Let it Snow

Two days of snow!

Yesterday we drove up into the mountains with some friends, and enjoyed a day of sledding on Forest Service Property.

This morning, when we woke up, there was snow on the ground at our house! Enough for some sledding and snowball fights. Bonus!

Daily News!

[Mom note: Sam has been enjoying her new American Girl Doll "Kit". Kit is a budding journalist, so Sam has decided that she is too. This morning we did a lesson about Ben Franklin and talked about his early career as a printer. Dad read out loud to both the kids in bed. During play time, Sam decided to write her own newspaper, on the typewriter. The charm of the typewritten version doesn't translate to the computer, but here it is, un-edited (except the names)]

DAILY NEWS 11/20/07
Sam just got a Kit doll and is making a newspaper. Everybody else has a cold .
The morning walk was canceled because of ra--in. K-- is making chutney,
and sam,s room is off limets for her. C-----,s room is always off limits.
Everybody should start making Christmas lists. If anybody would like news report
ted, please write it down and deliver it to sam,s room, and put it in her mailbox
You should also start making Christmas presents. Hopefully today we will put up
our Christmas teree. When you are walki*Nng- through the house look for free bi
ns because near Christmas people are giving away lots of things.

WEATHER REPORT 11/20/07
Slightly rainy in midday, clou-ds rotate over the sun .
Probably more rain.

Almost 11!

But still my baby!



But still

Kill the Wabbit

We recently had a flurry of activity involving the kids running around the house singing "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, ..." over and over. We don't have cable TV, and we don't watch cartoons much, so, oddly enough, they were singing to the tune of Clementine. Now it is perfectly ok if they have never heard of the Constitution or what it means, but Bugs Bunny is an important part of our cultural heritage. One does not sing Kill the Wabbit to Clementine. I had to act to correct this behavior before it was too late. This inspired an internet trip that made a number of unexpected connections.

We started with a visit to Youtube to view the original copyright infringed version of "What's Opera, Doc?" the source of the Kill the Wabbit song performed to the most famous tune from Wagner's Ring. We then found a site with clips from the opera itself and found and listened to the piece in question, the melody from The Ride of the Valkyries. Having established that some guy named Wagner wrote the music, we tried to find out more about him. That's when we started making connections.

Our next stop was at Wikipedia where we learned about Wagner and his famed opera: up to five hours with no intermission, he invented instruments to expand the orchestra, and his struggles to build an opera house suitable for this work. In reading about the story, we discovered our first connection. We are reading The Lord of the Rings, and we found out that Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is derived from some of the same mythology as The Lord of the Rings and has some similarities to the Tolkien story.

Our next connection came when we read about the music. Wagner relied heavily on the use of leitmotifs to guide the listener through the story. Leitmotifs are musical themes that correspond to themes, events, or characters in the story. Our oh-so-close-to-home examples are the themes used by John Williams in the music to Star Wars. We have the movies and soundtrack, and now Sam is learning the Imperial March (Darth Vader's theme) on the piano. I don't know if she'll be any more proud knowing it's a leitmotif.

Our final connection relates to our study of World War II, antisemitism and Adolf Hitler. It appears the extent of Wagner's antisemitism is debatable, but his writings and music were interpreted as supporting the views of the Nazis and Hitler, and Hitler promoted Wagner's music as supporting the Aryan ideal. Yuck. How about we leave the wabbit be?

I think that these kinds of connections are what make learning stick. We can spend an hour and a half researching on the internet including videos and music and get so much. Sure beats film strips.

More Trip Essay II

On our last essay post C got the heavy essay structure lesson, so this time it's Sam's turn. We went through her essay and thought about what she really talked about and worked on a better topic sentence and introductory paragraph.

DISNEYLAND VS. LEGOLAND

My family and I went on a trip to Southern California. We went to Crestline, the town where my family lived before I was born. We also went to Disneyland and Legoland. Disneyland and Legoland are both theme parks that are fun to visit.

At Disneyland there are some of my favorite rides. The Safari Ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, and It’s a Small World are rides that move you through a show. Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, Rocket Ride, Autopia, and the Mad Tea Party are rides that are based on motion. I hated the Indiana Jones ride because it was too swervy, loud, and spooky, so it made me sick.

Legoland was fun too, because we had never been there. My favorite ride was Knight's Tournament. It is an arm that you get harnessed on to and it spins you around and turns you upside down. Some other rides that I liked are Sky Rider, Kidpower Tower, Splash Battle, Skipper School, Pirates Ship, Fire Engine, and the Knights Playground. Volvo Driving School was much better than Autopia because you could go wherever you want. The Technic Coaster was awesome too. If you want to know what it's like, read my brother's essay.

Our trip to Southern California was awesome. We had lots of fun at Disneyland and Legoland, and I want to go there again.


C got a brainstorming assignment for his next essay. This morning we read the part of The Two Towers where Merry and Pippin meet Treebeard the Ent (tree creature). Treebeard explains that, in his language, his name is very long because it is a description of his very long life. We had a discussion about his frame of reference--his lack of mobility and long life--and about whether other cultures might use descriptive names. His assignment is to tell the story (or give the name of) an oak Ent living or growing on our property.

More Trip Essay

By C-Boy We had a very good time in Southern California. In Disneyland we did not have much fun, but the 7 rides called Pirates of the Carribean, Safari Ride, Thunder Mtn. Railroad, Star Tours, Autopia, the Monorail, and the Submarine ride were fun, but these 6 rides called Indiana Jones, Tarzan Treehouse, Rocket Ride, Tea Cups, Alice in Wonderland,and Its a Small World were either boring, hokey, or overexiting. In Legoland I liked all rides except Skyrider, Skipper School, and the Joust. Let me tell you about my experience on the Technic Roller Coaster. First there’s a steep uphill then you switchback and ride a steep downhill and identical uphill then seven switchbacks then a steep downhill and another switchback then another downhill into the station. In southern California we had a lot of fun.

Disneyland vs Legoland

We had lots of fun in Southern California.

We went to Crestline, Disneyland and Legoland. In Disneyland there are some of my favorite rides. They are the Safari Ride, Pirates of the Caribean, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Autopia, Star Tours, Rocket Ride, Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, and Its a Small World. I hated the Indiana Jones ride because I got sick on it. Legoland was fun too, because we had never been there. My favorite ride was Knight's Tournament. It is an arm that you get harnessed on to and it spins you around and turns you upside down. Some other rides that I liked are Skyrider, Kidpower Tower, Splash Battle, Skipper School, Pirates Ship, Fire Engine, and the Knights Playground. Volvo Driving School was much better than Autopia because you could go wherever you want. The Technic Coaster was awesome too. If you want to know what it's like, read my brother's essay. Our trip to Southern California was Awesome.

By "Sam".

Children's Fantasy Trip

"Mom, when are we going to Legoland? You promised we'd go!" Said my son, several months ago. And, he was right. I first promised about two years ago, and then, last February, we were scheduled to go, and plans changed. Since he's going to turn 11 in January, we'd better go soon, I figured. Dad is a good sport, so he's along for the ride, trying very hard not to tally the indulgent spending.

Yesterday we headed south, towards Crestline, where we lived for almost 3 years, a decade ago. The kids have heard a lot about the town, that is where we lived when my son was born, and also where we acquired our two cats. We stayed Monday night with friends who moved there from Santa Cruz one week after we moved back to Santa Cruz. It was nice to reconnect with them and their kids. I'm posting photos here of their lovely dog "Ginny" but forgot to ask if we could post pics of the kids, so we won't.

Then we headed for the American Girl Place in LA. Sam has been obsessing about this visit for the last six months. She has studied every item on their web pages, and sent out her Christmas "Wish list" to anyone she can. Her mother, on the other hand, has been appalled at the strength of the marketing machine. Upon arrival at the mothership, however, I also fell under the spell, and purchased a "Kit" for K (Sammi). I couldn't help it. Her expectations were so low, she was so enamored, and the look of disbelief when I offered to buy it was so overwhelming! "Is this a dream? Or is this really happening?" she said as she clutched her new doll. I was conflicted in being so proud of her sweetness, and ashamed of depriving her by my cheapskatedness.

Then, we headed to Anaheim. We commented on how warped the road. Hmmm. Was it really the road? Turns out, it was the tire, which failed in a bizarre way, causing the unsteady ride. When we landed at the Motel 6, we spent the evening schooling & feeding the kids, purchasing new tires at Costco, shopping at TJoes, getting settled. C has been obsessed with his planned visit to Legoland, and the purchase of Bionicles with the $$ he has saved over the past month (he sold some Star Wars stuff on ebay, washed the dog and saved his allowance). Exhausted as we all were, we had to go to Downtown Disney (at 10PM!) to visit the Lego store. He bought Toa Mahri, all 6 models. I asked the kids, again, if there was anything they'd like to do in Anaheim. K said "we should find a nice park to spend the day in". Sheesh.

Tomorrow we are off to Disneyland. (We finally spilled the beans on the surprise. So many hints, and they didn't figure it out?!) I hope we can tear C away from his Bionicles long enough. He seemed truly conflicted when I asked him if he'd rather stay at the hotel and play with them.

Thursday is Legoland, then we'll head home on Friday.

I'm so proud of both of them, they are so uncorrupted by expectation, and grateful for what they get. Its nice to be able to spoil them.

[the slideshow has photos of our drive south, including the kids with Joshua Tree, and views of the famous Cajon Pass rail route, and Silverwood Lake, then photos of Ginny the Dog at the M's house, photo of our old house in Crestline, views from the top of the rim, looking down on San Bernardino, then photo of the the "A" restaurant, and picture of the kids standing where I first found our deceased cat "whiner" 14 years ago. The rest are self explanatory]

Our Whinona

C: Our cat Whiner was a very good but tough cat. We think that she died from kidney failure. She died this morning. Last night Mom took her from under the armoir, and into bed. She got under the bed, and died several minutes after mom brought her on top. I saw death, and felt terrible. I then remembered how long a life she had and felt better. She lived in Crestline, Coast Road, Big Basin, and here. The end.

Sam: Whiner was a lovable cat. We got her in a shopping center parking lot. She used to be mean, but as soon as she got love she found out it's true meaning. We loved her truly and she was my sister. I love Whiner.

Mom: One day, shortly after Dad and I got married in 1994, we had a discussion about getting a cat. Dad wanted a mature male, yellow, tabby cat. But when I saw a loudly whining, black, female, kitten in the parking lot at Goodwin's in Crestline, I forgot all about his criteria! We named her Whinona because she was such a vocal cat. A few months later I hit the mark a little closer, when I brought home a young, female, tabby from campground 76 at Silverwood. The two cats became close, but Whiner always ran the house, and dominated all of the animals, even the dogs.

When we lived at Coast Road, she would follow us on hikes through the brussel sprout fields to the beach. When we lived at Big Basin, she would follow us on the trails if we didn't shut her in. Even here, in our new house, I'll miss her following me around as I worked in the garden, and seeing her sleeping on the shelf attached to the south end of the house ("the cat deck").

She and Lulu used to run circles around the house, chasing each other. She used to act friendly to all of my friends, then scratch and bite them (even when they were warned!). For many years, we tried to find her a home in an old barn somewhere, but no luck. This past year she finally became a nice, lovable cat, and Sam enjoyed having her on the back of the piano when she practiced. Since she couldn't get a new kitten, she adopted Whiner as her "kitten" and spoiled her terribly. She had to have surgery last month and we've spent a lot of time nurturing her since, knowing that she didn't have much time left. So, we all had a chance to say goodbye to her. She was in a lot of pain over the last few days. But, I'll miss her, too.

Dad: What I'll remember most about Whiner is how smart she was. Intelligence is a very desirable trait in a dog, because is enables your loyal friend to do wonderful things for you. Of course your cat won't do anything for you that doesn't do more for her, so the cat's intelligence is used for it's own benefit.

So many of Whiner's alienating, infuriating, but endearing tendencies came from her creative use of her walnut-sized brain. Whiner truly did follow us around, especially when cruising for opportunities. She left no bowl of milk or stick of butter unmolested, and I truly miss her vulture pose as she watched me eating my cereal in the morning. I really don't miss the way she would claw at the edges of whatever newspaper, book, or magazine was lying on the bedside table at five in the morning to ensure that her cereal dregs wouldn't be late. I can tolerate the news that it's time to get up from an alarm clock, but it's hard to take from a cat who scratches and bites. Nonetheless, I miss her skinny rump in my face.

We held a touching ceremony to bury Whiner with written wishes for her journey in the afterworld. Kind words were said, poignant music was played, and a baby redbud was transplanted above her grave to mark the spot. Farewell Whinona, orphan cat of California.

Buttons

I got these buttons from a box of buttons that Mom has had for quite a long time. Some of them, which are now stuck to a paper, are antiques. Two of them are the Dutch republic's coat of arms. They say on them "Je Maintiendrai" which means "I will maintain" which is the motto of the house of Orange and Nassau, the royal family of the Netherlands.

We also have a Zodiac button, with a Centaur, somehow flying across the moon, with his bow aimed at something.

We also have another button with two dragons, with joined wings and tails, with a coat of arms, with no words or symbols on it.

We also have a black button, with an eagle carrying an anchor. On the back it says it was made in Waterbury (not pictured). Waterbury is a city in Connecticut that many troops came from in WWII. The button was manufactured there by Scovill, from 1850-1960. We don't know what year it was made.

From C

Bubbling and Burning

We recently did three chemistry experiments to supplement our reading about matter.

First, we dissolved a nail in hydrochloric (muriatic) acid. We diluted the acid with about 50 percent water and put it in a clear glass jar. It took about two weeks for the nail to dissolve. Here's what we observed and learned.

C: At first we saw the nail bubbling and the vinyl coating was separating from the nail.

Sam: The nail was shiny. After five days the green vinyl was really peeling from the nail, and there were few bubbles. The nail was grey and dull, the water had turned black and smelled like burnt rubber. We took off the lid to see if it would make more bubbles. It didn't.

C: The liquid was bluish and there was black stuff on the bottom and floating on top. In the end there was nothing but blue liquid.


Where did the nail go?

Sam: It melted kind of...dissolved. It was in the water.

What made the smell?

C: Rusting and stuff. (Sam: The gases.)

We discussed the idea of a chemical reaction and pointed out three big points:

The total number of atoms of each element is the same before and after the reaction. All the metal is still there, but it's in the acid or the black stuff.

The form of the matter may change. The hydrogen from the HCl is gas or water now. The iron is no longer in the form of a nail.

Heat may be created or absorbed. Not applicable this time.


Our next experiment was about the reactivity of various metals in muriatic acid.

We put different metals in test tubes with muriatic acid (Dad did this part).

Sam: We observed that the lead and copper had not done anything in the acid. The aluminum was overflowing with bubbles, so we had to pour it out into our safety bucket of water. The steel made tiny bubbles, and the zinc was bubbling but not too much.


C: The zinc made much bubbles at first but then stopped once the zinc had been completely eaten away. (We used a galvanized nail and it had been stripped down to the steel.) Aluminum is extremely reactive in acid.

For the second part of our experiment we neutralized hydrochloric acid with baking soda.

C: I called this part HCl + NaHCO3 = Useless goop.

Dad: We had generated a small amount of waste acid that we needed to dispose of safely.

Sam: We used a test tube with acid and distilled water.

Dad: We used a pool test kit to check the ph of our acid as we gradually added baking soda. We noticed that adding baking soda made bubbles. When the acid was neutralized we didn't get many bubbles any more. We used the same technique to neutralize the leftover acid from our nail experiment.


Our third experiment was called Properties of Materials when Heated/Setting Things on Fire.

We used a propane torch to heat small samples of materials and wrote down our observations. We tested many materials. Here are our favorites.

C: Copper made green flame and melted into a blob on the end of the wire. Using a fat wire didn't work. We had to use a super-duper skinny wire.


Sam: My favorite was steel wool, because it made fire works. It made sparks and orange flame.


C: I liked the brass tea strainer because it acted much like the thin copper wire. It made a green flame but didn't melt.

Sam: Baking soda melted, but baking powder burned. They both made orange flames, and the baking powder had a burnt carbon smell.

Dad: Most of all we thought about the different ways we could make observations. No garages were harmed in performing this experiment.

C: We had a lot of fun with this experiment, and if you try it I bet you will too.

Writing Assignment

In the last two weeks, Grandma C took the kids to the Santa Cruz Mission, and then to Yosemite, to learn more about Native Californians. Next week we are going to Chaw'se Indian Grinding Rock to learn more. We have been reading some of the pamphlets they picked up, and The Ohlone People of Central California, an educator's guide, by Douglas Petersen and Linda Yamane, and some articles off of the internet about current California Indian Cultural issues. For example, we talked about how some of the modern Ohlone community is trying to get recognition from the Federal Goverment, and why they can have different laws on Indian land.

We studied creation stories, housing, regions, marriage traditions, games, food staples and gender roles. They each wrote some comparisons between Miwok and Ohlone traditional cultures.

Sam: The Ohlone are Indians that live on the coast. They believe that they were created by hawk, crow and hummingbird out of clay. Also, different tribes of Ohlone speak eight different languages. An interesting fact is that there are sometimes 500 people in one village. They have awesome tule houses that can hold 10 or 15 people. Their square acorn granaries are made from tule too! They have an outside dance place and an inside ceremony place. That is a few facts about Ohlone Indians.

The Miwok are Indians that live in the Sierra Nevadas, on the coast, and in the valley of California. They believe that they were made by Coyote out of sticks. Instead of having a separate dance place than their ceremonial place, they had them together in a ceremonial roundhouse.

C: The Ohlone and Miwuk are alike and different in many ways. First, they make acorn mush the same way (more on that later), and are both tribes of Native American people. Secondly, the Miwuks have houses of bark, whiel the Ohlones have reed housing. Third, the Miwuk have covered granaries while the ohlone have mere baskets. Last but not least, the Miwuk thought they used to be crows while the Ohlone thought that they are made from rocks, black dye and clay. These two tribes are alike and different in many ways.

Reading Journal Essays

Dad: Here are a couple of essays the kids wrote about their reading. We do these in stages. First, we brainstorm about them in the journals. C likes to use Venn diagrams to look at similarities and differences. From the brainstorming we look for a theme and topic sentence. The next day we make a rough draft. If necessary we rewrite. Finally, I type theme verbatim into the computer, and the kids type their own corrections.

Sam wrote about Tuck Everlasting...

Winnie Foster is the main character of Tuck Everlasting. She is a cheery, eleven year old girl. She has brown hair and blue eyes. She is very nice. Since her parents won't let her out of their yard, she ran away to the forest. In the forest she met Jesse Tuck. Jesse was drinking out of a spring. Winnie wanted some too, but Jesse said that she should not drink it because it was dirty. The real reason was you wouldn't grow if you drank it.

C compared and contrasted the attacks of the parties of Frodo Baggins and Bilbo Baggins by wargs (large evil wolves) in the Tolkien books.

Frodo and Bilbo are hobbits that each went on long and scary adventures and were attacked by wild wargs. The tactics and results of the battles were similar, but the battles were different in the reasons that the wargs attacked and the ways that the companies escaped the battles.

These battles were similar in that the wargs were frightened by fire. Gandalf, the wizard, used his staff to make fires that scared the wargs away. Also, the battles were both very minor and short but fierce.

The reasons for the battles and how the companies fought were the ways that the battles were different. The wargs attacked Bilbo and company because of the death of the Great Goblin who was decapitated by Gandalf, so it was an attack of revenge. The wargs attacked Frodo and company because of the birds that were sent by the dark wizard Sauron to find the company. Bilbo and company fled up trees and were rescued by eagles. Frodo and company fought the wargs using Frodo's sword Sting, Gandalf's sword Glamdring, a dwarf axe belonging to Gimli, Legolas' bow and arrows, and Strider's sword Anduril.

The battles with wargs were only small hurdles to jump over in the major races of adventures that Frodo and Bilbo's companies ran.


Dad: We are working on the idea of using topic sentences. C wants to just spill the facts, so much effort went into finding general ways of describing the similarities and differences to create a topic sentence that is juicier than "The battles are the same and different in many ways." C and I spent a lot of time on the mechanics of the essay: topic sentence and detailed supporting paragraphs with topic sentences of their own.

Santa Cruz Mission

We went to the Santa Cruz Mission and met our friends R, D, J and Twins. They thanked us for the trail-a-bike, and we found the flag, which D had been playing with, and had lost somewhere.

Then we went to a presentation about the Mission foods. First, we had two-rock acorn mush. It was called two-rocks to cook this batch, but it would usually take 3 or 4. We got to taste the acorn mush, in little paper cups with our fingers. It was really good, but the cups were really bad for the environment (because they are disposable).

Here is how you make acorn mush: First, you take the shells off the kernels, then you crush the kernels, then you did a hole in the riverbed and line it with leaves, and then you let it soak, then try a tiny bit, if its still bitter, let it go a little while longer, then keep trying it until its no longer bitter, then scoop it out into a basket, add water and stir. Then, if you have had rocks cooking in the fire for a few hours, then you use those and put them in the basket and stir them around. That will cook it. As soon as it is fully cooked (who knows how many rocks it will take) then you take the rocks out. And then eat it.

I am not sure how the man made the bread. But, he put it the hornita and put soaked burlap on the lid. And then, you put the lid on the hole, and then you put the handle of a hoe in the handle of the lid, and kick the blade as far in the ground as you can, and that will make sure it stays in.

The Ohlone were the indians who lived in Santa Cruz.

Where's George?

http://www.wheresgeorge.com/

Sam: Where's George is a website that you go to and type in the code on your dollar, and then you click "submit" and see where your dollar has been.

C: You stamp a bill with a stamp and its got clear rubber pad stuck to a sticky thing, and the ink is red and it says "see where I've been, track where I go next www.wheresgeorge.com".

Sam: We found about it when Tory's dollar had it stamped on it. We typed it into wheres george.com and found out that we were the first to receive it. It was from Pacifica.

C: On Wheres George dot com, there was a story about this weird guy who really liked doing where's george, and he would stamp like crazy and he stamped almost three quarters of a million dollars.

Bike Ride Aftermath

Dad: We did our bike ride aftermath project before math (and before geography too). We printed out the map of the bike trails we rode on, and the kids traced the path that we rode on. We brainstormed on all the things we saw or stopped and did along the way, and the kids each picked out three to write about.

Sam: We saw a cement mixer pouring cement on the sidewalk. The cement was too dry, and the guys could not get the cement out. Then we went past a tree trimmer. Because it was too big for the trail , we had to get off the bikes. Then when we got on the Iron Horse trail, we saw a waterfall with a heron and two snowy egrets.

C: Tiger was a cat who loved the front tire of Dad's bike. Lunch at Trader Joe's consisted of a ham sandwich lunch kit. The water fall was a huge concrete wall that water poured over, and there were two egrets and a heron.

Dad: We spent some time on the Internet looking at the CalFire incident report website and some incredible satellite photos of the fires on a NASA website. The photos give a really good perspective of how large the fires are and how extreme the winds are. Check out: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ Click on the "Natural Hazards" link and then click on the flame icon over California on the map that comes up. The most current of the photos will show first, but there are links to previous photos, so you can see how the fires have evolved over the past week. It looks like there is lots of other interesting material on the website also.

Finally, we tried watching the first episode of an older BBC series titles "Civilisation" that I checked out of the library. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This was too dry for the kids and seriously out of date. It would be an awesome example for high school or college kids of a rigidly eurocentric point of view.

Contra Costa Bike Trails

Dad: While riding bikes on the Contra Costa Canal Trail, my son tells me: "I don't ever understand that Nonsequitur comic." In the homeschool business this is what they call a "teachable moment". He had read the comics in the car a couple of hours earlier. I'm always glad to know the wheels are turning in there even if I don't often know what's being processed. Now he knows what nonsequitur means, and I hope he is comforted in knowing that nobody else understands the comic either.

We had lunch at Trader Joe's and Starbucks in Concord and discussed our Eureka moments for the day.

Sam: My Eureka moment is that when you're riding your bike you can feel the wind on your face, but if you turn your face sideways, you can't.

We pondered that maybe your face is most sensitive or that maybe the sound in your ears lends to the feeling.

Dad: When you look forward, you feel the wind on your face--when you turn your face sideways, you feel a tree crashing into you.

C: My Eureka moment is Dad's joke.

Mom: My son says he never wants to live in a city. There's not enough space, and you can't just let your dog out to go for a walk by itself.

Our Llangollen Narrowboat Trip

Bilbo's and Frodo's Journies- By C

Bilbo and Frodo were alike and different in many ways. First, the both of them had been started off by Gandalf. Secondly, both of them had help from elves. However, Frodo's journey was to destroy the ring, wheras Bilbo's journey was to collect treasure. Last but not least, Bilbo was helped by Beorn and Frodo was helped by Barleyman Butterbur, Tom Bombadil, the Lady Goldberry and Aragorn a.k.a. Strider. The journies of Bilbo and Frodo were similar in many ways.

Magnetic Field of a Bar Magnet

Magnetic Field of a Bar Magnet, By Sam

Apparatus:
Aluminum cooking pan
2 bar magnets
Canon Camera
Scotch Tape
Paper
Steel Brads
Electric Toothbrush
Filings

Instructions:
Tape 1 bar magnet to pan
Put 1 brad in pan
Turn brad to WE, it won't work, it turns to NS
Then put a handful of brads on pan
Take electric toothbrush
Turn electric toothbrush on
Place electric toothbrush hard on pan
Keep pushing and see what happens

Observations
What happened with the brads is they take shape of the magnetic force and make an awesome pattern. What happened with the filings is they do the same thing but they are smaller and don't get clumped up as much. Why it happens is the magnetic force pulls the iron onto itself and they stay

Observations from C:
Brads make circular patterns in pan when vibrated.
Iron filings will make cross section of a magnetic field.

Mom's Eureka Moments

Since we've gotten back from our trip, I've been spending a lot of time sorting photos. Over 4,000 of them! Still working on that project, and I'll be posting some small slideshows from different parts of the trip.

We've all been settling into a steady school routine, a little more conservative and traditional than we've been. I think we are all feeling the need to get back in a routine and maybe play a little "catch-up?". The kids have been working out of several textbooks, and have been attending workshops.

"The Dad" and I were both talking yesterday about what a good attitude "the boy" has had lately about school, music, cleaning his room, everything. Its been neat to see him get focused, and take pride in his accomplishments. It feeds on itself. Watching that unfold has been a Eureka Moment for me this week.

I haven't been pushing too many special projects this week (except the croissant project, which turned out well, but we all--even the kids--were feeling a bit sick from eating too much, and that was only two each!) It has been wonderful to see the kids generate their own special projects. "Sam" read her social studies chapter this morning, about the California Indians, and went outside to find acorns. She wants to make acorn mush for herself. C found a rusty bolt in the fire pile and wanted to rehabilitate it. He looked it up on the internet, and asked if he could have some oxalic acid. . . that was re-directed (who has that around the house, anyway?) and now they are disolving a nail in muriatic acid (from the pool).

When they ask us something we don't know the answer to, we tell them to look it up. We used to get a lot of "aw mom!", but lately they seem to just go to the computer and look it up! Very exciting!

Croissant Fun Part 1

Sam: We started to make croissants, but they take 3 days, and I'm really craving croissants right now.

C: We used milk, and yeast, and flour, and sugar, and salt, and butter.

Sam: Mainly, you just put all the ingredients in a bowl, then you knead it, then you put it in the fridge for 5 hours, to get the dough cold.

C: Because it would relax the gluten.

Sam: The slide show explains the steps we did to make it.

C: The slides at the end with mini-people show kneading, but not with real people. We made the table and the dough and put the clothes and shoes on. And the boys-- we cut their hair to make them not girls anymore.

Sam: We are going to post some more later.

C: We are using the Village Bakers Wife, the Gayle's recipe.

Yoplait

Sam: Mom made homemade yogurt. How you do it is you boil milk, then you take some vanilla bean, some sugar, put both of those in, then you put it on a heating pad, and put the heating pad at 100 degrees. Also you put two teaspoons of store bought yogurt, so that it puts some good bacteria in, and makes it taste like yogurt. The bacteria eats the lactose (milk sugar) and makes the milk into yogurt.

I like homemade yogurt more than store bought yogurt because it tastes sweeter.

Food

Money, Money, Money

C: They had "pound" (£) coins that were as big as quarters, but really thick and they were gold colored and worth two dollars. The smallest paper notes in the UK were £5 notes. The coins worth the most were the £2 coins, and the notes worth the least were the £5 notes.

Mom bought me a pair of new shoes, that cost £20, but they were really $40.

An exchange rate is how much American money exchanges for foreign currency. The exchange for UK money is $2 to £1. And for $1.50 you get a Euro.

Sam: You should try to spend all of your money, because if you don't spend it, there isn't really much you can do with it. When we went back to England from France, I exchanged 5 Euros (€) to my Mom, for £3.50.

The money looked very different, because it was fatter, and made out of two different kinds of metal sometimes.

This is the Pound symbol: £
This is the Euro symbol: €
This is the Dollar symbol: $

Comments

Just a note to say that we've disabled the comments section, and added an email link to us at the bottom of the page.

For one thing, it turns out that I'd mistakenly put the wrong email address for comment verification, which explains why many were not getting through. (It doesn't explain why some of them were, however).

An additional reason, is that comments sections are really intended to generate a discussion among viewers, which isn't relevant here.

We are back at home, recovering, and will be posting a few more follow-up postings about the trip, as we decompress.

Stonehenge and Avebury

C: I didn't really like Stonehenge that much, because we didn't get to go in, and Dad wouldn't let me climb up on the fence so I could see it.

Dad: Climbing on the fence didn't make it any easier to see Stonehenge.

C: Avebury was actually kind of cool, because it had this really shiny white and light green path made out of limestone (the pale green was from sheep poop). We ran around and played Robin Hood. The rocks were not that interesting because we weren't allowed to climb on, and anyway, they were impossible to climb on. They were too steep.

Sam: At Avebury there were big hunks of sheep poop on the ground, and it stinks like crazy. I really don't know how they got the stones there.

C: Well, the prehistoric people tied vines to the big rocks, and dragged them, which made the big ditches.

Mom: Is that your theory?

C: Yup. That's my hypothesis.

Mom: Is it testable?

C: No, not really. We don't have the really long-ago guys. But that's just my hypothesis, so if you don't believe it, you don't have to.

Mom: Did you want to say anything about coming through customs?

C: And when we came back into the US, they had to wash our shoes because it might have hoof and mouth disease, or something else.

Mom: One of the questions on the customs form was "Have you recently been through sheep or cow pasture?". Our answer was "yes" and when the customs agent saw all of the sheep poop still on our shoes, he said we were entitled to a free shoe cleaning! It took about 30 minutes for the Homeland Security officers to hand-scrub all of our shoes.

(Oh, and you might wonder why we deprived our children of the experience of going inside to see Stonehenge. The reason is this: We could see it perfectly well from the road for free. If you paid the $12 each to get in, you got to walk on the boardwalk around it, not much closer that from the fence, and it was very crowded with tourists and tourbuses. We thought we'd get just as much out of seeing from the road, and the kids would enjoy Avebury better because they could run around inside, and touch the stones. We, the adults, did wonder why, with the publicity surrounding the hoof and mouth outbreak, a world heritage site is sending worldwide visitors home with sheep poop souveirs. We are researching this for a future entry (and home-school topic, of course!)

What is the Magna Carta?

C: We went to the Salisbury Cathedral and saw a copy of the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta is an old piece of cow hide that has a bunch of latin writing on it, that says that the king needed to give the noble people some rights. Its about 800 years old. Its important because it is still in use today, and its really old. It was the first agreement to make a significant change in the way the aristocracy was treated. It said people had certain rights. It said the king couldn't take away their land, and couldn't tax them as heavily. It also said that if someone broke the law they would get a trial. It only applies to those landowners.

Roman Baths at Bath

What is a Lock? And how do they work?

Written by Sam & C:
A lock is a boat elevator that brings narrow-boats up or down a hill. A lock uses water to lift boats up or down like an elevator. Locks are needed because most boats cannot handle rapidly moving water. We know about locks because our family has been narrow boating and have used two locks: once up, and once down .We are giving an example of how to a pilot a boat down hill using a lock.

To explain how to operate a lock we will give you this excellent procedure. A lock is mostly a channel with gates at each end. It also has valves at each gate to let the water in and out. This procedure explains how to move a boat downstream through a lock. If the upper gate is closed, then close the lower gate and open the upper gate valves to fill the lock. Then open the upper gate. Once the upper gate is open, or if it already was open, drive in. Then close the upper gate and make sure the upper gate valves are closed. Open the lower gate valves to lower the boat and then close the lower gate valves. Open the lower gate and drive the boat out.

Locks are important because they move boats up and down hills. Canals were used to bring goods out of the hills and locks were used to bring boats in and out of the hills.

[The photo of the boat stuck in a lock was one we saw in the paper. It sunk when part of it got stuck in the lock, allowing the front to tip down into the water and fill up.]

Our Walk to, from, and around Chirk Castle, including inside it

C: We walked up to Chirk Castle from the canal, then we went to the visitor center and got tickets and waited there. It had chickens. One of them was like a big ball of fuzz, about 6” high, and about 6” long and about 6” fat. They had a hat that I really liked at the visitor center. It was a coarse wool, very small plaid, and it was a really nice hat. I know for a fact that I didn’t have enough money to buy it, for I only had 20p. I didn’t bother checking how much it cost.

Then we went to the Tea Room, and the scones were really good when they had butter and jam on them, but the tea was a little too strong. The room was an old place, and the wing that we were in had some old tub with some thing on the top, and two faucets. The room was inside the castle, so I guess we were pretty lucky to be able to eat scones and drink tea inside a 700 year old castle in eastern Wales.

We went on a tour, and there was a bunch of roped off old furniture, and candle things, and dishes and chandeliers and stuff. It was actually kind of interesting. And there were a bunch of paintings on the walls, and each had numbers, and you looked at the paper in each of the rooms that told you what they were. They were mostly portraits with ruffs around their necks. I don’t know how they could stand it, it must have been uncomfortable.

Then, we went to the family room and tried on a whole bunch of costumes of rich people, and there was a hat that was actually of the Gold Rush time-period style. In the first room there were shields. After we went to the family room we went to one of the towers, and there was even more dress-up stuff, and I dressed up in a leather jerkin and an odd hat.

The dungeon had a dirt floor, and on the dungeon staircase was a lower guard’s room. I think Sir Thomas had it good. He had a nice big room in the top of one of the towers. In fact, I got to run around the room.

On the way there and back, we walked through a bunch of pastures where cows and sheep live, and along the fence there was a lot of wool stuck in the wires, so we picked it off, and by the time we got to the boat, we each had a considerable amount of it. Loads of it was full of poop, and we decided it wasn’t worth it. The clean stuff we kept.

Towns so small, they aren’t even in the Frommer’s book

Mom: One of the benefits, I thought, about choosing to take a narrowboat trip in a rural area like this, was being able to see the small towns, and meet the real people and see how they live. Our guides for this trip have been a couple of narrowboat guidebooks I purchased on Amazon UK (not available in the US), and although they pointed out the towns where supplies could be purchased, and the location of pubs, there wasn’t really a lot of town descriptions. Exploring the towns as they came up was a lot of the fun, for me.

First, we visited Llangollen. The canal route there was challenging and dramatic with great scenery. The town offered a steam train ride, which allowed us to achieve one of C’s goals of the vacation, and he wrote about it in his blog entry. He seemed a bit annoyed that so many young train enthusiasts were so YOUNG (toddlers), but he seemed to get something out of it. The scenery was wonderful, and the conductor was extremely amiable.

The town of Llangollen, however, had the air of a busy tourist village. We visited an attic sale, with a few small treasures, but the bookstore was a tired, stinky, and expensive disappointment. The pub (The Bridge Inn) was a bit rowdy, due to a Rugby game being on, but the food & beer was good and the bartender helpful.

Chirk was a quiet town, not much of a welcome for tourists, with a bakery, butcher, and a couple of pubs on the main drag. Dad & I went in to town alone for a pub date, and stopped at the first one we found. Blaring loud pop music, and a somewhat disinterested bartenders, as well as some noisy drunk local youth. We spent some time walking around the town in the dark, and enjoyed the aquaduct in the moonlight.

[Note: On the way back, we spent another night in Chirk and expanded our view of the town. The Bridge Inn was very accomodating, and we improved our education of ale definitions, thanks to the friendly bartender. And our adventure to Chirk Castle was well documented by the boy in the next post! The walk up to it was a real highlight of the trip for me, through cow and sheep pasture, past old houses, but with views of the cadbury chocolate plant, and the lumber mill.]

I enjoyed Ellesmere. A bit larger than the others, but still a nice feel. We arrived for Market Day, Tuesday, and were able to purchase some nice produce, cheese, and meat pies (pasties & steak pie & sausage roll) from the merchants. The evening before we enjoyed a nice meal at the Lions Hotel, with some vegetarian choices, and decent beer. In the morning we took over the Laundromat and got caught up on clean clothes. These small towns observe traditional hours, most establishments are closed Sundays and evenings, and many often close for lunch as well. So we’d gotten far behind in our laundry duties over the weekend, and some of us were quite desparate.

Ellsemere has THREE charity shops, and all pretty well stocked, so we picked up a few small treasures here as well. Listening to the charity shop ladies interact with each other and the local clientele was a treat as well. After a walk to the Mere and its visitor center, feeding some of the ducks and geese, we had afternoon tea at the Corner House where we had things like Tea Cakes, Lemon Sponge with lemon sauce, hot tea and sandwiches.

Found out what “licensed restaurant” meant (liquor license). “Free House” is a pub that doesn't have a contract with any beer company, and carries many different ales. “Guest Ale” is a rotating ale outside the normal beer contract. “Real Ale” appears to be unadulerated, naturally carbonated ale pumped direct from the cask.

If you are looking for the best meat pies or pasties, skip the bakery, and head to the butcher shop.

The markets in the small towns, unlike in the US, have very reasonable prices on goods, it does not appear that a mark-up is added to take advantage of the "captive" customer base.

Lots of stores have signs reminding people to bring their own bags to save the environment, but we didn't see anyone doing this, and when we brought out our own bags, cashiers seemed to act like it was out of the ordinary.

We didn't spend much time in large cities, but we didn't see any large strip malls or mega-stores at all, with the exception of Tesco, which is like a super-store grocery store selling all sorts of food and dry goods. Evidence of Ikea was apparent all over Paris, and certainly in the apartment we rented and the place we stayed on the coast.

Its hard to get a good cup of coffee in the UK, although there are Starbucks in London & Paris. The kind of coffee we are accustomed to is called "filter coffee". If you order a coffee at most places, you'll get what we call an "Americano". In the hotel rooms (in the UK, we didn't stay at any hotels in France), you'll find an electric water kettle instead of a coffee maker.

We prefer tea, so we did quite well, thank you, however, most all places serve tea for sit-down only, and the few times we were in a hurry, we ended up going without.

Food was very expensive when we ate out, especially in tourist areas. By shopping and cooking for ourselves, we kept the food expenses reasonable. If it wasn't for the exchange rate, prices would be cheaper here than in the Bay Area (considering a 1:1, or even a 1:1.50 exchange, which hasn't been seen in a couple of years).

In the back of an electronics store in Ellesmere, we were able to plug in the laptop and access the internet, as well as have an interesting conversation with the proprietor.

All of these towns have many older brick commercial and residential buildings, and an ageless feel to them. Well tended yards and public areas. Not much litter or blight, which is not the case in the larger cities. And the prices of most goods seems lower. The food in, general, has been good, with lots of fresh choices, if a bit heavy.

Snips and Bits from the Last Week

Sam: Whistling, Kids Screaming

When we got on the train and the whistle started, kids screamed and it broke my eardrums!

C: Today, Mom got me a glider and two parts of the front broke, but I fixed it with tape, and it’s a good toy.

It was my job to do the drawbridge on the canal, and my job to pull the ropes. I ran ahead with the drawbridge turn device, and there was an old valve that I decided to crank, and BAD IDEA. As soon as I did, Dad blew his head off. He said it probably diverted water down the hill from the canal. Dad tried to turn it back in place.

Sam: As we were riding, we passed mom and dad duck with 10 or 11 little ducklings. They were brown, black and brown with blue. Then later when we stopped, we saw the Dad and I opened the window and saw them outside and Mom actually picked one up. When they jumped up to get bread you’d think their beaks would bit and pull, but it didn’t, it was just like opening your hand and doing the jabbering sign and it felt the same.

Aquaducts, Viaducts & Tunnels; 15 Miles on the Llangollen Canal

Dad: On Friday 21 September we started our one-week narrowboat holiday on the Llangollen Canal which straddles the border between Wales and England. We had flown from France to Liverpool, hired an automobile and overnighted in Chester, England. Chester contains an old walled city which we were unfortunately unable to experience because we were rushing to round up provisions for our boat holiday. Kimberly drove to Trevor, Wales (on the wrong side of the road, mind you) where we began our boat trip.

Our boat, the Saffron, is seven feet wide and approximately sixty feet long. If you’ve ever driven a boat you will undoubtedly appreciate the enjoyment of piloting this beast on canals that range down to six inches wider than the boat. Most places are wider, but maneuvering around moored boats and traveling boats is challenging. Speeds are limited to 3 miles per hour and creating a breaking wake is forbidden. Kim and I share the captain and first mate roles. The boat has all the comforts including the telly, but no internet.

The Llangollen Canal was built in the early 1800s to provide transport of raw and finished materials to the industries of the area. Iron works, slate and limestone mines, and a chemical plant were found locally. Similar canals were constructed throughout the UK to support the industrial revolution prior to construction of the railways. When the railways were built, the canals were largely abandoned until they started being refurbished for recreational use in the 1900s. The boats were originally pulled by draft animals on towpaths adjacent to the canals. The towpaths are now used for walking and biking, and boat users can hike along for a bit or bring their bikes tied on the top of the boat.

The biggest attractions and technical wonders of the Llangollen Canal are the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Chirk Aqueduct both designed by Thomas Telford noted as the greatest civil engineer of his time in Britian. The aqueducts are constructed of welded cast iron troughs supported by columns of locally quarried sandstone. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is 120 feet tall and 1,007 feet long and allows the canal to cross the River Dee Valley from Trevor to Chirk. It is eight feet wide, has a walking path with railing on one side, and nothing but the side of the iron trough on the other. It gives a top of the world feeling accentuated by the ultra-green valley and river below.

The Chirk Aqueduct is shorter in height and length, but a railroad viaduct constructed adjacent to the aqueduct and about 35 feet higher gives a striking experience of disorientation, scale and perception. The sense of height and vulnerability of being on the aqueduct, the imposition of the massive stone columns and arches of the railway viaduct, and the calm of the green pastures below is intensely otherworldly. Pictures can’t do it justice.

The canals also have hand operated locks and drawbridges.