End of the Year Wrap Up, aka the Brag File: Daniel

Daniel finished his first year of school.  As the youngest in his class (his b'day is Aug. 28), the full day of school was an adjustment for him.  But, he did it, and in the end, loved going to school.  We recently went to the library and picked out 10 books for Daniel to read ON HIS OWN.  It's so exciting to watch your children learn to read.  Daniel will even take a turn during family scripture study to read a verse,occasionally needing help on words like exceedingly.  Not bad, not bad at all.  Towards the end of the year, Daniel took a basketball class at the gym we go to.  He LOVED it!!  He ended up taking two sessions of it.  He also played soccer, and LOVED it as well.  This boy loves sports.  Anything really.  Ask him about rugby, he'll tell you how it differs from football.  Anyway, here's a few soccer pictures:

And here's Daniel, touching the temple, so the temple can touch him, on our quick trip to Nauvoo.  He's always getting comments about his hair. It's just hard for me to cut it off, although I did give him a haircut since this photo...

End of the Year Wrap Up, aka the Brag File: Eliza

Eliza has had a great 3rd grade year.  She's really taken off with reading, recently finishing off the Fablehaven series, and then the 7 Harry Potter books.  During the school year, she was part of a Destination Imagination team, named the Sunburst Rainbow Umbrellas.  Here they are at the State Competition:

Eliza played the keyboard for a little dance they did during the skit.  She practiced and pracitced til she could play the little excerpt from "Don't Stop Believing" without a hitch.  Here's the group, ready to go on for their performance:

 One of the end of the year school projects was to do a report on one of the planets, and include a visual.  Eliza completed this cool mobile, using a variety of different balls to represent the planets, each with a tiny label.  She was pretty proud of the final product, and I thought it was pretty cool, too.

And, Eliza played soccer again.  She really enjoyed it, and comtinued to improve.  And....she scored her first goal!!!!!  Way to go, Eliza!!  Her coach liked her in the midfield position.  Here's a few pictures of her in action:

Eliza also had straight A's for the year, and gained a lot of confidence in herself.  We learned that she can get quite nervous, and she learned a few tips for calming her nerves.  Next year, as a 4th grader, she'll be in the oldest grade at the school, so that should give her a boost of confidence as well.  It always helps to be the "big man on campus". 

End of the Year Wrap Up, aka the Brag File: Audri

It's appropriate that today I'm doing the post about Audri.  She got her tonsils and adenoids out this morning.  She's being a real trooper, and so far is not having any problems.  We hope this continues through her days of recovery.

Audri has had a great 6th grade year, receiving straight A's all year long.  She was selected to be a Navigator, by the teacher's, which is essentially the same thing as Student Council.  She enjoyed working on that all school year.  She also earned a spot on the Scholar's Cup team.  This is a precurser to Scholastic Bowl, for 6th graders in the district.  Her team from Lindbergh Middle School won the championship and were recognized at a School Board Meeting.

Audri participated in orchestra this year, and we attended her end of the year concert.  She was relieved to found out at the end of the year that there will be a new orchestra teacher next year at LMS.  She even got to meet him, and she's excited to learn at a little faster pace next year : ). 

I took the camera to the end of the year awards assembly, but- no battery power left.  Ugh.  She received the top 6th grade Social Studies student as well as the top Science student in her homeroom and top Accerlerated Reader in the whole 6th grade.  Great job, Audri!!!

Also, Audri is loving Young Women's and looking forward to her first year of Camp this summer.  Her good friend from school is coming to camp with her.  She has already completed several Personal Progress experiences and is busy working on more.  What a delight my little Audri is!! 

Dailie's Dance

End of the Year Wrap Up, aka the Brag File: Dailie

Dailie has had a great final year at Middle School.  She's officially a High Schooler- holy cow.  Apparently at Dailie's events I remembered the camera, and it had battery power, so I have pictures of her.  Dailie finished the year with straight A's.  At graduation she was awarded the American Citizenship Award, voted on by the teachers and given to one boy and one girl from the 8th grade class for high academic achievement as well as all around good citizenship and nice person.  I am so proud of her, and happy that others can recognize the goodness that I see in her.

She played in the Band and Orchestra at the final end of the year concert as well as at the Courthouse.  She has played cello in the orchestra and bells in the Band, but will be leaving both of them behind to pursue art in High School.

She also had her dance recital, where she danced in 5 numbers.  She is such a beautiful dancer, and I love to watch her dance.  I've decided to try to put a video on here of my favorite number that she did.  This is her dancing on pointe to "God Bless the USA".  It literally brought tears to my eyes as I watched her dance.  She's in white, on the second row at the beginning.

*I don't think this video is going to work right now, and I don't have time to mess with it right now.  I'll publish the post anyway, and maybe I can come back later and get the video on .

End of the School Year Wrap Up- aka The Brag File: Dallin

I have failed to blog about many events and things in the past couple of months.  In an effort to "catch up", I have resolved to do a series of posts titled The End of the School Year Wrap Up, aka The Brag File, doing one post for each child.  Now, I try hard not to boast about my children's accomplishments for several reasons.  One is that I recognize that these are their accomplishments, not my own, and sometimes if I report them, they start to feel like my own, or that I am taking credit for them.  Another reason is that I also recognize (because I've done this) that reading this kind of thing about other people's children can often cause feelings of inadequacy about our own parenting.  I hate to think that I might be bringing to the surface any of those feelings in my fellow warriors on TEAM PARENT.  I think parenting is a very tough and important job, and I don't like the idea of comparing ourselves to each other.  So, with all that said, if you think my telling you what my children have accpmlished this school year will cause you to feel downtrodden as a parent, stop reading!!  However, if you'd like, along with me, to celebrate them for the things they have done, read on- we've got a total of 5 of these posts coming......

Dallin- (I don't seem to have any pictures for this post about Dallin) With a tough schedule for Sophomore year, including AP US History, Algebra 3-4, French 7-8, Chemistry (enriched), English (enriched), and Band, Dallin held onto his 4.0 in High School.  He took the ACT in Feb. and scored a 33.  He was part of the Scholastic Bowl team, and was one of the top 10 scorers of all teams competing in the area.  He also was asked to take an exam as part of a Chemistry competition at Bradley University.  There were roughly 300 students taking the exam, and Dallin came in 2nd place, earning a $100 prize.  He once again played keyboard for the Peoria Jazz AllStars and really enjoyed it.  In May we attended the annual Gala, sans camera- oops, but it was fantastic.  Dallin is moving closer and closer to reaching the rank of Eagle Scout.  He is awaiting approval of his project and finishing up loose ends for his remaining merit badges. 

Dallin continues to amaze me as a young man.  He's kind, considerate, responsible, and lots of fun to be around, not to mention his intelligence.  I really am not sure how I got so lucky to be this kid's mom, but I am so grateful that I am.  it gives me an opportunity to get to know very well one of the world's top notch guys.