Around the House

 Updates on everyone!

Gracie
In the last six weeks, Gracie has grown 1/2 an inch!  I wouldn't have believed it, but I am the one that measured her on Clara's birthday (8/19) and then on 10/2.  At least that explains the week that she just seemed to eat non-stop!  A big dinner, desert and then several snacks of nuts and craisins was her routine for a few days.  And I couldn't seem to pack enough in her lunch for school.  It's amazing that a body can actually grow that fast.
 
On the academic front, I am so proud of my Gracie - she is part of the Math Olympics team at school!  It is a math competition for third grade and up, and she qualified for it based on a test that everyone took.  She has never believed that she is good at math and is always saying how she doesn't like it.  Before the day of the test, she was a little worried, but I reminded her that this was just an extra activity and to just do her best on the test and not worry about the outcome. 

She was so happy the afternoon she told me that she had made the team - "I made Math Olympics!"  she said with a big smile on her face.  Then she told me that when they made the announcement in chapel, calling up the kids who had made Math Olympics, she didn't even hear them say her name (she thought they said Tracy) and her teacher had to nudge her and tell her to go up front. 

It was a great confidence booster for her.  I hope she enjoys the competition.  It's sometime in November, and I guess they usually have some practices before the actual competition.  Math was always my favorite subject, so it's nice to see her have a positive reaction to math!



 John Michael

Still as crazy about trains, he got a smile from the grownups in music class today.  The children get to choose a way to "play" their two wooden sticks.  JM demonstrated rubbing one across the other, so Miss Carol asked him what he would call that (most kids say "Rub").  But not John Michael - "Train Pistons!"  So we got to sing about "Pistons Pushing" while we rubbed our two sticks together.   

As we were heading to the car the other morning, I said to John Michael as we ran crazily across the parking lot together, hand in hand and laughing: "What am I going to do when you are in school and I am by myself?"

JM's reply: "Go shopping!"

What a great response, right?  So then I proceeded to ask him what I should shop for, "Toys!" was the answer.  (I told him I thought maybe I should go shopping for myself, but he didn't think that was a good idea.)

I laughed and didn't think much about it.  Apparently, he took it a little more seriously.  As he was climbing into the van after school, his first question was "What toys did you get me while you were shopping?"

Clara
Our resident spelling bee practice maniac!  She won her grade's spelling bee last year and is determined to do it again.  She's had the practice list of words for less than a week and I think we have practiced over 200 words.  And amazingly, she has gotten about 90% of them right on the first try.  It is also amazing to see the difference from last year.  Having never spelled words out loud before last year, it was hard just to make that transition.  We spent a lot of time last year working on being able to spell the word orally - I had kind of forgotten what a process that is, but you have to be able to think the letters, keep them all in your mind and not lose track of where you are.  And during the spelling bee, it is very strict - once you have said a letter, you can't 'take it back.'  You can ask to start over, but you have to use all of the same letters you have already said aloud.  Anyhow, we will see how she does this year - the spelling bee is on Thursday, November 1st.  (Gracie is also planning to compete in her grade's spelling bee - she's just not as fanatical about practicing.  She's reserving most of her energy for the Speech Meet which will be November 3rd.)



Me
Helping the girls study for the spelling bee made me realize just how much older they are getting.  There were actually words on both of their spelling lists that I didn't know and had to look up.  I felt a little better after I looked them up - at least one was an arcane, spelling bee, crossword type word that is not really used day-to-day.  Abaft or elide, anyone? 

Oh - and I just finished reading one of "Gracie's" books (and enjoyed it!).