My Life

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying being back to our normal life?

We went to a friend's out this morning and did some crafts and had lunch and just hung out.

In the afternoon I brought Z and her little girl friend back to our house and the girl's played for a couple hours while I did some research on my new book.

After the little girl left I put my apron on, and some music (Paul Simon) and peeled some potatoes and cut up some leeks to make tonight's soup.

Z is in her room having a tea party and singing to herself. It was a very very nice day. And now my Pere is home so I must go.

I am hoping all my friends and family had a nice day too, or one soon.

fairy picnic

kinda sweet

I am sitting here by myself this morning, Z is still sleeping, watching and listening to the rain fall down. I am in the rocking chair, under the red blanket, and it is all very cozy.

The cat is sleeping in the other rocker and I wish I could take a picture of him and how sweetly he is sleeping but I know if I tried to get up and fetch the camera he would probably run off.

I can hear the 6yo girl next door staying bye-bye to her Mommy as her Daddy is taking her to school. Hope she has her rain jacket.

Today we have a date with some friends to do decoupaging. I have the bottles and cans and she has the glue and paper. I am looking forward to our little crafty day.

Z finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Saturday night. She came wandering out of her bedroom after nine almost in tears - still upset about what happened a few chapters ago and very nervous about what is to come in book 7. I let her cuddle up with me and I spun her my story about Snape as a friend and not a foe. I really believe it!

Before she could go back to sleep that night Z asked me to pick out a new book for her to read. I offered up Inkheart, Eragon (birthday presents from friends), Anne of Green Gables, or rereading The Little Princesss (or of course, whatever book she wants from her shelves.) She wasn't sure but said she would look at the beginning of Anne of Green Gables and see. Well, by morning she informed me that AoGG was definitely her new bedtime book. I am glad she is reading it, it is such a classic.

Well anyway, I really do need to eat breakfast.

So I chanced a picture of the cat and I actually got it. Look at how sweetly his paws are crossed.



And then figuring the sounds of breakfast would wake her up in a moment anyway I snapped this one of Z.

History

This morning after teeth brushing I told Z we were going to start homeschooling. "History?" she asked excitedly. "No," I said "First we are going to do some yoga."

After yoga we got changed into normal clothes (jeans and a t-shirt for me) and Z asked "Are we going to do history now?!" "No," I said, "First we are going to do EPGY."

After EPGY she was like "History?!" again. I couldn't figure it out what that was about (not like I asked) so I went on with my normal plan. (You see how resistant I am to change?)

Finally after lunch it was time to do history and Z cried out "Can we read King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table?!"

Ahhhh, that is what she was so excited about...

I picked up where we had left off last week in the story of Balyn and Balan.

It is a pretty good book but at first I wasn't sure Z would get into it as it is written like this:

"For this cause," said Merlin. "No man shall handle this sword now, save only Launcelot, and Galahad his son. And that shall be when the knights of Logres seek for the Holy Grail... In the castle, also, you have a bed: but none shall lie in it without going mad, save Launcelot alone... But in the end Launcelot shall use this sword, and the bravest knight of Logres, the man he best loves in the world, shall fall beneath it. And that shall be Gawain... But soon thereafter shall come the last battle on the Plain of Camlann, and the darkness shall fall once more upon Logres."

And why does Merlin always speak in prophetic riddles... I mean c'mon!

But she is learning really useful words like Smote and Smitten and Smite, not to mention Alas.

And here I am having to explain what the Holy Grail is and what the Dolorous Stroke is and what the Last Supper was and who Joseph of Arimathea was.

But seriously it is fun to read and Z is obviously really enjoying it. As for it being history? Well I felt it was more like color commentary to go with our non-fiction studies, a story to hang all the images on, IYKWIM?

Wednesday

I wonder if I should nickname Z "Wednesday" for Wednesday Addams of the Addams Family.

The other day she was holding a funeral for one of her dolls and now this.

Today she was playing in her room quietly for awhile and I asked her what she was doing and she said "I am setting up a crime scene."

A while later she comes to get me to show me her crime scene - here was a noose, there were some handcuffs with traces of blood on them, over here were some hoof prints... yes hoof prints. Apparently the magical unicorn Rarity and some other of those treacherous My Little Ponies committed murder most foul tonight.

Apparently one of the mermaids was in on it as there were telltale signs of sea water dripped aroung the crime scene. Z got all biblical with her justice and wanted to truss up the mermaid but I advised that we just keep her imprisoned as we hadn't had the trail yet.

The noose was really a shiny silver necklace and the handcuffs were big plastic rings, but they would have fit around the legs of a My Little Pony. I was surprised with how well thought out a lot of the clues were although I was a bit dismayed with how much blood was found since the victim was supposedly hanged.

My birthday present

Yes I know my birthday was seven months ago but today was finally the right time to buy me my present. I got a men's black diamondback (the only woman's they had was pink) and I got a trail-a-bike for Z. Z and I rode home from the bike shop that was only two miles away. It was a wonderful ride.

Now, on days when we have time I can ride to the park (3.5 miles), piano lessons (3.5 miles) or the library (2 miles).

Classes

I know I have mentioned before that Z takes a lot of classes. Certainly she doesn't spend as much time in a class as a traditionally schooled child does. She does spend 5 hours a 45 minutes of the school week in a class. Right now she is taking piano, science (taught by the kids), Shakespeare, gymnastics, Japanese and voice. In April she is going to try an engineering class taught with LEGOs.

I have tried talking her out of some of her classes (voice) and bribed her out of others (ballet). Yet I am always looking around for new classes for her to try. The thing is that I just want her to try them because they sound cool or interesting but then Z wants to continue them. And at this age I just want her to try different things and see how she likes them, so far she seems to like them all.

Z has tried gymnastics, group music lessons, soccer, drama, ballet/tap, karate, musical theatre, religious school, Shakespeare, Japanese, science, piano, voice, and most recently astronaut training. (I might be forgetting something.)

Out of those I think she has liked the gymnastics and acting (Shakespeare, etc) the best. I am pretty sure she live at the gymnasium if she could, or at least would love for her room to be outfitted with a trampoline and some bars, rings and beams. but she loves all her classes so much they were her main reason for wanting to take a break from acting.

I am happy for Z that we have all these opportunities in our area. There are many more out there that would be fun to try like Yoga and Circus Arts and an American Girl book club. But it is just as, if not more important, that Z have time just to hang about in her room and play.

This afternoon she was playing in her room and I came upon this scene:



I asked "Are you having a tea party with your dolls?"

She said, "No, the Indian died and we are all at his funeral."

(the Indian is brown figure in the center of the circle)

Science

I am really really excited about our science this term.

We are studying ecology, the environment/environmentalism, and conservation. While this subject is very topical right now will also serve as a great basis for any future studies in earth science.

I made a list earlier of the Brainpop movies we are using this term. I also wrote about this middle school level science book that has a environmental science theme.

And I wrote about another book called Planet Patrol A Kid's Action Guide to Earth Care. Today I read the first section with Z and she did the activity which was naming the different species that live in our yard. Since we have no fish or amphibians living here we took those categories out and added invertebrates. We looked at what we could from the window and then went out for a walk with the field guide. There were a couple types of birds we could recognize and many type sof plants were not in the guide but she made a good list.



Then at her request she made a mancala board from an egg carton, an idea from a new recycling book she got.

Then she picked out some herb seeds for her new Hyrdoponic Greenhouse that she got for her birthday.

Then today at the library I found three books in the series Our World, OUr Future that look really neat.

I am also planning a trip to the nearby recycling plant as well as other local places that teach about the environment, renewable energy, sustainable farming, as well as botanical gardens, and animal sanctuaries. etc.

We are also going to come up with some volunteering projects (which we can do now that she isn't acting.)

I feel like all of this is giving her a good base for being a compassionate scientist and problem solver.

I know some of you have kids who are involved with helping endangered species so if you would like to recommend websits or groups that we could add to our curriculum please do!

MB

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about tonight.

I admitted something to myself tonight and now I am going to admit it to you.

I wanted a kid who was as good as Z is at piano and who could practice as much as she did and learn as quickly and as much as she did without any kind of stress or damage because she is just that good.

I admit it felt special.

But it was stressing Z out and there was no reason for it.

In my defense there was more to it than just my pride. I was more than a little intimidated by her teacher who was also feeling special to be connected to Zoe while she was performing so well.

I also trusted her teacher too much. But she was coming from the place of training Z to compete and perform and be a professional pianist someday (probably at a young age.) Since that is not going to happen then there is no reason whatsoever to stress Z out about this.

I don't mean that Z should never experience struggles or have to exert a lot of effort. But her teacher had her on a track that is really unnecessary and could be damaging Z's natural talent and passion for music.

I think the acting thing helped open my eyes about this. I think some people in Z's life were feeling vicariously special about Z doing the acting and it bothered me that anyone would let that cloud their judgement regarding what is best for her. And of course as the parent it is most important that I don't let myself get caught up in the excitement of what Z can or could do to the extent that I allow negative experiences to harm her.

I am ashamed for my complicity in stressing my girl out. I am grateful that I wized up after only one year and challenged her teacher and fixed things. And I am feeling very protective of my girl tonight.

Language Arts

Recently I have picked up some really good workbooks at the book store. Normally we don't do workbooks but I went through literally 50+ books to find these specific ones that I knew would appeal to Z, focus on the specific areas that Z needs this kind of writtten work, and meet my high standards for resources.

I was surprised after I had already bought the books to notice that they are for grades 4th - 5th, 5th and up, and 4th - 6th, respectively. I am not sure about the spelling book but I think it is probably 3rd grade. I am surprised that Z is at this level for language arts. I didn't pick stuff that was hard, just things that covered areas I think she might be missing even with all the reading we do.

Writing

I like this writing book because it goes through the editing process. That is what Z needs at the moment. Also the assignments get harder and harder.

Parts of Speech

This book is full of games that teach. It is pretty advanced, it teaches about main, and auxiliary verbs, prepositions, subjects and predicates, direct and indirect objects and more, all through games. Z loves Mad Libs and I thnk she will love this book and along the way learn about parts of speech.


Vocabulary

I like this book for the same reason as the one above.
In her lesson today Z had to choose her four favorite words, define them and use them in a sentence. She chose Barbarian, Squeegee, Lunatic and Blabbler. LOL Z certainly has a sense of humor.

Spelling

This book isn't a game but it teaching spelling the VCV, VCC, VCe, etc way by sorting words. We don't use it much but I have to teach Z the rules so she isn't just spelling intuitively.


These are just the workbooks we are using. We do a lot more that is just informal and come from reading and discussing and normal life.

Resources Review - Math

I thought that now that Z and I are back to homeschooling on a more regular schedule I would share what resources we are using this "term". (I use the term term very loosely, and mainly to mean a span of months ahead of us.)

I will start with the subject that Z does first thing most mornings, math.

Z first started math when she was 2 1/2 and looked through an older friend's Singapore workbook. She loved it and was soon insisting on doing math every morning after breakfast.

She didn't always love Singapore so much though. One thing I have noticed is that Z enjoys variety and is usually excited by a novel approach to math.

We kept doing Singapore into about halfway through the second grade book. I liked how Singapore taught many different ways to solve a problem.

Then I bought her a Scholastic math book right off the shelf of Barnes and Noble and she really liked that most of the time. I felt it was holding her back though and spent too much time on repetition, but I wasn't sure which of the problems were okay to skip.

I have also supplemented with the great ideas at livingmath.net and Z's favorite, by far, math books are the I Love Math series put out by Time Life. But she is beyond the material in them now and Julie at Livingmath told me that there is nothing else really like them out right now.

This February I was able to get the funds through my charter school to finally give EPGY a try. I have been hearing about how great this program was for years but I didn't really get it. I figured "How great can a math program really be??" But now I see what all the fuss is about. It is a very in-depth program that really does seem to work at your child's level. I am really impressed with what they are teaching Z, who just started the 3rd grade level, and how they are teaching it.

The way we are running EPGY it starts with a Math Race where Z is asked to answer addition and subtraction questions like x - 7 = 19 or 9 + x = 16, and she has to answer them quickly. Doing math quickly is not Z's strong suit at this point so she usually comes in 3rd out of 3. But I am just glad she is doing it and facing an uncomfortable situations without breaking down.

Then she has twenty minutes of lessons. Usually the lesson consists of a lecture, spoken aloud by the voice of an older man with video of the problem, and then some time is spent on this new type of problem. Then it touches on two or three other subjects that were taught previously. So far Z is making between 96% and 100% on these lessons. I am not sure if that means she will be moving through 3rd grade at a quicker than or normal rate.

Fiction Books Z is in the midst of

This is her bedtime story with Pere
Magic Kingdom for Sale


This is her bedtime story with me
The Enchanted Castle


She reads this most nights before bed.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince


This is the book her book club is reading
The Great Brain


These two she started but I don't think she is reading them everyday
Nancy Drew and the secret of the old clock


Inkheart

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today we went to the Los Angeles Zoo where they had a Chinese New Year Celebration. We listened to music, saw traditional dances and an acrobat.




Z had a good time playing in the area.


The koala's were out


my obligatory "artsy" shot


awww, look at that punim


The male orangatan's hand next to Z's

sick

So today I am sick

So I laid around a bit but then for some reason I decided to go through all Z's clothes and fold them and iron the ones that needed ironing. Then I irons some of my clothes and Pere's clothes. Oh yeah and I did four loads of laundry...

what is that all about?!

my Z

I usually don't think of Z as being her age, which is six now. I also don't really think of her as being gifted. I just think of her as being "my Z" - she seems "normal" to me.

But sometimes she does something to remind me that she is "only five" (actually six now) and I think she is so cute at that moment. I think when I can see her that way I am also remembering myself and how I felt at that age and it was so magical and life seemed so different than I know it to be now.

And sometimes I am reminded that she is gifted and to some extent profoundly so.

(I have to qualify this by acknowledging that many of my friends reading this blog have children who are more advanced than Z so the things that amaze me might not seem to amazing to them. ) But recently Z seems so darn smart! I am very happy with what she is doing in math and very proud of her knowledge base in science. I am sometimes just struck with wonderment about how well she plays the piano. Her sense of humor seems especially advanced these days and often I feel like I am talking to a preteen rather than a girl who would be in kindergarten.

Most of the times though she is "just Z" to me.

EPGY, How do I love thee

let me count the ways 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,4,4,8

Z is really exceeding my expectations with the program. Today it was teaching her how to find the perimeter and the area of a shape. With perimeter she was adding the four sides and to find the area she was multiplying two numbers. But on one of the perimeter problems the shape was very complicated and the number were the ones I wrote above and she said "so eight times three..."

I was really proud of her for using multiplication to make the problem easier. This was one of the first times I have seen her do that except with Fives or Tens or Hundreds.

It was SOOOO hard for me to learn my times tables. I was still struggling with it in fifth grade! (I do have them down now though *wink*) So I was so impressed that she beginning to use multiplication on her own and she only just turned six!

******

She also had a very good day at her two classes.

In Japanese she and she teacher did a voice over exercise for the movie Totoro. Z memorized many (10+) lines in Japanese very quickly. Her teacher was like "wow!"

Voice is moving along very fast. Today her teacher mentioned a recital.

On her first class with this teacher Z was given three songs to learn for the next week - Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty, and When you Wish Upon and Star and Give A Little Whistle from Pinocchio.

The second week she was given a 3 page song - Cruella De Vil

The third week she was given another three pages song - Honey Bun from South Pacific

Today she was given two more new songs. So in four weeks she will have built up a repretoire of seven songs. Z and I really love all these songs and often end up singing them together around the house or in the car. :)

*******

Tuesday was Z's turn to teach her at her science class.

She was SO excited. The day before she made up many songs about how excited she was and about how it was going to be the best day of her life. (So yeah she wasn't really missing the whole acting thing)

She brought her rock collection (which she has almost doubled during her birthday) and taught the kids about rocks and minerals. She also taught the kids how to identify different stones and about "luster", "cleavage", "tenacity" and other terms. She also told them interesting historical facts about the pieces in her collection - like Greeks thought that amethysts would protect against drunkedness.

Happy Valentine's Day

We don't normally do Valentines but this year it fell on our homeschooling group's park day so they had arranged to have all the kids give Valentines. But since 86 kids signed up to do the exchange most ended up doing them by family instead of each individual kid, but Z still ended up with around 50 cards!

She LOVED handing out her cards. We lined up all the kids boxes or decorated bags and then the kids made a line and gave them out. Z wanted to go through the line a couple times and give away all the extras we had made. :)

The kids had a great time






And some of the adults got into it






When Z got home she looked at all her Valentines.

Booked Out

Okay I did it.

I called Z's agency and told them that Z will be taking a break (booked out) until April.

The lady I spoke to sounded taken aback when I told her the length of time but she said "We understand."

*whew!*

I was really stressing about having to do this but now it is done and I am so much better.

I think it still hasn't really hit me that life is back to normal now. But I think that when it does it is going to feel real good.

Fast asleep

Last night when I went to check on Z before I went to sleep I found her fast asleep with her face still in a book.



What a kid *smile*

Star Wars exhibit

They had some cool robots


Here Z programmed her own robot


a picture from the outside


Z in front of Luke's land speeder, the actual one from the movie


THE Thermal detonator


Blurry pic of Z with yoda


Chewie


a Wampa! grrrr

Canadian experiences

Today was another of our favorite free events, the World City concerts at the Disney Concert Hall. Today we saw some Inuit singers and storytellers and then a group that performed Canadian dances.



Here are some picture I took at the Concert Hall




Lastly Z and her little friend A.

Konnichiwa

Yesterday Z and I were hanging about in a Japanese part of town and we stopped at a crepe place for a snack. It was just a little stall with tables and chairs outside. The maker of the crepes was this cool Japanese guy from Tokyo (with leather pants!) It was cold and he brought us out red blankets for our laps. Isn't that nice?

Z was talking to him Japanese. She introduced herself and told him how much she liked the crepes and said Thank You all in Japanese. He was tickled by it. :)

Z's Japanese lessons are going very well. She still needs more practice on her hiragana. She can read it but can't always write it so that has been her homework recently.

She still wants to learn more languages. She says she wants to learn Spanish, French, Hebrew, Latin, and Chinese. *Oh Boy!* Well at least she dropped Russian off the list.

A Break

I wasn't sure about posting this yet but it is on my mind and I want to share it with my friends.


Late last week, after the photo shoot, Z told me that she wants to take a break from professional acting.

When I asked her why she said that she just wants her regular life back. She said she really doesn't want to miss any of her regular classes. She also says she wants more time to play (she mentioned that sometimes she misses playdates) and to do her "regular stuff."

At that point I figured that maybe she just didn't like the photo shoot so I said let's give it a couple weeks and see.

Well now it has been one week and she says that she still want to take a break. She says she wants a couple months off. When I asked her if she would rather just not do it at all anymore she was adamant that she does want to go back to acting (but I am not sure.)

I am going to give it one or two more weeks and then I am going to talk to her agent about her taking a break. I am nervous about this because I think they are pretty happy with Z right now and I will be taking a potential money maker away. They recently sent her on a movie audition and then there was the Nickelodeon thing yesterday...

I feel a little less nervous than when I told her piano teacher I wanted Z to not practice so much and not to do the Bach compettion though, so um... I guess that is a good thing.

Anyway, Zoe could change her mind tomorrow so now is probably not the time you should respond with "Great! I think that child acting is horrible!" *grin*

TGIF

It has been another long week.

One one hand she only had two auditions this week (including breakfasting with some people Nickelodeon this morning) but we are still driving Pere to work and picking him up in the evening. This has been going on for three weeks now (his car is finally being worked on though) and I decided tonight it is really worth $45 a day for me not to have to spend almost 4 hours on the road everyday.

Homeschooling has been going great. I love every resource that we are using now. EPGY is great and that science book I quoted in an earlier post is excellent. Z is loving both of them.

We finally moved in Middle Ages for history a couple weeks ago and we are doing intergrating it with vocabulary. Some of her words have been cathedral, monastery, crusade, merchant, and feudal.

She got Inkheart for her birthday and she has been reading that and is also almost finished with The Half-Blood Prince.

I also recommed the BBC for some fun grammar and spelling games.

Her behavior has been great. I love it when she is easy going and in good spirits.

Some pictures

Earlier this week I watched Z's Shakspeare class.

Here is her group warming up.


She is laughing because she has to hug this boy.



In this scene she has been thrown to the floor and is getting "kicked" in the stomach.


Here she is at astronaut training class taking some pictures of rainforests in South American and Africa with the EarthKAM and sending them to the ISS.

a shiny sink

You know what makes me happy? A shiny sink. Clean white counter tops. Vaccum lines on the carpet. An empty laundry hamper.

When did I turn into a "housewife?" I am not quite sure. Perhaps it was moving in with Pere, or having a baby or maybe it was FlyLady. *grin*

Or maybe it began earlier. Perhaps it was the inevitable outcome of my childhood facination with notebooks with matching pencils and color coded homework plans. And a junior high school girl who fantasized about owning matching bras and panties for each day of the week might naturally grow into a woman who is tickled pink by a shiny sink.

I admit that I don't like things messy. There has been a lot of "messy" in my life, maybe too much. Right now there are a lot of things that are out of my control - like where Pere is going to work and where we are going to live and if our cars are going to run and if my daughter is going to get another job and what am I doing with my own life...

Cleaning gives an immediate satisfaction. I can make it "just so" and there it is. And yes that kitchen counter will get bread crumbs on it again first thing tomorrow morning, but right now it is clean and white. It is in the state it is meant to be in and I made it that way. That is a good feeling.

Conflicted

I feel as a mother my job is to raise Z to be a good person and after that to support her to be who she is meant to be.

But who is she meant to be??

I just wish I knew what to do to support her. I am not a big fan of the whole acting thing and if it petered out I would be okay with that. My own little wish for her would be for her to have a career in science or (a field I was interested in) criminal justice.

But what if performing is her thing? What if her life is going to be this life that really scares the heck out of me? I guess I would need to find a way to be positive about it and make it work for me.

I do have these misgivings though and yet I don't really trust my gut because it has been wrong before.

At this point I am trying to keep her well-rounded and give her a lot of opportunities to discover different interests. She is being problematic with that because she is liking pretty much everything. ;S

She has had this list of things she wants to be (mommy, doctor, astronaut, actor, singer, and princess) and right now it looks like she can be one of them. But I don't want that one thing to take over her life so much that the other things or any other things become less of a possibility, KWIM?

I probably shouldn't be worrying about this for a six year old.

Star Struck

Oh My God! I almost forgot to tell you.

Today I was driving through Westwood and I looked over at the car next to me and guess who was sitting in it???

Harrison Ford!! HARRISON Ford!! Harrison FORD !! HARRISON FORD!! Eeeek!

I was in the passanger seat and he was to my right, Right Next To Me! I kept my cool and didn't do a dance in my seat until we pulled forward and he got into our lane right behind us.

Then I told Z that Indiana Jones and Han Solo was driving the the car behind us.

She freaked out too but I think she was mostly excited since I was now doing the car seat dance and some whooping. :) You have to understand that I feel in love with Han Solo when I was only Z's age and he was my favorite actor for the last 25 years. And when I am asked I still say that Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite movie.

Anyway at the next light Z turned around in her car seat and waved at him and He Waved Back! and Smiled!

I wailed to Pere 'I want him to smile at me!!" but no, you have to be a little girl to get away with waving at a star in his car.

EPGY

Z started EPGYmath on the 1st. She liked it so much she did four exercises on the first day. She liked it so much that this Saturday she choose doing EPGY math over watching cartoons. She likes it so much that she asked to do it first thing this morning.

They started her on Kindergarten work but now she is doing third grade stuff and going through it pretty quickly. I am wondering if she will stay at third grade for a whole year or progress more quickly.Personally I love it. I feel like it is a more intense math education that she was getting from other workbooks.

Birthday Party

Z and 19 friends went to the gymnasium for her birthday party yesterday.

Her princess jewelry

Make a wish