Monday: I was pretty empty on Moday. I did practice my gymnastics and did Zack’s around the sun. Zack’s around the sun was very fun and I think we’re getting better at being more focused.

Tuesday: We started “Bud, Not Buddy,” for book club, which was very exciting. I think the writer has a very good imagination and it’s one of those books where you can’t stop reading and we always beg for Jess to read more. I think the author really made me feel like I was there, and it was a little hard to listen to at some points because your felt like you were there feeling and listening to the things the character feels and hears. Then we did cooking. We went to Melissa’s house for this. I could tell Melissa was regretting it a little bit because it was very wild and things got spilled. It was very chaotic in a small area. But for cooking we made banana nut muffins. They were very delicious. Writer’s workshop and novel club happened.  I participated in writers workshop. It was very exciting, as usual. I started a couple of books, but didn’t finish any of them. Instead of Anatomy and Physiology, we did Alona’s around the sun.

Wednesday: I did Mica’s Art. This time we had tiles. We wrote on them with sharpie then put rubbing alcohol on them. It looks really cool. During Intermediate math, I had band tryouts. Ari had her try out for singing, Ayan tried out on flute during Algebra. We also had tech free hour, change up and gratitude circle. I felt like in change up and grat circle, everyone was much more focused than usual and that’s a good thing.

Thursday: We hiked at Reedy Creek. Sadly, Jess was sick, but thankfully Nancy was willing to take her place. It was cold, so we had to wear lots of layers. Some people didn’t prepare, but it turned out okay. Then we played at the park.

Friday: I did book club. I did Spanish. We played a game which I explained on my other blog. I also did the talent show. It was very fun and I did headstands for it. Now I’m writing my blog. This is a special blog because it’s on St. Patrick’s Day.

Monday: NO SCHOOL

Tuesday: I did the book club and we chose what book we are going to read. We decided on Bud Not Buddy and we’re doing my friend Kate’s dad’s book after that which is a mystery about two kids named Sodapop and Mystery Muffin. Also we planned more of the summer road trip. It was really fun because it brought back memories from the last road trip and Jess showed a lot of pictures from the last road trip. It brought back memories and made me kind of sad because I kind of wish it was still going on. Then I did writer’s workshop and I wrote about the Hike of Horror which happened on the last road trip. Then I did Spanish. This time it was not a Spanish market or a Spanish restaurant, but we played a game where you either wanted it, had it, or needed it. You had to say it in Spanish and draw a card with an animal on it. So you might draw a cow and say “I want the cow” in Spanish.

Wednesday: I did art with Mica and this time we did mandalas. I ended not doing something that was like a mandala, instead I did like a flower where you keep drawing petals in the openings all the way around until you finish or you want to stop. I played my ukulele and I went to the park. I also did change up. Instead of the usual change up, we went around the property where we rent space and we weeded, filled in big holes (which we had created), picked up trash, and I forgot what the other groups did.

Thursday: We went on an urban hike in uptown. We stopped at sculptures and parks and we played. And I got reacquainted with Rebecca Zeines from ALF summer.

Friday: We had cooking class. We made pasta putanesca. Melissa and Jess decided to make that because it was in the book we were reading. I thought it was really good and really salty (which makes it even better!) and it was very saucy and not as much noodley. Sometimes you have pasta that’s more noodles and not as much sauce, and I like both, but this time was more sauce. The sauce is what got all the hard work from cooking, so I’m glad it was a good sauce. Then we did clean up, then spawn, and now I am dictating and Jess is typing for my blog.

Next week I am excited to do the talent show on Friday.

On Monday we finished Bridge to Terebithia. Oh wow, that was very, very sad, interesting and sad. And a little bit more sad. I had a lot of fun listening to it up until where – I don’t want to spoil it – but, yeah, something happens. I also went to the park. It was very fun to play. I like the new equipment at the park. I played one round of capture the flag. No body was really doing anything because everyone was just standing around to scared to go, so I just had to do something to make something happen so I ran for it. I think I got the flag but I don’t remember. Then I went to Reader’s Workshop at the library and I found some books that I liked. I found one that I really like it’s a graphic novel and I tend to not like graphic novel, but I was really happy when I found it because it’s easy to read and it’s really long. It’s called Smile and it’s got a big smiley face on the front.

Tuesday I did the cooking class where we made a broccoli salad which was delicious and amazing. It was so fun to cut all the things. I cut an onion because I’m really good at cutting things small, so when I’m on a team they always ask me to cut the small things. We also made a macaroni salad which was really delicious and I brought it home the next day because it was so good and Melissa said I could bring it home. While the people went to the play called Snow White, which some of you are familiar with and some of you are not, it’s one of those princess plays that some people like, but I do not. I did stuff but I don’t remember what it was. At the end of the day I went to A&P and that stands for Anatomy and Physiology. That was really fun because we did something outside where somebody traced your body and you traced your partner’s body and the teacher would say a bone of your body and you’d jump on it and she’d say another one and you’d jump on that. Since I didn’t know all of them, I looked at Alona and if you haven’t read her blog she’s 13 and studies the body a lot and she knew all of them, so everyone was looking at Alona. Elisha couldn’t see Alona but she could see me and she knew I was looking at Alona so she could jump on the right places.

Wednesday I don’t know my week was so amazing but I’m pretty sure this was probably my favorite day. We made small books which was the highlight of my day along with Writer’s Workshop. If you don’t know what that is you could probably look at other people’s blog to know what it is.

This is what one of them looks like. I made a couple other ones that are more simple and smaller. And as you could hear I like small things so I made a bunch of the little small ones. It actually looks really hard but it’s actually easy when you do it. I can’t explain the hard one. It’s a lot of folding and pushing and taping and putting on things. The smaller one is easier and you take a long strip of paper and fold it back and forth and back and forth until you have spring or as I like to call it an accordion. You take a little piece of cardboard a little bigger than your little accordion and then you take whatever you want the cover to be then you put double sided tape on one of the sides and you glue it to your piece of paper. And you want this piece of paper to be bigger than the cardboard because you wrap it around the side. Then you wrap it and cut the corners off. You put the double sided tape on the cardboard. And then you fold the sides of the paper on top of the cardboard. This is probably hard to follow so I will make a YouTube video that shows you how to make it and then you can look if you are really interested in it. It’s really cool. Since I’ve been explaining the small one that looks like an accordion I’ll start with that one. It looks like something I bought from a store and gave to someone.

Thursday I hiked a 5 and a half mile hike really fast. Fast for hiking, I wasn’t running the whole time, but it was inbetween running and walking. And I’m really proud of myself because I’m thinking about backpacking in a couple months and I was thinking that was a start to my training for backpacking. That is it for Thursday, but still I’m really proud of myself for hiking a 5 and a half mile hike. Oh and Crossfit was an interesting time because I’m already sore in my legs from hiking a five mile hike and then the first part of Crossfit was there was this song called “Bring Sally Up and Bring Sally Down.” I call it the torture song now because it looks easy but man it is hard. You start if you were doing a push up but you are all the way to the ground, you go up then you go down and then you go up and then you go down. They sing more of the song “Bring Sally Up, bring sally down and you hold it for more singing.”

Friday I did Spanish Market and we played a game. And then I did Cycling Savvy and we learned the professional way to stop and start and the check before you ride your bike. Then I helped Elisha look for her phone. My mom is here and we need to go and that’s why friday is not very detailed.

On Monday I did Writer’s Workshop. We went to Harris Teeter and I wrote about somebody’s life. I also wrote a little bit about my song. On Tuesday I watched The Giver movie. The Giver was a book and movie club book. I enjoyed it, it was fun to listen to. I went to Anatomy and Physiology and we learned about muscles and bones again. We also did a little bit of massaging. On Wednesday I felted soap. If you are wondering what felting soap is, first we made the soap. Then we pulled strips of wool and I put three strips going side to side and three strips going up and down. I put my soap in the middle and I wrapped all the tips on top of each other. Then we put colored wool and we put it in a stocking, put it in hot water and then we started rubbing it in the hot water. I did mandalas while listening to intermediate math. I played ostrich racing. I can’t explain about ostrich racing because you kinda need to see it instead of being told about it. So if you really want to know what ostrich racing is, tell me in the comments and I will post a picture or a video.

Thursday we went on a hike. We went to the Town Creek Indian Mound. First they explained about the weapons that Native Americans used. You are probably why didn’t she say Indians. We forgot to ask them why they call it Town Creek Indian Mound, but it’s all about Native Americas. Back to the weapons. First they showed us the multitool. It was used to pick berries off of trees by poking them down, digging roots out to eat, fishing if you sharpened it, sort of defending yourself. The next weapon was called an atlatl. It is a device to help some kinds of weapons go farther when you throw them. Then there was, of course, a bow and arrow. The guy explaining about the weapons aimed it at the target, like I would’ve, missed the target. He also pulled out a blow dart, which most people know what blow darts are. It is made out of a sugar cane reed and the little dart inside was made out of a thin twig with a sharp tip, and put thistle on the end. You would put it inside the hollowed out sugar cane reed and blow.

Friday it was Ayan’s birthday celebration. Usually we have the Spanish restaurant but this time it was called the Indian restaurant. It was very fun ordering in Tamil. I ride with Ayan every day to school so of course I was nagging him about practicing how to say stuff and still at school nagging him. Finally I said this is the last time, until it was the last one and I actually ordered. His mom Vidya cooked the food. By the way, the she is the best cook I’ve ever met. I enjoy her food, I enjoy her company. I am glad Ayan chose for his birthday party to be an Indian restaurant. We had ice cream cake which I would normally not be allowed to eat but since it was a birthday party I ate half and a quarter of a piece. I told myself over and over again that this will be the only time in 2-4 years I will eat ice cream cake. I played my ukulele with Elisha, my ukulele teacher. By the way she is eleven. I also made two papers, one had some ukulele patterns on it like strumming patters and chords I’m learning, and the other page for songs I’m writing/a song I’m writing. I also read with Elisha and Liberty and Michael listened. The book we are reading is called Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children.

Monday I did Writer’s Workshop. I made a cheek cell slide and I looked at it under a microscope. I also made acorn flour pancakes. Tuesday we finished The Giver. The Giver is a book. I loved reading it. We also went to a play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” which was probably my favorite play I’ve ever seen at that theater. It was funny, but not as funny as the book. I highly recommend that book. On Wednesday I made soap. Soap making was very fun. I did Change Up. Thursday I made crafts, shaving cream with food dye and sparkles which was fun. I went to Anatomy & Physiology which was probably one of my favorite things of my week. We learned about muscles and bones. We learned a cool trick about what we can do with our body. On Friday I made gingerbread houses, I also did Spanish Restaurant and game. The game was: Nancy printed out pictures of animals and you would draw an animal picture and act it out. If someone knew what you were you would say in Spanish: “You are a tiger.” If it was right, the person that was acting it out would say “I am a tiger” in Spanish.

Also if you want to MM is from my last blog, I will do it next blog if you want me to. Please comment if you do.

On Tuesday I did Reader’s Workshop. Reader’s Workshop is new. If you don’t know about Writer’s Workshop, it is basically the same thing except that you write and go off campus to coffee shops and places that are cozy. But Reader’s Workshop we have just started. It’s the same thing but we don’t go off-campus because we have a cozy couch to read at. I like reading even if there wasn’t any reader’s workshop because I read all the time anyway. But it was great that we got a Reader’s Workshop because then I didn’t have to ask people to go out of the room because they were loud. It was a quiet space that was dedicated for people to read.

The question was in Mystery Science, we were going to figure out how far could a whisper travel. We made little phones out of cups and string. Some people had already done that. I had already done it, but I could barely remember it. It was fun though. I highly suggest doing that one.

Me and Elisha were reading the rest of Wednesday. The book we were reading is called “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.” I also highly suggest reading this. While I was reading the prologue I was hooked. By three days of reading I’m already 35-36% in.

On Thursday I went on the hike. I also played MM while I was on the hike. If you are wondering what MM is, it stands for Monsters and Magic. Monsters and Magic is not your ordinary board game, it uses all imagination. I am not going to tell you anymore, but next week if you comment and ask me to explain more about MM I will do that for a lot of my blog.

On Friday I did Spanish Restaurant and I played a card game called “Go Fish.” Most of you know what Go Fish is but if you don’t, it’s a game where everybody gets 7 cards and you ask for a card to get pairs of 2 or pairs of 4. We played Go Fish, but we did Spanish Go Fish. I’m very excited about learning Spanish. It’s fun to put games in it because when you’re just sitting around practicing it’s not as fun. I like putting games in because it’s easier for us to practice it and easier for us to learn it.

I’m also very excited, Grace Vanderwaal’s new album came out today. If you do not know who Grace Vanderwaal I will be very ashamed of you and I’m not going to tell you about her because you can just find out on Youtube.

This week I did Mystery Science, we did “Could a Mountain Last Forever?” If you want to know, you can read this part, if you do not and want to do the Mystery Science you don’t have to look at the answer. But the answer is: “No, mountains do not last forever.” Mountains don’t last forever because seeds get into the cracks of the rocks and they make trees and plants and then the rock/mountain breaks down into smaller rocks.

I did a tea party with actual sugar cubes, which was fun because I’ve never had tea with sugar cubes before. I climbed a tree with my friends, I did solar pyrography. If you are wondering what solar pyrography is, it’s where you use a magnifying glass to make the beam of the sun sharper to earth and you can burn a design into wood.

We did another Mystery Science on Wednesday. This Mystery Science was “how to survive a landslide.” It didn’t exactly how to survive it, but it taught us now to keep our homes safe if a landslide came. I also did solar pyrography on Wednesday. I did Change Up.

Thursday I made fresh rolls, which was really fun and made me think about opening up a fresh rolls shop. But then I re-thought that and thought about opening a store that had fresh rolls as one of the things it sold. I also did solar pyrography again, and I read my book every day of the week except for Monday.

This week I did a lot of physical activities. I biked to Pura Vida which was very fun. I challenged my brain. Someone would drop a ruler and we got to see how long it took my brain to tell my hand to catch it. And the reason why we did it with a ruler was because we got to see how fast we caught it. I also slacklined, I practiced my cartwheels, my handstands, and my handstand backbends. I also did aerial silks.

Activities I did for my mental self were going to Mystery Science and learning about the eye and the pupil and how it works and how the brain controls your body. We finished the Golden Compass on Tuesday and we chose a new book. We chose The Giver. I read to myself. I learning a new language by going to a restaurant and speaking Spanish.

I molded dough and cooked it and painted it.

I cuddled with Jess and I watched Pride & Prejudice.

I learned how to take care of a Hedgehog. I’m thinking about getting a hedgehog when I get older.

 

(dictated to Nancy)

Favorite thing: This is a hard question. I really liked writing a song. I also liked playing the ukulele. I have a music lesson today and today was the one day I forgot my ukulele! I got to write a song with Elisha.

This week I learned: A lot! I read little short books on lots of different things. I learned how to write a song. The song doesn’t have a chorus.

Challenges: I was challenged to remember all of the chords on the ukulele. I think I got it all except for one chord.

Next week: I would like to figure out the chords to the song that Elisha and I wrote. I think I can play ukulele to it so I will make up my own chords. Because I got the ukulele so that I could make up my own songs.

I also climbed a tree and I LOVED it! I climb something every day.