Chinese Pagoda

We visited a The Chinese Cultural Center while we were in Des Moines earlier this month. We were told that this is part of Des Moines's plan for the Riverfront Gardens. After it was designed and the fundraising was completed, a group from China actually came over and assembled it. This is really meant for warmer weather visiting. I think there are fountains and flowers etc...but the weather was cold and rainy so we didn't stay long. I would like to visit again in the spring/summer/fall as I'm sure it would be really pretty...and warmer.
It was magnificent to look at.


Looking toward the Character Building Stones.

Walking toward the Pagoda.


Looking toward the Circle of Diversity from the street.


The Circle of Diversity.  On each granite block is an animal from the Chinese Zodiac. 


Looking toward the pagoda.  We had a hard time getting Chip to leave.  He loves all things Chinese.

It is an odd thing to find along the Des Moines river but it is also quite an experience to visit. 

(c) 2008-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Citizenship

Back on March 22nd I posted about an article I read about the citizenship exam.  Cool, the picklets, my parents, Cool's mom and I all took practice citizenship exams to see how we would do.  This was an interesting exercise,  We all did very well.  In fact it surprised us all.  If I hadn't mixed up the western and eastern parts of the US I would have done much better.  Nothing like putting the oceans on the wrong side of the country...lol.

 

What I did was print the questions from here and here.  I cancelled out the repeats and voila, our own citizenship test.  I emailed the "tests" to my parents and Cool's mom.  They took the tests and sent them back.  They missed about 10 as a collective.  Here at the picklebarrel we had an oral question and answer session where we took turns asking the questions and the rest of us blurted out the answers.  It was fun!  We did very well too missing 16 as a collective body. 

 

We then all took the civic quiz on this site.  This was easier because they were multiple choice.

 

Since we didn't really know what a passing score was we did some research on the exam itself.

• You must read one sentence out of three sentences correctly in English
• You must write one sentence out of three sentences correctly in English
• You must answer 6 out of 10 civics questions correctly to achieve a passing score
• Your ability to speak English is determined during your interview on your naturalization application
• The Oath of Allegiance must also be recited and be told means in your own words

So, we studied up on our American History, learned what it takes to become a naturalized citizen and to end our little mini unit I used the Oath of Allegiance as copywork.  Voila!  American history done for another day!

 

(c) 2009-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Des Moines Botanical Center

Down the street, 7 blocks from our hotel, was the Des Moines Botanical Center. We utilized the free shuttle service provided by the hotel because we didn't know where we were going. We soon realized the center was a straight 7 block shot. Oh well.

 
The greenhouse area was pretty darned warm and very humid, as all greenhouses are I guess.


The picklets loved the large coi fish as well as the families of turtles that lived in the stream that flowed throughout the building.
 
 
Sweet was trying desperately to touch a fish as it went by. That was until it actually went by, then she backed off.


I have absolutely no luck in growing aloe plants. These leaves were as long as my arm.

Chip loves bonsai trees and has decided, after looking at this, that he once again wants one. Maybe for his birthday!

One room was dedicated to bonsai trees.

 
I have no idea what this is called but I really love the colors.

 
The water fall was such a nice sound to listen to as well as a beautiful site to look at..

 
This frawn just called my name.

 
This is a banana tree bloom that Sweet pointed out to me.
 
We were wishing these were ripe. We love bananas.

 
I loved this use of the rubber boots. It was gorgeous.

 
The theme around the center was rainbows. There were little facts about them all over. They even had a garden dedicated to rainbows.

 
Dill took this picture of a rainbow sculpture as we were leaving. Depending on the angle you looked at it it either looked like this or 1 dementional. It was pretty neat.

 
Sitting under the unbrella tree before leaving.

We did walk back to the hotel since it was so close. It started raining but we enjoyed that too. :)

 

(c) 2008-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Normal...Ahhhh

I have started this post 4 times now. I have absolutely nothing to say. We haven't done anything interesting. Nothing scholastic. Nothing fun. Nothing worth mentioning. We have just been living a normal life. And normal is gooooood!

Yesterday the temperature soared to about 80 degrees! Heavenly! We opened our windows and "hopefully" got some of the winter stink out of the house. Goodness knows we needed a little nice weather pick me up. This morning it is really windy though. :-/

We have spent the weekend watching the pair of Iowa Eagles in Decorah.


This is our second year watching them. They just amaze us. While we were watching yesterday we saw the second eaglet hatch (or what we think was the second eaglet hatching).

That was pretty cool.

Later in the day the second eagle flew up and dropped a dead bird, left and came back 3 seconds later with a dead fish. AWESOME!


But my favorite part of the day was when they let the first little one out of the bowl for a while. The mama kept a close eye on her eaglet. When the wind came up she spread her wings to protect it and then took her beak and rolled it back into the nest.


The eaglets are cute as a button and we can't wait to watch their development.


If, by chance, you haven't heard of the Decorah Eagles, check them out! They are terrific living science. (on a side note, I can't believe the boom in traffic on the site....I hear they have even been on the national news! I sent the link out to all my contacts when the first egg was laid. Not one person responded. Now I keep getting emails from those same people telling me so and so sent them this great site and I should check it out. Stop 'noring my emails people...my feelings are hurtin' so. LOL..just pulling yer leg this find Monday morning!)

Today Sweet has an appointment to get braids in her hair for the gymnastics competition this weekend. We are taking a mini vacation so we can enjoy the time away. Gotta pack, clean the car and be ready to leave Thursday morning. We are trying to find economical field trips on the way to Nebraska. On the way back I hope to stop at the Air Museum. Something that will tie in with Civil Air Patrol.

I like normal. It is good. Happy Monday!



(c) 2008-1011 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Target Field Trip

The picklets and I went on a field trip with our homeschool association to Target. It was at the same exact time as the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown. Sweet was not a happy camper. She wanted to go to the parade. I told her there is always next year.

We learned there are 1,755 Target store in 49 states. The lady didn't know what state didn't have a Target. Through the miracle of the Internet I have found that Vermont is the only state that doesn't have a Target. Go figure.

The storage in the backroom is pretty much from floor to ceiling.


Extra milk in the cooler.


Looking out from the cooler to the store. This lady was surprised to see all our smiling faces.


Extra bananas.


The cake decorator showed us how to decorate a cake. She also told us the number one boys cake right now is Toy Story 3 and the number one girls cake is Rapunzle Tangle.


It was an ice cream cone.


This was our group. We had enough families that we had to split into two groups.


We also learned that Canada is the only foreign country to have Target stores.

That was pretty much the trip. The picklets were given complimentary icees and cookies at the conclusion. I bought corned beef and then we went home and made Ruebens.

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Citizenship Test

While listening to the radio this morning an article from Newsweek was mentioned. According to the article 38% of 1000 Americans Newsweek gave the citizenship test to failed.

They’re the sort of scores that drive high-school history teachers to drink. When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

That got me to thinking. Could WE (The Pickle Family) pass the citizenship test? I hope we know who the Vice President is at least.

So today, in honor of this article, we are going to take the citizenship test. You will find 100 sample questions here and here. The first is the old test. The latter the new test. Mix and match and see if you can pass.

I will be back tomorrow with our results.


(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Happy Valentine's Day

It is a gorgeous day here in Iowa. The sun shone brightly, the temperature rose up to the 40's this afternoon and the snow is melting! Doesn't get much better than that. ;-)

We had a full day of school with math, science, research, literature, read alouds, keyboarding and other scholastic stuff. I recently started using Skedtracker for a tracking system and the picklets are really taking to it. They follow what needs to be done and make notes as they go. It will be a great evidence of learning at the end of the year.

Right now Chip and Sweet are at gymnastics while Dill and I are watching Wheel of Fortune. It is one of Dill's favorites. I never have cared for it but I play along for the lad. Of course he whoops my butt each and every time!

Tomorrow is our busy day. I am trying to get my ducks in a row tonight so I know what I am doing. Trying to get organized and actually follow a schedule is very hard but the end result will be well worth it. It is hard to get to that point after so many years of schooling in our pj's.

Wishing you and yours a love filled day with plenty of memory filled moments.


© 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Snow Flake Making

Our supervising teacher visited with us last month. It really was quite funny. She came in, set some books down on the desk and told the picklets she needed help. She had bought some really neat snow flake books and needed help figuring out how to fold the paper. That set the picklets in motion. Who woulda thought that we could spend 2 hours folding paper and snipping snow flakes? (I never did figure out how to fold the paper so I took pictures)

After folding the paper the right way, the picklets found it easier to draw the pattern on and then cut. This is a western design. It has covered wagons, cacti and bulls head.


Despite Sweet's fake smile, the snowflake turned out quite neat.


Sweet also made this neat butterfly snowflake.


Dill was the first to figure out how to fold the paper. When he tried to show our supervising teacher he couldn't figure it out and had to go thru the process again. He made some neat snowflakes too.




Chip made this into a challenge. After making regular sized snowflakes...


...he decided to see how small he could make them.


He had to use tweezers to hold the paper.

But the end result was great!


It was a fun afternoon. I totally plan to borrow these books at some point within the next year to make some presents. I have some neat ideas swimming around. :-)

(c) 2008-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines