Anvil - A-N-V...

 Avery was selected to represent her class in the school spelling bee.  Studying with her was excruciating.  Each word had to be commented upon and dramatized, making it difficult to get through more than 10 words in a sitting.  Eventually I just suggested that she watch Akeelah and the Bee and hoped that she would serendipitously get a word that she heard in the movie.  The night before the event she was a little more serious in her studies.

 It goes without saying that you would wear your (snow)leopard print pants for the main event.   She was cool and confident and I felt pretty darn nervous.  The setting instantly took me back a quarter century to my own participation in the district bee*.

Round one - R-O-B-O-T

Round two - L-I-L-A-C

Round three - A-N-V-I-L pause, E? ding.

She loved the experience and wore her everyone's a winner medal all day and evening long.

*I got out on BALLISTIC,  can't remember exactly but I think I put an O in there.  

School's Out for the Summer!

I love watching for Avery as she comes down the drive after getting off of the school bus. Sometimes she sprints home, backpack bouncing. Often she dilly-dallies and takes it all in, many times talking to herself or singing. Always fun to watch.

The last day of school I expected a cheerful dash to the front door but what I saw was a newly graduated first grader sobbing...sob-bing... as she made her way home. I dashed down from my usual vantage point on the second story and greeted her on the driveway. I thought something bad had happened on the bus or that she was injured. Nope. Her heart was just broken that another school year was over. She mourned moving on from her teacher, the 10 week break from her friends and bus-rides, not a bit consoled by the fact that she could now sleep-in and stay up late(r).

This guy is not sad to have her home for the summer.

Litl Booklit of Wrd's

My favorite things about this worksheet - the teacher's words of encouragment "Keep Trying?" (what is the question here exactly?) and Avery's spelling of January. I circled that because it is priceless. I also love the names of some of her classmates that appear in this lesson.

Avery G. Westbrook is a Graduation Girl

Schools out.

Love these ladies.

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Avery looking very proud of herself.

A boy that likes Avery.

The boy Avery likes (blue shirt).

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The fam, minus Ben plus Exzavion.

The cake.

Avery's favorite book.

Bonus footage: The graduation song (I love the words! In public school even!)

Recently in the news there was some debate over the wording on the diplomas* at my (or our for some of you reading) alma mater which caused me to actually read what mine said. While doing so I discovered that it has been a decade since I graduated from college. I guess I should have realized at our 10 yr high school reunion that this milestone wouldn't be too far behind but it snuck up on me nevertheless. So what better time for me to get out the scrapbooks and photo albums and relive those college days. Excuse the quality of the pictures - this was before the time of digital cameras. And widespread use of cell phones - having one actually would have saved me a lot of money in phone bills. Here's my awesome i.d card picture to start.

College 10-14 years ago wasn't just about i.d cards with your social security number on them (we must have lived in a different world back then ;)). It was about getting your first email address (and a few months later being able to write a web page in HTML).

It was about room/suitemates (Jenisteen, Kimi, Naseem and later Mary-Alice) from different backgrounds (but all from Texas), different religions (Zoroastrian, Baha'i, non-denominational, non religious) with different majors (communications, business, engineering, anthropology) and different interests (athletics, newspaper, sororities) who may have never found each other were it not from random roommate selection and mandatory campus living (with maid service!). I couldn't have ended up with better ones had I picked them myself.

With these girls I did lots of fun/dumb things - like going to a party dressed in bubble wrap, saran wrap and tinsel and jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

College was about studying abroad and meeting new friends there. I went to Australia because they spoke English there and studied Chinese. Which landed me an internship that sent me to China (once while in college and many many times after).

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It was also about finding out that you are not as good as soccer as the rest of the team.

And taking up lacrosse instead.

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Of course there was lots of swimming (also not as good as the rest of the team but good enough to be on it) and more good friends.

Which led to triathlons - and since I have a case of the it's-my-blog-and-I'll-post-what-I-want-to/I-only-have-one-hard-copy-of-this-picture-and-if-I-lose-it-I'll-be-really-upset/I-can't-believe-I-ever-had-abs-like-that-no-wonder-I-am-smiling/put-down-the-BBQ-potato-chips-please I am posting this picture to remind myself that everyone looks better with a tan (it is the opposite of fat remember?)

It was also about studying. Less for me than my engineering roomies though.

Is it sad that I still have (and wear) that sweatshirt and those slippers?

Ten years ago? Wow. Really? I guess this is where I thank my parents for giving me the opportunity to learn so much (and my mom for making me go out-of-state)(and Coach Ryan for a fateful early morning phone call - he didn't care much for time zones or he thought all swimmers are up by 6 am). It was an amazing four years of which I am still reaping the benefits.

*So about that diploma thing - Someone apparently wanted Trinity to remove the phrase "in the year of our Lord" so they started a petition (which they are entitled to do) and it got some press. Honestly I had never even read it before and doubt most people have even noticed that verbage on their diplomas (now that I am looking two of ours say that and two don't). Not to mention that the people who are bringing it up decided to go to a school named "Trinity" University. Not that it currently has religious affiliation, it doesn't, but still. So anyway, the university respectfully denied their request and I particularly like what the current president said:

"Democracy is not letting a small number of people have their way. Democracy is listening to the different voices and making an informed decision."

100 Days Smarter.

Today was the hundredth day of school. Avery's class had a party involving all things one hundred. 100 piece puzzles, 100 day crowns, guessing games involving 100 things and 100 item collections brought by the kids. Avery collected pennies and pine needles (we have enough pine needles for the millionth day of school!).

Let me just say I am thrilled with her kindergarten experience thus far. Especially since I had recieved a few suggestions that I might want to send her to a different school as it isn't one of the "better" ones in the area. After visiting the school and determining that diversity and poverty was probably a factor in those opinions and not danger (many of us survived and thrived in just such an environment right?) we sent her along and hoped for the best. Also, it is all-day kindergarten - which directly factors into how much I enjoy the experience and how much she learns. So what can you learn in 100 days? If you have the fabulous Ms. X as a teacher you can learn some great sayings that can be brought up in myriad situations (and Avery uses these often). Including but not limited to:

- "Don't let anyone steal your learning"
- "Do the right thing even when no one is looking"
and my favorite...
- "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit"

Miles particularly enjoys their daily chant which Avery taught him:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Add Respons-i-bil-ity. Re-sults are what you get from me. Rea-dy to learn. (Clap Clap Clap Clap)

She has learned to read fairly well which is probably the most exciting thing for a parent to see. Only now she knows if I skip sentances or pages when I am reading books to them at night. She hasn't learned to tell time yet though which allows me to remain inconsistent on bedtimes - if it's pitch dark at 6:30 and I say it's super late and they need to get in bed she doesn't know any differently. And the more common reverse - if it's 9:30 and I haven't put them to bed yet they don't realize I'm inconsistent and a bad parent.

Besides the basic reading and math stuff she has learned things that dumbfound me. Just the other day she asked me if I knew who Degas was and proceeded to tell me about his life as an artist and how as he went blind in his later years he turned to sculpture as a means of expression. I asked her if she knew what he was famous for painting and she said that he painted ballerinas and that he "mixed the colors in such a way that their tutus looked like they were glowing". I'm pretty sure I didn't learn about stuff like that till Mr. Van's art history in high school. She has studied civil rights and can tell you about racial injustice per Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. She can discuss the anatomy of the worm (red or earth) including a part called the clitellum, which I had never heard of and wasn't sure if a kindergartener should be learning about. (Turns out it's fine. Thank you Google and Wikipedia for helping me keep up with my 6 year old). She can sing a song in Swahili and she can give a pretty accurate display of the earths rotation using her head as the sun and her fists for the moon and earth. Unfortunately I can't take credit for any of these learnings, and that's okay. What I can take credit for is making her lunch, getting her up and to the bus everyday and we haven't missed it yet (this seems like a huge accomplishment to me)!

I can't wait to see what she learns in the next 100 days. And I can be a little bit happier to pay our property taxes.

Photo above taken at approx. 30 days smarter.

School Recap

Now that I've officially had a school-attending child for a month now I need to recap and recount those very important first days of school.

Day One - I drop her off and wait for emotion to kick in. It does. The emotion - jealousy. I don't shed a tear, I don't feel nervous, just jealous that she gets to go to school and I don't. Now what? Miles and I drive around a bit as I try to figure out a) what to do at this time of morning and b) what to do with only one child at home and a child I have really never been alone with for any length of time. We head to the gym. Time to try out some of those energizing a.m. classes. We pass Carl's Jr. on the way. They are hiring. Maybe I should get a job?

By noon I feel as if I have been awake forever and I still have multiple hours till she comes home and until I can find out all of the fun stuff I am missing out on. She takes the bus home. I'm a bit nervous about this because the bus schedule is not clear on the drop off times. I wait for 20 minutes. She arrives and I start in with the questions. She is in no mood to talk. All day kindergarten will do that to a girl I guess. She wants to watch cartoons. Later that day I finally get her to talk while she bathes. All I really get from her is that she got in trouble three times. This of course engenders further nagging on my part. She says not like "in time-out trouble" the teacher just said her name. I know that Avery is an interrupter, so I ask and it turns out that this indeed was her offense. She informs me that she doesn't want me to drive her anymore and she doesn't want me to make her a lunch. She wants one of those card things she gets to swipe. I will continue to make her a lunch but I was never planning on driving her to school each day.

Week one - Nothing new. Still cranky when she gets home.

Week two - I ask the bus driver if we can change the bus stop to right by our house since no one else was showing up at the assigned stop and it was a bit of a hike. Wish granted. No more sprinting to catch the bus in the morning. Or at least now it is a shorter sprint. One of my very favorite things about Avery's school - free hot breakfast for all. Good stuff too - omelets, pigs in a blanket, bagel and cream cheese, breakfast pizza or a daily assortment of cold cereal. This blessing alone saves us 15-20 minutes in the morning. I get up 20 minutes till the bus comes and make her lunch. I wake her up 10 minutes till the bus comes and she brushes teeth, hair and gets dressed in whatever she has picked out the night before - or sometimes put on the night before - or sometimes worn the day before, slept in and worn again (this only happened once and she insisted and as I'm not one to care so much for appearances go right ahead). Miles sleeps through this whole affair.

She has been singing Christmas (and Hanukkah and Navidad) songs, which I'm guessing is for an upcoming holiday performance. Now Miles even sings them when she is gone. His Spanish is better than hers.

In each weeks classroom newsletter the teacher mentions those students with excellent behavior. Avery has not been on this short list yet but does get a mention for getting the most "thank-you sticks". These are for helping the teacher in some way or another. When you get ten you get to pick something from the treasure box. 6 more to go.

Week three - Avery is adjusting to her new schedule and is more chipper when she gets home. It also helps that her new and first best school friend sits next to her on the bus and goes to church with her (and turns out her mom is my visiting teaching companion - perfect!). She often exits the bus with glittered hair and purple eyeshadow. One day they had a male bus driver, who based on Avery's impression is from a Slavic country, and who told them "Dis is not a beauty school" From the looks of it they just giggled and went back to painting their faces.

Back to school night. Finally I can get the low down on the getting into trouble thing. Turns out she was interrupting and asking questions just as I assumed but that she has learned the teachers "system" now and is complying with protocol (and common courtesy). Her teacher praised her vocabulary and sentence structure and said she was a very good helper. Her teacher is just what Avery needs - experienced, no-nonsense and has high expectations for her kindergartners. Ben was able to make it to meet the teacher and I'm sure she was wondering why I brought Avery's older brother instead of Capt. Westbrook. That ball cap, baggy pants and Laker's shirt just makes me look ancient next to it. Maybe I should revive my high school wardrobe.

Avery showed us around the classroom and pointed out all kinds of important sounding features - the "literacy lab", the workstations with "polydrons" and some other geometric sounding things.

Week four -

They have a substitute for two days while some teaching training is happening. During this time Avery gets knocked down from the gold behavior level (the best) to green (not so best). The reason "It's a long story". Turns out the story is not so long at all. She was just swordfighting with a boy next to her. With pencils of course. Sounds like a great day at school to me. Avery starts getting "homework" this week, something I've been anticipating but have to yet to experience. It's lame kindergarten homework like recognizing shapes in nature. I did get tripped up though with the 'rhombus' - turns out that's a fancy word for diamond shape. From now on we will be using the scientific name. We don't want Avery to flunk kindergarten.

This week they also switch their social studies unit from "feelings" to family and friend relationships and conflict resolution. And Avery got her tenth "thank you' stick and picked out a not so giant size bag of sour-patch kids (she has her dad's palate) and even though there were probably only four in the bag she shared with Miles, so maybe she's learning something after all.

By now I am enjoying seeing how much I can accomplish by noon. One day I managed to take a yoga class, drop off some left over building materials, pick up some metal lathe, buy some boots and running shoes for Avery (her school does allow flip flops but it's a little chilly for bare toes at 7am), pick up some more plants at the nursery and grab a few things at the grocery store all before 11am. And Miles is actually a fun little companion on these outings.

"Only got in trouble three times..."

First Day of School

Today is my first day of school. I'm excited, nervous, I certainly don't have a clue about what to wear. Will I get to school on time every day? Ride the bus or drive? Are flip-flops alllowed? Lunch bag or lunch money? Will I be able to remember when there are half days and am I really ready for this? I think so. I don't feel old enough for this to be happening. I can't wait to make new friends and I hope we get to make Stone Soup. What I really can't wait for is high school again - maybe I'll actually learn calculus this time around, and that's when we read all of my favorite books.

Today is my first day of school and the last day of life as I know it. Tomorrow is her first day.
Tomorrrow we become alarm-setting, schedule-adhering humans, with our immunizations complete and with $30 worth of required school supplies ready to hand over to the teacher. The teacher that I get to meet today. Today on my first day of school. I'm so glad it doesn't start until 2.