Day 91 / 101 - More Camping in Tents

During our recent trip to West Virgina, we spent four days camping at Twin Falls Resort State Park.  Twin Falls is about equidistance between Beckley and Pineville (the town where my husband is now employed).  In order to make his commute a little easier, we headed for the campground once our practicum ended.

We always enjoy ourselves while camping, and Twin Falls is an excellent park.  Since my husband was still working during the days, this trip was quite 'educational' as the kids and I were responsible for all camp maintenance, food prep, wood splitting, fire building, etc.  I'm proud to say, we managed quite well.

Day 90 / 101 - Student Writing Intensive Camp

While I was at my practicum, and my daughter in her Geo-Drawing camp, my son attended a Student Writing Intensive Camp using materials from the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  For the past two years, we've used IEW materials at home as part of our Essentials program with Classical Conversations.  The IEW believes that in order to succeed in every area of life, children must hone the skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively. Through the process of learning to write well, students learn how to think clearly and to express themselves eloquently and persuasively.  My son spent three days honing his writing skills and learning new writing techniques. This intensive camp covered more structures and styles as my son improved his writing and prepared for more advanced writing assignments.

I've posted earlier this year about some IEW assignments we've done at home.  A compliment came to me from one of his camp leaders who said, 'I can tell he's been working on this at home.  He seems to know quite a bit of the material'.

Day 89 / 101 - Geo-Drawing Camp

Last week I attended a three day Classical Conversations practicum in West Virgina.  While there, my daughter spent her days in a popular Geo-Drawing camp where she learned about the geography of the earth including the major features and political boundaries of the continents.  She was taught drawing skills in order to help her complete her projects.  Above is her drawn map of Africa, that shows country boundaries and rivers and is colored by geographical region.

Day 88 / 101 - Harry Potter Clue

It was Draco Malfoy in the Shrieking Shack with the Poisoned Mead.  Enough said.

Day 87 / 101 - Mini-Mudder

Over the past 18 months my husband and I have attempted to train for and participate in the newest wave of obstacle course/mud runs such as the Warrior Dash or the Tough Mudder.  (He's actually much better at them than I am, and has logged some pretty impressive times on the courses he has run).  Well, of course the kids don't want us to have all the fun...so my husband has enjoyed arranging obstacle courses in the woods behind our house for them to tackle.

On Sunday, he designed an impressive twenty-obstacle-course.  The kids, along with their cousins and some neighbor friends, charged through the woods, jumped over creeks, ran on some trails, crawled under logs, got muddy, dragged concrete blocks across the patio, jumped fences, submerged themselves in the creek to retrieve golf balls, got muddier, ran some more trails, rolled truck tires across the yard, jumped over punching bags, and more!  After about two miles in the woods, the last obstacle was a slip-and-slide in an attempt to wash off some of the mud.

We can't wait until they're old enough to run the real events with us!

Day 86 / 101 - Grand Champ!

On Saturday my children competed in the Asian Sun Grand Champion Interschool Tournament.  There were four competition events: Forms, Board Breaking, Padded Weapons, and Sparring.  If you competed in all four events, you had a chance to win a divisional Grand Champion trophy.  There were over 300 competitors!

My son has been gunning for one of these trophies for the past two years.  Well, I'm happy to say that Saturday was his day.  He took first in all four events, and was the only Black Belt at the tournament to do so.  As a result, he won the Grand Champion trophy for the Black Belt division.  Above you see him proudly displaying not only his grand champ trophy, but also his four first place awards!

Day 85 / 101 - Set

If you are looking for a quick, inexpensive, and simple-to-play game that will challenge your thinking in ways you've never imagined, Set is it.  We were introduced to this game several years ago, and it still remains one of our favorites.  It is a game of visual perception where a player is trying to locate 'sets'.  A set is three cards in which each of the four features is either all the same on each card or all different on each card, when looked at individually. The four features are, symbol (oval, squiggle or diamond), color (red, purple or green), number (one, two or three) or shading (solid, striped or open).

This game requires both logic and spatial/intuitive thinking.  You really have to train your brain to see the 'sets', and if I haven't played in awhile, I am rusty the first few rounds.  I have seen my children develop in their thinking skills more with this game, than any other game we've played.

If you want to give the game a try online, click here.

Day 84 / 101 - House for Sale

Our house is for sale.  Two months ago my husband was offered a different job within the same company that was quite a promotion.  So, he accepted.  And, started immediately.  However, the job requires us to relocate to his new city of employment.  The first step, of course, is selling our current home.  Our home wasn't quite sale-ready when his job offer came through, so we have been working long and hard, as well as quickly, in order to list our current home on the market.  Fortunately that happened yesterday.

The kids and I had an extended spring break as schooling was temporarily put on hold in order for us to work around the home.  But, since I believe that all experiences are learning and educational experiences, the skills and knowledge they've picked up over the last few weeks will only prove to shape and influence them for a lifetime.  Here are a few....

- Spackling, sanding, and preparing their rooms to be painted (Read this post if you need to know why they had to be so involved in this).
- Organizing and packing their belongings
- Landscaping
- Cleaning items that we don't normally clean (baseboards, windows, tile grout, fireplaces, etc.)
- Removing wallpaper (actually my daughter became quite the expert at this and rather enjoyed it!)
- Finding a place for everything and keeping everything in that place

Day 83 / 101 - Latin Vocab

Yesterday I had my children create their own list of Latin vocabulary words that they would like to master over the next few weeks.  We've been studying Latin this past year.  Our knowledge of it is still very elementary although we are progressing in our skills.  However, my children are always more motivated to learn when they are self taught.  So, with the use of a couple different books, they each created 40 vocabulary cards (one side Latin / one side English) to study.  My son had to take it a step further and identify the part of speech for each English word.  My plan is to have them develop quizzes for themselves next week to see how many words they've retained!

Day 82 / 101 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

It took me four months to finish The Order of the Phoenix.  It took us two days to finish The Half-Blood Prince.  I loved this book.  We are so into this story now, and I simply can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

“It's going to be all right, sir," Harry said over and over again, more worried by Dumbledore's silence than he had been by his weakened voice. "We're nearly there ... I can Apparate us both back ... don't worry ..."
"I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. "I am with you.”