Getting Ready for Hurricane Season and A Solar Garden Light Experiment

We have been in Florida 9 years now. The first year we were here, 2005, was when Hurricane Katrina hit LA. We have not had a big one hit the Gulf Coast area since then. We are probably due. Every year I put together an emergency Hurricane Kit. When we lived up north I always had one for the Winter months. Of course it had much different supplies. In the past I have always used a bin, as shown in the image to the link. This year, I decided to use a large tote bag. Why? Because the bin is a pain to navigate. It would be hard for one person to carry alone, and probably need two at most times. My son is strong enough to carry it, as am I, but I just think the bag would be much easier to move. I will share a picture of the bag, and its contents, when I get it completed. Hurricane season has already started, but it is very rare to get a big storm this early. I have started on putting it together, and it should be done in a few days. The biggest issue is always food. How much food, what kind of food, etc. I have started storing water, so that is not a big deal.

This next part has to do with batteries. Every year my kids take the flashlights and poof they are never to be found again. Every year, I have to buy a ton of batteries, and new flashlights. Kind of expensive and a pain. So, I got thinking. If you read my craft blog, then you know that I have been painting bottles and turning them into solar powered garden lights. I have ten of them now. This has allowed me not to have to use the outside light at night, to ward of weirdos. The motion sensitive light, in the back is still active. I started to wonder, how long do the solar lights stay on at night. I really didn't know since it is always daylight when I get up. So, I read some other websites, and blogs to see if anyone else knew. The results were not good, definitely not all night and only a few hours were the most popular results. Well, me being me, I decided to try it for myself. So, last night at 8 PM I brought in one of the garden lights. I put it in my bathroom, and waited. Eventually I went to bed. I got up once during the night, at 3, and it was still lit and nice and bright. When I got up at 7 in the morning, it was still lit. Hard to tell how bright it was at that time of day. At 10 AM I returned it to the garden, and it was still lit. So, you are probably thinking I spent a lot of money on these lights and that is why I got good results. Nope, I paid .97 cents at Walmart, and 1 dollar at the Dollar Tree. We do get a ton of sunlight in FL, this time of year, so that might be why my results were so good. I have no idea. What I do know is that I will be picking up more of these and putting them in the garden so they are charged and ready to go should we ever lose power for an extended amount of time, or have to evacuate. The only other thing I am unsure of, is do they charge even if you don't pull out the little tab, or only if you pull out the little tab. Will have to figure that out.

Grammar Capitalization Printable Board Game

It is the first official day of Summer Vacation. I decided to do a Grammar game with Caitlin today, and then I will let her do the money math game online, after we swim. We had so much fun playing the, What Gets Capitalized, game that she actually wanted to play it again. I have no idea why the concept of Capitalization is so difficult for her to grasp, but I am hoping the game will help. It only took us about 20 minutes to play, and you can find the rules and printables, here.

We also played our USA states and capitals Geography game, which you can find by doing a search on this blog. Use the search box at the top of the page to make it easier.


DJ is on week 4 of Introduction to Forensics, through Coursera. He had his first real test last week. Though he said it was real hard, he likes the course and wants to keep going to the end. He did one more Grammar and Math test, and he is almost completely done with testing.

Total of one and a half hours of Summer fun school today. I think we can handle this a couple days a week. Tomorrow I will introduce a fun Math card game to Caitlin. Well if I can find the deck of cards, lol.

Burning A Crayon for Emergencies and Cinnamom Bun Sausage Rolls

I did not take a picture of the cinnamon buns when done, but you will get the idea. These would be perfect for a holiday party or quick breakfast. All you need is a can, or two, of the refrigerated cinnamon bun rolls and some breakfast sausage. Preheat your oven, according to the package directions, and lay your buns out on the baking sheet. Insert one breakfast sausage into the center of the cinnamon bun. It will look a little odd. Then bake them as directed and add the icing as soon as you take them out of the oven. Now, next time I will just cook the sausages quickly in a pan, to brown them, let them cool and then insert them into the buns. I also made some without icing, and used Maple Syrup on top instead. They were really delicious both ways.


Every year, at the end of the school year, I clean out the crayon, pen and pencil bucket. In previous years we have had a ton of little tiny pieces of crayons that would never be usable again. However, my kids now paint, use colored pencils, and markers for their art work. So, there were a lot of nice whole crayons still. I had read a while ago that a crayon would burn up to two hours in an emergency, others said 30 minutes. Well, I thought it was the perfect day to try. Before I say how I did it, I noticed a few things that I would not do. Burn the candle upright sitting on something. This is silly since it could just fall over and burn down your house, tent whatever. Burning the candle from the pointed end. This is common sense that it would not work this way, but I will let you know I tested it, and it did not work this way. There is too much wax, and not enough paper to get the candle burning, and maintain it.

So, I tried it a couple of different ways. First I got one of my old candle jars, with wick less candles scraps in it. I broke a Crayola crayon in half, and lit it. It did take a bit before it started to really burn, maybe 15 seconds. I timed it, and after 30 minutes it was still burning, even though it appeared all the paper was gone. Next, I tried to burn a crayon that had no paper left on it. Nope, it just melts and does not burn. Third, I tried to stand the candle up, in the jar, and burn it. The pointed end will not burn, even the other end did not stay burning more than a couple of minutes in the upright position. I am not sure why that would be, but it is true. Also, not all crayons are created equal. We have a variety of crayons, Crayola, Roseart, and some Dollar Tree ones too. The cheaper the crayon, the worse the results. The really cheap ones don't burn at all. The paper will not even light, odd right. And the wax when hot fizzes and sparks like a Sparkler on 4th of July. Very weird. But they are useless for burning, because they don't burn. Also crayon wax stays very hot, for a very long time. Candle wax cools instantly when removed from flame. Not crayon wax, trust me. So, now I have a huge Ziploc bag full of crayons. Lucky for me it is hurricane season and these babies might come in handy in my ready bin. They would make excellent fire starters for camping and hiking too. They are light weight and small. Oh and by the way, that is not a baby sitting by the candle, it is my daughter's doll.

Free or Frugal Friday Test Sites We Used This Year

We are pretty much done with our regular school year.  Caitlin is done, and she did real well.  She only got tested on Math, Writing and Spelling.

DJ on the other hand gets tested in all classes.  I gave him his final for Writing, yesterday.  I gave him the option to pick the topic, but he could not come up with one for sure.  He loves to make up funny parodies to songs, so his assignment is to write a parody about Biscuit, that is the dog, to the tune of, We Will Rock You.  He was quite excited, and already has part of it done.  It will be posted to his blog and then printed to add to his homeschool evaluation portfolio.  Of course he has to use proper Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation. 

He did Earth Science for Science class.  He did not complete all the lessons, we used CK12, but Science is not a priority.  We are working our way through the tests on this website, for the topics he did cover.  I just write down the grade and topic when he is done. 

For Math, again we used CK12, I am using Math-tests.com for testing.  He is testing on the Pre Algebra section not, 8th grade Math.  I can print the results as he finishes each section.   Not every section has a test yet.  He was graded on CK12 for all sections, so I will see if I can print them from his portfolio.  I am happy to see he has retained his Math very well. 

History, he did Middle Ages.  Can not find an online test, so he will probably just write up an essay about what he learned.

Language Arts and Reading:  DJ did 9th grade Language Arts through the open network of Utah learning website.  He has done a book report for each book he read.  I used Easy Test Maker to create a final exam on the things he covered in the lessons.  He will not take this until he has finished reading the last book, To Kill A Mockingbird.  In the meantime he has been working his way through the Grammar tests on Cengage.  Again I print the results as he takes them.  I am only picking one test from each section. 

All of the websites mentioned are free to use.  Please be supportive to them, so they can stay free for all users, not just homeschoolers. 

Now for Summer Vacation!  Don't worry I will continue to post over the Summer.  Summer is when I get to write posts on opinions, hot topics, and fun crafty things to do.  So, stick around.