It irks me that we can't define G's math curriculum for the year until after school has been in session for a couple of months. Since he has not passed the GT test, he does not have an IEP, and therefore he has no file or records or anything telling his first grade teacher this year that he took first grade math last year and has achievement testing showing his math skills are at a third grade level. Instead, I have to do this and figure out when to talk to her without being overly pushy at the beginning of the year, when this is her first year at the school.
The VP has already set actions in motion that will keep him from going to 2nd or 3rd grade for math and will make him stay and repeat a year of 1st grade math with other "advanced" kids. My kid is in the 99th percentile in math. Odds are good that no more than one or two other kids in his class of 80+ are "advanced" in math the same way he is. That's what percentiles mean.
The VP says "well if he's gifted, that's another story because we don't have a gifted program here." Well yes, it is another story. But he hasn't passed DPS's gifted test because he isn't an early reader. DPS won't accept outside testing. So to DPS, he is not gifted. He's just "advanced in math." The whole thing is so frustrating. Private schools are $16K a year here, so that is not an option for us.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
June 5, 2011
M is officially spelling her name correctly without help. She's been spelling it for probably 6 or 8 months now, but typically leaves a letter out or transposes a few letters. Her name isn't a real easy one to spell. She's finally doing it right all on her own without help.
I love her artwork. She uses a lot of color, fills the whole page, and draws and paints these beautifully balanced pieces of art. They're often abstract, and sometimes start as something real and then turn abstract. They're always beautiful to look at. She has a really strong sense of color, organization, and balance in her artwork. They're very expressive and creative. In general, she is a really creative kid, but it comes out in odd ways because she's so inhibited showing emotion (other than anger, anyway). She loves to make up songs, dance, play music, but you can't let her know you're paying any attention to her when she does those things or she'll stop. I've been trying to figure out how to better nurture her musical interests because the rest of us are so unmusical.
Her brother also draws neat pictures, but completely different. He draws extremely detailed pictures of modes of transportation (usually trains, often motorcycles, race cars, and boats) in pen or pencil, typically with no added color. He draws them from memory, and yesterday drew a cruise ship from memory with the smoke stacks tilted back at the appropriate angle. I don't think I would have remembered they even have smoke stacks, much less tilted ones. They are often tiny little drawings with tons and tons of detail packed into this little space, showing every feature of a train or car. He would be a good technical illustrator.
I love her artwork. She uses a lot of color, fills the whole page, and draws and paints these beautifully balanced pieces of art. They're often abstract, and sometimes start as something real and then turn abstract. They're always beautiful to look at. She has a really strong sense of color, organization, and balance in her artwork. They're very expressive and creative. In general, she is a really creative kid, but it comes out in odd ways because she's so inhibited showing emotion (other than anger, anyway). She loves to make up songs, dance, play music, but you can't let her know you're paying any attention to her when she does those things or she'll stop. I've been trying to figure out how to better nurture her musical interests because the rest of us are so unmusical.
Her brother also draws neat pictures, but completely different. He draws extremely detailed pictures of modes of transportation (usually trains, often motorcycles, race cars, and boats) in pen or pencil, typically with no added color. He draws them from memory, and yesterday drew a cruise ship from memory with the smoke stacks tilted back at the appropriate angle. I don't think I would have remembered they even have smoke stacks, much less tilted ones. They are often tiny little drawings with tons and tons of detail packed into this little space, showing every feature of a train or car. He would be a good technical illustrator.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Summer!
Wow. I never knew how awesome summer break would be with school-aged kids. The whole household is so RELAXED!!! I am swamped at work again after a 4 month break of normalcy, and everyone else in my house is so mellow and happy. They're just hanging out, riding bikes, playing with friends, no schedule, it's wonderful!
M, at age 4, is officially riding a bike w/o training wheels. This kiddo is one determined little kid, and she decided that she wanted to ride her bike with no training wheels, and she picked it up in all of three days. She rocks.
M, at age 4, is officially riding a bike w/o training wheels. This kiddo is one determined little kid, and she decided that she wanted to ride her bike with no training wheels, and she picked it up in all of three days. She rocks.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Lovely weekend
Haven't posted in a long time. We had such a lovely weekend this weekend, I have to write about it. No housework or errands or work.
Friday night, the four of us went to Chipotle for dinner and their killer happy hour and then went to Union Station to see the HO scale trains in the basement.
Saturday, I took M to music class in the morning. Then I took G and M swimming at the rec center, and after, we all went to G's end of season basketball party there for lunch. Then we went to the RV and boat show at the National Western Stockshow Complex and met up with friends there. We spent a LONG time there, and then went to dinner after.
This morning, I dropped G off at a friend's house and then went to a meeting with other Brown parents to organize a 5K at Sloan's Lake for the school this May. This afternoon, I took the kids to the central library to check out some new books, and on a whim we decided to go to the art museum after, which is right next door to the library. It was the most lovely and relaxing weekend with the kids, and I so enjoyed it.
And I just love our neighborhood and where we live. We saw three of G's teachers Friday night while we were eating, ran into two other families we know at the pool, saw several other Brown families at the basketball party who are on G's team, and we're 5 minutes from downtown and Union Station and the stock show complex. I'm so happy we live in central Denver, tiny house and yard and all.
CO's school funding is extremely low and about to get axed some more, and Brown's families have managed to raise over $30K for the school so far this year. The funding doesn't go to extras, it goes to things like copiers, paper, and text books. It is a sad and sorry state of things. That's another post that's more somber, but I'm proud to be part of such a great school community and such a great neighborhood. We have tons of neighborhood events that benefit all of the public schools in our neighborhood, and it's inspiring.
Friday night, the four of us went to Chipotle for dinner and their killer happy hour and then went to Union Station to see the HO scale trains in the basement.
Saturday, I took M to music class in the morning. Then I took G and M swimming at the rec center, and after, we all went to G's end of season basketball party there for lunch. Then we went to the RV and boat show at the National Western Stockshow Complex and met up with friends there. We spent a LONG time there, and then went to dinner after.
This morning, I dropped G off at a friend's house and then went to a meeting with other Brown parents to organize a 5K at Sloan's Lake for the school this May. This afternoon, I took the kids to the central library to check out some new books, and on a whim we decided to go to the art museum after, which is right next door to the library. It was the most lovely and relaxing weekend with the kids, and I so enjoyed it.
And I just love our neighborhood and where we live. We saw three of G's teachers Friday night while we were eating, ran into two other families we know at the pool, saw several other Brown families at the basketball party who are on G's team, and we're 5 minutes from downtown and Union Station and the stock show complex. I'm so happy we live in central Denver, tiny house and yard and all.
CO's school funding is extremely low and about to get axed some more, and Brown's families have managed to raise over $30K for the school so far this year. The funding doesn't go to extras, it goes to things like copiers, paper, and text books. It is a sad and sorry state of things. That's another post that's more somber, but I'm proud to be part of such a great school community and such a great neighborhood. We have tons of neighborhood events that benefit all of the public schools in our neighborhood, and it's inspiring.
Monday, November 29, 2010
The Nutcracker
I took M to see the Nutcracker at the Colorado Ballet yesterday afternoon. It was beautiful, and she loved it. She really enjoys music and dance, and we're trying to provide her more opportunities to play and experience them, since we are not a musical family. She was pretty sick with a cold yesterday, and I wondered if she'd fall asleep in my lap, or if she'd be bored given her age. She sat rapt watching the dancers and changing stage sets through the first two acts, which were 50 minutes long in total. I could feel her leg bouncing in rhythm to the music and saw her sway back and forth to some of the music.
At intermission, I asked her very casually if she liked it. She abhors displays of happy emotion, I have no idea why, so she told me no. Then I asked if she wanted to leave, or go back in for the second half, and she wanted to stay. The third act was about 40 minutes long, with no change of stage sets, and she started to get bored about 15 minutes into it during a long slow duet of Arabian Coffee. But she still didn't want to leave, she watched the remainder while climbing in and out of her chair. She finally asked me after about 30 minutes when it was going to change again, and I realized she really enjoyed the changing set and props from the first two acts. We went down to the stage and looked over into the orchestra pit after the show was over, she was excited to see what that looked like.
On the way home, I turned on the classical music station to see if we might catch a song from the Nutcracker. We didn't, but she loved the music. At dinner, D asked her about the ballet, and she had all kinds of things to say about it. We went upstairs before bath and found some of the music online and played some of it. She didn't want me to turn it off and kept asking me to find another song. Then I found a video short of a Nutcracker ballet on YouTube. After watching it for about a minute, she paused it and ran downstairs to bring G and D up to come see it. Once they wandered away, she remained there with her nose to the computer screen until the 8 minute video was over. We had such a nice time together, and I'm so glad she enjoyed it and got to experience more music and dance. Her preschool has music and movement each day, and it's one of her favorite parts of the day. She only goes two days a week; they were off for Thanksgiving, and she's been asking every day when she can go back to school.
At intermission, I asked her very casually if she liked it. She abhors displays of happy emotion, I have no idea why, so she told me no. Then I asked if she wanted to leave, or go back in for the second half, and she wanted to stay. The third act was about 40 minutes long, with no change of stage sets, and she started to get bored about 15 minutes into it during a long slow duet of Arabian Coffee. But she still didn't want to leave, she watched the remainder while climbing in and out of her chair. She finally asked me after about 30 minutes when it was going to change again, and I realized she really enjoyed the changing set and props from the first two acts. We went down to the stage and looked over into the orchestra pit after the show was over, she was excited to see what that looked like.
On the way home, I turned on the classical music station to see if we might catch a song from the Nutcracker. We didn't, but she loved the music. At dinner, D asked her about the ballet, and she had all kinds of things to say about it. We went upstairs before bath and found some of the music online and played some of it. She didn't want me to turn it off and kept asking me to find another song. Then I found a video short of a Nutcracker ballet on YouTube. After watching it for about a minute, she paused it and ran downstairs to bring G and D up to come see it. Once they wandered away, she remained there with her nose to the computer screen until the 8 minute video was over. We had such a nice time together, and I'm so glad she enjoyed it and got to experience more music and dance. Her preschool has music and movement each day, and it's one of her favorite parts of the day. She only goes two days a week; they were off for Thanksgiving, and she's been asking every day when she can go back to school.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Pumpkin Patch
What a lovely weekend we had this last weekend. I finally didn't have any work, and we didn't have a lot scheduled, and we got our first cold rainy day of the fall on Sunday, which allowed us to stay inside much of the day with no guilt. The fall has been beautiful here, and all of the trees haven't yet reached their peak of leaf color because we've had such a long summer. I remember one summer a few years ago when we had three weeks of rainy cool weather in August, and the leaves started turning yellow before the end of August. Now we're midway through October and the autumn purple ashes (my favorite) are just now turning purple.
Saturday morning, G's team had a soccer game, gorgeous windy fall morning. Then we headed up to Wellington CO, 90 minutes north of Denver, with our friend Margie and her 2yo daughter, to go pick pumpkins from the farm that we get our veggie and fruit CSA share from. We had a lovely time, took a hayride around the farm and got to see all the veggies growing that we get each Monday, saw some happy animals including a gigantic flock of squawking geese, painted some gourds, and all in all had a lovely time with always gorgeous Rockies in the background framing the scene. G stepped in a gigantic rotten pumpkin and his shoes and pant bottoms smelled like dog poop for the rest of the day. I'll have to post some pictures (of the idyllic part, not the rotten pumpkin) soon.
Sunday I cooked for much of the morning while the kids self-entertained with paint and drawing activities. The rain and drizzle stopped for long enough for us to all go on family bike ride late afternoon. It was such a lovely, and much-needed, relaxing weekend for me.
We had G's teacher conference this evening, and are really happy, they're going to send him to first grade math every day starting next week. It's a full hour long, and his teacher asked if D can sit through class with him the first few times until he gets used to it. We're very excited, and G has been asking for this for awhile. When we told him tonight, his response was "why can't I go to 2nd grade math?" D responded "one step at a time G."
M has suddenly learned to recognize all of her numbers 1 through 10. I realized a few weeks ago she didn't know them yet and worked with her a little on them a few times, but didn't know she had learned them all that quickly. We were playing a math board game on Sunday, and suddenly she knew them all except got 6 and 9 confused. As of last night, she now knows 6 and 9 too. She also is more interested in reading than G was at the same age, and has learned some of the double letter phonetic sounds, like she knows the sounds "ch" and "oo" make. G brings home his sight word books from school and I've read one or two with M. She now knows "the" easily. It's pretty neat to watch her start to build the blocks to reading.
Saturday morning, G's team had a soccer game, gorgeous windy fall morning. Then we headed up to Wellington CO, 90 minutes north of Denver, with our friend Margie and her 2yo daughter, to go pick pumpkins from the farm that we get our veggie and fruit CSA share from. We had a lovely time, took a hayride around the farm and got to see all the veggies growing that we get each Monday, saw some happy animals including a gigantic flock of squawking geese, painted some gourds, and all in all had a lovely time with always gorgeous Rockies in the background framing the scene. G stepped in a gigantic rotten pumpkin and his shoes and pant bottoms smelled like dog poop for the rest of the day. I'll have to post some pictures (of the idyllic part, not the rotten pumpkin) soon.
Sunday I cooked for much of the morning while the kids self-entertained with paint and drawing activities. The rain and drizzle stopped for long enough for us to all go on family bike ride late afternoon. It was such a lovely, and much-needed, relaxing weekend for me.
We had G's teacher conference this evening, and are really happy, they're going to send him to first grade math every day starting next week. It's a full hour long, and his teacher asked if D can sit through class with him the first few times until he gets used to it. We're very excited, and G has been asking for this for awhile. When we told him tonight, his response was "why can't I go to 2nd grade math?" D responded "one step at a time G."
M has suddenly learned to recognize all of her numbers 1 through 10. I realized a few weeks ago she didn't know them yet and worked with her a little on them a few times, but didn't know she had learned them all that quickly. We were playing a math board game on Sunday, and suddenly she knew them all except got 6 and 9 confused. As of last night, she now knows 6 and 9 too. She also is more interested in reading than G was at the same age, and has learned some of the double letter phonetic sounds, like she knows the sounds "ch" and "oo" make. G brings home his sight word books from school and I've read one or two with M. She now knows "the" easily. It's pretty neat to watch her start to build the blocks to reading.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Fri Oct somethingth
Kids were playing in the family room today while I was making dinner, and some guitar song came on KBCO - like a Stevie Ray Vaughan ballad or something - and M got up on the arm of the leather chair and started dancing to it and asked me to come dance with her. She looked so beautiful (which of course I can't tell her without her getting angry that I'm complementing her - she got mad at me today for telling her she was a cool kid) just dancing up there to this beautiful guitar riff. She stayed up there for another song before coming down, and I just love to watch her express her joy in music like that. None of the rest of us in the family are very musical, and she really loves music and dance. She's always very excited about what her preschool class does each day in the LMC (large motor center) where they do 30 minutes of music and movement. G always liked it just because he likes physical activity, but she really appreciates the activities they do and how the music and movement work together, she gets so much out of it.
Tonight G asked me where I was going to be when I left his room (they ask this every night at bedtime, after one time when D and I were in the front yard looking at our new roof and they both freaked out because they couldn't find us). I told him downstairs washing dishes. He asked what next, bed? I said yes. He asked what time are you going to bed? I told him 10. Hadn't left my mouth before I realized we'd just talked about the fact that it was 8:15, and he would know I must be doing something between washing dishes and going to bed. Sure enough, he immediately said "washing dishes won't take you till 10 o'clock, what are you doing between dishes and bed?" So I had to admit that I would probably watch a tv show (the Mentalist - red john and the psychic!).
Game plan tomorrow - soccer game at 9am, then up to Wellington CO near Ft Collins to the farm where we get our veggie CSA share to get a pumpkin.
Tonight G asked me where I was going to be when I left his room (they ask this every night at bedtime, after one time when D and I were in the front yard looking at our new roof and they both freaked out because they couldn't find us). I told him downstairs washing dishes. He asked what next, bed? I said yes. He asked what time are you going to bed? I told him 10. Hadn't left my mouth before I realized we'd just talked about the fact that it was 8:15, and he would know I must be doing something between washing dishes and going to bed. Sure enough, he immediately said "washing dishes won't take you till 10 o'clock, what are you doing between dishes and bed?" So I had to admit that I would probably watch a tv show (the Mentalist - red john and the psychic!).
Game plan tomorrow - soccer game at 9am, then up to Wellington CO near Ft Collins to the farm where we get our veggie CSA share to get a pumpkin.
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