Good morning everyone! I woke up with another killer headache, after Dave's alarm went off at 5am! Seriously, what was he thinking? I couldn't go back to sleep so we got up and started our day with a walk, enjoying the cloud cover and cool breeze. The moon was still up and looked beautiful. Last night we were at the Chandler Prep homecoming game. We worked the concessions stand that was benefitting the softball team. It was fun to see former students and their parents. I've developed a lot of friendships with the parents of students I've taught; I know I've said it before, but for you new families, I hope you will come to see that it's a wonderful community here. The football team came back in the final three minutes to win the game, so that was exciting. My plans for this weekend include a ton of grading. But don't worry, after the game Rita told me that she needed to be at school for a few hours today to decorate for the dance! Yea, I get to go to school on a Saturday!

I also need to do some major cleaning because we've decided to host another exchange student. Dave and I met through the Rotary exchange program, both having spent a year abroad, so we always wanted to host some students when our house started emptying. We had a student from Japan a couple years ago, but then my daughter moved back home before getting married, so our rooms were full again. Now I have two empty rooms and we're ready to host again. I'm super excited this time because Mrs. Shroll is going to host a student from the same group. We live only a couple blocks from each other, so I'm hoping our boys will be friends and we can do things with them together. But, hosting a student means cleaning upstairs, which my former families may recall I affectionately call "the pit of despair". I have some great kids, but I really failed in teaching them how to clean. I wonder how much laundry I'll do up there this weekend? With only two still at home it can't be too much, right? Wish me luck.

That's about it besides getting my lovely Rita to and from the dance tonight. They're going to downtown Chandler for photos before dinner, so I think I'll make a date night out of it, too. Let's take a look at the short week ahead.

Language Arts
     Grammar - This week we will finish learning about adjectives and will start our first lesson on composition writing. Our first essay, which they will begin next week, will tie into our history unit; the students will be writing about Charlemagne's leadership in medieval times. So this week we will write an introductory paragraph about virtues together to teach them the various parts that should be included in these opening paragraphs.

     Literature - We'll read from chapters 8-12 this week in Pollyanna. I hope you'll find the students playing "the Glad Game" around the house a little bit. It's the way in which Pollyanna finds the silver lining in every situation, no matter how challenging.

     Poetry - Don't forget that memorizing "Ozymandius" should be part of the nightly homework. It's not due until the 27th, but I've already had 5 students recite it; they memorized it in a week!

     Philosophy - This week's discussion will be on friendship.

Math - We're into unit 2 now, which is just working through the various operations with numbers up to six digits. This week our focus will be on estimation.

Science - We will begin our magnetism unit on Tuesday, always a fun time of discovery for the students.

History - We have learned about the fall of the Western Roman Empire (ask the kids if they can tell you the reasons or events that led to the fall of one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen) and the reasons why the times following its fall became known as the Dark Ages (again, worth a discussion at home). This week we'll move into the split the of the two churches and how the members of the religious communities impacted society.

I think that's it. Don't forget that it's a 4-day week. It's the first time in 10 years that we've taken a day off for the Great Hearts Summit. The number of employees has grown so much that we're splitting up onto different campuses this year. I'm happy that our school is one of the locations! It's always fun to meet up with some old friends from other schools. Plus, we're going out afterward to celebrate Mrs. Scott's birthday, which is Sunday. Should be a fun day!

Have a super weekend; hope the kids enjoy the extra day off.