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Third Time A Charm?
11
November
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Probably not.  But we’ll give it a go anyway.

I have been nominated for the Funniest Home School Blog Award at The Home School Post.  You can click on the icon below to go vote for me, if you are so inclined.

A little history here…

I have been nominated for this award in 2007 and 2008 (both for my old blog, Hilltop Academy) , and I lost both times.  In 2007 I lost by four votes.  Yes, four votes.  Truth be told, I’m not really sure how I did last year because when the contest ended I was in the hospital having just had Cap’n Jack Henry, and I was busy monitoring his progress in the NICU and praying that he could come home soon.  I assume though that I didn’t win since I never received any prizes.

I honestly have no aspirations to ever win this contest.  It’s kinda like when every year Peter O’Toole is nominated for best actor or best supporting at the Academy Awards and never wins (eight times, to be exact).  It isn’t going to happen for him.  He’s the token nominee, and so am I.  I’m the Peter O’Toole of the blog awards.

It did not add to my enthusiasm at all when I looked at my fellow nominees yesterday and saw her name listed there….

Mrs. New York Times Bestseller List herself?!  Mrs. Queen Bee of the Internet?!  Are you kidding me?!  I can’t compete with that kind of fame.

However, I will take your vote, if you care to cast it.  Here are a few things you should know…

  • You don’t have to be a home schooler to vote.
  • You can tell other people who don’t know me to vote for me.
  • You can vote only once from your personal computer.
  • You can vote again from work,  the library, your grandmother’s house, your neighbors’, or the stranger’s computer at Starbuck’s.
  • You don’t have to think I’m funny to vote for me.
  • You don’t even have to like me to vote for me.
  • But if you don’t like me, please don’t tell me, okay?  I’m pretty fragile.
  • You could let me know in the comments, on facebook, by e-mail, or by telegram accompanied by a bouquet of flowers that you voted.  It might make me feel a little better.
  • Voting ends on November 21.
  • Stop reading this list, and go vote.

Help me end the curse of Peter O’Toole!  Vote for The Pirate Mom Dot Com!

Category: Contests, The Pirate Mom Speaks  Tags: , ,  10 Comments
It’s Baaaaaack!
13
October
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Two years ago I held the silliest, most ridiculous contest ever.

Basically I took this old wreath decoration that was constructed from Starlite mints and hid it in various pictures that I took and posted on my blog throughout the month of November.   I had a little point system set up, and it was a race to see who could e-mail me first with the locations.  I also had little mini contests for extra points including a poetry contest and a number guess (as in how many mints were on my ugly wreath).  It was a lot of fun…at least for me.  If you’re really, really bored you can visit my old blog here and surf through my Novemeber 2007  entries (go to Archives on my sidebar) to see what I’m talking about.

Well, at one point during my contest a fellow blogging friend, Arby, insulted my poor wreath in the very worst of ways.  He called it hideous.  So when the contest ended, I had no other choice than to pack up the wreath and mail it to him.  I thought he might get a laugh out of it and then toss it out.

But no.  Now he is hosting another Where’s the Wreath contest this year on his blog.  The rules are similar to my original one, but you need to go visit Arby here and get the whole low down.

You should participate.  It will be a real hoot!  You should at least go look at the wreath make-over Arby and his wife, The Boss, executed after their son ate many of the mints (despite a warning from me NOT to eat the ancient candy).  I, for one, can’t wait to see where he placed the new and improved wreath for his photos! 

Just be careful…..or YOU might end up with the wreath for next year’s contest!

Category: Contests, The Pirate Mom Speaks  Tags: , ,  8 Comments
The Winner…Finally.
29
September
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I am a moron.  A very busy moron.  Yesterday I got busy teaching about the Pilgrims, possessive nouns, and the planets (Huh…look at that….all P’s!).  At one point I was neck deep in some homemade chicken and dumplings.  I also fed a baby nine times.  The rest of my time I spent avoiding folding the two loads of laundry that are draped across a chest in my bedroom for the fourth day in a row.  And I forgot about my contest.  Again.  Sorry.

So before Big D left for work this morning, I enlisted his help to pick a winner.

First, I put the entries inside his Titan’s hat because the Lord knows they need to be associated with winning in some way, shape or form.

Then Big D reached in to pick the winner.

Then I told him to stop because I wanted to video tape it. 

I’m glad she won.  I think she’s faithfully entered every contest I’ve held, and she’s never won once.

Congratulations Debbles!  I’ll send your prize off shortly!

Category: Contests, The Pirate Mom Speaks  Tags: , ,  6 Comments
US Geography: Twenty-five Cents (& a Contest!)
23
September
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Well, actually it will cost you more like $12.50.

US Geography using state quarters….what could be more simple?  Or fun?

Several years ago, Big D’s dad, whom my children affectionately call “Pa,” started collecting the state quarters for all of his grandchildren.  At the time, I think he had three.  He now has seven, with one more on the way, so it has turned out to be a more costly venture than he first anticipated.  Last year, he presented all the collections in map binders to each child…

We all ooohed and aaahed over them, and then we put them on a shelf and didn’t think about them much…until last week.

I started a state-by-state geography study with Dirty Harry this year.  We are going alphabetically and making a notebook filled with all of our findings of each state.  When we got to Alaska, I found this sheet on the internet….

As you can see, it shows an illustration of the Alaska’s state quarter and then asks some questions, in which your student can answer inductively just by studying the coin.  I thought the concept was pure genius, and you can find sheets for the other states here.  The whole activity got me thinking about the coin collection, and so we got it out and have been pouring over it for the past few days.  Even if you don’t end up using the sheets, you can learn a lot just by studying and discussing the coins themselves.

Here’s the quarter for our state…

All of the quarters list the year the state was admitted to the union.  Some include state nicknames.  Many include symbols, like ours.  Guitars…of course.  I’m actually quite surprised that Elvis wasn’t on ours.

Here is the state where the older kids were born….

It includes the nickname, the state bird (Carolina wren) and the state tree (the Palmetto…what else?).  Half the things in the state of South Carolina are named Palmetto something-or-other, and I think you should know that encounters with Palmetto bugs are some of the most unpleasant experiences you’ll have in your life.

See?  Study of the state quarters sparks all sorts of interesting conversations.

Many quarters depict historical scenes.  Above you can see North Carolina commemorates Kitty Hawk.  Virginia, below, shows the English ships coming to Jamestown…

Other state quarters show famous landmarks, like Arizona and the Grand Canyon…

After a thorough perusal of all the coins, I think my favorite is Connecticut….

I just love that tree!  I’m considering stenciling it on my living room wall.

Because I have this thing for skulls, I think Montana is pretty cool too.

I haven’t had a contest in a while, so I’m giving away one of the map binders like mine (well…it will be fairly close to mine as I’m having a hard time finding the exact match).  If you’d like to be in the running to get one of these cool maps, leave me a comment telling me which state quarter is your favorite.  If you don’t have a favorite, just make it up….I won’t know the difference.  If you want to link to this contest via facebook, twitter, or your own blog site, just let me know that you’ve done that, and I’ll enter you once for however many times you blabbed.  The contest will end Friday at 8pm Eastern, and I’ll announce the winner sometime over the weekend. (Continental US entries only….sorry!)

Oh, and the quarters are NOT included.  I wouldn’t want to rob you the experience of collecting your own!

Category: Contests, homeschooling  Tags: , , ,  14 Comments

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