Happy 11th Birthday, Alex!

by Sandra Foyt on August 23, 2010 in tradition | 0 Comments

alex_birthday2 Born in late August, my son rarely gets much of a celebration on his actual birthday. Often, we’re far from home on the big day, and one year that I’ll be hearing about forever, we were backpacking thirteen miles in pouring rain. We have set the bar way low for his birthday.

Today, on his eleventh birthday, all Alex wanted was to be at home, doing nothing in particular. Instead, he had to suffer through a day in paradise.

After a late morning spent reading one of the Harry Potter books in bed, we headed out to Bad Ass, a coffee shop with free WiFi. For almost two hours, he played an online game, Roblox, without interruption.

This was followed by a little bit of shopping, not one of his favorite activities, but it netted him a cool Shark waterproof watch that he wanted. Actually, I wanted him to have the watch because the next activity on his daylong wish list was to be allowed to go out on his own to ramble around the Frenchman’s Reef Resort where he planned to sneak into the pools. I wasn’t worried about him sneaking into the pool area. I’d already tested that out the previous day, but I was concerned that he might lose track of time and we’d be late for dinner.

Alex got a real kick out of keeping track of time on his cool surfer dude watch, and was back in exactly one hour as we had agreed. Considering the layout of the resort, and the fact that he took a dip in each of the four pools, that is nothing short of amazing.

Our next stop was Hull Bay Hideout, home of the islands best hamburgers, but we had to change our plans when we discovered that the restaurant recently started closing on Mondays and Tuesdays. Instead, we moved on to Sib’s, another nearby restaurant that also makes decent burgers.

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This restaurant features a festive outdoor patio where we were soon comfortably ensconced, awaiting our dinner, when we were hit with what appears to be a recurring theme on Alex’s birthdays, pouring rain.

The rain didn’t dampen our celebration, but we moved our party indoors to a hastily constructed private area near the bar. Alex loved getting gifts of cash and cake, and we enjoyed a fun meal with family and friends. All in all, it was a fun birthday, and certainly it was way better than hiking thirteen miles in freezing rain!

alex_birthday

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Wait Listed at BlogHer 2010

by Sandra Foyt on August 3, 2010 in Blogging 101 | 6 Comments

Despite my usual procrastination, somehow I managed to get off the wait list for THE blogging event of the year, BlogHer 2010. Yay! I’m going to New York City, where mommy bloggers and bloggers who are not mommies will party like it’s 1999. Not I, however, and it’s my own damn fault for putting things off till the last minute.

Being new to this conference, which seems to be in a league of its own, I didn’t understand about BlogHer Progressive Parties. By the time I made sense of the party listings, with all its unicorns and cheeseburgers, spots in all the Saturday night parties were all taken. I’ll get to party alright, but not where sequins and paper bag hats are mandatory, and not on Saturday night. Maybe I’ll get lucky, or maybe I’ll be like the Christmas orphan with my face pressed against the window looking in.

While I’m waiting to see if I’ll make it off the party wait lists; here is my proposed BlogHer panel schedule for your amusement (and so I can remember what I planned to do!)

Friday, August 6, 2010

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Now where will I wear my dragon costume?

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Social Media Training with The Challenge 2010

July 31, 2010

If it’s August, it’s time for another 30 Day Challenge from Ed Dale. And, once again, I’m scrambling to learn all about the neat new high-tech social media gadgets.  I really wish they would do this program another month, when I’m not traveling, but at least I’ll try to at least check in and pick [...]

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Learning Is Cool At Disney

July 15, 2010

One of the reasons I love Disney World is that kids learn while they are having fun, without even realizing that there might just be an educational component.
Spaceship Earth at Epcot in Disney World
The Spaceship Earth attraction at Epcot is a 16-minute omnimover ride through history that “depicts the stirring story of human connection [...]

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Individualized Home Instruction Plan, Grade 5

July 8, 2010

Here we go again.  This year, I’m bulk mailing this form along with my Letter of Intent to Homeschool, the final 4th Grade Quarterly Report, the 4th Grade Annual Assessment, and the California Achievement Test Results.

Name: Alex
Age: 11
Grade Level: Fifth Grade
Dates for submittal of Quarterly Reports:

September 30, 2010
December 30, 2010
March 31, 2011
June 30, 2011

Individual [...]

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Quarterly Report 4th Grade IV and Annual Assessment

July 8, 2010

Name: Alex
Blog Website: http://leperdy.com
Grade: 4th
Hours of instruction this quarter: 225
Arithmetic: Alex completed Singapore 4B. This quarter he covered: Congruent and Symmetric Figures; Coordinate Graphs and Changes in Quantities; Data Analysis and Probability; and Measures and Volume. He is making excellent progress in Math.
English Language Arts: Alex read several books that he discussed with his [...]

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Testing Is A Popular Subject On This Blog

June 16, 2010

I just created a blog box  (see the sidebar) of the most popular posts on this blog in the past year.  Some of the posts were written as far back as 2007, but they continue to garner the most attention.
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprising, the articles about testing seem to draw in the most [...]

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Total Teen Drama Action Played Out On Facebook

June 14, 2010

Parenting a teenager is a rocky road, but with Facebook in the mix, we’re traversing boulders.
This weekend, a classmate informed her Facebook friends that my daughter is a “fake ass hoe.” Of course, I was upset to discover this about my child and I’d thank the classmate for her advice, but I’m afraid that [...]

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Homeschool To Harvard

May 28, 2010

 
Homeschooling is all about being open to possibilities.  Never setting boundaries to the imagination or to expectations.  This young lady embodies the limitless potential that is the homeschool experience. Kudos to her, and her family.

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New York Homeschool Test Rules Are As Clear As Mud

May 25, 2010

I’ve been trying to figure out the rules regarding homeschool assessments for the three years that we’ve been homeschooling.  Last year, I thought I had it figured out when I wrote Assessments and the Homeschooled Student.  And I did, but I left a couple of items unclear.
Although I stated:
However, on alternate years, homeschooled students in [...]

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