Throwing Marshmallows

January 9th

Taken with my old camera…Kyle and Kaiya playing Go Fish

January 10th

~Stephanie

Jason got the first three books in the Bone graphic novel series by Jeff Smith for Christmas. He absolutely devoured them (I have enjoyed them too!) and we followed up by getting the next two. Here is his review.

Rating – X for Excellent

What makes the books excellent?

They are funny and they have cute things like the Rat Creature Cub. It has a very interesting storyline.

Favorite Parts

1. One is in Book 1 when Fone Bone says “That is what they dragon wants you to think, they they don’t exist.”. Then the dragon comes up out of the well and says “Actually I just want her to think you are nuts.”2. The part when Smiley offers the Rat Creature Cub a sandwich and it turns out to have a giant mouth and instead of just eating the sandwich, it has part of Smiley’s arm in his mouth. And then Smiley Bone says “Sit” and the Rat Creature Cub sites. Then Smiley Bone says “See I told you he was smart”.

Synopsis

There are three Bone cousins. One of them, Phoney, keeps getting run out of town and Fone and Smiley Bone always help Phoney get away from the angry mob. And on the latest time Phoney Bone got run out of town, they got lost. They were off the charts.Then Smiley Bone finds a map and asks Phoneu Bone for $1. Then some locusts come and they start running. away from the locusts. Fone Bone ends up running off a cliff because he can’t see where he is going. Then he climbs out, goes through the mountain using the map. When he gets through, hefinds a valley where most of the story takes place.

Characters

The Bone Cousins – There are three Bone Cousins: Fone Bone, the main character of the book, he is a normal looking Bone with a backpack. Nothing really distinguished. Smiley Bone: Unlike Phoney Bone, Smiley Bone has no money whatsoever. He’s really tall, has this kind of jacket and in the beginning of the book, he is sitting on a rock playing guitar. He also really likes smoking cigars. Phoney Bone: Looks a lot like Fone Bone but he always has a uni-brow plush has a shirt with a star. He is also the richest bone in Boneville (which is where they come from).

The Red Dragon – Kind of a relaxed attitude, can breath fire of course. Unlike you would think, instead of scales, he has fur and big floppy ears. He also has a very good sense of humor. He can be tough when he needs to and he is good not bad.

Ted, the Bug – He is very small. Got a kind of funny attitude. He is a good guy who is opposing the Rat Creatures. And he always hops around. He also has a big brother but you only see him for a bit.

Thorn – Ted ended up mentioning her to Fone Bone because Fone Bone was asking if Ted had seen his cousins. Thorn is a girl, a human (humans have more detail then the Bones) so it looks kind of strange when they are standing close to one another. And her past is sort of a secret. And Fone Bone is also in love with her.
Gran’ma Ben – She’s a farmer. She competes is this Great Cow Race in the summer festival. She fought back the Rat Creatures in the War. She can be a little strict, kind of gruff. Her history is also a little bit of a secret.

Lucius - His personality is kind of gruff. He runs the Barrel Haven Bar. And actually I don’t know too much about him other then that. But I think he has a crush on Gran’ma Ben.

Raque Ja – He’s this giant mountain cat. He says that he is the Master of the Eastern Boarder. He is not helping the Bones but he is not helping the Rat Creatures. He’s also not helping the dragons or the valley people. His personality is very strict. Very powerful.

Rat Creatures – Large scary rat monsters with bug-red eyes. They come in different colors. These are the two main rat creatures: a blue one and a brown one. The brown one likes quiche. The blue one hates the fact that the brown one likes quiche and gets very annoyed with him. They are pretty stupid and easy to distract. In one part Fone Bone jumps onto a small branch and says that the Rat Creatures would be pretty stupid to jump onto this small branch. The Rat Creatures jump onto it and Fone Bone says “Stupid, stupid, Rat Creatures!”. Rat Creature Cub – I think he is really cute and funny. Fone Bone found him in Barrel Haven. He must have wandered in there around the time when the Rat Creatures were evacuating the valley.

King Dok – He looks a lot different then the other Rat Creatures. He’s got tiny arms with a club. And unlike the other Rat Creatures he is actually pretty smart.

The Hooded One – He’s the new leader of the Rat Creatures, apart from King Dok. I don’t know what his personality is like. But he is definitely evil.

Lord of the Locusts – An ancient spirit from the Dream Time. I don’t really know what that is yet. And I actually don’t know too much about this guy either except that he probably wants to take over the world.

~Jason

Inkheart is one of our favorite books…I love it as much as the boys! We have listened to it on cd and it is so wonderfully done. Inkheart is about a bookbinder, Mo, who discovers that he can read characters out of books…he accidentally reads 2 villains, Capricorn and Basta and another character Dustfinger out of a book called Inkheart while reading his wife into the book. Mo and his daughter Meggie are swept up in the adventure that ensues as they try to stop Capricorn and rescue Meggie’s mother. Inkspell is the second book in the trilogy and I found this one just as exciting and captivating (if not more-so) as the first. Inkspell takes place in the book, Inkheart and introduces us to a wonderful new world as Meggie searches to find her mother. Inkspell also solidifies Dustfinger as one of my all-time favorite characters.

There is something about this series that I just absolutely adore…maybe because it revolves around books? Or taps into a secret desire to be read into my favorite books and meet my favorite characters?

Turns out that the movie is currently in production and will be out in Spring of 2008. The article talks about how they will handle Gwin, the horned marten (they were able to stick small horns on a ferret). They also mention that Meggie reads Toto out of the Wizard of Oz and he helps her throughout the movie…that is definitely not from the book. We’ll have to see how it works. They also did not mention Basta in the article, so that has me worried…he was such a great villain and plays a large role in both books….not sure where they are going to go if they do not include him.

And another great thing…the 3rd book in the trilogy, Inkdawn, will be out in Spring 2008!

So much to look forward to!

Thanks to Book Moot for the link!

~Stephanie

At least with my married name: Stephanie Elms

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Not quite as unique (but still not too common) with my given name: Stephanie Hoffmann

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 26 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

My answer may surprise you! I have a new post up over at Life Without School.

Our kids are missing out on things by not being in school. Good teachers, interesting projects, unique, positive experiences that can only happen in a school environment. While some schools do have their downsides, they also have their upsides. I have heard of some teachers and school-based programs that make me a little jealous and cause me to have brief doubts about what I am doing with my kids.

But what I keep coming back around to is that kids in school are missing out on just as many great things by not being homeschooled. My kids have the opportunity to experience many things that kids in school never will.

~Stephanie

I hope to get back into regular posting soon…things are just a bit hectic right now. Lots to talk about, but not enough time in the day. Still keeping up with Project 365 and hoping to at least get a few photos up.

Gotta get more sleep…

~Stephanie

Well, ok, he’s forming a Presidential Exploratory Committee. The first step towards actually running. Works for me!

Check out Barack Obama’s video announcement and come do a happy dance with me.

~Stephanie

It has been another busy day, so I thought that I would post this meme that I found on Big A little a.  Looks like I have some more reading to do…

The rules: Mark the selections you have read in bold. If you liked it, add a star [*] in front of the title, if you didn’t, give it a minus [-]. Then, put the total number of books you’ve read in the subject line.

• * The Chronicles of Prydain – Alexander, Lloyd
• Carrie’s War – Bawden, Nina
• Death of a Ghost – Butler, Charles
• Ender’s Game – Card, Orson Scott
• Summerland – Chabon, Michael
• * King of Shadows – Cooper, Susan
• * The Dark is Rising sequence – Cooper, Susan
• Stonestruck – Cresswell, Helen
• * Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Dahl, Roald
• * Matilda – Dahl, Roald
• Ingo – Dunmore, Helen
• The Sea of Trolls – Farmer, Nancy
• Madame Doubtfire – Fine, Anne
• Corbenic – Fisher, Catherine
• * Inkheart – Funke, Cornelia
• * The Thief Lord – Funke, Cornelia
• The Owl Service – Garner, Alan
• Happy Kid! – Gauthier, Gail
• Stormbreaker – Horowitz, Anthony
• Whale Rider – Ihimaera, Witi
• Finn Family Moomintroll – Jansson, Tove
• * Fire and Hemlock – Jones, Diana Wynne
• * The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster, Norton
• The Sheep Pig – King Smith, Dick
• Stig of the Dump – King, Clive
• A Wizard of Earthsea – Le Guin, Ursula
• * The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – Lewis, C S
• The House at Norham Gardens – Lively, Penelope
• Goodnight Mister Tom – Magorian, Michelle
• The Changeover – Mahy, Margaret
• The Stones are Hatching – McCaughrean, Geraldine
• The White Darkness – McCaughrean, Geraldine
• Beauty – McKinley, Robin
• Sabriel – Nix, Garth
• * The Borrowers – Norton, Mary
• * Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – O’Brien, Robert
• Z for Zachariah – O’Brien, Robert
• A Dog So Small – Pearce, Philippa
• Life As We Knew It – Pfeffer, Susan Beth
• A Hat Full of Sky – Pratchett, Terry
• * His Dark Materials sequence – Pullman, Philip
• How I Live Now – Rosoff, Meg
• * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Rowling, J K
• Holes – Sachar, Louis
• The Foreshadowing – Sedgwick, Marcus
• Marianne Dreams – Storr, Catherine
• When the Siren Wailed – Streatfield, Noel
• The Bartimaeus Trilogy – Stroud, Jonathan
• * The Hobbit – Tolkien, J R R
• * Charlotte’s Web – White, E B

~Stephanie

Yes, I know. Jason’s birthday was last month. But we put his kid birthday party off until today so that his best friend from Ocean City could make it up. Jason has done laser tag for the past 3 years and that is what he wanted again. We tried a new place that just opened. I have to say I enjoyed it much more then the normal place! It was less crowded and chaotic and much better organized. The folks who ran it really seemed to make an extra effort…they even had one of the staff members come in and do a card trick which the kids enjoyed.

Little touches like this outside the door to the party room were really nice.

Trying out the equipment.

Jason and his volcano cake (the lava was made with melted cherry lifesavers)

Kyle and Sean enjoying the pizza.

Waiting to go in…I swear they were having a good time, really! (Eric, Kyle, Jack, Jason, Zak)

Opening presents.

Playing with my zoom (have I mentioned that I love my new camera?)

~Stephanie

Christine wrote in the comments from my last post I love surprises:

Just out of curiosity, how do you find all of these author blogs/websites, etc? Do you just google authors you like? Is there a website that lists stuff like this? My kids would be very interested, I think, along with their “book geek” of a mom.

Thanks to the wonder that is the internet, there are tons of great email lists/blogs/websites out there to indulge our “book geekiness” if we so desire. I have found that “child’s lit” makes up the core of our homeschooling…we do a lot of reading together and always have an audio book going. And to be honest with you, I think that I enjoy this part of our homeschooling as much as the boys!

I have discovered a wealth of great authors and books by hanging out around Child Lit lovers. There are tons of folks discussing and writing about it on the web. Some of my favorites are:

Child Lit email list: By far the best resource. Ongoing discussions about anything and everything to do with Child’s Lit. This is not a homeschool specific list, but is made up of lovers of Children’s Literature…list members include authors (Jane Yolan, Philip Pullman, Bruce Hale and many others), teachers (all levels, elementary through college), librarians, English/Children’s literature majors, parents and homeschoolers. I have learned about so many great authors that I never would have known about and I love the conversations…especially interesting to hear the teachers and librarians. You can tell that these folks just love children’s books!

Mother Reader: My favorite child’s lit blog written by a mom (who doubles as a librarian’s assistant). We share similar tastes in books and I love her sense of humor. She is the one who turned me onto Mo Williams blog and the National Book Festival. And many, many great books.

Educating Alice: A great blog written by an awesome 4th grade english teacher that I “met” on the Child’s Lit email list. She has some great ideas for teaching kids and is the type of creative teacher that everyone would love for their kids (if they are not homeschooling that is!)

Other Child’s Lit blogs that I check out:

• Fuse #8
• Chicken Spaghetti
• Big A little a
• Book Moot
• Scholar’s Blog

It also seems that most authors have a website or even a blog nowadays. If you have a favorite author, google and see what you find out. You never know where it might lead. I am hoping to have time soon to update my blogroll to include favorite author sites…

Hope that these get you started…but I warn you, there are tons of great Child’s Lit blogs out there…it is easy to get totally hooked! And now I find out about great new books when they first come out which drives me crazy…because I have to make the decision of whether or not to wait to get it in paperback! And what is it with this need that I have where if I find a book that I (or the boys) really love that I have to own it…even if we have gotten it from the library and already read it?? I think it is a sickness…
Happy Reading!

~Stephanie

I love surprises. Especially a surprise that should not have been a surprise! A couple of months ago, I responded to a request by author Bruce Hale (writes the really funny Chet Gecko mysteries…one of Jason’s favorite series).

He posted on a Children’s Literature email list (run through Rutgers University), looking for teachers to participate in an online focus group…answering questions about what we would like to see in a DVD on kids writing that he is developing. He was offering participants signed copies of 3 of his books.

When I wrote to ask if he was interested in homeschooler feedback, he responded that he most certainly was. I completed the survey and then promptly forgot about it.

I got a package in the mail yesterday and as promised, we are now the proud owners of signed copies of 3 Chet Gecko books! The boys thought that it was really cool and so did I!

The internet really is a neat thing…I know that I never had much of a concept of authors as real people growing up…now they have blogs and websites and you can see videos of talks. So cool.

But then again, I am a book geek…

~Stephanie

January 8th

Display samples of different bricks by different companies at the National Building Museum. Just thought that it was visually appealing.

 ~Stephanie

January 7th – Not much going on other trying to reorganize the boys play room! Moved the guinea pig cage so we have more room.

~Stephanie

We went to a fun class on Bridges at the National Building Museum this morning. Definitely learned that we should take the metro next time (parking at some places downtown (in Washington DC) is fairly easy to find…not so for the NBM!) But we made it luckily. Jason really enjoyed it, Kyle was a bit bored until they got to the hands on building stuff. Which makes sense since it was Jason who was technically signed up for it (it was for older elementary age) but they let Kyle hang out since they had room.

They had models of different types of bridges that Jason enjoyed playing around with…you could, for example, take down the “ropes” of a suspension bridge and see how that affected stability. They also had lots of infomation about the pros and cons of each kind of bridge and the types of locations you might find the different types of bridges.

Then they (their group) were given a scenario from which they needed to determine the best type of bridge, design and build it using the recycled materials provided. They then had to present their bridge to the rest of the class and test how many bricks it could hold.

All in all a fun 2 hours (for a mere $5!). We had never been to the NBM and I have to say that it is a very impressive building…I had a lot of fun taking pictures.

The pillars were monsterous! The boys liked to look straight up them to see if the would get dizzy.

A definite perk to living where we do…a wealth of great homeschool activities. And on the way home we kept picking out the different types of bridges we saw (not hard leaving DC for Virginia!) We spotted many plank bridges, a couple of arch bridges and even a couple of truss bridges. I had never really paid that much attention and it was pretty neat to see how many were around us.

~Stephanie

And it is stretching my left-brainedness…you see I want each post to have a general focus (makes more sense for categorizing and if I want to refer back to it…) and this one is going to be all over the place!

First off, Marjorie had just an awesome, awesome post up over at Life Without School: How Much Is Enough. I have lots I want to say, but don’t have the time right now. I share her confusion and her sympathy for the “reluctant reader” she witnessed at the library. I really want to find some time to explore this a bit further.

JoVE posted about how she played around a bit with taking pictures. Looks like she had a lot of fun. I know that I have been. I also wanted to pass on a good resource for learning more about photography. Digital Photography School is a great blog for amateur photographers…well written, very accessable (you don’t have to know tons about photography to understand it) and a variety of topics. I have learned a lot just from hanging out there. I especially love the tips I have gotten on composition.

OK…I had a little bit more, but I think that I will put it into a separate post…

~Stephanie

And I am still kicking myself for not going out and seeing him when he was in Alexandria earlier this past year. Probably won’t make it down to Richmond either, but at least it is nice to know that Virginia is in play now.

Barack will be attending the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in February. And he just wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post about how Congress has not gone far enough with ethics reform:

 That’s why it’s not enough to just change the players. We have to change the game.

Americans put their faith in Democrats because they want us to restore their faith in government — and that means more than window dressing when it comes to ethics reform.

I know that I am an idealist. And I know that many people say that being an idealist is not practical and does not really work in the “real world”. But I also believe that idealism is important and there is a time and place for it. I honestly believe that after what we have been through and where politics has taken us lately, that we need someone like Barack.

He may not have tons of experience, but he is incredibly smart and I have no doubt that he would surround himself with the people with the experience and who can give him the information he needs. He certainly can’t do any worse then our current president. One of Barack’s key strengths is that he knows how to listen and he can see both sides of most issues. This alone would be an improvement over what we have today.

He has the ideas and willingness to work for the betterment of our country. He has a vision for what this country could be and should stand for which is more then I can say for most politicians.

It will be an interesting year, that is for sure.

~Stephanie

Yup, missed the 5th. I have been having a lot of fun lugging my big ‘ ole DSLR around with me though. I definitely get more comments then I did when I pulled out my small point and shoot. Have I mentioned that I love my new camera? Plus it gave me an excuse to order another Crumpler bag.

January 4th – in our car

January 6th – colors were faded in the original, so I played with the saturation a bit. I kinda like it.

~Stephanie

I have recently started playing around with google’s Picasa and have been having a lot of fun! It is no photoshop, but for right now, it is just what I need. Not to mention that it is free!

I had tried another program PhotoPlus but found it was way to complicated and I just do not have the time I need to really figure how to use it. So I figure that I will stick with Picasa to do the basic stuff and when I have some time, I can try to figure out how to use PhotoPlus.

Picasa allows you to organize and edit your photos. Nothing too exciting, but enough to play around with and get started. You can fix red-eye, add fill light, play with contrast, saturation, fix crooked horizons, sharpen the focus and do lots of special effects like black and white. I really like the interface and found it really easy to get up and running.

Like I said, it is not near as powerful as Photoshop, but for right now it does exactly what I need.

It allows me to take a picture like this:

And turn it into this:

Or this:

Or this:

And did I mention that it is free?

Now I just need to figure out how long to keep the backups that it makes…I am going to start running out of disk space soon…

~Stephanie

Kyle started a new homeschool class offered by our local nature center today. While there, I talked a little bit with the woman who worked the front desk and mentioned how great I thought that it was that the nature center was offering these programs. She agreed and said that they were really pleased with the turnout (it is a program for K-2nd grade and the 15 slots had filled up quickly).

She then went on to say that I must be so glad to have an oportunity for my kids to be able to be socialize (yes, she used the word!) with other kids. I laughed a little and explained to her that we really did not have any problem finding group activities, that many places were realizing that there was this whole group of kids home during the day and offering classes. I also mentioned that we actually had to drop an activity in order to take this class and how they were taking a homeschool pottery class (also offered by the county park authority) and really enjoying it.

Not convinced, she said that even though she was sure that my kids had lots of opportunities, she was sure that there were other homeschoolers out there did not. And how being in a class with a group of other kids was just so important and the kids just learned so much about dealing with other kids.

She also went on to say that homeschooling seemed like it would be such a lot of work and asked me (in front of Jason!) if I didn’t find it hard being around my kids so much! I just responded that really, homeschooling was easier then it seemed and that being with my kids was one of the reasons that I enjoyed homeschooling so much.

She was a very nice woman and I actually enjoyed our conversation…who knows, maybe I got her to think about things a little bit differently. Or at least opened the door. I am sure that interacting with the homeschool kids and parents who will be coming to the center will help open it further.

I think that for some people, homeschooling is just one of those things that they do not know much about and have not given much thought. It is not until they meet a homeschooler that they start thinking and questioning.

Kyle had a lot of fun in the class and is looking forward to the next one. They are covering earth science types of topics (including magnatism, rock identifcation, pulleys, amphibians, insects etc). He has a couple of friends who are taking it so that was fun for him. And the fact that Jason is not taking has some appeal as well. Jason seemed to enjoy our time…I brought the book we are reading, The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones and he brought the Bone graphic novel that he got for Christmas (that he loves!) and we had a nice time exploring the nature center and reading a bit.

~Stephanie

~Stephanie

January 1st (actually December 31st…shhh…don’t tell!)

New Years at the beach is beautiful!

January 2nd

I took this as we were packing getting ready to come home. I love the lighting.

January 3rd

Owly is a wonderful graphic novel that tells a great story with no words!

~Stephanie