My Kids Are So Very Weird!

Sweet... but really, really weird.


So, it's Sunday night. The kids just got home from church. I stayed home because I have a miserable cough and I felt that this was one of those things better kept selfishly to myself rather than shared among friends. Anyway, everyone was helping themselves to something for a light dinner. The younger ones asked to have  bagels. I was working on a project so asked them to leave the bagels out so I could make one later and I went off to the school room to finish working. 
A few minutes later, Jack called to me and asked if I wanted cream cheese on my bagel. I told him not to bother, I would do it. But, them I realized that he had already toasted it. So, I answered that I would like cream cheese. Just a few seconds later I heard Jack say, "Bella, can I use some of your jelly beans?" 


Ummmm, guys, I don't want jelly beans on my bagel! Guys? Hey...no jelly beans. Do you guys hear me?"


A few  minutes later, they came marching in singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, candle glowing, and presented me with this:

It was described to me as such:

"Presenting one cream cheese bagel complete with jelly beans, stale carmel corn, and a lollipop for later. Accompanied by a cold coke with candy cane and plastic straw. Sorry mom, we didn't have any really neat crazy straws but we did take the paper off the plastic one!"


 Thanks guys. For the record, I ate the bagel and the jelly beans and gave the popcorn to the dog. I'll slip the lollipop and candy cane back into the pantry later. Oh yeah, and I drank the cola. This giving up cola is proving to be harder than I thought.

A Homemade Christmas

The excitement of the holidays is finally winding down (and I've finally found my living room floor under all of the mess!) so I thought I would take a few minute to share some of our homemade holiday fun.
When the older kids were little, I always used the few months proceeding Christmas to sew little doll dress, knit sweaters or scarves,  or create handmade ornaments. But, the little girls got older and the boys didn't exactly appreciate doll dresses. So, we had a few years where the majority of our gifts came from the local *Mart. But, lately, we've been working to encourage the kids to share their talents and gifts. 
Some of the fun things the kids have done have been Scavenger Hunts and Surprise Outings.  The First Born has created a storybook for B-Bot that she adds to every year using pictures of him to create various adventures. The last two years The Music Major has arranged a Jeopardy type game complete with prizes. (I won a movie date with Bella. She was just as surprised as I was. I'm still not sure who is supposed to pay. But, I'm pretty sure The Music Major wasn't planning to spring for the event.)

Here are some of the handmade gifts making the rounds this year.

The Artist created this watercolor for the Music Major. (She had a last minute change of mind and gave it for her birthday but that was just a few days before Christmas so I'll include it since she planned it for Christmas first.)

B-Bot used the sewing machine (with some backseat advise from Mom) to create this pillow for Bella - She's a wolf fanatic.)

Bella used the sewing machine to change a little tote bag into a pillow for Grandma Dottie.

The kids from Church helped me make this cute sweatshirt for our dearly loved Grandma Dottie. For many years, she was part of our church's Patch the Pirate Club ( a Bible memory program) She moved back to the mainland in March. We all miss her very much! The kids had a great time putting their foot prints on the shirt. Then I added a scripture verse (3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.) and their names on their foot prints.

This was my big project this year. I plan to make each child a quilt over the next few years. This year I made one for The Artist.  I went out of order and did hers before the Music Major's. (I'm on the naughty list for that decision!) 

The center motifs and several of the fabrics were created with her art work. 

The label from the back

Oh, yeah, there were a few homemade Christmas Cards this year, too.

(I so totally stole this picture from Lainie's blog because I forgot to take pictures of the coconut before I sent it.... Forgive me, Lainie?)

I hope you had a happy, handmade Christmas at your house!

Christmas Eve Youth Play Rehearsal

High School Guy came down the stairs in his 'costume' to give us a peek. All I can say is:

Who is this guy and what did he do with my little boy?

Crew's Quarters: Maestro Classics: The Tortoise and the Hare

When our oldest were toddlers, we lived in Germany where our grasp of the language enabled us to function but wasn't fluent enough to watch television with any sense of enjoyment. (I do NOT regard that as a bad thing! I still rarely watch television with any sense of enjoyment.) As a result, our children grew up viewing videos and listening to music. If it was a music video, so much better. Consequently, our little ones were as familiar with Mozart as they were with  Gilbert and Sullivan or Rogers and Hammerstein.

For reasons I can't exactly explain, the younger children didn't seem to get the same exposure to music in general and to the classics specifically. I suspect that was in part to moving to an English speaking country. However, over the last few years, we've sought to rectify that and provide opportunities for them to hear and interact with great music. For this reason, I was excited to be offered an opportunity to review Maestro Classics:  The Tortise and the Hare.

$16.98 + s/h

So, let's see what we have here. Enclosed in the CD case is both a CD (Total Playing Time 53:57) and a small booklet. The CD contains 7 tracks including the story of The Tortoise and the Hare cleverly enhanced with music to convey the story, information about the story and Aesop, information about the music, and an additional song to learn and sing. Inside the booklet, aside from the typical credits and liner notes there are a few little surprise and extras. A nice explanation of notes and measures, time signatures, and instruments of the orchestra. A concise comparison of rabbit/ hare and turtle/tortoise clarify any question about why this story isn't called The Turtle and the Rabbit!  A few pencil games round out the booklet.

This CD is not a crash course in understanding the classics. Nor is it a full music appreciation course. However, it is a sweet introduction to classical music through traditional stories that is likely to appeal to children in the elementary years, especially those with little experience with classical or orchestral music. I love the idea of teaching children to slow down and develop their listening skills. This series is pleasant encouragement. 

There are several additional CD's available including:

Peter and the Wolf
The Story of Swan Lake
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Casey at the Bat
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Juanita the Spanish Lobster
Juanita la longosta espanola 

I will likely add a few additional CDs to our collection. I would love to hear what they do with Casey at the Bat.

Have a peek here to see what my fellow reviewers are saying.

Disclaimer:

This CD was provided free of charge for review purposes. No other compensation was provided.

Crew's Quarters: Tektoma - Game Tutorial for Kids

Want to create your own video games? Think Tektoma. 


What a great idea!  Take free game making software ( available on-line) and create tutorials to make it easy to use. Gear it to children or geeky, computer nerd husbands (Honey, I love you!), provide a member's forum for questions and sharing and place it in a safe family-friendly environment and you've got a winner.

Since I left the hard work to the guys, I'll let them give you their first hand impressions. I'll give you the Joe Friday version. (Just the facts, Ma'am.)  


From the website:  

Do you want to learn how to make video games?

Tektoma offers you this:

• Engaging video tutorials for ages 7-17
• Tutorials of varying skill levels and topics
• Learn at your own pace in the comfort of your home
• Natural progression helps develop technical skills
• Customize your learning experience
• Low monthly membership fee gives access to all our resources
• New curriculums available monthly

Technical Requirements: 

• Currently, the tutorials are for computers running Windows XP or Vista only. Macintosh versions coming in the future.
• Broadband internet connection
• Any browser should work, but make sure it is a current version
o For GameMaker tutorials, you need a copy of GameMaker installed and the GameMaker resources folder.

Instructions for downloading these files can be found on the GameMaker Tutorials page. GameMaker requires 128mb of RAM, DirectX 8 with at least 32mb of video memory, and a screen resolution of at least 800×600.

Access: $14.95/mo. or $140/yr. 

I all fairness, I must point out that you do not NEED Tektoma to use GameMaker. But, you will see from Jack's review that it is a great help!

From the Guys:

B-Bot (age 8, no previous programming experience) : I made an arcade game. I did it by myself with some help from my Dad. It's (Tektoma) good but a little too complicated for kids. Unless Dad was there I wouldn't have been able to do it because I made some mistakes he needed to help me fix. But, I really like the game and I think the person who is teaching is a really good teacher because he explains things really well. 

Jack (age 16, some previous programming experience including Web Design for Kids reviewed previously) : Some time ago, I discovered GameMaker but I found it utterly confusing. I tried using YouTube tutorials but I didn't find them helpful. I was really glad to get to try Tektoma. The tutorials are really well explained. I feel like I learned a lot. I could now make my own games based on what I learned. I'm not sure that everything I want in a game was explained in the tutorials but it certainly was a great jump-start. 

The Inspector (Age irrelevant. Let's just say he old! he has the wisdom of the ages. Oh, yeah, he earns our daily bread by playing around with creating hardware and software for computers. So, generally, he knows what he's talking about.) : 

I really liked the tutorials. The  quality of the audio and video was excellent. The speaker was very good. He made the material accessible to younger children but I never felt as if he was speaking down to older people. I really like that the tutorial was more than a 'cookbook approach'. Whenever there is an instruction to complete a step, a reason is provided so the programer learns how and why things work.  

There were a few things that could have been explained just a bit better. Advanced Mode is a necessary selection but I didn't find that explained. I stumbled upon it when trying to make things work. "Precision Collision" is the same... no explanation. Also, I personally think it is better programming practice to always put commands following the If-else statement inside the begin and end block delimiters.  It's not necessary for single statements but it makes the code easier to follow, especially for less experienced programmers. Overall, I was pleased with the quality of the tutorials. 

Regarding price, I think that $14.95 is a bit high. It would make me think twice about keeping it. ( as a year long subscription) I would suggest getting it and using it for a month or so at a time. Although, I know that people  easily pay that much for software. I suppose it would depend on your budget and how often you would use it.

There you have it folks. The K Men speak their minds.  If you want to see what my fellow reviewers are saying click here. Get a first hand feel for the program with a 14 day free trial by clicking here.

Disclaimer: A 3 month subscription was provided free of charge in exchange for this product review. No other compensation was provided.

A Little More Music (Part 2)

Back for more? You must love us a lot.

Jack was the final last of the K's to perform last Saturday. He chose a theme song called Desktop from .hack//G.U., a video game. He worked hard and had it perfect Unfortunately, nerves got the better of him and he didn't play as well as he wanted to. He told me later, he wished he could have started over. I hate to see the kids stressed but I really do think that there is as much to be learned by working through an uncomfortable situation as there is in playing it perfectly. Overall, he did a very good job for someone who hasn't even been learning for 6 months.

A Little More Music (Part 1)

When our oldest children were young we decided that, after a few years of homeschool with just Mom and Dad, we wanted them to have an activity that required them to be prepared for and directed by something outside our home. The Inspector and I felt that music was a good activity for all children so we gave them a choice of an instrument to play. Ultimately, they both choses the piano and played for many years.

In 1998 we moved to Australia and enrolled the kids in school where music was an extensive part of the curriculum. The older girls continued with piano as well. But, the younger children didn't start lessons outside of what school offered.

Flash forward to 2009, and here we are in Hawaii with a beautiful Yamaha piano sitting in our living room and, with First Born living in New York and The Music Major off at school, no one here to play it. The I learned that our pastor's wife teaches piano - for the unheard of price of $10.00 an hour. (Yes, you read that right! Quite the bargain, huh?) So, we decided that the time was now for the remaining three to make some noise learn to play. Bella and B-Bot started their lessons in late spring. Jack followed about six weeks later.

When they were asked to choose a piece for their upcoming recital, B-Bot said he wanted to play Fur Elise. Ms. Kathy pulled out a simple version and played it for him. That was NOT Fur Elise! He wanted the real version. So, she pulled out a more advanced arrangement and played that for him. That also was NOT Fur Elise. He wanted the REAL thing, Thank You Very Much. Ms Kathy patiently explained that little boys who have only played piano for 6 months can not play the REAL version; they should, perhaps, try to play the simple version. However, B-Bot, by this point in tears, insisted thet he COULD play the real one and further more he would like very much to try, If You Please. What's a piano teacher to do?

Look at that face. Could you say NO to that face?

Just last week they had their first recital. Mr B-Bot DID manage to learn to play the real piece! And, he was happy as a lark with the opportunity. For your listening pleasure (I use that phrase loosely unless you are a family member - then you are obligated to be delighted.) here is B-Bot, after 6 months of piano lessons, playing Beethoven's Fur Elise.

And, in case you are wondering, No, I DID NOT know he had gum in his mouth! I didn't realize it until I watched the video after the recital was over.

Bella chose to be a bit more conservative in her selection. Here is her rendition of Minuet in G by Bach.

This picture cracks my up. Everyone was all dressed up, looking fine and spiffy. However, in keeping with Hawaiian tradition, all shoes were left at the door. Were else do you see a recital with so many little piggies in attendance?

Check out A Little More Music Part 2 to see Jack's performance.