Not everything is entirely educational and good for you. Sometimes a game is just a game. I haven't figured out how to properly spoil the fun of the University expansion for the The Sims3, so the girls are still enjoying it. Perhaps they're goal-setting in a way. Thinking about life after high school.
{Perhaps I could just tell myself that.}
Hope real life isn't much like this game for them. I didn't have the traditional university/Greek experience, so that's literally all Greek to me.
We did try to do some experiments with the Sims3 game play. Red2 tried to make juice with ingredients of different quality ratings. They score the produce you grow with a simple system: good, great, excellent, etc. She found clearly that you could sell the sqeezings that were made with finer ingredients for more money. The extra sim work was worth the extra 'simoleons.'
Indiana Jones movies map (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I thought the traveling expansion would be a tad bit useful. We had some conversations about China, Egypt, and France, but in the end, they were just game play. Brushing up against geography a bit.
Maybe some good geography lessons would be to do an Indiana Jones-style map of all the locations in James Bond movies or all the places on the globe that Jennifer Garner went in Alias. They're a bit young for Alias still, but I bet there are some good 'sight-seeing' value to these movies. Did they actually film in all the locations or was it just movie magic? That would be a good research project.
Have any subversively devious and fun ways to talk about geography?
When you're a parent you get to experience some strange and sweet things your kids do. They will deny it because they're doing it in their sleep.
Late, or only a couple of hours after bedtime, I occasionally hear crying. Red2 appears to be awake, sits up and dries her tears. We adjust the sheet and find the pillow again.
Sew, you have a fiber arts minor, did you think you'll escape your love affair with textiles?
Mrs SFDaddy is a rock star in the quilting and fabrics game. This is a link to one of her sample quilts that uses the fabrics fromwonderful designs of Eric Carle who does the Very Hungry Caterpillar series.The girls are quickly becoming "Rockettes" in their own rights. Red1 is altering tshirts into skirts and tank tops, looking cute. Red2 can weave up a friendship bracelet like its a military exercise.
I am a little quilty by association. What am I doing? I helped with two quilts and have a third one in the UFO pile. In quilt-speak that's an UN-FINISED-OBJECT. The first was a quilt for Red1. we took our old shirts and cut them up into squares, layered them together, sewed then up, snipped the edges and we had a great scrappy quilt.
The second project was a quilted pillow, not pictured here. Red1 picked the fabrics and we figured out how to make a giant pillow.
The UFO is my pirate quilt. We all used to play an online pirate game and I had a character I grew pretty fond of. This is the sketch and fabrics selected to pull it off. The fabrics run from tropical to treasure. We're looking for the original sketch of the quilt. The drawing here is on Red1 drew up.
You don't have to be sewing to have a UFO. But you also don't have to be haunted by them. I'm granting you all amnesty from being chased down by your UFO's. Just try not to be abducted by them.
Growing up in the seventies suburbia (of nothing) an hour away from Mickey Mouse, we saw the pizza industry blow up. Pizza used to be an agonizing wait in the deep red vinyl booths at an actual Pizza Hut restaurant or a Chef Boyar dee pizza in a box kit.
We saw the dawn and sunset of Little Sleaser's, I mean, Caesar's--and now its new sunrise. In their infancy, you ordered a pizza from Little Caeser's and go two. The little cartoon guy chanted, "Pizza! Pizza!"
Pizza was always a treat we didn't think too much about, except, "When will we have it again?"
Top, Bake, and Eat This.
Now we're not only a little bit concerned by all the bread for health reasons, but it turns out Red2 is terribly sensitive to wheat and dairy. We diagnosed her food allergies when she was still nursing. She was way cranky and would break out when Mrs SFDaddy ate anything with wheat or dairy. Long story short, we are now mostly gluten and dairy-free.
There goes the pizza, or that's what we started to think. Over the last few years as going gluten free has become more popular, our lives avoiding for allergy-reasons have become easier.
Mixing up our own dough to make a pizza was a good adventure and very doable. There are a lot of great recipes and alternate flours that taste great, but how about a good quicker alternative? Udi's to the rescue. Udi's bakery has a gluten free frozen pizza crust you can get in the freezer section of the grocery store. Yeah! Thank you Udi's.
Our first great experience 'out' getting pizza was from Blue Moon Cafe. They make a great gluten free pizza. We brought our own dairy-free cheese and they were happy to serve us.
Four people at a pizza joint can be pretty pricey though and add the premium price for getting the special dough.
Look for specials! Recently, Uncle Maddio's opened up and on Sunday nights they offer a 2 for 1. It's Pizza! Pizza! all over again.
But wait there's more. We've recently joined a group of families with kids about the same ages who regularly share a weekly pot-luck together. In addition to that, some of us have started frequenting another pizza place, Your Pie. Both Uncle Maddio's and Your Pie offer gluten free crusts and vegan sauce and dairy free (or vegan) cheese. Both of these places have great products. Your Pie actually mixes their own dough which bumps their review up a few notches for us. Both locations make a serious effort to change gloves, use different surfaces and even move out of the normal prep areas to assemble your order.
Thank you, to all the restaurants who recognize legitimate food sensitivities, even if it's becoming just fashionable to go gluten free right now. Hear that Dominoe's? (They just announced their new gluten free crust (but use the same utensils and workspaces to prepare their pies. If you are deathly allergic, you'll want to read the fine print.)
The Minecraft Periodic Table of Elements & the Anatomy of a Creeper.
It's a game.
It's genius.
It's a game!
They're learning!
They're fighting.
Just zombies.
How is it learning?
Well...
If you've not heard about Minecraft, {really? is that even possible?} it's a tiny little indie game about digging in the dirt and building with the materials you gather. I found it a while ago and thought the kids would love. They did. They loved it so much we had to figure out how to turn it into school to somewhat justify the attention they're giving the game.
It turns out it wasn't hard. Red2 enjoys mining for diamonds. In her travels in the real world that sparked an interest in geology. She's picked up a knack for identifying rocks. She's always been the one who lingers the longest in the museum store looking at the crystals and filling her $1 bag.
As an assignment, she needed to build a working electrical circuit with redstone. Redstone is the power source in the game. She made a sculpture of a car with red wool that she dyed in the game. Then she outfitted it with working windshield wipers, doors that opened and closed and seat-belts.
Red1 build her own Mayan temple complete with lava traps. I'm not sure Indiana Jones would be able to escape that one.
There are a lot of schools that are putting Minecraft to use to teach basic computer skills. The girls have ventured into the server space and with just a little nudge, they took a ruined village and built up a great city on a server, organized a team of other players to move in and build a huge wall around it, expand the buildings. They raise crops and livestock in the game and sell crafted items in little stores they build.
It is a game. But there's a lot in there and they've found a lot of ways to make learning fun.
Their next goal is to master the art of installing the many game mods and to perhaps start programming their own. Nudge, nudge.
This photo of ice was taken on a quiet morning after an event of lunar celebrations and other indie, crafty-like experiences called "Dreamtide" in Ashville, NC. We met up with travelling puppeteers and acrobats who flew Red1 and Red2 into the air with their feet and taught them how to soar with aerial silks. The girls love making functional items that they can trade with. Red2 walked around I.C.E. (see below) and traded out quite a bit of loot with the other vendors. The vendors prefer actual money, but Mrs. SF Daddy had some really cute "Sneaters" to trade that year.
I love this video showing us, I.C.E. There's a lot of plaid in it, but don't hold that against us.
I-C-E, the Indie Craft Experience, based in Atlanta is a lot of things. Our friend Shannon is part of the team that created and curates this experience for us the crafty consumer AND us as the crafty creators. I couldn't explain it better than they do, so here's a quote from their own site:
With a vision to provide indie crafters an opportunity to sell and promote their creations in Atlanta, ICE quickly caught on as a favorite event for participants and attendees alike. ICE is a grass-roots effort, organized by two Atlanta crafters – Christy Petterson of a bardis and Shannon Mulkey of Patina. Inspired by indie craft markets in Chicago and Austin, the Indie Craft Experience was founded in order to provide Atlanta with a major indie craft event. In addition to craft markets, ICE also organizes Wedding Day Hooray, Salvage and an annual Pop-Up Shop during the holiday season.
This is a long video, but at the ICE site, there's a long list of events they do all year round. I have quite a few friends who needed ICE to "pop-up" for them. I hope my crafty-pals finally take the hint and leap in, sign up, and get a table to sell their neat items.
Mrs. SF Daddy is totally a maker. She's a frequent participant of I.C.E., currently has some items at Naked Art in Birmingham, AL, and talks about her stuff, which for some reason we named SlothCraft, on her blog.
Lot's of links today, but, hey, you wanted to know all this stuff, right?
It's not just all about the honey, but wait for it, honey, honey.
The bees have been hit hard in last few years. This CBS News story covers it well. The 'skeptical' interview is amusing, but judge for yourself, that's not what this post is really about.
Building a Hive. Just add bees.
Since we shouldn't have chickens or goats, we're planning on raising bees. Red1 and Mrs. SF Daddy have spent months working with the main bee dude in Georgia learning how to be proper beekeepers. We got a sad email that instead of being able to pick up their bees this month they'll need to find another source if they want to start this year.
The cute beekeeper suites and hives are all ready to go into production, but the health of our bee colony was compromised and now we'll hive to wait a little longer. Ouch. Poor little fellers.
While we wait, remember the Archie's? Sure, but what's with the weird dog with the crush on the girl in the kissing booth? And why do the guys look so angry just before they get kissed?
Grow! Part of the effort to create a wildlife garden full of bird feeding, seeding producing, flower-popping, goodness, is to grow some seedlings from scratch. From seeds.
Label This
Red3. Red4. Red5, Standing by.
Mrs. SF Daddy wrangled a large collection of seeds this year. Almost every year for a few years now, she'd started trays of seedlings, popped them into the ground and bam, we have tomatoes, daisies, bachelor buttons, echinacea, peppers, cucumbers, blah, blah, munch, munch, munch.
Plant this.
This year, she decided to start, not just a seed swap, but a seedling swap. She conned--I mean--enlisted her friends to start their own trays of seeds. They'd return to their own homes with trays of seeds ready to sprout. In a few weeks, they all return to the scene of the crime and trade little baby plants. Then instead of 20 or 30 of the same plants, they all leave again with a wide variety.
The plan was fool proof. Almost. The first batch of seeds was shipped to the wrong address and the seed starting party had to be postponed. (And all the way to the next full moon, if you're following along with the posts.)
While the first batch sprouted, we had a few intrusions! Ants in the trays!
Now that things have calmed down and we're in April, we have lots of little babies almost ready to share and pop into the ground around the tulips. Surprise! Red2 and I planted tulip bulbs and they're almost ready to pop!
This video will walk you through the seed starting process. Join us as we prepare to plant some seeds.
Part of the fun of being able to identify plants as you walk by them in the forest is knowing which ones might poison you and which ones are mighty tasty prepared in a mixed drink over ice or fermented and bottled.
Last year the ladies got really interested in squishing fruit. They combed the neighborhood and delivered letters to our especially fruity neighbors inviting them to some free labor. In exchange for cleaning up around their fruit trees, we'd bring home a few large buckets of apples, pears, persimmons and muscadines. Over the course of several weeks during harvest season we accumulated many "carboys" (large glass containers) full of squeezings. They're naturally doing their thing and now we have lots of bottles to fill. Pretty tasty pear wine, honey wine, cyser, mead, and more, I'm sure. I'm trying to stay at arm's length. (Yes, with a glass in hand, though.)
Identifying the plants while you're walking next to them is pretty impressive, but what really wowed me was driving around, even on the highway, hearing, "Pear! Apple! Persimmon!" Red2 identified a pear tree hiding in front of a grocery store. She's 9, kiddos.
Their mom and I did share. It wasn't all booze. We had persimmon cake, apple and pear butter, and pear preserves using as recipe from the tree owner who feels like she's all done making preserves herself. She was very happy to have some help.
The last thought here is about where this all leads. The natural ingredients that used to be found in things like Maraschino cherries and grenadine. Amy Stewart's book, The Drunken Botanist, is good read full of stories about what's really supposed to be in the bottles. Read the labels, folks. Red1 wants a field trip to a liquor store to find real grenadine made with pomegranates, not colored up corn syrups. I think she'll have to wait a bit for that. Do you think the shop keepers will let us in to read the labels?
The atlatl (AT-ul-AT-ul) is just a sliver of wood with a spike or a hook at the end of it used by folks to hunt a bazillion years ago. You put a little wooden dart in the hole and sling it forward from behind you and over your head. Red1 has made a few and is getting quite good at making them and slinging the darts. Watch out, it doesn't take much effort or power in the throw to shoot the dart deep into it's target.
Sling Me
atlatl by Red1
But why is she making these things? Red1 and Red2 are my daughters and they homeschooled. They get to travel with their mom who goes to primitive skill share events around the southeast between quilting and sewing expos.
{Respond to one question with another questionable answer?} Yes! That's us. So what's a primitive skill share? It's not a survivalist, Hunger Games, end-of-the-world cult family reunion, right? Right.
People gather to trade skills that our culture is almost too eager to leave behind. Botanists take them on nature hikes where they identify edible plants. They're learning recipes for healthy teas and safe cleaning solutions. They made some homemade deodorant that smells better than anything I've ever bought in the store, but it also eliminated, not masked, eliminated all actual odors that were coming from me. They insist that I'm not that smelly to begin with, which is very polite of them, but I know it's working great.
The ladies are currently fascinated by these things that people have started to forget about. Making cool primitive weapons, spoons, tanning, making meads and fermented foods. For thousands of years people preserved their harvests without refrigeration and created amazing beverages from the pounds and pounds of fruit in their trees. They grew and shared their vegetables and pickled them. Wait, tanning hides? Yes. They're picking up dead things--carefully--to craft something from the hides. This summer we had a fox in our freezer for while before taking it to a friend to be de-furred. Poor little guy had a beautiful coat and will make a unique hand bag.
This June, they may be going to Firefly, http://www.fireflygathering.org, where they'll trade hand-dyed recycled yarn and homemade ciders for leather purses, flutes, spoons and perhaps another atlatl.
April is the A-to-Z Challenge, and my theme for this challenge is explore the world my family has been swooped up in since they started homeschooling. While I've been at work, instead of becoming super computer geniuses, they've been out in the woods gathering herbs to make a few tinctures.
Getting back to the originally promised topic. The girls. Due to some county school board issues, mostly zoning, we're going to start up the home school wagon this fall.
Having crazy-awesome kids is a blessing that I'm proud to share about. I'm looking forward to being a huge part of their education. I know it's something most parents don't get to do.
I do promise not drone on about all the details unless they pertain to my Science Fiction Daddy topics. And because I'm me; some of it will.
Red1 and I have already started planning out her reading lists for the year. We are making a plan to include a unit on all the Wizard of Oz books, play, films, etc. and another unit on Science Fiction. We're going to look for some award winning sci-fi standards but are open to suggestions. Remember we're in the fifth grade but at a very high reading level. Her favorites right now are the Rick Riordan novels about that Percy guy.
A couple of articles that we wanted to keep track of here:
Red2 who is going into second grade, is excited about the Paul Bunyan phenomena. I say phenomena, because after doing some research his story is pretty amazing. He's got it all. Humor and stories mostly, but look at all the geography packed in there. This is going to be fun.
What does a pirate use for dental floss?
A rope for the few teeth he has left.
R, pronounced, AARH! It's a pirate's favorite letter.
What kind of socks does a pirate wear? AARHgile.
What's a pirate's favorite subject in school? AARH-T.
Okay, these AARH corny, but the kids, Red1 and Red2 loved them over and over. Does anyone really need a link to more pirate jokes, really? (okay then.)
Our love of pirates and the pirate movies (or was it just Johnny Depp) spilled over into the Pirates of the Caribean Online. It's a mostly free romp through the haunted pirate world inspired by the rides at Disney and recent films.
We like pirates because they don't have manners or brush their teeth and they take what they want. They love playing pirate, but they don't really want to be pirates.
"A" is for absent. I've been away as my recent posts admit, but A is also for adorable. The other day, I made a brown bag lunch for Red2, my 7 and 1/2 year old daughter. Instead of writing her unusual long name, Arabella on her bag, I wrote, "Adorable".
It's another list. This time we're counting down the top ten TV shows according to SF Daddy!
As always, I'm gearing this list with the kiddos in mind. No it's not going to be a teletubbie list, they were way out there even for this freaky SF dad.
Torchwood - I'm not going to pretend that I've seen this whole series yet, but after the first few episodes and the praise I've been reading, as a spin off of Dr. Who which also has some smart kick-butt female action stars, this one makes it to my list.
Star Wars The Clone Wars - Star Wars is known for its leading ladies with attitude. The storyline in this animated venture is not short on them either. Joining Padme is Ahsoka, a Jedi sidekick for Anakin who is almost more hotheaded than he is. Season two introduced Arra Sing an awesome bounty hunter with a taste for collecting Jedi. We fanboys have been talking about Ms. Sing since her 2-second cameo in Episode I. Next season we're treated with more from her and another Jedi favorite who was spared at the last minute from death in Episode III in the edit room floor. Shak Ti joins the show this fall. Great thing about this series is that it's available online. http://starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode001.html
We're starting a theme here... much like Moonlighting and Cheers, where the two leads are cursed in some way from ever being together. In most cases the show's demise is the only thing that ever comes out of the leads finally getting together. Pushing Daisies was a great confection. Literally. The Pie Man made magical pies from rotten fruit he brought back to life with his magically touch. He can do that trick on animals and people too, but a second touch sends them back to their death. Too bad he brought his secret love back to life one day. Now if he ever touches her again she's dead for good. So instead they bake pies and solve murder mysteries together in a beautiful technicolor dream like comic book land created by Bryan Fuller and EP'd by Barry Sonnenfield- another personal hero.
Legend of the Seeker - The ladies in this house love this show mostly because of Kahlan Amnell – the Mother Confessor.
As a Confessor, she has the power to magnify the love a person has within them for her, allowing her to control the person. This power allows her to serve the people of the Midlands, who respect and fear her. In Kahlan's quest to defeat Rahl, her role is to protect the Seeker with her life. She develops a deep love for Richard, which is torment for them both since her Confessor's powers would be inadvertently unleashed in a moment of intimacy, making it impossible for Richard and Kahlan to act on their feelings for each other. Executive producer Robert Tapert describes Kahlan as "a female action hero for 2009.
Firefly - That's right! Yee Ha! This is one of those shows you're going to hear a lot about until you actually sit down and rent it. You just have to give it a try. We attempted to watch during it's run but the networks messed us all up. So we eventually discovered this gem on DVD. Go ahead and put it in your Netflix cue now...
Georgia Outdoors - Our Georgia PBS station presents topics about our state from gardening to paleontology. Take that Pokemon! Check out your PBS station to see what you can learn about your own backyard.
Let's continue to bend the parameters of this TV list. As TV is evolving, let's add some space to for a couple of internet shows and series.
The Guild - Sweet little nuggets of pure fun. Just geeky enough to try out a few online games and even more dairing to actually go out and meet some of the guild in real life when invited to a Pirate meet, I know this series a little too well. The DVDs are available from Netflix and they stream as one long 'movie' but if the short nuggets are more you speed, check them out on their native site: http://www.watchtheguild.com/
Sad, but here's a Flash video of the first episode. Sad because it won't show up on your iPad (yet?).
TED Talks. If you haven't discovered TED yet, go now. It's more Science and Fantasy than fiction. Real people with fantasies of how we can change the world one person at a time. Here's one on the Happiness Index. Love these things... they even show up in your Tivo if you let them! We've blogged about several of these in the past.
Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world
Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel - The monsters in these shows are a bit much for our smaller audience, but the kick-butt girls are certainly a good frolic when we're older. Our most-est favorite episode "Hush" just made it onto the SyFy / Blastr list of best episodes ever. What qualifies as a best episode? You know the episode by name is a good indication! Buffy is so well written and smart. We were just married and growing up a few years ahead of Buffy, but Ms. SF Daddy used the show as a topic of conversation with her high school kids. She often found common ground with the kids through the shows they both enjoyed. She liked using this show in particular to talk about teen issues and the portrayal of women in media. Good Stuff.
And okay, this one's for the very little ones: Have you seen Dinosaur Train? Really? Another PBS offering. We don't graze through the channels like a lot of kids do, but one morning we had a flat tire and found ourselves at the local Firestone. While waiting for the tire to get fixed, we sat through an episode of Dinosaur Train. My 6 year old (Red2) fell in love. Sure it didn't hurt that there's a little Henson magic behind the scenes. Figures. They aren't just cute dinos, but they actually get the real names out in a catchy way.
Very much a different list for you. Can't wait so see your list!
Red1, enters fourth grade and gets word that they're putting on the musical "Annie Jr." in the spring. She's been in the school chorus for a year and is excited to try out. But she's not interested in Annie's part. She's all about the character actors! (Ye-haw! Me, too.)
So we're putting Annie DVDs in our Netflix cue and looking at the YouTube clips to see which parts she wants to think about. She knows all about Carol Burnett and loved the few scenes we've seen already. Bernadette Peters may be a new inspiration for her too.
She rolls her eyes and says that all the girls are going to being singing, "Tomorrow, tomorrow..." and just then, Red2 starts singing, "Yesterday..." And that was it. We began pulling up the list of songs and matching them all together.
An Annie/Beatles mashup. Listening to all of the songs from the musical and the Beatles album, "Help!" is going to be great fun. How do they come together? :) We'll see. It's a great project for Google Wave too.
This week we had the displeasure of hearing that Google is planning to dump Google Wave, but we'll keep using it until they close their doors. Perhaps, by sharing our projects like this more people will start using this amazing stuff Google pops out. (What if email was invented today?)
Our Wave for working on the project. - If you are interested in participating, comment on this post, but don't pass up seeing how awesome group work with Google Wave can be.
Testing out embedding this wave below. This may totally slow your viewing experience down but let's try it out.
{Waves aren't that happy on iPads, either.}
It's sad that the comic strip Little Orphan Annie is closing down, but all good things...
- I'm not going to pretend that I've seen this whole series yet, but after the first few episodes and the praise I've been reading, as a spin off of Dr. Who which also has some smart kick-butt female action stars, this one makes it to my list. 
- That's right! Yee Ha! This is one of those shows you're going to hear a lot about until you actually sit down and rent it. You just have to give it a try. We attempted to watch during it's run but the networks messed us all up. So we eventually discovered this gem on DVD. Go ahead and put it in your Netflix cue now...
& 
- The monsters in these shows are a bit much for our smaller audience, but the kick-butt girls are certainly a good frolic when we're older. Our most-est favorite episode "Hush" just made it onto the SyFy / Blastr list of best episodes ever. What qualifies as a best episode? You know the episode by name is a good indication! Buffy is so well written and smart. We were just married and growing up a few years ahead of Buffy, but Ms. SF Daddy used the show as a topic of conversation with her high school kids. She often found common ground with the kids through the shows they both enjoyed. She liked using this show in particular to talk about teen issues and the portrayal of women in media. Good Stuff. 
