A School Trip to Lansing

Glitter Glue Princess’s class went to the State Capitol and to a science museum, Impressions 5, this week for a school adventure. I went along with her. I had two extra girls in my group.

Here are shots of the science museum.

Making slime:

Pulleys, pulleys, pulleys:

Giant Bubbles:

After that, we took a tour of the State Capital.

Etching of a door near the Governor’s Office:

Class Shot:

My group:

Running Girls

About 740 girls from our county participated in the Girls on the Run 5K this past weekend.  Here are shots taken from the run.

Glitter Glue Princess finished it, and we are so proud of her…

Every girl was number one at this race!

Group shots:

The sea of girls as they ran through the starting chute:

Dance Your Cares Away.

The Daddy Daughter Dance was this last week. Here are a few pre-dance shots for your enjoyment… Glitter Glue Princess decided that the boutonnière didn’t look good with her dad’s polo shirt, so we used it as a hair adornment.

Horseback Riding with the Principal

Glitter Glue Princess won a horseback ride with the Principal during a silent auction a couple months back when the school did a fundraiser for upgrading a part of the computer system. Now that it is finally warm enough, she was able to go and complete the ride:

While they were gone, I found the barn cats and their new litters of kittens… There were two mamas and 5 kittens in total. They weren’t happy with me wanting to look at them but I did get one shot of a kitten:

One of the mamas:

After she returned and saw the kittens, of course it became a discussion of when we would be getting a new cat… We’re leaving that discussion for another day, and hopefully she won’t remember her desire for a hedgehog…!

Science Olympiad

Glitter Glue Princess’s team had their finals for science olympiad this week.

If you are not inaugurated in the ways of Science Olympiad, look here. It is an approach to provide group competitions to replace science fairs.

Glitter Glue Princess’s team had complete the following tasks within a timed period:

• Guide the path of a laser with mirrors to light up a target.
• Build a structure made of straws and tape as tall as possible and hold a tennis ball for 3 seconds.
• Give verbal directions to complete a shape.
• Build a boat from clay and determine how many pennies it can hold while staying afloat.

They had many practice sessions before competing to determine who had the best design, take notes for replication on competition night, and to increase their speed for completion.

Here are a few pictures from the competition:

At then end of the competition, she placed second - yay!

Be The Duck - Quack, Quack

Glitter Glue Princess is at that age where little girls begin the whole rumor spreading thing about each other. She has not been herself of late, and while driving last night she told me that a couple of girls are making up rumors about her, that the boy who sits next to her is her boyfriend, that general sort of thing. One of her friends told her about this because the friend didn’t know if they should go to the teacher about it or not. She was internalizing a lot of anger at these girls, but rather taking it out on me.

So, last night I taught her about my new bit of wisdom and mindset - Be The Duck.

I developed this while working in an atmosphere of rumors and poor behavior too.

It is like this: Ducks are waterproof - they shake their feathers and all the water just rolls away. What ever rumors, lies, and such come at you - if you are the duck, they will roll right off.

It is kind of like the childhood rhyme “I’m rubber and you’re glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you”.

Quack, quack, quack. This is our new mantra at our house. She’s only in fourth grade, so we’ve got a long ways to go…

I really, really like my daughter’s teacher….Really!

Glitter Glue Princess’s Parent Teacher Conference was last night. It was one of the most productive ones I have ever attended.

Let me start by saying that at the beginning of school, GGP came home and told us nightly that her teacher was the best teacher she ever had. She was emphatic about it. Typically she likes to play school with a giant chalkboard while I sew and she really mirrors her teacher’s behaviors at home while playing. I saw a BIG difference in the “play teacher” style that was going down with the beginning of this school year - much more question asking and motivating than before…

Back to yesterday - the first thing out of her teachers mouth is how refreshing GGP is to have in class, “and she doesn’t say that to just anybody!”. I personally saw reading tests that concerned me, and brought it up. She reassured us that having her discuss the book after reading was probably sufficient as the scores went up significantly and she could tell where we had done it by the scores. I expressed concern on her spelling and asked for better ways to help with retention, and she volunteered to find us some new techniques. She basically said we are doing everything right and by the end of the year, it will all fall into place. Yay! Since S and I are both scientists, I offered us up to help with science class if she needed it - they’ve been learning about owl pellets in class, and I thought maybe basic kitchen chemistry might be fun. She was more than receptive to this idea. It is just so refreshing to have a positive experience like this.

It is just so refreshing to find a teacher whose teaching style clicks with a kids learning style.

Today is a big day at school - they are going to watch an American Indian cultural festival at a nearby museum. Her teacher made sure that they understood it isn’t acceptable to laugh at anything, as the culture is different than their own and they need to respect that culture. She told them that the chief may get very angry if they laugh at anything - I hope she got the point across. Wishing I could be there instead of working

Now that this week is over…

This has been one of those crazy weeks that I am glad only happen on a rare occasion. This is really the first chance I’ve had to update.

Saturday we flew to PA to go to the hillbilly pirate ball… Uneventful, except I really liked the “watch for falling rock” signs as we drove…. I wasn’t quick enough with my camera, though they should have put a few more of those signs, as the rocks looked more precarious in other places…

We ate in full gear at a little cafe called “Through the Looking Glass Cafe” - with an Alice in Wonderland theme… They had the world’s smallest public bathroom, and I attempted to put on my corset in there - not a *wise* thing to attempt.

On to the party.

The theatre was just cool. Fully Adorned. Kris and Kim manned the sound and video (they were showing old treasure island, lil abner and others on a back screen). Someone made a sock monkey version of the band that I just had to have a picture of:

I have a secret thing for sock monkeys - I just love the little guys. Not just these, but sock monkeys in general…

Shots of the band:

Some people had the most wonderfully cool ideas for costumes for this show. One family came as “the band”

One fellow came as the coffee guy, but I didn’t see a shot in the pictures S took.

It was great fun, and we will be doing it again next year. I’ve already decided what I will be. I’m just going to need a mountain of long glow sticks to do it…. He he he…

Glitter Glue Princess’s halloween party was another event of this week. Here are a few pictures of kidlets from her class…

Yes, her teacher is an ice cream cone…

This fella came as a grumpy old man. He even powdered his hair to be gray, but as soon as he stepped out in the wind, all the powder blew out of his hair. Regardless, it was still cute - he played it well as evidenced in the pic…

Now that these events are all behind us, I had a chance to sew a new fleece jacket - mine was only a year old, but I question the quality of the fabric as the sleeves look like ratty cats now. More on that, and other sewing things, later.

School starts when? and you want what?

The glitter glue princess is all for the stores campaign to put out school supplies at the first of July. She has already checked out the stock at Target, Meijer, Walmart, Staples, and Officemax. She is a cautious shopper and goes through all the stores before selecting.

She has already purchased her bookbag…

and lunchbox.

The only things that haven’t been procured for her supply list are the ziploc bags.

And we still have 1.5 months till school starts.

Maybe it’s just me, or maybe all kids are like this - I don’t know - but it seems that my kid only wants about a month off for summer, then has a burning desire to get back to school.