August Summary

Hours for August:

FigNewTon: 100.5

Butterfly: 79

Cumulative Total:

FigNewTon: 178

Butterfly: 148.5

So, the month of August went better than July. FigNewTon accomplished the hours I was requiring of her. And Butterfly came close. She still sleeps about 16 hours a day. This is expected while her brain is healing.

I am hopeful for the month of September. I am planning on joining the local co-op. That will be new for us. I think it will be good for the girls to be around more homeschool children their own age. They get interaction with other teens at church, but none of them are homeschooled. I am hoping the co-op will compliment that and give them more local friends.

Being Flat

I had never imagined I would be flat. It happened as I was going for a walk one day. I was walking in the grass because the bike path was being worked on. Suddenly, I tripped and fell into the wet cement just as a road roller was coming! When the driver realized that he had driven over me, he stopped the machine and came running to help me up. He asked if I was okay.

“I’m fine,” I answered.

“You're flat!” he exclaimed.

I realized it was true! I was immediately rushed to the emergency room where the doctors cleaned the cement off, checked me over, and said I was fine.

After I got used to being flat, it was really kind of fun. I became the champ at hide and seek. I could hide anywhere! Under the dresser, in the drawers, behind the door, the options were endless! I could also be quite helpful to miners. I could get in thru crevices into whole new rooms in the caves they were working on. Then they could find even more jewels!

Soon it was time for school to start. At school, there were lots of times I wished I were not flat. Like the time that I tripped and nobody noticed and therefore walked on top of me. Yesterday, the girl beside me dropped some papers as she was getting ready to leave. I bent to pick up my things and she mistook me for one of her papers! I was crammed into her backpack, which was then crammed into the locker! I got out of the backpack and undid the latch from the inside, so I was free!

I went home that night and I was sad. To cheer me up, my sister suggested we play the hokey-pokey. As I shook my arms and legs, they started to fill out to their normal shape! I was very excited and went in to tell my mom. When she saw that I had resumed my normal shape, she took me and my sister out for ice cream to celebrate.

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I took the main idea for this story from the book Flat Stanley. He has started a website to tell all about his adventures. Go check it out!

Furniture Polish Math

OK. So we are rearranging our room today, and Mom wanted to polish the furniture instead of just dusting it. But she hasn't used store bought polish since I was sick. She reminded me that the store bought stuff has chemicals in it that are bad for us and the environment. They are often petroleum based and the chemicals used to propel them out of the container are not good for us to breathe. Plus, she says this stuff is way cheaper and it only took a few minutes to make.

So, she looked up a recipe on the web and had me figure out how to make 1/4 of the recipe. Here is the recipe for furniture polish that we used:

• 4T Lemon Juice
• 3T Water
• 2t Cooking Oil

This is how much we made.

• 1T Lemon Juice
• 2 1/4 t Water
• 1/2 t Cooking Oil

It was interesting to see the oil, water, and lemon juice before we shook it. The oil was on top in a glob, then the lemon juice and water mixed together. I guess the oil is less dense.

Flat Stanley

By Jeff Brown

Flat Stanley is about a young boy who becomes flat one night when a bulletin board falls on him. He discovers the pros and cons to being flat such as being rolled up and carried while out on walks with his father, but sometimes he can be mistaken for wallpaper! He can also become a kite, but its possible that he will get stuck in a tree! After a daring capture of two sneak thieves, Stanley becomes famous. Later people start making fun of him and Arthur comes up with a way to make him not flat again.

I took a comprehension quiz here. I got 98%. Mom says I need a harder book, but I enjoyed Flat Stanley. Check out his adventures on his new blog!

Hannah Montana

The Hannah Montana Movie is about Miley deciding if she will still be Hannah Montana at all. This starts when her dad wants her to go to her grandma's birthday party out in Tennessee. She says that she’s not going because of a Hannah thing in New York. Her dad realizes that she has been putting Hannah in front of friends and family lately and it isn't just about the singing anymore. He gets her a private jet to go to New York, or so she thinks. When they land, they are in Tennessee. Her dad says to take a break from Hannah for two weeks and see if that country gal is still inside somewhere. Later, during a Hannah concert in Tennessee to raise money, she says, “I can't do it. This is home and they need to be separate." Then she takes her wig off. But after the audience promises to keep her secret, she decides to still be Hannah. I think this is a really good movie and teaches some very good life lessons. In the movie, Hannah demonstrates the need to keep family first and to not try to do two things at once.

The Adventures of Ociee Nash

The Adventures of Ociee Nash is a movie about a young girl named Ociee who lives in Mississippi with her father and brothers. Her mother died the spring before from measles. Her father decides that he wants Ociee to be more ladylike, so he sends her to live with her aunt in Asheville, NC. On the journey, she makes some new friends, including the President. On her first morning there, Ociee meets a girl named Elizabeth and they get in a fight. Later they become friends, and Ociee even saves Elizabeth's life. The movie is based on the book A Flower Blooms on Charlotte Street, by Milam McGraw Propst. The Adventures of Ociee Nash is a really good movie. There were times that I laughed out loud and there were times that I almost cried. I would recommend it to anyone.

Ants

Ants, ants, everywhere.

On the bed and in my hair.

Big ants, little ants,

Everywhere but in my pants.

I made up this poem when we were outside today.

There are no ants in my bed or my hair, really.