Ed-Com

Hi everyone,

Ed-Com was a success this year, as always. I am so proud of the kids and their hard work. For those of you not familiar with EdCom, its an educational communications platform for public and private schools in our county. Kids pick a topic at the beginning of their school year and research it until March where they give a presentation of their findings and learning. Its so awesome. This year there were over 700 kids presenting their projects. My goal and hope for next year is to see over 25 home school kids join us. Most parents were unaware it existed so they didn't participate. We are hoping to get the word out.

The children present their projects to a panel of 3 or more adults called "appraisers". They have rubrics where they can leave feedback and they always leave lots. They let the kids know where they can improve, such as more eye contact with their audience or to speak louder. But most of all they give LOTSSSS of positive feedback. They listen intently to every project in their room and praise the children so much. My kids always get nervous before the day rolls around and then leave the high school with nothing but smiles and confidence.

Kelly researched the Make-A-Wish foundation and Noah researched Binary Robotics. One thing that came out this year was interest in our education! A few appraisers actually asked when it was over to know more about homeschooling, they were excited. They praised us on how smart and confident our children were. Most people still believe home schooled children are shy, pale (from not going outside enough!, that one always cracks me up!), and socially unable to interact with their peers. When our kids went in confident and all smiles, with presentations beyond thier grade level, their peers were impressed. They even asked my husband why home schooled children seem "smarter". His answer is simple: they get more one on one time with their teacher and when they learn a topic they can move on, not wait for other students to catch up and when they need help they get it and don't move on until they have learned the subject!

The local newspaper even took our daughters picture. We love homeschooling and felt blessed that we were able to reach out to our community in such a positive way! Afterwards, Joshs mom and step-dad took us all out for lunch. We had a very nice visit. It was a nice day all around!!!

Everyone in the zoo is healthy. The sun is shining today, even though it snowed here yesterday, yuck! We are thankful for sunshine!!! Josh went back to work this week, we miss him already. Kloe is getting so tall. Josiah and Kloe look like twins more than the twins ever did!

Josiah joined Cubbies at church. He has a little vest and everything. He earned little patches I got iron on....He is growing up too fast, they all are... snif snif....

C-ya,

Andra

I crave spring.....

Man oh man... All these trips to the hospital, they caught a bug. First Noah, then Kelly, with an upper resp cold. Then Tuesday, Josiah got a really bad 24 hr stomach virus, but it came as soon as it went. Josh and I didn't sleep much last night, we now have the bone aching flu bug, (thanks twins!!!). We got woke up by Kloe at 7 a.m. wanting to be "held"... by 8 a.m. she was throwing up sooo bad. It's lasted all day. She can't keep anything down. I am giving her small sips of water and 7-up etc. She keeps napping, which is highly unusual for her!

I want warm weather and sunshine. I want to open the windows, bleach my house, and kill all these winter germs!!!

I can't wait to get outside. Last weekend it was nice enough to take them out and ride bikes, they loved it! Looking forward to more!

My brother is doing well. Fighting hard!

Love to all-
Andra

We have been staring at our dashboard so much the past month, I didn't even try to post. I have tried to keep on top of things for my brothers blog www.georgehatcher.blogspot.com for him so I sort of ignored this one :-)

We have made so many trips to and from Indy and Ft. Wayne that poor Kloe kicks and screams when we even go NEAR the van now.

BUT!, Kelly and Josiah pooled thier bday money and bought a DVD dual screen player for the van. Its been SOOOO nice the last week. I actually got about 3/4 into the trip before Kloe started yelling " I want out!"

We have all managed to stay healthy until this week and then Kelly got a cold and we all ended up with it. Josiah had a 24 hour tummy bug but is up and running this morning like nothing ever happened.... Being at the hospital so much I am thrilled all we got was a cold. I wash hands, I sanitize, I do everything to keep them from getting germs at the hospital, but its always impossible...

Well, I hope you have a great week. By the way, check out Kelly's new site. www.hisprincessonwheels.blogspot.com

Its really cool!