David's Latin

While I was getting dinner ready, David was very busy at the table writing this scripture verse in Latin.  He was asking me for help to spell the words... but the sequencing was all his.  He doesn't understand that English doesn't translate directly word for word into latin... the order is often mixed up a little.  He did learn that there is no translation for articles 'a', 'and', and 'the,' so he didn't have any problem skipping these.  There are quite a few mistakes but I am completely impressed he wanted to try it in the first place!  He will learn the correct translation next year, verse by verse, in Latin like we learned it this year, verse by verse, in English.

Here is the English, (if you want to check his work)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  This was with God in the beginning.  All things were made through him; without Him nothing was made that was made.

And the correct Latin:
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum
hoc erat in principio apud Deum
omnia per ipsum facta sunt et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est

Lango Fiesta

Lango is the Immersion Spanish class David and Lia have been attending while Emily and I go to our Essentials (Writing and Grammar) class.  They dance, sing and play games in Spanish and I can honestly say they have a lot more fun than we do!  Since this was our last week, they got to have a 2 hour Fiesta.  One of the Moms was sweet enough to share her pictures so the rest of us could see what we missed!  Thank you Bernadette!

 Here is Lia taking a turn at the pinata!  She is barefoot because she got in the car without shoes and her frazzled Mommy didn't notice till we got to campus.  You can get away without shoes at age 3.  It only makes your Mommy look bad.  (sigh)

 
Pin the tail on the donkey.

Tissue Paper Flowers.  Lia wore hers all day!  So pretty.

Homemade tortillas!

And authentic clothing.  This was a lot of fun for the kids!

Halfway through Classical Conversations

We completed a milestone today!  The kids finished their 12th week of Classical Conversations which means they are half way through and that we get a break till next year!  I am so proud of them and all they have learned.  They have given weekly presentations to their class, memorized a part of the Gospel of John in English with hand motions, memorized all the latin words in that part of the Gospel of John (they will recite John in latin next semester), memorized their times tables for the 1s through the 15s plus the squares and the cubes, memorized all the states and capitals, many grammar terms and several conjugations of irregular English verbs, 12 important dates in US History set to song, facts about their body systems, not to mention... lots of drawing lessons and music theory as they were introduced to the tin whistle!  Can you tell I am so impressed!  We practice our memory work every day and they really know their stuff.  To continue the praise, David and Lia completed 12 weeks of their immersion Spanish class, Lango, and have completely inspired me to learn right along with them.  They are dancing and singing in Spanish every day because the CD is so much fun to listen to.  (It really is.)  Emily completed 12 weeks of her history based writing class through the Institute of Execellence in Writitng (IEW) and has completed 12 incredible writing assignments and learned a ton of grammar through the Essentials of the English Language curriculum.  She thinks diagramming sentences is actually kind of fun... (a good challenge anyway, which is good for her)

Well done kids!!!!

Each week at CC, as they learned about their anatomy, the kids colored various organs in their body and had their bodies outlined on butcher paper.  Today, we "assembled" their bodies with all their important parts.  Here is David putting his heart in his body:

Here is his finished product.  You can lift many of the parts to see what is underneath.  It was really fun to put it all together.

And here is Daivd with his buddy Sebastian... and their bodies behind them!

Saint Presentation for the Seniors

Yesterday, our kids were able to give a short presentation on their favorite Saints to the Seniors at our church.  It was a great opportunity to dress up and share all they have learned and I think the seniors really enjoyed it.  Here is our crew getting ready to go inside:

David told me I didn't need to go up with him.  This is pretty impressive for the boy who couldn't give a presentation at all back in August.  The weekly presentations he has given at Classical Converstations have done wonders for his confidence.  The seniors expecially liked his 'dragon head' tied about his waist and he even showed them how he slayed the dragon with his sword!

And Emily as Blessed Kateri did a great job with her presentation as well.  Great job kids!

Farewell, Mr. Sloper!

Last week a reception was held to honor Mr. Sloper, our church's choir director, for all his hard work and dedication to our music ministry.  He is retiring for health reasons and he will be missed dearly.

Halloween 2011

Here is our gang in their "secular" Trick or Treating costumes.  David is a knight.  Emily is an Amazon Warrior.  And little Lia was a witch's kitty cat.  Lia continues to be crazy about cats so I was thrilled when we found this 'Children's Place' costume at a local consignment shop.  It couldn't have been more perfect for her.  She pretends to be a my little kitty cat every day.  She "meows" throughout the day and melts my heart when she says, "Purr..., Kitty's Cat's happy."  They are wanting me to hurry up and take this picture so they can get going!

Here they are in action!  And if you could hear me in the background... you would hear me saying, "Don't forget to say thank you!!!!"  We are very blessed to live in such a nice neighborhood.  The kid's enjoyed visiting with all their neighbors and of course, getting so much candy!

Look at that face!

Uncle Mario, Rest in Peace

I got to visit with Uncle Mario at Nonna's funeral.  We will miss him!  May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.