Can you pass 8th grade Maths?

Here is a sample taken from the Illinois Board of Education Grade 8 Math[s] standard test. See how you go.
Then for an extra challenge go to a 6 question sample from the SAT linked at the bottom of the answers page.

(I got 10/10 and 6/6 - As Lana said "So you should! You're an accountant.)

(Link found at American Digest blog)

Meanwhile the girls did...

(written by Lana)

The Scott Hogsed Memorial day was really for our boys. Girls were encouraged to join in but our girls didn't really want to participate. We knew friends there so I was able to do my cross stitch whilst our friend Angela spun wool on her spinning wheel. Clare enjoyed herself playing with Christianna - a friend about the same age as herself.
Ariel helped by taking Clare, Rose and Christianna for a walk to the colouring-in tent and generally do a small bit of exploring.
Angela and I moved from shade to shade during the day and many people stopped and asked us what we were demonstrating. Angela replied we weren't actually demonstrating, we were just making good use of our time. If they asked further she gave them quite a good explanation of how the wool was spun and how the spinning wheel worked.
One of the shade spots we had our eye on looked really good. But then we saw it just wouldn't do as the civil war guys fired the cannons in that direction!
Ariel did get a T shirt and they both shared a goodie bag at the end like everyone else, so they weren't completely left out. In this photo she stole David's hat.

Scott Hogsed Memorial Day

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to attend the first Annual "Scott Hogsed Memorial Youth Conservation Day". This is an event organised in remembrance of Scott Hogsed who died August 22, 1984 at the age of 15 in some accident on the farm. The idea had been percolating in the minds of his family and friends and this day teaching young people about hunting, shootting, fishing, wildlife and conservation is planned to become a regular event.
It started at about 8:40 with an opening ceremony including the national anthem sung beautifully by a young girl, everyone reciting the pledge of allegience, a short memorial to Scott and then the firing of 2 cannons by the Civial War society. Once the cannons went off, the car alarms rang out in chorus.
This photo is of the good old boys reloading their cannons. Between each session the cannons were fired to let each group know they were to proceed to their next stop.

Scott Hogsed Memorial Day 2

We were told to be at the site by 7:30, so that meant getting up at around 6:00. So we awoke at 6:21 and left the house by 6:40 and arrived at 7:15. I thought that wasn't too bad getting everyone awake, dressed and in the car in under 20 minutes.
Upon registering each child received a bright orange hat. This is called "Hunter orange" or "Blaze Orange". It can be seen for quite a long way. As the event was meant to begin at 8:00am and people kept arriving and it was delayed until 8:40, the children had a bit of time to play with their friends. Here Eric is giving a piggy back ride to his friend Elijah.
Each group made it's way along eight events: Turkey hunting, First Aid, Environment, Elks, Coon hunting, Fishing, Shooting, and Archery. Each event was 30 minutes, separated by two cannon shots from the Civil War guys.

Scott Hogsed Memorial Day 3

We were led by experienced turkey hunters and told the rules. A hunter can only shot a "bearded" turkey (also known as a gobbler) - a male that is old enough to have the special feathers that look like a beard. But - you can't shoot a hen, can't shoot more than one a day, can't have a house or another hunter in the line of fire. With all these rules in mind we were asked in various scenarios if we could shoot. In one scene just like this we all said "Yes" and then he said no - because a hunter was behind the turkey. Someone asked why the hunter wouldn't wear the hunter orange. Apparently the turkeys have good colour sense and camouflage is essential.
At one time, wild turkey, deer, elk and all the other wildlife that is subject to hunting in the US were depleted or almost extinct. Through wildlife management now there are an abundance and hunting season is an important method for keeping numbers down.
Young turkeys are known as "jakes" and junior turkey hunters are also known as JAKES - Juniors Acquiring Knowledge Ethics & Sportsmanship.

Scott Hogsed Memorial Day 4

We then listened to some First Aid instructions given by an Australian chap that is part of the local Ambulance/Search and Rescue unit. Lana and I enjoyed listening to this fellow that sounded a lot like us. It was fascinating. He was originally from a small Australian country town, attended school in Meblourne, joined the army and ended up in lots of places around the Pacific ending up in North Carolina. Another member of the Australian Diaspora.
The main lesson was BREATH - Be prepared/Buddy system, Relax, Environment, ABC (airway, breathing, circulation), Treatment and Help. We had forgotten the "T" word so asked one of the other crew members. He had to look it up! I thought this was supposed to help one remember!
The next station explained about how the elk are being reintroduced to North Carolina. The picture above shows the size of an elk head. The skull you can see on the left is from a cougar - one of the elk's natural enemies, but not actually a local one.

Scott Hogsed Memorial Day 5

The Coon hunting lesson was interesting. They have regular competitions where points are awarded for catching raccoons ("coons"). He showed us all the equipment one needs to hun coons: Hound Dogs ("dowgs"), lights ("larts"), boots, snake chaps, chains for dowg, tracking collar and a hat. It was interesting hearing how it was all organised.
Then we had the fishing where the pond (which we would call a dam in Australia) had been filled with fish and lots of fishing rods were ready for use. The worm fell off James' rod, so here he is concentrating on tying a poor worm into a knot onto the hook.

Scott Hogsed Memorial Day 6

Next up was shooting. Each child had the option of firing a BB gun, a 4-10 or 20 guage shotgun. Each child had a fellow from the National Parks service assisting and was provided with eye and ear protection. It was well controlled and the children enjoyed their experience. The target was a picture of a turkey. All the boys succeeded in hitting the target.
James and Eric fired the 4-10 shotgun which only had a slight kick (unlike the one that I fired last time or the time before). The cartridge in James' gun stuck and the man said to James he would need pliers. "I have some!" said James and took out his pocket knife/pliers. The man reacted with surprise and said "Thanks" and took the cartridge out. James was quite happy that his being prepared with his McGyver kit paid off! (This photo is Peter looking at the targets whilst he is waiting for the fellow helping him to get ready)

Scott Hogsed Memorial Day 7

After all the sections were completed by about 12:40 everyone was able to participate in a fine wildlife lunch. The fellow behind the table pointed to each meat tray commenting, "Deer, elk, bear, turkey ..." and so on. I suggested that he could be just making it all up and we wouldn't know any better. He replied, pointing to the tomatoes and said, "Well that's tomatoes, and ... " pointing to the spaghetti, "that's spaghetti meat!"
The event had at least 412 children registered, their families, helpers and others and there was food left over. There was no charge and they even had lots of door prizes at the end. The children learned about hunting and wildlife conservation and we all enjoyed a fun - and tiring - day out.
As the fellow giving the opening prayer ended, "God bless all y'all."

The cookies are on us.

Our local bank has lots of free things avilable for their guests - lollipops, popcorn, cookies (biscuits), coffee, etc.

You may think they are free because you don't have to pay for them. But there is always a catch with little 'uns.

This is Rose after "eating" her free choc chip cookie and popcorn. Note her lips. She was approaching to give me a kiss.

(Update: I changed the title to something more appropriate)

Can you spot a fake smile?

I discovered this quiz by the BBC to test your accuracy in spotting a fake or genuine smile. This is a good test for the family to try.
I correctly picked 13 out of 20. I'll try it later with the rest of the family.

Update: Lana, Ariel and Eric got 15, and Lana's sister got 18 right!
Tell us your score in the comments.

Update2: James 14, Peter 18, Clare 12. However we are suspicious of Peter's results as he overheard the post results discussion with James and when we asked Clare if she knew what "fake" meant, she said, "No".

(Link found at American Digest blog)

Did the earth move for you?

Lana and I just felt the house shake. It was only a little nudge, but it wasn't the washing machine or dishwasher as they weren't on. It wasn't big enough to affect anything in the house, but the house definitely wobbled.
We looked up the US Government earthquake site and there was a small earthquake in Eastern Tennessee not too far from here (about 60 miles) last night. It was only a 1.6 magnitutude quake.
Perhaps this was a distant rumble of that one?
It was odd having the floor wobble.

Update: It was an earthquake! An earthquake of magnitude 3.8 about 90 miles from here at 11:09pm local time. Exactly when we felt the house jiggle. This map shows where people felt the earthquake. (You can click the picture for a larger version.)

Modern little girls

Clare was listening to Ariel reviewing integers as part of her maths lesson and Ariel said, "... dot, dot, dot.." (referring to a line sequence) when Clare said, "dot com"
What a modern little girl!

Meanwhile Rose has taken to walking around with the DVD remote control placed against her ear and jabbering into it - just like a telephone.
What a modern little girl!

Marie Bellet

We have just purchased the three albums of Marie Bellet. I heard her being interviewed by Steve Wood of dads.org and they played a few of her songs.
Marie is a mother of eight or so children and her songs center around life, family, love and faith. Each CD came with a CD slip containing the words for the songs, so Ariel wanted to listen to them all and read along.
I made this task a lot easier when I remembered to turn off shuffle and play them in album and song order! Previously Ariel was listening carefully to the opening words and hurriedly flipping through the three booklets to find the right song.

The lyrics and music are uplifting and refreshing.
On her CD "What I wanted to say" the title song had these lines:

She said: Excuse me please, are these all yours?
You've really got your hands full, that's for sure
Tell me, when do you get time for you?
You know there's so much more that a woman can do.

Lana and I just laughed at hearing this. We get these questions all the time and to hear it in a song was good to hear.

The Winner is Syd - Er - Ney!

Woo hoo!
Sydney has been announced as the host for World Youth Day 2008. This is the 10th International World Youth Day where anywhere from 1 to 10 million young people gather and celebrate their faith as Catholics. Pope Benedict XVI announced Sydney at the World Youth Day currently being held in Cologne Germany.

Go here for more WYD photos from Yahoo.

We should be home by then and so I expect we may be having a few international visitors!

Today's nature study

"I was downstairs and in the darkest part of the concrete and I was about to go into the dirt when the dark spot moved. It went squiggling real fast. It was a snake! So I ran inside up the stairs - barely touching them - and told Dad and Mum." narrated by James
After he rushed in warning everyone not to go outside because of the snake, we all went out and had a look. The snake was huddled in the corner not far from the downstairs door and was about just over one metre (4 feet) in length. Not knowing whether it was a good or bad snake I called our friend Donald who told me that up here in the mountains you need to see the snake's eyes. If they are round it is non poisonous, if slanted poisonous. I hesitated. To get that close seemed a bit silly if it was a poisonous snake! But Eric had his binoculars and was glad to be able to put them to good use.
The eyes were round, and I was told it was probably just a grass snake that likes to eat mice and small creatures. So, with a VERY long stick I encouraged it to "nick off" and it went away from the house, probably happy to be away from all this fuss and bother.

Nigerian email scam with a twist

There is a famous (infamous) email scam whereby a deposed Nigerian minister or one of their relatives has a stack of cash that he needs to transfer via someone's bank account. As with any offer received via email you need to check the facts. Snopes.com and Scambusters.org are two sources of checking up these emails. In fact, if you get any email that asks you to pass it on, odds are it is a hoax. To check go to Google and type "email hoax xxxx" replacing the xxxx with some unique bits from the email.
Anyway, today I received an email from a "parkinson yew", supposedly a lawyer who was acting for an "Andrew Bruggeman" whose relatives all died in some plane crash. He has 19 million dollars to give to his next of kin. If I wanted to act as the next of kin, this friendly chap would organise everything and we could share the proceeds.
Keys to knowing this is a con:
1. His email is barrister_yew@hotmail.com. Real professionals do not use a hotmail account as their email address.
2. He is offering me money for nothing.
3. A search for "email hoax next of kin" finds lots of other examples such as the Ethiopian Airline Letter hoax. This is obviously just a variation of the theme.

If you get an email offering something for nothing, it is time to be wary. Also, is this the price you would be willing to be paid to sell your honour? Lie about your family ties to get a possible share of the money?
The solution to this email? Delete it and get on with real life.

Road Games for Squares

The children have just been introduced to the game of Squares.
With a pen or pencil they compete to get the most squares on the paper. If you click here you can download a copy of the squares game.
This is an old game but the children reckon they've discovered something new.

Road Games

Many people have been surprised that we look forward to travelling with six children across the country. Some mentioned “American Vacation” with Chevy Chase as an example for us. They expected our children to nag and fight for thousands of miles!
We have been travelling as a family for some time and children are pretty used to driving. We enjoy playing played the “Spotting” game, with winners calculated for each day's play. Some would think the driver would have the advantage being up front and involved in the road, but the driver tends to concentrate on the road and driving conditions and misses many of the non road points.

Spotting
We created a spreadsheet for each person with a column for each day and a row for each item to spot. David, Lana, Ariel, Eric, and the other three were grouped. Rose’s scores were with Lana’s. As you can see here, Eric is taking it all quite seriously.

Items to Spot:
New VW Bug (1 pt)
Old VW Bug (1.5 pts)
Silver Mack Truck Dog Mascot (1)
Gold Mack Truck Dog Mascot (2)
Mini (3)
Police Car (1)
Ambulance (1)
Fire Engine (1)
Sheriff Car (2)
Flashing lights (1)
Interesting thing (2)
Martian Tripod (Water tower) (1) *
New State licence plate (Tag) (2)

We have a blank map of the US with state borders. When a new state vehicle tag (licence plate) is spotted it is added to the map. This is a fun way to learn the states.
* The water tanks that provide water pressure for lots of towns and suburbs look a bit like Martian Tripods from "The War of the Worlds".

Why I like Macs

Look what I can press Dad!

See the big button.
It's bright and blue.
It's right at my height.
Flashing lights are on both its sides.
What happens if I press here?

This photo was just after Rose pressed the reset button on the UPS (Uninterruptible [except Rose] Power Supply), shutting off all power to the computer. That has a lovely little red button, slightly recessed so it feels fun to press.

On the Mac Mini the power button is at the rear of the box, the box is small enough to sit on the table and it needs a little more oomph than just a casual press. And it is out of sight of enquiring fingers. The CD/DVD drawer has no button and all the cables are at the rear. PC World listed the power button at the rear as a fault. They obviously don't have young children.

By the way, the photo wasn't set up. Whilst I was at the other end of the room she went for the button. I quickly grabbed the camera and snapped. Then we discussed the situation with her.