'18/19 Week 2

The kids gathered up all the 'surviving' dinosaur toys for a cookie project Saara and I are planning for this weekend.

      This week's highlight was undoubtedly our taekwondo testing. The kids have been learning, practicing, and perfecting their green belt form for most of the summer. It is a long form with 34 moves, some of which are rather complicated. They were a bit nervous before the test. Andrew confessed that he had a bit of a stage fright and forgot the beginning of his form. He finished strong, however, and was praised for his improved focus. Saara did an excellent job as well, and both kids advanced to the next belt which is purple and the form has 44 moves.

      Yes, I passed my test as well and am a proud owner of a camo belt. 

LA. Brushing up our dictionary skills.

For our devotional time, the kids and I have been reading A Teen's Guide to the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. There are a few quizzes and tests the kids have to take. So far, they seem to like the book a lot.

The week's highlight -- testing for the next belt.

Self-defense demonstration.

Sparring to show off what you have learned.

History. Saara  is almost done reading about dinosaurs in Texas. She finished her week with a dino art project.

Science. While Saara was painting away, Andrew was busy building another robot. This one ran on solar power.

Building the wobbling robot.

The wobblebot.

'17/18 Week 31

      Week 31 was full of activities as usual. Beautiful spring weather and longer days have given us a boost of energy, and we took not one, but two field trips this week. The first one was a road trip to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. We had been there before a few years ago, and we loved it then. This time around it was as much fun. It turned out to be a great family outing/filed trip.

      Our second -- what I would consider a field trip as well -- was to the George Bush museum. Our plan was to pay our respects to the late Mrs. Bush which we did by signing the condolences book, walking through the museum, and going as close to the grave as we were allowed. The additional exhibition in the museum was titled Leonardo da Vince: Machines in Motion. It was a small but very educational exhibition about the different inventions of the great Renaissance man.  

Charyut Kyungnet - Attention and Bow. Taekwondo is not without it's etiquette.

The air around our house has been smelling sweet because of a number of privet bushes that are in bloom.

The wild Japanese honeysuckle adds sweetness to the air.

Dewberries are ripening.

Science. One of Andrew's science experiments required us to extract chlorophyll from a green leaf.

Pure chlorophyll in alcohol solution is the prettiest green. 

Only a few more practices left before the  concert in May.

This looks like recess. Actually just free time between choir practices.

One morning brought quite a mix of wildlife to our pond. We had an egret ...

... and a beaver who stayed for good.

On our walk-through at the Bush museum to pay our respects to the former First Lady.

Public was not yet allowed beyond these gates to the graveside.

'17/18 Weeks 26 and 27

      Spring has finally arrived! We changed the clocks, which affected our daily rhythm for a few days. Andrew turned a year older and we had three occasions to celebrate it. He made a full use of his new age and applied for a teen volunteer position at the library. 
      School work has been going blessedly well. I am thankful to see more independence in both of the children when it comes to studies. They have been reading their assignments on their own and come to discuss those with me later. Both kids are also feeling more relaxed and not so challenged with writing assignments. The last couple of papers they wrote were well done. 
      So, we keep on at it. Nine more weeks to go with an Easter break in the beginning of April. The end is near.

Andrew had a great time with his friends at his birthday party.

On his birthday, Andrew and Saara took their taekwondo test and everybody celebrated his special day the taekwondo way.

Science. Chromatography experiment.

Purple dye will separate ...

... into red and blue.

Math. We have had a lot of lessons constructing shapes with straight edge and compass.

A morning visitor by Andrew's window.

Continuing our experiments with magnets. Saara built a compass and used it to draw some letters.

Another experiment Andrew did was one with Fantastik cleaner which was supposed to help detect sugar in various substances. I suspect, they have changed the ingredients of the cleaner for only one of the tests resulted in a color change. 

The discolored cleaner shows there is sugar present in apples.

God willing, it will be a good dewberry year.

'17/18 Week 17

History. Following the events of WWI on the map.

       Most of the kids' after-school activities had their Christmas finales and parties this week. It seemed, I was constantly baking goodies for one event or the other. Thankfully, this enormous amount of sugar did not affect our school days. Now, only the choir concert remains, and then - it will be Christmas!

Science. Saara's TOPS experiment called for building our own fuse.

When we attached the fuse to a balloon, it popped as soon as the thin wire burned a whole in the plastic.

We has high hopes for Andrew's experiments. We were supposed to witness the formation of precipitate or a substance that forms as result of a chemical reaction.

One of the experiments was successful - as a result of the reaction the color of our liquid changed and yielded a kind of an ink.

Other experiments went wayside. We tried, but nothing changed or formed. It was worth trying though.

Trying to catch any residue, if it happened to form.

Last ballet class this year.

Taekwondo. Testing for the yellow belt included knowing self-defense moves.