When Jokes Collide

Oob: Knock knock.
Me: Who's there?
Oob: Owl.
Me: Owl who?
Oob: Waiter, there's an owl in my soup!

Seven Quick Takes Friday

1. We went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! Unfortunately, it was near 90 degrees and the youngest kids started to wilt early. We got to see plenty of sheep and some sheepdog demonstrations, but we missed the spinning and weaving. I had hoped to get some raw wool and a drop spindle so we could try our hands at spinning, but it was the better part of valor to head out when we did. On the whole, it was the cause of more wild and wooly puns than ewe want rammed down your throat, so it was a good thing we took it on the lamb before the authorities herd us and shepherded us sheepishly away.

2. Zorg is not a morning person. One day this week, after groggily stumbling out of bed, he announced, "My mind feels like... a trap... caught in a mouse..."

3. On Tuesday we spent a singularly perfect morning down at the Bay collecting shark's teeth. Within the first 15 minutes, the kids had collected more teeth than they ever have before. They then stopped looking for teeth and collected sea weed instead (which is now drying all over the front porch). We looked at the rock strata in the cliffs and found some recent cliff falls where we collected these interesting trace fossils. I like going down by the cliffs because you can really see how rocks are formed. They are made of a sort of compressed mud: not quite rock yet, but certainly not mud or sand. The best part, however, was not seeing (or feeling) any jellyfish until, on the way out, we saw two small ones from a reasonable distance. Jellyfish are the scorpions of the Chesapeake Bay.

4. Did I mention that my glass cooktop shattered last week? I had it for about 5 years and I replaced the glass surface once and a major switch once. I had sunk $400 into repairs and this would be another $200 - $400. I had asked the repairman why it was breaking so often and he told me it was because I was using it too much. I was floored. He said they just didn't make stoves and cooktops to be used every day anymore, let alone the twice a day I was using it. I gave up and bought and old fashioned coil stove. Way cheaper and more dependable.

5. Did I mention that my lawnmower broke last week? Klenda was mowing her patch (she and Mxyl each have a part of the lawn they mow) and she stopped and told me it had a funny smell. I said, "Just stop, I'll be there in a minute." Then she added, "And smoke is coming out of the handle." That hurried me up! At least it was under warranty.

6. I have discovered that it is inevitable that lawnmowers break at the most inconvenient times: they break (or you notice) only when they are being used, and you only are using them because the lawn needs to be mowed... Add a week for repairs... Not looking so good. It's like a man growing a mustache. There is the point where he is clean shaven and the point where he definitely has a mustache. In between you get, "You've got something on your... oh, nevermind." Our lawn is now uncomfortably equidistant between "well-groomed" and "prairie." I am fervently hoping to get the lawnmower back and "well-groomed" restored before the big co-op meeting at my house tomorrow night.

7. The roses are blooming! Irises, too.

More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

Happy Birthday, Oob!

Our marvelous Oob is 3!!!

He had a dinosaur themed birthday. I will admit, the cake was pretty simple (it's a 9 x 13 sheet cake with the corners cut off), but covering it with jelly bean "spots" more than made up for it!

Three great things Oob can do:
1 He makes a really accurate fire engine sound.
2 He couldn't care less about learning his colors until we figured out that each of Bob the Builder's machines was a different color. Within 5 minutes, he knew them cold.
3 He will contentedly hammer with anything on anything for a longer time than you would believe. If that doesn't sound great, I have two words: attention span.

Three sweet things about Oob:
1 He puts off going to bed by asking, "One more kiss?"
2 When you pick him up, he leans his head on your shoulder with a contented sigh.
3 He loves to sing Amazing Grace with you.

Three silly things about Oob:
1 He loves to pretend he is a puppy. On his birthday, we visited a pet store and bought a (plastic) doggy bone which is now a very favorite toy (along with the hammering bench).
2 He loves to give you tickley kisses on your neck.
3 He is firmly convinced that you can't see him if he covers his eyes.

Life of Fred

We have a new love in our lives and his name is Fred. Fred is 5 1/2 years old, 36 " tall and teaches math at KITTENS University. He's the star of my favorite math books ever!

I can't do justice to them, you really need to read the samples, but they are riveting reads. I got sucked in, my dear MIL got sucked in, the Emperor... oh, yeah, and Klenda and Mxyl. The only catch is, they start at fractions so you need to be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide before you start the Fred series.

No, we are not abandoning Math U See just yet. As is, we are still carrying the full Math U See course load, we're just also doing Life of Fred for fun. The great thing is that Math U See only goes up through high school. Life of Fred goes through Calculus, Statistics, and Linear Algebra!

The thing I like most about Life of Fred is the way it's integrated with life. The fractions book doesn't just teach fractions, it teaches why you shouldn't believe everything you read in a newspaper, what not to tell a salesperson, and alliteration. I love it!

And, no, alas, I am not getting any money, books, or anything else for this endorsement...

Marching Through Time

Of all the the events we got to, this is my favorite. The March through Time is an encampment of historical reenactors arranged chronologically. They have Celts, 3 Roman legions (from the Western and Eastern Empires!), knights, American Revolution, Civil War, Vietnam War soldiers, you name it! It was really jaw dropping to see them all camped out next to each other. We missed the last few years because I didn't remember until it was too late I actually looked them up in January this year so I wouldn't miss it.

This first picture is a Frankish warrior fighting for Charlemagne (the Emperor was able to trace his line back to Charlemagne, and this fellow was delighted to be able to defend actual descendants!). He's showing the kids his francisca.

Here we have Klenda being outfitted with a helm from the War of the Roses. I love it that the all the reenactors were so patient and kid friendly. They really seemed to enjoy the kids questions. Actually, they all seemed to be just enjoying themselves!

I must add these fellows - US Navy War of 1812. The kids ran off to see the privateers, but I talked Horatio Hornblower with these guys til the kids came back and dragged me away.



Here Klenda is swabbing a cannon. You can see Zorg in the back - he's finished ramming the shot, but you can't see Leena who was lighting the charge.




And look, here we all are in the Zulu War!







I was very interested in the large WWII encampment, partly because I've seen so many movies and pictures from that time period. These GIs were hanging out in a foxhole and all I could think was, it looks just like Foyle's War!

Zorg asked me to take a picture of the guns...


Zorg and Klenda were able to answer enough questions from what they had seen that they were both knighted. Quite a satisfying end to a great excursion!

I will have to download the rest of the pictures from Klenda's camera. She recently bought herself a very nice camera with a 10 gigabyte card (!) and has been taking a truly amazing number of pictures.

But We're Feeling Muuuch Better Now

I am doing fine now, things just got a little crazy there for a while.

Some of it was crazy in a good way: we went to the March Through Time (pictures coming), I finally filed the Giant Stack of Homeschool Papers (turned out I hadn't filed anything since ...Halloween, actually!), I accomplished the Ultimate Housekeeping Trifecta (getting the homeschool room, Lego/exercise room, and guest room cleaned at the same time!), we got the garden going for the year (another post), and made many visits to the Arboretum and local playgrounds.

Some of it was crazy in a bad way: the cooktop cracking (again!) and the bizarre annual stress of figuring out how to keep the co-op going for another year without just giving up on the older kids (bizarre because I think I don't actually need to get stressed out about this every year, but I really do).

And there was a whole lot of just life crazy: figuring out how to get the organizing and cleaning stuff done while still setting up the garden before the weeds took hold yet spending as much time as possible outside while the weather is nice. And homeschooling the kids.

At any rate, the end is in sight! I only have 4 more co-ops and 3 more CCD classes!

Lot O Life

I have a lot going on right now and I just don't have the emotional energy to blog. I will be able to blog about most of it within a week or so, but, til then, just pray for me, please!

US History: The New Nation

I was pretty sure this would be a low tide section of US History. I had only a vague idea that Some Stuff Happened between the writing of the Constitution and the Civil War. I figured the War of 1812 must have happened in there somewhere (maybe around 1812?), but I never got why that was important other than getting the Star Spangled Banner.

My education started at the library! I found two great books:
A New Nation and USKids History: Book of the New American Nation.

I read A New Nation on my own and it gave me a much clearer picture of what was going on then and why it mattered. I would sum it up in this way: we are living with the repercussions (good and bad) of decisions made in this time period.

Thanks to this book, I finally GET the whole thing with the Federalists and Anti-Federalists and why they matter. I also understand why I never got it before. Basically, our country, from the time the ink was dry on the constitution continuing through today, has been having a long discussion (to put it politely) about who has power in the government. A great deal of US history is this discussion. The Civil War, for example, was about slavery, but the actual argument was that the Southern states had the right to make their own laws about slavery. That was why the South formed a loose confederacy of it's member states. It seems to me that the argument has slightly shifted in recent years from a Federal vs. State question to a Federal vs. Individual question, although that too was there from the beginning.

The Federalists, of course, thought the Federal government needed to have more power than the states (Alexander Hamilton, please call your office!). The Anti-Federalists (Thomas Jefferson) believed the States were nearly sovereign and only wanted to give the Federal government enough power to do the things the States couldn't do on their own.

Why couldn't I get such a simple concept before? Because... The Federalists became Whigs became the current Republicans who are now against "big government" and the Anti-Federalists became Republicans became Democratic Republicans became current Democrats who are for "big government" (sorta). Any questions?

I will have Mxyl and Klenda read A New Nation, but it's probably too wordy to hold the attention of Zorg and Leena.

USKids History: Book of the New American Nation is worth it's weight in gold. When I realized it was a series, I wanted to kick myself for not starting it sooner! All of these books are the ideal combination of stories, primary sources and fun, meaningful, immersive activities.

Once I realized we would be using it longer than the library would like us to have it, I looked on Amazon and scooped one up for $3 plus shipping. I also grabbed the one on the Civil War, but if you are starting a US History unit, they have one on Native Americans, the Colonial era, and the Revolutionary War.

The Saint Song!

For your amusement...

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter
from
Zoom Times!

We had a crazy Holy Week because all the work on the basement came down to that week, but we managed a seder, a pilgrimage to the Franciscan Monastery, Mxyl serving at Holy Thursday Mass, and our own Living Stations.

On Holy Saturday we dyed eggs, made up baskets and made Easter posters. We skipped the home made candy this year!

I was worried that we wouldn't be able to focus on the spiritual, but God provided plenty of opportunities, and it was a very joyful and heartfelt Easter!