Shakespeare at The Greystone Mansion

The Changling Child

Today was Z's debut as The Changling Child in Midsummer Night's Dream.

Around 9:00 in the morning I braided her leaves into her hair and finished sewing the leaves onto her costume.

At 11:00 we were at the top of Doheny Drive and realized that the Mansion was not there.

At 11:15 after we found Doheny _Road_ we made it to the Charity Event - for Maternal Fetal Care International that Z was "working" at.

Titania and her Changling Child

1:00 was the first performance. Most of the audience was the parents of the young performers. :)

After the small turnout at the first performance Z went hawking the 2:00 show. She was _great_ at that and might have a future career as a carny. :P

2:00 had a much bigger audience.


Z with Titania and Puck

Between 2:00 and 3:00 Z gave out like 40 more flyers. She loved talking to all the people. We got the best compliment of the day (in many days actually) and I hope you don't mind me bragging about it. but one guy, after Z gave him the flyer for the show and explained what it was about said "That is the cutest thing that ever happened to me." *hee hee*

The last show at 3:00 had a big crowd, with a lot of little kids.

It was such a fun day. Z really loved the whole experience.

Another really cool thing was the Director telling me that she heard that Z's Hannukah wish last year was to be in a movie and that if she isn't working by this coming Hannukah she will direct a short film and another person in the company would produce it and they would put Z in it. She says she loves working with Z.

I was really touched.

Z with her hair down and glittery about to get into the bath

My birthday party

Pere took some pictures of me today for my birthday :)



Here is Little Z on our way out to dinner.





We went to the fantabulous Saddlepeak Lodge with Pere's sister and parents. I had Buffalo Tenderloin with spinach.

Then we came home for my cake


and presents.

Z at J's birthday party with reptiles

Today Z went to her little friend J's fifth birthday party. They had an awesome reptile show.




Z had a great time getting to touch and hold the different reptiles.



My favorite was the tortoise.





Z's favortie was this huge yellow python.



Yikes! Not in the face.

grrrr

So the mean lady leader of my homeschooling group said, after hearing Z was doing acting, "I think they should just breed child actors, like dogs, as fodder for the entertainment industry."

omg! Why is this woman so rude to me?

And she said this while two of her kids were rehearsing Shakespeare with Z, so apparently it is okay for kids to act, just not to get paid for it.

I am going to have to spend most of Sunday with her while the kids are performing but I am bringing Pere with me as a buffer. I am counting on her not being so boisterously rude to me in front of him.

My birthday presents

My Maman got me a certificate at Amazon for my birthday.

I got Keeping Your Kids Out Front Without Kicking Them From Behind: How to Nurture High-Achieving Athletes, Scholars, and Performing Artists. Heh. The title isn't great but I have heard it is a very good book. It is all about keeping balance when your kid is talented. I read an excerpt about this boy who is a karate champion but who's parents are telling his coach that he does not need to practice 6 hours.

The other book I bought I have already read but it is great and the kind of book I would refer to over and over. Cradles of Eminence. There is a great write up on it on the Genius Denied website here.

One thing I found comforting in Cradles was that most eminent people had "over invloved" mothers. *grin*

Thanks Maman!

Pageant of the Masters

We drove down to Laguna Beach last night to see the Pageant of the Masters. I had never seen it before. Basically it is a show where they dress people up and put them into life sized sets of famous painting, with wonderful perspective. They had paintings, sculptures, life sized porcelian dolls, art deco purfume bottles, vintage posters, Japanese wooden prints, and more - and all the people in the art are protrayed by real people, sometimes even children!

It was really beautiful and amazing!

Of course Z wants to do that now. I told her to put it on her list of goals. She said that she doesn't have such a list. lol

Earlier that day Z went to her agents and had a meeting with the person who is in charge of voice over auditions. Z went into a little box and had headphones and a mic and the woman fed her some lines - kind of like a commercial. She said Z was very good and that she can start going out on voice over auditions now. The woman said most the work for kids Z's age is cartoons for Nick or Disney.

Z really loved it.

Really goood homeschooling day

Wow! We had a really good homeschooling day today.

Right after breakfast Z sent an email to her friend Kaytlin.

Then she did one page in her Grammar book. Z is pretty advanced in her writing just by having read so much. But I wanted to make sure we are covering certain topics that might not come up in normal life. So I found this book by the people who make Daily Grams. Z alrady knew most of the 2nd grade and some of the 3rd grade stuff. This book does cover some topics that she hasn't figured out naturally though.

Then she did two pages of multiplication problems in her Math book. This book has a lot of review too but it is still pretty cool. I am hoping she'll be into her 3rd grade book by September. (although I don't know why I still hold on to regular school year thoughts.)

Next she practiced some in her new piano books, a sight reading book, and for some reason, the second to the last song of a different book. I am now wondering why I paid for the whole book when she is only going to playing one or two songs out of it... hmmm, I need to ask her teacher about that.

After piano Z and I took turns reading to each other from her My Naughty Little Sister books. I love those books, they are very British, clever, cute and old-fashioned. I am glad Z is still into them. Also it gives us a chance to practice our British accents.

We did all that in about two and a half hours. I let her play in her room for awhile before lunch.

After lunch I had to take Z to the court house to ask for an extension on my traffic school (bad Cher!) and while we were waiting for the courtroom to open up Z wanted to practice her cursive writing. The lady sitting next to us ask how old Z was she Z said 5. The lady, she used to be a teacher, said that cursive is usually introduced at the end of 2nd grade and taught in 3rd grade.

So I guess Z's lowest skills - handwriting, math and grammar rules Z is straight across the board late second to early third grade. I am happy with that. This is why we need to homeschool. I don't know many schools that are willing to do a 3 year skip for a five year old.

Why we want to homeschool is because we can get 6 or 7 subjects studied in a day and still have time for Z to put on a play about fairies, do a little shopping, watch an episode of Buffy, eat lunch with her Pere, and have a "field trip" to the local courthouse. :)

When we got home we did some yoga and then Z practiced voice, but not for too long because she has a cough.

Then there was some more piano with Pere helping. She did much better today. She has a lot to work on though.

She has eight songs her repertoire that she has to play 1 - 3 times.
Then some finger technique to work on (triplets).
And fixing some technique in her old song l
As well as working in her music theory book
Plus the new sight reading book (which she is supposed to analyze)
And a new song in the other new book which she did in the morning

It is a lot already which is why we have to split it up into two or three sessions a day.

I would love to hear about what other kid's practices are like.

Z's type?

So I made an appointment with a photographer to make headshots of Z. It is $250 for 50 - 80 shots with 2 looks and $350 for 80 - 100 shots with 3 looks. I am not sure which one we should go with. I like the $250 price with 3 looks - *grin*.

So I have a question for all of you.

What do you think Z's type is?

By type I mean if she was going to play a certain type of child in a movie/tv show/commercial what do you think she could be, based on her looks and then based on what you know of her.

I would love for her to play quirky characters that are supposed to be scary smart or just plan scary (like a spooky girl) or a sensitive brainy type. But she _looks_ fun loving, outgoing and cute. (and she can be all those things.)

The photographer said "think Disney" but I don't want to think Disney. I want to think M Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuaron or Wes Anderson.

What does Z really like? Well I have mentioned that in musicals she usually prefers to sing the villian's song or the darkest song. When she makes up her own songs they are pretty dark too. Her favorite television shows are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries. But she also loves fairies and princesses and her favorite color is pink.

So what do you think based on how she looks and then based on her personaility what type do you think she is?


Thank you

stressed

I came home this evening from a late piano make-up class feeling pretty stressed.

Z had a bad lesson.

She did things like instead of playing a triad 2 times allegro and 3 times andante all in a row with no stops she would just play it allegro like 9 times... *sigh*

She was totally off.

Threre were some circumstances - she seems to have another cold (damn summer camp) and the class was from 6:30 to 7:30 tonight, which is kind of late for Z to be focusing.

She also barely practiced at all last week. Last week was summer camp, Shakespeare, agents, auditions and other things that seemed to keep practicing from happening.

Of course this bad practice session has to happen just after her teacher saw a competition with five year olds, some of whom were little prodigies. She told me again that Z could be doing that if I would just have her practice a hours everyday.

I told her again that I don't want Z to be a prodigy. Z doesn't want to either. I think Z would like to learn to play piano so she can write her own music, music that she would probably want to sing. (I am not a clairvoyant though, so I can't say for sure)

I know I need to have Z practice more. I knew that today. But when it was time to practice Z was in her room talking to herself, immersed in some fairy game and playing so nicely that I just couldn't bring myself to interrupt her.

And then later I let her go swimming because I knew she was really looking forward to it.

I try to consistently make the right decision in Z's life. There is such a mix between school work, performing arts practice (piano, acting, & singing), playing with friends, doing normal kids stuff (swimming, riding her bike, playing with LEGO's , watching t.v.) and having down time to relax and create and pretend - plus all the time spent with me doing my normal household errands, well is it any wonder that I am stressed?

I know she needs to practice piano more and now that she is not wasting almost five hours a day on summer camp I know we can get back on track.

I know auditioning might end up taking a lot of her time - but I can bring her homework with us to work on while she is waiting if I need to.

Really, thank God we homeschool. I would never be able to do all this if we didn't. I don't know how people are able to send their kids to school all day and still have time for playing and relaxing much less homework or enrichment classes. (They must be better planners than me.)

Another PG girl blog to add to your reading list!

My friend has started a blog about her PG daughter Kaytlin.

Kaytlin has a lot in common with Z. She loves Harry Potter, Katamari and (I think) Wicked. We are very fortunate to get to meet Kaytlin and her family in real life soon. We can't wait!

Welcome!

Monster House and Gremlins

So today Z did something that I am really proud of. She went into the kitchen to throw something away and saw that there was no bag in the trash bin (the bag was sitting by the door waiting to go out) so she got a new trash bag and put it in the bin.

I was really impressed. Usually Z would have called "Mommy! There is no bag in the trash bin!" and I would have gone and put a new one in, not even thinking to ask her to do that.

I told her I was proud of her.

Then she told me that she also tried to make a swimming pool for fairies in her room and ended up spilling a lot of water on the carpet (LOL) and that she had cleaned that up all by herself too.

Today we had a pretty low key day. Z and Pere built with LEGOs, Z worked on her fairy houses some more, she practiced Poor Unfortunate Souls (from Little Mermaid) on the piano, and she went swimming for awhile.

We also walked to the theatre (it was only 98 degrees outside today) and saw Monster House. It was very funny and the animation was a joy to see in and of itself.

It got me thinking out some of my favorite kid movies - movies I loved when I was a kid and movies that I saw as an adult but would have loved.

So far I have

Goonies
The Neverending Story
The Dark Crystal
Willow
E.T.
The Secret of Nimh
Mary Poppins
Willy Wonka
The Animalympics
The Hobbit
Toy Story
The Iron Giant
The Princess Bride (this one is almost too mature to be considered a kid movie and I don't want to just make a list of every movie I loved as a kid - like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, etc)

Monster House was not as good as any of those movies. My yardstick for recent computer animated movies are Toy Story and Shrek. But it was fun. It was dark and scary in a fun way. It reminded me of Gremlins. I saw that when it came out in the theatre, the summer I turned 11, I really loved it and begged my father to buy me a Mogwai.

So we decided to rent Gremlins and we watched it with Z tonight. Now she really wants a Mogwai. She promises not to feed them after midnight though!

This was actually a big movie weekend. We also went to see Lady in the Water, the new Shyamalan moviem Friday night. It was very good. I don't know what the critics are talking about. It was funny, and very interesting, and even made me cry - more than once. And there were a few good jump out and scare ya bits too!

We let Z watch it. I thought I would make her go to sleep during the film, especially if it got too scary but it never did. Z cried at the end because she didn't want it to end that way, even though it was the right ending. She really liked it to.

I wonder what movies are going to be her favorite childhood movies?

fairy princess

Z has been really into fairies recently. Remember the Princess party?

Well for awhile Z was really into princesses and reading everything about them. Now it is fairies. She has collected several faux non-fiction books about fairies - ones that tell things like what fairies wear, eat, and the magic they can do etc.

She really likes The Secret World of Fairies that came with four fairy dolls.

I was talking on the phone with my Maman today and she told me she has been making fairy homes - like naturalistic doll houses. Z and I were inspired to create homes for her new fairy dolls.


This was the mess she created with the craft supplies. So far she put the materials for the fairy homes into the boxes. See if you can find the fairies.

Woodland fairy

Water Fairy

Flower Fairy

Eventide Fairy

Last Day of Summer Camp

Yes!!!

But Z was sad to see it end today. She is worried that she might not get to see her little friend J again. She may be right. J is going to this or another camp for the whole summer because both her parents work fulltime. People are so busy today that it can be hard to get together.

Today was Z's musical production in her Extinct is Forever class. It was pretty cute. I was waiting outside with the other parents before the performance and talking to some that I hadn't met before. This one woman was telling another how her daughter wants to skip 1st and go right into 2nd next September. But the mom was really against that and basically likened a grade skip to child abuse and "stealing" her daughter's childhood.

How annoying!

I agree that skipping isn't for everyone but jeez... apparently she hasn't read Genius Denied. I would have been fine if she said "Skipping is not right for our family" or something like that. What really bothered me was her judgemental attitude. I certainly felt attacked given what Z is doing.


I know I am probably going to face a lot of negativity from parents who think that having a child "working" as an actor is stealing her childhood. And I understand their fears, I have them myself. I can only hope that people trust me enough to understand that I will always protect my child and teat my reasons for doing this are for her benefit not my own.

I have already had to deal with people judging me for Z taking Japanese or knowing math when she was four or learning to play the piano at 4 1/2. They can't imagine that a child would want to do those things. They can't imagine that a child would love to learn and demand to be taught at an accelerated pace.

And maybe they really can't see that a child would rather be performing - a child who loves to learn her lines, read her script, practice her delivery , perform for the director and act for an audience than many other things she could be doing. Maybe they can't fathom a child who would say "Mommy when I get home can I work on my script? I want to read it ten times! I love this play!"

I guess a lot of parents have messed up their children up very pubically in Hollywood and I would be judged because of them. But that is really ridiculous. It is like this woman I heard yesterday who said that she wouldn't buy a BMW because whenever she sees someone driving like a jerk on the freeeway they are in a BMW. Riiiight. That is logical thinking.

*sigh* I think I am just in a ranting type of mood today. Sorry!

Our new endeavor - a long story

The 1st of July I sent out 12 resumes and pictures of Z to some acting agents here in L.A.. Over the last three weeks we have met with three agencies.

The first one just wanted her for print and commercials. But Z really wants to act.

The second agency was run by a very nice lady. They gave Z a paragraph that was like a commercial about chips. Z went out into the hallways and read it, memorized it, and then practiced her delivery. This agent said she was "amazed" by Z's cold reading. She said that Z was a natural. I might have signed with them.

But the third agency has a very good record with young kids (there are some big stars signed with them) and the atmosphere there was great. Since we did sign with them I will tell that story.

We got there and there were two other girls a little older than Z already waiting to be seen. They played hangman together for awhile. The first girl was called in and was only there for like two minutes and then they said "Thank you" to the mom and that was that.


I was surprised and a little concerned. It seemed so short and then they didn't even want to talk to the mom.

Then the second girl went in and they chatted her up for a lot longer and then invited her parents back to talk. I don't know if they signed her or not. But at least it seemed hopeful.

Then it was Z's turn to go in. When kids do auditions, even with an agent, they go in by themselves. One thing the agents are looking for is to see if the kid is comfortable around other adults and can disengage from the parent. Z really has no problem with this. I heard them asking her questions and joking around with her. Then she did her Snug the Joiner/The Lion speech from Midsummer Night's Dream.

You, ladies you, who gentle hearts do fear
the smallest monsterous mouse that creeps on floor
may now perchance both quake and tremble here
when lion, rough in wildest rage doth roar

then she raises her "claws" up in the air, take a big breath and says "meee-ow" in a cute little voice.

They loved it. Everyone in the waiting room looked up startled by the peals of laughter coming from the agent's office. I smiled then and felt somewhat cheered. I really wanted this agency to represent Z, but still I wasn't sure.

They they got people from the other offices to come to hear her do her speech again. More laughter. I still wasn't sure.

Z told me later that they asked her her favorite book (Harry Potter), her favorite t.v. show (Buffy) and her favortie movie (Harry Potter) and had her speak some Japanese.

They asked me to come in and said that they really wanted to represent Z. They said she has an amazing memory. I asked them what they saw Z doing and they said "Everything!" (print, modeling, commercial, television, and film)

I told them that I did want to sign with them but I need time to think about it. That was Tuesday.

Yesterday afternoon I called them and told them that we wanted them to represent Z.

Today Z has summer camp. Right after that she had rehearsals for her Shakespeare performance coming up at the end of July. Then I drove to the agents to sign the contract at 4:00

I was on the way to the agents when I got a phone call. It was from the agency. They said 'Can Z go to an audition at 6:00?"

I said "Ummm, I am five minutes from you right now. I haven't signed the contracts with you yet."

She said "That is okay. We can take care of that and the audition is close to here. It is for a commercial."

Wow!

So, in three weeks we went from sending out Z's resume to taking her to her first audition.

I was really not prepared. I thought to myself thank goodness I had her dressed in clean clothes.

We went to the agency and signed the contracts and them drove straight over to her first audition. She was one of about 10 kids (at least that is how many I saw when I was there.)

To be honest I don't care if she gets it. I would be cool but we have other things going on too. And I know it takes a lot of auditions before you get a job.

I am doing this because Z loves to perform. And, apparently, she is very good at it. For now it is something she can do for fun, although I did impress on her today that it is not a game or play but a business and that if she wants to do it professionally she has to be act like a "big girl."

It was kind of funny because I never really used that phrase with her... "Big girl." She has always been seemed too mature for me to call her that. But it seemed to be the right phrase in this case. I gave her a chance to backout but she said "No, I really want to act."

I think she does. (But you never know when she might change her mind.)

She was so high when she came out of the audition. It took her about half an hour to to calm down to her normal state of over-exuberance.

***********

In other news Z started to learn cursive today. I wrote some sentences in cursive and she copied the words below them. Her handwriting was almost as good as mine!

She also had a great time rehearsing for the Shakespeare production. She started out with only five lines. But today they gave her some more and added a bunch of improv for her. She is going to be in the entire production. Titania, Queen of Fairies will be leading the audience through the woods during the performance and Z is going to be with her the entire time, reacting to everything Titania says and does. Z even added a bunch of interpretive body movements to go with Titania's speech. It is amazing really. I wish I was going to be able to see the performance.

here is a picture of Z as Titania's Changling Child

drama girl

Z is practicing her lines (and everyone elses) for her rehearsal tomorrow for the Shakespeare performace coming up.

We got the lines at the beginning of the month and she read over the script the first couple of days but then we put it away. I figured I would bring it out again before rehearsals - but I did mean to do it before the day _just_ before the rehearsal. She only has like five lines in this one though so I think she will be fine.

She has been acting out the whole play, playing all the characters, this afternoon. I love her cute British accent!

I am glad that she took the initiative to do this. I just to her to go in her room and practice about an hour ago. I didn't expect her to not only do all the parts but add choreography and background music as well!

Z is getting a lot better about being in charge of her own learning. It is so nice to see. Yesterday when she was practicing piano she asked "How many times should I play this piece?" and I asked her how many times she thought she should. She came up with an amount that seemed reasonable to me. We have been doing the same thing with her voice practice. I must say that it is very helpful to me for Z to set her own goals (with the input of her teachers) and follow through with them.

Oh! Z wanted to act out the play for me know, so I've got to go. :)

One reason we homeschool

Because I am too lazy to be driving Z to and fro to a place that doesn't really educate her and then end up having to educate her myself during what should be my free time.

Sunday with a kite

Sunday we went to the shops by the marina and bought a kite and all of us some new sunglasses.




Doesn't she look kewl? *heh*



The new kite



There wasn't as much wind on Sunday as Saturday





But Pere and Z managed to get it up in the air a few times.

Saturday at the Beach

Friday night after dinner we drive up to the Channel Islands house. It is a good thirty degrees cooloer there. It was nice to be able to escape the over 100 degree days.

We went to the beach across the street Saturday afternoon but it was kind of cold. There we are lot of people flying kites on the beach and at the park, and we wre inspired to go the kite shop the next day.

Something positive from the camp experience

or at least it looks good from here.

Z has a little friend at camp. A very cute girl, J, who is "Five point six" years old. She is just Z's size, which is small.

I wanted to check her out as a suitable outside of camp friend for Z so I asked her some questions today. I asked her what school she went to, ends up it is one our neighborhood schools. Then I asked her if she likes to read and she said "Oh! Of course! I read level 3!"

I asked what Level 3 and she said "You know, books like Willy Wonka." :) Maybe she means 3rd grade.

I watched them play and talk to each other and I was so pleased that she wasn't trying to boss Z around or compete with her or any of that stuff. They were just being silly little girls together - pretending to be animals and dancing the tango.

I don't know if Z will ever see this girl again after summer camp or if J will remain a sweet friend. But it made me happy.

just weird things

Today Z and I spoke in British accent the whole time we were at the grocery store. Hee hee. We are not great but many hours of listening to Jim Dale read Harry Potter, watching Charlie and Lola (and for me The Office and Dr. Who.) We are getting better.

Here is another

Every night before we put Z to bed Pere or I hide her somewhere in the bedroom and the other parent has to find her. We have been doing this for months and months and have mostly run out of original places (her room isn't that big) but we have still been able to come up with some good ones recently. Some places we have hidden her is up on top of her bookshelves under a chinese umbrella, inside her baby bassinet under about 50 stuffed animals, inside a box on the top shef in her closet and under her American Girl dool bed. (Z is very skinny.)

The way this started is that Z loves to hide from us and try to jump out and scare us. She still tries to hide from Pere whenever he comes home from work for lunch or at the end of the day. (sometimes he forgets to find her though.) At some point Z asked for help in finding new hiding spaces. Then Pere and I got somewhat competitive about it and kept trying it outdo each other with the best hiding spots. Z loves it and will almost cry if she doesn't get to do her hiding before bed.

and yet another

All three of us used to watch Iron Chef Japan every afternoon during lunch. (They stopped playing it on the Food Channel recently though) Soon after we started watching Iron Chef Z started playing Iron Chef in the tub. Now during every bath Pere, as the Chairman, has to name a theme ingrediant and then Z, using her myriad bath toys, creates Cuisine. She makes up some funny dishes too like turtle soup in duck broth with a side of muppet. Then Pere has to come in and "taste" all the dishes and declare a winner. At some point Z told Pere that she, as the Iron Chef, shouldn't win every time so sometimes Pere gives the match to the "challenger." :)

Summer Camp Dropout

Day four and Z is already asking to drop out of one of her two summer camp classes. She says that most of what they are doing in the 2nd class is connect-the-dots and coloring in (and let me remind you that this is supposed to be for gifted 1st and 2nd graders.) But she wants to stay for the first class which,even though she is not learning any new information, is putting on a play about extinction.

If she wanted to drop out of the whole thing I would probably say yes because the drive is half an hour each way for me. But I don't know if she would be allowed to drop out of half of the half-day program.

I feel like writing an email to the admin there and asking and even saying something about how Z should have been allowed to go into the 3rd - 5th grade group. But, I don't know if I should bother. I don't think we will want to do this again next year. It is hard to say though, if she was in the 3rd - 5th grade classes and loving it then I guess we would want to come back.

For now I think she will just keep going and I will talk about it to Pere.

It is not like she is suffering, she just thinks that having a whole class where she isn't learning and has to do so much coloring in is pointless. She actually likes coloring at home, but I guess it is something she doesn't want to have to go to "school" for.

A friend of mine recently talked about an outdoor camp where the kids play in the woods and in the mud and build stuff and ride horses, maybe that would be a nice thing to try next year. Or maybe I will just send Z to stay with relative who live near some woods and some mud. *grin*

making older friends

So twice now when I it was time to leave summer camp Z was on the playground performing in a "circus" for some of the older camp counselor boys.

I know she has connected with some of the girls in her class. But I think she also likes a "captive" adult audience for her shows.

Z really wants to be able to do her own thing. She has always been okay just walking away from the group. It seems a little strange to me (even though I have been there and done that) and I am always waiting for her to get hip to the peer pressure.

Speaking of the circus I really need to take Z to see Cirque Du Soleil. She was really influenced by the high flyer act we saw at the Getty. She still tries balancing on everything and tries to look oh so beautiful and graceful while doing it. *wink*

"if only you'll _push_ her some"

That is what Z's piano teacher whispered to me today.

She told me that she would like to have Z start doing piano competitions and playing in more recitals. She said that Z has the talent and that she understands everything and that her dexterity is "getting better" and that she learns everything very quickly. Basically all the components are there except that Z needs to practice more.

I think she is right. Recently Z hasn't be practicing as much. I think the long holiday beginning this month threw us off.

Z's piano teacher also said that Z needs to _slow down_ and play more musically rather than quickly, which is Z's tendency.

And she said that the only other thing Z needs to work on is not interrupting her teacher. *grin* I wish I could teach her that. Believe me, I have been trying.

Sigh.

I am not happy with Z's gifted summer camp experience so far. This afternoon I asked her if she would like to drop out of it. *heh* It is probably my horrible cold that wants me to stay home in bed speaking, but she said that she made two new friends and that she wants to stay. Oh well, only 8 more days.

Z has voice tomorrow, then Japanese on Friday. In the fall we will probably start a second piano lesson. I feel like we aren't just homeschooling Z but that we are "home-performing arts-schooling" her.

Good thing she is 3- 5 years ahead in all her academic subjects. I am still trying to keep moving ahead with math and writing this summer. Reading takes care of itself really. Science and history come where they may, which is usually often. In fact the classes Z is taking in this summer camp are both science classes.

Maybe I should change our school title from Gray's Academy to Gray's Academy for the Performing Arts. *grin*

gifted summer camp

So yesterday Z had her first day at the gifted kids summer camp. (many kids are actually wearing colorful t-shirts with the word gifted on logo, I didn't buy one for Z though.)

We got her into the classes with the 6 and 7 year olds, I didn't think it would be enough but she is only signed up for the 1st session, which is two weeks long and she only goes to the morning classes.

When I came to pick her up yesterday I came a little early so I could see how her lunch went, socially. She did sit with some girls rom her class and then part way through lunch she went and sat at a different table with her seat mate from her first class. Z told me that girl is her new friend.

She said that the girl who sat on the other side of her was "kinda mean and bossy."

I asked her more questions about her day "was it too hard, to easy, just right?" She said that it was stuff she did when she was three and that she thinks the kids in the class are all younger than her. She was not boasting or even complaining, she was just telling me in a natural way. I guess she doesn't realize that the kids are all older than her.

She said that she really wants to go into the 3rd - 5th grade group where they have classes about Harry Potter.

I am thinking about asking the adminstration to let her for the next session. I only signed her up for the 1st session because I was worried it would be too easy and I thought we might have other things to keep us busy this summer. (and we do.) So I don't know if it is worth it to approach the admin and ask for radical acceleration.

For now the next two weeks are probably okay. Z says that it is "fun" but that she isn't going to learn anything - she says they are only teaching about extinction, evaporation, how rainbows are made and other things she already knows.

Oh well.

for Wickentree

I asked her to post a picture of when her daughter was a baby. (a very beautiful girl)

Here is Z at 5 1/2 weeks

she is lying on my baby quilt which was made by her great-great grandmother

and her she is at 9 months - reading her one of her favorite Maisy books


That was her handpainted crib from IKEA

A Pirates non-review

I don't like to give reviews because I don't like to bias anyone's mind. I will say that we really liked it though. :)

I have a little anecdote to share. We sat in the same aisle as Christopher Atkins, you will remember him as the hunky guy with the curly white blond hair from Blue Lagoon who hooked up with an underage Brooke Sheilds.

Anyway, he was there with his wife and two girls. He saw Z in her pirate costume and said "Your daughter is so cute!

I think he was right. :)

Z's drawing

One year ago Z was finally getting comfortable with drawing again. She had been going through a perfectionist block for awhile. She would get really frustrated when she couldn't draw exactly what she was thinking and break down and cry. So last year, at the Summer Pro League game, I worked with her for a couple hours showing her how to draw a variety of things out of basic shapes. Since then I have worked with her a handful of times but mostly she has been drawing on her own. Recently she has been looking at her manga books and trying to draw like that.



Yesterday she drew this picture! I was really amazed. For Z this is really good.

so, um... didn't really rest

We left the house at 10:00 a.m. and got home at 9:00 p.m. Although it wasn't like we were hiking or doing anything too strenuous. We just watched basketball for six hours. This is our second year driving down to Long Beach to the Pyramid to see the Summer Pro League. Last year we saw the beginnings of Smush Parker and Andrew Bynum. This year it was Bynum again and a new guy from UCLA Jordan Farmer (his grandma sat next to me.)

Yeah, we are big Laker's fans.

Someday I will get into my whole rant about how sports and smarts are not mutually exclusive, but I'm too tired tonight.

It was a fun experience, although I am concerned that Z seems to want to be a Laker Girl, but hey, they are very good dancers, even if they are a _tad_ suggestive. *wink*


Ah, today was full and there are so many things I want to write about. One is how cool it is to meet people and talk to them, even for a short while.

Not only did we meet Farmar's grandma but also got into a conversation with an older black gentleman who just got back from Paris, he went there to go to the French Open. He asked us if Z was really reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the book she brought to pass the 6 hours by) and we got to talking about traveling.

Then there was interesting talk about Jerry West (who was there) who is an old Laker who's body image is used for the NBA logo. There was a girlfriend of a fan there who didn't know who Jerry West was.

The guy sitting behind me was there to root for our opponents, the Memphis Grizzles (Jerry West is their General Manager) and the guys sitting next to him were Laker's fans. They were teaching him how to be a "cool and relaxed West Coast" fan. It was funny, but you probably had to be there.

I love going to live sporting events. The crowds are so energizing. We are all rooting and screaming and singing and stomping and clapping and chanting together. It is so fun (and very Pavlovian.)

I was never into team sports until I met Pere but since then we have gone to at least one, sometimes three live Laker's events every year. We also go to see the Dodgers too (another very special and very specific experience.)

I am glad Z is growing up being familiar with sports. I think she is going to have a lot of fun family memories to look back on. On the other hand I am worried that she might grow up to hate basketball because when basketball season comes around we pretty much watch every single game and she is expected to either watch with us or entertain herself. *wince*

But she did have a good time today. She didn't sit there and watch the whole six hours (neither did I) but she mostly paid attention and seemed to follow what was going on. It is cute to me how much she knows about basketball. I can remember when she was still in diapers chanting "De-fence! De-fence!"

need a rest

I'm feeling very tired today. I think I need to rest this weekend. So do Pere and Z, since they are both fighting off colds.

But my husband does have one special event planned for us tomorrow. And we _have_ to see the new Pirate's movie sometime this weekend. And tonight we are having dinner at place that serves Southern Indian cuisine, *yum* I can't wait.

But first we need to stop by the sheet music store and look for some good songs for Z to take on auditions.

I want her to sing something that everyone knows but maybe they have mostly forgotten it. Like a song from their childhood that brings back sweet and happy memories. But _not_ something they heard a dozen other girls sing that day. Most people are recommending those same tired old songs again and again. Disney songs, songs from Annie and, these days, Wicked are too too popular.

Also, even though Z can sing lots of cool songs meant for adults to sing, I think she shouldn't at an audition. At least not as her first two songs. I think she should sing something appropriate for her age (so not Grow for Me from Little Shop of Horrors like she did at her talent show).

So far we have a couple songs picked out but we need to find the sheet music, and maybe we will find something new while we are looking around there.

As far as the whole professional performing thing goes, I wonder if Z is too much of a perfectionist to really make a go of it. She sometimes breaks down crying when she can't figure something out in piano. Once when she was supposed to do improv she stood in the middle of the circle of kids much older and much bigger and panicked and started crying. That was the second time she cried in that class. The first time was when she had to play a very complicated warming-up exercise and when it got to her turn she started thinking too hard about what to do instead of "improvising" and couldn't think of anything and felt bad and started crying.

She is so hard on herself. If she gets the idea that she might "mess up" and everyone will be looking at her, well, she gets very tense and sometimes has a brain freeze. (I know that feeling)

But most of the time she loves to perform and will get right up there and sing and dance and act in front of friends, family and strangers until we are begging her to stop. She has no problem with belting out Broadway tunes in the market or getting up and stage and singing and acting in front of a crowd.

So we will see. Que sera sera.

The 4th of July

Remember that giant ostrich egg? Hee hee. I was saying that we should have hard-boiled it and made a giant devilled egg. *grin*



We always do 4th of July at the Channel Islands house. Grandmere, Grandpere, and Tante were there. Also some other family friends and our new friends who have a PG (I think, she has not been tested) 6 year old daughter C.

C loves animals, she wants to be a trainer at Sea World when she grows up. Yesterday she used "piniped" in a sentence.

C and Z played so nicely together. They did some crafts, drew pictures, played cards and made up some dances.

We all went out on the boat and we went to a carnival and we had a great bbq.


Does this look like a girl who in 5 hours is going to develop a fever and fall asleep during the fireworks?



Well it is. Poor lil' thing.

Monday the 3rd

The next day we took a tram up the mountain (around 8000 ft). Z was a little afraid going up but enjoyed the ride down, which was faster.



It was beautiful up there and about 40 degrees cooler. We went on a short nature walk loop.



We found out that you can camp up there so I think we are going to do that this summer.



On the drive back home we stopped at a fruit stand/market/diner called Hadley's that Pere and his family used to always stop at when he was a kid. We had ostrich burgers. (The three of us have this thing about eating exotic foods and try to eat them wherever and whenever we can.)



Can you guess what this is? Yep, an ostrich egg that Pere used to make a frittata the next morning.

a long 4th of July weekend - Sunday

After our anime event on Saturday we were invited to spend the night in Palm Desert in our friend's timeshare. Their son J is also gifted and a homeschooler.

I have never been out to Palm Springs or Palm Desert. We had a really good time.

After having lunch with our friends they took us to a Children's Museum. We all had a fantastic time there. I wish there was a place just like that close to us.



Z's favorite part was this rope/maze thing where you are clipped onto a certain color rope and have to follow in around a big twisty maze of other ropes. This exercise was excellent for visual spatial types. She went through all three colored courses and then Pere made a couple extra hard ones for her where we practically tied her cord into knots.

We really need something like this for the house. It was really fun.



There were many other fun activities for the kids, like this pulley. They had a VW Bug to paint, a magnetic wall,


a "grandma's attic" with dress up clothes

a grocery store and a pizza shop

a gigantic floor piano and a light up simon says game and more

After dinner we went to the pools at the timeshare. There were two big pools, one with a vollyball net, one 3 foot pool, a one foot pool with fountains and 4 hot tubs. Mostly the kids swam in the 3 foot pool.

We got the kids home after 9:00 p.m. and they feel right to sleep. We stayed up with our friends playing dominos way too late.

I want to introduce another friend of mine and her blog

Mariposa Academy with Mamita and her very beautiful and very gifted daughter Ami.

Good Luck Mamita, I look forward to enjoying your blog!

Little Z at the Anime Expo

Today Pere, Tante, Z and I went to the Anime Expo. It was so crazily crowded. I think there were 25,000 people there! We took a lot of pictures with people in beautiful costumes. There was one I really wanted, a girl with a Kikkoman Soy Sauce octopus on her head but I couldn't find her the second time to get the picture.

I bought Z a Sailormoon poster and myself a Studio Ghibli poster and I got a this cool t-shirt from Tofu Robot - only in orange.

I talked with some people in the business a bit too.

I didn't go see CLAMP which I really wanted to but it would be too hard with Z.

I already can't wait till next year. I think we will definitely have to get Z a costume.

Okay I don't know who this character is but isn't she cute?

Pretty girls in fancy outfits