It's all gouda: track

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Racing Weekend

Another week has come on gone. Things have been hoppin' here in the grand old Pacific Northwest. First, on both Friday and Saturday, it was pushing 100 degrees, and today was well over 90 degrees. Why do I consider this noteworthy? Well, for starters, last weekend it was cold, drizzly, and the high was in the low 40's. Truth be told, I love feeling the sun raining down on me instead of the wet stuff.

Next, over the past few days, all three of the front running Presidential candidates dropped in the area for a visit. No matter who you choose to vote for in the election, you've got to admit that we are witnessing history and I want my kids to understand the importance of exercising their right to vote (I feel a homeschool lesson coming on) ... of course my daughter wants to be the first female President, so she has her own thoughts on the Presidential race.

Speaking of racing, the third exciting thing was that my offspring #2, -- the one who wants to be President ... oh, and she also wants to be a research scientist ... chant "full ride academic scholarship with me 3 times here -- competed in her track and field CYO Meet of Champions on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. You may recall that my wee one participated in

her meet last weekend. The older kids competed this weekend. Despite the unusual heat, over 500 kids showed up slathered in sunscreen prepared to compete. My girl competed in three events: javalin, 400 meter, and 400 meter relay. She did great!

Her first event on Saturday was the javalin throw. Out in the sun. Brutal heat. No shade anywhere. Did I mention she's fair skinned? Not only did she perform great in the sun, she totally shined and threw further than she had in any of the regular meets. She finished 7th overall out of all those kids! Check out her concentration!

Today she only had one event, the 400 relay. She's on a team with 3 other girls, and ran the 2nd leg. Usually she runs 3rd, and so she was receiving and handing off differently than in practice.

No sweat though (well, actually they were quite sweaty, but you know what I mean). She ran her heart out ... so much so that after the curve and heading into the straightaway her shoe fell off!!! Can you believe it!!! Undaunted, she kept on running with one shoe on and one shoe off. She was so worried she'd be disqualified, but there was no penalty at all. Another team mate retrieved her shoe, and when all the scores were tallied, her 4 person team came in 3rd place overall ... out of 18 teams or something like that!

I love how she persevered despite losing her shoe! That's my kid ... make lemonade, babe! She kept her focus which is commendable for a 12 year old. Doesn't she look triumphant standing on the podium getting her ribbon? She's the one in green with the bangs.

What ever will we do next weekend without track and field meets? Hmmm .... well, I think we (meaning hubby man and son) should get those raised garden beds built and planted. For gardening inspiration, check out Kalyn's awesome blog here. I've also got a group of 6th grade girls coming over to make blankets for Project Linus, a great charity that distributes homemade blankets to kids in the hospital. Oh, and then there's the fact that my sister will be visiting from Illinois. Plus, there's my wee one's birthday party. Oh yea, we'll find something to do! I need a vitamin. And sleep. Lots of sleep!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

My baby rocks!

And they're off! Well, almost. That's my offspring #3 in green lining up for the 1500 meter race in the 2008 CYO Meet of Champions that took place today. Man, I get winded just thinking about running let alone actually getting out there ... in a race. Not in this lifetime, baby. Anyway, that's my peanut in green, getting ready to run her socks off. There were over 500 kids participating today. Yep, you read that right - 500! Luckily for her, she inherited her daddy's love of participating in athletics. This is her first year participating in CYO track, and she totally rocked today!!! This is a big deal folks. She's the youngest on the team, with some girls being 2 years older than her. In addition to her high velocity performance in the 1500, she also ran the 400 meter, and participated in the long jump. She had so much fun today. In fact, when she left the house this morning with hubby man to head out to the field, I told her that her only job today was to go and have fun. And, she did! My baby rocks!

Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before by Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!

Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Books by Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.