History project is DONE and just catching up on other news

Remember that history project I told you about back in January? Well, two months later, here it is! Roxi had to keep a portfolio of what she did each week. I am so glad she did, because it’s really hard to tell how much work she put into this just by looking at these photos.

On top of her regular school work and after school activities, this project was a bit too much. I wish they could have just researched the castle and put together a power point (which they had to do in addition to this construction). I am not sure how we’re getting this back to Texas, but you can bet we will! This represents hours and hours of tedious work (Roxi’s and mine).

By the way, the board the castle is sitting on is 22″x 22″. The castle is probably about 17″x17″x9″. It’s big!

So, Dad, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the old tree, huh?

Roxi’s Chillingham Castle model. Roxi came up with the design for the steps–it’s the inside corrugation of the cardboard. She’s so clever! Photo by Roxi.

The “Italian Gardens”. The hedges are made up of Styrofoam and the paths are made with sand from Scheveningen on the North Sea. Photo by Roxi.

The castle is actually quite sturdy. Roxi made it out of recycled Ikea packaging (large, flat boxes–we built EVERYTHING on this castle from scratch), so it’s “green” too! There is a lot of paint on the structure, which makes it nice and strong. Photo by Roxi.

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In other news, Roxi went to work with Mr. DJ yesterday for “Bring Your Child to Work Day”. They had to wake up at 5:15 am to ride the train into London. They had breakfast together in the company canteen and then at 9:00 Mr. DJ dropped her off at the program.

It sounded like she had quite a time! The theme this year was India, so they participated in a video conference with kids in the India office. They talked about India, did some Bollywood dancing, wrote a letter to a “colleague” in India, and listened to a presentation by a UK charity. Roxi had a two-hour lunch with Mr. DJ who took her to the canteen again and then to his computer to show her some presentations and talk about what he does.

In the afternoon, the kids were divided into three groups and asked to think of a product to sell in India. At the end of the time, they had to present their idea to the “venture capitalists” for funding. Roxi’s group won! And they actually did get some money. Each team member received a nice gift certificate to Amazon.co.uk.

On the train home, the conductor came round to check tickets. She wondered why Roxi had a child’s ticket and asked her for her birth date. Apparently she thought Roxi was older than 15! Mr. DJ thinks it was because she was dressed so nicely compared to the other kids.

Oh, all the kids in Roxi’s age group were British. I am sure that was a novelty for her ;-) One girl told her that she liked Roxi’s “accent”. Roxi said that her friends back in Texas like to imitate British accents. The girl said her friends try to imitate American accents!

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And finally, a update on my driving. Yesterday, I called an instructor to scheduled my lessons. When will they start? I am sure you know the answer by now. Everyone together: “In two weeks.” That’s April 22. Meanwhile, I am reviewing all of the nitpicky details on my DVD ROM. It’s slow-going, but I figure I better watch it all. So that is what I’ll be doing over the next couple of weeks.