Year: 2006 Page 6 of 15

Homeschool day 16 of 180

I spent yesterday afternoon scanning photos into the computer. We have about thrity rolls of film that are anywhere between five and ten years old. Lorena developed the first eight last week and will develop another eight this week. I love these photos. While I was doing it, I went to Pandora on the internet to listen to a radio station playing music I selected. The way the website works, you enter songs and people you like and it starts playing songs.  You can give each song a thumbs up or a thumbs down to refine the type of music that will play in the future.  It works very well.  Some of the groups I selected were Etta James, the Kingston Trio, the Righteous Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel, Enya, the Monkees, Three Dog Night, and Bob Dylan.  I got into a fairly nostalgic mood.  I printed out a couple of photos to take to work for my cube wall and just generally had a relaxing time.  I am blessed.  Truly.

Homeschool day 15 of 180

If the last couple of days are any indication, Kelly is going to make this blog MUCH more interesting than it has been when I was doing most of the writing. Mostly, I have been writing to keep a record of our life that we can put into a notebook and read when we get old. It is also great for keeping track of homeschool. Now, though, Kelly has discovered a several blogs she really likes and I believe are safe for her to read. We talked about it last night and we are giving some thought to how best to go about this. Kelly is twelve, loves to write, and spends a lot of time writing and illustrating stories, plays, poems, reports, and all kinds of other things. She types over 60 wpm. That is fast enough to get thoughts down on paper as she thinks them through. She has been developing a wonderful writing voice and enjoys refining and modifying it to fit different writing objectives.

My thought is that we should spend a year or so just writing on whatever topics come to mind so she can polish her skills and develop good writing habits. I have been thinking about what she might write and have come up with a list of writing categories we will try to update as we get new ideas. As we go along, we will try to gravitate toward a more specific theme with the idea of adding features and user functionality.

We use WordPress as our blog software. Up until now Kelly and Christian have been writing their web posts using the WordPress editor. I have switched over to use a FireFox extension called Performancing. I like it a lot and will add that to the home computers for the kids to use.

I am really looking forward to seeing how this goes.

I was reading the Bible this morning and I turned to John 19 and started reading. I read through the rest of John because it was so good. I never really read any books of the Bible thoroughly save Matthew and Genesis. John was amazing. He said that Jesus did so many things that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. He also said that these things are written that we may believe in God, that we may find life in His name. It was pretty interesting. One thing that I didn’t understand too well though is the fact that Jesus told the disciple whom he loved to take care of his mother I think, and in later chapters he speaks of the disciple whom he loved also. But it says in the 21:20 that “The disciple whom Jesus loved following, who had also leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord who is the one who betrays you?” and then if you read up to the 24th verse it says “This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true” Was John the same disciple who took care of Mary? I don’t know. But it sure was interesting reading that chapter.

That article that I read yesterday got me thinking. One of them started when he was 13 and they all talk about deep, debatable subjects. I wonder what I can talk about that is deep and debatable. Perchance you would enjoy hearing of the Chapman Acadamy of Homeschool Dictionary? Well there is a link to it on this page. It only has three words, phrases and definitions but I already have an idea of another one. We should not use apostrophes when we type. They are crude and terribly primitive. Examples: They’re, it’s, don’t etc. etc. etc. This is how they should be written: They are, It is, do not. Now there is a deep and debatable subject. Oh, I have a question for the five people that read this blog, It has to do with titles and apostrophes: Where do the titles Mrs., Mr., Miss, and Ms. come from? Do they stand for anything? Just a question. Okey Dokey, I’d better get back to school now…

Homeschool day 14 of 180

When I was growing up, the only venue available for aspiring writers was the print media: books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Now there is the web. The amazing thing is that, if you write well and actually have something to say, you can have a huge readership over night. Literally. The article in World Magazine was great because I have been trying to inspire Kelly and Christian to write more on the blog. The goal for now is just to get them to write–the only rules being to avoid writing things that are either unsafe or inappropriate. If that works out, it will be a good time for them to start researching and writing on topics that interest them, followed by focusing the topics so that readers will know a little bit about what to expect when they come to the blog. The goal would be to develop their writing skills and then give them their own blog that has the personality they give it. This is not only a good thing for the writer in the family (Kelly), but for the scientist (Christian), too. One of my very favorite blogs is by a blogging scientist.

Homeschool is going well. We’ve gotten into the full swing of things here and I’m reading some great books. We met some new neighbors the other day and we hope to meet many more now that we are seeing so much development around the neighborhood. Today we are going to meeting at the Myer’s and I have to read the chapter (don’t tell anyone) I just read a magazine article about 6 homeschooling teens who have their own blogs. That made me jump off of the sofa and sprint upstairs. I spun onto Dad’s chair and lunged for the mouse. I clutched it and tapped the mouse. Here I am now typing away and using my verbs like I’m my writing book says I’m supposed to do. Ok that’s it for now. If you see me, remind me to blog some more!

Homeschool day 13 of 180

Giving blood is a very satisfying thing.  The people who gather to give always seem to be in a great mood and you get to wear a sticker for the rest of the day telling the world you did a good deed.  I love it.  Life seemed a little rough yesterday in that cube-city helplessness kind of way, but giving blood surely turned that around and I was thankful for it.

Homeschool day 12 of 180

We have had about 30 rolls of undeveloped film sitting around the house for as much as ten years. Lorena took seven of the rolls down to Costco to be developed last week. She is going to do that every week until we have them all developed. I am scanning them into the computer so we can make some photo CDs of them to send down to Mexico. The photos are really pretty incredible. I took rolls and rolls of film while the kids were small and I am really glad that I did. I hope they are not wrecked by waiting too long to develop them. In general, though, they are not too bad for snapshots. We love the memories and have had a chance to reflect a little on how truly blessed we are.

JoAnn–read my comment from yesterday!

Homeschool day 11 of 180

Kelly, Christian, and I started reading Call It Courage last night. It is a grand book. For the last two years, Christian’s third and fourth grade homeschool programs were ones that Kelly did not use because she started back into homeschool in the fifth grade. Now that Christian is in the fifth grade, he is doing the program Kelly used for that grade. Our read aloud books were all books that Kelly had not yet read. This year though, most of the books we will read aloud are books that Kelly already read to herself. Call It Courage is one of those books. Because it is a grand book, Kelly is having a grand time with it for the second time. I was a little bit worried about whether this would work, but the books are Newberry Award books, Caldecott Award books, and such. I believe we are going to have a grand time reading them all.

Homeschool day 10 of 180

For the first time in awhile, we have a free weekend with nothing that I really have to do other than three or four hours work on Saturday at my desk. The only downside is that Kelly will be gone to a friends house for the weekend. Lorena, Christian, and I should manage just fine.

Homeschool day 9 of 180

We had someone break into our business the other night, steal some equipment, and break some windows. We have been in the business seven years now and this is the first time something like that has happened. It is a funny deal. We are working to make the place a great place to work for the employees by making improvements to the working environment, sending employees to training, giving out quarterly profit sharing bonuses (rather good ones here lately), providing insurance options, and actively looking for ways to make our little company a great place to work. That this might have been a disgruntled employee or ex-employee has crossed our mind and it saddens us. We have had to initiate some new security measures. The need to do that also saddens us.

Homeschool day 8 of 160

We are back in the saddle with our homeschool now. After the first full day of homeschool with all the neighborhood kids back to their government schools, it is dawning on us again how great are our materials. The math is grand, the literature and history are grand, the music is grand, the science is grand; all of it is grand. We are finishing up reading How to Win Friends and Influence People and will start reading Call It Courage later this week. We started in on the Spelling Power program. Life is exciting the the Chapman household.

We ate shrimp and sang Happy Birthday yesterday for Christian’s eleventh birthday, but the real party will not be until a little later.  We have decided that we will have a family party up at Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah’s house and then invite Christian’s friends Seth and Kendall to go with us to the Wildlife Safari down near Roseburg in Winston.

Homeschool day 7 of 180

Today is Christian’s birthday. The day he was born in Tualatin, we could see the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen out the hospital window. He is truly a joy and a blessing in all of our lives–Lorena, Kelly, and I. Other than a cake and a couple other little things, we are really not going to start celebrating until next week or so. The plan is to go up to Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah’s house for a party with the aunts and uncles, spend the night, and then go to some cool thing in Portland. It will not be the zoo or OMSI because the kids just went to that, but there are tons of other opportunities up there. Stay tuned.

Homeschool day 6 of 180

Going into the three day weekend, we are on track with our homeschool plan. School will start in earnest on Tuesday of next week. By the end of that week we will have two weeks behind us. I think I am going to spend Labor Day itself working on the garden. We need to haul some dirt and blocks to the house to extend the flowerbed around the porch. That sounds like a very good project for one day in late September. We will probably go to convention one day–either Saturday or Sunday.

Today, Christian and Kelly will work on getting organized for homeschool next year.  So far they have done one week.  As usual, when we are just getting started we all have to make some adjustments.  We forget some stuff.  We do some stuff in the way we planned, but realize that way really is not going to work so well.  We are generally more disorganized than we want to be.  The kids did a super job so far.  All we have to do to be ready is to get one more day of homeschool completed tomorrow.  Today is Christian’s first day of guitar lessons with his new instructor.  I am excited to hear about that.

I made it back to Oregon yesterday, a day earlier than expected, but I expect to be swamped for the next couple of weeks.  Continued light posting.

Well, I thought I was going to get out of California on Friday.  Then I thought I was going to get out on Saturday, then Monday, then Tuesday, and now Wednesday night.  It looks like I am finishing up my work here in Livermore today, but my boss asked me to go to Palo Alto tomorrow to look at a piece of equipment one of our customers wants to duplicate.  I miss the kids, but it has been good for them to get a few more days of summer.  We only have one more day of homeschool to meet our goal of having six days completed before we start the official year on the Tuesday after Labor Day.

Yesterday, the kids went swimming at the very grand people in Corvallis.  They went to the library, too.  I am hoping that we can get in a day or two of convention at Boring.  We have had quite a summer with the remodel, visitors from Texas (a highlight), convention, lots of Mark Kistler drawing, Cub Scouts, and such.

Homeschool day 5 of 180

This would be a very educational thing to do. H.T. Wittingshire. I am going to talk about it with my family.

I just got a note from Boy Scouts that I get to sell gourmet popcorn. Since we have been reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, I have decided to use my new knowledge to $ell, $ell, $ell. ( ( c8 HI!!! (wink) (wink): Do YOU want to buy some of the Cub Scouts marvelous new popcorn?!?!?!? Now, I know you are a very very busy person, so allow me to take away just 1 second of your time. All of the OTHER people have bought 5 of my most expensive deals. But since we need some “big-big” IMPORTANT people to buy my popcorn… never-mind. Well, YOU will love this popcorn. It just “nox ‘m’ ded” if ya know what I mean. (-; But maybe, maybe you don’t WANT to buy my popcorn… Why not, you say? Well it’s because… you know… one of your stature. Let me explain it differently. I look up to you Sir/Maam I wouldn’t want you to be demeaned because of me, it would be absolutely shocking if you were seen buying a tub of delicious, caramel/chocolate/kettle corn/butter/white chocolate popcorn from one so lowly as myself. You must know what I mean. Well, I guess I’ll go. Thank you so much for talking to me. Goodbye!

In Other Words: BUY MY POPCORN…OR ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See you later… (ka-ching)

These are the kinds of popcorn that I sell:

5-way Chocalate lovers tin (Fat Free) $50
Includes:
=Choclaty carmel crunch 20 oz.
=White chocolatey carmel crunch 20 oz.
=Chocolaty pretzels 20 oz.
=Chocolaty Peanut clusters 12 oz.

Savory & Sweet 3-Way tin (Trans Fat Free) $40
Includes:
=Gourmet Cheddar Cheese Corn 7 oz.
=Our Finest Gourmet Carmel Corn With Almonds and Pecans= 24 oz.
=Chocolaty Carmel Crunch 22 oz.

Cheese Lovers Delight (Trans Fat Free) $30
Includes:
= 3 7 oz. Gourmet delitious savory cheesy popcorn bags

30 Pack Microwave Popcorn (5 Bags Each) $30
Includes:
=Unbeleavable Butter
=Butter
=Light Butter
=Kettle Corn Light
=Kettle Corn

15 Pack Kettle Corn Microwave Popcorn $15
Includes=
=County Fair Favorite Old Fasioned Flavor

Choclaty Carmel Crunch (Trans Fat Free)
Includes:
=24 oz. Packed in foil.

Gourmet Carmel Corn (Fat Free) $15
Includes:
=Gourmet Carmel Corn with Almonds & Pecans
=26 oz.

15 Pack Unbelevable Butter $15

15 Pack Butter Light $15

Carmel Corn (Trans Fat Free) $8
Includes:
=The Original Carmel Corn with Carmel Glazed Peanuts
11 oz.

Homeschool Day 4 of 180

I am working in California, the kids are doing homeschool, and Lorena is working hard at home (as always). Still to busy to write much.