Music Man

Collin has always loved music whether he was shaking is diapered booty as a toddler, singing with a fake microphone, drumming on the back of the driver car seat, singing A cappella because the mood struck him at the moment or needing music to fall asleep.  I love it when he randomly sings a lyric from a song from the 80s or requests for a certain song to be played while we are in the car.


Recently, he discovered a VERY old iPod Shuffle I used to use while I was training for triathlons.  I don't use it anymore because 1) I cannot run with it during the race and 2) I run so early in the morning that I wanted to be more alert and hear if something or someone was coming up behind me.  The iPod had a variety of music loaded on it but mainly upbeat music because that's what I needed to listen to especially on long runs.  Well, Collin found this iPod Shuffle sitting on a speaker deck similar to the following and wanted to use it instead of the CDs he has been listening to at night for years.  Because the music was all mainly upbeat, it was not very restful music.  It was fun to listen to some of the songs again but it extended the bed time routine too long.

Dad loaded new music that was more bedtime appropriate like the Eagles, Elton John, Chicago, Foreigner and other slower songs from the 70s.  There is some Michael Jackson too but not Bill Idol like Collin requested.  I sing the songs and Collin asks questions about the lyrics or tries to sing along with me. 

I love this time with my guy and sharing our love of a variety of music with him.

Odyssey of the Mind - 3rd Grade Team

Collin has been working with his Odyssey of the Mind team of seven students since October 2016.  They have met weekly to work on Spontaneous problems (verbal and non-verbal puzzles and problem-solving) and the Long-Term Problem.  They chose the vehicle problem which was titled Catch Me if You Can.  They had to solve the problem following very specific rules.  It took them until January to build the 3 vehicles that met the requirements.  Then, they had to come up with a story about why the vehicles were running away from someone chasing them.  Then, they took several weeks to practice the sorry line.  Two of the three vehicles had problems running the way the way there were designed.  Sometimes they worked, and then some times they did not.  Instead of creating new vehicles, they decided to try these and hoped they worked on the day of competition.


The day of competition, they were all excited and came prepared to hang out for the day.  The Long-Term Problem was scheduled at 11am and the Spontaneous Problem at 2:15pm which meant we had a few hours in between to eat, play outside and get ready for the next Problem.  The Long-Term Problem was delayed an hour so they did not start until noon.  Trying to keep seven 8 and 9 year olds occupied and not too bored since 10am is challenging enough.  Now, they were getting hungry and falling apart.  As the coach, it was tough to decide between getting a snack, getting some quick lunch that was served at the school or skip it because we could be called to present in 5 minutes.  It worked out fine that most of the kids got a prepared Chick-fil-A bagged meal.  The sugar in the cookie should give them a needed sugar rush right before it was time for them to compete.  Also during this time, the Principal and Vice Principal of their school stopped by so they could watch them perform.  They were excited that the Principals were there.

Checking in with the front desk

Going over the paperwork as a team

When it came time for them to perform, they were focused and ready.  The first vehicle worked like it always did, then the second one worked....Yeah!!!!  The third one did not work and had to be re-run.  It was fixed and re-run...but it did not work again.  Instead of wrapping up and introducing the team like we had practiced several times, the vehicle "engineer" worked on the car again...and they ran out of time.  Each team is allotted 8 minutes for the performance.  If the vehicles work, they are finished under 5 minutes so the extra time is helpful...but they are not supposed to run out of time.  We were proud of how they worked together and remained calm after the third vehicle continued not to work.

Waiting their turn to start their presentation

Getting instructions from one of the judges and understanding what to expect

Kamila is narrating and starting the presentation

Camilo is working on the vehicles

Bella and Saige are Max and the Grinch

Grinch is talking about stealing Christmas again

Working on the second vehicle

Eli is helping Camilo with the third vehicle

Collin is playing Santa.  He refused to wear the boots, belt and beard because he was too hot.  Really hard to blame him for that.



Saige and Collin wondering if they need to wrap up the presentation to finish on time

The judges asking questions about the vehicles and how they came up with the idea

Between the Problems, we went our separate ways to get lunch and then met on the playground or hung out in the nice weather outside because the kids had been inside all day so far.  The parents needed to be outside too because it's really noisy inside with at least 500 people in the building. 

Great picture of the team outside

There was a little break down between several of the team members during this time mainly because I think they were tired and their patience was running out.  To be on a team like this, the kids are all Type A.  Getting each other to agree and play together regularly is already a challenge.  Being 1:30pm on the day of competition was making it worse. 


Finally, time for Spontaneous.  Collin and another team member sat out because only 5 team members could compete in this part of the competition.  This REALLY did not make Collin happy so I had to talk to him about working with a team and the selection process.  That did not help his spirits any.  He was fine once the team was out.  During this time, I got the scores for the team.  They scored 155 out of 250.  I was so proud of them for that score and the following comments from the judges: 

• “Good Job!”
• “Great team work!”
• “Good job – Great patience!”
• “I loved it!  Very clever vehicles, simple and complicated”
• “What a super awesome job. Keep up the great job.” 

We did get a penalty of 5 for the “Spirit of the Problem” for not having at least one vehicle travel from the side of the garage.  We knew we were going to get this one because we agreed early on to skip requirement this because we needed to move on in interest of time.  The other deductions were for the last two vehicles not doing what they were supposed to do.  I did not see any obvious points deducted for not wrapping up the presentation and running out of time. 

 

I am proud and, frankly shocked, to announce that our team placed 5^th out of 17.  We are going to State Competition! 


Dancing with Icky Girls!

Friday was Go Texan Day at school...which for Collin meant that he had to dance with a girl.  It was hilarious for us to watch the boys try has hard has they could not barely touch their partner.  The boys that had long sleeved shirts on pulled the sleeves over their fingers so they would not have to touch their partner's hands.  Ha!


The students danced with their grade.  3rd grade performed at starting 9:10am and lasting about 20 minutes.  That's a lot of dancing.  Collin did really well with the dance steps and taking care of his partner. Then, it was time for the parents to join in the Cotton Eyed Joe and the Chicken Dance.  Collin came over to get me which was nice and meant that he wanted me to dance with me.  Sure glad I showed up then!


I dressed Collin in a bright yellow shirt so it would be easy to find it.  It worked...check him out in these pictures.  Spotted him right away, didn't you?

Right before dancing with the boys.  His buddy, Luke, was not happy that another girl was touching him.  So funny!

Basketball is Over.....

The Raptors played Saturday in their first tournament game of the Silver bracket.  At first, they were leading by over 12 points.  Then, the B team played and the other team had a super star player on that team...closing the lead the A team created.  Collin drew a few fouls and was able to get some points from the free throw line.  He also got a few rebounds.  In the end, the Raptors lost by a basket (2 points).


Thanks for a fun, quick season boys!  Now.....moving on to baseball.  Collin decided he did not want to play the 7 on 7 football league.  Yeah!!  I did a still victory dance with that decision because 1) I love watching him play baseball and 2) the 7 on 7 games would be all over the city meaning a lot of time in the car.  We would make the most of it but, I am happy with this.

Looking for his man to get ready to guard him

He has his eye on the ball

Watching #1 because that's the super star on the other team.

"Mom, I can clean the sweat out of my eyes and run at the same time!"

Love his hair in this one because it shows how fast that boy can run!

First Class Presentation

Collin's first presentation in front of his class was to research and report about an invention.  He selected the Donut.  Not too surprised with that choice because that's his favorite thing to eat...besides cheese burgers or strawberries.
Wednesday of the week the presentation was due, he came home with a poster board.  I asked him what it was for and he said that he was to draw on it but it was not due the next day.  I did not think this was the entire story so I emailed his teacher that night.  We then headed to a 7:45pm basketball game.  Later that night, I found out that this was part of a large project he had know about from the week before that was due Friday and included:

• Visual Aid - hence the poster board but the students could use what they wanted and to be creative
• Research and Report - he was to write four paragraphs about the invention he selected
• Class Presentation

Wow!  Learning about this a week after he first heard about it was not fun for us....and for him.  I had him think about what he wanted to include on the poster after we got home from a late night basketball game.  Thursday, he had another basketball game so he got to work on the list above before and after the game. 
He had plenty of time over the weekend but chose not to work on this project.  He either misunderstood what was required, did not pay attention or did not care to ask questions about what he was supposed to do.  The teacher did tell us at the beginning of the year that it's up to the students to learn time management, organization and scheduling their work.  I really wanted to help him with this project but knew this would not help him in the long run.  I did at least tell him how I tackle projects at work by breaking down the requirements into different steps.  He then did the same thing for this project.  He started with the poster before the game and then worked on the report when he got back home.  I did help him focus on a few important facts about the donut that he could include in the presentation and then I asked him to tell me those points as if he was telling a story.  He practiced this at least 5 times and was really smooth when he did it. I then held the poster up for him to stand in front of and present to Dad and Burke a few times for practice.  He was not nervous and did really well.
Before going to bed, I encouraged him to raise his hand Friday if the teacher asked for volunteers to present first.  I explained that all of this information would be fresh tomorrow and would be better for him if he got to be one of the first students to present. 


Here is the poster board that includes a donut in the right bottom corner and a donut as the "O" in the word Donut (creative).

Some of the facts he learned about the donut...

 

....and more facts.

 I am really interested to find out how he did on this. 

Reading Upadate....Baby Steps and Success

At a loss for how to get Collin engaged when reading books so he can move to the next level, I called our local bookstore to see what books she might recommend.  She said she would pull a few that should be at his current level and the level he should be at by the end of the school year for him to look through.  The plan would be that we would casually walk in the store, have him sit at a table and flip through some of the books.  We would not be in a rush so he could take his time looking through the books. 


When we arrived, I sat away from him and the lady so he could focus on her and her sweet voice as she was explaining the books she pulled for him to look through.  She explained there was no pressure if he did not like any of them.  She could keep looking until he found one he thought he might like.  After about 5 minutes of looking at the titles, he selected Dog Man which is about a creature that had a dog head on a man's body.  This creature is a cop.  He sat there and read about 10 pages without stopping, getting distracted or asking when we would leave. 

When I could see that he was getting to a stopping point, I asked him about the other books and if he thought he would like any of the other ones.  He flipped through some of them and selected Sherlock Sam and the Missing Heirloom in Katong. 

I gave money for Collin to walk to the checkout counter and buy the two books.  We needed to leave to head to golf which was less than 10 minutes away.  As I was parking, I was so shocked to look back and see this:

What?  Collin was reading on his own without me asking?  Where did my kid go? 


He played an hour of golf, we grabbed dinner on the way home and then got comfy before he started some school work.  He did that for about 30 minutes and then he wanted to read some more.  He asked me to get one of my books and sit with him which I did.  I assumed we would do this for 20 minutes or so.  Nope!  We read for over an hour.  Collin ended up reading all 231 pages of Dog Man and asked when we could get the next book in the series.

Basketball Videos

Here are two videos during the game last night.  Collin is #5.  Nothing spectacular happens in each of these as far as Collin making a basket.  However, you can see how fast he moves from one side of the court to the other.  Also, he is right in there with the ball looking for the rebound or blocking the other guy to help his team.

Visit with the Vet

As part of his requirement for his Critter Care Cub Scout bucket, Collin was required to visit a local Vet to take a tour and learn about what happens at a Vet.  After picking up Burke from the Vet this week (he got a bath and his nails clipped), Dad made an appointment to come back when the Vet had more time to show them around.  Dad and Collin went with a friend the next day and were gone about 30 minutes learning about the Vet and what they do there.  They got to see where they keep the pets, where surgeries happen and where they weigh the animals.  Their favorite part was looking at a bag of barf because the dog had eaten rat poison.  The Vet gave the dog a pill to make it throw up so the poison would come up with it.


Thanks Dad for doing this with the boys. 

Showing one of the huge dogs the Vet rescued

In the operation area

Yes, that' the dog barf.  At least it's in a bag.