Ameritowne.

So, Noah takes this class at Options called AmeriTowne. This is the second year he's taken it. He LOVES it. To read more about this fabulous program, check out this link. (Seriously. Go check it out and then come back. They explain it better than I could. Cool, eh?)

Yesterday (Wednesday), they had their Towne Day. It was awesome. :) (To be clear, his own class that he goes to every Monday does not have this many kids. This year's Towne Day brought together a number of Options sites and their AmeriTowne classes to create this entire town and learn about working together.)

I was fortunate enough to attend as a parent volunteer this year. They have an entire little town created and the kids are in charge:

To outline the details a bit more:

1. Noah's job this year (they have to interview for positions prior to Towne Day) was as accountant for the medical center. There are about 17 different shops.
2. As accountant, he paid all the salaries at the medical center (to himself, the manager, a couple doctors and a couple health technicians, I think). Each shop had a manager/president/editor, an accountant and miscellaneous staff people depending on the shop needs. Managers and accountants made $30 for the day and everyone else made $25. (This is all in AmeriTowne money, not true US currency obviously.) Oh, and prior to Towne Day, they elected a mayor and a judge as well. They worked in Towne Hall and were paid the same as managers/accountants. They oversaw the police officers and community relations person.
3. He also paid all the bills to the other businesses (for things like advertising and delivery services and training). (The parent volunteers primarily help the accountants in each shop during the day as they have a lot of paperwork. I helped in the newspaper this year.)
4. During his breaks (every kid got two breaks--one before lunch and one after), he was told to go and spend all his money (having been paid at the start of the day and then depositing that money into his checking account) to help stimulate the Towne economy.
5. On those breaks, the kids could use cash, check or debit card and were encouraged to use all three and keep their registers up to date. The goal of the day is to end with zero in this case. Anything left at the end of the day could be donated to real organizations (the Young Americans program turns those donations into real money!). 
6. Each shop sold different items. The medical center's income derived from selling squishy eyeballs and from co-pays (students are randomly brought to the medical center with a variety of illnesses and injuries and required to pay a co-pay before they can return to work). Other shops sold snacks, candy, drinks, ice cream, newspapers, picture ID cards, trinkets and more.
7. At the end of the day, shops hopefully brought in enough money to cover their bank loans that were made at the start of the day (with 10% interest). Knowing this, students were able to raise or lower prices as they deemed fit (within a few guidelines).
8. They concluded the day by evaluating their shops, awarding employee of the day certificates for each shop and looking at their bank statements to determine if they'd made a profit or not. 

I feel so fortunate to have experienced this program and am so very glad it exists. They have summer camps and Saturday classes in addition to other programs, so check them out if you live around here, okay?

3rd Annual Science Fair.

We had our third annual homeschool group science fair on Sunday. (You can read about the second annual fair and the first science fair in these other posts (scroll down on that second link).) It was fabulous as usual. I love seeing all the projects the kids come up with! Here's what it looked like:

We ended up with about 44 projects (and more kids than that). We have the kids set up and then each table has a little notebook that gets filled with positive feedback as we walk around. Fun times!

Because we didn't manage to get pictures of the boys or their projects actually at the fair, though, we staged them again at home the next day. Here's Noah:

He tested the reactions between various acids and bases and then presented his findings, while also talking about chemical reactions in general. The molecules on the table represent some of the acids and bases he used.

Asher's project was entitled "If We Had No Moon." He listed various things that would happen "if we never had a moon" and also "if tomorrow the Death Star blew up the moon"...

...and on the table he put together models to show how the moon was formed in the first place:

Micah's project this year was about planetary orbits. He talked about the difference between a year and a day (for each planet) and then made a model, noting that nothing was to scale. ;)

After he'd done all this, he decided his project board was too plain, so drew all the planets to decorate it. I particularly liked some of his additions, like the "flying saucer" just off of Earth...

And, to wrap up this long post, here are all three with their hard-earned science fair participation medals:

 
Each participant received a medal and certificate (along with their notebook full of feedback) and went home happy. Yay!

(And, yes, they've already started brainstorming for next year. ;) So glad they love this!)

Quote #9.

Sorry for the delay. It was a busy weekend and start of the week (which I'll detail more soon) so I'm a bit behind. ;) I find the quote I picked ironic... 

No great thing is created suddenly. –Epictetus

I’ve never appreciated the saying that patience is a virtue. I’m an impatient sort. ;) I’m working, though, on reminding myself that some things are worth the wait and that doing things right may take time. Sigh. Here’s to acknowledging the potential advantages of time…

First karate tournament.

Asher and Micah had their first "official" karate tournament earlier today. It was a fun opportunity for them to see what a "big" karate tournament would be like, but in the comfort of their own school and classmates. They broke the kids into small groups of 2 or 3 to "compete" in their forms (sets of memorized steps including blocks and punches and such). The groups were designed to place similarly aged and ranked kids together (and meant that everyone placed no lower than third). Each child had to individually walk up, bow and present themselves (they had certain things they were supposed to say...about five lines...Asher was to memorize his but they offered to help the kids in Micah's division, as they'd not told them the lines ahead of time). After that, they performed their form and then awaited their scores from the 4-5 judges. 

Micah and the other "pee wees" went first. Micah was the last in his group of three to go. He surprised the judges by having memorized the lines from the couple of practice runs they'd done just before starting. (I'm sure it didn't hurt that he'd been watching Asher practice at home this week, lol...plus, the kid actually does have a really good memory.) He did a great job and snagged the gold medal:

He's, um, freakin' proud of himself. :)

After that, the larger group of kids were split up (more roughly by age and size than rank this time). Asher did a similarly beautiful job:

In the end, Asher came away with a silver medal, having scored very slightly below the orange belt in his group (he's still a white belt, so two full belts below orange) but having scored higher than the yellow belt in his group (belts go white, yellow, orange). He was less thrilled than Micah but still very happy...and knows he did a great job. :)

Tomorrow, we'll go watch day two of the tournament...sparring. Asher was eligible to compete but opted to observe this time around, particularly since he's only just started back to sparring sessions in the past couple weeks after getting his cast off. 

And. A great big THANK YOU to all who donated to St. Jude's and helped Asher and Micah reach their goal for this fundraiser/tournament! You rock! (Apparently, the boys will receive a bronze medal (and some other stuff) for their efforts...though that will come after the tournament. Asher and Micah agreed ahead of time to share whatever incentive they reached.) They both very much appreciate your help!

President's Day.

1. Micah would like to know why he didn't get any President's Day cupcakes. It just so happens that his class at Options has gotten cupcakes for the last few weeks (for Valentine's and for student birthdays). He felt deprived today. :)

2. When I explained to the boys that today is President's Day, I also asked them (just for curiosity's sake) what one new law they would push for if they were president. Here are their answers:

Micah: "I'd make it so schools couldn't start until 10:00." 

Asher: "I'd have schools start at 10:30 but I'd have us go to Options two times a week to make up for the later start."

(Yes, I happened to ask this in the morning...whilst they were still complaining about having to wake up early this one day each week. And, yes, they know that they're fortunate that they only have to wake up early on Mondays. It doesn't prevent them from complaining about it, lol.)

Noah: "I'd require the government to give everyone over the age of 8 a free iPhone 4 and then make all cell service in the United States free. Sure, it might put the government into more debt, but I'd have a cell phone." ;)

(This was his "final" answer after debating with himself about the possibility of requiring everyone in the world to speak just one language (to which Asher pointed out that I'd only said President of the United States, not of the world) or requiring everyone to switch to the metric system (which he admitted was more doable and "so obvious").) 

3. Yeah, I didn't really have a third point. Just wanted to document these quick thoughts. ;)