Monkey Broke!
We've had ER visits before, but this is our first girl in a cast!

Monkey's sporting a cheery green cast! And everybody's loving
fruit pops for snack during our lessons at the park day.

Just when Monkey had really made progress in her hurdling technique and her coach was getting excited about her being competition ready, her foot caught on a hurdle during practice and she nosedived instead of sprinting onward. She walked away with a broken arm and an impressive looking bruise on her face. The bruise healed quickly, but she was in the cast for about a month. She handled her limitations beautifully (sitting out her first track meet, no more hurdling, no pool, no beach, no water play with neighbors), but she is thrilled to be out of the cast now! All kinds of learning experiences here: x-rays, bone setting, how to make a splint versus a cast, what tools they use to take it off . . . This totally counts as a health credit, right?

Track Stars in the Making!
The girls are loving being on the track team, and they're taking it very seriously (which is good because it's a big commitment--1 1/2-hour practices three times a week, then meets every Saturday). They're participating in a USATF team (the organization that handles the US Olympic track and field team), so they'll find out if they qualify to compete in the Junior Olympics at the end of the season. Actually going to the Junior Olympics isn't a possibility due to a conflict, but it'll be fun to know how they stack up!

Everybody needs a good pump up song before a track meet! Crazy train is Lion's personal favorite:


 Since Monkey broke her arm, she had to drop hurdles (too much risk of re-injury during the healing process), but she's still competing in three sprints: 100m, 200m, and 400m. The broken arm and a couple weeks of shin splints (she didn't tell us or her coaches until it was bad enough to leave her in tears after a race!) threw her off her groove, but she's recovered from both now and can hopefully further improve her times. At their last meet, she made a personal record in the 400m, and she was slim seconds away from finishing in the top three.

Bug decided to focus on the throwing events--she's competing in both discus and shot put. It's her first season attempting these, and there's a lot of technique involved in both, but she's making great progress. She's really enjoying being part of a smaller training group and getting one-on-one coaching from both Coach J and Daddy (he throws in the Highland games, not track & field, but the mechanics are pretty much the same). She is still competing in one race, though. She's been sprinting the 200m, but recently switched to running the 800m (she prefers the distance runners' workout routine, and thinks she'd enjoy running the longer distance competition more).

Science, not track related, but here you go! Bug got a new
sewing machine, so obvious they had to dissect the old one!

Lion is obviously part of the distance group--she runs the 800m and 1500m. She placed first in the 1500m at two of the meets, and she's continuing to improve her times! She started the season competing in long jump as well, but decided to cut back to just her running events. The track meets happen during the worst heat of the afternoon, and it was really taking its toll on Lion. Standing out the blazing sun to do the long jump in between her runs proved to be too much. She wasn't doing as well, and more importantly at this stage, she wasn't having fun. Now that she can sit in the shade and sip Gatorade between races, she's a much happier (and faster) camper!

History as Told by the Entourage
For our history curriculum we've been reading through the Story of the World books and creating illustrated note cards. It was a good system, but the girls got bored. Then they became interested in making videos using an old camera and asked if they could combine the two and create videos related to our history readings. Brilliant! (Now in addition to taking notes, they're writing scripts, assigning parts, creating sets, props, and figuring out camera angles and pacing, and being generally very creative and resourceful!) Here are some of their most recent creations:

Empress Theodora (Parts 1-3)

The Gupta Dynasty of India (I didn't even man the camera for this one!):

And this is apparently what happens if you leave Lion unsupervised with a smart phone:

Gotta love fish lens selfies!