Posted in Family

Last week, we took the kids to a fantastic train museum, the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum.  We saw the most impressive train display I’ve ever seen. The second floor of the museum contained a 40×100 foot scaled model of the tracks from Pittsburgh PA to Cumberland MD as it existed in the 1950s. Throughout [...]

When Gameboy (now nine) was two or three years old, I scored a great bargain through our local paper on a used wooden train set, complete with a train table, dozens of cars, trains, tracks, bridges, tunnels, trees, and even a Sir Topham Hat. The set has gotten a lot of use, and we expect [...]

The other day, I taught Fred and Princess (ages 4 and 5)  a trick to memorize the ten commandments, and thought it would be fun to share on the blog. Two years ago, this was Bubbles’ topic for our homeschool project fair, and I’m sharing her essay below. She was in Kindergarten at the time.

The [...]

This one requires no introduction

Posted in Humor, Music

Nichole Nordeman – “Legacy”

Her music always makes me think. I love these words.
I don’t mind if you’ve got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
And you can take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all the “who’s who’s” and so-and-so’s
That used to be the best at such [...]

Homeschooling when you have little ones can be a bit of a challenge at times, and I’ve written in the past (here and here) about how we schedule our school time to help keep the preschoolers occupied and out of too much trouble. Today I’d like to share another idea that has greatly helped our [...]

Last year after our beach vacation, we did a big family project sharing our memories. As a homeschool assignment, each of our older children blogged about their favorite memories and shared pictures; I blogged with a detailed account of the rest. This year, at the risk of sounding a little lazy, I’m not doing that. [...]

We returned late Saturday night from a trip to the Outer Banks, NC.  I would love to tell you all about it and share pictures right now, but just do not have the energy to do it tonight. I took far too many pictures, and need to narrow down a select few to share. I [...]

Even though Memorial Day 2009 has passed, let's not forget to pray for our troops!

One of my favorite Easter songs, "Why" by Nichole Nordeman:

This year I did my project on George Washington. I chose George Washington because he was my favorite president, and most people don't know the story about when he was a general in the French and Indian War. Here are some pictures and a video:
My Display board

Me in front of my display board

Me presenting my speech
And a video of me presenting:

My essay about George Washington:

I chose to read about George Washington because he is my favorite president. He was the first president of the United States, and he was a great general in the French and Indian War and also the Revolutionary War. He was the greatest leader of the United States.
George Washington was born on February 11, 1732. He lived at Mount Vernon most of his life.
George had two older brothers. One was named Lawrence and the other Austin, after his father Augustine. George Liked Lawrence better because he was a general, and George wanted to be a general when he grew up. Lawrence introduced George to Lord Fairfax, the richest man in Virgina. Lord Fairfax liked George the day he met him at Mount Vernon, and very soon he hired him to survey his many miles of land. George did a good job on surveying, so he became a surveyor for the whole county.
The French and Indian War got started because the French were staying in the English territory. The English general sent George Washington to tell the French to move off their territory. The French refused to move, and the war began. The English were also fighting the Indians because the Indians didn't want them in America. George Washington became a general in that war. I'm going to tell you a story about how God protected George Washington in the French and Indian War.
The British were marching around and fighting, and the Indians didn't think it was very smart of them to do that out in the open, because they made perfect targets. They did not break their lines, even when the braves shot at them from in trees and under bushes in the forest. They killed ov

Bubbles' topic for the homeschool project fair was her favorite animal: Horses!
Display Board
the little cowgirl
presenting her speech
Video of Presentation:

Here is Bubbles' written essay:
"I really like horses because they are fast and pretty. They are friendly. I went to a horse show in February. Everywhere I looked, I saw horses. We got to watch horses do tricks carrying riders.
One of my favorite horses was a brown stallion who kept going to eat hay when he was supposed to be doing tricks. A stallion is a grown boy horse. A mare is a grown girl horse. A foal is baby horse. A filly is a girl foal, and a colt is a boy foal.
My other favorite horse was a miniature horse. Miniature horses are much smaller than horses. They only grow up to about 3 ½ feet tall! The miniature horse I saw was a brown and white stallion. I got to pet it!
Horses like to eat carrots, apples, oats, turnips, barley, corn, and salt licks.
Horses are very fast animals. A horse is the only animal that can carry a rider on it's back while leaping over fences.
Horses have helped people for many years. Until about 100 years ago, you would have seen horses every day. They would work hard. They pulled carriages, milk trucks, and fire trucks. They would work on farms. Thousands of horses even worked in coal mines.
I would love to have a horse because they are my favorite animals."

This was Fred's first year participating in the homeschool project fair. He chose to recite Psalm 23, because (in his words) "the psalms are my favorite verses." For his display, he illustrated the psalm.

Here are some pictures and a video.
Fred standing in front of his display.

Some close-ups of his artwork...
The shepherd and his lamb near streams of water
"you prepare a table before me"
There is a story for this one... As Fred was explaining the picture to me, he mentioned that on the table was... lamb. I suggested that perhaps he should color it orange, and have them eating oranges instead. He said, "No. It's lamb." I explained that since the psalm is about a shepherd taking care of his lamb, perhaps we wouldn't want him to... er... eat the lamb. "No," he said, "It's lamb."
"He makes me to lie down in green pastures"
You can't see it in the picture, but he is a very happy lamb with a big smile on his face, and lots of "hair," not "legs" as I originally thought.
Reciting for the crowd.
Here is the video of his presentation:

About a month ago, Fred took a liking to the song, "Today is the Day" by Lincoln Brewster. He started requesting that Iron Man and I play it for him. Then he began singing it around the house. And then it got really interesting. About a week ago, he came downstairs with his hair all wet and spikey, and said he wanted to look like Lincoln Brewster. He grabbed the kid-sized guitar and started singing the song. He's done this a few times since.

On Sunday, we sang "Today is the Day" at church, but Fred missed it because he was in a different room for Children's Church. Our three older kids looked at each other when the song began, and one of them commented, "Poor Fred!" I suspect if he had been there, he would have been jumping in his chair!

Needless to say, this is his favorite song at the moment. Today, I finally had a chance to videotape him singing it. True to form, he did his hair like Lincoln Brewster again, and got out his guitar. Enjoy!

In case you are wondering what on earth that rattling sound is, little brother George also has a new hobby. He likes to take the small wooden blocks and find new homes for them. This time, he thought the guitar would make a delightful place to keep the blocks.

And, here is the real video for "Today is the Day," for comparison. ;-)

Up until a few months ago, I followed all my favorite blogs by either adding them to my "Favorites," googling them, or relying on my (often un-reliable) memory to type in the URL. A couple months ago, I discovered the benefits of RSS feed readers. Commoncraft has an excellent "In Plain English" video which explains how RSS works:

Using an RSS reader allows me to read all the new content of my favorite blogs in one page, so that I don't need to go to each individual blog to check for new posts. There are several good, free RSS readers available. I use Bloglines, while Iron Man prefers Google Reader.