Testing and weekend

This past weekend we took the kids to a model air plane show. It was neat seeing all the airplanes out there. We actually got to have fly overs by two full sized planes also. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them off of my camera. Ken loved the entire thing. Arcadia, being the girly girl she is, got bored really quickly. We went back to the car and read a book while waiting for Daddy and Ken.

We have gotten appointments to have both the kids tested for their IQ. No time like the present to get that application in at the school. Their appointments are both on Thursday morning. Arcadia's will last about an hour and Ken's will be about an hour and a half. Keep your fingers crossed that they both do well! :)

Is my child gifted?

Well... with all the behavioural problems we've been having with Ken, we were starting to wonder if he's really being pushed to his level of learning at school. I looked up gifted educational programs in the Colorado area and have found a few. One is called Stargate School and isn't too far from us. I've heard a lot about this school so I started looking into it. On the application it states we need to get an IQ test done for him to start the enrollment process for next year (it's already too late for this year, but we shall see, maybe I can get both kids in??? It is a free public school!)

Anyways... Looking up where to do IQ testing lead me to this:

Traits of Giftedness:

a good reader - which Ken is the best in his class
learns rapidly - depends on the subject but he's usually a sponge
excellent vocabulary - sometimes... LOL he is 6 so he says things I don't expect
very articulate - sometimes, othertimes not...
intense - often
good sense of humor - laughs at everything and loves to make up jokes
moral sensitive – things must be fair - especially between he and his sister
perfectionist - not so much. It depends on how much he cares for what it is
feelings hurt easily – sensitive - to a fault
curious - loves to ask questions and find things
high energy - umm... yea... this one answers itself!
prefer older friends - his best friend is in third grade
has a range of interests - loves soccer, spongebob, reading, sci fi, etc.
is logical - depends on what this is for, but not always
self taught - he taught himself reading once he understood the concept
questions authority - ALL THE TIME!!!!
has an ability to work things out in their head very quickly - sometimes, but not the majority
has strong views or opinions - very much so
has a lively imagination - you could say that.


So... after seeing this list... I have a definate idea that he would be on the gifted side. I just have to get the testing done... Shall update later on that front.

He's going to the zoo... zoo... zoo... how bout you... you... you...

Yea!!! His teacher said that he actually made an effort today!!! That he actually tried being good!!! AND he made two goals at his soccer practice (the later week ones are usually scrimage games for practice) Whoo hoo!!!! He's going to the zoo!!!! And we don't have to punish him!!!! What a wonderous thing that is!!!!

Red Light

Ken is on Red Light now at school. He just keeps talking back to the teachers. I'm very surprised that she hasn't put him on blue light yet. I let his teacher know that she shouldn't be afraid to put him on blue light. Of course... if she does that today... he is grounded all weekend and won't be able to go to the zoo tomorrow on the school field trip. That really took him by surprise. He's promising up and down that he'll be good. I'll find out for sure in an hour, but I have a feeling he'll be with me here tomorrow.

Arcadia is out of school tomorrow - teacher inservice day. So she may or may not go out with Daddy and have fun with him working... We shall see...

Fall

It's officially fall and now the weather matches the season. The leaves are starting to change and the sun sets so much earlier that soon Ken's going to practicing soccer in the dark. Hmm... I wonder what we'll do then? I guess his coach will have ideas. He's really good at defense, but needs some work on offense. He's afraid to take the ball away from the other kids to take it to the goal.

I walk the kids to school every morning and home from school in the afternoons. He's having a blast crunching the leaves on the sidewalk. He is loving fall so far. Now lets just get a rake in his hands so he can jump in a pile of leaves... :)

Arcadia is having a blast practicing her dance for the Christmas Recital. I can't wait to see her on stage... :)

I'll have to post some pictures as soon as I get them off our camera.

Quick update

Just a real quick update for you all.

Ken is on yellow light still (this is a good thing, he has NOT been moved yet and it's Friday tomorrow and only a half day!). He's absolutely crazy about soccer now, I have a feeling once he realizes that he can watch it on TV, he will and we along with him. He has his Fiesta tomorrow at school and then is going with Daddy in the afternoon to "help" out.

Arcadia is doing really well. She is constantly spelling out letters from billboards and signs and saying her numbers every time she seems them on signs. I remember Ken going through a similar phase right before things really clicked for him with reading.

We've been watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies this past week. (Only a little every night, it's an incentive for the kids to behave, etc. - about 30 to 45 minutes). Ken is absolutely entranced and is LOVING Jack Sparrow. I have a feeling that's what he'll want to be for Halloween... now to go find the costume out there... somewhere... Arcadia, of course, will be a ballerina/princess/fairy... the fairy part being the new thing. I'll have to go to Michaels to pick her up some stuff to make wings and "fairy dust" aka. glitter to decorate said wings. Of course Ken also said he wanted to be WALL-E this year and I could actually make that one!

Arcadia started practicing for her Christmas recital tonight at ballet. Her class is doing a dance to the Russian song from the Nutcracker. Lots of twirling! Perfect for a bunch of four year old girls!!!! Our instructor wants to put the adults into it also this year... we're not sure if we really want to... she keeps shouting "angels - you can be angels!" and then "oooo - marzipan, you can be marzipan!" yeah.... we'll see, don't hold your breath though.

Update on the kiddos

Let's see... this past week has been very full. Ken went down to "red light" at his school. His teacher states that he was almost on "blue" which is the one where he'd be grounded from everything and stuck in his room except for food and potty and soccer. Ughh... we've got to talk more to him about it. I did receive a note from his teacher stating that he needs to be challenged more in school (meaning that the curriculem is too easy for him, thus the reason he acts up) so she's going to come up with some ideas to do so. We'll have to see if that improves his behaviour.

Soccer is going very well. Ken really did well on Saturday. He even got a goal. He was very proud and he also played goalie for a part and he did really really good, even the coach was very impressed. That's a good thing, right? ;)

Let's see... Arcadia is doing great in school. The city had a ground breaking ceremony for the new library and her school was invited. Her teacher stated that she was the best behaved at the ceremony, that she stayed still and listened to every thing. I'm so proud.

Wednesday night we had a BBQ/Picnic for Arcadia's school. That was fun and the kids had a blast. When we got to the park, Arcadia stated that she saw some of the kids from school. Then she saw her teachers and said "Mommy, my teachers are here too!" She was soooo excited and didn't stay still at all the entire time. LOL We all thought it was quite cute.

The kids also "helped" with staining the inside of the fence. They didn't like the fact that it got all over them and they couldn't wash it off. Lovely. They decided to stop at that point... Oh well...

That's all for now.

Ken and School

Well... we seem to be doing okay with it all... He's still getting in trouble for not sitting still in class and for talking (hmmm... go figure), so he's mainly on a yellow light the entire time. I am one of the Room Mom's so I go in once a week and help out the teacher with filing, copying, etc. I'm also in charge of helping get the kids parent's that volunteered to remember to help when they state they would - for example, we have a class Fiesta next Friday, so we have parents signing up to bring food, pinatas, candy for said pinatas and bats to break the said pinatas. Also parents have signed up to help that day and they have to be there (my self included) at 9:45 am to help set up tables for the food and get everything up and organized for the kids. They're having a Fiesta in honor of Mexican Independence Day. (Any excuse for a party) and they're only having a half day that day. There's also the field trip to the zoo in three weeks... they are now looking for volunteers to be chaparones for that day... I'm not thinking I'll make it... we'll see!

Oh... and now we're off to our monthly Cub Scout Pack meeting. Boy, I sure hope there are more kids than Ken that sign up... Wish us luck!

The First Soccer Game

Well, we've had practice now for the past two weeks and today was the big day! Ken was all decked out in his gear (Guy got a really good deal at Dick's sporting goods) and he was good to go!

Getting some coaching with the team...

Various shots of Ken playing. :)

And, of course... Arcadia enjoying the game. :)

Aren't these the cutiest?

I found these while looking at some different blogs... I'm thinking about getting some for Arcadia....

Now it's time for my pictures

Pics from my camera


Being a true tourist in the Empire State Building.



I thought this was pretty... :) So I took a picture!


One of the many views... not going to bore you all with all the pictures from the top of the building...



Wow... what's Elmo doing in NYC walking down the street.



Oh... what many New Yorker's do at lunch time... get a hotdog from the Vendors!



Up close and personal with Lady Liberty's face.


My pic of the Lady.




Our hotel room... ain't it purty? and the bed was so soft and the lights came on automatically. Oh and there were "night lights" that came on in the night under the night stand and under the bathroom vanity when you walked around at night so you wouldn't knock over anything.


Just a quick pick of 30 Rock


In Central Park... these skaters were really neat to watch. It was like they were on ice!


My favorite Degas painting.


At the Times Square Toys R Us... these were entirely built from Legos!

New York City!!!!

Guy took me to New York over the Labor Day weekend and we had a blast!!!!
We went to places that we definitely couldn't eat at here (with the exception of Starbucks). We didn't eat breakfast two out of the four days... Friday we didn't wake up until 10:30 and couldn't get moving until 11:30. We did a LOT of walking and took the subway and buses everywhere we could.


Our Hotel on Central Park (Essex House). We couldn't get a room facing Central Park... so we got to look at a construction site out our back window... at least it's better than NOT having a window, right?



The Chrysler Building



Waiting for the #4 Green Line train (I think)




Had to get a picture of the Garbage barge, right? We don't have them here in Denver, so it's a must! ;)




Ground Zero. Lots of construction work going on there.



Ahh... the Empire State Building...
What they don't tell you is that in order to get to the top... you have to wait in a line (for the ticket windows) to wait in a line (for a souvenir picture) to wait in a line (for the elevator to the 80th floor) to wait in a line (for another elevator to the 86th floor) to wait in a line to get outside. Yes, we could stay outside for as long as we wanted to... :) But then we had to wait in another line to get out, sooooo much fun...



Various Views from the top of the Empire State Building



Then we got to meet famous people. :) okay, not really, it was just Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum, but hey.. it was really neat!









The ever needed picture of time square... :)


and Radio City Music Hall



We did finally get to see Lady Liberty on Saturday. It was gray and rainy, but we had fun on the Ferry... :)

The waterfall in the background is some art piece that was put up fairly recently.


The Lady herself



Her original glass torch. Guy has a story about the original torch, but I don't want to mess it up, so I'm not going to tell it at this time... I'll see if I can find it.




Unfortunately, our way to the crown was barred (or glassed off, however you want to put it), so this was as close as we could get. Even with ALL the security to get on the island and then into the monument, they still won't let anyone up to the crown any longer.


That afternoon was spent in Central Park on a nice leisurely walk. (Well, we were looking for the entrance to the Central Park Zoo, but just couldn't find it anywhere).

But we did find the bridge from Enchanted... :)



And an Alice in Wonderland statue with kids climbing all over it.



And the boat racing lake from Stuart Little...



We even found Stuart Little's House



We also found the "Dum Dum Gum Gum" statue from Night at the Museum


Our favorite museum though (we visited a lot - Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, the MoMA) we really LOVED the Met... A lot of classical painters were featured there and it took us a good part of Sunday Morning just to maneuver around the museum.

Degas


Seurat


I truthfully don't know who painted this one, we just knew it was the one stolen in "The Thomas Crowne Affair" with Pierce Brosnan.


I have a lot more pictures. These are just a few from Guy's camera. I haven't even touched my camera yet. so... More to come at a later date!