Caleb (2), Bekah (6.5 months), and Emma (4) sit through one of the many "end-of-year" programs they will attendThis week, for the third time in my life, I attended the kindergarten graduation of one of my kids. This year it was Lizzie's turn! Why is it that I cry every time? I'm such a baby. I also cry every time I take a child to kindergarten for the first day AND when I take them to first grade for their first time (because they will be gone all day, of course!) Sigh. My poor kids. I can't imagine when they go on missions or away to school or to get married!
Joe and I decided this year to switch schools for Hannah and Lizzie. We love their new place. I was reminded of this again at the program. They do such amazing things. This year, in kindergarten, Lizzie has a wonderful art teacher. I was so amazed when she was actually learning how to draw things! She was taught how to draw trees and horses, and how to make things look closer or further away and so on. Things she can actually use, instead of just making fun art projects. In her regular class, she studied the planets in our solar system, each continent, the founding fathers, Jane Goodall, Tchaikovsky, George Washington Carver, Chinese New Year, dinosaurs, lots of different types of animals, and other cool stuff. Of course, she also learned to read very well and do all the "normal" kindergarten things.
Hannah's teacher seemed to go above and beyond anything I could have expected! Every time I went into her classroom, she had done some crazy thing. I helped in the class when she asked her second graders to do research projects on animals and then create PowerPoint presentations for their oral report. They studied the habitats of all different types of animals (and Hannah's diorama was adorable), they created their own grocery store within their classroom to supplement their learning of math and the community, they also did large units on countries around the world. Hannah loved dressing in authentic Chinese clothing, and creating her own Japanese garden and making Indian dolls. One day Joe came home from dropping something off for Hannah in her class with a weird look on his face and asked if there was a reason Hannah's classroom seemed to be a ship, with a mast and all! I just laughed and told him, OF COURSE! They were studying the Mayflower and Hannah's teacher HAD to turn the classroom into the ship so they could have a day where they were actually people on the Mayflower in order to truly experience it. I could go on and on about the different things she did with the kids. She is one of those really special teachers.
I have been so pleased with the way things work at the school. It is really a community and everyone works together. The kids are taught by EXPERIENCE so often, instead of just by rote learning. They had so very many field trips...from hiking to learn about geology, to visiting an aquarium and a farm during their unit on animals, and on and on and on, they really got out into the world.
Joe and I decided this year to switch schools for Hannah and Lizzie. We love their new place. I was reminded of this again at the program. They do such amazing things. This year, in kindergarten, Lizzie has a wonderful art teacher. I was so amazed when she was actually learning how to draw things! She was taught how to draw trees and horses, and how to make things look closer or further away and so on. Things she can actually use, instead of just making fun art projects. In her regular class, she studied the planets in our solar system, each continent, the founding fathers, Jane Goodall, Tchaikovsky, George Washington Carver, Chinese New Year, dinosaurs, lots of different types of animals, and other cool stuff. Of course, she also learned to read very well and do all the "normal" kindergarten things.
Hannah's teacher seemed to go above and beyond anything I could have expected! Every time I went into her classroom, she had done some crazy thing. I helped in the class when she asked her second graders to do research projects on animals and then create PowerPoint presentations for their oral report. They studied the habitats of all different types of animals (and Hannah's diorama was adorable), they created their own grocery store within their classroom to supplement their learning of math and the community, they also did large units on countries around the world. Hannah loved dressing in authentic Chinese clothing, and creating her own Japanese garden and making Indian dolls. One day Joe came home from dropping something off for Hannah in her class with a weird look on his face and asked if there was a reason Hannah's classroom seemed to be a ship, with a mast and all! I just laughed and told him, OF COURSE! They were studying the Mayflower and Hannah's teacher HAD to turn the classroom into the ship so they could have a day where they were actually people on the Mayflower in order to truly experience it. I could go on and on about the different things she did with the kids. She is one of those really special teachers.
I have been so pleased with the way things work at the school. It is really a community and everyone works together. The kids are taught by EXPERIENCE so often, instead of just by rote learning. They had so very many field trips...from hiking to learn about geology, to visiting an aquarium and a farm during their unit on animals, and on and on and on, they really got out into the world.
"Next was Africa. It is the most hottest continent of all. Here we studied monkeys and the scientist, Jane Goodall." This is exactly what Lizzie said in her program, incorrect grammar and all. She was super adorable and did a fantastic job!
Refreshments were served after the program. The kids enjoyed yummy cookies and juice, while I tried to control myself and not eat any, heehee. BOY did they look tempting, though!
Emma (4), Caleb (2), and Bekah (6.5 months) accompanied me to Lizzie's program. Joe would have come, but he had an emergency at work. My Caleb seems more interested in his cookie and juice than the picture! :)
We decided this past year to go ahead and place Ammon in the local school district's gifted classroom (in other words, not at the same school as the girls). We have really struggled with finding an appropriate placement for Ammon, and I thought we should at least give it a try. My biggest regret (besides missing my family, of course) with leaving Boise was taking him out of the amazing schooling program they had for him there. Here they don't have anything that comes close. They DO have magnet "gifted" classes, but this year has pretty much been a bust for him. We have been grateful, in some ways, for this year. We HAVE seen growth in his organizational skills and his "paying attention to detail" weakness, and his handwriting has improved a HUGE amount. Even with a mid-year grade skip from the gifted 4th grade to the gifted 5th grade class, however, I'm not sure he has learned anything new academically and even worse, he didn't really find any good peers as I was hoping. That was the main thing that I liked about his Highly Gifted program in Boise. The kids there "got" him. They were just like him. When I would visit the classroom, there would be these adorable little six year old kids involved in the most amazing conversations!
Here, even though he is in an accelerated classroom (they work about a year or so ahead of grade level), he still feels so different from the other kids. They seem slow to him. They need to have things explained mulitiple times or they struggle to understand concepts that he already covered years ago. They think he is "freaky smart" or that his vocabulary is too advanced (they may ask him to explain what something he said means). Generally, the kids are nice, though, and he does have good friends he plays with at recess and teams up with for projects and whatnot. He made friends in both the 4th grade and in the 5th grade class, so that was nice. Just no one that he really connects with...no one who "gets" him. He also feels stifled academically. He has had some rude awakenings this year in discovering what "grade level" really means. He has been allowed to work at his own pace and level for his entire schooling until now. He honestly had no idea how far ahead he was. I really don't know what to do about it, though. I am not comfortable skipping him any further, except for some subject acceleration, I guess. Who knows? Perhaps someday we'll need to do one more skip, or do some homeschooling. I don't know. Anyone who thinks that having a kid as academically accelerated as Ammon is would be easy and fun is insane. It is difficult for a mom who really just wants her child to be happy. I don't care about the rest.
ANYWAY, sorry for getting off on a tangent. :) Ammon has decided that he wants to go to the girl's school next year. I am cool with that. It will be the first time in Ammon's schooling career that he has attended the same school as any of his siblings! They have lots of fun extracurriculars that he is interested in. I spoke with the Academic Dean at the school and they have agreed to let Ammon do math online instead of with his class. We think this will be a good compromise because he will be able to work at his own pace (and his own level) and still get high school or college credit for it. Those are the only accommodations we have arranged at this time. I know it isn't much, but I figure he wasn't learning anything new in his gifted program anyway. The school is great in many ways, and I'm hoping that the fun extracurriculars he is excited to participate in will help him be happier in school. My biggest concern is that he will be even MORE different in a regular class than he is in the "gifted" class, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Again, I just really want him to be happy, even if he doesn't learn a ton of new stuff. We will all keep our fingers crossed!!
Ammon (10) also had a school program this week. He is the handsome one, sixth from the right, I think
Ammon, the cool guy, still manages to wave at his mom
We were late and there were no seats left so he had to stand at the very back of the gym. Caleb (2) and Bekah (6.5 months) 
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