kitchen chemistry- making hydrogen gas...and a bang!

We had a great Friday chemistry experiment-day! We're studying chemical equations, the types that exist, how to read them, balance them, etc.

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy Holidays from the CaveFam to yours!

Here is our annual holiday video, the one we send out to folks as a DVD/holiday card.  We extend our wishes to all of you.  May the light shine upon and within you!

We were inspired with making  holiday videos a few years back, when we stumbled upon the videos made by Melancholy Smile and her family.   (go check them out- they are cute, creative, and fabulous!)

Be a DIY filmmaker...15 seconds at a time!

What fun!  Star Wars Uncut was a project undertaken a few years ago, in which volunteers recreated one or more 15-second scenes of Star Wars. (episode 4)  Once the everyday filmmakers uploaded their scenes, they were edited together into a full-length feature movie.  You can watch the entire feature right here:  Enjoy!



Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

In 2010, Star Wars Uncut won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media.

But wait...there's more!!!!

Currently, the same folks are  orchestrating Empire Uncut- the Empire Strikes Back!  Once again, everyday filmmakers like you and me are invited to claim one or more 15-second scenes, and recreate them on video.  Another full- length feature film will be edited together. 

The Cave Kids have worked together to complete two scenes, here they are:
This scene was done with stop motion animation, using legos



This scene features Auntie's hand-knitted Yoda, and Joey Rain, the Webkinz Koala. (as Luke Skywalker)

There is still time to claim your scene, and mix it up with your own creativity!  Act, animate, and/or bring out the toys!  Draw or paint! Make some costumes and homemade props!

Have fun watching, or participating!  Or both!

For my mommy...

I made an animation movie for my mother using the Go Animate software. It has been such a fun time discovering this little website today! Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!!

Some funny little animations

Daughter and I are having fun with Go Animate.  Here are some videos we just created with the free version:


Punny Lunch Talk by Cavefam on GoAnimate


I can see the potential of using this fun program to inspire the creative writing process. (Obviously if more dialog was written than what I did in the above clip!) (-:

Here is Daughter's brainchild:
And here is the pair's sequel with a Jane Austen-inspired dialog. Note the (unintentional) interesting tones... and the subtly-scornful ending:


and here is a second sequel:


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com.

Great holiday video greetings

There are wonderfully creative people out there making very uplifting work!  Here are some of my favorite holiday greetings I have come across this season:

I really want to be involved in a flash mob like this one someday:





I was inspired to do a family video greeting this year, as was this family- enjoy their underwater Christmas greeting!



And then there's the incredibly talented Fosters, who was my source of inspiration for making our own video:



I hope you feel lightweight and happy, as I do!

How to make a scene

This ranks as one of my favorite TED talks- it really launched me out of a funk the other day- laughter is truly wonderful medicine!

Son is getting interested in the theater, and along with his video production interests, I thought he would like this talk about improvisation  in public places...

Enjoy!  (I think you will!)





Check out Charlie Todd's website: improveverywhere.com.

So smug about my skeleton....

For the past year, I have been shopping for a skeleton.  We want to study anatomy you see, but a good, scientific skeleton at a grassroots homeschooling family's price is hard to come by.

So I got smug, and figured that around Halloween time, I could just get a decoration skeleton that would suit our needs fine enough.

So here I present "George" to you:

 

He looked just fine for our needs.  The $35 price was right.  He even glows in the dark, making for spooky folly when we turn the lights out for the night.  He has a skull hook for hanging.  His joints can lock in place for posing.

We love him!  He's just a bit taller than Daughter.  We began studying the bones.  We got stretchy, exercise theraband to make muscles, and figured out their attachments and actions on the bones.

But then one day....I noticed something peculiar....

Wait a minute.....those fibulas are on the inside of the lower legs- they should be on the outside!!!

 

and shouldn't the radius be on the thumb side of the hand, and the ulna on the pinky side?

George's lower legs and arms were put on backwards!!!!!

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

So that's what a $35 skeleton will buy you!  Oh well, no matter- we just took him apart, and fixed him.....

A pair of pliers and a screwdriver did the trick......

..and one of Dad's files to sand down the articular surfaces of the knees- because his knees wouldn't straighten when attached to his femurs on the correct side....

Oh yes- we soon discovered that our fix presented us with another problem- now his feet were on backwards!  We took him apart at the ankle joints too, and switched his feet.

There...all fixed up!

Now George is pigeon-toed, and weak in the knees, but we love him anyway.

The fix-up also helped the kids to learn the alignment of the lower leg and forearm bones too.  Radius/ulna, tibia/fibula identification can be tricky.  All Halloween season, they checked every decorative skeleton we saw, to make sure the bones were put on/drawn properly.

(-:

Happy Halloween!

naming our "homeschool"

Our state fair offers discounts and free admission to school groups and homeschoolers. Many of the attractions this year hit on some of our interests, like a drumming group, a butterfly tent, and the body exhibit. So earlier this week, I found myself sitting in front of the state fair's application to receive our field trip tickets.

The application has a blank for the name of the school. I had recently read Ann Zeise's article, "Naming Your Homeschool" over at A to Z Home's Cool website. Ann gives two reasons for naming your educational activities as a school- to receive discounts from suppliers, and to give your kids an entity to belong to.

Well, I could have just written "homeschool" in that blank.  However, my family loves to name things, so we took it upon ourselves to come up with something fun and creative.

First, I asked Daughter, Cavemomma's youngest.  Being the proud cave kid that she is , she came up with, "Cave Kid Imaginative School" She really liked how it was like an acronym- "CKIS" (sort of like "kiss")   Is that inventive spelling, or what???

Then I asked Son, the oldest, and a teenager, who prefers to keep his affectionate cave kid status within the family.   He came up with the acronym, "HOBO", and tried to fill in the words. He got "home" in there, and then left the task to go to bed.

The next day,  Cavedad emailed home a solution for "HOBO"- "Humans Observing Beneficial Open Societies"  Hmm....very positive, but perhaps a bit vague for an application of this sort.

I tried my hand at it.  I decided to pick a close geographical landmark for naming our "school".  Our street name isn't particularly impressive-sounding, but we have many pretty places nearby to name after.  I started with, "Garden Canyon Homeschool".  Nice, but a bit too benign.  I wanted to add some educational bulk to that name.  I ditched the word, "homeschool" for the word "academy".  Now we have "Garden Canyon Academy".  But that sounds too schooly for me, and doesn't really describe our relaxed, somewhat child-led, yet also somewhat academically-directed style.

So then I wrote, "Garden Canyon Academy of Semi-Self-Directed Learning".

There.

What did I ultimately write on the application?  "Garden Canyon Homeschool".
It filled the bill, I suppose.  (-:


Have you named your homeschool?  If you were to name yours, what name would you choose?

Your laugh of the day...ready??