Faces of History at CC

This year was our first opportunity to participate in Faces of History as part of the "Essentials" writing program of CC.  Each student chose a person from Ancient history to research and write a paper about, and then everyone dressed as their chosen person for a big "living museum" time.  It was fun to walk around and hear the facts about each person!

 Miles chose Alexander the Great.   Colsen chose Pythagoras..... Unfortunately he had a cold on the day of the living museum so he couldn't participate, but he did get to utilize his costume during our Closing Ceremonies a few weeks later.

Switching Trivium stages

At dinner tonight Colsen said, "With much power comes much responsibility and power corrupts, so responsibility is a bad thing."

All I could think was that he is clearly ready for the Dialectic stage of the classical education Trivium.  Good think he officially starts that with his curriculum in a few months!

Affectionate names?

Many times when I try out a new nickname for Jinna, she makes it clear that she doesn't like it.  Like "Honey," for example is gross to her because she doesn't like the taste of honey.  And she thinks names like "Peanut" are ridiculous, insisting she is no such thing.

Tonight, though, it was my turn to dislike her name for me.  Perhaps thinking of the times I've called her "My dear youngest daughter" or something, she came in and addressed me as "My favorite oldest lady."

 Can't say I'm a fan of that one.

A quote

"Hey Mom, here's my new quote I just made up:

'Christianity in a world of sin is like a curing medicine for a sick person.'"  -- Colsen

Biscuit-making convo's

These 2 boys were dying to make biscuits today, so I set them loose in the kitchen.

For the last 15 minutes I've been overhearing things like...

M: This feels too sticky.
C:  Miles. The biscuit dough is supposed to be the stickiest of all doughs.

M:  Careful, you don't want to overwork the dough.
C:  You're right.  You don't want to ever overwork the dough.  It's not pizza dough, you know!

M:  I want them to be tall and flaky
C: I know!  THIS is how you cut them do that!

M:  Colsen, read the recipe!

C: If you overwork them like that, they WON'T PUFF UP!  Mo-om, sorry, you're going to get hardtack!

C: What are you doing??
M:  Making a smiley face


M: Maybe we should go by the directions.
C: Fine....

Cotillion: Black and White Ball

 What a fun night this was -- and a BIG night for our Colsen!

The final event of his Cotillion year was the black and white ball.  Not only was it a fun social event, but they also had some dance contests and some winners were announced.

Colsen ended up winning one of the dance contests with his young partner!

Then I arrived for the parent portion and he insisted we enter the mother-son dance contest.  I demurred but he assured me he would help me through it.  And sure enough, he counted, "1-2-3, 1-2-3, all the way through!"  He was quite into it.  Needless to say we did not win, so it's clear who the weak link of this dance duo is.

Then, at the end of the night they announced that Colsen's essay had been selected as the National winner for all of the Cotillion students this year!  He won a scholarship and everything.

 So he came home with quite the hardware, and proclaimed it one of the best nights of his life. 

What a young gentleman he is becoming!

School Daze

This year's CC times have been tons of fun.... The kids' tutors are super-energetic and we can't wait to go every week!  Jinna's presentations have improved greatly and everyone has enjoyed the science experiments and practicing the memory work.... There's also lots of moving around!

At the core of CC is our community.... We've loved being part of this group that encourages, builds up, and helps one another.  One of the students has been very sick for a few months now so on his birthday many gathered on his front lawn to sing:

Outside of CC, I have been a Reading Buddy for a student in one of the elementary schools in downtown Monroe.  Each week I get to to go see his smiley face and he has been so precious!