Update part 2

Zoe is doing really great. She needs her own post. :P

Last night the director of the math center came to tell me that Zoe is doing some really neat things there. She set up a store with the other kids one night, last night they changed it to an arcade. She is also making a binary calculator, working with negative numbers, algebra and fractals.

In gymnastics she moved up a level and I think she is very good. So does her teacher. She has communicated to me a couple times that Zoe learns very quickly and is really motivated to do things with the right technique.

Our Rabbi came to talk to me this week. He said he was visiting her class and the teacher said it was time for a quiz to see how much they remember of what they have been learning. Some of the kids groaned and grumbled. Apparently Zoe stood up by her desk and proclaimed "I love learning!"

When the Rabbi relayed this story to me I told him "We homeschool. So I have been able to brainwash her into thinking that learning is fun." ;)

In piano she has a competition coming up. She is playing a very difficult and beautiful song. I'll try to make a recording of that too and post it here.

In choir she moved up to the next level, Concert Choir. She is very proud of herself. She is in the group that the "big kids" were in last year.

I am really impressed with her Japanese. She is reading, writing, speaking in Japanese. I haven't really tried to keep up but I doubt that I could. Listening and speaking are the hardest parts for her. She is not able to keep up a conversation in real time. But I don't really expect her to at this point.

She is loving all the writing she is doing in her online class, CTS forums and with her Michael Clay Thompson books.

Here is a poem she wrote for an assignment in MCT's poetry book

The undulating sea, it waves before the eyes
of Mother Nature, her surprise
is that the ocean is almost not hers.
In the dead of night a storm stirs.

She is reading a Sci-fi novel called Zoe's Tale and Treasure Island. I am reading her the original Winnie the Pooh books by Milne. They are personal favorites of us both.

Every week she has Daddy Night. They have shot the air rifle, Pere taught her to whittle with a knife, they have done some cooking, assembled the Eiffel Tower lego kit, and other nice Daddy/Daughter things.

Our homeschooling group population is dwindling. I worry about Zoe not having enough kids to play with . Right now there are only two girls her age that come. And her neighborhood friends are always so busy after school during the school year. But Zoe has made new friends this year in gymnastics, choir and math and has playdates planned with a new friend she made at temple. So, I would say that, while not great, the friendship stuff is not too bad.

I work hard to keep her satisfied, challenged, growing, happy, etc. Right now we have hit a good groove.