~1~
We celebrated Josie's 15th birthday. I can't believe she is 15!! (and why yes, I shot this with my new 35mm 2.0 lens!)
~2~
Yes, this is a birthday-pie. Josie requested Chocolate Satin pie for her birthday. This did not seem odd to me, because when I was a little, I often asked for banana cream pie instead of birthday cake. This must run along maternal lines. The chocolate crust with chocolate filling?
-she must get that from me, too. :)
~3~
Josie is very into art, and mostly that art is all about dragons. She received these two books as gifts.
~4~
My high-school students had to take semester final exams in their core subjects for the charter school we homeschool through. This was in addition to the finals they take in their Biola Star classes -over the material they have actually studied. I think this is going to be a future post, where I can go into my thoughts more deeply...but, Meg's Biology test given by the charter was over material she will study next semester. I spent a week dragging her through new material so she could take this test. I understand (sort of) why they are doing this, but I don't agree with what they are doing. More later. I do have to say that my ES is fabulous and worked to make this as painless as she could. I think the Charter school tried to help, too, by giving study guides...but I really was not a happy camper with this.
~5~
Josie is back to fencing. We had to take a break, the financial aspects had to be sorted out- it can get a bit crazy, having 4 kids who have such varied interests. We are trying out a new fencing academy. She is really glad to be back at it.
~6~
I mentioned in an earlier post that Amie- age 9 had finally turned the corner into ravenous reading. We are a family of book lovers. After Amie began devouring whole books on her own, Demi-Sky was the last remaining hold-out. He continued to love the comic book genre a bit too deeply, and to slog through books tandem-reading with me. For New Year's, his sisters gave him this book: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I discovered him in his room that night, late, devouring this book. I sang with happiness inside, and let him stay up another half-hour. He is now telling me all about it. I like to think that every time a passionate reader is born, a new star in born in the universe <3
~7~
I volunteered this week at Meg's Biology class. She is taking High School Biology through the Biola Star Program. I cannot praise this homeschool academic program highly enough. On this day, the class was given a topic and then props and then the students had to build a model of the topic, explain the topic in front of the class and show it in motion. Meg made a model of Y antibodies and then had to show them in action, devouring bacteria. The bacteria in question was represented by a playdough unicorn. Um, yeah...highschoolers.... :)
I was sitting in the back, whispering "Charlie, Chaarlie, we found a map to candy island!" I'm not the only one who thinks like this, am I?
Charlie the Unicorn on Youtube -
*7 Quick Takes is hosted on Fridays at Conversion Diary