Molly the Barn Owl and Homeschoolers

Carlos Royal did a live narration today for homeschoolers. Here is a clip of that narration.



I had meant to make a post about when this was going to be BEFORE it happened but I didn't get a chance to do that. Carlos didn't read off all of kids names, but the question "What are owls allies?" or something like that came from Superstar and Web-princess. Superstar and Web-princess thought it was so cool that Carlos answered their question! The narration starts about 3 minutes into the video clip. (I think it's more like 3 minutes and 25 seconds in).

The above is the recording of the live narration he did for homeschoolers. If you want to watch Molly Live you can do so by visiting Molly the barn owl and her owlets here on Catholic Christian Homeschooling or you can visit Molly The Barn Owl on Ustream.

Superstar Update: Toewalking/AFO

Today we seen the orthopedic surgeon for another post surgery follow-up. Long time followers of my blog know that Superstar had surgery around Thanksgiving 2009 for ITW (idiopathic toe walking).

We decided for treatment we would do surgery. So he has been recovering nicely from surgery. Walking was tough and hard just 10 days after surgery with the cast on, however he did it and has not stopped since then! We are so proud of him!

After the cast came off Superstar was given AFOs to wear. He STILL has to wear the AFOs, however we were told he could go up to 4 hours per day without them. Currently he has been wearing them from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to bed. So it's nice to know he can go some time during the day without them.

Today we were given the okay for any sport that Superstar wants to do! For some sports he can't wear his brace so if he did that sport activity that day it would count towards his time without the brace. Today we were told that it looks like there will NOT be a second surgery. So that was good news. Today we were told that he will NOT need physical therapy! We see the doctor again at the end of June so that might change, but the surgeon is confident that he will NOT need physical therapy.

Today we got told that we can get an adjustment done on his AFOs to allow the ankle joint to articulate, move. Currently his AFOs do not allow for that movement, but that will change this Thursday. We will go in and they will adjust his AFOs and put a hinge at the ankle to allow it to move. I'll post pictures of that later this week.

To top of today's post I've added a video of Superstar walking and running up and down our hallway. Looking at the video of him walking in his cast made me realized how far he has come the last few months!

UPDATE: I also wanted to update and show some pictures of him standing WITHOUT his brace. This is SO MUCH different then back in June before surgery. BEFORE surgery he could NOT put his heels down on the ground even if wanted too!

He's outside now in his socks! I don't care! We just realized this is the first time in his life that his heels have touched grass! (when walking). He's going to be 9 in a few short months, and so it's just amazing! I asked him how does it feel to have walked and have the grass touch your heels? His response "GREAT!!!!!!!"

First Holy Communion

Today was Web-princess First Holy Communion. Everything went well and over all I was very pleased with the day. She got to do the prayers of the faithful this year just like her brother, Superstar, last year.

The picture of her receiving is not the greatest because we are NOT allowed to use flash during Mass. We happened to be seated on the side that's why I was able to get that shot. It was not easy kneeling and taking the picture. My knees today hurt too. I normally I don't mind kneeling, but the kneeler on the side (the chairs) were we were sitting are much different then the kneelers in the pews. They hurt my knees, but oh well!

After Mass we were able to get pictures of Web-princess with several family members.  In addition to pictures with family we were able to get Web-Princess's picture with Father B.

Of the family pictures we were able to get one of my favorites is of Superstar and Web-princess together. I can't believe how much taller Superstar is! I'm often taken back by the height difference between the two of them because they are only 10 months apart. Superstar has pretty much always been a "head" taller then Web-princesses. Of course before he always stood on his toes. Perhaps that's why I'm more shocked lately.

DH and I also got our picture taken with Web-princess. We are so proud of her! This year was nice because I was able to sit back a little bit more, although the kids did need help every now and then. It was also bitter sweet because Web-princess was our baby. This will be the last time we will celebrate a first communion in "our" house. Sure I have nieces and nephews that will go through this, but it's really not the same.

I've also have included a picture of my Mom and my Step-Dad. This is because I wanted to point out that Mom and I were NOT wearing the same clothing unlike last year! LOL I don't think I could have lasted another year with her and I wearing the same clothing! LOL

Over all it was a good day! After Mass we hang, got pictures with family members, got Web-princesses gifts bless and then went home. At home I had a roast waiting for us in the crock-pot and a small chocolate cake for dessert.

DH, the kids, and I ate and had cake. Now we've put or feet up, and are chilling. I've check on Molly too. It looks like owlet number 4 could arrive today (if it hasn't already).

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. Mass will be earlier then normal because the Bishop will be there. In addition to Mass we might to to a train show. Superstar LOVES trains.

Well that's it! Thanks for allowing me to share Web-princess' first communion pictures with you! Have a good Palm Sunday! (One more week to Easter!)

More On Molly The Barn Owl

I don't have the exact time or date or anything like that but I've learned that Carlos Royal has been taking questions from various homeschoolers throughout the country and will be doing a live Q and A soon. He has been collecting the questions and will be answering them live.  When I have a time and date I will let you know.

For those of you that have just tuned in you can find more info about Molly the barn owl by visiting Carlos' Blog: Molly's Box. There he has some FAQ about Molly, what time McGee (her mate has visited), and what he even brought the family to eat.

We have been watching Molly and have been enjoying it. In addition I also found an PDF, thanks to the Molly Chatters At Ustream, of a Barn Owl book that can be downloaded and printed as needed.

Watching Molly The Barn Owl

Sometimes sitting around the computer can be tough, that's why I'm thankful we have the computers and TV that allow us to hook up the the TV to the computer. So what's on the computer screen shows up on the TV. The kids enjoy setting on the couch much more then trying to squeeze around the computer.

Our TV was bought in 2003 so it's not like it's super new. Our computer is a few years old too. It just so happens they both have s-video capabilities and we just connect the 2 with a s-video cable. In addition we connect sound with a sound cable that connect into the computers headset output and into the TV's left and right sound input.

You really can't see the connection I mention above, they are both connected into the back of the TV and that back of the computer. The wires in the front are for the playstation 2 or the VCR. We could connect the VCR in the back, but would have to unconnected it anytime we wanted to use this set up with the computer. So for us it's better to connect the VCR into the front as needed.

We only have 2 video inputs in the back of the TV and only one has th s-video option. So we use that for the computer and the 2nd on in the back for the DVD. Then the one in the front for either the playstation 2 or the VCR. Whatever we are using at the time. We don't have the computer connect to the TV all the time, it's just easier to leave the wires connected and use them as needed then to try to reach behind there.

Right now we are watching Molly the Barn Owl that way. In the past we have done things like virtual dissection.

Molly The Barn Owl and her Owlets

I'm sure by now most of you are aware of the LIVE feed of Molly the barn owl, McGee, her mate, and their owlets. As of today there are 2 owlets hatched and 3 owlets to go.  It's my understanding that the color are day and the black and white are night. It's a live 24/7 feed.

Here it is for your enjoyment (and mine). Sometimes it's easier for me to have something on my blog LOL



Streaming live video by Ustream

Ripped Pants!

Yesterday was a bit stressful, but thankfully we had some comic relief when I ripped my pants! I bent over to pick up something of the floor and my pants went R--I--P! LOL! It was hilarious. I just started to crack-up!

No one else realized what happened, because they were in the other room. They came to see what I felt was so funny. I told that I bent over and ripped my pants. I even bent over to show them and the pants went R---I---P some more!

Now Web-princess is stitches and running down the hall to tell Superstar what had happen. Superstar was in the bedroom. DH is just rolling his eyes. I can hear Web-princess "Momma just RIP her pants like SpongeBob."

Of course Superstar comes to see now and I showed him and they RIP some more! Of course I changed my pants after that and I had throw them away. There was just no saving them. LOL Say what you want it was just funny!

Here's SpongeBob's Rip Pants Song:

Homeschooling AT the park?

That's right today we packed up our school bags and went to the park. DH works near this park so he was able to join us at his lunch hour. We had already eaten lunch at home before we met DH at the park so it was more of a recess for us, but it was still fun!

After we got done swinging DH had to go back to work. I then let the kids play some more and did our work, but it prove to be too windy! So we decided that the car was a good place to work!

After we got our work done we went on a walk and got lost in the woods! Well clearly we are home now because I'm able to blog about it. When we found our way out of the woods Superstar said "Look Mom there's a sign for a picnic area! Let's go there, they always have a map there."

Sure enough the picnic area did have a map. I called DH to let him know that we got lost, found a map, and now heading back to the car. It took us another hour to get to our car from where we found the map. So we were really lost!  So besides our normal school work, the kids learn how to find our away back to the car via wits and maps! LOL

FREE DVD TO HOMESCHOOLERS FROM HISTORY CHANNEL

HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school, for grades K-12 and college. Please see History Channel's Website for more details on how to receive your copy today!

T/H: Betsy's Price is Right

Playing in The Rain and other silly moments!

I love my children and it's moments like this that makes me glad they are here! WP yesterday afternoon played in the rain and today she and SS are making movies! WP is a superhero! It's funny and I would included pictures but somethings are just left better to the imagination!

Let's just say she has a superhero's cape, (ie. her favorite fleece blanket) and a nice little hat (i.e. an undergarment). She's "........... Girl"!!! LOL it's hilarious to watch them make this movie! I must now address her as ........... Girl! I'm in stitches!! It's just simply hilarious! Her special signature phrase is "..........-rific"

Making the movie counts as "school" right? LOL We still have to do book work, but I don't want to drag them away from their creative process right now. So we'll just do some book work later today, perhaps after lunch! In the mean time they'll make their little move of superheros!

I'm sure books like Captain Underpants are some what to blame for this movie!

Look and Say vs Phonics

Imagine walking into a place with books and more books. Books on shelves, books on the floor, books stacked against the wall. There's just enough room to walk through. There are more books then any one person would know what to do with. Well that's where I was this pass weekend.

picture source

DH Saturday morning said I want to go to Toad Hall? "Toad What?" I replied, "What is that?" "Toad Hall" DH replied, "It's a store that sells old books and comics." I quickly learned that DH has known about the place for YEARS, just never told me! He said it doesn't open till noon. So we decided we would go then. My FIL (Father-In-Law) called to see what we were up to and decided that he would join us at Toad Hall.

We walked into Toad Hall and I wanted to run out. I was just in awe over the books and how everything was stacked up on each other. I thought to MYSELF "My gosh, I'm surprise they are allowed to be in business and that this isn't considered a fire hazard." The lady behind the counter welcomed us and asked if we were in search of something special. We told her no just looking. Eying Superstar and Web-princess she offered that the Children's books were up on the 3rd floor! 

We looked at her an amazement 3rd floor? Yes this is the second floor there's stuff downstairs, upstairs, and in the building across the street. I made my way then to the stairs and climbed them. As I got to the top I couldn't find a light, thankfully there was a HUGE window, and noted there was no heat up here. Again I wonder how can they be in business? Not only that I had to stretch my legs over things just to get to the children's section.

They had some children books and next to them were older books. I pulled an older book of the shelf and had to wipe the dust of just to read the cover. To my amazement there was MORE BOOKS behind the one I pulled off. It was a reader. I pulled another book and it was speller. I pulled another book and it was an old math book, An Ray's arithmetic book to be exact. I pulled another book and it was a McGuffey Reader. Ray's Arithmetic, McGuffey Reader these are titles I'm familiar with. I got excited. I wondered is there a set here?

I started to pull, wipe, and dust books. I started to make piles of Readers. I started to make sets. I shortly realized that I wasn't going to get a McGuffey set, but I most likely will get an Elson Set. So I focused more on the Elson books. 

Superstar found his way up to the third floor and started to help me make sets. Some more time past and DH called up the stairs were leaving. I yelled down okay. I looked at the sets I've started to make, grab the most complete set, and put the rest on the shelves again to the best of my ability.They clearly where in no special order before, so as long as it fit it was okay.

I came down the stairs with my 5 new found books (seen below) and told DH I want these for school. He asked if I got a whole set. I said no, but I got most of them. I have book 1, 2, 4, 5, 6. 

The lady said they could be mine for $25. I agreed the to price and left. My FIL wasn't too thrilled with our expenditures. He felt it was over priced and wasn't afraid to say so. I told him that I felt I got an okay price seeing I know what people pay just to have pdf files of some of these older books.

 

We then decided to go out to lunch with my FIL. On the way to the restaurant, DH offered that I might find the missing book (3) on ebay or something like that. Of course the primer book is missing as well, but I don't need a primer book for the kids. So what does this have "Look and Say" vs "Phonics"?

It is without a question that Jane, Dick, and Spot gets the blame for the "Look and Say" era. Phonics are the new thing again, and I think that's why the McGuffey Readers are popular with homeschoolers. They, without a question,  are among the first phonics books. With some digging in places like Project Gutenberg you can find pdf, txt, or HTML files of the McGuffey Readers for FREE vs buying a CD with the files. (There are other books as well)

So where did Dick, Jane, and Spot come from? Well it turns out they were introduce to the children in the early 1930s in the Elson-Gray Readers. Especially in the PRIMER and PRE-PRIMER reader!

Those Readers that I picked up for $5 a piece just HAPPEN to be the very SAME readers the introduced Dick, Jane, and Spot to the world! To bad I didn't find the Primer or Pre-Primer book of the series (or book 3 for that matter). he-he. However I'm sure that if I went back to Toad Hall, that I would find it there. I would just need several more hours to dig!

Besides having readers for the kids to read with, I actually have a piece of "history" now. It has been fantasizing to learn how these 1930 readers, the readers that I picked up, changed the way reading was taught in schools for several generations. That is until they decided to go back to phonics in the 1960s.

Although many schools even in the early 1980's still taught with the look and say method. I know because I was never taught phonics in school. I think now most schools teach phonics or a combo of phonics and look and say methods.

Lesson Pathways is NOW FREE!

Have you heard of Lesson Pathways? Have you been wanting to test it out but wasn't sure if it was worth of the investment? Well now it's free!

To be honest I didn't even know that Lesson Pathways was out there until just a few minutes ago. It use to be a paid subscription, but due the economic down turn they have decided to make it free. The idea is that traffic, hopefully, will produce an income via the ads, good will donations, etc. I just registered myself and I'm amazed at the amount of material that is available! (registration is 100% free)

Lesson Pathways goal is to help homeschooling parents and classroom teachers spend less time searching for educational resources and more time engaging with and teaching their students. They do this by providing READY TO USE learning pathways. Each pathway is filled with information, activities, and links to related resources.

Go check it out: Lesson Pathways

Signs In the Sky!

The Star of Bethlehem! I know it's pass Christmas, but this is a great thing to watch! I've watched it a few times and have been amazed by it every time. It starts with Christ's conception and ends with his death. Everything has to do with the sky at that time.

We like to look at the stars at night. We have a few telescopes and have gone out to the local observatory time to time. It's for those reasons that I've decided to share this here. :)

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click on a link and purchase something. See our full disclosure policy for more details.

More on the Lap Dancing Teachers

Earlier I posted about the Lap Dancing Teachers, well here's the latest: Newer news reports are saying the teachers were suspended WITH pay! I sincerely hope that is NOT the case! Not only that but the board is NOT sure what they are going to do regarding the teachers. They may not make that decision until late April. They are still investing. Further more they are going to also make a ruling  regarding the students that FILMED the dance. Apparently it's a against school policy to have cell phones, cameras, etc. So the STUDENTS COULD be facing disciplinary actions for filming the teachers as well.

I understand that it was wrong for the students to have the phone and cameras. I get that they are against the school rules and that the cameras and phones should have never been there, but honestly I'm glad that in this case they did have them there! I know the students broke the rules and 2 wrongs don't make a right, however I agree with Shawn Van Walleghem.

Mr. Van Walleghem daughter is one of the students who took one of the videos and he stated what they did was a public service. Let's not shoot the messenger okay!

The Scientific Method

The Scientific Method

1. Ask a question
2. Make a educated guess (hypothesis)
3. Check (Test)
4. The Results
5. Share with others (Conclusion)

Sometimes you just never know what you are going to find at the dollar store! Yesterday I went to the local Dollar Superstore, because I got a tip that they had these science kits there for $1! That's right $1!! The science kits are made by Harcourt School Publishers. I've looked through several of Harcourt websites but I could not find the product: Science Inquiry Tool Kit ISBN 0-15-3457104. 

When searching I found people selling the kits on ebay for about $10. Which is funny seeing I got the same kit for $1. When I enter in the ISBN number into Google I found a site that suggested the kit be apart of the 3rd grade science supplies. The item was called "California Science Inquiry Kit". It has the exact ISBN number so I assume it's the same kit, just a slightly different name. The kit was listed for $23.75 on that site.

The publisher of the California Science Inquiry Kit is Harcourt. So that's why I also assume it's the same kit. Same publisher, same ISBN, must be the same kit even though the name is slightly different: "Science Inquiry Kit" vs "California Science Inquiry Kit". 

Either way I got a great price on this item and the kids have been having fun with it. Seeing they were $1 each I went ahead and bought 2 of them, one for each kid. Today they have been using the scientific method and testing all kinds of things.

They have use the Scientific Method and several of the items in the kits to:

• prove what items are heavier or lighter
• to exam the white hair found on my back. (Thankfully it was the dogs hair)

That's just a few of the things they have done, they also have taken out the magnifying box and hand lens to look at different things. I'm surprise that they haven't asked to use the new magnifying lens to burn paper.

What where these teachers thinking?

Mark Shea was right to label this post reason #239729328992239847239 to homeschool. The SHOCKING video which student's are calling "Two Teachers One Chair" was taking during the school's prep rally. The video is NOT something you are going to watch with the kids in the room!

In the video the female teacher is setting in a chair she throws her head back and thrust her one leg out as the male teacher continues to dance over her. The female teacher at one points even slaps the male teacher's behind. If that's not enough the icing on this shocking cake is that the male teacher dipped his head down between the female teacher's legs to simulate oral sex. The female teacher has been identified and has been suspended without pay. They are still trying to identify the male teacher.

How many students seen this? Well according to the article about the video over 100 students witness this; some were as young as 13.

T/H: Catholic and Enjoying It!

UPDATE: I have seen NOW there is a clearer video of what took place. I know there is no question on the video I linked above, but this is a clearer video. I didn't know if I really should embedded it here, but then again I thought it might be good for those of you that don't really want to click over to other sites. AGAIN watch with caution this is NOT for the kids!!!

UPDATE: The male teacher has been identified as Adeil Ahmed. He just started teaching at the school. Students described Ahmed as a fun and popular math and science teacher. One student also stated that he, Ahmed, just graduated last year from university.

UPDATE: You'll notice that if you go to play the ABOVE video that it has been pulled and no longer available on YOUTUBE. However some of the dance can still be seen on MSN site and The Globe and Mail Site. (Both are news sites).