September, back to school: What are they doing now! - Page 3

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by dessismama

Here is a video of him playing Mendelssohn at music camp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QflDg1OmLAY
DS claims this camp changed his life, and yes the kids all performed bare-foot in white.

Awesome! Your son's phrasing and musicality has really matured recently! And that piano kid is amazing too.

The barefoot thing ... my kids would so love that. I have a hard time getting them into even flip-flops for performances.

Miranda

[dessismama]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

Awesome! Your son's phrasing and musicality has really matured recently! And that piano kid is amazing too.
The barefoot thing ... my kids would so love that. I have a hard time getting them into even flip-flops for performances.

Thanks so much. I agree... it's like he woke up one day and sounded so different. He came back from Luzerne and seemed so focused and determined, like he grew up musically overnight. His new teacher is really working on improving his vibrato, the angle of his right hand in the thumb position and other technique details that have not been on his radar until now. (Yes, the piano kid IS amazing; he is also a gifted cellist, so he is a piano trio star!!!Alas he lives pretty far from us... but maybe they will get to play together again!!)

And Greenwood is a super magical (and crunchy) place.... I suspect, with luck, Z will be going there often in the summers to come.

[physmom]

I guess the only really wow things DD has been doing lately is counting to 10 (although sometimes 11, 22, 18, etc sneak in there ) and she's been singing songs more often now. This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0FOZ0-VpcU is her current favorite and sometimes I'll hear "tall as trees" or "brains like peas".

Otherwise she's just been doing more lately. More talking, more pretending play, she's getting good enough at climbing to climb basically everything at the playground. It'd be a fun time if she'd just sleep and stop hitting kids...

At the moment I'm trying to figure out what to do with her for the next 4 hours. We have a bunch of bananas that are about to go bad a just bought a huge bag of apples that I need to cook with. I'm just not sure what to make!

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by loraxc

DD is being tested for giftedness today! After almost a year of no progress on this front despite emails and calls, her new teacher asked administration to test her, and I'll be darned if they didn't set the thing up in TWO DAYS. My understanding is that this is a brief pre-test that only involves analogies, which makes me nervous, but it's the district standard.

So sudden! Keep us posted.

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by dessismama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QflDg1OmLAY
DS claims this camp changed his life, and yes the kids all performed bare-foot in white.

Looking and listening, this is believable.
I have to start making music barefoot...it just looks so right! (no whites for me though!)

[Tigerle]

DS had some of his enrichment classes already. His first English class (not our first language) at pre-school yesterday and a science class this afternoon. It was the first time in months that he spontaneously offered "preschool was fun today!".
He also really seems to have enjoyed the science class on microscopy though I couldn't tell from watching him - he does walk around alot just observing things and needed some cajoling to get into it - and it was a bit of a sorry little thing, with just two microscopes and a broken lamp for 8 or so kids, many of whom were whiny and kept wanting to snuggle or eat or drink or wanting to leave - but he talked up a storm about it to DH when we came home, so who am I to complain?

I so so wish our preschool offered more things like this - even the English class is not something they offer, it's through an outside provider and they just offer the space and put them in the classroom. Well, better than nothing. But they might do more in the mornings, instead of the free play DS just doesn't get much out of - even the K pullout program is scheduled in the afternoons, one day every other week (yes, I was shocked too on finding out). No wonder kids are bored by their third year there.

[loraxc]

Well, DD was peeved that she missed center time for her testing. She also asked me why she was the only one who had to do it. So much for the school's counsel not to tell her about the test and their advice that she would not notice being pulled out since they've been being pulled out for reading assessment lately.

I think what she took was the analogies portion of the SAGES-2, which seems to be basically a nonverbal reasoning sort of thing:

http://www.prufrock.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=128

This kind of stuff is not her strength. We'll see. She said "Some of it was easy, some of it was medium, some of it was hard."

[loraxc]

Just posting this to brag to someone--DD is getting pretty good at Bananagrams:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...t=IMG_7293.jpg

The only one I helped her with was "orc," which I suppose may not be a word, strictly speaking...

If Scrabble has been a bit too slow or frustrating for your child, but you have a word-oriented kid, you should try this game! I like it a lot myself. DD loves Scrabble, too, but she is loving Bananagrams more. She does miss the strategy element of the word/letter scores a little, but the fast pace makes up for that. We don't actually play to win.

[LittleBattleAxe]

I know it's October but...

It's been a weird year. Ds1, who is pg and has several social issues, ran for 5th grade class president. He didn't win, but did come in a respectable 2nd place. He is trying to decide where to go next year -- I teach at a STEM school and he has a great interest in that; but we don't have the same opportunities for electives that he might have at other schools. i really, really wanted ds1 to participate in orchestra this year, but he didn't -- he said he wanted to be in choir again -- but then some kids teased him about that and said "choir is for girls" so he was too embarrassed to go to try-outs. They have a new GT teacher this year who seems a bit less organized than the much-beloved one who retired, but he really enjoys her and is doing independent research now. MATH is the thorn in my side; he is making 99% (that was his grade on report card) and rather than accelerate him, the teacher is giving him worksheets with MORE problems!! I explained, as diplomatically as I am able, that he doesn't need MORE work -- he needs more challenging work -- but so far the message hasn't been received.

DD who is also a giftie but doesn't do any of the GT activities is also having an odd year -- she is in 3rd this year and lots of girls are "into boys" as she says. She definitely isn't there yet. This had created a bit of a social wall for her -- she is very,very friendly, gregarious, bubbly; she still is, but she told me today that she thinks she may only have two or three friends this year because all the girls want to do at recess is chase boys. Ugh. She is reading at 7th grade level now -- 7.9 -- and I gave her a stack of my aunt's books to read (Anna Myers, in case anyone is interested) -- she is plowing through them like crazy. She's very active in girl scouts and wants to take flamenco dancing.

The LO is enjoying preschool -- he's spoiled by his siblings for sure, who ask him questions about what he is learning in school and oooh and ahhh over his crafty creations. I always feel so blessed to witness how close they are despite the gap in ages. LO is bright but as far as gifted, eh. One day I'm hopeful he'll learn his letters... we'll see

MY year has been hectic -- lots of tension in the ELA dpt and I'm not sure what the source of it all is, as it's my first year there.

oh -- interestingly -- there is a student I have who should be in 7th grade but has been accelerated to 10th grade. She is also on an early graduation track, and will probably have enough credits to be out at 15. She's a model of why acceleration works -- thought I'd share that, I'm always happy to see schools take some initiative to work with students that are at the far end of the spectrum.