GirlSummer at Emma Willard!

Phoebe finished her first session at Emma Willard's GirlSummer, and she had a great time. She had Sleuths, Chemistry, Swimming, Writing, and Ceramics. In sleuths, they learned crime solving techniques like reading fingerprints, and teams had to design a crime and see if the other team could solve it. They did a different experiment every day in Chemistry, and she made some wonderful pieces in Ceramics. I will have to get some pictures of them to post. She also had three classes with her best friend, Mercedes, so that made it extra fun!

The next two week session started today, and she has Tennis, Physics, Jazz Dance, Drama, Musical Theater, and Lego Robotics. Lots more really cool stuff! The girls have lunch in the Emma cafeteria, which Phoebe enjoys, and there is always a vegan option. The default is pasta and marinara sauce, but they try to have a vegan version of whatever the regular meal is--like on taco day, she was able to have beans and rice in her taco.

After these two weeks, she goes back to Harry Potter camp. She is excited about that. The only drawback is that the camp designs their curriculum based on the books, and the last two weeks will be the last two books, which Phoebe hasn't read yet. She may get a few spoilers!

As usual, camp--and the heat--have been making her extra tired, so she hasn't been doing as much reading, although she is still putting in some time. We are about halfway through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix--if we are diligent in our reading, we might get it finished before she goes back to HP camp! It will be tight, but we will try. On her own, she is reading Play Dead, the first in the A Dog and His Girl Mysteries series. Before that, she read Manatee Blues, from the Vet Volunteers Series, Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator, a book we picked up when we were in Washington D.C., and The Adventures of Vin Fiz, by Clive Cussler, one of my favorite authors.

Phoebe has finished all the book reports to get her summer reading money from CapCom, where she has her school banking account, and she is halfway through her second Barnes and Noble sheet.

Phoebe's book club had their third meeting, where they discussed The Ruins of Gorlan. It was a lunch meeting, so the kids ate while they chatted and then were able to play outside a bit. Their next book is The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles, by Julie Andrews--yup, the actress. That was chosen by Mercedes. A new member, Jack W., should hopefully be going us in September. Another friend of the group, Merry, who just moved to Arizona, may be joining the group via Skype.

Lunch and Books! From left: Jack M., August, Phoebe, Mercedes, and Eesha

Yesterday, Phoebe and I made chocolate doughnuts, and they came out really well--the taste rivaled any I ever had from a store! We made a try of big ones and a tray of small ones. The big ones were for dessert after dinner and supper!