This month has been full of snow and has
allowed us to perhaps spend more time in doors getting on with a few
things we needed to catch up on after a busy December. It has also been
fun walking in the snow and enjoying the beautiful blue skies and white
landscape.
Jack started his Berklee Online Music
School class on Orchestration I and is really enjoying it and so far
getting good grades for his assignments. He dropped volunteering at one
of our local libraries to allow him more time to do this. I have a
feeling we shall be signing him up for another class in April.
January marked the final month in our US Government study, which we
started with a small group of four homeschoolers, including Jack. This
month we have concentrated on county and municipal government as well
as looking at the Bill of Rights and the history of civil rights. We
visited the Belvidere County Courthouse and met with Under Sheriff
Frank Stettner. We saw all the workings of a courthouse including jury
selection in the criminal court and a tour of the civil court room. The
same day we also met with one of the Warren County freeholders, Rick
Gardener. We concluded the study by looking at the Women's Suffrage
Movement, briefly reviewing the entire course and meeting and
questioning one of our township committee men, John Fisher. This has
been an outstanding class and both students and their mentors have
learned a great deal about how government operates in the US and how
people can get involved.
Our focus now turns to a new project "The Energy Economy," which
runs from February until June. This project has been funded with
a $4,000 grant from local power provider PPL. We are all pretty excited about
this and it will be possible to start following a special blog created
for the project in February to see what we are doing. The photograph
below is the formal check presentation by Alana Roberts, the PPL
Community Outreach Specialist.
Jack has continued to enjoy his Novel in a Year program and will soon
be starting a new course "Other Worlds", which is about fantasy/science
fiction writing. He particularly enjoyed meeting with author and
playwright Bill Mesce at a local library program and has decided to
enter the playwriting contest for teens, that Bill started a number of
years ago. Whilst Jack was enjoying this program, Phil and I enjoyed a
production of "Throughly Modern Millie" at the local middle school,
starring Amy Vonder Haar as Millie. Amy, is one of our homeschoolers,
who sadly we shall be losing into the school system very soon. Her
performance was outstanding!
At the end of the month, we got to attend a concert at the Zoellner
Arts Center, which is part of the Lehigh University Music
Department in PA. It was Jack's first opportunity to enjoy a
professional orchestra. The Monocacy Chamber Orchestra performed
Vivaldi's Four Seasons as well as a more modern take on it by Astor
Piazzolla, "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires". We loved the
performance, most especially the more modern piece with it's tango beat
and occasional echos of Vivali.
We are launching our 25th Wedding Anniversary Album this month, and
through the year we plan to tell our story through pictures.
Once Upon a Time
there was a little girl called Lorna
and a little boy called Phil....
Please send us your thoughts and
memories and we shall add them to our
monthly collection as we move through the year to our wedding
anniversary on the 19th July.
