Scientific Error

Evan always comes up with good questions when we're in the van far from my friend, Google. Last week his question was why do plants drink water instead of milk. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce the scientific process. And, besides, I didn't really have a good answer (I do now!).

So we set up the experiment....

First, we punched drainage holes in two identical egg cartons and filled them with equal amounts of potting soil.

Then we planted exactly 1/8 cup of grass seed in each egg carton.

We added exactly one half cup water to one egg carton...

... and one half cup milk to the other egg carton.

Then we set the egg cartons together in a bright sunny window, which happens to be by my computer desk. We gave them equal amounts of water and milk again the next day.

It was later that day that things started happening. I'm not talking about sprouting grass seeds. Have you ever lost a sippy cup of milk in your van? I had that happening in my family room. Unfortunately for the rest of the family, I have a very bad sense of smell. I didn't smell it. And Jeff didn't know there was anything but water in those egg cartons. So, they sat there for a few more days baking in the bright sunny window... until I eventually smelled it. And I recognized that smell immediately! b/c I have lost many sippy cups under the seats in my van.

My science experiments NEVER work... though I should have seen this one coming.

Fall Sports

Fall Sports are in full swing. I should have posted yesterday when I could have told you Ryan's football team was undefeated, not just winning all their games but winning all their games by 20-30 points! That was until this morning when they got beat 44-24! But even losing big is better than watching. Which is to say that Ryan is getting WAY more playing time this year. He's starting on the offense and playing a bit of defense too. I'm loving football this year!

I just wish football didn't overlap fall soccer season. Adam and Evan are both playing soccer. The middle school league has been playing for a few weeks now. Adam's team is not doing well. They won their only JV game but have lost all the regular games. It's painful to watch!

But even more painful to watch was Evan's first game this morning. In past years, he's played 3 against 3. But this year he's moved up to a bigger field and they're playing 5 against 5. So, this morning we had 10 kids running in a pack, chasing the ball. Someone is going to get hurt! We've only had one practice so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just pray they start teaching positions.

Now, just for fun.. let's look at my weekly schedule:

Monday: R homeschool band, 4pm
R football practice, 5:30pm
A soccer game, 5:30pm
or 6:45pm
Tuesday: homeschool co-op,
10am (alternating
Tuesdays)
R football practice,
5:30pm
A soccer practice 6:45pm (alternating
Tuesdays)
E soccer practice 6:00pm
Wednesday: A soccer practice 4:30pm
church/AWANA 6:45pm
Thursday: A
piano lesson, 2pm
R football practice,
5:30pm
Friday: R football practice
5:30
A soccr practice 5:30
Saturday: R football game 10:00am
E soccer game times vary
A soccer game times vary

Throw in an occasional field trip, roller skating, and grocery shopping and I may as well sleep in the car. LOL

Motivation

"Spelling and Language are DESTROYING my life."

After much whining, crying and complaining this week, Evan finished his first ever spelling unit with a 100% on today's test. He whizzed through rhyming words and syllables in Language today. In fact, he finished every bit of his schoolwork, including reading, Bible, math, language, spelling, and social studies, in 40 minutes today. All in an effort to get to his new Sonic Leapster game. And since it's a Leapster game, it's educational. LOL He's been working on math skills for an hour now.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

We've finally got tomatoes! Aren't they pretty? I've had a few ripe here and there and I've eaten WAY more bacon and tomato sandwiches than is healthy. I actually switched to turkey bacon after eating a couple pounds of bacon by myself. That wasn't in one meal, of course, though I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. I do love bacon. But now, the real harvest begins!

All six of my plants survived this year so we are swimming in tomatoes! I picked almost 20 lbs of tomatoes yesterday! I just weighed them. I'm not exaggerating. That's more tomatoes than I've ever had at once and there's more on the vines that will be ripe this week.

Unfortunately, I'm the only person in this house who likes tomatoes. The guys will eat them in sauces but they don't like them raw, unless it's on a taco and we can only eat so many tacos! So, this year, I'm going to try freezing them. It seems easy enough. Wish me luck!

I'm In Love

Did you watch Sarah Palin's speech tonight? She's awesome. I finally have someone to vote for... and if that means I have to vote for McCain too, well... he's pretty old. ;)

Scholastic vs. Homeschoolers

I was flipping through the most recent Scholastic book orders when I came across a most interesting book. It’s described by Scholastic like this:

Schooled : Homeschooled Cap has never watched TV, eaten pizza -- or even had a
friend! How will he fit in at the regular middle school?

I haven’t read the book but I have read the reviews on Amazon. As it turns out, home schooled Cap ends up being the hero of the book but he’s portrayed as a social misfit. The book reinforces all those home school stereotypes that make people give us funny looks when we’re at the grocery store in the middle of the day.

Scholastic has even featured the author, Gordon Korman, as Author of the Month and, here’s the good part, sponsored a contest to be judged by the author. The contest is based on Korman’s new book. From Scholastic:

In Gordon Korman’s new book Schooled, Cap goes to school for the first time.
Tell us about your first day of school this year (one page or less)! One winner
will receive an in-person Classroom Writing Workshop from Gordon Korman!

Here’s our chance to tell Mr. Korman exactly what a home schooled child is like! Let’s flood his contest with entries from our home schooled kids! Give this guy a lesson in how prevalent and normal homeschooling is!

Fine Print:
Deadline: November 20, 2008. Sent to: First Day of School ‘08, Box 714, NYC, NY 10013-0714
Include: Name, Teacher Name, Age/Grade, School Name, Address, and Phone Number. No Purchase Necessary. Only students in grades 4-6 are eligible. For complete rules: www.scholastic.com/clubcontests (though I don’t actually see any info about this particular contest on their site).

This Kid

This kid has the worst life. He's bored. There's nothing to do. Then I give him stuff to do and he doesn't want to do that either.

Spelling was his undoing today. Last week, he did Bible, math, reading, and social studies. Today we added spelling. He was supposed to do one page in the book which consisted of writing his ten words in the word shaped boxes and then writing them again. It was the only writing he did all day. But he acted as if he were dying. Hw whined that his S's looked like 5's and his U looked like a V. I told him it didn't matter but he was insistent that he couldn't and shouldn't be writing all those words. Finally, I told him if he could finish that page, with no whining, in 10 minutes, he could play PS2. He finished in five minutes.