Field trip and school update.

Arantxa was really looking forward to riding the school bus and was disappointed when she learned she would not be taking it. However, she saw a small bus parked in the school in one of the new family events. she wondered if they used it for field trips, so she asked her friend's brother. She has been waiting for the day where she'd ride it ever since.

The day came last week when the K class had their first field trip. They went to see the locks (exclusas), where Lake Union communicates to the Puget Sound (mar).

It was interesting because she came back from school, the day before, repeating almost word by word I am guessing the instructions. "Since Kindergarteners can't reach the floor on the bus, whenever the bus is breaking or taking a sharp turn, we have to extend our arms like this, and hold on to the seat in front of us. It can be very cold next to the water, and it is a rain or shine field trip, therefore we have to dress in layers". Am I glad she is an auditory learner and that she pays so much attention! I later remembered to look in her backpack and found the flyer with all the details.

She gave us a full report: they saw hydroplanes taking off and landing (is that the right word?); they saw seagulls, including one seated and one standing. The current main theme for their class is SALMON, so she was very excited to share that they had seen a ton of salmon jumping! "Even better, once your eyes got adjusted to the light, you could even see them, a lot of them, swimming", she said.

The bus was super late to pick them up, so they passed the time singing and playing games. I am glad I did not get to volunteer to go: "this is my very first field trip on my own".

I drop them ( she and Bailey, our carpool buddy) off that day and stayed in school helping out by stuffing envelopes. I later was a "lunch room volunteer". It was lots of fun to see the kids eating, and to note the differences between the younger and the older students. Joanna had already mentioned that by 3rd or 4th grade, they completely segregate themselves by gender. Another big difference was how they asked for food; a typical 5th grader said "pasta in a bowl with meat sauce and 2 breadsticks". The little ones still are figuring it all out. It is like standing in line in Starbucks and hearing the novices or casual goers, and contrast them with the typical Seattle costumer that can blurt out a 7 word coffee order.

One of the perks for volunteering for the cafeteria is that you get to eat lunch with your child.

I have to share more about the school later on, but it is really an amazing place. There are so many books in the Kindergarten classroom that it really looks like a small library. I have to ask Ms. L. if she has an estimate! One of Arantxa's favorite places is the reading loft (tapanco). I really love that they have books in many different levels: a ton of super early BOB type readers (Sid sat on the mat); but you can also see books such as Charlotte's web (about 4th grade level).

They have "specialists" like Technology, Music, Art, P.E. (Educación Fisica), and Spanish twice a week. For those classes, they form a line and go as a class to the other teachers' rooms. They also go to the library once a week and they are allowed to check 3 books for a week. Parents can check out more books for them. They have 3 recesses (15", 20", 10") and snack and lunch separate from those.

Arantxa is bringing lunch 4 times a week, and we are letting her buy at the cafeteria on Wednesdays.

Her favorite class is ART. Here is a cool project she did in Technology, a self-portrait. She was wearing a blue shirt with a busy print that day;).



She just started her first after school activity and she absolutely adores it. It is DRAMA (K and 1st grade). They will be performing "The Valiant Taylor". We got the script yesterday. I was surprised that it was a real script! We'll see how that goes, their show is in early December.

Lorena's Haircut!

Our days start with the girls getting their hair done after they are dressed and before breakfast. Most of the time, Lorena is happy to participate in the process: she loves saying how she wants her hair, which bows or barrettes (sp?) to wear, color of the elastic bands, etc.

Invariably, though, a few hours later at most, she has pulled the hairbands off and her hair is all over her face. I try to at least tuck it behind her ears, but she doesn't like that. Here she is working on a science experiment with cornstarch and water (more about our little scientist in a future installment).

Finally, we offered her the choice of getting a BIG haircut and she gladly accepted. This week we took her in. The hairdresser said that there'd be no way of keeping the hair out of her face without bangs. I liked her with bangs, but several months ago she had asked to have her hair like the rest of us. After some questioning we realized she meant no bangs. We gave her a new alternative: a) short hair with bangs and no need for hairbands, or b) no bangs, but keeping the hair pulled up. She was quick to accept the bangs!

Here she is right before the haircut.

And during. Oh, a funny note. Lorena's English is for the most part very good, but she has a few bilingual issues. She asked the hairdresser "I want to have the little's one" referring to the cover. She is referring to the puppy one in the picture for the "little ones". She hasn't caught on that you can't use a possessive for that type of thing. People just stare at her and have NO clue what she is talking about.

Here is Arantxa waiting. Can you guess what she is doing? Reading, of course! That reminds me that I haven't posted the list of books she read over the summer.

And finally, the finished hairdo! We all love it!

Since I am in updating mode, there is one more bit of news that is important. Lorena and Arantxa are both just about 40 pounds (18.2 kg). Lorena probably weighs a bit more. The car seat Lorena was in (Britax Roundabout) has a weight limit of 40#s. Arantxa had outgrown that one because of the height, and she is in one (Britax Marathon) that keeps her harnessed in until 65 lbs (at this rate probably age 10!!).

We debated what to do, and got help from a friend who is certified as a Child Passenger Safety Technician (thanks Rachel!!). So, instead of transferring Lorena to Arantxa's and getting a humongous car seat for her; we opted for getting the big one for Lorena, since a) she is our BIG girl, and b) she always gets hand me downs seats.

The Britax Regent is really huge and it harnesses up to 80 lbs or so. We had also been having difficulties getting Arantxa in her car seat at school pickup: she had to drop her backpack on Lorena's side (copilot), and jump over to her seat. We then switched their locations. Since the Regent is not convertible (can't be installed rear facing), it sits lower on the seat, so now Lorena can no longer reach the van's ceiling :(. The disadvantage for Arantxa is that she can no longer close the door with her feet (press button). Overall, it seems to be working really well!

Lorena with new haircut and new pants in her new Regent. She is so happy about the whole thing and mostly likes that her seat has a lot of pink. The rest of the print is the same as Arantxa's.

The TROLL under the bridge

This is an old one. We took Gustavo to see Fremont's Troll under the bridge. What a hit! The 3 kids had a blast climbing on and around it.
Este es de hace tiempo. Llevamos a Gustavo a ver el Ogro de Fremont, que vive bajo un mega puente. !Todo un éxito! Los 3 se la pasaron re-bien escalando al ogro y a sus alrededores.

Fremont is a Seattle neighborhood, and it is the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe. It is a very interesting place, just a few blocks from Arantxa's new school. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Troll . By the way, I also recommend you click on Fremont there to read its article.
Fremont es una "colonia" en Seattle que se ha autoproclamdo el Centro del Universo. ES un lugar muy interesante, a unas cuadras de la nueva escuela de Arantxa. He aquí un artículo en Wikpedia del famoso ogro (y les recomiendo leer el link de Fremont).

On the way over, we heard the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" story on the car (Thanks Apu for that CD/book from many Christmas ago). Ever since, Lorena loves to listen to the story and is always asking for it.
En el camino escuchamos el cuento de "Los 3 Cabritillos Traviesos" (gracias Apu por ese regalo de Navidad de hace muchos años). A Lorena, desde entonces, le encanta escuchar ese cuento.

And, here the pictures. He aquí las fotos.

I must admit that I was the one suggesting this pose but of course he loved it. Debo admitir que yo fui la que sugerí que se pusiera así, pero por supuesto le encantó.

In contrast, this is Arantxa hugging the troll. Contraste con Arantxa, abrazando cariñosamente al ogro.

Just hanging out..... Pasando el rato.

The big kids climbed in and out, up and down the sculpture. Lorena played with the sand (yuck!). Los grandes de la pasaron trepándose por toda la escultura, mientras que Lorena sólo jugó con la arena (!guácala!).

If you are not a local, please note the real VW Beetle in his hand. Para los fuereños, noten el vocho de a de veraz en su mano.

Finally, another famous sculpture from Fremont, waiting for the bus. Para terminar, otra de las famosas esculturas de Fremont, los que esperan el camión.'

First day of School

Our baby has stated school!
The first 3 paragraphs deal with orientation and the school. You might want to skip this and delve right into the pictures. English only. I mostly want to get pictures posted.

Orientation
We had orientation yesterday. We learned who her teacher and classmates are going to be. I am very happy. There is a new K teacher in the school, and the other one has a ton of experience and we got the "old" one, yay! (I have no idea of the other one). It is also very cool because she has a tank fish with salmon in her room. The kindergarteners (niños de preprimaria) have a salmon unit and they eventually release the salmon. Arantxa is with her friend from preschool, and the girls were happy to be with each other.

Pablo and I took her to the classroom for an hour while we were explained more of the day to day functioning of the school. A ton of information to process! The Spanish teacher quickly identified us and came to talk to me. She said she was excited to have Arantxa in her classroom (from what I gather they don't have any other native Spanish speakers in the school, but I might be wrong). She said she had already prepared some things for her, and that if Ax wanted to help in class she could; but if she didn't it was OK also. She asked me whether she was reading or not and the same for writing. she then said, she would be working on some writing with her. I love how the "reading" question can be asked naturally, and both a yes and a no answer received the same way. Nice! My hopes are not too high for that (Spanish class), but I am glad she approached us.

I loved the lower elementary head (K-3). I have talked to her in the past and I think she does a great job. She eats lunch with kids every day and is therefore current on what they are talking about and can address issues before they are too big. She reassured us that we can call and ask questions any time: from concerns about whether they are eating lunch or not, to issues in the playground, academics, etc. She also made us all laugh when she said that most kids don't eat at school, that in her 20+ years teaching she has accepted that as a fact. She will return a kid back to the cafeteria line if the plate does not have protein or has too many cookies (so if parents do not have a problem with kids eating only cookies for lunch, then they should let her know).

Here she is exploring her classroom. Notice how they have the "BOB" books for those that are JUST beginning to read as well as chapter books. I have to look for more advanced chapter books, but she still will have access to those in the library.

FIRST DAY
She woke up early and by herself and got dressed right away.


Then, she helped me prepare smoothies as a special first day treat.



I had written the school's acronym in the glasses (melted white chocolate tinted green). She loved the idea.


We left the house a couple minutes later than planned, but still within range of what I considered optimal. It went really smoothly. We got there in time to look for parking (very tricky in a school on top of a hill within a residential area with lots of old homes with one car garages). We'll start carpooling tomorrow.

Here she is walking up the hill.


Lorena was very excited to be part of it. She was upset when we told her she would not go to orientation (but stayed super happy playing with Galia (1) and possibly talking Rocío's ear off), she said she "also wanted to know Arantxa's teacher name". The obligatory picture with the sign. Oh, and you can't miss Lorena being cautiously calm about being next to a big dog. She did great! Way to go Lorena!


In front of her classroom with the bear in the door. How lucky is our bear loving girl!!! The other K class doesn't have the bear, although both classes start with MAMMALS, so she got to bring a stuffed bear to school! She appears to have very good school Karma.


While she was in school (only half day for the first three days), Lorena and I hung out in U Village (nice outdoor shopping mall). I must confess that I could not resist this, so I ended up getting her Corduroy (book and plush). It is such a classic story that she has read and re-read many times from the library.


Here she comes, so excited, walking down to meet us!

Her only complaint was that the teacher still has not told them the loft rules, so she can't climb the stair to get there and read. She explained a lot of the lingo to me (jobs, they have "after snack recess" and "afternoon recess", etc.). She is super excited and SO ready for this!