CAM's First Book Report

CAM has a book report! She's in second grade, so it's probably about right. When I was in second grade, I made up my own book report assignments because I felt like my teacher didn't give us any and I wanted them.  Yes, I really did, and yes, my parents still have them. I think I wrote a story, too -- about a parakeet. I am glad to see some accountability over reading and not just daily reading logs. But that's just me being me.

I like the style of this first project. It's a "brown bag" book report. Students had to read a biography and then create a report based on that, using a brown paper grocery bag.

The front of the bag had to say the title, author, and illustrator, and could use drawings and printouts.

The back of the bag had to relate the most important part of the book through an illustration (no printouts).

One side panel had to say what you liked about the book, and the other something you disliked about the book.

Inside, there had to be five "props" related to the book, which will help for an oral presentation the kids have to do when they return to school.

CAM picked "Who Was Anne Frank," which has led to countless conversations about concentration camps, Nazis, our ancestry, and so many things. It has been awesome.

We were gently admonished to let this be our kids' work. My only worry is that someone will think it isn't!  CAM's illustration of the hideout in Amsterdam is pretty fantastic.

Hard at work drawing the three-building scene with the Amsterdam hideout in the middle. If you look carefully, you can see she's basing her drawing on a similar sketch in the book she read.

I helped her by drawing the initial two lines and teaching her some ruler tricks -- marking the ruler to know how long to draw each segment, lining it up with the top windows to draw the bottom windows perfectly in line with them, and so on -- but I think there are fewer than 6 lines on that paper that I drew. She really ate it up.

But this wasn't without issues. Getting CAM to faithfully bring home her book from school has been pulling teeth. Finally, she realized this Wednesday that she had almost no time left to finish her book and do this report (which is due Monday) and that I would absolutely let her drop the ball if she was going to drop the ball.

Thursday after school, we went to the grocery store specifically to get brown paper bags. We spent a moderate amount on groceries, got all the way home, and realized we'd forgotten to ask for paper bags.

I texted Mick at work and he brought home two bags.

It didn't much matter, though: CAM had left her book at school again!

She read the rest of the book yesterday (Friday), after I told her that we could not write a report without her finishing her reading, and that I would not bail her out in tears Sunday night.  After hockey today we found ourselves unexpectedly without plans. It is snowing here in New England, and our plans for the afternoon and evening changed with the weather's unanticipated severity. So we were home, WHM was entertaining himself with Legos, and CAM and I sat down at the kitchen table to attack this report. To her credit, she wanted to finish it all today so there would be nothing to worry about tomorrow. She did a great job!

The colored-in drawing. I regret not taking a snapshot before she started coloring, because the pencil drawing was really impressive, and I think the coloring actually takes away from what a good job she did. I also wish she'd WAITED to color, because the buildings should not be black -- but we'll just say it's nighttime. Anyway, this is clearly done by a child, but I am worried that the teacher may think I drew the houses first -- which is absolutely not the case.

The front. Title, Author, Illustrator, and then some "creative" elements, including a printout of the image of the book. 

The props in the bag need to help the presenter give an oral presentation about the book, going from the birth of the subject to their death/the present.

We chose (and yes, we chose these together):

1. A photo of Anne Frank
2. A felt Star of David
3. A leather journal to represent Anne's diary 
4. A "map" of the hideout
5. A photo of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

The kids are not allowed to use notecards. So here is where my devious brilliance great idea gives CAM an advantage: we put the props on card stock with a secret code to help her presentation. The props go in the order of the rainbow. To anyone not in the know, we just used different colors. But actually, the first photo of Anne, which introduces the whole book, is on red. We skip orange and then talk about the yellow star and how the Jews were persecuted and how Anne's family moved to Amsterdam. That leads to green, which is the map of the hideout, and it's easy to remember to talk about the diary. Finally, blue -- the concentration camp where Anne and her sister died (a month before the Allies liberated the camp, a detail CAM keeps mentioning). Red-(orange)-yellow-green-blue. CAM's been singing a song about the colors of the rainbow since she was three. She's got this 100% under control!

The hardest part of the project -- other than getting CAM to bring home her book -- was trying to differentiate between something CAM liked/disliked about the book versus something about the story the book told. In the end, I thought that if I gave too many examples ("I wish the pictures were in color," "I wish there were more examples of Anne's actual diary entries," "I liked the photos," etc.) that it would not be CAM's original thoughts anymore. So, I let her interpret it as things she liked about the story, not about the book, and didn't fret too much.

I think that's quite alright for second grade. And if not, well, we'll keep working on it. In the meantime, what a great job she did, working almost 100% on her own!


--Jen

Some Afternoon Photo Fun

I love that we have essentially this same pose in countless photos in the past seven years.  This is CAM at play, deep in concentration in her chalk art. 

WHM only wanted to make silly faces to start. He's been hamming it up all day!

First Day of School 2014

WHM is in kindergarten.  I think because he did full-day Pre-K last year at the same school, and because I am working full-time, I don't feel the "empty house" blues as much as some of my friends have. My little man is giddy, and so I am, too.

CAM is in second grade!  She is beside herself with excitement about school, and I love that.

We moved here with a toddler and a kindergartener!  Oh, my!

--Jen

I am so upset that this is blurry. I didn't want to mess with the camera and don't trust myself well enough to shoot manual, so I let it ride on "auto," and am punished with a focal point on a basket.  Oh well.  Do-over later!

p.s. I am back to teaching again, still at the same place I started when we moved to Maine. My first day is also today, but I have made a "tradition" (three-years running) of taking my own kids' first day off so I can do drop-off and pick-up. The rest of the week will be "early care," but today? Today's special.  (Besides, today is only freshman for me, and I only have an advisory group. Tomorrow is the day all the rest of the students arrive. Tomorrow is "go time" for me. Today is "frantically-clean-the-house-because-you-won't-get-this-chance-again-for-ten-months" day.)

Maine Baton Twirling Championship

I'm not sure I've mentioned this on here before, but CAM is a baton twirler. She loves it.

When we arrive at the competitions, we usually are corraled in the cafeteria to get ready. This Saturday we had to be there by 7:30, and we were ready super early. This is CAM being silly while we waited for her teammates to arrive. 

This weekend was a two-day tournament/competition in Kennebunk, Maine, and she had six events on Saturday. She only had one on Sunday, but we still had to be there all day.  That meant that she had a lot of time in the lobby and running around, playing, twirling, practicing, and so on.

I try, when I don't need to be watching, to grade papers or do other productive stuff, but even I get a tired bum sitting on gym bleachers for 8 hours a day.

So, at one point yesterday, I went out to the lobby with CAM and WHM. CAM had been watching the older twirlers with all their super-high tosses and was playing around, tossing her baton and trying to catch it.

Here's a conversation:

WHM:  C!  Can you throw your baton up in the air, and then spin around?

(She does, attempting a pirouette, but she misses the baton and it falls.)

WHM:  Oh. (pause while he thinks) And I forgot, "catch it."

What was perfect was that he quite seriously thought that he needed to have said that as part of his list of things for his sister to try, and she only dropped the baton because he hadn't added "catching it" to his request.

These are the things that keep me laughing -- and sane!

--Jen

Some Mornings Are Okay

We just finished our Spring Break here in Maine.  We made the decision not that long ago to take the family and head down to see my parents in New York. Mick had to work the bookend Saturdays, so we were going to leave after he got home from work Saturday afternoon, and head back to Maine Friday so he'd be home in time for work the next Saturday.

Naturally, we all -- the four of us, plus my parents -- spent the entire week sick!  Seriously: we have had a winter (and now, Spring!) unlike any other we can remember. It's been one wallop after another!  In fact, CAM spent all of Friday night when we got home, awake and sobbing because her ear hurt. A call to the doctor and we ended up at the on-call office Saturday at 8, and she has a full-blown ear infection.  (Thank goodness for amoxicillin. That stuff is pure miracle liquid with CAM; after two doses, she was back to herself!)

The good news was that we had no agenda for break, so we were able to guiltlessly nap away our days.

The bad news was that it was a wash of a break.

But then we were back in Maine, and Mick went to work Saturday and as a family we lounged about and did nothing Saturday. (Except for hockey clinic and the doctor's office. But once we got home, we were back in jammies and doing nothing!)

And Sunday morning -- no alarm set, no agenda again -- I woke up to hearing WHM singing.

"Time to get up!  Time to get up! It's morning time ....

"Time to get up! Time to get up!  It's morning time ..."

(If you're familiar with the "Elmo's World song from Sesame Street, it was sort-of that type of sing-song-y.)

His room filled with sunlight, and he was well-rested and happy and sang himself awake.

That swelled my heart overflowing with joy every time I thought about it and quite literally got me through the Sunday blahs and the grind of Monday. Every time I think about it, my heart smiles.

Boy oh boy, do I love my little guy.

*  *  *

CAM lost her second front tooth this morning!  We actually thought it would go for sure last week, so we brought her tooth fairy pillow with us to New York.  Nope.  Darn thing hung on.

It was barely there this weekend and Monday we thought, "oh ... it's going. She's hanging on to it to have the thrill of it coming out at school, but it's coming today."

Nope.

We could twist it about 360 degrees around and wiggle it and jiggle it, but it would not come out!

Mick was convinced she was going to swallow it while she slept.

Nope!

This morning I woke CAM up for school and she covered her head with her blanket.  I was in her closet looking for her gym uniform for today when she bolted upright, "MOMMY!  My tooth came out!"

And a dreary, gray, damp and cold, rainy Wednesday turned into a morning filled with smiles and joy.

*  *  *

Truly: some mornings are okay!

--Jen

It's Twirling Season!

After a very busy week of hockey (games/clinics Saturday, Sunday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday) it was finally CAM's turn.

We could tell she was really tired of sitting through hockey and really needed some attention of her own, so today's first baton competition of the season couldn't have been more timely.

As it happened, WHM had both hockey and a birthday party, so Mick and I split our duties -- he to hockey and the party, me to southern Maine for CAM's competition.

She competed in three events: team, solo, and marching.  And she won first place in each!

(For the record, this is actually not something we wanted.  As she and I drove down this morning, she told me she was doing three things and was going to get three medals. Mick and I really don't want her to come to expect to win every time she does anything. But her team was the only one in its division, and then both other times she competed, there were only two girls in each division.  Oh well. Soon enough she'll learn that sometimes you have to lose gracefully. For now, she's delighted -- and so are we. She has been tickled pink all day, and that's important, too!)

Here are the photos. I have some videos as well but I have yet to successfully get videos from my phone to anywhere other than Facebook.

Shoot. I never took a photo of CAM wearing all three medals. I'll have to update this tomorrow!

-Jen

In the morning, when we first arrived and got in costume #1. We had to be there between 8:30 and 9, so we left the house around 7:45. One of the things I really love about twirling is that we're able to use age-appropriate make-up (or none at all). I let CAM wear lip gloss and the tiniest bit of silver eyeshadow (which was rubbed off before we pulled out of the driveway) and she looked just perfect, as far as I am concerned! Time enough for mascara and the stage make-up ...

Aunt Sheila gave her a little bendy baton girl to play with as a good luck charm.

Ready to march out with her team for practice!

... and now, marching out with her team for real!

Introducing the Pixie Stix! 

After all the team events, there was a marching clinic while the results were tabulated.

Pixie Stix getting their first place medal!

Checking out that awesome medal.

Still checking it out!

Marching competition!

Watching the twirlers.

Practicing for her solo.

When they call your name, you bring a cassette tape to the judge.  The judge then keeps notes for you the entire length of your performance.  Here, CAM's dropping off her tape for her solo.

Solo!  There was no good place for me to position myself for photos, because CAM was on the far side of the gym from me.  But see that judge right there at table 3? That's Aunt Sheila. (CAM was at station 4, not to worry!)

Beaming after finishing.  She didn't nail it, but she came pretty darn close!