Art –
1.I spent hours at fine arts museums, sitting in front of famous or little known paintings and either working out a copy or just staring. This was probably the best practice at “realism” I got all year. Mainly I worked on a copy of Bouguereau’s Return from the Harvest at the Cummer museum, but there were many others as well.
2.I worked feverishly on my fashion design sketches as always. While a few people I know seem to think that this kind of thing isn’t worth all the time I give it, I find fashion art to be exhilarating and as it is possibly the field I wish to enter, I devote a great deal of time to practicing it and studying Vogue, Bride Magazine, In Style, etc.
3.I did some painting. I don’t have as much time for it as I would like, but I work hard at it and really get into it, especially water colors, which I am learning, acrylic, and oils.
4.I tried my hand at photography, and loved it. For several months I kept a “photo journal” taking one picture of something every day and writing briefly about the subject. I decided I wouldn’t finish it out for an entire year, but I did love learning another form of art.
5.I read copious art history books and encyclopedias, dabbled in some artist biographies and even purchased a few for future reference. Bouguereau is still my favorite, but I love anything from the romantic and neoclassic periods, as well as a variety of others from random eras.
6.I took Barry Stebbings’ Introduction to Colors three-day course in VT and learned the basics of mixing and painting.

History -
1.This year I was completely immersed in the American and French revolutions, as well as various bits of personal study on the side of other time periods. I read The Scarlet Pimpernel, A Tale of Two Cities, The Red Necklace, The Silver Blade, part of Les Miserables, and several pieces of non-fiction about the French Revolution, my favorite event in history to study.
2.I watched the 1934 and 1982 versions of The Scarlet Pimpernel numerous times, the 1998 Les Miserables and the also the 25th Anniversary Show of the aforementioned, my favorite musical. I also watched the BBC tv series Hornblower and the 1951 Captain Horatio Hornblower. I also read and watched The Count of Monte Cristo.
3.As far as the American Revolution goes I don’t have a lot of written proof of my labors- our family attended a Revolutionary War Celebration July 4th, in costume with dancing, etc, I read From Tyndale to Madison (Mike Farris), The Constitution, 1776 (by David McCullough), The War for Independence, Streams of Civilization (Volume II), a biography on Alexander Hamilton, Why America is Free, a history of Nathan Hale, and others. I also sat in on the reading aloud of Streams to the River, River to the Sea (Scott O’Dell) about Lewis and Clark and a biography of Meriwether Lewis.
4.My family attended a full-costume Civil War Ball and a Revolutionary War celebration as mentioned above.
5.On a very different subject of history I began for personal study to read about the cases of American and British serial killers, such as David Berkowitz, Harold Shipman, and Charles Manson.
6.Personal study of musicians and artists from previous centuries.
7.Intensive reading of Greek, Roman, and some Norse and Egyptian mythology.
8.Classical Conversations’ history flash cards (Christopher Columbus through the Civil War).
9.Esther; It’s Tough Being a Woman historical Bible study by Beth Moore.
10.I spent hours in the Smithsonian Museum of American History and Natural History.
11.I visited the Holocaust Museum in D. C. and later studied extensively that subject (especially Auschwitz)- I watched movies like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Defiance, The Diary of Anne Frank, Life is Beautiful, others, and various documentaries.

Music –
1.I continued to work hard at the piano, although without lessons my progress is not speedy.

Language -
1.I have continued to work on my French, with a Bob Jones University curriculum and teacher’s guide, and some work with the Auralog computer program.
2.Also some personal study of the beginnings of Latin.
3.Basics of numerous other languages- Hello, thank you, good morning, good evening, you’re welcome, goodbye, etc in Indonesian, Phillipino, Thai, Chinese, Arabic, and others.

Science -
1.Continued work on Biology (Apologia) and experiments.
2.Personal study of the beginnings of Anatomy and the human body; also through flash card memorization of body parts, functions, and systems (Classical Conversations).
3.Brent E. Turvey’s Criminal Profiling; An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis (Psychology).
4.Personal reading on basic astronomy.

Math -
1.Still struggling through Algebra 1 but making headway. It’s the most humiliating and least impressive thing about me scholastically, but it’s my own fault partially. I’m not a brilliant math student, but while I do struggle to understand what I am learning, a lot of my problem is that I don’t determine to do the work, that I put it off and make excuses. Finishing high school math is my top focus for this next year before I graduate.

Bible (Spiritual) -
1.I have read 42 of the 66 books of the Bible so far this school year.
2.I lead a small group for the Womens’ Bible Study at our church, Esther; It’s Tough Being a Woman by Beth Moore.
3.I participated in the 30-Hour Famine at our church, raising money for and learning about the lives of people in third-world countries.
4.TeenPact Back to D.C. was a great spiritual burst as it was last year- from worship on the Lincoln Memorial grounds to prayer times and Christian speakers at the Leadership Institute and Values Voter Summit, I learned a lot and grew as a person and a Christian.
5.TeenPact Staff Training in Texas was incredible as well, with hours of worship sessions, an intense communion time to really examine ourselves and my first time ever leading a devotional to a group of my peers. While it was not the best, I’m sure, I learned more from it than I could possibly hope for someone else to.
6.TeenPact Massachusetts was incredible as always, but even more “stretching” as I was on staff and led prayer walks around the capitol, sang on the worship team, and taught a devotional to my “committee”. I felt that I had never been stretched as far to act entirely for Christ, out of my comfort zone, and also as a person learning to be comfortable being me. I learned, also, to truly realize that life really wasn’t all about me, but was really about serving others and impacting the world for Christ.
7.Personal devotions and prayer times, revelations, etc.

Geography / Travel -
1.As usual my family went on a cruise this year, this year to Grand Turk, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and the Bahamas. I learned, as always, to be grateful for all that I take for granted in America and a lot about the Caribbean cultures and how diverse and foreign they are to me.
2.We went to Florida also, and spent the winter there, going to museums, historical sites and national and state parks, which meant I also got to see the east coast again on the way home.
3.I took my first real trip to Texas for TeenPact Staff Training and saw the Austin Capitol building and city.
4.I must have played several days worth of time of geography games with my siblings, so much so that I now know almost completely the layout of Europe, Africa, the placement of the United States, and some of Asia. I know many of their capitols, religious affiliations and laws, where persecution is the worst and a lot about the ever-spreading Muslim community, as well as what Christians are doing globally to spread the good news (thanks to information I learn from the Voice of the Martyrs and World Vision magazines).
5.I went to Washington D.C. with my local Generation Joshua club, with funds we raised with bake-sales and dues. We toured the city, went to the capitol, and visited many of the Smithsonian museums (Air and Space, American History, Natural History, Postal Museum, Holocaust, etc).
6.I also went to Washington D. C. with TeenPact in September and, along with more touring, attended the Values Voter Summit.

Government / Politics -
1.TeenPact trip to D.C., learning about campaigning and attending the values voter summit.
2.TeenPact Massachusetts Class, as staff and learning about the House and Senate, Lobbyists, the process of Bills and creating legislature in Massachusetts, the Judiciary system and the Media in politics, as well as hearing from speakers and touring the capitol.
3.Trip to D.C. with Generation Joshua club.
4.I worked on the “100 Hours” team for Frank Guinta’s campaign for Congress, making thousands of phones calls, waving signs and attending pep-rallies at street corners, etc, and knocking on hundred of doors all over Manchester, NH. We won, by the way.
5.I personally visited the Massachusetts State House for my own research and interviewed people who worked there.
6.I read and then wrote about three of our country’s most popular presidents, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
7.Meetings with our Generation Joshua club in Concord, praying for elected officials, seeing speakers, and debating current events.
8.CSPAN. Haha.

Writing -
1.I finished my first draft of my first novel! It was a long process, two and a half years, actually, but I now have a real, hands-on copy of the book, “Betrayal; by Lydia Albano”. It is only the first draft but I am working simultaneously on the second installment and a second draft (edited version) of “Betrayal”.
2.I continued to extensively write fiction.
3.I wrote essays on three of the most poplar presidents in American history.
4.I wrote reports and pieces of fiction about the American Revolution, key characters that shaped history, such as Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin.
5.I learned how to write persuasive essays.

English / Grammar -
1.English Grammar for Dummies.
2.Extensive reading of great literature, mainly British, such as Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte.
3.I did a portion of “Daily Grammar” but found that it wasn’t teaching me anything I didn’t already know.
4.Daily Classical Conversations flash cards for the parts of speech, aspects of verbs, etc.

Literature -
1.My reading list speaks for itself.
2.Extensive reading of poetry (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, etc).
3.Memorization of poetry (Annabel Lee, Oh Captain, My Captain, The Lady of Shallott, etc.)
4.Watching and reading Shakespeare word-for-word.

Extra Curricular -
1.Exercise 2-5 times a week.
2.Swimming, Frisbee, walking / running, etc with family or friends.
3.Html and CSS work on my own website.
4.Working for Mum with her website.
5.“Mother’s Helper” work for the Caron family once a week.

Speech / Public Relations -
1.TeenPact- speaking on a bill, teaching a devotional, teaching the younger class, introducing the speaker, etc.
2.Interviewing / asking questions of people at the capitol building in preparation for Teenpact.

Worldview / Apologetics -
1.Reading The Deadliest Monster (by J. F. Baldwin).
2.Reading Real Christianity (by William Wilberforce; abridged version).

I have always loved certain pockets of history.  For a time it was the American Civil War that I found fascinating, possibly due at least in part to my love for Honest Abe, and then it was the Greeks.  I never got into the Romans or the Egyptians very much, or the Etruscans or all those others I was coerced into studying, but I really got into the Greeks.  That passed.  Next were the Vikings, and then the 100 Years War.  More recently, and actually for a good long time now, I have been infatuated by the French Revolution.  I know it was horrible and bloody but something about it intrigues me.  I just love it!

Aside from the non-fiction that I am working on about the period, I have started a reading list of novels as well- so far it includes The Red Necklace, The Silver Blade, A Tale of Two Cities, and I am working currently on Les Miserables, which is quite an undertaking, I can assure you.  But so far my favorite novel about the French Revolution is The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.  If you haven’t read it, DO!!  It was incredible!  Next on my list are the sequels to it.

I also watched the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Les Mis musical on Broadway on Public Television, and I will be honest and say that I cried a couple of times.  The cast is even better than the first, and it is not any great love for Nick Jonas (Marius) that makes me say so.  I am obsessed with that music, now (and with the Liam Neeson movie version).  Isn’t this a beautiful song? It’s my favorite from the play:

(Marius, recovering from his wounds, imagines he is back at the ABC cafe)

MARIUS
There’s a grief that can’t be spoken.
There’s a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.

Here they talked of revolution.
Here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang about `tomorrow’
And tomorrow never came.

From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn.

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me
(*The ghosts of those who died on the barricade appear*)
That I live and you are gone.
There’s a grief that can’t be spoken.
There’s a pain goes on and on.

Phantom faces at the window.
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.

(*The ghosts fade away*)

Oh my friends, my friends, don’t ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more.