Thursday, November 30, 2017

Congratulations, Mikro: 2017 YWP Winner!





I will post the story later, once I resolve some tech issues with Word and my old laptop...

This year, Mikro wrote about two more adventures on the quest to obtain ingredients to put together a healing potion to save Enewan's Home Tree. I collaborated on it a bit, mostly in writing the spell songs, since Mikro does not think of himself as a poet. Yet. I'm working on that!

Sunday, November 12, 2017

"I Am..." Poems

I think every teenager should learn to express him/herself in poetry. It saved my sanity more than once at that age... So I am trying to get the boy who would rather read about paleontology to write some... We are using the Poetry Friday Power Books for inspiration. Here are our attempts at "I am" poems:

Mikro's effort:

Today I am...
Someone who doesn't want to write a poem;
Someone who got up too early;
Someone who is going on a field trip;
Someone who will see my best friend;
Someone who will learn something new.

Chele's take:

Today I am...
Someone who got an hour's sleep;
Someone who needs coffee;
Someone whose feet hurt already;
Someone who will wander marble corridors for hours;
Someone who gets to see great art!

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

The 2017 Not Back to School Interview


Q: What is your favorite subject?
A: Biology, evolutionary biology, paleontology and history, especially military history.


Q: What are you best at?
A: Seeing/making connections between things; imagination; inventing new worlds and mythologies. Procrastinating.


Q: I need to get better at __________.
A: Nothing. Just kidding. Handwriting, typing, being organized, not procrastinating.


Q: What's the best thing about being a homeschooler?
A: Getting to study what I want, but that's what I said last year. Um, I like the teachers! Oh, yeah, and lots of field trips.


Q: What's the worst thing?
A: This questionaire. Just kidding. Um, I don't know. ... I guess maybe not seeing my friends as often as I would like to.



Q: What kind of work do you want to do when you grow up?
A: My answer hasn't changed. I want to be a paleontologist, and an evolutionary biologist.

Q: This year I want to learn about ________.
A: Paleontology (as usual), anatomy, zoology. I want to do that college Evolution textbook. Modern history, Shakespeare, geometry [we are doing algebra first], more astronomy and space science, robotics, Arduino, wire sculpture, mobiles, surrealism, origami, survival and camping skills, Broaqdway musicals, geography, cartography, history, military history special effects and animation.



Q: I want to do more _________.
A: Hanging out with my friends. Field trips. Astronomy.

Q: I want to do less _________.
A: Math.

Q: Who is your best friend?
A: Koby.

Q:I want to go on a field trip to __________.
A: Yale Peabody Museum. The Bruce Museum. The Calder exhibit at the Whitney. The World War I exhibit at the Met.

Q: I want to go on vacation to __________.
A. Washington DC (and the NASM), Philadelphia and Boston. Florida, especially Kennedy Space Center. Space Camp and the space space museum in HUntsville, Alabama. Montana. Ireland, Germany, Mongolia, Iceland and France and the U.K. (but not if there's terrorism.)


Q. The most fun or best thing I did last school year was:
A. Competed in the National History Bee. Visited the Atlanta museums, especially the Carlos Museum at Emory University. It has really nice archaeology collections, the Geogia Aquarium (amazing whale sharks and rays in a huge tank), and the Center for Civil and Human Rights.



Q. What are you looking forward to doing this year?
A. More evolution and anatomy stuff.

Q. What do you think about starting high school next year?
A. It's sort of a combination of exciting and scary. Time is passing fast.


Q. What are some colleges you might want to apply to?
A. Yale, Cornell, University of Alberta, University of Montana, Richard Gilder (AMNH, mom), Columbia, SUNY Stonybrook, Hunter College Macauley Honors, NYU, Columbia.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Number Poems

Each line contains a particular number of words or syllables. The numbers can be anything: a special date, like a birthday, gps coordinates, your library card number... Whatever floats your poetic boat.

We used our own numbers, so our two poems will not match. Mikro's is word count oriented; mine is done by syllables.

Mikro:

I don't want to
Write
A poem with a specific number of words.

Chele:

September brings cool days and blue skies,
Autumn,
Colors popping.

And another:

I am riding on a south-bound train,
Eyelids drooping.
No wished for cup
Of steaming hot coffee
Appears.
Sigh.
Guess I will have to write a poem
To wake myself
...

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Mikro Tells the Story of Finn Macool & the Salmon of Knowledge

Mythology Fair 2017

Mikro enjoyed participating in our homeschool group's second annual Mythology Fair. Kids do a presentation on a mythological topic of their choice, by whatever means they choose. Some do a standard oral report. Some do stop motion animation, make models and dioramas, do puppet shows, etc. Mikro did an oral report on Irish Mythology and the Book of invasions and told the story of Finn Macool and the Salmon of Knowledge. He also made comics of the stories of the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh and Cuchulainn, the Hound of the Smith. (The drawings are his, and I acted as scribe for the text, to make sure it was legible enough for others to enjoy. My dysgraphic lefty still uses me as his secretary...)

Note: If you can't see the pictures, please make sure the URL in your browser is http, not https. My photos are linked from a non-google storage site.

Mikro's other obsession (besides mythology, paleontology, and history) is cartography, so he drew a map of Ireland which shows the territories held by different groups of "invaders." such as the Fomorians, Firbolg, etc.






Here are his comics:














Monday, May 1, 2017

Gold Medal!

Fourth time's the charm?  He usually gets one question wrong and misses the gold by that very frustrating margin, but Mikro the mythology geek has finally pulled off a perfect score on the National Mythology exam and achieved his goal of getting a gold medal!

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Happy Birthday, Mikro!

You make my world a brighter place! Thanks for being the sweet, wonderful kid you are. I am so happy I get to be your mama.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Qualified for Nationals


Mikro scored another top 8 finish in the NY Regionals for the National History Bee (just like last year!), which qualifies him to compete in Nationals.