Last Day Of School 5th and 7th

 Another school year under our belts!

Makin enjoyed having the flexible homeschool schedule again this year. 

His favorite subject this year was science. One of his favorite activities of the year was reading and Heros of History books.

Lorelei has a huge love for learning, which we are so thankful for! 

She enjoyed 7th grade, although it did bring with it some typical middle school challenges. :)  Her favorite subjects this year were Texas History, English, Spanish and Art. Her favorite activity this year was getting put into her House as well as the various House activities throughout the year.

Lorelei only had one final on her last day so we headed to the lake for a couple of hours to kick off summer break!

Last-day ice cream treat!

School - Second Semester Fun

Panera Work Day

Nice to get out of the house to work right after break! 

Makin's Biomes

An out-of-character project he was thrilled to work on...Google Slides to teach about biomes! He had a great time adding humor to his pages.

Alamo Project

Lorelei made an Alamo replica for State History

Studious Girl

Lorelei often gets back from a full day at school and asks if she can go ahead and start working on her home-day work. Also showcased in this picture is her usual method of doing school work - headphones on listening to Harry Potter Study Music.

Hatchet

The boys read the book Hatchet for reading. Then we took them to the park and told them to build a raft that could hold "Brian." Somehow we were not quite picturing a flip flop raft with a balloon sail, but it worked!\

Animal Report 

Lorelei dug deep into dolphin research for a science animal report.

Heroes Of History

We enjoyed diving into our last Heros of History book for this year and learned about Alan Sheperd. Another amazing story!!! Makin got creative with a pizza-style book report.

The Knights Of The Round Table                              The boys read King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table and built a sugar-cube castle together.

Writing - We took a step away from our usual writing and did a bit more research after a Bible lesson about dinosaurs. This involved looking into the legends of dragons from various cultures. It was a topic I knew Makin would enjoy diving into, although it did prove to be a challenge for him overall to then take all that information and get it into one paper! He used voice-text, which also taught us that he really better take a typing class this summer! (You should have seen some of the crazy sentences that appeared as he tried to voice-text his paper! )

Manatee Research Paper - This girl loves a good research assignment, especially when it can involve sea life! She learned a lot about manatees during this project!

Magic Schoolbus - Sometimes you just need to call in a little science help from Ms. Frizzle!

Lorelei also participated in her first Speech Tournament. (No pic...) She was in speech (non-competitive) this year, which put her out of her comfort zone a bit, but was great. GCA had a mini-tournament so that all the students in the class could experience a tournament. This meant the parents of said students had to judge! (Out of MY comfort zone!) I was grateful she had this experience!

Art - One of her favorite classes each week!

All Things Spring

Monday Blues

So great to get outside and enjoy some fresh air when it's a rough day!

Illuminate Animals

Lorelei loves to visit the barnyard animals when she goes to Polynesian. She asks to go every week so this spring she enjoyed visiting them often.

Drums Recital

Makin had his drum recital and did great! It was a movie-themed recital and he was excited to play to a Star Wars mash-up and have light-up drumsticks!

Mother/Daughter Time

The week before Lorelei's spring recital means three rehearsals. One of the evenings we enjoyed a quick mother/daughter Chipotle supper out on the way to rehearsal. YUM!

Polynesian Recital

Lorelei had a great performance at her Polynesian spring recital! So thankful for this program!

Movie Afternoon

The kids were so excited to see the newest Fantastic Beasts movie, The Secrets of Dumbeldore!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was enjoyed this year with a special video gift from Brad and the kids, church, grabbing my choice of lunch from Little Greek and bringing it home, and then heading to a flag football game followed by movie night!

Gardening Projects

This kiddo is excited to try his hand at gardening again this spring. We got a raised bed from someone local and also are trying out a vertical pallet bed. 

He also decided to spend his own money on some extra plants, one of which is called "Basket of Fire"...this kid won't eat anything spicy, but when you name it that, what 11-year-old boy can resist?! He has loved letting his dad use the peppers for his cooking!

Water Fun

It seemed to jump quickly to summer-type weather so we had some water fun. Makin and I are enjoying lazier days as he is mostly done with school. One morning we headed out for a walk/bike ride and then cooled off with a super soaker/hose water fight in the backyard. We were also invited over to a friend's house for a swim one afternoon.