Lesson #21 NaNoWriMo Winner

She did it! Her first NaNoWriMo month and she completed her goal with a couple of hours to spare!

NaNoWriMo is National November Writers Month. You set a word count goal, for Evie it was 25,000 words, and if you complete it you win! There is the satisfaction of completing your goal and aside from all the free help on the website you receive, you also win 5 free paperback copies of your book. Evie has until June 2013 to send off her manuscript for printing. Obviously she hopes to have completed her book by then.

This has been an awesome experience! In October we started working through the free 130+ page young writers workbook in preparation for the writing-athon in November. It was VERY helpful. Evie has dedicated many hours and most days of the month to writing, passing over social events as needed to work on completing her goals. This IS what we did for scholastics this month. A bit of math, a bit of art, a few days with friends, and Nano....it has been a part of our daily lives and conversation for the whole month.

Evie is proud of herself, she is happy to have "reached the freakin' line", as she put it, of completion on her progress graph, and she has learned quite a bit. I have told her from the beginning, with creativity half of the work is just "showing up", just committing to being present for creativity instead of waiting on inspiration to strike. Evie has been surprised by how many words she actually could write in a day when she did just show up to write at her desk, she has learned what time of day works best for her (after 7pm usually), and she is really excited about making daily writing more a part of her life. She wants to be the next Christopher Paolini, the homeschooler who wrote Eragon at age 15. She just turned 14 last week, so she has some time :).

Below is a few pics...notice on her wall is pinned a NaNo Graph for progress, tips, % goals, daily goals graphs, ect....I am so very proud of her for taking on this challenge, and succeeding!

Evie with her Winners Certificate

Sticking her last sticker of completion on her graph!

Lesson #20 Thanksgiving Creativity

I am always thankful for my wonderful, healthy, fabulous daughter and my equally wonderful husband. I am thankful for my life, my family unit, my great friends, and my freedom to homeschool. These are things I am forever gratefull for. I am a very blessed human being and I try to acknowledge that inwardly and aloud daily.

This year I am especially thankful for creativity. Last night (the night before Thanksgiving) as I was laying with Evie in our living room discussing the painting I had been working on I was thankful for her intellect. I was thankful for her ability to discuss the context, emotion, and complexity of art, to really engage in dialogue, to critique my piece. I was thankful for the time just to cuddle with her and as we talked about art the conversation led to Frida Kahlo and we discussed Frida as an artist and person. How her life was full of pain, joy, and art, and we looked at a few books I have on Frida that were close by on my bookshelf. We talked about how she really did LIVE in her short painful forty-seven years. As we talked, Mark was strumming his guitar, working on a new song. So his creative energy was our background to art discussion. When our conversation about Frida came to an end Evie was ready to go work on her novel that she is writing. She came back into the kitchen with writers block, but eventually went back to her own creative work.

I am thankful for the luxury that is creativity. I do not have to wait quietly in the woods to kill a deer, ensuring my family will eat. I do not have to worry about shelter or clothing for my family. Although we are not rich in monetary means, I know I do not have to worry about weather or not we will be able to pay our heating bill next week, or if we will have more food to feed ourselves and our pets. I have the luxury of being a creative spirit, and so do my husband and daughter, and I am basking in the light of all those creative juices flowing around my home.

               

Evie, my parents, and I

Lesson #19 Dia de Los Muertos-Day of the Dead Festival

Copied from Wiki:

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it is a national holiday, and all banks are closed. The celebration takes place on November 1 and 2, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased.
Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world: In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures.

We really like to dress up, and what a great opportunity to dress up and learn about another culture at the same time. Also personally I like that in this tradition children are not afraid of the skulls, the dead, souls returning, ect.  For the last 6years there has been a Dia de los Muertos festival in Lexington, KY and we traveled up with some friends to enjoy it. It was so much fun to do each others make up and take pics! There were Mayan and Aztec dancers/drummers, authentic Mexican food, ofrendas or alters built for the dead, fire dancers (a friend of mine), a candlelit walk to the cemetery where several tombs were decorated fully for this celebration of the dead. Honestly just a fabulous experience! This will definitely be a field trip we do again!

Lesson #18 Halloween 2012 Festivities!

We LOVE Halloween at our house, we spend a lot of time participating in fun activities with friends and each other as a family. This year Halloween itself didn't go so smoothly do to bad timing of work schedules, but we still had fun! Below are some of the awesome things we did with friends!

 First was the 2nd Annual ZOMBIE WALK in our downtown! Celebrated this fun time with lots of friends a Thriller Dance, and we won a trip to Savannah GA for my hubby being the best male Zombie! We also sold the official tee-shirts!

Next a Pumpkin Carving Party!

Then came Trick or Treating on the Houseboat Dock with friends who have a boat!

Of course there was actual Trick or Treat night...which was a day early and really super cruddy rainy cold wet weather...

Last but not least was a Grosser than Gross party on actual Halloween! We had to have something to do, and another reason to have yet another costume on :) So Chris and Tina saved the day with a party! The kids were mad scientist making gross stuff, I made crazy (dangerous) looking bloody cupcakes. there was also tongue tacos, brain cupcakes and an entertaining time making halloween shrinky dinks. I think the adults played more than the kids!

Lesson #17 Last Soccer Game of the Fall 2012 Season

Evie's soccer season concluded in Frankfort KY a few weeks ago. She played really well and although they lost she had a great attitude about it. Evie has been playing soccer since she was 5 years old. She played for the same coach for about 5 years and she was sad when it was time to say goodbye to that team. Her teammates/their parents/siblings ect. had become like family to us and us to them. I was extremely anxious for her when it was time to search for a new team to play with (she had aged out of that league). Not to mention they won almost ALL the time.

I have been beyond pleased and so has Evie with her new team. They haven't won yet, and she doesn't care. She really loves her teammates and feels just as close a connection to them as she did the old team. I would say that the fact that her team is a team of homeschoolers is what has made the transition so smoothly. They are kind and supportive of each other, have great attitudes, and really just love to get together and play. I feel also that she enjoys being around more homeschoolers her own age because they can relate to each others life experiences, just as public school children do. Evie loves practice and looks forward to it EVERY week! I also love her coaches attitude. She inspires me, and makes Evie and I really appreciate her greatly when she talks about trying to reach out to kids, help kids, and just give them  positive reinforcement. We are blessed to be a part of her and her son's team! Looking forward to practicing indoors all winter and the 2013 Spring Season!

Lesson #16 International Festival at the Local Community College

The International Festival day at our community college is something we have attended every year since we began homeschooling. It is a fun day that is extremely educational and diverse, especially for our small, rural town. Some of the highlights from this year for us included Native American dancers, African Drumming circle, fire eating and dancing, an art reception of beautiful fiber arts made from artist own sheep, and the Mariachi Band. We also enjoyed the ethnic food prepared by the college's culinary students, all the booths with info and pictures from different countries and ethnicity, and the displays of "heads" from the cosmetology students who have displays of hair/make up from different parts of the world on barbie like heads.This is an event I know we will continue to attend!