Winding Down

Christian will turn 11 this May, and he has decided that it is time we stopped journaling his life. He has something to look back on, and now, we are leaving it to him to remember what he wants to. Whether we can take down this blog remains to be seen, but I don’t think we will be posting to it much more—unless Christian changes his mind. I don’t blame him for wanting us to stop. I wouldn't want to have a site my friends could go to and look at either. Guess age 10 will be the stopping point for all of our kids. Seems about the right age to let them make their own memories and do their own journaling if they wish. Anyway, thanks to all who read this blog and commented on it occasionally. It turned out to be a much better baby book than I could ever keep!

Big Break

The older two have been taking the ISAT test all week, which has resulted in no homework. Yippy-skippy. Tori is done testing, but apparently Christian has another week of it. That’s great news for the two of us. We can take it a bit easy, even with Tori back on homework next week.

Third quarter is almost over. Christian has all As and one B. Way to go, Christian! He is doing well and taking on more of the homework himself. He wants to stay at the school, and we’re onboard. He seems to have gotten used the workload and, lucky for us, he knows his limits and does not want to participate in everything under the sun. He is finishing scouts this month and plans to continue with Lego League next year. He will also take a swimming class this summer.

We’ve been really fortunate. While some kids are leaving the gifted school because it is too much, Christian has managed it. We are so proud of him.

Field Trip

Christian’s school is having a symphony field trip in April. Bella Fleck, the Grammy winner, is going to be there to play the banjo. We had to talk Christian into going. He wanted to go, but he didn’t want to miss class and have a lot of homework because of it. His school has a lot of field trips, but the homework doesn’t stop. The last time he had a field trip, he got smacked with math homework. It wasn’t overly hard, but there was a lot of it! That’s why he skipped out on the last honor roll party. It’s a double-edged sword for him. He is supposed to be rewarded, but he ends up being punished with a ton of homework. Anyway, we coaxed him into going, and I promised to help him with whatever homework he received.

All As and one B this quarter. He is doing well, really well. In fact, he got a little ticked off at me last night when I did not catch on to his math as quickly as he did. I told him I was learning and relearning right along with him. Thank goodness for the Internet.

28 out of 30

That’s what Christian made on his presentation for geography, and he was freaking out a bit about it. I had to bite my tongue not to laugh and told him to relax. He did the same thing last night when he messed up a couple of spelling words. The perfectionist in him is starting to get the best of him. He is going to dial it back a bit.

The Lego shelves are nearly full again. The Simpsons house took up one whole shelf, and a Lego movie set and demo freebie from Toys R Us landed on another shelf. There is still some room, but he could easily fill that up with his own creations.

We were going to see another movie this weekend, but it looks like that is not going to happen. Nut Job has left the theaters, so it’s on to something different, cleaning the house. With all of the snow, it is pretty dirty.

Stage Fright

Christian has to give a presentation this week in his Geography class. He selected the topic of Canadian currency, researched it and wrote out some notes. He made a display board for a visual and has been practicing his presentation. He does ok, but he is very scared. He teared up yesterday and told me he had stage fright. I told him that was ok and to just do his best, to take his time and try to make eye contact. I suspect he will do better in front of his peers than in front of me. We will see. I tried to get him to do it without his notes, but he won’t. Too nervous to just go through the display board he has created.  I remember feeling the same way every time I had to get up and speak in front of the class. Ugh. Not fun for an introvert. Oh well. This won’t be the first time he has to do this. With any luck, he will do well enough to make a passing grade. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Simpsons

The kids love the Simpsons, so much so that Christian recently purchased the Lego Simpsons house. He is working hard to pay it off and spent several days putting it together. It is now completely intact, with everything you can imagine from Ned the neighbor to the pink car. He has spent days playing with it, along with Tori and Eli. They love this house! It is the highlight of weekend play.

Christian doesn’t know it, but he is going to have to make a family coat of arms for his French class. It must have three images and three French words. This should be interesting. All kinds of things come to my mind. We’ll see what comes to Christian’s. Some days he is very creative. Other days, he struggles. I mentioned it to him last night, and he wasn’t interested. I am guessing he will be a sourpuss about it this afternoon.

Back At It

School started on Wednesday. The kids were not looking forward to it whatsoever, but they did well. Christian got in there and got busy on the homework. Tori took an AR test and dug into her spelling words. Eli was happy to see his teacher and took Tori’s stuffed whale for Show & Tell today.

Christian had a very good Christmas. He got all the Legos he asked for, plus. Normally he would have put these together as fast as he could, but not this time. He spread out the construction of his sets over several days, and he even helped Tori and Eli with theirs.

Christian also helped Grandma watch his siblings on Monday and Tuesday. He got some cash for that, which he stocked away. He is waiting patiently now for my birthday when the Lego movie comes out. Guess what we’re doing for my birthday?