At the End of the Rainbow

She recently joined the strings ensemble.  They played this piece:

Olga Square Dance

Finally, River is also in the choir and they sang a few songs as well.

Simple Melody by Irving Berlin

and

To the Moon by Schubert

There were a lot of very talented children performing tonight.  I was very impressed and enjoyed all the music immensely.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

The Can-Can

We had been learning Spanish in Massachusetts, but the kids have started French at Foremarke.  I think they were a bit put off at first switch languages, but they seemed to be more interested in French after our trip to France last summer.  I taught Sage this song last week when she was home sick.

Frere Jacques

Yesterday, I went to watch River’s second hockey match.  They played very well!  This video shows a bit of the game.  It’s not the most exciting bit of action that I filmed, but it does have River in it, so…

In other academic news, Sage was awarded a Golden Leaf for being gentle,

and River got an Academic Star for her work on adverbs.  These are excerpted from the Foremarke Flyer, a weekly newsletter that can be downloaded from Foremarke.

The kids both had special activities at school on Friday to kick off the long weekend. Sage and her classmates sold cakes for a cancer charity at the coffee morning. There was perhaps a surfeit of cakes; I managed to pick up a whole plate full at the end of the morning for the discounted price of £1.  They seemed to be having a great time and I know Sage was very proud of her own baking effort.

River played in a football tournament.  It was a fine day and everyone was most pleased to be outside in the sunshine.

I thought River played very well, especially considering that she doesn’t normally have the opportunity to play soccer.  I have to say that it irritates me that the girls don’t play soccer in England.  I can’t quite see why the school would choose to organize a tournament in a sport that half of the kids don’t play regularly.  In fact, 10 of the girls choose not to play because they didn’t feel comfortable enough.  The boys didn’t have this choice.  I would have preferred to see the tournament in field hockey, a sport played by both genders, if it isn’t possible to have girls playing soccer during P.E.

Anyway, enough ranting for now.  I am planning to speak to the head of the Lower School about my concerns at some point, though.  River was awesome.  She was very active and was in the right places at the right times and put an enormous amount of energy into the game.  Nonetheless, her team didn’t do particularly well, but they did manage to come away with a bronze medal.  She was very proud of herself!

On the way home, I was inspired to stop and take some pictures of the wheat fields where the hay has recently been baled.

I love these fields.  The golden color seems to glow in the sunshine and the regular cylindrical shape of the bales contrasts beautifully with the apparent randomness of the bales scattered around the fields.

There was a bit of a mishap when one of the eggs cracked and most of it missed the bowl.  You can see it dripping off the edge of the counter in this picture.  I just love the look on her face!

The cakes turned out beautifully and she decorated them this morning.  I’m looking forward to heading off in a bit to sample some of the other items, socialize a bit, and watch River play in a soccer tournament.

River started playing hockey in PE. After school she’s taking tennis, netball, and swimming. She was interested in continuing drama and trying the science club, but those options were full. Maybe next term?

They seemed excited and a wee bit nervous. We spent quite a while last night packing up their various bags of kit for PE and swimming and ballet and loading up their pencil cases. Sage’s class has a new teacher, but other than a couple of new kids it should be relatively familiar. River has a new teacher and new classmates since they switch things around for year four, but she seemed happy to see all her friends when she dropped her kit off in the locker room and went to the reception area where they wait for the day to begin.

I’m sure they’ll have lots more to add about the day when they come home.

Chocolate, by the way, was a popular write-in candidate and thus added to the survey. She made the graphs at the National Center for Education Statistics’ Create-A-Graph website. If you’d like to be added to her email list for any future surveys, please drop her a note.

River started a drama course today. They are planning a production of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. She’s also been interested in their study of Ancient Greece in History and Kenya in Geography. Here she is doing her maths prep in her summer term uniform with her new haircut.

The kids are back at school beginning this week. They were talking about which class they like best the other day and ended up listing them all as being in the positive column. When pressed if there was anything they didn’t like, they joked about having to go home at the end of the day.

River, Sage and I made a German cake called Donauwellen, which translates as Danube wave, for River’s geography class. I thought the recipe turned out pretty well. It features cherries pressed into the chocolate cake which creates a wavy effect. The custard and chocolate on top really make it quite a treat!

At school, River’s Tedder House team placed second in the netball tournament this week. I wasn’t familiar with netball before, but apparently it is a variant of basketball. She’s also been practicing singing Abba’s Momma Mia for the House Music Competition next Wednesday.

Generally, the transition to school has been going well. River seems to be flourishing; she has made quite a few friends and is enjoying all her activities. She is happy to do her homework and seems to be getting along quite well.

Sage also appears to enjoying herself. She is, perhaps, not quite challenged enough academically. She has claimed several times that she’d like to be doing more work like River, though she does say that she enjoys her breaks when they run wild in the play area.

We’ve had a few moments of exhaustion and grouchiness, but it hasn’t been nearly as intense as I expected it might. The term ends next week and we’re looking forward to having a couple of weeks holiday. Hopefully, the summer term will go as well as this one has so far.