Ordinary Life

February 10th, 2013 issues in the Year of The Snake Last night, FLVirtual S chool 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 descr...

In the not so distant future, the two biggest of The Big Kids will be taking a handful of online classes via Florida Virtual School .  Because they can. And, it's free. (for Florida residents, purchasable outside the state)  We are still in the midst of the enrollment process but were afforded a bit of a preview this evening during the systemwide WorldFest . Using a virtual white board, teachers were able to share a presentation while maintaining a conversation via microphone and chat window. Whenever we answered a question, the moderator responded on a personal basis, calling on us by name.   In some ways, it isn't unlike the Bob Jones Satellite system I used in high school.  The presentations we watched varied in theme based on which country link we chose. We saw Latin American cuisine, amongst others. The instructors were also able to patch through video to enhance the lesson- we watched a video on preparing empanadas. After the video, more dishes were highlighted...