Waldorf Fundraising

This year, I will be attending Davis Waldorf School. I'm going into eighth grade, and as part of our class fundraising, all of the eighth grade students need to fundraise at least $300 on their own. This money will help pay for our trip to Boston in the Spring.

My current plan for fundraising is selling yarn in my mom's Etsy shop and taking custom orders for spinning yarn.

If you are interested in a custom order, please e-mail me at thetanfamily@msn.com. Let me know how many yards and what colors. Wool yarn of sport-DK weight is $0.25/yd. My goal is to fundraise the $300 by the end of September.

iD Tech

This summer I went to a computer camp called iD Tech at the Sacramento California State University. At iD camps you get to choose a course to take. Each course teaches you how to use different computer programs, all of which are editing tools used to create games, art, or creatures. I took the Unreal Ed course. In Unreal Ed you learn how to use the Unreal Editor 2.5, the tool used for manipulation the Unreal Engine for Unreal Tournament 3. We learned how create basic maps and the rudiments of triggering. By the end of the course, we had each successfully created playable maps.

Other than the course, we did much more. All of the overnighters got to stay up late (usually until around 11 p.m.) and play Call of Duty. We got to each breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the dining commons at Sac State. All the overnighters usually got up at around 7:30 a.m. to get ready, then at around 8 a.m. we all went to the dining commons for breakfast. Afterwards, we played a multitude of different games while we waited for the day campers to arrive. Once they were all present, we headed over to the computer lab to begin our courses. Lunch was at I think 1 p.m.. At 5 p.m. we saw the day campers off, then headed for dinner. After dinner, we spent an additional 4-6 hours playing games in the lab.

These are some things that our instructor, "Malarthi", put on our board.

Then here's me and my class. There were only 3 kids in the group.

Homeschooling

There's only another month until Summer Vacation!

Since there's only a month left of school and we completed all of the state standards awhile ago, we've been doing more Waldorf based education, in preparation for the following year. We've been taking eurythmy, wet-on-wet watercolor, and handwork at a place called P&H Grange.

We're covering things that we would have done this year if we were in Waldorf school. For me, that would be the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Funnel Cakes

Yesterday we celebrated my Dad's 43rd birthday. We gave him a couple presents, and I made him a card that made sure to remind him of his age.

For dinner, I made him a pizza and Joey made a salad. The funnel cakes were for dessert.

Last week we went to the World Market and found a funnel cake making kit. We prepared the batter an hour or two early, and let it sit in the fridge. Once it was time, I fried them in a pan of oil, and then we topped the cakes with blueberries, whipped cream, maple syrup, and powdered sugar. We were able to make about eight small, five inch funnel cakes.

Molasses Cookies Recipe

Today we stayed home all day, so I made some molasses cookies. I found the recipe here. When I made it I substitued the 1 cup of white sugar for brown sugar, and doubled the amount of spices to put in the cookies.

Memory Card Holder

For the past couple weeks, I've been passively working on a case to hold my Gamecube Memory Cards. We've all been some kind of handwork project for homeschooling.

I started with just single crocheting the back, and then doing the same for the four pockets. After each piece was made, I sewed it all together. Right now it is hanging on a nail and a modified paperclip on my desk, next to my TV and Gamecube.

East Bay Waldorf

This week on Monday we went to the East Bay Waldorf School to visit our respective classes that we would each be in this year. We had to get up at 5 o'clock that morning to get ready to leave. We left the house at about 6 o'clock, and it took almost an hour and a half to get there. Once we arrived we visited each of the teachers to see if it was fine if we stayed. We got to meet a lot of the teachers that currently work there and got permission to join the classes for awhile.

Wilson went to the kindergarten class, Joey to Class 5 (grade 5), and I went to Class 7 (grade 7). In my class we learned about Martin Luther and King Henry the 7th. The teacher wrote some main events of Martin Luther's life, and then we each split up into groups and acted out a part of it.

Once it was lunch time, around 12:30, we left the school and went on some errands. We got some lunch and headed home!

Composting

Our neighbor, Vickie, has some old composting bins in the backyard. This week, we created one big new composting pile on the back of our driveway made out of the contents of the old composting bins, and new straw, manure, rotting plants, and ash. My Mom went to a class about composting at Steiner College. There she learned about the different layers, what order they should be put in, what they all do, and how it affects the plants. Right now, the composting pile is about a foot to a foot and a half high and is about seven feet in length. We are waiting to get a giant thermometer that we can stick in the pile to see how hot it is getting.
Once it reaches 130 degrees Fahrenheit, then we know that the pile is working. Once the compost pile goes through different stages, it begins to cool down. Once that happens we have to turn the pile, which means to turn it inside out. We repeat that until the pile is complete decomposed. Once finished, we will use the soil for our garden.

I got to cut up pumpkins with a hoe.

We added all of the plants from our green cans and the old composting bins to the compost pile.

The first layer was made out of straw, and the second from manure.

This is me trying to get the old compost bins open.

These are the holes I made with the pickaxe trying to get the bolt out.

Band Concert

Yesterday, we went to the Arden Fair Mall to do a winter band concert. All four bands played, Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Jazz band. We were there extra early because we thought that it was going to start at 6 P.M. with Jazz Band going first. Instead it started at 7 P.M. with Jazz Band last.

We played jazz, rock, and bossa nova pieces. They were called Hefti's Hideout, Ain't Misbehavin', R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A., and Joy Bossa. We played ROCK in the USA really, really fast. Compared to the 3 other bands, we were extremely small. There were only about 12-14 of us while Beginning band had about 60-100. By the time we got done it was nearly 9 o'clock.


We have a concert at the First Baptist Church in Elk Grove tomorrow. I like playing in jazz band!

Pythagoras of Samos

This week, along with the next, I am going to do a biography on Pythagoras. Some of the information I have already gathered includes some of Pythagoras's early and late life.

Pythagoras grew up on the island of Samos. His mother was a native to the island, and his father was a traveling merchant. Pythagoras traveled with his father as he went on trips to other countries to trade. While staying in whatever country they might be, Pythagoras's father would send him to a philosopher or tutor of that place. By the time Pythagoras was sixteen, he had received one of the most full educations any boy of that time could have gotten.

During Pythagoras's late life, when he was around 40-50 years old, he started a Pythagorean school of mathematics, philosophy, and music, also known as the Pythagorean Brotherhood. The school was located in Samos. During this time he discovered many things, one of which was the Pythagorean Theorem, or the measure of gold.

Pirateer

Pirateer is a board game meant for two or four players. The object of the game is to capture the treasure in the middle of the board, and then take it back to your dock in one of the four corners of the board. In order to take the treasure, you must move one of your ships to one of the bright spaces next to the island, and then put the treasure coin on top of your ship. Each player gets 3 pieces -- 6 if there are only two players.

Pieces are moved by rolling a pair of dice. Movement is limited to left, right, up, and down, unless your piece is within one of the "trade winds". The trade winds are 20 dark, wavy spaces that allow your ship to move diagonally. If a ship enters the trade winds, it is not allowed to move out until the next turn. Additionally, there are triangle spaces on the farthest sides of the board. These are spaces that are called straits and they allow passage from one side of the board to the other.

There are about 10 different variations of Pirateer that give special conditions or rules. We usually play an unofficial variant, which consists of dueling and capturing ships that we made up. Movement and victory conditions are normal, but whenever a ship goes into a space next to an enemy ship, the two can duel. Both players roll a die, and whoever rolls the highest, wins, capturing the enemy ship and the treasure if the losing ship had it.

After playing, we roll up the felt board and put the pieces in a long, metal container and put it away in our game closet.

Jazz Band

Today I am going to go to Jazz Band in Elk Grove. Our Jazz Band teacher is Mr. Khapan, the person who used to teach regular band. I play second alto saxophone. There are three saxophones in our band, two altos and one tenor. We play a mix of rock, latin, and swing music.

Explorit Science Center

A couple of days ago we went to the Explorit Science Center in Davis. They had a new exhibit about communication, featuring Morse code, army flag and hand signals, different languages, and two cans with a string attached. There were also a couple of books for sign language, and a set of stamps for the different hand signals. On a piece of paper, I made a compass rose with a couple of the stamps. On the part with Morse code, there was a chart with all the letters and numbers, Morse telegraph keys, fiber optics, and a small light on either side of the station.

In the regular exhibit area, the downstairs room, there was a new metal sandbox that sloped down and had water running down from a shower head all the way to the bottom of the basin, where it was recycled through the pump back to the top. There were pipes of different sizes and small plastic trees for decoration. You could use the pipes to make tunnels through sand mounds. Joey and I took out all of the pipes and trees and made a meandering river. It wound almost all the way to the bottom, accelerating at the deeper and steeper parts of the river. As a result of changing the depth in one area and increasing height in the other area or decreasing depth caused a change in the velocity of the running water. Once it was done, we added trees to make it look more real.

Slingshots

Yesterday we made slingshots out of rubber bands, felt, and sticks that we found in our back yard. Our dad cut the sticks and then we put together the rubber bands and felt. Once they were done, we were able to shoot across the entire yard (that's about 25 ft.)! It didn't take very long to make them, only about 15-20 minutes.

Ceramics

For the past couple weeks we've been taking ceramics classes every Thursday. Joey and I are both taking the class. Here we are making pumpkin containers by hand out of clay.

We made birdhouses one week by actually putting slabs of clay together to form one. Then they were fired, painted, and then fired again.


We also got to use the potter's wheel. I made a bowl and two candle holders (see picture above), and Joey made a plate and a couple of bowls. Right now, everything we made on the wheel is being fired. Here is a picture of my cousin Sydney at the wheel. Our cousins Sydney and Emily are also in our ceramics class.

Candle Dipping

Yesterday we got to use the beeswax that Vicky, our landlord, gave us when we first moved in for candle dipping! We melted the beeswax and dipped our wicks in the beeswax one after another. Wilson started to make one, but decided that he didn't want to do it. We dipped the wicks in sets of two, by folding each piece in half. The end of my two candles broke off, so they are shorter than the rest.

Here are the pictures.



This is how they used to make candles in the early American colonies.

Entomology

Last Friday we went to an Entomology Museum in U.C. Davis. It was more of an actual lab instead of a museum, with actual students and professors working. They had some pinned bugs and live bugs on display, but most of the specimen were in storage in big cabinets in the middle of the room. They said that they have a collection of 17 million bugs, the second largest on the west coast.

The person who was helping us showed us some live bugs.

And over here my sister, Joey, was holding a leaf with a baby version of the bug in the picture above on it.

The Sandbox

Today we began making Wilson a sandbox. Joey, Wilson and I helped cut, nail, glue, and screw it all together. All that we have to do now is sand it. The sandbox is about 20" x 20" x 5". We got a 50-pound bag of sand to fill it up, but we need to get a bit more.