This week in review

This past weekend was our last speech and debate tournament of the season.  The last tournament is really large and is very competitive.  Thomas had varied results.

In the debate speaker award category Thomas placed tenth out of 114 competitors.  He was very pleased to get a gavel.  His debate partner Mikayla also got a gavel.

The guy here with Thomas  is an OSU law student.  He has been a mentor for him for several years.  He has been a good influence on him.  Our family has come to really appreciate Elliot.  Someday we will even vote for him when he runs for Congress!

Here is Thomas with his debate partner of two years.  They had a good run and won two tournaments and were in other semi-finals.  They worked well together and had a good influence on each other.

Here is Thomas with his hardware from the tournament.  He has a speaker's gavel, a sweepstakes medal and a first place plaque.  He had a very successful year!

I like this picture of DH and Thomas.  Thomas looks so much like his Dad.  

Thomas won first place in Impromptu Apologetics.  He did a great job!  He spent a lot of time studying Josh McDowell's book, 'More Than a Carpenter'.

Michelle took this picture.  There were millions of dandelion fluff balls to choose from.  Our yard needs to be mowed soooo bad, but it is just too wet.  Lots of dandelions here!!!

Here is another picture of our beautiful dandelions.  The moth liked them.  I saw a bird land on the stem of a dandelion.  It slowly bent over.  Then the bird flew to another dandelion stem and was able to hang onto it and while eating the fluff off another one.  It was such a tiny bird.  I am going to see if I can figure out what it was.  It was only slightly larger than a hummingbird.

The chicken coop is finished.  It only needs a chicken exit and ramp built as well as the nesting boxes installed.  Paul installed a window in it today.  It is very close to usable.  Now he is studying how to set up the electric fence.

The hens are doing well.  They roam all over the yard and sometimes into the neighbors yard.  They are not living there anymore so I guess it's ok.  We will be fencing them in soon too.
 

Here is one of the blueberry bushes we transplanted from the other house last fall.  It is looking well and has lots of blooms on it.  Yeah!!!

The garden is looking good.  The bare spots are where a robin dug at it.  You can tell because it pulled up the straw from underneath.

Here is the next bed I will be planting.  I am hoping my brother brings some of his beautiful aged manure very soon so I can finish the bed.  My tomatoes are overgrowing in the basement and need to be planted yesterday!

The shallots have all come up now and looking good.  The yellow color on some is merely from the reflected light of the sunset.  The plants are healthy.

The flag irises are starting to bloom.  They are really pretty. Mostly yellow and purple ones so far.

Over the winter, the herbs that Paul and I dug up and moved to the farm, all died.  It was very sad.  I was trying to figure out where I was going to get more and how to do it.  Then, when I was down in Amish country last time, one of my patients offered to section her herbs as they were so big so that I could have some starts.  It was such a blessing!  They look really healthy and all I need to do now is get that herb bed built so that I can plant them.  At least for now, they are happy in their barrel bottom.

I bought some rhubarb to plant in my apple tree guild.  They have done well and are happy while they wait for me to plant them.

Here is a sunset from the other evening.  It was so beautiful and then to have it reflected off the pond was twice as nice.  If you could see a larger view of this picture you would see the glow of the sunset lighting up the dandelions in the grass. Our Creator does such awesomely beautiful things.  I love our place here on the farm!!!

Speech and Debate Tournament #2

Reminder:  I write this blog for family and friends.  This is going to be one of those Proud Mama bragging posts!  I thank God for the skills that He has given the children.  Bear with me as I share how blessed we were!

Thomas collecting his plaque for winning Rhetorical Criticism

This tournament was our home tournament.  Almost all the parents were working hard to run the tournament.  My job was ballot check-in coordinator.  I worked in the judge quiet room.  There was a group of us that went over the ballots the judges completed to make sure all the i's were dotted and the t's crossed.  One of the things that results from this job is that I get to see EVERY ballot so that I know how the kids are doing even though I can say nothing.  I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  It does raise my stress level to watch the judges sitting there trying to decide whether our kids had won or lost.  It was a great tournament for our club as well as our family!

Thomas and T-Bob were Speech Sweepstakes Participants

Thomas and T-Bob  each competed in three different speech categories.  This is called 'sweepstakes'. For the last four years, winning sweepstakes has been Thomas's goal.  T-Bob did make the final room in his informative speech on basketball,  although he did not place.

Thomas was so excited that he finally won speech sweepstakes!  This is a major achievement.

I have to admit that this brought a few tears to the eye of this proud mama.  Thomas managed to handle this well and was a graceful winner.

Thomas won 5th place in debate speaker awards

 Thomas won 5th place in the debate speaker category.  This was his personal best in the debate speaker category.

Thomas and Mikayla won the debate tournament

The other major award given at a tournament is debate tournament winner.  Thomas and his partner Mikayla won the final round against their friends Caleb and Rachel Boyer.   It was so great to receive their awards from our coach and club. Very few things are as sweet as winning your home tournament.

Here are the four teams that placed.   Thomas and his partner rocked this tournament.  To win both Sweepstakes and the Tournament, as well as first place in a speech event  is very amazing.  The only disappointment was that my DH wasn't able to be there and share the moment.  He was with his family.

One of the things that I really love about our league, is that it is open to setting up special categories for special kids to 'compete' with the rest of the kids.

This is another very sweet special lady.  When my DH had to fly out of town to be with his Dad, Carol took over and performed his jobs.  That was such a blessing.  It allowed things to go smoothly at the tournament.  She is so easy to work with.  I learn a lot from her.

So, I do not know what Thomas will do for an encore.  This tournament was rather an epic experience.  He continues to work hard and aim for victory in the next tournament which is only a couple weeks away.

Debate Tournament #1

Our family, has only recently started doing basketball as part of our 'lifestyle'.  Previous to this year, we have only really done Church, family and Speech and debate.  We have done Speech and Debate for the last four years through a Christian homeschool league. (CCO/CCA).  It has been so good for our family.  We love it because it is something that our whole family can be involved in.

T-Bob 

 I have found that as a home school mom, that the children make about two academic years of progress for every year that they do debate.  It really helps to fill a lot of the holes in their home school education.  It is a tremendously in depth course on government. (We do team policy debate), research, logic, and writing.  It is like writing an in depth research paper. The best part about it is that the kids love to do it because they enjoy the competition and want to do well. I could never assign them such a project without them being overwhelmed and upset at me.  However, in our family, they would be seriously disappointed if we told them that they couldn't participate in speech and debate.  The older children are able to continue their participation by judging the debate and speech events.

Susan Miller

 I love the people that work with speech and debate.  They are some of the most ethical and sweetest people you would ever want to meet.  Susan Miller is a queenly lady.  She is the tournament director of one of our home tournaments.  She gently guides and encourages all of us who are helping out.  She keeps things on track but you never see her lose her cool.  She keeps track of all the little details without hovering.  That is a gift!  Even when she has to correct you she does it in a kind and loving way without exhibiting any impatience.  THAT is a real gift!  Everybody who gets to know her and work with her feels blessed.  We are so fortunate to have a director like her.

Thomas won second place in Poetry Interpretation

 The speech side of the tournament involves three categories of events.  The first are the interpretive events.  They change from year to year.  This year they are poetry and dramatic duo.  The speaker chooses a poem to interpret or a dramatic piece to do with a partner.  Thomas is doing the 'Pied Piper' poem and T-Bob is doing 'Herve Riel'.  Elizabeth competes in the JV division and is doing the poem 'Curfew Must not Ring Tonight'. The pieces can be up to ten minutes long.

Thomas won first place in Impromptu Apologetics

The second set of events are the impromptu events.  There are three choices here.  There is 'Impromptu' where the speaker is given a quote and then has two minutes to give a five minute speech.  Another event is Impromptu Apologetics.  In this speech event, you are given an apologetics question (Ex. How can a good God allow suffering in the world?) and then you have three minutes to put together a seven minute response that must be presented conversationally to the judges.  The third event in this category is Extemporaneous Commentary.  This event involves being given a question re an international, national or economics issues and the speaker is given thirty minutes to research and gather evidence and then they have to present a seven minute 'newscast' style speech.  The third category is the Informative events.  The one event is informative, wherein the speaker gives a ten minute memorized  on any subject they wish.  T-Bob is doing his speech on basketball.  The other informative event is rhetorical criticism. This is also a ten minute memorized speech.  Thomas is competing in this  event.  He is evaluating whether Snowden is a hero.

Sweepstakes Competitors

Sweepstakes is when a young person presents a speech in each of the three categories.  T-bob and Thomas are both doing this. Each speech must be given three times over the course of a tournament.  It is a very challenging thing to do.

Thomas and his partner finished fourth in debate

In debate the resolution they are debating is "The US federal government should reform its counterterrorism policy(s) for the domestic surveillance of US citizens."  It is a super current topic and changes almost daily.  It keeps the kids on their toes and requires them to stay on top of the news. Thomas and his partner did well.  They made it to the semifinals where thy lost to the team that won the tournament.

Here is our club.  They are a fine group of young people.  I really enjoy my time with them. 

Go Theo!

Thomas Rolls to the Finals

Speech and Debate is a major activity for our family.  All the children still in school participate.  Speech is for the younger ones and debate is for the high schoolers.  This year that means Thomas.  He loves debate!!!

This year Thomas is back with the same partner as last year.  They work well together.  They spend long hours producing their affirmative case and finding evidence to use when they are negative.
This year the resolutions is that "The US federal government should reform its counterterrorism policy(ies) for the domestic surveillance if US citizens".  This topic is definitely on the front burner of the news and is constantly changing as new evidence comes out.

Thomas and his partner are now advanced debaters and have learned a lot through the last couple years.  They were undefeated going into the finals.

Rounds Start with prayer between the teams.

They faced a tough team of advanced debaters.  It was very ironic as both teams have  similar cases.
The negative team had a lot of arguments and evidence against them.  They had discussed and worked together on their cases on tuesday night at the club meeting.

Cross examination... Go Mikayla!

It was a very closely contested debate.  Their was a panel of five judges for the final round.  Normally, there is just one judge per round.

Abbie chilling 

The final round is done before the whole club.  After a day of debating a lot of people are tired and wanting to relax.  This day had been more stressful than usual even.  After the first round of debate, (There are five.), the electricity went out.  Most of the rounds were moved to rooms with windows to utilize natural light.  The round I was judging was put into a dark hallway.  The emergency lights were on but they faded to nothing after an hour.  Fortunately, I had a flashlight and headlamp with me.  I keep them around as I use them to go check outside on the critters at night and it is DARK in the country.  I gave the speakers the flashlights so they could read their notes and I used the headlamp so that I could take notes.  The lunch/break room was pitch black except for the cell phones and a few little flashlights.  The coach went out and got some battery charged lanterns so we could see to eat lunch.  The electric was out for over four hours!  Finally, the utility truck came out and switched the breaker on the pole back on.  I think it was the single digit temps that stressed it.

Thomas, looking sneaky during cross examination

 This was a great debate round.  Both teams were educated and there was a lot of 'clash'.  That is a good thing.  It means that the negative team understood the case and was able to argue the issues. This is a lot of fun for debaters. That doesn't always happen.  It is kind of like boxers.  They would rather fight someone who will fight toe-to-toe than one who dances around the ring and won't engage.  Both teams left smiling.

My DH came for the final round and brought us Chipotle for dinner.  He is a big debate fan as well.  It appeals to his intellect.

The final round participants

How did it go?  Perfectly!  In our club there is a 'jinx' associated with winning the club's Round Robin Tournament.  The winner of the Tournament doesn't usually win a tournament during the season.  This has been true for years!  Nobody knows why.  Thomas was happy that they lost 3-2.  It was super close enough to not be an embarrassing lost, but a loss none the less to avoid the stigma.  LOL.  One of the judges was someone that Thomas highly respects and considers a mentor.  This fella is a highly successful debater on the high school and college levels and is now in law school at OSU.  Anyway, on his ballot, he gave Thomas and his partner the win, so all was well in Thomas's world.

 This is the third place team Nick and Rebecca did a great job also.  If you think of it, pray for Rebecca's family.  Their house was severely damaged by fire a couple weeks ago.  It is hard on the family to lose so many family treasures.  All the boy's Legos were melted as well as their clothes burned.  They are rebuilding.  They are currently living in a motel until they can arrange more permanent temporary housing.  They are doing well, but it is still a stressful time. Their homeschool books were stored in plastic totes downstairs, so they survived just fine.

Our first 'real' tournament will be in two weeks.

Cedarville Speech and Debate Tournament Memories

The weekend of May 20,and 21 was the final tournament of the 2011 season. It was held at Cedarville University. It is a beautiful campus, and they ensure that their students get LOTS of exercise by having a lake in the middle of the campus buildings. There is no bridge across, you just gotta walk around it.

The children liked watching the fish. They have a huge carp in their, maybe 40 pounds, that swims with its fin out of the water most of the time. It looks like a shark fin.

This was the infamous weekend where the end of the world was predicted by Harold Camping. The youth all went outside by the lake to countdown to the appointed hour.

It was a beautiful day! After the appointed time, they all went in for the more earthly award ceremonies for the tournament.

Both boys met their personal goals for the tournament. Paul's goal was to win all his affirmative rounds, he did. He and his partner ended up 5-2. they did excellent, especially for their novice season. Thomas's goal was to make it to one final round for the tournament. He made it to TWO. This was really great.

Thomas placed in Prose Interpretation and Rhetorical Criticism. He got to spend quite a bit of time on stage.

Elizabeth did her Junior prose interpretation again. All Juniors get called up on stage to get their bag of candy and certificate.

Thomas completed the sweepstakes. All sweepstakes competitors get called on stage to receive their certificate and bag of candy. They have to complete three speeches all in different categories. It is not for the fainthearted.

Some old friends of Roger came to visit us at the tournament. Sandy taught a youth Bible Study while DH was in high school. They have kept in touch over the years. She brought her son along with her. We hadn't seen him since he was a teenager.

The highlight for the kids was playing in the pool after a long day of working hard at speech and debate.

Friday night, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 10 PM. The time the pool should close. Management was kind and let the kids use the pool an additional hour or so. That was a blessing as they all really needed to unwind.

Speech and Debate Tournament has been a real blessing to our family. The wonderful friends they have made and the experiences they have had has really resulted in a lot of growth in their lives, both spiritual and intellectual. We are looking forward to all getting to do it again next year. Thank goodness for January birthdays.

~Mom