Walk... Run... Jump... Fly! Blog

My Summer at Camp....by Mollie B

AnnieB — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:17:56 +0000

You know that essay that you've had to write on the first day of school, literally every year, about what you did over the summer? Well this is mine, and it feels almost impossible to write. This is probably the 4th time I've re-written it and I still can't find the right words to describe the last two months. I spent them at a Jewish camp on the Oregon coast where I learned more about myself then I think I'd care to know. So, to explain this all to you I think I'll start at the beginning.

The summer started out with a bus ride that was filled with anxious children and pixie stick wrappers. I still remember pulling into the camp and it feeling like I'd never left. The second the overweight bus driver cranked open that door, I could smell that familiar scent of home (also known as the mysterious kosher meat product the kitchen staff makes every night) and I'd never been so happy to smell it. As the staff all cheered for the incoming children, we ran to our friends we hadn't seen in what feels like forever. We hugged them until we were sure they weren't going to leave. We then joined a circle that included our age group, anxiously awaiting the destiny of our summer, also known as our counselor. You see, good counselor's can either make or break your summer! This year I got the best counselor's I could have possibly imagined but at this time I knew nothing about them except that people had said they were kind of strict.

During camp I did some of the most incredible things. On our five day camping trip with our unit, I got stuck on a zip line in the redwood forest. My glove became wedged in the pulley and I was just hanging...suspended...75 feet in the air. To explain to you the sheer terror of this, you have to know how ridiculously scared of heights I am. So there I was, just dangling on this wire, legs flailing, laughing hysterically like a crazy person. The entire time my best friend is screaming, "SHE'S STUCK! OMG SHE'S STUCK!", over and over. Finally I got my glove out, the momentum of which moved me a total of five inches which was still 50 feet from the podium. Getting myself safely to the other side was going to require a lot more upper body strength then I had. At this point there are tears streaming down my face. Suddenly hear everyone below scream, "HORSE!". I look down to see there's a pony walking directly below me. Well, that gave me the final push I needed to get across that zipline. I needed to see that pony! As soon as I hit the bottom of the tree I ran to that pony whose name, I learned, was "Strawburry", not "Strawberry". Its very strange owners were two 10 year old girls who ended up pulling out a knife (not kidding) and saying that their dad made them carry it because, "you never who could be in the woods". On that note, we said goodbye to Strawburry and her owners, but not before I got a picture!

There were other great things that I did at camp, one of which was Color Wars. The grade that I'm in gets the privilege to lead a Color War team as captain. Two captains are picked for all four teams (red, green, gold and blue), one guy and one girl. I was picked as team captain for the gold team. Now, to understand the magnitude of what Color War is at camp, you have to know how absolutely competitive I am. From the second they announce you as captain you have to be on your game. It's midnight and your painting posters or decorating your area of the dining hall with the right colors. If you're a good captain you won't be to bed until at least 2 am! You have to figure out your game plan, you have to win. In the morning we run into all the cabins screaming, waking the kids up, and then read off which team everyone's on. From that point on, for the next 2 days, you are your color. Everything you do will involve the team your on. Meals are themed with things such as spirit dinner or quiet lunch. Competitions are back-to -back and everything is worth points. I can sum up those two days of being captain as this: I cheered until I lost my voice and after I lost it, I still cheered. I threw up from eating a kids food waste (more points to the team with no food waste) I cried. I ran around like chicken with it's head cut off to get everything done, and still everything did not get done. I dropped our team cake that we had to decorate as a competition and then watched as it turned into a pile of crumbs. Cried again. I fought with my best friend because I was a captain and she was not. I made a group of spiritless 8th graders hate me, and fought with my co-captain. Then cried. I totally lost it and then pulled it back together about 4 times, and after all of that... we got 3rd place. Even though we didn't win, I can tell you that those two days taught me so much. I can now say I know what it feels like to tell kids to stop talking and they don't listen. I learned what it feels like to be disrespected, and also what it feels like when everything comes together. I felt what it was like to love a team with all your heart even though you didn't win. For the rest of camp kids on my team came up to me saying what a good captain I was. That felt really, really good. Now, I know how weird this must sound to anyone in the outside world, but it really does mean so much to these campers and to me as well!

The second that camp starts, time starts flying by and all of a sudden you realize there's only a few days left to be in this amazing place. Between the first day and the moment you realize its almost over so much happens. From cabin clean up to Color War, every moment is precious. I spent every morning eating powdered eggs and every night laughing with my best friends. I lived in cabin S-7 with a group of the most unorganized girls I have ever met (including me). Our cabin slowly but surely started to smell like dirty clothes and cheap spray on perfume, definitely not the best mixture, but right about now I'd do anything to be back in that foul smelling cabin. I slowly became closer and closer with every person in my cabin until I'm pretty sure every one of them knew my deepest fears, and I knew theirs. My counselor's, who I was not so sure on in the beginning, became our best friends/ therapists when we needed it, and God knows we needed it. From the stressful days of Color War to fighting with friends for no reason I can remember now, our counselor's helped us through it all. As the days began to dwindle, I realized how hard it was going to be to leave this place. At the last bonfire I cried like a baby while singing the lyrics to "Leaving On a Jet Plane". We stood around hugging each other while whispering things like, "I'll miss you so much" into each others ears with tear choked voices. As the bus rolled out of camp its final time I smelled the faint scent of tears with undertones of dirt from camp and I laughed to myself about the irony of it all. Coming to camp just to be utterly depressed about leaving two months later, still knowing I'll go back next year, and every year in the foreseeable future.

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AnnieB — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:53:44 +0000

Homeschool Co-op

AnnieB — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:16:17 +0000

What is a homeschool co-op? Simply put, it's a huge help in your homeschool journey. If you have one in your area, I would suggest checking it out. It is extremely helpful in teaching your child subjects that you might have little experience in, and also provides time for them to interact with their peers once a week.

Now, most of the co-op's that I have run into are religious based and will NOT let you attend in less you sign an agreement that states you believe in the same religious beliefs that they do. There are a few secular ones out there so keep looking if the religious thing is not you, or your child's cup 'o tea.

High school students having fun at Desert Valley Creative Co-op

Our area started a co-op and did amazingly well for their first year. Both of my daughters attended classes in political process, Spanish, literature ("A Tale of Two Cities"), finance, speech and drama. I was able to teach the middle and high school drama class and had an absolute blast! Sometimes homeschooling on your own in a small community can be isolating. Being a part of our little group really helped us in feeling like we were a part of something really great! It also broke up some of the monotony that can start to drag you down at times.

A great way to start your own homeschool co-op (if there is not one in your area) is start a local homeschool facebook page. It's a great way to get a critical mass together to get one of the ground!

Lord of the Rings Literary Lessons

AnnieB — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:52:28 +0000

"The Lord of the Rings" could well be considered one of the most influential novels of the past century. Tolkien, an Oxford professor, used poetry, invented languages as well as reference resources on genealogies and chronologies which makes it a great piece of writing to study. Our friend Kate, a professor of education, was kind enough to lead our small group in the unit studies and discussions that followed. The curriculum we used was from Home Scholar Books and I would highly recommend it!

Thanks Kate for helping us on our journey to Middle-earth! A big THANKS to Kate for also teaching Mollie and Maddie SAT writing prep!

How To Build Your Own Animatronic Holiday Decoration!

AnnieB — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:57:49 +0000

Wow! It took WAY longer to get this out! I was hoping to get it out before Christmas, but time got away from me as usual. The first part of the video I look like a maniac crazy person, which my kids would say was true. Really, we just sped up the recording to make it a tiny bit shorter. I have a tendency to ramble. I am obviously NOT a professional actress!

Maddie shot this tutorial and edited it. My job was rendering it which is much harder than one might imagine!

So, Enjoy Making Max!

Making Learning Visible With Timelines

AnnieB — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:10:40 +0000

I am a total FREAK for timelines! They make an incredible scaffolding tool that can be used to teach almost any subject. It makes a visual reference enabling you to revisit the subject over and over, building upon your previous knowledge about almost any topic. In our home, everything from history (the obvious one) to math, art, literature, and science has been tied together through our timelines. We have a toilet paper timeline (click on the link to see this timeline) which shows the very beginning of earth up to homosapians.

We also have a "classroom" one, which I put in quotes because we don't really have a classroom! This timeline has everything (almost) that we have worked on in the past year. We also just recently did a more focused timeline on Rome, Athens and Ephesus to extend what we learned on our trip to Europe.

Visualizing these places and moments in time has been such a meaningful way to learn for all of us! We create each and every event that we put on the timeline together and physically the girls put it up themselves. We have had long discussions about punctuated equilibrium as it relates to technological changes such as Gutenberg's printing press, the telephone, the automobile and the internet! Also, punctuated equilibrium as it relates to science such as Darwinism, or Einstein's theory of relativity.

Recently, we sent off for National Geographic's Genome Sequencing project. We send them a swab collected from the inside of our cheek and they send us back a timeline of our genetic code all the way to the "cradle of civilization" in Africa. We sent one for the maternal side, or mitochondrial DNA and the other from the parental side. This is a wonderful experiment to do. Go to National Geographic to get more details how you can find out your own historical DNA migration through history.

The next opportunity is through Ancestry.com where I have been researching our own (more recent) family history. One part of our lineage takes us all they way back to the Mayflower! What better way to learn about American history than with your own ancestors? Each and every family member has existed in a part of history and by looking at each individual, we can study all the important historical events that they lived through. Some even fought in the Civil, Revolutionary War as well as World Wars I, II and Vietnam.

The timeline has to be the most amazing tool that we have used in our homeschooling journey. I have texts just sitting on our shelves dusty! This has taken over...and is far more economical than any boxed set of curriculum! Thank you to my friend Jennifer from Toadhaven for inviting me into your home where I first gazed upon a timeline (which wrapped around her entire living room)! You are an inspiration!

Ephesus, The Terrace Houses

AnnieB — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:02:52 +0000

This post is from Mollie.

This September my family and I took a trip to Europe. We visited many histroically intresting places, but the place where I learned the most was, by far, Ephesus. Ephesus is an ancient town in Sounthern Turkey. It is one of the biggest archelogical sites in the world. Over thousands of years this town was left untouched, and now we can get a real look at what life in the ancient world was like.

In my opinion the best part of Ephesus was the Terrace Houses. The Terrace Houses were the homes of ancient royalty. These houses where equipped with kitchens, dinning rooms, living rooms, and even a heating system! In the homes were the most beautiful moasics and frescos! While walking through these houses I couldn't help but think about who walked through them before me. Cleopatra? or maybe even Mark Anthony? They give you such a good idea of how these people lived, your imagination can just run wild. You can almost see the people walking through the courtyard. The children running around playing, the mothers yelling at them to stop. These homes bring us so much closer to the past.

The houses date all the way back to first century BC. They were found in the 1900's underneath a mountain that had formed over hundreds of years, between 500 AD and 1900 AD. Excavtions on the site began in the 1960's and they have only finished 2 of the homes and opened them as a mueseum. The rest are still being excavated and I can olny imagine what we will find!

Lifestyle Changes...How Do You Make Them Stick?

AnnieB — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 01:54:06 +0000

Change has always been hard for me. Sticking with a lifestyle change is even harder. I have had countless exercise programs that have often ended even before they began! I've tried swimming, a personal trainer, pilates (way too expensive) and it never stuck. A few years ago I bought an expensive summer gym membership for just the girls and I. We used it...twice.

Diet...don't even get me started! I don't want to loose weight, I just want to feel better! Yet dayMollie on our first school salad bar day! in and day out for 20 years, I trudge to Starbucks for my latte (with a pump of chocolate and whole milk) even though I think it's making me ill! I can't break the habit! I don't even think it's just the addiction to the caffeine. Is it the baristas, because they know my name and chat me up everyday? Maybe it's the smell of roasted beans and the whir of the Frapaccino blender? Is it standing in line? Seriously! I also have cheese on anything I possibly could and I like my meat...and potatoes too. It's really frightening because I know better! I was the mom who headed up the salad bar program at my kids school (when they went to school). I lobbied for better nutrition for our kids years before Jamie Oliver brought it to center stage! Yet here I am, literally sick... literally tired. I can't sleep, my joints ache, I have head-aches and horrible heart burn. I buy Pepcid and Advil by the case at Costco!

So, why all this lifestyle talk on a homeschool blog? Well, it was a homeschool assignment that I gave to my kids that brought me here! We love documentaries and my husband (in the medical field) suggested we watch "Forks Over Knives" on Netflix. So my mom, the kids, and I sat down to watch. Something big happened. After the movie, we ALL got up and said..."I'm going to be a VEGETARIAN!" I'm not kidding...we all made a pact (including my mom, a Montana born and raised on cattle kinda girl) that we would cut animal protein out of our diet. Now, a few words of caution, this movie exagerates and emelishes a little bit. I wouldn't go quitting diabetes or heart medications immediately after implementing a dietary change! Never-the-less...it's a total game changer!

Like all things, I wonder if I can make it last. Mom called me today and gave me a vegetarian recipe she tried with Dad last night. I'm hoping she stays with it so we can motivate each other to keep going. It's my second day without Starbucks, and I'm jonesing for it big time! As with all lifestyle changes that I attempt my husband tells me, "Baby steps...it isn't a sprint, it's a long distance run." I'm really hoping this lasts longer than the great gym membership of 2008! This time...we are going to try to make this thing stick. Wish the girls and I luck!

Visiting the House of the Virgin Mary

AnnieB — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:50:11 +0000

Visiting the House of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus was truly an amazing experience. Located at the top of Mt. Koressos also known as "Mount Nightingale", in a forest of beautiful old plane trees, sits a house built as a shrine to the Virgin Mary. It's about 5 miles above Ephesus and would have been quite a trek up a step mountain by foot. It's unlikely that Mary actually lived in this house as it's structure has been re-built. It's foundation however dates back to the 1st century AD which would be around the time Mary could have lived here. How do we know that this is really where Mary lived? Well, you have to take it on visions of the sister Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1820). She was a blind nun who had visions of Mary's life in Ephesus, including where she would have lived and died. These descriptions were published after her death.

Inside the house (Wikipedia)

As the story goes, before his crusifiction, Jesus asked the Apostle John to take care of his mother. There was increasing unrest and persecution in Jerusalem of the Christians so John took her to Ephesus, thought to be the safest city in the east. Together with other Christians in the area, they constructed a stone house for Mary. The descriptions in the literature of the house are much like what the house looks like today.

It wasn't until October 18th, 1881 that the home was discovered by a French priest, Abbé Julian Gouyet's. Nobody believed him until a Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey, encouraged two priests to go and look for it again, 10 years later.

The Roman-Catholic Church has never confirmed it's authenticity based on a lack of scientific evidence. It has however been blessed by different Pope's and in 1951 it's status was elevated to a "holy place" by Pope VII. It's revered by Muslim's and Catholics and welcomes 1000's of pilgrims every year.

While you are there, take a sip from the fountain said to have curative powers, light a candle and say a prayer, or write a prayer on a slip of paper to place in the wall as you leave the site. Whether you believe or not, this holy site is a beautiful place full of pilgrims trying to make a connection with their maker. It was reverent and full of peace.

The Vatican

AnnieB — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:05:09 +0000

We have been back for a week and I am slowly but surely getting back on schedule. We visited some incredible places while in Europe that really helped with the Word History course work we did last year. It was nice for us all to tie it back to our previous learning. Just like in advertising, I believe you have to touch them three times! What I mean by that is, if they hear it three times, in hopefully unique and meaningful ways, they will remember it!

Mollie brushing up on her Italian phrases on the plane over!

St. Peter’s Basilica

Our first stop on our tour was the Vatican. The Vatican is the smallest country in the world! The girls learned this from one of our famous dinner trivia games a couple of years ago so when the tour guide asked them, “Do you know what the smallest country in the world is?” They all but jumped out of their sandals to answer!

Here is the website for the Vatican City:

http://www.vaticanstate.va/EN/homepage.htm

The girls hanging on our guides every word! Amazingly, this was immediately after we had arrived in Rome after traveling over 20 hours!

Some of the most beautiful statues, tapestries, mosaics and wall murals in the world reside within these city walls. I was able to take many photos but not in the Sistine Chapel. The chapel was restored by Japan, and they own all the images and request no photographs be taken. It was packed with people! Please click on this link to take a Virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel . Our tour guide explained at length to us the story of all the art in the chapel including The Last Judgment, painted by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541 and the ceiling which was painted by him as well in 1510-1512.

Our favorite place were Raphael's Rooms. Out of the four rooms, my favorite was the Room of the Segnatura which was painted in 1508-1511. Notice this is at the same time Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. What is would have been like to have both of these masters in a “paint off”. It is said that Michaelangelo was added to the painting “School of Athens” after Raphael found himself influenced by the energy and action of Michaelangelo's compositions in the Sistine Chapel.

Below is a close up of the painting with Raphael’s self portrait (middle of the three faces)

Inside the basilica. Can you see the stream of light hitting the alter? Hmmm..it was a little…divine!

For more photos…check out our family album!