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?

Winding Down

Two weeks left of school before Christmas break, and the homework is flying. Christian has been very busy every night and has had some kind of test almost every day. Last night, there was a bit of a pause in the action, and we finished his last book report for this quarter. It was four long pages and took about an hour, much to his dismay. We have a lot of geography to do, so I am hoping he makes some major headway on that tonight. He likes geography, but so far, the tests have not been easy for him. He has made a couple of Cs. All of those cultural and weather concepts are not easy for him. The latest chapter is on the United States. We’ll see how well he does on it.

Update: We got through most everything with ease this weekend, including the geography and a detailed map of Quebec. All we have left now is to type up a rough draft by the 18th. Christian made an A on his big body systems test, a major feat considering all of the anatomy and functions he had to learn. He has all As right now. Not sure if that will hold, but he is trying.

Lego League is now over. The team did not qualify for the state finals. They were all new to the competition, so maybe next year! Good job to Christian and his team for giving it their all!

Homework, Homework, Homework

For three days now, Christian has had two to three hours of homework a night. Last night, he had a worksheet to finish for geography, several math problems to do, some pages to do in his science book, plus a quiz to study for, a paragraph to write for English, and a test to study for over The Little Prince. He also had to do some French. We have been busting our chops to get things done.

Lego League is also getting heavy. The team has a skit and a presentation to prepare before the first week of December. There are two to three meetings to attend each week as well. Christian seems to be having a really good time, though, and he is even contemplating trying out for the team again next year.

Keep your fingers crossed that Christian gets a bit of a break from the homework this weekend. He could use it, especially with the four-hour Lego scrimmage on Saturday afternoon.

Happy Halloween

 Although very little has been made of the holiday in the media, our kids are looking forward to it tomorrow anyway. Tori is going to be a zebra, with pink piping, of course. Eli is going to be a ninja turtle, and Christian, believe it or not, is going this year as Iron Man. That’s right. After two years of swearing off trick-or-treating, he is going. And, it was all his doing. He saw the costume at Walmart, and we got it. He has worn it a few times since then and made his brother jealous. Eli wishes he had been a superhero, too, instead of a turtle. We were not going to dish out more money for a costume, so the kid next door gave him a Power Ranger costume he had outgrown. He has been wearing that, but you can tell he wishes he had gotten Spider Man, the Hulk or something else.

Anyway, the kids have “fall” parties at school and then they come home and get ready to go out around the neighborhood. Last year, Eli had a broken leg and did not go. I took Tori around. This year, all three are going and they want their Dad to take them around. I get to stand at the door and hand out treats.

Tonight, we are celebrating Christmas early. My friend and I never got around to getting together last year, so this year, we are getting together at McDonalds and exchanging presents from last year. The kids are kind of confused about it, but they will figure it out.

Christian is also celebrating today and Friday. Today he is at a party for getting all of his assignments in. Friday he is going to a party for honor roll. He made As in everything but math. He made a B in that. Way to go, Christian!

Off to The Park

Christian is off to the park today with his Big. This is the second day for the Bigs and Littles to hang out at Sommer Park. They are having hot dogs, lemonade, brownies and whatever else is in his lunch sack. He was pretty excited about the day of fun when we left this morning.

Every Thursday afternoon is Lego League. This Thursday, Christian and his team got their crane to move. He was very excited! As for the school front, he is doing better in science and doing ok in math. They are working on bar graphs, line graphs and more right now, so that seems to be easier for him. He tends to overthink things, and that could be some of the issue he has been having with the math tests.

We’re getting there.