More in the week of a 5th Grader

Sorry it's been so long... sine the last time, we've been really busy as you will see.  I've been cooking, baking, going to birthday parties, art class, geology class, voice lessons, football, youth group, a radio museum field trip, group homeschool and having lots of science labs, giving a presentation, going to the 5th Avenue Theatre and putting on a medieval dinner for my dad.

ONCE A WEEK DINNERS

Once a week I get to organize, shop for and cook dinner for my family. I usually make a shopping list of things I want to make, then I go shopping. In the afternoon I start making dinner.

It has been really nice outside, so I wanted to barbecue hamburgers. Dad needed to supervise me flipping burgers (I thought I was fine by myself), and then I made chocolate chip cookies. I've been making cookies for so long that I don't need any help at all.

BIRTHDAY PARTY at ZOE's!

I took this picture because I thought it was soooo cute. We leave the side door open for Luna sometimes and for some reason, the chickens decided to come inside the house this morning to say 'hi'.  We got them outside again, though because we didn't want chicken poop in the house. It really smells bad.

I got to go to my cousin Zoe's new house for her birthday party. She's not like a normal girl... she loves to do a lot of the same stuff I do. Her new house has lots of land with trees and trails, a huge garden with fruit trees. We ran around and had fun in the nature.

ART CLASS                                           GEOLOGY CLASS

Every Tuesday after my book work, I go to art class at Pace Atelier. At the end of class, Jacquie lets us go to the glue gun table and make stuff out of bins and bins of found objects... that's the funnest part.


After art, I have geology with Josh and Jacob. This day we went to a gold panning store. We watched a movie about gold, alluvial fans and where to find it here in Washington. Then we got to see how a professional pans for gold!



NEXT WEEK GEOLOGY CLASS

Each of us had to prepare an oral presentation on something to do with gold. We worked on it together and alone. I did my presentation on both Gold and Silver minerals and the other minerals that could be mistaken for the 'real thing.' It was pretty interesting!

YOUTH GROUP!!!

Wednesdays after bookwork, Teryk comes over for a writing class. We do an activity, read it to each other, help each other with ideas, etc.... then we go play.  Later in the afternoon, we go to church. It's called WONDERFUL WEDNESDAYS at St. Paul's. After service and dinner with everyone, the YOUTH GROUP all get together for games and singing. After that, we go into age groups and do activities. My 5th grade group had MOVIE Night last week with popcorn - it was really fun. I had a girlfriend, Melanie - she's the one in the pink shirt sitting on the floor. We met at Summer Bible Camp, where I got a job working with the younger kids.  Last week, we decided that we were too young to really 'date' and since my friend Teryk told me that he liked Melanie too, we just decided to all be really good friends.

CHEMISTRY LAB- Looking at Molecular Reactions

After studying atoms, the periodic table, and then molecules and bonds... I learned about the main kind of molecular reactions. They are 1) combination 2) decomposition 3) displacement and 4) reaction. During this lab I learned that when molecules react with each other they will usually bubble, change color or temperature or precipitate... (separate or get little specks or chunks in it). This was fun, but we could only use food because other chemicals like bleach and ammonia could be dangerous to combine.

NEXT WEEK'S LAB - Acids & Bases & pH and Litmus Paper

I studied for a week, then got to make my own litmus paper. I remember doing this a few years ago with another science teacher and it was really fun. First I boiled some distilled water. While it was heating up, I chopped up a purple cabbage into big chunks. When the water boiled, I  put in the cabbage and let it cook for a while. After it cooled, I strained the juice and fed the cabbage to my chickens. I cut up coffee filters into strips and put them in this pan. With an eye dropper, I dropped cabbage juice onto the coffee filters then let it dry. I did that 2 more times so the strips were pretty dark.

THE BIG EXPERIMENT!

For my lab, I used my homemade litmus paper to test some liquids to see if they were a base or an acid. My controls were vinegar for an acid... which turned out EXTREMELY pink and

Ammonia for a base... which turned out VERY blue/green.

Here is just one page of my findings. I thought it was really interesting how the bleach turned the litmus paper bluish green, then it started to bleach the paper and it became all bubbly white in the middle.

RADIO MUSEUM DAY with friends

I LOOOOVVVEEE the radio museum. I used to go here all the time with my science teacher Louisa. I love anything that has to do with electricity and I LOVE going to Radio Shack for components! You can see we were learning about the flow of electricity... can you see my hair standing on end? Afterward I had to touch some wood so I wouldn't shock the next person I touched! This other guy was telling us all about the first phonograph.

EARLY MEDIEVAL MONK's DINNER

After reviewing the fall of Rome from last year, (and after the diversion in Alaska) I've begun studying the early middle ages. For a project, I thought it would be fun to study the life of an early monk. I looked online, and found a website of a monastery that exists now - they had a video and everything, talking about the life of monks and their responsibilities for helping each other grow in their spiritual life. I was surprised that they had modern technology like bread machines and trucks for transportation. I have always thought of monks as medieval only!

Anyway, I prepared my monk's meal. I had to chop carrots, onions, celery and mix them with lentils, tomatoes, garlic, spices and vinegar. I thought it was going to taste terrible, but it was actually quite tasty! I also cut up some apples and we bought some crusty bread since we didn't have time to make it.

I also fixed up the table with candles since they didn't have electricity. Then, I went on iTunes and picked the best gregorian chants I could find and downloaded them for music to listen to while we ate.

Then, when my dad got home, I put on my monk outfit, turned off the lights, lit all the candles and turned on the chants... then I brought my dad down for dinner. It was delicious and we all decided that we should turn off the lights and light candles more often for dinner. It was really peaceful and I can see how monks are able to meditate and pray  all the time if their monasteries are really like that.

VOICE LESSONS

(photo)

I am taking voice lessons in Ferndale every Friday. I'm working on finding notes on teh piano and then singing them without 'bending the notes'. Then I do Do-Re-Mi-FA-So-La-Ti-Do for as high as I can go with my diaphram voice. I've been working on my volume and on memorizing 3 songs. I still have a ways to go, but it's really fun. When I get better, my friends and I want to have a band!

FOOTBALL

(photo)

I am left tackle in football. I really like it a lot better than last year. I think it's because I understand it a little bit better and also because my dad is the coach.  We have won every game except one. Our loss was to Ferndale, but they have 3 teams and stack them. We beat the other Ferndale team because all their good players were on the other team. My dad tries plays everyone equally, whether you are good or bad... The players on our team are really nice. There is only one guy who says bad words all the time - he's the center... but other than the bad words, he's pretty nice.

HAWAII - Here I Come!

Next week, I'll be in Hawaii with my grandparents. They collected and saved up all their aluminum for like 5 years  and now they have enough for a Hawaii trip. They are in Hawaii now and will be there until after Halloween.

So... I'm studying Hawaii and Pearl Harbor this week so I'll be ready!  See ya!