A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal: The ABC's of ME

April Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2025 SIGN-UP March 24-April 5 a-to-zchallenge.com

Leap of Dave 

2025 A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal

Sponsored By No-One

No-One is a proud sponsor of the Leap of Dave 2025 A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal.  No one has  practically been reading this blog for many years and was glad to answer the call when I asked no one to sponsor it.  Now back to the theme reveal.

The Theme for my 2025 A to Z challenge is The ABC's of Me. 

I had many different ideas for the challenge theme this year and I chose this one because at the beginning of the year I placed an alphabetical list of things that described me on my home page.

As of March 7th 2025 this list reads as follows:

Amateur Parodist, 

Blogger, 

Christian, 

Daring do-gooder, 

Evangelical sans Trump Kool-Aid, 

Father of 3 adult children, 

Giraffe lover, 

Husband of one amazing wife, 

Illinois resident, 

Jester, 

Kindred spirit, 

Library lover 

Middle School teacher 

Nincompoop 

Original Poet

Quintessential worker 

RITA (Republican in theory, anyways.) 

Sixty something 

Teller of jokes 

U of I Parent - ILL

Voracious reader, 

Willy Wonka Wannabe, 

Xenophile 

Yankovic enthusiast 

Zoo attender

Each day of the challenge I will write a post about the alphabetical aspect of me that matches that day's letter.  It is very possible that I may change some of the topics before the challenge.  If I do that, they will also be changed on my blog's sidebar.  As I am not a fan of revisionist history, I will not change them on this post.  

This is now usually the time in a Theme Reveal where the blogger lists his previous A to Z Challenge theme's.  So let's get to it shall we. The first time I participated in the A to Z Challenge was 2012 it was here at this blog back when it was still called Home School Dad. and it was the only year I had no theme. In 2015 I returned to the Challenge and actually participated in the challenge on2 of my blogs.  The complete list is below. 

 

                                                   

Year    Blog      Theme                                   Sample Post                              

2012  HSD      No Theme                              B is for Boring

2015  HSD      Nouns                                    A is for Allen

2015   CUSP   White Sox Home Runs         F is for Frank

2016  YBD      Comic Book Characters      B is for Beast 

2016   DOL     Y is for You Tube                  Theme Reveal

2016   CUSP   Cubs Home Runs                 R is for Ronny

2019   RAN     Sherman Brothers Songs    Z is for Zuckerman 

2020   RAN     State Capitals                       W is for Washington 

2021   HSD     Alive in 1921                         W is for Waltons

2022   LOD     Multiple *                             Quit Quentin Quest

2023   LOD     A Month at the Movies         Ordinary People

2024    LOD    Holidays                                J is for Just Married

                                                                                          

* The themes for 2022 were Wordles, Limericks and Home Runs

Key to BLOGS: 

HSD Home School Dad *

CUSP Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Page

YBD Your Basic Dave

DOL Dave Out Loud 

RAN Random Acts of  Dave 

LOD Leap of Dave*

* Leap of Dave is the same blog as Home School Dad.  

I am very excited about participating this year.  Since I am kind of the theme I'm looking forward to putting myself out there.  

Here is a quote from the movie that inspired the title of my theme.

The Theme Reveal Sponsor, No One is offering a prize for anyone who can answer these questions from the above referenced quote:

1. The Name of the film

2. The name of the character speaking.

3. The name of the actor portraying the character.  

Leave your answer in the comments and No One will  be very happy that you participated. 

To  see the theme reveal post as the A-Z challenge website click here.  To  submit your theme reveal post click here. To see the Theme Reveal Spreadsheet click here.

 

Coming April First: Amateur Parodist at your Service. 

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A to Z 2024: G is for Going to the Zoo

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

April 8th is National Zoo Lovers Day

I love zoos.  I'm not sure exactly when I fell in love with them .  It may have been all the times Dr. Lester Fisher visited the Ray Rayner show when I was a kid on a segment called Ark in the Park.  Dr. Fisher was the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  It could have been on my trips to the Brookfield Zoo when I was a kid, I know I had one birthday party there.  It  may have even been when my grandparents would take my brother and sister and myself to the aforementioned Lincoln Park Zoo.  It may have been all of those things and more.  

Here is a link to one of our other blogs that shows a great video from a family trip (sans me) to the Brookfield Zoo.  

I really enjoying going to free zoo's.  Here is an article from February of this year talking about 12 such zoos (I've been at 3 through 6). 

# 6 The St. Louis was the most recent zoo I visited.  Here are some pictures form my trip in March

My favorite animal, the giraffe at the St. Louis Zoo

In my 2015 A to Z challenge

G was for giraffe poop

Raja The Elephant at the St. Louis Zoo

Raja has been at the zoo for 30+ years

He will be moving to Columbus Ohio in 2024 or 2025

An Amur Leopard at the St. Louis Zoo

I went to the zoo with my dear friend Dave Hendrick

We were both missionaries in Khabarovsk Russia in the early 1990's

Khabarovsk is situated  on the Amur River

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Speaking of animals: Today's song of the day is Gonna Buy Me A Dog by The Monkees

7 songs in my A to Z playlist looks like this

 

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Today is also the day for the total solar eclipse.  We will be watching it at school today.  The next one won't me in the U.S. until August 23rd 2044.  Instead of pushing 60 like I am now it will be exactly a month before my schedule 80th birthday.  My Dad turned 86 on March 23rd and he will be watching it with my Mom and brother.  So that's older than I will be next next time.

Will you be watching the eclipse today?  Do you enjoy zoos?  Answer either or both of these questions in the comment section.

 To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

Poets in the Family

 My daughter Emma and I started attending a live poem workshop at our library at the beginning of the year.  It meets on the first Monday of the month and the first thing we do is go around the table and share a poem we have already written if we would like to.  

Monday Afternoon was very hectic at my house.  Amy was out and about and everything was going wrong.  The workshop started half an hour earlier than I thought it did, dinner was a hot mess,and I was in a foul foul mood.  By the time we got on our way a gorgeous full moon was shining on the river that our library sits upon and it had a calming effect on my soul reminding me what the important things were and how I was chasing the unimportant.  

Emma and I got into the meeting right as the poetry sharing was beginning. I jotted this poem down and then recited it when it was my turn.

Inside Outside Upside Down

(With No Apologies to Sam And Jan Berenstain)

Inside

Running late

Mixed up meeting time

bad mood

burnt food

rush rush rush

Outside

Circle moon

Yellow glow

Silence between loved ones

That speaks comfort

Through the admiration of beauty

I'd like my inside to be more like the outside. 

After I read my poem Emma read hers.  She had written it previously but I  still took it as a warning that I need to be careful with my words, thoughts, and actions so I don't hurt the ones I love.

I encouraged Emma to start a poetry blog. She had a few other blogs when she was younger, but doesn't use them now.  Her poem and my poem are both at Poetry Friday this week.  It is being hosted this week by Carol at Beyond Literacy Link.

Love,

Dave

My blog is a teenager and going through some changes.

 13 years ago today at the beginning of my 2nd semester of being a stay at home Dad for the purpose of continuing the home education of my 3 children aged 22-13, 20-13 and 16-13 at the time (I take it you can do subtraction). I began this blog.  Here is a link to my first post. 

This never was a home education only blog. We finished homeschooling proper when our youngest daughter  graduated Middle School in 2020.  I haven't been the full time stay at home dad/home educator since 2013.     Yet I continued to call this blog Home School Dad, shortening it to HSD a few years back.  

HSD is just one of 4 blogs I have been producing over the past several years.  On Dec 12, 2009 just 11 months after starting my first blog, I started a 2nd called Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog.  Here is the first post..  

Sometime in 2011 I started a vlog at Word Press called Dave Out Loud.  I abandodned the word press site and brogh Dave Out Loud to Blogger.  Here is the first post. 

In Janaury 2019 I decided to consolidate all my blogs and bring them to Word Press in a blog called Random Acts of Roller.  Here is my first post.

In 2020 during the corona virus pandemic I decided to go back to HSD as my flagship blog and have had basically 2 flagship blogs ever since.  

Over the past few weeks, I have been making some wholesale changes to HSD.  First of all you can probably see it is no longer called HSD.  I have changed the name to Leap of Dave.

I have also transferred all my Dave Out Loud And Crazy Uncle Dave posts here.  I am still in the process of transferring all my Random Acts posts here as well.  I will still be continuing posting sports content and videos and they will be labeled Crazy Uncle Dave or Dave Out Loud but they will appear in this blog.  I am exploring leaving blogger altogether but could never really get the hang of Word Press.  Until that day happens Leap of Dave becomes theone stop shop for all my blogging hijinks.  With 13 years in the books I am hoping for smooth sailing and many more fine years in my blogging future.

A is for Allen and Al

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April 1 2021 A to Z Challenge commences.

Hello to anyone visiting from the challenge.

 This year my theme is Alive in 1921.

Each day I will write about one or more person who was alive 100 years ago in 1921.My criteria for selection was to write about only people who I knew about before compiling the list.  I will give some biographical information, but I will also try to focus on my connection with the person.  

We are starting with Steve Allen, who was the first host of The Tonight Show in 1954.Allen was born the day after Christmas in 1921 so he was born in the last week of eligibility for t

his list.  

                                                        Years Lived Before 1921: Zero

                                                        Years Lived After 1921:   Seventy Nine

I know it is April 1st but when it came to hosting a late night show, Allen was no fool.  Many of the innovations he pioneered for his ground breaking progam are still in use today. Like this duet with himself

Steve Allen made a lot of appearances on talk shows and game shows in my youth.  What I remember him for most was his dead pan sense of humor.  In the 1980's a show by the name of Solid Gold ran on television. It did not run on broadcast or cable network it was syndicated and I watched a few episodes in it's first season.  On one of those episode Mr. Allen gave a "dramatic" reading.  I put dramatic in quotes as the reading was the lyrics of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff which topped billboard hot 100 chart in 1979. 40 years later the mere thought of the chorus lyrics below being read by Mr. Allen send me into a fit of hysteria.  I was unable to find a clip of this otherwise I would be posting it on my vlog.  

Steve is not the only Allen we are celebrating today. The other one spells it Allan and goes by Al.  His name is Al Jaffee.  Al Jaffee was an artist for Mad magazine.  Like Steve Allen, Jaffee was born in 1921 but unlike Allen who died in 2000, Jaffee is still alive, just celebrating his 100th birthday last month.  

                                             Years lived before 1921: Zero     

                                             Years lived after 1921:One Hundred (so far)

This is a good time to mention how I am incorporating my other blogs into the a to z challenge this year.  I have links to additional content on some of the people I will be featuring this month.  I am calling these A to Z Easter Eggs and there are 2 kinds.  A to Z extra are content I created specifically for the challenge and that I publish simultaneously with that day's letter. A to Z archives are previous posts which have previously appeared in the blog-o-sphere.  Today, I have none of the former, and 2 of the latter.  

A TO Z Easter Eggs

A to Z Archives 

Happy Birthday to Chris and Al at Random Acts of Roller. Mr. Jaffee's birthday coincides with my younger brother's, so I wrote them a fitting tribute which contains a little more biographical information as well as how I connect with the Mad artist.  

The Tonight Show: A History of Hosts at Dave Out Loud.    Steve Allen was the first of 6 hosts of the Tonight Show. I have some footage of each host. 

This should end my first installment of the A to Z challenge.  After you've looked at the additional content on my other blogs head back to the challenge and explore continue exploring. .         

 

Roller Time

 This week I finished a 6 week subbing assignment relieving a 1:1 aide who was on maternity leaveem.  I worked with the same student for 6 weeks which was new and very rewarding for me. Each morning I would pick the student up at the bus and bring them to the class room.  Each afternoon I would take the student back to the bus.  Usually by the end of the day, my student would start to get very excited about going home and would start repeating momma time over and over again.  Sometimes if the student was having a particularly difficult day they might start saying momma time before it was near to the time school ended.  I Kind of  saw it as a suggestion/protest. One day Momma Time was being chanted at about 8:30 a.m.  

One morning  3 or 4 weeks into the assignment as I was picking my student up from the bus, the bus driver asked me what my name was.  I said it was Mr. Roller. She said that explains it, your student has been repeating Roller time, Roller time for the last 15 minutes.  I hope that means that I made as much of an impression on my student as  they did to me.  

💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓💓

Yesterday I almost went to a movie.  That's right I almost went to the movie theatre with my wife and watched a movie.  It's been almost a year since I've even thought of doing that.  The reason we didn't go was not because of any co-vid concerns, we e looked the movie up in my favorite ratings website, Plugged In, and realized that it might not be for us.  Our daughters went to the Disney dragon movie and both enjoyed it. 

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Speaking of Disney, my younger daughter and I have been watching Wandavision on the Disney App.  We have been watching it the Friday it drops and watched the 9th and final installment yesterday.  If I were reviewing the show, my review would be uneven.  I'm not reviewing, it though.  I will say this, it's been super fun having a little vestige of appointment television and the experience was well worth the effort.

📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺📺

My Other Blogs

Besides this blog, I have 3 other active blogs.  Here are links to my most recent posts in each of them.

Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog

Hall of Fame Voting Results 2021 - 2/13/21

Dave Out Loud

Quick Random Takes: A to Z Challenge 3/6/21 (currently now quickly becoming then)

Random Acts of Roller

Born on March 2nd 3/2/21

State of the Blogs

The past few months I have been tweaking my 4 existing blogs with the intent of keeping them filled with content and not laying dormant in the basement of the Alamo of the internet.  My 4 active blogs at this time are in oldest to youngest  Home School Dad which I have shortened to the initials HSD, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog, Dave Out Loud, and Random Acts of Roller.

I have decided to make HSD the flagship of the four blogs.  That is why directly under this post you can see links to the latest posts of the other 3 blogs.  To that end, periodically I will make a post of whats coming next in all of these blogs.  Consider this one of thos posts?

What Am I Working On?

HSD: Aside from this post I am not working on any posts on this blog at this time.  This week I hope to participate in Wordless Wednesday.  I have a couple of ideas for the feuture Muzak Lessons I started last week and may start working on one of those soon.

Random Acts: I am currently working on a piece that combines politics and Christianity.  Instead of trying to write it all at one time, I usyally only work at it for 15 to 30 minutes at a time.  part of this is because of my schedule at work, the other reason is that I am trying to be much more deliberate about my writing at this time.  I think taking my time to get my thoughts together and working without a deadline may aid that.

Crazy Uncle Daves: I just posted ther for the first time in over a year.  This blog has never been a real time sports blog and I'd really like it to be.  Unfortunately there are no real time sports at this surreal time .  So until then I'll be trying to find a pace and contentent  for posting that matches my time and inclinations.

Dave Out Loud.  I am working on my first "live" segment of Dave out Loud in some time.  I'll be taking the random takes idea I mentioned in my last post and running with it.

What Am I Thinking About?

I have been thinking about a podcast.  I'm not sure if I'll ever pull the trigger on such a thing.  However  do expect a piece in Random Acts in the near future of 10 people I'd love to interview on a podcast.

Two weeks ago I participated in Wordless Wednesday for the first time in years.  Last week I participated from 2 of my blogs.  I am thinking about participating from all 4 on the same week sometime.  I want to get a few more posts at Crazy Uncle and Dave Out Loud before I attempt such a feat.

What am I Planning?

I participated in the A to Z challenge this year at Random Acts.  I need to work on an index page of my involvement and gave myself the month of May off from doing that.  Here is my index page from my  a to z challened last year.  In June I plan to put up this year's index page.

I also  have big plans for the a to z challenge for next year.  There will need to be quite a  bit of behind the scenes planning for it.  I shall begin that work in earnest come June.

That's just a snippet of what to expect over the next few weeks and months.

Home School Dad Revisited.

Hello and good morning.  My name is Dave and I used to go by the moniker Home School Dad.  11 years ago I began this blog, as I was a stay at home dad and the home school teacher of the family.  I started home schooling the kids in 2008 and did that full time until the fall of 2013 when I went back to working full time.

I still blog but now do most of it  at Random Acts of Roller. I have started many blogs over the years but my favorite has always been HSD (Home School Dad).  I have been thinking a lot lately of restarting Home School Dad. With that in mind, I decided to post one of my earliest blog entries.  You can click here to see how it appeared on 1/8/9.

If clicking here is not your thing, it's okay cause copying and pasting is mine...

When I first heard about Homeschooling.

First appeared in Home School Dad

January 8, 2009

Do you remember where you were the first time you heard about home schooling? I was at a wedding. At the reception, I was placed at what I call the odd duck table , the table where you sit friends, family and coworkers not likely to know anyone else, I have a name for it because I have been placed at that table many times.

So at the odd duck table there was a lady from out of state, Colorado, I believe, who home schooled her children. This was the mid to late 80's and I had no idea what homeschooling was or why anyone would want to do it. I just sat there as she regaled other wedding guests with stories of her home schooling journey.

I think it's appropriate that I first heard of home schooling at the odd duck table. Home Schooling itself has been an odd duck for many years. People aren't quite sure what to make of it. It can be frustrating as  a Home School parent, when you see the  same reaction from each person who learns you are home educating your children. This is why I asked you to recall your first experience with the concept. Perhaps, your initial reaction, was not unlike those you encounter today. We often expect people to understand things the way we do and forget our understanding is part of an ongoing process often evolving over many years.

Homeschooling over the years has quietly been inching away from the odd duck table. Everybody seems to know someone these days who is home schooling. It is not uncommon now for park districts and libraries to have special activities for home school families.

2020 Perspective:

First of all,   if you did  look back on the original, you may have noticed I did a little editing of my piece.  It bothered me  that I had let regaled be spelled incorrectly for 11 years.  I also had a tendency back then to just end my posts and go on to the next thing. I began this post some hours ago, got this far, and was really tempted to end this post abruptly as I had just finished an overnight shift and was much more interested in sleeping than culminating. Instead, I went the save button route and came back to conclude.

So much has changed since 2009 when I wrote this that it's hard to provide appropriate context.  Obviously most parents with school age children have now found themselves more knowledgeable about what schooling at home looks like.  The Covid 19 shelter in place orders have seen to that.  schooling at home is in some ways different than homeschooling.  I currently have an 8th grader who is home-schooled , a 12th grader who is public schooled and a daughter taking some college classes. Now that everybody is staying at home, my responsibilities towards their school work have not changed at all.  I help my 8th grader with math and I do nothing with the older ones.  When I wrote  the original post they were were 3, 7, and 9 respectively and I was involved with every aspect of their education.

In the coming weeks I will begin to post more here.  I plan to revisit earlier posts as I did today, but mainly I hope to move beyond that.  In June, our homeschooling journey will end as our youngest moves on to public high school.  As the pandemic continues to take its course, our world will adjust to a new normal.  In the same way, our family has been adjusting to a new normal over the past 5 years as our homeschooling has lessened and lessened.  Amid these changes, I have been tempted to change the name of this blog.  I have decided not to yield to this temptation.  The content may be different or perhaps non-existent, but on these pages and in some parts of myself, I shall always be a home school dad.

O is for Oreos

It has been a while since I participated in Friday Fragments at Half-Past Kissin' Tim. So I thought I'd give it a try.  If you are not familiar with Friday Fragments, last week's offering is very typical of the genre: a few short fragments of posts that don't have any cohesiveness or unity.  I am also doing A to Z blogging this month, so my first fragment will be a thing that begins with the letter N.  This is in keping to my A to Z theme of nouns

Fragment 1: O is for Oreo.

When I was a kid there were sandwich cookies like the kind my parents brought at grocery store and then there were Oreos.  Boy were they different!  The sandwich cookies didn't look like Oreos,  hey didn't separate like Oreos and they sure didn't taste like Oreos. Oreos were reserved for special occasions because the store brand cookies sure didn't cost as much as Oreos.

Boy have things changed! These days store like Target and Aldi have their own brands of sandwich cookies.  We call them Fake Oreos.  They still don't cost as much as Oreos, but I am happy to report that they look like Oreos, separate like Oreos, and they even taste like Oreos.

Fragment 2 K-Love Pledge drive

Our family really enjoys listening to Christian music and the station K-Love is often on in our car as we drive back and forth through that thing called life.  A few times a year they have a pledge drive.  I have a strange sense of humor, and like to over analyze things.  So I pulled my vlog Dave Out Loud out of mothballs and made this video about K-Love and the pledge drive.

Pledge drive, in all seriousness has been fantastic this year.  God is doing so many wonderful things just through people listening and giving to the station.  To give K-love a listen click here..

Fragment 3: Age of Ultron

I was looking through some old posts this week and I came across this one (also a Friday Fragment post) from 4 years ago entitled I thought Super Hero Movies wer for kids.  Just like the fake  Oreos situation,  things have got better for kid-friendly super hero .  Since I wrote that movies like Thor, Captaian America, and Avengers have produced movies I enjoy and will allow my kids to watch and love.  Avengers 2 comes out in 14 days and  a majority of our family is psyched.  Here's a short featuette that came out on youtube yesterday ...



Fragment 4 Imago Film Festival

I promised before the A to Z challenge started to tell more abot ut my experiences at this year's Imago Film  Festival.  Here is the trailer for Believe Me, a film I saw at the festival.



That's all the fragmments we have time for today. Go back to whence you came by clicking on A to Z Or Friday Fragments we have time for today.

L is for Library (Thing)

Today's letter is L.  I have documented over the years that our family loves libraries.  Here is a you tube video from another of my blogs Dave Out Loud.






For more A to Z Blogging click here.

COH @ DOL

That means that the Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Dave Out Loud.  It's a Reading Out Loud Edition.  It was a lot of fun put together..  I hope you enjoy it.

Burpee Challenge Day 1

Yesterday, (actually) earlier today I told you about my burpee Challenge.  I Hope to be able to do 25 Burpees by my birthday which is 64 days from now.  Thus I am calling it the burpee Challenge 64 to 25. 

In yesterday's post I wasn't quite sure what a burpee was.  Well, I have gotten myself a personal trainer, who will now show you how to do a burpee.

 

I don't expect this blog to become the Burpee Channel: All Burpees ALL the Time.  I will keep you up to date and will put any videos (including this one)that  are Burpee related up at Dave Out Loud as well.

Speaking of videos, searching the Burpee Challenge brings up a number of videos on You Tube.  Here is one of them:

I DON'T EXPECT MINE TO BE THAT IMPRESSIVE

Carnival of Homeschooling at Why Homeschool

Change can be good.  Why Homeschool is hosting the Change edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling this week.  Both Dave Out Loud and Home School Dad have submissions.  Be sure to check those out amid all the excellent carnival doings.

Status Update

My blog seems to be dying a slow death.  In April it had a mild resurgence because I participated in A to Z Blogging.  I have not given up entirely on blogging.  However, I will not be doing any homeschooling this Summer. Now that her school is off for the summer,  Amy will be teaching the kids for 1 hour a day 4 days a week in what we used to call skills roundup.  I am hoping to land a summer or part time job. 

This week I am working on a carnival of homeschooling at Dave Out Loud.  I plan to post once or twice a week at each blog this Summer.  But finding a job is the priority. 

I also plan to catch up on all the posts I owe to various people before I go onto other stuff.  To that end,  I will be announcing the winners of the quarter give-a-way soon. 

Dave Out Loud is hosting June 4th Carnival of Homeschooling.

I will be hosting next week's Carnival of Homeschooling.  Not here at HSD but at my other blog, Dave Out Loud.  That's my vlog.  It will be like watching a talk show and reading a magazine at the same exact time.  Click here to check out my Carnival Promo.  WARNING: The previous link contains a video which contains silly jokes.  This really shouldn't surprise you, but consider your self warned.  This weeks Carnival  of Homeschooling is at the Informed Parent.  Check it out.

Pandora and other Fragments

It is time once again .  Yes Half past Kissing Time and time for Friday Fragments. 

1.  I heart Pandora.

I have a very eclectic taste in music.  Show tunes, Pop, Rock, Christian, folk, country.  You name it I like it.  I don't even mind listening to many genre's at the same time.  That'w why I like Pandora.  I have about 50 different channels and when the mood strikes me, I hit the shuffle option and get my eclectic on .  This is what I am listening to right now.  I can go from that to Under The Sea from Little Mermaid.  (Which, incidentally just happened.) From there maybe Bowling For Soup or Barry Manilow to Bing Crosby or Puppy's favorite, JJ Heller.   This musical journey may contine with music from Journey or the musical saga may continue with The Saga Begins by Weird Al.  Like I said, eclectic.

Sure, I could do and  do the same thing with my IPod and Itunes.  But, the songs I listen to, I have to own.  With Pandora it often plays songs I not only don't own but am sometimes not even aware of.  I just listened to 5 O'clock world by the Vogues from my Beach Monkeys(Beach Boys and Monkees are the seed artists)  channel on Pandora.  I may have heard it before on an oldies stattion but I would never be able to ask for it by name.  That's why I like the music genome project employed by Pandora.  It takes what you like and plays music similar to it.

2.  A to Z coming soon.







Earlier this year I joined up for the A to Z blogging challenge for this April. March is 1/2 way over and I hope I am up to the task of 26 letters in 30 days. We get each Sunday off except the first Sunday, which is the first of April. It seems a little NABLOPOmish to me. Click here to review my love/hate with Nablopomo. I don't have a theme or even a plan yet. But I do have a little inkling of a system. I love systems, so it may still work.

Here is a cool promotional video for the event.



3.  I owe I owe so back to blog I go. 

I am so behind in my blogging for promotional items  I have received.  There is a math program that Spider Droid and I used last month that I need to write a review of.  There are almost a half dozen books I received that I owe reviews for.  Hey I think that's a good future Friday Fragment post!
I also owe the host of Home Spun Juggling a review of her fabulous book of cartoons. 

Bunny did  her own review of this fine Tome of Homeschool wit and wisdom.  So in lieu of my  review here is a link to hers.  Hopefully, I'll catch up soon.

4. It's not a test, it's Iowa

Did you ever take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills? I did a few times as a kid.  I really enjoyed it, because it was a day or 2 off from the routine of regular school.  I also brake for scantron.  Next week I will be proctoring an Iowa Test for a bunch of home school kids.  Spider Droid and Bunny will be among those taking the test.  I will spend the next few days of school just getting them  familiar with the world of testtaking in a classroom setting.

I'm not out of fragments but I am out of time.Click here   For more fun filled fragments of Fridaytude.

Dare to Dream A night to remember. An IPod to forget.

Last Wednesday I went to the Allstate Arena with 3 kids to go see Disney on Ice: Dare  to Dream produced by Feld Entertainment. 

The evening started out great, until after we got to our seats, I found that I did not have my i-pod touch with me.  I was planning on covering the whole event on twitter. I thought I left it in the car.  After checking the car without producing it, I realized that it had probably dropped out of my pocket on my way into the stadium.

It was hard to get into the Disney mood, knowing I had lost a piece of equipment that had become vital to me in the month I owned it, and further, knowing I could not afford to replace it anytime soon.  But I summoned all the when you wish upon a star attitude I could muster and got in the best Disney mood I could. That sounds good, but it’s not actually true.  What I did do was pray.  God answered those prayers immediately.  The I-pod was found before the show started.  I didn’t know that until Thursday afternoon, but God gave me a peace to enjoy the show, regardless. 

Enough about the I-pod, on with the show
.
Dare to Dream takes 3 Disney Princess movies and takes those tales from the silver screen and retells them on the shimmering ice. 

Act I 

Princess and the Frog.

While I did not like the black magic aspects of the story, we all enjoyed the fast paced narrative, flashy costumes and excellent skating.  Puppy was a little frightened.  But let’s face it, that what puppy does best.

Act II 

Cinderella

This more classical retelling of a fairy tale appealed to puppy quite a bit. She's a sap for a good love story and this is an awfully good one.

Act III

Rapunzel

This was the main event, as far as Puppy was concerned.  In her opinion, the other two tales were just appetizers for the main dish retelling of Tangled. Puppy vehemently objected to the small amount of order changing that the producers committed while adapting this for ice.  Click here for her review of the evening which can be found at Dave Out Loud.






These objections aside, Puppy had a fantastic time.  This is because Dare to Dream is a fantastic show.  While It is essentially for girls, Spider Droid and his friend enjoyed themselves as well. 

The run at Allstate ended today. There will be 21  big beautiful shows at the United Center from February first to the twelfth.  The weekday shows have a special discount available of 4 tickets for $44.00.  The weekend shows have a $4.00 discount available.  Click here for discount info and don’t forget to use the discount code MOM.

Also, if you plan on bringing your IPod touch to the show, be very careful not to misplace it.  I plan to never misplace anything again.  At least I dare to dream that I won’t.

Friday Fragments - Promotional Considerations

It is Friday Fragment time again.  This week's fragments all seem to be self promoting.  Oh well, if I were a true narcissist wouldn't tie them all up in one post, I would write them all out separately.

Fragment 1

If you don't follow my vlog Dave Out Loud. (and at this point no one does) you are missing gems like this . . .





Fragment 2

I have just created a resource for quality home school blogs.  It  takes all 20 Homeschool Blog Awards (HSBA) categories and features the winner in each category.  I also go behind the scenes and say who I voted for in each category and why as well as sharing a sample post form all 20 winners that I think gives us a good glimpse of their work.

Fragment 3.

Mine is apparently not the only resource throwing bouquets to home school bloggers.  It seem that one of those bouquets was even thrown my way.



Yes Teacher Certification Degrees dot com did a fantastic job compiling 100 Homeschooling blogs and a few honorable mentions.  Here is what they said about HSD:

Dave is the “Home School Dad”, White Sox fan and movie buff whose sense of humor shows in creative nicknames and occasional rants; wife Amy adds her voice as a guest contributor to this lively blog filled with ideas for budget-friendly family fun, reports on Lego robotics action and a fresh perspective from the homeschool front.


Occasional rants! I wonder what they mean by that.  Well, I never.   They have a lot of nerve.

Fragment 4.

Speaking of Robotics . . .

The State Robotics Tournament is tomorrow and Saturday.  Unlike last year, Spider Droid's team will not be participating.  They did great at their regional.  Just not great enough to be one of the 3 teams from a field nearing 20 to make it. 

Here are  some pics from the regional. 

Well those are all the fragments I have for today.  For more Friday Fragments click here.

Dave Out Loud Relocated

Sunday's Cool: A Link Up and A Look Ahead

A Link Up: I am going to say something, and I don't want you to take it the wrong way.  I hate Word Press.  I have tried on several occasions to use Word Press blogs, even taught a blogging class using a Word Press platform.  They are about as easy to use, as Millard Fillmore is easy to rate as one of the top 3 presidents ever.  No offense to Millard Fillmore, in fact more on him tomorrow.

But back to my disdain for all things Word Press.  The latest debacle came a few months ago, when I tried to start a vlog, called Dave Out Loud.  I had a Word Press account with the nickname DaveOutLoud, so I thought using Word Press might be a good idea.

Big Mistake. Huge.

It took me almost an hour every time I posted to just put a video from my You Tube account on the blog.  Yesterday, I finally stopped the madnes, and started a Dave Out Loud Vlog here at Blogger.

Here is yesterday's innuagral post.  In the next few weeks I will be rerunning the videos I posted at the previous platform.  Which, as it turns out, won't take an hour for all 8 episodes, let alone 1. 

A Look Ahead:  Tomorrow, I will be posting about a special project we will be doing at school this year regarding American Presidential History.  This is one of the reasons, I had Millard Fillmore on the brain earlier.  Not exactly what else I will be blogging about this week.  It seems like it will be a rather eventful week, so I should have plenty of material.

HSBA Award Profile

Today's category: Best Homeschool Vlog

One reason why I started a vlog is to compete in this category next year.  This year's winner, Women Living Well does so much more than vlog.  Here is a sample post with an encouraging video about involving your family in your misistry.

Christmas, Libraries and More

Sunday's Cool

A Link Up and A Look Ahead



A Link Up

This week we started Library Week amid all the hustle and bustle of the Holiday Season.  I hope to utilize our home school blog more in the months to come and will post our library adventures there.  Here is the first installment

We interrupt this post with a Holiday Message

Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas.  We hosted our family today as there were few enough people coming to fit comfortably in our house.  With all the travelling we have been doing lately, it is nice to stay home and celebrate here.

A Look Ahead

This week in real life, we will be visiting loads of libraries,  and posting snippets here.  That won't start until Tuesday.  Tomorrow we will engage in a little excitement call Do Nothing Day.

You can read all about it next time.

Merry Christmas!