Was ist Los?
What's happening is a great language program. Mighty expensive, but The Rosetta Stone is very effective. Richelle has greater command of German in the few months that we've had the program than she did in the two years she struggled to keep up with Cameron and me. Not that Cameron and I are by any means fluent! A person needs to be a bit more dedicated than we were to achieve fluency.
This program teaches a language through the three learning avenues of seeing, speaking, and doing. Seeing the sentences or phrases as the native speaker says and then choosing one of four pictures that corresponds with what was said; speaking the phrases or sentences into a microphone and trying to match the voice print of the native speaker; and typing the sentences of phrases that are spoken.
My favorite is typing. I'm a visual learner so I can understand a written language far easier than I can understand the spoken language. Hearing something spoken and then typing it in correctly is good for me.
I had to get a microphone for the computer the other day. Richelle's pronunciation was off and she couldn't hear it so she needed to work on the spoken part of the program. She's been having a great time with it.
She has a friend over for the day today and all week she'd been working hard to get ahead one lesson in all subjects to have the day free. Before her friend came, she was at the computer playing with the Rosetta Stone, trying to match the voice prints. She has the day free but saw the program as a fun thing to do. That's the way to learn without realizing you're learning something.
I didn't have to pay the steep price for the program because a kind friend gave us theirs. I've always wanted the program but shied away from the cost. Let us be thankful for generous friends!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
FLL State Championships
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Richelle's First Lego League team won this Young Team trophy at the Qualifying Tournament and earned a place at the State Competitions.
Her team attended the State Championships Saturday. It was a long and busy day with check-in at 7:30am and the Awards Ceremony concluding at 5:00pm. It was one of those days of intense activity interspersed with short intervals of hurry-up-and-wait. We had the added wrench tossed in of one team member not feeling well. At one point, she went to a quiet room with her mother and rested for awhile.
This is the centerpiece Richelle made out of Legos for their pit table. The black letter fade into the background but it spells "Thunderstorms" - their team name.
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The format for State Championships is the same as the Qualifying Tournament. They are judged in the areas of Teamwork, Technical (robot design and programming), and Research Project. They also have three turns at the competition tables to complete as many pre-defined missions as possible within 2.5 minutes (Performance). The top score is saved and the others are discarded.
When all is said and done, there are several categories of awards. Teamwork, Technical, Project, Performance, Young Team, Rookie Team (one trophy), Champion Runners Up, and Champion. FLL believes that what the kids learn is far more important that what they win, so a team earns only one plaque/trophy. They also award a high percentage of teams. There were 60 teams participating and 26 trophies or plaques awarded at each of the two championships for a total of 120 teams and 52 trophies/plaques. The first and second place winners in the Teamwork, Technical, Project, and Performance divisions received a trophy; the third and fourth place teams received a plaque. Trophies were also given for first through third place in Young Team, Champion's Runners Up, and Champions.
Richelle's team came home with.....*drum roll, please*......Second Place in Teamwork! The trophy is made of yellow Lego pieces glued together in the shape of a Loving cup mounted on a base of flat Lego pieces. The only non-Lego pieces of the entire trophy are the stickers on the sides and the engraving on the base. It's traveling to all the girls' homes and my camera was dead at the competition but I have pictures coming. Meanwhile, here's Richelle wearing her participation medal for State Competition.
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So that is over with but I'm committed to coaching another team in the fall. This year's experience will be very helpful.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
New skill
We made a long-overdue visit with my mom a few days after Christmas, finishing up the year in a special way.
My brother and sister-in-law (is she really my sil? She's been part of the family for so long that I think of her as a sister) from Idaho and three of their children visited as well. Oh the fun we had! Howling with laughter over Winnie-the-Pooh, telling old stories again, the lunch where everyone seemed to have solid wax in their ears and so couldn't understand what anyone said the first time around, my deep embarrassment at sleeping in until 8:30 (!), experiencing a headache easing after an application of an essential oil called Valor (of all names!), and seeing Mike and Clint wearing glitter.
Okay, let me explain the glitter part first. Mom has three strips of recessed lighting in her kitchen ceiling. I don't know how long the strips are, not being possessed of the ability to cast a casual eye across an expanse and gauge the distance to within three inches but I do know they're long enough to seat two pairs of standard fluorescent tubes end for end. These strips were fit with ceiling panels of a silvery plastic open waffle-weave design that could not be removed without breaking them. How dumb can a contractor be? Putting ceiling panels up in front of the stove that cannot be removed for cleaning? Both Mike and Clint tried nine ways to Sunday to get those panels out with no success. So we went took Mom to the store so she could pick out the panels she would be happy with and they got what was needed. Then they CUT the old panels out with a circular saw. I did mention that they were a silvery color, didn't I? There was glitter all over the kitchen and all over them. Clint even managed to get some in his eye despite the safety glasses and as he was washing it out Mike said, "Clint, you seem to have a glint in your eye and I don't think it has anything to do with anticipation."
We love the Winnie-the-Pooh stories and we even have one book here at home but it's become the tradition to read these stories at Grandma's house, usually as a bedtime story. Mom isn't a reader, preferring to knit, crochet, sew, bake, or work the occasional crossword in her leisure time. However, she isn't opposed to listening when I read to the kids. In fact, when she hears us settling down for a story, she usually finishes whatever she's doing and joins us in the front room with her knitting in hand. Everyone should read Winnie-the-Pooh at least once each year. That Bear of Very Little Brain is good for what ails you. This time I had not just Richelle and Mom as audience but my nephew, niece, and sister-in-law, as well. I don't remember how many times I had to swallow my own laughter so I could get the story read.
But I went to visit Mom with a purpose in my heart to learn how to knit. I'd learned how to do the knitting stitch but never had learned how to cast on, purl, bind off, or read a pattern. Richelle and I learned it all in those few days thanks to Mom's expert teaching and example and I am now working on a...um...well...a something. Haven't figured out yet if it's a potholder, washcloth, scarf, or a really big coaster for water glasses on the coffee table. I don't feel like getting up, locating the camera, taking a picture of it and uploading it to the computer and then to here so you can see it. Actually, what I don't feel like doing is letting you see the uneven hem, the knits where they should have been purls and vice versa, and the *ahem* hole where I dropped a stitch and didn't see it until four rows later and didn't want to unravel that far to fix it so justtieditupwithasmallpieceofyarn(gulp!)
The kids spent quite a lot of time outside walking the dogs several times each day, playing on the swing, and getting the mail for Grandma. I love these times together - these "memory-making times" as my cousin's wife calls it.
My brother and sister-in-law (is she really my sil? She's been part of the family for so long that I think of her as a sister) from Idaho and three of their children visited as well. Oh the fun we had! Howling with laughter over Winnie-the-Pooh, telling old stories again, the lunch where everyone seemed to have solid wax in their ears and so couldn't understand what anyone said the first time around, my deep embarrassment at sleeping in until 8:30 (!), experiencing a headache easing after an application of an essential oil called Valor (of all names!), and seeing Mike and Clint wearing glitter.
Okay, let me explain the glitter part first. Mom has three strips of recessed lighting in her kitchen ceiling. I don't know how long the strips are, not being possessed of the ability to cast a casual eye across an expanse and gauge the distance to within three inches but I do know they're long enough to seat two pairs of standard fluorescent tubes end for end. These strips were fit with ceiling panels of a silvery plastic open waffle-weave design that could not be removed without breaking them. How dumb can a contractor be? Putting ceiling panels up in front of the stove that cannot be removed for cleaning? Both Mike and Clint tried nine ways to Sunday to get those panels out with no success. So we went took Mom to the store so she could pick out the panels she would be happy with and they got what was needed. Then they CUT the old panels out with a circular saw. I did mention that they were a silvery color, didn't I? There was glitter all over the kitchen and all over them. Clint even managed to get some in his eye despite the safety glasses and as he was washing it out Mike said, "Clint, you seem to have a glint in your eye and I don't think it has anything to do with anticipation."
We love the Winnie-the-Pooh stories and we even have one book here at home but it's become the tradition to read these stories at Grandma's house, usually as a bedtime story. Mom isn't a reader, preferring to knit, crochet, sew, bake, or work the occasional crossword in her leisure time. However, she isn't opposed to listening when I read to the kids. In fact, when she hears us settling down for a story, she usually finishes whatever she's doing and joins us in the front room with her knitting in hand. Everyone should read Winnie-the-Pooh at least once each year. That Bear of Very Little Brain is good for what ails you. This time I had not just Richelle and Mom as audience but my nephew, niece, and sister-in-law, as well. I don't remember how many times I had to swallow my own laughter so I could get the story read.
But I went to visit Mom with a purpose in my heart to learn how to knit. I'd learned how to do the knitting stitch but never had learned how to cast on, purl, bind off, or read a pattern. Richelle and I learned it all in those few days thanks to Mom's expert teaching and example and I am now working on a...um...well...a something. Haven't figured out yet if it's a potholder, washcloth, scarf, or a really big coaster for water glasses on the coffee table. I don't feel like getting up, locating the camera, taking a picture of it and uploading it to the computer and then to here so you can see it. Actually, what I don't feel like doing is letting you see the uneven hem, the knits where they should have been purls and vice versa, and the *ahem* hole where I dropped a stitch and didn't see it until four rows later and didn't want to unravel that far to fix it so justtieditupwithasmallpieceofyarn(gulp!)
The kids spent quite a lot of time outside walking the dogs several times each day, playing on the swing, and getting the mail for Grandma. I love these times together - these "memory-making times" as my cousin's wife calls it.
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