Encouraging, Informing, and Connecting the Homeschool Community
“There shall be eternal summer in a grateful heart.” – Celia Thaxter
There are two choices for each size – with a calendar or without (just a quote). May your summer be filled with warm memories and may you always have a grateful heart!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: photo by David Franklin
Hawaii is many people’s dream vacation destination. We imagine beaches, sunshine, surfing, sea turtles, Mai Tais, and flower leis when we think of Hawaii. Each island is different, and parts of Oahu run somewhat contrary to my imagined Hawaii.
Oahu’s major city of Honolulu could easily follow in the steps of New York City and be nicknamed The City That Never Sleeps. Literally!
Thousands of people from all over the world walk the streets of Honolulu, and especially the Waikiki area, all day and long into the night. It is a true melting pot of humanity.
Just not my idea of a dream vacation.
I had heard about it, read about it, and even watched the movie about it (starring Ben Affleck). It was the ultimate surprise attack by the Japanese, and although it worked in the short run, America was not to be taken down so easily.
We took a boat tour over to where the USS Arizona was sunk by a torpedo. They cut the top of it off, but left the main hull. It is covered with coral now, and is home to dozens of types of fish and shellfish, as well as three sea turtles. It has become a mini-ecosystem for sea life.
It is eerie to hear that the USS Arizona is “the final resting place for over 900 servicemen”. We were encouraged to keep our tone somber and respectful, as we were standing over a national military cemetery.
Inside the monument is a wall containing all of the names and ranks of each of the servicemen and women who died at Pearl Harbor. In front of the wall are two short planter walls, maybe 24″ tall, with more names.
These are the surviving servicemen who, when they passed away later, had requested and were granted burial with their friends aboard the Arizona.
Sobering.
We weren’t able to take a tour of the USS Missouri, which is moored in Pearl Harbor also and is one of the surviving vessels from that day. I wish we had, because that would have been an education for my boys too.
There are still, as of March 28th according to our Navy guide, 12 surviving servicemen from the USS Arizona, still living.
Gentlemen, we salute you.
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My daughter loves taking my iphone and taking photos.
She takes tons of photos filling my memory to the max.
One day, I was digging in a cabinet and found a pretty can of room deodorizer. I thought I’d take a photo of it and post it on Instagram. Yes, I know where my daughter got her love for using memory.
Then I had this thought…
Teach her to take photos, it is a skill she will need.
The rules were simple:
After she took the shots and I uploaded the photos to the computer, we were able to go over them. Some common mistakes that are easily fixed for any budding photographer.
This photo is great except it was out of focus on the top. If she would have focused on the the top of can, it may have been easier to read. It is easy to focus using an iphone – just tap the area you want to focus on and poof it will focus.
This shot was pretty cool if you knew where she put it. She put it in the middle of my Bird of Paradise plant. However, again the focus is wrong. Still a neat concept.
This photo made me want to mention photo stealers or photo bombs. My eyes were drawn to the leaf in the left hand corner. Again, I know I’m being picky. However, this is what makes people learn, myself included.
Aww…the can in the tree trick. Pretty cool. She learned the importance of shading and sunlight. It is better to photo on a shady day, so you won’t have those stinky shadows that like to bomb photos.
This is one of my favorite shots. Stick your can in the fern and you will grow air freshener. Okay, not really. I loved that she is not stuck on centering photos. If you look in a magazine, how often is the subject in the center? Hardly ever! Great learning opportunity that took hardly any time and no money involved.
This wasn’t a science lesson. Just a fun thing to do one afternoon and it let her gain some photography experience.
Do you let your kids play so you can teach?
Blessings to you! You are loved!
The brand of the air freshener had no idea that it was going to be used in this photo lesson. I just thought it was a neat design.
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These were our prizes for the last Homeschool Blog Awards. Be sure to join us next year! The 2013 Prize Page will go up in September!
