Wordless Wednesday: 16 Years of Pictures from This Blog

 

For More Wordless Wednesday @ Comedy Plus Click here.

Random Videos

Over the years I have taken so many videos for my blogs.  Here are some random ones I'd like to share today.

This "kid" just got engaged.  11 years ago He was in robotics with my son.

LJ Smooth FKA Wolflina FKA Puppy

Her first HI

Bob Bennett playing at my church after taping an album locally.

 

2 questions for the 4th of July

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It has been quite a while since I participated in Thursday 2 questions at Self Sagacity. My independence day activities have given me few questions to ask.

Question 1: When is the last time you marched/walked in a parade? If you have never marched in one, when is the last time you went to a parade?

I marched in a local parade today and actually had 3 separate invitations to participate. 2 political candidates (one a homeschooling father, who I will be featuring in a future post) needed marchers but I ended up marching with Spider Droid and his robotics team.

This cyclist was in the group behind us. Right before the parade started his horn sprung a leak. Some of the robotics kids gave him a few I love robotics stickers and he patched up his horn easily. That was honking cool.

I asked myself question 1 on my way to the parade. As far as I could recall, before today the last time I walked in a parade was in a 4th of July parade in 1990 in Macomb, Illinois during my time at university there. What was unique about that experience was that a Christian group that was marching in the parade needed someone to carry a full size cross in the parade route. I remember this having a powerful spiritual impact on me, as I was able to reflect on how Jesus carried the cross in preparation for paying for my sins through his death and resurrection.

Question 2: What is your favorite part of the 4th of July holiday?

For me it is going to see the fireworks. It's not exactly the fireworks themselves, which were fantastic this year. It is actually tossing a ball or a Frisbee with Amy or the kids prior to the fireworks. Just a simple act of familial affection in a sea of patriotism and excess make me realize how much I "depend" on my family.

For more questions click here.

Next Time: Friday Fragments

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.

Carnival of Homeschooling at Teach Beside Me

This weeks COH is up at Teach Beside Me. They have included my post on what happens at a FLL scrimmage in their mix.  Spider Droid's FLL tournament is Saturday. Here is a video that was at Why Home School  posted last month that shows a table run.

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Renee Abramowitz of School Sparks sent me a copy of her new e-book Christmas Worksheets For Santa's Little Helpers.

Here is  an page from the e-book with Christmas sight words.

Puppy and I are going to have fun doing many of these worksheets in the days to come.  Feel free to go to Renee's site and explore the many fine worksheets she has there and download the book for yourself.  Did I mention it was free?

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Best Variety is the featured category of my HSBA recap today.  The winner was Heartkeeper Common Room, a blog I have appreciated for a long time now.  This post does have an eclectic mix which I hope you will enjoy.  Here is a Sample Post.

Next Time: Obligatory Christmas Tree Post

Sunday's Cool HOF Edition

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

A Link Up: Crazy Uncle Dave's sports blog had some exciting Ron Santo news this week.  I hope you enjoy 1 down 2 to go.

A look Ahead: Another busy week in real life life that will culminate with Spider Droid's Robotics tournament.  Here on the blogosphere will be busy as well with some posts featuring the carnivals and meme's I participate in.  I will also continue featuring HSBA winners at the end of each post.

For instance, today we will look at the Laugh With Us Blog which was the winner of funniest home school blog.  As another blog, that gets it's bread   and butter from quoting family member's crazy sayings, I must say I heartily approve.  Here is a sample post. 

Next Time:Thankswimming

What happens at an FLL scrimmage?

Last Saturday the First Lego League (FLL) team that Spider Droid is on (TheFanatix) hosted a scrimmage in advance of the December 17th regional. It was quite a bit of fun.

The scrimmage was held at the Elgin Tower, the tallest building in Elgin. It's a cool building with a fully dunctional old time elevator manned by an elevator operator. The kids loved that elevator almost as much as the robots they created and programmed. Almost. Thanks again to the Elgin Technology Center (ETC) who let the host team use the facility.

I recently caught up with the coach of the Fanatix and asked her for a little more info on ETC.

While at the scrimmage armed with a camera, an ipod touch and no official capacity, I decided to interview participants, coaches, mentors and parents and give you an idea of what happens at a robotics scrimmage.

I talked to one of the hosts of the event ...

I spoke with a mentor of the fanatix who had participated in a scrimmage before. She told me of some of the personal benefits of a scrimmage.

Team spirit is a big part of FLL it is not uncommon for the team to dress alike. Many teams have custom t-shirts made.

Some can only afford milk jugs

Two of the 5 teams at the scrimmage were rookie teams. Both teams were from the same school. I spoke with one of the parents about what FLL has meant to him so far.

I talked to two members of last years state champion I-Lego Team.

One of the main reasons for the scrimmage is to practice table runs and technical judging in an atmosphere that is as close to competition as possible. At the onset of the scrimmage the coach for the Fanatix explained and demonstrated a bit about how the runs are scored.

The table challenges are based on the theme for the year. This year the theme is Food Factor. What makes FLL unique is that the robots are only part of the competition. Each year every team has to research to a theme related problem and then create a solution and then present that solution in several ways. I will be talking about this in a little more detail in a post later this week when I talk about Ask magazine's December Robotics Issue. In the radio biz, that is what we call a tease. I'm not in the radio biz, but some say I have the perfect face for it. Enough about me, lets get back to the scrimmage.

Here is a clip from one of I-lego's runs. I added the music with the help of youtube. It does have a food related theme.

I talked to members of the HCA Roarbots along with their coach about their experience so far as a rookie team.

Here they are demonstrating some of their program . . .

G2 is another one of the teams that was at the scrimmage. I spoke with their coach.

and his son, a member of G2.

Watching A Practice Run

The Fanatix discuss their technical judging component.

Fll means differen things to different people here is what one of the Fanatix had to say.

I hope you have enjoyed this behind the scenes look at an FLL scrimmage. Hopefully you have discovered like I did that FLL robotics packs in everything . . .

Plus the Kitchen Sink

100 Books





Reading opens many doors.

I can't believe I read the whole thing.





My son is not only an action hero, but he is also a super genius.  Granted a super genius who doesn't yet read at grade level.  He has the mind of an inventor and a magnificent memory.  Yet he is having difficulty inputting knowledge in his mind through reading.  This has been a concern of ours as parents for a number of years.  We had tried many things tutoring, summer school, Lamaze (which did not help with his reading but you should see the kid breathe!); we tried it all.

When Amy and I attended the local home school convention this past June I went to a seminar about helping your under performing readers.  It was really encouraging and had many good take-a-ways.  One thing I decided to try was a 100 book chart.  You have the child read 100 picture books and write them on a chart in their room.  When the chart is full you give a GREAT reward. 

From June to October 31st we only put 23 books on the chart. Spider Droid probably read more than that but I didn't always get to writing them down.  In short my inconsistency didn't help him take ownership of the project.

In the meantime Spider Droid was taking vision therapy that was beginning to show some signs of progress with his reading ability.  On November 1st, his birthday.  I took him to the chart and added something to the top.  It showed how many books were left and how many days were left in the year.  He had 77 books remaining and 61 days before the end of the year.  We set two goals: 1) To get to a point where there were  more days reaming  in the years than books remaining to be read.  2) to finish the chart before the end of 2011.

He read 3 books that day and 17 by the 7th.  23 from June to October and 17 in a week!   He reached his first goal on 11/16.  40 books remained with 45 days left to read them in.  That's when SD upped his game and decided he wanted to finish the 100 by the end of November.  At about that time life began to get very busy with our home school co-op, robotics, Thanksgiving and the like.  Yet he was driven and diligent.  We went to the local library on Saturday and he checked out as many books as he had left to read.  Tuesday morning he had 10 left.  This morning he had 5 left.  In between lessons he finished the last 5 before lunch time. 

Here are 2 pictures worth 100 books. 

My Son the Reader



Our Story So Far



Here is some live footage .  . .

 Not only has SD's reading quantity increased, the quality piece has improved substantially.  In a few months time he has gone up one full grade in his reading level.

We still have a way to go but we are very pleased with his progress.  Too bad he isn't a little more excited about his achievement, as the picture below attests.