Geocaching By Thomas

We first geocached a while after mom got a Geocaching for Dummies book from the library. We did our first cache near Baker Park this summer. It was a camo-duct taped film canister. Ever since then we've been hooked.

Geocaching is where you have a GPS and you're basically on a "wild goose chase" for a camo-duct taped container that is usually far enough above the ground so that it won't get buried in the snow (at least in Minnesota). There are several geocaching websites that tell you where the coordinates are for them.

When you hide a geocache, you find a spot in some rocks, a log or in the woods. Sometimes they are hidden in the sides of cliffs. You bring your GPS and mark the coordinates of that spot. Geocaches have to be more than 528 feet apart. So then you log it in on the website. And then you wait for them to respond. If they say that there is one hidden less than 528 feet nearby, you have to take it out and find another spot. That happened to us once. If they say that it is an ok spot, then you if you've put it there already, you have to rush it out there. Ours almost got found before it got hidden. That was really funny.

Geocache difficulties and terrain difficulties are rated in stars, from 1 to 5. One is the easiest and 5 is the hardest. We've done a 4 before in terrain. That was really cool.

I do geocaching for the hunt. Irene and Mari do it for the trinkets inside. Mom and dad mainly do it because it's fun.

GPS's are usually about $150. Go buy one and try it!

The Goose Guy

By Thomas 9/7/07

One day while we were driving to Hirschfield's, we saw this guy standing by his truck full of decoys of geese. And he had a knife in his hand. We were wondering what he was doing. So we stopped by and asked him what he was doing. He said he was plucking geese that he had shot that morning in Medina.

I was interested to find out how heavy they were. He told us they weighed 8-20 lbs. I got to hold one. It was really heavy.

We asked him how many he had. He said he had five. His friend got four. We asked him what kind of gun he used. He used a shot gun. I didn’t now that you don’t shoot geese on the ground. You shoot them in the air.

He said that where he shot them, kids were getting on the bus nearby and there were $1 million dollar homes nearby. I thought that was interesting that you could shoot geese right there.

He also told us that a goose had fought his dog the other day, and the goose was beating the dog up so the dog didn’t want to hunt at all that day because he got beat up. It surprised me that a goose could beat up a 130 pound dog! I wonder what our dog Simon would do?

The dog was also trying to carry the geese but they were too heavy.

Irene starts "school" one day early

The rest of us will officially start our 07/08 school year tomorrow, but little 2 1/2 year old Irene started today. She must have been listening to Thomas recently review some of his math facts with flash cards. Today she engaged both her dad and I in some "math facts" as she shouted from room to room "mom, what 2 plus?" I would answer back, "2 plus 0 is 2". Irene answered "K!" and then she'd write the answer on her Yatzee score card (perfectly turned uppee (upside) down). She'd then shout another problem, "mom, what 8 plus?", to which I'd answer "8 plus zero is 8". The routine went on for at least a dozen problems for me and then she got her daddy involved. It was out of the mouths of babes and we loved it! Of course the neighbors may have thought we were crazy - they already are aware of that :-) as our windows were wide open with the sashes being stained and/or painted after replacing all of them in the house the last two weeks.

In general, I'd have to admit that we are in good shape to begin another school year at home. It is always exciting to get a week or so under our belts, iron out the kinks and get back into a rhythm for the year.

New items for this year include the 2nd year of the rotation for My Father's World curriculum on Creation to the Greeks, Learnables language program for Spanish, and English from the Roots up for vocabulary.

My Favorite Book

April 2nd was International Children's Book Day. In light of that idea, for English today the kids were to write a letter to a friend telling them about their favorite book. The goal was to encourage their friend to read the book. Here is what they each wrote:


Dear David,

I read this really good scooter book and I think you should read it. It has some really good tricks in it. It explains the tricks really well. It’s called Trick Scooters: Techniques and Tricks by Aaron Rosenberg. I got it at the Hennepin County Library.

See you next time we get together,

Thomas



Dear Greta

I read this really good book and the front of the book has this kitty there. On the second page there is another kitty and there is a circle and you can feel the fur when you open the book. And that book is so good, I think you should read it. It is a board book and I don’t know where I got it. It is not from the library but it is really old though. I think there is teeth marks on it.

Happy Reading!
From your friend
Mari

Math with Money

by Mari

Today I learned about coins and how much makes a dollar. Our first thing about math making dollars is:

100 pennies makes $1 (count by 1's)
20 nickels makes $1 (count by 5's)
10 dimes makes $1 (count by 10's)
4 quarters makes $1 (count by 25's)

You use cents at banks, stores, gas stations, restaurants. That's where you use coins and dollars. It's important to know about money and it's fun to learn about money, so you can give the right amount of money to the places and you don't lose a lot of money.

Mystery Guest from Iowa

We had the pleasant experience of having a Mystery Guest help us to learn more about the state we studied today. A family friend of a neighbor of ours is from Iowa. She appeared at our door, moments after we came up with these questions for her. Thomas and Mari shared the task of creating and asking the questions. Here is a short synopsis of what they covered:

Where in Iowa did you live?
in a town called Decorah - population 9,000 which is in Winnesheik County, only 15 minutes south of Minnesota. It's a two and a half hours from Minnetonka.

Did you live on a farm?
Nope. 2 miles outside of the town, but not on a farm. We were surrounded by farms, though.

Did you ever pick corn when you were little?
Yes. Hard work, but fun! With my cousins. It was a whole day process, 3 hours picking and 3 hours of shucking. Which was about 2 pickups full. Then we prepared it for freezing. One of my favorite smells is corn growing in the summertime!

What are the Amana Colonies like?
I've never been there. What I know about them:old time living. You can watch a lot of people make things by hand.

Have you ever been to Des Moines? Is it like Saint Paul?
Yes I've been there. It is not like St. Paul. Des Moines is not the nicest capital city in my opinion. It is industrial and not very clean. They should clean it up more!

What can you tell us about Buffalo Bill?
Not a lot, what did you learn? All I can think of was that he had a wild west show.

Have you seen the "American Gothic" by Grant Wood? (Iowan)
I've seen prints of it. Copy of it.

Have you been in or seen the biggest popcorn factory in the nation? Tell us about it?
I haven't seen it. Where is it?

What does West Okoboji Lake look like?
I've only driven by it.It is in the far NW corner and I haven't spent a lot of time in that area.

Have you been to the other 2 blue-water lakes?
No. What are they? Lake Geneva in Switzerland and Lake Louise in Canada.

What is your favorite city in Iowa?
Hmmmmmm..... I really, really, really like my hometown. I like Decorah a lot. The scenery is just beautiful. Eastern and Western Iowa look very different. E has river running through it and is really hilly. Western is very flat.

Thanks to our Mystery Guest, we practiced our interviewing skills and learned about a new state!

Cup Stacking Overtakes our Home

It's new, it's exciting, it's engaging, and it's FUN!! If you haven't heard of or seen Speed Stacking or Cup Stacking, I encourage you to seek out information or demonstations of it.

Some time ago, I was saw a short spot on the PBS about speed stacking. Neat, I thought! I didn't understand the rage it has become! Neighbors are doing it, schools are having tournaments, National Circuits exist etc, etc. Now, our homeschooling co-op will be offering a class to introduce the "sport" and teach biblical concepts that relate (ie.firm foundation). We will incorporate relays and time trials and hope that as the 6 class periods progress, our students will improve upon their scores and increase their confidence to complete the cycle without fumbles.

We have had the opportunity to teach a few other families in the meantime, and they too see the value/challenge of this engaging activity. Even our 2 year old Irene has taken to the upstacking in particular. Give it a try. You might surprise yourself!!

When it Works!

Last night over dinner seemed like a good time to finish our science for the week. The kids and I had covered the science topic "cells" and our assignment for the next day was to make a cell out of jello, dried beans and a marble or grape. Daddy likes science, he'd probably get a kick out of this, I thought to myself. And he did!

We had already poured the gelatin into a small plastic bag (to represent the cell membrane) and now we needed to add the nucleus (marble) and organelles (dried beans). We took turns going around the table adding a small handful of organelles and then turning to the person on our left and explaining what we had just done or idenitfying the new part. We continued around the table, with the nucleus and by the end of the conversation, learning had occured! Conversation skills, listening skills, and parts of cells being identified.

A day ahead of schedule we finished science. And a new technique for learning and sharing what we had learned was tried. It worked!!