Twenty Dollar Cameras

C took this picture with her $20 camera

About a year ago, just before I sent my girls to Texas on vacation with my mom and sister, I bought them $20 digital cameras at the grocery store. I knew they liked to take pictures, and I figured they might want to create some of their own memories while they were away. Still, I wasn't even remotely ready to drop a significant amount of money on a high-quality tool they might very well end up breaking the first day it came out of the box.

This is not a review. If it were, though, I would tell you that they are exactly as terrible as you probably expected. They can only take 21 pictures before they need to be hooked up to my computer via a stupid USB cable I can never find (that doesn't match anything else I own). The pictures always have weird little artifacts and a pretty low resolution. The view screen is a joke, though I'm pretty surprised they even have one. And you can't access the pictures without their junky software. 

All of that aside, I'm still glad I bought them. 

S took this picture with her $20 camera

They're small, they haven't been broken yet, and despite their limitations, the girls have managed to take some pretty neat pictures with them. The learning curve has been interesting, too. S now tells me when the room is too dark to get a good picture, and they've discovered, completely on their own, how to sort through their pictures and delete the ones they don't want to free up space. M's pictures still come out blurry and weird, but she's still really enjoying her picture-taking freedom. Now, I'm considering getting them something a bit nicer for trips to the zoo or vacations with the family. 

Lemon Drop Cookies

I'm always looking for the perfect lemon cookie. I do love the fresh, simple flavor of lemon desserts. My kids love chocolate, so we make a lot of chocolate chip cookies. I guess I feel like a good lemon cookie helps really break up that pattern. I'm not sure that these are the perfect lemon cookies for me, but they are pretty good. They're small, light, and just a little sweet. 

Lemon Drop Cookies

Serves about 24

Total time 50 minutes

Prep time 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 Cups Flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp lemon extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F.
Prepare a cookie sheet or two. I wound up using two. You can use cooking spray or parchment paper.
Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl. Cut in shortening. Stir in milk, egg, and lemon extract. Mix until well blended. I started out with a regular mixing bowl and an electric hand-mixer, but ended up transferring the dough into my standing mixer because my hand-mixer just wasn't up to the task. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I just have a sub-par hand-mixer.
Roll 1-inch dough balls with floured hands (dough is quite sticky). Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet(s) about 1-inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden in color. Let cool completely on cooling rack while you prepare the frosting.

Lemon Frosting

Ingredients


1/3 cup shortening
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup warm milk
1 tsp lemon extract

Instructions

Combine shortening and sugar in a medium bowl. You're going to want to use some sort of mixer for this. I used my hand-mixer (this was a task it could handle). 
Stir in warm milk, 1-2 tablespoons at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.
Stir in lemon extract.

To get the "drop" shape, I pushed the top of each cookie into the frosting, wiggled it around a bit, then pulled it straight out. 

Gardening 101

As I'm writing this, I'm incredibly thankful that I can homeschool because it means I get to spend time with my kids and teach them things I think they should know, at a pace that works for them. Sometimes, I don't feel quite as positive about my decision to keep my kids out of public school for various reasons (like that I rarely just bump into another mom who homeschools, so I almost always end up having an awkward conversation just after another parent asks my twins what grade they're in.). But today, we had a blast.

The temperature is starting to ramp up, so we went to the local garden center, yesterday. I'm excited to say we went to a local garden center instead of Home Depot or any of a number of other chain places. This is not to suggest that I avoid Home Depot, but I do love the concentrated learning experience at local shops.

There were an incredible number of tools, trees, flowers, vegetables... and some fluffy little chicks. It's really too bad we can't have chickens in Aurora. The kids agree, and this may end up being an interesting segue into local politics. C seems particularly disappointed that there should be a law against small livestock where we live, and asked me about how we could change that multiple times this week. So, instead of chickens, we brought home a variety of seeds.

D wants to plant a "three sisters garden" with corn, beans and squash. I want to grow some butterfly-attracting flowers, and the girls each picked one packet of seeds. C picked some type of squash that is supposed to look like a hen's egg. S picked carrots. M picked miniature pumpkins. I've never grown anything edible before, so we'll see how this goes.

Of course, since we just bought this house this winter, we needed a garden hose. And since we moved here from an apartment, we were also lacking gardening hand tools. We also bought pruning sheers for the several over-grown rose and holly bushes we now own.

Early this week, we uncovered the planting beds, hand-tilled their soil, planted the girls' seeds, and watered them. It was a fun process. They learned why we cover our planters in the winter, how and why we till the soil before we plant,  that worms are great for your garden (and we're fortunate that our planters already have some), how we plant each type of seed and why they shouldn't all just be scattered on flat soil.

I love gardening with kids because it's an on-going learning experience for all of us. And, in the end, it provides its own rewards.

Unfortunately, it snowed last night. C's first guitar lesson and S's first real soccer game were canceled due to snow-related complications. We did manage to cover the beds with tarps when we noticed the first flurries, so hopefully we'll be able to save them. If not, we may be replanting.

Thank You, Internet: Khan Academy

This is how I teach my kids math, at least in part. We place dice games and come up with real-life math problems. We count, add, and subtract snacks and talk about how many socks three kids need if each kid has two feet. But we also use Khan Academy.

I can't praise this program enough. Instead of grouping your kid with all of the other kids in class, the approach at Khan Academy encourages kids to take as long as they need to figure out a specific concept, then move on. There's no penalty for submitting a wrong answer, and if you keep coming up with wrong answers, you can always go back and re-watch the instructional videos. I watch the videos with my kids and I'm pretty impressed. I've seen concepts explained in these videos in ways I've never seen before.

What's more: If you, the parent, sign up as a coach, you can monitor an array of metrics for your kids' progress. You can see which equations they're getting stuck on, which ones they're spending more time on, and how many times they've watched each video (as well as a lot of other details). And, not that anyone wants to admit they they would, but you can compare your kids quite easily. You could find an area where one kid is struggling and another is excelling, and encourage peer tutoring.

You can start at the beginning, with addition and subtraction and number lines as tools. Or, you can jump in wherever you want. Maybe you could go back and refresh yourself on some concepts you don't remember from high school, or learn something new. Their math classes include addition, algebra, calculus, statistics, and many others.

They don't only cover math. There are over 4,000 different videos. And it's free!

The creator of Khan Academy gave a great explanation of how it works in his speech at a Ted conference in 2011:

Welcome to the global classroom.

I'm Divorced

This has been over two years in the making, for those of you who didn't already know. At the end of January, I had a status conference during which I submitted copious piles of paperwork. But the final hearing had to be at least 90 days from original filing, which was in December.

Also, there was a required parenting class where you're supposed to learn how to handle minor children with regards to your ex spouse. I knew about this, but I've had a hard time getting to one.

It's not that I don't think a class like this is a generally good idea. And I'm a pretty reasonable person. I don't really know if it applies to me or would be helpful in my particular case, but I wasn't trying to avoid taking it. I just had real-life issues that barricaded my way.

I had 3 kids and was massively pregnant. Then, I had major surgery. Now, I have 4 kids, one of whom is breast feeding every 2 or 3 hours (except at night). The classes are all 4 hours long, you can't take your kids, and most of them overlap lunch time for the kids. Most of them are also half an hour or more away from me. There are online classes available, but they expect you to get child care for those, too, and it's questionable whether those are even accepted in Jefferson County. There is one location near my house, but the next class for that location isn't until next month.

I can't do weekdays because my only child care option is my partner. Keep in mind that these classes cost at least $60, and I'm not really able to pay for that and babysitting for 3 kids and an infant for 4 hours (5 if you count driving). And I can't do Saturdays, starting the 23rd, until after 10:15am because of C's guitar lessons. Overlapping guitar lessons wouldn't be a problem, since D can take C to her lessons, but the only car that all of the car seats fit in is mine, I can't drive D's car, and I can't take ANY of the kids with me to the parenting class. Of course, they don't do Sundays.

So, I had to squeeze a class in on the 16th, the day after our finalization, 30 miles away, and hope that the magistrate would accept a receipt stating that I registered for the class and a plea for his/her understanding.

But everything went smoothly. It was my first time in a real court room, and with a guy in one of those black smocks with the giant sleeves. The magistrate only cared to know that I was scheduled to take a class, and didn't even ask for a receipt. The whole final hearing took less than 15 minutes. It was actually fairly anticlimactic, but I'm not complaining. And the magistrate thanked and congratulated us for working together to come to an agreement on what worked for us and was best for the kids, pointing out that it's quite difficult for some people, and some never manage.

I know I should be relieved that it's over, and I am. But I'm also kind of sad. I just spent the last 4 years in a marriage I had to give up on. I think society has taught me to be ashamed of a failed marriage in a lot of ways. After all, we call it a failed marriage. And my now-ex husband did a great job of trying to make me feel guilty about it, too. At first, it was direct blame, then it was allusive: "I don't plan on getting remarried anytime soon. I need to find someone with good, Christian values."

That might not sound like circuitous blame to you, but let me assure you, it felt like it, especially since he went out of his way to say it, out of any context, when we weren't even talking. I simply replied with something like, "Probably. I mean, I just don't believe that marriage is forever, even when it's awful and obviously not going to work." Which I honestly (childishly) hoped would also strike a chord.

Anyway, I'm glad it's over. I may never have to go to the Jefferson County Courthouse again, which is nice since it's on the other side of town. But it will take more time to reconcile the less enjoyable feelings that I can't really rationalize. Nothing is that simple.

S's First Soccer Practice

Thursday was S's first soccer practice. Several of our family members were in town and came to practice with us. We arrived to a park full of kids of various ages, in equally various uniforms, kicking soccer balls around in designated areas based on their team. After asking one of the coaches, we found our rec center group at the opposite end of the park, in plain clothes, doing the same. For a second, I admit I wished S was part of one of those teams with the uniforms. But I quickly remembered that she's only 6 and has basically no idea how to play soccer yet, and all of those kids seemed older and much more experienced. The rec center team was probably the best place for her, and maybe, if she really enjoys being a part of this team, it will spring board her into something more structured in the future.

And, besides, uniforms are supposed to arrive by the next practice anyway. And for my own selfish purposes, I'm excited to say there will be team pictures on the 23rd.

S's team consists of 5 kids in her age group: 3 boys and 2 girls. But the other girl didn't make it to the first practice, so it was just S and 3 boys. The coach is also one of the boys' mom. The first practice involved mingling, teaching the kids to kick with the inside of their foot, and some semi-structured pass practice. At one point, the coach caught the boys passing only among themselves and excluding S. She pointed it out and asked them to involve her, and everything seemed fine after that. I'm not sure S has ever been singled out for being a girl before. On the other hand, I don't think the boys really did it on purpose.

All in all, everyone seemed to get along pretty well and S had a good time. She's excited to go back. In fact, C was a little jealous that she didn't get to play, since she didn't choose soccer as her activity this season. I told her she could join next season if she still wanted to.

Thank You, Internet: Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

My girls occasionally watch Sesame Street clips on Hulu, and episodes on Netflix. We stream them on the Play Station, so they can watch them on the TV. But the TV is in the family room, where it is often pretty cold on winter days. So, I like to keep it mostly closed off unless we're using it, in an attempt to keep from spending a fortune on heating.

Of course, Netflix and Hulu can be accessed on my laptop, at the dining room table, which is great. But I discovered something else I'm now hooked on, and so are the kids: Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood on PBSkids.org.

I loved Mr. Rogers as a kid. As I grew up, I gained respect for him and his show because he talks to kids like they're people, and he has a way of making everything seem simple, normal, and approachable. I still remember a bunch of the songs from the show. Actually, I can't help but sing along to the closing song... "It's such a good feeling to know you're alive..."

If you somehow missed out on Mr. Rogers' as a kid, you should watch an episode, now. He was an incredible person, and his show is very different from most other kids' shows. It's not full of special effects or flashy animations. Half of the show is focused on real life situations like going to the shoe store to buy new shoes and finding that the pair he wants isn't available in his size, so he settles for a similar pair... and doesn't get upset about it. The other half is in a place called "The Neighborhood of Make-Believe" which is accessed via a small toy trolly that runs through part of Mr. Rogers' house, and out through a tunnel. The Neighborhood of Make-Believe is kind of strange, admittedly. There's a talking cat, tiger, owl, elephant and platypus, as well as a number of other, human as well as animal, hand-puppet characters. There are also live actors and actresses who wander and interact with the puppets.

In the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, the characters are unique and have their own personalities, ideas and problems. Troubles arrise as organically as they would in the real world... if the real world had talking animals, I suppose. The main difference is that the troubles are solved in a much more ideal way than they ever are in reality. A human character forgets to stop by and pick up the tiger puppet on her way to a party at the castle. When she is reminded, and comes back to apologize, the tiger is understandably upset. They talk about it. The tiger tells her how it feels to be forgotten, and asks her if she's ever been forgotten. The woman tells a story about being forgotten and explains that the person who forgot her wasn't mad at her or trying to avoid her. "She just... forgot." It's a sad and apologetic conversation, but not accusatory or angry. Honestly, it's refreshing.

Anyhow, I found the page by googling "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood", expecting to find youtube videos, not network approved, full episodes. You can watch the videos in full-screen, and when one episode ends, the next begins automatically. They're also in chronological order, so if you remember Mr. Rogers saying, "last time we visited the land of make-believe..." (which I didn't remember), you can still view them in order so that all makes sense, without any effort of your own.

PBS has a lot of shows on their website, some full episodes and some clips. Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood has around 50 full episodes, as well as some games and neat interactive features.

I'm not sure how to navigate to the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood page from the pbskids.org main page, so here's a direct link: http://pbskids.org/rogers/

Crazy Summer

The title of this post is misleading. "Crazy Summer" starts next week, and I don't mean "crazy" in a bad way. It's going to be exciting and fun for everyone, I think.

It's unfortunate to live in a separate state from all of your relatives, but when it comes time to see them, it's pretty exciting. Next week, we have 5 Timms visiting from Missouri and Minnesota. Next month, we're expecting 2 more from Minnesota. Sometime in May, the girls' dad will be venturing up to visit from Florida. Then, in June, we'll be seeing my mom and sister in Texas. In July, we have plans to take the whole family to Winter Park for a week of vacation with most of the Timms, including two we won't be seeing before then, who live in Ohio. The only immediate family members who aren't part of this itinerary are the two who live in China. It's much more difficult to see them.

You might notice that my dad is also not on that list. We have talked, recently, about him visiting but I'm not sure if or how that will fit in.

D (my partner) has me counting plates and silverware to be sure we have enough for 10 people, and I woke him up last night to tell him we really need a coat rack solution before relatives show up. He says he'll never get used to my midnight worries. But, to be fair, he said, "kitchen light" in his sleep last night. When I responded with, "what?!" he said, "Kitchen... Light? I don't know." and rolled away. I will never get used to that.

Anyway, we certainly have a big enough table, and enough dining chairs. Our current table set up is enough for us, plus one. That's all we normally need. But with the leaf, it can expand to accomodate 10. Thank goodness replacing the dining set was such a high priority. My old set only had 4 chairs, which wasn't enough even for just us.

However, since we just moved into this house (from a much smaller, 2-bedroom apartment), and had a baby 2 months ago, not all of our furniture makes sense. My enormous couch is in the family room, at the back of the house. The living room, just inside the front door, is completely bare if you don't count the playpen and several boxes I haven't managed to sort through. I have plans for what will go there, but haven't had the chance to look for the right pieces.

Despite our house not being entirely put together, it is definitely time to see family again. None of the kids have ever met some of the Timms, and Cub hasn't met any of his extended family yet. Sometime in the summer it will have been a full year since the last time my mom and sister saw any of us. The girls' dad last visited in September, so it will have been about 8 months since then when he gets here in May.

Thank You, Internet: SpaceX

I've mentioned before, vaguely, the internet as an incredible resource for modern homeschooling. There is a lot available on the internet for homeschoolers, and even more that wasn't intended for lessons, but can easily be adapted. I spend quite a bit of time perusing the vast open space of the internet, looking for ideas and resources, so I thought I would share them with you. I'll post them here, under the homeschool tab, as "Thank You, Internet" posts.

Today, I want to say "Thank You, Internet" for an awesome, live webcast of the SpaceX, Falcon 9/Dragon capsule, International Space Station resupply launch. The girls and I watched it while we had breakfast. And M only told me "this is not exciting" once!  But she's 3-years-old.

Watching the launch opened the floor for discussion about why the fire coming out of the engines changes color when the rocket gains altitude, why fire seems to be what makes the rocket go, and why maneuvering the Dragon outside the atmosphere seems to take so much less work and more precision. Of course, they're 6 and 3, so some of those words were not actually used. But discussions about gravity relative to our planet and outer space are colorful, nonetheless.

SpaceX live webcasts a lot of things. This is the second launch we have watched, but the girls were not as curious last time. The previous launch was followed by a live webcast of the Dragon capsule docking with the ISS, which was particularly exciting because of the protocol in place and the mechanisms used. Unfortunately, from what I'm hearing, this Dragon may be less successful.

According to USAToday, "In a statement shortly after noon [EST], SpaceX said Dragon experienced a problem with a propellant valve after reaching orbit, and that only one of four Draco thruster pods was functioning." Elon Musk is apparently planning to give a statement about the situation this evening. At this point it's not publicly known whether the Dragon will be meeting up with the ISS or not.

I'm excited to see Elon's public release, and the drama here is pretty enthralling. Of course, I'd love to see these things go off without a hitch, but I have to admit that the slow trickle-down of information and the suspense here are far more exciting than any soap opera, at least for the nerd in me.