MidWest Homeschool Convention

Part 2 of our Spring Break was going to the MidWest Homeschool Convention.  That's where I am right now!  So far it has been really fun.  Yesterday I went to a talk for teens about unlocking your full leadership potential.  It was interesting but everything was stuff I have already heard.  The thing is, you have to start with an idea of something you want to do in your life, your passion so to say.  I am not sure yet what I want to do with the rest of my life!  That was step 1.  So ya, my leading is going to have to wait. 

Today my mom and I went to see Tim Hawkins, a comedian, that is doing shows here this year.  He is hilarious!!!  He is  'clean' which means he is just appropriate for everybody.  I couldn't stop laughing!  Here is one of his clips off of YouTube, it's the trailer for one of his DVDs-



It's cool to see so many homeschoolers in one placce... and get this.  For most people, you CAN'T TELL they are weird, unsocialized homeschoolers!  Ha,ha!

It's Greek! (Roman adaptations, but still)

We ended our ancient Greece unit study a few days ago, and started astronomy.  I think it is amazing how all of the planets and moons and things in space are mostly named after the Roman gods... Greek gods renamed.  Jupiter, Zeus, Venus, Aphrodite, Neptune, Poseidon... I could go on. 

I was dreading this unit study, because I thought that I didn't like it.  Space, the whole floating around and dying because you don't have enough air and you can't stand up and it's dark and creepy and huge. 

But I am finding it interesting and enjoyable to learn about, the planets are really interesting!  I think having a background on the names of things makes it fun for me too.  And I know a lot of the stories behind the names of constellations!  I felt really smart and cool while I was watching Bill Nye today! 

So, today we made diagrams of the planets in actual correct size comparisons to each other.  Then we put them up in the hallway.  The sun wouldn't fit, so we just put the diameter in tape.  It's HUGE!

The Zoo

We took the day off from our normal day of school and visited the zoo!  It was very fun.  I love going to the zoo, it is so interesting!  It is nice, we always go when NOBODY is there.  My favorite part is the aquarium, and then the rainforest. 

My mom's and my favorite animal, though, was the elephant shrew.  They are queer creatures!  They have these mini elephant trunks, legs of a gerbil, and body of a oversized rat.  Beautiful, right?  Anyways, they were fun to look at.  They had amazing fish, crazy reptiles, sleepy frogs, figgity bats, slow moving capybaras, over-preening flamingos, long snouted crocodiles, funny monkeys, you name it!  It was a great time.
 
I was trying to look for the octupus in one exhibit in the aquarium, and there was this little boy standing there drawing it.  I said, mostly to myself, "Hmm, must be off exhibit."
 
Boy said "Oh no, he is in there.  See the suction cups?"  I found them and was amazed by the camoflauge that the octupus has.  We ended up talking politely to each other about it, and some of the other exhibits.  He was very mature for being 4 feet tall.  My mom and I came to the conclusion that, he indeed, is homeschooled :)

Here are some of the pictures I took of all the amazing animals....

Ancient Greek Columns

A few days ago we drew the 3 main styles of greek columns, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.  It is amazing how often we run into greek styles of architecture, without realizing it!  This was a fun project.  After we drew the main outline of the column, we used a charcoal pencil and smudged it in so that it looks rounded.

Greek gods; The Beginning

Before we went on break, we were studying Greek Mythology.  Here is a summary of the story of the beginning of the earth and the Greek gods.

Well... in the beginning when things were just floating around up popped Mother Earth and then her husband, Uranus, the sky.  When they had children, first were the Cyclops, the 100 headed and armed people, and then, strong Titans, 6 girls and 6 boys.  Uranus wasn't happy or proud of the monsters he fathered, so he threw the Cyclops and the 100 headed and armed people into Tartarus, the deepest darkest pit in the world. 

Mother Earth was mad at Uranus because of what he did to her beloved children, so she asked the youngest and boldest of all the Titans, Cronus, to go and fight him.  Cronus did, and defeated his father.  But instead of freeing the monsters as Mother earth intended, he left them in Tartarus and became the new ruler of the Universe.  He got married to Rhea and when his wife started to have children, he was scared that one of them would overthrow him like he did to his father.  So he ate all of his kids.  After several kids, his wife tricked him into eating a rock dressed in baby clothes when he asked for the child.  She rushed off her newest baby, Zeus, to the island of Crete, where nymphs looked after him. 

When he was grown up, Cronus's wife tricked him into drinking a poison that made him very sick.  So sick that he threw up all of the gods he had swallowed.  Because they were gods they survived in Cronus's belly and grew to be full size.  Out came Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter.  They fought against Cronus for years before Zeus had an idea.  He let free the monsters from Tartarus and they gladly sided with Zeus.  Finally, they over threw Cronus and Zeus became the new lord of all the world and gods.

Amazibooks

Hello!  I just started a multi-writer blog all about book reviews!  I did the first post about one of my favorite books, The House of the Scorpion.  Check it out here.

Undiscovered Talent Discovered

Hello!  This week has been busy!  Friday for art we did rainy day pictures with watercolors.  What we did was water color the background using styles that would create a rainy day kind of look.  We splattered and blotted and dripped it all around to make this cool look.  Mine turned out a little weird and pinkish, but it was purple!  Then out of black construction paper we had to cut out shapes of people and things we wanted in our masterpieces.  I have also zoomed in on some of my people for your viewing pleasure.  Here is my painting-

Letting the dog out.

Standing, not really doing anything.  They could be walking though.

As is he... Mason started calling him "The Stalker" and it kind of stuck.

And it is so windy his hat blew off!

The Amazing 9s

 Do you know the 9s trick?

2x9=18   1+8=9

3x9=27   2+7=9
4x9=36   3+6=9
5x9=45   4+5=9
6x9=54   5+4=9
7x9=63   6+3=9
8x9=72   7+2=9
9x9=81   8+1=9

Also, look at this... the answers to all of them just switch around. 
18, 27, 36, 45, - 54, 63, 72, 81

Wow!

MY BRAIN!

Hello!  We are studying the human body right now, and for this part we are learning about the brain.  Today we  made salt dough models of it.  It was a lot of fun!  Tomorrow we will paint them for art :D  These are the pictures we got------->

My Favorite Person

Hello! I would like to talk about my favorite person now. Benjamin Franklin. He did so many amazing things over the span of his long, long life. Did you know he was the only person to sign all 3 documents, the Declaration Of Independence, the Constitution, and the Treaty of Paris? Through his experiments, he invented the lightning rod, saving countless lives and buildings over the past years. He went over to England to try to make peace with the British... then later went over to France and talked the Frenchies into helping out the "'coon hat hick town" Americans in the Revolution. Did you know he invented flippers? He was an avid swimmer throughout his life. Did you know that 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away.' and 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.' come from him? Over all, he rocked. And those are just some of the reasons why Benjamin Franklin is my favorite person!

For more quotes from one of the best people ever, look at this great quotes site I found... really! They are funny!

The Zoo Part 3

And here is part 3, the birds! It was really cool, we came to this one room where the birds were just free flying around us!

The Zoo Part 2

Hiya! The next part has some of the pictures from the reptile house~~>

The Zoo Part 1

Hello! We also visited the zoo the next day! Did you now that the word zoo comes from the latin word zoon meaning animals?

Anyways, here are the pictures from the aquarium~~~>

Sauder Village

Hiya! As I promised, I am doing the post about our trip. I had 91 photos! THAT is a lot! I decided I am going to do my posts in parts, Sauder Village and then the different parts of the zoo.

It was cool, great over view. It was also a lot of fun! We visited a lot of the little houses and shops, and stopped and got ice cream. We had dinner at The Barn, and played at the pool. I loved it, my favorite part was the printers shop though :D

The Learning Burns

Fall is coming people!!! It is my favorite time of the year, where I get to break out my cute jeans and hoodies and don't have to suffer through the horrible heat and humidity of summer. Not yet is it snowing, but no longer is it hot. Fall is the perfect time of the year! Fall is coming, hints my new background :D

Anyways, today was a... Monday. Very Mondayish. We did REM, which was cool. We broke out an old science kit and did a 'safe liquids' experiment. It was cool, just seeing if things are acidic or not. You take a tea spoon of baking soda and a table spoon of whatever you want to find out about, dump it together and voila! If it fizzes it is an acid, if it doesn't it is lame.

We have been working on learning about the American Revolution. I thought it would be horrible, but really once you start studing it, it is fascinating! I love how us American hicks beat the British! But we wouldn't have if the French hadn't helped us so much. So far, my favorite person we have learned about is Benjamin Franklin. He was just so great! Did you know that the phrase "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." and "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." were from him? Cool, right?

I am finally finishing up math 7, which I started last year. It covers everything under the sun, so it took me a while. I have a quiz and then I start... pre algebra. The impending doom is creeping me out.

Let's just say I need to study my spelling words a LOT more.

My book that I am writing is coming along well! I am on the third chapter. Both my mom and I have fallen in love with the guy in my story :D He is the best ever.

I have decided that I really like Saturday morning practices. They give me that, wow I work so hard good for you swimming before dawn feeling. I love it because my friend and I usually always get our own lane. The pool is 100 times better than Twinsburg! It is a lot colder. Twinsburg is about 90,000 degrees! I must be sweating like a pig!

Did you know that Verbus is the roman word for Word? Cool right? That's where we get verb and verbally. Loving the Greek and Roman word roots!

Spanish is one of my favorite subjects this year. I just love it! Guess what this is... La nina y mujuer come manzanas = The girl and woman eat apples. Amazing!

That about sums it up, as soon as I will myself to upload the 100 pictures I have from our trip to the zoo, I will do a post about that.

Night!

Using Hyperbole

Hello! Today as part of my school work I had to do a fill in the blank page using hyperbole. For those who don't know what hyperbole is, it is; Obvious exaggeration used to emphasize a point or add excitement and humor to a story. Here it is~

In the great village of Murdering Town lived a superhuman hero named Thumb Screw. Our superhero had this incredible ability to rip all the joy and happiness out of people. One day a little pink bunny hopped into town. The whole town was worried until Thumb Screw came out and stabbed it repeatedly. In the end, everything turned out well because it died. It pays to have a superhero in your village!

Yeah...............

:D

A New Twist On Our Backyard

Hi people! Today is the start of our second week in school, whaaaaa hooooo! We will be doing REM tomorrow... which makes it RET? Anyways, instead today we did a nature study. Today was about maple trees, we went out and tried to find one. Once we did, we did a bark rub and took some leaves in for a leaf rub too. It was fun! My favorite part though was taking pictures along the way. I got up and close to everything and took several pictures. I picked the best and the coolest looking to put up here for you guys............ I hope you like them!