Friday January 17. Half way through the school year!

I am creating a project for school. I am making a U.S History time-line. I am researching the history of the United States from the year 1600 to the year 2000. I am learning a lot of new facts. The project will probably take the rest of the year, but I am excited to make a time-line. My time-line is longer than our dining room table that seats twelve people. I will put all the wars, some pictures of the presidents, and other important facts. I might put the changing of technology on it too.
For Geography, I am learning the capitals of the states on the computer. For Math, I am working in my Math book, but it is hard. Today, I learned how to factor and metric measurements. We are so busy now that we have decided not to go to taekwondo anymore. We just don't have enough money and time right now. Also, we can't travel around the United States anymore to go to competitions because of our foster children. I am kind of sad, bu also I like having the extra time at night. If there was a daytime taekwondo class, we might still go, but there isn't and when we go to taekwondo our dinner gets to be too late at night. Instead, now we have time to watch a family movie at night. Last night we watched a movie (called April Morning) that was all about the battles of Lexington and Concord. A few years ago, we went to visit Lexington and Concord. We have a coffee cup with John Parker's famous saying, "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."  That was the beginning of the Revolutionary War. I feel that when I homeschool, we get to do many things that we didn't get to do in regular school. I miss my friends though. I hope that they are doing well. I hope that I can see them in the summer. 

January 6. Back to School

I have not blogged in a.most a month because of Christmas vacation. All the puppies went to their new homes right before vacation. It suddenly seemed quiet at our house. We kept one puppy named Lilly. Lilly is cute. She is also smart. We now have two puppies, Caesar and Lilly, and two grown dogs. I have been clicker training the puppies. It seems really easy to train Lilly for some reason. I use a clicker, and when I click the puppies come and I give them treats. Lilly likes to play outside in the snow, but Caesar does not like the cold.

For Christmas, I got three sweatshirts and some socks.  I also got a remote control car and a rip stick.  After we opened our presents, we got in the car to drive to Holiday Valley to go skiing .  We rented two rooms at the Holiday Valley Inn. My mom did not ski because her knees hurt and she had a cold. I skied with my big brothers . There was a pool and hot tub at the hotel. We played chicken in the pool. There was a restaurant, but the food was expensive so we brought a cooler with food. I had a great time. This is my third year staying at Holiday Valley on Christmas.  I hope we can go again next year.

This week, we went skiing a few times at Swain.  I had a big fall on Saturday. I hit a ledge and flew and I rolled. My skis and poles went flying. This week, it’s too cold to go skiing. It is so cold that schools closed. My school never closes!

On Friday, because it was so cold, we went to play laser tag. I tagged a lot of people. We got to play three rounds. My mom is coordinating a class at laser tag about Light and Optics. That will be at the end of January.  I have a cold now too. 

GCVM December 12, 2013

Today we went to the Genesee Country Village Museum for their Christmas homeschooling days. We have been looking forward to this field trip since October. We were supposed to go there for a Cider making event in October, but it got cancelled because of the weather.  Today, I had to bundle up in layers so that I would be warm enough. It was only 9 degrees outside and snowy. I was so glad when mom told me it did not get cancelled.

 We waited for the other homeschoolers to arrive for 30 minutes. Then our guide took us to an old barn, where we made crackers full of candy, like people did in the 18^th century. Crackers were toilet paper rolls wrapped in tissue paper and decorated pretty. Inside the roll was candy. People from England used to make these holiday treats.

Then, we went to an old house and someone talked about how Christmas began and some of the older Christmas traditions. Before Christmas was ever the celebration of Jesus, people celebrated the winter solstice and the coming of spring. Some people went crazy during this festival. They would go around town and ring bells and yell. We got to do this too!

We stopped into another house next door. There was an old lady there who grew up in Germany. She was dressed as if she lived in the 18^th century too. She taught us about the first Christmas trees and how they were first to celebrate Adam and Eve’s birth. We saw many hand-made decorations.

               After lunch, we went to an old-fashioned General Store. It had a wood-stove in the center, and it was warmer than the other buildings. We all went immediately to the stove to warm up our hands. The storekeeper told us about all the different items that would be sold in a General Store in the 18^th century. They had a lot of stuff there, such as fabric, buckets, marbles, watering cans, wooden toys, and mail boxes. The General Store was also the post office.

          We walked to the church next. We sang Christmas carols and learned some of the carols history. For example, the song Silent Night was first a poem that a man made up when he was taking a night-time stroll on a cold, clear night. His friend came over and made up guitar music to with the poem because the organ in the church was broken.

          Our last stop was an old house from Rochester NY. There, a man read “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to us. A guy was dressed up as St. Nick, the way that he used to dress. We saw some pictures of different ways that St. Nick is thought of in other countries and long ago.

          We didn’t get to do the last activity, which was dancing, because we had to come home to meet the little kids’ bus. I learned a lot about old Christmas traditions today. I felt cold, but I thought it was worth bravi

Today we went to the Genesee Country Village Museum for their Christmas homeschooling days. We have been looking forward to this field trip since October. We were supposed to go there for a Cider making event in October, but it got cancelled because of the weather.  Today, I had to bundle up in layers so that I would be warm enough. It was only 9 degrees outside and snowy. I was so glad when mom told me it did not get cancelled.

 We waited for the other homeschoolers to arrive for 30 minutes. Then our guide took us to an old barn, where we made crackers full of candy, like people did in the 18^th century. Crackers were toilet paper rolls wrapped in tissue paper and decorated pretty. Inside the roll was candy. People from England used to make these holiday treats.

Then, we went to an old house and someone talked about how Christmas began and some of the older Christmas traditions. Before Christmas was ever the celebration of Jesus, people celebrated the winter solstice and the coming of spring. Some people went crazy during this festival. They would go around town and ring bells and yell. We got to do this too!

We stopped into another house next door. There was an old lady there who grew up in Germany. She was dressed as if she lived in the 18^th century too. She taught us about the first Christmas trees and how they were first to celebrate Adam and Eve’s birth. We saw many hand-made decorations.

               After lunch, we went to an old-fashioned General Store. It had a wood-stove in the center, and it was warmer than the other buildings. We all went immediately to the stove to warm up our hands. The storekeeper told us about all the different items that would be sold in a General Store in the 18^th century. They had a lot of stuff there, such as fabric, buckets, marbles, watering cans, wooden toys, and mail boxes. The General Store was also the post office.

          We walked to the church next. We sang Christmas carols and learned some of the carols history. For example, the song Silent Night was first a poem that a man made up when he was taking a night-time stroll on a cold, clear night. His friend came over and made up guitar music to with the poem because the organ in the church was broken.

          Our last stop was an old house from Rochester NY. There, a man read “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to us. A guy was dressed up as St. Nick, the way that he used to dress. We saw some pictures of different ways that St. Nick is thought of in other countries and long ago.

          We didn’t get to do the last activity, which was dancing, because we had to come home to meet the little kids’ bus. I learned a lot about old Christmas traditions today. I felt cold, but I thought it was worth braving the weather.

December 10, 2013

 I found a new program today. It is called Khan Academy. My friend’s mom sent the link to this program to my mom. My brother, Connor, has been using this program, but it is the first time that I ever tried it. The program has YouTube lessons on different subjects. I created the letter H using computer code. I spent one hour, and I learned that I can create shapes using code. I felt that it took me longer than an hour. I had to start over once because our computer suddenly said that it wasn’t connected to the internet. I felt frustrated, but proud that I was able to learn computer code.

 I’ve been also learning Morse code. I read about Morse code in a Science book, and I looked it up on the internet. I want to learn more about coding and different codes. No one can read codes except for the people who learn. When I took my Morse code to taekwondo, I wrote Hi and the other students didn’t know what it said.

Our neighbor brought us a stamping kit today. I like to draw and do other art projects, and we can use the stamp kit sometime soon. Mom bought us stained glass ornaments to paint and to put on the Christmas tree. We are very busy every day.

Last weekend we went skiing for the first time this season. I picked it up again very quickly. There weren’t a lot of ski hills open yet because there isn’t enough snow. We didn’t stay that long. We are going skiing again this weekend. Going fast feels like flying.

The puppies have grown a lot. When I go in the hot-tub room, the puppies chase me. They jump on me and want to play. The puppies do not stay in their whelping box anymore because they have crates. The puppies will be going to their homes soon. Yankee and Frisco leave last because they are flying to California. We will all miss our puppies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garth Fagan Dance 12/5/13

I know it has been a long time since I blogged. Not much has happened but today we went to Nazareth Performing Arts Center to see a dance performance. We watched Garth Fagan Dance. My favorite part of the dance was called the lightning rod. The lightning rod is when the dancers wear sparkly clothes that reflect the light. It looks likes kind of like lightning. It was a really cool experience.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

November 12, 2013 The Clara Barton Museum

Yesterday, we went on a tour of Clara Barton’s house .My friend came too. My mom let me bring my camera and I took a lot of pictures. Clara Barton was the person who started the Red Cross in the United States. Her interest in helping soldiers began during the Civil War. Clara Barton was the first women ever allowed to go on a battlefield. She collected medical supplies and delivered them to the battlefields. After visiting Switzerland and helping the Red Cross there, Clara Barton (who was in her 40s) began to think about starting a Red Cross in the United States. Clara Barton started the Red Cross in 1882, in the town near ours, Dansville, New York.  When she was younger, Clara Barton’s first job was teaching in a one room school house in New Jersey. It was one of the first public schools in New Jersey. While we were there, we met the artist who painted all the pictures displayed in the house.  We saw an old time bedroom and bathtub. We saw a picture of all the Red Cross medals volunteers could receive for helping people. The second to last thing we saw were some Red Cross uniforms. One of the uniforms was donated by a girl who served in Canada for the Red Cross. The last we saw was a metal sculpture cross that donated by some students locally. I learned many things about the Red Cross and Clara Barton yesterday.

November 4, 2013

This week we were busy with the puppies. Annie (our mamma dog) pooped in the house a lot because she is eating all day and all night, and after the first few nights my mom stopped getting up with her every hour to let her outside. Annie is a good mother and nurses her puppies all day and all night long. The littlest puppy has gained a few ounces every day. We've decided that we will keep her. My mom's best friend had been asking to keep Maggie, our six year old Golden Retriever, and Mom finally said yes. Then we can keep a puppy without it being too crazy here, with too many dogs. It will be difficult to housebreak the new puppy. We need to name her soon.
 My brother John came home from  college this weekend. He hasn't been home in a month, so it was great to see him. Whenever he is home, Mom cooks his favorite foods. We had macaroni and cheese and KFC too. We'll see John again over Thanksgiving break.
On Saturday, we went to Taekwondo all day. We went to a mixed aged class, and to sparring class. I sparred many times. There is a tournament coming up, but we are probably not going to go because it's expensive. I'm a red belt now. I will be black belt in another year or so.
I go to Taekwondo four times a week. I've been taking lessons for three years now. Taekwondo is my homeschool gym class!
I am getting good at reading. Last night, I read my brothers their bedtime stories. Only a year ago, my dad had to read to me. Lately, I've been having a great time listening to the audiobooks of the series 39 Clues. The audio books are easier than reading regular books. I tried to read the 39 Clues series, but it was too difficult. When the narrator reads the book to me, I can understand it better.
I read other series of books by myself, such as, Geronimo Stone and Magic Treehouse. Tuesdays I get to read all day long, unless we have a field trip. That reminds me, I better go to the library today to get books for tomorrow!