Whew, much tougher to get the kids going in online learning journals than I anticipated. They have done paper-based, fill-in-the-box style learning logs before and some learning logs within a notebook, but not quite the public journalling that these are. I had originally anticipate one to two hours of the school day would go to the kids personalizing the look of their learning log sites and getting profiles in place, etc. But, it took each of them a bit more time than that - nearly all of the 6.5 hours school day.

They were real troopers though...

Greg spent an hour on this really awesome profile entry. He even took the precaution of copying to the clipboard before hitting save. Cyberspace ate all but two partial sentences of it. All his precaution to the wind, his recovery from the clipboard copy he saved went sour and it was lost anyway.

Timothy spent careful and creative time creating a custom avatar and banner for his site using Paint Shop Pro. He tried sevaral styles of backgrounds and inserted his banner directly into the html code. His site looked great despite the fact that his browser, Opera, wouldn't let him see any WYSIWYG tools. His Windows Explorer is unstable, so he has switched to this browser. He ended up having to enter every keystroke of his learning journal contents directly into the html. I am glad that he has gotten all that html experience this summer when he was customizing his forum. He will have the option of using the family or John's system if he wants to access the WYSIWYG options. But, like Greg he hit a loss of his work. He had spent several hours getting the look just as he wanted it. Then he turned his attention to entering text. He had bounced around from one page to another a bit during all that design work. Unfortunately, he entered his text (into html remember) and hit save to discover that he had actually been entering text in a window from early this morning. The window with the original template, not his customized one. With one click, he wiped out  all his hard work. That really took all the wind out of his sail. He recovered. He had his image files and he was able to rebuild his own template pretty fast, but the frustration did color the rest of the day for him.

Melody, who couldn't sleep last night, functioned on only two hours sleep through the day. She was uncharacteristically giggly, so I knew she was really tired. Fortunately, she did not suffer the losses that the boys experienced. She enjoyed creating her banner. She used a picture of Neo when he was a kitten. She did a really nice job. She was able to finish her customization pretty fast; though she has some entry jobs to catch up on. She moved on to work on several computer model projects which she will be posting to her learning journal tomorrow.

Zachary enjoyed our walk to Mary's house to give her watermelon and take a TRUST Lending Library package to be mailed off. It was very hot. Not very smart to walk at 2:30 in the hottest time of the day. We survived though and the AC felt so good when we walked back in.

The kids have been so busy that they have been largely unaware of the damage of hurricane Katrina in neighboring states. We let the older three stay up to watch the news at 10 so they could become aware just how bad it has been - and how, even though there were some set backs today, we have much to be very thankful for. They were amazed at the scenes of utter devastation. We discussed just how impacting this is for many, many families. Loss of homes, jobs, culture, heirlooms, and life.

Here is the bedtime status of my original to-do list for the day. Having a to-do list on the blog is an interesting motivator. I may do these some more.

O  Homeschool: I did well here. Most of my to-dos are done in this category.

1. DONE - Help the kids in getting adjusted to the online learning journal method of planning and recording their school work each day.
2. DONE - Assist Melody and Gregory in setting up their 3-ring version of the notebooks by printing out the half sheets and getting the plastic sleeves tabbed for them.
3. DELAYED - Meet with Tim to plan out his history e-notebook template. He was really burned out on history after the two or three questions didn't match his book. Normally he would have sprung right back, but not today. We will meet tomorrow.
4. DELAYED for taking the pictures in good outdoor daylight. I should have thought of this while we were out walking today - Zach and I have a 'date' to work on his Pre-School e-notebook. We will be taking pictures to try the tab idea I had a few days ago that we haven't had time to pursue.
5. DONE - 4 to 5 pm learning journal accountability with each of the kids
6. DONE - Add links to their learning journals here at my blog
7. DONE - Send John the links for all the blogs to his work e-mail so he can drop in on our day here at home whenever he wants to. :0) After looking, I am not sure I have the correct e-mail, so I will wait until he gets home to double-check. Then send the e-mail from him to easily link to the journals tomorrow.

O  Virtual Homeschool Group Courses: Didn't get anywhere near as much done here as I need to. I will have to do better tomorrow if I am to be ready by next Tuesday!

1. Set up the online, collaborative Student Product Binder workshop idea I had to see if it will work like I hope.
2. Work on the additional templates that we will need for non K-12ers
3. Work on the course guides some more
4. DONE as much as is possible anyway - Help Barbara in FL figure out why she cannot see all the thumbnails in the courses: Mmm, the direct links that I e-mailed worked for her. Next, she will try here to see if she can open the thumbnails I have in my blog for Aug. 20th. OK, she cannot see them here either. This is such a puzzle! The only thing I can think of to help her is the next entry on my to-do list - add links.
5. I think that I am safe to assume that if one mom is having trouble seeing the thumbnails, then there will probably be others as well once the course gets started. That being the case, I will go in and add links as a back up.
6. Add some more PrintMaster files that moms can download.

O  TRUST Lending Library: A new TRUST order came in tonight, so we will probably go walking again tomorrow - not mid-day again though!

1. DONE - 2:30 pm Take a walk with Zach up to the post office to mail out the Babywise books to Tasha. Email her when we get home with the postage amount. While on the walk, take our excess watermelon to Mary. The melon is way more than we can possibly eat. It would be a shame to waste it, and I am sure that Mary will appreciate it. Try not to stay too long visiting though. Too much to do today. :0)
2. Enter the new box of donations from last week that I have not yet added to the database.
3. Find homes for the books that have come in if I can. Shelves are pretty full; brainstorm a solution.

O  Homemaker's Corner: I did well in this category. Only one to-do remains.

1. DONE - The originally planned leftover Fajitas will be great for John and I, but consider pizza for the kids. Melody and John both really wanted to eat some of those wheat flour cookies that John was given yesterday. While the oven is hot from the pizzas make them some rice peanut butter cookies so they will have cookie treats too.
2. DONE - Catch up on laundry. It is starting to look like Mount Never-rest in there.
3. DONE - Meal plan and get a grocery list going for tomorrow's errand day.
4. Help Zack get his room back in order from his 'playdate' yesterday.
5. DONE - Pick up the bedroom - lots of books and papers are begining to multiply on the dresser and computer desk. Get it back under control.
6. DONE - Clear the kitchen counter