Weekly Wrap Up 12/18/20 -- Driving Simulator and an unexpected visitor

MarioFan is hoping to learn to drive this spring/summer.  I have been looking around for different programs to help him in this area.  I recently discovered a Driving simulation program that spends four to five weeks using a computer simulation to imitate driving and then they give the results to the parents and address areas to work on before getting into the car.  They are also hopefully going to be having a driving ed program this summer that he will be able to attend.  It depends on Covid, of course 

The first lesson is just getting use to the machine and understanding the basics of driving

He had 3 crashes driving on the computer which was really eye opening for him especially since one of the accidents was the other drivers fault.

He was also noted to be speeding throughout the initial test but we are told this is very common since it is hard to gauge on a computer how fast you are going.  This was a good introduction to basic driving and he went every week for 5 weeks.  This program built up his confidence and he is a little more excited about the prospects of driving.  We are hoping this spring we can get his learners permit and start him driving on the road.  

We had a very unexpected visitor in the house, a small bird flew inside when the back door was opened. The humans didn't notice at first but the dog and cat were acting very strangely for a few minutes until the bird flew around and we humans finally understand what was upsetting the animals!

We have incredibly high ceilings in our living room so catching it was impossible.  I tried opening the front door and shooing it in that direction but to no avail. 

Eventually the bird made it into the upstairs school room, but again we have high ceilings so we were stuck. But I was at least able to shut the door in the room to contain it while we strategized our next move

someone told us to try to catch it using a soft blanket but even with two of us it was impossible 

I didn't want to scare it any more so after several frustrating minutes I managed to open the window.  I don't usually open the window this way so it took some time to remove the screen and lower it down wards.  

We shut the school room door and waited hoping it would fly out.  However the bird had other ideas and flew right past the window and then decided to hop around the room and explore.  

After about twenty minutes of the bird ignoring the open window, I decided to entice the bird with a trail of bread.  That finally did the trick and it flew outside. In all told we spent about 45 minutes trying to coax the bird outside.  

That was a bit of unexpected excitement to our day.  We think the bird flew in though the back porch door as the cat likes to sit on the deck and someone left the door all the way open instead of just a couple of inches for the cat to go in or out.

I will be taking the next two weeks off from blogging for our Christmas/New Year's break.  We do this every year and I really enjoy the down time.  My husband plans to take a week off as well.  We are disappointed that we won't be able to see my Mother for the holidays due to the pandemic:(.  This year the holidays will be especially quiet for us, just the immediate family cocooning in our home.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Weekly Wrap UP 12/11/20. Christmas ornaments

 Every year since the kids were born they have gotten a special ornament that somehow represents what has happened to them during the year!  When they were younger my husband or I would chose the ornament based on their interests or accomplishments, but now that the kids are older they are choosing their own special ornament.  

MarioFan chose this ornament for his collection 

I guess it sums up his year

Firedrake chose these ornaments which we got at her college bookstore (last year but have been saving them for this Christmas as it is her first year at college

I also bought her the ornament that MarioFan picked out because I thought it was important and sort of funny 

In addition we lost our Bearded Dragon last month so I wanted to have something small to remember him by.  I found a site that could turn pictures into Christmas ornaments so I order one 

I also had one designed for my Hedgehog that I lost a couple of years ago because I still remember him and really enjoyed having him as a pet.

We are now working on getting additional ornaments made for all the other animals in the house: the dog, cat, leopard gecko and two guinea pigs.  They haven't arrived yet but hopefully will get here before Christmas. 

Lastly, my mother started sending me the White House Christmas ornament every year since I got married in 1999.  This year's ornament is to honor JFK.  

We always decorate the house the weekend after Thanksgiving 

                                             

Most of these Christmas ornaments were given to my Husband and I as a wedding gift.  We honeymooned in Germany and someone gifted us with a box of ornaments from Germany that our given to the Bride for their first Christmas which is suppose to bring good luck.  I love them

Next I decorate stair -- Deck the halls -- as they sing:)

The felt Christmas tree here I purchased when the kids were very young and they still insist it goes up and love to fill it in every day till Christmas

Our 7 foot tree.  Discovered yet another strand of light that are out.  One I can hide by placing it towards the window.  The second strand that is out we didn't discover until the tree was up and now I can't rearrange it.  I have the worst luck trying to correct lights that our out.  I am dreaming of one day owning an LED Christmas tree!

My Mantle of Scottish Christmas Santa's.  They go up every single year!  

Weekly Wrap UP 12/04/20 -- 11th grade update

Firedrake returned home from College.  She will be completing the last couple of week virtually!  She isn't due to return to college until January 11.  It will be so weird to not have her here to celebrate her birthday which will be on the 22nd.  However we will enjoy having her home for a little while:)!  Here is another project she completed at college for her art class.

 MarioFan is doing great and keeping up with a pretty heavy school load.  He is managing his 3 online classes well and while there are a few weekends filled with homework he is working hard and I am proud of how well he is doing.

He is just about finished with section 1 of his Chemistry class which is held online.  

They are working on Chemical bonds and just completed another experiment 

For Literature we are working on reading our 1st Shakespeare play, using my old book from high school. It is fun to see my old notes and highlights while we read along

We are listening to an auto book while we read along.  MarioFan finds this much more helpful

after reading each scene we are watching Course Hero's video explanations as well as looking at their analysis of the play.  His writing assignment will be to identify the themes and symbols of the play.

He is continuing with his Economics online class, where they had an assignment to read one of Dr. Seuss' book and determine the economic ideas used in the book.  MarioFan chose to read Oh! the places you will go!  It was interesting to read through the book looking at it from this perspective, then he had to write a short paper on it.  

He loves his 42 Electronic program and is continuing to building his robot and learning python coding

He is working on his wiring 

Having to problem solve what is wrong when his robot didn't work properly

I was very impressed he could figure it all out on his own and get his robot to move forward, backward and in circles.  He is about halfway done with this project

For his Spanish class he is really working on his speaking and listening skills.  Homework has been too watch Spanish speaking cartoons or movies for 15 minutes every day.  Currently he is watching this  movie on Netflix.  

 

MarioFan says robotics and Chemistry are his favorite classes this year:)!

MarioFan is plugging along nicely in all his other subjects such as grammar, sociology piano and Algebra 2.  Just nothing exciting to report in those subjects.  It gets harder to blog about homeschooling at this time as MarioFan becomes more independent and doing a lot more subjects with other teachers!