Bases Loaded with One on Deck

Our Future Veggies!

Oh sure, he's smiling now....

 

But that was before he was told he would have to eat them some day!

 

Friends Don't Let Friends Drink and Handle Snakes

We had the pleasure of attending a "Snakes of Georgia" presentation at a friends house today.  The boys and I, along with several other homeschooling families got to see a sampling of snakes (venomous and non venomous) native to our area.  It was extremely informative, and we all certainly learned a lot, but I must admit the parts that I found the most interesting had nothing to do with our Georgia serpents.

First, the presenter and snake handler was named Patrick Ireland.  I kid you not!  This is his real name.  (If you fail to see the irony in this you need to read up on this guy.)  

One of the first things Patrick Ireland shared with us was his knowledge of certain television shows.  Shows that because I have four boys, I am very familiar with and have most likely seen every episode.  Ever watch "Crocodile Hunter" or "Jeff Corwin"?  Ever get nervous watching those shows, cause you just know one of these times their luck is going to run out and they're going to get bit?   If so, you worried in vain, because it's all pretty much fake!  The live snakes are most likely from their own personal collection, not from deep in the jungles of Borneo.  And the snakes that Steve Irwin would rush up and grab by the tail, were mostly likely dead snakes that had been frozen, then thawed for the shoot.   I guess it all makes sense.  The crews for those shows must be huge, and it would probably be a most cumbersome and time consuming task following Jeff and Steve through the Amazon looking for that perfect specimen, much easier to bring your own and stage it!  Patrick also explained that most snakes found in the wild aren't as "attractive" as the snakes raised in captivity, since they are not as well feed and can often be scared from encounters with other animals in the wild.  

This lead to the discussion of who gets bit more; men or women?  And where do people get bit most often; near home or in the wild?  The answer: Men, who find a venomous snake on their property and instead of calling in a professional they either try to kill the snake themselves, or imitate what they've seen on "Animal Planet".  Many times there is alcohol involved.   I certainly believed this because after hearing this bit of information, I immediately thought that it was a good thing these shows didn't exist when my dad was in college, who after drinking a bit to much with his fraternity brothers, decided to imitate what he saw on one of his favorite shows.  In this instance it was an ax being thrown into a tree.  In the show the ax would embed itself into the trunk of the tree and stay there.  In real life, it bounced off the trunk of the tree and back into my dad's foot. 

To sum it all up this is what we learned today:

• Copperheads are the only venomous snake that we would possibly see slithering around our house.
• Non-venomous snakes are good!  They eat venomous snakes.
• Hollywood is a magical place, and not everything you see is real, so please, don't try this at home!

              

Food, Feet, and First Lego League

   

   

 

 

It may come as a surprise to some of you that we have been involved in other activities besides taking pictures of Catherine.  In fact one of the things that has occupied much of our time over the past 7 or 8 months has been Michael and Matthew's involvement in First Lego League (FLL).  This past Saturday they competed in the state competition that was held at Georgia Tech.  They did not place in any of the events, but to make it to State you had to get through qualifiers (where they placed 1st for research and 2nd overall), and regionals.   So the fact that they made it to State as a rookie team is a huge accomplishment in itself.  Their team was called the "Lego Crusaders" and they did an absolutely amazing job!  Way to go guys!

I have to add some personal feelings on this whole experience.  When the boys were asked to join this team we had no idea that Kent would be looking into the job in Milwaukee, let alone accepting it, but they let Michael and Matthew remain on the team even though they might not be able to finish out the year.  Then when I had Catherine and it turned out Kent wasn't going to be here as much as we had hoped, and Catherine kept having doctors appointments and I couldn't always keep up with the practice schedule or help the boys keep up with their work and research, they still allowed the boys to remain on the team.  The other families we were involved with picked up the boys for practice, took them on the field trips, took them to and from tournaments, sat down and helped them with their work so that they could catch up.  They did EVERYTHING for me when I could do nothing because our life circumstances at the time.  These families gave my boys an experience of a lifetime.  Priya, Marjorie, and Debbie, I can't thank you or your families enough for the wonderful gift you have given us.  You are an amazing group of women and you have blessed our lives more than you will ever know.  THANK YOU!

Fresh Food by the Foot

When I made our plans for science this year, one of the things I wanted to do was botany.  To study botany we were going to plant a garden and various types of plants, including some carnivorous ones, and we were going to start in the spring.  This was before the drought took full effect and we were banned from outdoor watering.  Our county has eased up on restrictions a bit, and we are now allowed 25 minutes of hand watering, on certain days of the week, at ridiculous hours in the morning, so I'm not sure how great our garden will be this year, but we are giving it a whirl anyways.  (I'm sure there's lots of good lessons to be learned about growing a garden in less than stellar conditions, right!?)

One book that has given me hope for success is Mel Bartholomew's "All New Square Foot Gardening".  There was a write up in the paper on it a few weeks ago, and I was able to quickly secure a copy at the library.  Kent, the boys and I all fell in love with it, so it is now sitting in my Amazon.com cart waiting to be purchased in the next day or two, along with a whittling book for Michael and a resource book for me.  (Gotta meet that $25 for free shipping!) 

Kent has made a list of the wood we need to build our first box, along with some smaller square foot boxes to adorn the steps of our deck.  We also have a list a mile long of everything we want to plant, so I guess we'll have to narrow that down a bit.  According to the book, 12 square feet can grow quite a bit of food, but not 40 different kinds of plants, vegetables, herbs, and berries. 

As for the carnivorous plants, I bought a seed packet when I ordered my school books last year, and the library actually has a book on how to grow them, so we'll see how far we get with that. If we do not have success on our own, I've been assured by our local nursery that they carry a variety of carvinorous plants there.  I've promised the boys bug eating plants, and they shall have them! 

I'll keep you posted as we go along.  Hopefully over the next few months all of our thumbs will be turning a lovely shade of green!

Hours of Fun!

The Book:

The Builders:

The Hanger:

The Pilots:

The Testing Field:

The Crash Site:

Scientifically Speaking

Oh my goodness!  What to do for science this year?  So many options, so little time.  It is the one subject adored by all in this house, so this year my goal is to try and pull as many other subjects as I can into this area of study.  Just so you know, there are no texts books allowed in this house hold, everything is hands on.  If there is one, it's used to supplement the course, not guide it.

My first goal is to up our "Nature Notebook" time.  This book will be on it's way to us very shortly.  Kent, who has some natural drawing ability, has promised to get serious about teaching the boys & I some basic art skills, in hopes that if anyone ever looks at our notebooks they will not mistake our trees for stick people, and our horses for dogs.  I am going to make up a list of places to go and take nature walks, and at least once a week, even if it's just in our own backyard, we shall go out and see what we can find in this amazing world God has so graciously created for us to enjoy.

As far as unit studies go, we have settled on 3 things for the year; the body, bridges (this was decided before the tragedy last week), and gardening.  If you want to get technical it's anatomy, physics & botany.

For anatomy we are going to use "The Body Book", for is reproducible, hands-on models, and "Blood and Guts" for the wonderful experiments they have listed.  I've broken it down into categories; the tongue, eyes, ears, skin, bones, brain, etc. and we'll study and make a notebook page or two for each area.  I will definitely incorporate some Latin and Greek roots in this study, as well as health and nutrition.

For the bridges unit we are going to use this kit and teachers guide from K'NEX.  Geography will be incorporated by making a notebook of famous bridges from all over the world.

For botany we will use projects from "Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots".  I also thought it might be fun to try an grow some carnivorous plants.  I've checked at the library, they actually have books on this.  I have also checked at our local nursery to make sure they sell the plants in case we are we do not succeed.  One way or another we will have plants that eat bugs!  In a house full of boys who like to let flies in, it is actually becoming quite necessary. 

My main goal in gardening is to create a year round "produce section" that we all know how to take care of.  I think there will be great satisfaction in sitting down to a meal that includes food harvested from our own backyard. 

With each area we tackle, I will always check out plenty of books on the subject and place them in an easily seen and accessible place, so the boys can read/browse whenever they'd like.  I also look for dvd's on each subject as well.  Our library has this "Magic School Bus" video, and blockbuster on-line has numerous dvd's on bridges.

I will post pictures as we go along, so you can see how things are shaping up around here. 

We No Longer Eat Potatoes at our House.....

.....We shoot them out of cannons.

Michael, the oldest of the 4 boys that load our bases, received this book in his stocking last Christmas.  He's been drooling over it ever since.  A few weeks ago I told him to wipe off the slobber and pick out a project.  He was then told to make a list of the things he would need to build it.  (Just so you know, the book already has a list made out that would be very easy to xerox, but a little weekend copy work never hurt anyone, right?) 

The project he chose, the Potato Cannon, and last Saturday Kent and the boys got it built.  Does it work?  As a matter of fact, it works VERY well, so well that even with as large as our yard is this "Backyard Ballistics" project will no longer be used in it.  I don't think the neighbors will act too kindly towards us if they continually find potato shrapnel in their yards.

Michael's prized potato cannon is now sitting in our basement storage area anxiously awaiting our next camping trip or a visit to a nice large open field (the book recommends 200 yards to be clear in front of the cannon, 25 yards in back).  Our next project.....backyard rocketry. 

And there you have it, the very first picture to be put on my blog!  Matthew, Michael, John and the potato cannon!

I Guess Andrea Hasn't Heard of Being Fashionably Late!

Hurricane season doesn't "officially" begin until June 1st.  Andrea obviously didn't get the memo, because when I got on line yesterday one of the headlines was "Atlantic's First Named Storm Forms Early".  And not only has she formed early, she is sitting off the coast of Georgia.  Let's just say I am now in a bit of a frenzy!

"So, what's the big deal?" you ask," it's only a subtropical storm, and you don't even live on the coast of Georgia!" 

Well, let me tell you what the big deal is.  We are going to spend our summer studying weather, namely hurricanes.  This is Kent's (aka family weather geek "expert") project to do with the boys, and we are not ready for it.  There's charts & maps to get ready,the storm name list to print up, an "official" introduction to weather to do the week before Hurricane season actually starts.  There are books to check out and DVD's to rent.  Vocabulary lists to get ready.  Let me say it again,  WE ARE NOT READY!!!

So Andrea, if you can just rewind your subtropical storm self and go back into the Atlantic until June 1(National Donut Day).  On that day we will sit around the kitchen table with our chocolate sprinkled, vanilla creamed, powdered sugared and jelly filled treats, drinking our milk and sipping our Dunkin Donuts coffee while we chart your course on our ready to go map.  And Barry..... don't even think about it for at least a month!

Pellets in the Pantry

We've been studying birds in science since February.  Didn't plan on doing it this long but baseball also started in February and I haven't been as aggressive in my science planning as I should be.  Besides, we are all very much enjoying the bird unit. 

One of the things I ordered to go along with the unit was owl pellets.  They came in a few months ago, wrapped in foil, and I promptly put them in a blue plastic solo cup marked "Owl pellets - do not throw away" and set them in the pantry.  Yesterday I happened to notice them still in the pantry and with company coming at the end of the month decided that it would be a good day to do some dissecting so we will not offend our hungry house guests looking for a snack.

It was great!  Just picture Steve Irwin out in the Australian desert finding goanna poop, smelling it, breaking it up with his fingers, and looking at the bones to see what poor creature was no longer roaming the earth, thanks to a certain lizard.  Because that's exactly what we were like! Except for the fact that we were at our kitchen table which was covered with newspaper, we had our "poop" (pellets are actually regurgitation from the gizzard) delivered to us, we couldn't smell anything because we were all trying to hold our breath as much as possible, and we used toothpicks and tweezers instead of our fingers. 

So what did we discover?  Well, we were able to use this chart to figure out that the owls (we had 2 pellets) had each gobbled up a rodent.  We discovered that the boys LOVED searching for bones in owl waste.  And last but not least, we discovered if we were to do this project again we will allow for time to throughly wipe down the table and surrounding floor at least 10 times to make sure there is no little traces of rodent remains, or just do the whole thing outside so Mom doesn't sit there at dinner and wonder if she got it all. 

Would love to post pictures, but I don't know how to do that yet.  I did however figure out how to insert a link all by myself which should ease Kent's pain a bit come this weekend when he shows me how to do all the fancy stuff.  Mother's Day to be exact, after all he can't tell me no and he has to be nice to me on that day!