Video of the biography tea.

If you follow this link www.steamboatpilot.com/news/ you will see a video of our biography tea. Just scroll to the video section and click on the homeschool biography tea link. It is adorable! You can also read the article that was in the paper. The article incorrectly identified the winner of the contest as Nicholas, age 9, who came as George Washington. It was Joseph, age 6 who came as George Washington. Nicholas was Stonewall Jackson. Anyway. You are sure to enjoy the video and the article but quick now. I am not sure how long the newspaper will keep this link on their site.

Homeschool Biography Day.

What a fabulous idea this was! It was actually the brain child of a young homeschooled boy, and his mother organized this day with the local library. The idea was this. Each homeschooled child that wanted to participate would read a biography and come (in character if desired) and share what they learned. We have been working on costumes and biography reports for a week and a half now and I know that our children had a blast! I discovered that I can sew and that I am creative and that my mother has a wealth of knowledge on things I sort of new of, but it blew my mind all of the technical terms she knew for everything! Thanks, Mom!!

The library brought in a judge to judge the costumes and another boy that came as Abraham Lincoln got third prize, our Jane Austen received second prize and our George Washington took the top prize for costume! What a delight it was for them to get all dressed up and give a report in front of everyone. They all agreed that it was fun and not terrifying. I am amazed at how cool they all looked, as opposed to me at their age who would have been shaking in my boots. Here are the pictures taken at the house minutes before departure.

Ellie as Jane Austen.
Thank you, Mom, for the beautiful dress. It turned heads. Thank you also to Natalie Chaney who did the fabulous up-do for the event. We couldn't have done it without you!

Thank you also to Mimi for her valuable information, gathered at the Jane Austen museum in Bath, England. What a treasure!
Thomas as William Wallace.

Thank you to Evan for letting him borrow the authentic replica sword.

Brian as Flemish pirate John Crabbe.
Thank you to Courtney for all of your help in locating information on this obscure naval engineer/pirate. Thank you to the Dade family for the head gear and for Marlene and Charlotte (bless their hearts) for delivering it to us from an hour away! You have all truly blessed us with your willingness to help in our time of need.

Maria as Laura Ingalls Wilder.
It was very informative to hear about Laura's life as she got older. I only recall information from the TV series, which is quite different from the book. Maria did a fabulous job of reporting the factual information pertaining to her life.

Nicholas as Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.
Thanks to Mom for the hat (what was the technical name for it, again?)and to Travis for the leather gloves. Nicholas made his own beard which took quite some time. He has decided to reengineer the elastic around the ears for it was quite painful. He is one smart kid! He also learned how to use the hot glue gun during this project. Watch out world!

Matthew as author G. A. Henty.

Matthew loves reading and has begun to read the Henty novels. What a great choice! The beard that we made for G. A. Henty was much wider than the previous beard. He did a great job in reading his report through all of that hair. Great job, Matthew.

Joseph as George Washington.

Joseph and I read 20 pages of material on George Washington and when it was time to give his report, I wasn't sure which facts would make it into the report. It was very informative! The usual information such as General of the American Army, First President of the United States didn't make it. He did talk about how he surveyed Lord Fairfax's 100 miles of property, which Joseph referred to as "his yard". It was a great report. Thanks Mom for ideas on the ruffles!

Sabrina as Hadassah (who became Queen Esther).
We came up with this outfit this morning as she kept changing her mind about her character. I think it ended up being Hadassah because Sabrina likes saying that name. She does it with flare elongating the last syllable (Ha dass aaaaaaaaaaaaah). What a drama queen!

Ruth as Queen Elizabeth, queen of England.

As we only had a princess costume that was borrowed from her sister Sabrina, by default Ruth had to be a queen or princess. We decided that Queen Elizabeth, the queen of England would be great. She had to stand up on the table and tell everybody who she was. She was so patient and well mannered as she sat and listened to each child talk about their characters. Several people reported that she has queenly mannerisms. (I think they meant that she likes to be waited on.)

Adam as Joseph Montferrant.

Who? you may be asking yourself. Well, we had the little outfit which we have always called his lumberjack outfit, complete with the sheepskin lined lumberjack hat. It just worked for him to go dressed as a famous lumberjack. All that was left was to find one. So I asked Thomas to find one and he did. He googled "famous lumberjack" and came up with Joseph Montferrant. He lived in Canada in the 1800s. We had to have an outfit for the baby!
Group picture of all participants. It was great fun and we hope they do it again, just not anytime soon. Whew! Thank you again to all that helped donate items for the costumes.