Summer . . . sort of

So, we had our dance show on the 23-24.  The shows went really well.  We all had a blast, despite the tension that hung in the air.  Most of that was due to leftover from doing pictures and dress rehearsal at the same time the two days before.  Thankfully, we all made it through the performance with few problems.

After our final show on Sunday, just about everyone from the studio went to Godfather's Pizza for our annual celebration.  We had an awesome time!  There was pizza eaten, pictures taken, games played, and an overall feeling of camaraderie and relaxation what with the stress of the show gone.

After the big group picture was taken out in front of Godfather's, Jonathan challenged me to a game of Dance Dance Revolution.  He wanted a crowd, so we got a good deal of our friends from Musical Theater to watch.  It was so much fun!  Almost everyone started chanting my name when the game started, so it got pretty loud.  Here's the video of the second half of our game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRr7v3c38s&feature=plcp.

Now that the show is over, summer is here and we're all relaxing to some degree.  I still have Algebra and Science to finish up before I go to Running Start in September, and because I didn't understand my Algebra, one of the moms from Scouts is going to help me out.  I'll be working with her an hour each morning.

Still going to be dancing all summer too.  I am teaching at EPO on Monday mornings for a bit, and come August will have 3 classes that I'll be teaching twice a week for two weeks.  Mom signed us up for Ballet at NSD with Mrs. Branner, which I am really looking forward too.

In the way of Scouts, I have summer camp just over the horizon.  We leave on the 15th for Camp Pigott.  I'll be doing the Shotgun and Metalwork badges while I'm there.

We're trying to plan get-togethers with our friends from Musical Theater so we can see each other over the summer.  We went to one of their houses on the Fourth of July and had a great time.  We all want to go to the local frozen yogurt place at some point, as well as have a party out at the park behind the tennis courts.  Don't know when we'll get that set up, but we'll figure something out.

Just an update

Well, last night was our last ever full band concert with Mrs. Richards.  Tuesday was Jazz Band's last concert.  None of us are very happy with it, but it is what it is.  Mrs. Richards is retiring, but someone is starting up a new Homeschool band.  I probably won't be joining though due to my schedule.

I signed up for Running Start at Olympic College.  I'm starting in the fall semester.  I'm doing Pre-Calculus 1: Algebra, English and Composition 1, and American Sign Language 1.  My friend Alexa signed up too, and wants to take the same subjects, so we're going to try to get into the same classes.

This summer, I'm teaching at Just for Kicks.  Two tap classes and a jazz class, twice a week.  I'll also be teaching the scholarship class over the summer.  I'm really happy, because I get payed for all but the scholarship class.  :D  If I'm lucky, I'll be hired on as a teacher for the next dance year.  I'll be dropping Progressions, but that's it.  At the Running Start orientation, they said we might have to cut back on extra-curricular activities.  Dad looked at me when they said that, and I told him, "Not gonna happen."  I'll fit in homework with my dance schedule, not dance into my homework schedule.

And on the subject of teaching, the scholarship class Jonathan and I are teaching is going very well.  They've had all their choreography known for a month, and have been working really hard on it.  Costumes are all figured out, and now all we have to do is continue polishing (and get music cut).  They are a great group of kids, and I can't wait to see them perform in the June recital.

I leave tonight for my Order of the Arrow Ordeal.  I'll be sleeping under the stars, working on a service project all day tomorrow, meditating the whole time (no talking allowed), and will have very little food.  All in all, it's looking to be a rough weekend.  This made more so by the fact that Dad (for who know's what reason) said he would take Noah Adams.  He said the Adams had a scheduling issue, so he would do it.  Personally, I would have told them too bad.  Granted, that's not very Boy Scouty of me, but I do not like that kid.  He's a pain in my rear end.  But, Dad picked up dried apricots to eat before-hand and on the road up.  Dried apricots both give us REALLY bad gas.  We'll tell Noah no talking allowed, keep the windows shut to keep the gas in, and blast rock and roll on the radio.  That way it's an ordeal in and of itself for the both of us.  Me because I don't like being anywhere close to him, and him because he gets to deal with me and dad farting and listening to rock and roll.

It's looking to be an interesting weekend.

Spring Break

I don't know who invented spring break in the first place, but I for one think it is STUPID!!! With spring break comes a week of no dance for us. With no dance, we get restless. When we're restless, we get grumpy. When we're grumpy, we get on each others nerves. And when we get on each others nerves, we get in trouble. Therefore, in my opinion, spring break = trouble. Then again, I'm homeschooled, and don't get spring break off from school, so I might be a little biased.

Thankfully, today is the last day of spring break. Aaron is spending the night, and we are playing Dungeons and Dragons with Mr. Sandor tomorrow. He's starting a new campaign with us. He has everything planned out on how to get our group to level thirty. I'm playing a swordmage in the group, and I'm the only tank we have. Because of my abilities, I can be considered a Jedi. I teleport and have a sword that turns green. And if I through the sword, I can call it back to my hand. JEDI!!!!

This Sunday is Easter. We don't have anything special planned though. It's probably just going to be spending the day as a family and celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. We need to get a ham though. We were going to pull one out of the freezer and let it thaw, but we didn't have one. We went to the grocery store yesterday, and forgot to pick one up.

My Educational Journey

This week one of the activities is reflecting on my education and what I think of it.

1) What kinds of experiences have you had? My education is not limited to just my bookwork. On top of English, Science, Math, and recently Geography and History, I have danced since I was 8 years old. This I've counted as my PE for a long time. Since my first class in Fallon, dancing has grown to be my favorite activity. I have started volunteer teaching at Just For Kicks, and am also hoping to be taken on as a paid teacher next year.

Joining BSA four years ago opened up more opportunities for me. The variety of merit badges has let me explore different "mini-courses" I guess they would be called. Among them are computers, animal sciences, and photography.

2) How much choice have you had over your own studies? When I first started school, I didn't have a great choice over my courses because of the curriculum. Once I started KONOS, I have had a much greater choice in what I wanted to dig deeper in.

Dance and Scouts have also given me choices in education. I choose which classes I want to take (which happens to be just about every on of them) and which merit badges I do.

3) Has your education been traditional, non-traditional, or a mixture of both? I would say my education has been a mixture. I don't have all the classes the kids in public school have, and now that I'm in KONOS, my learning for English is in a round-about way.

4) What direction do you see yourself taking in the future; are you preparing for college or university in the future? I see myself at this point hopefully heading to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. I want to join as an officer and hopefully as a computer programmer/tech dude.

Okay, so lately my life has been a bit hectic. In addition to my regular schedule of school, dance, band, dance, scouts, and more dance, I have started subbing more at the studio. I don't do it very often, but it's nice to be able to earn the money. Also, Jonathan and I are teaching a scholarship class on Saturdays for kids that can't pay for regular classes. We are doing a jazz class and will be teaching a dance to "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi.

Also, as a Life Scout, I'm now beginning my last steps towards Eagle Scout. I need to get the merit badges done and get everything for my Eagle Scout project set up. I want to redo the signs in Banner Forest, as everyone is always getting lost in there. The project itself isn't difficult, it's just getting people to be able to actually get the signs all put up in there at all the intersections.

For Christmas, Mom and Dad got me a P-bone, which is a trombone made of PVC pipe with a graphite slide. So, I'm trying to learn how to play that so that for the concert, I can play Trombone for Colonel Bogey's March, which has a low brass Soli section. Hannah is going to work on her Baritone so we'll have more than one low brass player.

Taryn and I have started a private together for Ballroom. We're doing a Salsa to "La Bomba." We haven't learned the actual dance yet, but we have learned some combinations and lifts that will get put together into a number. We're having a lot of fun with it.

In my free time (which seems to be dwindling), I have been reading more. Some books that I have read recently are the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield, The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, and I'm trying to read Beowulf, but it's a bit slow as it's a poem. Books I'm going to get at the library or get at Barnes and Noble are Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke, The Hunger Games (I don't know the author), and the second Dragonlance series.

When I'm not reading during my free time, I like to play my iPod. Samantha told me about this app called Temple Run, which essentially the scene from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark where he takes the idol and gets chased through the temple, except in the app, there are a lot of obstacles, coins to collect, power-ups to grab, and your character runs faster with every checkpoint. It's extremely easy to get addicted to it. I've only had the game for like 2 days and I have played about 170 times.

So, that's my current life in a nutshell. As the year goes on, I have no idea what is going to change, but I'm ready for it.

Becoming an Adult

This week is studying Medieval Daily Life. One of my activities for the week is to write about becoming an adult, so that's what I'm gonna do.

At my age, I don't think I would be able to take on the world. I have VERY little experience being out and doing things on my own. Because of that, I would probably flounder a bit in the real world. Also, maturity is a factor to consider. I can be mature and make good decisions most of the time, but there's always those times when I need help with what I should do. Decision making and owning up to mistakes are probably the two things I need to learn the most before I head out into the world.

I think the reason we have such a long adolescence period in today's day and age is because a lot of kids don't learn to do things themselves. They get an adult (parent, teacher, etc.) to either give them the answer, do the work for them, or help out so much that the kid does nothing that it becomes the parent's project more than the kid's. I think if today were a bit more like when settlers were still moving west, when boys had to start work at the age of 15 or 16, and girls were expected to know how to take care of the house by that time, the time of the adolescence period would decrease significantly. I'm not saying we should go back to what it was like during Laura Ingalls Wilder's time, but maybe if kids had a bit more responsibility put on them, and they were held responsible for it, then things might change a bit.