Family Portrait Drawing, 2nd week review

The 2nd week of school went pretty much like the first week with a few more bumps. We had 1 major morning meltdown over clothing (nothing felt right) and one horrendous evening of one meltdown after another because of being overtired (I think).
Parker had her first 'cafeteria food' this week and that went smoothly. Considering she's accustomed to just unpacking a lunch, going through a line and picking everything out is a big deal, but she insisted she could do it and I guess she did. She chose a corn dog, cantaloupe and black beans.

Here's a family picture she drew the 2nd day of school. Bob's smile is concealed by his beard.

In case you are wondering, this is how our school district is approaching the Obama speech issue that everyone is losing their minds over:

From the Office of the Superintendent

The President of the United States will conduct a live web cast on Tuesday, September 8. The Department of Education has billed this as a “Back to School” Speech and the department website has provided some activities that a teacher could choose to do with his/her students. Many of the activities seem appropriate for a lesson in civics. However, the will not participate in the live web cast on Tuesday September 8 for the following reasons:

· District teachers have done collaborative planning in advance and the notice we received on this speech is inadequate for us to incorporate it into meaningful

lessons

· Since the speech is live, we are unable to receive a copy of the text in advance which handicaps a teacher to prepare a meaningful lesson

· It would be rare that the same resource would be equally appropriate for a Kindergarten student and a senior in high school. Since we do not have details on the content, we do not have the information to determine the grade level and/or subject matter to which it is best aligned

· If we access as a web cast, we do not have sufficient bandwidth to get a clean audio and video program. We actually learned this last November when our volleyball team state playoff game was web cast during school

· At this time of the school year, I am unwilling to allow any activity that may have little benefit, but could serve as a distraction to the core mission of the school. Whether the President’s words to our students have a political tone or not, this address has already become politicized and could serve as a distraction in our schools.

Therefore, we will not web cast the speech on Tuesday, but we will download it and review it to determine if it does have any valuable instructional benefit. In the event that we choose to use any of the speech at any level K-12, parents will receive advance notice and your son/daughters will be able to choose an alternate assignment and opt out of the speech.
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In other news, I'm sad to report, it appears we are ballet school dropouts. Remember the meltdown evening I mentioned earlier? That was the day we were supposed to go to ballet. She told me in hysterical sobs that she didn't want to go to ballet anymore, that it was too hard and too soon after getting home from school and that she'd prefer to just do her own 'homeschool' practice. So we stayed home. Not the usual way I'd handle something like that, but...you've heard the phrase "you can lead a horse to water...."? Well and even more impossible task is putting a bawling 5 year old into lycra tights. We're going to give it another week just to make sure, but I think her mind is made up. It didn't seem hard, but it is right after school and I can totally understand why she'd just want to stay home after a long day of school. She used to love to put on her ballet stuff and dance around, so hopefully she'll keep that up.

Back to Ballet

A couple months ago Parker announced that she was ready to go back to ballet lessons. I'm not sure why she took a break, but she has been happy just to put on her ballet stuff and dance around the house up until now. Of course she had grown out of everything except for her ponytail holder, so we made a trip to the fancy dance store and had her re-outfitted. She was thrilled of course.

We've switched studios to one closer to home. It's not your normal dance place either, it's a serious ballet conservatory, whatever that means. I got very nervous at the beginning of her first lesson when I heard the teacher explaining that they are to answer "Oui, Madam" instead of "yes ma'am" .

But Parker loved it and did really well. There is definitely a no-nonsense approach at this studio, but Parker loves a structured teaching environment. At the end of her class, the next class had accumulated in the lobby...little girls probably ages 7-9 all decked out in their ballet gear w/ their hair in buns. Parker loved seeing the 'older ballerinas'.

In addition to the usual spring recital they get to participate in the city production of The Nutcracker at Christmas. I was thrilled about this....until I saw the dates of the production. It's the same day as the White Rock Marathon/Half Marathon that Bob and I usually run. So things that weekend should get very interesting.

Homeschool Ballet

Parker has rediscovered ballet this week. It combines all of her favorite things....dressing up, music and dancing. But she has made it clear that she does NOT want to take lessons again, she prefers to just play ballet at home. She knows we'd have to get a new studio (closer) and a new teacher and she's just not into it. But that's fine with me, it's less driving, and more money for my hobbies.
Every day after school, she gets out her ballet bag stuffed with leotards and tights and puts on an outfit and plays ballet student. I got her some books about ballet from the library....she's NOT interested in a DVD of ballet for some reason, I've tried that. Here our typical afternoon.

"I'm looking for moves"

I took a million pictures, hoping to get just a few to be able to share. I've uploaded them all to a web album in case you're interested in seeing the progression of the afternoon. If you play the slide show really fast, it seems like she's moving. Click on the picture below to access the web album:

Homeshcool ballet

More Ballet pics

We went to ballet again on Friday. Parker did great again. She was the leader of the line the whole time. She did a much better job of watching the teacher for instruction instead of just copying what the other kids do. These photos are a bit grainy because I have to take them w/out a flash on a high shutter speed so they're not blurry.


Doing leaps over a shoe

Pointing her toe

Volunteering


admiring her skirt

Walking on tiptoes with swooping butterfly arms.