The kids

Katherine has her own e-mail address and would love to get mail. You can reach her at kh@globehoppers.us and I promise that she will start checking her mail weekly from now on. We’ll try after school on Mondays, so if you write to her watch your inbox for a reply.

Last week out-of-the-blue we received an e-mail from her 2nd grade teacher at ISM, Angie Bayly. Ms. Bayly is the best teacher Katherine has ever had. It got me thinking about all the teachers she’s already been within 4+ years of school. She started with ½ a year at a co-op preschool in Silver Spring, MD. Sadly, I forget that teacher’s name. Kindergarten she began at King Elementary in Woodbridge and had Ms. Crouch, affectionately known as Ms. C, followed by first grade with Mrs. Childress. We moved ½ way through 1st grade to Manila, so she finished 1st grade with Ms… hmm, who was that?. Second grade at ISM was the wonderful Mrs. Bayly. Third grade split between Mr. Gascon at ISM and Mrs. Knisely at Arlington Science Focus. Now she’s at AISL with Mr. Naylor. If we stay with AISL next year, she’ll probably have Mr. Naylor again, but if we switch to the British school she’ll move on to teacher #10.
Rebecca isn’t doing much better with regards to number of teachers. She had Ms. Jen Cater for ECLC (Kindergarten, Jen is a Marymount Alumni as well) at ISM, 1st grade was split between Mrs. Rodriguez at ISM and Ms. Riverson at ASFS and now she’s with Ms. Emily Gilkinson at AISL. I know this is a side effect of moving every couple of years.
Katherine is doing well at school, currently working on a book report for her teacher, but also doing American History at home, and will start Algebra next week, also at home.
Rebecca’s handwriting is improving quite a bit and her spelling is coming along slowly. I gave her a “pretest” last week of words that should be known by 2nd grade and we’ll go from there through the practice workbook. She’s adding and subtracting with borrowing and carrying.
Nicholas is turning into a whiz at math and writes prolifically in his school journal in the “beginning of Kindergarten” way. He can dribble a ball and is learning the French way of script writing.
Jonathon can write his name and he is most definitely a lefty. They learn loads of songs in preschool so he is always singing at home, either to himself or for an audience. It’s amusing what he comes home with after being taught by a Togolese:
-This is the way we brush out teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth. This is the way we brush our teeth, ellie in the morning.
-My bunny lies over the ocean, my bunny lies over the sea…
-Clap clap clap your hands, clap your hands togedda.
There’s one little girl in his class, I believe Yasmina is three. Yesterday I asked him if he liked her. He said yes. So I asked if she likes him, and he said No. No, because she doesn’t want to dance with him at the Halloween party disco. I would have laughed right there if he hadn’t been so serious.
Saturday is the big Halloween festival at AISL, the biggest (and only?) fundraiser of the year. There are games, food, face painting. I believe the Marines are doing the Haunted House. You know where –I- won’t be, Marines can make a terrifying Haunted House. *shudder* In fact, I’ve stayed out of just about all the Halloween planning as it’s my least favorite “holiday.” The kids keep trying to volunteer me for everything, and while I know I’ll take them and buy raffle tickets and purchase food and help play games, no one is going to outright ask me to participate (well, aside from my kids) because of how much Ian and I both do already for the school. That’s fine with me. And were it a Thanksgiving celebration in the class, or a project about local customs or just about anything else, I would volunteer. Even a fall festival would be great, I adore fall with pumpkin patches and hay rides and apple cider. But I don’t like Halloween and I don’t feel bad about not pitching in this time.
The party is broken up by times, the younger kids go first from 4-6p.m., then the older kids from 6-8p.m., then the big kids and disco from 8-midnight. Back to Jonathon’s comment about Yasmine, I haven’t had the heart to tell my kids yet that the disco isn’t even for them.