Lions and Podcasts and Robotics. Oh My!

White Lion
Originally uploaded by Cyberslayer

Friday Fragment time. I am finally teaching my blog class at our co-op this semester. For the student's first assignment I had them look at some home schooled students blogs. While doing that Bunny girl came across a post about a white lion. I decided to start today's fragment fest with a pic of White Lion cubs.

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The following video is on my desk top. This means my kids like to watch it over and over and over and over and over and over again. (It is short.)

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Speaking of videos, the Office starts new episodes tonight. They have also put out a new bunch of webisodes called The Podcast. I thought I would share it here as blogging is a plot point.

The Office - Ep 101: The Podcast: Gabe's Podcast - Video - NBC.com

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Robotics update: Spider Droid's team did quite well at the State Playoffs this past weekend. His team finished 19th of 63 teams in the performance category. The other 3 categories are scored by judges and the results were not made public. While they did not win any awards they all had a rewarding time. The team will compete in the Spring in a 4H robotics competition.

That is all the fragments I have for today. Head over to half past kissing time for more Friday Fragments.

More evidence that sarcasm doesn't work on 5 year olds.

Friday Fragment time, which is an opportunity for me to throw together a few disconnected tidbits, thoughts and recollections of the week that was.











A few days ago Princess Puppy was on the other side of the door as me and I could not be interrupted, so I told her to wait a minute and not to come in. She just kept on trying to come in and tell me whatever problem she was having at that moment. I told her again to wait a minute and not to come in. She just kept jiggling the door handle and trying to come in and get my help. I finished what I was doing and impatience got the better of me as I said to her: "What part of wait a minute and do not come in don't you understand?". She thought about it a second and said "both."





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Today we were studying the digestive system in our anatomy class. Did you know that if you unwrapped your small intestine it would be 20 feet long? We decided to measure 20 feet out just to get a better understanding.

I like activities that help reinforce the words read from the page. Last week we were learning about the Israelites being deported to Assyria in 721 B.C. We learned that 27,290 Israelites in all were sent to Assyria. The text suggested that we take some small items like matchsticks, toothpicks, or buttons (we used coins) and group 100 of them together.


We even made our coins spell out 100. It really hits home how many Israelites that was when it would take almost 273 groups like we made to equal 27,290.



Much thanks to Linda Hobar and her fine Curriculum, The Mystery of History which has so many good activities like this to add to the lessons.

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This Friday and Saturday is the state robotics tournament. I have wanted for some time to describe my thoughts about Spider Droid's team advancing from sectionals. The sectional they were participating in was a double sectional. Meaning that 2 distinct sectionals were being held at the same time and location. with 15 teams in each sectional. At the beginning of the meet the organizer announced that instead of 3 teams advancing to state from each sectional as was customary, They had just found out that 4 teams each would advance.

The teams are evaluated in 4 categories. 1) Performance. 2) Research Project. 3)Teamwork and 4) Technical Excellence

In performance the team has their robots compete against other teams in 4 different heats. The teams are given a score for each heat and it is the best score of the 4 heats (not an average of all 4) that determines who wins. This is the only 1 of the categories where you know how you are doing as they post all the scores on a screen in the gym. Droids team got off to a great start and had the best score of both regionals in the first heat. They were not able to replicate that score in the subsequent heats and ended coming in third in their regional for performance.t

The other 3 categories are all based on judging. Before they announced the results the event organizer made it clear that coming in first in any of the categories does not assure a trip to state nor does not finishing first mean no trip.

This is all well and good. But as they made the announcements for the first place winners, I couldn't help thinking after their team wasn't announced as any of the category winners that this just wasn't their year. I remember thinking about taking droid to go see the state tournament and how much he would enjoy it. After a few "Honorable mention" type awards, which I was disappointed they didn't get, they announced the 4 state qualifiers in each region.

The first team they announced was his team, The Fanatix! I was in shock. I really haven't been that surprised since Amy threw me a surprise 40th birthday party some six years ago. Before I go on, I just want to say that I would have been fine (and Spider Droid more so) if they hadn't won. 30 teams met that day a week before Christmas and I would venture to say that each one had the time of their lives.

That being said, I still am so proud of my son and his team. I am pretty certain that this weekends competition will be the end of the line for the Fanatix, but Oh, what a ride it's been.

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That's all the fragments I have. For more, head back to half past kissin' time by clicking here.

Off to the races!

It seems like the beginning of January seems to be a rude awakening of activity that we somehow forgot about in all the holiday flurry.

First, we forgot to sign Spider Droid up for spring soccer, which we took care of in the nick of time!

While at the park district signing him up, we remembered to sign up Puppy for ballet...which started yesterday. Got that in just under the wire. Whew!

On top of that, the Lego Robotics state finals is next Friday and Saturday.

And then the homeschool co-op starts up again. Not to mention Awana on Monday nights, in which the two older are working on Bible Quizzing as well. Then after that is over, I am sure that Spider Droid will want to be in the Awana games again. There's always something, you know. Homeschooling doesn't always involve being at home! Homeschool, it's not a place, it's a state of mind. In fact don't think of it as homeschooling, it's more like life.

I haven't posted since last year!

Happy New Year!

If you would have told me a year ago that in 2010 that I would be visiting Thomas Edison's and Earl Hamner (AKA John Boy Walton's) home towns I would not have believed you.

If you would have told me that my son's robotics team would qualify for the state tournament, I would have asked "what's a robotics team?"

These and many other things did happen . In many ways, it was a great year. In many ways, it was a horrible year. I guess you could say that about any year.

My new year's wish for all you loyal readers is that 2011 is heavy on the great, light on the horrible!

An Exciting Announcement

Last August I posted about how I was teaching a blogging class in my home school co-op. In preparing the class I decided a good class project would be hosting the Homeschool kids carnival. I contacted the person who runs the carnival and set the whole thing up for the November 30th edition.



It turns out that only my daughter signed up for the blogging class. And I decided to put it off for a semester to see if I could generate more interest. Earlier this month, the host of the host of the homeschool kids carnival contacted me to remind me of the November edition. Since I didn't really have a class I could turn to, I asked Bunny to host it. Asked or commanded, depends on your point of view.



So, come November 30th, Alice's Bunny Blog will be hosting the Homeschool Kids Carnival. If you have any children who would like to submit an entry click here. For more info on the carnival, click here.

Blah Blah Blogging

It's time to review labels again.

Label #16 (3 Way Tie) Blah Blah Blogging.

This blog has not been immune, at times, to instead of blogging about home schooling or crazy family members or first place baseball teams, to occasionally just blog about blogging. This label nostalgia is a pretty good example. Last weekend when I posted that I had not posted for awhile is another.

Over the 20 months Home School Dad has been the blog sensation sweeping the nation I have made a few observations about blogging. I'd like to share a few here.

1) You could always spend more time blogging. Early on I became overwhelmed with how much time I could pour into the blog-o-sphere. But no matter how much you spend, it seems like you could always spend more. Not letting blogging consume me was a hard calf to corral the first 6-8 months. It is now pretty easy to not get swept up out of control. This balance was hard to come by but it is certainly something I will want to pass on to the blogging class I teach this fall.

2) Some ideas just don't work. I sometimes get an awesome idea for a post. Sometimes it's just an excellent title. Often times, these ideas and titles pretty much write themselves into epic blog posts. Other times, no matter how hard I try, I just can't bring the idea home. This is where my wife/editor is so helpful. She'll read it and say "I have no idea where you are going with this." Sometimes I can salvage the idea, but every once in a while that dog will just not hunt. When that is the case, the best strategy is just to let the idea go.


3) Some ideas aren't worth the work. In my first few months of blogging, I used to look back at my previous months worth of posts, choose the 5 I liked best and put them in a box in my blog called Dave's fave five. This became an incredibly arduous process. First of all, it was sometimes hard to choose the 5 best because I thought everything was great. Other months I thought nothing was any good. It usually depended on whether I had a nap or not. Then after I decided on the 5, I had to link them and label them and mark them with D and put them in a blog for David and me. By the time I got it all done it was about time to do the thing over again. Part of running an effective blog is to know when to go the extra mile and when to pull the plug. A number of months ago I scrubbed all references to Dave's fave five and I've never looked back.



So from time to time I am going to still blog about blogging, but like they say at the Porcupine Salesmen Convention: Don't ignore what got you here, porcupines and more porcupines! And my porcupines are definitely home schooling and being crazy. Two porcupines that I know a lot about.



Next Time: In Praise of Allen Levi.

Blog Class

Three Weeks left until school starts!






I am starting to get ready for our home school co-op for this fall. I will be teaching a class on blogging and yes I have been consulting the above referenced book for a few pointers. One thing I will be emphasizing in the class is Internet safety. I will be instructing my students not to use their own names on their blogs. To that end, I will be no longer using the names of my children and replacing them with nicknames. My oldest will be called by the not surprising moniker, bunny girl. My son will be known as Spider Droid to combine his love for Star Wars and his previous passion for Spiderman. My daughter with the penchant for Lucyisms will be referred to as Princess puppy. (Lucyisms will be referred to as puppyisms)



I blog using blogger and will be teaching my students this platform. One of the things I like about blogging is the ease of removing or editing previous posts from blogosphere. In the weeks to come, I will be editing past posts and replacing the kids names with their nicknames.

I am excited about the class. I have created a new blog just for the class, but will still be linking things here as well.



Next Time: Blah Blah Blogging

Six Word Saturday

Six Word Saturday Time:

My 6: I haven't forgot how to blog!

It's not that I've been super busy, I really haven't been. It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, Lucyisms still abound here and there's always plenty of things for me to tell you. It isn't like I said I wouldn't blog while the White Sox were on their current hot streak. If I did, who knows when I'd blog again. The truth is if it wasn't for the kind transmission by my wife on Monday, I would have maintained blog silence for a week.

Blogging just hasn't been my bread and butter this summer. I am gearing up to teach a blogging class this fall at our home school co-op. So, I actually have been working on blogging on the down low. More on that later.
I am also trying to get use to the keyboard on my new laptop and I keep on typing my new words in the middle of my old ones.

I hope all is well for my readers, if I have any left. I will be back to blogging with abandon soon.
Head on over to See my face dot com to check out more six word Saturday.

Next Time: Toy Story to 3-D and beyond!

A Purple Present With Lucy Inside

Kristen at We Are That Family is celebrating her 2nd Blogoversary by letting other families share how They are "that" Family. We are That Family because we have 5 crazy people who love each other. This story I posted about earlier this week illustrates that point beautifully.

 

Last year about this time, in preparation for her third birthday, Lucy began announcing what she wanted as a gift. Her wish: A purple present with cookies inside. That is all she would talk about when the subject of birthdays came up. This was one of her first Lucyisms even before I had a blog to feature them. So on her birthday she certainly did receive a purple present with cookies inside. (She was upset with other people who gave her other gifts, but she quickly got over that.)

A few weeks ago Amy bought a beautiful outfit that Lucy is wearing in the pictures below. When she wears it I have taken to calling the ensemble, a purple present with Lucy inside.

Today at our Home School Co-op, just prior to me taking these pictures, Lucy and I had the following

conversation. . .

Me: It's a purple present with Lucy inside. Lucy: Daddy, I do not like that name. Me: But, Lucy I love you.

Lucy: I love you too, Dad. But, I still don't like that name. It was a very mature conversation especially since the one with the best lines is NOT YET FOUR!

So, congratulations Kristen on being that family and blogging that family for two whole years! Next Time: WFMW