Marney: Civil War

     If the south won the war we would still have slaves, because the south wanted to keep the slaves.  Also if the south won we might of still have women working at home and men only having jobs. Because the south had people working at home too so I really think women would still stay at home.
     If Lincoln had not been killed he would still be the president for a while after the war.  He would be happy because the south did not win because there are no more slaves.  There would also be not crazy people that were sitting next to him when he got killed.  If he did not get killed he could of helped the country get back together.
     If England joined the war, the war would be much more worse because there would be more fighting.  I think that if the England won they wouldn't want slaves and would be begging people to go to their country.  But i think it would mess things up, and no one would like it.
     If there was tv in the civil war they would know what the weather is and the would not be bored at their camp. Then they would not be tried a bunch and they would be a bit happy. And the Gen. would be much more happy, but also mad because shoulders would be watching tv.
    I think the men and women would have no idea what they were doing. Since the women would be out on war fields and not at the house taking care of people and cleaning and all of that stuff they do not know what they are doing.  And the men would be at home instead of out in war fighting they would not know what to do.

Avery: Civil War What Ifs

If the south won the war there would be slavery.  But now, they would probably get into another war over it.  I don't think the Union would give up.  They probably would have gone to war again about 2-3 years later.

If Lincoln wasn't assassinated then the whole United States might be changed.  I'm not sure how, but it might have.  People might be happier, more sad.  Things that we have now might be changed.  Who knows, anything could happen if he lived.

If England joined the war there would be much more violence.  They would have joined the South and if they joined the South then they would have won the war.  And again I don't think that people would enjoy slavery that much.  It makes people really depressed to see them put to work 24/7.

If there was television children at home would play less and spend more time staring into the screen. People would be a little lazier.  When the soldiers were resting they would watch TV instead of sleeping.  Some people that thought it was dumb would just ignore it, but most people would enjoy it a lot.

I think that if woman were fighting in the war then they would have more power over things after that.  They would be able to vote a long time ago when they weren't allowed to.  If men stayed home and took care of the children I think they would give the children more knowledge on hunting and fishing and that type of stuff.   Also little girls would be more encouraged to follow their dreams.

Connor: Civil War Journal

If Dixie won the war slavery would still be in America.  We would also most likely be growing tobacco in the garden if the south won.  We would be getting all our appliances and electronics from the UK.  Finally Our first president as a nation would be Jeff Davis.

If Lincoln hadn't been assassinated he would start the reconstruction period himself.  He would probably have attempted to stamp out the Jim Crow Laws.  Grant would not be president for at least four more years.  Presidential security may not have improved.

If England joined the war the Union would be doomed.  We would probably end up fighting a second revolutionary war soon afterward.  All our fancy twenty first century appliances would be shipped to the south from England.  I'd probably have to wait an extra week for something I purchased on Amazon.  We'd be using British currency like pence.

If woman were fighting and men stayed at home women's rights would have started before the 60s.  Men would be fighting for their rights in the 60s.  Women would be paid for their service to the country.  Men would be nurses on the battle field occasionally.  Men would be most commonly used as spies while women would be in combat.

What if Ulysses S. Grant fought for the Confederacy?

Gabe: Garden Week One

It is week one in the spring garden and every thing is popping  up.

broccoli

Swiss chard

Grapes

green onion 

Jalapeno 

leaf lettuce

 mint

Mustard greens

pink rose

pole beans

radish

romaine

snow peas

spinach

grape tomato 

Yellow rose

Zucchini 

Mommio: First Swim

Spring is here in Texas and today was the official first swim in our lake, 

for those brave enough to take the plunge!

Mommio: The Birds Are Back!

Every year we have a pair of barn swallows that come and nest on our front porch in March, then have babies in May and sometimes again in June.  They have been so much fun to watch over the years.  

This week they arrived and we were all happy to see them!

2012

2011

2010

2009

Mommio: Civil War What Ifs

We just finished our four month long study of the American Civil War and we know what the outcome was, good and bad.  But....

What if the South had won the war?

What if Lincoln hadn't been assassinated?

What if England had joined the war?

What if they had television during the Civil War?

What if women were fighting the war and men stayed at home?

Today I want you to use your knowledge of the times and a little imagination to answer those questions.  Write at least four sentences for each question and if you would like to come up with a What if? question about the Civil War you can ask us that one in your post.

Phineas and Ferb: Triple Bladed Bulldozer

Hey- Daddio here!  Today, Gabe and I spent an hour and a half making a really cool triple-bladed snow plow with our awesome robotics kit.  This is the second to last robot in our instructions, and it was pretty complicated-- it used almost all of the parts that came with the kit!  You can see that we occasionally got stuck and had to try to figure out how to fit the pieces in:

But after we thought about it, we realized that the old proverb is true: if you're going to do a job right, then you need the right tool to do it:

But when he got frustrated, Gabe sometimes wanted to use the wrong tool.  Fortunately, I was able to talk some sense in to him:

When we finally completed it, we weren't sure exactly how we were supposed to use it.  I mean, we're not in construction, and we certainly don't know if you should use it to plow snow-- it never snows in Central Texas.  So for a long time we just sat and tried to figure out what it really did:

Finally, we decided that it worked best as a hat:

Okay, the truth is that we forgot to take pictures while we were making it.  We were just that excited about building this cool plow!  So we went back and took these pictures after the fact.  But the plow really looked awesome when it was completed:

And-- of course-- we had to take it for a test drive.  With the exception of a couple blown tires, the challenge drive went perfectly.  Here's the video of it:

Phineas and Ferb: Remote Control Car

Today Gabe and Kiki used our Thames and Kosmos Remote Control Machines kit to build a formula race car.  Here's what it looks like:

Here is a quick video of Gabe showing us how the car works.  The front wheels raise up so that you can turn the car quickly using the small red gear on the front.

Two final designs to come soon!

Mommio: Congrats to Mason!

Mason got his green belt in Tae Kwon Do this week!

Mommio- Art Class- Modern- Cubism- Picasso

In today's Artistic Pursuits class we continued our study of Picasso and Cubism by playing with a fun online program that lets you create your own cubist masterpieces. Here are some of the portraits they created with PicassoHead:  Max, Kiki, Marney, Gabe, Ava, Mason and Connor.

For our art project today we tried out another way to make a cubist portraits, using this lesson.  First the kids folded black construction paper in half vertically.  Then they made light pencil marks in the middle of the fold line, and in the middle of there and the top/bottom.  These marks are their guides for placement of facial features.The next step was to draw a facial profile line down the center of the page with a pencil.  The kids followed steps to do this: the top of the nose hitting the first pencil mark and the bottom of the nose hitting the middle mark, the chin hitting the third mark and then curving up to the edge of the paper and adding a neck line down to the bottom. Then they added the profile details with pencil (eye, eyebrow and finished lips).

On to the other half of the paper, they drew a frontal view of the face- making the chin, lips and neck lines symmetrical to the other side, then drawing in the eye details.

When the pencil drawing was complete the kids used black oil pastel to trace the pencil lines making very thick black outlines.

To finish off their cubist portraits they filled in the rest with color.

And here are the finished portraits...this was really fun!  Next time we learn about Picasso's assemblages (sculptures and 3D art created from found objects) and create one of our own.