Science Fair

Okay, lest I get distracted again and neglect to post this... ;)

So, last Sunday, we had our second annual homeschool group Science Fair. It was awesome. We had roughly four dozen kids participate this year and it just makes me so happy to see all the fabulous projects. Being as science is, um, not my strong suit by any means, I love, too, that I can do this with the boys. Like last year, I made all the kids little notebooks to go on their tables and folks left positive feedback as they walked around to see everything. Man, the boys love reading those after the fact. :)

This year, Micah insisted on having his own project (having helped his brothers last year (scroll down) but not receiving a participation trophy like everyone else since his name wasn't on the project). After much debate, we finally settled on "wind energy" as his topic. (He originally wanted to show how a hybrid car works, but since I didn't understand it as well as Noah and couldn't explain it to Micah as well as Noah and couldn't convince Noah to work on it with Micah...well, we switched, lol.) So. We bought him a little wind energy kit, which Nathan helped him put together. Then we just had him draw pictures with the simplified steps of how we turn wind into energy. Viola. (He is only four after all, lol.)

(You can click on the pictures to make them a little bit bigger.) Yes, blowing "wind" makes the light turn red. Even with all the boy's hot air, though, actually blowing wasn't enough...hence the blow dryer. ;) Micah was so excited.

For Asher's project this year, he did a little experiment to see which top spun the longest. He took tops that were identical and added weights to some so that he could test light vs heavy and skinny vs wide. He also gathered a good number of tops to show the many types:

Needless to say, we all had lots of fun with Asher's project! ;) Special thanks, too, to the owner of Science Toy Magic in Old Town Fort Collins (an awesome little science toy store just north of Ben & Jerry's) who not only helped talk Asher through the science of why some of his tops spun longer but also generously gave Asher a few tops from his own collection (no longer for sale in his shop, though we also have picked up a number of those over the past year or so anyhow, lol).

Finally, Noah. This year Noah did almost all of his project by himself. I assisted with punctuation and printing out the materials he asked me to print (to his specifications). He, though, came up with the idea, wrote out all the information (well, we let him type it this year), found all the pictures, designed how he wanted the project board to look and made all the molecule models on his own. His topic? The many forms of carbon. (The boy loves the elements.)

(The little blue tags are on anything that has carbon, btw. Totally his idea.) Cool, eh?

And that, my friends, was our Science Fair experience this year. The boys all received participation medals this year (which Micah wore around town the following day) and are happy. They're already talking about what they want to do next year. :)

Still here...

...yikes. Sorry about that. Went missing, didn't I? ;) Not a huge amount to report but I will...soon. In the meantime, please pass the word about this, okay? Thanks! 

Miscellany...

If I was good, I'd break this down somewhat by topic and maybe even do separate posts. But. I'm feeling a little like if I don't post it all now, I'll forget and things will get missed. :) So...

Good Grief Blog. New challenge up today! Also, check out our mention in the May/June Creating Keepsakes magazine (page 20). 

Easter. Finished editing pictures. There weren't that many, honestly. We had a fairly low-key day, still recovering from our trip and starting the soccer season and all that. ;) Though we did see a few snowflakes early in the morning, the afternoon was perfect. We dyed eggs outside (yup, procrastinated on that one and didn't dye them until that day, lol). I get a kick out of the difference between when we started and when we finished:

Yeah. You try explaining to a four year old how to use a spoon for transferring eggs yet not spoon dye from one glass to another. ;) 

Soccer. Did I mention that spring soccer is fully underway? All three boys are preparing for their third games this coming weekend. We knew we lucked out last fall when we managed to somehow land game locations all in the same part of town and only a few weekends of overlap. We knew it. So. We weren't surprised this season when Noah's games end up being 20 minutes north and we have a single weekend without overlap. Most of the weekends, Noah and Asher's games are at exactly the same time. Lovely. But. The boys love it, so all's good.

Denver Museum of Nature & Science. We went to their bi-annual homeschool day on Monday and had a great time. The theme was "Bodies in Space" and the boys got to build rockets and launch them. They were stoked. And, their rockets definitely flew further than most. Fun times.

Clocks. Do you suppose that if I started collecting clocks I'd have more time? Yeah. I didn't think so either. Drat.

Homeschooling. This is the one that's really been taking most of my attention and time. I've recently adopted a new "schedule/routine" and it's going fabulously. It does, though, mean that my focus has really shifted of late to the boys and their schooling. Scrapbooking, for whatever it's worth, has taken a backseat. I haven't even finished more than a couple layouts this whole year. And I'm okay with that. Honestly, I've put so much energy into scrapbooking during the last few years that I haven't been able to do as much in the homeschooling area as I'd otherwise have liked. I don't regret it. Don't get me wrong! I've absolutely loved my experiences within the scrapbooking industry and know that the boys were still young enough that it didn't make a huge impact...they were able to mostly play and learn on their own and that worked. And I was able to learn more about myself and help support our family at the same time. So. It was awesome. 

But. Now I truly feel that it's time for me to shift gears. And I'm so excited. :) 

(Note: As I get this new routine more in place (and especially when soccer season ends and I regain those 10 hours of each week or so, lol), I do plan to do more scrapbooking again...so don't despair...I'll definitely be sharing more layouts. ;) I just wanted y'all to understand that my attention has changed.)

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Whew. Okay. I feel better for having gotten all of that off my chest. I felt like y'all weren't really getting what I am up to here based on what I've blogged lately. ;) Now you know.

Recap...

Okay. Just quickly. Wanted to post a recap of my Saturday cropping at the Treasure Box. But. I'm all in favor of not reinventing the wheel, so I'll simply direct you to my new pal Liz's blog where she so beautifully talked about our day. ;) Thanks, Liz!

Sunday...

One of these days I really must start coming up with better titles for these posts, lol! In the meantime, a few quick notes:

My layout is up on the Good Grief Blog today, so please check it out. :)

Noah scored his first goal yesterday during his soccer game!!!! He's so excited...has been wanting it for so long (this is his 6th season of soccer). Unfortunately. I have no picture as I wasn't there. Figures. I lug the camera to pretty much every game of every boy for six seasons waiting for a moment like this and I miss "the" game. Sigh.

On the bright side, I did get pictures of Asher playing goalie for the first time in his six seasons...and blocking two goals that otherwise might have led the game to a different outcome. (Yes, Asher and Noah's games are at the exact same time five of the eight weekends this season. We only have one, yes one, weekend where we don't have overlap between at least two of the boys' games. Lovely.)

To be clear, all the boys won their games yesterday and are quite happy. Well. Actually, Micah's team doesn't keep score. But I hear Micah was back to his "lightning force" self (aiming "lightning" out of his hands like the Emperor on Star Wars) and is happy. 

I missed Micah's game, too. But. I got to spend the rest of the day at The Treasure Box with about 20 awesome ladies that I've met through scrapbooking. I didn't get much actually accomplished but had such a nice time chatting and shopping. ;)

Today we took the boys swimming for the first time this year. They'd requested it as their "reward" for getting all our schoolwork done this week (more on this soon). Nathan and I had forgotten the work involved in taking them swimming...particularly given that Micah still can't touch the bottom or swim or float so insists on being carried around whilst simultaneously freaking out when anyone gets him wet. Fun times. ;) (The other two, fortunately, love the water.)

Okay, that's it for now. Lots of other stuff I'd like to share, but need to go get my guys moving again right now...;) Happy rest of Sunday to you all!