Knights of Freedom

Ricky really enjoys this group. They do a lot of really fun "boy" activities.

What is Knights of Freedom you ask? If you google it you will find a video game with that name. That is not what I am talking about.

Knights of Freedom offers boys ages 8-12 an exciting opportunity to study the lives of American leaders through colloquia, learn about virtues through the model of knighthood, and statesmanship through hands-on experiences.

Ricky's favorite part is sparing. His leader has them write every week in a journal about what they did in their last meeting and about the book they are studying. If they do this they get to spare. It has been a great motivator! The boys also take turns with presentations of things they are learning or have an interest in.

This is a picture of Ricky and his friends bread they made. Creative minds thought "lets make BYU in bread dough and eat it". Very fun group!

Football Season!

I had to post this video of Ricky playing football.




Ricky is #3 in the gold jersey.

Shakespeare Rocks!

If you ever get a chance to study Shakespeare..DO IT!. The last two years Shelby has taken a class and participated in a group doing Shakespeare pieces. She has learned so much!

This weekend we were blessed to travel to Cedar City and perform at the High School Shakespeare competition. We had such a great time. Our partner was so much fun to spend the afternoon with Friday as we waited in three different place to perform in front of 3 different judges. The judges were so wonderful. We got the best feedback. They really want the kids to enjoy Shakespeare.

Now our group is looking into becoming a Troupe that performs during the year for various groups.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143

We love Astronomy Class!

The boys in the group sitting down to work on their journals.


This summer as I was trying to decide what we were going to be doing in the Fall, Taylor told me she wanted to study the Solar System. So I started looking around. I had seen this great book at a friends house before so I went online to get a better look.

I decided to expand on what Taylor wanted. We were going to study Astronomy! Then I got this great idea. Let's invite some kids over to do the labs and projects together. It's always more fun to do that stuff in a group. Not to mention, makes me follow throw and not just "forget about it".

I posted to our favorite groups that I wanted to have a class with 10 kids. I got back double that. I had to go with the first families that replied. (It pays to watch your email like a hawk around July-Sept). We have a group of 12 kids and we LOVE IT!

We are using Apologia Exploring Creation with Astronomy. The writers of this curriculum are wonderful. It was just what we were looking for. It is written for the kids to read on their own. There is a Journal that goes with it. A must have. It has great questions to answer, writing opportunities, projects to do, word puzzles, and more.

Next time I will definitely look at this curriculum for our next class. You can join us if you want!
Yesterday we studied Mars. We explored the atmosphere there and ideas of what we would need to survive if we build an EcoSphere there. The kids made their own EcoSphere. They were so creative. Not only did they have a water source, but they build water purification systems. Not only did they have gardens, but they had chickens for eggs. Then someone mentioned Ostrich eggs were bigger and could feed more people so they added that. Some things they came up with were shelter for privacy, a bathroom with a purification system to reuse "all liquids" , gardens, trees for more oxygen, flowers, torches for light, and bees to polinate.

This was a simple project we did when we did the section on the Moon. We dropped "meteorites" from "space" and watched at the "craters" they made on the "moon". (pebbles in a bowl of flower).

Great Stuff!

I want to start blogging about the wonderful things we are doing this year, and the wonderful webpages that inspire me. We are going to be making Mini Office's for the kids and I found a great website to share.

http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/search/label/Mini%20Office%20Lapbook

I spent half an hour just looking at all her great ideas!