The kids came home with school pictures today! Yay! As I was putting them in frames I was struck by how little they have changed in the past year. There are small changes, for sure, but overall they pictures are quite similar. Lex is even wearing the same shirt. :)
This year on the left, last year still in frames.
In 5th grade they do spelling a bit differently. Instead of the usual list of ten words that the kids memorize for a week and then forget, in 5th grade they are given a list of 100 words that they have to learn over the course of the year. Each week the teacher pulls ten words out of a bag and those are used for the weekly spelling quiz. At the end the kids swap papers, score each others quizzes, and then swap back. The kids then graph their results on paper so they can see how their scores are improving. The goal is that as they study and learn the words their scores will go up each week. As an added bonus, if you get all ten words correct for seven weeks in a row you get $300 classroom dollars and the chance to opt-out of spelling quizzes.
Someone is rich on classroom dollars now!
Guess who was the first in the class to reach that level?! Just seven weeks into school! :)
As I said, you get the chance to opt-out of spelling… OR to move on to a harder list. They are working now from a list of 100 content-specific words that cover math, science, literacy, and more. The next list is larger (I’m not sure how large as we haven’t seen the list yet) and taken from the Scripps National Spelling Bee word list. I was talking to his teacher yesterday and he said the Scripps words aren’t necessarily harder, but they are less common words (unlike the content words he uses in school all the time) and there are many more of them, which makes the list a lot more challenging.
Because Lex put minimal work into the first list and whizzed through it easily, we are encouraging him to try the next list. I think he needs more challenge in school, not less. :) I’m looking forward to seeing the list too!
Every year we hear about the Great Vermont Corn Maze, but this is the first time we’ve gone. We have corn maze experience, of course, (2014, 2013, 2012, probably other years, and 2008) but nothing like this! They say the average person take about two hours to get through. We spent two hours and fifteen minutes inside, with moods ranging from excitement to frustration to annoyance to excitement to boredom to excitement again. We were in there for awhile!
Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe was the theme this year.
A water bottle man selling reusable water bottles.
We found a bridge and hoped it would help to get a higher view. It didn’t.
What a corny family!
There were hole punch stations along the way and the kids had cards to collect punches. It relates to an online activity, i think, but they also served as landmarks in the corn madness.
Me and my girl
At the end of the maze there is a Bell of Success. We discovered that in the maze there is also a Bell of Frustration to mislead you. It worked!
“Look, a boat!”
Me and my boy
Eve wanted in on the selfie action!
Me and Alan. He was there too! :)
There really was a boat. We were heading that way until a helpful maze worker suggested (hinted) that the exit was not that way.
Another Bell of Frustration!
Success!!!
We made it!!
It’s beautiful up there!
Posters of past years. I took a better picture but my phone didn’t save it. Oh well.
They stop admitting people at 2pm and start helping people at 4pm. We got there just before two so by the end we got a few tiny hints from the staff along the way to get out. Hints like which way to turn at the next junction, which were barely helpful. I was joking that we would need to get airlifted out, but instead we ended part of a large group all trying to get out and sharing info about hints we got or paths we tried. Eventually we all made it out, no airlifting required!
Then we played in the kid village, visited the petting zoo, played gopher in the big gopher tunnels, and jumped from one giant hay bale to the next in the hay barn. Really the kids did all that while Alana and I made dinner plans and turned off our brains for a few minutes. :-)
Dinnertime snuggles
Car snuggles.
Overall a fun way to spend a lovely fall day!
Belt test day!
This is our life at the moment. Eve had a field hockey game and a belt test today, both at the exact same time. She put a lot of thought into it and decided to go to the belt test since they are fewer and farther between. (I was happy because I that meant I didn’t have to get the kids to two separate places at the exact same time!) Alan is out of town. He left early this morning. I had to work today and therefore had to rush the kids out the door early. Eve did walk-n-ride and I dropped Lex off at school early (early care, he hates it). He was a mess this morning – tired, fussy, slow. He also felt very hot, but I told myself it was just because he had been huddling under the covers and crying. Then I told him to have the nurse call me if necessary. She did. Right at the end of the day. I picked both kids up and he was clearly ill. The nurse said he had a fever of 99.5, but he was super pale and she said he was “paling” right in front of her. I brought them home and he fell asleep on the couch. I was left with an excited child ready for a belt test and a sleeping sick boy. Eve was so sweet and took great care of Lex, unpacking his backpack and getting him water and a blanket. So sweet.
It was a tough call for me, but I ended up writing Lex a note (I told him about it before he fell asleep) and taking Eve to the belt test. She did excellent and moved up from the “beginner belt range” to the “intermediate belt range.”
Look at that kick! She’s a powerful girl!
She’s also a very silly girl! She was actually standing still and serious, but when she saw me taking a picture… well…
Goodbye yellow belt! Hello blue!
Now, for the first time ever, the kids have different belts. Hopefully not for long though! Sensei said he would give Lex a separate test next week.
We got home and found Lex sitting up in the chair with a book. I tried to get a little dinner in him, but he got half way through a yogurt before sliding off the chair and on to the floor. I asked why he was on the floor and he said, “It’s the closest place I can find to lie down.” Back to the couch! A few minutes later that yogurt came right back up. :(
I’m feeling fortunate that my new job is only four days as a week so I don’t have to worry about missing work. I’m pretty sure I’ll have a sick boy home with me tomorrow.
I don’t mean to overshadow Eve’s belt test accomplishments! She did excellent on her test! I’m so impressed without strong and focused she is in karate. Apparently she did an entire kata with her tongue between her teeth. Sensei commented on it, as did a few friends who had a better view. I think the tongue helps her concentrate. :)
I start a new job tomorrow. I am feeling prepared, but nervous nonetheless. I’ll be teaching pre-k at a beautiful little school nearby. It is a long-term sub position while their regular teacher is off on maternity leave. I’ll be the teacher until Christmas vacation. I get to do all the fun holiday crafts. :)
It was a long and emotionally tumultuous path to arrive at this position, but I’m glad I took the journey and ended up where I did. The first week of school my kids went back to school and I got myself organized. I wrote up a long to-do list and started checking things off. I made healthy food to eat and exercised every day. I was enjoying the at-home gig. Then a friend told me about a preschool position that was open and a day later I applied for a full-time kindergarten co-teacher position. Both had some amazing pros, but some serious cons as well, and I again began my internal deliberation about home versus work versus me. I want to be home with the kids, I want to continue my career, and I want to take care of myself, both physically and emotionally. Unfortunately there just isn’t any way to do it all.
I interviewed at the preschool and decided not to take the job. Then I interviewed for the kindergarten position and, after a TON of internal debate and with apologies and gracious thanks to those who were around to listen and support my complex decision making process, I turned that down as well. That was especially hard because the school is amazing and the job would have been great, professionally. Unfortunately it was a full-time job at a different school district, which means after school care for my kids and mismatched vacation schedules. There may come a time when that works, but this year is not that time. This year my kids still need me at home in the afternoon and I still need to be there for them. So I turned down the kindergarten job.
“You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find,
You get what you need.” – The Rolling Stones
A day later I got a call from the director of the preschool at that same school. She said she heard I turned down the K job and was wondering if maybe I would be interested in a part-time pre-k job instead. Heck yeah! I went back and interviewed with the pre-k team and it was a pretty easy decision. It’s part time and just through Christmas, but I’ll still get the teacher experience (good for the resume!) and the afternoons at home (good for the family!) Best of both worlds.
I start tomorrow and although I know it will go well and I know I made the right choice, I still have first day of school jitters! Wish me luck.
We went to the grand re-opening of the town hall building today. Alan has been working on the building committee for (what seems like) years now and was involved with many of the renovation plans, particularly on the energy front. The building is over a hundred years old and has been through many iterations and served many purposes. Unfortunately it was also falling down, unsafe, and struggling to meet current-day building codes and ADA regulations. The building committee and town staff worked very hard to plan and complete the renovations and now our town has a beautiful new town hall!
No giant comic scissors here, just all business! :)
Beautiful brickwork from the original building still peeks through in many places.
Alan’s name is on a plaque in the main lobby!
Eve, imagining a future in politics! The curved desk is actually a series of individual desks (seven, I think) pushed together. It is beautiful, locally-sourced, and handmade by our neighbor!
Evie, daughter of Evil Queen.
She still loves the kitty.
When I was in high school there was a house on my bus route that always had dead deer hanging from the front yard trees each fall. It was so gross. When hunting season began each year I would intentionally sit on the opposite side of the bus so I didn’t have to see them. Today, while I was out walking, enjoying the lovely fall day, I came around the corner and boom — giant dead animal hanging from a tree! Blech!! There was a guy there, doing something to it, but I averted my eyes and crossed the street as fast as possible. I’ll be going the other away for a few weeks so I don’t have to see that sight again, and so the kids don’t have to see it either! I’m not weighing in on hunting, just hang that disgusting thing in the back yard, PLEASE! Gross.
Jump, jump, jump!
This should help get us through the long winter months ahead! It may be the end of our snowflake collection though, which has been decorating our ceiling for many, many years. After only a few jumps they started reaching up and batting at the snowflakes with each jump and one has already come down. :-)
I was at school last night and decided to take a quick walk down the hallway to check out the class bulletin boards. I really missing being in the kids’ school each day and seeing all that goes on. Both of their classes had writing assignments on their boards. I stopped and read many of them, which isn’t something you have much time to do when you’re working in the school every day!
In 5th grade they are learning about “5th grade words” or higher level writing. This assignment was to write a story about a very inappropriate (for advanced writing) word.
In 3rd they are working on descriptive language in their writing. Eve brought home a draft of this last week and after I read it she said, “Can’t you just smell the pizza?! Are you hungry now?!” (Sorry this is such a blurry image.)