Author: Vwala

Hello Vella Karman here, a homeschooled 11 year old. I am in 6th grade. I like to dance ballet, especially point, and I also write my own stories. I can't see what I am doing in ballet but I can feel the beauty of it, and I praise God with it. Maybe later I will post some of my stories, I want people to see my work but I am afraid they will think it's terrible and say I am awful at writing. But I still want your comments even if that's what you have to say, I'll try not to take it personally, I am looking for constrictive criticism so say what you really think.

Homeschool Journals 12/4-12/6/17

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12/4/17

The blog was broken when I went to write this, so I just wrote it on paper.

Today we finished John. We read the story where they fish all night and Jesus (In disguise) tells them to put their nets on the other side of the boat. Then they catch hundreds of fish but the nets don’t break! Mom commented on how Peter put on his outer layer (We think that means his coat) right before he jumps in the water to swim to Jesus. Reed said that maybe the water was cold. I always thought that it was a sort of authority thing, he didn’t want Jesus to see him without his outer garments on, it was ok for other men to see him like that, but Jesus was their teacher, He was God! You wouldn’t want a person of high authority, like your boss, to see you in your swimsuit, would you?

In history we learned that Napoleon sold the Lusiana Purchase to the US to pay for his wars. That sounds like a bad reason to me, but it did turn out for the US. I think if I was a queen, I would find a good person and give them the throne right away. But I probably would chose the wrong one and then the ruin of my country would be my fault. Oh well, at least I would have tried.

12/5/17

Today I stopped doing school early. We went to Kohls in the morning, and I had to make fudge for my youth group in the afternoon. Then I had to shower, do my hair and makeup for Nutcracker! Yes, I had practice for it today. But that also means it is the anniversary of the week when my twin’s mom and my mom finally met! I had known my twin (other wise known as B, she is my friend and we are so alike that I decided to call her my twin.) for half a year and kept telling my mom they should meet her parents. (They were homeschooling Christian people who had adopted! What better fit could there be?) But finally during Nutcracker they happened to meet while they were waiting for us to come out. One week spent with their family and many sleepovers and bake sales later, here we are, trying to figure out carpooling for this years Nutcracker. What a (mostly) great year! I didn’t get much school done, but I did do some math. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but some math problems take me ten minutes to figure out!

12/7/17

We started Thessilonians in Bible. But we skip some parts for no particular reason. We are old enough to read the Bible, it should not be skipped over for content. Yes, it can be hard to read, but it is God’s word. It is not rated R.

In history we learned about the Haitian revolt. Haiti used to be St. Domingue. It was horrible. Slavery is bad, but that doesn’t mean that slaves should go around killing all the masters! It was horrible, awful, and lots of people got killed.

12/8/17

I didn’t do school on the eighth because I had my first Nutcracker performance! It was fun, and then I had friends over and my grandma and aunt were in town. It was a lot of fun. I got to watch the second act too! I didn’t do any school though.

Homeschool Journal 11/30/17

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Today I didn’t really get much school done. We did do some together stuff though. In History we read about Eli Whitney and the cotton gen. I liked him. I read a school reader about him once, and it was my favorite genre, historical fiction. We read about Peter denying Jesus in Bible. We noticed that one of the other deciples was with him though, and he was know in the court and he wasn’t afraid of being arrested. I wonder if not talking to Peter was a sin of omission though?

Homeschool Journal 11/28/17

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Today was a busy day. I didn’t get much school done. I did language arts, science, some Bible, and some English. That was all, but we did have a busy day. We started with mom reading “How to Stay Christian in High School” out loud to us. Then I did spelling with mom, after that the day started to get crazy. We went to the eye doctor so I could get contacts for Nutcracker. (Go Nutcracker!) Then we went to the dance store for me to get tights, for Nutcracker. (Did I mention Nutcracker is next week?) And we checked out the leotards while we were there. (They were on a buy one get one half off sale.) Then we went home and ate lunch. We left again to go to the library. We were at the library until it was time for me to go home and get ready for ballet. I went to ballet, dad picked me up and we went to meet somebody at the library. We got home at eight ‘o six. We ran over to our neighbor, N’s house to give her something I found in my room and then we went home and I had dinner. So you can’t blame me for not getting much school done because I was gone for most of the day. I brought school with me to the eye doctor, did some after I ate lunch, and brought science to the library and did that there. So, that was “Vella’s Busy Day” by Vella M. Karman, be sure to read the rest of her little children’s collection.

Homeschool Journal 11/27/17

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We read a poem named, “Sweet and Low.” Seriously. But it was not about the fake type of sugar. (It was written before that was invented.) It was describing the western wind. I assure you, it was weird, but it was short at least.

Today we read about sad things in history. We read about the storming of Bastille and the rein of terror that followed. We also read about Catherine the great. She was really great. The guillotines of France were horrible. Sometimes when people get put in a position of power they get scared and accuse everyone around them of treason, it is sad.

“Frrreezing?” “Not Us Bugs!”

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According to bug experts, bugs will be moving into your home to escape the cold weather. So seal all those doors and windows if you don’t want to share your home for the winter. They say that they can also be castaways on furniture, groceries and so on. So you might want to shake out blankets and other things from the garage before you bring them inside. Termites however can not be prevented by closing windows and doors, so you should really have an expert check your house for them so your walls don’t crumble next time you go to paint. Waiting too long makes it harder for the exterminators to deal with it. Because of weather predictions we are expecting more mosquitoes. Lots of excess rainwater plus a warm winter means more baby mosquitoes are born later. Experts are expecting more bugs in houses overall this winter because of the amount of rain, which displaces many bugs looking to stake out the cold underground. So keep an eye out for bugs, they might be staying in your warm house!

Homeschool and Sick Journals 11/13-11/17/17

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This week I was sick. It was not fun, I had a cold, a cough, a fever for some of it, and I missed most of parent observation week at ballet. I did some school though.

I think it must have been hard for Jesus to hang out with Judah all that time. He knew that Judah was going to betray Him, and that He was going to suffer from it. It must have been even harder the days before when He knew Judah was thinking about it, and when He made Judah a disciple. I mean, if I knew the future I might not have told Judah where I was going that night, I personally might have sent him on a loooooong errand that night until I was safe in hiding. Luckily, Jesus is not like me.

Homeschool and Vacation Journals 11/20-11/24/17

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This is Thanksgiving break, but I am catching up in school. So I will be doing school on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. I will also be doing school on Saturday. But I will not write a journal for that because we are doing Thanksgiving on Saturday.

11/21/17

School was hard. I had a test in math, I don’t understand cross multiplying. And I am very frustrated about it. I finished writing my letter to the editor, it was sort of fun. I learned about dialogue uses and formatting this week, it is useful, interesting, and fun.

11/ 22/17

Yesterday we got a package with presents from our grandparents. (On my mom’s side.) It was very nice of them to send us presents for no reason. I am going to write them a thank you letter. I got a really good book of all God’s promises for us. I also got a small shawl, or a very big scarf, depends on how you look at it. (Either way it is very fuzzy.)

I did two spelling days today. I had to spell cay, except it is pronounced key. It is really weird, I got it wrong. I had to spell quay earlier this week. It is also pronounced key.

I did Duolingo. Duolingo is my spanish. It is easier and fun, I like it and it doesn’t take very long. I leveled up today. I’m on level ten now!

I tried to figure out the very frustrating thing in math I had yesterday. I actually had it right. So I did all that work and was frustrated for nothing. Ohh well. At least I had it right. The rest of math was mostly ok.

In LA I had to write a dialogue between a character in a book I had read and myself. (Not my friend.) It was pretty fun but took a lot of time. I wrote it with me talking to JJ, a character in Captain Nobody. (One of my favorite books. I am about to reread it for the thousandth time.) The first couple times I read it, it was weird because we call my grandma on my dad’s side JJ.

11/24/17

We are doing thanksgiving today because mom had to work yesterday. I am also doing school today even though I didn’t yesterday. Which doesn’t really make sense. But I did. I did a math lesson. Which I really didn’t want to do, but I did it anyway. I am all ready for next week except for reading a book which I need to get from the library. So that was today.

Homeschool Journal 10/23-10/26/17

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I was supposed to be taking notes for this week. But I didn’t. It is too late now, and I don’t remember what happened, so I can’t write a journal. I will try harder to take notes from now on. I am going to work on getting my school done on time too. I am sorry.

Vella

Homeschool Journals 11/6-11/9/17

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We are taking a semester break to catch up. It is going to be awesome! I am very excited, if I finish my school I can even have Friday off! So, we have hit the semester point, how exciting! I can’t wait until the holidays too!

11/6/16

I did a math lesson. I practiced factoring and canceling. It is pretty fun. I finished at three when I was supposed to for once. All in all it is going to be a very good day. I divided up all I need to do into four days, and I am about to go clean my room and do my chores. I will probably read a book, and open my library. I am working on the catalog. I just learned that you are not supposed to add a ue to catalog when you are using it in the library kind. Interesting, but sad. I like catalogue personally, but it is underlined in red, even though it is a valid word, just not used in the U.S. as much.

11/7-11/10/17

The rest of this week did not go so well. I have not finished week eight or nine yet. It is mostly hard things left. It is going a lot slower and I got sick on Friday. (I was sick for a week after and I still have the cough.) I had a lot of fun at the bonfire worship night for youth group. I went with some of our neigbors that have kids and go to our church, N and her mom plus L and L down the street. It was incredible. It was at the Hi’s, and we played tag on the lawn.

Homeschool Journals 10/31-11/3/17

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This week I finished my alone reader about Japanese ports opening up. It was historical fiction. I liked it a lot. I can’t wait to start my next reader! I wonder if it will be historical fiction too, it’s my favorite genre.

We have hit the semester mark. Yay! I am a quarter of the way done with school for the year! Wow, if only the rest of the year would go this fast I would be done with the school year in no time! It is almost holiday time too, so much to look forward to.

During electives this week I finished an online course I was taking on how to make your headlines better. It was a very in-depth course and it even covered search engines and key words. It has majorly improved my headlines and I found the course interesting as well. For an example of my newly acquired skills see “Row Row Row your Boat… Democracy Down the Stream” an article I wrote about the possible new trend of diplomats row boating with each other while on business.

Book Reveiw

Rating: * * * * *

Book: Mr. Lemoncello’s Great Library Race by Chris Grabenstein

Reveiw

I think that Mr. Lemoncello’s Great Library Race is another amazing book by Chris Grabenstein. I plan on adding this to my personal shelves right next to the rest of the series. It is a three book series starting with Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library followed by Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olimpics and now making it a terrific trio, Mr. Lemoncello’s Great Library Race! I hope a fourth one is coming soon! Mr. Lemoncello’s Great Library Race is about a third challenge for the team, this time all the players are coming from the board of trustees, and there may be a problem from the past to fix! As mysteries arise from the past about Mr. Lemoncello’s start as a gamemaker it may turn out that Mr. Lemoncello didn’t play fair. It is up to Kyle and friends to find the truth lurking behind the surface. But what they know may ruin Mr. Lemoncello, forever!