September 26, 2013

Phyllis Wheatley

"One of America’s first poets, Phillis Wheatley was born in 1753 in Africa.  She was captured by slave traders and brought to America where she was sold in July 1761 to the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts.  Her name (Phillis) was derived from the ship that brought her to America, “the Phillis.”- National Women's History Museum

We have a great workbook, 16 Extraordinary Young Americans by Nancy Lobb

We chose to read about Phyllis Wheatley and we were all amazed by her Journey!  Kidnapped from West Africa at 7yrs old and was sold to Mrs. Susannah Wheatley in Boston. Phyllis was very brilliant and learned to speak and read English within 18 months! Phyllis was extremely lucky as her owner allowed her to read and write -.  

Wednesday September 25th, 2013

A fun time held by all at the Annual Cumberland fair!!! Lots of fun carnival rides!! Nino loved the Gravitron where you really learn the laws of Physics!!hahaha

September 27, 2013

One of my favorite and important documentaries that we watched was Fat, Sick and nearly Dead. This features an overweight man with a chronic disease who is on a mission to lose weight and feel better. His name is Joe Cross and along side him are Doctors to measure progress and keep an eye out on his blood levels etc.while he juices green vegetables. Its an amazing movie and I highly recommend it! Here is a link to the movie trailer.  http://youtu.be/x9SGWcZwk7c I was so moved by this movie, I decided to try it myself. I am actually craving green juice, vegetables and have cut out sugar and have been eating very tiny portions of beans, lentils and nuts :) mmm delicious!!

produce from a local farmer that we use for our delicious Juice!!! The kids enjoy coming up with their own recipes! Nino's favorite juice to make is, carrot, apple and orange!! Mine is cucumber, green apple, celery, ginger root and kale :) mmm soo good! For a treat , I will make apple, carrot and pineapple! so delicious! Sofia loves carrot and apple juice!

September 26, 2013

Article by President Bill Clinton
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/blog/2013/09/26/it-takes-village-how-worlds-most-influential-change-agents-mobilize-action

The full article is featured in Time magazine:http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2152426,00.html

As September came to a close, we spent a lot of time finalizing our big gig, The 6th annual Conquer Chiari Walk Across America!!! Each year we host this walk in the City of  Portland, Maine. This year 39 States and over 60 walksites around the country hosted a walk to help raise Chiari awareness! 

Chiari is a serious neurological disorder where the bottom part of the brain, the cerebellum, descends out of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, putting pressure on both the brain and spine and causing many symptoms. 

 

Chiari causes a barrage of symptoms and for more information, you can visit the website, www.conquerchiari.org This site is stocked full of all the information you need! This year we raised over $560,000 for research! I am so proud my homeschoolers were a part of this! 

My kids volunteered a lot of their time to help organize and setup the walk! It was a lot of work but the kids learned new skills, met lots of new people in the community, learned what is was like to make a difference and the kids had a sense of fulfillment as well as myself!

We did a fantastic job raising awareness and raising over $11,000 for research! I am so proud of all of us! 

We had a very busy September!! We wanted to start the year off with either having a picnic on the beach like we usually do every  1st day of school  however this year we wanted to be different and go Apple Picking!! In the past years, we always get the tail end of the season and there is very little to chose from so we decided we would get ahead of things and go! We went to our favorite orchard about 40 minutes from where we live and my daughter drove. She is 15 and has her learning permit. I can't drive anyway because I am recovering from my 3rd brain surgery and a cranial neck fusion:( It works out perfectly that she has her permit!! or we wouldn't be able to go anywhere on our own.