Emily received the Gold Presidential Award from President Obama for scholastic achievement – having obtained all A’s for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. In fact, I’m sure she did so for all of her years there, but the award only recognizes the last three grades.
Awesome job, Emily. We are all very proud of you.
Seventh grade, here we come!
Anna received an award as school came to an end. She was listed on the honor roll and had high grades in 6 classes.
Unfortunately, we were both working (I was working night shift and Linda was out of town judging a piano competition). Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa Maag stepped in and represented the proud, adoring parents. Additionally, they took pictures so we could experience it.
So very proud of my big girl. Congratulations, sweetheart!
Each afternoon finds the Anna & Emily perched over their textbooks and worksheets – about an hour of homework that comes home each day.
However, it does pay off as they are both doing very well in school.
Each year the elementary school puts on a Haunted House and carnival in October as a fundraiser for the 6th grade. The funds pay for the big field trip taken in the Spring. Each 6th grader and their parents are required to participate and in the event.
Emily was a character in the haunted house (themed as a haunted school) – part of the haunted school crossing. Linda was the coordinator of all volunteers (a HUGE job). I was officially a fill-in, designed to take the place of anyone that didn’t show up. Of course I like to get into the fun, too…
Okay – so it’s been a busy 2 weeks since the last post – not a lot of work, but just busy. I’ll be sure to post about all the happenings during those two weeks, but I want to let everyone know that SCHOOL HAS STARTED.
Today is the first day of school for Anna & Emily. Anna is headed off to Middle School and Emily is top dog on campus as a 6th grader.
We’re looking forward to hearing how the first day went for both. We’ll be sure to let you know, too.
Emily with her teacher, Mr. Cusamano:
Anna with her bus-stop friends…
We were back at Shawnee Mission South High School once again this week to watch Anna play violin with the rest of the 4th-12th graders in the South portion of the school district.
As noted on a recent blog post, Anna has really come a long way with her violin in just over 2 years of playing. She has been taking private lessons and seems to enjoy the challenge that it presents.
I’m very proud of her work with music, dance, and school. Seems the nut doesn’t fall far from either of the parental trees…
So begins the many years of attending year-end band and orchestra concerts – by my estimation, about 8 years (unless you also count college). Emily participated in the Shawnee Mission South area band concert the other night – bands from the several elementary schools, the middle, and the high school.
Despite having the concert in the high school gym with the audience sitting on the bleachers, it was a very nice concert. We’ve attended Anna’s string concerts for the past 2 years, but now we get to enjoy both girls playing.
Emily has progressed at an amazing rate considering she only started the flute at the beginning of this school year. Her many years of piano have prepared her well. She’s anticipating starting private flute lessons this summer.
Emily ran for Student Council Treasurer this year; she has been campaigning hard for the past 2 weeks. Additionally, she was helped by her campaign manager, Savannah. They worked hard on campaign posters – announcing the “Million Dollar Girl”. After delivering a very convincing speech this morning at an assembly, she was voted in by her peers to serve next year.
She lost last year when she ran for Sargent at Arms and was pretty upset for several weeks. However, she became involved as a class representative and found that she really enjoyed serving on StuCo. One of her favorite activities with StuCo was the “Student Store” – which is monitored by the treasurer. She’s really excited to take on this challenge. Her 6th grade year is already starting to shape up.
Way to go, Emily!
Emily’s 5th grade class recently had to complete an in-depth report on their hero – including speech in full costume. Last night the parents were able to go to the “Wax Museum” up at the school. All of the kids were lined up in their costumes with a red or blue “button” on the palm of their hand. Upon pushing the “button”, the character would come to life and present their life story. It was incredibly cute.
There were many heroes – Harriet Tubman, George Washington, Jonas Salk, Jackie Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt, Pocahontas, and many, many more. Emily was Mary Lou Retton.
Anna and Emily finally headed back to school today. Despite just finishing a long Christmas break, school was called off for several days upon their scheduled return due to severe cold and snow.
All I can report is that sanity is once again preserved!
While on break, Linda and the girls went to D.C. to visit Linda’s sister/family. Included was the National Zoo, National Botanical Gardens, and the National Aquarium. It was good to have them back home.