He Was Promised Cake

I began this blog six years ago today, on Ben's 10th birthday.  Although I don't post as often as I might like, I am so glad that I have kept adding little tidbits when I can.  So many times I have felt like I might just give it up completely, but the boys forbid it. They have too much fun looking back at things we've done together for school, and as a family, and at how they have grown and changed.  I love it too, for the same reasons as the guys.  Man, where does the time go!?  It is so fun to have these posts to look back on!

April 16, 2008 Double Digits-Ben is 10!

April 16, 2014 Ben's Golden Birthday.  The Cake is (not) a lie!

Happy 16th Birthday, Ben!

Learning To Fly

Last weekend, several pilots from Wisconsin and Minnesota volunteered their time and fuel to help local Scouts earn the Aviation Merit Badge.  Each boy went up as co-pilot, actually taking the controls, and flying their planes for portions of the 20 minute flight.  It was a thrilling day for all the boys, and the generosity of the pilots was greatly appreciated. 

Here's Will's plane. 

And Will with his plane's owner and pilot, a member of the Osceola community, Jim Kirvida.

 

Steve, Charlie and I were invited along as Will's passengers.  Charlie was absolutely enchanted by his first airplane ride!

 Each pilot asked the boys where they lived, and then flew them over their neighborhood so they could see how it looked from above.  We pinpointed our property and our pilot circled it so we could snap some photos.  Here's the aerial view of our place. 

And here's a shot of Ben doing the pre-flight safety check on his plane. 

 Ben took no passengers, so it was just him and the pilot.   He was given control of his plane for most of the flight.  He said the pilot was really friendly and told him he was a great student!  He is absolutely enchanted with flying now, and dreams of building a high-tech flight simulator.  Hmmmmm...

Such fun things these boys get to do!

On The Cover

 Ben made the August cover of World Radio Magazine for his presentation in Dayton, OH in May. Cool!  

Reason To Smile

Braces on

 Braces off

Ben and I headed to the orthodontist bright and early this morning, and on the way we talked about how neither of us can believe that two years in braces have passed by so quickly!!  Ben is happy to have his teeth back, and I think his new smile is beautiful!! 

First North Americans-Ben and Will's Studies

Continuing from an earlier post, I want to document the older boys' history studies from this year.  During the first weeks of our school year, Ben and Will spent time reading about Native Americans, with a focus on local tribes.

 Our organizing spines for history this year were Joy Hakim's A History of US, which was mostly for Will and Charlie, and K12's American Odyssey, for much of Ben's reading.

After reading topics from the texts, the boys dug into various sources for in-depth information.  Will began by choosing articles of interest from Cobblestone Magazine's Ojibwe of the Great Lakes issue.  The area in which we live is one of the traditional homeland areas for the Ojibwe, or Anishinabe Indians.   He combined this reading with info from  Life in an Anishinabe Camp.

Ben also started off with some magazine articles from one of our long-time go-to publications, Learning Through History magazine.  

To tie his learning in with local history, Ben read from An Account of the Battle of St. Croix Falls, by Rosemarie Vezina Braatz.  

From the introduction:

The Battle of St. Croix Falls dealt the decisive blow to the Fox Indians, who thereafter gave up the fight against the encroaching Chippewas (Ojibwe, Anishinabe)...and it reduced the strength and prestige of the Sioux in this river valley, so that they retreated to the open country to the west.  So great was this slaughter, that for years afterward, the Indians referred to this battleground as "The Valley of the Bones."

The wooded crags on the Dalles of the St. Croix, where this battle was fought, is right in the back yard of our favorite state park.  As we walk the trail there, it is chilling to think of the story of this fight.

 

 During this time our read alouds were Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruhac, and several Native American stories from Keepers of the Night, also by Bruhac and Michael J. Caduto. 

Next up, Will's wigwam project.

Hamvention

Ben's presentation went off without a hitch last weekend! Will, Charlie and I found out about a live stream of the event in the few seconds before the start of the forum, so we were able to watch it, too!

It was a full house for the forum...about 350 people, and there was a great group of youth speakers, with a variety of interesting topics, including a 10 year old talking about radios and components he has built and tested.  Ten years old!  It was awesome to see the enthusiasm and confidence in these kids!

The whole trip was a great experience for Ben, and he met a bunch of like-minded kids who were able to talk intelligently about all the technical, science-y things he loves! 

Ben with youth forum mod Carole Perry(back row, right), and his fellow presenters.

 Ben and Steve pose for a picture just after Ben's satellite presentation at the Radio Club of America's youth forum. Ben received the personalized Icom knapsack he's holding and other gifts, including a new handheld radio for his contribution to the forum. 

Radio Road Trip

If you happen to be in the neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio this weekend, Ben will be speaking in the Youth Forum at the Amateur Radio Convention on Saturday!  His topic is Getting Started With Amateur Radio Satellites. He'll  be talking about his experiences  facilitating contact between The International Space Station and Farnsworth Aerospace Magnet last spring, 

Crew N9XH operating at Farnsworth. photo credit Rick W9WS

 as well as how to send and receive messages and images from various amateur radio satellites.

Image of Earth received  by Ben from ARISSat-1

Ben is one of  6 young speakers invited to Dayton this year by Carole Perry, moderator of the forum, and he is so excited for this honor!  I am, of course, petrified for him.  I hope all goes off without a hitch despite my unending anxiety, and that he has a great time sharing his interest with others!  I can't wait to see the photos!

Cigar Box Guitar

During our prolonged winter season this year, Ben kept himself occupied with various electronics, programming, and building projects.  One of my favorites was his Cigar Box Guitar.

A friend of a friend owns a smokeshop and was kind enough to send a couple boxes Ben's way.  He choose a larger, light wood design for this project and is saving a dark wood version for another time.  One of his first tasks was to make a stencil for cutting the f-holes.  I only mention this because we think saying "f-hole stencil" is really, really funny.  We are weird that way.

 

f-holes. Sans stencil.

Open gear tuners came from Stew Mac. 

Just three strings, and it sounds pretty good for a wooden box. Both Ben and Steve pick it up often and play it with a glass slide.  As Ben describes it, " It has a real bass-y, blues-y old dobro sound. Rustic and rough, but in a good way."  He's really happy with it, and it was a cool project for him to complete, especially since he was unsure of himself when he started. 

Robot Is A Star

 Remember Ben's robot that I blogged about a while back?  

Remember me?

Well, he recently submitted a write-up about it to the folks at Raspberry Pi, the makers of the micro-computer of the same name which runs his robot, and they chose him to be a guest blogger!  

Check it out here: Repurposing A Roomba

Ben was really excited to learn they had published his project, and he's getting some nice feedback in the com box as well.  That's mah boy! 

I, Robot

This is Ben's latest robotics  project, Tiger Eye.   

Tiger Eye is built from a discarded Roomba Robotic Vacuum and outfitted with a web-camera, a Raspberry Pi micro-computer, and a custom-designed voltage-regulating circuit board.

Atop

Behind

Beneath

It is controlled with a Wii remote and special software that Ben wrote, which enables Tiger Eye and a laptop computer to communicate.  

Tiger Eye also takes stealth photos.  Ben emailed this one to me as I was catching some shots for this post.  It's fun having this robot roll up behind you when there is no one else in sight.  Well, fun, but also a little unnerving!

And Now For Something Completely Different

Never knowingly be serious-rule 27*. -The Doctor

Ben will be taking Introduction to Engineering Design at the local high school this year.  This will be a 1 credit elective on his transcript, and he has the chance to earn college credit if he does well in the course, and on the final.  I think he'll really enjoy it.

 Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) is a Project Lead the Way class, designed for 9th or 10th grade students. The major focus of IED is the design process and its application. Through hands-on projects, students apply engineering standards and document their work. Students use industry standard 3D modeling software to help them design solutions to solve proposed problems, document their work using an engineer’s notebook, and communicate solutions to peers and members of the professional community.

 Today was his first day, which wasn't very exciting.  Though he certainly looked ready for excitement this morning.   The teacher took attendance, went over the rules*, and handed out student planners.  I went for a quick hike at a nearby park while he was in class and after I picked him up, we went for iced coffees.  With whipped cream on top.

 

 One day down, 179 to go!

 

Ready for High School...Maybe

Getting closer to nailing down Ben's courses for his Freshman year of high school.  Here is what I have figured out so far...

Math-Teaching Textbooks Algebra I. Ben worked on a few lessons this summer, until he finally succumbed to the lure of the beach... 

Language Arts-

Ben is a natural speller so I don't know that he needs to continue with Spelling Power on a regular basis, but I will use it for periodic testing to see how he is progressing.

There are are couple lessons left over from season three of Analytical Grammar that I would like Ben to complete.  We'll do that at the start of the year and get it out of the way.  I have been very pleased with this program, and would like to use the American Authors review curriculum this year to keep grammar and diagramming fresh in his mind.

To tie literature in with our Early Modern history studies, I will have Ben use Excellence in Literature, American Literature, from Janice Campbell.  I'm really happy with the research aspect of her curriculum and hope Ben enjoys this delving-in as well.  His selections will be: Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper, and either The Scarlet Letter or The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel hawthorn.

Writing was hard for me to figure out this year, but I've decided to begin with Teaching the Essay from Analytic Grammar.  I've been happy with her grammar program, and her style of teaching so I'm hoping this will be a clear, concise course both for me to teach and for Ben to learn from, damn it.  (Sorry.  Didn't want to end my sentence with a preposition. ) I also have Epi Kardia's Essay Style's for High School on  my shelf which we can continue with either after Teaching the Essay, or next year.

Poetry will be covered at tea time along with Will and Charlie.  

Ben can revisit poems that are familiar to him as Charlie learns them for the first time; I plan to use one of our favorite series of books to highlight Robert Frost or Lewis Carroll, along with seasonal selections from Poetry Speaks to Children and Favorite Poems Old and New.   Also during the course of the year, we'll read some meatier selections from Anne Bradstreet, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poe, and Longfellow, and tie them in with our American history studies.  I'll use The Harp and the Laurel Wreath for guidance in analyzing some of these poems, but as always, poetry at tea time will be mainly for enjoyment.

Science this year will be Biology.  I would love to have Pandia Press release their Biology Level 2 curriculum to use this school year.  Not only could I use it for Will, but I believe it would make a good foundation for a high school course.  I would add the text Exploring the Life Works and some additional labs if necessary.  Now, I haven't seen any samples of this curriculum, so right now it is a complete fantasy in my head, but I have high hopes.  If it doesn't work out, I would follow the biology course laid out on the Quarks and Quirks blog.  

ETA: Just found out that the release date for the Pandia Press Biology course will be February 14th, 2013.  Later than I hoped, but maybe I can still make it work???

History, as always, is a bear.  It will be Early Modern with a heavy focus on American history.  I'd like to use American Odyssey for Ben's core readings-(no. I did not pay full-price for it!)  Art and music appreciation will be woven into this fabled curriculum.  We'll look at many primary documents. The rest is still fuzzy.  

Government will come from iCivics and The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government.  Perfect to get the job done!

PE -Membership to the local YMCA, 50 mile bike trip in the fall with scouts.

Health-Review nutrition and substance abuse topics, and cover anatomy and sexual health in biology.

Foreign Language- Right now Klingon seems like a viable choice.  Or maybe Mango for Libraries German? 

Now, I also really, really want to do Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings this year, but I haven't figured out how on middle earth to fit it in.  Suggestions?

Introduction to Engineering Design-This is a Project Lead the Way class offered at the local high school. we haven't quite decided about this elective option yet.  We'll meet with the teacher next week to get more details.

• Introduction to Engineering Design (IED)
  • Designed for 9th or 10th grade students, the major focus of IED is the design process and its application. Through hands-on projects, students apply engineering standards and document their work. Students use industry standard 3D modeling software to help them design solutions to solve proposed problems, document their work using an engineer’s notebook, and communicate solutions to peers and members of the professional community.

Our school district is very home school friendly, and I  think he will enjoy being in this class.  There is also the potential to earn college credit with this course. It all sounds good, but is it necessary?  I'll let ya know if we figure it out!

Sioux Camp

August is coming to a close soon and I wonder just how it sped by so quickly.  It has gone by so quickly in fact, that sometimes I have to wonder if we did anything fun at all.  Thankfully I have pictures to prove that it all happened!

One of the big highlights of August for Ben was spending 7 days at Tomahawk Scout Reservation in Birchwood, WI.

He had a great time working on merit badges for Wilderness Survival, Geocaching, and Archery.  

 Ben also enjoyed shooting rifles at the range, and was asked to be range assistant. 

Operating the clay pigeon flinging thingy.

Steve and Charlie went up to camp with the troop mid-week.  Dad remembered to bring  guitars when he came, so he and Ben could play songs around the campfire. 

Charlie had a blast hanging out with Dad, sleeping in a tent, and getting in a little bit of fishing with family friend and scout Dad Mark.

And of course Hoot Hoot was Charlie's constant companion.

 

As with any camp, Ben came home dirty and tired, but full of excitement and pride of accomplishment, too.  He's already looking forward to next year.