view from Navy Pier

Downtown Chicago has a beautiful skyline, as seen from the Toy and Game Fair at Navy Pier.

more nanowrimo news

All our National Novel Writing Month participating authors have now met (and exceeded) their word count goals. Hooray for all involved! Congratulations on writing extended fiction -- and on meeting your goal -- and on beating the deadline by days!!

Young Inventor Challenge

Last weekend was the Chicago Toy and Game Fair at Navy Pier. It was an exciting and inspirational experience to accompany a student participating in the Young Inventor Challenge. The entries were high quality and very impressive. The Young Inventor Challenge was sponsored by Lund and Company -- inventors and believers in the vital importance of play.

The Chicago Toy and Game Fair was well attended by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable public.

Commercial vendors played games, demonstrated games, and sold games direct to the public. Costumed characters roam the show floor, including characters from Star Wars, Spot, and Santa Claus.

This was a completely delightful experience! We got home Monday and have been in an ecstasy of invention ever since.

nanowrimo update

Today one of our students officially met her goal for National November Writing Month! Hooray! This young writer says, "It is only a first draft."

November Novel writing opportunity

A really cool opportunity for aspiring novelists of all ages is www.nanowrimo.org

The companion site for writers under the age of 13 is www.ywp.nanowrimo.org

November is the month to write a novel. Yep! No time to procrastinate -- or to edit for that matter. Just sign up, jump in, and write. (Young writers name their own target word count.) For adults, the target goal is 50,000 words. Meet your goal by midnight November 30, and you win!

drivers ed

It was sort of cold and rainy today, but we had a good time watching Boo learn to change a tire -- an important part of the Driver's Ed course.

great education in economics

The last two weeks have been unavoidable opportunities to get familiar with economics -- and what a learning curve it has been:

• witnessing partisan politics in action,

with late night, backroom deals and public hand-wringing and arm-twisting,

• the so-called "urgent" $700 billion bailout,
  

• the historic stock market plummet after the rescue bailout was a done deal
  

• Add to that, the excitement and distress in international markets;
  

• commodity prices dropping the limit day after day

(of great concern in this county where agriculture is the main industry.)

• And crude oil --
  

prices on crude oil falling so fast local gas stations post new, lower prices daily.

***

We have discussed the workings of USA capitalism, especially methods of raising capital, the stock exchange, commodities markets, and proper use of credit; of globalization and its effects on our daily life; and looked for opportunities to cut personal expenditures . . .

week 4: spider webs

A couple days ago we went out early to see something new.

Along the way, we chanced by fields of spider webs glistening with dew.

My morning eyes were focused on the road.



My students weren't so preoccupied. They noticed the spider webs. In the middle of each web sat a watchful spider.


We got out the camera. These are some of the spider webs they photographed . . .

Week 3 field trip: McCain Palin Rally

Great political science field trip to the McCain Palin Rally at the Eastern Iowa Airport, Cedar Rapids! We spent six hours standing and walking, but the aching muscles were worth it!

Thousands and thousands of people were there. A very enthusiastic crowd. Great speeches by the candidates.


If you look closely, you can see Senator McCain and Governor Palin surrounded by Secret Service agents as they work their way towards our part of the crowd, standing inside the hangar.

The Country First slogan really plays to these Midwest supporters!

week 3

Okay, the fall semester is really shaping up. (Don't you just love OpenCourseWare from MIT?)

The big surprise for the week is the opportunity to participate in a presidential rally. Yay-hay!

interesting insect identification

A couple days ago
we spotted a large, mysterious insect standing on a porch step. It was so big (about 4 inches in diameter from leg tip to leg tip) and so frail-looking and so intriguing that we took a photo and e-mailed it to an entomologist at our state University for identification.

Turns out the mystery insect is a crane fly. There are over 15,000 species of crane flies -- and scientists expect about 15,000 more species to be discovered!

The adult crane flies don't sting or bite. Crane flies are harmless to humans and they are not considered a pest.


Their presence indicates that the nearby water quality is good (according to the EPA).

Visit the Bug Guide site to contribute insect and spider observations . . . or to request identification!

week 2

The second week is underway . . .

Morale and study habits good.

By and large, the curriculum selected this year is very good match with students. Especially pleased with the maths and sciences.

Biggest mismatch:
For fifth grade, one (European) history book needs to be sidelined in favor of a better-written text .

Collaborative, student-driven movie project just got underway. Script in the works. Storyboards on the table. Projected timeline to completion = six months.

zoology

Our zoology enthusiast is zipping through this year's course in marine biology. Looks like we will follow it up with a study of freshwater biology. (I feel lucky to have already scouted out the freshwater curriculum.)

Looking at differences between the work of marine biologists and oceanographers . . .

It is a help to have the hurricane season upon us -- and the remnants of tropical depression Gustav raining down today. Keeps the mind focused on the relationships between bodies of water and large air masses.

Day 2

What a shock!

I just realized that Ely S. Parker, a Seneca, who c. 1850 transcribed the story of the Iroquois confederacy of five nations, was born at Tonawanda Seneca Reservation, NY. (The same reservation where we ate lunch last week on our way back from the East Coast!)

Ely S. Parker trained as an attorney (but was prohibited from taking the bar exam because he wasn't an American citizen). He then studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. When Parker applied to join Union forces during the Civil War, he was initially rejected -- because he wasn't an American citizen. But General Grant urgently needed engineers and intervened on Parker's behalf. Parker eventually became General Grant's Adjutant General and was present at General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. The surrender papers were actually written by Ely S. Parker.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown makes good reading for an overview of injustices visited upon Ely S. Parker and other native Americans.

First Day of School

We are set for school! The schoolroom is straightened up. Student schedules posted -- and signed by their authors with a flourish. Mushroom chairs abound

This year, if students distract each other too much, they have agreed in advance to retreat to their respective mushroom chairs.

We are down to three students this year: grades 10, 8, and 5. Interesting courses include AP Calculus online, free courseware from MIT, and great textbooks in Marine Biology, Colonial America (original source documents), and journals by explorers encountering ancient Aztec, Maya, and Inca ruins.

It was a great summer, but, as usual, students have been eagerly looking forward to this day . . . the first day of school -- and now it is here!

Garden growth

The season is late, but we still plan to have a garden -- whenever the rain stops, soil dries out, and the seeds can be planted.

The lesson of timing.

We are inadvertently studying meteorology instead .. .