Chen Clan Academy in Guangzhou

Chen Clan Academy, also called Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, in Guangzhou, is definitely worth visiting. I remembered it from our 2006 visit, and was excited to be able to go again. This former shrine has been turned into an amazing folk art museum.

The architecture alone is stunning and so intricate. There are nineteen buildings you can tour, and could easily take all day to learn about old Chinese folk art, and admire each craft. We walked through the museum in maybe two hours, and saw a lot, and missed a lot:)



I am in love with Chinese silk embroidery, which is something special to Guangdong Province. When light reflects off the silk it looks like image is alive - so beautiful!

And sorry, no cute images of Miss Mei Mei on this post, the photographer was carrying her at this museum. But in the next post I will have some cute ones coming up:)

2014 Recap

We have had quite the year! A lot has been squeezed into 2014, we have been on the go, for sure! Let's go back, and look, shall we?


JANUARY


We started our year in Maine, snowmobiling, ice skating on the lake, and sledding on Killer Hill. Remember our FedEx story? If you don't, make sure to check that out - small town living at best:)

My dad had been visiting from Finland, and when it was time to take him to the airport, we took Missy, too! She flew to Finland to do her homeschool studies there, and to take Finnish lessons. Her ticket was for three months.

Mama starts a special project, which hasn't been mentioned in the blog yet.


FEBRUARY



In February Little Miss learned to ride a snowmobile, all by herself! We also celebrated Chinese New Year, made sugar on snow and enjoyed skiing and snowshoeing. Grandma and Grandpa came up to snowmobile with us. Missy continued her studies in Finland.


MARCH


In March Little Miss turned eight years old!

No Spring in Maine, yet!

Missy is having a wonderful time in Finland. We miss her so much.

In late March we took a work trip to Nantucket Island.


APRIL


In April our pace picked up quite a bit. Before leaving Maine we managed to do a bit more muddy spring snowmobiling. Missy got her wish, and we extended her stay in Finland by two + more months.

We packed up our crew (minus Missy) and headed west in the Mothership. We stopped at Niagara Falls in New York and Canada, spent a while at the Airstream Factory in Jacksonville, Ohio, and took a field trip to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. We visited the Creation Museum in Kentucky, and the Jefferson Monticello in Virginia, before spending Easter with my sister's family in Virginia. In Virginia we also took a field trip to the Historic Jamestowne, and on our way back we drove our Mothership on a ferry!

On our way south to Florida we stopped at Fort Clinch State Park, and fell in love with the old fort! (More here and here.) We'll be back, for sure!


MAY


We spent May in Florida, and loved being back on the beach. We visited Winter at the Clearwater Aquarium. We took two trips, one to Miami, and later in the month to our favorite homeschool conference in Orlando. The month went by so fast, and soon it was time to be traveling again. Two of our boys got learner's permits to start driving.


JUNE



We had a whirlwind trip back to New England in the beginning of the month. Missy finally flew back to United States!!! It was so good to be together as a family, again. Our camp in Maine was being rented out most of the summer, so we had a lot of work to do to get everything ready.


JULY



Beginning of July we spent a wonderful week on Nantucket Island with the Captain's sister's family, and celebrated the Independence Day with cousins on the 5th (a storm came through on the 4th).

We had to leave the island early - our boys spent a week at Patrick Henry College in Virginia at the Generation Joshua iGovern camp. We dropped them off in the Mothership, and during the week visited our Virginia cousins (Cousin E turned 4!). Together we toured the Luray Caverns.

After Luray, we went on some scary mountain roads - not fun in a 35 foot motorhome. We survived:) We had a nice stop in West Virginia, then pointed the Mothership toward Ohio, again. We had an appointment with the Airstream service department in Jacksonville. I had fun photographing the iconic trailers, click here and here. We also took the Airstream Factory tour (a must!). In Ohio we also took a field trip to the Bicycle Museum (Mr T wrote about that).

Our hope had been to visit South Dakota next, but ended up breaking down right after crossing into Indiana. Instead of South Dakota, we spent almost a week at an RV service center in Richmond. We actually had a great stay there and a visit from dear friends. We took a tour of the Model T Museum as well.

Once we were all done, we had to hurry back to east coast. We had a work week on Nantucket island, but managed to have fun there, too (not too hard, lol).

We also finally finished our school year - high school was tough for our family.

During our travels we got the word the Captain's grandmother, our beloved Nanny, had passed away. We miss her.


AUGUST



From Nantucket we visited grandparents and cousins in southern Maine, spent a few days in New Hampshire with friends, and went back to see family in Maine.

By about middle of the month our renters had left, and we returned to our camp for some R and R. August is great in Maine! We rented a boat one day and did tubing - fun!!
Grandma, Grandpa and our Maine cousins came to visit and pick blueberries with us.


SEPTEMBER



In September we started school again. We had made major changes to our curriculum. Tenth grade and third grade were going to look a lot different. The Captain, Mr A and Mr D started flight school.

We made a new friend, who showed us his homemade potato cannon. What a blast (pun intended:)! Our Maine cousins came for a visit, which was a lot of fun. Friends from New Hampshire came, too.

We also attended Nanny's memorial service in Massachusetts. It was a beautiful celebration of her long life, and we loved seeing family gathered together.


OCTOBER



Before we started our travels again, we enjoyed gorgeous fall foliage in New Hampshire and Maine. We first traveled to southern Maine, and then on to spend an amazing weekend on Nantucket with the Captain's family and friends. We even sailed Privateer Lynx - a wonderful experience.

The highlight of our year was our trip out west. From Massachusetts we drove to New York and Pennsylvania, through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to Iowa. We had only stopped to sleep and get gas, but in Iowa we stopped for a half a day shopping trip. Next we drove to South Dakota, and had a great visit to Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead. (Unfortunately I had some technical difficulties with my photos from that visit, and still haven't had a chance to fix them.)

In South Dakota we visited the Badlands and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We drove to Wyoming to see the Devils Tower National Monument. In Utah we went to Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, and drove around on crazy roads! And the Captain, Mr A and Mr D saw Moab from an airplane!

(Here's a recap from half-way in Colorado. And a blog post of our Denver visit.)

From Utah we drove to Arizona, saw the Grand Canyon from the northern rim, and saw Indian cliff dwellings. Driving in Arizona and New Mexico was gorgeous! It was time for us to head back to Florida, and we thought we could visit places on our way. However, we broke down in Arkansas, which put us behind our schedule, and we had to push hard to make it to Florida by October 31st. We made it, though!

Mr T helped campaign for Governor Rick Scott with Generation Joshua. He made it on time and had a great experience.


NOVEMBER



The first part of November we spent in Florida. We had a great time, even though the weather was all over the place - some days we were in shorts, some days in down jackets, brrr!!!

I became a U.S. citizen in November! After being in the United States 21 years..

Our plan had been to spend Thanksgiving in Virginia, and come right back to Florida, but as often with our plans - they changed.


DECEMBER



We ended up staying longer in Virginia, and bought tickets to fly to Maine:) We arrived in Maine with the Captain sick. So we didn't linger at Grandma and Grandpa's house, just drove up to our camp. Just in time for a snowstorm (ice, too!), birthdays, an adoption day and Christmas!



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What a year. Full of adventures, full of changes. Full of God's grace, full of many stories of His provision and protection. We look forward to 2015 to see what God has in store for our family!


Happy New Year 2015 to all of You!


PS. (See also year 2011, year 2012 and year 2013.)

Mr. D Math for High School Geometry

Last year we really struggled with math, and ended up using three different curricula for Algebra I for our four 9th graders. Crazy! Even though we have four teens the same age, their learning styles are different, and what works for one (or even two), doesn't work for everyone.

Mr D ended up using a Thinkwell Video Course, and Missy used Time4Learning Algebra I, which neither course was really working great for them. (They had used AOP Monarch math for middle school, and that wasn't a good fit for them, either - even though Monarch overall had been a great curriculum for us, and we still recommend it.)

Mr T and Mr A were doing fine with AOP Monarch Algebra I, and quite frankly I saw no reason to change their curriculum.

But we needed to find something better for Mr D and Missy. Again.

At the FPEA Homeschool Convention in Orlando, FL, this May I was a homeschool mom on a mission. I checked out every high school math program there. I had had Missy (from Finland!) check out various websites and watch demo videos or math programs, and dragged Mr D from his convention teen program to visit booths that looked promising to me.

One of the ones Missy was very interested was - ironically - something called Mr. D Math. The name made me chuckle, and I immediately thought this could be very confusing on our blog:)
We browsed the website, and my Mr D and I visited Mr. D Math's booth, and talked to Mr. D himself. (Haha:)

We had decided our criteria for math to be:

- Online classes, preferably live and recorded (in case we couldn't make it to live class due to our travels)
- Teacher needed to be able to hold student's interest, and explain things well
- Website that isn't too difficult to navigate
- A separate parent's online section to see grades etc.
- Yet independent learning - parent not needing to be too involved
- Contact with teacher

Mr. D Math seemed to have all of the above, so we decided to give it a try this year.

And we are so glad. Mr. D Math is really fantastic! So fantastic, all our four students are taking Mr. D Math this year.




Once a week our students log-in to their live classes. Mr. D Math offers high school Geometry twice on Tuesdays, and so far our teens have split their classes, two and two. Because of internet issues, they share a computer. There is also homework, tests, and additional instruction videos. If the students can't make it to their live class, they can watch the recording later (a must for us, as we are starting our traveling again).

Today during class one of our students had expressed difficulty in grasping the concept they had been talking about, so Mr. D continued teaching and tutoring after the one hour live class (Thank you, Mr. D!). He can also be reached via phone and email during the week, as needed.

We also appreciate the easy website navigating, as well as an easy internet classroom experience. The teens had no trouble figuring it out, and Mr. D Math sent out instructional videos for us parents, too. The parent section at the Mr. D Math website lets parents view grades and progress.

At dinner time today I told our teens I was writing up a blog post about their Geometry class, and asked if they had any feedback. Mr T shared Mr. D makes Geometry easy and fun. He had also told me earlier he is really enjoying this program better than anything he has used in the past. Everyone agreed.


I am so grateful. Homeschooling is so awesome, but sometimes math (and science) are the weak links. Definitely not the case in our homeschool this year, thanks to Mr. D Math.


Make sure to check out Mr. D Math website, Facebook page and YouTube accounts. Mr. D Math offers many different math classes, one-on-one training, as well as SAT boot camps, and a six-week class on Life Skills.


All opinions expressed in this blog are purely our own. Occasionally sponsors and advertisers will provide products at no charge so they can be reviewed on this site. We only agree to feature a product that the Our Mothership Adventures crew wants to use personally and that we feel would benefit our readers. No exceptions! We are thrilled to be working with Mr. D Math this year!

Learning Finnish/Suomen kielen opettelua

Little Miss and I added a new subject to our homeschool day this week. Finnish! We don't have a great track record of speaking or learning Finnish at home (fail), but we felt inspired to give it another try through Mango Languages.

Our Florida library offers Mango for free, so make sure to check if your library does, too. You can learn many different languages through it. You can read more on Mango Languages' website, and even sign up for a demo (even without your library). They also have an iPad app for the program.



This is not really an official review, but I wanted to post this tip if anyone else was looking for a foreign language resource. Little Miss finished her first lesson, and learned to say (and understand):

"Hi! I'm Henna. And you?"


"Moi! Olen Henna. Entä sinä?"

"Nice to meet you."
"Hauska tavata."

We'll see how it goes:)

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Kun me olemme olleet niin surkeita suomen kielen puhumisessa ja opettelemisessa, päätimme yrittää taas. Kirjaston kautta voimme ilmaiseksi opiskella suomea (tai muita kieliä) Mango Languages-ohjelman kautta. Saimme ensimmäisen oppitunnin tehtyä, Pikkuneiti oppi esittelemään itsensä. Josko tästä tällä kertaa?

Learn Math Fast System

Earlier this year Little Miss (age 8) and I had an opportunity to take a look at Learn Math Fast System math curriculum.

It is a six book curriculum written by a homeschool mom. Learn Math Fast System is designed for anyone needing to learn or teach math, and especially for the struggling math student, the one behind, or special needs.




Or the gifted student. Learn Math Fast System is self directing, all answers and full solutions with work is shown.

You can take an online placement test to see where your student is. Click here.

Sample pages of work can be found here.



Little Miss and I started with the first book. The first book, Volume I, covers the basics: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division before advancing to fractions. There are multiple lessons, worksheets and tests to make sure each concept is mastered before moving on. Volume I will teach how to add and subtract in your head - a skill anyone should know. Other topics included are: place value, greater/less than, rounding, long division, multiplying and dividing with decimal numbers, averages, and US measurement.

Here is information on what each Volume covers. In fact, Learn Math Fast System's website is chock full of great information, so make sure to visit.

You can purchase all six books, or buy them separately online. Use code MOTHERSHIP to get $5 off any order until 12/31/14 (If you are paying with PayPal, you can still get your discount, but will need to get in touch with the company, as the code doesn't work with PayPal). There is a 60 day money back guarantee, so no risk for you, if it doesn't end up being a good fit for your student(s).


We appreciate having an opportunity to review Learn Math Fast System - thank you! Our disclosure policy can be found here.

Bicycle Museum by Mr T

Hi, it's Mr. T! I'm glad to be able to write on a museum of something I love: Bicycles! Who would've thought that in the middle of nowhere, there would be such an amazing museum as the Bicycle Museum of America?

I think everyone agrees that this was one of the coolest museums we've ever been to. It was stock full with bikes from the past two centuries, and described the history of each one. Many of the bicycles were extremely rare, and the museum was full of ones that I have never even heard of!

Anyways, let's get started!




The world's first bicycle was powered by just walking. I suppose it's still nice, but would've hurt a LOT on the bumps.




The first bicycles had no gears, and the pedals were attached to one big wheel. This made it so that the larger the wheel, the faster one could go with each pedal revolution. However, the issue with this was that the front wheel became dangerously large, making it so that 'headers' (faceplants while on the bike) became common when one leaned forward.




The Wolff-American Ice Bicycle was meant to be ridden on the snow and ice, and might have been more successful if there wasn't that deadly rear wheel.




The three wheels fixed the 'header' problem, but was inefficient, and didn't work out too well.




Only a little scary.




What? No pedals? The one above was more like a scooter, and was powered by bouncing the frame up and down.




Bicycles!




Sennie adds: Thanks, Mr T! It was a really cool museum.

A fantastic home school field trip destination! Admission for students is only $1, adults $3 each. It is located in New Bremen, Ohio. Here's the website and info on hours and directions. Don't miss this one!

In the Reign of Terror!! {Review}

As we travel along in our Mothership (or even in our car) we like to listen to audio books. They help the Captain stay awake (usually does the opposite to me!). We have listened to a variety of books, from Narnia to Condoleezza Rice's memoirs.

When we were at the FPEA Convention in Florida,  Mr T handed me a pamphlet on audiobooks by Jim Hodges, and told me to go check them out. So I did.

Jim Hodges was there himself, and had a whole booth of audiobooks. Mr T helped me pick out one for our travels north, and I promised to write up a review, if we liked it.

Mr T picked out In the Reign Of Terror by G. A. Henty - An English Lad in the French Revolution. We have a bunch of Henty books in our camp library (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa!), but none of us had read this particular book.

Storyline as copied from the website:

The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, ushered in the French Revolution. Within four years, the king was executed and a revolutionary tribunal was established to judge “enemies of the people.” Led by Robespierre, the Jacobins sought to establish a “Republic of Virtue” and to achieve it, the property of nobles was seized and “enemies” tried and sent to the guillotine. Known as the Reign of Terror, everyone associated with the monarchy, expressed royalist views, or opposed the committee, faced potential execution. Harry Sandwith, a companion of a French family, wins their confidence and becomes the protector of the three daughters. After the girls are condemned to death in the coffin-ships, Harry saves the girls and the gets them safely to England.


I knew the Captain and the boys would enjoy it. A story of a boy in the French Revolution would no doubt hold their interest, but I was surprised how much Little Miss (8) and I enjoyed it, too! To the point where we had to go back and re-listen parts Little Miss had missed when she fell asleep. This was the first audiobook I was able to stay awake for.

Right before we started our Henty audiobook, we had finished listening to one of the Narnia books we had been in the middle of. Switching from a British accent to an American one took a moment, but only a short one, as Jim Hodges' speaking voice is so amazing. He does the different voices very well, from a young lad to an elderly woman, including French accents!

Very impressive!

And very educational!! We all picked up facts about the French Revolution we had either forgotten or never learned.

We were all sad when our book ended (this one was 8 hrs and 35 minutes), and we decided we wanted to get a bunch more for our next road trip. (And for our next school year!)

The audio books by Jim Hodges are MP3 CDs. The Captain figured out how we could listen to one in our vintage motorhome, and so we all started listening this story. (Mr. T copied the files from the CD to a computer, and somehow transferred them to an iPad, and plugged the iPad into our RV sound system. MP3 CD players are very inexpensive, too.)

Mr. Hodges has many of the Henty books on audio, as well as other books. You can check the large selection here. You can also see his recommendations for younger listeners. The Henty books are appropriate for some eight year olds, but typically for ages ten and up. You can also find study guides and vocabulary lists at his website.

Mr. Hodges, thank you so much for our fantastic time travel to the French Revolution!


You can read our disclosure policy here.