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Homeschool Stories http://www.oocities.org/midnight_flashpoint/HomeschoolStories.html
Leesa Magoch-Johnson, Editor
mailto:zuzu_petals@msn.com
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Welcome to the Premiere issue of Homeschool Stories. A newsletter dedicated to showcasing the creative works of homeschoolers everywhere.
A warm welcome to new readers and future contributors.
Like the premiere issue of Homeschool Stories?
PASS IT ON! --
Feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety
to your friends or fellow homeschoolers.
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Welcome to our first issue of Homeschool Stories. From the time I was six years old I have enjoyed writing. Whether it was writing poetry at the age of six or writing fan fiction about the Monkees (yes, confession can be good for the soul) when I was 13. This love for writing has continued into adulthood. Whether it is writing an adventurous fantasy, a stimulating article, a work of poetry, or just a descriptive journal entry, the fun is always in the story telling.
A few months ago, my oldest son, Justin, came to me with a poem he had written about a nightmare he had a few years ago. Justin has always been a hard person to get to sit down and write, so when he told me he wanted write poems and stories I was thrilled.
With that thought, I wondered how many other homeschooled children would like to share their creations with the world. From this the idea of Homeschool Stories was born.
Now you know, and as G.I. Joe always said, "Knowing is half the battle."
Enough of me. Let’s hear from the real stars of this newsletter......
The Poem that Started it All
Gremlins
By Justin K. Johnson, age 8
Gremlins chasing
Me. Through
Hallways.
Gremlins are scary.
Gremlins are mean.
I don’t like Gremlins.
They make me
Want to scream.
Gremlins
Chase me
Everywhere.
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Have a business you want to tell others about?
Your ad could be here.
Email Leesa @ zuzu_petals@msn.com for details.
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The Flood of Wigglestown by 9 year old Caleb Horney:
One day in the quiet (well, not so quiet) town of Wigglesville there was a family of five. The oldest child was Michael who was 10. (Actually, that’s me.) One of my little sisters, Michelle, was six years old. The other one, Hillary, was two and a half.
One day my mom just got home from shopping. She promised Michelle that she would let her help bake the bread for the church party. So they started mixing up bread dough. After they were in the kitchen for a while, all of sudden, "WAAAAAA!!!!"
"Michelle stay here while I get your sister", Mom said.
While mom was gone, on accident, (well, with Michelle you don’t know what IS an accident and what is NOT), Michelle dumped all of (like I said my mom just finish shopping) a 10 pound bag of yeast into a giant-sized bowl of bread dough. Then she mixed the yeast into the dough just like Mom showed her the last time they made bread. My mom came back from helping my little sister and, not knowing this, Mom put the mixed up dough into the oven.
10 minutes later---BOOOOM!!! All the yeast mixed dough blasted over everything. It splashed all over the living room and dining room. There was a doughy pond of gooey nasty stuff all over the floor. I swam to the door and opened it. SWOOOSH! My dad was outside watering the grass when he saw me in the tidal wave of goop. His eyes were bigger than the moon.
He yelled, "Don’t get the grass dirty!"
So he jumped in front of the humongous wave. (Come on! Like a scrawny little guy’s going to do to stop an on flow of goop onto his precious grass.) SPLASH! All the goop and I hit the grass and covered everything. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! I looked up and all the dogs in the neighborhood were running my way. Immediately they ate all the half-baked dough.
We had our friends and church people come over to help clean up our gooey house. In the end, my mom decided never to bake again. Instead, she would buy it at the store.
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Katey’s Funny Gremlins
by Katey Johnson, age 5
Gremlins are cute.
Gremlins are sweet.
I’d like to kiss one
Right on the cheek.
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Riddle of the Month:
What kind of coat does an octopus wear?
Answer: A Coat of Arms
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Home School Science
By William Guajardo, age 9
My grandpa is a scientist. He comes over to our house every Tuesday to
do science experiments on our kitchen table. Our first experiment was
demonstrating erosion. He brought aluminum baking dishes for my brothers
and I. We put rocks and dirt from the back yard in the dishes . Then we
poured water over the dirt and measured how much silt was in the run-off.
Next we added grass and other weeds to the dirt. This time when we
poured water over the dishes there was a lot less silt in the bottom of
our catch-jars. So plants help prevent erosion. Places with no plants,
like deserts, have lots of erosion.
Another week we learned about the planets. Grandpa showed us the
different sizes of each of them. He said that if Jupiter, the biggest,
was an apple, then Pluto, the smallest, would be like a grain of rice.
We cut out circles from cardboard, colored the rings of Saturn, the red
spot of a storm on Jupiter, the clouds of our Earth and all the others.
We hung them from a hanger.
After the Space Shuttle crashed we built model shuttles. We threw them
as far as we could in a hotel parking lot. Then we attached our shuttles
to a launcher and measured how much futher they flew. Space shuttles
need a lot of power to get out of orbit.
It is really fun when grandpa comes over for science. His dad and
grandpa were scientist too. Maybe someday I will be a marine
biologist...I don't want to work out in the hot sun like a geologist.
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Contributors can earn $2.00. Seeking Submissions for April, 2003 issue. Looking for stories, poems, jokes, recipes, etc. with an Easter or Spring theme. Include contact information and a short biography about yourself. Send your submission to zuzu_petals@msn.com by Friday, April 11, 2003. For upcoming themes refer to http://www.oocities.org/midnight_flashpoint/HomeschoolStories.html
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Friends and Family
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This monthly feature is for moms, dads, grandparents, friends, and even pets of homeschoolers who would like to write about their experiences or words of wisdom.
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The following essay, "Learning with the Lights Out," is a true story about how and what my family learned during a recent power outage.
Learning With the Lights Out:
How and What we Learned During a Winter Power Outage
By Kristine Lowder
We were ready. Armed with library books, Math Blaster CDs, computerized grammar games, spelling puzzles, and enough Dr. Seuss to sink the Bismarck, we were all set to dive into home schooling in a new state. We just didn't plan on doing it in the dark. A winter storm had downed our power grid, plunging my family into a "power-less" learning adventure.
I sat up in bed and peered into a pitch-black house. How come my boys' nite lites were off? Why was I shivering beneath a thermal blanket and a down comforter? I glanced at our digital clock, missing it in the inky darkness. Then it hit me: we had lost power. I pressed the face light button on my wristwatch. It was just after 5:00 a.m. We were without electricity in an "all-electric" house.
A downed power grid isn't unusual in the rural outskirts of western Washington, but this was our first winter in the Evergreen State. Recently relocated southern Californians not yet used to "real" weather, it was our first Washington power outage. Until then, I didn't realize how much of our daily lives revolve around electricity or electrical appliances and conveniences. Nor did I fully appreciate electronic learning and educational helps. Now I was wondering how my four boys and I were going to "do school" sans heat, lights, or running water? We couldn't even fire up the electric pencil sharpener. How would Mozart conduct his "Clarinet Concerto in A" without a functional CD player? What about retrieving Jack and Annie from ancient Greece via "The Magic Treehouse" books on tape? Our plans to voyage through the solar system with the Magic School Bus and practice phonics with Reader Rabbit were waylaid. Both programs were on CDs and required electricity. We could always read and work on printed assignments, but how long could my boys concentrate without heat?
I was tempted to "cash in" any attempt at "doing school" until our electricity was restored. Then my husband, Chris, cheerfully suggested we use the power outage as an opportunity for creative learning and innovation.
"Yeah, we can pretend we're pioneers!" crowed seven year-old Sammy.
"I'm gonna be Lewis and Clark" exclaimed Daniel, my 11 year-old "Type A" personality.
Animal-loving Nathan, 10, was less sure: "Does this mean I can't watch the Croc Hunter?" Josiah, 3, chimed in, "We can be the Olden Days!"
Chris and the crew started with the obvious: chopping firewood. I learned that "Fore!" is not an appropriate warning when swinging a double-bite axe. Between six stiff bodies and 60 frozen fingers, we carted enough split wood inside to thaw an igloo.
With a fireplace for warmth, we had to find a way to prevent food spoilage while the fridge was out. With daytime highs hovering in the 40s and temperatures near freezing at night, I suggested we unload the fridge contents onto our back porch. Until Chris mentioned the coons and cougars. Forget the porch idea. Instead, Chris excavated our Honda generator and explained "alternate power sources" in the process. We then gathered by the fire and read Gulliver's Travels, polished off Treasure Island, and put a serious dent in every Dr. Seuss book ever published. The boys swapped their computer-driven geography game for maps.
We also gained a whole new appreciation for water. Electricity powers our well pump. When we lose power, we lose water. It's amazing how hauling water buckets from the backyard river to flush toilets can cultivate an acute appreciation for conservation. Also, no electricity + no pump + no water = no laundry, clean dishes, or baths. My boys were delighted with the latter. I was less than thrilled. How could we turn THIS into an educational expedition?
My mechanically-inclined husband read the manual for the electric pump aloud while I tried to figure out what foreign language he was speaking. The boys dove into sketches of basic valve-and-suction action.
What else could we learn from this unplanned excursion into the heater-less Northwest? How about measuring the width, length and height of a storage tank to figure out total water volume? Or calculating the gallon capacity of a hot water heater and estimating how long it'll take to reheat? Primary source research? Locating a power company work crew to answer questions about electricity's idiosyncrasies. We also found that offering the crew tepid coffee and partly thawed cookies augmented their willingness to engage in "coffee break chit-chat" with some clueless winter rookies.
What about emergency preparedness? Fortunately, Chris had just laid in enough canned goods and bottled water to outfit the Third Army. Without my electric dishwasher, I also thanked God for that mountain of paper plates and plasticware Chris had recently piled into the pantry.
We soon realized how long simple chores and basic household maintenance would take without the aid of timesaving electronic appliances. No electricity to stove, oven, fridge, or microwave meant innovation and culinary creativity--at least until the power company rescued us from the 19th century. Fortunately, Chris had recently refueled the Coleman camp stove. Now, cooking over a propane camp stove is a real adventure for someone who's idea of "roughing it" means a Holiday Inn instead of the Hyatt. The camp stove wasn't exactly my Panasonic push-botton, but it ably supplied hot stew, chili, and soup.
At night we read and navigated by hurricane lamps. Carrying these contraptions from room to room made me feel like Florence Nightingale. Mentioning this, we opened encyclopedias and world atlas, looking up both Florence and old Crimea for impromptu History, Geography, and Social Studies lessons. I turned out "Hot Chocolate a la Propane" as the kids played Uno, Monopoly, and Chess.
As you might expect, our most valuable lessons from our involuntary "vacation without electricity" can't be taught in textbooks. We learned to appreciate the modern conveniences and appliances we often take for granted. Also, there's nothing like a power outage sans lights, heat, running water, or an electric pencil sharpener to emphasize family cohesion, cooperation and innovation. Or how important teamwork is, not just as part of a family project, but to stave off frostbite! Chopping firewood, hauling water, cranking up the stove and recycling paper and plastic items were no longer tasks to be crossed off the daily chore list. They were survival necessities. We all had to pitch in to keep each other warm and fed, right down to shared sleeping bags in front of the fireplace.
Nathan learned that a few missed episodes of Animal Planet and Steve Irwin aren't tantamount to "cruel and unusual punishment." I also learned that Hostess raspberry-filled donuts make great wood-splitting rewards. And that "I can't turn on the vacuum cleaner" isn't a federal offense. Also, Lipton's green tea isn't made for camp stoves. Ditto Visionware sauce pans. We were all glad when our power returned. However, I didn't mind learning with the lights out, OR a day and a half without the Crocodile Hunter. There's much to be said for a slower pace and a simpler lifestyle.
Our electricity was restored in time for another storm to hamstring our DIRECTV feed. As it turned out, our electricity-less adventure was a "dress rehearsal" for the command performance of "Learning With the Lights Out." I think we finally got it right-- just before our power was knocked out again. For the third time in four days. Where did I stash Long John Silver?
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Recipe of the Month:
Logan’s Vanilla Pudding Surprise
Logan Johnson, age 3
1 package vanilla instant pudding
frozen strawberries
Prepare vanilla pudding according to instructions. Cut up frozen strawberries and add to pudding. The frozen strawberries will chill the pudding. Yummy!
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Have comments or ideas for an item you would like to see featured in a future issue of Homeschool Stories? Contact Leesa Magoch-Johnson at zuzu_petals@msn.com
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