December 22 - January 2

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

MARISSA

Marissa wrote a paper after reading the books on John Brown and Frederick Douglas.  She did such a great job with her paper.  Her mentors are so impressed with how much her writing has improved this year.  Her ability to communicate through the written language has become such a strength for her.  Attached is a copy of her paper. 

Fight Hate With Love

December 8 - 12

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

MARISSA

Marissa read "Fiery Vision: The Life and Death of John Brown."  She also read "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas."  She really loved both of these books since she has studied a lot about the Civil War and detests slavery.  They had a great book discussion in her Quest class and she did great when she took her blue book test to see how much she had learned.  

December 15 - 19

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

MARISSA

Marissa had her piano recital this week.  She did such a great job!  Her teacher had her pick a song two levels above her playing ability to work on the past couple of months.  It was definitely a stretch for her, but she did it and she learned so much.  It was a great experience for her!

December 1 - 5

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

MARISSA

Marissa read the second half of "Democracy in America."  It was a really difficult book, but she pushed through.  She learned so much about Alexis de Toqueville's study of America and the principles that created this great nation.  She was definitely proud of this accomplishment, and her ability to keep up in a really challenging class.  She also enjoyed the book discussion, although it was a pretty high level for that group of  students.  

November 17 - 21

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has been working hard on math.  He is really learning and understanding the concepts.  He has a goal to finish two books this year and is on course to do so.  

MARISSA

Marissa finished reading "Give Me Liberty" for her Quest class.  She also wrote a paper on Patrick Henry.  She has been working so hard in all her classes and is doing such a great job.  For her papers, she is required to submit them to her writing mentor first.  The writing mentor helps her work on the quality of her paper and then she submits it to her Quest mentors.  This was her second paper this semester and she was so proud of it.  

Patrick Henry

CALEB

Caleb has been working so hard on his CTC math.  He went back and completed all of the lessons, even though he wasn't required to do that if he received 80% or above on the comprehensive exams.  It was so much work, but he completed it all, which brought his progress in math to 50% complete by the end of October with every single lessons having at least 80% correct and 5 stars of mastery.  He is amazing! 

November 10 - 14

 WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston wrote an essay for his language arts class.  It was about how to find meaning in life.  It was beautiful to see the ways that he finds meaning in his life.  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17gscMrTtwIJV2rGTz51CEh5bFPF0gAUerikbWWWEy-s/edit?usp=sharing

MARISSA

Marissa gave a presentation for her Pyramid class.  It was on Steve Irwin.  They are currently studying Zoology so this was a great fit.  Most of the class didn't know about Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, and they loved learning how passionate he was about animals and wildlife.  Marissa also has a passion for animals and even wants to be a vet when she grows up.  This was a perfect fit for her and she did a fantastic job! 

CALEB

Caleb read chapters 26-30 in Story of the World, Volume 3.  He enjoys learning about history and is having a great time discussing what he learned in his Ninja Scholars class.  

November 3 - 7

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston made a video for his YouTube channel this week.  He loves creating content and is focusing on improving his editing skills for both audio and video.  He was pleasantly surprised at how much engagement he received online.  He hopes to be able to spend more time creating videos in the future.

MARISSA

Marissa read "Democracy in America, Volume 1" for her Quest class this week.  It was a huge accomplishment for her to get through a book this large and difficult.  Only two of her peers finished in time for the book discussion and she was one of them!  She liked how they did a lot of comparisons between two countries and made good observations.  She also liked how De Toqueville allowed different opinions and ways of living to teach him.  He was humble enough to learn and try to replicate what he considered to be an ideal system of government.  

CALEB

Caleb read "Mrs. Frizby and the Rats of Nimh" for Ninja Scholars.  He said he really enjoyed the book and he even asked if this book was part of a series.  That is very high praise coming from this kid who definitely knows which types of books he enjoys.  

October 27 - 31

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has been working really hard this year at balancing school and work.  He has a job at Papa John's and has done a great job learning what is required of him, showing up on time and working long hours and going the extra mile for his manager.  It's so much fun to watch him work hard and save money for some of his long-term goals.  One goal he has is to participate in a humanitarian trip this coming summer.  It is expensive so he is saving up for it with his money from work.  

MARISSA

Marissa read "The Princess and the Goblin" by George MacDonald for colloquia for Polar Star.  She loved it!  I read the book years ago, but only remembered a little bit about it.  It was fun to have a conversation with her about her take-aways from the book.  She particularly loved how much courage and faith Irene needed to have to guide her so she could rescue Curdie. 

CALEB

Caleb attended "Peter Pan" with the family this week.  We all loved the ballet!  We have had a fun couple of weeks with lots of field trips added into our regular schoolwork, which is so much fun, but less frequent because of all the difficult classes and curricula the kids have this year.  

October 20 - 24

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston is working really hard on his math.  He is working on learning Geometry right now through the Learn Math Fast system.  He is catching on fairly well and is excited to get through both Geometry and Algebra this year.  

MARISSA

Marissa attended the play "Sister Act" at Hale Center theater this week.  It was so much fun!  She loved watching a play with this level of professionalism.  Moving the scenes up and down was so fascinating to watch as well.  We all agreed we would love a behind the scenes tour of the stage, props and scenery.  Marissa was also so excited because many of her peers from both Polar Star and Kindred were there as well.  It is always so much fun to see friends at events.  

CALEB

Caleb had a field trip to Black Island Farms this week.  Actually, he ended up going to two separate field trips, one with DaVinci and one with Ninja Scholars class at Polar Star.  He had a great time going on a hay ride, picking out a pumpkin and participating in so many other fun fall activities. 

 

October 13 - 17

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston watched another physics video in The Great Courses catelog.  It was called "Nature of Matter: Understanding the Physical World."  He's not really enjoying physics the way I was hoping he would, but he's pressing through anyway to try to learn what he needs to for this class.  

MARISSA

Marissa wrote a paper for her Pyramid class this week.  The focus this semester is Zoology.  She has been learning so much about animal classification.  She has specifically enjoyed learning about biomimicry, which is what her project this semester will is supposed to focus on.  She's excited and has a couple of ideas for her project that she started working on this past weekend.  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jK7i9T77LebiG6Fw-pVnQ2OLdhPgedmQHSngGOif-wY/edit?usp=sharing

CALEB

Caleb has a class at DaVinci called Biz Kids.  They are preparing for a big field trip in March at JA BizTown.  Caleb's group created a product this week as part of the class.  There were 5 of them and they made "Waffle-mon cards."  They are kind of like Pokemon cards, but they look like Waffles.  One of his friends, Liam, loves waffles, which is apparently where the idea originated.  It was fun to see the product when he brought it home. 

October 6 - 10

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston finished his book he was reading for enjoyment rather than a class this week.  It was "The Trials of Apollo" by Rick Riordan.  Preston has really enjoyed all of the books in the Percy Jackson series as well as the Heroes of Olympus series.  He loves fantasy books, especially this genre with the Greek gods.  I'm so glad he enjoys reading so much!    

MARISSA

Marissa read "Give Me Liberty" by Gene Edward Veith Jr. for her Quest class this week.  She also had a blue book essay test in class about the book.  She gets so nervous for the blue book tests, but she has done amazing demonstrating how much she learned from reading the book.  She learned about Patrick Henry in her Key of Liberty class three years ago so it was fun for her to read a book that went into more detail about him.  She said she really enjoyed it and she loves the courage that he had.  

CALEB

Caleb has been working so hard on his math the past week and a half.  We learned that even though he is able to skip lessons in CTC math when he gets 80% or more on the comprehensive test, that he wasn't really learning the parts that he didn't know.  We decided to have him work through all the lessons even if he already knows most of the material.  It meant a lot of extra lessons he hadn't planned on doing, but he was a champ and worked hard to catch up to where he wanted to be.  

September 29 - October 3

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston participated in the book discussion in Classical Acting this week.  He read the Greek Trajedy "Prometheus Bound" for class and was prepared to participate in the colloquium.  He had lots of good comments to add and enjoyed class this week.  He loves ancient Greece and has enjoyed this month focusing on themes and topics from that period of time.   

MARISSA

Marissa read "Math and Magic in Wonderland" for her Pyramid class.  She found it very interesting to learn about mathematical concepts through a fun story.  Math is definitely not her favorite subject, but she is doing a great job working through Pre-Algebra in the Learn Math Fast System this year.  She is also gaining greater understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts in her Pyramid class.  

CALEB

Caleb read "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" for his Ninja Scholars class.  He really enjoyed how mathematical Nat was in the book.  He said it was really interesting to learn how Nat used the stars to calculate where they were.  We looked up a few videos on YouTube to explain navigation even better.  It was really fun to learn. 

Caleb also completed a service project helping take ropes off of the peach trees at a peach orchard.  He had so much fun and even got to ride in the special cart down to the trees.  

September 22 - 26

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston wrote an essay for his language arts.  It was about spending time in nature.  He did a really good job of it.  I particularly liked how it impacted his heart.  He really meant everything that he said, which is refreshing to read in an essay.   

MARISSA

Marissa read "The Chosen" for her Quest Principles class this week.  She loved the themes of the book, especially the fact that two people who are so different can become such great friends.  Marissa is very open-minded about people from other cultures, religions, etc. and found it a beautiful story.  She also knows a lot about WWII from her Sword class a couple of years ago so it is always fun for her to read about that time period. 

CALEB

Caleb is working on fractions and decimals in CTC math.  He has taken several comprehensive tests and scored about 80% many times.  That means he is able to skip multiple lessons.  However, we decided that it would be a good idea to go back and learn the lessons for problems that he did miss on the comprehensive mastery exam so he is learning the parts he didn't understand well.  He's a great little mathematician.  

Sep 15 - 19

 WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston gave a presentation on city-states in Greece for in his Classical Acting class.  It was 15 minutes long.  He did such a great job explaining what different city-states were, how they had their own type of government, religion, etc.  He also talked  a little bit about wars between city-states in Greece in 400BC. 

MARISSA

Marissa read "A Place to Stand" for her Quest class.  It was about Martin Luther in the 1500s.  She took such great notes in her book and in her commonplace notebook that helped her during their book discussion.  She also had her first blue book test on the book during class.  She was so nervous that she wouldn't write well or fast enough or her ideas would not be organized, but she did a fantastic job.  

CALEB

Caleb read "James and the Giant Peach" for his personal reading.  He loved it and was excited to watch the movie after he finished the book.  

He also worked on inspirements for his Ninja Scholars class.  He researched dances from the South Pacific islands and told his class about the Kailao, which is a dance from Tonga.  He also learned that the Samoan Slap Dance started with men slapping at mosquitoes on their body and it became a traditional dance performed by men from there.  

Sep 8 - 12

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has been focusing on math this year.  This week he finished the 3rd book in the "Learn Math Fast" curriculum.  He is understanding equations and plots on a graph so much better.  We are so grateful to have found this math curriculum for him.  

MARISSA

Marissa read the first half of "The 5000 Year Leap" for her Quest class and memorized the first seven principles.  She also gave an oral presentation on a current event and selected which principle it corresponded with.  She did a great job and said that after he oral presentation, she talked about the need to be positive even when we are exposed to negative news.  It was really inspiring to see her growth in this area.  

CALEB

Caleb read "Matilda" for his silent reading the past two weeks.  He just finished the book and said he really enjoyed it.  He has almost finished the whole Roald Dahl box book set that he received for Christmas last year.  He loves reading and is progressing well in his reading and comprehension.  

Sep 1 - 5

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston and Marissa both had their audition for Classical Acting this week.  They did a combined audition as Ned Leads and Peter Parker.  They were prepared with blocking, props, costumes, and memorization.  They did such a great job!  It was so funny!  

MARISSA

Marissa read "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" for her Pyramid class.  She really liked how much he loved arithmetic and how good he was at figuring things in his head.  She also loved his attitude about being an indentured servant.  He wasn't happy about it, but he made the most of it.  She loved how he studied new subjects like languages on his own and became proficient at many different things.  She found the book very inspiring.  

CALEB

Caleb read "Chico of the Andes" as part of his language arts curriculum.  He has learned so much this year!  He loved the book.  It was about a boy who lived in the mountains of Brasil.  He said he doesn't want to say anything else about the book because that would spoil it.  

OTHER

We attended the "Why I Love America" program as a family this week.  It was so good!  We all enjoyed watching stories from history that were acted out, listening to the songs that were performed and hearing Brad Wilcox speak about freedom.  Our favorite part was singing the last two verses of "The Star Spangled Banner" with others in the audience.  It was so touching and brought tears to our eyes!

August 25 - 29

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has been working a lot on his math.  His goal is to finish two levels of math this year.  He also attended kickoff for Polar Star.  He had such a positive experience.  He loved the book they read "Do Hard Things" and he participated in the book discussion.  He also enjoyed bike riding, 9 square, watching the movie "Raising the Bar" and other activities he did throughout the day.  

MARISSA

Marissa attended two separate kickoffs this past week.  One was for her Quest class.  They went repelling and discussed the reading and writing requirements for the class.  It is quite a big load, but she is so excited.  Repelling was difficult for her, but she faced her fears and did it.  

The second kickoff was for Polar Star.  She got to introduce some of the new scholars as a secretary on the student council.  She also participated in a book discussion for the book "Do Hard Things".  It quickly became one of her favorite books.  She also watched the movie "Raising the Bar" and loved that as well.  It was such a fun, packed day getting to know her mentors and peers for this upcoming school year.  

CALEB

Caleb has been working so hard on his language arts this past week.  He realized he had misunderstood a couple of the sections and had to go back and fix a few things.  It took him quite a while and he was pretty discouraged.  But he did it and I am so proud of him for working so hard!  

August 18 - 22

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has been reading a lot.  He finished reading "The Blood of Olympus" in the Heroes of Olympus series.  He also read "Chalice of the Gods" which is a Percy Jackson book.  He loves reading and fantasy is his favorite genre.  

MARISSA

Marissa completed a Tinker Crate this week.  It was a lock box that has a full working key mechanism.  She was so fascinated with the process that she looked up videos on how locks work and did extra research to understand it better.  She loves created - either from a kit or from her own imagination!

CALEB

Caleb read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" this week.  He has really started to love reading and has read so many great books this summer.  He is also getting back into a school routine with his language arts and math lessons, and can't wait to start science class.    

OTHER

We went to "The Museum of Ancient Life" for a fun family field trip.  The kids loved seeing all the dinosaurs and ancient sea creatures.  We had such a fun time exploring and learning together.