The MN History Museum

Yesterday my family and I travelled to the Minnesota History Center to see the Ben Franklin exhibit, and it was a very worthwhile trip!  The exhibit boasted chairs, bowls, portraits and the like from Franklin's own home, while including many interactive displays as well.  My family learned a lot not only about the amazing Benjamin Franklin but also about printing, apprenticeship, and old-fashioned fire-fighting.  One of out most interesting discoveries came while watching a video about printing presses in Franklin's time.  The printer had to set the type by hand, taking the letters from two cases in the picture - the capital letters from the top, or upper case, and the small letters from the bottom, or lower case!  It is always so interesting to learn the origin of a common expression, and one can find more than that at the Ben Franklin exhibit, as well as learning about one of our country's most amazing founding fathers.

The 2010 Homeschool Conference: Highschool and Beyond

This morning I set my alarm (something I haven't done for a while, now that school is finished) and headed out at an early hour to Macalaster College.  There my mom and I, along with the two people with whom we carpooled, joined a group of homeschooling parents and teens for a workshop by Linda Lopez.  As the title of my post suggests, the point was to prepare them for high school and even college.  It had not yet occurred to me to think very seriously about what college I should attend or in what I should major, but this workshop inspired me to begin to consider my options.  I also learned more about college entrance tests and their prep tests, the ACT, SAT, PLAN, and PSAT.

Mrs. Lopez also had a great suggestion for keeping track of things that you have done, school-wise and extracurricular:  take a box and put pictures of your science projects, programs from your plays/recitals, and other such mementos into it.  At the end of the year, you can look back and see how much you really accomplished.  It is easy to lose track and feel like you haven't done anything, so I can definitely see when such a box would be helpful.

There is more to the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference than just one workshop, but I have never been to it before this so I can't explain much more for fear I will do it injustice.  I do know that there are 'vendors', who sell books and other helpful homeschooling things, and speakers, who give presentations.  The vendors (or maybe just some of them....I am unclear on the details) gave their presentations this afternoon, as did the keynote speaker (although he did not give his keynote presentation, but a different one).  Tomorrow morning the conference will begin at 7:15 with mass, and I do not know if it continues until Sunday.  It is annually a very inspiring time for many homeschoolers, who come here from many mid-west states including Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, and Michigan, and will hopefully encourage home educators for years to come.

Spring Break

As you can see, I am on spring break and I wanted to make a blog post but could not think of anything good about which to write.  So, I will write about what is going on right here:  my sister has a friend over, and they are making friendship bracelets together.  The two of them look as if they could be in a Klutz book, laughing and chatting as they try to tie the bracelets!  My mom is on the phone, my other sister is taking a nap, my brothers are over at the neighbor's house, and I am blogging.

But about what?  How about Holy Week:  here we are, with Easter less than a week away!  I find this the longest week of the year.  This time, however, I have a new perspective, for we just finished watching the movie Ben-Hur.  I thought that most of the movie was rather depressing, but the ending really redeemed the whole movie.  I will try not to give to much away, but let's just say that it helped me appreciate Jesus' death.  We are saved not only by His resurrection, but also by His death.  Of course I knew that, but something inside me clicked last night, and I began to realize how much Jesus' death really did.  I still don't understand suffering, but I feel like last night Jesus' suffering made more sense to me than it ever had before.


Well, I'm not sure if that all made sense or not.  Anyways, it gave me a new appreciation for reconciliation as well, for I had just gone to confession before we watched Ben-Hur.  It suddenly occurred to me that the last couple times I have gone to reconciliation, it seems that I have made some spiritual connection or just felt closer to God. Took me longer to figure that out than it should have, I know, but it is cool, and hopefully I can go to reconciliation again before too long.

Deep Thoughts for Spring

Spring: it's almost come!  Here in Minnesota the temperature was up to 39 degrees F, at least at my house, and such warm weather brought down bikes, scooters, trikes, and roller blades.  While watching my little siblings and neighbors out enjoying the heat (and yes, I was out there, too) I began to see the situation as I believe that St. Augustine might have; precisely, why do we humans like to ride on wheels so much?  Cars, motorcycles, go-carts, tractors, four-wheelers, golf carts, and of course all the above-mentioned recreational vehicles seem to attract us somehow.  Is it the smooth gliding along?  (And if this is so, why do my roller blades have any appeal?)  Or does the speed call to us?  Well, whatever the reason, I am glad that the wheel was invented, and I am sure that I will continue to make use of it for my entire life.

Advice from Ben

A poem by me (the last verse is not meant to be speaking to anyone in particular):

"Three may keep a secret,
If two of them are dead,"
That is what admired
Benjamin Franklin has said.

"Early to bed", as you may have heard,
Is another one of his rhymes.
It might help to remember them
In these high-school times.

But you don't pay attention
To your teachers or old Ben.
You just might have to learn these lessons
The hard way, then.

My Thoughts on the Superbowl

Usually, I don't have any opinions concerning the superbowl.  The Sunday before last, however, when the Vikings were playing the Saints to see who would make it to the superbowl, I, for the first time ever, got excited about a football game!  Being a loyal Minnesotan (and not having any previous prejudices to go by) I rooted for the Vikings, and was rather dissapointed in their performance.  So, when it came time to decide who I should root for at the superbowl I, like all the other Americans, had to make a tough decision: Saints or Colts?  My reasoning was that I hate the Saints so I should root for the Colts, but other people had said that they were rooting for the Saints so that, if the Colts lose, we will not look so bad.  Even that, however, could not change my mind about the Saints (I mean, we will look bad anyway - how many fumbles did we have?), so I rooted for the Colts.  Naturally, the outcome of the game did not really delight me.  Every single time I have actually gotten excited about a football game, my team has lost - to the Saints!  Thankfully, I am getting over it and hopefully will not hate the Saints forever.

Dancing at the Caves

Last night I went dancing at the Caves!  It was for the sixteenth birthday celebration of a wonderful dancer, and a very fun experience!  The Caves (actually, I believe that its technical name is the Wabasha Caves, but I'm not sure about that) is a place in St. Paul that has swing dancing every Thursday.  They also have tours, but I am not clear on all the details there.  There was live music - "Swing Beat" was the band - and they did a great job.  I went with a group of about 20 teens, and as far as I could tell they all had just as much fun as me!  The Titanic, the Cyclone, the double-arm turn, and the Sweetheart (exactly like the Sweethearts in cha-cha) were all new moves that I learned, and I was very happy to be able to add them to my swing-dancing repertoire.  Happy birthday, Micheal, and thanks to all of you for such a memorable night of dancing!