A Few Firsts

It was a week of firsts around here.

She's been "ready" to ride a bike for awhile.  But, she needed a bigger bike and we decided to wait until the Fall to buy one.  I figured the heat of the summer was best spent at the pool vs. running behind a bike and listening to her scream and cry.

After many frustrating attempts at teaching her to ride, I Googled "How to teach a child to ride a bike." They had a GREAT You Tube video about the subject and it held a miracle secret for us...take off the pedals!  Once we did that, she started instantly coasting and balancing.  All she had to worry about was coasting and steering.  Which is a lot, actually.  After a week of coasting up and down the sidewalk, I put the pedals back on and she was riding in 5 minutes.  No falls, no screaming, no tears.

Thank you Google.

After many tears,


crashes,

and skinned knees and elbows,
 


she finally
 

 figured out,

how to ride her bike:




We are spending lots of time outside in the glorious weather.
:



 I spotted this huge Praying Mantis in the garden:



At school this year, they are ALL getting violin lessons.  Can you imagine the sounds??  She showed a lot of interest and excitement so we decided to rent her a violin and split a private lesson with one of her friends.  The music teacher offers private lessons during regular school hours, so it's NOT another after school thing.  Chess on Mondays, violin on Tuesday and tennis on Thursdays is more than enough.  But, she seems happy and rested throughout the week.  I've observed at school how students can really take a breather when they need to...read a book, get a snack, work on the computer.  It's their choice during the day:)

She brought her first violin home. You might want to turn down the volume before hitting play:

6 Weeks In

Somehow, 6 weeks has already passed since school started. I didn't think time could go any faster than it did this summer, but I was wrong. Devin is continuing to "love" school and has adjusted to the elementary program nicely. We're certainly seeing more traditional "work" coming home...spelling lists, math problems and science research. We still see some sewing work and she tells me about doing geography puzzles and working on "stories" with some of the older children. I think the influence of the older kids has been good for Dev. She's currently obsessed with cursive handwriting and doing handstands, both something her favorite 3rd grader in class can do.  She wrote this anagram for her friend, I love that the "a's" both equal "outstanding."

(d=delightful, i=I love her, n=Birthday in November)


Dev is still very connected to her "old" friends, who make up the 10 1st graders in class.  She wrote this "story" for them last night.




This week brought the first Field Trip for Dev's class.  Of course, I was happy to chaperone so I could take lots of pictures get an official tour of Huber's Farm.

I think she was most excited about the long bus ride.


I loved seeing the older children, take care of the younger ones.


There were white pumpkins.

We saw how they make Apple Cider.


Apples

Our school's apple!
 


Each student could pick 5 apples from the orchard.  Devin and her good friend "C" were the first done!



Then, it was time for Pumpkin picking!  They each could choose a small pumpkin to take home.


Picking pumpkins was tough!


And, this Bamboo Maze was even tougher.  I think Devin was lost in there for 30 minutes.


This was not a small course to pedal around.  By the end of the field trip, the kids were happy and exhausted.  We had a great day!

iPads and Piercings

Just a few weeks ago, we had our school's big back-to-school PTO picnic.  It's been awhile since I made my famous (or infamous Rainbow Cake).  It's SO much fun to make and even more fun to watch children discover what's inside that big, plain white cake.  Sure, it's full of sugar/chemicals/dyes and everything else we shouldn't eat.  But, it's RAINBOWS!  What's healthier than a good dose of rainbow?

   

The PTO picnic was a great success, especially for the local flies and bugs.  But, we shooed them off and ate anyway.  Dev thoroughly enjoyed running around the park with her friends from last year and a few new friends.  (I have lots of great pictures, but I do not post pictures of other children on the blog unless I have their parent's permission...and I'm too lazy/busy to bother right now)

 

Dev started group tennis lessons with some of her friends from school...this is one of her closest friends and they like to do everything together!  We're so glad we found this class available, with one of my favorite pros at the club, James.

  

Everyone was asking how I grew such amazing Eggplant.  Seriously, I completely ignored the plant.  It  was rarely watered, never fertilized and grew amongst plenty of weeds.  So, that's the secret to perfect Eggplants...

 

I scored twice with this thing.  One, it's a great new way to take my lunch places.  Two, I have a new Scrabble word to play, "Tiffin."  They are native to India and I had noticed many children with these at Devin's school.  Matt found one on Amazon for me:)

 


For our 16th wedding Anniversary, Matt bought me an iPad!  We've had so much fun playing around with it and learning the features.   

We let Devin play with it for a few minutes before bed and found these self-portraits the next morning.  Interesting view of the top bunk and her sleeping bonnet.  Yes, a bonnet.  She feels it helps her hair in the morning.  (Like Little House on the Prairie)



So, Devin has been asking to get her ears pierced for about a year now.  We said absolutely not, until she was able to help care for them and understand our "rules" about earrings.  Late in the summer, we thought it might be a good motivational tool for the start of school.  I HATE dangling rewards and/or punishments out there in order to control behavior, but we thought having something to look forward to might help with the return to school transition.  Well, that was a sucker bet.  She's 100% happy at school and comes home saying, "I love school."  So, it was earring time.  She talked about it for WEEKS.  She counted down to days, like it was Christmas morning.  Finally, the big afternoon arrived and she was....much less excited.

 

The piercer was SO good and explained every step to Devin.  After the first ear, she said "OUCH!"  The lady held up the mirror and Devin's smile was absolutely priceless.  The second ear was easy and we were on our way.