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Aletheia First Day Fall Term

Our Fall Term started last week.

We rearranged our classroom.

Started with coffee, of course...

Rye insisted she wanted "real" coffee in her cup...

... I think she liked it.

First Period: Individual Grade Photos

FISHER KAI

Fisher is in Jr. High now

6th-ish Grade

LOGAN ALEECE

Logan is finishing Jr. High

8th-ish Grade

CHANDLER BRICE:

Chandler is a Freshman (& not very fond of having his photo taken)

2nd Period: Group Photo

AFTER SEVERAL ROUGH DRAFTS...

ALETHEIA FIRST DAY FALL TERM 2014-2015

3rd Period: Group Work

A peek into one of our favorite classes: Rubber Pencil 101

(and a video about Earthquakes)

Pre-3 runs simultaneously in the same room:

Weather gal :

Fidgets have been added to each desk space~ a listening aid, believe it or not:

A Book Butterfly:

Riley in her "Music Appreciation" tent..a.k.a. naptime:

She now says "I hate music appreciation!"

There were many other things not pictured, like a lesson on Earthquakes, LoF Decimals & Percents, LoF English, 100 Essays: Essay #1: The First Day of School, Lunch & Break Time, Books Aloud and more.

We ended the day with cookies.

In an ideal world, maybe they would have been homemade cookies. That was the original plan, too, make a special treat to close out the day.

But, homeschooling (amongst other things) has taught me that we do not live in an ideal world and sometimes, one must wing it.

Back to School

The sun rises on Aletheia Academy's 2013-2014 school year.

"Welcome Back~ You've Got Class!"

This year's classroom:

First Day Students:

Chandler will be 14 soon, 8th Grade
Logan is 12 until Spring, 7th Grade
Fisher is 10 for a few more months, and let's just say "5th" Grade
Rye will be 3 soon, Pre-Preschool (Colors, Shapes, Cut & Paste, ABC's & 123's)

Chinese New Year

February 10th, 2013 issues in the Year of The Snake

Last night, FLVirtual School held a special Collaboration session in recognition of the upcoming Chinese New Year.

To get in the spirit of things, we decided to have Chinese food for dinner. I had casually mentioned this plan to Clay before he went to a meeting. When he called on his way home, to see if we needed anything while he was out, he was surprised to find that we had decided to COOK Chinese dishes instead of ordering it from the experts. I blamed homeschooling... He indulged me by trying to find chop sticks (a negligent oversight on my part!) then, swung by Beef O'Brady's for some 'real food' just to be safe.

So, we 'made' Chinese to the best of our ability~thankful for the Ethnic Foods aisle and the International Foods freezer at the grocery store. Without it, we may have had to call Lucky Wok.

It's About the Sauces: Sriacha, Sesame Garlic, Pot Sticker. Soy & Duck

I must preface the description of what we made with a quick shout out to Uncle Ben for tipping us off to the super powers of Sriacha sauce...it made the Peanut Lo Mein just right.

We 'made' (translation: opened packages & properly heated in pools of vegetable oil) various Pot Stickers and Spring Rolls. Several neighbors have stopped by this morning to order take out...it left our house that aromatic.

They cleaned their plates, so then it was time for my favorite part of the evening: Fortune Cookies

I had never made cookies that require folding before... when the first one took the shape of an actual fortune cookie like I am often handed after meals @ Ichiban, I was beyond tickled.

First Fortune Cookie

(there's an actual fortune in there, too!)

The cookies are best made in small batches. By the time I had made enough cookies for everyone to have two apiece, I was tired of cooking in small batches and ten minute intervals. So I poured the remaining batter into one giant Choose Your Destiny Cookie... I was able to fit all the remaining fortunes in it too:

Ideally, the fortune cookie is the happy end to a traditional Chinese bite to eat...but the sad reality for me was this:

I am still whittling this away at lunch time the next day. Which is why I have to be going now...

Florida Virtual School

In the not so distant future, the two biggest of The Big Kids will be taking a handful of online classes via Florida Virtual School.

Because they can.

And, it's free. (for Florida residents, purchasable outside the state)

We are still in the midst of the enrollment process but were afforded a bit of a preview this evening during the systemwide WorldFest.

Using a virtual white board, teachers were able to share a presentation while maintaining a conversation via microphone and chat window. Whenever we answered a question, the moderator responded on a personal basis, calling on us by name.

In some ways, it isn't unlike the Bob Jones Satellite system I used in high school.

The presentations we watched varied in theme based on which country link we chose. We saw Latin American cuisine, amongst others. The instructors were also able to patch through video to enhance the lesson- we watched a video on preparing empanadas. After the video, more dishes were highlighted, a review discussion was had and then an assignment was issued- ("Write a paper on how to prepare one of the dishes highlighted.")

The completed assignment had the bonus of being worth class credit if one is taking Spanish. (Chandler and Logan will both be taking Spanish as soon as their enrollment is complete)

After we poked around various country links, we checked out the FLVS Online Library which is basically a vast collection of links for a myriad of subjects. Looks like a very useful tool, if not slightly overwhelming (too many options can overwhelm me and make me feel as if I'm missing something)

All in all, it looks like Florida is offering a fresh approach to education. The format is innovative and the atmosphere of learning has not been lost in the translation from classroom to chat room. If anything, it may prove to be better concentrated.

We are looking forward to starting classes in the coming days.