Science isn't science 'til you give it away

Mama Archer is hosting the following give-a-way on her blog. I have found a most excellent review of the product on Christianbook.com. As you know, from a recent post, song parodies work for me. In Lyrical Life Science tunes like "The Yellow Rose of Texas" are used to teach science on an approximate 6th grade level. Mama Archer is giving away the teacher book, c.d, and two student work books.

Next Time: Go ask my Dad

Taking Time Off

I am not here right now. I am out celebrating my 11th wedding anniversary a few weeks early. Actually I count that Amy and I have three wedding anniversaries: The actual anniversary is April 11th. We were married the Saturday prior to Easter in 1998. So I always count the Saturday prior to Easter as a second wedding anniversary. Amy was employed as a school psychologist when we were married and we chose our wedding date to coincide with her spring break. So, now that she is employed as a school psychologist again, I count her week of spring break as an anniversary of our wedding and honeymoon.

As you are reading this Amy is on her spring break and that is the anniversary we are celebrating. Extended time alone with Amy is not very common these days. I had no intention of blogging in any way shape or form while she is gone. So I simply am writing this post a week early and scheduling it for the 25th.

Taking some time off with the woman I love works for me. While I will not be linking this post to We Are That Family I encourage you to go there to see what works for others.

Next Time: Science isn't Science 'til you give it away.

Crazy Dave's Giveaways: Announcing the quarter winner.

Today, is my Dad's birthday. I think that's one of the reasons why I ended the contest today. Last year when my Dad turned 70 I, along with my brothers and sisters attempted to give him him all the American coins minted in his lifetime. Not all, just 1 of each. We came very close and I think he really appreciated the gift because he had been a coin collector earlier in his life. I did the lions share of the collecting and really enjoyed it. I think that's why I am still collecting coins.

I must say I really appreciated the excellent turnout for the give-a-way. I noticed how many people so eagerly wanted to win this collection. Unfortunately, there is only one winner and that is Mub from the Netherlands. Congratulations Mub.

For all those out there who did not win let me share a few quick quarter collecting tips. Today, I went to the bank and got 3 rolls of quarters. Of those 120 quarters, 54 were state quarters. And of those 54, 30 were of different states. That's right if I was just starting collecting today I would be 60% finished after going though only 3 rolls. Those very 30 will be among the quarters being sent to Mub.

Another idea for collecting is use cash for purchases as much as you can. What cash gives you is change, many quarters are found in change. We call that change for the better. After getting the quarters today, I stopped by Taco Bell for dinner. I used cash and do you know how many state quarters I got back in my change? None. It's not foolproof. What I did get back, was a little more uncommon than a state quarter. That's right, in my change from Taco Bell was a bicentennial quarter. And in honor of Mub, my father, and the United States of America and their original 13 states, I am going to give Mub not 12.50 worth of quarters, but $13.00 worth. That very bicentennial quarter that I got at Taco Bell today and the new Washington DC Quarter as well as 1 of each of the 50 state quarters.


For all those who did not win. this was so much fun for me, I am sure I will be giving away quarters again on this very blog. Until then here is a fun video of me actually catching 30 quarters in midair.


In other give-a-way news, the Counsil's never contacted me in regards to the book I attempted to give them last month, The Power of an Encouraging Word. So I have redrawn from last months entrants and the winner is ... DG. Congratulations to DG and Mub. I have contacted them and hopefully they will get their prizes in the very near future.



Next Time: Taking Time Off

Next Time

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets, and what nots of Home School Dad.


Tonight's Episode: Next Time

On January 6, 2009, I started this here blog. Just a couple of pictures of our 3 children answering the titular question Why do we home school? Not exactly the stuff of legend. I did start a tradition on that post that I have maintained now for 56 subsequent posts. I always end each post telling the reader what is coming next. It is the journalist and talk show host in me. I like you, the bloggee, to know what's coming next.

If you page back to my first post, then page forward looking at all the next time tags, you will see that I am never wrong. If I say Next Time: Swimming Lessons, by golly the next post is about swimming lessons. Incredible.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, I cheat. Often when I say what is coming next, I have not yet written that post. Sometimes all I have is an idea. Sometimes, I decide I'd rather post about something different than what I advertised. Well if this were a magazine, newspaper or weekly television program, I would just have to live with my mistake and make some disclaimer type announcement. Here at blog central, no such problem. I write my new post and then simply edit my old post and put in the new title. When my devoted readership comes back and I am writing about newts, they may be a little bewildered and say, "Hey, I thought he said he was going to write about hippos!" They will go back to my previous post, and there for all to see, it will say: "Next Time: Newts." Amazing!

Well, I don't use it very often. But I am glad it's there, obsessive as I am. I was going to write about this my last time out, but this week my two oldest children rode their bikes without training wheels for the first time. So, I wrote about that instead and just changed the next time information on my prior post. The only place where there are any discrepancies on my future issues, is on my face book page. I feed these posts directly to my face book page. I have the feed set up automatically. What you see there is the original next time message.

Next Time: Announcing the Quarter Winner. (Or will it?)

The Kids Bike

2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate cyclists! Cyclists! Go cyclists! It was Tuesday afternoon and my 7 year old and I decided the training wheels needed to go. So I took them off and I've been riding without them ever since. Kidding! They were his training wheels.

We took them off and went to the church parking lot, down the street. There was quite a bit of falling and after a while my sad, dejected son wanted to give up and go home. I told him 3 more falls and we would go home. The next time up he got it. Here is some footage.

When my 9 year old, also still in training wheels, got wind of Charlie's achievement, she wanted to be part of the act. So here she is earlier today.

They are getting better and better and I am really proud of both of them. We plan to do a lot of biking as a family this year sans training wheels will be best.

Next Time: Next Time