Romeo and Juliet 11/26/08

Today we went to Wichita to do some early Christmas shopping with Jill and the kids. In the car on the way home, Lauren was listening to her new favorite song - "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. She has a Build-a-Bear bunny named Juliet, and she was telling me that she'd like to go back to BAB and get another animal to name Romeo.
As she was listening to the song, she asked, "Aren't there 2 stories about Romeo and Juliet, one where they are brother and sister and one where they die?" I couldn't figure out WHAT she was talking about. I said that there are different versions, but that they are never brother and sister in them. She said, "You know, the one with them throwing pebbles." I was thinking about the song she was listening to, and trying to remember if there is a part where Romeo is tossing pebbles at her window, but I couldn't figure it out. Lauren added, "You know, where their parents take them into the forest and try to lose them, but they use pebbles to get back..." AH-HA! I said, "That would be Hansel and Gretel, not Romeo and Juliet." Silence reigned for a moment from the backseat... "never mind."
It cracks me up, how she has such a combination of exposure to all different kinds of things, swirling around in that little brain...

Fall 08

This year seems to have gone so fast - such a cliche, but so true for me this year! I feel like our school year has just started, but I've suddenly realized that I need to begin thinking about Christmas shopping! Lauren is almost 8, and is so excited about the approaching Christmas season and her birthday. She has already begun making her mental gift wish list! :) We are borrowing a go-kart from some cousins right now, and Lauren is having a blast with it. She thinks that she might want to drive a Jr. Dragster, and so we are "test-driving" the idea. She needs to start learning how to control a vehicle if she wants to race! A big exciting thing for us this fall is that Stuart set the National Record in his racing class. It was an awesome weekend, racing in KC! It's pretty cool to open National Dragster every week and see his name listed as the record holder - and he put my name and L's name in on his "thank-you" line, so we get to see our names, too!
L is trying to decide if she wants to try out for the school Christmas program. She would do a great job, I think, but the idea is making her pretty nervous! She changes her mind about every 30 minutes - yes, I can do it, no, I'm too nervous...

Feeding the kangaroos

This is L feeding one of the kangaroos at Hedrick's. The whole day was fun, but this was the part that caused the most anticipation. Most of them were loose, and sat around in an area around you, but for some reason this little guy was on the other side. L felt sorry for him, and I think he got most of her sweet potato strips!

School is in full swing

The school year feels like it is finally in full swing - into the routine, have figured out my class dynamics, and I have piles of grading (which is always the real sign!). We even take our first field trip, to the State Fair, tomorrow. L is loving school - getting so grown-up. It's such a cliche, but it feels so true, that she is growing up so fast. She is currently SO UPSET because she was reading a book about the rain forest, and she discovered that some people capture male Morpho butterflies and kill them and cut their wings up to be turned into jewelry. In the book, it said those people state that since they only take the males it doesn't affect the population. She is SO indignant! "It takes males to mate, and if there are no males, then the females can't lay eggs, and so the population will decline and then maybe go extinct!" She's so fired up about it!
My sister came to see us the day before school started, and we took the kids to this amazing local attraction called Hedrick's Exotic Animal Farms. You have to call ahead for a tour reservation, and then you get to pet/feed giraffes, zebras, ostriches, camels, donkeys, horses, water buffalo, pigs, and, Most Importantly, kangaroos! The kids had a marvelous time - if you have never been there, you should try it. They are also a bed & breakfast, so you can actually stay the night in one of their animal-themed rooms.
It was such a nice thing to do - one last "adventure" before school began!

Summer slipping by . . .

All of a sudden, I have realized that school has been out for ONE MONTH already! How did I let it slip by so quickly, without celebrating much of it? I have spent so much of that month involved in mundane things - cleaning, errands, meetings, classes - I don't feel like I have celebrated the vacation from school like I should have. Although I have more meetings and classes, and I have some SERIOUS CLEANING AND ORGANIZING to do in my classroom, and I am going to try hard to be more in-the-moment with L for the last few weeks of summer break. I want to be able to look back on these weeks and draw calm or peace from them during frazzled moments. I think that means I need to spend less time organizing (not that I'm spending an excessive amount on it now, you understand!) and more time beside the pool. :)

Colorado Drag Racing

We went to CO last weekend to race in Bandimere - outside of Denver. I've never been there before and it was BEAUTIFUL! We had a fabulous time hiking around the track area, cheering for Stuart as he raced, and then traveling to the Springs after he was done at the track. We went to the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, the Cave of the Winds, and the Garden of the Gods. We had never been to the CWWC before, L found it on the internet. They rescue wolves that were in fur factories or done being used on movie sets, etc, and keep them in a natural, safe environment. We had an amazing tour - so worth the drive!

Today I am at my last Tech Cadre meeting, learning about turning iMovies into iDVDs. I would never have guessed, a year ago, that I would be (semi) proficient at this now! Today we learned about a fabulous application called Handbrake, which allows you to convert DVDs into iPod-friendly formats. Love it!

Novel Summary Presentations

I am watching my class and the other 4th grade present novel summary projects. I am amazed at how creative some of my students are in their presentation choices - VoiceThreads, Keynotes, posters, skits, dioramas, castles made out of marshmallows and Hershey's kisses! It is so fun to watch them present the projects that they have poured their hearts and souls into - adding glitter glue, hand-cut bubble letters, animals made from playdough, tiny windows cut out of shoeboxes, and images printed off the internet to illustrate their favorite parts.

I can hardly wait for next year when we have more technology in our classrooms, and we can give the kids more options for how they would like to present their information. They are so motivated to create presentations using the technology and the other kids are a more attentive audience when they are watching a Keynote or a VoiceThread!

Welcome to Goertzen's Gathering!