Holidaze

The holiday season has flown by quickly and there have been all sorts of activities. Before school ended, Emily's class got to go see a production of the Nutcracker and she was pretty excited for the opportunity to dress up! I think she liked the dressing up better than the actual performance. :)

Also, the kids wrote letters to Santa and received responses back just before the break. Above is Emily looking at Santa's response with one of her teachers. Emily had many items on her list this year, but the one thing that she wanted more than anything was a cotton candy maker, so this is what she chose to single out in her letter to Santa. Unfortunately, mean Mom exercised her veto power and told our elf, Frisbee, that Emily could not have a cotton candy maker this year. :(

Also before the break, the school put on the annual holiday program. In the end, I think that the kids cared more about running around with their friends beforehand than they did about actually completing the program. Maybe the school would be further ahead having a holiday party rather than a holiday performance. Above is Emily with two of her dearest friends - Emma in the picture on the left and Olive in the picture on the right. Such cuties!

Of course, the holiday season would not be complete without all of the typical activities. We had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa C. in the week leading up to Christmas, we made and decorated cookies, and we completed our annual holiday puzzle. Emily is old enough to help with the puzzle now and she is very good at it. She is also pretty cute about it. Shortly before we completed it, Emily had a piece in her hand and we heard her saying to herself, "Hmm, if I were this puzzle piece, where would I go?"

As for actual Christmas, I think that Emily did pretty well. She received the baking set that she asked for, a toy dog that walks and barks, etc. (not the chip pup that she asked for, but pretty close), and Secret Life of Pets to name a few. She also received Kubo and the Two Strings from Uncle Greg and Aunt Elizabeth. Her response, probably the most excited that I saw her this year, was priceless. This is definitely the look of true joy!

Finally, we did something new this year - we took the girls ice skating - twice! They absolutely loved it. Neither of them had ever been skating before, but they didn't hesitate to get out there and figure it out. Fortunately, Chad is pretty good on skates (a prerequisite for a Minnesotan), so he was able to help the girls quite a bit. I have a feeling that there will be a lot more skating in our future!

Lots of Updates

Emily was Death for Halloween. She did her own make-up and had very definite ideas about how her hair needed to be. Above, she isn't as miserable as she looks. I think she was just trying to be serious to pull off the look. Below, she is as miserable as she looks. By the time the night ended, she was tired, hot, and her tummy ached from all the junk. On the bright side, I like the way that her pumpkin turned out this year - she designed and I carved.

I may not have mentioned it too much before but Emily did soccer on Friday afternoons this fall. It ended recently and below is a photo of some of the kids on her team. It was a very informal team that met at a local park on Friday nights. Technically, it was for 3-5 year olds,  but given Emily's size, she blends in reasonably well despite being six.

Emily also had some excitement at school recently with a field trip to Young Chefs' Academy. Originally, they had planned to make bread and pasta, but they ended up making some sort of dessert and Emily was thrilled (yes, she still has a tremendous sweet tooth). Even before this field trip, Emily had started saying that she would like to be a baker when she grows up. I have told her that this is a perfect way to combine her interest in chemistry with her love of sweets. In fact, it is also a great way to channel her creativity.

As for Emily's parent-teacher conference a couple of weeks ago, the teachers noted that Emily's strengths include her kindness, respect, mature vocabulary, pride in her work, neatness and organization, handwriting, and creativity. Her areas for growth include learning to speak more loudly, being more attentive and contributing more to group discussions, and increasing her reading fluency. This feedback is definitely consistent with our impressions.

As for her 6-year old well-child check, which occurred earlier this week, Emily continues to be a peanut. She is now 44.8 inches tall (21st percentile) and 39.8 pounds (11th percentile). Her blood pressure, hearing and vision (20/25 in both eyes) are all in good shape. All in all, she is healthy and small like her mama.

Finally, we have a cute school photo this year - enjoy!

School Update

Emily seems to be enjoying life at school. Above is a photo from the newsletter in which the kids were sampling the parts of a plant - leaves, seeds, berries, etc. I am not sure that Emily took more than a small taste of each part (if that), but something is better than nothing.

Last week was Dad's night at school and both girls presented Chad with gifts. Each year, they tend to make decorative bowls for us and that continued to be the case this year. Before long, we'll have a full set! In addition, Emily presented Chad with a card that had her self-portrait on the front.

Apparently, this is something that they worked on in art class. Emily did not have any help with her drawing, but did receive advice about certain aspects. For example, the teacher recommended the wavy lines in the hair. We were quite surprised by the way that her drawing came out, and she seems to be happy with it, as well, so I think that we are going to frame a copy of it for her.

Speaking of surprises, we are often amazed by the deep thoughts that Emily has. A few weeks ago, she surprised us with the following:

Out of the blue, Emily said, "It's funny that something as small as a wedding can become something so big."
We responded, "What do you mean?"
She said, "After you get married, you are family, right?"
"Yes . . ." we replied.
She explained, "That's a big deal, but a wedding is such a small thing. So, its amazing that something as small as a wedding can lead to something as big as family."

So true, Emily, so true. :)

First Grade

Emily made the big move up to 1st grade this year. It is a big deal because it moves her from the primary building to the lower elementary building where she is mixed with 1st-3rd graders, many of whom are much bigger than she is. She handled it like a champ - jumped right in and tried to make sure that I didn't embarrass her by kissing her in front of other kids, etc. That being said, you can definitely see the transition from the confident look on her face in the picture above (before leaving the house) to the much more cautious look on her face in the picture below (after arriving at school). I had a chance to talk to her teachers recently, though, and they say that she is doing great!

In violin, Emily has started her twinkle beans! As you may recall from Abbie's adventures, a right of passage in Suzuki is to complete 600 repetitions based on six variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Each one completed warrants a bean in the jar. Eventually, she will complete the process and then will have a Twinkle Recital. In the meantime, violin practice has been hit or miss. There has been a fair bit of, "I hate violin. Violin is stupid and boring. I want to play guitar." Fortunately, Abbie has been able to give her a pep talk about how it started out not fun, but now she loves it and is so glad that she is doing it. Hopefully that will sink in because I do think it is important for Emily to see this through for at least a while.

Finally, Emily and I have been doing more reading together. We finished James and Giant Peach awhile ago, and now we are almost 2/3rds of the way through the first Harry Potter book. It is pretty advanced, so I don't really ask Emily to read any of it (she has easier books from school to practice with), but she loves the story and is disappointed every time we need to stop (regardless of how long I have been reading for!). Once we finish the first book, we'll let her watch the movie and see what she thinks of it. Also, I'm sure that we'll immediately move to book two!

No Longer "On the Road"

(in Central Park)

After 5+ weeks, 5,000+ miles, and 110+ hours in the car, our great summer road trip has come to an end. Although it sounds absolutely terrible, it was actually very good, and Emily did great with it. We were about an hour from home before she declared that she felt "car sick." I asked her what was going on (fearing the worst), and she said that she was "sick of being in the car." :)

(feeding the ducks)

As for adventures on the trip, Emily said that swimming in lakes was her favorite part. She definitely got some lake swimming, in two different lakes, while visiting Grandma and Grandpa P. She also got some lake swimming while visiting our friends, Todd and Amy, at their cabin. Other than that, there was not much for lake swimming, though.

(at Joan and Jerry's place)

Aside from lake swimming, there were definitely other pieces of the trip that she enjoyed. As you can see, she was more than happy to grab Olaf in Times Square for a photo (which subsequently cost Mom more money than she is willing to admit!). There were also some unexpected joys. One of the things that she loved was the air mattress that she had all to herself at Grandma and Grandpa C.'s house. After a week and a half of sharing a bed with her sister, the freedom of her "own" air mattress was just the greatest!

Now that we are back home, she has loved all the time for relaxing, but she has also started to think about school. She definitely has some apprehension about entering Lower El this fall, and she is worried that she isn't ready. We have assured her that she will be fine, but just to be sure, she has started doing some Kumon to brush up on her skills. :)

Summertime

So far, I think that Emily has been enjoying her summer. She has been doing camps, which have been good - grossology, green thumb club, create a musical play, etc. She had a good 4th of July with a party at a friend's country club, so there was swimming, face painting, balloon animals, etc.

About a weeks ago, we left for our big summer trip. We will be spending about a month in Minnesota before driving to NYC for a few days, Virginia for a few days, and then back home again. Emily did pretty well in the car on the way to Minnesota. As we approached Minneapolis, we pointed out the downtown skyline and she declared, "It looks like Zootopia!" In fact, it actually did sort of look like the city from Zootopia! :) She has been having fun so far. One activity, which was a big hit was berry picking at a local farm. We came home loaded up with raspberries, strawberries, green and yellow beans, and sugar snap peas.

As you might expect, Emily was happy to pick anything, but was more happy about eating the fruit. I don't think that she bothered to try any of the veggies.

One of the things that we have been trying to do is to work with Emily every day on her reading. She just needs practice, and hasn't wanted to do it on her own, so we have tried to make it a priority. Her general perspective has been that reading is "boring" and "stupid" and that she doesn't intend to ever learn to read. All of that changed suddenly this week, though, when she came across James and the Giant Peach. For whatever reason, she has decided that this book is worth reading and she can't wait to work on it with me every night. It is long (for her) and above her reading level so I tend to read most of it, and then periodically I have her do a few sentences. Hopefully we can continue to find the "right" books to keep her entertained.

Finally, Emily has changed her mind on her intended profession. For years she has wanted to be a chemist, but now she has decided that she wants to be a singer. She is very serious about it and has asked me to arrange voice lessons for her. One of her favorite activities is to sing in the car. She knows most of the songs that come on the radio and she gets really into it. Sometimes we even catch her rocking out with a little air guitar:

As you can tell, I think she likes to ham it up a bit for the camera. :) She does really like that song, though. This is the second time that I have filmed her playing air guitar along with it. In the other video, she was more mellow but also pretty funny because she was wearing sunglasses so she looked like a mini rock star. 

Birthday Party Update

Emily's birthday party at The Little Gym went well. She was excited (and being goofy), as you can tell. We had a good group of friends that joined us and they all liked Emily's Darth Vader cake. :) She got some good presents - lots of art projects, a few books, and a new set of Legos, so life is good!

Happy Birthday Emily!

At long last, Emily has turned 6 years old. She has been waiting for this day for a very long time. For weeks she has been asking me to count the days until her birthday. What does a six-year-old look like, you ask? Well here she was before summer camp this morning.

What does a six-year-old act like, you ask? Well, she is much sassier than a five year old. :) It has been coming on for a couple of weeks now, and (according to the internet) is a pretty standard development, but Emily is feeling her independence these days and has become rather bold (and sometimes disrespectful). Our goal has been to embrace her independence while still highlighting to her that there is a range for what constitutes acceptable behavior. As with anything, it is a process, but I think that we are making progress.

As for my take on her 6th birthday, I just have no idea where the time went. I have a few brief recollections from the past six years (many of which come from this blog), but most of it is a blur. When we celebrated her birthday at school last month, her teacher asked me what the weather was like on the day that Emily was born. Without hesitation, I quipped, "It was California. It was warm and sunny." A safe bet. Truth be told, however, I have absolutely no clue. I arrived at the hospital before sunrise and did not leave until the following day. There were no windows (that I recall). I never saw the weather on her actual birthday.

As for her birthday party, we had planned on and hoped for a pool party at home. It has been raining steadily all week, though, so we had to make a back-up plan. Fortunately, The Little Gym still had a spot left For Saturday afternoon, so we will do that instead. She is looking forward to it, and we are happy to alleviate the stress of a home party in the face of bad weather. Look for a follow up with video/photos.

Literally a "budding" artist

Emily's art skills continue to wow us. Below is a recent self-portrait that she drew at school. Both the teachers and other parents commented to me about how it stood out relative to the other kids' pictures. Apparently some of the kids made fun of it because she "doesn't have hands in the picture." This was a very deliberate choice on her part, though. The teachers put the kids in front of a table mirror and told them to "draw what they see." Because her hands did not show up in the mirror, they did not appear in the picture. Very logical.

Emily has also taken to flower arrangements lately. Her recent creation involved using bigger flowers as vases for the smaller flowers. Here are a couple of her combinations. It is very delicate work, but she has the patience and the tiny hands for it!

Emily's parent-teacher conference went well a few weeks ago. In terms of her strengths, she is attentive, has great concentration, is creative, and is good-natured. As for her areas for growth, they noted that they would like to see her take more initiative to choose challenging works and to work by herself (rather than with friends). They also noted that we should be working with her daily on her reading to help her advance. Since then, we have had her read a book to us every night and she is making really great progress. I would now say that she is officially reading. :) Now the challenge will be to keep up with it over the summer.

As for other current events, Emily is eagerly anticipating her upcoming birthday. She has been asking about it regularly for about 6 weeks now! We had her un-birthday celebration on May 3rd at school. It was a very long process, probably about 45 minutes in total, but very special for her. It involves setting up months of the year around the sun, and then moving the Earth around the "sun" to mark the passage of each year, and then showing a picture of the child from each year. Here is the set up:

All of the kids in her class sit in a circle around the sun so that they can see the photos and sing when needed. Here is just a taste of the ritual, in this case showing the passage of time between Emily's 1st and 2nd birthdays. They do this for each year of her life:

As for her real birthday, she decided on a pool party at home this year. So, the date is set for the 4th of June and the invitations went out yesterday. Now we'll just cross our fingers that the weather cooperates!

Emily Quotes

Emily has a habit of saying things that just crack us up, and I have been trying to capture these quotes as much as possible. I always assume that I won't forget, but then I inevitably do, so I have started jotting them down in my phone as they happen. I'll share the current list with you below, but before that I thought I would catch you up on the current events.

First, Emily had a good Easter. There was both the neighborhood egg hunt, complete with Easter bunny, face painting, and balloon animals, and the home egg hunt. I managed to get better photos of the former, but both were fun.

I love the above photo. I think she is starting to look older, losing some of the baby shape. I feel like it gives hints about what she will look like as an adult.

Emily has been making steady progress with her violin. I captured the photo below at her lesson yesterday. Being five, I think that there are aspects of her manual dexterity that still need to mature to make things easier for her, but she is definitely working on it. I love the serious look on her face. Violin takes so much concentration!

In addition to violin, Emily has been taking soccer at school for the past few weeks. She did tennis earlier in the year, but didn't really care for it (perhaps because the teacher wasn't very good). She seems to really like soccer, though, and some of her friends are in a group that meets close to school on Friday nights. We are going to try to sign Emily up for this other group, in addition to what she is doing at school, both for the soccer and for the time with her friends.

Now for the quotes! Here are a few exchanges that we have had in the past month:

Emily says, "I don't like it when grandpa tickles my knee - it's annoying." I respond with, "Is it annoying sometimes?" She says,  "Yes, I mean what if I'm meditating!" As an aside here, (1) I think she actually likes having her knee tickled, and (2) I have never seen her meditate!

Emily asks to make chocolate cake and we say,  "No, we're not making chocolate cake today." She says, "Why? What did chocolate cake ever do to you?"

Emily clearly loves here sister very much, and one night before bed she started brainstorming all of the things that she would do to protect Abbie. Here are a few:

"I would rather be shot in the neck with a bow and arrow to save my sister than to have all of my toys taken away."
"I would go into a den of venomous snakes to save my sister."
"If Abbie were burning in a fire, and she had one hand sticking out, I would grab her hand to pull her out of the fire, and I would roll her on the ground to stop the flames."
 "I would reach into a tornado to save Abbie."

One night, as I was leaving her room before bed, she told me that I am is so short compared to Daddy that I look like a teenager. Then she told me that if I were any shorter I would look like a 9-year old and then she and Abbie would say, "Hey! Why is our mom a 9-year old??"

On morning, after having burned my bagel, I declared, "I hate this toaster! It's just the worst!" Emily replies, "Is it worse than ISIS?" OK, good point, honey. No, the toaster is not worse than ISIS. :)

Finally, and I choose to take this one as a complement, one day she declared, "Mom, you're so weird but funny at the same time." :)

Next up is the Spring parent-teacher conference. This is scheduled for next Monday, so stay tuned for all of the latest news on the academic front!

School Activities

Over the past couple of months, Emily has enjoyed many of the same school activities that Abbie has enjoyed. This year, in preparation for Western Day, Emily decided that she needed a new western outfit, so we got her a cute little skirt and matching vest. As perhaps you can tell, she was in no mood to have her picture taken that morning, and was turning away from me. Ironically, however, I think that it resulted in kind of a cute little photo.

Emily also prepared 40+ valentines for her classmates and teachers. Per the teachers' suggestion, we used it as an opportunity for her to practice her writing. It was incredibly slow going, but I actually sat with her as she carefully wrote her name on each valentine, and then wrote the recipient's name on each valentine. It took us hours and was something that we completed slowly over the course of a few days. Ultimately, though, she completed all of them!

 (with her friend Ari before school on the 14th)

Emily had some extra excitement recently when she and the other kindergartners were invited to spend some time in the Lower Elementary. The 3rd grade students host this event every year and it gives the kindergartners the chance to check out the building that they will move up to in the Fall.

In preparation for this transition, Emily's teachers have been more proactive in making sure that she will be ready. Below is the note that we received from them a few weeks ago:

            "With the start of the New Year, we felt it was important to bring you up to date with regard to Emily’s academic progress.  She continues to enjoy school, has made many friends and is well liked.  We have made it a requirement that she work in both Math and Language on a daily basis to help prepare her for the Lower Elementary environment.  She has a difficult time staying on task when her work is chosen for her.  If she chooses work independently, typically art, she is able concentrate for long periods of time.

             With regard to Language, Emily continues to make progress and is ready to begin the last of five language shelves. She has mastered 21 of 26 sounds and is able to blend sounds together for phonetic word building.

             With regard to Math, Emily does not show a strong interest in this area of the classroom.  She has mastered numerals 0 – 9 for recognition and formation.  She has a good understanding of 1-1 correspondence, odd and even numbers and the concept of addition.  She has been introduced to the Montessori beads through the bead stair and the introduction to the decimal system.  She is currently working on the formation and recognition of teen numbers.

             Emily’s main focus continues to be in practical life area of the class.  She has a natural love of art and would be content to spend her days creating detailed, creative drawings not only for herself, but as gifts for her friends.  She has developed close friendships with Aribela, Emma, and Evangeline. 

             We would be more than happy to sit down and discuss her progress further."

 

Of course, I think that this note sums up Emily perfectly. We know about her love of art, and her drawings have actually started to demonstrate more depth. That is, she is now interested in the fact that a person may look as big as a house if the person is close up and the house is far away, so she has been incorporating that into her work.

Since this note, Emily has actually progressed to the "reading shelf" in Language and is really doing great with sounding out the words that she sees all around her. Of course, English is such an annoying language to learn and it seems that there are exceptions in almost every word that she tackles. Slowly but surely, though, she is making progress. :)