HSoBX Spring Finale

On Tuesday, we celebrated the final day of our spring semester. Hard to believe we're wrapping up two years of eye-popping academic achievement and seriously fun enrichment at Homeschool Out of the Box! Here are some of the cool things that happened during our finale:



We honored our first "Teacher of the Year," Patricia Richman, whose Play & Learn preschool seminar resumed almost immediately after Patricia gave birth to darling baby Anna. She taught for two months in a baby sling and rocked it. Her students crossed the continents, studying topics in science, geography, and literature, including reading and writing basics. No one could believe the props and materials Patricia was dragging up and down those stairs, without ever complaining or showing us anything but a sunny smile. Thank you, Patricia! Patricia's class gave us a show for our families, singing and acting out "The Three Little Bears."

The Architecture and Building class created a display for parents and peers to take a look at the various projects they've been working on all semester, including their giant cityscapes! They also took an architecture walk around historic Ghent, spotting different styles.

The Women's History classes put on a Jeopardy show in the common room during lunch, with a board full of questions, sound effects, and a four-person incarnation of Alex Trebek. The students beat the parents -- what a shocker, right? It was highly entertaining for the whole HSoBX family!

Check out the final video project from the Art History class!



Fabulous. It's absolutely amazing what these students have learned about historical periods, artistic styles, and specific artists and pieces, in such a short time. We were also able to look at their displays that they'd worked on throughout the semester. Check out their web site.

Our elementary literature classes read Arabian Nights Entertainments this semester, and wore turbans for their final show. They sang a song about the Sassanid Empire, a couple of Persian folk songs, and some poetry set to music: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and "Recollections of Arabian Nights" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. They also feasted on dates, sugared chick peas, and Turkish Delight!

Life Skills class rounded off their year of learning social skills through games and innovative group interactions with a face-painting party, complete with bubbles and hula hoops. Check out the Life Skills web site for more about their activities throughout the semester. Here's the morning session in their face paint:



We also had performances from our enrichment classes. Our writers hosted a reading upstairs in the blue room, and our Irish dancers knocked our socks off with three amazing numbers.



Thanks for a great year. We look forward to seeing everyone back in the fall! If you have pictures and videos to share, please post links to the Yahoo list, so that we can include them in this post!