Reading "Twenty and Ten"

I read Twenty and Ten. Twenty and Ten was fun to read. Well, not really, a little bit. So it was about there were some kids hiding from the Nazis. They had some Jewish friends with them. They wanted to hide the Jewish friends so they teased the soldiers and told them that themselves they were the Jewish people and so a shot came through the window — I guess a soldier was trying to shoot at them. The kids did a brave thing.

I went to listen to a lady talk. Her name was Diet Eman. She said that she helped some Jewish ladies hide from the Nazis so that was a very good thing Diet Eman did.

Note from Mom: I learned that Diet (pronounced Deet) would be speaking in Grand Rapids to a group of homeschooling families on my birthday, so I asked that a trip to see her be my gift. To prepare Addy, we read Twenty and Ten, which was part of this year's curriculum anyway. We only read it earlier than scheduled. In the story, a group of 20 French schoolchildren sent to live in the country with a nun during the war decided to hide 10 Jewish children. They showed great courage in doing so. That story is historical fiction, but based on real accounts of the war. The book gave Addy the general idea of who the Nazis were, though she keeps saying Yahtzees like the dice game.

We listened to Diet speak on Tuesday night. Addy had a really hard time deciphering her thick Dutch accent, but I assured her she will appreciate the experience when she is older. Now age 87, in her early 20s Diet was part of the Dutch resistance during World War II. She and her fiance coordinated the effort to hide hundreds of Jews from the Nazis, finding homes in the countryside of Holland and stealing ration cards and identification for them. She was eventually captured by the Gestapo and held prisoner. Her fiance was killed. She survived and now lives in Grand Rapids.

Bob thought it was quite an understatement that during several parts of her talk, she explained, "That was a terrible time."

Just this February, Diet was granted U.S. citizenship. She said filling out the forms was challenging: Have you ever been in prison? "Yes." Have you ever been deported? "Yes." Have you ever tried to topple a foreign government? "Yes." General Eisenhower had personally signed a letter of thanks to her on behalf of the United States of America for helping Allied forces escape, so she included a copy of that letter with her application. Citizenship granted.

I hope to read Diet's book, Things We Couldn't Say. I also understand that as part of his MSU master's thesis, a man filmed a documentary about Diet and others' efforts in the Netherlands during the Holocaust called Making Choices.

I was elected as a treasurer

I go to 4-H. I was elected as the treasurer. On Monday night at November 19th. I am excited ’cause I like to take care of money. It will be lots of fun for me. The kids voted for me to be the treasurer by raising their hands.

How to make a Moses basket

I got dried cattail leaves and weaved them together to make a little Moses basket. It was very fun, but at the end I couldn't really do it.

We read about Moses in our Egermeier's Bible Story Book. We didn't have handy any bulrushes as his mother used, so we gathered some cattails from a ditch. As you can see, we did this project awhile ago, on a warm October day. I built the base and taught Addy how to weave in the sides. It later crumbled apart before she had a chance to float it down the river in town as she wanted.

Inside, Outside, Upside Down

This is Addy reading the Berenstain Bears book "Inside, Outside, Upside Down." It was the first book Glenn read all by himself. (less than 3 minutes)

Learning math by bowling

I bowled to learn math. I kept my scores in a timeline book.

8-3=5 That’s Mama’s score.

8-1=7 That’s my score.

It was fun. After that my mom took videos of us doing ring-around-the-rosie.

This was back on October 17 when we had an usually warm day. I just couldn't keep the girls cooped up inside for school.

Six-minute video: The apple orchard and making pie

Learning about the states

Mrs. Johnson taught me geography. I had lots of fun learning geography.

I am at co-op. Co-op stands for cooperate. Co-op is fun to learn sometimes, but while the adults are just talking and getting ready for co-op we sometimes like to play outside or just run around inside the church.

I wrote out the names of the states, even though I didn't know them. The rules were Mommy could not help me with it, but we could go up to a table and look at what that state is called and try to remember how to spell it and then when we get back to our seat we can write it on where it is on the map.

Addy is in the bottom right corner of the picture in her Laura Ingalls outfit. Look for the big, blue bonnet. She wore it a few random places that week, for no particular reason. Dori is the little person with her hand on the table in the corner.

At the Klackle Apple Orchard

I went to the Klackle Apple Orchard. My class was cancelled, so I had to go with a preschool class. But I am homeschooled and my class is a breastfeeding class.


I read a Johnny Appleseed book for school before we went to the Klackle Apple Orchard. The Klackle Apple Orchard was fun. Last year in my class I didn't pick pumpkins. I guess this year we got to pick pumpkins because it was fall time.


We picked the brand of apples Golden Delicious.


I picked a pumpkin flower. The guy who was riding the tractor for that year said we could pick a pumpkin flower. He said all it would do is die. But when we put the flower in the flower press, it was surprising to me when it came out. It was surprising to me that it stayed orange. We took it out of the flower press and we put tape over it to put it in my science notebook and I labeled the parts.


A breastfeeding class? What she means is that a group of families who met through La Leche League formed a group last year called Homeschool Preschoolers. We continue to meet to do group activities and take field trips. I guess Addy will always think of them as our breastfeeding friends. The weather was a little gloomy the morning of our field trip to the orchard, so everyone else bailed on us. We still went and joined up with a class for our educational talk and tour. The rain hid behind the clouds and we had a lovely day.

Hi, I won a contest.

I went to the beach. I won a contest.

http://www.healthylakes.org/stories/photograph/2007/08/12/the-lake-that-had-a-lighthouse-in-the-middle-of-it

Addy received word today that she was the winner of a "Healthy Lakes" story contest in the children's division. The coordinator said she will receive a prize in the mail next week. Click the link for the story and a photo of Addy and Bob. You'll see that I typed the story exactly as Addy dictated it, with no editing. : )

Me and Dori looking at frogs

This is me and Dori looking at frogs. It is kind of science for me. I caught them, but I set them down on that rock. Why it was science for me is because we were looking at the patterns. This was really fun for me to catch a frog.

Me and Dori at storytime

This is me and my sister, Dori, at storytime. We are having fun listening to the books. Storytime is fun, you know. It is so fun I get excited when my mom tells me it's time to go to storytime.

Addy does her own math by herself

This is me doing my own math by myself.

4+4=8

3+3=6

and 1+1=2

From Mom: I was pretty proud when I saw Addy writing her first equations after we did an addition lesson. Her 6 is reversed, but she is little! I didn't realize she really understood the concept of the "number sentence" yet, though it was clear she understood how to count up the pieces to make the whole.

My first 4-H meeting

This is me and my friend, Sydney, making our craft from our first 4-H meeting. We had fun. Part of it we kind of had to be like indults [adults] because we had to sit down and listen to the rules of the 4-H meeting. So I had fun at my first 4-H meeting.

Making apples sauce

This is me and my mommy making applesauce. I did almost all the coring myself with a little bit of help from my daddy. We used an apple slicer/cutter. So all of us, but not my sister, Dori, made applesauce. This is us making applesauce.

Go State!

Your interesting tidbit of the day, from Sue: I just learned that the founders and owners of Addy's curriculum company (Sarita and John Holzmann of Sonlight.com) are Spartans.

John and Sarita earned their undergraduate degrees (both with honors) at Michigan State University. Sarita earned a B.S. in Dietetics while John earned a B.A. in Philosophy. John went on to earn the M.Div. at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

Addy learns about handwriting

Handwriting is in the middle. Handwriting in the middle means that I don't like handwriting and I like handwriting. That's why it is kind of in between.

We do wet, dry, try. First, Mommy writes a letter on the chalkboard. I erase it. Then I dry it. Then I write it. Then I do the same thing over again.

We use a system for traditional manuscript writing called Handwriting Without Tears. It is especially good for lefties, as it helps Addy see that she should start most of her letters and numbers in the starting corner (top left) to avoid reversals. The books give us good memory aids to help form the letters. We use a small chalkboard for the wet, dry, try method Addy described. First I demonstrate how to make a letter on the chalkboard. Then she erases it along my lines with a tiny, wet sponge to work on her pincer grasp and let her arm feel how to do the strokes in the correct order. Then, she dries it with a bit of paper towel to get more practice making the stroke before she moves on to paper. Finally, she practices the letter on paper. While some handwriting programs have the child trace one letter, then make a whole row of letters on their own (often getting worse with each try, I have noticed!), with this one she traces one, then makes one of her own, then traces another, and so on. It helps her keep it in the right form each time. By the end of a page, she can do each letter well.

Addy learning about the Earth crust

This is pretend, but the outside of the egg is the crust of the Earth. The white part is the mantle. The middle is core. That is the pretend Earth. The middle is also hot in real Earth, but not really in the egg. That is the Earth.

The Earth isn't hot on all the parts. Cutting up the egg model was for school.

I like ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt isn't what it used to be. It used to be where their belief was they buried their kings, and then after they bury them they think it will come back to life. But now people still live in Egypt, but their belief isn't that. But they do bury them.

They have to cover their arms, shoulders and their whole face, but not their eyes. Miss Lynn is a nice person. I went to see her because to learn about Egypt, because she went to Egypt. She showed me something made out of sand. It is a pyramid. It got my hands all dirty, but I wiped the sand off. It was fun being at Miss Lynn's house.

After we studied ancient Egypt during week 2 of school, Addy spent an hour with our neighbor, Lynn, who visited Cairo on vacation last year. She showed her pictures of the pyramids and talked to her about what it is like in Egypt today.

Addy plays soccer

I like to play soccer. Soccer is fun. There are six kids. I like to play. It is fun playing.

You can't use your hands. You can only use your feet or head.

There is Alexis, Annie, Emma, Jenna and Kendra. That is all the girls I play with. There are six girls altogether.

My number is No. 5, and I am 5 years old. Isn't that silly? Scoring goals is one of the fun things. I say, "Woo!" when I score a goal. I like the other parts of soccer, too.

I love soccer.

Addy learned

I learned about string instruments for homeschool. Mr. Z. showed me the double bass. I liked listening to it. We all got to play it. Sydney got to, Jordan got to, and I got to.

First I watched a movie about string instruments and then I went to see a real double bass. It was fun. I loved it. Then I got to play with my friends a little while. We played fairies the whole time. Then I had to go.

Addy learned about string instruments in this week's Melody Lane video. We also read about them in an Usbourne book. Her friends' father plays the bass, so she went to their house and got to hear and play with it.

My first days of school

My first week of school was fun. Today was my fourth day. Hi, my name is Addy. I'm a kindergartner. My real name is Adele, but please call me Addy.

I like science. And I like to be a kindergartner. I like the book called Finding out About Everyday Things. That book is really fun to learn about. And did you know that you can tell the distance that a storm is from you by that the light comes first and then count how long it takes for the noise to come to your ears? Sheet lightning is something that is lightning that it goes from one cloud to another.

I like reading the Boxcar Children book. Right now we're reading about the children are living in the boxcar. I don't know what'll happen after that. You'll never know. Or maybe you will. Boxcar Children is a book that the boxcar children found some dishes in a dumpster. It was treasure for them, but wasn't really treasure in real world.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That actually is true. That is a very true Bible verse. True Bible verses are school verses.

In school, I am reading a very easy book called I Can Read It! That book is too easy for me, but I read it 'cause that's part of school.

Again, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

You're gonna see a picture of a number line on our sidewalk.

—typed by Mommy, exactly as dictated by Addy