It is finished!

Extra curricular activities, including housecleaning, came to a halt recently as I frantically worked to finish my renewal entries for my National Board teaching certification. Last year was just too hard, on too many levels, to take advantage of the first opportunity to renew, so this was my only shot. The process was less rigorous that the first go-around, but now I have two kids and a more demanding job. I finished my four papers, which included videos and work samples from my teaching, with 43 minutes to spare! That sentence makes it sound too easy. To provide some perspective, my mother's day and birthday present requests were for time to write and editing services. I've skipped the girls soccer games and fallen very behind in every area of my life.

I would not have been able to finish without my dear friends and former Bellingham colleagues, Amanda and Scott. They provided valuable feedback and support from afar. But most of all I would have been lost without Brian. He put his pursuits on hold the last few weeks to help me with my writing, handle more of the parenting, and put up with my near nervous breakdown moments. His Facebook status during the thick of the editing indicates he might have been nearing a breakdown of his own. 

I won't find out if I pass until December 2015, but that's out of my hands. For now a huge weight feels lifted and I can start chipping away at all that has been postponed. 

Pet Day 2015: Best Waver

Trudy attended Pet Day today at Maggie's school. She was awarded a certificate for "Best Paw Wave to Say Hi!" We think every pet received an award, but we aren't telling Trudy.

The Unusual Recess

THE UNUSUAL RECESS  by Magnolia

One day at recess something unusual happened. As I was walking out of the lunch room, I saw my friend, Clementine running out in the Fir Grove. I met up with her and asked, "Why are you in the Fir Grove?" Clementine answered, "Because the playground is closed." Then I asked, "Why are you running around?" Clementine answered, "Because I think some boys are spying on us." Then I said, "O.K. I'm going to put my lunch box away."

After Clementine and I met up again, we talked more about the boys spying on us. The boys were spying on us by hiding and then running toward us. When we saw the boys hiding and running, we ran away.

The hiding and running kept repeating for all of recess. I liked it but I couldn't tell them that because it wouldn't be fun any more if they knew I like it.

2015 Tuition on the Track

Excitement Everywhere.

Sweat rolling down my face.

Running, happily around the track.

Talking, running, and walking with my senior buddy.

Thirst and stamps after every lap.

Hot sun shining brightly out.

Hot track, hot day, and hot people.

Loud speaker, noises everywhere, people talking and blasting music.

One lap, then two hugs for Mama and Papa.

14 colorful dots at the end.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Rough Draft:

Focused on action words and capturing all of the senses

Maggie's phone solicitation script:

Most of the time Maggie just left a message. If you were lucky enough to get her on the phone, the above was read with little punctuation or pausing to have a conversation with the potential donor. Usually the phone was handed off to Kaleia with much urging "Now, you ask for money." To which Kaleia's "script" was "Can I have some money too?"

Art Show and Auction

Every year, Catlin Gabel has an auction fundraiser. Each class creates an art project to contribute as an auction item. There is a corresponding art show in one of our galleries to display the pieces to be auctioned along with other art created this year. 

Click to see more about Magnolia and Kaleia's pieces

Faith of Children

One of Kaleia's teachers stopped me this week as I walked across campus, with a story to tell. Kaleia's group was the last to rotate through her unit on myths. To mix things up, the teacher pulled out a book that she hadn't yet used this year.

It began, "Once, two gods were talking..." Immediately she remembered why she doesn't use this book with kindergarteners. The group erupted.

"There are gods?!" "There are two gods?!"

Kaleia confidently speaks up, excited to help her friends out, "You don't know about Him?! God has been around for a long time, before even Jesus. He made everything and still makes things and takes care of us!"

There was push back. "That's not true. My mom says we came from fish!" Kaleia patiently handles the arguing, holding to her belief, trying to help her friends understand.

Magnolia is also unashamedly sharing her growing faith. During a recent morning meeting, a Catholic classmate shared that he was celebrating Easter. Maggie chimed in that she also celebrates Easter, but on a different date--a week later this year. The class added it to the class calendar. After school, Magnolia's teacher thanked her for speaking up and sharing her faith tradition.  Her teacher also told Maggie that as a child her family had Orthodox friends and she always loved celebrating Easter twice.

Since then, her teacher emailed to share, "Magnolia has been really excited to share with us all about her traditions and activities this week, so we are thrilled to be hearing all about it. She shared with us her week in review this morning in morning meeting and the kids were really interested in hearing more each day as the week progresses!" This lenten season in particular, Magnolia is hungry to learn more about our faith. She is devoted to keeping the 40-day fast, which is nearly vegan, reading along with each new service, paying attention, and asking great questions. Her friends are getting a play-by-play and as she learns about their faiths she is comparing and contrasting. She has been particularly interested in her Jewish friends' traditions, which dovetails nicely, since Passover is so closely connected to Pascha/Easter.

As Pascha draws near and I reflect on Christ's journey to the cross, I am inspired and convicted by the innocent desire of my children to tell their world what they know, what they've found, what they believe.

To those of you that have already celebrated the Resurrection, I say "Christ is Risen!" To my Orthodox friends, I wish you a blessed Holy Week and Pascha.

For those wanting to learn more about Holy Week in the Orthodox Church, here are a couple of good resources: Holy Week: An Explanation and Pascha is the new Passover. Or, even though you've already celebrated Easter once, why not celebrate it twice? Find an English-speaking Orthodox church in your area and experience for yourself the beauty and power of the Orthodox liturgies this week. If you have any questions before or after, feel free to ask!

Curious why Pascha and Western Easter are different dates this year? Here are a few good links: Date of Pascha, The Calendar of the Orthodox Church, and Lenten and Paschal Cycle 

U is for ...

Most Wednesday mornings at our house you can hear, "Shoot! What are you going to bring for _____ week?" You would think that with this being our second consecutive year of kindergarten, we would have that one down. 

This week, with the theme being the letter "U," I groan, scanning the room for anything beginning with U and begin to brainstorm aloud. "I think there is an umbrella downstairs... Urchin... No, I don't think we have a sea urchin. Underwear?"

Kaleia's face lights up. Yes. That is it, she is going to make her teacher hold up underwear in front of the class. Oh dear. 

Magnolia's "U Week" item last year was no less controversial. The then medical-obsessed kindergarten Magnolia wanted to bring urine in one of her special cups.    

Don't worry, I talked her into just coloring water with yellow dye. 

Penguins (by Magnolia)

Penguins

by Magnolia

Swish, swish, 

penguins like to glide and slide

down icy hills. 

Splish, splash, 

penguins like to swim about

deep down in the water. 

Crick, crack, 

penguins like to warm their eggs

until they hatch!

Published in the 1st grade poetry book

Wonder Week (by Kaleia)

Wonder Week is a time when you do lots of things that are hard working and you go with a teacher and get to go on the school bus to somewhere.

Click below for more details

Experiential Days (by Magnolia)

Experiential days are when you go to experience something you don't do in a regular day at school for four days. And what I did for experiential days is "We love Animals." "We love Animals" is where you learn about animals. My teacher was the fourth grade teacher who is also named Maggie. 

Click to read more about my Experiential Days

Web Week 2015

One of my favorite things about working at an independent school is the freedom to pause and do something different. Our school demonstrates its value of experiential learning by dedicating the week before spring break to learning outside the traditional classroom walls. 

How to Bake a Cake (by Magnolia)

How to Bake a Cake

by Magnolia

First you take the batter and stir it around.

Swish, Swish

Get a pan.

Clang,

Pour the batter into the pan.

Splish, splash.

And bake it in the oven.

Cook. Cook.

Tick, tock,

Goes the clock.

The cake is all ready.

The Divers by Kaleia

Recently, Kaleia's class had a publishing party. They have been working on authoring and illustrating stories of their own for some time. We've heard Kaleia share enthusiastically about these works in-progress and how she longed to bring them home to share. Normally noncompetitive, she surprised us with, "Today, we got to read out books with a partner at the publishing party. (My reading partner) only had one book to read and I had FOUR!" She is very proud of her work. We hope you enjoy the author reading below. Watch for more books by Kaleia in the near future. 

Click below to view close-up pictures of Kaleia's book.

Student-Led Conferences and the Return of Rushcapades!

"Hello, Mama and Papa. I want to thank you for coming to my conference."

Her first student-led conference, and not surprisingly, Magnolia works through her checklist articulately, sharing her self-assessment, friendship reflection, and samples of her written work and handwriting. She directs us to recognize her growth, asks us for specific support to assist her in further learning, and shares her goal for the remainder of the year. Is this girl really seven?! My mama-eyes swell with pride at her confidence and growth.

At the end of the conference, Magnolia asks if we have a goal for her--we had been instructed to bring one.

We do. But a little background first.

Always an avid reader, Magnolia entered first grade hesitant to write, inhibited by spelling. This year, though, she has blossomed into a passionate writer, empowered by best gess sownd speling. She loves poetry, punctuation, capitalization, onomatopoeia, and especially the writing process.  From memory, she can explain the importance of each stage: prewrite - draft - revise - edit - publish. She loves to find and fix mistakes--like her Papa--and she loves to "add juicy details."

However, for whatever reason, she does NOT like publishing. Maybe rewriting in her neatest handwriting is boring? Maybe staple binding loose leaf paper is frustrating? Or maybe her passion for editing creates a feeling of the work never quite being done?

Whatever the case, to support Magnolia's passion for writing and encourage her to overcome her resistance to publishing, one of our goals is for Magnolia to share a piece of writing on our blog each week.

She loves the idea!

Selfishly, it is kind of a goal for me too -- along with some motivation and accountability!

Blogging is good for my soul, but it has been hard to find time the last few years. Currently, I have over 100 blog drafts in limbo. (Hmm, maybe I do know where she gets her resistance to publishing...) I may never get around to posting them all, but I'm hoping to at least start capturing some of our Rushcapades again.

Please support us by commenting and giving friendly nudges if we fall behind. And forgive any mistakes as we try to let go of worrying about being perfect in order to be published. As Brian likes to say, "Sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good."

Chess match: Maggie vs. Huxley

Friday, I arrive at Maggie's after-school care to be greeted by the usual disappointed "Aww (it's time to go already?)." This time she is in the middle of a chess game. We aren't in a hurry so I pull up a tiny chair to watch the future grandmasters.

It's clear that Huxley is much more experienced, reciting the finer points of pawn movement and promotion. The game draws several "experts." They spout out "one move to check!" and speak of fair trades and how many points they each had. Chess has points?!?

After a while I have flashbacks of the last time I played chess, as Huxley picks off Maggie's pieces with ease.

It was our honeymoon in Fiji. Brian was really, really into chess, but to coerce make it fair for his new bride, he would play without a rook or bishop and knight, or sometimes even his queen. In that fateful last game, I was ahead and felt like I had a shot at winning for the first time ever. Then, slowly, my pieces began to disappear and I was unable to help them. After the game, I marched to the bathroom and screamed at the top of my lungs. The soap in the shower was not spared my high-velocity wrath. Brian, my dear, sweet husband (except for his chess brutalities), fresh from our fairytale wedding, was mortified. We decided not to play chess any more.  

Seeing that same fate (okay, maybe not quite as bad) awaiting my daughter, I decide to step in and "help." I advise her to move her bishop to a spot. She trusts my advice and I say "Check." Both kids look at me strangely, incredulously. "That's not check." Still confident, I try to show them how it was indeed check. "You can only check the *king*." The piece I advised my daughter to "check" was his queen. Oops. Maggie's bishop is gone and I decide to keep my mouth shut.

Pretty soon, Huxley's dad arrives. Thankfully, he is willing to indulge their game and able to give knowledgable advice to both kids.

Maggie manages to survive and whittles Huxley down to his king and a few pawns. The two six-year-olds play a game of chase around the board. Huxley manages to take Maggie's last pawn in the process. At that point, Huxley's Dad informs them that once a player is down to one piece, the other player has 15 moves to checkmate or the game ends in a stalemate. Is that even a thing or is he just trying to end the game? 

Stalemate it is. As we walk to the car, Maggie is bashful. She wishes she could have won, has admiration for how good Huxley is, but proud of how many pieces she captured--a much better response to her game than her Mom's soap throwing.

Dolphin Carpool

Geome-Try This on for Size...

Today, Kaleia discovered that two triangles can be put together to stand in for square tiles when you run out. 

She also methodically tried various angled shapes until she found just the right ones to complete this interesting design. 

Her Geometry teacher Mama is proud!

Zoo School

Today, the animals went to school. 

Preschool Costume Parade

I'm not sure why the girls preschool wanted to do a Costume Parade the week before Halloween, rather than on the actual day but the girls, always ready to dress up, didn't mind. Any excuse to wear their fairy princess outfits that are usually off limits for school.

Self-dressed and Accessorized!

Self-dressed for school, even accessorized!

Though we've got to figure out how to convince her to put her shoes on the correct feet.