Beauty and the Beast

If you missed the Gala last weekend, you might want to see the Long Beach Ballet Student performance of Beauty and the Beast coming up - Saturday, June 6th @ 2pm and 7pm - Lakewood High School, 4400 Briarcrest Avenue, Lakewood.  Look out for Micayla who is a Villager and Carly who is a Rose.

What Is Your Walk-Score?

We travel on foot or by bikes whenever we can. We go to the library, the park, events at the university, and to our local shops and restaurants. We are grateful to have quite a few places close to our home.

We found this site called "Walk Score" - where you can find out how "walkable" your neighborhood is. All you have to do is type in your address and the site will calculate your score based on the number of things you have nearby. Just for fun you might want to check out your "walk score"!

Here is a photo of us from earlier this year on one of our many walking trips to the library.

Parlez-Vous Francais?

Nous sommes étudiants en français et nous avons une professeur de France. Elle est super! Nous jouons, apprenons, et chantons ensemble. Quand tu voudras apprendre le français, tu peux envoyer Valerie un courrier éléctronique à valimexico@yahoo.co.uk

We are studying French and we have a teacher from France. She is super! We play, learn, and sing songs together. If you would like to learn French, you can email Valerie @ valimexico@yahoo.co.uk

If you'd like to practice French on-line check out Mango Languages - a free program offered by the Long Beach Public Library; all you need is a LB Public library card (they have other language courses too).

Here are Allie & Micayla singing a couple of their favorite French tunes:

Gala Performance

Long Beach Ballet Gala 2009 is coming up this weekend!   Featuring Act II from Swan Lake and excerpts from Don Quixote, company dancers (including Carly:) will be performing at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Saturday, May 23rd @8pm and Sunday, May 24th @ 2pm.  Go to the Long Beach Ballet site for more information.



Two Cute Chefs

You might already know, one thing Nate absolutely loves to do - he loves to cook. He has his own little kitchen (he also cooks in the big kitchen too), and creates magical concoctions all the time. Well, we found out about another kid who loves to cook, five year old Chef Julian who has his own cooking show that airs on public television in Portland, Oregon. Nate loves to watch his show and he is excited about possibly meeting him when we take a road trip up to Portland to visit our Aunt. Watch "Big Kitchen with Food" starring Chef Julian, above, or go to his website: Big Kitchen with Food

Written by Carly

Homeschool Orchestra

Every Wednesday afternoon Donn Hallman conducts the "Alpha Winds" (Carly plays the flute with this group) and Carolyn Davidson leads the strings (where Micayla plays her violin).  Orange Coast Musical Arts is a perfect place for musically inclined homeschoolers to gather and play their instruments together.  Next Thursday, May 21st (7:30p.m. - 4905 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA), O.C.M.A. will have their Annual Spring Awards Concert.  Come and take a listen!

Awesome Art

Last week we joined up with "Homeschool LA" for a terrific tour at the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA). Our docent Vica (pronounced like pizza with a "v") from Hungary, was fantastic. She was enthusiastic and loved sharing art with kids. She gave us chairs, composition books and pencils. Then she took us to see Indian Gods, Buddha's, Roman and European Art, pieces by Picasso, and lastly a room full of more recent abstract art. Along the way she had us do a couple of fun writing exercises that went with the art she was sharing with us. If you'd like a tour sometime check out: Programs Teachers & Schools [LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art]

Here is a fun game for kids from LACMA too!

Two of our favorite books/series on artists are "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists" by Mike Venezia and Lives of the Artists - Masterpieces, Messes (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull (Both of these series also has books on musicians).  After going to the museum we read about Picasso.  Micayla's loved this about Picasso's piece Guernica (a piece that was to show the world how foolish was is) - supposedly a Nazi officer once saw it and said to Picasso, "So, it was you who did that," - Picasso replied, "No, you did it."

Signs of Spring

Posted by Carly

A couple of weeks ago we planted seeds in a Indoor Peat Pot Greenhouse (a nifty little contraption, perfect for growing baby garden plants).  Here is a link for if you'd like to buy your own Peat Pot Greenhouse: ferry-morse.  We planted radishes, carrots, zucchini, cucumber, giant pumpkins, sunflowers, tomatoes and poppy flowers.  Today they were ready to plant! The cool thing is you can transplant them directly into your garden, no need to remove the baby plants from their little pot (the pots are biodegradable).   Here are some pictures of the process.  

   Also another fun spring thing, is our tadpoles.  We've had them for about 2 months now, and they're growing legs and little front arms.  We're excited to watch more of Froggy & Froggalina's metamorphosis!  

Fascinating Frog Facts:

*Frogs jump higher than toads.

*A group of frogs is called an army.

*Frogs have been on Earth for 190 million years.

*Frogs blink their eyes when they are eating to help push down their food.

*Frogs take in air and water through their skin.

*A very young frog that has just come out of the tadpole stage is called a "froglet"

*Frogs are amphibians - this word comes from the Greek language; "amphi" meaning both, and "bios" meaning life.  

Throwing Clay

Allie has been wanting to throw some clay on a wheel, so we set up an art class at the Irvine Fine Arts Center and invited a few of our friends to join us.  First we had a look at one of their art exhibits - filled with art kids ages 5 - 18 had made!  

Next we went to the ceramics room where Mitch gave us a lesson on how to use the pottery wheel.   Then we grabbed a piece of clay and went to work!  We had a great time and can't wait to see what our creations look like after they've been fired in the kiln

  Check out the art center by going to City of Irvine Website - Fine Arts Center