Immersion School Finale

Yesterday was Saiya's cultural finale for her Chinese Immersion program at school.  The show lasted about an hour and was unbelievably cute.  All of the kids  (1st through 4th grades) did an amazing job and I was really impressed with how well the language development was coming along for all of them.  Saiya has been practicing her songs and reciting her lines for the last two months.  I'm so glad she did such a great job!  Good to know the months of her singing "God Bless America" were well worth it.  She had such a great time and did a great job.  She is so proud of her chinese heritage and I am so glad that she is putting so much of herself into this program.  She will be repeating kindergarten next year because we feel she is not quite there socially yet, but that just means the work next year will be much easier for her and she will begin to excell in areas where she is sort of struggling now.  Regardless, this program is accelerated for her grade already.  She has been doing first grade math since the beginning of the year and she has come so far with her letters and reading.  We are always proud of her and continue to be amazed at how quickly she is learning and adapting.

Get Fired Up

Last night horse was cancelled due to rain and bad lightning, so I took Saiya to Get Fired Up in downtown Melbourne.  It is a place where you pick a piece of ceramic pottery and glaze it yourself.  She picked a very cute little heart-shaped box to paint.  I had a bowl with kitty feet on it.  She had such a great time painting her pottery!  It was a great way to spend a rainy Tuesday night.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Monday was Card day and I found some left over thank-you cards in the junk drawer. I had Saiya sign her name under where I had written "thank you for all you do". We made one for each of her teachers.

Yesterday was candy day, so I took some left over candy from Halloween and Christmas and made little goody bags for her teachers.

Today was flower day. Saiya was supposed to bring flowers in for her teachers. Well, I don't get paid until Friday and truthfully, didnt have time to get to the store to purchase flowers for her teachers. So, this morning, we made these for her teachers. So much better than store bought, I think! Saiya liked them and I thought they came our really well. We didn't have any construction paper and no glue, so we inprovised. Like them?  Who knew such pretty things could be made with soda boxes and packing tape?  We added a bit of curling ribbon to make it more 3-D and Saiya signed her name on each under a little heart I drew.

I will be very lucky if i can make it through the rest of this week without spending a dime on teacher appreciation. :) tomorrow is "Bring in a School Supply day". Might be in trouble for that one.

Violin Recital!

Saturday was Saiya's violin recital.  We went out shopping for new shoes and even spent the day together.  We got pedicures together and had a very nice lunch at her favorite Chinese restaurant.

She did a great job!  I had to hold her notebook for her to read her music from and she even did a little curtsy at the end.  She was very nervous, but muddled through "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with only a few squeeky notes here and there.  Overall, a great job!  Some of those kids are so talented!  I can only hope that Saiya sticks with it for years to come.