General Stuff

The big kids went sledding for the second time Saturday. We got another 5 inches of snow last week, and it didn't get much above freezing this week, so there was still enough for sledding. Sounds like they had a blast! It was warming up Saturday though, so they wanted to go early in the afternoon, so James and I missed out this time. I don't think Jock even took his snowpants, so he didn't sled either - just took the kids to enjoy the white stuff. Apparently someone had built a ramp on the hill, so Elijah & Kaylen tried it out. Apparently if you went over it just right, it launched you into the air for a bit. No surprise though, Josephine didn't want to try the ramp. She's not quite as adventurous as the other two. She will, however, kill the random box elder bugs we've been finding in our basement all winter, then pick it up with her bare hands and throw it in the trash, as Elijah looks on in utter fear. Go figure!

Elijah has three loose teeth. His top two middle teeth, and one on the bottom, next to his middle permanent teeth that came in last summer. We are constantly telling him to wiggle them, especially the two in the top middle, because they are already being pushed out by the permanent teeth that are coming in. His teeth look so crazy! He's just either too lazy or too scared (or both) to wiggle them. I keep reminding him that he'll probably get money from the tooth fairy, and he can use it to buy gum or candy with that money, which is helping a little bit, I think.

Josephine had an eye doctor appointment this week. The doctor was satisfied that her lazy eye was getting better. However, he says it can still revert to laziness, because it's slightly weaker than the other, up until age 8, so he has asked her to continue wearing her eye patch for two hours each evening. She also got new glasses. We got them ordered the day of her appointment, and picked them up Saturday already. She's really liking them, and Sunday when she was reading, I could already tell she could see better. She wasn't holding the book 3 inches from her face!

Kaylen's doing awesome in school. She's in an extended learning program (like talented and gifted when I was a kid) for humanities - reading and social studies. They've also started her and a couple other kids in her class, to monitor them in STEM, which is the extended learning program for science, technology, engineering and math. She was scared when we told her after fall conferences that she might start the program, saying that was for the really smart kids. She's the kind of kid that can do that level of work if she's pushed a little bit, but if not, she's scared she'll fail so she doesn't want to. She was even very upset about it one day, saying that all the other kids will think she's a nerd and she's not that smart. We had a little talk about trying her best, not dumbing herself down just so she can try to be a cool kid... Well, we and her teacher agreed that she needs the extra challenge. She was in the class for about a month or so before they had their annual assessment testing (was basic skills tests when I was a kid). They also did some other testing in that class, and those tests will help determine whether she joins the STEM class permanently. She thought she did well on the testing, and she is now excited to be in the class, so I hope she truly did well on the testing so she can stay. She's coming home excited about the new things she's learning.

Josephine and Elijah are doing awesome in school as well. We were very impressed at their progress at conferences a couple weeks ago. Josephine is right on target, and I think soon will be ahead of the expected level for kindergarten if she keeps working hard! Elijah is a little behind target, but we've seen some big improvements as his behavior has leveled out some as well. I hope that progress continues as well. We'll have to keep on things this summer so they don't lose ground on their reading. Both reading and math for Kaylen - but she LOVES to read, so that won't be an issue for her - just keeping up with checking books out from the library for her!

The Awana year will be wrapping up in about a month for all three bigger kids. Elijah and Josephine finished their books a couple weeks ago, and are now going back to do some review. Kaylen is almost finished with her year-2 T&T book as well, including the silver and gold sections, which are typicially quite challenging. So proud of all of them!

Kaylen is enjoying tumbling class on Monday nights. It's nice that it's only one night per week. She'd like to go back to doing dance next fall, but we'll have to wait and see. She misses it, but she was also miserable most weeks when she went to class. She is really doing well in tumbling. She's very close to having her back hand-spring down, which she's very excited about. She still has a teacher spot her most times, and one teacher still helps lift her, to help with her technique a bit. It's fun to watch the girls in her class with quite varying abilities. Some girls are in their teens, and can do back handsprings all the way across the mat, while others are younger and still learning them, like her. It's neat to have the variety in her class, because she doesn't feel like she's at the lowest level, but can also watch and learn from those at the higher levels.

Elijah and Josephine aren't doing a sport this winter. They played soccer in the fall and I'd planned on signing them up for basketball this winter. I'd been on the city Parks & Rec website a few times, looking for the sign-ups, and they weren't there. I assumed that they weren't doing basketball for their ages this winter. Well, I found the basketball info on the website while I was looking for something else... a month after the registration deadline. I probably could have called the Parks & Rec office to get them signed up late, but then I decided that was probably for the better, with James just coming home. Not having two basketball games every Saturday this winter has been a good thing. And when I apologized to the kids about not getting them signed up, they didn't have any problem with it. But Josephine did ask if she could play t-ball again this spring/summer, so I'll have to watch for that when the spring/summer activity catalog comes out. :)

James... well, James is James. I've written more about him in the past several weeks than you probably want to hear. He's doing well, amazing us daily with his newfound skills and knowledge, and making us laugh a lot!