This week I went to Chess Camp at Adelphi University.
There were about 35 kids.
It was three days long; 7 hours each day.
I played 2 tournament games each day, but on the last day, there was a speed tournament.
Each game lasted five minutes and you could take the king.
At the end of the camp, I came in 3rd place overall in my division and I won a trophy!
2 days ago I lost my first tooth! I lost it in WildWood, New Jersey. I was eating my dinner and it popped out. It was in my dinner(it was Fried shrimp, so I wouldn’t loose it. If it was pasta I would’ve lost it.), I thought I swallowed it. My dad put it in his pocket. The day after the next day I put under my pillow.The Tooth Fairy gave me $7!
This is a picture of my first chess tournament.
The tournament was yesterday.
I won two games, I lost 1 game, and I drew one game.
The tournament was 3rd – 5th grade, but I sneaked in even though I am technically only a 2nd grader. But remember, I’m homeschooled , so we don’t have grades.
The winners – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place – each got a trophy. I think I came in 4th or 5th place.
Next year I really want to get one….but I’m going have to keep practicing.
This weekend we went to Southampton which is 70 miles away from our house.
I saw some of my friends who were also there for the weekend.
I went swimming in my grandmother’s pool and my mom started teaching me the backstroke.
It was my mom’s birthday and we went to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate. She also went to a very expensive yoga class!
I went to the local farm and saw several animals.
I went with my mom, my dad, and my sister.
I also started reading a new series called Edgar and Ellen
I played a new board game with my mom and my sister – Clue: The Great Museum Caper
A little while ago I went to Caumsett State Park.
I went with my friends, my Dad, and my sister.
We were going to bring scooters but they wouldn’t let us. So we had to walk to the beach. IT was 2.5 miles away and it was hot!
When we got to the beach we played for a little and ate lunch and walked 2.5 miles to the parking lot. I felt happy, hot, tired, and thirsty.
In order to hit a baseball far, you have to have a have a good stance.
The first thing you make sure, is that you point your feet to second base – just like in golf.
The next thing you make sure, is that your bat is in the right spot.
The right spot is by your ear. Keep your eye on the ball.
When the ball comes, step and swing. Run to first base!
Yesterday I went to a honeybee class in Queens.
Honeybees go from flower to flower getting a little pollen and some nectar and every time they stop they drop off some pollen. This helps flowers and trees grow.
When they return to the hive they make some honey out of the nectar. I don’t know how but check out this site to see how.
Pollen is also food for honeybees.
There are three types honeybees:
The queen, the workers, and the drones.
The queen only has one job: laying eggs.
The workers have lots of jobs.
The drones help the queen lay eggs.
And that last picture is me looking at a honeycomb.
Honeycomb is puked-up nectar and is always built in a hexagonal pattern.
Yesterday I did a science class on horseshoe crabs:
Here’s what I learned:
I saw 5 horseshoe crabs. All of the alive ones were mating. There was one dead one.
Horseshoe crabs species are shrinking because people are using them to test if drugs are safe.
Horseshoe crabs have blue blood because their blood is based on copper. Our blood is based on iron.
I just finished all of algebra!
The last thing I did in algebra
In conics we learned how to graph ellipses, hyperbolas, circles, and parabolas.
This a line:
y = x + 5
Parabola:
y = -3x2 – 6x – 1
Circle:
(x – 2)2 + (y + 3)2 = 9
Ellipse:
(x2/6) + (y2/16) = 1
Hyperbola:
x2 – y2 = 39
A parabola is U-shaped. But it can open up or down.
An ellipse is an oval.
Hyperbola is like two parabolas.
You can tell what shape an equation is just by looking at it.
If one variable either ,x or y, is squared it is a parabola.
If both variables are squared then the graph might be a circle, an ellipse, or a hyperbola.
If the coefficients of x2 and y2 are the same sign AND equal, the equation represents a circle.
If the coefficients of x2 and y2 are the same sign BUT different, you have an ellipse.
If the coefficients of x2 and y2 have different signs(one positive and one negative), then the graph will be a hyperbola.
I did this with my dad:
Now I’m exited to start calculus and advanced geometry.
I have reached 10000 hits!
It took me a year and a quarter to get this many hits!
Thanks to everyone visiting!
Last Saturday we went to Kalahari Resorts in Ohio.
I went with my sister, my dad, and my mom.
There was an indoor water park, an arcade, mini golf (but we didn’t do that), etc.
We stayed for 5 days.
There was also a homeschool thing, there was events like a Pokemon funshop, a nerf war funshop, a warhammer
I had lot of fun.
Yesterday I had my first book club meeting at the library.
There were 6 kids.
We read Amber on the Mountain
I had a really fun time.
This Software is used to make entertainment,games,etc.
It is called Scratch and it’s free!
My first Scratch project is called crazy dance.
But I didn’t put any projects on the site yet!
There are 8 blocks: Motion, Looks, Sound, Pen, Control, Sensing, Operators, and Variables.
Motion is exactly what you think – moving.
Looks is how you look, talk, hide and show.
Sound is just sound.
Pen controls the sprite’s pen.
Control is the first place you need to go, and if you get the software you’ll see why.
Sensing is all the sensors for the sprite.
Operators helps with motion, looks, etc.
Variables have 2 parts: a variable and a list, though I don’t get neither of them.
If you right-click a block you will see a help tab.
Thats pretty much about it in Scratch!
These are the things I have learned in Chess:
A chess game is divided into 3 parts: the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame.
In the opening, it’s important to castle quickly and to develop your pieces. Castling defends the king and allows the rooks to work together later on. Knights are important in the opening because they can hop over pieces on a crowded board. The most important thing is to control the middle of the board.
In the middlegame the bishops become more important.
In the endgame the rooks are very important and even a pawn if it’s passed.
Queens are always important, BUT if she comes out too early your opponent can harass her all over the board while developing their pieces.
Yesterday I went to a science class on frogs and turtles with homeschooled kids.
It was 40 miles away it was really fun and interesting.
Here’s a fact about turtles – a turtle’s shell is like the brain of a turtle, so if the shell is cracked the turtle will die.
Here’s a fact about frogs – frogs will cover themselves with all sorts of stuff(slime, pollutants,etc) to protect themselves from predators.
I saw a dead snapping turtle and a live turtle.
I heard 1 frog: a Spring Peeper.
