In recent events...
Ugh, I've been having a really hard time focusing, lately. All I want to do is read, knit, and randomly surf the Internet in a brainless sort of way. And then I'm tired. :P Meanwhile, there are other knitting projects I also need to finish, quilts I need to finish, NaNo to work on, a house to clean, other upcoming events to plan for ... and I suck.
In recent events: I chaperoned Two's 6th-grade trip to a local university in town. Each academic team (three in 6th grade, two each for 7th and 8th) is named after a local college/uni, and they try to work in some connection to said college if possible. So, anyway, Two's team took a trip to their namesake college last Fri. The kids got an introductory lecture, a student-lead tour, lunch in one of the dining halls, a Q&A student panel and a super-quick trip to the college bookstore for swag before they had to get on the bus and go back to school. (The chaperones drove separately.) Because there were only half as many tour guides as there were chaperone groups (each chaperone in charge of ~9 kids), we had to double up with another group. My group was all boys (including Two); a few of them I knew from our elementary school and one was my former PREP student. Unfortunately, a lot of them were PITAs, more interested in goofing around than paying the slightest bit of attention, so that got annoying. My partner's group was all girls except for one boy. The boy is one I know. He's not a bad kid - in fact, he's been one of Two's staunch supporters, correcting pronouns and names on Two's behalf when other kids screw up. But he's also a goof-off, and when paired with MY goof-off boys, that only got worse. :P
Two LOVED the visit, and declared his intention to go there. Hey, if it gets him motivated for something like that, I'm delighted. The campus is really beautiful, lots of stone Gothic architecture, hills, trees, etc. The sorts of extracurricular activities offered is impressive, including an open crafts session in the afternoon for kids who need to decompress. They've had a Tech Week (the college is known for their engineering program - in fact, my FIL is a graduate - although there are all sorts of non-STEM programs there, too), an International Week, all kinds of stuff.
One thing that amused me: we passed a building named for Seely G Mudd. The name rang a bell, but I couldn't immediately place it, until I got home and could Google him. Turns out the man was a doctor and philanthropist, and has quite a LOT of buildings named for him around the country. Including Pomona's science library. Which, duh, was how I recognized the name. Also, his brother was Harvey Mudd (the STEM college at the Claremont Colleges) and his mother was the namesake for one of our dorms. So, that was kind of a cool thing.
Also amusing: the kinds of questions 6th-graders, most of whom have never been to a college before, ask. Why is there more than one building? Do you have to stay in your dorms all the time if you're not in class? What about on the weekend? Are you allowed to visit your family? Are they allowed to visit you? Do you have to be in bed by a certain time? Are you allowed to play video games? It was really hard not to laugh sometimes. Thankfully, our guide was really patient.
Kids and I went to the community college's fall craft fair on Sat. Spent way too much money, although I could easily have spent more. Always so tempting! Came home with some handmade soaps, a hand-painted ornament, some edibles (the most garlicky, delicious tzaziki; some pb/choc fudge), a new leash for Jade, a ceramic soup bowl for Will's bday and a holiday tree pin made from painted jigsaw puzzle pieces.
First quarter report cards came out Tuesday. MiniPlu had all As and one B, but some of those were A+s (I can't remember which right now). The B was in math; she was mad because it had been a B+ until a Keystone-preparatory test given right before the quarter ended. She passed, but not by much (common for the first Keystone-prep test, apparently), and it brought down her whole grade. She'd been hoping the A+s might have countered the B and still given her a 4.0, but, alas, earwax. She had a 3.93 or something like that. They give out awards for having a 4.0 all year, and she was disappointed to have lost it already. Still - it's a job well done, and we're pleased.
Two made honor roll for the first time ever. He had essentially the same grades as MiniPlu: all As and one B (language arts), but I think only one of those (gym) was an A+. Also, he has one less academic class than she is - no foreign language, as he gets extra learning support time in that slot, so fewer grades to calculate into his GPA. Still, he had a 3.7-something, which was the best he'd ever done, ever. We're going out to eat this weekend to celebrate; even MiniPlu acknowledges that the focus should be on him right now, for his achievement.
Will and I are kind of mixed on the validity of Two's grades. On the one hand, he's doing the same science, math and social studies as everyone else (regular math, not advanced, but even so!). On the other hand, his reading and writing demands are, no doubt about it, reduced. And that extra period of small-group help he gets every other day in lieu of foreign language helps a LOT, too. They're forcing him to be organized, to use flash cards, to focus on particular details, and it clearly is helping. So, if he didn't have his IEP and was just being treated the same as everyone, I'm sure he wouldn't perform nearly as well. But as things stand, he's doing great. I just want some of his writing demands to be stepped up to have similar expectations as for the other kids. Maybe a somewhat shorter assignment, or more help with SPaG, but he should be expected to do it, and right now he's not.
Second quarter has gotten off to a rough start for MiniPlu. She failed a social studies test on explorers - the teacher said he'd never seen so many Cs and Fs for one test in his life, so she's not alone - but because SOME kids did still do well, he's not doing the test over again. And then she got a C on a science test on Seismology. She seemed to understand it fairly well (although not on the instinctive level I have, growing up in CA), but it was a short enough test that missing just a couple of questions really knocked down the grade. She's frustrated.
On the other hand, last night she was up until midnight working on a rough-draft paper for Language Arts. They were told to pick a historical timeframe, and write a first-person narrative, as if they were living in that time. MiniPlu picked the early Great Depression, a girl witness to her family's fall (and then dying young :P). Although the minimum set for the project was 3 pages, MiniPlu wrote THIRTEEN, half of them last night. Super-awesome! Hopefully her teacher will like it, too.
Oh, and MiniPlu is EXTREMELY happy about one thing: On Dec 11, her braces come off, nearly two years to the day after they went on. She'd been promised a 2-year program, so that's been spot-on! I foresee buying up a basket of Cow Tails, jerkey, Air Heads, Twizzlers, gummi bears, and anything else she hasn't been able to eat (although she's cheated on a few gummi bears) to celebrate.
I never reported that I finished Waistcoats & Weaponry (or whatever Finishing School #3 is) a few weeks ago; looking forward to Manners & Mutiny. Since then I've been puttering along with "A Young People's Guide to the History of the United States" which has actually been quite interesting. (I've started Gaiman's "Neverwhere" twice, but then gotten distracted by e-books. :P) I've been trying to read less, what with all the other crafts and writing obligations that are going on right now. But it's so hard! Also, as soon as I saw that Whyborne and Griffin would have a 7th book coming out in Dec, I caved and bought the 6th book. I'd been trying to be good, holding off, because I didn't want to be left waiting (sort of like when you've read the most recent HP book and are left wanting more), but I was absolutely dying to read it. And I'm already at 40%, bad me! And did I mention that I finished reading the new Magnus Chase book aloud to Two the other day? Now I'm reading aloud Jennifer Nielsen's "Mark of the Thief."
Having still a bucketload of sweet potatoes from our garden, I tried sweet potato pancakes over the weekend. Eh, they were ok. I think some brown sugar in the recipe would have made them better. I'm debating what to do with the rest of them. Suggestions?
In recent events: I chaperoned Two's 6th-grade trip to a local university in town. Each academic team (three in 6th grade, two each for 7th and 8th) is named after a local college/uni, and they try to work in some connection to said college if possible. So, anyway, Two's team took a trip to their namesake college last Fri. The kids got an introductory lecture, a student-lead tour, lunch in one of the dining halls, a Q&A student panel and a super-quick trip to the college bookstore for swag before they had to get on the bus and go back to school. (The chaperones drove separately.) Because there were only half as many tour guides as there were chaperone groups (each chaperone in charge of ~9 kids), we had to double up with another group. My group was all boys (including Two); a few of them I knew from our elementary school and one was my former PREP student. Unfortunately, a lot of them were PITAs, more interested in goofing around than paying the slightest bit of attention, so that got annoying. My partner's group was all girls except for one boy. The boy is one I know. He's not a bad kid - in fact, he's been one of Two's staunch supporters, correcting pronouns and names on Two's behalf when other kids screw up. But he's also a goof-off, and when paired with MY goof-off boys, that only got worse. :P
Two LOVED the visit, and declared his intention to go there. Hey, if it gets him motivated for something like that, I'm delighted. The campus is really beautiful, lots of stone Gothic architecture, hills, trees, etc. The sorts of extracurricular activities offered is impressive, including an open crafts session in the afternoon for kids who need to decompress. They've had a Tech Week (the college is known for their engineering program - in fact, my FIL is a graduate - although there are all sorts of non-STEM programs there, too), an International Week, all kinds of stuff.
One thing that amused me: we passed a building named for Seely G Mudd. The name rang a bell, but I couldn't immediately place it, until I got home and could Google him. Turns out the man was a doctor and philanthropist, and has quite a LOT of buildings named for him around the country. Including Pomona's science library. Which, duh, was how I recognized the name. Also, his brother was Harvey Mudd (the STEM college at the Claremont Colleges) and his mother was the namesake for one of our dorms. So, that was kind of a cool thing.
Also amusing: the kinds of questions 6th-graders, most of whom have never been to a college before, ask. Why is there more than one building? Do you have to stay in your dorms all the time if you're not in class? What about on the weekend? Are you allowed to visit your family? Are they allowed to visit you? Do you have to be in bed by a certain time? Are you allowed to play video games? It was really hard not to laugh sometimes. Thankfully, our guide was really patient.
Kids and I went to the community college's fall craft fair on Sat. Spent way too much money, although I could easily have spent more. Always so tempting! Came home with some handmade soaps, a hand-painted ornament, some edibles (the most garlicky, delicious tzaziki; some pb/choc fudge), a new leash for Jade, a ceramic soup bowl for Will's bday and a holiday tree pin made from painted jigsaw puzzle pieces.
First quarter report cards came out Tuesday. MiniPlu had all As and one B, but some of those were A+s (I can't remember which right now). The B was in math; she was mad because it had been a B+ until a Keystone-preparatory test given right before the quarter ended. She passed, but not by much (common for the first Keystone-prep test, apparently), and it brought down her whole grade. She'd been hoping the A+s might have countered the B and still given her a 4.0, but, alas, earwax. She had a 3.93 or something like that. They give out awards for having a 4.0 all year, and she was disappointed to have lost it already. Still - it's a job well done, and we're pleased.
Two made honor roll for the first time ever. He had essentially the same grades as MiniPlu: all As and one B (language arts), but I think only one of those (gym) was an A+. Also, he has one less academic class than she is - no foreign language, as he gets extra learning support time in that slot, so fewer grades to calculate into his GPA. Still, he had a 3.7-something, which was the best he'd ever done, ever. We're going out to eat this weekend to celebrate; even MiniPlu acknowledges that the focus should be on him right now, for his achievement.
Will and I are kind of mixed on the validity of Two's grades. On the one hand, he's doing the same science, math and social studies as everyone else (regular math, not advanced, but even so!). On the other hand, his reading and writing demands are, no doubt about it, reduced. And that extra period of small-group help he gets every other day in lieu of foreign language helps a LOT, too. They're forcing him to be organized, to use flash cards, to focus on particular details, and it clearly is helping. So, if he didn't have his IEP and was just being treated the same as everyone, I'm sure he wouldn't perform nearly as well. But as things stand, he's doing great. I just want some of his writing demands to be stepped up to have similar expectations as for the other kids. Maybe a somewhat shorter assignment, or more help with SPaG, but he should be expected to do it, and right now he's not.
Second quarter has gotten off to a rough start for MiniPlu. She failed a social studies test on explorers - the teacher said he'd never seen so many Cs and Fs for one test in his life, so she's not alone - but because SOME kids did still do well, he's not doing the test over again. And then she got a C on a science test on Seismology. She seemed to understand it fairly well (although not on the instinctive level I have, growing up in CA), but it was a short enough test that missing just a couple of questions really knocked down the grade. She's frustrated.
On the other hand, last night she was up until midnight working on a rough-draft paper for Language Arts. They were told to pick a historical timeframe, and write a first-person narrative, as if they were living in that time. MiniPlu picked the early Great Depression, a girl witness to her family's fall (and then dying young :P). Although the minimum set for the project was 3 pages, MiniPlu wrote THIRTEEN, half of them last night. Super-awesome! Hopefully her teacher will like it, too.
Oh, and MiniPlu is EXTREMELY happy about one thing: On Dec 11, her braces come off, nearly two years to the day after they went on. She'd been promised a 2-year program, so that's been spot-on! I foresee buying up a basket of Cow Tails, jerkey, Air Heads, Twizzlers, gummi bears, and anything else she hasn't been able to eat (although she's cheated on a few gummi bears) to celebrate.
I never reported that I finished Waistcoats & Weaponry (or whatever Finishing School #3 is) a few weeks ago; looking forward to Manners & Mutiny. Since then I've been puttering along with "A Young People's Guide to the History of the United States" which has actually been quite interesting. (I've started Gaiman's "Neverwhere" twice, but then gotten distracted by e-books. :P) I've been trying to read less, what with all the other crafts and writing obligations that are going on right now. But it's so hard! Also, as soon as I saw that Whyborne and Griffin would have a 7th book coming out in Dec, I caved and bought the 6th book. I'd been trying to be good, holding off, because I didn't want to be left waiting (sort of like when you've read the most recent HP book and are left wanting more), but I was absolutely dying to read it. And I'm already at 40%, bad me! And did I mention that I finished reading the new Magnus Chase book aloud to Two the other day? Now I'm reading aloud Jennifer Nielsen's "Mark of the Thief."
Having still a bucketload of sweet potatoes from our garden, I tried sweet potato pancakes over the weekend. Eh, they were ok. I think some brown sugar in the recipe would have made them better. I'm debating what to do with the rest of them. Suggestions?