Fear

MS's creative writing assignment this week was an essay on something that he was afraid of. He was having trouble coming up with something, being more of a worrier than full-out afraid of things. I finally remembered a statement he'd made to me about flying, and I love what resulted.

Many people are afraid of flying because they’re scared of the plane crashing, but there’s also something else to be scared of that some people don’t know about…



Being a TCK, I travel a lot, so I am very often on airplanes. Now the truth is, when they show those safety clips at the start of the flight, what I’m always thinking is that, if that kind of thing ever happens, I know that I’ll be fine because of their precautions, like the lifejackets in case of landing on water, or the slides/rafts for exiting the plane.

What usually freaks me out, though, is when they say not to take any suitcases with you during an emergency. It’s scary to think you could lose lots of expensive things that are inside your luggage. For example, we usually travel with our Wii (videogame console) and that costs about $250. I would be very upset if something like this happened, because I love videogames.

That’s what I’m scared of on airplanes.

Courage

MS's assignment was as essay on courage, including the dictionary definition.

The definition of courage is “to do something without fear.” Several synonyms are: boldness, bravery, and bravado. What I think courage means is to do whatever you set out to do, despite the dangers, to face any obstacle, even death.

Lots of famous people have done this, and being courageous can mean anything from being a war hero, to fighting for civil or women’s rights. Two famous examples are George Washington, who was a famous war hero, and Martin Luther King, who fought for civil rights.

All in all, courage is something that should be practiced by everyone, no matter how young or old they are.

My Observation: Jeremiah

My language arts assignment was to describe something, so I chose my little brother Jeremiah. Here’s what I found out: If you smile, he smiles back. He isvery happy most of the time. The little guy doesn’t like being interrupted during his meals. He likes his dad when he’s happy and his mom when he’s not. Jeremiah looks cute and happy. ‘JAK’ smells like formula. He sounds either very happy or very sad, and he feels soft and warm. And so, this concludes my observation of Jeremiah.

Outline: The History of Chocolate

The outline that started it all.

A. It all started with a bean …
1.The beginning
a. First, Aztecs saw monkeys eating the pulps and spitting out the seeds of cocoa beans.
b. Soon the Aztecs were eating and spitting too.
2. A whiff of chocolate
a. The second step to the chocolate bar began with a few Aztec farmers…
b. A couple of Aztec farmers stopped to take a whiff of chocolate rotting under…
3. Banana leaves
a. After this first whiff, the Aztecs did the same thing
b. Pretty soon, the Aztecs came up with a scummy drink called…
B. Cocoa
1. I claim this land in the name of…
a. The Spanish then came, saw, and conquered
b. The Spanish then went back to their land with loads of cocoa beans.
2. Muy delicioso!
a. The explorers introduced the drink to their king.
b. The king liked it, though he thought it needed more flavoring.
3. The era of Cocoa
a. After the flavoring was added, it became a very popular drink in Spain.
b. For many years the Spaniards kept it their secret.
C. Finally, the bar!
1. The British find out!
a. Eventually, the Spanish hold it anymore.
b. The British got hold of the secret!
2.Mmmmmmmm!
a. The British loved the new drink, but decided not to keep it a secret.
b. Soon the whole world knew.
3. It’s crunchy!
a. Years after Cocoa, the bar had still not been made.
b. Henri Nestlé finally made the world’s favorite treat.

Bill's History of Chocolate

ML's research project last year (yes, last year; bear with me) was "The History of Chocolate." I don't think it fell within the parameters of the suggested topics from his Language Arts curriculum, but it sounded more interesting (both to him and to me), and he could still apply the principles of research he was learning, so we went with it.

Rather, we went partway with it. We never actually got to the point of writing the paper.

I figured we'd do better this year. Hopefully. (He's just begun the research, and I have high hopes for the project, especially given the monumental scope of the topic: the State of Texas.)

However, he came upon an assignment the other day in this year's Language Arts, which was to outline a paper on a topic and then write from it (once again, I think this was outside the parameters of the options he was given, but I'm just not a stickler for such boundaries, as you may be deducing). He had the idea to use the information from his History of Chocolate research and below you see the result. (I'll post the original outline separately.)



Hi, my name is Bill the Monkey. I’m here to tell you the History of Chocolate from my perspective. It all started when I was climbing a tree to find some cocoa pods.

No sooner than I had broken one open and was sucking the pulp out when I realized some Aztecs were staring at me. Didn’t they know it’s rude to stare? The Aztecs then got a couple of cocoa pods down and started sucking on them too! It was like a game of Monkey See, Monkey Do!

This went on for a couple of days until they found some cocoa pods rotting under banana leaves. I must say, they smelled good, and the Aztecs thought so too. Later, I found them laying banana leaves over rotting cocoa beans, and making a drink out of it.

And then some guys with tin hats and metal poles came and started raiding our cocoa stash. I figured that they wore the hats to avoid being hit. What wimps! They also put me on a giant tree surrounded by water. Then the tree started moving, and I stayed there out of curiosity. I am now currently in a place filled with more tin hat people with too many clothes on.

A small girl came and put a loincloth around my neck. This had never happened to me before, but I didn’t like it. I ripped the loincloth and jumped onto a big hut. While on top of it, I realized that Tin Hat Land had tons of them. The hut I was standing on was the biggest hut I could see, and when I looked in, I saw people drinking that same stuff the Aztecs were making out of cocoa beans.

I stayed here for a couple of years and the people gave me metal circles for wearing clothes and drinking “cocoa”.
This was a good life, and one afternoon, I had been enjoying another cup of cocoa when I found out they had turned this cocoa into sweet solid stuff. It was delicious, and very creamy.

Well, there you have it, the History of Chocolate from my perspective. Bye, Bye, for now! I’m off to find a Mars bar!

MS's Journal Entry 15 Dec 08

Please excuse the tardiness of this and the past couple of posts. Mommy's morning sickness is completely to blame.

Yesterday, at about 8:30, we started a meeting with all of our ex-pat friends, since we don’t live near a church; we meet at the McBride/Green building to gather together. The older kids and adults split up into accountability groups, and the younger kids stay downstairs.

After that, we have communion (Advent in December), and then we just have worship time, and we read the Bible. And then, we spent a lot of time preparing for the McBride kids to come over.

When they did come over, we spent a lively three hours playing Wii, dress up, and computer. Then, we watched episodes, and the McBrides went home. I played Wii until Taekwando afterwards. And then I came home and ate breakfast burritos for dinner.

My Favorite Place

MS has had several more different types of paragraph assignments in his Grammar Ace workbook. Today was the first day we'd had to get them edited and posted, hence the proliferation of new posts.


My favorite place is the Dead Sea Spa, were our family often goes on vacation. It’s a lovely place, not anything like a forest, (because most people’s favorite places are forests) but very peaceful in the nearby hotel, and nice and refreshing in the cool waters of the pools. The Dead Sea Spa is an area with several different pools, that all have amusements. With a nearby snack shop, and the fancy hotel, the Dead Sea Spa is the best place to go on vacation in Jordan.

Lego Star Wars

Last night, from eight to eight thirty, I helped the Republic in a huge battle against the Empire. I fought and defeated Count Dooku, then I played in a huge arena where you had to get 1000,000 Lego studs to win. I won, and got a gold brick as a reward. After that, the republic had a huge victory party!

Lego Star Wars Figures Bill of Rights

1. Every Lego figure is to be repaired immediately, if any parts are lost.
2. All Lego figures should be armed, unless not in war.
3. Any created lego figures can choose whether or not jump into pits.
4. Lego figures have the right to jump into dangerous substances.
5. Fights are allowed in the Cantina or anywhere else.
6. Lego figures have a right to destroy anything destroyable.
7. All varieties of powers can be used in battle.
8. Lego figures have a right to take any money found in a level.
9. Lego figures have a right to open every door in a level.
10. Lego figures have a right to use all defenses to keep from getting killed.

The Blog Read 'Round the World

Sensing the opportunity for a geography lesson, after I added a "ClustrMap" gadget to this blog, I asked a my e-maginary friends from the Sonlight International Board (where moms [and a couple of dads] homeschooling outside their home country gather) to visit here.

The kids, especially MS, were blessed to see so many dots appearing on their map, and we took some time one afternoon to take turns finding out which countries (and States in the US) were represented. We used our dining table map to determine the name of each country, and MS made a list.

Today, we finally had time for him to type up (and alphabetize, because I couldn't resist the opportunity to add another educational skill into the activity) the list. So, here it is.



Countries:
Argentina
Belgium
Bermuda
Brazil
Cambodia
Canada
China
Ecuador
Finland
Honduras
India
Indonesia
Japan
Jordan
Malaysia
Mexico
Mongolia
New Zealand
Philippines
South Africa
Thailand
U.A.E.
United Kingdom
Vietnam

States:
Alabama
California
Connecticut
Florida
Maryland
Massachusetts
New York
North Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington D.C.

(If you want to see an up-to-date map, you can always click on the ClustrMap icon on the right-hand side of the blog to see a larger version.)

Persuasive Paragraph

MS's assignment in his Grammar Ace workbook today was to write a persuasive paragraph about one of his parents. In spite of much campaigning and flashing of dazzling smiles by his maternal unit, he chose to write about his father.

My dad is the greatest dad in the whole world, for a lot of reasons. For example, he’s always there to help me. And we’ve gone on lots of fun trips, like to Wadi Dana, or to the Dead Sea Spa with the huge waterslide. He’s always willing to play Wii with me, and, as a matter of fact, he would rather play games with me than go to work.

Movin' on up!

MS received his Taekwondo green belt on Sunday. His thoughts:

Well, the greenbelt test wasn't much of a challenge. It was just a list of moves (about ten) that I had to memorize. My score was 6/10. Since the test (before getting the results), I've been sparring with greenbelts, which I believe to be part of the test.

Room-Cleaning Robot

(example photo; not actual robot)

MS's Language Arts assignment a couple of weeks ago was to state a problem and develop an invention that solved the problem. The second week, he was to do a brain- or cluster-map, which was a free-flow of his ideas with words and/or drawings related to his invention/solution. He then wrote out his solution from the prewriting.

Here’s the problem: to clean a room takes a really long time. The solution is to build a good robot that can clean rooms. If everything goes well, I’ll have a robot that gets more work accomplished and does the job in half the time a person can!

Of course, there are cons to this dream machine too: people will lose jobs and get less exercise (Although, the robot could remind people to exercise, and people could get jobs fixing the robot
The robot can do so much more than cleaning rooms, though. If it works well, the robot can work in garages, fix things; clean other places, just about anything!

My plan for the robot is that wires take information from the programming disk inserted to command central to different parts of the robot.

The outside will be lightweight and durable, and a “Job Done” light will flash when the job is completed. The robot also has small wheels on its feet that let it scoot quickly around the work area. The grabbers on its hands let it grip any kind of tool. Rubber on the robots arms and neck allows it to stretch.

All in all, the robot is a highly advanced and useful machine that, if invented, will help many people, and could be useful now and in the future.

Fantasy Wars

Introduction


A dark villain known as Shracath, who has been hidden for years, finally emerges, attacks, and destroys a nearby town. Having heard about the attack, a young hero gets his sword, puts on his armor, and rides out on his horse into the dark night.
His name? Palono.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Riding fast on the dangerous road to Shracath’s castle, which he built on the ruins of the village, Palono is almost thrown off his horse when an unseen beast in front of him makes a deafening roar. The beast lunges, but Palono is an expert fighter and leaps above the monsters arm, defeating him easily. Then, he gets back on his horse.
An arrow whizzes over his head, and another one, which he barely dodges. He turns, and sees some archer knights who work for Shracath. He rides fast, through a gorge, turning to shoot at the archers with his own bow every once in a while.
Finally, he makes it to the bridge to Shracath’s castle. A knight is at each corner of the bridge, plus two at the entrance. Palono is hidden from their sight, so he manages to shoot the first two soldiers, but that alerts the other four.
Palono defeats the next two by giving them a double slash and knocking them off the bridge. The third one he defeats by leaping above him and slashing him; he then defeats the other with a full slash around.
Upon entering the castle, Palono sights Shracath, who quickly swings his sword, knocking Palono down. He then runs up to the roof. Palono swiftly follows, beginning a fierce sword battle.
Soon, Shracath is forced to leap onto a balcony further down; Palono follows, using a rope. There, Palono attacks the momentarily stunned Shracath and quickly gains the upper hand. Palono then knocks Shracath into the pit, and he screams his rage all the way down.
When Palono returns home, he will be a hero.

How to Make Applesauce

MS's Language Arts assignment this week was to write a set of directions. He thought about "How to Win Lego Star Wars for Wii," but he hasn't yet (although he's trying...), and he said it would take too long, so he settled for "How to Make Applesauce," which he can do from start to finish.

The first thing you do to make applesauce is to buy two kilos of apples at a local fruit store. Then, you wash them, and you get out your apple peeler corer slicer. And, of course, you core and slice them (we don’t peel them, because it’s healthier).
Afterwards, you put them in the crockpot and add cinnamon. Leave them in the crockpot for 6-8 hours on high. If you want to make it smoother, use a hand blender.
Finally, you enjoy them for breakfast or in recipes. I would suggest eating it for breakfast with yoghurt on top, or in muffins.

When he e-mailed me his final draft to post for him, MS commented that this is the quickest he's ever completed a Language Arts assignment, including edits. :-)

Friday, September 26, 2008

If I could meet someone from the past, it would be the inventor of the very first 3D video game. And we would talk, and I would ask him lots of questions like why he decided to make videogames more realistic, and then I would go back to my time, come back, and show him how far 3D games have gone and that there aren’t many 2D games on the latest consoles. Then, I would get my Wii, step back into my time portal, and warp back to my time.

Team Retreat

The next day, MS had to flesh out his outline by writing a paper on the experience he'd outline (which he found easier than the outlining himself).

One time, a few weeks ago, our team went on a retreat (hence the name). The hotel we stayed at was called The Olive Branch. We did a lot of things there, but I can only mention a few. Anyway, let’s start with our packing and getting there…

The first thing we did was to pack all our things: swim stuff, entertainment, like Leapsters, game boys, Legos, and blocks. We also packed things we needed, like clothing and snacks. Then, we loaded the car, started it, and drove to the McBride’s house. There, we helped our team load their cars and vans and drove to the retreat place.

After that, we got our room keys, went to our room, and unpacked. Afterwards, we went downstairs and had lunch, which was chicken nuggets, soft drinks, and French fries and went back upstairs for a meeting. At the meeting, the fun really started. We had entertainment, like game boy, leapster, and DVD’s (the electronics) and building toys such as Mega Blocks and Legos. We also started two clubs, one of which I will mention later. Afterward, we went swimming, had dinner, watched a movie, (Waterhorse Legend Of The Deep) in the meeting room, and went back to our rooms to sleep.

The next morning, we got ready, went downstairs, and ate breakfast, which was cornflakes with milk and sugar and toast with apricot jam. After which, we went upstairs to a meeting. At the first part of the meeting, we went down to the game room. Nearby, we found three kittens and named them Ben, Didi, and Sasha. Then, we went upstairs and continued the Daredevil Club. In the club, you do “daring” things (same as the name) like being swung by your wrists back and forth and landing on a cushion. Also, you get swung around and land on a cushion. Then, we finished the meeting, ate lunch, had another meeting, packed and left.
I really enjoyed my weekend that time. I can’t wait until the next retreat.

Team Retreat Outline

MS was supposed to "Outline an Experience" for creative writing last week. This was an introduction to the concept of outlining and had to be at least three levels deep.

I. Getting there
A. Packing
1. Swim stuff
2. Entertainment
a. Electric
i. Computer
ii. Leapsters
b. Non-electric
i. Plush toys
ii. Books
3. Needs
a. Snacks
b. Clothes
B. Leaving
1. Loaded the car
2. Started the car
3. Drove to McBride’s house
4. Helped friends with loading
5. Drove to retreat
II. Day One
A. Arriving
1. Got our room keys
2. Went to our room
3. Unpacked
B. Activities
1. Lunch
a. Chicken nuggets
b. Ketchup
c. Soft drinks
2. Meeting
a. Entertainment
i. Electronics: game boy, leapster, DVD’s
ii. Building: Legos mega blocks
iii. Gymnastics: cushions
b. Exercise
3. Swimming
a. Dinner
b. Movie:” Waterhorse, Legend of the deep”
c. Back to rooms
d. Sleeping
III. Day Two
A. Breakfast
1. Got ready
2. Went downstairs
3. Ate
a. Cereal
i. Cornflakes with milk and sugar
b. Toast with apricot jam
B. Meeting
1. Went to game room
a. Found kittens
i. Ben
ii. Sasha
iii. Didi
2. Went upstairs
3. Continued Daredevil Club
a. Got swung back and forth and landed on cushions
b. Got swung around in a circle
c. Rode on the bucking bronco: Nathan
4. Finished meeting
C. Lunch
D. Another meeting: same thing
E. Finished meeting
F. Packed up
G. left

Okay, the formatting didn't come out at all, and I don't know enough about Blogger to fix this. I'll ask ML when he gets home, and hopefully, come back and fix it.

The Serpent of Ka

In relation to studying the period of time in which Germany became a single state (when the Brothers Grimm were collecting fairy tales), MS's history assignment this week was to write a fairy tale based on a family story.

One fine day, the adventurer M****** and his friend S*** are looking for some excitement. Suddenly, a great quake rises from inside the earth! But then it fades just as quickly as it started.
“What was that?” asks S***.
“Ahhhhhhh!” yells S*** as he is yanked back by a long, slimy tail.
M****** leaps into action and grabs the creature’s tail and pulls hard on it. The serpent drops Seth and rears up above Malachi, ready to strike!
MM****** jumps over the creature’s head and strikes it with a blow from his sword! The serpent roars with fury and starts chasing the adventurer. M****** leads the creature around until it gets tied up!
M******strikes the final blow with his sword!

(The family story was one in which ML and MS were exploring the B./G. family ranch. S*** G. suddenly pointed out that there was a rattlesnake directly in MS's path, as in, MS would have stepped on it and possibly gotten bitten. The dads halted the hike and took care of the snake, and all was well (except, maybe, for the dads' nerves). I suggested to MS that maybe he took a little too much glory for himself in the fairy tale version, given the original course of events, but he chose to leave it as it was.)