Inch by inch...

Yesterday we stopped off at Niagara Falls on our way back from a long Easter weekend in Toronto. That's it over John's right shoulder in case you need help.

We drove up on Good Friday to see our cousin Grace play in a hockey tournament and visit one of our favorite cities. I will add more about the trip later this week, but I thought it best to start at the end especially when I can post a photo like this. (Extra points for the person who can identify the headline. Use the comments link below.)

Science Club

Here is Janine playing foosball with some of her friends at last week's Science Club meeting. There are about seven homeschooling families that meet every three weeks or so to share tasks in teaching science.

There are four groups: 12-14, 9-11, 6-8 and under six. The last group has story time and a snack while the rest do an experiment or demonstration that builds on their reading and home activities.

Everyone benefits by sharing the teaching tasks and the kids have formed some great friendships. It's great to see how they get along and how their personalities show through.

Sarah's Birthday

We have been celebrating Sarah's birthday for the last two days. Last night we went to a local tapas bar for dinner. Naturally Sarah ordered the anchovy bruchetta among other delights. John and Janine stuck with their favorites of meat and potatoes.

When we got home late last night we opened gifts. If Sarah had a Harry Potter Christmas, then this was a Jane Austen birthday. Grammy and Gramps sent a one-volume compilation of Jane Austen as well as one of the Bronte sisters. At Target Janine found the DVD of the BBC/A&E production of Pride and Prejudice. It's six hours with all sorts of extra goodies.

Here's Sarah's cake from a party at this afternoon's Science Club session. She had a great time teasing her mother by keeping the camera to herself allowing only her friends to take pictures. Ah the joys of the teen years.

Great Card

Found this card at Target the other day. Bobbie can't wait to send it to one of the ballet ladies.

Mark of Honor

This past Tuesday I encountered an interesting man selling flowers and Steelers merchandise. He was stationed at the entrance to a garage that I parked in during a business meeting.

After the meeting as I walked past he said in a booming voice, "DO YOU KNOW THE MAIN CAUSE OF MALE PATTERN BALDNESS?" Absent mindedly I said no.

"AN EXCESS OF TESTOSTERONE. IT'S A MARK OF HONOR."

"Thank you sir!" I replied.

Skating Show

Yes the skating show really was outdoors and yes it was cold despite a clear warm afternoon. But it was probably the best weather in the past five skating shows.

The ice was smooth thanks to the nice weather as well as the Zamboni. The kids were ready to go and didn't want to leave the ice. They had their routines down and all three skated very well.

Significantly, John was the very last kid to leave the ice of all 50 plus in the show. For most of the year, he was the first off the ice with very little practice on his own. We don't know if this means anything yet, but it may be a start. This picture is worth every minute we spent driving them back and forth to the rink this winter.

Afterwards the skating director was nice enough to invite us to the skating team party despite the fact that none of our three was on the traveling skate team. Perhaps with three kids taking lessons and appearing in the show we got the volume prize. Nevertheless, we all had a great time and finally got home at 11:00 PM tired, but very happy. Finally, here's Sarah with her skate team friends, Karissa and Joe when they were preparing for the show. (Note Karissa's mom fussing with her hair.) We will bring out these pictures next fall when skating season starts again to remind us why we do it.

Skating Show Preview - Janine & John

Here's Janine in her skating show costume just after the dress rehearsal on Thursday. John and she are in the large number for the kids at the pre-Alpha level.

They skate around in two or three big groups of seven to ten each. Those with a bit more skill zoom through the groups as they criss-cross the ice. It may be pretty basic, but the kids really enjoy themselves and it looks like all of them are trying hard.

The other day John said that he didn't want to get his haircut until after the skating show so he would be warm. Good head on that boy.

Skating Show Preview - Sarah

The dress rehearsal for Monday's skating show was late this afternoon. Here's Sarah in her costume striking a pose. The director was very kind. The kids practiced their numbers three times, but only once in costume. The other two practices were with coats and hats.

This year's skating show theme is Country Music USA. Sarah's number is to a Shania Twain song called Summer Sunshine or something like that. Recognizable tune, forgettable name.

Sarah's skating has improved over the past two years. She is now skating only one level below the traveling skate team.

Here's video of the first few minutes of her number. As always, the resolution is poor but if you find the tallest one, you have Sarah.

The Cookies Are In!

The Girl Scout cookies are in and we picked them up this afternoon. This photo doesn't show all of the six cases Janine sold.

This evening Janine and I sorted the boxes, bagged and marked them by recipient. While many of our neighbors were kind enough to buy one box (probably from every Girl Scout who asked) a few families bought five or more. One family ordered 10! Of course we all had to buy some ourselves as well. Sarah and John spent their own money in order to have their own boxes of Thin Mints and Tagalongs.

Janine has had fun going over her order list and is looking forward to delivering the cookies. But we learned some lessons for next year: start early and sell in the afternoon. Given Janine's verbal gifts, this all could be training for a future in sales!

Lost to Mr. Darcy

I have lost my wife and my oldest daughter to Mr. Darcy...at least for the past three Sunday nights that is. PBS' Masterpiece Theatre is running the 1995 A&E/BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, so the two of them are lost to the show from 9:00 to 11:00.

During the first week's show, Sarah left the room to get to the copy of the book in the school room. Bobbie was very annoyed that her daughter had beat her to the book. Sarah finished it before the end of the week but not without her homework suffering (Ahem!!!). Bobbie got it the next week and did the same.

Now both of them know how it all ends, but are insistent to see it all through anyway. For them the journey is better than the destination. But isn't that the mark of a great novel, disappointment at the conclusion?

Shakespeare Competition - Sarah

Here's Sarah as Othello in her scene...NOT! This is an engraving of the murder scene that Sarah, Laurence and Julia performed. I scanned this image from a book of the completes works of William Shakespeare. Needless to say, it didn't fit very well on the scanner. I was practically working the mouse with my feet!

It is a very intense scene as Othello kills Desdemona and Emilia finds out. Sarah was exhausted after the scene and the photo below shows her preparing herself before the performance. She can be quite the drama queen at times.
As a seventh grader, this is Sarah's last year in the lower division. Next year she moves up to greater competition. After the performance we went out for pizza with some of the other families. Sarah compared notes with some of the seniors at dinner. Let's hope she remembers it all next year! (and perhaps a comedy for a change!)

Shakespeare Competition - John

The Shakespeare competition was this past week. The time slot for our home school study center group was Thursday afternoon at 4 PM. Both John and Sarah participated among the 15 study center groups.

Here's John with his friends, Justin on the left and Andrew on the right. The three of them performed Act II Scene 1 from The Taming of the Shrew. John played Grumio to Justin's Petrucio and Andrew's Hortensio. They had a great time especially with the slapstick parts. Nothing like a little Renaissance Three Stooges scene to get boys interested in theatre.

Our study center participants varied from fifth graders like John, Justin and Andrew up to high school seniors. Everyone had their lines down cold, but some kids could not project their voices enough to fill the auditorium. That problem was not universal however. I can factually report that John and the guys did their best.

Finally, here's an engraving of the scene. Yes, that's John as Grumio getting his ear rung. If the guys like the physical comedy then next year's scene must be from the Comedy of Errors. Dromio anyone?

The video of the performance did not turn out well, but we were able to capture the dress rehearsal below.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is a Valentine for you from Sarah.

Sledding!!!

After helping me shovel the driveway, Sarah and Janine went sledding, or sliding as they would say back in Minnesota. (John still had Math to finish inside.) That's a skim board Sarah is holding and it worked just as well on snow as it did at the beach.

They both had a great time sledding down the hill in our backyard. It levels out into our neighbor's yard. In fact they started in our next door neighbor's yard, veered into ours and ended up in our back neighbor's yard. That's what we like about our neighborhood. While everyone respects each others' property, no one complains about kids' playing peacefully. Here's a video of the action.

Snow Day

It snowed six inches since last night, so today was a snow day, for most kids except ours, that is. In fact because most activities were canceled, today we had extra time for school lessons. Most homeschooled kids don't get snow days. Instead they get time off on nice days when it is sunny and warm, or have impromptu field trips when the opportunities present themselves.

After lunch we all took a break to shovel the driveway. Sarah and Janine helped clear the snow from the lower driveway. Because that area is square shaped and flat, it is the hardest part to shovel. I used the U-shaped contraption pictured here. It works pretty well as long as there is less than six inches of snow, so it was at the edge of its effectiveness today.

Pushing the curved end first, it works like a plow. Then you use the open end to precisely move the remaining snow to the side of the driveway so long as it is a short distance. With more than nine of snow the open end fills up fast. At that point we use the shovel and just slow down, shoveling a section at a time, taking breaks in between.

The forecast for tonight is for "Wintry Mix." Two words I hate to see used together because it usually means ice. I would rather shovel six inches of snow than deal with 1/4 inch of ice.