Alternate Blog

We built a new blog to chronicle our move. It is www.dtkc.wordpress.com
We gave the address to K's school class and to lots of family and friends. I'll have to come back to this one once we get settled.

We arrived last night in New York City. The apartment is on the 10th floor and it is packed.

C sliding down the firepole at the playground.


K doing the monkey bars at our neighborhood playground. Notice her determination!

Jonah and the whale

K has been reading the bible a lot. Tonight it was Jonah and the whale. She wanted to know if the story was really true and was everything in the bible really true. I'm never sure how to answer these questions. We talked about different beliefs and what people thought. She really likes the Jonah story, she seems to reread that one a lot.

After we watched the movie Moses this summer, she wanted to know why God didn't talk to her. Then we went to see Evan Almighty and she thought it was cool that God talked to him. She really enjoyed that movie.

K got up water skiing this past weekend!! She went about 50 yards (and would have gone longer if Grandpa had been driving instead of taking pictures!). She wanted to try and really gave it her all, she had 3-4 times of not getting up too. She also went tubing and had a "wild" ride. That was fun. She was really enjoying herself. This was the last weekend I think because it was still hot. From now on it will be too cold to get in the water, plus we won't be going down there again, it's a long drive.

School

K started school last Thursday. She started 2nd grade so she officially skipped first. On Friday she rode the bus. She loves it so far. We decided to start here so we would have the acceleration part done for future schools. I did not think I could homeschool with all the work finding a place and now moving. We've been looking and trying to sell ours since April. I have to sell a lot of stuff to move back into a small space.

But we started her mostly because she wanted to go. She was so excited when we said she could go. We talked about homeschooling but she wasn't interested. She wanted to try to go and ride the bus and take her lunch. I think it will be a good experience for her even if it is only for a month or two. I've been thinking of it as a 4 week day camp since she didn't have the opportunity to do any camps or classes this summer. We were too busy looking for a place to live. She had to fill out a poster about herself and one spot was for her 3 wishes. Her one wish was to go to New York and have fun and not have to look at apartments. I think emotionally this whole process has exhuasted her. When you are moving, you want to move and get it finished. It has been dragging on for 4.5 months now. I've been reluctant to take on two house payments and our house is just not selling.

Still here

I guess I have been consumed with moving and haven't had time to write. We finished in the corporate apartment in White Plains with no house/apt. We came back and did a week in TN at my parents' lake house with my sister and her family. That was great fun. Then back to NYC by myself for a week with the kids staying at grandparents' houses. Then all of us back up for 3 days for the final push. I think I have seen more of the NYC housing market than anyone should ever have to! We saw houses and apartments in Westchester County, Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Manhattan. We finally decided on Manhattan. Tomorrow D should sign the lease for an apartment in the city. It's not available until the 15th. Of course our house here has still not sold. The housing market has plummeted in the Midwest. It's going to be rough for awhile but hopefully our house will sell and we can't live apart forever!

Debate

Here's the debate. We love the city and we love living in the city. K keeps saying I want to live where we don't have to be in the car all the time. We loved our apartment building when we lived here from 2001-2004.

The city has 2 gifted only schools which are supposed to be awesome. One you have to apply for kindergarten and you have to live in Manhattan. C would qualify. I'm not sure he would score high enough on the test or do well with the interview but I could give him a shot. He would have a hard time b/c the cutoff is dec 31st to start Kindergarten at 4.5 and his bday is dec 29th. But the interview and testing would be right after he turned 4 so I'm not sure maturity wise he would do too well. I'd love to give him a shot but we have to live in Manhattan.

The other gifted school accepts at kindergarten and at the other grades by attrition. K could apply here. You have to live in the 5 boroughs to apply. I emailed the director, who knows if they will have space. There are a couple other gifted type schools she could apply to also.

All of these applications would be for fall 2008 so I still have to do something for fall 2007 so I need to live in a good school district so I have the option of doing that. Homeschooling is an option too.

Sounds OK right? Back to the city... we cannot afford our apartment building anymore. The rents in the city have gone up about $1000/month since we left. So, we can't find anything to match all the criteria - mainly a good school district and some space with more than 1 bathroom. And if I homeschool, I'll need a little bit of space. We are looking at 2 bedrooms now or 1 bedrooms with a dining room converted to a 2nd bedroom if we want a doorman. I'm not sure we can live like that and I'm not sure I want to do that. We have to sell our car to move in the city and I'd like to explore the area more, there's so much to see educationally for the kids but that's hard to do when you have to rent a car every time. I think we would just do it once a month or once every two months. We many be at a different time in our lives now but I hate not giving the kids a chance at these schools.

The other reality is that even if I were to get in both these schools, I would have kids in 2 different schools and they are on opposite sides of Central Park which is actually a big deal. It takes a while to get across because you have to walk or go by bus so it'll take 15-20 minutes. I'm not sure I want them in different schools. I'm not sure we'll even be able to get them to school on time every day.

I'm in the circle of debate...

All time low

I've hit an all time low with the housing search. We seem to be all over the board and we have not found the right place. I'm not sure I know what the right place is.

I'm not doing anything with the kids. I brought those math books for K but never have time to work with her doing them. I'm ready for this process to be over. The kids have been troopers and I've been trying to give them some fun things but we've been doing a lot of trekking - either by foot or car to see apartments/houses.

There are so many options here and the place is so big with so much traffic to get from place to place. I can't seem to decide. I really need to decide on the city vs. the suburbs b/c searching both is exhausting!

The apartment

We are living in a temporary apartment in White Plains. It's nice. Today it is stormy, lots of rain. We have been looking at places to live. It's crazy, exhausting and awful. K & C are good and then horrible. We're going to a movie today so that should help, something fun for them.

I went to two schools yesterday and talked to them about acceleration and K. This move is going to be very challenging. D said it will test my ability to be flexible. I usually like to plan things out but with this whole process, I've been unable to plan and that's hard for me. It's character building...

Swim Pictures

K finishing a race!


K in the water, hanging on the block, for backstroke

She did a great job with swim team this year. I'm very proud.

Math Workbooks

I bought some Math workbooks today. K scored poorly in Math on the Iowa first grade assessment. She said there wasn't any Math, just a bunch of questions about money and she doesn't know money that well. That's my fault. She likes to do adding, subtracting, multiplication so we spend more time on that. So, I bought 1st and 2nd grade Math books for her to work on in the car. We are driving to NY this week. I've always hated Math workbooks but now realize that she needs to understand how questions are asked on standardized tests. Montessori uses math manipulatives so it is completely different. I spend more time on real life word problems. You want to take that Gymnastics class and it's 100 for 8 weeks and this other class is 100 for 10 weeks so which class is cheaper type things.

I don't think 1st and 2nd grade are the right level but I want to make sure she has covered everything in them. Also, she needs some repetitive work with math so this will help. She'll love it.

Back online

D finally came home for a visit and figured out why the computer died on June 18th! The HD video card was bad so we just didn't have any output to the monitor. So we did not lose all the files that we thought we lost and I'm back up again.

We have been so busy lately. Swim team ended yesterday with Championships! I'm sad and happy. K has definitely improved with her swimming. I'll have to post some pictures. She was the heat winner in the freestyle and backstroke so she got ribbons and prizes; that was very exciting for her. Friday at the last practice she asked to go off the high dive. It's a 3 meter board. She went off the low board a bunch of times and then asked to go off the high. She went up there with a 12 year old and jumped all by herself! She said she liked it but smacked her hand a little bit so she didn't want to do it again. I was shocked she wanted to do it at all.

Last night we went to a Reds game. Both kids loved it.

D goes back to NYC tomorrow so we'll be on our own again.

8 Things

I love the color red. It has always been my favorite color and I find I like to wear it and paint with it.

I've visited a lot of the wine regions of the world. This was not intentional. I like wine and I happened to be in lots of wine regions so I stopped and tasted. I've been to most of the wine regions of Spain and a lot of the ones in Italy. The well known ones in Germany. We did Bordeaux but I have never been to Burgundy. We tasted in Hungary and some in Greece. In Australia we drove through the Hunter Valley but missed the South Eastern and Western regions. I've also visited the main wine region in South Africa -Stellenbosch. Of course in the US, we lived in VA so visited there, lived in NY so visited there. Lived in CA so did Temecula and Napa and Sonoma. I haven't really visited in Santa Barbara. When our flight to Japan caught fire en route and we ended up back in the US with a week of vacation, we drove up the coast and visited Oregon and Washington wine regions.

I love to swim. I grew up swimming and I could spend every day at the pool. I love swimming with the kids. I'm always the parent in the water throwing the kids, teaching them how to do flips in the water. It can be embarrassing sometimes because all the other Moms look good at the pool (they don't go under) and I look like a fish but I think I have more fun.

I have my motorcycle license. I took the class and passed the test but I never drive. I just wanted to know how in case I needed to drive our bike one day. D is the driver, I like to sit on the back and watch the world go by.

I can wake board. It took more than a couple tries and some questions for the younger generation but I'm actually enjoying it now. Can't do any flips though.

I have been to every state except Alaska. I want to get there some day soon. I've only spent the night in 37 of them though.

I love crisp not quite ripe peaches. I could eat them all day. Unfortunately(?), I seem to have passed this trait on to my kids and now they eat all the peaches we buy.

I practice the Just in Time inventory method at home. I think I studied too much Lean Manufacturing in school. I don't like to carry inventory at home. I don't buy extras of things and try to buy just in time for when I need it. It can be a little rough with toilet paper and diapers though. It's funny to me because when I say I have nothing in my pantry, I mean I have NOTHING in my pantry. Most people say that and have enough to live on for 2 weeks.

Memorial Day Weekend

We drove to West Newton Thur afternoon. We stayed with Gigi and played out in the backyard. The kids love to visit Gigi's.

Friday morning we went to the cemetery. We visited both sides of the family. K did a family tree and copied down all the dates of birth and death. Gigi will be 96 this year and so her parents were born in 1888 and 1890! That was such a good history lesson for K - all her friends were born in 2000 so she was very impressed that Gigi's Mom was born in 1890.

From the cemetery we drove to the house where Gigi grew up. It was a big farm with a long driveway. Then off to the red schoolhouse. Gigi skipped 1st grade and graduated from high school at age 16. She went to college back in the 1920s, not the normal thing to do for a woman.

K & C were really enjoying the history. K is still very into WWII. The cemetery was being readied for Memorial Day so they had flags flying with nameplates of every soldier buried in the cemetery. Gigi's uncle fought in WWI and has special things by his grave. Her brothers in law fought in WWII. Grandpap was the oldest of 8, 6 boys and a bunch were in WWII. Gigi said when they returned they were never the same. She talked to K a lot about living during the war and blackouts and rations and what it was like.

She is so incredible. K and I hope she lives until she's 120! For 96 she acts like she's in her 70s or 80s but she recently had high blood pressure and has been feeling her age more she says.

She had some fresh rhubarb from her garden for dinner so that's still going well. It was a little tart so we added strawberries and sugar and it was wonderful. If I could be more like her, I would be a better person.

Then we had to get on the road for NY. Spent the weekend there and drove straight back on Tuesday. The kids did great.

Busy

Last week C told me,

"I'm happy in the world ... with you."

It made my day.

First soccer games were on Saturday. C had the ball and got pushed down and then he had the ball taken away twice and he fell apart. He was crying and crying and refused to go back in. D tried to sit with him and get him to go back in but he was done. It was a rough morning. D came home 2 hours late Friday so C didn't see him. Then Saturday we had a showing at 10:15 a.m. so we had to get up and get the house looking great so no hug time for the kids. Then off to his game.

K had a good soccer game. She's playing in a 4-5 league and since she's the oldest, it's giving her more confidence. It's probably not her thing but she's having fun right now and that's really important.

K lost her first tooth on Mother's Day. D pulled it out. I think he wanted to be here when it happened and Sunday night was his last night. She cried and cried because she didn't want to grow up and leave Mom and Dad; she missed her tooth; and she didn't want the Tooth Fairy to have her tooth. It happened at Grandma's house, it was a very emotional day. She put the tooth on her nightstand so the tooth fairy left her a $1 and a note that she could keep it for awhile. She took it to school on Monday.

Trying to show a house and be a single Mom to 2 kids is taking its toll. I have no time to do all the things I need to do. We have 2 art projects that we haven't finished and all kinds of things I want to do. Plus, everyone is trying to be helpful so we are SO busy. Dinner with this Mom and friends, visiting Grandma, play dates etc. It's great to have friends like this but I think I need some time at home too or we'll be very worn out.

Home

We returned home tonight after our whirlwind trip. The kids were troopers. We visited D's Grandma (GiGi) in Pittsburgh. She'll be 96 in September, she still lives on her own. She travels and visits all her kids and grandkids a lot. K and her get along so well. They were practicing writing cursive together. I really need to spend more time with K and cursive. It's amazing watching GiGi's reactions to K. Things I take for granted, GiGi comments on. Gigi taught Home Ec for 20 years and it is important to teach children life skills not just academic skills. I really have to make that an important part of K & C's education. C is much more interested in learning to cook or do things around the house. K tends to wander off and read a book and I don't notice that she is missing out on learning (this is what I did as a child) so I really need to keep a balance.

We also visited friends in CT, they have a girl and boy the same ages as K and C. K and S get along so well, they have fun together. At least we did one fun thing with the kids, we stayed in a hotel with a pool while we were en route and they loved swimming that night and the next morning.

So, we dropped D off in NYC and he started work. Our house is listed and hopefully we'll move by August. Everything is crazy.

Train Ride & Tea Party

Sunday K and I went on an American Girl Mystery Train Ride (focusing on Kit because she is from Cincinnati) and a tea party. It was fun.

They had a "hobo" board the train because he was looking for work. The train had to stop and he was taken off. Then they discovered a Kit doll was missing so when we got back, they searched him but he didn't have it. The engineer had it for safe keeping and then they drew a name and gave it away. The tea party was nice, they had Girl Scout troops be the servers. It was fun to try little finger sandwiches and scones. That was in the museum and then we walked around the museum and made a hat for your doll.

K does not have a big doll yet. She wants one for her birthday (August). She's been debating which doll.

She wrote a letter to American Girl asking them to make a look alike for her. They only have red straight hair or curly black hair. They responded that they were not adding any more combinations right now so she's focused on a historical doll.

She's been reading lots of the books, they are great for discussing history.

Math

At K's last test session at the public school, she asked me if she could do more math. I knew this section was reading so I said she was finished with the math section. She was very upset that it was too easy, no multiplication or even 3 digit subtraction. So, she asked me to write some problems for her to do with the psychologist once her test was finished. I did and when she came out, they were completed, I could tell the psychologist had helped her.

This incessant math work is tiring. I guess I should buy her some workbooks. I've been against just doing math worksheets so we haven't really done that. She asks me constantly for math problems. She carries around a notebook and works math problems in them. She just makes up her own or writes down what I say in the car.

I made up some word problems for her today. They were just subtraction problems but she has to work on understanding how to set up the word problems. We do things like Gigi was born in 1925, how old was she when she had Grandma, how old was she when Mommy was born and how old when K was born. She loves them.

We've also been working on double digit multiplication but I need to teach that more.

I'm not sure what other Math to do. D wants to do EPGY but I don't think now is the right time with the move and plus K is not that into spending a lot of time at the computer. She loves to write problems. I know there are some other Math web sites but she doesn't like to be upstairs on the computer if we are all downstairs. I guess I need to buy some workbooks so she can carry those around with her :-)

Moving

We are moving! Things are crazy around here. K is starting to have some break downs about the move. I think I will be doing the same soon. D leaves soon and then it will just be us until the house sells. I have so much to do, it is overwhelming. I have no time to write. Tomorrow is the final testing at the public school. We are finishing up the aptitude test (Iowa first grade) for the Iowa acceleration scale. I'm ready to finish that and have the final meeting. Even though we won't be able to utilize the school here, the information will be great for us to have. K enjoys the testing so that's good. Now we'll have to do testing in New York.

The Weather

Yesterday it was sunny and warm, around 80. I got some sun because I forgot to put on sunscreen. Today it is 34 and sleeting. Crazy!

We told the kids that we are moving and they are taking it surprisingly well so far. That may change as it gets closer to actually happening. K wrote a note to her teacher that she is moving but a long time from now. I still have very mixed feelings about the move. I'm sad to be leaving family and the friends that we have made here. I feel settled with the Montessori school and all the extracurriculars. It takes awhile to find all the good classes/teachers. Of course K would be moving to a different school environment this fall but I spent a lot of time researching everything around here. C will probably not attend preschool next year because everything will be full by the time we get there. I don't mind that too much because I enjoy doing things at home with him and he's pretty good at errands/shopping.

Still agonizing

We've been talking and talking, asking opinions, trying to decide on our final decision. It's really overwhelming. I have been reading an excellent book, Deconstructing Penguins. I've been thinking of running a book club this summer and this is an excellent place to start. It's really interesting and gives lots of ideas - although I want a better outline - I guess I need to do that myself. I need to write more about this but later. The book has the poem from Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken and it really hit me that that is where we are.

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

1. The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
5

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,
10

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.
15

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.
20

We are standing there looking at the 2 roads and trying to look down each one so we can pick one and it is SO hard. Now it's not just us but the kids and how our choice will affect them. We do tend to take the one less traveled and like it. Maybe coming here was taking the known one and it's just not the right one for us.

Charlotte's Web

K was interested in seeing this movie when it came out in December. I think she saw all the advertising. At first I wasn't going to do it but decided to have her read the book. So, she's been reading the book and we've been doing lots of literature discovery with it. I've been trying to make a list of vocabularly words and we've been learning about compound words. It's been slow (she has her school books to read too) but good. So, her incentive was after she read it then she could see the movie. I was worried she would be emotional with the ending. She was fine with reading the ending. She ended up reading it with Grandma and telling me how cool it was that Charlotte had 514 eggs.

So we see the movie yesterday. It was pretty good. She's fine through the whole movie. However, I took C too. He had heard her reading the book to us so he knew it was about a pig and a spider. I figured he was too young but he would enjoy the experience. He was scared at times and then at the end he's sobbing. He was so upset. I was really surprised. I guess I should have been more worried about him! He can be very sensitive and emotional but I just didn't expect this. It was a good lesson for me.

what to do?

I have not been writing too much on here but think maybe I should now. D has an offer for a job in NYC and we have to make a decision tomorrow. I wanted him to finish all the interviewing before accepting something but the other company hasn't called back and the other one said the position they interviewed wasn't the right fit maybe there would be something else. The job here in OH is not working out. We moved here 3 years ago to be closer to family and it seemed like a good opportunity. But D is not happy. Of course K is very happy. C would be happy anywhere. I'm torn, I was happy in NYC and I've grown to be happy with what OH has to offer. K loves being near her grandparents and having lots of cousins nearby. I've been back and forth on what to do. We have family here and some friends and I've spent some time meeting people. We just joined a Cincinnati support group for EG/PG kids and that's been great. K takes a Saturday class now. We would have to figure out the schools wherever we moved. That's time consuming especially after spending 2 years touring and researching here. (The result is not that great so that's something to factor in to my thoughts). If we move east, we have to decide live in the city or suburbs. We lived in the city prior to moving to OH and we loved it. But now we would have the school issue. And, we missed the deadline for the big gifted school in the city - Hunter. We've missed the deadline for the other gifted options in the city for the 2007-2008 year. I've been trying to read up on suburb schools. It's really overwhelming. Of course D says just homeschool for a year and apply during that time. The problem is most of the gifted programs admit in Kindergarten and just have attrition spots to fill in later years so she may not get in anywhere. I'm just going round and round right now. I read an article where it said it is important for the parents to have a good marriage, good career and then the kids will fall into place. Kids are resilient.

Letter

We received our acceptance letter yesterday. It was very exciting and also a relief. We explained it to K but she thinks it's a school so she's nervous about it. I'm slowly sharing the news with some people.

Sleepover

Last night we had a sleepover with K & C's cousin. It was fun. We need to do more sleepovers with all the cousins in the area. It's a great way to get to know your niece/nephew. We have 11 nieces/nephews in the area and 4 out of the area and I really want to get to know them all. We watched "Herbie Fully Loaded". I've been looking for more movies that a wide range of kids can watch and enjoy. We had a 3 year old, a 5.5 year old and an almost 8 year old. This one is OK for that, I'll have to keep looking.

I have a new thing - yoga. Both for me and for K, C and if I can persuade him to join in D. We visited 2 schools that had yoga part of their curriculum so I thought it might be something good to do at home. I got some DVDs at the library. The kids DVDs are OK, one was a little silly. K really enjoys it and C does a pretty good job. He gets frustrated when he can't do a position. I'm enjoying mine too. It's a good thing to do with all the cold and snow we have had this winter. It's starting to warm up finally.

Grandparents Day

Wednesday was Grandparents Day at school. My Dad and D's Mom and Dad were there for the last hour and then I met up with them and we all went to lunch. They were very impressed with K's multiplication skills. She uses the multiplication board and was working on problems she had and some they gave her. She's able to come up with answers a couple different ways now. C was excited to show everyone his work, he loves puzzles.

Testing

We met with the public school last month and officially requested acceleration. We still are not sure public school is the right option but if she does go to public school, it would not be in first grade. We took her test scores and had a pretty good meeting. Now K has to do some aptitude testing. We are going to use the Iowa acceleration scale to determine if we should accelerate and to what grade level. Since we've done the cognitive and achievement testing, we have to do the aptitude testing and the parent and teacher sections. We just filled out a package of papers on her behaviors and strengths and her personality.

She loves to do testing so that's one good thing. She's actually asked if she could do some testing at some of the schools we visited.

The other major positive for me was a conversation I had with K a couple weeks ago. We've been visiting schools and talking about starting first grade in the fall. She said Mom why would I do first grade in the fall? Last year I kind of did kindergarten because I worked with all the kindergarteners every day so aren't I doing first grade this year? So, I think she will be pretty open to accelerating to second grade.

Negatives: She doesn't want to go to a school with desks. Montessori doesn't have desks and she keeps commenting on this when we tour schools.
In French class she has to ask permission to leave the room and go to the bathroom and I think someone walks her down the hall. She hates this. She says she should just be able to go when she needs to go.
These could both be major issues for public school. She may have a harder time with rules than I originally thought.

Visitors

We've had visitors since Wednesday. The kids are loving it but we've been very busy. We saw Night at the Museum yesterday. It was Ok, K definitely picked up on history and things. She was very excited that Dick Van Dyke would be in it since she loves him in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. K & C are really enjoying The Story of the Orchestra book. We've been listening to it constantly in the car. K's teacher mentioned her answering all the questions in music class last week. She knew the sounds (and names) of the cello and double bass. Her teacher mentioned that she is coming back out of her shell. She was answering questions again. Her cousin came to visit at her school too. She liked that.

Day with Grandma & Pap

The kids spent yesterday with Grandma and Pap. D and I had a dinner last night so I took them out in the afternoon. K has been learning sewing and I think an intro to knitting with Grandma. Last night they were working on cross stitch. I'm so glad K has the opportunity to learn and appreciate all these things with Grandma. Grandma makes dresses and PJs and they are K's most prized clothes b/c they are homemade. K takes the time to wear clothes Grandma made whenever she is going to see Grandma. Last night she wore the flannel dress PJs that Grandma made her. They are so cute. For Christmas this year Grandma made matching dresses for all her granddaughters (there are 6 but she didn't do one for the newborn so just 5) The girl cousins at Christmas were 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 and 4 months. I have to find the picture of that and post it here.

Sushi

I made sushi for dinner tonight. C was asleep when we had to leave for K's French class. He transferred OK so I just dropped her off today and rode around. I got the car washed and then decided I could run in and out of the specialty fish shop. They had sushi grade tuna so I got some. I was going to cook it tomorrow b/c of Lent. I forgot we had plans tomorrow for dinner so I switched and made sushi tonight. I made it last year with Erika (Japanese exchange student) and I took a sushi class last year. The rice is the hardest part. The family loved it! It wasn't perfect. Since I didn't plan for it, I didn't have all the ingredients and I couldn't make spicy tuna rolls, . But my tuna rolls turned out OK. I had nori and wasabi.

Before we left for French, K told me they are going to do a recital. She doesn't want to go on stage so she wants to quit French. I reminded her of how much fun she had on stage at her ballet recital. Two answers, no friends there and she knew ballet much better than she knows French. Both are probably true. She started ballet late last year and didn't really know that many girls in the class. And, the French class is a stretch for her. I can't decide if she's learning or not. A lot of the girls in the class are older and have been taking French for awhile. So, I think she either is learning a lot or is just skating along, following their lead but not really learning French. I'll have to do some things here at home to figure it out.

Another day off

No school today because of the ice and fog! C said that's OK we can just homeschool. That was a nice thing for me to hear! We did music and math. K is still working on fractions. C is working on recognizing and writing 1-10. We did a preschool math workbook. He likes dot to dot and they really helps to learn numbers.

We went to visit Gigi (great grandma) today. They had fun, dancing and putting on a show for her. I think she enjoyed the visit but after an hour she was ready for us to leave. They are so loud and have so much energy.

More Books

I forgot to mention that I found a great Music book for K & C. It is Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music! . The kids are really enjoying it. It has a CD with it to listen to the different instruments in the orchestra and songs from composers. So far, we've been focusing on the instruments. It's easier for C. I may spend more time on the composers with K.

K said she was interested in taking violin lessons. I've been asking her about taking violin lessons but she's been doing piano. Piano has not been going well since December so I thought maybe I'd make a switch. I'm not sure. This is the debate. D's aunt had 4 kids and she told me she required them all to take piano from 1st through 8th grade. They could add another instrument too but they had to do piano. She said it was as important as reading or math to her and she stuck by it. It does teach discipline. They are all 4 very musical now, maybe they would have been even without the piano lessons. I wonder if I should stick to piano and be stricter about practicing. Part of the problem is D is the teacher and if K is not interested in doing class on Saturday, he lets it go. I think she wants to do class but like everything else playing with Daddy would be more fun. So, should I give up on D teaching her and enroll her in piano lessons before I take the step of violin lessons? K has some friends taking violin so I know some violin teachers that are supposed to be very good but I don't know any piano. As with everything else, we are already overbooked and this is with just 1/2 day Kindergarten. I'm not sure how to manage it all next fall. I have to prioritize.

K also checked out 4 books on her card. Mirette on the Highwire , Happy Birthday, Josefina!: A Springtime Story , The Hurricane Mystery (Boxcar Children Mysteries) and a book by Cynthia Rylant. These are from 4 different areas of the library so she could learn more about the areas. I let her make the choices. The Josefina book is for March for book club.

My books

The next book for my book club is Patty Jane's House of Curl This is supposed to be a light read since we just read Snow. We missed the discussion of Snow because of the snow. How ironic. We're going to talk about both books in March.

K and I went to the library yesterday. Since it was just the two of us, I had more time to explore. I got Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk I read a review of this book and it sounded very interesting so I'll have to see how it is. I was surprised the library had it. I also got a cook book by Rachel Ray and 2 multiplication books for K. I also spent time showing K where her books are shelved. We found where Caldecott and Newberry award winning books are kept. We went through where American Girl series are and where books with CDs are. K & C both love books with CDs now. C loves to listen to them when he goes to bed. He's been listening to Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains . He loves this book/CD.

Books

Valentine's Day went pretty well although school was canceled so they did not have their party. School was out T, W, Th of this week because of the snow. Our road is still covered. They are having the party on Tuesday b/c Monday is a holiday. K and C each made 27 Valentines for the party. K made 27 individual ones. She is very into "olive you" for I love you. It's from her Valentines joke book. Some of hers are very long and pretty. For C, I cut out hearts and he glued them to a card. I couldn't get him to write his name 27 times but he did write it for special cards. Then, we had a search and find for their Valentines. I had cut out hearts and put clues on them and hid them through the house. Their big Valentine and piece of candy were on their pillows. They loved it. I wrote some riddles for K and she did a good job solving them.

Since we had no school on Wednesday we made pizzelles. We had them set up for one per bag to take to school but now with the party moved to Tuesday we gave them to K's French class, our friends, Grandma & Pap and ate some! They were very good. I need to make them more often.

For V Day their other grandparents sent a package. A Thomas book for C and a Junie B. Jones Valentine book for K. What to do? I got a Junie B. last year at the library. I read the first chapter to her and then put it away. Of course she started saying "my stupid brother". It was a disaster. So I banned them for now. I think when she's older she can look at them and point out the grammatical errors and the wrong way to talk but last year she was definitely impressionable and she's trying to learn correct grammar. Last month Grandma took them to B&N and bought K Captain Underpants. I put it up and then K was asked so how did you like that book? I'm not sure what to do. I know Gma means well but just has not read the books. I gave Gma a hard time about Captain Underpants but I can better understand Junie B. Those books are everywhere and even in the schools. I'm going to let K read this Junie B and just talk to her about it. I think she may be old enough to understand it now. But why waste time on those books when she has some great books waiting to be read? She's reading Charlotte's Web now and the writing is SO much better. We've been doing vocabulary from that book and looking for compound words. She even did a mid book summary and speech on the book. Why isn't it called Wilbur since he's the main character she asks? I'm afraid of the answer when she gets to the end.

Ballet Observation

Today was K's ballet observation day. We were able to go in and sit and watch the class. Usually the blinds are closed so you have no idea what they are doing. They have been learning a lot. They went through the different positions and moves they are learning. K is doing pretty well. She is having fun and that is what is important. C and I were the only ones there. D couldn't make it and both sets of grandparents are on vacation. This was a disappointment for K but the recital is coming soon and I'm sure they will all be there.

K's Blog

Today I showed K the blog I set up for her last July. She was very interested at first but then I spent too much time working on getting things set right and she lost interest in it. She may be too young for this. She has really enjoyed having her own email address and emailing C's godfather and her friends so I thought she might like this too.

Snow

Well, K & C have been off school all week. Monday and Tuesday the schools were closed because of the cold - it was in the single digits most of the day. Then Tuesday around noon the snow came in. It kept coming until around 7 p.m. so they were off today too. We have about 5 inches on the ground. We played in the snow but it is still very cold. C gets cold easily.

So, 3 days in the house all day is exhausting.

I've been reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk for book club. It is a very appropriate time of year to read it since it is snowing in both places. It's an intersesting book. I'm ready to hear some other opinions about the writing style. Book Club is Tuesday so I have to focus on finishing it. The main character is a poet and we've been talking about poetry at home. K wrote a poem the other day. We were working on rhyming poems. There's a poetry contest coming up and I thought maybe it would give her an incentive to work on her poems. I haven't told her about the contest yet, I'm not sure she's interested. I wanted to see if she would get interested in writing more poems first.

A day in the life

Today
Breakfast, dress, calendar (since it's Groundhog Day, we turned on the TV and found out no shadow and spring is coming!) Of course it is snowing and cold here today. K asked to go visit Chicago b/c they were talking about it on the news (hmm...that's an idea)

K School

C Work on drawing and writing 45 minutes, we worked on birthday cards, he's doing a great job drawing faces now, even adding some eyelashes today. He still gets frustrated easily. He wrote his name one time.
Play with trains/toys 30 minutes
Sesame Street/Snack 10 minutes
Help clean up/wrap presents etc

Pick up K

Make bread in our bread machine, 24 hour clock discussion 20 minutes
We put the bread in at 12:40 and it was supposed to take 3 hours 20 minutes to bake so K had to figure out when it would be done. She did it a couple different ways, one way being adding 12:40 and 3:20 and ending up with 15:60 and translating that into time. We discussed the 24 hour clock and how Europe uses it but America uses the 12 hour clock and then says a.m./p.m. She really wants to visit Europe and see all these things I keep explaining. Of course she wants to go to Paris the most since she takes French.

Lunch

Baking Day

We made muffins for breakfast for tomorrow - very messy, but fun, they have to take turns and put in the right amounts.

Math class - 30 minutes Today we used fraction manipulatives. I'm trying to teach C the different fractions so he can understand what they are (not sure it went in but he had fun playing). K knew everything and kept telling me she already knew it all but I was trying to teach her how to add fractions and which parts are the same 2/4 = 1/2 etc. (I'm not sure it went in either, adding fractions using just math is complicated, but the 1/4+1/4 = 2/4=1/2 went in I think)

Chocolate Chip Cookies - we used an easy mix

Science Class - Cheetahs. K asked about cheetahs today at lunch, what animals do they eat? I knew rabbits but I wasn't sure what else. So we discussed grasslands and animals that live there with our Encyclopedia and then used the internet links to get more info and play some games. They LOVE to do this. This class wasn't as informative as the anatomy class but I think they learned some and liked it. Cheetahs can eat gazelles, we weren't sure if they could eat big animals too or just stuck with the small ones.

C nap
K play/reading time
Mom computer/clean up/make dinner/finish folding laundry time

Dinner

K read Magic Tree House #4, she almost read the whole book, she likes them now but would prefer to just read to herself. She's supposed to be reading aloud to us for practice and to check vocabulary. She reads a chapter aloud and then wants to keep reading to herself.
C & D played dinosaurs
Watched 1 vs. 100 K answered the kid questions

Bed at 10

Article on Education

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a 3 part series on education by Charles Murray. The last part of the series was on gifted education. I found the article very interesting. You can find it here:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009541

This is a debate we have - stay in age appropriate grade level and always be so ahead that you gain confidence but you also gain elitism. Or, accelerate to the appropriate intellectual level and then... will you feel average or not be as confident in yourself? I feel that people in certain professions need to be very confident, almost arrogantly so. When D was in the Navy, pilots tended to be extremely confident/arrogant. It could be difficult to handle but for that job, they needed to believe they were the best of the best or they would die. Other jobs require that type of arrogance - surgeons, fire fighters, etc.

C had a good day at school today. He even said he had fun. Grandma took K to a pottery place.

Home again

D came home Saturday night, he left on Tuesday. The kids were so excited to see him. We had a busy time with him gone, they did a good job being home with just me. We were out Friday night for my Mom's birthday.

So, his trip went pretty well and big decisions are coming, possibly a move. I'm not sure what to do. I think it will be better for us in the long run but I am so worried about schools. I say (D says) well we can just homeschool but I guess I'm not comfortable with that. I want to give schools a chance first. I have to try or I'll regret it.

I just got interrupted to go find Spot for K. She was crying. She usually doesn't mind if she can't find him at bed time but tonight was one of those exceptions. Everything is fine now.

Such a helper

Yesterday we had dinner at a friend's house. Her daughters are 10 and 8. K loves to draw with them, they were teaching her how to draw a puppy. She loves it. (Their Dad is something of an artist so they have lots of art supplies around the house). I've been trying to do more art with her at home. K got watercolors and pastels for Christmas but we haven't had time to do them yet. I have to do them with just her so C has to be otherwise occupied, i.e. sleeping. They both love art. We finally joined the Kids Club at the local art museum and did the first tour. They loved it.

Today C and I went grocery shopping. He is so interested in grocery shopping and cooking. He loves it. Hopefully, he'll continue to have that love. He walked the entire time at the grocery and helps me pick things out. He's really a help. He likes to wash all the fruit when we get home and then he puts things away in the refrigerator. He is very opinionated and very comfortable with his opinions. He's a big help when I cook too. He likes to cut things or he'll dip the fish in the panko crumbs. I have to remember to let him help and to encourage him to love cooking. D likes to cook so maybe it comes from him.

K has a new book from school. I mentioned to the teacher the other day that she was getting tired of her schoolbook. Today she told the teacher she wanted to switch so they switched her to The Magic Tree House chapter books. I tried these with her about a year ago and she wasn't that interested. She could read them, she just wasn't that into the story line and there wasn't enough pictures. We'll see if she likes them this time around. She's not that into fantasy books so that may be part of it. She may be a little too rational. The book I had last year had them back in dinosaur time and she couldn't get over that people didn't live when the dinosaurs lived. D and I tend to not read a lot of fantasy either so maybe she gets it from us.

School

C's first week of school has been so different for me. Tuesday when I dropped them off, he refused to let me unbuckle him and cried that he didn't want to go to school. So, I went in and of course he was immediately fine and didn't even notice I was there. That day he was called on for wrestling with another little boy (he already knew him and they play together) but of course he cried. He doesn't like other people to discipline him. Today he had snack with a little 4.5 year old girl and was called on for running in the classroom. K never got in trouble. When she finally talked too much with her friend after a year in school, the teacher and I were ecstatic. She was finally comfortable enough to be talking when the teacher was talking. C must be quite comfortable already.

Since I observed class on Monday, I got a better look at K working. She really takes up a lot of the teacher's time, she's finished with her work and wants more. BUT she is always alone. It's like having a 3rd grader in the classroom. The teachers have been doing their best to work with her. They are throwing math at her, really trying to challenge her. Monday she was doing squares and cubes of numbers. She has not been interested in reading. She has not been reading that much at home, she never wants to read me her school book. I think she may find it boring, the stories are not that interesting but they are short stories with comprehension questions at the end and she really needs that. I'll have to come up with some more ideas on sparking her interest in reading again. I think we've been doing so much Math lately that we haven't had as much time for reading. We went to the library tonight and she jumps around on the types of books. She has been really into playing lately, constantly asking me if she can just play. We did Spanish and math class yesterday and then it was time for dinner and I asked her to set the table. She cried because she didn't get enough time to play. Of course when we were doing class, she kept asking me for more work.

First day of school and Kaya

Today was C's first day at Montessori school. He did so well. I was very impressed with him. He's not shy like K. I remember her first day. (I observed both of them through the mirror/glass). K just sat on the floor and waited for the teacher to notice she was finished. C goes right up to the teacher and asks questions. He really interacted with the other kids too. Of course, tonight when you say did you like school? he says No. Just like I thought he would.

Tonight was Book Club. The book was Kaya and Lone Dog. K has a Kaya like doll so she really enjoys Kaya. They had deer meat, salmon and dried cranberries. K liked deer meat. They also made medicine bags. She really enjoys this group and is slowly starting to open up to some of the girls. It usually takes her some time to open up. Now that we are not carpooling to school - Coleman switched to afternoons - she's finally comfortable carpooling and even went out to breakfast with Coleman and his Mom on the last carpool day.

Snow

We finally have some flurries today. It has been so mild this January and rainy. I like it being mild. Hopefully February won't be as black a month for me this year. We have been so busy with all these decisions and things going on. We've been reading Guiding the Gifted Child, Smart Boys, Smart Girls, Genius Denied A Nation Decieved and on and on. I was reading The Well Trained Mind too. I really liked it but I'll have to get back to that after we figure out everything else.

K spent the night with her cousin at Grandma's on Sunday because of the holiday. She was emotional when she returned. She wanted to stay longer and the crying goes on and on. I'm not sure how to help. I'm supportive and then after hours of it, I start to lose my patience. I know she is very emotional and I have to let her cry it out sometimes but it's hard when it doesn't end.

C had special time with just Mom and Dad. I think he really enjoyed it. He's such a joy. We were watching football and Dad was trying to get C interested and said "Go Bucks!". C said "Dad, the Bucs aren't playing in this game". So true.

I'm so confused about the school situation. I still have not done my resolutions for 2007.

Top Things from 2006

1 Watching K and C grow and learn. Spending time as a family.

2 Getting K tested and starting down that path of doing. Researching and learning about her special needs. Joining a support group.

3 Family reunion

4. Visited my sister and her kids 3 times this year. The cousins have a good relationship.

5 Spending time with cousins and family in the area.

6 Building a relationship with grandparents.

7 Recognizing my own issues and my own baggage from childhood.

8 Painting many rooms in the house.

9 Going to Disney World and having a great family vacation.

10 Swimming laps. K swimming on the swim team. C jumping off the board and gaining confidence.

Back on schedule

I just realized that I have not written in awhile. School started back on Wednesday. C starts school Jan 22nd. I don't think he is very excited about it though. He'll be going 3 days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. K and I have been making more of an effort to homeschool in the afternoons. We did an hour of math on Wednesday. I have the Singapore Math 1B book. I got it in December and she's 1/2 way through it. D thinks it is too easy but I think there are concepts in there that we have not covered. K is still doing lots of math at school too. She's always asking to do math. We are also working on writing a book. I need to work on my resolutions and top ten from 2006.