Some photos from the first quarter...

Service Shots

So here are some photos from quarter one. A new requirement this year is service hours, which I am defining broadly as any work that uses one of the kids' talents and results in no pay. All of their service  hours that they have amassed thus far have been through individual projects. However, we did a school-wide project creating games for a birthday party. Jensen and Silas collaborated on a fishing game. It was a splash (sorry, couldn't help myself). Silas hid on the inside and clipped candy bars onto fishermen's lines while Jensen manned the outside of the game and helped kids cast into the "boat". This suited Silas well as a he hates crowds, and it suited Jensen well because she is a closet extrovert, as you can see.  

Wadi Walks

Once again, we are doing a few wadi walks. We started small but since these girls are HARD-CORE we moved very quickly to the big guns. We were really lucky to have Janet lead us on a wadi walk up AJ Wadi, which we have renamed Cheese Grater Wadi (see nameless student's pants in bottom photo--they are all so modest that I couldn't say whose pants they were, but maybe you can figure it out).

The last push to the end of our walk.

Nameless student's pants. The wadi ate them up!

Zara did amazingly well considering the tread on her shoes was almost non-existent.

And at the end Janet gave everyone a certificate of completion. How cool is that?

 Irish Dance

 Irish dance is almost over because our teacher is leaving us for the Hyatt in Doha. However, because she is cool and has connections, she imported Irish examiners at the beginning of November and everyone did a graded test. Afterward, she had a party on the beach and the kids were awarded their grades and certificates by school. This is the Home School.

Project Work
The Sumeria Project

The idea behind this project was to 1.) teach advertisement techniques used to convince consumers to BUY BUY BUY; 2.) learn and use some of the tricks that advertisers use to make their products look more appealing; 3.) give the kids the opportunity to study intensively one aspect of Mesopotamian culture; and 4.) teach them how to use Picassa for photo enhancement.

Because Silas is a boy (I suspect), he ended up being a model for his own ad and Tian's, which was for Gilgamesh Crunch Cereal--he is Gilgamesh in the shot above. Makes you want a bowl of cereal, doesn't it?

Miscellaneous 

 And this, apparently, is what happens when you are 100% homeschooled. Since Tehva has not been exposed to the big world of public school education, and no one else seems to have this issue with looking like a hillbilly, we must simply assume that the photo below is the result of too much homeschooling. Or something.

More photos to come!

Quarter One Week Two

This week's school was sooooooo hard! (said in a VERY whiney voice)

I couldn't get my work done because I didn't know what to do even though I had a list in front of me for everyday.

The best part about this week was when I made my rag doll. My rag doll's name is A Boy...NO!...I mean, my rag doll's name is John. I made him by using fabric strips that I cut out of old shirts and pants. Of course, the best part about last year was when I made my mummy, so I think maybe I love to make things.

This week's Brain Candy was making balloon rockets. After we made them we had to shoot them along a string course from the landing for the third floor stairs to Mom and Dad's bedroom at the end of the hall. My lines on my balloon looked good but I didn't win. Actually we are not sure who won. I just think it wasn't me. Mine wouldn't go all the way down the hall.

In history, we played the London Company game. We were all investors in the London Company, which was eventually called the Virginia Company in the 1600s. We were sending ships to Jamestown and then, when they returned we would share in their profits. Unfortunately we never knew if a ship had been attacked by pirates or had sunk on the way so sometimes I lost my investment. The gold was represented by chocolate so it was yummy history.

In science we studied the water cycle. We made a water cycle in a bottle. I put it outside and when the water evaporates it gets caught in the bottle like condensation. And then it will fall down like precipitation. We also did experiments with the water cycle but I am not going to talk about them here.

My favorite thing we did this last week was, well, I don't know. It was just a good week of school.

From,

Silas

**Ed. Note** Below is a video of last week's paper airplane airshow. It is Tian's first attempt at movie production.