Our life is just a rollercoaster, hold on tight because falling off is not an option.
Girl and I wanted to take something for our friends in New Mexico that are letting us stay for the visit. Since they all knew that I did leatherwork, but never saw much of it. I decide to make something for each of them. I also had just learned how to make these bowls and it was nice to have a particular goal for each of them.
Since I like to share, I thought I’d post pictures.
It’s been a busy month and it’s just midway. We spent a long weekend in New Orleans for Hubby’s work. My mil and fil joined us and while Hubby went to a conference, we toured the area. I had hoped to post about it and our impressions of the changes due to Katrina (we were there about 5 years ago for another conference), but time has gotten away from me. If you go into Flickr, you can see our pictures though.
It was a wonderful trip and included taking Tochter into Texas (yes it was out of the way, but I guess German’s are fixated about Texas and people talking ‘like they have a tomato in their mouth’ - her words, not mine) We did have one mishap on the road outside Little Rock, Arkansas. I’m not sure where it came from, but I ended up hitting a 12×12 inch timber. The car in front of me (a truck pulling a Uhaul trailer) didn’t swerve and there it was with no time for me (at 70 mph) to avoid it. Blew 2 tires, but no other damage.
I have no idea of what the town was that the AAA truck took us to, but the Goodyear dealer stayed late and had the tires changed and us back on the road in only 2 hours.
On another note, I’ve added a page about my leatherwork. I explain on it why I did.
And this week the girls (Girl and Tochter) and I are off to visit New Mexico. We’ll be staying with Jo for part of it and are looking forward to the trip. Hopefully flying will go better than visiting my sister, L, last October.
Now my state-wide discussion list has about 1200 subscribers. It’s large and fairly active. It also has a very diverse group of people on it, but aside from occasional flash-spots, it is supportive to the homeschooling population.
The list is owned and run by a state-wide volunteer organization know as IHEN. IHEN is essentially directed by a group of 4 people (I usually refer to them as ‘the powers that be’) and a selection of local volunteers that each cover their own county. I’m one of those volunteers and mostly I stay in my little box, but I occasionly get a chance to join in some discussion on policies and such.
Imagine my surprize when this little request came through (edited for simplicity)
Hello, fellow homeschooler! I’m interested to see if you sell ad space in your newsletter. I have a sale going on right now. You can see the special (1/2 off subscriptions + all 19 gifts, free) right here:
<link clipped for personal reasons> How much do you charge for an email blast or enewsletter mention? My sale expires on Wed. I’m interested in getting the word out before then (or even by Wed morning at the latest). We are looking to buy an inexpensive ad on your list. - gena
I’m guessing that someone is trying to find uneducated homeschoolers to boost lagging subscriptions.
Anyway, just a heads up to watch any and all discussion lists that you’re on.
THIS CONTEST IS SPONSORED BY Mystery Writers of America and its MWA:Reads youth literacy program (formerly known as Kids Love A Mystery).
ELIGIBILITY: This contest is open to students in Grades 2-10 (inclusive) in the fifty United States and the District of Columbia.
ABOUT THE CONTEST: The Joan Lowery Nixon Award mystery writing contest is a skill-based contest in which students use their imaginations and their language arts skills to create their own unique mystery stories. The contest has two Categories: Grades 2-5 and Grades 6-10. In other words, submissions from students in Grades 2-5 are judged together, as are those from students in Grades 6-10.
There will be two $250 cash prizes awarded, one for the Winner in each Category.
Stories from students in public and private schools must submitted through their teachers. Only one story per teacher will be accepted. (Exception: Teachers with students in two Categories can submit one story for each Category.)
Home-schooled students can submit stories through their supervising parent, guardian, or tutor. Only one story per parent/guardian/tutor will be accepted. (Exception: Home-school parents, guardians, or tutors who have students in two Categories can submit one story for each Category.) Proof of home-schooling will be required if requested by Mystery Writers of America and MWA:Reads.
Only one story per student will be accepted.
ENTERING THE CONTEST: Submissions for the Joan Lowery Nixon Award mystery writing contest will be accepted via email beginning February 3, 2007 and ending February 28, 2007.
Students in Grades 2-5 are to submit stories of at least 100 words and no more than 500 words.
Students in Grades 6-10 are to submit stories of at least 250 words and no more than 1,000 words.
Stories are to be submitted in the body of an email only. No attachments of any kind are permitted. Emails are to be plain-text only; no formatting is permitted. No tabs or other indentations are allowed. Paragraphs are to be separated with a line space.
The subject line of the submission email must read: Joan Lowery Nixon Award: Category XX (with “XX” being either 2-5 or 6-10)
In the body of the submission email, teachers/parents should supply the following information:
DISQUALIFICATION: Submissions must conform exactly to all contest rules. Any entry not conforming to all contest rules will be disqualified.
REQUIREMENTS: The submitted story must be the student’s original work, and it must not infringe any rights of any person or entity.
The submission must not contain any content that Mystery Writers of America and MWA:Reads deem inappropriate.
Within one week of notification, the Winner in each of the two Categories will be required to submit a 100-word bio and a suitable JPEG photo for inclusion in the Mystery Writers of America Edgar® Annual.
PERMISSIONS: By submitting stories to the Joan Lowery Nixon Award mystery writing contest, students grant Mystery Writers of America and MWA:Reads the non-exclusive, non-commercial right to reproduce their stories in their entirety on Mystery Writers of America’s website and in its promotional materials.
Winners also grant Mystery Writers of America and MWA:Reads the non-exclusive, non-commercial right to reproduce their bios and JPEGs on Mystery Writers of America’s website and in its promotional materials.
HOW WINNERS ARE CHOSEN: Stories will be judged for creativity and proper use of the English language.
A panel of mystery writers and reviewers will judge the Joan Lowery Nixon Award mystery writing contest submissions, and from these submissions they will select ten Finalists in each of the two Categories.
The ten Finalists in each Category will be judged by a panel of three professionally published mystery writers who will select one Winner in each Category.
All decisions are final.
NOTIFICATION: Winners will be notified in mid-March 2007.
Winners will be announced at Mystery Writers of America’s 2007 Edgar® Awards in New York City on April 26, 2007.
PRIZES: The Winner in each of the two Categories will receive a cash prize of $250 (for a total of two $250 prizes). At the sole discretion of Mystery Writers of America and MWA:Reads, each Winner may receive additional non-cash prizes and certificates.
At the sole discretion of Mystery Writers of America and MWA:Reads, Finalists may also be awarded non-cash prizes and certificates.
PARTICIPATION CERTIFICATES: Beginning May 1, 2007, teachers may request Eddie Award Certificates for their students who participated in the Joan Lowery Nixon Award mystery writing contest. (Parents, guardians, and tutors of participating home-school students may also request Eddie Award Certificates.) Beginning May 1, 2007, check www.mysterywriters.org/MWAreads for request guidelines.
Well, I’m waiting for the laundry to finish up in the dryer so I can finish packing. We are off to New Orleans tomorrow. Hubby has a conference and the kids and I will be sightseeing. This post has been kicking around my head…So, now you get it.
Our academic year is at it’s half-way point, so it seemed like a good point to see how it’s going.
I’ll start with Girl. Here’s her ‘plan’ for the year.
Math - She is flying through algebra 1. Well, generally. Girl is my literal child and is not happy with some definitions. For example: ‘yes, I know that absolute value is only the distance from zero, but WHY can’t it be negative?’ No explanation is satisfactory and she’ll just heave a big sigh, and go ‘I don’t understand it, but I guess this is what you want.’ Frustrating to work with, but a lot of it comes off as a 12 year old to me. OTH, I know she came out of pre-algebra not feeling like she had a clear grasp of the material and I am not seeing any signs that she is struggling this year. I am so happy that we decided to go ahead.
Science - We are nearly done with the life science book, thankfully. This child does not like blood and has no interest in anything connected to biology. This year’s life science was all the plant/animal kingdoms and now the human body and all its systems. By the end of January we’ll be out of it and into physical science.
English - No surprizes here. This child loves to read and spelling and grammar are warm-up exercises. Her outside reading list so far is:
Art - nothing much here, except that this book is taking forever to get to the ‘art history’ part.
French - I wanted to start the year with some in depth review, but the review book I wanted to use didn’t get here until nearly the end of Sept. So, we spent Sept. and most of Oct. going ahead in our regular text and then switched to the review book until break. So, now it’s back to the text. Did the review help? I think so.
Russian - is still coming. I’ve decided that this is a very hard language without a native speaker to work with. But we work away. 
We do have work sheets that go along with the book and Ribbons needed to do help.
Japanese - is fun. We are both enjoying learning this one and could easily spend way too much time on it. We are even learning the hiragana symbols - though our count is currently at 21. I’m loving the lack of conjugating verbs and straight forward sentence structure - subject, object, verb - (please don’t tell me that it’ll get worst later)
Drama - The fall went well and the kids pulled together some vignettes to perform for their families. They had a lot of fun and now I need to decide if I want to direct something full length.
And Boy - Here’s what we were talking about last summer.
Math - with Hubby. They started off with a discrete and combinatorial text, following the syllabus for a college level course. PoorBoy got behind with the problems while he was sick in September and then between our busy fall and the amount of problems connected with Physics, he only completed about half the work in the time he was suppose to complete the course. That’s now on a back burner. They have moved into the statistics course that Boy was really interested in and are trucking away at it. I don’t believe that they have yet decided what the last third of the year will be.
Science - Another course with a lot of math problems to be worked out. Boy has always worked math problems slowly. We’re not sure why, but he does. So, he’s enjoying physics much more than chemistry (and I think biology), but it is a time consuming course. 
The labs, OTH, are fun - for everyone. Catmando thought string, paper strips and rolling carts looked like way too much fun. Luckily he didn’t interfere with any measurements. 
I have a great video of the cats playing with the acceleration paper, but I’m too lazy to set it up to post, you’ll have to take my word on it.
English - No surprizes here. He’s spent a lot of his reading time reading British history for his trip in a couple of weeks. So, his list is rather light (oops, I don’t seem to have it handy.) but he read some good stuff and particularly enjoyed Orwell.
French, Art and Drama match Girl
Driver’s Ed. got pushed off until March.
Geography - We finished Human Geography before break. It was a good book and had some interesting information. We’ll start Economic Geography next week.
Test Prep. - it is Boy’s junior year. So he spent a fair amount of the fall studying for the PSAT. We got the score back a few weeks ago and he got a 212! Now he’ll need to prep for the SAT sometime in the spring and then we’ll hope that it’ll be enough for National Merit Standing. (It varies by state, and last year the cutoff in Indiana was 212.)
And now my laundry is more than finished.
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