First Day of School :: 2014-2015

[the requisite first-day-of-school picture]

The days are long, but the years are short. This rings especially true on the first day of school. How is it that I now have a high school freshman and a 4th grader?

I still feel like I have some time with Maya. After all, she's still in elementary school. 

But Ian is a different story altogether. We only have four more years with him before he's legally an adult and he flies the coop. 

Judging from my own high school memories, I have a feeling the next four years are going to pass much too quickly ... and, by then, Maya will be starting her teen years and I'll start begging for those years to fly by! ;)

Science Olympiad :: Maryland Regionals

 

Ian and his partners medaled in their events at the Maryland Science Olympiad Regionals today at the University of Maryland College Park. They're on the B Team but collectively the team scored high enough to be 4th place finishers in the middle school division (large school category). 

• Solar System: 1st place
• Shock Value: 1st place
• Helicopters: 3rd place

We're bummed that he won't be able to compete at the State tournament at the end of the month because he's on the B Team ... even though he and his partners have consistently performed better than the A Team. But, you know, who's keeping track? ;)

Still cold ...

Are you getting tired of my cold weather posts yet?

The weather gods are constantly looking out for the kids: All of our Snow Days have butt up against a weekend or a holiday! This week, the kids had Monday off for MLK Day, Tuesday off for staff development, and today there's no school because of the weather!

Snow Day

Second Snow Day in a row (although, officially, yesterday was an Emergency Weather Day because of icy conditions). It's not even officially winter yet and we've already used up two of the four Snow Days we can have before the district starts tacking on days to the end of the school year. 

My brother-in-law and his wife live in Rochester, New York and we were talking about snow over Thanksgiving, and it came up that DC-area "Snowmageddon" was a regular occurrence in their area. Which makes me wonder how bad it has to get in places like Rochester, Minnesota, or Canada before they declare a Snow Day. 

The kids are, obviously, enjoying this unexpected long weekend. I actually am too. I've decided not to venture out and I'm taking advantage of the serenity (minus the kids' voices) to catch up on some reading. Luckily, we have enough food in the house so I don't have to go out. 

7:45ish

8:45ish

9:45ish

10:45ish

11:45ish

OK, so most of the pictures look the same, but it's been snowing consistently for several hours so it's piling up more than it did on Sunday. 

By 3:00 the scene was already changing ...

There was just enough snow for me to build a snow penguin:

Ian is a S-U-P-E-R S-P-E-L-L-E-R!

[Ian and his classmate F getting recognized as spelling bee qualifiers at last week's school assembly.]

I'd like to take a moment to brag about my son, the speller. Unbeknownst to us, the students at Ian's school (grades 3-5) took a written spelling bee qualifying test awhile back. According to Ian there were 60 words on the list (apparently they were 8th grade-level words) and they were allowed to miss 12 to qualify for the district spelling bee. There were many classes that didn't have any students who qualified; Ian's class had two qualifiers! In the end, three fourth graders and four fifth graders qualified out of a student population of over 400.

Today was the district-wide spelling bee for grades 4-6, so the qualifiers from Ian's school, the qualifiers from the other elementary school, and the 6th grader qualifiers from the middle school gathered together at the middle school library. There were about 15 kids there and we thought it would take awhile for the spelling bee to finish, but the first round knocked out more than half of them.

[Round 2]

Ian moved through the rounds (with a nice, clear voice, which was helpful to those of us in the audience; some of these kids are so quiet!) until it was just him and a 6th grader in round 4.* The word that knocked him out in round 5 (German words)? Rucksack. Not knowing the word or much German pronunciation, but recognizing that there are words in German that use -ch, he spelled it "ruchsach." I looked it up after I got home, but I think the German -ch is a soft sound (if there's anyone proficient in German out there, please let me know).

Even though he didn't win, I think it's pretty impressive that he made it so far, especially since he didn't study or practice at all, except for his usual reading. Rupert and I went into this with the attitude, which we shared with Ian, that this was for fun, to see what a spelling bee is like, and that there will be other years for him to try again (not that I didn't get nervous during the spelling bee!). Still, Ian was disappointed with his mistake and shed a few tears afterward. It was wonderful to have a supportive group of teachers and friends who shared how proud they are of him and his classmate. This was the first year fourth graders participated in the district spelling bee and they did so well.

We're really proud of you, Ian!

[Ian with his teachers, principal, and classmate/fellow spelling bee-er after the spelling bee.]

[Coincidentally, the winner's mother? I came in second to her in the fitness challenge two years ago. Weird, huh?]

* Ian did a funny thing in round 4 and asked for the pronunciation of the word "chagrin" and the moderator gave away a huge hint, which I'm not sure Ian heard but a bunch of us in the audience did. I'm not sure it was entirely kosher, to be honest, but the end result was the same, just one round later. Ian should've asked for the definition or the etymology, but what more can you do for pronunciation but say the word over again?

goody-two-shoes just like his mama

gawd, i hate to admit this, but i'm tickled pink that ian received the first student success award of the year for his class ... for the third year in a row. isn't that the shallowest thing to be proud of?

but it makes me smile to think that his teacher recognizes his citizenship + academic achievements so early on in the year, and that he is a good role model for the rest of the kids in his class.

yay ian!

my baby's growing up

today was ian's first day of second grade. it really does seem like just yesterday that we were walking him to kindergarten ... maya wasn't even born yet!

the excitement today was being on a new campus. his elementary school was torn down over the summer and will be rebuilt this year. in the meantime the students are at the old middle school down the street; the new middle school just opened today as well, so there's lots of confusion and chaos with drop-off and pick-up.

second grade is the highest grade at his school (he'll move up to the upper elementary school next year) so ian's a big man on campus this year. fortunately, i like the teacher he has and he already knows a few other kids in his class. i think we're all getting used to this "first day of school" business because there was no nervousness, no anxiety, no apprehension. we hadn't even picked out an outfit or emptied out his backpack from his montana trip until this morning.

i may, however, be a bit more nervous about rupert's first day of school, which is coming up in a few weeks ...