Dizzy Eiffel Tower

There's never a lack of creativity when it comes to pursuing her interests.

IAC Results Sessions 570 -575

The following referrals were issued by MOJ in Bulgaria in IAC Session 570 which was held on January 13, 2023:

1) Canadian dossier from May 2014 referred a male child aged 1 year and 6 months with features in health status

2) Italian dossier from November 2017 referred a male child aged 9 years and 4 months

3) US dossier from August 2022 referred a male child aged 1 year and 7 months with features in health status

4) Italian dossier from August 2022 referred a male child aged 10 years and 11 months with features in health status

5) US dossier from December 2022 referred a male child aged 3 years and 11 months with features in health status and a family history

6) US dossier from December 2022 referred an identified waiting child

7) US dossier from January 2023 referred an identified waiting child

8) US dossier from January 2023 referred an identified waiting child

The following referrals were issued by MOJ in Bulgaria in IAC Session 571 which was held on January 20, 2023:

1) Dossier from January 2017 referred a male child aged 1 year and 3 months with features in health status

2) Dossier from November 2021 referred a female child aged 1 year and 11 months with features in health status

3) Dossier from April 2022 referred a male child aged 2 years and 3 months with features in health status

4) Dossier from January 2023 referred an identified waiting child

The following referrals were issued by MOJ in Bulgaria in IAC Session 572 which was held on January 27, 2023:

1) Maltese dossier from August 2020 referred brothers aged 6 years and 4 months and 7 years and 6 months with features in health status

2) US dossier from April 2021 referred an identified waiting child

3) Italian dossier from June 2021 referred a brother and sister aged 6 years and 7 months & 5 years and 8 months with features in  health status and a family history

The following referrals were issued by MOJ in Bulgaria in IAC Session 573 which was held on February 7, 2023:

1) Spanish dossier from April 2015 referred a female child aged 7 years with features in health status

2) Canadian dossier from March 2021 referred a female child aged 1 year and 7 months with features in health status

3) Italian dossier from November 2022 referred sisters aged 8 years and 3 months & 6 years and 6 months & 2 years and 8 months

The following referrals were issued by MOJ in Bulgaria in IAC Session 574 which was held on February 14, 2023:

1) French dossier from October 2017 referred a male child aged 5 with features in health status and a family history

2) French dossier from June 2018 referred a male child aged 2 years with features in health status

3) French dossier from March 2019 referred a male child aged 3 years and 7 months with features in health status

4) Canadian dossier from October 2022 referred a male child aged 3 years and 5 months with features in health status

The following referrals were issued by MOJ in Bulgaria in IAC Session 575 which was held on February 21, 2023:

1) San Marino dossier from March 2015 referred a male child aged 7 years and 8 months with features in health status

2) French dossier from June 2016 referred a male child aged 6 year and 7 months with features in health status

3) US dossier from February 2023 referred an identified waiting child

Community Showcase 2023

Little One's second season of studying dance at the Cincinnati Ballet came to a close this weekend with the Community Showcase.  Even though she gave her best at least year's performance, this year she was far more confident and knew what to expect.  She practiced her routine with dedication, but more importantly she prepared herself mentally for the minutes in front of the audience.

Here she is on the way to the showcase...

Her ballet teacher told me that during the final rehearsal and the wait to go on stage, Little One was clearly nervous, but also determined to perform well.  And so she did.  Our seats were about as far away as you could get from where Little One was on the stage, so this is the best I could snap.  Plus there may have been tears blurring my vision, too.

Little One's in-home teacher attended the performance to support her alongside us and brought her roses.  She felt like a real star with her fan club, her success and her bouquet.  And then we enjoyed some celebratory icecream to boot.

We're so very proud of our Little One and she is certainly proud of herself, too, for all the progress she has made pursuing her passion over the last twelve months.  Kid, you're killing it!

February Home School

This was a very short home school month for us, especially with our ten day vacation.  Our book of the month was Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beaty.  Little One enjoyed reading about a girl like herself that makes new creations from household objects and found items.  Middle Kiddo showed us that he knows about a lot of objects that he doesn't routinely encounter in daily life.  We logged lots of P.E. and history (field trip) hours while traveling.

No photos and nothing exciting in February, but I didn't want to skip a month.

Winter Vacation 2023

 I'll start the post with a photo that summarizes the vacation:

The prolonged dreary weather in our neck of the woods drove us to book a VRBO home in Florida and take a road trip South.  While we were en route, we received a call canceling our rental.  VRBO was less than helpful in locating a new one and wanted us to stay in a hotel instead.  Not possible.  We found ourselves a new rental home, but of course it was not as functional for our family as the one we had picked originally, so the kids were upset and struggled when we were indoors.

As always, we tried to make the best of it and we all did very much enjoy our outdoor adventures.

And we kept up with our home schooling by studying Black History.  In Birmingham we visited the Civil Rights Institute and saw Ebenezer Baptist Church.

In Montgomery, AL, where history is really walkable we followed in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

Rosa Parks Museum

And we had lunch at Chris' Hot Dogs which is a landmark in and of itself.

It definitely wasn't the greatest vacation we've ever taken.  A lot of it was really hard.  We made it through and life goes on.  But now we need a vacation from that vacation...

The Reader

There was a point in time a few years ago when I thought none of my children would share my love of reading and literature, but guess what?!  Well, let me back up.

When Big Girl joined our family, she was six.  She had some, but not all skills that would commonly be considered for Kindergarten readiness in this country.  She was eager to be enrolled into the half day K program at our local public school, so we made the decision to try it out.  K was a relative success and Big Girl managed her way through first grade as well.  Being an English Language Learner was a hurdle, but at the end of first grade she was only slightly behind with her reading skills compared to the average peer.

Enter second grade with homework, increased academic and social demands, and a less than ideal fit with the main classroom teacher's methods.  Big Girl quickly fell behind and an IEP was instated.  And still, she became immensely frustrated with nearly every aspect of school.  Our home life suffered as a consequence giving us, at the end of each day, only the worst of our child.  In April of that school year during a parent teacher conference we were informed that her educators did not expect Big Girl to pass the state mandated Third Grade Reading Guarantee test.  But we were not to worry because no matter what, she would be moved into fourth grade no questions asked.

Considering all of the above and more, we decided to home school Big Girl for third grade.  We didn't worry about tests or the curriculum and went back to the basics.  In terms of reading, Big Girl had missed out on the years where children hear stories read or told to them, so that's where we focused.  During third grade, we read about 300 books with roughly 30-40 pages each and lots of illustrations.  She read, I read, we looked at the pictures, we made up our own stories, we found connections between different books, we researched things that had sparked our interest... and at the end of the school year Big Girl passed the Reading Guarantee.

Big Girl is now in 8th grade.  At the end of the last school year she passed the state reading and math tests without having spent any amount of time on targeted preparation.  At the start of this school year, her IEP changed from one that focused on catching her up to grade level (she's caught up) to one that seeks to further improve cognitive processes to make it easier for her to attain her goals.

And more importantly Big Girl now loves to read for fun.  She gets antsy when she's gotten through her stack of library books and we're not sure when we can pick up more.  She carries a novel "just in case" when we're out and about.  My mornings often start with an excited recap of her bedtime reading.  And she suggests her favorite books to others.  Every Christmas, she gives her BFF a copy of her most favorite read of the ending year.

Here are her recommendations so far from her 2023 literary adventures.

January 2023 Home School

This home school month has felt really productive as we worked with the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.

Little One: phases of the moon, the 5 senses, Lunar New Year, winter crafts

Middle Kiddo: phases of the moon, bowling, winter crafts

We seized every mild day to get out for walks and into parks and stopped by the library a couple of times to boot.

We also used this month to make a decision about some changes for Middle Kiddo's academic services and will be starting with a new plan in February.  In the short term the transition may bring some challenges in our child's home school adventures, but we hope that long-term we're going to see good things happening.