while cleaning up this week, i came across some old homeschooling supplies

this home-made french verb conjugator made me laugh

what's this?!

seems i've tripped upon a novel that fierce is writing...

have i mentioned that fierce and sebastian have been following the free MIT cooking course?
well, they have.  they've made guacamole, salsa, death-by-chocolate cookies, sour cream pancakes, bread, and today, in their quest for the perfect meringue - lemon tarts.

kiwanis

alright, these aren't the best photos...
but fierce and his homeschool band entered kiwanis, and it was a brave moment for all of them - only one instrument of each type; no relying on your orchestra mate to pick up the slack

they earned a silver.

fierce enters the science fair

Survive the Dive

where fierce conclusively proved that it is the COLD WATER, and NOT holding your breath that increases lung capacity

science challenge 3

challenge: create a structure that can protect 2 lego people from different levels of wind (ok, it was a fan)

back to the drawing board

 

science challenge 1

challenge: create a bacteriophage that can transfer it's DNA to a host cell...
i got to the photo a little late :) but fierce, sebastian, and brennan enjoyed themselves!

poetry monday

we finish off with odes and ballads. 
maybe it's a good thing our poetry study is coming to a close.  we're becoming a tad morose - starting poems with (prescribed) hopeful, happy lines and ending up with a handful of tears...

                       Sometimes I remember
                       The good old days
                       When I was young
                       The first to be dispatched
                       For the Easter Egg Hunt


                       When I was the one
                       To get the first egg
                       Then the others would come
                       And find many more
                       And when I ran for an egg
                       Another would take it


                       Soon it was over
                       And when I shook my bag
                       Only one fell out



Sometimes I remember
the good old days

The beach bare of people
and the lake water beckoning

A tussle of kids: my kids, your kids
our kids

Mixing and mingling in the sand
wrapping themselves in shrieks and
surety

Next week: same time, same place
True blue -

Times change and people move
on


                                     Ode to Lemonade

                              O Lemonade,
                              how you slip
                              down my throat like the elixir of life
                              and Quench my thirst
                                     in a jiffy

                              O Lemonade,
                              how you water
                              the Garden
                              of taste
                              and when it's time for us to part
                              you leave my teeth
                                     squeaky

poetry monday

this, our second last week, was spent on rhyming patterns.  besides the quatrain, consonance and assonance, we just had to try our land at limerick :)

There once was a knight named Sir Bumbly
Who lived his life quite humbly
He liked to put on shows
For his kids and wife Rose
And that is the tale of Sir Bumbly

                       there once was a ghost named Peter
                       who haunted a lovely old cedar
                       I'm lonely, he sighed
                       when a lady walked by
                       so he swooped down the tree to meet her

The sea is always moving
It rushes back and forth
The sea is always moving
Not south, nor east, nor north

poetry monday

today's lesson focused on poetic meter - we discussed it, learned the different names for rhythms and meters, and clapped out some beats (we especially liked jumping to denis lee's "rattlesnake" - if that's not a beautiful dactylic dimeter, i don't know what is!)
anyhow - when 'told' by poetry and pizzaz to analyze the poems into metres and rhythms, we took poetry matters advice and did not     (what a way to kill a budding love of poetry!)

                              washing
                              masheen
                              beat clothes
                              to clean
                              bashing
                              stockings
                              smashing
                              blue jeans
                              water lashing
                              dirt out
                              dashing


                              settle swiftly
                              water weary
                              grey


this                         the                               self
is                            noth                              falling
a                             ing                                 into
po                           ness                               the
em                          this                                  nitty
a                              po                                    witty
bout                        em                                     rhythm
no                            is                                        of
thing                        a                                         this
in                              bout                                    nitty
par                           is                                          witty
ti                               so                                          song
cu                             in
lar                            tense
but                           that
it                               you
tra                            can
vels                          not
down                       deny
a                               ev'n
page                         if
fas                            you
ter                            try
than                         you
a                               will
good                        find
book                        your

poetry monday

this week is about expressing emotions - something that fierce doesn't like to let loose with.... 
his first attempt - trying to avoid it - turned out to express a deep emotion after all :)

                               i don't know

                    i don't know what to write about
                    i feel like my thoughts
                    are in a whirlpool of dead
                    imagination
                    and my ideas
                    are just out of reach
                    maybe i'm just no good
                    at writing poems
                    i don't know

angry is a beast awoken from slumber
irritated mosquito bitten camper,
a furious cat who has scarcely been fed,
a child not invited to his best friend's party,
a lie

                    the day is done
                    and black
                    sweeps
                    across the country
                    battling light
                    to the edges
                    of the earth
                    consuming the sky
                    in a few
                    small bites
                    black

     jealousy
look at her
so smug, so proud
oh well
she's fat / she's old / she's loud
my heart is empty
this hollowed pain
echoes

why did you choose her
why not me?

poetry monday

Sounds are explored today - like alliteration, and onomatopoeia. 

Alphy Alphalfa ate apricots and apples after an afternoon anger attack

                        Benny Bomboro bombarded bears with bushels of bananas

he held a whole humpback in his huge hairy, hands

          Tree House
Bash into bars for bunches of boards
We clumsily climb the collosal conifer
Then bang the boards together
We rummage thru the rafters until you find a rug
Haul it hastily upwards
Sit dow; the job is done

nuclear power

fierce is doing a self-directed study for science this term - using usbourne science encyclopedia as a spine. he's been looking at energy - nuclear energy to be specific - and i guess it's found a way into his play time. so here's his very own nuclear reactor :)

(his words):
this is radioactive plutonium, which heats up some water, which heats up different water, which recirculates thru this and turns to steam, which turns the turbine, which creates electricity which turns on the tv

poetry monday

we're trying literary devices this time: metaphors, similes, personification... it was more piecemeal this week - fierce trying out little snippets.  this one comparing a woman to a tree was my hands-down favorite:

tall and slender,
standing motionless,
one entwined in vines, the other in children


                         waiting on a dusty shelf
                         cobwebs strewn overhead
                         librarian sits gloomily
                         she's going to close the library
                         due to lack of interest
                         the familiar dingling of a bell,
                         I see a little boy
                         he says something to the librarian
                         I am plucked from my shelf
                         and handed to the boy
                         to tell my story one last time


in a circle I go
from drawer to table
    to mouth
         to sink
and then the assault -
torrents of scalding water,
the indignity of suds
in the moment of quiet,
before the cycle renews,
I whisper to the dish:
"Want to run away to the moon?"

poetry monday

this week we are working on form. 
the shape poems will not translate well here, but we tried our hand at haiku (5/7/5 syllables), cinquain (2/4/6/8/2), and tanka (5/7/5/7/7) among others

               morning
              
           when breakfast is done
           cereal boxes litter
           my nice clean counter

daydreams in the sun
I am a knight with a castle
in this world, I am me

                              food fight
                              melon
                              high flying food
                              popcorn zooms overhead
                              carrots and onions get even
                              very odd

  winter
  icy blowing
  wind makes me huddle deep
  in the blankets but i still have
  cold feet

        in the dead of night
        the ice cream bandit attacks
        sneeking through the halls
        snatching up entire stocks
        what will I eat for dessert?

                          ridged rules of rhyme -
                          how do the Japanese cope?
                          counting every line
                          it's hard; i feel like a dope
                          so i say: No TANKA-you!

poetry monday

using poetry with pizazz, and poetry matters, fierce and i will be trying our hand at poetry on mondays.
today we wrote acrostic and list poems.  here's a sampler:

Bosco
Of the
Super family
Called the Dunn-Dufaults up-
On birth

                    Rising to the challenge
                    Of my ever-changing-needs
                    Bring that man a medal!

Peppered eggs
Enything spicy
Peanut buter cups
Pickles
Even kimchi
Roasted marshmallows

     Flying fast arrows
     Instructions for lego
     Eater of waffles
     Red
     Camping equipment
     Early riser

how to make the perfect ice cream sundae


     bring bowl
     force open the frosty freezer
     snatch only strawberry
     slip upstairs
     heap the holy ice cream in the hopeful bowl
     jumble in some jolly berries and jolt them back and forth
     munch the malicious mixture until it is all gone
     now quickly hide the evidence or busted we will be

              the reason i hate cats

          claw marks on my brand new couch,

          vomit on the carpet,

          litter box,

          smelly food,

          stinking up my hall.

          poop stuck on their bums

          worse still - they lick there too

          cheese bun eater,

          midnight noisemaker,

          the power to make my child cry with grief every night

After dinner
Bedtime looms
Courage failing
Doom comes close
Evade the clock
Fight back at time
Gosh, it's coming
Horribly fast
It's going to be another
Jolly
Kart crash
Lullabys murmured
Millions at a time
No sleep tonight
Out goes the sun
Purple moon shining high
Quest barely started
R you willing to fight?
Say your last words
Time's running out U shiver with dread
Various thoughts
Wriggling 'round your head
Xssss, someone turned out the lights
You're getting sleepy
Zzzzz.  mission failed

jenkin's ear

fierce & savannah are doing SOTW projects independently and they chose to 'preserve' jenkin's ear (the supposed start to the war of austrian succession). poor savannah got the salt water preservation method and i hear the fluid turned orange in a matter of days!
fierce got alcohol, and this is 3 weeks into the experiment.

(as an aside: get a load of the crooked glasses! fierce went winter camping with cubs and got plowed into during a toboggan run. i should get them fixed but it's hard to keep on top of everything while rob is away for 10 days.)

math whiz

fierce get a trophy for speed, and a medal for accuracy at beestar. 
finally!  something listed in the My Awards section

1st place!

fierce excels in his 'beestar' math program...

who says HSing isn't fun?

even under the so called burden of curriculum, fierce finds a way to enjoy himself:



in case you can't make it out, it's -
  St. Loser High
  The Janitor Store
  Duncan Mental Hospital
and - my personal fav - buying milk at the Everything But Milk Store