A lot of Homeschool Excitement!

We've had some fun at our homeschool co-op this last week. 

First up, Sidge took an "Inventions & Inventioneers" class. It is a 4th-7th grade class so Sidge was taking it a year too young. (You can do this at you and the teacher's discretion.) 

Each student had to "invent" something and create a board presenting their invention. Sidge came up with "The Farmer's Hose Clip." I really think it was a GREAT idea, and we actually are going to use it on the farm. 

Sidge ended up winning second place in the competition! The two first place winners tied and were just ONE point ahead of Sidge in the finishing. We were so proud of all his hard work. 

Here is a blow-up of one section of his board followed by some of the pictures we used as he prepared for the project:

Next up? Isaac participated in a The First Annual Heritage Home Scholars Talent Show. They hope to make this a yearly event. I did not push the kids to participate. Isaac wanted to play piano, and he did a great job. He got some fantastic feedback from one of the judges who was a professional piano player too. The piano was pretty out of tune and hard to play, but he still did a fantastic job presenting his talent. Here's a quick photo we got of him at the show:

All right ... but the adventures didn't stop there. The boys each presented a "Board" on a specific area of Asia for the Geography class they are taking in co-op. Isaac did Japan: 

Sidge did Lake Baikal (a very famous lake in Russia). His board featured a picture and comment from our former Turkish wwoofer, Duygu, who had actually been to the lake! Thanks for participating Duygu! 

A quick note -- this lake is over 5,000 feet deep but the sediment below that is over 20,000 feet deep! Incredible!

But the fun goes on! Yesterday was the Annual Geography Bee. This is the third time we have had a boy in the Bee! Here is a post from the first Geography Bee that Isaac did when he was just in 1st grade. But here is a Blog post from the second year that both boys participated when they were in second grade. That year, Sidge finished fourth and Isaac finished second.

A picture of all 16 participants. (There's Isaac and Sidge who randomly pulled numbers right next to each other on the far right.)

Isaac ended up finishing fourth in the Bee. That left Sidge with two middle schoolers. 

And then the kid in the green shirt went down leaving just Sidge and one other young man, Aiden.

Aiden ended up winning the Bee. But Sidge finished second. Being much younger (and smaller) than the two other finishers, he was VERY proud of his accomplishments. 

 So much fun (but SO nerve-wracking!)

But it wasn't just the kids who had opportunities this past week. 

John spoke to our Nature Time class about mushrooms! (Ignore the yawning student and Abigail chattering with her friend Morgan -- lol!) He also spoke to the "Health and Safety" class but I didn't get any pics/videos of that.

John showing some of his artwork in the discussion. 

A video of JB's talk. 

It's been a very full week here in our life. Tonight we actually had our piano recital and Grama Joni was here for it! I'll try to Blog on that tomorrow!!!