The Last Week of Quarter Two

Hi. This is Tian here. Another quarter of torturous school is over and when we get back we will have two new students to join us in our daily regimen of torture. Poor them. In the meantime we are going crazy finishing up this quarter with completing art projects, making videos, and compiling photos of things we have done in the last eight weeks. Oh, and we are driving Mom crazy.

Language

OK, you know, there is nothing usually going on in Language but last time with the test in language I actually got a 78%. Ugh, not good. This time I got a 98% on the test and I am so happy!

I also had to make a video on giving oral instructions, so I instructed on making tomato soup. As always, everyone had to help me make the soup (and eat the soup). Even the cat helped!

Math

I just started up with the Order of Operations in math. It's OK, but only if I remember PEDMAS

or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. They both stand for parentheses, exponents, division, multiplication, adding, subtracting. Ugh...

History

The other day we learned about this South African guy who was named Shaka Zulu and he was really weird. He went on a killing spree and killed a lot of the dudes in South Africa. And when he killed one tribe the remaining people moved to another tribe's land and killed (or displaced) all of the guys in the tribe. And so then the tribe who got taken over moved over to another tribe's land killed them and so on. Pretty nice, huh?

Science

We are learning about fossils and we went on this AMAZING fossil walk that was sooooooooooo cool and we found these amazing fossils! And dad found these really BIG and I mean BIG clam fossils the size of his fists! OH! Does anyone know the song by Lady Gaga called Born This Way? Well we are making a parody of it about the making of the earth and it's so cool!

And of course, since it is the end of the quarter, we are also finishing up a science unit on inventors which we started WAAAAAY back in October. We had to research an inventor, write an interview for that person, and then dress up and do an interview like we were that person. We are all interviewing and, if I may say so, my portrayal of Ruth Wakefield, inventor of the Toll House Cookie, is excellent. I will post it after I finish it, maybe in a second post that I will create later on. For now you will just have to be content with the video "How To Make Tomato Soup".

Later,

Tian

Quarter 2 Week 4

This week we went to a co-op meeting, made Christmas cookies, studied Indians in history, started studying fossils in science, made gingerbread houses, started new math books (except for Tehva, who is still using her old one), took a spelling test, started reading The Courage of Sarah Noble (except for Tian, who is reading The Broken Blade), and worked on the last part of our play. Whew.

My Favorite Thing

Going to the homeschool co-op was my favorite thing. We went on Tuesday. I met a new friend named Callum, and he had AWESOME TOYS (you can see that there was a lot of educational type of stuff going on). One lady taught us about how Santa Claus formed. She said that a man, I mean a boy, saw that two girls had been sold to a slave trader. When the boy heard about this, he decided to leave some of his gold at the house of the slave trader (the boy was really rich).

When the boy left the gold at the house, the slave trader heard him and ran after him with a stick. Finally, the slave trader caught the boy and asked him why he had robbed his house! Then one of the girls came out and told the slave trader that the boy had left sacks of gold at the house. The slave trader grumbled but left the boy alone.

And guess what the boy's name was...Nicholas! Saint Nicholas! Get it? Now Saint Nicholas has gotten used to the secret leaving that he started all those years ago. He is, in fact, immortal!

My Tastiest Thing

We made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, candy, and icing. I will post some pictures below.

I LOVE Math (actually I don't)

I have a new math book and it is called Singapore Primary Mathematics 3B. I'm learning new things in there. Tian says that her math is too hard, but guess what...even if she has to write one word down she still complains. Easy? So easy. My sister complains too much.

Also Tasty...

This week we made our first batch of Christmas cookies! Mine was chocolate chip almond cookies and I made them almost all by myself. Tian chose gingerbread, Cady chose peanut butter, and Tehva chose MnM cookies. We tested them, of course. We will give them to the people who helped us this year so far in school as thank you presents. I think that is a good thing to do.

I learned that you always have to use the right amount of ingredients when you make cookies. That is definitely an important lesson to learn at my age.

Other Stuff

The Indians and fossils we studied were not so interesting. I am much more interested in reading my school book, Gulliver's Travels, than doing much of anything else right now. I actually already finished it so I will have to read the other versions that we have here.

I don't know. I think that is all.

Silas

Quarter 2 Weeks 2 and 3

Last week we finished school and got a shocking surprise--the government announced that we would get a surprise holiday this week, which meant no school Saturday, Sunday, or Monday! Hooray! We were so excited we packed up the school room, forgot the blog, and didn't think about school until today, Tuesday. I (aka Teacher Lady) also made the executive decision to postpone the blog until this week since we were looking at a two day school week and how much can one really complete in two school days?

All in attendance are going to contribute to this week's blog since I, Teacher Lady, have determined it will be so.

Top Ten Things We Did in School

Number 10 (by Tehva)

We played King Philip's War. I forget who I was when we played, but Tian pretended she was the frozen dead guy in the lake, John Sassoman. It was pretty violent. Lots of settlers got captured or scalped.

King Philip, who was the Wampanoag leader (his real Indian name was Metacom), eventually got killed. They put him in a lake (Tian: NO! That was John Sassoman!). No, wait then they hung his head on a pole and left it there for 25 years!

Number 9 (by Tian)

We went out all over Muscat and collected soil samples to test, kind of like Marie Curie did when she worked with pitchblende. It was really fun. We did lots of experiments on our soil like testing the soil for magnetism. By running a magnet over the soil, we discovered that some of our samples were very magnetic while some were not magnetic at all. Mine was one of the magnetic ones and it was very cool because, with the magnet, I started picking up bits from the soil that I had not even imagined were there.

We also figured out elements our soil might contain by throwing a bit of the soil into flame. We could look at the color of the flame and that gave us an idea of what might be in the soil.

Number 8 (by Silas)

We finally tested our bridges which we had been working on for weeks. All we used were tooth picks and glue. Mine was in the shape of a triangle, because triangles are stronger than squares. Tian and Cady's had no roof on theirs so their designs were different from mine.

During the test we tested the weight they would hold by first putting a matchbox car, then a rock, then 25 grams suspended from the bridge, and then 50 grams. My bridge looked weak but it wasn't very weak at all! It held everything--all of that weight! It was amazing!

Number 7 (by Cady)

We made marble tracks. Well, we had to use at least three toilet paper tubes, three pipe cleaners, six inches of aluminum foil, a sock, paper clips, and any other kinds of objects we could think of to add to it. I added a can to my design, as well as paper, which I taped to the can. My marble track worked and the marble went through, but I didn't score very high because, as usual, I didn't follow the directions very carefully. In the end, also, my marble rolled away because I forgot to build a place for my marble to fall in.

Number 6 (by Tehva)

I did really well in handwriting. My letters actually look like letters instead of snake poop!

Number 5 (by Cady)

My reading was amazing! I can read text very well and I understand the meanings of words! I definitely couldn't do that before!

Number 4 (by Tian)

I think I did my marble track well because, when I looked at the rubric, I realized I had included all of the elements and the marble did what it was supposed to do. Apparently, if this had been graded I would have gotten an A plus! I rock!

Number 3 (by Silas)

My marble track was well done. I loved my design. I included straws, toilet paper rolls, tape, tin foil, and a beer can. Oh, and a sock. Of course as I worked I had to make modifications but it all worked out well.

Number 2 (by Jebel)

I caught a fly. And then I ate it.

I also sneezed a lot and sprayed snot everywhere. I am constant entertainment.

Number 1 ( by the teacher)

Cady and Tian made a kicking lunch on Wednesday. Tian made tomato soup from scratch, which was full of veggies. Cady made frying pan sandwiches (aka grilled cheese) and didn't burn anything. Well done, girls!

Silas began to write things in cursive unbidden which, considering he has the coordination of a spastic monkey, was very well done.

Tian finally figured out the difference between perimeter and area which meant that she did not cry when it came time to work on her math review. Finally!

Quarter 2 Week 1

I want to write about the best things in school last week. There are only three. And they are all by me, Tehva.

But first, before I do the blog, Daddy took the funniest picture of Jebel this week, so I will add that here. She was looking at my friend Izzy's dog, Rosie, and she was so angry! It didn't happen in school but it was really funny anyhow!

The Funnest Thing (in school, besides Jebel I mean)

I memorized this poem:

The Caterpillar

by Christina Rosetti Spaghetti

Small and furry,

Catepillar in a hurry!

Take your walk to the shady leaf or stalk.

My no toad spy you.

May the little birds pass by you.

Spin and die,

To live again a butterfly.

That was so fun cause it was like singing.

The Yummiest Thing

This week I made pretzels because we are studying Pennsylvania! I made the best dough because I did the longest knead and it was really fun. After we baked it mine was really good. Really good. It was so good that my tongue was full with pretzels!

The Funniest Thing

I read the Singing King book. It was a little hard and I think it was too long so we had to read it over a bunch of days. I loved the Singing King though because we read it half and half and the story was funny. When Trent's daughter puts the crate on her head to sing good...that was hilarious.

I learned the ing last week and now I know how to read words like going, camping, farting...hee hee hee...crying, shaking. After school I realized I could read books like Junie B. Jones and the Smelly Schoolbus. Well, I can't read it by myself. No, I think I can read it by myself.

That's the end.

Tehva

Quarter One Week Nine

Hi, this is Silas. This week was kind of good for me. Today we went to the beach to look at the gigantic front that is sitting off the coast of Oman in the Indian Ocean. It was awesome! We saw clouds, which were very grey. I suppose that they are full of rain!

I have made great progress this week on my toothpick bridge. It doesn't have a roof. Instead my walls are slanted to make a triangle. I just realized a problem though. Oops, nevermind, no problem.

This week was kind of just an end of quarter review and wrap up and stuff. So yesterday we went to Magic Planet. That was awesome! Magic Planet has bumper cars, a ride called the jumping star, shooting games, driving games, a jungle safari car, and there are horses, a playground, and air hockey. It is so much fun and, best of all, they have a deal on the weekdays that mom really likes because it is cheap. And it is right behind our house.

We made a movie this week called "The 13 Colonies". You can watch it at the link below:

Our cat, Jebel, has been learning in our school. She did the blog last week out of movies and, although Mom tried to load it, it wouldn't load. So we are hoping that it loads this time. This week the cat has been sick with a cold which is really gross. Sometimes she sneezes and a string of snot comes out of her nose and hangs on her face. Disgusting.

Oh, another thing I did this week was I made a movie on xtranormal. It was the first time I used that site. It is about Squanto NOT going to help the Pilgrims. He, of course, did go to greet them in real life and that probably saved the Pilgrims, but in my video, he goes hunting instead. In the movie, history meets disgustingness. Squanto goes with another Indian from the Wampanoag Tribe. They go into the forest. The fellow Indian sees a rabbit, but Squanto says he will get it later. Then Squanto says, "I've got to do something." The other Indian says, "What is it?" I will leave you with the suspense.

The link below has the movie:

What if Squanto wouldn't help the settlers at Plimoth?
by: rschiera

This week was also Trick or Treating. I dressed up as Harry Potter. Tehva was a ballerina. Tian was Pocahontas. Cady was Bloody Mary (also known as Mary Tudor or Mary I). We dyed my hair black as you can see from the picture here.

The thing I hated doing most this week was getting all of my reading summaries and vocabulary exercises into my reading lapbook. I don't like doing that lapbook at all! I never know what to write. I never remember what I read in the books that I have to read for school. Actually I do remember but it hurts my brain to pull all of that information out again.

Next week we have a school holiday! It is Eid (the one where people go on pilgrimage on the haaj) so we will have the whole week off. However, we are supposed to go camping, but I DO NOT WANT TO GO! I hate sand!

The End.

Silas

Quarter 1 Week 8

The cat was in charge of the blog this week. As the responsible teacher type I did my best to protest this but was met with such vehment opposition I decided to just let it go. The cat, who has not yet developed the ability to type, put together a video blog instead, highlighting the things she most enjoyed over the course of the week. (video blog would not load...maybe next week?)

The rationale, to which I could not object, was that the cat spends her whole day every day with us in the school room. She has become a mascot of sorts, although don't tell the kids I said that. They insist that she is a dedicated scholar.

So for the five of you who foolishly **cough cough** faithfully follow this blog, I am sorry about this. Please don't stop following us. We need all the followers we can get.

8:20 a.m. The Morning Round Up.

video will eventually be here, inshallah

Once the entire student body has reported to school, it is time for morning stretches to get our brains cranking. The cat must, as always be present for the event.

And then we get on with the day. This week was especially low key as we all recovered from various colds, cramps, and exhaustion. There were no field trips or outings as we were simply trying to drag our sorry behinds through each day. And the cat, of course, was right there with us.

Lapbooking

A nice thing to do during a low energy week is to work on the lapbooks and Tehva enjoys having control of the camera, so she was sent to chronicle her latest additions to her lapbook on New England (this green strip is her Massachusetts mini-book). Seems lapbooking is the newest hottest thing for homeschoolers and I have to admit, it does have a huge appeal. After all, it is lots of cutting and pasting--great for Tehva, plus loads of little folding things and books--a winner for Tian. Silas likes nothing at all, so he hates this as much as he hates anything else we do, although he admits to hating it slightly less than normal. And Cady is learning a good bit about the use of space, and that rulers CAN be her friends. The cat especially enjoys lapbooking as it gives her lots of little scraps of paper to chew on, which is disgusting and, therefore, cool.

Language

If you keep up with this blog, you will have noted that Tian consistently hates anything that attempts to organize her thinking into any creature that resembles logic. Language, therefore, is at the top of her hate list, right next to math. However, when the cat is around, Tian will sit and complain just a bit louder than quietly because, it she complains too loudly, the cat gets up and leaves her station. And simply giving a child a reason to stay put does incredible things to that child's ability to tolerate learning for extremely long periods.

Science

Silas was enthralled this week by Jebel's sudden awareness of the window being a view of the world and it all started with the greennhouse gas experiment we did this week. The kids placed identical water-filled jars on the sill outside the school room window, slipping one jar into a plastic bag and letting the other ride free. After an hour they measured the temperature of the water inside the jars to discover that the one wrapped in plastic had retained more heat.

soon to come...a photo of the cat drooling on the window

I read a homeschool mom's blog last weekend in which she pontificated upon her children's enthusiasm for science and how they learn so much and just love school and blah blah blah. I tried for that this week with this experiment. Unfortunately the kids thought it was cooler that the cat had suddenly found the window.

Bridge Building

We continue on with the bridge building which is astonishing to me considering they have been plugging along with the bridges for two weeks now. The cat does not enjoy bridge building at all, especially since she stabbed herself with a toothpick in the top of her mouth during the first days of bridge building. Instead, she hides in Tehva's lap while everyone else is busy building.

Reading

Tehva is busy at school. She wants to do everything, including picking up the cat, helping her

walk across the room, feeding her food to her, wiping her behind, and reading to her. In this picture she is reading to the cat which you would be able to hear if only I could get the videos to download!

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, I will have to post the rest of the cat's blog later. She is really very little help, and the internet is not terribly cooperative either. Tune in next week to see if I managed to win this battle.

Quarter 1 Week 7

Tragedy struck our little school room this week as the internet misbehaved and ate every bit of the post that Tian had dictated. I suppose this is the price we pay for living in a country where internet is not an all-you-can-eat buffet. The internet often will take itself off-line without warning, as it did last Wednesday.

What's more, Tian refused to re-dictate her post. And so, we are left with a week in which we have no school blog. However, Tian determined that this was no great loss as we did nothing blog-worthy anyhow. No one took pictures or made movies. No one, as a matter of fact, did much of anything in school, and it was a tooth pull just to get them to roll into the school room each day and do the very minimum. "What is wrong with us?" Silas asked many times as the four wonder children slogged through their work.

By the weekend we were allowed to see what was wrong: Silas and Tehva both had come down with colds, which has turned the skin around their noses and mouths pink and irritated. Cady missed a day and a half for doctors' appointments and a trip to the island of Mussandam. Tian, who becomes tweenier by the day, simply melted into a stew of horomones as the week continued until by Wednesday she was bordering on impossible. It was, to say the least, not our best week yet.

However, this week is a new week--the last learning week in this quarter before a week-long review and finish up, plus portfolio assembly. Things thus far are chugging along with a bridge building project in progress, a month-long playwriting project still in the planning stages, and the usual array of activities that go with afterschool time.

Stay tuned for the regular blogger on Wednesday.

Quarter One Week Six

Ummm...this week school was great in general. Mom got us marbles and we learned how to play the game of marbles. And I farted a LOT which made me laugh all the time (hee hee hee!) and I was very stinky (hee hee hee!).

Math

This week's math was SUPER hard but I really liked learning division. By the end of this week, I had learned how to divide problems like 25 divided by 5 equals 5 (I did that without even thinking about it!). I can even do harder ones like 485 divided by 4. I did Adapted Mind this week and it was good.

I also wrote some math word problems for Tian and Cady to solve but they haven't tried them yet. Next week I will make them do those problems.

History

"I love the people and the people love me, so much that they restored the English monarchy." I got that from this website:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR1UAH_A3IA

We learned about Charles I getting beheaded on exactly the same date the Tehva was born (but like 400 years before). He was beheaded because he dissolved Parliament like four times and he kept saying that God gave him power! Then he also made the Rump Parliament, which made me laugh because the name reminded me of, well, you know (hee hee hee!).

After Charles I was beheaded, Oliver Cromwell came into power and did all the exact same things that Charles I had just done! And Cromwell wasn't even king. PLUS he forbade partying, theatre, singing anything but church songs, and all the fun stuff. But he died. Charles II came into power next and brought back ALL the PARTYING! Party anyone?

We played charades this week, which is always fun. And we started to make lapbooks about New England. That was sooooooo exciting!

Science

Here are some pictures of our field trip we took this week:

We went on a field trip with Greta and Huxley and I found a fossil! We went to take pictures of clues that would tell us the type of climate that is here in Muscat. We found lots of pokey plants with itty bitty leaves. We guessed the leaves were so small because of the lack of water. The soil was...well, there was only sand! And there was 0% water where we walked. (But later in the day...SURPRISE! IT RAINED! AND A SANDSTORM CAME!) But back to what I was saying, it was a good hike and we put all the clues together and decided that we live in an arid climate, which means more water evaporates than precipitates here. YES IT DOES! LAAAAAAA!

Writing and Language

Language was very easy this week. All I had to do was stuff with nouns. La dee da. I wrote a letter this week to my cousin Levi. I hope he gets it before August.

Arabic

I DO NOT like Arabic. I think it is really hard. I don't like to write all the complicated curls and drops that it has. (Ed note--Here are some Arabic words on signs around Muscat, like "Ruwi" and another says "Mumtaz", which means beautiful but it also the name of the kind of tea we drink. Silas hated every moment of Arabic this week, just like he says. He also hated that I put this picture into the blog--what a dweeb.) See what I am talking about? Hey! MOM! I am NOT a dweeb! (hee hee hee!)

I guess that is it for this week. There is nothing else to report.

Signed,

Silas and Mom (who was my faithful servant and typed this)

Quarter One Week 5

More than half way through our first quarter! Woohoo!

I thought this week was fun, even though the internet ran out part way through and we had to do without internet for **GASP** two whole days! I am so amazed that I survived! This week we studied the people who went on the Mayflower, called Pilgrims. They went to Plimoth. The end. Ha ha ha ha. Just kidding!

History

We made a movie about the inner light that the Quakers believe in. The Quakers believe that everyone has an inner light that lets them talk directly to God which, of course, means you can talk to God without the help of a priest or preacher. The Puritans, on the other hand, found this idea sinful and believed that they needed a preacher there to guide them in their relationship with God. Needless to say, the Puritans and Quakers did NOT like each other too much.

The Puritans also thought that they should purify the Church of England but unfortunately King James I disagreed. He liked the C of E just the way it was. So he made the Purtians' taxes go way higher than anyone else's. And did you know that King James I actually liked beef so much that he had a cow brought into his court and knighted it, "Sir Loin." That is actually true! (I think). Anyhow, the Puritans ended up leaving England to go to Holland where they could worship freely. But then they were like, "Oh shoot! Our children are losing their religion (Ed. note: unintentional REM reference). We better go to the New World!"

Okay, massive brain shift. The Dutch were in the New World, in New Amsterdam. They were, like, they had everything crazy in their town. And their cattle were running around loose. The Dutch got drunk a lot and ran around every day of the week. Even SUNDAY, which at that time was a big no-no. Then the Dutch West India Company started to get angry and sent over Peter Stuyvesant to be governor--OMG, I can never remember his name, but I can remember that he had a peg leg!

Peter Stuyvesant did a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing was he made the colonists be really good. He made them worship on Sundays, and he taxed beer and wine so that people would drink less. And he wouldn't let cattle run around wild in the streets anymore. The bad thing was, although he had built Wall Street to keep out the English, the English came anyhow and, well, it was like the wall wasn't even there. Charles II had announced in England that New Amsterdam belonged to the English and no one else. As a matter of fact, he even named it for his brother, the Duke of York! Get it? New York! (Sorry, I almost forgot that.) Then the English moved in, took over, and Stuyvesant totally let them! He surrendered his colony! So that was pretty much the end of the Dutch in New York City.

Math

I am still using Singapore Math and the Adapted Mind program together. I have done, according to Adapted Mind, almost 50% of the program for fifth grade! (Ed. note: The teacher, however, will not be stopping math once the blogger has mastered 100%-- Tian: "WHAT!?!??!") I don't like fifth grade math because I think it is really hard, especially the distributive and associative properties. My favorite thing in math so far has been learning mental math strategies. I find it so easy that I don't even have to learn it! (I am so EEEVIL!)

Language and Writing

This week I read Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, which was a fairly typical Purtian name. It was really good. I love the diaries about girls. I also read one in a previous week called, Diary of Clotee, Slave Girl.

I still don't like language as I do not like using the series, Building With Diligence but I have to do it. You know, come to think of it I wouldn't like any other curriculum either. I do like writing, though. This week I wrote a paragraph about the Titanic, which I had to plan, write, and type on the computer. On my own time I am writing a story on the computer. Maybe one of these days I will publish that.

Arabic

Today in Arabic we played bingo, which was really fun, but it was also confusing because there were words

there as well and I am not so great yet at reading Arabic. Cady, however, is pretty good at the reading, so I have to cheat off of her a lot. (Ed. note--I added this last part because I see it happen all

the time, but Tian insists that it is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE!) Here is a picture of some of the Arabic numbers we studied this week. Oh, Silas hates Arabic, but while I am dictating this he is in the background teaching imaginary children the numbers. I don't get him. He is so weird.

Science

We started the ozone layer depletion last week and this week we learned about the effects that that depletion is having on the world. We interviewed Greta, who is from New Zealand. She told us what it is like to live in a place where the ozone layer is so thin. She said that in the summers in New Zealand it takes just 2-5 minutes to get sunburned and that you can actually feel your skin burning as it is happening! As a result, Kiwis have to wear hats with neck guards all the time, and they have to wear sunscreen everyday. As a matter of fact, when they get up in the morning, they always apply sunscreen right away. It is just part of their routine. And if kids forget to bring their hats with them to school, they have to go home to get them and then come back to school. Ugh.

In Oman, the ozone layer must be very thick because we can be outside here for hours without burning, even though it is so hot.

Miscellaneous Comments

I am going to be Pocahontas for Halloween and I am making my own costume. And I will try to put up a picture of my costume when it is done. Tehva is going to be a ballerina and Silas wants to be Harry Pooter.

Videos

Here are the two videos we made this week. This first one is actually a commercial, but it's a little more than 30 seconds long. To make it we read lots of books about what Quakers and Puritans would have dressed like and then decided we would just have to make do with what we have here. We also read books on the Puritans and learned a little bit about the Quakers in history.

We created a story board also using http://users.altec.org/~scherrer/digi_dif/storyboard_wrap.htm. Then we filmed it and put it together.

Here is the other video, which is a visual representation of Remember Remember the Fifth of November, about Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot.

That is all for this week. I am sooooooo evil! Bye!

Tian

Quarter 1 Week 4

This week we learned a lot and had REALLLLLLY good school but one day I had a bad time and I almost lost going to Izzy's birthday party in the first five minutes of school. That would have been terrible. But I had one more chance and I didn't lose it so now I get to go to Izzy's birthday party on Thursday!

This week we learned about the Mayflower going from England because King James I didn't like them. They called themselves Pilgrims but James I and lots of people in England called them Seperataries ("No, Tehva! Separatists!" screams Tian). First they went to the place that they moved to from England, um, and they ice skated a lot there (Ed. Note: "It's called 'Holland'.") But then they left there and went to North America. Uncle Ian lives in North America! Auntie Abi lives there, too!

When the Pilgrims got to North America they met the Wampanoag Indians which was really good because the Indians helped them make food. And the Indians spoke English! Wow! And the Pilgrims were really happy because they got to capture their church (?) and do what they wanted and take all the stuff out, like candles and cigarettes and priests and probably bows and arrows. And the Strangers (the Pilgrims called themselves "Saints" and called the other people that came with them Strangers) too...they took them out of church, too.

Because we studied Indians helping the Pilgrims we tried some of the food they learned to make, like onions with corn powder, beans, and corn (Ed. note--It's called succotash) and corn bread. It was good and bad. Actually it was good.

My reading this week was REALLLLLLLLY good also. I read the book about Snuff the Snail. The first book was the easiest. Every week they get harder. I don't like that.

In math I learned to read words like "First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth." It was easy. Then I got to play on Jump Start and so now I know how to turn a parade on.

It took me a lot of work to draw a picture. I drew William Bradford's wife. He is her wife. I mean, her husband. She fell overboard from the Mayflower and drowned. So I drew her when I had to pick someone to draw. She kind of has a beard. Heee heeee heeee.

I did a puppet show and Tian made it into a movie. I loved it when Tian said, "I want to eat the villagers' butts!" That was so funny. She also said, "Come out barf monsters" and, when Jebel attacked, she said, "You're on my team, stupid." We worked on the puppet show all week and we made a movie out of it, which is at the bottom of this.

That's the end because I have to go to Irish Dance Class.

Tehva

PS We also did slaves and indentured servants, which means that we each had a turn being a slave, but we didn't know how long we would be slave for and we had to do yucky jobs like clean the toilets and the cat pan. Then we also signed indentures and were indentured servants except then we knew how long we would serve and we got paid at the end of it for all the work we did. I liked being both because it was so fun to get bossed around. (**Ed. note--This of course is a complete surprise and no doubt you, too, are wondering if it is possible that Tehva really said that. Yes, she did.)

Quarter One Week Three

This week I helped to do the line experiment, which was our brain candy of the week. We used pipe cleaners, strips of paper, straws, and tape. We connected them all together. We had to suspend the line 18 inches off the floor without the line falling or breaking. Tian and I worked together and our line broke and fell.

We studied clouds in the water cycle in science. We made different types of clouds out of puff balls and then glued them onto paper, along with the clouds' names and what the clouds signify. For example, the wispy cirrus cloud, which is made of ice crystals, shows that the weather is about to change. We actually saw some cumulus clouds in the sky, and some cirrus clouds (Ed note: this is some sort of miracle for Oman since most days there is not a cloud in the sky!)

We learned about the triangle trade in history and Queen Nzinga of Ndomba in Africa. I colored her picture and made her skin dark brown. In one path of the triangle trade from Europe to Africa, they took utensils, pots and pans, and other European goods and traded the Africans for slaves. Then they traded the slaves in South America and the West Indies for sugar and molasses. They could use that to make rum.

We all went on a website called www.adaptedmind.com to practice math. Some of the problems were tough for me to solve. Others were nice and easy, such as multiplication and division.

I am reading the book Pocahontas and the Strangers. It has a sad part in the middle but it gets better when Pocahontas is released from prison by Governor Gates and ends up living with him and his two daughters, Mary and Betsy. It is a really good story, and it is also a really good biography!

It took me a few days to complete the puzzle of the week, which was one of the USA, and which included hidden fun facts about each of the fifty states along with a picture on each state. I found a camel on Arizona. Then I read the fun fact and found out that camels were once used for transportation around Arizona. I didn't know that!

Tian and I learned about compound subjects and predicates in language. Tian says, "Yuck! Language!"

In general, this week was interesting and fun, but tough.

By Cady

Here is a video that Tian made about Jebel Cat:

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.

Quarter One Week One

This year we are dying here in Oman...I mean, not literally but figuratively because our mama is killing us with overwork. I mean it! For example, this past week we have studied James I, Jamestown, John Smith and Pocahontas in history. As if that weren't enough we also have all read books about Pocahontas and the Powhatan Indians (who were actually Eastern Woodland Indians, not Powhatans really).


In science we didn't do anything because we were doing a light week this week since we have all been jetlagged and butt tired for most of it. In actuality we haven't done much of anything except for math and reading. I, Tian, am sooooooo excited because I finally can handle math thanks to the website www.adaptedmind.com. It is my new best friend.


The Brain Candy project of the week was making and flying paper airplanes, which I liked but my dorky brother Silas LOVED. There are paper airplanes all over the house (even in my bed) and we have all discovered new designs and styles that we love. My favorite is the F-15, which I just made today and, although I didn't do it exactly following the directions (because I couldn't find all the stuff--like tape), it still flies really well--better than any other airplane I have ever seen.


So overall I would say that my favorite stuff this week was the adapted math website, and the potage we made in history, which was both yummy and gross. The recipe was simple: leeks, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, potato--not in the original recipe because they weren't eating them yet in colonial times, beef, oatmeal, and salt. We boiled all of it for an hour and then ate it. Like I said, yummy AND gross.


Next week we will try to post the video of the paper airplane flying show that we will do tomorrow. Sorry I can't put up videos of us eating the potage because it's gone.