pilot training facility and got to use the jet flight simulator. His trinket of the evening was the pass they made you get. It’s a plastic visitor pass with his pic and name, the date and the words ‘must be escorted’. He said that the plane was very realistic and once you got inside you’d swear you were in a real cockpit. They got to switch off being the computer guy, the pilot and co-pilot. He made his landing straight on the runway. He said the grass and runway looked very real on the screen. When you were in flight the computer person could change the weather on you. So, one minute they were flying in sunny skies and then it was raining. It usually costs $5,000 an hour to use that thing (gotta get that 28 mil back somehow) but I’m sure CAP didn’t pay that much. Now Joel is spoiled and the Microsoft simulator we’re buying is going to seem like a baby toy………..

In other news since we’re members of the Wings over the Rockies museum now we‘re getting member e-mails. Yesterday we got one about a volunteer work day next week. Let me see: you feed us pizza and coke, you let us play with fire hoses and we get to mop down the B1-A and other planes…………YES, we’ll do it! They’re getting ready for a 4th of July weekend bash, so we’ll be helping clean out and off the planes in the museum and listening to a Lt.Col. lecture about being with the B1 program and introducing the plane. Cool, cool, cool. Also when I sent out our Tea Tuesday letters the mail guy asked what was in the envelope. Tea bags, I said. Oh, that can’t go regular mail, it’ll have to go first class. I didn’t have a problem before with tea bags going though the mail, maybe it was just him. So, if you get a letter from us this week, it will be 1st class, but don’t expect that every time!

Posted at 10:17 am | Comment (0)