Lorelai is no longer a second grader. Soon, she'll be a third grader, and that makes me simultaneously very proud and very melancholy. In some ways, this has been a tough school year; a lot of her friends moved (including several in her class), and her teacher, while a kind woman, was not the greatest disciplinarian. There was a group of several boys in the class that basically ran wild throughout the year, disrupting class regularly and slowing down the class's academic progress, in my opinion. One of the boys in particular teased Lorelai quite regularly. She's a sensitive soul, and she had a rough few months when she was complaining daily to me about how uncomfortable she'd become around this boy. Thankfully, they were separated when I asked the teacher about it, but I still feel the class never fully pulled itself together.
This school year has been a good learning experience for me as well as Lorelai. It's frustrating to admit it, but some years just aren't going to be as successful as other years...and every year will bring a new series of challenges, be they big or small. I am glad I had the opportunity to volunteer in Lorelai's class this year; it helped me be a little more aware of her day-to-day schedule, and be more understanding of the issues she faced. I hope next year class discipline will not be as much of a problem; I also hope Lorelai will learn to "love" school again, something I felt she was lacking a bit by the end of this year. I know she is a smart girl, and so I hope we can always find a way to make school an enjoyable challenge rather than a chore.
Speaking of "enjoyable"...Great Expectations Academy had an end-of-year program, in which every class did a performance of some kind. Luckily, the school got permission to do their assembly in the neighboring Baptist church...it was the only indoor venue nearby large enough to hold everyone and keep them (mostly) cool in the hot summer sun. Some performances were kind of weird...some were quite fun! The jazz band also played a couple of songs, and I was impressed by the level of musical talent in the school. Here's the number put on by Lorelai's class; it's a cute parody of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do," with a school-days twist:
Lorelai has gotten shy performing in front of people, so she was very self-conscious about this "silly dance." But I thought it was one of the cuter, more *ahem* coherent numbers in the whole thing. Hopefully she will agree with me in time.
After school was out, we collected the remainder of Lorelai's things, said goodbye to her teacher (this is always hard for Lorelai; she always misses her teachers terribly!), and went out to lunch at McDonald's (kid's choice; perhaps next year I shall choose a less crazy, crowded location!). Then, it was ON TO SUMMER!
You may recall our Friday Family Fun Days from the summer of 2012, of which I posted several blog posts. Our schedule may be a little trickier to manage this summer, but I am hoping to have at least a few of those Friday Family Fun Days this summer as well. We had our first day out the day after school ended, on May 31st:
Friday #1: We visit the Mini-Museum, go shopping, and get a little wet.
Since it was Friday, and summer, and I had a coupon that was about to expire, I decided to take the kids to a museum we had never before visited in Tucson: The Mini Time Machine, a museum of miniatures. None of us were really sure what to expect, but I thought it might be interesting to try something new.
It was a small museum (naturally), but the girls and I quite enjoyed it. It was fascinating to look at some of the miniature homes and their remarkably detailed interiors. Some of these models were hundreds of years old, and that made the craftsmanship even more impressive! The girls also had fun trying to spot the miniature "fairy" figurines scattered throughout the museum exhibits, hiding in many of the exhibits.
The museum layout was pretty clever, and we got to peer into lots of nooks and crannies. At one point, we were even able to walk above a cute Christmas village that was nestled under glass in the floor:
So, not a very large museum, and perhaps a bit pricey, but still a cute and interesting trip! I look forward to going again someday.
The rest of our Tucson trip was a bit more mundane; I spent most of the time running from music store to music store, buying new piano books for several of my students. It was tedious work, and the girls tried to be patient, but sitting in a hot car all afternoon can get tiresome. I tried to break up the monotony by going out to lunch (at El Guero Canelo! Mmmmmmm....), and taking them to a large splash pad on the north side of Tucson to cool off for a few minutes...
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