Science, Weapons, and Weather

My homeschool groups are so active and I'm seeing so many amazing classes and trips for teens.  It's so great to see how many homeschoolers in this age group are out there.  Just within the last few months I've seen classes being given for pottery, creative writing, tennis, philosophy, science lab, robotics, debate, string theory, non-fiction writing, drawing, psychology, glass working, comedy improv, ethics, American history, chemistry, digital photography, chess, cooking, ancient civilizations, rhetoric, fencing, video production, song writing, and a ton more.  Plus list upon list of classes for teens (homeschooled or otherwise) given at various museums, galleries, labs, theaters, and parks.  The choices are almost overwhelming (in a good way).  We may not get to very many of them, but knowing they're there is great.  I love my city.

We made a visit to the NY Hall of Science last week.  We haven't been there in so long.  Now that I'm back at my old job, I (we) have the corporate membership to everything again.  They redid the place.  The lower level is all maker, DIY, and lab stuff now.  They have better hours than they used to, too.

Two great homeschool group trips were held this week.  In the first, we were part of a wonderful class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It was on weapons used throughout the world from the Sumerians and Assyrians to World War I.  Our instructor is a homeschool mom and also a college professor of history.  You can tell by the way she put everything together (the handout, the tour, the topics) and by the way she spoke that she truly loves history.  Anything becomes so much more engaging when taught by a person so passionate about it.

Met Museum

The other trip this week was to the National Weather Service at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.  This is the office where all of the weather alerts, warnings, and advisories come from.  They are in constant contact with the mayor, schools chancellor, and all the major local tv and radio stations.  They are present for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, New Years Eve in Times Square and for events at Met Life Stadium.  We discussed so many things about weather, including the upcoming snow storms, the major hurricanes our area had, and the recent tornado watches.  We got to see the main area where several people were monitoring a number of computers, televisions, barometric pressure-readers, and satellites, and clocks (set to "z-time").  Our guide was a meteorologist who also does outreach.

National Weather Service at the Brookhaven National Lab

National Weather Service

The Great Restaurant Adventure #2: Argentina

The next restaurant we went to for our Great Restaurant Adventure was called La Fusta.  It's an Argentinian restaurant in Elmhurst, Queens.  J joined W and me this time for a great bunch of lunch specials.  For $9-$11 a lunch special included a large choice of entree (meat or pasta), one side, salad, a beverage, and flan.

I had "tira de asado" (short ribs) with real mashed potatoes, W had skirt steak with french fries, and J had chicken milanesa with french fries.  Before our food was brought out we had a basket of incredible bread for the table and the waiter put out a bowl of chimichurri sauce.  This is a green, garlic & oil sauce to put on grilled meat.  We LOVED the food here and the prices were amazing.  I think we'll be going back here one day soon.

Short ribs lunch special

Flan

Australian cuisine is next...

The Great Restaurant Adventure #1: Afghan

We began our Great Restaurant Adventure last week with a trip to a local Afghan restaurant.  Afghan is the first cuisine on our alphabetical list.

The name of the restaurant was Balkh Shish Kebab House.  It's in the Astoria section of Queens.  It's a small place with a lot of Afghan decor inside.  W and I started out with Manto (beef dumplings) and Bolanee Kadu (fried pumpkin turnovers).  Those were pretty good.  For the main dish, W had the combo kebabs (2 pieces each of chicken, lamb, and beef) on a big plate of brown basmati rice.  I had Kabli Palow, which is a huge lamb shank on a plate of the same rice but with raisins and shredded carrot on top.  They also brought us a plate of lamb curry, which was delicious mixed into the rice.  I don't even like lamb, but this was so good.  W loved his kebab - especially the chicken.  We ordered some sweet lassi to drink.  It came in a small pitcher and we each got a cute stemmed glass.  This was not our favorite.  It was plain, liquid, warm yogurt.  For dessert, we split an order of firni, which is a rice pudding custard with toasted crushed pistachios on top.  It was perfumy but nice and 1 order was the perfect amount to split.

Kabli Palow

W trying the sweet lassi

Afghan decor inside the restaurant

 Argentina is next!  Stay tuned...

Land of Diversity

The really great thing about living in NYC, especially Queens, is the incredible diversity.  Just about every nation in the world is represented.  As soon as we can (this summer?), W and I are going to embark on a restaurant adventure.  Every 2 weeks we are going to have lunch at a different ethnic restaurant in our town.  Whatever nation's cuisine we experience will also be the subject of study for 2 weeks.  This goes way beyond a geography lesson and we're so excited to get started on it.


-------------------------------------------------------
Recent academics:
Math:  Negative numbers using the 4 basic operations
Reading:  Main idea & supporting details
Poetry:  Shel Silverstein (10 poems)
Spanish:  Pronouns, helping verbs, forms of address 
History:  Ancient China, Confucius
Writing:  Creating a dialogue

Wetlands

After doing some serious hibernating for the last few months we decided to get back into doing some group classes.  This week W went to a great class at the Alley Pond Environmental Center on Wetlands.  There were about 8 middle/high school aged kids there - all intently focused and fully participating.  I can imagine the nonsense these people have to go through with chatty, unfocused school kids who are just happy to get out of their building for a few hours.  A group of homeschoolers must be so refreshing for them.  The class was all about marshes and the various plants and animals that inhabit them.  The kids tested the brackish water in the creek:  temperature, pH level, turbidity, and oxygen levels.  W really enjoyed the class (the instructor was fantastic) and was happy to be with friends he hasn't seen in a while.

Inside the APEC classroom

Info on how to test the creek water

Out on the marsh

Academics:
Math:  (Saxon) Angles & lines, multiplying & reducing fractions.  Review of percent, measurement, multiples, mixed numbers, average, GCF, perimeter, diameter/radius
English:  (Hake) Future tense, capitalization in sentences, "I", and poetry, & irregular plural nouns.  Review of sentence types, compound nouns, simple subjects, verb phrases, vocabulary words, abstract & concrete nouns, possessives, fragments & run-ons, past/present tense.  (Seq Spelling) Days 13-16.  (Wordsmith Apprentice)  Introduction to writing
History:  (Story of Mankind) Hieroglyphics
Science:  APEC field trip:  Wetland Ecology & Water Testing,  (Apologia) The Scientific Method

And I just have to throw one more of these out there:

50 reasons why NYC is the greatest city in the world

Best City in the World

I've been saying it since forever.  It's nice that many others feel this way, too.  Check out these great articles from this week:

Notable parents on why NYC is the best city in the world

AND

25 reasons why NYC is the best city in the world to raise kids

Staying Active

Going to the gym with W is really fun.  He's so into it.  We're spending a good 90 minutes there each day.  The routine so far is 30 minutes on cardio (we use the treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, etc - whatever we feel like that day) and 60 minutes on strength training.  We work out the "push muscles" (triceps, quadriceps, chest) and the "pull muscles" (biceps, hamstrings, back) on alternating MWF days.  Three days a week is what we're starting with for now.

The theater class W started going to is wonderful.  It's run by all professionals and the kids are really serious about it.  W and the other beginners went to their own space.  B & I went for some breakfast while he was there.  At the end of class, the instructor said the kids did very well and told me it's obvious that "W is much farther along" than the others.  Hmmm.  He hasn't acted since that summer workshop when he was 8 and he's only been in choir for a few months.  I wonder why she said that.  He did tell me he answered a bunch of questions.  I feel weird asking for specifics, lol.  I'm just glad he gets to spend his Saturdays doing what he loves.

I'm trying to coax him into doing some daily independent reading.  He hates all the books we have so he's agreed to go with me to the library once a week and pick out a couple.  SOTW is nice and easy and relaxed.  We read it together and W answers all the questions in the activity book.  I like that the activity book has maps to go along with the chapters.  I usually have to figure out which one of our atlases has the best map of what we're talking about.  Then we take what we've learned and look up different things online about it throughout the week.  So simple and so effective.  Since the first part of the book deals a lot with Egypt, I think a trip to the Egyptian section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a month or so is a great idea.

That's the way I'm doing everything lately.  Relaxed and stress-free.  Life's too short for worrying.  Homeschooling gives us the freedom to live and learn as we like.  I plan on enjoying this wonderful and very fleeting childhood time with my son.  Having older teens has showed me how fast it all goes by.  

Halloween Sandy

Well OK then.  What a strange week.  NYC just had the biggest storm and most destruction...ever.  I'm lucky, though.  I live in a virtually unscathed part of Queens.  There were huge trees down everywhere, no public transportation, and closed roads, but we still had power.  By day 2, the downed trees were chopped up and either loaded onto trucks or moved off the roads.  The roads were clear to drive - I drove to work on Tuesday and Wednesday - no problem - not even one delay.  The lingering problems now are that no gas stations have gas and we are on empty.  Also, the subways are actually up and running already (although nothing below 34th St in Manhattan, which doesn't affect us) but there are delays.  We're also lucky that B had off from work all week, K & J are off from school (and dance) all week, and K works in walking distance.

J posing with the tree in the road

On the other hand, about 80% of people I know are still without power and/or flooded (including my mom & sister out in Long Island).  J and her friends plan on donating clothes and books to the folks in Breezy Point (Queens) who got hit pretty badly - 80 homes burned down and the whole neighborhood is just gone.  It's so great to see most neighborhoods come together and say they're grateful their families are safe and that they plan on rebuilding and getting their neighborhoods back together.  On the other hand, you see people in other neighborhoods who complain, loot, do nothing, and demand others help them.  It's a weird contrast to see on the news.  Most places in NYC are, thankfully, the grateful, get-things-done type and because of that, they will probably get the most donations and help.

Halloween was in full-force around here, despite being in this "aftermath".  We must have had over 100 kids trick-or-treat at my house.  W had a great time trick-or-treating with his friends.  His football player costume was just his jersey and black lines under his eyes, but it looked great (W has always kept his costumes low key - sometimes just a new mask every year worn with a hooded sweatshirt - scary and creepy is his usual Halloween tactic).  He then helped MIL give out her candy, sitting on her porch with the aforesaid mask and hooded sweatshirt and huge candy bowl in his lap.

J got together with some friends and they all dressed up as ninja turtles.  They went around trick-or-treating, too (lol).  K has been getting over a cold and fever all week.  She went to a big Halloween party at a club in Brooklyn last weekend dressed all in black with Dia de los Muertos face makeup.  She looked awesome.  She feels better today and went to work.

We laid off most of the academic bookwork this week.  The girls and B have been home, so we couldn't really get anything done.  Today we picked things up again, though.  W did some of his dyslexia workbook, some Saxon Math, some paragraph editing, and right now, B is reading a chapter of Prince Caspian to him.  W's Monday animation class was cancelled and will pick up next week.  I'm planning on driving out to my mom's tomorrow to see my aunt who's visiting from out of state (great week for her to come, lol), but with no gas, I'm not sure what to do.

Science & Wall Street

We're trying out Life of Fred Fractions again this week.  Now that W has the 4 basic math functions just about mastered and is reading pretty well, I think he's ready for it.  He enjoys reading the story and that helps the math problems actually make more sense since they're usually in context.  (A cool thing I discovered is that graph paper is great for working out all kinds of math problems. W pays more attention to what he's doing and makes less mistakes than when he uses regular paper).

Science this week is all about doing projects and experiments using the scientific method.  We're breaking it down piece by piece, using the ScienceSaurus book.  We visited the NY Hall of Science this week, too.  We hadn't been there in ages, so it was nice to be back.  He tried out many of the experiments - everything from light and sound to peripheral vision and molecules.  So hopefully he walked away with a better understanding of how to use the scientific method and why those steps are important.

W has also done a good amount of reading and spelling.  He really likes doing the Spelling Skills exercises (proofreading, analogies, & fill-in-the-blank stuff) and zips through them in minutes now.  Grammar this week has been all about plurals and possessives (e.g. knowing the difference between boys, boy's, and boys' and using them in sentences correctly).  He's still reading the Star Wars book - which I think is way too hard for him, but he's drawn to it and picks it up several times a day.  Besides, he's challenging himself and that is usually a very good thing.  He's even asked me to buy him the other books in the series.

On Friday we met up with the homeschool group for a trip to the Museum of Finance down on Wall Street.  The class was all about financial markets.  They discussed:  risk & reward in investing, the 3 major financial asset classes, what causes financial market fluctuations and crises, stock market crashes, the reason for bonds, and information technology in the field of finance.  We learned what commodities and futures are and how stocks really work.  W really liked it.  I knew he got a lot out of it when he gave his dad a rundown of what's what from the class.  This is a great subject we can study so much further.  

Scouts

At scouts last week, W has another cool project to do.  He is working toward getting his Family Badge (or something like that).  He has to plan out 3 meals, make a shopping list for those, and prepare everything himself.  He knows how to do this already, having done it a few times, but now it includes writing things down and thinking of whole meals instead of just one dish.  He's excited to get started.  Since B is the chef in the house, they will be doing everything together (there's never enough dad and son bonding).  I hope I remember to take pictures.

The scouts also went ice skating yesterday.  They went to a brand new place that was just created this winter.  It seems like they just sealed off an area, filled it with some water, put some plastic railings all around, and called it a rink.  Simple, yet so nice.  There's a mall across the street and a huge cemetery across the other street.  They had the whole place to themselves and had a great time.


I re-organized my entire apartment (again, lol) and I'm so please with how it looks now.  We threw out so much stuff - it looks so much bigger in here!  An open, clutter-free home does wonders for my motivation.  I have so many plans brewing!

Manga Drawing Workshop

I took W to a Manga drawing workshop today here in Queens.  As interested as he is in drawing and cartooning, it was the perfect outlet and learning opportunity for him.  Located in the Little Asia section of Flushing on Main Street, this workshop was held on the lower floor of an office building.  The instructor (Hojin) does this kind of cartooning for a living and was a featured artist at the NY Comic-Con being held this week at the Javitz Center in Manhattan.  W was completely rapt and gave his full attention for the 2 hour class.  W's drawings have mainly been very cartoonish - big round heads, round bodies, disproportionate limbs - but today he was taught to really visualize the human form.  Hojin explained you have to know how to draw people correctly before you can transform them into cartoon - "You have to know the rules before you can break the rules".  So, W worked on head shape, proportion, muscle placement, and most importantly - visualizing or coming up with a plan of action before drawing.  And a really helpful thing was learning how to create anything using only a few basic shapes. 

W couldn't get enough.  I knew this would spark a renewed interest in art.  He could have stayed another 2 hours.  They gave him lots of pencils, sketch pens, thick white erasers, and plenty of paper.  I was told he was very bright, very creative, and that he seems to love to draw. 

The funny thing is that this time slot didn't have anyone in it except W and 1 adult art student.  The one-on-one was great, but I realized something.  Schoolkids don't want to go to a class on their day off from school, and homeschoolers don't want to do a (public) class when schoolkids are off.  I am in the latter category, but now I think I'll try and find more of these types of classes.  Maybe they'll do a series of workshops just for us homeschoolers.  There's nothing like learning something from someone who is passionate about the work. 

An Oldie but a Goodie

You Know You're From New York City When...

You say "the city" and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.

You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.

You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.

Hookers and the homeless are invisible.

The subway makes sense.

You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.

You've considered stabbing someone just for saying "The Big Apple".

The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.

You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a yard.

You consider Westchester "upstate".

You think Central Park is "nature."

You see nothing odd about the speed of an auctioneer's speaking.

You're paying $1,200 for a studio the size of a walk-in closet and you think it’s a "steal."

You've been to New Jersey twice and got hopelessly lost both times.

You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the U.S. pay in rent.

You haven't seen more than twelve stars in the night sky since you went away to camp as a kid.

You go to dinner at 9 and head out to the clubs when most Americans are heading to bed.

Your closet is filled with black clothes.

You haven't heard the sound of true absolute silence since the 80s, and when you did, it terrified you.

You pay $5 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28 cents.

You take fashion seriously.

Being truly alone makes you nervous.

You have 27 different menus next to your telephone.

Going to Brooklyn is considered a "road trip."

America west of the Hudson is still theoretical to you.

You've gotten jaywalking down to an art form.

You take a taxi to get to your health club to exercise.

Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing on your toes.

$50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag.

You have a minimum of five "worst cab ride ever" stories.

You don't notice sirens anymore.

You live in a building with a larger population than most American towns.

Your doorman is Russian, your grocer is Korean your deli man is Israeli, your building super is Italian, your laundry guy is Chinese, your favorite bartender is Irish, your favorite diner owner is Greek, the watchseller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was Pakistani, your newsstand guy is Indian and your favorite falafel guy is Egyptian.

You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.

You secretly envy cabbies for their driving skills.

You think $7.00 to cross a bridge is a fair price.

Your door has more than three locks.

Your favorite movie has DeNiro in it.

You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.

You run when you see a flashing "Do Not Walk" sign at the intersection.

You're 35 years old and don't have a driver's license.

You ride in a subway car with no air conditioning just because there are seats available.

You're willing to take in strange people as roommates simply to help pay the rent.

There is no North and South. It's uptown or downtown.

When you're away from home, you miss "real" pizza and "real" bagels.

You know the differences between all the different Ray's Pizzas.

You're not in the least bit interested in going to Times Square on New Year's Eve.

Your internal clock is permanently set to know when Alternate Side of the Street parking regulations are in effect.

You know what a bodega is.

You know how to fold the New York Times in half, vertically, so that you can read it on the subway or bus without knocking off other passenger's hats.

Someone bumps into you, and you check for your wallet.....

You cringe at hearing people pronounce Houston St. like the city in Texas

Film crews on your block annoy you, not excite you.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from NYC.

Camp Update

So, as nervous as I was on Thursday when W started camp, things are going incredibly well.  I had a huge knot in my stomach leaving him there that first day.  One of the counselors is a 4th grade teacher and gave the usual fixed smile "ohhhhhhhh" after our answer to "where does he go to school".  I just hoped it wasn't going to be like sitting in a classroom for 10 hours.  I went down to see the main camp area and saw that W was already given breakfast (cereal, milk, juice) and that it was nice and cool in there.  The 4th grade teacher made sure he moved down to sit next to some of the other kids.  I walked out of there a little worried.  It sucks being the new kid. 

I told W that if he needed me at all, for any reason, he could tell one of the adults he wanted to call me.   By noon he still hadn't called.   I knew that they played outside in the water at around 12:30, so I drove over and inconspicuously parked across the street from the playground area.  I watched W for about a 1/2 hour.  I know, I'm crazy.  But I wanted to see how well he was getting along with the other kids and that he was having fun.  He seemed to have made quite a few friends and looked like he loved being there.  Ok, good.  I can go home and relax now, lol.

He came home raving about his day again on Friday (no, I didn't spy on him again, lol).  Then he talked all weekend about how he couldn't wait for Monday.  I'm actually very happy that he loves it.  Gone are the days where you can just let your kid run wild outside, not see him all day, and then call him in for dinner.  I grew up in that time of carefree fun and it was great.  Unfortunately, nowadays, we are more aware of stranger danger and what could happen, and how frightening it is when your child is out of your sight.  You could live in the city or the most rural woods - someone could be watching your child, waiting for that moment he's alone, and then just snatch him away.

I am grateful to have a place W can go where it's fun, he has friends, and he is safe.  He's already hugged me and thanked me for letting him go there (and hugged and thanked MIL for finding it for him).  Too bad schools aren't run like camps.  Imagine how great schools would be if they allowed for more freedom, more fun, more outside time, more cool activities, more socializing time, more socializing with different age groups, snack time in all grades, and making learning enjoyable.  What a concept, huh?

Day Camp

W will be starting day camp tomorrow!  I've had the kids in camp over the years and they've really loved it.   I guess with all the high school stuff and next year's homeschool curriculum and the girls' endless summer plans it slipped my mind this year.  Thankfully, MIL found one in walking distance with the perfect price.  It will be from 7:30am to 6pm.  They provide meals and a full day of cool activities, including water play, academic competitions, movies, and cooking class.  W is an early riser, so that works out.  B will take him in the mornings before work and pick him up when he gets home.  W is so excited and is looking forward to it. 

We will still be doing as much academic stuff as we can.  I'm not worried about finishing this curriculum before autumn.  Camp is just what he needs right now.  Friends on the block and the playground are great, but when it's too hot (it was 103 the other day) or no one's home, W has a hard time knowing what to do with himself.  We go places, do crafts, cook, and he still does his cartooning, claymation, and weapon-making, but after a few hours, he's bored.  He's the kind of kid who loves being on the go and keeping busy. 

So, he starts tomorrow.  He didn't even want to wait til Monday, lol.  Tonight I'll pack everything he needs:  sunscreen, swim trunks, extra shirt, plastic bag for wet clothes, some snacks, and water.  I hope he loves it.  He can then do the whole 6 weeks.  Wish us luck!

Summer!

Summer is here in NYC.  It's so hot.  The kids are keeping busy throughout the days and I just prefer to stay indoors with my air conditioner on, lol.  K went to a water park called Splish Splash with her friends yesterday, the beach a few times, and will probably go to the movies tonight.  Her last day of school was Monday.  She chose all her classes for senior year.  It looks like this:  Trigonometry, AP Literature, Government & Economics, Astronomy & Forensics, Latin, and Yearbook.  She did very well this year and is already planning for college.

J has been spending lots of time with friends.  They usually hang out at the park, running through the sprinklers, and watching the boys play basketball.  They all had a great game of dodge ball going the other day, too.  Sometimes they grab a bite to eat at a nearby diner or catch a movie.  Today she's taking advantage of the heat and spending the day in her friend's pool.  Summer dance classes are in full-swing.  Tuesdays she takes ballet, tap, and lyrical, Thursdays she takes contemporary and hip-hop, and now on Mondays she's part of a class based on the show "Glee".  Her dance team (her immediate team of 6 members) was just notified that based on their platinum first place performance at one of their competitions this year, they won a full scholarship to 8 hours of master classes and free competition fees to an "Ultimate Overall Challenge" in NJ in July.  It's like a mini-Nationals and is spread out over 3 days.  Needless to say, the studio owner is thrilled and we are all so proud of them.

W is spending his summer so far doing what he loves best - going to the playground and playing Nerf Gun Tag with his friends on the block.  Auditions for a summer musical are coming up and he is looking forward to that.  It will be 2 weeks of rehearsals - 2 hours each day, 5 days a week - with 2 Saturday shows.  He was in this program last year and loved it.  J may join again, too, with her friend Amanda, but she's right at the age cutoff and besides, she'll be dancing at a fundraiser for St. Jude's Childrens Hospital that same day as the performance.

W will also be finishing up AO Year 2 all summer.  We took a lot of time away from our schedule, so it's time to catch up.  We have a lot of fun with it and W enjoys it all.  We really only spend about 2 hours each morning on academics.  The rest of the day is his.  I want to try and get to Year 3 by autumn.  I ordered a few books already, like Writing Strands 2, Simply Grammar, The Story of Inventions, and Science Lab in a Supermarket.  Those cost about $68 total.  I only need to buy 2 more books on the schedule - American Tall Tales and The Princess and the Goblin.  Then I still need to buy about 8 of the "free reading" books (all the others I either have already or downloaded free on my Nook).  I can get those for a few dollars each, though.  So I probably won't spend more than $150 on his total 4th grade curriculum.

Loving life here in NYC.

PLATINUM Lining to an Early Black Cloud

This weekend was the last dance competition of the season.  J had all 8 of her numbers in one day.  It moved along well and there was plenty of costume change time.  There was 1 awards ceremony in the evening.  All of J's numbers scored a Platinum or X-Treme Platinum - which are the highest given.  Our studio had at least one number in the top 10 (most in the top 5!) in every category.  It was a great day and a lot of awards were won.  J's solo placed in the top 10 and she won a scholarship to one of their fall dance workshops! 

The day didn't start out so well, though.  We woke up to find my car's front side window was smashed in.  B went out to check and noticed nothing was taken (EZ Pass, GPS, airbags, etc), so we were ok.  Then J reminded us her dance shoe bag was on the front seat.  Yep.  That's what was taken.  What are the odds that her dance shoe bag would be stolen on the day of her competition?!  It certainly doesn't look like a purse,  but I guess desperate people don't care.  In a matter of 1 minute I thought up a few plans to get us through the day - Which friend has the same size feet, who is not in a certain number, who else could she borrow from, how far is the dance shop and can we make it there and back in time.  As I'm trying to figure out how to keep my cool in the process, B came back in stating that he found the shoe bag down the block with all the shoes throw into someone's yard.  W had hopped the fence and B called out where each shoe was.  W retrieved them (they were everywhere)  and B matched them all up.  Every shoe was accounted for.  Stupid thieves.  I hope that bag stunk up to high heaven when he opened it -10 pairs of a teenager's dance shoes, after a whole dance season, are not a bed of roses, lol.  The window is being replaced on Tuesday morning at no charge.  Except for that little bit of panic and inconvenience, all is well. 

Super Saturday

W:  Cub Scout sleepover at the Hall of Science complete with Bubblemania show and ice cream.  (And a great birthday party on Friday for best friend in Brooklyn)

J:  A surprise "Alice in Wonderland"-themed birthday party at Jekyll & Hyde's in Manhattan followed by same-themed house party in Queens.

K:  A surprise 17th birthday bash on a party bus for best friend. 

I'd say it was a fabulous weekend.

High School Hullaballoo

In NYC, the 8th-graders who didn't get into a specialized high school (there are only 8 or 9 of those schools) are supposed to get their "main-round" school match-ups this week. It was supposed to be yesterday, but because the NAACP is annoyed that a few extremely underperforming schools in terrible neighborhoods are closing (?!), everyone's letters are delayed. I don't get the big rally for keeping schools open where kids don't learn. I don't care if it's the only school in your neighborhood. If it's a bad school, you should be doing whatever you can to find something better. It's your job as a parent. I think it's heartless to make the entire city's 8th-grade kids (and their parents) wait any longer to know what high school they'll be going to.

Thankfully, J got her results in the specialized round, but all her friends are so anxious. Most of them put Frank Sinatra School of the Arts as the main-round first choice, then other performing arts schools like PPAS & Talent Unlimited. Then they put some good academic schools like Bard Early College, Townsend Harris, Academy of American Studies, and Cardozo. You may list the top 12 high schools you'd like to attend - most children only list 5-7, though - and you get matched to only one of them. K didn't try for any specialized schools when she was in 8th grade, and her main-round sheet listed only her 3 top choices. She got into her first-choice pick - but the wait was still nerve-wracking. Out of the 400 high schools in NYC, only about 30 are worth going to. So you can understand the anxiety for both the kids and the parents.

Many of J's friends took the test to get into the good Catholic High Schools. There, you list your top 3 choices and you can get accepted to all of them and choose which one you'll attend. The thing about Catholic schools is that they send their results in February and you have about 2 weeks to make a choice and then send them a (non-refundable) $600 payment to hold your spot - this, if you notice, is a whole month before your public school results arrive. Sneaky, isn't it. A good number of J's friends' parents paid the $600 - just to ensure their kids have a seat in a good school - but have no problem losing that money if they're happier with the main-round public school result. This is another reason for all the anger and anxiety over the delayed main-round letters.


It's crazy in NYC. I love that we have so much school choice. The process is nutty, but usually worth it in the end. Hopefully this other nonsense will end soon and these kids will finally know where they're going to high school.

Miscellaneous Goings-On

J's first dance competition of the season was a couple of weeks ago. This one was local and one we love doing. She was in 5 groups and 1 solo. No vocal this year. She's just not as into it as she is dance and tossed it for now. I'm proud of her that it was something she'd always wanted to try and was really successful at it for 2 years (even winning junior title at one comp last season). She's thinking she might sing for the recital in June. Anyway, J's numbers were all top scoring and one lyrical group number won best choreography overall for the day. That was really exciting. Now J and her friend Mich are working on a duet to take to the next comp in March. The choreographer they have is unbelievable (new to the studio this year) and the girls will have it nailed in only 3 hours of rehearsal time. For the March competition, J will be in 6 groups, a solo, and a duet. I love competition season!

Tuesday, W and I went to another Mad Science class. The 10-class series revolves all around the same detective theme. W enjoys it, but has been longing to get back to the game place in the West Village. J, too. So that's where we'll alternate going until mid-March when the science series is over.

Daily academics are going well. The kids and I fixed up the morning schedule and we're very happy with it. Here's a look:

Monday, Wednesday, & Friday:
- W and I do 2 AO readings with narrations while J reads some classic literature.
- W does 1 lesson in TT5 and J does 1 or 2 LoF chapters.
- I read a poem aloud and both kids do poetry copywork.
- W does 1-3 pages in his language arts workbook while J does a page or 2 in her writing workbook.
- W and I do another AO reading w/narration and a few pages from a "free reading" book.
- Then it's: Nature study (Mon) using the Outdoor Hour Challenges from handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com, French (Wed) using livemocha.com and various books, and Timeline (Fri - for W), where he creates a few index cards of different people and events we've read about during the week.

Tuesday and Thursday:
- W and I do 2 AO readings w/narrations while J reads science (Tue) or history (Thu).
- W does a page or 2 in his math workbook and J does a chapter or 2 of LoF.
- I read a poem aloud and both kids do poetry copywork.
- W does 1 lesson in his HoP Master Reader program while J does a few pages in her English workbook
- W and I do another AO reading w/narration and a few pages from a "free reading" book.
- Then it's: Artist Study (Tue) and Composer Study (Thu), where we look at lots of paintings/works from the focus artist/composer and learn about their life.

This is so simple and works beautifully. J is glad to be hitting the books, getting ready for school in September. She even has summer reading to do for the school. She's confident and feels ready to take this on. The rest of this school year looks to be really busy and fun. We'll be pulling back on many of the homeschool group classes mainly to do our own thing (with only 1 or 2 other families). The kids definitely prefer it that way. I can't wait til spring.

Mirrors

Today was W's last NY Hall of Science class in their first ever monthly homeschool series. His 3rd-5th grade class was all about "Reflecting on Mirrors". They discussed characteristics that cause mirror reflection, light's interaction with various surfaces, and the angle of reflection. He loved it and came out with a "magic box" he made - cardboard and an angled mirror make it look like anything you put into the box disappears. Before the class we watched a demonstration on "Airplay". W got to be a volunteer showing how strong air pressure can be when it creates a vacuum.

These classes were such a great idea and I want to thank Sylvia P. from NYHS for putting these together. She said there will be another session in September! Homeschooling has really come such a long way since we started. It's awesome that homeschooling has finally hit the mainstream in this city. Resources for us are appearing everywhere and I love being a part of all of it!

HEY, it was 5 years ago yesterday that J started homeschooling!! Wow that went by fast.