Our First Year

Week 33

Thank you to everyone who joined our E-ship Exhibition! The Eagles were excited to share their musical accomplishments and their businesses and booths that they created during the Entrepreneurship Quest.   This week we finished Civilizations for the year with the fall of Rome. The Eagle's insight into the end of the Roman Empire was fascinating. especially regarding the last emperor and his age.   We had a discussion launch this week on Mother's Day and it's history. If you have the time it is quite fascinating to learn about. The Eagles may have some interesting things to say about it.   Ms. Mary delivered the Eagle's musical instruments to their houses this week. Music was extra fun having our harmonica's and recorders to play. The Eagles are showing growth in their musical skills, as evidenced during the Exhibition.   We finished the E-ship quest and The story of My Life Creator's Workshop this week. I appreciate all of the hard work that was put in by the Eagles and those that supported them.   We hope you have a joyous Mother's Day weekend!   Here are the links to Laura's final 2 blogs about being Socratic at home: Step 3 and Final Steps

Week 29

We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these challenging times. We have been having a rewarding and new experience of learning remotely. Luckily for us, we have Eagles who were up to the challenge! It is wonderful to see the Eagles taking charge of their learning and experiences even at home.   The Eagles took on family badges with their families while we were remote for the last part of this session. I am glad to hear everyone is working on them and glad to see that they are coming to fruition. We look forward to awarding family badges at the next Badge Ceremony!   Civilizations this week was about Confucius and the rise of Julius Caesar. We talked mostly about kindness with Confucius and ambition with Caesar. The Eagles were very engaged and had a lot to say about benevolence and ambition. We had wonderful conversations.   We joined an online art class this week with Larry Frates from the Belknap Mill. It was wonderful to see the excellent drawings that the Eagles produced from watching the live stream.   We hope that everyone has a wonderful break! We look forward to our next session and the Entrepreneurship Quest! Together we will tackling the remaining challenges of learning remotely as we move forward in our learning and experiences. Thank you for helping to forge this new path on our collective Hero's Journey!

Here is a link to a great podcast about your child learning from home. What I love about this conversation is that they remind us to look for the moments when your child "loses themselves" in an activity and is experiencing pure joy. Let them have this precious time without interruptions! Yes, we want them to plug away at core skills, but it is more important to be able to follow your heart and your passion and to let your Eagle fully explore something that they find interesting.

Week 28

This has been the first full week of our social distancing and/or quarantine. So far things seem to be going well. We have continued having morning and closing circles, core skills, civilizations, communication, and quest. There has definitely been some adjustment to the new online chat platform, but overall we are trying to keep a similar schedule and activities that the Eagles would have been having in the studio. I am looking forward to hearing about progress on the family badges that the Eagles and families are working on.    For communications, the Eagles wrote stories about someone being kind to them and then learned to write 5 new words in another language. We had words from French, Latin, and Chinese! It was interesting to have such a diverse set of languages.    In civilizations this week we talked about the Mauryan Empire of India and the great King Asoka who swore off violence after he saw how it affected the people. Then headed to China where we talked about Shui Huangdi and the Qin empire and their development of Calligraphy.   We look forward to seeing the Eagles and everyone when we get back to the studio. We hope everyone is happy and healthy. We know things are exceptionally challenging right now. It is hard to step into "guide" role instead of "parent" role and to not help them accomplish their tasks and not answer questions. We encourage you all to remember that our Eagles are capable of greatness and to look for opportunities to let them show you how great they can be! Redirect, redirect, redirect and instead of helping, offer encouragement and growth-mindset praise for effort. A professor of mine once said: "Don't be afraid to let them fail, mostly because when you think everything has gone wrong and it will all fall apart is when they somehow pull it off out of nowhere and it was better than you could have imagined it."   Here is Laura's blog on tips to creating a Family Plan (one of the Family Badges): https://www.actonacademyparents.com/are-you-a-skeptic-of-family-plans/

A look back at some of our favorite memories since August : )

Back when toilet paper wasn't a hot commodity!

Week 27

What an adventure this week has been. We are moving fast and adapting to our new experiences with grace and fortitude. On Monday and Tuesday, we were in the studio.   Monday was a fairly normal day. We launched on COVID-19 focusing on the facts that were available at the time and speaking honestly about our concerns about it. For Quest, we worked on our growing curiosity tree and completed a very exciting experiment. The Eagles had to try to blow up balloons with yeast & Sugar & warm water, vinegar & baking soda, and just the steam from hot water. They had a blast watching the balloons inflate and coming up with hypotheses and questions.   Ms. Anna came for Kindness Class and explored emotions and feelings in the face and body with the Eagles. They were able to look in a mirror to see the emotion and they also played a "Charades" game where they had to get the other Eagles to guess what emotion they were portraying. They practiced asking each other out loud "How are you feeling right now?" once they realized that sometimes they think they know what the other person is feeling but they might not be right. We also added stickers to our Kindness Garden poster for the Eagles' acts of kindness.   On Tuesday we did our music class via Skype. Ms Karen helped us learn about the staff in music and showed us some songs on the guitar. For civilizations, we started talking about the Indus river valley and the civilizations that came up around there. Including the caste system that came up in that area. I will say the Eagles did not like the idea of such a fixed system.   We went on an adventure hike in Ahern State Park and Mr. TJ showed the Eagles some of his outside survivor skills and how to build a fire. The Eagles were also challenged with seeking out the car without using the trail.   Wednesday as we all know we switched to the remote learning processes. The road started a little rocky and we hit some speed bumps a little faster than we wanted to. However, our Eagles seem to be taking the changes well.   On Thursday, we all got together to play some chess with our fellow Eagles and talked about Siddhartha during Civilizations. Quite an interesting tale. the book Siddhartha might be a good read for anyone who is looking to for a reading suggestion while in quarantine (adults, not Eagles!).   Friday was back to core skills and some quest time. Our younger Eagles are still working on the Growing Curiosity Quest while our older Eagle is working on an independent passion project to share with us next Friday. It is always great to hear how everyone's day is going at closing circle and Mr. TJ has been checking in with the Eagles throughout the day. We know that as everyone gets more used to the technology of emails and google hangouts, we should have smoother sailing with the Eagles asking each other and Mr. TJ for help/advice instead of parents! : )     PS - Here is an EXCELLENT blog (from another Acton Academy) on how to bring Montessori materials into your home life: https://www.howwewonder.org/post/setting-up-home-for-success   PPS- Here is a link to Laura's blog, about easing the stress of learning and working from home!

Week 24

We welcomed the Eagles back to the studio this week after their break! For this session will be doing multiple, mini Quests. Our first quest project is called Edison's Lab! This quest is focused on the scientific process and inquisition. We started by practicing our observational skills and then started working towards solving problems. We learned about multiple "hero" scientists and choose Avatars to embody while on the quest. On Wednesday we learned how pullies work and then were challenged with making a pulley system to pull Mr. TJ's car across the parking lot! It was challenging and quite fun.   We are VERY excited to be introducing a new Kindness/Mindfullness Class to Monday and Friday mornings. Ms. Anna was a hit with the Eagles and she taught them how to pay attention on the inside (breathing and emotions) and on the outside (what is happening around me that is influencing me). The Eagles noticed how calm they felt when they were breathing deeply. They also planted seeds in flower pots and had to wait their turn to use the dirt, seeds, and water. They were asked to really focus on how that made them feel on the inside to have to wait their turn. They are all excited to watch their flowers grow!   In Music this week the Eagles practiced more recorder work and kept working on their piano skills. They started to learn chords and what they mean.   In PE the Eagles worked on counting using dice to pick their workouts. Ms Sherry is showing us how learning never stops.   In Art, we didn't have Miss Sanni this week so Mr. TJ helped the eagles work on learning how and why inventors create patent drawings. The Eagles were able to draw patents and really appreciate the details involved!   In civilizations we learned about the Romans. We heard stories about their Gods, in particular the story about Persephone. We also learned how they made nice roads (which were unheard of in those days), aqueducts, public baths and apartment buildings. They also were the first civilization to erect "milestones" or road signs on their roads so that people would know which direction they were going and how many miles they had to go. They invented concrete which helped them build their 5 story apartment buildings. We discussed which of the Roman inventions we thought was the most important and why.   This week's adventure was a trip to Rambling View Farm in Gilford, a beautiful area for a hike. There are cross country ski and XC mountain bike trails there if you are looking for a place to adventure in any season.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRY

Drawing Patents!

Can they figure it out?!?

Yes they did!! Success!

Week 22

We had the completion of our quest tournament on Monday. It has been a lot of fun during Chess Quest learning and playing along with the Eagles!   We had a great launch on the Definition of Excellence and how it is a moving target, also how it surpasses the common or ordinary.   In Civilizations we learned about the ancient people of the Americas. We looked at photos of the Nazca drawings and the Eagles were excited about the mystery of what they could possibly mean. We also read about the statue heads of the Olmecs. We discussed if we had lived in that time and were poor, would you have farmed food for the rich people in order to stay in society or would you have moved away to live by yourself and have freedom but need to rely on yourself for survival? We also discussed if the ancient people came to see the world as it is today, would they have liked what we have done with the land and with civilization or not?   In Music we practiced our piano pieces for the Exhibition concert and we also played our ukuleles and worked on reading music.   On Wednesday we spent time getting ready for the exhibition. This exhibition was tough to plan because so much of our work involved being present in the studio and it was hard to show off everything we did.    Thursday we finished our exhibition prep after we did our usual Thursday activities. PE was very fun as always with fun Valentine's Day-themed games, relay races, tag, and balancing on big yoga balls. Art was focused on finishing up our final drafts of our self-portraits.    Friday was clean up after the exhibition and the last push for core skills. We also spent time reflecting on how the Exhibition went and what could've been done better/ in a different way.   We had a very special Valentine's Day Lunch Party - Mr TJ made everyone banana pancakes!   Our morning launch today was a debate about whether or not you can learn things outside of school. The Eagle were very insistent that they can (and do) learn a lot outside of school - which is exactly what we were hoping for! During vacation week the Eagles have been challenged to learn 1 new thing.   Here is a link to a TEDX talk given by the owner of an Acton Academy in Idaho: http://bit.ly/39AS5kV

Making bread for Exhibition!

Valentine's Day Pancake Lunch!

Cutting books out for Exhibition!

Trying out human chess! They made a BIG board on the floor!

Week 21

This week for adventure we went on our pitch-a-field trip adventure to Fun Spot. In order to earn this field trip the Eagles had to write a persuasive essay that included how the trip would be educational. We will have this Essay to check out at our Exhibition at the end of the session! I must say our Eagles showed us what they are made of. I am proud to say all of the Eagles behaved like true Acton Eagles being kind, respectful, and helpful throughout the entire trip.   We had a great morning launch on Monday about good and bad apologies. We discussed how one little word can make sure a huge difference: "I am sorry but" vs. "I am sorry and". Using the word "but" almost negates the entire apology. We also discussed how much your tone matters when apologizing.   For quest we learned more about strategy and setting up checkmates using fancy piece combinations. At music we practiced our instruments (harmonica and piano this time) like always. I am proud of the progress we are seeing in the Eagles' musical abilities.   In Civilizations we learned more about Alexander the Great and we discussed "Would the Empire have been better if Alexander had been older when he became King instead of only being 20? Or does age not matter?" It was a very good conversation!   Here is a link to Laura's most recent blog post - warning, it is a heavy one! https://www.actonacademyparents.com/from-hell-to-hero/

Harmonicas!

Doing the obstacle course!

Week 20

A week full of accomplishments! The Eagles have had stellar focus on their core skills over the last 5 days with what we think might be the most points earned in one week ever. They all showed how much they have become Eagles and can work to accomplish goals. We kicked off on Monday with a morning launch about how much focus can matter and we watched a failed, unmanned space launch and a video of Kobe Bryant talking about "being in the zone".   In music Ms Karen had us working on our rhythms and practicing the recorder. In art, Miss Sanni had us work on our second draft of our self-portraits after practicing eyes, noses, and lips. The Eagles have also been given random scribbles and shapes on a paper and have had to use their imaginations to turn them into drawings of something meaningful. This has been a super fun exercise, although we had to put up privacy screens to deter copying other's ideas. In PE Ms Sherry ran us through a very fun obstacle course and had us working on our coordination using a ball and a wedge mat.   Mr. TJ shared a new way to handle studio disputes (called VOMP), and the Heroes took to it immediately: Voice - tell your side of the story Own - take ownership of what the other person said. This is how you made them feel, whether you meant to or not. Make a Plan - how will you move forward and/or handle differently in the future?   In Quest, our chess tournament has started! So far everyone has played one game each. I think this will be a close tournament. The games were pretty tight on Wednesday.   In Writer's Workshop, we are working on picture books. So far everyone has a story written and we will start sharing and giving each other feedback on Tuesday. The Eagles are loving the freedom of writing any creative story they can imagine.   In Civilizations we learned about Alexander the Great and his father Philip. The Eagles were asked if he was destined to be the ruler of the biggest kingdom in the world or did he make a path for himself by working towards accomplishing his goals? We learned about the 3rd Great Wonder of the Ancient World: The Lighthouse of Alexandria that stood 330 ft tall!   On Friday to end the week strong we had a morning launch about focusing on your goal until the very end! We watched a video of Lindsey Jacob Ellis snowboarding at the Olympics when she was so far ahead of the competition but broke her focus and ended up falling and earning a Silver Medal instead of the Gold. The Eagles talked about how important it is to stay in the zone all the way until the finish line with whatever goal you are pursuing.

Obstacle course at gym!!

Gratitudes at the end of the day and making a yarn star   Journaling during morning SAVERS routine   Art class with Ms. Sanni - privacy blockers up = no copying!

Gaga ball at the park : )   Cleaning recorders at the end of music class!

Week 19

The week started with a lack of focus, then ended very strong with stellar focus and effort!!   On Tuesday in music we learned a new song on the piano and practiced the same song on the ukulele and rhythm for it on the drums. During art, we continued working on our skills drawing faces adding lips and working more on noses and eyes. I look forward to seeing where these skills take us.   In PE, we played all sorts of fun games and did our usual warm-ups. The Eagles are showing how in shape they are.   We walked to the Laconia Library and everyone received a library card and choose books to take out and bring home. The Eagles were VERY excited about this trip and proud of their book selections.   During Civilizations we learned more about the Greeks and the Peloponnessian War. We talked about what is more important for a society: to make great architecture (what the Greeks are known for) or inventions?   In Quest, we have been plugging away at chess and I (Mr. TJ) am losing a lot more then I would like to admit.   During one of our morning launches we watched President Kennedy's speech from 1962 at Rice University where he announced that we would be attempting to go to the moon. We focused on the message from the speech that "We are not accepting this challenge because it is easy, we are doing it because it is hard and challenges that are hard are worth pursuing". We also watched a video on Grit that reiterated that learning is hard work and the key to success is trying again when things don't go your way. The Eagles then demonstrated persistence and resilience by trying to knock over Mr TJ and not giving up and having to try again.   We celebrated a Birthday this week with cookies on Wednesday!   All in all a great and fun week. Thank you to all who participated in the Journey Meetings. Reflection is always valuable and hopefully you have enjoyed the information gained in those meetings.   Here is a link to Laura's Blog this week: https://www.actonacademyparents.com/a-parenting-mindset-shift-to-free-you/

Below the Eagles try to knock over Mr TJ with perseverance and resilience.

Chess Quest! Play against the computer or each-other!

Week 16

It has been quite a whirlwind in our final week in the session. We want to start by thanking everyone who came to the Exhibition & Holiday Party and supported our Eagles. We also want to thank all those who supported our Eagles in numerous other ways we can't even begin to count.   The Stop Animation Quest was a success and we are very proud of the Eagles' final video. You can watch their video here: Eagles stopmotion   In Writer's Workshop we continue to work on persuasive writing with the topic of "Pitch a Field Trip". Seeing as this session was so short, we will bring this WW into the first couple weeks of next session to make sure there is enough time for the final product. We also talked about rhetoric and we "built a house" for making good persuasive arguments. ( Picture below of the "house" drawing).   In Civilizations we read about the early Greeks. We imagined that we were inventing a tool that was to be used for farming but then someone figured out it could also be used as a weapon. Would you still invent the tool?   This week in Music we had a lovely holiday party and played musical chairs. We also practiced our percussion skills focusing mostly on dynamics and contrast in our music.   In Art, we did another snowflake based project and worked on developing visible patterns.   In PE we played more games based around winter, practiced our tumbling and received a very kind gift from Ms. Sheri.   We took a trip to the Laconia Library and everyone received a library card! The Eagles are excited and had fun reading in the sailboat in the children's room.

Zoom in below to see the picture of the "rhetoric house"

Parent Coffee Friday!