I am restarting the blog. Going to use it to keep focus on homeschooling this year and on the house.  This last two weeks we have been working on geodesic dome designs. We are doing a unit on emergency preparedness and camping. We were hoping to building an inexpensive tent for camping...It  hasn't succeeded yet.   I am finding that making do with materials that are cheaper but don't work as well can actually cost you more in the long run.  We also discussed the concept of research and development being expensive, specially when you ideas do not work.  Back to the drawing board.