Summer soccer camp

Aunt Anita took me to soccer camp. I stayed at her house and every day we had to wake up early and go to soccer camp.

A British man taught me. He was a really good teacher. He could even throw the ball down and bounce it on his shoulder.

I learned some of the ways to turn the ball around and we even played some games during the breaks. He was even nice enough to give us water breaks every once in awhile and Nini packed food for me to eat during the water break.

Now I have an AYSO team and Mommy and Dad are my coaches. My AYSO team, I'm the blue. Someone from my church is on my team.

Addy is in the middle of the pack in the yellow shirt.

Addy and Dori, Declaration of Independence

This is me and Dori dressed up as people in the Declaration of Independence time. We listened to the Declaration of Independence. And we sang a few songs about America.

There's an article about it, too.

This was on July 4th.



History remembered in Lapeer on Fourth of July
by Shena Abercrombie
The Flint Journal

Adele B., 5, didn't just watch American history come alive on the lawn of the Historic Courthouse in downtown Lapeer, she got to dress up in it.

Mom Sue B., dressed up Adele and Dori, 2, in period garb to attend the reading of the Declaration of Independence staged by the Heritage Research Institute Friday morning.

"We're homeschoolers and we've been reading about it at home," Sue explained, while loading the girls into a mini-van following the event. "She helped do the sewing on her outfit."

The girls donned near identical ensembles modeled after period pieces she found on historic Web sites -- then fashioned petticoats, bonnets and Colonial-era scarves from old bed sheets and other discarded fabric around the house.

The B.'s drove from [town] to visit the girls' grandparents, and happened to see a notice for the event in the local paper. (Actually we learned about it from a homeschool e-mail group and planned for it a few weeks in advance.) They joined a crowd that filled the courthouse lawn, and included local Boy Scout troops. Ervin said the color guard and Honor Guard from the Flint Central High School Junior Naval ROTC even made the trip to downtown Lapeer for the program.

"I thought it was great," Sue said. "There was something of interest for everyone. The girls got something out of singing patriotic songs and the setting was just wonderful."

It was perfect weather for the roughly 30-minute ceremony, which included an opening and closing prayer, a brief history lesson on the meaning behind the one of the country's most sacred writings, and of course the reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Turns out that's exactly how they used to do it in the old days -- in Colonial America.

"Historically, Independence Day was a day of worship that was celebrated with church services and prayer, public parades and fireworks," said Brian Ervin, president of the Heritage Research Institute, a Metamora-based nonprofit organization.

The group formed four years ago to educate citizens about the importance behind such documents, and the founding principles from which this nation and its government evolved.

"That's why we do it at 9 a.m., so people can still do the parades," said Ervin, who was dressed as a colonial officer for his part in the reenactment - the reading of the Declaration of Independence. We know that just reading some of the founding documents is educational. This helps us connect to history."

Rick and Linda Gualdoni of Alba Township try to make the Fourth of July observance an annual event. Self proclaimed history buffs, they took the time to greet Ervin and shake his hand following the reading.

"I think it's accurate as far as the historical perspective is concerned," Linda said. "We came to the very first one."

Rick's favorite portion of the document, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

"I like the fact that there is the acknowledgment of a creator in the Declaration of Independence." The HRI will stage another reading of the Declaration of Independence in September on Constitution Day.

Addy and Dori first day of school

This is me and Dori, our first day of school.

First-grader school is very fun, except when we stopped kindergarten I was used to playing outside every day so I'm kind of tired doing some of the kind of school that you have to pay lots of attention. That makes me tired. But otherwise, it's very fun and we've started cursive early, but I kind of want to get back on manuscript because I'm starting to forget how to write some of manuscript.

When I was in kindergarten I was doing first-grade reading, and now I'm in first grade and I'm doing second-grade reading. I'm doing something called the Beginner's Bible. That means I read a Bible to my mom instead of her reading a Bible to me like we did when I was in kindergarten. But we're also doing a Bible that Mom reads to me, another one that's a little bit more adult-ish.

Math is actually fun.

I actually like science because it's telling about a long time ago, and one of the things I'm learning — it's really cool. People weren't invented back then, so there were little things that were like monkeys, but they had feet like we do and hands like we do and pretty much everything that we have except they live in the trees. And they hunted for small food and picked berries to eat.

2007-08 Curriculum

Copying this here to archive it:

History and geography: Sonlight Core C, “Introduction to World Cultures,” a literature-rich program, we also use a timeline and globe
Phonics and reading: finishing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons in first semester, reading the books it recommends all year, plus lots of other independent reading
Phonics and reading: Starfall.com Learn to Read online activities, plus Level I Reading and Writing Journal for phonics practice
Math: Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Math 2B, then Singapore Primary Math 1A
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears finishing Letters and Numbers for Me, then Handwriting witout Tears cursive using own lessons generated with StartWrite 5.0 software
Science: Sonlight Kindergarten Science, in which we use Usbourne books and “Discover and Do” DVD to guide hands-on experiments
Art: Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children, then Animals in Art
Music: Calvert School “Melody Lane” video program plus The Usbourne Story of Music
Sunday School: “Seasons of the Spirit” at Immanuel, “Witness” at Cross
Also learning through life: lots of reading, real-life writing, practical life activities, crafts, nature walks, field trips, helping Mom teach sign language classes, taking care of Dori, participating in community life with Mom and Dad, etc.

Extracurricular activities
Homeschool co-op, meets weekly: fall classes are exploring the human body, sign language, U.S. geography and crafts
AYSO soccer, Saturdays August–October
4-H Club, monthly meetings
Public library story times, weekly plus pajama story times monthly
Considering other classes or lessons, such as piano, swimming, gymnastics or dance

Addy’s Nature Adventure

I like exploring nature. Like in my Grandma and Grandpa’s maple woods. But sometimes I help in the sugar shack.

Nature is one of my top favorite things. But God is my very, very, very top favorite thing. Nature is my second.

Sometimes, when I’m walking in the woods, I pick up a stick to pretend it’s a cane.

And once, when I was over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, they were making maple cream and I got a couple of tastes. It tasted great, kind of rough, kind of smooth. It was double sweet. And sometimes she also makes maple candy. The maple candy is sweet—almost, but not quite, double sweet. The shape of the candy is usually maple-leaf shape. When you’re in the sugar shack, it smells great. This year, late spring, we were in the sugar shack making maple syrup and I got to taste it right hot out of the pan they cook it in. It is great fresh out of the pan.

What I sometimes do when I want to help, is bring in some wood to put in the pile. When Grandpa needs wood to chop up and put in the pan, I take it out and give it to him. I also sometimes climb up the ladder and see how much sap is left in the bulk tank to make maple syrup. When it’s sap, it looks like water, but when it’s maple syrup, it’s brown and looks rich.

More Butterflies

4/18/08 Friday (9:30 p.m.)
The big ones are between 5/8 and 3/4 of an inch, but the little one is only exactly a half of an inch.

They have grown a lot in 12 hours!

4/22/08 Tuesday
They are huge. There are lots and lots of webs on the outside now.

They are huge! They are about 1-1/2" all stretched out.

4/25/08 Friday
They are 1-3/4". And on is hanging. And others aren't hanging, but they are flat at the top of the bottle.

Wow, and their webs — one went all the way to the top of the bottle!

Their food is messed up now, but I think they've all had enough for when they pupate.

Their heads are hanging down and they're trying to put their heads to each other. Now one is crawling down.

They have greenish sides like a string woven in them. And one tried to eat the web that they made.

They're just doing a lot of amazing stuff.

4/26/08 Saturday, 7:40 a.m.
Two of them have spun chrysalises, and all the others are down, but they don't have chrysalis.

5/6/08 Tuesday, 3:29 p.m.
Two butterflies have hatched. We gave them a slice of orange because they'll suck the juice out of of it with their proboscis.

The ones that have hatched, their chrysalises are empty now and they look pink.

I have caterpillars!

Thursday morning
I have caterpillars! They will turn into butterflies.

There are six. At least three will stay alive. And three might die.

They are really really tiny black caterpillars.

Friday morning
They have shedded some skin now and there's a lot more balls of food so they've been eating really good.

The webbing has gotten shorter and there's a little bit of shedded skin in the webbing. There's a little bit of webbing on the other side, too.

They're all a little big longer or a little bit shorter than a half of an inch.

Friday night
The big ones are between 5/8 and 3/4 of an inch, but the little one is only exactly a half of an inch.

They have grown a lot in 12 hours!

We completed a unit about butterflies and moths and now we're raising a batch of six Painted Lady caterpillars. We ordered this kit and they were shipped to us from Carolina Biological Supply Company. Addy had fun tracking their FedEx delivery route on Google Earth from North Carolina to Ohio to our house with stops in between. Unfortunately our camera is broken so we can't track their growth with photos yet.