Bethany Hamilton-Soul Surfer

Bethany Hamilton-Soul Surfer

Khin saw an article in the local Press Enterprise paper on Thursday advertising that Bethany Hamilton (Soul Surfer) would be speaking at three services at Vantage Point Church in Eastvale. We showed the kids the photo of her in the paper, and they said they wanted to go to see Bethany.  The first service started at 8:30, so we arrived about 8:20.  Much to our amazement, there were already more than 1,000 people in line ahead of us!  We decided to wait and finally made it into the overflow room for the 10:00 service where Bethany’s interview with Pastor Mark Lee was shown on a big screen.  Before the service started, Bethany did come into the cafeteria, where we were sitting, to say hello and thank you for coming.

I was quite impressed with her wisdom, sweetness and love for God.  She said one thing that impacted me, “Your prayer life defines who you are.”  She is only 21, but she is wise beyond her years.

Literacy at Home

These days all Jedadiah has on his mind are Beyblades!  He woke up Thursday morning saying, "Let it Rip." It is fun to watch him enjoy something so much.  He said he might be a mechanical engineer, so he can design some new blades to battle. 
This week at drawing class, he drew a hummingbird!

School Work

School Work

The students are busy working, reviewing and studying hard. 

Week 20: Jan. 17-20, 2012: Frequency Word List

Frequency Word List

Several months ago, I reorganized the frequency word lists into a phonetic based list. I thought it might help Jedadiah to hear the sound of the vowels and to help him remember the spelling of all 50 words.  This week, I gave him the list to read.  When he got to the fourth column, he said mom all the words have the same sound, like /a/ or /o/.  He understood the concept, even though, I had never told him how the list was organized.  He said it was easier to read the words this way.  Good job!

Lista 1-Lista 5

se	va	yo	sì	el	y	una	por	sol	gusta	su	dònde
me	la	no	mi	en		un		soy	gustan	sus	detràs
de	las	los	ti	ella				voy			tambièn
Què	ya	lo	aquì	està
fue	da	dijo	mira	es
le	mamà	debajo		del
veo	para	buscò		tengo
	casa	con
		son

Literacy at Home

Apart from doing his homework, reading log and reading in English, he keeps himself busy by drawing pictures and playing with Beyblades, his newest fascination.

Drawn at his art class on Tuesday.

His own design.

A Very Nice Thank You

Sra. Mendoza took the time to write a note of thanks for the Christmas gifts given:

Reading Award

For the first trimester, Jedadiah earned a reading award for being proficienct or advanced in reading at the kindergarten grade level.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics

The past several weeks the coaches have been evaluating all of the gymnastics students.  This Saturday the students received an evaluation sheet rated from 1-4 all of the areas of review.  Since Jedadiah is now in the Boys Academy, Level 1, we were happy to see that he had scored mostly 3’s and 4’s in all areas!  Good job, Jedadiah!

School Work

Another student drops out

Another student drops out

We were all saddened by the news when we heard that Ryan was being pulled out of the program.  Especially to Jedadiah because he thinks of Ryan as his brother and Jedadiah expected him and Ryan to go through eighth grade together.  I know that Jedadiah was gloomy when he hugged Ryan and said goodbye.  I am certain that we will see Ryan in the future, but it won’t be the same. 

Vacation Homework

Vacation Homework

All of the kindergarten students were given a green folder filled with 10-worksheet of math, writing the numbers from 1-30 and 10 papers to write journals, writing 2 sentences for each journal entry. 

I was under the impression that the students were required to submit the completed folders to Sra. Cervantes on Monday morning.  However I noticed that only a small handful of students were turning in the homework. Some of the parents asked me if the homework was supposed to be turned in or was is only busy work to keep the kids occupied during vacation.  I said I had assumed it was to be submitted to the teacher. Regardless if the homework is to be graded or not, I am proud that Jedadiah finished all of his work. 

Week 19, Jan. 9-13, 2012; First Week back after vacation.

Rehearsal

I told Jedadiah that we would begin school on Monday, so by Thursday I noticed that he was beginning to babble in Spanish using either made-up words or words that he knew.  It was interesting to see his mental focus changing from English to Spanish. After three weeks off, I am sure that his first day back was mentally exhausting!

Overview of Christmas Break

For me and the kids, having three week off was wonderful. 
We had lots of fun going to Laguna Beach, the Huntington dog beach, the Wedge at Balboa and Corona del Mar.  The water temperature may have been in the high 50's but that didn't stop the kids from getting in the water and either jumping the waves or boogie boarding. We enjoyed a visit from Grandma, where the kids baked lots of cupcakes, bread, cinnamon rolls and cookies.  This year, Samara showed an interest in being the baking assistant.

We also went to the skateboard park on five different occasions and Pike's Peak Park one time, where we met some old friends. One Friday morning, we went to the open play time at Scat's gym in Chino Hills. We watched lots of episodes of Bey Blade, Pokemon, PowerRangers and Shake it Up. In between all of these activities, he finished his 10 pages of math homework and 10 journal entries where he had to write 2 sentences on each page and draw a corresponding picture.  We even remembered to put another layer on our family pinata, which we need to take to the next Dual Immersion Family Meeting in February.
The craziness starts again today.  We will have spring break the last week of March and the first week of April.  Hopefully Sra. Oliver will be back to school on January 23, 2012.