November

 Here's some of what's been happening:

• D went to Galveston for a couple nights for a field trip with his AP Chemistry class and the environmental science kids.
• All of the kids have the whole week off of school for Thanksgiving and C has only 8 days of college classes left!
• C has turned in her draft for her big term paper.
• T is taking to cursive pretty well.
• D is doing a metal-working project in woodshop--he's making some sort of replica sword.

T's Wii Routine

 My husband, D and I have gotten into the habit of doing Wii Fit yoga and strength training together in the morning. We have a digital routine that the Wii keeps for us.

Anyway, I just realized that T (age 8.5) has her own digital workout routine, a combination of yoga and strength training. She does half moon, warrior, torso twists, rowing squat and cobra. 

T's character award

 At the end of the school year, all of the kids got character awards from their teacher for particular positive qualities where they excel. Ts character award was for zeal. Some quotes!

• T "exemplifies zeal in her learning."
• "She gets very excited on different topics of study and loves to offer her "out of the box" thinking."
• "She loves to read, and if she is totally interested in a book, it is hard to tear her away from it."
• T "has great enthusiasm in everything she does. She and her friends all show zeal when they are creating and making things."

Some 1st grade compositions II

[untitled] 

My favorite thing about first grade is the play ground. I like to play at the play ground with my friends. I like to swing on the swing. I like to play on the monkey bars.

[T wrote this during the early pandemic when there was no in-person school and no playground and no friends.]

The Life and Times of the Honey Bee [a book review]

The honey bee drinks nectar. The honey bee turns the nectar into honey. The hive eats the honey. 

[I think we have reached the end of school assignments and the beginning of T's self-assigned compositions.}

[untitled]

Alicorns can fly!!! Alicorns are like unicorns but they have wings! Alicorns can do magic!

[untitled]

Grackles in the evening hang out on the power lines.

[T has a composition that involves dragons and the partial destruction of those pages, presumably by dragons.]

[Then we get a series of illustrations, mostly one per page: a fox, a bird, a butterfly, a rosemary bush, a lollipop, a die, and possibly some pepperoni pizza slices.]

Some 1st grade compositions

 Here are some short compositions that T wrote last year in 1st grade, mostly during remote learning at the beginning of the pandemic. (They have illustrations, but I'm not including those.)

Bears

Pandas live in China in bamboo forests and eat bamboo all day long. Polar bears live in the Arctic. They eat fish and seals. They hunt on the sea ice.

Coral Reef

Many animals live in a coral reef, for example seahorses, corals and sponges. The most famous coral reef is the Great Barrier Reef. Coral reefs are thousands of years old.

Easter

I played a computer egg hunt. I colored eggs. I did a real egg hunt. 

My House

One of my favorite things about my house is the My Little Pony decals in my room. I also like the stained glass windows in the kitchen. I like the lace curtains in the living room.

[untitled]

I went to Sonic and got a slushy. I got three Voltron lions. We built a bird feeder. I watch the birds fly in and out of the bird feeder.

May!

 We got two items from school today for T:

• T got a character award from her teacher that said, "T is an amazing thinker. She loves to challenge her knowledge with "what ifs" to go further in her understanding. I have enjoyed her "thinking out of the box" this year. She challenges us all! I'm so proud of you, T! 
• T brought home a paper Mother's Day bouquet for me where she filled in some blanks for prompts. "You take care of me by...giving me chocolate." "I know you love me when...you hug me." "My favorite thing to do with you is...when we go to a movie." [We haven't been in over a year.] "You make me laugh...when it's my birthday."

Teacher thank you

 T was filling out a thank you sheet for her teacher for teacher appreciation week. Here's how she completed the form.

My favorite thing about you is...you like math.

I will never forget that you taught me...bar models.

I remember making you proud when I...was good in school.

My favorite memory in our class was...the butterflies. [The kids got to cultivate butterflies.]

I am really going to miss...you.