Dear Mark,
I am so proud of you. You have had a great Kindergarten year! Sometimes people can’t remember Kindergarten very well. Here are some things that I remember about this special year in your life.
I know you are looking forward to adding history and spelling to your subjects next year. You will be a great first grader! I love you, I love you, XOXOXOX -Mom
Rose, our Laurel president wrote a play for the youth to perform. She directed it, prepared the set, and put up tables and chairs for the dinner theater last night. It was Laurel awesomeness.
Lady Emerald, the maid, Professor Topaz (Paige), Mr. Onyx, Aunt Pearl, Mrs and Mr Ruby were the suspects in the whodunnit thriller, Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar.
Sherlock Holmes and Watson were on hand to solve the crime.
The lights went out…thunder rumbled… and someone stole the jewel cookie!
Sherlock accuses Auntie Pearl!
Oh, the drama.
Our new Beehive shouts, “Let’s hear it for Rose!”
The kids had a lot of fun. Daniel did the lights. Paige was a great bespectacled Professor Topaz. Everyone was a star.
Some baseball shots for Grandpa Ross since he can’t be with us.
I teach Newton’s Laws of motion using a hovercraft. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach a large group of elementary age children. One of the parents snapped these photos and I am so glad to have them. It was just a fun day. 
Daniel was my helper.
We had a father and a grandfather there and I was so glad that they were willing to help. Timothy, Mark, and Daniel all took rides, but I don’t have photos of all of them.
I think this picture is hilarious. My favorite part of the class was after the kids left and all of the adults took a turn on the hovercraft.
I love that the youth are willing to spend many evenings bagging beans for the food bank.
Or sew for the elderly…
I love being with Paige each Wednesday night.
It’s Sunday, and that usually means extra church meetings for Richard and me. But today is special because it’s a rare, unscheduled 5th Sunday.
What to do?
I think I’ll take some time and reflect about the week. It was a big week.
The mornings brought seminary, school, visitors, and a trip to Tucson for some scriptures.
The afternoons involved more school, violin teaching, a bike ride with friends, grocery shopping, cleaning, playing with friends, a birthday party, and Piano Guild Auditions.
In the evenings, we had 4 baseball games, 2 practices, 3 ballet classes, one night working with the missionaries, Scout meetings, a Young Women activity, and one night out to dinner to celebrate the end of Piano Guild auditions. We had a youth temple trip all day on Saturday.
What do all of these activities have in common?
They produced a lot of laundry, my magnum opus.
I’ve learned that doing laundry provides a special key to knowledge about my family. As I empty pockets, I discover what is important to my little people. I see who played outside on the grass enough (I don’t hate grass stains. I encourage them.) and who needs to shower more often. I see evidence of baseball feats of skill, ballet workouts, weight training, bicycling (Love those mud stains up the back of the shirts…), and dirt play (which I also encourage). I can’t say that I love doing laundry, but I take pride in doing it and caring for our clothing.
We wear many clothes and play many roles, and it was a happy family reunion on Friday when our schedules eventually collided and we all met at the restaurant to celebrate a year of piano effort. The kids were dressed up in their Sunday best. Mark’s face was probably a bit sticky from birthday party food, I looked a bit bedraggled, and Richard was clad in his work outfit.
After a Saturday evening laundry marathon, the piles of laundry are neatly folded in their baskets and they smell fresh. It was a good week and now I get to enjoy this day of rest.
Wishing you a day of doing something you love.
We’ve had such a day.
These were some of the flowers we saw today
at the gorgeous Gila Valley Arizona Temple.
Years ago a home school friend told me how amazing the Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs are as an educational tool. I never thought much about it until a few months ago when Timothy came up to me and told me that he wanted to earn his Bear Cub Scout rank faster than he had earned his Wolf. He had a plan for when he would work on it. He figured that since he was only required to write 3 journal entries a week, he could use the other 2 days normally dedicated to journal time to focus on Cub Scout requirements.
I love the initiative he showed here. We’ve been following his plan to work twice a week on Cub Scouts outside his normal Cub Scout meetings. Timothy is not my first Cub Scout, but I have discovered that my hesitant writer and artist will tackle all kinds of projects for scouts that he wouldn’t want to tackle if it were just for school.
I discovered that the requirements for our English program mirror some of the Cub Scout requirements to write a report and compose letters. The historical characters and locations tie in to our history studies. It’s a good supplement and Timothy likes the little badges and belt loops.
I have discovered that the Scouting program for older boys is also very good because it teaches Daniel to take the initiative and I like that a mentor (a merit badge counselor) helps him through each merit badge. Writing, leadership, reading, and research are great supplemental activities to what I try to teach at school, and you can’t beat the incentive of merit badges.
Which reminds me, I am very behind in attaching all of those merit badges. Scouting keeps me on my toes, too, which is why I fully deserve those mother’s pins they give out when a boy achieves a rank.
Looking for a little entertainment? Here are the songs from the ensemble concert.
The first piece is Timothy’s Amen! and Kumbaya.
Next, we have Daniel’s Guantanamera. You’ll want to dance to this one.
And now here is Paige’s piece, Slavonic Dance. Yes, she really plays that fast.
