What's goin' on this week?

LOTS!

We're writing fairy tales in the Writing Workshops.

It's pretty cool, too, because I taught my first group

that fairy tales don't necessarily have anything to do with...

fairies.

We talked about it and decided that there are a lot of fairy tales out there

that no one really thinks of as fairy tales such as:

Harry Potter,

 & Lord of the Rings.

There's a debate going on about whether or not

Star Wars could be classified as a fairy tale...

I think it could be, but I'm not totally sure.

Great discussions, and even more great writing going on.

I'm looking forward to Thursday's class 

and the interactions I'll have with that group.

The kids each had piano lessons this week

and Scott graduated out of his beginner book.

Whoo hoo!

He's begun theory and technique now, 

and is always enthusiastic about playing. It's awesome.

Maya continues to get better and better as well.

She's steadily moving into harder and harder books,

and is really interested, (and good at)

composing her own music. 

Eventually, we hope to have software

that will allow us to record and make a CD of them playing.

It's in the works!

We have our book club meetings this week.

Scott finished his book, Butterfingers,

and said it was pretty good.

He did say, too, that it was pretty easy to read.

His meeting was on Tuesday.

Maya has not enjoyed her books as much this time around

as she has in the past.

Her first meeting is tonight,

and we have another one on Thursday.

She enjoys the interaction with the other kids,

she loves both Erin and Rita,

(the childrens' librarians),

and she's introduced to books we may not otherwise know anything about.

It's win/win even if she doesn't like every single book she reads.

Maya began working on her writing skills for Japanese this past week.

It's very difficult and she has to be quite perfect which takes a lot of patience

and practice. She's doing well, although she informed me

that me taking pictures of her was a bit distracting,

so you'll not see many more of these in the future. :)

Here's something else that's pretty cool...

Steven gave Maya her first driving lesson on Saturday.

Yikes!

We all went to the Cisco parking lot

and she did a great job.

Maya showed an interest

and Steven decided we'd go and let her begin.

Here's Scott in the backseat. 

He looks calm, cool and collected, don't you think?

No backseat driving. :)

Maya had fun and Steven told her we'd do it again soon.

Part of our problem is that the kid acts fourteen...

when she asks to do things like drive,

it's hard to forget that she's not quite eleven.

Scott chose his favorite poem,

(after receiving more than 20 votes from family and friends,

thank you so much!)

He chose Attic

and has already submitted it into the contest.

Attic

by Scott Wing

A   ll alone in the attic

T   ight, creepy space

        T   errifying things up there

                          I    f you went up there, you would see

                           C  artons look like monsters in the dark

This is an acrostic poem. Maya is still working on hers.

She learned how to write a couplet last week,

but was having a bit of trouble with the rhyming.

She wrote a line that ended in 'itches'

and wanted a rhyme. 

The first word that came to her mind was quite inappropriate

and I made her quit for the day. :)

Once she decides upon the poem she'll submit,

I'll post it.

The kids start Tae Kwon Do on Friday!

They are thrilled by this and can't wait.

I'm actually thinking about doing it myself...

both kids are encouraging me to

and it sounds like a good, fun way to get in shape.

We'll see what happens.

We began our fourth quarter on Monday

so we have about ten weeks left of school.

I'm afraid we'll be disrupted by our move,

but I'm working very hard to get what I want done

done before the middle of May.

Life would be boring if it weren't for the challenges, right?

:)