2015-2016 Extra Curricular Activities

Now that we’ve finalized our curriculum picks, I thought I’d share our extra curricular choices for the upcoming year.

John Lewis Society:  Olivia will be working several days a month as a volunteer interpreter at a local live history museum.   She’s assigned to the Native American village, and I’ll be giving her a history credit for this.

Classical Ballet:   This will be our most challenging ballet year yet.  First of all, Olivia will be going en pointe, which is new and expensive.  Second of all the class schedule has gone to four days a week, with 90 minute classes.   The biggest issue to overcome, is the fact that, at the request of the Ballet Director,  Lindsey has been moved into Olivia’s class (skipping two levels).   Lindsey will not be going en pointe because of her age and stage of foot development.   Olivia is not at all happy about this turn of events.

Piano:  Lindsey will continue with her weekly piano lessons.  Olivia will be continuing with her DVD based piano curriculum.

Electric Guitar:   I find it interesting that someone as non-musical as myself was gifted with two children who love music.   To foster this love of music, my brother bought each girl an electric guitar and amp for Christmas.   I shall endeavor to teach them to play…this may get ugly folks.

Bright Lights:  Olivia is a charter member of our local Bright Lights.   She thoroughly enjoys this Bible study group.  Lindsey will be old enough to join in September so both will be attending and enjoying this ministry opportunity.

Basketball:   Lindsey will be playing basketball starting in January.  We’re still undecided at to whether she’ll continue with Upwards Sports, or move on to our churches new sports program.

Olivia had hoped to play volleyball this year, but the new ballet schedule seems to overtaken that possibility.   However, I will continue to look for volleyball at the YMCA for her.   Lindsey would also like to take sewing classes, but I’m not sure that there is wiggle room in the budget, or in the schedule for that to happen.

What does your extra curricular schedule look like this year?

Performing Arts Fun

The girls get to do the coolest things!  I so wish I’d had the same types of opportunities when I was their ages.   Last week they had the opportunity to take part in a performing arts camp.   Olivia took an acting class and Lindsey was in a creative dance group.

On Father’s Day the kids from the camp held an open house that featured the dance team, acting class, singers and the art (drawing/painting) show.    Father’s Day was probably not the best timing for the event, however it was still fun.

The acting class learned and performed a scene from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.  Olivia was Titania, Queen of the Fairies. 

Her friend Cece was Puck, and I just LOVED the way her costume and personality came together.

This snippet of  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was a scream.  The kids were so funny, and the costumes just made it even funnier.  The scene ended with the kids doing the Woodcock dance.  LOVED it!

The dance team performed to Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy”.   This was amazing!   You all know the song, right? Well it’ very high energy and they were doing a great job…then midway through they broke off and grabbed someone from the audience to dance with them.   Lindsey grabbed and older gentleman who at first loudly said “ON NO I’M NOT”!   

Next thing you know he’s on his feet busting a move and twirling Lindsey…the place erupted!  Doesn’t he just look HAPPY?!

 

Watching things like this just make me smile.

2013-2014 Extra Curricular Choices

Now that everyone knows what are our 2013-3014 curriculum choices, I thought I’d share what we’ll be doing on the side.

Awana:  Olivia will be in the TNT Ultimate Challenge.  Lindsey will be in TNT Ultimate Adventure.  I’ve decided not to be a teacher this year, as my plate is pretty full.

Co-op:  I will be teaching a Literature Circle this year.  Both girls will have 5 classes per week.  Olivia will be taking Great Empires, Drama, P.E. Apologia’s Land Animals; Literature Circles.   Lindsey will be taking Hands on Science, History Heroes, Music Makers, P.E. and Meet the Masters.

Ballet:  Both girls will continue with 2 nights of ballet a week.  Both girls had planned to add hip-hop and tap to their dance schedule, unfortunately an increase in fees have made it cost prohibitive.  They will only be doing ballet this year.  Unfortunately classes don’t fall on the exact same days this year, so we’ll be at the dance studio 3 nights a week.

Activity Day:   I’m not teaching a class this year.  Instead, I’ve moved over to being on the Board.  I’m hoping this was a good choice.  Somehow I also ended up in charge of the 2014 graduation, gah!  Olivia will be taking an art class and Lindsey will be taking Adventures in Nature.

Piano:  Lindsey will continue to take private lessons.  Olivia will continue with her DVD curriculum.

Guitar:  Both girls will be working on guitar lessons at home, together.

In addition to homeschooling and the items above here is a list of other responsibilities I have.

Church Plant:  My husband and I are over the local outreach ministry.  I teach in children’s church and have taken on finances as well.

The Forgotten Initiative – Augusta:  I’m the church liaison for our area, and will be helping with projects throughout the year.

Reviews:

In my spare time (hahahaaa, I made a funny), I review homeschool products for Mosaic Reviews, books for Booksneeze and cleaning products for Purex Insiders.

Did I mention I also have another blog, S.A.H.M. I Am!?  I use that blog for sharing my non-homeschool thoughts, gardening info, recipes, frugal living, rants and little sermonettes.  Stop by and visit me!

I guess that’s about all we have in the works.  Grins. 

Pathways to the Presidency: Virginia’s Eight Presidents

My girls spent a week in June at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library’s summer camp program.  They had a wonderful time and learned far more that I could have imagined.

Monday focused on George Washington.  The kids were given a hat, haversack and compass and divided into groups of soldiers.  During the day they completed a scavenger hunt and spent time with re-enactors as they learned about encampment, learned to drill and shared some hard tack and water.

Tuesday’s camp focused on Thomas Jefferson.  The kids learned about basic architectural elements and searched for answers to Jefferson trivia.  Campers enjoyed sponge cake, one of Jefferson’s favorites.  Then I had an epic fail moment as a blogger, I forgot to take may camera when I went to pick the girls up.  In studying the Lewis & Clark expedition, the local small zoo brought animals and did a presentation about some of the animals that Lewis & Clark encountered.  There was the largest porcupine I’ve ever seen wandering around the encampment.  Seriously the thing was bigger than our dog (he’s a beagle/blue tick), and.I.missed.it.  GAH!

Once we were back home, I did take photos of the arrows the girls made.

Wednesday focused on Madison and Monroe.  The kids learned about “Old Ironsides”, met with Dolley Madison for ice cream and made a handmade corncob checker set.

Thursday was packed with Presidents Harrison, Tyler and Taylor.  The kids learned about the longest inaugural address, the shortest presidential term and the song “Hail to the Chief”.  Later, dressed in powdered wigs and gloves the kids attended the inaugural ball and worked on etiquette and era dances.

Woodrow Wilson wrapped up the week on Friday.  Campers learned about our 28th president and toured the WWI trench exhibit and learned about Wilson’s push  for world peace.   Then it was game time.  “Are You Smarter Than a Camper?”   Originally it was supposed to be parents against the kids, but they were afraid the parents couldn’t hold their own against the campers, so we paired up with the kids. 

After the trivia contest we had refreshments on the veranda and collected the girls presidential notebooks and their totally cool gift….PRESIDENTIAL PEZ!!

By far this was one of the BEST summer camp programs ever!

Summer Schooling

We finished up our 2012-2013 school year in mid-May.    The girls have had a couple of weeks to let their brains unwind, and to give me time to get their summer work ready.   Before you go and accuse me of being too hard on them, they’ll only be doing less than an hour of “school work” each day.   Olivia ended up with 8 weeks of work to cover between June and August.  Lindsey will have 6 weeks of work to cover in that time frame.

Here’s what they’ll be doing.

Language Arts:  In addition to participating in several summer reading programs, both girls will be working through Summer Bridge Activities Books.  The particular ones I’m using are no longer in print, or at least I can’t find them on the Carson-Dellosa website.  This is another reason I love living in an area that has a book fair.  I bought these for $2.00 each back in the spring, knowing I’d need them for summer.

Olivia will be using the Summer Bridge Reading (4-5).  Lindsey will be using Summer Bridge Reading Activities (2-3).

Math:   Both girls will be working on books from the Blue Series of Math Mammoth. 

Olivia will spend her summer working through the U.S. Money book and also the Clock book.   Both of these are areas that were blatantly missing from her 4th grade curriculum.

Lindsey will be working through Add & Subtract 2B.  This will help her get used to the Math Mammoth way of teaching adding and subtracting before we start the new school year.

Piano:  Both girls will continue with their piano lessons and daily practices during the summer.

Camps:  Here’s where the rubber meets the road.  Seriously, I’ll be doing a lot of driving this summer.  Here are the summer extra curricular activities, in no particular order.

Olivia and Lindsey both received a scholarship to attend our local college for the Learning Can Be Fun program.  They will both be studying art for a week.

Both girls will be will be attending camp at the Frontier Culture Museum.  Olivia will be there from 9-4 each day working on one of the farms.  Lindsey will be attending from 9-12 each day.

Olivia will be attending a one week ballet intensive camp.  Unfortunately, by the time the ballet camp dates were announced Lindsey was already enrolled for basketball camp.

Journey Into History will round out the summers grandeur.

Of course, if you throw in swimming, picnicking, hiking, bubbles, playing with the dog, fishing, catching fireflies, roasting marshmallows, VBS and free summer concerts you’ll have an overall look at our next several months.

What does your summer schedule look like?

2012-2013 Extra Curricular Activities

I shared our 2012-2013 curriculum choices earlier this week.  So I thought I’d also share the extra curricular activities for the year as well.   This is where my schedule gets busy!

Co-op:  We'll be attending a weekly co-op starting in September.  So every Friday we’ll be packing up our lunches and heading across the county for the day.   Here is a list of classes each child with be taking.

Lindsey
Around the World (geography)
Meet the Masters (art)
Oceans (geography/science mix)
Science Education Essentials (science)
P.E.

Olivia
American Government (history/government)
Botany (science)
IEW (writing)
Math For the Fun Of It (math games)
P.E.

Activity Day:  This is our once a month group that meets for 2 hours.   I’ll be teaching Lindsey’s class…and it’s another geography class.  Olivia’s age bracket breaks into 2 1-hour sessions.  She will be learning guitar and sign language.

Dance:  Both girls will be taking 2 1-hour ballet lessons each week, and an additional 30 minute tap class each week.

Choir:  Both girls will be returning to the local homeschool choir this year.  This meets once a week as well.

Awana:   Lindsey will be in her 3rd year of Sparks.  Olivia will be in her 2nd year of the TNT program.  This is once a week as well.

Piano:  Olivia will continue her weekly piano lessons. 

So basically, Monday will be our only day that we don’t have an out of the house activity.  Tuesday/Thursday is dance (with one Thursday a month having Activity Day).  Wednesday is choir and then Awana.  Friday is co-op and then piano.