Art Night

The Cake That Emily Made

Emily had a bunch of ideas of desserts she wanted to make for my birthday, but they all involved a lot of help from Dad who was already doing a lot (and sick). So we decided that she can make a Swedish Visiting Cake, which is super fast and easy.

She read the recipe, gathered the ingredients and mixed them together all by herself (more or less). Dad helped her take it in and out of the oven.

It turned out pretty good. She was really excited and proud...and so were we.

School Update

At long last, everything is all settled. It's been a rough first month of school. Emily's situation got far worst before it got better. Before the math schedule may have been off by about 30 minutes but a week or two after, they had changed the time that the fifth graders did their math. In the end, Emily had to cut her lunch time short and miss a recess in order to go to math. She was running around and no one really was accountable for where she was and when. It was really disorganized and by the end of it, I was about to pop a blood vessel and storm back to school to raise hell.

But I digress, Emily advanced out of fourth grade and into the fifth grade. They had her test out of it by taking a series of CST comparable tests. It took her all of last week to get through it all. We met with her teacher and the principal on Tuesday afternoon and set things in motion. The school is in a complete state of flux because of the redrawing of school boundaries at the end of the last school term. So we ended up losing two teachers and they had to reorganize most of the classes because of this (of course we are about two students away from getting one of the teachers back...or more likely, a new teacher since the two teachers who are leaving are already set up in other schools). Everyone got shifted today, including Emily. She started her first day in her new class today.

Of course, they call this afternoon to set up an impromptu meeting tonight for us to meet the new teacher and go over certain things. Apparently, all the 5th and 6th graders are being issued netbooks this year. So, isn't that great? We have all this technology at our 9 year old's disposal....of course, we would be liable for $400 if anything were to happen to it. But, no worries, you can pay $50 for insurance and an extra $25 deductible if anything were to happen. Let's just say that we opted to leave the laptop at school for her use there. She has access to a computer already at home. We realize that we are only delaying the inevitable but we'll cross that path when we come to it.

Christian and I have been sick for nearly two weeks now, but Christian had plans for my birthday dinner tonight. We had to put it on the back burner so that we could make it to the meeting. The rustic bread he started last night and has been working on on and off all day got over-proofed and deflated a bit before going into the oven. He was not too happy.

But everything turned out great. We love Emily's new teacher. I think it is going to work out really well. She doesn't have to run around anymore and can have a normal schedule with the rest of the kids. Plus, her new teacher is also involved in the programs that her previous teacher was implementing that we thought would really be beneficial for Emily. Emily is happy and we are happy.

The only problem now is that all these changes has opened up new possibilities for her (i.e. robotics club and band class)...only she can't have it all. We already have too many activities going on after school. She has piano practice 3 times a week. She still has Polynesian dance lessons once a week. Plus  time for FHE every week and Activity days a couple times a month. So she has to choose. Learning a new instrument and getting to go to band class during school twice a week or joining the robotics club after school twice a week. We are mostly leaving the choice up to her. She's finding it difficult to make the decision.

Plus, the bread was still fabulous! I requested a dinner of my favorite comfort foods from my husband. Bread and my favorite noodle soup, Soupe Villagease. Mmmmm....

...so good.

Back to School

The girls went back to school this week. It's been a super crazy week so far. We've been trying to get back to a normal schedule and routine.

Caitlyn started second grade. She got her math teacher last year as her teacher this year, so we were super excited about that. Apparently, she is one of the most sought after teachers in the school. We were guaranteed a spot in her class since she is the GATE teacher for 2nd grade. I've been volunteering in her class all week, so I've been spending a lot of time at their school too. Plus, Emily can't ride the bus this year because buses are only available to kids K-3 if your house is only 1.25 miles from the school, so Christian has been walking them to school and I have been picking them up.

Emily started fourth grade this year. We did not get the greatest first impression of her new teacher this year. In fact, I spoke to the principal on the first day of school about our concerns. She is implementing a couple of new programs in her class which I really like. I think that Emily would really benefit from them if she is able to pull it off.

However, since Emily already took 4th grade math last year, she needs to go to a 5th grade classroom for math. The problem is is that her teacher didn't really believe us that she is that advanced in math....even though it is noted in her files. She spoke to her math teacher last year and was still skeptical. She thinks that there are still possibly holes in her knowledge and that SHE teaches it more thoroughly (more in-depth). That's nice and all but I am not going to have Emily twiddle her thumbs and lose a year of math because there are one or two things her previous teacher may not have covered.

Plus, on the first day of school, she told us that she "strategically" placed her so that Emily could help HER. That's when Christian and I about lost it. Our daughter is at school to learn...not to be the unpaid teacher's aid (that's when I decided to pull the principal in for a brief meeting).

Finally, Thursday morning, she gives Emily a test of some sort. And although Emily missed a problem or two, she is finally satisfied that Emily does not need to take fourth grade math again and allows her to go to another classroom for math. Coincidentally, her math teacher last year for 4th grade math is now a 5th grade teacher....and she happily accepts Emily back to her classroom. Emily's current teacher may have also gotten some pressure from the principal to find some solution.

The problem now though, is that the 5th graders do not have math at the same time as the 4th graders. She believes that Emily will miss out on a lot if she leaves the classroom and when she comes back, she will either be doing double the math or will have to just go work on the computer in the corner of the class or something.

Back to school night was on Thursday. And we met with all of the girls' teachers. Emily's math teacher believes that the solution could be simple. That is, to move her to the 5th grade completely. She is not only able to do math at a level above her class, but is able to get advanced scores on her tests as well. She reads above her grade level and towards the end of the year, her third grade teacher spoke to her fourth grade math teacher about having Emily join them for English as well.

Even her current teacher admits that fourth grade is kind of a transition grade. They do a lot of review of the 3rd grade skills....so, it would not be that difficult for Emily to just skip a grade.

Now, we had thought that this might be a good solution before, but was wary of doing it. There is the social impact for us to consider. But now that Emily is older and it is only a matter of time for her to learn certain aspects of the facts of life, we will only be delaying the inevitable. Why not just tackle it? She has a good foundation at home and at church. We think that it will not be that big of a problem.

So, that is where we stand at this point. We have requested a meeting with her teachers (past and present) and the principal to discuss the matter and see how we might proceed from here. Emily seems to like the idea and is willing to put the extra effort to make it happen. Saying and doing is two different things though. We will look into it and see what happens.

The good news (at least for Christian and myself) is that the principal suggested that we get an exception for Emily to ride the bus since their bus is not filled and since her sister is qualified to ride the bus still. Christian and I went on what seemed like a wild goose chase to track down the proper forms and find the transportation office. But in the end, we received permission for Emily to ride the bus with her sister. We have not exactly broken it to the kids yet. They hate the bus because there are a lot of mean kids on it, but a lot of those kids are not on the bus any more and they are the last stop to be picked up and the first to get dropped off...which means, they are really only on the bus for all of 5 to 7 minutes (okay, 10 minutes tops if they take longer to load the bus), so waah, cry me a river. It beats having Christian walk an extra mile to drop them off in the mornings in the heat or rain when he already walks a mile and a half to work every day.

They get the good news on Tuesday morning....shhhhh!

Last Hurrah

This past week, Auntie Marian came by to take them out for some last minute summer fun. She took them out for an afternoon of lunch and games at Chuck 'E Cheese.

She got to watch them go to their hula lessons. As the girls are just getting the hang of things in class, I think we are going to try to continue for a little longer, as long as they can get their homework done on time. I am not that confident that they will be able to do it, but they seem to really want to give it a try.

Emily's best friend from school (who had moved away) came back to visit with her little sister. So they got to spend another afternoon with them.

Besides that, we just did little things to get ready for school to start (i.e. a little shopping, organizing and cleaning). Fun, huh? Maybe not, but very necessary. The kids aren't looking forward to it, but I'll be doing back flips!

End of Swimming and End of Summer?

We enrolled the girls in one last session of swim lessons and today was their last day. Emily did awesome, as usual, and completed level 5. They mostly worked on perfecting their basic swim strokes (i.e. front and back crawl, breast stroke and butterfly) but they also got to learn how to tread water (properly) and she learned the elementary backstroke. They also worked on their endurance a bit by swimming laps using the different strokes they were working on.

Caitlyn did much better this time around (although she almost didn't get to go swimming at all due to a mild ear infection the week before swim lessons were to begin). She is a lot more comfortable in the pool now. She's still not a real strong swimmer, but she is coming along pretty well. The only thing she seemed hesitant in doing for her teacher was learning how to dive...which is weird, because we went swimming at the pool once during their open swim hours and she practiced diving at least 20 times based on what her previous teacher had taught her.

If she would actually do it in her class, she would find that she could do it at least as good, if not better than any of her classmates. She is so weird and stubborn sometimes. I think she ended up doing it only once, but luckily, it isn't something they need to do in order to pass her level, so she did complete level 3 this time around and will be able to move on to level 4 next year.

They had different class times because there was not a level 3 and 5 class at the same time, so we set them up back to back and I had to stand in the heat for a whole hour while they did their swim lessons. It was less than pleasant as the past two weeks have been excruciatingly hot. The heat is not letting up so far and school starts in another week!

Tooth

Earlier this week, Caitlyn lost her 2nd tooth finally. This time, it's one of her top front teeth. She had us hold on to it this time so that she would not lose it before being able to offer it to the tooth fairy.

So Caitlyn got her first visit from the tooth fairy! She got some money, a fairy tooth brush and stickers. She still needs to get that last bottom front tooth out and the other top front tooth will follow shortly, so she should be getting regular visits from the tooth fairy soon!