"UNBOUND" FLVS '12-'13 Yearbook

Chandler and Logan were featured in the 2012-2013 Florida Virtual School Yearbook with their answers to the theme question: "What does the phrase Cherish Today, Challenge Tomorrow mean to you?"



Chandler: "Take each day as it comes and be ready for the challenges of tomorrow." 



Logan: " I think the phrase Cherish Today, Challenge Tomorrow means that you should seek out what you want to do with your life and to challenge yourself to achieve the goals you have set." 



They can be found on page 5.

Chandler's Leadership Project

Chandler was enrolled in the same FLVS hosted leadership class as Logan but had delays in his project due to waiting on certain items to arrive via shipping. His project idea was to partner with the same CareNet center that Logan had, with an emphasis on encouraging young fathers. We learned that many care centers are trying to increase efforts to reach out to expectant fathers and  provide new parent education  for young men facing a new phase in life. 

Chandler assembled "New Daddy" bags. He chose a baseball themed bag and a small, soft baseball. On each baseball, he wrote "Play Catch With Me Daddy" or a similar sentiment to capture the idea that a young man will have an important role to play in his baby's life. He also included a copy of The Life Book~ generously provided by Gideons, Intl.

Shadow Players

Harnessing the sunshine, we had a little fun with our shadows. 

"Shadow is the obstruction of light. Shadows appear to me to be of supreme importance in perspective, because, without them opaque and solid bodies will be ill defined; that which is contained within their outlines and their boundaries themselves will be ill-understood unless they are shown against a background of a different tone from themselves."

Leonardo da Vinci

Cultural Treat

We like to try new things, especially new and interesting candies from different countries. Anytime we shop at Publix--because they have a good selection-- we choose one (sometimes 2 or 3) new treats from the "Ethnic" aisle to try.



 And if we get within 5 miles of a World Market? Hide the wallet.



While searching for a video to enhance a recent school lesson, we stumbled onto some totally non-related videos of a lady doing YouTube reviews of various things she had purchased at her local Asian market. I didn't know you could make a job of such fun, but judging by the many similar videos we've discovered since that first day, it turns out to be a "thing".



 But the best discovery we made on that day were the Japanese candy kits she had chosen to review. The worst discovery we made is that in a town as small as ours, Asian grocery stores are hard to find. So, despite my oldest son's protests that we were supporting the axis of evil by using Amazon, we chose several kits to have shipped to us.



We've been choosing new kits periodically ever since. They are so much fun, and sometimes, funny tasting, but always fun.



And this is how we learn about the great big world around us. We taste it. We wonder exactly what those directions in a foreignlanguage say (and we give thanks for clear illustrations) We marvel at the Japanese politeness of mere packaging (Please deliver this package to the correct address if it is not inconvenient) ((And-how much happier would our postal workers be if we used the same manners? Instead of Return To Sender! what if we said "Please return this to me if you find it undeliverable.Thank you." ? We find that our way isn't the only way or even always the best way... Matcha flavored KitKat? Simply brilliant. And we have fun. We want to see more, taste more,discover more. We grow curious. And that is sweet.

 

Logan's Leadership Project

 

 In FLVS Leadership, the students had to come up with a project that would directly touch/impact the community. Logan chose to collect money and baby supplies for our local CareNet center. She also crafted paper flowers from coffee filters and attached verses of encouragement to be given to women who come to the center. We brainstormed an initiative called Life Change that would utilize purple piggy banks placed within a community- all collected funds turned in to local Care Net center as well as a Life Change Perpetual Showers drive which would be an effort to collect physical item for babies and expectant mothers at set locations (in a similar fashion as Toys For Tots) Together we created a social media drive and received appx. 50 "LIKES" for the page. Unfortunately, this was only a concept and not an idea we have been able to commit energy or resources to at this time. However, it is being kept 'on the back burner' for such a time as we find enough purple piggy banks and willing locations to host collection sites.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip  Cookies

This recipe is adapted from the 1977 Betty Crocker cookbook my mom gave me when I married. It is older than I am and like many things with more age than me, it is full of wisdom to be gleaned.

• 2/3 cup Butter
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 ts Vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 3 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 ts Salt
• 1 ts Baking Soda
• Chocolate Chips
• Other mix-ins as desired

Cream together 2/3 cup of softened butter with 1 cup Sugar, 1 cup Brown Sugar and two eggs
(I used half salted, half unsalted butter).

 Add 2 ts Vanilla (I filled my second ts 2/3 full and filled the remaining space with almond extract).

Blend in 3 cups All Purpose Flour (I used 1 cup White Whole Wheat/2 Cups regular ), Salt & Soda.

Toss in Chocolate Chips & Stir.

Lay out a long piece of plastic wrap and scoop dough onto wrap. Wrap dough into a long cylinder, seal well and refrigerate. (As you form the cylinder, think about the size of the cookies you are making... this should inform your cylinder's size... think 'slices')

This is the last third of my dough in cylinder form. I didn't think to take pictures until the cookie making was almost over. 

Place cookie sheet(s) in freezer.

Preheat Oven to 375 Degrees.

Busy yourself with something else while you wait...perhaps those dishes that you used to make the dough. Trust me, you are going to enjoy the cookies far more if the kitchen is already clean.

When the oven is ready, pull the trays from the freezer, the dough from the fridge. Cut cookie sized slices and arrange on chilled trays.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Allow to firm on tray for approximately 1 minute.

Remove to cooling racks or large plate. Avoid stacking cookies on top of one another until they are set well.

Place cookie sheets back in freezer, dough back in fridge. Resist the urge to 'accidentally' break a cookie for sampling. Everyone knows the first batch is for giving... (unless they burn.)

Busy yourself for a few more minutes- perhaps you'll want to start a cup of coffee or go process the next phase in your laundry cycle.

When the cookie sheet and dough are cooled/chilled, repeat baking steps.

Repeat baking and cooling steps until all dough is used or you have enough cookies to enjoy with your coffee as well as share with your neighbors.

This recipe said it made about 2 dozen cookies,  however, the instructions called for dropping rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Using the sliced cookie method, we had at least 3 dozen, possibly a little more than that.

 We baked cookies as part of today's science lesson on minerals and mining. Like most things, homeschool life has its challenges. Eating cookies for Earth Science was not one of them.

(NOT eating all the cookies before we were ready for the lesson however...)

Chinese New Year

February 10th, 2013 issues in the Year of The Snake

Last night, FLVirtual School held a special Collaboration session in recognition of the upcoming Chinese New Year.

To get in the spirit of things, we decided to have Chinese food for dinner. I had casually mentioned this plan to Clay before he went to a meeting. When he called on his way home,  to see if we needed anything while he was out, he was surprised to find that we had decided to COOK Chinese dishes instead of ordering it from the experts. I blamed homeschooling... He indulged me by trying to find chop sticks (a negligent oversight on my part!) then, swung by Beef O'Brady's for some 'real food' just to be safe.

So, we 'made' Chinese to the best of our ability~thankful for the Ethnic Foods aisle and the International Foods freezer at the grocery store. Without it, we may have had to call Lucky Wok.

It's About the Sauces: Sriacha, Sesame Garlic, Pot Sticker. Soy & Duck

I must preface the description of what we made with a quick shout out to Uncle Ben for tipping us off to the super powers of Sriacha sauce...it made the Peanut Lo Mein just right.

We 'made' (translation: opened packages & properly heated in pools of vegetable oil) various Pot Stickers and Spring Rolls. Several neighbors have stopped by this morning to order take out...it left our house that aromatic.

They cleaned their plates, so then it was time for my favorite part of the evening: Fortune Cookies

I had never made cookies that require folding before... when the first one took the shape of an actual fortune cookie like I am often handed after meals @ Ichiban, I was beyond tickled. 

First Fortune Cookie

(there's an actual fortune in there, too!)

The cookies are best made in small batches. By the time I had made enough cookies for everyone to have two apiece, I was tired of cooking in small batches and ten minute intervals. So I poured the remaining batter into one giant Choose Your Destiny Cookie... I was able to fit all the remaining fortunes in it too: 

Ideally, the fortune cookie is the happy end to a traditional Chinese bite to eat...but the sad reality for me was this: 

I am still whittling this away at lunch time the next day. Which is why I have to be going now... 

Pizza Play

For another 'chapter' in our busy book:

Pizza Play

I ask you, what can't be made out of felt? 

Add Toppings

Making The Big Kids each a slice  

Carefully arranging things

Riley Wren; Pizza Chef

Wee Catechize

We have been doing a version of catechism with the children for the past few years. It started with reading through "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds" and the desire to give our children a solid foundation of biblical truths.

Now, before you dismiss catechizing as an archaic practice or too quickly equate it with a Catholic-only practice, let me say that I have found it a wonderful way to ensure I'm 'covering all the bases' as I attempt to train  my children in Biblical doctrine. Someone else likened it to teaching the times tables and I have to say, I believe that is a more than adequate analogy. 

We've gotten off track in our home with teaching through the questions more often than we've sailed right through. Even so, it is nice to have a schedule of sorts- a checklist of fundamentals to make sure we've covered as we go; to pick up where we left off. 

It was while looking for varied schedules that I came across this blog post:

  'Cheerios with a Side of Catechism'

If you click over there, you'll find a link to catechism themed songs and a print out of questions that you can take your child through. 

 Around the same time that I came across the post, we were trying to wrap our brains around the most unexpected blessing: we found out we were going to have Riley. 

When I read the suggested age on the list of questions, I fell in love with the idea of starting simplified catechizing as early as possible. (Another one of those things I feel bad about not catching on to sooner with The Bigs... thankfully, God is so much bigger than our parenting gaps!)

Since that time, we've found some additional resources and more supporters/discussions about the value of 'catechizing':

Voddie Baucham

Paul Washer
CJ & Kevin Mahaney w/ Curtis Allen

But now, without further delay, Riley answers the first two questions from the revised

ColorSicles

 I had seen several variations of color matching activities using paint swatches and clothespins... what we came up with was sort of a mish~mash of all of our favorite ones. I used fabric glue, popsicle sticks, clothespins and 3 swatches each of our favorite hues (the popsicle stick is between two swatches, so that the colors are on either side of the stick.) This is the first addition to a project we have under construction currently- a 'busy book' (a zippered binder found  for $1) filled with activity pouches (pencil bags marked to a quarter each)

Riley loves her 'popsicles' almost as much as playing with the iPad or watching t.v. Which is the point...she happily stops asking for a glowing screen in exchange for playtime with the popsicle bag.

She has assigned every family member a color. She walks around, handing out popsicles like the Good Humor Man and watching to see that it is 'eaten'. If it isn't, she quickly instructs us on how to enjoy our treat.

"Lick it!"

Mmm! Nothing quite as scrumptious as felt...

When she is older, the colors can be matched by hue. 

 I only had the video camera available~ these stills run together for a snippet of Rye on the first morning with her ColorSicles.

Garden of Your Mind

You can grow things...

(We LOVE MR ROGERS)

JEDI School

This video is from before we moved ... back when Aletheia held JEDI Classes...I hadn't had time to flip it around (it was filmed sideways) until this morning: 

New Blog*Stars

Where does the time go? (circa 2005!)

The BrewCrew has 3 new junior bloggers...

Meet: 

 Chandler-age 12 (going on 13) of CHANDLER'S CORNER & THE BANTAM BOARD

Logan-age 11 of LoLo's LOFT (there's LOL in there!) 

Fisher-age 9 of FISH TALES 

Our junior bloggers will also be contributing to the school's blog project: ALETHEIA ANTHEM

...this oughta be fun!

'ka-kow'

Our field trip to Peterbrooke Chocolatier included a lesson on where chocolate comes from both in nature and geographically speaking, the proper pronunciation of cacao ( 'ka-kow') a taste test of the different "levels" of chocolate and most importantly the opportunity to dip various things in chocolate and take them home to indulge in later. 

Our Chocolate Wonder Chef was Sandy, a.k.a. Lovie, the store's proprietor. I enjoyed watching her lead the camp and enjoyed her demeanor with the children. She's a nice lady, ya'll. 

Unfortunately, my phone had already been used to entertain RyeBird before we arrived and my battery died out before the camp ended... there aren't as many pictures as I would have liked to take- though some were taken by the store that I hope to be able to share soon. 

School isn't officially back in swing until after Labor Day (cause, why?) But this was a sweet way to end the summer and kick off our hands on activities for the year... and, as for the chocolate store? We'll be back for tasty treats throughout the Fall and Holiday seasons and just for a friendly chat as time allows.

Go to the album >>>>