Thursday, February 20, 2014

President's week

Mom is making me write again. I get frustrated sometimes when I have to write, but Mom thinks it’s important. I would rather play a new game that I learned, called Rummy Roots, during my English time, or read the new book series that I started.  Almost everything is better than writing.  
               I don’t like writing because typing is a subject that I am horrible at. I don’t type fast because I can’t think and type at the same time. Then, I get frustrated.  I still don’t know how to type because the program that I use does not seem work for me. Mom is going to find another typing program, I think. Also, after I write, my mom makes me print my writing. Then, I have to circle every linking verb (was and were) and rewrite the sentence using active verbs. I would rather just read. Today, I accidently deleted my writing, after working on it for over an hour, and then mom made me write the whole thing all over again. She said that mistakes like that will happen over and over again (this is the third time I’ve done that) if I don’t learn to save my work. She said I will not learn my lesson unless I rewrite it over again. I cried when she said that, but then I finally stopped crying and rewrote this blog.  
               Last week, I finished my fourth-grade vocabulary book. My mom did not order the fifth-grade book as she planned, because she decided that I was not really learning the vocabulary words.  I would study the vocabulary words long enough to take the quiz, and then I would forget them. Mom decided that I should learn root words instead of vocabulary words. Mom found a card game using root words. It is called Rummy Roots. When I learn all the Greek and Latin roots, I will be able to figure out long words. We play Rummy Roots the same way that we play Go Fish. After I know all the root words, we will play the game similar to the game of Rummy, except we will play it with root word cards. I like Rummy Roots a lot better than the vocabulary words. I’ve only been playing it with my mom for a few days, and once I played with my dad, and I already know many of the root words.
               Mom took us to the library on Monday, but it was closed because of President’s Day. We never even thought that the library might be closed because we are not taking off a week for President’s Day. On Tuesday, we went to the library again. I checked out a few Greek Mythology Books. I just started reading a new series by Rick Riordan, and it’s about characters in Greek Mythology. I love the series, but I need to understand the myths better in order to follow the books. Mom also chose a book for me called The Secret Garden. At first, I did not want the book because it looked like it was for girls, but now I am enjoying it a lot.
               Yesterday, my friend and his family (and my Grandma) came ice-skating with us. It was the only day we took off school this week. All the grownups watched us kids skate. The ice-rank is a gigantic oval, inside an arena. I was so sore after skating for three hours that my legs hurt that night. We played bumper cars with chairs on the ice, and ate pizza for lunch. It’s been a busy week for everyone.


Thursday, February 13, 2014

Catching up!

We had several field trips this year already that I never took the time to write in my blog, so I will do that today.  We've been busy homeschooling during the week, and skiing every weekend. This winter has been exceptionally cold and snowy, which is great for skiers.  To top all that off, we also got the stomach bug in February.
On Friday Jan.31, we attended laser tag for a boring class on lights and optics. A worker presented a slide show on a screen that explained how light travels. She asked questions, but none of the kids would raise their hands to answer. The slide show did not interest me at all, but the laser tag games made my day. The big laser tag arena was dark and foggy. The fog helped us see the lasers so that we could aim and hide. The arena had two floors and a lot of walls so that we could hide. There were mirrors on the walls, so that we could shoot the mirrors and the laser would bounce off the mirror and hit a person.
The first week of Feb. we got the stomach bug. We were throwing up all week. We had to take a bowl into our beds for several nights. Charles got sick first, then Asia and then pretty much all of the family the only one who didn’t throw up is my brother Connor.  What a horrible week for us!
               After we got over the stomach bug, we drove to Sky Zone in Greece, a thirty-minute drive. Sky Zone is a place that is an indoor trampoline park that just opened up last month. A homeschooling family reserved the whole gym for a homeschool group. There were over a hundred homeschoolers there, although it was not an educational field trip. This is the first field trip that we’ve taken that did not have learning involved. I played dodge ball on the trampolines and basketball too. We jumped for a full hour.  We got a lot of exercise, but Conner complained the next day that his legs hurt.
               This winter we have been able to go skiing every weekend. We ski at Swain Ski Resort. We used to be at taekwondo every Saturday, but now that we don’t take taekwondo anymore, we have more time to ski.  I usually go skiing with Connor, while Dad takes Leo and Sam. A few weeks ago, I fell and hurt my knee. The ski patrol came and took me down the hill on a toboggan.  The ski patrol put a splint on my leg. The next day, I limped around, but it did feel better in a few days. We were supposed to go to Holiday Valley on February 3, but that week is when we got sick. We have rescheduled the Holiday Valley ski day for a day in March.

               It’s been a busy year so far for the Peters. I will try to write more regularly so that I don’t have to spend so much time trying to remember all that happened in the past month.  The foster children will be moving out soon, and we will have less noise in the house. That will be better for homeschooling.