Voting for Bluebonnets

Cameron arrived at school this morning at 7:30 a.m. to cast her ballot for the TLA Bluebonnet Award. The Texas Library Association established the Bluebonnet Award reading program back in 1979 to encourage to encourage Texas children to read more books, explore a variety of current books, develop powers of discrimination, and identify their favorite books. (Yep, taken right from their website.)

Students were encouraged to read a certain number of books on their own, and the teacher and/or librarian also read 2 other books. Any student who read (i forget how many total) would be allowed to participate in the official student voting for the Bluebonnet Award book.

I'm not going to list all of the books Cameron read from the list, but she did confide that her vote went to The Blue Ghost by Marion Dane Bauer.

Her second favorite was Roxie and the Hooligans Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Though if you ask her about one or two others, including George Crum and the Saratoga Chip by Gaylia Taylor, she gets real animated telling you about the story (the invention of the potato chip.)

I even read two of the older books, and I read most of the books Cameron read. Though some how I missed reading The Blue Ghost. Hm... guess I'll have to pick it up and read it some night.

Glu-ghost

Today both girls came home from school full of questions (and details) about Diabetes. Did we know anyone with Diabetes? Anyone in our family have diabetes? Type 1 or Type 2? It's very odd to sit at the dinner table and listen to my kindergarten five year old talk about Insulin and Nucleus and Glu-ghost and sugar. The scary thing is everything she says is correct!

Both girls were very concerned about their dinner, did the soup have any sugar in it? They even passed on dessert. I know this won't last long. Though when I brought up Lent coming up next week and that we need to think about what to give up, both girls said dessert.

The special Diabetes lecturer was part of a Walk for Diabetes (fundraiser) launch at their school. (All the forms were in backpacks today.) Health and fitness are having a huge influence on curriculum lately. There is a state mandated fitness test for all grades 3-12 coming up soon. The superintendent's letter assures parents that their child's physical fitness status will not affect their grades.

After I put Brenna in bed, she was a little jabberbox. She spent another ten minutes very animated talking excitedly about how she and "girl Jordan" (one of her best friends at school) want to write a play. She wanted me to help her. I asked her if Mr. K. could help them at school, but she gave me an exasperated look and said, "Mom, he only does music - singing? - Boring." (oookayyyy.) So I said what about Ms. P. (the GT teacher who has been testing them) Oh Yes, she would be good.

Jordan is the best writer/reader in the K class, and when I suggested that Jordan could write down the play, Brenna wrinkled her nose and said, "But Jordan writes big (waves her hands to make the point) and I don't want it all big across the page." Well, says I, she could write it down and an adult could type it up on the computer. (BIG SMILES) "Perfect Mommy!"

So apparently Brenna and Jordan want to do a play that sounds a whole lot like Barbie Island Princess with Harry Potter. Harry would be ON the island with Roe (Brenna) and whomever Jordan and Xyla (another girl friend) would be playing. And there have to be songs. And she needs a dress-up dress that is currently at Nana's house. And a wig.

When I said aloud that this play sounded an awful lot like Island Princess, Brenna says, "No, I'm not copying it. I'm only borrowing small details. Barbie's name is Rosella. I'm only using ROE, see!?"

Where does she get these ideas?

Meanwhile Cameron is in her bed, lights off, writing in her story ideas notebook by the hallway light. She decided that her three girl characters would form a baking club, but she needed a name for the club. I brainstormed a bunch of words and she wrote down Pies R Us, but then changed it to The Baker Girls. Just another day All Things Kelly.

Sabine River - here we come!

Cameron earned her first "B" on a report card for the last 9-weeks of second grade. It was in social studies. SOCIAL STUDIES! Third grade brought a new year, and yet she continued to bring home worksheets that clearly demonstrated she either wasn't grasping the concept or wasn't applying herself. I knew I had to do something when she brought home a worksheet where she was to identify the three rivers that form part of the Texas border. She had colored the Red river (we've been across it many times) and then colored the Colorado and Brazos (we've been across those about 100x more than the Red river.)

So I sat down with her and we talked about the Rio Grande and the Sabine. I don't recall exactly how it came about, but I told her that if she could get an A in Social Studies on her report card this year, I would take her to the Sabine River, our Texas/Louisiana border. I wanted her to have a tangible, realistic, goal to strive towards during the year.

She pulled the grade up a little for her first report card (from the progress report grade), but it was still a B. She's worked really hard this past nine-weeks on her social studies, and when report cards came out on Friday she just about bust to show me a 91 in Social Studies. (All A's with a 100 in Science thanks to Science Fair participation.)

So watch this space - we'll be planning for a weekend drive out to the Sabine.

I should brag just for a moment - Cameron had all A's and all E's in her behavior (E=excellent vs. S=Satisfactory.) Brenna contined to receive many SD (steadily developing) and a few AI (Applies Independently). However, Brenna raised her behavior scores from all S to all E. Her teachers comments noted that her behavior has improved a good deal.

MLK weekend at SBR

Check out the two posts on SBR blog for photos and comments about MLK weekend.

Reading Rainbow

I like to call this one, Brenna's Reading Rainbow audition.

Got Mold?

Third grade still isn't "required" to do a Science Fair project, but it's *ahem* strongly encouraged. In this area of town, it's practically a religion! Between the space and oil industries, we have a lot of scientific people surrounding us, and it is a huge influence on their kids. They offer the "Lucky 13" award in high school to those students who have participated in 13 years of Science Fair K-12. Now I don't know how many students receive this award, but the fact that they offer it speaks for itself. (I'll take this opportunity to mention that our ISD doesn't support National History Fair, though participation in Science Fair is mandatory for grades 4-5.)

Cameron decided to do her project on moldy bread. The question came about honestly enough - every time I buy Pumpernickel Rye bread (yum), it gets moldy before I can eat the whole loaf. So she wondered which breads mold faster than others. (um, the rye bread honey....)

We put a whole bunch of bread out on the table and "observed" it. We watched it dry out and turn into toast. So I broke down and picked up a few books on mold and surprise - you need moist, dark, spaces. We modified her project a bit and she wrote up the words and took some of the photos. We put it together tonight.

Do they give points for looking nice and neat?

New Year's Eve

Bryan and I had a blast ringing in the New Year with some friends at their New Years Eve "Sci-Fi Character/Aliens" costume party. Amy & Paul have an eclectic mixture of friends from the spectrum of their professional and personal lives, so there were librarians, NASA scientists, sci-fi book club members, and sci-fi convention participants. It made for an interesting evening.

Those of you familiar with the movie Serenity or the short-lived tv series Firefly, will recognize our characters: Mal Reynolds and Inara Serra. My favorite part is that I walked past and made eye contact with several people I knew without them recognizing me. Even Amy looked up and could see the flicker of "huh?" cross her face, before it connected. (Kind of like doing those games where you say the color of the word, not the word itself. You know the word is red, but you're supposed to say blue.)

I really liked Gary's "Han Solo" costume.

Can you read the tags pinned to his clothes? "Pretend Han Solo's robust chest is here" and on his collar reads, "Pretend Han Solo's roguish, charming, visage is here." It was classic Gary.

Meanwhile, the girls were at Nana & Papa's house, having their own "party."

Scooters

Dec 26 turned out to be our "rest and do nothing day." Bryan had to work, but the girls and I were off all week, and we weren't heading up to McKinney until Friday. So Wed. we did nothing but open up toys and play. In the early afternoon I decided we'd had enough of the house, and put the girls and their scooters in the van and headed over to the park.

Cameron joined the ranks of thousands of girls across the nation who got a red Razor scooter (Target, on sale day after Thanksgiving!) for Christmas. Since the park was relatively empty - a few families here or there, but very few cars - I let them scooter around the sidewalks between playground sets. I gave up trying to walk behind them, and instead walked the distance in the parking lot between one walkway (by the car) and where it came out on the far side.

Then we scootered a bit down the road to a boardwalk out over the Bayou. We stopped for a bit and watched an egret walk around - he would land in one spot and walk to the shore, then fly back to the original spot and do it again.

We headed back down the boardwalk and Brenna got very excited over a big rock; she wanted to sit (later stand) on the rock. I went to take a picture and bust out laughing at how Cameron jumped up and "posed".

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I have several update posts to work on this evening, but wanted to make certain to say Merry Christmas and Happy 2008 to everyone.




Clearly, Santa visited our house this year. The cookies and milk are gone, Brenna's letter to Santa has vanished, and two little electronic games are under the tree.

The girls enjoyed opening their presents. I'm not sure, but I think they both squealed the loudest when they opened these boxes, containing new comforters. They moved into separate bedrooms a few weeks before Christmas, and no longer need the matching quilts they've had for the past three years.
Bryan got a surprise - he was not expecting to receive Guitar Hero. I almost didn't get it for him (the on sale one was sold out in our area), but his brother found it on sale in McKinney! So we met, in a parking lot, on the far side of town, and made a little swap on Christmas Eve.

And this is how we spent the rest of Christmas morning. Each to their own electronic device. (Bryan won't let me post a photo of him playing Guitar Hero!)