Sunday, May 15, 2016

Last two months of school

The last two months have been a whirwind.  We had several events with our Classical Conversations community, as well as our other local homeschool group.  This first set of pictures are from our CC Geo/Science Fair.  It was a wonderful evening!  Nicole did her project on Emperess LeiZu, from China who is credited with discovering silk.  She had a cute display, including a lego garden, flavored tea, and a sweet little empress costume

 Hannah's project was on the 10 plagues.  She made a diorama and had unleavened bread for everyone to try.

 Little man's display was on the history sentence about The Kush.  He even had a little area where the children could "mine for gold" (sprinkles) through the flour.  It was cute.
 Our last day of CC included a compass walk.
 Of course, there was a prize at the end.
 We were very excited for these 5 kiddos who achieved Memory Master Status.  Classical Conversations, cycle 1 Memory Master proofs today. They had to recite, from memory:
161 Timeline facts
US Presidents
24 history statements including people, dates, locations, events
120 locations of geographic features in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Old World.
24 science facts and lists
English grammar including prepositions, helping verbs, and linking verbs
Latin Noun Declensions
Multiplication tables to 15x15,basic geometry conversions, units of measurement, and mathematical laws.

It takes an hour or more to complete the proof, and months of studying. Our whole community is so proud of these kiddos ( and the many others that I am hearing who became subject masters). All of the kids in this picture are 9 years old.
 Our end of the year ceremony included a super fun photo booth.  Check out this little Egyptian queen.
 This looks like a Roman Soldier guarding a sweet princess, haha!


 Here are my people, hahaha!  I love these silly friends!
 My great friend, Jami....she's always been there :)
 These super silly friends are some of my favorite people.


I couldn't get these photos to move up.  The cool thing was...we could use the same projects for another homeschool project fair a weeks later.  And, Nicole used her research for a big research paper.  

 Hannah was actually interviewed by a newspaper at this event.



We had a really great school year.  Our busyness has slowed down, but we are still in full school mode around here.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Children's Business Fair

This weekend was the first Children's Business Fair in our area.  It was organized by a young man who is working toward his Eagle Scout Award.  The idea is to give children the opportunity to be entrepreneurs: to create a business plan, use and payback investors (parents),  create products, design a display and present their products to others.  It's an idea that our family can get behind, and one that we did!

For the past couple of weeks, the kids have planned and prepared their businesses.

Of course, Nicole's plan was to sell Lilla Rose. We have a busy month of events ahead of us, so she spent time investing in her display.  She spray painted her new shutter display.

 While she was working on her display, Nathan and Hannah were painting their display boxes as well.
 Nicole also got to use the drill to attach some L Brackets for stability.
 Three full days in our home consisted of our table and room looking like this.  Hannah spent hours and hours painting rocks for her business, Nicole worked on labeling all of her brochures and products, and Nate...well, he was just our entertainment.
 The aftermath of the first day.
 Daddy and an Easter peep decided to check out the game Hannah made up "Stack the Rocks".    They won!
 One day, our kitchen became an aeronautical test center.  Nathan and I spent a couple of hours throwing all of his paper airplanes and sorting them into containers and styles.
 His business was called "Planes Fly".
 Hannah's was called "Rock and Roll" and she painted a beautiful sign.
 Hannah's tic tac toe games, each set with a different design.


 The big day finally came (they were all so excited!)  Isn't Hannah's display pretty?  She is getting so big.


 Nicole's friend Emma joined her for the morning.  They worked hard at setting everything up just the way they wanted it.
 The shutters look great too!
 And, little man's station is adorable as well.  He sat out front and worked hard to engage the passerbyers.
 Nathan gets a chance to explain his airplanes to his friend and dad.
 Hannah is doing a wonderful job explaining her games to a potential customer.
 The girls were busy all morning long.
 Nathan is actually talking to one of the judges here.

 Unbeknownst to us, there was a competition as well.  Nathan won "Best Presentation" for his age bracket, which included a certificate and a $50 bill!
 Hannah also won and award for "Most creative idea" in her age bracket.  She was also given a $50 bill and certificate.
 Nicole and Emma didn't win an award, but that was ok with them!  However, their name was drawn and they won a Free Kindle.  They decided that they will share it, rotating it every 2 weeks.

This was such a cool event!  It gives me hope that others want to help rise up future leaders and entrepreneurs.  Let us encourage the children!!


Sunday, January 24, 2016

Girl's Day!


Jeremy took Nathan on his first father/son camp out this weekend....that will be a different post.
So, while they men are away, the girls will play :)  One way to keep the girls bummed from missing out on camping, was to give them something fun to look forward to.  So- we planned a Girl's Day!

I love some of these action shots of Nicole.

It started with bowling, courtesy of a great buy 3 games, get 3 games free coupon.


Nice form Hanny


Nicole was wearing one of my old shirts.  In fact, I think it was a favorite.  It's cuter on her.


WHAT????  I was SO close!

Yes!  Another spare!
Then, we took off for the Chalk Art show downtown.  It was really cold and windy, so we only stayed about 20 minutes, and didn't even take any pictures.

Our next stop was a pottery painting studio where the girls painted plates, and I painted a salt and pepper shaker.

We can't pick up our final art pieces for a few days.  And...I wasn't suppose to see Hannah's plate so I had to "not look" the whole time.


We finished our day with a few hours at the beauty salon where my mom gave me a good cut and color.



The night ended with Yaya spending the night and staying up late to watch "Mom's Night Out" with us.

We certainly missed the guys, but we didn't let that stop us from having fun :)