March

As promised, I am continuing to play catch up. Here is an update on March. But first, I just noticed this little story in the news:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/17/us/gorilla-charges-zoo-window/index.html

Just have to say that this is our local zoo and the one I posted about going to back in January. We have a family membership there. A gorilla charged at Luke like that once while we were there. It didn't break the  glass when it slammed into it, but it definitely shocked Luke!

March...ah March. It's such a crazy month for CC families. In March, we are in Memory Master mode at full speed! What is a Memory Master? It is a child in our Classical Conversations (CC) homeschool program who has memorized all 24 weeks worth of memory work. For those not familiar with our program, it is based largely on memorization at the stage we are in. Each week for 24 weeks, the kids will memorize a new piece of information in seven different subjects- latin, timeline, math, grammar, history, science, and geography. A memory master has mastered all 24 weeks worth of facts and has recited them back to four different adults. Here is what we learned this year:


 160 events and people in a chronological timeline

·         24 history sentences to “put some flesh” on our timeline (including the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution,  the Bill of Rights, and U.S. historical events from Columbus to 9/11)

·         44 U.S. Presidents

·         120 locations and geographic  features in North America including:

o   States & Capitals

o   U.S. Rivers, Mountains and Deserts

o   U.S. Bays, Canals, and Great Lakes

o   Historical Trails

o   Territories, Terrains, and other prominent features

·         24 science facts, including (but not limited to):

o   Anatomy:  Parts of 8 major systems of the human body

o   Chemistry: The first 12 elements of the periodic table (along with their atomic number and mass) 

·     `` Latin rules and vocabulary.  Emphasis:  The text of John 1:1-7 in Latin with its English translation

·         English Grammar facts (including the principal parts of 12 irregular verbs, sentence parts, clauses, and sentence structures and patterns)

·         Multiplication tables up to 15x15, common squares and cubes, basic geometry formulas and unit conversions, and the algebraic laws of addition and multiplication

This year, both Nathanael and Luke decided to be memory masters. Luke has done it every year since we started the program four years ago and Nathanael did it two years ago. The testing process usually happens in March, which makes it a month where we drill, drill, drill, and drill again....times two! But I am happy to say that they both did it and I have two memory masters again this year! (Insert big sigh of relief here!) We are so glad to be done with the drilling! We are not returning to CC next year, so it was nice to go out on a high note.

Did we do anything else in March? Honestly, I felt like all we did was drill! I'm a tutor for our CC group and the last several weeks (we end the first week of April) are just a really busy time and we primarily focus on memory work and finishing strong (because we are always exhausted by this point of the school year). We did squeeze in a few other things, however. I took the kids to Lowes' one Saturday for a Build and Grow event. They got to build a wooden model of El Toro Loco (a Monster Jam truck).

Nathanael and Luke participated in a music event sponsored by a national music teachers group. They both did very well and Nathanael received the top rating you can get for his performances. Unfortunately, I missed this event because I was at an all day Zumba training that I couldn't have done at another time. I was already licensed to teach Basic Zumba and Zumba Kids. I was given a second class at the YMCA that began in January, so I'm now teaching there twice a week. But there are a lot of older people here and I've also had some of them and also some health challenged beginners come to class and my class is too intense for both of those groups. So I really wanted to get licensed to teach Zumba Gold, which is geared towards beginners, seniors, and those needing a less intense workout. So now I am licensed to teach that and I'm hoping we can add Zumba Gold to the class schedule at the gym this fall. It sounds like I should be getting two kids classes over the summer that will be geared towards the kids attending summer day camp at the Y.

We also celebrated Grandma's (John's grandma) birthday at the end of the month (actually on the same day as my training and the music festival...very busy day). It was the first time the kids and I have ever been with her for her birthday. It is nice to have these opportunities to build these memories with family that we hadn't seen very often previously.

Plate we made for John's Grandma's birthday gift

There! I'm almost caught up...next up is our party month!! While you wait for that post, enjoy some random photos and video from March.

Lego volcano he made after we studied Mt. St. Helens

This year we started seedlings indoors for the first time. Here is our growing set up in the basement. We wound up using all four shelves in the end and it worked out pretty well.

John starts expanding the garden. We only had the two boxes last year.

The guys started a worm composting bin. The plan is to use the worm castings (aka worm poop) to help fertilize our garden. There are 200 red worms living in my garage now. They eat table scraps.

And finally, some footage of my baby teaching my baby to play guitar. Makes my heart so happy!!!