COLUMN: Team Yarn, Hats for cancer patients!

by Aurora J. Pass

PHS Press staff Member

Team Yarn – Head Huggers helps cancer patients. It’s an organization that makes hats, scarves, shawls, blanket, and so on for cancer patients, and you can help us by donating in the Team Yarn drop box at PHS. Team Yarn’s website is: http://teamyarn.blogspot.com/, and the Facebook page is: Team Yarn - Head Huggers.

Team Yarn was founded by Amy Pass, my mom, because her mom, my grandma Cheryl Slater, died of cancer. We wanted to do something to help.

 “Starting Team Yarn gave me something productive to do when I was grieving after my mom died from cancer,” said Amy. We started Team Yarn because the hospital that my Grandma was at gave her hats, and we wanted to help.

The co founder of Team Yarn is Tesha M. Christensen Pettit, teacher of the Newspaper Writing Class at PHS. Team Yarn just celebrated its second birthday at the January 2015 meeting. Meetings are every third Sunday of every month at Silverwood Park in New Brighton  from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

 The meetings are a time for people to get together, knit, crochet, and drop off finished projects to donate to hospitals. Stop by if you want. We always love new members of our group.

We try to donate to hospitals once a month. Every time they are always happy to get new items to give away. It makes everyone happy to know people care so much.

There is a Team Yarn drop box at the table when you walk in the door at Planet Homeschool. So, whoever wants to donate can. If you do donate please pin your name to the hat so whoever gets that item can know who made it. I will be taking your items home at the end of the day.  You don’t have to know how to knit or crochet. You can donate items you made or yarn.

A book review on 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline

by Solomon Midwinter
PHS Press staff member

Ready Player One is a truly great book, if you don't mind something that can be depressing at points.  It takes place in a dystopian, post apocalyptic world, where there was an Eco disaster that greatly damaged human civilization.  All the oil and coal has more or less run out. 

    The protagonist is a boy called Wade Watts, and his story up until the point where the book starts is not very happy.  He never knew his father, and his mother died when he was pretty young, so his aunt took him in, not out of any sense of kindness or family duty, but simply because she could use him to get extra food vouchers.  She doesn't even feed him or anything.  So, up until the point where the story starts, Wade has been just barely getting by. 
    A lot of the story, however, doesn't take place in the real world at all.  Instead, more than half of the book takes place inside a virtual reality called the OASIS, the biggest, most spectacular, hugely unbelievable video game ever created. 
    And it's not just Wade.  Most of humanity spends most of their time inside the OASIS.  It is, to them, simply a better place than the real world.  While this is pretty sad, it also reflects just how broken the world is at the time when the book takes place.
    But there wouldn't be much of a story if it weren't for James Halliday, the creator and owner of the OASIS, who died and left one most interesting will behind. 
    He turned his last will and testament into the biggest video game contest ever. He did this by hiding an Easter egg inside the OASIS, and explaining simply in his will that his entire estate would go to the first person to find it. 
    And it turns out that there is an elaborately hidden Easter egg in both the hardcover and paperback (and hopefully kindle) editions of the book, the first clue in a series of video game tests that is somewhat like that in the book.  The prize was a 1981 DeLorean.  I know Craig Queen won but even so, I'm going to do it, just to see if I could have won.
    Ready player one is filled with many great things.  There are great moments, some hilarious, some heartbreaking, and some that are just awesome. 
    So, it has been five years since Halliday's death, and the scene is set.  This book can be  hilarious, and is filled with strong characters, all set against an epic backdrop.  This is a book that I highly recommend. 

LARPing the day away

by Bridger Berg

PHS Press staff member

Aurora J. Pass as a wood elf

Aurora Pass, 12, a PHS student living in Minneapolis, enjoys Live Action Role Play (LARP) with friends after PHS classes.

As Pass said, LARPing is a fun way of acting out a certain character in a storyline, and imagining that the things they do are real.

Asked why she likes to do this, she answered: “It’s really fun and [is also] fun to base games on books, mostly fantasy and some Sci fi.” However, according to Pass, when they base something on literature, they do not just act out the book, it’s more like they make their own story out of the premise of the original.

Asked what she likes to do most in the games she said: “Well, I’m best at dying actually.”

Lego role playing because it is fun

by Aurora J. Pass

PHS Press staff member

Bridger Berg age 12, PHS Press staff member, lives in St. Paul, and his hobby is making up Lego games, characters, and fortresses for Lego role playing.

He plays with friends at his home, in St. Paul, on earth, on the Orion arm, in the Milky Way galaxy. Berg does this because he says it’s fun.

Now you might be thinking Live Action Role Playing or Role Playing table games, but this is different. It’s with Legos. All you need is some imagination and Legos.

Meet PHS Guitar Instructor Joe Filipovich

Get to know Planet Homeschool guitar instructor Joe Filipovich (jfmusiclessons.com). Video and interview by Parker Lehman and Malachi Johnson.

Joe is a guitar teacher who offers lessons at PHS. He has almost thirty years of guitar experience and has been teaching for five years. You can contact him at http://www.jfmusiclessons.com or through the PHS website.

What's your favorite book series?

Cast your vote in our poll! Find the poll in our right sidebar.

What do you think the results will be?

They made screaming mandrakes in Harry Potter class

At PHS, there are many classes, of all types.  There are the ones that you might find in a normal school, like classes on math and history, and then there are the more interesting ones, the ones that are hard to find elsewhere.  These include things such as Lord of the Rings as literature, or the Harry Potter crafts and gizmos class. 

Here are a few video interviews with some members of the Harry Potter class, and its instructor, Michelle Lehman.


Interviewer: Solomon Midwinter
Filmed and edited by Aurora J. Pass

VIDEO: Good Morning Middle Earth #3 - News from Isengard

News Reporter: Willow Skidmore

King Theodin: Ethan Lehman

Script written by: Aurora Pass

Videographer: Solomon Midwinter

Inspired by the The Lord of the Rings as Literature taught by Elise Duval Werger

at Planet Homeschool

Amity Neubauer: the next Angelina Jolie

by Malachi Johnson

PHS Press staff member

Amity Neubauer at the age of 11 lives in Apple Valley, MN. 

Neubauer’s favorite thing to do is act.  She is a seasoned actress with many productions in her portfolio such as ‘Sleeping Beauty’.  She loves spending time acting out stories on the stage.  Neubauer divulged that watching people on T.V. got her into acting.  She also admitted that she thought playing as different people would be “cool and fun”… Does she still feel this way? She wouldn’t say…

When asked who she likes to act as most she answered with shifty eyes “PEOPLE”. But when asked how she likes to act she responded “AS HUMANS “.  Neubauer is working on her next production as a mere mortal.  You will not want to forget the soon to be famous name of Amity Neubauer...                                                                     

WATCH OUT HOLLYWOOD.