CyberScryber's Scrybes

• Mar. 27, 2006 - Sample of R. Krampf's Science Experiments





Robert Krampf's Experiment of the Week

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This Week's Experiment - #460 Scale Model of the Solar System

Greetings from Peoria, Illinois.   I have been doing shows at the Lakeview
Museum, home of the world's largest complete model of the solar system.   I wish
I were going to be here a little longer, because on April 1, they are having
an interplanetary run/walk, and I think it would be fun to be able to say that
I had walked to Mars.   Later in the year, they also have a huge
interplanetary bike ride.   If you want information on these events, or if you want to
visit the Lakeview Museum, go to http://www.lakeview-museum.org/

This week's experiment comes from my friend Sheldon Schafer, who runs the
Education Department and Planetarium here.   It is an easy way to get an idea of
how large our solar system really is.   To try this, you will need:

one standard 240 sheet roll of toilet tissue
a large area

We will start at the center, with the sun, which in our model is about the
size of your thumbnail.   Then we will use the tissue as a measuring tool.  
Starting from the sun, if you unroll two sheets, you have reached the orbit of
Mercury.   Each sheet of tissue represents about 25 million kilometers, and the
orbit of Mercury is about 57,900,000 kilometers from the sun, which puts us
just a hair past 2 sheets.   If you want to add the planet Mercury to your
model, use a very fine pencil point to make a tiny dot.   That dot is still too
big, but it will do for our purposes.

Unroll two more sheets and you get to the orbit of Venus, 108,100,000
kilometers from the sun.   Again, you can add Venus by making another very tiny dot. 
Again, the scale model of Venus would be smaller than your dot.

Unroll two more sheets and you get to the Earth, at 149,500,000 kilometers.  
Another tiny dot goes here.

To get to the orbit of Mars, unroll three more sheets, which puts us at
227,800,000 kilometers.   One more tiny dot will represent Mars.

Next in line is the orbit of planet Jupiter.   To get to Jupiter, unroll 21
more sheets, for a total of 30 sheets from the sun.   The orbit of Jupiter is
778,000,000 kilometers from the Sun.   This time we can make a bigger dot,
about .07 centimeters if you have a metric ruler.

From Jupiter to the orbit of Saturn, unroll 30 more sheets, and make a dot
about .06 centimeters.   At this point, we are 1,427,000,000 kilometers from the
Sun.

After Saturn, the next orbit if Uranus, and we will need 60 more sheets to
get there, for a total of 120 sheets from the sun, 2,869,000,000 kilometers.  
Here, we go back to making the tiniest dot that you can.

From the orbit of Uranus to the orbit of Neptune, unroll 60 more sheets,
representing 4,497,000,000 kilometers from the Sun, and make another tiny dot.

60 more sheets will take us to the orbit of Pluto, 5,900,000,000 kilometers
from the Sun.   You would need a microscope to see a dot that was the proper
scaled size for Pluto in our model.

Now look back over your solar system.   Look at all the open space, and the
tiny planets.   Think that is a lot of open space?   Maybe you want to add in
the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.   It is only 4.2 light years away, a mere
38,000,000,000,000 kilometers away.   To do that, you would need 6334 rolls of
toilet tissue, just over 96 miles of tissue, and that is just to the closest
star.   That vast amount of space requires some thought, which for me involves
some ice cream to fill some of the empty space inside me.  

Have a wonder filled week. 

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***************************
Robert Krampf's on-the-road schedule:
My calendar is now on-line.  You can see a detailed calendar, with dates,
times, schools, etc. at http://www.krampf.com/m_tour.html


***************************

Check out my web site at:
http://www.krampf.com

From Robert Krampf's Science Education Company
PO Box 60982
Jacksonville, FL  32236-0982
904-388-6381

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• Mar. 27, 2006 - Another Etext Goody

Found the U of Virginia library's Etext Center while searching for "The Song of Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and thought of you all here.  

This etext center is sort of like Project Gutenberg, except that a few parts are restricted and they have also published some of the journals of their scholars.  In so doing they have given us some good examples of college level essays as well as some very educational material. 


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• Mar. 26, 2006 - Home Econmics Archive

Home Economics Archive--Reasearch • Tradition • History

Had a lovely day today, resting, reading, drawing and wandering across the expansive Internet.  Came upon the site above and thought it might be interesting to those of you who have not yet discovered it.
 

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• Mar. 25, 2006 - AWARE

Last night, DH took 13 year old DD to the AWARE ( Abstinence Wait-training And Relationship Education) father/daughter dinner and dance.  It was recommended to us by the leaders of our home Bible study group.  At any rate, what I have learned is that it is federally funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Family and Youth Services Bureau along with or via or under or whatever the Maternal and Child Health Bureau under the Department for Health and Human Services...I think. Yeah, okay, here's the government page I got my info from. 

I gathered that the ACLU is totally against this and other abstinence only programs by reading the letter they along with the Feminists For Free Expression; Gay, Lesbian And Straight Education Network, and a dozen other like minded entities wrote to President Bush.  I suspect they are distorting or embellishing some of the claims they are making, especially against the curriculm they mentioned in their letter.  Of course I've never seen any of it so I can't say that with absolute certainty.  I would love to get a good look at some of those curriculum just to satisfy my own curiosity.  However, it must be a good program if the ACLU hates it.  Just my whacky reasoning. 

DD was positively glowing when she came home.  She had such a good time.  Even if she is a little young for it and probably didn't get a full understanding of the program, I think the fact that she and her dad had such a good time made it worthwhile.  They are both looking forward to attending again next year. 

It seems that the folks at AWARE really do a bang up job of making the whole thing a lot of fun.  In addition to three speeches on the subject of fathers, daughters and purity, the dance and a three course meal,
there were triva questions and drawings throughout the evening for things like resteraunt meals, and free workouts at the Total Gym. Apparently the live dj played only decent songs and a lot of them were from the 80's. Every year the AWARE father/daughter dinner and dance is roughly doubling in attendance.  This year about 250 father/daughter dates attended.   I hope the trend continues. 

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• Mar. 23, 2006 - My Thanks to Penni

I'm very grateful to her for alerting me to a smear, probably posted the by the same kid/s who have been leaving rude comments on my blogs.  The following is her email to me and my reply. 

From: Penni
Date: 02/20/06 17:42:48
Subject: homeschool blog
 

Hi,

 

I just logged in to read the latest blog entries at homeschool blogger and noticed that someone has started a new blog with an offensive name (I don’t want to write it, they have you listed as a friend on your profile so you can read it there.) – they say they are cyberscryber and a male. I’m not sure if someone has hacked into your blog or what. I’m just another hs mom blogging at homeschoolblogger and not associated with it in anyway but, well, I thought I’d email you because if it is a mistake of some sort I thought you might like to know.

 

If it wasn’t a mistake, then I apologize.

 

~Penni

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/trillium/


----------My Reply--------------

Thanks so much for letting me know about that.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to your email until today (the 22nd) and it looks like the blog managers already took care of it.  The only thing I can think of that happened is that one of the kids who had left nasty comments on my blogs before decided to try and smear my name.  If you read my blog this will all make better since to you, but suffice it to say that basically my older daughter got hung up with some bad company.  When we said "not in our house" all heck broke loose and we've been having problems with her/them ever since. At any rate, I have a pretty good idea of "who-done-it" and even where he lives.  Probably he's also the kid that had been sending me ugly emails, and we know exactly who that kid is as my husband took it upon himself to send him some emails from a generic hotmail account and was successful at figuring out who the email address belonged to.  Underhanded, but effective.  However, since I didn't get to see the blog in question, I don't have any definitive proof.  That's okay though, it's probably better that I didn't see it anyway. 
 
My apologies to you for having to see whatever it is he wrote; I'm sure it wasn't pretty if it was anything like the emails he sent me or the graffiti he left on our electrical box when we lived in the same neighborhood as him.  :~/
Kind of a sad situation.  I don't know his parents or anything so I don't know what kind of home life he has so all I can do for him is pray.  But at least I know who I'm praying for now.  :)
 
 
~~C
Psalm 19:14, "May the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing
in Your sight, O LORD my Rock and my Redeemer."

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• Mar. 18, 2006 - Had A Baking Day

Every weekend, if Chelsey gets all her school work done and at least a 75% on her spelling and math (the two areas that need the most work) I have been taking her and anywhere from one to a whole Expedition full (seven) of her friends out to do something fun like roller skating, the movies, the mall, whatever we decide.  A few weekends ago, all of her friends were either gone or busy, so instead of going out we stayed in and baked.  Our cookies turned out to be more like crispies (I have never been able to make good cookies) but our dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, and banana bread all turned out okay.    



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• Feb. 14, 2006 - Valentine's Day Snow! And Other Stuff

Posted in Potpourri
Well, we survived the windstorm with only losing the power for one day.  Almost every road to town was blocked by fallen trees.  Poor Dusty has influenza, and the day before he realized he was sick and was just feeling generally bad and grouchy was the day of the fallen trees.  He had to drive clear over the other mountain and around by his mom and dad's just to get into work.  He was such a bear that day!  Poor guy, then he spiked a 101 temp and started getting sick that night.  He stayed in a horizontal position from Wednesday until Sunday.  Yesterday I drove him to work and then to a bunch of job sites to check progress and supervise.  He's on the mend though, and is going to try to come home early today. 
 
Now there is a freak snow...can't call it a storm, just snow, about an inch on the valley floor in Portland and 2 inches, might make it to 3 or 4 inches up here.  It'll warm up this afternoon and change to rain though.  All this is highly unusual and quite interesting for this area, I must say.  I've been out taking pictures and laughing my butt off at people here.  It's a nice, slushy snow and is hardly any slicker than the usual rain, but get this:  the school buses and the snow plows, _yes, I said snow plows_ are all chained up.  I couldn't help it, I took pictures as I was rolling around in the snow laughing.  I tried to get sideways in my truck and couldn't do so easily, so I really can't figure out why they had chains on.  Oh well, I guess that's what I get from being from the Rocky Mountain area.  Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.  
 
Our phone is totally out for some reason--it makes a horrific, loud, static noise when picked up.  So far so good on the power though, until someone takes out another line, or the heavy wet snow does. 
 
Hope your Valentine's day is great!  


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• Jan. 31, 2006 - As Promised

Posted in Potpourri
An explanation as to what's been going on with older DD (17.5) and why I've not been posting much.  Basically all my spare time and energy have been going into finding her.  She ran off with her boyfriend (Shawn) Nov 2nd and is still gone and not contacting us (please see www.findamber.com). Shawn denies knowing where she is to us and to the police.  We know he's lying because A) if he didn't he'd be at our house asking us where she is, B) they were regularly calling my sister on his cell phone after Nov 2nd and putting her on speaker phone and talking to her together, telling her about all the partying they were doing C) Chris (40 something mom of teens who we knew was a bit teched but who we thought was harmless) admitted to me when I confronted her to having not only known what was going on but also that Shawn brought Amber to her house and they all visited numerous times after Nov 2nd, and a couple of those times she took Amber to Fred Meyers and D) Ted (Amber's uncle) saw Chris and Amber together at Fred Meyers one of those times.  E) The only outgoing phone calls on her cell phone were to Shawn, and I had the house phone in my room so I would have known if she had called him on it, and she didn't. 

According to my sister, Cathi, Shawn's uncle is buying them alcohol whenever they want it, which is quite frequently.  They were calling Cathi every couple of days, and almost every time she spoke with them, they were drunk, getting drunk or hung-over.  We also have a strong suspicion that other drugs are involved, as they thought it was funny that their "roommate's" cat got "stoned".  
 
My mom and sister thing that Shawn is abusive and is controlling Amber because  A) abusive people isolate their victims from their family and friends. Of course the biggy here is that she is no longer in contact with us.  Also, Amber never once called Cathi by herself, and never once was she "allowed" to talk to Cathi privately, they were always on speaker phone.  Everything Amber said, she said in a gaurded manner.  When Cathi tried to convince Amber to call us, Shawn would claim they had a bad connection and hang up the phone.  When Cathi got more insistent, the calls quit coming.  B) Abusers make their victims powerless.  Money is power, a vehicle is power, a job is power.  They ran off just when Amber started working in our office and was making some money, and right as we were in the process of getting the Jeep we bought for her licensed for her to drive herself around in.  C) Abusers generally are possesive.   Right before she left, one of our employees  got interested in Amber and I know she was flattered by it because she was talking to me about it.  I imagine that if Shawn were possessive, all that could have been too much for him to handle.  He would've probably been afraid he would lose her so figured he'd better get her away as quick as he could. I never thought of him as abusive, manipulative definitely, but not sure about abusive.  I do know he has a tendency to get verbally snappish and short with her.  When it happened at our house once I was on the verge of asking him to leave when his best friend told him he was being "harsh" on Amber.  That seemed to stop him for the time being.  Another time he got like that Amber actually wrote to one of her friends about it, so yeah, I don't know how bad it is. 

We know that Amber is at fault here too, there's no doubt about that. Bless her little heart, she's never been one of those quiet, easy going, compliant kids.  She's always had a temper, and she's been known to make false allegations of terrible things that poeple do to her, and we are sure she has done some of that in order to get what she wants right now.   But without Shawn egging her on, I really don't think she would have gone down this road. 


The bottom line is that Amber and Shawn had to rationalize her running away, and the only way they could do that was to make us out to be horrible people/parents.  In reality, as well has having hooked up with an abusive, toxic person Amber just wants to do what she wants to do, which is basically to run wild, be with her so called friends (who are really Shawn's friends) have sex, drink alcohol, and not have to do any chores or be accountable to anyone for her education or anything else for that matter.  She'll be learning the hard way that she will always have to answer to someone, no matter where she goes or what she does.   I'm sure she would have gone wild as soon as she turned 18 (5 months from now) and/or moved out and I know some kids go through a really wild phase, and most grow out of it.  I was one of those kids myself.  But, it's the fact that she and/or Shawn wanted to alienate Amber from her family that has us worried.
  

The "experts" say you need to get to know all your kid's friends in case something like this happens.  I'm here to tell you from experience that it takes more than just "knowing" and talking to your kid's friends and finding out where they live. 

The moral of this story is:  if your kid brings home a kid and you have a bad or strange feeling about that kid, listen to that feeling.   Don't worry about being "unChristian" or prejudiced.  Don't try to be "nice".  This is your kid you're talking about, and the health of your family comes before their friends or any kind of political correctness. Check that quesitonable kid out as quick as possible, before your kid has a chance to bond to them.  Be honest and let your kid know you don't like the kid he brought home for whatever reason, even if it's just a gut feeling.  Don't be afraid to ban certain kids from your home, or even from your kids, but be sure to do it early, before a bond is made. 

Trust your instincts.  Don't buy into that "you can't pick your kid's friends for them" new age parenting line.  Sure they're going to gravitate towards kids that are like them, and no matter how well you raise them, some kids just have to go down that party road, but don't make it easy for them to do that.  Don't let the enemy in.  It's your house, and your life too, and when you are there, you have a right to be respected and the right to toss someone out who is disrespectful (unless it's your own kid of course).  So what if you make a mistake and the other kid turns out be okay.  No big deal.  There are plenty of good people for your kid to be friends with.  If you feel bad for some poor waif your kid drags home, by all means get that waif the help it needs, but do not allow your kid to make a bond with anyone of questionable character. 


It makes me feel a little better to scream from the rooftops. I'll be distributing the poster that you see on www.findamber.com to a lot of people and places.  Hopefully we'll get some more leads on our daughter.  People can call me crazy, but it helps to be active and to feel like I'm doing everything posible to find her.
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• Jan. 8, 2006 - Walking A New Cliff

Posted in Potpourri
This is by my 17 y/o daughter;

Amber Jean Fritz



Who would have taken the time to think about where life was going and what could happen? Well for sure I wasn't. I know I wasn't.

I broke up with a my boyfriend about a year ago. He was a good Christain, but by that time I didn't want anything to do with him or God. I started dating a good friend. Everything was going great. Sure, I had my everyday problems, but that never stopped me. I wanted to live and party hard. My boyfriend's not a Christian, nor are most of my friends. I found myself slipping away from God, thinking to myself maybe He's just a cruel person playing with germs and playing the role of God to us. Maybe we made Him up so we wouldn't feel lonely. I asked for a sign to prove He was there. I never knew what lay ahead of me.

On the Fourth of July we came home from camping in Bend, Oregon with my boyfriend, my boyfriend's friend and I, along with my family and family friends. When we got home we wanted to light off some fireworks, but we didn't have any. My boyfriend said he still had some at his house. My parents let me go, but with worry because it was the Fourth.

We made it to my boyfriend's house and started making "bombs," crushing firework powder and duct taping it like crazy. 10PM rolled around and we realized it was getting late so we headed out. We took the back roads to my house, which was all gravel. My boyfriend stopped so his friend could lock the hubs in so the back end of his Ranger wouldn't slide around as much. We turned off the music and started driving. I noticed his friend didn't have his seat belt on. I didn't say anything, because I knew I had no right to tell him to put it on. I didn't have mine on, but I was in the middle. Deep down, I still wanted it on.

After about two minutes of driving we started talking about his truck sliding around in the gravel. We were only going 20 MPH at the most when there were no corners. My boyfriend was saying that if his truck's back end slid out when he was going over 30, he'd lose control.

The windows were rolled down and we were enjoying a nice breeze. I started thinking about my seat belt again as we talked about losing control. Then we turned the corner and just like that, we lost control of the back end. I think my boyfriend was trying not to hit the bank, so he turned the wheel. We shot straight to the cliff on the side of the road. He turned to the right just to catch the back tire on the edge. I felt the brakes lock up and we slid a good 5 feet. I felt us stop, but it was to late. The back end slid off. Then I was being tossed around in the cab like a helpless bug in a jar.

I threw my hands up so I wouldn't crush my head on the roof of the cab. I felt my body being crushed, and my ribs slowly caving in. I couldn't breathe, and all I could think was "Oh God please forgive me!" I thought I was dying and it would never end. I felt helpless, and I was. It felt like a dream, a horrible painful, loud, long nightmare. We hit a tree and it stopped us. I sat there shaking, seeing nothing but dust and the glare from the headlights on the broken window.

My boyfriend started screaming and that's when I realized we had flipped. I was so shaken up, and he scared me so much, because he was screaming so loud and I thought he was hurt. I looked over at his friend and he was jumping out of the window. I got out, afraid that if I moved a muscle it would start rolling again. My boyfriend was the last to get out. I kept asking if he was ok and if his friend was ok, and they were. I did a body check on myself. I knew I was in shock because I couldn't feel a thing. I fell to the ground, wanting to cry, asking God why He would do this to us.

As we we climbed up the steep drop-off, I was talking to God, still asking why. When we got to the top and on the road, the lights on his truck were still on. My boyfriend fell to the ground on his back in the middle of the road, screaming. (It wasn't really his truck, it was his dad's truck.) I knew he was in shock, so I dropped to my knees and hugged him and told him we were all ok and it was going to be ok.

I got him out of the road and we started walking, trying to get a signal from his cell phone. About three minutes later, a truck drove up and we waved them down. They were the nicest people. They gave us a blanket and flash light and let us use their cell phone. My boyfriend's friend called my boyfriend's parents who made the call to my parents and so on. He was the calmest one and he kept me calm. I knew I had to be calm for my boyfriend. I couldn't freak out because I was his girlfriend and I'd make him feel even worse.

My dad came and picked me up and had us sit in his truck. I was so glad to be alive. My boyfriend's dad came and picked him and his friend up. On the way home I realized that it was a hard warning from God. It was the sign I had asked for. He had everything set just right so that if there was any little different move I might have made I wouldn't be here.

We rolled twice. We flipped in the air landing on all fours but we were going down hill sideways and that's what caused us to roll again. I could have sworn we rolled three times but it was only twice. It felt like it was never going to end. My boyfriend's friend said I was starting to go out the window and he caught me. My boyfriend watched us roll helplessly praying we would stop rolling. I still remember the sounds of everything being crushed, my boyfriend screaming and the trees hitting us on the way down, along with the flash of lights from the headlights.

We rolled between two trees, and if the back end or the front had hit either one of those trees it would have turned us around and we would have kept rolling, and me and his friend would have been thrown out of the truck. If it hadn't flipped in the air the first time, we wouldn't have flipped over two boulders which would have hit the cab and crushed us all. The air bag didn't go off. It comes out the steering wheel and all the way across to the passenger side. If that had gone off, it would have crushed me and pushed me out the back window.

There was a hole in the cab right above my head. Both sides of the truck were trashed. The window was broken on both sides but not the middle. The middle of the cab was perfect. Untouched. I was cut on both my knees from the shifter, and probably had whiplash, and a few cuts on my finger from getting up the hill. I also have a few scratches right under my eye and a little one over my eyebrow. My clothes were also untouched. My boyfriend had a little glass in his teeth and that was it. As for his friend, he didn't even get a scratch.

The next day we pulled the truck out and it still ran, but it was destroyed. My boyfriend's dad and mine could not believe we had on no seat belts, the windows rolled down, flipped it twice, was caught by a tree, didn't get thrown out, no one had broken anything in their body, we lived, and walked away 30 seconds after it was all said and done.

My dad says I saved those boys by crying God's name. I feel saved again. I'm looking at this as a new walk up the cliff. From now on, I'm going to trust God and hopefully become closer again and trust my feelings. I wanted my seat belt on, I should have asked my boyfriend to pull over and let me find it and I pray that this turns my boyfriend's and friend's relationship with God around and they start believing in him. I can only pray for now.

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• Nov. 29, 2005 - Apologies

I've not been posting, and honestly, there's a reason, or more like reasons.  We've had some trouble with our older DD, and I'll post about it in another blog, not because I want to, but so that others might learn from our experiences. 

Otherwise right now my life is like a three ring circus at the moment.  In the first ring we have Lassie and Bob, two very cute kittens we got, supposedly to make my life easier by keeping the mice population down.  So far, I've ended up buying lots of food for them, a few toys, taking them to the vet for shots, deworming, soon they'll get spayed and neutered.  In the meantime, I'm changing a kitty litter box, vacuuming up hair, pulling kitties out of the Christmas tree, (no glass ornaments this year) off the curtains, squirting  them off counter tops and trying to remember to keep my bathroom door shut--they just love the toilet for some reason, they dip their little paws in and then run around depositing little paw prints all over the bidet and tub surround. They are everywhere all the time! 

In ring number two we have Buck and Lady, two Pomeranians we were hoping to breed.  Not because we like Pomeranians in particular or because I wanted a new hobby, just because Buck is such a cute, well mannered, loving, happy little dog that we have had numerous requests for his puppies, and people all the time telling us if we ever want to get rid of him to send him their way.  I was actually considering breeding him with a different toy breed, since normally I don't think he would be bred by a serious Pom breeder because he has had problems with a luxated patella (dislocated kneecap).  However, strangely enough, we happened across a female Pom who desperatly needed a new home--sort of a rescue situation.  Lady is probably about a year old, and actually a very sweet dog, although we are still working on house training her.  She's a tiny bit bigger than Buck which is ideal for breeding toy sized dogs.  She is in heat right now, but unfortunately, Buck is either not interested or too stupid to figure out how to make puppies!  Oh well, poor little thing, he's never been known for his brilliance.   We'll probably end up doing artificial insemination this spring. 

In the 3rd and most important ring, we have life in general; 
DH with a small business that is getting bigger all the time and keeping him very busy, our sweet younger DD who appears to be coping well with everything, a bad internet (satellite) connection, the holidays, family issues, a new SUV that is already in the shop because of trouble, three colds in the last month, a newly built house that still isn't 100% complete and no grass yet, just mud and plenty of it.  And of course the most important; God, who is currently working on "refining" us.  Ouch! 

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• Sep. 26, 2005 - Acronicta hesperida [Noctuidae]

Posted in Daily Log

We found a strange caterpillar today and were able to identify it as Acronicta hesperida[Noctuidae] thanks to The Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center.  Unfortunately we have not been able to find much more information on it.  We did, however, go to www.enchantedlearning.com to study then label a worksheet on caterpillar anatomy. 

For math today, we reviewed our multiplication tables by watching the School House Rock movie. After that we got to add negative and positive numbers.  I didn’t remember going over negative numbers with Chelsey last year, but she says we did.  We must have, because she picked up the whole concept so quickly!  I’m pretty excited, because now I know for sure that her mind has really opened up to abstract thinking and we’ll be able to delve deeper into math and other subjects.   All in all it was a great homeschooling day.

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• Sep. 20, 2005 - Woolly Bear Caterpillar

 We've been seeing woolly bears for the past couple of weeks, but I've never seen one this small.  I apologize for the picture quality--I usually leave the digital photography to the girls, but Chelsey is down with a cold and Amber was busy with her book work.



Professor/Meterologist
Charles A. Giannetta has a good woolly bear picture on his site: Giannetta Weather.  At any rate, since there is plenty of info on the web about these guys, we have decided to watch it pupate and "overwinter" (hibernate) then emerge as a tiger moth in the spring.  Since Chelsey has agreed to be the chief caretaker of this little guy, she got the privilege of naming him and has decided he will be called "Keyyoutea".
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• Sep. 19, 2005 - Quick Bio

30 something SAHM homeschooling two teenaged girls.    Married to a great guy who is a partner/owner/operator of a successful Plumbing/HVAC company.  We live on 6 acres in the southern Cascade Mountains in WA state.  We have just recently built our new home here and are in the process of tidying up the landscape and other little details. 

Originally I am from the front range of the Rocky Mountains--born in Laramie, Wyoming but my parents moved us to the north-east part of Colorado when I was almost 12.    I miss both states a lot, but love living here in WA state and know I would miss if I had to leave.  

Some of my hobbies are: reading, taking nature walks, drawing and sketching, crochet, learning to sew, blogging, life long learning and many more. 
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• Sep. 18, 2005 - The Spelling Of....

Homeschool, or is it home school, or maybe even home-school?  I'm no English professor, but I do realize that English is  a "living language" and as such it is continually changing.  New words are added, old words become obsolete, and some words even change their meaning.  This is all wonderful fodder for English professors who love to get down and dirty; slogging  around in the muck, slugging it out with each other over orthography.  The amusing thing is that at the end of the day, the majority rules and there are more of us (non-English professors) than there are of them.     
So, how do
you spell homeschool and why?
 
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• Sep. 17, 2005 - Off The Top Of My Head

This is an ongoing list, and only in the rough draft stages at the moment.  Feel free to put your own reasons in the comments area if you would like them added here.

  • I like my kids and like being around them, and I realize they will be grown and gone all too soon. 
  • Physical safety
  • Emotional safety
  • Mental safety
  • Academic quality
  • Better socialization; fewer problems with behaviour (learned from other children)
  • To nurture the ability to think "outside the box"
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About Me

Homeschooling Adventures

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