Not Looking Overly Thrilled About His First Balloon

The Flight of the Lincoln-Berg

Our history of flight unit has been so incredibly fun! I am continually impressed with our little book and the practical, relevant projects that come out of it. It was well worth the $11 I paid for it. I’d have paid three-times that and still considered it a good deal.

Today the kids and I made dirigibles; also known as blimps. Which, in case you were wondering, are different from hot air balloons because they have power and can be steered. :) The design for these was really basic. Three squares of egg carton plus two helium balloons, plus tape. Done and done. And then the fun began.

My kids spent literally hours sticking things like pennies, ping-pong balls, and little action figures in the gondola to see how much weight the balloons could hold without sinking. And to see which items made the balloons sink the fastest, and so on and so forth.

At one point Linc had his weighted just so; it sank very, very slowly to the ground. But he discovered that it would stay afloat if he blew on it, and that he could steer it all around the family room, landing and taking off again whenever he pleased. So cool!

Ivan and Adelia also had fun with this project. We’ve got The Ivan-Berg and Del’s Zeppelin.

The Adventures of Gemort by Lincoln Swan

As we continue on in our history of flight unit, we’ve learned that many different peoples and cultures have myths about people flying. We read one about Daedalus and his son Icarus who were trapped in a tower by a wicked King. Daedalus used feathers from birds and wax from candles to fashion some wings so they could escape. He warned Icarus not to fly to close to the sun, or the wax would melt. Icarus didn’t listen. The wax on his wings melted and he fell into the ocean and was never seen again. Anyways, so I had Lincoln make up his own flying myth. I thought he did a really good job.

Phenakistoscopes

The history of flight continued at the Swan house today. We’ve been talking about how the people who invented the earliest flying contraptions were avid bird watchers. They studied birds in flight and took notice of how a bird’s wings moved when it was flying. It being the dead of winter and all, there wasn’t much chance that we were going to get a close look at birds in flight any time soon. So we opted to go the route of the phenakistoscope. The phenakistoscope was a precursor to movies, actually, and had nothing to do with flight; except that we decided to make a movie of flying birds using one. :)
Our awesome book gave us directions on how to draw a phenakistoscope using a protractor and compass, but would you believe we don’t own either of those items, even after all the math classes Aaron took in college? We don’t. So, I spent a little time searching for one online, and all I could find were the more complicated sort; therefore I did what anyone would do, I made my own.

Download phenakistoscope PDF here.

First the kids cut out around the circle, and then the dotted slits. We used the pictures of a bird in five different stages of flight out of our book and glued them into the spaces (but you could do any kind of drawing you want). Then we cut out a hole in the middle and stuck a pencil through it. Lastly, we stood in front of a mirror with the images facing the mirror and used the pencil to slowly spin the phenakistoscope. You’ll want your head to be directly behind the phenakistoscope so you can see through the slits.

*just an fyi, in the picture on the top left above, Lincoln’s head is too far up for him to see the movie, after I took the picture, I had him lower back down to the right level. :) The picture on the bottom right shows what it should look like when you’re in the right place.

Our Weekend

Check out his cuteness. He’s helping me blog today. Who wouldn’t want that adorable face peaking over your chair to grin at you? Don’t let him fool you though, you have to watch this kid. Every second. Otherwise…he’s into stuff. And he thinks it’s hilarious. He bit my knee the other day to get my attention, little stinker. Oh! But the best was when Aaron was standing behind the island in the kitchen, and Ollie drug the bar stool around the corner, so it was next to Aaron, and then stood up against it so he could be standing by Daddy. He was pleased as punch with his little self for that maneuver. Meanwhile, I was having visions of him using the stool as a vehicle to get…well, anything else. I bet it won’t be long until tipping over bar stools is common place in our house once more. *sight* I have forgotten about such baby shenanigans.

 

Have I ever mentioned that I have an awesome husband? Well let me say it again. My husband is awesome. He called me Friday afternoon while we were at indoor park day, to tell me that he’d ordered a pizza and had arranged for his parents to come over and watch the kids so we could go out. What a keeper!  We decided to go for the best Mexican food around…Los Hermanos in Provo. We shared steak fajitas and strawberry lemonade. Here’s a picture of me. We took one of Aaron too, but it didn’t turn out. And then because he loves me even more, we went to Hobby Lobby AND Target all in one night to look for some baskets to go in the shelves he built me. We found some we liked at Target. It was so incredibly nice to go into Target with no children…it was actually fun! And window shopped for things to decorate our bedroom with in the future. It was a lovely evening.

 

On Saturday our new homeschool group had an art show. Lincoln entered a painting called “The Desert” and Ivan entered a painting called “The Roller Coaster” both were acrylic paint on canvas. We practiced several times earlier in the week with watercolors, until they each decided on something they liked, and then we bought some (cheap from Walmart) canvas, and they did their final paintings on there. The lady who put it together and her kids, made the cutest little #1 Artist ribbons and gave one to every kids who entered. Lincoln was so excited about his. He said, “It’s so great that I got first place, even though all the other kids got first place too, it makes me happy!”

 

 

I’m really, really excited for our new homeschool group. It feels like a breath of fresh air. Different from anything we did in the old one, and not as stifling. I liked that they did the art show (and are planning all subsequent activities) at a time when the dads could be there. I liked that I didn’t have to teach a huge class, only my own kids, but that we could socialize in a group setting and display the things the kids have been working on.  Next month they’re having a poetry night and a Valentines exchange. We’ll be there. Yay for homeschool!

If I could describe my day in one picture...

Let the Storm Rage On…

Have you ever heard that Thomas S. Monson quote that says, “Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”? Tonight I’m trying to muster up my courage. Mostly, I feel like I’d rather just run away to Mexico (or anywhere warm) than try again tomorrow. Today was a rough day, and I was a bad mom.

 

I didn’t sleep well, so the day got off on the wrong foot immediately. Then Adelia peed a Lake Eerie sized puddle on my kitchen floor, and one in her bedroom, and then another one in the bathroom, all before 10:am. One of which the clean-up efforts caused us to be late getting Ivan to preschool. I don’t like to be late.  After accident number 3 I told Adelia she was acting like a baby and was going to wear a diaper for the rest of the day. She cried.

 

Then I assigned Lincoln a school assignment to work on while I went and spent a half an hour trying to get Ollie down for a nap. Instead of working on it he did nothing, except pester Adelia, who came running up the stairs shrieking at the top of her lungs, and Lincoln came barreling up after her bellowing at the top of his lungs that she needed to sit in time out. You better believe it woke up the baby, who I’d just laid down. I had a few choice words to say to them, and a few more when I found out that Lincoln hadn’t done a thing on his school in the last 30 minutes. I can’t stand when he wastes my time. It’s one thing if he doesn’t understand how to do something. But when he just fiddles around and sharpens his pencil a million times, and goes and gets 40 drinks of water, and pesters Adelia, and never even opens the book to see what it is he’s supposed to do, that’s where I draw the line. And today he heard about it. 

 

At lunch Ivan and Adelia finished all their food and wanted seconds, so I told them they could have them. Then Lincoln started freaking out that they were taking all the food, but he hadn’t even touched his yet. I told him they could have seconds, and that if he finished he could have seconds if there were any left, but that he didn’t have a claim on any seconds while he still had a full plate sitting in front of him. He told me that I was stupid, and I promptly sent him to his room. He cried and cried. But what was I supposed to do? He doesn’t get to treat me that way. And he’s been having major issues with showing respect to adults lately.

 

Fast-forward to dinner. I made stir-fry. And it was dern good stir-fry if I do say so myself. Well, we’ve hardly said “Amen” when all three kids start complaining about how they don’t like stir-fry, to which I respond that they don’t have to eat it, but this is what’s for dinner, and if they don’t like it they can starve. Seriously. Maybe I’m mean mom, but at my house it’s take it or leave it. I am not a short order cook. And they can bloody well be grateful for the food that’s put in front of them. At this point Lincoln started pretending to throw-up because the food is so horrible. Time out for Lincoln. Aaron was furious. He told Lincoln that he was being very rude and made him apologize. And I told the kids that the next person to voice a complaint about the cooking was going to go straight to bed.

 

Of course, tonight was Aaron’s Elder’s Quorum meeting, which means I put the kids to bed by myself. I won’t go into details, but it wasn’t pretty. Stories were taken away, tears were shed. Everybody lived. At least so far. But I might run away and never come back. I’ve never been a very courageous person. And the thought of doing this all over again tomorrow is a very forbidding and intimidating one indeed.

 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go drown myself in a bowl of chocolate ice cream and a hot bath.

Let It Go

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight,
not a footprint to be seen.
A kingdom of isolation and it looks like I'm the queen.
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside.
Couldn't keep it in, Heaven knows I tried.
Don't let them in, don't let them see.
Be the good girl you always have to be.
Conceal don't feel, don't let them know.
Well, now they know!

Let it go, let it go.
Can't hold it back anymore.
Let it go, let it go.
Turn away and slam the door.
I don't care what they're going to say.
Let the storm rage on.
The cold never bothered me anyway.
It's funny how some distance,
makes everything seem small.
And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at all
It's time to see what I can do,
to test the limits and break through.
No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free!

Let it go, let it go.
I am the one with the wind and sky.
Let it go, let it go.
You'll never see me cry.
Here I stand, and here I'll stay.
Let the storm rage on.

My power flurries through the air into the ground.
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I'm never going back; the past is in the past!

Let it go, let it go.
And I'll rise like the break of dawn.
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone
Here I stand, in the light of day.

Let the storm rage on!
The cold never bothered me anyway

Lost Tooth

Tonight Lincoln lost his very first tooth. We were all very excited. He mentioned last night that it was loose, and I thought we had a good week or more before it came out. But today after church it was a lot more loose than it had been. I asked Linc if he wanted me to tie some dental floss around it so he could pull it out and he said yes. He tugged on it the first time, and decided it hurt a lot to do that. The he and Aaron went into the bathroom so Lincoln could watch his tooth wiggle back and forth in the mirror. A little while later, I went in to see how it was coming, and just then Linc gave it another yank, and the tooth popped right out! We almost lost it down the drain. He ran in the kitchen to tell Ivan and Adelia that his tooth came out, and Ivan said, “Cool Linc! Can I have it?” Which made us all laugh pretty hard. We convinced Lincoln that he should put it under his pillow, and that in the morning he might find a quarter there instead. To which Linc responded, “What? Are you and Dad going to come switch it out in the middle of the night?” Well…yes. Yes, we are. Haha! Sometimes that kid is too smart for his own good.

What else has been going on around here? Sometimes, I feel like I don’t document the day to day things often enough. We had a good weekend. We spent all of Saturday cleaning and organizing our house. And boy, did it ever need it. We started in the school room, we got all the toys put away, reorganized and consolidated some of the drawers, and most importantly went through all the papers and projects lying around and decided what to keep and what to chuck, and got it all filed away in its proper place. What a relief! I took Ivan grocery shopping with me, we went to Ream’s and Costco and we stayed under budget! Hooray for us! (Aaron and I have been trying really hard, as always, with the budget.) When we got home, Aaron was in the process of re-organizing the pantry. It looks so nice now. And then we started on the garage. We still had some cardboard boxes from Christmas, so Aaron built a fire in the fire pit and the kids had a hay-day helping him burn the boxes. Once that was done we started organizing our shelves, the majority of which hold our food storage. It’s not a fun process, but it is SO NICE to have it done. And it makes me happy to see the space being used efficiently. That a talent that Aaron has and one that I struggle with, envisioning how to efficiently use space.

Aaron and I watched The Great Gatsby. We’ve been reading the book together (slowly) for the last several months. The movie is exactly like the book. I think they took all the lines verbatim right off the pages. Some parts were well done, and some parts not so much. I didn’t like either the book or the movie as much as I thought I would. I see why it’s a classic, and I get the message it’s trying to put out there. But, I just didn’t feel like it did anything for me personally. It didn’t stir anything up inside of me, it didn’t make me stop to think, or question any of my ideals, or any of that sort of thing, like all my favorite books do. I don’t know. It was just a middle of the road experience for me.

I’ve made a goal to read 50 books this year. That’s kind of a lot. I’ll have to push myself to accomplish it, I think. But it’s worth a try. And I plan on counting the books I read aloud to the kids as part of that 50.  But last year my goal was to read 8 and I read about 30, so I figured I needed to up my expectations a little bit.

Aaron and I are also having a competition to see who can read the Book of Mormon the fastest this year. We are both a bit competitive, and the idea is to use that competitive nature as a motivation to read from the scriptures more often. Neither of us has the time to sit down and read large chunks all at once, neither of us will win by going that route, so it doesn’t matter who is the faster reader. No, this competition will be won by the person who takes the time to read in the small moments of the day, here a little and there a little. Five minutes while I’m waiting for Lincoln to come out of piano here, and two minutes waiting for Aaron to wash up and come to bed at night there. And it will accomplish exactly what it’s designed to do, it will help us read from the scriptures more often throughout the day. (Because we both want to win, dang it!) And hopefully reading from the scriptures more often will be an invitation for the Spirit to be in our home and in our minds more strongly and more often.

And, like so many people, I am ready for winter to be over. Is there anyone out there who really loves January? Not me. In my opinion it is entirely too long. I’m ready for some warmer weather and pronto. I don’t even need it to be hot, I’d take high 40s, low 50s. Just warm enough that it’s bearable to be outside in a coat, and the snow is gone. But I can’t complain too much. This year is so much better than last…we have a trampoline on the patio that the kids can play on and I’m not pregnant. :) So life is still good.

Let’s Go Fly A Kite

Today we had another awesome day doing our History of Flight unit study. So far this unit has been so much fun; a great way to end the week.

Today we learned about kites. The Chinese invented kites around 500 BC. They used them for fun, but they also used them as a tool. The Chinese were the first people to build kites big enough to fly a person in, and they did it to spy on their enemies in war.

So we built our own kites today. And although they weren’t big enough, or light enough to actually stay up in the air, we had a good time taping pirates and other small action figures to them and running around pretending like they were Chinese spies.

Once again I was very impressed with our awesome book. Lincoln was able to read and follow almost all of the directions without my help (he got a little confused with the direction that explained how to fold the square diamond so that it was a long stretched diamond, so I helped a little with that one). And once again, we had all the supplies we needed already at our house. Adding the pirates was my idea, not in the book, even though the book does talk about people flying in kites, it doesn’t tell you to include that in your activity. :)

After we flew the kites, we came inside and made the beginnings of our timelines. I cut out a long section of butcher paper for each kid. Originally, I was just planning on gluing the kites and everything else to the timeline. But Lincoln explained that he wanted to be able to play with it more later, and that made a lot of sense. So instead, I just made pockets on the timeline that they can tuck the kites into. Then I had Lincoln copy a short paragraph about the Chinese flying kites and what they used them for and cut it out and glue it on his timeline. I only made Ivan copy the date and cut it out and glue it on his time line. We taped the timelines up on the walls in their rooms. I’ll post pictures when there is a little more on it to see. In the meantime, here are some more of our kite flying adventures. It was a beautiful day to be outside…for January.

Frog Tongues

Wynter and I have started up our Science Club again. Since the old homeschool group disbanded, it’s just Wynter, and Jill, and I and our kids in the club. But it’s SO much better this way. The way the group was trying to run things made Science Club too chaotic and too crowded. There were just too many people that wanted to have their kids participate and the class sizes got out of control and made it kind of a nightmare to plan and teach lessons. The way we’ve decide to do it now is to focus on the three first graders, and gear the lessons to them. If the younger kids want to sit in and listen they can, but they are also welcome to go off and play. Most of the time Ivan and Adelia choose to go play during the lesson part, but come and do the activity part. And that is just fine with me.

We’ve finished with mammals and with birds, and have now moved on to reptiles and amphibians. Our first week back Wynter gave an awesome lesson to introduce the two. She explained the differences of each, and then told about some of the different animals in each classification. Lincoln was so impressed with the Poison Dart Frog, that I heard about it for days and days and days afterward. :)

Wynter also came up with the genius idea to have the kids keep a notebook. I’m so excited about this! She gave everyone a notebook with lined paper in it, and then as she was giving her lesson, she had them write down a few specific things, and then anything else they wanted to write about what they learned. We’ll used the notebooks every week, and when we’re done we’ll be able to look back on what we’ve done for the year. It’s so brilliant, I almost want to go back and add everything we’ve done previously, just so the notebook is complete. Haha! But seriously, such a good idea.


Today was my week to teach, and I picked to talk about frogs…probably because of Lincoln’s obsession with the Poison Dart Frog. I decided that the life cycle of a frog was a good, grade-level appropriate concept to focus on. I checked out a few books from the library so that I could show lots of pictures of all the different stages in a frog’s life. Then we cut out, glued, and colored the life cycle into our awesome notebooks. I thought they turned out great.

The next thing I taught them was the differences between frogs and toads. I read another book from the library and told them to listen and see if they could spot some things that were different about frogs and toads and some things that were the same. After that we filled out a little circle diagram to show what we had learned. This was a little harder for them, but appropriately challenging, and they did well. Of course, we also had to cut out circle diagram and glue it into our notebooks. Do you see why I love the notebooks so much! All our science stuff right in one place. No millions of loose papers to keep track of. Wynter, you are a genius!



I saved the fun activity for last, and the younger kids came to join in for this. We talked about how frogs (and toads!) have sticky tongues to help them catch their food. I took those little party blowers and stuck a couple of velcro circles on the ends of them. Then I cut a bunch of black circles out of card stock, and stuck the other side of the velcro to those and called them flies. That way when you blow the party blower all the way out, the velcro on it will catch the velcro on the flies. And wha-la! You’re very own, working model of a frog tongue. :) Thank you Pinterest, where I found a similar activity and modified it to fit our needs. I spread the flies out on the kitchen table, gave each of the kids a blower, and let them have at it. I think they had a good time.

 

Nothing Says Being a Kid Better Than Trampoline Hair

DIY Coat Rack Bench

All winter we've had a never ending pile of coats, boots, hats, scarves, gloves, etc. sitting in our entryway as you come in from the garage. We had a coat rack, but it was missing about five arms, and always seemed to be drowning in coats. I have been day dreaming about building a coat rack bench ever since we moved in to our house.

Aaron to the rescue! My husband is THE most amazing person I know, just sayin'. If I can dream it up, he can build it. He started working on it during Christmas vacation. He spent all of a morning and some of an afternoon drawing up plans, after I showed him a few pictures on Pinterest of the style I was looking for. We talked about what would make the most efficient use of space, and all that fun stuff. Then we headed to Home Depot.

Here are some pictures of the process. We'd already scooted our old coat rack and boot pile to one side in the before picture, so just imagine it sitting in the corner. :)

 I picked out and stained the trim. It adds a really nice finishing touch to the over all look if I do say so myself.

Ta-Da! Finished coat rack shelf. Well, almost. We still need to lacquer the bench, but that won't change what it looks like. And I am going to buy some dark wicker baskets to put in the shelves, and maybe a couple underneath the bench. But you get the idea. I'm so tickled with it! Now all we have to do is teach the kids how to hang up their coats. Ha!

Olliewog