Kid Updates part 2

Jasmine
Jasmine had MPA (Music Performance Assessment) on Saturday. Thirty two bands from our county and surrounding counties played for judges to get a rating 1-Superior (best)  2- Excellent 3-Good. I don't know what 4 & 5 are. Probably means you should have stayed home.

Jasmine played orchestra bells.  

Vibraphone, xylophone and bells

You can see the chimes, bells and xylophone behind her. We couldn't really see her once the tubas were in place.

Jasmine is still part of the county Christian youth choir but has decided not to go on the Boston tour this summer. We were hoping that it would work out so I could meet her there, and we could do our NYC trip. But they are flying to Boston, starting there and working their way back south.

 We have been planning a trip since she was in 5th grade. It keeps getting put off, so we've decided to do it as her 8th grade graduation present because she is not going with her class on the Williamsburg trip or with the choir to Boston. 

She originally wanted to go to Mount Rushmore for our trip, but changed her mind after hearing about Jessica's trip to NYC last year.

Ready to leave for hip hop class.

In our back yard

A lady from church gave "The A (for awesome) team" pillowcases.

Sometimes it's tough being the brother.

Kaleb

Kaleb is playing baseball for the first time. He has practice Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. His team has been invited to be part of a very competitive league, and the opening day exibition game is Saturday. He is not very athletic, but he is trying. He is almost ten, so he is on the nine and ten team. He's delayed enough he'd fit in with the seven year olds, but that's not how it works. Opening day is Saturday but it is supposed to rain, so we'll see what happens.

Good news is, I did get the okay to take him for specialized pysco/educational testing, so maybe we'll get some answers. I know they say boys mature more slowly, but the delays are more serious than just that. I'm hoping he's not on the autism spectrum. The problem is in getting an appointment scheduled. They are closed the month of March!

A lot of times he just really doesn't get it. And some days his behaviors are so immature the other boys avoid him. He's normally a very nice kid, but does things like rolling on the floor, laying on other kids, dancing around pretending he's a ballerina, and other things you'd expect from a four year old, not almost ten year old. 

In fact, at gymnastics, he was put in the 5-6's class because that's how old they thought he was when observing him during a trial to class to see if he'd like it.

Hopefully we'll get some answers for him, because like I said, he is a nice kid.

Kayla

Kayla finished basketball. She's taken a few steps backward in behaviors, and it started when she started basketball. 

The goal of discipline is to change hearts, and nothing is working right now. So she is staying near Rick and I at all times during this time she needs to be so closely monitored. 

It's hard when other people are involved (coaches, Sunday school teachers etc) because, as you adoptive parents know, people see what they want. They don't realize some kids are masters of manipulations and play right into it often reinforcing and even rewarding the behavior because they miss what's really going on. 

For her sake, I chose to post photos where she is smiling.

Max always lays on someone's circle time notebook. Crazy.

We continue our circle time at night when we can. This is a time that everyone is together. No matter what has  happened earlier in the day, everyone is on equal footing during this time. We talk about a character trait and watch videos or songs from youtube about it. Look for verses that go with the trait, and try to find real-life examples. 

We did "respect" and the kids learned the respect rap and respect song from youtube. We just finished "perseverence." We watched the Book of Virtues stories on youtube for both. We also found videos of a boy named Ezra Frech who is a good example of a lot of things. If you haven't heard of him, check out his interviews on youtube. We are starting "initiative."

When we have more time, we watch the "That the World May Know" DVDs that give really good background knowledge about Bible lands and times. 

We also read aloud, because I think it's important to read aloud to your kids no matter their ages. We read The Courage of Sarah Noble, The Giver, Call it Courage, Number the Stars, Heidi, The Year of Miss Agnes and have started The Children's Classics version of Robin Hood from 1923.

At the end of each month we review the goals we chose for the year and to see how we are doing on them. Everyone also has a wish list for the year, and we check off the things we've done.

So that's the update on all the kids for now. If you missed the older kids' update, go back a post. And I did hear back from Jeff. He said he's on the Army combative team. It's a military martial art competition.