LoFro & the U.N.

The week started last Sunday when we took J out to Long Island for a dance workshop with none other than the Season 7 winner of So You Think You Can Dance...LAUREN FRODERMAN!   The workshop was from 12pm-5pm.  Lauren taught 2 classes - jazz and contemporary.   Another class was taught by a special guest choreographer... KC Castellano from Born to Dance!  They were both really nice and gave a lot of great tips and information.  Lauren did a Q&A and autograph session at the end.

K will not be taking the assistant manager job at the health food place.  It turns out 2 of the stores are closing, including the one she's in now and the one she was going to.  She's not too broken up about it - she got a heads up about the stores closing a couple of weeks ago so she went right back to the place she applied for  over a year ago - the laundromat.   They had no openings, but all of a sudden the manager called K the next day to say they decided to make some changes and she's hired!  So she starts next week and is really looking forward to it.  This is where she wants to be.  Yay!   


I went to J's parent-teacher meeting today.  She's doing wonderfully in school and her teachers love her.  Her Social Studies teacher said she writes really well and always does great on her essays.  I will sing the praises of homeschooling on that one.  Never a formal writing lesson, yet she's always praised for her writing. 



W's academics this week included reading more of The Princess & the Goblin. Michelangelo, and American Tall Tales (Pecos Bill).  We still doing a review of long division with a lot of practice problems (which we may continue into next week), and spelling exercises ( words ending in -ed and -ing and the rules that go along with it). I never realized how hard the English language is.  So many rules and inconsistencies.  There was also the big Halloween party and bake sale at Scouts.  


On Wednesday, we went with the homeschool group to the United Nations.  What a great trip!  I hadn't been there since elementary school, so it was new for me, too.  All the kids were 10 and 11 years old and the parents got to come along.  We had a tour around most of the building.  The guide spoke in a microphone clipped to his jacket and all of us wore a headset to hear him.  That was cool - it kept the kids focused and we didn't have to strain to hear what was being said.  The kids were very interested in everything - they asked and answered so many questions.  It was a beautiful day to be in Manhattan.  The following pictures are from inside the U.N.:

W volunteered to be Canada

Scout Camp Weekend

W had an amazing time camping with the scouts this weekend.  The weather was perfect.  Friday night was a bonfire and Saturday was a full day of activities.  These weekends are for the whole family.  I'd probably go along, but my girls have too many weekend things going on, and besides W gets to do some male bonding with his dad.  Unless, of course, his friend's cute sister wants to follow him around and admire his shooting skills.

We are zipping through the Flash Kids Math 5 workbook this week.  My new favorite thing in the world is Khan Academy!.  I love it and cannot say enough good things about it.  W watches a 10-minute video, we discuss it a little, and he does math problems in his workbook - there are math problems he can do on that website, too.  I may even show the site to J for her high school math.

This week's reading so far have included :  A Child's History of the World, Marco Polo, The Princess & the Goblin, and Science Lab in a Supermarket.  And he continues with Spelling Skills every day.  That book has done wonders for his reading ability.  He does several pages of activities for 40 new words and 2 pages of grammar each week.  The best part is that he loves it!  I also pulled out the HOP Master Level.  There are 4 levels of difficulty - blue, green, orange, then red.  Each one is supposed to be more difficult than the last.  We first got the program in November of 2009 and at that time he was struggling through the blue level, which is the easiest.  We put it away for a while and then last week I pulled it out again to see what he could do.  I grabbed the last story card from the 4th and hardest level (red) and he read the card with no problem.  WOW!  I mean I knew his reading improved since I recognized his dozens of dyslexia symptoms and we jumped into a multi-sensory reading approach, but the strides made in only 2 years are really incredible.  I love homeschooling.

Paley Center for Media

Our instructor holding the screech box

Yesterday we had a great homeschool group trip to the Paley Center for Media - which used to be called the Museum of Television & Radio.  The class was all about sound effects used in the old radio programs.  The kids listened to several programs and discussed how you can tell so much about what's going on with only the background sounds.  Then they got to go onto the stage and try out a bunch of different items and devices that make the sound effects:  A wind machine (essentially a vacuum box sucking air in through 2 small cylinders and had a speed control dial), coconut halves (horses trotting), a screech box (cranking the handle moved nails over glass and made a horrific screeching noise that could be anything from subway brakes to a park swing), a cowbell, small, heavy mats (for any "thud" sound), tied-together corn stalks (when shaken it could be rain, wind, or fire), and a large sheet of metal for thunder.  Most of these things were donated from the 3 major networks.  The instructor had the kids use the items to make the sound effects for a story she read out loud about a stampeding heard of cattle on a dark, windy night.  At the end of the class we watched a behind-the scenes 1940s clip of a radio show being performed.  It was interesting to see a whole crew just for the sound effect devices and just a handful of actors being dozens of characters.

After the class we decided to check out the library on the 4th floor.  It's a huge room with several TVs on each table and your own set of headphones.  Here you can pull up almost any TV show going back to the 1950s - and watch it with the original commercials!  A member gets 3 hours at a time.  W watched some old episodes of Pee Wee's Playhouse and All That.  I watched the Magic Garden, The Judy Garland Show, and Father Knows Best.  My friend was so excited to see the very first episode of General Hospital, lol.  W and I signed up for a free 1 year membership and will definitely be back.  Great trip!

This week's academics was our last week doing multiplication and division drills.  It's all about it being second nature.  Now we can get back to the 5th grade review book.  I may even do the Flash Kids 6th grade review book before hitting TT7.  I'll see how it goes.  The readings this week included more of The Heroes, The Princess & the Goblin, Science Lab in a Supermarket, A Child's History of the World, and Michelangelo.  Spelling Skills, a page a day, is also still going on.  So, nothing really new and interesting with the academics.  We're just plugging along at a nice pace.  Soon we'll be outdoors a lot more - a new skate park opened up about 10 minutes away in one of my favorite parks!  It's the opportunity I was looking for to get those nature studies in.

W is going camping this weekend with the scouts.  He's so excited and looks forward to this autumn one every year.

Met Museum & Central Park

This week we stayed focused on basic multiplication and division.  We used flash cards to speed through all the facts again.  Then we switched it up - instead of giving me the product of the 2 numbers, I told W to turn it into a division problem.  We spent about 15-20 minutes on that each day.  We also started reading The Princess and the Goblin.  W wanted nothing to do with books about princesses, but this starts out creepy enough to hold his attention.  We also read more Michelangelo, Marco Polo, and Science Lab in a Supermarket.  W gave really good narrations.  He didn't do written narrations this week, but he will next week.  He did a page of the Spelling Skills workbook every day, too.  I wanted to get to some art, but he had no interest.  It's ok though, he spends enough time on his own being extremely creative.  Just now, as B was heading to Home Depot, I heard W say, "Dad, pick me up a foot of 1/2" PVC and a coupler".  It sounds like more Nerf gun modding will be happening today.

We met some friends at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the other day.  We started out in Ancient Rome, then to Egypt, and finally 13th Century England to see the armor and weapons used during that time.  The boys liked it, but were eager to get to Central Park for some running around and Nerf wars.   So, we went outside, got a few yummy mustardy knishes from the street cart, watched a wonderful Doo-Wop group for a few minutes, and then walked the few blocks to the park.  Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

In the Egyptian exhibit

Armor and weapons

A mask in the gift shop

The Alice in Wonderland Statue in Central Park

K has been made assistant manager at the health food place where she works.  She'll be at a different location and she's looking forward to it.  She'll be getting a really nice raise, too.  Her main goal has once again become saving for a car.  She had a nice week.  Her friend was down for the weekend from college.  They both visited their old high school - K grabbed a bunch of her uniform shirts and sweats to donate.  Tomorrow we're all going out to my mom's til Monday since the girls are off from school.  I can't wait to see my beautiful niece again - she's almost 3 months old!

Math & Spelling

Am I completely crazy for absolutely loving the $6 Barnes & Noble math and spelling workbooks from Flash Kids?  I keep trying other programs and workbooks but always end up coming back to these.  The 5th grade math book is just for review and to make sure W knows what's what before moving on to TT7.  We plan on zipping through it quickly.  It's touches on everything without being tedious and annoying.  This week we took a short break from the workbook to really nail down W's multiplication and division skills.  I really believe it's important to have these memorized.  It makes the higher math easier.  So, Times Tales was first, and then we spent 2 more days going over the problems in the book - several times over.  W loves playing a speed game with facts.  He loved it when learning to read (the sight-word flash cards were a huge hit) and he still loves it.  By Wednesday I started using multiplication flash cards and doing the speed game with those.  It has everything from the 0 to the 12 times tables.  Yesterday it took exactly 11 minutes to reel off the correct answers to all the cards.  I'd like to spend more time on this next week as well, focusing more on the division end of it.

The spelling book has been a true Godsend.  The word lists and activities have helped him so much with his reading and writing.  There's a nice list of 20 words (all related in some way, either by sound, spelling, or other similarity), fill-in-the-blank-type questions (definitions, antonyms, rhymes, analogies, etc), proofreading paragraphs, and grammar lessons all in one chapter.  It's enjoyable and we spend about 3 days on one chapter.  Listening to W read aloud now, it's hard to tell he's dyslexic.  He's come so far.  One of the issues has been that every word to him is a sight word and it he memorizes them in order for his reading to flow.  Phonics and sounding-out plays a minuscule part.  That's why the Dick and Jane (and Dr Seuss, and Fly Guy) books were great since they repeated words over and over.  Hey, whatever works for him.  And it does seem to be working!

Other stuff this week included reading/narrating Paul Bunyan (from American Tall Tales), some Science Lab in a Supermarket, a chapter about John Cabot sailing to North America a few years after Columbus (in This Country of Ours), and some more Marco Polo with mapwork.  CCD and Scouts also started up for the year.

K has been busy with work and college - both are going great.  J is doing very well in school, hobnobbing with various celebrities, and just enjoying every minute.  At dance, she's gearing up for a new competition season.  Most of her group are at the top of their age category this year, so a lot is expected from them.  She has a bunch of workshops, master classes, and conventions on the schedule, too - starting next month.  I'm looking forward to a great year.

Yesterday & Today

Multiplication, analogies, word meanings, Marco Polo, and Greek mythology were on the agenda for the latter half of this week.  I've pulled out the old Times Tales again.  After a long summer, W has forgotten some of the times tables, so we're doing a nice once-over.  He enjoyed it a lot 2 years ago and he's enjoying it again.  I did all of Part 1 with him yesterday and today.  While I took a phone call, he caught himself up on Part 2.  I quizzed him on all of it and he knew everything.  Next week we're going to continue with basic multiplication and division.  He's already able to do large-digit X large-digit multiplication and long division with large numbers (and decimals), but remembering what 8x6 is make it all take so much longer.  If there's one piece of wisdom I can share with anyone, it's to make sure your kids' basic math functions are down pat.

W is still working out of last year's 4th grade spelling book.  We didn't completely finish it by June and with his dyslexia, I don't want to push too far ahead while leaving gaps.  He took a 5 chapter test, 25 questions, and got 100%.  The test was full of analogies, definitions, what words belong in which group, and completing each sentence.  We do spelling every day and cover about 2 chapters a week.  We'll probably get to Spelling Skills 5 in a couple of months.

Marco Polo is a lot of fun so far.  MIL picked up this cool atlas from Hammond called The Explorer Atlas and it has the perfect map.  Every country, route, and passage that Marco Polo went across and visited, is on a nice, 2-page spread.  Plus, it's great to have pictures and descriptions of things.  AO says to study Polo for the whole year.  We may just do that.  There's so much to discuss and so many books, websites, and documentaries out there. His travels also seem like a good segue into the next 400 years.   Each country on this map is a unit study in itself.

We are covering some Greek mythology this year as well.  The book we're using is called The Heroes.  The first chapter, centered around Perseus, is pretty good so far.  W likes it and it's written in a way that grabs his attention.  He gave a great narration and he's looking forward to the rest of the story.  I may use this for his future written narrations.  It's funny - I've noticed W's handwriting has improved steadily from the beginning of the week to today.  I think it's because he just so happened to do a lot of writing this week.  I didn't hear him once complain of cramped up fingers either, lol.  So, after several years of narrating stories back to me and his seemingly renewed enjoyment of putting pencil to paper, I do believe I was correct that he is finally ready for some real creative writing work.  The written narrations are the first step.  Thank you Charlotte Mason.

Writing

W wrote a substantial narration about Christopher Columbus the other day.  Written narrations are new for him.  Last year he did a couple of sentences every few months or so.  This time, after we read the chapter, I needed to pick up K, so I handed W a pencil and a notebook and told him to write down what he remembers - in order if possible.  When I got back I saw he had written 2/3 of a page.  That was really impressive.  And apart from some run-on sentences and spelling mistakes, the narration was pretty good.  Here's the edited version:

"What I remember is that a kid named Christopher Columbus read about Marco Polo and wanted to be just like him.  He wanted to get a ship and sail across the ocean to find a new land.  He went on a boat and went to a whole lot of places so somebody could help him with the money to buy a boat.  None of them wanted any part of it except one, the king and queen of Spain.  They offered to give him a lot of money and he was happy.  He bought three boats.  And that's it."

And that's as far as we read.  I was happy with that.  His reading comprehension is good.   This is the year we will get into writing.  We'll spend a lot of time on sentence structure, grammar, & spelling.  One written narration a week should be fine for now.  Then we'll go over it, make corrections, and he can write it over again - or even type it out.  Spelling this week was contractions (hasn't, they've, we're, I'll etc).  We're using a huge atlas during the AO readings to see what area something occurred, where someone was born, how far one city is from another, etc.  W gets more into the stories that way.  Math was big number addition and subtraction, including word problems.   I am all about review and solidifying those basics.

I'm looking forward to another great week.

Harbor Defense Museum

On Monday, we went with the homeschool group to this little hidden treasure called the Harbor Defense Museum.  It's a nice collection of actual (and models of) weapons used from the Revolutionary War to WW2.   It's in the Fort Hamilton military base in Brooklyn.  The museum is housed in a brick structure that was built in 1825.  It was used as a fort to protect enemies who came in from the Narrows waterway.  The arched, brick windows had cannons place at each one.  The original wooden building on this location was used in the Revolutionary War.  The Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island, since Brooklyn & Queens are physically part of Long Island) was fought right on that spot.  The workers in the museum are all military veterans and are so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about these artifacts.    

We saw muskets, bayonettes, many different cannons, and ammo.  We also saw Revolutionary War uniforms from England and Scotland.  After a tour of the museum, the kids watched a couple of videos on how to load and shoot an 18th century musket and how large cannons were used and maintained.  W really enjoyed it, as the subject matter is right up his alley.  

After the class the kids ran around a big, grassy field playing Nerf guns and manhunt for over an hour.  We had lunch in a beautiful spot overlooking the water.  I was surprised to see some big boats going by.  

The wooden front door of the museum has iron built into it so enemies would break their weapons when trying to chop the door down

Talking about the Battle of Brooklyn

Big chemical ship in the Narrows (Lower NY Bay)

This guy was playing his steel drum down in the subway last week.  He was amazing.

In other news, we started on some academics yesterday.  W did 2 pages of math.  We're using a 5th grade, $7 bookstore workbook for review and to solidify the basics.   He did a page of spelling - contractions.  And we read about James Watt in The Story of Inventions.  Today he's doing 2 more pages of math, another spelling exercise, and we're reading about Michelangelo, and a chapter in A Child's History of the World.  He'll be doing a written narration, too.  I'll let you know how it turns out.   :)

J is now in her 2nd week as a sophomore in the Fame school.  She's still loving every moment of it.  Her schedule looks like this:  1. History  2. Ballet   3. Ballet   4. Modern Dance  5. Modern Dance  6. Science  7. Lunch  8. Math  9. English.  She also has Dance History once a week replacing one of the ballet classes.  No French this year so she has a free period.  She loves every one of her teachers (surprisingly) and feels real good about this year.  She's still going to physical therapy for her knee twice a week.  I think this is her 6th week (2 more weeks, 4 sessions, to go).  It's seems to have done the trick, but J hasn't been working it all that hard yet this year.  We'll have to wait and see.

K's doing great in college.  I didn't realize how much the textbooks cost.  $134 for one book?!   It's a brand new one so she can't even get it used anywhere -and it's only sold at the college bookstore.  WTF??  

Ellis & Liberty Islands

Our first field trip with the homeschool group this year was to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  We didn't let any NY terror threats put a damper on our day.  And it was a very beautiful day, too.  We all met at Castle Clinton around 9am and got right on the Statue Cruises boat.  The boat ride across the  Upper NY Bay was fun.  We were all on the upper level feeling the sea breeze with beautiful scenery all around.

Our first stop was Ellis Island.  I had never been there before and was really looking forward to it.  The building has kept its original flooring and benches from 100 years ago.  It's awesome to walk and sit where millions of immigrants came through in the early 20th century.  The 4th-6th graders had a 90-minute class with a very enthusiastic instructor talking about the process of coming int this country.  We had a tour of the building, and the kids got to see what ship steerage sleeping quarters were like.   Then they got to try some things the new immigrants had to experience, such as performing mental acuity tests and figuring how much it costs to send letters and luggage to other states.  After the class we ate lunch outside and the kids climbed a tree and ran around the large grassy area.

Then it was back onto the boat and over to Liberty Island.  This is where the Statue of Liberty is.  After lots of security checks, we went in.  The first thing you see is the original torch that she carried for 98 years.  After the 1984 renovations, a new torch was put on and the old one was kept due to its history.  We took an elevator to the top of the pedestal and got some gorgeous views of the bay, the Manhattan skyline, and of New Jersey.  By this time it was nearing 3:30 and we jumped onto the boat back to Battery City.  I got home by about 5pm, dropped off W and made it to work with 10 minutes to spare.

Battery Park City.  9-11 Memorial flags (the stripes are made up of all the names of those who died), the gold sphere sculpture that was destroyed, and the eternal flame

On the boat heading for Ellis Island

Ellis Island

The class was called "Shore to Shore"

In the tree after lunch

One of the boats.  They make round trips to Liberty Island, Ellis Island, and Battery Park.  Others start and end in New Jersey

The original torch on display in the pedestal of Lady Liberty

What the inside of the statue looks like, taken from the top of the pedestal right under the feet.  That's the spiral staircase leading up to the crown

The Statue of Liberty - I'm looking up from the pedestal

Getting Ready

W and I were skimming through a Summer Bridge workbook yesterday and decided to do a few pages.  We jumped around the book, stopping at whatever looked interesting. I'll admit, I didn't have very high hopes since we did absolutely zero academics this summer.  W didn't pick up one book.

First he unscrambled a bunch of 8-12 letter words, matching them to a word list.  This is something we've attempted in the past, but he couldn't grasp (which I attribute to the dyslexia). He also alphabetized several sets of 4 words that had the same first 4-5 letters (e.g. events, eventual, evening...).  We usually hit a wall or 2 with this kind of exercise as well.  He flew through both activities with no help.  I was so surprised.  How did it all just...click?

W's always had an issue with the letters in words.  Lately though, I've noticed  him enjoying picking apart different words he sees.  A few months ago for example, he saw the word "platter" and said that if you switch the "p-l" for an "s-h" it's "shatter".  This may be a basic concept, but for W it's a huge revelation.  Being aware of letters, patterns, phonics rules, and how it all fits together has been our main focus for over 2 years since I discovered he has dyslexia.  It's been 2 years of hands-on, mostly whole-language, multi-sensoral learning, getting his reading level to at least match his actual grade level.  I feel confident that it just might be working.

He also played around with US time zones, circling the correctly spelled word (which is a great activity for him), and some basic fraction review.  For a summer of no academics, he was certainly not lacking in skills.  We'll use the Summer Bridge book today, tomorrow and next week.  We'll start AO on the 12th. I'm so happy September is here.

K's first week of college is going well.  She loves it and has decided she'll have a 4.0 average.  Gotta love her confidence.  She and J are both going away for the weekend.  K is spending Labor Day weekend with her boyfriend and his family in the Poconos.  J will be at her best friend's beach house.  The rest of us would be going to my mom's for the weekend, but they they still might have no power out there.  The hurricane knocked out all  power and a huge tree fell in the backyard.  Almost a week with no power?  I wish they'd move back to Queens.

J is excited to go back to school.  Her knee is feeling great with all that physical therapy.  Tomorrow she'll complete 4 weeks (9 sessions) - and there's 4 more weeks to go.  Thankfully she has no more pain.  This year in school she's taking more advance ballet and modern dance. She's so ready to get back.

2011-2012 Schedule

We will be starting Ambleside Online Year 3 in a couple of weeks.  The following schedule is what we're shooting for:


2-3 AO Readings (Daily)  - w/oral, written, & creative narrations
Map work            (With most readings)
Timeline/BOC      (With history readings)    
Silent Reading      (Daily)
Spelling/Vocab    (Daily)
Math                    (Daily)
Poetry                  (Daily)
Copywork           (Daily)
Simply Grammar  (1-2x a week)
Writing Strands    (1-2x a week)
Spanish                (2x a week)
Nature Study       (Weekly)
Artist Study         (Weekly)
Dictation             (Weekly)
Composer Study (Weekly)

This should take about 2.5 to 3 hours per day with each subject taking about 10-20 minutes each (more for nature study).  We'll begin at around 8:30am-9am and finish up before noon.  W asked if we could spend less time on reading and math and more time on science and history - and that's what we'll do.  I will always believe that allowing kids to choose their own educational path keeps them excited about learning.  My girls did this.  They chose to homeschool and how they went about homeschooling.  They decided to try public high school and they actively chose which high school to attend.  W has always chosen his educational path as well.  It gives kids ownership.  It works.

Here are some of the books we'll be using:

History/Geography:
An Island Story (Marshall)
This Country of Ours (Marshall)
A Child's History of the World (Hillier)
Michelangelo (Stanley)
Bard of Avon (Stanley)
Landing of the Pilgrims (Daugherty)
Who was Marco Polo? (Holub)
The Complete Book of Maps & Geography
Basic Series Map Skills (Grades 6-8)
Basic Series World Geography (Grades 6-8)
Basic Series US Government, Economics, & Citizenship (Grades 6-8)
Everything You Need to Know About Geography Homework - Grades 4-6 (Zeman)
American History Homework Survival Guide - Grades 4-6 (Kantor)

Science:
Science Lab in a Supermarket ((Friedhoffer)
The Story of Inventions (McHugh)
The Handbook of Nature Study (Comstock)
Secrets of the Woods (Long)
ScienceSaurus (Houghton-Mifflin)
Science Homework Survival Guide (Dylewski)
Basic Series Science (Grades 4-5)
Basic Series Life Science (Grades 6-8)

The English Language:
Simply Grammar
Writing Strands
Spelling Skills 5
Word Study & Phonics 5
Basic Series Grammar & Usage

Literature:
American Tall Tales (Stoutenberg)
Tales From Shakespeare (Lamb)
The Heroes (Kingsley)
The Princess and the Goblin (MacDonald)
Children of the New Forest (Marryat)
The Jungle Book (Kipling)
Various selections from the AO Year 3 "free reading" list

Poetry:  William Blake, Sara Teasdale, Hilda Conkling, & Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nature:  Reptiles, Flowerless plants, Crops, Fish, Amphibians
Artists:  Fragonard, Bierstadt, Rockwell
Composers:  Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bartok, Hindemith
Math:  Teaching Textbooks 7, LOF Fractions (maybe)
Spanish:  Instant Immersion Spanish
Art:  Drawing with Children (Brooks)

We will also include lots of (afternoon) field trips and classes - using them as areas for more focused research (rather than for just a get-together).   W will continue with Boy Scouts and CCD classes and he's trying to decide between basketball, soccer, or karate for this year.

So this is the goal.  We may not even come close to the plan, but it's nice having it as a guideline to follow.


This is a cool site.  Beautiful shots of NYC:
Aerial Views of New York City

It's Almost Autumn!

Camp and dance and work.  Same stuff.  Sorry we're not being that interesting lately, lol.

J's physical therapy is now at the end of its 3rd week and J's knee is feeling pretty good.  She has no more pain during dance, but she's still afraid to do any grande plies.  She's been good about doing her exercises at home, too.

She's going to try and get those summer reading books done before summer is actually over.

I'm going to try and get to Target and Staples and see if there's any back-to-school sale stuff left.  I never made it there in July when I should have went.

I've added more field trips to our fall schedule.  I'm so excited to get to places we haven't visited yet.  Expect lots of photos in the fall.

J turned 15 last week.  She had a big co-ed sleepover at my mom's house.  15 kids.  I'm still exhausted, lol.

K starts college classes in 10 days.  Damn.  She was just 3 years old in her princess dress asking me what preschool would be like.

W has 10 more days of camp.  Then we can really start getting ready for the new year.  We're changing things up a little this year.  He's going to love what's in store.

IHIP is going out this week.  I'm using my regular old worldbook format.  Keepin' it simple.

Runner's Knee

J has been diagnosed with "patello-femoral syndrome", also knows as Runner's Knee.  From kidshealth.org, "Runner's Knee happens when the kneecap (patella) tracks incorrectly over a groove in the thighbone (femur) known as the femoral groove when you bend and straighten your knee. In healthy knees, the patella rests in the femoral groove and slides easily up and down when you use your knee. But when the patella is out of place, it can irritate the femoral groove and wear away the cartilage beneath the patella, leading to knee pain."  She's had this since February or March.  Neither one of us thought that much of it but then it started getting worse and she had to sit out of classes.

In June we went to the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries and that's where she got the diagnosis.  They gave her a bunch of exercises and stretches to do, but she didn't do them often enough.  Now that it's August and her knee still hurts, we got a new prescription from Harkness and J began Physical Therapy this week.  She needs to go 2x a week for 8 weeks.  According to them she should be good as new at the end.  She has a new stack of papers with a new bunch of exercises she has to do 2-3x a day.  Getting her to do them is the tricky part.

Nothing else really new going on around here.  We're just continuing the same old summer stuff we've all been doing:  Camp, Dance, & Work.  I'm counting down the days til the end of August when W and I can get started on our new schedule.  I'm part of a new local homeschool group and already started filling up my calendar with awesome trips and classes for the fall.

We're Back!

Nationals this year was GREAT!  J got an "Elite" placement award (the highest they give) for her solo and came in 3rd overall.  Two of J's large group numbers were chosen for the final challenge on the last day.  After each day's competition was 4 hours of master classes in Tap, Hip-hop, Jazz, Contemporary, & Musical Theater.  The kids had such a wonderful 5 days together.  Now we're all back to our daily routines. 

J is going to start reading her 2 books for school.  I'm getting everything ready for W's 5th grade year.  We are going right into AO Year 3 in September.  We pretty much finished everything we needed to for 4th grade and he's ready for a new year to start.  The plan is to pull back a bit on the reading and math, focusing a lot more on history, science, art, music, geography, and field trips.  This was W's idea and I think it'll work out really well.

Summer is in Full Swing

Camp is going well.  W loves being busy every day and going on trips.  They went to the American Museum of Natural History this week.

Dance is going well.  J teaches for 3 hrs on Mondays and takes classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays.

Work is going well.  K is still saving for a car.  She should be getting her driver's permit by the end of summer.

My sister had a beautiful baby girl on Thursday. We're all at mom's house on Saturday visiting.

And you know it's that time again...NATIONALS!!  J's dance Nationals are next week!  We're leaving for Connecticut on Wednesday and should be back sometime next Sunday.  J is doing her solo, duet, and 5 groups.  She's also doing several master class conventions.  The hotel gives free breakfast and has an outdoor pool.  We are set.  We just did some last-minute shopping - bobby pins, hair nets, eyelashes, eyelash glue, safety pins, and bandaids.  We got some booty shorts, tights, and a leotard in the mail today.  I'll go over all costumes and shoes on Tuesday as well as get all the packing done.  Can't wait!

July 4th Weekend

Camp so far is going very well for W. He is up and out by 7:30am. I pick him up at 5:15 instead of 6, since it's easier for me to make it to work. The girls have been keeping busy, too. K's working and trying to get to the beach as often as she can. She spent this weekend with her boyfriend and his family in the Pocono mountains. J had a pool party this week and 3 evenings of dance. Her summer classes include: Strength & Flexibility, Ballet, Tap, Combinations, & Lyrical. She will be assistant-teaching 3 classes every Monday - 3-5y/os, 6-9y/os, and the 10+ class. This is considered work-study and she'll get the summer classes at no charge. J went to her friend's summer bungalow for the weekend. W has been spending the weekend with friends and at the playground. He's building stuff again at home - he made a cool mallet and hatchet out of sticks, pieces of brick, and wire. You know, in case we need to kill some wild game to eat out here in this NYC wilderness, lol.

J's summer reading includes The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) and either The Death of a Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson or Longitude by Dava Sobel. The latter 2 books are for Earth Science. I'll try and pick those up this week. W is still reading Hatchet, a few pages every now and then. I do wish he enjoyed reading more. Maybe it's just novels he dislikes. He reads plenty on the computer and anything having to do with Pokemon. At least it's something. I'm trying to get some math and spelling in on the weekends, too.

Kick Off to Summer!!

K is officially a high school graduate. The ceremony was on Friday and it was beautiful. 67 kids walked across that stage to receive their diplomas. Then there was a barbecue in the schoolyard. We hung around for a bit afterwards, but then we all went out to lunch to celebrate.

Later that evening was J's big end-of-the-year dance recital. She was in 10 numbers - 5 in each act. In addition to her 5 competition group numbers, she was in the opening set, the musical theater number (as Sandy in Grease), then as a princess on stage with her baby class, and she performed her duet and her solo. J was so excited to be the one chosen to do the recital solo. And she did a beautiful job. The evening was hectic as usual, but these kids are pros at quick changes. We got it all done in under 3 hours. After the recital, we all celebrated by going out to eat (and having a few drinks, lol). What a great day that was.

Saturday was my day to relax.  On Sunday, we all drove up to Brewster to celebrate my niece's 9th birthday.  Her party was a big barbecue on the lake.  J did some paddle-boating and W spent the whole time in the water.  There were lots of kids there.  He even swam out to this wooden lake raft thing that was pretty far out in the water.  I mean real swimming - not just doggy-paddling.  W hasn't really swam since he had those free park lessons in 2007.   I had no idea he could swim that well.

A small section of Heckscher Playground - Check out the rock mountains in the background!

On Monday I took W to Central Park to meet up with 2 of his best friends.  We met in the Heckscher playground and the boys got right into a water gun war with a bunch other kids.  They made teams and ran around the playground getting soaked for over 3 hours.  W loved it.  It was so fun watching them.  I love that boys this age can just jump right into playing with each other and become friends for the whole day - and yet, never get each others names, lol.  After the water play, they ran around with light-saber swords and climbed the big rock mountains next to the playground.  I definitely have to get back there with him.  So fun.

W also started day camp yesterday!  He had been doing the camp-countdown for a couple of months and the day finally came.  I worried, as usual, but he loved it.  I dropped him off at around 7:30am and he was picked up around 6pm.  Then he went right back out to go to the playground with his friend, Matt, who lives next door.  By the time I got home from work at 10:30pm, he was asleep.  Well, at least this morning I got to see him and ask him how it was.  He mentioned cooking and outside play and crafts.  He saw some kids there from last year.  And now every Wednesday there's a trip - usually something local, like a big playground or bowling, but I did see the Bronx Zoo on the list for one of the weeks.  To me, this is so worth it.  He got right up at 6:30am on his own today to get ready.  There's nothing he loves better than a full day of fun with friends.  Oh, to be 10 years old again.

Senior Prom!

Thursday was K's senior prom.  She had been looking forward to this since like forever.  As a toddler she was obsessed with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and always wanted to have her beautiful royal ball with her prince charming.  I have to say...she got it.

She started the planning at the beginning of the school year on the hunt for the perfect dress.  She must have looked at millions of websites, magazines, and TV shows.  Finally in March she found it.  The store had it in a different color, but she had it ordered and it arrived a few weeks later.  At the end of April we had the dress tailored and she went and found the shoes and jewelry to go with it.  Throughout May she wrote up list after list of what she needed to get done.

Two weeks before prom, she had her hair cut and highlighted.  A few days before prom she had her nails, toes, and eyebrows done - and did 10 minutes at the tanning salon.  Then on prom day, she had her hair styled into a "waterfall braid".  4 or 5 women at the salon were working on K's hair to make it look like the hair in the photo she brought.




 Then we went straight to a friend's house with 3 other girls to get her makeup professionally done.  This makeup artist has a bunch of famous clients (including a few Real Housewives).  While she was there I went and picked up the white rose boutonniere sprayed with silver glitter to match K's dress.

By 3pm we were home and she got dressed.  We took pictures outside with MIL.  Dh's aunt and MIL's best friend came over to see her.  Our first stop for pictures was at K's boyfriend's house.  He looked amazingly handsome with his tux.  K pinned the boutonniere onto his lapel and he slid the corsage onto her wrist.  We took lots of pictures with his mom and sister.  The second stop was K's best friend's house.  More pictures with both couples, the moms, some other friends.  My last stop was another friend's house.  This was where the party bus was picking up all the kids at around 6:30pm.  We got there at about 5pm.  20 kids, their dates, and lots of parents were there.  We took another million pictures.  There was a beautiful spread of food for the kids (finger sandwiches, a huge sushi platter, bowls of chips, etc) and the home had lots of "Class of 2011" gold & mylar balloons, plates, & napkins.


The prom was held in a gorgeous wedding hall out in Long Island.  K said everything was great.  She took a lot of pics too.  After the prom, they all changed into their "after-prom" clothes and the bus took the kids around Manhattan until about 4am.  She said it was so fun and one of the most perfect nights ever.

Summer Ideas

W has been losing interest in academics lately.  I figured it out to be because of math overload (with a large amount of spring fever thrown in).  I didn't realize we were hitting the numbers that hard.  It was killing his enthusiasm.  We usually start with math and it sets the tone for the rest of the morning.  If he's burnt out with it, then it affects everything else.  So I asked him to write himself out a schedule of how he'd like to do daily academics.  He wrote down just about everything we already do:  AO readings, copywork, spelling page, silent reading, etc., and he added  - ONE page of math.  Ok.  I can do that.  We have been doing a whole lesson of TT5 each day.  I scaled it down to 1/2 a lesson instead.  It worked.  He zipped through the first 13 problems (which include the 5 practice ones) and will do the other 14 problems on Monday.  So once again this shows me that it's usually best to give kids a say in how they do things.

W just finished learning 3-digit x 3-digit multiplication and is now starting units of time.  I can't help but reiterate my love for TT5 and how it gives the perfect amount of review on previous topics.  I love that the lesson is brief and to the point.  I love that he gets only a few problems (in different forms) to practice the new concept - just enough, imo, to really "get it".  I love how the rest of the problems are review - maybe 3 or 4 of them for each topic.  He's still going over radius, diameter, types of quadrilaterals, long division, decimals into fractions and vice-versa, big number subtraction, and money word problems.  He really understands it.

We are also still enjoying Seabird, Pagoo, Robin Hood, An Island Story, & This Country of Ours.  We are starting Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors (Lamb) soon and he's certainly taking his time with A Cricket in Times Square.  I might see if he'd like to start one of the new books I got a couple of months ago for silent reading.  He likes Cricket, but not as much as he thought he would, lol.

All W's classes and homeschool group trips have come to an end.  It was a really great year.  Over the rest of the spring and summer I'd like to take B and the kids (and friends) out to some fun summer events - street fairs, festivals, outdoor theater, beaches, outdoor concerts, and even some great neighborhood walking tours.  I'd like to get back to the NY Hall of Science, too.  We haven't been there in ages.  We are all so incredibly busy (B & I both work, W has summer camp, J has dance workshop and intensives, K will be adding more work hours) that I do hope we can all make time to do things as a family.  I'm grateful for our 1 week away in Connecticut in July.  And my sister's baby girl is due in July too!  I'm already loving this summer!

New Car, Fishing, & Babies

Great week.  Wayfinders had a 6-hour adventure day on Tuesday, we bought a new car, B & W went on their annual Fishing Derby camping trip with the scouts, and Sunday was my sister's baby shower. 

Our new car is a 2012 Mazda5.  It's a "micro-minivan" that seats 6 and has a perfect amount of storage room.  It's silver and the interior is black.  I love it so much.  I'm so glad to get rid of the Nissan we had - the tires were bald, the transmission was days away from breaking down altogether, and the whole inside and outside was a mess.  Now I can drive without worry in something I think is really beautiful.  It's smaller, better gas mileage, and one of the highest rated for safety.  Yay!

The Fishing Derby this year was a lot of fun.  Now that W is a webelo scout, he got to sleep in the lean-to with his friends the first night and in a tent the second night.  No more staying in the cabin with dad.  He loved it.  The lean-to was scary, since it had cracks and it looked like it was going to rain.  He was with 3 of his best friends, so that made things a lot better.  The tent was waterproof so he was happier the 2nd night.  After the very long day of fishing and running around, the boys were out cold pretty quickly.  I was worried about it, but B said he was only nervous for about a minute.  I'm so proud of my son.

My sister's baby shower was in this beautiful yacht club right on the water.  I bit the bullet and actually got a haircut and manicure.  I planned on getting the pedicure, but chickened out.  I can't stand people touching my feet.  LOL. I'll get over it.  Pedis really make your toes look awesome.  A mani-pedi and eyebrow waxing costs only about $25.  I think I can make time for these.  Anyway, my sis got just about everything she registered for.  The baby girl is due in about 6 weeks.  This baby has enough clothes to last til winter.  I will be spoiling this kid rotten.  I love little girls. 

This week J has finals.  She's spending any free time in the school library studying.  K is still gearing up for prom and graduation. And I am sooo ready for summer to be here.