CHICKAMAUGA CREEK GORGE

After some relaxing at the campground, we loaded up for an adventure. Just 15 minutes north of us (plenty of time for kiddo catnaps, apparently - in their defense, we did get them up at 5:30 to leave the hotel) was Chickamauga Creek Gorge State Natural Area, which promised plenty of hiking and swimming opportunities. The trail wound up and down, and then split to either follow the creek (and cross the creek) or head up into the hills (with the promise of waterfalls and mines and overlooks). Because the kids wanted to swim, we stuck to the creek and headed for the Blue Hole (approximately a 2.5 mile round-trip trek). Being Labor Day weekend, there were PLENTY of other hikers and swimmers out there, but not overwhelmingly so, thankfully. The kids did pretty well, though there was some loud, repetitive complaining about "how much further" (and some quiet, under our breath whispers about "how many more hills"). Blue Hole was popular and boasted many brave young adults jumping off giant boulders and cliffs. James and I decided immediately that we were happy to just swim and observe, but Cora wanted to jump off that boulder SO badly... Jay watched the goings-on for a while, checking safety and behavior, then eventually climbed the boulder to take a look for himself. As soon as Cora spotted his head up there, she took off running and I couldn't stop her (so I just yelled loudly up to Jay that she was on her way - she had tried to go straight up when we arrived, but luckily listened to our instructions that she couldn't climb without one of us). Once they were at the top, they waited their turn and plotted their approach, and the next thing I knew, Jay was throwing my baby off the edge...

Rock hopping and stream splashing on the way to Blue Hole

 

Playing in the shallower areas while daddy contemplated jump safety

James made his own little jumps and slides, sweet buddy

He was anxiously watching his Sissy climb that boulder...

Last minute decision: let her jump and risk not clearing the rock completely, or toss her?

Tossed like a dwarf!

I waited with bated breath for the few seconds it took her to resurface, during which time Jay jumped in behind her. She surfaced with a smile, thankfully, and to the sound of roaring applause from the crowd (who all seemed pretty impressed with her bravery, as she was the youngest by far to take the plunge while we were there). I couldn't resist asking her a few post-toss questions:

 

The water was pretty cold (so she's not shaking from fear, I promise). Her lips eventually turned blue and we had to start hiking back to warm her up (with plenty of stops along the way to check out random wildlife and swim at a couple other smaller swimming holes).

We were almost back to the car at this point. She was exhausted, but insisted on carrying some souvenir rocks. Right after I took this photo and we started hiking again, I heard her yell behind me, and turned around to find her rolling down the side of the trail (thankfully, a tree just off trail stopped her before she went far). I don't know if she was not watching her footing and tripped, or wasn't looking where she was going and walked off the edge of the trail, but she was furious and scared (and crying and dirty and bloody and bruised - SO MANY scrapes on this trip!) It took another swimming hole stop and the promise of dinner and treats to calm her down. Big day for a little girl, and it was nowhere near over yet!

RACCOON MOUNTAIN CAVERNS

Yesterday after school we rushed home, loaded the van, said goodbye to Buster and the cats (don't worry, Mr. Nick was coming to stay with them), and headed north to Tennessee. We stopped for our usual leg-stretching dinner in Meridian (read: ChickFilA - the parents eat while the kids run around the playground, then the kids eat in the car), then made it as far as Tuscaloosa, Alabama before stopping for the night (in time to play at the hotel pool before bed). We had borrowed an audio book from the library (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) to see whether the kids would enjoy it (since they often ask us to read to them while driving, especially on long trips) and also because James was not allowed to play on his Kindle. The audio book was a huge hit with James (even when he didn't look like he was paying attention, he was - he'd comment on things he remembered from when I read the first half of the book to him), and liked/tolerated by Cora (she complained that we didn't listen to any songs). It took the whole drive to Tennessee and half the drive home to finish the novel, and we rewarded the kids with a viewing of the movie when we got home Monday night (which proved Cora was listening even when she was complaining, because she knew exactly what was going to happen at each scene, and hadn't previously read the book with James and I). And we did end up bending the Kindle rule at a couple of the restaurants we visited while in Chattanooga (but never in the car!)

Cabin #2, stage right. Two happy kids on a swing, stage left.

Goats! Adorable, but they made VERY creepy middle of the night noises one night that completely freaked me out. I swear I thought I heard children crying...

We arrived at our campground (Raccoon Mountain) nice and early (before lunch), and our cabin wasn't ready yet (we rented a "camping cabin", cabin #2, which was just a tiny, AIR CONDITIONED cabin with enough room for a full size bed and two twin bunk beds, but no bathroom - it did have a little refrigerator though, which was a nice bonus), so we decided to do their Crystal Palace cave tour first thing.

Cave salamanders! We saw a few of them, different species. There were also a bunch of cave crickets. No bats to be seen though (which is good, I suppose, since there was no discussion of cave visitor sanitation methods to prevent the spread of White-nose Syndrome)

After the cave tour, we checked into our cabin, made lunch (hot dogs and root beer, of course!), and the kids dug around for acorns while we decided how we wanted to spend our first afternoon in Tennessee!

STAR EXAMS, AUGUST 2015

We think Cora's reading assessment is spot-on. She is improving each week with us at home and, by our estimation, will be a fluent reader (of age appropriate books) by Christmas (if not sooner). It's been very different this time around with her than it was with James last year in Kindergarten - they are different kids and learn in different way, and with him as an example (and her natural abilities), she is moving along very quickly. We're really proud of her and grateful that she enjoys reading (and school in general) so much - it makes it easier on us parents, for sure!

Between math and reading, math would be where James excels. He likes to read and is very good at it (it's amazing how quickly he's grown as a reader over the past month), but math definitely comes easier for him. The only time I notice him struggling with math homework is if I find a wrong answer and have to correct him - he gets mad at me and tells me I'm wrong! He blurts the answers out so quickly that sometimes he skims though, because he thinks it's easy and therefore doesn't need to pay too close attention (for example, he added 4 and 4 to equal 4 yesterday, and when I corrected him, he literally slapped his forehead and said "Of course I know that, I just didn't see it right!"), but it's pretty rare for him to get a math question wrong (whether at school or on homework). I foresee he and Jay working the complicated stuff out among themselves someday, as math is not my strong suit. Jay went much further in his math training in college than I did and gets it a lot faster than I do. I may be a scientist, but I rely on my software programs to do most of my data analyses! Oh well, James likes to tease me about needing my toes to add 7 + 7 because I don't have enough fingers/thumbs... little stinker. Anyway, I wish this exam report had given us a little more to go on than "James' math skills are greater than 70% of students nationally in the same grade." That's great and all, but Cora's assessment gave us a lot more details to work with! Their recommendation to have us work with him adding and subtracting "numbers in the ones" "with sums to 10" seems pretty boring, considering he's been doing that and more for the past year...

I'm not sure how I feel about this exam report... We probably need to meet with his teacher to get an explanation of how we should interpret the acronyms and scores, but just a quick internet search tells me that his IRL score of PP means that he can read Pre-Primer words/books easily (rather than Primer or higher books), and that his ZPD score of 1.2-2.2 means that his IRL score is similar to that of other kids in grades 1.2-2.2 (so, approximately his current grade level/month of school up to the understanding of an early second grader) and that he should be reading books graded at 1.2-2.2 to promote optimal learning. At least, I think I'm interpreting that correctly... Another internet search tells me that Pre-Primer books correlate with late-kindergarten through mid-first grade, the excerpts for which seem to match most of what he reads at school and at home, which tells me that James is right where he needs to be. However, the description for Primer books (which correlate with the third quarter of first grade) also describe books that James currently reads (at home, at least), so he must be straddling the line of PP and P (even if his test scores don't exactly show it - as I explained the other day, he did need some practice with the AR computer testing system before he figured out how to complete it properly, and they didn't have any practice for their computerized STAR exams, taken in week two of school). I have no idea how to compare these results to the standardized test he took last March in Kindergarten,so again, I should probably ask Ms. Currie for a meeting just to clarify everything. And to ask her what "word attack skills" mean and how we should help James master them. Regardless of the specifics though, I assume he's doing just fine, since his first three AR books have been at the 1.5-1.6 level and he reads those with ease (which doesn't surprise us, since he tested out at level 1.7 last March in Kindergarten).

SCHOOL STUFFS

Cora drew a flying unicorn under a rainbow with a thunderstorm in the background. James added the unicorn's magic blue bolt up to the clouds...

Apparently he decided last minute that I needed to be taller...

This is pretty typical of some of the seatwork he does independently every day at school. I gave him a hint last night that once he reads the story, followed by the question, even though he knows the answer off the top of his head, he can refer back to the story to make sure he spells each word correctly (not a problem on this particular sheet, but there was another one with some incorrectly spelled words). I also asked him to be more careful about following the "rules" for writing each letter neatly and within the borders. His answer? "But I don't wanna get left behind!" So, either they have to do these worksheets quickly or his lack of focus/tendency to stall getting started causes him to stress a bit and rush through it. At least he gets the answers right even when he rushing.

Love those hippos!

WHEN PIGS FLY...

Artwork by Cora

Seatwork by James. At least he didn't talk about pigs flying...

Chalk art flying pig. This time with wings instead of balloons.

Artwork by James. There's often an animal or person yelling "Help me!" lately. And usually there is a volcano somewhere in the picture...

SKIER

James' requested documentation of his afternoon creation. He's very into this set lately!

GARDENING AND THE GREAT JAMES

Jay and Cora spent some time after dance class prepping the garden for winter veggies and planting seeds. This season we're going to try broccoli (our favorite veggie), lettuce, and spinach. We got very few tomatoes this summer, even fewer snap peas, and our carrots and potatoes were ridiculously tiny. The only thing that thrived were the cucumbers (and they sure created a lot of foliage to clear out before we could rotate the garden), and most of them were too big and bitter to eat. Fingers crossed we'll at least get good results from one out of three of the new plantings!

Just look at that smile! She was so happy and proud to be helping daddy!

 While daddy and Cora worked, James mostly entertained me inside the house (I was making dinner), but when he noticed Cora moving on to chalk drawings, he had to go out and join her. He's not into yard work much. Kinda like his mama...

 

James got some GREAT news today and he was SO VERY PROUD to go through his folders with me after school and tell me all about it! After being on RED the past two days (why oh why are we back to this again?!), he came home with PURPLE today! He also had a 100% score on his AR test to show me (get excited folks, that's a big deal! most kids in his class aren't even taking the tests yet because they aren't ready), as well as his first set of "graded" papers that were all scored with 3's and 4's (a new, non-graded system his school is using this year, where 3's basically mean he's right on target/meeting expectations for his age/grade and 4's mean he's exceeding those expectations). This was his second AR test, and the first one did not go nearly so well. He knew the book by heart and could easily answer any question we threw at him, but we think he just needed to get used to taking tests on the computer (they never did that at Agape, and we just started letting him play on the laptop at home when school started. Jay has been practicing with him by writing out questions for him to read and answer (fill in the blank or multiple choice) on the computer, so I know that helped. We also had him go over this book for 3 days rather than 2 before signing off for him to take the test, so the extra repetition likely helped as well. It seems the AR tests are like a book report (without the essay writing, of course) to ensure the kids are paying attention to the story and can recall details, but they also test reading skills by forcing the kids to read and answer the questions completely on their own (so, the more familiar they are with their book and the specific words that are perhaps a little harder to decipher, the better chance they have of answering their exam questions correctly). We're super proud of him (and looking forward to seeing the actual progress reports that will come home next week, not to mention the STAR exam results that we're still waiting on). James will have to keep working on his behavior, but he's handling his academics beautifully!

FAVORITE LEOTARD

Cora wears this leotard around the house pretty much every single day and it's her very favorite (it was a hand-me-down from Kara). In the past it was a little too big to wear in public (and usually too dirty, since as I said, she wears it constantly), but as she bounced around the house in it this afternoon (a 60% day at school meant that I got to go home and hang with the kids after my first PT appointment - more about that next week after we really start treatment), I noticed that it fit well enough AND had been recently washed. You'd have thought she won the Lotto when I asked her if she wanted to wear it to dance class! We had to snap a picture to send to Kara's mom.

EXPANSION PACK

Both kids still really like this magnet set that Auntie Robyn gave Cora for her 3rd birthday, so we ordered the Expansion Pack a while back when I found it on sale, and unknowingly tucked it away in one of the kids' MANY kitchen cabinets/drawers. It's a good thing we have so much storage space in our house because I'm pretty sure there is kid stuff in about half of each space in every room of the house! Since I recently cleaned the kid drawers (throwing away MANY old drawings - shhh! - and filled up coloring books and broken crayons and dried out markers), their cabinet and 4 drawers are all organized, which makes their desire to use their craft supplies and puzzles and games that much stronger. Anyway, James spotted the little Expansion Pack box and asked me to open it, then spent the next 30 minutes designing cars and people and flowers before we had to leave for dance, at which point he asked me to take a photo "in case Cannon messes it up while we're gone". Who am I to deny a picture request?!

HRC PLATFORM 9 3/4 K

This morning (Jay) and afternoon (Denise), we ran the Hogwarts Running Club's 2nd Annual Platform 9 and 3/4 K (the equivalent of 6.1 miles). It was hot and muggy, and a virtual race does not encourage you to perform like a normal race would, so Jay ran for fun with Gaurav and I tried my best to turn mine into mile/800 repeats (with breaks). Honestly, had I not signed up for the race, I'd have stopped at 3 miles. Yesterday just wasn't a good running day for me. But oh well, we got the miles done, and now we're both official members of the Hogwarts Running Club, Hufflepuff House, in case you're wondering! HRC does these events every other month, and each event benefits a different charity. Platform 9 3/4 benefited the Harry Potter Alliance's Accio Books! campaign, and they sold out an event for the first time ever with 4000 registrants worldwide - lots of Harry Potter fans out there!

The medal we received in the mail (all the way from the UK) is on the far left!

PICTURE DAY, FALL 2015

It's kinda funny getting dressed up for school picture day when everyone has to wear their uniform, white shirt specified! We attempted to accessorize with Cora's favorite bow and belts, but still, they're uniforms. At least the kids earned Paw Punch cards for wearing white, whatever those are...