handsful

A poem about child labor in the 19th century – by Abbey

I hear creaking, sighing,
I see fingers flying.
There is smoke and fire,
and faces that are tired.

With all of this, I dread
That I will never go to bed.
And even though my wages are few,
I still have hope for something new.

“The World Gone Upside Down” – by Payton

The grass just ate the cow,
I don’t know how.
A man is climbing a tree
while a squirrel is very busy
doing his taxes,
signing those faxes,
doing it very quickly.
A sad man gives a smile,
a happy man gives a frown,
it’s the world turned upside down!

I had more to say / pictures to post, but my WordPress isn’t in the mood to cooperate…grrrrr. I’ll see if my resident computer whiz (a.k.a Randy) can figure it out :(

Remember a little while back, I told you about Marley not making the pre-team for gymnastics?  If she would have made it, it would have taken her off the usual progression…beginner, experienced beginner, intermediate, and then advanced.  Well, she found out this past Tuesday that her coach is moving her up to the advanced class!  She was thrilled!!  I love it that God saw fit to deny pre-team, only to reward her shortly after with this.  It means 2 hours per week, rather than 1, but is MUCH less time-consuming than pre-team would have been.  Way to go, Marley!!

This is Abbey, looking both excited and extremely nervous.  Why, you ask?  We belong to a homeschool co-op, which meets every Friday.  Co-op means that classes are taught to our 200+ children BY the parents, with the exception of a few paid teachers for certain classes.  One of Abbey’s classes is Basic Engineering, and she has loved it.  A recent project was to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks and wood glue.  There were certain requirements, such as height, width, and type of stick used and those bridges that qualified were tested to see how much weight they could hold.  Last years top weight was 300 pounds.  Yowza.

Here are the bridges…Abbey’s is 2nd from the left.

Here is the set-up for weight testing…the bridge is put across a 12″x6″ hole cut-out of the wood plank above, a piece of wood is placed on top, and the weight is suspended below by cables.  This is her teacher, an engineer husband of one of our group moms (Hi, Amy!).  This is Abbey’s bridge, with the 1st two weights put on.  He would place a weight, let the jack down to allow the weight to hang, and then count to 5.  If the bridge held, he’d slowly add more weight, about 5-10lbs at a time.

I know the suspense is killing you, so I’ll jump ahead.

This is her bridge, right before it broke.  He had run out of room to put weights on the platform under the bridge, so he had to start stacking them directly on top.  Guess how much weight her popsicle bridge held?  553lbs.  Yes, that’s five HUNDRED!  The crowd was going wild!  lol…

A close up…the bridge basically exploded on that one end and sent the weights on top sliding onto the floor.  We were astounded that it held that much weight.  After doing popsicle bridge research on the internet, Abbey decided on what type of design she wanted and Randy and Abbey both worked hard putting it all together, sanding, gluing, clamping, etc.  One of the boys in the competition was overheard saying “No matter what, I’m beat by a girl”.  Hee hee… Abbey was positively beaming.

So, the moral of this post is basically…girls rule.  :)

About 4 months ago, friends of ours approached Randy with the idea of making a homeschool project out of their 45 year old go cart.  We have several friends with boys our age, and they’re all best buds…and, Joy was anxious to see her childhood go cart run again.  Randy has a good knowledge of making broken things work again (he’s a very hands-on kind ‘a guy, can fix just about anything you give him…yes, ladies, you can be jealous).  So, it all just fell into place…the boys and Randy met up at Dirk and Joy’s house just about every Saturday this summer to work on it.  Randy taught them about engines and how they work.  They took it apart, sanded, primed, painted, repaired the fiberglass, etc.  In Randy’s words, they did a “frame off restoration”.  Sounds like auto shop language to me. :) 

They took the engine almost completely apart, replaced the broken parts, and put it all back together.  They had to get a little assistance and one extra part from an outside source, but the bulk of the work was done by the guys. 

This past Saturday, our boys and two of their friends got together to take it for a spin.  All that work sure paid off. 

Unfortunately, the day had an abrupt ending.  Ethan was driving it, and the steering locked up.  He hit a fence.  He’s fine, but the go cart body didn’t handle it as well.  Randy said it can be repaired, so no worries.

I guess go cart class isn’t quite over yet. 

 

See our budding guitarist, EJ, jamming with his guitar class today.  We belong to a homeschool co-op group called Christ Church Homeschoolers and we have classes every Friday morning.  There is a full assembly between B and C block classes, where all the kids get together.  Today, EJ’s guitar class played “Every Move I Make”.  EJ is LOVING his class, and loved being on stage.  He’s also taking piano once a week here at home, so it’s a very musical year for him. 

A shot of the audience…Abbey is in this pic, right side, blue shirt, facing the camera. 

Lainey is the youngest child in the 2’s and 3’s class, where I help teach for B block.  Here she is enjoying her favorite part of the day…snack.