Sweetness

Hey!  How was your week?
Mine was pretty good.

We started out with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa N on Monday, and that is always nice.  We did most of the puzzle that we recently gave to them...but we left the really hard part, so it's ok.

On Thursday I went to what is called a Key Communicators Meeting.  It's something that our school district does.  Usually it's a presentation with a breakfast spread, and it's at different schools each month.  They want two people from each school in the district, so sometimes I'm one of the people from my school.  Anyhow, this time was actually more of a discussion format to aid in creating an Equality Policy.  I had been dreading it, because I don't generally like to share my opinions in a big group.  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it.  I did share my opinions, and I enjoyed hearing the comments of others.  It was all great.  But the interesting thing was hearing some of the stats.

• 90 different languages are spoken in the homes of students in the district!  I don't even think I can name that many languages!
• Our district is 50% at or below poverty level
• According to the principal of the school that was hosting this month: 92% of her disciplinary work is dealing with kindergartners.  She said that it's vastly different from even 10 years ago.  She attributes it to too much screen access at a young age, which inhibits person-to-person relationships & learning to manage personal emotions.

Ok, anyhow.  Later that night I went to a cookie tutorial night, where we watched "Alison's Cookie Party" about how to decorate cookies.  It was perfect timing because the invitations to Chick's Baking Party were going to be on cookies!  The tutorial had a lot of good information for a newby like me (I may have used royal icing once before....), but the best part of the evening was sitting around after the video and chatting with friends.  It's so nice to get out and visit with other women!  Thanks for hosting, Brooke!!

On Friday my sister was in town, so I broke my vow to stay away from the Goodwill Outlet so that I could show it to her (I did tell Mr. Fox that I was going to break my word...somehow that makes it better).  I ended up getting more than intended, but anyhow....  One of the things that I found was this painting. 

It's pretty rare that I find artwork that I like at thrift stores.  Rare as in: it's never happened that I can recall.  But I did like this one a lot (Despite Mr. Fox's response of: "What is it?  I only see dabs and squiggly lines").  It had a black scrape on it, but I was able to wash it off when I got home, and now it's as good as new.  And the best part is that it cost me $1.30!  Yay!  Also on that shopping trip: brand new looking ballet slippers for my little ballerina's (they had outgrown some, so we only had one pair that fit, and I needed to get another pair)...for 12 cents.  Seriously.  $0.12, and they were like new and just the right size.  Such a nice, unexpected blessing.

On Friday night, after a really delicious dinner of burritos/ taco salad with homemade tortillas, Mr. Fox and Moose went to watch a hockey game where our school choir was singing.  The girls had a movie night at home, and I worked on the cookie invitations.  I'll admit that they aren't perfect (and for some reason I HAD been expecting perfection despite having never really worked with royal icing)...but I was happy enough with how they turned out.  I'm planning to do some practicing in the upcoming months.  (The tray of little cookies were for my Young Womens class at church).

(Before adding the written info)

(These were all experimental, trying out different techniques and ideas)

Saturday was ballet class for the twins, and then HOURS of driving around to deliver the invitations.  It's nice that Chick gets to meet new people because of her schooling situation, but between her school classmates and her church classmates we had to drive for such a long time.  But they are all out now, and I need to hussle along with the aprons!

Today I was released from my calling at church.  I've been in Young Womens (the teen girls group) for over three years, and the past almost two years of that was as beehive advisor (teaching the 12-13 year old girls).  I'm sad to not be in there with them anymore, but it's time for a new adventure.  I'll tell you the new calling next week, when it's official.

Lastly, I'm getting ready to update the PTO bulletin board at school.  It is going to be "Favorite Books on our Shelfies" featuring some of the school teachers, staff, student leadership, etc posing in a selfie with their favorite kids book.  So here's mine:

In my little world lately, part two

Ok, noteworthy moments from March.  March was a pretty exciting month, but a lot of the pictures I took are from random moments at home.

First off:  Otter's flair for fashion.  It's very exciting to walk to the bus stop when you are behind someone this fashion forward.

Owl is "fancy" a lot too, but on this day she looked pretty subdued in contrast to her sister.

After we got home from the bus stop, Moose built a boat.  I'm afraid I don't remember where they were travelling.  The Swiffer was the oar, of course.  Just before or after this, the chairs were a train and were headed for California.

 

*********************

 

Last year I went all out for Dr. Suess's birthday. This time...I did not.  I went and read books to the kids at the school for their Read-a-thon, but that was about it.  Chick got really into the spirit of the day, though, and did a bunch of Suess-themed drawings out on the walkway.

*********************

 

Chick, Monkey and I went to a princess-themed ballet that was performed by the BYU ballet team.  It was fun to get all dolled up :) 

There were lots of people that we knew there so we got a picture of the girls with a few of their friends.

 

*********************

 

Monkey loves her baby, Ella.  She looks so young in this picture...and she IS young, but she's definitely working on growing up.  In fact, she read her first chapter book ("Holly the Christmas Fairy" from the Rainbow Fairies series) a week ago, and another 1.5 books since then!  Way to go, Monkey!

*********************

 

The benefits of having a junk yard, continued: It's easy to have a library (the same area has been a post office in the past...it's flexible like that).  The girls wrote book titles on pieces of wood... my favorite was, "The Dog that Ate Peas."

While the big girls were getting literary, Owl inspected a baby slug. 

And Owl and Otter spied on the neighbor's yard.
(Owl is looking at the screen right now, and said, "Otter is wearing my coat there!  That's funny!")

And Moose and Monkey spied on the tool shed :)

We've had some really nice weather days lately, which has provided lots of outside play time, and yard clean-up time for me.

*********************

 

Chick's class had a field trip to the Aquarium and (thanks to my Mom for watching all of the other little people) I was able to go.  It was fun.  Most of my pictures didn't turn out, but it was really beautiful--I especially loved the variety of coral and plant life. 

Fun fact:  Scientists estimate that every grain of sand in the Puget Sound has been cleaned by going through a sea cucumber.



(Of course, Chick and I thought of OUR otter when we watched the otters)



(the girls in my group)

 

*********************

 

The day after the field trip, Chick got an award at school.  It was for good academics overall. 

Next year she'll be changing schools because she'll be in the district's "highly capable" program.  Going to orientation, expo, and tour for that was part of the excitement this month.  She's not excited to change schools, but I'm really excited FOR her.  The program is an enrichment, project-based one...it was slightly intimidating (some things sounded more like my experience in COLLEGE than anything I'd had in elementary school!), but really really awesome.  Fun projects and really thoughtfully put together.  Plus having her be more challenged will be great.  In looking into the program I heard this quote from another parent:

"If you are the smartest person in the room,

then you are in the wrong room."

 

*********************

 

The other day we went to Flower World, which I'd never heard of, but is a super huge nursery with lots of animals.  We didn't have much time there before they closed,  but loved every minute of it.  We enjoyed exploring the various ponds and such within the nursery, as well as the farm animals that were out on the grounds.

I bought a butterfly bush, columbine, hellebores, and astilbe.  Yesterday I got it all planted (the kids helped).

 

*********************

We've read some good books lately.  I read "Enchantress of Crumbledown" which I'd read as a teenager.  It was still just as interesting and inspiring as before. 

I also read Outliers, which I found very thought-provoking.

Oh, and "Gone-Away Lake" as a pre-read to gauge how well it would go over for my kids (I'll be reading it again to them this summer).

My favorite that I really did read aloud to them was "The Castle in the Attic."  We all enjoyed it.  We did a poster-sized venn diagram to compare & contrast "The Castle in the Attic" with "The Indian in the Cupboard."  I enjoyed both books, but I think I like Castle better.  Fun book with good messages.

We'll be doing a kid's lit based weekly "camp" with some of our friends, so I've been looking into books in preparation for that.  I bought a few, and requested several from the library, based on reviews that I read about them.  I'm excited for the camp.  It'll just be for the older three kids, but they'll get to do fun projects and activities to go with the books and hopefully help bring the books alive.

Field Trip: Burke Museum

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Burke Museum at the UW for a preschool field trip.  It was a pretty cool museum, seen at the warp speed of 4 year olds.  They had a fun time dressing up and playing instruments in the Carnival area.



Cute little first-borns who have a love-hate relationship sometimes because they each know their own minds : )

Our preschool class: Hyrum, Colin, Chick, and Claire.

At one point I noticed that I hadn't seen Monkey for a while (yeah, mother of the year right here), and went to find her.  She was sitting on this little chair cutting out a mask.  Concentrating very hard.  She really likes to cut things.

 The reason that we went to that museum was the Native American items, because they'd recently learned about Native Americans (though Chick had still gotten confused about Indians being from India....  At least she's in good company; Columbus had the same problem).

This carving came with a story from Heidi (one of the other moms/teachers).  It was funny-- kids running chaotically around until she started talking and then they were mesmerized for the duration of the story.  After we'd gotten home, Chick said that was her favorite part of the museum.  She remembered all of the story.  {You can read it HERE}

On our way out, Monkey wanted to sit on the bench, so I put Moose there too, and they posed themselves.  I totally love this picture.  Chick is not pictured, because she was busy running ahead and consequently getting in trouble.

Little Pim Links

OK, some of you have expressed interest in Little Pim. Here is the official site. They have language dvds in several languages, Italian being one. I also have the Little Pim blog in my blogroll to the right. They have some interesting articles about learning languages & such sometimes.

I actually bought our set on Amazon.com, because that was the least expensive option. They are also available at Barnes&Noble.

They are total immersion, so no English translation (which is why Chick misunderstood that they were showing FEET not BABIES). The creators of Little Pim do recommend parental involvement to make it more interactive, which greatly improves the effectiveness.

Chick likes them. Now that she's more familiar with them she is repeating things back, so at least it's good for pronunciation. I don't know how much she gets from them--I'm afraid I haven't been very involved. Someday soon now [sigh] I'd like to start watching a 5 minute segment with her each day & then using those specific words during the day...how lame am I that a 5 minute learning activity sounds like too much work?!!

The Education of Children

So, I realize that Chick is only 2, but I find myself thinking a LOT lately about her schooling. I don't know how she should be educated, and thought I'd ask why you all have chosen the schooling choices that you have. I'm not going into great detail, but here are the three main options for us & the pros & cons.

Public School
Pros: Cheap. Social. Easy.
Cons: Lack of morals. Bad student/teacher ratio.

Private Montessori School
Pros: Individually-paced progression. Nice learning style (I agree with it a lot).
Cons: Completely out of the question due to cost.

Homeschool
Pros: Sounds like good resources & help from school district. Individually-paced.
Cons: Takes work & dedication that I maybe don't have. Less social.

Ok, I'd like to hear your thoughts....