Fire! Oh, Wait....I Guess Not.

So, when we left off, we were staying in Amarillo, Texas! and having a bite to eat at the Big Texan.

The next morning we got up and headed over to the Cadillac Ranch.  We had been there in 2009 during our Route 66 trip.  It was so much fun, we wanted to make sure that we stopped again so the littler kids could have the fun of getting parental encouragement to spray paint their name on something.  Something that does not happen in real life.

The Cadillac Ranch is just outside of Amarillo, in the middle of a field, sort of in the middle of nowhere.

As we pulled up, my cell phone rang and it was a local Georgia number from back home.  I didn't recognize it, but thought maybe it was someone from church who didn't know we were out of town.

Instead, it was our security company calling to say that a fire alarm had gone off in our home and did I want them to cancel it.

(Um, no, I don't want you to cancel it....We are in Texas!)

So, I calmly told her that we were out of town and to please NOT cancel the alarm.  I am not sure if they always ask people if they want the alarm cancelled.  But, we have set off  about 3 false security alarms in the last year or so - because we forget to turn it off sometimes in the morning and then the first one out the door sets it off.

I hung up the phone. Told Rainman what was going on and decided to call our next door neighbor who works from home to see what was going on. 

She didn't answer.

I left a pretty calm message that sounded something like, "Uh, Hi, this is Kayla...you know, your neighbor.  Um, yeah, I am just wondering if our house is on fire?  (my voice gets a little higher at this point) We are in Texas right now, so, um, there is really nothing we can do about it....but, we are just curious.  So, yeah, um, call us back."

Then I proceeded to hang up and encourage the kids to run on ahead and find a can of spray paint.

Then I broke down.

What if our house is really on fire?

What about all my photo albums and the kids baby pictures?

That is pretty much all I cared about. 

My pictures and albums. 

I did have a fleeting thought about my wedding dress....but not any thoughts about our furniture or clothes, or decorations.

At this point, Rainman took the phone from me and called our neighbor back.  She answered this time and she had been out raking and didn't hear the phone ring.  She said she didn't think our house was on fire since she had just been outside but would go check.

We had given her our garage door opener when we left so she could leave things inside for us while we were gone - but had neglected to leave her a key.  She ended up meeting the fire department at our house and then everyone had to figure out a way to get in our house and see what was going on.

Rainman is not the greatest handyman in the world. 

Who knew that would turn out to be a blessing?  See, the door knob between our house and our garage had been falling off....like, in our hands.  We would sort of piece it back together and everything was fine.  Until one time, we couldn't piece it back together and we were locked inside our house.  So, at that point, Rainman went to the hardware store and got a piece and "fixed" it....but as we were leaving for our trip....it still felt a little wonky.

Rainman got on the phone with the fire department guy and suggested that he wiggle the door knob a bit and, sure enough, it fell off in his hands. Voila!  They were in the house.

The fire department guys and our neighbor walked through my whole house. 

Nothing.

No fire.

On a side note, I had made the kids clean the house before we left.  Like, really clean.  Because there is nothing worse than coming home from any kind of vacation to a messy house.  Usually I give in and say things are good enough before we leave and then when am totally depressed when I walk in and it isn't clean....and everything smells sort of musty and gross.

This time, they were mad at me, because I was sort of ruthless.  All the dishes were washed and put away.  Counters were wiped down.  Bathrooms were clean and fresh smelling.  The floor was picked up and swept.  Beds were mostly made.  There were a few clothes that hadn't made the final packing cut.....but, really, the house was pretty good.

Isn't God good?  Who knew that we would have people tromping through our house while we were gone?  Not me.  But God did and he knew how mortified I would have been if they had seen how our house normally looks!   (Remind me sometime to tell you the story about the time our house was robbed when I was about 11 or 12 years old.  It is a good one.)

So, short story, sort of long.....our house is still standing.  Praise the Lord!

Happy Face!

Looking for cans that still have paint in them....

At this point the kids are somewhat oblivious to why mom has been trying not to cry....

Visiting the Cadillac Ranch  is a cool thing to do with your family.  And it is free!  Unless you want to make sure there is spray paint for you to use - then the cost of a can of paint is all it will cost!  Can't beat that for family fun!

Teaching Math Through Balance

Remember how I felt (sort of still feel) about fractions?  Blech!  But, thankfully, the TOS crew is giving me all kinds of options to help me get over my fear of fractions.

The latest chance I have gotten is from The Critical Thinking Company  and it is called Balance Math Teaches Algebra!  I know, lots of exclamation points lately.





From their website:  Balance Math™ Teaches Algebra is designed to move from simple to complex, with lessons scaffolding on earlier learning. And like all the Balance Math™ and More! books, these problems involve critical thinking and computation. To students, these problems are more like puzzles, with just enough challenge to forget they are doing math!

This booklet is 64 pages long with 52 activities.  Just the perfect size to get your kids into algebra without scaring them off with a thick textbook.

It is designed for use in grades 4th through 12th. 

I think there is a thin line between introducing fractions early so they aren't too scary later, AND introducing them too early so it frustrates them and makes them think that they will never be able to do fractions.

So, I had my 4th grader (L-girl) and 6th grader (A-girl) just kind of try the first few activities, because I was afraid to scare them with fractions.  L-girl just didn't get it.  So, we stopped.

A-girl sort of got it so we just did a few here and there.  D-man who is pretty deep into algebra now, got them and said that they were sort of fun because they made him look at equations in a different way than he had been with the textbook he has been using. 

I don't know if he actually forgot he was doing math or anything....but he said there were sort of cool.

Here is an example of what is inside:





It is all about keeping the scales balanced.

See?  A nice visual way of thinking about it, isn't it?  Even for me, someone still in her adult years afraid of fractions.....this visual approach makes sense to me.

The Balance Math Teaches Algebra!  book is available for $14.99.  The Critical Thinking Company has won over 100 National awards for their products.  They have a lot to look at.  Go browse on-line or request a catalogue so you can flip through it and mark your pages, like I like to do.


Take a look at what other TOS crew members thought of the Critical Thinking Company stuff they got to try, like Inference Jones or Crypto Mind Benders.


Disclaimer:  I received a copy of Balance Math Teaches Algebra! for free in exchange for an honest review of the product.

Amazing Science!!!

I used three exclamation points for my title of this post.  Did you notice?

We got to review a video called Amazing Science!


Look!  They only used one exclamation point.


It is from these guys:



This is the part of the review where I am supposed to fill you in on what a big help this DVD will be for your homeschool.  How it will help fill in gaps in your kids education.  About what a useful resource it will be, in general.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

What I really want to tell you is that this video is awesome! 


We watched it for fun.  Really!


I mean, I know, we are sort of a weird, homeschool family and everything....but even so, this is a great video.


I didn't expect it to be something we watched just for the fun of it.


Rainman, as you may recall is a meteorologist.  A scientist. So, you would think a science-y video would not excite him.  But, he was right there with us....oohing and aahing over the experiments that were shown.  Even the weather related experiments.  They are that cool.

I can't even tell you how many times we have watched the Color Changing Milk experiment.  Really.  I can't.


One other thing that I didn't expect is that the kids, after watching the experiments wanted to do them - to see if they could duplicate the results from the video.


Did you catch that?  That wanted to do them. 


We have used other science videos off and on through the years to show experiments.  The kids would watch them, turn off the VCR, (um, yeah, we have had them for a while) and go answer the questions in their books about the experiments. 

No excitement.

No clammoring to try it for themselves.

That was not the case with Amazing Science!  In case you were wondering, they don't just show the experiments.  They explain why things are happening or why things are doing what they are doing.  It really is educational too.....just fun at the same time!

Here is a trailer for the 2 DVD disc set that we have.

Science and Math  obviously has math stuff available too.  I am planning to check out their math DVDs for the upper level math that D-man is heading into.  But, if you want to get this DVD set, you can get it for $19.95.

Check out what other reviewers thought of this video.  I am pretty confident that I am not the only one who loved them! 



Disclaimer:  I recieved a copy of Amazing Science! for free in exchange for an honest review.