My Artist

My kids are artistic. They come by it completely naturally of course as it runs in the family ;-). My mom was artistic and creative in so many ways, both of my brothers are artists- one in metal, the other in ink and my sister is a well-known artist whose paintings have won many competitions. In fact I was the only kid who didn't inherit any artistic talent! Maybe I was really adopted. Just kidding. Anyway- Kim has become quite the artist and I want to take a minute to showcase a few of her recent drawings. As you can see she's influenced by the Japanese Animee /Manga tradition.

School Pix

Here are the 2009 School Photos- not the best but good portraits are hard I find. Corey just turned 9 and is in 4th grade, Eli is 6 and in kindergarten.Alia is 6 and is in 1st grade and Kim will be 12 in a week (!) and is in 7th grade! She looks younger in her photo this year- perhaps because her hair isn't pulled back the way she usually wears it.

Orphan Sunday

I hope some of you will check this out;

http://www.orphansunday.org/

Maybe there's an event near you. There's one near us and we intend to go.

Flu

We have all succumbed to the flu. I don't know which version- all the CDC website says is the symptoms are pretty much the same and if you get one or the other you should just stay home and keep from infecting other people. So we've been staying home for the past 4 days! I wish I could say we're on the mend but it's an odd thing- you feel a bit better and the fever goes down and then, Wham! You spike a 103 temp and start coughing up a lung. Needless to say it's not fun nursing 4 sick kids when you are sick as well!

We got our first rainstorm of the season these past two days- making it easier to convince kids to hunker down and stay cozy. Nice to not have to be out and about in it!

Eli

Eli is back in kindergarten this year. We switched from the Open Classroom to the traditional public school (on the same campus) for both Eli and Alia as it seemed both would benefit from a little more structure in their classroom. In addition to class, Eli has speech therapy and, recently, a one-hour post school intervention class to work on letter recognition. On Thursday his teacher phoned me, and after assuring me (in response to my query) that nothing was wrong, she told me that she was calling to brag about how well Eli was doing! In a week he had gone from being able to recognize and write 3 letters (yep, that would be E, L and I) to knowing 19- lower and uppercase!

I wonder if he would have done as well if he'd been in the traditional program last year or if he just needed that extra year to socialize and grow a bit more. Everyone who knows him now is convinced that he is a smart kid!

Back to School

Yesterday was the first day of school and Kim and Corey returned to the open classroom in grades 7 and 4 and Alia and Eli started in the traditional side of the school in grades 1 and K (Eli is repeating). I think the little kids will do better in their classes this year- they both need some routine and structure to do their best learning. All the kids got new teachers this year because we lost some of the Open Classroom teachers to budget cuts so it's a transition for all! Still we are all happy that school has started and the "I'm bored" litany will stop! I think an 8 week summer would be long enough!

No first day of school pix because my digital camera died and I haven't replaced it yet but they were all their mis-matched, happy selves.

Champions

Kim's team, the Pumas, won the Wildcat League Championships last Saturday! Here's a team picture taken earlier in the year- Kim is 3rd from the right. The last game was a real nail biter during the first half but our team took control during the 2nd and we won 37-22! It's been a fantastic experience for Kim and all of our family. We lucked out and had the best coach in the league - he has a wonderful way of working with the girls- very positive. He even gave Corey some tips and she will be starting playing basketball at the Y this fall while Kim goes on to the play in the Ventura Youth Basketball Association.

School starts next week- not a minute too soon for both me and the the kids! Eli will repeat kindergarten in the traditional side of our school and Alia will move to that side for 1st grade. Kim and Corey continue at the Open Classroom- both with new teachers (OC lost 3 teachers this year- 2 new ones to layoffs and one to a transfer) so we'll have new teachers all around.