Savor The Days

Road Trip 2018

We never go on real family vacations. Stuart usually uses up a big chunk of his vacation time just going home to visit our parents and there isn't much time left to go anywhere. So when his job was recently cut in a round of layoffs, we realized that we finally had plenty of time to take a week long vacation. With the uncertainly of our future finances we had to keep it cheap so we went on a family road trip...queue the National Lampoon Vacation song playing in the background....

I have a Bucket List that I started a few years ago. It's changed a little since then but two things that I have always wanted to do was to travel on the old Route 66 and hike in the Grand Canyon. Nicholas has just one thing on his Bucket List - camp for a week in the Sonoran Desert and catch deadly bug and reptiles. Eww! As we talked about where to go we decided to go on a tour of the beautiful Southwest. We didn't make specific plans for how long to be at each stop but we knew we wanted to see Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico then we would head west to the Sonoran Desert which is in the Saguaro National Park in Arizona. From there we would head north to go to the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and then travel home along Route 66, hoping to stop at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona and Cadillac Ranch in Texas.

We kind of talked about the trip for a week or two and then realized that if we were going to take it then we had to go right away because Stuart had some meetings coming up that he had to be back in town for and the kids had hockey practice starting a week from Saturday. So on Thursday we decided to leave the next day. In a scurry we packed up our bags and hit the road late Friday morning.

We played Interstate Highway Bingo for part of the trip. It's kind of fun to look for the different things on your card. When you find one you just slide the red window over it to mark it. The first person to fill five in a row wins.

We talked about creating a Texas version of Interstate Bingo. It would have some additional things to look for like a dead armadillo on the side of the road, a port-a-potty as part of a road construction site, cars who drivers don't know how to use a turn signal to change lanes, and stopped traffic on I-35, just to name a few!

I loved seeing the open road but we all got pretty excited when we started seeing the hint of mountains way out in the distance.

This was one of the first big hills (aka small mountain) that we saw and the kids said "Wow!" Little did they know what amazing mountains they would see later on the trip.

We made it into New Mexico as the sun was going down. I tried to get this picture as we were going under the sign but I couldn't get it. My sweet hubby stopped the car and got out to get this picture for me. It turned out great with the sun shining just under the sign. I love him!

New Mexico is a good example of desert lands. The kids saw this dead boar on the side of the road and it was surrounded by birds pecking at it. We HAD to stop and take a closer look. The birds flew away from us when we stopped but the kids just thought this was the coolest sight to see. Maybe they don't get out enough?

It was about dinner time so we stopped at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant (I love those kinds!) They had beautiful tiles in different patterns along the front of the restaurant. I took lots of pictures of them.

Stuart and I both ordered the special which was a carne asada topped with nopalitos which are made from the stems of the prickly pear cactus. It was fun to try something new and they were so delicious!

The hotels in Carlsbad were expensive so we found one a little farther away in Artesia, New Mexico We were happy to crash for the night. The next day we planned to go travel to Carlsbad to see the caverns and then travel to Tuscon, Arizona for the night.

Next Post for Road Trip 2018:

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (New Mexico)

NatureGlo's eScience: MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle Review

Recently the members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review a new online learning program from NatureGlo's eScience that combines both math and art. The course that we reviewed is called MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle.

All of the courses are taught by Gloria Brooks who has a bachelor degree in K-12 education. She is very knowledgeable about math and science and you can truly feel her passion as you look over her website and watch her courses.

The four classes incorporated in this MathArt 4-Class Bundle include:

Math Connections with the Real World: The Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Numbers
MathArt in Ancient Cultures
MathArt in the Arts and Sciences
MathArt - Patterns in Nature

I love Fibonacci Numbers so we began with Math Connections with the Real World.

Math Connections with the Real World is a 6-week course. The lesson plans are summarized below.

Week 1 - Introduction and History of the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Numbers
Week 2 - The Golden Number and Fibonacci in Art, Architecture, and Nature
Week 3 - Fibonacci Numbers - Flower Petals, Seed Heads, and More!
Week 4 - History and Golden Ratio of the Great Pyramid of Egypt
Week 5 - Quasicrystals and the Golden Ratio
Week 6 - The Mathematics of Music

For each week's lesson, there are beautifully illustrated slides that your student can look through online. I chose to print the slides and put them in binders so each of my children would have their own copy to flip through as we watched the videos and they could take notes on them as needed.

There is also a study guide for each week's lesson that reviews points covered in the lesson. The student can use it to take notes as they watch the video or they can use it as a study tool to prepare for the quiz at the end of each lesson.

The course website also has third party resources for each week's lessons which include informational text, videos, fun Quizlet matching games, and even instructions for making Fibonacci cookies! There is truly a wealth of information there.

The four individual classes are $149 each for one year access. But if you want all four classes you will save money on the bundle for just a single payment of $536.40. This allows for one year access to all of the course materials and can be used by multiple students in the same household.

Our schedule did not allow us to participate in the live class but each class is recorded so they can be viewed on your own schedule. I am very grateful for this feature. We watched the first three weeks of lessons but my children found the recorded online classes to be slow and frustrating at times so we did not continue. They said it was distracting to have to listen to other kids slowly reading aloud the information on a slide or watching them use a drawing program to drawing boxes around the slide pictures for emphasis. They would have preferred to simply have the teacher teaching the information to them rather than overhearing an online class that they aren't participating in. They preferred to use the slides and website for the remainder of the course.

If you would like more information about these online classes, please check out NatureGlo eScience on the following platforms:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/natureglo1/

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Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nesschool/pins/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/2/110614921959731305213

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1hasc

If you would like to read other Homeschool Review Crew members' reviews about the MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle, please click on the banner below:

MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle {NatureGlo's eScience Reviews}

R.I.P. Nuggets.

Last year, we started our backyard chicken adventure. It all began because a friend of Stuart's at work knew that we homeschool and she thought it would be neat for the kids to incubate some eggs and watch them hatch. She also knew that I was kind of interested in having backyard chickens so we could gather our own fresh eggs each day so she told us we could keep some of the chicks that hatched. We started with 32 eggs. The first one to hatch was a little black and yellow cutie. Stuart named it Nuggets.

Nicholas fell in love with Nuggets. Eleven total chicks hatched but none ever came close to his heart like Nuggets did.

We all loved Nuggets.

She got a lot of attention and was often flown around the room in a Star Wars ship or had MagnaTile houses built for her.

As our eleven chicks grew, Stuart made a coop for them outside. For our size lot, our town only allows us to have 4 hens and no roosters are allowed. But ours were still too young to determine the sex. They didn't have fully developed combs and waddles and their tail feathers weren't fully grown yet. So we just kept them all until they would start crowing like a rooster and then we would bring that one back to our farm friend. It turned out that we were left with exactly four hens out of our bunch. They were Nuggets, Black Bolt (aka Mr. Troubles), Fire Bolt, and Eleven. But Nuggets was still everyone's favorite. She was a little smarter than the rest. And she liked to swing.

Nuggets is the one standing on Nicholas' leg.

She would come to the kitchen window to visit the kids while they did their school work and the other chickens would follow her.

She was calm even when being worn as a hat.

Occasionally the kids still bring the chickens back inside. One day Nicholas had finished his school work and I found him sitting quietly on the couch with Nuggets wrapped in a towel on his lap. He looked so peaceful and in love.

But Saturday morning, Nicholas went out to check on our girls and Nuggets was not in the coop and there were black feathers scattered around outside of the coop. We know that there is a bobcat in the area so we are pretty sure that is what got her. We had heard that a bobcat recently got our neighbor's free range chickens and Stuart thinks he saw a bobcat near the coop one night a few weeks ago. A while back we stopped letting our chickens have free range of the yard all day long (mostly because they seemed to always come to our deck to poop). We still let them out if we are out there with them and can shoo them away from the deck. But they are always in the coop if we aren't out with them and they are always in the coop at night.

After Nuggets went missing, we studied the coop to try to figure out what happened. We found a piece of chicken wire had been peeled back where the coop and the run meet. We knew there was a small gap there but it was too small for a chicken to get out through it so we didn't expect that anything bigger than maybe a squirrel could have gotten in. I still don't think the bobcat actually got into the run but he must have gotten his arm in there enough to grab Nuggets and pull her out. We looked around the yard and found no signs of Nuggets other than the black feathers right outside the coop. No blood, no body. We did find a bobcat print in a muddy spot on the sidewalk along the side of our house.

I'm still amazed that this could have happened. Here are some pictures to show you how small of a gap there was. First, a tour of the coop. It has 2 nest boxes and 2 roosting bars, and a hanging feeder. The roof lifts up for access. There is also a little door on the left side. Since we added the enclosed run, we no longer open and close that door so it is tied in the open position all the time so the chickens can come and go whenever they want.

Stuart build these two enclosed runs and attached them together and attached them to the coop. The big blue bucket is their water.

Here is where the bobcat must have gotten Nuggets. The green netting on the right is on the coop and you can see that the little door is open. The chicken wire of the run usually covered that gap more than this but it had been pulled back by the bobcat.

Here is the same corner from a different angle, looking into the coop. I'm still amazed at how he was able to get Nuggets through that little gap.

Nicholas was obviously upset when he went out yesterday and figured out what had happened. But I'm so proud of him for quietly coming back inside and getting Stuart. He didn't want Rachel to get upset because she was about to leave for a birthday party. After the party, we sat down with her and told her. Of course, she cried and it broke my heart.

Needless to say, yesterday there were lots of modifications to the coop and the run. Hopefully this time it is truly bobcat-proof.

R.I.P. Nuggets. We love you and miss you.

Operation Gratitude Cool Ties {Service Hours for Kids}

As part of Rachel's work towards earning service hours for the President's Volunteer Service Award, she has found a way to help members of our military by making Cool Ties for Operation Gratitude's Deployed Troop Care Packages. Cool Ties are like bandanas to tie around your neck but they are filled with absorbent beads that can hold water for several hours. Operation Gratitude sends these in their care packages to help keep the troops cool in the heat of summer.

Rachel loves to sew and this was a great way to put her skills to work. We found the directions for the Cool Ties on the Operation Gratitude website. We ordered the Watersorb Super Absorbent Polymer beads as they suggested. When we went to buy fabric, Rachel chose a basic brown cotton. The directions suggest a neutral color and I'm glad that they put that in writing because otherwise Rachel would have probably chosen something much more colorful and bright.

Rachel started by measuring and cutting the fabric into 1/4 yard strips. I got out my large self-healing mat, rotary cutter, and yard stick. It was her first time to use a rotary cutter. She thought it was a lot of fun and she may have sacrificed a little fabric to do a lot of "practice cuts" with it.

Next she followed the directions to sew the strips together. Each end of the strip was tapered and she sewed a pocket in the middle of the strip to hold the water beads.

She measured and poured 2 teaspoons of water beads into the pocket of the Cool Ties and then sewed up the gap.

This is a neat project but there is a lot of measuring involved so I would really recommend it for ages 9 and up. Rachel was very excited about her completed Cool Tie and she has continued to make more. Of course, she also plans to make one for herself in bright colorful fabric.

Once she is done making a lot of these we will mail them to Operation Gratitude to be added to the Troop Care Packages. I'm so proud of my girl for working on this project so diligently.

Free Homeschool Tickets to the State Fair of Texas

The State Fair of Texas offers homeschool students and their teachers FREE tickets to the fair. In the past we have had to send a letter and a self-addressed stamped envelope to request our tickets. But this year, the Fair has made it easier than ever. Now you just have to fill out an online form before the May 15th deadline!

Here's the link: State Fair of Texas Free Homeschool Tickets

As usual, the tickets are only good for pre-k through 12th grade and you must be located within 100 miles of Fair Park, Dallas. Historically, we have only been able to get one teacher ticket but the webform has an option for two teacher tickets so I requested two so our math teacher (Daddy) can come too. A few days after I submitted my request I received an email confirming that my tickets had been approved.

The State Fair of Texas will be at Fair Park from September 28 - October 21, 2018. You don't want to miss it, especially with free tickets! It is so fun and educational! Food is expensive so bring your own lunch but maybe splurge on one crazy food like fried Oreos or something equally intriguing. Everything is paid for with coupons so plan ahead and grab some before you wait in line for food or a ride. We don't ride many of the rides because that gets too expensive. There are enough free activities that my kids don't mind too much. We ride the DART train to get to the fair so I tell the kids that this is their ride so enjoy it! That worked when they were little but now they just roll their eyes at me....

I found the post from our first trip to the State Fair of Texas. It was a long time ago so my kids were really little.