It starts with an H...

Walking to the car after school...

Magnolia: Mama, today was super exciting.

Me: Why? SASH? *see footnote  

Magnolia: No a bonus. 

Me: I don't know.  

Magnolia: Kaleia doesn't have it. It is new for 2nd grade.  

Me: You'll have to tell me.  

Magnolia: It starts with H... 

Me: Health? I think I remember they start health in 2nd grade along with PE. 

Magnolia: No...it ends with a k... 

Me: Homework. 

Magnolia: YES! My first homework!  

*SASH stands for Science, Art, Shop and Homeroom -- this happens once a week and is always anticipated with excitement.

First Day of School 2015

I still can't believe these two are both in elementary school.

Kaleia
Favorites
Food: Pizza with pineapple and ham
Treat: Chocolate Pudding
Color: Blue
Book: Bob books and The Book with No Pictures
Movie: Rio 2
Song: ABCs
Activity: Draw

My best friends are Natalia and Eleanor (but these rotate regularly).

This year I want to:

• learn how to read. 
• try to do a whole sentence by myself. 
• start playing the guitar. 
• make a big stuffed animal. 

When I grow up, I want to be vet or a doctor and I will still be a Mama.

Stats
43.2 pounds ~ 3 feet, 10 inches ~ shoe size: 12 ~ age: 6 years, 2 months

Magnolia
Favorites
Food: Fondue, then crepes
Treat: Mud Pie
Color: Coral
Books: The Secret of the Ginger Mice
and The Spies of Gerander
Movies: Big Hero 6 and Rio 2
Songs: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams,
"Volcano" by U2,
"Ship to Wreck" by Florence and the Machine
Activities: Learning and Sports

My best friends are Clementine and Nivriti.

This year I want to:

• learn about the forest and the brain.
• try to find a fidget that will help me but not distract me.
• start going to chess club.
• make a forest model.

When I grow up, I want to be a doctor and have a farm.

Stats
54 pounds ~ 4 feet, 2 inches ~ shoe size: 1 ~ age: 7 1/2 years old

I guess I had a first day of school too -- my 33rd one.

Sisters...splash sillily in the summer.

Click to see more goofy poses

Last Day of School 2015

I can't believe these goofy girls have finished another year of school! 

And that we are now done with the Beehive (kindgergarten)!

Attempt at a "normal" smile for Mama

I'll definitely take this one home!

Chillin' with a popsicle

"I don't want it to end!"...Or maybe it was "I don't want anymore pictures!"

My big girl finished with first grade!

Always ready to learn even on the last day!

Lower School Spirit Week 2015

Spirit Week by Magnolia

Spirit Week is a week where you dress up in clothes you wouldn’t usually go to school wearing. Spirit week is the last week of school. It’s run by the 5th graders. 

Monday was Pajama Day. I wore my favorite nightie. Kaleia kept thinking I wasn’t dressed for the day because I was in pajamas and I usually am in clothes. Mama didn't get a picture of this day.

Tuesday was hero day. I dressed up as Jesus. It was very hard to get on because Mama kept changing her ways of making it stay on and switched the blue robe thing, etc, and I kept having to put it on and it fell off, and once I had to go the bathroom.

Wednesday was Wacky Wednesday. I wore a purple shirt and yellow/orange/red zig-zagged shorts and a white tank top over the purple shirt. Kaleia kept thinking that you took off your clothes and whacked people with your clothes. 

Thursday was Spirit Day. Spirit Day is when you wear lots of Catlin Gabel colors and stuff. I wore blue shorts and blue underwear, mostly white socks, and a tie-dyed white and blue Catlin Gabel shirt.

Friday there isn't any dress up because it is graduation day for the 5th graders and they are the ones planning Spirit Week. The 5th graders need to wear nice clothes. So we just will wear normal clothes for the last day of school.

Food Museum: Goats

The Catlin Gabel first grade class spends the spring studying food for their science and social studies units--farm to table style. In groups, they choose a type of food of interest (fruits, vegetables, bread, meat, dairy) to research. They conduct interviews while on fields trips to a local grocery store and a farmer's market. Parents come to class and teach each group how to make a food from their category: dried fruit, jam, pickled veggies, loaves of bread, jerky, yogurt, and ice cream. Then groups create a "Food Museum" with activities and informational posters. 

This was one of my favorites from this year: "chickens and things you make them in to." 

Originally, Magnolia choose dairy, but then she wanted to specialize in goat products. Her teacher allowed Maggie to branch off from her group to create her own food museum--I love that about our school! Now, this girl is now passionate about goats. 

She worked hard during work time and some of her free time on her exhibit, agonizing each evening, worried she'd wouldn't finish before the parent viewing event. Magnolia, and her teacher, were incredibly proud that she pulled it off. When I got to the event, as she showed me her museum, I realized why she had been worried, and was overwhelmed with pride myself.

She didn't just create the one required information poster or activity. Magnolia had made three informational posters,

an Interactive "Fun Fact" board, 

AND a goat game to test your new knowledge!

She really knew her stuff!

Some things I learned about goats from her exhibit:

• Goats have rectangular pupils to help them see in the dark
• Goats discovered coffee beans
• Goats are picky eaters
• Each breed of dairy goat gives a different flavored milk

Word of the week: Consider-it

Consider-it (noun): a substance made by removing water or other diluting agent

"Apple puree consider-it, apple juice consider-it, natural strawberry flavor, strawberry consider-it, citrus pectin, lemon juice consider-it..." 

-- Magnolia (7), reading the nutrition information, a current favorite past-time 

Word of the week: Tasumi

Tasumi (noun): A long high sea wave caused by an earthquake, submarine landslide, or other disturbance 

Magnolia: Papa, are we on the highest floor? 

Brian: Yep.  

M: Good. 

B: Why “good”? 

M: Because it says if there’s a tasumi to go to the highest floors.

A few seconds later...

B: Maggie, if you were pronouncing a word wrong, would you want someone to tell you? 

M (happily): Papa, I know I’m pronouncing a word wrong. 

B (laughs): Which word? 

M: Tasuemi

Sometimes we wonder how much to correct these mistakes and how much to let them just figure things out.

Sisters...watch scary movies together.

They're watching the Lego Movie.

Usually this scene is reversed with Magnolia comforting Kaleia during a "scary movie."

I hope they always lean into each other or hold hands when things are scary. 

Origami Dogs from Around the World

Yay! The powers of the internet! Magnolia was very excited to have friends and family sent in pictures of their origami dogs after her instructional video.

Sent in by our friend Jemma in New Zealand

 Sent in by Maggie's Nana in Washington

How to Make an Origami Dog

If you make an origami dog from my instructions, send me a picture!

Sisters...play soccer together.

After a little finagling, we got both girls on the same soccer team -- the Pink Pandas! They LOVE playing on the same team!

This 2-minute video of little kid soccer is probably too long for most folks. The last minute is the best if you only want to watch some of it. Kaleia is in pink shorts, glasses and wears #2. Maggie has black shorts and wears #3. 

This was there first game -- April 11th

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.

Sister Superpowers

I bring the groceries in from the car to the bottom of the stairs and the girls take them to the kitchen. Anything too heavy for them, I bring up on my last trip. It is a good system. 

Today, I was imagining carrying the heavy 25 pound bag of rice myself. 

Instead I hear a voice reminiscent of childhood superhero cartoons, "This is heavy. I think this needs to be...a sister-thing!"

With their strengths combined

Conversations Overhead: Moving

Maggie: *sigh* I want to move.

Kaleia: Why? I like this house.

Maggie: Oh, Kaleia.  Moving is so fun! Everything gets put in boxes. Then, you get to help carry things down to a big truck for Mama and Papa. And when you get to the new house, you get to organize!

Kaleia: (unimpressed) Oh. I still don't want to move.

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?"

The Pancake Problem

Shannon: "Wow, Kaleia! Another pancake? How many is that for you?"

Kaleia: "Three!"

Magnolia: "I've had three, too!"

Shannon: "I only had two! There is one left on the plate. I wonder how many I made this morning..."

Kaleia: "One, two..." Magnolia: "Let me figure it out!"

Shannon: "Let's all figure it out in our head and share the number we come up with."

Kaleia: "Nine!"

Magnolia: "That's what I got too! I knew my three and Kaleia's three made six, then Mama's two would be eight and one more makes nine!"

Shannon: "Kaleia, what was your strategy?"

Kaleia: "I just counted in my head."

Magnolia (giddy with excitement): "You gave us a story problem!"

Shannon: "Yeah, I guess I did."

Magnolia: "Now I have a pancake story problem for you, but its not addition. It's subtraction!"

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

Story problems can be fun!

As a high school math teacher, I was excited to find an ally in my mathematics culture change mission in Maggie's 1st grade teacher. She is supporting Magnolia and her classmates to see the value of both the accuracy of their answers and the ability to communicate their process. At the fall parent information night, her teacher asked parents to think about the ways we approach reading at home; Cozy bedtime stories, cuddled up together, reading both the familiar and the new and exciting. Yet, most of us have less than "cozy" images of mathematics. It is viewed as drudgery or punishment, and only accessible for some people. Let's change that. Kids are natural mathematicians, wondering about patterns, estimating amounts, making comparisons. We only need to wonder with them. The more we do it, the easier it becomes.

If you need some support, there is a cool foundation called Bedtime Math. They have a few books and offer a nightly email to help give parents ideas.

7 Weeks to 7 Years

I open up my toasty warm down, knee-length, winter jacket and draw my shivering eldest daughter inside. We are standing outside our church as part of our midnight Pascha (Easter) service.

As I do, Pascha 2008 comes flooding back, when my just-over-7-week old Magnolia slept, tucked inside my coat, while I sang the resurrection liturgy. Now, inside my coat again, my just-over-7-year old is awake and joining me in song.

The years have passed so quickly.

Sisters...code on the couch together.

Magnolia is teaching Kaleia how to program using Scratch, Jr. on the iPad.  Kids these days.

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