Swimming Success

Swimming is not optional for students at Homestead Lutheran Academy. It seemed to take forever for the Artist to get it, but eventually she did.

This summer she had an hour of private swim coaching time. I am very pleased that the coach declared her to be very coachable and a good swimmer. Endurance will come with practice. Getting that practice had been the problem around here.

The Engineer is showing improvement too. Today is his last lesson for the summer. He has progressed to the point where he will jump into the water, into his instructor's (a very patient man!) waiting arms. He is learning his floats and blowing bubbles in the water, but is still completely supported either by teaching devices or the instructor. But I do notice a change! During his bath after Friday's swim lesson I noticed he did not whimper, whine or complain in any way about the water pouring over his head to prepare for shampoo or rinsing the shampoo from his hair. That was a first! I hope it is a breakthrough that will lead to some swimming progress. Today is the Engineer's last lesson for the summer.

Artist's Art Work

When we were in New Orleans the Artist was fascinated by the little lizards that lived around the yard and loved to climb on my cousin's deck and house.

Not content to watch and admire them, she was intent upon catching one. She surprised me with her success! She held a trembling frightened little lizard on a bed of grass in her hand and called "Mommy, look at what I found!" After a while the bed of grass fell away blade by blade and the little guy began to trust this wasn't the end after all. He plucked up his courage and allowed a little petting.

The Artist was able to admire him and study him for a good while. Later in the evening, we were all gathered in the living room round piano and violin. The Artist enjoyed the music with us for a little while, then she retired to the divan with her sketch book. This is the result.
After we arrived home she had a chance to color the sketch.

Timeline

In her history class this year the Artist had to keep a time line. The time period she studied this past school year was ancient history, before 9000 BC - 400 AD. At the beginning of the year I unrolled large strips of butcher paper and fixed it to her walls.Throughout the year, when she was reading her history book, she would make notes on her time line. Occasionally time line notes would also come from other areas of study.

These are the areas she was to note on her time line:
Now that the year is over, the time line will remain affixed to the wall for a few more weeks. Mostly because I have not yet decided what to do with it. The most likely solution, is that I will roll up the sections, rubber band them and stick them in the big box that will hold all the fifth grade materials in my attic.
Next year's time line will span fewer years, 400 AD - 1600 AD. It will probably still take two levels, but hopefully only one wall. The sections for each century will need to be much larger because more items will need to be noted.

Summer (School) Typing

We at Homestead Lutheran Academy do not carry a full summer session. The summer activities do have a little school flavor to them however.

The Artist has begun daily work on her first typing tutorial program. This will continue, six days a week, through summer and less frequently once the next school year begins. The hope is that by the time she has to write her next essays and research papers she can begin using a word processor.

Way back in the olden days when I went to high school, typing (on actual typewriters!) was an elective that I took, probably because I considered it the lesser of two evils. I worked hard to earn a poor grade in the class. I am so thankful that I took it, however. When those physical therapy pre-reqs in college didn't work out for me and I became an English major, I had tons of papers to write. Knowing how to use a keyboard, even if I was not particularly quick about it was a blessing. So was the electric typewriter I received as a high school graduation gift.Later, when I began my first writing internship at a local hospital, I found my keyboarding skills were adequate to the task, thanks to that hated typing class.

Rick and I are glad that, so far at least, the Artist is enjoying her typing lessons despite finding them a bit repetitive.

Today is also the first day of swim lessons for my troops. As the sidebar thermometer reads 63ºF and the kitchen thermometer reads 60ºF I am again thankful I found an indoor pool that offers private lessons. The kids came to breakfast in shorts. I had to send them both back to change into long pants before we head to the pool.

Coloring Books

Have you noticed that museum gift shops are often filled with overpriced knick knacks and souvenirs? We certainly have! For some reason though, I always enjoy looking. I maintain a strong suspicion that Rick could easily do without.

When I was a girl, right about the Artist's age I remember Mom finding for me some of the most wonderful coloring books. Two were favorites: a collection of some Elizabethan era and Victorian era royal costumes and one collection of famous ballet dancers in costume. Some, I never got to.

It seems to be in those museum shops where I find the most intriguing coloring books now. Over the years, when I've found a book I thought could fit into the school category, I have tried to purchase it. Buying directly from the publisher does not lead to savings when I only want one or two copies of a book. So I've given myself license to browse away in those gift shops!

I've been saving them for the summers. Today I will bring out Roger Tory Peterson's A Field Guide to Wildflowers Coloring Book (Houghton Mifflin Company) for the Artist. (Note: The cover design has changed since 1982 when this book came out. I guess this is one of the books Mom bought for me that I never got to!) The book has beautiful plates at the beginning and end illustrating the 146 flowers within the pages. The pages themselves have short descriptions usually indicating each plant's native environment and other interesting facts. Another favorite coloring book publisher is Dover. I'll write about some of their books another time.

Passing Along A Love of Baseball

There is another generation in the family learning a love of baseball. Yesterday was the first day of the Engineer's instructional T-ball league.

He had been counting down the days towards the beginning of baseball for the last month. When at last the day was at hand, it was a special father-son time. Rick took the Engineer to the ball fields where they met the coaches and other players and received all the information for the season.

When my guys came home again both were all smiles. The Engineer had as much fun as we had hoped. I heard all about how he went down the bench asking his teammates how old they were. Once he had gotten through the line, he went down the bench again telling each child how old they were.

His favorite part of the day was running the bases. His second favorite was fielding practice. And when asked the biggest surprise, he told me it was the team putting hands in for their team cheer.

We know he'll have fun for the next several weeks!

A Good Sign

School really is winding down for summer. I think Thursday will be the Artist's first day of summer. One good sign for the Artist is that the banded stack of flashcards for her upcoming Latin test is much larger than the loose stack. Those cards in the loose stack are the ones that need more study.The kids are probably even more pleased than I am about the recreation center calling me back to set up swim lessons. They will get their swim lessons before the month is out.

After six years of group lessons producing a nine year old who could not swim, or even keep herself afloat, I searched for a pool that gave private swim lessons. It was disappointing that the two closest community pool staffs told me children learn to swim best in group lessons. Really? Then why had we experienced a zero return on our investment? Talk about a way to make me determined to get private lessons!

The Artist will enjoy two intermediate lessons where she will tune up her skills on various swim strokes, and practice deep water survival, treading water, diving and maybe more.

The Engineer will, hopefully, be brave enough to put his face in the water this year. Last year he had these amazing elastic lips that he would stretch out to blow bubbles in the water. He amazed his college-age instructor at how he did blow bubbles without getting even his nose wet.

Off Target

We missed the mark a little this year. It was our intention to complete the school year by June 6th.

Taking time off to go to Tennessee and Louisiana contributed to our getting behind in the fourth quarter. Now, unfortunately, it is the Artist who is paying the price. She is done with most classes, but has Latin continuing until June 18 and one more unit to complete in the grammar book. That should also be complete by June 18.When it became evident we would not finish by June 6th, I had hoped we would still be able to finish our work by the time the public school children were out for summer. The local public schools had four snow days to make up, so their last day was yesterday.

The Engineer is done, but still enjoying his math and science videos as much as ever. Yesterday I caught him muttering to himself the instructions for how to determine whether a division problem has a remainder.

Why Didn't I Think of That?

One of the children I babysit had fun making himself some (shudder) banana & hot dog finger sandwiches. It seemed right as rain to him. The list of things I'd rather eat is very very long.

Thank You, Chartpak! Finished Biology Project

A lot can change in 11 years. It was about 11 years ago my mother bought this Visible Woman science kit made by Skilcraft for her granddaughter.

Now that baby granddaughter is in the 5th grade. For a school biology project she put together the Visible Woman. For the most part, the project went well. There was one mishap. When it came to painting the pieces we misinterpreted the instructions and painted the uterus the wrong color.

It was my (less than) brilliant idea to try removing the paint with nail polish remover. Bad idea. The acetone did remove most of the paint. It also etched a cloudy haze into the plastic. It apparently also weakened the plastic so that it cracked.

Since 11 years had passes since the purchase of this product I didn't have much hope, but I tried calling the company anyway. I wanted to see if I could buy a replacement uterus.

Hope dwindled as I searched on line and learned the company that makes Visible Woman, Skilcraft, a division of Craft House, had been bought by another company called Chartpak.

But by then I had invested so much time on line looking for a phone number I could not give up without trying. I called and learned from the customer service representative that I was calling Chartpak.

I asked if they were the company that made the Visible Woman.

They had acquired the company that made it.

I explained my problem and desire to order a replacement part.

The representative told me the parts did not come separately, but he would see what he could do. He took my information and told me to expect something in the mail by the end of the week.
I was so very impressed when a box containing a new Visible Woman kit was delivered! My daughter's science project was saved and her satisfaction with the project greatly increased, as you can see here.


Thank you, thank you, Chartpak! We will most definitely be ordering a Visible Man for our son when he is ready to do a fifth grade biology project.

Already impressed with Chartpak's customer service, I think we will be buying more of their products in the future. It just so happens we have an Artist here who would love to replace her watercolor set with these when it is used up. She also has an interest in calligraphy that has been thwarted by a difficult fountain pen. She will benefit from one of these fountain pens.

Training Wheels

The Engineer has been learning to ride his bike without training wheels. He has it down for the most part but he still lacks the confidence that will only come with experience. Rick and I have both spent some time with him trotting up and down the driveway along side his wobbly bike rides. It gets a little better every day.

With the warm turn in the weather I was happy to let the Engineer play next door with the neighbor children. They have several outdoor toys that we do not have so it is a lot of fun for little engineers to explore over there.

Yesterday, when I peeked out to check and see how everyone was getting along what do you think I saw?

The Engineer was zooming around on a bicycle. He wanted to ride at their house rather than ours because the bike over there still has training wheels on it! The little stinker!

Today it will be back to practicing without training wheels. This figure-8 track drawn in sidewalk chalk might help him stay on the bike for longer stretches. The adults in our family look forward to taking some family bike rides in the metro parks. Maybe next summer.

Tae Kwon Do

Our Tae Kwon Do world has had some disappointments lately. Our school, Parma Family Martial Arts Center, was scheduled to do two demonstrations this spring and both have been canceled. One at a local Cleveland public high school and another at the Parma Rib and Rock community festival.

Last year at the Parma Rib and Rock we drew a great audience and students at all levels were able to demonstrate their technique. I thought it was good for them to have some experience before an audience.

This year those running the Rib and Rock show have scrapped all their Family Day activities.

Sometimes some good news can make you forget about those disappointments. For the Artist I think that is the case now. In her class Monday evening she earned her one-steps star. When she earns her forms star and her free-sparring technique star she will be eligible to test for the next belt level.

Container Gardening

I love growing a garden. This year it hurt to not plant my garden. In the end I gave in to the temptation and I did end up planting some lettuce. I simply could not imagine going through the whole summer with no homegrown vegetables. Poor soil condition is still a huge factor so I'm not sure what to expect. Or maybe I am but I'm in self denial because I'm full of that hope that a gardener plants along with each seed.

The spring planting is a fun time for the children too. In the past the Artist has had a section of the garden to manage by herself. This year would have been the first time the Engineer had the same.
For a while I thought I'd be giving up that pleasurable learning experience for the kids. But as either luck or absent-mindedness would have it, they each planted a container garden.

In past years I've had two window boxes of marigolds outside my back door. This year I expected the same, but somehow I have managed not to save any of the seeds from last year. And all my trips to the nursery were done. And I wanted to get the dirty outdoor work all done yesterday while the weather was nice.

I looked through all my little seed packets and found I had only one kind of flower, a few left over vegetables and lots of herbs. I let the kids look through all the seeds and choose what they wanted to grow in their window box.

The Artist must have enjoyed the kohlrabi she grew last year, because she chose it again. And the Engineer surprised me by selecting lettuce. We will have unusual back porch flower boxes, but I think the kids will enjoy them more than ever. The eagerness they showed in the planting, and the way they compared notes about whose seeds should germinate first and how tall the plants should grow was satisfying for a mom to see.