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 Our first trial run was difficult. I was left wanting to ship the keyboard
home. We spent more time fussing with
the computer and the webcam than we did playing piano. It was tough!
First of all, our set up was all wrong.
In one place the piano was too high, in another it was too low. We resorted to stacking pillows on the chair
to raise our little guy to the right height.
With that problem temporarily solved we tried to get our camera pointed
in the right direction. Our poor teacher
was probably getting sea sick from all the motion. When we finally settled on the best location
for the camera, of course there was nothing around to hook it to, so my husband
had to stand there holding it, like a statue.
It was actually kind-of funny.
Then the lesson. Skype locked up
our computer 3 times in the first 10 minutes.
Finally, when we were at our wit's end, our teacher suggested another
service called ooVoo. She was trying to explain to us how her
brother-in-law used it often for business calls when the Skype locked us up
again. All we heard was, "my
brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, my brother-in-law, my
brother-in-law." Then the phone
rang. That was the end of Skype.
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  At nearly all of the 391
American National
Park units, one or more National Park Passport Stamps can be
acquired at no cost at park visitor centers and ranger stations. The stamps are
similar in nature to passport stamps stamped in a traveler's national
passport. We picked up our books in
Washington DC and we’ve been collecting stamps ever since. The stamps serve as a record of each park
visit. They’re free, fast, and fun to
collect, so if you don’t have enough time to complete the Junior Ranger program
at a certain park, just get the stamp.
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Hard
Tack
Hard Tack was a hard bread carried by soldiers during the Civil War. Make your own and see what you think of it.
MATERIALS:
2 cups of flour
¾ to 1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening (Crisco)
6 pinches salt
PROCEDURE:
Mix flour, shortening, water and salt into a stiff dough, kneading several
times. Spread dough ½ inch thick onto baking sheet and slice into 3 1/2 by 3
1/2 inch squares. Poke holes in dough as illustrated below, four lines of four
holes across and four down. Bake for ½ hour at 400 degrees. Remove from the
oven, cut dough into 3 inch squares. Turn dough over, return to oven, and bake
another ½ hour. Turn oven off and leave hardtack in until it is cool.
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Earth day is April 22nd and our Cub Scout Handbooks
arrived just in time to provide some inspiration. One of our boys is working toward Wolf rank
and the other toward Bear. Each handbook
has a required achievement that encourages scouts to take care of their
planet. So, for Earth Day we’ll be picking
up litter in our campground, planting a tree, discussing ways to conserve
energy, and reading books about protecting the environment. Join us, or try one of these Earth day ideas…
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 My 6 and 8 year olds started learning keyboarding a few weeks ago - typing to us old folks. We are using a computer Typing program called "Typing Instructor for Kids". Children learn to type by traveling around Typer Island and playing games, going through easy-to-follow lessons and speed drills. The boys LOVE this. They hardly noticed they were learning. I had to force them to quit playing and at the end of the first session they had each memorized the home row keys and were touch typing at better than 90% accuracy. The program lets them know their WPM (words per minute) and their accuracy after each game or lesson. The kids get so excited when they improve, and there's a little bit of competition going on. We've issued a challenge to some of our good friends at home who got the same program to learn to type this year - "Race you to the Castle!" To get to the castle and take control of the island you have to progress through all 5 of the different areas on the island. Then, to gain access to the fortress you must pass a speed drill and prove that you can type more than 15 words per minute.
I offered Instant messenging as an incentive to the boys to stick with it. Once they learn all the keys they will earn the privilege to get online and chat with their friends, as long as they use the correct form. No hunting and pecking! I must say, I am very impressed with how quickly they've learned where the keys are and I really like this program. At this point, after about 3 weeks, they know where all of the letters are and they're about to start on the numbers. They are typing some of their school work (Bible verses and a few journal entries). They've also started e-mailing some of their friends. If you're looking to teach a younger child to type I highly recommend this program. It doesn't cost much - about $15. You can't go wrong. Try it!
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We're excited to be able to partner