Debate Tournament

Shannon participated in her second debate tournament today. As a beginner she was on the novice track at the Candy Cane Tournament. David went with her and helped judge several rounds.

At the end of the day when all the ballots were counted, Shannon and her partner Jacob won SECOND place! They had won all four of their rounds.

We are so excited for her and believe she will be moving up to varsity level soon.

Congratulations, Shannon!



Jacob & Shannon show off their camo Santa hats. (The resolution this year involves military policy.)



After finding her seat, Shannon is still surprised.



Shannon with her coach Katie


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It's Show Time!

Today's Stickie Note

Debate

The boys and I have attended a few debate tournaments this year as part of their Intro to Debate class, which they took this last winter. We were also at the tournaments to cheer on Lydia and Abigail, who were actually competing this year as a team. The boys learned the intricacies of timing debate rounds whereas I learned how to use up every extra synapse in my brain serving as a debate judge! It required incredible brain power!! Here are the boys during the February CLASH tournament, discussing a round they had just observed.

The resolution for the STOA team policy this year has to do with environmental policy, so the intro class used that as their topic as well. During the last two class sessions the students had practice debate rounds. John paired up with Zach Cunningham to put together an affirmative plan that involved replacing coal energy with nuclear plants across the country. They worked hard for a couple weeks researching, writing their speeches, and practicing together. Joshua teamed up with Joshua Cunningham to argue the negative perspective against their case. What fun to have the two teams of brothers competing against one another!

During the last week, the two Joshuas presented their case which had to do with restricting shark fishing off the U.S. coasts. Katrina and Kaci were on the negative team.

John & Zach played negative against the Broker brothers, Sean and Eric, and their affirmative plan about cleaning up the litter on the beaches.

At the end of each debate, the class voted for which team they thought had won the round. Then they received the invaluable feedback from their amazing teacher Katie.

The final tournament before Nationals was to occur during the Baja Missions Trip, which both Lydia and Abigail were going to attend. Since the girls couldn't attend the tournament, we had a fun evening in March instead with a potluck and then a video one of the girls' rounds at the CLASH tournament. No one but the girls knew the judge's ruling, so after watching the video we all discussed how we thought the round had gone. To no one's surprise, the girls had won their event!

Future speech and debate students...

Civics 101

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Romans 13:1-4

The kids and I took a trip down to the local Courthouse for a lesson in Civics one day last month.

While making the trek from the parking lot to the building, my 11-year-old daughter commented, “I don’t want to learn about Civics!” I responded that all citizens in this city, county, and nation need to learn about Civics. It was a non-negotiable outing for the morning.

Why were we on this mission? Because I needed to pay my fines for two—not just one, but two—traffic tickets I had received. (If anyone has read my post on gratitude, part of learning to be thankful was even for two tickets in two days!)

Upon entering the Courthouse, we were greeted by the security check, standard for this day and age. After removing every belt, watch, hair clip, pair of glasses, tote, backpack, and purse, we thought we’d be in the clear, right? Nope!

Civics Lesson #1: Itty bitty souvenir pocket knives from Mount Rushmore are considered weapons, and as such are not allowed in the building. The boys made the trek back to the car to put the offensive item away.

Civics Lesson #2: The fines for traffic violations hurt . . . a lot! Lesson learned . . . . I’m paying much closer attention to my driving, diligently obeying all “No turn” signs and completely stopping at all those red octagonal signs, among other traffic laws.

Having finished paying off the fines and getting the necessary information about the upcoming traffic school, I decided that our Civics lesson was still incomplete. The kids needed to understand a bit more about the justice system and how it works dealing with more serious offenders.

Civics Lesson #3: All court proceedings, unless otherwise indicated, are open for public viewing at any time, including home school parents and their Civics class students.

Civics Lesson #4: Excuses for why one cannot perform court-assigned community service penalties do not work with the judge! Prepare to be arrested on the spot if you try.

Civics Lesson #5: People observing court proceedings should not talk, whisper, or read books. They should be quiet and watch respectfully.

Civics Lesson #6: A lot of the courtroom business is taken up with paperwork and legalities (setting dates for hearings, postponing hearings, making sure people understand their rights, etc.).

Civics Lesson #7: The home is the learning ground for Civics.

Here’s how I later explained it to the children. Ultimately, God wants people to learn to live in a right relationship with Him and within His boundaries for their own benefit. To accomplish this goal, He has placed the parents in a position of authority to establish laws (like the legislature) for the common good of the citizenry (the family), to determine when someone is in violation of the law (like the police), and to initiate learning situations to teach the citizens to better obey the law (like the judge).

The parents have the responsibility to train the children how to live abundant lives enjoying the protective boundaries, a task that is often in contradiction to all of the family’s sinful natures. How well the parents do at their jobs and how well the children learn the lessons will greatly affect the children’s futures as well as the abundant life—or lack thereof—in the home.

We compared consequences in the legal system to those found in the home. There is community service (added chores, assuming another’s task[s] for the day), incarceration (being sent to one’s room, being grounded, having certain privileges removed), and fines (some monetary, others being goods or time submitted to the authorities).

Until a child is 18, he is accountable to the parents as the authority. However, once a child is a legal adult, he is answerable to the civic authorities. During our short visit, we witnessed adults who had either not had parents teach them very well, or they had not seemed to learn their lessons. Now, it was the Judge’s duty to administer consequences to try to help them learn. The question is. . . will they? Part of our responsibility, as citizens of both this city, county, and nation as well as of the Kingdom of God, is to appropriately respond to the correction we receive, learn from it, and, in the words of the Master, “go and sin no more” (John 8:11b).

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,

and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:5b-11

Onion Science

While cleaning out the refrigerator this afternoon

to prepare for new groceries,

we found a bag of diced onions that had been in there way too long.

The "use by" date was 2/14/10--almost a month ago! Oops!

On top of that we accidentally left the bag on the counter

while we put all the new food away and made dinner.

As we cleaned up later,

we discovered the now-warm bag

of decomposing matter.

It was expanding so much

that the bag was about to explode.

Not to miss such a fun opportunity,

we took the bag out back to "do the deed."

We even filmed it for you...

Road Rage

On our way home from piano lessons yesterday afternoon, we came across an instance of what appeared to be road rage in our neighborhood. The children and I witnessed the final scenes between two young women. I was able to get a picture on my cell phone camera of one of the cars before the young lady fled away. Because I had to get the boys home quickly for a school webinar, I promised I would quickly return. When I returned to the scene, the police were pleased with the printouts I had brought with me of the cell phone pictures. It turns out the witnesses had made a mistake in one of the numbers on the plate. They asked if I would come down to the station to make a written statement after taking care of the family's dinner and dealing with the school class that was going on at home.

While I was preparing dinner, I had the children type out their testimonies of what they had personally seen of the incident. The focus was to be on actual observations, not interpretations or assumptions of people's characters or intentions. This turned out to be a marvelous activity for them. Both of the boys are participating in a novel writing class this year, and John was especially interested in adding embellishments and expressive vocabulary. We had to edit out the inferences. In the end, the police had enough information from my pictures, and the other witnesses and our testimonies were not necessary.

What did we learn from this incident?

* A home school mom will turn just about anything into a learning experience.

* We need to work more in our science labs on making observations and less on inferences.

* The situation was an excellent object lesson for not controlling anger and irritation with others.

* Four people can observe the exact same situation and yet notice very different details.

An angry man stirs up dissension,

and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.

Proverbs 29:22

In your anger, do not sin.

Ephesians 4:26a

My dear brothers, take note of this:

Everyone should be quick to listen,

slow to speak and slow to become angry.

James 1:19

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;

do not fret--it leads only to evil.

Psalm 37:8

A gentle answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day for our family

stretched over several days this year.

It started on Thursday evening

when I made 80 cupcakes.

I had a virtual cupcake factory going in my kitchen,

given that I only have enough tins

to bake 18 at a time!

Mix up and pour the batter,

in the oven for 18 minutes,

cool for 10,

pour the next batch,

and on it went.

As the cupcakes cooled,

I loaded them into a box with

three cardboard tiers

so I could transport them on Friday.

Chocolate, strawberry, and yellow cake--

we had a variety.

After I mixed up two huge batches of buttercream frosting,

we spent Friday morning over at

the Cunninghams' house

for two of our writing classes.

When Shannon wasn't in her class,

she was busy with the other girls decorating

her Valentine's box and making signs for our

carnival booths.

At noon we headed over to the Valentine's Carnival

with Home Schooler's Loving God.

The FitzGeralds had two different stations.

Shannon, Abigail Cunningham, and I

ran the Cupcake Decorating Booth.

Here are Abigail and I adding

the vanilla and strawberry buttercream frosting

to the cupcakes.

Our visitors were thrilled with all the sprinkles and

colored sugars they used to decorate their cupcakes.

Many of them really took their time to get the little cakes

to look just the way they wanted!

Meanwhile, Joshua and John ran a booth

with a Wham-O game called "Pop-Bang."

The kids were lined up to play

for the duration of the entire carnival!

The boys did a terrific job running their booth

and helping all the kids play the game.

Here's a picture of the little cake

that I made for David on Sunday

as a Valentine's gift.

(This is what it looked like

before the cat found the cake on the table!

BAD Kitty!)

I had also arranged to have some beautifully

decorated sugar cookies made for the kids

by my friend Eliana who operates Desserts Divine.

Love . . . it's definitely a family affair!

Schoolin' Around

Sometimes I think that

if we could hold still long enough,

we could hear the sound of our week

"wooshing" by with all that we're

doing right now!

The kids just finished their third week of a swim clinic.

Our goal is to have them build up some endurance

after their long winter break, and

work on some of their strokes, dives, & turns,

as a way to prepare for our

swim team which starts in early April.

Sarah is a fantastic instructor!

One morning a week we head to drama practice.

The group was assigned their roles in

the spring musical and read through the entire

script last week.

One afternoon a week the boys are participating

in an Introduction to Debate class

with several other homeschool students.

We're learning all about how to make an argument

and that in debate, everything is debatable.

This year's resolution has to do

with environmental policy.

My "Jots & Tittles" writing class

consists of four 5th & 6th graders.

Here is a picture where they are trying

to act out prepositions.

We have finished Julius Caesar!

Here are the kids during our last

Reader's Theater.

The play ends with several deaths,

so the kids created a reenactment

as we read the final scenes.

Biology

Today the guys were investigating plant cells.

They made their own slides with banana,

onion, and anacharis leaves;

looked online for a picture of cork cells;

and observed ready-made slides of hydra, ranunclus, zea mays.

They were able to quickly find each cell type

as they're getting better and better at this.

It's great to finally be getting good use

out of our expensive microscope!

William Shakespeare

For Joshua's World History studies this year, we are reading through William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. We've enlisted some of the Cunningham family to join us, and we're having a grand time giving different voices to the characters and exploring the various themes of betrayal and loyalty, tyranny and pride, and conspiracy and assassination gone awry.

Calphurnia When beggars die there are no comets seen;

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

Cæsar Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear;

Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come.

The children are so enjoying reading through Shakespeare that we recently rented Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V," which we finished watching tonight. An amazing movie!

King Henry I tell thee truly, herald,

I know not if the day be ours or no;

For yet a many of your horsemen peer

And gallop o'er the field.

Montjoy The day is yours.

King Henry Praised be God, and not our strength, for it!

What is this castle call'd that stands hard by?

Montjoy They call it Agincourt.

King Henry Then call we this the field of Agincourt,

Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

We still have three acts to finish in Julius Caesar, but perhaps we'll move on to one of the comedies next.