After leaving the crib, my daughter slept in a twin size day bed, a bed we all ready owned and used in one of our guest rooms. She was wanting a new bed when she was about 9, so we went furniture shopping. It’s definitely not easy finding kids furniture and we ended up moving her up to a queen size because we all ready owned the mattresses. Truth be told though, she wanted bunk beds in the worst way! We had lower ceilings at the time and I wasn’t comfortable with the beds we saw, so we didn’t get them then.
The biggest benefit of getting bunk beds would have been the space they save in the room. In the house we’re in now, we have very tall ceilings, so the bunk beds would’ve worked just fine. Oh well, too late for us, but if you’re looking for space saving bed ideas, you should consider it. If you order online, this site has very good customer service and you can read customer feedback. The site provides fairly detailed information about the construction of it’s beds as well as assembly instructions.
I’m still recovering from the crazy, hectic couple of weeks I had finalizing plans with my Destination Imagination team and making sure they were ready for the regional tournament. The one thing I did myself as a surprise for them was to embroider t-shirts with their team names on the fronts and individual names on the back. The girls actually designed the shirts, but they thought a professional was doing the work. I opted to do it myself with shirts I bought at Joann’s and using my own embroidery sewing machine.I’ve posted pictures of the progress of those shirts throughout last week, but I never got around to posting the end result, so, here it is!
This one is the back of one of the shirts, before I took out the basting stitches (the rectangular around the name).
I was blog hopping this morning and I found the trailer for Pixar’s latest movie, set to arrive in theaters in July.
I don’t know about you, but I think Pixar has created some fabulous movies, Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars are all my favorites. What about you, do you have a favorite Pixar film?
Thanks to Michael Aulia’s Blog for posting this trailer on his site. I love Pixar and wanted to share this trailer for their new movie “Wall-E” here too. Enjoy!
A couple of months ago, my husband and I attended a meeting at the Junior High school for parents of students who will be in 7th grade in the Fall. What was most interesting about this meeting was that not only are we learning how to help our children plan for junior high by choosing appropriate electives, but we’re also looking ahead at planning for high school! Pretty amazing since our daughter is only 12.
During the meeting we were attending, the high school guidance counselor spoke about class choices for 7th grade and how those choices can affect what a student will be taking once they get into high school. For example, taking pre-advanced placement (pre-AP) classes in 7th and 8th grade will ensure that a student is prepared for Advanced Placement (AP) classes in high school. AP classes in high school can eventually earn college credit, while still in high school! It’s difficult for me to think that far ahead, even though I now realize college is only just 6 short years away. This is amazing to me, especially since our daughter is only 12.
So, I went from thinking of next year in Junior High, to 2 years from now beginning high school, and then 4 years after that it’s college. Where will she go? Will she stay local? Will she go to a public university or decide to go to a possibly smaller, private school? How will we pay for college? Will she receive any scholarships? (We’re hoping she does in either band or softball). What will she study? I can’t believe I’m having to think of this now, she is after all, only 12!
To distract myself from all of the stress that comes with thinking about all of these questions I decided to watch some YouTube videos where I found a rather creative (sort of) video from Kettering University. Kettering offers bachelor programs in everything from applied mathematics to mechanical engineering and applied physics. US News and World Report has ranked Kettering University as “the #1 University in the nation for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering” in its annual “America’s Best Colleges Guide for 2008″.
So, I saw this webisode and thought I would share it. This particular video is titled “School Daze Episode 2: Stickman Reads his Fan Mail”.
I met with my Destination Imagination team yesterday for the final time this season. We went over everything they had done over the past 6 months and all the work they did. I am very proud of them. They worked hard and came together as a very good team. They didn’t place at the tournament, so their season is done, but I want them to know that they did a very good job.
I believe they learned a lot and will make some changes to how they do things next year. This was their first time to do DI for most of the team. They also saw so many other teams at the tournament and watched two other teams present their team challenges. It gave them ideas of not only things to incorporate into their stories, but also materials to use for building sets.
If you’ve never heard of Destination Imagination, it’s a terrific program where the kids are responsible for EVERYTHING! They choose one of 5 team challenges and work on that for 6 months. They incorporate any requirements into their story, their sets and props. They create their own costumes and sets. There can be no outside interference from parents, siblings, teachers or team managers. As a team manager, I am responsible mainly for making sure they understand the requirements and the challenge itself. How they choose to use their time and make their creations is completely up to them.
It is very interesting to watch a team grow and mature over the course of the season. If we do this again next year, it will be my first time with an experience team. I hope they will stick together. Right now, they are telling me they want to, but we all know that when kids move on to junior high, their interests can change.
It was bittersweet yesterday, many of them wanted to continue with meetings. I am tired and need a break. But, once I have confirmation from the junior high that they will sponsor us, we may start meeting again as early as August or September. It will be fun!
I walked into my daughter’s room over the weekend and discovered her & the dog enjoying a completely relaxing evening together. I’m not sure how long they had been like this, but I gathered it had been quite a while! Plinko, the dog, is happily chewing on one of my daughter’s socks. I, of course, had to ruin the moment by taking the sock away, but only after capturing it on camera.
This is our first year to be in this school district and so, we are not accustomed yet to the way they do some of the things that they do.
For instance, class parties. I am accustomed to receiving a note home from room mom’s requesting donations of some sort of party good, such as candy. It’s usually candy. This year however, there have been no such requests, for anything. Until yesterday.
Yesterday my daughter brought home a flyer from the 6th grade mom volunteers requesting donations for the Valentine’s Day party. So far, nothing unusual, except that this is the first request I’ve received all year.
What was strange to me was what the request was for. They are wanting donations of juice drinks (not so unusual), cheese, fruit, and/or desert. Sounds more like a tea than a kids party! Are they maybe attempting to have a healthy party? That should go over really well with a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds!
Oh well, going with the flow and wanting to contribute, I have offered to bring in fruit.
I wrote a post last week regarding the World Wildlife Fund and my daughter’s contribution to their cause. She is a great lover of all things turtle and used ALL of the money she received at Christmas to donate to this great cause and help the ecosystem the turtles live in. I am very proud of her to say the least.
This morning, I was very pleasantly surprised (although I was asked for permission to reprint) the post. I feel like it is such an important issue and obviously Mickie does as well. I hope we can all learn from what my daughter has done, she is my hero. We live in an ever changing world and it is up to us to protect it.
I am so very proud of my daughter. I believe I mentioned before Christmas that she had requested $100 cash from Santa. This isn’t unusual for kids to want cash, but the reason she wanted it was so that she could make a donation to the World Wildlife Fund. She not only got the $100 she’d asked for, she got much more.
What makes me so proud of my daughter is that it would have been very easy for her to see all the cash she collected at Christmas and decide to use it to purchase video games and toys. It was the most money she’d ever had in her hand at one time, $240, but no, she stuck with her plan and handed me the form to send in with her donation. I added another $10 so she was able to send in a total of $250 and symbolically adopt a sea turtle family.
My daughter is a turtle lover to say the least. She has done several school essays and research papers on the turtle species and we even visited the giant Galapagos tortoise in South Dakota, a completely thrilling event for her. This Christmas, she put her money where her heart is and support the efforts of the WWF in saving the endangered sea turtles. I am very proud of her.
Yesterday’s mail delivery brought my daughter a special thank you from the WWF. The blue box held 2 sea turtles stuffed animals (a family), a picture of the sea turtle and certificate of the symbolic family adoption, a poster and a sea turtle fact sheet. This was a definite photo op!
When I bought my new video camera a little over a year ago, it was just before Christmas. My daughter was 10 at the time and she had place a request for a camera on her Santa list that year. I really didn’t want to purchase a cheap camera and then purchase a higher end one for myself, so my daughter and I had a discussion about video cameras. I even had her go camera shopping with me so she could see what was available. In the end, I decided I would buy one camera and we would share it. Following that decision, my daughter and I had another discussion about the care of the camera. And yes, I DID buy the extended warranty, it would cover it if the camera were to be dropped or stepped on, or anything else. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened.
My daughter has probably wound up using the camera much more than I have. I use it at events like band concerts, she uses it to make videos to send back to her friends in Illinois. It’s a way for her to stay connected. Not too long ago, I registered for a YouTube account and this opened up a whole new world. While I don’t necessarily want her watching any old video on that site, it is a way for her to upload her own videos and share with friends, rather than having to burn dvd’s and mail them. In other words, it’s cost effective.
Of all the videos I’ve created and loaded on YouTube, her videos are the ones that get all the views! I have to tell you, I have difficulty watching her videos, they’re long and I must say, somewhat boring, but for those in the tween scene, I guess they’re fun! I’ve also discovered through YouTube that this tendency to make videos is prevalent, especially with kids who enjoy playing with Littlest Pet Shop toys. So, I’ve decided to share one of her videos that she and a friend made over the weekend. Consider this your warning though, unless you are younger than say, 13, you may find this excruciatingly boring to watch, so don’t feel obligated to click the play button. However, if you have kids, and they are in need of some entertainment, they might find this fun.
