John L – Page 8 – Homeschool Son

My Trip to Florida

The car trip took about 22hrs.

It was me, dad, and Christine.

Altogether dad drove 1,316 miles!

I read lots of books, and I mean a lot!

We got a library card at the Naples library.

I stopped at my dad’s friend’s house in Orlando and my aunt’s house in Bradenton.

When we got to our condo we rented, we unpacked and went straight to the pool.

On Friday we picked up Mom at McDonald’s and saw my friend’s basketball game.

After about 5 days Mom left.

Our house was really nice, it had 3 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 3 bathrooms, one living room, and a view of an artificial lake.

Did I forget to mention I went to Legoland?

I went on three roller coasters (all ones Christine could go on, there was only one parent).

There was USA Miniland with buttons that you press and the figures do something.

I went to driving school and the Water Stunt Show.

And the Big Test show, too.

A week after Mom left she came back.

And at a restaurant I lost my third tooth.

We went to the beach several times too.

I went to a waterpark once.

On the way back mom came we went to Legoland, again!

This time I went on almost everything!

The trip took 4 days.

And I just lost my 4th tooth!

By John L| March 9th, 2012|florida, fun, lego|0 Comments

The Gold Rush

Yesterday I did a report on the Gold Rush.

Every month we do a report on a different topic in American history.

We forgot to bring my dad’s gold coin though!

It’s weighs 1/2 ounce and is worth $800 – $900.

By John L| January 24th, 2012|Gold rush, history, homeschooling|1 Comment

My Favorite Year – 2011

My Favorite Year: 2011!

Today is New Year’s Eve, and I am really sad that 2011 is over. This was my favorite year, 2011. We did all sorts of fun things. I learned about new games, learned new sites, and went to many places.

I got a YouTube account. I won four trophies: Soccer, Baseball, Chess, and Pinewood Derby for Cub scouts. I got my biggest Lego set, Lego Mindstorms, my most powerful Pokémon – Zoroak.

Here are all the places I went: Kalahari (Ohio) for a homeschooling conference, Naples, Florida, Universal Studios, many visits to Nana’s and Southampton, we visited Cohasset, where we used to live. I went to Wildwood, NJ, York, Maine (for my cousin’s wedding).

I lost my first tooth. I got glasses.

I started to learn Spanish, I got much better at Chess this year.

I went to three camps this year: Chess, Cub Scouts and Summer Center. I made lots of new friends, through camps, cub scouts and homeschooling groups.

My new neighbors finally moved in. But I didn’t meet them yet.

I read all the 39 Clues Books, I had a Pokémon Birthday party. I still love Lego’s, playing Chess on the computer. I got 10,000 hits on my blog!

I am sad that 2011 is over, but we are going to a friend’s house to celebrate tonight. And tomorrow we will list all the great things we are going to do in 2012.

By John L| December 31st, 2011|Uncategorized|1 Comment

Christmas 2011

Christmas was 6 days ago.

I got Mighty Beanz 6 Pack, LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0, Wheel of Fortune, Monopoly Deal, a cap, a rock tumbler,
Set, LEGO minifigures, Rory’s Story Cubes, books, and there are so many I can’t remember the rest.

My favorite was LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 because you can build and program a robot.

I built a ShooterBot that shoots balls!

You can make sounds and make it sense things to!

It can move!

It can feel!

It can sense colors and light!

It can see!

By John L| December 31st, 2011|christmas, holidays, lego mindstorm|0 Comments

ChessKid.Com

This is ChessKid.com.

Chesskid.com is like Chess.com.

You learn and play chess.

But there are fewer things. They do not have Chess Mentor and the daily puzzle.

My 30 minute rating is 694.

My name is OldKid.

My club is Challenger Chess Club.

Now you can join and play me if you dare!

By John L| December 21st, 2011|chess, fun|0 Comments

New 39 Clues Book and a Fun Game

This is the new 39 Clues – A King’s Ransom

I got the book from the library.

It was very exciting.

I already finished it!

There are about 14 books in this mystery series and I read them all!

I also got this great game called 10 Days In Europe.

You have to start with a country and end with a country.

Say you start with Belgium. You can walk to any border country of Belgium.

Say you start with Belgium again. And you have a yellow plane. You can fly to any country with the same color.

Say you have England. And you have the Atlantic ocean. You can take a boat to a country touching the Atlantic ocean.

If you play this game you will definitively learn European geography!

By John L| December 13th, 2011|39 clues, fun, games|0 Comments

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever – Book Review

This is the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever.

It’s the 6th book in the series.

When I tried to check it out at the library, they would not let me because it was new and I needed to live in Port Washington. In fact it was just released yesterday.

But when we got home my parents pre-ordered it.

It’s really funny. The Heffley family is stuck indoors because of a big blizzard. I’ll tell you more but I do not want to give away the story.

It took me around 1 – 2 hours to read it.

By John L| November 17th, 2011|books|0 Comments

Chess Update

Recently my father signed up for Chess.com.

Chess.com is a website that helps you get better at chess, a place to play live games with people from all over the world, and it’s even sort of a social network.

There’s tactics, blitz chess, quizzes, and a lot more features.

My father lets me use his account.

At first we had a free membership.

Then he bought a Diamond membership for $99 so we can get everything!

I have an account on http://www.chesskid.com.

My father’s rating is 1061. If you want to play with him his ID is CyberScholar.

My rating on Chesskid.com is 494. If you want to play me my ID is OldKid.

By John L| October 27th, 2011|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Karate

I’m learning karate on Wednesdays.

Karate teaches how to defend yourself.

My favorite part is when we play ninja dodgeball.

It’s mostly boys but there are a few girls.

Watch this to see me destroy the assistant in sumo wrestling from last year.

So that’s why he didn’t come last week to our first class this fall, because he was afraid of me!

By John L| October 13th, 2011|karate|0 Comments

Español

I’m learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone.

Rosetta Stone is a software program that you download and it teaches you Spanish.

I do it everyday.

You can also learn any language with Rosetta Stone.

Just switch the language.

You can learn Italian, German, French, Brazilian, and all of the above!

I have learned how to say: boy, girl, egg, apple, man, woman, newspaper, bicycle, dad, mom, child, run, sleep, and a lot more!

un niño

una niña

un huevo

la manzana

un hombre

una mujer

un periódico

la bicicleta

un padre

un madre

un hermano

corre

duerme

y mucho mas

By John L| October 4th, 2011|spanish|0 Comments

Maker’s Faire

Last Saturday I went to the Maker’s Fair with my family.

The Maker’s Fair is a huge gathering of cool designers, inventors, and builders at the New York Hall of Science.

It was fun because I got to participate in all sorts of activities.

At first I we stopped at a little stand that had these little LED art kits, you just made a little drawing and took a LED and used sticky little things to keep it on.

Then I built a little rocket and launched it.

It went 7 meters!

Then I went to this big tent and saw all sorts of robots (see video):

Then I checked out a few things and left.

By John L| September 29th, 2011|fun, robotics|0 Comments

My Thoughts On Homeschooling

I am homeschooled.

I love homeschooling because:

You get more free time.
You don’t have to be sitting down all day, it’s bad for your body.
You can skip ahead to the hard stuff.
You can go to the bathroom so you don’t have to cross your legs all day (just kidding for that part).
No homework.
You get more fresh air and outside time.
There are many events and classes with other homeschool kids.
Schools teach things that are not true (like global warming).

P.S. my dad taught me some of these.

There is nothing I don’t like about homeschooling.

Someday a lot more kids would be homeschooled!

By John L| September 21st, 2011|homeschooling|0 Comments

Wedding Trip

5 days ago I drove to Maine for my dad’s cousin’s wedding.

It took us 6 hours to get there.

I went with my mom, my dad, and my sister but my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins were there too!

It was my first wedding!

Mom and dad went to the party and I had a babysitter.

On the first day we went to hotel, when we got there we went to the beach (see picture above), and then we went out to dinner. We ate pizza.

On the second day, after breakfast we got ready and went to the wedding. My parents went to the reception but there were no kids allowed. Then we went back to our hotel and the baby sitter came. She took us to the playground and then to the arcade. I won 390 tickets!

On the third day, we went out for breakfast again and said goodbye to everyone.

On the way home we stopped at my mom’s friend’s beach house in New Hampshire.

By John L| September 14th, 2011|fun, vacation, wedding|0 Comments