4-H : focus on photography

Today Alexei and Ibis put the finishing touches on their 4-H project books in preparation for handing in at Thursday's County Council meeting. Once again I was completely impressed by their efforts and the broad range of activities in which they participated this year. I can't say it enough : if you homeschool, 4-H is a gold mine. This year Alexei continued his work in the photography book, took on the second book in the rabbit series, and completed his first year in the shooting sports air rifle project. Ibis finished her first year in the rabbit book and her first year in an online art project. Hands-on curriculum, opportunities for leadership and citizenship, and healthy competition were highlights of their 4-H year.

If you've never seen a 4-H project book in-depth, it may all sound foreign. Most of us can't get past the idea that 4-H is "only for farm kids" but if you are willing to look further, I can guarantee you will be amazed. The following are some details from Alexei's year studying 4-H photography, and I'll have future blog posts on the remaining projects (no really, I promise!) See for yourself what 4-H has to offer!

Within the photography project book, Alexei completed six activities. He learned focal composition, point of view, photo storytelling, tips for great photos, judging photographs, and using a flash. The book is set up journal-style with the opportunity to add photos, make notes, and answer follow-up questions for each activity. This was his second year using the same book; it contains 15 activities and he had to complete six or more per year.

Being in a leadership role is always one of Alexei's goals, and as a junior member he had to show leadership in photography one time during the year. In September he was elected to the position of chairman of the club historian committee, which basically means he coordinated the photographing of all of the club meetings, demonstrations, many of the workshops and activities, and the fair. We bought him a scrapbook in which to place all the photos taken by the historians and write down descriptions, and he brought the book to each meeting for club members to see and add photos to if they so chose. At the end of the year, he presented the scrapbook to the club leader.

4-H encourages citizenship and community service, both within the project area and outside of it. Alexei attended our local city council meeting during 4-H week, where the city made a 4-H proclamation. He represented the club and also took photos of the event for the club's scrapbook. Raiding our pantry every month to bring food for our club's food drive became a ritual. Never again will we have the opportunity to eat canned foods.

As part of each project, the kids must put together a demonstration and do a show-and-tell in front of others, typically at the club meetings. Alexei chose to bring in a poster of photographs he had taken showing how the effects of camera speed and aperture let light into the lens. He explained how slowing the speed and/or opening the aperture by lowering the f-stop let in more light for brighter photos. He encouraged everyone to try it at home to take better photos of their Christmas trees. Anyone not involved with cameras probably fell asleep during this speech, but I paid rapt attention :D

Another aspect of 4-H, and typically the most exciting for the kids (and adults!), is entering a project-themed item into the fair. Since there are photography classes this was an easy one for Alexei. He entered a photo story and four individual photos in the categories of people, plants, still life, and architecture. He won a Best in Class medal, two blue ribbons, two red ribbons, and $26 for his photography. Did I mention this was the most exciting part for the kids?

As the year winds down, each project book is combined with paperwork filled out by the kids citing all of the above activities, goals, project highlights and challenges, future plans, a financial list, photos from the year, and a short story summarizing the year. Then they're turned in and graded over the summer by club leaders, and in August all completed books by active 4-H members receive certificates with member and project area pins, and the high scores for each project earn medals. Alexei is hoping for a second photography medal this year!

Since he's gained so much confidence through his project activities, leadership roles, and competitive wins, he's planning on running for the County Council's club historian this coming year. Only time will tell!

a month in the life

Ironically one of the biggest thoughts family, friends, and complete strangers pelt me with on a regular basis concerns not the school part of homeschooling, but the home part. Thanks largely in part to television and sensationalism (oxymoron!), they envision us sitting around 24 hours a day isolating our kids from the rest of the world. Many people now understand that homeschooled kids are often academically ahead, but still we're accused of "not socializing our children," as though a typical school classroom is the answer to everyone's problems.

To better illustrate some of the social opportunities my kids were given this month, I thought I would list them out and include some photographs. Our lack of isolation is boldly apparent. This month included the local public school spring break with which our P.E. programs coincide, so the number of classes attended was a little less than usual.

As homeschoolers we had eighteen official gatherings in March:

we participated in seven homeschool P.E. classes

we visited a park with P.E. classmates seven times

our homeschool co-op hosted three book club meetings

we attended one field trip to a Civil War reenactment camp

As 4-H members some or all of my kids took part in three events in March:

we attended one club meeting

we participated in one county-level club meeting

Alexei competed in the (one) 4-H state air rifle competition

As a family:

we watched one Civil War battle reenactment

we witnessed the miracle of life when one of the kids' 4-H show rabbits had babies

As regular old kids living in a busy neighborhood:

we were guests at two parties

the kids played with their neighborhood friends on numerous evenings and weekends, interacted with siblings, went on shopping trips, took care of our leased horse, etc., etc., like any regular old kids do.

One thing my kids don't seem to lack is social opportunity. Contrary to belief, there's not really a lot of staying home involved in homeschooling!

homemade granola bars

I've been on a bit of a rampage lately trying to straighten out our eating habits. It seems like I can't get away from the horror stories online about preservatives, processed foods, the dangers of soy, and genetically modified grains. I've always been great about making desserts from scratch (my waistline bears testament to that) but I would buy whatever was on sale for the kids to snack on. Then I started reading ingredient lists and it all sounded kind of gross! I'm taking baby steps to healthier snacks, and granola bars were one of the easiest things I found to make; they are delicious. Like I have to restrain myself and remember that these are for the kids. And then I eat them anyway.

I found the basic recipe here for chewy granola bars and then read through a bunch of the comments and followed the ones that sounded credible. Less butter and melt it, add crisped rice for texture, cut the chocolate in half. I made a test batch and decided to cut the flour in half also, and the end result is almost identical to pre-packaged granola bars but I can spell what's in these. This version is soy and dairy free (less chocolate chips); my youngest is sensitive or allergic to soy and the boxed kind contains soy three times in the ingredient list.

I'm a very visual person and I actually wanted to see what was in each snack-sized portion, so this is exactly the amount of what's in each bar; I added chocolate chips to these but next time I want to try dried apples. I'll probably replace half the butter with applesauce and add a little cinnamon. So many possibilities!

Here was my final recipe:

1/2 cup butter
4 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup crisped rice
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup honey
1 cup chocolate chips (or other add-in, if desired)

1. Preheat oven to 325º and lightly grease 9 x 13 pan.
2. In a large bowl, melt butter in microwave. Stir in oats, crisped rice, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, vanilla, and honey until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Press tightly into pan and bake for 17-19 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately press bars down with the bottom of another pan until compressed down. Cool completely before cutting into 18 bars.

I roll each one up in a bit of plastic wrap so they're less tempting to eat like cookies (you know, by the handful ;) and then stack them in a sealed container in the pantry.

the child to travel ratio

We used to enjoy traveling quite a bit. It wasn't all luxury cruises, jaunts in our RV, and fancy day spas (okay, it wasn't ever any of those), but we loved exploring and tried to swing a trip as often as possible. These were the states we visited and/or occupied when we had one kid:

Clearly we're not cold weather people, but we got around. 

Then kid #2 came along and here's where we went:

Still not bad. A little closer to home but fun times were had by all. Everyone survived. 

Then kids 3 and 4 were born and here's where we went:

That whole travel thing just doesn't work anymore.

you can play with your own travel map here : http://www.visitedstatesmap.com/

trügen schmügen

I hate IKEA. Yes, I know, I can hear all the gasping from my throng of IKEA-loving friends right now, but I'm not ashamed to admit it. IKEA and I are incompatible. Fighting with the half-assembled loft bed snickering behind me on its smug little Swedish-exclusive parts has something to do with it, but there's more.

1. Once you enter IKEA, you are committed to IKEA. I've only been one time and it was with three small children in tow [see above], and a stroller. BIG mistake. It was like being trapped in a weird Groundhog Day-esque series of tiny little houses for years. I thought Ibis wasn't going to make it out alive. Call me claustrophobic.

2. We were there to purchase a cutting board. In spite of IKEA's Swedish claims, the cutting board we bought was made in China. I could have gone to Wal-Mart for that.

3. Yesterday we bought a cute little IKEA loft bed for Coral, and I figured we were okay on the whole I hate IKEA stance since it was "pre-owned" and we didn't have to go there. Got the thing home and it was missing six of the special dowel nuts that hold it together. Guess who uses dowel nuts pretty much exclusively? IKEA.

4. I hate meatballs.

update: we went to IKEA today and they gave us the replacement hardware for free, which was pretty cool; thankfully we had a store within driving distance


update update: I still hate meatballs

that again!?

Bedtime was swiftly approaching and Hobie's diapers were still cycling through the dryer. After quite the week with serious school struggles between myself and a certain Ibis, and a Monday holiday and Tuesday spent mostly away from home, I was running a little behind on the laundry. So Hobie was running around in the nude (like you've never had nude toddlers in your house) and I was enjoying a few minutes with facebook, reading all the happy success stories of my friends' kids doing happy successful things in their potties. I turned around and there was Hobie, standing over a suspicious brown lump on the rug, completely mortified. Of course he had no clue that said brown lump had been deposited there by he himself. Ten minutes later the initial spot on the rug, the other spot on the rug that occurred as he plopped down [ahem] still a mess to play while I was doing my best impression of a panicked octopus (the 8 legs part, not the ink part), Hobie, the changing table, and I were once again cleaned up and ready for take two. No pun intended.

let's pretend these are his Thomas jammies

His special night time diapers were finally dry and available for application. I ran the little streaker down and enticed him with the Thomas the Train pajamas that we bought several months ago, before he'd ever heard of trains. "Choo choo?" he asked tentatively. "Yep, choo choos!" Once wrangled on, he was again on the move. "Choo choo! Choo choo! CHOO CHOO!" Pointing right at the tv. No doubts on what he wanted. Thanks to Ibis and Coral he now knew that this amazing miraculous choo choo lived in the tv. Thank goodness it happened to be the ten minutes allotted on Sprout for Thomas. This is his first-ever request to watch tv; it was cute for about two seconds because I know this is only the beginning.

I am so not ready for another Thomas lover. Really I'm not.

Alexei, circa 2005

The best part of the night? Hobie was sitting on the couch fully absorbed in the tv when Ibis came out of her room, wanting to know what all the fuss was about. He looked right at her and yelled, "Iba! Bed!"

I guess Thomas is best watched solo.

where are you Christmas?

If you've spent 5 seconds with Coral, then you know all about her fondness for the Grinch. It began innocently enough in December of 2010 at the age of three, when she caught sight of Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas on tv. She watched it quietly, soaking it all in. The movie was stored in our DVR as we enjoyed a myriad of other shows leading up to the big day. Then Santa came, Christmas was packed away, and the rest of us moved along with the new year.

But not Coral. Oh, no. Some certain quality of this particular movie caught her attention, and it became her goal in life to soak up the wisdoms it had to offer.

First she wanted her hair up in braids like a Who.

Then in February, she turned four. In keeping with her stubborn, funny, spunky born-at-thirty-weeks-with-two-holes-in-her-heart-because-she-couldn't-be-just-anybody birth day way, she didn't want a Strawberry Shortcake party. She didn't want the previous year's Pooh Bear party. Not Barbie, not Sesame Street, not anything that could be had easily. Nope, she wanted a Grinch party. So we dragged the Christmas decorations back out of the garage; I drew a paper Grinch for pin-the-heart-on-the-Grinch and baked a (hideously ugly) Mt. Crumpit cake. She dressed in Cindy Lou Who fashion with her hair up and the house strewn with kooky musical toys. We even played Grinch the Donut because it seemed like something the Whos would do.

The months rolled by and the interest continued. By June we'd all watched the movie a hundred times. She had learned every song by heart, sworn she was growing her hair long so it could be styled like Cindy's, and let everyone within earshot know the true meaning of Christmas was love. She not only memorized practically every word from the movie, but she studied all of the behind the scenes footage, storing it away for her future career as a Who. And her Grinch collection started growing.

The beloved stuffed Grinchy, for whom I had to purchase a Santa suit (thank you craigslist):

the Cindy Lou Who necklace to match her Christmas bow and "candy cane" dress (in August):

a Grinch backpack from an Old Biddy at a yard sale (perhaps not one of *the* Old Biddies but maybe!):

and even a Cindy Lou Christmas cape, which she styled at co-op:

Whos go to school too, you know.

Early on she knew what she wanted to be for Halloween: Cindy Lou Who. The dress underneath was as close as we could get to looking like a Who dress without contacting Hollywood. As an added bonus, I discovered Etsy.

Unlike typical four-year-olds, she never once changed her mind. I was even roped into making a Max the dog costume for her little brother. She oversaw every minute detail from the eggnog hat to the fuzzy black shoes.

Soon the Fizz pheasant....err, I mean turkey leftovers were making their rounds, and Christmas merriment was here once again. Her grandparents brought her a tabletop Christmas tree for her room, and we found Grinch-themed ornaments for it. We surrounded the tree and held hands while singing Fahoo fores, Dahoo dores like the Whos. I'm not sure if anyone's heart grew three sizes that day.

She also represented our 4-H club in the Christmas parade. Bet you'll never guess what she wore!

A small problem arose: all she wanted from Santa was the real, live Cindy Lou Who. Unlike the other kids, she would glance at toy catalogs and smile and tell us, "No, nothing!" when we asked if she saw anything she wanted. We had several long discussions on how Cindy would miss her family terribly (her countering: bring them along too!) and she finally, finally agreed that it just wasn't practical to invite Lou, Betty Lou, Drew, Stu, and Cindy into a house already crammed with the six of us. So she set her heart on the Whoville snowflake instead. That was a seriously tall order for Central Florida.

Christmas morning came and Coral was beyond excited. Not only did we get her two Grinch play sets, but there was a very special copy of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas book from not just Santa but the Grinch, too! We'd scarcely finished opening gifts when she curled up happily with her book.

I don't know everything that will happen in 2012, but I'm pretty sure Coral's love of all things Grinch will continue. Her room still contains a Christmas tree, and a Cindy Lou stocking, and she sleeps with two Grinches, a Cindy Lou doll, a stuffed Max, and her real dog she named Max all cuddled together under her Christmas blanket. Cindy Lou is still her idol and she plans to move to California when she's grown up because she heard the Grinch lives there. I'm hoping he moves to Florida before she's eighteen.

Where are you Christmas? Right here in Coral's heart.