Camping with Friends

It pretty much rained the entire time we were there. Night was miserably cold & wet. But we did it! And then stopped at McD's for hot cocoa & lunch 5 minutes after we left.

Back to Commonwealth

Our commonwealth classes started up last week. Everyone had a fabulous day!

End-of-Summer

I challenged Austin to be as great of a climber as Sophie. He failed. 

Last sno cone of summer!

Doctor appointments

CAP promotion

Working on the marshmallow challenge

Austin's end result

Gymnastics

End of semester:

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Trying to catch up: The play was wonderful! The kids were awesome, the play was awesome, and it's taken about a month to recover :)

Commonwealth closing social

Olivia & Jolie reciting poems and singing songs with their Liberty Girls group.

Nyah and her Young Stateswoman group talking about the activities they did & books they read. 

Sophie playing in the puddles.

Austin & Nyah's Shakespeare group did a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Austin's history class did an Ellis Island skit.

Ellis Island Simulation

The American History class I am teaching in our commonwealth school decided to do a simulation for the other classes. My students were given different jobs- doctors, baggage examiners, human aid, legal, money exchanger, etc. and the other kids were given a paper passport and an immigrant identity. Then they went through all the different stations to enter America. The doctors had fun making the immigrant do exercises to prove their physical and mental fitness, the legal guy asked a bunch of questions about their political activities and whether they'd ever been arrested, and so on. It was a fun simulation!!

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Rehearsals this week - it's going to be a great show!

Commonwealth

Sophie sneaking pictures during the class I teach:

Our Classical Acting class giving a short presentation of Two Gentlemen of Verona to the younger kids.

Concert!

We had a concert at our commonwealth with Melanie & Roger Hoffman. They have done many of our favorite songs & stories - Scripture Scouts, Stories of Jesus, and more!

Catching Up: Family Shakespeare Banquet

We spent the whole day trying to figure out costumes - visiting thrift stores, cutting & sewing- but they were happy with the results. 

Kurt was out of town so it was me & the monsters :)

Performing a skit of Romeo & Juliet - Austin played the priest & Nyah was Lady Capulet

My little girls entertaining themselves between courses

Commonwealth Christmas Party

Yummy Dinner-

Olivia's (& Jolie's but she decided last minute to not do it) Liberty Girls group reciting a poem they memorized during the semester.

Nyah's Young Stateswoman group singing "Away in a Manger" dressed in Nativity costumes.

Austin & Nyah's Shakespeare group reciting Romeo's soliloquoy.

Austin's Sword of Freedom group also sang "Battle Cry of Freedom" - during the semester the kids were divided into the Union & Confederacy groups, and each group sang their own version.

Civil War Battle Simulation

For our Sword of Freedom class, we did a Gettysburg Battle Simulation- basically capture the flag with taped grocery bag balls to "shoot" each other. It was much more exciting than pictures can show!

Austin Shakespeare Trip

Austin's Shakespeare Conquest classes reward for completing all 10 requirements was a trip to the Shakespeare Festival. They had a blast!