2nd Grade BUGZ Play

Over the last month, 2nd grade has been working on their annual BUGZ play.  Dad was one of the parent volunteers to help update the costumes and to teach a group of kids their lines and dance during the play.  For 3 days a week, he went to school to work with the Fireflies (Collin is one of the Fireflies).  Because there are so many boys in 2nd grade, the Fireflies were all boys.  The dance in the prior years was slow and meant to be graceful.  Because this would be too slow for the boys, Dad thought of a few good changes to include for the Fireflies.  Even the Principal said the dance was the best she had seen.

This was a really good play for the kids because they all had talking parts.  Some where by themselves and others talked in a group.  Collin said his lines with two other boys.  He knew them perfectly but must have been really shy when it came time to present to the parents because he was barely moving his mouth during his turn.

Here is the Firefly dance.  Collin is in the back and dances around.  He is hard to see at times because his headgear is really low on his face.

Here are a few pictures of the Fireflies during the play.

Alex, Collin, and Trace on the back row

Collin and Trace

The Army Ants were really cute.

Army Ants saying their lines.  Collin is sitting at the lower left corner.

Bike Brigade

I am so proud of Dad and Collin with what they have done with getting kids in the neighborhood to ride bikes to school daily.  Kids that had not been riding a bike before, want to learn to ride a bike so they could ride to school with the other kids.  Multiple kids HAVE learned to ride their bike and are doing great during the ride to and from school. It's a "thing" now for the kids to carry their bike helmet clipped to the back of their backpack so the other kids know they ride their bikes.  After less than 4 months of the Bike Brigade, the school has had to add 3 new bike racks because there are that many kids riding bikes to school.  Dad started with our neighborhood.  The word quickly got out and other neighborhoods wanted to be included.  Now, there are six neighborhoods that are riding regularly to school.  I LOVE seeing the bikes locked up at the bike racks when driving by the school or being a part of the ride on the way to or from school.  The kids are learning great skills that they can use the rest of their life.

Collin loves being a part of the brigade and riding up from to help Dad out with directing the rest of the riders.  I wonder if he really knows how cool this is and what Dad has done for the community.

Collin on his new bike to the right about to lead out the new group

Dad and the bike brigade

Dad is giving the group instructions and letting them know how to call out and ride on the road 

Adding a new group to the pack

A small group on a cloudy, cold morning

The latest group to be added to the bike brigade

Gifted or Just a Pain-in-the-Butt?

In the Fall, Collin's teacher suggested he be tested for gifted and talented (GT) because of some of his behaviors in class...especially finishing his work early, being bored and then disrupting the class.  In addition, he was doing OK in reading but towards the bottom of his class (I thought this was an odd "sign" too).  His Odyssey of the Mind coach also suggested Collin could be gifted based on her knowledge of what to look for and working with him processing ideas and information during their meetings at a team.  She also suggested he be tested.

I love Collin and knew he was smart but would not have considered him GT mainly because this term had not been used when I was growing up and I was not aware of anyone in the extended family labeled as GT.  I am sure my oldest nephew is but

We did give the school approval for him to be tested and were told it could take several months to get the results back.  The wait was FINALLY over two weeks ago but I am just now getting a chance to research what it means and how we might be able to understand how Collin is performing in school so far.

His CogAT test results were 5B (N+) which means he tested average to above average for most of the abilities and close to gifted/talented in nonverbal spacial reasoning (NSR).  The nonverbal score means he thinks in pictures and has trouble with sequential teaching.  That explains why he has trouble with math word problems but is above average in math.  This also explains why he is far behind his class and grade level for reading.  Not sure how that ties in right now but this is typical for a person with high marks in nonverbal reasoning.  I quickly read it's because of the sequential ordering thing.  He can read the words but is not comprehending them because he has to paint a picture in his mind what he is reading.  He cannot quickly do that to answer the teacher's questions about the book he just read...so his reading score is affected.

Here is a really good summary:  http://dancing-with-dragons.blogspot.com/

I am actually excited to learn this because it will help Dad and I when we work with Collin on his homework.  Maybe knowing that Collin learns and absorbs information differently will help. If we help him "paint a picture" and give him a little more time instead of rushing him, he can improve in some of the subjects, like reading, he is struggling with.  

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After 1 1/2 weeks and applying what we learned from these tests results, homework and reading is SO much better.  Now that we know why Collin gravitates to books with more pictures, we just make sure we give him books with challenging words that do have pictures on a majority of the pages.  These are not easy to find but we have found a few like the Bad Kitty  and George Brown: Class Clown series.  He has done his homework the this week without a fuss....at all!  That is a complete change from the arguing, distracted homework sessions before now.  I hope this is not temporary and we are headed in the right direction.

1st Baseman

Dad and another team mate's dad got Collin and the 1st baseman together yesterday to practice throwing the ball to each other.  Collin has a fear of hitting the runner when he throws the ball to 1st so they thought practicing without the runner and throwing the ball over and over again would help. They then switched the boys and Collin played 1st and did fantastic.

The other Dad let the coach know how Collin played so he decided to let Collin play 1st baseman for the game tonight.  He did amazing!  I know I am his mom but even the other team's coaches were making comments about how he was doing.  Dad and I were really proud of him.  During the first inning, he made two outs from throws to 1st.  He also was the cutoff man for the throw from the outfield to stop the runner from advancing.

He was at bat first and hit to short stop who threw it to 1st to get him out.  His hit was a solid one but the other team's fielding was really good.

He came back out to play 1st base at the top of the 3rd inning and was clearly upset.  We did not know what was wrong.  Why would be be upset when he was playing really well....even better than he was playing when he was pitcher.  He kept looking over at us and pouting.  I could not wait for the inning to be over so I could run to the dugout to figure out what was going on.  When I walked over, I noticed an older boy talking to Collin from the outside of the dugout.  As I walked up, he looked over at me and then walked off.  I asked Collin what was wrong and he said that the other kids were saying he hit bad and that Clayton hit really good.  He did not understand why they were saying that because he also hit to the same spot as Clayton.   I asked who was saying this to him and he just told me a mean boy did it.  I figured out it was the boy that was talking to him when I walked up.

When he went to play in the field again, he was even more upset and was even slightly crying.  He was not paying attention to the plays and was playing sloppy compared to how he was playing before.  We tried to tell him to shake it off but he didn't.  Because of some throws he did not catch,the other team scored 2 runs.

At the end of the game, he was so upset, he threw his baseball glove on top of the dugout.  At least he was showing some emotion after the game compared to the other games.  But I knew this was because of what was said about his hitting and not that they did en up losing a close game by 4 runs (13 - 17).  It was a fantastic game but had to watch the boys lose again.

After the coach talked to the boys, Dad did talk to the other boy's dad and let him know what Collin said that the boy said.  The boy came over to apologize and Collin just stood there.  Later I found out that he said he did not know what to say and was embarrassed by the attention.

I hate that he has to learn lessons like this but it's part of being social and know how to respond to people being mean to him.  We talked about it more before going to bed.  I let him know that people have said mean things to me and it's IS hard to hear them.  I let him know that I had to learn how to respond and he will need to also.  It will not be easy, but I am here and so is Dad to teach him.  That's one of the many jobs parents have.

Funnest Camp....EVER!!

At the entrance of the camp

After playing an early baseball game (game #4 and another loss), Collin and I headed to Camp Bovay Ranch which is a boy scout camp for the weekend.  Most of the other boys in his Den went Friday night but we could not go because of the baseball game.

When we arrived, the boys were all gone working on an activity.  We found out we had about 15 minutes to park and then head to lunch.  That left no time to pitch the tent and unload the truck. There was time to unload Collin's bike which he was on unless he was eating or working on a scout activity.

We road our bikes to lunch and caught up with the other boys.  Before lunch, we had to stand near the flag and pray.  Each time, a scout Den got to lead the prayer.  These boys were the first in line which was an incentive our boys figured out REAL quick.

Here is were they feed 862 people that were camping this weekend.  Lunch was hamburgers.  Collin ate his and his friend's because he was that hungry.  Dinner was fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and chocolate cake.  Collin ate everything but the mash potatoes (he is still not a fan).  Breakfast the next morning was cereal, muffin and fruit.  Collin knew I brought my own food because he knew I could not eat what they were serving.  He wanted me to get in line so he could eat my meal too.  He was HUNGRY!

Flag pole meeting place before each meal

Red barn where the food was served

Collin, Conner, Trace and Broady having breakfast

Best bud at breakfast

Collin getting back on his bike after a meal.  Love the flag and the scenery here.

During lunch, I found out the rest of the activities.  The boys were booked until 5:30pm.  I had no idea when I was going to get the tent set up and us ready for the night.  I now know coming Friday night is best.  Hey, for a tax CPA to even be away from the office on the weekend of April 9th and 10th is huge....so just being here for less than 24 hours was a big deal.

The activities for the rest of the day were Archery, Paddle Boats, BB Guns, and a hike.  These were back-to-back and only allowed enough time to get from one activity to another.  Good thing we had bikes because this did allow us to get to the other activity quicker and explore just a few minutes before the next activity started.

ARCHERY

Collin had not shot a bow and arrow before.  Luckily, they did have a left-handed bow for him.  He thought it was funny to do the opposite of what the instructor was showing the boys because the instructor was right-handed.  They boys got 6 arrows to shoot.  Collin hit the target every time and even got one in the middle.

Ready....aim....

Bulls eye!

PADDLE BOATS

The paddle boats were not what I expected.  After getting a life vest, we all boarded the wooden flat raft.  The boys had to pull a large rope that was connected to the island on the other side.  This is was moved the boat.  On the island, they searched for "gold" which was gold painted rocks.  Collin did find a few pieces that the other groups had not found yet.  On the way back, someone was fishing off the boat and caught a huge fish.  Everyone on board rushed over to see it but forgot we were on a "boat" which started bringing in water because all of the weight quickly shifted to the back.  The boys thought this was great but a few were worried we were going to sink.  We didn't.

Here is the view from the island

Another view from the island

Headed to the island.  Collin is sitting and wearing the blue life jacket.

Still headed to the island

BB GUNS

Collin has shot a BB gun before but was was still excited to shot...especially next to his buddy Conner who he hung out with the entire time.  He shot mainly clustered around the middle with a few to the top left.  These were his first few shoots before he adjusted.  I was impressed with his shooting.

I did start to rain and I was glad we were under cover.  It was still sprinkling when it was time to go but it was not too bad at that point.

Collin on the left

Collin taking aim again

NATURE HIKE

The boys were really listening and had lots of questions during the nature hike.  The guide was mainly talking about plants and flowers.  I thought for sure the boys would loose interest soon but they didn't.  Collin wanted to see the picture of each of the plants/flowers the guide pointed out in the book he was carrying.

Different, but peaceful scenery

Learning about an pink evening primrose

Stopping to ask lots of questions

Finally, I was able to get the camp set up while the boys road around.  I had about 30 minutes before it was time for dinner, s'mores, skits around the camp fire and, then, hopefully...bed!  It was already a long day but Collin was having a blast.

Our tent is on the right.  Collin wanted to be next to Trace and the scout den leader.

The monkeys before dinner

This reminds me of is Aunt Lisa

After dinner, the boys helped start a fire for the s'mores.  They were more interested in burning the sticks or the marshmallows than eating s'mores.  I was happy to help eat some though.  Yummy!

I love that he did not even take time to take his helmet off.  He wanted to be ready to ride when he was finished.

Still burning sticks

Eating his first s'more....and could not finish it

Asking how long to cut the marshmallow

When it got dark, we all gathered around the fire for some singing and each Den to do a skit.  This was all to get their badge.  The fire was really nice because it was getting chilly.

The next day, the boys ran to breakfast and were the first to be there so they could be part of the color guard and announcements.  Remember, this is because they wanted to be first in line for breakfast.

Boys getting instruction before the color guard

Taking turns reading the prayrer

Waiting for the flag

We had to leave early because we had to get back for Collin's soccer game at 11am.  As we were leaving, Collin asked me if I had fun.  "This was the funnest camp ever.  When can we come again?  Did you have fun mom?"  I did have a great time.....and need to take a nap....and shower before we do it again.  Love that he had so much fun and make great memories.

Grocery List

I am not feeling well this morning so Dad said he would get groceries if we made a list.  Collin said all we needed was donuts....and strawberries....oh, and milk.  Dad's point was made so we started a list.  Here is what was important to include on the list for Collin:


I think it's a good variety for a growing 8 year old boy.

Baseball - Game #3

Collin is doing fantastic as pitcher for the Cardinals.  He does not pitch the ball to the other team but he does otherwise play that position.  The first play was hit stopping a pop up hit right to him and he threw it to 1st base.  The runner would have been out but the 1st baseman dropped the ball.

Baseball ready at the pitcher's mound

Throwing to 1st

Ready for the ball

He got on base each time he hit.  All of his hits we past the baseline but not quite to the outfielders. Not a bad spot because the outfielders have to run toward the ball which dropped short and they had to throw it in.

Great swing!

Following through the ball

Nice "squishing the bug" with his back foot

He ran the bases great and made at least one run for the team.

Headed to 1st

Great stride heading to 1st

Rounding 2nd to 3rd

Waiting at 3rd to head home

They did end up losing 12-14 but played so much better as a team than the games before.