The Colorado Adventure

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!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

We made it to WOTR after Joel did his laundry (told you he’d have time on Monday.) I got a membership and we wandered around. They set up a new space exhibit, moved a few planes around and had a new movie. We noticed this time that the old flight sim they have is from CAP.

Joel is doing a flight sim tomorrow using an up-to-date one from United Airlines. He thinks that’s a good thing, since this one has no screen. Here are a few of the planes and the hangar.

Joel bought James a ‘remove before flight’ tag on a key chain to remind him of his discovery flight. Not that James had tags to pull before flight, but I thought it was cute (and Joel was so proud he got a 10% discount because we’re members now! And yes that’s a real plane.)

The Vet. at the checkout asked him if he’d been in the B-17 when it came through, Joel said yes and he sat inside a KC-97. They asked why we were sunburned and we told them about encampment at the AFA. They were surprised that he got to go there on campus, I agree, it’s a great honor. Here’s Bethany in the space lab.

On the way home we stopped by Bank’s school supply. I can’t help it. My curriculum is paid for since we use a virtual school, but I still like to go and buy things for our own independent studies. I found sentence strip paper for Grace, cube puzzles for Hannah, Joel found a mini marble game (ok, so that’s not really school related.) For Grace I found 3 card games, 1 is make a word, 1 is sight words and 1 is a reading matching game. I also found a game that is a dice filled with smaller alphabet dice. You roll it and then however many people are playing try to write down as many words as they can find in 1 minute. You cross off any words that are common afterwards and multiply by the number on the outside of the dice. I can always find something at that place.

After dropping Joel at CAP (James walked there from work, 3 miles) I took the girls to redeem our library prizes. Oh, library, have I told you lately how much I love thee? Besides the book I just checked out that you had (Watchwords of Liberty: a pageant of American quotations) I was able to get free passes to ice skating, regular skating, Lakeside park, Elitch park, Chipotle coupons, nickel a play coupons and free books. Oh, summer reading programs sustained by the government and free for all, I love you. So, we’ll be going to Lakeside twice, Elitch twice and skating a few times. The only problem is you have to have it all done by the end of August.

We started a new Bible study today too, Micah. Why Micah? Because that’s what I had ready to go. The kids really liked the format of our Advent studies (being able to highlight words like Angel would be yellow.) So, I printed out everyone their own sheets. As we read and study they get to go back and highlight certain words a color (like Lord is yellow.) Our verse to remember is Philippians 2:1-5, which has nothing to do with Micah.

Philippians 2

Imitating Christ’s Humility

1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

I added pics to the ice skating and hot dog stand on the post below this one.

We arrived at the Airforce Academy just in time for the parent presentation. The cadet commander told us that they had woken our sons and daughters up at 5:30am every day, made them make their beds with hospital corners (45 degree angles) and collars 18” from the top. They had drilled them, marched them and made them run. They had taught them how to do things with a ‘sense of urgency’ (which when you think about how long it took for Joel to get him uniform is quite ironic.) Then we watched a video from the week. It showed them sitting in class and doing everything he said. There was teamwork and tours, volleyball and Col. Smiley (I have a pic of him later.) There was a really funny segment called, ‘Before PT everyday, every cadet must do 1 thing……WAKE UP!’ Then it showed a cadet banging on each door and yelling, ‘Let’s go, get up wake up!’ It showed how through the week they started as individuals and then became a Cadre.

We had a few minutes to spare before the ceremony and then it started. The squadrons came by in their flights. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, and the advanced flights (Purple people eaters.)

I taped different parts of the ceremony so here is the beginning, here they are on the field and more on the field, here they are before the National Anthem played. (I’ll have to you tube those, so that will be later.) Joel is in the 3rd squadron, 1st flight, last man in the front on the left before the flag bearer.

That meant that as they passed by the stands Joel was right in front of us.

Oh, my goodness, they look sharp! Sorry for the crappy, shaky video, but they were so far away I tried to zoom in a little and I had to hold it with one hand at times (so I could wipe my tears with the other hand.) After they passed they reformed and fell out according to squads. Joel looked happy to be at rest.

Here is Col. Smiley; he was used for teamwork training and as inspector of the cadets. When you moved the Col. he must never have lost his hat!

Joel told me that the ATF cadets (advanced training flight) got to jump out of a helicopter. I said (without thinking) “With parachutes?”
Joel replied, “No, mom, without parachutes that’s why they broke their arm. Of course they had parachutes!”
We wondered why we hadn’t seen any pics of it and Joel said maybe because the parents didn’t know about it beforehand. There was one cadet on crutches and 2 with arm slings………I wonder. I really hope next year he gets in a squad closer to the front of the alphabet. Being in the last squad meant that when the other cadets left and made a mess they had to clean it up. It took them and hour and a half to clean out the building to the satisfaction of the cadet commander. ‘Sense of urgency’ remember? They had them stand out in the sun and then run around the building carrying out trash and cleaning bathrooms. That’s why in this pic Joel has a bloody nose, good thing he had 2 shirts. Hannah is running towards him trying to get a hug.

Once Joel got in the car we gave him the AFA hat we bought and went over to the visitor center to buy a pennant (like the Col. suggested.)

Joel regaled us with his week. 90% was good, 10% was bad (that would be the hurrying, PT and the yelling.) He had fun on the tours and in the flight sim and he learned a lot in class. They drilled to AF standards and they did the closing ceremony practice 5 times on Thursday. He had 1 bunkmate and in his room were 1 bunk bed, 1 desk, 2 chairs and 1 closet.

Here are some of his notes: Don’t touch the desks, windows or thermostat. 2nd from the top shelf holds toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, comb and brush, shampoo and soap in that order.

Honor code: We will not lie, cheat nor steal nor tolerate anyone who does among us.

Motivation check: Motivated, dedicated ready to be educated. Cream of the crop, never gonna stop. Motivated, dedicated, ho-ahh!

After the center we went to Solo’s restaurant for a late lunch.

What better way to celebrate the end of CAP camp than by eating in a plane? It’s a KC-97 bomber that has been turned into a restaurant.

We had to split up to eat inside the plane, but why go there if you can’t eat inside?

They left the cockpit controls intact, so the kids had fun.

They had maps on the tables for decoration; it was really a cool place.

Inside the restaurant you could sit under the wing of the plane.

Here is the propeller and here is a pic of the plane and the signatures of the flight crew.

We walked around to the outside to take a few pics.

Then we headed for home. Joel did really well at camp, he spent no money (he says because they never took them to the BX, maybe that’s a good thing), he didn’t do his laundry (he says because they never had time, but he’ll have plenty of time Monday to do it at home!), he met some new friends, learned some new skills, got an appetite for the academy (woo-hoo free education!) and became part of the Cadre for 2008. He came home with a kind of year book that the cadet staff made for them, a lot of dirty laundry, a sunburn, a lot of new drill songs, and he is excited to share what he learned with his unit on Monday. He only hopes that next year he gets to be staff (so he can yell at people.) I also told him that we’d get a membership to Wings over the Rockies as a graduation present, so we might do that tomorrow.

I give you Cadet Airman Joel Foster Carberry, Golf flight squadron 3.

Psalm 62:7
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Which means 1 more day till we get Joel! Bethany has already made about 5 ‘welcome home, you’re a great brother’ signs. We stayed out of his room, his cat is still alive and we bought him a few trinkets on our trips this week. He on the other hand, got to play volleyball, do flight sims, march, learn about airplanes, march, learn CAP rules, tour the AFA, buy stuff at the BX and march. (I’ll bet he had a good time though.)

Today was our girl scout meeting, but we didn’t have anything planned so a few of us met up at the ice skating rink. An hour and a half doesn’t sound like a lot of time to skate, but it’s a looonnngg time when you’re trying not to fall down. Bethany glided along casually, Grace used the walker until the end and Hannah gave up after she fell on her butt.

Later all she would say was that, ‘I go ice tating and I fall on my butt! That hurt ne.’ Also we got our car back today and it looks brand new (umm….yeah it IS brand new.) They fixed the back bumper and side and cleaned the car out, it’s so much nicer than that SUV we’ve been driving this week. The only thing I liked about it was the radio!

We’re going to take James to the hot dog stand in Bailey tonight for dinner, at least that’s the plan. And I’ll leave you with Hannah’s joke - translation in ( ).

Q: ‘Why tchiten tross road?’ (Why’d the chicken cross the road?)