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