TOG4 Unit 4 Celebration

We finished our TOG year with our Unit 4 Celebration last week at Co-op.  Wow.

Our Rhetoric class recreated the Ellis Island experience - somewhat - and the other classes set up their rooms with displays and activities to represent some of the countries from which immigrants came to this country in the 19th century -  Italy, Russia, Ireland, and Poland.  At lunch time, we said goodbye to friends who are moving to Wilmington and everyone shared a cake.  We'll miss everyone who isn't coming back next year.

Another College Graduation

Child #2 graduated from Appalachian State University on May 9th, earning summa cum laude honors along with her B.S. in Technical Photography. We are very proud of our girl and all the hard work she put into her college work. Sarah also had a lot of fun during the last four years. :-)

Here is a little poem Amanda and I wrote, which we included in the graduation announcements we made for Sarah.

In 2004 it all began,

When of the Mountaineers and Yosef she became a fan.

She packed her bags and headed to Boone,

Where in East Hall she settled into her first dorm room.

Sarah soon realized designing interiors wasn't her thing,

But learning photography was much more to her liking.

Shag dancing, gospel choir, club volleyball, and Cru...

Sarah found that at ASU there was so much to do!

An RA for Gardner, Daughton, and App.Heights;

With Sarah on duty, there were no drugs, drinking, or fights.

The winters were long and the weather was crappy,

But summer trips to Vienna and Africa made Sarah happy.

Studying and working took up some of her day,

But picnicking, zombie hunting, and waterfall jumping

was how she liked to play.

Now it is 2010 and her college years are done.

On May 9th she'll tak her diploma and run.

A year -long internship with Campus Crusade for Christ in Raleigh

Is what she'll do next, close to friends and family.

A Starry Night was Magical!

The Homeschool Prom that we planned for over a year was last Friday night, and it was more successful than I had even hoped! All those things I'd been stressing over came together beautifully.  The weather ended up being perfect, and the kids were able to "dance under the stars".  We ended up with 121 guests and 19 chaperones, which along with the 2 small fundraisers, brought in almost exactly the amount of money we needed to cover our costs! 
Typical comments on Facebook the next day were " Best.Night.Ever." , "Awesome!", "Can't wait til next year!". 

Prom Committee: 

Tabitha, Ellie, Heather, Emily, Amanda, and Erica

My daughter, Sarah, was photographer for the evening, and she along with her assistant, Will ( a 14-yr-old homeschool student ),  shot hundreds of individual and group portraits as well as hundreds more candids of the evening.  She is now editing them, and I think everyone is going to love the way they came out!  Sarah graduated from college on Sunday with a B.S. in Technical Photography from Appalachian State U., so this was a great opportunity for her to get experience shooting a big event. 

The food from Rocky Top Catering/1705 Prime was delicious, and DJ Brian Pate did a great job with the music and also with the cool lighting on the dance floor!  After a song or two to see what music this group of kids preferred, they seemed to hit a groove, and it was great to see practically the entire 120 kids out on the dance floor most of the night.  The Hokey Pokey, Chicken Dance, and the Twist all made appearances, as well as some slow dances, the Electric Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and a whole lot of other songs that kept things moving - everything from Michael Jackson to the Beach Boys to Journey to Beyonce!

At 9:30, we stopped for a short break and heard Ellie talk about orphans and the Kolfe Orphanage in Addis Ababa. We then watched a short slide show presentation on the orphanage, and after a few tries, were able to connect via Skype to Solomon, a teen living in the Kolfe Orphanage, and sing him "Happy Birthday" -  120 American homeschooled Prom goers to a young man living in an orphanage in Africa!  amazing!!
Our collection box received $200 in donations, which will be sent to help with educational expenses for the boys at Kolfe!


What things would we change?  Dinner  dragged on a little too long, and the kids were getting anty - so we should  probably start the dancing a little earlier next year. We've already been talking about ideas for getting people to buy tickets earlier.  And we need to bring in more through fundraisers, because if it had rained, the committee would have been digging into our own pockets to pay for the additional tent we would have needed to cover the dance floor. Since the dads of more than half of the committee members are currently out of work, God was very kind to us this year.  

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who worked on this event with me, who donated items, who prayed for us...  
We will be sitting down soon to start talking about the plan for Prom 2011. 
:-)




www.carolinacapitalhomeschoolprom.com