And We're Back!

WOW, it's been quite a while since we last updated. Five years, one month, and fourteen days to be exact. I - Squirrel - have hereby claimed rights to posting on this blog, and shall attempt to keep you updated on my homeschool shenanigans. In the years that have passed, Puppies and I switched to an online school called Christa Mcauliffe Academy of Arts and Sciences, though this year I'm pretty happy to say that I've come full circle and am back at Calvert, attending their first year of online high school. While we were sad to see her go, Puppies has relocated to the Midwest where she's majoring in English, minoring in education, and enjoying the stress of college life. She graduated high school as Valedictorian - perhaps with her permission I'll post her speech. She's enjoying college immensely (except for her Econ class), and she actually just got a job as an ambassador! I hope I'll be able to go on one of her tours - not that I haven't seen the campus enough times already, what with the millions of tours we went on before she got her acceptance letter. I myself am working on my Sophomore year back at Calvert, weeping internally over the B I got in history last year that dropped my GPA by .2. Mom has split from her job as our teacher and has almost earned her masters in spiritual counseling, and opened her own business called Namaste From A Distance. I've also started music lessons, for which I've done four recitals and participated in Federation, a musical competition against my own score. Also a relatively recent fascination with the Middle Ages and sword fighting has led me to take up fencing which is really fun.
Now that I'm in high school there's less time for activities and the other fun aspects homeschooling, but I'm happy to keep you all up to date on my preparation for college and the goings on at Calvert's Virtual Academy.

Mystery Substance

Squirrel and I have been talking about matter and classification in science. Here is an easy recipe for a "mystery substance" you can make and then experiment with.


2 cups (or four bottles) white school glue
1 1/2 cups room temperature water
1 cup warm water
3 teaspoons borax powder


Add the room temperature water to the glue in a large mixing bowl. Dissolve the borax powder in the warm water and slowly pour it into the glue and water mixture, stirring constantly. Knead the material until it is smooth and has lost its stickiness. Store the mystery substance in a plastic bag with a zipper for preservation. This is not edible.
Using the mystery substance we talked about properties and classified the properties. We used simple objects, like a wooden spoon, a metal spoon, a glass and a plastic cup, to increase our understanding of this substance.

artwork

Puppy's artwork

Squirrel's artwork

Art Journaling

I gave the girls a prompt of I AM

and they filled the entire paper up with attributes. Didn't these come out great?

Greek orzo and broccoli from The Smelly Llama

I used whole wheat, high protein macaroni instead or orzo. The recipe can be found here:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Greek-Orzo-and-Broccoli/Detail.aspx

What we've been up to

Painting their paper mache globes for geography

Puppy's science experiment, similar to the one she did last year

She put an egg in water, vinegar and salt water.
Do you know what will happen?

First day of school posing with one of the class pets

First day of school

CMA 09

Uncle Peanut has a mustache!

The dog whisperer!

Puppy and her baby boy, Mystic.

Savannah and Puppy!

Riverfront, the last day - it was so hot out!

Grandpa and Squirrel

Uncle Peanut and Daddy

"Lyke ohmigosh, YEAH! He is lyke sooo cute!"

Blue slushie, blue teeth, blue tongue

Mamma Llama and Puppy

Auntie Duckie, Puppy and Grandma

Grandma and Janie Fricke!

Auntie Duckie and Puppy taken by Puppy's stalkercam.

This is how far we were from the stage... look at all the fans!

Zac Brown Band!

Martina McBride

Kenny Chesney... Auntie Duckie's favorite! :D