Noah is 12

Noah celebrated his birthday in Noah style:  helping with the cake in the morning, eating lunch with two robotics partners, playing in the basement, jumping at AirTime, and completing the day with sushi, another cake, gits and of course a quick wrestle with Dad.  When Bob put Noah to bed, Noah said: "I am happy." Could not ask for any more...

Year End Celebration

On Monday evening, we celebrated the end of the school year for CC.
Noah was recognized for his Memory Master achievement. He participated with all the other Foundations and Essentials children as they sang the Time Line Song.
Lukas drew Asia on a white board while some of this classmates presented a Fallacy skit.
This marks the end of an era for our family, we no longer will have any children in Foundations and Essentials. The Severinghaus family is facing the Challenge!

Sunglasses

The sun is finally showing up, and Noah took extra precaution to protect his beautiful green eyes.

Just an ordinary school day

Bob and Noah talked calculus using the white board, marker and string. Lukas drilled Latin vocabulary words and polished a paper. Just an ordinary school day when everyone is feeling a bit under the weather.

Confused calendar

April 22, 2015 and snow - does not make sense... we are truly confused.

Dissection

On Monday, Lukas and his fellow classmates in Challenge A dissected sheep hearts and pigs. After the initial 'ick' factor, all of them along with their attending siblings, dug in - pardon the pun. They poked, prodded, cut, snipped, sliced and diced, explored and observed.  The weeks spent practicing drawing and labeling body systems were bearing fruit, Lukas was able to identify and observe much.
Noah's major job was to take pictures and he performed beautifully. At one point, he did sit down to cut and prod but preferred his photojournalism role in this seminar.

Robo Raiders do it again

Robo Raiders Jr team competed in late March and captured first prize in the local competition. Robo Raider Sr competition was held on Saturday. Lukas had battled a bad case of the flu/cold all week and worked on 'fumes and medicine,'  yet wanted to test out the robot and see what it could do.  After two rounds, much waiting, some reprogramming and adjusting, the Robo Raider Sr team took home third place!   The team had already agreed that regardless of outcome this was the one and only competition for the season. Relieved, surprised, overjoyed Lukas headed back home to rest - after a quick stop at a local ice cream parlor for a blizzard.

Two teams, two award placements, one coach - maybe the coach is the secret sauce? Well done, Bob coaching, tutoring, encouraging, equipping and prodding the teams to produce their best!

Final Memory Master

Noah once again completed the requirements for Memory Master. He memorized all the states and capitals in the US along with many additional geographical features, all our Presidents, 161 events in a chronological timeline, 24 sentences about mainly US history, 8 parts of the human body and the first 12 elements of the periodic table, latin rules and John 1:1-7 in both English and Latin, a bunch of English grammar; and all the multiplications tables to 15 along with squares, cubes, conversions between the 'more superior' metric system and the US system and basic math law. All in all, it was over 400 pieces of information that he was able to retain, repeat and recite four times without a mistake.
This was not Noah's first Memory Master, but it was his last. He has several t-shirts commemorating his past accomplishment and seemed pretty cavalier about this one. Maybe Mama was taking it harder, no more Foundations and Essentials students in the SILL Academy.

Well done Noah!

Now what....

Now that the large screen TV no longer functioned as a TV, it beckoned to be explored, dissambled and reduced to its lowest common parts. The boys had a fantastic time poking, prodding, unscrewing and unbolting parts. In their own words, this is the best.
Why this sudden change in role for this big behemoth? Another donation of yet another large screen TV that arrived on Sunday, providing ample time for fun and discovery on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Sun burn

The boys found a new use for the large screen TV, or more precisely the screen. It easily snapped out of the holder and up the stairs they hoisted it for some sun experiments. The sun warmed their toes, and even left a burn mark on a piece of paper. A good kind of sun burn, involving no sun screen nor any blisters.

Package, and it shakes...

A large green envelope arrived unexpectedly. As the boys scanned the stamps they could not contain their excitement, it hailed from Sweden. Based on past experiences, packages from Sweden includes tasty treat and this one did not disappoint.... Thank you Uncle Niclas!

Finally!

On Sunday, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the sky was gleaming blue, so the boys felt it was the perfect opportunity to use our patio set again. They set the table and carried all the food out, so that we could enjoy a nice warm leisurely Sunday dinner outside.  We were reminded that it is only April as it got a bit chilly when the sun hid behind our neighbor's house, but we chased the chill away with sweatshirts. A fun way to being the outdoor season.