Playful studyful Sunday

As I lean back from studying Australian Sign Language: an introduction to sign language linguistics courtesy of UB's ebook service from Ebook Library, I noticed that the scene at our computers is not as "same everyday" as I had recently begun to imagine.

When I shared my thoughts with the boys they pointed out that it isn't unusual really, we each have a huge variety of occupations at the computers and away from them. Tonight it just happens to be that Fish is playing Combat Arms and Cricket: Star Trek Legacy, although since I began posting Fish has moved on to Star Trek Legacy and Cricket to watching Star Trek Voyager on DVD.

Earlier today I practiced at the violin, entered dockets into our budget, posted notes about my last placement shift to the unit's Blackboard discussion forum; Cricket bought new bowling shoes and practiced at TenPin thanks to his aunt playing chauffeur; Fish played with his cousin, the kitten and a double handful of internet games.

Clip to ponder

"Living from principles, rather than fears,.. " [borrowing the start of Maya's next sentence in the source of the following clip]...is the way I would like my boys to learn how to live.

clipped from sandradodd.com Maya wrote something wonderful on the Family Radical Unschoolers Network forum: If I'm really going to be a kind, joyful, generous person who values freedom and choice, then I'm really not going to control tv or sugar or sleep or whatever because that wouldn't be kind, or freedom-creating, or joyful, or generous. Full stop.

Learn Nothing Day!

To play it safe, Cricket spent the first 12 hours of Learn Nothing Day in bed.

Both boys swore that they would endeavour to do only the same old quests, using the same strategies and not try anything new.

Dulse = purple seaweed

Dulse ona string
Originally uploaded by Dulsechick

Following another word I didn't know in Scramble... I've learned about this very interesting seaweed.


Firstly a definition search told me dulse is "a reddish-purple seaweed. Used in soups, salads, and vegetable dishes. Very high in iron."

Quite aside from some a lovely variety of photos of dulse fresh-picked, dried and packaged, google image search also led to Laurie Murison's informative page (kwouted below) where I was interested to learn how dulse is picked:

every two weeks--corresponding to the new and full moons. The pickers clamber over slippery rocks, tearing off only a portion of the dulse leaving the holdfasts and part of the fronds. ... Dulse pickers often travel along the shores in dories, wooden, flat-bottomed boats that can be safely landed on the rocky shores. Traditionally rowed, most dories now have small out-board motors. They may use headlamps (similar to the ones miners use) when the low tide occurs at night.

I was also fascinated to read how many different ways it is eaten. Read for yourself:

The Best Dulse! via kwout

Syce = groom

Via google, Reverse Dictionary gave me:

syce , sice, saice n
1 (formerly, in India) a servant employed to look after horses, drive carriages, etc.
2 (in Malaysia) a driver or chauffeur
(C17: from Urdu sa'is, from Arabic, from sasa to administer)

Again I thought an image might help, though only one appeared relevant this time:

The Tibet Album. "Syce with horse and mule on the Kambala Pass" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. Accessed 15 May. 2008 .

Syce with horse and mule on the Kambala Pass via kwout

Notes from The Tibet Album "A syce leading a mule and a pony across the Kamba La Pass. He is dressed in a knee-length, striped robe, a hat and a scarf wound around his head. The animals have leather saddles which suggests the syce is in the service of the Mission."

The Froe - antique splitter

Scramble has been presenting me with bundles of words that I've not come across before, or at least not enough for them to have sunk in. One tonight was froe. Now a definition search told me what it was but I thought I might remember this more easily if I had an image in mind - google image & its sources, like: Antique Tools helped out wonderfully.

Antique Tools via kwout

Play for water

Fantastic Idea:

You've got to play WOW

I really like this song I found last night:



It is SO TRUE... you've got to play WOW... :D

Philanthropy

Reading Empathy today (which I discovered via Have Fun Do Good via EducateDeviate), I was particularly struck by Matt's story about Combatants for Peace and determined to share it with the boys when they get home from their weekend away.

The boys and I have had a few discussions about social activism, social justice, community action and individual actions in essential social concerns and I guess they'll also be interested in two other links Tiara mentioned recently:

Act Now


and

How I changed the world today via kwout

Victoria Fossil Cave

Rock formations inside the caves
Originally uploaded by riana_dzasta

Touring Victoria Fossil Cave at Naracoorte (on the way back from Woodchester near Adelaide). We were told a lot about how the different rocks are formed, how the fossils came to be there and the history of the caves. I wish I could recall it all more precisely, perhaps a virtual tour would strengthen the memory cells.

Halfway into the cave I realised I'd left the camera in the car - lucky me other Flickrers are better prepared.

If only the holiday at coincided with OzAct's appearance at the cave for a performance of MacBeth - I envy everyone who goes there for it, we're not up for another long drive so soon.


View Larger Map

YouTube - Sort Of Dunno Nothin' - not so unusual

Ah ha. Thanks Cool Cat Teacher.

YouTube - Sort Of Dunno Nothin' - Peter Denahy



Funnily though my boys are not typically like this, at least not unless:

• they don't know you or


• they know you but


• they don't trust you or


• you're being nosy or


• it's none of your business or


• they suspect you won't like the answer and it's none of your business anyway or


• they're thinking about something else (or nothing in particular) right now.

High speed photography

This looks like a lot of fun, I wonder if one of us might give it a go one day?

Drumming

No, none of us are drumming. Tonight after Monarchy and My Architect, I channel surfed into Session 3 : Slave to the Rhythm (about the rhythm that holds music together - be it the beats in today's urban music or percussion in orchestras) of Pop[b]session ("a series of documentaries about rock and pop's greatest instruments and instrumentalists - about passion and virtuosity, about the seduction of musician and audience alike.").

It has been fascinating, and I've noticed Cricket tuning in every now and then. I'm enjoying the journey through percussion history, culture and styles. I think I was probably able to follow along because of the frequent glimpses of the people - the percussionists and their individual stories.

I'm not sure how much I will retain - we're all suffering colds at the moment - stuffy and sneezy and coughy - I'm afraid I'll drown when I go to sleep tonight.

Mythbusters

Today I watched Mythbusters and they were putting 1500 pound (3000 horse power) rockets on a car to answer "Can a '67 Chevy turn into a 350-mile per hour road warrior "

They were also testing to see if pop rocks + cola can cause your stomach explode (it didn't explode the dead pigs stomach until they added bicarbonate of soda).

L'Alouette

Big sister rang this evening to ask for translation of the song we know as Alouette. I couldn't bring it immediately to mind, so quickly found my (now catalogued, classified and shelved) Form 1 French text book - A new french course - Part 1.

The lyrics were there, but aside from remembering that it was about plucking a bird, precise translation still eluded me. Babel Fish identified the bird as a lark but le bec as a nozzle instead of a beak. But not all the body parts were in my textbook so google helped me find the answer at Answers.com : Alouette

Slightly different lyrics on YouTube.


Naturally in the process I've been singing the song to my boys.

..you live, you learn...

Looking for uplifting or happy songs - songs that express celebration without being about romantic love (I'm finding such quite difficult to find)... this one happened along - the boys and I think it seems celebratory of our kind of learning.

My trophies 2007

My trophies 2007
Originally uploaded by dartril

These are my tenpin trophies. The middle one is for 2nd place. The others are for my highest game and series scores.

Reflecting on Late Night Learning

Sandra Dodd recently enhanced a few of her pages, including: Late Night Learning.

I've noticed the article before, and often reflected that a lot of our learning happens late at night.

Last night Fish requested a bout of Dance chasey - the night before I had tried to teach the boys the basic modern waltz steps... they weren't really interested and for some reason I began to chase them with a constant forward waltz step - the next second they began laughing and encouraging me to continue chasing them... I got a work out and we all had a laugh.

Tonight we watched At Five in the Afternoon; last night it was A Rake's Progress. I wish I'd made note of all the other movies that have caught our curiosity at different times - but who thinks about making a note when one is enjoying the movie?

water fight

Today Fish and I had a water fight.

I soaked about 75% of his body LOL.

This is my weapon.

Freelancer firefight

I am dueling someone on Freelancer:

I like colours i made a picture and i think i over saved it with this one

This is one of Fish's WoW charecters from a year ago wearing a full armor set witch I made for him.

Fish plays: Radical Aces

Radical Aces is a game about defending a mars station. Players get a choice of planes. I normally go with the Sky Bullet because it is the fastest so it is easy to get to the other side of the map because the attackers normally come from two directions.

Ramadan

Apparently Ramadan (the ninth Muslim month, featuring daily Fajr, fasting, Iftar and culminating in 'Eid-Ul-Fitr) begins today. Langwitches' links for 2007-09-10 caught Mum's bloglining curiosity and we were all reminded about a program we watched recently: 30 days as a Muslim. Cricket was interested in the program's occasional exploration of blind blaming attitudes towards *all* Muslims based upon terrorist acts by a few.

Subsequently we discussed use and misuse of the thought process: generalising.

soccer

Let me tell you my excitement of a few weeks ago. I kicked three goals for the Koalas, my indoor soccer team. We won by 7 goals.

Now, to spell "goal" I tried "goll" and "gole", but they didn't look right so I asked mum. Naturally she wanted to talk about words spelled with 'oa'. The only other 'oal' words she can think of are foal and shoal, neither of which we use at all. 'oa' is in our phonics book, but for the long 'o' sound like in boat and coat... foal was on the page but mum and I think the l makes 'oa' sound different.

Raptor

I was doing the quest The Bait for Lar'korwi on World of Warcraft and I had to place to items on a rock to summon

My pet was dead and I had to revive him and I did not have my buffs up.

Lunar eclipse 28 August 2007

IMG_0135
Originally uploaded by Niroshana Fernando

Cricket did suggest I get my camera, but I still don't have a tripod. So for colour and recollection I have to rely on others (eg thanks Niroshana Fernando). I love the photogallery at Backyard.

Graham phoned while we were watching Numbers, sending us running out the front to catch the blood moon. I think we may have missed the reddest (was that before the full eclipse? - or maybe clouds drifted over).

Still it was exciting just to watch an eclipse even if we didn't see the colour that others did.

How is capsicum spray made?

How is capsicum spray made?  Annotated

• this answered Mr14's question: how is capsicum spray made? - post by moonflowerdragon

Compass - The Fundamentalist

Tonight we caught a portion of The Fundamentalist series on Compass - ABC TV Religion. We caught up with Mark Dowd when "He travels to Gaza and meets the mother of a suicide bomber and also visits Jewish settlers committed to living on disputed land no matter the cost."

I haven't tracked many of the things we've been doing because I'd hoped we might make posts here a little more thoughtful and contemplative or reflective, but then I don't have much record at all. So, as our principal reason for blogging is actually for a fun way to record-keep; while it being a forum to communicate our thoughts and benefit readers is more of a potentiality... we just might merely post more items like this (ie this is what we watched).

When I was a Lad

How curious... I keep up with Sandra Dodd's updates to her webpages, she recently mentioned this one: When I was a Lad and I played the mp3. The boys loved it - which surprised me. Then "Cricket" recounted a Simpson's episode in which Sideshow Bob sang the whole HMS Pinafore musical to fulfil Bart's last request.

I will *not* be torturing the boys with a bunch of comprehension questions, it will be absorbed into other experiences and we'll discuss our thoughts from time to time. Like: we find it funny as I believe we're supposed to, that 'the rule of the Queen's Navee' would not have naval experience - but really how much of what type of experience would such an authority require to do the job well?

Lots to think about...

Bloglines (via Mum's RSS Subscription to) mentioned a post from Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Mum went to see what the World's Best Presentation at Slideshare was all about, and ended up with concepts very worth all of us discussing. How will these interesting snippets affect our lives in 10-20 years?



Mum is thinking it is important that we learn effective thinking, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills; adaptability, flexibility, creativity.

Current Events: Britney's Hair

Mum peruses The Current Events in Education blog, and although we pay extremely little attention to 'celebrities', today mum decided that Britney's Hair was a nifty short little thought activity we could do together.

So after checking out the article: Britney's Mane Event: Day 2 Hair for sale? we're considering the suggested questions:

1. Why would Britney have done this?

Cricket: annoyance, frustration, separation, any reason.
Fish: maybe one of her songs went wrong, if she was married maybe she got divorced, depression,

Who knows, any reasons that anyone else might have could be equally valid for Britney. Wanting a change or celebrating a change, expressing 'letting go' after a relationship separation (cutting them out of your hair eh Ceccy?), or letting go of a previous image or attachment to appearance.

2. What can we learn about the nature of fame from Britney's behavior?

Cricket: Nothing.
Fish: Nothing.
Nothing, even non-famous people shave their head.

3. What is hair? Check out Wikipedia?

"a filamentous outgrowth of dead cells from the skin, found only on mammals. "

4. Is it actually fair to call Britney's behavior absurd? Why/why not?
Definition of absurd: inconsistent with reason or logic or common sense;
Cricket: No, because deciding to change one's hairstyle is not illogical, or unreasonable or uncommon.
Fish: No, because.
No: If she wants to shave her head it is up to her, it is not absurd. Just shaving your head is not absurd.

Painted Swift spider

supunna picta 9mm
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

As I blogged over at moonflowerdragon, Cricket spotted this spider running very fast up the fridge. While he and Fish wanted me to just squash it, I was curious - not knowing what kind it is.

We know now, thanks to my new digital camera, and the entymology department at the Melbourne Museum.

We might have identified it ourselves at the University of Queensland Find-A-Spider Guide, but I was looking at medium-sized spiders, not small ones because I measured it at 9mm rather than 8mm or less. The boys didn't want to look at the photos at all. I must admit I didn't enjoy it either.

From Cassowary to India

Cassowary
Originally uploaded by chatallot.

Today, upon reading of the Tarzali home-edding family's cassowary spotting, I asked the boys whether they knew of the Cassowary. "Yeah" said Cricket, launching into his associations " a flightless bird... lives in the rainforest ... related to the emu". Fish didn't know.

...Wikipedia or Google? ... okay Google's first suggestion is Wikipedia anyway...

From there we learned that the Tarzali Tales would have been referring to the Southern Cassowary. But first we explored what 'ratite' meant ("any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin ... hav[ing] no keel on their sternum and, lacking a strong anchor for their wing muscles, could not fly even were they to develop suitable wings); then checked that Gondwanan did indeed mean that the cassowary is supposed to have descended from beasts particular to the Gondwana supercontinent.

In the process I learned (I think for my first time) that the name of the supercontinent Gondwana is "derived from the Gondwana region of India", "because some of the earliest rock formations of this continent were first investigated in part of the region"

Puzzle Pirates

It was Lucas who introduced Cricket (and thus Fish and I too) to Puzzle Pirates. Thank ye very much ye little blaggard ;-)

We had begun to tire of the grind ('kill' lots and lots of monsters to achieve the quest) on Silkroad and this much lighter game offered a less violent, more amusing form of play.

Both offer the opportunity to explore social issues particularly in the online world. That other players may be real people on the other end means that what you do makes a difference to someone else - if you don't keep up your end of the pirateship tasks your character could be planked (and I think I witnessed recently robbed into the bargain). I think also that how well you do your task impacts on others' tasks (though I don't know that for sure in puzzle pirates). And when it comes to melee when one ship grapples another to plunder - your skill (and luck) may affect the consequence for the whole crew.

Curiously we have found beggars in both games - players who ask other players for game-money. How we feel and what we think about the begging is also interesting to observe. Fish can totally relate to the desire to have someone just give him the money so he can get the thing he wants NOW (a wolf in Silkroad, doubloons to play different games in pirates), and so he is inclined to give people the game-money they ask for because he would like to be given for his own asking. Me: "getting money in this game is quite straightforward and easy, if time-consuming... if you want the game-money play the game".





Enough of each begins to feel as monotous as bouncing a ball against the wall but Cricket loves another opportunity to play poker.

Silkroad Online

Which friend do we have to thank for the introduction to Silkroad?

It has kept us happily busy for the last few weeks. It is contributing wonderfully to Fish's reading and Cricket's spelling as we party up with game-friends (and strangers) to quest and try to survive trading on a fantasy silkroad.

Fish has enjoyed Trader and Thief jobs and I've tried out Hunting.

Issues we've explored have been: balancing such games with health and family needs; world-wide timezones; comparing virtual with real-time behaviours (what do we ever know about other people's motives).

I want to expand on that last one first. We discovered (although the game discussion forums did warn) that clever thieves are undetectable while they mark traders out... a new young trader trusts this friendly player who offers to escort you with your carefully loaded trade horse (which is such a low level it may not be attacked by player-thieves) only to be killed by strong npc thieves spawned in the area by the 'helpful' guy's thief friend, after which the 'helpful' guy now in his thief suit and his friend make off with your trade gear.

Watching Fish discover intricacies of the game first hand, despite the warnings, I was reminded that his learning style is very much to leap in and give it a go. It is a huge emotional challenge to support such learners. He is of an age where "it is just a game" is not comforting or consoling, mind you he is also of an age where not winning is almost intolerable. Having said that, it occurs to me that my own style of playing (reading about the strategies, watching others) reflects my own distaste for losses.

Update: 17 February 2008
This post has attracted advertising comments for bot services - please don't make such comments, I will only delete them. If you wish to pay for the advertising space I guess you could make us an offer.

Moonflowerdragon: Scenarios for Internet Ethics

Moonflowerdragon: Scenarios for Internet Ethics

I just blogged over at moonflowerdragon:

Thanks to my Bloglines account, and Francey from Gargoyles Loose in the Library, I now have a bunch of new scenarios to raise when discussing internet issues with my boys.

Our local library gave us material from the government's initiative to promote internet safety (can't remember what it is called), which didn't really address anything we hadn't already discussed ... but finding the material prompted a refresher discussion in a timely way for our exploration of Silkroad (about which more later, right now I want to PLAY).

Mum has claimed us at Technorati

We have a few games to post about when we run out of steam on them. In the meantime mum has continued with the 23Things project and is claiming this blog at Technorati with this link to her Technorati Profile

numa numa warcraft in english

The boys loved this one at YouTube today.

supercoolpic

supercoolpicshot1
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

Take a look at this, they were right to call it supercoolpic don't you think?

ProtopageWithBlog

ProtopageWithBlog
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

I've posted at my own blog about maybe changing from protopage as my start page, and in the process have been reflecting that the boys use links from two of our protopages (mostly page 2 {I think} of the public pages). Actually that numbering of pages instead of naming is the reason I'm thinking of changing to Pageflakes.

Lexington Library Commercial #1

Way to love the library guys.

Laugh

Now this is the way I love to laugh, reminds me of the time ... no I can't remember what was so funny but I spent 15 minutes laughing ... anyway here 'tis.



Update 11/10/06: Cricket reminded me what I had been laughing about - and it still cracks me up. I asked Cricket to do something - he said 'in a minute, I've just got to...' and when I turn around to see what is so urgent to him - he is tapping at a keyboard (?entering data ?programming ?communicating ?setting off a program?)...

... - which is not actually hooked up to anything ...
... - the urgent matter was a part of some imagination - a game or role play

ROTFLMAO

It just tickled my funny bone. Still cracks me up.

Unschooling workbook - getting to unschooling

There's a funny thing about my experience of Sandra's lists (recently summarised on AlwaysLearning that she might appreciate.  I read them, think they're great, decide yeah I might do some of those, I save them, print them, link to them, try to memorise them, then I get off the computer, find the boys heavily engaged in whatever they're into that day, and the mood passes. 

What I have learned is that whenever possible I share with the boys what I'm into, appreciate what the boys are into, appreciate what our friends and family are into, invest my attention into positive relationships, and enjoy life.

If I have to (or feel inclined to) seek out stimulating ideas, Sandra's lists are my first places to look:

http://sandradodd.com/checklists
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling
http://sandradodd.com/stages
http://sandradodd.com/typical
http://sandradodd.com/math
http://sandradodd.com/music
http://sandradodd.com/arts
http://sandradodd.com/connections
http://sandradodd.com/history
http://sandradodd.com/movies
http://sandradodd.com/mirrors
http://sandradodd.com/help
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling

WOW and Darkheart

Today I played WOW and I did a battleground where you have to capture a blacksmith, a farm, a lumber mill, a mine, and a stable, and by holding the bases to get resources the teams need to get resources up to 2000 to win.

My friend Darkheart is staying with me for 8 days

Paper Hats

On September 9, at the Australian Breastfeeding Association Goldfields Regional Meeting I have planned a deBono Thinking Hats session to contemplate the issue of the cost of 2007 conference and training.  I thought it might be fun to have coloured hats to wear while we think in each colour, so I went looking for paper hat instructions.

Using a large coloured sheet might get a little pricey - but perhaps the boys could paint some made from newspaper.  CreativeKidsAtHome had suggestions to achieve the different shapes I'd like to use.  Enchanted Learning offer an origami samurai hat.  Then there is one way to make four different hats.  Then there is the white chef's hat or, from about.com a green leprechaun hat or black top hat.

A green garden hat (from Playschool).

No so usable for me, but fascinating:  While the Smithsonian introduced the Mad Hatter, they don't have images online, so it is Mr Paper I thank for my first image of Moses' beautiful headware sculptures. I'm equally grateful to the student artists, their teacher and Dwight-Englewood School for displaying the students' Mad Hatter inspired creations.

Blue whale Photo, Balaenoptera musculus :: Image #05824 :: Phillip Colla Natural History Photography

Now there is something you don't expect to learn every day.

Blue whale faeces (Photo, Balaenoptera musculus :: Image #05824 :: Phillip Colla Natural History Photography)

It was St. Joseph County Public Library's library for life blog (specifically Ewww, Gross!) that piqued my curiosity.

A study of small fluffy creatures and library usage

While my boys are not small fluffy creatures, it is never too soon to learn about appropriate library usage - perhaps this lesson from Peeps will prove valuable .

Weather site for Fish

Fish asked yesterday what makes tornados - maybe Web Weather for Kids can tell him.

Dewey Decimal Classification

I'm not sure how relevant the DDC will be to Cricket or Fish. Possibly they'll only need a basic appreciation of the system in order to use libraries. I'd like to learn enough to classify materials myself. There is an animated tour of the DDC at the Online Computer Library Centre. I wonder whether the notion or practice of classifying websites to DDC is at all useful.

Cows with Guns AND StarGate

I'd love to look at it: http://stargate-sg1.hu/amanda/videos.php

Power out

Last night the power went out right when we were about to have tea.

I grabbed the torch and Mum and Fish lit candles.

At the time that the power went out I had just cooked tea and has watching M*A*S*H.

Fish was playing Warcraft on the pc.

Mum was washing a pot.

The power was out for 20 min.

A friend said the police did it, to help resolve a hostage situation.

Mythos

Today I looked at Mythos, a game that a mate sent me.
Its kind of confusing but I think it will be a good game.

So far I've found out how to build things and train people.

I still need to learn how to attack.

WOW quiz

I got 30 correct out of 50 questions in the WOW epic quiz.

Today I'm looking for Cows with guns to show a friend.

Considering categories

I'm delighted to discover that a form of categories *is* possible in blogger.

I'll wait till I'm not so tired, and not so overcommitted to give it a go.

But when I do I'll have another look at delicious2blogger
or before that How to do categories for blogger

Ballaarat Observatory

Today we went to the Ballarat Observatory for National Science Week.
We did a scavenger hunt.
The Jelbart building was built in 1918 - I guess, from the date over the door.
The longitude on the sundial was east 143º51'.
On the leadlight window on the front of the baker building there was a magpie and a kookaburrawith a snake in its mouth.
The federation telescope was opened in 2001.
The gears used to open the roof on the baker building were made by tennant&co in Edinburgh.
One of the leadlight windows on the baker building has a eye in the middle of it.
The observatory was built in 1884.
The Jelbart building has leadlight windows facing each direction, the window to North contained an N, to west W and to east E. The south window does not have a S.

Books for boys?

Because I have to note it somewhere...

I might want to find a copy of Great books for boys by Kathleen Odean. RandomHouse have generously extracted seventeen suggestions:

So when I'm not supposed to be working I might search at my local library for:

Lobel, Arnold. Days with Frog and Toad. 1979. Harper. Ages 3-8.

Every child should get to know Frog and Toad. Five short chapters, beautifully illustrated in greens and browns, tell funny, touching incidents about these two friends. One in a series of four outstanding books.

Jukes, Mavis. Like Jake and Me. 1984. Knopf. Ages 5-10. Alex admires his strong, cowboy-like stepfather Jake, and wishes he could be more like him. To the boy's surprise, he finds out that Jake is afraid of something that Alex himself isn't afraid of: spiders. Beautifully written and illustrated with warmth and humor.

Scieszka, Jon. Knights of the Kitchen Table. 1991. Viking. Ages 7-ll.

This lively book combines adventure, magic, slapstick humor, and droll illustrations to appeal to even the most reluctant readers. Three boys use a magical book to travel back in time and confront a knight, a giant and a dragon. Readers will laugh their way through this and the other books in the "Time Warp Trio" series.

Soto, Gary. The Pool Party. 1993. Delacorte. Ages 8-12.

Ten-year-old Rudy Herrera, whose tight-knit family lives in Fresno, California, knows how to have a good time, whether he is helping with the family's yard work business or hanging out with his best friend Alex. Laced with Spanish phrases, this is a warm, funny book about an engaging boy. -2-

Peet, Bill. Bill Peet: An Autobiography. 1989. Houghton. Ages 8-12.

Children's book illustrator Bill Peet has created an award-winning autobiography by combining a conversational text with energetic, often comical, illustrations. In describing his work as a Disney animator, the pictures include many characters from popular films. With pictures on every page, this is an unusually appealing biography.

Shannon, George. Stories to Solve. 1985. Greenwillow, Beechtree. Ages 9-12.

Few children can resist the lure of the mini-mysteries in this entertaining folklore book. Each of the fourteen short stories gives the reader a puzzle to solve, then provides the answer on the following page. Readers can stretch their minds, then pose the puzzles to their friends. Great fun.

Alexander, Lloyd. The Book of Three. 1964. Holt, Dell. Ages 9-12.

In this modern classic, an assistant pig-keeper named Taran longs to be a hero. He leaves his home with a kind enchanter to go on a great adventure where he fights battles, makes unlikely friends, and changes his views on heroism. The first in a wonderful fantasy series.

Brandenberg, Jim. To the Top of the World: Adventures with Arctic Wolves. 1993. Walker. Ages 9-13.

Spectacular photographs of an Arctic wolf pack give this memorable book wide appeal. Brandenberg's highly readable text tells the story of his months camping in the Arctic to photograph the wolves. A fascinating nature book.

Mazer, Harry. The Last Mission. 1979. Dell. Ages 12-14.

Jack Raab, who is fifteen years old and Jewish, lies about his age to join the Army during the Second World War. He ends up in the air corps, flying dangerous missions over Europe. Sympathetic characters, vivid descriptions, and an action-filled plot make this a popular novel with boys.

Crutcher, Chris. Ironman. 1995. Greenwillow, Dell. Ages 13-14.

In this powerful story, high school senior Bo Brewster channels part of his anger at his unreasonable father into practicing for a triathlon. Forced to take an Anger Management class, Bo finds a caring teacher, a possible romance, and some strange new friends who help him through hard times.

Although those particular selections seems a little more what we'd like boys to read than what would particularly draw them in?

I also wonder if they have Connecting Boys With Books: What Libraries Can Do?

WW2

TodayI'm looking for WW2 things in the year 1944 to show Fish, this is a howitzer.
These are some photos of the D'day landings.
This is the U.S. troops liberating Cherbourg.
This is the US troops entering St Lô.
It says here (Oct 14, 1944) that Rommel committed suicide - I gusee that is the short story- I( think I saw a show on tv saying he was forced to kill himself.
On sept 1944 Operation Market Garden began.
In dec 1944 the allies were sent to the Ardennes ( or Battle of the Bulge)

librarys

Today we went to the library so Mum could finish her assignment.
Fish played with the toys then when he was looking at a book, he found that he could read some of the words. We're all proud.
I explored some shelves - taking a look at Star Trek Star Fleet Academy stories, when Picard was a cadet. One of the back covers told me that Picard had failed in his first attempt to enter Star Fleet Academy. The first book in the series wasn't there, I'll check on the catalogue later. I put the Star Wars series books in numerical order.

I have been to 9 libaries:

• Wodonga (which even Mum doesn't remember),
• Wangaratta - a sunny place for kids to play, lots of kids books and junior fiction, and that great big snake and was just across the road from Lunch on the Run - my favourite lunch spot.
  
• Stawell - also had a warm space for kids to play and housed the Dragon's Den toy library (only open some times). Not so many kids books or junior fiction.
  
• Ballarat - A large collection of junior fiction and children's books. Fish likes the fun play space with its sitting/playing foam blocks. It is the only one that seems to have the books I like.
  
• Sebastopol branch - a small room for the kids collection and a little play area (it is a *small* branch)
  
• Wendouree branch - a small kids comfort area.
  
• University of Ballarat SMB campus - a shelf or two of children's books that Fish & I don't explore because we harrass mum to finish her photocopying so we can leave.
  
• State Library of Victoria - I thought it was boring because GUF showed us the chess collection, and mum dallied in the Cowan gallery. I want to go back to see the Experimedia centre that mum is telling me about.
• Mill Park - does have some of my Star Wars books, but I've been waiting ages for the Fifth book in the Star Wars Jedi Apprentice series, which has gone missing at Ballarat and they do not appear to intend to replace. I think not replacing it is unfair to people who want to enjoy the whole series, nor wise for the best use of the collection because who is going to read the rest of the series, if they can't read the fifth?
  

Then we came home and I stir fried beef for tea. Mum says yum and thanks.
Fish and I are taking turns on the computer. He played Warcraft and I played Rise of Nations.

Today we got the last three copies of horrible histories.

Fish and I played Rise of Nations together we played for an hour and a half and wiped out 4 nations. I was the US and he was the Russians.

Today I cooked tea: chicken and bean burritos.

Fish and I worked together on a map of warcraft a few hours.

Reader's Digest

Today I read two articles in August's Reader's Digest.

• one called Home Smart Home which is on the "homes of the future" by Max Alexander,
• which is based on Grace, the talking house. I like some of the ideas:
  
• projects a list of recipes that would use the items you put on the benchtop.
• a touch-screen computer you can stick rfid encoded postcards or invitations that could access the internet.
• smart glass that can be transformed into a TV.

• the second one is called "Three hours of Fear and Hope" by Kenneth Miller, which is about a plane whose front landing gear had failed. One of the passengers found comfort by his seat mate who said take a "swig of this" and passed him a plastic tonic water bottle and said "its leaded" - the man had smuggled aboard a litre of vodka and tonic.
  

I am sorry

- dictated, and edited by mum -

I worked out only a few days ago how to write "I am sorry". >clapping< Yay!

Dad helped.

I wrote "I am sore" and Dad asked me what I was trying to write and he fixed "sorry".

Why was I trying to write "I am sorry"?

I was playing World of Warcraft online in a group and when I went to blow a kiss I accidentally did a chicken impression instead, and I was worried that I might have hurt the other player's feelings.

Mum was very proud of me using my new knowledge of the sounds letters make to compose words - the dictionary spelling will come later. >kisses< >hugs<

d-day

Today I started looking at the WW2 battle (at wikipedia), Battle of Normandy (or Operation Overlord) which was the landings on the Normandy beaches: Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Utah Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach. I saw a list of games that referred to Operation Overlord and some of the games were ones that I used to play called Medal of Honour (or moh).

Hall of Fame and how to care for a thermos

Mum wasn't impressed that I passed up the opportunity to experience the Hall of Fame with Helen, Graham & Richard - she thinks I should take up as many opportunities for new experiences and in-person learning as possible. So, here I am, having to find out what I missed. AFL's Hall of Fame web site shows pictures of what I missed but Wikipedia gave more information: with links to articles about all the inductees. While AFL's site gave some basic information about the Legends, it only listed the inductees.

Mum was even more unimpressed that I put milo and milk in the thermos. So my biggest lesson for today is not to put anything but water in the thermos.

Go 'pies!

Today I went to the football with Chris and Gabe (and Helen, Graham & Richard) to see Collingwood (go 'pies) vs West Coast Eagles at the Telstra Dome. The 'pies won 127 to 90. I was only there for the 1st half because Gabe is 2 and a half yrs old and got restless. Helen, Graham & Richard, who had come up from Portland, invited me to go the hall of fame with them tomorrow but I did not feel like going.

KILLING HITLER

Today I watched part 2 of Killing Hitler - a documentary on the British Special Operations plan Operation Foxley to kill Hitler.

I found an article at wikipedia and mum taught me note-taking strategies: identifying key and sub-points:

• an assassination attempt was never made,
  
• historians believe the most likely date for an attempt would have been July 13 or 14, 1944 when Hitler was visiting the Berghof.

• The plan was to assassinate Hitler on his morning routine as he walked unprotected to the tea house in the Berghof compound.
• The scheme called for the British to parachute a two-man team into the area surrounding the compound.
• The two soldiers were a German-speaking Pole and a sniper.
• The men would infiltrate the compound and get in place to shoot Hitler.

• Security around Hitler was minimal because he felt nothing could touch him.

• As a result, several attempts had been made to kill him,
  
• including one that took place during the planning of this operation, by a German officer named Claus von Stauffenberg.
  
• However, none of these were successful.
  
• Stauffenberg's attempt only injured Hitler.
  
• It did, however, have the effect that public appearances of Hitler were greatly reduced, to one or two per year, thus limiting the opportunities for another attempt.

• One of the first plans was to bomb the train Hitler travelled around in.
  
• SOE had ample experience with derailing trains (it was actually what they did most),
• but the plan was dropped because Hitler's schedule was too irregular, with stations being informed of his arrival only minutes beforehand.
• The following plan was to poison his tea,
  
• to which he was addicted,
  
• but this was considered too complicated because of the necessity for an inside man.
• Next a sniper was considered.
  
• A talk with a German POW who had been part of Hitler's personal guard revealed that at the Berghof, Hitler always took a morning walk,
  
• around the same time (after 10)
  
• and for the same duration (about 20 minutes).
  
• In addition, he wanted to be alone during this walk,
  
• leaving him unprotected near some woods,
  
• where he was out of sight of sentry posts.
  
• To top it off, every time Hitler was at the Berghof, a Nazi flag was put up, which was visible from the nearby town.
  
• A sniper was found and briefed and the plan was submitted.
  
• An inside man was even found,
  
• Heidentaler,
  
• the uncle of a captured soldier, Dieser, who
  
• was vehemently anti-Nazi,
  
• lived in Salzburg, 20 km from the Berghof and
  
• regularly visited a shooting range 16 km from the Berghof with likeminded shopkeepers.
  
• There had been some resistance against the plan,
  
• especially from a superior called Thornley,
  
• but he was replaced by a supporter of the plan,
  
• Templar, and
  
• Churchill was also in favour of it.
  
• The sniper and a Polish companion who spoke German were to be dropped by plane and sheltered with Heidentaler,
  
• after which they could make the approach disguised as German mountain troops.

• The plan was submitted in November 1944,
  
• but was never put into practice
  
• because there was some controversy over whether it was such a good idea.

• Hitler was such a bad strategist that it was believed whoever might follow him up might lead a better war-effort.
  
• Also, Germany was almost defeated and if Hitler were assassinated, he would have become a martyr to some, while also leading to speculation that maybe Germany would have won if Hitler had lived. Since the idea was not only to defeat Germany but Nazism in general, that would have been an unfortunate development.
  
• However, there were strong advocates on both sides and the plan was not put into practice because no actual decision was reached.
  
• By late November Hitler left the Berghof, never to return. He killed himself when the war came to a close on 30 April 1945.

I think they should have gone ahead with Foxley because it would have saved about 10 million lives (based on the historian's calculations in the documentary: Jews and others in concentration camps; Soviet and German soldiers in the Battle of Berlin; bombed cities).

Architectural fragment = Goa'uld cargo ship?

Mum showed me her link from that sculpture in front of the State Library in Melbourne that reminded her of the Planet of the Apes. When I looked at Lucy Tartan's photo of "Architectural Fragment" I thought I saw a Goa'uld cargo ship.

I love chicken

BBQ Chicken Pizza, Chicken and Potato Parcels, Lime Chicken Soft Tacos (actually tortillas) and Spicy Rice are recipes I thought might be tasty and new. What is Monterey Jack cheese? In the taco/tortillas we would use mozzarella instead. Instead of using a fire or grill for the parcels we would use an oven. That one could probably be done as a stew or casserole instead of wasting foil.

The rice dish: I've heard of 'sirloin' as a cut of meat but I don't know what 'sirloin tips' are - we'd probably just use strips of any kind of steak. Habanero peppers... pass ... don't like very hot food. Mum tells me a skillet is a heavy based frypan. Just checking: Google says "A long-handled, round pan with sloping sides. Also called a frying pan." It also says "A skillet or frypan (American English) or frying pan (British English) is a pan used for frying foods, usually heavy-bottomed and made of cast iron" - and mum explained the she thinks of a frying pan as any kind of pan for frying including light pans whereas when someone says skillet she thinks cast iron.

While we were there we also learned about sauté pans: "A sauté pan has a more specific meaning: a deep, straight-sided pan that usually comes with a lid. You can sauté foods in either kind of pan, but the sauté pan holds more, so it's handier for dishes that have lots of sauce, vegetables, or other ingredients."

Mum thinks she'll try the chicken pizza because of the smoked gouda - I don't know about that - I think I'd prefer mozzarella.

Carpet Bowls developed by Henselite

Today, I learned from the Henselite company (via Google) that "The Game of 4 Inch Indoor Biased Bowls was developed in 1956 by the Henselite Company". Mum and I guess they made it so that bowlers could play during winter - thus expanding their market - guessing that Henselite were a major supplier of bowling gear already to the outdoor market.

Letters, Sounds and Words: a phonic dictionary

Fish has almost complete recognition of the sounds of the alphabet, 2 & 3 letter consonent blends, and is beginning to recognise the special sounds ch, sh & th.

Thanks to Collins Book of Letters, Sounds and Words: a phonic dictionary by Linda Hayward

Progress at last.

Base 10

Wendy at Always Learning, British Council's Magic Gopher and Joyce Fetteroll introduced us to some of the fun one can have base 10.

From a visual riddle or a mystery to an exploration of art

The clue didn't really help me work out what was going on with  Sandra Dodd's Mystery Art.  However I am not perturbed as the clue page linked me to Sandra's Art Ideas and Links which will contribute fascinating material to the arts elements of our 'curriculum'.

Today, particularly, we enjoyed Julian Beever's pavement drawings , particularly the 3-D ones - & the peeks into what they look like from other angles, giving the boys a little insight into how some of the effects were achieved.

Xrefer Brainteaser: Hot and Cold

Disappointed that House is not on tonight - Mum scrolled through her backlog of newsfeeds and found a recent brainteaser...

Cricket identified snow from the "dictionary definition: "Precipitation in the form of aggregations of ice crystals falling to the ground in soft white flakes, or lying on the ground as a soft white mass"."

Cricket identified correctly that direct sunlight causes sunburn from UV (ultraviolet) rays.

For measuring temperatures, Cricket guessed first at "Fahrenheit", but immediately agreed with Mum's suggestion of " Celsius" as the word officially replaced "centigrade" in 1948.

We learned that Frostbite is what made the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes abandon his solo trek to the North Pole in 2000.

Cricket was correct this time that Fahrenheit is the name for the scale of temperatures in which 212 degrees represents the boiling point of water.

Fish & Cricket both immediately declared Antarctica to be the coldest continent on Earth.

Cricket correctly remembered (he thinks from M*A*S*H) that "Pyrexia" is another word for Fever.

Mum couldn't call to mind the phrase absolute zero to describe the point at which it would be impossible to get any colder (minus 273.15 degrees C)?

Mum guessed correctly that in 1626, the famous person who died of a cold contracted when stuffing a fowl with snow as an experiment in refrigeration was Francis Bacon not Christopher Marlowe or William Shakespeare?

hexalot

While waiting for Mum I played Hexalot

ten pin bowling

Tonight Mum, Fish and I went ten pin bowling and I scored 137. maybe my best score.

Fable

On Fable today I guarded a trader from a town to a farm. Along the road I fended off wasps and bandits.

Learning from Xrefer brainteaser

Mum receives the Xrefer brainteaser via feed from Peter Scott's library blog - so from time to time we research those questions she can't answer.

Like today:

Based on the example of the Forth Bridge (or Forth Rail Bridge, or Firth of Forth Bridge) (specifically from the answer it is meant the rail rather than the road bridge), a bridge that consists of two outer spans that project towards one another and support a suspended central span is a cantilever bridge.

Reading along the way that there is apparently a colloquial expression " Painting the Forth Bridge" referring to a never-ending task, we were reminded of Sisyphus, one of the characters we met in the underworld through a library book of Greek myths borrowed on a tangent from curiosity about minotaurs.

Games night: Secret Sound

At the inaugural games night with the Js, Secret Sound quickly required variation of the rules to cater for the universal desire to help the guesser guess correctly - probably because we had a 6 and 8 year old participating. It was also very slow in the original format, and difficult to track the timer with everyone more interested in how the clue-ing was happening.

Carpet Bowls & Wookieepedia

Cricket somehow developed an interest in lawn bowls after watching a few ends on TV, playing his own modified lounge-room version for several days. When I called a local bowls club for information about junior competitions the secretary offered to teach the boys carpet bowls during the winter.

We're now weekly regulars, although today we discovered a tournament in progress using the whole field, so instead we trouped (with two of the Js) to Black Hill. An hour or so of exploring made us all thirsty and quite pooped, so we followed up with an afternoon of Lego and Star Wars (Episode 6). Actually they watched & played while I surfed at the Carnival of the Infosociences, coincidentally stumbling across the Wookieepedia.

Recently, while so desperate for reading material that I read Cricket's Star Wars Jedi Apprentice books (we're waiting for #5 Defenders of the dead which appears to have been in transit from Administration to Clunes for almost a month), I began to wonder just how all the writers and game makers keep the stories and characters consistent. Maybe they don't always, but I look forward to exploring Wookiepedia to learn more.

Fun with GUF

A date to see the Lion King was full of other pleasures and adventures:

• Riding one of the new trains to town;
• Battling claustrophobia seeking the surface through Melbourne Central;
• Exploring the State Library (from the shades of Planet of the Apes to the Chess room);
• Fish leaping at the Velcro wall in an oversize velcro suit - definitely wish I'd had a camera;
• Fantasising at MindGames - must remember Fish would like a lava lamp;
• Lunching at Maccas; and
• Viewing the city from the Rialto observation deck.

We're not sure how to review the Lion King. (and thankfully we don't need to when such as John Shand saw and heard it similarly to us) While Fish and Cricket were impressed with the opening scenes, particularly the mass gatherings, they lost interest through the middle. However GUF and I were both awestruck by Buyisili Zama's vocal performance. Indeed, that was THE highlight for me, yet I can't describe it. As I don't even know whether the African chants had lyrics, let alone how they might translate, it could only be the sounds that reached in to my chest and played my emotions as if they were harp strings. I cried with no idea why, because the story moments themselves aren't that heart-rending.

Titanic

In the car (as usual) Cricket asked how many people survived the sinking of the Titanic - and whether the ice was unusually far south for it to have happened.

We went to Encyclopedia Titanica for answers

Making friends with Black Cockatoos and a King Parrot

Cricket and Mum enjoyed the close company of Black Cockatoos at Ballarat Bird World.  We are grateful to whoever it was in Parents Without Partners who suggested the excursion because we have never been so up close and personal with so many lovely birds.

In the walk through aviary a King Parrot took a liking to cricket, grooming his coat. 

We'd love to go there again - maybe by then we'll have a digital camera to capture such pleasant memories.

Indoor Cricket

Cricket's team "Hot Shots" was only just beaten this week, but I was thrilled to see Cricket's 6, and an excellent four over partnership. Major League Indoor Sports (where they play) don't appear to have a website, but in looking for one I was surprised to learn and hope to remember that as RACV members we can save on mini-golf, snooker and ten pin.

Jedi Apprentice

Cricket introduced me to the Jedi Apprentice series. We're waiting for #5 to come back into the library. I've been impressed with Jude Watson's descriptions of Obi Wan's personal development and Jedi principles and philosophies.

Gymnastics

>> insert, if we ever get a digital camera: Fish at gymnastics <<
>> or, if we ever find a scanner: his performance as a baby <<
Fish is having such fun at the Ballarat Aquatic Centre gymnastics program we can at least link to their online window.

Medieval Birthday Madness

Cricket & Fish have been holidaying with their dad so I was very pleased to hear Sir Lucas would be celebrating his birthday at Kryal Castle. When I arrived Fish's shoes, socks and feet were soaked from the puddles in the maze. Fish later showed "sufficient skill with the bow to be of service in protecting King and Country" and was "made an honourary member of the Castle Guard". He is now a Castle Archer.

I couldn't keep up with Cricket, so I took in the Full Flight Birds of Prey display: meeting a peregrine falcon, owls and eagles.

Other home educators ... 1

Someone new joined the autonomous education network at mc2, and diving into the web from his blog (Living in a Deschooling Madhouse) I surfed to Diary of Home Education Nobody. Entry 001 triggered my own awareness of the challenge to provide evidence of Cricket's & Fish's learning. I don't actually 'have' to provide evidence to anyone just now, so the challenge is partly seeing it for myself. I don't want to spoil the boys' enjoyment of their life-learning, so why do I ask them to write about it?

• At the very least, says one of my justifications, some brief note by which they can practice handwriting.
• In the process may be practice at generating written words from thoughts (I'd be content with personal spelling)
• Habits can be helpful: and I am thinking that this kind of writing can help them develop habits of:
  
• reflection on performance/development/process
  
• documenting either objective data of their exploration (like Daniel does in Star Gate) or
  
• deliberate thinking (I'm thinking of showing them deBono's CoRT or at least starting with PMI or Thinking hats)
  
• sometimes writing can help reinforce learning
• Maybe it will help them become aware of what they are learning so that when asked they can answer with more than "I've been playing the computer and watching DVDs"
  
• I feel a need for some sort of documentation, and I don't want to spend my days following them around with notepad and pen.
  

Still, I need to keep requirement to a minimum (to be consistent with my philosophy of autonomy) ... yet I am the guide so maybe for now I need to focus on:

• pointing out the use and practice of various forms of documentation in their areas of interest
• finding reasons that have meaning to them.
  

Popeyed Fish

The Js visited yesterday, buzzing excitedly about the show at the Begonia Festival. J1 insisted we "come see" PopEyed - some sort of balancing act.

Fish loved their show so much we went back to see it again yesterday, and then again today. I have to admit my own hands hurt from clapping.

While PopEyed's website will give you an idea of their acrobatics, it can't convey the cleverness of the "Russian" theme they use to tie some fun family comedy to the the eye-popping balancing.

Ambushed

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/rowntree1.html

Ballaarat Astronomical Society

Cricket, Fish, Oma and Mum joined the Ballaarat Astronomical Society tonight, intending to return frequently to the Ballaarat Observatory . What a thrill to see Saturn for real.

M.A.S.H.

New Year's Day spent watching fifth season of M.A.S.H. Cricket's New Year gift, followed by Fish's: Stuart Little collection. Cricket commented that one of the scout leaders in Stuart Little 3 hadn't been a very good example of honourable behaviour.

Licola 2006

Darn. Cricket's first game back for 2006 is on 28th January - smack bang in the middle of our annual home educators camp. We'll be sorry to miss it this year, but not sorry enough to do the 5 hour drive for half the camp!

QuadrapopTree: Science Lists and Sites for Teens

Hey boys, the science links offered by Quadrapop could lead to interesting things... like BBC Science & Nature where you can meet the goat bred to spin spider silk.

reading and writing

Today, I built, wrote and read five new words: log, bat, fizz, red, sum. Mum dictated the spelling of a word I chose: NAQUADAH. Naquadah is a rare resource that is on the tv show Star Gate. Now because I have worked so hard I am going to play Cricket's Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic game.

Star Gate - Upgrades

The Tok'ra gave three members of SG-1 arm bands which increased their strength, speed, and reading speed. While SG-1 wore the arm bands they: ate lots of steaks and destroyed a Go'auld battleship before the time limit ended.

Prefixes, Suffixes & Syllables

Grumblingly, for mum's sake, I worked through some workbook pages about prefixes, suffixes and syllables.

I want to have a nap now.

I want to have a nap now. However, mum wants me to type stuff. Today I learned that mum is mean. Fish and I have been playing star wars today. I’m going to learn history of English colonization. I’m going to learn more about WWII.

Eureka

We drove to the Eureka Centre today to reflect on the anniversary of the Eureka Rebellion.

Cricket today

Game Stats: Bowled 7 overs - 2 wickets
Fielding - 1 catch
Batting - no runs :-(