Showing posts with label Seattle public schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seattle public schools. Show all posts

Friday, March 6, 2009

Excerpts from Life

Frost has been growing shiitake mushrooms in his bedroom. Once they emerged they have grown very fast and on Friday night we ate some in soup and some as tempura. Here is a quick photo diary of the mushroom cultivation:

Wren observes the mushrooms for the first time. He likes to stroke them while remembering that one fell off when he poked it too hard.


Frost observes Wren stroking the mushrooms.


We water them daily. They have grown a lot larger over the past few days. They are still soft and furry like the nose of a horse. After we water them we cover them in a plastic bag which acts as a humidity tent.


The mushrooms are ready for harvest. Frost and Alexander cut them off the block and bring them to the kitchen to be weighed.
They weigh 500g! I am going to pay Frost $5 for these mushrooms to offset some of the $10 investment I made in the mushroom log. Frost is not too interested in money at the moment because he has everything he desires and is prohibited from buying the things he desires but does not have (like a Nintendo DX).


Australian Trip Booked
We have booked to travel to Australia on March 24th for a month. I leave that afternoon with the kids while Josh will join us a few weeks later. We hope John will housesit. I realized too late that Frost's passport (the Australian one required for entry to Australia) has expired so I spent yesterday and this morning preparing and fedexing it to San Francisco to receive one in time for travel. I am also trying to get our tax return and Frost's school registration and enrollment in by that date. Joshua is also waiting for his US passport to be issued.


I spoke to the Advanced Learning Office of Seattle Public Schools and they advised us to wait to submit our enrollment until we had heard back on the status of our appeal. They would rather we not put in a list of contingency schools. She says it is likely that we will hear before March 24th but to call close to that date if we have not received notification. Talk about cutting it fine!

Potty Training
I am frying tempura when I hear the shout no mother wants. Simultaneously Wren wails "Summing on foot!!!!" and Frost shouts "Shannon, there is human poo on the deck!"

Uh oh. This is potty training crisis.

We have been doing fairly well recently. Wren is able to pee in the potty most times if I leave him without a diaper on (in pants or his new underpants) but if I put a diaper on he is unconcerned. Pooping is more tricky. He feels the need to poo a long while before he is able to do so quickly and so there is a high risk game of risk and opportunity where the parent must accompany him on long waits on the potty or a less successful outcome is achieved [see above].

I add "potty seat" to the things being brought to Australia.

Shoes
Frost is having ongoing problems with a plantars wart. The little sticky things you are supposed to stick on it fell off all the time. The doctor has frozen it off with liquid nitrogen twice and it has still not "fallen off". Tonight I put a sticky patch on again and some bandaids to hold it in place and we are going to take him back to the pediatrician next week. While we were talking about it Frost asked what shoes he would use in Australia (he wears one pair here, his Blundstone boots). He suggested "perhaps we should go shopping for shoes in Australia. I imagine the shoes they sell there are adequate for their warm climate".

Honestly, his vocabulary borders on the antiquarian sometimes.

I suggested we get some crocs since he has outgrown his.

"Yes, in case they don't have good shoes."

Wren
Here is Wren, playing washing in the kitchen. See how long his hair has grown. Wren is still very anxious about things and worries a lot. At the moment he is fearful of the bath, mummy getting sucked down the plug, washing, being splashed in the bath (without water in it), hairwashing and "That lady come" [the synagis nurse who he recalls from association with a large bandaid]. Unfortunately "that lady come" on Monday. I am not sure how to handle it as he associates the Emla with her painful arrival but if I do not apply it the shot will be more painful. Argh.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Frost climbs a wall

The kids have been doing climbing as a school activity this month. Last year during this rotation Frost climbed about 5ft off the ground but he has been far bolder this year. He asked me to post some pictures of him climbing the wall last week. He wants Granny "and all the blog people" to see how high he climbed.





Frost has not been doing so much climbing out of the gym but he loves to throw his body into jumps and leaps and obstacles. Its amusing to watch Frost moving around U-village - it reminds me of footage of parkour where people move through the city environments like monkeys. He leaps off walls, crawls through bike stands and swings around trees. Wren has noticed this and copies him - kicking bushes, hopping and ducking under and around fences. I should film them sometime.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

What a time to enter Seattle Public Schools

Yesterday, I received an email inviting Frost to further testing for the Seattle Public Schools Accelerated Progress Program (APP).

Recently your child was administered the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) as part of their evaluation for Advanced Learning programs. As a result of your child’s performance, he or she is qualified to take the reading and math achievement test (the Iowa Test of Basic Skills)


I had expected to be very excited about this as it suggests that Frost will qualify for the APP program for 3rd Grade. Unfortunately, this is a very bad time for a family from NE Seattle to contemplate APP or any school in our public school system. The NE is defined as a cluster for purposes of Seattle Public Schools school assignment. This means, we get priority in local schools. There are a few "all city draw" programs which are not based on where you live, APP is one of them. But students from other areas can apply for schools out of their cluster so enrollment is very uneven.

The reasons I am discouraged about our options are:

1) The elementary schools in the NE Cluster are full. Even though we live less than a mile from our reference school (Bryant) it is currently very over-enrolled and there is little chance of us getting in. We have no idea which school Frost would be assigned and are unlikely to get one close to us since these are among the most popular.

2) The Alternative School I loved when I toured (Thornton-Creek) is being relocated and reformed as a K-8 school. It will become larger but spaces are being promised to another school which is either closing or moving Far Far Away. This means it is unlikely Frost will find a place there either.

3) The Elementary APP Program which was housed at Lowell is being relocated further South and split in two. This means it will be of uncertain success as a program and would require Frost to travel 8.5miles by bus each way picking up kids along the way. I have no idea of the school bus route, but during traffic this would take me 30 minutes in my car so it seems reasonable to estimate one hour travel time each way.

I have no idea what we are going to do for Frost. I guess we will do the school tours in January and ask questions even though the schools / programs we will be seeing are unlikely to exist in their current configuration by the time Frost starts in Fall.

It feels like our kids are salmon swimming upstream and the engineers have forgotten to build a fish ladder. I haven't even applied yet and I am tired of the churn. Is this when I panic and apply to private schools too? Become Catholic? Get a job?