Tag Archives: unschool

Sewing, Writing, Gaming, 80’s, Kinda Week…

The class that Keilee is doing via FaceTime (she is actually getting ready to join them as I type this) with Jessica’s group is honestly going wonderfully.  She is so excited every Thursday night about it and she is writing like crazy.  It is such a great experience for her.  Her and Grace and the rest of the girls laugh and talk and show off each other’s dogs and pets.  It is so much fun for her.  And she is LOVING the writing games they play.

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She is working on a great story.  She told me I could share the first Chapter here:

Septembers Children

 Chapter one

 The sky was gray and smog thickened the air making it hard to breath. “I liked it better when the sky was blue” whispered Alex as he walked towards me. “Alex” I turned fast on my heels “you not suppose to be here”. The air was hot and I could see his eyes move from the filthy sky to me. “Neither are you “ he smirked. He is the only one I feel comfortable around, without him living here would be unbearable. We sat by the edge, peered down at the busy city below. We weren’t suppose to be here, the roof was off limits to all children in September Academy. “Hey Addie?’ Alex turned to me. “Yeah?” I looked at him.

 Maybe the reason we were so alike, why we were best friends is because we are the only ones different. After the Great War nothing was left and we had to rebuild. Very few of us left, very few of us with pale skin, pale eyes and in some cases pale hair. Alex and I both had blue eye, he is the only other person I know who does.

 “You know” Alex began he turned his head as not to look at me. “we could get out.”  I looked at him shocked, I wanted to get out as much, maybe more so, than him but there was no way. “Alex, we…..” Alex turned to me his blue eyes so stern it stopped me in my tracks. “Addie, we could jump.” He said it so nonchalantly it make me wonder, if he really meant it.  “never mind” he said as he turned and looked back at the sky “forget it.”  We sat there in silence not daring to speak or look at each other. I’ve known Alex my whole life, but in this moment he felt like a stranger.

She has written 8 chapters so far!  She is a really good writer but we have never done any sort of writing curriculum.  Keilee told me the other day that there is always either a song or a story running around in her head.  I am just so not like that.

Keilee got a last minute call to help out at The Princess Theater This past weekend. They were having their annual Mental Health Talent Show and needed a stage hand.  She thought she would be mostly back stage and doing moving in the dark but she was on stage the entire time!!  Even bantered with the Master of Ceremonies.  She seriously had 30 mintues to get ready.  We had been a a game day all afternoon and were both pretty pooped!

She also sewed a Quiver for a badge on DIY.org.  She is really doing a great job sewing.  Unfortunately I am not much help.

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They had 80’s day at Co-op.  Finding Keilee something to wear wasn’t very hard.  She wears things like this anyway.  I would love to have all my 80’s clothes.  I had tons of cool things.  I was a very big MTV kinda girl. 

Keilee on the left, me on the right. 🙂  I have no clue why a 25 year old picture is better quality than a week old one!!!

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Keilee has great friends at Co-op.  This is in Art Journaling and the last one is what we are learning for Drama.  It is a ‘white glove’ routine and very cool.

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We played tons of games this week, watched the premiere of Sherlock, (I am a HUGE fan) and took selfies.  While playing Scrabble, I put the word ‘home’ and Keilee made it “HomeSchool”.  🙂  She has been sitting in on a Yale class called “Game Theory” that she loves.  She has talked non stop about it.  We also started playing World Of Warcraft together.  My brother has 2 accounts and let us borrow them when he isn’t playing.  And Keilee finished a large order she got on Facebook for 4 headbands.  This is the first time in 2 months she doesn’t have an order to work on and can just knit and crochet for fun.

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We have  slam packed weekend and it is supposed to be bitter cold.  I am so thankful that Daddy put in central heat this winter.  We have frozen the last few winters but stayed warm as toast this year.  As long as we don’t have to get out in it!  I want Spring but I would love some snow first.  I see all sorts of snow pictures on Instagram and I want some too!

 Happy weekend!
Homeschool Rocks!
Karen

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~Maya Angelou
“I know of nothing more inspiring than that of making discoveries for one’s self.”  ~George Washington Carver

Linking with Mary at “Collage Friday
Sylvia at “Friendship Friday”

Art, Aristocats and Altos….

The last 7 days has been days of busyness!  Friday Keilee went to a lock in with Maddie Grace where she slept NONE.  Sunday night her best friend from K-5th grade spent the night with her.  Keilee and Lyvvy are reconnecting after a couple of years of not talking.  It was so awesome to hear them talking and laughing all night.  Monday night Sophie spent the night with her and we went to Pt. Mallard on Tuesday.

Instagram fun with Lyv and Sophie.

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Keilee auditioned for Aristocats and got the role she wanted; the Duchess!  She is so excited to be back with her College Street Players doing a play.  Some of her best friends in the entire world are in the cast and she is geeked!

The is the first play she has ever been in that she was an ‘older kid’.  There are already several little girls who are enamored with her.  It is so sweet.

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Keilee continues to do A LOT of Art Journaling.  She loves quotes just like her Mama does. 🙂  I LOVE her fox!

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It has been beautiful and I took Kei outside for pictures.  She is at the age where she thinks every picture of her is ‘horrible’.  Why do girls do this?  Why do girls have such a negative image of themselves?  I wonder if it is things I have done or said.  I have always told her she was beautiful and wonderful so I am not sure if it is just an ‘age’ thing or what.  I always thought we would avoid that because we homeschooled but no such luck.

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I read a survey once that says teenage girls think they look worse than they do and teenage boys think they look better.  It is definitely a strange age and just because we homeschool doesn’t mean we don’t face some of the same issues.

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1.  Pt. Mallard Fun in the waves
2. Art Journaling on the floor!
3.  Voice lessons with her lovely teacher
4.  Kitty Kat love

This weeks theme on “7 Cool Homeschoolers” was What is on your iDevice.  Check out some of her favorite apps below.

This next week is going to be insane for us.  Keilee is looking so forward to it and I am dreading it.  It is strange how the same events can cause different responses.  Keilee is teaching at an Art/Drama/Music/Dance Camp and I am helping from 9-2 each day. Then Keilee is taking an After Hours Theater Camp from 3-6.  Then we have practice from 6:30-8:30.  Whew!

Stay cool everyone.  Summer is in full force here in Alabama, I don’t care what the calendar says!

Homeschooling Rocks!
Karen

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” ~Maya Angelou
“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
Linking with Mary at “Collage Friday”

It’s Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down on Friday…

I love the Friday posts.† I am just in awe of those of you who posts several times a week. I just can’t do it.† Well I guess I could but it takes a lot of time.† Does everyone do Friday Collage like I do?† First of all I dump my phone pictures into Dropbox and go through them.† I take MAINLY iPhone pictures.† I then get the pictures off of my camera if there is any.† Then I edit the pictures and do the collages in Picasa.

What I love about these ‘Friday Wrap Up/Collage’ posts is in weeks that I think, “Good grief we didn’t do anything productive” I realize we did.

Monday at Co-op they made Cherry Pie Cupcakes in honor of President’s Day.† They colored the icing to look like pie crust.

2013 FEB11Then in cooking they made a 4 course meal in 1 hour.† Then set up everything after Co-op for the families to all eat.† It was so good.† Caesar salad with homemade croutons, Breadsticks with dipping oil, Green Beans with mushrooms and onions and Stuffed Shells. For dessert it was homemade brownies with ice cream and fudge sauce.

2013 FEB12We also got to go to the Shanghai Circus this week with a homeschool group.† It was AMAZING!† Gymnastics is another of Keilee’s loves.† Even though she doesn’t take Gymnastics she watches YouTube videos all the time.† She has taught herself to do so many things.† She leaned over to me at one point and said, “Davan could do all of these things!”† Just wanted to share Nicholina. :)† She took all these pictures from the balcony. Way up in the balcony.†† 2013 FEB14

These were some of Keilee’s favorites.

2013 FEB15This girl and guy were really good too.† The blurry picture is so you can see she was on pointe, ON HIS SHOULDERS!

2013 FEB16When we got home she kept talking about how much she would love to do something like that, so we looked up Shanghai Circus.† They don’t live with their families, they travel all the time and practice hours a day.† We talked about the fact that if you love something so much and want to do that always, it takes so much time and practice.† We tried to figure up how many hours she has spent on acting….thousands between practices, at home practice and performing.

She spent a lot of time on an Animal Study she is doing on her own.† I tried to get her to come watch something with me one night but she said she would rather work on it. 🙂

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She is now at her first day at the Animal Clinic.† I am going to wait to post this because she said she would take pictures for my blog.† [I have so raised her right huh?]

I just picked her up and it was so funny to hear her rattle on about everything she did.† She got to walk dogs, fold towels, play with dogs and cats, help hold down a dog for clipping, put together tons of syringes [without the needle Mom!], learn about the blood machine, put dogs in their kennels† and watch a SPAY!† Not a bad first day. Here are a few pictures she was able to take.

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Things she has done this week include:

  • Working on a project within Webkinz.† She is doing a comparison on her vegetable garden and determining which crop is the most profitable to raise.† She is making charts and reports. She is keibell if any of your kids play.† She and Mary’s daughter have been sending each other all kinds of goodies. 🙂
  • Doing a few lessons on Khan Academy
  • Reading Book 1 of “The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe”
  • She spends a lot of time on this site.† Brain Genie You must all check it out.† It is free and you can play against other people if you want, completely anonymous and also do a ‘lesson’ sort of thing.† It is my favorite resource this week.
  • Her Animal project
  • We finally caught up on “Once Upon a Time“† LOVE this show!† We had watched a couple of them, then stopped.† The complete 1st season is on Netflix streaming and all of this season is on HuluPlus.
  • Watched the final episode of Downton Abbey.† Still speechless.
  • She wanted me to print out some Grammar worksheets which I did.
  • We are doing the SAT question of the day.† It is a free app.† She is rocking all the questions except the Math.
  • Part of what I like Keilee to do every week may be kinda strange to some of you.† I encourage her to spend time on Social Media.† I think that this is going to be more and more important.† I want her to Instagram and Vine and search for things on YouTube and find things that are ‘trending’.† She isn’t much into Facebook but she enjoys the other things.
  • She is working on this lapbook.† It is US History from 1909 until 2009. It is so funny because I always loved the idea of lapbooks but she didn’t. All of a sudden she loves them. Which is good since I have bought or gotten free probably 75 over the years.
  • She continues to work on her blog Teens Can Change The World

WATCH THIS VIDEO! NOW!† I saw a link to this on Helena’s husbands Facebook.† We watched it, twice.† I kinda think Keilee has a little crush on Logan.† Well as ‘crushing’ as Keilee gets. Her words, “He is cute and smart”.† 🙂 I love the things he does for his ‘hackschooling’ and am planning on spending some time seeing if I could implement some of these ideas.† LOVE IT!!

So there is our week.† We have a busy weekend and Keilee’s play is in a couple of weeks.† All good fun.

HomeSchooling Rocks,
Karen

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.î ~Socrates

ìJust as eating against oneís will is injurious to health, so studying without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.î† ~Leonardo Da Vinci

ìSelf-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.î† ~Isaac Asimov

Happily Linking with
Mary at “Collage Fridays
Savannah at “It’s a Wrap”