September 26 - 30

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston had a really fun class in Sword of Freedom this week!  He got to learn from an individual from the military about the different ranks and what they mean.  He also got to learn marching drills.  He loved it! 

Preston earned his black belt in karate this week!  It was an incredible day!!  The test lasted from 9am-4pm and then he had an amazing belt ceremony.  He has worked extremely hard for this goal for four whole years.  It was so great to see him accomplish something so meaningful to him.  

MARISSA

Marissa wrote a paper for Key of Liberty this week about what it means to have God-given rights and what those right are.  She also had a book discussion on the book "William Bradford, Pilgrim Boy."  She really enjoyed the book!  

Marissa read Act II, Scene 3-5 in "The Merchant of Venice" for her Shakespeare class.  She loves poetry and is really catching onto the prose in Shakespeare plays.  

CALEB

Caleb had a really fun class in Heroic Youth.  He learned about dinosaurs and fossils.  He read a book called "Fossil by Fossil."  He also read a book called "Dinosaur Lady."  It was all about Mary Anning and how she was the first paleontologist at a time when women weren't even allowed to be professionals in the field of geology.  It was a great book and the discussion with the kids was so much fun!  He got to dig for fossils, match the fossil footprints with the dinosaur, and participate in an excavation using a toothpick to carefully dig out chocolate chips from a cookie.  So much fun!  

Caleb enjoyed the class so much that he chose several dinosaur books at home to read aloud to me throughout the course of the week.  It inspired him to learn more and read a lot of really great books!

September 19 - 23

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston learned about the Missouri Compromise in his Sword of Freedom class.  He also wrote a paper about compromise and when it is appropriate.

In Georgics, Preston has been working on a plan for his project.  He got to go out to the farm to help harvest and clean up the farm, feed animals and learn about work, joy and providence.  

MARISSA

Marissa wrote a paper for Key of Liberty this week about why it is important to have a moral people in order to have a good government.  She did a great job!  

Marissa read Act II, Scene 1-2 for Shakespeare.  She is enjoying the play they are studying in depth for her class this semester.  

Her favorite part of the week is choir and play practice for Lion King Jr.  She's part of the ensemble.  They are learning an African song right now.  They are also putting together a small pre-play production for the ensemble to put on for the parents.  Marissa is part of the cheetah tribe and gets to perform back handsprings for the play.  She's really excited about that! 

CALEB

Caleb continues to work on his reading, writing and math skills every day.  He also practices his piano daily.  He loves math and science and has a very inquisitive mind!  

This week, he learned about ancient Egypt in his Heroic Youth class.  He got to create a 3D map of Egypt with sand in his class.  They learned about pharoahs, treasure, sarcophogas, pyramids, King Tut and all about the geography of Egypt.  It was so interesting to learn that the Nile flows south to north and that is why they call the south part of Egypt "upper Egypt."  

September 12 - 16

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston finished reading "Little Men" for his Georgics class.  He also completed four journal entries to share with his teacher.  He wrote a paper about "where is his allegiance and why is it important to have one" for his Sword of Freedom class. 

MARISSA

Marissa started reading "William Bradford, Pilgrim Boy" for her "Key of Liberty class.  

She also drew a picture of our neighbor's dogs for them.  She loves art so much!  

CALEB

Caleb has been working on his piano every day.  He loves taking piano lessons and learning new piano songs every week.  He's learning Mozart's Sonata in A.  He loves it!

Caleb also got excited about art when Marissa had out the art supplies.  He decided to work on his drawing skills.  Here is a picture of a Lego guy he drew.  

OTHER

STORYTELLING FESTIVAL

We attended the Storytelling Festival at Thanksgiving Pointe.  It was so much fun to listen to the different styles of storytelling.  The kids got excited about working on their own storytelling skills.  Marissa and Caleb each picked out a puppet to take home with them.  It was a great experience!

September 5 - 9

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston attended his first day of classes and loved them.  He is taking Sword of Freedom, which focuses on the Civil War time frame in our nation's history, Georgics, which is learning about self-reliance and entreprenurial skills, and Wilderness Survival.  He loved all his classes and had a great day! 

Preston started reading "Little Men" for his Georgics class.  He's also been reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and completing three to four math lessons every week.  

He practices karate for one hour every day, in addition to his regularly schedule karate lessons.  His belt test is in two weeks.  He is both excited and nervous for that big moment in his life!

MARISSA

Marissa completed her race to royalty for her Shakespeare class and was crowed a queen.  She had a great book discussion about "Red Scarf Girl" in her "Key of Liberty" class.  She is also attending Wilderness Survival.  

CALEB

Caleb loved his Heroic Youth class.  He learned about what it means to be a hero, read books about every day heroes and make a super hero of his own to take home.  

He does handwriting, reading and math every day.  He also practices the piano and is looking forward to his karate class that starts in a few weeks.  

August 29 - September 2

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston started reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" for his Sword of Freedom class.  He's also been doing a math lesson each day as well as working on his karate lessons and preparing for his upcoming belt test.  

Preston and Marissa both attended kickoff for Polar Star this week.  Preston is the historian on the Youth Council this year and gets to take pictures (which he loves) and help put together the yearbook and a video at the end of the school year.  Preston dressed up as an old fashioned photographer for an introduction skit the Youth Council put on for the other scholars.  Both kids participated in a book discussion of "Tale of Despereaux," had fun team building activities, participated in a service project at Pine View, played at the lake, had a delicious dinner and dessert, listened to an inspiring speaker talk about "seeking truth," (the theme for this year), and finished off a long day at a glow party with dancing and glow-in-the-dark 9-square.  

MARISSA

Marissa started reading "Red Scarf Girl" to prepare for her Key of Liberty class.  She has also been completing one math lesson in CTC math or Elephant Math each day.  

Marissa also attended her first day of choir and theater this week.  She is excited to participate in the ensemble for "Lion King Jr" and learn fun Christmas songs for the choir concert in December.  

CALEB

Caleb has been working on phonics with reading cards to bridge a gap in reading before he moves up a level in his language arts curriculum.  He completes 3-5 cards (phonics concepts) as well as one reader each day.  He is also working on improving his fine motor skills with lots of handwriting practice.  It is a slow and tedious process, but he is making progress.  

His favorite subject is math and he LOVES all the apps that allow him to play while learning.  

August 15 - 26

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has had a couple of really busy weeks getting back into a full school routine, plus keeping up with karate lessons and family adventures.  

He is rotating using CTC math and Elephant Learning Math as well as using a few MTH resources to review math facts so he can solve problems more quickly.  This week, he's been working on a placement test for elephant learning math and also completed several lessons in CTC math.  

Preston (and the whole family) finished a read aloud of "The Tale of Despereaux" for the book discussion Preston and Marissa will have at the Polar Star kickoff next week.  We all loved the book and had fun listening to it together! 

MARISSA

Marissa worked on a placement test for elephant math learning this week.  She's also been reviewing her handwriting and poetry in addition to working on some reading assignments that will be coming up in her Polar Star classes in a few weeks.  

She loves writing and one of her favorite things is listening to audiobooks while following along in the book and taking notes and highlighting things she loves.  

CALEB

Caleb took a placement test for elephant learning math as well (it took several days to finish).  He is doing really well in math.  He also decided to review some math facts using "Imagine Math Facts" and also "Prodigies Math."  Math comes more naturally to Caleb so he gets in a lot of extra practice playing games.  

Caleb's birthday falls in the middle of "Birthday Week."  Half of the family has birthdays in the middle to end of August (both parents and Caleb) so Caleb ends up with a week-long celebration most years.  This year, Caleb chose to celebrate his birthday playing at the Treehouse Museum with his sister.  He also had a Nerf war with friends over the weekend.  He had such a great time and was excited to get a pass to the Treehouse Museum to get to play this year.  He and Marissa were both selected for parts in the partici-play.  Caleb got to play the emperor in "The Emperor's New Clothes" and did a great job.  Marissa was one of the seamstresses that tricked the emperor.  She did a fantastic job playing the role of villain in the play.  

OTHER

BEAR LAKE

Our family had an end-of-summer family vacation at Bear Lake right before school started.  We got in lots of outdoor play time with cousins including days at the lake and a ropes' course.  

HIKING

During birthday week, we always get in a hike or two with the family.  This year, we hiked the Duel Creek South Trail in Centerville (with our puppy, who is now finished with training so she can join us on adventures).  The kids had a great time on the rope swing and playing and balancing on logs in the creek.