Raising Gwyneth

141 cm

2012-11-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

Today we finally measuerd Gwyneth's hight and it turned out that she is 141cm. Well, considering that I am 173cm ( and I am considered pretty tall) and she is already 141 cm at 9 years of age .... I hope she stops before reaching 2 m.

Learning Spanish

2012-11-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

With switching schools this year Gwyneth became acutely aware that in her new school they do not teach Spanish or Science as they did at the last one (though teaching is a grand overstatement as all she learned in Spanish in three years was how to count till 20)

So now she wants to try to learn Spanish and is asking me to talk to her in Spanish daily... we'll see how long that would last. But how much I recognize myself when I was her age -- I wanted to try everything, because it sounded like fun and expected to be brilliant in all of those endeavors from the get go. and I was pretty goo in most of those things, but alas within 6 months most of them would be forgotten by me.

So far Gwyneth is keeping up with Tae Kwon Do, Math, Russian and Chorus largely through our determination and effort, though now she is at a stage when she starting to enjoy most of these, but guitar, violin, piano, karate and dance are lying by the wayside. I wonder what would happen to Spanish, as now with the second baby I no longer have the energy to follow though.

Email

2012-07-25T15:03:00.001-07:00

Gwyneth finally got her own email so that she can communicate with her relatives in other states or even other countries. And quickly it became apparent that she

a) can type at all, so it takes her so long to type one line she looses interest

b) most of what she types are things like "WOW" to express emotions

c)there is normally not a single period or coma....

Music

2012-06-30T10:01:00.002-07:00

We have been toying with "learning music" on and off for several years. When Gwyneth was about 5 we actually took piano lessons for a year and got to a point when she could play with both hands simple melodies. Unfortunately, though she liked the fact that she could play, she HATED to practice and every time it became a battleground, so we decided that this is the battle that was not worth the fighting over and that our collective nerves were more important. So that was the end of piano.

Middle of this year, Gwyneth suddenly decided that she really wanted to play guitar. We were very, very reluctant as it is harder on your fingers than piano and requires twice as much effort as it is painful in the beginning. She was adamant, and even did hated chores around the house just to prove that now she is ready for this responsibility. Alas, after a few months this endevour fizzled as well, as she admitted that it is harder than piano.

But all her Russian friends (as per common Russian tradition) actually play some sort of musical instrument and she feels that she is so far behind. So, she demanded to resurrect the piano and actually begged her dad to sit with her this morning, and spent an hour playing old tunes. It was hard to tear her away to go to her Tae Kwon Do ceremony to get her green belt (!) because she really wanted to play more.

I wonder how long this phase would last, but it is nice to see her determination.

Allowance

2012-06-23T02:12:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting question about when to give your child allowance. A friend of hours is giving her 7 year old $20 a week every Friday, or another friend pays her daughter a $1 for chores or extra homework...

So far, we have not given Gwyneth any allowance. We have several simple rules that keeps her piggy bank full:
* She get's to keep all the pennies she finds in our wallets
* If we sell any of her toys/clothes/DVD via craigslist -- she get's to keep the money
* Any lemonade stand sales are hers to keep
* Bottle returns
* Any money she gets for birthdays/holiday presents
* Any interest on her own "youth" bank account

So far she has about $250, and that is considering that she very generously buys present for Mother's day, Father's day or treats us for ice-cream once in a while.

We were discussing to start an allowance for her when she is 13-14, but maybe it is too late?

End of the school year

2012-06-18T02:25:00.000-07:00

My baby is growing up! She just graduated from her 3rd grade -- and there is a HUGE improvement in her attitude toward studying and a new found drive to achieve and accomplish something.

In her end of the year report card most of her grades improved significantly and now she has quite a few "A" (above her peers). And it is not as important that there are "A" as that she improved from her last report card.

In her Russian math, she not only got a 100% on her last tests, but managed to do so after reviewing her test and correcting her own mistakes! 6 month ago that was unheard of -- no matter how many times you told her that there is a mistake and to try to find it, she couldn't/wouldn't and normally would just give up all together.

In her Tae Kwon Do class she is doing GREAT! She just had another test, this time for "green belt" and was the only one in her class that managed not only to do the form correctly, but break a 2" board with her bare heel!

Cat died

2012-06-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

Our cat Riska died of old age today, lying on the porch on the sun her last few hours. Even though everyone was aware and ready that her time has come, Gwyneth cried herself to sleep... I am not even sure how to comfort her, it is heartbreaking.

Porch Fest

2012-05-20T19:45:00.001-07:00

Another lemonade stand, this one at the end of our driveway during the highly successful Somerville PorchFest. Right after coming back from Tae Kwon Do, Gwyneth and her friend set up the stand and we worked as constant couriers of lemonade -- in an hour and a half they made $8; than her other friend showed up and they made another $14 by the time the signing and dancing was over!! And that is at a price of 25 cents per cup. About $11 for her for about 3 and a half hours (not counting the cups/lemonade)

Mother's Day

2012-05-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

Oh, I got so many lovely and very unexpected surprises today!!!!! You know, I sort of thought that I would get a Mother's day card and possibly some flowers....
I woke up to:
*drawn up Mother's Day card (Gwyneth makes sure to include unborn Max their as well. How cute is that?)
*a huge, bright purplish-red orchid ( I love them, but they die on me every 5 months and the last one died a few weeks back)
*an intricate, handmade knitted bracelet with beads woven in (Gwyneth probably did as a self-directed project in her knitting club, as I know right now they are making scarfs)
*huge paper cut outs on the walls on the way to the kitchen " #1 Mom" and "We love u" (the last one was stuck backwards, which was very cute)
*oatmeal for breakfast -- her first EVER oatmeal that she made herself!!!! No just fruits, or sandwiches or cereal, but the actual cooking of the oatmeal. (we have been talking lately that she needs to learn to be a bit more self sufficient in the kitchen and two weeks later I get this really unexpected, touching result)
*phone battery charger for my car that my generous, thoughtful daughter bought using her own money! At 8 years of age she doesn't get an allowance yet, so her total piggy back of about $110 is mostly filled in from several lemonade stands, yard sale proceeds from her baby stuff, birthday presents and cent collections. Most kids her age that I know have a really, really hard time parting with any of THEIR money.
But not my daughter :)
*****
Am I the luckiest Mom in the world or what? All of these presents required thought, planning and organizing on her and Dad's part which is so full of love :)

Future worries

2012-04-19T04:18:00.000-07:00

Gwyneth is very worried that once the baby arrives, her life will be over. That everyone will love her less, spend less time with her and will be more excited about baby's first words than anything she might do or say...
We have these discussions on a daily basis, as she is pretty mature for her age and tends to sometimes over think everything.

I just hope that these daily sessions would allow her to get everything out of her system and make the ultimate arrival of her baby brother easier.

Next belt

2012-03-24T16:57:00.002-07:00

Today we finally had our long awaited Tae Kwon Do test for Gwyneth's next belt --yellow with green stripe. Not only she had to know all the forms and sparring steps, but she also had to break her first 2" thick wooden board. In order to pass everyone is given 5 chances to break the board and only very, very few were able to do it on their first attempt. Gwyneth was one of them! On her first attempt!!!!!!

Advanced class

2012-02-29T13:24:00.002-08:00

On the way back from school Gwyneth was happily telling me that she was one of five students from all the 3rd grades that was selected for a weekly advanced math class. And she mentioned that this is probably because she goes to her two hour weekly Russian math classes --- so nice to see her finally appreciating those.

2012-02-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

When my parents visit from Russia (the last one more than 3 years ago) grandfather always eats oatmeal for breakfast. No just plain oatmeal, but with olive oil and curry. Yes, curry, so the oatmeal is actually bright yellow color. And though most of the family do not shares this love for yellow oatmeal, Gwyneth would eagerly await for it each morning and eat it with grandpa.
We have not had oatmeal for a while and I finally bought some two days ago. So for the last two days Gwyneth had curry oatmeal for dinner, breakfast and lunch!! She keeps saying that I cook it almost right, but soon grandpa will visit and make the "real thing". I think it is more the company and the joint enjoyment of that yellow looking food that she is missing than my actual oatmeal.

Great Monday

2012-02-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

Mondays are normally hard days, as Gwyneth gets back to weekly routine of school and extra classes. However, today turned out great -- we got to catch up and study. Gwyneth did her school homework, read aloud in Russian, worked through her Russian math mistakes, did a few Russian grammar exercises and she even managed to play xbox with Dad for half an hour!

Small lies

2012-01-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

Lately Gwyneth seems to lie here and there, thinking that if she can get away with it than it is ok. And it seems that even when you catch her red handed, she gets upset, genuinely regrets it, but then the next day everything repeats again. Is this normal for an 8 year old??

Long division

2012-01-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

Gwyneth is in the third year of Russian math classes -- a weekly two hour class that teaches math, supposedly according to Russian based curriculum. Right now she is in the third grade, in advanced class (though the later is by accident) and they are doing long division. Last weeks, I explained it to her, she did over 10 problems and was the best in class with long divisions according to the teacher.
So imagine my surprise, when a week later while doing her homework she was genuine stumped as to how to do the long division! We had to do it all over again from scratch.

Handmade presents

2012-01-01T06:53:00.000-08:00

For New Year Gwyneth made a scarf her Dad, that she has been knitting for the last two weeks and a handmade woven rug for me! It is so precious --- the effort and thought that went into this!

Clean up

2011-12-24T05:47:00.000-08:00

I came down to the kitchen this morning and everything was squeaky clean: the counters, the stove, the dishwasher. It turns out Gwyneth, who normally wakes up about an hour earlier than us, decided to surprise us and clean up the kitchen!
My girl is growing up :)

Eager to learn

2011-12-05T17:12:00.001-08:00

It seems that a switch has been just turned on and now Gwyneth is really eager to learn!

Today she came back from school and continued to crochet a long string that she learned how to make in her new knitting class. Gwyneth spent several hours crocheting a really, really long one for our Christmas tree.

In the evening she spent an hour with dad learning the next form for Tae-Kwon-Do via youtube, as she is very eager to get her next stripe.

And she also wants to learn how to play guitar, we just need to set up plastic strings as the metal are too hard for her.

that is so nice to see your child interested and eager in learning! Really warms my heart!

Math homework

2011-12-04T06:31:00.001-08:00

Gwyneth goes to a math school every Sunday for 2 hours and gets weekly homework assignments which are normally several sheets or about 12-15 problems. So every week half of Saturday is given up on struggling through the homework with long repeated explanations, tears and stress -- in one word, the hated math homework by every member of the family. And because of this we rarely get to do much on Saturday's except her Tae-Kwon-Do class.
However, the last two weeks, I suggested that Gwyneth start on her homework on Friday to give her more time hoping to free Saturday up a bit. And after the initial expected resistance, Gwyneth not only started to do math on Friday, but managed to do ALL of the homework within 2 hours for two weeks in a row. We keep our fingers crossed that this will continue!!!!

Reading for fun in Russian

2011-11-24T08:16:00.001-08:00

Finally the day came when Gwyneth is actually reading in Russian for fun and not because I ask her to. Granted she has been an avid enough reader in English (her last book series "The magic thief" had her glued to the books for days on end), but in Russian it is normally every other day "let's read a chapter or two".
She is equally comfortable in both languages, but we do not have many books geared for an 8 year old in Russian that are as exciting as "The magic thief", hence reluctant reading.

So this holiday morning as we woke up (she tends to wake up around 6am where is we get up around 8 am) she had a thrilling story to tell about a story she read in Russian. She recounted the story with all the details, names and events to me without actually distinguishing that it was a Russian book.

Oh, how happy I am that she starts to read in Russian on her own. There is still hope that she will not only not lose the language, but would get to a point of actually appreciating it!

Head lice

2011-11-19T06:21:00.001-08:00

Well, it seems that Gwyneth brought head lice from school :( That is the first for her. As we threw away the pillows, washed the rooms and combed in the treatment, I kept thinking that it is not such a big deal to treat, I do hope though that I will not need to deal with head lice on a regular basis, as she will be in school for another 7-8 months.

I remember I would get head lice from an overnight kid camps from the wool blankets back in Russia, but never, ever, ever from school.

First dedication

2011-11-13T15:55:00.001-08:00

Gwyneth started to write stories. Well, some of her friends have been writing stories for a while with quite a flourish, but she didn't seem to be interested in that. But, as always, when the right time comes, things just click together --- so now she is writing small short stories with her own illustrations and, today, her first dedication:
" to my parents who are always so kid to me"

My daughter is growing up so fast...

Worst day of Gwyneth's life

2011-11-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

Before going to bed Gwyneth complained that today was the worst day of her life:
she had a fight with her parents, refusing to dress appropriately for the weather
didn't finish learning Krilov's fables (and her friend learned one more than her)
and was too nervous and unhappy playing her favorite game "Munchkin" with friends and parents, because she was afraid to lose and didn't like that everyone would be against her on her last turn ...

Genius

2011-10-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

Often believing that I might be expecting too much from Gwyneth or push her too hard I keep reminding myself of the famous quote by Albert Einstein that

"everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid"

Today Gwyneth got back from her math class beaming -- she aced the test in class and got a 'A' on the extra work. And it is the same math we often spend half a day explaining and making up new equations so that she would definitely understand vs just agreeing with our explanations. And it is often such a laborious and painful process as she would much rather do something fun... But she was really happy with her results today and told George that the reason she aced the test is because of his explanation the last time!!!