The Episode
by Max
Bill was having an episode. It is normal for Bill because he is mentally unstable. Soon he got over it when a magical rock spoke to him.
It’s not very often that a boy having an episode comes across a magical rock. The rock was magical because it was part narwhal.
—
Max likes to read, play computer games and play video games.
Christmas
by John
Kevin, Bob, Boby and Billy Bob Jinking were playing Lincoln Logs when a monster broke their wall. Billy Bob Jinking shot him with a shot gun, and they started playing Lincoln Logs again. It was Christmas, and Kevin was ostracized because he ran so fast he knocked down the Christmas tree. He didn’t get presents, and then the world blew up.
Revenge of Kevin (part 2)
Because Kevin did not get presents, he went to find Santa. When he found him, Santa threw coal at him because no one is allowed to see Santa. He didn’t get revenge after all.
—
John is in 7th grade and from Joplin, Missouri. He likes to play video games.
Lost in the Park
by Aimee
“Chris, where are we?” Crystal asked her younger brother Christopher.
Crystal, a sweet, responsible 9-year-old, had no idea where she and her brother were! She and 6-year-old Chris had finished eating their picnic lunch. They then had gone on a walk while their parents cleaned up. They weren’t going to go very far, but they got lost! Crystal knew she shouldn’t panic for Chris’ sake, so she tried hard to stay calm.
“Wait. Where’s Chris?” Crystal suddenly thought and started looking around.
Over by the very big stream, she saw the tiny figure of Chris.
“Chris, back up so you don’t fall in!”
“What Crystal? AHHHH”
Crystal started running to the stream, her blond hair flying behind her.
“Chris, I’m coming.”
She quickly pulled him out of the stream, which he had fallen into. Chris then broke into sobs.
“Chris, what’s the matter?”
“I’m wet and freezing, Crystal. I want to go home. Where are Mom and Dad! I want them!”
“I don’t know Chris, but we’ll find them soon.”
“Crystal! Chris! Where are you?” The sound of their mom’s worried voice rang through the trees.
“We’re over here!” Crystal cried out.
“There you are,” Dad called. “We’ve been so worried.”
“Chris, you’re all wet.” Their mom commented after surveying his dripping blond hair and clothes.
“Mom. Dad. There’s one more thing I want to do before we leave.”
“What is it?” Crystal heard the love in Mom’s voice as she answered Chris.
“I want to feed the geese,” Chris shouted happily.
—
Aimee is in 7th grade and lives in Pennsylvania. She likes to write and is pretty serious about ballet.
Scared of Sledding
by Blind Henry
Four-year old Sarah walked up from the base of the sledding hill with her older sister. She had been sledding ever since it started snowing last week. Little did she know that this everyday experience would change her. The two sisters loaded into the toboggan and shoved off down the hill. The stump was just a little thing covered in snow. They didn’t see it, but when they hit it, it sent them sprawling through the air. To Sarah, it seemed as if the whole world was dead silent for about three seconds. Then they hit the icy ground. As Sarah came down her arm twisted, and there was a sickening SNAP as she blacked out.
Now a much older Sarah stood at the top of the sledding hill. Her breath was visible in the cold woods. She had been paranoid of the sledding hill ever since she crashed and broke her arm when she was little. Accompanied by her husband and child, she carefully laid out on the tube. Then she pushed herself down the hill. As she glided down the hill and skidded at the bottom, she laughed. Why was she so scared?
—
Blind Henry is in the 7th grade and lives in The Alaskan Yukon. He likes to hunt, fish, and mountain climb.
The Adventure
by Fransis Dickson
Carter and I sat in the summer kitchen as we waited for Hudson to arrive for our special meeting. When they arrived, we all sat down at the white table with the colored legs. Our special meeting was about the money we all got for Christmas. It had been five months since we had our last meeting because of the continuous snow. Once we got down to business, we started to talk about how we would use the money.
First, we decided that we would buy colored lights for the ceiling, and that Carter and Hudson would bring the staple gun and staples. Then, we decided that I would bring paint because my mom had some left over from Christmas. We had twenty dollars left and decided we would save it. At the next meeting, I brought the paint, and Carter brought the staples and staple gun. First, we sanded the walls and then painted the walls blue. It was hot out, so we opened the doors and windows.
Once the paint was dry, Carter and Hudson stapled the metallic silver lights onto the ceiling. Once we finished, we went down to the creek. We were surprised to find a lady and her daughter playing. When they saw us they screamed, “Ah.” We scared them drastically. Then they ran away , so we were left in astonishment. After about ten minutes, we started to play. Then a big current came and knocked us down. As we slowly walked drenched to the summer kitchen, we decided we would get changed and all eat our pizza in the summer kitchen.
—
My name is Fransis Dickson. I enjoy playing with American Girl dolls. I am from Texas.
The Roller Coaster of Doom or Not!
by Derek
One day, Jake and Frank went on a roller coaster. They got the front seats on the ride. The roller coaster started to move and began to go faster. Everyone started to scream and shout. They had to wait a long time for the front seats, but it was worth it.
Now the roller coaster was at its highest point and was starting to dip down. Jake had a fear of heights, but Frank dared him to go on the ride. Frank had been on many roller coasters because his father owns the park. The name of the park is Six Flags.
After the ride was over, Jake realized that the roller coaster was not as bad as he had thought it out to be.
—
My name is Derek. I like to play the piano. I also like to fix lawnmowers or just about everything.
This fall I scaled back my freelance work to focus on a new client – a group of 18 homeschool kids in a homeschool co-op of which we are a part.
These 6th to 8th graders amazed me. The ones who could sit and write page after page after page. The ones who struggled with each sentence. I truly enjoyed watching them learn and grow over the eight weeks of our one-hour class (and I’m thankful for wonderful assistants who helped in the class!). And I hope they remember some of what they learned for future writing. 🙂
I’ve worked with a lot of different types of clients. While each one has left an impact on me, my latest client, in these kids, truly touched my heart in special ways. And I’m so thankful for that!
One of the projects these kids worked on was to pick a random photograph and create a story. A wonderful college friend of mine supplied me with just the right amount of photos for the class. Only she knows the true story behind each photo! Over the next few weeks, however, this blog will show the creativity of the writing class and what they thought happened in the photos (along with some creative pen names and bios).
I hope you enjoy their stories. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you shake your heads. Some will touch your hearts.
And for me. I know what went on behind-the-writing scenes to bring these stories from their imaginations to this website as their published piece of work for the class.
So for the next few weeks, I turn my blog over to these students…..
Enjoy and check back often for their stories (or watch my facebook or twitter feeds).
I have finally packed and shipped Kory’s remaining first grade materials as well as filed and crated things to keep from his school year. And now I am finally getting around to blogging about Kory’s first grade year even though we haven’t done any official school work for a month now!
Here are some of my favorite memories from Kory’s first grade:
History: As we were learning about Abraham and Sarah, Kory decided to ask, “So who is God’s wife?”
History: “Kory what are some special things they discovered in King Tut’s tomb.” Kory’s response: “Video Games.”
History: “Kory, what is a nomad.” Kory’s response: “It is a person who is not mad”.
By the way, I loved Kory’s history curriculum this year as we learned about early civilizations. Kory kept a history notebook throughout the year. After each lesson, he would draw a picture and try to caption it to reflect what he remembered from the lesson. Some of his entries were quite comical in what stuck out to him in the lesson. It was neat to review this notebook at the end of the school year to see his progress in drawing, writing, and remembering.
Language Arts: After reading the book Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to Kory, I asked him how Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle could make his least favorite chore (cleaning his room) fun. His response, “She can’t. She’s not real. She’s imaginary.” This by the way was one of his favorite books through the year.
History: “Kory, who fought in the Trojan Wars?” Kory’s response: “The golden apples and the good guys and the bad guys.” (The golden apple was part of the Trojan Wars, by the way).
Science: “Kory, what measures temperature?” His response: “A meat eater. Oops, I forgot to take off my dinosaur brain.”
Science: “I don’t want to be a scientist. The waiting /observing part is boring” as he had to observe and document melting Popsicles for 30 minutes in 10-minute increments.
Writing: “Kory, please write the sentence ‘I fell in the well’.” Kory’s response: “How deep was the well mommy?”
At the end of the school year, I asked Kory about his favorite memories from first grade. He immediately had two answers.
The first was when I read him the book The Chocolate Touch. This is a great book a friend recommended we read when she found out we were learning about King Midas and the Golden Touch!
His other answer was learning about clouds. Even now while we drive around, the boys will look at the clouds, and I hear them say to each other – I think those are cotton candy clouds – also known as Cirrus clouds.
My favorite memory of first grade was seeing Kory work so hard on reading. He achieved so much in his reading levels, and I’m so proud of his hard work. I also loved watching him turn his words into writing. This one was my favorite, and, sadly, I had to send it in for a portfolio piece – but I made a copy.
This year we also added a new element into our homeschooling world. We joined a local Christian-based homeschool co-op that meets 8 weeks in the fall and 8 weeks in the spring. I had fun teaching Kory’s class about Dr. Seuss in the fall and about habitats in the spring, but the best part for me was watching Kory and Cade blossom with some new friendships across all ages.
That reminds me of one other memory I have from the past year. Each co-op session starts with the kids reciting the pledges for the American flag, the Christian flag and the Bible.
I wasn’t completely sure it was sticking with Kory at first. And in his own way it was. We were driving one night and Kory started saying the pledge to the Christian flag, threw in a few lines of the pledge to the Bible and finished it with lines from the pledge to the American flag. It was all intertwined. He finished by saying, “mommy, did I say it right?” All I could do was smile and say, “It’s close enough Kory.”
Kory will continue with his online school in the fall, and I’m working on setting up some preschool stuff for Cade since he loves to sit and learn with Kory too. But for now, we are just going to enjoy the rest of the summer and not officially think about school until our second grade materials start to arrive sometime in August!
This week I was reminded of many of reasons I love to homeschool.
I love watching Kory, who is in 1st grade, learn.
I love learning with him.
I love watching Cade, who is 2 1/2, learn with his brother.
I love that Kory is getting better at reading and chooses to read on his own. One day he was supposed to be cleaning his room. Instead I heard, “Mommy, can I read a story to my brother?” I couldn’t refuse. As I worked in a different room, I could hear the boys laughing together over the story Hot Dog.
I love how Cade enjoys being with us for school. “I do school too, mommy.” He will curl up with us while Kory is reading one of his books to me. He will run up to the table and say, “Mommy, I do science too.” Whether it is math, science, language arts, history, Cade is usually close by with worksheets of his own to work on.
Now other times he is a typical 2 1/2 year old who would rather be goofy and disrupt his brother from school. There are many times we have to take breaks because of a strong case of giggles brought on by Cade.
working together to find mass measurements
I love how I am learning about Greek mythology. Over the past two weeks, I have learned what “The Midas Touch” means and how a golden apple played a part in the Trojan War. Why didn’t I ever learn this in school?
learning Greek myths together
And I enjoyed watching my boys play together and with others on a fun little outing we had this week.
playing together at a bounce place
What a great homeschooling week we have had. Hopefully next week will be just as great!