French Camp

Today was the first day of French Camp. It is only for one week from 9-12:30. But you pack a lunch and eat it there. This is the first time K has packed a lunch for something. She was excited about French Camp last week but as it got closer she got less excited. By this morning she did not want to go. Her friend from preschool did it at the same time so that helped. She at least knew one person. She was nervous during the drop off and she cried after I left. I stood outside the door. We stayed in the music shop for 20 minutes and when I peered through the window, she was fine. When I picked her up she said she liked it and was happy. She said she did not make any new friends though. She was sitting by herself during lunch. Hopefully, she'll enjoy the rest of the week. We all need a break. C was much better having the morning with just me.

We're trying this camp to see about French classes for the school year. This teacher is very good at teaching language (so I've heard from numerous parents). I'd like to continue Spanish but I don't think she is learning much. I'd like to do Japanese or Chinese but I have not found that opportunity yet. Anyway, I'm beginning to think getting semi-fluent in one language is more important than playing and learning basics in the language of choice.

The weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend. Saturday we worked in the garden and K & C painted rocks. They made a huge mess but had a good time. Our garden is providing us broccoli, squash, cucumber, basil, cilantro and coming soon peppers and tomatoes. The kids love seeing what is ready to be picked. C has picked a number of items that were not quite ready but he's getting better.

K with broccoli

K and I went to her friend K's fifth birthday party. It was a carnival in their back yard with lots of carnival games to play. K loved it. I was watching her with the other girls and she doesn't seem to fit in that well. Maybe it was just that day. After the party we had special girl time and went to the library. K finished 40 books and we needed our last sheet to do 20 more by Friday. We've already done about 9 so that leaves us with 11. Then we went to the mall and went shopping for K's birthday. We really found nothing we liked. I've noticed that K does like to shop and try clothes on so I let her do that. I hate shopping, probably because we always have C with us. But K seems to enjoy it so I let her do some.

Sunday D's brother came over so K & C played with their cousins. They loved it. Then we went to the pool. K is doing great with her goggles now.

Music & Our Friday

Yesterday was a busy day. We did stroller strength and the playground in the morning. Visited my Grandma. She's in an assisted living center. She has a mild form of dementia. The kids love to visit her. She has some puzzle books there and they love to work on them. Plus she has classic toys that I played with as a kid. Then we did some shopping and home for C's nap. I have a new neice, she was born Thursday so K & C are very excited about their new cousin. We were buying her a toy and some clothes and we made cards for her. After dinner K & C put on a show for us. It was a ballet(K), silly man(C) show. K is really enjoying dancing and trying to do gymnastics. She has been practicing headstands against the wall, cartwheels and backbends. She's very excited about ballet. I have to get her signed up for the fall. I've been debating what class to put her in. C ran in circles through the room - superfast.

I wanted to keep track of some of the music K & C like. I need to branch out into some other areas. They love Laurie Berkner, here's one we get from the library often
Whaddaya Think of That?
They also love Tom Chapin, this is the one we are listening to now
Around the World and Back Again
K & C are not that in to Raffi but they do like this one
Bananaphone
Of course one of their favorites is from They Might Be Giants. I liked this band when I was in college so when I saw they had kids music, I checked it out and tried it. I think C could sing the alphabet backwards before he could say it forwards.
Here come the ABCs

K & C love the books with CD by John Lithgow. We've given them as gifts to friends spread around the country/world. We started with
Marsupial Sue
I've been trying to do more books on tape in the car. K loves them, C is too young and chatters so much, you can't hear the book. This one they both love
Marsupial Sue Presents the Runaway Pancake

Stuttering Issues

Today I started to really worry about C's stuttering. I called the dr, the nurse said I should probably bring him in at some point but maybe give it some time. I cancelled our plans for the weekend - we were debating going away - because it said to try to be more relaxed and less programmed. I looked up some info on stuttering and hopefully it's just normal and will eventually go away.

We've been working on cards and letters today. K emailed her friend A. Hopefully we'll see A in a couple weeks. I've been trying to let K be more creative with her writing and drawing. She's been very busy creating little scenarios. I should take a picture of her bathroom. She's been packing for a trip that she and a couple of her stuffed animals are taking. K loves to pack for trips.

Reading

We've been doing the summer reading program at 2 different libraries. I'm surprised how different they are. We finished one today. K had to read 20 books, C had to have me read him 20 books. I wouldn't let her count any of the books that we read to her. I'm not sure the summer program was a good thing. You got some coupons every 5 books so K would pick out easier books so she could get her 5. She has her own library card now so she is very into getting her books. Here are some of her books from the summer:
Owl at Home
Pinky and Rex and the spelling bee
Henry & Mudge under the yellow moon
K has been reading Henry & Mudge for over a year, she has read them all many times. She really enjoys the author Cynthia Rylant. She likes the Mr. Putter & Tabby series too.
Mr. Putter & Tabby Row the Boat
But her favorite series by Cynthia Rylant is The High Rise Private Eyes
The High Rise Private Eyes: The case of the baffled bear
K has read all the books in this series many times now
K has been reading Cam Jansen too, she enjoys Young Cam because there are more pictures
Young Cam Jansen and the Substitute Mystery
I'm not sure how to move into chapter books more. She really enjoys the pictures.

At the other library, you have to read 20 books at a time to get a prize and you can read up to 60 for the grand prize at the end of the summer. We are almost to 40 now and the program ends next week! I'd love to get to 60 but I'd have to let her read easier books so she can read faster. And, I'd have to have her read 2 a day. She does that now but not always a new book. She likes to reread books a lot. She also spends time reading the chapters from the chapter book after I read them to her. For chapter books I've been reading her
The Boxcar Children
The Mystery of the Hidden Beach
My Father's Dragon

The next book I want to begin is
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
We are planning on visiting the Met this summer so I thought this book would be a good introduction and get K excited but it may be too old for her.

Back to normal

I went on a Girls Weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) so I haven't been writing. K & C had a great time with Dad and grandparents. Since I've been back we've been grocery shopping and cleaning up and going to the park. Today was C's playgroup. For about a week now he has been stuttering some. It's really starting to worry me. D remembers K doing it at some point when she was younger. I don't remember it being this bad. He seems to really be struggling and he doesn't do it when he's singing. I need lots of patience to sit and listen and wait for him to get his sentence out. K and I have been reading The Boxcar Children's Mystery of the Hidden Beach. She wants me to read to her all the time but then I catch her reading when I'm busy doing something else. And she's reading it fine. I ask her questions later and she understands everything she read. So, I'm not sure why she doesn't want to read herself right now. Maybe she just likes a story being read to her. Plus, we talk about the characters and words.

Catch up Day

Today was a catch up day. We've been cleaning, doing laundry and trying to get things in order. We didn't have anywhere we had to be at a certain time. We were also working on what a hypothesis is. We have a CD
Martian Television Invasion by Thaddeus Rex that has a song about scientific hypotheses. We saw T. Rex play at a museum and bought the CD. K & C love the music. Anyway we listened to the song on our trip to Michigan and D & K got in an argument trying to learn what a hypothesis is. He was trying too hard to teach her and she was resisting learning. So, today she starts asking me about an apple falling from a tree being a hypothesis. This was the example from the car. Then, she begins to make hypotheses and test them on different objects throughout the house. I think she was starting to get the concept.

Busy Day

This is a picture from the swim meet last night.

Today was a busy day. We were at the park this morning for Carson's playgroup. Kaitlin now enjoys going to his playgroup because she can swing! Carson loves going to "his playgroup". Then, off to the last swim team practice. It was just for fun with games and things to do. We ended up staying at the pool and playing until almost 2:30. I finally got Kaitlin to use goggles and she was really enjoying them. Her eyes have been bothering her so that motivated her to keep using them. She was even playing line tag with the older girls. Carson wore his bubble suit and had a great time. He was going off the board and swimming everywhere by himself. I'm exhausted.

3 First place ribbons!

We had a great swim meet tonight. I was really nervous at first because K started talking about getting scared in the car on the way there. I kept trying to stay upbeat, no pressure, this is just for fun. We were on time for warm ups and Kaitlin jumped off the blocks, did her backstroke start and swam about 5 laps by herself. She was on a roll. I had to stop her so she didn't tire herself out. She was a little nervous when freestyle started but she did it. Grandma and 4 cousins arrived just as she was getting on the blocks. She really wanted Grandma to be there. She jumped in and swam and got first place! There were only two little girls but I was very proud!

Then she started to get worried about the backstroke. She kept asking me to have an older girl in the water with her. I said no, she just swam it by herself during warmups. I had the older girl "on call" to jump in if she needed her. But she didn't need her. She did a good backstroke start and made it on her back the whole way. She was the only 6 and under that did backstroke so she got first place. Actually, I think she's faster on her back. No breathing issues :-)

Then it got to the freestyle relays and I talked to the coach about the girls doing a relay. It's a small team so they did - K, G (she's 5), A (she's 8) and A (she's 9) and they swam in the 9-10 age group. They only did 1 lap each. They were all so excited because they don't usually get to swim a relay. They were the only 9-10 girls free relay so they got first place. They had a great time. Afterward, K said the relay was her favorite.

After the meet, K got to choose where to go eat. So, we went to McDonalds. She was very proud. I am so proud of her. This was the last meet of the season and it's nice to end on such a good fun note.

BTW, after the swim meet the kids swam some (it was so hot). So I let C get in and he jumped off the diving board (about 5 times) to one of the older girls. Good for him but sad for me. He's growing so fast and doesn't seem to need me as much. Usually I have to be in the water to catch him but he didn't seem to even notice I wasn't there.

Blueberry Picking

We went to Michigan this past weekend to visit D's brother, SiL and our nephew. We took the kids blueberry picking which they enjoyed. We have 10 lbs of blueberries.

Last week I had the question "Where is God?" when we were looking at a map. I gave her the easy answers but of course she doesn't want those. She wants to know exactly where God is, very scientific - on the sun, does He visit planets, etc.

I'm back to trying to plan the fall schedule. I need some time to sit down and think what things K should do. It's hard to decide what is important to teach her now. Piano, ballet, language, etc? No one has an answer.

Tonight is the last swim meet. K jumped in from the blocks today and swam 1 lap of freestyle by herself with no problems. She even did a nice backstroke start and swam a lap of backstroke by herself with no problems. We'll see what happens tonight.

Frustration with finding classes

I've been really frustrated today. I need to find a testing center, decide what kind of test and decide when to do it. I've been reading Smart Girls Gifted Women. I got an old copy from the library and now see the revised edition
Smart Girls: A New Psychology of Girls, Women, and Giftedness (Revised Edition)
and realize I do need to read that. It is very interesting and makes me want to get K tested instead of downplaying her strengths and wanting her to be normal. I also need to spend more time locating a piano teacher and some language teachers. I've been very frustrated on teaching K language. She seems to have a quick grasp of it but I can't find the right fit for us. I've been searching the web to find something better for this year but I can't find anything in our area. We moved to Ohio from New York and I really feel like the opportunities are so limited here.

K started Spanish at 9 months and had a Spanish babysitter about 5 hours a week from 18 months to 2 years. I did a lot with her at home too. Then, C came and we moved and I put her in a YMCA Spanish class for 3-5 year olds as soon as she turned 3. The teacher said she should be in the 5-8 year old class but she wasn't ready for the older kids. So, at 4 I switched her to a new Spanish school. She did 1.5 hours a week with 4 other girls and a native Spanish speaker. But she seems to know nothing and is only somewhat interested. I know the teacher thinks I'm a pushy parent but I feel like she should be further along. They want the kids to learn through play and develop a love for language so they don't push them. At this time K started 1/2 hour a week French class during preschool. She loved it! She learned so much and really enjoyed it. But again it went too slow for me and she was the only 4 year old in it so next year she'll be ahead and have to be with beginners.

I think it would be better to just hire a tutor to meet weekly or something but I can't seem to find that. D studied Russian and Italian (his background) so he taught her some of those languages too. We had a Japanese exchange student live with us briefly this past year and she taught K some Japanese. She said K was a natural learner with no accent. So, now we're thinking we should do Japanese or Chinese this year. But I can't find the tutor. I think I'm not being proactive enough.

Screening

Today K redid her kindergarten screening. She did the original in May and when we went to pick up the results, they could not find them. 10 kids were not scored yet. So we waited and called and finally end of June received them. They were a disappointment, she had zeroes in 2 areas. I called again to figure that out. They couldn't find the test booklet. Finally they called back that she somehow missed going to 2 centers on the test day. They had teachers taking them around the gym so I'm not sure how that happened. They weren't sure either. So, they wanted to do those 2 areas again. I said let's do the whole test again. They agreed and today she went. She just had one person testing her so I think that will be better. We don't have the results yet.

This time I'm not staking all my questioning about her being gifted on a public school kindergarten screening. I realized after I went through the book that she thought about the questions differently. She hasn't ever taken standardized tests. So, when I asked her "how do you bend her arm?", she didn't answer elbow or wrist like the book listed as answers. She struggled to explain muscles connected to bones and the brain sending the message and ultimately "I don't know". I think she answered a lot of questions with "I don't know" the first time because she felt she did not know the exact answer.

The swim meet was cancelled because of the weather.

Swimming

Today K had swim team practice and we ended up spending the day at the pool. She had a swim meet on Saturday and jumped in for freestyle and started crying. D was upset because she's done a lap in a meet without a problem but now seems to have regressed. He said no more swim meets if she was just going to cry and not swim. She ended up swimming the backstroke with an older girl in the water with her. She tends to get turned around when she swims backstroke so she usually has someone in the water with her. I was impressed that she did that.

Today she swam a lap of freestyle by herself without a problem. No one was in the water with her. The coach says lets put someone in the water with her at the meet but I really don't want to give in to K's fears. Maybe I'm being too hard on her? She does fine when it is not a meet atmosphere but the commotion seems to scare her. I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring. There may be many family members coming to see her swim tomorrow because this meet is local. I'm afraid that will make her fears worse. She told me today that she'll swim by herself tomorrow. She seemed happy and confident about it.

Here's a picture of her at the swim meet

The MLarson Group

I've been thinking of keeping a blog because I enjoy reading the blogs of others. My daughter, K, is almost five years old and we are debating having her tested, homeshcooling her or how to handle the public school. My son, C, is 2.5 and full of energy. K goes to Montessori school which has allowed her to move at her own pace but still "go to school", interact with other kids and have some independent time away from her brother and mother. She's been there 2 years and it was going really well. However, this year she'll be in Kindergarten (I think she did most of K last year) so she won't have older kids to follow along. We debated doing Montessori 1/2 day and public school 1/2 day but the timing would be extremely difficult and the stress would be too much for me. Public school interaction so far has been disappointing and a story for anther day. We have thought a lot about having K tested but I'm not there yet. She matches most descriptions of gifted children but I'm still uncertain. I've spent a lot of time with her. Anyway, maybe writing and reading about others will help me decide on a route for the future.