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Volcano Project nearly complete – if you look closely then you can see animals in the foothills, oblivious to the carnage to come.

Our youngest kids did a great job with their Science Fair project. The project is on a “tri-fold display board” made by Elmer’s.

Getting the electric motor project working for our oldest has been tougher. We got the rectangular homopolar motor to spin but have been struggling to get our “tiny dancer” to rotate.

We have a video clip that’s more impressive than this photo but I haven’t cracked the code on posting videos.

The first season of Colorado Classroom ended with 14 episodes. We’ve enjoyed the programming so started our 2nd Grader on the 3rd Grade lessons. She sits beside me and we do the class together. She’s a sweet kid and I enjoy our time together.

The Blue Gem of Mystery Island. A good coach can get you to do things you wouldn’t do on your own. Many thanks to Coach K, Axel’s English Tutor.

Got the COVID Blahs? Here’s a list of ideas to shake things up:

  • Field trip to a local volcano/park – Dinosaur Ridge is on my list for when we climb Mount Sherman
  • Trails/trees/nature
  • Bake a cake
  • Ice cream takeout 
  • Run through a sprinkler
  • Date night, in – Movie for the kids – last one we watched was Four Kids & It
  • Night walk – kids love anything in the dark
  • Train for something “scary” – our oldest has been doing NCAR hill repeats for an attempt to ride up Mount Evans, the top 14 miles is closed to cars this summer
  • Science Fair
  • Learn next year’s math – you can get it done in July/August
  • Write a book – this was my son’s June project with his English teacher – his younger sister will give it a shot in July
  • Need more ideas? Here’s a Google Doc shared by a master teacher.

If you’re caught in a rut then schedule a change.

To get myself to try something new, it helps if I fix a date, and a time, in my calendar.

I’m the rider-of-last-resort for my daughter and got the call yesterday. Se we headed up Flagstaff Mountain for an afternoon session. Lifetime personal best for a continuous climb and she did great.

Her pacing reminded me of a buddy in Utah (T.G.) – she took it out hard from the bridge then settled in.

I still laugh thinking about TG’s training camp many years ago. I’m on the far side of elite performance but he’s still crushing it.

About halfway up, that’s the 1st Flatiron dead ahead – our route curves around to the right
We can see these flags from our front door in BoCo. They must look a long way up to a kid.
Matching camo mask and shirt – pink & grey pedals paired with her Camelbak – high-end shorts courtesy of a very elite athlete – in endurance sport, some of the best are the size of boys and girls. We live at 5,500 ft.

In case you’re wondering, she didn’t climb with her mask but I was curious so rolled mine the entire time.

It was 90F in the shade. The mask starts to get challenging above 225w => fortunately, my ride buddy’s “age-grouper pacing” settled a half-mile after the bridge.