A is for amazing airport adventure

I like to start school off with a bang. This year we are studying world geography. I'm going to be mixing in a letter of the week theme because with Benjamin (5) and Rebecca and Susan (3) it's time. Although I thought and thought about postponing school until after we move I couldn't refuse the opportunity to do the letter A. Our uncle Jeremy is a pilot. Ron Fernuik is also a pilot (and a member of our church). We had to go to the airport. WOW did we get a show!

Soon after we came THIS flew in! We watched it land and take off twice as well as hover and flip it's wings. It's technically not an airplane, but a powered lift. It is a V-22 ofsprey. So amazing! Only $8000 an hour to fly this guy.


We saw a sprayer; I somehow missed taking a picture. He took off twice (stopping to reload).

We got to see a plane they are working on (allowing us a good look at the bare bones of a small plane.


A Life star landed while we were there and they consented to shut down and let us see it. I loved learning about the night vision goggles they have to fly with. Each person on board is critical care paramedic trained. They aren't super speedy, but can get to Amarillo in half the time of an ambulance.
Next we took a look at the main hanger and learned about lift and the difference between piston and jet motors.



Ron told us about airplanes that can fly mach 4...the lockheed SR something something...Raymond pipes up "oh the blackbird?" Where does this child learn this stuff?

The children all got in a jet. Raymond, Natalie and Kalani LOVED that it could get them to dad in just one hour (at only $5000). It was very comfortable.


We saw a beaver. This is Rebecca's favorite, or as she said " I like the big red one. IT FLOATS!" Lydia liked the big red plane too.



We saw a P-51. Raymond has been up in this one.


Susan said "I'm so happy!" "why?" I asked. "Because I just LOVE airplanes!"

The pottery guy

As part of the four year plan homeschool group we went to visit a pottery guy. He is amazing. I will try to bring out some of hte thoughts he shared..

To make a pot (a metaphor for life)
The clay has to be centered and still, then it can be opened and prepared for what it will be. Gentle hands make a straight pot scars and blemishes can be fixed once the pot is centered again.

Kinds of clay and degrees of glory
Porcelain-pure
stoneware-semi pure
earthen-not as pure
The more contaminants in the clay keep it from being fired at a higher temperature adn thus not lasting. If a contaminated clay is melted at too high a heat it will melt.

pottery is fired at 2,345 Farenheit 2385 would metlt it...silicon melts at 3,000

One particle of clay is .025 microns.

Lord Byron's poetry we are "The precious porcelain of human clay,
Break with the first fall: they can ne'er behold"http://www.photoaspects.com/chesil/byron/djcanto4.html

vocabulary related to pottery
sincere-literally without wax-when a pot cracked they would put wax on it and the fix it. If it didn't have wax it would "ring true"

ballot-or cast lots-literally throwing pottery shards.

He had an F in pottery and art in highschool because the teacher thought he could do better, he did get an A for raising pigs...

1st patented medicine was in Grteece-Kaopectate 99% clay

The story of the pencil...after the civil war red cedar forest would was scarce (the wood used to make pencils). People would buy old bars and tear them down to turn them into pencils. Pencils have clay bonded with graphite. Farber found a wonderful graphite stockpile in Mongolia. To indicate the difference of his graphite he painted his pencils yellow.

Harold B Lee's grandma had 11 miscarriages, her last child lived and was the father of Harold B Lee..she had the one goal to bear righteous children.


Chidlren's response...
Lydia-- I thought that he got the clay from the same place we did. I thought that he bought the thing (the wheel). These guys that live far away..we touched a broken pot form them (they lived in Jerusalem from the time of Christ). (she was very detailed in her painting and took a long time)

Raymond--He was nice. He was nice to help us iwth the pots nad sutff like that. I liked painting the pots and watching him make them. I thought the pencil story was cool.
The whole group...

Another week in review...

Monday...We woke up really grumpy Monday. There were voices i didn't want to here and morning routine was going badly. So I declared we would clean out the hommeschool closet. Everyone helped, it ended up clan and our attitude changed Of course it tok us a few hours, but it worked.

Tuesday...We read from ome Indian legend books as wellas some African legends.

Wednesday...We read in the book my mom used as a child about Indian culture. This prompted the best dicussion yet about different styles of Indian houses and ways of living.

Thursday choir...

a

Yesterday and today

Yesterday:

Spiritual:We worked on our memory scripture:Abraham 3:22. We discussed premortal life-I think we need to read the gospel principles book on that.

Sharing what's mine: We were supposed to start AFrican and ancient American myths. I have been reading Clash of Cultures. I decided to talk about oral histories and how it doesn't work! It just doesn't last. We talked about our favorite family vacations-arches and the beach this summer. We couldn't remember what happened every day. We talked about events in our extended family and we couldn't always remember the month!

We decorated journals and talked about the importance of writing our histories. Very little actual writing took place, so we need to set aside time for that.

Today

Spiritual:family devotional with dad ran into learning time-so that was that.

Kalani and I started working out her life skills learning-we focused on cooking. We wrote down the basic things she needs to learn before she is 12. Of course everyone wanted to write theri lifeskills cooking chart...hopefully the task will be a little too daunting for them to continue (because if all four older children start working on it, it will be daunting for me!) We identified 7 main courses, 5 breads, some desserts, appetizers and breakfasts for each child to learn.

Sharing what's mine: We focused on family schedules today. This was much needed. Our kitchen time chart was destroyed and our fhe chart had died. We worked out the laundry schedule. We still need a daily rhythms chart...so that will come later. Lots of writing and measuring and coloring and discussion of what we need to do.

umm...someone isn't too good at the daily blogs...

I knew this would be a challenge to do something daily. I'm going to keep trying.

Books we've read together:

Daniel and Nephi by Chris Heimmerdinger-We liked looking at Daniel adn Nephi realistically-thinking about Jeremiah and Lehi as prophets-sorresponding the Bible and the book of Mormon. This was definitely a book for everyone. I was glad to have Kalani so involved. There wasn't a lot of chemistry here, but Thales got a passing mention, geography, war and peace and prophets.

Tales of the Arabian Nights-UGGH This was too violent for us. As much as I felt we should read some to get the idea, Raymond was the only one who appretiated it, and I didn't like that he appretiated it. The heroes were frequently in the grey area, and any wrong was frequently VERY harsly punished.

I read the Baghavad Gita-I need to blog about that myself.

Our history project for October was making bricks



Our science was static electricity. We made water bend, and had a good discussion (but mostly after the children went to play.

We had a great party. Raymond dressed as Galileo, Ben was a king (a wicked one he said), Natalie, Kalani, Lydia, Susan and REbecca were gypsies. We ate hummus and tabouli, and chicken in pitas.

At the hero party Kalani and Natalie were Ruth and Naomi, Raymond was Nephi, Lydia dressed how she pleased, and the littles were home sick with dad. We played night games and ate not a stick of sugar.

We have memorized Moses 7:18 and Moses 1:39. We are working on Abraham 3:22

Tuesday in which I speak Lavoisier

This morning was confused. Chris had an early devotional with us, then everyone scattered to do their morning chores. We didn't really get gathered until 9:15

Devotional take 2-I like having already read the Book of Mormon with dad. We read scriptures from the topical guide under Potter, as the children painted their pottery, or paper, or themselves...we talked about ourselves as clay and how we would feel if our creations suddenly spoke and said we didn't make them.

Learning time: They continued to paint, while I told them about what I have read in Lavoisier. I explained states of matter again and atmospheric pressure. We talked about heat, bonds and atmospheric pressure and how they compete to spearate or join particles. We talked about naming Oxygen and Nitrogen. I showed the pictures his wife had drawn adn explained a little about his life...They were mostly painting, but did pause at some parts...especially if they had heard about it before while I was reading it.

Friday-science and CLAY!

Morning routine went out the window in a mad attempt to organize for play group. We cleaned like the wind, or rather, I cleaned like the wind while simultaneously nagging like a magpie to encourage my children to help. It didn't look messy enough for them to feel the urgency...

We did have most of a devotional, during which time the little people got out a bunch of blankets and pillows in the front room, just to make it cozy for all our visitors!

Play day

The Leavitts stayed to have science...we only have one other family in our group and they haven't come since she had her baby the last of August...I had invited an electricity expert to show us what kind of things conduct (our 12 year old neighbor Taylor Coffelt). He spent over 30 minutes talking about conductivity. He showed us how a penny and a nail can make a potato a great conductor. He had me dissect a pencil to get the lead, which is a resistor. He showed us how we conduct and cucumbers (or mostly the water in them) conduct. It was fabulous and much better than I could have done.


We also talked about density of liquids, guessed which liquids were most dense (we had vegetable oil, baby oil, corn syrup, water, isopropyl and vinegar. We colored some of the liquids so we could see the layering better. I took about 15 minutes, the children did enjoy stirring in food coloring and watching the layers. We made it twice, the second time remembering what was heaviest, so it would layer nicely.



CLAY-We cleaned up and headed off for the HUGE home school group to dig clay. It was VERY fun and extremely easy. The children all worked very well (excepting Ben and the little girls). We dug the clay, sifted the clay a few times, kneaded the clay, then finally made something. They had some toy pottery wheels and a few "real" pottery wheels. Each child was able to make something.http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/Hammy_1989/?action=view¤t=c7604501.pbw
http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a58/Hammy_1989/?action=view¤t=d70af337.pbw