Last night, Lily wrote her first-ever bibliography. This morning, she was checking it over and found two things she wanted to fix: 

1. There was no city listed in one entry (we had to find the information via internet search and none of the listings showed the city).

2. In another, there was no period after the author's name. 

I'm so proud of her for taking the initiative to check her work AND spotting something as small as a missing period!

 

Tonight after a fun but late evening, Lukasz asked me what 60x60 is. I explained to him how to figure out 6x6 first and then use the zeroes to get to the right number. Then he asked what 3,600x2 is, so I walked him through that, too. Then he exclaimed, "it's 7,200 seconds past bedtime!"... and at 10:30 p.m., yes, yes it was. 

My daughter just got her first letter graded report card, and she is already focused on how many As she got. I hope she will understand that the letter grades are marks that merely reflect how well ONE person thinks she did in the small portion of a subject that she studied during the past three months. I hope she feels as much pride for how much she overcame in these past three months, as she does in those letters. I know I'm darn proud of how far she has come, not necessarily in what she has learned, but in how well she has adapted to a very different style of teaching that came with very high expectations. It's taken a few months, but I can see her starting to hit her stride and really light it up.  

And for as well as she did, I have to mention (proudly) that Lukasz is doing AMAZING this year in school. He performed during Dance Week without a hitch, and is determinedly rehearsing for the Christmas performance despite his "stage fright"! His teacher writes "Lukasz is a bright and active student. He demonstrates an open willingness to share his rare combination of intellect and sensitivity. He is working very hard to understand his role in the school. He works equally well on his own independently and with others cooperatively. He works very hard to understand his emotions and integrate them into his everyday school life...Lukasz is exceeding expectations in Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science.")

And again, that's just one person's opinion, but when I see that he is working well cooperatively, and working to understand his emotions, well, my heart wants to burst with pride. 

Teddy

11:30 pm - asleep at last.

The story of that bear is the sweetest thing. A few years ago I was working at a craft market in New West. Tom and the kids helped me set up and then went for a walk. Outside the building where the market was held, Lily found this bear lying on the ground. I think Tom said he would just leave it on a bench, but Lily recognized it as being like ones that a lady was selling at the market. She brought it to me, and we returned it to the lady, a very tired woman with her young child in tow, who was not having much luck selling her handknit animals. She thanked Lily for returning it to her,and later she came to us and said she wanted Lily to have the bear because what she had done was so kind and selfless, and she wanted Lily to know how much her actions meant. It's been one of her favourite animals to snuggle with ever since.

Lily is in a new class, in grade 4 in a grade 4/5 class. She told me tonight that she and one fifth-grade boy are the strongest spellers in the class.

Yay Lily! I'm so proud of you!

xoxo

It's been a difficult start to the school year for Lily; a lot has been expected of her from the get-go, and I'm so proud of how hard she has worked to keep herself organized, stay on top of assignments, get assignments done and turned in early, and manage her nervousness and feelings of dread with such bravery. 

She had a Brain Buzz seminar in school today and got to see a sheep brain up close (in a jar). Instead of saying "It was so gross", what she told me was "We could even see the BRAIN STEM!"

And in jazz class, she is performing to a version of Walk Like an Egyptian, which she is SUPER excited about because she loves everything about ancient Egypt. And as a bonus, today she found out she gets to be lifted by three other girls during the dance. She has loved to be lifted in dance and watch lifts performed since she was very young. There are sadly no boys her age at the dance studio, but I guess this is the next best thing :)

 

Lily is researching Egyptian hieroglyphs for her first oral presentation. We were talking about what the Egyptians called hieroglyphs and when they were deciphered so we could understand them. Lily was writing this question down when Lukasz suddenly said "It was the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone had Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek on it and they already knew how to read the Greek so then they figured out the hieroglyphs." And of course when I asked him how he knew this, he said "from a book."

"Enjoying" his morning coffee.

Deal!

Lily: Mommy, if I give you a neck, back, and leg massage, can you give me a manicure and pedicure?

Shine on, bright star. Shine on.

Today at the dance studio, Ms H was had so much praise for you. She said you are so grounded and focused, you stay away from the drama, and when you are up on stage with your classmates, her eyes are drawn to, and follow, you. Ms MB said the same thing. Ms H said it really shows how much you love to dance. And Ms C agreed that you are so grounded and focused in class, and so polite.

Your dancing takes my breath away. I hope you know how proud I am of you, and how amazed I am by your ability and how much you shine.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Mommy

Discovering Calvin & Hobbes

Sitting outside in the sunshine after another successful week at school, diving into the world of Calvin & Hobbes for the first time.

Snippet of what Lukasz is currently reading

"First on the Moon"
He leaped into bed telling me how much he loves reading the book he is currently reading.

Photography at Van Dusen

The first and third photos were taken by Lukasz, the second and fourth by Lily. She told me all about the Fibonacci spiral and how she was going to apply it to framing her shots, and took extra care in framing Lukasz and I left of centre so the photo was more interesting.

I was so impressed with Lukasz's eye both in shooting through the grass and especially in seeing the diamond shapes the bent reeds made and finding it to be worthy to photograph. I didn't even see it when I walked by this spot just before him.

Lily's little exclamations

They aren't in any way expletives, thank goodness, but she does have little phrases she mutters when things don't go quite right. The first is "Oh, bother", which is very Winnie the Pooh. The second she partially spells in a sing-song voice: "Oh c-u-r-d". That one makes me laugh. I'm sure she's trying to spell "crud"... :)

Evolution of Lukasz's birthday cake

I'm pretty proud of this - it's Benny from the Lego Movie. He was an astronaut from the 80s who loved anything that remotely resembled a spaceship. Very cute character. :)

Glimpses into Lily's third grade work.

1. Ted Harrison inspired art. Her lighthouses make me happy.

2. When their printing is good enough, the students get to start handwriting. Lily was so proud the day she came home and told me she gets to start handwriting. Those Js are so beautiful. Handwriting is slowly but surely fading out of schools, and I'm so thankful her teacher is one of the rare ones that still sees the value and beauty of it. Good penmanship is something to be proud of.