another race day

In New Hampshire there are two major Nascar races each year, these happen at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. One race being in the early summer and one right around the start of fall. Bobby works for Sylvania, who is a major race sponsor and because of this he got complimentary race tickets at work for both races. We decided to attend these races this year as an experience for the children. It was fun and difficult, exciting and boring and interesting yet LOUD. I have never been in a place with this loud of a noise, constant, deafening roaring of the engines. Both times we attended I later went to bed with ringing ears and was awoken from sleep by the roar of the cars as some sort of memory. It was very strange!

There is also the noise of the people and the circus atmosphere events. The race is only about 3 hours but the day begins at the track hours earlier due to the fact that people arrive early to beat the traffic or even camp there at the track. There are performers, karaoke, race simulators that bounce you around enough to be slightly scary! There are vendors for every driver and the track itself, oh and all the sponsors have tents too. There is a helipad for those coming from far away, or the drivers or those who just don't want to deal with the traffic. There are massive trucks all over the infield, these carry the race cars and the things the drivers needs from race to race through the season. There are dance contests, give aways and people getting drunk then providing their own sort of entertainment. Foods of all types being sold and clowns advertising the real circus. It is in a word, well two words, SENSORY OVERLOAD.

Being a sensitive sort I did find myself unable to stop holding my hands over my ears after awhile and that was before the race even started. There was a noisy dance contest, a busy sprint giveaway and a race simulator game in one area and that about did me in!

There are fun parts too though. It is fun to watch the cars when they're all packed together and yes I'll admit it, I found it fun to watch the crashes. It was fun to see all that is involved in pulling off and televising such a major event. Definitely interesting.

The traffic was the absolute worst part of race day. Last time we were stuck in the parking lot for hours. This time we parked off site and took a school bus in. This was better for arriving at the track but was quite long to get back to our cars. There was quite a line for the school buses and our driver anyway got somewhat lost and had to go around his route twice.

Will we go again next year, I suppose it depends on if any of the children have a burning desire to do so. I am glad we had this experience but we have had enough racing for now. We gave some tickets to our friends this year and their son, who is a huge race fan, will be 16 in a few months. I joked that he could take all the kids to the races next year!

So anyway here are some photo highlights.
Driving in at 9:00 am near the track we already see that they are re-configuring the road from Concord NH to Loudon NH to help with the traffic.



Taking a schoolbus from offsite parking. I have more schoolbus looking photos but they have my friends kids in too so I won't put them online.



One of the first things we did upon arrival at the track was visit a race simulator.


Tristan is tall enough on tip toe! They did let him drive the simulator.

We all tried but Tristan was the only one I was able to get pictures of. I did very badly at it and crashed constantly. The simulator really throws you around, it was almost scary!

The kids sat in a race car.

At noontime we found our seats and had some lunch.

Some of the pre- race things were the Clydesdale's and driver introductions.

The infield is just full of drivers trucks, media people, rescue vehicles and officials.

The stadium is HUGE.

By 1:00 we had shed some layers. The day started in the high 20's Farenheight and by 1:00 pm it was in the 80's! Tristan is putting in some ear plugs.

and they're off.....

The race holds the kids attention for awhile but 300 laps is a long time. They brought lots of toys and had fun with all these clown noses some people promoting the circus handed out.

There were several crashes but no injuries, that is the best type of crash!

I took 137 pictures and only got a handful of good ones. It's hard with everything moving so fast and lots of people in the stands prone to standing up.

random silliness

after one accident the ambulances rushed out but thankfully the driver was fine.

296 of 300 laps, nearly there!

The ending of the race was very confusing since two crashes occurred during the last few laps.

and it's over, I didn't even realize it had ended at first!

The winning car takes a lap, the driver gets a trophy and then the masses of people all try to leave at once!

The race ended at 5:00 or so, we were on a bus by 6:00 or so and finally back to our car at 7:20 it would have been at least 20-30 minutes sooner but the bus driver got lost. Home at just before 9:00 which was 1.5 hours earlier than after the last race so I felt thankful! On a non- race day it would only take us just 45-55 minutes to get to the speedway.

Only Hayley and Tristan wanted to attend the race this time. Colin found it all just too noisy, long and confining last time and Trevor just said no from the start. It worked out well as our friends brought two children as well and all the kids had fun on the school bus both times.

The case of the captive Colin or a seatbelt situation

Colin said from the back of the car, I can't get my sweatshirt off. I said Why? He said the seat belt won't let me. I am very confused now. I looked to see what was up. He was indeed stuck. He zipped up his sweater after putting on his seat belt. Half of the sweater was outside the belt and half inside. His sweater zipper as missing the pull tab and for some reason it would not unzip without it. So he was well and truly stuck. Only Colin...LOL

When we arrived at our destination Colin could climb out of his sweater once the seat belt was unbuckled.

After the 4H flight event we found that a paperclip from the kids plane was a good new tab for Colin's sweater and he was indeed now able to unzip his sweater from his seatbelt!

edited to add, while this was happening Tristan said: this will make a good story for your blog!

4H Flight project

Today we attended a 4H activity. The topic was going to be water rockets but that ones been postponed and we did flight today. The kids were given 2 index cards, one metal clip (office type clip) and duct tape. They were asked to make a plane using only (and all, had to use all the parts) those parts. Later they were also given a straw a choice of more metal clips (paperclips, bobby pins). It's great to see what the kids come up with, with just a few simple materials and a little guidance. Halfway through they took turns showing the group what they had made and how it was working so far. The kids could learn from each others successes and mistakes.

Although we will not be joining a formal 4H group, the time commitment was too much, we will be attending these separate monthly 4H activities. It's a good chance to learn, practice teamwork and practice public speaking.

This was a fun and educational day.

First month of Mixed Class day

Wednesday was the first of the monthly "mixed class days" we have signed up for. We have found in the past that we don't do well with weekly co-ops or school like classes with homework. Large amounts of homework can conflict with what we are already learning at home and cause stress.
Another problem can be strict age limits where I might have close in age kids that still can't be in the same classes even if it's a topic they love as the tutor may have decided that their class is only for those age 10 or 12 or 16....
OTOH my children like to get out and do different things and I do think there is benefit in learning from a variety of people and learning to work with others. So when I heard about Mixed Class Day I was interested. Not only are the age limits fairly wide they also leave the ultimate decision about if a child is a good fit for a class to the parents. Also these classes are run by businesses who com out each month for a fee not by other parents so nobody has the stress of getting ready to teach the group and the businesses do not give homework. The classes are given and then it's up to you if you want to follow up at home. I like that, it's up to us to use the classes and info to our advantage not to a schedule someone else has thought up, probably because it best fits their family.
Lastly you can sign up for just one mixed class day or sign up each and every month, the choice is ours. I guess it is the freedom of this system that I like. Once a month, some choices as to what classes we'd like to choose, wider age ranges and freedom. It works for us!

The choices my kids chose are Mad Science Chemworks. This is a monthly chemistry class. They had great fun in the first mad science class.

and An animals plus geography class. Well if there is an animals class my kids will always be first in line there! In this class a variety of animals is brought to visit each month and the children learn some facts about the animals, their country, climate and habitats. This time the focus was Africa and it's animals. Eight animals came along to help the children learn about the different parts of Africa.

It was a good day.

A shirt for Tristan

Hayley has been making a lot of clothes for Webkinz and other animals with her knifty knitter. The other day she decided to try making a shirt for Tristan and he loves it! The stitching with the knifty knitter is not as tight as is really needed for a sweater or shirt but Hayley got the general idea right. She has so much fun with her knifty knitter set.

2 weeks into the new HS year assessment

We have completed 2 full weeks in our new year. It's time to assess what is working, what is not, what is fitting, is not fitting or can fit into the schedule.

Trevor- Teaching Company high school courses and Math u See. So far so good, he is easing into a routine. This is not much different than what he did last year and it seems this type of learning, heavy on video, daily discussion and a small amount of written work is the best fit for him.

Hayley-Switched on Schoolhouse computer based learning with Math U See separately for math. These are both new to us this year. It has been hard to get going with the SOS but now that she has, Hayley feels she does want to use the computer curriculum this year. I think the Math U See will be very beneficial to her as math seems to be her least favorite subject. She also joins the younger boys for all our "extras" such as Spanish and drawing.

Colin and Tristan- math

Aleks Math free trial- not a good fit, neither boy likes it. Probaby good that they don't-it's expensive! LOL

SOS computer based math- tried it, not a good fit. Going to try to return or sell.

Math Blaster for the DS handheld-fun a keeper

CLE ,math continued from last year as we still have several of the workbooks left. They like it except for the days when the lessons are 4,5,6 pages long! Also they enjoy the variety of topics in each lesson but I must admit I feel they need to learn more in depth too.

Math U See- going to try this with them.

Could Math U See on Mon-Wed-Fri and CLE on Tues, Thurs be the ideal fit for them? It's what I'm going to try next with a view towards transitioning to MUS when the CLE books run out, to simplify.

Colin- Language arts
SOS Language arts- doesn't seem to be a good fit. He will return to CLE LA for now (and yes I have Galore Park but haven't managed to try it yet! It seems like such a good idea but will I manage to implement it this year) Was using Beyond the Code for reading and comprehension last year but finds it too "young" this year. Now will use Christian Liberty Nature Readers starting this week.

Tristan-laguage arts
Easy- same as last year is working great
ETC online and Clicknread online

Has outgrown-CLE learning to read, plan to sell TM and teaching materials as I no longer have anyone coming up learning to read.

All together
La Clase Divertida Spanish- Love it, the kids are retaining- a keeper. Surprisingly a highlight of our days so far.

Real Science 4 Kids- I had wanted to try this so much but it's not a keeper. The readings don't seem to hold the kids attention. The experiments are fun but we have done a lot of them ourselves in the past. Will plan to sell and put that money towards the 3 outside science classes the kids have this year. Not the best fit for children who have already done a lot of science with their older siblings.

USA history through literature, crafts and day trips- a good fit for this year no plans to change this.
The next trip planned is a WW2 re-enactment if we can make the date work-somewhat of a longshot at this point. This weeks read aloud will be Sarah Witcher's Story which is set in New Hampshire during pioneer times. We were given (thanks Karen!!) a hands and hearts early American history craft kit and I'm going to look through this weekend to see which craft might work well this week. Looking into- trip to Indian Museum.

Drawing basics with Thomas Kincaide. Love it, keeper.

Latin-argh, we still didn't fit it in! This week for sure.

Geography- going well we have spent these two weeks on parts of the USA, need one more week for that and then will move on to my country a week plan.

Outside classes and activities----

Animal Academy-FUN a keeper

4H- Not going to be a good fit after all, long drive there and the core group is quite young, larger commitment than I originally understood.

Classes and activities with the relaxed HS group- Magic class was great looking forward to a water rockets activity with them this week. Will plan to pick and choose from activities on the long list of choices they offer.

Monthly Mixed Class Day- no update as it starts this week

Girl Scouts and Cub scouts- start soon

Homeschool soccer- different coaches than last year schedule isn't out yet.

Guess that's it, a good year so far and realistically the couple things that aren't working for us will free up more time for things that are so no loss there.