Back in School Again!

We arrived safely in Arizona on Friday March 18th, and have already got our drivers' licenses, library cards, and gotten the kids enrolled in the Arizona Virtual Academy.

Grace is a 3rd grader for the rest of this school year, but she is beginning to work in 5th grade math, spelling, literature, and language skills.  She is just beginning 4th grade Science, History, and Spanish.

Joseph is a 1st grader for the rest of this school year, but he is beginning 2nd grade curriculum in all subjects, and is taking his first year of Spanish!

Joseph dictated this essay today about the oceans and continents.  He had to mention at least two oceans by name, all seven continents, and place these animals (buffalo, toucan, hedgehog, panda, giraffe, elephant, penguin, and kangaroo) on their correct continents.

The World - by Joseph Edward Denson, age almost 7

The oceans are big.  The Arctic Ocean is the smallest, the Pacific Ocean is the biggest.  All of the oceans connect.

Africa has savannahs, trees, hippos, elephants, giraffes, and lions.  Watch out for the lions!

Asia has a lot of mountains.  Asia has pandas that munch bamboo.

Australia has deserts, beaches, some forests, and is famous for its Great Barrier Reef.  Australia is the only place with kangaroos.

Antarctica is where the South Pole is.  Penguins and seals rule.  It is full of frozen chambers and icy waters.

Europe and Asia are connected in a mega-continent.  Europe is famous for its hedgehogs that keep insects out of grain and corn.  They curl up in a little ball.  There are lots of mountains in Europe.

North America has prairies, rivers, beaches, forests, and a little bit of desert.  The buffalo are on the prairie.

South America has the Amazon Rain Forest and Amazon River.  It's a jungle with pythons, trees, fruit bats, and many types of birds, like toucans and macaws.

Grace's Essay - Little House on the Prairie

Question 1: Describe Laura and Mary's personalities and how they act during different events in the story.

Laura and Mary are very different personalities. Laura is energetic and brave when she has to be. Mary is slow and tries to be like a grownup, but when she's scared she can't move. When the chimney goes on fire and a fired-up piece of wood gets under the rocker, Mary gets scared and can't move. Laura is scared too, but she pulls the rocker away from the fire and saves Mary and baby Carrie.


Question 2: How are the beginning and the ending of the story similar?
The Ingalls are a family on the go! In both the beginning and the end of "Little House on the Prairie" they move. At the start they are moving from Wisconsin to Kansas. In the end they have to move away from Kansas, otherwise the soldiers will kick them out of Indian Territory. At the start they were happy to move, to get away from everyone. But at the end they are forced to move on. No body is really happy, they must leave all their progress behind and begin again somewhere new.

Katharine's Birthday party

We celebrated a week early due to the upcoming move, and here are the pictures of the party....

Here's the birthday girl


And her presents



"A WEBKINZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY FIRST WEBKINZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Make that TWO Webkinz!


And a unicorn too!

Time for cake -- but Mommy already tossed all of the matches, so we were trying to light the candles using the gas burners on the stove.....

Happy 4th Birthday Katharine!