reboot everything

So I decided I need to reboot this blog.  This year I have 3 college students who I am not homeschooling, two high schoolers who are doing an independent study program, and one 7th grader, one 6th grader and one 2nd grader. So I am really only homeschooling 3 this year. Looking at those stats its amazing to realize I am over halfway.  We are using IXL for math and language arts. My 2nd grader is continuing to learn how to read.  The other two are reading independently well above  grade level. I need to plan some science, history, and geography to our schedule. We have added some Korean as I learn though my class at the university.  Over the next few weeks, I will hopefully post about field trips or units for subjects other than Math or English.

hoop house seems to be working

We put up the first half of a small hoop house yesterday. It's more like a small garden cover than a high tunnel because the flexible pvc was too flexible at 20 feet long. At 10 feet long, the hoops stay up on there own. I would like to try some longer poles, but not at too much more expense. The roll of 250 ft is almost finished and I am not buying another so may just stick with cutting the 20 ft sections into 10's. I have to figure out the covering because we will need three of these tunnels to sleep all of us. They are tall enough to sit up in but not stand.

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.

creating shoes is fun

I guess creating at this point might not be the right term. Right now i am just trying to learn how to make shoes of different types. I can make the soft sole type... but I want to make outside, boots, weather resistant ones also. I want to learn more about materials etc. till i find one that is warm, breathable and washable. This is going to be my record of what I try etc.

Kris