tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25258965955136499062024-03-05T14:40:34.581-08:00The Every Day Home SchoolEvery Home is a House of Learning.<br> Every Day.<br>
Keep Learning!kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.comBlogger272125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-31599517610377687092021-05-30T21:11:00.062-07:002021-05-31T21:48:26.823-07:00Double Graduation Day 2021<p> It seems odd to be back here documenting this moment after skipping all the covid crud that hit us and our homeschool over the past 14+ months. So many things I could have blogged about, but didn't. Somehow the last year+ of homeschool has totally drained me and blogging felt like the last thing on my list. Actually, it never made the list. </p><p>Nevertheless, I couldn't let this huge milestone go undocumented. These graduations represent the culmination of so much effort, patience, emotion, and excitement for what lies ahead. I never envisioned this when I decided to start homeschooling 13 years ago. But what a sweet, tender and memorable day we shared at Camila's graduation this weekend. It wasn't perfect (is it ever?) but it was wonderful. I was surprised when my 18-yo said that this graduation was better than a ceremony with hundreds of other graduates. It was a sweet family moment that we all appreciated very much. I'm so thrilled for her and all of her accomplishments. She truly has earned the tassel!</p><p><br /></p><p>First, let me share some pictures of a "friend" ceremony that we had back earlier this month with other graduating seniors from church and their parents. It was hosted by a family we worship with and planned by another graduate mom. It was beautiful and memorable as well. We enjoyed having Camila to ourselves that night as we celebrated her efforts to graduate.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdvEgpFykbT3KoqR4JcVyEcEVJDvVnSr7fq_oiIj6ScnyGXMXHhAScb7Rn2qOXh4lmEgVGa4O341Q8VRXUHXLaiPQ0LgNFs36pWxAC6dulsbnvSBdgGroI_oSOoIPwjBa82zFv1866so/s2048/IMG_7707.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdvEgpFykbT3KoqR4JcVyEcEVJDvVnSr7fq_oiIj6ScnyGXMXHhAScb7Rn2qOXh4lmEgVGa4O341Q8VRXUHXLaiPQ0LgNFs36pWxAC6dulsbnvSBdgGroI_oSOoIPwjBa82zFv1866so/s320/IMG_7707.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgi371K0zbs_websq6F6jMwG8JjvmbVfikPJ9rGj3ztRmZ4Jk9h0py3arFEO5_AJWKSMvxv3LHqgxOIpVJcZ_Q3WSDP-KenTmVTa1IB7NPN0rYdGEHmzTuXK84GeUrbw4USYSeJYrfFxo/s362/IMG_7717.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgi371K0zbs_websq6F6jMwG8JjvmbVfikPJ9rGj3ztRmZ4Jk9h0py3arFEO5_AJWKSMvxv3LHqgxOIpVJcZ_Q3WSDP-KenTmVTa1IB7NPN0rYdGEHmzTuXK84GeUrbw4USYSeJYrfFxo/s320/IMG_7717.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhgD7VSR2mcmlFyYWs8cSAw0oUnx4b1ZXXWzpOrmJ_A3doHRs2UktdRrLKBUmIo6uV9mYhkghCjvpfkhXXh653N-v4OlNaB9Wa2MDXuYXr4VvDZVKHBEILxWXiRZ2aN1Y-Cjl2lCX9sw/s362/IMG_7721.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKhgD7VSR2mcmlFyYWs8cSAw0oUnx4b1ZXXWzpOrmJ_A3doHRs2UktdRrLKBUmIo6uV9mYhkghCjvpfkhXXh653N-v4OlNaB9Wa2MDXuYXr4VvDZVKHBEILxWXiRZ2aN1Y-Cjl2lCX9sw/s320/IMG_7721.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5b5x56gHRAQjBNRSSc-2HYMYq5N-xaa-Ui9Qsgxd2uhgaVZcCiiEdR5fsbKdV5BwfCE3LwZ5k6w3c-kJBuW1w5VumffXopssf-oB16OB9rhTVL4QxFhD9y35q2Mg2RgAzfKi9qMmhuGc/s362/IMG_7738.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5b5x56gHRAQjBNRSSc-2HYMYq5N-xaa-Ui9Qsgxd2uhgaVZcCiiEdR5fsbKdV5BwfCE3LwZ5k6w3c-kJBuW1w5VumffXopssf-oB16OB9rhTVL4QxFhD9y35q2Mg2RgAzfKi9qMmhuGc/s320/IMG_7738.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggu5Ryy4o5DTRWimbo3Kv08SaaGev6KGCosY9gQ7wKV0Mqu7bQgRSnXIquMLm8ji0ddKRostZizqbV92tCIpTpV82trp_R7RxRUBrPQD0BbUr3Y5m5QBEtSv8neY99WPUie4VFo-OSHKs/s362/IMG_7711.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggu5Ryy4o5DTRWimbo3Kv08SaaGev6KGCosY9gQ7wKV0Mqu7bQgRSnXIquMLm8ji0ddKRostZizqbV92tCIpTpV82trp_R7RxRUBrPQD0BbUr3Y5m5QBEtSv8neY99WPUie4VFo-OSHKs/s320/IMG_7711.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDQAK5cuSEsDHp-9HjBDDV1SkaKdfOKjVFo0VNm8-Nim1_UAy5ur_slktqSnTOdfrsrvwyDqcePobeUfc9DliC2-_XlSUFXrjFGYWV9IUUAzE50W2Ww5OjJrwcVombmH3Hm6i-kZbNDQ/s362/IMG_7727.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzDQAK5cuSEsDHp-9HjBDDV1SkaKdfOKjVFo0VNm8-Nim1_UAy5ur_slktqSnTOdfrsrvwyDqcePobeUfc9DliC2-_XlSUFXrjFGYWV9IUUAzE50W2Ww5OjJrwcVombmH3Hm6i-kZbNDQ/s320/IMG_7727.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Camila was blessed with a wonderful friend group! I'm so happy she had all of these beautiful friends (and more!) to share her high school years with her. I know they will always be close over the years. </p><p><br /></p><p>That was May 1. Meanwhile, we were preparing for a family graduation that all the kids could participate in. First, I made the diploma with Camila's input using Canva. I printed it on special paper. I think it turned out well. I ordered the diploma case and her cap and gown from Amazon. Seriously, I think her diploma is way nicer than the one I got!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCS56g1JSVNO3ze3T94dr1OGOIA26WBc4J4-5HuQ_l3Xe1GxAImbyfTyhtnxRJIdxPcYITctb3FixrYHolUavhTR4DeRZTy8ONCgr4PsFSngnaOZL5BbOmME5ejAIYak3GzlJ1o1rR96M/s2048/rotated+and+blurred.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1561" data-original-width="2048" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCS56g1JSVNO3ze3T94dr1OGOIA26WBc4J4-5HuQ_l3Xe1GxAImbyfTyhtnxRJIdxPcYITctb3FixrYHolUavhTR4DeRZTy8ONCgr4PsFSngnaOZL5BbOmME5ejAIYak3GzlJ1o1rR96M/w411-h314/rotated+and+blurred.jpg" width="411" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKgP8iWQ69WyPO8v9nUhAM2ChXWremjPg8XX605vJb8bkjTzFIQDPwu8VDOXHClPbkKCnwR5vwRhhH7ddmjX5ZKGLPrz22ddaiYHcldUHqBNoBwN6tZTgrfHDQtT5iXX2pOhfecqr2OA/s2048/IMG_7742.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKgP8iWQ69WyPO8v9nUhAM2ChXWremjPg8XX605vJb8bkjTzFIQDPwu8VDOXHClPbkKCnwR5vwRhhH7ddmjX5ZKGLPrz22ddaiYHcldUHqBNoBwN6tZTgrfHDQtT5iXX2pOhfecqr2OA/s320/IMG_7742.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's the program I created using Canva</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDfqrnEMATN3ggPfStUkZ-TI9pGvKbqmyMqRsxV2nCJk0zkxjeHuqSE-rdIk2qsJMkP-OuS5Dfd2ZKsqPjCAP84juH51EJq7rbk6vwn9VD0u4z2qesRL693ekyqRe5VWVGt5QdQ3IjH4/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="601" height="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDfqrnEMATN3ggPfStUkZ-TI9pGvKbqmyMqRsxV2nCJk0zkxjeHuqSE-rdIk2qsJMkP-OuS5Dfd2ZKsqPjCAP84juH51EJq7rbk6vwn9VD0u4z2qesRL693ekyqRe5VWVGt5QdQ3IjH4/w437-h612/image.png" width="437" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_hSGZGYXu8z322OtIjFYqOLhMl0Iu8ItA4gG1PEKbB4bKMt_Gsh_mScBatRMZzzN0Z5Izx79TSQc7ufBFnXiKVn63iCDX5FfFvhzi-RBp8Yp-HJZk76uajnPzYlOM5UHO1t_f_-AvLo/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="601" height="641" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_hSGZGYXu8z322OtIjFYqOLhMl0Iu8ItA4gG1PEKbB4bKMt_Gsh_mScBatRMZzzN0Z5Izx79TSQc7ufBFnXiKVn63iCDX5FfFvhzi-RBp8Yp-HJZk76uajnPzYlOM5UHO1t_f_-AvLo/w458-h641/image.png" width="458" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I planned out some awards for her (also designed on Canva). They each had a dollar value, but I'll leave that off for now. It wasn't much!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJNkIXNulJqCnWeDQwX0G2tve102tkSXLG0IQr_4Y8AmTP6dNPobFfEN0VbKwd_gRFkrcdfLy3JrtSWXhtq4JTZ_kwdsdY6yOPSuXqL4r_zwFgo-zOccRxrYtdnPQsRLtzI2eFa_DPyY/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="1023" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJNkIXNulJqCnWeDQwX0G2tve102tkSXLG0IQr_4Y8AmTP6dNPobFfEN0VbKwd_gRFkrcdfLy3JrtSWXhtq4JTZ_kwdsdY6yOPSuXqL4r_zwFgo-zOccRxrYtdnPQsRLtzI2eFa_DPyY/w397-h295/image.png" width="397" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjptZ2bNPp_IcH9zaDVZe_Q_TEBC9hbzKnPWMJ7NQUDUe7SoOmn_eigkIt5xavhebTLhtCFq_E77GJ7VMDukLSDGg3g75tEjMHrnSqiv7-hmEp8-lQZhAAJ-V_m7imo0K7Qb4CIG2tQSSo/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="1048" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjptZ2bNPp_IcH9zaDVZe_Q_TEBC9hbzKnPWMJ7NQUDUe7SoOmn_eigkIt5xavhebTLhtCFq_E77GJ7VMDukLSDGg3g75tEjMHrnSqiv7-hmEp8-lQZhAAJ-V_m7imo0K7Qb4CIG2tQSSo/w393-h282/image.png" width="393" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhISbnB3ZkBmBwZ-U6uPbsw2e9wL5q6R7IAiftJXprpZjpq2a13v_qNX_UcTRSBwRe5aBp6uluBMU7_8agYF1ip81BN_0LZAc2nK9v2Lel0AWOWdIParKguUjii7qE3-9gTt4xsVEWGSGo/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="1020" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhISbnB3ZkBmBwZ-U6uPbsw2e9wL5q6R7IAiftJXprpZjpq2a13v_qNX_UcTRSBwRe5aBp6uluBMU7_8agYF1ip81BN_0LZAc2nK9v2Lel0AWOWdIParKguUjii7qE3-9gTt4xsVEWGSGo/w406-h293/image.png" width="406" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmYwnwYpiC9H1WDQo1MnT7MfHR8g_cctaIXwN6Tc2PFKcGRnFPgKBKolD8ayO71I0HFqhb2kca8VJ5ccpS-uNVITPk29X4lmmO63PrZEyZcpWubJsXVAoPci-WbhPwVSGwKZf3bMO86I/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="1025" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmYwnwYpiC9H1WDQo1MnT7MfHR8g_cctaIXwN6Tc2PFKcGRnFPgKBKolD8ayO71I0HFqhb2kca8VJ5ccpS-uNVITPk29X4lmmO63PrZEyZcpWubJsXVAoPci-WbhPwVSGwKZf3bMO86I/w415-h298/image.png" width="415" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then it was time to decorate!!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOgaa_zUxGZhAXWs-67n09tgQYp55tpKR8G-KCewKi6mJPnTla_90LQOUBXC7OIeLSDz5N5QARGiQfzfDr5hMvlVmmlv4jY4NF_s8bxgwvkmUYWscTULJrxmllIj9zMFtmehJJSJVHzw/s2048/KNEL1003.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="459" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOgaa_zUxGZhAXWs-67n09tgQYp55tpKR8G-KCewKi6mJPnTla_90LQOUBXC7OIeLSDz5N5QARGiQfzfDr5hMvlVmmlv4jY4NF_s8bxgwvkmUYWscTULJrxmllIj9zMFtmehJJSJVHzw/w344-h459/KNEL1003.JPG" width="344" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We rolled out the red carpet for our Graduates! Too bad that June let go of the 12 helium balloons I had purchased at party city earlier that day. Sigh. Oh well, Dan went to Dollar Tree and replaced them with even better balloons. It turned out great.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbqEw9czfDasZfJ-Upo1YALJSmGSwm3nfUZVHhPAyTNQMRwHAR8DBZkkwIuzVlcgMTeQTfiBhm000HqhD0kyT5AWkzUDxAvZxapAEMms2qnuw9tE6fKgmgG95yFc8Pm1NhCpy6v75Ik8/s750/IMG_7947.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbqEw9czfDasZfJ-Upo1YALJSmGSwm3nfUZVHhPAyTNQMRwHAR8DBZkkwIuzVlcgMTeQTfiBhm000HqhD0kyT5AWkzUDxAvZxapAEMms2qnuw9tE6fKgmgG95yFc8Pm1NhCpy6v75Ik8/s320/IMG_7947.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We took pictures</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ff_KeQd0SZVtUOSgCtI86hud6nibtxbSsvKYbude-GCddJLOl3zsFpDlWokBwXSiudiPiNP3f7r6msH5Ju8b48-jO4ns2jwXlXXhlCtbKm3QS_40AwZM4LeERtjKhIegj9jwvby-MDw/s1106/BZIF1271.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="1106" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ff_KeQd0SZVtUOSgCtI86hud6nibtxbSsvKYbude-GCddJLOl3zsFpDlWokBwXSiudiPiNP3f7r6msH5Ju8b48-jO4ns2jwXlXXhlCtbKm3QS_40AwZM4LeERtjKhIegj9jwvby-MDw/s320/BZIF1271.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfSKqD5m075LHJGCCJvYt9wfJNqHiaQOB77CeV9-L827mAMWekFotkC4hLQbsQ4XcYipdWT3-WxvGROaSTV4h7i9UKpsmjoyEBajYCY0Cs7AK4NKqAyx6vWCr3aVCeQIczFg3CMQo7wm4/s1024/GIPC0449.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfSKqD5m075LHJGCCJvYt9wfJNqHiaQOB77CeV9-L827mAMWekFotkC4hLQbsQ4XcYipdWT3-WxvGROaSTV4h7i9UKpsmjoyEBajYCY0Cs7AK4NKqAyx6vWCr3aVCeQIczFg3CMQo7wm4/s320/GIPC0449.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eVrcpey5KHgqOQHgPgXW0gstJUz5jWvvUgSgkLo1K2r5LW898yHX8IUlOhsQtAfrzi1EYkf0votXCotfOurz7zzOmRNFGwLrEdFE4niQo1OEzgjj3Ayo4CGvUiOm-O3DEro07KQ2DBE/s2048/IMG_7872.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eVrcpey5KHgqOQHgPgXW0gstJUz5jWvvUgSgkLo1K2r5LW898yHX8IUlOhsQtAfrzi1EYkf0votXCotfOurz7zzOmRNFGwLrEdFE4niQo1OEzgjj3Ayo4CGvUiOm-O3DEro07KQ2DBE/s320/IMG_7872.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAVWN7vJ453Bk-O1ENcJqckjIfCK9D0gU0On5df_dPMOcPaInkWptJDciR15rG60G7GF7KHjmANl-bXdIA2XZV1CjYfyZGqsoWWcM1XC5Tpgpbg8wI79aHGl6pmeGZPEzqlwCXU5Kric/s2048/IMG_7882.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeAVWN7vJ453Bk-O1ENcJqckjIfCK9D0gU0On5df_dPMOcPaInkWptJDciR15rG60G7GF7KHjmANl-bXdIA2XZV1CjYfyZGqsoWWcM1XC5Tpgpbg8wI79aHGl6pmeGZPEzqlwCXU5Kric/s320/IMG_7882.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCgQWvdxh2EWug0YcvuRizavCgVX5cue3V3NNYKDiEgj9QQv9NC8epQxOCWCyvcuTc8bR8XZ9y8dfzvvlnNkqY53zrhyphenhyphen9palMu3zCvXgzhbT7F0lM6hol-tAz8NzrtYVJeuT6p2FSvJM/s2048/IMG_7884.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCgQWvdxh2EWug0YcvuRizavCgVX5cue3V3NNYKDiEgj9QQv9NC8epQxOCWCyvcuTc8bR8XZ9y8dfzvvlnNkqY53zrhyphenhyphen9palMu3zCvXgzhbT7F0lM6hol-tAz8NzrtYVJeuT6p2FSvJM/s320/IMG_7884.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7SDXoL8qluaXM3qghmnfJeL3jMxw7ijmHuKAQUe08msO4cMoXHUBFnhQeamLiZhGbdq_IsVnrRjkH13Jl3sDDr0qtMqlgNUDOE1u7dwofiWOQeTwO7Em8Q7W73HkPZxy5W8ziDS02ODk/s2048/IMG_7885.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7SDXoL8qluaXM3qghmnfJeL3jMxw7ijmHuKAQUe08msO4cMoXHUBFnhQeamLiZhGbdq_IsVnrRjkH13Jl3sDDr0qtMqlgNUDOE1u7dwofiWOQeTwO7Em8Q7W73HkPZxy5W8ziDS02ODk/s320/IMG_7885.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPjkEjK83i_ZOhwR-KrQTKRRWW_xaQkqARODsc8e23HpV7Cg3fM1WO6x4mCdBEj6SM_8t2WErDXk9BmC0I5qTm5b9-C-GKxGhPzu8LviKo8Q_Qmpbd4A4UvfPE-9F7jXZG2akGKaWG84/s2048/IMG_7887.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPjkEjK83i_ZOhwR-KrQTKRRWW_xaQkqARODsc8e23HpV7Cg3fM1WO6x4mCdBEj6SM_8t2WErDXk9BmC0I5qTm5b9-C-GKxGhPzu8LviKo8Q_Qmpbd4A4UvfPE-9F7jXZG2akGKaWG84/s320/IMG_7887.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Then we had a dinner of southwest fajitas and corn on the cob. MMMM.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Nq8EZkFNhNT4DzlgjQmmgeVz9X64mKyiLRKs1dn76_suVS0e-uZ6ZSKTWnrSnYQlyx0inRkMGRCsxycTNmE6pCbMNJgX_6l36q0u6bdSXy7Sc4N5qNZFGN17F5O9729AxgcTAZCpXgw/s750/IMG_7966.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Nq8EZkFNhNT4DzlgjQmmgeVz9X64mKyiLRKs1dn76_suVS0e-uZ6ZSKTWnrSnYQlyx0inRkMGRCsxycTNmE6pCbMNJgX_6l36q0u6bdSXy7Sc4N5qNZFGN17F5O9729AxgcTAZCpXgw/w447-h252/IMG_7966.JPG" width="447" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><br />And then the ceremony began!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyJgSXPpuyyCJHpEecxPrsZis-2wcv_F4BHF3eqz-ovezawgcXwRQ7EKncTmwKl2O4RAUxObD2Am7j6lbbduQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Our procession had a few hiccups. Here's a portion of the video (without the huge bucket of water that fell over at the beginning knocking over our flag and splashing me big time)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw-OMBsD6GBgHZQz__Pic_r1O1MaYWCVQQPtkY-Uu-mSUjDRHUXgGfhnlck388ZiMTlz_n8_Ng1hoRoYxgsNg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">As parents, we had the opportunity to speak first. I think there were more tears than words. It was very heartfelt.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Our second daughter had beautiful things to say as well that made us both laugh and cry.<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cONInlWcjPw" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> <br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Bud had a few words to say</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwE4TIH77_XccThv_kXeFT554Nf230GMRkT1kq20fLvgUmtKoLyssC8LoQeeHGhhSlPz2h84c0s7sFIqSqgCw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Then we heard from our 10 yo. So sweet.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzjFS5ilxADrMDfL3MgqPgQw4wznUBtVTs6glugcxdRN2fWe6nj0JfGFKe8pDj8IDgM4ZI30W7vSfrzpWAilw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Next, our graduate spoke.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzOPCQjdMTzYU7nPpJejSZjszjwGHqc3FRut1XnEjGBhPfWpreWRDfP_M1EvZCDFjHJg8MH24odbC_Vr_T74Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">AFter the awards were handed out we took some more pictures and played with our 2021 sparklers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfvXAQ2je8qTsihXfOByc9NrQO6_EBbFMnQuXmOWaUfaYMJLICXOoBxyWxz48UJLv6sA8-hqlZkyh5QO4Z_n1HiZAg2zZGh5apvTy4x3ewvHFSQAKFnvT_ytz4_iJfU9ozTxYm2PstXI/s2048/IMG_7902.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfvXAQ2je8qTsihXfOByc9NrQO6_EBbFMnQuXmOWaUfaYMJLICXOoBxyWxz48UJLv6sA8-hqlZkyh5QO4Z_n1HiZAg2zZGh5apvTy4x3ewvHFSQAKFnvT_ytz4_iJfU9ozTxYm2PstXI/s320/IMG_7902.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIORNKOfpUT0B8Fds8sZ7YBalFNpICIimZUEWAHhZ-K_o4onDTX8zcNRl1tS9lYTAk9lNAo29MLG6sBEB1HlpA-JQ9_29mCiSVu003CdsQ-OE714PkXG8eC_NwbOoWnfXZ6YR0-UBSQk4/s2048/IMG_7903.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIORNKOfpUT0B8Fds8sZ7YBalFNpICIimZUEWAHhZ-K_o4onDTX8zcNRl1tS9lYTAk9lNAo29MLG6sBEB1HlpA-JQ9_29mCiSVu003CdsQ-OE714PkXG8eC_NwbOoWnfXZ6YR0-UBSQk4/s320/IMG_7903.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi25gDhCZn0ynCh5XSoEMCbL3Bu223iMdXR3XHvxakIFgA-jrRQJ7BkKOhFeubCfXzYnlK99EIN1s8NFwvptI2iprg5KlaqDq5uw1y-rxQfpyzM3OrnEB-07KrZV3SDTzVBDkBXcX73LnQ/s2048/IMG_7908.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi25gDhCZn0ynCh5XSoEMCbL3Bu223iMdXR3XHvxakIFgA-jrRQJ7BkKOhFeubCfXzYnlK99EIN1s8NFwvptI2iprg5KlaqDq5uw1y-rxQfpyzM3OrnEB-07KrZV3SDTzVBDkBXcX73LnQ/s320/IMG_7908.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEityKa6FLIOVlhwDdPtGVZxbysDmwLD2pQcqEVBY7L0U09D_wT7_mgiegLfD5H3PGNzpHf_Gkr2p3tbIuq0pOB8nMNwZ022fqvdIsc3rQ9dxJKScrvp0IRdN9VuQ8p56Bb45FQtx4_YdFQ/s2048/IMG_7910.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEityKa6FLIOVlhwDdPtGVZxbysDmwLD2pQcqEVBY7L0U09D_wT7_mgiegLfD5H3PGNzpHf_Gkr2p3tbIuq0pOB8nMNwZ022fqvdIsc3rQ9dxJKScrvp0IRdN9VuQ8p56Bb45FQtx4_YdFQ/s320/IMG_7910.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdn1Vo1aDP99Gspb7GCKBxo39OWPZx3RLMOz-JcIsPacME63Stmq2cWtVs9vYvAm4mssclYi6xuFH-kWOUPpLwpm0eMs0jUbJ_etiUuuPs7S4tGth5k2vtDN3X9xlmtSE2cWj9Urk-G8U/s2048/IMG_7919.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdn1Vo1aDP99Gspb7GCKBxo39OWPZx3RLMOz-JcIsPacME63Stmq2cWtVs9vYvAm4mssclYi6xuFH-kWOUPpLwpm0eMs0jUbJ_etiUuuPs7S4tGth5k2vtDN3X9xlmtSE2cWj9Urk-G8U/s320/IMG_7919.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6gXVwKdWe8SlEbPS6isj1TfR4hryY9REyFhgR3vnPrQ93N8ogCaX-4xDq1URA3lrFzTBo3AlkgzDYXlo9KiSfSrgYglMkAYE-OzdGJjSWk-KO4X-wZX-fVcUoboalrmUjyZtRdg-GTx4/s2048/IMG_7924.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6gXVwKdWe8SlEbPS6isj1TfR4hryY9REyFhgR3vnPrQ93N8ogCaX-4xDq1URA3lrFzTBo3AlkgzDYXlo9KiSfSrgYglMkAYE-OzdGJjSWk-KO4X-wZX-fVcUoboalrmUjyZtRdg-GTx4/s320/IMG_7924.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik68aDsRS3tr6xejfR8kX5irjFMi-QFKNZrDpkrl-am_PyKtJM7tyrsuf8zjYOh6tf9QAdARjCJIA07ZCpvj9g8ctITQWKJK4j0nonsqqEfFg8LLqUPYrdUf0OKhD39QsB9C2xV2A7Ly0/s1106/IMG_7970.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="622" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik68aDsRS3tr6xejfR8kX5irjFMi-QFKNZrDpkrl-am_PyKtJM7tyrsuf8zjYOh6tf9QAdARjCJIA07ZCpvj9g8ctITQWKJK4j0nonsqqEfFg8LLqUPYrdUf0OKhD39QsB9C2xV2A7Ly0/s320/IMG_7970.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4w2CD3VoPnWad64xK3UuEBzhW8YbgTaSb7y3WQSEQNIqaP-30-YApElISsJX9yq8zatgYsdsK0fEBT8C1fbaCGabLdOklSJWdmlhoy2P34-PGGnorz_JqNDEVtXpaoh2JpDJBQeo5gg/s750/IMG_7972.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4w2CD3VoPnWad64xK3UuEBzhW8YbgTaSb7y3WQSEQNIqaP-30-YApElISsJX9yq8zatgYsdsK0fEBT8C1fbaCGabLdOklSJWdmlhoy2P34-PGGnorz_JqNDEVtXpaoh2JpDJBQeo5gg/s320/IMG_7972.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This is the painting Sof made for her big sister</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8FloV3t1b2tUpdUP2sAxYEmBnR_UNMKhgEoYtszohPlLxwHQXNMgMgIuNownK6jSqn6SfutheJQSd9TWWjV62TUehEB9jrIrevq4xo_h5ZvPefmkUdWuLORqIJhjuyNja1obSaqvsJwk/s1106/IMG_7968.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="622" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8FloV3t1b2tUpdUP2sAxYEmBnR_UNMKhgEoYtszohPlLxwHQXNMgMgIuNownK6jSqn6SfutheJQSd9TWWjV62TUehEB9jrIrevq4xo_h5ZvPefmkUdWuLORqIJhjuyNja1obSaqvsJwk/s320/IMG_7968.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">After that, we cleaned up a little and went out for ice cream.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQh5mmWT_0q8MJF2dmBdmmFPhgUXFaq1UPvx8VuL8Cae7CianyjocrnSRjQN-7S0K0irRUro2pYhEMpY3EOV9XUQZ0yjL15OfwZ9d7GsaTciT6wRvGoSWAKcB_h4Ek67v0n1scSAAcQg/s2048/IMG_7933.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrQh5mmWT_0q8MJF2dmBdmmFPhgUXFaq1UPvx8VuL8Cae7CianyjocrnSRjQN-7S0K0irRUro2pYhEMpY3EOV9XUQZ0yjL15OfwZ9d7GsaTciT6wRvGoSWAKcB_h4Ek67v0n1scSAAcQg/s320/IMG_7933.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The littles fell asleep on the way home. It felt like a really happy, joyful night with a bitter-sweet realization that we are now entering a new phase of parenting when our kids will begin to come and go, but never really stay with us for long. This fall, there will be one less place to set at teh table, an extra seat in the car on our way to church, and more hot water to share in the shower. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It's all ok. This is how it goes. We are happy that she is ready and capable to head out into the world to find her own way.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Just don't be surprised if you find me sitting on her bed, alone in her room, crying one last time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-A_oxwwjsWjFQxNO_nfJoihOFDDW-8JZKjSdbagsaUP8Ay0tEVXVPb1Y4mbDoAtTYIGM2ZNCsNt2S8L5c9SGu_3aUrTO2VRoxO8zVcl-aSdP8mMrYipWlHEQwbc6t1oEuJ5pBgkNGggs/s2048/IMG_7743.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-54877529822987905422021-01-21T20:38:00.002-08:002021-01-21T20:38:06.704-08:00It's not over<video
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kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-21303566886146204502020-02-17T20:41:00.002-08:002020-02-17T20:45:30.428-08:00DNA Electrophoresis Field Trip...and TurtlesThe co-op we are attending this year has offered a wide range of field trips for our family to participate in, should we choose. I really appreciate this so much because a lot of times I just forget to plan field trips or I am to busy to make the phone calls or order tickets or plan outings. <br />
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As always, I've not kept a good record of late. But while it's on my mind I thought I'd post pics of a few trips that we took and I actually remembered to grab a photo or two.<br />
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ONE: DNA Electrophoresis at the NC State Museum of Natural Science<br />
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This was a great one! I was impressed with the quality of the lab, lab equipment, and instruction. For ten bucks two of my kids got to be real scientists and analyse the DNA of various corn kernels to determine if they contain a gene for fungus, which would in turn determine if the plant variety could be recommended for planting.<br />
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My 9th grader came out spewing all kinds of facts and gave me a lengthy, detailed description of the entire process. I retained about 12% of it. But I was just glad to see that she was so excited about what she had learned, especially since she's doing biology this year! What a great compliment to her course work. My son, 7th grade, also said he enjoyed it, although you'd never guess it from his body language. I guess it's not always cool to like school, even (especially?) homeschool.<br />
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pics:<br />
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While these two were in class,I took my two littles to the other end of the museum for story hour...with animals! They got to pet a bunny. This is especially fun for us because the word bunny is pronounced "bundee" by our 2yo. We love to hear her say it. And she said it a lot on this day. It was super exciting for her.</div>
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Meanwhile, my 9yo had found a couple of friends who were also hanging around waiting for siblings to finish class. So she hung out with them while exploring the museum. Afterward the girls included my littles in a game of rock, paper, scissors. Classic.</div>
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It was a fun day and we capped it off with a trip to Taco Bell on the way home (fast food is something we almost n.e.v.e.r. do at our house). When we got home there was yet another fun surprise: a secret friend, who shall remain nameless, dropped of some valentine goodies: strawberries and a balloon!</div>
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What a great day!</div>
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Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the turtles. A day or two before this field trip we met up at the co-op for a special after-hours presentation on turtles! The presenters were from the NC State veterinarian program who specialize in treating hurt turtles and returning them to the wild. Very cool. Turtles were a new thing for us upon arriving in North Carolina. But they are old news now. We see them all the time. Still, very cool to see one up close and personal and learn more about how they are rehabilitated by skilled students who really do seem to care an AWFUL lot about turtles.</div>
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kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-76669179712678093982020-01-19T22:34:00.002-08:002020-01-19T22:42:23.719-08:00Best Family Vacation: Flashback to 2014When we lived in WA state, we had the awesome opportunity to take our family to Nature Bridge in the Olympic National Forest; not once, but twice. The first time was in 2012 (that sounds like so long ago!) and then again in 2014.<br />
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My parents came to visit this past Christmas '19 and I happen to mention the 2014 vacation to my mom. After our conversation I was inspired to go back and look at some pictures of that trip. I decided to turn it into a mini slide show so I could share it with family and friends. I had fun learning a few new google slide tricks, like adding audio and how to work the timing functions.<br />
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So I'm sharing it here as well. :) As you watch, keep in mind that this was only a few months after our baby died and it was still really hard for me to smile. I tried to keep up with the kids and be as normal as I could for them, but my heart was aching. Sometimes it still does.<br />
Note for some reason the slides don't auto advance in this embedded version so you have to click through the slides. If you'd rather watch the auto-advance presentation on your browser hop on over <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTGajm31leXc4iPFTF1BMnzWMsRdkRBADWiWDRY-X_YLxaLe3sMmRzzdnIoMIqIW1C3evS_q75g0di7/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=3000&slide=id.p">HERE</a>
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<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTGajm31leXc4iPFTF1BMnzWMsRdkRBADWiWDRY-X_YLxaLe3sMmRzzdnIoMIqIW1C3evS_q75g0di7/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" frameborder="0" width="480" height="299" allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-40437324892032745002020-01-05T20:32:00.000-08:002020-01-05T20:37:35.590-08:00Four Poems We've Memorized this Year (so far...)Ok, I'm going to resist the temptation to back track and fill in all the gaps that are begging to be filled in. In my perfect world I document all of our exciting and even our boring days so that I can pour over them in the future with that silly grin on my face and remember "the good ole days".<br />
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But who are we kidding? The perfect world, at least my version of it, doesn't exist yet.
I do comfort myself with the notion that Heaven keeps a perfect record of all things that matter to me personally. I really do. I truly look forward to a day when I can open Heaven's record books and re-watch family videos that don't even exist on earth, or perfectly remember special days that have gone fuzzy in my memory. It will be wonderful. But maybe also terrible? The flip side of that is that Heaven probably also records all of my really bad parenting days, the days I was a terrible wife, and the days I failed to live my religion to its fullest. There must be opposition in all things, right?<br />
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I digress..back to poetry, as indicated by the post's title.
I had wanted to buy IEW's poetry memorization course but found that I had already spent too much this year on our homeschool. So I decided to piece together my own poetry memorization program and add it to our morning routine this year. I just started with poetry books we already own and so far this year we've had success with these four poems:<br />
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<b> Alphabet Stew</b><br />
I wanted to start out with something fun and light hearted that would be easy to memorized to kick this thing off with a win! It worked. Even though it's a silly and perhaps childish poem, it has a good message that is applicable to any homeschool. I found it on page 188 of this book<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Random-House-Book-Poetry-Children/dp/0394850106/ref=as_li_ss_il?crid=2ARI2SVE6BATR&keywords=random+house+book+of+poetry+for+children&qid=1578283197&sprefix=random+house+,aps,159&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=homschforther-20&linkId=cdfd9d49d5978b5b13ecebb8d1e9a919&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0394850106&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=homschforther-20&language=en_US" /></a><br />
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We did many things to help us memorize this poem, but the funnest was probably assigning 1-2 lines to each student and asking that student to illustrate those lines. We then tried to guess which lines were being illustrated and put them in order as we recited the poem.<br />
Here are a few of the illustrations that came about from that activity:<br />
<br />
I am <i>not</i> sure why these came out upside down, or how to change that, bu<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=homschforther-20&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=0486285537" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />t there you go. See if you can tell which lines are being illustrated.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIZ9E_T1JoAiUcePkFspjdRG8mnbuIrheiyUKglAwVjVSak8-2tgUt3O-R03AdBFVAmRNSJUcafNrKTu5NTQKYS4SA_kn6rTSEgQ_iFrMHJsYDTR3FggeLMowJh-Xbm13mvw4AnUWT1Ow/s1600/IMG_3190.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIZ9E_T1JoAiUcePkFspjdRG8mnbuIrheiyUKglAwVjVSak8-2tgUt3O-R03AdBFVAmRNSJUcafNrKTu5NTQKYS4SA_kn6rTSEgQ_iFrMHJsYDTR3FggeLMowJh-Xbm13mvw4AnUWT1Ow/s320/IMG_3190.JPG" width="320" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0I3Db7zyN8LPEggAqu5lkvlhsBODmfQwgyXc5jd1l7L3_Mv9BNkw9PkgOHUj9Di5u4FxB3ZSlu1elc2WtFbK0ZhbaXgrmUBOPHzlAD-FBJECnj4nqXqn2qh6WKWaq2IifvJLQyaHeVvA/s1600/IMG_3188.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0I3Db7zyN8LPEggAqu5lkvlhsBODmfQwgyXc5jd1l7L3_Mv9BNkw9PkgOHUj9Di5u4FxB3ZSlu1elc2WtFbK0ZhbaXgrmUBOPHzlAD-FBJECnj4nqXqn2qh6WKWaq2IifvJLQyaHeVvA/s320/IMG_3188.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<b>Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost</b><br />
We had memorized this poem many years before, but the kids did not remember it. My mind was jogged to revisit this poem when it was mentioned by The Comma Queen in a video I used to teach my high school composition course last semester. (More on that another time...maybe)<br />
If you haven't ever watched the Comma Queen on YouTube, I would recommend her! She adds a little humor to what can otherwise be very dull grammar lessons.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0jS3VyRYYCQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<b>The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost</b><br />
I was on a Robert Frost kick, I guess. Our next poem was the classic "forge your own path" poem and we had a great time learning it. My girls have a real knack for memorizing things and they were sometimes annoyed with my constant slip ups! I think what helped us nail this one (or helped ME) was to make hand motions that go along with the lines of the poem. That was super helpful. I also created fill-in-the-blank sheets for this poem. As I read the poem aloud the kids would fill in the missing words. There were a lot of missing words so I would read it as many times as it took for them to fill all the words correctly.<br />
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T<b>he Difference</b><br />
I only became aware of this poem because poetry memorization is a part of the 7th grade English curriculum at The Good and the Beautiful. I switched my son over to this program in...late October (I think?) because I felt like he was spinning his wheels with Moving Beyond the Page and needed something more structured. So far, I do feel like it's been a good fit. Anyway, one of the poems was this great poem about prayer that I had never heard before. The author is unknown. Here's a screet shot of it<br />
<h1 class="detail title poem-title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, Tahoma; font-size: 27px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/33747.html" target="_blank">THE DIFFERENCE</a></h1>
<span class="detail author-name" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #575757; display: block; font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , "helvetica" , "verdana"; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">Submitted By: <a href="https://www.scrapbook.com/forums/showuser.php?uid/247969/" style="border: 0px; color: #575757; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">angeleyes5278</a></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #777777; font-family: "open sans", arial, helvetica, verdana; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didn't have time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task. "Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered. He answered, You didn't ask," I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn't show me. He said, "But you didn't seek.: I tried to come into God's presence. I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, "My child, you didn't knock." I woke up early this morning and paused before enter the day. I had so much to accomplish that i had to take time to pray.</div>
<cite style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #a2a2a2; display: block; font-family: "open sans", arial, helvetica, verdana; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="cite-author" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Author: UNKNOWN</span></cite><br />
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So what is next for our poetry memorization? Here I am Sunday night trying to get myself back in school mode after coming off a long Christmas break. And I'm trying to figure out our next poems to memorize! I found a<a href="https://www.mensaforkids.org/read/a-year-of-living-poetically/shakespeare-sonnet-116/" target="_blank"> terrific resource </a>and have decided that we're going to GO BIG and tackle some Shakespeare. We're going to do Sonnet 116. YIKES. But the resources on that page look great and I will definitely incorporate them into our memorization process.<br />
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After that, I will likely go back to consulting this book (below) when looking for a new poem.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-Loved-Poems-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486285537/ref=as_li_ss_il?keywords=100+best+love+dpoems&qid=1578284911&sr=8-2-spell&linkCode=li2&tag=homschforther-20&linkId=bb99ce670c42eda96ecbbc5a2b600363&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0486285537&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=homschforther-20&language=en_US" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=homschforther-20&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=0486285537" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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Or pick another one from the list given <a href="https://www.mensaforkids.org/read/a-year-of-living-poetically/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Maybe some of this inspires you to memorize a few poems of your own. I think ti's a great way to help kids develop lots of great skills and actually grow that little noggin!kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-9473206092345374492019-11-27T19:00:00.000-08:002019-11-27T19:00:15.363-08:00Finding Good Books for Your ChildrenHave you ever heard of Jenny Phillips or her amazing homeschool curriculum called The Good and the Beautiful? She presents herself and her program excellently, so I'll let her do the talking in this video below. I'd encourage you to take a look and then consider if the good books your have at home are as good as you think they are....
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FvXjwW3F3Ac" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-2020483013115899932019-10-17T20:31:00.000-07:002019-10-17T20:31:02.295-07:00Summer Summary Part 1Ok, here it is. It's going to take me days to put this together. I don't intend to encapsulate our entire summer in one post. But I do want to hit the highlights and it may take several posts to do even just that! It was a busy, wonderful, very hot summer.<br />
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So let's just pick up where we left off...in the garden.<br />
This was my first semi-successful experience gardening in NC. I was pleased that we had a long growing season and harvested plenty of things that we ate in our meals pretty much all summer long. In fact, even tonight (October 17, 2019) we ate some of the very last remaining tomatoes in our tacos! I love eating from our own back yard.<br />
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The best harvest (most fun) was that of the purple potatoes. Wow, it was like being on a treasure hunt and we literally squealed with glee when we dug up those purple jewels!<br />
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It was so fun to eat them for dinner. We all swore that they tasted better than any potato we'd ever eaten. I'm not sure if that's true but we did take pleasure in eating our very first potato harvest.</div>
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We sure did have a ton of tomatoes to eat this summer! I told the kids that next summer I want to weigh our harvest each day and keep track of the poundage. I think that would be a fun exercise and then try to beat our record each year. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9XwxlnUsHqFvAFBG6PphsOEqPNAQBR6zShESuwkHC-u4EU-Ol65hlUUCAhHKGfbSuxIu6trB5Gs2rIly-QradTRhHXYua8M_SmdoGZg1NUJufFvlfgDrsn0l-3uh6p0eE2rmiuW6aTs/s1600/IMG_0659.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9XwxlnUsHqFvAFBG6PphsOEqPNAQBR6zShESuwkHC-u4EU-Ol65hlUUCAhHKGfbSuxIu6trB5Gs2rIly-QradTRhHXYua8M_SmdoGZg1NUJufFvlfgDrsn0l-3uh6p0eE2rmiuW6aTs/s320/IMG_0659.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's a salad made almost entirely from the garden</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorry it's upside down. Pizza! Homegrown basil and tomatoes.</td></tr>
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Moving on from the garden: </div>
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Our biggest adventure this summer was a cruise to the Bahamas! It was my first ever cruise, and even though we had some very enjoyable moments, I'm pretty sure it will be my last. Not my favorite way to vacation.</div>
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This girl got her first "real" job! She continues to babysit and clean houses too! She also entered her dual enrollment program and is studying full time at a local community college. She's a busy girl these days!</div>
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This spunky little thing attended her first day camp. It was only for 2 hours three times a week but she really enjoyed the super hero theme.</div>
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Two of the girls joined a summer swim team. The team did very well!</div>
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We were invited to some pretty lavish birthday parties!</div>
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And we did our best to keep cool in what felt like an unbearably long, suffocating summer.</div>
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More summer high lights in the next post...</div>
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<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-38114075267521415722019-10-13T21:44:00.000-07:002019-10-13T21:48:54.948-07:00Elegant Essay: Introductory TechniquesIt feels odd to restate my presence here after many months away by jumping right in to this slideshow. But I am!<br />
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If time were not a factor I would stay up all night and go through each and every photo of each and every field trip, family trip, outing and significant event that happened since the last time I was here. I would post and blog about each one. Sigh. I'll get to it someday.<br />
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Tonight, however, I'm just quickly sharing a resource I put together for this class I'm teaching right now. A couple years ago I became a certified IEW instructor so that I could feel competent teaching writing to my own children. Well, writing class is just more fun in a real class with more people than just you and your mom. Right?? Right. So I started teaching writing classes at our home.<br />
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This semester I'm doing The Elegant Essay for my two high-school daughters and it's going well...I think! We are about to have our 6th of 14 classes, so we're nearly half way through. Our upcoming lesson is on introductory techniques. Here's a slideshow I made that hopefully well be useful to anyone who needs to spice up their essay with a great intro. If you're studying The Elegant Essay right now and have the book, this slide show coincides with chapter five. Enjoy.<br />
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Hint: You have to click on the presentation to change the slides. Some slides have animated text that will appear with additional clicking. :)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="299" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQ6ojL95OxWPX_i36EKTw9GcSwur31KmUqliBTTVKdMBUEQrSWrzrigoHnE9r0_z8r97WafpolRKJN9/embed?start=false&loop=true&delayms=3000" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="480"></iframe>kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-69892509009671610882019-05-23T21:06:00.000-07:002019-05-23T21:40:55.489-07:00Time to GROWIt's been a busy spring so far. After a disheartening attempt to garden in our backyard last year, I decided that I really needed to increase my knowledge about how to grow things successfully in North Carolina.<br />
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Our raised beds in WA almost seemed to grow food on their own. It was literally so easy. But the hard, clay-like soil in NC is another story. Our thickly wooded lot also presents a challenge. And since we had a new little baby in the house last spring, time was also a challenging aspect of gardening. But this year she's a little bigger. We've cut down some trees. I've moved the boxes further out into the middle of the yard. And perhaps most importantly, I've been trying to educate myself.<br />
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For Christmas, my "Secret Santa" bought me a book about gardening in the Carolinas. Loved it. Read it up as fast as I could. I also attended a seminar about vermicomposting and have started (ok, I purchased it from a friend) a worm bin. It lives on our deck. And I also purchased a gardening video series from a guy online named Dan Bartell in Colorado who has a site called growfoodwell.com His series was really helpful and gave me courage to try some new things. He has some free videos on YouTube as well.<br />
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So armed with new raised beds, copious amounts of compost, and fresh seeds we set out to do better than our "lucky garden" from last year. I coined the term "lucky garden" a few years back when I was feeling over whelmed by life at planting time. I told the kids, "Hey, we'll just throw out some seeds and if anything comes up we'll just be plain lucky!" We've had several lucky gardens over the years and some of them did produce a little. But this year I wanted to really try.<br />
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I have to say, trying actually makes a difference! Still making some mistakes. Still having some issues. But so far this is the best looking garden I've had in a long while. Here are a few pics of what's brewing right now. These are actually about a week old and already we've had lots of growth since I took them. I can't wait for the summer to progress and the garden to continue growing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29x3-R9OBzrQiih6hURS-W-kvEgS3DPgNuZvAsY_OfHtlfVt5Blnuv0UJtUJXLW5xWi91Ei621OVo9ixASu874z6kPauHUYEcmw6seJH-A4iDMqAk0-MCth5vWDbZHOm3mojKpGidV5Y/s1600/IMG_9180.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29x3-R9OBzrQiih6hURS-W-kvEgS3DPgNuZvAsY_OfHtlfVt5Blnuv0UJtUJXLW5xWi91Ei621OVo9ixASu874z6kPauHUYEcmw6seJH-A4iDMqAk0-MCth5vWDbZHOm3mojKpGidV5Y/s400/IMG_9180.JPG" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiseGT5yV_cyE8QxcVL2xYqTETgFQfi8xewmSH7l496zddMlYbwIxuTFIrtSXC0fy5uGBdG_N8A7bBnpAbZhUnq_4pnSgr0dnci0TeFKznQJCAeuFKHEo5oUSuwMZRVmSOzHIbbAmuj-lk/s1600/IMG_9178.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiseGT5yV_cyE8QxcVL2xYqTETgFQfi8xewmSH7l496zddMlYbwIxuTFIrtSXC0fy5uGBdG_N8A7bBnpAbZhUnq_4pnSgr0dnci0TeFKznQJCAeuFKHEo5oUSuwMZRVmSOzHIbbAmuj-lk/s400/IMG_9178.JPG" /></a><br />
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These pics were taken in the evening. You can see how shady it is with the trees casting their shadows as the sun lowers. I do love this time of day in our backyard. It's so peaceful and green. But these boxes do get a good 5-6 or so hours of HOT sun each day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSSlYbfXWS92k8NTdtPB6wog3Ow4ho4BF0HOUhyphenhyphenwyh5GC14dj6ollPFTrj4406Xzd6F9xO7mLsaqAvV7EgV5f4GoOLBoQIJrnOZTRp2jYaUOrJ7Ih9FDpGHMp2uoDOE_zACo0qJG2GhQ/s1600/IMG_9173.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSSlYbfXWS92k8NTdtPB6wog3Ow4ho4BF0HOUhyphenhyphenwyh5GC14dj6ollPFTrj4406Xzd6F9xO7mLsaqAvV7EgV5f4GoOLBoQIJrnOZTRp2jYaUOrJ7Ih9FDpGHMp2uoDOE_zACo0qJG2GhQ/s400/IMG_9173.JPG" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_b7prvgron5_3IUomWxwo6d1CsgRpZEc1pweaqLTIKxLDHz1HpiBXwgl7d6O_fU9QAH0F_ySC4BdV3M-g_ZDjLqBfkFH_sX7z72Ida2EMqXn9eDZGltVDMV8KEJO_pa_81jzsn-W4P7k/s1600/IMG_9175.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_b7prvgron5_3IUomWxwo6d1CsgRpZEc1pweaqLTIKxLDHz1HpiBXwgl7d6O_fU9QAH0F_ySC4BdV3M-g_ZDjLqBfkFH_sX7z72Ida2EMqXn9eDZGltVDMV8KEJO_pa_81jzsn-W4P7k/s400/IMG_9175.JPG" /></a><br />
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The herb box has oregano, lemon thyme, cilantro and basil.<br />
I'm trying my hand at composting this year for the first time. Sometimes it works and it gets hot! Right now things seem to be off and I can't get it up over 90! Hm.....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjL1vSUMJV2W3wD2L6Zk32gSnz7CWomNMl2s-zHKouvf-4ItX-xsHlF3xdFYU0bOTJwyUyf_vTIgEuQaIfcVFeAnYlVuGMK16ptkiswd8M9_u_6PGiPmd3dLFopnK9ehEG02bJ2BohuU/s1600/IMG_9172.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWjL1vSUMJV2W3wD2L6Zk32gSnz7CWomNMl2s-zHKouvf-4ItX-xsHlF3xdFYU0bOTJwyUyf_vTIgEuQaIfcVFeAnYlVuGMK16ptkiswd8M9_u_6PGiPmd3dLFopnK9ehEG02bJ2BohuU/s400/IMG_9172.JPG" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXEyEg2wWOxL2XPPjQrQzn4lMuH0r_7FR-c31dnWZZYhutfDzbFJ0E4uCJ-MD1DnlVbXelJjndE2hbEB1PzFCPMK7hjDB3xH0m16ZGhLkS1MNrovbLI_nQxTzTMLb4-5m9UFDy_Iz33WM/s1600/IMG_9170.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXEyEg2wWOxL2XPPjQrQzn4lMuH0r_7FR-c31dnWZZYhutfDzbFJ0E4uCJ-MD1DnlVbXelJjndE2hbEB1PzFCPMK7hjDB3xH0m16ZGhLkS1MNrovbLI_nQxTzTMLb4-5m9UFDy_Iz33WM/s320/IMG_9170.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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We recently ate all the lettuce in this box as the weather suddenly heated up this past week. What a great salad that was! So satisfying to eat your own veggies. Likewise, we've had to pick all the peas and will probably have to pull up the plants too. It's already just too hot around here. UG.<br />
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This pumpkin plant is so big and healthy! It's sprawling everywhere. I love dreaming of the jars of spicy pumpkin butter that will haunt our freezer like frosty little ghosts this coming winter.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPUCy3ZIp0ubc-tZLO7pckL4Vwcp1qqD0HrWyaokiIXWKnQaVHWMprbQyTqZcmbb_ONOZuPw_kYKC7L2PTdtJXhw9XBZF6e-BV3BB99vxDC-iuZWcwZ8ZxOKAmFLNIhq12LRcFsk0GZk/s1600/IMG_9169.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPUCy3ZIp0ubc-tZLO7pckL4Vwcp1qqD0HrWyaokiIXWKnQaVHWMprbQyTqZcmbb_ONOZuPw_kYKC7L2PTdtJXhw9XBZF6e-BV3BB99vxDC-iuZWcwZ8ZxOKAmFLNIhq12LRcFsk0GZk/s320/IMG_9169.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbP5lMd6QZIRRccsRGlB2lbqZJh0exkDXTNm25vpLVj6ddttxMYm5FZ7Cta4vMDsdu6gIPb8rbpUFK5bRx_UI3oqPWYEqN3SOZiqMNAi6IPE55AIyqho6hcMetsIz2XNbrgNtyvrtPNj4/s1600/IMG_9167.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbP5lMd6QZIRRccsRGlB2lbqZJh0exkDXTNm25vpLVj6ddttxMYm5FZ7Cta4vMDsdu6gIPb8rbpUFK5bRx_UI3oqPWYEqN3SOZiqMNAi6IPE55AIyqho6hcMetsIz2XNbrgNtyvrtPNj4/s320/IMG_9167.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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You can barely see the baby carrots coming up in the middle of this bed. I had to replant a bunch because some of them just didn't make it the first time around. Those are purple potatoes in the upper corner. We've got the black trellis in there ready to support cantaloupe when they begin to vine. I had to move out some of those tomatoes as they've already grown quite a bit! I put them in pots and buckets because I'm just out of garden space. They live over by our hydrangea bushes like foster children waiting for a permanent home along with our potted lemon tree, which, by the way, has recovered from the horrid winter it spent in our kitchen. I though the poor fellow was mostly dead. But it has new leaves and lots of growth! It even had a little bud on it but some eager beaver apparently came along and snapped it off. Grrrrrr....<br />
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This Teepee trellis is something we've never tried before. My 13 yo and I harvested the poles from our forest, dug the trench, erected the poles and tied them together, filled the trench, and layered the cord around it. It's very sturdy! I think it could last several seasons. I wanted to create something for my preschooler that would make gardening an interesting adventure for her too. I have high hopes that it will be covered in vines before long! We'll see. Wouldn't it be a lovely little summer retreat to hide inside a shady, green, living teepee? How magical for a little (or big!) person. We've got cucumbers, cantaloupe, morning glories and peas around it. You should see it now! The cucumbers are the clear winners at this point; sprawling and vining as they twist their tiny, spindly fingers around the cords. I think the peas are going to tucker out with the heat that's coming on. We started the peas much too late. But this has been a fun project for my 13-yo and I this spring. We enjoy taking care of it together. We put in sunflowers at the teepee entrance to stand as cheery sentinels.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxyF0vnHJDOk8nmWd0_Ojv40CF75X0pmITtWc96NlB1dPY4ojNeNYLIXlGw0Vgk81C-xplF0NL2i_UjmeHi8Tgten8bTQ8IyNhq2dY4Lh5IQbaIkwYxu3avtjgKjxjmrG_ZzRrh0CYU4/s1600/IMG_9165.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxyF0vnHJDOk8nmWd0_Ojv40CF75X0pmITtWc96NlB1dPY4ojNeNYLIXlGw0Vgk81C-xplF0NL2i_UjmeHi8Tgten8bTQ8IyNhq2dY4Lh5IQbaIkwYxu3avtjgKjxjmrG_ZzRrh0CYU4/s320/IMG_9165.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbI17dcpLCXyrUZM_f3vjhwBKtx6ahSnuxiv0_miwx2BrBbeS9yz6uyj5XD72WPQHdsDwBW2nkbIl8cAr90d3VMv7qZv9SOEL-kt4P8ffd4cPQCn034fEtpAppI8A9Mt0oLsQlnJXNxU/s1600/57964391742__47E591BD-60D3-424B-BF94-F11D82681AFA.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbI17dcpLCXyrUZM_f3vjhwBKtx6ahSnuxiv0_miwx2BrBbeS9yz6uyj5XD72WPQHdsDwBW2nkbIl8cAr90d3VMv7qZv9SOEL-kt4P8ffd4cPQCn034fEtpAppI8A9Mt0oLsQlnJXNxU/s320/57964391742__47E591BD-60D3-424B-BF94-F11D82681AFA.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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Look at this cool critter! Not even sure what you would call it. The body is furry white! Can you see the antennae that look like fern fronds?<br />
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And this is us picking strawberries at a local organic farm just ten minutes from our home. Oh my, seriously the best strawberries I've EVER had (and that's saying a LOT coming from WA). They were little sweet jewels that just burst with flavor in my mouth. They come with a hefty price, however, and I probably spent more than I should have for this seasonal indulgence. I also purchased a subscription to this farm (CSA style) and we pick up our our box of veggies weekly. I'll have to show you some of the recipes I've made with our CSA veggies another time.<br />
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<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-19483445091228519402019-02-20T20:07:00.001-08:002019-03-12T20:46:52.441-07:00Keeping It RealJust it case you ever had the idea that things always run smoothly around here I thought I'd share a few pics to clarify that.<br />
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Even though I was holding her on my lap during our group lesson, I was totally clueless that she was eating a blue marker and coloring herself with it. yep. She did produce her first piece of artwork from this experience though, so you can't get too upset with her.<br />
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Yeah, and then there was this day (below) when we were trying to do yoga as part of our morning loop. Preschooler playing dead on my mat. Toddler crying in front of my mat. Middle schooler hiding in couch cushions. The other girls were trying. They get an A for effort. :)<br />
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Sometimes I can laugh at these crazy moments in our day and shake it off. Other times they have me feeling really overwhelmed and just DONE with it all. Thank goodness for a few quiet moments in between that recharge my soul and give me energy to keep this thing going. </div>
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These two are the snuggliest girls I know!</div>
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<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-44449400229528651722019-02-07T20:43:00.002-08:002019-02-07T20:55:59.399-08:00Homeschool SportsOne struggle for homeschooling parents, especially in NC, is providing their homeschooled children with adequate opportunity for team sports without going broke! Where can you find team sports for your kids, how do you juggle the different practice schedules, and how do you pay for it?<br />
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The answers to those questions will greatly depend on the homeschoolign laws in your state. So start there. If you live in a state where homeschooled kids are able to participate in public school sports, then you've got it made! Hurrah! You live in an inclusive state and you get to take advantage of some of the tax dollars that you are already paying into the public school system! wahoo!<br />
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But if you life in a state like North Carolina where the state leaves homeschoolers' involvements in public school sports at the discretion of each school administration, (but every single school "prohibits" homeschool participation in any school activity), then you've got more work to do. If playing sports is really important to your homeschool, then you've got to be ready to 1) do some research 2) do some driving and 3) do some check writing. So it all comes down to priorities. How bad do you really want Jonny to play baseball?<br />
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Most of us grew up playing a sport and want that same experience for our kids even if they don't go to public school. I know I did and I do want that for my kids. So here is where we generally have luck finding sporting opportunities for our kids.<br />
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1) Your city leagues. If your city has a parks and rec program this is a good place to start. If you live in city limits you will generally have a better rate than for participants that live over city lines. I find that the difference is not very much so if the next town over has a better program you may want to check into it.<br />
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2) YMCA. I've had <a href="https://theeverydayhomeschool.blogspot.com/2016/04/why-i-no-longer-attend-ymca.html" target="_blank">mixed feelings about the YMCA</a> over the years, but the Y here in NC gets my thumbs up. We are members at the Y again and have had positive experiences playing sports there. In addition to their sports, my older girls are now old enough to join me for fitness classes! How fun is that! These are the kids I used to drop off at child-watch while I exercised. Now they join me in the cardio room or at the weight lifting class. I must be getting old.<br />
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3) Churches. Many large churches, especially here in the south, sponsor or host private sports teams that are open to the community. These teams are generally more focused on sportsmanship and character building than skills training and competition. But your child will still get a great team experience and will likely gain something greater than just a sport in the process. We've done all kinds of sports through churches from volleyball, to soccer, to basketball, to track and field.<br />
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4) Homeschool Leagues. If you're lucky enough to live in a place that actually has private homeschool leagues and you don't mind paying several hundred dollars per season, per student, and then driving them do the various games, then this is a good place to look. You can do a quick google search to find homeschool leagues in your state. Here's information for NC: <a href="https://www.nche.com/activities/sports/">https://www.nche.com/activities/sports/</a><br />
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5) Health Clubs: Some health clubs are ready and willing to capitalize on the homeschool community by offering day-time sports and clinics for homeschool athletes. We have swim and tennis clubs in the area that offer these sports to homeschoolers. If your local gym doesn't offer a program like this currently, then it might be worth suggesting it to the gym administration, especially if you're willing to help coach! Cross-fit often has kids programs and we even had a great homeschool program back in WA. Check them out too.<br />
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Ok, so you found a program you like for each kid...how do you juggle the practice routine? We like to find programs where we can get at least two kids enrolled at the same time and if possible we try to get them on similar practice schedules when the option is given to parents. For example, we currently have 3 of our kids all playing basketball through a program called UPWARD that is hosted at a local church. It does mean that we have eight consecutive Saturdays that are 100% consumed by back-to-back basketball games...but at least we get it all done in one big swoop and we don't feel as scattered throughout the week.<br />
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And paying for it all? Well, some of those options I mentioned are going to be cheaper than others. I find that the churches and the city leagues are the most affordable, so that's usually the route we go. If your child is especially good at a sport and you want to pursue it in depth, then of course it will require more financial support from you. But we have found that our kids really enjoy the process of team sports rather than the outcome and so far we're ok with just allowing them to be well rounded in a variety of sports rather than diving deep into any one particular endeavor. That may change! We'll see.<br />
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Maybe all you need to do is organize a free ongoing event where kids can come play together and enjoy a variety of sports for free! When we moved to NC I started a <a href="https://theeverydayhomeschool.blogspot.com/2017/02/dodge-ball-with-cops-and-co-ops.html" target="_blank">dodge ball "club"</a> for my son and it was super fun (and free)!<br />
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Honestly, the hardest part for me is just keeping up with all the sports seasons and getting the kids enrolled on time! I often find that I miss enrollment dead lines for sports programs because I just can't keep up with all the emails in my inbox or keep on top of all the programs in our area and what they offer during different times of the year. It does take some serious organization to make it all happen for each of your kids. So I guess you have to decide how much time you're willing to put into sports on the back end so that your kids get the experience your hoping for.<br />
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Anyway, this has been on my mind lately because our basketball season is about to wind down and I've got to look around for what's next: Soccer? Softball? Tennis? The emails are starting to swirl around in my inbox! I've got to get it together.<br />
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Here's a look at my daughter's latest basketball game through a church sponsored league. It's not the church we attend, but I dont' mind that. They are good people who love God. I do love that they start with a prayer!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWvf_zULqbD0TKpx74qzMczMof6H2wO6IrD4wzW2avCOYECBMKJmvZczl74yV5k4mOzdKIh8T_ti3j_KT_Yzz96qnAO9WsvT9RXvHJEkomDQpqSg5MrnBitjEtJavM37UujI2K6o_CkH8/s1600/IMG_7809.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWvf_zULqbD0TKpx74qzMczMof6H2wO6IrD4wzW2avCOYECBMKJmvZczl74yV5k4mOzdKIh8T_ti3j_KT_Yzz96qnAO9WsvT9RXvHJEkomDQpqSg5MrnBitjEtJavM37UujI2K6o_CkH8/s320/IMG_7809.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this is actually my son's team</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9pZilifNVf7tdHZdBC1_wXVhGaxh92N7mIIxT-F-vKzlq-7lrg1dRaQJLfFTNZ3NwvfyLaMMngL0ceKWP-COG8icnAlIzcy-wUwc2iGGeWMx3WshVB5C5keChVLbSKuEH30ZH1gbWzoI/s1600/IMG_7797.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9pZilifNVf7tdHZdBC1_wXVhGaxh92N7mIIxT-F-vKzlq-7lrg1dRaQJLfFTNZ3NwvfyLaMMngL0ceKWP-COG8icnAlIzcy-wUwc2iGGeWMx3WshVB5C5keChVLbSKuEH30ZH1gbWzoI/s320/IMG_7797.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRbol1HbHbJiSd-I57202a2RMQswUv_Ko5A61GhJB-_k0wam91R3G2DEj-RRLRwap9zSysveCgp2y3a7iBxpF_0dwLptd0XzwSTUPrQ2BD1-88nche8m8XxhIjWzrdO9p2IKLILcBY7jg/s1600/IMG_7805.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRbol1HbHbJiSd-I57202a2RMQswUv_Ko5A61GhJB-_k0wam91R3G2DEj-RRLRwap9zSysveCgp2y3a7iBxpF_0dwLptd0XzwSTUPrQ2BD1-88nche8m8XxhIjWzrdO9p2IKLILcBY7jg/s320/IMG_7805.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisVZiFndUkSVHqOyaslFKLDdsGNaPDyYZggyf1F20ksQyrnZVzTkoh_vcueVCODFgfNkB2oEovLf_thsQRe-SVSvY_IWFs3UOa5U4K7q4exDsb2dzVOGDQC1rAu_R_AOjDZdwglZ4c9Dg/s1600/IMG_7801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisVZiFndUkSVHqOyaslFKLDdsGNaPDyYZggyf1F20ksQyrnZVzTkoh_vcueVCODFgfNkB2oEovLf_thsQRe-SVSvY_IWFs3UOa5U4K7q4exDsb2dzVOGDQC1rAu_R_AOjDZdwglZ4c9Dg/s320/IMG_7801.JPG" width="240" /></a>kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-17437076029078414902019-01-18T18:37:00.000-08:002019-03-12T20:02:10.051-07:00The Gift that Keeps GivingI know. Second post in just minutes. But I was just taken off guard by my sweet daughter's talent, insight, love, and sincerity. I need to record it.<br />
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I was saying good night to two of my older girls when my 13 yo whipped out this paper and said, "Hey mom I made this the other night. Want to read it?" Of course I did.<br />
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Maybe it's because Hazel's 5th would-be birthday is coming up in just a couple weeks and I'm already on the verge of tears all day. But this totally took my breath away.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-VVUrKDLKkqW_JweJtyxQken3vtyW-ZAFEl_SH3dCRjXUCDcG2zD8ON6ctROR17ElVJZM7WdJ1CLP6yZVvvX3E5sr1AhS2QSnQVjwQUuQepxyI4TKeGq9Y91jUf9ODEdbfsUAQwQsv0M/s1600/IMG_7629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="636" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-VVUrKDLKkqW_JweJtyxQken3vtyW-ZAFEl_SH3dCRjXUCDcG2zD8ON6ctROR17ElVJZM7WdJ1CLP6yZVvvX3E5sr1AhS2QSnQVjwQUuQepxyI4TKeGq9Y91jUf9ODEdbfsUAQwQsv0M/s320/IMG_7629.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><b>A mother and her baby;</b></i></div>
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<i><b>such pure and precious love.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>What a lovely blessing</b></i></div>
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<i><b>sent from above.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>The mother holds her baby dear</b></i></div>
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<i><b>cuddling it ever near,</b></i></div>
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<i><b>The baby- so content and small</b></i></div>
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<i><b>though not knowing much at all</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Can feel its mother's tender love</b></i></div>
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<i><b>like the olive twig and dove</b></i></div>
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Her ability to capture this sentiment at the age of 13 is astonishing to me. It brings me back to the moments I had sitting in a hospital with a newborn on top of my soggy stomach, in a sloppy robe, with sore nipples, so in love with my new baby. Or those long, late nights when sleep is scarce but joy abounds. And at the same time it makes me ache for the moments like these that I didn't ever get to have with my sweet Hazel. She was gone much too quickly and I miss her still. Every day.<br />
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I'm so grateful for the talents God gives to his children. I'm so grateful for individuals who take time to develop their talents and then share them with others to bless and beautify this human experience. I'm so grateful to mother such lovely children with such lovely souls.<br />
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The joys of children - so sweet and deep. Truly they are the gift that keeps giving.kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-40458100433790193502019-01-18T17:56:00.000-08:002019-01-24T18:32:30.525-08:00Preschool: PairsWe had a fun day of preschool earlier this week. Our letters for the week are Q and U (because you know Q and U stick together like glue). My 3 yo is such a girly girl so we had to make a Queen and a Unicorn for the QU pair. Love it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJwkRpnI1CBkBCztJAVx27CLM6HnKnD6xvhry15YIkZ5aSlC6X_lDuKWyMxSOqYzQT-fz6g8pk9VlwjfN6Zpxx2zbg0YZBXbicdt_X5eFB8cOSeeDXLy8Oj_uAgfNMCxeZSt-JF769Z4g/s1600/IMG_7628.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJwkRpnI1CBkBCztJAVx27CLM6HnKnD6xvhry15YIkZ5aSlC6X_lDuKWyMxSOqYzQT-fz6g8pk9VlwjfN6Zpxx2zbg0YZBXbicdt_X5eFB8cOSeeDXLy8Oj_uAgfNMCxeZSt-JF769Z4g/s320/IMG_7628.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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She practiced recognizing Q by finding Q and q written on sticky notes that I had hidden around the room. That was super fun for her!</div>
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We read lots of stories about special friends who make great pairs. Frog and Toad anyone?<br />
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And we had a fun sensory bin activity looking for pairs of things. I put one set of items in foil bin and covered them all in rice. Then I put a duplicate set of identical items in a clear Tupperware so she would know what she was looking for in the rice bin. When she found an item in the rice, she paired it up with the item in the Tupperware and made a pair! (Yes, lots of rice to clean up afterwards. Totally worth it).<br />
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We also talked about things that go together like salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly, forks and spoons, and a hammer and nail.<br />
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Then we practiced "hammering". I gave her toothpicks and she hammered them into a piece of florist foam using a meat tenderizer from the kitchen!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOhNlivIjaTu0WIxSo1z0syZV-J5zoksDRIgwCjdUBym_yC4mptjrUiHVeJU9L-eIv-0Lbdgk8hkk9mFEybQ3ai1lZAdGn7GSjMf4zW0oCnkbOUs5RoWI8Tm8H5sax_kT72Zv_zE03uPU/s1600/IMG_7591.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOhNlivIjaTu0WIxSo1z0syZV-J5zoksDRIgwCjdUBym_yC4mptjrUiHVeJU9L-eIv-0Lbdgk8hkk9mFEybQ3ai1lZAdGn7GSjMf4zW0oCnkbOUs5RoWI8Tm8H5sax_kT72Zv_zE03uPU/s320/IMG_7591.jpg" width="223" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfXdWg4p0fQpj_ryL3rsFYO9UmUusmOVlYceek03LrMgAdmiJANuQ-fqmrRE7zJzldZBrsuffZYWwotPU5LAfHByfmgh88OP6D-a5SJNDK8NhhsnZsHJl7fPOwwKj1Us6pfl1u8UkC_c/s1600/IMG_7592.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfXdWg4p0fQpj_ryL3rsFYO9UmUusmOVlYceek03LrMgAdmiJANuQ-fqmrRE7zJzldZBrsuffZYWwotPU5LAfHByfmgh88OP6D-a5SJNDK8NhhsnZsHJl7fPOwwKj1Us6pfl1u8UkC_c/s320/IMG_7592.jpg" width="192" /></a><br />
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These activities kept her busy for a really long time and she had a lot of fun learning about pairs.
kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-87315242252435780502019-01-14T20:04:00.001-08:002019-01-14T21:59:31.412-08:00Field Trip: Nasher Museum of Art at Duke UniversityOne of my <a href="https://youtu.be/zp5iYmRnwas" target="_blank">homeschool resolutions for the new yea</a>r was to implement more field trips into our routine. I feel like I got out of the field trip habit in the last year after having our 7th baby. She's a little older now. She's down to one nap a day. It feels a little easier to get out of the house so I'm ready to start working on a few additional field trips.<br />
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Here's a few photos from our most recent trip to Nasher Museum of Art earlier this month.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3hMl1zM4cO94Dh4RxYlLzTgKCtIvB_WsUVCSuPcQ1QJ_4Tfhze_BKq7hhHUsMvP95r8V6HzpsKf0jHSWX27euclIb5osUrE5MAv3oW_K4YELKFB5OEBHBcnJJxZvlW-j3_LnXmvwNWo/s1600/IMG_7371.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3hMl1zM4cO94Dh4RxYlLzTgKCtIvB_WsUVCSuPcQ1QJ_4Tfhze_BKq7hhHUsMvP95r8V6HzpsKf0jHSWX27euclIb5osUrE5MAv3oW_K4YELKFB5OEBHBcnJJxZvlW-j3_LnXmvwNWo/s320/IMG_7371.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfGAGEWDj0phYMOoUyef3LuA8D4ST_tiwiiakh9ZaxcY2wFDH_ki87rmCICLw-ffk7w_90_7htB1e20dn-rL20PVAmx3lK5mDjvHVwXNItMxMFJPvSnvY9y3gfJcN2w3LJ5hE_qTp5to/s1600/IMG_7373.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfGAGEWDj0phYMOoUyef3LuA8D4ST_tiwiiakh9ZaxcY2wFDH_ki87rmCICLw-ffk7w_90_7htB1e20dn-rL20PVAmx3lK5mDjvHVwXNItMxMFJPvSnvY9y3gfJcN2w3LJ5hE_qTp5to/s320/IMG_7373.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqliuyubAPtijyrO83a9FhC2mBwUpwdBA1r_Padm6zEJn42yyIZShviTMtYCejeWmw2Sa1N_RhpgZuLxhPjM1AiJSiuCjNcHUYbMRTyAV4GuHki1fvmZQnbcBXrYdOhYm5aALbndFtwA/s1600/IMG_7375.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqliuyubAPtijyrO83a9FhC2mBwUpwdBA1r_Padm6zEJn42yyIZShviTMtYCejeWmw2Sa1N_RhpgZuLxhPjM1AiJSiuCjNcHUYbMRTyAV4GuHki1fvmZQnbcBXrYdOhYm5aALbndFtwA/s320/IMG_7375.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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I wish I could say that it was an amazing field trip. On a scale of 1-10 I think I'd rate this trip at maybe a 4. It was not great. It was a cold drizzly day. It took about 40 minutes to get there. Once inside I quickly realized that one of the main exhibits was at odds with our family values so I quickly escorted our kids out of that and moved on to other exhibit halls. The worst part was that the "art cops" were constantly hovering over us, breathing down our necks, just WAITING for my kids to do something out of line so they could exercise what ever authority had been vested in them by virtue of their "art cop" status. At one point my preschooler did lightly lay her left pointer fingernail on the frame of a piece that was hanging at just her height. Like a sudden storm cloud, the art cop appeared out of nowhere and pounced on my preschooler. He then pointed his attention at me, professing loudly that "You are not doing a good job watching your kids. THEY CANNOT TOUCH ANYTHING."<br />
I was working hard to keep my words in check at that point, as I could feel my blood pressure rising. We ended our tour early and let ourselves out the door. We didn't even dare stop to eat our snack in the cafe for fear of being chased out.<br />
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Hey Nasher Museum, here's a quick tip: You're probably not going to have any better-behaved children come through the museum than this set of kids that you just chased out. So if you really don't want to have children in the museum at all, I suggest you NOT offer free admission once a month. Keep charging ridiculous admission prices to wander the glaringly vacant halls of your exhibits. I promise you that kids will stop coming, and your art cops can go back to texting their friends.<br />
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The only redeeming thing about the entire experience is that some of our art club friends met up with us there and my preschooler very much enjoyed their company. She had fun showing off her treasure box and its contents.<br />
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Before leaving Duke, we thought it might be worth a try to stop by the chapel and sneak a peak inside. Unfortunately, the parking permit situation was so thoroughly frustrating (we didn't have one and thus could not park ANYWHERE) that we decided to just go home. Ah well. You win some and you lose some.<br />
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Despite the bad taste in my mouth, I do have plans to go back in nicer weather (<i>after</i> scouting out public parking options) to visit the gardens and tour the chapel with friends. I really DO want to have more fun and educational field trips with the kids.<br />
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If you're also homeschooling in NC and need some ideas for fun field trips, try taking a look at these resources for new ideas:<br />
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 21px; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/field-trips/homeschooling-northcarolina/" target="_blank">https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/field-trips/homeschooling-northcarolina/ </a> (you can look up field trips for any state at this site)</span></span></h1>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://a2zhomeschooling.com/regional/us/north_carolina/north_carolina_home_school_field_trips/">https://a2zhomeschooling.com/regional/us/north_carolina/north_carolina_home_school_field_trips/</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/homeschooling-in-north-carolina/field-trips/">https://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/homeschooling-in-north-carolina/field-trips/</a></div>
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I'm really excited to check out <a href="http://www.unitedskates.com/public/seaford/parties-groups/school/stem-field-trips-long-island/index.cfm" target="_blank">United Skates of America</a> and see what I can set up there!</div>
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Happy Field Tripping.</div>
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kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-29211094387303470842019-01-09T19:45:00.000-08:002019-01-09T19:45:06.773-08:00Bucky Ball!I've always said that one of my favorite things about homeschooling is the fact that I get to learn alongside my kids in SO many ways. We just started a new science unit (<a href="https://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22https://www.movingbeyondthepage.com/purchase/skudetail.aspx?skuid=629&aID=5ef5a4bf%22%3Echemistry%3C/a%3E" target="_blank">chemistry</a>) and the lesson covered something I had never even heard of before: Bucky Balls!<br />
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It was so exciting to learning about a recent scientific discovery that happened when I was a child. It made me feel less old. Perhaps it made my childhood feel less distant for the kids too? I can hope. :)<br />
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The lesson suggested that we follow the instructions from <a href="https://amzn.to/2LZLw0C" target="_blank">THIS BOOK</a> to make a bucky ball out of gumdrops and toothpicks. Well, the science kit comes with toothpicks, but not gumdrops. And since I didn't read the lesson until the night before class, I wasn't ready with gumdrops. <br />
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I searched online for alternative ways to make our model and found <a href="http://gemsclub.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/buckyball2.43131957.pdf" target="_blank">this excellent resource</a>. I actually think it turned out better than the suggested activity and the bonus is that I didn't have to introduce sugar into our lesson and all the wonderful consequences that come with such a risky move.<br />
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The kids were showing off their bucky balls and spouting off their new carbon allotrope facts at the dinner table with no prompting from me = Win for the team.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjJ78Hsu9rpZJtObGULXh3uj5TXGG77OEsWUecJmrjAVim60qq8l_PrH8ShmIUN43Zi7y1koEFnW0s1rZidbVja4dz9lEqj2qUtftjqTd5TAcRnlbItAXY-qvMgbtWB_oKfg7gPMHLi4U/s1600/IMG_7569.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjJ78Hsu9rpZJtObGULXh3uj5TXGG77OEsWUecJmrjAVim60qq8l_PrH8ShmIUN43Zi7y1koEFnW0s1rZidbVja4dz9lEqj2qUtftjqTd5TAcRnlbItAXY-qvMgbtWB_oKfg7gPMHLi4U/s640/IMG_7569.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-66663102246411798942019-01-04T04:30:00.002-08:002019-01-04T04:30:44.220-08:00Middle School Math Game: Greatest Common FactorIt's early! I'm working on implementing one of my homeschool new year resolutions: Going to bed earlier and getting up before the kids so I can prep, study, read, exercise, etc...all before the kids rise.<br />
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So here I am! This night owl is making progress. I got up at 6:30 today, thank you. :) My goal is 5:30 but I'm okay with baby steps toward that goal.<br />
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Anyway, I've prepared a fun game for the kids today. I have two in middle school so I try to gear a lot of our activities to them. I'll team up with younger players to make sure they have a fair shot too. The game today is GCF Jeopardy! Get ready to have some fun with Greatest Common Factors.<br />
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The player simply chooses a point value from the board and receives that many points if they can name the GCF for the pair of numbers underneath. If it is answered incorrectly the point value is subtracted. So it's also practice with negative numbers (but hopefully not?)<br />
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Hope it's fun and doesn't start any fights. Cause you know...sometimes that happens when the points matter a little too much.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh02MykDfxObSXWrG-4KePXjZh4DNX0wK7BB2oAZxg01Rvo7P1uHGi9QrVdYFGRzlGcv5dNAcDvw5OoYXujx9lcJ8ZNJ8xu746FXIhrdP1OYW7oGd_zENvmdrsxMM00PdmLiV-S5iC0_40/s1600/IMG_7415.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh02MykDfxObSXWrG-4KePXjZh4DNX0wK7BB2oAZxg01Rvo7P1uHGi9QrVdYFGRzlGcv5dNAcDvw5OoYXujx9lcJ8ZNJ8xu746FXIhrdP1OYW7oGd_zENvmdrsxMM00PdmLiV-S5iC0_40/s320/IMG_7415.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik5tgVCMW4reukxhoPKRWE891Mcy0-zT_lSapYexKKS3WkDrJpK6jdlGR0NhTLVevoTKkY2XlowDIWKy1hI60BKni-DVlVdp2YXksXkxqFS0tqmh5U-mUhNWn8PQNR1J7hzQT50BVw6Rc/s1600/IMG_7416.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik5tgVCMW4reukxhoPKRWE891Mcy0-zT_lSapYexKKS3WkDrJpK6jdlGR0NhTLVevoTKkY2XlowDIWKy1hI60BKni-DVlVdp2YXksXkxqFS0tqmh5U-mUhNWn8PQNR1J7hzQT50BVw6Rc/s320/IMG_7416.JPG" width="240" /></a>kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-17660258140317062102018-12-30T21:25:00.004-08:002018-12-30T22:04:36.356-08:00Family Hike: Ravens Rock<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53NwFLmSIaHEut1qWCLc42STBZxva1AsMEu5TgpsGPZf_ce9QnfFUnqjf-2tqS2A_NZGWvxExBSETVnSj5JF52O72KInnRtnv0PH4qQsUynEqv7DAR62rnJC8xhhzy6WlAEVr6wWYM50/s1600/IMG_7053+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj53NwFLmSIaHEut1qWCLc42STBZxva1AsMEu5TgpsGPZf_ce9QnfFUnqjf-2tqS2A_NZGWvxExBSETVnSj5JF52O72KInnRtnv0PH4qQsUynEqv7DAR62rnJC8xhhzy6WlAEVr6wWYM50/s320/IMG_7053+%25281%2529.JPG" width="240" /></a>Family Hikes. They are still one of my favorite things to do on a nice Saturday. Sometimes it's crazy trying to pick a location that is suitable for our family, pack up the kids, prepare the water and snacks, and finally get on our way. There's always some confusion and often a few squabbles. But once we get outside and we are enjoying the beauty of God's great earth, it's always worth it.<br />
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I've learned not to hike in the summer, here in NC. We tried to hike Pilot Mnt. when I was 4 months pregnant in 90 degree weather with a toddler in a stroller. That was not fun! But hiking here in the "off season" is pretty nice. I'll admit that I miss the tall green cedars and the rushing of cool clear water over mossy green boulders; the crowded fiddle heads, spongy mosses and dappled sunshine. Hiking in the Pacific Northwest has totally spoiled me. Nothing here will ever compare with it.<br />
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Still...we are always impressed with the beauty of this area when we come upon it. I give you: Our December '18 Raven Rock hike.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUF3MrU3rSS3meAQ-0dm0fH_eJRKo7tm439xUfvI7lXSZG55UlHWaWuQMuQ0trGCV5rz4uFA7nIL5LvrUX3MAey7BBzs7KQRrC0onjWoy5dY-FFTd99iEVSv3A9hWBYwrbKdRirYcIdY/s1600/IMG_7043.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUF3MrU3rSS3meAQ-0dm0fH_eJRKo7tm439xUfvI7lXSZG55UlHWaWuQMuQ0trGCV5rz4uFA7nIL5LvrUX3MAey7BBzs7KQRrC0onjWoy5dY-FFTd99iEVSv3A9hWBYwrbKdRirYcIdY/s320/IMG_7043.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cUgZHpUzTa-ylHCiS8mtwb7DT_IA-U5XJ4MqjYuZQW3jipM_jUbCmkXWRICAgpl8m-oL0ktsGfj5Bm-aOXpzqV5iTbuV67cmCLH0CpD7JqSh57wpTCpZKDIOGaooxaVyDFDn6QaFajU/s1600/IMG_7034.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cUgZHpUzTa-ylHCiS8mtwb7DT_IA-U5XJ4MqjYuZQW3jipM_jUbCmkXWRICAgpl8m-oL0ktsGfj5Bm-aOXpzqV5iTbuV67cmCLH0CpD7JqSh57wpTCpZKDIOGaooxaVyDFDn6QaFajU/s320/IMG_7034.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfShzfBtbf_QeETq4O_w9FDsCZGOM40YPC_dwg7BQe0DyU3WHI5ovM0ht5hHmNSV8OLhXySFE62JzUIdHRStvT9U0sxqGUFtXNegJke1G-rf4ax9aRmcsYbinC0xoBxHibR_0KnN6OBeI/s1600/IMG_7041.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfShzfBtbf_QeETq4O_w9FDsCZGOM40YPC_dwg7BQe0DyU3WHI5ovM0ht5hHmNSV8OLhXySFE62JzUIdHRStvT9U0sxqGUFtXNegJke1G-rf4ax9aRmcsYbinC0xoBxHibR_0KnN6OBeI/s320/IMG_7041.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AmtmGo2UHewgeTWf8p51xnfZq_2-Ag_aepZHsxGTGcACKq23g8PV8fUgsq0XINdRQU8HHuLm7fojuRFXY54Cdqjcqd6qMta_x47Ges9k8Q8qJ-sQoKxC7D_-baeoI96-MBDkDCcbwtg/s1600/IMG_7042.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AmtmGo2UHewgeTWf8p51xnfZq_2-Ag_aepZHsxGTGcACKq23g8PV8fUgsq0XINdRQU8HHuLm7fojuRFXY54Cdqjcqd6qMta_x47Ges9k8Q8qJ-sQoKxC7D_-baeoI96-MBDkDCcbwtg/s320/IMG_7042.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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Can this boy leap, or what?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxZ2u47aAPlWCeTI2CRLaPDAE4AXAJdPS2JAMtq21PfJKe8HinhW0Q22Rj5yQodcA2fU39HP57KLeZXHqU9JUL8mKXURWui8mC2D7nVNBBmiTZdPOke3SX-nszbUkquL2XlHWoJcC-Q4/s1600/IMG_7045.JPG" imageanchor="1"><br /><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxZ2u47aAPlWCeTI2CRLaPDAE4AXAJdPS2JAMtq21PfJKe8HinhW0Q22Rj5yQodcA2fU39HP57KLeZXHqU9JUL8mKXURWui8mC2D7nVNBBmiTZdPOke3SX-nszbUkquL2XlHWoJcC-Q4/s320/IMG_7045.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8hwYLzqxy69hZ7m815Rm-OKgdIrnBTkWVPWEZ-VR5BoFIjWsMrVmHUT0rvVfOgqFUJD7xkd7GZhe6Q7xoCDyhf7F9BHwhm6LLRFlwmbqaiMR_cB2ep0_qYbPA90fI1KAqLU3ADU-npA/s1600/IMG_7047.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8hwYLzqxy69hZ7m815Rm-OKgdIrnBTkWVPWEZ-VR5BoFIjWsMrVmHUT0rvVfOgqFUJD7xkd7GZhe6Q7xoCDyhf7F9BHwhm6LLRFlwmbqaiMR_cB2ep0_qYbPA90fI1KAqLU3ADU-npA/s320/IMG_7047.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ejqBZAMbUR9aQ0KDHikatN3n-dW-SrkEDrYPGnrioYhPA9ZP5sP-TkwCWBJP-6BXHFgrD6ju_C6h1aHNH1aWemxgkvRsdPRFk5AEjejfKpsr1FMFGcQ7L2C5lYvXUgEejZGB7kIP2PI/s1600/IMG_7048.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ejqBZAMbUR9aQ0KDHikatN3n-dW-SrkEDrYPGnrioYhPA9ZP5sP-TkwCWBJP-6BXHFgrD6ju_C6h1aHNH1aWemxgkvRsdPRFk5AEjejfKpsr1FMFGcQ7L2C5lYvXUgEejZGB7kIP2PI/s320/IMG_7048.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-heIkclYkUiwGEv-EBVF66jsPUAgmoDu51E6rt_Qro4I7G_aV3RnG4LbiR1d-k5TyHEnwxhoJcduh50pqSXOI7D-2mriHUgWZRK-rcsGM2Jdt08gsNz9pRXCkl10tV0TiRuWtd84cV0A/s1600/IMG_7049.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-heIkclYkUiwGEv-EBVF66jsPUAgmoDu51E6rt_Qro4I7G_aV3RnG4LbiR1d-k5TyHEnwxhoJcduh50pqSXOI7D-2mriHUgWZRK-rcsGM2Jdt08gsNz9pRXCkl10tV0TiRuWtd84cV0A/s320/IMG_7049.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLXICyf8Rkz-Kjg0rocW5xgwZqKCtHqZbUx9W789p2Vxx2wGwBxOlxW4pHP0o5zh6zo8f5EpYSDgpPhVXz_zHcE-YgBotMIEUIkacW4OsYnDvzOMJKu2sadXuWKN22FAb1PWj8Xz1IWk/s1600/IMG_7051.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLXICyf8Rkz-Kjg0rocW5xgwZqKCtHqZbUx9W789p2Vxx2wGwBxOlxW4pHP0o5zh6zo8f5EpYSDgpPhVXz_zHcE-YgBotMIEUIkacW4OsYnDvzOMJKu2sadXuWKN22FAb1PWj8Xz1IWk/s320/IMG_7051.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBMEAj7B4iKU1_olW_fsBWg7rdu3Kt1dCb6vTbM-i5D4O7RT5REneT25_fOqCQTUm3H6bsThV8g9vHlaoHbJEzKPq7-g4Rpg8FrB4s3VLP77XpCXtPZPqm8SM-zVICT8NhAHwI4ptu3Q/s1600/IMG_7052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBMEAj7B4iKU1_olW_fsBWg7rdu3Kt1dCb6vTbM-i5D4O7RT5REneT25_fOqCQTUm3H6bsThV8g9vHlaoHbJEzKPq7-g4Rpg8FrB4s3VLP77XpCXtPZPqm8SM-zVICT8NhAHwI4ptu3Q/s320/IMG_7052.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-109410046861079462018-12-28T19:39:00.001-08:002018-12-28T19:39:11.753-08:00Biomes Unit StudyThe kids and I have been learning lots of fun things as we explored the <a href="https://www.movingbeyondthepage.com/purchase/skudetail.aspx?skuid=477&aID=5ef5a4bf">biomes </a> science unit from <a href="https://www.movingbeyondthepage.com/purchase/default.aspx?aID=5ef5a4bf">Moving Beyond The Page</a>.<br />
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We learned lots about grasslands, deserts, forests, tundra and wetlands. I learned something new about the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, niches and ecosystems. It also gave a good chance to discuss the issues and political hype around climate change and global warming. <br />
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My favorite project from this unit was making a wetland model. We used homemade playdough for the land and a slice of florists foam for the spongy wetland. I don't think our model accurately reflected how wetlands filter and clean water for us, but it was really fun to do anyway. My husband had the day off and was able to join us in this project. It's always fun to have his artistic abilities around when these projects come up. I am no artist, that's for sure.<br />
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So...here's our wetland model. Yikes<br />
.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvPJqU2LKsWzpeU6geW-0GT64oc7gmoR80qpyzhy0yRaRTAXTB4ByZEx0z0snoTKC4s2G9CeQgybhiObNL5k6ifKj_LRzojq1tY74T2HjE_1Lf-Vi2Y8gHmaFCgw35I15v392n6NdtfA/s1600/IMG_7019.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvPJqU2LKsWzpeU6geW-0GT64oc7gmoR80qpyzhy0yRaRTAXTB4ByZEx0z0snoTKC4s2G9CeQgybhiObNL5k6ifKj_LRzojq1tY74T2HjE_1Lf-Vi2Y8gHmaFCgw35I15v392n6NdtfA/s320/IMG_7019.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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The sticks and pine needles gave it a bit more of an authentic feel. We did our best to include lily pads, frogs, fish, snakes, salamanders, beavers and a beaver dam, spider, spider web, and birds. See if you can pick out all those elements. :)<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9E5_z_5-UzDMXJ2BotaMtbaDo_7wysFAATCgv5OaimArSJ95uJxpGxMhosQFgRaVD-k1fMD41fvjGuxVdEv-XA2gxDT2SRMSomo_Y9ThyphenhyphenTasfYgiWBSYmCpic1mL1l9BiX_X-Pg6m9aQ/s1600/IMG_7021.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9E5_z_5-UzDMXJ2BotaMtbaDo_7wysFAATCgv5OaimArSJ95uJxpGxMhosQFgRaVD-k1fMD41fvjGuxVdEv-XA2gxDT2SRMSomo_Y9ThyphenhyphenTasfYgiWBSYmCpic1mL1l9BiX_X-Pg6m9aQ/s320/IMG_7021.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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We took the test orally together as a way to summarize the knowledge we had gained. And today we finished up the unit by going to the NC museum of natural history where they have some amazing displays of local NC biomes. We also took a look at some other neat displays, like the dinosaurs. Roar.<br />
Good way to spend a gray, drizzly December day over the holiday break.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguHPZ-qJY_on1KCL6LFDreL9c284QQwb4v1x2df2POUCz3IVq2OZ88bYCQfoL9i5LdFSK7_vrJkJ5bGrmpxLemnRIWDTsGLLa_5f0Jlpjw2y8XSGXg4_2MIFxcQRRfSmtz1IAp8XMH0-0/s1600/IMG_7212.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguHPZ-qJY_on1KCL6LFDreL9c284QQwb4v1x2df2POUCz3IVq2OZ88bYCQfoL9i5LdFSK7_vrJkJ5bGrmpxLemnRIWDTsGLLa_5f0Jlpjw2y8XSGXg4_2MIFxcQRRfSmtz1IAp8XMH0-0/s320/IMG_7212.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMqn-xoKLL8xTgQRd7LhVHcGp4VkCZC4c7ypg8xyOTfQOdanMTKAq83DGWP5y7kpsYSqGAgatW_nCTat9Cke1t888NmRSpyG7tXv4gWXUIRyS5QcuQMmqG0ZKqhbOl4EhPiCrX4F38Ww/s1600/IMG_7216.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMqn-xoKLL8xTgQRd7LhVHcGp4VkCZC4c7ypg8xyOTfQOdanMTKAq83DGWP5y7kpsYSqGAgatW_nCTat9Cke1t888NmRSpyG7tXv4gWXUIRyS5QcuQMmqG0ZKqhbOl4EhPiCrX4F38Ww/s320/IMG_7216.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-18677179045406721252018-12-24T19:35:00.003-08:002018-12-24T19:35:52.401-08:00Merry Christmas 2018It's been a wonderful year full of many blessings. This message helps me remember that Christ has always been there for me both in good years, and not-so-good years. May your Christmas be merry and bright.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="//players.brightcove.net/710874264001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5981654276001"></iframe>kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-61398232233882913702018-12-22T08:50:00.002-08:002018-12-22T20:45:47.638-08:00Christmas Art Club:Ginger Bread HousesWe took a break from our regular art club happenings to do a little Christmas celebrating. Decorating gingerbread ornaments and then making "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers which we decorated with leftover Halloween candy that I've had stashed away the last couple moths. It's always so fun to see the kids' creativity!<br />
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<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-71591607424908846452018-12-18T19:21:00.000-08:002018-12-18T19:43:28.206-08:00Finding Ways to Volunteer as a FamilyDuring the holiday season more of us are aware of the need for volunteer work and we feel that special desire to get out and do some good! It must be that Christmas spirit! I especially look forward to teaching my children about the value of service this time of year. Learning to love and serve are an important part of any moral education.<br />
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The difficulty for our family has always been that most places do not allow children to volunteer. This year we have been especially fortunate to find two local service opportunities that welcome and accommodate children.<br />
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1) <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/humanitarian-service/helping-hands?lang=eng&old=true" target="_blank">Helping Hands</a>. Earlier this year my husband and older children were very much involved with hurricane crisis cleanup after Hurricanes Florence and Michael came through our area. They traveled to other cities where the storms hit especially hard. I did not go, sadly. I was the backup crew holding down the fort with the younger children behind the scenes so that others could go out and serve. But we all play a part in making it happen, right? <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/humanitarian-service/helping-hands?lang=eng&old=true" target="_blank">Helping Hands</a> snaps into action in these situations. We sent crews for many consecutive weekends to help those affected by the storms. Here are a few pics of these guys doing their thang. Way to go fam!</div>
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2) <a href="https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/" target="_blank">Meals on Wheels</a>. In partnership with another local charity, Meals on Wheels asked for volunteer drivers to deliver hot meals to housebound or elderly residents on Thanksgiving Day. What a great way to show gratitude (and get out of the kitchen)! We drove by the pickup point to gather our 14 meals and our driving route before setting off for our first destination. At each stop our entire family exited the car (party of eight, sir) and knocked on the door together to make the deliveries. Some of the residents were not interested in welcoming in eight strangers on Thanksgiving Day. They simply took the meal and said goodbye. That's fine. But there were a few residents who really were glad to see all of us and let us come in to chat. This was a great way for our family to connect with the wisdom and love of an older generation. It did tend to go long for the kids by the end of our 8th stop. But it was worth it. I <i>WISH</i> I had pictures.<br />
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3) <a href="http://brownbagministry.org/" target="_blank">Brown Bag Ministries</a>. This place is so fantastic. Just show up and serve! It's local. So unless you're in the Raleigh NC area this won't help you much. But I'm sure there are other charities out there just like it if you do some digging. They do a number of things but on the Saturday morning we attended, they were preparing hundreds and hundreds of sack lunches for homeless individuals, as well as a hot meal. Our family helped assemble and bag the sandwiches. We also helped count out socks, scarves, and toiletries for the Christmas bags that would find their way into the hands of men at a homeless shelter.<br />
It was great to feel part of something important and useful that would have a direct positive impact on our local community. And it was fun! We even saw some of our friends from church there in the crowd of volunteers. :)<br />
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If none of these ideas seem to be a good fit for you or your family, you can check out these other resources to find just the right volunteer opportunity: <a href="https://www.justserve.org/" target="_blank">Just Serve</a> and <a href="https://www.unitedway.org/get-involved/volunteer" target="_blank">United Way</a>.</div>
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It's so much fun to serve as a family. Even if you don't join up with a formal organization as part of a project, your own family can find a way to serve together. For example, we always like to put together a Christmas gift box with food and presents for a less fortunate family in our area. We dress up in ski masks late at night and deliver the box as secretly and stealthily as we can! We never reveal the family's identity to our children. So many fun Christmas Eve memories doing this with our young kids! </div>
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And here's another random thing: Our neighbor's tree feel down just a couple weekends ago when we got a few inches of snow. Weird. But it happened. This neighbor is elderly and is not often in her home, as she spends most of her time with family in VA. I loved getting out there during nap time to saw off branches and sweep up leaves. My husband did the heavy work with the chainsaw, and another neighbor took care of burning up the many branches. My daughter used some of the boughs (it was a beautiful cedar tree) to make a Christmas wreath for her as well. She returned the favor by letting us use the trunk to make benches for our fire pit. Win-win!</div>
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There are always things we can do together to serve those around us, and in the process we create many wonderful family memories. </div>
<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-61489781424774961452018-12-16T10:00:00.000-08:002018-12-16T10:00:05.909-08:00Making Apple Cider VinegarMore experimenting! It's so fun. I love that I'm finding time to try these simple projects. It gives me just a little sense of self indulgence.<br />
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So, I tried another one of <a href="https://youtu.be/9bupAhuvnb0" target="_blank">Christa's great video</a>s on how to make apple cider vinegar. Here's what mine looked like when I first put it together. Pretty, right?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYz-XQQ3uy5l1Dj8-EBhPRt2lmt8p5Sr1P2nJBNvkWroEYJeBS7cEH-ii11yqhJbPl5O7WrYHc_ZWW6GZGbdhSyUt6VETLM3fWk76mNEwzKRVQqNxSt4WaRt9zUPQ0XxZUkyDj60vK0I/s1600/IMG_6817.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYz-XQQ3uy5l1Dj8-EBhPRt2lmt8p5Sr1P2nJBNvkWroEYJeBS7cEH-ii11yqhJbPl5O7WrYHc_ZWW6GZGbdhSyUt6VETLM3fWk76mNEwzKRVQqNxSt4WaRt9zUPQ0XxZUkyDj60vK0I/s320/IMG_6817.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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My problem was that I didn't have a weight that would reach through the neck of the jar and keep all the apples submerged. I put a smaller glass jar down inside the neck of the large jar. This is how it turned out. I still had a few apples popping up. Not sure how that will affect final product.<br />
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Eventually, I figured out that I could do was take two different lids off of yogurt and cottage cheese containers and bend them until they fit down inside the jar, then put the small jar on top of those and push down a bit. That helped but didn't totally solve my problem.<br />
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Update, this is how it looks after about 10 days.<br />
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It's definitely bubbly and smells exactly like cider vinegar. And it's way easier to keep the apples submerged now.kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-8731262329905752132018-12-16T09:45:00.000-08:002018-12-16T09:47:43.082-08:00This Guy's First Band Concert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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First, a confession. Not a confession. A telling. My son has been attending public school for the last three months. I'm not sure why I didn't feel good about saying that before? Something maybe had me feeling a bit like a failure. Or a fake (ya know, cause my blog says that this is mostly about homeschool). There were multiple reasons for having him try out public school this year. I didn't want to send him. He didn't want to go. But we felt like it was necessary to help him understand the privilege it is to be homeschooled. Nuff said about that.<br />
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Anyway, he never liked it. I never liked it. It was less than ideal in every way possible. Finally, there was a "last straw" about a week and a half ago. We both felt like we'd have enough of the nonsense and the two of us came to an agreement about ending our experiment with public school and making a fresh start with homeschool. So I left him in just long enough to participate in the band concert (his first EVER!) and pulled him out of school the very next day. As we were leaving the school in the pouring rain he said to me with an absolute flat tone, "I'm so glad this is my last day. I HATE this place." I had mixed feelings about his statement. I was glad, of course, that my goal had been achieved: My son had seen for himself teh stark difference between public and homeschool. He had gained an appreciation for the pleasures and joys of homescool and the time and sacrifice required of me to make it happen. WIN FOR MOM! Of course, I didn't say that out loud. I'm sure the message was already lout and clear. But, then I stopped to think about all the kids at that school who probably feel exactly the same way. They don't have the option to school somewhere else. And they should. This left me feeling very sad.<br />
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I will say that trying band was the best part of our public school experience. I'm so glad he was "forced" into that and that he's found a new interest, maybe even a talent. He's agreed to carry on with trumpet as part of his homeschool, which makes me super happy. But we are even happier to have him start back into homeschool with us tomorrow!! :)<br />
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<br />kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-12479674255575441032018-12-09T10:03:00.001-08:002018-12-18T18:29:31.357-08:00Christmas Gift for Neighbors and Friends: Homemade Candied GingerAs I continue rediscovering things that I enjoy doing, I find that youtube takes me down many rabbit trails. They know me all too well by now, which feels creepy. But they do make good suggestions as far as the next video they know I'll love.<br />
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That's how I came across this fabulous lady at <a href="http://prepsteaders.com/?v=7516fd43adaa" target="_blank">prepsteaders</a> I've watched several of her videos now and each one has inspired me to do a new project at home.<br />
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First, Krista inspired us to make candied ginger. I've never liked candied fruits to be honest. They taste old, fake, dry, way to sweet and nothing like fruit at all. But Krista is so convincing in her videos! I decided to give it a try.<br />
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Our project turned out so well that we decided to make LOTS of this stuff and give it out as our neighbor gifts for Christmas this year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7pYTzJw0XIKPT_giS8mYxmKvQ7nL6TbBqND33VR7a_TEobPHTiY8USEB3GwwH0h4J3H4roK0Oytx2VA_xAt4hk77Yzff3901N2EEavPYWRj-ow7554dZ2DsJ-aSH4y64GokKXE7apWs/s1600/IMG_6824+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7pYTzJw0XIKPT_giS8mYxmKvQ7nL6TbBqND33VR7a_TEobPHTiY8USEB3GwwH0h4J3H4roK0Oytx2VA_xAt4hk77Yzff3901N2EEavPYWRj-ow7554dZ2DsJ-aSH4y64GokKXE7apWs/s320/IMG_6824+%25281%2529.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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That bag has about 50 grams of product in it. I had used one large root with lots of branches (from Walmart) for our first test batch. It made enough to nearly fill this jar below. But my family ate most of it before I could put it in gift bags! This is all that was left before I could make one little gift bag out of it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9N4lRERvqwkWtE7ErKKKTsAfTvrJg1qVXxO7KBBT-YGTAGMx7eIANw-3CRAPLCMpyCZfK7owrTMaQ-k0vd4OMNyFxYhh_VnUd2Cs7NWgDYtytu0p6I6XA3wdCQ6avt1aYiqosL8GWH88/s1600/IMG_6818.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9N4lRERvqwkWtE7ErKKKTsAfTvrJg1qVXxO7KBBT-YGTAGMx7eIANw-3CRAPLCMpyCZfK7owrTMaQ-k0vd4OMNyFxYhh_VnUd2Cs7NWgDYtytu0p6I6XA3wdCQ6avt1aYiqosL8GWH88/s320/IMG_6818.JPG" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Rio4VPQajaIfAbl0huDnlx30izrEj5m9Fuk-738GADmNTGtuEjDhMrSUkk-XGls1KDr-n7kbyZ7Gv1LB52_8FvQxzKbJa2VVcZ6unzSpYiQtlQvKdu-ND7Zns_fjGFZCJbLHfYS0EVw/s1600/IMG_6819.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Rio4VPQajaIfAbl0huDnlx30izrEj5m9Fuk-738GADmNTGtuEjDhMrSUkk-XGls1KDr-n7kbyZ7Gv1LB52_8FvQxzKbJa2VVcZ6unzSpYiQtlQvKdu-ND7Zns_fjGFZCJbLHfYS0EVw/s320/IMG_6819.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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I suspect that it would have been enough to fill 4-5<a href="https://amzn.to/2E8mlr0" target="_blank"> bag</a>s had it been left alone. oh well.<br />
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So then I went to a different, fancier grocery store and bought pretty much all of their ginger. It was a lot! Not sure exactly how much. Surprisingly, I found this second bunch of ginger to be of lower quality. It was not as big and round, it was stringer, and the color was more grey instead of bright white. Anyway, I think it turned out fine but peeling it took a lot longer.<br />
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I got another <a href="https://amzn.to/2E8mlr0" target="_blank">12 bags</a> of candied ginger from this second batch. UG. I'm going to have to make probably 3-4 more batches to get as many as I need. Which is fine. It's not hard. It just takes time. And ginger isn't that expensive. It's pretty affordable. It does take quite a bit of sugar. But lucky for me I got a big 50 lb bag of organic sugar not long ago from the bulk buy that I participate in and so i feel ok about using it up for this project. I also find that I can reuse some of the sugar that gets crusty and sticks to the pan. I just scrap it into a jar, break it up a bit and reuse it. Same for the syrup. I kept the syrup from the first batch and reused it in the second batch so that it took a lot less sugar to get a nice syrup going.<br />
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So here's the video I watched with my girls.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DCJU-203sVg" width="560"></iframe><br />
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TIP: I found that some of our ginger was still a big moist the next morning. So I turned on my oven and let it warm up to the lowest setting. Then I turned OFF the oven and stuck the tray of ginger inside for 20-30 mins. They came out much drier! So if your ginger isn't totally dry in the morning you can try drying them out in a warm oven. It does also help to have very thin slices as suggested in the video.<br />
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Also, I tried adding some candied ginger to my herbal tea as suggested in the video, and found that while it DID sweeten my tea nicely, I couldn't really taste the ginger much. However, eating one of these is for sure a real treat. They are delicious and have just the right amount of kick.<br />
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Now, what to do with all the ginger water I've got??? I've got 3 quarts saved so far and some I just threw out because it's getting overwhelming. It's SUPER potent stuff.<br />
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UPDATE: Kay, so our first two batches went really well, but I still needed more bags to hand out as gifts. So I went to the store for the mother load. I brought home four pounds of ginger root! Yikes. The cashier was looking at me funny. So my girls and I spent a good long while preparing the ginger and boiling it the three different times. I put it in for a final boil and left it at a low simmer with my husband to watch over it. My older girls and I had been invited to a cookie exchange and off we went. When I came back the house had a charred smell and our ginger was a total loss :( This is now the status of our last ginger candy batch:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigU1Zd3mElQnQkvJUgCHXJKD5SkjZFL9ZTaFd96mNnm6mLYtVUlcpcyDR-ti-FuHOu0l7nGWjWUtU-ajuXzMOJlHvjSX7tCReHg72CMBXq2e81mmts4atHJ9wJBhkyUbk1WYv7DHOKg14/s1600/IMG_6937.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigU1Zd3mElQnQkvJUgCHXJKD5SkjZFL9ZTaFd96mNnm6mLYtVUlcpcyDR-ti-FuHOu0l7nGWjWUtU-ajuXzMOJlHvjSX7tCReHg72CMBXq2e81mmts4atHJ9wJBhkyUbk1WYv7DHOKg14/s400/IMG_6937.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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Sorry neighbors. Maybe next year.kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2525896595513649906.post-43450396452451267812018-12-01T17:39:00.002-08:002018-12-03T21:03:21.940-08:00Collecting and Graphing Data, Outliers, and Accuracy vs. PrecisionTwo posts in one night? Sure! I've got lots to say I guess.<br />
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One of our Science Olympiad friends has had illness at her house of late so we had to do some studying on our own this week. We had fun creating a set of data, graphing it, and interpreting it. Let me share our little experiment with you that we used as a way to collect data points.<br />
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Maybe you've heard of this one.<br />
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Using a pipette we counted how many drops of water different coins could hold before teh water tension broke and leaked onto the table.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqH7eMmeHE10KxZztqrsdrC1lyodnMTKXRNPBgZRmcHVe5klGfxdEwtml3gaviRSGcBpDc0H7cyeY8bT65vwqZ5C8qb85KbM1_JPRH03PM_pvZM-xbg8K6FSF4rb7krTTs4ClcsY_E99g/s1600/IMG_6662.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqH7eMmeHE10KxZztqrsdrC1lyodnMTKXRNPBgZRmcHVe5klGfxdEwtml3gaviRSGcBpDc0H7cyeY8bT65vwqZ5C8qb85KbM1_JPRH03PM_pvZM-xbg8K6FSF4rb7krTTs4ClcsY_E99g/s320/IMG_6662.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvPcICtzLczWWCINLC2ahvOLU6Vrr5twd2YDvPTDUlcQW1xg-ZPoaaIl9_fr_k-AW55XeF1S9N0F3zHEnKypH5wz2oyLbdJbMT7fsFXCO5F1C588PS3X0NTj6Y0QdPAMISgrZeiJoM2B0/s1600/IMG_6659.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvPcICtzLczWWCINLC2ahvOLU6Vrr5twd2YDvPTDUlcQW1xg-ZPoaaIl9_fr_k-AW55XeF1S9N0F3zHEnKypH5wz2oyLbdJbMT7fsFXCO5F1C588PS3X0NTj6Y0QdPAMISgrZeiJoM2B0/s320/IMG_6659.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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Our hypothesis was that the quarter would hold the most drops of water compared to a dime, nickel or penny. It's the biggest with the most surface area, right?<br />
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That was not what we found. We found that the nickel actually held the most water. This confused us. We tested the quarter three times total and the nickel twice. We got the same result (nickel holds more) each time. Maybe the smoother surface or different edge has something to do with it. ??<br />
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Anyway, so then we made a line graph, bar graph, and pictograph with our data.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0rubtjr4x3bVz6Z1bDc7LIjgGL1dzZELnvpFBbE5mO2F7a6pBCRBOqkfc8GgPF9-ATo3V4TfmhVRJEq5pJWXzwklR7J25nYTaf-mIXZqCJ5uDa4ogCcGcHpnOurRVycJZbM_B11MWEg/s1600/IMG_6664.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0rubtjr4x3bVz6Z1bDc7LIjgGL1dzZELnvpFBbE5mO2F7a6pBCRBOqkfc8GgPF9-ATo3V4TfmhVRJEq5pJWXzwklR7J25nYTaf-mIXZqCJ5uDa4ogCcGcHpnOurRVycJZbM_B11MWEg/s320/IMG_6664.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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From there we had a discussion about outliers using these videos as reference:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9aDHbRb4Bf8" width="560"></iframe>
That one (above) gets a little technical but is helpful on some level. (We also used his set of data to discuss mode)<br />
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Here's another video that brings it down a notch for elementary school students.<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AzP8nasmI1Y" width="560"></iframe><br />
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I think this next one was actually the most helpful. There's a lot of information here. We stopped the video multiple times to go over various concepts.
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ip8XhG5ZqsY" width="560"></iframe><br />
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The girls are also going to need to know something about accuracy and precision. I certainly don't remember learning this stuff as a kid! I'm glad that they are getting a head start on something that most people might consider to be a "tough" subject: Statistics. Maybe it won't seem scary to them when they get to higher levels of math because they'l remember having fun with it as kids. ?? hopefully, right?<br />
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<a href="http://blog.minitab.com/blog/real-world-quality-improvement/accuracy-vs-precision-whats-the-difference" target="_blank">This article</a> helped a lot to get our feet when on this topic.<br />
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Fun times.kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10788540347583179507noreply@blogger.com0