March

The boys won first place at a local tournament

Playing for St. Patty's Day at a local nursing home.

Hannah and two of her friends at the East Coast Tourney getting ready to cheer on the boys.

Semi Final Game at the East Coast Tournament 

I love watching him play

Our friend Jordan won First All Tournament Team

 

The boys played so hard and never gave up no matter what the circumstances. 

They really made us proud.

The boys placed third on the East Coast.

Below are the starting five.

L to R Bryce, Jordan, Philip, Westin, Isaac

January

I bought a new lens with my Christmas money, I decided to try it out by taking a picture of all the things we were taking to try and keep strep throat from spreading in our house.

Our annual birthday tea with Lydia.

 I needed to create a new work space to help keep everything organized.

Junior Varsity Cougars in their spanking new uniforms

Our homeschool has changed so much over the years. Gone are the dress up history re-enactments, tons of co-ops and field trips. It tends to look like this more and more.

So excited to have my son, number 11, back in the game. He broke his leg in early December and had to wait 6 long weeks before he could play again. After two games he earned his starting position back again. It was so nice to see him taking and winning the jump ball again.

Back to School...

Today is the end of the second week of school. And I must say things have been running rather smoothly, despite all my worries. I am teaching an Introduction to ASL class at the homeschool enrichment program this year. We have a small class but I think it will be fun once we all get our bearings. The kids are doing science at home this year, and since we are working ahead in science I decided to let them do the book over two years which has reduced a lot of the stress from last year.

 Isaac started a new job working 10 hours a week at church. Unfortunately the grass is still growing so he still has his lawn jobs which means not a lot of time to rest. Basketball conditioning is keeping him busy but he still finds time to rock out on his guitar.

Isaac's Literature books  

Hannah is taking my ASL class and sewing and she still loves playing her violins and mandolin. She is my right hand at home. Keeping the house clean and getting dinner started if I am busy with basketball.

Hannah's Literature List

Sounder
Poetry for Young People, Robert Frost
The War of the Worlds
Homer Price
Norman Rockwell, Storyteller with a Brush
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Letters from Rifka
All Creatures Great and Small
The Cay
The Hiding Place
Number the Stars
Snow Treasure
My Side of the Mountain
Pippi in the South Seas
Through My Eyes
The Cross and the Switchblade
The Hobbit
The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown
Habibi
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Holocaust Museum

We took a field trip with some friends to our state's Holocaust Museum. The museum followed the story of the Kalamitskas family, from Nazi occupation to liberation. Our docent is the youngest Holocaust survivor. His parents were partisan freedom fighters. 

This sculpture is the symbol for the museum. The six candles represent the 6 million Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust.  The Star of David is broken at the top and bottom to represent all of the families that were forever separated on this earth.

In a concentration camp.

Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass

Holocaust means whole burnt. The sculpture in the background is a hand reaching for help from the flames of torture. A hand that was largely ignored by the civilized world.

Many Torah's were burned during Kristallnacht. This is a Torah that was saved from that horrible night.

On the SS St. Louis with 936 German Jews trying to escape the Holocaust in Europe. After traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Florida they were denied entrance to the United States. The ship was forced to return to Europe, only 365 of the 936 passengers survived the Holocaust.

In the Ghetto the Jews were forced to live on limited food rations and face the humiliation of their Synagogues being desecrated.

The family makes a daring escape from the Ghetto through a small hole that they make in the fence. A family member covers their tracks by wiring the fence back together. They hide on the land of a potato farmer. He allows them to build a hiding place under the ground were 17 of them hide for 7 months.

Asael Bielski's (left) life was portrayed in the movie Defiance.

One Million Five Hundred thousand Jewish children were murdered during the Holocaust. In 1990 there were 1,500,000 children in the public education system in the state of Virginia.

Entering the gas chamber.

Inside the gas chamber listening to our docent describe the fear and torture of the people who died there.

The concentration camp entrance

Our docent Alex gave us a remarkable journey with the personal stories of his family and the Kalamitskas family. The family picture on the right is a picture of his family taken while at the Displaced Persons Camp.