Memory Masters!! We Survived! (Videos at the End)

[Disclaimer: MAJOR mommy bragging in this post. If you don't want to read on and on about how awesome Shiloh is, skip this post. Just sayin'!]

First of all, she volunteered to do this. Let me say that again -- Shiloh asked to do Memory Masters. Now, about halfway through, she totally regretted her decision, but we have a whole thing about finishing what we start, so we saw it through. And....

...she did it! We were all so relieved! We had gone over the material again and again, so I was confident that Shiloh knew it. I was just concerned, however, that after all this, she would panic and blank out being in front of the tutor and director. I know I would! The entire test was mostly verbal, with a few exceptions during the math portion that she voluntarily wrote on a white board and, of course, the Geography section. Here are facts that we memorized during Cycle 2:

• 160 events and people in a Timeline from Creation to the Present
• 44 U.S. Presidents
• 122 Geographical locations -- these included countries, features such as mountains and rivers, bodies of water, and cities. This was on a black-line map, too! It was difficult!
• 24 Science questions on a variety of areas in a Q and A format
• 24 History sentences on the following:
• Charlemagne
• William the Conqueror
• The Crusades
• The Magna Carta
• The Hundred Years' War
• The Renaissance
• The Protestant Reformation
• European Exploration
• Age of Absolute Monarchs
• History of Russia
• The French Revolution
• The Battle of Waterloo
• The Industrial Revolution
• World Leaders and Countries of World War I
• Leaders and Beginning of World War II
• Formation of the United Nations
• Korean War
• Vietnam War
• Cold War
• Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
• Gulf War
• Apartheid in South Africa
• 6 Latin Conjugations
• Algebraic Laws, Skip Counting to 15x15, Squares, Cubes, Unit Conversions and Equivalents
• Definitions for pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, gerund, appositive, conjunction and interjection; various types of nouns, coordinating conjunctions, and more!

For real, that's over 500 -- FIVE HUNDRED -- pieces of information!! 

A good bit of these were taught in song. You can learn anything if you put it to a song. :o)

And  I want to add that throughout the year, we actually worked on all of these, meaning that we did experiments relating to Newton's Laws of Motion (and the others), worked out all of the mathematical laws, used the Grammar definitions to identify them, etc. These are all things she actually knows. If only my entire high school education had been so thorough!

The Timeline and Math Facts won't change from year to year, but everything else will. Classical Conversations has three cycles in the Foundations program (K4 to 3rd grade), and then in 4th grade, the same cycles continue except they add an "Essentials" program to it with more in-depth information. 

In order to achieve Memory Master, she had to recite all Memory Work, in one sitting. Four times. Once for me, once for a person not in our immediate family (our friend Cheryl graciously donated two hours of her time to do this -- thank you!!), once for a tutor on a local campus, and THEN if she passed with all of those, she went through a random sampling with the director of the campus. 

And she did it! Yay!!

If you can't tell, I love Classical Conversations for our homeschool and am so excited about it that I've signed up to be a tutor in a classroom next year at a nearby campus. Is it nerdy that I'm super excited about the upcoming summer training? Because I am!

To help Shiloh study, we recorded her reciting all of the Memory Work so she could play it back. She especially liked that part. :o) So, I wanted to share them with you guys. 

There are several, and some of them are quite hilarious b/c she breaks up the monotony of recitation with her own personal "spin." :o) The Timeline Songs can be especially funny with her hand movements and such. I won't be offended if you don't watch them all, because I'm super impressed regardless!

(You might catch me making her sit still to stay in the frame but also b/c I wasn't sure if the tutor would allow her to move around. Thankfully, she did. She said Shiloh set most of her Memory Work to ballet moves. Good tutor.)

Being Shiloh, she recorded an Intro (last, naturally, but I included it first, you're welcome).

First up is the Timeline Song. For each person or event learned, there was a timeline card that went along with it that explained the person or event in detail and why it was significant. We read one or two each weekday at lunchtime. There are some timeline cards that she asks to read again. I. LOVE. THAT. Anyhoo, here's the song. :o) Also, she had no idea I was recording her the first few subjects b/c I didn't want to distract her.

Presidents:

Math, broken into two parts because she felt the need to jump while singing halfway through. :o)

English Grammar:

Geography, broken into two parts b/c my feet hurt and I had to move. :o)

Science. She was mad during this one b/c she was fidgeting with an apple and I had to restart the video four separate times. I made her put it away so she could focus and she was mad the whole time. It happens. :o/

Latin:

Wow. Forreal, that was a lot of work. After talking with some of the other moms during testing, they said that the first year was always the hardest, but it was so much easier after that. It was stressful, but we made it. And she's going to get a Tshirt. 

Worth it. :o)

Dandelions, Hikes, Queen Esther, and more!

Dandelions! Or, rather, dandelion "fuzz." The girls seem obsessed this year, I'm finding the little white things all over, I think Rick went to work one day with some in his hair!

Trying on Shiloh's clothes. Wants to be just like her big sister. :o)

A Troop Hike with American Heritage Girls. Shiloh insisted on wearing Rick's old hat, her "adventure" hat, and she took a walking stick that he whittled for her last year sometime. 

They had a playground. :o)

I'm taking over as our Troop Coordinator next year, leading a Troop of 60+ girls. I'm excited, and I think Shiloh thinks it's neat that her mom will be "in charge." :o) We love AHG!

Daddy/Daughter date. I think Shiloh wore this same outfit in another set of their date photos. They went out to eat, walked around the mall, and saw the movie "Bears" that's out right now. Shiloh told Rick that even when she's married, she'll expect Daddy/Daughter dates "at least once a month." Cute!

Randomness. All sorts of randomness. :o)

Waiting in a doctor's office. We loaded the new Disney Fairies Pirate Fairy movie on Shiloh's Kindle and they were entranced. 

Shiloh's spring swim classes. We have her take these every spring, and SarahMae will, too, when she's old enough. One of her best friends, Katelyn, is taking it with her this year, so she's extra excited. :o)

Every morning. The girls get up way too early, turn on the TV, grab a piece of fruit, and share a chair while they watch something on Netflix. It's pretty cute. :o)

Shiloh's last day of recorder class at our homeschool co-op. They performed a little concert for us and did pretty well!

Waiting on Shiloh all the time, a girl's gotta keep herself entertained. But not with anything in the big bag of toys that Mom brought for you -- you'll need her phone. ;o)

It happened that Rick was with us that day. :o)

Aaahhh!! They. Are. Lovely!!

We went to lunch one day with Shiloh and her other "BFFAE," "Best Friends Forever And Ever," Gracie. 

Shiloh and Gracie again, later that night, at choir rehearsal. Shiloh auditioned for, and got, the part of Queen Esther! Although the stage isn't new to her, having speaking parts is, and she has quite a few! She was nervous at first, but is doing great! 

That's all for now! Having this app on my phone makes it easier to make posts, so hopefully, I'll be doing this more often. Hope you all are doing well. :o)

UPDATE: Shiloh PASSED her Memory Masters test!!! And she did awesome on her part as Esther in the musical! Videos to come, as well as a separate Memory Masters post. Now, we just focus on the Cinderella ballet this weekend, and most of the big end-of-the-year things are done! 

B/c we were all so excited, I forgot to take a picture at the campus, but here's Shiloh right after we got home from Memory Masters, saying "I did it!!!" 

Easter and Some Other Things

Happy Resurrection Day! Hope you guys had a great holiday. :o) Here are some pics of our day, then some other things. 

This year, we did an "Easter garden." On Good Friday morning, we went out into the backyard and dug up some dirt, grabbed some twigs, leaves, grass, flowers, weeds, etc, and made a "garden." We put a small pot in the container to show Jesus's tomb and covered it with a rock. The idea is that we've uprooted these things, thus, cutting them off from their "life." By Saturday evening, everything looks pretty dead. We talk about how when we cut these things off from their "life," their roots, they can't thrive anymore. There isn't any way for them to grow, they can't grow themselves apart from the roots that gave them life. They have no hope. Then, on Sunday morning....

.....Flowers! The stone was rolled away and before they got up this morning, we had taken out all the dead things and replaced them with live beautiful flowers we had just bought the night before. Jesus is alive! Everything that was dead now has the hope of Easter, the hope of being alive again in Christ. I really like this idea, and I think we'll make it part of our Resurrection Day traditions. This being the first year, it was really a surprise to the girls to see all the fresh, beautiful flowers in their "garden." I really like how it makes it "magical" in a way, akin to Christmas morning. Of course, Christmas is important, but were it not for the Resurrection, it wouldn't have mattered! We want them to understand that Easter is a big holiday, too. (Not sure what face Shiloh is making here, but it was the best we could do. I forgot to take the pic first thing in the morning, so this was later in the afternoon and they weren't as cooperative!)

Okay, back to the morning. Some of the girls' spoils...

Shiloh and the 2nd and 3rd Chronicles of Narnia movies. She just discovered them and LOVES them!

Tickets to AgapeFest, a Christian concert that's coming to town next weekend with lots of bands she likes, specifically Francesca Batistelli, one of her favorites! She's been hearing it advertised on our local Christian radio station, and it never occurred to her that she would get to go. She was really excited!

Ahhh!!! Anna and Elsa, the Disney "Frozen" dolls!

SarahMae and her My Little Pony train set. She LOOOOVES Shiloh's train set and so we got her one just like it so they don't argue, plus some of her own ponies. She played with it all morning!

Baby in a carseat. We loooooove the babies in car seats. :o)

 After church this morning. They were so done with pictures, although this one isn't too bad. :o)

We have some friends who were also without family on Easter, so we invited them over today and had a big lunch with an egg hunt. SarahMae was a pretty huge fan of the peanut butter pie with whipped cream. :o)

Wow! Big eyes!

Hah! We put one up in the tree and she had to climb to get it, which, of course, she did gladly!

These are the one that some of you guys got in the mail, although I wasn't too impressed with the resolution this time. So, here they are in digital form if you'd like to reprint them. :o)

Rick and Shiloh were in our church's Easter pageant, but I only got a pic of Shiloh.We're still waiting on the ones of Rick with the other disciples. 

Now, some random ones. This set contains more recent ones from my phone.

Shiloh sewing. She really enjoys sewing. She prefers hand sewing or embroidering, but she asked to use the sewing machine that day. She's getting bolder. She says it still freaks her out when it goes fast, but she's getting better. :o)

She made a harp with her Kinex.

And was showing me all the roly-polys she found under a log in the backyard later that afternoon.

A little out of order, but the is a pic of her hairstyles at one of the Pageant performances. She had to wear her hair in a braid or straight down, but her hair is so crazy long it would have gone everywhere, so I put it in a double braided headband. We, of course, were running late as usual, so I only remembered to snap a pic as we were leaving the church that night. It was really cool!

SarahMae in the van, waiting for Shiloh to get out of ballet. We were trying to stay occupied. :o)

These are from Rick's phone and date back quite a ways. I used his phone to take some of the Easter pics, and as I was sending them to myself, realized that he had a ton on there I'd never seen! So I sent those to myself as well, and now I'm sharing them with you!

Shiloh during nap one afternoon. We always have a mandated "quiet time" every day. For at least an hour and a half, everyone goes to their room. As a homeschooling family, this is important. Very. Important. I love homeschooling, but we are around each other every moment of every day and a break to "reset" our attitudes is often in order. Mostly for me. :o) Shiloh doesn't always nap, but she does frequently. She still doesn't sleeps so well at night, so she can "catch up" some days during quiet time. And it's cute. :o)

Rick and SarahMae painting together. I'm guessing Shiloh took this one!

This was hilarious. This must have been during all the snow we got, when our snow gear was ever-ready by the back door. This is SarahMae, in her mismatched pajamas, with her snow boots (two sizes too big b/c literally EVERYwhere had run out! I eventually found this pair at Once Upon A Child) and Shiloh's snow hat. It's so cute!

 Ta-da!

On a giant turtle outside a roller skating rink we visited one night. Not sure why a roller skating rink would have a giant turtle, though...

I work at a crisis pregnancy center one Saturday a month and Rick usually takes that time to do something special with the girls. This day, our local Butterfly House had a special sort of blue butterfly that was emerging and they were EVERYwhere! Rick said you would almost be afraid you might breathe one in there were so many!

There was also a playground nearby, so they visited there, as well. I love these pictures of them!

Okay. I did not push her in the dirt. She was swinging in the big girl swing in our back yard on her belly, face down. I SAID "SarahMae, be careful or you'll fall in the dirt." Two seconds later, she runs to land in the swing on her belly, misses the swing and face plants in the mud. Nothing was hurt except her pride. And I took pictures. Mostly because I'm an awesome mom. :o)

I think this was after Bible Time one night before bed. Too precious.

Rick took off one Wednesday and we went to the zoo. The weather was awesome!

Shiloh and Rick playing around with Rick's phone. They're adorable!

Shiloh and Chico. This monkey has been around forever. 40..50 years? My mom played with it when she was little, then I did, now Shiloh does. Except she's not allowed to take him out of the house because he's so old and falling apart. Hence, why she looks so teary. Sensitive girl. :o/

She made an origami heart and wanted us to take a picture. She really likes making these, we find them all over.

Same pajamas, different night, she wanted us to take a picture of her and Shelby in their matching PJs. Again, super sweetness.

And that's all I've got for now. I'm trying to get better at posting, hopefully I'm beginning to succeed! The girls are doing well. Shiloh is studying for Memory Masters,  a test where she's required to memorize 300 something facts across many subjects, and she'll take that test next week. (Here's a link to a blog post explaining it in more detail.) It isn't required for our curriculum, but once she heard that trophy was involved, she was all in. I think she'll do well, but it's a very rigorous test and there are no second or third places, just all or nothing. If she misses just one, she's out. We'll see how she does, we'll reward her ourselves regardless, she has a great memory! She's also rehearsing for the Cinderella ballet with the ballet company to open next month. She's a mouse again, but a nice mouse this time, which makes her happy. :o) 

SarahMae is as much a toddler as ever. She loves her babies, pushing boundaries and saying "NO MAAM!!!" as loudly and as often as possible. :o) One of her favorite sayings right now is "It happens sometimes!" as she shrugs her shoulders. She's a super smart kiddo, notices and listens to everything, can recognize many of her letter and can count to 20! Not just reciting it, either, she can actually count out up to twenty of something and tell you how many there are. Genius!! ;o) She loves to sing, and make up her own songs, and is loooooonging to follow in her big sister's footsteps and dance ballet. She's always asking "Is SarahMae three yet? Me dance when me three? I dance ballet yet???"

We love these girls! Hopefully, these pictures brightened your day. Love you all!