The "Bragging on my Kids" thread

“Congrats to BowlderSon!”

“Ha!

Let's see. He's now in his first trimester of the second year - yikes!”

“BowlderSon had his first pas de deux class yesterday. The one male instructor at the ballet studio is teaching it, so B-Son gets to learn to partner with all of the hot chicks, er, I mean nice young ladies in his ballet class. He was showing one of the lifts they taught on the first day and said, "Dad, I need to start working out." Girls tend to be growing faster at this age, so most of the ones his age in the class are bigger than he is (he's about 5' 2", 95 pounds).”

“sounds like a great way to pick up chicks”

“Things are lookin' up for the boy!”

“...or is that "the boy is lookin' up at things!"?”

“That's worded much better!”

“Found out late this afternoon that BowlderSon got one of the leads in our city ballet's semi-professional version of The Nutcracker, to be performed in late December. He will be the Nutcracker Prince, the same role as the past 2 years. The same two girls who shared the part of Clara last year will also share it this year, and he is taking a pas de deux class with them (and several others) this fall. He needs to bulk up a little - they will probably choreograph a pas de deux for him and Clara with a lift or two! (And he needs to get better - he dropped one of the Claras today during class. Doh!)

Saturdays will be busy between now and December: Soccer in the morning and 2-3 hours of rehearsal in the afternoon!!”

“My 4.5 yo daughter climbed all 1,036 or so steps in Jacks Narrows on the Standing Stone Trail near Mount Union PA unassisted, and descended them all unassisted too. :)”

“That's awesome!”

“Cool! I bet she wasn't as winded as the grownups though!

I'm sure she slept really well that night, too.”

“Not even that night, she slept for the next 60 mile drive...”

“Strong Kid.”

“Amazing, I hiked down those stairs in 2006 and was thinking about what a great workout it would be coming up them.”

“Laurel's going to a local farm for a school field trip, where she gets to pet a bunch of farm animals and pick her own pumpkin. She's more excited about getting to ride a school bus for the first time than anything else.


Yes, I drive her to school. The bus driver that handles this route regularly goes 20 mph over the speed limit through the neighborhood, and has been in 2 accidents already, just since school started.”

“Ours starts in the township school next year. She'll get driven to the same daycare she's been to since 8 wk old though then catch the bus. We are now trying to think of where to go in our last half year not slave to the school schedule... thinking Arizona in Jan/Feb right now.
last edited: 10/15/07 7:38:09 AM”

“that'a a lot of steps!

Ana is little miss responsibility...
Her school's Harvest Dance is Friday night, and when I mentioned it, she said "but I have to be rested for my belt test!" which is Saturday morning...I assured her we would leave the dance early.
Her brother started Cub scouts and I said we could work on her Juliette scout stuff during his meetings, and she said, "what about my homework"...

We do have to stay on task to fit everything in, and they don't even do as much as some of their friends do...

I hope Laurel enjoyed the bus! A friend of Ana's tried taking the bus to dance with her, it was her first time ever. And her last - she got whacked with a backpack. Course, this was a regular bus and not a field trip.”

“It's amazing what kids have to squeeze into the time after school! The only activity Abby gets to do during the school year is Brownies. The poor kid only has three hours after school before she drops from exhaustion at 7pm. Hardly enough time to "be a kid" when you factor in dinner and homework.
I'd love to get her started with music lessons but don't want to push it. Maybe next year...”

“It is...
Both kids do dance and karate, and Austin just started cub scouts. Ana has a friend who does all the dance classes she does (4), the same karate, PLUS guitar, piano, cheering and field hockey. I'd be even more nuts than I am!

Sometimes it seems crazy, but they enjoy all of it, and their grades are good.”

“Laurel loved the bus, but her backpack, progress book (daily communication with the teacher) and a few other things are AWOL post field trip. Uh oh.”

“I was so excited for my son...(who has made some pretty poor choices)...he is working in a upper end resturant and the chef has taken a liking to him. He recently put him on salary and increased his pay.

On Mondays they are letting him select and prepare the special for the day. His choice last night was a barley pasta with curry seafood sauce...he included rock crab, scallops and shrimp as well. When I asked him if they sold any he said "we sold out! at $22.00 a plate!!!" One gentleman asked to speak to him to compliment him on the dish and was going to request it be a regular on the menu.

I hope he feels as successful as he had the potential to be! :-)”

“Good for him!”

“That is great Crazygurl, I would love to try that dish.”

“Sounds good doesn't it? We haven't eatten there yet...it is a bit above our eat out budget but I've heard good things about it.”

“How cool! The restaurant business is so cut throat, he must be very good at what he does.”

“Good to hear the news Crazygurl!

BusyBee was selected as the school ambassador and will give a tour of her school to visitors. On Thursday, the State dept of Education will visit and it will be her first tour duty!”

“What a great ambassador she will "bee"!!! hehehe”

“My little boy rode the Super Shot carnival ride (drop tower ride) 10 times with me.”

“NO WAY....! He wasn't scared???”

“That's so cool! Cooking is a great skill to have.”

“Good thing, CrazyGurl!!”

“I think I mentioned that BowlderSon will be dancing the role of the Nutcracker Prince in our city's semi-professional Nutcracker this year. On Thanksgiving weekend, he, one of the girls who will be Clara, and the woman dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy are going to light the Christmas tree along with the mayor at our shopping center. Woo hoo!”

“Recently, Ariana tested for her first degree purple belt and got it. In our dojo, this is the third belt up the ladder of 13, not counting white. It gave her the privilege of wearing a black gi, which of course we got. She looks very sharp in her black gi with a purple and black belt.
Austin tested for his purple belt and got it, and now that his sister is in a black gi, is really motivated to get to the next level.

I’m proud of them in their extra curricular activities, dancing, karate, scouts…they enjoy them and do what they need to do, and along the way I see the confidence they have in themselves.

Yesterday was teacher conferences. Austin got G’s and a G+, right where he should be in first grade at this point in the year. He has Title I reading, and is really “getting it”…we were worried in kindergarten. We tend to think it was getting glasses that really helped him, but I don’t think his teachers feel the same way. Whatever the reason, he is doing really well in school, and only needs to work on not turning his name into cars and dragons, and not being so long winded when telling stories of our adventures, LOL…

Ariana’s in 3rd grade, and she got 6 A+, 2 A- and 3 As, and one B+ in math. Her teacher just looked at me and said she has no problems at all with her. She is so quiet she thought she would be shy, but she isn’t, and has no problems asking questions.

I’m really pleased with these kids…I swear, if they grow up to be anything like their parents, I’m going on walkabout in the Klondike forever…LOL…”

“Awesome that they are doing so well. They are great kids! :)”

“:-)”

“Good news Twigeater! We have conferences next Tuesday. I'm alittle concerned about Ab's reading. Hoping to hear that she's where she needs to be.”

“Hopefully her school knows the difference between where "she needs to be" and where the school thinks all kids should be. One of the biggest problems of all schools (public and private) is that everyone is assigned the same milestones. For these early skills, abilities vary widely, and they're dependent on physiological development.

Here's an example: In order to be able to start to read, a child's brain has to be able to distinguish between foreground and background in the images their eyes transmit to their brain. Sometimes this happens a little later in some kids, sometimes a little earlier. In the kids where this happens later, the kids are often forced to try to learn reading, even though they are physically not able to. It is extremely frustrating and stressful for everyone involved. They get labeled as "slow," and are sent down a path they don't need to go down.

At BowlderSon's school, they don't do this - instead, they carefully track where each child is in their development and tailor the curriculum to that pace. Lo and behold, the kids that would be labeled as "slow" in most systems just start performing these skills a little later but have no trouble catching up to the ones that would be considered "normal." The typical education cookbook does not apply to everyone.”

“Bowlderman...that is so great that they monitor the kids that way.

My youngest has a reading disability and was tested early on and his classes were adjusted to that need. It really ticks me off that all kids are "expected" to learn the same..as you said.”

“Fortunately they do allow a great variance in the classroom, ability and development wise.

Abby's teacher pairs the kids up as reading buddies, ability wise and every week they go to the classroom library and choose 6 books that are just right for them.”

“Whatever they say will be fine, Sass...and good luck!

Does Bowlderson go to a Montissori school? It sounds great whatever it is.

At Austin's school they make the Title I thing fun - sometimes the teacher takes other kids along, as they all want to go read with Mr. A. He picks books for the kids that they CAN read, and books they LIKE, so when Austin reads he is proud and reads more. He still participates in the regular class reading.”

“Sass...I didn't mean to overlook your concearns about Abby. She will be fine. I understand though your concerns.”

“They have reading buddies here too, though Austin says his class doesn't have them - maybe later they will. Ariana is now a reader to a little buddy - she says he rests his head on her arm when she reads to him, LOL...”

“CG, I didn't take it that way. No worries!”

“Twig, no it's not a Montessori. The format was designed by (and still directed by) a nationally known expert in education who is well versed in all the various styles. If anything it's a combination of parts of Montessori, Piaget, and a few others, plus some original ideas thrown in.”

“Twigeater, my son Luke is in Title I as well. He did it last year, and I was hoping he would be able to get in this year. He did. Yesterday's conference confirmed what I already knew: Luke's reading ability and comprehension has grown by leaps and bounds since the beginning of this year. The program has been really terrific for him.”

“Wow. BowlderSon had his end-of-season soccer tourney this weekend. The format is that the teams play 2 games Saturday, then one early enough on Sunday that the round robin winners of the different groups play championship matches late Sunday.

Yesterday, they won 1-0 in the first game and 1-0 in the second game. They had many, many scoring opportunities in both games, but just couldn't seem to get it in the net. B-Son mostly played defense, so was proud of their shutouts.

Today, they won their final round robin game by a score of - you guessed it - 1-0. They scored on a penalty kick when a kid on the other team instinctively tried to block a shot with his hand while in front of the goal. The game was kind of ugly - B-Son's team was getting pushed, shoved, and tripped left and right, and the official wasn't calling anything. Oh, well, finesse won over braun.

Then it was a mad dash to our own city for the championship. B-Son had a rehearsal, so had to leave before the end, but his goal (during a rare appearance at forward) was the only one scored in yet another 1-0 victory! This was a very exciting game that was well-played on both sides. There was a normal amount of physical play, and the ref did an excellent job keeping everything under control.

Woo hoo!!”

“Go b-son go!”

“Hippie!!!

What is he rehearsing?”

“I just reread that...it is supposed to say Yippie...sorry for the typo.”

“LOL”