Week Twenty Four

Hello Families!

Whew, what a year!  I am so proud of each student for her/her hard work and accomplishments.  It has been a joy to get to know each child, and our family has benefited so much from this CC program.  Thanks to all of you for your patience and understanding with me being new to the program, being in Africa for a time and adjusting to a new family member, etc. 

Some final notes as we prepare for our Ephesians 6 presentation on Thursday:

• Don't forget to work on your three verses for the recitation so that you can say them without a cheat sheet (see Week 22 for assignments)
• For the verses being acted out (also see Weed 22), in terms of props I have two swords and a shield that I will bring to use.  I think most of the verses don't need props, but I know Peytra's mentions the breastplate and the belt of truth, and Ryan's mentions the helmet of salvation.  I will leave it up to your families if you want to bring anything to add or not.  But practice acting out your verse a few times so that you have your routine down pat.
• We are wearing denim bottoms (jeans/shorts/skirt) and solid color tops.  I will have brightly colored bandannas if anyone wants to use them as an accent.  The kids mentioned bringing sunglasses- it's fine with me if they want to wear them.
• Arrive at 6:15 if possible and be looking for me in the back.  We can talk about any last minute questions or the kids can go through their routine if they want.

If your child earned Memory Excellence or Power and you purchased a medal from Alison and would like me to present it to your child during the reception, it would be my pleasure.  If your family would like to have the honor, that's awesome too.

I'm looking forward to enjoying Thursday with all of you!  It will be a joyous time to celebrate.  Please email me if I left anything out or if something is unclear.

Blessings,
Mrs Shaw 

Week Twenty-Three

Hello Families,

How exciting to be entering the last week!  I have really enjoyed working with your kids this year.  They have done a fantastic job.  Congratulations to Ryan and Meredith for achieving Memory Master, and best wishes to Hope and Katie as they prepare for the same.  I believe Gabe and Abigail are accomplished Memory Excellence-rs and Maren is working towards that goal for Tuesday.  If there is someone who has/is reciting memory work that I haven't heard about, my apologies and congrats.

The class did a fantastic job on the stage practicing for our presentation.  Please have them work on their 3 assigned verses (see Week 22) so that they can recite them from memory for the real deal.  Also, for their assigned 'act out' verse, you can bring in any props they might want to make that fun.  I will bring in a set of great fake swords and shields, but I don't have a breastplate, helmet or a big belt.  Those certainly aren't necessary, but it might be a nice addition to have. 

I would love it if you all could stay for our pizza lunch on Tuesday! 

Have a good weekend,
Mrs Shaw

Week Twenty-Two

Hello families!

Fun times were had on Tuesday!  We saw simply and easily how light reflects, refracts and is a spectrum in science, with passing the light around the room with mirrors being a favorite.  We also practiced and prepared for the Ephesians end-of-year presentation.  The kids did a great job with their verses and had great ideas for acting out verses 10-17!

(About the presentation, I had included a fair amount of information on that in last week's blog entry, which I discovered on Monday when Maren was double-checking her verse assignment, never got posted!  I'm so sorry; there was no evidence of it anywhere in blogger, which doesn't make sense.  I will try to recap most of it here.)

Just to summarize what we will be doing: the kids will line up on stage and each will say their three verses into the microphone.  There will be music with a beat playing lightly in the background, but the kids are mostly comfortable speaking their verses vs. rapping them (if someone wants to say their verses to the beat, that is fine).  After we go all the way through Ephesians 6:1-24, the kids will then get in the order listed below and be prepared to 'act out' one verses from the Armor of God section.  Katie will be soulfully saying verses 10-17 during this.  We came up with some acting ideas in class, but the kids are free to work on this at home and to be as creative as he/she wants!  I have two great swords and two shields that I will bring in.  I know Peytra mentioned her grandmother having a helmet and a breastplate that she may be able to borrow.  Some of the verses are brief and a little acting without props will be just fine.  They can wear a solid color shirt and something denim on the bottom (jeans, skirt, shorts, capris).

verse 10- Meredith
11- Hope
12- Gabe
13-14 Peytra
15- Abigail
16- Maren
17- Ryan

I will repost each child's memory verse assignment towards the bottom of this entry.  There is a change between Katie and Ryan from the original assignment from Week 20, so take note.

If anyone is interested in scheduling a time for Memory recitation, let me know.  I am free during Essentials.  If you'd rather not do it during that time, any mom can listen for Memory Excellence or Memory Power, or we can come up with a different opportunity for me to listen.  I am excited to hear all of the work that has been commited to memory- great job!

If your child is going for ME or MP and you'd like to purchase a medal for him or her ($5), please let Alison Dees know.

Have a great week!
Mrs Shaw

Peytra  ¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— ³ “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”^[a]
 
Hope ⁴ Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.  ⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. ⁶ Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
 
Gabe ⁷ Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸ because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
 ⁹ And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

The Armor of God

Maren ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Katie    ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Abigail ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
 
Meredith ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.  ²¹ Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.
 
Ryan²² I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.
 ²³ Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.  

Week Twenty

Hello Journeymen Families,

We had a great day learning our grammar as well as reviewing the old with a game of Will the Winner Lose.  We changed it up a bit with three teams instead of two.  The men, Gabe and Ryan, pulled out a win, but actually every team answered correctly each time, which is the irony with this game.  Great job, everyone!

Meredith showed us her memory tips for the Latin conjugations with the help of Mollie.  Well done, girls.  Presentations this week can be the recitation of memory work as I'm sure that is the focus in each or home schools as we work towards winding down CC for the year.  Or if there is a favorite story you would like to read with great expression, or a poem you have memorized, or something else you'd like to share with the class, we'd love to hear you.

I plan on having the store opened on Tuesday, so if you have any logs that need to be turned in I will be happy to accept them during class.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for... information on our class presentation!  As I've mentioned before, I would like the focus to be on Ephesians 6.  Rather than have everyone fine-tune the entire passage in such a short time frame, I have broken down the 24 verses into 3-verse sections with one section assigned to each child.  The kids will recite the passage in order.  After all 24 verses have been said, we will have the opportunity to act out verses 10-18 (the Armor of God section) while one student is saying those verses to a rap beat.  For instance, the student with v 14 could be putting a soldier's belt and breastplate on.  On Tuesday in class we will figure out together which verse each student would like to act out.  As far as the speaker who will recite v 10-18 during the acting, I can have Maren practice for that unless a mom tells me that her student would like to do it.  I don't feel right about assigning that part to someone because it will take extra work and practice, but if you and your child are interested in prepping for this, PLEASE let me know and I will be happy to give you a copy of the music to practice with.  I think that either jeans/jean skirts and a solid color top will work as far as attire.  I believe that I have enough soldier gear, swords, etc for the acting props, except for a bow and arrows.  If anyone has one that we can borrow, please let me know.

Please let me know if you have concerns or questions about the presentation or if you don't think it will work for whatever reason.  I apologize for not getting my thoughts nailed down sooner.

Have a great rest of the weekend!
Mrs Shaw

Peytra  ¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— ³ “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”^[a]
 
Hope ⁴ Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.  ⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. ⁶ Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
 
Gabe ⁷ Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸ because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
 ⁹ And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

The Armor of God

Maren ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ryan¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Abigail ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
 
Meredith ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.  ²¹ Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.
 
Katie²² I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.
 ²³ Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Week Nineteen

Hello Journeymen families,

What a great day we had celebrating the filling of the Memory Marble jar with cupcakes, popcorn and juice and a game of Trivial Pursuit!  Both teams did a fantastic job of answering questions from past weeks as well as locating areas on the map in order to earn 'pie pieces'.

History sentence presentations were fantastic and filled with all kinds of unique information gathered from research.  Way to go, Maren, Abigail, Peytra and Gabe!  For the next two weeks we will have Your Choice presentations.  These may include reciting a poem, expressively reading a book, reciting a subject Memory Master style, or whatever you would like.  Remember to include the components of a good presentation that we have been working on.

If your child is planning on testing for Memory Master, Power or Excellence please let me know so that I can keep that in mind for scheduling purposes.

I know I have been remiss in encouraging the students to fill in their Learning Logs, but I do plan to open up the school store again on Week 21.  I have blank copies of Learning Logs that I can scan into an email if you let me know.

Continue to have the students work on Ephesians 6 as that will be a part of our class presentation.  Details coming soon!

Have a great week of learning!

Mrs Shaw

Week Seventeen

Greetings!

Time is flying by; I can hardly believe we are almost halfway through the second semester!  It was good to be back and be welcomed by all the smiling faces.  Thank you for your prayers and concern with the adjustment of Patricia in our family; it is going very well, by the way.  The students enjoyed another great day on Tuesday.  We are close to filling the Memory Marble jar- hopefully that will happen next week!

Science presentations were fantastic!  Gabe told us some facts about Pluto and Mars, Maren presented about a chimp flying on the Mercury spaceship, Abigail brought in a great visual showing the moon phases, Peytra had an interesting presentation about the three types of consumers including food samples- yum!, and Katie shared an impromptu presentation 'All About Me'.

Next week's presentation focus will be on history sentences.  Students may dress in costume, use visuals, or just present some researched facts.  Meredith, Hope, Ryan and Katie are scheduled if it works with your homeschool.

I haven't completely decided on our class presentation for the end of the year, but it will be something to do with the Ephesians 6 passage.  Remember to include that when drilling the other subjects.

I hope the rest of your weekend is restful and relaxing with your families.

Blessings,
Mrs Shaw

Week Sixteen

Hello Journeymen Families:

It's great to be back!  I heard that you all had another fantastic class on Tuesday with Ms Melissa.  I am so thankful to her for stepping in during my absence.  What a blessing to know that all would be taken care of during our travels.

Sounds like there was a lot of movement and excitement with Multiplication Madness and Timeline Scramble; congratulations on coming so close to completing both games!

So sorry I missed Hope, Meredith and Peytra's presentations.  They sounded very interesting.  There will be an opportunity for the remaining students to present a science topic on Tuesday if you wish.  I'd love to hear from everyone if it fits in with your schedule.

I'm hoping that we can fill the Memory Marble jar on Tuesday so that we can have a party the following week.  Also, make sure you're keeping up with charting your review sessions as well as presentation practices on the Learning Log so that you can receive credit to use at our next store time!  I will have extra copies available if you need more.

Looking forward to seeing your smiling faces in a few days!

Love,
Mrs Shaw