Greekfest

Today is Greekfest Day at Abbie's school. All of the 6th graders had to choose a character from Greek Mythology to dress up as. Abbie chose to dress up as Persephone, the goddess of the underworld. The school holds the Greekfest event to kick off the Greek Mythology unit that they study at the end of the year.

As part of the festivities, there is a Greekfest Mythology Bee. Apparently the students took a test to see who would qualify to participate in the Bee. Thanks to her love of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians books, Abbie was one of the 26 that qualified and I went to school this morning to watch the competition. It was fun to hear the questions and some of the students' wild guesses. Overall, Abbie finished in 6th place, which isn't bad considering that the Latin students had the upper hand after studying mythology throughout the fall semester. Ironically, she did better in this Bee than in the Geography Bee that they held earlier this year in which she was eliminated in the first round for claiming that the Grand Canyon was in Utah. If only she had parents that would take her to places like the Grand Canyon during her summer vacations . . . LOL.

Overall, the month of April has been incredibly busy. Aside from Greekfest, Abbie was busy last week with her Spring ballet performance. They had an intense week of dress rehearsals and then held two showings of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I wanted to get a picture of Abbie in her ballet costume and I tried to catch her after the last performance, but by the time I found her, she had already changed into street clothes.

Abbie also had the induction ceremony for National Junior Honor Society last week. I was busy teaching but Chad was able to attend the ceremony and said that it was a really nice event, particularly because they had a very inspiring speaker that talked about the importance of doing things for others.

April also included the annual standardized testing. That occurred over three days during the first week of April. I assume that we will receive the results of that at some point, but no one has said anything about it yet.

Finally, violin continues to be violin. Abbie plays in an after-school ensemble that is made up of kids who have prior experience on their instrument. A couple of weeks ago they played at the dinner that the school hosts for newly accepted families. It definitely made Abbie realize how quickly her first year has gone by. Last spring, she was the one attending the dinner and now she is part of the entertainment for a new batch of admitted students. The middle school's larger strings group, which includes those who are new to their instrument, will have their end of year performance in a couple of weeks and will also participate in an area music festival. Abbie's other string orchestra that she is part of outside of school is also planning to have their end of year performance toward the end of May and is just about to have auditions for next year. As always, Abbie continues to have weekly lessons with her private teacher and has now moved into the third Suzuki book. At some point, we will need to schedule a Book Two recital.

Looking ahead, the school year is quickly coming to an end. By this time next month, Abbie will have completed final projects and final exams (some of which are cumulative!). I'm sure that she will be ready for the ease that comes with summer camps, travel, and most importantly, no homework!