Freedom for Education - Homeschool Blogger

PhotoHunt: "Words"

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 19:26:00 -0500

I ran out of time to get real creative with some abstract interpretation of this week's theme -- Words. Time flew by too quickly until I had to fall back on a basic. One of my favorite reference books when writing anything is Roget's Thesaurus.

I just stood the book up and let it fall open...is that considered impulsive? LOL!

View more themed photos like this through:

PhotoHunt: "Twisted"

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:42:00 -0500

I missed last week's theme and this week also nearly came & went before I got to it. It's been crazy around here lately! I told my hubby that I needed something "twisted" for this week's theme, and this is what he said:

View more themed photos like this through:

Our Impromptu Lesson on Acoustic Panels

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:16:00 -0500

Last night, my husband’s graduating class got together at their high school football game as part of their 20 year reunion activities. The reunion committee also organized current high school students to lead a tour of their new facilities, as they have just completed extensive renovations and additions to the school. Our boys thought it was neat to see some of the classrooms, etc., in a high school, but Zeke specifically asked what were the big padded looking things on the walls of the band room (the acoustic panels). We took just a moment to remind him about sound waves--he new they bounced off of things. However, he didn't put two & two together to come up with echoes when the sound waves bounce off of large flat, hard surfaces. We explained that the panels help to break up the sound waves hitting the wall, cutting down the echoes which would keep the band from being able to accurately hear their music.

Today, I took a minute to search for a little more information to expand our explanation. I found this great slideshow complete with diagrams to help him “see” how sound waves work. The whole slideshow presents some good information about sound waves--not just echoes. Take a look for yourself:

Waves - Sound

View more presentations from Mr Rep.

PhotoHunt: "Electric"

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:37:00 -0500

I thought this week's PhotoHunt might prove to be a big challenge, but we spent the day at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL, which provided an abundance of "electric"!

I found the perfect display to meet this week's theme when I discovered this: You are looking at a solar panel for the SkyLab, used to produce electricity to keep the SkyLab operational and allow it to support life.

Here's an up-close photo to show each individual cell:
(Click photo to enlarge)

These photos provide some information about the solar panel--click on the photos to view a larger image.

View more themed photos like this through:

PhotoHunt: "Orange"

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 20:57:00 -0500

Couldn't have asked for better timing--we just harvested our first pumpkin from our garden. Hopefully it won't be the last, but we're not complaining. We were surprised that we even had a pumpkin at all. We dug the small plant up from the yard near where we throw scraps out for the cows...thought it was a squash! LOL!

View more themed photos like this through:

Wow! Where did the summer go?

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 04:37:00 -0500

It's hard to believe that summer is pretty much over. The weather is still a little warm during the day, but we're moving to cool nights and that fresh, crisp smell of autumn around the corner! I just love fall weather!

Our summer was a bit of a long one....We lost and gained a few pets, started our first ever garden, worked with our chickens (a project still needing more work), visited with family, attended a few fieldtrips, and enjoyed numerous homeschool social activities with old & new friends alike.

Normally, we don't do fieldtrips over the summer, but this year we visited American Village in Montevallo, AL for a special day program.We "time traveled" back to 1775 where we hid from the RedCoats while the colonists were preparing to declare their independence.

We visited Captain Compost where we learned about organic, no-till gardening and the importance of composting to replace commercial fertilizers.

All of the kids enjoyed learning about this "stinky" process, and after reading his book, we have started our own compost pile....still needs a lot of work, but it's getting there!

We wrapped up July with a fieldtrip to the Mary G Hardin Center for Cultural Arts in Gadsden, AL. They had a special exhibit--Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to Gutenberg. It was an extremely interesting insight into the history of written communications from cuneiform up to the printing press advancements. There was even a working replica of the Gutenberg press.

August brought many social opportunities with park days, bowling, swimming, and not one but two "Not Going Back to School" parties! We finished out the summer with a trip back to Montevallo, this time to see Tinglewood at Orr Park. A local man has spent several years carving intricate, beautiful works of art into the dead trees at the park. We were lucky enough to receive a guided tour by the artisan himself!

I think we're all ready to start the new school year....maybe we'll actually slow down a little bit! LOL!

PhotoHunt: "Artificial"

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:46:00 -0500

Wow! I've been diligent in trying to cut out a lot of the artificial junk and sweeteners in the food we buy, but I was shocked when I went to find something that said "artificial" and I had to look and look and look! Apparently, I'm doing better than I thought. I finally found this....

"name blocked to protect the innocent" LOL!

I used this to make a pie dessert years ago, and the leftover was stashed in the back of the pantry. Now, I look at the ingredients and think, "Yuck! I really consumed that?!?" It has absolutely nothing of value in the ingredients. See for yourself:
click to enlarge

What is the point of drinking that? Geeze, the garbage that we consume these days! What happened to real food? And how do they get away with putting all those pictures of kiwi and strawberry on the front when it's obvious there is none if it actually in the product? They should put the chemical compounds or something on the front instead....Yum! Wouldn't that look appetizing--LOL!

View more themed photos like this through:

PhotoHunt: "Entertainment"

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 16:37:00 -0500

I missed last week's PhotoHunt theme, and I thought this week was kinda' tough. The more I thought about it, the more I thought: my husband's and my best entertainment is the kids. But, why just post a picture of those two crazy boys....?? Well, as usual, Zeke did me proud! Here's what my craziest little man does on a Sunday afternoon when he's bored:

Order in the court!! Order in the court!!!

That's one of those "neck warmers" that you use when you have a stiff neck.

Hope you guys are all enjoying your Sunday afternoon!

View more themed photos like this through:

Vegetable Garden Explosion

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:26:00 -0500

For years we have said that we needed to do a vegetable garden, yet year after year passed with no garden. Finally, this year we got it together with the help of hubby's father, and it has been so much fun. We couldn't pick just a few things, so we ended up with a smorgasbord of veggies & fruits: crooked-neck squash, pickling cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli, zucchini squash, yellow corn, silver queen corn (white), clemson spineless okra, burgandy okra, various tomatoes, various bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, green beans, goose peas (a type of field-peas), sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and mammoth sunflowers.

Since we had to prepare an area from scratch and the spring weather was quite uncooperative here, we got a late start on planting, but I think it has caught up without any problem.... :-)

JUNE 22

JULY 11

Today, JULY 24

I can't believe how fast it has grown, and look what happens when you get side-tracked and don't check the garden for two days

It's the mammoth zucchini squash!!

This afternoon I collected a variety of veggies, and we had our first taste of veggies from our garden....delicious fresh green beans for dinner. Even my picky eaters raved about how good they were...YEA!

We have actually already harvested a lot for canning--a ton of pickling cucumbers, sweet banana peppers, and some crook-necked squash. So far, we've pickled a jar of peppers and about 6 jars of cucumbers. Tomorrow we hope to can some squash relish (chow chow, here in the South) which is a necessity for the goose peas that will be coming in soon!

PhotoHunt: "Rock(s)"

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:57:00 -0500

This is one of my favorite pictures of a rock--what does it look like to you? We discovered this while searching for a Letterbox, and the boys and I decided it looked like a chimpanzee.

Click photo for a larger view

Above the protruding rock is one of Alabama's historic covered bridges, Horton Mill Covered Bridge. Built in 1934, the 220-foot (67-meter) bridge is a Town's lattice truss construction over two spans. This covered bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 29, 1970, becoming the first covered bridge in the southeastern United States to be added. At 70 feet (21 m), it is the highest covered bridge above any U.S. waterway, spanning the Calvert Prong of the Little Warrior River in Blount County, Alabama. Here's a link to more info: Horton Mill Covered Bridge

View more themed photos like this through: