Izzy had her birthday party yesterday.  Sun sone and all had a lovely time.  About a dozen kids or so.  Izzy had been looking forward to this for, oh, months and it was all she wanted.  Then Chris and Joe from next door invited us over for dinner, with kids.  A very pleasant evening.  Today started well with a walk in the woods nearby by me and the kids.  Bit of a disagreement between Anne and I this morning over how to deal with a minor Joey upset (he insisted on playing with one of Izzies toys.  I told him that he could only do so once Izzy had decided to play with it.  Anne came down and asked Izzy if she minded if Joey played with it.  She said OK so everything calmed down.  But Joey did not learn anything about patience and respect for somebody else's property, and it put Izzy in the position where she had to make the decision.  What if she had said no?  Anyway, whilst Anne and I are broadly on the same page, there will always be differences.  But I was a bit miffed..

The second half of October and the temperature is in the uppers 60s and 70s.  Unbelievable.  Foliage is starting to turn to gold and red and yellow.  Spectacular in places.

Wee bugger just beat me at backgammon.  Now, I did give him some help and he was rather lucky with the dice, but, fair play to him.  Good for his maths, which he badly needs.  In fact, it is his biggest problem now.  See exchange with Mrs H below;

Stephanie,

Thanks - that sounds great.  We have had some discussions with Joey and are working on strategies to make maths at home more interesting for him via games etc.  Hopefully, together we will help him make the breakthrough needed.

Regards

Gery

 

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From: shoffmann@thecambridgeschool.org
To: gjuleff@hotmail.com
Subject: math
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:50:46 -0400

Joey will get one on one help with math twice a week and continue with Ms. Gold for his math.  Since he is doing so well overall, we thought that a move backwards would not be a positive for his self-esteem.  Hope this works for you.  Have a nice day. Stephanie

18:50; Anne cooked a lovely jumbalia gumbo with shrimp (a new favourite with the kids) and chorizo (an old favourite) along with broccoli ('I love broccoli!' cries Izzy) and cabbage (Joey a signed up member of the 'cabbage gang').  Joey now drawing the Titanic going down and Izzy playing cards with Anne.  A lovely family scene after a good day.

Dad left yesterday.  It was a good visit and I think that he really enjoyed it.  His relationship with the kids grew stronger and hopefully that will continue.  His legs, though, are getting worse and he is no longer able to walk as much as before.  He does struggle manfully and managed some days to walk a couple of hours a day, albeit very slowly.

On our last walk, through the fields of Hopewell park, we met a very nice German lady who organises Brazilian au pairs as part of a cultural exchange and a New Zealander in a horse and buggy who trains horses for the Johnson and Johnson (pharmaceuticals) family.  One of them has a spread on the edge of Hopewell. Quite a cosmopolitan community we have here!

Izzy last night, when Anne was putting her to bed, was a bit tearful about work she could not do at school.  By chance, I went to the 'Back to school' night at the Pennington Presbyterian School, which Izzy attends.  They said all the right things about developing social and emotional skills and not pressurising the kids.  But also that they talked to local schools about what they expected of kids going into them next year, as Izzy will.  And this includes some basic reading and numerical skills.  Not the time for a long discussion here but it is wrong that a 4yr old should be upset because she feels that ashe cannot do the 'work'.  As it happens, a) the teachers were surprised as Izzy is doing just fine and b) we suspect that part of this is what she has picked up from Joey, which is v unfortunate.

Joey has been doing pretty well.  No complaints at school.  Making real progress with reading etc.  But he still has his moments and can be anxious, like this morning, when he really did not want to go to school.  On these occasions, Anne is very good with him and she then takes him.  Also took Izzy, in her pyjamas.  And I just got a phone call from Anne saying that she had met up with Lorna and was going to Boro Bean for coffee - with Izzy in pyjamas!